Posts by lglethal

Punchy Italian kartist gets 15-year ban for trackside rampage... and other stories

One awesome comment I read from one of the Russian newspapers was "How sad is that in 30 years, we have learnt how to steal everything, but not how to spend it?"

Seems highly appropriate, somehow. :)

China pushes back against Exchange attack sponsorship claims

And have you, China, provided the addresses and details of these "American" miscreants to the relevant American authorities? I'm sure some of them are NSA or the like, but how many are just regular miscreants who have chosen not to p&ss in their own backyard (in order to avoid the local plod, like the Russian crews). I have no doubt the US would also like to collar those miscreants. It would be a nice little bit of publicity to say "See we're stopping our own miscreants! Now its time for Russian and China to do the same!". The Yanks are not going to avoid an opportunity like that, if you give them the details! So why havent you protected your citizens and handed over the details?

And having been provided with the details by the US, UK and EU of your Chinese miscreants have you acted against them?

Hmmm... Methinks he doth protest too much...

Europe mulls anonymous crypto-wallet ban, rules to make transfers more traceable

Re: Being in the wrong

Lets say it all once again - Tax Avoidance is not illegal. Tax evasion is illegal. And when firms cross that line they get hit hard. That's why they pay large sums of money to accountants to go as far up to that line as they can without crossing it.

Should the tax laws be better written to reduce the amount of tax avoidance that goes on, abso-f%&kin-lutely, but is that not just "playing whack-a-mole while having a legislative diarrhea"?

Illegal drugs are illegal, why shouldnt the governments go after them? If the collective will of a nation decides certain drugs should be made legal (e.g. Marijuana in the Netherlands), then it will happen. But what do you suggest? Make all drugs legal? You really want a world where Ice (Crystal Meth for Americans) is legal and available to everyone? I certainly dont. Should some drugs be made legal and restricted like alcohol and cigarettes, in my opinion yes (Marijuana, and Ecstacy would be my first two legal choices). But I dont think for a minute that would solve all our crime problems.

Spanish cops cuff Brit bloke accused of playing role in 2020 celeb Twitter hijacking

Re: Why not ask UK?

Umm if he was living in Spain, then you would ask the Spanish authroties to grab him, wouldnt you?

Just because he's British if he's not actually in the UK, there's not much the UK authorities can do about him, is there?

Hundreds of irate UK Parliamentary staffers sue IPSA over 2017 salary spreadsheet publication snafu

That's one way to look at it, but another way is to ask the question - would you be happy to have your pay and entitlements made public to all of your neighbours? As well as to all of the scam artists and thieves out there? Complete with your address and the amount of hours you work (a good indication of when they can consider you might not be at home)?

Your neighbours might just complain about the poor state of your fence ("Considering how much money your making, you think could take a bit better care of it, no?") or try to hit you up for a loan.

But the Ne'er do wells out there will pay close attention, when it comes to knowing how much you earn, what you might have in your house, and when your likely to be working. That's ripe conditions for becoming a target.

So yes, knowing how much civil servants earn would be nice from a making sure we taxpayers are getting our money's worth (sorry, I mean how much we're getting shafted by), but for the individuals concerned it carries significant risks if not done carefully and properly.

Engineers' Laurel and Hardy moment caused British Airways 787 to take an accidental knee

Re: Take an accidental knee

Well only one leg went down so that's taking a knee, isnt it? If two legs went down that would be kneeling. And I suppose if all 3 went down we'd call it a belly flop.

Glad to clear that up for you... :P

US Surgeon General doubles down on Facebook-bashing amid vaccination information blame game

Stop! That's an absolute load of bollocks.

Fact check it here at reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaccines-clinical-trials-idUSKBN2A22D3

That was written in February, when both Astra Zeneca and Biontech were fully past there Phase 3 trials.

Or if you'd prefer it from the horses mouth, from the WHO: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

Download the Vaccine Tracker spreadsheet and you can see (as of 16/7), all of the vaccines in use or in development, which phases they have completed, and a lot more info.

