Posts by Just Enough

Re: because you can't enjoy yourself without a drink?

I'm afraid the Government can't win here. If they did nothing to convince people to drink less there would be complaints about nothing being done to discourage binge-drinking wassocks, wasting emergency service's time and money every Friday night. But if they suggest that maybe we could drink less, they're intrusive nanny state spoil-sports. People will always find something to complain about.

The only thing that works in these situations is cultural change and social pressure. Only once it becomes frowned upon to get smashed on a night out, to brag about your alcohol-induced amnesia, to insist you need a full bottle of wine every night before bed, will people's behaviour gradually change. Part of bringing that about is the Government providing some kind of lead.

If anyone has a problem with that advice; well no-one is forcing them to heed it. They can go back to their pints.

Everything is potentially a US formatted date

Using Excel in a chain of data transference always results in these kind of errors. Usual one is telephone numbers being rendered in scientific notation. Or the old favourite of a DD/MM/YYYY formatted date becoming a "DD/MM/YYYY" string, which then is interpreted as a MM/DD/YYYY formatted date. Excel will attempt to turn just about any code with forward slashes into a guessed date.

I also struggled with one that insisted in converting the user name June1 into a date.

Clear signs

"People can show clear signs that they are on the path towards committing certain crimes prior to actually committing them, and it is entirely right of our legal system to identify such people and take steps to prevent them from committing said crimes in the first place. Denying that is what I would say makes a mockery of justice."

I believe you are showing clear signs of being on a path to removing the legal basis of "innocent until found guilty". It is entirely right that the legal system you wish to over-throw identifies you and takes steps to prevent you committing any crimes against human rights.

Please hand yourself into the nearest police station, where you can be tagged, photographed and interrogated.

Re: Should be part of their threat model

When you are downloading someone else's email to have a nosey through it, I don't see how you have any room to complain about what may be in it.

Re: just to answer myself ,,,

Sadly, in common with many charity outfits, it's very possible that their "systems" were indeed Tony in the office's desktop computer and his spreadsheet. And the "sophisticated, illegal, external attack" was malware on an email attachment.

I can understand why a charity may not have the cash, or desire, to spend shedloads on security. But in that case they really should have the sense to not attempt to store bank details. Why wasn't that left to their bank?

A better 'Laura' scenario

“It was years ago, and we still laugh about it.”

"We". Was this the start of something special?

@ Archtech Re: Thank you Mr.Farage

A well reasoned reply that neatly side-steps the majority of the issue.

The Brexit campaign were told repeatedly that the £350 million figure was inaccurate and misleading. Yet they stuck with it right up to the day after the vote. Is that not dishonest?

The suggestion that the mythical £350 million would become available as free cash to put into the NHS was always a lie, right from the start. And the Brexit campaign knew it was a lie (if we are to credit them with not being completely clueless). Yet they decided to make that a strap line on a principle campaign slogan. Is that not dishonest?

And you can throw into the mix the total lie about Turkey being right in line for EU membership, at which point they were all heading here. Always a lie, and always nasty scare-mongering.

Re: The poor in India is missing something significant for mobile banking

Pointing out that poor don't have much money is racist?

I'm not so sure that being rich, or even not poor, is a barrier to mobile banking. There are about a dozen other concerns I'd put before that. What's much more significant is the cost of using the service as a percentage of the sums involved. No one is going to pay 20% of its value simply to move a sum of money, regardless of how poor or rich you are.

"The Catholic church for some reason demands chastity"

There's no mystery about it. Chastity means no offspring. No offspring means no-one with a right to inheritance. So any wealth an individual may have a accumulated during the course of spiritually tending their flock (and some are/were much better at the accumulating than the tending) ends up back in the church.

Incineration not required

Not necessary on two counts.

Firstly; the "tea" in question here will naturally be spurned by all decent, civilised people. It therefore poses no threat or danger to them.

Secondly; the heathen who spawned this devil's brew is already going to hell.

