* Posts by Chris G

6754 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007

From Maidenhead to Morocco: In a change to the scheduled programming, we bring you The On Call of Dreams

Chris G

Re: On call Legend

I retired a couple of years ago after living in Ibiza for 16 years, your on call rates must have been pretty good if they outweighed an Ibiza stag do.

Average club rates for a beer in the clubs like Pacha started at around €15 a bottle, though water was more expensive. The serious celebrationists were called 'Gambas' (prawns) by the locals, on account of the colour they acquired during a hung over sleep/collapse on the beach after a night out.

Luckily for me I only ever entered a club as security fo visitors or DJs so got paid to be there.

Listen to The Sound of Perseverance: Not the death metal album, but NASA's Mars rover on the move

Chris G

Re: Scratching

It definitely sounds like a Barsoomian Gimlet bug looking for somewhere to lay its eggs, the larvae like to eat magnesium and other light metals.

Synced sound and video would be amazing.

Big problem: Nominet members won't know how many votes they're casting in decision to oust CEO, chair

Chris G

Dewey, Chetham, and Howe as far as I know, they frequently team up with Golightly & Steele when on bigger jobs.

Australian police suggests app to record consent to sexual activity

Chris G

Re: You know what would stop rapes?

While consequences are necessary and should be a high price to pay for a perpetrator,it is naive to think consequences are likely to prevent rape any more than they stop murder. i.e. hardly at all.

Crimes of violence are always going to happen, what is important, is to make the reporting and investigation process less intimidating for victims as well as protecting the rigts of the accused who should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Once proven guilty, the full force of the law should be brought to bear.

Rape is effectively a life sentence for the victim in many respects and many perpetrators get off too lightly.

The Roaring Twenties: Future foreign policy will rely on rejuvenated 'cyber' sector, UK government claims

Chris G

What I glean from the article, is that the UK.gov is thirty years late (or more) in recognising the importance of things cyber and may still not know what the word actually encompasses.

The other thing I gleaned is that your mum's basement is probaby not deep enough to protect you from the wrath of the UK if you upset their cyberlords.

McAfee, the company, says Chinese attackers targeted Asian and US telcos

Chris G

In general, from what I read, China is ahead in the roll out and use of 5G compared to much of the West.

That moderate confidence may be aimed more at increasing sales of McAfee's products than who should be on the naughty step.

In the lab: Robotic AI-powered exoskeletons to help disabled people move freely without implants

Chris G

Invasive implants are not necessary, just look at Tilley Lockey and the arms she uses.

There may be a use for algorithmic interpretation to smooth out or generally improve the function of prostheses like Tilley's but depending on an AI to operate say a set of legs seems to be coming from the wrong direction.

" I'm sorry Dave, we're not going there!"

With Nominet’s board-culling vote just days away, we speak to one man who will publicly support the management

Chris G

Re: "there should be a dialogue – not a double-barreled shotgun"

Haworth's blocking of all attempts at dialogue clearly demonstrate his lack of ability, it should have been obvious to him that effectively putting his fingers in his ears and singing la la la, would only result in somebody shouting much louder to be heard.

I think for a UK registry there ought to be voting limitations applied to non UK members.

Capita: We're creating a 'Portfolio' division to house all the stuff we don't want

Chris G

Re: Oh FFS!

If Crapita was a horse, it would been dog food years ago.

If at first you don't succeed: Engineers power up the computers of NASA's monster SLS core stage once again

Chris G
Mushroom

What could possibly go wrong?

See Icon

Smart doorbells on business premises make your property more attractive to burglars, warns researcher

Chris G

The best security is good locks on secure doors and windows, security won't stop a really determined theif but it may make things sufficiently difficult and time consuming to make them prefer to look elsewhere.

Alternatively a 'Beware of the Leopard' sign with a genuine leopard behind it can discourage baddies from entering your property.

When I live in N.Cal I came across one place out in the boonies, with a sign bearing the message 'Trespassers will be buried in an unmarked shallow grave',

I quite liked that.

Delayed UK digital border system was only stable enough to be used by 4% of intended users, MPs say

Chris G

Re: that's going to cost taxpayer £173m

I think it goes back much further than 2011, the political flavour of UK leadership has been bland a d ineffective for decades.

