* Posts by Snorlax

710 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Dec 2014

Steve Jobs, executives shot down top Apple engineers' plea to design their own server CPU – latest twist in legal battle over chip upstart Nuvia

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Re: CPUs? Apple stopped making servers even though there was a demand

"Got to wonder what they run the "apple cloud" on"

GCP and AWS mostly.

UK contractors planning 'mass exodus' ahead of IR35 tax clampdown – survey

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Re: Anonymous Contractor

” If you only have one client, and expect to turn up at that client 9-5 Mon-Fri for the foreseeable future and they expect the same from you then maybe it's time to embrace your status as a permanent employee...”

Unpopular view, but this sums it up.

I wonder what percentage of contractors fit this description?

Very little helps: Tesco flashes ancient Windows desktop on Scan-As-You-Shop device

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@phuzz:"Putting on my pedantic hat for a moment:

Irish citizens living in the UK did get to vote in the Brexit referendum, (but that was because of the Good Friday Agreement, not a specifically EU related reason.) Also, up until the other day, all UK citizens were also EU citizens and we all got to vote."

Sorry Mr. Pedantic, you're dead wrong. You might not be aware that Ireland and the UK have an, um, shared history which predates the GFA by a few years

Section 2 (1) of the Ireland Act 1949:

It is hereby declared that, notwithstanding that the Republic of Ireland is not part of His Majesty’s dominions, the Republic of Ireland is not a foreign country for the purposes of any law in force in any part of the United Kingdom or in any colony, protectorate or United Kingdom trust territory, whether by virtue of a rule of law or of an Act of Parliament or any other enactment or instrument whatsoever, whether passed or made before or after the passing of this Act, and references in any Act of Parliament, other enactment or instrument whatsoever, whether passed or made before or after the passing of this Act, to foreigners, aliens, foreign countries, and foreign or foreign-built ships or aircraft shall be construed accordingly.

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Re: Mouth-Breather?

https://media.tenor.com/images/1a411f24c8fd88cbe0cf3fb06139d25f/tenor.gif

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@JDX

”Seems a harsh reaction to the AC...”

I could be wrong here, but I think that the 38 (and counting) downvotes probably have more to do with AC’s condescending description of shop staff as “mouth-breathers” than his/her opinion of the technology in use?

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Mouth-Breather?

” ...wait for some mouth-breather to scan it through and fondle all your shopping...”

You sound charming.

Have a downvote, you obnoxious tw*t.

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Trust?

""Scan as you shop" is exclusive to Tesco Clubcard holders who...can presumably be trusted to wield the Windows-based handhelds rather than hand their baskets to a checkout clerk..."

Any time I've used one of these things I've been pulled aside for a "random" spot-check, which involves a member of staff scanning practically everything through the till again...

I guess I just look guilty or something :-)

It’s not true no one wants .uk domains – just look at all these Bulgarians who signed up to nab expired addresses

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@Benson's Cycle

"Now the Irish GDP is up massively, the English have cut their idiot throats, and the Irish are laughing at us."

They're not laughing at you - Ireland will be affected by current events too...

They're just wondering why an entire country would throw away a great deal for the vague promise of something better.

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@AC

"Uh huh...is that so...tell me more about how droves and droves of Irish people are still leaving Ireland..."

If I made a comment that downright stupid and uninformed, I'd post as an AC too...

They're making room for all the Brits fleeing to Ireland from the impending Brexit meltdown.

Also, they're still free to live and work in 26 other EU states. Why shouldn't they enjoy the freedom?

Step away from that Windows 7 machine, order UK cyber-cops: It's not safe for managing your cash digitally

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Re: F.U.D.

Bad advice.

You don’t need to be a high value target to be hit by malware targeting your OS.

Keep your browser up to date? Fire up an XP VM and try to install the latest version of Chrome or Firefox.

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Same here. I did a bunch of free upgrades last week. No reformatting the install disk or using W7 keys.

W10 keys can also be found on eBay for a couple of quid, if you like living life on the edge.

What if everyone just said 'Nah' to tracking?

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Re: I just don't care.

I don’t know how anybody with more than a passing interest in technology and current affairs could fail to grasp the many, many problems which are caused by tech company greed.

Cambridge Analytica have interfered with multiple elections thanks to their profiling of Facebook users.

Facebook itself? Do I need to go there?

