Posts by lglethal 4307 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2007
The cynic in me says the focus on monetary operations comes down purely to Putin needing cash for his war.
So let a marketplace rise up, get to a peak, and then shut it down and confiscate all the cash & crypto involved. Rinse and repeat.
The other crims need a marketplace to trade in their gains, so there will always be someone else ready to step up and create the next one. Wait a year or 18 months, and you can do it all over again...
Hey Microsoft, I'll happily piss away 1% of what Open AI are, and I'll do it whilst creating nothing that people want or need (just like Open AI), but I'll be 100% less polluting! Think of the headlines! Microsoft goes green! 100% less emissions for the same lack of profit! It'll be huge!
Call me and we'll make this happen!
That seems an exceptionally low salary for being the required fall guy when it all goes to the dogs (again).
I guess there's plenty of opportunity to set up your much higher paid position at one of the Supplier's you're going to be helping get a large slice of that €23bn pie. So think of it more as a deferred salalry, I guess...
If i were a minister for a dictatorial regime, wanting to take down the internet during times of protest/unrest. I'd simply have some "roadworks" directly outside the entrance where the primary connects are, and "accidentally" snip the lines with a backhoe.
"Not us people, we never ordered the internet shut down. It was that pesky Backhoe... We value communication, and blah blah blah..."
Sorry, but as much as I wish it would happen, it's not going to, and it comes down to, first and foremost, the American people.
Ask pretty much any American of any creed, denomination, or political affiliation, if they would willing pay higher taxes in order to have a functioning health care system and you will end up deaf from the screech of "NOOOO!!!!!", a screech so loud it would be audible from Orbit. It is a fundamental principle from all Americans that Taxes are too high, despite paying by far the lowest tax rate in the Western Hemisphere. Ask them if the Tax dodging and evasion of the rich is acceptable, and most will express admiration and a sly wish that they could afford the same accountants to reduce their taxes. The mentality is what is broken...
There are so many other broken systems in the US, but because of the belief in American Exceptionalism, any thought of ditching them and replacing them with a working system inspired by another nation is anathema to the national consciousness.
Unfortunately, until the mentality of the American People changes, I dont see anything but more of the same regardless of which stripe of Political America is in power...
As with any business, it's good sense to diversify.
Plus there are always employees in companies, especially family run companies, that are there due to familial connections rather than due to talent. These people are often shuffled off to side businesses, so as not to f%&k up the main jobs. I can imagine there are more than a few people who fit that category in the Mafia, and this would make a relatively good side hustle for them. Hard to fuck it up too bad (although it seems like they must have to have been caught like this!).
It's encouraging to see the Mafia following best corporate practices...
I'm going to guess that this is the figure that they can easily prove. I.e. the idiots had documentation laying around when raided, detailing this amount of money taken in (probably effectively the last few months before the money was laundered and the documentation destroyed).
I'd also suggest that this would be something of a slow burner, if you fleece the fools too quickly, word would get around. A steady stream of taking say a million a month on a pretty low risk setup would allow you to run under the radar for a very long time (and the FBI admitted this has been running for years!). Even if the Marks began to suspect something, going to the cops and saying you got fleeced at an illegal gambling night, is unlikely to get you much sympathy or much of an investigation.
I can only assume that either someone talked and the FBI caught wind of an easy collar, or they got greedy and started trying to take too much from the marks. There's a certain point where people will actually report stuff like this, even if it gets them in trouble personally.
"Due to recent litigation from META, NSO will no longer be selling software targeting WhatsApp.
If you would like WhatsApp Targeting software, please contact the firm NOS, who are completely unrelated to us, NSO, and it's a pure coincidence that their address happens to be right next to our own. But naturally, we have nothing to do with them whatsoever... *wink wink nudge nudge*"
I've got the answer!
Rename Chantilly (the suburb in Washington where the Udvar-Hazy Center is (and Discovery currently resides)) to Houston. It would probably cost a few million to change all the maps and paperwork, but there you go, there is now a Shuttle in Houston. Exactly as the Law requires. And with 85 million to play with, I'm sure at least some of that could end up back in Politician pockets.
