Posts by Intractable Potsherd

Troll jailed for 5 years after swatting of Twitter handle owner ends in death

Re: You have gotta be SWATting me.

@LybsterRoy - I think you are referring to the case of Kiera Bell (girl>"boy">girl). There's plenty online about her.

Later poster - no, the case hasn't been overturned, but the Trust is appealing.

Everyone cites that 'bugs are 100x more expensive to fix in production' research, but the study might not even exist

Re: Example

If a bug is discovered once it is in production, the cost is largely borne by the user/customer. It becomes very close to an externality for the producer of the code. If software producers were liable for bugs discovered, they would ship with far more robust code. I know that there is no such thing as perfect code, but some of it is terrible.

Happy 'Freedom Day': Stats suggest many in England don't want it or think it's a terrible idea

Re: Odd...

The evidence says otherwise.

Re: I have some sympathy for Boris

The evidence proves you wrong.

Re: I have some sympathy for Boris

Yes, because Thatcher and her governments destroyed so much of the UK's commons* that we'll never get back. Corbyn was only the Leader of the Opposition.

*Something the shower of shit currently in government are trying to complete by running the NHS down.

Re: Odd...

As a quick look at my past posts will confirm, I am largely against the very concept of masks, for a number of reasons. Indeed, I have a condition fir which I have an exemption from wearing one. However, I have persevered and practiced until I can wear one for about 30 minutes at a time - long enough to go shopping. This is because the evidence does show some benefit *to others*, and, whether I like it or not, it is the new polite - like not wearing pyjamas to the supermarket. However, the outdoor venues that insist on masked really annoy me (not football grounds full of shouting, screaming people - definitely shown to be a risk), but, for example, the boat-trip I took to Staffa last week, or the outside spaces on the very large ferry from Mull to the mainland. There is absolutely no need for these to have such a requirement.

Won't someone think of the kids? China's Cyberspace Admin steps up, orders massive cleanup to make the net safe for minors

Re: East versus West

I sort of agree with you, but nothing else in society revolves entirely around children. Adults should be allowed to to do adult things - the alternative is continuous infantilisation. Rites of passage are important, and we certainly need more if those in Western society, but keeping everything at a "think of the children" level prevents people becoming adult.

I no longer have a burning hatred for Jewish people, says Googler now suddenly no longer at Google

If the current attitudes had been prevalent circa 2000 years ago, how different would the world be now? Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus would have resulted in him being punished by everyone, and one of the major characters in the formation of Christianity would never have been heard of*.

I really detest this current attitude that people can't change. For what it is worth, he has my support and best wishes for the future.

* I make no comment on my opinions on that.

NASA fixes Hubble Space Telescope using backup power supply unit, payload computer

Re: YAY NASA!

I was just thinking how wonderful it would be if we had a system - say, a reusable spacecraft designed to repair things. It could have a large area for things to be taken up or to provide a base for repairs, and maybe a powered arm to hold things or provide a platform for astronauts to work from. Specialists could be selected for each mission, flown up by dedicated flight-crew. At the end of the mission, the craft could reenter the atmosphere and land on a runway. Of course, that's just science fiction, isn't it?

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Re: Collusion with Nazis

"He was interviewed in a BBC radio documentary a few years ago - and was apparently unrepentant."

If he thought he was right, and could justify it, why should he be repentant (assuming, of course, that he didn't advocate the wholesale murder of people who didn't fit a certain mould)?

" It is interesting that after the war the local Salvation Army always requested for him to drive the hired coach for their annual Sunday School seaside trip."

Political views don't make people untouchable (or shouldn't, in a free society). He might have been a very nice man who drove carefully.

Try placing a pot plant directly above your CRT monitor – it really ties the desk together

Re: Your headline reminds me...

I personally know a couple of people who have lived/are living lives such as @jake describes, so I'm more than happy to believe. They do what they enjoy, and every day is a pleasure for them. They are usually really nice people, too - unless you pretend to be something you aren't.

BT to phase out 3G in UK by 2023 for EE, Plusnet, BT Mobile subscribers

Re: Shame, but inevitable

Why not? If it still works, what's the problem?

Boffins find an 'actionable clock' hiding in your blood, ticking away to your death

Re: Thoughts

Yes, it is "Lifeline", RAH's first published story. The scientist is Professor Hugo Pinero. The text is at https://metallicman.com/laoban4site/life-line-full-text-by-robert-heinlein/

Audacity fork maintainer quits after alleged harassment by 4chan losers who took issue with 'Tenacity' name

Shouting into the void

It's probably a waste of time to say this, but why don't we all step back and wait for further information? This is a weird story that is apparently being investigated by the police. It may be true in full, in part, or not at all. The original article simply states what has been alleged with no corroborating evidence at the moment. Sit back, keep an eye on the headlines, and wait for more to come.

