Posts by Jason Bloomberg 2909 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2008
"Is Google fudging search rankings to benefit pages that embed YouTube vids? Or is this just another ‘bug’?
In fact, what was happening, the team found out was that anything loaded onto the page using an iframe tag, such as an embedded YouTube video, was simply discounted from Google’s PageSpeed tool altogether.
Well done El Reg - You made a Clickbait Victim out of me. Hope you are proud of yourselves.
We were a Betta Bilda household which was I believe an Airfix product. Much more limited with building houses and castles the most it would really stretch to even with a vivid kid's imagination.
I really enjoyed pushing the roof tiles together to build roofs. Which may explain why I got into embedded assembly language.
In the UK it is continually proposed that we should allow voting by SMS, email, TV Red Button services, via ATMs, in supermarkets, anywhere and anyhow.
That's because those who control us aren't so much concerned about voter fraud than ensuring voter numbers makes it look like our alleged system of democracy is still legitimate. They don't care about who wins so much as ensuring the system persists.
As long as we can pretend we have democracy; all will be fine.
The BBC spun it out into a separate foundation in 2016, as far as I can tell they only had the project for about a year after launch.
After all the problems and delays involved, the issue of CodeBug, it wouldn't surprise me if the BBC weren't glad to see the back of it. BBC Learning are still providing input into the foundation and the product remains marketed under "BBC" branding.
This is a vanity project, they should have backed Raspberry Pi instead
It's a project born of the government's Make It Digital pursuit a couple of years ago. If the BBC had backed a commercial product like the Raspberry Pi rather than commissioning its own all hell would have broken out with people accusing the BBC of providing an unfair commercial advantage.
Not so much trapped as choosing to live there, and not so much choosing to as it being better than the alternatives.
This case may be a made-up story but there are quite few "hidden communities" where one might not expect them, and it's easy to believe it's Fake News when it isn't, and of course to spin it the other way.
I have lived in squats, know some sleeping rough in parks and fields. I'd choose underground if I had to, and the best places are where no one cares to look. The thing one quickly learns at the rough end of society is there's safety in numbers, being amongst others suffering the same plight.
But he's right. Trump has no shame, no honour, and will do anything to cling to the power he has. His opposition has no effective means of countering him or that.
I don't believe Biden is as frail as made out but being the nice guy isn't enough. And I do feel the right-wingers are correct when they say Biden's attempts to appeal to the centre is alienating some on the left - More so outside the US where "left" actually is left of centre, not the moderate right.
But it doesn't matter anyhow. America has become so polarised and divided that it's now simply a vote for one tribe or the other. It's so polarised that I can't believe there is anyone with a cluon who did not make up their minds a long time ago which tribe they belong to and who they will be voting against.
It's now a numbers game. Which tribe has the most members, how many will vote, how many votes will simply disappear.
Ah yes; the entirely lacking in evidence argument that "they did it legitimately this time means they won't the next time".
Sure, maybe they will try that, but having not done so is not proof nor evidence they will.
I am old enough to remember when "innocent until proven guilty" used to be a thing.
The US should remember that the Chinese hold US debt as well being the source of rare metals used in some security enterprises and a quick jerk of those strings would be a painful lesson for Washington to learn.
The three unknowns are; when China will decide she's had enough, what she will do about it, and whether Trump can be removed from office before that happens.
The latter might depend on whether the military brass are looking forward to a global nuclear war or want to avoid that.
The UK has had an extended lockdown and it hasn't led to the desired result.
Look at any of the graphs and one can see it was heading in the right direction. Lockdown was working.
That trend reversed as Johnson prematurely relaxed lockdown and infection spread has soared since taking more significant steps to re-open the economy, opening schools, the hospitality sector, particularly pubs and clubs, trying to coerce people back into offices workplaces.
It's been a game of two halves. Johnson was late on the field and fucked up badly. He's fucked up even worse in the second half.
I am surprised Raspberry Pi haven't got into the RISC-V SBC game. They are members of the RISC-V Foundation and their associations with Broadcom and LowRisc has them ideally placed to deliver the first mass-produced RISC-V computer platform to a global market
It would be the perfect opportunity to ride the RISC-V bandwagon and make a tidy profit. If it includes a credible GPU it might even out-sell their ARM-based Pi.
I would have said "America". Or, more accurately, "Trump".
Trump's trade war economic terrorism has made other nations wake up to the fact that, when they are reliant on foreign countries who can impose sanctions and cut off supplies, their sovereignty is mostly imaginary.
In taking, what used to be merely coercive threats to invoke consequences if they don't play ball, to the next level, it has forced countries to address what will happen when they fall victim to US sanctions, having supplies cut off, or their economies disrupted.
Trump's strategy is deeply flawed; it will ultimately have the US losing what coercive pressure it has.
Since the debacle of the Tulsa rally, caused partially by TikTok users
I doubt registering to supposedly 'reserve tickets so those who wanted to attend couldn't get them' had minimal effect seeing as there were no tickets, no such reservations, which could lock anyone out.
