* Posts by Intractable Potsherd

4159 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

We don't know why it's there, we don't know what it does – all we know is that the button makes everything OK again

Intractable Potsherd

Re: A Story about Magic

For reasons I do not recall, I actually wired some lights on one of my cars many, many years ago using co-ax - positive on the inner core, negative outer. I suspect it was one of those "nothing more permanent than a temporary fix", though what possessed me to do such a temporary fix in the first place I do not know

NTT slashes top execs’ pay as punishment for paying more than their share of $500-a-head meals with government officials

Intractable Potsherd

I'm probably a barbarian...

... but I don't think there is a meal anywhere in the world worth $500 per head. In fact, I'd only very reluctantly pay $50 a head.

Apple, it's OK. Seriously. You don't need to blind your iOS 15 engineers to prevent leaks

Intractable Potsherd

Misreading

I I initially read the headline as "bind", and wondered if we were finally into Laundry Files/Harry Dresden territory at Apple. It's not that unlikely - has anyone ever met an *EX*-Apple engineer?

Chinese app binned by Beijing after asking what day it is on anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Blah blah blah

@nintendoeats: "... I will not be put in prison or assassinated."

Well, if you are in the UK, that might not be the case any longer. Look up Craig Murray and Marion Millar for starters.

US House Rep on cyber committees tweets Gmail password, PIN in Capitol riot lawsuit outrage

Intractable Potsherd

Is Rep Brookes' middle name Ronald, by any chance?

UK's Labour Party calls for delay to NHS Digital's GP data slurp until patients can be properly informed

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Opt out links

There is also the fact that, as far as I have seen so far, anyone registering with an English GP after June 23rd will not have the chance to opt out.

Big Tech has a big problem with Florida passing a law that protects politicians from web moderation

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "drowning out the rest of us"

Woman = adult human female.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "drowning out the rest of us"

@AC OP - of course you don't see what's being drowned out, because it's being drowned out! Try posting "Trans women are not women, though they do have some special interests that might need protecting" on Twitter and see what happens (yes, I got banned for that simple, reasonable post).

Report commissioned by Google says Google isn't to blame for the death of print news

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Yes they can compete...

"Newspapers like The Economist, FT, Time and Spectator... offer extremely hight quality journalism..."

Other opinions are available. YMMV.

How many remote controls do you really need? Answer: about a bowl-ful

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Not my sympathies...

Oh, I forgot to mention the Freesat box!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Not my sympathies...

@Schultz - "... nice colored insulating tape... makes the remote stand out from the crowd..."

I have labelled our very few* remotes with different colours of reflective tape. This has the advantage that once child-induced Brownian motion has taken place, there is a chance of finding the matte-black thingy in the crevices of the matte-black furniture by shining a torch around.

*TV (which doesn't work now anyway - I think the IR receiver has given up), DVD player, Fire stick, and Android STB for Eurosport that needs so many updates I never get to see what I want anyway.

Infrastructure SNAFU results in French public being unable to contact emergency services

Intractable Potsherd

Graham Linehan can be prescient!

Supreme Court narrows Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Misusing access not quite the same as breaking in

Intractable Potsherd

Statutory interpretation.

I can definitely see why people would have liked a different result in this trial - the cop badly abused his powers - but this is why statutes need to be written clearly. The general rule is that if a statute is unclear, then the narrowest interpretation is adopted. People need to know what they can and cannot do, otherwise the presumption of innocence means nothing. If that means that wrong 'uns get away, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the legislature.

Royal Yacht Britannia's successor to cost about 1 North of England NHS IT consultancy framework

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Outrageous.

To be fair, there are a lot of us who think the same as you. If there was the remotest chance that this vanity project would fulfil any of the stated aims, I'd be a bit less critical (but only a bit), however, I'll be surprised if a single one is achieved. If the current set of morons-in-charge* wanted to spend money to kick-start the economy, there are better things - like building enough housing.

*Other sets are available - in fact, we seem to have the full collection.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Great British Engineering

Hardly glowing endorsements of ship-building...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Indyvote 2

"... that is if wee McKranky doesn't have her way..."