I was fired for telling ICO of Serco track and trace data breach, claims sacked worker

Re: OTOH

@cynic - your comment illustrates the attitude that anyone who stands up for their rights is "a troublemaker" and should be got rid of. This is one of the reasons people don't hold companies to account.

Re: Avoidance of responsibility

To back this up, I read recently that the current shortage of HGV drivers is made worse by a lot of them being caught up in the IR35 rules and deciding not to play the game.

What's this about a lawyer looking for an heir? City of London Police seek IT crew to help crack down on fraud

Why?

You would have thought they'd have their hands full with investigating government ministers' recent contracts, wouldn't you? Not much need for high-tech stuff there, since they were so fucking blatant.

Now everyone can take in the sights and smells of a London tram station shut for 70 years

Re: Reminds me of the pre-Metro

"I also wondered how many times motorists ended up in the tunnel system."

My brother-in-law managed that in Prague some years ago! Fortunately, the section is quite short, and no trams (or police) were around at the time...

Not for children: Audacity fans drop the f-bomb after privacy agreement changes

"Toujour l'Audace", obviously!

Edit: just seen that @Potemkine! posted a more subtle version of this earlier :-)

NASA's InSight lander expected to survive most of summer before choking to death on Martian dust

Re: Learning point.

Yes, but think of the extra engineering needed to make the arm flick the cloth clean.

Hubble memory errors persist despite NASA booting long-idle backup payload computer

Pessimism time

I hope we aren't going to lose Arecibo and Hubble in the same 12 months. Come on NASA, work your magic!

Ouch! When the IT equipment is sound, but the setup is hole-y inappropriate

Re: "tales about all manner of things being inserted into all manner of orifices"

Thank you soooooo much for that mental image!!

Hungover Brits declare full English breakfast the solution to all their ills

Re: Monopoly

There is good evidence that alcohol was being produced in large quantities at least 12000 years ago - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01681-w

Re: Monopoly

I'm glad I've never been in any of the pubs you seem to be familiar with!

What you need to know about Microsoft Windows 11: It will run Android apps

I don't think that's excitement...

Re: WHY

Not everything needs to be reported as soon as it vomits forth. This manufactured need for immediate, uninformed, commentary on everything is quite counter-productive. Waiting a little while to produce analysis is a good thing.

Euro court rules YouTube not automatically liable for users illegally uploading copyright-protected material

Sarah Brightman?

I have to confess that I didn't think Sarah Brightman was still performing after about the mud-1990s, if not earlier ("I fell in love with a starship trooper" and something with an opera singer being all I was aware of, other than her marriage to Andrew Lloyd Webber). I was astounded to find that she is a really successful singer (that "something with an opera singer" was one of best selling singles ever, the opera singer being Andrea Bocelli, who even I have heard of). It seems that she also began training to go to the ISS less than 10 years ago! (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah Brightman)

I may not like her style of music (I hate operatic sopranos with a passion), but I've learned something today.

Mind the gap(ing mouth): London's Underground to get ubiquitous mobile phone coverage

Re: Thanks I hate it

But what about the twerking?

Hubble Space Telescope sails serenely on in safe mode after efforts to switch to backup memory modules fail

Re: And shut the door on your way out ...

@ThatOne: great rant. However, until Arecibo is replaced then I think we can say that ground-based astronomy is significantly under-appreciated.

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

I'm not expressing any opinion on which system is best, simply saying that the same arguments are being used. Both systems have their advantages/disadvantages.

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

"Why on earth would anyone want to [use] something that is alien to most of the population?"

That was a commonly stated opinion when metric measurements were really introduced in the UK. I was taught in both Imperial and metric at school in the late 60s through the 70s, at least in part because some of teachers did not want to teach metric. I still know e.g. the speed of light in both miles per second and metres per second, because my physics classes taught both.

As mentioned previously, we have a hybrid system in the UK anyway - pints and miles are still the measurements used every day.

Japan assembles superteam of aircraft component manufacturers to build supersonic passenger plane

Re: Engines?

As I've mentioned before, I used to live near RAF Finningley during the Vulcan days. Close enough to hear them wind up and take off, day or night. I regard myself as very fortunate in that respect.

Re: Engines?

"Concorde was also just a little bit noisy at take off."

Only in the same way that a really good rendition of, say, the 1812 Overture is a bit noisy. The sound was absolute joy to many people.

Playmobil crosses the final frontier with enormous, metre-long Enterprise playset

Only...

