Posts by Snowy

Tech Bro CEO lays off 900 people in Zoom call and makes himself the victim

Re: Better.com

Go some where else, any where else!!

Co-Operative Bank today 'terminated' Capita's outsourcing contract years before it was due to expire

Re: Ex Mutual?

<quote> Limited companies can't do that because they have a statutory duty to maximise shareholder return - in dividends and the share price.<quote>

The law does not say that.

This is the law, from the Companies Act 2006:

172: Duty to promote the success of the company

(1)A director of a company must act in the way he considers, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole, and in doing so have regard (amongst other matters) to–

(a)the likely consequences of any decision in the long term,

(b)the interests of the company's employees,

(c)the need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others,

(d)the impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment,

(e)the desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct, and

(f)the need to act fairly as between members of the company.

(2)Where or to the extent that the purposes of the company consist of or include purposes other than the benefit of its members, subsection (1) has effect as if the reference to promoting the success of the company for the benefit of its members were to achieving those purposes.

(3)The duty imposed by this section has effect subject to any enactment or rule of law requiring directors, in certain circumstances, to consider or act in the interests of creditors of the company.

So, where does it say that profit maximisation has to be the object of the company? Quite clearly it doesn't.

Sure, 'success of the company for the benefit of its members' clearly implies a duty to generate profit, or at least a positive cash flow, but maximise it? No way! This is at best a constrained requirement, as is clear from sub-paragraphs a to f.

So what is abundantly clear is that in UK law there is:

a) No duty to maximise profit

b) No duty to minimise tax bills

c) A duty to exercise judgement.

If at first Amazon doesn't let you succeed, try, try again: Warehouse workers given second chance at union vote

Re: 2nd time lucky

Was just thinking of that same show but it does puzzles me that a comic covers these stories better than the main stream press does.

The climate is turning against owning our own compute hardware. Cloud is good for you and your customers

Re: Tesla locking....

Tesla Model S has two sets of batteries one for the system and the other to run the motors. If you do not use the car for a while even if you leave it plugged in the system battery will go flat and you can not operate the car without dismantle part of it to recharge that battery.

James May's Tesla Model S did fail with it a few months ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsKwMryKqRE

Australia will force social networks to identify trolls, so they can be sued for defamation

Another go at Juice Media

They had a go at them when they tried to outland genuine satire, is this another go at shutting them up?

A NSFW video (swearing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNIYL5x1oy0

As for:

<quote>The other win came with a law that requires Facebook and Google to pay local news publishers for the right to link to their content (Indonesia's government last week floated laws based on Australia's). Both Facebook and Google protested, vociferously, that the proposal was unworkable before eventually backing it.</quote>

I think from this video it was not so much a win (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqj2z3QaRyU) NSFW as sucking up for News Corps or Rupert Murdoch.

Bad news for Tencent: Chinese companies steer employees away from Weixin or WeChat

Re: So wait

I go for the second option they are under a tight grip, do the "wrong" thing and your social score is going to be affected which would have a bad effect on you.

UK.gov emits draft IoT and smartphone security law for Parliamentary scrutiny

Smartphones

They all get patches while they are supported, just some are not supported for very long. Unless this makes the manufacturer support them for longer nothing is going to change!

Desktop bust and custom iPhone 13 Pro made from melted-down Tesla car for the Elon Musk dork in your life

What has me done

I hear he is very good at getting government money.

Edit: The best thing he could do is sort out lithium-ion battery recycling as right now there are a lot of used batteries around.

Kremlin names the internet giants it will kidnap the Russian staff of if they don't play ball in future

Easy to bypass

If you have little or no conscience, just hire someone local and give them no power, do all the work offsite. Then if they get locked up just hire someone else. A little less bad if they understand that they will be thrown to the wolfs when the "law" turns up.

Turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems admits to cyber incident, refuses to confirm if ransomware is at play

Re: Hopefully it was

The chances are not good :(

China's hypersonic glider didn't just orbit Earth, it 'fired a missile' while at Mach 5

Best way to win a race.

