Posts by headrush

UK trade department put civil servants' feelings first during Windows 11 migration

Joss sticks too controversial?

Newly launched civil service pension portal from Capita is crapita, users report

I think there's something going on with pensions overall. My company pension is with L&G. This has been running fine for years, the payment goes in within 7 days every month and the beneficiaries can be entered and updated on the L&G website and app.

This year the company decided to move to an L&G mastertrust pension. Apparently it will save money and be more efficient.

Except now it takes 15 days for the monthly payments to appear and beneficiaries have to be submitted via a pdf printed from the website and posted to my company's head office.

Trying to get anything done about it or even just getting information from anyone is an exercise in futility.

I really hope the pension funds aren't under the control of the company I work for as implied by the beneficiary problem.

Lawyer's 6-year-old son uses AI to build copyright infringement generator

Moral, the word is moral.

Morale is something that left the building quite some time ago.

Magician forgets password to his own hand after RFID chip implant

Re: His Appendage!

It would of course, initially read "apend"

DARPA making low-hanging satellites that use air to move

Google it?

Wood burner fans work by converting heat into electricity using a Peltier module, which is a thermoelectric device. The fan's base is placed on the hot stove, and this heat is transferred to the module. As the base gets hot while the top (often with a heatsink) stays cooler, the temperature difference generates an electrical current that powers the fan's motor and blades. This process is self-powered and doesn't require any external batteries or mains electricity, making it an energy-efficient way to circulate warm air and heat a room more evenly.

No one said it was free energy, it's using the existing output from the stove to drive the fan.

Rocket Lab's Neutron slips to 2026: 'Our aim is to make it to orbit on the first try'

Hungry hippo? I would have expected the rocket to be retrieving satellites not launching them. Maybe a vomiting hippo would be more apt.

AI slop hits new high as fake country artist goes to #1 on Billboard digital songs chart

I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised by spotify. I spend 12 hours a night at work and listening to their playlists keeps me occupied and away from any radio pap. The best part is that when a playlist finishes, the music keeps coming in a similar vein. I've thus been introduced to many songs I never knew existed. This is mostly 60s,70s and early 80s BTW.

Also regarding live music, I once had the privilege of hearing a ukulele band playing Anarchy in the UK and I think I cried with laughter all the way through. I was very drunk.

Google imagines out of this world AI - running on orbital datacenters

Set the controls for the heart of the sun.

Job done.

Smile! Uncle Sam wants to scan your face on the way in – and out

Re: Why not simply.

The only place they aren't building walls is where the sea level is rising to flood the nuclear waste dumps and cities.

Google says reports of a Gmail breach have been greatly exaggerated

I read the reports and decided to change my password on Google anyway. Apparently I hadn't changed it since 2016...

MPs urge government to stop Britain's phone theft wave through tech

Re: British Fascism

Sounds like thatchers government. Things haven't improved since then.

Benioff retreats from idea of sending troops in to clean up San Francisco

From what I've read, crime figures are actually the lowest they've been in years in all these cities that trump is invading. So yes, it's all lies.

Bose kills SoundTouch: Smart speakers go dumb in Feb

We own a relatively old Panasonic smart TV. Apparently if the TV can't reach Panasonics server, it assumes there is no Internet, despite the "Internet" being fine for every other device in the house.

I just looked at buying a Bluetooth enabled padlock for convenience purposes. All was going well with the purchase until amazon lost it in their warehouse. In the interim I decided to check out more of it's functionality and discovered that if the associated app can't connect to the servers, the padlock will not unlock. It's Bluetooth, why does it need to connect to the server to verify the owner of the device?

I cancelled the order immediately. The padlock would have prevented vehicles from leaving the driveway, which is not acceptable. Had to settle for the reliable old key method.

BTW, the padlock maker does not disclose the server requirement anywhere I found. It was a report on a forum that was in a disused lavatory somewhere from an owner reporting their experience of an Internet failure.

This Internet of things turns out to be an Internet of other people's things which work according to their whim.

Texas senators cry foul over Smithsonian's pricey Space Shuttle shuffle

Simple solution really. Just FedEx it.

Then you just need to know whose garden(s) it's been thrown in...

Explain digital ID or watch it fizzle out, UK PM Starmer told

So far the government response to the petition is simply to reiterate their intention to introduce the digital id cards. No real attempt to address the strength of feeling or technical and security concerns.

It does say that it will not be a legal requirement to possess or produce the id, which makes the whole thing a bit of a waste of effort. More political theatre I suspect.

