Posts by Jason Bloomberg

If you can /speak/ over a phone connection, you can send a fax over a phone connection.

I was thinking that, modem too, but I also recall there's clever processing in audio-to-digital encoders which can filter stuff out to enhance voice audio.

I presume the current rules are 'fine, you can do that, but it must not bugger up fax tones' and the proposed change will remove that requirement. It doesn't necessarily mean fax won't work, but there will be no guarantee that it will work, no requirement for it to work.

Me neither.

"Partygate", "Kyev" - Yes, lots.

"Carolean" - A few times, but not widely heard, and not new.

"Warm Bank", "Sportswashing", "Quiet Quitting" - Only a couple of times.

"Permacrisis", "Splooting", "Lawfare", "Vibe Shift" - Not once.

"Kami-Kwasi" would have been my offering but perhaps too short-lived to have gained traction.

Re: Art class

But if a computer does it, it is different for reasons.

I guess it comes down to perceived skills and talent when performing in someone else's style, against those needed to get a computer to do the same.

I don't personally understand the vitriol directed at bg_5you. Nothing wrong with reasoned "you shouldn't do that", explanations as to why "that's not a good or appropriate thing to do", even "that's crap", "an insult", but the backlash goes far beyond that.

IMO there's far too much "with us or against us" polarisation and tribalism these days. We are increasingly losing our tolerance of others and that's not a good thing.

Re: DisplayPort in 2003?

Did the author mean "DisplayLink"?

Re: Web3-Metavers

most are saying what crap and nonsense. Remember when the Internet arrived the same thing was said.

I don't. I remember people saying it seemed pointless and they couldn't see what possible use it could be to them. The internet then took off as more people began see how it could be of use to them, how it could be useful in general, thought 'if it can work for that then maybe it could work for this'.

I can't see Meta delivering that. The potential gains for "Immersive FIFA" and other games are there, even "Immersive Virtual Holidaying", but day-to-day "Immersive Business", "Immersive Social", I just don't see it. Like others I suspect it will follow 3D TV; a minority sport.

Re: Easing of Visa requirements for Indian travellers?

if the people who voted for Brexit under the delusion that it would keep dark-skinned people out ...

What I have never understood is why those who wanted brexit have been so insistent on a "points-based immigration system" which, as far as I can tell - using their parlance - invites the foreign folk in to steal our best, most well paid jobs, while keeping impoverished foreigners out so our natives are forced to do all the shit, menial, low-paid jobs.

It seems entirely upside-down to wanting to keep the best jobs for our own and have immigrants doing the shit jobs we don't want to do which I would have thought they'd favour.

Re: Progress of car security

Legend has it that the ferry staff could unlock any car in a handful of seconds

Many cars had a linkage which ran from the interior pull-handle to the door lock. If you inserted a thin J-shaped strip of metal past the window rubber you could hook the link, give it a tug, and the door lock would release.

First time it took me half an hour on a busy Saturday high street without anyone even asking what I was doing. Mere seconds after a bit of practice, finding the best J-bend and where to aim for. I pulled the metal strip from a windscreen wiper which simply unclipped.

I believe they eventually got round to putting a deflector strip above the linkage to prevent that trick.

Re: 3 piece suit

Whenever I wear a suit it's three piece - I just prefer it, find it comfortable. I have a nice lightweight pure-wool Italian one which is as cool in summer as the slacks and vest I would otherwise be wearing, snug enough in the winter.

I really don't care how people dress - from kings or queens to butt-naked - so long as they're happy and they get whatever job or task done and there's no Health & Safety issue.

Some may say I'm "too liberal" - I won't have a problem with that. I just think that if I want people to tolerate my choices I have to be willing to tolerate theirs and live by that ideal as best I can.

Re: It's the brexiter anti-growth coalition at it again

The biggest problem with Brexit was making it about a simple majority vote. Surely a supermajority should have been required for such a major change

That wasn't necessary because it was, as agreed by parliament, purely an advisory referendum. It was only intended to guide the supposedly sane souls in parliament on what would then be done.

It was only when the Tory government and the brextremists got together and invented this "will of the people" bullshit, decided that advisory referendum was going to be legally binding, did it all go to shit.

Had people known that was going to happen the vote would have likely gone the other way.

It takes two to tango and it doesn't have to be one or the other.

Re: This may come back to bite Google eventually

Google Graveyard is filled with dead Google products.

There are two kinds of people: Those who bought into a Google service only to find themselves abandoned by its demise, and those who are yet to experience that.

Having delivered so many services which have been genuinely useful for those who used them there may be few left in that second group.

I have been shafted more than once, particularly badly with the demise of Chrome Apps. My willingness to take a risk with Google's offerings diminishes every time, as does Google's reputation.

Re: Why Russia

Assuming UN members collectively decided that removal was a legitimate thing - What would the criteria be?

I am personally against that kind of cancelling. I believe it would only make matters worse.

Re: When is a climate denier not a climate denier?

