* Posts by Lord Elpuss

2280 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Aug 2009

Drivers: We'll take that plain dumb car over a flashy data-spilling internet one, thanks

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "only five percent believe this surveillance should be unrestricted"

Downvoted by my wife, I see :) :)

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Perhaps it's time for vehicle makers to take note.

"A survey of randoms saying they don't like something is worth precisely fuck all."

Yes and no. A recent petition proposing that Paula Vennells be quite rightly stripped of her CBE got more than a million responses and was likely instrumental in her making the decision to jump before she was pushed and hand it back; as well as showing various up-for-reelection politicians that the Post Office scandal might actually be worth spending some time and energy on instead of ignoring.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "I hate that I don't own Microsoft Office or Photoshop. "

"At least with an office subscription I am not pegged to a single device."

True, but the user-friendly solution is to allow multi-device licenses on the standalone product, not to enforce a subscription in order to get that feature.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "only five percent believe this surveillance should be unrestricted"

I had a conversation with her indoors about this the other day. Her view: if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear; if absolute surveillance saves 1 girl from getting raped, it's worth it.

As I couldn't find the words to express how stupid I found that statement, and I quite fancied still being married, I chose to just stay quiet. When people actually believe that, there's no convincing them.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "I hate that I don't own Microsoft Office or Photoshop. "

"There are alternative, you know: LibreOffice and Gimp for starters."

For my needs, LibreOffice and Gimp are alternatives in the same way that rollerskates are an alternative to a car.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: ransomware

GDPR doesn't mean "can't" - it means "shouldn't".

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Not really the primary focus of this article, but subscriptions are the bane of my existence. I hate that I don't own Microsoft Office or Photoshop. I detest that several features on my car either cost a small fortune to 'buy' or an even larger fortune (spread out over time) to 'rent'. I loathe that my house security system is advertised as having features x, y, and z, but when bought and installed, it turns out to only actually have x; the other features being tied to a mandatory subscription. I baulk at the idea that actually "owning" a house these days requires 2 substantial incomes and a mountain of savings, otherwise the rental market is the only way to go.

The only subscription I don't mind, ironically, is HP's Instant Ink. I print about 5 pages a month, so their 'free 15 pages a month for life' tier gives me all I will likely ever need. Right up until they remotely brick my printer with an 'upgrade' in order to get me off this and onto a paid tier.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Agree on CarPlay. If you live in the connected world then sooner or later you'll need to share some data with a third party; trick is to choose ONE vendor that you more or less trust, and let them manage the rest. That's why I use 'Login with Apple' when possible on websites as well.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: ransomware

"people will not tolerate or accept it"

Yes they will. It's the drip drip drip of what's 'tolerable' or 'acceptable' - just like having cameras and microphones throughout your house and in your pocket was unacceptable and intolerable 2 decades ago, yet now more than 400 million people VOLUNTARILY do it (source: www.statista.com).

It's a combination of obfuscating the purpose of these devices, and wearing the consumer down such that it seems 'normal' to just allow it.

Apple's easiest to replace battery is in... an iMac

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Correct. Some Apple products are hideously overpriced (Mac Pro wheels, FineWoven “premium” cases, many Apple Watch straps) but USB-C chargers are priced in line with other equivalent quality adapters from other manufacturers.

PS the most powerful Apple USB-C adapter is 140W for $99/€99. Equivalent adapters from Belkin, Mophie, UGreen and Anker all (non-)coincidentally also cost $99/€99.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

I see your AirTag battery removal and raise you the CR2032 in the original AppleTV remote.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"We shudder to think how much Apple would charge for such components; this is the company that asks £69 / €85.00 / $59 for a USB-C power adaptor."

A standard Apple USB-C power adaptor costs from £19.

I know el Reg's Apple hatred runs wide and deep, but come on; this is pathetic.

Europe classifies three adult sites as worthy of its toughest internet regulations

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"Thierry Breton's canned quote commenting on the fresh VLOP designations states "I have been very clear...""

