Posts by that one in the corner

Facebook approved 75% of ads threatening US election workers

> Five seconds looking at the GlobalWitness.org website reveals them to be far left political activists.

So, dead centre politics to everyone outside the US?

FCC gives SpaceX OK to launch 7.5k Gen2 Starlink satellites

Re: Smaller batches

You have shown a desire to have Wikipedia be accurate, the boldness to put your knowledge out for public fact checking and the intellectual honesty to accept that you can be wrong.

That sounds like a winning combo.

Medibank prognosis gets worse after more stolen data leaked

Return of the data?

> there is only a limited chance paying a ransom would ensure the return of our customers' data ...

What? What does "returning" it mean?

Was the data deleted from MediBank's system and they hope restore it (corruption-free, of course!)? Haven't spotted where that was claimed.

Maybe their data is like the EMH - apparently the Doctor's data can only exist on one host at a time...

Google frees nifty ML image-compression model... but it's for JPEG-XL

Re: Learning the wrong topic

The danger of an incorrectly labelled training data set: snails and slugs look very similar after you've plucked them from the roses and mashed them in the gutter, what is known as the "ground truth".

What about the flint knappers?

Now everyone is using fancy metal knives their industry has been wiped away, leaving only a tiny number of artisanal knappers today.

Re: Shouldn't be too tricky.

> looks like a spectacularly inappropriate use of AI.

That seems like a bit of an over reaction. Google haven't enslaved a General Systems Vehicle's Mind, forcing it to look at FaceBook image posts all day.

They are just running a lump of code to do a job: a trained tensorflow-lite model which decides which bit of the image to put out in full detail next. Really, it is doing little more than the existing progressive scan does, except instead of having a "top to bottom (skipping k rows), left to right (skipping j columns), repeat with offsets until the whole image is done" co-ordinate generator it has a "pick an interesting bit, pick another until the hole image is done" generator.

So, do you object to using that many CPU cycles "just to compress an image"? Many cycles are used just to generate stuff that someone hopes is pleasing to the eye.

Or do you find the idea of training a ML model to this task inappropriate? It probably kept someone gainfully employed for awhile and one can think of other uses for this or a similar model - how about setting camera focus? Always worth at least trying an idea...

Satisfy my curiosity - what is so 'inappropriate" here?

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

Is it an oven-ready blockchain?

(Nothing else to add)

Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams went down in APAC because Microsoft broke itself

Which "State level hacking team"

are going to get the blame this time?

"Attacking Microsoft is attacking Global Peace. This appears to be a new player, calling itself 'The Jason Malconfig Line 12'"

Huawei teases bonkers gadget combo

Re: assertion the case is fashionable and desirable.

X := my past performance at judging the desirability of a fashion item, taking into account its practical application, apparent cost of materials, durability etc.

Y := apparent similarity between myself and other El Reg commenter, based on vaguely remembered posts

f(a) := likelihood person of class 'a' follows a comment written like this to the end

Z := ratio(f(fashionable young person), f(commentard))

Combining X*Y with Z and weighting for "how many sleeps before Christmas" implies: Huawei are going to sell lots more of these than any of us can believe.

‘Mother of Internet’ Radia Perlman argues for centralized infrastructure

“I think pianos are wonderful, but I wouldn't use them for mass transportation."

Wonderful phrasing.

Really hope to see to that used when more inappropriate blockchain usage pops up.

Or any other daft wrong-tech-wrong-place.

Waiting for speedy broadband? UK's Openreach prioritizing existing work over fiber expansion

So what you, and the other guys, are saying is that if I want to fibre in our village then I should start up an altnet project and just spend any money we get on making sure that OpenReach get to hear of it.

Re: They had a nifty machine ..

> anyone got any suggestions for better alternatives

Anyone?

Oh, how I miss the NTK newsletter.

Alibaba, Tencent enlisted to help sanction-weary China build RISC-V chips

Re: RISC-V fragmentation

> ... embedded devices ... It doesn't matter though, as they are single purpose devices

For j.random IoT thing, true.

But some less fashion-driven embedded devices do have long production lives and/or long contractual support lives, where you do have to worry about being able to source equivalent parts after the first choice processors went EOL. If the new part isn't software compatible then your costs just went up (painfully, as even if the original devs are still hanging around they've probably forgotten all about that code).

