* Posts by Steve Davies 3

7136 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Microsoft to intro dedicated mode for Cloud PCs

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Linux

re: be mocked relentlessly

Very true but when the beancounters hear about this... they have already been sold on 'The Cloud' as a way of reducing CapEx but Increasing OpEx they'd see those pesky capital budgets trending to zero on their Excel Spreadsheet graphs (they won't move to the cloud).

"We are doomed I tell ye, doomed"

Post-Brexit tariffs on EU-UK electric vehicle imports staved off for three years

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: transform Britain into a sunny paradise

OR

for the gulf-stream to stop flowing and we all freeze to death (most of northern europe would be in the same boat)

Systemd 255 is here with improved UKI support

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Mushroom

QR Codes are not the answer to anything

Just suppose... just suppose...

That your system has been hacked in some way. We see those stories here almost every day of the week.

Those hacker could easily hack the QR generator so that the resulting QR code sends you to a Child Pron site or some other NSFW embarrasment?

Are you going to risk going to jail and being on the sex offenders register for life because you followed a QR code?

BTW, the short URL's are just as dangerous.

Pottering can go suck on this--> [see icon]

UK immigration rules hit science just as it rejoins €100B Horizon program

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

So...

The Science Department forgot the cardinal law of Physics.

Every Action has an equal and opposite Reaction.

Numpties the lot of them.

"Yes Minister!"

Microsoft confirms Smart App issue renaming everyone's printers to HP

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: nuke strike packages

OR...

a $50 billion Class Action lawsuit. Spread that amongst all those unlucky enough to have to use Windows, that will give each of them enough for a Starbucks Flat white.

Amazon on the hook for predictably revolting use of concealed clothes hook spy cam

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Holmes

Re: WTF?

I used one of these coat hook devices in a Thriller that I wrote last year.

While I hope that AMZN get taken to the cleaners over this (unlikely) it is nice to know that my research into spy products being sold by AMZN proved to be accurate.

One tip people outside the USA, use 1) a private window and 2) a VPN that makes out that you are in the US before you start. Otherwise, AMZN will bombard you with 'We think that you might like' ads for all the [cough][cough] dodgy stuff that you looked at but with no intention of buying. The same goes for Etsy, especially if you are looking for some toys to use in bed (wink-wink, nudge-nudge).

Musk tells advertisers to 'go f**k' themselves as $44B X gamble spirals into chaos

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I know more....

He clearly copied that from his master Donald 'I know more about taxes than anyone...' Trump.

He has said that many times.

The pupil has learned his lessons very well.

As for Social Media... Neither of them are experts. TBH, I hope both go TITSUP ASAP.

Car dealers openly beg Biden to put brakes on electric vehicle drive

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I won't be buying one

There are many EV's that are more like ICE's when it comes to user controls. It is really only the Muskmobiles that have gone silly with the minimalism. Apparently, the indicator stalk is too expensive so it has been ditched... not that Tesla drivers even know that they exist so it sort of makes sense.

In my Kia EV-6-GT, the controls for the seat heating/cooling and steering wheel heating are on the centre console. I don't have to use the touchscreen most trips unless it is to use the satnav.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

re: Meanwhile BYD and Tesla

Errrrrrrr....?

If that is the case then why has Tesla started giving away a whole load of free Supercharging with new Model 3's and Y's?

https://insideevs.com/news/698033/tesla-six-months-free-supercharging-model-3-model-y-2023/

Meta sued by privacy group over pay up or click OK model

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Big Brother

And just who owns WhatsApp?

I'll give you three guesses.

Come on now, don't be shy...

Yes, it is Meta.

FSCK Zuck and all at META.

Share your 2024 tech forecasts (wrong answers only) to win a terrible sweater

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Donald 'Stop the Steal', 'I did win the election' Trump

loses the 2024 election and concedes defeat. Then surrenders himself to start a life sentence for the crimes he was convicted of before the election.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Happy

Re: IT's a wonderful world

A Tesla motorcycle.... shudder. Nice one though.

I'll keep riding my 69 T120 (with full police fairing) thanks.

Google Drive misplaces months' worth of customer files

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

Does a garden office count?

100ft down the garden is farther away than my next door neighbour.

USB Cart of Death: The wheeled scourge that drove Windows devs to despair

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Alert

Re: Beta Channel?

