Posts by Nematode 429 publicly visible posts • joined 15 May 2018
Agree. Governments are owned by companies, industries and private think tanks.
And C19 itself will prove, once the 30 year secrecy moratorium is over (and probably not before due to the desperation by TPTB to keep the wraps on it, viz by example the C19 "Enquiry" which decided the conclusions first then chose the evidence to suit), to be one of the biggest scandals ever, far surpassing the numbers and suffering involved in other acknowledged scandals. Drug companies fiddling figures (95% effective, but on a tiny risk, no absolute risk reductions/NNVs published, so no possibility of properly informed consent), changing the vaccine production method after the trials were done but not re-trialling something which turned out to have e-coli DNA contamination, calling the vaccine a vaccine so as to avoid the higher standards required before use of genetic materials in drugs. And re. non-medical interventions the complete ignoring and rejection of previously-established viral outbreak procedures and principles on infection control.
The only thing that's missing in W11 to pop your taskbar on the left, right, or top is the OS-level UI. But it's there in the registry exactly where it was in Win 10:
Why would they actually take out some buried part of the registry? Answer: they haven't. They're just trying to make Windows look Mac-ish and can't give a fig about the wide aspect ratios so many machines have which use up vertical real estate, the reason most left-hangers (including me) put the taskbar on the left so you get more vertical space
"which is handy for editing code or writing lengthy pieces complaining about Microsoft's approach to product quality"
/gets up from rolling on the floor.
Or just reading pdfs of native A4 size without excessive scrolling.
With widescreen aspect ratio on most laptops and many desktop screens, I've had my taskbar on the left for years. Will this change make me like Windows !1? I don't think so.
One problem, though, the average computer/internet user doesn't have the awareness to look for downsides and problems with AI, and so happily carries on thinking it's the best thing since sliced bread. And we all know what 5hite situations occur due to ill-informed public opinion, viz most of the big issues of today, largely caused by people voting for fools, (or the lack of a credible alternative to those who get voted in). Even businesses are not immune to this. Really only those who have got bitten by an AI hallucination or whatever will be more circumspect.
The issue is: is the figure 3 in 10 expectable because of the date and turnover thresholds or because it should be much higher? If 3 out of 10 meets the expectable uptake, then implying 70% of businesses are not doing it is indeed misleading. (30% sounds about right to me. If it should be 33%, then there's a shortfall of 10%, not 70%.) Since we know it needn't be 10 out of 10 yet, but that's the sort of spin HMRC put on it to try and frighten people into MTD. A bit like they keep parroting tax avoidance as Bad, whereas tax avoidance is legal. Tax evasion is not.
These stats are meaningless at present because of the turnover(? - I note the article fails to clarify turnover vs. profit) threshold. The £30k to £50k band I'm sure accounts for a huge proportion. And anyway, many sole traders are already using software which is ready for MTD (no. 1 son included) and they won't see very much of a difference, the s/w will smooth the way having had the vendors do all the work. 3-monthly reporting is a good idea imho. I usually did my books monthly (Ltd Co) but occasionally I missed it and the quarterly VAT return would kick me into doing them.
And they knew they were going to do this a while back because they quietly removed the "download to your computer" option.
Finding an economic alternative to Kindle is damned hard, Kobo are megabucks, and e-book prices similarly. Amazon are locking out others by their pricing strategies. Still, even if we do bite the bullet, it'll be my Kindle that I replace as its battery is just about dead anyway, and then I'll buy and download books then move them to our Calibre library so SWMBO can pop it on her old Kindle. Even with new DRM, someone will write a plug-in update before long, as they have for all previous attempts to enforce DRM.
"In the US its actually quite a big cut". Hmmm, still not as much as most other countries. Yes, they have some categories at 40% but by and large most folk with a regular income aren't in that area. You have to earn over $626,350 to reach 37%, plus maybe around 10% state income tax max (many states are zero), CGT max 20%. A complex system overall, though, but if I was earning now I think I'd prefer the US figures to the UK's, especially their $14 million threshold for IHT - compared to the 40% my kids will have to fork if I die leaving any of my SIPP "unused", thanks to Rachel from Accounts. Grrr
Um, Blackrock, Vanguard et al don't "own" the shares. They may buy them up into funds but the funds are usually owned by individual punters like myself - my pension is half in Vanguard funds as recommended by my FA, with a very low charge. Of course, there are large corporations who also invest in these funds so it's not all individual punters. A huge proportion of the shares and funds market is essentially pension investments.
