Posts by Just Enough 759 posts • joined 4 Jul 2014
As usual on The Register, it needs to be pointed out that NHS England <> "The UK's National Health Service"
You would have hoped by now that The Register journalists would have got the message that the NHS in the UK is not a single entity and each country of the UK is handling COVID vaccinations differently. But apparently not.
Never, ever, use your real date of birth. Not unless it's something like your bank where it may be a legal requirement. Other websites are only interested in me "proving" I'm an adult. Or rather, covering themselves if it turns out I'm not an adult.
The only possible downside to using a fake date of birth would be if they later ask you to verify your identity, by giving your date of birth. Then you'd need to remember what you said.
Facebook wants it to profile you for targeted ads, and also reminding all your Facebook "friends" something that is obviously not worth remembering themselves. I can live without both.
My current phone is an LG. It's the second LG I've owned and the best phone I've had in the last 20 years. Solid, dependable, does everything I need. It's well past time I'd usually upgrade, but right now I can't think of any reason to. And the thought of switching to the bloatware circus that is Samsung doesn't appeal at all.
So when she co-founded the Theatre of Black Women, she wasn't thinking of herself as a Black Woman? In 2014, when she was the keynote speaker at the Black British Womens’ Writing Conference, it was not because she was a Black British Woman Writer? When she was the keynote speaker at the Black Arts in Britain Conference in 2010, it wasn't as a representative of Black Arts in Britain?
When she lists all these things on her own website, it's not because she wants to be identified with any of this?
What's disgusting is you thinking you get to decide what she is, on her behalf, erasing what is clearly of significant importance to her.
Bernardine Evaristo is the first black woman and first black Briton to win the Booker prize. The book she won it for is mostly about the lives of black women. She founded the Brunel University African Poetry Prize and the Theatre of Black Women. She organised the Afro Style School for poets of colour. Being black and British seems pretty fundamental to her identity and her work.
Would you rather The Times had ignored all this?
The most important detail is missing from this report.
Will TikTok users still be allowed to be mean to little Donnie?
Let's face it, this is what this is all about. Trump hadn't heard of TikTok until it helped messing up one of his rallies. He did not care if it was spying on its users. He gives not a jot about security concerns. But it made him look silly, and Trump never forgets when someone hurts his delicate ego.
These retro computers mystify me. Sure, they'd be fun for about an hour of nostalgia. But after that, what have you got? A £300 computer with a tiny, tiny fraction of the capabilities of your mobile phone.
And the nostalgia is always bitter sweet. It's never as good as you seem to remember it.
Get an emulator, run it on the computer you have.
"trademark infringement does not require being a competitor of the brand"
Yes it does. No-one gets a "everything, everywhere" trademark. For it to be an infringement they have to demonstrate that the infringer is competing in the same market, so that consumers may be confused/deceived.
I don't care much if they don't understand it. Just as long as they have taken guidance from those qualified to understand it. MPs cannot be expected to be experts in all fields.
It's once they start to reckon they know it all and "have had enough with experts" that the trouble starts.
I can't imagine why Boris & Dom would want to delay. They, and their backers, are gagging for Brexit chaos because it'll provide cover for no end of "adjustments" to laws to suit themselves. Tweak to tax legislation here, little snip to employment rights there.. .. Just temporary, you understand, until everything is stable again. It's very important that millionaire investors are confident they can still make money, and equally important that workers work harder. Sacrifices have to be made for the good of the country.
However, you are right about Dom spinning it to their followers. If they'll buy "checking my eyesight", they'll buy any old bullshit.
Yes. Let's give Facebook a justification for their current tracking and an excuse for expanding it. That couldn't possibly be abused in the future because of their past rigorous record of observing personal privacy and data regulations.
If there is one organisation I'm less likely to permit tracking me than the Government, it's Facebook.
"only hiring attractive women"
I am offended by your assumption that there is a universal measure of attractiveness. What what you, I, any of GitLab's customers, or their interviewers, might consider attractive differs. It is therefore impossible to make it a basis of a selection process. You are insulting all those alternatively-attractive, because they don't conform to your received norm of attractiveness. Please withdraw this statement immediately.
