Posts by Zimmer

UK backtracks on digital ID requirement for right to work

The problem

..as I have always seen it with any 'Digital ' or any other official, unequivocal ID is that once it's accepted as the ONLY ID, the opportunity for fraud and mayhem will only be enhanced and increased.

Official ID sir? No further checks necessary.... Was that a new Bank Account you wanted ? An unsecured loan? etc. etc. (it's bad enough now, I know, but at least everything currently should be viewed with suspicion and relevant further checks? Govt. official ID ? pass friend ... no need for any more checks..

No official ID? Your ID 'cloned'/abused by some miscreant ? Data adjusted/stolen/deleted from the database - the one and only database ( I'm sure I'm writing this amongst sysadmins, programmers, etc. )

Have Fujitsu tendered already?)

The FRAUD - you are dealing with miscreants. The MAYHEM will be the bane of the innocent (as always). That's my view of the problem..

Asmi Linux 13 Debian Edition debuts: Xfce desktop never looked so good

Re: Does it require systemd?

I would think it does, judging from the optimisation notes which have an entry "sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved"

-- I'll still give it a look on an old laptop, though... and if it works I shall not worry too much about it

Former reality TV star appointed NASA interim administrator

Re: ..and the 'Marching Morons' was never meant as an instruction manual

(Too true, in the sense I was referring to the HQ of Mars Foods UK - used to rehearse in the Community Centre nearby, way back last century)

..and the 'Marching Morons' was never meant as an instruction manual

...but with all the talk of 'going to Mars' I'm beginning to think otherwise...

(the nearest they might get to Mars is probably Slough..)

Scholars sneaking phrases into papers to fool AI reviewers

Re: Takes two to tango ... ¡olé!

I'm wide awake!! How did that happen?

Attack on Oxford City Council exposes 21 years of election worker data

Ah, yes individual sensors on the top of the lamp.. you do realise that the pigeons like sitting (I may have spelled that incorrectly) on top of lamp standards.. and an awful lot of individual sensors to maintain..

Boffins devise voice-altering tech to jam 'vishing' schemes

Re: OK, but... Just say nothing!

I have the 'Answerphone' for all that; on 24/7

Simples.

UK dumps £2.5 billion into fusion pipe dream that's already cost millions

Re: the Shed it's going into

I think you'll find from the article it will probably be going into the de-commissioned WEST BURTON A coal-fired facility - if there's any sheds left and no-one has nicked the jam jar with the important screws

Return of Redis creator bears fruit with vector set data type

Upvoted

Upvoted.. I was going to comment something along those lines....

Agent P waxes lyrical about 14 years of systemd

Re: "(Almost) all in C"

Upvote for APL - and the greek keyboard.... (upvote <- 1) )

Public Wi-Fi operator investigating cyberattack at UK's busiest train stations

Re: Efficient free market

...Imagine if the track, maintenance, signals, locomotives, trains and tickets were all operated by separate companies - it would be total chaos...

Have you seen 'Nightsleeper' ? Ironic or coincidental that the programme is currently showing ?

Molten lunar regolith heats up space colonization dreams

Re: About fifteen years ago ...

I wonder where they got that idea----?

The man who sold the moon - Robert A Heinlein circa 1950 ? I think I read it circa 1965....

Husqvarna ports Doom to a robot lawnmower – not, thankfully, its chainsaws

Re: I'm a Stihl bloke

That sounds like the equivalent of *Trigger's Broom*....

Wayland heading for default status as Mint devs mix it into Cinnamon 6 bun

No MATE

I didn't see a mention of Mint MATE* desktop changing in the article, so I guess they're not fiddling with that ....

*Daily driver for me for many years now..

Meet Honda's latest electric vehicle: A rideable suitcase

Centaur..

See Find it, Fix it Drive it - Episode 8

Henry and Sam fix a 1960's American Centaur motorbike in a suitcase, fly it to the Isle of Wight (private plane) . Drive it 2 up..

The range may have been a bit more than 12 miles.... I'll have to watch it again to find out..

Man who nearly killed physical media returns with $60,000 vinyl turntable

Never mind the turntable......

...... what Gibson have you got hiding in that case in the corner? (far more interesting than a turntable)..

Arm acknowledges side-channel attack but denies Cortex-M is crocked

...and the answer is..

It's all very well clever researchers getting access to these MCUs CPUs etc. would that they were clever enough to tell us all how to prevent it happening (other than locking them in a drawer and not powering them on ).

