Posts by veti

Oracle's Larry Ellison shares fears of bankrupting Western civilization with healthcare

Re: records database for the United States

Never mind, that still leaves 194 countries with 7.4 billion people. Not bad as a potential market.

Why are PC webcams crap? Lenovo says it knows the reason

Does not compute

I find it hard to believe that Lenovo, of all companies, is planning to make some part of a PC not be crap.

But make no mistake, if PC makers do start doing this, it's not for users' benefit - it's for employers/whoever else wants to keep an eye on them.

Liz Truss ousted as UK prime minister, outlived by online lettuce

Re: If a mistake is bad enough ...

That... deserves a place alongside "the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram" among ways to be rude without falling foul of censors.

Re: Serious point amongst all this humour !!!

Meh. Voters get to make their views known from time to time, it doesn't actually seem to clarify very much. Remember the last last few elections, to say nothing of referendums?

No, a GE at this point would get rid of the current bunch, but it wouldn't actually tell us anything about what the voters really want. To get that sort of information, you need an election in which there is more than one major issue being discussed.

Re: We can only hope for beheading, just the other way around

You're saying David Icke was right?

By current Republican standards, he certainly wouldn't be allowed to hold any important position in the party.

For one thing, he believed in elections. For another, read his views on the military-industrial complex (aka, Republican welfare). He really thought the money would be better spent on feeding the hungry and clothing the homeless.

Re: seeing how things work (or don't) over there...

Well yes, but why do they do it? What makes it "in their personal interest"?

I'll give you a hint, it begins with "public".

Re: Free speech, duh

Last I checked, North Korea's GDP was smaller than that of Somerset.

Which may be a comforting thought. Until you consider what it implies about what it takes to become a nuclear power...

Nonsense. Democracy in the UK is doing its job, as proven by the fact that Truss is gone.

Compare her with Trump, who held his job for a full term despite doing far worse.

There's a lot of misconceptions about what elections are for. You don't vote for a set of policies or ideas, because everyone knows that what politicians say they'll do has only coincidental correspondence with what they actually end up doing. (And that's not, or at least not just, because they were lying, it's because you don't know until you get there what the real constraints are.)

What you vote for is a person whom you think will do the best job of promoting the sort of things you agree with. It's a contest of trust, that's all. And at the last election, the British people put their trust in the wunch of bankers known as the Tories. (And frankly I'm still pretty sure they were right to do so. Remember what the alternative was.)

Re: Obvious solution

We have that already, it's called the House of Lords.

Millennials, Gen Z actually suck at workplace security

Who, exactly, is "they"?

CEO told to die in a car crash after firing engineers who had two full-time jobs

Actually, I disagree. If a company is willing to pay people to pretend to work for them, that's their decision. No reason to call it fraud.

I think the issue is honesty. If the perps had told their employers - both of them - what they were doing, there'd be no issue. But hiding it is a no-no.

I don't like Elon Musk any more than any other sane person, but at least he's upfront about his divided workload and attention.

Artist formerly known as Kanye reveals Parler trick: Buying the far-right haven

Re: The brown plague is coming back.

Indeed, the hijacking of the "conservative" label by the fucking evil radicals, who wouldn't know "conservatism" if it shat on their lawn, who are currently identified with it is indeed one of the worst things about this political moment.

Mind you, the identification of "liberalism" with big-government social engineering projects is just as bad.

I can't help but wonder what the real liberals and conservatives are doing these days.

Re: Will he split the users?

They'll love it. It's conclusive proof that they're not racist or otherwise unreasonable at all.

China dumps dud chips on Russia, Moscow media moans

Re: Russian SMO

I don't even speak Russian, but it took me less than two minutes to find this source.

As for the UN charter, I really suggest reading it before trying to cite it.

Meta mad as hell over allegations it let Indian politicians block content

Re: Credibiity

There is no excuse for taking anyone's word for it. "Evidence", by definition, is something you can look at.

