Posts by Doctor Syntax

Scissors cut paper. Paper wraps rock. Lab-made enzyme eats plastic

Re: shipping it around

"The only way to dispose of stuff created in the first world is to dispose of it in the first world."

OTOH most of it seems to be created in China these days.

Huawei CEO sings 'Bye, bye, mister American Pai', trims US C-suite

Are the US monitoring the manufacturing of iPhones in China just in case of any "additional features"?

Maybe it's such an additional feature that's allowing unlocking of iPhones nowadays.

NHS given a lashing for lack of action plan one year since WannaCry

Re: Valuable comments

@codejunky

Sometimes we agree. Jobs, and that means top jobs, need to be on the line and without golden goodbyes an case of failure.

I'd love to have the first A/C and the trust CEO appear together before the PAC. Ask the CEO their salary and then ask the A/C how much they could accomplish with that sum.

Re: Kick me whilst I'm down

"I need more coffee."

You need your CEO to be told their job is on the line if there's a breach.

US government weighs in on GDPR-Whois debacle, orders ICANN to go probe GoDaddy

Re: Some "private" data _should_ be public domain!

"So what happens if, as I think I've read has been proposed, the US pass a law making it a statutory requirement for internet regstrars based in the US to make all this info publically available?"

I'd wondered about the existing situation in regard to that.

As far as can seen ICANN's role is not statutory. If the US were to make such a move and try to make it apply to non-US residents, effectively making the net US property, the likely consequence would be a push by other governments to move the whole internet under ITU. I don't think the US or most of the internet users would want that.

Re: Some "private" data _should_ be public domain!

"Then there's Companies House: I do a lot of research using its data"

In which case I'm quite sure that, despite your protestations, you're aware that CH filings are statutory. Statutory data isn't affected by GDPR. It would appear that your complaint isn't about GDPR but about company law relating to what's accepted in filings.

"A very common misconception but not quite true. If you want to have an office based within the EU then any business performed from it must be compliant with EU laws."

And your second sentence also isn't quite true. It would mean that you couldn't send anyone over to conduct business in the EU nor would you be able to appoint agents there. In practical terms it would make it difficult to do business on a large scale if you couldn't do that.

"The EU does not forbid its citizens from seeking services outside the EU with organisations to which EU laws do not apply."

Apart from the logistical issues such an organisation would have to contend with being gaining a sleazy reputation. And if the nature of the service were B2B then its customers would be at risk.

"This would be news to most, well, everyone."

It shouldn't be news to anyone responsible for holding personal data of European residents. It wasn't even news to ICANN; they just hoped if they ignored it it would go away.

It would really be irresponsible of the EU to grant them a stay of execution. If they did that every other toe-rag in the data exploiting industry in the world would be queuing up next day. I think we can all guess who'd muscle to the front of the queue.

And didn't the US set up a new data protection ombudsman recently to "protect" EU data held in the US? Not law, mind you, just an "agreement" and a "promise"

Did they actually get round to appointing the actual official rather than a deputy? In any event, what was the department responsible for that? Wasn't it Commerce?

Re: EU expecting it's laws to be global

"So screw them. ICANN should just move all registrations in the EU to registrars outside of it."

There is an alternative. The rest of the world stops regarding ICANN as guardian ruler of that joint enterprise, the internet. They treat one of the existing DNS root mirrors as the definitive root, make any changes to that and point the other mirrors to it.

US businesses will have to go along with that if they want to be seen by the rest of the world. The most that would be left to ICANN would be to mirror the new root and just keep up the face-saving pretence to the US public of being in charge.

You're a govt official. You accidentally slap personal info on the web. Quick, blame a kid!

"Which is exactly what we'd imagine you would allege if you were trying to deflect attention away from the fact someone on your staff bungled and put the wrong files on the public internet."

Actually, no. I'd expect them to quietly fix the problem and do everything possible to avoid publicising that it ever happened. Are any of them called Streisand?

Europe wants cloud giants to cough up data from anywhere in 6hrs

Re: The onward march to the underground!

