* Posts by Nattrash

136 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Nov 2015

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Google Pay tells Euro users it has ditched UK for Ireland ahead of Brexit

Nattrash
Boffin

Re: For Google, Brexit makes Eire a golden opportunity

Yes, this is true. The Dutch actually played it very cleverly; they sold it (the Dutch Gov chipped in financially and "market-message-wise") to make EMA decide for Holland, even though there is no building, infra structure, nothing. If I remember well, facilities won't be finished until 2022 or something. But, EMA asked their employees, and they (EMA that is) would loose the least if it would be Holland. Meanwhile MHRA at Canary Warf can start renting out rooms.

The same goes for medical devices BTW. UK based notified bodies were THE place to be for outside manufacturers. However now, they all moved offices to the EU (e.g. BSI= NL, UL= DE, InterTek = SE) so they can remain relevant and do business. As for the remark here on the "EU regulatory representation": that was always already a possibility. There is a provision which is called "Authorised Representative" that can help with that. It is a regulatory person, located in the EU, (TLDR;) taking care of business and the responsibility. This can also be a distributor (taking care of products of other outside EU businesses). So, bottom line, pharma/ medev companies DON'T have to move over to EU, but they do. Reasoning I get back from companies who (I help) doing this properly, is that it is mainly to ensure continuation, and that the UK is becoming a "too small a territory after Brexit to invest in significantly". (Don't kill the messenger please...)

Prince Harry takes a stand against poverty, injustice, inequality? Er, no, Fortnite

Nattrash

Re: Unpopular opinion

I don't think the point really is with "behaving like a normal person" or "cross dressing". I think the general idea/ remarks refer more to the fact that the base for the significance and/ or weight of opinions/ position/ privilege/ resources is perhaps very small to non-existent if it is based on nothing more than the fact that you were the 1st sperm to reach its goal. And with that, we do have to recognise of course that this is not an uniquely British aberration, or even connected to aristocracy. It seems to be an adverse event connected to the human species in general.

It was all Yellow: Mass email about a Coldplay CD breaks the internet

Nattrash
Nattrash
Pint

Re: The magic phrase...

Don't know about the rerun here, but the people at stackexchange/ askubuntu are also having a (April fools) day which makes old farts feel more at home...

MARQUEE!

BLINK!

GUESTBOOK!

Proudly built in Notepad. Best viewed in Netscape

...and you just have to love the cursor trail... Oh, is that just me..?

Xiaomi's Mi-too attempt at a pholdable: Not one, but TWO creases of fail

Nattrash
Happy

Re: Profit margin

Oh, and I forgot to say...

So formaldehyde-free mattresses aren't your thing... Well, you've seen nothing yet guv...

How about a pair of Xiaomi bacteriostatic socks?

Try to get those with a fruity logo! (which some of you with nothing better to do will find on Google no doubt)

Nattrash
Thumb Up

Re: Profit margin

What makes sense for the formaldehyde-free mattresses it sells doesn't necessarily make sense for luxury consumer electronic

Rather the opposite...

I agree. I have one of their Air 12.5 here, and the thing came with both a reasonable performance, aesthetics, weight (~1.1 kg) AND excellent price tag (~ € 450). Slapped *nix on it and it hasn't missed a beat. Curious, opened it up (suspecting dodgy components) and found all the usual suspects there. Samsung, LG, Intel, Hynix... So yes, maybe they do have a biz policy that might surprise more fruity oriented device makers. But then again it might also be entertaining to know where that fruity difference the consumer pays goes to (Since it aren't the parts. Must be the blingy logo then?).

<<Hmmmm... Formaldehyde-free mattress...>>

NASA's first all-woman spacewalk outside ISS cancelled – due to lack of spacesuits that fit

Nattrash
Trollface

Re: "Does this space suit make my ass look big?"

Shirley, you gentlemen here do know that the ISS loo does also require a certain willy size to have a proper wee? (Yep, you do have to fill the yellow funnel properly) So, how do you measure up? Think you're the right stuff?

