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* Posts by Steve Davies 3

7143 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

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Engineer who blew lid on Uber's toxic sexist culture now menaced by creepy 'smear campaign'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Coat

Re: Why does Uber even exist and Too Big To Fail

and when all the comptition goes to the wall? what then?

Uber raised it prices and the VC's who put up the ante get even richer.

We get screwed because there is no competition left.

Uber still claims that its drivers are not employees. Where the ruling goes against them, they pull out leaving a void because they have made their money (the VC's that is).

They go public and fail to produce those miraculous profits, the share price tanks.

Read up on the South-sea Bubble. Uber is just a modern version.

mines the one with a local Z-A in the pocket because in the post Uber world, I'll be doing a lot more walking.

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Finally proof that Apple copies Samsung: iPhone 7 Plus halts, catches fire like a Galaxy Note 7

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Statistically speaking

with the large numbers (more than 50 Million) iPhones sold in the last quarter, is is statistically probably that a few iDevices may catch fire in a given period. IT is when that few becomes a lot that Apple have to start really worrying.

One or two catching fire may well be down to a defect in a component and not an inherrent design problem as was clear in the Note 7

Apple is probably treating this with due respect given the Samsung problems. If they aren't then they deserve everything they get including all the well deserved bad publicity.

We shall have to wait and see what happens next but it won't stop the speculators from running riot.

Of course, this whole thing could be 'Fake News'.

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I want it hot and wet – preferably with Wi-Fi

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

25p for anything in Iceland (not the store)

come on Dabbsy, tell us where is it.

I was charged £5.50 for a nescafe just a 2 hour Hercules Flight from there.

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Ad men hope blocking has stalled as sites guilt users into switching off

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: personal system

Humax PVR's have a skip forward 2 mins. This covers most Ad break.

So I never watch anything live on ITV apart from the 6 Nations.

Mind you there really is very little worth watching on any ITV Channel these days.

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BBC admits iPlayer downloads are broken

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Just ditch the BBC.

I guess that you aren't paying for a TV license then?????

Otherwise, despite its faults, you get iPlayer and the downloads for free if you are a license payer.

So you moved and became a license payer to Amazon Prime. Bully for you but you really must have had a huge fit of pique to want your ISP to block iPlayer. They wouldn't but I expect that your request gave the support team a bit of a laugh.

Sheesh. There is no pleasing some people.

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Radioactive leak riddle: Now Team America sniffs Europe's skies for iodine isotope source

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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You forgot to add the mandatory

"Simples"

to your post...

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: errant missile

That test/debable took place off the coast of the USA and as it was a test, the missile was not loaded with real warheads (It would be stupid in case it failed and it actually did that)

Finally, the Half Life of this Isotope means that even said missile did carry Radioactive stuff, that time would have long passed as I seem to recall that the test actually took place last June.

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Oracle crushes Apiary's hope in slightly awkward email to customers

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Reading between the lines...

Your software and staff are history. Get your pink slips now.

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Dying for Windows 10 Creators Update? But wait, there's more!

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Upgrade?

Don't want to be forced? Upgrade to the pro edition. Gives you options to delay.

But... that involved handing money over to the Borg....

As the Android App Store evidence shows most people don't like putting their hand in their pocket for anything especially for something that should be in every version by default.

Delaying the application of OS updates is not a USP in my opinion and certainly one that should be charged for.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: 'Pilot' aka forced beta testers

The big difference is that once you are done with the migration for BSD you won't find an update that comes along and removes all your nice tweaks, changes the GUI layout yet again, adds a whole bunch of stuff that YOU did not ask for and may not want that can't be removed because if you did, the next update would put it all back again.

Over the course of a year, your stress levels will (In my Experince) be a lot lower.

Naturally, YMMV.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Joke

Re: Greybeards not happy!

Perhaps J J Carter is really John Carter of Mars and he might like to back there?

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: 'Pilot' aka forced beta testers

While I agree with your POV, I think it is time to accept that MS will never do what you want despite power users all over the world hoping they would do just that.

If you can't get on with the MS Message of the future (according to Redmond) then it is time to jump ship to one of

Linux/BSD/Chrome/MacOS

And frankly get on with your life with far less stress.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Holmes

Re: ugh

Here's a challenge for you then

What you say about not routing via google might be correct. However there is a POV rightly or wrongly that as Google controls Chrome is gets to see everything you do or something like that.

That might be 'Fake News" so why don't you put together an article showing how you are correct and submit it here.

Take a Chromebook Out of the box as new and verify this fact one way or the other. If there are tweaks then say so.

IF you can answer all the questions frequently raised about installing stuff and where your docs etc get stored.

You never know, it might increase the sales of Chromebooks?

