Posts by Doctor Syntax

Wannabe Prime Minister Andrea Leadsom thinks all websites should be rated – just like movies

Re: Oh God, Oh God, Oh God...

'politicians managed to "miss" the internet'

Of course they haven't missed it. They just want control of it.

Thinking about it, if it were feasible, it would be useful. There are plenty of infantile sites to be avoided.

Re: Hmm

"I know we generally disagree (on the EU at least)"

Not necessarily. As I've written here a number of times the EU has a severe democratic deficit. Maybe we don't disagree about that. Maastricht and Lisbon should both have been validated by referenda in all countries - and not Irish style referenda of vote till you get the right answer. What might have passed such referenda would almost certainly have been very different to what happened; in fact we might still have just had the EEC as a trading arrangement.

However just walking out is economically daft and some of the areas which will catch the worst effects are those where foreign companies have set up so business so as to be in the EU and are major employers. Those seem to have voted leave - turkeys voting for Christmas. I also think that a referendum should require a large majority - another commentard mentioned the term "supermajority" - to effect a change in the status quo in such a major, permanent way. I'd also apply that to the unfortunately hypothetical referenda that should have validated the earlier treaties. Maybe we differ on those.

As to Blairalike that's been my term for him since he came to prominence. The Tories were so hypnotised by Blair that they went for the nearest thing in their own ranks. They could have done much better.

Re: Hmm

"Sorry two women PMs trump women only short lists."

Unfortunate choice of word in the circumstances.

Re: How about we start with age appropriate adverts.

'Gorgeous George would have had to quote an error range on his "you'll be £4300 worse off" figure.'

Quite, the falling pound must be playing havoc with estimates like that.

"it has happened 7 times since 1945"

Add Chamberlain > Churchill early in the war.

"The PM is 'leader' of the Conservative party and only leader of government and while the other Conservative party MPs put up with it."

Jim Hacker on comparing voters with MPs: "The voters can only vote against me in 2 years' time, they can vote against me at 10 o'clock tonight.".

"the existing government are already negotiating trade deals with India."

Are you familiar with the term "off-shoring"?

Re: @AC: What a choice

"I was pleasantly surprised by the vote"

And one of the more immediate non-economic consequences is that we get either May or Leadsom as PM. Are you pleasantly surprised with that?

Re: What a choice

"So voters get to vote on the leader and their understudy."

I remember Tricky Dicky having Agnew as his VP, presumably to discourage attempts at impeachment.

"Why are they so stupid?"

Part of the job description?

"We checked with Leadsom's office"

Good. It's much better than reaching out.

Hmm. Am I going to have to add Leadsom to my spill chucker word list?

Re: She scares me

"Good as 'elder statesman' type - in fact many politicians seem much better after they've done their bit in the actual fray"

Maybe you're too young to remember his turn at the Treasury - back when things were going well for the economy.

Re: Hmm

"I cant see any good choice of leader in the Tory party."

David Davis would have been a good choice but the party turned him down in favour of the Blairalike Dave.

Re: What a choice

According to the rules of the advisory referendum, they are a majority.

FTFY

Re: What a choice

'"And yet one of them will apparently have the "mandate" to tear the UK out of the EU that a majority of the country voted for."'

No, the original statement was correct. They may have been a majority (albeit too small to justify so large and permanent a change) of those who voted. They were still a minority of the country.

You can’t sit there, my IoT desk tells me

"a wedding ... not really happy to be there"

What was your problem? Think of the father of the bride, knowing he's got to make a speech afterwards.

Re: Standing Desks

"a chair the right height to sit at it comfortably when I wanted"

A bar stool.

Re: I see how this is shaping up

"Hunter gatherers ... don't have to make plans,"

Hunter gathers have to plan to be in the right place at the right time to hunt or gather what's available at that particular season. There now seems to be archaeological evidence that at least some Mesolithic societies had semi-permanent bases.

Re: I know that feeling well...

"I had one of those kneeling chairs at my last job"

Some employers think this is an appropriate posture for all employees.

