* Posts by Danny 2

2212 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009

What happens when cancel culture meets Adolf Hitler pareidolia? Amazon decides it needs a new app icon

Danny 2

Pareidolia is evolutionary essential

It's pattern recognition, for spotting snakes in the grass. Or lions in the grass. Or tigers in the grass.

This also explains lawnmowers.

Telecoms shack in the middle of Scotland put up for auction at £7,500

Danny 2

£4.9 billion in whisky exports in 2019 - and that's during Trump's tariffs. What's exported from your locale?

Campbeltown Loch, I wish you were whisky

Boffins trap ultra-cold plasma-in-a-bottle, a move that may unlock secrets of exotic stars

Danny 2

Re: Mmm. A bowl of your finest cold plasma soup, please, waiter!

French On Ion soupe?

It was 2° Kelvin in my flat last week, I had to open the windows to get rid of the miasma of plasma.

Zuck chucks Myanmar military out of Facebook and Instagram

Danny 2

Re: re: "Problem is government"

"all men are created equal" except for the slaves and the natives and those Chinese.

Anarchism is democracy without the hypocrisy, gerrymandering and corruption.

India's demand to identify people on chat apps will 'break end-to-end encryption', say digital rights warriors

Danny 2

Authentic

"Another requires web platforms to offer users a chance to verify their identities and have their accounts marked as authentic."

I don't think it should be required but the option to log in is useful for political/social comment. As is the right to Anon Cow posting. (Holy Anon Holy Cow posting in India?)

I used to post on an activist website and malicious actors would post drivel under my name - that was my prerogative! Then they'd use that to justify police SWATting. I was able to swat away the police by pointing out my back-board post outlining the problem and asking for the option of an authenticated log-in, but given the police had already infiltrated the 'collective' then they already knew that.

Seagate UK customer stung by VAT on replacement drive shipped via the Netherlands

Danny 2

Re: In hindsight

The UK lobbied for the EU to fast track eastern European nations before their economies had been equalised, for geo-political reasons. Then the UK granted instant free movement to these new member states, ensuring sudden and unplanned mass migration from nations like Poland.

This new cheap workforce were a boon to business owners and property owners, but lowered quality of life and wages for poorer Britons. We were told 13,500 would arrive in the first year but 350,000 arrived, so that strained existing infrastructure (housing, transport, social services) which hadn't been invested in. The new comers earned far more here than at home so would work for less undercutting a century of worker's rights improvements at a time of rising social inequality.

In this context many Brexit voters were motivated by economic self-interest rather than xenophobia, albeit the two played off of each other. They assumed that voting Brexit would cut immigration and restore their personal and communities fortunes, and many were motivated more by the hope of returning to the 1990s than returning to the 1950s.

1Password has none, KeePass has none... So why are there seven embedded trackers in the LastPass Android app?

Danny 2

Lockdown cabin fever

Just before my dad was diagnosed with dementia he kept forgetting all his passwords so I set him up with a password keeper so he'd only have to remember one. He instantly forgot it, and also forgot where he'd written it down.

On the upside we got a bottle of pink gin delivered six months ago but it came with one of those magnetic security seals on it. We got the price discounted but it has been mocking my engineering skills since then. YouTube videos are out of date, here is what I did to get to the nectar. I cut a couple of millimetres on either side of the metal bolts, and then I pulled like fuck. Brute force attack, literally. Wouldn't work in-store, somebody would notice, but fine in your house.

Copper broadband phaseout will leave UK customers with higher bills and less choice, says comparison site

Danny 2

Anectodal Evidence

Over a year ago I noticed Virgin was way over-charging me for my broadband, and had been for a while. They'd almost doubled the price without telling me, so I cancelled it. Then I got a nice phone call from a Sunderland salesman who offered me £19/m for 18 months. It was easier than swapping so I took it.

Then a year later they bumped up the price by a few quid but gave me the chance to quit, which I did. Then I got a nice phone call from a Sunderland salesman who offered me an upgrade from 20Mbps to 108Mbps for £18/m for 18 months.

I declined as I have no use for 108Mbps. Not until El Reg allows me to embed my videos here. I'd far prefer a £1.80/m 2Mbps account but that is not an option, so I'm swapping to my pay as you go phone.

I guess the takeaway is cancel and haggle if you want a good deal.

Scottish rocketeers Orbex commission Europe's largest industrial 3D printer to crank out 35 engines a year

Danny 2

Re: Suddenly..

