* Posts by Chris G

6754 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007

Made-up murder claims, threats to kill Twitter, rants about NSA spying – anything but mention 100,000 US virus deaths, right, Mr President?

Chris G

Re: Muhwahaaaha ha

Compare Pelosi to Thatcher and then tell me who is a competent, experienced woman.

I didn't agree with much of her politics but watching her in action was an education in politicking. So no, I am not afraid of competent, experienced women, a female president might be a good thing for the US but I wouldn't vote for either Nancy or Hilary.

Chris G

Re: Comparing the death rates

" do you notice that in the US the Covid hot spots are all in areas governed by Democrats?"

I'm curious; are you of the opinion that Covid19 is caused by democrats? I know some of them are toxic but being virulent is a bit much.

Chris G

Re: Muhwahaaaha ha

If, as Chivo suggested, Trump blows a gasket, Pence won't need to be elected as he is the Vice Prez. He would step into the orange slippers and have the other fundamentalist nutjob Pompeo holding his hand and pulling CIA strings.

Even more scary, according to the current Whitehouse succession list is if Trump and Pence blew gaskets, next in line is Nancy Pelosi, she may be on the other team but she is an ankle biting old harridan and damn near as scary.

Chris G

Re: Muhwahaaaha ha

President Pence? That is a lot scarier than the noisy shit slinging orange buffoon who is currently falling out of his tree.

The quiet ones are often more dangerous, this one is a fundamentalist christian who believes in the book of revelations, what could be more dangerous on earth than a leader with his finger on the big red button who believes he is saved for eternity?

I would sooner watch a freak show than a fireball thank you very much.

AR flop Magic Leap's 'pivot' spins CEO right off his throne

Chris G

Golden cushion

On the board seat by any chance?

You know, just to soften the landing after falling off the CEO's chair.

To be honest, the man should be admired for both his nine years of staying power and the ability to raise 6.2 billion in backing with promo's that were revealed to be dodgy and so far no product that actually fulfills the original promise.

Surprise! That £339 world's first 'anti-5G' protection device is just a £5 USB drive with a nice sticker on it

Chris G

Re: Big savings! Now!

That's right. You get to save all the money! Or for only £350.00 I can sell you a suppository that will protect you from 5G and 6G!

Chris G

Big savings! Now!

I have developed a 5G prophylactic suppository, Only one application is necessary to protect you from the adverse effects of 5G for life!

Get one for each member of your family, the more you buy the greater the discount! Only €250.00 per insert!! Two for €450.00! Three for €400.00!

Note: Do not evacuate for at least 48Hrs after insertion or before the insertion has dissolved or you will lose your warranty rights.

Laughing UK health secretary launches COVID-19 Test and Trace programme with glitchy website and no phone app

Chris G

Re: So how will it go?

This smacks of Noddy and Big Ears developing an app, finding out is is not much good and then getting Mr Plod in to enforce it anyway.

Of course it still won't work but covid 19!

I have a feeling there is more than one TWAT involved in all of this.

Welcome to the New Normal™

Boeing brings back the 737 Max but also lays off thousands

Chris G

As a token of appreciation for the inevitable bail out they be getting at some stage perhaps they will donate a Max for use as Airforce One.

The rest of them can be used to shelter the homeless ( on the ground).

5G mast set aflame in leafy Liverpool district, half an hour's walk from Penny Lane

Chris G

Re: Digital literacy

"If you haven't grown up with the internet, it's often difficult to distinguish fact from fiction online"

Sooo, nobody under 50 uses Feacebook, Instagram,Twitter etc?

Gone in 9 seconds: Virgin Orbit's maiden rocket flight went perfectly until it didn't

Chris G

Re: ✈︎

You have got it wrong!

Not plummet; it was negative flight.

Unmanned drones to slash NHS delivery times to one-fifth of road 'n' rail transport

Chris G

"A solution looking for a problem".

