Posts by Jedit

Musk tells advertisers to 'go f**k' themselves as $44B X gamble spirals into chaos

"the possible consequences of not doing"

It depends on how Disney's lawyers feel about the possible consequences for Twitter if Musk permits someone to hijack Disney's social media profile just because Disney stopped paying him. If you're selling verified accounts, then you need to actually do some verification to justify the fee. If Disney can turn around and say "you knew that person who requested a gold tick claiming to be Disney couldn't be us because you told us not to do business with you and we complied", then that opens a can of worms.

Brits turn off Twitter, although teens and tweens keen on generative AI

Re: Xitter monthly users reach new high in 2023 says Elon.

Hell, Johnson's not even drinking beer.

Game over for ByteDance's big video game studio dream?

This explains a lot

Marvel SNAP is a very good game, but it's been suffering from what can only be described as "drastically increased levels of greed". For example, on the day of the announcement that Nuverse was being shuttered a bundle that had been datamined as costing $5 was released costing $20 - with a larger amount of IGC and slightly better value overall in those terms, mind you, but a lot of players were upset by this as they were looking forward to dropping a few extra bucks on their favourite lavatory pastime and didn't want to spend more. And the 100% bonus offer on your next purchase of each IGC package that is available on Android, Steam and iOS is not available in the Nuverse shop. This was a great surprise - the Nuverse shop is very popular with players in the know because when you buy direct you're not charged the hefty vendor fees incurred when buying through the app, and all the money goes straight to the company.

I'll leave it to the imagination as to whether Second Dinner/Nuverse were trying to scramble up enough cash to look viable to ByteDance - $100m gross a year isn't small change, but it pales in comparison to full gachas like Genshin Impact and Monopoly Go - or to screw out a few extra dollars before the lights go out. Either way, though, it doesn't instil confidence in the game's future. Even if it finds a new publisher, that publisher is unlikely to be less greedy as they'll be aiming to recoup their purchase price as well as maintain the existing profit margins.

DevTernity conference collapses amid claims women speakers were faked

"Anna Boyko, purportedly a staff engineer at Coinbase"

Incredible. Not even the staff at crypto mills are real?

Leader of pro-Russia DDoS crew Killnet 'unmasked' by Russian state media

Killmilk

It's a bit odd that after Russian media outed his identity, El Reg didn't include it directly in the article. Only a bit odd, though; after all, the person named may not actually be Killmilk and may even be someone with whom the Russian state has an axe to grind. So on the whole, props to El Reg for not disseminating the rumours.

But it still feels a bit odd.

Singapore to deter crypto investors with tactics like those used on smokers, gamblers

"tactics like those used on smokers, gamblers"

They should move straight to tactics like those they use to deter drug traffickers. Which is a significantly more honest trade, I might add.

Palantir bags £330M NHS data bonanza despite privacy fears

"It remains to be seen if that is an inconvenient truth."

Shadow Health Secretary Wes "McShitter" Streeting has stated outright that he welcomes private health care in the NHS.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/08/people-in-pain-private-hospitals-nhs

By a strange coincidence, McShitter has also received more than £140,000 in donations from private health care providers - making it his primary source of income over and above his MP's salary.

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/06/labours-love-affair-with-private-healthcare#:~:text=In%20January%202022%20and%20April,UnitedHealth%2C%20America%27s%20largest%20health%20insurer.

Starmerite Labour's position on practically every Tory policy of the last year has taken the form "These policies are harmful. We will not reverse them when we are in government. In fact, we don't think they go far enough."

Binance and CEO admit financial crimes, billions coughed up to US govt

"If we blocked US users from day 1, Binance will be not [sic] as big as we are today"

Or to put it another, more honest and factually correct way: if they'd blocked US users from day 1, they would have had far fewer suckers to fleece.

No more staff budget for UK civil service, but worry not – here's an incubator for AI

Re: Ooh ... so could we have an AI in the cabinet ?

They could call it TwatGPT.

IBM-led advertising X-odus gains steam as more flee Musk's platform

"The party called itself national socialists for a reason"

As was specifically stated by the Nazis at one point, it was so they could co-opt the existing socialist political apparatus. The NSDAP were anti-Communist and anti-union and Hitler once said he considered Marxism to be a disease. There was nothing left wing or socialist about them; the Strasserites were better described as the least right wing element of the Party, and they were stamped out because they didn't want the Party to be beholden to the elites who were supporting Hitler at the time.

