Well, thanks Wikileaks!
Posts by anonymous boring coward
3284 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2015
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Learn client-server C programming – with this free tutorial from the CIA
Brit moron tried buying a car bomb on dark web, posted it to his address. Now he's screwed
Boffins: We can identify you by your typing, and we're gonna sell the tech to biz, govt – yay!
Irish priests told to stop bashing bishops
London Mayor slams YouTube over failure to remove 'shocking' violent gang vids
Pixel-style display woes on your shiny new X? Perfectly normal, says Apple
No, Samsung, you really do owe Apple $120m for patent infringement
Logitech: We're gonna brick your Harmony Link gizmos next year
Thursday 9th November 2017 22:35 GMT 
Re: Gerald Ratner moment?
Frankly, there should be some interest from authorities about this practice of obsoleting perfectly good stuff. There is an environment aspect to this, as well as various consumer laws that go beyond simple warranties. The items haven't broken down. The manufacturer has broken them for the consumer!!!
Thursday 9th November 2017 22:33 GMT
Re: SOP for Logitech, I am afraid
I didn't envy the Slim Devices guys some payout, but many who had contributed a lot to the product's popularity by basically working as free support, and giving a lot of feedback and even perhaps implemented some stuff, were less than pleased with the sell-off to gigantic "couldn't care less" Logitech.
Thursday 9th November 2017 22:29 GMT
Re: It should be obvious
"If a one-off purchase requires some on-going expenditure by the vendor to keep working it's always going to end in tears."
They could always offer 5 years free, and an optional non-free subscription after that.
They don't even have the imagination to offer a subscription to the users, or sell the server side stuff to someone who could.
Thursday 9th November 2017 22:25 GMT
Hmm.. Lot's of Harmony stuff around. I only have a lowly (not lovely) Harmony One, which I only just put in use again out of necessity.
The software is pretty awful, relying 100% on being on-line to do anything. I can't even rearrange the Devices list any longer. (Which is why I stopped using it for years.)
I have no idea if this affect the Harmony One or not?
My AlertMe setup quit working end of last month. No prior warning. They (British Gas, of course) just switched off the server, which apparently was only serving a few hundred users anyway. Why the hell couldn't they just let it run on? They haven't done ANY changes to it for many years (including before BG bought the stuff for £50m from AlertMe.)
Yeah, this whole connected things really is quite sh*tty.
Donald, YOU'RE FIRED: Rogue Twitter worker quits, deletes President Trump's account
OpenSSL patches, Apple bug fixes, Hilton's $700k hack bill, Kim Dotcom raid settlement, Signal desktop app, and more
Car insurers recoil in horror from paying auto autos' speeding fines
Two drones, two crashes in two months: MoD still won't say why
Radiohead hides ZX Spectrum proggie in OK Computer re-release
Facebook vows to double staff with new cadre of Net Police
US voting server in election security probe is mysteriously wiped
WhatsApp? You still don't get EU privacy laws, that's WhatsApp
Saturday 28th October 2017 01:04 GMT
Re: Interesting
"I'm not so sure. Younger generations believe that they have nothing to hide, "so what's the big deal, I wanna use this cool new toy""
That is true. But they are also too lazy to even check if they can change the default options. And certainly won't refuse to install something until an obvious privacy breach has been rectified.
"Gullible" is the word that comes to mind. ("Stupid" isn't that far off either.)
Credit insurance tightens for geek shack Maplin Electronics
Saturday 28th October 2017 00:52 GMT
Re: Reg readers are fond of Maplins?
The problem is "being fond of" doesn't translate into spending loads of money on stuff you don't really need. A toy store for 40+ year old kids (like myself) with overpriced low quality toys can only appeal so much.
If at least Maplin had some stuff that you actually need. (Not, perhaps want.)
At least Homebase has turned away from selling pillows to things that real DIYers actually NEED (as in need RIGHT NOW).
Saturday 28th October 2017 00:44 GMT
Re: Feels like we're dying
It's very sad.
Doesn't management realise they need to reinvent the business?
What they have to do is to look at any successful alternative.
How many tatty toys do they think they'll be able to sell? Get the toys out first of all. Toys R Us already exists.
They probably have to go with just a few ideas and be the dogs bollocks in those areas. Just like some stores used to be the best for HiFi, and later for home computing (pre PC). Dedication and being the best at something counts for a lot.
Wednesday 25th October 2017 01:30 GMT
Money talks.
They don't have everything. They have a lot of tat, and most is overpriced.
Amazon delivers very quickly. Farnell has much, much (several orders of magnitude) more stuff if you need electronic components.
Maplin staff seldom know anything really. Even if usually nice.
Their time seems to be over. Clas Ohlson has a more relevant selection for home DIY:ers, and is what Maplin should have morphed into. I.e get the overpriced toys out, and the real useful stuff in instead.
NSA bloke used backdoored MS Office key-gen, exposed secret exploits – Kaspersky
Saturday 28th October 2017 00:19 GMT
Re: Motive?
"Autistic/aspergers types who love/are obsessed with learning about/playing with/coding/defeating malware (delete/add to as appropriate) could quite conceivably want to take stuff home with them for further study. I've known some who get "stuck" on something and that becomes their whole world"
You are just describing any decent dedicated programmer working in a specific field. No different to a dedicated scientist. Just being a sloppy "couldn't-care-less" lazy code grinder is hardly the pinnacle of engineering.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