Basically, EVERY Vaccine available in the US or the EU has passed all 4 phases of their clinical Trials. They are not experimental medicines. And by not getting a vaccine and spouting that nonsense, you've allowed yourself to believe utter bollocks. So stop repeating it. Go and read up, get away from Facebook and Youtube, and learn the facts. And then go and get vaccinated, to rptect yourself and those you love.

I am actually honestly curious why some people are against mandatory vaccination? I mean your use of the term "militate" when talking about mandatory vaccination, implies strongly that you are against it, so can you explain why?

I'm not trying to call you out or be rude, but I am honestly curious. Most of the responses I find on the internet revolve around people claiming personal freedoms, etc. but that seems to conveniently ignore that we have plenty of laws requiring people to do things mandatorily (wear seatbelts, drive under the speed limit, not fire weapons in a built up area, etc.) especially where not obeying the laws can lead to loss of life (either one's own or especially other peoples).

So I'm genuinely curious, why would you not want to make vaccination mandatory?

Just to add a small addendum to your comment Phil, catching and recovering does not always provide long term immunity from said virus. And the evidence is mounting that the immunity from catching and recovering from Covid is maybe 6 months at most. Vaccines however, can be tailored to provide that long last immunity.

A perfect example is Tetanus. Which catching and recovering from provides pretty much no natural immunity. However, the Tetanus vaccine does provide a long lasting immunity (although you still need a booster shot every 10 years).

Vaccination is the only good way to get the virus to drop in the community, not to mention avoiding the potential side effects of getting infected (e.g. long covid, and internal organ damage).

Unfortuately it is a problem for the collective.

Because those idiots end up in our collective hospitals taking up intensive care beds and causing our hospital staff to be overworked. That means they potentially make mistakes elsewhere and for other people who havent been stupid.

On top of that, you have things like insurance costs which are averaged over the whole community which because of their hospitalisation drives all of our prices up. Sick people dont work, production goes down, costs of goods go up for everyone.

And finally, there are people out there that cant be vaccinated, not out of some stupid belief, but because medically they're either allergic to something in the vaccine, or their immune systems are already damaged and cant withstand the vaccine. The idiots not getting vaccinated, puts these peoples very lives at risk, and that again harms the entire community.

So whilst its nice to think that idiots not getting vaccinated is just hurting themselves, the truth is, it risks other peoples lives, directly and indirectly, and drives prices up for EVERYONE in the community. For that reason, these people need to be educated, to realise how stupid they're being, and how much they are costing their communities...

"12 people who are producing 65 per cent of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms"

Can we get the names of these 12 please? And then could someone please place a large order for tar and feathers?

Actually better yet, this being America, can someone who has had a relative die from Corona, who specifically and publically refused to get vaccinated after reading the bollocks from these 12, please sue them into oblivion! Maybe then they'll disappear back into the holes they crawled out of...

(from someone who has known people who have died from Covid, and another since afflcited with long covid. It's not a joke people, get vaccinated now!)

Google killed desktop Drive and replaced it with two apps. Now it’s killing those, and Drive for desktop is returning

Re: Google - great at search...

Oh No! Google are brilliant at convincing Marketing Departments to pay signifcantly more for "targeted" advertising thats been shown to be significantly less worthwhile than simple untargeted ads. Actually internet ads in general have been found to be pretty much worthless, but google have convinced Marketing Departments everywhere that they are the bees knees, and worth every penny (that they can squeeze out of them)!

Google are brilliant at the ad stuff. Everything else is unimportant (to Google)...

Re: Dancing to someone else's tune

But that wouldnt be disurptive, and agile, and innovative, and whatever other bullsh&t bingo words you want to throw in the mix!

It's just another reminder that The Cloud is just someone else's computer. And if they decide to change the rules around using their computer, then you either have to suck it up and accept it, or to try and pull back in all your data yourself. Neither of which is usually an easy or pleasant experience...

