Posts by RegGuy1 968 publicly visible posts • joined 20 May 2012
Isn't it the Tories who keep banging on about value for money about taxpayer's money?
Hmm. So come the next election, they can be reminded of this. Not that it matters. They'll simply make some fantasy accusations about immigrants, and the old, white racists will shout, "yeah, you should be more careful with taxpayers' money, but we hate immigrants," so the Tories will get in again.
As for Labour, well we don't want them. They too will spend lots of taxpayers' money, but on the poor. FFS why waste it on those that have nowt. Tories, Tories, Tories...
'Twas ever thus in this scummy country of ours.
That's my prediction.
Very good post.
"As a result, most Germans have a strong aversion against anything that has to do with the era."
As opposed to the British, who only know of Germany between 1933 and 1945. Tell them anything about Germany before the Nazis and they ... zzzz.
And tell them anything about how Germany has recovered after the Second World War and they want to know .... zzzz.
Ask the British anything about the Second World War and, well we won it! What more do you need to know? Brexit, brexit, brexit. Ra, ra, ra!
(I added the brexit but to attract downvotes from the brexiters.)
Chromebooks are useless unless you log in. So at a stroke my privacy has been blown away.
Then I have to use Chrome, Google's primary spyware product. I'm afraid I wouldn't touch a Chromebook with a 10-foot barge-pole. At least for me the ideal environment is a Linux machine (so I can configure it how I wish), running Firefox with AdblockPlus and NoScript. Now that is anathema to Google.
We left because an unfortunately large number of voters here are racist. Don't believe me? Then just look at the comments here on Conservative Home, talking about English Language schools:
Remember the Tory party of today is a totally different beast. So many of my work colleagues, open minded, supportive of the capitalist means to run an economy would not now be welcome, if they show any support for immigration.
Sad. Very sad.
Well if they'd do the right thing and tax wealth (ie property), where so many have got massive capital gains that isn't taxed, they wouldn't need to have to find niches such as IR35.
It is simply the old Tories who don't want their home taxed, but do want their homes to pass without fees to their children. 'What's the point of owning your own home,' says my other half, 'if you can't pass it on to your children?' Er: because taxes pay for society for all of us.
So until you can screw the old to get them to (rightly) pay more, we will live in a country with poor public services and where no one cares about anyone else.
Alas, Labour are the same, as both parties cannot get into government without pandering to the greedy oldest 20% of the country. Until you change the electoral system, eg with PR, to remove their power, the country will remain fucked.
And I speak as someone just moving into this group. If you breed selfishness you get shit.
The only silver lining I see, is that, being so greedy, the over 65s won't even pay for social care. And there many of them are shooting themselves in the foot. Good.
Don't use apps.
But first install Firefox; then put on AdBlockPlus and No Script. Ok you have to approve your favourite websites, but No Script is easy (especially basic usage). Regularly delete all your cookies. That will add discontinuities to your history, and they'll have to do more work to re-connect the dots.
Finally NEVER EVER EVER use chrome again.
Or alternatively, roll over and take it like a man...
Ah, Dad's Army. I see the Dad's Army film is on again on BBC2 this evening. Something for the brexiters, then, eh? BBC. And for the rest of us to change channels (or better turn off). Can't we ever forget the fucking war and move on?
Oh, and while I'm on a tangent, I hear a Mr Nigel Farage is to host his own show on GB News. You couldn't make it up. Is that to increase it's viewer figures from zero to 17.4 million?
Google of course. They run the world. I hate phone apps, but as I'm going to Greece tomorrow I am forced to download the Greek's app -- from Google Play. And to get there I have to tell Google who I am (again).[1] And -- just them double checking of course -- I have to say (again) whether I'll accept payments via their app store. What? do they think I'll just give up and say yes?
Fuck off Google. Whoever it is to be trusted must in some way be independent of those that want to make money out of you. So that excludes the big tech companies, governments, other business interests.
Who's left?
I suppose the only answer is to roll over, relax, and let the fuckers (whomever they are) screw you over. Welcome to the future.
[1] It's not Google's business to know where I'm going, except they make it their business. Cunts.
