Posts by ChrisBedford

Re: I need classic outlook

"POP3 is horrible. It simply doesn't work in any situation where you need to access your mail from multiple devices"

Yes it is (horrible) but there are ways it does work with multiple devices (just tell your client software not to delete immediately on download)

The problem with IMAP or any other sync-with-the-server type protocols is that your service has to support however large a mailbox you want to keep, and I have users for whom 50 GB falls under "getting started". Even a home user has no trouble getting up to 5 or 10 GB and many retail ISPs think that a 1 GB mailbox is generous (and they charge exorbitant monthly fees to even upgrade customers to that much. A few MB is not an unusual limit with some ISPs and one of them still, in 2024, doesn't support IMAP). Yes, I know, switch to Gmail or something but some people are a bit - er, how shall I put this - reluctant to change their email address.

Re: If he thinks that's bad he should try MacOS

"Who buys a desktop or laptop in order to use the bundled apps"

Apple users. Many of them buy / use very little else. Many swear by Mail, and it was far superior to the Outlook for Mac until about a decade ago which just cemented Apple's position in that market. Pages and whatever passes for a spreadsheet are adequate for 99% of home users. Safari, although horrible to those used to Firefox or Chrome, is not really that bad and for a long time was the only option on iOS devices so that established it for those users too.

So, yeah, assuming your experience is mirrored by everyone else is a classic projection error.

Re: You can embed viruses into cartridges

For HP, the IP is all in the print head which is on the cartridge

Yeahhh... I'm not sure that's true. They have for decades been bragging about how "advanced" and "superior" their inks are and I have seen obvious print quality differences between genuine & 3rd party cartridges (although it's not possible to know for sure whether that was because of the ink being better or the heads being worn out since the cartridge may have been refilled, even multiple times). In any event HP and other printer mfrs do hold huge numbers of patents on inks.

Re: Until we manage to screw up with orbital debris

1. My satellite TV service is interrupted by heavy rain, and that's using a 40cm fixed dish. How reliable is sat phone communication?

2. How many satellites will it take to carry the number of calls that an emergency system will have to handle?

Re: I still blame MS for the problem

"trust but verify"

The most oxymoronic piece of advice I've ever heard. And I hear it a lot. People quote it all the time without apparently listening to the words or thinking about what they mean.

If you trust something or someone by definition you are dispensing with the need to verify. Conversely, if you verify something or someone you by definition do not trust them or it. The two actions are completely and 100% mutually exclusive, no way to overlap those two circles.

Also, "Click to enlarge"

Is it just me, or did that not enlarge the picture at all

Re: Motivation

"It's a sign of severe depression and loneliness when managers use a company as a some sort of way for providing paid for friends.

I am surprised workers don't feel being abused by this behaviour, because in reality they become nothing more but escorts.

If people go to pub for a drink with their work colleagues, that is an extreme red flag."

100% in agreement with the first two paragraphs. But the last one? No that statement is something of a "red flag" in itself. It's one thing to value your own privacy, and respect others', but you can't be completely antisocial. I've worked at a couple of companies that organised "pub evenings" and the occasional weekend getaway and they were always fun - because no-one forced anything on anyone.

And of course there is always the Christmas party when at least one (ahem, non-)couple end up "hooking up" for a quickie in the bushes. But I think that's a separate discussion.

Re: She was a good one

I like having the royals around.

To anyone who doesn't, I'd like you to think about two words: President Boris

One other word: Tourism.

They're certainly not as polite, or politic, as they could be.

Re: @Dave3415etc

It's called *satire*

Why bother? They'll only move them again.

Because, you dimwit, it will be at least 5 years before the next version of Windows comes out.

Sure, a lot of the changes feel like change for its own sake - e.g. right-click on the taskbar for Task Manager has been a feature since at least WinXP, but now it's on the Start button (WHY?!) - and it can be frustrating when you have to work with various versions, but "not learning because they'll just move them again" is churlish and cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Re: As a young broadcast engineer, unschooled in IT at the time

Oh, yeah, that's another thing I've learned - applications should never, ever, become foreground unless the user has explicitly requested it in the last half second or so

'

I know, right? And yet multiple MS program do it - several times, just for good measure - every time they feel the need. Never mind the opportunities to shut down important apps, if you're not the world's best typist you might not be looking at the screen while entering something important - only to look up and find you've entered an Office activation key into the wrong screen. This can be ever so slightly frustrating.

Re: It was and still is

Our reg journalist's dig that it's _implausible_ that Johnny Lee Miller would score a date with Ms Jolie is a bit snide: they got married IRL!

You do realise there's a difference between "IRL" and the characters that actors play in a movie, right?

Re: Very open-minded

There's a difference between all choosing to wear the same thing and being told what to wear by someone else

Is there though? The only real difference I can see is being told in a formally published rule vs by acceptance of a de facto fashion.

Re: Additional Features Services and Innovations

You sound like every old person with *shit* eyesight that has ever compared HD to SD. If you can't see the difference the extra £2 a month costs you, don't pay it. Or buy a better TV set. But stop whining about it, the rest of the world can't all be wrong.

Re: Should not have Netherlands VAT ...

It's also not how warranty replacements work. If the cust has to pay VAT on the incoming new unit, he should have been refunded the VAT on the exported broken one.

The simple solution, instead of lying down and letting bureaucracy walk all over ignorance, would be for Seagate to tick the box on the export form that says "warranty replacement" and the courier firm to ensure customs notes this. The part then goes through -=GRATIS=- -- at least, that's how it should work in any civilised society.

Hey El Reg, on a side note: why does this forum flag British English spelling and want me to use American? Hmm? Hmm?

Knowing full well some will just give up as they can't afford to wait or go bankrupt while waiting

Yeah. AKA First World (read "USA") legal systems.

Re: less than a month before no one has to care what appears on Trump’s Twitter feed ever again

Branding all Trump voters as bigots is the most stupid thing I've read so far today, but there're plenty of hours left.

You *have* to be a bigot to vote for Trump, or *staggeringly* stupid. There is no other way to excuse that sort of behaviour. The man is the worst example of humanity to emerge in world leadership since Pol Pot, and the least articulate, the most self-centred, the whiniest, and the stupidest.

Working from home = the new norm here

In South Africa just about everyone I phoned - at least in the first 5-6 months after lockdown started - was working from home. The barking dogs and wailing children in the background (sometimes foreground) kinda gave it away. We had a 3-day notice period from 26th - 29th March during which every notebook PC at every distributor I deal with was snapped up by the bigger corporates for use by their staff not deemed 'essential workers'. Some people made a l-o-o-o-o-o-t of money.

Re: print-free-for-life plan was "an introductory offer,"

If a vegan also does Crossfit, which one does he tell you about first?