Posts by Cav

SF cops got warrant-free OK to watch protest via private security cameras

How is this an abuse of rights when there is no expectation of privacy in a public place?

Re: Chipping Away

Nonsense. You are allowed to protest. There's nothing wrong with the police watching out for non-peaceful protest. There is no expectation of privacy in a public place.

US govt pushes spyware to other countries? Senator Wyden would like a word

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

"In most countries spying is a crime. Just because you think it's not, doesn't make it so."

Only in your bizarre, alternate reality. In this reality, governments spy on terrorists, criminals and other threats all within the law. The problem is that there are legitimate reasons for spying - preventing terrorism for example - and then there are illegitimate reasons - spying on journalists critical of corrupt government officials for example. The latter is a crime, in most civilised countries, the former is not. And this is the rightful situation. You can't ham-string our intelligence forces and then whine about terrorist attacks.

UK's GDPR replacement could wipe out oversight of live facial recognition

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

And you deliberately, no one could be so ignorant as to not know it, hide the fact that one of the main purposes of the vaccine and other measures, in addition to saving lives, was to reduce demand on hospital services. They were already stretched to breaking point by the number of covid cases. Can you seriously not see how many more cases would have needed hospital care without vaccines, masks and lockdowns? And who would have treated all those people demanding beds? It was bad enough when vaccines were available. Can you not imagine the numbers of staff off sick if counter measures hadn't been employed?

Your arguments, and those of your deluded ilk, are based in conspiracy fear, ignorance and the absence of rational thought.

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

You are deluded. "Yes, let's just keep everyone at home and cripple supply chains and the economy" said no government ever.

"They show nothing worse than a bad flu season, which always crop up every few years." liar. If you have to lie to support your argument then it is an invalid one.

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

"As with flu, most of those who die 'with' it are over the average live expectancy and with multiple comorbidities. People who would likely die from anything worse than a mild respiratory infection." Absolute nonsense. If what you say were true then there would be no excess deaths and those people you mention would have died of the regular cold and flue seasons every year. Covid saw a surge in respiratory deaths, far above the usual numbers. That's a simple fact.

"Are you seriously credulous enough to believe that a loose-fitting cheap face nappy and standing on spots on the floor is going to have a major impact on an airborne virus which spreads mostly as aerosols? There's no credible evidence that any of these things make any difference at all - as indeed was the accepted wisdom before 2020." Are you seriously so ignorant as to not know why masks are worn? More nonsense. Why do surgeons wear such masks? Is it your contention that medics the world over are wasting time and money by wearing these masks? The point isn't to stop the wearer from breathing in virus but to stop the infected from spreading their germs in saliva and mucus. Again, precisely the reason that surgeons and dentists wear such masks. Surgeons wear masks so that they don't infect exposed tissue with their respiratory secretions not to avoid infection from the patient. They also wash their hands for the same reason. Exhaled secretions are full of pathogens.

"standing on spots on the floor". More ignorance. Initial studies at the time showed that exhaled particles fell to the floor within 6 feet unless expelled by talking, coughing or sneezing. As more evidence accumulated there were calls for the distance to increase or decrease, depending upon the latest information.

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

Another ludicrous, truly ignorant comment.

"There have also been deaths due to the vaccines healthy people were given who were at very low risk of death by covid." Yes, in truly minuscule numbers.

"flogging ineffective masks". Only the truly ignorant would argue so. Masks prevent an infected individual from spraying virus filled mucus everywhere. They are not supposed to stop you inhaling virus which would require biohazard level masks.

"'pro-choice', except when it comes to vaccine mandates"

You can't seriously be this obtuse? Pro-choice about things that do not affect anyone else, yes. Pro-choice about the foolish choosing to spread a pathogen during a pandemic, no. Another ignorant argument.

"There have been around 7 million deaths of people with covid, not from covid. This is a subtle but important difference". If your argument were anywhere near remotely true then we wouldn't have had a surge in deaths or ITUs filled with Covid patients. People who would otherwise have lived long and happy lives, with whatever medical condition you ascribe their deaths to, were it not for Covid instead died.