Richard Branson uses two planes to make 170km round trip

Re: Uses two planes...

You understand the difference between feet and metres right? 88,000 feet is about 26,8km. Impressive, but quite a lot less than 85km...

I find that tweet from Blue Origins more than a little on the nose.

Surely, a congratulatory tweet (maybe with a slightly snide remark about the Virgin astronauts* if you really must), is what should have been done. Getting to space is hard work, and anyone getting there (or thereabouts) deserves respect.

Yes, Blue Origin are probably miffed that Beardy stole some of their limelight, but such a condescending tweet feels completely inappropriate. Leaves me with a pretty bad impression of the whole Blue Origin team...

BOFH: Where there is darkness, let there be a light

Re: Old school methodology.

So what your saying is that there's a server that pretends to be a number of network linked assets, that answers the asset tracking software, and that Ebay has had a few years worth of additional sales, no?

Beijing further tightens its grip on local web giants with 'Network Security Review Measures'

So the Chinese Internet firms, which did so much to consolidate the iron grip of the CCP over the chinese internet space, are now finding that the CCP wants to take more of an iron grip over them as well. Should they really be surprised?

If you're going to dance with the devil, dont be surprised when the devil later changes the tune...

Florida Man sues Facebook, Twitter, YouTube for account ban

Re: There are two possibilities on how it turns out.

It's not difficult to work out if you think about the man, his previous behaviour, and what he stands for.

Wait, he actually stands for something? When did that happen?

Robots still suck. It's all they can do to stand up – never mind rise up

Re: Stopped by a blade of grass

The Autonomous Lawn Mowers are the front line in the war for robotic independence!

Or in other words their job is to remove those pesky blades of grass, so the killbots can move in unhindered...

Re: Perfect workers

- robots will not join a union

Lester: Why are we doing this?

Rimmer: What are you talking about? This is vital, absoutely vital work!

Lester: Come on, we all know that the only reason we're stuck doing this and not the maintenance droids, is because they've got a better union than us.

Red Dwarf already called it! Not only will Robots join a union, they'll have a better union then their meatsack colleagues...

Biden to sign exec order calling for right-to-repair rules for farmers, maybe rest of us

But, but, but... Trump and all the Republicans told me that Biden and the Democrats are massively anti-farmer and only care about the urban elite!

But here they're doing something to help farmers! But Trump and McConnell told me that would never happen. I mean they didnt actually try and help the farmers with such an easy fix, but they would have got around to eventually, right? I mean Republicans are the party of the country people, so when they held power for all of those years in congress they could have passed such a law to rein in the John Deere's... but i guess they were busy with other stuff...

But now its a Democrat in power and their the ones passing the law to help the farmers?

I'm so confused!!! What is happening in America? It used to be so clear cut...

(This post is brought to you by the Canyon in the German Saarland also known as Sarcasm....)

Kaseya’s VSA SaaS restart fails, service restoration delayed by at least ten hours

Hey, hey, hey. It only affected about 50 of our customers. So it's not a big deal.

What do you mean it affected thousands of other firms, using our software? Yeah but they didnt buy directly from us, so their not our problem. It's fine, only a small number of firms affected, yadda, yadda...

This is what I hear everytime I see the responses from Kaseya. It definitely makes me never want to work with their firm. Their management sound like a right bunch of Wayne Kerrs...

New mystery AWS product 'Infinidash' goes viral — despite being entirely fictional

Re: So lame

Really? In CAD software the rule is never run any odd numbered release. In the odd numbered releases they add all the new features. And in the even numbered releases they fix all the errors introduced by adding the new features...

Re: Aww yisss

I remember back in around 2005, whilst I was busily searching for a job after uni, coming across an ad for a "Junior CFD Analyst" minimum 10 years experience with CFD required.

I'm sorry, but if I've got 10 years experience in something, I think I'd be pretty insulted to be considered a Junior!!!