Look what the Softcat dragged in: Revenues grow 21% as UK reseller refuses to blink at Brexit

Nattrash
Trollface

Softcat...

Is that the same feline as the (alleged) cat of the French EU minister called "Brexit"?

Latest Fast Ring build grazes big red button, unintentionally ejects some Windows Insiders

Nattrash
Trollface

Notepad has been the subject of much tinkering during this release cycle, including receiving support for UTF-8 encoding...

OKaaay... Although I'm not gifted enough to see how Notepad is going to change the world, I'm (still) hopeful that this will be some prelude to the seamless compatibility between MS and OpenDoc documents. You know, working with other people and having no issues at all working together on the same presentation. Or a document that has no issues with cross references and literature references. Without lay out issues... Or formatting...

Oh well...

What do sexy selfies, search warrants, tax files have in common? They've all been found on resold USB sticks

Nattrash

Re: Photorec

But that is the root problem right? Most use some kind of program that is/ should be trusted to do a proper job. But then again, does it? Are you sure? In the end, nobody knows (apart from the person doing the recovery and finding your nude selfies).

As for me; # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX works for me. After that a shiny new partition table and were good to go. Sure somebody will tell me I'm ignorant (and saw the picture of the new wallpaper in my living room), but hey, it's a start ☺

Microsoft flings the Windows Calculator source at GitHub

Nattrash

Password managers may leave your online crown jewels 'exposed in RAM' to malware – but hey, they're still better than the alternative

Nattrash

Re: Easy

Very true.

If you DO have the need for alternatives, I heard from a friend that these also work well"

welcome

welcome123

welcomeabc

qwerty

1234

iamgod

verybigwilly

...

Unearthed emails could be smoking gun in epic GDPR battle: Google, adtech giants 'know they break Euro privacy law'

Nattrash
WTF?

Sorry, can't do that...

The email reveals Feehan lobbying commission staffers against proposals for a new ePrivacy Regulation – which was meant to come into force with GDPR but has been stuck in negotiations – saying it could “mean the end of the online advertising model.”

The mind boggles... Their opinion seems to translate to:

"Ma'am, get out of the vehicle and place your hands on the roof".

"Sorry officer, can't do that."

"..."

"I know this might be difficult for you, but let me take you through it slowly, maybe you then understand. You know officer, the fact of the matter is, this is a high performance car. And on top of that, I just like driving fast. So for me it's technically, and might I add, genetically impossible to drive slower.. Hence, your law just can't, and doesn't apply to me. So sorry officer, no hands on the roof for you today."

"..."

"Maybe you can adapt your law so it will be more convenient for us both? Oh, and while you do that, removing those distracting speed limit signs might be a good idea? It's not that I'm not trying to work with you".

"..."

"Make it a win-win situation..?"

Oh Snapd! Gimme-root-now security bug lets miscreants sock it to your Ubuntu boxes

Nattrash

Re: snapd and systemd

Does the "Install" button option of Mint also do the snap version?

And otherwise, you can always go to git and compile from source...

Nattrash
Childcatcher

Re: snapd and systemd

Aaaaah Bob, you beat me to it!

Had the same: The vulnerability is found in Snapd, Canonical's open-source toolkit for packaging and running applications via systemd.

Thought while reading this: "Nope, don't have that. Nothing to see here. Carry on."

But, suppose it proves again what a brilliant idea it is to leave the *nix philosophy of small, speedy, "doing one thing well", and ignorantly chain/ pile them all together...

Object-recognition AI – the dumb program's idea of a smart program: How neural nets are really just looking at textures

Nattrash
Boffin

Surprising...

Some systems pretrained on ImageNet might not perform so well in other domains, like facial recognition or medical imaging.

I must admit, that kind of surprises me. Having spent many hours behind a microscope, doing pathology screening, and lived through the emergence of image analysis software, I thought I remembered parameters like roundness, circumference and stuff. Later, thought I recognised the same principles on radiological images. So are we saying here that image analysis software does nothing at all with shape?