Australian government doxxed citizens who criticized illegal 'Robodebt' scheme

Re: Sushi licking

I was under the impression that sushi was the special sticky rice, not the fish ??

Waxworm's spit shows promise in puncturing plastic pollution

Doomwatch

Episode 1, The Plastic Eaters.... February 1970

.. it's what passed for Science Fiction and Environmentalism on the telly, back in the day..

Chinese researchers make car glide 35mm above ground in maglev test

No Dogs in this race

We did have dogs in this race. I remember Linear motors demonstrated on Tomorrow's World in the late '60s/70s and Birmingham had a train running to the airport between @1985 and 1995..

Looks like the it all went to the dogs, though..... as usual..

>>>>> it's the flying jacket, with the Nedym..neodimi...neodimy..... magnets in the pocket..

Revealed: US telcos admit to storing, handing over location data

You're never alone with a phone

see title..

USB-C to hit 80Gbps under updated USB4 v. 2.0 spec

Re: Active Nonsense

Wet it?

No! You had to wax it - using the candle you were reading by..

i.e. USB 0.1.1 (Unreliable String Breaks when wet)

GM's Cruise revises self-driving software after San Francisco crash

"He added: "We hear from a lot of women who say they feel a lot safer at night riding home in a car without someone in it that they don't know.""

And when the women realise they don't know who might be able to control or divert the driver-less car, or if it suddenly fails to proceed / chooses a not so well-known route and an operator is being sent to sort it out ?? How safe will they feel then ?

Arm sues Qualcomm over custom Nuvia CPU cores, wants designs destroyed

Re: Back to school I go!

'In 10 years we're gonna have one million lawyers, how much can a poor nation stand..' Tom Paxton (some years ago, lovely tune..) I wonder how many there actually are ?

That emoji may not mean what you think it means

The question is...

A quote from Lewis Caroll: “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

Not much of this actually from 'China anymore,' says Northern Light Motors boss

Re: Question

To answer that briefly....

The regs in the UK post 2nd World War were such that you could pass a test for a Motorcycle and then were also licensed to drive a Tricycle weighing less than 8cwt and also a motorcycle and sidecar. Plenty of ex army surplus m/cs at the time and cars were expensive. Annual road tax was also cheaper than a car and fuel consumption a lot better.. The Reliant company(amongst others) built 3-wheeled fibreglass-bodied cars which met the 'Tricycle' requirements... so motorcyclists could now drive the family in the dry without studying for, and passing, a motor car driving test.

Mrs Zimm convinced me to sell my Triumph 500 T100SS to buy a Reliant Regal saloon in order that she could buy a dog!! (Regrets, I have a few..)

** The Reliant Regal van (yellow) shot to fame as the transport of Trotter's Independent Trading , in the TV comedy series 'Only Fools and Horses'.

IBM's autonomous Mayflower ship breaks down in second transatlantic attempt

I am the captain of the Pinafore...

HMS Pinafore, I think you will find.. The Major General is in Pirates, though.

Heresy: Hare programming language an alternative to C

Tortoise

I am designing a new programming language called Tortoise. It'll be out yesterday....

The coat would be a shell-suit... I'll get it myself.... :)

In the graveyard of good ideas, how does yours measure up to these?

Re: Ahh Yes the "We have stopped supporting your device mid sub"

Not even Scotch eggs??

Fancy some new features? Try general-purpose Linux alternative Liquorix

A Big THANK YOU

My new motherboard has been waiting for a newer kernel to get the network card working; I've been using a wireless dongle for a few months hoping Mint would catch up...

Problem solved with Liquorix.. so far...

OK, boomer? Gen-X-ers, elder millennials most likely to name their cars, says DVLA

In the past..

We called our G reg Moggie Minor 'Nurse Gladys'..

Our neighbours had one painted Trafalgar Blue - they called theirs 'Nelson'

GIMP 2.99.8 is here but what's happened to 3.0? If only stuff would not break all the time

re-dock Tool options..

Have you tried Windows - Single Window Mode to try to reset it?

Windows 11 in detail: Incremental upgrade spoilt by onerous system requirements and usability mis-steps

(and I really want it back! And that's from a Linux user...)

...then get Launcher 10 for your Android handset and turn it into a Windows phone lookalike... that's what I did..

(another Linux user...)

Oh the humanity: McDonald's out of milkshakes across Great Britain

Re: Border Bureaucracy?

Reminds me of a visit to a Little Chef some years ago, only wanted the pancakes...

