* Posts by James 51

3426 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jun 2009

Britain shouldn't turn its back on EU drone regs, warns aerospace boffin

James 51
Joke

Re: Confused....

I can see Rynair handing over their new higher fees with nary a whimper.

James 51

Re: Confused....

@James51

Of course, we can't propose anything because the 'Evil Tories' won't let us?.. and people wonder why the Brexit debate went the way it did.

I was pointing out the Tories attitude to funding for public bodies (and if the drone industry in the UK isn't profitable enough the CAA will have to have get some if not all of its funding from the goverment). You were the one who linked (and I still can't make the link myself) that to Brexit. BTW I don't hate the Tories, it the lies they are coming out with at the moment. The NHS is getting worse, what are you going to do? But we are giving it more money! and refusing to acknowledge that both things can be true. We're are friends of workers, just look at all these new rights! while ignoring all the other rights they've taken away (and assuming that they ever implement the new ones anyway). We meet the 2% Nato spending commitment (by counting lots of different types of spending that never counted as defense spending before). Labour caused the last fincial crisis, no that was the banks. Labour bankrupt the nation, bailing out the banks because the alternative would have hurt the country even more. I would repect May and her supporters a lot more if they just said they want out so the ECJ can't tell them they can't get away with it when they break the law (or they can change the law to something that most civilised societies would not accept).

James 51

Re: Confused....

@Skippy if the UK is going to start drafting its own drone rules and the UK drone industry isn't making enough money to foot the bill, where else in the money going to come from?

James 51
Flame

Re: Confused....

I know enough about stats to see through the lies (in the I am going to deceive you sense rather than make a factual error) like the extra money for the NHS. If the head of the NHS says we need an extra thirty billion pounds just to stand still over the next X years and the Tories allocate eight or ten billion that is technically investing the most money ever but in reality the Tories are saying they are happy to see the service degrade to what ever level not having the twenty billion will force them down to. This is an open and deliberate policy of running down the NHS the same way my local council is running down our local library so it can close it. Given what the attacks on the poorest and most venerable members of society they have conduced (the bedroom tax and Atos conducted PIP assessments I am looking at you) evil is not too strong a term to describe them. BTW what the hell does that have to do with Brexit (other than the ECJ might protect people when their rights are violated)?

James 51

Re: Confused....

Why not call for some sensible investment in the CAA post-Brexit

Ha ha ha ha ha, wait you're serious? The Tories won't pay a living wage to the people who will save their lives when they need help the most and you think they'll splash out on that?

James 51
Coffee/keyboard

It did have, 20 years ago, but we've sacked three quarters of the people. And the expertise... has gone to join EASA," he told The Register.

I almost needed a new keyboard.

Samsung Galaxy S8+: Seriously. What were they thinking?

James 51
Pint

Re: With the Samsung Galaxy 8 implementation - yes.

This made me laugh so hard I got some looks in the office. Enjoy one of these and check your blood pressure.

James 51

Bixby, is just a slurping engine that you can’t disable.

And that's a thanks but no thanks from me. When Blackberry had an assissant in BB10 I was able to disable it but keep stuff like the device serach (which is still better than anything I've found on android). I do not want to be bothered by crap like this on my phone.

Blighty bloke: PC World lost my Mac Mini – and trolled my blog!

James 51

Re: Why oh why

Yes, they only had one kind and it was £8 but I had a CPU and a fan but I am certain my two year had been playing hide daddy's things again. I did check online before I went though.

James 51
Devil

Re: Why oh why

I needed some thermal paste there and then so I popped in a few weeks ago. Saw a a can of air duster and thought, yeah I could do with some of that too. The air duster was £13 and I actually laughed in the poor cashiers face when she told me the price. That went back on the shelf. Occasionally they do (probably by accident) have a bargin. I picked up my pebble steel for less than half price but I did have to bring it back three times to get one that worked.

Never mind custody decisions, let's AI up our police cars

James 51

Re: I'll bet there are lots of lawyers salivating

The optimistic part is the officer overriding the system and not arresting someone for the resemblance or lack there of. They would only have to let the target go once and they'd have that hung around their neck for the rest of their career. No risk for them in a false arrest cause hey it wasn't a false arrest, I had my handy magic box that told me it was okay.

James 51

All this gear is a poor second to human intelligence (both decision making and having someone in the know telling you stuff). It seems like what ever investiment is being made, it is missing the point.

Beeb hands £560m IT deal to Atos. Again

James 51
Trollface

Re: Who created the rules Atos is operating under?

Don't feed the troll.

James 51

Re: Fun with statistics

@DougS As an avid listener of more or less normally I would applaud your coloration is not causation attitude. However after having seen friends and family go through the process, the only conclusion I can draw is that there is a deliberate policy of driving down the number of people qualifying for benefits by means possible and this does include things such as completely ignoring all medical evidence when making an 'assessment' and dam the consequences to those who are least able to fight back. I know of one person who went back to their consultant after being declared fit for work and not ill at all. The consultant was so angry they personally called Atos. I'm not privy to the contents of that call but that person got a call from Atos soon after and was told that after an internal review the decision had been changed and they were getting the maximum award. That wasn’t an isolated case either but it’s hard to fight the decisions when the process is weighted against claimants (and even then there is a huge number of appeals which are successful).

Bot you see is what you get: The cold reality of Microsoft's chat 'AI'

James 51
Joke

Re: " because no one really enjoys typing on mobile devices,"

Should have bought a Blackberry.

James 51

Re: ymmv

Command lines are inherently unintuitive.

That is what I was taught in my HCI class. For expert users they get the job done quickly but for anyone else they can be a pain as discoverability is opaque to non-existent. Before you start arguing, can you show me who this is intuitive to:

cprofile [/l] [/i] [/v] [FileList]

$ nano ~/.bash_profile

at \\prodserver 23:45 /every:1,4,8,12,16,20,24,28 "bkprtn.bat"

Command lines have to be learnt and there isn't an AI behind the scenes trying to figure out what not only did people type but also what they meant.

SpaceX settles $3.9m shift pattern class action lawsuit

James 51

Re: Time to bring in some STALIN to expedite processes

If he is a diabetic you can bet your co-pay that is a big deal.

BT to axe 4,000 jobs across the globe

James 51
Joke

For the fibre roll out, what we need is a state body with a mandidate to roll this out with universial coverage. They could charge other firms for using the infrastructure they provide. Begin in the big cities and radiate out from there as the fees provide the money for the next wave of investment. As for its name, something to reflect the national and telecoms roll. UK Telecom?

FBI boss James Comey was probing Trump's team for Russia links. You're fired, says Donald

James 51

Stalin and Mao were never slow to stab someone in the back after they had been helped by them.

Amazon announces new Echo just as Microsoft's first Cortana-powered clone breaks cover

James 51
Big Brother

Oh for the love of God just no. Isn't there enough spyware floating around without paying for it too?

IBM: Customer visit costing £75 in travel? Kill it with extreme prejudice

James 51

Wasn't IBM's reputation built on rock solid hardware and hand holding when things went wrong?

London app dev wants to 'reinvent the bus'

James 51

Re: Ummmm

Upvote as we have all been there (last sentence assumes there is something to city mapper's work but time will tell on that one).

Leaked: The UK's secret blueprint with telcos for mass spying on internet, phones – and backdoors

James 51

Re: In another earlier time and austere place was its service named STASI

He loses it a bit in the middle but the beginning and end make a lot of sense.... need more dried frog pills. Frankly I am surprised it took so long for someone to mention the old pros.

Windows 10 S forces Bing, Edge on your kids. If you don't like it, get Win10 Pro – Microsoft

James 51

Re: Limiting but with a 50%upgrade to Pro

Because the spec of the basic machines falls way short of what most professionals would be willing to settle for.

James 51

When ever Win10 was announced lots of people were saying that certain features would be disabled in the future and you'd have to pay to get them back. Looks like they were right.

Don't panic, Florida Man, but a judge just said you have to give phone passcodes to the cops

James 51
Childcatcher

In the UK of course they'd convict them of not handing the password over and put them in prison. Then when their sentence is up, rinse and repeat.

3D printing and drones are the tech del día at Spanish startup fiesta

James 51

Re: Cleaning solar panels and crop spraying do actually sound quite good used for drones.

Because it's most likely a scaled up version of that which will be used for flying close to buildings. You could use a modified predator as a crop duster but that would only make sense if you were doing it on an epic scale.

James 51

Re: Cleaning solar panels and crop spraying do actually sound quite good used for drones.

I assume that they would be tethered to a tanker via a hose . Another cable could supply the power for flight, control data etc so they could stay up for a lot longer than a quad copter from Game.

Shock horror: US military sticks jump leads on human brains to teach them a lesson

James 51

What about treating brain injuries and disease?

