* Posts by Steve Davies 3

7136 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Microsoft still working to fix Outlook sync issues

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Has El Reg finally soured its relationship with Redmond

The Register has asked Microsoft what the cause of the sync issues was and will update this article if we receive a response.

Those words are normally reserved for getting comments from Apple. We all know that Cupertino does not respond except to say 'Niet', 'Non', 'Nien' etc.

Is MS doing the same now?

It would be nice to know if this site is in the doghouse with two big Tech/IT companies.

A real case of living up to 'Biting the hand that feeds IT'.

Outlook outage outrage

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Joke

On the 'Outlook' for a 'Lookout'

for a Exchange of Id's that it is working again.

Lookout is certainly living up to its pretty shoddy reputation.

Microsoft promises 'equal access' to LinkedIn to get EC green light for acquisition

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Microstiffed...

What's taking you so long?

Dyn Dyn Dyn – we have a buyer: Oracle gobbles Internet of Things DDoS victim

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

So what are Oracle's plans for Dyn?

Make it non free?

As a Dyn user I and I am sure many others would like to know how Oracle are going to mess it up.

Facebook to hire 500 more in Blighty

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

But...

will Facebook carry on avoiding paying Corporation Tax in the UK?

They do business here and earn profits here so should pay all their due taxes and not get out of paying it due to some licensing issues and tax shelters.

Kids' Hour of Code turns into a giant corporate infomercial for kids

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Duh - coding on pencil and paper

Back in the day, us dinosaurs used to write our code on sheets of paper called

Coding Forms.

{remembering not to go beyond column 72}

Then we would give the sheets to the people who'd turn those sheets into punched cards.

Then they'd be run as batch jobs on Mainframes from the likes of IBM and ICL.

I still have all the cards for a few of my programs that used Punched Cards.

We graduated to Papertape and ASR-33's.

More Androids carry phone-home firmware

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

What's not to like here eh?

Burner Phones - check

Vunerabilities in firmware - check

Easy to install snoopware - check

That's all the likes of the FBI want. What are the odds that there are some 'burner phone' shops that are already selling devices infected with the FBI tracking sofware?

forget those pesky iPhones, these are what the TLA's need to keep their closure rates up.

written firmly with my tongue planted in my cheek you understand...

Surveillance camera compromised in 98 seconds

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Have an upvote

IMHO, the people who downvoted my comment are perfect examples of 'Numpties'.

My post wasn't controversial or argumentative just a bit of fun. Get a life people.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Have an upvote

for using the word Numpty.

Made my day

Microsoft's cmd.exe deposed by PowerShell in Windows 10 preview

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
FAIL

Well Done Microsoft

This will certainly drive even more users away from Windows. Is that your intent given your new found love of Linux? (I am joking ok...)

But honestly, to think that the average person who is capable of running a few commands in the command window that basically has not changed for decades would actually want this 'thing' that strangles the system performance is yet another footgun moment IMHO.

I guess your slurping of everyones data, sorry, telemetary will soon tell you if it is a success. If it is a failure then you will just ignore it like you do pretty well everything that your users who live and work outside your Washington State bubble tell you these days.

IMHO, for everyone apart from a few real power users this is the wrong move. Yes you can reverse it but how many 'Joe Public' users who drop into Doc from time to time would know where to even look to reverse this idiocy.

I saw this article and it brought a smile to my face. Moves like this makes me feel that my decision to nuke all my windows installtions was the right one.

Three Mobile, two alleged hackers, one big customer database heist

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: That would explain

Hmmm... Been with Three for nigh on 10 years and never get calls about upgrades. If they did then I'd ditch them in a flash. That was the reason I left Orange.

YMMV though.

Apple admits the iPhone 6 Plus has 'Touch Disease'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: "after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface"

the repaies might be a money spinner in the USA but not in the EU (until we leave that is and 'free' warranty periods suddenly revert to 30 days but that is another story. No doubt the likes of PC world will be back selling those extended warranties again that cost as much as the device itself ). The rules here are different.

