Posts by mr-slappy 79 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2017
"Cobots are being implemented around workers at manufacturing workstations to inspect for faults in the product as it is being built"
- <deep intake of breath through clenched teeth>
- "You missed a bit"
- "You don't want to do it like that"
I reckon it would be about half a day before the cobot got picked up and thrown out of the window.
I joined Smile a couple of decades ago because of their ethical stance and until recent years their service has been very good.
Then Paul Flowers got caught with his nose in the drugs trough and it's all gone to crap.
These service outages are getting more and more common and I am now unable to check if I've been paid or have enough money to pay my mortgage.
I would move my account elsewhere but my ethical choices seem pretty limited.
"If your camera comes with a default password, change it to a secure one" => Require all IoTat devices to not have a default password, rather one that the user has to enter before it can be used. And reject any easily-hackable passwords.
"Keep your camera secure by regularly updating security software" => Require all IoTat devices to update themselves automatically and make manufacturers financially liable for security breaches in the way that they would be liable if a the device electrocuted someone.
"If you do not use the feature that lets you remotely access the camera from the internet, it is recommended you disable it" => Require all IoTat devices to have this feature switched off and only allow it to be enabled if a strong password has been assigned by the user (and maybe mandate 2FA as well).
FTFY
Hear hear!
In my day not only was code peer-reviewed, but specifications (does anyone do those any more?) as well.
I still encourage that approach whenever I am able to (sadly not that often in these days). Peer-review can identify many defects that the author will never see because they are immersed in the work.
Um...
'But the government would not accept any alignment with EU laws as the EU is demanding, with Mr Gove adding: "We will not trade away our sovereignty" ... there will be no jurisdiction for EU law or the European Court of Justice in the UK'
GDPR will be one of the first things to go. It will be sold as dynamic Bojo getting rid of all those annoying EU cookie notices that preface every web access.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51650961
"Several large clients have already moved to enforce either on-payroll or umbrella working, which will possibly bring in more tax, and almost certainly more NI"
That does not take into account the substantial number of contractors who (if these comments are anything to go by) seem to be retiring, leaving the profession or leaving the UK. Unless someone can magic up large numbers of people to replace them, that work will go offshore or just won't get done. The tax / NI take from that will be zero.
"Due to website maintenance it is not currently possible to make a submission online. Instead, please email your submission, name and contact details to financebill@parliament.uk The deadline for submissions is 23:59 on 25 February 2020"
Perhaps we should band together and submit a fixed-price proposal to implement a comment submission system that actually works. With a substantial mark-up due to the fact that we are shouldering the risk. And strictly-managed changed control that means if they want to change one of the colours it will cost £10k. What could possibly go wrong...
Never mind noise, what is it with all those LEDs they have nowadays? I switch the light off in our living room and it is bathed in the ghostly glow of half a dozen devices that are announcing their presence for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
I seem to spend half my life reading user manuals (ugh!) for instructions on how to disable the little buggers, only for them to reappear soon after following some sort of unrequested software update...
"chlorinated chicken has been cleared by US and European food agencies as safe"
Um, no, it very much hasn't.
"Washing chicken in chlorine and other disinfectants to remove harmful bacteria was a practice banned by the European Union (EU) in 1997 over food safety concerns. The ban has stopped virtually all imports of US chicken meat which is generally treated by this process. ... The EU believes that relying on a chlorine rinse at the end of the meat production process could be a way of compensating for poor hygiene standards - such as dirty or crowded abattoirs."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47440562
"Germany used to enforce the name being correct in transfers, but people got the names wrong so often that they dropped it"
Not only that, but I quite often find that the HTML input field for an electronic payment is not long enough to allow for a long account name. (Why would they do that?)
For example, my wife's and my joint bank account has the name "Mr Benedict X and Mrs Beatrice Y Slappy" (names changed 'cos I'm paranoid).
I've pre-emptively bought the corresponding .org.uk domain for the club (amateur orchestra) whose website I run.
The mooted increases aren't much in absolute terms but but to a small organisation like ours, and like many others I suspect, it's still significant.
We'll be ready to rehome ourselves when the greedy bastards decide to start turning the financial screws.
I emailed the webmaster about this very subject, as I thought I was losing my marbles.
They replied (very promptly) to say that they have removed the top links to a few days ago to release a little more "above-the-fold" space. You will be prompted to log when you need it, eg to post on a forum or download a whitepaper.
As a very long-time reader of the Reg, I find this fundamental change to the layout rather disturbing; I am still processing it ,and hope to come to terms with it over the next few days and weeks.
"The wailing kicked off from 6am local time, reaching a crescendo three hours later"
Sigh. A crescendo is a gradual increase in loudness (from the Italian for "growing."). I know that some dictionaries also define it as a high point but they are just wrong.