SpaceX celebrates Starship launch as a success – even with the explosion

"I wish Tom continued to write and perform his little songs"

He's 95, give him a break. He also wrote far fewer songs than you think, they're just all memorable. He released them into the public domain a few years ago, so there's nothing stopping someone re-recording them.

I agree, though, that mathematicians-turned-comedians are a good thing. More of us should stand up and be counted.

"Rapid unscheduled disassembly"

SpaceX may or may not be able to produce a working rocket, but they've definitely produced my favourite euphemism of the year.

Britain proposes 'super-complaints' to help keep the internet safe

"their current leader who didn't at all come from an extremely well heeled background"

Please! Keir Starmer's father was a toolmaker.

Of course, if Starmer Senior had done us all a favour and worn a condom, none of this would be true.

Tesla Cybertruck no-resale clause vanishes faster than a Model S in Ludicrous Mode

"and listen out for a disembodied voice"

THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE MUSK MORONS!

"... the Nutcases on the roads"

I don't know about that, as where I am there don't appear to be any Tesla drivers.

However, I have a theory about why the drivers of certain types of car are always the biggest assholes on the road. They were Beemer drivers, then all of a sudden they were Audi drivers. And the change occurred at around the same time that Audis took over from BMWs as the high end company car of choice. So you have a bunch of officer-level corporate types - who are naturally predisposed to be assholes to begin with - and they're driving a generally powerful car that 1) they're not overly familiar with because they don't drive it all the time and 2) they don't personally own or have to pay the repairs for. These are all factors in making someone an inconsiderate and poor driver; they don't care about anyone else, they don't care about their car, and they don't know how to drive it properly anyway. If a company were to adopt Teslas as their executive fleet car, they'd no doubt be assholes for the same reasons.

"Go anti-woke, go broke", then?

It's always projection. And if Musk projected any more he'd have to legally change his name to IMAX.

Vote now on who should take the lead in Musk: The Movie

Re: "I'd love to see Musk trying to act, even himself"

He's the guy slobbering on Tony Stark's knob in the restaurant. Of course that was 14 years, at least one divorce and lots of fascist ego-tripping ago, so he looked like a vaguely normal human being instead of a half-melted waxwork.

"I'd love to see Musk trying to act, even himself"

Go watch Iron Man 2 then - Musk cameos as himself.

For myself, I'm making a write-in nomination for Ezra Miller.

Want a Cybertruck? You're stuck with it for a year, says Tesla

"other survivor envious of what you have"

If I were a post-apocalyptic raider and saw you own a Cybertruck, I'd know that you already wasted your valuable resources.

"He doesn't want "scalpers" selling them on at inflated prices"

I saw a video the other day of an unladen Cybertruck struggling to climb a slope - not the most shallow of inclines, to be fair, but still something that your typical 4x4 flatbed would ascend with far less effort. The bed is small for a vehicle that size, and based on photos also looks far shoddier than the promotional materials. I think it's more likely that Musk doesn't want people selling on their Cybertrucks as soon as they arrive because it will make potential buyers realise that they're a crappy product. I mean, if the fanboys don't want them then why should anyone else?

Child psychiatrist jailed after making pornographic AI deep-fakes of kids

"Just how long do they expect this guy to live"

He was in a position of authority and now he's a nonce in prison. You could have stopped with this portion of the question.

But yeah, as someone said they're dotting the Is and crossing the Ts. In the US a prisoner is eligible for parole after serving a third of their sentence with a "maximum minimum" of ten years. Unless the judge made a specific ruling that parole should be denied for a longer period Tatum could thus be released aged 51, which is hardly too old to pose a risk of recidivism. So the second half of the sentence is them saying that while he may not be confined for the rest of his life, they're never going to stop watching him.

Woman jailed after RentaHitman.com assassin turned out to be – surprise – FBI

"the sound of something flying right over your head"

It wasn't your boot, I hope. Someone may have pissed in it.

(Yes, I am aware of what the joke was. I was making a counter-joke.)

"too stupid to pour piss out of their boot"

While I appreciate the colourful metaphor: locating the instructions somewhere such that they can't be read when there is any requirement for them doesn't make the boot manufacturer sound particularly smart either.

Russia's Sandworm – not just missile strikes – to blame for Ukrainian power blackouts

"Mandiant says it can't determine Sandworm's initial means of intrusion"

Ukrainian authorities have asked a blue eyed gentleman with a drum machine to assist with their enquiries.