A friend of mine recently got her 2012 MacBook repaired (Display port went U/S) for free.

That ain't so bad is it?

FYI Apple fans – iCloud slurps your call histories

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: They store records of my voice calls ??

iPhone explanation

1: i for Internet

2: Phone for .... well actually talking in real time to other humans who aren't as fortunate as you (viz, don't have an iDevice).

Ok?

YMMV (and I use mine for 2: more than 1: but that's because I'm not on any social media site at least I don't think I am.)

Smart meter benefits even crappier than originally thought

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Just cancel it now

and HMG will have enough money to buy the Navy some missiles.

Microsoft sweet-talks EC antitrust bods over LinkedIn buy

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

already gone

As soon as the deal was announced, approval or not, I deleted my profile.

Linkedin was good once but has since deterioated into something that is IMHO worthless.

Go ahead MS, pay billions for something you have no idea how to make relevant in todays world.

Qualcomm taps Samsung to make next-gen 10nm Snapdragon

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

sounds like a fruity company does it not?

Cutting down on the chip size is going to be key for some manufacturers, who are prepared to cut out anything that makes our smartphones and fondleslabs a few extra millimeters thinner.

I wonder if they think that Apple will want to buy their chip for the next iDevice or have they been infected by the Apple RDF?

UK warships to have less firepower than 19th century equivalents as missiles withdrawn

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

But that maybe all he needs

to get that peerage.

Well the question was asked in PMQ's today about him getting one.

I really hope that the PM gives him the Order of the Lead Boot instead

Hewlett Packard Enterprise to outsource global IT team to CSC borg

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

will there be anyone who is any good left

by March?

Oh wait, anyone who was good has already left HPE.

And with that round of Crimble redundancies at CSC, who will be left (apart from the drones in India)?

The only thing worse than working at CSC? An Xmas redundo programme at CSC

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

does it matter

It would be worth noting here that CSC are not buying HPE ES, it is a spin merger and creation of a NewCo.

Does it really matter who is buying who? Whichever it is, they are doomed to rinse and repeat this every few months until their whole business here is just a holding company and every worker is in India.

No UK/EU Employees equals lower costs and this more profit for those who remain.

Will the last one out please disconnect the leccy. No screwdrivers provided.

Firefox hits version 50

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Statcounter

How many people here block statcounter from their browser?

This along with a number of Google sites are on my hit list to block from slurping my browser use.

IBM offers Trump its ideas to Make America Great Again

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

IBM is the same as Drump

IBM == I've been mugged

Donald will do the same to America.

IMHO, he'll emerge from the Presidency without paying any tax and several times richer than now yet he says that he'll draw no salary not that $400K/year is a salary that any decent sized Public company would accept but still makes the £170K out PM gets look like a bargain (and they'll pay most of it at 50% tax on it)

Navy STEALS? US sailors dispute piracy claim

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

They won't win.

Uncle Sam never loses the war. Ok, they always seem to arrive on the scene a tad late but they don't lose (apart from that little thing in S.E Asia) especially in the courtoom.

Good luck to this German company selling any more licenses in the USA not that Drump is (almost) in charge. He'll make America great again by mandating that the US Armed Services buy only from US Companies and that even the $1000 hammer must be made by his blue collar pals, sorry voters.

That US Debt display in NYC is gonna need a few more digits before the end of the Drump term in the White House.

China gets mad at Donald Trump, threatens to ruin Apple

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Perhaps Tim Cook saw the Runes

and that is why Apple (+ Foxconn) will soon announce iDevice production in India.

I'm sure they could even move one of their very mechanised (with robots) plants to the USA. Robots don't care where they work. Would that satisfy Drump? Probably not but it would be nice PR. "Apple is helping 'make America Great'"

Cheer up, world! AWS instances just got cheaper

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Your move Microsoft?

Gonna reduce that price increase now?

