Re: “nudge them towards different content”
With lashings of ginger beer!
Posts by David 132
3861 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Mar 2010
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Children should have separate sections in social media sites, says UK coroner
Tuesday 18th October 2022 18:01 GMT 
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?
Tuesday 18th October 2022 17:54 GMT
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
Loathsome eighties ladder-climber levelled by a custom DOS prompt
Monday 17th October 2022 18:20 GMT
>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
Saturday 15th October 2022 01:14 GMT
>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
Senior engineer reported to management for failing to fix a stapler
Want to crawl inside a nuke plant swinging a hammer? No? Toshiba's inspection bots will do it instead
Thursday 13th October 2022 21:55 GMT 
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
Thursday 13th October 2022 19:57 GMT
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
Microsoft and Meta promise facehugger PCs piping cloud desktops into VR headsets
California legalizes digital license plates for all vehicles
This maglev turntable costs more than an average luxury electric car
Oracle VirtualBox 7.0 is here – just watch out for the proprietary Extension Pack
Rivian recalls nearly every vehicle it has sold
Monday 10th October 2022 17:56 GMT
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.
Monday 10th October 2022 17:23 GMT
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
Monday 10th October 2022 17:32 GMT
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
Monday 10th October 2022 16:53 GMT
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.
Monday 10th October 2022 16:50 GMT
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
Friday 7th October 2022 16:31 GMT
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
USB-C iPhone, anyone? EU finalizes charging standard rule
Tuesday 4th October 2022 20:18 GMT
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.
Tuesday 4th October 2022 20:13 GMT
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
HDD Clicker gizmo makes flash sound like spinning rust
Darth Vader voice actor James Earl Jones allows AI to take over the role
Serious surfer? How to browse like a pro on Firefox
A match made in heaven: systemd comes to Windows Subsystem for Linux
You've heard of the cost-of-living crisis, now get ready for the cost-of-working crisis
US accident investigators want alcohol breathalyzers in all new vehicles
Tesla Megapack battery ignites at substation after less than 6 months
Wednesday 21st September 2022 17:46 GMT
We are led by fools that still believe in the tooth ferry
Well, I certainly do. Being woken at 3AM by a 380' long CalMac vessel inches from my face as it tried to get under my pillow looking for milk teeth, its bow doors opening and closing hungrily as its anchor chains rattled, had a deep and formative effect on me as a child, I can tell you. "Get back to Ullapool!! There's no teeth for you here!!", I screamed at it in childish terror. It executed a clumsy turn, knocking my He-Man figures off my bedside table, and steamed off into the night leaving a trail of bunker oil on the bedroom carpet.
Wednesday 21st September 2022 16:48 GMT
Well, given that Lithium is a mood stabilizer, I'm sure the fire crews and those downwind of the fire felt reeeeeeeaaallly good about events and were totally chill about the whole thing...
Firefox 105 is here, and it's faster and more memory-frugal
Malwarebytes blocks Google, YouTube as malware
Microsoft debuts Windows 11 2022 Update – now with features added monthly
Wednesday 21st September 2022 03:31 GMT
Re: New features every month?
I read the whole article and all I could think, in the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android, was: "sounds ghastly".
Hey Microsoft. Instead of faffing around trying to figure out when a user's electricity is carbon-free, vegan, macrobiotic and gender-neutral, how about you - and I know this sounds crazy! - allow users to decide for themselves when to install updates? Sounds revolutionary, doesn't it? Go on. It'll be super difficult to implement but I know you can do it...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
