Posts by graeme leggett

Trump’s cyber chief pick has little experience in The Cyber

A wise man once said

A quote that can be turned on its originator

When Trump sends his nominations, he's not sending the best... ..sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems

India's banking on the bank.in domain cleaning up its financial services sector

I like jam.in, I hope you like jam.in too.

Tesla sales crash in Europe, UK. We can only wonder why

I think that should be "run by someone who ACTS like a child with ADHD".

There's no get out clause for him without a valid diagnosis. Money and influence and ket and poor habits probably fried his synapses.

Re: No new car models is the problem

With torsion bar suspension and interleaved wheels.

DOGE geek with Treasury payment system access now quits amid racist tweet claims

USAID is helping keeping the lid on the HIV/AIDS situation in South Africa by providing around 20-25% of funding for medication through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (initiated by the famously socialist G W Bush)

About a week after freezing US aid, PEPFAR was given an exemption - that there was a delay at all in providing an exception shows the initial action was not thought through.( A week is a long time in anti-retroviral medication)

Trump scrubs all mention of DEI, gender, climate change from federal websites

Re: Scrapped Direct File, which allows taxpayers to file their returns electronically to the IRS

Rather than create a new department which would have required following the law of the land, Trump renamed an existing department and handed that over to Musk and his Twitler Youth (a bunch of Musk/Thiel interns from sound of it)

As Trump slugs Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs, industry groups hope trade war weapon isn’t pointed at their feet

Re: It's all in how you look at it

HFCs is only about 50% fructose. It's "high fructose" because regular corn syrup is 90+% glucose

And if you are just using HFCS as a cheap (ie subsidized) substitute for sucrose, then the amount of fructose involved is the same.

Re: Canada?

I've seen around 20kg quoted for total Fentanyl seized at US-Canadian border in a year.

Re: Why the fuck do they think they have the right to dictate to us

Same dilemma as Julius Caesar faced.

Caesar's dicatorship lasted a couple of years after the defeat of Pompey before his opponents, including some of previous supporters, removed him from the political scene

sic semper tyrannis

Re: It's all in how you look at it

1) HFCS is not of itself bad - it's much the same saccharide profile as Golden Syrup/invert syrup.

2) Oreos sold in the UK are likely made in UK

White House asks millions of govt workers if they would be so kind as to fork right off

Re: Thunderf00t sez, Musk as head DOGE, had his role clarified as IT head of US government

Not sure what a self-coup is but if something does happen, which Republican is taking the Ludwig Beck role?

And history takes a different angle, which one is Doenitz?

"employees will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move forward"

Where suitability = loyalty to Trump

Conduct = anticipating the Great Leader's edicts

China's DeepSeek just emitted a free challenger to OpenAI's o1 – here's how to use it on your PC

Wolf goat cabbage - where did that come from?

The riddle I'm acquainted with has the three incompatible entities and a river but the human can only fit two items on the boat with them.

Have the AI developers re-framed the riddle to make it easier for their creations, or more difficult?

Musk torches $500B Stargate AI plan, Altman strikes back

Re: <loud swearing noises>

the 1.5 trilion USD for F-35 program covers from now to 2088.

Re: Yeah maybe

So there's no catch?

Trump hits undo on Biden AI safety order, EV mandate, emissions standards, and more

Re: Yes...but no.

Trump "I'm going to stop this thing that you think happens" (waves bit of paper with his signature on it)

<sounds of crowds cheering>

Courts "You can't do that"

<crowds murmur>

Trump "These partisan judges are enemies of the people. You wanted me to do this thing and they won't let me"

<crowds boo. Sounds of sharpening of pitchforks and torches being lit>

(probably followed by email to Trump supporters asking for monetary donations)

1) Tesla has a head start on other manufacturers, removing incentives will hit their competitors more.

2) It's all performative for the twisted anti-environmentalism that pervades his voter base, they want clean water and clean air but don't want to be told they need to change to get it. An EV mandate could be reintroduced under the guise of promoting AMERICAN! industry and countering the ENEMY Chinese manufacturers and Trump's supporters would cheer it in the streets

What happens when someone subpoenas Cloudflare to unmask a blogger? This...