UK may already be at war with Russia, ex-MI5 head suggests

Re: 'The UK' doesn't equate to its population

Since when did literacy imply intelligence?

Any person who uses the term "far left" brands themselves a fucktard. The bloody liberal party are far left to these tosspots.

I look forward to the day when the register doesn't mention, Russia, China, Trump and all the rest of the clickbait, but of course they wouldn't get many clicks then would they?

Digital ID, same place, different time: In this timeline, the result might surprise us

If labour are far left then Tommy Robinson must be a paid up member of the Liberal Democrats.

UK to roll out mandatory digital ID for right to work by 2029

I'm forseeing a British dystopia that's more Brazil than 1984.

Microsoft boasts about humongous datacenter on abandoned Foxconn site in Wisconsin

"cuts water needs to the equivalent of the yearly use of an American restaurant"

Yeah, mcdonalds.

Worldwide

*for some values of "restaurant"

**no mention of the time period it would need that equivalent usage over. A year? A month? A day?

US tech giants pledge $42 billion in UK investment as Trump tours Blighty

Seems like the truth can be found by simply moving a comma in this statement -

"This Tech Prosperity Deal marks a generational step change in our relationship with the US, shaping the futures of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic,"

to

"This Tech Prosperity Deal marks a generational step change in our relationship, with the US shaping the futures of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic,"

Engineer turned a vape into a web server

Outdated already

AFAIK, disposable vapes have been banned from sale since June 1st this year.

Also, despite what many seem to think, vapes do serve a purpose for wannabe ex-smokers.

I've not had a cigarette for 18 months now due to using my vape.

This is at least the third time of trying, I've tried will power, prescribed drugs, chewing gum and enforced environmental control. Nothing had prevented me from going back to the evil habit. Try doing something that is clinically addictive for over 40 years and then see how easy it is to quit.

I don't blow huge clouds of smoke, it doesn't smell bad, it doesn't stick to your clothes.

So if you've a problem with people doing it, I really hope you never get addicted to a product that was advertised and recommended by every major media company in the world for over 50 years together with the attendant social consequences.

At least having a fag didn't cause massive social upset and disruption like, for instance, Facebook.

Terminators: AI-driven robot war machines on the march

Beware those who seek to control your access to information - for they already imagine themselves your master.

Hack to school: Parents told to keep their little script kiddies in line

Difficult to criticise the kids for sharing passwords when their parents are happily watching netflix/prime on someone else's account.

Brussels faces privacy crossroads over encryption backdoors

Re: Hidden agenda

Well, they did bloody well out of the last one. Better than everybody else in fact.

Trump tells Big Tech: Your power woes? Totally fixable

Team America rides again

MATT..................................... DAMON!!!

That is all.

Huawei's battery energy storage systems run out of juice in the UK

One wonders why Huawei hasn't availed itself of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system.

Perhaps they recognise that politics would prevent a fair hearing.

Sainsbury's eyes up shoplifters with live facial recognition

I used to be able to get most of my weekly shopping in the pub. Some people used to take orders and be back in 10 minutes.

Not that I ever took advantage of that service. I didn't fancy a block of cheese that had been down someone's pants.

Microsoft-backed boffins show mega speed boost with hollow-core fiber

I always thought Bucatini was better than spaghetti.

Frostbyte10 bugs put thousands of refrigerators at major grocery chains at risk

Re: If Russia had exploited this ...

Bejams, surely?

Apple iOS 26 set to dump 75M iPhones on the e-waste pile

Err..

1.2 million kg is 1.2 thousand tonnes.

So how do they get 1.2 thousand tonnes of copper AND 1.2 thousand tonnes of palladium from 1.2 thousand tonnes of e-waste?

Perhaps if the reporter had converted everything to grams the report would be more alarmist.

Wastewater monitoring project could catch next pandemic early, says health agency

Re: Truffles

Given the immense difficulty the incumbent water authorities have with getting the sewage to the treatment plants instead of open waterways, I have a hard time believing they would be able to trace any particular turd to a specific town, let alone a specific toilet in a specific building used by a specific person.

Unless your weetabix contains tracking chips of course....

ESA engineers trace anomaly in silent Juice spacecraft to a bug in the code

Why doesn't the calling function test that the booster is actually on instead of just assuming it all went according to plan? If it had to receive an ack from earth after each transmission but never received one it should be trying to repeat the exercise.

I'm sure the engineers contemplate many "what if" scenarios so surely this should have been spotted.

Uncle Sam eyes slice of Intel in return for CHIPS Act cash

Sounds like socialism to me.

