Posts by BobRocket

Dry those eyes, ad blockers are unlikely to kill the internet

Re: Oddly enough...

The only thing wrong with Dilbert is no mouseover, whereas this https://xkcd.com/870/ tells you all you need to know about online advertising and has a mouseover.

How long does it take an NHS doctor to turn on a computer?

Re: Cost of the kit

Explain to them that it is only a notional budget but that it gets the users to look after the kit better then offer them the same kit but with a bigger budget and higher prices.

Cost of the kit

If the user (of any tech) has spent a large sum of their own budget on the device in question then they will take the time to do a bit of basic diagnostics on it (check the switches, check the instructions etc.) before calling for help. If they have only paid a low price (or had it provided effectively free) then it gets no time until it is described as POS/dead and now someone elses problem (ie. yours)

Give your users a ringfenced budget, make them buy their kit from a list of approved devices (only one actual device but with 4 descriptions and prices to give the illusion of choice) and watch the difference in behaviour.

The Emissionary Position: screwing the motorist the European way

Dirty Business

Dirty business loves the focus on CO2, afterall we all emit CO2 to some extent so the blame and the costs can be evenly spread.

The car manufacturers have been cheating on their emissions but they are not the only ones, once all diesel/petrol cars are within real world tolerances we will still find that levels of pollutants are higher than models suggest, this is because everybody games whatever systems are put in place.

The financial profit motive is a strong driver.

There is nothing wrong with making a profit but perhaps we need to add a new measure to the bottom line to provide balance.

A company that posts good profits and high 'general social good' indicators could be considered more attractive and therefore valuable than one which only produces good profits but low 'general social good' indicators.

World's oldest person scoffs daily ration of bacon

Re: As I often say

Not all meats taste of chicken, two of them taste of bacon but only one comes from pigs. There is a very good historical reason for banning the eating of pig meat.

Join Uber in a tale of rent seeking and employment law

MisAppRehension

I thought that Uber was some kind of Universal Dutch auction appears they are just a taxi controller with contracted drivers and fixed prices.

I thought the whole thing was ... I am at (a), I want to go to (b), I broadcast this data, suppliers check my history (I have always been where I said I was, I have always paid promptly, I have rarely disputed route) and pitch a price and time.

Pocket mobe butt dialing clogs up 911 emergency calls, says Google

Emergency calls not optional

Unless my phone is powered down or the battery is dead I can't turn off emergency calls, even when the phone is locked.

I didn't ask for this functionality, it has been imposed by 'someone thinking of the children' so instead of whinging that 911 (or whatever) is being clogged up with spurious calls just forward all these calls to the person responsible, policy will be changed forthwith.

What is money? A rabid free marketeer puts his foot in lots of notes

Re: Profit in Money Creation

'Which is likely to be a different bank.'

It is also likely that other banks customers will spend units with my banks customers who will then deposit with my bank, in the grand scheme of things the nett movement in and out is only a small proportion of the whole. (it probably never varies more than 3% either way)

Re: Profit in Money Creation

@DaveDaveDave

No, the books balance just fine.

When I borrow the units, the bank creates two entries in my name, one is a credit in my favour of 10 units the other is a negative credit so I have two entries, +10 and - 10 (EB)

From the banks point of view they have collateral (my promise to pay) of +10 and -10 units in their account so their books balance as well.

As I spend the +units my account goes out of balance (in the red) , this is offset by the receivers of my units depositing them in their accounts (in the black).

Balances are cleared through the central bank at the close of each day, with the central bank creating deposits for those banks that are in credit and loans for those that aren't.

Profit in Money Creation

If there are 100 widgets and 100 units of currency, each unit represents 1 widget.

If I 'need' 10 widgets but don't have any units I can go to a bank and borrow the 10 units I require.

The bank will charge me a risk premium plus an opportunity cost, say a widget for each. I give the bank a promise to repay the unit value of 12 widgets (the collateral)

The bank uses the collateral (my promise) to create 10 units so I can aquire the 10 widgets, no problem.

Except - There are now 110 units in existence and still only 100 widgets, the market doesn't yet know about these extra units but once the acounting is done it will be seen that each widget now has a true market value of 1.1 units.

The total repayment of the loan is not the 12 units but 13.2 units simply because banks create units from thin air but require repayment in tangible items (widgets)

Is the world ready for a Raspberry Pi-powered Lego Babbage Engine?