Anybody else heartily sick of hearing the phrase "I have been very clear" by now? Makes me want to punch somebody. Usually a political somebody.

Apple pops blue bubbles of Beeper Mini's iMessage service again

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"If you don't have data, you're not sending ANYTHING these days."

Whilst you're technically correct in that an SMS is sent as 0s and 1s, just like voice is also sent as 0s and 1s over a digital cellular network, it's not considered 'data' from a billing or usage perspective. As others have pointed out, it uses spare space in the cellular communications channel, and is extremely limited in capacity compared to "actual" data. It was never intended for rich media.

You can send SMS anywhere you can make a voice call, even if your 4/5G and WiFi has dropped.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Blue bubbles?

Forced?!?? ODFO.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"Whether reverse engineering is legal or not has no impact on whether Apple is allowed to take measures to restrict people trying to get access to the iMessage network without having an Apple device."

Exactly what I said.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

I strongly suspect that's Beeper's main motivator here. To leverage a buyout.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Blue bubbles?

It's about rich text messages, with the ability to send and receive audio, video and photos substantially larger than the SMS rich text protocol allows.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Also an anti-SPAM measure

It's spam. Not SPAM.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

The "anticompetitive" argument isn't even an argument; I don't understand why it's being presented as a credible position. Apple are under no obligation to make, or keep, their proprietary messaging service accessible to a third party. That's it. End of argument.

The question of whether reverse engineering is legal is a different argument but ultimately irrelevant here aside from potentially giving Apple grounds to legally require Beeper to cease and desist.

Manchester's finest drowning in paperwork as Freedom of Information requests pile up

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Expect an answer in three to five working years

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

""Manchester" sets a very low bar"

Ahh the Scouser speaks

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

True. To paraphrase Churchill: GMP is the worst police force in the UK. Apart from the others.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"Manchester's Finest*"

* Definition of 'Finest' may vary

Last Vega rocket launch delayed over fuel tank vanishing act

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Tell me you're a third-rate Sunday-League space agency without telling me.

Boffins fool AI chatbot into revealing harmful content – with 98 percent success rate

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: "Cleansed rather than hidden"

"Only small children are truly free of toxic content"

You've obviously never met a small child.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"They warn that the AI community should be cautious when considering whether to open source LLMs, and suggest the best solution is to ensure that toxic content is cleansed, rather than hidden."

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

When it comes to information, the solution isn't 'cleansing'. It almost never is. Because then the system becomes simply an extension of biases inherent in the 'cleanser'; for example:

REMOVE_ALL FROM $data WHERE query="What is a Woman" AND response=CONTAINS("biological female")

Android iMessage app Beeper releases working update of blue-bubbled tool

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Spam is the biggest reason

I see you've been downvoted by 2 spammers...

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

@Charlie Clark

”What is competitive about Apple's messaging app? In fact, this is anti-competitive behaviour.“

The iMessage protocol is Apple’s IP; no company has an intrinsic right to use it. Protecting your IP and your competitive differentiation is not anti-competitive; in fact, if there are security implications then Apple are pretty much obliged to close the loophole.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"US senator Elizabeth Warren weighed in on the debate and argued: "Green bubble texts are less secure. So why would Apple block a new app allowing Android users to chat with iPhone users on iMessage?"

You know full well why; competitive differentiation.

The only thing worse than a rich, greedy, power hungry, soundbite-addicted tech corporation is a rich, greedy, power hungry, soundbite-addicted senator.

The 15-inch MacBook Air just nails it

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"I don't want to be patronising..."

Ah well. It must come naturally.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Wow. Way to be patronising. Tons of people have posted this, it's generally (and widely) known, so there's nothing new in your post except the attitude.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

I didn't know this (Framework) existed. Looks awesome. Thanks for the link!

Doom turns 30, so its creators celebrate seminal first-person shooter’s contribution to IT careers

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Doom and Duke Nukem 3D

Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride

#memories

Polish train maker denies claims its software bricked rolling stock maintained by competitor

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Bleep -- bleep THIS VEHICLE IS REVERSING -- bleep -- bleep

What?

