* Posts by zekepliskin

10 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2018

Smuggler caught with 256 Intel Core processors wrapped around him in cling film

zekepliskin

A new kind of mule.

Where once there were and still are drug mules, now they're joined by a new breed - microchip mules. Still, could be worse, he could have tried taking them orally!

Hear, hear: The first to invent idiot-cancelling headphones gets my cash

zekepliskin

Re: Why 99 smartphones and not, say, a round 100?

99 Luftballoons.

Atari finally launches its VCS console. Again.

zekepliskin

"an under-powered, out-dated, over-priced, over-complicated console that will please no one and go nowhere". I remember journalists lining up in their hundreds to say just that about the Switch prior to launch. You know, the one that's now sold over 35m units and is having The Witcher 3 brought to it. So even if the VCS only sells a tenth of that it's a still pretty decent result. And yup it does have more power than the Switch too.

It's weird how we're back to that though, that it's all about power like nothing else matters. Reminds me of the bit wars of the 1990s. If power is your primary concern all consoles are underpowered; go build yourself a high spec gaming PC with one of those triple decker graphics cards.

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

zekepliskin

So it's a change to remove user control and privacy while claiming it improves them? Basically a lie then. As Google keep getting sued and making payouts you think maybe they'd know better, but like other tech giant Apple they're hepped up on hubris and unaware they're backing into a profit stealing precipice.

For my part, I've never liked Chrome anyway. I have been using Firefox with a small suite of cookie and ad blocking software for some time now, and although it doesn't usually top browser benchmarks, in real world terms when my computers aren't being forced to load and render junk ad content there is an appreciable increase in page load times. Also an appreciable decrease in irritation from the end users having to click to quit all the crap that loads over the top of the page, like those stupid cookie nags we've had for a year or two thanks to that pointless EU regulation change.

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

zekepliskin

Re: It's a matter of relevance

That's true, they don't need to thieve your data because they've already thieved a huge profit margin from you buying the device before you even first switch it on.

Most munificent Apple killed itself with kindness. Oh. Really?

zekepliskin

Wait, Apple makes more durable phones than the competition? When did that happen? Because the majority of people I know who own iPhones have either smashed their current or previous one with very little accidental effort at some point, whereas very rarely do I see a decimated Android phone...

It's official. Microsoft pushes Google over the Edge, shifts browser to Chromium engine

zekepliskin

Re: I'm looking forward to seeing it this will bring any real benefit at all.

The general incomprehensibility and tendency to capitalise words coupled with describing things like some kind of epic battle suggest you have read way too many comic books. Perhaps you need a new manual of style?

Windows 10 security question: How do miscreants use these for post-hack persistence?

zekepliskin

Tempting fate

Don't tell Microsoft to change anything! Based on the October 2018 update fiasco if they amended user login settings it would end up deleting the user entirely in the next update, or make it so the login button failed to work. Chaps, they released an update that can make previously working systems blue screen on next boot. Tempting fate is a bad idea...

Incoming! Microsoft unleashes more fixes for Windows 10 October 2018 Update

zekepliskin

Woah boy. And in 2006 we thought Vista was a complete pile of s**t. Seems like Microsoft's worst OS was still yet to come. Nothing is tempting me away from Win7, better a relatively stable OS with the odd security hole unlikely to be exploited than rolling updates on Win10 which break basic functionality seemingly at random.

Groundhog Day comes early as Intel Display Drivers give Windows 10 the silent treatment

zekepliskin

Dunce caps all round

I'm trying to decide who's been the bigger fools over the past 2 months - Microsoft for epic failing Windows 10 related updates/ads in Outlook, Apple for pricing themselves too high on the iPhone XS and talking about putting the iPhone X back in production (bet shareholders are loving that backpedalling) or Bethesda for releasing a buggy alpha Fallout 76 and then releasing a console patch that is almost 100% the size of the original game install.

Whatever it is, I think all three companies need to break out the dunce caps and seriously pull themselves together because this is absolutely pathetic. All of them should know better.