* Posts by RegGuy1

961 publicly visible posts • joined 20 May 2012

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Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in

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Unhappy

Re: Using phrases such as "Genetically predisposed to violence" ...

I was being deadly[1] serious.

The link between Brexit and the death penalty

Respondents to the survey were also questioned on their views on other things, such as the death penalty - and this provides a much better indicator of how people voted, Westlake argues.

"If you look at attitudes to questions such as, 'Do you think criminals should be publicly whipped?' or 'Are you in favour of the death penalty?' - those things are much better predictors, and you get over 70% accuracy," he says.

[1] Sorry!

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Starlink

I wonder what Musk and Starlink think of this?

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Re: Using phrases such as "Genetically predisposed to violence" ...

I think I've spotted a Brexiter. :-(

Intuitive Machines' lunar lander tripped and fell

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Yutu 2

And the Chinese even did it on the far (dark?) side: China's Yutu rover spots 'mysterious hut' on far side of the Moon.

City council megaproject mulls ditching Oracle after budget balloons to £131M

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Re: What would it cost ...

But it needs politicians with some minimal level of cluefulness to get it to work.

Hmm. They don't even seem to have a clue on how to trip each other up. Children, fucking children.

Apple makes it official: No Home Screen web apps in European Union

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Re: Did anyone ....

On what evidence do you come to that conclusion? I would be very interested (because I don't think it exists) in what you mean by corrupt bureaucracy.

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Re: Yes, you really are the product

Try it. You might be surprised. It beats having to try a new OS every time Microsoft updates Windows.

European Court of Human Rights declares backdoored encryption is illegal

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FAIL

Re: Well good thing the UK had Brexit

Re: Britain filling up. I recently looked at the census numbers for 2001 and 2021. Just the raw population counts by age, nothing too detailed. In 2001 I found that the total number of people aged 65+ was around 9m (plus or minus a few thousand). I then got the equivalent numbers for 2021. Guess what, it wasn't just immigrants coming here. There were 12m crinklies. An increase of a third over twenty years! I presume each of these 12m demand that the UK government pays their pension, based on their NI contributions. The fact that their NI contributions are meant to cover pensions and the NHS, perhaps increasingly for another 30 years, seems not to concern them. They've paid their fees -- give me my god-damned pension!

I get the impression many of them are unaware that not a single penny of their NI goes to pay their pension. Not a penny. Their pension is fully paid by current taxpayers. And now, because of this general ignorance, our politicians are too feeble to demand these crinklies pay more tax to support the services they use, and instead shafts the younger population by suggesting they should now prepare to retire at 71.

Immigrants are not causing problems for this country. It's the pig-ignorant pensioners -- many of whom voted for brexit. I can only presume (by looking at polling breakdown by age) that the current 25% Tory voter support comes from this group. Still, I suppose blaming immigrants is more fun, and keeps your older racist happy.

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Facepalm

Re: Well good thing the UK had Brexit

As for migration though, if someone enters the country via unofficial channels, then they're by definition illegal and could be deported back to whence they came. Namely France.

Hmm. Imagine I'm in France, and someone has come over on a small boat from the UK. I don't want any of that British scum here and so I choose to send them back. How does that work? How will the British react?

You seem to be totally incapable of viewing the world from anybody's point of view other than the UK's. That also seems to be a trait of those who voted leave. We are now a 'third country' -- I assume you are aware of that, and leavers (you may in fact be one) seem to think this is punishment.

Punishment makes me roar with laughter, because I thought they needed us more than we needed them. And it turns out that wasn't true. Who knew?

Billions lost to fraud and error during UK's pandemic spending spree

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Thumb Down

Re: Oops, we stole it

Well didn't they have an exercise is 2016 to see just what they should do if a pandemic were to happen? (Or was that project fear?)

They cannot say they didn't know, and are guilty as hell. From the link:

A key section reads: “There was a general consensus on the need to identify capacity and capability of assets within the health system.

