Re: What am I missing?
"assuming that none of its battery power is used to power a heated compartment"
Not bloody likely in Australia, mate.
Posts by scrubber
908 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jun 2009
Domino's trials trundling four-wheeled pizza delivery bot
Google tries to run from flailing robotics arm
Labour: We want the Snoopers' Charter because of Snowden
Subjects! Speek your branes to Parliament on the Snoopers' Charter
Lessons from history for UK Home Sec Theresa May's Investigatory Powers Bill
A typo stopped hackers siphoning nearly $1bn out of Bangladesh
UN rapporteur: 'Bad example' UK should bin the Snoopers' Charter
Thursday 10th March 2016 12:01 GMT
Re: Low information commentards
Pretty small number of children, the majority would be looking for work not benefits. Which is why seeing a massive influx of low wage seeking people in certain areas would lead the low skilled in those areas to resent the immigrants, regardless of the actual impact on jobs and wages in those areas.
From the ONS:
"Of those immigrating for work-related reasons in the year ending September 2014, 62% (167,000) came with a definite job to go to and 38% (104,000) came to look for work."
"Or are you erroneously assuming that everyone who does not have a job is claiming benefits?"
I guess not. Seems your perception of my point is what is erroneous.
OTOH a small number are coming for medical treatment and are disproportionately expensive, but that's nothing to do with the issue at hand.
Wednesday 9th March 2016 15:59 GMT
Re: Low information commentards
"Given that net migration within the EU is probably a lot less than you actually think"
Ignoring what I think, let's see what net migration actually is:
330,000 in year ending March 2015 (BBC) approx. 200k had jobs, meaning 130k did not.
If you're looking for work, or a better job, and see this influx of people, bearing in mind they are not evenly spread across the country, then it is easy to see this as a major issue if they're coming into the same segment of the job market as you are in. But if you're a middle class programmer it's probably easier to dismiss such claims as Murdoch hysteria and right wing Tory propaganda.
There are 850k Polish people in the UK, more than Indians, which I don't care about, but I can see the same resentment towards the Eastern Europeans among many people that I recall people having towards Indians and Pakistanis in the early 80s. And it's working, and not-working, class people that mainly have this issue as it's easy to blame 'the other' for your low wages, poor prospects and lack of success, regardless of where the fault actually lies.
Wednesday 9th March 2016 14:05 GMT
Low information commentards
So all those traditional Labour supporters who think the EU has led to mass migration from Eastern Europe leading to native unemployment, benefits abuse and lower low-skilled wages are what, told what to think by Murdoch rather than what they see down the local job centre? People being offered jobs at wages they can barely live on but told that someone will take it if they don't are not actually hearing that but simply being confused by the Murdoch media?
Large states -> large bureaucracies -> centralisation of power -> wielding of power -> war or totalitarianism or both
Small states -> petty bureaucracies -> decentralisation of power -> very little power to wield -> parochial squabbles over putting your bins out and keeping your garden tidy
Over-simplified? Maybe. But it makes a kind of intuitive sense.
Wednesday 9th March 2016 12:05 GMT
Bleeding heart liberal...
"The report also voices another serious concern that the impact of this extreme legislation will be felt around the world, and copied by other countries."
Next they'll be telling us we can't invade countries without good reason, abduct people and hold them without a trial, or torture people because "it might set a bad example".
GCHQ: Crypto's great, we're your mate, don't be like that and hate
Tuesday 8th March 2016 14:27 GMT
Re: The importance of encryption for the economy and for the individual.
The government are mandating permanently connected devices be installed in every house in the country, capable of monitoring temperature, energy use ... and sound? ... and reporting back to some centralised server somewhere. Why? To save the planet, of course, and stop looking too closely, it saves you money too. Squirrel.
Californian tycoons stole my sharing economy, says Lily Cole
Norman Conquest, King Edward, cyber pathogen and illegal gambling all emerge in Apple v FBI
Saturday 5th March 2016 16:00 GMT
Re: Correction
Anyone who believes that criminals should not be protected by the same laws as the rest of us is on a slippery slope to torture, barbarism, totalitarianism. It's something the far right in the US say. I'm pretty sure most UK citizens would not be terribly keen on waterboarding shoplifters, or ramming bamboo shoots under the fingernails of speeding motorists - no matter how affected our families had been by motorists and light fingered miscreants.
it's fair to say that the majority of law-abiding citizens would want prosecutors to be able to access evidence that could help convict someone of a serious crime, regardless of how strongly they feel about their own personal privacy.
No, it's not fair at all. If the government said it should go house to house searching any they fancied on the basis that there may be smuggled goods or persons of interest within then there may be a bit of an outcry, a revolution one might even say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writ_of_assistance
the court order breaks the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) – that's right, the one abolishing slavery. How does that work exactly?
Is the author so dull that he can't see the argument, bogus or not, that forcing a company (and its staff) to work and create something against their will and under threat of punishment is a pretty good example of "involuntary servitude"?
