Posts by PhilipN

When it comes to hacking societies, Russia remains the master at sowing discord and disinformation online

Take your eyes off Russia for an instant

... and you will regret it.

Unless of course you have something there you do not want anyone else to notice, eh Donny?

Well, that was quick: Google brutally culls Pixel 4 and 4 XL before successor hits market

Why the surprise?

Phones and computers are now at the stage that hi-fi equipment reached years ago.

You know as soon as you buy it it is out of date,

One year??/ God, that's OLD!

Self-driving car supremo Anthony Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in the clink for stealing trade secrets from Google's Waymo

Re: Draconian

If I agree it is only on the narrowest of grounds (which means I don't).

In fact, respectfully, you almost make my point for me. If he banked $700M then why were the damages nowhere that much?

The article itself says "prosecutors failed to produce explicit evidence that any of Waymo’s technology had been used". So......?

More to the point :

1. He was a hot shot, with existing skills and knowledge, when he was recruited. Who did he, and Google, rip off while he was there?

2. The IT Security guy who allowed this to happen should be fired.

3. The executive who decided to make the report should be fired : the next time a hot shot turns up in Google HR he is going to think "They do not want me for my looks. They will leech my skills and knowledge then either I am unemployable or in jail. Sayonara."

Lose - lose.

Draconian

In the non-US Anglo-Saxon world it would be a civil suit for damages and an injunction against the beneficiaries.

In the Land of the Free it’s jail time (eventually).

Microsoft confirms pursuit of TikTok after Satya Nadella chats to Donald Trump

Re: It’s all bollocks

FYI I learned (as just one example) a great deal more about the BLM protests (and all that went with it) from TikTok than I learnt from Western media. Truth must be stopped! Citizens cannot handle the truth!

Re: Not going to happen

He's throwing a Ballmer "I want Google dead" tantrum (and we all know how that went) as part of the US wetting itself at China's progress in technology.

It was never anything to do with trade. The energy the US spent on attacking Huawei was 100 times more than they spent attacking China's exports.

and especially with the latest poll results and TikTok being used by 100M traitors oops voters.

Re: "they make changes"

NO - no - no : MS Speak is always "make it EVEN better"

Re: Completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020

"massive music library"

for a somewhat strained definition of "music"

Voyager 1 cracks yet another barrier: Now 150 Astronomical Units from Sol

Re: They don't build them like they used to

Ditto.

Similar point and may be apocryphal but when Rolls Royce were asked why, almost half a century later, they were still using a universal joint first developed in the ‘20’s in their cars’ rear axles, they answered sniffily that “Just because something is newer does not mean it is better.”

Chinese ambassador to UK threatens to withdraw Huawei, £3bn investment if comms giant banned from building 5G

Alibaba

Like eBay?

Do you have any idea what you are talking about?

Google allowed to remember search results to news articles it was asked to forget. Good

Forget Google

If I get the right for stuff to be forgotten from my wife it will mark a great day for humanity.

That is, at least half of us.

Bill Gates debunks 'coronavirus vaccine is my 5G mind control microchip implant' conspiracy theory

Re: What if MS had not become dominant ?

"something else would have"

Heard of OS/2?

Compared with which Eric Raymond described Windows 95 as "shockingly inferior".

Visa fraud charges: Uncle Sam accuses four Chinese eggheads of covering up their true ties to China's military

Re: Barr

Interesting point. I just googled “who built china's railways”. Convoluted history.

Barr

Reckoned the USA was no. 1 in world technology by the 1890’s.*

Are we then supposed to take anything else he says seriously?

*or do we assume the poor Chinese emigres who helped to build the railways were actually there to loot the country’s IP?

US restricts visas for folks working at Huawei and other Chinese tech makers – seemingly over China's human-rights abuses

Not saying it is right or wrong, and not saying it is correct or incorrect ..

Just saying, with the abandonment of reasoned debate emanating from the White House be a little more circumspect about news from anywhere now. Western media fell on and adopted with passion and gleefully repeated a damning report on treatment of Uighurs prepared by some guy sitting in Washington named Adrian Zenz. Look him up on Wikipedia and make up your own mind.

<Title repeated>

USA ends Hong Kong's special treatment, crimping flow of tech to territory

I shan't respond to all the other nonsense being spouted here but it is always possible to present legislation - particularly when it has been vilified, long before anyone read it, in the Western press - in a negative light but some perspective is in order lest people continue to think HK was always heaven on earth (it probably was for the British Army who had nothing to do but polish their kit, swim and play tennis) and is no longer. Just as an example one item from the BBC piece :

"Beijing will have power over how the law should be interpreted"

Umm yes - in this case, and tightly circumscribed, and nowhere near as extensive as the situation before 1997 when all laws might have to be kicked up to the Privy Council* for interpretation.

*That was in London, by the way, And go ahead and answer on the basis that we are "fair, clean-minded, decent people" but they are not.

