* Posts by Intractable Potsherd

4159 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

China's biggest e-learning company admits deliberately getting its sums wrong when counting sales

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Hmmm

Yes, but who believes the "rogue employee" script these days without lots of corroborating evidence?

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Not the only wrong sums....

@MachDiamond: it is frustrating how often I have to make this point to intelligent people, some associated with medical schools! I have taken to using an example I think I stole from a commentard here a few weeks ago - if someone died as as a result of being hit by a dropped anvil*, but tested positive for Cov-SARS2, should the cause of death be put down as the virus? If yes (and a minority do say yes), then why? If not, where is the line, and why?

*Made by ACME, of course!

Cloudflare dumps Google's reCAPTCHA, moves to hCaptcha as free ride ends (and something about privacy)

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Get rid of all javascript tests....

Hey - AManfromMars1 is as entitled to post here as anyone else - plus he/she/it causes no harm.

Apple creates face shield for health workers, resists the temptation to call it the 'iMask'

Intractable Potsherd

Re: It Definitely needs a name

I thought "M-iSK" - pronounced as in South African English.

Academic showdown as boffins biff-baff over when Version 1.0 of Earth's magnetic core was released

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Do we really need a paper for this?

I expected a comment making that point long before now, since it seems to be a major confounding factor.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Asteroids can have magnetism

Magnetism and gravitation are two very different forces!

Ofcom waves DAB radio licences under local broadcasters' noses as FM switchoff debate smoulders again

Intractable Potsherd

Re: London Live

@werdsmith: if you like old films, try "Talking Pictures TV" (https://talkingpicturestv.co.uk/) available on Freeview, Freesat, Virgin and Sky according to their website. It has lots of old TV series too (and when I say old, I mean black and white!)

Who's essential right now? Medicos, of course. Food producers, natch. And in Singapore social media workers have made the list

Intractable Potsherd

Re: While here in the states

To be fair to Bob, the reference to toilet paper is clearly tongue-in-cheek, and he has put the troll icon on.

I'm also a bit baffled by people complaining about the right to self-defence - does anyone really dispute it?

Bose shouts down claims that it borked noise cancellation firmware to sell more headphones

Intractable Potsherd

Android location sevices

"Android doesn't allow an app to search for wireless devices without location being on."

My cheap Android 9 phone quite happily finds wireless devices without location being on.

Kaspersky cleans up poisoned watering hole, Google presses pause on cookie crackdown

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Automobile makers : here's a free tip

"How can the the vehicle tell you that you're about out of gas if it doesn't have acess [sic] to the audio system?"

The same way cars used to - a gauge with (possibly) a light on the dash and (maybe) a simple "bong" sound. No need for connection to the audio system.

When I started to drive (and a long time after), drivers were taught to monitor the fuel gauge. When the needle got to a certain point, it was time to look for a filling station - no lights, no audible alerts.

From Amanda Holden to petrol-filled water guns: It has been a weird week for 5G

Intractable Potsherd

Idiocracy

I watched "Idiocracy" for the first time recently, too. Some parts were almost too painful to watch because of the accuracy, the rest was quite boring (which I think the commentard @Kiwi told me on here a couple of years ago).

Speaking of Kiwi - I don't seem to have seen you on the boards recently. Hope you are okay.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Unqalified 'Z' list Celeb talks rubbish

Thumbs up for the alphabetical listing!!

Cloudflare family-friendly DNS service flubs first filtering foray: Vital LGBTQ, sex-ed sites blocked 'by mistake'

Intractable Potsherd

Re: So?

Hmmmm - drive-by downvotes! [Wanders off completely unconcerned.]

Intractable Potsherd

Re: So?

I've had an interest in body dysmorphia for a while (eventually I'll get around to writing my paper on how laws will need to change in order for voluntary cyborgs to be created). I genuinely do not see how the law can allow elective body-altering surgery on the grounds of a person feeling that they are the wrong sex, yet not for feeling that they have the wrong arm or leg*. The difference between how people with gender dysphoria and those with anorexia are treated is also a significant bafflement - one is encouraged, the other is subjected to horrifying treatment**.