RISC-V fragmentation

So, if these two succeed in ousting even a noticeable chunk of ARM devices from made-in-China products isn't that going to make them the Number 1 in terms of installed RISC-V base, putting them in prime position to drive the adoption of processor extensions and hence reduce the fragmentation? As in, everyone elses extension choices become bit players as far as application developers are concerned.

So rather than being concerned about the fragmentation problem and waffling over it, if they just plough on as fast and hard as possible, they simply get rid of the problem and can push towards whatever is needed to supplant their remaining ARM devices.

Which gives us all a better RISC-V landscape for running our applications over multiple products and gives Arm some healthy competition.

Re: Embarrassing

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_(company)

> Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England.[7] ... Since 2016, it has been owned by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group.

Good enough for me.

All together now: Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free

Twitter gives up fight against COVID-19 misinformation

Re: further.

> to protect me from ..

No, to protect *others* FROM YOU

> For me personally that risk/reward ratio just doesn't add up

Not risk/reward, this isn't some kind of monetary bet that you have voluntarily entered!

> I now see hardly anyone in England wearing them

So, everyone else is ignorant and/or an arsehole, therefore you can act the same way they are, with a clear conscience.

Except that you've entered into discussions on the subject and been given answers, so you don't get to use the "ignorant" excuse.

Re: Opinions versus facts (actual, imaginary, and half-truths)

> It's just a bloody 1984 George Orwell reference

Good grief, you aren't capable of getting something as simple as *that* right!

The word "narrative" doesn't occur even once in the entire text of "1984".

Re: On Covid Misinformation

Shorter version:

Tummy Trouble (SASS) : caused by too hot curry

SASS-2 : caused by catching 'flu

SASS-3 : caused by catching a very fast football in just the wrong way

All three have the same major symptoms, hence get the same descriptor, but have three distinctly different causes.

SASS-3 was described as "novel" because it turned out it wasn't a football but a medicine ball and no-one had seen anyone manage to kick one like that before.

Re: On Covid Misinformation

Just in case anyone else is as confused as this poor chap:

The name "SARS" is a description of the *symptoms*, not the *cause*:

Sudden (it happens without prior warning symptoms)

Acute (it acts on a short time scale - you die or you get over it quite quickly)

Respiratory (the bits you breathe with are affected the most)

Syndrome (Mr Incredible's nemesis - no, sorry, it means there is a group of symptoms that all relate to this and you get a selection of them: e.g. total loss of smell, difficulty breathing but this time you didn't get the muscle aches).

A while back, the world had an outbreak whose identifying characteristic symptoms fit the above description and that is how the medics described it when asked by the TV sofa dollies: who promptly decided that that was a *name* not just a description of symptoms and ran with it. If we'd had sofa dollies back in the day then Shingles would be LOIS (Late Onset Itchie Scabbies).

When we got another outbreak with similar symptoms, the condition got, surprise, the same description and the medics, sighing as they talked to the media, said "No, we have no proof that it is the same disease as the previous SARS" so guess what it became known as? Yup, SARS-2.

In between, MERS got tagged as a Respiratory Syndrome coming from the Middle East.

Remember, SARS and MERS are just descriptions of symptoms - they do *not* say anything about the *cause* of the symptoms. Consider: if we had only discovered in the last few years that a large group of people had a long-standing wet cough, distinctive yellowing of the epidermis and smelt foul then that would also be described as a Respiratory Syndrome - chronic, not acute, so Chronic Respiratory Epidermal Smell Syndrome or CRESS. Aka Smoker's Cough.

The *cause* of SARS-2 is a *novel* (as in, we had not seen this one before) virus which is in the family of coronavirii, which was discovered in 2019, hence COVID-19 (which is actually just a convenient abbreviation for the actual name of the disease agent, which is - skip that, this comment is too long already).

Re: @Binraider - There's no "right sort of censorship"

> cross checking is both tenuous to deal with, and a good thing

Did you mean to say "tedious to deal with"?

You did? Good, good, just checking (We've got enough trouble from the anti-science brigade without giving them fuel around peer-review being fake!)