Custom pieces

Are there any custom pieces in the kit (apart from Chuck & Ada) or can it be built using currently available parts ?

With a bit of customisation (yellow led in the gas lamp, frankensteinian flashing blue leds under the windows and a bit of 10mm polished copper piping to hide the cables) it would be an awesome replacement for the bare pi hanging over the back of my telly.

Dodgy amphetamines drive drug-crazed man on to pub roof

Re: On the topic of legalisation...

'There's no increased danger by legalizing drugs, and governments and healthcare organisations know this.'

There's always the danger you might be taking these substances for fun and in the eyes of the 'moral minority' that is always a sin.

The Government have lied repeatedly to their electorate for generations over the issues of recreational drugs, if they were to admit to this it would bring to the fore the can of worms marked 'what other areas have they been economical with the truth' and no Government will countenance that.

As a result, users health will continue to be at risk and non-users tax contributions will be inflated.

Dear do-gooders, you can't get rid of child labour just by banning it

Re: Pay kids to go to school

Children are a huge parental investment, the lost productivity of heavily pregnant females/nursing mothers has a huge economic impact on the family well in excess of any family allowance/child benefit paid.

When you pay your NI or contribute to your private pension, they don't put your money into a pot for you to plunder when you get old, they invest it in the future (via children), the dividends of which will pay for your care, all the money in the world will be no use if there is no one available to wipe your arse when you are incapable.

UK TFR is 1.9, you do the math.

Re: Left and Right and Politics

No idea what you're talking about but enjoyed the rant so have an upvote.

I consider myself to be an AnarchoSyndicalist, apparently 'we' have a magazine http://syndicalist.us/ I find the tale of hijack by vultures and destruction by fire to be particularly heartrending. (I only discovered the mag by googling my speeling)

What do you think of SEMCO in Brazil and Mondragon in Spain ?

Re: free lunch

As you point out, paying the child in (extra) carbohydrates would distort the local carb market, why not pay the parent/main carer a cash sum each week to ensure that the child turns up at school each day.

Blighty's GCHQ stashes away 50+ billion records a day on people. Just let that sink in

Data Source

Presumably there is a big fat pipe going in to GCHQ that all this data slurp is carried on, how do they know that they are seeing real traffic emanating from this spigot and not some spurious crap injected into the stream by a foreign/malign/domestic entity.

How much faith does the bod on the desk have that any analysis they do will be presented higher up in a manner representing any kind of reality ?

VW’s case of NOxious emissions: a tale of SMOKE and MIRRORS?

Gaming the system

It goes on in all industries at all times.

A set of rules is proposed, interested parties try to skew/complicate the rules and something is implemented.

The race is on to try to get as close to the edge of the rules as possible to gain competitive advantage, sometimes someone steps over the bounds.

What I find interesting is that it was independents that found the breach and not the competition, surely any competitor would wonder how VW could claim such low emissions whilst keeping performance high.

This assumes the competitors were themselves staying within the rules, perhaps they knew and were working on (or have implemented) stealthier versions.

NOxious Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal: Chief falls on sword

Industry spokesperson

there was an IS on R4 this morning claiming that this couldn't happen in Europe because the system is different, a manufacturer presents a 'standard' car to the regulators and then builds the rest to that standard.

The regulator pulls random cars off the line and ensures they meet spec.

Great, except it is a simple matter to reflash the ECU at the dealership prior to customer collection.

Are other manufacturers implicated, the car industry is incestuous like any other, one company has a 'good' idea and it is not long before they all sport variations on that theme.

How did jihadists hack into top UK ministerial emails if no security breach took place?

Massive Prison Break

no prisoners escaped

C5 tablet-using newsreader hotness

Re: I appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect but ...

Isn't LinkedIn some kind of dating website for professionals ?

He sounds like some kind of pompous dinosaur and she sounds like an attention seeking bunny boiler, a perfect match then (I haven't seen pictures of either of them).

RT has a bevy of beauties as newsreaders and one anchorman., Suchet is his name, I think his dad used to be Miss Marple (or Columbus)

Toyota chucks $50m at AI car tech

The majority of 'accidents' are not the slightest bit accidental at all, driver error is the problem (incorrect assessment of conditions leading to incorrect action taken).

If an asteroid hits your car it is an accident, anything else is.human/machine error (even a plane hitting your car).

