Posts by arkhangelsk

ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok make very squishy jury members

Maybe the AI is right?

I hadn't yet seen the video, but the article's telling suggests the AI actually made the right call. Strictly taking a "reasonable doubt" point of view, the AI is correct that it falls short. Over 50%, yes. Clear and convincing, OK. Reasonable doubt ... not quite. The chatbot also has a point that if we disadvantage someone on size (intimidating appearance), something he doesn't even have control of, we may not be treating people equally in the law.

I don't think the judge was necessarily racially biased, but I suspect real judges don't always follow the "reasonable doubt" standard, especially when it comes to the mens rea part since that's inferring something we can't read. They just end up thinking "OK, it's about as good as it gets in cases like this" and convict.

Microsoft OneDrive file sync apps for Windows, Mac broken for 10 months

Re: Just Got Bitten

I have a similar experience, only I have been getting it since about March this year.

M365 Family users wake up to notice 'Your subscription expired'

Now this problem is hitting OneDrive

Like many others, I suffered from this problem but it was fixed overnight.

However, now an equivalent problem is hitting my OneDrive.

Japanese scientists propose drug to regrow teeth, promise trials won't bite

I hope this one becomes affordable in a few years. I have some teeth I want replacements for.

UK.gov threatens to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

The lack of a written constitution to limit the Parliament in what it can pass is really starting to show its negative effects here.

Sovereignty? We've heard of it. UK government gives contract to store MI5, MI6 and GCHQ's data to AWS

Hopefully, for the UK's own sake, they will only be storing information of low to medium importance on that cloud, with the true crown jewels being kept off the cloud.

MI5 gros fromage: Nah, US won't go Huawei from dear old Blighty over 5G, no matter what we do

Re: This is a Real national security problem. Think hard, Brits!

You are taking a criminal law approach to a national security problem. Admittedly, that's because national security has been so stretched over the years that as I said, people demand standards now even for national security problems.

To take what you said in a more negative light, they have actually found leaks but CHOSE to believe they are innocent ones and at least as important, the Chinese government don't already know about at least some of the leaks.

You also have to be sure the source code is exactly the same as those that go into every machine, check all the patches they'll inevitably publish ... etc, etc. And even then it is a contest between your ability to find the holes and their ability to hide them.

Once you have committed, what ARE you really going to do if you start finding the holes then? Do you think reversing would be cheap or even possible?

This is a Real national security problem. Think hard, Brits!

I think the real long term point of consideration is whether this is a national security issue, not what America might or might not do. I agree that "national security" has been stretched badly over the years, mostly because it has been left as an "out" in both human rights and trade related treaties. That should not eliminate the idea that there is such a thing as an honest-to-God national security threat. In fact, the whole stretching has backfired somewhat on the abusers, since in stretching the term so widely now even for national security matters we must have standards - standards that might just stop you from acting promptly against a genuine threat!

National security is by nature preventive. If danger has become actual, you are no longer so much protecting national security as restoring, repairing or recreating it. The real measure is, Can you delay the decision to preempt and still take the decision later, and how much it will cost to repair the damage if you bet wrong.

So you should think what happens IF there is a deliberate leak, or a bunch of "accidental" leaks that are creating a large loss of data. Does Britain really have the capability to guarantee timely detection, does Britain really have the gumption to flatly tell Huawei (and thus China) it is backing out, and can Britain really change its net to alternate suppliers at that point with sufficient speed and at a bearable cost.

If not, then this is a genuine national security choice and should be played on the side of caution.

EU's top court sees no problem with telling Facebook to take content down globally

The low respect for freedom of speech, the sovereignty of other states, or the right of self-determination by the CJEU is stunning.

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

I can just about understand (if not agree with) things like Skype. But E-mail and worse, even Word documents? Oh dear.

Search results suddenly missing from Google? Well, BLAME CANADA!

Re: Company moral hazard....

>The ruling is straight forward. Company 'A' that has operations in Canada is told that they must not facilitate activity that is illegal and also detrimental to another Canadian company.