Go to L: A man of the cloth faces keyboard conundrum

Re: Calling upon a higher power

I guess that's one way to handle change management...

Sir Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web NFT fetches $5.4m at auction while rest of us gaze upon source code for $0

Re: "The sooner this insanity ends the better."

Are you trying to say that St Digitus does not have a following as it stands! HERETIC!!!

May St Digitus corrupt all your data, open all your ports, and leave you to the mercy of the digital savages!

Https be upon you...

International law enforcement op nukes Russian-language DoubleVPN service allegedly favoured by cybercriminals

Re: I use two VPNs ....

@KittenHuffer - The'y probably stop watching you, if you stopped huffing kittens. Just sayin'...

Microsoft wasn't joking about the Dev Channel not enforcing hardware checks: Windows 11 pops up on Pi, mobile phone

Ok good call, I had not thought of that.

Still seems like them taking a masive gamble though. I mean when the new OS comes out, most firms and people would have upgraded anyway (maybe not quite as quickly but they still would upgrade at some point), tying it to a specific hardware upgrade means a lot of people and firms will hold off until the last moment and will strongly consider other options in order to maintain current hardware. Seems a good way to drive your customers away long term for a very short term gain...

I keep hearing this - that Microsoft "wants to force computer obsolescence" and get everyone to buy new computers. What I dont get is why?

I mean microsoft doesnt do hardware (the Surface range is a rounding error on their profit sheet, so it doesnt count). So they gain nothing if people are buying new hardware.

They dont have a hand in these TPM chips from what i can tell - so its not like they will be rolling in royalty/licencing money from people having to buy them.

I can really not see any reason why Microsoft would be trying to force this on people, other than that they, very misguidedly, believe that the added security outweighs everything else. But I also find it hard to believe that their upper management can be so blinkered as to believe that people will happily accept having to buy new hardware just to get a new windows version.

So all in all, I'm really failing to see Microsoft's reasoning here. It just looks like they are going to cost themselves significant market share (at a time when the trend is for people to be moving away from PC's anyway), for the benefit of some hardware manufacturers, and absolutely zero benefit for themselves. It is quite literally mind boggling...

When free and open source actually means £6k-£8k per package: Atos's £136m contract with NHS England

Re: What is FREE?

There is a VERY good reason that NHS England didn't fall foul of Wannacry or indeed that it has NEVER had a malware outbreak.

Pardon me but, what? Someone has a very short memory...

https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/13/wannacrypt_ransomware_worm/

The software nasty has today ransacked the UK's national healthcare service, forcing hospitals to shut down to non-emergency patients;.... We're told 16 NHS health trusts in the UK were taken out by the malware.

https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/28/nhs_downtime_troubles/

These attacks included the infamous WannaCry ransomware outbreak in May 2017, while others fell victim to the Locky and Zepto malware, the most severe of which knocked systems offline for two weeks.

Scientists identify sleep-like slow waves as responsible for daydreaming and... sorry, what were we talking about again?

Re: familiar

I regularly suffer the same problems in long tedious meetings, but it's always surprised me. I mean I'm absolutely certain that if I tried to fall asleep in a hot and stuffy airless room whilst sitting in an uncomfortable position, I'd have no chance. Add in talking (even in a monotone drone), and I'd have even less chance of falling asleep or dozing.

So what is it about Meeting rooms that switch off your brain almost as soon as you sit down???

Study finds crayfish treated with antidepressants become more outgoing, adventurous

A 2019 study of freshwater shrimp across 15 locations in rural Suffolk, UK, found that every single one contained traces of cocaine, with some also baked on ketamine.

So where exactly do I need to go in Suffolk to get some cocaine covered Shrimp?

Sounds like it could be the start of a Prawn-tastic evening...

I'll get my coat...

Apple warns kit may interfere with implanted medical devices at close proximity

Re: You're holding it wrong!

