Posts by localzuk 1803 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Jul 2011
No, it isn't undermined. The body was set up through government to operate as it does. The government was, as far as I'm aware, put there through an act of democracy and the laws that control the agency were created through further acts of democracy.
The fact that the government of the day has a different policy is somewhat irrelevant. If they want the agency to operate differently, they have to use the system of government to change the law. Not simply say it isn't their policy.
Democracies in Europe operate through laws passed in some form of parliament. Not by decree.
How do these providers, who's bread and butter is basic business database software, consistently manage to mess it up?
Yes, it will have various moving parts, but at its core the system is a CRM, with added data. How are they so bad at this?
And how does asking people not to call to place queries going to affect the implementation of fixes? Are the developers answering their phones?
The more the USA complains, and pushes back against EU regulation of businesses operating within its territory, the more likely it is that EU customers will stop using those businesses.
There's already an active movement looking to move away from US cloud providers. Some governments are looking at replacing Microsoft stuff etc... Sure, its only a little bit now, but ultimately, EU countries and the EU make their own rules for their own back yard.
Once upon a time, the goal was resilience. Let's build networks that allow things to fail without the services going offline. That was the underlying idea of enterprise solutions.
So, why have so many organisations decided that carefully selecting a single point of failure is a good idea?
This may be the straw to break the camel's back for me.
I use LLMs daily, to speed up tasks that they do well at (assistance writing quick Powershell scripts for example), but they are a tool that I can very much put away when I don't want to use them.
At home? I don't need it. I don't want it. It may be time for a switch to a different OS.
This is the reality. In search of constant growth, companies must "innovate". So, out come the fads. Crypto, metaverse and AI seem to be the current ones.
But, all evidence seems to say that while there are slithers of usefulness in each of them, on the whole they are investor bubbles, perpetuating themselves through false hype.
Companies obsess over share prices, so we end up with this nonsense.
Why don't you believe the view that Russia will attack Europe further? He already is, with attacks on Poland being the latest hybrid warfare attacks.
Not to mention, to ignore Russia's history would be naive. They have attacked Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Chechnya etc... all in the last 30 or so years.
The idea that Putin will just go home, shutting down the massive military-industrial complex he has built? Seems strange to me.
But, then, you reveal yourself for the nonsense about "persecution" of pro-Russian Ukrainians.
Wifi options I've seen myself were Intel Wifi 6 or 7, then an option without bluetooth and a couple of models of an alternative make of wifi card.
Your experience does not match mine.
Your comment about prebuilt machines is likely true for bulk devices for consumers. But, it is not the case for where the majority of devices are sold - to corporations.
Only problem is, that's not how computers are made/shipped.
Companies like Dell do not keep large piles of laptops with their spec pre-made sat in warehouses. They have the chassis, and add the components based on the required specification. Its the only way to provide such variety when you look on their site. A single model can have 8 different CPU options, 12 different memory options, 10 SSD options, 5 Wifi options, 10 screen options, etc... So, for a single model, you end up with a huge number of permutations.
Its why, when I order 100 devices, they take a week to be dispatched.
So, shipping a device with something left out? Is a reduction in manufacturing effort and cost.
For home gear, it is definitely pricey. But for a business? It is very cost effective. I'm rolling it out at my current place and the price difference is significant. Like 1/10th the price of going for Aruba or Cisco. Even more attractive now you can buy enterprise support and extended warranties as well.
Changing highly technical content into "more readable English" is a very poor way of handling the issue though. What actually needs to happen is the users need to be at a skill level to understand the technical content in the first place.
If someone isn't skilled enough to understand the technical content, why would they be using a system?
All this way of writing documentation does is increase support requests for missing information.
You fundamentally misunderstand how the ICC works. Just like any court, a warrant is only issued if there is suitable evidence. The level required for that is determined in international law. Once a prosecutor thinks they have a case, they must provide it to a panel of judges who will determine if there's sufficient grounds in law to issue that arrest warrant, and for a prosecution to actually take place.
It isn't political. It isn't in any way an odd system. It is a normal justice system.
Your silly example is nonsense.
You'd be an incredibly poor leader then. You hired someone to engage in infosec and compliance, and would fire them for not doing something that is not their job?
Accepting a risk is not a valid response when the risk is related to non-compliance with either a legally binding or contractually binding obligation on the organisation. Anyone who thinks it is, should themselves be fired.
The enigma machine is an interesting choice... As those who used it had very stringent training to ensure it was secure.
Ukraine today is very different to the outbreak of the war. So, don't get things mixed up, as you are clearly not paying attention to the state of war today.
Loitering munitions, artillery, drone surveillance, etc... do indeed hold territory. If every time you try and enter an area, you and up with a drone to the head, you don't really need a lot of soldiers on the ground to stop you.
And the Ukrainian war has shown that a lot of that is done with technology. Drones, smart weapons, satellite systems, etc... The idea that soldiers today are like those in WW2, where they run into battle with M1 Garands is outdated and completely ignores the reality of the modern war.
What's the point in squaddies if their entire battle plan is leaked or the solution they use to communicate compromised because one of them taped the PIN to the back of the radio?
So, you think troops shouldn't get training on security even though, even as "infantry/artillery/armour" troops they will interact with these systems daily? Their email, operational systems, the control systems for their equipment (you think modern artillery has no computerised or connected components?), comms, etc... Everyone uses it, so everyone needs training on keeping it secure from threats. It is a core competency.