Actually, it isn't on two levels. For one thing, Google's action in itself is not illegal, nor are they specially doing something to this tiny company. They are doing their regular legal business of providing search services to any interested parties, and it is already questionable legally as it is to impose penalties for neutral actions that do not break the law, unless he actively desires the facilitation of the illegal and unworthy outcome.

Further, Googe's actions, broadly speaking, involve expression, which is beyond "neutral" and actually a right protected by constitution and treaty after many painful historical experiences as to the real consequences when it is compromised. The court willfully faked blindness so it did not have to weigh that. In doing so, it condones further abuses. I cannot believe the judges were so stupid as to be unaware of the danger, especially since it was pointed out to them.

And I just love that moronic court judgment. If you have been up on international news, you might notice China just "released" the nearly dead Liu Xiaobo in the name of medical treatment. I can easily see how that crummy judgment can be borrowed by a Chinese court in the future to convict yet more people for "subversion of the State". After all, to pick just one, Liu Xiaobo would not be "inconvenienced in any *material* (because the world is only material, implies the Canadian judge) way" and would not "incur any significant expense" in choosing to not publish his critical articles and Charter 08. Thus, in the face of it causing a certain amount of "irreparable" harm to the Chinese State, Liu Xiaobo's actions cannot be defended as free speech and he thus is correctly guilty of "subversion of the State".

This is a criminally stupid decision

The judges' decision is parochial and willfully fails to foresee the probable consequences of their reckless acts. Now that a Western court has decided that they can rule on search results on a global website, how long would it before the likes of China and Russia's Supreme Courts issuing rulings for choice pieces of information to be removed because they are "subversive", "extremist" or otherwise. Don't they realize that China is still citing Schenck v United States (1919) when defending their infamous "Incitement of subversion of State power?"

They didn't even do a balancing exercise, so in essence the only criteria required are someone being supposedly hurt and Google can do it. This ought be easy... And it is the Supreme Court so no one can get it out of the system. A stupid, no-name company simply is not worth it.

Germany to Facebook, Twitter: We are *this* close to fining you €50m unless you delete fake news within 24 hours

I live in China

Technically, it's Hong Kong, but China is increasingly assertive about us being part of them, and not just in a formal way.

Please, Germany, don't give China stupid ideas or grounds for rationalizing yet ANOTHER attack on freedom of speech. Do you realize every time one of you "free nations" makes any crimp on freedom of speech, China uses it as an excuse for another restriction?

Think about your effect on the world...

Don't panic, friends, but the Chinese navy just nicked one of America's underwater drones

Re: Stop posting "Why didn't the US self-destruct it and kill the thieves?"

Because the main object here is sovereignty, not economic, not getting the drone back is better on that front than it being in the hands of the Chinese.

Judge makes minor tweaks to sex ban IT man's order

Re: Still no pity

>If this were the case then the GP acted professionally and escalated it.

OK, I shall pretend that is the case. The fact he mouthed off to the GP is a reason for the GP to refuse to see him, NOT for the police and court to impose the equivalent of a restrictive probation regime.

>They are open to legal action being individually raised against them, how much more concrete risk do you require?

They might be sued, but since they are doing it as part of their "powers", it is a State action. If somehow O' Neill wins a civil suit, they will not pay, the State will out of tax money.

As for judges, thanks to the judicial immunity doctrine, it's extremely unlikely it'll even go as far as that.

>You omitted to respond to that.

I wouldn't mind him coming to where I am. But really, are we supposed to deal with human rights abuses by suggesting people leave the country, rather than the country fixing its human rights abuses?

Though I don't live in the UK, I'm still concerned because such crap is contagious, especially if it comes from countries having a "good" reputation. For example, a few weeks ago, a Luzgin had his conviction affirmed by his Supreme Court. People complained about the Russian Supreme Court, but IMO they are wrong. The Courts acted correctly within the definitions of their law and the facts provided, and to criticize the Judiciary diverts attention away from the true problem, the presence of that Article. The reason that article exists is because people in "good" countries like Germany thought it is a good idea to restrict speech under certain circumstances, which gave Russia an excuse to create something similar!

