* Posts by d3vy

1633 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Mar 2014

Five things you need to know about Microsoft's looming Windows 10 Spring Creators Update

d3vy

Re: Aaaargh!

"Surprised El Regizeera had to do a poll at all, or do you need consent to read the relevant user agent?"

Does the user agent contain information about future purchases?

Programming languages can be hard to grasp for non-English speakers. Step forward, Bato: A Ruby port for Filipinos

d3vy

Well I for one am looking forward to the UK localised versions on HTML and CSS

I want to set my background-colour:grey; damnit.

:)

Seen from spaaaaace: Boffins check world's oceans for plastic

d3vy

Re: Remember back in the day...

"If they charge consumers , they will buy the stuff with least / recyclable packaging"

Some might, some will just absorb the cost and nothing will change and some will get round the charge by fly tipping.

d3vy

"Wouldnt it just be easier to charge for removal of non recyclables?"

Sounds like you're suggesting some form of bin tax imposed by the council. Whatever would we call it?

As a side our local council decided to start charging an additional £30 a year for garden waste... But don't worry, they're not putting council tax up.

Breaking up is hard to do: Airbus, new bae Google and clinging on to Microsoft's 'solutions'

d3vy

Re: "At least you'd hope so given the implications and penalties"

"Email already makes it incredibly easy to accidentally send confidential info off premises and directly to the wrong people"

On a recent MoD contract we had our mail server set up to bounce any external emails back unless we put a specific string at the start of the subject.

Think along the lines of [EXTERNAL EMAIL AUTHORISED]

Without that our emails wouldn't make it out of the company.

Maplin shutdown sale prices still HIGHER than rivals

d3vy

Re: AA rechargeable batteries were always good value

"Oh really? I thought batteries where just pocket warmers. Thanks for the tip!"

No douche, it was an indication that cheap batteries have a specific use case over their more expensive counterparts or disposables.

Its funny that people who KNOW they are being wankers always sign is as anon isnt it?

d3vy

@PaulF

I suspect our use cases differ - I buy the batteries for the kids to put in toys and XBox controls and the like - I'd be shocked if half of the ones that I bought last year were still in the house having been lost at friends houses and accidentally being thrown out unthinkingly when flat!

d3vy

Re: Really

"Faceless warehouse with minimal staff paid on zero hour contracts at the minimum wage."

You realise that these businesses are not just warehouses dont you?

d3vy

@Ledswinger

Thats just wrong though isnt it, because plenty of places have bricks and mortar shops and price match with online retailers.

Not just in IT either Go outdoors has a policy where you can hand them a item at the till and say "Its cheaper on site xyz" and a few minutes later you get the item at the online price.

PC world also do it for *some* items.

I'd also point out that online retailers still have physical buildings holding their stock - they employ more pickers and packers and have higher distribution costs than companies like maplin supplying primerally though physical shops. Im also certain that online retailers have to pay a shit load more in IT costs than companies like Maplin.

My original comment was that if they lowered their prices they would have probably sold more - higher quantity of sales with a lower margin is preferable to high margin with almost no sales.

d3vy

Re: AA rechargeable batteries were always good value

"Really?"

Yeah they put them on offer quite frequently - Bought a few packs of 14 (which is an odd amount to supply in a pack) for £10 a while ago.

Useful for remotes and xbox controls for the kids.

d3vy

"Maplin shut down sale prices still HIGHER than rivals"

If anything this is probably one of the main reasons that they are closing down - people are savvy enough now to realise that if they can wait 24hours for delivery that they can save a decent amount of money..

The maplin near me is next door to a PC world, Last year I needed a new external drive *same day* I saved £20 by walking next door (And PC world still ripped me off compared to the price online!)

I'm sure that if maplin were competitive on price with online retailers that they would still be around now.

That said, their AA rechargeable batteries were always good value - I might go and stock up!

Microsoft says 'majority' of Windows 10 use will be 'streamlined S mode'

d3vy

Re: Having a Recent Backup Ready to Hand

Really?

I've had ONE issue on one device (out of 5 that I use and 2 for the kids) since upgrading to win 10 and that was fixed by pressing the rollback button and reinstalling the update again.

d3vy

Re: Games, anyone?