Google know everything about you from what time you get out of bed, to your physical location throughout the day, every call, text, email.

The NHS wants to sell your medical records to the US.

Genealogy companies in the US share your DNA with police. Speaking of DNA, I wonder how long before we have to give a sample before we can access healthcare or buy health insurance.

Anyway, tinfoil hat mode deactivated. If you don’t give a shit about your privacy, best of luck to you...

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Re: But How ?

"I was thinking rather than blocking, why not feed it random (believable) crap?"

Too much work for no gain on my part.

Block and forget.

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Black Helicopters

We see that you're using an ad blocker

74% of those who use an ad blocker will leave a site - rather than disable their ad blocker - when they see this message.

uBlock Origin and Ghostery ftw.

Having trouble finding a job in your 40s? Study shows some bosses like job applicants... up until they see dates of birth

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Re: driving down costs

” Then he's not doing the exact same job.”

Show me any helldesk where two people in the same role are paid the same, and have identical knowledge and productivity.

To say someone’s not doing “the exact same job” is ridiculous as two individuals won’t approach an issue the same way unless they’re robots...

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Re: driving down costs

"Why should a 50-year-old doing helpdesk work be paid more than a 20-year-old doing the exact identical helpdesk work?"

What if he's closing twice the amount of tickets as his colleague? Getting better customer feedback? Less escalations? Better people skills? Better commercial awareness?

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Re: age discrimination cannot be stopped

"It's impossible to stop because most hirers or their agents want (or pretend there is legislation that requires) proof of identity."

I've never been asked for a copy of my passport/driving licence during the selection process.

Always happens after accepting a job though...

Asking for photo ID to determine an applicant's age probably isn't necessary anyway, Their work history should give a useful indication of age (if recruiters actually read CVs fully...)

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"And yet people on Twitter have the nerve to cry about 'agism' against young people"

And yet 'Ok boomer' is a frequently-used insult directed at anybody over the age of 30 (ignoring the fact that boomers are 50-60+)

Pair charged with murder, manslaughter after IBM Aspera boffin killed in New Year's Eve laptop theft struggle

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A sad story

A senseless waste of a life. All for a laptop...

EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield V, Penguinistas respond by demanding crippling boycott

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Re: 2 sides of the story

UK Copyright law

https://www.copyrightuser.org/understand/exceptions/private-copying/

WRONG.

UK copyright law does not allow you to dump a ROM so you can play a Nintendo 3DS game on your linux box. Try reading the link you just posted.

...consumers are not allowed to break copy protection technology (in legal jargon: Technological Protection Measures, or TPMs) in order to benefit from the exception. Rightsholders often apply TPMs to prevent any use of the work that they have not authorised and TPMs are themselves legally protected as a form of quasi-copyright. This means that if the work you want to copy for private, non-commercial use is protected by a TPM, you cannot circumvent the technical protection even though your use would be a form of private copying.

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Re: 2 sides of the story

"Format shifting is allowed."

Format shifting. I've never heard software piracy called that before.

Allowed by whom btw?

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Facepalm

Re: 2 sides of the story

"Looking at a random 3ds installer - it asks the user to point it to the ROM. So there is no IP issue there."

Oh, ok, you have to do that bit of software piracy yourself...which bears out the AC's comment:

"I wonder if the game is legit - otr they are using an illegal copy - I can't see many Linux user paying for software, or they won't be using Linux in the first place"

I guess I don't really stand corrected?

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Re: 2020 will be the year of linux on the desktop!

"...SuperTuxKart"

I suppose SuperTuxKart's graphics are ok compared to the N64 game it...ahem...pays homage to.

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Re: 2 sides of the story

"the second side is it is very unwelcome to ban people based on their legit OS and legit game"

Having had a quick look at the Lutris site, I see Nintendo GBA titles for download. Don't try to pretend that this could possibly be legit - Nintendo are famous for enforcing their IP rights.

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Windows

2020 will be the year of linux on the desktop!

You have to be fairly committed to the schtick to run Windows games on linux.

I'm actually surprised that linux users play games like Battlefield V. Like Mrs Doyle in Father Ted, I thought they liked the misery of Tetris and Solitaire clones.

Smart speaker maker Sonos takes heat for deliberately bricking older kit with 'Trade Up' plan

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Thumb Down

Sustainability my a**e

The best (worst?) thing about this is that they're not even taking the product back for recycling.