Re: Elon's on a crusade the make the internet free of advertising

Hmm, the most salient Chief Twit Tweet on this subject would appear to back up your descripton:

https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1577428272056389633

> Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app

However, when you say

>> This is not Musk deliberately burning Twitter to the ground

keep in mind that many an arson investigations revolves around identifying the type and source of the accelerant.

Re: further.

> I guess I've never had 'flu in my whole adult life then, must be pretty rare.

I've never broken a bone, they must be pretty rare as well.

Re: Opinions versus facts (actual, imaginary, and half-truths)

> WrongThink against the current narrative

Sigh. You were doing so well, then the paranoia slipped through in the last sentence.

Seriously, if you actually *want* to be taken seriously, re-read your comments before posting and edit out lines like that.

Alternatively, instead of using narrative, just call dissenters "sheeple" - saves on the typing.

Single dose Polio vaccination? Huh? If you have truly only ever had one dose, go and talk to your GP.

Or just play the numbers game.

"Narrative" - pillock.

"Narrative" - grow up.

You rail against misinformation over Covid (which, oddly, we are still learning about, one reason that advice changes) but you can't even be bothered to report accurately snd honestly about diseases we *have* gained a lot of knowledge about:

> Polio vaccine pretty much lasts your whole life.

The standard Western-style Polio vaccine regime - when you have completed it, all 5 doses[2] - provides good[1] protection GIVEN THE LEVEL OF EXPOSURE YOU ARE LIKELY TO ENCOUNTER IN AN ALMOST COMPLETELY VACCINATED POPULATION. If there is a bad outbreak in your area, you go and get a Polio booster!

Which is why a polio booster is on the recommendations for travellers.

[1] good, not perfect

[2] some places only do 4 doses, cheaper that way - remember, this is NOT some magic guaranteed shield against Polio, it is all a numbers game!

.NET open source is 'heavily under-funded' says AWS

Third party

> "The sad thing about .NET open source is that we still call it third-party open source..."

It *is* third-party open source. So is Linux, Python and other stuff used on/with AWS. Different third parties in each case, of course. What is sad about that?

> "...That should not be the case."

So, Amazon is - going to try and buy .NET Core?

Yours etc, Confused of Tunbridge Wells

Norway has a month left until sun sets on its copper phone lines

Re: The big problem

> We have two Eaton 3S Mini UPS 36W backups....

Very sensible.

Nicely illustrates a big problem with the move to VOIP in all the homes: the lucky few on fora like this one at least know that we should be considering backup power; we'll even pick up hints about part numbers to look for.

But do we really think that the kit offered to the average home owner will come with power backup as standard - or as an optional extra? Will Granny know enough to even consider the question?

And if Granny has to go looking for an UPS herself, who'll explain the terms used (take your example: a 36W unit, but over what time period? Does it store 360Wh, enough to keep going overnight -just- or is it 1Wh and goes out after one brief shining moment?)

Musk says spat with Apple over App Store ejection threat for Twitter was 'misunderstanding'

The Stepford Musk

The Apple robotics[1] team clearly has the edge over Optimus.

[1] Spoiler alert

Android users in 12 US states cleared to sue Google Play

Re: typical

> What are the remaining states?

Superfluid

Plasma

Confusion

Ennui

Semicolon expected at end of line

Microsoft 365 faces more GDPR headwinds as Germany bans it in schools

NextCloud suggestions

Got NextCloud installed at home and shared calendars & contacts working with our phones & tablets - so far, so good.

Having done that, it'd seem to make sense to get a few other useful plugins to leverage the resource investment in the installation (!) but in all honesty I look at articles extolling the virtues of one thing or another and am left confused: most seem to just say "Plugin X is a workable replacement for Other Company's Y", whilst the site for Y mostly tells me it'll "fit in with my lifestyle", whatever that means.

Ok, file sharing we understand the concept of, but, um, it is running on the same home server, we can see all the files already. We rarely collaborate on processing words (different interests). Well, it does have bookmarks to to out svn and BugZilla home pages with icons, which is a nice reminder.

So, serious question: any suggestions for NextCloud features that are worth a look at for a small household setup?

Re: Office - open or closed?

> that was stated in the pile of paper that comes with a new machine and which is the first to end up in recycling

What you are promised in that pile of paper never seems to be fulfilled.

Still waiting for the golden sun-kissed beach and golden sun-kissed lady[1] that the EeePC promised. Even sent in the little card with name and address and everything.

