* Posts by Lord Elpuss

2302 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Aug 2009

Work for you? Again? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Ooh that's evil.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: HP

"About two or three months later he reached out to me to ask if I was looking for work because he had an opening in the team."

Sure. For 7 figures, I'll prop you up. And for an extra 500k, I'll even take the fall for you.

Let's see how deep those desperate pockets go.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Being polite is great

"I'd have done it a little differently. I'd have given them a figure for a day rate and swung the lead with it."

Exactly. Be polite, but always know your value. Desperate people tend to have deep pockets.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "And to this day, the more he dislikes someone, the more polite he is towards them."

"My motto is "May The Bridges I Burn Light My Way"."

I don't burn all my bridges; some I leave standing for nostalgic reasons. But I have never regretted a single bridge I did burn, even if to an objective observer it would have appeared to be a bad choice. Sometimes it's better for your mental health to just strike that match.

Crowning glory of GOV.UK websites updated, sparking frontend upgrades

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Surprised you didn't mention baby incubators.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: FUCK the king twat

Crikey. Which Royal peed in your cornflakes?

Americans wake to widespread AT&T cellular outages

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Me too :)

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Cellphones aren't tied to their primary network for calling 911; this is built into the cellular standard. In fact, you can call 911 without a SIM, as long as your cellphone can see a network. So if people are unable to call 911 but there is still an active network (of any description) in their area, it'll be one of two things:

1. the problem is indeed broader than 'just' AT&T, and other networks are experiencing problems too.

2. OR the cellphone thinks it's still connected to AT&T and therefore won't try other networks automatically.

If 2., then removing the SIM should allow you to call 911, as the cellphone will then not remain tethered to AT&T, but will default to whichever (working) network it can pick up.

Euro shoppers popping more and more premium phones in the basket

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Unscientific anecdotal sample

The battery specs aren't different, but the radio frequencies are. And that could definitely account for different power consumption figures.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Unscientific anecdotal sample

"However, a mate of mine who's been drinking at the koolaid fountain for a while says that older phones generally struggle on newer releases of the OS after a few years"

Never noticed this, and we've always had older iPhones in the family. My 11 Pro is as fast as it was new, in fact if the camera was a bit more up to date I wouldn't be thinking of replacing it. The only one that's truly slow these days by today's standards is the 5S, but that's been out of support for years now and it has a dying battery which no longer supports peak performance.

"many apps insist on the latest version of the OS"

Some secure apps such as banking do indeed ask for the newest (or newest -1) version of the OS, but most will let you go back several generations. And given that it's typically 7 years or thereabouts before the newest OS stops being supported, this is not generally a problem.

"...and use changes to ask for new licences"

Not a thing, and never has been as far as I know. Sounds like a bit of FUDraking to me.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Many of us by used iPhones

Yeah I got that, but begs the question why when a phone with an internet connection can offer so much more. Unless you enjoy going Luddite-mode.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: “it's very difficult to measure the replacement cycle at any given point.”

"Do all fruity phones have to be signed into an iCloud account these days?"

No they don't. But the vast majority will be.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Many of us by used iPhones

Begs the question - why have a SIMless SE2 in the car and not just connect your SE3 when you need to? A SIMless phone is only getting 10% of the value of CarPlay unless you tether it to a hotspot, in which case why not just use the hotspotting phone as your main phone?

Cops turn LockBit ransomware gang's countdown timers against them

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Where?

I'm guessing it's a .onion site.

Space nukes: The unbelievably bad idea that's exactly that ... unbelievable

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "illegal under international law"

Without going into the rest of your post because we've discussed it to death now, the whole Novichok thing doesn't make sense to me. Although I personally absolutely believe without a doubt that he was murdered, why. Why use an obscure, indiscriminate and potentially highly traceable nerve toxin to kill him when just getting another prisoner to do it would be easier, cheaper, simpler and completely deniable.

