* Posts by Robin

536 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Feb 2007

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Yes, I did just crash that critical app. And you should thank me for having done so

Robin

Comparing old mail clients to modern mail clients, the Outlook is pretty bleak

Whizkids jimmy OpenAI, Google's closed models

Robin

El Reg have been using the word "Boffin" for at least the ~20 years I've been reading it.

Belgian ale legend Duvel's brewery borked as ransomware halts production

Robin

To help avoid that, a rule of thumb I was once told by a Belgian person was to keep your session to a total of 24%. So if you're on the 8% beer you have 3 of them. If it's 6%, 4 of them. And so on. This is all based on the common beer bottle serving for that stuff (33cl).

I've tried it and it seemed to stop me having a raging hangover the next day! I did have some delicious carbonade and frites to go with them though, which probably helped.

EU users can't update 3rd party iOS apps if abroad too long

Robin

Re: Who are their lawyers?

> who hadn't bothered to apply for citizenship in their chosen country of residence, did lose the rights that they had previously held

Also residency. I wasn't eligible for citizenship but I am officially a "resident foreigner". It means I do still benefit from some stuff like not needing stamps on my UK passport when I go in/out of Schengen*, as well as other things.

* I do this several times a week, so it's very handy.

Space exploitation vs space exploration: Humanity has much to learn from the Voyager probes

Robin

Keep on running

He's looking forward to one more trip to the US to celebrate Voyager's 50th anniversary. "When Voyager's 50th birthday comes up, I think I'd like to be back in JPL," he tells us.

Will the Voyagers still be running? Perhaps.

The Voyager probes were launched in the same year in which I was born, so it's like we're having a competition to see which of us lasts longest. Don't fancy my chances to be honest.

AI-driven booze bouncers can ID you with face scan

Robin

Re: Brave New World

Is that online anywhere where we could read it, Mike?

Wait, hold on, everyone – Mozilla thinks Apple, Google, Microsoft should play fair

Robin

Re: What “market share”?

I don't think we should be venturing as far as more complicated arguments just yet.

Apple's on-device gen AI for the iPhone should surprise no-one. The way it does it might

Robin

Re: Alibi

I feel like there's something in your proposal that I'm missing. I'm going to need more explanation.

Au contraire, I'd suggest that the proposal as it stands mentions "AI" enough to attract plenty of investors.

What Microsoft's latest email breach says about this IT security heavyweight

Robin

Re: "Microsoft makes a good operating system"

When they roll out new functionality (that nobody asked for) Teams really does have vibes of "lone developer working in their bedroom". Except an actual lone developer would probably take more care over the product.

Travel app Kayak offers Boeing 737 Max 9 filter after that door plug drama

Robin

Re: When a company

That cockpit window was featured in an episode of Cautionary Tales. Interesting podcast series, worth subscribing.

How artists can poison their pics with deadly Nightshade to deter AI scrapers

Robin

Me: AI, draw me a cow

AI: HTTP 418

Working from home never looked better: Leopard stalks around Infosys and TCS campuses

Robin

Planning permission

That locked filing cabinet in that basement with a sign saying "beware of the leopard" isn't looking so daft now, is it?

New year, new bug – rivalry between devs led to a deep-code disaster

Robin

Is that icon you, getting your jacket?

Microsoft Forms feature request still not sorted after SEVEN years

Robin

Re: Don't rush them!

Writing that joke must have taken hours

The 15-inch MacBook Air just nails it

Robin

Re: Cost as reviewed?

Came to say just this. My colleague at work has an M1 14" MacBook Pro and when I have my personal* M2 13" MacBook Air on the desk near it, the difference in size is quite stark.

* My current work machine is an old Intel 16" MacBook Pro from 2019 which I refer to as the 'desk warmer'.

Scribbling limits in free version of Evernote set to test users' patience

Robin

Re: $130 per year?

I'd imagine those exciting plans for next year include "simplifying" the tariffs (i.e. making it more expensive)

Meta's ad-free scheme dares you to buy your privacy back, one euro at a time

Robin

Forward this to all your friends!

Groan, I can already imagine the dumb forwarded posts, about how "Facebook are going to start charging for your account" and probably also mentioning Bill Gates for some reason.

