Posts by Tromos

Adobe Flash player bugs

Must be thicker than a phone directory!

I do enjoy...

...a good game of buzzword bingo.

Endorsement in promotional material

You didn't seriously expect a company to believe anything they say in their own promotional material.

"faster charging and greater energy storage"

Hopefully, without a corresponding increase in the likelihood of bursting into flames.

You have the right to forget Google and Facebook

Use it.

Windy Wanaka

Sounds like a character from a Roald Dahl story.

"China doesn't see the need for Facebook"

I'm wondering if I have some Chinese ancestry.

QR code readers need a software modification

They should OCR the text starting "http" and totally ignore the silly boxes and squiggles.

Way too soft a sentence

I bet he gets to keep the motorbike and computer too.

Some homework for those named in the leak.

Explain in no more than two hundred words: "Why I chose a law firm based in Panama rather than a more local one."

These Microsoft engineer's comments

Would they be along the lines of "La, la, la, la ,la, I can't hear you"?

It still phones home

Just a different home.

Not the classic style of poster

"by the FBI" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "Dead or Alive"

"We will do better in the future"

Yay! Topless models next time.

Delivery speed

The range could be vastly increased by having a supply of unbaked pizzas and a built-in oven.

No typoslabs here

For small and cute, give me a Raspberry Pi system. For a serious desktop PC I prefer large matt black towers of a gothic/Mad Max persuasion. Both have the advantage of optimally running systems that aren't Windows 10.

Social marketing company threatens to leave

Sounds like a good incentive to vote out.

No, just no.

Anonymising just isn't happening in the first place. OK, no names and addresses are being handed out, but given a post code, gender, ethnicity and age (even rounded to decade), it is possible in a lot of cases to identify individuals. For many studies, some or all of this information is irrelevant and hence what fields are actually made available need to be made available on a 'need to know' basis. For example, an epidemiological study may require postcodes to determine an epicentre. My other main concern is who this data is made available to. It is bad enough that Councils make money flogging their (compulsory) electoral register to anyone, imagine what the PPI cold-calling scumbags would latch onto next if they could get hold of medical data.

I would have no objection to NHS accredited research organisations receiving PROPERLY anonymised and redacted medical data. And therein lies the rub, I have no confidence in it being done PROPERLY.

Dementia setting in

A couple of years ago I treated myself to a new Samsung smart TV. It used to come up with a TV guide that went far beyond the normal Freeview offering. That disappeared some months back. Over the space of the two years it seems to have lost more than a quarter of the icons that used to appear when the so-called 'Smart hub' is invoked. How long before every trace of smartness disappears?

One thing that is truly dumb and irritating is that a few minutes after switch-on, the notice regarding the end of the Skype service pops up. Usually just as I'm pressing the return key having selected what to watch. Instead of going to my selected program, I'm whisked off to a web page that I have no interest in. That wouldn't be so bad if it took note that I've seen the notice and been to the web page but, no, I'm going to be subjected to that Skype announcement popup every time I switch on until June. How smart is that?

Note: I didn't buy it for 'smart' or for 3D. It just happens that there isn't a great deal on offer without these features when looking for a reasonable quality large panel with long guarantee from a reputable store.

First it was aircraft concerned about bird strike.

Now it's power stations concerned about turd strike.

People tracking? Leave it to the experts.

I'm sure Google will be glad to provide the service in exchange for, say, a few tax breaks.

Message to advertisers

If you want to use some of my bandwidth, you can pay for it. Until then, I reserve the right to block, blank or otherwise mutilate anything destined for my connection.