Posts by Jim Whitaker

Businesses should dump Windows for the Linux desktop

Watching OS wars is such fun.

Google postpones Chrome's third-party cookie bonfire yet again

Re: the web can continue to thrive, without relying on covert techniques

Yes, but in the old days, killing bakers who did this usually brought matters under control. My up to date version is to use an adblocker.

I find it difficult to believe that there is any reader of this site who has not turned off third party cookies about 20 years ago.

Yodel becomes the latest victim of a cyber 'incident'

Broken?

Yodel broken? - How on Earth could they tell?

Teeth marks yield clue to widespread internet outage in Canada

Re: Emergency credit?

No longer correct, I think. My replacement credit card arrived yesterday - no embossed numbers and no numbers at all on the front, all on the "rear".

Re: That part of Canada

Redundant path for rural/isolated areas is surely satellite? Starlink?

Makers of ad blockers and browser privacy extensions fear the end is near

Chrome developments

I suspect that Chrome has forgotten the rule: "There are more, better minds outside your organisation than there are inside." If the developers try and block a particular method (e.g. advertisement blocking), then I rely on extension developers to bypass that restriction.

British motorists will be allowed to watch TV in self-driving vehicles

Really?

Leaving aside whether true self-driving cars will ever be available for all roads as they currently exist, the question here is surely whether TV and other video material will be just as distracting as a hand-held phone conversation. Note that hands-free phone use will still be permitted. Add that to a riveting film and the chances of a "driver" being readily available to take over diminishes sharply. In any case I know that if I was in a "self-driving" car with nothing to do, I would often be asleep in minutes.

Fresh concerns about 'indefinite' UK government access to doctors' patient data

GPs again

The data does not belong to GPs; it is just held by them while fulfilling a contract from the DoH. We should move to a single health record for all sorts of reasons, clinical, research, and managerial.

Users complain of missing data in UK wills search service

Email addresses

Currently the service is failing to recognise my email address as valid. If the rest of the process is just as competent, it is a good thing that my needs are neither urgent nor process threatening.

Dido Harding's appointment to English public health body ruled unlawful

Re: Guilty of not doing a equality report

These were all management jobs, nothing to do with any knowledge of biochemistry.

Welsh home improvement biz fined £200,000 over campaign of 675,478 nuisance calls

Re: Anyone got an popcorn ?

Everything about that website shouts "fake" and "avoid". Can't even spell "spray" correctly. And yes, I do mistrust any business which can't be bothered to proof read their website.

A slice is better than none: Apple gives in, allows third-party app billing systems in Korea, per local law

Now is the time for all other countries to enact (or enforce) a similar law.

50 US airports to be surrounded by 5G C-band-free zones

1. Is the 5G equipment operating within FCC rules?

2. Is the aircraft equipment working within FAA rules?

Discussion can only proceed to the next stage (more questions, not solutions) once those two qauestions have been answered.

No defence for outdated defenders as consumer AV nears RIP

Re: "prevent, in the consumer space is Auntie Mavis downloading AwesomePictures.exe"

"Probably" is what worries me here.

More than half of UK workers would consider jumping ship if a hybrid work option were withdrawn by their company

So where would they jump to?

2033 is doomsday for 2G and 3G in the UK

Maybe I will have reliable indoor 4G by then.

Aircraft can't land safely due to interference with upcoming 5G C-band broadband service

What the actual.

Would it not be good if there were regulatory bodies which could review and determine the use of spectrum and any potential interference with other users.

Leaked footage shows British F-35B falling off HMS Queen Elizabeth and pilot's death-defying ejection

Re: Ooops!

Thousands! - Try 100 million £s in this case.

Future of the three NHS bodies managing health tech in doubt after £2.1bn cash injection

Re: "Health secretary signals shack-up could be on the cards"

Or the last ten Health Ministers.

Re: Has yet to produce a business plan

Recognising and then admitting that there is a problem is the first stage in sorting that problem.

Sheffield Uni cooks up classic IT disaster in £30m student project: Shifting scope, leadership changes, sunk cost fallacy

Previous failed attempts

Anyone else on here remember a project called Delphic? So much of what is reported in the article brings back horrible memories. And a smile or two.

Public Sector - I don't think so.

Real Universities never were "Public Sector" and nor should they be now.

Hey, Walkers. What's the difference between crisps and chips? Answer: You can't get either of them

Pedantry

Properly known as "Game chips".

NHS Digital exposes hundreds of email addresses after BCC blunder copies in entire invite list to 'Let's talk cyber' event

External data transfers anyone?

This is the body which is supposedly going to govern the safe and approved transfer of data to external bodies. Sheesh.

Ancient with a dash of modern: We joined the Royal Navy to find there's little new in naval navigation

Encouraging

Thank you for this. As an ex NO I found it very reassuring.

Hitting underground pipes and cables costs the UK £2.4bn a year. We need a data platform for that, says government

Not in a million years

Yes, of course this is going to work.

England's Data Guardian warns of plans to grant police access to patient data

Refusing police data and balances

In a previous life part of my Information Governance job was advising others and considering some police requests directly. In a few cases our response was "No, get a court order if you want this". Mostly the request went away. On a very few occasions a court order was presented. On one occasion I remember we went to the court and challenged the order as excessive in scope. A very much more limited order was the result which we complied with.