Apple lifts the sheet on a trio of 'scary fast' M3 SoCs built on a 3nm process

Robin

Re: Or for less money ...

That's funny, I almost spat my morning cup of potato all over my keyboard

Sorry Pat, but it's looking like Arm PCs are inevitable

Robin

Re: Strategy

Can't it be both?

NASA to equip International Space Station with frikkin lasers (for comms)

Robin

How big?

This optical module is described as being the size of a microwave

So somewhere between 1mm and 30cm? Not very precise.

Lost your luggage? That's nothing – we just lost your whole flight!

Robin

My punishment? U had to buy cakes for the whoe office!

I like that punishment! One place I worked had a "Broken Build Biscuits" rule; if you committed code that broke the master build then you had to buy a pack of Maryland cookies for the team.

Robin

Ssshhh

as a database admin with a certain unspecified national airline

Wow that's quite some level of secrecy. But I bet if he nosed around the database a bit more, he could have discovered which company it was.

OpenAI's DALL·E 3 teams up with ChatGPT to turn brainfarts into art

Robin

Re: Apropos Dall-E

Which suggests it picks up "yellow", "blue", "jacket", "car.", and possibly "man". But doesn't know what any of those words actually mean or how to link them.

Could be worse, it could be picking up "person", "woman", "man", "camera", "tv" and nobody knows what it means.

Lightning struck: Apple switches to USB-C for iPhone 15 lineup

Robin

Re: milking the lightning cable royalties

Ah yes. All hail apple...

There's "all hail Apple" and there's "all hait Apple", and the truth lies somewhere between.

Dutch consumer groups sue Google over its entire business model

Robin

Re: Illness

Aha but I found a way to keep one step ahead, by already searching for online medication, cryptocurrency investment advice, hot girls in my area and also I send money to random Nigerian princes as well just to be sure.

If you like to play along with the illusion of privacy, smart devices are a dumb idea

Robin

A couple of years ago lived in a small place where the room through which you entered the house didn't have normal ceiling lighting, and instead had to rely on plugged-in lamps. And the only convenient place to plug in such a thing was the other side of the room from the door. So no, it's not always possible to do that. Yes it was annoying. I set it up as described above so I could either turn on the lights from my phone as I approached the house, or do it via a voice command once inside (and it would also tell me a joke).

I'll see your data loss and raise you a security policy violation

Robin

Re: Outlook...

Or having a massive pile of photos, random bits of paper and possibly even DVDs on the surface of their desk, and complaining they can't find anything, while the desk drawers are completely empty. Oh and I suppose in this metaphor the recycling bin would actually be on the top of the desk too.

Robin

When?

At the time Windows often lived in a mess of its own making

Doesn't help narrow it down, really.

Polishing off a printer with a flourish revealed not to be best practice

Robin

Re: Stories from Grandad

It's stories from the future that need a time machine.

This week's submission comes telepathically from a reader we shall Regomise as Tony. Cast your minds back to the 2130s. It was 25pm and Tony had barely started his weekend of being on space-call, when the fluxcaller rang. "Oh Belgium!" he cursed as he threw his moonbeer to the floor, only to see it miss and float away. His space boss gave him the bad news that the space printer was on the blink again and he would have to go there in his space rocket...

Windows screensaver left broadcast techie all at sea

Robin

Who me on call?

Isn't this article more in line with "Who, me?" rather than "On Call"?

I've always thought that:

On Call = This situation happened (or management imposed this stupid edict) and I fixed it in this way

Who Me = I fucked up in this way and did/did not solve it by doing this

You're not seeing double – yet another UK copshop is confessing to a data leak

Robin

Re: Captain paranoid

Nice, thanks for the links! Interesting reading.

Robin

Re: Captain paranoid

Management and CIOs are scared to say no

I'm not particularly up on this stuff, so it's a genuine question... what happens if they do say no? Surely there's a mechanism in the Act to tell people to do one if it's an unreasonable request?

Florida Man and associates indicted for conspiracy to steal data, software

Robin

Re: Let me just correct the record here.

Thanks for including the phrase "Sleepy Joe", it means I don't have to bother reading any more of this thread.

Have you ever suspected your colleague doesn't hope this email finds you well?*

Robin

Re: Or the really annoying

Agreed!

It's really fucking anno**ng.

