Posts by Thought About IT

Climate change prevention plans 'way off track', says UN

Re: So?

I've no idea what you've "said about CO2 (with science)", anomymous person on the internet, but when even the producers of the products causing CO2 levels to rise have admitted that they have caused global heating, I'd say that it's up to you to prove otherwise. However, anyone who goes down the rabbit hole of climate change denial will struggle to get themselves out of it, so I'm sure you'll carry on being a useful idiot for the fossil fuel corporations, even as a third of Pakistan is flooded!.

California asks people not to charge EVs during heatwave

Re: Har Har

In 1982, Exxon’s own scientists accurately predicted the global warming that continuous burning of their products would cause, to within a margin of 20%, and those predictions were consistent with those made by mainstream climate scientists. So, what were you saying about un-testable models where the code and inputs are kept secret?

Re: Har Har

For many years, under previous management, this site was a mouthpiece for anthropogenic climate change deniers. I kept pointing out to them that their anti-science stance discredited everything else they wrote about, and my posts have been premoderated ever since. Hence I'm not surprised at the drift of this piece, but the overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing, as predicted by the increases in CO2 in the atmosphere, has sensibly led them to keep their politics off the page.

Perl Steering Council lays out a backwards compatible future for Perl 7

Write-only

As far as I'm concerned, Perl is a write-only language so they'll have to make drastic changes to fix that fundamental deficiency.

Apple to bin apps that go three years without updates

Re: So you wrote it, and it works

I wonder if Apple are doing this to make sure that all apps conform to their latest privacy requirements? If so, I wholeheartedly approve.

The wild world of non-C operating systems

SPL

The MPE operating system of HP3000 minicomputers was written in SPL. This was a perfect match to the stack based architecture so it was easy to write compact, fast code commensurate with the limited RAM available in those days. Hewlett-Packard also made the HP1000 which on paper was faster hardware, but running theiir version of Unix (HPUX) and programmed in C, was a dog compared to the HP3000. My language of choice is now C++.

But why that VPN? How WireGuard made it into Linux

Re: Painless

It's good to go on a Pi 3 as well. I haven't had the chance to try it from outside the UK, to check if it is detectable by iPlayer etc.

Galileo satnav system gets two new somewhat confusing satellites

Re: No they havent.

"I agree that the EU acted disgracefully over Galileo"

Why was it disgraceful to require the UK to sign up to the same rules and arbitration as every other partiicipating country?

Re: No they havent.

@Justthefacts, I don't know where you're getting your facts from but both Newcastle and Glasgow Prestwick had working implementations of EGNOS approaches, and others were in the pipeline for Blackpool, Gloucester and Shoreham, among others. Commercial aircraft are already equipped for those approaches, as are new light aircraft from Cessna, Cirrus and Diamond.

As of Occtober last year, work was in progress to implement EGNOS approaches at 95 airports in Europe, while we had to abandon ours as a consequence of the extreme form of exit from the EU chosen by the Brexit headbangers.

Well, one thing that's happened to BrexitNav is that our airfields have had to abandon plans to switch to or implement much cheaper satnav precision approaches. The price of sovereignty!

Measuring your carbon footprint? There's no app for that

Re: Wake me up once China gets onboard

If you're awake, you can help cut China's CO2 emissions yourself: simply stop buying stuff that's made there. Our emissions look good in comparison, because we offshored our manufacturing there.

India makes a play to source rare earths – systematic scrapping of its old cars

Re: They need to learn from "cash for clunkers" in the US

And that was before Trump started trashing environmental regulations. In many ways, to an outsider, the US looks no different from a corrupt a 3rd world country.

Apple is about to start scanning iPhone users' devices for banned content, professor warns

File ownership

I've never considered any file that's created by my actions on an iPhone to be mine, because I can't go to its filesystem and copy it to anywhere else. That's one of the features I really miss from my Windows phone.

Redpilled Microsoft does away with flashing icons on taskbar as Windows 11 hits Beta

Obsoleting hardware

What is it about these new UI tweaks that render my Surface Book (and many other Windows computers) obsolete? And yes, it does have TPM 2.0.

Happy with your existing Windows 10 setup? Good, because Windows 11 could turn its nose up at your CPU

Re: Windows 11 also requires the presence of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) – version 2.0

Well, Windows PC Health Check is very clear that Windows 11 will not run on my Microsoft Surface Book, so I wonder where you bought your nothing-burger?

Advert for coronavirus 'destroying' air 'purifier' exterminated by UK watchdog

Facebook

Should I be surprised that Facebook still have a page for this scam, with a link to the new website promoting it?

