Posts by Doctor Syntax

England's COVID-tracking app finally goes live after 6 months of work – including backpedal on how to handle data

Re: Is the QR code check part of the app in a legal requirement for venues?

Marketing are always the worst problem.

Good. We need to be thinking of how to apply selective pressure. Without an effective vaccination regime to eliminate the virus (and there are enough idiots to prevent it) having it reduced to something as benign as a cold is going to be the only long-term solution.

Re: Points missed

"Now that's missing the point!"

But not missing other people.

Re: UK

Hand-washing was part of the early instructions here along with lock-down but not masks. The package as a whole resulted in transmission rates falling abruptly

From a population point of view its a matter of numbers. If a given set of precautions is sufficient to bring R below 1 in a given situation then it will reduce the numbers of infections. If that happened in Vietnam for one particular set of precautions, fine*. Another set worked here in the UK.

From an individual point of view things are different. Family in my generation and our friends are at heightened risk due to age and possibly other health conditions. Mere hand-washing probably wouldn't have sufficed for us so we have had very limited contact with others and by-and-large are maintaining that.

I think what's happening now is much the same as the aftermath of Y2K. Then we had people saying it was a false alarm because nothing went wrong when we know that nothing went wrong because a genuine alarm was heeded. We now have people thinking that because they caught nothing up to now it was a fuss about nothing.

Yes there are idiots of all ages. The OP's comment, however, singled out young people and a group of older people of a certain attitude. The latter are at risk because of a combination of their age, which they can no more help than I can, and their attitude which they can do something about. If they choose to act foolishly my sympathy lies entirely with those to whom they pass on infections.

* I wonder what the age distribution is in Vietnam. In a predominantly young population the level of illness, if not of actual infections, might be lower n any case.

Re: Scotland

"getting all those lorries off the roads as well will be heaven"

They'll be on the roads alright. Parked. And if they're carrying food there'll be a choice of exhaust fumes to keep the refrigeration going or the smell of decomposition.

Re: Never mind

Remember that humans are a novel environment for this virus. It hasn't had the evolutionary time to adapt that older respiratory viruses have. What's more, the availability of medical treatment will have greatly reduced the deaths of individual hosts so the selection pressure is much reduced. The likelihood is that it will evolve.

Re: UK

I should point out to the downvoters that I'm very definitely an older person (as is my wife who has the additional risk factor of type 2 diabetes). I also have an aversion to being told what to do which goes back at least to compulsory Latin in school.

OTOH I recognise serious warnings and advice for what they are. I also spent half my working life as a biologist well able to look at things from the point of view of the species rather than the individual.

So when, the other day, I heard some nuppit probably the best part of a decade younger and possibly with drink taken, effing and blinding to the door attendant at Morrisons about restrictions I had no problem placing him as part of the problem, not the solution.

The downside of this, of course, is that a Darwin award for such individuals is that it's too late to have a real effect on the gene pool.

Re: Is the QR code check part of the app in a legal requirement for venues?

They still have to collect details of anyone who doesn't have the means to scan the QR code.

Re: Is the QR code check part of the app in a legal requirement for venues?

"Any data gathered via the QR coding cannot be pinpointed to an individual (supposedly)"

The way it works is that the device retains the QR code and the system periodically broadcasts a list of QR codes for tainted (in absence of a better word) premises. The app then matches this list against the codes it's gathered and warns the user so the data gathered from the QR codes never leaves the device. Allegedly. And by now I think HMG is well aware that it would never weather the consequences if it proved to be otherwise.

In fact I think they're missing a trick here. The app registers the user's home postcode and the system broadcasts lists of postcodes which are considered to be hotspots so it can warn the user if and when their own postcode is put on the list. There's no mention of the QR codes including the premises postcodes; if they did it could alert the user tot he fact thet they're now in a hotspot even if the particular premises aren't tainted.

Re: United? Kingdom

"Have you tried programming C# in welsh?"

I thought it was.

"I believe that humanity has never previously developed immunity to a coronavirus previously"

That's not a testable hypothesis. If it has the virus will now be extinct and we'd be none the wiser.

We do, however, have several coronaviruses that cause mild diseases*. What's the nature of this interaction? Did they start off as equally lethal and evolve to respond to some sort of control from the host so as not to kill off the latter?

* And the current coronavirus, like others, is not lethal in its original host.

