* Posts by VoiceOfTruth

1648 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jan 2022

UK watchdog blocks Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition

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This decision won't stand

A few hours at most, until the phone call comes in from Washington.

Spain gets EU cash to test next gen network, and US 'scrum for 6G' already under way

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The number one rule in Europe should be

Keep American equipment out. That will remove a whole class of backdoors-by-default vulnerabilities.

Techie sacked after jetting to tropical island on sick leave

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Re: 50-50

-> opaque abitrary judicial system

Versus the best justice money can buy in the USA.

Tech giants could pay 10% of turnover under draft UK law

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You see, this is how the system in the UK works

There's the people in charge, there's the serfs (who think of themselves as citizens), there are the oligarchs, and there are the international companies.

The people in charge have their money in city so-called traders, the sort of people who do things like manipulating LIBOR. Despite absolute prima facie evidence of fraud, nobody faced criminal charges. Some of the banks paid some money to shut up the regulators, money which of course was peanuts to the banks.

Dave Blogs, a serf, does a bit of work off the books for cash in hand. Down come the authorities and he gets a criminal record, and the Daily Mail writes about dodgy Daves. The Daily Mail is owned, of course, by somebody who lives abroad for tax (of should I say avoiding-paying-tax) reasons. The Daily Mail represents the oligarchs. How they cheered when Liz Truss nearly broke the economy in a few hours. The serfs are the stupid people like you and me who pay all our tax and get the shit end of the stick every time.

The international companies all "perfectly legally" pay way less tax than the serfs on a per £ basis. Starbucks, for example, makes £95 million gross profit but pays £5 million corporation tax. Google, Amazon, and the like are in this group. One way or another, the people in charge, the oligarchs, and the international companies will somehow pay less tax on a per £ income basis than Dave.

Department of Homeland Security bets on AI to help handle China

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Infrastructure technology

If the USA runs its infrastructure on bug-ridden/full-of-backdoors American products while shutting out competition it can hardly complain if it gets compromised. Of course, what is good for the goose... Europe should get rid of American products in its infrastructure too. Goodbye full-of-holes Cisco for one.

If you don't get open source's trademark culture, expect bad language

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And the way the LO crowd go on, you would think they created it all from scratch.

Central UK govt awards £12M+ contract to leave Google Workspace for Microsoft 365

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Checking the tarot cards for likely outcomes

Capgemini gets the job of

1. Screwing it up.

2. Taking much longer than expected.

3. Needing more money due to reasons 1 and 2 above.

4. Doing it right.

SpaceX's second attempt at orbital Starship launch ends in fireball

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-> Why does the UK do this to itself, time and time again?

It's not 'the UK'. It's people in government. Some people pretend we live in a democracy because some nonentities come round once every 4 or 5 years and say "hello, vote for me".

Seagate hit with $300m penalty for selling sanctioned storage to Huawei

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This will boost China's tech independence and superiority

How stupid of the USA.

Huawei masters the great vanishing act as UK sales evaporate

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Please stop repeating the lies, or tag your articles as "fake news"

-> due to fears about the company’s ability to spy on businesses and citizens on behalf of the Chinese government

No. It is due to Huawei being better and more advanced and cheaper than American companies. That is it. The USA only likes competition when it is winning the competition.

Double BSD birthday bash beckons – or triple, if you count MidnightBSD 3.0

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Always happy to see the BSDs mentioned

Small correction:

-> the traditional UFS, and this now supports snapshots, so long as you're running with journaled soft updates

UFS on FreeBSD has long supported snapshots using mksnap_ffs, which is very hand for consistent backups. The new feature is snapshots when using journaled soft updates (which is a very common use case). This was not previously possible:

# mksnap_ffs /pies

mksnap_ffs: Cannot create snapshot /pies: /: Snapshots are not yet supported when running with journaled soft updates: Operation not supported

UK govt wants standalone 5G by 2030 but won't shell out to help hit target

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Re: Sounds like marketing speak, I wondered why...

Good reference. It's about right.

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Re: Would you ignore the referendum?

-> I do object to the casual ageism

Sort of the point I made. There is a huge amount of it about, as though "old people" do not matter and their views should not count. It really is a dreadful conceit when I hear and read very inexperienced and unworldly "young people" thinking they are so much more clever and knowledgeable than older people. Some of these young people are the sort who think not having the internet for a couple of hours is a big thing.

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Re: Would you ignore the referendum?

We've heard all the arguments. It does seem there are a lot of antidemocratic people in the UK, who want to disregard a majority vote. You do not speak for everyone. The majority voted the way they did. Accept the result or admit that you do not like democracy.

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Re: Would you ignore the referendum?

-> 52/48 is not sufficient mandate for cutting your own leg off.

Yes it is. It is called the majority. You would have chosen rule by the minority = undemocratic. What a surprise. Not.