I don't care whether someone wants to have their body altered, but I do care that the law and medical treatment are inconsistent.

*People do feel this, and either commit suicide or do their own surgery - I have nursed people who removed limbs by train, shotgun and ligature.

**I refused to take part in force-feeding anorexic patients - it is barbaric.

Absolutely everyone loves video conferencing these days. Some perhaps a bit too much

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Paris...

"Remember, hand luggage only... Unless you want to wear the same undies for the time you're there..."

Transferring through CDG in 2002 was the only time I ever had luggage end up in a different location from me (this was before I learned that I can take enough clothes for a week in one hand-baggage, especially since I acquired an e-reader!) Of course, YMMV.

Remember that clinical trial, promoted by President Trump, of a possible COVID-19 cure? So, so, so many questions...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Bob and AMfM: Mind-bleach NOW!!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Donald Jenius Trump

Obama (correct spelling, for future reference) wouldn't have said anything so fucking stupid.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Precisely

Research Ethics Committee member here: it would be unethical to deny an existing, approved, treatment to a control group whilst another group got an experimental treatment. It is NOT - repeat NOT - unethical to refuse an experimental treatment where no existing, approved, treatment exists. In fact, it is unethical in the extreme to do otherwise. So far, the evidence for H+A treatment is interesting but equivocal - only one step above opinion.

At the Supreme Court, Morrisons pops data breach liability win into its trolley – but it's not a get-out-of-compo free card for businesses

Intractable Potsherd

Re: At Last

The Supreme Court has never done politics. Anyone with the vaguest knowledge of constitutional law knows that the review of the Brexit actions, or Johnson's prorogation of Parliament (for they are what you refer to, I suspect) have a long history of being in the Courts' purview, and quite correctly so.

Who's going to pay for Britain's Aunty Beeb to carry on? Broadband users, broadcaster suggests to government

Intractable Potsherd

Re: April Fool

"... its days as the Blair Broadcasting Corporation, its 24x7 British Broadcasting Corbynism of recent years.

I think you are talking about another broadcaster. The BBC news and current affairs I know and have avoided for many years is uncritical of whatever government is in power in Westminster*, with a general slant towards conservatism at best, and Toryism at worst.

*When it comes to Scotlad, the BBC is extremely anti-government. Its anti-SNP stance looks very biased, and don't mention the prosecution-biased reporting of Alex Salmond's trial!

Pandemic impact: Two-thirds of polled Reg readers say it's business as usual in the IT dept, one in ten panicking

Intractable Potsherd

True - it is difficult to go up from "panic"!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Disgusting

This looks like the same panicking, cowardly troll who was on the boards the other day, berating people for wanting actual proof that hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin works before handing it out willy-nilly, not just on the say-so of Trump and an inadequate trial.

Probably a troll best left unfed.

Huawei rotating Chairman: Chinese government will not 'just stand by and watch Huawei be slaughtered'

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Huawei has performed plenty of their own espionage against US telco tech in the past

Can you point us at a large company anywhere in the world that doesn't do the same?

Drones intone 'you must stay home,' eliciting moans from those in the zone: Flying gizmos corral Brits amid coronavirus lockdown

Intractable Potsherd

My children have asked for pasta as breakfast! They haven't had it, though I might call their bluff and cook up some penne in milk!

UK Information Commissioner OKs use of phone data to track coronavirus spread

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Wedge

I'm interested in just how accurate any of these measures are. For example, A lot of houses (in the UK at least) have the living area separated from the street by two courses of brick and an air-gap, often pierced by a window and a door. Someone who is legitimately indoors following the self-isolation rules could wrongly be placed several metres outside the house. Alternatively, people walking on the pavement outside could be classed as contacts despite never actually having anything to do with the self-isolating individual.

There's no Huawei a virus can stop us! 90% of our staff in China are already back at work, says CEO

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Corvid-19

One for sorrow, two for joy... nineteen for a world-changing virus?

Hong Kong coronavirus quarantine evaders collared by cops with the help of smartphone-tracking tech

Intractable Potsherd

Re: 1984

But almost all of the population will be alive and not seriously ill - this isn't "The Stand".