No Glaswegian would ever call Glaswegian's "wee Gee's", yet that is what everyone else has called you since the 1980s. We only differentiate on spelling.

"How do ye make a Ouija board? Take away their Temazepam."

Yer Subway is a lazy student pub crawl, AKA Subcrawl. And that is local vernacular!

[If it's any compensation then the new Edinburgh tram line is locally called "Glasgow's revenge"]

Danny 2

Re: Suddenly..

The Subway of Glasgow? AKA The Clockwork Orange. How can a train be one part with the rail unless the rail moves?

I cannae change the laws of physics, I've got to have thirty minutes!

The perils of non-disclosure? China 'cloned and used' NSA zero-day exploit for years before it was made public

Danny 2

Whistleblowers: Inflexible prison software says inmates due for release should be kept locked up behind bars

Danny 2

If Law = Ass then Catch = 22

I briefly did prisoner support once.

I gave a lift to a girl who was visiting her ma, as she did every week even though he was 60 miles away and travel was expensive. He was inside for four years for assaulting her. He'd only been sentenced to two years but he had to do an anger management course before his release. There was no anger management course at that prison so we paid an extra £88,000 to keep him inside. Maybe more than that, I never followed up on his case. She hadn't even wanted him prosecuted and was impoverished supporting him.

NASA sends nuclear tank 293 million miles to Mars, misses landing spot by just five metres. Now watch its video

Danny 2

Re: Dare mighty things

"those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much"

That's patronising, I much prefer neither enjoying or suffering much. He who fights and runs away lives to run away another day.

Genghis Khan fought a land war in Asia and destroyed everybody before him. He said the one people he regretted fighting was the Sami. The pacifist Sami just retreated north, and the cold killed all the Mongolians who followed them.

What's that, Lassie? Dogs show signs of self-awareness according to peer-reviewed academic study?

Danny 2

One of my cats has started chasing it's own tail. If I had a tail I think I would too.

The Tech Helping Dogs Learn to 'Talk' With Humans

Dolphins have similar personality traits to humans

Sirius by Olaf Stapledon - (The guy who came up with Dyson spheres)

Thomas embarks on a program of using steroids and other chemicals to rapidly develop cognitive power of dogs, resulting in super sheep dogs. Sirius, however, proves to possess a dog intelligence comparable to a normal human being, as he is able to communicate with English words, although it takes some time for the humans to understand his canine pronunciation.

Atheists warn followers of unholy data leak, hint dark deeds may have tried to make it go away

Danny 2

Allied Atheist Alliance (AAA) to Navalny

My first thought was that South Park episode. Then I read that Alexei Navalny quoted Rick and Morty while being sentenced to hard labour.

The Kremlin critic reflected on his faith in God, while also drawing inspiration from eclectic sources such as Harry Potter and the cartoon Rick and Morty.

“To live is to risk it all,” he said, quoting Rick Sanchez from the Adult Swim animated series. “Otherwise you’re just an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows you.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/20/alexei-navalny-loses-appeal-against-russian-prison-camp-sentence

Hero to Jezero: Perseverance, NASA's most advanced geologist rover, lands on Mars, beams back first pics

Danny 2

Re: Welcome to Mars

Jezero Crater – Czech for lake

Robot is a Czech word too, well Robota, forced labourer.

Mobile World Congress to run this year's Barcelona event in June with 50,000 attendees. We're speechless

Danny 2

Amazon sues NY Attorney General in preemptive strike: Web giant faces claim it did not fully protect workers in COVID-19 pandemic

Danny 2

Re: Catnip Gamestop

True, but I have only had two flights in the past 25 years, I've planted thousands of trees by hand in that time, and I've given up meat. I generate more smug than smog.

Danny 2

Catnip Gamestop

I tried to organise a family boycott of Amazon after a distant relative suicided due to working there. Even his close relatives said, "It's just too convenient".

I've started taking alternative action. I ordered £2 of catnip on my mum's account. I don't know how much the catnip cost them, but I know the delivery cost them more than £2. Where you can, order your deliveries item by item.

Texas blacks out, freezes, and even stops sending juice to semiconductor plants. During a global silicon shortage

Danny 2

Re: Probably insignificant when offset against the days they are working optimally

Swans frozen in ponds? [Don't rescue them unless their wingtips are in the ice, they can break out using their chest]

Heart warming to see Texans rescuing thousand of cold-stunned sea turtles.

