* Posts by lglethal

3885 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2007

Watchdog signals Boeing 737 Max jets can return to US skies following software upgrade, pilot training

lglethal Silver badge
Stop

"An innately unstable aircraft that relies on a combination of software, new training and minimal material changes to stay in the air for hours at a time, that carries hundreds of passengers and flies over population centres"

is the description of every single modern aircraft in existence. Aircraft are designed to be innnately unstable as you get far superior performance. There hasnt been a computer in the modern era that didnt have some sort of computer assistance to account for this.

No, these 2 crashes, came down to a few simple things:

Boeings regulatory capture of the FAA ("It will be fine, dont worry about it!"),

The cost cutting of installing a single sensor/computer system in such a critical juncture instead of the traditional 3 independent systems,

The attempts to hide that this was an all new aircraft by claiming it was just an upgrade and not requiring the level of additional training and certification that it actually required as a new aircraft.

The failure to actually review the software to an acceptable degree.

All of this points to a managerial culture concerned purely with profit and that unfortunately cant be fixed by a simple software update.

Apple rummages through pockets, hands out $113m in change to US states to make iPhone slowdown row go away

lglethal Silver badge
Facepalm

Wow what an argument!

Apple argues that the information about the different antennae was available on third-party websites.

Is that the modern equivalent of the "on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard."?

When I buy something, I should not have to go to an external site to find out the relevant details. Surely thats what YOUR site is for....

Apple to halve commission for developers turning over up to $1m in sales via App Store

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Stop

Re: What about Google?

Having Steam and trying to install games from somewhere else, doesnt lead to risking bricking your PC. There are also at least a half dozens other game stores available on PC (e.g. Epic Games Store, GoG, Uplay, Origin, Xbox Game Store, Playstation Network, etc.) You can also buy Steam keys from other retailers (Fanatical, Green man gaming, humble, etc.) at prices that undercut Steam significantly.

Any of that sound remotely similar to Apple? Didnt think so...

Google Nest server outage leaves US, European smart homes acting dumb

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Re: lifespan

Just curious, but you do know you can get outdoor lights with a timer, and a motion sensor and then the light will come on when you walk up to the house, no need to fondle with your phone in the dark...

And no obsolescence planning required...

Reports of one's death have been greatly exaggerated: French radio station splurges obituary bank over interwebs

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Better later than sooner for the aforementioned people

Unexpected condensation in the cloud.

I'm going to have to remember that one!

Edinburgh Woollen Mill ransomware claim: Crims demand cash from target in administration

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Maybe Egregor can give over the decryption keys now and then get themselves added to the list of creditors for the future. They probably wont get the full amount they ask for, but a couple of cents in the dollar is still something, right?

UK, Canada could rethink the whole 'ban Huawei' thing post-Trump, whispers Huawei

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Will it really change things?

Whilst the level of rhetoric will most certainly drop once Trump is out the door (it could hardly get higher!), I haven't actually seen anything to suggest Biden will "Go Easy" on the Chinese. He's been a vocal critic of them for years. I would expect things to be done more behind closed doors through regular diplomatic channels rather than through sensationalism in the media (as has been the focus for the last 4 years). But I dont particularly see why this changing of the guard would really change the US's stance on Hauwei and China.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd be surprised if the US suddenly dropped its desire to stop Huawei, or drop its requirement for the British to also drop their Huawei gear...

Solving a big, yellow IT problem: If it's not wearing hi-vis, I don't trust it

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Trollface

Re: Data Entry

I use QWERTZ does that count?

(german keyboard for anoyne wondering... When in Rome Berlin...)

lglethal Silver badge
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Re: Live that everyday

Make sure you have all your recommendations for replacement and distater recovery on paper (hard copy so it doesnt go down with the ship). Then when the inevitable happens you can show a long paper trail of requests for replacement and offsite backup, that were stymied and blocked by beancounters and management.

When the Axe falls, make sure there's someone else under the blade...

Google to end free unlimited online photo, vid storage, will eventually delete files if accounts go over their cap

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Coming soon

"The internet goliath also claimed it doesn't mine documents, email, photos, and videos stored in accounts for targeted advertising."

