Posts by John Robson

It may date back to 1994 but there's no end in sight for the UK's Chief customs system as Brexit rules beckon

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"The UK made the custom border? But its the EU's custom border to protect the EU as you have explicitly stated. So the UK didnt make it."

Erm - the EU border has always existed, and is a legal requirement between customs areas.

Or should we simply let anyone and anything into the country without checks - you (brexiteers) seem to want closed borders for the UK, but fail to recognise that borders legally require both sides to implement checks.

That's kind of the definition of a border

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"And the UK decides it doesnt want to do anything with it, even looking to the complaints sue to the GFA as reason not to hard border. Which means a hard border would be the EU's responsibility as its the only one who wanted one."

So If I cut off your leg it's your fault you bleed to death?

The existence of a customs border across the island of Ireland is entirely of the UK's making - for the last forty years we have enjoyed the freedoms of being part of the single market - the GFA agreement was based on that state of affairs continuing (because no sane person would sing a massive trade reduction treaty).

At no point has the EU been culpable for the creation of a border across Ireland, that's all on the UK.

"May kept pushing remain deals which were rejected"

Then when BoJo pushes basically the same deal it's suddenly a leave deal?

Again, the doublethink is strong. We replaced the backstop with an ongoing bifurcation of the UK market, and suddenly it's a leave deal when it was a remain deal? Both had us leaving the EU...

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

The hard border existed - we moved outside it, and in doing so put peace in NI at risk. Because we moved the edge of the EU (where the border already existed) to a line across the island of Ireland.

Therefore it is entirely our responsibility that the border now lies in that location, unless we do something about it.

We did, we bifurcated the country, so that we don't even have a common customs market across the UK any more, it's only Britain.

Your three options weren't actually options... any more than "Have the UK take over sole governance of the entire EU" is an option. For an option to be an option it does actually have to have some chance of working in practise, and has to at least attempt to solve the problem listed.

You seem to think that because you left the gym they should now take down the fence so you can still use the swimming pool. That barrier was already there, we chose to move it into a position where it risks the GFA.

You are aware that different areas of the country have their votes counted and reported separately, thus allowing us to look at regional variations in attitude. I can't make sense of your "which vote" question otherwise.

56% of the votes in the referendum in NI were to remain in the EU. That is undeniable.

May did indeed enter into a confidence and supply arrangement with the DUP - however she was unable, even with their support, to get any sort of deal through - i.e. they didn't actually make a dent in the process.

All NI based MPs (all of them) voted against the deal - hardly a resounding anti-eu stance (and again, not really making a dent in the process)

SinnFein, who must get a mention since they don't show up in Westminster, are anti an EU superstate,

To take one of yours out of sequence:

""How can the EU both have the border around the customs union and simultaneously not have a border around the customs union?"

Not our problem. The EU is in charge of EU policy which affects the EU members. The UK is not in charge of EU policy and so it is up to the EU to either find a way to comply with existing treaties or to violate them on the principal of their own policy. Either way is fine but its the EU's issue."

Except that the EU position has not changed at all. There is, and must be, a border enclosing the single market.

The only thing that has changed is that the UK has decided that that demarcation is across the island of Ireland - it is therefore entirely our responsibility to make sure that the GFA can be maintained. And we did, eventually, do what had been suggested for over a year as the most reasonable option (and we repeatedly said would never happen, oh what a surprise, we hold all the cards, but the game is chess)

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"You spent a large chunk of this exchange claiming the EU didnt place its border. That was a major problem with your replies."

Erm - only in that we are the ones to have moved where the edge of the EU is (or more importantly the edge of the single customs market). The border existed around the customs union, we were part of that and then moved outside it - redefining where the edge was, and moving the border with it. So the fact that there is now a border there is entirely our fault, not that of the EU. They haven't changed anything, the border still encloses the single market, as it did before, and the rules didn't change either.

The tory british exceptionalist promises have been brought into the light as flat out lies, but those paying attention always knew they were.

"There is no way they are going to split the common market to pander to a temper tantrum by an ex member."

And thats fine. I have no problem with that. As you say they place their border. Through Ireland. Which they kept claiming was a problem due to the GFA. And the UK said we wouldnt bother with a hard border.

And this is where you are engaging in deep doublethink. How can the EU both have the border around the customs union and simultaneously not have a border around the customs union?

"The only way to stop a border across the island of ireland is for NI to remain in the customs union."