"I'm sure these people realise that once you pass laws where you can obtain data then the people whose data they want will just move it somewhere they can't get it."

I don't think they do. The thought patterns of legislators are such that they must believe that if they forbid something everyone wanting to do that will simply avoid their efforts. The history of taxation or banning of alcohol, for instance, has provided centuries long evidence of this in the form of smuggling and illicit distillation.

Living inside a bubble where a host of employees including the most senior officials are doing their bidding* seems to convince those who've reached the top of the government tree that they really are all-powerful.

* Or at least persuading them they are.

Supreme Court punts on Microsoft email seizure decision after Cloud Act passes US Congress

"MS complied"

On what basis? If the objection previously was violation of another country's law and it's a basis for questioning a warrant under the new one why did they not play that card again?

"The DoJ got their emails"

Did they? I thought they were having to start again under the new law.

Facebook admits it does track non-users, for their own good

"Publicity stunt"

Very likely. But scary that things are such that someone there thinks it makes enough sense for it to be a publicity stunt.

"the day that the little plastic internal bit, that should have been made out of metal, wears out,"

Or the little plastic bit that shouldn't be made out of metal because it's for insulation wears out. Then the drill really is going to last him the rest of his life.

Re: Why?

"opinion polls were the least relevant thing in the world as they were the thoughts of people who lack the intelligence to avoid someone walking towards them with a clipboard."

Or who have the imagination to lie to them.

Re: RE: As a never-signed up non member....

"What kind of monstrous parents would have identical twins and name them identically?"

I don't know if they were identical but I do know of one pair of twins who were given the same name. It was in the C18th.

Re: Facebridge Analytica

"I don't think he would ever have imagined that a significant proportion of humanity would freely generate and willingly consume their own prolefeed"

It turns out that Orwell was an optimist.

Re: RE: As a never-signed up non member....

"I imagine this will involve a lot of banging my head against a wall at least until GDPR kicks off, but I'm going to keep badgering them out of principle."

Maybe the best approach is to lay it on the line for them: "Do you want to deal with it now or would you rather wait until GDPR applies?".

Pentagon sticks to its guns: Yep, we're going with a single cloud services provider

He probably stopped listening when he discovered it wasn't Twitter.

Re: Co-CEO chats with current POTUS?

"Have the RAF's two remaining Tornados tour the nation, using precision weapons to take out golf club houses"

No. Some of them were perfectly respectable historic buildings before they became club houses. They should be rehabilitated.

Windows 10 Spring Creators Update team explains the hold-up: You little BSOD!

Re: Bring my optical disk drive back!!

"If anyone knows of any other solutions, please reply."

Use more up-to-date hardware. The fashion there is to leave optical drives out "because there's no demand" as I was told when I asked about it. Lack of software support won't matter.

Re: Windows insider Program

"3) You can't improve products by testing, but by improved design & implementation"

Not testing certainly doesn't improve products.

Don’t fight automation software for control, just turn it off. FAST

Re: Even in the extremely unlikely event that fully autonomous vehicles ever become viable

"Which means utilisation will have to be high, in order to cover costs."

Which in turn means there'll not be enough to go round when everyone wants one for commuting.

Re: Even in the extremely unlikely event that fully autonomous vehicles ever become viable

"Some sort of cross between taxi and car share seems viable."

What do you want out of a car? A reasonably clean vehicle available when you want it? With your own car the degree of cleanliness is what you decide is what's worth putting in the effort and availability is assured by not competing with someone else for the vehicle. Can you guarantee either with the taxi/car share model, especially if you want the car to go to work in at the same time as most other people?

Re: Even in the extremely unlikely event that fully autonomous vehicles ever become viable

"And that year, it will be pointed out that although 50% of the cars on the road are human driven, those 50% are responsible for 99.9% of the deaths."

That makes an assumption as to the relative driving abilities of self-driving vehicles vs tired and drunk humans. That remains to be established.