... the certainty of divorce is stopping me pre-ordering this - for my space-mad son, of course!

(If it was a metre-long B5, I'd accept the single life again. There are some things that cannot be resisted.)

Toyota reveals its work on an honest-to-goodness cloak of invisibility

Re: Interesting

"For some reason -- thinner doorposts? bigger interiors? -- There was much less problem prior to about 2010."

For at least some cars, it is the addition of airbags in the A-pillar that has worsened the problem. Our two cars are the same manufacturer but different models. One has no A-pillar airbag, and I never have any trouble with vision*. The other can hide an entire Transit-sized van coming up to roundabouts.**

* Just like every other car I've driven in the last 40+ years.

** I am tall enough that I need to have the seat as far back as possible. This seems to make a difference because of the relative angles.

Space Force turtle expert uncovers $1.2m Cape Canaveral cocaine haul

Every day is school day!

"Testudinal" - a word I didn't know until now! This is one of the reasons I read El Reg.

Your spacesuit ran into a problem and needs to restart

Heinlein

Things were obviously much simpler when I were a lad. "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" never mentioned reboots.

(I have wondered for years what sort of batteries the suit used, though. They lasted an awfully long time without recharge or replacement.)

They think it's all over. It's not now: US judge rejects HPE motion to have Oracle's Solaris sueball dismissed

Re: Or don't

I know one happy corporate lawyer (used to be a student of mine), but, in general, once any lawyer gets into the big cases (public, criminal or private law, it makes no difference), the effect on personal life is huge, and leads to all sorts of unhappiness and ill-health. The happiest lawyers I know are those that stay in small, local firms.

BT sues supplier for £72m over exchange gear that allegedly caused wave of ADSL outages

"... didn't even appear on their copper network diagrams."

During my recently-ended regular visits from OR engineers (I'm on first name terms with some of them now) to sort out recurring line problems, one of them mentioned that about 100m of line from the cabinet to the house went missing from the map a few years ago and has never been put back. Of course, it isn't an obvious missing bit - it stops at another cabinet put in decades after the one were connected to...

We don't know why it's there, we don't know what it does – all we know is that the button makes everything OK again

Re: A Story about Magic

For reasons I do not recall, I actually wired some lights on one of my cars many, many years ago using co-ax - positive on the inner core, negative outer. I suspect it was one of those "nothing more permanent than a temporary fix", though what possessed me to do such a temporary fix in the first place I do not know

NTT slashes top execs’ pay as punishment for paying more than their share of $500-a-head meals with government officials

I'm probably a barbarian...

... but I don't think there is a meal anywhere in the world worth $500 per head. In fact, I'd only very reluctantly pay $50 a head.

Apple, it's OK. Seriously. You don't need to blind your iOS 15 engineers to prevent leaks

Misreading

I I initially read the headline as "bind", and wondered if we were finally into Laundry Files/Harry Dresden territory at Apple. It's not that unlikely - has anyone ever met an *EX*-Apple engineer?

Chinese app binned by Beijing after asking what day it is on anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

Re: Blah blah blah

@nintendoeats: "... I will not be put in prison or assassinated."

Well, if you are in the UK, that might not be the case any longer. Look up Craig Murray and Marion Millar for starters.

US House Rep on cyber committees tweets Gmail password, PIN in Capitol riot lawsuit outrage

Is Rep Brookes' middle name Ronald, by any chance?

UK's Labour Party calls for delay to NHS Digital's GP data slurp until patients can be properly informed

Re: Opt out links

There is also the fact that, as far as I have seen so far, anyone registering with an English GP after June 23rd will not have the chance to opt out.

Big Tech has a big problem with Florida passing a law that protects politicians from web moderation

Re: "drowning out the rest of us"

Woman = adult human female.

Report commissioned by Google says Google isn't to blame for the death of print news

Re: Yes they can compete...

"Newspapers like The Economist, FT, Time and Spectator... offer extremely hight quality journalism..."

Other opinions are available. YMMV.

How many remote controls do you really need? Answer: about a bowl-ful

Re: Not my sympathies...

Oh, I forgot to mention the Freesat box!

Re: Not my sympathies...

@Schultz - "... nice colored insulating tape... makes the remote stand out from the crowd..."

I have labelled our very few* remotes with different colours of reflective tape. This has the advantage that once child-induced Brownian motion has taken place, there is a chance of finding the matte-black thingy in the crevices of the matte-black furniture by shining a torch around.

*TV (which doesn't work now anyway - I think the IR receiver has given up), DVD player, Fire stick, and Android STB for Eurosport that needs so many updates I never get to see what I want anyway.