That is exactly what it looks like, Skyports is an Air Taxi start up with a drone delivery service on the side, Declan Ryan of Ryanair fame is on the board with a bunch of VCs in tow. Makes one wonder what kind of a deal has been done? It has the looks of a PR exercise.

Chris G

Re: Payload?

Less a joke than an observation of the direction governments and the people they are meant to serve are going in.

Chris G

Payload?

The article didn't say how much these drones can carry.

However, this use maked far more sense than pizza dilivery or dropping an amazon packet on your roof.

Perhaps they can fit them with a dart gun so that people can be vaccinated from the air before they can run into the hills to hide.

Airline-chasing lawyers leap on Easyjet for £18bn after 9m folks' data, itineraries nicked

Chris G

Re: I do hate lawyers...

Personally, I would prefer the lawyers to go under and EasyJet to learn from it's mistakes.

I prefer easyJet to the Irish lot and putting easyJet at risk would only make the paddies bigger and stronger.

eBay users spot the online auction house port-scanning their PCs. Um... is that OK?

Chris G

UBlock Origin on Firefox will block eBay's shenanigans, there are other alternatives.

Contact-tracing app may become a permanent fixture in major Chinese city

Chris G

Re: So

Going by what I have read on the home grown UK 'health app' they may ahead of or collaborating with their Eastern friends.

The same apoears to be the case for a number of other locations.

Coronavirus masks are thwarting facial recognition systems. So, of course, people are building training sets from your lockdown-wear selfies

Chris G

Re: Google virtue signalling ... the prerogative of wealth, but it's an irrelevant posture

Absolutely, all the greenies and the human rights charities depend on polluters and maniacs running countries.

Chris G

Re: Web scrapers

I find it amusing, not to say ironic, that so many people who complain about their privacy being invaded insist on splashing their mugs (and other parts) all over the internet.

Dude, where's my laser?

Chris G

Re: Not unbelievable

A good friend of mine has a brain the size of a planet and does some very sciency stuff for a government, he often misses the mundane in pursuit of the arcane.

I think it is because the bleedin' obvious is so obvious its ignored right to the point where it buggers something up.

Facebook in a tizzy about 5 million paying users of its suits collab platform Workplace

Chris G

"We believe this is a trend that will have lasting consequences,"

Is that because you can sign out any time you like, but you can never leave?

COVID-19 sparks new wearables to push the pandemic away

Chris G

Re: Lightsabers.

A damned good curry with lashings of onion bhajis on the side wirks for me, with the added advantage of being hands free.

Chris G

Antisocial distancing

I am about to begin a Kickstarter for a new device that can be built into a hat, using a combination of Lidar, Bluetooth and short range radar at 24 and 79 Ghz, it can detect close proximity humans to within a millimetre.

At anything less than 1825 millimetres a small bioreactor kicks in and releases a measured amount of pungent methane that activates smell receptors in the encroaching individual, thus, driving them beyond the minimal acceptable distance of 1828.6 mm.

Being hat mounted allows easy 360° surveillance of potential enchroachees. Options for weaponisation are in the pipeline.

Runaway Latvian drone found meditating in tree after shutting down nation's skies

Chris G

The dreaded Dronus fugitus expepditus.

( No, I have never studied latin)

Mind your language: Microsoft set to swing the axe on 27 languages in iOS Outlook

Chris G

Re: You vill parle Amrecianish Da!

If the number of red wavy underlines on everything I write, are anything to go by, British English is on a list. It doesn't seem to make a difference how many words I add to the dictionary either.

From experience, Americans abroad are even worse than Brits for thinking that the higher the volume, when shouting English at a foreigner, the closer they are to a Babel fish.

Well, that's something boffins haven't seen before: A strange alien streaks around Jupiter

Chris G

Re: Looks like a job for...

They had better make sure their ray guns are charged, that looks like an exhaust plume to me.