Re: (thanks to Cummings)

Point taken. Nevertheless I think the Cummings incident and failure to deal with it was a turning point. Call it authority, respect, credibility or whatever; up to that point public opinion was supportive. Now Covidiots have a certain degree of licence. It will take a massive increase in death toll to get that support back.

Re: (thanks to Cummings)

Failing to sack Cummings on the spot once it emerged what he'd been up to was a gross error. HMG has lost a good deal of credibility.

Re: Never mind

So it's just a coincidence that figures show that when lockdown started earlier in the year R fell abruptly and started to climb gradually as it was eased in steps? What was that about "fuck facts"?

Re: UK

a significant number of older people "who don't like being told what to do".

That could become a self-limiting problem.

"Based on every I read and hear from the UK, there is no second wave, it is still in the ups and downs of the first wave."

I think this is a reasonable interpretation. Apply various mitigation measures, R goes down, disapply them R goes up. In this context "waves" seem to be more PR than anything else. AFAICS what's happening is that the govt. is trying to apply such measures and work out which have least adverse economic and political effects. The feedback from any change is sufficiently delayed that the level of infections will go up and down.

BT cutting contractors' rates by a fifth and halving notice period because 'coronavirus'

Re: This years excuse

"This is the nature of contract work"

It sounds more like breach of contract. In their position I'd be taking a careful look at contract terms, getting a legal opinion, reviewing how much in the lurch BT would be and then terminating ASAP, preferably with no notice at all. Then opening new negotiations.

Former BT CEO to lead task force that will advise UK.gov on diversifying the nation's telecoms supply chain

"Department for Digital, Media, Culture, and Sport"

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.actually but I prefer to omit the second comma - leaving the door agar for other interpretations.

Re: 30 years too late

Short-termism of the stock market is likely to have been just as potent.

Remember Entatech? UK liquidators are still trying to seize founder Jason Tsai's assets

"There were non-fraudulent parts of this business,"

The curate's egg argument.

Braking point: Tesla has had quite enough of Trump's 'unlawful' tariffs on Chinese-made parts, sues Uncle Sam

Re: The Falling Out of Faithful Friends...

But was the advice taken?

TikTok seeks injunction to halt Trump ban, claims it would break America's own First and Fifth Amendments

Just sell them all the rights to TikTok in the US. Then just launch a new product called, say TickTock. Who remembers "The Empty Store" (Phil Silvers)?

Uncle Sam's legal eagles finally make up their mind on internet giants' Get Out Of Jail Free card – and it's not as bad as you may fear

Re: "anything unlawful"

There are other places? [exit US mode]

Frames per second? Windows Terminal brings back text animation with the VT100 blink

Re: VT100?

Sole purpose of Windows at one client: to maintain multiple terminal sessions on the Unix box.

Re: Ah... the good old VT220

"was once SOP but these days is regarded as a black art"

The two were not mutually exclusive. I take it you still have your RS-232 breakout box?

Re: I'll take a pass

We had Plessey (IIRC) look-alikes. They definitely had a |. And were amber.

Very nostalgic video. Some of the tests also reminded me of the UCSD p-System terminal set-up.

Re: I'll take a pass

"control and data acquisition with some very expensive analytical kit"

Yup. MicroNOVA running data-acquisition on the XRF attachment to a SEM. Definitely an expensive piece of kit.

Your latest security headache? Ed from accounting using his kid as an unpaid helpdesk

To reverse the situation, it's a long time since I had to do support for my daughter who arrived home with her dissertation on a Zip drive disk but no Zip drive.

Re: This One Time

If you bought watches in the plural you could have had her set one (or more) for standard time and one (or more) for daylight saving time. Just remember to switch watches as required.

Nice title, BYW.

Re: This whole working from home thing is an accident waiting to happen

Its only a matter of time before someone starts looking at working from home as "transferring a part of the business to a residential address".

Just acting on government instructions. They can be referred to Michael Gove if they want to argue.

Support might be construed to include giving some slightly more useful hints as to how to use it.

"it appears the consultancy wanted to demonstrate to youngsters how much money they could be making if they went for a career in IT (and, conveniently enough, consulting.)"

Hmmm.

If by "in consulting" you mean "working for a consultancy company" than that amount is going to be what the consultancy company makes whilst youngster gets paid minimal wage.

If you mean as freelance then things are better but don't forget that until the youngster's well enough established to get repeat business and new business by word of mouth there'll be a pimp agency taking a cut, general costs of running a business, such as an accountant and insurance, and HMRC trying to rip them off by pretending it's not actually a business they're running.

