Posts by Doctor Syntax

UK snubs Apple-Google coronavirus app API, insists on British control of data, promises to protect privacy

More likely the Crapita >=21 app.

Re: Seems sensible to me

"I don't see anything daft about keeping the data under UK control. At least the UK legal system has some control on it."

The UK legal system has bugger all control over HMG's abuse of data. The only legal system that had any hope of such control was the EU's. Why do you think the ERG tendency now running HMG wanted to take back control? You didn't really think it was you who would be getting control did you?

This is the crux of any tracing system. It must have an effective testing regime to confirm putative contacts. In fact, to be useful, it would be nothing more than the front-end to a testing system and the current target, assuming it's ever actually met, is probably an order of magnitude short unless the infection rate is got down to manageable size before introducing such a system.

Re: Three steps to avoid this

"This is not just about you and your personal choices."

No, it's about HMG's choices. Several European govts have opted for a choice that respects privacy. Germany even abandoned its first choice to do this. One then has to ask HMG why it made this particular choice.

It might be simply the ruling ERG's xenophobia leading it to wish to do the opposite of Europeans. It might be an unthinking data-fetish.

But from our PoV it's simply UK govt., having a long history of not being trustworthy in terms of privacy, doing yet another thing which is not trustable in terms of privacy and asking us to trust them. There's nothing to stop them reconsidering like the German govt. did but my expectations are low.

"If we make any changes to how the app works over time, we will explain in plain English why those changes were made and what they mean for you."

"We've changed how the app works to share all the data already collected with anybody in govt, local govt and those who want to buy it. What it means to you is that all the data has been shared; you can delete it from our servers if you want to but it's too late. We said we'd tell you about changes, that's what we're doing now."

Lords: New IR35 off-payroll tax rules 'riddled with problems, unfairnesses, unintended consequences'

Re: Dividends

"and all (personal?*) income taxed at the same rates, whether salary, pension or dividends"

And employee benefits. That's what permies always forget when they make these suggestions. As soon as the availability of sick pay, employee protection rights and so on are taken into account they'd realise that they're not comparing like with like.

"A simple set of bands of income tax for all income is a much fairer system"

Absolutely fine - providing you then treat employee benefits as taxable. Once that's done the tax rates can be lower so those not getting benefits pay lower tax rates whilst the overall tax take remains the same. The distribution of taxation between groups of workers would be broadly the same as at present providing the benefits are valued appropriately.

Apple and Google tweak key bits of contact-tracing privacy plan

"No it's not an OS update"

From the FAQ linked in TFA: "In the second phase, available in the coming months, this capability will be introduced at the operating system level". Sounds like an OS update to me.

Re: "apps using the API will check health authorities databases"

It does seem that these sorts of proposals are getting closer attention* than the tradition anit-social media and advertising networks have done in the past let alone existing "think of the children" telecoms surveillance. Maybe some of this attention will start to spill over into other areas.

* Maybe one factor is that this is being proposed at national and, indeed, global scale so it's a lot harder to hide than one at a time individual primary care trust data slurping contracts.

All such schemes are dependent on widespread testing just to get started. HMG's testing target is 100k per day by the end of this month. It seems from current progress that the number actually delivered is a fraction of the claimed capacity and I expect that if the claimed capacity is 100k they'll declare the target met even if reality continues to fall well short.

However, let's assume the delivered tests actually meets that target. The current policy is that frontline staff and their households are entitled to a test. The number of households is estimated at above10 million. I wonder if anyone has worked out that even if only the staff let alone other household members are to be tested this is going to take well above 3 months. To test the existing households within a reasonable period of time the target is about an order of magnitude short. If lockdown is eased the number of qualifying households is going to increase so the testing capacity is going to have to increase further.

Now let's assume that this scheme is under way. It depends on the testing regime picking up a large proportion of existing and new infections. Without this there is inadequate data to start the system and most positive contacts will be missed. This means that the existing UK testing capacity is unlikely to be able to bootstrap the system in any useful manner.

Let's further assume that the system is up and running on an adquate footing. What happens when the positive contacts start to flood in? We must assume that a proportion, probably a majority of reports will be false positives. How should those receiving a warning react? Are they to assume the worst and go into self-isolation? What's the economic and personal impact of such unnecessary periods of self-isolation? The reports are going to have to be followed up with tests to avoid this and the testing system will have to be able to cope with this as well or TPTB will need to be prepared to switch testing strategy from frontline household members to putative contacts.

