Posts by Rather Notsay

Sorry, Dave, I can't code that: AI's prejudice problem

Duh

Computers are rational: that's why they're not leftists.

Class clowns literally classless: Harvard axes meme-flinging morons

USSA

"several students in a private group chat". It is none of Harvard's business what their students discuss in private. This is why snitches get stitches.

Victory! The smell of skunkworks in your office in the morning

You silly child

The mobile app, like the website doesn't actually DO anything. The mobile app (whichever one of the 14 near-duplicates it is) is the stick of lipstick organisations slather on their ERP, EDRMS and CRM pigs. It doesn't ensure a value-chain gets completed from start to finish. It doesn't take into consideration the thousands of ossified internal-policy and regulatory rules. It doesn't secure the myriad of interactions between the organisation and it's suppliers systems. Your spotty team may well have automated the build and deployment cycle of a tiny, pointless codebase, and you have therefore proven you can CTRL+C, CTRL+V tutorials and code you found on the web, but that's about it. The EA is trying to ensure your code is less crap and more corporate (thereby slowing you down) and at the same time trying to speed up the COBOL-crowd who remember all too vividly, the 600 bollockings and near-sackings over the years that they've survived because a percentage was calculated without the right number of decimal places or obscure rounding convention. They do this for the unique privilege of being criticised by everyone for everything all at the same time. Should they miraculously succeed, the "yoofs" will say they slowed them down, the old coots will say they've endangered the business operations and management won't have any idea what they've done at all.

Canadians taking to spying on their spies

Who me?

The 5th column HATES being spied on.

More deaths linked to Ashley Madison hack as scammers move in

Do-gooders do bad things to baddies who call them baddies for exposing the baddie's bad things.

AM creates site to do something immoral but legal. Hackers expose immorality by doing something illegal. AM users are angry, like a burglar being angry about getting caught. It's understandable, but is it defensible? In the case of burglary, it is both immoral and illegal. In this case the act is immoral yet legal. So, when the law and morality are on opposite sides, who should care? The police will drag their feet, the public will look on with only vague interest. In Saudi Arabia the law and morality are on the same side, however in the west they'e on opposite sides. I've seen people cast the hackers as immoral because of this aligment. They're "reasoning" that because Saudi Arabia has made the immoral act of infidelity illegal, by exposing the crime, the hackers have acted immorally. It's hilarious to watch rhetorical gymnastics that people are going through to try to occupy the moral high ground.

Mozilla gaffe exposed 76,000 email addresses, 4000 passwords

Who needs competence?

What does this have to do with The Reg? As a political organisation, Mozilla's dwindling technical competency is irrelevant. What matters is that they remain free of counter-progressive thought criminals. It's not like whoever was responsible supported prop 8 or anything. Now THAT would be a "under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader" (formerly known as sackable) offence.

Amazon France routes around free shipping ban with €0.01 charge

Re: And that's cuttin' me own throat!

Sacre bleu! Wave the drapeau blanc: it is competition!

Joe Hockey caught in his own .Net with Centrelink IT criticism

Bunk, I say!

$1bn? Pish-tosh! Centrelink IT supports 55,000 business function points. Let's say it takes 20 hours per function point to spec, dev and tes:. 55,000 fp * 20 hours * $200per hour for outsourced rates is

$220m for a total rewrite. Methinks someone inflated their estimates.

http://books.google.com/books?id=B3MrKfFciFcC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=Centrelink+IT+supports+55,000+business+function+points&source=bl&ots=XuzFFqqUr5&sig=41CmzTv-5xYxUje67X0WzzS18X8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OYFgU9f2LoW1kAXHu4GQAQ&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA

Secondly, Centrelink, like every other department can expose web services. Centrelink can generate object-oriented M204 code wrappers and accompanying WSDL to make them callable services. The only thing missing is the will to DO somenthing between cabinet minister portfolios and not just within. The problem is in cabinet.

In Australia, protesting against Brendan Eich will be a CRIME

Re: Background

Ecofeco has a sane and rational position. ALL arbitrary definitions of "family" are equally righteous. Polygamy, Bigamy and Incest must all be made legal because ecofeco says so. This life is hard enough as it is without being able to marry as many women, men and vegetables as you want. Being able to create a family of SOME KIND is a basic human right. Equality of nonsense NOW!

corrected headline

In Australia, persecuting Brendan Eich will be a CRIME.