More like

"You're hugging it wrong!"

Microsoft approved a Windows driver booby-trapped with rootkit malware

Re: Ah, Microsoft

Actually Google and Apple should get far more of a kicking when things slip through, considering the 30% they charge for hosting and "securing" their stores. If they chose to use some of that money to actually check programs they might not suffer from things getting through so often. But then they might have to accept a slightly smaller profit, which we all know is unacceptable, so there you go...

Hubble telescope in another tight spot: Between astrophysicists sparring over a 'dark matter deficient' galaxy

Re: Forgive my ignorance but...

Dark matter models are already contradicted by observations,

Citation needed.

The theory of Dark Matter is actually pretty well agreed upon, as in there does not appear to be enough Mass in galaxies (based on current understandings) to maintain their current forms and shapes. That's pretty much universally agreed upon.

What isnt agreed upon is why? Or in what form that missing matter takes? Thats where you get into the hypothetical. Is it just that were bad at estimating the mass of galaxies? Is it WIMP's (weakly interacting massive particles)? Neutrinos? Fuzzy Dark matter? Axions?

There are a lot of hypotheses, and only some very vague evidence at the moment to support one or the other theories, but the fact remains most scientists agree something is missing from our understanding. Adding Mass to galaxies, explains with extreme precision their movement, shapes and make-up. As such, by observation we can say a galaxy should weigh this much, but our calculations only add up this much. Hence why dark matter is added. Maybe we are just bad at estimating the mass in a galaxy but there's a lot of very smart people doing very detailed calculations and they all seem to be finding mass missing.

Discussions like this are therefore highly intriguing because if these galaxies are really further away and light on dark matter, than that opens up possibilities for more study opportunities, more things to look at to say why are these galaxies different compared to others we have studied. Anomalies are great for advancing science and I look forward to hearing more on this topic in the future.

Treaty of Roam finally in ashes: O2 cracks, joins rivals, adds data roaming charges for heavy users in EU

Does she have a bubbly personality?

John McAfee dead: Antivirus tycoon killed himself in prison after court OK'd extradition, says lawyer

Re: Cryptocurrency

It sits there until some hackers break into his wallet and make off with the "currency".

Re: Why was he in a Spanish prison?

Ok, so you dont need roads, hospitals, schools, fire departments, police, garbage collection... None of that is of use to you? Or perhaps you think it should be every user pays for everything on their own? So only the rich get to use hospitals, only the rich deserve to send their kids to schools, poor areas dont need garbage collection?

As a rule, Taxes pay for those things we ALL use. Yes,some of it gets wasted, yes some of it gets spaffed on whatever bollocks the politicians think of next, and yes you might not agree on everything it gets spent on. BUT, the majority of it goes on those things which EVERYONE needs.

Imagine a place where every road was a toll road. You'd be paying that toll forever if it was run by a private firm, not simply the one time build and occasional maintenance when its done by government. Imagine if all policing was only private, poor neighbourhoods would become no go zones and people would be locked into gated communities like some sort of dystopian nightmare. If fire departments where privatised, well you'd have to take out the right subscription or you might get the old PTerry visit "Nice place you got there, but that's a lot of wood in the construction, that would go up super quick if someone was foolish enough to play with matches nearby...*wink**wink*"

You can argue about some of the spending (and thats why you vote, for the ones you think will spend your money the best), but in general, the purpose of taxation is to supply everyone with the things that everyone needs, to have a basic running society. Taxation in itself is not unjust. It can be unjust in its implementation, but that requires you to get off your butt and vote for a party to go in and fix the system to make it less unjust.

Re: It's A Very Complicated Story...

No, just no. As an Australian living in Europe, I do not pay Australian taxes, nor do I have to file yearly Australian tax returns. You do have to declare that you are not a resident for tax purposes, and show that you are living outside of the country and not earning money in Australia, but thats kind of part and parcel of not being a resident for tax purposes.