It is more likely that Trump's own campaign manager - hyping it that huge numbers, greater than capacity, had already registered - had people not bothering to register or attend.
The one with the invite to the "Over-booked Day of Solitude festival" in the pocket.
The most sensible reason for leaving was the intention for "an ever closer union", meaning financial and political union of Europe is the end destination, and the UK's wanting only to be in a free trade area, maintaining its political and financial independence.
Indeed. Which is why Brexiteers promised exactly that - "No one is talking about leaving the customs union", "Only an idiot would leave the single market", etc, etc.
They fooled enough gullible people to secure a small majority and only then revealed it was bait and switch.
Why they don't just say "FU, you want out, yer out. That's a hard Brexit then"
Because they are not stupid enough to allow the blame for the consequences of our leaving to be hung on them, as much as Brexiteers are hoping for that.
They aren't going to allow the UK to claim the EU wasn't open to negotiations, was punishing us, forcing us out, or forcing us into the position we choose to end with. They'll keep the door open until we walk away.
It's not over until the UK says it's over and it will be the UK who has to take responsibility for saying that. Luckily for Johnson he has coronavirus to blame when Brexit turns to shit.
It's not only needing a US trade deal which will have our government not do anything but the entire Brexit thing.
Those "not stupid" who voted for it, who pretend they studied the issue in depth, weighed up the pros and cons, refuse to understand Brexit was a globalist's wet dream, and intended as such, where "we are open for business" means everything is for sale and ready for exploiting. May was applauding the sale of ARM as the shining example of that.
We all need to be lubing ourselves up and getting ready for the Great Brexit Shafting. We're America's bitch now.
It is often beneficial to turn a display upside down for better readability when looking up at it rather than down as it would be on a desktop then have the software or display driver correct that. Viewing angle may supposedly be symmetrical but I've found that not to be the case.
That of course can lead to a crazy mixed-up upside-down world when things go wrong as appears to be the case here.
And, of course, all the time China will continue to develop its own IP in chip design and manufacture. Given how capricious the US has become, it would be crazy not to.
Every time Trump tightens the thumbscrews in his adventure in economic terrorism he is letting China - and the world - know how painful dependency on the US can be.
It has got to be the ultimate driving force for removing such dependency and, when China's done that, the US will have little leverage left. Let's hope Trump has a plan before the tables get turned.
Let's hope that plan isn't World War III.
HM Govt. is merely winging it
We have had four years plus to prepare for leaving. The EU has prepared itself for whether we leave with a trade deal or not so I can't see that we won't equally be prepared. It's not like we're going to have to start bringing in foreigners to sort things out or don't have a clue what will happen.
The one with the rolled-up "Armageddon 2021 - Told You So" T-shirt in the pocket.
What is annoying is that the electronics are single use.
I investigated this when the story broke some months ago -- El Reg is a bit late to the party here.
I had hoped they were available at Poundland so potentially useful for hacking, but sadly not. Not cheap and, being a masked ROM microcontroller, no chance of reprogramming.
I don't blame manufacturers of consumables for saving costs. It's manufacturers of things like games consoles which are designed not be repurposed once their primary-use lifetime is over which I have a greater problem with.
I do wonder how many single-use and short-life products have their batteries land-filled; things like this and e-Fags are probably the biggest culprits.
It seems to me that the managers are on some sort of performance-related pay.
Or simply victims like all those victims they oversee; don't do as Amazon demands and you are also out the door.
It's how and why fascism persists once it's got its foot in the door.
The attackers are actors, no 'star' will actually risk bodily harm and potentially maiming or death for a video when bit part actors are cheaper than healthcare. No camera crew will put themselves in harms way like that
Except that's not true. Some are willing to do that and are prepared to martyr themselves for the cause.
Poking a dog with a stick to make it bite to prove the assertion it's dangerous is an old trope. Best caught on camera so others can see its veracity, and these days widely spread on social media by the circle jerk rabble of propagandists.
I wonder how "a:/anything/../.hidden_file" would fare?
I tripped myself up with that one by optimising away the 'down then up' without checking for the actual existence of the sub-directory but, as I explicitly checked the filename part, it didn't get through.
Using escapes, "a:/\x2ehidden_file", or whatever, will often defeat lightweight checks. Finding parsing flaws, resetting the parser input stream with ';' and the like, was often the way to access hidden router pages and cgi executables.
This is the sort of thing that serves as a wake up call to nations
While bemoaning unassailable American dominance with my leftist commie liberal pals I sometimes thought that might be undermined through internal revolution.
I never once thought America's downfall would be deliberately instigated by her president.
Best. President. Ever.
Actually making time to listen to a podcast or a radio show just doesn't seem possible to me when working from home like I am currently
That's the one thing I've missed. Listening to a CD on the way in, another on the way home, I would work through my collection over a year. I have hardly listened to anything for years now.
But, overall, the pros outweigh the cons, and I could never go back to regular office working or commuting.
