* Posts by jockmcthingiemibobb

76 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jan 2012

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LibreOffice 7.6 arrives: Open source stalwart is showing its maturity

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Missing functionality

Oddly enough, mail merge on my install of Office 2022 crashes when importing an Excel address list. LibreOffice Mail merge works like a champ

Let's have a chat about Java licensing, says unsolicited Oracle email

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Audit? We don't want no audit.

Bollox. EULAs aren't worth the pixels they're displayed on

Twitter will lose 32 million users by end of 2024, Insider Intelligence predicts

jockmcthingiemibobb

Spot on. I was a very active user. I gave Musk the benefit of the doubt & hung around for a few weeks but the tone of the whole site deteriorated. My twitter addiction is now cured. I can't ever see myself indulging in it again & I can't be the only one

Software-defined silicon is coming for telecom kit later this year

jockmcthingiemibobb
Black Helicopters

Re: Remote kill switch

Yeah, because operators deploy their EPC with full Internet access..

Email out, Slack and Teams in for business communications

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Cool & Shiny

Email certainly is getting more expensive. No SME in their right mind would run their own mailserver these days.

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Except I don't use SLACK

Spot on. I get incredibly frustrated at the chain of 20 odd emails for something as simple as arranging a meeting between 6 individuals from different companies because some of them are dinosaurs and refuse to use Slack or any form of instant messaging.

Germany advises citizens to uninstall Kaspersky antivirus

jockmcthingiemibobb

Decent ISPs are supplying Mikrotiks or Fritzboxes these days.

Apple seeks geniuses to work on 6G cellular modem before it's even shipped own 5G chip

jockmcthingiemibobb

Reality bites us in the arse

How do you get 100 microsecond latency without defying physics? Or are we limiting communications to 15Km in the 6G future?

Netflix sued by South Korean ISP after Squid Game fans swell traffic to '1.2Tbps'

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Looks like the ISP wants 2 bites of the cherry

Yeah it's really bizarre that there's no netflix CDN / openconnect in South Korea?

Got enterprise workstations and hope to run Windows 11? Survey says: You lose. Over half the gear's not fit for it

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: "an upgrade will have to happen in the coming months or years"

Pfft. More importantly if it's backed up correctly and you' workstation data isn't particularly sensitive then who cares? Half our workstations are still Windows 7. Only a lack of apps or hardware actually shitting itself will take my Win7 laptop out my cold dead hands.

See that last line in the access list? Yeah, that means you don't have an access list

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: was it seman's contracting dicks?

This ISP heavy lifting is Juniper. Sub 100Gb stuff is generally Mikrotik. Meraki wireless...no thanks.

I know plenty of people in IT who've never touched Cisco or Meraki gear outside of training courses

Google's newest cloud region taken out by 'transient voltage' that rebooted network kit

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Sutpid

She'll be right!

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: My personal computer could survive this

Which is why we're all DC these days.

In the '80s, satellite comms showed promise – soon it'll be a viable means to punt internet services at anyone anywhere

jockmcthingiemibobb

I get 50Mbps from my local WISP. Decent router too (I could plug in my own). Starlink is faster (at the moment) costs nearly twice the price per month (and that's before the extra $15 electricity), is damn expensive to setup and his higher latency. Plus I'd have to trust prices won't increase after Starlink has it's IPO.

Microsoft reveals pay-to-Ping plan for advanced Azure availability testing

jockmcthingiemibobb

I run libreNMS and smokeping but needed much more features (e.g. checks from multiple locations, dependencies plus SMS and call alerts) that would have involved way too much setup for the trifling $15 a month that nodeping charges)

British IT teacher gets three-year ban after boozing with students at strip club during school trip to Costa Rica

jockmcthingiemibobb

Cue some 18 year old lad appearing in the tabloids next year demanding compensation as he was traumatized due to attending a strip club at 17

SpaceX wins UK regulator Ofcom's approval for its Starlink mobile broadband base stations

jockmcthingiemibobb

I know of no WISPs using point to point yagis.

Windows 10 quite literally projects its deepest, darkest fears on to New Zealand

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Bork? Borkbork

Slightly less common than "EQC and the insurance payouts are munted"

SpaceX’s Starlink finally reveals its satellite broadband pricing for rural America: At $99 a month, it’s a good deal

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Be careful what you wish for

As usual the Register ignores the excellent service that local WISPs provide. At the end of a 50/15 Mbps microwave link here and the performance in the service and evening is leaps and bounds better than the supposed 1Gbps connection over government paid-for fiber my friends in town have. I feel much the same as you about local service; if I have an issue I ring up, someone answers the phone (or calls back within 5 minutes) and if there's a problem they can't sort remotely they usually send someone out the same day.

Net neutrality lives... in Europe, anyway: Top court supports open internet rules, snubs telcos and ISPs

jockmcthingiemibobb

So does this preclude QoS on contended links? For example, is the ISP now meant to allow torrent traffic to degrade video or video to degrade http or VOIP?

