* Posts by John Brown (no body)

25255 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2010

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Australian bank stops handling cash at the counter in some branches

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Uhhh...

"Fortunately you can withdraw cash at the supermarket in limited amounts, so perhaps people are doing this?"

Yeah, same in the UK. Most supermarkets will do "cash back" when paying by card or even the self-service till when paying by card. It's a useful service for the customers and helps the supermarket get rid of the cash they take so they pay less to bank it at the end of the day. One of the genuine win-win situations.

China aims to pair J-20 stealth fighter with 'loyal wingman' battle drone

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: First to field

It's also worth remembering the the German military was very "unmechanised" in the main. They deliberately went about making sure newsreels etc only ever showed mechanized equipment while much of the infantry and supplies actually travelled on foot or in horse-drawn carts.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: First to field

"who bombed Toronto?!"

The Quebecois! :-)

NASA names astronauts picked for next Artemis Moon test flight

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Bring it on

Yeah, it's generating a strong feeling of Déjà vu in me.

I'm quite excited to see this all going on, but a definite feeling of "we already did all this years ago". Test launch to orbit,manned mission *around* the Moon and eventually an actual landing. I do hope that the US will be "achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." Oh, wait, that was 1963, not 2023 :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Coat

Re: what do you call...

"why do we even have different names for the same profession based on nationality?"

They are portmanteau words. I wonder what a French astronaut is called? Do they even have a word for portmanteau? :-))))

When Google cost cutting goes molecular: Staples, sticky tape, and PC sweating

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: availability of staples and sticky tape becoming more limited

"Surely if they're all Google phones then they get them at cost not full retail price?"

Don't be silly! if you ever worked in a large company, you'd know that ever subsidiary, every division, every department, every office, charges other parts of the business at the going rate for ever service provided to prove they are a profit centre not a loss leader :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

We've done a few deployments of "follow me" printer services. On install, the users are often surprised and impressed that the whizz-bang printers can even staple the print jobs for them. Initially, the "gimmick" is attractive, and many people choose the stapling option just to see it in action. Some months down the line, when the novelty has worn off, no one ever seems to take responsibility for ordering a new staple cartridge when the last one is empty.

Strangely, most of these whizz-bang multi-function printers, despite being clever enough to, and programmed to monitor usage rates and automatically order toner and other consumables direct from the warehouse and addressed to the specific site and printer, they CAN'T tell when the stapler is empty, DON'T count each usage of the stapler and NEVER order staple cartridges automatically. Any time someone gets called out to service one of these beasts, invariably the stapler cartridge is empty and often there is a manual stapler on the nearby desk.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Buses...

"(In Google's case a park and ride pre-order system would suggest itself. Nice little form filled in a week ahead. Vehicle sized appropriately)."

So, what happened to Googles driverless vehicle program? The intercampus bus, with an app to book one as needed seems like the sort of "own dog food" Google ought to be eating. If a bus is due at 4pm and no one has booked it, is it really there?

Tesla Semi, out since December, already facing a recall over brakes

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Coat

self-proclaimed "Technoking" Elon Musk

"Technoking" Elon Musk

Does that abbreviate to T'oking Elon Musk? You know, to fit into the limited space of a Tweet. Maaaan.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Trucked

"whoever dreamt up the layout has obviously never actually driven one for real."

Does this apply to the cabin designers of so many modern cars with multi-level touch screen menus you have *look at* when making changes rather than just reaching out and feeling the button to press or knob to turn without ever taking your eyes off the road? That would explain a lot :-)

Parts of UK booted offline as Virgin Media suffers massive broadband outage

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

To be fair, that's most likely coincidence. Like the local Tyneside Metro train system with a major borkage in the middle of the network effectively severing the system into two separate networks on the same day the prices went up 14%. 800 metres of overhead power line came down and took a few days to replace. Being fair to them, they did immediately apologise and said it was major and could very likely take up to a week to fix then got the system back up and running by day 4, Sunday. Luckily for the users, it happened during live running times so there were trains running on either side of the break. If that had happened overnight, the trains would have been in the depot and 50% of the network would have no trains at all. Resilience is the dreaded "bus replacement service" bit in this instance just between about a three station length of track. Slightly better redundancy than VMs network :-)

Parisians say au revoir to shared e-scooters

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

It's a "motor vehicle" for use on the roads. And based on the many dangerous antics which many users get up too, gives the cops some specific powers over them. A "provisional" or learners licence is the minimum required, which all you have to do is apply for, no tests or exams required, valid for two years

Electric bikes are classed differently because they are classed as "electrically assisted", ie the motor is not classed as the primary motive power.