I'm sure a lot of IT Departments would be interested in your response.

NHS IT bod sends test email to 850k users – and then responses are sent 'reply all'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: since when is 1.2 million people 1% of the UK population?

That will be tomorrows Daily Mail Headline

43million Immigrants swamp the UK since BREXIT.

All an EU Attempt to stop BREXIT

Invoke Article 50 NOW

UK.gov has 18,000 IT contractors on its books due to dearth of skills

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

IR35

With the Left Hand

Well that's one way to reduce the cost of Gubbermint IT. Just investigate all IT Contractors and watch what happens

Then

The Right Hand complains that it can't meet the same Gubbermint targets for delivering the Digital Economy. So the employ more (but different) IT Contractors

Rinse and repeat ad adnauseum

Just get rid of IR35 and a lot of things will get delivered.

I gave up and went back to normal employment and have since retired but I still get agencies ringing me up to work for the usual suspects on government contracts.

Frankly, watching paint dry is more enticing.

Former Autonomy CFO indicted in USA for misleading investors

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Lawyers

US Laws apply everywhere on the planet. Get used to it people.

The USA and American companies can do no wrong (in their eyes). Everyone else is evil.

Better make sure that you don't send any 6B lead pencils to Iran without getting US Gov approval. Graphite might just possibly be used in a weapon you know.

And it will get worse under Drump.

Pythons Idle and Cleese pen anti-selfie screed

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Pint

Re: Shouting at clouds

Exactly.

All you need to know about Selfie takers is that more of them die while taking Selfies than normal people die from shark attacks each year.

Well said Pythons. Have one of these on me.

Your body reveals your password by interfering with Wi-Fi

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
WTF?

In the average Starbucks

where all the hipsters are typing away on their precious iDevices, I would guess that the sheer number of key presses would make any analysis of want any one of them is doing almost impossible.

(not that they would ever be doing anything important)

Who'd a thought that Apple users would get safety in numbers. Clearly the WTF moment for this Monday morning.

Russia shoves antitrust probe into Microsoft after Kaspersky gripes about Windows 10

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: His concerns are valid

Er.... Since when is Redmond (Washington) in silicon Valley(California)?

Otherwise, you are pretty close to the mark. I think this may change with the new resident in the White House (come January 20)

Mark Zuckerberg is dead – Facebook confirmed

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

for a moment, the world over

those who have lost someone because of the unchecked bullying that goes on on Facebook rejoiced.

Sadly, their happines was short lived.(pity)

Yeah, that '50bn IoT devices by 2020' claim is a load of dog toffee

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

A clear case of embiggening if you ask me

Perhaps delaying IPv6 might delay the inevitable DDOS maelstrom that takes down the internet.

Frankly any IoT device that isn't properly secured should be banned from ever being sold let alone connected to a system that has connection to the internet.

I'd even go further and jail the CEO of any companies found to be peddling this crap in the first place.

mind you it might be hard given that most of the builders are in China and possibly working for the Chinese version of GCHQ.

Panicked WH Smith kills website to stop sales of how-to terrorism manuals

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Go Bang? Oh, you mean my Compost Heap

That releases a considerable amount of Methane. Trap that and you could make something that goes bang.

A farmer I know does this commercially (anerobic digester) and as a result powers his whole operation from the generated Electricity. He also sells the surplus to the grid.

Google: If you think we're bad, you should take a look at Apple

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Apple and supplied Apps

didn't Apple allow you to remove some/most of the supplied apps with IOS10?

Apple does not enforce screen positioning either.

On my ancient iPhone 5S all the Apple supplied apps I don't use are consigned to a third screen. When I get round to updating to IOS10 I might try to remove the apple Mail App because it is (like Itunes) a POS. I have to use iTunes because I backup locally and not to iCloud. Other than that it does not get used.

Anyway, as others have said, Google (in the shape of Android) has the majority of the market. Apple despite being bastards of the highest order in many things are not a market leader/monopoly player.

