Well, it could blow away all the litter.
Posts by FlossyThePig
270 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Apr 2012
Beijing grants permit to 'flying car' that can handle 'roads and low altitude'
Google to wind down pandemic work-from-home
Re: Depends a lot on how you work
Many years ago, when I started working for International Computers Limited (they weren't ICL then) I had a colleague whose wife was "working from home" as a freelance programmer for F International and probably not able to isolate herself from noisy kids.
Four more weeks to go and I get my carpet slippers and pipe. I'll still be programming (not coding) for my own pleasure and not for Megacorp International.
UK on track to miss even its slashed full-fibre gigabit coverage goals, warn MPs
After 11 years, Australia declares its national broadband network is ‘built and fully operational’
USO
However Australian outlet itnews points out that over 230,000 premises can't connect at 25Mbps, the speed deemed to represent "broadband" in Australia.
The Universal Service Obligation (USO) for Broadband in Blighty is a download speed of at least 10Mb and an upload speed of at least 1Mb.
BT says my 9Mb down and 0.4Mb up is within their parameters.
Just let this sink in: Capita wins 12-year £1bn contract to provide training services to the Royal Navy and Marines
British Army does not Excel at spreadsheets: Soldiers' newly announced promotions are revoked after sorting snafu
Pope tells his followers to log off for Lent
How many times do we have to tell you? A Tesla isn't a self-driving car, say investigators after Apple man's fatal crash
Re: Take a lesson from railways
...modern UI design is rubbish...
In my old Peugeot 307 there was a button to turn the Traffic Announcement (TA) feature On or Off. In my 6 year old Toyota Auris requires a button to put the "infotainment" system into admin mode followed by a sequence of four on-screen touch buttons to turn TA on. A similar sequence is required to turn it off.
I'm curious to know what the process is required in a Tesla Model 3.
Remember folks it User Experience (UX) these days not useability!
Facebook tells US tax bods: Swear to God, we were only worth $6.5bn in 2010 because we were menaced by... MySpace and smartphones
Researchers trick Tesla into massively breaking the speed limit by sticking a 2-inch piece of electrical tape on a sign
Going Dutch: The Bakker Elkhuizen UltraBoard 950 Wireless... because looks aren't everything
And they said IoT was trash: Sheffield 'smart' bins to start screaming when they haven't been emptied for a fortnight
I'm sorry, Elon. I'm afraid I can't do that... SpaceX touts robo-rides for orbital vacations, lift-off in 2021-ish
Best buds? Apple must be fuming: Samsung's wireless earphones boast 11 hours of listening on a single charge
Startup Mycroft AI declares it will fight 'patent troll' tooth and nail after its Linux voice-assistant attracts lawsuit
Iowa has already won the worst IT rollout award of 2020: Rap for crap caucus app chaps in vote zap flap
There are already Chinese components in your pocket – so why fret about 5G gear?
Rugby legend Will Carling tells El Reg: Techie stats bods will love this year's Six Nations
Remember that Sonos speaker you bought a few years back that works perfectly? It's about to be screwed for... reasons
Re: Why indeed...
I built a pair speakers based on the BBC design of the LS3/5A using a kit from Wilmslow Audio in the late '80s. An upgraded version is still available with various options, e.g. LS3 Kit with plain mdf flat-pack Cabinet £360.
P.S. Rogers have started to make them again for a cool £2,750
Top Euro court advised: Cops, spies yelling 'national security' isn’t enough to force ISPs to hand over massive piles of people's private data
Sometimes shining a light on a nuclear problem just makes things worse
Sir John Redwood backs IR35 campaign, notes review would have to start 'immediately' before new off-payroll working rules kick in
Why is the printer spouting nonsense... and who on earth tried to wire this plug?
Re: The user replied: "The same electrician who changed that plug rewired my house last week!"
In the early '80s I owned a house in Ireland. It had electric hot air heating which was stupidly expensive to run so I thought I would free up the space by removing it. Before starting I thought I had better check my plans with my "sparky" mate.
Guess what he found.
The live and neural feeds into the fusebox were the wrong way round.
He fixed the fault and I then stripped out the heater.
Beware of bad Santas this Xmas: Piles of insecure smart toys fill retailers' shelves
It's not a toy but ...
I recently had a device* installed that allowed access to the captured data using a browser. I sent an email to the manufacturer with some simple questions.What is the administrator Username and Password? and For added security can these be changed?