Firefox 89: Can this redesign stem browser's decline?

Re: Stop fiddling with my browser!

After updating to 89.0, FireFox asked me if I wanted to switch to the new UI. I said no, and nothing has changed.

Recovery time objective missed by four weeks, but Parler is back online

Disqus's turn next

On social networks, the only way to judge someone is by their posting history, which is why it's time to start criticising Disqus for allowing its users to hide theirs, and for allowing the sort of language that got Parler into trouble. They also have a sleazy feature to let moderators block posters who they disagree with, such that their comments seems to have been posted, but only the poster can see them. Then of course, the Trump supporting web sites that take advantage of that feature make a big deal about cancel culture! Unsurprisingly, Disqus provides no way to contact them about this.

Vote machine biz Smartmatic sues Fox News and Trump chums for $2.7bn over bogus claims of rigged 2020 election

Re: “We are proud of our 2020 election coverage ..."

I'm alarmed that the government has greenlighted Murdoch to set up a Fox News here in the UK. Having seen how successful an election tactic it was to divide the nation over Brexit, more division seems to be what they intend to encourage.

Marmite of scripting languages PHP emits version 8.0, complete with named arguments and other goodies

I found the Laravel framework good for recoding my web site in PHP.

With less than two months left, let's check in on Brexit: All IT systems are up and running and ready to go, says no one

Re: No need to panic

The algorithm on page 14 of that document reminds me of that oh-so-successful one for allocating A-level results!

Thought the FBI were the only ones able to unlock encrypted phones? Pretty much every US cop can get the job done

Thoughts and prayers for the dead, but now is not the time to discuss gun control - or ever!

Brexit travel permits designed to avoid 7,000-lorry jams come January depend on software that won't be finished till April

60% of them voted to leave!

Here's some words we never expected to write: Oracle said to offer $10bn cash, $10bn shares for TikTok US – plus profit share promise

Value added

I hadn't heard of TikTok until I saw this sketch by Sarah Cooper mouthing Trump's inanities about Covid 19. It adds value, but $20 billion!

Microsoft confirms pursuit of TikTok after Satya Nadella chats to Donald Trump

Re: Looks like Donnie the Don

Nadella probably had to promise that he'd ban Sarah Cooper, before Trump would allow him to buy TikTok.

Networking boffins detect wide abuse of IPv4 addresses bought on secondary market

Doesn't v6 give an infinitely greater possibility for bots to avoid being blacklisted?

In Hancock's half-hour, Dido Harding offers hollow laughs: Cake distracts test-and-trace boss at UK COVID-19 briefing

Typhoid Dido

John Crace, the political sketch writer in the Guardian, put it nicely when he wrote "it’s going to take Typhoid Dido quite a while until the number of people she’s prevented from getting the coronavirus outweighs the number she’s helped to infect." ... by letting the Cheltenham festival go ahead.

'An issue of survival': Why Mozilla welcomes EU attempts to regulate the internet giants

I suppose the ideal way to distract attention from the message would be a picture of a squirrel wearing glasses.

Stiff upper lip time, Brits: After bullying France to drop its digital tax on Silicon Valley, Trump's coming for you next

Re: But, but, but ...

Being good neighbours and following the rules of the club, which we were intimately involved in writing, is hardly "abandoning our democracy"!

But, but, but ...

We were promised we'd get our sovereignty back after Brexit, so would stop being rule takers. Surely Johnson didn't lie to us?

WTF? Apple iPhones shrank by more than $22bn in fiscal '19

Re: The Thrill Is Gone

My Nokia Lumia 925 Windows phone is still giving sterling service for phone calls, texting and GPS, but I know I'll have to replace it eventually. The problem is, while Android phones are cheaper than iPhones, the hidden cost is the data they slurp, so I'll probably end up with the latter. I just hope Apple realise they are pricing themselves out of business before I need to do that.

Clutching at its Perl 6, developer community ponders language name with less baggage

Re: doesn't matter who hates it...

I've always thought of Perl as a write-only language. It's all very well encouraging people to be expressive, but only if they have to maintain their own code in perpetuity.

Humans may be able to live on Mars within halls of aerogel – a wonder material that can trap heat and block radiation

Solar wind

Mars does not have a magnetic field to deflect the solar wind, so it'll need something more than aerogel to protect people from bombardment by beta radiation.

Deepfake 3.0 (beta), the bad news: This AI can turn ONE photo of you into a talking head. Good news: There is none

Re: digital signatures

Would you believe anything that was digitally signed by Fox News? Likewise, would any of their viewers believe anything that was digitally signed by Channel 4 News?

