Posts by Spanners

International Maritime Organisation turns salty gaze on regulating robotic shipping

Salvage?

I am sure that, during my childhood reading, I heard that vessels where all the crew has left can be salvaged. There is stuff about insurance, territorial waters, ports of registration and so on but these rules were made before there were drones. I suspect that they were mde before ships had propellers.

If you send your "unmanned boat" off into international waters, and you will get an email from your insurers saying that you need to pay this salvage company a nice sum of money and your stuff will come back.

This is not a ransom. It is custom and practice dating back centuries. It hasn't happened with aircraft drones because they are hard to get on whilst travelling...

Max Schrems is back: Facebook, Google hit with GDPR complaint

Re: I have but ONE wish...

Too many lobbyists to allow that. The fact that the EU has fewer has been identified as a reason why some companies wanted the UK out.

I agree with your wish. Not only would that make people there better off but it would infuriate just the right people!

Re: How can just a new privacy policy be compliant

Then you're no longer a customer but a client

Beats being a product...

@YAAC

Quality journalism must be rarer on that side of the pond than it is here

US websites block netizens in Europe: Why are they ghosting EU? It's not you, it's GDPR

How about...

ICANN? Are they compliant? The internet doesn't seem to have collapsed yet.

@Pascal Monett

I suspect that many people will have been using this as a handy means of cutting down on "near spam".

Its a bit early to say how this has worked but I am hopeful.

London's Met Police: We won't use facial recognition at Notting Hill Carnival

Re: An geneticists in tonight?

I read that PC scanners can only accurately detect white males. As one, does that mean that I am in greater danger of being identified?

Re: In the old days

Long ago, I was issued an SLR. 7.62mm calibre and the ability to send bullets through a brick wall or a couple of miles if you pointed it high enough.

Do the police still use them?

The future of radio may well be digital, but it won't survive on DAB

iPlayer Radio

Several people here have commented on the iPlayer radio. Because it asks for me to sign in before it will allow me to use it, I don't.

iPlayer on the TV is getting ever more enthusiastic about signing in too. If it makes it mandatory, I will stop using it as well. I am in the UK. It is quite detectable by my IP address that I am in the UK. I cannot think of any other legitimate reason they need to check.

Re: If you have an older car and don't want to upgrade the stereo...

This may depend on your phone having a 3.5mm socket on your phone.

As I will not buy a phone without one, I'm fine but anyone with an iThing is not and they are unfashionable with many manufacturers of more adult oriented phones too.

better sound quality in less than half the bandwidth, much lower latency, and royalty free

Do you really think that "free" has the least attraction for the decision makers? To people far enough up the ladder, "free" and "low price" are actually disincentives.

I would question how much they listen to the product too. They will get analysis on their iThings but "listen to it?" seems unlikely.

You've got to be kitten: Vet recruiter told to pay £1k after pinching info from ex-employer

Re: 3 fivers and change?

If someone breaks the DPA law today, but doesn't get caught until next week, will he be done under the DPA or the GDPR?

I was just wondering if the authorities are sitting on the good ones until after the weekend.

'Facebook takes data from my phone – but I don't have an account!'

@Julian 8

Puts one back in mind of old left wing paranoia...

Banks and corporations sticking together in the best "capitalist exploiter" tradition

Das blinkenlights are back thanks to RPi revival of the PDP-11

Re: an obsolete computer enthusiast

That must be an oxymoron.

If the computer has an enthusiast, it is not an obsolete device.

Domain name sellers rub ICANN's face in sticky mess of Europe's GDPR

Re: How about Companies House?

Agreed. Not compliant.

Check on Friday and kick up if necessary.

Tell us how it goes if you do. ☠

Brit ISPs get their marker pens out: Speed advertising's about to change

Re: I'm sure

Some years ago, I helped an older colleague, who lived near me, with his home PC. At that time, Which had recommended AOL as the "best" ISP. NTL covered the area and was cheaper faster and easier to use.

He did get Joanna Lumleys's pleasant tones telling him "you've got mail" though!

Meet Asteroid, a drop-in Linux upgrade for your unloved smartwatch

Alternative

"Apps are minimal, or hardly used at all."

That is why I have a FitBit. It does exactly what it says on the box and cannot be slowed down by me adding more stuff.

Wah, encryption makes policing hard, cries UK's National Crime Agency

?Apparent?

