Posts by Insert sadsack pun here

India's fix for its online gaming indust... Oh. Self-regulation

No copy of the actual rules available...?

The era of cloud colonialism has begun

Re: So... What's your solution?

"it looks like the author will rather have those Africans go without internet access altogether than have them get access to GMail or Amazon services."

The author couldn't give a monkey's about African connectivity - it's just a smug wrapper for his disdain for big tech companies. And it's fine to criticise big tech, it does awful things, but spare us the concern trolling.

This article is an abomination

The only colonialist things this article identifies are the smug prejudices that of Tobias Mann and The Register itself.

The story here is one of massive growth in demand for tech and connectivity in Africa and Lat Am. As even bloody Microsoft recognises, "one of the most important markets in the world, with the fastest growing population, projected to grow from 1.4 billion to almost 1.7 billion by 2030. It’s the youngest continent in the world with a median age of under 20 and 60% of the population under the age of 25." The projects announced are being executed in partnership with African tech companies and in response to African consumers' demand.

And yet Mann has written this article through the lens of colonialism (which ended 65 years ago in Ghana, where one of the projects is located) and presents African and Lat Am consumers and techies as mere unsophisticated objects, without agency, who will be grateful for blankets.

Did he bother speaking to any African tech companies that will be executing the projects? Did he seek comment from African techies about their markets? No, he just relied on press releases from Seattle and Silicon Valley. Perhaps if he HAD made the effort to speak to those people, he wouldn't have used such condescending, outdated, colonialist arseburgers.

Meet the merry pranksters who keep the workplace interesting, if not productive

Re: Pranking is abuse

The sign of a fun prank is at the end of it, everyone including the target finds it genuinely amusing. But there are plenty of bullies, dipshits and YouTubers that think "c'mon, bro, it's a prank" is an excuse for bullying or abusive behaviour.

Crypto craziness craps out – and about time too

Re: False arguments

"the way that it creates scarcity..."

This is 1980s monetarism reinvented (and it's still rubbish).

China reportedly bars export of homebrew Loongson chips to Russia – and everywhere else

Re: How about some arithmetic

"these countries do not allow drugs dealers to poison their youth with fentanyl..."

I don't know about China, but there is a HUGE drug (and, in Russia, alcohol) addiction problem in Russia and Iran. Anyone with a passing familiarity with those countries knows this.

"Iran currently has one of the world’s highest rates of drug addiction. The United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime reports the country has the world’s second-highest rate of opium addiction and the highest rate of heroin and opium addiction per member of the population."

http://ijer.skums.ac.ir/article_21148_0.html

"Russia has one of the world’s biggest heroin problems, with up to three million addicts according to local non-governmental organizations...The Russian government estimates its citizens bought $17 billion worth of street-traded heroin last year -- about seven billion doses. The addiction kills at least 30,000 Russians a year, which is a third of the world’s total heroin-related deaths...so grave is the problem that President Dmitry Medvedev last year branded heroin a threat to national security."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-heroin-idUSTRE70O22X20110125

Re: Oh No! Anyway....

"Basing alot of their own military off a template of Soviet/Russia is seeming like a bad choice right now."

It's been a long time (maybe 60 years?) since China was dependent on whatever weapons Moscow allotted to it. They have their own massive defence sector.

Financial authorities fine UK bank nearly $60m for platform migration disaster

Re: subject for investigation

"Baader-Meinhof? What do German terrorists have to do with it?"

Wow, that's weird - that must be rhe fourth or fifth time someone's mentioned Baader-Meinhof on this thread.

Corporate execs: Get back, get back, to the office where you once belonged

Re: The consultancy advises major retail bank NatWest, the Cabinet Office and Network Rail

"Network effect" (gaining efficiency and use from being near others in your market) is nothing to do with "networking".

Re: The consultancy advises major retail bank NatWest, the Cabinet Office and Network Rail

"I don't see why it also couldn't be good to locate offices that are an hour or so FROM a big city."

Because it can take an hour to get across London to reach the station from which the hour-long journey to Ely commences, and because there is a network effect of being in the big city, even today.

Apple 'created decoy labor group' to derail unionization

Re: Local union affiliates?

"Can't they just join an already existing national or State "retail workers" union or something?"