Unless the whole point IS to let the world know - to make a point that we will get you sooner or later. Like Prigozhin.

Anyway. I'm going to leave this now; not a lot to add that hasn't been said a number of times already.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "illegal under international law"

"Now, you can, and probably will call this 'whataboutery'. It's ok for Budanov and his Special Needs goons to assassinate political opponents because currently, he's our nazi. "

Don't misunderstand me: the other cases you mention may well be equivalent, and may well be equally unjust; they're just not relevant to Navalny's case. Whataboutery is not about casting aspersions on the legitimacy of the other cases, it's about saying that they have no bearing on the discussion at hand. Classic example, Trump and Biden. Every time an article is posted on the criminal charges faced by the morbidly obese Cheeto, some idiot will pipe up in the comments saying "B-b-b-but Have you seen what Biden's done? HE's the real criminal!" It may be true. It may not be. But it has no bearing on whether Trump is or is not guilty of the crimes for which he has been accused.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "illegal under international law"

"Put up, or shut up. All your doing is demonstrating the abysal depths of your imagination. I reported the last post, but hopefully a mod can step in and confirm I've made zero posts to this topic as an AC."

Jellied Eel you and I disagree a lot on this forum, but I believe you're not AC. You and I have differing views, but AC is just shitposting.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "illegal under international law” @Lord Elpuss

It’s irrelevant to Navalny’s case. For an AI bot, you’re not really on top of your game here.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "illegal under international law"

” The Democrats are currently in the process of trying to make sure an ex-President and Presidential candidate either dies in prison, or is bankrupted. You don't see any hypocrisy?“

I’m not American, so not only do I not see any hypocrisy, I legitimately do not care. Your political games are irrelevant.

” But the reality is he's dead, and until there's an investigation, nobody knows why.“

It doesn’t matter why. He was unjustly imprisoned in a gulag; that’s enough of a contributory factor to make the State guilty of murder, regardless of whether he died of poison, stabbing, tiredness, excessive flatulence or old age. It. Doesn’t. Matter.

” You may not have heard of an American citizen and journalist by the name of Gonzalo Lira”

It’s irrelevant to Navalny’s case. To claim that here is whataboutery, one of the weakest and most transparent last-gasp arguments of a failing debater.

Your entire counter argument amounts to “Don’t look here, look over there!”. It’s pathetic.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "illegal under international law"

"As for Navalny, there is currently no evidence that he was murdered."

You mean, apart from the whole locking him up in a Siberian gulag on manufactured charges thing? Even in the utterly unbelievable scenario that he died of natural causes, he was still murdered by the regime.

Putin apologists are despicable. Jog on.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Arguments

I can say with absolute certainty, based on your drivel here, that yes I am in fact a better human being than you. товарищ.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Arguments

"The whole situation in Ukraine is due to provocation by the US."

It saddens and worries me that humans* like you are walking the earth.

*possibly stretching the definition

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "illegal under international law"

"So was invading Ukraine. So is murdering Alexei Navalny. That doesn't appeared to have stopped Putin in either case. So why would it stop him trying to put nukes in space?"

It won't. What might stop him though is the suicidal damage it would cause to his own and his allies' infrastructure in space. Space nukes are very, very effective (see also: Starfish Prime) but they are indiscriminate and have far reaching effects; including a high energy electron cloud that persists for months after detonation, destroying or damaging any non-hardened electronics it comes into contact with. Even Putin's not mad enough to put his own country back in the technological dark ages just to prove a point.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Game Theoretic Analysis

"And the winners write the history books."

I remember reading somewhere: "isn't it incredible that throughout history, the Good Guys have always won."

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Violent Elizabeth Putin

"Wild seeing Trans people grouped alongside Putin in your example but go off I guess."

AC is still right though. At least as far as the rabid militant activists are concerned.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Speaking from the deliciously ignorant platform of Haven't a Clue, I would assume that yes they would cancel out; smaller antennas are as capable of damaging smaller electronics as larger ones are with larger electronics.