I think 'apparent' is a tactful way of saying profound.

Fixing a printer ended with a dozen fire engines in the car park

Re: I, for one, welcome our insectile overlords...

I seem to remember reading that the late great Grace Hopper pinned a couple of bugs into her notebook when explaining some problems with her computer.

That's not a helicopter. It's a big bug...

Score one for the bats and badgers! Apple bins €850m Irish bit barn bid

Ireland is no California when it comes to sunshine.

I have seen solar panels in Orkney. I imagine that Ireland has the sun higher in the sky making them even more efficient (or less inneficient).

I prefer wind turbines. The whole UK is windy and the further north the more you get. It also sends nimbys ballistic!

New Monty Python movie to turn old jokes into new royalties

Re: Short of cash?

I think he's still paying for a previous one+.

FBI raids home of spy sat techie over leak of secret comms source code on Facebook

Translation

Rugby players are not generally from the USA so giving 200lb as a weight is fairly silly.

14 stone 4 pounds is more useful. If you are trying to give some meaning of that to someone under 60, that's just under 91kg.

Cambridge Analytica dismantled for good? Nope: It just changed its name to Emerdata

Re: Next week:

So do we need to put the whole batch of them on so many sites that dodgy lawyers misusing laws can't remove it from our awareness? A quick google showed a lot of meaningful content already Perhaps we can get it on servers in Russia, China, Iran and Syria?

'Computer algo' blamed for 450k UK women failing to receive breast screening invite

Final appointment?

Why are there final appointments?

Which politicians decided that people after 70 do not get cancer?

Apple's latest financials are still pretty decent even though iPhone sales are slowing

Re: Hey Tim...

They are an advert to muggers that you have an iPhone.

Was it the NYPD that advised joggers to change their headphones to cut down the likelihood of being robbed?

Facebook furiously pumps brakes on Euro probe into transatlantic personal data slurping

Re: Quite the opposite

As opposed to the lowest common denominator?

ISO blocks NSA's latest IoT encryption systems amid murky tales of backdoors and bullying

Re: "the NSA started attacking the reputations of those experts"

But what has NSA encryption got to do with Climate change?

Hypothetically, if scientists started to discuss Climate Change when using this "security", the NSA could pass the content on to the rich sociopaths in the USA who PRETEND that it is not real.

The tech you're reading these words on – you have two Dundee uni boffins to thank for that

@FIA

We did not invent the Bristol scale.This is not a measurement of bristols. I think an IT term might be "dump analysis".

BT pushes ahead with plans to switch off telephone network

Who has a land line at home nowadays?

I would suspect that users of this site are more likely than average to have no "land line" anyway.

Virgin does a package where people get broadband only - no phone and no Virgin TV. I had it before I moved last year. When I moved, I got Vodafone. I get a land line for this but there is nothing on the statement specifically marked line rental. I don't even know what the number is. Neither do my friends or family. I suppose I could use it if there was an emergency and my, my wife and son's mobiles were not working but it would be a last resort.

Re: Mobile as the emergency option?

Not really - you don't get location information from mobile.

When I called 999 a few years ago, I think they asked me to confirm my location, not tell them it. I had to correct it because I was not by the fire. I was looking across an industrial estate at a burning skip!

What Israel's crack majority-women Unit 8200 hackers can teach tech about diversity

@david 12

It may depend on the type of remark made,

Re: Missed opportunity

2600, whilst known around the IT community outside the "Land of the Fee", is pretty US specific,

If you are going to be something that involves IT and security, your unit number should be the product of two primes. Having recently reread Cryptonomicon, I suggest Unit 2701.

Whois is dead as Europe hands DNS overlord ICANN its arse

Re: They shall regret GDPR

I doubt I am unusual here by not being in my local phone book. I don't have a landline.

I moved a couple of months ago and when I registered to vote, I was asked if I wanted to be in the publicly available electoral roll. I declined that. From what I have heard, everyone should decline.

Not showing up in those does not stop the Bill knowing where I live. Neither does it stop me being able to vote. Not being searchable by WHOIS etc keeps the crooks, spammer and "Imaginary Property" scammers away. I does not keep legitimate authorities out. It makes them a little more likely to follow the rules if they want to discuss things with me (I really hope).

Re: I think its fine to not have details public

I am unclear why respect for someone's privacy makes their website any more prone to being dodgy.

If I need to look into a website, for that trait, I see location as much more indicative.