Microsoft's OS joins macOS and Linux at the Flutter party, but guess which one performs best? Hint: It's not Windows

"Google will drop Dart "

Why break the habit of a lifetime?

FBI boasts of dark-web drug bust: 179 collared around the world, $6.5m in cash and 500kg of narcotics seized

Re: Not even a drop in the ocean

That's because Panorama got the gig which fact got splashed all over bbc.co.uk/news. The Beeb is enough to be its own competition.

Microsoft leaks 6.5TB in Bing search data via unsecured Elastic server. *Insert 'Wow... that much?' joke here*

"simplified privacy controls"

None.

What could be simpler?

.uk registry operator Nominet responds to renewed criticism – by silencing its critics

Re: ICO

Be very careful what you wish for. You might get it.

Do you really want a BoJo, a Cummings, a Corbyn*, a Gove, a Rees-Mogg or any of the rest of the rogues gallery running the internet in the UK?

Various governments have wanted to get their hands on the net, usually via the ITU. Fortunately the ITU has managed to fend them off. Read about it by searching for el Reg's articles on it.

The existing governance might bot be ideal but there seem to be commentards here who want something worse. A lot worse.

* Under your idea it could have come to that.

Re: "legally, a member-based non-profit organisation"

Private companies are owned by their members. They must have an AGM at which members can vote. If a majority of the holders of membership voting rights choose to vote the old board out of office and vote in a replacement that's the end of the old board and all its policies. The board can dismiss company management including the CEO if they wish.

Unless one member controls most of the votes that's a long way away from being a dictatorship.

But don't let facts get in the way of an internet post.

That would be a pyrrhic victory.

"even then they would probably just nationalize it and put Baroness Harding in charge."

One reason for keeping it away from government.

As you say, it's answerable to its members and the members have an opportunity to vote on the board at the next AGM. They also have the right to propose their own candidates as replacements for the board. Of all the companies in the UK it's harder to think of any that have a better ability to get together online behind the managements back to do just that.

But should this really be a government function? On the whole I think that the less governments have their hands on the net the better.

China sets out world domination plan for its digital currency

Re: And so begins the middle game

How much US debt does China hold now? In terms of US GDP?

We're not getting back with Galileo, UK govt tells The Reg, as question marks sprout above its BS*

Re: Two chocolate teapots

"It's surprising that Trump hasn't already turned GPS accuracy down to hundreds of metres over Europe"

I think you attribute too much technical knowledge to him.

She was praised by the CEO and promoted. After her brother and mom died, she returned from compassionate leave. IBM laid her off

Re: Old~ish joke

Can't See Shit is more likely to mean Youngish.

The first ageism I encountered was at an interview at Dell. First question: "You're 32. The average age here is 27 - do you really think you could fit in?"

Correct response: "Plus or minus what?"

Re: Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM

Except for choosing to work there.

Re: Double-edged sword - A few years later

"In general the older employees cost more and tended to be harder to control."

Certainly after a few trips round the (de)motivation course most people with a working brain recognise the BS for what it is. They also are experienced in whatever it is they do and don't really need control. The only people to whom this is a problem are those whose salaries and/or self-esteem depending on controlling them.

"Younger employees lack inexperience"

Oops"

"but they tend to have more energy and lower wages."

Energy is a trade-off with the efficiency that knowing the job brings and wages for them are a trade-off with the payments for the manglers whose sole role is to tell those who already know what they're doing what to do.

"If I were running a business with an aging workforce, I'd probably be tempted to swap them out too."

I wonder.....

UK govt urged to bolt tough legal protections onto Arm and protect jobs – or simply veto Nvidia's £31bn acquisition

Re: Like you think this government has an *actual* "Industrial Policy"

"The market, the whole market and nothing" but the market has been UK Govt mantra since the Adoration of the Blessed Maggie in 1979.

It might have escaped your notice but your favourite hate figure is the only UK prime minister we've ever had (one one of only a few ministers overall) with a STEM background.

Re: Little leverage left

"Well, Donald Trump seems to be able to force the sale of a Chinese company to an American one"

Actually, no. All he had was the ability to make it difficult for a Chinese company to operate its US arm in certain circumstances.

Re: "Afterwards we whine because Europe has no tech industry "

"You voted to leave "Europe" in 2016."

Oh no I didn't.

Re: Why sell Arm anyway ?

OK. You're paranoid.