Question for MetaFace: if you did give a politician the keys to "moderate" content on your platform, how would we the public know about it? Would you undertake to publish the names of everyone who has that power?

Weird robot breaks down in middle of House of Lords hearing on AI art

I call shenanigans

Ai-Da's responses were recorded from a human actor, not actually generated by the robot at all.

Dead giveaway: at 1:43, "for my poetry... using neutral networks". I find it very much easier to believe in an actor saying "neutral" for "neural" than an AI doing it.

Although I suppose it is possible that it was a typo in the script that the robot is reading. But that would mean that the intonation is really very impressive.

Fujitsu and Japanese Uni propose 'endorsement layer' to make the internet trustable

Re: Oh hi there, slippery slope

The "human skill atrophy" argument has been used against every major technological advance since the alphabet. (And probably earlier, but for obvious reasons those arguments haven't been preserved.) And humans' ability is not nearly as powerful as you seem to think.

For instance, remember when the Queen allegedly died? What sources did you see report that, and what further sources did you cross check to confirm it?

Re: An endorsement layer

Believe it or not, they've thought of that. Read the article again.

China could use Digital Yuan to swerve Russia-style sanctions

Re: @Fleming: Control The Fire, Reduce Technology Flow

Then why is Russia rapidly running out of (modern) weapons?

China is a completely different problem. They have taken a different approach from Russia, integrating themselves with the world economy rather than shutting themselves off from it, and as a result their high-tech industry and development are already world class. True that they're not up to snuff on some types of electronic warfare, but in some types of armaments they have already overtaken the USA. It's no longer a matter of copying to catch up.

The flip side of integration into the world economy is that they're much more vulnerable to sanctions (which is what the "digital yuan" fuss is about - it's one of many necessary-but-not-sufficient pieces that would need to be in place).

And as Ukraine is demonstrating, wars are much easier to start than to end. Putin hoped his army could quickly overrun token opposition and install a pro-Russian government, as has happened before (maybe he forgot its recent experience in Chechnya, or thought it didn't apply for some reason). Then it would become just a matter of waiting for the west to relax its sanctions out of sheer boredom, which would have happened in a few years, and in the meantime Russia could get by without that trade.

But a long drawn out war - which is to say, any war in which both sides have a rich sponsor - is a contest of endurance. In the past, Russia has fought by simply throwing endless supplies of bodies at the enemy. (~1 million against Napoleon, 2 million in WW1, something like 10 million in WW2). Russia's history is a story of endurance, of winning by attrition. That requires an economy that can function more or less in isolation. It needs to keep on supplying food, fuel, bodies, clothing and arms at sufficient capacity, indefinitely. (It failed in 1917, with catastrophic results; in 1941-45 it was heavily supported by the Allies.)

We'll see soon whether the Russian economy can achieve that level of independence today. (Probably not.) But China is much more reliant on foreign trade to start with. It depends heavily on imports for food and fuel (which explains why they're currently cosying up to the Russians, who, they think, can provide both of those - although I suspect Russia's sales pitch on this subject may have been predicated on its controlling Ukraine). Cutting China's links to the world economy would be like embargoing Japan in 1940 - a move calculated to bring forward a war that TPTB had decided was inevitable sooner or later, so let's get it over with.

Note about style

I've seen half a dozen media reports about this speech now, and funny thing... all of them are couched in the future tense. Fleming "will say" stuff...

Is it only me, or is this stupid and distracting?

I know what happens: the text of the lecture/speech gets distributed to media ahead of the event, and since it's not embargoed, it gets published before it's actually delivered (so the audience has probably already seen the highlights by the time they hear it). And it's possible he might go off script and the quotes won't be exact. But couldn't you just say "the text of a lecture to be delivered", or "the speech handed out to media in advance"?

If someone weaponizes our robots, we'll be really, really sad, says Boston Dynamics

How would that help? It's a lot of work to reproduce what we've already got.

It won't start with weapons...

First, the military will want robots to, e.g., clear mines and defuse bombs and secure hazardous environments. Good, humanitarian applications we can all get behind.