IF you did do it, I'd give you a well deserved upvote.

Sherlock because he loved a good problem

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Your next PC is… your 'Droid? Remix unveils Continuum-killer

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: I remember when I pointed this out last year

Yes it can be done. This isn't the first either.

It might find a niche but to say that your phone is your PC is not going to cut it with a lot of people especially El Reg commentards.

I leave my desktop behind when I stop work for good reason. I'm not at work. The last thing I want is my work problems in my pocket. that ain't good for your health both physically and mentally. Sorry but just No.

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EU privacy gurus peer at Windows 10, still don't like what they see

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Off the servers is one thing

but deleted from all Historical backups? Are you having a larf?

As for that, how many people here have used the wayback archive?

Sometimes it is great to know that someting hasn't entirely gone to the bitbucket in the sky.

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Connected car in the second-hand lot? Don't buy it if you're not hack-savvy

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: "Without naming the machine's maker"

So Tesla's USP is that 'the car owns you' then?

with all that information on you you are going to get pawned and that's almost a 100% sure fire guess.

Obviously, the next step will be for the Tesla (other makes are available) to draw blood from the driver and do an onboard test for

- Is the sample from a registerd driver

- is the sample from someone who is insured to drive

- is the driver drunk or under the effect of drugs.

Then it will check all poilice databases to make sure that there are no outstanding warrants for the driver arrrest. If it finds one then it will lock the doors, immobilise the cars and call the police.

And all you wanted to do was put the thing in the garage instead of leaving it on the driveway over night.

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Huge if true: iPhone 8 will feature 3D selfies, rodent defibrillator

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Paris Hilton

Apple Kit and Chocolate Bars

Apple kit is just like Chocolate Bars.

1) Each generation is smaller than before

2) Each other generation to 1) costs the same or more

3) Every version leaves the user thinking that it was better before. Take KitKat's before Nestle took over. Now the taste is far too sweet and cheap.

So the new Mac Pro will be the size of the current MacMini.

IT will be prefectly smooth apart from TWO things.

1) a socket for the power lead

2) an on/off switch.

Getting data In/Out and Video out will be controlled by magic.

Oh, and it will cost the same as a Dacia Sandero.

Perfecton does not come cheap (cough-cough)

Paris because even she can see when someone is REALLY taking the piss.

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Probe President Trump and his crappy Samsung Twitter-o-phone, demand angry congressfolk

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Since Trump banned me...

That's the one to watch where it ends off the coast of Australia.

No spoiler alert needed.

But that situation got a whole lot closer since 20th Jan.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Joke

Re: They don't like it

Fake News!

No one can use Twitter effectively.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: The Deep State Strikes Back

Quote

As for Trump's phone, I think the NSA needs to do a regular checkup on it. And no carrying it into meetings. Other than that, why not let him have it?

Great idea. Then the NSA can load their own spyware on it that gives all the evidence that the SCOTUS and Contress needs to get the Great Orange Dictator thrown in jail for the rest of his natural on a charge of treason.

Sadly it won't happen mores the pity.

Off into the garden to carry on digging out my fall-out shelter. I have a feeling that it might be needed before 2024.

Yes, POTUS has started his re-election campaign already.

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Paper factory fired its sysadmin. He returned via VPN and caused $1m in damage. Now jailed

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Procedures matter

The process of

You are fired

followed by

Security will walk you off the premises

Really does not work too well these days. With remote access almost mandatory for people in IT the PHB's really have no clue what pain could rain down on them for doing this to the wrong person.

That said this perp was a bit thick. He should have been far more devious but to leave the VPN client on his Laptop and to not clear the logs is frankly stupid.

Anyone with half a brain would do this via a VM that is easy to destroy, VPN to at least three different conutries before coming back to wreak havoc. I could go on but it is just common sense. He's obviously lacking in this department.

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HPE blames solid state drive failure for outages at Australian Tax Office

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Heresy...

I'll second that.

We have a system that has a PCI-E SSD on the Mobo. Made by Samsung. Split into two partitions and the second one formatted as NTFS.

50% of the time when the system boots off the same physical device, the second partition does not appear to get mounted.

Then another 30% of the time it appears in Windows Explorer and then disappears. This happens when two USB-3 devices are plugged in.

The same OS runs fine on another PC with a non Samsung PCI-E device. The system is cloned from the other one. I have had 4 USB-3 drives plugged in and everything is ok.

go figure eh?

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A webcam is not so much a leering eye as the barrel of a gun

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

My solution to the laptop camera

is the humble clothes peg. You know the ones you use to hang up your clothes on the washing line (when it ain't pissing down that is).

Easy to apply and remove. And you always know when it is there blocking the voyeurs. When not in use it slips into your laptop bag and takes up little space.