Re: Photos?

"And if I got four or five logins at the same time as I login, then honestly you're compromised anyway because someone KNEW you were logging in at that point."

For work related accounts, it is a reasonable guess to attempt this around 9am. Or 8am. There's a fair chance that the targeted account holder will be logging in around then. And if they do not expect to get two requests at the same time, they're likely to just accept the first one they see, assuming it's from themselves. By the time they notice the second one queued up, it's already too late. This is where the photo comes into play. You don't accept the request that doesn't feature you, dressed as you are.

The one weakness I can see is if someone manages to get hold of past photos from previous logins.

Re: Many of Apple's ...

The entire concept of an electronic book, with a screen and buttons, qualifies as the bleedin' obvious. The very suggestion that anyone, or any company, can patent that is ridiculous and a fair indication of the mess that patent law is.

A patent on a device with rounded corners? Give me a break. The earliest pocket watches in the 16th century had them.

Re: Referendum - stupid idea

"Like saying you pay 200 pound a week on shopping.."

It was even worse than that. Even if we were to believe that the £350 million was a true figure, the suggestion that we'd get all that back to spend on the NHS is a blatant fiction. Those who spun this story knew that this money isn't additional free cash. It would be needed to pay for all the projects in the UK currently funded by the EU, that suddenly have their funding withdrawn. Do we simply stop doing all them?

Re: @AC: Mean while, back in the real world...

- staying the same

Certainly not perfect, can be improved on. But anyone who believes that turning our back on Europe will automatically make things better is dreaming. In the chaos, things will get worse, guaranteed. And in the meantime, all the advances that the EU *has* made in things like social justice, personal rights and equality will get flushed down the toilet. I simply do not trust the UK government to replace these. The opportunity will be taken by Boris and his ilk to dilute them all down, and all the while diverting attention by crying "Immigrants!"

Re: Killing TVs, a step too far

"As far as I'm concerned the words "Smart TV" translate as "something on my network that I can't patch, can't configure and for which proper support will probably be dropped within a year.""

Last time I checked, a Smart TV is incapable of plugging in a network cable itself, or even attaching to your WiFi without the password. If it is on your network it is because you put it there. Do neither of these things and you have the "dumb output device" that you're looking for.

Either The Reg is now being written by ten year olds, or I'm getting old.

Windows file extension, indeed.

Re: Makes sense for people with vision similar to mine

Agree completely. My eyesight isn't what it used to be in my youth, and there's nothing surer to turn me into a grumpy old man than minuscule font sizes on menus.

(But it would take more than font size to get me into McDonalds.)

Re: Well duh

Saved your paypal password on your browser? Another good plan!

Re: Yet another example of why ...

Sending an email is not an IT task. It's not a "Politics-type" task either. It's an Administrative task. Performed by fallible people, like anything else. Inevitably that means people will screw up sometimes.

What is needed is training/policy that makes it hard for this kind of mistake to occur..

Re: Anonymous Coward

We are indeed spoilt for choice when looking for reasons to despise both parties.

I'm rooting for Hulk Hogan. He may be a ridiculous, aged, cartoon figure but otherwise harmless. He deserves payback for what amounted to media-sanctioned revenge-porn.

The other two? Slimey scandal rag vs Filthy rich loon? They can continue to slug it out until neither is standing, as far as I'm concerned. But, I fear the guy with the money has to be favourite.

Not 100% successful

It's totally reliant on the user using Ctrl+C to copy. What text you have highlighted makes no difference. Ctrl+C anywhere on this page gives you "evil".

But if the user is in the habit of copying by either using the top menu or right-click context menu, it doesn't work.

Re: It is our job to uphold the law

"What's the difference? One is a crime in progress, the other is mitigating the damage from a crime which has already occurred. They are different."

No. The second is actually adding another crime to one that has already occurred. First you have the crime of theft, and then you have the crime of extortion that is still underway at the point you hand the money over. So they are both ongoing, and not as different as you suggest.