Posts by DavCrav

Re: Lets Get Real

"Sorry, but you are misinformed; many rape allegations are demonstrated to be false. Furthermore, such allegations are being used to destroy reputations. Engage with reality."

OK, there are a number of categories you can put rape allegations into:

1) Proved true. The definition here is a secured conviction of rape (we'll worry about miscarriages of justice some other time). Very few rape allegations fall into this category due to the burden of proof.

2) Proved false. The definition here is a secured conviction perverting the course of justice or making a false complaint (we'll worry about miscarriages of justice some other time). Very few rape allegations fall into this category due to the burden of proof.

3) Not proved true but it sounds likely. This category is subjective and fairly big, actually. For example, most people listening to the Kavanaugh hearing should come away thinking he's lying and she's at least mostly telling the truth. I'd stick the allegations against him in the 'credible but not proved' category.

4) Not proved false but it sounds likely. All of the accusations by 'Nick' in the UK are in this category until he gets done in court at the end of his trial. The accusations against Cliff Richard fall into this category, I think.

5) Evidence is vague/not in public domain, and inconclusive. Lots of these, many dropped at investigative stage.

6) Differing definitions. Rape is a subjective crime. With most crimes there is a much more objective definition of whether a crime has taken place. Quite a few potential cases of rape depend on people's memories and beliefs as to consent, and so it might be that from one person's perspective there is mens rea, from another's there is not. This is different from 5) because here it's not whether there's evidence of a crime, and more that's there's a question as to the incidence of a crime.

Apart from 1) and 2), hard data is going to be hard to come by for the other categories.

Re: The Microsoft Curse?

"Poor Microsoft, you have to feel sorry for them. Maybe we shouldn't criticise companies that constantly make mistakes or that don't act in the best interest of their users."

Microsoft hasn't bought it yet.

Re: Or he could have just used the money to make his business not so crap

To be fair, it's not clear from the article if, like the court orders, the reviews themselves were fake. Slagging off your competitors, as well as planting fake positive reviews of your own business, is now standard practice in the raw sewage that is the Internet.

Re: What if they require some/all the work to be performed in the EU?

They have operations in France and Germany, as the article stated. It's just that their HQ will now be moved into the EU.

Re: You already know what happens next...

"If you didn't think Google had you by the short & curlies before... =-("

But a government has the power to regulate, and to tell Google to stop pulling shit or it will start imprisoning people. If they don't want to be in a market then fine, but once they've decided to be in a market, they eventually will be forced to play nice, take ownership of all the negative consequences of their actions, and be responsible for a change.

Silicon valley tech twats spend all their time disrupting, without worrying about the negative effects of that disruption. The reality is that before the Internet, for example, five year olds did not have access to pornography and beheading videos. They shouldn't have access to such things. Parental responsibility is important, but it should not be the only layer of defence. What the other defences should be is a matter for debate, but the correct time to have the debate is before it's done, not years afterwards once the problem is much greater. This also applies to the IoT, where security and longevity if the company goes bankrupt are afterthoughts, if they are thought of at all.

If Zuckerberg were a responsible person, he would have thought about how to deal with cyberbullying on his platform while he was extending it outside of universities, and probably even before then. But he's an utter twat, and instead thought 'I'm going to build this, make lots of money, and someone else can deal with the problems I create'.

Re: Just using Uber and Lyft as whipping boys

"Except now, they would be in private cars or taxis."

Private cars produce more parked cars, but less congestion. Obviously, since unless the taxi is very well organized, it has to come to you first.

Of course, in addition, taxis drive round looking for fares, increasing congestion. Taxis are generally bad for traffic and the environment, per passenger mile.

"the sticking point for me is email (including the "instant" push notification of having received one - my "email-checker" currently is the "ping" of my phone...)."

I downloaded WeMail for that. Works like GMail, accesses your GMail inbox, but GMail was having some problems with its push notifications and so I have two e-mail clients. So if the GMail app goes bye-bye I just use WeMail, again for free.

Re: No worries

"Yeah, but they run the Stargate program and you can't use that to get to Earth orbit unless you gate to a planet with a goa'uld mothership (and that would be bad)"

Don't you gate off-world, then gate back to the second gate from Antarctica, with a scavenged DHD plugged in so it becomes the default gate for Earth's address? OK, you have to get the second gate into orbit first, but that's a once-only thing.

Re: The only solution

"are you going to shelve all those interactions or are you going to stick with it for fear of losing out on something?"

I did. I quit Facebook, losing connections with hundreds of people I've known over the years. I decided that it was worth it.

Re: China

"Just because the West's excesses aren't as visible as China's doesn't make them any less evil."

They really are less evil. China has a million people in re-education camps and has a proper 1984-style good citizen ranking. Seriously you guys, sort yourselves out. I don't see any of you rushing to move to China, which kind of suggests that deep down you know it's actually a whole lot worse.

Re: "What a time to be alive"

"No, in spite of that, objectively speaking we're nowhere near "good enough" or even "acceptable". "

It is, however, the best time in all of history. Given certain existential threats (climate change, antibiotic catastrophe, killer AI) on the horizon, it might well be that this is the best time without restrictions.

And it's only nowhere near good enough because people are nowhere near good enough. Well, I say people, but I obviously mean everybody but me.