Then they'll be drafted into reconnaissance and spying roles. At this point they'll probably have an explosive charge embedded so that they can self-destruct if captured and autopsied.

By this time the military will know enough about them to make modifications without the manufacturer's support. Before long they'll be on sentry duty, if not actually carrying guns then certainly connected to the controls of a nearby turret.

When you're in a war, not using your best resources is just stupid.

Foreign spies hijacking US mid-terms? FBI, CISA are cool as cucumbers about it

*A bunch of very wealthy people" supported both sides. That's how elections work in the US. It's incredibly unfair and buttock-clenchingly ugly, but no one has yet come up with a better way.

It differs from the Russian campaign in 2016 in all sorts of ways: it was homegrown (conceived and run by Americans), authentic (people participated openly using their own names or identities), sincere (they wanted to make the USA a better place), voluntary (only a handful of staffers were paid, the great majority simply acted out of patriotism). The Russian intervention in 2016 was none of these things.

Yes, the US elections system is a thing of horror. There are various ways it could be reformed, but "reform" meets stiff opposition for the same reason it always does: because there is a whole class of people who have learned to do very well out of the status quo, and any serious reform would threaten all their livelihoods.

A campaign to change election processes by updating outmoded laws, sure. A campaign to organise protests if the other side stole the election - which, let's remember, they absolutely did try to do - what's wrong with that? If, say, Michigan or Wisconsin had decided to overrule their own voters and throw their votes the other way - and again, this is more than just a hypothetical, this is something that both sides seriously thought could happen - then street protests would have been very much in order.

And please point me to where it talks about paying off state officials, I seem to have missed that.

Thank you for that link, that was interesting.

Just one question: how can you possibly read it as 'hijacking' the election? It describes a perfectly normal, completely legitimate campaign to make sure that the election wasn't hijacked.

Trump lost. In fact, in four short years, Trump lost the House (twice), the Senate and the White House, making him one of the biggest losers in American political history. Worse than Warren Harding or Herbert Hoover. Almost as bad as Buchanan.

So much losing.

Er, Musk's trial hasn't stopped, no matter what he told Twitter, says judge

Re: Is this just a stupid ploy to try to get out?

Because Trump knows, it doesn't matter who (thinks they) "owns" the money. All that matters is, whose greasy fist is currently clutching on to it.

Block this: Using satellites to plaster ads over our skies could work, say boffins

Re: What do you mean, "It's been done?"

The difficulty with that is, the Moon is a lot bigger than it looks. And we're used to seeing it lit up by the Sun. It would take an absolute metric fuckton of photons per nanosecond blasted at the Moon's surface, even to be visible from Earth. And then you'd realise you'd done all that for a billboard that is, in the scheme of things, pretty tiny really.

See XKCD on a related topic.

Rather than take the L, Amazon sues state that dared criticize warehouse safety

Re: Who are their lawyers?

A reasonable rule would be "this body here (some group including doctors, ergonomists, statisticians) gets to define rules according to this statutory protocol (which would specify the evidence thresholds needed, notice to be provided of changes etc.), and those rules are what will be audited."

Alternatively, the company could be required to show that they had taken advice from such an expert agency and had tailored the environment according to it. In which case, the burden of compliance moves to the agency that made the review.

Re: Who are their lawyers?

I hate to side with Amazon, but it sounds like they do have a point. If you're being fined for breaking a rule, surely the least you're entitled to is a specific citation of which rule you're breaking. How else can you be sure not to break it again?

So the penalty is imposed by a state regulator, which is fair enough. But there's no meaningful way to appeal it. That does seem kinda unreasonable.

I know, Amazon... But we need to see due process observed, even for the devil. Otherwise, what chance will we have, when it's our turn?

DoJ ‘very disappointed’ with probation sentence for Capital One hacker Paige Thompson

Well, that kinda raises all sorts of philosophical questions. What is justice, and what, ultimately, is the point of it? How does it relate to courts and the penal system? What exactly is the judge's role, and who are we to second guess their decision?

