* Posts by Doctor Syntax

40557 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014

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MPs: Lack of technical skills for Brexit could create 'damaging, unmanageable muddle'

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Well Duh!

"Not changing the spec every week/day/hour."

For anything Brexit related the real spec isn't going to exist until well into next year. What, if anything, is presented as a spec is going to vary wildly depending on which wing of the party (and anyone else) ministers are trying to placate this week - or just today.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Anti-competitive?

"Well, anything we can source more cheaply elsewhere, we will - there's mostly no chance of us simply producing it ourselves - we'll simply change where in the world our money goes."

"Simply" is probably an exaggeration. If the only existing component is for some product is sourced in the EU then going elsewhere might involve a redesign. And that's not including the more convoluted supply chains where stuff goes backward & forward.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Clueless on everything

"Yep can negotiate, they just cant come into force until we leave the EU."

You're probably right on this one. Negotiate, yes. Succeed when everyone knows we're over a barrel?* It depends on the definition of succeed.

*The same applies to negotiating leave terms. Apparently nobody told HMG that beggars can't be choosers.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Clueless on everything

"Same as always. Staying in power."

And, same as always, failing.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"Do they think they can finish doing that the week before B-Day and then flick a switch to put the new programs in place?"

Yes.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"we just don't follow them"

We can't. We don't have the IT in place.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: But it will be worth it

"The MPs don't need to worry about the local elections."

Although not necessarily reliable they're pointers to what the electorate is thinking. MPs must already be looking a few years a head, even without the prospect of the DUP throwing a wobbly and there being another general election shortly afterwards. They'll be worrying.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: But it will be worth it

"And we'll be getting blue passports."

We'll need them to escape.

CLOUD Act hits Senate to lube up US access to data stored abroad

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

These include a motion to quash or modify the legal process if it believes the customer isn't a US citizen and that disclosure "creates a material risk" that the firm would violate the laws of another government.

Who's going to be responsible for this? If it's the data subject they're not going to be told until after the event if at all. Even then it means having to defend themselves in the US when they live elsewhere.

I see you're writing a résumé?!.. LinkedIn parked in MS Word

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Assuming this is running on the corporate Office 365 it can also email your manager/HR drone or whoever that you're looking for a job.

MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF CARS: SpaceX parks a Tesla in orbit (just don't mention the barge)

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Sending it Mars?

The real trick would have been to have brought it back and parked it on his drive.

Assange fails to make skipped bail arrest warrant vanish

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: A Flagrant Rotten Denial of Justice and a Blot in the UKGBNI Landscape

"Surely the fact that he is still being persecuted/prosecuted long after removal of disputed facts, is grounds enough for reasonable cause that justice has not and is not being served and servered by judges?"

Skipping bail is an offence in its own right. The magistrate lays out the law quite clearly in the judgement.

Ghost in the DCL shell: OpenVMS, touted as ultra reliable, had a local root hole for 30 years

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Wasn't VMS...

"Interesting to note the parallels with the downfall of Sun"

There seem to be parallels with HP and IBM as well. It seems to be a management anti-pattern.

UK Home Office grilled over biometrics, being clingy with folks' mugshots

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"Home Office bods have denied that retaining millions of custody images of people who were never charged falls foul of case law, while asserting that automatic deletion is not technically possible."

No problem. Just delete the lot. If they can't do it whilst keeping within the law they shouldn't do it at all.

Insurance companies now telling you what tech to buy with um-missable price signals

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Definition of an actuary

" Love Actuary."

You should be ashamed of yourself. Have an upvote.

South Wales cops crow about facial recognition arrests on social media

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"luckily these types all dress in the same uniform."

And wear DMs on their feet.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: @Lee D

"however you look at it this stuff is cheap!"

And worth what you paid for it - ~10p a go in the example you gave.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"Nobody much complains about human Police spotters identifying trouble makers at football matches. So is this just luddite objections?"

I have no experience of Police spotters at football matches as I've assiduously avoided football for my entire adult life. So I'm open to contradiction in this. But as I understand the comment spotters would be looking for known individuals who shouldn't be there. If that's the case then their visual identifications would be subject to more robust checks on identification. If automatic facial recognition is being applied to the lousy images from typical CCTV as the only evidence then it's far from being a Luddite objection. The initial ID, human or AI, needs to be tested and distrusted until it's tested. A violent arrest as in the Denver case linked above really shouldn't be conducted on the basis of such ID.

It's really like the blood test kits we used to give to SOCO - and used in the lab as well. The technical term was a presumptive test (it worked by detecting peroxidase activity which haemoglobin shares with several other substances such as fruit juice). The presumptive test highlights something to be followed up to decide not only is it's blood but also what species.

Facial ID seems to be at the presumptive level - useful to tell you what's worth looking at but too liable to give false positives to be used solo.