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Re: Would you ignore the referendum?

All those people voting down approve of people dying when it suits their political desires. How horrible.

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Re: Would you ignore the referendum?

So what?

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Re: Would you ignore the referendum?

You have a pretty hideous approach to people. Your "solution" is wait until they die.

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Would you ignore the referendum?

-> rejoining the EU

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Sounds like marketing speak, I wondered why...

-> Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Could they find a scientist or engineer for this role? Let's see...

According to Wikipedia she worked in marketing "on Marie Claire magazine and for World Wrestling Entertainment". Donelan doesn't know 5G from LG. But I guess marketing is about presentation rather than knowledge. Of course, the UK is hampered in its 5G roll out by blocking one of the leaders, if not the leader, in the technology to appease its American bosses.

Theranos founder Holmes ordered to jail after appeal snub

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Re: Never thought I'd see the day

-> some totally unqualified nobody managed to round up all those billions in investment money, and conned former cabinet members and generals to sit on the board of her imaginary company

Good sales tactics from her, greed from them (as you indeed mention). Look how much money we can make, they said. Never underestimate just how greedy some people are. Fraud and greed are as old as time, which is why it goes on day in day out.

Mac shipments slump as Apple finally bitten by glum PC demand

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Re: China is also a major market

-> Boeing. China has been one of their major markets but

China is looking to replace Boeing where possible. Airbus will happily take its place. Of course, the USA will start sanctioning Airbus the moment it does this.

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Re: Made by Apple in California??

-> Not the USA then ??

The cause of the bad relations between the USA and China: the USA cannot compete. It is too slow, too expensive (by a long way), and too inefficient. The USA's "solution": sanctions and trade barriers = keep being inefficient, slow, expensive.

TSMC wants to cash its US CHIPS but seems unhappy with the red tape

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So where is the outcry from the usual suspects?

-> the details demanded by the CHIPS funding are too invasive and involve the sharing of trade secrets.

If this was China, the usual paid hacks would be making a song and dance about it. When it is Uncle Sam the voices are silent.

Google to kill Dropcam, Nest Secure hardware next year

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Re: Its all well and good

-> To suggest stuff like this that's appropriate for Reg readers. But the average person will only consider something they can buy at places like Walmart or Amazon that's entirely plug and play.

Amen unfortunately. If it is not convenient they will not get any customers. Not just "loose" customers but not even get them in the first place.

How this startup tracked that Chinese spy balloon using AI

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Oh great.

Even more spying. I wonder if he will expose American spying. Probably not. Who can forget U2? The Americans hoped it had blown up or had crashed and smashed into a million pieces along with all its spyware. Remember that the next time the USA complains about being spied on.

Is it time to tip open source developers? Here's one way to do it

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Re: Good luck with it, but

Yeah, I suppose it is another version of tips. You're right that I intended this for big companies. Because the "thanks for the software, here's €£$5" isn't going to get very far.

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Good luck with it, but

I predict it will be a drop in the ocean. It might start off with some good intentions but will then fade away to a smaller trickle. The only realistic way for open source devs to get reasonable income for their work is if the big hardware and software companies that use open source reach into their pockets. When we buy a laptop with Windows already installed (yeah I know it's nasty), we don't give MS our money directly. The real question is why are companies that make billions in profits so tight fisted? Would it really hurt MS to lob somebody a few thousand? Even that would be better than the tips.

UK's Emergency Services Network unlikely to start operating until 2029

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Re: Scandalous!

They are the rulers, people like you and me are the serfs. Crap runs downhill only. What you fail to understand is the very idea that holding the rulers to account is equivalent to saying the system does not work. They are all in it together.

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Re: Call them out

Motorola is an American company = no chance of that happening. If Motorola was Chinese, highly likely.

Smile! UK cops reckon they've ironed out gremlins with real-time facial recog

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Welcome to the police state

We don't need to see your papers.

Royal Mail wins worst April Fools' joke 2023

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I am constantly surprised by how little people know about the NHS. What you mean by "tackle inefficiency and waste" is cutting services and rewarding the people who make those cuts.

A few years ago, maybe a couple of decades as time passes quickly, a Tory minister was interviewed on TV about removing "thousands of unnecessary regulations and business red tape" (my paraphrasing but accurate. He was put on the spot with a question like "such as?". His response was "errrrrrrrr licences for shoe blacks". That was his first and only answer.

Could the NHS do things more efficiently? I don't know for sure as I am not involved with it. But probably given its size it could.

We have a sanguine view of for profit health care in the UK. We see what it is like in the USA where people get a taxi rather than an ambulance because of the cost. And don't try and pretend that health care is better in the USA than in the UK. Life expectancy in the UK is higher than in the USA. And we also do not have an opioid epidemic caused by for-profit issuance of addictive pills. That's OK, there will always be some people to prescribe opium to = more profits.

