Posts by macjules

Tesla promises to build robot you could beat up – or beat in a race

"It's intended to be friendly, of course, and navigate a world built for humans,"

Let's hope it is better at going into caves than his last attempt.

Buyout of British defence supplier Ultra Electronics paused by UK.gov over competition concerns

Pardon me for asking

What the hell have Department for Culture, Media and Sport got to do with the US buyout of a UK defence supplier?

Dallas cops lost 8TB of criminal case data during bungled migration, says the DA... four months later

Re: "data migration of a network drive caused [...] deletion"

"Hey I just wanna remove this guy Starr's files, how do I do that?"

"rm -rf Starr/*"

"Ok great thanks, rm -rf * it is"

Boston Dynamics spends months training its Atlas robots to perform one minute of parkour almost perfectly

Boston Dynamics spends months training its Atlas robots

Now lets see them do that while carrying a combi missile launcher and minigun.

£3m for 8 weeks of consultancy work: McKinsey given contract to advise UK.gov on tech project business cases

No, they are paying Capita rates which are even higher.

Wilmott was not involved in the procurement

Bless.

Before I agree to let your app track me everywhere, I want something 'special' in return (winks)…

Re: As a kid ....

It was the ReadyBrek advert that did it for me. "If you want your kids to glow in the dark, move to Windscale"

Naughty karaoke is China's next tech crackdown target

Re: Will the CCP be leading by example?

They have karaoke nights where you can hear them singing 'China in [y]our hand'.

Without a trace: Baroness Dido Harding to step down as chair of NHS Improvement

Harding remains in the job until October.

She can still do a lot of damage in that time.

Facebook takes bold stance on privacy – of its ads: Independent transparency research blocked

Re: I'm torn on this

Having someone's dirty secrets on file worked wonders for Jeffrey Epstein ..

Sueball over breach of more than 5 million payment cards at Dixons Carphone hit for six

Re: Unfortunately...

+1 since you beat me to it.

UK's Ministry of Defence coughs up bug bounties for crowdsourced pentesting

Bounty please!

I have identified that MoD civil servants above a certain rank are able to remove 'Above Top Secret' classified pink documents and leave them at bus tops.

Please contact me with how you wish to pay me my bounty. Please note that chocolate bars labelled 'Bounty' are not accepted - I hate coconut.

Chinese state media describes gaming as 'spiritual opium' that stunts education and destroys families

gaming as 'spiritual opium'

Phew. At least they didn't mention who got them all addicted to opium in the first place.

Ex-health secretary said 'vast majority' were 'onside' with GP data grab. Consumer champion Which? reckons 20 million don't even know what it is

Re: Dentistry?

No, I do not believe it does. I have a BUPA "6 week" policy where if an operation can not be done within 6 weeks then I can go private. The 3 operations I have had done under that policy at private hospitals do not show in my GP record whereas an operation I had done at an NHS hospital does show up.

Re: Dentistry?

If carried out via your GP or in an NHS hospital, then yes your details are included.

GPDPR

Using "GPDPR" makes it sound like General Data Protection Regulation, i.e.something designed to help protect the public. Of course Mr Hancock couldn't possibly be looking at joining the boards of Facebook Pharma, Google Patient Assistance or Twitter Medical ...

The UK is running on empty when it comes to electric vehicle charging points

Re: Hmm....

It can be a LOT more than that. Having been a very early adopt of EV (Tesla Model S in 2014) I would hope I know the pitfalls of buying an EV but I am still astonished at the truly extortionate charges most car manufacturers are hitting users with, as well as the baldfaced lies they are telling to force users to switch.

By the way, as a consequence of 'charging panic' and having to plan a journey by where I might be able to beg friends for use of their outside power socket I would never consider an EV now until I am absolutely forced. It is going to be an exercise in futility how to organise charging points for 40 EVs parked in one street in London.

Hubble in another first: Water vapor spotted in atmosphere of Jupiter’s Ganymede

About that Bezos man ...

Can we send him to Ganymede then? Please? Like now?

I've got a broken combine harvester – but the manufacturer won't give me the software key

The manufacturer won't have to give you the parts for more complex repairs like a drain pump.