Re, government IT projects, I can imagine a day may come in the future when British forces will be threatened by an enemy approaching the borders and all they will be a le to do is throw stones and shout 'Bang' because some hyper expensive failed IT procurement won't allow them to draw ammunition.

Starlink's latent China crisis could spark a whole new world of warcraft

Chris G

I am sure I remember reading about a Chinese directed EMP weapon a couple of years back.

' Nice satellites you got there Elon, pity if they got broken.....'

Why yes, I'll take that commendation for fixing the thing I broke

Chris G

Pressing the big red button

With the "DO NOT PRESS" sign, is a rite of passage.

Occasionally though your passage may experience problems.

Australia, India, Japan, and USA create joint critical tech working group

Chris G

India has more than double the rare earths of Australia, including monazite sands containing thorium, cerium and some lanthanides. Some of the reasons why China was left to dominate the RE market is down to them having relatively good access and the fact that processing is not easily environmentally friendly.

Boffins revisit the Antikythera Mechanism and assert it’s no longer Greek to them

Chris G

Clickspring a YouTuber is building an Antikythera mechanism from scratch, amazing engineering and eell worth watching his series of videos.

Huawei CFO's legal eagles take HSBC to court in Hong Kong to obtain evidence against US extradition

Chris G

The lack of Joke icon is deliberate.

My comment is a double entendre, make of it what you will folks.

Chris G

Trumped up charges?

Google and Microsoft's public squabble over who's the worst is giving us life right now, not gonna lie

Chris G

Behavioural, data based advertising

One of the biggest lies out there, I never get anything better than ads offering to sell me something that aI have just bought, nothing in the way of related products so the analysis is about as basic as it can get.

This is just another pot and kettle spat.

Chinese and American chipmakers establish regular chatfests to talk tech, trade, supply chain security

Chris G

What I read from that, is that sanctions are reducing sales so if they can't come up with workarounds, they (US companies) want to be bailed out with taxpayer's money.

GitLab latest to ditch 'master' as default initial branch name: It's now simply called 'main'

Chris G

Re: Aargh...

I am offended on behalf of the real trolls, at your use of the Troll icon, it potrays Trolls as irritating and contrarian during interplays on the internet. Most Trolls have never heard of the internet and only interact with humans when they eat them for trespassing on Troll lands!

Chris G

Re: RE: Master / slave

I have noticed that many of the had wringers who are perverting the language, seem to have feck all else to do with their lives, so in lieu of anything useful, they develop what I call AOS (since everything has to have a nifty acronym) Acquired Offence Syndrome.

Having zero life content of their own they look for anything they can use to be offended on behalf of other people and then shout or bleat about it incessantly until someone takes notice.

Don't be a fool, cover your tool: How IBM's mighty XT keyboard was felled by toxic atmosphere of the '80s

Chris G

Are you suggesting that fruity users dribble on their keyboards?

Out of this world: Listen to Perseverance rover fire its laser at Mars rocks as the wind whips around it

Chris G

Whispers in the wind

What an amazing thing to be able to see and hear actions on the surface of another planet in as close to real time as it gets.

I can't help thinking though, that before too long one of the UFOlogist loonies will post on YouTube with proof of an alien whispering into Perseverance's mic.

Or perhap Elvis singing to it.

Facebook’s new world domination ploy is a two-megabyte Instagram app tested in India and Brazil

Chris G

I think it is about time the world developed a vaccine against Feacebook and it's mutations, it is after all a pandemic disease that infects much of what it touches.

Four women, including TV star, thought they were investing in a software business. It was a scam. Now the perp's going to jail

Chris G

Re: that helped applicants for government benefits

I think the applicants you are referring to, have the appellation Chum applied to them, not so much victims as part of the scam.

Memo to scientists. Looking for intelligent life? Have you tried checking for worlds with a lot of industrial pollution?

Chris G

Dyson spheres are only easy to detect if they exist, I doubt very much they are high on the to do list for beings sufficiently advanced to be able to construct them.

If the development of a species is sufficiently outward looking to drive them to space in the first place, I think looking even further outward would ultimately be more efficient than the immense effort it would take to encapsulate a star.

I am not an astrophysicist but I am a reasonable engineer, Dyson sphere construction goes way beyond just the physics and energy required build it, the infrastructure would be truly stellar

Chris G

The last on the list to look for should be Dyson Spheres and Ring worlds, any species sufficienty advance and powerful enough to produce such artifacts are unlikely tp be so inward looking.

