* Posts by David 132

3817 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Mar 2010

Lash#Cat9: A radical new Linux UI for keyboard warriors

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: That seems like a strange response to me

"what I type is what I want"

Ah yes. Don't get me started on Google and its helpful "you typed X but we think you meant to type Y, so here's the search results for Y".

No, you bloody idiot savant website, I typed X so I meant to search for X! Aaaargh!

Firefox points the way to eradicating one of the rudest words online: PDF

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: I don't mind PDFs

> Die PDF, Die.

Obligatory Simpsons…

“Why no, it’s German! It says ‘The PDF, The’!”

“Oh, well that settles it. No-one who speaks German could be a bad man…”

Most Metaverse business projects will be dead by 2025

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I tried VR once…

…and I woke up with “U=BTL” burned into my arm.

Hah. I challenge you to get THAT reference, fellow pop culture nerds… and no googling, that’d be cheating.

Shareholders slam Zuckerberg's 'terrifying' $100b+ Metaverse experiment

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Re: "Corporate name optimization"

Well so you say, and it seems like a handy optimization now, being able to store the company name in half as many bytes, but we'll have cause to regret it in about 50 years' time...

(recovering Y2K engineer)

The only Windows 10 updates for the year are coming. Spoiler alert: It's just security

David 132 Silver badge

Re: "don't expect a ton of effort into splashy bells and whistles."

It could be argued that the most pleasant time to use a Microsoft OS is at this phase of its lifecycle, when the focus of their toddlers-on-amphetamines designers has shifted to the next new shiny thing, and the OS is just getting security updates as it coasts towards enforced EOL.

Health insurer's infosec incident diagnosis goes from 'take a chill pill' to emergency ward

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"Medibank has been contacted by a criminal claiming to have stolen 200GB of data"

See, this is why all PII on corporate systems should be stored in the form of 8K video recordings of someone vvveeeerrryyy ssllloowwwlllyy reading out the information.

That way, cybercrims could grab 200GB of data and that would be, like, 1 person's personal information. At most.

Children should have separate sections in social media sites, says UK coroner

David 132 Silver badge

Re: “nudge them towards different content”

With lashings of ginger beer!

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Re: Age verification is not viable

I always liked the Leisure Suit Larry approach to age verification. Questions that only an adult would (probably) have the knowledge to answer.

"Bourbon Street is in: d) New Orleans, Lousiana"

"Which is not a cheese? c) Riesling"

...and so on.

Of course, this wouldn't work now that Google is a thing that even babes in arms can use.

Perhaps the solution to all of this is just to ban kids from search engines?

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: “nudge them towards different content”

> prevent under 18s accessing unsuitable material (like the Java Programming Manual)

Not sure if that specific example makes your point, or undermines it. I'm not sure adults should go anywhere near Java, never mind children. If I found my (hypothetical) kid reading material about Java I'd a) wonder where I had gone wrong as a parent, and b) give the kid something less likely to corrupt and befoul an innocent mind. Like The Anarchist's Cookbook, or Fritz the Cat.

"Java - Just Say No"

Cops swoop after crooks use wireless keyfob hack to steal cars

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Re: motors from two French automakers

> so technically everything from Fiats and Dodges to Maseratis are Dutch cars now :)

I knew that the new ownership had taken effect because shortly afterwards, my Fiat’s catalytic converter got clogged.

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: That'll be Citroen/Peugot and Renault/Nissan then?

I’d assumed Avions Voisin and Facel.

Mmm. Facel Vega. Yummy.

Loathsome eighties ladder-climber levelled by a custom DOS prompt

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>It is a distorted quote

It doesn't matter how often you, or others, debunk it. Alas, it's now passed into the pool of "famous quotes that everyone knows", at which point whether it's accurate/correct/fair is entirely moot.

Along with "Al Gore invented the Internet" and "Microsoft said Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows". Both incorrect, or at least out of context, but will be endlessly brought up anyway by people who should know better.

Anyone got any others?

SpaceX reportedly fed up with providing free Starlink to Ukraine

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Re: Right, another Russian apologist trying to move the goalposts

Hear, hear. Well said.

David 132 Silver badge

>And let’s hope that the leaders in the west will spend money on rebuilding Russia and it’s economy, rather than focussing on punitive reprisals, if that day comes.

I believe the Allied forces learned that lesson the hard way after the experiences of the Great War and the Second World War. After the first, punitive reparation terms were forced on Germany to make the country pay for its aggression. Result? A festering sense of grievance that was seized on and manipulated by a certain short Austrian painter who twisted it into a narrative of "the whole world is against us, it's so unfair".

After the latter conflict, wiser heads realized the truth of "vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" and the emphasis was on rebuilding and getting the country back to a functioning state as quickly as possible - Marshall Plans, Berlin airlifts and so on (and by the way, for a lovely riff on this concept, do watch the 1959 Peter Sellers film "The Mouse that Roared" - "there is no more profitable undertaking for any country in the world... than to declare war on the United States and to be defeated"). The result that time was a Germany that whilst still repentant for the enormity of what it had caused, was grateful to get a second chance to join the ranks of civilized nations.

