Posts by strum

UK space comes to an 'understanding' with Australia as Brexit looms

Re: RE: Mooseman

>What is the point in having a referendum if you're then going to ignore the result?

What is the point of a referendum if some chancers are going to fabricate a pretend mandate to chop our own feet off?

Re: RE: Mooseman

>The food bill should go down

More delusion. It takes years (decades, sometime) to negotiate the standards and protections essential for food trade. Currently, we don't have any such agreements in place. (It isn't just about tariffs.)

Re: RE: Mooseman

>It's called the democratic will of the people.

That's a bit rich, coming from people who've been dismissing the 1975 referendum, for 40 years.

You only need to see their reaction to a new, democratic vote (best of three, anyone?), to see their contempt for democracy.

Re: RE: Mooseman

>Is it the EU in multiple self inflicted crises?

Most of the planet is in a crisis, inflicted by US banks. The Putin-lovers' wet dream of a collapsing EU will just get the sheets damp.

Re: RE: Mooseman

>So my reasoned comment explaining how we have a great hand

That would be your delusional assertion that black was white?

Re: RE: Mooseman

>The EU is in a less envious position

And there's that delusion again.

The EU doesn't want Brexit, sure - but they'll weather the storm a damn sight smoother than UK.

Re: RE: Mooseman

>27 boot prints on his fat arse

A lovely image, which I shall treasure.

California cracks down on Internet of Crap passwords with new law to stop the botnets

Re: What a stupid bill

>They'll start complaining "This trash is broken! I want a refund!"

And they'll be told to make a password, and it won't be broken (and if the punter still complains, the seller can blame Jerry Brown).

There does need to be some degree of personal responsibility.

Civil rights group Liberty walks out on British cops' database consultation

>They have always, always, been enacted on a simple majority basis.

Nope. The 1978 Scottish devolution referendum had a pre-set limit.

MI5: Gosh, awkward. We looked down the sofa and, yeah, we *do* have intel on privacy bods

Re: The big surprise here

>... is that they admitted to it.

We're accustomed to TV/Movie spooks being cavalier and self-serving, but, in the real world "to live outside the law, you must be honest". More to the point, if you're going to be professionally-dishonest, you need legal backing.

If a project blows up in your face (or in someone else's street) you'd better be sure you played by the rules.

>Cock-up before conspiracy.

It possible that it's both - a loose system of governance, allowing sloppy behaviour, so that genuinely-naughty behaviour has a smokescreen.

Facebook sued for exposing content moderators to Facebook

Re: I'm sorry, but snowflakes....

>you know, more or less, what you are letting yourself in for

I don't think any of us have the slightest clue how an unremitting diet of inhumanity would affect us.

30-up: You know what? Those really weren't the days

Re: "who had a computer at home (with a modem)"

>Before BT was privatised and relaxed the rules

BT retained the power to approve/disapprove modems for some time after privatisation.

Re: "you were seriously stuck up a gum tree"

>Dejanews was the Google of the 90s

For those that knew about it. I remember leaving my (IT) boss gobsmacked, that I could answer a previously-intractable problem, with a simple DN search.

A few years later, in another job, I was gobsmacked by a 'senior' programmer, who had never heard of Usenet.

Big Cable tells US government: Now's not the time to talk about internet speeds – just give us the money

Re: USA? Most technologically advanced?

>if the UK government hadn't intervened in 1990 to stop the roll-out

They didn't intervene to stop the roll-out. They intervened to stop the monopolisation of cable/TV, by BT.

BT were perfectly free to roll out cable - they just weren't free to impose a monopoly for TV access. When BT were told that, they lost interest.

Berkeley bio-boffins' butt-blasting belly-bothering batt-teria generates electricity

What you'll eat next will shock you!

GDPR v2 – Gradually Diminishing Psychotic Robots: Brussels kills Terminator apocalypse

Minor point, Kieran

> now that a bunch of bureaucrats have passed a resolution.

Just because you want to throw a couple of hate words into your piece, doesn't absolve you of logical inexactitudes.

Bureaucrats might implement a resolution - they don't pass one. It was elected politicians who passed this resolution. The clue is in the word 'Parliament'.

Expanding Right To Be Forgotten slippery slope to global censorship, warn free speech fans

>If any nation state can demand global removal of search results, how long will it be before the Vatican (a recognised nation state) requires removal of all search links to stories of Catholic priests abusing children?

They would have to make a legal case (publicly) for that to happen.

Dear America: Want secure elections? Stick to pen and paper for ballots, experts urge

Re: share of moonballs

>The US also has a long and proud tradition of voter fraud.

No. There's a long tradition of unsupported claims of voter fraud - without any evidence to back it up.