Sturgeon *is* getting her way - Scotland is still in the Union with perfidious Albion. If she actually wanted Scotland out, it would already have happened. As it is, she knows that the SNP and her personality cult are dead the minute independence is gained.

Former IT manager from Essex pleads guilty to defrauding the NHS of £800k

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Promotion to the Cabinet chumocracy

I wonder what the downvoters objected to? There is nothing factually inaccurate in your post.

Dominic Cummings: Health secretary's 'stupid' targets delayed building UK test and trace system to combat COVID

Intractable Potsherd

The OP was right - no one *knew* what to do at the beginning. This was a new virus with unusual features. Some things were likely to help regardless, such as closing borders, but the rest may have been ineffective or made the situation worse. The range of responses made it clear what works and what doesn't.

Without doubt, the history of previous illnesses played a part - populations in countries with a history of SARS and MERS were much more likely to go along with severe restrictions than those that haven't. Early lockdowns etc would not have worked in e.g. the UK because there was no history - the population would simply not have gone along with it because there was no referent. The figures needed to demonstrate the enormity of SARS-Cov-2 before most people would accept the need to change the way they live.

Boeing fined $17m after fitting uncertified sensors to 737 Max and NG airliners for 4 years

Intractable Potsherd

"Boeing, as the sole surviving US manufacturer of commercial airliners..."

And there's the problem. Ideally, it needs breaking up (the same for Airbus). They are both "too big to fail" these days, and can get away with murder (almost literally).

Man found dead inside model dinosaur after climbing in to retrieve phone

Intractable Potsherd

Uuurggh - <shudder>

An attack of claustrophobia-by-proxy is not a great way to start the day. I'll probably not sleep tonight now that my fears have been poked with a stick.

[That's not a dig at the report, but at me for not thinking about the way the death might have occurred.]

Big red buttons and very bad language: A primer for life in the IT world

Intractable Potsherd

Re: The children

Not many people realise that fixing something involves magic. You have to say the right swear words in the right order with the right cadence at the right time. Get the incantation wrong and bad things will happen.

How much would you pay me to develop a COVID tracking app that actually works? Ah, thought so: nothing

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Tea....

The video may not be a joke. I might have posted this before, but it deserves repeating as a cautionary tale. My (now sadly dead and still very much missed) friend talked of how his mother (from Manchester, UK) made tea. Those of a sensitive disposition should look away now:

1. Two-thirds fill mug with cold water

2. Insert teabag (more likely than not from the pile of dried, already used, bags by the sink)

3. Microwave for exactly two minutes on full power

4. Remove teabag back to drying area

5. Add skimmed UHT milk to brim

6. Add sugar as required, but don't stir (because it would slop over the side of the mug, obviously)

My friends wife, not blessed with the sort of humour that would make it easy for her to go along with the joke with a straight face, claimed it was true, and, when I had a chance to talk to some of my friend's siblings, they maintained it was true in every detail. Whether it was a very well-worn joke in the family, or really the way the lady made tea, I will never know.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz? Detroit waits for my order, you'd better make amends

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Sometimes though....

I had the ST:TOS communicator chirp for most calls for a while. However, some contacts had the "Red Alert" klaxon...

ASUS baffles customer by telling them thermal pad thickness is proprietary

Intractable Potsherd
Pint

Re: what a pile of drivel

Thanks to everyone involved in this part of the thread. That was a fascinating exchange of thoughts that has left me with far more knowledge than I had before - - - > Cheers!!

Fancy trying to explain Microsoft Teams to your parents? They may ask about the new Personal version

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I guess it may work here...

Of the multiplicity of video communication programs I've unwillingly been fixed to come to terms with over the last year, Teams is my least favourite. I don't like the interface, and, it has given me far more problems than any of the others - poor video and audio (one one horribly notable occasion, I managed to be fully involved in a 90-minute session for around 20 minutes). Zoom and WhatsApp both worked much better. YMMV, of course.

