* Posts by DanceMan

651 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Aug 2009

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Congress told how Chinese goons plan to incite 'societal chaos' in the US

DanceMan

Re: if Russia negotiated in good faith

If pigs could fly.................

Is this the ghost of Neville Chamberlain speaking?

Five Eyes intel chiefs warn China's IP theft program now at 'unprecedented' levels

DanceMan
Boffin

"whole other level of dangerousness."

dangerousness -- is this worse than danger?

Not even the ghost of obsolescence can coerce users onto Windows 11

DanceMan
Thumb Up

Look on the bright side

In two years there will be a bunch of good usable computers for sale to happy linux users.

Mozilla's midlife crisis has taken it from web pioneer to Google's weird neighbor

DanceMan
FAIL

Re: Why I Use Vivaldi

Big upvote for Tab Mix Plus. It allows the browser to work the way I want. Several other extensions also disappeared with the code change and much good work was lost.

EU right to repair updates pass latest hurdle

DanceMan
FAIL

Re: That's Phillips screwed then.....

Phillips make replacement cutters for their shavers that they price at nearly the cost of the shaver. And they make them in a myriad of incompatible sizes to discourage us from repairing or parts swapping.

High severity vuln in WinRAR could allow code to run when files are opened

DanceMan

Proprietary is the word you were looking for.

Pack of GM Cruise robo-taxis freeze, snarl up Friday night traffic amid festival crowds

DanceMan
FAIL

a consequence of crowds overloading cell networks

This happens all the time in the venues I work in. In the theatres connectivity disappears backstage when the audience comes in. I'm no expert but I put it down to the routers overloading with all the hits from audience phones despite the phones not having the username or password to connect. In a small arena they installed a new led houselight system, part of which connects wirelessly. At least it does before the audience comes in. We have major problems getting the houselights up at the end of shows, necessitating using an override switch.

Anything depending on connectivity in the presence of crowds cannot depend on wireless.

Linux Mint cuts slice of 'Victoria' as 21.2 beta lands with dash of fresh Cinnamon

DanceMan

Vertical taskbars can grow on you

Another grumpy old git here, using MX Linux with XFCE. Decades of horizontal taskbar on Windows made me averse to the vertical. Could have changed it but didn't and now prefer the vertical, at least as configured by MX, which I also prefer to Mint.

False negative stretched routine software installation into four days of frustration

DanceMan

Re: I seem to have a vague memory of some US rock/pop star

Jerry Lee Lewis

Beams from brightest gamma ray burst ever seen were pointed directly at Earth

DanceMan
Mushroom

They're coming to get you Barbara

I was going to ask how far gamma rays travel in space, but it appears to have been answered. That far, eh.

North Korean spy satellite launch ends in sea smash

DanceMan

Japan's response

Japan's NHK World tv went beyond the usual warning crawl and replaced normal programming with a full screen "take cover" page for something like 40 minutes.

Lenovo Thinkpad Z13 just has this certain Macbook Air about it...

DanceMan
Linux

A complaint about complaints

Liam is the Reg's Linux Desk writer. If you don't want to read about Linux, look elsewhere. For those of us who do, especially those using older Thinkpads on Linux, these are valuable reports.

Keep them coming, Liam.

Russia-pushed UN Cybercrime Treaty may rewrite global law. It's ... not great

DanceMan

Rogue's Gallery

Russia, Cambodia, Belarus, China, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela, and India

US chip sanctions may push Brazil, others right into China's arms

DanceMan

Old jokes about Five Year Plans aside, the US thinks ahead to the next 2 year election, but China thinks a decade or more ahead.

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

DanceMan

Re: Internal system

Shook hands with Lauren Bacall once after a lecture appearance. I agree, remarkable woman, unforgettable scene in that film.

Toshiba board supports – without recommending – $15 billion takeover bid

DanceMan

Toshiba support

Decades ago I found that support for Toshiba computing was non-existent. Nothing online, just take in to Toshiba Service representatives. So their corporate ethos has always been suspect for me.

Electronics market shows US-China decoupling will hike inflation and slow growth

DanceMan

Cheap Chips or Freedom?

I think of the isolationist movements in the US prior to WW2.

Humanoid robot takes a retail job, but not one any store clerk wants to do

DanceMan

I thought I knew the location of this trial but my suspected choice is just inside Vancouver, a Canadian Tire store with a Mark's underneath off a lower parking level. What made this interesting for me is that I won't use this CT store. instead driving further to one in North Van. The Vancouver store has put many items off regular shelves and out of view behind a service counter and has few staff in the public areas to provide directions or assistance. The North Van store is well staffed and well run. People matter and good employees and good management pay off. A robot can't fix this.

