Posts by Christoph

Why can't they check whether it was the Russians hacking into their systems by looking for clues in all the information that NSA has hacked from the Russian systems?

an MI6 spy “engaged in serious crime overseas”

No longer a problem, they are passing laws that let them authorise their crimes.

The combination on his luggage is 1 2 3 4 5

Blue Origin ... to be used both on the descent and transfer elements

The ascent element ... Lockheed Martin

Draper ... descent guidance

Northrop Grumman ... transfer element

Cue chorus of "It was their fault!" when something goes wrong.

Petty! :-) The classic unintentionally runaway program was the Morris Worm.

"Perhaps Beijing only wants kit it knows it can crack"

Or perhaps doesn't want kit it knows the USA can crack.

"the UK’s first satellite launched from a UK rocket "

The UK's satellite Prospero was launched from a UK Black Arrow rocket in 1971. It is still in orbit. The UK government had already announced the cancellation of the project before the launch.

"Who knows, but as March-tober gives way to March-vember, perhaps by then March will almost have come to an end."

Today is the 9935th of September 1993.

It's OK, they can add that button for only another £12 billion.

"undermines public confidence in the outcome of the election,""

You mean like your president has spent months pushing as hard as he can?

"Embed the safety of the public in system designs, thereby enabling companies to act against illegal content and activity effectively with no reduction to safety, and facilitating the investigation and prosecution of offences and safeguarding the vulnerable;"

Does this mean anything at all, other than "Wave a magic wand"?

Duplicate key, nonny nonny

Duplicate key, nonny nonny

If they can't collect the data themselves they can just ask NSA for their copy.

" when they unlawfully censor speech"

The First Amendment stops the government censoring speech. It does not make censorship by other parties unlawful.

ObXKCD

Not surprising

Look at photos of people in newspapers and magazines and news websites. Photos of men show the face. Photos of women show the face and upper torso. Any algorithm that uses any of that data is going to show that bias.

Great news

Business people will be able to hold virtual meetings or chat to their mistresses while hammering up the M1 at 90.

Six minutes?

A mirror for the passengers to see what they're getting up to in weightlessness - but only allowing six minutes? Hardly worth all that money for just a quickie.

"Black hole destroys corona"? So when is Trump going to promote injecting Black Holes as a cure for the Corona Virus?

How much climate-wrecking CO2 will this blast out so that rich people can get across the Atlantic a little bit quicker?

We have to urgently cut emissions, not spend all our ingenuity on finding new ways to increase them.

In the days when 3 1/2 inch disks had just taken over. Got a call that a floppy wouldn't work. When I got there he was talking to some people so just pointed me over to the computer where I turned down the clamp handle on the 5 1/4 inch floppy. He got an "Ah!" expression.

Isn't it lucky that the cooperation with European police forces happened this year.

After 31st December we're out of luck.

So if you're red-green colour blind (the most common type) you can walk wherever you want.

Similarly, "sanity check" is objectionable when "a final check for completeness and clarity" is more inclusive.

So there ain't no Sanity Clause?

Simple fix

They can get round the filter by just spelling unionise correctly!

Seriously though, filters like that are always bypassed by simply using other words to mean the same thing. And banning those words leads to whack-a-mole, or to using the names of the bosses as the alternate words so they would have to censor their own names.

OODA stands for "observe–orient–decide–act"

Shouldn't that be SFHN?

See the stranger, Fear the stranger, Hate the stranger, Nuke the stranger.

We may not have a rocket, but we have TWO logos!

"your life was in danger, shoot them dead"

Pretty well any police force will respond with lethal force if their life is perceived to be in danger. For instance if they're aiming a gun at you (or in the US, if they're black and running away from you).

But the idea of someone who is breaking quarantine being so likely to threaten a policeman's life that a special warning must be given is extremely odd.

If it had gone the other way it would be wide open for companies to plant agents in rival companies to deliberately leak data and have the rival sued. The agent of course taking more care to not get caught themselves.

Aren't you glad that the police (and many others) will now be able to spy on you through the walls of your house?

Though this would also be extremely useful if you can run WiFi over it. Vastly higher data rate, and no problem with walls blocking the signal.

"long periods with limited or no interaction with ground, required for instance for the periods they spend behind the Sun as seen from Earth, when no radio contact is possible for weeks."

I wonder if it would be worth putting relay satellites at Earth's L4 and L5 points to talk to probes that are behind the sun? (And possibly a further relay at L3?)

"a Googler was despatched to endure the indignities of meatspace and inspect the problem rack with their actual eyes"

Sounds like time for Google to install little robots than can move round the datacentre with a camera so they can check remotely. And maybe have manipulators to fix simple problems such as shoving a loose connector back into place.