* Posts by Chris G

6754 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007

Whistleblowers have come to us alleging spy agency wrongdoing, says UK auditor IPCO

Chris G

Re: "tended to use “templated or generic” reasons"

Being self authorising why would anyone expect anything different?

Authorisation should go through a magistrate from a different police region/s.

SolarWinds’ shares drop 22 per cent. But what’s this? $286m in stock sales just before hack announced?

Chris G

Re: ...were not aware of this potential cyberattack at SolarWinds

I would look for one of their infosec people on early retirement and a larger than usual gold watch, a man who understands the word shtum.

China's Chang'e 5 probe lands Moon rocks in Inner Mongolia

Chris G

Impetus

Well done indeed China.

In addition to the success of the mission as a scientific endeavour, it will provide impetus to the rest of the world to keep up with or surpass China.

I am sure this has not been solely about collecting moon rocks either, as missions like this provide info for manned missions too. It wouldn't surprise me to wake up one morning to a rock collecting mission turning out to be Chinese astronauts playing golf on the regolith.

Dutch officials say Donald Trump really did protect his Twitter account with MAGA2020! password

Chris G

He's smarter than that, it's 54321!

As UK breaks away from Europe, Facebook tells Brits: You'll all be Californians soon

Chris G

Bow down to Menlo Park

Oh! and while you're bending............

Fortunately for me , I live in Europe and have never wanted to immerse myself in the swamp that is FB, Wotsit and Instagrim.

Though it is surprising how many governments use Wotsit as well as local authorities everywhere.

Chris G

Re: It's a fait accompli situation.

You never know, there could be some new rules waiting in the wings, ready for the New Year when Britain will be back in control.

I wonder if Boris and Matt will have offices next to Cleggy?

They'll be able to chat over old times in parliament by the water cooler.

US aviation regulator issues safety bulletins over flaws in software updates for Boeing 747, 777, 787 airliners

Chris G

Re: A Boeing Spokesperson said:

"Safety is and always has been Boeing's top priority."

Yeah! Right after profits, government handouts and keeping the shareholders happy.

If I was a purveyor of travel insurance, I would load any premium that covered a Bo(e)ing flight.

We take a look at proposed Big Tech regulations in the UK: Heavy on possible fines, light on enforcement

Chris G

Re: Heavy on possible fines, light on enforcement

Looks as though Matt Hancock's private meeting in Paris a couple of years back, with Zuck has paid dividends, for Zuck.

Hancock was digi-minister then and Zuck threatened him with dropping all investment in the UK, then six months later this enquiry takes off with these relatively light results.

What I don't see in the article is where the teeth are for the enforcement of a 10% of revenue fine on a company like FB, who are well kown for sticking lawyers and endless appeals onto anything they dislike.

It's all very well to say " You owe us ten percent of your revenue but what is the UK government going to do, send bailiffs tothe States to bang o Zuck's door?

We got it! Japanese space agency confirms its probe has Ryugu asteroid samples

Chris G

Re: Space dust, 2020, Japanese

Frankly, I think our own politicians with a modicum of input from favoured corporations, are a far greater threat to mankind and life as we know it, than any space dust borne bug the universe cares to throw at us.

If anything was alive in that dust, it won't be for long and if it should survive it will be trying to hitch a ride back into space.

FBI confirms Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher solved by trio of amateur math and software codebreakers

Chris G

Re: Georgian or Armenian

No, nothing like Georgian or Armenian script and little similarity to cyrillic. My guess is he took the English alphabet, added a few common symbols including maths and flipped them around or reoriented them.

e.g. the Plimsoll line symbol is shown both horizontal and vertical.

Don't give up on Planet Nine yet: Hubble 'scope finds just such a world a mere 336 light-years away

Chris G

Re: Was I the only one...

What I find amazing is that we can find a planet in a system 336 light years away but we cant find something 5-10 times the mass of Earth in our own back yard, I mean it's probably only between 37 and 75 billion miles away, although it might be a bit cold and dark.