Dig deeper

A huge portion of HK trade with USA was in effect products going to and from ....... China.

And apart from the highest end chips and other stuff I would have thought that most US products could easily be replaced with those coming from Taiwan and China. I barely remember the last time I saw Made in USA on a decent bit of kit.

Does anyone know PRECISELY what we are talking about here?

Rip and replace is such a long Huawei to go, UK telcos plead, citing 'blackouts' and 'billion pound' costs: Are Vodafone and BT playing 'Project Fear'?

5-year plan

Perhaps someone who actually has an inkling can give us a heads-up as to where the technology will be in 5 years' time.

Frankly I haven't a bloody clue about anything in three months' time never mind 5 years. By then all of this will be irrelevant.

I already have 5G (not in the UK) and I do not care.

By the way, you do know that China - probably the most wired-up (i.e. wireless) country on the planet - is forging ahead on a number of fronts apart from 5G - A.I, for example? The domestic GDP per capita is now such that economic and technological advances are self-sustaining regardless of Trump's attempt to roll the clock back a hundred years,

Where is Ave when you need him

rip each piece apart --- -isn't that what the engineers are supposed to do before an order is placed?

The UK telco system is equipment taken at face value?

Social media giants move to defy Hong Kong's new national security law

Huawei non android

You mean Huawei non Google.

And if as reported TikTok closes in HK it will leave a vacuum that will fill up in around 0.01 of a second.

Beijing's tightening grip on Hong Kong could put region's future as an up-and-coming tech hub in jeopardy

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

Nope

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

You realise, do you not, that treason in the UK could be punished with life imprisonment.

In the USA - death sentence. Welcome to the Free World!

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

""If I recall correctly the protests were brought about precisely because Beijing interfered with the HK system making it easier to extradite people to the mainland."

Absolutely correct."

Absolutely incorrect.

The extradition law was promulgated for the purpose of extraditing from HK to Taiwan a HK citizen suspected of murder in Taiwan, which at the outset had popular support.

Its scope was expanded, fatally, by HK Government trying to be clever but which failed dismally.

The whole thing was misconceived because Taiwan had no corresponding rules to take extradited suspects. A complete joke and doomed to failure from the start.

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

Please do not rely on the Bar Association whose cartoonish and defective commentary on the extradition law last year missed a perfect opportunity to explain why the law would have been invalid and unenforceable for several reasons.

Yet chose this latest legislation to say it was potentially invalid when it is not.

Re: one country two systems agreement

Deng Xiaoping approved the concept only. The Margaret Thatcher Government leapt at it as an easy way forward. The Hands On Brain Off work was done by Chris Patten - who was given the gig in HK as a sop when he lost his seat in Parliament.

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

It matters a very great deal because the law will be a Hong Kong law with prosecutions managed by the Legal Department of Hong Kong Government and administered in turn by an independent judiciary steeped in and applying principles of the Common Law - which includes principles of parliamentary interpretation and "Innocent Until Proven Guilty".

It follows that there is no hijacking of the legal system - any more than - in fact less than - UK legislation once could be applied territorially to Hong Kong by Letters Patent and Hong Kong laws could ultimately fall to be interpreted by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Then purporting to predict the future course of laws is losing the plot completely. This manoeuvre from Beijing is a direct consequence of violent protests last year, in the absence of which there is no reason why the PRC would want to interfere with the HK system - which is where the article is completely wrong - now or even in 2047.

Tossing out a mantra of "freedom" relates back to the first point. None of us is free to the degree implied by such a mantra. Freedom is knowing one's limits with a clear law. If alternatively a person wishes to be free to burn the flag and insult the sovereign power - not even relevant when most people are concerned about their livelihood and their families. As are the expats. Which is why there is no brain drain. Schools have reopened, Shopping malls are bustling - and nobody wants to go somewhere the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic was so ineffectual.

Blood? How silly. Tienanmen Square was more than a generation ago, China has changed. The World has changed Xi Jing Ping will NOT want to taint his legacy - as emphatically proven during the "protests" by the admonition that "Hong Kong's problem. Hong Kong fix it".

one country two systems agreement

That would be the agreement bequeathed to Hong Kong by Chris Patten which almost exactly replicated the previous colonial system of overbearing management from the Foreign Office --- including (cough! cough!) anti-sedition laws.

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

What laughable nonsense.

"the US response can hurt Hong Kong "

Called collateral damage. It would be nice if the USA did not support HK quite so much . Oh....hang on

Apple gives Boot Camp the boot, banishes native Windows support from Arm-compatible Macs

"...banishes native Windows support ..."

I am supposed to care why?

P.S. (Different point) Wanna know how CHEAP a Windows laptop is now?

Apple launches incredible features everyone else had more than a year ago – this time for the 'smart home'

Got it all

Lighting remote control : called a Wall Switch

Etc.