But I don't know. We need somebody with radio engineering expertise here.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

True, however the antennas are only small because the electronics they're attached to are also very small; and thus very sensitive. When you're talking about a system with 25 billion transistors on a single chip (e.g. the Apple M3) then a voltage spike doesn't need to be very big to cause chaos.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

I'm not a radio engineer, but I'm pretty sure that while the wires in electronic devices may be small, the electronics they're attached to are even smaller; and thus even more vulnerable.

I would say the EMP risk to systems has got larger, not smaller.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: It's nuts but

There are a ton of reasons why not, but nothing that's likely to bother the multi-chinned bowl-cutted dictateur du jour who - let's be honest - isn't the most stable of isotopes at the best of times.

NASA extinguishes experiment about setting things on fire in space

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: In microgravity can you drop onto?

"When I think about the role of rising hot air (draught or convection?) in terrestrial fires, its not particularly clear to me how a fire in zero G would behave - I cannot see how hot gaseous combustion products and heated air can 'rise.' Just expands around the combustion site and removed by any external air flow?"

Small, single-point-source fires such as a candle, match etc burn with a circular flame in zero gravity, and extinguish quickly due to consuming the available oxygen. All fires need 3 things; fuel, oxidiser and a heat source - so removing one stops the fire.

With larger fires, the same thing should happen in theory (the fire consumes the immediately available oxygen and burns out), BUT larger fires end up changing the material density of the air; which creates areas of lower and higher pressure, which creates a form of turbulence. This can (and does, as the experiments show) have the effect of bringing more oxygenated air into the area of the fire such that it can become self-sustaining. And that is very, very dangerous.

Apple makes it official: No Home Screen web apps in European Union

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Yes, you really are the product

You're not listening. It's not just about 'trying it'; it's about the fact that it quite literally will not work with my use case, which involves (amongst other things) working with customer's legacy applications and sending/receiving data in specific formats.

Even if *I* could make the switch, my customers would also need to change their ways of working to comply; and as I'm not the only person out there offering the services I do, they would most likely simply switch to a different vendor that's easier to do business with. And then my little one man band goes under.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: A Kodak Moment?

Well, quite. Apple are a lot bigger and more influential than Kodak ever were, but the point is still valid; you can be the best, most innovative and most efficient company; but if you're delivering last year's product instead of next year's, you're still going to die. Having deeper pockets doesn't change the outcome, just the timeline.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Yes, you really are the product

Not with my use case, you didn't.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Yes, you really are the product

Doesn't work for my use case. Or age, quite frankly. I'm 3 years off pension, and not up for trying a new OS at this stage.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: No problem

"You can't use Android if Apple is mandated by your employer."

Very true. But that's not to say that you can't use your work equipment purely and simply for work, and buy other solutions for personal use that work for you. That way, any productivity or usability issues are the company's problem and not yours.

Back in the days when I worked for IBM, we were issued ThinkPads and a Nokia 6310i. The Nokia was brilliant. The (IBM-built) ThinkPad software image was shite. There was no differentiation by jobrole, so everybody had laptops with 30-odd startup items, of which YOU would use maybe 3. The rest was just bloat slowing everything down. I remember Intranet Labor Claiming (ILC) as this angry little red icon sitting in the taskbar that was completely useless to me as I didn't use it in my job, yet regularly consumed 100% CPU and brought everything to a standstill.

Because it was a company laptop, I stopped stressing about it. Just explained to my boss that ILC crashed my laptop AGAIN, and the tech spec that needed to be at the customer by 3pm had been lost. They'd now have to wait until after the weekend, but that's really not my problem. Sorry. Enough of those kinds of situations, and bosses higher and higher up started to put pressure on to get us some decent kit.

Last I heard they'd moved to MacBooks. That was after my time though.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: The core truth...