What does my neighbour's Tesla have in common with a stairlift?

Chris G

Re: video with the girls... and crash helmets

While I was watching the My Friend Dario video, my wife remarked that the bikini girls dancing was rubbish.

Got a really dirty look when I replied that I hadn't noticed they were dancing:-)

I was wondering if the lifetime use of an allegedly green Hummer EV would offset the carbon footprint related to it's manufacture and production of all those 1000HP's worth of electrons?

UK MoD bungs Boeing £500m to plug gap left by a system it should have provided under £800m contract from 2010

Chris G

Boeing Boing! Gone!

Please sir can we have some more (money)?

So cross out flying on some of their aircraft as well as asking them to provide software for anything else.

They clearly have their hand up someone's back in the MOD.

Exonerated: First subpostmasters cleared of criminal convictions in Post Office Horizon scandal

Chris G

It would be a start if Gareth Jenkins and Anne Chambers were charged and arrested for perjury prior to pursuing any others who knowingly perscuted innocent people to cover their own arses/failures.

France fines Google, Amazon €135m total for slipping ad cookies into people's computers without permission

Chris G

Amazon and Google etc, value their customers the way a farmer values ears of wheat; they care about and nurture it enough that they can harvest it and make a profit.

In fact a farmer probably cares a great deal more.

Facebook crushed rivals to maintain an illegal monopoly, the entire United States yells in Zuckerberg’s face

Chris G

Re: The power of the "Like " button,

The cat said go ahead and upvote.

Or did it?

Chris G

@werdsmith

At least some cross platform interoperability would be nice, so that we can all play together whatever flavour of app we have.

That will never happen as long as the likes of Zuck and his contemporaries all insist it is their ball and and we can only play under their rules.

Google Cloud (over)Run: How a free trial experiment ended with a $72,000 bill overnight

Chris G

Re: Surely though...

"Is it really so hard to manage?"

No! But Google don't give a crap whether you live or die so long as the money is coming in, which means they will bill you and hope you pay even if it means selling your granny for cat food.

Megabucks in funding, 28 years of research, and Boston Dynamics is to be 'sold to Hyundai' for 1/40th of an Arm

Chris G

Rather than concentrating on pack carrying for military applications, I would look at developing some of the technology for prosthesis and passive or powered exoskeletons.

More useful for a wider range of users with the bonus of spin offs with military application.

UK Ministry of Defence: We won't prosecute bug bounty hunters – oh btw, we now have one of those

Chris G

Re: Seems a bit... pointless?

"What are they actually after then?"

Perhaps what they are doing is compiling a list of people who have abilities that can get them added to a list.

One would think that intensive efforts to penetrate military security by friendly actors would be helpful in mitigating intensive efforts by those who are less than friendly.

SpaceX Starship blows up on landing, Elon Musk says it's the data that matters and that landed just fine

Chris G

@jon, From your third setence on, you are mostly correct. However I doubt the engines are being mass produced, that would imply cosumer market levels of production and I doubt that such a market exists.

Perhaps standardised would describe it better.

For what it is worth, the style and tone of The Register is what makes it stand out and what makes it worth reading as opposed to others with similar content.

Chris G

Ignition

Anyone who has read Ignition would know that RUDs are part and parcel of the learning process.

Fireworks now help to avoid future unwanted fireworks involving passengers.

I like the way SpaceX consistently think outside of the usual boxes and deliver the goods.

Impressed by the skydiving and flip!

When it comes to privacy, everyone says America needs a new federal law ASAP. As for mass spying, well, um… huh what’s that over there?

Chris G

Re: and not read a word of the terms and conditions

There is no need for AI/ML or anyone/thing else to read those pages, the mere fact that someone has paid lawyers to write those multiple pages, is an assurance that there is nothing good for you in them.

