* Posts by DavCrav

3894 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Nov 2007

Dratted 'housekeeping', eh? 150k+ records deleted off UK’s Police National Computer database

DavCrav

Re: Backups

"GDPR has specific exemptions for law enforcement."

Certainly you don't need consent (obviously) to process PII, but I thought they still couldn't do whatever they fancied, and indeed they were deleting this information off the PNC database because of GDPR (maybe it's a slightly different law then?).

DavCrav

Re: the loss relates to individuals who were arrested and then released with no further action

"So why are the police keeping those records anyway?"

If the police delete all files relating to arrests that result in no further action, then one important casualty would be the ability to hold the police to account for said arrests. Because, of course, there would be no record of them happening.

So some information needs to be kept, at least.

DavCrav

Re: Backups

"Or did anyone state that your data isn't backed up until you've done a restore of all data?"

Surely it'd take a while to get specific data off a backup though? I mean, your standard backups should also be purged of irrelevant data under GDPR (remember the conversations on this forums about that?) so maybe you'd have the data on tape as part of an archive. In that case you have to restore the whole archive backup onto a separate computer (as your usual computers are currently being used...) and then retrieve the individual files there.

How to avoid pesky border controls: Be a robot truck driver… or insanely rich

DavCrav

Re: Thermodynamic Pedantry Alert

"We've already lost one internal shipment (definitely) of crucial vaccine."

Your point is? There will be at least 80 million doses in the UK. Some refrigeration issues will be inevitible with that number of vaccine movements.

Four women seek release from forced arbitration to sue Infosys for widespread gender discrimination

DavCrav

"They thought she should have spread it a bit wider than just her and him?"

A problem shared is a problem split into tiny pieces and passed around so that everyone is stuck with it?

DavCrav

"Be careful what you sign, contracts aren't just for fun."

If only people didn't have to have shelter or food.

DavCrav

Re: Typical Indian male behavior

"More notable though is that not a single one of my team was born in the UK, which speaks volumes about the ability of the UK education system to produce people with the right skills to be good developers."

I don't know for sure, but it's stastistically more likely that it speaks volumes about what you are offering in salary and working conditions.

Pirate Bay co-founder criticises Parler for its lack of resilience

DavCrav

"DOZENS died in BLM "peaceful protests"."

Do you mean, were killed by police? Or killed by protestors? Because it kind of matters. If I have a peaceful protest and you shoot me, that isn't really my fault. If, on the other hand, you shoot me while I'm trying to break into a highly secure government facility, then it sort of is.

Salesforce relieves Republican National Committee of its tools citing 'risk of politically incited violence' across the US

DavCrav

"The money was given to the PAC for their stated aim of bringing about Truth Liberty and Apple Pie - if it was actually used to stage a terrorist act then the directors are going to be looking at serious naughty step time"

The standard trick is for PAC no 1 to give it PAC no 2, and so on, until the money is clean as a whistle.

DavCrav

Re: Scary adverts

When people in the US kept stating that TOR was being used by terrorists, I don't think this is what they meant, but it turns out to be true.

DavCrav

"some are even asking for their money back."

I really don't see how this is going to work, unless there was a 'must not commit sedition' clause in the donation. And if that's true, I would get whoever put that clause in to predict lottery numbers.

Motorola stung for £838k after Chinese digital mobile radio biz Hytera wins appeal against UK asset-freezing order

DavCrav

Re: UK != US jurisdiction (almost perhaps, but not quite)

"Whilst UK has a habit of cuddling up to the US, I still think its bit of a stretch to file in UK to enforce verdict in US."

Very common to enforce civil judgments in other territories, I'm afraid. It's to stop people legging it to another jurisdiction. As long as the original ruling looks reasonable, it's normally enforced.

DavCrav

So what I got from that is that there is general agreement in the court that Hytera will, in fact, do a runner and not pay the bill, it's just that they haven't stated it sufficiently clearly to have their assets frozen before said runner?

How I found a bug in YouTube that let me watch private videos I wasn't allowed to, says compsci student

DavCrav

"Another reason it's different is that selling an exploit isn't illegal unless you know or have a strong enough suspicion that it will be used for illegal purposes."

It's not technically illegal, but if caught doing so you will likely be in a lot of trouble, even if, at the end, being found not guilty. And you had better make sure you comply with all the money laundering regulations, so you need to know that you are selling it to genuine companies and getting paid with traceable, over-the-counter currency. Anyone paid in BTC will have difficulty convincing anyone that they didn't know it was dodgy.

