Posts by Brian 3

The Smoot – How an MIT prank became a lasting unit of measurement

Re: Respect

It does seem very american to celebrate some graffiti and the public demonstration of how it's OK for some people, and not for others... These guys should have at least had to clean it up, but instead are celebrated.

Ousted US copyright chief argues Trump did not have power to remove her

Don't forget that day 2 consisted of attempting to nullify part of the constitution. Not that it was in effect before the election either apparently, or he'd not have made it on any ballot. Also don't forget it's a country that has never acknowledged it's civil war. Congress only mentions "the troubles in the south". A country that does it's level best to not hold those responsible to accounts. Even after WW2 they allowed the nuremburg defense and hid it from the public so they could not be held accountable. I've never voted, because there is no democracy here.

Musk's antics and distractions are backfiring as Tesla's car business stalls

Also how about those motor bearings? They don't sell those either, only a complete motor/transaxle! A friend of mine has one and it needs some roller bearings replaced... too bad you can't buy them!

AI agents get office tasks wrong around 70% of the time, and a lot of them aren't AI at all

This was 100% covered in episodes, too - for ex the "hot" definition defaults to a preset standard I think 63C or something but each crew can set it as they like. IIRC Picard has his set a bit hotter?

ICANN waves hands in protest at AFRINIC election arrangement

ICANN of all orgs complaining about conflict of interests?!?! I remember HUGE conflicts of interests with them a number of times. If they think it's wrong why don't they return all their wages and admit their wrongs to a judge????

Assassin's Creed maker faces GDPR complaint for forcing single-player gamers online

Re: Alternative

whoa whoa whoa! They absolutely should not get out of the fine simply by becoming compliant with the law! The fine is for the infractions. Maybe they should get out of being barred from selling products in the EU by becoming compliant and paying for third party oversight? Why are you so forgiving of corporate malfeasance? The execs should each get a kick in the junk, too, preferably by an angry kickboxer..

Re: Alternative

Ubisoft are evil, they will never get my money again. When I paid for AC: unity, logging into the steam acct I purchased with was good enough. My dual core CPU however, was not enough. So a year later when I dropped in a 4-core chip, now they required my to make a "uplay" account AND install the uplay client spyware in order to start the game... as long as I was online and their servers graced me with permission. So I looked for a crack... nope, nothing (at least at the time). Even the scene release of the original version refused to run without updating....

Re: Sorry, I don't care

You say you have no personal data on the PS5? So Sony aren't requiring you to extensively register a "PlayStation Account" in order to use it, like they did on the PS4?

Meanwhile, in Japan, train stations are being 3D-printed in an afternoon

Re: Erm, but why?

Also, it IS steel reinforced concrete, so how can they claim it costs half as much as building it out of ... steel reinforced concrete? They used half as much?

The passive aggression of connecting USB to PS/2

Re: *!$#&@ Bluetooth

No! I've seen at least a dozen PS/2 ports blown out from connecting a KB while the system is on. I'll sure as hell never do that again.

Trump fires Democrat FTC commissioners, presaging big tech policy shifts

Re: Defending Bad Businesses

Trump has already brought slavery back for rape victims at least in some states

This one weird trick can make online publishing faster, safer, more attractive, and richer

Re: How much?

morally, how can you give them money? patreon are such pieces of shit. last time I doled out to them, was for plain text and it took a full minute to load each page. even the post listings took that kind of time! the only thing they can have from me is scorn. they took my money, and couldn't even puke up text in a timely fashion? it doesn't matter if it was 2010 or 2015, that's a complete crock of shit and they should be torn cable from cable for it. also they take like 20% of the total. for doing, well, basically nothing. even geoshitties wasn't that slow for plain text pages... even on dialup

it's amazing the kind of thing people think is worth rewarding these days

City council rejects inquiry into £130M Oracle IT disaster

Re: Heads should roll

yeah but you need to consider: what would be the consequences if this was a private org? this would be called a crime. adopting a system you KNOW does not work, and can't be audited?

