Posts by Withdrawn

Road to Removal: A blueprint for yanking billions of tons of CO2 out of our atmosphere

Re: Population reduction

>but no one dares talk about it.

>It's ok to pump billions into wars

There are theories out there in the wild which posit that the two are very related, and folks do talk about that. It's just that they are immediately handwaved away because if the idea caught on (even if wrong) there would be too many people calling for the end of very lucrative industries. I myself wonder if the the elite on our societies actually want to solve these problems (among others). Seems to me their positions at the top rely on the existence of such huge problems (which conveniently seem to be unsolvable).

I must agree with you though about population reduction. The only problem is determining who gets culled.

Re: Done that.

>It's nature giving you a hint there's too 'king many of you.

I see a lot of comments like this across the web, and I can't take them seriously because they almost universally use the word "you" where it should instead read "us". To me it really reflects the mindset of the authors, and implies that they see themselves somehow as separate from the rest of the universe.

Biden wants SpaceX to beam internet to Iran amid uprising

You're the kind of person who has ruined for my children the world I loved.

Re: Pirate radio?

Who's to say that's not what's happening now?

Irony

The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état (Persian: کودتای ۲۸ مرداد), was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, on 19 August 1953.[5] It was orchestrated by the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project[6] or "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot").[7][8][9][10] The clergy also played a considerable role.[11]

Weird how things have turned out. Wonder what would have happened if the US had not interfered in yet another foreign democratic election. Seems we haven't learned our lessons yet.

As Russia wages disinfo war, Ukraine's cyber chief calls for global anti-fake news fight

"These Kremlin-pushed false narratives ran the gamut from accusing Ukrainian "Nazis" of being the aggressors and committing war crimes in this conflict"

We just sweeping an 8 year civil war under the rug? How about 8 years of western reporters hand-wringing over the support for neonazis in ukraine? Hundreds of photos of Nazi insignia? Just gonna pretend that US Congress didn't ban funding for Azov in 2015 because of their national socialist doctrine? How about the ultranationalist National Corps Party, political wing of Azov battalion? The leader of that group from 2014-19, MP Andriy Biletsky, said that the mission of Ukraine is to "lead the white races of the world in a final crusade… against Semite-led Untermenschen"? This is honestly pretty disgusting, how the truth can be twisted for print...and why? What are you motives? Do you know you can condemn Russian aggression without resorting to propaganda in support of self-avowed national socialists? How come no one can accept the possibility that not every conflict is good vs bad?

Musk reportedly wants to gut Twitter workforce by up to 75%

Don't get too worked up yet. "People familiar" has nearly always turned out to be exactly no one at all. It's journalist code for "someone made it up and I have to print it if I want the scoop".

Re: "Don't Say Gay" bill - Nice job parroting the LEFT's false narrative.

It's wrongthink to believe that parents should have a veto on the discussion on sexuality with their children 8 years of age and younger.

Re: Musk

The way I read musk's plan is that he wants to people who live in the east to determine their own allegiances after 8 years of civil war, with the UN overseeing and certifying the legitimacy of any such process. Why is self determination through democracy so taboo in this discussion?

Re: Musk

This. It amazes me how everything in ukraine pre February had been memoryholed.

Re: What happens if the purchase is blocked by the US/some other government?

It's definitely political reasons. If nothing else, the current elite don't want to lose control over such an integral part of the far reaching propaganda machinery. That is the "national security" reason...the opposition might get more time to speak up and per the powers-that-be, said opposition is made up of mostly extremists and terrorist.

A not small portion of the crap you read today filed under "journalism" is nothing more than rehashes of twitter threads (with authors human or otherwise). It's the perfect "source" on what's "proper" and what's not in social interaction, or "organic"/"grassroots" movements to change the political landscape or reframe national discussions. Those that are in charge of executing such determinations are all team Big Brother because no one with so much to lose wants to stick their neck out (see Dorsey).

Re: Should be an easy task...

It doesn't work that way. You either support free speech (to include the obnoxious) or you don't. Figure it out.