Ride on disability scooters are classified differently again.

Each of the above device have different legal specifications regarding maximum speeds, where they can be used etc., which helps differentiate them in law.

It might seem like a curtailment of freedoms to some, to others it's putting some safety requirements in place to reduce the rapidly climbing accident statistics we see for e-scooter users.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

I don't believe the "400,000 people per month" quote anyway. I very much doubt a 1/3 of all registered voters in use an e-scooter in a month. More likely it's a far, far smaller number of people making 400,000 journeys/hires per month.

I'm assuming that the French, like the UK, have specified a legal framework and that e-scooter users are at least adults and maybe even must have a driving licence as in the UK. Dunno about that last part though. If the quoted "400,000 people" couldn't be bothered to vote to keep them, then clearly even the users don't care enough to vote either.

Paid and legacy Twitter verification now indistinguishable

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

It's a shitshow

I think Twitters official response to the El Reg RFC is just admitting that they really are a shitshow these days.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

"The MSM "

You keep saying that. Yet the article points out that some of "The MSM" are paying and others are not. So is it only those who are NOT paying that are "The MSM" and those who ARE paying are NOT "The MSM"? I'm confused. Who are "The MSM". Please be explicit and exhaustive when compiling the list. I'd love to know.

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

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Where is it?

I wonder if that might be $County_Council somewhere in the midlands? I was on site for some other totally unrelated reason and overheard a discussion between what seemed like senior managers and techs and a BT rep or engineer. It seems they had a live and direct phone line, not routed through any switchboard, for which they had identified the number, but neither current nor previous phone supplier could identify it or confirm if it was their line and if it was being billed for. Apparently, no amount of digging through contracts or bills could find any reference to his number at $County_Hall.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Not Only But Also

Is that the one from "your" emergency services that only use good looking ambulance drivers?

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Pointless reports

"[brother] Oh - he hasn't worked here for years..."

Had a customer on a supposedly fixed IP address. the ISP, Virgin Media, had done a network re-jig in the area and it turns out that, at the time at least, the "fixed IP address" was just a very long lease on DHCP so half their connections to various servers at HQ were failing because the "known IP address" was part of the security system. Once I'd realised what might be the problem, we contacted VM who said they'd been sending emails to all affected customers for months beforehand warning of the changes. They even told us who the contact was. I reported that to the customers and, of course, it was a named person address at the company for someone who had left years ago. So both client and ISP to blame there.

School principal resigns after writing $100,000 check to Elon Musk impersonator

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: "I am very smart"

"Kicked myself hard, really disappointed but it feels like very effective training."

Similar at our place. I entered fake details into the "scam" login portal, which looked very much like our company portal, right down to the very, very long and obfuscated URI, but it was an automated system that enrolled me into the mandatory online refresher course anyway as a "victim". Bugger. I won't be doing that again.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Coat

I barely speak French but understood that perfectly. I must be very, very smart!!

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Joke

Re: "I am very smart"

Dancing shoes for ex-Prime Ministers in fields of wheat?

Wellies for Aussies in fields of sheep?

India flies – and lands – reusable autonomous spaceplane

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: No, it doesn't look like the Shuttle or Buran

So, as a former trainee glider pilot, did that sound like a glider landing to you? :-)

Maybe it was just the speed of the landing and the air flow over non-streamlined bits, ie the undercarriage making all that noise and not that it was under power.

Virgin Orbit lays off 85% of staff as funding deal falters

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Meaninglessly diluted and overrated brand anyway

"We were invented by The Co-operative Bank in 1999 and we’ve been smiling ever since.

Thanks :-) They didn't used to be so up front. It was, of course, always in the small print that most people never read though :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Virgin Orbit could continue in a shell form while chief executive Dan Hart...