Re: Have they given up on natural intelligence then?

Hey, meatbags killing meatbags or AI killing meatbags, as long as plausible deniability protects the bottom line then any advantage over the competition in the eyes of PR is a winner.

So, was it really the Commies that caused the early 20th Century inequality collapse?

Missing link

Interesting piece on infant/child mortality

https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/936/WP90-07_Childhood_Mortality.pdf?sequence=1

Won't someone think of the children ?

The economic boom was created by the boom in survivable babies and ended when baby production topped out in 1972.

India, Myanmar lead the way as mobile bandwidth consumption mushrooms

strippers

As a large portion of web content is advertising surely there is an opportunity for someone to set up a kind of proxy service where user requests are routed via a service that strips out the extraneous crap and just delivers the content.

In fact if someone set one up in the UK, I'd subscribe.

Met Police to slash hundreds of IT jobs, hands £216m outsourcing gig to Steria

Re: IDS - fingerprints

Gloves (leather, wool etc.) are difficult to work in and could be deemed 'suspicious' in summer, latex ones will certainly get you questioned for 'going equiped'.

Vaseline is the thing, doesn't interfere with your work, only leaves smeared prints, easily wiped off onto your jeans (or stripey top) and nobody wants to know the answer to the question 'What's this tub of vaseline for ?'.

BACS Bank Holiday BALLS UP borks 275,000 payments

It's all credits and debits

No money changes hands.

Grant all those affected customers an instant overdraft to the value of last months payroll credit, when the actual payment goes through any used overdraft facility is paid off and the overdraft increase is removed.

(It is just an extension of credit, the moment an overdraft is agreed the balance is available for transfer)

Twenty years since Windows 95, and we still love our Start buttons

Re: Turbo-blast from the past

Yes, it should've been called the Compatibility button, it slowed your PC down to 8Mhz for programs that used the processor clock of the XT and later 12Mhz for the AT.

(similar to 'Sport' mode on your car, you only use 'Normal' mode in exceptional circumstances)

Re: The question of why the public accepted a substantial user interface change

Win3.x was effectively Microsoft GEM, a helper program that sat between the user and the OS.

95 was graphical DOS.

In the DOS world we had Xtree as filemanager, Sidekick as notepad/calculator (and an ASCII table).

Office replaced 123 with Excel, Displaywrite/Wordstar with Word and dBase with Access, the only new thing it brought to the party was Powerpoint (and isn't the world a richer place because of that)

I've been on Linux for years now (mint at the mo) but what I long for is a full Win95 interface

Geeks on quest for world's most pointless YouTube video

I've got one on there, 239 views in 2 years (god knows who viewed it) I put it up to demo an engine I was selling on fleabay and never bothered taking it down. Could be a classic in the making.

Http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Na27qssiQw

Global spy system ECHELON confirmed at last – by leaked Snowden files

@wyatt - 'what else dont we know??'

Lots of stuff about Northern Ireland including state sponsored terrorism, corruption (financial and political), systemic paedophilia.

It is less than 30 years since Good Friday, the bodies are still warm.

Stop forcing benefits down my throat and give me hard cash, dammit

Contractors/Contractees have already chosen

The current situation of benefits over cash payments has been negotiated over time by the contractors, the contractees and other interested parties.

This has become the 'Regulated Environment'.

The 'Regulated Environment' is constantly in the process of renegotiation.

Employers chose to set up business in regulated environments because it is beneficial to them to do so, likewise the employees chose to work for those companies that offer them the benefits they require.

If either party decides that they don't want to remain in the 'Regulated Environment' they are free to move to a 'Non-Regulated Environment'.

We have become richer collectively because of the 'Regulated Environment' not despite it.

Petrol cars are dead in the water, says Tesla CTO waving numbers on the back of an envelope

Re: Is it really cheaper?

'It is good that someone is at least being honest that electric will only take off when it's cheap enough for consumers, having recently replaced a car I looked at electric and the costs were just not at the right point in terms of taking on the higher debt of the purchase difference to achieve future savings'

Surely 'Greenies' are less likely to default than 'Normals' in which case negative interest rates should be the mode de jour (zero rates are now commonplace for traditional cars)

So would a 5 year fixed rate loan, nothing down, free servicing in 1st year at -1% swing it for you ?