BTW, the thing that is REALLY worrying is the graph with the normal, clear pic of the cat; only 99% of humans recognised that? That must have been a real brutal night at the pub then...

Open sourcerers drop sick Fedora Remix to get Windows Subsystem for Linux pumping

Nattrash
Joke

Being a Remix, the team made some changes. Barnes said: "We removed unnecessary packages to keep the download light and Fedora branding to comply with the Remix program terms.

They are on to something here. I agree fully that removing systemd is a brilliant idea...

Q. China just landed on its far side, the US woz there 50 years ago – now Europe wants to mine it? A. It's the Moon

Nattrash

Re: Just Koenig Again

Does this mean Europe isn't there yet? On the dark side of the moon?

I could have sworn that I remember the Beeb reporting that we were already there...

Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently

Nattrash

Re: So predictable !

Lame. They don't sell your information.

Hummm, so you mean that they call Google the Chocolate Factory because they really make all their money with chocolate? Do they have with nuts?

Oh Ac, and if this is winding down to a "freetard" and "buy for" discussion; if you pay for something, it becomes property, for you to do with what you want. But I understand you are a "lease-subscription-until-you-die-unless -we-get-bored-of-you-and-pull-your-plug-instead-tard"?

I notice I get more and more fed up by people/ companies telling me what is best for me. Now, for me personally, I'm arrogant enough to make it water of a ducks back. But I already fear the numerous questions "why do I keep seeing those ads for fluffy piggy slippers? Can you make it like it was before?"

Hope this works out for Gorhill though. His code is really, really good...

I used to be a dull John Doe. Thanks to Huawei, I'm now James Bond!

Nattrash
Paris Hilton

Re: WTF is it with Faceboob insisting on preinstalling their slurpware

Hold on, I'm getting confused here...

[[]] So the Huawei phone is a spying device, after all, some people who know what they are talking about in the US says so. So who am I to doubt...

[[]] You people here tell me there is Facebook pre-installed on those handsets you have...

[[]] Facebook does a lot of slurping...

>>> So that means that that the Zuck is (at least) a double agent!

I suppose the same thing goes for Gargoogle. After all, their spying work is already confirmed, as is their work for China (DragonFly)...

Waiting know for the US to ban Facebook and Google. Would save me the need to root new handsets...

'It's like they took a rug and covered it up': Flight booking web app used by scores of airlines still vuln to attack – claim

Nattrash

It never stops to amaze, these template, 1st marketing lesson replies. And since we're talking air travel and, connected to that, on line payments and stuff, it's infuriating to see confirmed once again that this all is clearly a one way street.

Especially when you consider the discrepancy between how this is regarded/ handled, and the traveller:

--- taking of all his/ her clothing before checkin "for your own security"

--- getting in a machine scanning him/ her down to the pubs "to increase safety"

--- doing the required (think banking/ payments) software updates on his/ her devices because else "they are not on the latest safety standards", hence outside liability.

--- needs to finance (renewed) biometrics documents "to enhance security"

--- needs to submit to constant monitoring and facial recognition "to secure your safety"

--- oh, and do and pay all kinds of on line visa filling in, hoop jumping and purchasing "to reduce any burden and enhance your experience"

Funny though, that while we're all dancing, we're never allowed to say something abut the tune...

Bipartisan Kumbaya: President Trump turns Obama's open govt data policy into law

Nattrash

Here, have a cheese burger...

Very good cheese burger... Excellent cheese burger!

The D in SystemD stands for Dammmit... Security holes found in much-adored Linux toolkit

Nattrash
Alert

Not true as this article shows. But, just for the fun of it, why don't you run an Open VPN and see how your DNS leaks. And then hop over to GitHub and see how Zee Poohtz writes its all your perception which is wrong...

Forget your deepest, darkest secrets, smart speakers will soon listen for sniffles and farts too

Nattrash
Pint

Re: It would be inundated in our house!

Hear, hear!

"Beer and a kebab anybody..?"