Re: Not a free speech case

Chiroquackters ("Jedi bone wizards") not homeopaths

Elon Musk's galactic ego sows chaos in European politics

Re: A week is a long time in politics…

Does Musk even know that the Reform Party (prop. N. Farage) does not select its leader?

Twigstats software sheds light on mysteries of Europe's old-school migrators

Re: Possible reasons for invasions not causing language changes in Britain

There's a fair amount of Norse in the English language - more so in northern areas - coming from the Danelaw.

The side-by-side usage of Old Norse and Old English promotes a change from synthetic (use of inflections to denote the relationship of words) to analytical (word order drives meaning) language.

There's a lot of Norman French words in the English language and the Anglo-Norman period sees further moves to analytical.

Old English example:

Fæder ure şu şe eart on heofonum, si şin nama gehalgod. to becume şin rice, gewurşe ğin willa, on eorğan swa swa on heofonum

Middle English example:

Oure fadir şat art in heuenes halwid be şi name; şi reume or kyngdom come to be. Be şi wille don in herşe as it is dounin heuene

The second seems much closer to modern English doesn't it

Doctor Who theme added to national sound archive to honor innovation, longevity

Re: A question of arrangement as much as attribution

So that you don't have to go to the RFS podcast (good as they are), here is a link to the theme as arranged by Grainer in 1980 (which was the first time he did do an arrangement of his tune)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1SZs4xudf8

A question of arrangement as much as attribution

What makes the Doctor Who theme so distinctive when it came out is the arrangement by Delia Derbyshire

By comparison the Radio Free Skaro podcast uses an arrangement as envisaged by Grainer which is much similar to other TV programme themes of the time

Mysterious outbreak with high fatality rate in the DRC could imperil tech supply chains

Vaccinations against what?

All the childhood diseases that sicken and therefore weaken children, including measles which resets the immune system "memory"

Trump tariffs transform into bigger threats for Mexico, Canada than China

Re: You keep using that word...

an idea of a plan for a concept of a strategy

Google decides Europe's political ad rules are too hard to implement at scale

Are google really saying

That they don't know where the ads they serve are going?

And despite being a search engine, they can't tell when and where elections are being held?

What might a second term of Trump mean for the US space program?

Re: Humans on Mars

as the full article says

"our simulated GCR experiments only looked at acute unfractionated dosing, which may not accurately model the chronic cumulative exposure that would happen on a Mars mission"

The mice did not get a simulated 6 months of GCR exposure, they got 6-months worth of GCR in a single dose.

SpaceX Dragon gives ISS a helping hand with altitude

Re: Too much delta-V required

Black Arrow was cancelled before Prospero was launched

Re: Space is a commercial world now

I watched a documentary about the Space Shuttle - Moonraker, I think it was called - and i say we sell the ISS to a billionaire to live in.

Top 10 billionaires make nearly $64B in post-Trump election stock surge

"The Trump campaign apparently spent $350m"

But all the Trump aligned campaigns spent a lot, lot more?

NHS to launch 'real-time surveillance system' to prevent future pandemics

Re: Err...

Sounds like a variation on the standard warning required by US Federal Regulations for things that have not completed testing and approval.

SpaceX plans next Starship flight just days from now

Re: Name Change

Answer might well be "Yes"

"Dominguez is one of dozens of current and former public officials here whose finances, business relationships and political fortunes are enmeshed with the speedy growth of Starbase, as the Musk development is known. Starbase’s expansion has injected a dizzying influx of money into campaign coffers, business dealings and the personal finances of people elected to represent the public."

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-texas-musk/

Re: Name Change

So you have a technical discovery that can improve the health of the worst off in society.

"Great, let's roll that out" you say.

"Wait", says another, "that's too expensive to do right now. We need to spend money on [other thing] first"

'Politics' meaning the affairs of a city (polis), the art of government, and hence we have 'policy'

Re: Name Change

You can't isolate technical things from politics. Or any part of life. And you shouldn't try to do so.