“The software had her daughter at a 97 percent match. This is what we looked at ... if there was a mistake, we apologize for that."
The mistake is to use the software. If you work there you are likely (within the team of employees) to know the troublemakers. Why have software? Or is this yet another example of replacing costly humans with cheap technology?
Yeah, but when you want to actually talk to someone it is either a phone call[1] or you can chat online[2]. Then again, if you are the company your stats will be great. 'No, boss, no problems. We don't have many customers using our phone/chat systems, so it must be good. I suppose that means we don't need to introduce some new-fangled system like email or secure messaging. What's the point when no one complains?'
Or am I being too cynical?
[1] Your call is important to us, but because of covid you will have to wait hours to talk to Burt, the janitor, about that asynchronous socket duplication timing issue.
[2] See [1], but this time with the tiniest data entry window you could get, but you still need to wait. Oh, and if you bugger off to another tab we'll time you out.
Matthias Matussek's description of a trip to Germany by British history teachers
And what did the rotters do? They spurned all the attention as though it were some kind of indecent proposition. "It wasn't a great experience," a paper quoted one teacher, Peter Liddell, as saying. At the opera, the woman next to him nodded off, he reported. They went along for the ride. But that wouldn't change the curriculum, which - after all - calls for Hitler, Hitler and more Hitler. A colleague summed it up for the record: "Nazis are sexy. Evil is fascinating."
There are three simple lessons here.
One: the British have zero interest in the new Germany.
Two: the British have zero interest in the old Germany.
Three: the British are interested only in Nazi Germany.
And that, I would say, is not a German problem, but a British one
Don't be so negative. This is stunning!
Being childish and saying it is just silly billionaire stuff is to totally miss the point. Yes, you can make cheap cracks, but he has developed (what we hope is) a safe mechanism to get to 85km. That is extremely high. 85km or 100km? I bet if you experienced both altitudes you would be quite hard pushed to tell the difference without some measuring equipment.
I remember reading that those on the ISS often sit in its cupola just mesmerised with the view of the Earth. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if those that use his joyride are all equally impressed. Five minutes of weightlessness it may be, but as a life experience, if you can afford it and it proves to be safe in the longer term, the experience may be overwhelming: ie well worth the money. After all, if you want to get to 85km altitude what other options have you got?
And in the longer term, with the experience of running this service, who knows what other transportation systems may develop? Until today suborbital space flight was not available. In 2030 or 2040 who knows, there may be no more long haul flights (apart from your luggage), 90 minutes to travel London to New York or Singapore? Who knows?
Others may take the piss. I've got lots of respect for the Bearded One. Well done!!!
I love Firefox. I love that I can install AdBlockPlus and No Script and suppress much (but alas not all) of the snooping these firms want to do on my machine.
No Script in particular is brilliant -- it stops an HTTP GET request from ever going to some parasitical company, so they never know I've gone to a website they hoped they could scrape my data from. I access a website and it never shows on their logs. Brilliant!
But if you do use open source you are contributing. You are encouraging the use of non-Microsoft, or whatever, software and so demonstrating that you don't need to use expensive, bloated software that offers no more to the average worker than you get with open source.
If you use word processor software, then more or less all the time you can get the same results out of Open Office as you can out of Microsoft Office. And remember, just because you pay a support fee it doesn't mean the commercial company will give you what you want. And worse, once you have paid the support fee you are locking yourself in.
A word processor (for instance) is a word processor whether it is commercial or open source. If you want to print out a letter you can do it just as effectively for free as well has having to (now) pay a subscription.
Still, some people think Word (again as an example) is better than LibreOffice because you pay for it. We need to constantly push back on those (carefully cultivated) ideas to ensure there is proper choice, otherwise you will be left with no choice.
Open source is brilliant in so many ways. Keep shouting that from the roof tops...
I need something astronomical to fill the void
Gaia. If anything has/will transform astronomy it is ESA's Gaia. It's third data release due soon.
A stunning achievement that has already exceeded expectations, and is feeding in to so many different areas.
