Posts by pleb

Re: Like fingerprints

Sure, but since at least two cops will have gooned at it already it will revert to requiring your pass code by the time they have you in a headlock.

Maybe they did you a favour?

Cynical, possibly. But if you do actually trade on a .co.uk site, customers etc, are you happy to let the .uk doppleganger go to someone else? Like who? Just maybe, despite themselves, 123 have done you a favour of sorts. The real charlatans are those who created .uk - for what purpose?

Re: Can we stop calling it a Psion please?

Yes, the calendar application. Android is still in the dark ages compared to its slick usability. Why does android keep giving me alarms at midnight?! Etc. Please, Mr Android, get hold of a working Psion 5MX and have a play.

The one thing Psion never got right was the hinge - always over complex and too fragile. Every one I had broke. I see they are going for a trick hinge again...

They keyboard, never equalled. All in, I know I was far more productive on a Psion than ever on a smartphone. Smartphones are very beguiling, but ultimately fall far short in usability. Type a report, build a database, actually use the diary, easy on Psion, nightmare on smartphone.

Re: "Historically"

...and so, as processing power increased and memory multiplied like clover, they, uh, cut back on the 3D stuff.

Re: This is why

"Did the government not spend millions of pounds on an advertising campaign telling people "DON'T LOOK AT THE SUN!" ??"

Sure, but then Mr Trump showed them how it should be done anyway:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-41003929/solar-eclipse-2017-donald-trump-looks-directly-at-the-sun

Re: Utter Bastards

Oh yes. I must have skipped the last paragraph!

Re: Maximum executive fine too

Read the article - the perp was not "a coder". He was in a position of authority and responsibility.

Re: Extended life expectancy for mobes

Made me think...

My old original Note just gave up the ghost after 5 years - stuck at boot screen, recovery mode not available. Actually 5 years isn't so bad, but even so, why? I'd expect a TV to easily surpass that. Is it capacitor rot? Or solder rot? Or what. The phone is in stellar physical condition.

My Note 4 needed a new motherboard after just 2 years, eMMC failure. An Honor 7 in the family has died even sooner, shuts down when battery drops to 99% (seriously!).

A solid-state device, physically looked after, what makes them die so young?

"Half the drivers on the road are below average, and in some places it is worse than that."

Only if you assume a symmetrical distribution. Much as almost all of us have greater than the average number of fingers on our hands, I suspect the great majority of drivers are above average.

Re: This:

I think you'd have a point if hacking a phone to install an exploit on that phone was a strategy that lent itself to covert mass deployment. I don't think that is the case. I think it is a tool that would have to be used sparingly, its use would have to be rationed. I draw a distinction between this and the indiscriminate blanket gathering of data, where we all fall under surveillance and the state can then set their search criteria as broadly as they like.

You have to allow those we entrust with doing the job of catching terrorist the reasonable means to do their job - unless you believe there are no terrorists.

Of course I see the risks, as with eternal blue etc, of these tools leaking into the wrong hands. But with respect, that is a very different argument to the Orwellian one you raised.

You win the prize. It was the Peppa/Pepper Pig thing. It doesn't stand up as a typo, so I was just speculating. And a little tilt at those who think we should not recognise ourselves in popular stereotypes.

Re: Not my opinion!

"Speaking as a female with 'Dr in front of her name, I do get tired of the assumption that Dr = male."

Really? And would it be better if they assumed all "Dr"s were female? Why? How does that solve the issue?

If you don't like people having to make an assumption then why make room for assumption? In the absence of complete information people have only two choices, enquire or assume. The constant enquiry gets tedious after a while, for all concerned, and if you don't like the alternative then why invite the situation?

Re: Is his name really Naruto?

His? Woah, not so fast. Does the monkey referred to as Naruto consent to the use of the male pronoun?

Re: Welcome to the UK

I experienced the exact same mode of failure. Same exact solution, blowtorch and ladder. Except it was the domestic central heating condensing boiler condensate outflow. Installed by a very 'cartesian' gas fitter.

Re: If only....

How does the logic you imply by your putative question relate to categories of sexual orientation which society currently deplores? And do we not then return to the position that an acceptable sexual orientation is that which society mandates, rather than the position implied by your question.

Re: They don't even know where their fiber runs

I had the same experience the other way around. I could see their cable run outside my house, but my sales enquiries were met with an implacable "computer says no" response. According to their records their cable served random addresses the length of my cul-de-sac, from beginning to end, yet somehow bypassing a few houses including mine along the way. It took a letter to the CEO before they sent out a chap with his divining rod to confirm that their cable run was in fact contiguous. I recall my neighbours' surprise when I told them I was now on cable, they'd long been told the cable did not pass their properties... I never did receive the multiple referral rewards I should be due.

Re: You have have a million Cyber (euughh) security professionals...

"..but if ... the users happily click everything you send them, it will make fuck all difference."

It beggars belief, knowing as we do and for as long as we have, that there is a hole in the bucket where water leaks out, we continue to blame the water. Yes, people will click on stuff, and we know - we know - that despite any amount of training it is a statistical certainty that it will continue to happen. There has to be a better solution than blaming the person whose mouse-click brings down the house of cards.

Malicious or stupid?

Regardless of the malicious/stupid question, the fact remains that this incident degrades the ransomware business model. It will be interesting (well, except for those involved) to see how this plays out over the longer term. Will it reduce the incentive to launch genuine ransomware attacks? Will those latent efforts simply dissipate, or will they resurface in other forms of financially motivated cybercrime?

Re: Who actually uses the router ?

I would guess 99% of customers, who take as much interest in the workings of their internet gubbins as they do in their electricity consumer unit. And why not, they are the customer paying for a service. They are not all geeks, still less are they service technicians. The damn thing should just work, properly. If others have an itch they like to scratch that is fine, but it's not most people's cup of tea.

Re: @45RPM

"If she said I'm selling these stickers and they are a blatant rip off and have no real magical properties, I'd actually have more respect for her and be more likely to buy them!"

Gerald Ratner already tried that approach. It didn't work out well for him.

Re: Can someone explain...

"First of all, telephoto lenses reduce or 'flatten' perspective whereas wide-angles lenses emphasise it."

Perspective is a function of the point of view - as you go on to correctly explain - and nothing to do with focal length. You could take the same picture from the same vantage point with a wide angle and telephoto lens, and both would show the same perspective and relative sizes of the objects in view.

Re: Someone tell me...

"...how the hell this will work for apartment blocks?"

It won't work for appartment blocks. Perhaps you could tell us how the delivery person on foot, who does deliver to appartment blocks, is going to deliver to remote and isolated rural addresses.

Of course if you look only for the cases where it won't work...