Once the consumer bricks the product and provides the proof in order to get his upgrade credit, he's left with the responsibility of disposing of it (taking it to the local tip/chuck it in a canal/etc.).

The only thing being sustained here is Sonos' profits.

Brother, can you spare a dime: Flickr owner sends mass-email begging for subscriptions

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Re: Why?

"Free tier users... Yes, because they are not bringing any money into the company and their use of the service is a drain on resources.

Think about it."

Flickr serve ads to non-paying users. There's no such thing as a free ride.

You need to take your own advice, and have a think yourself...

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Re: Shame

Several years ago they built a machine learning system, with custom hardware (lots of GPUs), to automaticaly add "tags" to images based on the content. We're talking here about something that classified all of the billions of images they must have in a matter of weeks. There were some interesting articles and presentations from the engineers involved.

Don't forget that time Flickr uploaded photos of 700,000 people to a facial recognition database. That was interesting too.

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Facepalm

Re: Why?

its probably beneficial to flikr that these people leave and take their media with them - reduced bandwidth and storage costs translate to lower losses so the company gets what they want either way.

Uh ok. It benefits the company for users to walk away from their service? Don't think so...

The content drives users to the site. If they get rid of the free users and their photos, there's even less reason to visit the site.

Android and iPhone users can seamlessly back up their photos for free to Google Photos and iCloud respectively. It's not like Flickr are doing something unique here.

EU wouldn't! Uncle Sam brandishes 'up to 100%' tariffs over France's Digital Services Tax

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Re: Big Donnie...

"Just wait he sees the increased Champagne prices in his hotels... "wait, you say me Champagne is not made in Louisiana????!!!!!""

Close. His sparkling wine comes from the vineyards of Charlottesville, Virginia.

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FAIL

Re: @AC

"Perhaps the Irish PM and former head of EU commission and former PM of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, could shed some light on why their respective countries also tax the bollocks out of companies far beyond that which is reasonable ?"

That's your original comment. How is it intended to be read?

Or did you mean that the Irish PM, the former head of EU commission, the former PM of Luxembourg, and Jean-Claude Juncker are one and the same person? Commas are important.

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Happy

"Apparently, they have amounted to an additional cost of $500 to $1700 per year per US household."

The unintended result of increasing tariffs: his own people pay more for imported goods.

Strange how that works, isn't it? You'd think somebody would explain it to him.

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@AC

"Perhaps the Irish PM and former head of EU commission and former PM of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, could shed some light on why their respective countries also tax the bollocks out of companies far beyond that which is reasonable ?"

Irish corporation tax rate is 12.5% How is that taxing "the bollocks out of companies far beyond that which is reasonable"?

You obviously don't know much about tax.

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Re: A bit closer to home

In Scotland, somebody making a stupid comment like that would be called a numpty.

In response to increased US tariffs on a product such as whiskey, I’d expect whiskey producers to develop other markets instead of sitting and waiting for the wind to change.

Any reason you picked whiskey? Scotland has plenty of other exports which dwarf whiskey in terms of revenue.

Oil for example.

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Re: Wrong argument

” As Starbucks UK is owned by Starbucks US - the answer is zero”

You may want to ask Apple how they do it. They pay their wholly-owned Irish company ‘Apple Sales International’ royalties on IP

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Devil

Big Donnie...

...swinging his dick around again.

So that’s Brazil, Argentina and the EU he’s threatened with tariffs in the last 48 hours.

What a sad little man. Have any of his previous tariff threats amounted to anything?

Talking a Blue Streak: The ambitious, quiet waste of the Spadeadam Rocket Establishment

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Re: USA probably at the root of it

” Marshall aid was from memory never more than 2% of W German GDP. And W Germany had suffered proportionally a much higher loss of soldiers than other W European countries, and in addition a lot of the survivors were kept by the Soviets for years as PoWs...”

Allied occupation forces after the war used German POWs for forced labour too - rebuilding, clearing minefields, farm labour in the UK, etc. Of course, they were called ‘disarmed enemy forces’ rather than ‘prisoners of war” so the Geneva Convention wouldn’t apply.

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Re: Jet Engine

"Frank Whittle invented the jet engine in the 1930s, but the British Air Ministry refused to see the potential of it. Meanwhile German engineers read Whittle's engine design with interest and implemented it."