'Sorry, we don't have any pancakes. Would you like an All-Day-Breakfast ?'

'No, but you have eggs for the breakfast, milk for the cereal and maybe some flour ?'

'Yes'

'But no pancakes ? Can't you MAKE some?'

'No'

(Exit...stage left never to go again...)

Before I agree to let your app track me everywhere, I want something 'special' in return (winks)…

Re: Even tyre pressure sites are at it.

No, it's on the inside of the fuel filler flap, behind the handy windscreen ice scraper

Firefox 91 introduces cookie clearing, clutter-free printing, Microsoft single sign-on... so where are all the users?

...Market share

"The miracle is Firefox's market share has held up so well."

Quite possibly the reason for that could be that Firefox seems to be the default browser for most Linux distributions.

(sometimes accompanied by Chromium, but you are free to uninstall either or both).

As for 'Browser Wars' .. most wars are won by the biggest armies with the deepest pockets...

I can't remember the reason I dumped IE for Firefox sometime around the beginning of the century; might have been features, might have been security concerns - but having switched to Linux as my main OS in 2004 you get curious and try the new names you find in the repositories or stumble across Opera and subsequently , Vivaldi etc.

Chrome is baked into Android phones so market share is assured... so, yes, a miracle indeed.

Have you turned it off and on again? Russia's Nauka module just about makes it to the ISS

New Bathroom..

That wouldn't be the one with the Wolowitz space toilet, would it?

Punchy Italian kartist gets 15-year ban for trackside rampage... and other stories

Re: Mustang Silly

Your comment has disturbed the 'force' around here...

Also the traffic in places like Delhi and Bangalore make it almost impossible to go at more than 40 km/h, why have a gas guzzler? For info, last time I was in India (pre-covid) fuel was about £1.00/ litre, but a typical IT graduate salary was about £6-7k p.a.

For Delhi read 'London', for Bangalore read 'Birmingham' and for IT Graduate read 'Old Age Pensioner'..

The coup de grace ? Read £1.40/ litre..

(Yes, I have a bus pass but would you ride on one these days without PPE 3 mask (or whatever they're actually called, you know, the ones that are supposed to keep the germs out).

BMA warns NHS Digital's own confidentiality guardian could halt English GP data grab unless communication with public improves

Effective use of data...not

--An NHS Digital spokesperson told The Register: "Data saves lives and has huge potential to rapidly improve care and outcomes, as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. The vaccine rollout could not have been delivered without effective use of data to ensure it reached the whole population.--

Mrs Zimmer received a second letter from the NHS TODAY urging her to get her first vaccination and to ignore the letter if she already had it since the NHS would contact her when she needed a second jab.

However, Mrs Zimmer had her 2nd jab in April, having been contacted via letter, email and SMS, both by the hospital trust and her GP, as she was on the 'vulnerable' list.

We only opted out last week, so I can't blame that for this unnecessary letter.. how many more unnecessary letters are circulating?

If this is the level of their data then what 's going to happen when we all apply online for our double jab Covid passports ?

We have our hand-written cards ;but note that Mrs. Zimmer's is a single card with both doses and dates recorded whereas I was instructed to write my name at the top of the cards - two of them, one for each dose.. bearing a sticker with the batch no. , type and date . They look SO official and totally NOT suspect forgeries at all.../sarcasm...

The thought that we could be refused/allowed entry to some event/holiday destination (Scotland? the adjoining counties?) in the future based on two bits of cardboard or a lack of effective data on a database is a genuine concern.. as is the NHS Digital's reliance on this data to 'save lives'.

Treaty of Roam finally in ashes: O2 cracks, joins rivals, adds data roaming charges for heavy users in EU

Upvoted, but...

I bet you go back to 'I told you so' in a very short space of time... 'I have informed you thusly' will never sound as satisfying...

ICON (the biggest I could find)

Anyone still using cash? British £50 banknote honouring Alan Turing arrives

Re: Anyone still using cash?--upvoted

Control is what 'they' want.. along with the transaction fees..

My paranoia started in the 60's with an SF story concerning state control where people paid for things with a plastic card that contained their 'credits'. When the card was refused, credits available or not, you were stuffed.. and a whole under-class of people had formed who survived by barter and devious criminal means...

My memory of that story may be hazy but I think it developed into the protaganist discovering an anonymous helper who could hack the state's systems... but that could have been a different book...

..hmm, it's beginning to sound too familiar...