If I say "first get rid of your private jets" that makes me a denier right there.

Perhaps because that makes it sound like you are saying, unless that comes first, you won't accept anything else being done.

Making it a precondition doesn't help solve the climate change issues you say you recognise. Instead it goes against doing anything.

I want those private jets gone as well but accept that's merely a part of all that needs to be done. I am not going to let one obstacle become an obstacle to everything.

"Climate change issues need solving, and getting rid of private jets needs to be high up there in my view" will provoke less accusations of being a denier in disguise. Perhaps that's what you actually meant?

Re: What about the Corgies and Dorgi(es)

The BBC report they are going to be looked after by Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62870783

Re: Opinion polls are looking good.....

Have they announced who's going to be Secretary of State for Workhouses yet?

Re: Genius?

I created shortcuts for "Reboot" and "Shutdown" which live at the bottom right of the desktop. Not at all hard to do.

Re: Photocopier challange

I'd never have thought to put the seat belt on so I could reverse the car out of the drive.

I can't think of any time I have been in a car without a seatbelt on except during entry and exit. At some point in the distant past I presume it was drummed into me to never be in a vehicle without a seatbelt just in case something crashes into it, no matter how unlikely it seems that would be.

I can only imagine the designers of that system believed that would be the case.

I was once 'trapped' in a petrol station trying to figure out how to turn the ignition on without setting the alarm off. Luckily I figured out the Ninja moves before the growing queue behind me got too irate.

Re: MS does not care about Windows on ARM

I grow a lot of things in my allotment but I don't have any desire to grow some things even though I have the money to do so. If someone comes along and wants to make it worth my while doing so I'll consider it.

Re: Intel DOES make Microcontrollers -- and has done so for Decades

I took that as "Intel doesn't have a lot of experience of manufacturing currently used microcontrollers", especially when compared with Microchip and others who specialise in that field.

CHIPS could be described as "building rocket-boots for the elite while everyone else is desperately in need of cheap sneakers".

Re: Dictatorships sooner or later always invade their neighbours

There is a difference between countries helping their own, and a country which prevents third-parties from helping the other.

It's the second which the Chinese are complaining about, and it does appear to be a breach of WTO rules to me.

I was rather hoping that having her husband suicide would've made her refuse to settle and take it all the way to open court out of spite.

The problem here is that civil court proceedings are the means to obtain restitution for damage done.

When the defendant delivers that restitution, plus whatever costs for putting a claimant through the wringer, that's the end of it, job done.

One can hold out for ever greater restitution but it's not possible to force the defendants to admit they are evil bastards. Civil action is the wrong vehicle to use.

Re: Collapse

Brexit wouldn't have happened with the LibDems in the government.

I am not convinced of that though, as a Lib-Dem voting Remoaner who proudly states "European" as nationality, I would like to believe it were true.

Clegg was the one calling for an in-out referendum with the hope of silencing the EU-haters. Would Cameron have held the 'stupidest referendum ever' if Clegg had not pushed for it, had instead gone along with just ignoring the populists and hard right agitators?

Clegg would have called that referendum if Lib-Dems had been the party in power.

Maybe there would have been a better case presented for remaining, they would almost certainly have stood by it being the 'advisory referendum' as actually intended, but we will never know how that would have panned-out.

The mistake IMO was allowing the referendum; Clegg and Lib-Dems were the ones wanting it.

Re: Can anyone answer the question, logically...

Taiwan has zero chance of taking back the mainland by force or otherwise...

Unless America decides to loan it 51st State status. And therein is the problem with Trump and now Biden talking up 'China is the evil enemy', Pelosi flying in to support the Taiwanese cause. Promises that America won't take military action against China look as hollow as Nato's promises not to expand up to Russia's borders.

Re: ... these days I don't hesistate, I just take my toys and go

Worse the relatives who have cleared out your father's home before you arrive at the funeral. Valuable, rare, precious and sentimental things all unceremoniously dumped in the bin and lost forever to landfill, mine and his included.

Re: Nothing to see here

But to be fair; if they don't appear you soon start wondering if you are infected and just haven't been told.

Like hearing from a relative or friend with nothing to say, there is a place for 'everything is fine' alerts as long as not too frequent.

Re: Desperate measures

That's really your opinion? Suck it up? I guess you have never run a business where 25% of "customers" don't pay and expect something for nothing.

I do indeed run such a business and it's far more than 25% I host for free. But I wouldn't class my customers as expecting something for nothing; just taking advantage of what I am offering them for free.

Most of what I host for users can be considered 'bit rot', sunk cost, but it serves a purpose, has value, is useful to the community I wish to attract - and, yes, make money from.

To me that's an acceptable balance between philanthropy and sound business sense. "Free" is a part of my model and getting rid of the 'dead wood', as GitLab seems to perceive it to be, would actually harm my business.

I don't see hosting for free as '"throwing money away" but securing the viability of my business while helping the community. I don't have maximising my profit as my goal. It's not all me, me, me.