You've also managed to insult every existing GitLab saleperson by suggesting that they were hired based on their appearance and not on their sales acumen. Please withdraw this statement immediately.
Avoiding possibly insulting someone is hard if people are going to pick apart your every word, and decided they're going to be offended on someone else's behalf, isn't it?
There comes a point in any email where you have to stop worrying who you might be inadvertently excluding. If you're non-binary, should you feel offended by not being mentioned or considered in this email? Well not any more than amputees, both those without fingers and/or feet, those with a high tolerance for heat, those suffering hot flushes, those with a phobia about emails, those who do not drink alcohol, those who have strict dietary restriction that make social functions a minefield, those socially anxious who hate functions, those who are house bound and cannot attend, and those who must return to their kidney dialysis on Tuesday evenings. All of these individuals are totally ignored, without a second's consideration, by this email.
All these people are different from most others. They know they are different. Sometimes that sucks. But they don't demand that the rest of us must forever look out for instances where we are not acknowledging they are different. Otherwise it would become almost impossible to say/write anything without constant caveats and qualifications.
Please note that when I write "say", I mean to communicate in some form, and am in no way excluding those of the mute community or those who, through personal belief, choose to not speak. And when I write "write", it is not my intent to exclude those who are illiterate.
It's the same story as IT audits. Make sure there's something obvious for the auditors to find, and report on. Preferably something you've already told your boss about months ago. If the auditors don't find something to report, they're liable to inflate something irrelevant into an issue that they can report on. The last thing they want is to have nothing to report on, and nothing to justify their fees.
However, I'd hate anyone to think that this tale is just another example of Y2K panic where nothing happened. Nothing happened because a lot of time and effort went into ensuring it didn't.
Use a script blocker. Globally block, as a matter of course, the google and facebook scripts running on all websites. Otherwise you may as well be browsing with them peering over your shoulder, taking notes.
Ten years ago, people would have reckoned your tinfoil hat was on if you did this. But their presence and surveillance all over the internet is insidious.
"blame the users for not doing their security training"
Where's it say they did that? The reference to the lack of security training was from a 2018 audit, before the hack, and is a perfectly legitimate point for a security audit to make, among a number of others.
"Why am I not surprised?"
Because you didn't read what was said or didn't follow it.
"include freedom of movement as part of the deal and it will be business as usual"
This will not happen, simply because it will be the UK, as usual, wanting the benefits of the EU without the obligations. The other members of the EU are not idiots. You want to be a member of their club? Then you pay your membership fee and follow the rules like everyone else.
"high calibre engineers, scientists and doctors from around the world"
What makes you think high calibre people are interested in coming to a country that is busy cutting its own throat and is amply demonstrating that foreigners are not welcomed? What makes you think they are not already welcomed in practically any other country in the world?
Alas, a lot of action TV and film now has fallen to the curse of "giving the characters emotional, relatable depth". This means there is no dire situation our heroes can find themselves in where it is not appropriate to stop and discuss their domestic and personal problems and, most importantly, how this makes them feel. Fortunately the bad guys and impeding doom they face have the decency to stop shooting/impeding while this discussion occurs. Yes, they're trying to kill you, but there's simply no excuse for oppressing someone's right to free emotional expression.
My advice to your clients is get the advice of a IT professional who takes security more seriously. An exploit will definitely be found at some point in the future that is not esoteric and difficult. It will be automated, requiring no effort on the part of those distributing it. No one will care whether your clients are a high value target or not, they will worry about this after they are infected/compromised/hijacked.
Meanwhile, expect companies to stop releasing Windows 7 compatible software. Expect their Windows 7 applications to stop getting security patches. This includes manufacturers of anti-virus.
The only hope those who want to stick to Windows 7 have is that they become such a small user-base, that virus writers stop bothering with them. That isn't going to happen over-night, and as of tomorrow they'll be making themselves increasingly vulnerable targets.
"Banging your fingers on a desk will cause RSI and make arthritis worse"
So don't bang your fingers. I doubt the force you hit the desk with plays any part in the keyboard working.
I am reminded of touch typists I've worked with, who learnt on typewriters. You sometimes had to politely point out that they didn't have to hammer computer keyboards to make them work.
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