It seems likely that such a system is going to depend a testing system adequate to bootstrap it effectively and, unless the infection rate is low enough when it's introduced, a testing system adequate to not be overwhelmed by testing those with positive contact reports. It's certainly not going to be a means of easing to load on testing, nor on getting infection rates down from current levels.

It's likely to put pressure on vendors to make this update available PDQ. As the update is an OS update then presumably any other pending OS update will be included.

Cosmo Communicator: Phone-laptop hybrid is neat, if niche, tilt at portable productivity

Re: Why are you going with Psion comparisons?

Nokia Communicator of fond memory.

Like theOtherJT above I used mine for remote support although back in those days it wasn't SSH. Just use the built-in modem and VT100 emulation to dial into a modem.

Check the overnight jobs with their logs conveniently emailed to me (hint - email doesn't depend on the intertubes, just pipe stdout to mail username leaves it ready to be read by elm).

Fix problems for a client 100 miles from where I was working; he just unplugged his fax and plugged the modem into the same line.

Dumpster diving to revive a crashing NetWare server? It was acceptable in the '90s

Re: A long time ago

"a bit of tape and string"

Ah, but this one required a push and the basic Heath Robinson engineering principle is that you can't push with string.

Actually, I don't think that principle is true. I've just been tieing up some fruit bushes. The garden twine comes in tightly wound cylinders which are quite firm. You can push with string.

Re: hot-wiring with office supplies

The self-threading HP tape drive would sometimes, in the words of the HP field engineer, forget how to thread. The solution was a bent paper clip reset. Two pads on the circuit board were exposed for this purpose.

Re: Genius ...

Excellent improvised engineering "solution".

Improvised, yes. However it should have been replaced by a proper engineering solution. Something like the reset switch being connected in parallel to relay contacts with the solenoid powered in parallel with the CD-ROM drive's eject motor.

And thanks to Howard for the reminder of Mitsumi.

We're in a timeline where Dettol maker has to beg folks not to inject cleaning fluid into their veins. Thanks, Trump

Re: Dare I suggest

"a mere Nodder"

It goes back a long way. The records of the Wakefield manor court from about 1300 have many references to an attorney called "Hugh the Nodder".

Re: POTUS Supporters

"As a biologist, is there any way you can think of that would allow this belief to give a prod to natural selection?"

The NHS could deny them treatment when they catch coronavirus or anything else, from ingrowing toenail upwards.

Re: Is he even capable of a full sentence?

It depends if the words of more than two syllables are actual dictionary words. If they're not that's just him as well - covfefe.

Re: no one has bitten the bullet and called him out there and then

"(why are we 20 mln face masks short? Well, last week we provided 32 mln masks)"

This, of course, isn't unique to politicians. Anyone in an administrative position is liable to do the same. They're asked about outputs and reply about inputs; the media really ought to call them on this. The underlying reason, of course, is the old reality distortion field: messages from the front line always get passed back with a bit of a favourable twist at each step and with enough steps the twists add up to 180 degrees. Providing the minister's private office keep them busy they don't get near enough the front line to find out for themselves.

Re: Suggestion

"So, we're afraid to blame the educational system for failing to educate people enough to make things like this not a problem?"

The old saying about horse and water might be a factor.

Re: Trump's Base

Other places are available in N Ireland. And other political persuasions. Allegedly.

Re: Suggestion

Careful. You'll start the masses hoarding nitrogen and then we'll have a shortage of that.

Re: POTUS Supporters

Maybe that's why it's essential to keep gunshops open in the US.

Re: POTUS Supporters

"So don't get on their lawn and try to tell them that they should not drink Lysol while sitting in a UV sunbed"

I wouldn't even try. I'm a biologist; I think evolution by natural selection works.

Re: Trump's Base

"Chicago excepted"

Chicago isn't unique in that respect.

Re: Dare I suggest

Obviously it's so important that clinical trials should start immediately and equally obviously the keenest proponent of the scheme would surely be the first to volunteer. And none of that blind control nonsense either. That's for all these scientists who take forever to tell you things. Just get on with it.

"makes George W Bush look fairly smart"

He even makes John Prescott sound as if he speaks well constructed sentences.

"He mused aloud in what is basically word salad"

Which is a very dangerous thing for a man in his position to do. If everyone else were to do the sensible thing - discount all his blurtings by 100% it wouldn't matter but unfortunately that isn't going to happen.

Spyware maker NSO can't claim immunity, Facebook lawyers insist – it's time to face the music

Sometimes you come across cases where you want both sides to lose.