The dingo... er, Google stole my patent! Biz boss tells how Choc Factory staff tried to rip off idea from interview

Nattrash
Pint

Re: Another RegTard HitJob

OK, I'll bite, just because its the weekend, and am on the verge of a lovely fry-up and a pint...

Ever tried to adapt that Android phone of yours to your preferences? So how did that rooting go?

Washington Post offers invalid cookie consent under EU rules – ICO

Nattrash
Pint

Re: Other solution

"Washington Post isn't alone"

I agree. And contrary to the Washington Post, it also happens in some countries wide scale within the EU. Despite all those mentions of the "huge fines under GDPR".

For example, try to access one of the major Dutch news outlets (e.g. classical newspapers Volkskrant, NRC, Algemeen Dagblad, Trouw, Parool, or regional ones like de Gelderlander), and you'll be confronted with a cookie wall immediately. It will offer users to choice to accept cookies, 3rd party sell off, and tracking, or to go and get your content elsewhere. Now, that doesn't sound very GDPR. Or impressed by GDPR enforcement and consequences. I'll bet a beer here that more than 90% of the major Dutch news outlets do this. So indeed, WP is certainly not unique, and a lot can be done in our own backyard.

Microsoft menaced with GDPR mega-fines in Europe for 'large scale and covert' gathering of people's info via Office

Nattrash
Flame

Re: What about Windows 10 that Office is sitting on?

And for those reminiscing on (the division of) the power of government in today's world...

On the same page...

"When asked how to deal with secret but authoritative answers, Microsoft has specified that SLM Rijk may not share the document, but may use the facts."

Emphasis by your humble commentard.

"Resistance is futile".

Nattrash
Alert

Re: What about Windows 10 that Office is sitting on?

The report (the pdf) itself gives some "amusing" insight...

Page 12 of 91...

Technical limitations

"The technical lab was unable to inspect the contents of the outgoing data stream. As an essential security measure, Microsoft encodes the outgoing traffic to its own servers. Microsoft did not provide tools to the lab to decode the outgoing data stream."

How surprising...

"It was not (yet) possible to view the contents of the traffic in another way, because Microsoft had not yet developed a tool to be able to view the diagnostic data in a way similar to the Data Viewer Tool provided for the Windows 10 telemetry data."

Really..? So MS gathers, encrypts, sends, and stores data they can't view?

"However, Privacy Company is working with Microsoft to analyse the collected telemetry data. Microsoft has also offered a test version of a data viewer tool to be teste <sic> by SLM Rijk."

Yours sincerely, your helpful Government.

Creepy or super creepy? That is the question Mozilla's throwing at IoT Christmas pressies

Nattrash
Pint

Re: Why buy this stuff in the first place?

"Keep an eye on friends and make sure they stay hydrated."

Now, why haven't I seen this in my local pub? Or any pub for that matter?

Web Foundation launches internet hippie manifesto: 'We've lost control of our data, it is being used against us'

Nattrash

Re: We already have the solution

@ veti. Are sure that is what Oh Homer meant? As I read it, he is absolutely spot on. Even if you do the odd job for family and friends, you will know that they will take 3 days to come up with a password (after asking you 10 times whether a password is really necessary). They will go on a drinking spree when Microsoft decided to change their GUI. And buy a new Apple Phone because it comes with new exciting emojis. And that if you've spent some time in biz you know that this is the perfect "target audience" presenting an perfect "opportunity" to "maximise ROI"...

Dot-com web addresses prices to swell, thanks to sweetheart deal between Uncle Sam, Verisign

Nattrash

Re: .com is for international companies

Indeed.

So think about this; if .com is for international companies, why is an US institute running it? Why is US government defining the rules about it? Seems about time that "the internet" becomes an international, in stead of an US "sure we graciously allow you to use it, but always remember it's actually ours" resource. So no better place to start, to hand this whole "registration" stuff into international hands. And no, don't ask me to define international. It's weekend, just read this before going out to the pub, so can not be bothered with this now...

