Posts by Cederic

Someone made an AI that predicted gender from email addresses, usernames. It went about as well as expected

Now that's just utter fucking bullshit.

Man commits crime: being drunk is an aggravating factor.

Woman commits crime: being drunk is a mitigating factor.

Then there's the treatment under law of domestic violence. Official guidance to magistrates explicitly deems male offenders a higher risk than female ones, something intended to be reflected in the sentencing.

It comes through in the stats too. Even the Ministry of Justice accepts that "Under similar criminal circumstances the odds of imprisonment for males were higher compared to females" -- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/571737/associations-between-sex-and-sentencing-to-prison.pdf

88% higher, if you were wondering.

Of course, it's worse in the US. Male victims of rape have to pay their rapist.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-about-trauma/201902/when-male-rape-victims-are-accountable-child-support

I interpreted the statement as 'people with non-heteronormative sexual preferences have a gender too', as supported by the revised suggested prevalence of men and women within the population.

It matters because the legal system explicitly favours some genders; you wouldn't want to accidentally be lenient to a man would you?

Humble-bragging ServiceNow CEO tells anyone who listens: 'Our destiny is to become the defining enterprise software biz of 21st century'

Re: ServiceNow.

The most annoying thing is that they've got a lovely engine underpinning it. There's a ton of value to be had and they hide it behind those fucking awful UIs.

Chinese ambassador to UK threatens to withdraw Huawei, £3bn investment if comms giant banned from building 5G

this story feels misleading

The wording quoted in the story can easily be read as the Ambassador commenting on the likely thought processes at Huawei. Any tech journalist could have written "Unfortunately, this will now be subject to uncertainties"; that's not a threat, that's a risk assessment.

While I'm very sure that the Chinese Government has substantial influence over Huawei, this is not the smoking gun other commenters are suggesting.

Twitter Qracks down on QAnon and its Qooky Qonspiracies

embedded tweets

Please El Reg, don't follow your lesser competitors into posting articles that are merely a sequence of embedded tweets with some linking text.

On this occasion it's understandable, given the report is about Twitter, but even so I'd have preferred a link to the tweets with the relevant text quoted in a more traditional form.

At least you didn't quote the text then embed the tweet. I've left sites over that one before now.

UK intel committee on Russia: Social media firms should remove state disinformation. What was that, MI5? ████████?

Re: big fat nothing burger

How can the EU interfere in a situation both the UK and the EU were both intrinsically part of?

The EU were not part of the referendum. That was a UK domestic matter, within the UK.

The US, when asked, expressed views on trade

The US tried to interfere. Whether that was by invitation or not is irrelevant. Obama intentionally tried to stop us leaving the EU. That was direct interference, unlike Russia's media.

The BBC supposedly breaching it's Charter is entirely subjective

That's laughable.

Re: big fat nothing burger

Which of my points is inaccurate?

The report said fuck all.

The EU interfered with the referendum.

The US interfered with the referendum.

The BBC breached its Charter to promote just one side of the referendum.

I have no issue with further debate, I'd just like it to be based on facts, not smear campaigns like "Leave voters didn't know what they were voting for" and "the Russians did it".

As for personal insults, describing my post as an emotive descent into ridicule is very clearly a personal attack. Your inability to cope with simple logic and naughty words doesn't make me ridiculous.

Re: big fat nothing burger

I notice that you provide no rebuttal to any of the points I made, and merely insult me.

I guess you voted Remain; you're certainly using their tactics.

big fat nothing burger

The extent of Russian involvement in the EU referendum was.. 200 articles in Russian media that were anti-EU.

As opposed to EU meddling in the referendum, with multiple EU leaders speaking out in public and hundreds of pro-EU articles in each of dozens of EU media outlets.

As opposed to US meddling in the referendum, with the US President himself making baseless threats to the British people at the behest of the UK Government.

As opposed to UK meddling in the referendum, with the Government misusing £9m of public funds to promote their own position in the referendum.

As opposed to the fucking BBC, breaching their Charter by posting thousands of articles that were pro-EU.

No, this report has nothing meaningful to say about the EU referendum, except to hopefully shut up the clowns bleating on about Russian interference for the past four bloody years.

As for MI5, after reading the report this morning I wrote to them directly to thank them for not interfering with UK elections. Thank fuck they recognise the dangers of that.

Capita's bespoke British Army recruiting IT cost military 25k applicants after switch-on

Why haven't we banned Capita

The continual expensive failure of Capita to provide reasonable service, let alone good and efficient service, really should have led to a multi-year ban across all public bodies from signing new services from them.