Re: @AN I know that feeling well...

Who's Alasdair Dobbs? Anybody heard of him?

Re: I know that feeling well...

'I've tried the "kneeling chairs"'

I remember being interviewed by someone squatting on one of those contraptions. Not content with that, as he wasn't behind a desk, he just kept scooting it all over the room. Some jobs, you're just glad you didn't get.

Bomb-disposal robot violently disposes of Dallas cop-killer gunman

"I suppose I'm being naive, but surely these bots could be easily equipped with some sort of incapacitating knock-out gas - perhaps with explosives as a final measure?"

If, as the article reported, this was a bomb disposal robot what they'd have available would be an explosive charge. Can they put the whole scene on hold whilst somebody knocks up an alternative gas dispenser and tests it to make sure it can deliver the required dose?

"The large bomb disposal robots we have seen in news and films are different to a bomb carrying robot."

According to the article this was a bomb disposal robot. They use a small charge to disrupt the suspect device (that was actually the purpose of the shotgun on the Wheelbarrow device) or blow open car boots etc. If the gunman is holed up it doesn't matter whether he sees the robot being rolled up or not, in fact it might be better if he does as it might encourage him to surrender.

Re: talking of the war

"Must also say when it said bomb disposal robot I had a vision of the British Army's Wheelbarrow as used in Northern Ireland which had a shotgun for shooting the detonating mechanism of car bombs."

That was my first thought as well.

Rolls-Royce reckons robot cargo ships are the future of the seas

Re: Anybody else think that humanity is reduced by this?

"Here in SF, a food robotics company is building a PoC restaurant that will product completely machine-made hamburgers."

Yes, but what about food?

Re: Anybody else think that humanity is reduced by this?

" If we all end up as ... hipster poets it just means we've eliminated want and need."

What about the want and need to eliminate hipster poets?

Win 10 Anniversary: 'We're beginning to check in final code' says Microsoft

Re: Their last hurrah

"but when you are over a barrel. What can you do ?"

Get off the barrel and walk.

Re: Their last hurrah

"there is no desktop experience that matches it"

Which Windows desktop experience are you thinking of? There are several, but if you're staying current it's Microsoft's choice. There are also several Linux/Unix desktops but then it's your choice. That's a big difference.

Blighty will have a whopping 24 F-35B jets by 2023 – MoD minister

Re: Questions for a select comittee...

"Brexit pound means exports are cheap again."

Brexit pound means imports necessary to make exports are expensive again.

Re: Space to spare

"like the one Wonder Woman flies."

Theresa or Andrea?

Re: Questions for a select comittee...

"if they keep Port Talbot open"

Why would they? It would require a large enough home market which means a manufacturing industry and a large enough manufacturing industry probably requires a home market bigger then just the UK.

Farewell to Microsoft's Sun Tzu: Thanks for all the cheese, Kevin Turner

Re: The firm wants to be liked.

And "Neither is this the world of big-product bets, staking everything and moving the industry with a big-new relase of Windows or Office." What? More bullshit or was this written a few years ago?

ICO smacks lying spammers

Re: CHANGE AND SAVE LTD Company number 08995065

73120 - Media representation services

Maybe there should be a requirement for current directors of companies with this and similar SICs to list their home phone numbers. And email addresses.

1 in 20 Wendy's burger joints hacked? No, make that 1 in 3 – 1,025 in total

"If this happens again no more card transactions at all at any of your premises until you cover all our losses+costs+extra random charges as punishment)"

Just remove the "If this happens again" bit. Then they don't need to deal with the card-holders one by one. It'd be a lot easier - costs recouped and merchant hit with large clue-bat, all in one.

Gartner: Brexit cluster-fsck has ballsed up our spending forecast

Re: Can you please stop using fsck as an expletive

"ends up stopping support emails from being delivered"

It must make getting email support for Unix systems a tad problematic.

Re: Are these the same guys

"I called the PC as an obsolete concept 6 years ago - and am typing this on an 8 year old Win7 box that is still more than enough."