"100% of MacOS users have been satisfied"

Bullshit.

Fancy sitting in a Level 4 driverless car roaming London? Get in line

d3vy

Re: Will I be burned riding this?

"Looks like a Toaster. Can they design it to look more car-like?"

Why?

To me it looks like a mini-bus or a black cab without a bonnet... which is essentially what it is.

Sysadmin left finger on power button for an hour to avert SAP outage

d3vy

Re: Which Idiot of Designer?

"I have experimented with putting some of those flippy lid button covers over the switch - held on with double sided tape due to location at the top corner of the front bezel. Short of dismantling the front and getting busy with glue and screws the fix is far from permanent"

Pull the side off and disconnect the button completely.

Then either buy a replacement button that can be positioned at the back of the PC or set the machine to wake on keyboard so you no longer need a physical button on the case.

I have mine set to boot on power resume and everything on the desk is plugged into a 5 way surge protector so that when I flick the mains switch everything comes on at once.

d3vy

Re: New PC case.

"I have a wonderful mini-itx PC case. Only problem is the power button is on the top, just where I may rest something for a moment. Like a game controller or whatever."

I used to work in an office where there were two banks of desks fed from two sockets (with extension leads - but thats not the wtf here..) the sockets were at about the same height as the head rest on your average office swivel chair and positioned right behind someones desk.

The number of times that the power got knocked off started to get daft so the managements solution... Not to move the socket... not to change the sockets so there was no switch... Shove a few old PSUs under the desks to feed the PCs if the switch gets hit.

RIP... almost: Brit high street gadget shack Maplin Electronics

d3vy

Luckilly for me Scan is a 10 minute drive away from home so Maplin has always been a last resort for anything I need!

d3vy

Re: Well at least

" I don't need wireless for a PC that's 6 inches away, and I'm not messing about with batteries/charging"

Yeah I agree, having to change the batteries in my mouse once every 18 months is such a pain...

d3vy

People only go to maplin now if they need something today or its not available on prime for next day delivery.

The markup is ridiculous, their own brand rechargable AAs are the only thing Ill really miss and thats just because the regularly have them on sale 14 rechargeable Batteries for £10.

4G found on Moon

d3vy

Re: And if there are any problems just call our hotline

"yeah the signal has a half-million mile (or so) trip each way, or something like it. Imagine two people trying to talk during the silences."

Not far off making an international call in the early 90s... I remember trying to speak to people in Saudi at the time over the phone and it was horrendous.

d3vy

Re: Why do they need a 'deep space network'? Its only the moon, you could...

"Deep space" doesnt really have a set definition, the best I could find is that the US GOV define it as anything outside cislunar space - basically anything beyond the moon.

By definition the moon is always on the boundary of this.

Though I suspect that the naming of the Deep space network is more to do with how cool it sounds than anything else!

Huawei's Not Hot Dog is possibly the Worst Tech Promo Ever

d3vy

CHEESOID HATE SELF

CHEESOID KILL SELF WITH PERTIL

NRA gives FCC boss Ajit Pai a gun as reward for killing net neutrality. Yeah, an actual gun

d3vy

"It'll take decades."

Better than never.

Farts away! Plane makes unscheduled stop after man won't stop guffing

d3vy

"So....he was asked to stop a bodily function. Utterly ridiculous."

One of my few memories of pre-school nursery was being told to "Stop Hiccuping" and then being punished when I couldn't... Still it was a long time ago so i take comfort in the fact that the teachers dead now.

Kentucky gov: Violent video games, not guns, to blame for Florida school massacre

d3vy

"too many guns are already in the system to quickly fix this"

That argument seems to be put about a lot... Just because something is difficult or will take time doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

Tightening regulation now with an aim for an all out ban in 100 years would be better than doing nothing and still having the same issue in two generations time.

Bloke sues Microsoft: Give me $600m – or my copy of Windows 7 back

d3vy

Re: how long ago was this?

Not even that.

Just a link to the (already available) iso file and instructions on locating his own coa.

Have three WINEs this weekend, because WINE 3.0 has landed

d3vy

Re: Office 2016?