Reaction Engines' hypersonic hopes stall as funding fizzles out

Re: Second time around

HOTOL was meant to be un-manned

Judge decides not to block Musk's $1M election giveaway

Re: "Musk is just the modern manifestation of an entitled robber baron."

The president now has "has absolute or presumptive immunity from criminal charges for his official acts" as commentators have described it. That's quite an extension.

it's the old old story

"You can't charge me for that crime because I was doing a different crime at the time"

US Army should ditch tanks for AI drones, says Eric Schmidt

Re: Still useful...

Normandy was also less fortified because they covered Jersey and Guernsey in concrete. For no benefit whatsoever

regarding dreadnaughts

The British could still outbuild the competing empires (not only building dreadnaughts for the RN but for other navies)

pre-dreadnaughts still had some use in the coming war in secondary roles

the dreadnaughts (and battlecruisers) were only part of the navy, a lot of the navy was cruisers for protection of the sealanes

The dreadnaught and Empire lasted into the Second World War during which the aircraft carrier with its longer "weapon" range became the new capital ship.

The Astronaut wore Prada – and a blast from Michael Bloomberg

The red stripe is so you can tell one astronaut from the other, isn't it?

Internet Archive wobbles back online, with limited functionality

Netscout not as helpful as could be

"many devices of a well-known home entertainment and IoT product were involved"

That just throws up questions

I may have a certain product in mind, but is it the one I think it is?

And if so and I happen to have that product what does that mean for me? Am I vulnerable to being exploited by neer-do-wells and can I prevent that?

NASA's Europa Clipper leaves for Jupiter's moon atop Falcon Heavy

Re: Gravity assist

re calculations

suspect one or more of

1) they do the calculations for several dates so they can move to an alternative date with ease

2) the flight is re-calculated once in initial Earth orbit

3) one or two days difference at the start makes little difference overall and the trajectory is adjusted in flight anayway

First time's the charm: SpaceX catches a descending Super Heavy Booster

Was he inspired by the Ryan X-13 Vertijet - a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft which landed by hooking itself onto a tower?

separation of Art and Artist

Cards Against Humanity campaigns to encourage voting, expose personal data abuse

Re: A Different Kind of Question

Well that's where US is doing it wrong, give them some representation and you can tax them.

Re: A Different Kind of Question

Parliament, meaning the Commons, is supreme.

A constitutional monarchy means we don't have to go through the the process of choosing one of a number of politicians to be a figure head for the country. (the alternative being a president with powers who then grates up against the government of the day)

Re: A Different Kind of Question

It is a representative democracy (you vote for someone to represent you) in a federal (the nation is made up of self-governing units) republic (no monarchy).

"Not a democracy" is a phrase used by Americans pushing a form of exceptionalism (which seems to be that they shouldn't be held to high standards of democratic representation)

Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed

Fireball XL5 theme tune

Sean Pertwee "Love Honour and Obey" karaoke - that's all I have to say

Recovering lost films from collectors is an interesting subject

Radio Free Skaro has an interview with Tim Burrows (Missing Episodes Podcast) on the subject. Not just about Doctor Who episodes but covering the efforts of Film is Fabulous https://filmisfabulous.org.uk/ which include cataloguing the estates of deceased collectors.

https://radiofreeskaro.com/2024/07/07/radio-free-skaro-968-we-are-going-to-be-too-late-again/

SpaceX faces $663K FAA fine for Musk's alleged launch impatience

Re: Troubled Starship?

Strawman argument.

No one is saying shouldn't have private spaceflight companies. But we do want them to follow the rules. Some days it may be a rule which on reflection seems less pertinent but if they start ignoring the rules they think are unimportant, they will likely develop a culture of ignoring rules full stop.

Meta back at it, harvesting Britons' public Facebook, Insta feeds for AI training

Re: The ultimate AI racist uncle

No. the last place you want to train an AI on for the 'culture and idioms' of a country is Xitter.