Because in the US you have to organise workplace by workplace, and you all need to pull together as part of the same union. That's why getting a union recognized as being the voice of the workforce (or a category of worker e.g. retail staff but not electricians) at a location is such a big deal.

It's not like the UK where you can just about join any union that will have you, regardless of whether they are recognised by your employer. And that reminds me - I didn't rejoin the union when I changed my job earlier this year...

Musk roundly booed on-stage at Dave Chappelle gig

Re: Technically, it was 90 percent cheers & 10 percent boos

"I don’t think it does humble anyone apart from the emotionally immature twats doing it."

Booooo!

Re: Technically, it was 90 percent cheers & 10 percent boos

"I've no idea why grown adults do it"

Because it is a very effective way of humbling blowhards, QED.

Re: One of the rare times he escaped his own reality bubble recently

"Why aren't The Reg onto this, and "Biting the Hand"?"

Absolutely weird that you've decided that the Richest Man In The World who is the CEO and (effective) owner of Twitter is the underdog in all of this.

States label TikTok 'a malicious and menacing threat'

Re: Sp why don't we use the sensible alternative?

Presumably in order to enforce those restrictions against young users the app requires a bunch of personal data up front. ISTR that TikTok only requires an email address.

I'm not sure which is better from a privacy perspective.

How do you solve the problem that is Twitter?

Re: Unpopular opinion incoming...

'What's the point of all the catastrophising and doom-mongering? Does it make you feel better?'

Yes, it makes me feel much better. It's top notch schadenfreude. It's looking like real time, in depth, detailed coverage of a smug Genius Billionaire getting his arse handed to him, and that practically never happens. And it's totally free!

Salesforce calls some workers back to the office amid slowing sales

"The staff were told to host eight meetings with customers a week – half of them in-person – and provide bi-weekly presentations."

Isn't this just incenitivising totally pointless meetings and presentations instead of e.g. incentivising actual sales?

Is this how sales teams normally work?

Blockchain needs a reason to exist, Boris Johnson tells roomful of blockchain pros

I don't know where you are, but for years my international transfers have all been cheap and same/next day, and my domestic transfers have all been free and instant. That's nothing to do with blockchain or crypto, and all to do with migrants and small businesses pushing payments providers, and they in turn identified a use case that regulators allowed them to run with under a light touch regime.

DoJ worries messaging apps could hide evidence of crime, corruption

Re: As used by Government Ministers in the UK

The DoJ is making exactly the point the ICO has been making - using peer to peer platforms and social networks means there's no way of retaining and monitoring the discussions. That's okay in private life, but in business and government it inevitably leads to opacity and corruption.

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-watchdog-seeks-review-into-government-use-whatsapp-messaging-apps-2022-07-11/

Re: The horse has bolted

The DoJ message isn't aimed at the networks or its users. It's aimed at big companies and telling them "you can't just allow your employees to do business on platforms you can't monitor and then shrug and say you didn't know when it turns out they were paying bribes". Either the companies have to work out how to monitor/review those communications in some sensible way or they have to tell their employees not to talk business on those platforms.

Jaguar Land Rover courts coders caught in big tech layoffs

Re: If what Elon stated was correct. . .

Musk is a senior mangler who thinks he's a coder. I'm not sure I trust his classification skills...

World's richest man posts memes as $44b Twitter acquisition veers off course

Re: Cut him a break

"Sure I remember Branson saying 'The fastest way to become a millionaire is to start as a billionaire and buy an airline'."

Surprised he didn't recommend defrauding the tax man. It's what propelled Branson on his way.

https://slate.com/business/2014/05/richard-branson-tax-fraud-how-a-youthful-indiscretion-helped-create-a-billionaire.html

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison

Walgreens is exactly the kind of stock that your pension is invested in.

'Baby Al Capone' to pay $22m to SIM-swap crypto-heist victim

"Pinsky has not...been charged with any crime, and it's presumed this is because he was a minor at the time of the theft..."

Hah! The minimum age for prosecution in federal criminal matters is 11.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/03/15/the-minimum-age-of-criminal-responsibility-continues-to-divide-opinion

Bye bye BoJo: Liz Truss named new UK prime minister

Re: Trussed Up

"My late godfather smuggled some [potatoes] out, years and years ago - my mother grows them to this day"

Crikey, they must be huge by now.

Enough with the notifications! Focus Assist will shut them u… 'But I'm too important!'