Anyone else noticed that the top countries for broadband speeds are well-known tax havens? No? Just us then?

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: this isn't credible

Yep, that's what they do here. Handful of town connections get 8Gb connectios, the rest are on lousy sub 5Mbps DSL or worse. Next minute everyone is patting themselves on the back for the average connection being over 1Gbps.

Zealous Zoom's zesty zymotic zone zinger: Zestful zealots zip zillions

jockmcthingiemibobb

Zoom's Australian servers clearly couldn't cope during lockdown and calls were hitting their US West servers. Obviously causing lag plus a major headache for ISPs. Quite why the media promoted them as the video conferencing defacto was beyond me.

TeamViewer is going to turn around and ignore what you're doing with its freebie licence to help new remote workers

jockmcthingiemibobb

Anydesk.com is my goto these days.

BT's Wi-Fi Disc ads banned because there's no evidence the things work

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Use a second wifi hotspot

I can't understand all the downvotes. Ir's almost as if most El Rego readers don't understand how WiFi repeaters work....or rather how often they don't work or cause horrendous interference. Modern homes have a lot more wireless than WiFi routers.

ISP I work for flicks dozens of powerline kits a week. They work excellently in 99% of homes. We pretty mutch ditched WiFi repeaters/MESH due to the huge amount if support calls they generated.

National Lottery Sentry MBA hacker given nine months in jail after swiping just £5

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: This seems out of proportion to the offense

Cumalot makes around 75M a year. To call them a charitable organisation is outrageous.

Kiss my ASCII, Microsoft – we've got one million fewer daily active users than you, boasts Slack

jockmcthingiemibobb

It's ridiculous innit?. Calls, SMS, email, skype, slack, Telegram, signal, facebook messenger, twitter, meet, zoom, etc. That's why we're all chasing phone chargers but can't get a hold of anybody

American ISPs fined $75,000 for fuzzing airport's weather radar by stealing spectrum

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: An ISP fined $25K ? What's the use ?

$25K will hurt a little ISP. If they had $5K spare they'd be using licensed links anyway.

Let's check in with our friends in England and, oh good, bloke fined after hiding face from police mug-recog cam

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Please Move Along

If I've done nothing wrong, then what I do is none of your business

Gather round, friends. Listen close. It's time to list the five biggest lies about 5G

jockmcthingiemibobb

Nope. Your sub 1GHz refracts around trees and has less through buildings than 2.5/3.5GHz. Try pushing your 2.4GHz WiFi through some wet trees if you don't believe me. The mm wave stuff essentially equates to a few 100 metres and won't penetrate bulidings at all (unless you enjoy sticking your cell phone to the window) so moby companies envisage masts on every second or third buildings. That's why bar a few showcase examples at festivals and tourist spots, "proper" 5G will never go outside cities.

Aussies, Yanks may think they're big drinkers – but Brits easily booze them under the table

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: I call bullshit on these statistics

Yep, and prohibition worked so well in New Zealand :-( My pet hate is the fun police in most small rural towns who implement unnecessary booze bans. There are already laws to target violence, drink driving, theft and anti-social behavior but somehow the goons reckon it's not OK for anyone to have a beer at the sidelines after a game of footie or have a glass of wine with the Mrs at the beach. Free country my arse.

What did turbonerds do before the internet? 41 years ago, a load of BBS

jockmcthingiemibobb

I was lucky enough to be in the same town as Europe's then largest BBS (Almac) so yippee for free local calls.

Poor people should get slower internet speeds, American ISPs tell FCC

jockmcthingiemibobb

Misleading headline much. Look, it boils down to this; if a WISP invests their own money in underserved community then gets government funded competition they should be compensated. Otherwise the WISP can't invest in other underserved rural areas and the lost revenue has to be passed on to their remaining customers.

Perhaps the feds should be funding the WISPS to upgrade to >25Mbps and extend their reach to areas fiber and LTE providers have no interest in (even with subsidys) as is done in some other countries not led by an idiot.

'My entire company is without comms': Gamma's Horizon cloud PBX goes DOWN

jockmcthingiemibobb

And zero farks given to any company that doesn't.

Roscosmos: An assembly error doomed our Soyuz, but we promise it won't happen again

jockmcthingiemibobb

Wasn't The Morning Star the Crommulist rag?

What can I say about this 5G elixir? Try it on steaks! Cleans nylons! It's made for the home! The office! On fruits!

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Greatful for what we get.

That is what happens when ISPs are forced to deliver uncapped plans and not allowed to shape traffic. Meanwhile overseas they mandate WISPS deliver a minimum of 25Mbps.