New Google One Free! Simply sign up and allow Google to mine the documents, email, photos, and videos stored in your account, and not only will your free account revert to having unlimited storage, but we'll send you the best targeted ads you've ever received! Unlimited free storage is here again!!!

Halt don't catch fire: Amazon recalls hundreds of thousands of Ring doorbells over exploding battery fears

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

"It’s not clear what those who have already incorrectly installed their doorbells should do."

Call the Fire Brigade?

Mr President? Donald?! Any chance you can actually decide if Oracle can buy us or do we have to leave?

lglethal Silver badge
Angel

Re: Don't forget...

Well that's because he is a fraud, a security risk and a space alien.

Ok, ok the jury is still out about the space alien thing...

China’s competition agency floats Internet-age anti-monopoly law upgrade

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It says a lot about the state of consumer laws in the west, that China can propose a law that makes it look like the beacon of consumer rights in the world...

EA Games' Origin client contained privilege escalation vuln that anyone with user-grade access could exploit

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Re: Origin, Steam, Epic, uPlay

If your after a single client GOG Galaxy will link all of your games from GOG, Steam, Epic, Uplay, Origin, Xbox game pass, and Playstation network in one spot, so you can actually see all your games. Admittedly, when you load a game from one of the other networks it does load that launcher in the background, but at least this way you dont need to have them all running at the same time.

Radio Frequency fingerprinting of aircraft ADS-B transmitters? Boffins reckon they've cracked it

lglethal Silver badge
Windows

Re: uniquely fingerprint aeroplanes

Or have I lost the plot?

I read that as "Or have I lost the pilot?" and my first thought was you might have a few more worrying problems then the ADS-B if you've lost the pilot....

I blame lack of coffee...

Banking software firm tiptoes off to the cloud with MariaDB after $2m Oracle licence shocker

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

"I'd rather pull out my own fingernails than talk to Oracle support"

Oracle will also be happy to do that for you, however, you will have to sign this additional support contract first...

UK tax dept's IT savings created 'significant risk', technical debt as it faces difficult conversation with Chancellor

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Killing maintenance budgets

"Just in Time!" to head to the pub, because there's F all that we can do until the parts arrive sometime between tomorrow and next month!

Apple presses pause on Pegatron: Major long-time supplier on naughty step over China labour violations

lglethal Silver badge
Devil

It's all in the wording...

"violated Apple's supplier code of conduct by misclassifying student workers and allowing them to work night shifts or overtime, as well as in roles unrelated to their majors."

Yes, naughty of them to allow the Students to work overtime, night shifts and unrelated jobs. I'm sure all of those students, absolutely begged for that opportunity. Absolutely, they would not have been forced to do those shifts. No, no, no...

Test tube babies: Virgin Hyperloop pops pair of staffers in a pod, shoots them along 500m vacuum tunnel

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Imagine all the money ...

Taking away the Chocolate?!?!! You Monster!!!

lglethal Silver badge
Boffin

Doing a very quick back of the envelope calculation and assuming constant acceleration, the entire journey took about 20 seconds (10 seconds acceleration, 10 seconds deceleration). Acceleration was about 0,5g the entire time.

If you need a sickbag after a 20 second ride, then something would have been VERY wrong...

Feds throw book at eBay execs who deny they had anything to do with cyberstalking of site's critics

lglethal Silver badge
WTF?

Crazy is, as crazy does...

You really have to wonder how no one in that room said "Hang on a minute, what we're talking about is really not on!". (Not to mention illegal and immoral).

I mean if someone is critical of your firm, who's first thought is "Lets do everything we can to make their lives hell"? I mean, maybe (at a far stretch) i could see that if someone was the owner of a small business and such criticism was likely to seriously hurt their business. But even then, I dont really see it (small business owners have enough on their plate without the additional work of trying to live out a revenge fantasies). But this is Ebay, and these were just minions. Ok there's a couple of director level bods here, but even so, such criticism is not going to hurt Ebay in the slightest. It's not going to hurt these directors bonuses, or their salaries. So seriously, why on Earth would you go to this level?

Well, at least this tells Ebay, that they can get rid of these positions. Obviously, these guys didnt have enough work to do, if they could decide that fulfilling their revenge fantasies was a good use of their time...