Didn't that become the release channel about the time that Balmer took his Golden Parachute?

FFmpeg 6.1 drops a Heaviside dose of codec magic

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Heaviside brought back memories

Of using the Heaviside Step Function when solving differential equations a long, long time ago.

Personally, I preferred Laplace Transforms but they were considered the cheating method by my then Maths Professor.

I still have K.A. Stroud's book on Laplace Transforms.

Thanks for transporting me back 50 years for a few minutes;

Windows users can soon ditch Bing, Edge, other bundleware – but only in the EU

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Android Bloatware

Aren't there 'vanilla Android' distros available? Or... that's what so many posters here have claimed in the past?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Joke

Re: UK workarounds ?

What? Has installing any form of Liniux or BSD stopped working?

[see icon]

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I clearly remember voting on this

And now we hear that Nigel 'mines a pint' Farage is going to return to Politics. Just when we were beginning to forget the [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]...

What's really going on with Chrome's June crackdown on extensions – and why your ad blocker may or may not work

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: Time to unleash AI on adverts?

Then Google will unleash its very own AI on your AI and all we'll end up with is a BSOD.

When that fails, YouTube will go behind a paywall. While that might stop the freeloaders, the casual user will just get pissed off.

Google does seem to be acting more like [See ICON] every day.

UK won't rush to regulate AI, says first-ever minister for digital brainboxes

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Terminator

A fine example of the'Yes Minister' disease

Where not making a decision is regarded as a success.

We are doomed I tell ye, doomed.

Software is listening for the options you want it to offer, and it's about time

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Linux

Not just Apple

My new LG TV is a PITA when it comes to changing the input device. I did it once and it took seventeen clicks and four menu traverses.

The old... make that ancient Sony that it replaces could do it in one click, a list traverse and a click.

I simply won't bother to do it in software in the future. I'll just swap the HDMI cables.

In general, I find that software designers are doing their best to make using their product a PITA.

Gone are the days when 'Ease of Use' was measured and if it got too hard then the design was changed to make it easier.

I kinda miss those days.

NCSC says cyber-readiness of UK’s critical infrastructure isn’t up to scratch

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Childcatcher

Quantity does not always

equate to quality.

India might have lots of STEM grads but their rote learning system is not that great at producing problem solvers.

Plus their inbred fear of questioning authority even when the boss is clearly wrong does not lead to world beating behaviour.

Google Photos' AI Magic Editor won't change pictures of IDs, receipts, faces, or bodies

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Won't???????

I think that it should be

"It won't yet..."

All it needs is someone to get into the ML data and everyone can have an ID that makes them look like No 45 or for those of us in the UK, Bojo.

Fresh find shines new light on North Korea’s latest macOS malware

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Joke

wot! no "We reached out to Apple?"

And are awaiting a response?

Shame on you El Reg. Standards are slipping.... {see icon}

Microsoft scratches Surface device policy – some get extensions of up to 6 years

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: PC's become e-waste

Because people have been able to get W11 to run on systems that would normally not be able to, I think a monster class action against MS is needed.

It is clear that this bogus excuse of not having a bit of hardware is pure marketing PAP.

Find out how many PC's are not upgradeable to W11 multiply that by 1000 and that's the minimum figure to go for. (plus lawyers fees of course)

That may (what the hell am I thinking) cause them

Mid-contract telco price hikes must end, Ofcom told

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: 58 pages and 29,000 words

If that wasn't enough... You need to be a Contract Law Lawyer to understand more than one word in a hundred.

Of course we don't read the T's & C's...

Now if only they were able to make them easy to understand for the layman. They could but won't and prefer to hide behind the small print.

OpenELA flips Red Hat the bird with public release of Enterprise Linux source

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Does not compute!

Oracle and SUSE want customers who are willing to pay for support. The $$$$$$$ focus is behind this move. AlmaLinux as stated is a Non-profit and has different goals.

Disclaimer. I have 4 servers running AlmaLinux. One is production, one is backup, one is test and the last is dev. So far it is working fine. I migrated it all from CentOS. It wasn't that difficult as long as I can keep a million miles away from anything that only comes in a SNAP package. F*k Canonical. Having to run a server daemon for SNAP is beyond the pale. Do Canonical now employ the creator of SystemD?