He was denied his right to an income and persecuted for excercising his right of -political expression. Richard Chrgwin pushes his pinko nonsense everyday and I don't want him sacked... not really anyway.

I QUIT: Mozilla's anti-gay-marriage Brendan Eich leaps out of door

Re: It's a shame

Hold him accountable for what exactly? The free exercise of his right to employment? His right to private political speech? His right to political participation? There was no suggestion his workplace performance was inadequate, only that his personal political views were wrong. Three other employees from Mozilla donated to the Prop 8 campaign, and he was the only one fired.

Take the Universal Declaration of Human rights: for the sake of a few people who want to redefine one term in Article 16, a person who wants to keep the definition used for Article 16 as it is, has had Articles 2, 12, 18, 19, 21 and 23. It's worth noting Article 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

It seems many people believe rights are something only they should enjoy.

Proof Apple is GOING BACKWARDS: It's trying to patent a Newton-ish touchscreen stylus

The "invention" is already for sale.

http://www.imore.com/pogo-connect-stylus-adds-interchangeable-tips-including-brushes

Apple 'hid AUD$9 BILLION' from Australia alone: Report

I know for a fact the ATO would have me in court on day one if I tried the same caper. There are perfectly applicable tax laws in place to pursue companies and individuals for companies that do nothing other than tax avoidance. The question is, why are the laws only applied in court to minnows and not whales?

http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/International-tax-for-individuals/Previous-years/Investing-overseas/Tax-havens-and-tax-administration/?page=24#Fraudulent_tax_scheme

Big Content wants Aussies blocked from Netflix

Cartel? What Cartel? I don't see no price fixing and market restriction?

It always baffles me why the ACCC doesn't wade into these companies for setting up a cartel. They collude nationally and international to restrict the availability of goods and in doing so, impose fixed pricing. This is often done by rights holders, not copyright owners: retailers, not manufacturers. Imagine Meyer asking JCP to refuse to sell Levis to Australians on holidays and suing anyone who imports Levis to on-sell them. They might even ask the airlines to make sure nobody who goes overseas does so to buy goods that Meyer has a monopoly on in Australia. In any other industry, the ACCC would be all over it.

http://www.accc.gov.au/business/anti-competitive-behaviour/cartels#what-is-a-cartel-

Oz Government: TPP papers will stay secret

Use your big boy voices

"Consultation does not take place merely so that those with an interest feel included in the process." "The State and Territory Governments are a primary focus of the consultation process." "... the Trade Policy Advisory Committee enables the business community's interests in trade policy negotiations to be reflected in Government positions" "To facilitate public input, the Government prepares a list of all multilateral treaties currently under negotiation or review which can be found on the Australian Treaties Library Internet site. The list is updated approximately twice a year and tabled in both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament. The list includes the name of the contact officer in the responsible Department to whom comments or questions can be directed for each treaty under negotiation. This provides greater transparency in the treaty making process and ensures that interested groups and individuals are in a position to contribute freely to Australia's negotiating position." "Inevitably, the final decision necessarily involves a balancing of competing interests. " Do you get it now? You're allowed to know a treaty is being negotiated and you're allowed to say what you want in the treaty, but that doesn't mean you're a walk-up start to be in the loop on every draft. This is not a new process.

http://www.dfat.gov.au/treaties/making/

Junior telcos tie knot in NBN Co copper plan

Re: why did governemnt businesses get sold off?

Bonuses aren't for doing your job, they're for doing it well. Look at the bonus-free public service, it just get more and more bloated and less and less efficient. Look in contrast at the things the private sector does: the likes of Coles and Woolworths have become more and more efficient and less bloated over time at what is an essential service: food provisioning. Performance bonuses work to get better services. Without bonuses, bad service is rewarded the same as good.

Pro-fibre-to-the-premises protestors call NBN Day of Action

Re: Suck it up Australia,...

"one of the good ones". Comrade Wombat is right! The only vote that is not evil or grossly mistaken are votes identical to his. All hail the Komissar of Korrect Voting!