US govt ups minimum H-1B tech salaries to $208,000 a year, more than startups can hope to afford, say VCs

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Stop

One step forward, one step back...

I understand and completely agree with the changes that make it those applicants with the highest paid salaries gets visas first. That makes complete sense to me and goes along way to fixing the abuse of H-1B visas.

But why after doing that, do they need to set minimum limits? Surely it should simply be, you have 100,000 visas available. The top 100,000 applicants receiving the highest salaries get the visas. If that 100,000th salary is $200k, or $50k, it shouldnt matter. You have your 100,000 visas. Done.

If this was a guaranteed visa limit then fine. Or in other words, if your salary is over $200k then you're still guaranteed a visa even if your number 100,001 in the list of highest earning applicants. But (at least in this article) this is written as the minimum salary. So even if your position 1000 in the list of highest earning applicants, if you're under $200k, no visa for you. If that's really the case, then you may as well throw the H-1B in the garbage tip. It's becomes useless as a scheme to get in needed talent.

You can't spell 'electronics' without 'elect': The time for online democracy has come

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: A single system across the US

Let me guess.... 1...2...3...4. ?

No, no, no. Thats too easy - I've got it - Maga2020. Ha Numbers and a capital! That's security!

lglethal Silver badge
Go

I just want to point out that all of the issues you point to with Manual Voting in the US are nothing to do with Manual Voting itself, and are entirely down to US Politics. In no other country where Manual Voting takes place are there the massive lines that are seen in the US, nor the Problems with counting, and other issues. Look at India, over a billion people, at least half of which can vote, and they dont queue for more then 30 minutes. Same in Australia, Germany, even in the UK.

US Politics have made the problems in the US - onerous ID requirements designed to suppress certain sections of the voting population; reducing the number of locations where voting can take place; voting taking place during the week instead of on weekends or holidays, such that those who are working and cannot get time off cannot vote. All of these are byproducts of US Politics, and nothing to do with Manual Voting.

And I'm afraid, your suggestion of Electronic Voting, wouldnt fix any of those problems. Those without electrical devices (the elderly and poor for example) would automatically be excluded (voter suppression once more). ID requirements would likey remain and would probably require you to either visit or send off those details to some government department, not making it any easier for the sections of society currently suppressed by such measures to vote. Additional requirements would likely be added so as to continue to suppress certain sections of society, if Electronic Voting took off. Time frames for voting would be closely controlled to limit voting by those deemed undesirable by the ruling party. I'm sure you can come up with further voter suppression techniques that could be used to continue to suppress "undesirable "voters.

Before Electronic Voting will make the US more democratic, you would have to fix US politics first - gerrymandering, the electoral college, that all 50 state have different voting rules - these are all failures of US Politics. The choice of Manual Voting or Electronic Voting will fix none of those.

Manual Voting works. It's proven throughout the West for a 100 years and more, that's why it's used. I'm glad Estonia are using Electronic Voting and works for them. But all it would take is one large failure, a hack, a changed election result, and confidence in that system will fall. Manual Voting requires an entirely corrupt system in order to fail, and by the time you've already reached that stage, (hello Belarus), the voting system, whether Electronic or Manual, is not going to fix anything. Plus it is easier to film bags of corrupt paper votes being carried into distribution centres, then to see a single changed value in a million lines of code.

I know which one i trust...

Doxxing nixed by Hong Kong courts, again

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Re: Doxxing = Kangaroo Court

Some days it feels as though we've gone back to the middle ages....

Middle ages? We've gone back to the mental time of living in caves (and no im not talking about the lockdowns!)...

Cambodia launches blockchain-powered peer-to-peer payments, hopes it crushes cash

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If i've understood it correctly...

What you basically have is a local combination of a Visa/Mastercard style payment system but using your mobile to pay instead of a card.

Not actually that revolutionary (forget the blockchain bollocks, thats just a way for them to say "Look, how modern we are! Blockchain!"), but still not a bad idea in these times. The kicker will come down to what fees are charged to both the merchant and the buyer. Cash is generally preferred in such systems, because it is significantly cheaper per transaction for the merchant compared to Mastercard/Visa (who have been upping their fees massively in recent times).