"In my office, everyone uses Excel for everything, except receiving emails."

Im sure we can knock up some VBA to check an IMAP inbox if you fancy it? ;)

Six things I learned from using the iPad Pro for Real Work™

d3vy

"Real work my arse, try being a fisherman in the North Atlantic or a carer in a geriatric ward."

Having spent my teenage years living on North Uist and having summer jobs working on fishing boats in the (admittedly close to the coast) Atlantic and now working as a Software Developer I may be uniquely placed to answer this one!

I can categorically say that while at sea we had no call for (or time to make use of) an iPad, your comment makes no sense and you have completely failed at your trolling attempt. Get back under your bridge.

d3vy

Re: blast away

@SuccessCase

I disagree, I think he's got the comparison right. Comparing the iPad PRO to the MacBook PRO.

If we bring macbook air into the equation then you should really be comparing to the entry level iPad not the PRO version.

See that over Heathrow? It's not an airliner – it's a Predator drone

d3vy

Re: Embassy guests

"Ecuador just needs to move their embassy across town, or across the street. The move would purge the guest."

Its not even that complicated... someone just needs to pull the fire alarm.

Yorkshire cops have begun using on-the-spot fingerprint scanners

d3vy

Re: The usual suspects complaining

"It's a question, are fingerprints infallible? Could you get arrested for a crime you didn't commit?"

The answer to both of those is YES.

However the question you didnt ask : "Could this happen WITHOUT the mobile devices" is also YES.

The only thing changing here is that to be finger printed you dont need to be taken to the station.

d3vy

Re: Am I missing something?

Also, in addition to my previous comment.

None of what you said in your comment is unique to mobile handheld scanners, the above could happen just as easily with the current process of taking you into the station*

* Though Ill point out that "Lantern" mobile fingerprint scanners have been in use for YEARS so the only difference here is that the price of the tech has come down allowing wider adoption.

d3vy

Re: Am I missing something?

"Automatic cross referencing the fingerprints of anyone questioned by the police against a national scale database of every criminal , illegal immigrant and unsolved crime, on the spot, with no suspicion of the person being questioned of being involved in a particular crime."

That sir is bollocks. Big hairy sweaty bollocks.

d3vy

Or, based on previous experience they knew it would come up and decided to save everyone some time?

d3vy

Re: Sandpaper

You realise that if they suspect that you have committed a crime and you cant be identified they just arrest you?

d3vy

"300m to "merge" two databases. In ideal condions I assume this could be dome in 5 minutes with a couple of lines of SQL. "Insert into" or some such. (two much simpler smaller example DBs obviously)"

Says someone who has obviously never been involved in even a moderately large data migration project.

Your solution will work BUT :

You have three John smiths in the database are they the same person? are they different?

You also have two Steve Mcfaddens they have different national insurance numbers but every other detail is identical - they are obviously the same person - which is correct.

Which database is your master? Can you even identify the master on a DB level or is it conditional on some data in one of the databases? if so what data?

You don't seem to have put ant thought into data integrity so I doubt that you have allocated any time for testing that the apps and reports built on top of the original data still work?

And your comments about a normal PC being able to hold the database are just laughable, I assume youre either trolling or its your first day working on the helpdesk at some big IT company and you think that you know better than everyone else?

d3vy

Re: "App on their smartphones"

Complete comprehension failure detected :

"A police force in Yorkshire has been kitted out with fingerprint scanners to run identity checks in the street. Some 250 scanners have been handed to West Yorkshire Police officers"

Followed by :

"The scanners link up to an app on cops' smartphones"

There is a scanner AND a smart phone, They might have the phone at home but they wont be taking the scanner home.

From July, Chrome will name and shame insecure HTTP websites

d3vy

Re: Good Strategy?

"Thank you kind stranger, I've been looking for the view certificate option for months now!"

Seconded, I resorted to opening sites in IE to check certs as its the same as its always been in there!

Apple's top-secret iBoot firmware source code spills onto GitHub for some insane reason

d3vy

"Which was rather odd, because when the torrent finished downloading, it turned out to be a gay porn film featuring hunky German bikers, and not a zip of the Win2k source after all."