I see from the linked article that the FBI have ditched hair evidence. I never could understand why they were keen on it. It always seems hopeless. In 14 years I only ever used it once and that was to give an ID of a body where there were 3 alternatives; fortunately I could exclude 2 as couldn't be and that left one that could have been.

No, Windows 10 hasn’t beaten Windows 7’s market share. Not for sure, anyway

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"the headline percentage of UK exports to the EU has gone down"

The main nonsense in this is that the UK doesn't export to the EU. The EU is part of the home market. It's a hell of a chunk of the home market to be losing and the Home Sec of Downing St has just said that that's what's going to happen. Of course as soon as she needs to placate the other wing of her party or Ireland she'll say something else.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: MS is not the one to worry here

"For business, you can also buy a PC without an OS license."

And not just for business. In the UK PC Specialist will sell PCs without OS to anyone.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: StatCounter = irrelevant, amateurish

"This would skew the stats."

It will also skew the stats against people who don't download and run random bits of Javascript. In fact use the things which will skew the stats about users showing up on Statcounter will be expected to show some correlation with use of blocking the enforced W7 > W10 downgrade.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: And they were so close...

"And you cant make sites that require IE automatically select it like you can in Edge."

Are you seriously suggesting that even considering using sites that require IE shouldn't be a sacking offence?

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: "No in place updates for you!"

"Not with Windows you don't - it updates on the fly."

You wrote that as if it were a good thing. A lot of users seem to disagree.

You've only gone and committed to becoming cloud native

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"Where do you start?"

With a letter of resignation.

Lauri Love judgment: Extradition would be 'oppressive' and breach forum bar

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"its not as bad as everyone on here makes it out to be. I think you all have watched The Shawshank" etc.

If you want people to read what you write do the work of starting sentences with capital letters. If you can't be arsed to take that amount of care in writing why should I be arsed to put in the extra effort to read it.

Paragraphs are useful too.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: tin foil hat

US is only trying to stave off other idiots (i.e. warmongers) from trying to hack into their systems so they need to make an example of each one fix their piss-poor security.

FTFY

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Justice ?

"Charging him in the UK would require evidence which the US does not need to supply for an extradition."

Whether it needed to supply evidence or not, look at the judgement; link in TFA. There's a brief summary of evidence in paragraph 9. It includes the mention of the fact that some of the evidence was gathered in the UK. And look at paragraph 126 where the judges bat the whole thing back at the CPS & US to provide a full case for a prosecution.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Sympathy

"However, given that he has not been prosecuted here"

This case was essentially about where. Without that being settled it's irrelevant to go on about him not having been prosecuted here. Follow the link to the judgement & make your way to no 126. Th paraphrase it for you the judges are telling the CPS to get their finger out with a Uk prosecution and the US to put up or shut up - all in legal language, of course.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: The argument makes me sick

"USA will simply has to wait until we are finished with him"

Careful there, you're into double jeopardy territory. It's one jurisdiction or the other for a give set of events, not both.

GCHQ unit claims it has 'objectively' made the UK a less desirable target to cybercrims

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Good stuff

" I also know some of the guys on the ground there."

So and anonymous poster says guys he says he knows but can't or won't name are doing good work.

Convincing. Really convincing.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Is this just like we're safer from terrorist attacks; we have to believe it but they can't disclose the evidence because of security?

Accused Brit hacker Lauri Love will NOT be extradited to America

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

If they're trying to extradite from here, then ALL they need to do is to SAY that they have evidence sufficient to generate "reasonable suspicion" (without presenting it), and in the absence of unusual circumstances (as, fortunately, in this case), that is enough for us to bend over, and take it from behind.

The later Register article has a link to the judgement. Paragraph 9 outlines the evidence which seems to point to there being a prima facie case with some of the evidence coming from the UK police:

In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked the National Crime

Agency [“NCA”] for assistance in its investigation, which led the NCA to begin its

own investigation. Its purpose was to “gather evidence with a view to mounting a

potential prosecution in the UK, whilst being equally aware of the US investigation,

should material relevant to their investigation become apparent....” The investigation

obtained evidence linking Mr Love to the hacking offences. On 25 October 2013, the

NCA executed a search warrant at Mr Love’s parents’ house. He lived there with

them. This is explained in the witness statement of Mr Brown of the NCA dated 29

March 2016, made in connection with proceedings which related to the return of

property taken during the search. One of Mr Love’s computers was logged on to an

online chat room using the nickname “nsh”. A preliminary review of some of his

computers revealed that some of the data stolen during unauthorised access was on his

computers, and these intrusions had been discussed in online chats. Mr Love was

arrested on suspicion for offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, made no

comment in interview and was released on bail.