It's time to track people's smartphones to ensure they self-isolate during this global pandemic, says WHO boffin

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Naomi Klein

I did specify "historically", and I stand by it. Labour, for much of its history, stood for correcting the imbalance between wealth and worker. It was a major supporter of women's voting rights. Many of its founders were Jews. The Labour Party of today is nothing to do with its roots. However, the Conservative Party adheres to its principles regardless (that isn't praise, by the way).

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Maybe

Photos show that most people were 2m apart from people not in their group. Physical distancing was being observed. There was no need for this response except, maybe, targeted on some cities. However, Boris and his crew know that would mean their vote in those places would go down, so we all end up with the same restrictions that will breed resentment and civil disobedience within the month.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Naomi Klein

I think a look at history will show that spite, misogyny, racism, homophobia, ageism and economic illiteracy have been the preserve of the Conservative Party. Are you upset that another party stole your script?

It is time for a new centre-left party in the UK.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: But I don't have a so-called "smart" phone.

Because legally competent adults should not be *told* what to do. Educate, explain, and persuade - sure. If you need to tell people how to behave, and then use strong-arm tactics to enforce it, you didn't explain properly.

In the current case, people outside cities don't understand why we need to be subject to the same restrictions as those cities. My village is around 800 people, and residents are walking around as normal, as they should be. I can guarantee our mental and physical health will be better in 6 and 12 months than those places that blindly enforce the rules.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: But I don't have a so-called "smart" phone.

And remember, the evidence from successive governments is that what we give away or allow to be taken will never be given back. I do not and will not take that lying down, and neither should you.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: But I don't have a so-called "smart" phone.

The more you tighten your fist, the more people will slip through your fingers. How about getting people on your side by treating them as competent adults?

UK enters almost-lockdown: Brits urged to keep calm and carry on – as long as it doesn't involve leaving the house

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Paranoid Rant

I speak from a position of 40+ years of observation of government (NOT Parliament), and teaching and researching administrative and constitutional law for nearly half that time. Not unconnected is that I have effectively lived through continuous Conservative government (Blair's administration was Tory-lite). Maybe you can show *any* proof that government in the UK has done anything to help you, without helping themselves more - I'd be genuinely happy to see it, because my distrust of UK government weighs heavy on me.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Paranoid Rant

I live in Scotland - we went to Glenshee. Didn't get closer than 30 metres to anyone.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "One form of exercise a day"

Thank you, Androgynous Cupboard - I appreciate that :-)

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Johnson explains things terribly, about as bad as Trump

My party political point was actually peripheral to the wider point about the trustworthiness of government, though I stand by all I said.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Paranoid Rant

Like I said above - don't trust government. They aren't here to help you, only themselves.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "One form of exercise a day"

"Best PM since Thatcher" - damning with faint praise!

I'm sore because we don't have any real political representation in the UK - isn't it time for a UK Pirate Party?

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Johnson explains things terribly, about as bad as Trump

"Later, in say a years time, we can get the long knives out and get him out of No 10 with all that wonderful thing called hindsight behind us. I would pay good money to be at ringside for that event!"

Lovely as that thought is, the fucking muppets that voted him and his terminally corrupt Party into power will vote them in again because they showed" strength" and "leadership" in a time of "war", as well as being anti-EU. I would much have much preferred someone who presented a plan, and the responded to changes with a timed response, not a "everything changed since yesterday, and our response is effective without warning!" We, the electorate, ate not being treated as autonomous agents (again) - the Westminster elite have responded to people making their own informed decisions (going out to get exercise and fresh air on a nice day) with "The plebs didn't listen to us. Bring out the cane!"

Remember that the government doesn't care about you only themselves. They want to be *seen* to be doing something - at the moment they are responding to pressure from the media and other countries (obviously an odd form of "taking back control") instead of looking at this calmly. They also don't want to end up carrying the can for decades of running down capacity in the NHS (if hospitals normally ran on 80% capacity, like the pre-Thatcher days, this virus wouldn't be such a big issue now). They are making deaths and serious health effects from isolation an externality - suicides, deaths and injuries from domestic violence, DVTs, ill-advised DIY... the list goes on - will be blamed on the individuals concerned.