Be the only one running the race.

AI surveillance software increasingly used to make sure contract lawyers are doing their jobs at home

People

They still have people working at Amazon fulfilment centres because they do not have robot that can do some of the work yet.

Magnanimous Apple will allow people to fix their iPhones using parts bought from its Self Service Repair program

Re: Fair?

Going from their past repair programs it does not look good. Louis Rossmann put out a video on the matter just yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jCtVDCiY_8

New study demonstrates iodine as satellite propellant... in space

Re: On the one hand : Science !

Space may be big but space in orbit vs the problems of a collision and suddenly that space starts to look uncomfortable small.

Ready, player anyone? China's gaming ban left cloud providers looking for someone to play with

Re: Making every other coutry

Depending on the definition of "Muppet" going to be very empty, but why stop at 3hrs if your the wrong kind of Muppet you do not get to use the net at all.

Regulators on three continents probing Nvidia's $40bn purchase of Arm, CFO confirms

I count two in the article.

UK, Europe and USA are looking into this, last time I checked while the UK have left the EU they are still part of the same continent*.

Unless you means China is the third one in which case putting that in the article would have been useful.

*Moving the UK to a new continental plate would be tricky, but doing it while keeping the island of Ireland in one piece and keeping the Republic of Ireland on the European continental shelf would make that boarder rather tectonically active.

Smartphone chip house Ziguang Zhanrui records 14,726.1% growth in China

So

When did Apple become a chip suppler?

USA signs internet freedom and no-hack pact it's ignored since 2018

Re: Bit by bit, the USA is returning to being a normal world citizen

Yes anonymity is more like a sliding scale you can make it easy or hard but it is very hard if not impossible to be completely anonymous.

Tencent's growth slows as child gamers switch off under new Chinese laws

Limited pay time at home

Worry not as the foreigners will make up for it. They are expanding outside china, I believe they have purchased some none Chinesse game studios already.

AI algorithms can help erase bright streaks of internet satellites – but they cannot save astronomy

The why is the telephone monopolies do not want to.

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

Re: That headline

Some also find the joke has things in common with the other two, they can not get it :)

The pandemic improved the status of IT workers … forever

Re: Changed?

Until some IT system breaks and then it is back to the bottom of the pile.

Apple's anti-ad-tracking iPhone feature took a '$10bn' chunk out of social network revenues

Apple tracking

Can you opt out of that?

Zuckerberg wants to create a make-believe world in which you can hide from all the damage Facebook has done

Re: Sadville 2.0

Seeing it is VR

Make Everything Total Advertising.

Microsoft surpasses Apple as world's most valuable biz, by stock price at least

You forgot to say your adding in a Tobacco company too!!

Fun reading their website:

<quote>

Using science to increase understanding

World-class science

Science and innovation are at the heart of our transformational journey as we continue to build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business.

</quote>

Assange psychiatrist misled judge over parentage of his kids, US tells High Court

Putting Assange aside.

Depression and suicide do not follow logic!!

Happy people with everything to live for do fall into depression and try to commit suicide. Having something to live for is not a bar to depression and suicide.

You could say that someone with a lot to live for is someone who can fall into depression as they have a lot they can worry about!

Facebook's greatest misses: The five nastiest bits from recent leaks

Re: Customers?

Just because you paying does not mean your also not the product. Facebook has one customer and that is Facebook, everyone else is there to be exploited.

Japanese bloke collared after using AI software to uncensor smut and flogging it

Re: Ask Delphi<...>; no one is actually using it to make decisions.

From a logic point of view if something makes "everyone happy" it got to be good? Which is where logic and language fails.

The idea that everyone could agree anything is very unlikely, so unlikely that it can be called impossible.

Facebook’s AI content moderation algorithms are naff

That would be true if they had a working AI system, so it should say "Facebook’s content moderation is naff"

Apple kicked an M1-shaped hole in Intel's quarter

Re: "Wink-wink"

I think the terms your looking for in the UK is Strong and Stable.