If you really want to get into that, this probably isn't the right forum for it.

Re: Whose fault is it?

Well, the company certainly has something to answer for, but it's still the fault of the hacker.

If I leave my front door unlocked, that doesn't make it OK for you to come in and rob the place.

BlackCat malware lashes out at US defense IT contractor

Re: the list is exhaustive

Huh? Visited links still clearly different over here.

Re: Secrets Managers

Not the form, but on the specific fields containing "sensitive data".

I'm sure everyone in the world who maintains any kind of Web form is even now stuck in a furious cycle of meetings and legal advice to determine which fields are "sensitive".

Yup. 'Cuz they've none of them got anything better to do.

Bank of England puts cloud analytics on todo list after seeing off market collapse

Seems to me

Until last week, the BoE didn't realise it needed this sort of resource, because it probably assumed a British government would talk to it before issuing a budget.

It's a lesson to us all, about assumptions...

How CIA betrayed informants with shoddy front websites built for covert comms

Re: "Investigative research group Bellingcat"

I took the trouble of reading those links.

Well for you that you posted anon, or I'd be billing you for wasting my time.

Sure, Bellingcat has links to the "security establishment". Of course it does. Anyone with a functional brain knows that. But if you don't know the difference between "independent" and "completely isolated", you should maybe learn.

Re: This Smells Like

Right. And because it's all Classified, the only person who's cleared to know what's actually going on - is either totally unqualified to run a Web design project, or criminally overworked having to run 40 of them at once.

OK, Google: Why are you still pointing women at fake abortion clinics?

Not a reasonable comparison. Someone seeking abortion advice is likely to be emotional and conflicted, and may well be receptive to a well aimed persuasion attempt. That's why the ads are there.

The issue is that the ads, which are specifically designed for the service they are offering, which is perfectly legit as far as it goes, are purposely disguised as something quite different.

(Cue downvotes because this is a binary shouting match and there's no room for finesse or accuracy, but I think it's worth trying to good arguments rather than just any argument.)

Re: re: It what way is the advice misleading?

Not so much misleading as just straight up lying.

If the subject were anything else, the ad would be banned and the people who posted it would be prosecuted for false advertising.

OK, I'll feed it...

The word "rights" only comes up when people are, or fear, being deliberately coerced into, or out of, something. The fact that it's never used to describe fertility treatments means that nobody, in your country at least, fears being coerced out of those.

HTH, HAND.

UK, US slip down World Digital Competitiveness Ranking

I did follow the link before posting. All I see is some waffle about "54 criteria" and an "executive opinion survey".

Lots more detail needed, please.

So... How, exactly, does anyone assess a country's performance on these criteria? Who is doing the judging, and based on what?

Not saying I don't believe it, or that I could do better. Just that without this sort of information, it's hard to know what to make of it.

Uncle Sam to unmask anonymous writers using AI

Re: If you want to analyse my messaging, there's a tiny problem for you to overcome first.....

Don't be ridiculous, hamsters don't even have hooves.

Re: WRITE IN ALL CAPS

Yes, that'll help you blend in with the crowd.

Any more suggestions up your buttocks?

Well, you've just challenged it, and not anonymously. I assume the FBI could identify you if they wanted to.

Let us know how you get on with them.

Not really. Real whistle-blowers like Snowden don't do their own writing, they make public the work of others. There's no point fingerprinting what they leak, because the author isn't the person who leaked it.

The web's cruising at 13 million new and nefarious domain names a month

Re: Their fault

Only if they actually get paid.

How many registrars actually demand the money up front and non refundable, before granting the domain? Keep in mind that it only has to be live for a few days, at most.

UN's ITU election may spell the end of our open internet

Who's paying the piper?

Somewhere, there must be a handful of routing tables that basically make the Internet work. And there must be servers on which those (master) tables are hosted.

Who, specifically, owns those servers? Because that body, whoever it is, surely has the ultimate veto to any changes they don't like.