Many of the people listed as dying from Covid-19 may not have died from the virus, but simply with the virus in them. The tests are not robust enough yet. For example, the only death attributed to Covid-19 in the Czech Republic was a 93-year-old with more than ten co-morbidities, yet, because SARS-Cov-2 was identified in the person, that has to be given as *the* cause.

Remember: don't trust government and work with and for your community to protect people from governmental actions.

Tech won't save you from lockdown disaster: How to manage family and free time while working from home

Intractable Potsherd

Re: re: maximum distance of 200m

The aim is not to avoid people catching the virus - we're all going to get it sooner or later - but to keep the number of serious cases *at any point in time* within what healthcare services can deal with. The UK's strategy is to keep a constant trickle over a period of time to avoid multiple peaks as far as possible - something China seems to be experiencing, and other "lock down countries have to come. We will be able to argue about whose measures were best in the future.

Hong Kong makes wearable trackers mandatory for new arrivals, checks in with ‘surprise calls’ too

Intractable Potsherd

Re: What a time to be alive

Thanks, moiety - you saved me making that point. I'm really tired of living in a first-world country where, in the great scheme of things, deaths are going to be low because science and technology have done such great work. There has never been a safer time or place to live than in the first world approaching the second quarter of the 21st century. The doom-sayers don't know how lucky they are, and, in some cases, actively want us to go backwards for bizarre reasons.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Coming to a Tin Pot Dictatorship near you soon.

@DavCrav: I do wonder if the way the UK is dealing with it might not turn out to be a good middle path* - keeping the number of cases to a manageable level** whilst allowing sufficient herd immunity to develop. The curve may not be as flat nor as short as some health commentators might like, but will avoid multiple peaks. This is sort of your point 1.

*By accident or design.

**For certain values of "acceptable".

Education tech supplier RM smacked by UK schools closure

Intractable Potsherd

Scotland not covered by Johnson's plans

Just to clarify - education is a devolved issue. The Scottish government is still equivocating about what to do and how to do it. No official notification about closures has been sent out - at least by our council - leading to a large number of disgruntled and uncertain parents and schools.

British Army adopts WhatsApp for formal orders as coronavirus isolation kicks in

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Sergeant Majors

YEEESS!!

The show Musk go on: Tesla defies Silicon Valley coronavirus lockdown order, keeps Fremont factory open

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Yes, it can kill people, it's true.

@jake: I agree. To me, it feels as if there is something missing from the narrative. This bug is nasty, but the reaction is more appropriate to something with very high transmissibility and a >20% death toll and equivalent long-term morbidity across the population. I know young, for, healthy people who are isolating themselves and their children "in case they get it". Who benefits from this sort of misinformation that leads to panic? Governments, who were/are increasingly in fear of backlash especially in Europe and the USA.

(Wanders off muttering about risk illiteracy and becoming a conspiracy theorist...)

It's Baaaaaack (or is it?): Microsoft Teams suffers a Tuesday totter

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "a $15m donation"

Yawn yawn yawn

$AC apologist for $disgustingly rich person trolls the boards.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: remote cattle prods

Remote cattle prods delivered by drone sound like the precursor to knife-missiles. Are you really sure we want to go there?!

(Why, yes, I am a fan of the Culture stories - currently re-reading "Use of Weapons" actually. Why do you ask?)

Tinfoil hat brigade switches brand allegiance to bog paper

Intractable Potsherd

Re: It's not just bog rolls

Went out today to stock up on a few items in case the nursery shuts and I have a pair of ravenous three-year-old at home unexpectedly (all it will take is a member of staff coughing three times and the deep-cleaners will be in). At Aldi - the only empty shelf was paracetamol. At Tesco - no pasta, toilet rolls, paper towels... Seems that the panicking is largely middle-class around here.

Latest bendy phone effort from coke empire spinoff Escobar Inc is a tinfoil-plated Samsung Galaxy Fold 'scam'

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I'm very disappointed

How dare you!? He can be trusted implicitly... to be the shady brother of a murdering drug lord.