* Posts by AMBxx

2714 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jan 2014

Qualcomm takes $1bn BlackBerry bite like a champ, struts away

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>> with a number of Apple's iPhone manufacturers now underreporting their licensing fees at Apple's behest

More details please. How and why?

IBM storage revenues grew? Hahaha, good one. Oh, you're serious

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Stop

IBM

Reap what you sow. The more customers they annoy, the fewer they have left.

That apple.com link you clicked on? Yeah, it's actually Russian

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Re: A simple fix

I use OpenDNS for DNS on my home office network. I was hoping to see an IDN setting in the options, but no joy.

I'll just have to stick to blocking all of Eastern Europe for now.

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Facepalm

Re: you cannot see any IDNs.

You can see it - looks like a load of random text. Perfect for me as no site I need to use is likely to use strangely obfuscated text.

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Pint

Re: an easy fix for firefox

Lots of beer on its way to you today.

Anyone know if it's possible to set this in either the registry or AD?

Can nothing stop the Veeam tank? We hate to save you a click but: No

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Headmaster

Needs some substance

Market share? Competitor growth?

Numbers in isolation don't mean a thing. For all the reader knows, Veeam may have a 1% market share and be growing more slowly than competitors.

Not sure what the maths equivalent of a grammar nazi is.

BT's spam blocker IDs accident claims as top nuisance call

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Thumb Up

Re: Fun (and karmic) solution

That's what I do - using a Frizt!Box, I redirect nuisance callers to a freephone number (BUPA quote line). Chose BUPA because they kept calling me, so can suffer,

Nerd Klaxon: Barbican to host Science Fiction exhibition this summer

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Joke

Barbican toilets

With 90% of the attendees being male, perhaps the new gender-neutral toilets at the Barbican will be useful!

Toshiba conglomerate: Can we keep going? We don't know

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Boffin

Re: PWC again eh?

It's much more complex than you think - they have to avoid all responsibilty for the accounts they've audited too.

Broadband providers almost double prices after deals end

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Re: It's the 'Introductory' bit that's tricky

Not quite. All you do is phone up and moan, they soon drop the price (at least Plusnet do)

AMBxx Silver badge

It's the 'Introductory' bit that's tricky - more than 2 sylables.

Plus CAB want some more money from government, so need pointless stories like this.

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Losing phone number

No you don't. Not for the last 20 years or so anyway. I was even able to transfer a landline number to VOIP (that is a fairly recent option though)

Windows 10 Creators Update general rollout begins with a privacy dialogue

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Re: Microsoft's act

I'm sure that both of the N version users will be really disappointed

Who really gives a toss if it's agile or not?

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Re: 'What's Real and What's for Sale'...

Seems to be a case of 'it depends'. It's a methodology, problem is when people think it should apply to all projects. Always seems odd to me that a company would lead their sales effort for consultancy based upon the project methodology rather than successfuly outcomes.

It's very good if you have a budget to use up before the year end, but haven't decided what you need to achieve with the budget - I guess that's why it's so popular in public sector.

WD unveils grown-up USB stick in My Passport slab form

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Joke

Re: Sigh....

I think you may have just discovered Google Docs dirty secret!

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Coat

Re: Sigh....

Another old man missing WP 5.1

Mine's the one with HIMEM in CONFIG.SYS

Outsourcers blamed for cocking up programmes at one in three big firms

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WTF?

I think I see what's happening

Deloitte have been charging customers for advice for years. That advice has been to outsource everything.

There's nobody left who hasn't outsourced, so Deloitte's income from advisory work is dropping.

SOLUTION - recommend insourcing.

Manchester pulls £750 public crucifixion offer

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Re: Ridiculous

Surely easy solution would have been to use 3 crosses. Those that pay can use left or right, not the middle.

'No deal better than bad deal' approach to Brexit 'unsubstantiated'

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I think you'll find that half the committee walked out too.

Microsoft's in-store Android looks desperate but can Google stop it?

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Re: Android - bit of a toy OS, really.

How well do other mobile OS behave in the same situtation? I really hate using Android (spent a weekend with my Mum's Samsung), but not sure any of them manage well in-car. My Windows Phone has great sat-nav, but an incoming call takes over the screen hiding the directions.

Europe supplants US as biggest source of child abuse hubs

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Childcatcher

Hosting on what services?

Coincidence that Netherlands is used by MS for Azure hosting? Best we're not complacent in the UK, Azure only started here last year.

Y'know CSS was to kill off HTML table layout? Well, second time's a charm: Meet CSS Grid

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Facepalm

Re: Yay!

Even bigger frameworks checking browser versions.

Yay in maybe 5 years

More fun in the sandbox: Experts praise security improvements to Edge

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FAIL

Re: Dear Microsoft

Is it 1999 already?

VMware, Citrix to have a crack at desktops on docked smartphones

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Windows

Bound to be a success

After all, you've been able to do this for 2 years with Windows Phone and they're taking over the world!

ZX Spectrum Vega Plus backers complain of months-long refund delays

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Re: "Uncle" Clive's" business model.

I remember ordering one of the original ZX Spectrums with a whole 16KB RAM. So delayed that they gave me a free ZX Printer (worth every penny).

At least it turned up though!

Microsoft wants screaming Windows fans, not just users

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aka free software

It's not free, just early. Those on the Fast ring also find their computers breaking quite frequently. They have to be very keen to go through a fresh install every few months.

