* Posts by Danny 2

2212 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009

Imagine finding this bad boy in your shower: Brit startup pulls the sheets off Moon spider mech

Danny 2

Imagine finding this bad boy in your shower

The meaning of that sentence depends wholly on tone of voice, and the way you first read it will say a lot about you personally. I read it in a purring, sexually suggestive voice. There will be a Venn diagram of arachnophobes, technophiles, autistic spectrumers, obsessive compulsives, sexual deviants/specialists and so on that will all read it differently.

I love tech. I love spiders because they terrify my awful sister and I bring spiders indoors to keep her away. This article inspires me to build a remote control tarantula that I can post through her letterbox to scare her to death. Is there an existing RPi project that does this?

Criminalise British drone fliers, snarl MPs amid crackdown demands

Danny 2

Re: Make it like owning a vehicle

"Yes, all blades. If it can cut, is made of metal, then its included."

The knives the Westminster bridge attackers were ceramic, not metal. Presumably they chose them to pass metal detection before they chose their improvised attack. Bought from Lidl. They are a lot more brittle than the kind of knives most killers use but the post-attack photos of them show none of them snapped.

This is maybe too much information since I was only objecting to the "is made of metal" comment. I'll delete this comment if anyone asks me to.

Danny 2

Aldi drone blues

As activists we used to get buzzed by police drones (better than getting buzzed by police helicopters) and we used to speculate on how best to take them down. I see someone has just made an attack drone. My idea was to equip a drone with a jamming device, fly it close to the police drone and then jam it, but expensive drones just head home.

I'm not an activist now but I bought a £50 drone from Aldi just to try it out and test it. It is a rubbish toy but it allowed me to (illegally) run dental floss from my flat to the flat across the street, which could be used to run cables across chasms. It is rubbish though, and not just because of the silly laws. You have to calibrate the control each time you use it, and by the time you do that it is twenty metres away because the wind blows. I now use dental floss as an anchor because most of the footage I've got from it, on it's SD card or on my phone, is me chasing after it over fields.

So far I've found three uses for a cheap drone. Running cables; a really great fan for summer; scaring mice.

No ghosts but the Holy one as vicar exorcises spooky tour from UK's most haunted village

Danny 2

From Calvary Hill to Corporate Calton

Leith folk used to go up Calton Hill and light a bonfire on Beltane. Now we can't get in because Edinburgh artsy fartsy tossers put fences around it and charge an entrance fee to watch them dance a pseudo pagan event on what is nominally common land. Part of the corporate disneyfication of the tourist tat town.

It's an apt mention in the context of Jesus gutties, maybe not as you intended though.

Ghosts are real - but not immortal, they die with living memory.

- Reverend Dan, Universal Life Church

[

Yosser - I'm desperate, Father

Priest - My son, call me Dan

Yosser - I'm desperate Dan

]

I can't believe you've done this: Cisco.com asks visitors to explain to IT why they have broken the website

Danny 2

US - Chinese tariff negotiations continue apace

The Cisco Kid is strong and tough and only the best is good enough.

The creamiest filch, the whitest shit , the goodness that’s in Cisco kit

[Huawei is the laugh of an inscrutable evil genius as your chin hits the concrete]

FBI softens stance on ransomware: it's (sort of) okay to pay off crims to get your data back

Danny 2

Re: Tragedy of the commons

Mair point.

Stalker attacks Japanese pop singer – after tracking her down using reflection in her eyes

Danny 2

Stabbie McStabface Hemostatic dressings

The knife attack in Manchester yesterday reminded me I should share a tip here, and this seems the most appropriate article.

Peace activists used to travel to Iraq at the height of the war there and we'd provide them with haemostatic [us:hemostatic] dressings designed to stem blood flow from wounds. We'd learned that because they were standard issue for US troops. I just bought them for my London nephew and niece because, well, London.

Read this, and add it to your first aid kit and carry one with you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemostatic_dressing

Most stab victims die from loss of blood before getting to hospital rather than the underlying injuries. This helps.

Some fokken arse has bared the privates of 250,000 users' from Dutch brothel forum

Danny 2

Re: Jokes aside

It's a complicated issue. I've read academic feminist criticism of the "Swedish model" of criminalisation of the Johns as it drives the trade underground and beyond regulation. Compared to the "Dutch model" where the workers are taxed, unionised and safer. Even that is an inaccurate simplification of course.

Danny 2

Re: Re. Bared

Aye, but after the nude cleaners have cleaned your house then you have to clean it again using bleach.

Danny 2

real names – for example, johnsmith@gmail.com

I knew John Smith, he went to school with me. He was a nice guy, a bit shy, not surprised he turned to use prostitutes but I don't think he should have been named and shamed here.