While such things make interesting sci fi, the likelihood of any existing is ridiculously low.

Pollutants seem a better bet but the list needs serious thought, many pollutants on Earth can be produced by nature as well as man, though some volatile compounds can be produced by plants and other lifeforms so they may be of interest.

UK Space Agency will pay a new CEO £125,000 to run non-existent space programme

Chris G

Re: successful applicant "will have a proven ability to handle an intellectually challenging agenda"

I suspect most of the intellectual challenge will be making sense of any response from a politician who is holding the purse strings when asked to payfor something.

Any leadership shown in space related industry and science from the UK is largely in spite of the government, not because of it.

It's wild the lengths Facebook engineers will go to find new ways to show you inane ads about tat: This time, AR...

Chris G

Not Glassholes again?!!

I hope the seamless combination of AR and the resl world includes lamp posts, pedestrians and furniture to name just a few obstacles to individual progress.

Wrist Action ™ Feacebook's trademark?

I wonder what the price will be? Higher the most people will think, that's for sure.

Belgian cops crack down on encrypted phone network Sky ECC in 200 overnight raids as firm denies criminal ties

Chris G

Re: 17 tonnes?

"going to be very upset LOL."

At a few million snorts/tonne, there are going to be quite a few grumpy people who are missing out on their whizz time.

I can't help but wonder how much of that 17 tonnes by weight is baking soda or some other 'additive'?

UK draft legislation enshrines the right to repair in law – but don't expect your mobile to suddenly be any easier to fix

Chris G

Repairability at reasonable standards and costs

Repairability is a good snd necessary thing but the legislation needs to encompass not only the difficulty of repair but also the cost snd the way in which spares are sold.

An example, I have a 2kW angle grinder with maybe s hundred hours of use on it. I began to cut some floor tiles when the back end of the machine began to make unpleasant noises, I stripped it down and found the rear bearing had disintegrated, it had no bearing number on the shields which was suspect in itself, although it looked like a common size. On looking online the bearing shows in the parts list as only being available as a part of the rotor assembly at a price of €85 odd. Fortunately I can use a puller to remove it and then mic it up for the dimensions.

I know this stuff but many others who could otherwise repair items may not.

Microsoft settles £200,000+ claims against tech support scammers who ran global ripoff from cottage in Surrey

Chris G

Re: dorks of Dorking

Sooo, if the dorks of Dorking are being dorks, I assume they are dorking?

I never realised it was a verb.

MPs slam UK's £22bn Test and Trace programme for failing to provide evidence that it slows COVID pandemic

Chris G

This particular bunch of Tories appear to need a bashing. They are spending spectacular amounts of money on dysfunctional programs at a time when the economy is under unique pressure. I suspect the country wouldn't fair much better if the other lot were in power but it would likely be down to genuine ineptitude rather than the Old boys/girls club.

Atos handed £1.5bn to run IT for UK government-founded pension trust Nest

Chris G

Re: What the actual????

Crapita? Serco? One of Baroness Hardup's startups?

I think I prefer the French, and look at it this way; a non functioning track and trace was valued at £1.5 billion so 18 years of alleged pensions management looks like value for money in comparison. Of course the final reality could differ by an order of magnitude over 18 years and a variety of governments/leaders.

Mobile World Congress seemingly serious about in-person Barcelona event in June, shares safety plan

Chris G
Gimp

Re: I know a bloke

I have had the dubious pleasure of summer NBC exercises in a British 70s era suit, for fun, our training officer would organise three mile runs in full CEFO(Central European Fighting Order), there was always a couple of DNFs who would pass out mid stride. The soviet suits were far worse than ours.

Barcelona can hit the low thirties at the end of June

Chris G

I know a bloke

Who can provide me with a few thousand surplus NBC suits on a sale or return basis, maybe I should set up a stall outside the conference.

Being Soviet era, they have a cool retro vibe, perhaps it could become a new fashion?

Microsoft quantum lab retracts published paper: Readings that cast doubt on crucial discovery went AWOL

Chris G

What I don't understand

Aside from quantum physics, is why anyone who is producing a paper they know is going to be peer reviewed by people who are at least on par with them, would massage the results?

I would be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Customer comment and contributions no more as Microsoft pulls the plug on Office 365 UserVoice forum

Chris G

Perhaps

They have been hearing more truth than they need?