Had the same dishwasher, washing machine and spin drier now for close to 12 years, none of which have "manufacturer warranties" on them. Most recently the spin drier needed a replacement (manufacturer supplied) filter which they refused to supply direct but a local engineer was able to procure and fit. So presumably the manufacturer might not agree to supply parts to the end user but will supply to the repair and maintenance trade, even for older models?

UK celebrates 25 years of wasteful, 'underperforming' government IT projects

Re: The main problem is...

Trained in PPE contract awarding?

Alan Turing Institute to spend UK.gov grants on AI for air traffic control and banking

get humans and intelligent machines working closer

get intelligent humans and machines working closer

FTFY

You're not imagining it. Amazon and AWS want to hire all your friends, enemies, and everyone in between

Re: Space Rockets don't grow on trees

And in true Amazon style the top came off and the rest fell out at the climax.

Space Rockets don't grow on trees

It takes a lot of money to boost one egotistical billionaire into orbit.

Troll jailed for 5 years after swatting of Twitter handle owner ends in death

Re: Sentence should have been far longer

5 years of being sold around the jail for sexual services should do the trick I think.

Tencent to acquire Brit games developer Sumo Group

"Chinese games developers"

Difficult to call them that now with all the changing rules from National Press and Publication Administration. No cult or superstitious games allowed so no Farcry series for China then and difficult to see how just about any RPG would be allowed, Blood was allowed so long as it was black but was recently outlawed completely. Definitely no visible skin but also no skeletons allowed, so skeletons have to be fully clothed and, err, not be skeletons. You may not “endanger social morality or national cultural traditions” which translates as "we can ban whatever we like" so clothing and locations in China must be 100% accurate.

Oh and no political message in any game, anywhere at all.

"Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?"

Our Friends Electric: A pair of alternative options for getting around town

Re: The door

It was done in Top Gear where they put Clarkson in a Bubble car (Isetta) which he drove around inside the BBC offices until he parked facing a wall and couldn't restart the engine.

Cyberlaw experts: Take back control. No, we're not talking about Brexit. It's Automated Lane Keeping Systems

+1 Very good. Goes nicely with the Tesla Impala

Re: How indeed

Sadly, telling autonomous vehicle drivers n the UK to not trust the computer and keep both hands on the wheel will have about as much effect as handing a firework to a football supporter and asking him to not stick it up his backside and light it.

For Tesla drivers that should come up through the seat as they are probably in reclining position and fast asleep then anyway.

I no longer have a burning hatred for Jewish people, says Googler now suddenly no longer at Google

Re: This is confusing

Me too. I fail to understand why so many people in America have to describe themselves as though they are still a national of whichever country they or their parents migrated from. If your ancestors left Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century then surely by now you are simply an "American" as opposed to an "Irish-American"? Likewise "Egyptian-American"?

Impromptu game of Robot Wars sparks fire in warehouse at UK e-tailer Ocado

The Curates Egg

Right Reverend Host: "I'm afraid you've got a bad CFC, Mr Jones!";

The Curate: "Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! the vast majority of the CFC is in good condition"

This page has been deliberately left blank

"We are still very keen to donate some of the proceeds to the cause"

©2021 Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Richard Branson et al.

"Charity's fine, subscribe to mine!"

©1964 Lionel Bart

Facebook pulls plug on mind-reading neural interface that restored a user's speech

Re: So, a stunning breakthrough in neuroscience is abandoned . .

I should think that someone told Zuckerberg that forcing Facebook users to undergo a USB implant might be seen a as somewhat unfair breach of the user agreement. After the tantrums stopped Mark moved everyone to the "Bad News Office" (he has a Good news office and a Bad news office) and told them to stop funding.

Facebook are now understood to be buying data on anyone in the UK who has had colorectal surgery recently with a view to implanting the neuro implant "from the other end".

BOFH: Where there is darkness, let there be a light

All these comments

And nobody spotted the date error? Unless 31st June 2021 is a new date intended to confuse HMRC.

Richard Branson uses two planes to make 170km round trip

Re: Bring back Concorde - much more impressive.

