* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

IBM bid to unmask age discrimination whistleblower goes down in flames

Mark 85

Add to that senior and upper middle manglement.

They did it! US House reps pulled their finger out, voted to restore net neutrality in America!

Mark 85

Re: Why?

If such legislation had a chance of passing, both sides would have gotten together and hammered out a carefully thought out bill.

Nor in this current political environment. It's so toxic and elected ones are being so hardnosed on both sides, I'm not sure what it will take to get the Congress to compromise and follow the will of the people and what's best for the country (the people, not the corporates).

I'll add, part of the problem is the voters. They (we?)) have become more narrow and more politicized also. FB, et al, plays a big part as does the mainstream media with "10 second sound bites" (a long running problem). Thoughtful and meaningful discussion has deteriorating into urinating contests. I always considered myself to be an "independent" just because in the past both sides had good and bad. Anymore, both sides are toxic with the shouty ones getting the attention.

Mark 85

Re: Enough, Kieran...

The only problem is the "wild cards". If not given the nod during the run ups, some will split off from the Dems, run as independents and syphon off votes. Seems to be usually what happens... unity in politics only goes so far and then egos take over.

Mark 85

Re: I like the boulder analogy...

Washington DC was originally mostly swamp land. Maybe we don't need to drain but re-flood it back to a swamp as nature intended?

Do you want salt with that? Salesforce phallus 'shopped out' of Oracle Park calendar cover

Mark 85
Coat

Re: Why so coy?..

So shaking "The Dildo" isn't a good idea? Who would have thought....? I'll get my coat.

Probably should have used the Paris icon, but perhaps that would too much innuendo.

Facebook acknowledges asking you to invite your dead pals to parties is 'painful', plans to fix it

Mark 85

FB is like "Hotel California" even if you're dead. Accounts are never deleted, the data slurp tracks you forever. Not logging or posting is somehow a foreign idea to them because "everyone uses Facebook all the time".

Mark 85

Re: Obviously they need EVEN MORE DATA

Well, if they know all this, perhaps they can target "memorial flower arrangement" ads, or "grief counseling" for their customers to pitch ads.

Mark 85

Adding to the Ts&Cs they are...

Well, that solves the problem because everyone reads and understands the Ts&Cs, right? I daresay that 99.999% of the users don't understand or even care that they are the product. They just want cat videos and to know what their friends are babbling about and what they had for lunch.

Telly production biz films maternity clinic, doesn't tell patients, gets fined £120,000

Mark 85

Re: Who in the hospital ...

Not just the hospital but who at TVP? I can accept that perhaps this might (with a very large grain of sand) be something worth doing but it really does smell like a "shock reality" thing searching for ratings and viewers than an informational documentary. But profit and competition for ratings rule in TVland. The fine is a pittance and not enough.

Here's what Lynch, Hussain and HPE are saying about Autonomy pre-buyout due diligence

Mark 85

The two-year old is a good analogy in that about 3 weeks after getting the toy, it's tossed into the toy box when they see and new and shinier toy.

SEC says no to Amazon bid to stop shareholders voting on use of facial recognition system

Mark 85

Re: Voting in the corporate world.

I asked my broker/advisor that one some time ago.. it's either because they think the stock is going to go up and make them a fortune or lose money for tax purposes.

Mark 85

Voting in the corporate world.

The way corporations set up their stock for voting purposes makes all this legal action probably moot. Often the board has stock that entitles them to say 5 votes or more for every share. What's sold on the market has only one vote. It'll be interesting to watch how this plays our. Popcorn anyone?

Apple disables iPad for 48 years after toddler runs amok

Mark 85

Re: But we all have something to learn from this..

Dont buy Apple?

Don't have kids?

Is that a multiple choice or do both apply?

It's raining patches, Hallelujah! Microsoft and Adobe put out their latest major fixes

Mark 85

So when will MS start targeting Win7 users again with a hidden "upgrade"? Enquiring minds and all that.....

Free online tax filing? Yeah, that'll soon be illegal thanks to rare US Congressional unity

Mark 85

Re: ironically titled Taxpayer First Act

Not designed to fool just voters who have no say in these acts but also the CongressCritters who never read or understand what they're voting on.

Maybe the original title was Do it to the Taxpayer Frist Act?

Mark 85

Re: Et tu, Brute?

He's good in some areas but in this case no one seems to have a clue why he went for this. Unless the committee got to rewrote it and out voted him. But then...it's Congress. Who knows who has something on someone.

Mark 85

Re: If ever...

Two words... politics, lobbying.

Mark 85

Re: America

Well, we do have the best government money can buy. Which this article proves again.