Apple's launch confirms one thing: It's determined to kill off the laptop for iPads

Nattrash

Re: Would they allow it if...

And then you're just talking about names of towns and villages...

So what about family names? Ever met this (former) German minister?

Christina Schulze Föcking

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Schulze_F%C3%B6cking

Stroppy Google runs rings round Brussels with Android remedy

Nattrash
Black Helicopters

Click to (de)install...

I think some here miss the point. Want to use Google flavoured Android? You're welcome. Want to use Google services? Sure you can! But... Don't need a Google media player so let's free up the space by removing it completely? Hummm... Want to remove Google Chrome completely in favour for something else (even if it's crap)? Erm... Remove Google Maps/ localisation completely? Right..? Want to adjust those (bundled) settings you found on page 74532729? ...

Thing is that Google is trying to dictate the conditions with a "swallow or suffocate" approach. Which is logical because that benefits them, and, after all, they're a company and not Mother Theresa, so that's their objective.

However, as with the MS case in the past, it shouldn't focus on what can be used or what is (not) included. It should focus on user free choice and independence. So for example, what can be removed completely, if this is the users free unfettered choice, without any limitations or overreaching consequences. Or as old timers used to say: "I own my (select as desired) OS/ device/ data/...".

And that's why Google is cunning, and (again) takes that free decisive power away with their "free slimmed down", and "the full paid version" strategy. With all the "benefits" that they say come with it. Nothing new or extraordinary, won't be the first time you can hear: "Don't trouble yourself with thinking, we'll do that for you".

Where can I hide this mic? I know, shove it down my urethra

Nattrash
Happy

True! Still got one 64MB here, can supply picture when needed!

Nattrash
Headmaster

Re: Castration anxiety

Not sure how scientific or well founded my remark is here, but thinking about it...

Might there be a gender specific difference here? If I look around or contemplate it, I've the idea that ladies in general wear their mobes in their back pocket (just like your (grand) daughters do), while gents seem to prefer the location Dabs described (either on vibrate or not). You know, just like gents dropping their trousers when sitting down on the loo, and ladies pulling up (if they wear skirts of course)...

I think it's about time for a completely unscientific Reg study here...

Still using Skype? Good news! After HOURS of meetings, Microsoft reckons it knows when you're Not Active

Nattrash
Facepalm

Hear hear. I realise and admit I've to be "overly tolerant" and kept using Skype because my "oh-scary-computer-with-buttons-I-should-push-to-do-something-because-trusted-US-company-Microsoft-told-me-so" US colleagues can't/ won't consider alternatives. Apart from the fact that it's a neutered version, not allowing users to "get their job done" in a way that did work decades ago. When this productivity tool then improved by disabling the possibility to converse with SfB users (but hey, my 90+ nan is on WhatsApp anyway) and biz rated cams stopped working, well...

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/skype/forum/skype_linux-skype_callms-skype_audioms/logitech-c920-no-longer-detected-in-skypeforlinux/3af20be0-0460-4bd4-b77c-58208b3be599

But hey, we love Linux because we have a bash shell!

I must say that the Lync opportunity to join a meeting by phone is a brilliant additional feature of outstanding modern technology.

What do you say? 2018..? Oh...

Adtech-for-sex biz tells blockchain consent app firm, 'hold my beer'

Nattrash

Re: Missing a trick

I don't know how you men do it, but we females, if we're lesbians, most of the time look for a compatible partner. You know, like, ermm, a female..?

Web biz DomainFactory confirms: We were hacked in January 2018

Nattrash
Alert

Schufa?

>>> “ the following categories of data: Customer name; Company name; Customer number; Address; E-mail addresses; Phone number; DomainFactory Phone password; Date of birth; Bank name and account number (eg IBAN or BIC); and Schufa score”

Huh? Schufa score? As a standard entry?