EU - least likely

and so on......

USA - could be. Who knows?

Russia - bet it is

I suppose it depends on what you consider dodgy. My criteria there is "takes my money and does not give me what I want/expect". Alternatively "takes my information and may deliberately pass it on to dodgy organisations like mafia, NSA, CIA, FSB or similar outposts of organised crime.

If I do not know someone's name and home phone number to pass directly to a lawyer, this does not matter. If the laws are broken here, we have a look egalitarian system which can provide warrants in valid cases. This keeps pretend ones out of my hair!

Super Cali goes ballistic, Starbucks is on notice: Expensive milky coffee is something quite cancerous

Remember MacDonald's Coffee?

Macdonalds did not loose their case because the plaintiff had a good case. They lost it because they arrogantly mishandled it by assuming that facts and common sense carried any weight. The world will, no doubt, regard this as yet another piece of evidence that we can laugh at them. It will be interesting to see if this case was lost more on lawyer activities than actual evidence and reason.

How much coffee does someone have to drink before it makes cancer 1% more likely? Perhaps they are more likely to be crushed by the sacks of coffee beans needed.

Cambridge Analytica 'privatised colonising operation', not a 'legitimate business', says whistleblower

Is it just who they helped?

Would the world have been so angry at these idiots if their dodginess had been used to stop the stupidity Brexit and give the USA someone less screamingly crazy for president? I suspect not.

People would have made really sure that it could not happen again in case the "wrong side" was supported. Well it definitely has been. Should we stop this sort of system ever being used again, or should we let the marginally less insane sides have a go?

Silly question. This system must be so taken to bits and exposed that nothing like this can ever be used again. The US already has people hoping to impeach Trump. This may help.

Here, the result of the referendum should be declared null and void. We can either have another vote or we can drop the idea.

Re: Really?

Imagine if they gave the vote to 16 year olds.

Imagine if they gave the vote to 10 year olds. Or 5 year olds.

Imagine how it would have turned out if they had taken away the vote for 80+ year olds!

Better still, lets keep the rules on this the same.

What the @#$%&!? Microsoft bans nudity, swearing in Skype, emails, Office 365 docs

If we avoid US "English", will we be OK?

I am not sure when but, sometime in the past, some bright spark in the USA tried to stop people using certain swear words and substituted "ass" instead or "a4rse" (yes I did self censor). If we stick to not using that Americanism, are we safe from this stupidity for a bit longer?

I suggest that people spell everything correctly. It will help to confuse the US bright sparks who seem to intend to cause world peace, reverse global warming and solve world hunger by removing adult words from adult conversations.

User asked why CTRL-ALT-DEL restarted PC instead of opening apps

Re: Feeling Old...

@DuchessofDukeStreet The two traditional drivers of IT are games and porn.

This, at least partly, explains why we are now not improving so fast. The big money for games is either with consoles or with mobile devices (Android and IOS). We have allowed US "standards of decency" to pollute our life that if an MP looks at legal rude stuff, our nasty press tries to force him to resign. Yes, there is stuff that should get people sent to Gruinard or Rockall but what consenting free grown ups do in their free time is not anyone elses' business.

Get games and adult content back in the mainstream of IT and Moores law will continue!

Re: Feeling Old... - memmaker

I remember when that came along. Pushed as the cure to all memory needs by a senior manager.

I used to take joy in doing it manually and getting more contiguous free base memory and showing him...

Windows 10 to force you to use Edge, even if it isn't default browser

Re: "no problem giving Apple a pass" - One major difference

No. Apple do not get a free pass from me. They are an appalling bunch of lawyer loving crooks who give MS wet dreams about locking down their users.

My response - never buy from Apple, don't recommend Apple and point out that Apple phones are no better than Samsung, OnePlus etc but do include the standard Apple "gullibility tax".

No. Apple does not get a pass.

After repeated warnings Facebook bans Britain First for 'inciting hatred'

Re: @JcRabbit

Your political opinions are immediately suspect as you seem to conflate "liberals" with leftists. By definition, a liberal is someone who is neither left or right. If you find liberals far you your left, that means that moderate opinion is far to your left. Where does lat mean you are.

You say Laura Southern is a Christian Conservative. Please be aware that these words have pretty opposite meanings. What is defined as a "conservative" in the USA, is incompatible with being a Christian anywhere else. Things like love your neighbour, defend the poor, look after foreigners and so on do not fit in with destroying welfare and shrieking at brown people.