"Companies who don't want to see others with the exploits would be well-advised to consider price competitiveness."

Ah, blackmail.

DavCrav

"$5000 seems unwisely stingey. There's probably more to be had selling flaws into the black market."

Should the black market not always add a premium, since you're committing a crime? I wouldn't say 'This murderer is offering me £1 more than that chef for my knife. I'll go with the murderer."

Backers of Planet Computers' Astro Slide 5G phone furious after shock specs downgrade

DavCrav

Re: Another story from Douglas Adams?

People laughed, but we could have done with a few sanitizers, no? Just like in HHGTTG.

Apologies for the wait, we're overwhelmed. Yes, this is the hospital. You need to what?! Do a software licence audit?

DavCrav

Re: You want to do an audit?

Of course, when they do catch it, they'll be in the right place, I guess.

That's it. It's over. It's really over. From today, Adobe Flash Player no longer works. We're free. We can just leave

DavCrav

Re: "hoping no one ever creates software as insecure as that ever again"

"I work for a large UK public organisation and mid 2020 had to perform compulsory internet security training, delivered by .....flash."

That was intentional. The real test was to hack the security training.

Parler games: Social network for internet rejects sues Amazon Web Services for pulling plug on hosting

DavCrav

"The AWS Customer Agreement states that the web giant may terminate service immediately if a client's or client's customer's usage of its service poses a security risk, could adversely impact its services or other customers services, could subject AWS to liability, or could be fraudulent. The AWS Terms of Service allow the company to suspend service if Prohibited Content is not removed within two business days."

I mean, like, I think all of those conditions apply to Parler?

Trump's gone quiet, Parler nuked, Twitter protest never happened: There's an eerie calm – but at what cost?

DavCrav

Re: 1st amendment

"Yes, Google, Facebook and Twitter cannot throw you in jail, but as we have seen, you can be cut off from society very quickly and definitively if they so desire it, so much have people come to rely on their services."

But this just simply isn't true. He can still view people's inane ramblings on Twitter, just not produce his own. And he can still use Google. Hell, he has a room full of reporters just down the corridor. But he can't send hateful drivel on the toilet now, so he's having a sulk.

Yes, the tech giants have too much power, but this isn't proof of it.

Facial recog biz denies its software identified 'antifa members' among mob that stormed Capitol Hill

DavCrav
Joke

Re: Doesn't the US have copyright law ?

"Surely that's theft of someone's intellectual property"

Author's copyright lasts 70 years after the author's death. Hitler died in 1945, 70 years later is 30th April, 2015. Donald Trump starts his campaign for President on 16th June, 2015.

Coincidence? I think not.

DavCrav

Re: The main problem with trying to spot antifa members...

"Also, how well the software discriminates between 2 people who strongly resemble themselves needs to be addressed."

True, but in this case it finds that a neo-Nazi bears a strong resemblence to someone storming the seat of government. So, you know, it is likely to be on the money.

DavCrav

Re: The coup explained in 5 easy steps

"Why did it fail?"

In order to be a coup you have to not only pass laws, you need to be able to hold off the Army, who won't be particularly impressed at your coup. That's why most coups are by the military, or branches of them. Because if you don't have most of the military on board they won't recognize you.

The US armed forces swear an oath of allegiance to the US Constitution, not the US President. They serve him only so long as he is himself serving the Constitution. Obviously seizing the Supreme Court is not in keeping with the Constitution, so unless you have enough people willing to go along with the coup in the military, you will definitely fail.

Linus Torvalds rates his own words 'incoherent ramblings of a crazy old man'

DavCrav

Re: Exactly what is needed.

"If there was a Nobel Prize for applied technology, he should be awarded."

I suppose there would have to be some years where Don Knuth wasn't the recipient.

DavCrav

Re: Linus is mistaken...

"I always wondered exactly when "middle age" started"

Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle.

Apparently it's by Bob Hope. I know it from a very old board game called 'The Game of Quotations'. I was a child when my parents bought that, and to play it I had to learn all these quotations by people I had no understanding of. Who on Earth is Zsa Zsa Gabor? asks a ten-year old.

DavCrav

Re: Linus is mistaken...

"That means he's old enough to know that he's not young any more."

But also young enough to know he's not old yet. That's the reason the word 'middle-aged' exists.

DavCrav

Re: His classes are working

"Linus historically (been | appeared) the type of person that can admit when he's wrong."

He just states when people are wrong. Sometimes the person is him, mostly it's not.