Swedish Tesla strike goes international as Norwegian and Danish unions join in

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: I'm actually on Musk's side on this

"Say something that disparages socialism and watch the downvotes then."

Exactly that. And as if to prove the point, you already have 3 :D :D :D

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: I'm actually on Musk's side on this

I really don't get why you're getting so many downvotes (apart from this being the Reg, hugely left-leaning, and passionate Musk-haters almost to a man/woman/non-binary entity).

As I understand this case, it hinges on protection racket-esque practices by the unions; "nice company you've got there, would be a shame if something happened to it; join us and you won't have any problems". That's unacceptable, regardless of the wider context. I'm all for legal protections to ensure that a union CAN be formed IF the employees of the ACTUAL COMPANY actually WANT it. I'm against having this 'choice' imposed upon them whether they like it or not.

And you're correct that unions often claim to speak on behalf of employees who aren't members, weren't consulted, do not align with their ideology, and do not want whatever they say they're fighting for. Throughout the years I have worked for several large corporations, and as night follows day, come salary raise time the union was pushing for a "fair and equitable distribution for all" (i.e. 'everybody gets 2%') against the company policy of a greater share of the rewards but only to high performers. As a high performer, the unions did not speak for me; yet they invariably claimed to do so.

HP TV ads claim its printers are 'made to be less hated'

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Missed the target

Trouble is: you'd get one of these mythical beasts then within 6 months the vendor would be looking for additional revenue streams to squeeze out of you.

As long as Wall Street is driving quarterly numbers, you'll never be able to just buy a product and have it work forever. The machine needs feeding.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: HP Support

Seems unlikely.

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

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Amazon

Amazon Echo?

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

I don't know; I'm in the UK.

Microsoft's code name for 64-bit Windows was also a dig at rival Sun

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Some of the posts on the linked Sun acquisition article did not age well. At. All.

Branson's wallet snaps shut for Virgin Galactic

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

"Many of the early passengers have been booked for years and have paid at least some or all of the price up front. You can't change the prices for them. "

Sure you can. A lot of companies have been doing that recently.

NASA engineers got their parachute wires crossed for OSIRIS-REx mission

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: So easy to do...

In a previous life I worked in a crew setting up electrically triggered fireworks for a local council display. About 100k's worth of fireworks, so not small but luckily not nuclear either.

The (council-owned, and probably custom-made by the local 6th form college) master firing box had about 100 banana plugs, two buttons and a badly positioned label saying Master Sequence Start, which sounded to us like they started the programmed timing sequence. We figured both buttons needed to be pressed together to act as a safety.

We found out during the pre-test that the two buttons did very different things. One was actually labelled Master Sequence, and it started the built-in sequence to set the connected fireworks off in the programmed order and timing.

The second button was labelled Start, and it fired a signal down all wires simultaneously. You used this when you had no directly connected fireworks, but were using multiple daisychained slave boxes each with their own programmed sequence and the fireworks connected to them . The Start signal just meant that they all started their sequences at the same time.

If we hadn't run the pre-test and had just pressed (what looked to be called) Master Sequence Start, we would have set off all the fireworks simultaneously; which would have been a hell of a bang.

Lessons were learned on that day.

YouTuber who crashed plane for sponsorship dollars earns 6 months behind bars

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: A better sentence

Wait... what's he going to do with the piss of another prisoner?

AI won't take your job, might shrink your wages, European Central Bank reckons

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Wishful thinking

This is - absolutely - the #1 short-term risk of AI on jobs.

It's not what it can do. It's what the VPs and SVPs "think" it can do.

Half a kilo of cosmic nuclear fuel reignites NASA's deep space dreams

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

I noticed that too; somebody out there is pretty upset. And pathetic.

Lord Elpuss Silver badge

Re: Come get some ...

Those Alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride...