Posts by Doctor Tarr

DragonFire laser to be fitted to Royal Navy ships after acing drone-zapping trials

Re: pew pew pew

I think this needs a longer pew.

Whoever tests this must be making the sound.

Re: whhhiiiizzzzz ?

@Zolco

Genius. They mustn’t have understood the basics with all their sciency knowledge.

Data destruction done wrong could cost your company millions

Do it properly FFS

Frankly, this is shocking. I thought by now even domestic users were wiping drives of old laptops- perhaps with the help of one of us.

For businesses to be lax in this beggars belief. My work laptop is so locked down with constant malware checks running it’s almost unusable. But what we’re seeing here is that they don’t give an s when disposing of storage.

It’s not difficult to boot from usb and run a multi pass wipe to clear a laptop, or have a pc that you plug a server drive into. This costs bugger all and probably stop 99.9% of people recovering the data. After this they should go for proper destruction. After all, every physical document I have at work must go into the secure shredding bin.

Large Hadron Collider data hints at explanation for why everything exists

Re: Existential crisis

I only know where I am or where I’m going, never both

AI can't replace devs until it understands office politics

Re: This is what I keep saying

“ There is no need to give it pseudo-code, or even an algorithm. You just describe what you want and the AI fetches up a solution which has its origins in work done in the past by a human.”

Looks like you got AI to write that tosh.

Tech CEO: Four-day work week didn't hurt or help productivity

Re: Friday is my favourite working day of the week

“Oh, rather than a 4-day week, I far prefer the notion of a 5-day 7-hour day, say 09h to 16h or the equivalent in flexi-time (like 07h to 14h).”

Ideally we’d have the choice (for roles that it works for). My contract just states 35 hours per week so technically I could do that in one hit and the week is complete on Tuesday. Being more realistic I already do 10 hour days or more when WFH so having Friday off would be good for me.

UK officials insist 'murder prediction tool' algorithms purely abstract

Re: Minority Report

@Hubert well done sir >>>

Nvidia paid $1M for Mar-a-Lago meal, US later scrapped AI chip export crackdown

Re: Updated Speech

But, but Hillary’s emails

Trump fires NSA boss, deputy

Why are you calling out Islam as being a political movement? Religions want to influence policy just as the Christian Nationalists do with banning reproductive health and books which they see as against their faith.

2 in 5 techies quit over inflexible workplace policies

We are very specifically not allowed to work from a local office. Has to be 3 days in our ‘main’ office. One of my team lives a few miles from a local office but is forced to travel 1hr 40m each way instead. Even if they’re not meeting anyone. Ridiculous.

Reducing Headcount

The org I work for (large global corporate) have had a ‘soft’ mandate to be in the office 3 days per week. Most people do 2 which seems to work well enough, particularly as there’s only desk space for half the people assigned to the office.

They are now moving to a strict minimum of 3 days, no exceptions. Funny how they issued this order the week after the staff survey closed. They have weaponised RTO as a way to get people to leave.

There will be no support from HR. Managers (sorry I’m one :) ) will get zero support or answers to very reasonable questions like, there are not enough desks etc…..They were fully on the WFH bandwagon when they wanted to attract staff. But hey, it’s a corporate so what do you expect.

International cops seize ransomware crooks' favorite Russian crypto exchange

Re: Undelivered Memos?

That’s way too coherent and doesn’t have RANDOM capitalised WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Larry Ellison wants to put all America's data, including DNA, in one big Oracle system for AI to study

In theory.....

Well, in theory those outcomes would be good. It just doesn't account for the reality of why he wants this or the many many pitfalls.

On a related note... I'm registered as organ doner and happy to help if I could. However, I'm not happy with my dna being used when I'm dead to enrich people like Ellison and Thiel. I also have kids that carry that dna.

Tesla sales crash in Europe, UK. We can only wonder why

Re: Life in plastic is fantastic.

For the Carter USM reference->

Re: Sales Crash

Reading Tesla and crash in the same sentence I immediately thought of another victim of the fake/flawed autopilot system.

I’m a 100% never Musker!

Trump's freshly minted meme coin passes $10B market cap before he even enters office

Re: Pardons

Didn’t miss it but this topic is about Trump not Biden. Let’s not be drawn into the constant misdirection and whataboutary that the standard far right response.