Job Done!
"When people don't know what to trust, they end up trusting nothing at all, and that can deter democratic participation."
Mr Burns voice: "Exxxxcccelllent!"
I'm just imagining Trump sitting in the Oval Office, stroking a white cat, looking at Sam Altman and saying "You have done well, young Padawan."
Hmmm, I might be mixing up movies here...
It's a bit of a "funny" story this one. The scam centres are run by "militias" allied to the Junta. The Junta makes a ton of money off them.
The only reason this one got shut down (and it's actually clear that only a small portion of the set up got taken down) is that China appears to have given the Junta some specific names and said you will arrest these people and send them here for trial or else lose China's backing.
So they went in, arrested those people, made a big show and dance about shutting down these militias (even though it's the ones that they are friends with), and then allowed the majority to get back to the work of running their scam centres.
It's unfortunate that so few media outlets have bothered to do deeper reporting on this and basically just parrot the Junta's bull crap...
See i was right there, quite happy for him moving forward with his life, with his own security company, helping other people get their security sorted properly. That was great to hear.
And then out he comes with that bollocks about having done no wrong and appealing his sentence.
He did do wrong. Should he have taken the can for it alone, Absolutely Not. But he still falsified records and did illegal corporate acts. Accept it and move on... If he wins that appeal, it's just another arrow in the quiver of dodgy lawyers getting their C-Suite scumbags off other corporate malfeasance crimes...
In best Lionel Hutz voice
"The use of the word "Perpetual" licence in terms of Software is the most blatant case of false advertising since my last case against the writers of The Never Ending Story!"
Man, I wish someone would actually take a swing at this. Any Ambulance Chasers out there looking for a quick pay-off? Anyone?
How do i find the list of hardware that is supported? A quick internet search basically turns up statements like "you dont need to worry about this anymore, it works fine", "there is no hardware list anymore", etc...
If you have a site where there is an actual list, that would be highly appreciated...
As someone coming up to doing the switch over to Linux (Mint Cinammon), if anyone has some good resources with actual details of good prep for the change that would be greatly appreciated.
Good resources please! The number of sites that just say "back up everything" is kinda useless. For example, I have 4 different hard drives filled with photos, movies, game saves, books, documents, etc. Knowing that I can continue to use those hard drives once I've done the install (on a fresh hard drive, not one of those ones) would be useful information. Or what I need to do to ensure that I can continue using those resources without losing everything. Naturally, I need to download linux versions of whatever programs I'm using, that's clear. But there's a lot of assumptions in most of the internet guides, that are really not useful.
So any good sites you can recommend, would be appreciated (I'm sure by plenty of other Vultures finally deciding to take the plunge as well!)...
I wish some cyber crew would now take the opportunity to really go after Trump and his cronies, exposing all of their data, all their dirty little secrets, and set them out on the public lawn for all to see. Maybe then, they might actually think for two seconds about the importance of cyber security.
But of course it's not going to happen, because the cyber miscreants know that trump and co are on their side, and weakening everything will just make their jobs easier. Just like Hyenas, you dont get in the way of the Lion making a kill. You just turn up en masse when the job is already done, and drive the lion off then...
Yeah I've heard it can do that, but I've yet to see it in reality...
But the problem is not using an algorithm per se, it's using a third party algorithm also used by all your competitors and with all of your data and all of their data to come up with a "standardised" price for all of you. That's whats being outlawed.
You can use your own internal algorithm and make your own assumptions to set your price, and your competitor making their own assumptions will likely come up with a different figure. Which one of you then does better in the market is pure competition. Anything that lets you and your competitor come to an agreement on pricing (even thorugh a third party!) is and should be illegal cartel behaviour...
I'm pretty certain we are already in Act 2. Act 1 was more Comedy, and less overt Satire. But this Act is really dipping into the extreme Satire/Black Comedy angle. It's almost like the writers are thinking just how far can we go before the Audience walks away...