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

"numbers had already peaked and were heading downwards before thye did anything in March 2020". Liar

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

"They provide *you* with zero protection against other people."

They were never supposed to...

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

We know the safety of mRNA because we know how it works and the internal cellular level. There is no way that mRNA vaccines can cause mass long-term problems. The only way they could cause problems is if the protein that they encode is sufficiently similar to a one of a patient's own proteins. That would trigger an autoimmune response. However, if the patient's protein is so similar to the viral spike protein then an actual covid infection would cause the same response. It's for this reason that the impacts of covid were felt throughout patient's bodies.

And the length of time it takes traditional vaccines to be developed is irrelevant. This is a new method of attacking a pathogen. Comparison with earlier methods is meaningless.

Any harm also has to be compared to that which would result from not vaccinating.

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

Your article doesn't support the argument you are making. Yes, Covid is airborne. So what? Cloth masks cannot stop you breathing in virus, which easily pass through the weave of the material. But that was never their purpose. The purpose was to stop the infected spraying virus filled mucus and saliva everywhere and that they certainly do achieve. It's the whole reason that dentists and surgeons wear them.

Re: "the fight against crime and terrorism"

Is this your entry for the most completely ignorant, know-nothing comment of the decade award?

More UK councils caught by Capita's open AWS bucket blunder

Re: Hmmm

Tell me you don't have a clue what you are talking about without telling me....

Intel says Friday's mystery 'security update' microcode isn't really a security update

"We now know it meant “not applicable,” Everyone with any education already knew it.

Let white-hat hackers stick a probe in those voting machines, say senators

Re: I suppose after ....

"that the CIA and FBI have been exposed in the last 2 weeks for election tampering." No, they haven't.

Storing the Quran on your phone makes you a terror suspect in China

Re: You see

I never expect better when it comes to discussion of the CCP here. There's too many stupid people who believe the West must be far worse than the Chinese authoritarian regime.

Re: Quote from the religion of peace...

"Christians follow the New Testament.", You can't be serious...? That's garbage.

Re: Ahhhhh religion (all of them)

"All 5 cities are run by leftist Democrats, and have stricter gun laws than England." There's that idiotic, magical force-field argument again. It makes no difference what laws any one jurisdiction in the US has with regard to guns, when freedom of movement exists alongside lax gun control elsewhere. Every location effectively has the same legislation as the most stupid one.

"Criminals who want to kill, will kill." Wrong. When guns are controlled in every sane nation on the planet, murder rates fall. If guns weren't available then the alternatives are not as conveniently lethal as guns. If they were then we'd arm the police and military with knives etc. Women in the US are five times more likely to die from domestic abuse in a house with a gun present than not. The reason is obvious. In a heated argument a gun allows you to kill easily, efficently and with little means of escape for the victim. That's precisely why they exist. Don't be stupid and argue that it isn't. It's why we don't arm the military with spoons. You can kill with a spoon but the very purpose of a gun is to allow killing swiftly and easily, negating the ability of a target to quickly get out of range.

"The US is the 4th most dangerous country in the world, until you remove the statistics for Los Angeles, Baltimore, New Orleans, Chicago and New York City. When the statistics for these 5 cities are removed, the US becomes the 4th SAFEST nation in the world. " Garbage. I live in a Republican led, very conservative state. Last year, the total number of murders in my state was 3/4 of that of the UK but the population is a tenth that of the UK. And that's just one state.

"There is no such thing as free health care. Someone is paying for it. Or, do you think doctors work for nothing, nobody charges hospitals for utilities or supplies, or drug companies give away everything they make? The government's solution to insert themselves in the middle will cost us more for worse medical care. Besides, if the US went socialized medicine, where would the Brits go for treatment when NHS tells you that they can't see you for 18 months?"

Also garbage. Health care in the UK is free at the point of use i.e. the opposite of the US where the first thing the ER does is to check your wallet, rather than your heart rate. "The government's solution to insert themselves in the middle will cost us more for worse medical care". At least in England everyone has the chance to get medical care. In the US too many die without adequate care and have to choose between food and a doctor visit. "more for worse medical care". We already pay more for worse medical care. The US maternal and infant mortality rates are worse than poor Eastern Europe countries and far, far worse than richer Western European countries.