Father of Unix Ken Thompson checkmated: Old eight-char password is finally cracked

Danny 2

Re: Whistled passwords

Aye, they should have either cancelled it after the first season or commissioned it for a third season.

The first season was excellent though, far better than Stranger Things or Dark. Each episode was so tangential yet cumulative and substantial.

The opening sequence of the main protagonist jumping off a bridge to kill herself was defining of the concept.

Danny 2

Re: Proof of XKCD

That's a far more secure password than http://xkcd.com/936/

Danny 2

Re: Whistled passwords

Interdimensional travel through interpretative dance is the plot of the surprisingly good "The OA".

A woman trying to chat me up once said I was very graceful, and asked what forms of dance I did. I blew my chances by telling her I didn't ever dance. Idiot, she wasn't actually asking me to dance, I could easily have lied and said foxtrot or something.

Danny 2

Re: I have to thank ken for my passwords

You shouldn't even type that here, it's a brain worm. I was slapping away at a Sun when a young developer in the open plan office confessed happily to everyone in ear shot that he'd previously deleted his machine. I thought, what an idiot. Then he said, "Oh no, I've done it again", and I thought what a moron.

And then I did it myself. When you are coding, and someone inserts a thought into your code, well, I dislike open plan offices. Coders should have sound proofed booths.

Danny 2

Whistled passwords

In one job I spent most of my time on other companies sites surrounded by their employees, often with another colleague at the other end of the room. We so often had to pass passwords that a developer came up with a shared code based on song titles that we could whistle to each other without anyone realising.

It was obviously a flawed system given not everyone could whistle and didn't share common songs always, but I'd just moved there from a council where the way to find out the sys admin password was to shout across a crowded room, "What's the password?" and they'd shout it back.

To this day all my unimportant pass phrases can be whistled, just out of nostalgia. I think the tune is an aide-mémoire.

Openreach's cunning plan to 'turbocharge' the post-Brexit economy: Getting everyone on full-fibre broadband by 2025

Danny 2

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

I can't help thinking shovelling this money into education would have more economic benefits than giving morons faster porn.

That lithium-ion battery in your phone or car? It has just won three chemists the Nobel Prize

Danny 2

Re: Exploiting science

I was just joking, albeit making a serious point about how many younger scientists are remarkably poorly paid considering their contribution to society.

Danny 2

Exploiting science

It's great he was won this award, he can finally afford to retire. It's a great shame we work these barely paid scientists into their dotage just so we can enrich Youtube influencers and gamers. Whenever I see someone on a mobile phone from now on I'll tell them, "A 97 year old was forced to build that battery for you."

US games company Blizzard kowtows to Beijing by banning gamer who dared to bring up Hong Kong

Danny 2

"I do however find it amusing and instructive that a socialist party in Scotland campaigns primarily on nationalist grounds. I'm sure it's only coincidence that they keep trying to overthrow the lawfully elected Government of the UK."

Oh, you've got it arse over elbow. The SNP are a nationalist party that campaigns primarily on socialist grounds. We don't have your new prescription fees, your new university fees, and unlike you we welcome immigrants.

We are not trying to overthrow the lawfully elected Government of the UK, we are trying to empower the lawfully elected Government of Scotland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_the_Softy

Danny 2

Re: Freedom-hating assholes

We've seen legitimately elected Catalonian politicians and peaceful activists in court fighting extradition to Spain from Scotland, Belgium and other EU nations to face unjust imprisonment.

No, it is not as unjust as Hong Kong, not as deadly, but it implicates us. For that matter hundreds of protesters have been shot dead in Iraq recently, and the Kashmir crisis risks nuclear war that risks humanity.

Misery of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan would be global

50-125 million immediate deaths, and then the weather changes.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/10/misery-of-a-nuclear-war-between-india-and-pakistan-would-be-global/

If you have a security alert, I feel bad for you, son – you got 99 problems but a hack ain't one

Danny 2

Positive

This is way off topic but it's maybe relevant to helpdesk staff training.

I had accidentally unprotected sex with an New Jersey girl I'd met in Castro Market whose previous lover was a bisexual at the height of the AIDs crisis. Naturally I had a test when I returned home, and my doctor said they'd phone me with the results within 12 weeks. I'm sure 12 weeks flies by when you are in love, but it is an eternity with that threat hanging over you.

14 weeks later I phoned them, a bit on edge by then, and the receptionist said, "Oh, your results are in but you have to speak to the doctor."

I explained calmly - in my own memory at least I was trying to speak calmly - that I needed to know the results there and then, and she should just tell me over the phone.

