* Posts by Chris G

6754 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007

Yes, Mark Zuckerberg is still pushing metaverse. Next step, language translation

Chris G

Meta-averse

To Zuckereality, his demos are childish and pointless, if Zuck and his disciples really believe in this rubbish, there will be no need for monopolies investigations and dismantling, because the whole thing is going to implode, leaving mothing but but a nasty stain and litigation from distaught investors.

Mobile-based ID wallets for government are coming

Chris G

Re: The Usual

Spot on!

I see Gartner as more of a marketing/ toe in the water, type of operation than as a futurist based on analysis of actual needs and requirements.

Ukraine's IT sector looks to business continuity plans as Russia invades

Chris G

It would seem that people who are actually there, have reasonable confidence that Russia will stick to it's stated aim of securing the breakaway regions within their traditional borders.

Aside from trashing as much military infrastructure as possible throughout Ukraine.

FAA now says 5G airports may interfere with Boeing 737s

Chris G

Re: In conclusion

"It appears that air may interfere with Boeing 737s"

And while tin foil may limit 5G signals from penetrating your brain, they may be less effective protecting you from a 737 attempting a landing.

It seems there is not much communication between federal agencies when it comes to managing mutual resources.

China details relocation plan for up to five million datacenter racks

Chris G

Re: Also aids employment

With over four times the population of the US, it makes sense to have plan to deal with the level of data.

Presumably it also provides for redundancy, future proofing and security.

Users complain of missing data in UK wills search service

Chris G

It sounds like like old school engineers, they have put a tent up over the servers, have closed the entrance and are sitting inside drinking tea like the telephone engineers of old.

Should we expect to keep communication private in the digital age?

Chris G

Re: A fundamental issue with 'human rights'

The fact that human rights are not respected ny multiple actors and agencies does not mean that you should write them off.

Human rights ought to be innate, individually, as well as within the state and society and the simplest way to determine whether or not your rights are being maintained or eroded, is to have them written down.

Having your basic rights documented may not protect them but it provides a benchmark that enables one to see to what level your rights have eroded or maintained.

Simply announcing that rights no longer exist is defeatist and falling directly into the hands of those who oppose the ability of society and the individual to exercise their rights.

I am a boomer, I grew up with the notion that my parent's generation had sacrificed and risked millions of lives to defend basic human rights and I have no plans to lose any rights I have lightly.

UK starts to ponder how Huawei ban would work

Chris G

Re: Who's the UK?

Interesting that the leader of East America had West American nationality until 2016, relinquished purely for tax reasons.

Privacy and computer security are too important to be left to political meddling

Chris G

Re: What about strategies for "ordinary citizens"??

Why should private individuals have to encrypt their communications prior to transmission, when in most democratic countries they already have rights to privacy enshrined in their laws?

In addition what is to stop overreaching governments from taking that extra step to criminalise all forms of encrypted communication other than those they licence with backdoors and where does Joe public learn about and acquire the ability to easily and reliably encrypt their comms?

Government needs to be educated and stopped now from eroding privacy and natural rights now.

Ordinary citizens should be respected and not subjected to authoritarian overreach.

Google expands Privacy Sandbox to Android

Chris G

Re: "limit sharing of user data with third parties"

Yeah! Limiting your data to only those who will pay for it.

Trusting Google (or FB/meta etc) with your data

Is like trusting your children to be looked after in a kindergarden run by Hannibal Lector

UK regulator 'broke international law', says Facebook

Chris G

Facebook is long overdue for a serious antitrust hearing, followed by being dismantled into tiny pieces. Then the pieces should be kicked around until they finally disappear.

In an arms race with criminals to protect our privacy, it's too early to admit defeat

Chris G

The motion as written is a question of our expectations, allowing for the fact that so called Western democracies are all signatories to various international declarations that supposedly guarantee privacy from commerce as well as overreaching governments.

So, yes we should expect those we have voted for to respect and protect our privacy as a part of the implied mandate we have given them when voting for them.

The problem is such mandates only carry any weight with politicians while campaigning for our votes, the moment they have a seat, mandates are thrown out of the window until the next election.

IT technician jailed for wiping school's and pupils' devices

Chris G

Re: Hmm

Going by the inability of very many people to actually start a chainsaw, I would say chainsaw attacks are relatively sophisticated.

I do see and agree with your point though.

Make assistive driving safe: Eliminate pedestrians

Chris G

My 1992 Discovery only does what I tell it to, has never tried to kill me via any alleged autonomy or driver aid, it does have an annoying habit of refusing to go if I haven't put any diesel in it though.

No irritating beeps, bleeps or bongs, it starts instantly and goes fast enough, is reasonably economic, plus I recognise everthing under the nonnet and elsewhere and can fix any problem without plugging in diagnostics.

I am the diagnostic system.

Chris G

Re: On foot, on crutches, in wheelchairs

@ConsumedByFire

That is why Darwin has placed so much street furniture on our roads.

I wish I had video for every time that I have seen an engrossed idiot walk into lamposts, traffic signs and benches, there would be enough for a TV season.

