Posts by Doctor Syntax 40432 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014
Allowing for the fact that this was functionality of the software rather than the software itself, I was wondering that. However the judge specifically stated that it applied to this particular case; IOW he's saying this doesn't constitute a precedent.
It's a bit alarming that nobody in a room-full of doctors could use a microscope properly. The trickier to spot version is that the trinocular* head is set to the binocular. Unless you notice the glint through the eye-pieces there's nothing obviously wrong.
* Pair of binocular eye-pieces plus straight through port for the camera.
Local water treatment plant built in the 1950s (should have been listed as a beautiful example of what mid-C20th municipal architecture could achieve but now sadly demolished) had two wings each with a set of sand filters, one in use whilst the other was being backwashed. There was a double height central hall which would be called an atrium nowadays. In it was a sink with a set of taps, each connected to one of the filters. With each tap turned on the effect of each filter could be seen as the successive streams of water got clearer. As I lived up the road between the reservoir and the filter works I was quite familiar with it.
I saw the old-style phone of our neighbours' after a non-strike had induced enough current to warm it up a bit. The perspex dial looked as if it had been boiled - it was full of bubbles. Both our electricity and phone supply are underground which gives us some protection. Sometimes I'm still inclined to unplug electronics from the mains if there's thunder about.
1. You cover the header tank.
2. The combi-boiler has largely made this obsolete, for better or worse.
The tank may well still be there. It may have been put into the loft before the woodwork for the ceiling was completed and there's now no way to remove it. If, like me, you live on a hill close to the limits of the head of water in the mains* you realise that that local head of water would probably improve the shower performance if it were still available.
Then you have to take into account all the Canada geese on the reservoir, townies coming over in summer when the reservoir levels are low and letting their dogs crap below high water mark and similar.
* Any time they try to jack up the pressure at the PRV it causes bursts of the mains lower down.
It took me ages to find a double pole switch over intermediate MK switch, the 1960s toggle, not the flat style. Just so I could match it to the rest of the house. Embrittlement? No sign of it.
The only switch failures I've seen are on the triple sockets to fit double boxes. Can anyone recommend a good make?
If you have two or more way switched circuits you get used to the idea that you can't rely on which way the toggle is to tell whether it's on or off.
After several years my granddaughter's bedroom light switch is still the wrong way up. It was like that when they moved in. I couldn't work out how to get the face plate off without prying, probably hard enough to break it. My BiL who's a sparky was to do some work there so I asked him to take a look. Still nothing. I suspect whoever fitted it originally had an "Oh, shit" moment when he realised what he'd done and he couldn't move it either.
Not much different to where I live. At least routing S/W mostly doesn't direct HGVs that way any more. Descending from the cross roads there's one relatively(!) wide stretch with a right-angle bend with a high wall on the right. A hundred yards or so below there's a right-right angle bend to the left and the road narrows. It was just round there that they mostly got wedged against the left hand retaining wall, probably on account of the fact that from an HVG cab they can see the 20 foot drop on the other side of the right hand wall. We used to get a few diversions whilst the local tow truck came to pull them out.
A couple of years ago I saw a tanker parked just past the first corner and still there when I came back an hour or so later. I realised he'd discovered his problem sooner than most but still couldn't back up unaided. A few hours later he'd gone and there were wheel-spin marks on the road.
You're lucky
First failure - Christmas morning, no less. SWMBO had just put dinner in the oven. We always have as guests her sister & husband who live a few hundred yards away so the whole lot was quickly whisked away to their oven while I went online to order two replacements.
A few years later the next element went in a shower of sparks in the run up to Christmas. Just as well I had the spare; fit it and order another.
Another year the fan seized up just before Christmas.
Sigh. This year is going to be quiet....
"If the appliance itself doesn't have a switch, just unplug it..."
I've always assumed that the function of the plug/socket interface was simply to provide a connection with suitable capability to withstand external forces and that the switch was designed to cope with issues such as arcing on breaking the circuit. Two different designs of connector to deal with two different aspects of connecting an appliance to the supply.
Windows side - "push contents to clipboard, pull contents from clipboard".
Apart from the fact that Windows probably has to do a fair bit under the hood there's a substantial difference in operating environment between a system with a single, local user and what is, potentially, a networked multi-user system.
"It does harvest your data so it can sell you more stuff"
Given the stuff that it suggests, presumably on the basis of that data, there seems to be a gap between intent and achievement.
BTW, folks, give Neil the upvotes he deserves. I'm embarrassed to have got more than him..
Essentially GDPR is designed to do that. Part of the trouble is that they can only be caught in breach when someone goes after them. I suggested in the Eperian thread that we need to start at the other end: large scale* data brokers and aggregators should require a licence to operate. Conditions of the licence including a requirement to provide regular statements of data held to each data subject and regular audits. The statement would have to include by what right each item was held and there would be an obligation to correct errors and delete - and not re-collect - items for which there was no consent or for which the subject wished to withdraw consent. The statement should also include a statement of categories of data added and deleted since the last statement, and perhaps an ability to demand an interim statement of the exact holdings at some point in time of the subject's choosing**. Failure of an audit, including demonstrable failure to abide by statement rules could result in immediate suspension of the licence with it being a criminal offence to oversee continued processing after a suspension. Suspension remains in effect during any appeal.
If this makes the business model unprofitable, tough. You have a right to run a business but to to mess with others' individual rights. The ICO pointed this out quite clearly in the Experian case.
* Best defined as a function of number of data subjects, volume of data and sensitivity of data.
** If they want to permanently delete data before the first statement, fine, but unchecked they'd simply delete data before a statement and re-collect it afterwards.
Up to a point it's a fair enough idea. If X has a good case against Y but can't afford it on account of Y's deeper pockets then if X can find someone who can afford it to take on the risk for a percentage then why not?
OTOH the article suggests individual claimants might each only have some hundreds of quids' worth of damages owing. In that case the FB deep pockets can be negated by going via the small claims route. Trying to deal with 4.4 million small claims might be the bigger nightmare for FB, the claimants might end up with more in their pockets but the lawyers' children might have to subsist on dry bread and gruel.
"Maybe years of believing to be above the law, or being the law has something to do with it"
Leaving aside the fact that being ex could be significant they might have hoped that their oppos in another force might have been - shall we say - sympathetic. If so that didn't work Being ex-police isn't going to be in their favour if they get sent down.
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