Not, by the way, that any of this is relevant to the current conflict. Despite the hysterical paranoid dribblings of Putin, Prigozhin and his cronies, I don't for one instant think that anyone supporting Ukraine wants to attack, much less destroy, Russia.

After all, Putin is doing a wonderful job of that all on his own.

Aerobot designed for hell-world Venus first braves something worse: Nevada

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Re: earthquakes

Venusquakes. She also dukenukems and occasionally fortnites, too.

Senior engineer reported to management for failing to fix a stapler

David 132 Silver badge

Re: But I DO want to know!

One has to hope that what happened next involved quicklime, a roll of carpet and a shovel. But perhaps I've been reading BOFH for too long.

Want to crawl inside a nuke plant swinging a hammer? No? Toshiba's inspection bots will do it instead

David 132 Silver badge
Mushroom

All I can think of is this scene from Chernobyl. Let's hope this one is rated for more than 2000 Roentgen.

Canonical displays controversial 'ad' in shell update prog

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Re: You say that, but

>You may think it's making you adverse to the brand

Well, I've heard that many times, but I don't think it's universal. In my own case, I have had a personal boycott of Mazda cars ever since they ran a print ad campaign back in the late 80s that dissed other manufacturers (including Volvo, my preferred brand at the time). I thought then that it was nasty and below-the-belt of them, and that attitude has stuck with me for nigh on 40 years now. Petty? Weird of me? Yeah probably, but my point rests, which is that annoying adverts aren't always simply forgotten leaving only "good brand awareness".

Not just Mazda, either; there's a whole list of brands who are very definitely and consciously on my never-buy list, simply for pissing me off with their adverts over the years.

Microsoft leaves the Office, rebrands everything as 365

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To quote Steve Martin, "The new phonebook's here! The new phonebook's here!"

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Re: Oooh, nice album cover!

Ah, I remember that episode. It wasn’t a bad one overall.

“Look, they wrote his name on the box! Our Rob or Ross!”

Microsoft and Meta promise facehugger PCs piping cloud desktops into VR headsets

David 132 Silver badge

Re: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

"Dances With Smurfs" is how I cannot avoid thinking of that film now... namaste to whichever anonymous Internet wit came up with that one.

David 132 Silver badge

I'm sure there were whole clouds of flies in that room, eagerly buzzing around the steaming piles of bullshit being generated.

California legalizes digital license plates for all vehicles

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Re: Why?

It's the modern implementation of the James Bond rotating-numberplate thing that every single driver everywhere has, at some point, fantasized about having.

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: "can reportedly function in extreme temperatures"

Your metal plate is clearly unfit for purpose and inadequate; for the very simple reason that someone can't charge you $20+ per month for it.

You're just not thinking in a 21st-century mindset.

This maglev turntable costs more than an average luxury electric car

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: Hah. but...

I was about to ask "by Judith Hann?" and then realized that era was closer to 30-40 years ago.

Damn, I hate getting old.

David 132 Silver badge

Re: How about...

NURSE! He's babbling again! Bring the happy juice!

But seriously. Spin this maglev turntable too fast and it, too, might just take off.

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: Egoteric?

No, no, it's not your outdated display (PS: you can now get screens in colour! and the latest ones eschew glass vacuum flasks/electron beams altogether and use LCDs... 'tes witchcraft, I tell you...). The S definitely resembles a G. Egoteric. That is somehow very, very apposite.

Oracle VirtualBox 7.0 is here – just watch out for the proprietary Extension Pack

David 132 Silver badge

Re: USB

Yeah now that you mention it, I think it's USB2 in the basic product, and the extension pack adds USB 3...? Can't be bothered to check though, sorry. Currently distracted by having to deal with a car battery that's deader than corduroy flares.

David 132 Silver badge

Re: Did they break sound and/or microphone support again?

IIRC you get basic USB 1.0 support without the extension pack - so, transfer rates roughly on a par with a Pace Linnet 1200/75 modem, and support for HID-class mouse/keyboard peripherals at least.

Rivian recalls nearly every vehicle it has sold

David 132 Silver badge

Re: Ford (Found On Roadside Dead)

I had an Escape once as a Hertz rental. This was about 8 years ago, so it would have been a 2013-ish vehicle I guess.

My goodness, it was dreadful. The plastic in the interior was of Fisher-Price quality - actually, that's not true, because F-P wouldn't use such scratchy plastics with sharp unbevelled edges - and uniformly grey. The whole car was "meh" in automotive four-wheel drive form.

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: Ford

"Quality IS Job 1 for us. Why, every single one of these vehicles is a quality Escape..."

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Re: Would it not be great ...