If this system, can keep the fees down to resemble the associated costs for the merchant of using cash (and there are costs associated with cash - time required to bank any cash taken, plus bank fees associated with that, security fees for having cash on premises, etc.) then this could certainly take off. However, unfortunately, most of the time with these sort of arrangements, governments and banks want to see an immediate return on investment and so effectively price themselves out of the market. We'll just have to wait and see if the Cambodian Government and banks can keep their hands out of the till and let it grow naturally...

Researchers made an OpenAI GPT-3 medical chatbot as an experiment. It told a mock patient to kill themselves

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Trained on 570GB of text scraped from the internet...

"Let's see if it can fly a plane next!"

We'll base this upon thousands of hours of people flying planes in various versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator. I'm sure it will be absolutely fine when the aircraft flies under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, does loop the loops through the St Louis Arch and crashes mid flight due to someone going to get a cuppa.

After that, we'll teach it to do rocket science. We've heard there's this great program filled with experienced users called Kerbal Space Program...

lglethal Silver badge
Facepalm

Trained on 570GB of text scraped from the internet...

So, it knows how to take part in flamewars, troll people, misunderstand opinion as fact, believe and spread conspiracy theories, write in emoji text, and generally be anti-social and attention seeking.

Definitely something you want in a medical setting. :rolleyes:

Machine learning gets semi conscious... Waymo, Daimler vow to bring self-driving trucks to American highways

lglethal Silver badge
Facepalm

What could possibly go wrong with a 20t vehicle, with a limited turning circle and long braking distance, operating completely autonomously?

I mean so long as your not crossing the road at night whilst walking a bicycle. Or being a police car blocking one of the lanes complete with flashing lights and witches hats. Or being a semi trailer crossing across the highway, that just happens to somehow look like a cloud (OK that one was Tesla Autopilot and not fully automated, but even so, it speaks to the level of the tech...).

What could go wrong?

Trump's official campaign website vandalized by hackers who 'had enough of the President's fake news'

lglethal Silver badge
WTF?

OK I gotta ask, where on earth does the 15% of your password thing come from. I mean if my password is 8 letters, they need 1 letter and to be smart and they can hack me? I would almost guarantee that's not the information trump was given, but I wouldnt be surprised if thats how he parsed it.

I wonder if the information was from some NSA person where they were explaining that hackers need to know things like IP address, programs in use, yadda yadda, and the president was like how much of all this information do they need to get in. And the answer, well they need a lot of the information but often they can use other sources to reduce the requirements, at a minimum if they had a reasonable percentage of what I've mentioned and other information is freely available, then its possible an attack could succeed. And Trump parsed that as Oh they need 15% of your password!

It's such an obviously bollocks statement, I cant imagine any other way you could pull that out, except from someone who really doesnt care, but whats sound bites...

UK regulator Ofcom to ban carriers from selling locked handsets to make dumping clingy networks even easier

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Go

Wait, what?

A government department actually doing what it's supposed to and protecting the consumer instead of the industry? Who are you and what have you done with the real government department?

Ok admittedly, the legislation is 20 years too late to have a real effect, but even so...

Oculus owners told not only to get Facebook accounts, purchases will be wiped if they ever leave social network

lglethal Silver badge
Facepalm

Hello Foot, meet Mr Shotgun...

This is for me one of the stupidest things Facebook could have done and if this doesnt kill the Oculus dead in the water, I'll be very very surprised.

VR is still in its infancy. That means the only people on board are early adopters and those who feel invested in the technology. It's also a product that has at the moment about a 2 year shelf life, before things move to a new level. So you've just p*ssed off a large number of tech saavy people who realise that this is a tech in its infancy and so most will wait until there current Oculus is no longer good enough for them, and then will move to another brand.

Oculus isnt the top end of the market, so people arent going to begrudgingly buy their Headset because its the best out there. They were considered good value previously, but as has already been mentioned above, people will just hold off buying until they can afford another (probabaly better) unit. VR is not exactly a must-have now item.

If Oculus, were the bottom end of the market, I could see them doing this to try and combine it with their mobile games, (like that Samsung one a couple of years ago). But no oneis going to fork out €400 for something to play mobile games on (or at least not on top of the money already spent on the phone).