(I'll also point out though Luzgin was fairly convicted, the Court only fined him. It's a heavy fine, especially for a Russian, but still a fine. His liberty wasn't so much as restricted. Remembering that both of their "crimes" can be characterized as mouthing off at the wrong place at the wrong people ... don't you think it is a problem when Britain sinks below Russia on a question of human rights?)

Re: Still no pity

>I have seen no published suggestion that he was trying to get 'help' in his consultations with his GP and the Mental Health Nurse, he also gave a detailed TV interview which I watched in full, there was no suggestion of an appeal for help. He appeared comfortable with his needs, his issue was with the restriction to his rights. Source please.

I'll say the fact he bothered to consult medical help is a sign he wanted help. However, now that he's being slapped with this ridiculous order, of course his emphasis is on his legitimate rights. I don't blame him.

BTW, please don't give me excuses regarding his demeanor. Rule of law and due process means that we can't impose restrictions of liberty because we don't like their attitude, only for solid things they have done which we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. If anything, the fact his demeanor is bad means he's a vulnerable segment which requires protection.

>General Practitioner, Mental Health nurse ( who in the UK has the authority to 'section' (incarcerate) someone in an emergency if required)

Thankfully, they didn't. But the cops slapping the order on him apparently do.

>Law Courts are unable to assess risk or are persons or 'agency that undertakes no risk and pays no price for his infringement.'?

The vital part here is the aft section. I indeed don't live in the UK, so I could be wrong, but you might want to fill everyone in on what concrete risks or price either the police officer initially issuing the order, the solicitor that drafted it, or the judge that affirms and slightly trims it suffers.

Because as far as I can tell, the police officer's worst fate here is that his order gets reversed in its entirety. He will not, for example, be forced to eat a pay cut, much less suffer criminal liability. And even if we accept there is some legitimacy to this order, it is undeniable O' Neill here hasn't actually been convicted of any crime yet they gave him the substantive equivalent of a fairly tough probation, which is a significant infringement of his rights, and it can be done for free. A similar story runs for the judge.

Under these circumstances, what is really there to keep these responsible offers from excess? Nothing.

Re: Still no pity

@Still No Pity

>guy who admitted to two separate health professionals that he gets a sexual kick out of extreme violence and then tries to convince the court that he was misunderstood.

Back then, he was trying to get help, not self-incriminate.

>Where are the 'boundaries'? Having heard his admission, what if he acted out his fantasies and killed someone,? No amount of pre-agreed boundaries or safewords would help the submissive then would it?

There are *no* boundaries. If your contingency happens, we eat it. Concrete infringement of rights cannot be legitimized based on a vague assessment of risk, undertaken by a person or agency that undertakes no risk and pays no price for his infringement.

Even if we must permit such things in some form, we need to stop allowing it as a "power" (where the act of issuing the order starts off being right except in cases of abuse as assessed by a uselessly tight standard) and start treating it as a "justification" (where the act is prima facie criminal because it does infringe on people's rights without full due process of law, but may be justified). For example:

The order will be issued by a police officer (P) with no intervention by court (b/c they just rubber stamp). There should be no Act empowering it, thus it is by default Abuse/Excess of Authority (crime). But it will be considered justified (thus allowed to stand) if:

a) It does not exceed proportionality (risk & severity).

b) Recognizing its infringement, the State recompenses V (order recipient) with a percentage of his income proportionate to the restriction (risk is not taken into account, only the severity of restriction). Even a narrow restraining order concerning non-approach of 1 individual should be worth 10% of his income, and general restrictive regimes like the one here should be worth 100%.

c) Because it is a *justification*, not a *power*, the individual issuing orders must acknowledge his own personal responsibility as an infringer and contribute to the State compensation with a portion of his own income, up to 50%. Thus, a single officer can order 1 very restrictive regime or 10 minimal regimes in his name, or anything in between.

d) If unforeseen circumstances increasing the actual severity, the State must provide extra compensation.

Failure to achieve all four conditions, even marginally, will mean collapse of justification defense and incarceration for P.

If there are still Sexual Risk Orders under this kind of scheme, I might consider them justified.