Elevating cost-cutting to a whole new level with million-dollar bar bills

Zilog had their own range of servers which were free-standing boxes, none of this rack-mounting malarkey. We had several standing in the server room, each with its console standing on top. The displays of the big servers were stable, those on the small servers had a permanent shimmy. I assume there was some stray field from the servers that didn't quite match the frame rate of the displays.

Re: radio interferences

IME, living maybe even closer to the main AM transmitter, Third was more or less inaudible below the howls from the line oscillator harmonics of any TV set in the vicinity. What was worse, Third wasn't even transmitted from that site. It was, according to my cousin-in-law who worked there, transmitted from the even closer TV station on a low power with an aerial suspended from one of the stays holding the mast up.

Re: It didn't affect us

Back in the '80s we didn't need to get up to discover it was snowing. We could lie in bed and hear cars crashing into the gate-post across the road. We were on a site on the inside of the corner. It took scarcely any snow for some drivers to fail to make it round the corner properly.

Re: Elevator interface

Nothing will stop a determined digger driver with your fibre in his sights.

Sounds familiar

First server in the building (Z8000/Unix v7). TPTB decided that it could be located in a cleaner's cupboard small room next to the lift shaft. Experience gained led to its being rapidly located to the library.

The other computer and lift shaft episode was much, much earlier - the computer was probably an Elliot - from the company where my Dad worked. It had to be located on an upper floor of the building so it was decided to haul it up the lift shaft. The rope failed. According to Dad the man who'd tied it on* fainted which might have run in the family; his daughter was in my class at school and fell off a biology lab stool when "blood" was mentioned.

* For added irony his surname was Crane.

European programmers take an extended lunch break as GitHub goes TITSUP* again

"we don't know too many developers who would refuse an extended luncheon"

Surely it depends on who's paying.

Why should the UK pensions watchdog be able to spy on your internet activities? Same reason as the Environment Agency and many more

Re: VPNs

"Assuming that smart TLAs are not operating VPN endpoints as honeypots."

This idea of using a 3rd party VPN provider - in those cases what does the 'P' stand for?

Re: And yet

"We still keep voting for the same idiot political parties."

We need more and better idiot political parties to vote for.

Re: All your data are belong to us

Barter.

Re: Sunset clauses and jury oversight are needed.

Inconvenience. That's why we have all this nonsense.

Re: Sunset clauses and jury oversight are needed.

That's OK providing all MPs voting on it fpublish, a year before voting, their login IDs for all online services they use, thus breaking their contractual agreements to keep these secure.

Re: All your data are belong to us

"don't put it online"

So deal in cash only. You'll have to keep in under your mattress because you're not going to find an actual branch anywhere close by.

And the ECJ which is what Boris has now escaped.

"No malice or conspiracy needed, just human nature."

One and the same.

In case anybody wondered this is what was meant by "taking back control". Any voter who thought it was they themselves getting that control had been seriously bamboozled. It was only ever about government getting out from under the supervision of the ECJ. The ECHR will be next.

GCC 10 gets security bug trap. And look what just fell into it: OpenSSL and a prod-of-death flaw in servers and apps

It helps, of course, if you understand the code it's checking. Remember the Debian SSL whoopsie?

We're all stuck indoors, virtual reality tech should be hot. So why is Magic Leap chopping half its workforce?

Very likely those patents will end up in the hands of those attempting to collect rent from anyone who can actually produce technology that works.

IBM Watson GPU cloud cluster Brexits from London to Frankfurt – because GDPR

"users don’t need to move data,"

Presumably that only applies to UK users or PII about UK resident subjects, otherwise the data will fall foul of GDPR.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Light-powered nanocardboard robots dancing in the Martian sky searching for alien life

Re: How do you talk to them?

What's more, the signal will have to get through the thickening swarm of nano-satellites flitting through the Earth's sky.

Re: Nice article!

"I had not heard of the thermal creep effect"

You might have met a few of them.

After intense scrutiny, Zoom tightens up security with version 5. New features include not, er, spilling video calls to network snoops

Re: Microsoft monitoring

"Those two things are quite difficult to do without access to the stream. "

As regards recording they could archive the stream as a recording and make provision for the customer to archive the key on their own device. That way they can't access the content (assuming they don't have a copy of the key) and anyone who wanted a transcript of a secure meeting should arrange for the transcript to be made by an agent whom they have vetted to their own satisfaction.