WhatsApp AI happily added guns to chat stickers of Palestinians, but not Israelis

"... which has been adopted in principle by Fatah and the rest of the PLO"

What policies the Palestinians have adopted don't matter. I will not defend or forgive the actions of Hamas on October 7th - they have caused and will cause nothing but pain - but a two state solution requires that both putative states agree to it and the Israelis will never do so, at least not while Netenyahu and Likud remain in power. When the reasonable option has been met not merely with disdain but with open hatred for decades, one cannot be surprised that in desperation the Palestinians have turned to the violent option. Nobody should be happy about it, though.

YouTube cares less for your privacy than its revenues

"Because the content creators aren't paying for the eyeballs."

No, but their audience will be paying through them if ScrewTube gets its way. Which it won't, not from me.

World leaders ink AI safety pacts while Musk and Sunak engage in awkward bromance

"we were promised that robotics would free us from drudgery"

Or as someone put it to me: we were told that in the future robots would do all the drudge work while we would be free to express ourselves artistically. Then we got AI and the reverse happened.

Europe bans Meta from using personal data to target ads

"People used to physically watch well over *an hour of ads per day*."

You might have. Most of us used the breaks to go to the lavatory or make a cup of tea, or talk about something else. And as soon as we got remote controls with a mute button, the sound was off during the commercials. The idea that we actually watched them is laughable.

"What the ad industry has done to the web..."

I wouldn't describe it as traffic lights. Social media is more analogous to the pub; I go there to catch up with my friends sometimes. Facebook adverts are like someone coming up to you in the pub and interrupting your conversation to try and sell you something. You tell them to fuck off, but they keep pushing their tat on you. You go to the bar to complain, but the bar staff - who in this analogy are Facebook - don't do anything as the tat seller has slipped them a few quid to ignore him. (Before anyone says anything about blocks: Facebook will continue to show you the same "sponsored" ads for weeks on end even if you block the advertiser and hide all posts from their page.)

If you are a woman you are probably already asking for Angela at this point.

Anyway: the bar staff have ignored you and this person is still aggressively harassing you, so you call the police. But the police don't do anything either, because they're also Facebook. So what can you do? Well, the realistic response is that you smash your glass on the table and grind it into the bastard's eyes, because your personal safety is jeopardised.

Oh, and you don't have "a choice between giving them all my personal preferences and seeing non-intrusive ads or being completely private and having websites FUBB as advertisers try to ram ads up my nose", because their adverts are intentionally intrusive and are rammed up your nose anyway. Your choice is between having your data sold in exchange for intrusive adverts, not having your data sold for slightly different intrusive adverts, or Option 3: stop using the platform.

Florida man jailed after draining $1M from victims in crypto SIM swap attacks

"Is crypto worth anything?"

Look, it's not as concise a headline as "Man jailed for 30 months for stealing nothing from robbery victims and selling it to another sucker".

Australian video-streamer lets users opt out of ads for burgers, booze, and betting

"Special Broadcasting Service"

Surely I can't be the only person who sees that phrase and thinks of a squad of black-garbed commandos rappelling in through your window with a TV set showing Neighbours.

UK policing minister urges doubling down on face-scanning tech

Re: LFR - RFR - FFS

Oh, it's not a sleepwalk. They know exactly where they're taking us.

Meta decides to Just Say No to Oversight Board requests and allow paid posts for ketamine

"Not sure what's with the downvote"

I'm about to disagree with you on a sensitive subject, so first let me say that you have my full sympathies and condolences for your loss. My disagreement has nothing to do with that and I sure as hell wouldn't downvote you for feeling the way you do.

I think it's your choice of where to place the blame. You're saying the clinic insisted your GF take that specific treatment and then didn't even complete the course, but you're apparently blaming the ket when it seems to me you should be blaming the clinic for not treating her properly. And you didn't say how she died, but again you're implying that it was the immediate result of taking ket rather than self-harm - although that's something of a moot point because either way it's still the fault of the clinic for not treating her properly. But despite your terrible experience ketamine therapy is a legitimate form of treatment. I have a friend who has been on the schedule for several years to treat similar mental health problems to your GF, and for her it works. It should not be dismissed out of hand because one doctor made an awful misjudgement in one case.

I agree with you completely on the general point, though. Ketamine is not a safe drug. It needs to be properly prescribed by qualified professionals and it has no business being advertised on social media. I hope Meta gets thoroughly clobbered for this.

King Charles III signs off on UK Online Safety Act, with unenforceable spying clause

"Americans [...] only have the one math."

American mathematics, like democracy, makes for some great comedy. Stand up and be counted!

BOFH: Adventures in overenthusiastic automation

"Please tell me, the mod is available for all tesla cars"

Teslas don't need special programming to find a turd every two weeks. They come equipped with one as standard.