Russian agent

I don't want to send any money to Ukraine either. Zelensky was elected to make peace, that is his prerogative and imo there is no circumstances where it is appropriate to quit trying for peace. And why is my government pledging resistance to the last Ukrainian? My federal representatives have sent $100 billion already. I thought Russia was almost out of ammunition, what back in May? I'm sure the rest of the neoliberal work order has pitched in some billions too. This isn't even talking about weapons. I hear my representatives tell me that the Russian army is on the run, the Russian economy in shambles, and the Russian supplies down to nothing, and then in the next breath tell me that of we don't send 10% of our military budget that Russia will steamroll all of Europe. Where is the critical thinking? After this, I would be insulted to be asked to provide millions of dollars of service and hardware for free, after having my taxes already taken and sent away for a problem I have firmly believed to be NOT MY BUSINESS, while we have so many problems at home which remain unspoken in a national context, let alone unaddressed. And now what, anyone who disagrees with NATO leadership is a traitor to all of the west, anyone who believes in at least trying for peace talks is a Russian agent, and peacemaking is now taboo. Fsck that, we should not be in the business of weaponizing federal agencies to quell political discussion, much less advocating for international cooperation towards peace. No matter how wrong I am on the above, the political persecution of those simply advocating for peace will always preclude me from supporting the prosecutor.

Oracle's Larry Ellison shares fears of bankrupting Western civilization with healthcare

records database for the United States

So many in the US are suspicious of the healthcare industry, many see what they interpret as misdiagnosis and mistreatment in the name of profits, or outright denial of necessary care by insurance companies. There is a lot trust to be earned back in healthcare here before (I would estimate) half the population even thinks about consenting to a federal database. Even before we get to the subject of healthcare, the phrase "federal database" will rile up millions the moment it is uttered, knowing it will be another pie for government to stick their thumbs into.

IBM withholds healthcare subsidies from some retirees

Retroactive reduction in compensation

CEO and Chairman Arvind Krishna’s total compensation for fiscal year 2021 reached $17.56 million, including personal travel on company aircraft, which was valued at $128,000.

Tom Rosamilia, SVP of Software and chairman of North America reported a total of $8.1 million in total compensation for 2021, according to SEC documents. This includes personal travel on company aircraft which was valued at $60,570.

Michelle Browdy, SVP of legal and regulatory affairs and general counsel, received $6.65 million in total compensation last year.

Vice chairman Gary Cohn reported total compensation for 2021 of $9.9 million.

SVP and CFO James Kavanaugh received a total of $10.17 million for 2021.

Seems there is definitely room to fulfill the contractual compensation obligations around pension/healthcare. Those accounts read about in the article could be covered with just the cost IBM has paid towards personal air travel for the few executives I've outlined.

Additionally, the above compensation includes a total of no less than $20 million in stock options, shares that could have been liquidated to cover these existing contracts.

Now one may say that selling shares to cover these obligations would send a signal to the market and hurt Big Blue's stock price. However, if the company cannot afford to maintain it's contractual obligations, shouldn't the market know? Or alternatively, if they can afford it but are looking to continue boosting the bottom line, those of us who use their products should know that their method of doing so is to screw over the employees that helped them get there while flying executives around for vacation on the company dime, or paying for executive families to travel and attend corporate events, or even doing this to the retirees simply so they can hold on to those precious shares. Either way, IBMs behavior is unnecessary and therefore disgusting.

If someone weaponizes our robots, we'll be really, really sad, says Boston Dynamics

Just a bit of fine print

"widely available to the public"

Amazon halts work on ‘Scout’ delivery-bot that delivered parcels no faster than humans

I'll tell you why

Clearly the folks in charge of the various delivery services here would be happy to automate as much labor as possible, but there is another problem. There is an element here that festers in our zero-trust society and that element will happily destroy the delivery bot to get the goods before it reaches the door. Even now without the bots, we have folks following the delivery trucks along their routes to snatch up whatever is placed on a front porch or other conveniently accessible area of the destination. Delivery bots without defense mechanisms don't stand a chance.

Boffins hunt and kill cockroaches with machine vision laser

Re: "more effective and environmental friendly approaches are needed"

>What sort of neighbourhood do you live in?

