Posts by Doctor Syntax

Re: OK.

"(also, significant CO2 reduction from less cow-farting, double win!)"

The cow-farting issue is CH4 which is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. The solution to this, of course, is instead of feeding plant material to cows it can be fed to vegetarians so they can produce the CH4 instead. Vegetarian produced CH4 is good for the planet - or something like that.

Re: OK.

However, I did not vote to be able to buy and eat "Frankenstein" food.

But you did. You voted to give HMG powers to remove any or all of the protections that the EU provided.

You should really have asked yourself what would be the point of a government seeking that power if they didn't intend to use it, why would they intend to use it other than removing regulations intended to protect the public, whether removing such protections would harm the public and whether you were, in fact, a member of that public.

You're obviously not alone in having failed to ask yourself those questions. If it were only yourselves lumbered with the consequences I wouldn't be concerned. Unfortunately the rest of us are also affected.

Re: Clause 1 of the bill

That's OK. The Gray report studiously avoids the term. "Gatherings" is the approved term.

Re: In before ...

"yes pen because of their superior intellect"

SWMBO has an interesting twist on this. She'll hand me a part-done crossword and say "Can you get me any?"

As like as not when I supply an answer she'll say "I'd thought of that one but I haven't written it in."

Re: In before ...

Well played, sir!

Re: Answer is easy

Cake and eat it situation. Perhaps they're keeping a seat ready for BoJo in the board room.

"at our place"

No 10 or the Cabinet Office?

Re: Nobody told me I wasn't allowed to do it.

This is The Register. It happens.

How did we get to discussing how threads go OT?

Re: Nobody told me I wasn't allowed to do it.

"80%+ of development is handling things going wrong"

It should be. It seems to be less and less the case. Sometimes just working out that things have gone wrong would be a start. Simple things like run a report at 5 mins past the hour to list everything that should have been in that hour's shipment but is still unshipped. It's just easier to let the customer complain.

It's called /etc, not /config . You're just used to it meaning "config" rather than "all sorts of stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else".

Re: Serial to VGA? All you need is an adapter!

There's probably a whole generation in IT who've never encountered serial other than in USB and SATA and have no idea what RS-232 means.

Re: In the pilot's defense...

Your brother should have reached for the front brake lever. The motion of his hand would have automatically closed the throttle. That's why it works that way. He should also have learned on something more appropriate.

Re: "little reason to assume the UK is much different from its sister democracies"

"we won't have real democracy until the populace sets the agenda that is to be voted on"

The bad news is that we're now more or less there. [Anti-]Social media allows the populace, or at least a large gobbet of it, to raise an issue and some party or other picks it up. The consequence is apt to be the results of single issue campaigns and aspirational targets set for a date safely in the future where it becomes SEP and hard problems don't get tackled, let alone solved.

Be careful what you ask for.

Re: So, 0.2% eh ?

"I don't think about the children"

I do. I used to think about my children. Now I think about my grandchildren. And I think it's wrong of the government to deny them the legal use of secure forms of communication which criminals will continue to use.

Criminals will continue to use them. One thing my experience has taught me is that if a criminal is setting out to commit some offence, say a robbery, which needs some other law to be broken, say stealing a vehicle to use as a getaway car, in support of the main objective, that secondary offence will not inhibit them in the least.

"What's your mobile phone number?"

The phone number of someone you really detest.

"some form of photo ID"

A little exercise with some graphics S/W should provide one that really Zucks.

I thought advertising people were supposed to be creative.

Re: I got banned from Gmail

Get rid of accounts? They can get rid of entire services that easily.

Re: She needs to have an active social media presence

I wonder if the downvote is from one of our local estate agents who things everyone should sell their house and hasn't realised that (a) I don't want to and (b) if I did they've just ensured that they're the last of our many local alternatives that I'd give the job to.

Re: There's your answer!

Spam, including - no make that especially - pestering for reviews, is negative customer service and any subsequent review should focus on it. Not that the marketroids will ever learn.

Re: She needs to have an active social media presence

"And likely rather more effective."

Likely more effective at what? You need to know the recipient's attitude to having litter poked through their letterbox.

Re: Old machines

"His complaint also cited it restarting ten times a day with updates."

Actually he didn't say why, just that he restarted it. It might just have been restarting from sleep more. He just said "bloatware". That could have been any version of Windows.

Re: Marked up

You have a point but AIUI this is equipment for people driving nothing more threatening (to the enemy) than desks. Do they really need to buy Mil-spec?

Re: Big Biscuits

"To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if half the DoD only needed to reboot their boxes."

According to the article he restarts his PC several times a day although it doesn't actually say whether this is a reboot.

"personal Linux laptop with uptime of more than 86 days"

True, for a server 86 days is nothing. But I don't see the point of not switching off my Linux laptop when it''s not in use.

"Is there quicksand in England?"

Morecambe bay.

Re: Clever writing

wrapped in about six feet of plausible BOFH deniability carpet.

Re: A market ready for disruption ...

Perhaps it's something a few regulators could take a look at.