Strange still seeing unscientific comments here decrying renewable energy. Here is a cheerier BBC article, plus yet another new form of long term storage.

I'm amused by the Texan grid 'independence'. I'm for Scottish political independence but I wouldn't want disconnected from other nations electricity grids, quite the reverse. The HVDC link to Norway isn't operational until later this year but it will be a boon.

According to the analysis, over the 25-year cap and floor regime (a regulation for how much money a developer can earn once the interconnector is in operation) the benefit of the United Kingdom consumers is expected to be around £3.5 billion under the Base case scenario. Once the cable is completed the average domestic consumer bill in the United Kingdom would be around £2 less.

This scumbag stole and traded victims' nude pics and vids after guessing their passwords, security answers

Danny 2

Re: If you don't want people to see you in your birthday suit

Thankin' you Ben.

Rape Crisis Scotland Skirt

Linus Torvalds releases Linux 5.11, says it's so good your significant other wants you to test it on Valentine's Day

Danny 2

Re: What Valentine's Dinner?

"a former Finnish national karate champion, keeps him in line"

No, Cato, this isn't the time

I had a Finnish anarchist FOSS "significant other" - I still failed to persuade her to use Linux.

Voyager 2 receives and executes first command in 11 months as sole antenna that reaches it returns to work

Danny 2

It takes the signal ~17h35m to get there, but still in time for #ValentinesDay2021

Earth - R U up?

Voyager2 - Yeah, but I'm socially distancing.

Supermicro spy chips, the sequel: It really, really happened, and with bad BIOS and more, insists Bloomberg

Danny 2

Re: Rather than looking for dodgy chips ...

There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis...

but he's a liar and I'm not sure about you.

Court witness describes how Autonomy founder Lynch would wash his rear-end in US prison showers and dorms

Danny 2

No sympathy for the guy, but

Nobody should be extradited to the USA prison system unless they are Americans who committed crimes on US soil.

The current system is identical, or worse, than how Hong Kong is treated by China.

Forget about an AI stealing your job, even pigs can be trained to use computers

Danny 2

Re: Rethinking Sus Scrofa Domesticus

I'd happily donate a kidney to a pig, if I knew you lot wouldn't eat it.

Biden administration pauses pursuit of TikTok and WeChat

Danny 2

Meanwhile, China blocks the BBC

Presumably in a protest about the licence fee?

No joy for Julian Assange as Uncle Sam confirms it will keep pushing for WikiLeaker's extradition to America

Danny 2

Re: IANAL...

At the time Sweden had a fairly right wing pro American government. Karl Rove ("Bush's Brain") was advising their PM.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/karl-roves-pernicious-influence-on-sweden/68835/

Web prank horror: Man shot dead while pretending to rob someone at knife-point for a YouTube video

Danny 2

Re: It doesn't even need a gun

15 years ago I organised a film screening of an anti war film, then cancelled it because pseudo-anarchists threatened to attack it. One of the people I'd invited, Col. Clive Fairweather, insisted it went ahead and he'd provide the security. Right enough, it was him and another pensioner and nobody dared mess. SAS to the grave.

Minister tells the House of Lords it'll be another 12 weeks before UK's deleted criminal records can be restored

Danny 2

Re: If it's a script that removes things for legal reasons...

"my memory is not so good as it used to be"

Allegedly, m'Lud.

Square Kilometre Array Observatory has a council now, so building super-sensitive €1.3bn telescope is next on agenda

Danny 2

the determination of billionaires to spray the sky with satellites

As a child I read all sorts of ridiculous space-opera dystopias with cartoonish mega-rich villains. It wasn't serious science-fiction because it wasn't realistic, would never happen. The Musk/Bezos Martian war is just a matter of time.

Google’s Pixel phones to measure heart rate and breathing, other ‘droids coming soon

Danny 2

Devil's advocate

For years I advised my mum how not to be tracked by the police by her phone/devices. Then she said, "I'd quite like to be tracked by the police if I ever wandered off". She trusted the police more than herself.

The fragility and insecurity of old age throws up the mirror image of privacy concerns. I've since bought my parents all types of intrusive devices. I got them oximeters, stand-alone so not monitor-able, but I - and they - would like their blood oxygen level to be online. Apparently a sudden drop is a sign you are about to die from covid-19, yet my parents only remember to check their level when I prompt them. Stick that on a phone and we'll buy it.