Australian unis to test quantum-comms-over-fibre

Pishtosh

When two states become entangled, a complete account of the properties of one of the systems is not possible if it does not include the other system; and this will be true no matter how far apart the two systems may be spatially. Therefore, you cannot KNOW entanglement has happened. You must ASSUME it has on the basis of a similar diffraction pattern. Nobody, no matter how they spin it has not communicated through entangled particles. Entanglement does transmit "classical information", and therefore cannot be used for communication at faster than light speed. It's Hokum.

Forget tax bills, here's how Google is really taking us all for a ride

What utter nonsense. "a banker in a Docklands apartment" (boo, hiss) who downloads 24/7 pays WAY more than the average grannie. She'd be on one of those Dodo plans whereas Richy Rich would have his own microwave link if he wanted it. None of that by the way has anything to do with Google. Foxtel offers a service that is slightly different to Telstra's which is slightly different to Google's. So? Each party lobbies government to legislate against the other to create a natural monopoly. Lawfare has always been part of doing business. As long as new companies are not prevented from offering new services, the market is free. As long as customers are not prevented from taking up those services, the market is free. In both cases, the market is not exactly free, and it's the government's fault, not Google's.

'LulzSec leader's' victim named: tiny Oz council

Re: What a joke

Let's suppose he did it: 12 years would be an absurd sentence.

Defacement of council property usually carries less than 12 years when carried out with a spray can. In fact, the Narrabri shire council runs workshops to help the kids channel their graffiti productively. Maybe they'll do the same for this chap as part of a diversionary tactic. http://www.narrabri.nsw.gov.au/print.cfm?page_id=1154

Alternately, a bunch of technophobes and over enthusiastic "cyber" cops are going to get together and burn a techno-witch. A great miscarriage of justice will take place but by and large the low-tech voting masses won't even notice.

Assange^TM spins Oz Senate candidacy again

Why not the lower house? Parhaps it's because he knows nobody really likes him.

CIO says Telstra becoming 'best IT shop in APAC'

Cross promotional. Deal mechanics. Revenue streams. Jargon. Synergy.

I've applied Agile methods to my running training out of competitive market necessity. It's a way of working that drives a more productive and enjoyable experience. With the upcoming Olympic Games and the rapid change that we are seeing in running technology I have no hope of thriving in the 21st unless I become much more adaptable and am able to respond faster than my competitors in meeting the spectators demands. Through the power of jargon and the most currently fashionable methodology, I'm busy becoming the fastest sprinter in the Asia-Pacific Region.

'Geek' image scares women away from tech industry

Manny Manne

I would never hire someone who cares whether or not working for me makes them look cool. Competence is the only key selection criteria.

Name and shame fat cat bureaucrats, Number 10 told

Shut up, hippy!

"Waaaaah, I don't get paid that much. Why doesn't the government work for free to make sure nobody earns more than me? I want more pay for me, but less for others, more hospitals and less taxes. It's not fair! Waaaaaah!"

Whenever the public service decides to be honest, every toothless chav/bogan/redneck who thinks they're CEO material gets all uppity about the salaries, how much tax they pay, and how the public service are leeches. Of course, they ignore all the pensions, dole, healthcare and assorted handouts they get themselves every day living in a welfare state.

Do most of the complaining feckless bolsheviks here know how much the private sector gets paid to do the same job as the public sector? No. Do they care? No. If its more than them, they're not happy.

If you're rad-awesome and underpaid, why don't you go and apply for those public and private jobs with the big salaries when they come up? After all, nobody is as hard-working as YOU right?

Or are you just jelly?

Linguists use sounds to bypass Skype crypto

Steganography should fix it.

My reading of the paper suggests that the root of the problem is that a certain phenome of a certain accent will encrypt to the same/similar string of bits every time with the same key. Essentially, they need to make the datastreams look truly random. Steganographic techniques should do the trick.

Unfortunately, this will mean more data has to go to and fro', and/or more computation will be required.

HP price tag could nix Marrickville council's 'Israel boycott'

They are hypocrites

Their actions (giving lots of money to HP) are in direct conflict with their stated beliefs and feelings (Isreal bad, boycott good). They're also hypocrites for not ending their occupation of the aboriginal Gadigal Wangal Tribe's land. If they were against the whole concept of outsiders setting up camp on someone else's land, they'd all find the foreign nation to which they owe the lion's share of their genetic code and scamper off there.

Anonymous Coward points out that as well as hypocrites, they're selective moralists: chosing to boycott the only liberal democracy in the middle east, while remaining silent on many more oppressive states.