(disclosure: I am an amateur musician, not an Italian speaker)
I'm a bit sketchy on the details for this one, as I was on of the many victims rather than the perpetrator, but it turns out that the option to test a Windows Update on one test computer is right next to the option to immediately deploy the Update to every desktop in the whole organisation.
Which is why my PC suddenly started shutting down without warning one morning, and when I looked around, everyone else's PC was shutting down as well.
It was like something out of The Matrix (or would have been if the shutdowns had been accompanied by pictures of descending digits and some spooky music).
Anyway an intensive "retraining programme" was apparently arranged for the unfortunate perpetrator (in the sense of "would you like to get some training with another employer"). Bit harsh as AFAIK it was caused by a spectacularly poor UI.
If 123-Reg is possibly going to go bust I would strongly urge anyone using them to move away now.
Many years ago I had my main domain with a company that suddenly stopped responding to all attempts at contact. In despair I eventually contacted Nominet, the .uk registrar, and went through a slow and anxiety-making process to get my domain released.
I know they get a lot of flak but Nominet were very helpful, and they had to make absolutely sure that I really did own the domain before they could transfer it. Thankfully it was eventually sorted. Phew!
If anyone is looking for alternatives I would highly recommend Zen. (I have no connections with Zen other than as a happy customer.)
"...an unending list of shopping websites where they can buy something possibly related to it"
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.com/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
amazon.co.uk/...
ebay.com/...
amazon.co.uk/...
ebay.com/...
amazon.co.uk/...
< repeat for 5-6 pages >
an-actual-shop-actually-selling-it-cheaper-with-knowledgeable-staff.com/...
.. why software in aircraft (*) has to undergo years of rigorous design, testing and certification before a plane can fly, but the bar for self-driving cars seem to be "it compiled ok." (Or maybe "we did a load of really thorough testing, honest guv")
Why are self-driving cars even allowed on the roads? The technology doesn't seem to even be alpha yet.
(*) well not for Boeing obviously
A few years ago I set up a VPN server on a Raspberry Pi, using OpenVPN. The instructions I used were here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33548728 (although I'd go for something more recent now as it relies on a now-deprecated version of OpenVPN). I can access it from my iPhone and MacBook when I'm out and about.
It was quite complicated and it took me a while to get it working, but all the better for that! I mainly did it to learn about how VPNs work. However it comes in handy when I'm abroad and want to watch something on the BBC (for which I have paid a licence fee of course). I also use it when I'm signed on to a public wifi network (mainly to feel a little smug rather than to protect myself against crims).
"MAYBE: my little indulgence - a dispenser for chilled water and ice, all plumbed in (would be a YES except that it's only available on "american style" models)"
Our fridge isn't an American-style one, and it has a very handy cold water dispenser.
Even better is that you can fill it with white wine when we've got the family round for Christmas...
Thank you for the reference. However the article concludes (my emphasis):
- The council overwhelmingly decides by consensus, which means the **UK is on the winning majority side almost 87% of the time**.
- The UK government might be more willing than other governments to publicly register its opposition to EU decisions.
- The data does not tell us what went on behind the scenes on each of these issues, and hence how much the UK disagreed with the majority position when it recorded its opposition – perhaps the UK was on the winning side on all the key issues it really cared about in this period.
"I thought it was *PERFECT* and a *SOLID* example of how you deal with bullying"
I sincerely hope that you are not involved in any way in dealing with children or young people!!
Of course bullying is a terrible thing and needs to be dealt with robustly, but your proposed solution is ill-informed, unlikely to succeed and frankly barbaric.
The image of the bully as an empowered sadist does not reflect reality in my experience (primary school governor for 20 years). More often than not the bully is him/herself being bullied or abused at home. (Go on a local authority safeguarding training course if you want to hear some truly horrific case studies.)
All they will learn from your approach is how to become even more violent and will likely end up as an adult doing someone some serious harm. A more nuanced approach will still protect the victim but also may be able to turn the bully around from the path they have taken.
I look forward to all the well-informed, courteous and adult and response to this post...
I really struggle with the argument "we got by before we were in the EU, so we'll get by once we're out of it." The world has changed massively since then, and we have changed in step with that (for better or worse). We are now proposing to yank ourselves back in time fifty years over the space of a weekend.
It's like saying that we could travel just as fast around London in the Victorian era as we can now, so suddenly taking all the buses, cars and taxis off the road would be absolutely fine. But we' be knee-deep in horseshit for a start...
"IMHO, because of this, Chrome should be banned from the appStore until they behave properly"
I'm not at my Mac at the moment, but IIRC Chrome is installed on Mac by downloading a .dmg, not through the MacOS App Store. So the only control Apple has is to somehow remove it from their list of signed software (which is easily circumvented).
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