Posts by Irongut

IBM US staff must be fully vaccinated by December – or go back to bed without pay

Re: Hmmm

Does it breach civil liberties if a non-vaccinated employee transmits the disease to their colleagues and several die gasping for breath?

They just really want to be murderers but without any of the yucky chopping people up or trying to hide it from the police.

Want to support Firefox? Great, you'll have no problem with personalised, sponsored search suggestions then

Why do devs insist on trying this?

> the location is derived from the IP address of the client

Which means it will be wrong 100% of the time. Every site that attempts to determine my location from my IP gets it wrong... about 300 miles away wrong and in the wrong country. They can't even decide which of my ISP's offices my IP belongs to, giving different locations at different times for the same IP.

Intel's €80bn European chip plant investment plan not bound for UK because Brexit

Re: Deal done

For electronics manufacturing you're going to be much better off in the Cambridge, Newcastle or Glasgow areas than London. Shoreditch hipster web devs won't cut the mustard.

EU readies 'antitrust charges' against Apple Pay for locking rivals out of iPhone NFC chip

An Apple sheep complaining about lack of choice? ROFL

Re: While this is a real concern, it is only half the problem

Imagine paying for your coffee with the correct cash and walking away before you can wave a phone. How fresh, how new.

Euro Parliament backs ban on cops using blanket facial-recognition surveillance

IWGB

I can do better than a 24 hour ban on Uber, how about a lifetime ban? I have never used an Uber and I never will.

Google to auto-enroll 150m users, 2m YouTubers with two-factor authentication

Re: 'something you have'

I used to work with a woman whose password was literally her eldest son's name. When I introduced a password reset policy she added a 1 to the end. Eventually for some reason that I forget she changed it... to her other son's name. The worst part is this was less than 10 years ago.

One-character bug gives away $90m in COMP tokens – recipients can keep 10% or consider themselves doxxed

> Otherwise, it's being reported as income to the IRS, and most of you are doxxed.

Wow.

> it would be a good idea to commit to rigorous testing and auditing prior to major code changes

Double wow.

This idiot shouldn't be in charge of a tuck shop let alone a currency or contracts. Between the scammers, the criminals and the just plain stupid is there anything redeemable about crypto?

Internet Archive's 2046 Wayforward Machine says Google will cease to exist

Re: Hmmm... decisions decisions

Hello Mr Tory politician. Proportional representation is actually much more democratic than FPTP but I wouldn't expect you to admit that since you would lose elections.

I vote in both types of elections and in 30 years have never, ever voted in or out a government via FPTP. I have however managed to get candidates, parties and even governments I wanted from PR.

Re: Aection 230 of the US Communications Decency Act

Most of the calls to repeal section 230 seem to come from Republicans who want to stop them removing their toxic content. So I would suggest you are wrong.

UK.gov presents its National Space Strategy: Space is worth billions to us. Just don't mention Brexit, OK?

Re: Marketing puff

No, this is a summary of what British industry is already doing, with no help from Boris & chums.

Nothing about this document is due to Boris.

What do iOS and Android have in common? Their apps suck at privacy, boffins say

Re: Two-fold problem

Don't blame the developers, blame the accout managers and senior management. The developers often don't want to put this crap in but have little choice. Not everone is able to turn down a job because they asked you how to circumvent Safari's privavacy protections in the interview (I did this).

My apps contain no tracking, send no identifiers to anyone and don't include persmissions for location, camera, etc unless those features are used legitimately in the app. I do collect crash reports but they can be turned off in the settings, which is pointed out in my very short privacy policy.

Revealed: How to steal money from victims' contactless Apple Pay wallets

Re: Colour me old fashioned

Could she not remember her name without her ID card?

UK MoD data strategy calls for social media surveillance on behalf of 'local authorities'

Re: Just a little bit off

> the clue is in the MoD's name

Names change and before it was the MoD it was the Ministry of War.

You could change the name to Ministry of Peace, it would make no difference. Names mean nothing.

Re: "social media sentiment analysis"

Everything. We're hiding everything.

Unpatched flaw 'weaponises' Apple AirTags to turn them into the phisherman's friend

Re: "We did not copy Tile"

> 'someone with an iPhone was near this spot at some point'

Which is very useful info if I'm looking to mug people who own iPhones.

Two seconds it took me to think of that nefarious usage, I'm sure if I spent some time thinking about it I could come up with many more.

Latest FinFisher spyware upgrades 'particularly worrying,' says Kaspersky

Re: Two-tier legal system

You may keep voting them in.

I have yet to vote in a UK government and I've voted in every General Election for the last 30 years.

Airbus to help build Mexican Moon-mining automata

Re: What resources on the moon ...

Surely an expedition to visit Jambu and the other whales on the moon would make more sense?