So frankly, if this doesnt kill Oculus in the next few years, I will be VERY surprised...

lglethal Silver badge
Stop

Re: Easy ways round this.

Valve (Steam), and Sony (Playstation) are games companies. They only want to sell you games and sometimes the tech to play said games. Microsoft, at least the Xbox part of the company, has so far managed to remain also just a games company and not brought the data scooping/Ad purveying part of Microsoft in yet. Note yet...

Facebook is a data gathering firm, who makes its money selling adverts and false info to peddle at you. Any connection with Gaming is purely to gather more data and peddle you more ads.

Are you really surprised that gamers are happy to sign in to game firms in order to buy games, but not to sign into a firm who will then collect your data and sell it on to third parties without your consent?

lglethal Silver badge
Go

Surely illegal

IANAL but at least in Europe, I would think that them deleting games from your account would be an illegal act. Yes, I am aware that you dont "buy" software anymore, you licence it, blah, blah, blah. But even so, removing something you've paid for would seem a step too far simply because you deleted your account. This is not a service shutting down and deleting the things you've bought (like what happened to that Microsoft book service whose name i cant remember). This is an active service deleting paid for content because of a change in the terms of service (now requiring a login). That would seem likely to be illegal to me.

Any one want to test the rules, and then take this to court? It would be lovely to get a solid European court ruling on this, so that we can finally put a stop to these tech giants threatening such actions. I wouldnt count on the American Courts to do anything about this, so lets hope the European courts continue to be the beacons for consumer rights...

SNAFU: Clairvoyant train brings warning of what was coming down the line for 2020

lglethal Silver badge

Re: SNAFU?

Sandal & Agbrigg Freight Underpass?

Your IT department should behave like a jellyfish, says Gartner

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

So you should drift along aimlessly, attack anyone stupid enough to come within your reach, and be controlled by the braindead. So par for the course in most IT departments...

You say poisonous tentacle, We say overcharged cattle prod. Tomato, tomatoe...

Uber drivers take ride biz to European court over 'Kafkaesque' algorithmic firings by Mastermind code

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On the BBC coverage...

... one of the drivers was told he had made fraudulent trips, and he was reported by Uber (as required) to TfL. TfL asked the Driver to defend the Uber claim or risk losing their licence. The Driver responded to TfL that he had no idea what he was accused of, so how could he defend it. When TfL asked Uber what he had done, they refused to provide any Information. Naturally, the charges were dismissed by TfL and the driver kept his licence (although he was not reinstated by Uber).

If Uber are not willing to hand over the data to TfL that implies to me that, a) they dont have a leg to stand on, or b) that they are doing something illegal in the collecting of the data and dont want anyone asking difficult questions like "How do you know they did that?", which might expose them.

This being Uber I wouldnt mind betting its both a) and b).

Facebook tells academics to stop monitoring its political ads for any rule-breaking.... on privacy grounds

lglethal Silver badge

Why not just making it so that EVERY Ad has to display who's paying for it, complete with business address and telephone number?

Too easy?

Honey, I shrunk the battery: Something's gotta give as iPhone 12's logic board swells to accommodate 5G chippery

lglethal Silver badge
WTF?

Re: Why not...

Come again?

I'm pretty certain my phone doesnt have 5G at the moment (its about 6 years old afterall), and funnily enough I can still use it to make calls and talk to people. Who woulda thunk it?

lglethal Silver badge
Go

Just curious

Smaller battery equals shorter runtime? Or have they managed to up the battery capacity despite the smaller form factor?

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch's US extradition hearing will be in February 2021

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Politicians' names

Well did Willy Willys Win?

lglethal Silver badge
Stop

I have to agreed with David Davis* on this one, if HP lose the civil case despite the significantly less stringent conditions attached to a civil case ("on the balance of probabilities" rather than "beyond all reasonable doubt"), then a criminal case should not stand a chance. Therefore, the extradition proceedings should defiitely wait to see the outcome of the civil case.

* Boy what were his parents thinking when they named the poor bastard. I guess he got them back by becoming a politician...