(you have to remember that cars are only the vehicles to generate loans which is the real business of all the mainstream motor manufacturers)

Re: "...power plants can be fitted with scrubbers much more easily than moving vehicles."

'ICE engines'

are they like PIN numbers ?

Wait, STOP: Are you installing Windows 10 or RANSOMWARE?

Re: Are any of us surprised?

It doesn't help that suddenly our bank is employing digital czars (pr people) that exhort elderly and inexperienced users to search for promo codes and click on the links, I mean how f'in stupid is that ?

Hurrah! Uber does work (in the broadest sense of the word) after all

Why have a dog

Talking of economic rents, the UK Government currently pays over £1Beellion per week in interest on its borrowing.

This is interesting because the UK Government owns a bank, the Bank of England.

The Government does actually borrow from its own bank (QE) and it pays interest on the loan but the interest forms part of the profit that the bank makes which is paid back to the owners (UK Gov).

The question has to be,

'Why are we (the taxpaying public) paying private financial entities £1B/wk when there is no need ?'

So what the BLINKING BONKERS has gone wrong in the eurozone?

Re: The 1930s

Sorry Tim, it's all about the economics and these Reg readers all have AdBlock and they don't click on the sponsors.

Anyway Tim, it's not about the money (well the articles are), just think of the wider acclamation you are getting :)

Re: The 1930s

'I'm pretty sure that we aren't going to get it from the mainstream media or the politicians.'

So you are going to have to do it yourselves, because this is The Reg and the readership (should) know something about logical reasoning and the scientific method, what emerges should be good.

Re: Be careful what you wish for

The Germans (well the politico/financial bods) have no wish to fix the Southern Europeans, if they did then the Euro would strengthen and the German exporting economy would collapse.

Similarly, if the Northern Powerhouse took off the £ would rise and exports would collapse whilst imports would rocket.

Money supply

The supply of money shrinks when debt is written off or repaid and it is expanded when new debt is taken on.

Deflation is where debt is destroyed at a faster rate than it is created (the inverse is inflation).

Reducing interest rates to zero is an attempt to encourage new debt creation.

What happens when this doesn't work, negative rates are already available, how low do you have to go before you realise that there is something more going on ?

At this stage even helicoptering money to the masses will be deflationary, the person in the street will simply pay down debt, accellerating the shrinking of the money supply (money multiplier in reverse).

There is something wrong with the money itself.

Money is a fiction and a faith and it only works until it is questioned, once that happens it is inevitable that it will collapse.

Money has many uses but the most important one is demand creation (show me the money)

Greece? Zzzz. EU bank says TWEETING can move the stock market

Re: A polite request - my answers

It's a quiz isn't it ? I like quizzes me.

1. It is a promise to pay, a debt obligation to be redeemed in the future.

2. It is created when someone consumes/aquires something from someone else.

3. When the obligation is redeemed (or declared irrideemable) the money is destroyed.

4. Nobody really knows. (there is no limit)

5. No, inflation is the increase in promissary notes over and above the amount of obligations redeemable.

6. Oh Yes.

7. In my opinion (as far as that counts) No.

8. IMO (ditto) Yes.

9. Cuz they're mad I tells you, madder than a box of frogs.

10. Oh Yes, we all will eventually.

Money is a universal proxy for demand.

It is a belief system, it is an act of faith that money you receive will be accepted by another.

It is a store of wealth until not believed, then it isn't.

Currency is a localised form of money. (£s, $s or seashells)

Legal tender is what is demanded by the Taxman (it creates demand for the sovereign currency but the Taxman first has to spend it into existence so it can be redeemed).

It is only through convenience that Legal tender is used as currency.

That's my current take although when presented with better evidence, I'll change my opinion.

Social media moves markets

As I said on your last thread

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2576338

Being common is tragic, but the tragedy of the commons is still true

A little clarification

'Worstall @ the Weekend Something popped up in the comments from BobRocket a couple of weeks back, namely that the Tragedy of the Commons is a myth spread by the landgrabbers, and Elinor Ostrom proved this was wrong. Well, no, not really; not at all in fact.'

Well, no, not really; not at all in fact !

This was the post.

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2561737

I did say 'The Tragedy of the Commons is a myth spread by the land grabbers.' and underneath I did post a link to Elinor Ostrom but nowhere did I say that she had proved this wrong.

She did prove 'This inevitableness of destiny' was wrong and that there are instances of working commons.