I'm not going to pretend that £130m/year all goes on the IT system - it'll include recruitment teams, marketing, assessment, career guidance and other things - but fundamentally this is a basic HR function. Companies with under £130m/year revenue, let alone HR spend, manage this just fine and it's trivial to scale.

Start giving smaller organisations some of these tasks. Boost the economy, not Capita shareholder dividends. Or if you really are going to be stupid enough to sign Capita, make sure the contract includes performance penalties. Lots of them. Shit, you'll make money on it.

UK formally abandons Europe’s Unified Patent Court, Germany plans to move forward nevertheless

Sure. German car makers will abandon the UK market, the Dutch will throw away all the food they currently export to the UK, the Spanish will refuse to trade across the Channel.

I could go on but it sounds very silly already. Do you really believe that?

Still, at least there's that £350 million a week for the NHS to look forward to.

Not to mention saving £117bn yesterday, when we got to avoid having to commit to repay a very large loan taken out by the EU.

Re: The Biggest Lie

what exactly did WW2 achieve?

The overthrow of a very nasty German regime, saving the lives of tens of millions of people, along with a substantially more peaceful Europe than had been seen for a couple of thousand years beforehand.

Just small stuff I guess.

Perhaps you missed the part of the article that mentioned that the proposed UPC "applies EU law and is bound by the CJEU", thus making it subservient to an EU body.

However, I believe the article was slightly wrong - even Mrs May only wanted to participate if it didn't draw the UK under EU control.

Strange that the EU keeps trying to do that. It's almost as though they want something from us..

Brit telcos deliberately killed Phones 4u, claim admins in £1bn UK High Court sueball

not happy with this

So all of my PCs and phones could be handed to an IT forensics firm because a company I worked for several years ago is being sued?

That doesn't feel right to me.

Anyway, time to go and make sure I've wiped any devices I'm not currently using..

An axe age, a sword age, Privacy Shield is riven, but what might that mean for European businesses?

Re: The point of the EU

We need Americans to start demanding the same protections.

Won't help with Governmental snooping but we have that issue in the UK too.

Lock down your data – or get the cheque book out: ICO privacy violation fines are rising, say lawyers

Re: Observant!

It's tricky for the ICO though. They do need to assure that SMEs aren't misbehaving but they also need to avoid killing off UK business.

There's also the challenge that individual SMEs breaching the rules are likely to impact far fewer people than large businesses, so the ICO probably feels obliged to focus resources where they'll have the greatest benefit.

Have you fed back to the ICO your thoughts on their template? That does feel a sensible thing to assure is giving SMEs a good start point for compliance.

Mainframe madness as the snowflakes take control – and the on-duty operator hasn't a clue how to stop the blizzard

Re: Keyloggers

Yeah, it was an informal disciplinary offence to be caught using the break key to halt the Sparc workstations in our University lab but many of us did it anyway before logging on. That extra delay while it booted was felt worthwhile given the shenanigans we knew were happening around us.

Incredible artifact – or vital component after civilization ends? Rare Nazi Enigma M4 box sells for £350,000

Re: Right up to Nuremberg

Their crazy inventions like the V1, the V2 and the Me-262?

As opposed to the perfectly sane British inventions like.. a bouncing bomb?

Teardown nerds delve into Dell's new XPS 15 laptop to find – fancy that – screws and user-serviceable parts

It was compared to MS too, but perhaps the price point, aesthetic design and specification most closely matches the compared Apple product.

Or maybe Apple are just renowned for doing their best to stop you repairing your own property.

UK's Co-operative Group to centralise IT teams across various divisions, warns redundancies 'inevitable'

Re: Just wrong

What IT expertise?

The Co-op Group has been under-investing in IT for decades.

Privacy Shield binned after EU court rules transatlantic data protection arrangements 'inadequate'

What is the "double standard"?

I'm confused, What's the double standard that ITIF thinks is in place?

EU companies operating in the EU and processing personal data of EU citizens must obey GDPR.

EU Companies operating in the US and processing personal data of EU citizens transferred from the EU must obey GDPR.

UK companies operating in the EU and processing personal data of EU citizens must obey GDPR.

UK Companies operating in the US and processing personal data of EU citizens transferred from the EU must obey GDPR.

US companies operating in the EU and processing personal data of EU citizens must obey GDPR.

US Companies operating in the US and processing personal data of EU citizens transferred from the EU must obey GDPR.

I see no double standard going on here.