Web Summit CEO's comments on Israeli conflict 'war crimes' sparks boycott

Re: "Nagasaki? Hiroshima? Dresden?"

Thanks, Michael. I always appreciate a correction with citations.

"Nagasaki? Hiroshima? Dresden?"

Were all war crimes. Especially the second nuke on Japan - for the first one at least there was the argument that they were trying to force Japan to surrender without an invasion of the Home Islands which would have had a far higher death toll on both sides than the mere loss of one city. The second one was used after Japan was already planning to surrender, purely to hurry them up and to show that America could destroy anyone they wanted.

As the first commenter on this article said: war crimes don't stop being war crimes just because the winner committed them. But only losers are prosecuted for them.

Martin Goetz, recipient of the first software patent, logs off at 93

"renaming him Martin Goatse isn't too much of a stretch"

If Goatse isn't too much of a stretch for you, I'd hate to find out what is.

Making the problem go away is not the same thing as fixing it

Surely the problem was obvious?

I mean, it was Mal-ware.

Want a clean energy transition? Better start putting cash into electrical grid

"Where did the last ice age go"

That's why it's referred to in more scholarly documents than the Daily Express as man-made climate change. You are correct that there's a natural cyclic process at work, but it's being accelerated and intensified by human activity.

Let me use a simple analogy. Everything dies, right? But I'll wager that if someone came at you with a knife you'd be screaming for help like a "pansy" and you'd expect to get it - and you wouldn't be unreasonable to do so. Because death is natural, and murder is not.

"Better that they trouser lots of our dosh than we be dead"

I don't know why you think that allowing massive corruption would actually get Sunak to do anything. Why would it, when the Tories can simply give massive public works contracts to their favourite party donors with no expectation that the infrastructure will be delivered? Corruption isn't about being paid over the odds to do a good job. It's about transferring maximum cash from the public purse to your own pocket. And the "best" way to do that is to take the money for a job and then not do it, because you know that rather than there being any pushback or consequences you can simply ask for more money and be given it.

Tesla goons will buy anything – including these $150 beers

"Musk looks like he hasn't rendered properly as well"

Caesar probably agrees with you.

Nvidia boss tells Israeli staff Mellanox founder's daughter was killed in festival massacre

"You should read David Baddiel’s book “Jews Don’t Count”."

Thanks, but when I want an explanation of what does and does not constitute prejudice, I'm not going to go to a man who found it acceptable to put on blackface and wear a fucking pineapple on his head.

Relevant edit: that's not to say I agree with or condone the actions of Hamas. Provoked or not, desperate or not, what they're doing is absolutely wrong and it's going to end with a lot of Palestinians being hurt or killed. But I'm sure as hell not going to side with Netenyahu as he literally declares Krystallnacht 2: Gaza Boogaloo, and neither should anyone else.

X Corp is now suing a sublessee for unpaid rent

"the "I'm not paying my bills, because you didn't pay yours" argument"

IANAL, but it might not fall flat in this specific case. Atlas's argument is that as subletters they are paying an agreed proportion of the rent that Twitter pays to the actual owner of the building. Twitter paid $0 rent, and so Atlas are paying their agreed share of that amount. If Twitter does pay its rent for the period, then Atlas will be liable to pay their share.

Real lawyers may not agree that Atlas aren't liable until Musk pays, but it does raise the happy prospect of a ruling where by demanding part payment on this unpaid debt, Musk will be put in default for the remainder and forced to pay.

Equal Employment Commission sues Tesla for racist discrimination, retaliation at Fremont plant

"... something that simply cannot be tolerated by the liberal left. Free speech."

I wonder why it is that every time the right wing and their defenders log on to complain about being de-platformed, censored or not permitted to speak their minds by "the liberal left", it always boils down to "Why can't I say the N-word?"

No, that's not true. I don't wonder why. I know why.

No, no, no! Disco joke hit bum note in the rehab center

"Urghh. Can't stand it."

You said "Urghh", but maybe you meant "Ooyah"?

"If he downloaded Hallelujah, the problems would have been much worse"

I don't think the length of the lyrics would have been half so much a problem as the multiple suicide attempts on the ward. Hallelujah is a great song, but it's not a cheery one.

Mixin suspends deposits and withdrawals after $200m cryptocurrency heist

Re: Like the monster in your closet

Are you speaking in support of crypto, then? It's not like a bro's mother ever comes into his basement.

Ukraine accuses Russian spies of hunting for war-crime info on its servers

"Perhaps they were looking for..."

Well, if they were looking for signs of you being intelligent, they were wasting their time.