You've proven, by posting this evidence, that you don't actually understand what is being published. You conflate cause and effect, correlation and causation. Did you know that for the longest time, there were no "left handed" Catholic children? Amazing right? If you ignore the actual meaning of that statement, you draw conclusions like you have with ASD and trans people.
We have pride in our nationality and history, there's all sorts of great things about Britain, from cheese rolling to cider to theatre, our compassion and care for others etc... However, to ignore our negative history and behaviour as a country (colonialism, slavery, sexism, widespread asset stripping of other countries, the millions we as a country have caused the deaths of) is about as un-British as you can get. One of the things British people are known for is our saying sorry. Its part of our national identity to recognise mistakes and own up to them.
Your comments on primary education are ungrounded in reality - how about you actually look at the curriculum, and look at the resources used before basically parroting what right-wing American christian-nationalist groups state. Your comment about "kink" is nonsense. Schools teach about the dangers of things that children see online. The reality is that this stuff exists online, and to combat its prevalence in young people, schools are forced to teach that it is not acceptable, that consent matters, and what the law allows. All these things are done at age appropriate points throughout the child's growing up. No primary school is teaching its children about the things you list.
How about you put yourself through some child safeguarding training? Then you'll see the reality of why schools teach what they do. As, at the moment, you are clearly getting your "facts" from right wing rags.
Your comments about surgery are not even worth talking about - as they are as ignorant as they can possibly be.
All you have done is outed yourself as another uninformed individual.
Primary schools teach the existence of the world. Teaching that transgender people exist is not inappropriate, just as teaching cisgender people exist. The fact that you think it is makes you a bigot.
Then you lurch into Farage-esque drivel about "native brits". You know who a native Brit is? Someone born here. End of the story.
Obsessing over "wokism" is going to make you into an angry and sad individual.
Doesn't really change anything. The EU passes rules, and states are given implementation deadlines. That deadline has moved a bunch of times because of poor planning by the central body - not because countries are having issues implementing it. The people who came up with the rules and the deadline should have known countries would have implementation issues, as they should have liaised with them before-hand.
Top down diktats without adequate prior research and knowledge are the problem here.
We're about 2 weeks out from the start of this process, and they have yet to give any actual details. Phased in? Where, which ports/airports?
ETIAS? Why is it being introduced at a separate time? I thought ETIAS was supposed to be at the same time, so the entire process was self service and stamp-less. If you have to scan all your biometrics in, does that mean you no longer need the stamp? If so, what is the point of ETIAS?
Student accounts are just as much a target for attack as staff accounts, sadly.
But, your second paragraph relies on this being possible to implement - many education providers are not overly flexible when it comes to security stuff, and many schools don't have the expertise to properly implement add-on security tools, or configure the ones they have properly (e.g. using conditional access policies on an app by app basis).
The no phone use policies of many schools are also based on a "lead by example" view that ignores reality, and overcoming internal politics can be even more difficult than the technical aspects.
Education is in a fairly unique position where we're expected to implement enterprise class systems, for amateur budgets, in unrealistic timescales, and with no training. Some schools are good at it, some, as we see regularly, are very bad at it.
Exactly this. I can't see how Broadcom can win this, if the terms of the original purchase contract are as Tesco state - that their license entitles them to upgrades, and the ability to extend for a further 4 years after 2026. One side unilaterally deciding not to honour those terms, while still offering the same product line but with a new pricing model seems a bit "fraudy"...
The EU is pursuing this agenda as well - both down the line of age verification, and going another step further with their chat control proposal (scanning everyone's chats for CSAM, and suspicious behaviour, and flagging anything suspicious and sending it to authorities to investigate).
There's voluntary, and "voluntary"... The latter is "we have provided this guidance that would bring you in line with your legal responsibilities, if you don't follow it, you have to somehow show you are compliant with the law".
There's loads of such agreements and guidelines in use across the world.
Arrests would be a terrible statistic to work on from the off. Being arrested means nothing. Police regularly arrest people wrongly in both the UK and USA.
Surely convictions would be better? Kg of drugs taken off the street? Trafficking victims helped? Gangs broken up? Anything other than arrests basically.
So, the training will be "Use Google Docs" "Use Google Cloud" "Use Google Gemini"... Hardly a sensible or good idea to hand this to one of the hyper-scalers. They'll just signpost everything to their own products and services.
Is the government really saying there are no independent organisations in the UK that could've undertaken this work?
On top of not really understanding the value of the product here, I also don't get who it is aimed at.
If you're a consumer, and your PC dies, you don't generally have another device suitable for using a Windows desktop remotely - ie. connecting to it on your phone isn't going to be worth anything to you. So, you'd need to go get another PC, at which point, you don't need this service.
If you're a small business? You'd go get a new PC straight away so you can run your business.
If you're an enterprise? You have more PCs already...
So who is this for?
IIRC, the actual law that was passed only allowed a single 90 day extension. So, how exactly is Trump, who is supposed to operate according to the law, able to extend it repeatedly?
The answer is simply that it'd be Trump that would have to enforce the law via his administration. So, there's no actual limitation on how the President and his executive operate. Congress is apparently superfluous.
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