Now I'm starting to doubt that they'll be shipping the crowd of adoring rock fans with the MIDI extension cable.

[1] For the sake of inclusion, I'd put a note here that other models are available, but then that'd just be even more people disappointed at the lack of delivery.

Re: Office - open or closed?

> I think many would prefer Office to disable/grey out functionality not supported by the user-set default document format

In my experience (which admittedly ignores some features, for the sake of a simple life) that *is* what Office is doing.

In other words, *all* of the features you've used *are* supported when e.g. saving an ODF file and the message is just there to give your FUD a boost.

Having said that, sometimes it is necessary to generate an obviously less than capable format, such as RTF, to feed a particular process. In those cases it would be good if *all* of the wordprocessors would grey out the unsaveable options. That would save arguments and mean one doesn't need to beat writers into using WordPad (!) instead of their beloved wordprocessor.

Foxconn factory chaos means more iPhone delays over the holiday period

Ebay touts will be living this

Come 20th December and a flood of 2-day shipping offers for a rare, mint-condition-box iPhone*

*auction only includes box, which is in "mint" condition**

**was only printed on 18th December and we put in fresh ink*** cartridges

***well, we call it ink - just don't touch the box with your bare hands, ok

NASA awards $60m to Texas biz for 3D printing future Moon base

Re: Who awards these contracts?

> I have used 3D printed parts for more than a decade and have a 3D filament printer sitting right here next to me. One thing that any experienced materials engineer knows is that feedstock is a huge issue. The moon isn't homogenous material on the surface ... needs processing ...

But how do these problems change as you go up in scale? This is talking about making roads, landing pads and other large scale structures, which are going to behave grossly differently to the filament printers you are used to. Non-homogenous regolith? Dig up a mass of it, crunch it up over a sieve and stir well: may be all the processing required. Extrude it through a meter-wide nozzle or roll out a nice thick layer and sinter it a frickin' huge beam (maybe just from a thin but massive solar reflector, two weeks on and two weeks off).

Even the existing Earth-bound house-sized 3D printers may be working at a small scale compared to their Lunatic plans.

Re: radiation shielding ?

Hence the hope to use existing tubes to provide ready-made bulk space and bulk material thickness above said space to act as shielding. Using the printed materials to do a massive loft conversion job.

SpaceX grounds Falcon 9 carrying first private lunar lander

The Moon populated by robots!

On Twitter - great, now I've read more tweet replies, including this doozy (just sharing the joy with you all):

----------+

SpaceX:

Standing down from launch of ispace's HAKUTO-R Mission 1 to allow for additional pre-flight checkouts; now targeting Thursday, December 1 at 3:37 a.m. ET for liftoff

Reply:

https://mobile.twitter.com/hasbeensilenced/status/1597819885480206336

12-1 3:37. Where do y’all come up with the numbers? 13:13 there’s possibly a potential for bad luck with that launch… just sayin.

---------

Can you spot where he got the two thirteens from?

Anyway, despite the tone of the headline (I know, red top) no sign (yet) that it'll need anything drastic, like a roll back, so fingers crossed for later this morning.

Although I have mixed feelings about commercial landers dropping off rovers: how long before "testing the properties of the regolith" becomes "varying the albedo of the regolith - oh, look, a giant Nike swoosh, who knew that was going to happen?" (Yes, it'd take a long time to draw big enough to be easily visible, but if it is all alone with no kind of atmosphere then it can just keep on going, two weeks on and two weeks off)

Boffins' beam forming kit opens the door to more realistic holograms

Anyone got a Nature sub?

The wife let hers lapse when she retired and without it we can't see what the paper says about generating holograms :-(

The easy-read announcement does mention that the device uses the LEDs to tune the cavities in the device, which is then illuminated by a laser. So would the cavities be tuned to effectively create a diffraction pattern which the laser illuminates powerfully enough to generate a visible hologram in the same way as a diffraction pattern on a photographic plate is used? In which case the pattern of LEDs (hence cavity tuning) only need be refreshed at the overall frame rate (24 fps for R2-D2) and according to an old colleague, calculating those diffraction patterns has been a solved problem for quite a long time (though how much CPU needed to do it real-time?)