How do we combat mass global misinformation? How about making the internet a little harder to use

Danny 2

Brilliant article

In the early '90s my peers considered me smart because I read books and remembered things. Search engines ruined that, equalised it and externalised memory. I couldn't tell you my phone number now.

I first emailed Danah Boyd in '96 or '97. I was an uber-geek at the time, impressed by her Difranco song lyric site and bored shitless by my Cisco NMS SI&T day jobbie. She sent me a nice reply. I next emailed her a year ago when I learned she'd become a techie guru. She didn't reply but she's put so much online that it's kept me busy catching up. Wonderful woman, total star-bar.

Danny 2

Re: Blind spots

CS Lewis essay: "In Praise of old Books"

It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search

Tip Try using words that might appear on the page that you’re looking for. For example, 'cake recipes' instead of 'how to make a cake'.

Need help? Take a look at other tips for searching on Google.

Now I want cake.

Big data: Study suggests even a moderate gambling habit is linked to increased mortality and other bad stuff

Danny 2

Re: Highest risk gambling

People Also Ask...

Is a Glock better than a revolver?

Smaller than the original Glock 17, a Glock 19 still carries twice as many bullets as a revolver while being lighter and bearing a slimmer profile. Although some firearms experts characterize the nine-millimeter round as anemic, special ammunition can boost the Glock's ability to immediately incapacitate the target.

Kind of ruins Russian roulette night though.

I asked for a lottery ticket for my last birthday present, mostly because it was cheap but also to check if the universe wants me to be poor - it does. Gambling should be legal but gambling machines, businesses and advertising should be illegal.

Accused murderer wins right to check source code of DNA testing kit used by police

Danny 2

Too Long; Don't Read

I was stopped and charged for speeding at 45mph in a 40mph zone. I was in a line of nine cars and the police car was two cars behind me, I knew they were there and was watching my speed. We were all doing 40mph. The cops admitted in the back of their car that they'd only stopped me because I was chatting with my passengers. So I pled not guilty and went to court, which was a pain because I lived in Skye and had been stopped outside Broxburn, a very long drive in winter, only to find out the case had been delayed without notice. I attended the rearranged trial a few weeks later and again it was cancelled, same long expensive drive to attend. I wis a wee bit exasperated on my third attendance and said, "Look, if you think I am a dangerous driver then you shouldn't be making me drive thousands of miles in the snow."

The police officers who'd arrested me, who worked in the same building, were sent for to justify the measurement. They were too busy to attend so I was told to come back for a fourth time. I said, "Fer fuck sake!" - to a Sheriff!

Court was adjourned and a lawyer approached me and asked, "Do you accept the police measurement of your speed?"

"No, and I'll tell you why. For a start..." I had a list prepared.

"Shut up. Don't say another word, I'm the Prosecutor and I can ask for this to be dropped".

No way they can tell my speed from the car in front of me and the car behind me except by looking at their own speed gauge.

Cops lie because they get away with it so often with so few repercussions that it is always worth challenging their evidence, although always an effort.

UK Test and Trace chief Dido Harding tries to convince MPs that £14m for canned mobile app was money well spent

Danny 2

Boris north of the wall

Boris insisted on a visit to Valneva, a French vaccine manufacturer in Livingston. He was there solely to make a political point that vaccines are successful in the UK. He was warned in advance that he was breaching Scottish travel regulations, but he insisted as PM he had the right to. He obviously mistakes having the right to do something, and doing the right thing. We've since found out that one out of eight of the workforce already had covid, he knew and he'd ignored that while touring with his politico and media posse.

European Commission redacts AstraZeneca vaccine contract – but forgets to wipe the bookmarks tab

Danny 2

Morality beats legality

125,000 Britons have been killed by covid-19, one of the worst rates anywhere.

There is a moral duty to prioritise vaccinations within the UK and Ireland to lower our death rate before donating vaccines to nations that haven't been as badly hit.

That's not self-interest, it's triage.

The riots in Europe opposing sensible lockdowns, and the Euro politicians demeaning the AZ vaccine, are less than persuasive.

Danny 2

Re: Clearly states the first batch is manufactured in EU, not UK

I think it was more when the Irish government complained that they hadn't been consulted and wouldn't have approved.

