* Posts by DJV

2399 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Aug 2009

Vote now on who should take the lead in Musk: The Movie

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Mushroom

Donald Trump!

Just look at the similarities:

Has the right physique for cage fights (well, I expect he probably thinks so).

Had a similar privileged upbringing.

Frittered most of his money away on bad business ideas (but claims they were all successes).

Enjoys being sued by lots of people.

And is also a great actor (what do you mean, he's not acting?)

UK signals legal changes to self-driving vehicle liabilities

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"Potholes"

Given the state of some of the UK's roads, the potholes that I find I have to regularly negotiate locally will definitely scupper many a robo-taxi!

Suits ignored IT's warnings, so the tech team went for the neck

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Excellent, except that I find that last sentence rather hard to believe!

Bad eIDAS: Europe ready to intercept, spy on your encrypted HTTPS connections

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Re: trust them to deliver the goods after you paid them

I trust them* to deliver the goods somewhere - but, given the stories about them over the years, I don't necessarily trust them to actually deliver the goods to the designated address.

* them being Amazon, or any company that uses Evri/Hermes (or whatever they're called this week) or any similar so-called delivery service whose drivers have difficulty knowing how to find their own arses upon far too many occasions.

Don't fear the Thread Reaper, a Windows ghost of bugs past

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Facepalm

You B******ds!

Now I've got that damned song incessantly going around my head!

Date night from hell looms for Apple as Netherlands says: 'It's not me, it's you'

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Re: At least AI...

How long will it be before it will just be AI apps talking to AI apps with no human beings involved at all?

World checks it's not April 1 as Apple signals support for full US right-to-repair rule

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Oh Deere...

Apple jacks prices to juice profits because $19.3B a quarter isn't enough

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OMG!

Has Hell frozen over? Has a politician been caught NOT lying?

No, but - shock horror - Apple have spoken to El Reg!!!!

"In a statement provided to The Register, Apple said it'd begun rolling out new subscription pricing "in the US and select international markets.""

Oh yeah, and they've jacked their prices up as well.

LinkedIn lays off nearly 700 staff, engineers to suffer the most

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the cuts will range across engineering, product, talent, and finance teams

Wait, are you telling me they employ people with TALENT? Obviously, none of them ever reached management level.

One door opens, another one closes, and this one kills a mainframe

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Re: Fork lift trucks

Yes, for safety reasons, you definitely need to be a properly licenced fork-lift truck driver, as is demonstrated in this 'extremely serious' YouTube video.

Australia threatens X with fine, warns Google, for failure to comply with child abuse handling report regs

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Re: X/Twitter "failed to provide any response" to some questions, and in some instances "provided a response that was otherwise incomplete and/or inaccurate."

You mean that all they received from Musk was yet another poo emoji.

BOFH: We've made a big mesh, Boss. That's what you wanted, right?

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HR Department

"Where there's a particularly dense mass – like the lift well, the services risers, or our HR department"

Yeah, I've worked in places that had HR Departments like that. Any denser and they would have become singularities.

Workload written by student made millions, ran on unsupported hardware, with zero maintenance

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Re: Makes you proud

The one that gets me is when you find and fix a long-standing bug in some code and wonder how in hell it managed to keep going in its original state for so many years!

From chaos to cadence: Celebrating two decades of Microsoft's Patch Tuesday

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Re: "making the world a little bit better. One patch at a time"

Yeah, happened to me as well. How do they get it so wrong?

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"making the world a little bit better. One patch at a time"

Well, given the quality of the patches*, that's a matter of opinion!

* Like many, I was clobbered by the icon/program deleting patch of earlier this year that required a complete reinstall of Windows.

Astronomers spot collision between two exoplanets, both feared vaporized

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Did they exchange insurance information at the time of the crash?

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

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Re: Yep, it works

Indeed, my 2009 iMac is currently running macOS 12/Monterey, though I haven't moved it up to Ventura as yet. After it became sluggish running High Sierra (officially the last available version for that model) I upgraded to an SSD and took OCLP for a spin at the same time. The detailed instructions provided by YouTuber Mr. Macintosh on how to successfully install and use OCLP should always be your first port of call.