It's my opinion that these 'working commons' actually fall into one of the two classic styles rather than representing a third way.

The Governmental type (quango) on commons usage with open access, restrictions are enforced through peer pressure / local byelaw changes.

The Private model where access is restricted to a select group (live within boundaries for example)

They are all 'Landgrabbers', they want some kind of hold over a naturally occurring resource to the exclusion of others and will use whatever excuse serves their purpose.

I don't have a problem with that per se but as natural resources are a 'Common Good' it is only fair that the holders pay the excluded a share for the use.

Finally, about social media,

'but I would need some serious convincing that this makes, say, organising the management of deep sea fishing stocks easier.'

Because of consumer pressure you get things like Dolphin friendly tuna and fairtrade chocolate. Corporates, large or small. will change their behaviour or suffer loss of business.

If you were worried about deep sea fish stocks 30 years ago it was very difficult to challenge the status quo, today you can start a campaign in the morning, take to twatter and form a likeminded community to do something about it and by the afternoon you can be affecting the share price.

Social media allows the formation of ad hoc single issue pressure groups that can and do affect the bottom line.

Demand and supply are put back into their correct order and the customer rightly regains his crown.

This

https://www.organicconsumers.org/old_articles/ge/gepotatoban.php

lead to this

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/latestnews/entryid/1639/campaign-win-m-s-drop-grouse.aspx

On the whole it was a good article and provoked some interesting responses, that it also exposes Elinor Ostrom to a wider audience is definitely for the common good.

Revolutionary Stuff

Cheers for the callout, whilst my opinions may often be wrong, as long as they provoke thoughful responses and interesting rebuttals I will keep on expressing them (and changing them when I see fit).

I agree that there was a market for buffalo leather, I am of the opinion that the extermination of the Great Plains herds was encouraged for the political reason of ridding that area of the native inhabitants.

http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/aboutbuffalo/bisonslaughterhistory.html

The community limitations of 2 to 3 thousand have been broken by social media / internetworking, an individual can be a member of many communities whereas in the original each individual was a member of only one.

Social capital has more leverage than tradional capital.

'Owners of “Rights” are evolving into Nova-Luddites under the relentless onslaught of social media Apps and Ostrum Principles'

http://andreswhy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/nova-luddites.html

Attention dunderheads: Taxpayers are NOT giving businesses £93bn

Re: Facilitating Evasion - correction

I fear James Anderson and bitmap animal have got me bang to rights there on the first two paragraphs and I was wrong.

I stand by my third paragraph (that is until someone pulls that to bits as well)

Facilitating Evasion

Allowing legitimate business expenses to be tax deductible also facilitates tax evasion (think personal use of company stationery/vans etc.).

If there were no deductibles the comany would pay tax on all purchases, make less profit and pay less corporation tax (net neutral) but no privileged individuals (those with access to company property) would have an advantage.

Whilst I agree with the ASI that tax thresholds should be higher to remove those on the minimum wage from paying tax, that is not ideologically acceptable to some politicians (community charge v domestic rates)

Pan Am Games: Link to our website without permission and we'll sue

Which Toronto Games

Is it the ones in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio or South Dakota, perhaps it is all happening in County Durham.

(Quebec is also in County Durham, Chris Waddle used to work there)

Microsoft starts switching on paid Wi-Fi service with latest Windows 10 preview

Google has given MS the willies

Once again MS misunderstand the disruptive nature of The Chocolate Factory.

For a fixed monthy payment you will get unlimited internet access at the fastest available rate anywhere in the world, seamlessly roaming from one provider to the next (fixed/mobile/wifi/bluetooth/meshIoT).

They will probably throw in a Google device for free (phone/slab/book).

China wants to build a 200km-long undersea tunnel to America

Ambitious Project

Build a 13000km tunnel with a 26000km maglev train constantly running at 400km/h in a continuous loop. (a round trip would take 65 hours)

A method of inserting/removing containers onto/off the moving train.

Above ground 'stations' where 40ft containers can be loaded/unloaded.

Use the gradient to accelerate/decelerate the containers.

If passengers want to use it, put them in a 'special' container and add them in the queue.

How much would that cost ?

How much does it cost to have all those steel/concrete plants that the OP pointed out stand idle ?

Just have the central bank expand its balance sheet (I bet you didn't know it could do that)