* Posts by batfink

1117 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2010

UK government responds to post-Brexit concerns and of course it's all the fault of those pesky EU negotiators

batfink

Re: .....but in the "sunny uplands" this sort of c**k up never happens, does it?

Ah there you are again with the false assertion that the vaccine rollout had anything to do with Brexit.

Reminder: it happened while we were still in the EU. The Uk used its right to do its own thing as allowed under the EU regs.

Nothing to do with Brexit, however much you wish to claim it did.

So we can derive from your need to use this false assertion that you're still unable to name a single benefit then.

Infosec big dogs break out the bubbly over UK government's latest cyber strategy emission

batfink

Pardon?

" the whole of British state-owned IT infrastructure "being resilient to known vulnerabilities and attack methods" in eight years"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....

Japan solves 5G airliner conundrum: Keep mobe masts 200m from airport approach paths. That's it

batfink

Re: Protectionism ?

You'd think that the older aircraft would be more likely to have the problem, but Boeing have issued a safety warning about the 777 being affected.

UK government backs away from proposals to remove individuals' rights to challenge AI decision making

batfink

But, but...

But, but removing those pesky protections was openly advertised as a "benefit" of Brexit! So why are these horrible ICO people and their cronies standing against the Will Of The People?

Tesla driver charged with vehicular manslaughter after deadly Autopilot crash

batfink

Re: It would make Musk even more of a liar

Er, me?

batfink

It's alright. The bugs are all in the backlog and will be fixed in forthcoming sprints.

What do you mean "fixed before release"? That's not how development works in the brave new world!

Tesla Full Self-Driving videos prompt California's DMV to rethink policy on accidents

batfink

Re: As ever, fully autonomous cars

I disagree. The problem does exist: it's that meatbags driving means a high casualty rate (particularly in the US for some reason). I'm sure we've all had to dodge fuckwits on the road who frankly shouldn't be allowed to drive.

However, solving this problem by using "autonomous" cars still has a long way to go.

Still, it doesn't have to be perfect - just better than humans.

US-China chip cold war? It's only helping the Middle Kingdom, silicon makers warn

batfink

It's always nice when amanfrommars1 makes more sense than another poster...

Scam, pyramid scheme, environmental disaster: Vivaldi boss shares his thoughts on crypto-coins

batfink

Re: Wall Street?

The use of blockchain doesn't seem to have prevented many of the crypto exchange operators simply buggering off with their clients' money.

50 US airports to be surrounded by 5G C-band-free zones

batfink

Re: Cheap land for sale, buy now!

damn - beat me to it...

GCHQ was rebuked for ignoring spy law safeguards as pandemic hit Britain

batfink

Re: Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Yes I know, but thanks anyway - it's probably good to have the actual translation for those who might not.

batfink

Re: Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Is that "Who keeps The Guardian"?

Worst of CES Awards: The least private, least secure, least repairable, and least sustainable

batfink

Swapping plain switches for dimmers is relatively easy to DIY. If you're planning on using LED bulbs, then you also need to think about having enough resistance (ie wattage) on the circuit. You would also need to select your LED bulbs carefully as it's easy to end up with nasty flickering.

Plenty of youtube help available.

But please don't electrify yourself by accident.

Hauliers report problems with post-Brexit customs system but HMRC insists it is 'online and working as planned'

batfink

Re: Hmm

Ah still not getting it I see.

So the only reason we ran our own procurement was because of Brexit? Otherwise we would have done the same as the rest? Really? Based on what evidence?

Keep grasping.

batfink

Re: Hmm

Nice avoidance of the point.

The UK ran its own vaccination program, as it was perfectly entitled to under EU rules. The UK ran this program while still an EU member. What the rest of the European countries did is completely irrelevant. This had zero to do with Brexit.

And yes, trying to conflate this somehow as a benefit of Brexit still is the last grasp of the Brexiters.

Fugitive mafioso evaded cops for two decades until he was spotted on Google Street View

batfink

Thanks for the clarification Filippo. My natural scepticism came to the surface when I heard that the Italian coppers had randomly spotted a villain in a smallish town in another country.

The only other alternative I could think of is that maybe law enforcement gets access to non-blurred faces and can do image searches.

New submarine cable to link Japan, Europe, through famed Northwest Passage

batfink

Yes - Nordstream seems to be a logical response to having one of the main existing traffic routes - through Ukraine - now traversing hostile territory. So, the traffic has been routed around the problem.

This causes a big problem for Ukraine,as the transit payments of a few $Bn per year look like they're going to stop in 2024. That is going to put a big hole in the local corruption gravy train. Ergo, Ukraine is currently kicking up as big a stink as possible to stop it.