And it is reusable.

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Zuckerberg thinks he's cyber-Jesus – and publishes a 6,000-word world-saving manifesto

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Pint

Have an upvote

For mentioning the species of humanity called 'cockwombles'.

Have one on me for that

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FAKE BREWS: America rocked by 'craft beer' scandal allegations

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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"Deluxe"?

shhhhhhh. That's what Lidl call their premium brands.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Fake beer?

and where do you think that the cats piss called

Fosters

Budwiser

Coors

etc

that is served up in the UK is brewed then?

Hint, Bud in made at the old Grotneys factory by the thames.

Coors used to be produced in Alton, Hants.

I'll be popping by the Hoggs Back Brewery later for some 'Surrey Nirvana'. They have even started growing their own hops in a field over the road from the Brewery.

But in the eyes of some purists, even a place that size is too big to be called a 'craft brewery'.

Craft Beer snobs the lot of them.

I can remember when even getting a hand pulled pint was a rarity. the news that a pub in just off Tottenham court Rd was service hand pumped Bass was greeted with glee by my fellow students at PCL. This was circa 1973 though.

We are really spoilt for choice these days so enjoy it.

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Virgin Media swallows 215,000 new fibre customers in Blighty

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Sort out your network contention, Virgin

They have capacity issues all over the place especially if you are on the old NTL coax stuff.

That's why they won't ack it.

They'd have to do the same to go knows how many other customers.

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Microsoft ups Surface slab prices for Brits. Darn weak pound, eh?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Just say 'sod off MS I ain't paying that much'

and go find an alternative.

or

go buy it in the USA and if you choose the place carefully you can avoid all sales tax. But don't tell anyone especially HMRC otherwise they'll be after you for the VAT.

It is moves like this this that really make people sit up and think again before contunuing their love-in with MS.

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As Microsoft touts Windows Insider for biz, let's take a look at W10's broken 2FA logins

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Big Brother

Re: Time for change

Too late. Oracle and HPE are fighting over that job. I guess there is nothing left but for MS to start selling Houses.

Too bad that their descriptions will make them all look like a TARDIS, bigger inside than out. And the EULA will give them a legal escape from any lawsuits.

Yep, sounds like a perfect fit for the MS of the future.

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Oracle hatches 'incubator' OpenJDK APIs idea

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Holmes

Have an upvote

With that copyright API lawsuit with Google still in progress do they really think that anyone with half a brain will take up this offer while there is a risk that they'll get sued as well?

Dream on Oracle, dream on.

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Apple nabs smartphone top spot from Samsung, but for how long?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

Don't worry Apple Haters

The mighty Samsung will be along shortly with the all conquering S8 series.

It will certainly wipe the floor with anything that Apple can make for the foreseeable future. After all, the iPhone 7 is a total failure just like the Apple Watch. Well Doh!

Take heart Fandroids, normal service will soon be resumed.

Where's the Tongue in Cheek Icon when you need it eh?

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Apple: Don't panic, but your Mac can be pwned via GarageBand .bands

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Excuse me?

Agreed with you on Flash. The sooner Adobe kills it the better. They really should put a 'die' date on it ASAP.

At least the BBC seems to be reducing its reliance on this bit of crapware but

there are sites out there that don't seem to have got the message.

Photobox are you listening?

{tumbleweeds blowing in the wind}

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Roses are red, violets are blue, fake-news-detecting AI is fake news, too

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Basically in any tech story in 2017 where you see the word 'AI'

AI really means

A as in Alternate

I as in Information aka Truth aks Facts

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Roses are red, you're over the moon, 'cos you work in infosec, and you're retiring soon

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Keep Calm, Hack On

There is so much to do.

This is a prime example

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38966285

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If you need an in-mem analytics cruncher – and, hey, who doesn't? – Microsoft Graph Engine is now open source

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Obviously a dead product

that they have no further use for.

OR

They want the FOSS people to take it and enhance it for free. Then they can 'Embrace' it again and

Well you know the rest.

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Totally not-crazy billionaire Elon Musk: All of us – yes, even you – must become cyborgs

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Joke

Re: Let's Hope...

He goes on the first trip (one way) to Mars alongside his pal Donald T.

Cyborgs will be just for the 0.05% Elite. The rest of us will be the Proles working till we drop to keep them in the luxury they need.

Where are the Cybermen when you need them?

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Brave VMs to destroy themselves, any malware they find on HP's new laptop

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Wot! Internet Exploder?

Shouldn't they be targetting Edge rather than IE?

MS might be wanting to have a quiet word or three with HP over this.

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Co-op Bank up for sale while customers still feel effects of its creaking IT

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Not available?