Quick thinking and an explanation for everything – key CTO qualities

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: I've been fired ...

"My Epson PX-8 had zero porn on it."

Zero Porn? Is that what were calling ASCII porn these days? Nothing like a bit of the old Zeroes and Ones, eh?

lglethal Silver badge
Go

Re: I've been fired ...

Thinking about it a bit, I also cant remember the last time I got any questionable content/jokes from work colleagues. Maybe it's because my current colleagues are a pretty boring bunch, but even before I changed jobs 5-6 years ago, I think the whole sending jokes/etc. had died in the old office (with colleagues who were certainly not boring!). Such things if they were done, were done over personal emails and not the work accounts. Much safer on the career that way...

If you're feeling down, know that we've just buried a heat sensor in an alien planet. If NASA can get through Mars soil, we can get through 2020

lglethal Silver badge
Pint

Great work from the whole team to get the mole in and working.

The best description I can give you for how hard this mission is/was is as follows:

I need you to drill a hole in a wall. Here's a picture from Google Maps of the house. Choose a drill bit and the feeds and speeds you're going to use.

What do you mean you need more information?

That's effectively what the mole team needed to do. You have pictures of the area you're going to dig in, you have the experience of what other landers have encountered in other parts of Mars, but you cant say exactly what will be in the area where you will actually land. Based on the other landers, the Duricrust (the part of the soil that clumps together and doesnt refill into the hole) was only expected to be 5-10cm deep as a maximum. But here it turned out to be about 25cm deep, which really screwed with the ability of the mole to operate. One of Mars's little jokes no doubt.

So to find a way to get the Mole deep enough to operate, was really a great achievement for the whole team. Beers for all involved...

From an Ex-mole team member.... :)

lglethal Silver badge
Stop

Re: But imagine

Faster, yes. But exponentially more expensive. You could send out 10,000 Insight's for the cost of sending one person to mars to do this. Which in the end will provide more data?

Thailand calls on telcos and ISPs to censor information about pro-democracy protests

lglethal Silver badge
Facepalm

Try reading an actual article about the douchebag with the hotel reviews. He left months of fake reviews including that the staff were slave labour, all over an incident that when he stayed there he was asked to pay a corkage fee for bringing his own bottle of wine to the restaurant. In the end after kicking up a fuss and being rude, he didnt even pay the corkage fee.

So he tried to destroy a business's reputation, all because someone asked him to pay a corkage fee (standard practice in most restaurants). What an utter douchebag. He would have deserved to go to jail for it. As it was, he got let off with a warning after he apologised and promised not to do it again.

Thailand has insane Lese Majeste laws, which are incredibly wrong and are often misused. But dont try and conflate the two topics because it just makes you look like an idiot.

We bought a knockoff Lego launchpad kit from China for our Saturn V rocket so you don't have to

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Go

If you ever happen to meet someone who throws away Lego (rather than giving it away as next years presents or passing it on to various kids/cousins/neighbours kids/etc.) then by all means give them a good whacking for adding to humanity's plastic waste.

But Lego is one of the few bits of plastic that I've never heard of people throwing away. Maybe the occasional piece that gets broken, but even then I certainly remember having more then a few broken bits in my Lego box back in the day... So if people dont throw it away, it cant be counted as waste right?

Elizabeth Holmes' plan to avoid her Theranos fraud trial worked out about as well as her useless blood-testing machines

lglethal Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Zuckerberg

Really? I see a striking reseblance to Saint Jobs of Apple. But I guess her Reality Distortion Field wasnt up to the correct standard.

Plus she forgot to have an actual genius designer in the background to create the product she was selling. Rookie mistake...

Morgan Stanley hit with $60m penalty for failing to properly decommission old kit hosting 'wealth management' data

lglethal Silver badge
Go

Re: Rich people's money

Actually you're both right.

Earnings based fines have been shown to be far more ethical, and have the same deterrent effect on the rich and the poor (Sweden for one has an earnings based speeding fines meaning a rich person caught speeding pays a significantly higher monetary fine than a poor person commiting the same speeding offense, but both people losing a weeks pay hurts (almost) equally, and has a similar deterrent.

However, the punishment applied should absolutely be proportional to the crime committed.