Posts by VinceH

Re: You can't do it anyway.

If the Virgin provided router you're talking about is the SuperHub and it's in modem mode, and you use a decent router of your own, the option is there.

I didn't notice the problem for the obvious reason. I just wish my supposedly 'up to 152Mbs' connection showed me a bit more oomph than the 40-50Mbs I usually get¹ - consistently from speed test sites.

When the Virgin Media guy came out to do the installation and pointed out I wouldn't need my existing router, I said I'd be putting the SuperHub straight into modem mode so I would need my router. His reply was a small laugh and the comment "Each to their own" as if what I said was crazy talk.

_{1. To be fair to them, though, looking at the Superhub's status, I see it says the maximum speed is something around 160Mbs, so maybe I should replace the old/cheap cable running from it to my router before complaining. Just in case it's not up to the job.}

"You're assuming that this unsubstantiated rumour is true."

Quite. This is a rumour about the cancellation of a rumoured project. Think of it like a double-negative.

Re: Fingers crossed

"I have a personal dislike of buttoned collars with no tie, but hey I can live with that. But please please can we get back to some old-fashioned simple 'bad guys get butts kicked' stories, with a bit less of the brain-aching season-arcing uber-plots??!"

Yes to the old-fashioned simple 'bad guys get butts kicked' stories.

No to the less of the brain-aching season-arcing uber-plots.

I like story arcs - spoiled by B5, probably. (But I think some of the Doctor Who arcs could be greatly improved.)

Re: just 16 light years away

"they haven't got here yet"

How do you know? There are plenty of documentaries available that show they have already got here, and are living amongst us, perhaps studying us, but most likely getting ready to enslave us when the time is right.

Re: Mogpiss Monday Blues

"Except when it's a neighbour's cat and it's pissing all over my garden (and don't even get me started on cat's crapping everywhere)."

Just get yourself a pet snake.

Re: I'm a bit disappointed in the LG model

Based on either a word or a letter count, that's considerably more than half!

Re: can we stop saying glasshole yet

No.

NEXT!

Re: Being American..

"Bombing a tornado will only work if it is also a tornado full of sharks. One might even call it… a sharknado."

But what if those sharks have lasers?

Re: Really, El Reg?

"The data protection removal notice only shows up when you do a search for someone who has been "forgotten", such as Mario Costeja-González."

Well I haven't been "forgotten" by Google, and the warning shows up at the bottom of the page if I search for myself - and my name is suitably uncommon that I don't think there's someone else with the name who may have asked to be forgotten.

Re: AKA Apples WWDC of 2018

"Patents aside, there are more than a few devices hitting the market in anticipation of what (if anything) Apple might start selling. Some are clearly rushed out simply to say, 'We were first'. That might be the case but I suspect..."

...Apple let the rumours start so they could see how to do it by letting others do the hardest bit first.

I can understand the need to use text speak in some contexts - such as, funnily enough, text messages - even if people aren't actually paying for the individual text messages, so it doesn't matter if it's kept short enough for one message or allowed to spill over into more. They're using a phone, and it's not the best user interface for typing messages. So fair enough.

What bugs the hell out of me, though, is when people use text speak in other contexts - and I do see it in other forms of communication, such as emails typed on a 'proper' computer with a proper keyboard. And, yes, in some cases these are formal communications, which is at odds with what the article seems to be suggesting.

Re: My biggest reservation

Engage!

Hasta la vista, baby!

Don't panic!

Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

I'll be back. (This works because it's both an instruction to activate Google Glass, and an advisory to whoever you're with that you'll be distracted for a moment by what you're looking at on the display).

But, perhaps most suitable, and again serving as both an instruction to Glass and an advisory to people you're with: Smile, you're on candid camera!

Edit: Or a slightly misquoted Denis Leary songtitle: I'm a glasshole!

Re: The contemporary King James Bible

"A man can't even shit in peace nowadays without someone coming up with an idea for advertising, how much worse can it get."

It will be much worse when advertising is pumped directly into your brain, including while you sleep so even your dreams are filled with advertising.

Only then will the question "how much worse can it get?" be difficult to answer.

(But upvote, because the bible slant amused me)

Re: Hmm.

And here's one.

Re: lastname incorrect

I can see Alistair's mistake. It's obviously Spunkmonkey.

Re: FAO hackers - a simple request

I updated mine last year with a similar set of core skills, and I've also yet to be endorsed for any of them. :(

I note that one of mine is slightly more specialised than those you list above: Breaking wind in lifts.

Re: 10 things to get stolen during the festival season

Sod festivals, it's better to eff off for a walk somewhere remote to get away from all this guff... and other people. Far too many of those things at festivals.