But I guess they have a captive audience at the moment. I'm certainly ready for it to end though, but I hear they have at least 2 more years already planned...
That's right! Automated turrets on every electricity pylon. AI powered, of course. If anyone pulls a gun and starts aiming at any of the cables on the powerlines, the Turret is licensed to fire a "warning shot" in defence of said cables.
Pylons are almost human, they stand as tall any american (well, taller actually), they have their arms out wide embracing all of America, and they work every day -rain, hail or shine, for the betterment of America. They're living the American dream! So why shouldnt they also get to bear Arms?
"Sorry Son, but you'll never make Senior Management with that attitude..."
Senior management thinking:
- All workers are interchangeable.
- Someone must be responsible for every mistake.
- All mistakes must be punished.
- If a problem isnt going to affect this quarter's company profits, it's solution can be put off until next quarter (ad infinitum).
"...nor any of its data has been accessed, leaked, hacked, or shared in any unauthorized fashion.
My emphasis. The SSA leadership gave permission (willingly or not) for the database to be copies, therefore it was not shared in any "unauthorised" fashion.
Top marks for those lovely weasel words... Weasely McWeasel couldnt have done better himself...
Really you want Robot Arms from ANY of the Techbro firms that exist at the moment?
They'd all require you to pay continuously for "updates", change the functionality at random & at cost ("What? You wanted your arms to be able to lift stuff up AND put them down, sorry that requires our Premium subscription..."), would require an always online internet connection, & would be declared obsolete and have their servers turned off after 5 years, requiring you to purchase new arms, which would require expensive surgery because the connections to your arm would have changed to some new proprietary configuration that doesnt match the previous arms.
You really want those robot arms now?
This works because your in an area requiring credentials to access. So only the people that are supposed to be there can access said area and so everyone acts in the benefit of the group.
A student laundry area is unlikely to be in a secure location which means as soon as the local yobs learn of it, the honesty box will be gone, quicker than you can say the Dutch equivalent of "Blimey!"...
That is what the Tech Bros would like you to believe. But without the Userbase, there is nothing to sell.
The path to digital obsolescence is filled with websites, programs, and firms who thought they could make whatever changes they liked and the Userbase would just accept it. In some fields they might be able to get away with a lot more (think social networks, but even there, their are limits (Hello MySpace!) or unfortuately Microsoft), but something like a web browser, nobody has loyalty to a web browser, and it's an easy change to make. Change things to what people dont like, and people WILL walk away. And then you dont have anything left to sell...(Hello Netscape!)
So No, those who pay for the product, might be able to suggest where the product goes. But any competent management will pay attention to what the Userbase wants first and foremost... Then again, competent management might just be an Oxymoron, and it certainly doesnt seem to apply to Mozilla...
Firefox management really dont get there Userbase, do they?
Generally more tech saavy folk, who hate the dominance of the big boys, and the constant push from tech bros to chuck the latest fad in everything. Soooo what do they do, start copying said tech bros, and trying to imitate the big boys.
Someone needs to educate them with the Clue Bat...
Oh it's not change for changes sake. It's changes to keep their job sake.
If they went around saying, "you know what, everything is good where it is. People like it, it does the job, it's fine!", then Microsoft would happily say "Thank you for your contribution, here's your pink slip, dont let the door hit you in the ass on the way out..."
So in order to justify their emplyoment, (and pad their Portfolio for when they do get shown the door after all the hate arrives), they need to change things.
So I guess what I'm saying is that perhaps we shouldnt hate on the UI designers themselves, but on the gormless manglers who hire them...
It's like Logo redesigns, no "design" firm is going to come in and say, "Na. That Logo is fine. It's internationally known and respected, changing it will cost a ton and lose you business by confusing potential customers. Leave it as is..".
Actually there are clips of them being used in Russia (Checyna's crazy leader apparently has a couple), and a few more in Africa if I remember correctly...
So it's not that far fetched, that America thinks they may have to take them on at some point. But considering the numbers out there, I dont think it's really that necessary beyond a "Hey, lets see what shit we can blow up, that we havent blown up before!"...