Re: @Martin Gregorie

>A fascist sees faith as a bad thing, and belittles anyone who follows religious beliefs.

Poppycock. Fascism and the church have a long and dismal history. Atheists were not permitted to join the SS.

It's been 5 years already, let's gawp at Microsoft and Nokia's bloodbath

Re: Nokia was a phone company that couldn't make the transition

>The fact that what they decided to do was the very worst thing they could have thought of is neither here nor there.

Come now. Anything but "the very worst thing they could have thought of" has got to be better, surely?

UK.gov's no-deal plans leave HMRC customs, VAT systems scrambling to keep up

Re: A total waste of effort to support a transparent bluff

>Ever since the EC was turned into the EU the backlash has been growing

The 'backlash' has nothing to do with Maastricht. We're suffering a bout of extremism, because of the economic shock of 2008. Just as the Great Depression fostered all sorts of extremism around the world, the 'Great Recession' is doing the same.

It only remains to be seen whether the original solution is repeated.

Archive.org's Wayback Machine is legit legal evidence, US appeals court judges rule

Re: snapshot versus screenshot of snapshot

>Because when evidence is presented, then it is usually taken at face value unless there is some reason to doubt it.

What most people don't realise is that physical/technical evidence isn't just shovelled into the courtroom. All evidence is 'adduced' from human witnesses. It's their word that is being put into evidence - their word that this piece of stuff is what he says it is.

Re: DNA and ffingerprints

>Judges refuse to allow a jury to be told that a DNA match is a probabilistic thing.

Poppycock. I've been a juror on a case, using DNA. The judge not only allowed discussion of DNA's probablistic nature, he called an expert witness to explain it to us.

Google is 20, Chrome is 10, and Microsoft would rather ignore the Nokia deal's 5th birthday

Re: Ask Google? Ask Microsoft?

Back in the day, I did one of those focus group/product test days, looking at Search Engines. The winner was Infoseek.

US government upends critical spying case with new denial

Re: As usual, the intel community lies to the people in order to protect itself.

>Their ability to surveil, not their right.

Indeed. Governments don't have rights; they have powers (and, maybe, duties).

Space station springs a leak while astronauts are asleep (but don't panic)

If this was a micro-meteor impact, shouldn't there be an 'exit wound' of some kind - either another hole, or an unspecified dent, or a small cluster of meteor-dust?

Voting machine maker claims vote machine hack-fests a 'green light' for foreign hackers

Re: Most Secure Voting Machine

>manual counting, when used, customarily is done by teams of election judges representing at least two political parties. As in the UK, the procedure may be witnessed by independent (i. e., non-official) observers

That's not how it works in the UK. The counting is done by non-partisan officials. They are supervised by representatives of the parties.

Re: Er...

>you think Open source is good if you can't see the source code that is being run

You're being downvoted because you seem to be unaware that if the code can't be seen, it ain't open source.

UK getting ready to go it alone on Galileo

Re: Cooperation

>Every time there's a referendum

...politics has failed.

Re: Cooperation

Since when has the EU been in status quo?

The status quo was a system of negotiation, analysis and legislation - which we could influence (and in many cases, veto), from within. That some Europeans saw a federation as a far-distant objective was never a reality (and we could always have vetoed it, anyway).

Instead we're going to be subject to a bunch of rules we have no say in forming (not just from the EU).

Re: Cooperation

>The EU doesn't want partnership, it needs victory.

Bollocks. Amid the petty posturing of Brexiteers, the EU have remained calm, quiet and undemonstrative. The worst they've done is to frown sadly at our childishness.

On the other hand, the EU has a responsibility to protect the interests of its remaining members. It has no responsibility to accede to the demands of a bunch of surly ex-members.

Re: Cooperation

>I find it difficult to understand that the EU aren't happy to agree a simple treaty with us to continue partnership on this.

Do you understand rules? The EU has rules about dealings with third countries, one of which is about to be us. These rules preclude secure access to its systems (as any sensible entity would do).

After all, if the UK were to go ahead with its own system, would we give full access to Nigeria, on the basis that they were once part of the Empire?

Re: @JuJuBalt

>We're actually negotiating leaving the EU.

No. We're (feebly) negotiating the aftermath of leaving - trying to limit the damage. Different thing entirely.

>why would we pay a bill to leave the EU?

No. We aren't paying to leave. We're fulfilling longterm commitments (if we have any sense of honour left).

US tech circles wagons as India reviews data protection proposals

>"Data localisation is not just a business concern, it potentially makes government surveillance easier, which is a worry."

Well, quite. Indian surfers have every right to worry about surveillance by a foreign government.