It's OK to fine someone for repeating a historical fact, says Russian Supreme Court

Re: Orwell's alive & living in the Kremlin

@Mark 85

It doesn't help that the Western media, when they can access it, also tends to be less than objective when reporting on Russian events, preferring Russophobic hyperbole to analysis, as is the web commentary. So far for example, this article failed to conduct any dispassionate analysis on the legal factors invoved, and the forum's commentary has reached away from the event at place all the way to Warsaw in 1944, Crimea in 2013, and so on.

Sometimes, people are writing without even thinking what their latest proposal means to the issue at hand. For example, Voland is pushing a broadly-Rezunist theory. For the purposes of this thread, it is sufficient to note that:

a) It is still possible to discuss Rezunist theory in Russia w/o getting into trouble, as evidenced by the Wikipedia article on same.

b) If we accept Rezunist theory as true, then Luzgin is STILL wrong (thus legally liable) because the idea of Stalin getting ready to backstab Hitler actually runs against the idea of them "closely collaborating".

With such "quality", suddenly the local media looks very warm to a Russian in comparison. I'm not saying don't criticize. I'm saying criticize after learning all the factors at play, so the criticism is reasoned and useful.

Re: Or the Russians haven't updated their website yet

Wow, Alfred. I never denied that technically speaking, an interpretation of it not being simultaneous is permissible. However, even while a phrase has multiple interpretations, it is undeniable that some interpretations are stronger than others when the sentence is interpreted.

For example, if I say "A is bigger than B", *technically* I'm still right if A is a billionth larger than B. But that's NOT the image that floats in your brain, is it? You'll probably be thinking A is actually substantively (say at least 25%) larger. Humans interpret wording heuristically, thus not every fringe literal-grammatical possibility will float; and even if it does it won't be dominant.

And I think it is intellectually dishonest to ignore such realities when analyzing what Luzgin chose to quote into his blog.

@P0l0nium

By itself, the secret pact will be an agreement, and even the substantive elements can hardly be called "close". They just agreed on some delineations and materials were sent. "Close"? So when the US and UK trade high-tech stuff to China which gets stuffed into a piece of military equipment this is evidence they are "close collaborating" with China in their plan to threaten the South/East China Sea?

The base problem of the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty is simply that the Russians after the purges (a self-inflicted wound admittedly), weren't ready for a war and they needed to buy time to fix those problems. I'll also point out that the USSR did give Britain and France a chance to be allies, but those two can't even tell their ally (Poland) that if they expect to be protected, they have to actually let the ally's forces in before the war starts. It is simply infeasible to rush in after the war started and expect good results - as proven next year when the French and Brits rushed in after the attack had already started.

Or the Russians haven't updated their website yet

The hearing was on Sep 1 and now it is Sep 3. It is easily possible for the verdict to be handed down and the site not yet updated (it's not exactly Google Docs where each change is instantly reflected).

To the essence of the issue, like it or not, Luzgin did fulfill the formal indicia of Article 354.1. He wrote:

"The A and B jointly invaded C"

If you don't know what A, B and C are, would you conclude that A & B moved on the same day? At least I would yet in this case it would be a clear untruth.

"That is, A and B closely collaborated"

This would be an opinion, and indeed would be against the Nuremberg judgment. However just a statement along these lines is not instant prosecution. Certainly the much more comprehensive Russian Wikipedia articles on the Secret Protocol and invasion of Poland seem healthy as ever - I'll suggest why below.

"yet for some reason they blame E, who was in a B concentration camp, for declaring G independence."

From this, I get a picture of E declaring independence while IN the concentration camp, and that's not the truth at all. Bandera announced independence and even said he would help Germany. The Germans decide to transfer and then arrest him anyway, but that doesn't mean Bandera did not intend to help the Germans/Nazis at the moment of his statement.

So like it or not, the substantive problem here was not even its congruence with the Nuremberg trials, but that the statements simply were misleading. If they were congruent with contemporary theory or even well defended, even if it was a non-Nuremberg position, Luzgin could have claimed the statements were not socially dangerous (Article 14.2) OR if that failed he can claim that his actions were for the socially useful goal (Article 41) of either spreading correct history or inciting academic debate on same.