Edit; PS

When everyone can accept card payments for those used items we often sell on, privately or at a car boot sale, jumble sale etc. how long before Govt. of the day introduces a second-hand Value Added Tax ? (deducted directly from your on-line cashless account, of course.)

Looking forward to your totally cashless society now?

Gov.UK taskforce publishes post-Brexit wish-list: 'TIGRR' pounces on GDPR, metric measures

Re: The UK political sphere has been so overtaken by Brexit

You missed one..

>The paper talked about stripping out "unnecessary red tape", introducing rules that are less "onerous" for people and organisations,<

For that, read 'Avoiding oversight and public tendering for contracts.' Which, I am led to believe , is what the current Govt. 'special measures' are all about..

Waymo self-driving robotaxi goes rogue with passenger inside, escapes support staff

The self-driving car named Carl

Transcript of a Scott Adams 'Dilbert' strip , @ Jan 2019

The Self-Driving Car named Carl.

Dilbert: Carl, take me to the grocery sore

Carl: Do you know that if I drive you off a cliff you will die, whereas I will re-spawn in a new body?

Dilbert: Maybe I'll walk..

Carl: Maybe you should..

You can listen right here to the whir of a robot helicopter flying on an alien world

Re: Absolutely stunning!

Never mind, 'Danger, Will Robinson !'..

Wait until you hear "GET ORF MY LAWN!" then the problems will start.

Visual Basic 6 returns: You've been a good developer all year. You have social distanced, you have helped your mom. Here's your reward

Re: Bring your VB projects to 21th [sic] century

That was from a LISP programmer ....

The one with the built-in crash helmet, please ===>

UK government gives Automated Lane Keeping Systems the green light for use on motorways

Re: Who's in charge?

+1

I've said it before (a few times) in comments on similar articles. The self-driving car (in the UK at least) does not fulfil the desires of the majority of those in enthusing at the prospect ; i.e. those people who cannot drive , for one reason or another.

The OP said it for me "The clue is when they say you must be ready to take control at anytime".

To take control one must be a qualified driver.

Should my licence not be renewed when I reach 70 (years, not MPH !) then I would have to submit to visiting distant relations via public transport.

Perhaps the money being thrown at self-driving 'personal' transport could be better spent improving public transport outside of Greater London and the other large cities of the UK!

After all, the developers have been given virtually a free hand in building more and more houses in villages and remote towns with hardly a parking space to be had outside them, so they must be assuming these householders will not be needing a couple of vehicles to commute anywhere in the near future... (I'd thought of a joke icon there, but it's really no joking matter).

The problem for those in charge is that we plebs have enjoyed the fruits of freedom of movement over large distances for a long time now and it's going to be difficult to put that particular genie back in its bottle.

While truly self-driving cars are surely just around the corner, for now here's an AI early-warning system for your semi-autonomous ride

And the purpose of self-driving cars is..?

Generally the people that see autonomous vehicles as a boon are those who would like private transport but cannot drive.

Currently the world is being offered part-time self-driving with, oops apocalypse, over to you Mr.* Licensed Driver, I'm not taking responsibility for this cluster**** of a situation we're now in... and, 'When did you last read your insurance policy?'

The point being that Mr.* Licensed Driver is still required to babysit the robot, so no private transport for Mr.* Cannot Drive.... so I personally do not see the point of the rush to push a half-baked 'solution' onto the roads of the world when Mr.* Licensed Driver should be happy to have control of his own destination rather than being a passenger effectively taking the role of driving instructor and concentrating on when to step in when something goes wrong (a driving instructor might want to comment here on 'how' stressful that can be).

I reckon most drivers would also (like me) consider themselves to be 'bad' passengers, unable to detach themselves from the traffic situation about them when being chauffeured.

(Mr.* other gender pronouns are available)...

Salesforce to face trial after software used by Backpage 'to track sex traffickers, pimps, johns on social media'

Re: "You are all guilty. Prepare to be judged." - Judge Dredd.

...and don't forget Ford, for the car he came in....

Tesla broke US labor law with anti-union efforts – watchdog

Re: I Dreamed I Saw El Musk Last Night. Alive As You Or Me

Have an upvote (and a beer for the Dylan reference - had the album in sheet music once, must have lent it to someone as it's not about now).

NASA shows Mars that humans can drive a remote control space tank at .01 km/h

..falling into a crevice

No accidental discoveries of life on this trip ...

Wolowitz no longer has clearance to take young ladies into the control centre to 'drive a car on Mars'....