Their answer: "No it can't be change. Because you can't do a lot of things."
and finally "Kind regards Have a sunny day."
* I've kept the manufacturer anonymous to protect the guilty.
Tesla has a smashing weekend: Model 3 on Autopilot whacks cop cars, Elon's Cybertruck demolishes part of LA
BBC tells Conservative Party to remove edited Facebook ad featuring its reporters
Re: Impartial? Question Time anyone?
You can't just turn up but have to apply for a ticket for QT, When QT was to be broadcast near me I thought I would apply. You have to enter a "question from the audience" as part of the application, so I didn't bother. You can add an additional question on arrival at the venue to cater for any new event.
I would suggest that the questions are "magicians choice" rather than drawn at random.
Icon because it's Friday
Irish eyes aren't smiling after govt blows €1m on mega-printer too big for parliament's doors
Halfords invents radio signals that don't travel at the speed of light
Re: Speed of light
I usually take a small Roberts Test Match Special radio when I go to a test match. TMS fills in gaps without any noticeable delay.
One time I mistakenly took a small DAB radio instead of the trusty Roberts. An example to highlight the delay: the batsmen were just starting their return run when the radio had the sound of the ball on bat before they even started their first run.
Icon - because that's what you have during a match.
Icahn smell money! Corporate raider grabs $1.2bn of HP stock to push for Xerox merger
We're almost into the third decade of the 21st century and we're still grading security bugs out of 10 like kids. Why?
Tesla has made a profit. Repeat, Tesla has made a profit – $143m in fact
Don't panic! Don't panic! UK IT job ads plummet as Brexit uncertainty grabs UK tech sector by the short and curlies
Bit of a time-saver: LibreOffice emits 6.3 with new features, loading and UI boosts
Thunderbolts and lightning very, very frightening as loo shatters, embedding porcelain shards in wall
It's Friday lunchtime on International Beer Day. Bitter hop to it, boss'll be none the weiser
How Times Change
In the old days beer didn't travel well. While at college in Liverpool I can remember being told about a pub "Don't drink there, the beer's crap, it's Boddingtons", A few years later, in Manchester, I was advised to drink in a particular establishment because they served "an excellect pint of Boddingtons".
In the mid '70s I discovered Ruddles, brewed in that large county, Rutland. The current beer with the Ruddles moiker is now brewed by Greene King in sunny Suffolk. It's not the same.
Who can remember the "Brahms & Liszt" in Leeds?
People of Britain: You know that you're not locked into using the same ISP forever, right?
UK digital network Openreach takes 15 electric vans for a spin
Re: Tesla's entry-level Model 3 vehicle is £28,500
...Tesla say it costs £36,490...
Very clever pricing as it has had the £3500 pliug in car grant subtracted from the price that HMRC uses in their calculations. The base price is £39,990, which is £10 less than the the point where road tax goes from £0 to £320/year.
UK's Openreach admits 50k premises on 'gigabit-capable' FTTP network can't get gigabit speeds
Former UK PM Tony Blair urges governments to sort out online ID
Deepfake 3.0 (beta), the bad news: This AI can turn ONE photo of you into a talking head. Good news: There is none
You go that way, we'll go Huawei: China Computer Federation kicks back at IEEE in tit-for-tat spat
Buy, buy this American PCIe, drove my PC on the Wi-Fi so the Wi-Fi would fly
DXC Technology seeks volunteers to take redundancy. No grads, apprentices, and 'quota carrying' sales folk
Sage Advice
Many years ago the company I worked for were looking for volunteers to take redundancy. My boss from a previous company had moved into the recruitment game so I gave him a call. The advice he gave me was:
Never volunteer for redundancy. If your name's on the list you'll get the brown envelope anyway. If it's not on the list you've told management about your desire to leave, so why should they give you a redundancy package when you'll probably leave within a few months for free.
I got the brown envelope and moved on to pastures new. Most who voluntered and were turned down left within 6 months.
It's all in the RISC: Arm legs it to Computex with a head full of Cortex-A77 CPU, Mali-G77 GPUs
Re: Body puns
Foot heads arms body
That brings back memories as the letters page printed more ingenious headlines. A colleague devised what he thought was the ultimate one and was worried he would be beaten to it he used the telex machine rather than trust Royal Mail.
What could the headline be for a trendy senior military person viewing a Japanese Buddhist sarcophagus?
"Hip Arms Head Eyes Shin Toe Chest"