She hesitated, then said in a reassuring tone, "Your results are positive."

"Positive good or positive bad?"

"Oh, I'm not sure, you'll have to speak to the doctor. I can get you an appointment in two weeks."

China and Russia join to battle 'illegal internet content,' which means what you fear it does

Danny 2

Re: Coming soon to a country near you.

The BBC had a good programme recently, "Ian Hislop's Fake News: A True History".

At one point this short, dumpy, middle-aged man had his face 'Deepfake''d onto the body of a young athletic dancer. It was for comedic effect to highlight the danger since he obviously can't dance like that.

I showed that clip to my elderly mum who likes to think she is cynical and worldly, and she responded, "I can't believe he can dance like that!"

Except she obviously did believe he danced like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uut4rPAv_PQ

Remember the FBI's promise it wasn’t abusing the NSA’s data on US peeps? Well, guess what…

Danny 2

Chris Morris, the best English satirist, is getting good press for his new movie "The Day Shall Come".

After an attempt to frame a man for a terrorist bombing goes wrong, Agent Kendra Glack of the FBI comes across one of Moses's live-streamed sermons, and decides that he will make the perfect patsy to pin criminal activities on. The FBI plan to arrest Moses after misleading him into committing a criminal act, making them look successful for capturing a dangerous revolutionary.

Danny 2

Re: This sounds a lot like...

...the Scottish police. My parents house was raided / visited about ten times in three years due to bogus allegations by police informants in the peace movement, even though they knew I didn't live there. I'd already agreed to visit any police station on their request at any time, and gave them a full statement about the NVDA I'd been responsible for, but the allegations got wilder such as fascism and terrorism.

I ended up sitting down with a top cop, the head of the region, just after an environmental protester had recorded Strathclyde police had tried to recruit her.

The top cop I was talking to started with that, and I said, "Aye, that was embarrassing."

I meant it was embarrassing for the police. He misunderstood and replied, "I know. What they don't realise is if we can do it then we will do it."

An upfront admission that legality wasn't a concern for them.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/apr/24/strathclyde-police-plane-stupid-recruit-spy

Virtual inanity: Solution to Irish border requires data and tech not yet available, MPs told

Danny 2

Re: An outsider asks....

RobThBay,

I don't think that is a silly question. Irish reunification is inevitable eventually, demographically speaking. The thing is Northern Ireland has a bad reputation in the UK *and* in the Republic of Ireland, due to it being an economic drain as much as due to the sectarian divide.

63% of the British Conservative and (nominally) Unionist party would be happy to lose Northern Ireland if it got them out of the EU, yet currently they rely on the hardline loyalist DUP votes in Westminster so it won't happen anytime soon.

Can you imagine Trump giving Texas back to Mexico in exchange for Mexico building a border wall? It would unify Tex-Mex cuisine but there would be blood shed.

Danny 2

Re: Not going to work but

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/06/18/most-conservative-members-would-see-party-destroye

Party members are also willing to sacrifice another fundamental tenet of Conservative belief in order to bring about Brexit: unionism.* Asked whether they would rather avert Brexit if it would lead to Scotland or Northern Ireland breaking away from the UK, respectively 63% and 59% of party members would be willing to pay for Brexit with the breakup of the United Kingdom.

Danny 2

Re: An alternative solution

A MODEST PROPOSAL

For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.

by Dr. Jonathan Swift, 1729

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.

Danny 2

Re: build the wall!

...and make the Romans pay for it!

Boris Brexit bluff binds .eu domains to time-bending itinerary

Danny 2

Re: The inevitable independent Scotland's ccTLD

Dot ab is a good idea, it would make us top of the list, ahead even of the mighty Ascension Island. Although Alba could also be dot aa, to ensure we are still top of the list if Arizona ever secedes.

It is telling that Ascension Island, population 806, has a IANA TLD and Scotland doesn't!

Danny 2

The inevitable independent Scotland's ccTLD

Just over a decade ago The Scotsman reported on proposals for Scottish Government websites to have the .sco suffix. Because we aren't an independent state we can't have a two letter ccTLD yet. I pointed out that just at that time there were no longer length limits and we should go dot Scot, which rhymes, rather than dot Sco which is associated with Unix. Which is what they went for.

A no deal Brexit makes Scottish independence a near certainty according to polling, therefore we'll be needing a two letter ccTLD.

.SC is already the Seychelles, so I'm going to propose .BJ for two reasons. As a tribute to Boris Johnson, and as a profitable sex related domain moneymaker equivalent to Tuvalu's .tv .