It is worth noting, however, that Lavabit does not actually exist any more
Yes it is, but not for the reasons the author thinks! Lavabit was ordered to hand over all its private keys so the government could see not only Snowden's emails, but also everyone else's.
Was this written by a government shill?
'$5bn for Slack?! I refuse to pay!' You don't pay – and that's its biggest problem
Friday 4th March 2016 22:54 GMT
Re: a brave new world
You misunderstand the new market. You no longer have a marginal cost (aws apart) so once you cover fixed costs each sale is almost all profit. This leads to VC heads to spin with the almost infinite potential profits and share price increases, hence astronomical valuations. At some point economics comes back into play and you have to monetise, cf. Twitter, but the dream can be ridden on the backs of unicorn hunters for a good while.
Snowden is a hero to the security biz – but not for the reason you'd expect
Uncle Sam's boffins stumble upon battery storage holy grail
Friday 4th March 2016 17:08 GMT
Re: Green Prince of Darkness....the "sustainable" fraud....
"This assertion tells me who is the faux scientist in one sentence."
Agreed, but to play devil's advocate for a second, there is probably a much higher amount of radioactivity in the mantle than in a lab, so the decay rate may be different due to nuclear bombardment (at which point you could legitimately say that it's a different isotope so his entire 4.5 billion year comment is guff anyway). But I'm taking his comment out of context because I'd rather read the comments here than read his article.
Investigatory Powers Bill to be rushed into Parliament on Tuesday
Terrified robots will take middle class jobs? Look in a mirror
Friday 19th February 2016 10:08 GMT
Re: The End of Work
"These questions don't need answers for us to make better decisions. Look to the Finns and the proposal to just "give money" to everyone so they can subsist."
A proposal shared by some libertarians as well as some very left leaning people. It has a lot of merit and would increase the wages for many tedious and unpleasant jobs while decreasing the cost of roles where career/skills advancement is the aim. Can we afford it? Can we afford not to do it? I'm glad someone is trying it, but it does require a strong immigration policy.
Virgin Atlantic co-pilot dazzled by laser
Thursday 18th February 2016 07:55 GMT
Re: Filters or just control
"If you can come up with any legitimate reason for someone to be walking around the streets with a high-powered laser on them then I'd be interested to hear it."
Yeah, that's not how freedom works, I believe the burden is on you to come up with a compelling reason why people shouldn't be allowed to walk around with high powered lasers.
But, since you're looking for reasons: A portable metal cutter/welder; a way to mark objects that are otherwise fairly immune to permanent marking; a long-distance, highly accurate measuring device; a portable signal if you're even lost in the wilderness; a cool balloon burster; a firelighter; a way to check for, and possibly clear, blockages in long, straight pipes; and a million other things that people might want to use it for that are not dangerous.
Tuesday 16th February 2016 16:24 GMT
Re: Filters or just control
Something along the lines of this: http://londonist.com/2014/09/a-ride-on-heathrows-self-driving-pods
Or this: https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/
It's not like there's traffic, of any reason there couldn't be other guides on or under the tarmac for the planes to follow.
Tuesday 16th February 2016 07:41 GMT
Re: Filters or just control
The pilots' union has just called for lasers > 5mW to be classified as offensive weapons and anyone carrying one without good cause to be arrested and charged like they currently do for knives.
Because we don't have to prove wrongdoing, or intent of wrongdoing, the mere possibility that you might do wrong is enough in this country. It would also allow for stop and search on a flight paths, i.e. virtually all of London, to see if anyone has a laser pointer in their possession as soon as there is a report of one being used.
Why do cockpits even have windows that can be got at from the ground? Aren't the instruments inherently better than a pilot's senses? Isn't this the kind of low tech, easily fixable hole that made 9/11 serious enough to justify invading foreign countries and shredding people's rights?
Confused as to WTF is happening with Apple, the FBI and a killer's iPhone? Let's fix that
Thursday 18th February 2016 07:47 GMT 
Government can't force you to create things
Surely the power of the court is only to hand over things which you possess, not to create something new?
In the example of the warrant to search a house, if they find a safe they can't open they surely can't force a locksmith (or the original safe maker for that matter) to use their skills and knowledge and time to open that safe if they don't want to? Isn't that ... forced labour?
Brit spies can legally hack PCs and phones, say Brit spies' overseers
Saturday 13th February 2016 13:09 GMT
Balance?
"Plainly it again emphasises the requirement for a balance to be drawn between the urgent need of the Intelligence Agencies to safeguard the public ..."
You have yet to show ANY evidence that it does anything positive to the safety if the public. Whereas pointing out security holes in our technology actually would increase our security.
Used a cell phone in NYC? The cops probably tracked you
Friday 12th February 2016 08:10 GMT
Apart from the regular concerns
If you use your phone in your house, aren't they breaking the 4th Amendment in an even more egregious way than normal?