"Besides, if the US went socialized medicine, where would the Brits go for treatment when NHS tells you that they can't see you for 18 months?" Brits don't go to the US. If anything they go to Poland or Turkey. Far more people from the US go to Mexico for health care (a million a year) than Brits go the US. What they do go for is specialist care. And that is the result of the comparatively large population size, not because our medicine is better. A medical specialist in a population of 333+ million people will become more proficient in rarer diseases and treatments than in one in a population a fifth the size.

Capita admits some pension data 'likely' to have been accessed in March breach

"The business admitted to a "cyber incident" – that nebulous phrase which downplays the significance of an attack"

No, it isn't. Until fully explained and investigated, it's an incident.

China labels USA 'Empire of hacking' based on old Wikileaks dumps

Re: China says lots of things. Does anyone believe them?

"This comment applies well to quite all the States when it is about spying." I take it you are the same person that writes the instructions that come with cheap Chinese tat...

There is no valid comparison between the US and China, when it comes to their oppression of their citizens. The US hacks to keep track of threats against it. The Chinese hack to keep tabs on anyone that might challenge their control on their population and anyone else that gets in their way.

Whatever the paranoid state, only the very foolish would consider US society and government anything like that of China. Yes, there are flaws in the US, of course, but in China you wouldn't be able to criticize the government at all.

Feds rethink warrantless search stats and – oh look, a huge drop in numbers

Re: NCT

Not one of those things has been subject to government lies. Only idiots deny the reality of climate change, the necessity and safety of vaccines or the effectiveness of covid control measures.

China has 50 hackers for every FBI cyber agent, says Bureau boss

Re: Move some of the budget

"And don't anyone dare try to tell me that American spying is good"

Why? It simply is. These comment threads are infested with the ignorant, the stupid and propaganda agents of the CCP.

The free West is under threat from regimes that exert iron grips on their populations. The rebellious teens (either physically or mentally) of the West have absolutely zero comprehension of what a truly authoritarian regime looks like. The intelligence services of the West have no where near the power of those of the near and far East. If they did then you simply wouldn't be commenting here. Criticism of the authorities would be removed, you'd be jailed and "re-educated".

Only fools believe that there is any comparison between the regimes of the east and those of the west. Yes, our countries spy on others, even allies, to protect our interests. No, you are not oppressed or subject to control and surveilance to anywhere near the degree that the populations of countries such as China or Russia are.

Data loss costs are going up – and not just for those who choose to pay thieves

Re: Fake healthcare vs. CIA/NSA MKULTRA

Is it time for your meds...?

Capita IT breach gets worse as Black Basta claims it's now selling off stolen data

Re: Funny but...

It's not to the individuals concerned: "notify the personal data breach to the supervisory authority competent in accordance with Article 55..."

Wrong time to weaken encryption, UK IT chartered institute tells government

Re: Lets start by making all UK politician's calls and messages public.

Way to miss the point of the comment...

Pentagon super-leak suspect cuffed: 21-year-old Air National Guardsman

"he is up against an estabilishment who was lying through their teeth."

There is nno idication of that. Stop supporting traitors.

Conspiracy idiocy. People just think you are wrong.

You can't really be that naive and ignorant? Surely? The president isn't going to let everyone know that there are observers on the ground in a warzone. Do you seriously expect public notification, that alerts our enemies and puts operatives at risk..?

Dear Gods, you and Black Holes have a lot in common.

Bank rewrote ads for infosec jobs to stop scaring away women

Re: So

"The presentation appears to be saying that women are put off by job adverts when asked to display experience and skills that are relevant to the job at hand."

That isn't what it says at all. I can only conclude that you reach such an absurd conclusion due to bias.

It clearly states that women are put off by requirements that are not actually requirements at all.

Re: So

"are either male or female, but with a well defined medical condition"

That is simply false. Do you mean having the physical, genetic or hormonal characteristics of one sex or the other? Because there are multiple combinations of all of these that are possible. You can't simply say that such an individual is male or female. How could a person externally male, but with internal female hormones, DNA and reproductive organs be "male"?