My thought as well, Branson could have invested in R&D for a new supersonic passenger jet and would probably make a lot more out of it than space 'tourism'.

Revealed: Perfect timings for creation of exemplary full English breakfast

"full English breakfast"

Since when did fried grated potato make its way into the Great British Breakfast menu? Suppose next you will be advising on how to pour maple syrup over the mushrooms.

Where's the boss? Ah right, thorough deep-dive audit. On the boardroom table. Gotcha

Re: Ethics

Clothe to Suffix I think.

Suck on this: El Reg forces dog hair, biscuit crumbs, and disconcertingly sticky stains down two mini vacuums

Re: destroyed another robot vacuum cleaner

Point being that it is a robot mower, so that yes you can be next to it when it decides to catch up on its mowing and passes closely to where you are all eating.

Re: destroyed another robot vacuum cleaner

But definitely the most lovable - so long as you get a good pedigree dog that has none of the breathing problems. My only issue is the sheer uncontrollable appetite as they can easily beat the labradors in food volume consumed.

destroyed another robot vacuum cleaner

Been there, done that. Came downstairs one day after buying an AEG RX9 robovac only to find one dog maliciously peeing into it. I am now on the third one as 1 was replaced and one since failed to charge and now all 4 dogs (2 pugs and 2 labradors) appear to have declared war on it. This ranges from running in front of it, which causes the robot to keep deviating from its cleaning course, to sitting on top of the robot just as it is moving out to start cleaning, which causes it to stop and move back into its dock. Being barked at in unison just confuses the poor thing and it stops.

The ultimate was a very recent occurrence where a pug managed to leave a small message right in front of the TV since I had forgotten to leave the back door open for them to go in the garden and we returned to find said message splattered all over the floor, thanks to the robot. It has now been consigned to the place where all gadgets marked as "nice, but bloody useless" end up.

Be warned: The Husqvarna AWD robot mower is so powerful that it can shoot dog crap for some distance - I have seen this at a friend's house recently (same pug as it happens).

The world is chaos but my Zoom background is control-freak perfection

"hide the witchcraft tomes"

My parents never bothered to hide the Dennis Wheatley books: I recall a primary school head teacher once enquiring if I was baptised or not.

BOFH: Here in my car I feel safest of all. I can listen to you ... It keeps me stable for days

"our public wireless is less secure than James Dean's seatbelt"

That should be copyrighted. I am most definitely going to use that from now on.

Florida Man sues Facebook, Twitter, YouTube for account ban

Re: Surprised it took this long

I don't understand why he is suing them at all. Surely he should be praising both Twitter and Facebook since they did, after all, change the generic emoticon skin colour to match his own?

Robots still suck. It's all they can do to stand up – never mind rise up

Bingo got lost, and lost communications with the team outside.

That's what it wants you to think ... right up until you don't expect the shot to possibly come from behind.

Audacity fork maintainer quits after alleged harassment by 4chan losers who took issue with 'Tenacity' name

Seriously?

Someone does not like a name for a project so physically goes round to your home and threatens you?

That person (persons?) needs to be in a mental institution, and the quicker the better.

Age discrimination case against IBM leaks emails, docs via bad redaction

What a bunch of scumbags

Having worked contracted at IBM I am so relieved that I passed on the opportunity to take up full time redundancy employment there.

Nice place to work at. Shame about the morons management.

Devilish plans for your next app update ensure they never happen – unless you start praying

Re: Crime of the century

Replaced by Townshend's Law: "They decide and the shotgun sings the song"

The wheels come off Formula 1's notification service as fans plied with attacker's messages

Oops

ConfentFul security config issue methinks?

IT manager who swindled Essex hospital trust out of £800k gets 5 years in prison

Didn’t know Matt Hancock reads The Register.

… unless you are providing tat PPE to the NHS for £200m using a £100 off the shelf company.

FTFY

Re: Barry Stannard

More likely to be seen acquiring skills with Timpson’s rehabilitation courses for prisoners.

My understanding of POCA is that they will take the house regardless of ownership if they determine that this was paid for, or improved, as a benefit of his crime. If he fails to cough up then he can be repeatedly incarcerated for anything up to an additional 14 years.