Posts by onefang 1954 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Dec 2017
"Typically going for larger and heavier stick, either to due to evolving stupidity of your users or to increase the self satisfaction per application of the clue bat."
So you start with a cluebat, then move up to a clue-by-four. Eventually you need to take off and LART the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
The prudes think these words are "magic", somehow corrupting youthful minds and resulting in other nasties. The only reason why these sorts of words have any "magic" is coz the prudes declared these specific words to be dirty words. The opening sequence for Four Weddings and a Funeral would not be funny at all if it was some non-"magic" word. The "magic" words are different in different languages. The prudes are entirely to blame.
"Going all Puritan on us does not stop your constant need to get information on each and everyone of us."
What if we contaminate a lot of that info about us with swear words? Will their internal censorship systems filter us out?
"I think the best we can hope for is just less plastic."
A recent study found that most brands of salt sold in supermarkets have a lot of micro plastics in them. I suspect we'll all be eating more plastic, not less. I'm screwed, I've had two doctors recommend I eat more salt.
I don't use Google Search, nor Google Maps, but I do use Google Daydream (the VR thing, not the fancy "screensaver") that insists on having location turned on, despite not actually needing it for the function it performs. On the other hand, in my main browser I have some of the usual ad blockers we are all familiar with, and those few adverts that slip through are ignored.
Though my favourite thing at the moment is that most of my web browsing goes via my European VPN (I'm in Australia), Google seem to be the only ones that think my European server is in Russia. So those few times I fire up an unprotected web browser to look at something that wont work otherwise, I get adverts in Russian, which I can't read anyway.
Hey Google, I'm over here! Tough luck to the advertisers you sell my data to, wont do them any good.
"This is the bit that bursts my knitting - what is basic digital skills?"
Basic digital skills is being able to count to ten using your digits. More advanced digital skills involve signalling to another human your displeasure using your digits. I'll give an example over there in the corner, though other gestures are available.
'The fact "no one forgets" will excuse all these things because EVERYONE will have something like that in their past.'
Perhaps we will end up with a more tolerant world? Or employers will discriminate against you coz you didn't do something stupid in your youth, then uploaded it somewhere public, like everyone else did. Us oldies might have to track down old photos of past indiscretions, colourise them, photograph them with our smartphones, and stick them on Instagram with an unsuitable filter.
Ah, that must be why I'm also on the naughty step. Though I thought it was traditional, I've seen lots of other corrections posted as comments. Post a correction as a comment, and make some sort of lame joke about it. And commentards asking for a proper web form for corrections instead of a mailto link. I'll also ask for that.
I also agree with Ledswinger, I thrive on feedback, but if you don't tell me what I did wrong, there's no chance I can correct it. The email I sent asking why didn't get a response. Might help to ease the workload of your moderators. And especially for those moderated for posting corrections, might encourage more proper corrections, instead of discouraging people due to the length of time taken for moderation.
From the "The Register Comments Guidelines" is this bit "We try to be broad-minded and consistent" which has not been true of the majority of the comments I have had rejected recently. Rejecting for the use of words that are considered by some to be bad language isn't broad-minded, and a search for those words shows they have been used in many comments, and even in El Reg articles, that's not consistent.
My last rejection I have no idea why it was rejected, makes no sense at all.
Being on the naughty step has cooled my commentarding output, I can't participate in conversations around here when it can take longer than a day for my comments to appear. My last two comments are on 16 hours and counting.
If I promise to not post corrections as comments, can I go back to not being moderated please? I'll even make a deal with you, since I'm a good proof reader, if you unreject those recent posts of mine that I mentioned above, I'll set up a special email folder with special rules and templates that I'll use to send in lots of corrections. Still not as easy as a web form on the same page as the article, but it'll help.
"During the Golden Shower Age of Ringtones I selected "classic bell" for mine, and got a desk-phone like ringing. Worked for about six months, always could tell my phone from the other commuters', then others started switching to it."
Four pages of comments before anyone mentioned ring tones that sound like ancient phones ringing. As you said, it became popular, so I'm surprised no one else mentioned it. Though maybe I'm just more attuned to hearing it, coz my ring tone is a recording of a room full of different random ancient phones ringing, though it starts with just one and slowly adds more.
"I long for the days when you turned these things ON and OFF without these elaborately choreographed Startup and Shutdown."
When my smartphone battery is low (the one I use for everything except phone functions), and I need to squeeze the most life out of it coz there will be a long time before I can charge it, I debate with myself whether it will be better to turn it off, and risk the lengthy startup song and dance sucking more life out of the battery than simply leaving it turned on.
"I can't hear my phone ring or vibrate unless its strapped to my ear (Galaxy S5)"
When I had my S3 I was walking down the street and I heard a phone ringing loudly. I know it wasn't my phone in my shirt pocket, it was a different ring tone. The ringing was also louder than my phone would have done. There wasn't anyone around me. It was a phone ringing in an upstairs room, across a busy street. Glad that wasn't strapped to my ear.
At my last high school, I was the student given the job of ringing the school bell. I set an alarm to go off that gave me enough time to get to the office with all the buttons in it for said bell. So I had an excuse to leave every single class a few minutes early. The bell actually had a button for each room, and one for "all rooms". One day I sat their individually toggling each room button, so that the bell sounded like it was moving slowly down the hallways. Alas there was only the one frequency, or music student that I was would have written a song to play on it.
"In the UK at least you can get Dr Who for free via Autnie Beeb"
In Australia you get Doctor Who for free from our Auntie ABC. On iView, the ABC catch up web site (also for free), you can see new episodes shortly after it is aired on BBC, many hours before it is broadcast on ABC TV. Yes I know, catch up TV sites are supposed to be for if you missed it when it was broadcast, but this is Doctor Who, time travel timey wimey stuff, you can catch up on the stuff you missed, before you miss it. iView also shows old episodes of Doctor Who.
"And all this is on top of the ISP costs and TV license fee (which I am in favour of, btw)."
There's no TV license fee in Australia. All your prices are in pounds, but this story is about Oz (Australia)
"Forgive my ignorance of the state of the art - But can it distinguish "live" sounds from a TV or radio?"
The article did say they trained it with sound effects from Hollywood, so my guess is no. Or alternatively yes, except the sounds from the TV will be taken as being "real", but the "live" sounds are obviously fake.
"Doesn't it concern anyone else when a phrase like 'humans are the weakest link' is directly correlated to AI driven military hardware?"
It does bring to mind a certain Doctor Who episode, where our heroes where trapped in a future TV station.
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