China says its first Mars rover Zhurong has landed on the Red Planet

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Quality

To he fair, all we gave is an announcement from a press agency. Given the openness of Western space agencies, the secrecy of China is annoying and inexplicable.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Nothing there...

I think it's time to put @Zanzibar Rastopoulos into the box labelled "troll" on this topic*, and stop feeding. If s/he had ever explained the negative attitude in a reasoned way, I might have a different opinion, but this just seems to be contrarianism for the sake of it.

S/he can be quite good on other topics.

Cloudflare launches campaign to ‘end the madness’ of CAPTCHAs

Intractable Potsherd

"... 500 years every day..."

I've had those weeks, too.

NHS-backed org reacted to GitHub leak disclosure with legal threats and police call, complains IT pro

Intractable Potsherd

Yes, there is something definitely a bit odd going on.

Guy who wrote women are 'soft, weak, cosseted, naive' lasted about a month at Apple until internal revolt

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "I'm actually honest, self-deprecating, and funny"

Then, by definition, they aren't men. Come on; It really isn't difficult.

'Biggest data grab' in NHS history stuffs GP records in a central store for 'research' – and the time to opt out is now

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Get your tin foil hat on!

@AC OP: in general, I agree with you. What many people don't realise is that the NHS was set up back in the late 1940s with the aim of creating the world's biggest health research database. The idea was that researchers would have the means to e.g. find correlations between things that affected health and do something about it. Essentially the NHS was set up to become a primarily public-health focused organisation. Health data usage was the quid pro quo for free healthcare at the point of provision. However, this didn't happen early enough (the switch back to Tory government in the early 1950s was disastrous), and now no sensible person trusts the government (of any colour) with this information.

If you can't upload to Amazon Photos right now, don't worry – no one can

Intractable Potsherd

Problem may have started earlier.

My wife's iPhone couldn't back up to her Google Photos account since last Saturday (8th May). However, we were staying in a hotel for a few days, so there might have been a restriction on the amount or type of data being sent.

Blessed are the cryptographers, labelling them criminal enablers is just foolish

Intractable Potsherd

Re: > those who are supposed to protect us ::snip for brevity, and postability::

@jake: my experience is that many criminals are indeed capable of being good citizens, and, when given the chance do so. The criminal "justice" system works against this aim (at least in the UK and (apparently) the USA). That doesn't mean that there isn't a significant number of people for whom criminal behaviour isn't a reasoned choice - from bent politicians down to the bottom of the societal ladder - though.

NHS App gets go-ahead for vaccine passport use despite protest from privacy groups

Intractable Potsherd

No, Pascal - the OP is clearly saying that Hitler and Thatcher were different people with different major failings as human beings, causing different atrocities on ordinary people. If such failings were genetically transmissible, the result of such a mating would be horrific for everyone concerned.

HTH

When software depends on a project thanklessly maintained by a random guy in Nebraska, is open source sustainable?

Intractable Potsherd

Re: OSS Little Secret

See all the comments above showing that it isn't a particularly great article. Yes, it raises some interesting points, but there is nothing about the problems that is unique to open source.

Tesla Autopilot is a lot dumber than CEO Musk claims, says Cali DMV after speaking to the software's boss

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Fully Automatic my arse!

There are a lot of them in Dundee and the surrounding area. At least one being used as a taxi.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Musk rat

Ooooh, look! A commentard who joined 10th May 2021 and has made precisely two posts, both supporting Tesla! That's not suspicious at all!

Researchers say objects can hide from computer vision by seeking out unusual company that trips correlation bias

Intractable Potsherd

Re: There may be regional differences to consider...

Just avoid the whole messy argument and have cheese scones!

Basecamp CEO issues apology after 'no political discussions at work' edict blows up in his face

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Politics is a virus.

There is a difference between working with someone and not "keeping your head down" if what they are doing directly affects someone else.

Not so fast, SpaceX: $3bn NASA Moon landing contract blocked by rivals' gripes

Intractable Potsherd
Pint

Re: Boom!