Some users report their Firefox browser is scoffing CPU power

Re: more, More, MORE!

And the whole planet ends up buried in shoes.

Re: AL is the new shiney

To be able to see whether someone has broken in to your house or if there's a flood happening?

I had a few cameras in my house and while away on holiday I noticed a window that was open which wasn't when I left.

Got a neighbour to check and they found a different window had been forced open too. Called the police and provided them with footage of the criminals roaming my house in the dark.

If I'd have seen the break in in real time I could have turned the lights on and given them a shock and got clearer images. Also I can automate light settings to give the appearance of someone in residence.

Your CV is not fit for the 21st century – time to get it up to scratch

No.

UK secretly allows facial recognition scans of passport, immigration databases

The error in thinking seems to stem from the notion that police are there to prevent crime. They are not.

The police exist to enforce the law. That is to say, they are there to catch criminals.

There is a natural order to that process :

You break the law, the police then track you down and arrest you.

Not,

The police track everyone and if you break the law they arrest you.

The police should have no interest in any situation until after a law has been broken.

Otherwise why not just arrest everyone and let the courts sort it out?

Part of our freedom in this country is the freedom to break the law. Many laws have been overturned by the simple act of people refusing to abide by them.

This particularly applies to the freedom to protest. Currently it has become a catch22 situation because you can't protest the criminal consequences of protesting.

Paint a few planes - criminal!

Commit genocide - you need help with that?

Which is the real terrorism?

Chinese biz using AI to hit US politicians, influencers with propaganda

"warns former NSA boss"

Of course they do.

UK unveils plans to 'transform' the consumer smart meter experience

No thanks

Are they going to pay me to use my broadband connection? £39.99 a month please.

Not even a smart meter, but a fairly old gas meter that records in cubic feet. When British gas "updated" their systems, they estimated our gas usage and it was 100 units over the actual usage. When I pointed this out during the call to complain, the dick on the other end said our actual usage would "soon catch up".

I calculated that it would take nearly 3 years for us to use 100 cubic feet of gas. Of course, they were assuming it was measured in kwh.

Took nearly a year to get the money back, and that's after we cancelled the direct debit and refused to pay.

I don't think I've ever seen a meter reader here in 13 years but I take a photo and submit a reading whenever requested so it's no hardship.

At least my meters aren't subject to external tampering.

Meta used Flo menstruation app data to sell ads, jury finds

I don't understand why the recipient of this data decides it's acceptable to use it. Surely the onus is on them to decline the information and expose the sender.

It appears that they prefer information that's fallen off the back of a lorry.

OpenAI’s new model can't believe that Trump is back in office

Re: Winner

As is customary, the participants in this democracy got the government they deserve.

Lyft and Baidu plan Eurobocab launch, starting in UK and Germany next year

Rideshare.

When you want to break into a business, change its name and pretend it's innovation.

It's a robot taxi.

Unless you find yourself actually sharing your "ride" with a complete stranger.

Forget the Space Force! Trump needs to create a Cyber Force, says think tank

Perhaps they'll employ people like Timothy McGee, who can hack into the DoD within seconds using a few scraps of javascript.

US science left out in the cold amid plans to retire Antarctic icebreaker

The US is already a second world nation.

Old World (1) Eurasia

New World (2) Americas

Everywhere else (3) Africa, India etc.

Radio geeks reveal how to access crucial hurricane data after US Department of Defense cut it off

Re: No sense

Why encrypt it at all? Are the enemies waiting for some really heavy rain before they launch their attack?

PUTTY.ORG nothing to do with PuTTY – and now it's spouting pandemic piffle

Re: Skills test

So your saying life is an intelligence test?

I agree, it always has been.

The worrying thing these days is that many people don't even turn up for the test, just preferring to avoid critical thinking altogether. "10 million people can't all be wrong" [yes, yes they can].

xAI's Grok lurches into right-wing insanity, offers tips on assaulting man

Re: Vance Boelter is leftist

Seen from the front, what appears to be on the left is actually coming from the right.

FBI used bitcoin wallet records to peg notorious IntelBroker as UK national

Re: What ? Bitcoin ?

Like cash is anonymous. Take a bunch of notes from an atm, buy large amount of drugs, dealer gets busted and the notes recovered and traced to the atm with video footage of the person who withdrew the notes.

The transactions are anonymous but the provenance of the funds used are not.

Frozen foods supermarket chain deploys facial recognition tech

Lidl has scan receipt to exit but it didn't stop me leaving through an empty cashier aisle yesterday.