Vertinsky should not be blamed for making the correct statement that the above lines do not really represent the "position accepted at international level" unless you want to claim Germany and the USSR attacked Poland on Sep 1 together, as implied by the faulty statement.

Fun fact of the day: Network routers are illegal in Japan

I'm neither a comp tech or a lawyer but isn't this better resolved or justified as part of "consent" rather than just "routine activity"? The user implicitly consents to the router and other network equipment reading the parts of the message necessary to achieve his aim of transmitting said message to its recipient.

It seems not very different from the mail address on your paper mail - every time you mail something you are letting the post office know you are sending something to a particular address (and further inferences can be made from the mass and dimensions of the package), and no one seems to think whether that's a violation of privacy.

Read America's insane draft crypto-borking law that no one's willing to admit they wrote

Re: Not a chance.

I agree. Right now, it doesn't really cost the legislative anything to propose these Anti-People measures and in practice it doesn't cost the Executive anything to overstep what laws have been created. The worst is that a court rolls them back, and even if they do levy a fine who cares its not coming from those people's pockets but from taxpayer's money. Nobody actually pays on a personal level.

Maybe what is necessary is an actual, personal cost to any Senator or administrative official trying for these anti-People measures.

Science contest to get girls interested in STEM awards first prize to ... a boy

To Be Fair

Based solely on the info in articles, it does seem the boy's idea was more creative and letting him win was at least legitimate. We want girls in STEM but not at the cost of tilting tables in their favor.

Android's accessibility service grants god-mode p0wn power

Unrealistic

Most people, when they install an app, they feel the need for it. When a stupid dialog box coming up tells them to chug the rights over ... let's face it, they're probably ready to nod yes to anything, just to see the app in action.

Not very smart perhaps but very human.

At Microsoft 'unlimited cloud storage' really means one terabyte

Re: Bait and switch

Personally, I never noticed them giving me the unlimited, but they gave me 10TB when I started using it.

I'll admit I'm taking some advantage of that massive space but I'm only up to less than 500GB so far. I was planning to upload some more.

At least they could have kept their initial promise.

What's not up, Docs? Google Docs goes titsup in time for Friday beers

Google Docs

>Why over-complicate things? Just download LibreOffice & get on with writing.

To be fair, AFAIK Google Docs does have functionality that are very good for teachers - the best of which is constant revision control. No one can say they didn't save because as long as they are online every change is saved constantly.

Further, all those versions can give the teacher an insight as to the student's thought processes using the "view previous revisions" feature. You can see, for example, at one point the student tried to put Paragraph 3 first before deciding it fits better at the bottom. You can see though it is crap he at least pretended to work on his homework for 5 hours rather than 30 minutes which might be worth effort points. In fact, with special software you can in theory you can get data of every keystroke, since it is at base a keystroke logger and when you open your file, Google Docs actually reconstructs your file by stepping through all your keystrokes.

Pixel C: Google has a crack at the fondleslab-with-keyboard game

Re: Have we forgotten the Asus Transformer?

It was a bit too late for me to get a Transformer, so I got a Memopad which links up to the keyboard with Bluetooth. Not as elegant a solution Transformer but I can use it on my lap and best of all, I never have to remove the tablet from the keyboard folio - I can just fold the keyboard on the back and use it as extra armor. It makes it heavier and the leather (or fake leather whatever) is wearing out horribly after about 2 years, but is still comfortable to hold and protects the thing from falls.

Mobile first? Microsoft decides to kneecap its Android users instead

GMail is not push E-mail?

I didn't know that. It seems pretty pushy to me, with new E-mails being shoved into my face in my E-mail programs well below the timed "pull" delay.

Any technicians can help me with this? Thanks.

Oh no Wikiwon't: Russians plan own version of 'distorted' Wikiland

It's not impossible if enough people are interested

Just look at Chinese Baidu, which seems to be doing pretty well for itself.

And a head start can be made just by using the current Wikipedia articles as a base - 'sanitizing" some, paraphrasing others ... etc.