OpenAI CEO heralds AGI no one in their right mind wants

DanceMan

I think the important issue with AI is how and where it's used. To use the example of driving aids I fear the reliance of the current younger drivers on those aids diminishes both their skills and the necessary attention driving requires. The broader use of AI comes with the same risks. Be careful what you wish for.

PC tech turns doctor to diagnose PC's constant crashes as a case of arthritis

DanceMan
FAIL

Not just a Brit complaint

I wince when I hear on radio an interviewee use "like" eight times in a sentence or say "eckcetera". I suppose it's a price of the universality of English as a world language. That and indifferent education.

Telus source code, staff info for sale on dark web forum

DanceMan
Meh

Telus customer

On Telus fibre for internet and tv. After a power outage the internet comes back but the tv, which I think is built on Windows, can take nearly a week to resume. So I''m not surprised they were vulnerable.

China's spy balloon barrage earns six of its companies a spot on US entity list

DanceMan
Thumb Down

Pot and Kettle

In 2019 China shot down a balloon accusing it of spying. Now they are crying foul over the US doing the same thing. Who do they think they are, Faux News?

Realizing this is getting out of hand, Coq mulls new name for programming language

DanceMan

And Coq is the abbreviation for Coquitlam, a major suburb of Vancouver.

Self-driving car computers may be 'as bad' for emissions as datacenters

DanceMan

Wrong target

The research and expenditure is going at the wrong target at this stage. It should be focused on traffic controls at this point instead of the cars. This may already be the case in areas of freeways and carriageways but my experience and intent is on city driving. My route to work and shopping goes through an urban area with a mix of traffic light intersections and pedestrian lights (also with cross-traffic induction loops). During rush hours the pedestrian lights should be synced to the intersection lights in the main direction of travel and the pedestrian and loops disabled. But this would mean expenditure by the city rather than a venture capital self-driving outfit so it does not happen.

in general work on making the cars communicate with the traffic control systems would yield more immediate results at this point in development.

Apple just cut Tim Cook's pay by 40%. How ever will he get by on that $50m?

DanceMan
Unhappy

Nobody is worth $50 million a year.

There is something wrong when the worst jobs such as bent over picking veg or mopping up vomit in a hospital are paid the lowest wages.

Sizewell C nuclear plant up for review as UK faces financial black hole

DanceMan
FAIL

Re: the 'extreme' weather we're supposedly destined to get.

What fantasy world are you living in? The world I'm living in is experiencing it now.

Liz Truss ousted as UK prime minister, outlived by online lettuce

DanceMan
IT Angle

Re: Please help me here

This is not merely an IT site. It's also a community.

China could use Digital Yuan to swerve Russia-style sanctions

DanceMan
Mushroom

Re: Last week the cheers this week the Tears

Try learning from history. Chamberlain negotiated with Hitler. How did that work out? Putin is using the same playbook --- I want a piece of that country where they speak our language. Then he wants the reset of it.Then it's more countries.

The daunting lesson from WWII was the total defeat necessary over Germany and Japan to reform them into the democracies they are today. Russia is a vast country. Not a simple task.

NASA's Lunar Orbiter spots comfortably warm 'pits' all over the Moon

DanceMan

Caves on the Moon

Flash Gordon was right.

Canadian ISP Rogers falls over for hours, takes out broadband, cable, cellphones

DanceMan

Re: FSB

Today NHK (Japan) had a report on the cyber war launched against Ukraine and the continuing war with white hat hackers and friends of Russia contributing back and forth. One does wonder if Canada as a major friend of Ukraine was targeted.

It also shows the danger of the vast majority of Canada's IT connectivity in the hands of only three giants and the unresolved issue of the Rogers-Shaw buyout which would make it worse.

UK Home Office signs order to extradite Julian Assange to US

DanceMan

Did the helicopter pilot who shot the journalist in the early Wikileaks video ever get charged with war crimes? The US has never joined the International Criminal Court. Assange may be an asshoie but this move smells.

Meteoroid hits main mirror on James Webb Space Telescope

DanceMan
Joke

Re: always covered by cloud

You are Joe Btfsplk and I claim my 5 pounds.

Mozilla browser Firefox hits the big 100

DanceMan
Thumb Up

Re: I open each website in a seperate window...