Re: You shouldn't be able to get to there from here.

"It [sic] it further means there needs to be an air gap between internal systems holding sensitive data and anything with a public internet access then that would be a good thing, too."

These are payroll computers. So they communicate with HMRC. What you are saying is that, every day, the updated HMRC stop orders, new tax codes, etc., should be verbally read off the office computer with Internet access, then dictated onto the computer that deals with payroll. (Because you also want no USB access for this computer as well.) And back again: updated PAYE details at the end of each month have to be dictated onto the Internet-enabled computer.

That won't lead to any errors ever. And still won't stop people with cameras.

Finance offices deal with invoices from companies, pay credit card bills for company cards, and many other things. All of which need the Internet.

Re: There's a big assumption here.

"So, if we want a really bright source, how about feeding some stuff at just the right angle into a black hole?"

Personally I think that sounds more like a chemist than a physicist, but there's the personal prejudices showing up.

Re: Not a parody

"Who is this hurting, despite Jobs' reputation?"

Reporting on all the bad shit someone does does not damage their reputation. It was the doing of the bad shit that damaged the reputation, it's just that the effects were delayed.

Re: Ironic

"Refusing to even try and understand the other sides views only weakens your side."

Bollocks. It's all about control, nothing about being pro-life. You cannot be anti-abortion and pro-gun and be consistent. Guns kill people in the US, but he wants them. Abortions terminate foetuses in the US, but he doesn't want them. Banning guns is more consistent with human rights than banning abortion, so let's start there, and then we can talk about abortion.

And if it's really about people's rights, the right not to be sexually assaulted is more important than the right to be made a Supreme Court Justice, but these people seem pro-rape as well.

So it's hard to view it as anything other than an attack on women's rights.

Re: Same guys?

"Sometimes. I the Russians involved obviously listed 'Security at Zork Industries' on their visa applications, so police knew they were a GRU. Otherwise, how would police know? It's one of those ironies where allegations against people involved an element of spying, but spying is bad."

Well, in the one case four guys were caught outside the place with a car full of monitoring equipment, all on diplomatic passports. So, you know, there is that.

Re: RE: Mooseman

"And so we hold a vote to democratically determine the direction to go (2 actually in this case)"

Please stop repeating this. There was one referendum that just asked 'leave the EU yes/no', with no detail on what yes means. So soft or hard Brexit cannot be divined from this decision. Then there was a snap general election in which the two largest parties both campaigned on a Leave platform. They received, for example, over 90% of the English vote between them. The idea that 90%+ of the English population support Leave is insane, so maybe the GE was about more than Brexit. So the GE cannot be used to prove that the UK population want Brexit, and especially not the hard-to-pass super-hard Brexit we seem to be heading for.

To claim that there is a settled will of the UK population on this issue is being either disingenuous or deluded.

Re: FUD

Does the UK spy on other countries? Yes. Indeed, the Foreign Secretary said that. What he said was that Russia is attacking targets that are not acceptable. unless you think setting the GRU on WADA is acceptable? It's not spying on military installations, they were unleashing chemical weapons on foreign soil against civilians. And if you had any doubt about that, I think the farcical Russia Today interview where the accused just really wanted to see the cathedral and other fantastic sights of Salisbury, and came equipped with all the facts Wikipedia has to offer about it, should have convinced anybody who isn't actually unhinged.

Re: Newspapers making big deal of 1st woman for over 50 years

"Yeah it's really tough being a man. I assume this 'backlash' will be coming from men angry that after 1000 years of women being 2nd-class citizens, men have allegedly been slightly penalised for about a decade due to an overcorrection. How terrible for us, that we might face minor inconvenience once in a while."

It's almost like you are wanting to punish some members of a particular sex because others from that sex did something bad. How sexist of you.

Re: overnment is planning to make directors personally liable

"Unless you think cyclists will collectively cycle the same amount of miles as cars then your statistic is irrelevant. Plus pedestrians fail to notice cyclists far more than cars."

Really not. You cannot use total deaths to decide which is more dangerous when there are far more of one variety than another. For example, many more people in the UK die of heart attacks than gun attacks, but guns are more dangerous.

"You make an agreement you honour that agreement. Not go back on it the second the other party has left the building."

Robert Kilroy Silk, formerly of UKIP, put it well here.

Re: "Everything blamed on the firm they bought the app from."

"And what's the betting the actual app developer said 'Here it is, you really ought to take a little while and review it's security settings'"

Who ships an app with 'no security at all, just anyone can alter anything' as a possible setting? Well, these guys, for one.

Re: Too many apps

"Reasons like this are why in London cabbies still have to take the knowledge."

Partially. It's mostly about artificial barriers to entry to preserve lucrative jobs through restricting supply though. See, for example New York's medallions.

Re: One rule for one...

"Doesn't seem fair that 'investors' can make public (false) statements to undermine a company value for their personal benefit, but if the company hit back with public (false) statements, it is fraud."

I am highly doubtful that someone can make defamatory and false statements in public to manipulate stock prices without it being a crime. Can you give any such examples?

"That’s a lot of hours - an hour every working day for 4 years. The only way this makes sense for a hobbyist is if they are gaming on it too."

Of course, if you are a hobbyist that doesn't plan on using it for more than an hour at a time, why not just use your normal computer and let it run overnight.