Facebook fined £50m in UK for 'conscious' refusal to report info and 'deliberate failure to comply' during Giphy acquisition probe

Low fine

The question for me is are they going to pay or just appeal it and if they do pay any in the end it will be a lot less.

You've heard of HTTPS. Now get a load of HTTPA: Web services in verified remote trusted environments?

Very nice

Your can be sure the software your running is the software you want to run but can you be sure the software is secure?

Electric car makers ready to jump into battery recycling amid stuttering supply chains

Re: They have been

Redesign, reuse , repurpose, recycle.

Redesign so the others uses are easier to do and ease of recycling.

Reuse which if true they are being reused in static installations then that is great.

Then once the capacity is to low recycle then recycle the materials and make new ones and the impact while none zero is reduced.

Re: Shoudl have from the start

Electric car makers are the ones shouting how environmental they are friendly?

Shoudl have from the start

They should have been recycling the batteries from the start not just start doing it now.

Sharing medical records with researchers: Assumed consent works in theory – just not yet in practice

Greater good.

For the greater good for it only to be good for a few for that phrase to be constructive in a debate.

James Webb Space Telescope completes its voyage to French Guiana

Re: Progress

or the focus of the mirrors is set wrong, there is no going up and fixing it like they did with the Hubble.

EU Commission may extend antitrust probe into Nvidia's $54bn merger with Arm

They have seen

The bung the UK is getting and are looking for some?

I'm diabetic. I'd rather risk my shared health data being stolen than a double amputation

Is that for or against

<quote>I'm diabetic. I'd rather risk my shared health data being stolen than a double amputation

You want my medical records? Good, take them – now find me a cure.</quote>

That sounds very much like an argument for Op-in rather than op-out?

The planet survived six hours without Facebook. Let's make it longer next time

Re: I do not

LOL

I'm white a man and over 50 there is lots there for Facebook to work on.

I do not

hate myself enough to use Facebook.

They tried

It was called Googles+ and it failed it was fourth foray into social networking.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B)

Did it fail due to users not being chained to the service?

Memory price 'correction' is coming, world's fourth-largest DRAM-maker warns

Shortage here shortage there

Oddly no shortage of materials to make DRAMs.

Opt-out is the right approach for sharing your medical records with researchers

No

The NHS does not even share your data with itself.

I had to go to A&E to treat a big blister, they took some blood to be tested, also swabbed the wound. No idea what the results where as they have not shared that data with my doctors practice. So before they talk about sharing data with some random researchers maybe get the parts of the "National" heath service to talk to each other.

Apple beat Epic Games 9-1 in court. Now it's appealed the one point it lost

Freemium game model

Sure 30% is a lot but when the game cost nothing and all the money comes from in-game purchases and these are not done via Apples store their cut is zero. Apple does nothing for free and why should it?

Sorry EPIC you knew the rules if you do not like them do not stop using the Apple store.

Nearly 140 nations – from US and UK to EU, China and India – back 15% minimum corporate tax rate

How many

tax havens not signing up?

Facebook far too consumed by greed to make itself less harmful to society, whistleblower tells Congress

Re: "Facebook’s algorithms [..] put immense profit before safety and society"

Yes we keep on being told that a company must maximise profits nothing about being nice about doing it.

Facebook's behaviour is the result of this, which just show how bad the idea that a companies only exist to maximise profit is.

Re: "Facebook’s algorithms [..] put immense profit before safety and society"

The only user on Facebook is Facebook everyone else is the product and yes I am including Advertisers.

Facebook rendered spineless by buggy audit code that missed catastrophic network config error

Re: Too bad their security wasn't better

Thanks for the link to to video, shame I can only upvote you once.

Globalfoundries files for IPO

What a company

It is tough for them in a world where all the others are making massive profits but they work hard and bucked the trend and made a loss.