Posts by M7S

Any sign of VINCENT?

One of the better things from The Black Hole.

At least, at the age I was then

For those liking this kind of thing, and wanting an update....

may I recommend attending any performance by John Robertson of his "Dark Room" shows.

Australian performer I saw in the UK (Pwllheli, no that's not Elvish) a couple of months ago so probably accessible to readers of Vultures North and South.

www.thejohnroberston.com/thedarkroom or Duckduckgo "you awake to find yourself in a dark room"

Leaders not buying in

Maybe that's why some of them have risen to be leaders, they can see if something is rubbish.

Another PP logo in use

There's a schoolboy joke to be made here. I shall rise above that as this is a serious publication.

prettypolly.co.uk

Mouse sperm creates pups?

Ye gods, what kind of abominations are they breeding?

Lest we forget: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OaioBzlrbbU

Connected car question - US spelling

If, the first time, your connected car has a major IT security problem (viz. Fiat, Chrysler/Jeep etc.) some journalistic wag decides to refer to you as "Mr. Hack-it", is this something about which you eventually tyre or tire, given that people drive on the former in the UK but the latter in the US?

Could someone please enlighten me, and perhaps others

According to the quote attributed to Munk, it seemed to be going fine before Synep came along.

Does this mean that Plutus's original business model was in fact valid, or was it some kind of accidental Ponzi scheme that just took a long time to start to crumble?

If, as I infer from this, it was the Synep takeover that made things go wrong, essentially as they appear to have been crooks and drained the money in order to purchase all the goodies mentioned in another Reg article on this affair, then there seems to be an unwarranted bashing of the original concept.

"Americans in need must be able to reach Americans who can help"

I know its picky, but I find the wording disappointing. Leaving aside that not everyone in America needing help in an emergency is necessarily American, presumably other people are allowed to assist and form part of the employee/volunteer base of emergency services? I believe generally you have to be a US Citizen to be in the police but does the same hold for Fire and (where separate) Ambulance services?

I'm not American, but I have no problem helping, as a simple matter of human decency. Of course I appreciate that response times from the UK might be a little longer than desirable, but I assume that in areas of low population density (perhaps near either of the US's borders with Canada) there are some agreements to respond cross border if that will be more likely to save human life, possibly even to preserve property.

I have the feeling I'm going to be told this is a rather naïve view, but I'd be interested to learn whether or not cross border responses take place.

The shortage of lasers is actually created by some seriously rich tech entrepreneurs....

....expanding the numbers in the shark pool.

Perhaps a chance to deal with this the American way...

Take them to court!

In the same way that some US corporates have use investor state resolution to sue other governments for restricting their trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor-state_dispute_settlement, perhaps a plucky non-US internet upstart might sue the US for similarly disadvantaging any traffic that they might wish to send to customers in the US.

IIRC there was to be an expansion of this principle in various trade treaties being negotiated although I think they've run into some trouble recently.

Also, what about emergency aircraft?

Air ambulances generally don't have too much time to waste, and may need to land/ take off where ther is not a lot of lateral viability for the pilot, eg in a town centre surrounded by buildings.

This might present some issues

"evidence regarding T‑Pain's inner thought process"

That could be an amusing day in court

Removing the SIM so that you can control things like over the air updates

If its anything like the Tesla, and I asked the salesperson directly, then you also lose some of the useful built in things like mapping, traffic updates etc.

This seems to be the way newer cars are going at present.

That's a shame, possibly very stupid, as I'd prefer any updates to be done only with the thing is parked at home and when I accept them (having hopefully checked there are no reported problems for early updaters) but would rather need some of the navigation functions to make the car useful. Yes I could have a backup satnav from Halfords stuck to the windscreen but that's not really the point in a modern car and most drivers of such things will not understand the need to be so discriminating regarding their data connections.

Hey, let's innovate! let's give "customers"

Video

On

My

Internet

Terminal

Or do you get this on a bus already? perhaps to be found near the back seats on a Friday or Saturday night...

Last night on the BBC....

Was a Panorama about FB and what it was doing to help candidates in the US election.

There was a little about general privacy for users, although I think it really could have been fleshed out much more to be effective, although that might be seen as beyond Auntie's remit.

I've not used FB out of general privacy concerns, but I found the interview segments with their Director of Policy most disconcerting. I'd hope someone can do something longer on this, reaching a primetime audience so that people can make a more informed choice.

"over-confidence (of her campaign manager Robby Mook) on a data analytics program"

As seems to be the cases with many businesses as well.

IT. No replacement for common sense and experience, particularly when it comes to dealing with people.

24 months of guaranteed updates

To be clear, is that 24 months from launch, or from the date a particular handset is purchased?

Then if it's the latter, do earlier purchases get extended benefit or do they need to pay a subscription after 24 months?

Much easier to say that updates are guaranteed until at least a certain date, at least for the purchaser. This can always be extended if the model proves popular and long lived.

"£865 for five of the consoles; in effect, a BOGOF deal." - Really?

Hopefully it will have a better spreadsheet/calculator than the author....

trumptytrump.com

I've not looked at the site, but now I've got "Nellie the Elephant" playing in my head.

I think she had a big trunk.

Reasonable course of action

Recently there have been lots of comments about law enforcement authorities of one kind or another, often based in the USA applying extraterritoriality or just demanding information without judicial oversight.

In this instance both these issues appear not to be relevant, and the police are making a not unreasonable enquiry, but still copping some flak. In the old days if someone were to, for example, burn down a building, it would not be unreasonable for the police to enquire of the local library if someone had recently checked out "Mrs. Miggins' Guide to Arson and Animal Husbandry for Beginners". Good old fashioned police work I think it used to be called.

If this search turns up any evidence, I would be very surprised (although I am aware that the legal systems in some states can be strange to us Brits) if this lead to a conviction without at least some further proof. It might however raise a reasonable cause to make further enquiries relating to one or more people. If it turns out that the search was by the local "soup kitchen" service because the person had applied to be a volunteer, this would then hopefully be looked at, seen to be a coincidence and dismissed, allowing the police to concentrate their resources somewhere hopefully more fruitful.

As for the amount of tech info, if the link comes back to a phone which suspect X says "this is mine, no-one else uses it" this could help prove a case. if it turns out to be a shared PC in a student house left unsecured then of course its a bit trickier for the police, but again not an unreasonable request.