My favourite so far was a hoverboarder crossing a road with his face in a tablet...... didn't see the kerb, he managed to go face first into the pavement with only a tablet as a cushion.

I had to pay up and leave the cafe where I was sitting with tears in my eyes.

Am I a bad person?

Chris G

Re: pedestrianism

When I lived in Sacramento (1999), I used to drive down to my mate's factory in Oakland to go for lunch, my first time down there my mate was stuck in a business meeting so I went for a walk.

I managed about a couple of hundred yards before a cop car stopped by me to ask what I was doing, when they heard my English accent they took pains to explain it was a dangerous area, then one of the cops said 'If you are walking in the street the locals might decide you are too dangerous to mess with but don't count on it'.

In the suburbs where I lived, anyone walking would often get the cops called on them.

I doubt any of them would have liked Lewisham or any of several other parts of London at night, you could get mugged by an old lady in some places.

Facebook exposes 'god mode' token that could siphon data

Chris G

Re: translate the quote

'Protect people's information' means not allowing anyone else to have it for free.

Where is the icon with Zuck in his Gollum suit?

Real-time software? How about real-time patching?

Chris G

Re: one day trips

Madrid is my favourite capital city, I have been involved with a few art exhibitions in Europe and three of them have been in Madrid.

Good food, nice people and a great atmosphere, even better now I am retired, I live only 3 hours away by car.

Plus now they have started cheap high speed rail twice a day.

The best business trips I have been on, others have varied from ok down to spending a night on a cold plastic seat in Frankfurt airport in February after all flights were canceled.

BOFH: The Geek's Countergambit – outwitted at an electronics store

Chris G

Re: Has ....

Recognising the ability of an adversary with respect is the honourable way.

Then delete them to avoid future conflict.

This malware gang plants incriminating evidence on PCs, gets victims arrested

Chris G

What's in a name?

Depending on how you read the names of the two gangs mentioned in the article, it is clear who Sentinel One thinls the gangs answer to.

France says Google Analytics breaches GDPR when it sends data to US

Chris G

Re: Where is the UK in all of this ?

Yes!

Or no!

As far as I know, the UK was obliged to continue fully with GDPR but many UK sites that I visit seem to think it no longer applies to them.

Though, to be fair, quite a few European sites ignore it too or at least do not follow the guidelines fully.

GDPR needs to be taken more seriously by site owners as well as ICOs across Europe, while the ICOs do not actively look for and prosecute rule breakers, there is little incentive to take it seriously.

The process for reporting transgressions should also be made simpler.

Swipe left: Snoops use dating apps to hook sources, says Australian Five Eyes boss

Chris G

" it's assumed that if you're in the shadows, you're shadowy."

Says a man alluding to the sunlight with a shadowy speech.

Top Chinese Uni fears Middle Kingdom way behind on tech – and US sanctions make catching up hard

Chris G

The fact that the article has disappeared, shows the Chinese government has paid attention to it and the negative points are likely to provoke discussion and impetus to improve in those areas.

UK science stuck in 'holding pattern' on EU funding by Brexit, says minister

Chris G

Re: Brexit got done

@ Lars and phil o sophical.......

Whoooosh!

Chris G

Re: Brexit means Brexit

The usual suspects today, seem to be limiting themselves to the use of their highly potent, inverted thumbs.

Or perhaps they have blindfolds and their fingers in their ears, la la la-ing the reality of Brexit into inaudibility.

Chris G

Re: Lamentable Funding

Since I first began to follow politics as a kid in the sixties, the UK Goverment, at least as far as scientific research is concerned, has never put it's money where its mouth is.

Successive governments since the war have talked loudly about British science excellence, waved vague promises around and then forgot all about it.

Look up 'The brain drain' from previous decades.

Chris G
Boffin

Re: Brexit got done

I was under the impression that post Brexit Britain would be able to forge ahead, finding it's own partners for it's endeavours without input or meddling from Europe.

It is very complicated though, perhaps I just don't understand enough.

Play Store class action has £15m budget for defeating Google in London court

Chris G

Re: "for-profit litigation"

What's the difference between a leech and lawyer.

A leech will detach when it's full.

Australian court finds Facebook 'divorced from reality' as it tried to define doing business down under

Chris G

Divorced from reality?

More like, unable to recognise reality, which probably why the Zuckerverse is now making it's own.

Jeff Bezos adds some more overheads to his $485m yacht by taking down historic bridge

Chris G

Re: Can't they remove the masts, simply?

The masts on this thing are not stayed in the conventional manner so unstepping may not be as relatively simple as on conventional modern sailing boats.

The filthy rich are not that bothered by other people's historic bits and pieces, so dismantling a bridge and disrupting the local's is all a part of floating their boat.

I was expecting.the masts to have a bulbous bit at the top though.

US carriers want to junk three times more Chinese comms kit than planned

Chris G

Ooh! While we're at it

We can can get a new coffee machine... and some comfy office chairs, we need something nice to sit on with all this changing kit, Oh and my car is playing up and the wife was complaining about the dishwasher.....

Is $5.6 billion going to be enough?

This is going well: Meta adds anti-grope buffer zone around metaverse VR avatars

Chris G

Re: Humans are not assaulting other humans.