Re: So

"Sex is not gender". Correct but we are not blank canvases upon which our environment and experiences write. There is no reason why DNA should not be concerned in gender.

Re: So

"DNA doesn't specify gender either."

There is no reason why this is the case. Our mental processes are as subject to the instructions of our DNA as is our physical structure.

Re: So

Differences in gender identity are not "new things". They have existed for millennia in numerous societies. We are just now recognising and accepting them in Western societies.

Re: So

Or you don't know what you are talking about.

LockBit brags: We'll leak thousands of SpaceX blueprints stolen from supplier

You do realize that Uncle Sam can't reach everyone, everywhere? Why the assumption that members of this group are accessible? If they are in Russia then nothing is going to happen to them.

Why ChatGPT should be considered a malevolent AI – and be destroyed

Re: Gross misunderstanding of the tool

That makes no sense. As someone else indicated, there is no description, because it's impossible, for how a synapse can become self aware. The statement is just meaningless. Awareness comes from the interconnection of billions of cells at their synapses, which are a direct parallel for logic gates. Both of them either pass on a signal or they do not.

Re: Gross misunderstanding of the tool

"Correct, silicon logic gate can have true, false, nothing else. But a quantum qubit ban have true, false, and unknown (or maybe, possible). This is where the possibility of a self aware machine becomes more and more possible. Maybe, quantum logic is how the human brain has achieved sentience?"

Nonsense. Any programmer knows that you can generate far more complex behaviour from computers, even though they are based on what are, basically, on-off, switches. The underlying architecture does not impact the potential of a network to become self aware, whatever that is. There is certainly no need for the invocation of quantum anything. That's just magical "I don't know how something works and so it must be quantum\magic" thinking. There is no evidence that the human brain is anything more than a highly compact set of electrochemically interconnected cells. It is these connections that give rise to our mental abilities. The evidence for this comes from comparitive anatomy, the impact of substances that affect the neural connections and the effects of brain damage.

Re: Gross misunderstanding of the tool

I don't know why you were down voted; you are quite correct. Someone doesn't understand how synapses work.

Russian hacktivists DDoS hospitals, with pathetic results

Re: > pathetic results

"Do I have this right?"

No.

News Corp outfoxed by IT intruders for years

Re: It's a good thing crooks are dumb

"And nobody, actually nobody is seriously trying to catch these people."

I had sympathy up to this last sentence. That is simply wrong.

Ukraine slides closer to NATO with buckets of experience fending off Moscow's cyberattacks

Re: Spinning like the oozlum bird?

"A year later, that hasn't happened, and our 'leaders' seem determined to bring about a peace of the dead. Left to it's own devices, Ukraine may have sought terms already, but that would have almost certainly involved surrendering any claim to Crimea, which is politically unacceptable. So we keep pouring weapons into Ukraine so they can die for our leader's egos."

It has nothing to do with ego. You and Chamberlain would have got on well. Both blind to reality. Russia is the threat. If it is allowed to win in Ukraine then what of its other former vassel states? Do you want another Prague Spring?

UK PM splits govt department in 4, creates dedicated 'Science and Tech' bit

Re: You're all missing the point here!

You keep wittering on about "unreliables". The fact that you don't know how to easily make renewables reliable is your problem, not a problem with the concept. Energy can be stored without the need for polluting, exploitative chemical batteries. If every house in the UK was fitted with solar panels and there were local wind farms, they would be just fine. Well insulated too, of course.

Wind, solar and tidal can easily provide unlimited energy. We just have to overcome the NIMBYs and invest.

Supporting a continuation of things as they are is idiotic.

And your support of small government is equally idiotic. Are you old enough to remember 2007/8?

Energy price control was the right thing to do, by any sane.compassionate measure. Moving away from fossil fuels is a critical necessity.

Australia gives made-in-China CCTV cams the boot

Re: Sloppy buying praticies

If you believe that then you are a fool. Show us where the US has camps set up to "reeducate" ethnic majorities (and the past doesn't count, we are responsible for what happens now). Show us where corporations are allowed to use slave labor.