Boeing admits 737 Max sims didn't accurately reproduce what flying without MCAS was like

Most people buy a ticket, having no idea which plane they'll be flying in. A bit like those who vote for a party with no manifesto, policies, or members, because they think it'll get them to their destination.

Boeing big cheese repeats pledge of 737 Max software updates following fatal crashes

Finger of blame

If, as seems to be the case, the algorithm relied only on the device measuring angle of attack, when there are completely independent devices measuring airspeed and rate of climb which could have been used to check for faults, it's a choice between gross negligence by the designers and cost cutting by the accountants. In either case, someone should go to prison.

Watchdog asks UK.gov to reissue freedom of information guidance after councils are told to STFU about Brexit plans

Why worry?

Don't know why they're worried about secrecy. Any scary warnings about what could happen after Brexit will be water off a duck's back to Brexiters. They've been primed to label that sort of thing as "project fear", so they can dismiss it without further thought..

How politics works, part 97: Telecoms industry throws a fundraiser for US senator night before he oversees, er, a telecoms privacy hearing

Re: The more things change, the less they really do.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concisely explained political corruption to the House Oversight Committee, recorded for posterity in this 5-minute video. Rotten to the top!

Treaty of Roam: No-deal Brexit mobile bill shock

Re: As a yank

Same goes for funding of the NHS, Social Services, local government, the police, etc. We're fed up of the EU forcing the Tories to impose austerity on us!

Holy crappuccino. There's a latte trouble brewing... Bio-boffins reckon 60%+ of coffee species may be doomed

All right for some

I assume that Trump and his fellow AGW deniers won't be affected. Either that, or they're stocking up on a lifetime's supply of jars of Nescafe.

A few reasons why cops haven't immediately shot down London Gatwick airport drone menace

Downwash it

The downwash from a helicopter is enough to flip a light aircraft out of control, so a drone wouldn't stand a chance against it. The helicopter would simply have to choose a safe spot to fly over it, maybe 50-100 ft above, to take it out.

That amazing Microsoft software quality, part 97: Windows Phone update kills Outlook, Calendar

Fixed

Microsoft seem to have fixed the problem this morning.

Which? That smart home camera? The one with the vulns? Really?

Re: It's all relative

Are none of the smart home cameras on the market secure?

Sync your teeth into power browser Vivaldi's largest update so far

Re: Good news

Bye lads. I'd have paid like I did for Opera. But you are most interested with changing the logos/icons (three times in two years) than you are actually actually functionality that makes you different from "Chrome + some extensions".

What makes the difference for me is not having google spy on me.

'This is insane!' FCC commissioner tears into colleagues over failure to stop robocalls

France

When I'm in France, we get at least 2 robocalls a day on our house line - even though the number is registered at bloctel.fr.

UK.gov finally adds Galileo and Copernicus to the Brexit divorce bill

Re: TL;DR

The level of ignorance about the effects of leaving the EU at the time of the last referendum - not least among the most extreme Brexiteers in the government - casts a long shadow over the proceedings. Holding a referendum on the terms of the negotiated agreement versus the status quo, now that people are much better informed, would be good for democracy.

Re: TL;DR

The only possible way to get unfucked is to hold a second referendum with the option to stay in the EU. Maybe adding to the 800,000 who've already signed this petition to hold one will help.

Surprise! VAT, customs likely to get a bit trickier in a Brexit no-deal world

Re: UK VAT Return

Any form of Brexit will bring with it a mountain of extra red tape and costs for business. How can this be, you ask, when the Brexiteers promised to slash it? Simple: when they say "red tape", they mean worker and environmental protection and no exposure of their assets in tax havens. Snake oil salesmen, the lot of them!

US voting systems: Full of holes, loaded with pop music, and 'hacked' by an 11-year-old

Re: how about

They have their own problems, as Al Gore will attest after losing to George W Bush due to hanging chads.

Microsoft: The Kremlin's hackers are already sniffing, probing around America's 2018 elections

Re: Russia and Who else? Talk to the NSA, FBI, et al.

Palyp wrote: "Don't buy the disinformation from Fox News, Breitbart, and Trump. The data is in the intelligence documents, not in the mouths of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. And the truth has never been associated with anything coming from Trump's mouth. Get facts."

It's surprising how many downvotes this statement of fact incurred. I hope that the IT professionals doing that are not involved in designing software for self-driving cars or drones, where they have to take moral decisions about who to save in the event of accident or malfunction.