Desert metro

NSA super-leaker Edward Snowden granted Russian citizenship

PRISM

Has anyone been charged?

A match made in heaven: systemd comes to Windows Subsystem for Linux

Re: a match made in heaven indeed

I for one have come to like my systemd overlord, but I have to agree with you on firewalld.

Meta, Twitter, Apple, Google urged to up encryption game in post-Roe America

Re: It's never going to happen...

And to do this we either need everyone to adopt E2E or your contacts to adopt PGP. Another alternative is that ISPs and mail providers stop gatekeeping self-hosted email. I personally hate that calendaring is so closely tied to email nowadays as well.

US accident investigators want alcohol breathalyzers in all new vehicles

Re: Sounds like it could be

I'm betting this will be ready for roll-out by the time it's obsoleted by fully autonomous vehicles. Of course, the subsidies for the development of this technology will still be forthcoming.

Twitter founder Dorsey beats hasty retweet from the board

Keep in mind

many of the details in the slow news drip of this deal have surfaced through regulatory filings that are by nature after the fact, so this story is being pieced together little bits at a time. This is IMO far from over.

Google makes outdated apps less accessible on Play Store

Re: Necessary abandonware

Here I am anxiously awaiting the ability to use a Linux phone as my daily driver.

IBM deliberately misclassified mainframe sales to enrich execs, lawsuit claims

When it actually matters, rules and laws are not ever for those who create them.

Google Maps just got lost for a few hours

Re: OpenStreetMaps, Here, Michelin

Every year I give osm a try. Still can't find any of my contacts addresses. One day the dream will come true for me.

SAP continues to support Russian customers

Re: No worries

History is full of examples of entities supplying, financing even, both sides of conflicts.

HCL accused of wage theft, underpaying H-1B workers by at least $95m a year

Big business...

loves the current state of immigration labor in the US. Not only do you get the H1B situation above, but they have also learned that the low wages illegal immigrants can expect would be cheaper than owning slave laborers. Slavery never really went away here. It was transformed by large firms into a more efficient and less obvious model.

Guntrader breach perp: I don't think it's a crime to dump 111k people's details online in Google Earth format

Re: Law of Unintended Consequences

I'm inclined to think that nothing will happen to them, as those in power tend to agree with the motivations. Are either of my assertions wrong?

Re: To be fair ...

I mostly agree with you, but IMO Ernie made it easier to get ahold of the information as well. No specialized knowledge required now to know where to look for the dump.

Re: Conspiracy To...?

"does he/they not realise"

"self-righteous"

You've answered your own question. Ernie, and folks like him, just don't care. The ends, however imagined, justify the means to people like this. Collateral damage doesn't bother them as they view themselves as the moral superior, and those they target as irredeemable.

In the US this situation would be even worse I fear, as the gun owners here overwhelmingly keep them for self/home protection. So while some may be more hesitant to visit these addresses, of those that will, they are more likely to be caught in a shootout.

Beijing pressures Alibaba to offload media assets, including Hong Kong's top newspaper

Ma

Did he ever turn up?

We didn't collude with Twitter to throw Parler off our servers, says AWS in court filing

"prepare a law making it illegal for tech platforms to ban users without a local judge's permission."

I didn't see that last caveat in the linked page. To me it read as though service providers could nuke an account if they believed the user violated polish law...and in such case the user could appeal with the administration if they believed that to not be the case. There wasn't even mention of a judge or court, only that the service provider could be found liable after the appeal process.

Trump's gone quiet, Parler nuked, Twitter protest never happened: There's an eerie calm – but at what cost?

How the times have changed

Replace "big tech" with "ma bell" and many of the arguments put forth in these comments would be the opposite.

COVID-19 tracing without an app? There's an iOS and Android update for that

Re: Future of this

The following page seems helpful, to include the pdf overview linked at the bottom "Overview of COVUD-19 Exposure Notification" under Related Articles.

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9888358

Pen Test Partners: Boeing 747s receive critical software updates over 3.5" floppy disks

"To readers of a certain vintage"

Thanks, kind of you to put it that way

Apple's at it again: Things go pear-shaped for meal planner app after iGiant opposes logo

meal planner and grocery list app

What's the over/under on apple releasing their own version of this once Prepear has been thoroughly destroyed through litigation?