Danny 2

Disgusted, your outrage is false. If Boris Johnson were to sue anyone for the 'libel' of ascribing his behaviour due to shorting the pound, then he'd have to start with his own sister.

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2019/09/26/a-bbc-hosts-jaw-dropping-response-to-a-bombshell-from-boris-johnsons-sister/

During an appearance on BBC Radio 4‘s World at One show on 26 September, Rachel Johnson dropped a bombshell about her brother. And the BBC host’s reaction was absolutely jaw-dropping too.

During the interview, Johnson spoke about what she thought was behind the PM’s “strongman gambit” in getting the UK out of the EU. After noting her brother’s role, and the role of his chief adviser Dominic Cummings, she said:

"It also could be from, who knows, people who have invested billions in shorting the pound or shorting the country in the expectation of a no-deal Brexit. We don’t know."

Danny 2

Re: Question?

https://eurid.eu/en/news/doteu-goes-global/

13 years after its launch back in 2006, the .eu domain name will take on its biggest change yet. As of 19 October 2019, internationally-based EU citizens will become eligible to register their very own .eu domain name.

The top-level internet domain .eu is the eighth largest country code extension on the internet and, as of October 2019, we have more than 3.6 million registrations spread out across Europe. Striving to meet the needs of an ever-changing digital environment, the eligibility criteria for the registration of .eu domain name will be changing as of 19 October 2019.

With around 12 million Europeans living in the US, Canada and Australia alone – not to mention the rest of the world – our hope is to provide these individuals, living far from their native lands, with a personal online platform through which they can share their lives with families and friends back home.

Registering a .eu domain name for your blog, travel diary or personal business will be just like your European passport on the internet. It will show your identity while being reliable, trustworthy and secure. With a .eu domain, you will have your individual and consumer rights brought under the aegis of European standards and regulations.

“We are excited to be able to extend the registration criteria to EU citizens around the world. The .eu domain is now closer to your ambitions, achievements and dreams. It is the bridge connecting you to your friends and family – even if you live outside the EU. It will always show your roots, your outlook, and your cultural values.” – Marc Van Wesemael, EURid`s CEO.

Visit trust.eurid.eu for more.

Danny 2

Hiya APV,

This is probably the first thing you've written that I disagree with: "I am pretty sure BoJo knows"

Do you see who his tech advisor was? I mentioned her earlier on this thread. I doubt BoJo knows anything except where the nearest possible date is.

I voted for Brexit both out of principle and lack of principle. I believe in Scottish independence so the principle was smaller and more local government. My lack of principle was I knew the Tories would muck this up and split our nations apart. I said from the start though we'd need a confirmatory vote on any negotiated deal - I was so naive, assuming we'd get a negotiated deal.

I admit I'm a wee bit worried now because I haven't stocked up on anything, and my parents do rely on medicine from Europe to survive. The IT angle is secondary but it is interesting. This article is about .eu domains becoming defunct, and nobody has explained how to stop them being acquired for nefarious purposes. I've been reading the blogs and papers while posting here, and if you are an EU citizen or have a trustworthy EU citizen on your board then it shouldn't be a problem. There are just under 400,000 UK based companies that have .eu addresses.

Danny 2

Re: GFA?

"The Irish government could still honour their side of the GFA re passports unilaterally after Brexit is completed."

This is where it gets 'tangled up in blue'. Long before the GFA and the EEC, Irish and British folk had the right to travel passport free in both states. Most of these mutual agreements date back to 1928.

I flew from Edinburgh to Dublin and lived and worked there for a year on my British driving licence, no passport, and I could have stayed there still if I'd wanted - as can Irish folk in the UK. The Republic and the UK were a no borders area predating the EU by many decades.

Danny 2

Re: Jennifer Arcuri, Tech Innovator

Allegedly she was asking for £200,000 for that interview, more than Boris gave her from taxpayer funds.

She said at one point, "This isn't a Monica Lewinsky". Aye, no joke. Lewinsky never grafted that much cash.

Danny 2

Re: Yes, EU Minister

"what happened to Esperanto"

1) The British Empire

2) Hollywood

[Tip: If you are ever in a French train station and you see a counter with the British or American flags, then avoid it, it is a trap. You are meant to think the person behind the counter can speak English but they are just trained in humiliating Anglophones. Instead go to a normal counter and speak bad French or English in a Hungarian or Finnish accent, then they treat you with sympathy]

Danny 2

Re: Yes EU Minister

"Malta is an EU member, and also listed English as it's official language."

According to this the Maltese chose Maltese. They were able to opt for English to be their secondary language, just like the Irish did, only because the UK had already chosen it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union#Official_EU_languages

You English folk missed a trick. Just after Shakespeare you should have copyrighted the English language. Although obviously you'd have faced lawsuits for all the 'borrowed' words.