Re: Thank goodness!!

Well, you had a ten minute window of opportunity to do so, apparently.

Re: Valley accent please

"It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and... oh, wait, no, it's just Facebook users discovering a world beyond the social network."

Re: Eyebrows that float

Quite. Hearing Penfold say "Crikey D.M." in any voice other than Terry Scott's will just be wrong.

Re: Don't Be Evil

"Though I do remember Google getting much praise over a no-nonsense search engine that works."

Worked. It has been 'improved' to the point that it's no longer as good as it once was.

Re: Orwell did not predict the power of trans-national corporations

"What George Orwell did not predict was the possibility that the power of trans-national corporations would become comparable to that of states, in some cases greater."

Quite. If a novel like 1984 has a valid place in an article about data collection, then so too do novels in which corporations have become all-powerful - and when you look at the likes of Google today, and it's not too much of a stretch to see a path leading from here to there. A long one, thankfully, which would most likely not be completed until I'm nothing more than ash, but the potential path is there.

In that future, Orwell got it half right - so dismissing the private corporations' collection of data as not being Orwellian is missing the point, or rather the possibilities.

No!

Boffin sarcasm is a highly dangerous weapon, and should only ever be used in anger.

Re: GPS?

"I am sufficiently tall that I have to scrunch down to see the road ahead. Even then, a quarter of the windscreen gives me an excellent view of the bonnet."

I'm not particularly tall, so it's nowhere near that much - but my 'phone' holder is mounted on the windscreen at the bottom, and the only thing it (and the phone, on those rare times I actually use it as a sat-nav^*) obscures is my view of the bonnet.

_{* The rest of the time, I don't consider it a phone holder, but a steak slice holder; I usually buy one on the way to the office for breakfast, and I put it above the vents and switch them on for the last couple of miles to keep it warm. The holder is low enough that it holds the steak slice in place.}

Re: "Zoom in just there..."

Or better still, we can hypothesis.

Re: @Sureo

Quite. Although I haven't come that close to falling for a phishing scam, I have had to read the odd few a second time before deleting because of just how good they were - instead of "Phish - delete" they were more "Phish - del...oh, hang on... no, I was right first time - delete."

I can therefore easily imagine some otherwise intelligent people being fooled.

Re: Transcript

Indeed. I didn't see much in that conversation that made it look significantly better than something I wrote at a YTS place over 30 years ago, other than benefiting from greater storage (and processor grunt) to provide a much bigger range of data.

I despair at the judges.

Edit: I've just spotted that the example transcript was from just after one of the previous attempts, when it achieved just under 30% - so it may have improved since then. But I still despair at the judges in that attempt.

Re: Not surprising

"Its not surprising as iOS has the most mobile traffic on the web with people who actually self-abuse their devices."

Its not surprising as iOS has the most mobile traffic on the web with people who actually self-abuse using their devices.

You know that fix you fixed? I fixed it.

Re: Software Defined Wanking

"has a decent API and a USB connector."

Wireless networking, so it['s users bits] can be a part of the Internet of, ahem, Things.

Re: I am not in the habit.......

It's not an overbearing obsession with hygiene, though - just with other people's hygiene. :)

Re: So what happens...

Or when you get the inevitable ransomware.

"We have disabled the stop button and locked the doors. You will be driven over the cliff you see ahead of you unless you transfer $$$ in the next five minutes."

Re: "the village's coat of arms bears the Star of David"

I thought it was a smartphone cover.

Re: Perhaps more publicity needed?

"When I was getting fed up with the messages I searched to see if there was a "TPS" style thing for spam text and I believe the O2 web site told me to forward the spam to this number."

Similar here, but on Vodafone. The number I use is 87726, though - but I assume it still ends up at the same destination.

"My only complain is that it's still easier to delete than forward the spam and then the number - I'd love an Android SMS app that allows you to "submit as spam" with one action."

Agreed.

Re: Word of the wise

"The kinds of people that would eventually progress to using FB were never the kinds of Friends I wanted to have.."

I don't know about you, but I made my first friends at school a long time before I had any idea that the future would bring an internet, websites, and social media.

Re: The location of the selfies ...

"That would be way more cool if the photos were placed by their actual locations."

The problem is that if you insist on the photos being used in the mosaic based on where they were taken, and you want a higher resolution, you're going to have a little trouble getting enough pictures for some areas - the poles, deserts and oceans spring to mind.

Re: Stupid bureaucrats

"I guess the first bit is to find ~40 interested people..."

My tenner is ready and waiting.