Pizza and beer night out the window, hours trying to sort issue, then a fresh pair of eyes says 'See, the problem is...'

DavCrav

Re: Proof reader

"If/when your German gets a little better, it will become glaringly visible to you as those English words won't fit the German language pattern."

I don't know about that. I know Germans who've spoken English for 30 years, and I still find 'und's in their slides. It's the same number of letters, and almost looks the same, which does not help.

US backs down from slapping import taxes on French goods over Macron's web giant tax

DavCrav

Re: Level playing field?

"And by the way, the townsfolk were not grubby tax dodging thieves, they did it to demonstrate how unjust the tax system was."

They actually decided they didn't fancy the hassle, and abandoned the idea.

Which is fair enough, I can see that as well. They might get jailed for tax evasion, whereas Starbucks gets a sweetheart deal with HMRC.

Trump silenced online: Facebook, Twitter etc balk at insurrection, shut the door after horse bolts and nearly burns down the stable

DavCrav

Re: Not his finest hour

How could I forget extra bonus 12) Staring at the sun directly.

DavCrav

Re: Not his finest hour

To whoever obviously thinks Trump had fine hours, I offer a selection of just 10, from memory:

1) When he was listening to doctors describing all of the death caused by Covid, he paused and then started offering out pens instead of listening to them.

2) Being unable to close an umbrella on his way into Air Force One.

3) Sticking with AFO, climbing the steps to Air Force One with toilet paper on his shoe.

4) Sticking with toilet paper, don't forget him throwing rolls of it from a boat after a hurricane.

5) There was trying to bribe a foreign country to investigate the relatives of his political rival.

6) Oh, you remember him suggesting people inject bleach into their veins?

7) Just recently, I don't know if you caught this, but he spent an hour on the phone trying to pressure Georgia officials to, you know, overturn the election.

8) "Person, woman, man, camera, TV."

9) Remember when he just had to get into a car and do a drive-past while infected with Covid?

10) Pardoning some Blackwater murderers. And all of his friends who committed crimes on his behalf.

Bonus 11) Trying to execute as many people as possible after losing the election.

DavCrav

Re: Hmmm

"However, if there is a lock down on free speech then it has to be even handed"

OK, let's ban everyone who tries to overthrow democracy. Fine with that.

DavCrav

Re: Not his finest hour

"Not his finest hour"

in order to have a finest hour, he'd had to have had a fine hour to begin with.

United States Congress stormed by violent followers of defeated president, Biden win confirmation halted

DavCrav

Re: I wonder ...

"I raised that among my friends and one smarter than I said "Hold the issuing of charges until January 21st." "

And then another, even-smarter, one, said that pardons can be activated before charging, any time after the offence has been committed. See, for example, Carter's draft dodger pardons, which also allow for pardoning unnamed people.

DavCrav

Re: I wonder ...

"Wait, you think the VP may have committed crimes? That's.. something I've only heard as unproven allegations from someone on twitter that keeps making unproven allegations and fails to provide any substance or evidence to support those claims.

Certainly I've heard nothing regarding his actions in office that would lead to criminal charges so I'm really not sure why you think a pardon would be remotely on his mind."

The current administration is demonstrably guilty of a large number of offences. If I were involved in any part of it I would quite like a pre-emptive pardon as you can never be sure exactly what can be pinned on whom. And you know Trump is going to try to pin as much as he can on other people on his way down.

DavCrav

Re: Keep her and her family in your thoughts

"I'm just gonna pretend she was a black woman sleeping in her bed. Perfectly legitimate law enforcement."

They are nothing alike. This woman was only shot once.

DavCrav

Re: Careful. Slow down and THINK.

"So it's ok for US law enforcement to shoot people for simple trespass?"

There are a large number of government facilities for which the answer to that is 'quite possibly'. Think, for example, of military bases, intelligence facilities, nuclear facilities, the White House. Try storming Fort Bragg, even unarmed (there was no way to tell if the woman breaking through a door is armed or not, of course) and see if you end up alive or dead.

DavCrav

Re: Careful. Slow down and THINK.

"People that voted to leave the EU patiently saw out over four years of lies, sedition, invented laws, subversion of democracy and vile abuse from the media and peacefully achieved their goal."

If I remember correctly, one Leave voter (A. B. de P. Johnson) attempted to illegally shut down Parliament.

DavCrav

Re: Unfortunately ...

"our Constitution only provides for that charge in times of War."