Re: Standard contractual clauses

The Data Protection Act 2018 is still in force. You know, the updated UK legislation that supplemented existing data protections with some additional rules to comply with GDPR.

If you think it's being breached then don't write to your MP, write to the company that's breaching it. If they fail to provide an adequate response then raise a case with the ICO.

Twitter says hack of key staff led to celebrity, politician, biz account hijack mega-spree

Re: Just imagine ..

How many wars has Trump started during his time in office? How does that compare to every other President in the last.. 200 years?

Twitter mass hacking: Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mike Bloomberg, Biden, Obama, more hijacked to peddle Bitcoin scam

Re: Idiots

A bunch of substantially wealthier 10 year olds though.

Sure, they now have a range of three letter agencies hunting them down but if you're in the middle of beautiful countryside in Eastern Europe or Central Africa, like you give a shit. You just made enough to retire.

Cornwall councillor suggests authority paid £2m for Oracle licences that no one used on contract originally worth £4m

Re: A number of posters here...

Agreed. On top of that, Oracle licence costs are entirely irrelevant: what matters are how much money your organisation transfers to Oracle, and how much of that money the sales team can (legally) siphon off in commissions.

If the £2m hadn't gone on cloud licences other Oracle products would have been needed, or would have been discounted less, or would have been discovered running unlicenced... that £2m was gone anyway.

You're testing them wrong: Whiteboard coding interviews are 'anti-women psychological stress examinations'

Re: but this can't be true

I'm sure that Cedric would join me in decrying any unfounded claims of sexism.

I absolutely do want software engineers to discuss with the customer what they actually want, because we all know that it certainly isn't what they asked for.

Does being a man mean a software engineer can't do that? Only a sexist would suggest such silliness.

but this can't be true

I've been told that women are equal to men, and can do anything a man can do. So how could two equally competent software engineers pass or fail a test entirely because of their gender?

Whiteboard coding tests are nonsense. Getting someone to draw a diagram on the board - a design diagram, a toolchain flow, anything really - is reasonable but only a muppet would expect a software engineer to write code on a whiteboard.

But they're not sexist. Stop pretending they are. Especially stop reporting that they are without providing data like 'how many men actually passed' which would tell us whether this headline grabbing misreporting is based on a rounding error.

Reporting live from Gartner pandemic watch: IT spending is shrinking by X this year, I mean Y

Re: Wow, what insight

Honestly, what is the use of Gartner ?

"We need a new system in this space. Who are the key players?"

Gartner will give you a list, provide some suggestions on how to differentiate between them and, if you ask really nicely, help you find an existing user willing to talk about it.

"What should we be doing that we aren't?"

Gartner will give you insight into the technologies likely to go mainstream in the next 2-5 years, giving you time to plan ahead and look into whether they're going to be a threat, an opportunity or a distraction.

This isn't to say that Gartner are worth their fee, or that they're the only source of such information and input, but if you use them cynically they can be of use.

Smile? Not bloody likely: Day 6 of wobbly services and still no hint to UK online bank's customers about what's actually wrong

Banks don't move money. Banks are IT and data services company whose job is transferring and storing valuable data.

The data happens to often represent money.

To be fair, most of the actual bankers I know do realise this and their finance departments absolutely do. Just don't ask me about the Treasury teams.

Disclosure: Used to work at the bank mentioned in the article, so not commenting on their specific systems.

Re: No technical information

I think that would be major financial news already, as they'd have had to report it to the FCA nearly a week ago.

Disclosure: Used to work there, so not commenting on their specific systems.

Criminals auction off stolen domain admin credentials for up to £95k. Your bank account details? Barely get £50

I'll do you a deal

Look, times are hard this year, so I'll give you a big discount. You can have admin credentials for any of my four domains for just £50k.

For £95k I'll give you credentials for all four!

University ordered to stop running women-only job ads

Re: While humans are involved

Interestingly some civil service jobs are anonymised during the pre-interview stage.

Tellingly they're the jobs for which I'm reaching interview.

Re: While humans are involved

No. They tried that and found that women have worse recruitment outcomes when gender is hidden.

See the foreword of https://behaviouraleconomics.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/projects/unconscious-bias.pdf (and try not to cry when you realise they think reducing discrimination is a bad thing).

I've yet to meet a competent woman in the workplace that supports gender quotas.

I've worked with many competent women.

LibreOffice community protests at promotion of paid-for editions, board says: 'LibreOffice will always be free software'

Re: "Doing a reverse takeover of IBM"

Oddly as a consumer my experience of Microsoft support is very good. I've never paid them for it but the three times I've called on them they've gone beyond expectations.