I don't understand why every FUCKING device and website and software has to provide a weather forecast box wherever there are more than two pixels unused. The only question I need to answer is "do I need a jacket?" I can get a 90% accurate answer by remembering what month it is. I can get to 99% accuracy by looking out the window.

Yes, I understand that the weather data is there to be scraped and it seems like easy customisation, but just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. Weather wankers!

Be careful where you install software, and who installs it

Re: Private Libraries?

This Bob guy sounds like a loose cannon. I hope they got shot of him.

Tesla jettisons 75% of Bitcoin holdings, boosting cash balance by $936m

Re: A pint says

Kanye is clearly unwell (and a huge pain as a result). Musk just seems to be a douche - but having discovered what an awful person his dad is, perhaps it's not surprising the son grew up to be the man we know as Elon.

Security vendor splits – not quits – to address Russia's invasion of Ukraine

"external circumstances... is almost certainly code for "Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine that has so outraged the world that plenty of tech vendors quit Russia in protest."

1) think it is much more likely to be code for "our founder and former CEO has been detained by Russian authorities on dodgy charges, and we want to protect our foreign business from them". See El Reg's previous reporting on this issue. Prosecutors can't explain what he is supposed to have done wrong. He thinks he has been framed by organised cybercrime groups whose activities have been disrupted by the company.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/29/group_ib_ceo_arrested_treason_claims_russia/

https://www.forbes.ru/tekhnologii/466849-il-a-sackov-forbes-srazu-posle-moego-zaderzania-sostoalas-bol-saa-vecerinka

2) plenty of foreign vendors have issued press releases proclaiming their shock and hurt. How many have actually gone ahead and left? Far, far fewer.

Amazon accused of obstructing probe into deadly warehouse collapse

Unfortunately, OSHA has been gutted of people and resources over the last few years.

https://www.nelp.org/news-releases/workplace-fatalities-rising-trump-osha-enforcement-declines/

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/07/osha_safety_standards_how_politics_have_undermined_the_agency_s_ability.html?via=gdpr-consent

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedknutson/2020/04/01/worker-dangers-up-as-trump-osha-cuts-come-home-to-roost-say-afl-cio-exec-ex-dol-official/amp/

Re: Axe to grind..

"amazon pulled out of new york due to her and other politicians rediculous demands"

1) Amazon didn't pull out of New York. Amazon sought competitive bids (subsidies, tax breaks, land) from localities in order to locate their HQ2 there, and NYC was in the running. AOC didn't want Amazon to be offered freebies.

2) Amazon didn't pull out of New York. in fact, they announced they'd invest in a huge campus there without the package of subsidies and breaks they wanted.

3) AOC is a federal legislator. It was New York State and New York City politicians that could have offered Amazon subsidies etc. Federal government can't discriminate among states. She objected to the "beauty parade" of giveaways to Amazon, but it wasn't her delusion one way or the other.

Elon Musk orders Tesla execs back to the office

Re: 40 hours a week, minumum?

"if they had jobbed me out it would have been at (Salary + 1.1*Salary)*1.2 = 2.52*Salary."

I believe a 5-7x multiplier is applied at law firms and consultancies. Certainly I would have been ecstatic to make half of my charge out rate...

US brings first-of-its-kind criminal charges of Bitcoin-based sanctions-busting

"Under the United States' International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEA), it is illegal for a citizen or institution within the US to transfer funds, directly or indirectly, to a sanctioned country, such as Iran, Cuba, North Korea, or Russia"

Russia doesn't fit here. It is not the subject of comprehensive sanctions. Certain Russian banks and persons are sanctioned, but it remains legal for US persons to send money (and bitcoin) to and from Russia.

Appeals court unleashes Texas's anti-Big-Tech content-no-moderation law

Re: Better for citizens to choose

"How many school shootings were there in the 80's ? None.

Information is a double-edged sword, is what I'm saying."

And misinformation is just rubbish.

SoftBank to stop investing 'randomly' after losing billions of dollars

Re: How shocking...

Hopefully they don't do the needful only after proceeding with the presently-prospective procedures, because we all know that the proper process prescribes that actioning the necessary should precede any proceeding with procedures.

Confirmation dialog Groundhog Day: I click OK and it keeps coming back

Re: Golden Path Specifications

"Often, from the user's perspective, the "what happened" part doesn't need to be more than "something went wrong".