What is dead may never die – how to get a post-BlackBerry BlackBerry

James 51

Re: New Q10?

Amazon a still selling 'new' Q10s. Then there's stuff like CEX. If the keyboard and screen are in good condition you can replace the battery.

James 51

Re: New Q10?

I haven't seen another phone with a keyboard and a removeable battery. Q10 has both and a microsd slot. BB10 is a bonus (I know it isn't being developered any more but I still find it eaiser to use than Android).

James 51
Gimp

Still have my trusty Q10. Have to admit, a Priv does look tempting but the keyboard on this looks closer to what I am use to.

FCC's Pai: I am going to kill net neutrality in US

James 51

Re: Yet another example

Sounds like you're describing PR. Works for Germany.

UK.gov throws hissy fit after Twitter chokes off snoop firm's access

James 51

Mr. Python had a sketch about witches and ducks. I think they've taken the logic from this scene and applied it as required.

James 51
Big Brother

Isn't that the line that is going to be used against journalists who publish embarassing truths about the economy?

Irish Stripe techie denied entry to US – for having wrong stamp in passport

James 51
Big Brother

Perhaps, but it also undermines the credability of the witch doctor who is insisting their spells and potions will reveal the secerts of the other side. Of course the exaggerated behaviour might stem from 'How on earth can I avoid triggering their magic voodoo landmine when they can move it around and say I triggered it and can't know and can't prove it doesn't work cause science just doesn't cut it any more for these people.'

James 51
Facepalm

"They told me I had a common name and it was a match ... and they wanted to see if I was the person they were looking for..."

A system with a huge number of false positives built into it from the start. That's going to be reliable.

Also, thermal sensor? Hiding stuff? I hope this is just like that scene from the wire with the photocopier and the staff don't actually believe that nonsense.

Nokia plans comeback on back of virtual reality

James 51
Joke

Re: Suicidal?

Don't you mean 'finnish'?

Nuh-uh, Google, you WILL hand over emails stored on foreign servers, says US judge

James 51
Happy

lolberal brought a wry smile to my face. I may have to borrow that.

Have we got a new, hip compound IT phrase for you! Enter... UserDev

James 51

You haven't addressed the issue of fear, fear of change and especially of responsibility. Some people, some times entire departments or entire companies think if they don’t make a suggestion or don’t engage they are not responsible for anything that happens and I have seen that fear cripple projects and stymie good plans by IT departments that don’t have the clout to force fearful users to engage.

Will the MOAB (Mother Of all AdBlockers) finally kill advertising?

James 51

Whenever I look at belloflostsouls on my q10 I get a popup add that fills the entire screen and is very difficult to get rid of. Then when I click on on article, the ad appear again and so on and so forth. It also slows my browser down a lot. It is really annoying and I don't go there as often as I use to.

Samsung's Shixby: Reviewers unimpressed with S8 digital assistant

James 51
Big Brother

BB10 had an something like this. Took one look at the all data shipped off device for analysis clause and turned that thing off before I ever use it.

US military makes first drop of Mother-of-All-Bombs on Daesh-bags

James 51

Re: Strictly speaking chemistry is a branch of physics.

I will have to see if I can find the episode of the infinite monkey cage were Brian Cox pulled this line on a biologist and he ripped him to pieces pointing out that compared with biology, physics is simple.

Sysadmin 'trashed old bosses' Oracle database with ticking logic bomb'

James 51

Anyone more familar with the story any idea why he did it?

Intelligent robots can walk the walk – but if they can't talk the talk, we can't get along

James 51

Which would be unfortunate as I was asking it to be quiet.

James 51

If I ask it to haul its whist, what will happen?

Apple wets its pants over Swatch ad tagline

James 51
Headmaster

If I end my ticks to the left instead of to the right of the vertical stroke, will the trademark wars implode?

UK.gov cuts deal with Microsoft to avoid £15m post-Brexit price hike

James 51

When we moved from one version of office to another in work we ran into bit rot as every once in a while someone would have a file from the previous (or even two versions ago) that didn't work well with the new version. I suggested that we all move to sigil (it does have a WYSIWYG mode) and use epubs. Surprisingly, that didn't catch on.

Microsoft's new hardware: eight x86 cores, 40 GPU cores

James 51

Re: Project Scorpio?

Speed read that as 'Might I suggest free hemlock for all users?'

Democrats draft laws in futile attempt to protect US internet privacy

James 51

Re: The usual

I have to admit, I first read your name as unwarrented trumphallicism. Sorry about that.