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I see that somebody has given you a down vote. That somebody no doubt has a very small brain.

The Royal Mail used to be reliable and relatively inexpensive. Then it was privatised and the service got worse and more expensive. I guess that some people enjoy lower quality service and higher prices.

Criminal records office yanks web portal offline amid 'cyber security incident'

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Quick, there's been a digital burglary or break in. What should we do?

1. Get the boilerplate out there...

-> "We take data security very seriously ..."

Every single time.

-> I'm not convinced that *anybody* is capable of protecting it.

That's about right. Think Solarwinds.

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Inside job?

The Met (and no doubt most other police forces in the UK) has been labelled institutionally corrupt, racist, sexist, and homophobic from top to bottom. Perhaps whoever is investigating the CRO blag should start by calling in every PC who has ever been near it.

Cisco Moscow trashed offices as it quit Putin's putrid pariah state

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Nice bit of neutral reporting. Not

-> Putin's fetid fiefdom

Where were you when the USA murdered 1 million Iraqis? Did you cheer on the slaughter?

America longs to expand low-Earth orbit economy 'for the benefits of humanity'

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It must be an American dictionary

American dictionary. Humanity: Americans.

Any other dictionary. Humanity: All the peoples of the world.

Notorious stolen credential warehouse Genesis Market seized by FBI

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Re: I disagree

-> racists having their fingers in the collective pie: is there any chance you can offer some evidence of that?

I'm going to chime in here for a moment. When crack cocaine was mostly (but not entirely) affecting black people the response was no-knock warrants and lock 'em up. When the opioid crisis hugely (but not entirely) affected white people it was "we must find a different way to deal with this". So is that racist? I think there is a good case to be made for saying it is. I've read and heard all the arguments, that crack was being "abused for fun" while opioids were "prescribed for pain". But that is just a smokescreen. I've seen it and heard it all. I've read about police officers who locked up umpteen black people for having drugs, but when it affected their family it was "we need to find a better way to deal with addiction". It's double speak. Everyone knows it but not everyone is prepared to admit it.

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I disagree

-> All of which leaves the world a little safer thanks to the demise of this outlet.

This sounds like the sort of comment we hear from the police or a judge every time a drug dealer is put in prison. Except there is no overall affect at all. We are now 50 years into the so-called war on drugs. And it is not even close to be being "won".

Ofcom tempted to bring in competition watchdog to sniff the UK cloud market

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Ofcom

The most useless of regulators. Has it ever actually done any good? Or does it just like the sound of its own headlines?

Trade ministers flag researchers as possible vector of tech sanction-busting

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Nice double speak

-> Yet despite the very cool relationships both nations enjoy with the rest of the world

How many countries has China bombed recently?

UK data watchdog fines TikTok £12.7M for failing to protect kids

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-> Hmm it seems suspicious that no other social media companies have been fined for this before,

It's not suspicious at all. HM government takes its orders from Washington.

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If TikTok had been an American company

The ICO would have done nothing. But since TikTok is the bogeyman it must be fined.

US pushes next phase of satellite missile defense system

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Tutorial on use of the sed command

For example: echo defense | sed s'/defense/offence/'

Think tank: Chips Act is great, but US should look at biotech supply chain too

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Warning to the rest of the world

America is trying to control everything.

Ubuntu 23.04 'Lunar Lobster' beta is here in all its glitchy glory

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I like Linux but...

-> all set the screen to 800×600, even though most installers don't fit into such a low resolution

I've never quite understood why they do this. It's such an easy thing to program for and/or to test. I've experienced something like it but I can't remember what it was now. The tops of the buttons were just about visible and tabbing to the button I wanted highlighted it.

-> Finally, at 19GB, it deigned to try.

That really is bloat. I wonder where it is all going. It's probably worthy of an article on its own - the bloat of Linux today. How much more is one getting in this release compared with a release from one or two years ago?

-> The installer boots using X11, but once installed it defaults to Wayland.

This is what gets me about some of these distros. Why have both? If Wayland is not considered good enough during the install then attention should be given to make it good enough. Now we see where some of the bloat is.

-> rclone

A very good tool.

China aims to pair J-20 stealth fighter with 'loyal wingman' battle drone

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Re: First to field

Don't forget the raid on Taranto!

Twitter blocks Pakistan government account, boosts state-run media from Russia and China

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I've never used it and never been to the Twitter web site. The only time I see Twitter is in The Reg and occasional newspaper articles quoting Twitter. I really don't care tuppence about it.

US chip sanctions may push Brazil, others right into China's arms

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Re: Get a dictionary please

Pretty much true.

Uber driver info stolen yet again: This time from law firm

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I wonder

Can Genova Burns sue itself for failing to properly protect this data?