Windows 11 23H2 is a Teams effort but Microsoft already spoiled the best bits

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Joke

Re: The Wife

I told her that she was on her own.

The next day, she moved out.

Now, I'm on my own.

At least my house is now Windows free.

But like Patch Tuesday, the old things keep coming back.

Hello darling.... :)

Only joking darling... honest.

Privacy advocate challenges YouTube's ad blocking detection scripts under EU law

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: YT Ads

Many of the ones that his my iPad (that is only used for YT and is reset every month) are for Prostate and Penis Enlargement miracles.

And that heater ad that in one ad is invented by a Scottish Schoolboy, a Swedish Areospace Engineer or some twat from Germany.

IT DOES NOT WORK MIRACLES.

As you quote Scotty “Ye cannae change the laws of physics”

The whole thing is a con sorta like most YT ads these days.

The UK government? On the right track with its semiconductor strategy?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

The UK Government could not

organize a pissup in a brewery even with 5000 £1000 a day consultants to help out.

Note.. this applies to basically any government since around 1987 when Maggie stopped hitting ministers with her handbag. Say what you like about her and there is a lot to dislike but she got things done. Ok, some of them were the wrong things but this lack of clear decisive decision making is what Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister exposed so well.

We should return to timely decisions and start making contracts for any public works investments fixed price. It is long past time for the 'do nothing and then I can't be blamed for making a mistake' era to end.

Sorry Pat, but it's looking like Arm PCs are inevitable

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: my old Mac, which cannot install any Mac OS after Mac OS 11

Of course you can install the latest offering from Cupertino, Sonoma on your old Mac.

I have a 2012 15in MBP running MacOs 14.0, Sonoma in my office.

Just do a little searching (with that google thingy if you must) and you will discover 'OpenCorePatcher'.

This allows you to bypass the H/W checks. Just like there are ways to make an old PC run Windows 11 that normally requires some special bit of Hardware.

This ain't rocket science you know.

Tenfold electric vehicles on 2030 roads could be a shock to the system

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Electric HGV

would have to follow the existing rules for Gross Weight as a Diesel Truck and load.

The Tesla Semi with its 500kWh battery would be unable to carry a full load in Europe without exceeding the 40/44 tonne MGW limits.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: If you bid too low

That does AFAIK, depend upon working Smart Meters and EVERY EV charger connected to some network somewhere.

That ain't gonna happen for 10+ years given the recent news on Smart Meters.

I could just plug the 'Granny Charger' in and give two fingers to the rationing.

PIRG petitions Microsoft to extend the life of Windows 10

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Meanwhile

Deliveries of fat brown envelopes to Redmond has increased 1000%.

Ok, I'm joking but the likes of Dell and HP want all those desktops to be replaced sooner rather than much, much, much later. If they can't sell their W11 approved HW then what are they going to do so that their CEO's can buy that new 787 as a private jet?

Where is the weeping CEO icon when you needit?

Millions of smart meters will brick it when 2G and 3G turns off

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: 'Smart' Meters

Are DUMB and always have been.

I have five of those stupid home displays sitting in my Electronics recycling bin (when I can be half arsed to take them to the tip) because they won't connect to my 'dumb' meter.

Then you can't take a reading of both tariffs at the same time. You can only read the one that is operating.

As someone who spent a large part of my working life designing systems, these bits of junk are about the worst possible solution to a non problem that a politician can dream up on a wet Friday afternoon after an even wetter lunch.

I despise the things and only have one because it was a precondition of going onto an EV charging tariff (that also charges my home batteries so my peak power usage is very, very low).

As for the gubbermint not wanting to build more power stations, the cost of the dumbass smart meter rollout would have paid for a nice big one.

Teens take a million metaverse Ryanair flights in Roblox

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Bathroom?

Dunny

And an outside one at that.

{Flies are mandatory}

Progress towards 'Gigabit Europe' is slow, with UK also lagging

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

UK uptake is slow

Being locked into a 18/24 month deal is a big factor in many not moving right away.

My local FTTH supplier (TOOB) wants to lock me in for 18 months at £25/month + £5/month for a fixed IP.

My current deal includes a phone line and 76mb downloads for £32/month. I'm locked in for another 10 months. A single small up front charge for the fixed IP was paid years ago. £5/month is a bit steep in my opinion.

Sooner or later, these small FTTH suppliers are going to have to open their networks up to competition or face being gobbled up by bigger players.