Danny 2

Re: Out of curiosity ...

"We registered the .eu domain largely to protect it."

How are you going to protect it now? Once you lose your .eu site is there a way to stop it being bought up to phish your customers? You should maybe petition EURid to retire it permanently.

Danny 2

"Benn's Surrender Act" - it is telling that you post that rhetoric anonymously here, but the British PM uses it unashamedly in the Houses of Parliament. I guess this is just a higher class forum.

Danny 2

You haven't yet explained why you think an extension request will be rejected.

https://leave.eu/join-the-team/

Danny 2

Re: GFA?

Some Northern Ireland sites already cleverly use the .ni ccTLD.

Nicaragua, that peaceful oasis of business certainty in a post Brexit world.

Danny 2

Re: Jennifer Arcuri, Tech Innovator

Ugly isn't wrong either, I was simply listing similarities for comedic effect.

Danny 2

Re: Yes EU Minister

Oui, Ministre.

Each nation gets to nominate a single language as an official EU language, and only the UK chose English. The Republic of Ireland chose Irish Gaelic. If and when the UK leaves then English will no longer be an official EU language, despite it being the lingua franca of the EU.

Yes, Minister was remade in India and Turkey but never in Europe. Fawlty Towers (which is much more akin to Brexit imo) was a success throughout Europe, although Manuel in Spain was redubbed into a stupid Italian waiter.

Danny 2

Re: Jennifer Arcuri, Tech Innovator

She was a 27 year old student who GLC gave a £100,000 grant for being an "InnoTech", after she'd introduced BoZo to her lap dancing pole in her office/bedroom.

Danny 2

Re: Jennifer Arcuri, Tech Innovator

The fact she has earned hundreds of thousands of pounds of government grants, and inclusion on at least four government foreign trade trips, may annoy certain actual IT folk, even if they are pro-Brexit.

It is your lack of outrage that seems disingenuous. I mean, whose leg do I have to shag to get a Martini around here?

Danny 2

Jennifer Arcuri, Tech Innovator

Boris' girl is on GMTV just now, the first time I've ever seen Piers Morgan seem smart by comparison. None of her companies has ever made a profit. Her sole tech claim is she ran the first ever Google Hangout with Boris Johnson on it. She refuses to say if she shagged him. Eight staff in the UK.

Dishonest, narcissistic, corrupt, ugly, blond, and now he's being exposed by Jennifer.

GPS cyberstalking of girlfriend brings surveillance and indictment for alleged American mobster

Danny 2

Daniel Capaldo (54, aka "The Wig" and "Shrek")

That is abusive, he should sue for the hostile work environment. The Mafia can be so cruel.

HP polishes the redundancy cannon, prepares to fire 16% of workforce

Danny 2

Re: Redundant at 21

She was working In Spango Valley, Greenock. It was an interesting miles long conveyor belt of a plant, so long they used to have to mini-bus the workers to the canteen.

That was life in 'Silicon Glen' in the early nineties, jumping job to job as companies closed up and relocated to the far east, or to the RoI, as government subsidies dried up here.

The immovable object versus the unstoppable force: How the tech boys club remains exclusive

Danny 2

Re: Great Idea

"Come on you parents, get your daughters sorted out."

My first love went on to become a published, respected molecular biologist. What first attracted me to her was she was so much more confident than I, or anyone else, was. She admitted recently she wasn't confident at all, but each day when she went to school her mum would hold her by her shoulders and say to her, "Remember. Pretend to be confident." That is a tip to 'sort your daughters out' - eventually you are what you pretend to be, and confidence is a concrete foundation.

My mum told me not to get in fights, and my dad told me not to lose fights. Not such good advice.

It's notable that girls go into biology and boys go into physics, generally. It's akin to the hardware / software gender divide. You can also divide biologists according to intelligence - the party girls go into marine biology, the median go into micro biology, the smartest go into molecular biology.

https://xkcd.com/1520/

Danny 2

Re: Motherhood

In my first job on an electronics campus I suggested a day care centre to my HR manager because it was obvious 90% of the employees across all the factories were young females. Only about 1 in 50 engineers and technicians were female, but all the operators were (with their tiny little hands perfect for sewing gold thread) and all the HR staff (with their female capacity for faking empathy).

She ran with the idea and opened up a creche nearby and became a millionaire. My idea though, although I never earned a penny or even kudos from it.

Later, a half mile away, I came up with VoIP, and thought, "This will make for a fun office joke." Kind of scunnered when Skype sold to Microsoft for a billion.