For people unfamiliar with German Schufa: it's a credit check private company

Now, I'm pretty sure this is not a common question, or even data "average" Germans know the answer to, or for that matter, have access to. This kind of implies that the hosting company is pulling up all your financial details by default? For buying a TLD (e.g. an .de ≤ € 0.99*)? Maybe I'm an old, paranoid, asocial, "have nothing to share" fart but... WTF? Please tell me I'm wrong...

United States, you have 2 months to sort Privacy Shield ... or data deal is for the bin – Eurocrats

Nattrash
Childcatcher

Re: We know what comes next...

FTFY

"European Data is bad. Very bad. But I'm a good guy. Great guy. So I've asked the good people of NSA to grab those bad Europeans by the pussy. because they're very bad! I'm sure that's a good deal for the US. The best deal any US president ever did!"

ICANN't get no respect: Europe throws Whois privacy plan in the trash

Nattrash

Is there a pattern here?

>>> Still convinced that European law couldn't impact it [...]

Haven't history shown something like this before? perople want to know...

BTW, does anybody know whatever happened to those plans to create alternatives to ICANN? I think I remember some EU and Chinese noises to do so, and the US set to keep "the internet" in its own hands because "it would break the internet(!)". TBH, it would be some kind of answer; US doing the (privacy) stuff they want for their subjects, and Europe (and ROW) applying their philosophy. You know, applying a territories laws to the region of influence and not beyond...

Ah well, looks like the Europeans will get compensation for those tariff experiments ☺

>>> [...] was stunned to find that it faced multi-million-dollar fines [...]

They grow up so fast: Spam magnet Hotmail turned 22 today

Nattrash

Re: Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam...

Ah yes, the good old days... A hotmail address, get your knowledge through Alta Vista, and put it to use on some Tripod space. Where did we all go wrong..?

User spent 20 minutes trying to move mouse cursor, without success

Nattrash
Facepalm

Re: Keyboard ecosystems

When still teaching medical students, one of the standard microbiology work shops was to teach them to do (agar) bacterial cultures, a thing that becomes handy when they ever have to do patient cultures (e.g. bronchitis, urinary infections). For the work shop that always translated to a "wipe test", basically the students going round, wiping surfaces, and putting those wipes on culture. And every year the winner was... keyboards. Always holding more bacteria (especially E. coli, for the non-medical people among us, the one that lives north of uranus) than toilet seats, or surprisingly, the inside door handle of the loo. So, I'm afraid a good shake is not going to cover it... Alcohol any one?

Fed up with Facebook data slurping? Firefox has a cunning plan

Nattrash

Re: How is it any better than running NoScript

People, people! Why all the noise about NoScript? If you don't like Giorgios labour of love, go for an alternative. I mean, for the tech savvy audience here, I expect an extended use of Gorhills uMatrix (with excellent UI) any way. Which not only would tackle facebook.com, but even facebook.*...

... which can be combined with a vast number of host files (e.g. Dan Pollock, Peter Lowe, EasyList) that could help you catching "all that other stuff"... if you want...

I see you're writing a résumé?!.. LinkedIn parked in MS Word

Nattrash

Re: I knew there was a reason

Don't know... Maybe I'm really old fashioned, but...

When we/ I used to hire people, we used their application to make a selection based on the material they sent us. I know. Silly us. If now, with these kind of things cover letters/ CVs become buzz word, impersonal, ironed smooth, middle-of-the-road spam, the only effective way of properly hiring people will be "improved" to "People, we're looking to fill this spot. Does anybody know anybody good? Got any knowledgable family members maybe? Know people from the pub? There is free beer for the golden tip!"

Ghostery, uBlock lead the anti-track pack

Nattrash
WTF?

What I'm somewhat surprised about is that there is no consideration and/ or evaluation of the fact that Ghostery is the product of... <drum roll> Cliqz. Yep, that Cliqz. The one everybody was up in arms about when it started harvesting data from (German) Mozilla users.

And as far as I know it always has been a product of "an ad agency".

Doesn't that smell a bit like the butcher testing his own meat?

After all, as a product of an ad agency, it tries to "enhance the browsing experience" by gathering personal data, phoning it home, and sticking it a huge database... of an ad agency?