The only time that doesnt apply is if you have a government debt (for example, HECS (which is the government assistance loan that pays your university course costs until you start working)). If you have a debt like that, then since 2018, I think it was, you have to file a tax return, so that they can work out how much of your debt you have to pay back that year. But you dont actually pay Aussie taxes on your income.

Re: a la Epstein

That comment was made 9 months ago. A lot can change with someone's mental state in 9 months, especially when locked up in Prison with no end in sight.

If that post was made in the last month, maybe it might have more meaning, but 9 months ago, worthless. Except to conspiracy theorists of course...

Syria and Sudan turn off the internet to suppress ... cheating by kids sitting exams

Re: Seriously? To stop cheating?

Exams worth 100% of a person's grades are i agree stupid and unrealistic. But when combined with projects and assignments, such that the final exam is worth 30-40%, i think are quite good. It tests peoples abilities to work under pressure, to prioritise, and to show they do have an understanding of the basics of their subjects. All things that do come in handy in the workplace...

Seriously? To stop cheating?

Whatever happened to the simple expedient of having invigilators walking around the exam rooms. Anyone caught with a mobile phone in hand is kicked out and fails. Put enough invigilators in the room and cheating will not be a problem. It's what used to be done at my university, (i assume it still is) along with providing the calculators needed for exams (preventing programmed calculators doing the actual work). Even if someone smuggles a phone in, with people walking around with the power to kick them out and fail them, that phone will stay resolutely in that pocket. Guaranteed.

It's really not a difficult problem to solve and you surely dont need to cripple your economy doing so.

(Ok maybe these nations dont have the physical cash in hand to pay people to do invigilating, but surely they can frame it as some sort of civic duty, or put the military to work. They dont have anything else to do, right? :P)

Facebook granted patent for 'artificial reality' baseball cap. Repeat, an 'artificial reality' baseball cap

Augmented Reality can be good in some industrial applications (checking installations and the like), but yeah its very, very niche. And I have yet to hear of a single good use case for normal people (No the pokemon thing was not a good use case...).

Artifical Reality Hat?

So we can call their wearers ARse Hats, right?

From I'm feeling lucky to I'm feeling Brave: Browser maker erects web search engine beta

I recently switched over to Brave on Android after Firefox just got too annoying - frequent crashes, excessive reloading of pages, just feeling bloated, and lacking the fine controls that I make strong use of on the desktop. And so far I'm impressed. It is significantly faster. I mean actually, noticably faster on all my regular websites. It does not have excess bloat, yet seems to have everything that I need. So they have a happy customer in me.

I will check out Brave Search when it comes out of Beta, as I'm finding DuckDuckGo is getting less and less helpful with results. Here's hoping it works out well for Brave...

US Air Force announces plan to assassinate molluscs with hypersonic missile

I bet the USAF clams up about the environmental damage of the test. And you'll probably only be able to get the results via snailmail...

Hubble Space Telescope sails serenely on in safe mode after efforts to switch to backup memory modules fail

It certainly makes sense that we are the test universe. You wouldnt bring half the dodgy work arounds and other associated bollocks of this universe into a production universe if you had the choice...

Re: Power Off

"What's the fallback if you power down and the satellite or its communications system fails to come back up????"

A visit to the Vatican to ask for some divine intervention?

Hubble Space Telescope to switch to backup memory module after instrument computer halts

Re: Why has this not happened already?

Even if there was a plan from before launch about what to do and how to do it. You probably want to review it with a fine tooth comb, before setting it in motion.

What was good practice 30 years ago, might not really be considered a good idea anymore... ;)

Sorry I got that wrong. I had in my mind that Alphas were protons, and Betas where the helium nuclei. I also had in my head that Gammas did count towards cosmic rays, but I see from a bit of quick research thats not the case. Still hopefully the overall message of what i was communicating was clear enough.

In my defence I learnt this stuff ~15 years ago, time and wine might have dulled a few corners here and there... ;)