“Assets in this context would be all resources that would be required to effectively respond to a Mers-CoV outbreak such as trained personnel, appropriate PPE in sufficient quantities and the requisite beds with suitable clinical equipment.”

IPv4 address rentals to mint millions of dollars for AWS

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Enshittification

Someone has coined a word for it: enshittification: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/

Everyone's suing AI over text and pics. But music? You ain't seen nothing yet

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Re: "Maybe AI won't be able to create music based on anything written in the 20th century"

Exactly. Great music can beget great music. This has always happened. Would any of these great pieces have never been written if the greedy, selfish, lazy, 'give me some of your money coz I've done nothing to create your great work' attitude had been allowed to surface:

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis: Ralph Vaughan Williams/Thomas Tallis

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Benjamin Britten, on a Theme of Purcell

Saint Anthony Variations: Johannes Brahms/Joseph Haydn

Pulcinella: Igor Stravinsky/Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

There are shed loads more. These are just the first that come to mind.

[Edit: Opps, not quite a timely reply!]

Psst … wanna jailbreak ChatGPT? Thousands of malicious prompts for sale

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Devil

Criminals

and criminals aren't always the most trustworthy folks when it comes to selling their wares.

This so so true. How often has Microsoft sold software that is not up to the job simply to get to market first? Or am I mistaken, and this is seen as ok. Or blocking competitors (DR DOS, remember that?) when they said they weren't?

Or Google stealing all that data to build their search engine without recompense to all those who provided the info. Now it's happening again with AI. And again, by the time anyone works out how to fight it it will be too late -- the AI companies will simple be too big to control.

Meta accused of enrolling undecided EU users in ad-sponsored platform

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We're told that everyone who has used Instagram and Facebook in the EU, ...

That made me laugh. Me neither. I did try to go on the website once because someone said they were posting the stuff I wanted to read there, but it kept insisting I tell them something about me just to get on. No thanks. If, when someone sends me a link, I have to jump through hoops just to view it, then no thanks. I'll simply move on. One of the best things about the Internet is just how big it is.

Huawei prepares to split from Android on consumer devices with HarmonyOS Next

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Re: Spotify will bend like a reed in the wind

landed on the dark side of the moon

It's only dark for half a month.

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Facepalm

Re: Outside of China, is there a market for another smartphone ecosystem?

Well if you choose to install apps more fool you. Put on only one: Firefox, set as the default browser.

Why on earth do you think websites try to seduce you with 'this site is best viewed with our app'? Apps are data sucking machines. At least with Firefox you can use an ad blocker and no script to have some control.

Cloudflare defends firing of staffer for reasons HR could not explain

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Re: Cold, calculated and heartless

More here.

www.wired.com/story/scabies-outbreak-uk-europe-treatment-shortages-drug-resistance-permethrin-ivermectin/

In Britain, there’s also another factor at play: a months-long severe shortage of treatments. Paula Geanau of the British Association of Dermatologists told WIRED in an email that this is due to both lingering pandemic-related supply chain issues and import problems relating to Brexit. With the current high demand, any stock that reaches the UK is swiftly used up.

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Re: Cold, calculated and heartless

Whoop! AI to improve the detection of diseases. Pity that in the UK you are more and more likely not to be able to get the medicine needed to cure them: U.K. Drug Shortages ‘Worse Than Ever’ As Brexit Continues To Bite.

(Waiting for the down votes from the idiot brexiters.)

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FAIL

... or "my browser needs updating."

No it doesn't, I use no script. What your message means is you can fuck off, and I'll go somewhere else.

The Post Office systems scandal demands a critical response

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Re: We need more articles like this one

Well tell their Business Development Managers to fuck off. RFPs are often drafted on the advice of these consultants -- after all they are not the easiest documents to write. The consultants will naturally promote the strengths of their own companies. If you want it to be done properly make sure that whoever helps to draft the documents have no skin in the game when tenders are received.

I mean all the large companies do this. It's standard practice. BDMs are often permanently assigned to such organisations because they are so influential in generating new business. That's how the process works.