Developer sabotaged ex-employer with kill switch activated when he was let go

Re: Not a very bright boy...

they're actually only sensitive to being done by their own, outsiders get paid handsomely for successful operations

Acer signals 10% laptop price hike in US, blames Trump's extra China tariff

wait til the farmers go bust

Sweden seizes cargo ship after another undersea cable hit in suspected sabotage

Re: Brown trouser time

There are only war crimes during official times of war... what you're describing would be a training accident, most likely

Re: You know, bad weather can sink bad ships

Right? and if you want to just wantonly blow them up.. I bet the second one you do is full of the worst toxic waste and maybe even radioactive waste. That will be next anyways I assume; not only do you ditch the more expensive to scrap than build ship.. you can get rid of some bad shit and really snowball that cost for the scandinavians.

Court rules FISA Section 702 surveillance of US resident was unconstitutional

Re: OMFG This has taken soooo long

we need to sunset every person who voted for them as well, and every person who kept approving them

we need it to be a criminal act to abrogate the constitution as well as criminalizing attempting to pass unconstitutional legislation - retroactive

it would take the unachieved yet petition method to do so, IMO

Donald Trump proposes US govt acquire half of TikTok, which thanks him and restores service

Re: This is ...

the president is the "Executive" branch. They "enforce" the law. If he tells them, work on other things first, what do you think they have to do?

Now Trump's import tariffs could raise the cost of a laptop for Americans by 68%

Re: Replacing Imports

Farming won't decrease after the farmers go bust, because the Chinese will buy the farmland like they have been doing.

Amazon worker – struck and shot in New Orleans terror attack – initially denied time off

Re: Or

Yeah if the bullet fragmented when it bone then she might be SOL. My friend got shot by a .25 here in winnipeg, guy came up to him walking down the sidewalk, held up his piece and said 'gimme a dollar' which my friend had no cash on him. So he got shot in the shoulder, where a bunch of shrapnel remains. Police never even looked for the assailant.

British Army zaps drones out of the sky with laser trucks

Re: EV tanks and aircraft

EVs can run with a much lower temperature profile, whereas diesel and turbine tanks are obvious from miles away on thermal cameras... even the exhaust is often visible on thermal because of all the soot.

With Gelsinger gone, to fab or not to fab is the $7B question

Re: Actual work is too difficult and expensive

Aren't they the ones who were clever enough to lease excess bouyancy from the titanic?

Alibaba exec trashes his own staff and customers, quickly apologizes

Re: The cream always rises to the top

There's an even bigger problem that companies are considered effectively led when employees have no quality of life and perhaps are even committing suicide as the only way out.... but the organization is generating "profit".

Intel sued over Raptor Lake voltage instability

Re: First world problems

More like if it's not implemented right, you won't be able to even unplug a drive with the system OFF without losing the set.

Woman stuck upside down under rock for hours after trying to retrieve dropped phone

Re: Gen Z

Average size 5? Did you consult with Jen? Were the shoes perhaps red?

Post Office CTO had 'nagging doubts' about Horizon system despite reliability assurances

Re: Criminality.

Yes but on a smaller(we would hope) scale, this is just BUSINESS AS USUAL for 'justice'. It is no less wrong when one individual is stuffed up by dirty LEOs and judicials.

Tesla's big reveal: Steering-wheel-free Robotaxi will charge wirelessly

Re: “The Robovan is what’s gonna solve for high density,” Musk said.

But they get to sit on that prime real estate at parking lot tax rates.

FBI claims corrupt LA cops helped crypto CEO's cash grab

And we also noticed how the sheriffs were laid off, not arrested or charged. Just Business As Usual down at the Cop Shop.

Satellite phones are coming, but users not happy to pay much extra for the capability

Isn't the big money in cell infra the land leases for towers?

SpaceX faces $663K FAA fine for Musk's alleged launch impatience

It's more like they seem to ENFORCE them for the fun of it. As in, when it's convenient for them to do so, or when the target is a plebian. Same like the FBI, ATF and the rest of the federal agencies, including the FTC. Look at how the country has become utterly lawless for corporations - they just do as they please and settle years after for a % of the profits, no admission of guilt! And when shit hits the fan, golden parachutes for all the villains while the large mutual funds of our money are gutted of value.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be gone in ten years – for chump change

Re: Recurrence

The trick is, you don't want your property to be worth more, unless you are about to sell it, right? You clean it up, it's worth more, they charge you more tax.

Re: Recurrence

Not fines. Littering pickup community service. You wouldn't spend more than a weekend of that before you put away your things properly

Pat Gelsinger's grand plan to reinvent Intel is in jeopardy

I remember intel spending most of the 90s playing stupid monopolist games and giving huge discounts to shops that would exclusively sell intel chips. Like 20-40% off wholesale, when margins on tech were 10-15%! They were literally given a new lease on life with the "core" aka revamped pentium 3 architecture after the P4's cosmetics finally wore off and you could see what a pig it was.