NASA renames dark-energy telescope after its first Chief of Astronomy and Mother of Hubble: Nancy Grace Roman

Chris G

Re: Politically Astute Decision

"Ivanka Trump Space Telescope"

Considering who the 'father' of the U.S. Space Farce is, I am now having nightmares about a future Declaration Class Starship being named the USS Trump.

I wouldn't mind them naming an Exo-planet after him, providing it's far far away.

Chris G

Re: What have the Romans ever done for us?

Desk ornament.

Actually, I have a box full of dark matter for sale at a very reasonable €5000, just be aware that due to it's unusual nature, when you open the box, you won't be able to see it or feel it but if you keep it in its special box unopened it will make fine desk ornament and conversation piece.

Payment in bitcoins only vie Torbank.net

Hooray! It's IT Day! Let's hear it for the lukewarm mugs of dirty water that everyone seems to like so much

Chris G

Who have you missed?

I would say those of the younger (than me, which almost everyone) generation who seem to drink Redbull/energy drinks faster than any coffee or tea drinker. The plastic cherry flavour of those drinks is disgusting, they are more expensive and worse still, these people adulterate decent alcohol with them.

I had a nice glass of local wine with my dinner, now I am enjoying a good cup of tea.

If you include any infusions, I would imagine that ever since man has been able to heat water in a container, teas and infusions have been a part of his/her diet.

Hey Siri, are you still recording people's conversations despite promising not to do so nine months ago?

Chris G

Re: Disabling Siri

"reload seconds later"

So malware then!

Similar to disabling the mike function on androids, if Gargle assistant is still on so is the mike as far as I know.

I have a constant message on my phone telling me there is a Gargle play error and to follow up he guidelines to correct it; the first step is enabling the mike.

Fuck'em!

Chris G

Privacy

Everyone talks about it but few of us actually have any idea of what privacy is legally.

I just had a quick look online, in the States the constitution defines privacy quite narrowly and allows the state a lot of leeway on a nmber of grounds, the FTC is the enforcing agency so it is they who should be taken to task in the US for not overseeing the opt-in, opt-out provisions on the likes of Siri more strictly.

In Europe the protections and definitions of privacy are better defined so that in theory, even government has less freedom to interfere with individual privacy, the problem with GDPR is not much seems to happen unless enough people complain and not enough people complain because the complaints system isn't very clear, at least not to me.

Apple and others exploit the holes in the system and have enough legal and financial weight that they can for the most part ignore the legal protections and when they are brought to task they usually say sorry a lot, wave a couple of million in cash at the problem and then carry on.

Only extreme public opinion such as nobody buying their goods will make any changes so I'm not holding my breath.

Everything I own is as locked down as I can make it, which is probably not enough but in that case they have a revord of my opinions of them.

UK's Ministry of Defence: We'll harvest and anonymise private COVID-19 apps' tracing data by handing it to 'behavioural science' arm

Chris G

Re: The MOD's 'Behaviorial Science' arm ?

The 77th Brigade site is interesting, it describes it's job in trendy modern marketing speak that basically boils down to more or less the same job that a Mr P. J. Goebbels was doing some eighty years ago.

I wouldn't have trusted him either.

Berlin's renowned nightclub scene is showing signs of life. Just one problem: No dancing

Chris G
Trollface

Clubbing hasn't been the same since they banned all the baby seals.

Chris G

While a brick in the washing machine will go some way to creating the right vibe, if Ibiza where I used to live, is anything to go by, rounding of the night really needs a kicking from an upset steroid enhanced security guy.

Or is that just the White Island?

New Zealand releases Bluetooth-free COVID-19 tracing app

Chris G

Re: IQ downward spiral...

Possibly governments world wide are reaping the whirlwind, after years of reducing spending and lowering standards on education so that everyone and his dog can leave school with a piece of paper that isn't an expulsion, they have populations of dummies who believe anything they hear ' on dah toobs'!

Chris G

Name, phone number and email

How is any of this preserving privacy and what is meant by stored locally?