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Re: We need more articles like this one

I really do hope that public opinion is, for once, going to sit up and take notice,

Er, we've had quite bit of wind recently (and some lovely pictures of waves). Oh, and it's going to rain quite hard tomorrow. Post Office? Well, what are they going to do about all this flooding? ...

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Re: It's still happening

Thanks. I saw that SO had removed the code, so your second link is instructive.

To which my response would be, fucking hell!

Musk claims that venting liquid oxygen caused Starship explosion

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Thumb Up

Re: Its a Test

Well, those Mediaeval folk were very clever too. After all, one of our most amazing and influential, but not appreciated, modern technologies, the number system and the more mathematics it opened up, was significantly developed during the period. Ah yeah, we just use numbers. But someone had to develop them.

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Re: Musk is known for being on the left

Politics is complicated. Try the Political Compass test, if you want a more nuanced way of looking at things.

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Pint

Re: Deluge

Exactly. These folks at SpaceX are not stupid. The first launch didn't use the water deluge system because they thought they might not need it. Unlike the author not being a space scientist, the SpaceX bods are, and they did extensive testing at McGregor, blasting reinforced concrete with their humongously powerful Raptors to see what would happen. They are constantly thinking outside of the box. Just because we've always done it that way ... The first flight gave them lots of real-life data. They only slowly ramped up the power of the 33 raptors to get their first real data, but it stood too long on the pad, which was too much for the concrete. They were then forced to put in the more expensive water system. After the second flight they reported no damage to the base of the launch mount and have subsequently already performed a static fire of B10, the next booster to fly. That is really impressive.

Beer, obviously. :-) ---------------->

Be honest. Would you pay off a ransomware crew?

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Re: Doesn't anyone do backups anymore?

How do you execute your malware file when it's embedded in a tar file?

It's a preview party at Microsoft, but do you really want an invite?

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Re: Win32 is still here and is still not going away.

Whoop! Does that mean soon I'll be able to pop into Currys and buy a laptop that doesn't have the virus, and so not pay the tax?

How governments become addicted to suppliers like Fujitsu

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Facepalm

Re: Don't forget NPfIT

They are not involved in this are they: The scandal of the settlement scheme for EU citizens?

Can we do anything right in this country?

Chinese company's rocket debut makes waves by launching from the sea

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I love the tannoy announcements you get at the launch site at Boca Chica (Brownsville), where the Starships are being launched from. Difficult to make out, and the echoes remind me of those industrial Thunderbirds scenes where there's a rocket or similar. It's as if SpaceX have watched them and tried to emulate them. Wonderful.

Not even poor Notepad is safe from Microsoft's AI obsession

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Microsoft?

What is this thing called Microsoft Windows?

Ah Notepad. Yet more stupid Microsoft.

* We have to use \ because Unix uses /.

* We have to use drives (c:, etc) because Unix doesn't.

* We have to call them folders because Unix calls them directories. (I still call them directories; they will never be folders.)

* And we have to use \r\n because MacOS uses \r and Unix uses \n.

Scumbags. I've not used Windows for decades.

STMicroelectronics slims to be lean, mean, chipmaking machine

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Envelope or envelop?

The MDRF group will envelope digital chips and microcontrollers

Presumably you mean envelop, to surround something, rather than envelope, in which one can often place a letter, but sometimes also other objects, especially when the envelope is brown. :-)

Or perhaps I'm to understand that chips and CPUs are to be stuffed in them.

Avoiding AI-capable PCs will be impossible by 2027

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Happy

Re: Power Use

Hey, someone's even been playing with an RPI5: What I learned from using a Raspberry Pi 5 as my main computer for two weeks. It'll be nice when everyone can tell Microsoft to fuck off.

Another airline finds loose bolts in Boeing 737-9 during post-blowout fleet inspections

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Re: A gross understatement?

And so our American friends don't feel left out, we have our own set of useless cunts on this side of the pond as well. A Post Office may not fly, but it can still kill people.[1]

[1] Four people are known to have committed suicide.