Why are you typing on an obsolete concept?

Idiot brings gun-shaped iPhone to airport

"The idiot probably didn't even think"

Stop there, that's enough.

Ad agency swipes 'unnamed bloggers' for calling out its cynically fake 'save a refugee' app

Re: A new "thing" ? Or was it always thus ?

"So maybe it's nothing new ?"

Nothing new under the sun. Whatever the opportunity there's a low-life to scam it.

The Great Brain Scan Scandal: It isn’t just boffins who should be ashamed

Re: More evidence

"we can predict what people are thinking about or what they will do"

Definitely one for the muppets. If you were able to identify thoughts from MRI scans that would mean that you'd have a map of brain function versus all possible thoughts. That means that all possible thoughts constitute a set small enough not only to be mapped but to be catalogued. It also means that any problem can be solved by consulting the catalogue for the thought that contains the answer.

Re: There's a flaw with this article

'Oh my god, it's everywhere. "Mindfulness". Positivism. Yoga-related bullshit. Homeopathy. SJW-type people grasping for biological explanations/justifications for autism, ADHD, gender confusion, and antisocial fucktard behavior in general (except for criticism of these people, that is not tolerated)'

Not specific enough. Most of this crap was around before MRI was invented. The flakiness comes first, attaching itself to concepts they don't understand is secondary.

Re: There's a flaw with this article

"It assumes we knew and cared what this fad was in the first place. Having read the article I'm not sure I'm any clearer on that point."

Nor am I. Maybe we've been reading the wrongright papers.

£8 BILLION is locked into UK.gov's failing IT schemes, El Reg analysis reveals

Re: Kerching!

" it might be cheaper to just let the criminals geton with it and pay compensation."

Don't be silly. That'd need a new system.

Debian founder Ian Murdock killed himself – SF medical examiner

Re: With friends like that ...

"Not the cops, for sure.

I worked for them. The stories I could tell you."

Maybe you didn't work for them long enough to discover just how self-destructive a drunk can be. There's the purely passive - fall asleep and choke on their own vomit - I've investigated a few of those. There's the active - I investigated one case where he found a piece of broken glass in the cell, a broken spectacle lens from a previous occupant (yup, the cell should have been checked more thoroughly) and cut himself. And finally there's the complete apeshit. I remember being called by the local police because they wanted an independent witness to that one - he'd already damaged the door of one cell and they're tough structures.

The fact is that the severely drunk are a danger to themselves and practically impossible to look after as they ought to be under medical supervision but hospitals can't take them and the cells, which are all the police have, aren't safe environments for them.

In the Linux world we all owed a great deal to Ian Murdock. It's very sad that he reached such an end and my sympathy goes out to everyone concerned, family, friends and, yes, police.

Sociology student gets a First for dissertation on Kardashians

"not doing much to help women. Or anyone really"

Not entirely true. Clearly did something for a sociology student, for what that's worth.

UK patients should have greater data slurp opt-out powers – report

Re: Still faffing about on patient control of data ?

"Yes Minister ; so actual that, apparently, it is still ahead of its time."

As I always say, it should be part of the National Curriculum.

Ofcom is to get powers to fine mobe providers for crap service

Re: Fine?

"Its about time @ofcom"

Downvoted for not realising this isn't Twatter and the missing apostrophe.

TP-Link abandons 'forgotten' router config domains

Re: It's foreshadowing

"The quote represents the value the dollar will be at when Trump gets elected."

Looking forward to the pound's recovery. Maybe two wrongs do make a right after all.

Re: Internet Rip-Off

"If individual members of the public were being blackmailed in this kind of way there'd be a public outcry, riots, laws enacted, etc."

It would be nice to think that, but somehow I doubt it.

Chap fails to quash 'shared password' 'hacking' conviction

Re: The ever-increasing rigidity of The Law scares me...

As the saying is, circumstances alter cases. If the sharing was contrary to the business's explicit rules then that's one circumstance. In the case of the overbearing boss that would be another - it would be quite reasonable to convict the boss and not the employee.