They *could* argue that using a mobile in public means you have no expectation of privacy - but that same argument cannot be made if you use your phone in your own house.
No, HMG, bulk data surveillance is NOT inevitable
Bank fail: Ready or not, here's our new software
Wednesday 10th February 2016 12:21 GMT 
First impressions count
It is fixed now, but I still never use Travelocity because when I first went there any time you entered the destination, date etc. details and hit search it wouldn't store those details. If the search returned no results, or you wanted to price a different date or destination etc. you had to go back and enter each and every detail again. I still remember and won't use them.
BT blames 'faulty router' for mega outage. Did they try turning it off and on again?
Wednesday 3rd February 2016 13:56 GMT
Anyone use a VPN?
When the network stopped working it initially failed to serve US pages, then UK. At which point I switched on my VPN, routed to Holland and it was all absolutely fine.
From this limited data I find it unlikely that a single router would cause this behaviour.
Big Brother because now they know I have VPN they'll be watching me...
US government's $6bn super firewall doesn't even monitor web traffic
Sorry slacktivists: The Man is shredding your robo responses
Saturday 30th January 2016 10:42 GMT 
Technology and public outrage groups ...
... enabling us to assuage or guilt about being rich and middle class by expending absolutely no energy and responding emotionally to issues we know nothing about and can't be bothered investigating let alone doing something about personally.
Says the guy ranting into a comments box on El Reg.
T-Mobile USA’s BingeOn is a smash hit. So what now?
Saturday 30th January 2016 10:42 GMT
Finally, a genuine slippery slope fallacy
There are genuine arguments for net neutrality: the blocking/restricting of views contrary to the service provider or the sale of access to consumers, but bingeon is clearly not that. To ban this service on the basis that it somehow restricted freedom of speech is to say people are so stupid they can't tell the difference between a voluntary segregation of video quality in exchange for increased quantity of video and the start of a move towards the great firewall of China as policed by corporate America.
UK Home Sec's defence of bulk spying: We 'found' a paedo (we already knew about)
'No safe level' booze guidelines? Nonsense, thunder stats profs
Friday 22nd January 2016 15:50 GMT
Re: What's the point of living?
A couple more, just for fun:
Porn causes rape.
Violent video games causes violence.
Piracy causes terrorism
Encryption causes terrorism.
Not allowing the government to look at your internet history causes terrorism.
Not allowing the government to record your calls and email and IM and texts and in-game communications causes terrorism.
Telling the people what the government is doing causes terrorism.
And, drawing Mohammed is now terrorism because it invites terrorism.
GCHQ spies quashed this phone encryption because it was too good against snoopers
Friday 22nd January 2016 15:42 GMT
Re: "thought that was the intent of Western policy, but perhaps I have been niave..."
As much as everyone loves a bit of Orwell or Huxley, I fear they will either become so overused as to have no effect* or banned.
* As all epithets should be. Break all taboos and the words lose all power. But I digress...
BOFH: I want no memory of this pointless conversation. Alcohol please
Snowden bag-carrier Miranda's detention was lawful – UK appeal court
Tuesday 19th January 2016 13:59 GMT
Re: Freedom of speech dies
"But how is that materially different from the old freedom of speech test of "shouting FIRE in a crowded theatre"?"
Ah, that old canard. Shouting "FIRE!" in a theatre is, or should be, perfectly legal. If the place is unsafe for you to do so then the owner should be brought up on charges for having an unsafe theatre.
More importantly, let's look at where this nonsense originates: 1919 Schenck v. United States, Holmes used this idiotic example to justify banning handing out anti-draft leaflets. This abortion of a ruling was fortuitously overturned in a unanimous verdict by the court in the 1969 case of Brandenburg v. Ohio where the court held that government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is directed to inciting, and is likely to incite, imminent lawless action.
Unfortunately they still had the opinion that a theatre is not a safe place to evacuate and hence yelling "fire" could, or is likely to, cause injury. In reality the theatre owner could sue and ban the person, the other patrons could sue, but there should be no criminal prosecution for this as there is virtually zero danger of harm - otherwise we'd ban fire drills, no?
It just so happens we live in a world where certain groups of people are on a hair trigger for committing violence and statements like the one the judge gave not only reward overreaction by criminalising freedom of speech but actively encourage it. Which in itself is publishing material while being reckless as to whether it endangers life in future. Could it be that the judge has committed terrorism by publishing this opinion?
Trump's new thought bubble: Make Apple manufacture in the USA
Tuesday 19th January 2016 12:30 GMT 
Dear Donald,
Comparative advantage.
David Ricardo came up with that little concept in 1817 to explain why countries engaged in cross-border trade even if one was better at everything than another.
I know you're going to "Make America Great Again", but you're not going to do it by forcing American companies to become less efficient and distorting the efficient allocation of resources.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