Please do not ask me regarding corporate support. Please. It still hurts.

Re: @HildyJ - Free

Nothing, although since many developers of open source software are also in full time employment (and quite often employed to write that open source software) it's going to be an unduly expensive support fee.

Better to build the in-house capability or contract with a third party able to provide it. The third party may well be employing some of the developers anyway.

Another anti-immigrant rant goes viral in America – and this time it's by a British, er, immigrant tech CEO

Re: "popular justice" is no justice at all

I disagree. Too many words fall out of use for fear of offending people, and it's entirely unnecessary.

Lynching is bad, no matter who the victim is, or how much they may or may not deserve it. Using the term is appropriate, not least specifically because it isn't always just.

UK government shakes magic money tree, finds $500m to buy a stake in struggling satellite firm OneWeb

Re: It Could Be Made to Work ???

"UK-based Catapult Satellite Applications" suggest it could be made to work.

I know this, because I read the article.

UK space firms forced to adjust their models of how the universe works as they lose out on Copernicus contracts

Re: "are explained in language an adolescent could comprehend."

All deals currently made are at worse terms than we had under the EU.

Given many of them are "let's agree to continue to trade on the same terms as before" I'm finding this rather unlikely.

Re: "are explained in language an adolescent could comprehend."

No free trade? Even though we've signed 19 trade deals already, are in advanced negotiations on 17 more and that doesn't include the ongoing trade negotiations with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the USA and the EU? Not to mention the work towards joining the CPTPP.

It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have 27 other countries pulling in different directions.

Re: "We did so for good reasons "

I think you'll find that two Leave campaigns were found in breach of electoral rules. Of course, you'll also be aware I'm sure that five Remain campaigns were too.

Illegal campaigning is bad, all seven of them.

Re: "We did so for good reasons "

Check my posting history on this site, I've provided enough information in the past.

I'm certainly not going to waste my time with someone clearly incapable of understanding.

Re: "are explained in language an adolescent could comprehend."

Oh dear, still sore that the British people have faith in their own country? Upset that we have left the EU?

Tough. We've left the EU. We did so for good reasons and now we're going to enjoy the advantages of free trade across the world, unhindered by the protectionist continental political control. Better yet, we have a head start on all of the remaining EU nations who will have to join us when the EU collapses.

It's already on its way. I'm finding this all very entertaining.

Cummings? Entirely irrelevant. I was campaigning to leave the EU in the 90s. The only people that care about him are the people upset that they lost the referendum, lost the General Election, lost the European Elections and lost the other General Election. Why, it's almost as though the British people have consistently and repeatedly voted to leave the EU, which is why we have left the EU.

Enjoy being part of a strong independent nation.

Oh please. We get information from US police, from Australian police, from Swiss police and from Moroccan police.

Why wouldn't we continue to get information from French police?

Perhaps before drawing such silly conclusions you should look into the law enforcement exclusions with GDPR and also the difference between ECHR and ECR.

Euro police forces infiltrated encrypted phone biz – and now 'criminal' EncroChat users are being rounded up

Re: So...

While it may well be poor security at EncroChat that doesn't preclude it also being good police work.

Also, I now hate you for making me admit that the French police might actually have done something good.

I was screwed over by Cisco managers who enforced India's caste hierarchy on me in US HQ, claims engineer

Re: General concern

Yeah, while the old class distinctions are almost entirely irrelevant there's still very much a two tier system.

One does not simply repurpose an entire internet constellation for sat-nav, but UK might have a go anyway

Re: "quantum compass technology"

How much global coverage does Japan enjoy with those 4 satellites? How much do they make licensing the technology and access to the technology to other countries?

The UK armed forces operate globally and will want Commonwealth nations and NATO partners to access and benefit from the technology too.

You've accused Apple of patent infringement. You want to probe the iOS source in a closed-room environment. What to do in a pandemic?

Well, you could for instance use that hour to walk into the room, log into the laptop as an administrator, and change the password of the user account that the reviewer will log into, and set that account to expire in, say, 8 hours.

Although quite why they're using a laptop instead of a screen and wireless keyboard/mouse so that the computer itself can be locked in a cupboard, I do find confusing.

Yes, Prime Minister, rewrite the Computer Misuse Act: Brit infosec outfits urge reform

Re: CMA Violation....does this count?

No. Section 10 is the "doesn't apply to us" clause that also lets the police search your phone even when you scream, "No! That's got my naked bottom pictures on it!"