Not true. ROI could leave the EU. The EU could make a trade agreement with the UK (even specific just for Ireland). Instead of the Irish sea border between NI and UK put it between ROI and EU. There are options.

Option 1 (and 3, given that they are the same): Yeah right, that's an obvious thing to happen because a bunch of entitled twats in westminster want to gut the economy for personal profit. The EU isn't going to split the single market - you accepted that a moment earlier, and then suggested that they do exactly that.

Option 2: We did make a (weak) trade agreement - that requires a border, and checks to be made for good passing across the border. Which is exactly what the question is trying to avoid.

So no, none of those options are actually options.

The NI that voted to remain in the EU, that one. The seats they return don't make a dent in westminster, and you know it. They returned precisely zero conservative MPs.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

I"you realise you've not stated that the EU got it wrong. You've praised them for rescinding article 16, but never stated they got it wrong. It's like you can't admit they can do anything wrong."

I've said it was a bad decision, that they corrected by themselves.

When a decision is bad and needs correcting, that implicitly says that it was wrong - of course they can make mistakes, the organisation is made up of people after all.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"Finally! Now stop trying to flit about with excuses for your beloved EU and reread that. EU places its border. Just as the UK places its border. So the UK states it isnt interested in placing a hard border in Ireland. The EU as you just clearly stated is the one to choose to place its border."

Oh for fucks sake - where do you propose the EU places it's border other that around the edge of of the EU.

There is no way they are going to split the common market to pander to a temper tantrum by an ex member.

The only way to stop a border across the island of ireland is for NI to remain in the customs union.

You know that thing that literally every major brexit campaign promised we would remain in, and then decided that leaving it was the whole point *after* a farce of a referendum.

So in a misguided attempt to claim some mythical lost sovereignty (when the EU made rules, that was *us* making them) the union of the UK has been split, and we now need a customer border within the UK.

But that's fine - you think all unions should be disbanded, so bring on NI independence (and probably reunification), scottish independence, and welsh independence. No doubt Kernow will be next on the list.

After all the NI sovereignty was impinged by being ripped out of the EU against it's declared wishes...

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

Any way you've moved the conversation on from discussing where the EU decide to place their border which, as they've recently demonstrated, is their choice.

Well now.

Let's look at where the EU can place it's border... It can either be around the EU, or... well that's it. The EU border hasn't moved so much as we have moved outside it.

At no point has the EU forced any of this - As part of the EU we were included in the border, we moved outside the EU and suddenly get surprised by a border which already existed.

That's brexit doublethink for you made all the more impressive by the hard tory brexit we have had forced upon a population who overwhelmingly voted for parties backing a second referendum.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"the current bunch of clowns gained an 80 seat majority"

They gained 43% of the votes... there is something clearly broken when that results in a "landslide" majority.

16 of their seats had majorities of less than 1000, that's an average of 1% (i.e. a 0.5% voter swing), 14 more had less than 2000 (1.75% swing). Is it any wonder that nearly a third of people didn't bother voting - half of those who did vote didn't have their voice heard in any significant way.

"We desperately need more & better choices for political parties than the current main choice of 2."

Yep - but a FPTT system as we have is predisposed to being rigged by setting boundaries, and inevitably collapses into a two party system with the vast majority of the electorate unable to do anything other than vote for whom they hate least.

We need some proper electoral reform, the AV proposal would have gone a long way to reducing the FPTT tactical voting madness, potentially revealing a much more representative indication of the electorate's opinion.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"Your clearly not going to get John Robson to see any wrong doing here from Europe

The majority of us can see wrong for right regardless of which side is doing the actions. John is clearly in the belief the European institution can do no wrong and every bad action they take is the fault of the other side."

Erm - I never said it was right - I said that they managed to reverse that decision internally, and rapidly.

That was an example of them doing the right thing *after* making a bad decision.

The current bunch of barely elected clowns in downing street have no capacity to recognise that basically every decision they take is bad - much less the ability to reverse said decisions when they sit around a table and throw crayons at each other.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"You seem to have missed my previous comment naming benefits."

No - I have missed any tangible benefit being named, all I have seen are repeated soundbites of things that might once have been proclaimed as things that would benefit.

The poster child industry of brexit is crippled, and will not recover.

The violence in NI is ramping up beyond what we've seen in decades.

The volume of traded goods moving through our ports has been decimated.

"Because no matter how wrong you are nor how your own comments contradict your position you are certain the answer is the opposite of the result."