Google experiments with user-choice-defying Android search box

The Android Google Search App – the contractually mandated search widget which is the first thing I remove from the home screen on a new phone. Shortly before I block all the contractually mandated, pre-installed Google, Facebook, carrier, etc apps from running.

China's taikonauts return from heavenly palace after 92-day mission

Re: why aren't they going to the ISS?

> are they avoiding the international community

No China are more than happy to work with the international community, they already have plans with ESA and Russia for their station. It's the USA they don't want that they don't want to work with (and can't legally thanks to US law) and who can blame them after the last 5 years.

Clegg on its face: Facebook turns to former UK deputy PM to fend off damaging headlines

Nah he's just looking at a video of his old mate Dave, giving it to a pig.

> COVID arguments for vaccination (though oddly that has not taken off in England yet, but seems to be infecting Scottish and Welsh politician's minds).

Actually the Tories brow beat the regional assemblies into accepting vaccine passports and then realised that they are ID cards so went strangely silent on the matter. Funny that, it's almost as if Boris wanted the other leaders to be unpopular with the public.

As a former Liberal voter, Nick Clegg killed all support I had for the party and judging by subsequent elections I'm not the only one. So he effectively gave up all Liberal policies, ideas and manifesto commitments now and forever more by making them completely unelectable. Whch is a very "significant lasting problem from that time."

And it gets worse, I'm now an SNP voter so Clegg may have had a direct hand in destroying the union.

Facebook building 'on-demand executable file format' that self-inflates using homebrew compression

Re: give developers minimum spec

And your developers will leave for better jobs.

Making developers lives harder with slow dev machines is not the answeer, especially since we're talking Android here and you don't develop Android apps on Android. Mid-range devices and older devices are useful in the test drawer but you also need the latest devices so you can test against the latest OS features.

The answer is to teach junior devs to care about resource usage, not tie one hand behind their back to hamper them.

DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats sue NYC for trying to permanently cap delivery fees

Re: Ah look, RICO violations.

GrubHub's exact MO.

I spent a year writing software for restaurants and I heard a lot of cases of GrubHub setting up a poor quality delivery service without a restaurant's knowledge or permission. In some cases the restaurant had their own delivery service.

Everything I've read about GrubHub, Uber Eats and DoorDash tells me if they say a law is wrong then it is probably the most correct law you could have passed.

Sort-of Epic win as judge kills Apple ban on apps linking to outside payment systems

A win for everyone except Epic

This judgement is everything execpt a win for Epic.

Apple get to say they are not a monopoly and don't have to allow other app stores.

Devs get the opportunity to use other payment methods.

Apple still get most of the cash because most devs won't bother with the hassle.

Epic must pay Apple damages.

Apple's deciesion to boot Epic from the store was lawful.

Apple do not have to let Epic or Fortnite back on the store.

Boom! Shot yourself in the foot there Epic. The schadenfreude kept me laughing all weekend.

Right to contest automated AI decision under review as part of UK government data protection consultation

If you're training an AI to make important, life changing decisions for other people, train it to reject members of the Tory party and their supporters.

If Tory voters can't get mortgages then Tory MPs won't get votes.

'This is the new normal,' Microsoft tells US workers: Work from home until further notice

Re: Leftanistan

This is what years of right wing inbreeding brings you - idiots who think it is their human right to commit suicide and manslaughter.

British data watchdog brings cookies to G7 meeting – pop-up consent requests, not the delicious baked treats

Maybe we could call it a DO NOT TRACK header? You know like the one all websites ignore anyway.

Been there, tried that, it did not work.

> People automatically select "I agree" when presented with cookies pop-ups on the internet, she argued, so they don't have meaningful control over personal data.

"People" may do that but I don't. I click REJECT ALL and if that option doesn't exist I close the window.

But then I also do wierd things like read what is written on the screen rather than blindly pressing buttons like a toddler on a sugar rush.

US Air Force chief software officer quits after launching Hellfire missile of a LinkedIn post at his former bosses

Re: So true...

You actually need to have a field of competance to do well somewhere. Unfortunately some people have no competance at anything.

Norwegian student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle

Re: Does not make sense

I have a wireless gaming headset that gets 100 hours on a charge so it is possible though unlikely they meant 24 hours continuously.

Banned: The 1,170 words you can't use with GitHub Copilot

Re: At least a software that will block Postel famous principle...

It's American so probably only bans skin color, skin colour should be ok!

NASA tests flying taxis made by biz dreaming of being the Uber of the sky

Re: I count six spinning beheaders

> I absolutely do not believe that airtaxis are going to be a thing.

I know of several air taxi services that are definitely a thing. Of course they use helicopters or light planes, not autonomous drones that fly by blockchain or whatever but they are air taxis.

Can we talk about Kevin McCarthy promising revenge if Big Tech aids probe into January insurrection?

At least the rest of the world has stopped laughing any time your president it mentioned. Any mention of Trump and we were rolling in the aisles.