It is important to ensure home working doesn't turn into a simulation of incarceration in prison, especially if living on one's own. That's been difficult for some in recent months.
"Bernard Matthews has listened to the public and completely transformed Turkey Twizzlers into a much-improved product."
That's good to hear. I was initially thinking they were just jumping on the bandwagon. Pre-empting that post-brexit trade deal with Trump when we surrender our food standards, allow no end of abominations from America, while making it illegal to list exactly what ingredients it contains lest American shit-shovellers are disadvantaged by doing so.
I'd hate to see the US forcing their shite down our throats without our favourite turkey slaughterer being able to profit from that.
what happens when (not if) a SWMBO insists on one?
I'd be looking at breaking it by interfering with the audio side of things so it can't understand whatever is said, agreeing with the smartspeaker when it asked; did you say "woolworth's style of spit"?
Maybe use this laser trick, or some other hackey, to get it to say things which will have it quickly slung out the door. "Your arse must look big in that; I can hear it rustling from here". "Please stop scratching your bollocks".
I imagine, if I were Chinese, I might be inclined to declare of Trump; Best. President. Ever.
Same too if I were any country dependent on American technology facing the economic terrorism daily emanating from the White House, threatening that I will be crushed out of existence unless I make myself subservient to US interests.
In seeking to ensure American Supremacism, Trump is pretty much destroying it.
As someone entirely happy with him doing that; Best. President. Ever.
It's absolutely clear that these two principles are incompatible
That's my view as well. It is 'unstoppable force meets immovable object' and it is not resolvable unless one side or both change their position.
My opinion is the EU needs to stand their ground, tell the US to go fuck itself, and deal with the consequences.
I've never had any truck with dress codes or uniforms of any kind, at work, at school, or anywhere. To me it's all 'fascism'.
I'm all for people wandering around naked, in full top hat and tails, and anything in-between, if they want to. But I am well aware my tolerance is derided as degenerate and dangerous by so-called lovers of freedom the world over.
I would like to apologise to our customers who may have recently become aware that all our software included a key-logger which was sending everything typed back to ourselves. That data was permanently stored, and forwarded to all our partners, but only in accordance with our policies.
While we indiscriminately logged everything typed I would like to assure everyone that this has affected only a small number of customers and I again confirm that customer safety, security and privacy is our number one priority.
I can reassure customers that their data was only ever shared with third parties we agreed to share it with. We are confident there is no evidence data has been misused and will ask our partners to confirm that.
The key-logging software was part of our diagnostic suite intended to improve customer experience which was inadvertently left enabled for the past decade due to an oversight. We did not realise this as we stored your data and passed it on. The logger's ability to hide from anti-virus checkers and malware detectors was due to accidentally using code from a different product. This was entirely unintentional.
We would like to assure our customers that no harm was intended and can confirm they can continue using our installed software. We have not misused customer data and never would. We must however ask Mr Peabody-Smythe to refrain from describing us as "lying wanker bastards" whenever he refers to us in his emails to friends.
While there were undoubtedly some actual laws broken it seems to me 'the crime' really amounts to suckering gullible fools out of bitcoins.
I can imagine a UK jury accepting a 'shits and giggles' defence, assertions that the perps never expected anyone to be so stupid as to actually hand over any money; given an appropriate wrist-slap and a "don't do it again" admonishment.
In America, it seems the electric chair is being plugged in and tested.
All I ever see in Europe is people walking in the street without a mask. WHY? What the fk is it with you lot that you won't simply wear a mask, everywhere all the time when you're out of your home.
In the UK we are mostly not wearing "home-made face coverings" which only offer the illusion of protection.
I will happily wear a medical grade mask but our government says we should not. I can't see the point of wearing a mask which provides no useful benefit so normally go without except when there is a legal requirement to wear one.
Wearing masks, medical grade or not, is not the reason other countries have kept their infections and deaths low.
My local Sainsbury's has had 'self portrait' displays for a while on the self-service checkouts. I like to think they allow for expressional "for fuck's sake!" feedback to the powers that be for "unexpected item" frustrations.
I usually stare into them while scanning on the off-chance someone is watching me, watching you, watching me.
Oddly I can't remember if they are mirroring or non-mirroring.
This isn't a case of a bankruptcy ... As the article noted, Apple has ~$190billion in cash, not illiquid assets, but actual cold, hard cash on hand.
But "Apple UK", or whatever the company is for tax purposes, probably only has 75 pence to its name.
I don't really have much sympathy for either side, capitalist bastard landlords versus capitalist bastard corporations.
I'd grab the popcorn but I'm boycotting the capitalist bastards who manufacture that.
The one with the Socialist Worker rolled-up in the pocket.
All this data is useless
Not if you can flog it to someone believing otherwise.
It seems there's a long history of people trying to find hidden correlations which reveal an undisclosed truth. Some seem reasonable, some complete nonsense, but I guess you never know unless you put it to the test, can figure out what the correlations are.
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