That was the whole IT system being sent to India (or other low cost destination). Someone got on a plane with the backup tapes. (joke)

The VC's will want to lower the cost base to make it more attractive for a sale.

The needs of the customers is at the bottom of the list.

Perhaps it is time to move your accounts to somewhere else but where?

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Oracle refuses to let Java copyright battle die – another appeal filed in war against Google

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Joke

sorry you got it wrong

Judge: I prefer Coffee from my Cousin Wilbur's Diner.

Starbucks is an evil supporter of Globalisation.

Make America Great Again and keep my family in business.

Judgement to Oracle. Google to pay $100B to Oracle within 10 days or the CEO will be in contempt of court and the chain gang needs new fodder.

Court Dismissed.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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But...

don't Oracle have 'Unbreakable Linux' waiting to replace Solaris?

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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And the Exodus of IT Companies from the USA

would be like the Wildebeast migration in Africa, a veritable stampede.

This would also put a huge hole in Trump's 'Make America Great' campaign.

That leads me to think that it won't be allowed to happen.

But this won't stop the Oracle Lawyers from following their bible, the SCO (oracle are playing the role of SCO) vs IBM playbook. And we know how that turned out don't we.

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Linus Torvalds decides world doesn't need a new Linux today

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: Thanks, so-called Linus

At least he's not Norwegian and pining for the Fjords.

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Voila! Bazinga! Amazon turns Alexa into an annoying 'cool' aunt

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

The Monotone Delivery

The author obviously has not been to enough tech conferences in the USA where every presentation seems to be delivered this way. It sends you to sleep because you are bored to tears.

Just SOP over there I'm afraid.

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: I'm tech. but don't get why anyone tech. likes dire shit like The Big Bang Theory!

Have an upvote but I am afraid that the way things are going it is going to be very difficult to NOT have at least one of these things in your home in the not so distant future.

It won't be long before just about everything has some form of digital assistant builtin.

I'll resist by making them unable to connect to my network but I am sure there will be ways that they can get around that.

The NSA/FBI/CIA/GCHQ/FSB/Google/Microsoft/Amazon cabal need to know more about you and your life thatn you do just so that you can be a good citizen, buy the right products when told to by advertising and not be a terrorist/refusenik.

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Crack in black: Matte iPhones losing paint at alarming rate, gripe fans

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: New AppleCare Support Tier: Go away complainy-pants

I'd love to get a pixel but Google can't/won't make enough of them.

Care to give me yours?

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Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Coat

Re: look like a Galaxy

is that the A, S7, S8 or the exploding nebula that was the Tab?

Coat. with a tin of Nitromors paint remover in the pocket and an evil grin on my face

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Samsung's Chromebook Pro: Overpriced vanilla PC with a stylus. 'Wow'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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how many have screens

that are better resolution than the 1366x768 that you usually find on budget laptops then?

This seems to have a decent screen for once.

Shame about it running an OS that slurps data to the Chocolate Factory. At least that is better then slurping data ro Redmond but not by much though.

As has been remarked on already, if a non Ubuntu Linux was available for this then there would be a market for quite a few amongst those who comment here. Debian or Mint, I don't mind really.

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All of Blighty's attack submarines are out of action – report

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Mushroom

Re: Errata

MOD ==== More Operational Disasters

or worse.

MOD-PE (or whatever they are called now) are just a bunch of useless PHB's who certainly could not organise their way out of a paper bag unless it had BAE on the inside.

The constant changes in spec really hurt our ability to defend ourelves.

I was watching the documentary on the birth of the SAS the other night. Faced with having a base that consisted of a tent, a table, two chairs and a sign, they went out an nicked all they needed. Go the job done with the minimum of fuss. That sort of improvisation would just not be alloed these days. I guess it won't be long before every platoon will have an MOD lawyer attached to say, 'sorry chaps, you can't do that. We might get sued'.

Numpties the lot of them.

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Senator wants a piece of Pai: FCC boss blasted for ripping up schools, libraries internet report

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

Gotta keep the proles in line

for their diet of Chicken Little.

Move along there, nothing to see.

Education? Who needs an education to stand in line for Chicken Little?

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Grumpy Trump trumped, now he's got the hump: Muslim ban beaten back by appeals court

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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Re: It turns out that, in the US of A ...

If the states are so very much behind the TWIC then why did the case for overturning the Decree get files by a number of State Attourney Generals?

You may say that they are 'blue'/lefty states.

If the president had drafted the order differently then all this could have been avoided but no he didn't.

He did it in haste and now he may very well have to repent.

The USSC could even say 'we are not going to consider it'. What then eh Big John?

The whole thing is a veritable clusterfuck.

He has only himself to blame. Well that and the cronie/sycophants that he has around him.

And it all could have been avoided with a bit more consulation and the willingness to take advice from others.

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