Trump is simply planning for the next phase of his fight with Elon!
An Executive Order declaring Cybertrucks as a terrorist threat, he orders the USAF to destroy them all!
This is just the pre-planning, it wouldnt look good to make the order and then the USAF finds they survive the initial bombing run, would it now...
"it's always surprising to me how few people actually have a 'proper' survey which is often a miniscule percentage of the agreed sale price"
It's 5 years since we bought our house, and admittedly things may have changed thanks to Covid and the great interest rate hikes that followed, but if we had told the seller we wanted to do a "proper" survey, we never would have got the property.
There were so many people looking for houses at that time, that it was just by luck we got talking to some people who where there at the time, who turned out to be the owners, and they took a liking to us. They basically said if we put in a reasonable bid, the house was ours.
Ask for a Survey, and they would have just moved to the next person, who was happy to take it. It's shit, but that's where things were at that time, it was a seller's market. If you didnt have the money available immmediately, and ready to sign on the dotted line. Kiss good bye to getting the house.
Whether that's still the case, I dont know, but considering how many people are still looking for a home, I certainly wouldnt doubt it...
Hi, I would like your investment to start a company that will repeatedly burn through billions of dollars every year, with no hope of ever seeing a return on that investment unless every existing competitor miraculously goes out of business, no new ones ever think of starting up, AND magical sky fairies start producing Unicorn Farts to power a magical technology we've not invented, developed, tested, or even particularly thought of yet.
But we promise it will be disruptive, revolutionary, groundbreaking, utilise AI, Blockchain, Crypto, and any other buzzword technology you would like us to use, and we doubly promise it will sound and look awesome on your future portfolio!
So when can I come by and collect my first $100 million?
Normally, I would agree with you, but this seems a clear case of deliberate Entshitification, designed to push people to a more costly alternative (from the same firm).
So absolutely people should call this out. Then switch to an alternative, and show Atlassian the finger.
Entshittification should never just be accepted...
Not going to happen, I'm afraid. Hun Sen has basically read and implemented the Tyrant's playbook. There are no longer any opposition organisations, ground-roots organisation, or any other group that could offer even minor resistance. He and his son control everything. It would take significant external pressure to bring about regime change.
BUT even though China is the primary target of these scam centres, the Chinese government dont want regime change because Cambodia now has moved out of western influence and back into China's sphere (it was definitely courting western influence all through the 90's and the 2000's). If a new democratic government got in, it would likely turn it's back on China (again). So they prop up a regime, which actively attacks their own citizens because of Geopolitics. I assume there are some rules about not attacking certain people in China (as the Myanmar Junta found out when China smacked down on them and started tacitly supporting the resistance, primarily because the Junta's Scam centres attacked the "wrong" people in China and it started generating headlines in China.).
China wants "friends" (read subordinates) in SE Asia, and so propping up Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are it's way to counter ASEAN going it's own direction...
I thought the job of the modern UI designer was to confound the user, so that they spend additional time trying to work out how to use the bloody UI, because that counts as "engagement time" for management metrics...
Tiles, ribbons, icons with zero relation to what they are supposed to achieve, radial wheels, etc.
Modern UI is absolutely not designed to be user friendly, it's designed to be as pretty as possible, and any ability for the user to actually achieve their desired task is purely coincidental...
Hey that's boosting the local economy, that is!"
Money goes to the local shop, to the distributor, to the paper mills, and all the way back to the Lady of Negotiable Affection hidden behind the plain covers of the Grumble mag in question. That's infinitely preferable to all the money going to Google after all...
" Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens."
So what they are saying is that they should be regulated as a traditional tv broadcast service! Excellent, they can bring in the 9pm watershed on rated content. Be held responsible for breaching codes of practice with what is "broadcast" to people's tv's. Face fines for excessive advertising, or breaching neutrality standards in news services...
Maybe they should think a little bit more carefully about what they are wanting to be known as. If you claim not to be a), because you're more like b), then dont be suprised if you start getting regulated like b)...
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