Unbreakable smart lock devastated to discover screwdrivers exist

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Avoid Internet of Things devices

or just impliment a decent firewall on your router

Just how rigged is America's broadband world? A deep dive into one US city reveals all

jockmcthingiemibobb

But the're excluding fixed broadband providers offering microwave and/or LTE solutions. My provider offers unlimited 25/10Mbps or capped 50/20. Not fiber but certainly beats our awful and congested ADSL.

jockmcthingiemibobb

With good LIDAR data, predicting wireless coverage is pretty accurate. Uptime of solar powered wireless sites is measured in years and unless fiber somehow makes its way to a farm miles from any town I can't see any other economically viable way of delivering fast broadband out to the sticks.

Ex-UK comms minister's constituents plagued by wonky broadband over ... wireless radio link?

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: A microwave link to populated areas?

Sorry but it's not economically viable to run fiber to every hamlet out in the sticks. Properly specced and installed microwave links are more reliable than fiber.....no stupid contractors cutting through cables.

Australia won't prescribe its national broadband network a high-fibre diet

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: My experience

Taxpayers handed over a bunch of money? More like government borrowed overseas money to fund job/vote creation scheme.

Atari accuses El Reg of professional trolling and making stuff up. Welp, here's the interview tape for you to decide...

jockmcthingiemibobb

Duh-Tari

The fun is back

Oh yes siri

A fake piece of plastic

From duh tari

T-Mobile owner sends in legal heavies to lean on small Brit biz over use of 'trademarked' magenta

jockmcthingiemibobb

Just once, it'd be nice to get a response from a corporate droid with a brain along the lines of "you're completely correct, this is is an embarrassingly frivolous IP troll and we're going to give our corporate lawyers a damn good bollocking"

Twenty years ago today: Windows 98 crashed live on stage with Bill Gates. Let's watch it again...

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: Bill Gates

by that logic, we could only say good things about Adolf Hitler.

Car-crash television: 'Excuse me ma'am, do you speak English?' 'Yes I do,' replies AMD's CEO

jockmcthingiemibobb

F1 yawn. MotoGP, rally cars, sidecars or the hillbilly OZ V8s offer far more entertainment,

EE unveils shoebox-sized router to boost Brit bumpkin broadband

jockmcthingiemibobb

Add lots of customers and 4G doesn't deliver anything like 100Mbps despite their claims.

jockmcthingiemibobb

I can't believe the UK has fallen so far behind. I have a choice if 3 4G providers offering outdoor LTE solutions as well as the local WISP's excellent microwave service.

Parity calamity! Wallet code bug destroys $280m in Ethereum

jockmcthingiemibobb

Re: And that's why cryptocurrency is not and won't become a replacement for money

What real money are you referring to? These paper notes they print haven't been based on gold for a long while now.

Ofcom wants automatic compensation for the people when ISPs fail

jockmcthingiemibobb

works both ways

If similar charges were enforcable on customer no shows then I suspect many good providers would make more money than they'd stand to lose with this bill.

'Windows 10 destroyed our data!' Microsoft hauled into US court

jockmcthingiemibobb

>While what you say is undoubtedly veridical, it marks you out as a bit of an amateur.

Probably and that's the main reason I got out of that area of IT. Kept getting told how to do a better job by experts..

>Upgrading Windows is vastly inferior to a clean install.

I'd agree, upgrading Windows IS vastly inferior. But I never said it was my first choice and I never said I never do clean installs. But did customers always pay me to do backup their data (I did anyway), perform a clean install, migrate their user data and reinstall their applications? Beside, they've often lost the install media and didn't have the savvy to photograph the product key that was fading away on the bottom of their notebook or power supply. So economic reality won. I'd also like to point out that most of the time I'd receive the laptop/workstation AFTER windows 10 (or previous versions) had updated and borked.

>You can't reinstall the previous Windows version if you lack install media and the Product Key.

That's for that Captain Obvious, but exactly what has that got to do with my original post?

Yes, sometimes I had to use install/recovery media, bootable linux, mount a hard drive on another PC or whatever it took. Points I was trying to make was

a) Doing an upgrade, Windows stores data in windows.old

b) That anybody CHARGING folks to fix borked Windows 10 updates should be competent enough to have the means of accessing that data.

c) I never lost anybody's data from a Windows update..

I probably should have stated that yes, the windows update rollback is often a dog and I probably just got lucky with point c. However its amazing how many laptops are out there with perfectly good customer data in a windows.old folder that end users have no idea exists because some muppet has charged them an arm and a leg to fix their failed windows upgrade, not bothered (or known) how to transfer their data and just told them that it's gone and it's all Microsoft's fault.

jockmcthingiemibobb

Yes I agree that I've seen that message, I've seen upgrades fail, I've seen clean Win 10 installs fail and I've seen rollbacks fail.

BUT

I've done hundreds of windows upgrades and have NEVER lost access to the old data. It stores it in windows.old. .Whilst I wouldn't expect Joe Average to be able to recover it, ANY even semi-capable IT outfit who CHARGES should be able to reinstall previous Windows version, the old user profiles and if necessary pertinent registry data.

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