Reading through the rest of the judgement it seems clear that a UK prosecution would be a possibility and this seems to be a factor in the decision. See paragraph 126:

The CPS must now bend its endeavours to his prosecution, with the assistance to be

expected from the authorities in the United States, recognising the gravity of the

allegations in this case, and the harm done to the victims. As we have pointed out, the

CPS did not intervene to say that prosecution in England was inappropriate. If proven,

these are serious offences indeed.

In other words CPS & the US are being told to put up or shut up.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Barrister Not Present.

"And surely, one barrister not turning up, even if he was certain he was going to lose, is pretty much the definition of contempt of court?"

There'd be a junior there. In this sort of situation I'd expect it to be business as usual. Why would the leader need to be there?

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Barrister Not Present.

"Wonder why this was?"

Probably he was in another court earning a fee there. Even if he'd won he wasn't going to have to get up on his hind legs and present an argument about sentencing. If he wants to appeal he will have to work out the grounds for that and it's something he'd do in chambers anyway. There'd be no reason not to just send a junior along to court.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"However the CPS require evidence that provides a reasonable probability of a solid conviction in order to proceed"

The CPS hasn't got too good a track record on requiring evidence that there's even been a crime, let alone that they've got the right person.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"So there will be no UK court case."

Why not? The US must have provided sufficient prima facie evidence for the extradition. The CPS could then use that as the basis for a prosecution here. It would then be up to the US to respond to the resulting witness summonses, provide additional evidence or even withdraw the complaint. Their choice. If they don't enable the CPS to produce a credible case in court he gets found not guilty.

Lloyds Bank bans Bitcoin purchases by credit card customers

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Accessorize...

So the credit card companies admit that they can control what people buy or don't buy with their productmoney?

And for avoidance of doubt "their" refers to the credit card companies. Until you clear the account it's their money loaned to you. When it's stated like that does it seem a little more reasonable to you? If not maybe you'd let me buy some Bitcoin with some of your money. At your risk, of course.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: "banks telling their customers what they can and cannot buy?

After all they will make money untiless the bubble bursts.

FTFY

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: The folly of individuals notwithstanding...

"When did banks get to tell their customers what they can and cannot buy?"

They're not. They're just saying you have to use your own money. A credit card is an unsecured loan. Until you settle your credit card bill it's the bank's money. It's not unreasonable to say you can't use their money to make what they consider a risky investment.

Open source turns 20 years old, looks to attract normal people

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Scope creep

The sad fact of life is that if anything has a political aspect it becomes a magnet for people more interested in politics than whatever the original thing was. From the start the very choice of the word "Free" introduced such an aspect.

You're the IT worker in charge of securing the cloud for your company. Welcome to Hell

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: ..Osborne, you were spoilt!

"Try a TI Silent 700 for size."

Thanks for the memory. Not.

But relative weight? A mere 13.5 lb vs 24.5 lb.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"IT workers have been lugging home the on-call laptop since the dial-up modem was invented."

Laptop? Luxury: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1 With Kermit, of course.

Epic spacewalk, epic FAIL: Cosmonauts point new antenna in the wrong direction

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Deorbit throw

"The slipper run-up would be a bit of a problem."

Dammit! Slippery.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Deorbit throw

"A fast bowler has enough delta-v to put a cricket ball into a 330-160km orbit from 330km circular."

The slipper run-up would be a bit of a problem.

‘I crashed a rack full of servers with my butt’

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Muggins was then expected to recover their data when they had a problem....My friends laugh at me for having at least an idea of the potential "Plan B" (C,D,....) when I do things.

They do have a plan B. You.

Web searching died the day they invented SEO

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Unreasonable expectations

"Basically, it is and always has been the case that for Google or other search program to find a web page containing the information you're looking for, some human being has to create that web page."

That's fair enough. But the problem arises when, instead of simply telling you it doesn't exist, it persists in throwing up thousands of pages of "hits" that are misses.

"Not found" is a perfectly valid search result. A search engine that can't return this when appropriate has failed.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: "next three pages are full of TornadoGuard (https://xkcd.com/937/) quality reviews."

"From the same developers of the Hawaii Alert System!"

Just the opposite.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: The one thing SEO is good for...

"SEO companies are literally the only thing where if you do a search for one you are presented with a list in the order of how good they are."

They never include the ones who email you to tell you how good they are, primarily because although "we are a company" but never manage to tell you their company name or domain name. Let alone the URL of your web site they're emailing to tell you they can optimise.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Hmmmmm...

@Jason & Teiwaz

It's the Principle of Inverse Temporal Relevance. Whatever you search for you always get the answer from the time-frame you didn't want. Whatever you do don't include the date you wanted it for. That gives the search engine the clue as to what to ignore.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: I think you forgot one

"-pinterest.* -ebay.* -shutterstock.* search term"

It still requires a generic -estate agent -fast food -hotel variant if the search term contains anything vaguely resembling a place name.

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