Mark 85

Re: Oh, it's a new tax year here in the UK

Curiouis here. How does that work if you're self-employed? Or a contracted employee? Due to the complexity of tax system and/or the time it would take me to fill out all the forms, I currently us an accountant. Very reasonable and very thorough. I used him and one of the big two some years ago, and he came up with the lower tax due to the other just being "one size fits all" type of place.

Mark 85

Re: If ever...

You can still do the paperwork yourself and then put everything in an envelope and mail it in (along with a check). Most people like or want the speed of electronic filing as they get their refund quicker (or so they believe). OTOH, I need to use an accountant due to the complexity.

Mark 85

Re: Minor correction

You got it wrong. It's the Infernal Revenue Service".

Shock revelation as massive American presidential election hack confirmed

Mark 85

Re: LBJ would be proud

In Chicago, you don't need to go that trouble as apparently the dead at times in the past, rose up from their graves on election day to cast their votes.

Yahoo! tries! again! with! 3 billion! email! account! theft! payout!

Mark 85

The catch will be proving that one had a Yahoo email account. I know a lot of folks including myself that had one just using on websites, a throw away account. Others used them and after things went to hell where their account has it's password changed by the bad guys, went to another service.

Brit hacker jailed for strapping ransomware to smut site ad networks

Mark 85

Once upon a time....

in the US at least, there the concepts of "counts" for charges. For something like this, it would XXX counts of blackmail, XXX counts of fraud, etc. The number of "counts" usually was equal to the number of victims and the base sentence would then be a multiple of the basic sentence times the number of victims. Judges were free to lower the sentence to some level. Maybe it's time to change some laws and enforce this. Make the prison time vary with the number of victims? Currently, the sentences here in the States and abroad just seem to be mere slap on the wrist.

BT Tower broadcasts error message to the nation as Windows displays admin's shame

Mark 85

Re: Soon-to-be-defunct operating system?

Given what the OS was used for, XP wouldn't be a bad choice either On the bright side, at least it wasn't Win10.

MoD plonks down £2m on table in exchange for anti-drone tech ideas

Mark 85

Re: May we introduce ourselves?

Didn't someone try this using a hawk to catch a drone? As I recall while the hawk attacked the drone the spinning props/blades on the drone cause a lot of pain and damage to the bird.

Mark 85

Re: Throw money at the problem?

Add the Monty Python music* and it'll be a sure hit.

*On second thought, let's go with the old Benny Hill music.

Town admits 'a poor decision was made' after baseball field set on fire to 'dry' it more quickly

Mark 85

Re: 24 Gallons!

City parks department. Probably the city has a large gasoline tank for it's fleet of vehicles.

Mark 85

Re: Quick dry

It's also rather pricey. But it probably would have been cheaper in the long run than the gasoline, fire department time, and digging up and replacing the dirt.

Mark 85

No afterburner on those jet engines. Combination of hot exhaust and the movement of the exhaust (acts like a stout wind) works very well.

Mark 85

Someone seems to have forgot their basic "science". Gasoline is lighter than water and floats on it. Heat goes up and not down so no to minimal evaporation. A bunch of hair dryers would have been more effective than pouring on the gas and lighting it off.

Two Soyuz launches, Starhopper hops, sats play chicken with Indian weapons test fallout

Mark 85

Re: Falcon Heavy design error

Musky can be a mouthy twat but he seems to have got the lighted candle thing working quite well ...

He might take the "atta-boy's" but it would have to be for hiring engineers with the right stuff who have the same vision also. Their attitude of "get it done" is impressive and out shines Boeing by a huge amount. We need more people of vision and entrepreneurship especially in developing space travel. Boing has lost it's edge, not just in space travel.

Overzealous n00b takes out point-of-sale terminals across the UK on a Saturday afternoon

Mark 85

Re: UPS batteries dont last forever

The only problem is that upper manglement trusts the beancounters for their bonuses. The rest of us are just cannon fodder for them to use to get said bonuses. In a perfect world, the brass wouild bow to the computer services that generate the profit and not to the clown car that counts it.

Brit rocket boffins Reaction Engines notch up first supersonic precooler test

Mark 85

Re: Screw the sound barrier, bring the noise!

Really? Citations please. I can see that possibility in motorsports but only there.

Hello, tech support? Yes, I've run out of desk... Yes, DESK... space

Mark 85
Pint

Re: Hysteric Scotland

And here I thought "maroon" was the way Bugs Bunny pronounced "moron". Learn something new every day here. Have a cold one for the education.

Mark 85
Trollface

Re: *BEER* shouldn't be 'cold cold'

As a proper beer drinker,

What in all that's sacred is a "proper beer drinker"? I read that term here on El Reg in reference to edibles and drinkables. I've found personally that their is no "proper"... seems only wine, food, and beer snobs use the term. Am I wrong?