"NOTICE: The FSSA (Federal Software Safety Association) is hereby mandating a recall of every single copy of Microsoft Windows 8, 10 and 11 because extensive user testing in the field has shown a slight risk of bugs. OwnersLeasors will be notified by post beginning on December 10th to bring the software back to their reseller for installation of a giant yellow DO NOT USE OFFROAD, ONROAD, IN OFFICE, AT HOME, WHILE PREGNANT, UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL, WHILE SOBER, OR WHILE ALIVE warning label. In the meantime, please avoid using this software as much as possible."

iPhone 14 car crash detection triggered by roller coasters

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Re: Rollercoasters are a bit niche

I can't wait for the ski season to kick in

Damn you. As soon as I read your comment, the classic-era "Ski Sunday" theme (official name "Pop Looks Bach" in case you're wondering, trivia fans) started playing in my head, and now it won't stop...

More than 4 in 10 PCs still can't upgrade to Windows 11

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Re: Windows - why is it always crap++

And, has been expressed here many times, those of us who (like to think that we...) are more tech-savvy, disable all the telemetry and usage feedback at the very first opportunity, because we resent being spied on. So the only feedback the vendors see is from the "average" users, including those who struggle to operate a computer without accidentally stuffing the mouse up their nostrils.

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: Windows - why is it always crap++

>The history of evolution suggests that Microsoft is no longer a "farmer" and has now become a "hunter-gatherer" - we're all just Microsoft's lunch these days.

Honestly, I think a large part of the industry - and not just Microsoft - has moved on from "hunter gatherer" to "rent seeker". Want to use your PC? Pay us daily with your privacy, telemetry data, eyeballs-on-adverts...

The icon reflects my attitude to this trend. Not to your comment, which was coherent, literate and entirely reasonable :)

He's only gone and done it. Ex-Register vulture elected to board of .uk registry

David 132 Silver badge

Re: Chew gum and kick ass?

Uninteresting trivia fact of the day… I used to live 3 doors down from “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, the star of that film, and my wife as a child went to school with his kids.

That’s about as close as I get to Hollywood glamour. Touching the hems of the stars’ cloaks as they breeze past…

Block this: Using satellites to plaster ads over our skies could work, say boffins

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Re: Coming soon from an advertiser near you, or maybe not near you...

Well if we're doing Futurama references, an arguably more relevant one would be

...TOP QUALITY EXERCYCLE FOR SALE...

And look over there! Bigfoot!

David 132 Silver badge
Windows

Oh I don't know. Depends how big the 5318008 is. Or are.

USB-C iPhone, anyone? EU finalizes charging standard rule

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: I look forward to the "UK only" versions

Yes, because "taking back control" == "we are now forced to do everything totally differently from the rest of the world, regardless of whether it makes political or economic sense".

Obviously it couldn't mean "we now get to choose the best solution, independent of pressure from the EU".

Grow up, get over it.

David 132 Silver badge
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Re: Lint Magnet

Can't say I've noticed that, but a far bigger problem with Lightning is the arcing on connect/disconnect that slowly ablates the #4 gold-finger contact on the cable, as shown here.

Since I became aware of the root cause, and started forcing myself to connect the Lightning end of the cable first and then the USB-A end of the cable second, thus preventing arcing, I've found my lightning cables last so much longer.

As USB-C doesn't seem to have an analogous issue, the change can't come too soon for me.

Google kills off Stadia

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Re: The only Google services you should rely on

To paraphrase an old XKCD comic, the only core Google product that they really care about is their 8.8.8.8 DNS server.

HDD Clicker gizmo makes flash sound like spinning rust

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Re: Voyage (back to my childhood) home

You can’t really be Team ZX81. You used lower-case letters.

Darth Vader voice actor James Earl Jones allows AI to take over the role

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Re: saying ...

I don't think Darth Vader ever had to resort to foul language.

Serious surfer? How to browse like a pro on Firefox

David 132 Silver badge

Re: Tablet users need not apply

To be fair to Mozilla, they have little scope for innovation on the ios platform. Their hands are somewhat tied by Apple’s restrictions.

David 132 Silver badge

Re: Palemoon

Your comments on this page have been technical, thoughtful, well-argued and courteous.

So of course, this place being what it is, some little troll has downvoted you each time. Have an upvote from me to compensate, and thank you.

A match made in heaven: systemd comes to Windows Subsystem for Linux

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Re: OMFG

Ob Blackadder:

"But my lord, they're coming from the hills."

"Run away from the hills! If you see the hills, run the other way!"

You've heard of the cost-of-living crisis, now get ready for the cost-of-working crisis

David 132 Silver badge

Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work

As long as his surname wasn't Trotter.

Lovely jubbly.

US accident investigators want alcohol breathalyzers in all new vehicles

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To a certain kind of mind - mostly though not exclusively found in government bureaucracies - the fact that anyone can jump in a personal car at any time and go wherever they want is completely intolerable. People should stay where the system wants them to be, you see. Far neater.