SCO managed that for decades :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Space is Hard

According to Wikipedia, "LauncherOne made six flights total beginning in 2020, resulting in four successes and two failures. Following the failure of the company's sixth launch and an inability to secure additional financing,[5] the company laid off nearly all staff and suspended operations on March 30, 2023"

So no, VO weren't built on this single UK launch, the rest having been in the USA. But they do seem to have been living from launch to launch and didn't have the funds to cope with too many fails, or 2 out of 6 in this case.

Possibly some people are confused by El Reg referring to the launch as "the UK’s big hope for space launches", which could imply VO is a British company. Obviously some of those jobs will have been at the Cornish spaceport, ie "British jobs", but I suspect many were never going to be long term since I don't think it likely the UK can support enough launches to make the place viable yet, if ever. I suspect most of the "jobs" in Cornwall were imported US staff, engineers, controllers etc., flown in for the UK launch and now flown back home.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Trying to secure funding?

Depends on which side of the Atlantics version of "laid off" is being used by the now US -centric ElReg in a UK based story.

AFAIK, "laid off" in the USA means sacked or fired. In the UK, "laid off" is more likely used as a short term thing where the company can't afford to pay the wages and is attempting to re-finance/re-structure and hopefully take the staff back on in a few weeks or a month.

The risk is that it all fails and the people laid off end up redundant or the company starts up again but some people have found other jobs. The longer the shutdown, the less likely the good staff will still be ready, willing and able to come back. If too many of the essential staff don't come back, the company may fold anyway.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Meaninglessly diluted and overrated brand anyway

They're chasing the younger market because they appear to have money. One of the reasons the younger market has money to burn is because they can't afford to get on the housing ladder and are living with the parents for many more years than young people previously did. So they want the "hip and trendy digital bank image", not some fuddy duddy old Victorian bank image of old in the hope that when those youngsters do finally scrape together enough for a house deposit, they will take out a mortgage with Clydsedale Virgin Money.

Most of these "hip and trendy" online banks are not new businesses. They are just re-brands of the old established order. The Co-Op Bank did the same with Smile. There no hint on Smile website that it's owned and operated by Co-Operative Bank.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Where is the support?

Oh, they already had the committee meeting to decide who should be on the committee to do that? Wow! that was quick!

Italy bans ChatGPT for 'unlawful collection of personal data'

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: FTFY

So stick a damn big popup on the login page. "We process any data you give us in order to respond to it. Log in or bog off"

Yes, exactly that. Warn the user first so they can make an informed choice. The problem is they are not currently doing that and that's illegal where GDPR holds sway. It gives people the freedom to choose from a position of knowledge instead of ignorance, it doesn't take away or restrict freedom (other than the "freedom" of companies to take any and all personal information and use it any way they see fit)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Big Brother

Err, wot?

"ChatGPT, Replika and tools like it are so new that it's easy to forget widespread use has only been happening "for a matter of weeks," said Edward Machin, a London-based privacy lawyer at international law firm Ropes & Gray."

So what? GDPR has been around for a while now and companies have no excuse not to be aware of it. Just because the company or technology is new does NOT give them carte blanche to ride roughshod over the law until someone stops them. Collecting personal data without consent is already illegal. ChatGPT being new doesn't change that.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: FTFY

Under GDPR, consent MUST be explicit. Implicit consent doesn't cut it.

British govt tech supplier Capita crippled by 'IT issue'

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Joke

Re: Slow news day?

As per the article, with Crapita out of action, they can't provide the contracted services to their customers, so many other company's and organisations are also unable to provide their normal levels of service. On the other hand, customer satisfaction levels are up and THAT is news :-)

Ex-politico turned Meta hype man brands Metaverse 'new heart of computing'

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

When playing Ned Kelly dress-up?

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

"Canalys said they think Metaverse business projects will be dead by 2025."

...so, which one are you going to trust? :-)

Today's old folks set to smash through longevity records

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Coffee/keyboard

Re: Well of course...

"We've created morlochs but persuaded them to eat McDonald's instead - sounds like a brilliant plan"

See icon :-)

(Watch out for the New Improved "MeetFreetm" SOYA-lent Green BigMacs, coming soon to a "restaurant" near you Real Soon Now.)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Optional

There's also a measure of "you can live forever if you only ever drink Himalayan spring water and organic lettuce grown by monks, or instead, you can enjoy life"

Microsoft wants to stick adverts in Bing chat responses

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: "Because it works"

"soap flakes"?