Greater concern is that the Insider Program becomes a Microsoft Echo Chamber - they just listen to the people who consider themselves fans rather than a wider user base. That said, not sure how you reach the wider population - most of them just want to get on with using a computer.

Oracle doing due diligence on Accenture. Yep, you read that right

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Thumb Up

Re: They're both literally the best

Maybe if Oracle then bought Capita and G4S?

People may have been wrongly sent back to prison over faulty tags

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Facepalm

Combination of G4S and Capita

What could possibly go wrong?

Samsung plans Galaxy Note 7 fire sale

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Happy

Re: Environmentally friendly disposal

There's a big hole somewhere that used to be full of ET Atari games. Would make an interesting documentary in 20 years or so.

iPhone-havers think they're safe. But they're not

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Windows

Security through obscurity

Works well from me on Windows Phone!

UK.gov departments accused of blanket approach to IR35

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Unhappy

Baby out with the bathwater

Hardly a surprise though.

Bloke whose drone was blasted out of sky by angry dad loses another court battle for compo

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Re: Dig that hole a bit deeper

Shame the shooter can't countersue for spying on his daughter.

Sources: Misco sold to Hilco Capital, care home for the distressed

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Alert

It's a dead company. Been on the verge for years. Used to be important in the days of paper catalogues, but never really made the transition to online.

Won't be many tears for Misco.

Lloyds Banking Group to hang up on call centre staffers

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Unhappy

Re: Take your money out now - Outsourced IT support for your bank will be a disaster

I don't think anything grates more than phone a UK company and the call being answered by someone with an Indian accent. Feel sorry for any Indian nationals who work in the UK - must get a hard time.

I refused an insurance quote once because the claims handlers were based overseas. I was told that my account could be marked to only talk to people in the UK. Still refused out of principle, but wonder if any of the banks are offering something similar? Maybe on their fee paying accounts?

Good news, everyone! Two pints a day keep heart problems at bay

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Pint

Re: A question

A friend of mine is a cardiologist. He did a paper a few years ago following up on the french paradox. My contribution was to hold a wine tasting at Brighton hospital (I worked in the wine trade at the time).

Stats at the time showed that morbidity of drinkers only exceeded that of abstainers once above 30 units per week. That is 30 units per week is just as good as not drinking at all.

'Clearance sale' shows Apple's iPad is over. It's done

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Re: I've said it before...

Yep. I have a Surface Pro. Works great as a tablet for games, browsing and the odd email. As soon as I need to do any real work, the keyboard is unfolded.

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Windows

Chrome in US

I thought the only reason Chromebooks were successful in the US was the way that Google have gamed the system providing IT to schools.

Elsewhere, they just don't exist (to my knowledge).

Apple have just run out of ideas. They dominate 2 markets, but small player elsewhere. In 10 years they'll be an interesting comparison to Microsofts drop since 2000ish.

Microsoft loves Linux so much, its OneDrive web app runs like a dog on Windows OS rivals

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FAIL

Re: Loved to Death

I wasn't commenting on his supporters (neither was the OP), but on Trump and his entourage. Take a trip to Wikipedia - they have some pretty impressive alumni.

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Windows

How many Onedrive users run Linux?

I'm surprised they noticed. Given Linux users have such antipathy towards MS, surely they're all using Dropbox or one of the umpteen other services?

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Thumb Down

Re: Loved to Death

Just because some disagrees with you politically, don't assume they're unintelligent or uneducated. That's always been the conceit of the left. It's also dangerous to underestimate those you oppose.

New iPad revealed. Big price cut is main feature

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Coat

Re: Count me in

Do we give the OP the benefit of the doubt and assume he forgot the Joke icon?

Google Spanner in the NewSQL works?

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Joke

Re: Relational DBs never went away.

You old fogey. Who cares if a transaction is durable any way :D Consistency is for wimps.

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How's that new Accounts system coming on?

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Windows

It's google

Just as people start to use it, they'll get bored and move onto something else.

Either that or it will be 'shared' data.

Beijing deploys facial scanners to counter public toilet abuse

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Unhappy

Re: IZAL

Looks like you just missed it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/IZAL-MEDICATED-STRONG-TOILET-TISSUE-x/dp/B00FRK2RCC

Description says no longer manufactured.

Linux, not Microsoft, the real winner of Windows Server on ARM

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WTF?

Bit confused

Let me boil the writer's argument down to one sentence: running Windows on ARM means that all servers will run Linux on ARM with non-Microsoft SERVER applications because Microsoft made such a mess of CLIENT applications Windows 8 for ARM?

MS are in a mess over all sorts of things, but I think they have a clearer view of what's going on than this author.

Hell freezes over: We wrote an El Reg chatbot using Microsoft's AI

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Modern development

Crap documentation so forced to cut and paste from untrusted Internet source. No wonder we have bugs and security holes.

Not a criticism of MS, they're no worse than others in this regard.

Microsoft kills Windows Vista on April 11: No security patches, no hot fixes, no support, nada

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Windows

ME Hated?

Maybe my memory is hazey, but the only problem with ME is that it added so little to Windows 98 and was just MS gouging gullible users for another upgrade.

What have I forgotten?

Azure storage browns out for eight hours, nobody notices

AMBxx Silver badge

Depends on how deep your pockets are. With Azure, you can have storage that is resilient to failure at various levels. You just have to decide how much you want to spend.

Today's WWW is built on pillars of sand: Buggy, exploitable JavaScript libs are everywhere

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Pirate

Re: Perhaps

It was just a joke, not an attempt to start a religious war!