The prime minister spoke with Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheal Martin on Friday night and stressed the need for the EU to clarify its intentions. An Irish government spokesman said Mr Martin was currently in discussions with European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen to express Dublin's concerns...

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald described the EU's use of Article 16 as a "grave error". "Our citizens need timely access to lifesaving vaccines not trade disputes," she tweeted. "Now is a time for cool heads and solidarity."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55864442

Danny 2

Re: Curevac

Governmental

Environment and Climate Change Canada, a Canadian federal government department

European Commission, the executive body of the European Union

European Council, the European Union institution comprising the college of heads of state of government

European Communities, one of the three pillars of the EU

European Community, a significant component of the European Union from 1993 to 2009

European Economic Community, informally, the European Community, an economic union from 1958 to 1993

Danny 2

Re: Sanofi

The failure of the Pasteur Institute vaccine is a huge blow to the French psyche. My Parisian pal emailed me last night extrapolating it to the fall of the Roman empire. He's eh, well, he's a wee bit French.

I didn't know how to respond to him, but I'm going to cut and paste your comment. Science is advanced by good experiments that fail as much as successes.

Satya Nadella spoke with Australian PM about opportunities created by pay-for-news-plan. Zuck called the Treasurer for a chat, too

Danny 2

My first point was journalists don't want to grant permission to link.

My second point was paper journalism is dying, and electronic journalism is not available to the poor which is bad for democracy.

My third point was cats love cardboard boxes.

Danny 2

Whenever I used to link to a news article I'd first email the journalist and ask their permission. To begin with they were incredibly grateful for the respect, but quickly got sick of the interruptions. I can't afford to pay for all the journals I'd like to read that are increasingly paywalled, but I still like to browse their headlines for important stuff I can find elsewhere. 5 free NYT articles a month - maybe doable with Biden, Trump would burn that in a morning.

The BBC / Times / Telegraph report a lack of paper to print newspapers during the pandemic because so much cardboard is used in home deliveries and not getting recycled quickly enough. Both my cats anticipated this demand and jumped into cardboard boxes a year ago.

Europe considers making it law that your boss can’t bug you outside of office hours

Danny 2

Re: Soberish

Drunk cycling is only illegal on roads. Here is my last commute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ym2F-tHdkk

Remember life on Venus? One of the telescopes had 'an undesirable side effect' that could kill off the whole idea

Danny 2

humans are still alone in the pitch-black depths of space

Some of us have cats.

Men are from Mars, women are from the white hot sterile burney planet.

Soon, no more blood tests or probing for prostate cancer? AI claims 99% success rate using more relaxing methods

Danny 2

Re: Worth a shot

I know, right! Porn for my generation was the underwear section in the home shopping catalogues. Then we started to find slimy porn mags in the woods. In my era the American women were already shaven, but we assumed that was air-brushing to hide rude pubes.

At my high school only on girl shaved - how do I know that? Gossip. It's what we used to use before social media.

Transcribe-my-thoughts app would prevent everyone knowing what I actually said during meetings

Danny 2

Re: Waarom

"it would have taken only one Dutch to understand it"

I'm pretty sure they prefer to be called Nederlanders. I was taught to ask the prettiest Nederlander on the dance floor if she fancied a shag. Austin Powers ruined that for everyone. It took me years to learn how to spell viezerik like my true love said it.

Danny 2

Re: Waarom

Ach, you only have 50,000 words, it's not that hard a code to break. Prima, doiee, moi, lekker, ash too brief, thank you well. That's basically 90% of your code. Although I was grateful for my ex-fiancee to swear at me in so many ways.

https://dutchreview.com/expat/learn-dutch/dutch-swear-words/

Skål! Ericsson toasts healthy set of Q4 2020 results thanks to global 5G rollout and a kneecapped competitor

Danny 2

Skål!

Slàinte mhòr! Haven't read the article yet but manners, everybody drink and toast first.

I can't claim this Scotsman (news you can't trust since 1817) article, Whisky cured my coronavirus, says Wuhan-based Brit who contracted deadly flu is medically correct, but short of a vaccine I'm willing to risk it.

Oracle exhumes ‘Older, Still Useful Content’ penned by Solaris and SPARC veterans

Danny 2

Re: The only thing I miss about Solaris support ...

Nancy wore green stockings and she slept with everyone.

I was quite chuffed with Solaris on my CV until someone 'complimented' me, "Really? Solaris 2.7? You don't look that old."