Mark 85

Re: Common Problem

Needless to say, my manager, who is constantly hassling me to tidy my desk, was not impressed

There's a couple of signs that hung in the right place might help:

1) "A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind."

2) "A clean desk is the sign of work not being done."

Manglement might snort but they usually walk away without interfering again.

Mark 85

It's harsh to blame users when they're faced with new kit and a totally alien way of working but what kind of engineer is 'Phil'

I wondered the same thing. The first PC's in the company I worked for at the time went to two people: myself (technical writer) and the chief engineer who was gentleman (in the truest form) in his late 60's. First things he did were to open the case and snoop around and then tore apart the mouse. Meantime, I was sorting software out for both of us. When our IT department (mainfraime and terminal types) finally took responsibility for the company PC's (a long drawn out battle but they finally had to), he taught them all they needed to know and then some about the boxen. I worked with them on software up to a point. Didn't go anywhere the accounting department as they were (by their request) the last department to get PC's

Mark 85

Re: Set up Guide?

How many of us as kits looked under the hood (bonnet to you Brits) of dad's car and came to the conclusion that the wiring was a mess? I know of quite a few, myself included who were proud of the way we straightened out all the wiring and made things better. We also received the appropriate reaction and never opened the hood of his car again.

Trend Micro antivirus fails to stop measles carrier rubbing against firm's Ottawa offices

Mark 85

Measles does mutate, but not quickly enough to avoid eradication with proper vaccination.

Perhaps "eradication" isn't the right word. More like maybe "infection" since the virus hasn't been completely killed off.

Get the smell out of here! Gaming tournament bans players who raise a literal stink

Mark 85
Devil

Re: I'm surprised it's not more widespread (and still newsworthy)

I'm thinking that next up those classes will be politicians.

Fake Google robocallers hit with $3.4m fine – but it turns out that the joke's on you

Mark 85

Re: Appropriate punishment

it may be unusual but definitely not cruel

If it were to be used regularly, then it's no longer "unusual".....

Mark 85

Re: Comission

there should be a long, in depth look at certain people governing the telecoms industry.

Not going to happen with the current political and business climate here in the States. We're just grist for the money mill. Pai is so far down the political food chain that he's pretty much ignored by the press covering the "bigger" issues like what a star wore to some event, or Trump's latest tweet.

Want to hang out with criminals but can't be bothered to download Tor? Try Facebook

Mark 85

Re: $50 an hour??

They probably are going "cheap".. hell everything else in sales, marketing, and customer service is off-shored so why not "monitoring". The fact they may not speak or read English or other languages (Russian?) should stand in FB's way. It's all about the upside... low cost and increased profit.

Scare-bnb: Family finds creeper cams hidden in their weekend rental by scanning Wi-Fi

Mark 85

Re: How many other renters complained and were ignored before it finally went public?

Add to that their standard "we take XXXX very seriously".

I see to that AirBnB still has the listing per the article with no mention of the hidden cam.

Has there been a followup such that the camera has been removed? Or who installed the camera? Could have been a previous "guest". But then who knows who installed and who's watching.

All's fair in love and war when tech treats you like an infant

Mark 85

Also less impulse shopping.

And there's the downside for the store. Part of staffed checkouts is the shelves of candy, snacks, magazines, etc. that also increases the store's income.

Mark 85

@Montreal Sean -- Re: Poptarts & Hot Pockets: food of the gods.

You're doing it wrong. Go to some religious book place (my preference is a Christian Science reading room). Get some literature and keep it near the door. When the nut cases show up, offer to trade some of their material for some of yours. Works a treat. I've not been bothered after the first time until they find some fresh fish to do the door to door thing. Then they get the same treatment and all is quiet again for a few years.

Blundering London council emails unredacted version of notorious Gangs Matrix to 44 people. Data ends up on Snapchat

Mark 85

Re: They knew who sent the e-mail - Were they sacked?

I'm not sure that the person who sent the e-mails is the problem here. The problem that needs to be looked at is "who released it to Snapchat?". Governments, businesses, etc. send confidential e-mails all the time. The issue that's been overlooked is who violated the standard of trust and released it publically.

Here's to you: UK.gov praises Reg-reading techies for keeping on top of cybersecurity

Mark 85
Facepalm

Re: Well done El Reg!

Dooo... "The Register" like on the banner head.

Two Arkansas dipsticks nicked after allegedly taking turns to shoot each other while wearing bulletproof vests

Mark 85

Re: bullet-resistant vest

As I understand it and Google backed it up... both "proof" and "resistant" are interchangeable. The reality is, none of the vests are bullet proof.

Ref: https://www.tssbulletproof.com/blog/bulletproof-or-bullet-resistant/ and here: https://www.tssbulletproof.com/blog/bulletproof-or-bullet-resistant/