The frankly hysterical reaction of the US to Nordstream 2 (Threatening to individually sanction the mayor of the German town where it comes ashore? WTF?) makes me think that some important people there must also be hit in the pocket by the impending cutoff.

batfink

Yes - filthy Russkies. They're the only ones tapping cables. Clearly.

Cryptocurrency 'rug pulls' cheated investors out of $8bn in 2021 – report

batfink

Remember that journalists, by and large, studied non-techo subjects at school/university, so can be largely deficient in knowledge in the hard sciences.

They are notorious for being bad at numbers, which is why politicians (usually equally as bad with numbers) keep getting away with simple bollocks like quoting gross expenditure to hide actual reductions.

Examples:

Politician: "We've increased spending on education this year to £XXBn!!!!"

Numerate person: "Er, there are more students this year. Doesn't that mean that you're spending £YY less per student then?"

Politician: "We're increasing police funding by 10% this year!!!"

Numerate person: "Er, didn't you cut it by 30% last year? So this is now 10% of the reduced figure?"

batfink

Re: the stash

It's the Greater Fool theory again, which has been understood in financial circles forever.

Art trading is a good example, but at least with a work of art you could hang it on the wall. Unless it's an NFT of course.

China lists 100 topics citizens can't include in online vids

batfink

Fig Leaves are out huh

So are other forms of leaves to cover one's naughty bits acceptable then? What's China's national tree?

RAF shoots down 'terrorist drone' over US-owned special ops base in Syria

batfink

Technically fantastic but...

From a technical point of view, hitting a "small" drone (newspaper reports vary on what it actually was) with a small heat and radar signature with an AAM is a great feat, and full marks to MBDA.

However I fear that the terrorists are winning the economic argument here. £200,000 for the missile vs how much for a small drone?

I understand that the Saudis are also having a lot of success shootting down Houthi drones with AMRAAMs, which are even more expensive. The latest batch they purchased work out around $2.3M each. Ouch.

US Commerce Dept says China has brain-control weaponry

batfink

It's a conspiracy!

It's obvious. This report is a conspiracy theory put about by tinfoil manufacturers.

Sun sets on superjumbo: Last Airbus A380 rolls off the production line

batfink

A380 for long haul every time

I fly between UK and Australia regularly (at least in normal times). Always cattle-class, as the cost of Business Class is roughly the cost of the entire rest of the trip.

Nowadays I'll only fly emirates, as I can specify A380's the whole way. Nothing else compares for comfort on that trip. Well, not at a reasonable price, anyway.

batfink

Re: Knock-on effects

That'll be a good plan once the smaller planes have enough range and are economic and comfortable enough for proper long-haul.

Yes flying direct between small regional airfields is great. I spent some time happily shuttling between LCY and Eindhoven, which was brilliant at both ends.

However, my usual flights between the UK and Australia have quite different requirements.

As CISA tells US govt agencies to squash Log4j bug by Dec 24, fingers start pointing at China, Iran, others

batfink

Them and everyone else

Why is it that I find it hard to believe it's only the TLAs of Russia, China and Turkey actively exploiting this?

If the others aren't, then they're falling down on their jobs.

Samsung gets 2-year contract extensions to provide rugged handsets for UK's troubled Emergency Services Network

batfink

Re: Hope I never have an emergency.....

Well you're completely fucked if you're in the 15% of the country not covered by the new system.

£42k for a top-class software engineer? It's no wonder uni research teams can't recruit

batfink

Re: IT person

Serves him right for trying to use a scalpel to open it.

HCL accused of wage theft, underpaying H-1B workers by at least $95m a year

batfink

There is no shortage of skilled labour

There is only a shortage of people who want to work for the wages on offer.

Ransomwared payroll provider leaks data on 38,000 Australian government workers

batfink

The usual bollocks

How many times have we heard "There's no evidence that sensitive data was stolen or disseminated"? They're the standard weasel words from hacked companies.

T-Mobile US figuring out international roaming on 5G

batfink

Re: So the challenge is?

Plus the basic problem: the 5G rollout is costing the telcos plies of money which will need to be recouped. The question then becomes how best to do that.

Chinese paper runs interview with Alibaba staffer who claims she was fired after exec rape claim

batfink

Re: What I'm shocked about..

Hmm. Maybe the difference we're seeing is that the perp was an Alibaba manager and wasn't a party apparatchik. I strongly doubt any accusations against the latter would make it into the papers there.