Or is it talking about some wild method of changing the tunings super-fast in order to generate the complex wavefronts directly, not relying diffraction?

Or something completely different from classic holography (but not, just a really, really god Pepper's Ghost)?

TikTok NSFW if you work for the South Dakota government

> There is that, but it IS still a spy tool from the CCP

Don't deny that.

But from the point of view of the majority of the people in the world who are part of neither China nor the US, we're seeing *both* lots gathering the same information on everyone (or having a damn good try at doing so).

Any particular reason to be happier about one side rather than the other?

(And, yes, the UK, France, Kenya, Tuvalu and all the rest would probably also like to get the same info, but so far only two players have managed to get massive numbers of people to voluntarily install the apps).

> TikTok doesn't just see user videos, it "collects search and browsing histories... plus ... stored on a device's clipboard."

Pretty standard fare for any old 'phone app

> Chinese national security laws compel companies operating in China to share their data with the government upon request

Whereas the US laws explicitly prevent anything like that, eh?

> The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people

The US party (parties!) have never, ever attempted to manipulate anyone, American or dirty foreign scum (aka "allies").

> Common criticisms against TikTok ... are that it is harmful and addictive, and contains misinformation

And competes in these important arenas with Good Old Yank companies like FB, YT, Twitter

Block Fi seeks bankruptcy protection as 'shocking' FTX contagion spreads

Re: The crypto game stinks like a pile dog turds on a hot day

The YouTube gig is a good one. When the time comes to stop the shilling, they can just post a long rambling talking head piece, all about how they are being stifled because The Algorithm forced them to keep making videos about the one subject. So now they've decided to "keep their artistic integrity as content creators" and "regain their freedom to express themselves" by - simply buggering off, ignoring all the screams from their dupes, not needing to worry about making another post where they may need to backtrack on anything...

Then they can simply shop around for the next hot ticket.

Great way to make an easy buck; works for cryptopoop, Muskrat love, you name.

If only I could manage to spout the bullshit to camera without dissolving into giggles.

Re: Hard Currency : pedant warning

> Right Roosta, we are going to grove our way out of here!

Grab that shovel, I've got a bag full of saplings.

This may be a very slow escape.

Re: Hard Currency : pedant warning

Organic life-forms have no sense of fun!

Re: Hard Currency

> artificial rubies have been made for years

And very useful they are, if you want to make a laser at home (make, as in polishing the ends etc, not just wiring up a laser diode).

I'd give a URL reference but I got the book from the library *way* before URLs were a gleam in Tim's eye.

Elon Musk picks fight with Apple for slashing advertising spend on Twitter

Re: Give it a little more time.

> No, wait, it's called "Truth"

Pravda? Bit on the nose but Oh, So Very Trump.

Re: The Muskrat fan club seem to think he'll be releasing his own phone to destroy Apple and Google.

> only one app at the moment

has been announced and is expected to be shipping in the first quarter of next year[1]; this app will be so cheap to run that it would be fiscal mismanagement to buy any other app.

[1] there is obviously no clearly accepted definition of "next year", there is a long tradition in our industry of "next year" changing its meaning historically.

'What's the point of me being in my office, just because they want to see me in the office?'

> There's this thing called "evolution".

> So either your DNA evolves or you are history

Only your species can evolve. *You* are always history, along with your own unique DNA.[1][2]

[1] ignoring anything that propagates via vegetative cloning, such as management.

[2] or parthogenesis or regenerative fission or other methods less funny than calling management vegetables.

Telecoms networks could provide next-gen GPS services without the need for satellites

Re: increased positioning accuracy is deemed to be worth the cost

> Legislators could outlaw it if they wanted to

You know that they don't *really* sit around all day making laws just for the fun of it, don't you?

Legislation is created in response to a perceived need; if there is no perceived need, everything is ticking along, why would the legislature bother? If you want to have a law to force BT unbundled from location then you can always act yourself - open a petition at least - make it clear that this is causing societal damage and that there is a *reason* to legislate against it.

Then you get commercial lobbyists involved and so on.

Man wins court case against employer that fired him for not liking boozy, forced 'fun' culture

Re: Business 'gifts'

That was always a problem with Liz, she was impossible to refuse. You'd politely tell her "I have to say no" and she'd just tuck the gift into your overalls pocket with a cheeky little wink.