"I don't think that's entirely true, and because I'm in need of distraction, I'm going to overanalyze why I think that."

Your analysis appears to be correct. Although I persoinally simply checked the list of people convicted of treason on Wikipedia and the list of declarations of war. First war: 1812. First treason conviction: 1800. Whether any amendments have changed this position, I do not know.

DavCrav

Re: ...and where exactly do you live in the US?

"Funny how insurance works, isn't it?"

No, it's not funny how insurance works if you are poor. That's why civilized countries don't do this.

DavCrav

"Well, it was under-policed but they did shoot Ashli Babbit through her throat when she attempted to breach a doorway."

Oh dear, what a pity, never mind. Given how US police shoot black people for walking a bit funny, if BLM had have done this there would have been soldiers with M16s spraying bullets and killing dozens. One or two terrorists being shot in the course of committing terrorism is not great loss.

If you're a WhatsApp user, you'll have to share your personal data with Facebook's empire from next month – or stop using the chat app

DavCrav

Re: Not Fair

"Bull. I have never used WhatsApp and I have never needed to do so. Perfectly avoidable."

I know someone who lives on a boat. Does that make buildings perfectly avoidable?

Deloitte's Autonomy auditor 'lost objectivity' when looking at Brit software firm's disputed books, says regulator

DavCrav

The alleged fraud here is still only a few tens of millions. I still don't see how it can possibly lead to overpaying by, let's remember, $8.8bn. It's just not plausible.

Brexit trade deal advises governments to use Netscape Communicator and SHA-1. Why? It's all in the DNA

DavCrav

Re: 20 year old tech...

"The government will bring forward, to 2023, the date by which new homes will need to be warmed without using gas heating."

The problem is never new builds, but always retrofitting current stock. New builds can have ground-source heat pumps, whereas everybody else will need air-source.

DavCrav

Re: 20 year old tech...

"If you're running your rads at 80C that sounds a bit hot."

It's true, that is a bit hot. Most boilers go up to 85C, with standard around 70C. Heat pumps at maximum at 45C, but in real-world conditions I'm not sure how high they actually go, especially on cold days.

The rough calculation holds. As for having them on more often, the trouble is that it gets cold at night. So unless you want it too hot during the day, you need to have a certain throughput. For converting singles to doubles, I agree that this would increase radiator estate. Which is exactly what I'm suggesting. But most experts say either extra rads, larger rads, or underfloor heating, is necessary for a heat pump system.

DavCrav

Re: 20 year old tech...

"Besides, we're all supposed to be switching to hydrogen for home heating to meet global warming commitments so we might as well get on with it."

This is actually an issue. I was looking at this because I was thinking of replacing the boiler. Your options are

1) heat pump. Very efficient but can only heat to 45 degrees. So you'll need to treble your radiator estate at least, I estimate (because heat transfer is dependent on the delta T, so 40-20 versus 80-20).

2) hydrogen. This appears to be quite a lot less efficient, so we would need a LOT more electricity to run them. Better hope that fusion power comes on-stream in the next 15 years.

Julian Assange will NOT be extradited to the US over WikiLeaks hacking and spy charges, rules British judge

DavCrav

Re: pft

"Convicts like Assange"

51 weeks, I'm afraid.

DavCrav

Re: This confused me

"Or even charged with sharing stolen secrets one might know are stolen shared secrets if one has not signed any Official Secrets Act?"

Short version: yes.

Long version: being required to sign the OSA is just to make things easier to prosecute. Assuming actus rea (the act of a crime), for offences that are not strict liability, you have to also prove mens rea (that the crime was knowingly being committed). An easy way to establish mens rea is to have someone sign a piece of paper saying 'I know this is a crime if I do it', but another way would be if it were bloody obvious that the documents are secret.

DavCrav

Re: Suicide

"his self-imposed imprisonment in the Ecuadorian embassy could probably be used in a request for time off the sentence."

Amazingly, time spent being on the run from an unrelated crime before an extradition request has been submitted would not be taken into consideration.

DavCrav

Re: pft

"Actually since 1983 one of your parents have to be British Citizens (and possibly Indefinite leave to remain but I'm not 100% on that) for you to acquire British nationality by birth, UK doesn't have birthright citizenship"

She is EU and settled in the UK, so as long as that happened for five years before the child was born, the child has British citizenship. I'm not sure of the situation if she is in the UK for five years, but not at the time of birth. Possibly she has right-of-abode, coming from a Commonwealth country, in which case the child has citizenship again. That depends on exact circumstances.