@Flocke Kroes: excellent summary. Thank you. Have as many upvotes as I can give you, plus one of these ---->

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter cleared for further, farther, flying after landing on 117-second fourth flight

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Nothing there.

Seriously, what is your problem?

NYPD puts down $94k robot canine contract after outcry

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Damn. Just After Tests as How to Foil Piggie's Dog, They Lock it up!

Tying legs together or blinding with lasers works with fleshy creatures too, so I'm not sure what "experimenting" they are doing.

Overall, I'm a bit astounded at the response of people here. It is relatively cheap, less of a risk in terms of harm (either to suspect or police operative*), and looks the part. As others have said, I'd rather have this coming to get me than a real police dog (or officer).

* including real dogs

Bill to protect UK against harmful foreign investment becomes law

Intractable Potsherd

Re: What happened to Free Markets?

How about innovate, build a company, keep it, invest in another one? If you sell your company, all the love and determination goes away, and the buyer just wants it for money.

UK watchdog would cease to enforce data protection law if Supreme Court sided with Google, its lawyer tells judges

Intractable Potsherd

Great reporting

Thank you again for the excellent reporting. El Reg is one of the best sources for very readable court reports at the moment.

Regarding the case, having spent quite a lot of time thinking about it, I rather hope this proposed funding model fails. Taking things to court as a profit centre* is abhorrent. In general, the whole concept of class-action is wrong. I understand how they developed, and that there is a need for some way of holding big companies to account, but I don't think this is it. It needs proper consideration, not the greed of venture capitalists, to come up with a proper solution.

* I'm not talking about lawyers' fees here - taking cases like this through the courts is time-consuming and requires expert lawyers and researchers, plus a lot of staff, resources, etc. Experts always cost money, regardless of what area. Also, whilst a case like this rolls on for years, other, smaller cases that pay the bills can't be taken. I'm not saying that some of the costs couldn't be mitigated (not keeping chambers in the most expensive parts of London would help), but, if the actual breakdowns of costs is analysed, it isn't that bad.

University duo thought it would be cool to sneak bad code into Linux as an experiment. Of course, it absolutely backfired

Intractable Potsherd

Re: A punitive sanction against the Uni for approving it

I've read the replies to my post, and I agree with some of them (and upvoted accordingly). I don't completely agree with the defences of the response, but I can see the thought-processes behind the defences and can see that they are well-meaning.

However, far too little opprobrium is being focused on the ethics board. With the importance of IT in today's world, projects should be scrutinised as hard as medical research. There should be a mixture of expert and lay people on the committees to give everything a really solid review and power to recommend change or not give approval. Publication of results should be dependent on ethics approval having been given as we are (slowly) getting to in medical research. This is an opportunity to learn.

Known software issue grounds Ingenuity Mars copter as it attempted fourth flight

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Another boring mars mission

@tfb: good post. Just one thing wrong - point b) needs to be in bold uppercase.

So what if I pay peanuts for my home broadband? I demand you fix it NOW!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Blue Nun?

I used to annoy my parents by always asking why the French were so enamoured of golden anti-tank weapons*. Apparently, after the seventeenth time, it wasn't even vaguely funny**.

* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIAT

** I now know that I am ASD, so it was probably never funny to anyone else.

Michael Collins, once the world's 'loneliest man,' is dead. If that name means little or nothing to you, read this

Intractable Potsherd

Re: What would be our future?

True heroes never think they are heroes.

UK government resists pressure to hold statutory inquiry into Post Office Horizon scandal

Intractable Potsherd

"Paul Scully, minister for small business, consumers and labour markets, told MPs that a statutory inquiry, under the Inquiries Act of 2005, would take too long as the average length for such proceedings was nearly three-and-a-half years."

Translation - "We know what the result would be, but, because the result would come in after the next election, it wouldn't be us that get the good press."

OK, so we don't have a flying car yet, but this is possibly even better: The Internet of Beer

Intractable Potsherd

Re: That’s one big battery

Hey - what am I supposed to think? There's a reference to "know[ing] who they are" and scrap metal, both of which tend to be code for Travellers.