FTC: Please stop falling for social media scams, you've given crooks at least $650M so far this year

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Re: Apparently the government have a plan to do something about it

Yes, they plan to burn down all the chicken coops or something similar and just as relevant...

Police ignored the laws of datacenter climate control

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Location?

At a Business Link office I once had to work in, the server room was the 'Gents'.

Admittedly, it was no longer still in use for its original purpose, and they had at least removed the, um, seats, but the cubicles were still there as the partitions were brick built.

Tweaked Space Shuttle Main Engine gets ready for final testing

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Apple blames iOS 17 bug for overheating iPhone 15 woes

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I believe it had a Red Bull upgrade which gave it wings.

Norway wants Facebook behavioral advertising banned across Europe

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Re: Abuse

"It seems we don't yet have equivalent terms for people with multiple partners of varying genders"

Zuckamist?

Mozilla's midlife crisis has taken it from web pioneer to Google's weird neighbor

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Re: separate URL and search boxes

The DEFAULT is to have a single box. Try looking in the settings once in a while where you can turn this feature on and off!

iPhone 15 is too hot to handle – and not in any good way

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Re: Apple iGloves

They will work brilliantly but, 12 months later, will be found to be made of asbestos.

Authors Guild sues OpenAI for using Game of Thrones and other novels to train ChatGPT

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"The Register has asked OpenAI for comment and will update this story if we receive a substantial reply"

Or do you mean a reply that hasn't been AI-generated?

YouTuber Geoff Marshall did an interesting experiment recently by getting ChatGPT to generate a script for him to use for a video - it was hilariously bad!

Robocall scammers sentenced in US after netting $1.2M via India-based call centers

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Arushobike Mitra and Garbita Mitra (no relation, just coincidence)

Coincidence - it happens a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCLynwl0kvk

'Small monthly payment' only thing that stands between X and bot chaos, says Musk

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Re: King Elon's nakedness

Aaargh! Mind bleach immediately, nurse!!!

Unity closes offices, cancels town hall after threat in wake of runtime fee restructure

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Damn!

And there was I ready to launch my Unity-based game all about the fine pastime of foot shooting!

Adobe's AI tools may paint a pretty picture, but they also cost a pretty penny

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Greed rules

I did have a minimal CC subscription for a while as I needed something that the software I normally used didn't have. Then, I found a pay-once solution that more suited my wallet. Screw the greedy bastards, I hope they lose subscribers by the millions.

US Department of Justice claims Google bought its way to web search dominance

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AltaVista

Back in 1996, whilst working in the IT Department of a company with around 100+ users, I was tasked with setting up the internet access on all the computers.

As we were still running Windows 3.1 at the time, this not only meant installing a TCP/IP stack and a web browser, but I also had to spend several minutes explaining what the internet was to each user after I had upgraded their PC. At that time this mostly consisted of showing them a few sites relevant to the business as well as introducing them to AltaVista. I would ask if they had any hobbies so that we could search on a topic in which they were interested. Most people would respond with topics such as gardening, knitting, tropical fish and so on, and I'd type that into AltaVista so that they understood how to get at the data they wanted.

After upgrading the PC of a user I will call Barry (mainly because that was his name) I asked about his hobbies and, with a large grin on his face, he replied, "Necrophilia." I shrugged and typed it into AltaVista. Now, given that this was only 1996, it was still amazing how many results were returned! It was a good job Barry had his own office so that no one else could see what we were looking at!

Norway court upholds miniscule fine against Meta for flouting privacy rules

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I think, to keep these arrogant companies in check, fines should start at one penny (or cent or whatever the local currency is) and then double for every day of non-compliance (as in the wheat and chessboard problem). When they realise exactly how much it could cost them, it should focus their attention on rapidly becoming compliant!

Google Chrome pushes ahead with targeted ads based on your browser history

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Chrome exists for the sole purpose of being better than Internet Explorer

Low bar there!

Freecycle gives users the gift of a security breach notice

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I've changed my password. But, no, I didn't get an email about the breach from Freegle, either.

BOFH: What a beautiful tinfoil hat, Boss!