"Watching pawnography is nothing to be ashamed of."

And bashing the bishop is a perfectly normal part of the game.

Chris G

If my brother is anything to go by, Guinness and Nukey Brown (mixed) will give you the place to yourself.

Chris G

Re: There goes the business case

It looks as though there is a business case to start PornBook Meta.

Think of all the ad opportunities for specialty products.

Photon fantastic: James Webb Space Telescope spies its first starlight

Chris G

Overtime and over budget

But worth every minute and every dollar.

Facebook fined peanuts after Giphy staff quit and firm didn't tell UK competition regulators

Chris G

@fuzzie

That is exactly where the fines should be levied, directly at those responsible for the actions of the company.

That's a signature move: How $320m in Ether was stolen from crypto biz Wormhole

Chris G

Re: Correction?

A Freudian typo?

Grab some tissues: Meta's share price tanks after Facebook emits latest figures

Chris G

I am waiting

For the first Metaglasshole to wipe out innocent people with their allegedly autonomous vehicle while immersed in their metaspace.

The Project Aria sounds at least as creepy as google glass was regarding the first person capture in real time of sound, vision and location.

I can see more than a few privacy issues with that as there were with the google item.

Welsh home improvement biz fined £200,000 over campaign of 675,478 nuisance calls

Chris G

Re: Anyone got an popcorn ?

In addition the names of directors, owners and senior management should be published as well as a ban on starting a new business within a certain period after winding one up, say 2 or 3 years.

Russia's naval exercise near Ireland unlikely to involve cable-tapping shenanigans

Chris G

In the unlikely event such a thing happened, it would create an economic bloc with huge spending power and access to eqally huge resources that would not require use of the dollar.

One of the reasons the US is happy with the current unrest in Europe and lack of cooperation with the Russian Federation.

Second Trojan asteroid confirmed to be leading our planet around the Sun

Chris G
Pint

BBQ

1.18 Km of carbon would make a hell of a barbeque.

Kudos and a beer for those who found it though, finding such a small object some 300 million Km away. Knowing more or less where to look helps but it is still impressive work.

Google Cloud started running its servers for an extra year, still loses billions

Chris G

Can't wait to get this

"Brands… can personalize ads at scale and use video ad sequencing to tell powerful stories," he said, adding that advertisers can target connected televisions "which means users get a more helpful viewing experience and brands get to drive more online sales and/or leads."

I am looking forward to Google sending me my new Googlgoggle box, so that I can have a helpful viewing experience.

How much will they pay me to watch endless ads while recording all of my viewing habits through their Telescreen.

NB: Need a ssrcasm icon!

New York Times outlays seven-figure sum for 1,900 lines of JavaScript – yes, we mean Wordle

Chris G

Re: In before ...

I don't use a pen, I find the abrasive character of the slate blunts it too rapidly.

Besides the ink doesn't show up that well.

I was wondering who laid the foundations and developed the the tech that has become modern electronics and computing?

No, I have never heard of Wordle as I don't have time for word games that probably use incorrectly spelled words.

Idea of downloading memories far-fetched say experts after Musk claim resurfaces in latest Neuralink development

Chris G

Re: I don't see a problem in his statement.

" would fit on a MiniDisc..."

There are a few intellects that probably would.

Chris G

Re: Not gonna happen any time soon.

I think what most of the detractors of Muak are missing, is "In the future", he didn't say 'the near future' or even soon, who knows what may or may.not be possible in 'The future'?

Even Musk has the right to dream and imagine and you never know, maybe once in a while he might come up with something useable.

At least he seems to make a better effort at looking forward than Bezos and one or two of the other billionaires.

When did he become the richest man? A few months back he was trailing JB by tens of billions.

US Navy in mad dash to salvage F-35C that fell off a carrier into South China Sea

Chris G
Coat

Re: I know this probably makes me A Very Bad Person, but…

I'm in! I am retired and like nothing more than watching the skateboarders come a cropper.

Mine's the one with gravel in the pockets.

Chris G

Re: Software?

I wonder if anyone noticed the small Chinese fishing boat nearby with a lad who is a cousin of the software writer using an RC drone controller?

Or if the Chinese sub shadowing the carrier, managed to catch the sinking plane?

Chris G

Re: Software?

Alibaba or Aliexpress and for a considerably lower price.

The biggest problem would be out of the way deliveries where, typically the shippers that Ali' use just return to sender.

Crack team of boffins hash out how e-scooters should sound – but they need your help*

Chris G

Re: Airhorn

I don't know about where you are but the bicycle bells here are about an inch (25mm) in diameter and the tiny 'ding' they make is not discernable in traffic and city noise.

Particularly when at speed by the time you can hear the bell you are about to be wearing it and the rest of the bike/scooter.

I quite fancy one of the off road scooters for the trails where I live, with 70 mile range and plenty of power, I could explore further.

In the city the they should come pre-packed with a Darwin award.

Chris G

Rather than noisy tyres, just tread on a cat's tail and loop the recording. You may be followed by a pack of dogs but no-one will stand in your way.

Tie fighter sound is too cool for an e scooter.