The Wilson Doctrine isn't legally binding, MPs CAN be spied on, says QC

>James Eadie QC claimed that the doctrine does not have force in law and cannot impose legal restraints on the agencies.

Eadle, I could have said that and I don't have lawyer training. It is not a law, BUT that agencies are not bound by it is a big question mark, because the Doctrine arguably constitutes a Cabinet or Prime Ministerial Order. Don't the Brit civil services have any laws saying they must be bound by their superior's orders?

>As reported by the Guardian, Eadie told the IPT that excluding politicians from GCHQ's mass surveillance wasn't even feasible.

Let me propose a "revolutionary" idea, Eadle. If, despite your position, we accept that the doctrine has a legal effect, and that you can't exclude politicians from a mass surveillance plan ... the only solution is to NOT DO MASS SURVEILLANCE!

Is that really hard?

Still, I must wonder when all the legislatures in the West will finally get fed up of this crap and just pass a act (an undeniable law with undeniable legal efect) banning intelligence agencies from doing anything while they review everything from zero, with all future activities under positive control only. We tried to believe them, listened to their arguments that positive control eliminates their needed flexibility, and look how they exploit it. Sometime, we have to put our foot down, even if it does mean one or two buses are exploded.

Soon your car won't let you drink. But it won't care if you're on the phone

Nice idea

... but why not make it some kind of Alertness Tester. It seems we think any alcohol is a sin, but tolerate fatigue or any other number of conditions that make you less than a thinking driver with adequate reactions.

Perhaps a simple reaction test with a hard pass limit and also a soft limit (so if you are MUCH slower than you usually are, that's probably a bad sign). Or it can analyze driving inputs - if you are clearly weaving with no reason to be, the car can be stopped.

Prosecutors have 'EVISCERATED' my defense, cries Silk Road lawyer

Re: Imagine that...

Well, but here's the interesting possibility. What if the investigating officer said "No" or "Really, I had another theory that's at least close". Now, THAT would be most interesting, wouldn't it?

FREE EBOOKS: Apple falls into line with EU refund laws

Re: Simple work-round?

As a consumer, I find this unreasonably infringing on my rights. The most common flaw on Ebooks is the over-usage of compression, causing graphics to degrade into non-legibility. Other flaws include poor OCR and sometimes weird layouts. All these cannot be spotted before buying, even if one is so dedicated due to the test-reading page limits.

Scrapping the Human Rights Act: What about privacy and freedom of expression?

Re: @John G Imrie + Titus Technophile

The read I got is that this is exactly how governments try to justify restrictive laws - starting with groups we find "icky" so we feel inclined to let the law past. Then we find that either the law actually includes us as well, or the government, having gotten one victory, pushes to revise the law to include another, and each time the bar to a new restriction gets lower.

The verdict is in: Samsung to pay Apple $120m chump change, but gets tiny rebate

Wait a minute...

Quick links and Slide to Unlock (frivolous features) >100 million

File storage system (fundamental issue) = 150 thousand.

Is there an unfair disparity in valuation here?

Flying fondleslab causes injury after plane hits turbulence

What I'm interested is

were those computers and tablets functional after the knock?

How many keys can one keyboard have? Do I hear 200? 300? More?

It might be limited production and have a lot of keys, but it is a frigging keyboard. How does it justify a US$90 price tag?

Google stabs Wikipedia in the front

Quite frankly...

I noticed that there was a little box where there wasn't before (that I generally didn't use), but I didn't even know it was called Knowledge Graph. Does it really have that much effect?

Google tells EFF: Android 4.3's privacy tool was a MISTAKE, we've yanked it

I'll side with the Against but Sympathetic crowd

It is a nice feature, however it came to be included, but I can see how its functionality means it cannot be Foolproof and having dabbled in Customer Service myself I can understand what happens when you cannot Foolproof such features. So whatever else they were thinking there are valid reasons to pull the feature.

Office 365 goes to work on an Android

Personally, I paid the bucks for Textmaker

It ain't Word, and it is a little choppy even on a Tegra 3, but it does the job.