Microsoft: Don't worry about the CRM cloud price hike... think of the features

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: "Business version"

Do you want the simple answer or the long answer?

Ok, I'll give you both

Yes

and

To goldarn right they are gonna rip us off because of BREXIT. This is Microsoft you are talking about aren't you? The don't give owt for nowt.

IoT worm can hack Philips Hue lightbulbs, spread across cities

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Hands up who is still a fan of IoT?

To answer your question about what happens when all lightbulbs are 'smart'.

I will just pull up the drawbridge, disconnect the WiFi. no WiFi then no Internet connection for those so called 'smart' but actually dumb devices. I will also make sure that I buy up bulbs that are not smart before they go off sale.

Remember that if your lightbulb can be connected to the internet, how difficult would it be to add a Microphone and ... you can get the rest. Think of all those hours of Nooky that the FBI will have to listen to before they hear the words 'F*** Trump'...

As my 'Leccy' is supplied overhead, I have a good supply of Candles and a generator. We lost power for 7 days in the great storm a few decades ago.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
FAIL

Hands up who is still a fan of IoT?

Come on now, don't be shy. In the words of Delia,

Lets be having you.

To be honest, this is just another can in the supermarket sized can of worms that IoT is these days.

A Marketing answer to a question that has not been asked or if it has, it has not been properly considered in any way shape or form before the implementation.

IMHO, all IoT and I mean ALL should come with at very least, a health warning. At best, they should be removed from sale ASAP and all current owners told to disconnect them from the internet NOW.

Naturally, this won't happen so we will see this type of vunerability demonstrated more and more.

Eventually, a botnet will be constructed that could threaten the whole internet. Not just DDOSing a few targets but the whole thing. Then where would we be eh?

Perhaps it might be a good thing. Because the sudden inability of the Millenials to listen to their latest bit of (c)RAP or R&B (Not proper R&B in my eyes but that is another debate entirely) that they would normally stream (stupid idea IMHO) might spur some reaction.

As a boring old fart/old fogey/IT Dinosaur (who still has the puched card stack for his first program), I will do my bit and not even purchase anything that it IoT enabled.

I wonder what Donald will make of this when all the .gov sites are taken down.

Perhaps it will be 'build another golf course and hotel complex'? {joking}

Building IOT London sessions: From tiny sensors to big data

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Has The Reg sold it's soul to the highest bidder?

Oh goody. All the 'fans' of IoT gathered together in one place.

Perhaps someone might like to make them {see Icon} for being so stupid.

Until IoT is peoperly secured it should be banned outright.

Mac administrators brace for big changes to Apple-powered fleets

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Corporates

Quote

Four years later they're unsuitable for corporates.

This seems to be opposite to what the likes of IBM are finding.

Perhaps a device that can't be meddled with is just what 'corporate' IT Departments want?

Your guess is as good as mine.

However, the jury is very much hung when it comes to the new MacBooks.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

cue...

comments about the walled garden getting higher walls.

Sometimes this might actually be a good thing. The hackers are getting smarter and smarter and IMHO it is beholden to the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft to try to keep one step ahead of them.

Lets hope that Apple listens to the Sysadmins comments (unlikely though)

As for the Headphone jack, Apple did (for the time being at least) include a Lightning to Phone Jack adaper with the new iDevice. How long this is shipped for remains to be seen.

The side effect may well be to spur the development of Lighning Phones and speakers.

Apple might not be innovating but they are sure making other companies not sit back on their laurels.

The jury is out as to wether this a good or bad thing.

Trump's taxing problem: The end of 'affordable' iPhones

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I have no problem with gearing back the corrupt H1-B program

Go look at the videos of how a Tesla is put together and you will see the future for car workers. viz, there isn't one. Almost the whole assembly is automated. They are even talking about designing robots to service the robots.

OTOH, if no one has a job how will they be able to afford a Tesla (or anything else for that matter)

Even flipping Burgers for minimm wage is about to be totally auotmated.