Even in Europe with GDPR, many companies on their sites still make opting out as difficult as possible, in spite of the requirements that it should be clear and simple.

Aside from various national security issues it is obvious there is so much to be gained from hoovering personal data that commerce is against full protectiobas much as the TLAs are.

Apple appears to be charging Brits £309 to replace AirPods Max batteries, while Americans need only stump up $79

Chris G

Apple! Earphones to make your eyes water

See title.

Bitter war of words erupts between UK cops and web security expert over alleged flaws in Cyberalarm monitoring tool

Chris G

Re: If you trust the police.

"2+2= fish"

So then you are nicked for either not having a fishing licence or poaching

Chris G

If you trust the police.

I don't.

Considering their propensity for angling, I would not allow them any extra access to my data than absolutely necessary.

How often do cops manage to make 2+2=5?

Apple fires warning shot at Facebook and Google on privacy, pledges fight against 'data-industrial complex'

Chris G
Gimp

Re: you tend not to welcome transparency and customer choice.

Zuck's pet?

------->

Chris G

The economic model

Is that you relinquish your privacy to Google, Faecebook et al who sell it to advertisers who then reimburse their costs by charging you for their unwanted ads when you purchase goods.

I wonder what proportion of that money the consumer parts with actually supports the internet rather than simply going into the pockets of the privacy robbers who are at liberty to sell your info again and again.

As an aside, see the article at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism re a meeting between zuck and Matt Hancock.

Apple aptly calls its wireless over-the-ear headphones the AirPods Max – as in, maximum damage to your wallet

Chris G

I have a pair of Kenwood semi open cans that are about 25 years old.

I won't be changing them just yet.

PSA: The 2020 monolith is a dead meme. You can stop putting them up now. Please

Chris G

Re: Reaction

"Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced. —Tolstoy"

I would go along with that sentiment.

The contemporary exhibitions I have been to have a fair percentage of art that fits that quote but a lot of the 'art' seems to be the 'artist' testing the extent of taking the piss and getting away with it.

Or there are some very troubled artists exhibiting.

Chris G

Reaction

Having been involved in an art project for a client a few years back, I discovered that in the contemporary art world, if your work provokes a reaction, it qualifies as art.

Whether the viewer or observer reacts in a good, bad or neutral manner, it is still art.

Accordingly, a fresh pile of poo on a podium each day would qualify, fortunately these attempts at monotonous monolithic art are slightly less objectionable. Re the copycats, Picasso always maintained that " Good artists copy, but great artists steal."

Uber sends its self-driving cars on a road to nowhere, with indefinite stop at automated truck aspirant Aurora

Chris G

Re: The next step?

Will I be able to send it out for pizza?

Chris G

Re: Self driving?

Fully autonomous self driving cars will be a thing around the same time I get a fully functioning Robo-butler™.

There would be more chances to achieve driverless cars with all vehicles under a central control that was glitch free, even that is not currently achievable and likely not very appealing to most people.

There are two sides to every story, two ends to every cable

Chris G

Here are some under the desk and other shots from one of my feeds.

https://www.demilked.com/tech-support-nightmares/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Demilked+%28DeMilked%29

Running joke: That fitness gadget? It's, er, run out

Chris G

Re: Thanks for the video Alastair

Some time back, my local council was flogging off all their prefabs as holiday homes, until a mate of mine pointed out they were mostly made of asbestos. Cue a panic to have them removed safely by teams of hazmat costumed demolition guys and desperately trying to track down those that were sold.

Chris G

Re: Incompatible because..

I blame what I call Sony-Phillips syndrome; all of these 'innovators' want to be the standard for their given niche so come up with some proprietry aspect that is protected by lawyers and only available to others under punishing licence deals, if at all.

Hence back in the day, various video tape formats, followed by laser disc formats etc etc.

IoT promises to be worse by several orders of magnitude.

If some genius comes out with 'One system to rule them all' whereby an app on your phone for example, can communicate/control all of the other Nests, Rings and Hues, he will be buried and suffocated by the pile of writs that will appear instantly.