Certainly being a minority does not mean you are right. Some ideas, are minorities because they are impressively stupid. Being in a majority does not mean you are always right. Always consider ideas in the light of knowledge. If you come up with a brilliant phrase like "that is just your education speaking", then you have just defined yourself as without intellectual or moral foundation.

The majority is not being silenced. A very nasty little minority was repeatedly told to act in a civilised manner. They repeatedly didn't and so were told to take their views elsewhere.

As for Brexit, 37.5% of the UK electorate voted to leave Europe. There has been some statistical analysis of the makeup of this groupIf you know what "statistical analysis" is, try googling what the results of it are.

If there are other words to describe many peoples reasons for voting to destroy the British economy by leaving the EU, they are not obvious. They will have the same intelligence as any other group . Some of the ringleader politicians will be very clever. I supposed they voted for different reasons from the rank and file? There will be well informed and poorly informed people in the group. They should have a better grasp of recent European history since so many of them lived through much more of it than the 62.5% who did not vote for Brexit. If it was not racism, what reason would you give for such stupid and sociopathic behaviour?

Sneaky satellite launch raises risk of Gravity-style space collision

None of their business

The US FCC does not have a say on what can be launched from the US and its colonies. That is the job of NASA and, even, the FAA.

The FAA does not have any say on what is launched from India. It is hard for US "official" bodies to understand but the rest of the world (over 95% of it then) does not have to follow the whims of extremely dodgy US bureaucrats. Sometimes they may choose to cooperate with the USA. That is their free right.

As for the FCC. They have proven their irrelevance to their own title by their recent activity of trying to destroy a working internet so that their owning corporations can increase their profits at the expense of everyone else. With that level of incompetence, they need to be kept out of space!

La, la, la, I can't hear you! Apple to challenge Bose's noise-proof cans

Re: More to the point

People will rush to pay the gullibility tax. Not me - I'm at least part Scottish. We are not mean - just poor.

10 PRINT "ZX81 at 37" 20 GOTO 10

BASIC

About the same time, I went to college. They had a "mainframe". In my first year, I had a keyboard and printer. The next year, I had a screen!

As I was not doing the right subjects, I got no lessons. I did get the various programmes like Lunar Lander and Artillery.

From that and a knowledge of algebra, I wrote a programme to do the sums for a levels survey - you know one guy walks along a projected new road holding a big pole with numbers on it and someone else looks at it through a telescope on a tripod.

A few years ago, I found a copy of it and showed my boss. He was impressed when he saw the date on it - 1980/81.

Swiss see Telly Tax as a Big Plus, vote against scrapping it

Libertarianism? - no thanks!

I think the Swiss voters have shown that the time has not come again* for libertarianism.

Tax is the fee you pay for living in a civilised society. There are always things that can be improved but, as the most powerful voices come from sociopaths, nothing is going to change where a normal person has the same number of votes as a revoltingly right wing newspaper owner. Yes, you will still get stupid decisions (Brexit, Trump etc) and some will take longer to fix than others but at least the people of Switzerland will still have an independent national broadcaster.

*Lets wonder where/when/if it has been before.

Britain ignores booze guidelines – heads for the pub

Temperance != Abstinence

A common mistake is for people who are completely against the drinking of alcohol to refer to themselves as being pro temperance.

Temperance means moderation - a reasonable amount - considered use. For example Saudi Arabia is one of the most intemperate countries in the world. The USA, during the prohibition, was (officially) totally intemperate.

There can be debates and guidance what it temperate - 2 units a week, 7, 14 or whatever but 0 is intemperate. If you do feel that 0 is the best option, use a better word.

This site is going to be full of people who like precision. Coding, and IT in general, is hard without it. Anyone who is mentioned here saying temperance but meaning abstinence should have it put in inverted commas.

My PC is broken, said user typing in white on a white background

Re: Mouse balls

I remember in Glasgow University Library in the mid 80s seeing a lady head-to-toe in Islamic gard using her burka as a cleaner for her mouse.

Ahhh - multicultural further education!

Re: Broken monitor

A small piece of micropore tape is very effective here.

Be selective though. There are some people I would not want this done to. There must be some round you too...

An improvement.

<Ctrl> + <Alt> + <Down> is funny but its even funnier of you log them out as well.