'Oh sh..' – the moment an infosec bod realized he was tracking a cop car's movements by its leaky cellular gateway

Re: Easy consumer law regulation

>So what happens when (not if) the company finds a legal way to wipe out their turnover?

Then they cease to exist. (hint: turnover =/= profit)

Re: Why did they have to pull the terrorist card?

>No you bloody wouldn't, because if I want to publicise my cause by violent means I will just attack the police station

You have been conditioned into believing that 'terrorism' is confined to mad beardies with suicide belts. But there are more sophisticated terrorists about. Northern Ireland has seen many, many personal attacks on policemen/women - at their homes.

Re: Default passwords? In this day and age?

>Why do all you people think government is the solution to everything?

Why do you think a corporation is the answer to anything?

Lo and behold, Earth's special chemical cocktail for life seems to be pretty common

Re: Alternative life forms

>Moving off world

Have you any idea of the energy requirements of moving even a fraction of the world's population off world? (Not to mention to budget for going somewhere else and surviving there.)

In any case, if we can't learn to live on this platform, how the hell can we learn to live on another?

Re: Give it a couple of million years

>Evolution can occur within a single generation

Piffle. Epigenetics isn't evolution, which requires sustained and widespread alteration in a genome.

Re: Give it a couple of million years

>We have evolved ...MASSIVELY in the last 10k years.

No we haven't. Our genetic makeup is pretty much the same - it's our behaviour, diet & healthcare that's changed - and morphed us into flabby (but tall) specimens of the same species.

Net neutrality freaks furious over lack of fury at FCC hearing

Re: Government failing the populace

It never ceases to amaze, that those who will do anything to resist being under the heel of government, just love being under the heel of unaccountable corporations.

Hint: if someone is more powerful than the government - they're the de facto government.

Rejoice! Thousands more kids flock to computing A-level

Re: Who is ultimately responsible? well you are of course, you voted for them

>All, yes, all politicians are cut from the same cloth

They're cut from the same cloth you (and I) are.

Just as you may (occasionally) come across a good manager, there are also (occasionally) decent politicians. And every one of them went into their trade in the hope of doing some good.

The fact that they usually can't, is largely because we, the public, don't pay attention to the details; we only notice the bits that impinge on us (negatively). And it's always their fault.

But, however crappy our particular constituency MP behaves, we'll still vote for him (or abstain), lest the other lot get in.

If you drop a tablet in a forest of smartphones, will anyone hear it fall?

There's something wrong with us, when we regard 6m sales (of a fairly expensive item) in a quarter - as some sort of failure.

These aren't things you should need to change often - if you even need one in the first place.

If companies can't make a living out of these sales, they deserve to disappear.

Surprise, surprise. Here comes Big Cable to slay another rule that helps small ISPs compete

Re: How to lie with statistics?

>Competition certainly provides more options, and it may depress prices and lessen the amount of price gouging, but it won't really keep them from ripping you off unless the competition is organically generated through the free market.

Donn, there is no such thing as a free market. I can't set up a telco; I can't afford it. It isn't free.

The existing big telcos inherited most of their cable runs. Many of the rest were subsidised by the gummint they now despise. I can't inherit anything (and I can't afford to bribe a congressman/senator - they're not free, either).

Re: How to lie with statistics?

>Consumer demand is what drives growth, not competition.

Needs both. Without competition (or regulation) consumer demand is met at the lowest acceptable level/highest acceptable price. Without consumer demand, competition doesn't matter.

When they combine - then you're getting somewhere. Better product becomes affordable, driving demand, driving supply.

Top Euro court: No, you can't steal images from other websites (too bad a school had to be sued to confirm this little fact)

Re: New internet standard...

>anything you find on the internet is copyright protected unless specifically stated otherwise.

Just because the website claims its images are copyright-free, doesn't mean they really are. If there's a Creative Commons license, there'll be a link to the rules... which should be read and checked.

Funnily enough, no, infosec bods aren't mad keen on W. Virginia's vote-by-phone-app plan

Re: Old fashioned

>If I go to your UK voting centre first I can just say that I'm you.

And run the risk of being arrested (because I've already voted). Is it worth it, punk?

This system has been in place for a century or more, and the combined proven instances of personation wouldn't elect a parish councillor.

Top tip? Sprinkle bugs into your code to throw off robo-vuln scanners

Wouldn't the script kiddies just circulate a database of known fake bugs?

DEF CON plans to show US election hacking is so easy kids can do it

Re: All bull until real voter ID

>Pretty hard to have a bank account, drive, or do much of anything with any tie to money or legality - make a contract - without a good ID.

None of these are a right. Voting is a right.