Failing to see potential seems to be a recurring theme in the British establishment.

So, it seems, is blaming others for their own failure in this regard.

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Re: Great article

"One of my favourite observations concerns that thin skin you mention. He said it was so thin and light you could flex it with your fingers when the tank was empty - just like crushing an empty coke can. But at the same time it was incredibly strong to take the fuel pressure when loaded."

'Command and Control' by Eric Schlosser is an interesting book about what can go wrong when the skin is accidentally punctured.

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FAIL

Re: USA probably at the root of it

” ISTR people complaining the US was crippling the UK economy with is lend-lease demands. The theme continues with the EU and will no doubt continue with Trumps trade deal.”

“Waaah! Poor us. Our misfortunes are always someone else’s fault.”

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Re: USA probably at the root of it

” you missed us having to give away our Radar developments”

Like the other commenter above, you overestimate the Britain’s role in developing the technology.

When war broke out Britain had RDF, while Germany had Funkmessgerat. The US also developed the technology and coined the term radar in 1940, before they entered the war. It wasn’t some top secret thing that only British scientists knew about...

Britain didn’t “have to” give away anything. Churchill thought it would be handy to suck up to the US, with an eye to them entering the war, and sent the Tizard Mission to share information.

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Re: USA probably at the root of it

You sound bitter. Perhaps your politicians should have negotiated a better deal with the US.

Germany owed $1 billion in Marshall Plan loan repayments (aside from money and goods paid in reparations). They paid that back by 1971. Again, where was the “free money” you were going on about?

“We gave them the jet engine for free”

The Germans developed the first operational jet engine. The US and the Russians both shipped home plenty of Messerschmitt Me 262‘s to reverse-engineer, so I wouldn’t overestimate the role of Whittle’s engine design in the grand scheme of things.

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Facepalm

Re: USA probably at the root of it

"Meanwhile Germany and Japan got free money from the USA..."

To be fair, the USA nuked Japan twice. I wouldn't describe anything they got from the USA after the war as "free money".

Ditto for West Germany, which the Allies occupied until 1952.East and West Germany also paid $23 billion in reparations.

Free money??

ATTK of the Pwns: Trend Micro's antivirus tools 'will run malware – if its filename is cmd.exe'

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Re: It's nearly 2020 ...

Sure, just ask Equifax...

Who needs malware when your username/password is admin/admin ?

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Re: It's nearly 2020 ...

Don't bother, Jake. Check Tilda Rice's short posting history.

lol, as if a high post count was some kind of guarantee of quality...

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Facepalm

Re: It's nearly 2020 ...

Anti-malware is snake-oil sold to users of insecure-by-design operating systems. Have you not noticed that it so very frequently fails? Ever ask yourself why?

Durr. I'm going to go ahead and answer your question by saying that, unlike you, the malware scene isn't frozen in time and is constantly evolving - hence the need for updates, patches and bugfixes.

In this particular case, from what I can see ATTK is a free support tool and not an antivirus product in itself. The snake-oil sold to users is where exactly??

Trend Micro would like you to fall in line and become a victim of Cloud Conformity

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Re: Is this the same Trend Micro

I don’t know. Is it?

The article you linked to doesn’t specify.

Avast lobs intruders into the 'Abiss': Miscreants tried to tamper with CCleaner after sneaking into network via VPN

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Pirate

Ye scurvy dogs

Compromised creds

'Temporary' VPN account was left enabled

No 2FA on the VPN login

Little (no?) monitoring for privilege escalation

Creators Update meets its maker: It's 1903 or bust for those clinging to Windows 10 1703

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WTF?

Re: What's My Line

With ALL previous versions of Windows, you knew without really looking which version you were running.

What are you going on about?

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Windows

And don't flavors of Linux come out almost that often?

I went to download Ubuntu Desktop last night because I'm a masochist - version 19.04 to be precise.

This is what the page says:

The latest version of the Ubuntu operating system for desktop PCs and laptops, Ubuntu 19.04 comes with nine months, until January 2020, of security and maintenance updates.

Great. 2.5 months of updates for the 'latest' version of Ubuntu.

Apparently you can download some LTS version which gives you a couple of years of updates

Somehow linux users accept this, but don't understand how different versions of a Windows desktop OS can have different end dates for support.