""...the idea that users could install safe and secure apps that Apple can't tax, block, or control is terrifying to them""

Yes this terrifies them. But to be fair... any marketplace is only ever going to be as secure as the curators can make it; which for PWAs is sweet bugger all.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Did anyone ....

""malicious compliance"

Can you even hear yourself?"

Oh, I believe it. No question.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Yes, you really are the product

"people who buy Apple don't change, they stay Apple."

You say this, but... I speak as a strong Apple fan for more than a decade. And I've seen how the iPhone experience is losing ground to the competition year by year. And how my current MacOS experience is degrading almost by the day; I'm seeing crashes, freezes and the beachball of death more now under Sonoma than I ever remember, with at least one full forced restart a week now. I'm getting sick of it.

Right now, the Apple experience is mediocre, while some of the new crop of Android phones combined with Windows are actually really, really good. And genuinely interesting.

And I'm more than trivially considering whether my next phone/laptop will be Apple or not.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

""We expect this change to affect a small number of users," the fruit cart wrote in an explanatory note"

Fruit cart <sniggers>

Apple Vision Pro units returned as folks just can't see themselves using it

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Call handling is actually the shittiest part of the AW 'experience' - the loudspeaker on the normal AW just isn't loud enough for any environment except quiet indoors. It's better on the Ultra, but still not a killer use case.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Killer App & Price

True - I misunderstood the original point.

Having said that, Apple has already demo'd Object Identification, and to a lesser extent has integrated it into iOS and iPadOS. It has also demonstrated some incredible object locking skills in VisionOS, where tiles apps and info windows are tethered to real-life objects. It's not a great leap of imagination to combine these two concepts; they can do it now, it just needs to be actually done.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Killer App & Price

"The trouble is that all of those "killer apps" are "twenty years away"."

Some are right here, right now. Watch Marques Brownlee's review of the Vision Pro, and look for the bit where he has a lifesize 3D rendering of a Formula 1 car in his office; with infographic callouts and floating blueprints. The Vision Pro is capable of a LOT of sci-fi things, today. The question is whether they can be translated into actual use cases rather than interesting curiosities.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"Seriously? $3,500 simply to mirror another display? There's one born every minute..."

If you believe, or even think that... you're a moron.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: The one feature

The problem here is that there are a number of glasses on the market already (eg Rokid Max, XREAL Air) that provide phone mirroring to a wearable display; working with Android and iOS. They typically cost less than $500 for a sub-200g headset with high quality OLED screens, maybe some speakers and... that's basically it.

So if, like me, all you would really use the Vision Pro for is watching movies, you've just overpaid by $3,000.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Fall detection and emergency notifications are a literal lifesaver. I know this from personal, recent and extremely mortality-confronting experience. Speaking for myself, from now on I will never be without my Apple Watch - or some other wearable that provides the same service with the same reliability.

Angry mob trashes and sets fire to Waymo self-driving car

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: There is a Report on Ecch (Twitter)

Wow. I find myself agreeing with Jake. Will wonders never cease ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

A whole raft of reasons. Apply a little common sense and you can think of them too.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a thing that doesn't know it exists.

My (German) car does exactly this from time to time. So far no harm no foul, but I am waiting for the time it does it when I have an impatient (German) car driver up my tailpipe and my car phantom brakes, then the guy behind thinks I brake checked him, then.... all hell will break loose.

Try explaining to some 'roided up roadrager trying to beat the shit out of you on a highway that it wasn't you that braked it, was your car. You'll be arguing it from a hospital bed. Or the morgue.

Dutch insurers demand nudes from breast cancer patients despite ban

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"Very annoying" - can't believe that's what they actually said.

Doing a bit of reverse-reverse-translation gets me to "heel vervelend"; which while literally meaning annoying, irritating, exasperating, generally has a somewhat more sympathetic interpretation in Dutch.

"I have a cold." "Ach, wat vervelend." Meaning: "Oh, that sucks/sorry to hear that."