So.. win win then ?

d3vy

And that Mrs May is why we can't have secret back doors into encrypted systems...

What did we say about Tesla's self-driving tech? SpaceX Roadster skips Mars, steers to asteroids

d3vy

Re: queue 'Lost in Space' theme

I thought it was playing "life on mars"?

Certainly was playing over the launch footage I saw.

Bzzzt! If you're in one of these four British cities, that was a drone

d3vy

Having lived in the outer Hebrides I think that would be most welcome, However there are unique challenges that wont be faced on the mainland... The islands tend to be sparcely populated - it was a 40km drive to school and we didnt pass that many properties so range will be an issue.

Then you have the weather - there were days where we went out in the and the car had shifted sideways on the drive because of the wind.

If we are going to be using drones on the islands they are going to have to be MUCH more robust than anything available at the moment.

d3vy

Re: Pothole repairs?

Round here they dont use tar mac to fill the pot holes, its Papier Mache - Or at least it looks like it, Spray it out of a big hose on the back of a truck, fill the hole in about 20s and leave.

The biggest problem is that whatever the substance ACTUALLY is seems to be less hard wearing than Papier Mache... as the holes generally re-appear with a few weeks!

d3vy

@Mark85

looks like you had the same idea as me a full day before! :)

As for your "pie in the sky" comment, I for one am looking forwards to Greggs drone deliveries, although personally I'd rather a steak bake. :)

d3vy

"No, you're not. It's another example of possibly great technology but nobody can think of a really good use for it yet"

There are loads of great uses. Deliveries to consumers makes the news regularly because its relatable to the masses but :

* Search and rescue : Slap an IR camera on them and send them off into the night looking for heat sources on a mountain.. Or a disaster area (This might be why they chose Preston :) )

* Police search/pursuit - much cheaper than the normal helicopter.

* Delivery of medical supplies/aid (as you mentioned)

* As noted in the article, inspections - Amey are looking at using them for bridge and lighting inspections on sections of motorway/Bridge crossings

As for the home delivery - People are already installing drop off points where delivery people can leave parcels securely.. A logical extension to this would be to have drop off point accessible from the air - A box with a remotely opening lid or similar, its not going to be suitable for everything obviously but average sized packages could easily be delivered.

The thing a lot of people seem to miss about the deliveries side of this is that the starting point for the drone doesn't need to be a fixed point.

Think about it, Parcel force ferry parcels to distribution centres where they are then loaded into a van and the driver goes from house to house delivering them, I think its conceivable that in the future the driver will simply need to get the van into the middle of a town/estate and sit there while the drones in the back of the van do the deliveries for the surrounding properties.

New strife for Strava: Location privacy feature can be made transparent

d3vy

"Or maybe, just maybe, people using a FREE app to log routes and rides. People who are not too bothered about the latest and lightest?"

Well that just makes it all the easier to target them... If you can identify the people paying the £45 annual charge for premium they are likely to have the nicer bikes...

Lets not forget that if you can see their route data you can see distance and speed, if you target people keeping a decent pace over regular 50km routes youre they are not going to be riding cheap bikes.

MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF CARS: SpaceX parks a Tesla in orbit (just don't mention the barge)

d3vy

Re: Academics

"You, or any other "normal person" (whatever that means!), could easily "nip off down to the shops" in a bog-stock, as shipped to the moon, Lunar Rover. If you had one in your garage, of course."

FFS, getting stupid now.

Seeing as you cannot infer the meantime of normal in my sentence I don't hold out much hope for you being able to figure out the difference between a mass market vehicle and a fucking moon buggy.

d3vy

Re: Academics

"The first car in space was actually driven by a human being. On the moon"

Ok... this is the first car which a normal person could use to nip down to the shops.

I suspect that you knew the intention behind the comment and just wanted to win a pedant of the day award? :)

d3vy

Re: Academics

"The car gives nobody anything by way of science or inspiration."

I dunno, *Tesla first car in space* has just been on the news world wide.. and will be in papers for the next few days. I wonder what that would have cost in advertising.

d3vy

I hope musk put a teapot in the boot and never tells anyone.. jUst keeps it to himself so he will always know.