Mozilla's creepy Mr Robot stunt in Firefox flops in touching tribute to TV show's 2nd season

Nattrash
Boffin

Re: Extended Support Release track

Also got a blank on about:studies on an (eval) box with Quantum here...

But could it be this is connected to the setting in prefs.js of

"app.shield.optoutstudies.enabled"

As for us: didn't get this on the Quantum box. Or the Waterfox ones...

Get ready for laptop-tab-smartphone threesomes from Microsoft, Lenovo, HP, Asus, Qualcomm

Nattrash
Happy

Re: Netbooks, sigh

Hear, hear... Have a still alive and kicking ZG5 here that just refuses to die. Opened its guts so many times, to pop in a SSD, or give it a "new" RAM, wifi, or USB port (did I mention it has 3? Plus 2 SD slots? And a headphone jack?!) from Fleebay. New battery? Sure, China seems to have loads for silly prices. Crap, left the charger in my hotel room. Have to shell out another £3 to get a new one...

And the ZG5 receives all humbly. And it just keeps running its up-to-date linux for as long as 32 bits will stay available. The missus loves it as her little Kodi box, and I just can't refuse it as a "let's do a quick dd if=/dev/zero 1st" option when (forced to) travel to dodgy destinations...

Did I already mention that I love this little box..?

10 years of the Kindle and the curious incident of a dog in the day-time

Nattrash
Go

Re: Kindle, Kobo etc

@ Mage:

You're absolutely right (on many things actually, but particularly) on turning off wifi/ continuous air plane mode. Not so much on the tin foil hat issues perhaps (for me), but more on the general performance of the thing.

When my partner decided to get one, the Kobo (Touch, Fleabay for ~ £15) came loaded with the lastest version of the OS software, yes, presenting the UI in her native language, but also with LOADS of crap, showing her what she "missed out on". And (not) surprisingly, these ads refreshed frequently, slowing the thing down even more. Overcoming her anxiety, I convinced her to factory reset it and return to the original Kobo base OS. Which is brilliant! And 10.000.000 times better than the later, higher version crap! No ads! Works with Calibre! Fast! Responsive! Less power draining! More reading time! And you can activate/ use/ read books (oh dear!) without the obligatory "Not registered? Create a free account to start using your device"! (Catching breath after so much marketing excitement!)

So yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Whatever you do, don't turn the wifi on, and look into whether a factory reset gives you "a better reading experience"...

PS - Reading up on it, there are lots of folks out there who do very interesting things with their (old) eReaders (e.g. hackaday.com, koreader on github). Can even remember finding a guy who used it as his dash/ instrument panel for his ultralight! An application where crappy images can really help (help. Help! HELP!!!)

A certain millennial turned 30 recently: Welcome to middle age, Microsoft Excel v2

Nattrash
Meh

Re: Filemaker

Hummm... So am I an old fart when I remember working geoCalc and Quarto (think that was DOS)? Must be, because my memory is failing me whether this was before Excel yes or no...

Munich council finds €49.3m for Windows 10 embrace

Nattrash
Mushroom

German reporting...

Looking at German sources, the amount of € 49.3 seems to be only a part of it...

23.11.2017 17:41 Uhr

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Endgueltiges-Aus-fuer-LiMux-Muenchener-Stadtrat-setzt-den-Pinguin-vor-die-Tuer-3900439.html

German reports state that:

"Die vorläufige Endsumme betrage so über 89 Millionen Euro."

"Davon entfielen 49,3 Millionen allein auf den vorgesehenen einheitlichen IT-Arbeitsplatz mit Windows."

So the ~ € 50MM only is a part of the process, the total bill looks to be "a bit" higher...

Remarkable:

"Die Kosten für das Vorhaben sollten anfangs geheim bleiben." Hummm, now that always is a curious thing, when people want to keep the results of their decision secret. But then again:

https://www.ris-muenchen.de/RII/RII/DOK/SITZUNGSVORLAGE/4740966.pdf

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