SpaceX grounded after fumbling Falcon 9 landing for first time in years

Re: Refreshing Comments On The Register

He Who Must Not Be Memed

Woman uses AirTags to nab alleged parcel-pinching scum

Re: "police declined to pursue the matter"

Yeah we got a huge rash of that a couple years ago during the shortage... the insurance company (govt run) arbitrarily decided not to honor insurance on these thefts.

Feds, US states sue RealPage for building rent-hiking software for landlords

Re: landlords are colluding to raise prices by using software developed by RealPage

Price fixing CAN result in (temporary) lower prices - say if several smaller players want to take out the big dog in the industry, for instance in a situation where the dominant company has taken some sort of financial hit or disaster. Hit em while they're down and feast on the bones.

Shots fired as AT&T and Verizon ask FCC to block Starlink's direct-to-cell plans

Re: Stupid Question Time !!!

I'm pretty sure the waiver is only valid if the restrictions are followed ANYWAYS, this is another, "don't let them do it b/c maybe it won't work and might affect us" as if the waiver is a license to do whatever the hell without consequences. Also, a negative can't be strictly proven like you suggest but I can imagine at least some testing has already occurred. The proof is in the pudding anyways, I should think AT&T et al would have to prove the harmful interference / excessive emissions in practice. As well as proving the SOURCE of the emissions is from the spacex SCS

Texas sues GM for selling driver data to analytics, insurance companies

Don't worry, it's not "done" yet - they have PLENTY of chances to drop the ball and then fumble it into the other goal... six or seven times.

I heartily DISAGREE with this. Is your driving data worth to you only what GM was willing to sell it for in bulk? I don't think so. Compensation needs to be appropriate to the crime here.

NASA pushes back missions to the ISS to buy time for Starliner analysis

Re: Really?

I'd just like to point out, NASA let this thing fly KNOWING there were issues. NASA cannot afford another disaster, but they seem inclined to court it.

Google paying to be default search on phones is totally against antitrust law, judge rules

Re: Quote

And yet it's beyond obvious that the search engine could in fact be a selection box upon the initial setup of the device. A selection, with no particular default at all.

BMC's $1.6B victory over IBM is TKO on appeal

Re: Resource Actioned

That's Texas for you. They really like to talk themselves up as heroes while they rob you and shoot your horse.

GM shared our driving data with insurers without consent, lawsuit claims

What, you don't want to take out a 10 year loan to buy a new car that will only last 5-7 years before it needs a new engine, transmission, headlight computer or maybe taillight computer, whatever? Some of the tail lights come with the 'module' for the rear park assist or radar units attached, only sold as one piece, married to the vehicle when installed, good thing they are only like $1300 each right?

We never agreed to only buy HP ink, say printer owners

I had an ecotank, if you don't use it enough it will dry up inside, in spite of the printer automatically running cleaning cycles every day (which wastes a ton of ink)/

Uber Eats to rid itself of pesky human drivers with food delivery by robo Waymo

Does the restaraunt get paid for now having to load the order into the vehicle outside? I don't see this being popular with them at all. Or with disabled people who can't come out to the street.

No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

Re: USA Free Market

Your mistake is in believing the marketing bumpf is somehow indicative of actual motivation or goals.

White House goes to court, not Congress, to renew warrantless spy powers

Re: I thought it was just the communists & dictators who spied on their citizens & distrusted them

I'd like to add criminal charges for every single congressperson who voted for it, and every single person who used it. Life sentences for every judge who gave it their OK.

FAA gives SpaceX a bunch of homework to do before Starship flies again

Re: Moon landing

You apparently missed the whole "moon lander starship is a bit non-standard" what with the whole "engines at the top", "fewer engines needed to land on the moon" and that they'll all be vacuum engines etc. Pretty sure they have a plan that goes something like "we'll test this first before installing live crew", too

OSIRIS-REx probe sucked up more asteroid crumbs than hoped

Re: On the waiting list for Spring cleaning

I think 33 Polyhymnia should be at the top of our list - it's too dense, seemingly more dense than the densest material we know of. It's basically made of unobtanium.