Governments and police forces generally don't give up any information they may have on you easily.

It is also unclear as to how the details taken by businesses is stored and for how long they are obliged to keep it.

Papieren bitte!

Rogue ADT tech spied on hundreds of customers in their homes via CCTV – including me, says teen girl

Chris G

Wow! What a creep. It does point to a certain laxity on the part of ADT in the first place to ensure that any unauthorised access was not possible.

From the article, it mentioned they were going to remove the unauthorised email address via a software update, that seems to indicate that access may still be possible by other means.

Perhaps they should consider a full security audit on their kit?

Imperial College London signs £5m campus sponsorship, 5G deal with Chinese comms bogeyman Huawei

Chris G

While I am sure Huawei will see some benefits from the deal,so will the UK. Students will have access to important kit for their studies and eventual will go on to be part of British technology.

Getting five million smackeroonies from the UK gov' for research is like winning the lottery (never happens for most people) so Uni's have to go where the money is.

Open letter from digital rights groups to UK health secretary questions big tech's role in NHS COVID-19 data store

Chris G

We know what's best for you

"(And us) so we don't feel it necessary to answer any of your questions.

We take the privacy of Britains health data very seriously because ermm it's serious. Trust us, we work with doctors."

Windows invokes Sgrîn Las Marwolaeth upon Newport

Chris G

Lost stations

Bas Lag junction!

Do they have steam driven porters to hand?

Fancy watching 'Bake Off' together with mates and alone at the same time? The BBC's built a tool to do that

Chris G

Re: By requiring Authenticated login for online viewing ...

I was thinking something along those lines.

Are there actually that many people who care about watching any programme at the same time as their friends/ family etc?

I ask as someone who only turns a TV on at New Year's Eve for my wife who likes that kind of thing.

Latest NHS IT revolution is failing to learn lessons from the last £10bn car crash

Chris G

Re: Not Surprised Really

"You just know they're going to shove it all in the cloud."

But at least it will be in an Agile, blockchain AI cloud!

Chris G

Re: Same as it ever was

NHS PHB:

" We have successfully implemented Phase 1 of the New Digital Age of British Medicine. Everyone in the NHS now has a PC.

I'm wondering what to spend my bonus on?"

Minion:" But the PCs are still in their boxes."

PHB: " That is Phase 2."

Chris G

Considering all that is in the article, these are the people who want to design and run a tracking app throughout the population of Britain and insist it will all run smoothly and your data will not end up being lost, stolen or sold.

Brit competition regulator will soon be able to seize rogue traders' domains – and even Amazon accounts

Chris G

Re: Broad terms..

Not only broad terms but nothing (at least not in the article) to indicate any legal definitions of a rogue trader, obviously anything that contravenes set standards for H&S and passing off copies as the real thing, or is it anything they don't like the look of?

Huge if true... Trump explodes as he learns open source could erode China tech ban

Chris G

Perhaps what Trump really needs is a Nancy with her hand up his back.

Chris G

Just incredibly small and smarter than the body, becausevit doesn't want to go back into that orange head.

Nvidia's A100 GPU coming to a cloud near you, DARPA details AI war games, Intel wants to help scan your brain

Chris G

Re: hateful memes

Perhaps the love action could include some AK fondling.

' Would you like to oil my barrel?'

' Feel my butt, it has a recoil pad built in.'

A real loch mess: Navy larks sunk by a truculent torpedo

Chris G

Re: At least the O-ring wasn't frozen this time...

Ah! Saving parts; The Ikea principle™.

NASA launches guide to Lunar etiquette now that private operators will share the Moon with governments

Chris G

According to the dictionary

An accord is an agreement, the moment anyone who is exploiting resources to provide needed materials, finds something really valuable, someone will disagree.

Particularly as the spirit of the accord is that nobody should claim property, they don't own what they are exracting, so theoretically anyone else can go and help themselves.

Time to get a robot parrot and a Tri-corn helmet.