"As more of us clamber into cars with self-driving capabilities, that advice may become words to live by."

And if the car has no manual controls? Words to die by?

Google, AWS IPs blocked by Russia in Telegram crackdown

Re: MInor Correction

"if you trawl through their raves over the years Josephina Vissarionovna May wanted to ban VPNs for private individuals as far back as becoming a home secretary under Cameron."

It's standard HO house training. Once a Home Sec always a Home Sec, even in Downing Street.

Productivity knocks: I've got 99 Slacks, but my work's not done

"In-country data storage? Nope, unless your country is the US. It's sitting on Amazon's Cloud, but on US-only instances."

Once the first Slack user gets hit under GDPR the panic is going to be worth watching.

Intel's security light bulb moment: Chips to recruit GPUs to scan memory for software nasties

Weasel words alert

In general, data is anonymized and generalized.

HPE donates 3 mini-supercomputers to UK universities boning up on Arm

"largely identical"

Is that more alike or less then "almost different"?

Congressional group asks FBI boss Wray to explain Apple lawsuit

Likely answers

"I cannot disclose that for operational reasons."

Repeat for each question.

NHS Digital execs showed 'little regard' for patient ethics by signing data deal

"Little regard" seems to be overstating it. "None" would be more appropriate.

New Galaxy un-smartphone can’t go online because Samsung's thought of the children

Re: The Sand, the Ocean, and the Damn Phone

"Along with the phone."

Or just the phone.

Sysadmin’s worst client was … his mother! Until his sister called for help

I also note that some people showing users ( or running training) will omit steps, because they are "obvious."

I used to find this was a problem with schoolteachers. If it was a subject that fitted your thought patterns, no problem. If it wasn't you got left behind trying to puzzle out one thing when they'd moved to another.

"a huge power button, a 3 inch circle on the front of the case, with a much smaller reset button inset into the edge of it"

You're describing the effects of style over function, the bane of the IT world over the last few decades.

"Help! The moon's all covered in walnuts wrapped in paper"

It's not easy trying to explain to SWMBO what I'm laughing at when every attempt results in a fresh outburst.

Re: Me, mine, not the late mother or father, nor the wife

"you can end sentences ready to start a new one"

But that means using capital letters.

Re: Me, mine, not the late mother or father, nor the wife

"wants to print out an email attachment, has an android phone"

Ah, the old email on someone else's computer thing.

Re: Dad wanted a PC

"Had he previously used a non-TIFKAM system? Because if you're going to end up there anyway, one might as well start there instead of having to change."

No you don't have to end up there. Just sayin'

"Peculiarly, my mum has embraced text speak"

Rather like SiL. Back in the days when I had a Nokia Communicator (full but minuscule keyboard) I made a point of sending replies which were not only in regular English but also had upper and lower case as appropriate and punctuation.

"Could just shove that down the back and take a photo, then enlarge it - and get something readable."

Our gas service man tried that with the pilot assembly the other day. Still couldn't read it and went to get his torch. Took my glasses off (short sight) and found it perfectly readable by Mk 1 eyeball. Sometimes you can go over the top with technology.

Re: I want a nailed-down-by-default

"Doctors, Lawyers and Politicians.

Life's too short"

It could be even shorter if your doctor's IT isn't working.

Re: Worse than a mum

"So many solutions."

None of whichare going to occur to someone who doesn't even know how to save a document.

Re: Rebuilt my sister's machine

"Clean install of windows"

"Friends don't let friends use Windows" also applies to family.

Re: Walls can be useful

"Anon, 'cause she reads El Reg too."

But can put two and two together. You're in trouble.

Re: Walls can be useful

"you presumably mean a wall placed between him and the PC?"

WEBCAK!

HMRC delays digi tax plans amid Brexit customs woes

Re: I hope that HMRC...

"The leavers are right that leave isnt a problem at all."

Did you read the article?

Whois is dead as Europe hands DNS overlord ICANN its arse

Re: Unstable operation coming soon...

If operator's details are found to be not correct the domain gets suspended