Headmaster calls cops, tries to dash pupil's uni dreams - over a BLOG

Re: Truth or consequences

I'm sure of course in theory you can make "honest references". It is just that you are running a big risk since your words do cause actual harm to someone else and thus you are liable to getting sued for defamation. Getting away with something like "He's late every day" would probably be easy if you've kept objective records. Saying something subjective like "He's lazy" would be a lot harder to prove and you run a significant chance he can make the judge agree your subjective assessment is not adequately substantiated and charge you the bill of his damages.

Reports: NSA has compromised most internet encryption

Re: Solutions?

We think among similar lines - the problem is that what's doing it is an agency. Even if you do somehow catch them, they would blur the lines of responsibility enough that you won't be able to identify one or a few people to indict, or if that starts to fail in the best, best case they'll throw up some midrank guy senior enough to be vaguely plausible but not powerful enough to be resist or be the Real Culprit (he's following orders himself).

What do you think of my idea of making agencies truly accountable (as in actually making them bleed) for violations?

This kind of governmental cheating

by all parts of government won't stop because there no penalties are ever imposed. At best when caught the legislature passes the equivalent of a Cease and Desist, and if we are extremely lucky the involved government agency would even follow it for awhile. If it even gets to the point where the head resigns to "take responsibility" ... that's half a miracle (it happens more in Japan, seemingly less in the West).

What should be passed are new acts that say any governmental agency that gets caught breaking or abusing the rules are subject to decimation (as in 1/10th of the employees get fired, even split between top and bottom post), plus at least a 20% reduction in budget for the next 5 years. With real penalties should come improvements.

Snowden: US and Israel did create Stuxnet attack code

Re: Yeah, right.

Well, they might have skilled programmers, but they are dealing with technology a bit more advanced than what they have (otherwise they won't have to steal) and also the programmers are not mechanical specialists. It probably won't be impossible to insert a subtle error in the coefficients that will lead to a slow wearing out over time, leading to eventual destruction. They also don't have a lot of time because they want the complex working ASAP, not in debugging.

Apple must apologise for its surly apology on its website on Saturday

Inaccurate might be pushing it a little...

>On 25th October 2012, Apple Inc published a statement on its UK website in relation to Samsung's Galaxy tablet. That statement was inaccurate and did not comply with the order of the Court Appeal of England and Wales. A correct statement can be found at this link.

There's a good case for calling it (for example) "misleading". That it did not comply with the spirit of the order is obvious. Whether it minimally complied with the letter is debatable (all the requested text was there I think). But IIRC nothing on it was actually "inaccurate". The judge did say those things. The US and Germany did rule against Samsung...

Maybe Apple's next move would be to put the page up as requested, but then add a link complaining about the tyranny of the British court. If the judge tries to block that one, now he is violating freedom of speech.

Fukushima operator feared shutdown if risks revealed

I'm speculating...

but I suspect this discrepancy:

>As of three days ago TEPCO held to the position it was all the tsunami's fault

can be explained by

1) The government has already agreed quietly to not find anyone criminally responsible.

2) With the legal threat gone, TEPCO's best interest is now in moving towards a mea culpa stance, without which it won't be allowed by the local populace to rebuild or even power back up any nuke power plants, even if it wins all the legal battles.

Google Wallet: Rub our button, cough 15p for quick read

Could work

Reasonable prices + Convenient Payment Method is a money sucker - I know this from Amazon Kindle.

I just hope they don't put pages they used to put out for free into this scheme...

Hong Kong has fastest broadband on the planet

I'll be impressed when my '3' (company name) 3G connection

actually works on the MTR. Reliability is at least as important as speed.

Google to skew search results to punish PIRATES

I thought they were doing that already

... these past couple of years, torrent links have become much less prominent in\ Google searches.

A reasonable measure, in any case, and I believe it will discourage casual piracy. Forcing people to have to join special file-sharing forums rather than just grabbing their torrents off Google scares off the squeamish, because forums means data being handed over.

Apple pulls China Japan war game amid diplomatic tensions

Maybe they can make an Android version. Personally, I don't think China has too much of a legal leg to stand on for those islands, and the Western experts I've read seem to figure Japan has the stronger legal claim, but in any case the game does sound fun.