One hopefully good thing about the way the world is going to hell in a handbasket, viz. Trump and his cronies, Putin carrying on blithely, the stupid war in Iran, the whole multi-billionaire thing while planning to escape this dying world and disappear to the moon or Mars as they screw this world, people unable to earn a crust to keep mind and body together whilst the high heidyins are rolling in it, gross corruption absolutely everywhere, AI being shoved down our throats with no regard to those who will no longer have jobs (e.g. Amazon robots), in the UK tons of literally 5hite being tipped into our rivers whilst the bosses cream it, dumb projects like HS2 (HS rail only works over long distances and the Tories were told this), Starmer and his cronies being nothing like a Labour government and letting down every who voted for them to reverse the Tory disasters, the serial cluster-**** which was and is the Tory party, the lies over Brexit, the utter balls up which C19 was, I could go on, I think you get the idea - is that everybody is now aware that those we (sort of) trusted (or at least blindly hoped we could) to run this country and this world have our interests absolutely at the very bottom of their priorities. I for one have never suffered fools gladly, what I'm looking at is that eyes are opening, deep mistrust is spreading, and people really want some grown-ups to return, which doesn't mean Reform. The forthcoming Scottish election will be interesting, and the US mid-terms, and the next Westminster election even more so.
I'm just waiting for them to fek Win 10, at which point I will regret that I ever went for the ESUs (but will not be extending for another year). Fortunately, SWMBO's wouldn't register for ESUs so apart from some nagware from the new anti-malware, she's been fine.
I would have taken the approach that if something can go wrong it will, and it's impossible to say what and why it might go wrong (something odd will always happen, viz most recently a buried https setting in my browser screwed redirect on my son's website, even my hoster couldn't work it our). Old data preservation = use backups.
Sorry (actually not), but as a Chemical Engineer who spent his 40+ year career designing process plants with heating, cooling and many other functions, I just can't see how we got into this mess, with local authorities of whatever shape and size being tasked with cooling these monstrosities. Surely when a company applies to use water, it knows how much and what for, and the council/whoever should simply say, no, we wouldn't cool a chemical plant / oil refinery / manufacturing plant with once-through water from the municipal supply, since it's blatantly not the purpose of water supplies to do other than sustain life and hygiene. The obvious method is closed-circuit cooling via cooling towers (though even these can need top-up due to evaporative losses) or refrigeration circuits for lower temperatures. These systems are called "Utilities" in the relevant industries and there's a whole canon of established practice which the AI companies for all their cleverness can't seem to understand how to write a prompt which gets them a sensible answer to the cooling / power requirements..
.....or they should be. Seems to be a missing element (responsibility) in today's world though.
Free to say what you want but only if what you say meets common decency. The Buddhist concept "right speech" is a useful metric, regardless of beliefs/non-beliefs. Such as https://www.deepdharma.org/beliefs/right-speech/ (seems to be the full lot!)
As a contractor I was working at a major-size client where every once in a while there would be a round-robin email saying, essentially, "don't use work PCs for your own browsing". Then it would gently home in over about 4 or 5 emails, saying don't use work PCs for visiting non-work-related sites, which became don't visit inappropriate sites, which became don't visit adult sites which finally became don't visit pron sites, with all of these emails adding "or disciplinary action will be taken". Followed fairly swiftly on each clampdown (every 3 months or so) by an email saying "Today we have dismissed X number of people who were ignoring all the earlier emails". Yet very 3 months, people were still getting caught out. What part of No did they not understand?
Good point, but almost every piece of advice on t'interweb about IMAP vs POP denigrates POP and says use IMAP. How many people realise all their private stuff is on "Someone else's Server"? I'm paranoid enough to be aware that mails I send to people who have @gmail addresses will more than likely stay on Gmail's servers, so be careful what I say.
Re: "There is no automated substitute for experienced staff"
One is tempted to say when did sound logic ever influence the occasional, and in some cases (the oil industry) regular, experienced headcount reductions. Followed before long by panic re-hiring of now contractors charging a lot more.
"When I was a kid..."
...we used to play football in the street, fortunately a fairly quiet street in a housing estate, early 60s. Now 60+ years later, living in rural Scotland and with a similar low level of traffic where we are (even on the local B road to Aberdeen in rush hour!) the saying we had as kids still gets trotted out when a car comes along - "What do they think this is, a ROAD?"