UK PM promises faster justice for Post Office Horizon victims

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Re: The possibilities are infinite

Was there ever no due diligence performed? Running a test system against the same test environment of their live system? Their old live system did have a test system, did it?

How the hell did such an egregious system manage to go live?

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Pirate

Re: No Justice

Shirley that can't be right. We are England (opps, UK, sorry). We are a proud nation and don't do corruption. That's for lesser countries such as those EU ones. They are all corrupt. Not us. Our political system is hundreds of years old and has evolved to be the perfect system it is.

We are Ingerland (opps, got that wrong again). And to be clear, this is not a Mone.

Yours,

Little Englander

NHS England published heavily redacted Palantir contract as festivities began

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Re: Transparency

The main lesson learned is that defining a style to put black text on a black background is an amazing way to speed up the contracting process. Nothing is hidden. It's just a presentation thing. In the more advanced course you learn to present your data with white text on a white background. Then no one knows you've given anyone the data, and so no one can complain. But you only get to lesson two when the total contract value exceeds $500m.

A ship carrying 800 tonnes of Li-Ion batteries caught fire. What could possibly go wrong?

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Facepalm

Park?

A small point perhaps, but ships don't park, they moor.

Programmable or 'purpose-bound' money is coming, probably as a feature in central bank digital currencies

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Re: Permanent status quo

You are Theresa May and I claim my five pounds.

China bans export of rare earth processing kit

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Re: Oops!

Well if we ban oil then that will certainly be the case. It's not just used for petrol ...

CLIs are simply wizard at character building. Let’s not keep them to ourselves

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What? You mean like setting the GUI to show file extensions, originally because they thought it would frighten granny.

Sorry, but they are scumbags. Just like they chose a backslash because Unix uses the forward slash. And I still can't get a refund for the fact I never use the virus.

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Re: Both have their places

That's when man is your friend.

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Just pipe the output to cat (in other words add "|cat" to the end of your command). That will kill colour.

UK government rings the death knell for SIM farms

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Re: Poor proof reading

Monetize gets my goat. Make money out of...

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Re: Poor proof reading

Indeed -- verbs use the s, nouns the c: the doctor practises at his practice.

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Re: Eh ?

I thought they'd got rid of the police as too expensive.

Meta sued by privacy group over pay up or click OK model

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Re: Easy way to teach FB a lession

Nice to see the dot (ie the true DNS root) at the right of com and not before it. :-)

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FAIL

Re: I may be wrong but...

I only install Firefox (with ublock and noscript). I will *never* install an 'app' when I have a browser. If I can't use their service with a browser I just move on -- t'internet's a big place.

With Firefox you have a hell of a lot more control of the data you leak. With apps, zero control. Steve Jobs fuck off.

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Re: Put a fake birthday on facebook.

Like the queen. I wonder if Prince Charles will do the same.

FFmpeg 6.1 drops a Heaviside dose of codec magic

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Thumb Up

Re: @Steve Davies 3 - Heaviside brought back memories

You had it tough? When I was young I had to use tools by a company called Microsomething-or-other, and an 'operating system' called DOS. Then I discovered Linux and have *never* looked back.

Revival of Medley/Interlisp: Elegant weapon for a more civilized age sharpened up again

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Happy

Re: lore

My problem with LISP is that I can never think of anything to do with it.

Just a bit of fun. :-)

If you have 20 horses in a race, what is the number of ways you can choose first, second and third? Well, the first could be any one of 20. The second, any one of 19 and the third any one of 18. So 20*19*18 ways

or 20!/17![1] = 20!/(20 - 3)! = 6840

And in Lisp:

$ clisp

Type :h and hit Enter for context help.

[1]> (defun fact (n) (if (< n 1) 1 (* n (fact (- n 1)))))

FACT

[2]> (/ (fact 20) (fact (- 20 3)))

6840

[3]> (quit)

$

Recursive functions, aren't they beautiful.

[1] And this is read, of course, as 20 bang over 17 bang. :-)

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