Each page in a new tab via Tab Mix Plus

Departing Space Force chief architect likens Pentagon's tech acquisition to a BSoD

DanceMan

Re: the opposition burns their treasure on superyachts

Are you aware that a bridge in NL had to be taken down to clear Bezos' superyacht?

Hooking up to Starlink might be pricier than you thought

DanceMan
Joke

Re: Inflation?

The pron industry has always depended on inflation.

Bulgarian airbag variety.

Intel reveals GPU roadmap with hybrid integrated discrete graphics

DanceMan
Mushroom

Re: the language one needs to learn in order to get car features unlocked is Russian.

If you unlock it all the way will the vehicle take off to invade Ukraine?

Full-time internet surveillance comes to Cambodia this week

DanceMan

Re: @Infused - The Internet is Dying...

China owns Cambodia thru massive infrastructure loans and supports rogue dictatorships like this.

KDE Community releases Plasma 5.24: It's eccentric, just like many old-timers

DanceMan

"hamburger menus"

Some stagehands loading a truck with a rectangular case will call "hamburger" if it's to go in across or "hot dog" if fore-aft.

You've stolen the antiglare shield on that monitor you've fixed – they say the screen is completely unreadable now

DanceMan
Mushroom

Re: I'm glad I'm not old enough

Decades ago I was stopped at a red light and saw a woman ahead of me in the adjacent lane toss a cigarette butt out the window. I don't know what came over me because I'm usually pretty meek but I got out of my car, picked up the butt and offered it back to her, "I think you dropped something." She just gave me dirty look so I threw it back inside her car.

Assange psychiatrist misled judge over parentage of his kids, US tells High Court

DanceMan

Re: Putting Assange aside.

That also sounds like quite a few types in (governments) corporations around the world.

FTFY

How to keep a support contract: Make the user think they solved the problem

DanceMan
Boffin

Re: Of course it is do you think ect ect

Understandable mis-spelling of etc. I'm hearing ECKcetera frequently now and the more it is heard the more it is repeated. The original Latin is et (and) cetera (other things).

Yes,an admitted grammar nazi.

Toyota needs more than its Cheer Squad to deal with chip shortages, as five more home factories forced into idleness

DanceMan

TSMC building fab in Japan

Announced on NHK World today.

Microsoft's problem child, Windows 11, is here. Will you run it? Can you run it? Do you even WANT to run it?

DanceMan

Re: A whole lot of systems are going to have MS products killed

Which means more usable machines for Linux users.

DanceMan
Thumb Up

Re: you can always load another

Linux installs are FAST. So is updating.

Texas law banning platforms from social media moderation challenged in lawsuit

DanceMan

Re: Forced speech

The Texas Taliban strikes again.

When everyone else is on vacation, it's time to whip out the tiny screwdrivers

DanceMan

Re: Holding those small screws

I always had difficulties fitting the screws correctly into the back cover of older Thinkpads because there were always at least one missing originally and one hole stripped. I eventually hit on white foam trays from my breakfast sausages. Turn upside down, use a Sharpie to mark features of the cover and then push the screws into the foam in the same place as on the cover. Screws don't get lost and you know where they go.

Facebook sat on report that reveals most-shared post for months was questionable COVID story

DanceMan

Epoch Times

The Epoch Times is Falun Gong, as is their performing arts arm Shen Yun. Anything that can get its followers to stand on corners handing out leaflets or going door to door doing the same (short of political elections) is a cult.

Right to repair shouldn't exist – not because it's wrong but because it's so obviously right

DanceMan
Thumb Up

Re: What about waterproofing?

Blackberry Q10 lost on the drive to work in a rainstorm. I must have got out of the car to do something with a wiper. Found it over 12 hours later soaking wet on the road (luckily ir was a side street) and dried it out for several days. Used it for several more years. Clip off back and replaceable battery. Survivability does not require glue.

Dell won't ship energy-hungry PCs to California and five other US states due to power regulations

DanceMan

"I hear there's a war on pickup trucks in Canada"

Only in the Faux News version of Canada. Hockey on tv would not exist without pickup commercials.

Firefox to adopt Chrome's new approach to extensions – sans the part that threatens ad blockers

DanceMan
Unhappy

Re: Forking Firefox ?

I've been using a fork, Pale Moon, but recent changes in its code have eliminated most of my key extensions, which were already limited to ones developed up to about FF24. I've been looking at Vivaldi as a replacement (well aware it's based on Chromium code.)

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