That process seems about right to me.

Britain publishes 10-year National Artificial Intelligence Strategy

10-year plans

The idea that any government, never mind this one, can do anything meaningful to determine what is going to happen in ten years time is ludicrous. Most especially in a highly speculative, technology driven activity like this.

Navigating without GPS is one thing – so let's jam it and see what happens to our warship

Pedantry - Picture caption

It's not THE HMS Severn, it's HMS Severn or, depending on the context, the Severn.

Re: I guess I'm too much of a navigation geek...

In Sydney, I too found that my instinctive rough knowledge of location was lost and I had to keep repeating "No, that's South" to myself. Took a week to, mostly, wear off.

We're all at sea: Navigation Royal Navy style – with plenty of IT but no GPS

Paper charts

If you read Marine Accident Investigation Board reports, you will see that paper charts as primary navigational resource (especially if not used/updated) and the relationship with the ECDIS are a frequent factor in the shambles which is being reported on.

Re: "two main reasons why the Royal Navy no longer uses [paper charts]"

Yes and that is why they kept running into things.

LA cops told to harvest social media handles from people they stop, suspect or not

Re: But ...

What are the legal requirements for what you have to give to a police officer in the US? Here in the UK, they are entitled to be given your name and address. They are entitled to satisfy themselves that the information you have given is correct. You don't have to give date of birth, National Insurance Number, Facebook or any other information. (Certain exceptions to this if a "terrorist" crime is suspected.)

Facebook takes bold stance on privacy – of its ads: Independent transparency research blocked

Advertisments?

Are there still people viewing adverts on Facebook? Seriously. Have they never heard of ad blockers.

Nuisance call-blocking firm fined £170,000 for making almost 200,000 nuisance calls

Mostly, TPS seems pretty good. Obviously we have crooks (and incompetents) just like anyone.

Google updates timeline for unpopular Privacy Sandbox, which will kill third-party cookies in Chrome by 2023

Am I missing something?

Who does not:

A. Use an ad blocker

B. Use anti-tracking provisions

C. Block all third party cookies?

I fully appreciate that all three measures are not 100% but they do remove almost all the problem for me.

Engineers' Laurel and Hardy moment caused British Airways 787 to take an accidental knee

Murphy's Law revisited

Surely this is just a variant of Murphy's Law - If it is possible for something to be fitted the wrong way round, it will be.

NHS contracts for document storage, digitisation three years after paperless deadline

What could possibly go wrong.

Russia spoofed AIS data to fake British warship's course days before Crimea guns showdown

Old style skills

I see this as a conspiracy between the Russians and old-style Navigation Officers in the RN. I know that Pontius is bored with people suggesting that GPS makes them redundant and this spat will allow them to demonstrate their continued worth using other means of assurance that the ship really is in the International channel.

FYI: There's a human-less, AI robot Mayflower ship sailing from the UK to US right now

Units

"4,535 kilograms, or five tons". Well I suppose you do have some among your audience who still use historic units but given your likely audience, is it really a priority?

UK government bows to pressure, agrees to delay NHS Digital grabbing the data of England's GP patients

Not again

This is the second time a whole bunch of highly skilled, well-meaning people have behaved as if they were idiots. The last time it happened I was professionally involved as an IG manager for a large NHS body. The whole process was so half-baked I personally opted out of sharing. In due course the process was "fixed". Now we are in it again.

To be plain, I'm quite content (even keen) for my data to be shared for the good purposes which can follow for medicine, even the NHS and others involved in the private sector. (I'm a capitalist.)

What I'm not happy with is the thought that if the Government is so incompetent in announcing/selling this, how incompetent are they going to be in delivering secure data use?

UK data watchdog fines 'pandemic partner' biz £8k: It sent 84,000 marketing emails to people who'd given info for track and trace

Re: At oiseau, re: draconian measures.

Remember, a gentleman is someone who knows how to play the bagpipes but doesn't. ;-)

Vivaldi update unleashes the 'Cookie Crumbler' to simply block any services asking for consent (sites may break)

The Register is at fault here.

At least this would block those annoying (and unnecessary) regular attempts by The Register to annoy us with their repeated cookie permission requests.

Brit MPs and campaigners come together to oppose COVID status certificates as 'divisive and discriminatory'

Re: WTF ?

Paper? Sorry but which century has this comment come from.

Traffic lights, who needs 'em? Lucky Kentucky residents up in arms over first roundabout

Video music

Really ought to be duelling banjos in the background.

Mullet over: Aussie boys' school tells kids 'business in the front, party in the back' hairstyle is 'not acceptable'

All right, give me a chance. I'll get a haircut just as soon as the hairdressers are allowed to open. At the moment I have exactly what this outfit does not like. Shortish sides and longish at the back (with curls!) I can trim the sides for comfort but messing around with scissors at the back is just too risky. :-)

Re: It's the 1950s again (or is it?)

Geelong?

Thousands of taxpayers' personal details potentially exposed online through councils' debt-chasing texts

Public Sector reporting

True in bits but you try being the Information Governance Manager who has to tell Senior Members of the Board that a potentially adverse report has to be made to the ICO. Their concern for the damage to reputation is real and substantial. (Ask me how I know. :-) )

Re: I had a dialogue with my water company...

Maybe but they are not good at fixing them, are they. See Thames Water for one.