Amazon CEO wants his staff back in the office full time

What would you choose

There’s a fair few on this site that a) don’t like management, and b) don’t want to work 5 days in the office.

So given that Amazon are going to increase days in but reduce management does that net out better for you?

I have 90 min each way commute which costs £450 a month, so I’ll deal with management and just come in twice a week.

WHO-backed meta-study finds no evidence that cellphone radiation causes brain cancer

Re: 5G sucks here

Can’t find it on my 3610

Re: From the article:

“Avoid water”

Especially if it’s heavy.

Apple's Clamshell iBook G3 at 25 – not just a pretty case

Mind blown

My son told me this weekend that if Back to the Future was written now, Marty would have gone back to 1994.

Apple's 'incredibly private' Safari is not so private in Europe

That woosh parrot just missed the downvoters.

Despite two previous court victories, Tesla settles third Autopilot liability case

Barge Pole

I’m an ideal customer for a Tesla and already own a rival electric car. However, I wouldn’t touch one with the proverbial because of Musk’s constant bullshit about them.

Microsoft, OpenAI may be dreaming of $100B 5GW AI 'Stargate' supercomputer

Dr Evil

I would have loved presenting that business case. I wouldn’t have been able to resist putting my pinky in my mouth when I said one hundred billion dollars - evil laugh optional.

Hillary Clinton: 2024 will be 'ground zero' for AI election manipulation

Re: Photo ID in UK

Said like a gaslighting Tory fan boy.

There’s been a £322bn underspend on NHS funding since 2009/2010 according to the BMA. Hardly a left wing bunch.

https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/funding/health-funding-data-analysis

Or just ask one of the 7m on a waiting list.

Re: Photo ID in UK

And don’t forget that the tax dodging prick Rees mogg admitted to the Tory gerrymandering backfiring.

Re: Photo ID in UK

"8 year olds can consent to life altering medical procedures" - Sounds like a typical bullshit Daily Mail headline. 8 year old children with gender dysphoria *can go to a clinic for support not for 'life altering medical procedures'.

*They will probably be adults by the time they get seen by a professional because the tories have fucked the NHS (again).

Re: Photo ID in UK

@Roland6 - an upvote for you.

My grandparents and my father (who was 4 at the time) emigrated from India to the UK in 1948. They always considered themselves British even though my Grandfather was born in Germany (but was in the British army during WW2) and my Nan was mixed race English and Indian but never ever thought of herself as Indian.

People think of migration in today's terms rather than how the world was in the colonial and post colonial era. Up until 1949 citizens of any colony or dominion in the British Empire were automatically considered British subjects but this changed with the British Nationality Act 1948. After the act you could still register to become a British citizen even if you never came to the UK.

Voyager 1 starts making sense again after months of babble

Re: V'Ger

Chased by ghosts?

Doom is 30, and so is Windows NT. How far we haven't come

Re: "Yes, I could buy an ad-free version, but why should I?"

You know that *car you bought new 2 years ago? Well, we’ve decided to launch a new model in three months time you’ll need to buy the new one. And, before you ask sir, the old one will be decommissioned as it’s no longer supported by our service network.

*exchange for house, TV, washing machine,etc.

NASA engineers scratch heads as Voyager 1 starts spouting cosmic gibberish

Science History

I wonder how long it will be before we’ve collected the Voyagers and put them in a museum?

Fairphone 5 scores a perfect 10 from iFixit for repairability

Re: Not a Snapdragon

You need a poweful phone for all the spyware our new El Reg masters have secretly installed.

Long live El Reg!

Researcher claims Harvard nixed social media research after getting Zuck bucks

$42bn Endowment

Harvard are a 'non-priofit' investment firm with a school attached. They get massive tax breaks to help the rich get richer.

'Return to Office' declared dead

That's far from simple and a really dumb idea. Just think about the admin overhead for employer and employee. Better you negotiate terms ahead of taking the job so you are compensated for the commute time.

If things change then renegotiate.

You won't fatten the pig if you're always weighing it.

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

Re: The cost of a jail-out card

Which raises the question…..

What’s more valuable to society? A long jail term or a $10bn fine? Assuming that the fine is paid and you can’t have both.