Yes, that's a good description of doublethink, which is exactly what you are skilled in.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"The expectation was we would have to wait years to see the benefits"

"And we are not disappointed! We have immediate benefits and the many doom predictions failed."

And this is why I say you are engaging in the highest order of doublethink.

You still haven't actually named a single tangible benefit that we couldn't have had as members of the EU.

Violence is bubbling up in NI, multiple industries are realising that there is no way they can survive outside the EU... but don't worry, there's a unicorn stable just round the corner.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

To suggest that the vaccine rollout is an EU issue is rather missing the point - they didn't have to club together, they decided to do so - indeed we were invited to join in with the bulk purchase but declined, exactly as we would have been able to do as EU members.

Yet more failure to understand what has actually happened which rather puts anything you say on a shaky footing.

"The expectation was we would have to wait years to see the benefits"

I'm sorry - the advertised benefits were immediate - we'll have 350 million pounds a week for everything at once, yes they can all take all the money we never sent to the EU.

Well, sorry - that hasn't happened - and was never going to happen - there are various industries on their knees and about to collapse completely as a direct result of this fuckup.

"The EU forced us to impose that border on the rest of the world as with every member."

What do you think the EU is?

We decided to have that border as part of the EU - that's *our* decision, not one imposed on us\

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"You can't claim to want control of borders and simultaneously claim that there shouldn't be a border between the UK and the EU."

Why? I have heard this a few times and I expect you to be using the same mistaken assumption, but why cant we want control to do what we choose (on our side of the border)?

We can control what we do - but your complaint is that the EU are treating us as the third country which we now are.

"Now accept responsibility for the consequences of that decision."

I do. I am quite happy so far. Still happy with my choice.

So you think that the fishing industry, in particular the shellfish industry, is doing fine? It's undergoing complete collapse because trading with the EU as a third party isn't something anyone considered.

You think that the lack of tailbacks is due to anything other than a lack of lorries?

I have questioned your sanity before - but the level of doublethink required to even vaguely consider that we have yet seen a single benefit from leaving the EU is beyond comprehension by anyone with any contact with the ground.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

Erm - they reversed that within hours, after *internal* pressure (in other words someone got excited and the group of adults around them calmed them down moments later).

As opposed to the UK which took months of external pressure to U turn after they announced plans to invoke the very same clause.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"The UK said it had no intention of erecting a hard border."

Whilst it stood digging foundations with a pile of bricks and mortar behind it. That's not a statement that was ever even remotely believable.

You can't claim to want control of borders and simultaneously claim that there shouldn't be a border between the UK and the EU.

"Waaaaa. Yeah you lost, get over it."

Waaaa - you won, get over it. Now accept responsibility for the consequences of that decision.

Shame that none of the brexidiots know what responsibility means.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"Ok thats fine. Which comes back to the UK isnt breaking the GFA by not trying to put up a border. As you say its the EU's border and how they choose to treat us."

No, a border has two sides... We have moved outside and so the border is between the EU and the UK - it is equally our border, and we are the only party to have erected it.

""The border has in no way been created by the EU""

"No matter how many times you repeat this lie you disprove it with your own description of events"

You step outside the door and wonder why it hits you as it shuts... that doesn't mean that the door has been created by the evil landlord, just that you're too stupid/blinkered to walk through a door without getting hit.

The erection of a border across the island of Ireland is entirely and solely the responsibility of the UK.

Would there be a discussion about a border if the UK hadn't exited the EU? No

Did the EU force the UK to leave? No

Did the UK's broken electoral system allow a few wealthy maniacs to fuck us up completely? Yes

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"And we agree on that to a point. I entirely make that my point, you seem to be claiming that its the UK who is making that border, but as you say and I agree its the EU's border."

It's not a new border that they have created. We have moved outside an existing border.

Why should they treat us differently from the rest of the world?

The border across the island of Ireland is therefore new (because it wasn't there when the UK was part of the EU) and the fault of the people who changed things to put it there.

Yes, we've agreed to try to break the UK into it's constituent countries, because having a border across the island of Ireland is untenable. So we now have a border between the constituent countries of the UK. And that border is between the UK and the UK, and is the fault of the UK.

The border has in no way been created by the EU - we have moved an existing border, and many people have forgotten what borders are like... in part because no other country has ever signed such a massive trade reduction treaty as we just did...

Better buckle up: Volkswagen puts Microsoft in driver's seat to deliver 'automated' platform

Cloud based driving...