Google's ex-boss tells the US it's time to take the gloves off on autonomous weapons

Chris G

Re: Autonomous weapons need to be internationally banned.

The box is already open, too late for banning.

With every human advance in technology from the very fist hominid throwing a stone or waving a stick, it has been a fact that any and all new destructive technologies will be taken up, to a lesser or greater degree by any that have the wherewithal.

I am, frankly still amazed that we have so far avoided the MAD scenario, particularly recently with the development of more 'efficient' theatre tactical nukes that many generals consider to 'be far more usable'.

Smart warfare may well turn out to be one of the dumbest things humanity has come up with.

Chris G

Re: Question....

You just need to use every means available in the current media to dehumanise the humans you want to kill, as soon as the consensus is sufficiently large, they are no longer people so you can kill them without troubling yours or the collective conscience of your population.

NASA shows Mars that humans can drive a remote control space tank at .01 km/h

Chris G

Butler's Landing

I have been a Sci-Fi fan for decades but have never come across Octavia Butler's work before, after having a quick read of her Wikipedia page I must remedy that.

After reading the XKCD comic, I hope Perseverance can use its lasers in a defensive capacity.

Facebook uses one billion Instagram photos to build massive object-recognition AI that partly trained itself

Chris G

Re: "one billion Instagram photos"

If you think it hates humanity now, just wait until after it has watched a million tik tok videos!

Honda sends first consumer Level 3 autonomous car into showrooms, but only to 100 lucky Japanese leasers

Chris G

I am not a passenger

I realise as an old fart that I will be accused of Ludditism but I actually enjoy driving, have driven hundreds of thousands of miles and still look forward to it.

My 1992 Landy has over 390000 kilometres on it, I like the proper hand brake it has and the manual gearbox and drive selection, it will go virtually anywhere (as opposed to going everywhere virtually) and I get to choose how it goes about getting there.

On the safety aspect, if autonomous vehicles are going to offer a huge increase in safety and a consequent drop in accidents, potetially to zero, where wil that leave the insurance companies?

Motor insurance will lose its raizon d'etre

Blizzard brain: Snowflake doubles revenue. Market takes a look, goes slushy

Chris G

Translation needed

" But our large enterprise focus has informed an evolution to a go-to-market motion that is industry-specific and outcome-oriented," he said."

WTF does that mean, is it supposed to mean anything or is it just to fill in a quiet patch in the interview?

Snowflake was valued at $33billion, manages to turnover half a billion and still makes a loss. Not my idea of a hot, high return investment, Oh! I forgot investment now is the same as going into a bookies shop.

What happens when cancel culture meets Adolf Hitler pareidolia? Amazon decides it needs a new app icon

Chris G

Re: But Amazon really are Hitler, aren't they?

I bought my snooker table from eBay, it had two balls but very small.

Chris G

Pareidolia?

I think I've got it, with regard to the cancel culture, every time I see the word I can see a picture of a Mary Whitehouse type of character.

Someone who wants to impose their prejudices onto everyone else and bask in the sense of power from having screwed successfully with people.

I say ban people who try to ban things!

Errrm...except for me.

Boeing successfully flies unmanned autonomous military 'wingman' aircraft that may become pilot's buddy

Chris G

The Wingman sounds quite similar to the Russian Okhotnik which has been undergoing trials since last year.

It's designed to be be both an autonomous attack drone as well as a wingman from what I have read.

9 years after SpaceX strode into Texas village, Elon Musk floats name change for Boca Chica: 'Starbase'

Chris G

Re: Boomtown sounds fine to me

It is actually an unincorporated village (whatever that means) of about 40 houses, Musk is trying to buy out the village and may eventually get the County to use Eminent Domain to compulsorily purchase the houses out from under the residents.

Here is an interesting article about it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/space-x-texas-village-boca-chica/606382/

Hacking is not a crime – and the media should stop using 'hacker' as a pejorative

Chris G

Re: Too late

Unfortunately, MSM is rarely concerned with accuracy, preferring to put views and profits way ahead of accuracy, then due to the prevalence of the public adoption of MSM attitudes and phrases such thing become the norm.

Trying to change the public view of the word hacker to one with rather more cuddly connotations is like trying to push back the tide.

I agree with the argument but it is way too late to douch about it, easier to invent a new word to describe cuddly hackers.