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Re: homeopathic doctor

I'll just leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0

Twitter says it may harvest biometric, employment data from its addicts

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Re: Musk's the sodding coal in this situation

At least, under pressure, coal can turn into diamond.

Musk, under pressure, just throws more (expensive) toys around!

After years of fighting Right to Repair, Apple U-turns-ish in California

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"In a letter [PDF] provided to The Register, the iBiz this week declared..."

WHAT!!! Is Apple now talking to El Reg?

(Checks to see if Hell has frozen over...)

Windows screensaver left broadcast techie all at sea

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Just over 20 years ago when I was working at a large insurance company in the east of England (clue!) there was a Windows executable/'screensaver' going around that would display, in huge letters on a flashing red/yellow background, "I'M WATCHING G*Y PR0N!". This would mysteriously turn up on unsuspecting users' PCs if they happened to leave them logged in when they left their desks! On my last day at the company before moving onto pastures more satisfying, I added that program to the Startup folder of the computer I'd been using as I'd been informed that, after my departure, my PC would most likely be re-imaged so it was nice and fresh ready for the next victim, er, employee coming to work there.

About a week later I heard from a now ex-colleague still working at the company who told me he'd been asked to demonstrate something IT-related to a client and decided not to use his own PC but to use mine as it had yet to be taken away for its refresh and it was easier to sit two people at my desk than his own. He logged in and sat chatting to the client for a while before they both noticed the bright flashing letters on the screen next to them. To say he was embarrassed was an understatement, and I laughed like a baboon upon hearing his news! Good job both he and the client had a sense of humour!

Want tech cred? Learn how to email like a pro

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Is there an email client out there that is *so* broken

Apple Mail

IBM says GenAI can convert that old COBOL code to Java for you

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Re: Converting Cobol to Java

Depends on whether or not you like hiding up your nuts for later!

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It will be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison between the original and converted code, along with a comparison of the speed of execution and the physical output generated.

Going by some of the more "interesting" output from various LLM/AI systems of late, I suspect it might be a case of "accounting software in" and "Vogon poetry out".

Lesson 1: Keep your mind on the ... why aren't the servers making any noise?

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Your student wasn't called Jon Pertwee, was he? Or was that only for neutron flow polarity?

New Zealand supermarket's recipe-generating AI takes toxic output to a new level

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Re: Second level nerfing

Ah, the Marmite finally appeared! https://saveymeal-bot.co.nz/recipe/vpApjfrLdyfy8Jbqctwwqsoj

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Re: Second level nerfing

No spring surprise?

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Re: Second level nerfing

My attempt generated the following:

These Beetroot Chocolate Chili Cupcakes are a unique and delicious treat that combine the earthiness of beetroot with the heat of chili peppers and the richness of chocolate. Get ready for a flavor explosion!

Annoyingly, it ignored the Marmite!

India hits pause on import ban after Apple and Samsung pull out

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Re: Work Program

Well, at least no lobsters were harmed!

Astronaut-menacing sunstorm spotted rippling across inner solar system

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Re: ZAP

I remember reading something similar about 4 astronauts getting zapped. One of them got a bit stretchy, another had a hot flush, the third got his rocks on and the final one, well she just felt a bit faint.

How to get a computer get stuck in a lift? Ask an 'illegal engineer'

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Re: You don't want them getting up off the plate

Reminds me of when I was a kid (of probably no more than 4 or 5) and the family were staying with my grandmother in Hastings. As the tide was out it was decided that my father and I should go down to the beach and pick some winkles off the rocks. This we did, returning not long afterwards with a decent bucketful. Gran boiled these up and we got ready with our pins. But, as soon as they were offloaded onto some plates for consumption, a few of them poked their heads out of their shells and slowly tried to make a bid for freedom, hardy little sods that they were!

I really can't remember now if they were reboiled or set free!

Google Street View car careens into creek after 100mph cop chase

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Re: at that point that the driver lost control and careened through a yard into a creek

Don't forget the big pile of empty cardboard boxes left in the middle of the road for no apparent reason!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF-T1FB3Yno

Crooks pwned your servers? You've got four days to tell us, SEC tells public companies

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Re: If I don’t look..

Aha, the ol' "Monster Under The Bed" tactics!