I would hope that the cloudy bit is "additional learning" and maybe "distribution of upgrades" with the actual driving not needing any connection...

obligatory

The hottest destination for 2021: China probe follows UAE's into Martian orbit

"Typical"

Well of course it's typical... Orbital mechanics pretty much ensures that (at until we get warp drive, or some other way of getting very cheap deltaV (haven't run the numbers on how well starship could brute force that encounter, but it's probably possible - if there was something approaching a 6-9 month "emergency")).

India on track for crewed space mission, says first test flight to launch in late 2021

Re: Priorities

So what is their space budget? (probably less than you think)

How many people are in poverty? (that number will be bigger than you think)

Does the industry supported by the space project keep more people out of poverty, even before the benefits of spin off industries which will be developed.

India flying to space "Gaganyaan style"

Sorry

Apple, Microsoft, PayPal among 35 organizations compromised by evil twin dependencies attack

Re: This sounds fairly illegal

Caught *once* out of how many attacks?

Borkem ipsum: Supermarket gifts Thailand a tech fail that will echo down the millennia – and probably choke a turtle

Re: "Still. A nice design. Shame about the sub-editing."

it mat well have been - but I'd have expected a deliberate error - maybe that was the mistake ;)

"Still. A nice design. Shame about the sub-editing."

Oh the irony of this line on a site very nearly as well known for proofing and editing as the grauniad.

Linus Torvalds labels Super Bowl 'violent version of egg-and-spoon race'

Not that this helps you at all, but there were no streaming issues at all here - crisp footage throughout.

ISP or home network?

Re: It's all homoerotic crap.

"Sad though that I can't watch it in my favourite watering hole. Bloody virus..."

Not the expletive we've been using to describe it, but that's by the by...

Thank you for not, and for not joining a bunch of other people in someone's house either.

Re: Never understood some names

We park on the driveway, but vehicles aren't allowed in the park.

To be fair far too many people park on the pavement (sidewalk), making life very difficult for those with wheelchairs or pushchairs...

Re: Never understood some names

Because they are all derivates (some are improvements) on what is now known as association football.

Doesn't take too deep a dig into the history of Rugby Football to realise that the only way to score used to be by kicking the ball - getting it over the touch line used to give you a "try" at kicking a goal (just because association football uses the underside of the bar, doesn't stop virtually every other variant using the space above it).

Amazon deploys AI cameras inside delivery vans, misspells 'surveillance' as 'safety' in reason why

Re: Excellent!

That's not new.

20 years ago I ordered something, had it delivered to work.

"Noone in" was the excuse from the delivery company when I called to ask where it was. I then pointed out that I had deliberately used my work address, since there was 24/7 security presence - there wasn't a point in the day, or night, when there was noone there.

Re: failing to break?

In what way is it an easy mistake?

I know you try to publish fast, but do you really have no proofreaders/editors

No ports, no borders, no hope: Xiaomi's cool but impractical all-screen concept phone

Re: How many?

I got completely nerd sniped by that sentence as well

The Linux box that runs the exec carpark gate is down! A chance for PostgreSQL Man to show his quality

I'm surprised that this guy didn't schedule a reboot for midday in a month's time...

So that the cars are locked *in* the car park, not out...

Chromium cleans up its act – and daily DNS root server queries drop by 60 billion

Re: hang on

And also search for the TLD w, then wi, then wid, then widg, then widge, then widget

ThinkPad T14s AMD Gen 1: Workhorse that does the business – and dares you to push that red button

Re: Red pointy thing

I recall that as well, but you could put 'mouse' buttons in place of the nub, you could even put three or four of them along that "interrow"

UK's Superfast Broadband programme delivered value for money, says report, just don't ask about rural deployments

Re: "only five contracts have been terminated"

To be fair the five contracts could all have been awarded at the same time....

I'm only being fair until i see evidence that contradicts my *generous* assumption.

Re: Superfast?

Don't think starlink needs horizon access...

It's looking ever more likely to be the competition that is needed.

Musk see: Watch SpaceX's latest Starship rocket explode while trying to touch down

Re: Did not explode in the air

I think (given the under rotation of this test) that they want both engines for the flip manoeuver and for the landing. They certainly manage to hover at 10km, This isn't expected to take off from low altitude, it only has to land at low altitude - when it is firing for propulsion it will be doing so with the fixed vacuum engines (not yet installed) since it will already be pretty high up.

(Mars low atmosphere is pretty low pressure, so the vac optimised engines will be used there as well).