The innovators of the world don't want to be part of the standard, they want to be The Standard and force everyone else to bow down to it.

A tale of two nations: See China blast off from the Moon as drone shows America's Arecibo telescope falling apart

Chris G

Perspective

This year's US defence budget was $934billion,

Arecibo's budget for 2019: $3.6million.

For the price of a couple of flying white elephants each year (F35), Arecibo could have been maintained at an adequate level.

But you can't project power with a big telescope as much as you can with a shiny warplane.

USA adds China’s top chipmaker to list of companies American money can’t legally buy a slice of

Chris G

Re: The Law of Unintended Consequences Delivering Karma as Shit Happens to the Thoroughly Deserving

It's just one more instance of the US telling another sovereign state ' Don't do as we do, do as we say.'

Less of a world policeman, more of a world bully.

Robot drills hole on Moon, employs robot arm to clean up mess to bring home

Chris G

Re: sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.

"Does Moon Vacuum have a use in Chinese medicine?"

No but it is the ultimate homeopathic cure for lunacy.

Chris G

Re: sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.

I have a few jars of Lunar vacuum for sale at €20K each, if you open one however, the guarantee on content and quality will be null and void.

Where's the mysterious metal monolith today then? Oh look, it's atop a California mountain

Chris G

Re: Mondelez Advert

Aluminiun is fine in seawater, one reason why boats are built out of it.

You do have to be careful with other metals in close proximity though, otherwise a large battery results with consequent electrolytic action.

Don’t panic, but five jet drones just used their AI to chat and collaborate while in flight

Chris G

This is more fun.

https://southfront.org/photo-of-russias-first-ever-prototype-of-s-70-okhotnik-heavy-strike-drone-alongside-su-57-fighter-jet-released/

Glastonbury hippy shop Hemp in Avalon rapped for spouting 'plandemic' pseudoscience

Chris G

Re: Surgical teams?

"Ever been in for an operation and had the entire surgical team drop dead of CO2 poisoning mod-surgery?"

No idea! I was asleep at the time, for all I know there was a pair of undertakers and stand by teams to take my tonsils out.

Chris G

Re: Glastonbury

It's a nexus of Ley lines, seemingly, they have the power to attract layabouts and loonies.

Providing they don't infect anyone else, let them all get together and invoke Darwin.

Bristol's bus stops can run Chrome and Internet Explorer, but no, Windows and public transport do not mix well

Chris G

"You have to love this, an almost entire operating system complete with task bar and applications, to display a bus timetable."

You must remember that a collection of operations like this will be enough to support an entire BOFH and his sidekick.

Arecibo Observatory brings forward 'controlled demolition' plans by collapsing all by itself

Chris G

A sad ending

For an exceptional piece of kit.

But at least it went out with a bang, or a crump.

Scotch eggs ascend to the 'substantial meal' pantheon as means to pop to pub for a pint during pernicious pandemic

Chris G

It's all bollocks

If you ate seventeen packets of cheese and onion crisps or a dozen packs of peanuts, I defy anyone to deny that is not a substantial meal.

The cops ought to be embarrassed at even attempting to police such unclear and undefined regulations.

All I can say, is thank his noodlyness FSM that I live in Spain and have no such problems.

Tokyo Stock Exchange lets CEO resign to atone for October outage, other execs take pay cuts and rebukes

Chris G

Re: At least resignation was an option

Dogeza in public should be introduced to British politics but I suspect they would find a way to devalue it.

Chris G

At least resignation was an option

There was a time in Japan when those responsible for a disaster would be instructed to commit seppuku.

Italian competition watchdog slaps Apple with €10m fine over allegedly misleading iPhone waterproofing claims

Chris G

Re: Own Goal

I am sure Apple is aware of the potential difference between the profits from an allegedly water resistant phone and the fines when it's realised it's not.