Tesla steering problems attract regulator eyes for second time this year

Robin

Turn turn turn

"Five reports indicate an inability to steer the vehicle. Seven additional reports cite loss of power steering resulting in increased effort to control the vehicle," the NHTSA said in its investigation document.

So a new Tesla is about as easy to control as my 17 year old banger with a failing power steering pump?

Want to live dangerously? Try running Windows XP in 2023

Robin
Joke

Since it's maxed out, it would be a good experiment to try running Windows XP on it

Samsung’s midrange A54 is lovely, but users won't feel seen

Robin

Re: Duh, comparing apples to oranges

This has echoes of "you're holding it wrong".

Sure, there are situations where a fingerprint reader is more convenient than facial recognition, but if it has the latter as a capability then shouldn't it work properly, even if it's not the preferred method?

Brit broadband subscribers caught between crappy connections and price hikes

Robin

Re: Speed issues

> my kids do not understand the difference between "WiFi" and "the internet"

> My kids ask for an "Android charger" when they mean mini/micro USB.

Kids say the funniest things :-)

Indian telecoms leaps from 2G, to 4G, to 6G – on a single day

Robin

Re: 6G may be

> no one reading this will ever have a use for it in their lifetime

To be honest, if they just got 4G working consistently everywhere (to like 100Mbit/s or something) I'd be happy.

Bosses face losing 'key' workers after forcing a return to office

Robin

> WFH makes a difference when there is no metrics as to whether any work gets done

Developer-turned-Team Leader here. I have no metrics on specifically who's doing what work, yet still it all gets done regardless of what kind of chair people are sitting on. My team is distributed across 4 different locations around Europe and I literally have no idea (and neither do I care) whether they're in the office or at home that day, unless I happen to see the background of their camera in a meeting. I trust people to do the stuff that our team has committed to, and they repay the trust. Everyone plays their part and it's quickly apparent when someone isn't pulling their weight.

As an aside, in the past I've had plenty of days in the office where I've done hardly anything and also days working at home where it's way more productive than in the office due to absence of distractions.

Google HR hounds threaten 'next steps' for slackers not coming in 3 days a week

Robin

Re: if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it

One company can't manage remote workers properly, therefore the concept doesn't work anywhere? Understood.

File Explorer gets facelift in latest Windows 11 build

Robin

Explorer? You mean the internet?

Is there a feature to go back in time to whenever someone at Microsoft had the bright idea of naming File Explorer almost the same as Internet Explorer, so when you're trying to guide users as to what to do, they keep opening IE instead of browsing files? I have a cricket bat with that person's name on it...

Meta tells staff to return to office three days a week

Robin

OK, how do you stop the non-morons (aka wife) wandering over and asking you to put a plug on this, take the dog for a walk, look after junior whilst she nips to the shop etc?

Maybe have a grown-up discussion about it? e.g. in my home working scenario, we have an agreement that if the door to this 'office' room is closed then I'm working on something from which I can't be disturbed, otherwise I'm fair game for interruptions. And I usually say at the start of the day what time is good for lunch together.

Fed up with slammed servers, IT replaced iTunes backups with a cow of a file

Robin

Great...

complete with their disdain for "the man" and any sort of corporate diktat

...now I want a Kit Kat.

Buckle up for meetings on the road as Cisco brings Webex to Audi autos

Robin

Re: CARIAD?

Here you go:

Dwi ddim yn caru'r syniad hwn (ond sgen i ddim Audi anyway)

Mars helicopter went silent for six sols, imperilled Perseverance rover

Robin

"Initiate 'wipe on t-shirt' procedure..."

Robin

Re: Wrong place for the solar panels?

I see a similar effect here on Earth with my own panels.

I too have problems with the exposed "panel" on the top of my head interacting with the environment, and sometimes I have to deploy a hotfix (knotted on both sides).

EU monopoly cops probe complaints about Microsoft Azure

Robin

You'd think of all publications, El Reg would have its vulture-based metaphors on point

Robin
Joke

Monopoly Cops

"EU monopoly cops probe complaints about Microsoft Azure"

We could do with those Monopoly Cops turning up to our house on Christmas day.

I've seen things you wouldn't believe, like an atom about to photosynthesize

Robin

Re: Pics! Where are the pics?

Or far away.

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