What century are you living in? :-)

Boeing's first-ever crewed mission in Starliner ISS spacecraft delayed to late July

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Take Your Time, Boeing

Agreed. I'm in two minds over this delay. Safety first, of course, and some sadness that it's being delayed as it's another option for keeping the ISS crewed and supplied. On the other hand, it's Boeing and these days, we expect problems and delays.

Microsoft Defender shoots down legit URLs as malicious

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Hmmmm??

And yet again, "updates" released to the rest of the world to beta test before the US wakes up.

Publishers land killer punch on Internet Archive in book copyright court battle

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Puzzled.

"and lending unlimited copies."

Not true. It's been made clear in every article I've read on this subject, at least two here on El Reg including the parent article of this comment section, that IA are digitising books they own and then lending out one single digitised copy per book owned,

Gone in 120 seconds: Tesla Model 3 child's play for hackers

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Expect updates soon

With MS, would we even notice the extra patches? It's nearly Patch Tuesday again!

With Google, it seems to be down to device manufactures, so not holding my breath (although my Samsung A12 just got another update last week!)

With Apple, I have no clue. I've not properly used an Apple computer since I played with an Apple ][ many years ago :-)

France bans all recreational apps – including TikTok – from government devices

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: I dont understand why this is so newsworthy!

"If I was in incharge of Gov issued phones/tablets, they would be MDM'ed to the nth degree... no app store and the minimum needed for them to do their jobs."

Our company did that. It took weeks if not months to get the approvals through to add back all the apps we actually need to do our jobs properly. Like OEM diags tools which are absolutely required on a day to day basis. AFAIK there was no consultation or notice period. Someone high up simply decided it should happen and suddenly the "app store" had something like 5 or 6 apps in it.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: The words stable, door and bolted immediately sprang to mind.

I think it's more about the civil servants than the politicians. There are a LOT more of them, ie ALL government issued devices not just those operated by the people least likely to understand.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Coat

Re: Why the emphasis on TikTok???

Isn't Candy Crush a default menu item in Windoiws10/11 these days? Surely it's not "recreational", it's part of the default install :-)

And doesn't every office have a least one X-Box for all the users to connect to over the LAN? Why else would the shortcuts in the start menu be there by default?

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Then "IT" manglement aren't doing their jobs properly. It's up to them to prove the business case by itemising the cost of secured access to employees own $random phones. Even just the time spent adding users to an exiting InTune or similar management tool and then keeping it up to date as people join and leave the org is a significant ongoing cost. Of course, there will different budgets involved, so the bean counters need to be convinced that no matter the budget it comes from, it's still hitting the bottom line!

BOFH: The Board members are looking very ill these days

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

You mean the Pro is in a different state?

How Arm aims to squeeze device makers for cash rather than pocket pennies for cores

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: This again?

"That doesn't mean they suddenly deserve a percentage of end device profits."

It all sounds a bit like the pick and shovel manufactures claiming a percentage for the successful players in the gold rush(s).

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: No ARM done

"Short term gain, medium term suicide. If they do this, they're dead in 5-7 years."

Why would they care? If the IPO is successful, the people that count will have made their billions and be out of it by then.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: I can see how this will work out...

"So how much are they planning to charge for the ARM chips used in Maseratis Lamborghinis and BMWs."

Excellent point. I foresee lots of court cases attempting to not only define exactly what the "end user device" is but is the "value" what the end user pays or what the OEM builds it for? Retail prices vary from country to country as well as over time. If a phone is discounted does Arm get a proportionally lower royalty?

Buy Samsung phones and tablets. Comes with a FREE Arm processor!![*]

Note, the CPU is not part of the device and if you insist we do have models available with no pre-fitted CPU at EXACTLY the same price, just to prove that the CPU really is FREE!

First-known interstellar Solar System visitor 'Oumuamua a comet in disguise – research

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Alien

Re: That's just what we want you to think Earthlings

"An equally interesting question is what's the maximum distance a hypothetical alien race of a roughly similar technological level could detect us from. Not just by radio but spectral analysis of the atmosphere and any other viable form of remote sensing."

Good point. We'll know when we find one :-

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