None of this of course, has anything to do with IT, but the race towards proving Godwins Law once more is very entertaining.

Fight global warming with Asimov-style Psychohistory - profs

The more things change the more they stay the same.

"Science" is the new Church. By that I mean there is a class of self-important gits that are acting like the Roman Catholic Church of the old days. The academic science sector is increasingly referring to it'self as some sort of cohesive entity that issues edicts of absolute truth. Those who dare to question these edicts are decried as "deniers", which is a nice modern near-synonym for the old-fashioned term "heretics". The Science Church's inner machinations are jealously guarded and any demands for transparency are accountability are met with a wall of dismissive derision and assertions that theyre self-policing through "peer-review". Ex-communication is common, as the peer-review process is frequently abused to disallow dissenting voices.

Just like in the reformation, some "denialist" like Martin Luther or some anonymous hacker will expose the shennanigans and empower the common man. This will be resisted of course, but ineveitably, congregations will dwindle.

Court orders seizure of PS3 hacker's computers

And in other news,

Levis are suing a number of famous rappers for wearing their jeans in a fashion that is not in keeping with their terms of service. A Levis representative today stated: "We know that these rappers encourage crime through their lyrics and to a lesser extent, fashion crimes through their improper use of our clothing. We are simply seeking to protect our intellectual from organised crime and terrorism." This latest lawsuit comes in the wake of the suit brought by General Motors against the infamous car hacker Xzibit. The hacker and his hacking ring known as "Pimp My Ride" and famous for the catch phrase "yo dawd", were ordered to pay $16 trillion dollars in damages to General Motors for hacking their automobiles to run unathorised programs such as "5p33d1|\|g" and the recently exploited "r4m r41d" that continue to endager lies and net millions for criminals world wide.

Tea Party activists accused of rigging Dancing vote to favour Palin

Why is this technews exactly?

The facts of the matter are:

1) A talentless almost nobody goes on a TV competition show with judges and an audience vote.

2) The judges did not like them

3) The public voting system keeps them on the show

4) A couple of people on some blog somewhere want try to rig the voting

This is the case for ALL TV shows like this (Big Brother, X-Factor). Talentless idiots get returned week after week, and inexplicably, they have fans who do their best to rig the voting in order to keep them on TV.

Would if be news if it was some pinko, tree hugging, tie-dyed, late sipping, dole bludging, basket weaving, muslim, lesbian, death-panneling, Obama-loving, hipster douchebag marxist was the subject instead of Bristol Palin? Of course not.

5 years of U.S. DWTS and no-one gives a tinker's cuss, but when it looks like Bristol Palin might win, El Reg figures something must be 'wrong' with the voting, and ABC is looking at changing the format of the show to ensure she doesn't win. The only thing wrong with reality TV is reality TV. The "winners" have always been losers.

Apple yanks Wi-Fi detectors from iTunes

Corporate Bastardry

What is it about large companies that turns them into bastards? Is it because absolute power corrupts absolutely? Micro$oft, G00gle, Apple. Even Jimmy Wales 'turned' when Wiki got large.

IEEE names 28-year-old woman its new 'Face of Engineering'

IEEE Meritocracy

Other than being a black woman from Trinidad who's rather clever, what was the selection criteria? Nobody is saying that she's not qualified because she's a BWFT, just that all we know about her achievements are that she's just another bright young thing from Carnegie Mellon. Oh, and she's energetic. Is she on the verge of a breakthrough regarding quantum computing technology? Cancer cure? Rubiks Cube champ? Does good impressions of Gordon Brown? Anything?!

The reason we're cynical is, we all work at jobs where minority status is prized above merit and we're all bloody sick of it. We DONT know what, if anything, she has achieved. We DO know that she's a politically motivated CEO's wet dream. If she changed her PhD to something to do with how climate change is driving black women engineers from poor countries to use web 2.0 mashups, she'd win next year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Logic and reason are burning to the ground and this smells a lot like smoke.

Google now owns location advertising

Prior Art

http://www.e-lba.com/Milestones/ELBA_Milestone_4.pdf

Use Case 3: Dublin describes the variable pricing aspect and this artefact is dated before the patent application.

Doctor Who attempted to overthrow Thatcher

Wait, What?

The BBC is full of commies? WHAT!? This story is explosive!