Australia's Lion brewery hit by second cyber attack as nation staggers under suspected Chinese digital assault

Re: Horses, races run etc

Given the form* of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute which couldn’t blame China fast enough it is almost certainly somebody else.

*Have a gander at their Wikipedia entry and the section headed Criticisms.

You. Yeah you, in the beret. Drop that media file right now unless you've patched Illustrator or After Effects

Missed the chance

Your resident music critic must have been sleeping:

"...You!!...Yes you!! .....Stand still, will you!! ...."

You know Facebook has an image problem when major nonprofits start turning down donations over political lies

Re: Render unto Caesar ....

Actually about the avoidance of hypocrisy, which was the point I was making.

Render unto Caesar ....

Doesn't work - sorry, J.C.

Need not only to be squeaky clean but have the appearance of being squeaky clean.

To sort of mix metaphors, it is not just any old shilling when it is the King's Shilling.

Ex-Dell distributor in Lebanon ignored ban on suing US tech giant. Now four directors have been sentenced to prison in the UK

Unable to find P.I. Firm

Pfff - bunch of wimps.

When I practised law in London you needed a P.I./process server prepared to serve divorce proceedings on drunken Bermondsey dockers come what may.

Huawei launches UK charm offensive: We've provided 2G, 3G and 4G for 20 years, and you're worried about 5G?

Re: The bigger issue is rising Chinese power

Yea, democracy!

Is that the democracy which the U.K. did NOT introduce in Hong Kong during a century and a half of colonial administration from Whitehall?

We have Huawei to make the internet more secure: Dump TCP/IP to make folks safer says Chinese mobe slinger

What do governments not control?

Paper money movements. In China some 7-11 style shops (for example) have no staff : the facial recognition system is so good and so extensive that anyone who scarpers without paying goes straight into the miscreant database. You can bet your bottom dollar that China is developing - I reckon already has developed - it’s own digital currency. So much commerce in China is transacted online and pay-by-bonk it is a natural next step to add a few more 1’s and 0’s. The state already controls the banks so there is no need for Bitcoin-like farms on every street : it is an exercise in data-gathering not financial security. It therefore comes as no surprise that they wish to change the plumbing for their own purposes.

Make sense or is one spouting buffalo spoor?

Pablo Escobar's big bro and former accountant sues Apple for $2.6bn over FaceTime bug

Spokesperson told The Reg?

Wow. After cosying up to Apple you are really doing the rounds.

Boeing brings back the 737 Max but also lays off thousands

Reservations outpacing cancellations ...

Because there are hardly any flights?

Linus Torvalds drops Intel and adopts 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper on personal PC

Re: $$$

P.S. Reminded me what motherboards and CPU’s used to cost 30 years ago.

$$$

Almost 2,000 just for the CPU. Nice .... but ...... **** me!

For the price tag, this iPad Pro keyboard better damn well be Magic: It isn't... but it's not completely useless either

Re: Because ... it’ll just work : Nope

"The same can be said" .... OK thanks for agreeing.

Because ... it’ll just work : Nope

Because it works for a damn long time.

I have almost every generation of Mac Mini filling up one cupboard and get one or other of them out occasionally to power up and play with. That’s just an example. On my experience you get at least three times the usage from an Apple machine/device, which will be years out of date before it breaks down. It’s almost frustrating that with all the latest backup systems available my ancient Time Capsule still bloody works!

Attorney General: We didn't need Apple to crack terrorist's iPhones – tho we still want iGiant to do it in future

Apple told The Register - ????

Go on - you’re making it up.

Beer gut-ted: As many as '70 million pints' spoiled during coronavirus pandemic must be destroyed in Britain

i need to get out more

Strange no-one mentions the occasions when he has been served a "bad pint". In fact its ages since I heard the expression. Must be something to do with publicans springing for refrigeration in recent decades. Or punters having got used to craft beers tasting like ditch water.

To put it another way, I very much doubt all the beer reckoned to have gone off will go down the drain.....

Serial killer spotted on the night train from Newcastle

**** me!

How about a Green Cross Code for vehicles going over a rail crossing??

Two drivers will be having nightmares.

Ex-Microsoft Office chief reflects on early malware and the 'global attack on the new Windows PC infrastructure'

No Shoes Steve

Steve J. too. He was intensely serious and driven. Hardly an acid head.

Microsoft puts dual-screen devices and Windows 10X in the too-hard basket

Re: Keyboard & trackpad location

My (Scots) grandfather waxed lyrical about drinking a bottle of Scotch from a long tube with a teat on the end. I wondered for years whether he said “teat” or ...... I was very young.

Pew-pew woo-hoo! Hong Kong reopens video arcades shut by coronavirus lockdown

Dense city

Where 99% have been wearing masks since January, not because the Government said so but because they saw the need. Not so dense.

And by the way the tangential effect was a foreshortening of the usual flu season.