More than half of UK workers would consider jumping ship if a hybrid work option were withdrawn by their company

batfink

Re: No loyalty

Even the John Lewis Partnership outsourced its IT functions recently. Those IT "partners" were of course TUPEd across. Nice to know that even the mutuals don't think of us as loyal servants.

batfink

IMO those managers who insist on being able to micromanage people are those who would skive off themselves given half a chance, so they assume everyone else is the same.

batfink

Due to my mixture of permie and contract work over the years, my CV wouold be one of those that would show "no company loyalty". However, I consider that I've been much more loyal to the companies I've worked for than they have to me.

It works both ways.

batfink

Agreed in general ElSergio, but (in the UK at least) unless they've been sent to the right schools and daddy has had a word in the right ears, young people won't ever see those company high-flyers. All that happens on the top floor, where access is forbidden to the plebs. They won't even share the same lift with the gods.

Shocking: UK electricity tariffs are among world's most expensive

batfink

"Nationalisation leads to under investment" - no, that would be a government decision to underfund it. Most likely so they can sell it off to their mates at a knockdown price.

This pattern of deliberate underfunding => crap service => privatisation has been around for decades. Already coming to an NHS near you.

Foreign Office IT chaos: Shocking testimony reveals poor tech support hindered Afghan evac attempts

batfink

Re: It boils down to your way of running things

I was part of the Opening Ceremony crew for the Olympics, so had a great deal of direct experience with G4S and the Armed Forces doing the same job of security. G4S were a shambles - they looked untrained and uninterested, and seemed to spend their time milling about. When the Forces took over they demonstrated how you could do security (including thorough frisking of people) efficiently, effectively and with good humour.

They should have been doing it from the start, rahter than outsourcing it. However that would have prevented out Glorious Leaders from shovelling money to their favourite private firms.

Thought NHS Digital's wind-down meant it would stop writing cheques? Silly you. It's gone on an IT buying spree

batfink

£56M for "transition"?

That's a nice wodge of money to make sure stuff still happens while the name change from "NHS Digitial" to "Digital NHS" is going on.

Texas' anti-moderation social network law blocked by judge

batfink

Re: "sound remarkably self-serving"

Yes I noticed the careful wording. So he thinks it's going to be ok to silence non-conservative viewpoints then?

BadgerDAO DeFi defunded as hackers apparently nab millions in crypto tokens

batfink

No it's just the Greater Fool Theory at work, which has been known about in Finance circles since God was a boy.

When you think of a unit of length, do you think of Antony Gormley's rusty anatomy?

batfink

Re: Angel of the North, Rusty? not really...

There are lots of other ferrous metals that form a "stable rust-like appearance" after a few years, without the added expense of developing special steels. My barbeque has been doing that for a while.

Two Chinese companies leave US: China Telecom told it can't stay, DiDi gets out of Dodge

batfink

"National security concerns"

ie "not doing what you're told".

What a bunch of bricks: Crooks knock hole in toyshop wall, flee with €35k Lego haul

batfink
IT Angle

IT Angle?

I'm struggling to find the IT Angle here. Did the villains perhaps use some kind of fancy printer to change the "$" symbol on their swag sacks to "Bricks" or something? 3D-printed masks?

Pension cold-calling financial services biz cops largest ever fine from UK data watchdog

batfink

Re: Madness

and when do they charge the maximum fine then?

UK intel chief says MI6 must outsource innovation – and James Bond's in-house 'Q' is nonsense

batfink

Re: Interesting

Meh - he's just getting his great enemies du jour mixed up. It is hard to keep track. you know.

Samsung wheels out new silicon that turns cars into 5G-fuelled entertainment hubs

batfink

Re: So now tracking becomes compulsory

Yes it looks like we're heading for Chinese-style pervasive surveillance, without the general public being informed or asked for consent.

However in the immediate future I'm more worried that this will be used for taxation purposes. If we all start using leccy vehicles in the UK, our glorious government will miss out on approximately £30Bn per year in fuel taxes. So, this will have to be replaced somehow, as I'm sure they're not going to happily forgo £30Bn in the name of greening the world. This money will have to come from somewhere. Putting up the leccy charges generally won't be popular. So, this'll be some kind of mileage charge, and how will that be tracked...?

Australia will force social networks to identify trolls, so they can be sued for defamation

batfink

So there are no fake accounts on FB? That's a relief.

batfink

Re: Scott Morrison, Australia’s leading political troll

The latest I hear from my Oz contacts is that apparently China is about to declare war on them. It must be true, it's in the papers and Sixty Minutes said so as well.

Nothing to do with scaremongering in advance of the election then...

Nuclear fusion firm Pulsar fires up a UK-built hybrid rocket engine

batfink

Damn

Does this mean the street price of nos will go up?