ESA's Gaia archive
I've never heard of a gilly suit. But a google[1] search returned this: Ghillie suit, a type of camouflage clothing. Still, thanks for the reference. It is always good to increase my knowledge. :-)
[1] Well, duckduckgo. I never use google search.
Reaching your fifth decade: I wish I could remember that. ;-)
Your post reinforces the phrase that you cannot put an old head on young shoulders. One thing I did around your age, that I am very proud of, is I began to think of my retirement really seriously. I had a company pension, but I knew the more money I could save the more comfortable my pension would be when it came.
I was right. And would strongly recommend the same to anyone. You don't want to be 65 or 70 and still not have an idea of when you can really afford to retire. After all my motivation to work was not for 'them' but so that one day I wouldn't need to. That day has come and I'm a happy bunny.
I have retired so I won't be bothering.
In 1991 I read The AWK Programming Language. I retired earlier this year and that book alone has got me through so many difficult times. While I have learned other languages none have come close to awk.
Yes, bang on. But be aware, that if you have the particular skills that are in high demand now (you know, Kubernetes is flavour of the month but it will move on) then as a select group of people earning a high-er salary, you'll be pumped hard because the tooling allows them to do it.
A legal backstop is clearly the correct way to go, to protect the public from the unscrupulous ('it's not ILLEGAL...') actors. But UK governments are not quick to offer their citizens' benefits, when it may disrupt the pursuit of profit, unless the electorate squeezes its balls. So don't hold your breath.
... that is cheering him on? I genuinely wish him well. Of course he's a smart guy, but he has been at this for twenty years and has gone through some really bad times. And it looks like now the competition is certainly driving things forward.
Longer term (2030?) we could have a global sub-orbital transport system in place -- still for the select few because of cost -- but something that has not been possible before. 2040 maybe, this will be far more affordable by many, many people. Who knows? His system -- short hops around the Earth -- could be the new Google of future long-haul travel.
The future is what we make it. Go, Richard, go!! :-)
(Oh, and kudos to the late Paul Allen as well.)
I don't understand any of this. Why use an app? What's wrong with accessing your 'app' via the browser?
What am I missing? I refuse to download apps to my (android) phone, because I have to have a google account. I won't download the NHS app because of this. But I can get to the NHS website, so I don't need the app. Or do Apple hobble the browser?
Not specifically about Microsoft, but about big tech in general, this looks an interesting read (I haven't read it, but plan on getting it soon): spreading the thriving. From that review:
The book’s focus is on the implications of market power for people as workers, rather than as consumers – although it also notes the excess pricing power too. In sum, it reduces wages, both directly through monopsony power in individual labour markets and also because of the the macroeconomic consequences: with so many people in contingent work with low pay, aggregate demand is inadequate. (Some) firms are doing well but the economy isn’t. And this is the heart of Eeckhout’s argument: “The effect of the tide of market power is lowering wages across the economy.” I find this link persuasive. While there are many economists looking at the elements of this story, the way they are combined here is enlightening.
And I was just watching this link: 2008 & 2020: The Combination That Changed Capitalism Forever [Yanis Varoufakis]. Basically he's saying QE (ie magic money) has just pushed the can down the road, and the 2008 crisis is really continuing, with QE taking the strain. But is giving more power to companies to work with the financial markets independently of the real world. I know the derivatives markets (eg will the price of copper[1] go up or down in the next 3 months?) are an enormous part of the UK's economy. As is forex (foreign exchange). In other words making money on guessing whether the money someone has will go up or down.
Now to reel in QE will hurt consumers as we try to deflate the economy, or these large companies, with whom we link in very many other ways, eg via our pensions or insurance deals. So we seem to be in a bind.
Sorry, I know this isn't specifically about Microsoft but they definitely fall into the descriptions above. One last thought. If we are to do anything about these companies, I can tell you for free that we will have bugger all influence while we keep distancing ourselves from the EU. The EU and the US are both supersized (EU 450m people, US 330m; GDP: EU 15.6b, US 21.4b. See data.worldbank.org; note the EU GDP is missing 2.8b that is the UK's economy.) I suggest leaving the EU has been a big mistake, and we are out there in the world alone. That the EU need us more than we need them better be true, otherwise...