Possibly - but I'm reintroducing the Birch for programmers whose error messages are too cutesy..."bruh, totally tough shit occurred, no joke. Better luck next life!"

Elon Musk flogs $8.4bn of Tesla shares amid Twitter offer drama

Re: Irony

"The extreme leftists and Wokists"

I bloody hate Wokists. What's wrong with a good old fashioned frying pan?

Re: Irony

"The extreme leftists and Wokists mantra states that if you don't like it go somewhere else or build your own..."

Extreme leftists aren't known for promoting market-based solutions to social problems. You're talking through your trousers, matey

Apple to bin apps that go three years without updates

Re: So you wrote it, and it works

"As the article states, apps "that no longer function as intended, don't follow current review guidelines, or are outdated" could already be removed under Apple's previous policy. This easily includes apps which are using outdated, less-secure APIs."

I hate to defend Apple, but under the existing rules a human has to go and look at the app, apply guidelines, work out what the app was intended to do, see if the app still works as intended, and then decide whether to kick it off or not. By applying rules like "app has been downloaded fewer than x times" and "app hasn't been updated in y years", that process can be objective and automated...

...and 98% of the stuff that will be kicked off is untended rubbish that no-one will miss anyway.

"the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period"

I suppose that means my "Brexit Win Logger" app is done for, then...

India seizes $725 million of Xiaomi's cash

Re: Everyone does it

VAT is not a tax on turnover. VAT is a tax on consumption. A B2B business ultimately generates little in the way of VAT for the exchequer because anything it does collect ends up being reclaimed (offset) by its client.

Hamas-linked cyber-spies 'target high-ranking Israelis'

Re: Of course...

"It's another case of pot meeting the kettle."

Not really. No-one said Mossad would or wouldn't do the same.

Fish mentality: If The Rock told you to eat flies, would you buy my NFT?

"One of the speakers...ended up berating the others over the utter uselessness and environmental vandalism of craptos and NFTs."

They're not wrong.

US Army to build largest 3D-printed structures in the Americas

Re: I wonder if it would be simpler

They were commercialised - they're called insulated concrete forms: https://newhousebuilder.com/insulated-concrete-forms/

Coding in a war zone: A Ruby developer's life in Kharkiv

Re: Spreading the news

"What I'd like is a pipe right into every home in Russia, to pump the truth to them."

"We" already have access, uncensored access free and easy, to the truth about the Saudi war in Yemen, and the support of the UK and US for it. What are "we" doing about it? Let's not get too sanctimonious about inactivity of ordinary Russians in a police state.

Activist investors attempt to push through racial diversity probe at Salesforce

It's not a quota, it is a metric. The two are different. The metric is an estimation of "if were are hiring and promoting in a fair way, then we'd expect our workforce to look like this in a few years. If it doesn't look like this by then, then we need to ask ourselves if we are getting better or worse in fairness and if the steps that we've taken are sensible".

(I'm not saying anything about the specific metric that Salesforce chose, which to an outsider looks clunky at best).

IT in the UK and US isn't a terribly diverse workforce and does suffer from (at best) wobbly HR practices. The readership of El Reg will mostly reflect those currently in the sector. The downvotes will often be because those who would face more competition from a wider candidate pool aren't keen on it. Some of them also fear/misinterpret efforts to hire people more friendly as "reverse discrimination".

Reg reader rages over Virgin Media's email password policy

Re: So leave

It's not just the email account- it's the customer service area of the website if they are your ISP. And if you want cable or fibre in the UK, Virgin (spit) are often your only option.

SAP continues to support Russian customers

Re: No worries

"I am already seeing various ways of punching through these sanctions."

SAP's business in Russia isn't prohibited by the sanctions in place. There's nothing to punch through. That's why they are choosing to stay.

Iran's internet chokepoint caught fire, caused outages

Re: Banning VPN

"It's going to make it impossible for many foreigners to work from Iran."

Do you think there is a large number of foreign VPN-dependant knowledge workers in Iran???

Europe's largest nuclear plant on fire after Russian attack

Re: Putin provoking NATO

I heard that Putin said Russia bombed the power plant because it had bought uranium in Niger, and had a biological weapon that could deploy in 45 minutes, and was wearing a bulky coat and had jumped the turnstile...