Search for 'things of value' in a bank: Iowa cops allege this bloke broke into one and decided on ... hand sanitiser

"batshit-crazy suggestions that injecting disinfectant into the human body might treat COVID-19"

I love this one. I watched that conference, saw and heard myself what was said. This has become a great litmus to find out who is framing narratives (or blindly swallowing them) versus actually reporting on what happens.

Burn baby burn, plastic inferno! Infosec researchers turn 3D printers into self-immolating suicide machines

Re: For want of a nail (thermal cutout actually)

The solution here is obvious. Someone needs to come up with a hardware failsafe that can be 3d printed, then the plans can be distributed with the machines.

Who was behind that stunning Twitter hack? State spies? Probably this Florida kid, say US prosecutors

Re: "The Twitter VIP hack undermines public confidence in those information platforms."

"99.9% of humanity think ... that twitter is the greatest thing on earth since facebook."

Which is ridiculous considering how the large majority of tweets are made by surprisingly small segment of the overall population. To be honest I don't know why anyone takes twitter so seriously.

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-twitter-users/

NSA to Congress: Our spy programs don’t work, aren’t used, or have gone wrong – now can you permanently reauthorize them?

None of this really matters

The NSA is already collecting beyond legal authorization. No reason to believe that will change in December. Also, they don't really care about funding from Congress. It's just a nice bonus to them. They bring in far more funding from other sources, off the books of course.

Fresh stalkerware crop pops up on Google's Android Play Store, swiftly yanked offline

I find it telling...

that some of these are pitched as a way to spy on employees. Disgraceful the kind of society we live in.

Also, I'll never understand why one would keep an employee they can't trust.

ReactOS 'a ripoff of the Windows Research Kernel', claims Microsoft kernel engineer

Re: It's an opinion.

You make a good point about obscurity. This story may even boost name recognition for ReactOS.

Re: It's an opinion.

I'm genuinely amazed that after all this time I still seem to be the only end-user that likes systemd.

Microsoft: The Kremlin's hackers are already sniffing, probing around America's 2018 elections

Kremlin's hackers

Putin must've learned nothing during all those KGB years. I would think that even the worst of spies would know to switch out assets once cover is blown.

FBI's flawed phone tally blamed on programming error. 7,800 unbreakable mobes? Er, um...

A drop in the bucket.

Even 7800 is insignificant:

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had jurisdiction

over 196,500 prisoners at yearend 2015.

So going off the number of KNOWN CONVICTED federal criminals, the feds are only having trouble with access to evidence for 3% of cases. In reality, the number has to be even more insignificant as you begin to count those who have not been charged, local and state cases that use FBI labs, etc. I'm sure someone who truly groks stats could really blow their argument out of the water.

Re: The irony is that the FBI will imprison you for the same mistake.

Unless you've been head of state but claim to not know what classified markings looking like, or what the law says about transmission and possession of classified information on unauthorized systems.

Re: What difference does it make?

This is how it goes nowadays. "Sources" make an unsubstantiated claim, and then everyone else in .gov and media ignore the demand for evidence and instead focus on driving opposing factions to argue over the minutia and whether or not it fits their political desires. Before you know it, months have gone by and people are arguing about how we should respond politically to something that no one has even demonstrated to have happened.

Who would trust

Forget trusting them with an audit...if they can't figure out how their counting function works, how can they figure out they've got the right device, or tied the data to the right "suspect"? Seems like these experts should not be allowed anywhere near "evidence" found through software.

President Trump broke US Constitution with Twitter bans – judge

Twitter a public forum

So does this mean I can't be banned from Twitter for sharing an unsavory opinion in the comments of any political feed? Weren't people being ridiculed 6 months ago for claiming the Twitter ban hammer was depriving them of freedom of speech? Is Twitter now liable if it decides my tweet to @SenFeinstein against illegal immigration is worthy of account suspension? And what about foriegn services? If a US pol made a comment on El reg would El reg have to leave the forum open and unmoderated for all commentary's?