[1] £4,500 per metric ton the other week when I happened :-) to go to the local scrap yard -- wow!
Yep. I've done that, thanks to the last time el Reg ran this story.
Fucking NHS. You know it's for old people only. El Reg took me to the opt out page. I had to download a file, print it, sign it and send it off to my GP. FFS, what's wrong with doing it all online?
I've sent it off (but not knowing my NHS number). I don't hold out too much hope they will know what to do with it, and as I don't have any evidence I have sent it they could just ignore it and I'll be none the wiser.
My GP at least still seems to live in the 1950s. Forget the phone, use the Internet.
there's little investment going into vital areas like new antibiotics
This is a known problem and creative ways have been looked at to try to encourage research in this area. People moan about how much money big pharma make, but it has been extraordinary. Many millions of people now regularly live and extra 15-20 years longer -- that's a massive increase. And that is an amazing testament to the success of big pharma. Money encourages R&D and we all benefit.
But governments need to step up to the plate and offer the cash via various projects. I know this has been mooted, but it is often us, the ignorant public, that think public spending is bad, and only the markets can make things better. And that is often difficult to explain to those that, having now retired, don't want to give any more of their money to their government.
You have to convince this group we must spend more. And that's very difficult when they read the Daily Mail.
So he takes $1.3m in the first month. Come the second month, assuming he starts with $310m and a growth of 5% I notice:
(310 - 1.5)*0.05/12 = 1.285
That is, the money left has just earned 1.3m again. When your money just keeps getting bigger you can tell anyone to fuck off.
I would just be happy with half a million quid, so he must be much happier than Larry. :-)
GDPR put the fear of god into all the global multinationals. 'Mandatory' training was imposed to make sure employees knew what was about. 4% fines on global revenue made them stand up and take notice. The EU matters and is a global force in the world.
Yes cookie banners are a bit annoying, but GDPR is much more than this. It's about a legal backstop if you fuck up with people's data. And IDS is just an ignorant pillock. Why make people use only imperial? It's nearly dead, as are most of its proponents. It's just childish Brexit posturing to say look what we can do now.
It's just for fucking headlines. Brexit is only headlines -- there is no substance. Other than svrnty. :-(
6 oz of ham. Who the fuck under 45 understands that now? Oz, is that part of the wonderful Australian deal we have apparently agreed? And if you go to a market stall (the presumed target of this change) that only offers things in imperial and ask for 200g of ham, what then? Are they going to refuse to serve you? That'll be a smart business.
The sooner this brexit bullshit blows through, the better. The current 'do not agree to anything with the EU' -- a la the Northern Ireland Protocol for example, where the unthinking standard response of (unelected) Lord Frost is the EU need to compromise, when we have gone through that, got to a deal, and now WE (the UK, NOT the EU) needs to step up to the commitments it agreed to when the blond twat signed the deal -- is childish, but chimes strongly with the brexiters.
Still, the morons think it's going swimmingly, because lots of old, white racists keep voting for them, despite the fact that the other side of the coin, everyone OUTSIDE the UK think they are a bunch of cunts. It looks like Coyote is still defying gravity after running off the end of the cliff. But nothing lasts forever -- and these scum are slowly dying off. Coyote cannot remain in thin air for ever.
Like I say, it's all bollocks.
No no. /tmp is for users, that's why they invented the sticky bit. IMHO /var/tmp should be where the system does its stuff. /tmp was designed for users. Only later did someone come along and say reboots mean clearouts. That's wrong.
I store stuff that is temporary in /tmp. I don't know how long I'll need it. Maybe I'll not want it again, or maybe the PDF is very interesting, and I want to read it again over the next few months. Temporary is my decision, NOT the OSes.
Alas systemd is a trigger-word:
Fuck off. It's a pile of shite. I yet again had something to moan about: systemd-tmpfiles. Please, please, please let ME manage my machine. I DO NOT WANT /tmp emptied on a reboot. I had changed that in my current OS but an upgrade has uncommented the /tmp line in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf
I use /tmp and only want to delete things when I AM READY. Not after a reboot. Cunts.
Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off...
Sorry. :-(
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