There will be a new revolution in the USA before long. If the new Presidente is concerned about unemployment, then he ain't seen nothing yet. It will get very ugly.

Ned Ludd will be cheering from his grave.

What price that spray tan then Donald?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Trump's business for more than 10 years has been LICENSING HIS NAME.

Can you? Only if you can prove to DT that you were 'Born In the USA'.

Oh wait... Bruce is a Hillary supporter.

Being president of the USA is 'The road to nowhere' job.

Coffee time.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Trump has to be careful

Even that darling of 'american manufacturing' Boeing uses parts made all over the world on their Aircraft.

If President Donald Duck puts import tariffs on all those imports then the Airlines will switch to Airbus.

They use American made parts which is what he wants.

So the US aircraft maker can't compete with Airbus because they have to pay more for the same parts than their European Competition.

How is this a win for the USA?

Isn't Economics wonderful.

Cisco emits new branch box

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Sales pitch

Quote

I can buy a ~£200 APU fanless thingie with a quad core Intel Atom CPU + 2 GB RAM, a 30GB mSATA and three Intel GB NICs in it.

Care to tell us where you can buy this from?

Trump's plan: Tariffs on electronics, ban on skilled tech migrants, turn off the internet

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: yeah terrible ain't it

Strange that the new 'Dear Leader' has pledged to reopen the West Virginia Mines...

I forsee a ban on Renewable energy not that far away. He's got to replay Big Coal and Big Oil somehow.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: And we thought BREXIT was bad

re The price rises and any possible reduction

Do Pigs fly?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

The room of people who will control Trump

is the GOP Congress critters.

Yes the same party but most of them loathe him.

They will just carry on and do business as usual. viz, block whatever the president wants to do.

That's what Obama has faced these past 8 years. IMHO, it will be no different for Trump.

His economics policy is daft. It will see the USA go into default. Who will take over? The Chinese who have been buying whole rafts of the US Business world these past 10 years.

I fear that the next 4 (or god forbid 8) years will be hard on us all.

The mattress filled with gold is looking pretty good at the moment.

Unless the rest of the world says 'fuck you' to the US and gets on without them. Let him build a wall. It will only harm his voters in the long run.

Judge throws out Trump lawyer's demand for poll worker info – because it'll feed Twitter trolls

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Man, if Trump does win

too late. He's won.

Abandon hope all you Americans. Better start building that wall.

Perhaps it will hold back the rising sea levels that President Trump thinks and states is a myth cooked up by the Chinese to make US Industry uncompetitive.

How far has the USD crashed?

How far down will Wall St open?

What's your 401K worth today.

Welcome to the Trump World.

A disaster for the world (makes BREXIT look tame)

The only person celebrating will be 'Mines a Pint' Farage.

McDonald's sues Italian city for $20m after being burger-blocked

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I don't get it!

I worked with an American who only ate American Food even if he was in foreign parts.

So he would go to Moscow but not to Almaty. Moscow was on because of that thing with the yellow arch.

They want CNN and USA Today as well.

A colleague came over from Atlanta some years back. He wasn't interested in the local cusine. He ordered in Burgers and Bud so he could watch baseball on the Internet.

I asked him why did he bothered coming ther on holiday. His reply was to the point. 'My wife wanted to visit Oxford and Edinburgh. We were on the Isle of Skye at the time. He just would not touch the excellent food at all. He thought it was all deep fried mars bars.

Philistines.

Now that I think about it, they actually deserve to get Trumped.

{and I lived there for two years...}

Add it to the tab: ICO fines another spammer as unpaid bills mount

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: The ICO is toothless

The poster said that they were calling them and addressing them by name. That removed the 'random' call option.

anyone who calls me with an invalid or 'number withheld' gets blocked.

Sadly the local NHS Trust hospitals have started calling you with 'Number withheld'.

The Trust CEO said that it was for data protection issues. Who's data protection?