Volkswagen to stop making its best-selling product for Wolfsburg workers: VW-branded sausages

So processed food = bad. real food = apparently also bad but you're holding out for fake food created in a lab?

Logitech Bolt devices support secure Bluetooth Low Energy – but forget the 'Unifying Receiver'

Logitech gave up on the Unifying Reciever some time ago, I bought a keyboard last year that will not work with it.

Ditto Logitech Options - I was very glad to see the back of that POS. The GHub software is better.

SCO v. IBM settlement deal is done, but zombie case shuffles on elsewhere

OMG why didn't any of us think of that almost 20 years ago?

45RPM has solved it guys! All we need to do is rewrite the code!

If it were that simple it would have been done in 2003.

'No peeing towards Russia' sign appears on country's Arctic border with Norway

Re: “Norway is the only neighbor that Russia has not been at war with.”

Apparently WW2, Norway's collaboration with Hitler and the Norwegians fighting against Russia on the eastern front doesn't count as war with Russia. Norway would like us to conveniently forget what happened in the 1940s.

Sorry for the Godwin but this is actual history so it needed to be said.

Apple settles antitrust case with developers, but it's far from an Epic resolution to App Store monopoly concerns

Huh?

> Apple's insistence on a floor price of $0.99 disadvantaged developers who wanted to compete with free apps

I have 3 free apps on the App Store so free apps are definitely allowed. I fail to see how a minimum price of 99c (which is a lie since free is possible) is disadvantaging developers of free apps. What I do see is someone who wrote a shitty app (baby names ffs) trying to get some money from the big corporate bad guy du jour.

Start or Please Stop? Power users mourn features lost in Windows 11 'simplification'

That Start Menu does look terrible, lacks features I actually use and expands on the one feature I wish they'd remove - searching for anything other than apps. If I open the Start Menu I want to start an app, I don't want to search for documents, contacts or where to buy a kitchen sink and I definitely never, ever want to search the web. If I want to search the web I'll use a web browser.

I guess Win11 is going to be another version for me to skip like 98 (first edition), ME, XP, Vista and 8. :(

Epic lawsuit's latest claims: Google slipped tons of cash to game devs, Android makers to cement Play store dominance

Re: Rumble in the bazaar

Epic bribes developers to release exclusively on their store, adding console style fragmantation to the PC games market that it didn't have before. I think Epic are projecting a lot of the time when they talk about shady practices on app stores.

It is really simple to produce an APK from your AAB. One command in fact.

Or you could build both.

APKs do not stop the sideloading of apps. What they do achieve is a 50% download size reduction for your users (imo ymmv).

More Boots on Moon delays: NASA stops work on SpaceX human landing system as Blue Origin lawsuit rolls on

Re: What did anyone in NASA expect?

An amusing addition to your side comment is the fact that BO was started before SpaceX.

Considering Falcon 1 achieved orbit in September 2008 I'd say BO are at least 13 years behind SpaceX.

Apple didn't engage with the infosec world on CSAM scanning – so get used to a slow drip feed of revelations

Re: Notice how quite Samsung is?

Quite what?

Quite rich? Quite sexy? Or maybe even quite silent... if only there was a word for that... oh yes... QUIET.

Learn to spell, it might just stop you looking like a particularly dim 10 year old.

Apple says its CSAM scan code can be verified by researchers. Corellium starts throwing out dollar bills

Re: This system can't scan for "Winnie the Pooh"

> why does this need to be done on device, if its only for photos uploaded to the icloud, why not just scan for the photos when they hit Apples servers and leave the privacy in place on the device?

Your suggestion is allowing the security to gallop out the open stable door. Plus it would mean Apple handling CSAM and having it on their servers, by scanning on device they can prevent the images getting to any Apple owned equipment and prove the images were in your possesion. Something that may become important when it comes to a court case.

Faster .NET? Monster post by Microsoft software engineer shows serious improvements

I have c# code running on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and serverless Functions (on Linux). All the same c# code with no changes. It is not running on a web server but it could do that as well.

Tell me again how it is tied to one OS.

Git 2.33 released with new optional merge process likely to become the default: It's 'over 9,000' times faster

> Branching and merging is an edge case that can be easily circumvented by talking to your colleagues.

If you work on a codebase of any size, even on your own then branching solves many problems that can't be solved by talking to anyone. In the simplest case, how do you fix a bug in the current version while developing the next version if you don't use branches?

With git branching is a cheap operation and used correctly merging is usually trivial.

Zoom incompatible with GDPR, claims data protection watchdog for the German city of Hamburg

Re: Let's just hire every person in Europe to be a bureaucrat

Because we'd all be better off as company slaves working for less than a living wage, with no paid time off, little to no maternity / paternity leave and strapped down by Zuck every night so Palantir can probe us for data. Fuck yeah!