I wish that this sort of articles took into consideration what people in the real world are experiencing rather than some marketing agency/other vested interest reports all the time.

Windows 11: The number you have dialed has been disconnected

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: Tim Cook's punishment?

What you say is true but the hacks that write the drivel that gets published here, HATE anything to do with Apple. It must be a condition of employment and IMHO, has gotten worse since this site went all American.

I wonder how many of these so called journo's own or use at least one bit of Apple kit? That should be a mandatory disclaimer whenever they write about El Fruity.

Still got a job at the end of this week? You're lucky, as more layoffs hit the tech industry

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: No poets got fired last week.

Remembering the names of products is what those from South Asia do to pad their CV's.

I would not ask you those questions.

What I would ask you is how you would approach a certain problem that I'd encountered recently.

I you asked me the right questions about the problem and proposed at least some of the right answers you might get a second interview.

Most of what we do is solve problems. If you can't solve everyday problems then get the hell out of Dodge and stop wasting my time.

That approach also gets rid of the S. Asia 10 years experience of W11 time wasters.

'Influencer' gets 7 months in prison for plot to interfere with 2016 US election

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

What about the lies during an election campaign?

The SCOTUS (Supreme Court) ruled that is it a 1st Amendment right of Politicians to lie to voters.

More X subscription tiers could spell doom for free access as biz bleeds cash

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Musk is fiddling

while Twatter burns.

Much like 'Truth Social' really.

The sooner both go TITSUP the better IMHO.

British boffins say aircraft could fly on trash, cutting pollution debt by 80%

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Volta trucks

VOLTA went TITSUP because their battery supplier (PROTERRA) went TITSUP. They were not large enough to have second sourced everything.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

Don't forget

And current ICE's spontaneously combust quite often. As evidenced by the Luton Airport fire.

First Brexit, now X-it: Musk 'considering' pulling platform from EU over probe

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

In the words of an old song

Go... go now

And take your ball and go home. While you are at it, take Tesla with you.

Muck has a very thin skin much like his boss Trump.

Can someone not rid me of this Musk!

X marks the bot: Musk thinks spammers won't pay $1 a year

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Joke

Re: Elmo just desperately needs the money.

He needs it in order to fund his quest to get elected as Dog Catcher in Sparks, TX. That takes serious mulah.

Lucky for the USA, he can't become POTUS (or maybe not if Cenk Ughur is right) otherwise, he'd be lining up to become VP to Trump, who will mysteriously have a fall out of a White House Window soon after taking office. Putin will be very pleased.

[see icon]

GNOME developer proposes removing the X11 session

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: GNOME Project's eventual complete monetization

OR (which I prefer)

the GNOME project to go TITSUP for good.

IMHO, they lost the plot with V3 and have only gotten worse since. They (IMHO) seem to be trying to outdo MS in their crazyness.

The devs and more importantly, the management can go suck on this [see icon]

Hell no, we won’t pay, says Microsoft as Uncle Sam sends $29B bill for back taxes

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Pirate

Only $29.8B?

It should have been $29.8T. Apart from clearing almost all the US national debt we, the victims of their stupidity need some payback. Deciding that everyone wanted a tiled UI is worth $10T on its own.

I'm sure others can list out their major foopah's and cost them (in Trillions please)

SAP customers on brink of ERPocalypse as 2025 support cliff looms for ECC

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Pirate

Re: bet the competition have tool sets

unless that competition just happens to be.... [drumrol] Oracle.

After the Brum fiasco who would even consider big red as an alternative to SAP?

Frying Pan and Fire...

Apple antique aficionados can boot to the future with OpenCore Legacy Patcher

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Thumb Up

Yep, it works

I've upgraded both my old Macbook Pros. A 2012 model and a 2015 model.

As the article says, it will have a finite life. When the last Intel powered Mac reached EOL then that's it apart from the odd security upgrade.

Both of those laptops run Rocky Linux very well. Other FOSS distros are available.

Kudos to the team behind this operation.

Microsoft Cortana's farewell tour comes to the Windows Insider program

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: What could go wrong?

Errrr.... Everything.

Lord Elon will make MS into another Twittler and sack 90% of the staff. Then he'll make W12 into two uneditable objects that can't be patched (like his giga castings).

Ok, I'm exagerating but....?