Overheating datacenter stopped 2.5 million bank transactions

Re: This is what happens when you have unmanned DataCenters

I get your point but the DCs should have correct monitoring for those possibilities. Also inert gas fire suppression isn't compatible with meatsacks.

I once got a bollocking for being in the DC of a catalogue based high street retailer. They didn't know we were working in there. They also didnt think to question how their security had let us in tho.

The UK government? On the right track with its semiconductor strategy?

Re: perspective

That is truly depressing.

As is the refurb of the Houses of Parliament costing £8bn best case and £22bn worst case. These are estimates so will quadruple given the shower of UK infrastructure programs.

Japan cruises ahead with drive-thru EV charging trial

Re: Wouldn't you need to be pretty accurately lined up?

I would hope that for a production system there is some kind of beacon / gps / alignment paint which directs the car to the right position.

Re: Vehicle ID based charging

“ I'm an angry, resentful luddite and I say no to this silly shit, period. I'll be driving a gasoline vehicle for the rest of my lifetime”

You do Luddite’s a disservice. They get a bad rap but supported workers rights and the skilled guilds in petitioning the government for better conditions.

You are not a Luddite but you are ignorant.

Mars helicopter to try for new speed record on Thursday

Keyboard Warriors

"Ingenuity sets a record on every flight – by adding one to the number of flights taken by a (known) helicopter sent by humans to the Red Planet."

I love that fact that the Reg has to include '(known)' in the article, just in case someone chips in. Those pesky unknown helicopters keep breaking records ;)

It's nearly time --------->

You've just spent $400 on a baby monitor. Now you need a subscription

Re: This is why I'm missing out on a lot of stuff

I’m OK with subscriptions provided I know up front what I’m getting into. What concerns me is when I also have to fund an expensive upfront cost for a device which can only be used with a specific provider - I’ve avoided this so far.

In this article it’s disgraceful that they introduce the subscription after the purchase. I’d refuse to pay even if I was cutting my nose to spite my face.

Aliens crash landed on Earth – and Uncle Sam is covering it up, this guy tells Congress

Nonsense

If we can use reconnaissance drones why would intelligent aliens need to put meat sacks in theirs. Think about the infrastructure needed for it.

LG to offer subscriptions for appliances and televisions

Re: Rent seeking

Unfortunately I see more manufacturers insisting on the device phoning home every day. It's for your safety obviously as there may be someone nefarious trying to grab your data, ie the manufacturer.

Comms watchdog to probe errors that left Brits unable to make emergency calls

Re: Dry Run

@David H. Exactly the same for me. I'd recently received a letter openreach IIRC saying that there were issues at my end of the road so no fibre for me.

I called sky as the landline had died and then had the same experience as you.

I went from a patchy 12mb to a solid 350mb+

Bosses face losing 'key' workers after forcing a return to office

Thanks but no

"three in four (75 percent)" this isn't the Mail Online. We don't need numbers explaining.

Techie wasn't being paid, until he taught HR a lesson

Re: The flip side of this is a unique name

I have a very uncommon surname which I didn't like when I was a kid. However, it made it easy to buy the domain so my mail address can be [e-mail], which is pretty handy.

My name is not Tarr and I'm not a doctor either. I could have been professor Fether instead.

Dumb Data Systems

In my current job it took three months to get paid through the normal salary run. Eventually the problem was resolved when some HR bod realised that when they entered my sort code into excel it truncated the first number, which was 0. I don't need to explain anything else on this forum :)

The HR peeps always made sure I got the salary in my bank next day when I raised the problem so props to them.

Missing Titan sub likely destroyed in implosion, no survivors

Re: 4 murdered with their murdered

I understand your sentiment but they all signed disclaimers stating that this was as experimental sub and, as we’ve seen in these comments, an easy bit of research would have highlighted significant issues and risks in the design.

If i were an experienced explorer or billionaire then I’d be doing my due diligence before any high risk activity.

All the same, it’s tragic for those left behind.

UK warned not to bother racing US, EU on EV subsidies

Re: I'm with Beanie

It could have all been running on carbon neutral peanuts if someone hadn't pushed Rudolf Diesel off the side of a ship.

(I have no idea whether the conspiracy is true but it's very interesting)

Brexit.....

Biggest SNAFU in UK history.