The equations change again when you still have cargo on board (I would expect a hover to be just about technically possible, even if deeply not desirable).

The F9 does as much drag as possible as well, but it isn't designed for anything other than first stage recovery (as per starship booster, which I think also returns vertically). The starship (upper stage) is going to be returning from orbital (or hyperbolic) speeds, and that is orders of magnitude more energy to deal with. I do wonder if they might try to do the flip slightly earlier, but then they'd need grid fins as well as the air brakes/flaps/elonerons that they currently have - and it would be less efficient overall as well.

Rocket science is easy, it's the engineering that's hard.

They have a completely different approach to virtually any other rocket company - they test in the real world rather than just doing calculations.

They fail, and learn, fail and learn...

They've gone from this to (I think) five landing failures out of the 80+ launches since 2017

Re: SN10

Video really foreshortens that distance.

It wasn't nearly as close as it looked (which is good)

Re: Did not explode in the air

The difficulty is that if you do that then you reach zero velocity whilst still having positive altitude.

The F9 1st stage is completely unable to hover, I imagine that starship will be able to hover dependant on cargo, but it's a serious waste of propellant to do so.

When was the last time they failed to land a booster (i.e one that they tried to land within their normal envelope)?

How many attempts did it take to stick that first one?

This is a very early test vehicle, it has had substantially more real world testing than SLS, they're just trying to do things that are actually hard.

The one remaining engine looked as though it had good fuel pressure all the way, mach diamonds almost all the time - so I guess it wasn't a fuel pressure issue this time, but something else in the raptor lighting sequence.

In wake of Apple privacy controls, Facebook mulls just begging its iOS app users to let it track them over the web

Re: "Ask app not to track"?

No doubt zuckertwat will get his minions to do all they can to bypass this, so we can prevent them using the ID, and tell them not to track - but it's actually relatively difficult to ensure that there are no technical loopholes that FB could possible use.

That's why Apple don't say they'll absolutely stop it - because there is always a technical way to manage it...

Xiaomi proof that we're a military company, says Chinese tech slinger as it sues US over ban

Re: Typos a plenty

I was almost considering that they could have either transcribed it from a poorly worded document, or deliberately used the wrong word...

I'm not confident though...

European Commission redacts AstraZeneca vaccine contract – but forgets to wipe the bookmarks tab

Re: Strains, Strains, Strains, Strains.

Visual distance isn't close enough for transmission of covid...

We are an island, and are only just now *thinking* about enforcing quarantine...

Takes from the taxpayer, gives to the old – by squishing a bug in Thatcherite benefits system

It's not the desktops, or even the servers that will be the problem, it's embedded systems which have been sat quietly humming away for decades watching their clock ever tick onwards.

Those devices, when their clock ticks backwards - that's the unknown consequence.

Whether that be building control systems, or more obviously life critical (and less obviously time critical) systems in vehicles, or medical equipment - some of which I'm sure is yet to be developed, but they'll pick up their old kernel because "It's been tested and certified, and it's never connecting to a network anyway"...

The Fat iPhone, 11 years on: The iPad's over a decade old and we're still not sure what it's for

It's long been a productivity device for those who want to use it as such...

I've mentioned this before, but my wife wrote a book on an iPad2 with an external keyboard.

I still use that same keyboard when travelling, because the iPad is rather easier to use on a train or plane than a laptop.

I have a Mini4 which I've used for many years, although as phones have grown it has seen less and less use, but it is still useful.

There is something weird about everyone who reviews stuff doing so on youtube, because it means that the only workflow that is ever discussed is video production...

Tab minimalists look away: Vivaldi introduces two-level tab stacks

Re: Looks good

Colour coded for memory, and brightness coding for CPU?

Looks good

Not for everyone, but I would appreciate the option to gather all windows back together and stack tabs by domain.

AMD's Lisa Su: Our processor sales are Ryzen faster than the PC market is growing

Young 'un or just a short memory?

Must 'completely free' mean 'hard to install'? Newbie gripe sparks some soul-searching among Debian community

To be fair it could be a factor in scalable cloud environments... but do they actually spin up servers, or containers/processes?

If you are managing a hundred servers then you really ought to be using automation - so you just kick off the update, and it runs through them in turn, with the load balancers handling the load so that the users never even notice.

ADT techie admits he peeked into women's home security cams thousands of times to watch them undress, have sex

Yes - the outcome should be that selling this data is illegal, and any companies that do so - to LEAs or otherwise should be taken out an shot.