I expect they're now competing with the racoons for good crapping spots.
Posts by Rich 11
4584 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jul 2009
Page:
Google extends homeworking until this time next year – as Microsoft finds WFH is terrific... for Microsoft
Tuesday 28th July 2020 14:28 GMT
Re: WFH is also good
This is why I used to disappear from the office three or four times a day when things were hectic, to take a ten-minute walk around the block, look at the trees, listen to the birds, etc. Usually something useful would have popped into my mind by the time I got back to my desk, or at the very least I'd be less likely to tell the next [redacted] who popped his head around the door to redact away off.
UK.gov admits it has not performed legally required data protection checks for COVID-19 tracing system
Monday 20th July 2020 17:16 GMT
Re: History Repeats Itself...
I can't say that I've done any decent research, but my initial thought would be that a person who demonstrates that they are capable of backstabbing or brown-tonguing their way to the top of a greasy pole hasn't necessarily demonstrated an ability to lead or to manage any form of organisation, to assess any set of complex issues even with expert help, or to implement any form of solution which would meet broad public approval.
The Devil's in the details: Church of Satan forced to clarify that no unholy rituals taking place in SoCal forest
Cornish drinkers catch a different kind of buzz as pub installs electric fence at bar
Tuesday 14th July 2020 11:05 GMT
Re: what happens to the drunk
One of my mates lived in a terraced house right next to a pub, in Manchester back in the late 70s. Up until then he'd enjoyed the convenience of highly-adjacent beer and crisps, but his fiancee had just moved in with him and they were looking to cut back on expenses with the intent of starting a family, so the drinking had to be paused. Once he was no longer a regular in the pub and didn't meet any of the new intake of students into the area, some of them got into the habit of staggering out of the pub at closing time and relieving themselves in his porch. He caught one or two and gave them a bollocking, but that soon became tedious. He thought about it and came up with a simple answer: two sheets of chicken wire fixed to the porch and the lower third of the door, wired up to a car battery inside. Problem solved.
Oh what a cute little animation... OH MY GOD. (Not acceptable, even in the '80s)
The reluctant log trawler: The buck stops with the back-end
If the Solar System's 'Planet Nine' is actually a small black hole, here's how we could detect it... wait, what?
Trump's bright idea of kicking out foreign students unless unis resume in-person classes stuns tech, science world
GCHQ's cyber arm report on Huawei said to be burning hole through UK.gov desks
Wednesday 8th July 2020 16:26 GMT
Re: WTF ....... Is the service demented and infiltrated?
"The dossier, seen by the Daily Mail, is not being formally published, and does not contain corroborating evidence of some of its claims."
The Daily Mail is not paying him; the report was commissioned by a human rights activist, Andrew Duncan. The reason it does not contain corroborating evidence will be because Steele constructs analyses as if he were still a spy. I haven't seen this particular dossier, but the Trump one was written in terms of qualified likelihoods, exactly as happens in the murky and uncertain world of espionage.
"I always say Britain can only be great when it can have its independent foreign policy."
Translation: "China is pleased when Britain does not act in cooperation with its allies."
NASA trusted 'traditional' Boeing to program its Starliner without close supervision... It failed to dock due to bugs
Wednesday 8th July 2020 14:53 GMT
Re: Competitive pricing
The last one was a frigate launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1967.
That would be one of the last Leander-class frigates built. My uncle was a CPO on the Arethusa and gave me a tour round the ship one Sunday morning, when she was being refitted at Portsmouth in 1976. I'll never forget looking along the length of the cavernous hull, with all the lower decks ripped out, and walkways and strings of lights hanging between the ribs and bracing.
Detroit cops employed facial recognition algos that only misidentifies suspects 96 per cent of the time
When a deleted primary device file only takes 20 mins out of your maintenance window, but a whole year off your lifespan
Don't beat yourself up for overeating in lockdown. This black hole scoffs equivalent of our Sun every day
Remember that black hole just 1,000 light years from Earth? Scientists queue up to say it may not exist after all
One does not simply repurpose an entire internet constellation for sat-nav, but UK might have a go anyway
Tuesday 30th June 2020 14:49 GMT
If it turns out that the government has spent £500m on something they can't use, they will be held to account.
By 'held to account' you mean moved sideways. Look at the posts Andrew Lansley and Jeremy Hunt were appointed to after their successive balls-ups over the NHS cost the country billions, for example.
That is not 'held to account'.
Here's a headline we'll run this century, mark our words: Alien invaders' AI found on Mars searching for signs of life
Grav wave boffins are unsure if they just spotted the smallest black hole or the biggest neutron star seen yet
Belief in 5G conspiracy theories goes hand-in-hand with small explosions of rage, paranoia and violence, researchers claim
Tuesday 23rd June 2020 13:40 GMT
Re: So basically ...
Genuine question
Genuine answer: you are confusing scientists with climate change denialists who try to mislead you by exaggerating the poorest elements of non-technical reportage and who lie to you by making unsupported hyperbolic claims regarding what some other people have said.
It's sad that you've reached your current position after exposure to 30 years of obfuscation, misrepresentation and outright lies, but perhaps understandable given such a deluge of misinformation. If you want one place to start on the road back from that snake pit, can I suggest you look into the oft-repeated claim that, back in the 70s, scientists were telling us that we were only decades away from a new Ice Age? You might start with this summary.
Only true boffins will be able to grasp Blighty's new legal definitions of the humble metre and kilogram
Thursday 18th June 2020 19:12 GMT
Curtains
A friend recently measured her window for new curtains, and gave the measurements to her daughter who worked in a department store and could use her staff discount to get them made up for what turned out to be a very reasonable price.
When the lass brought the curtains home, they were too small by a factor of 2.54.
Wednesday 17th June 2020 18:10 GMT
<smug>
I couldn't tell you how many ounces are in a pound; pounds in a stone and stones in a whatever. Inches in a yard or yards in a mile.
I was educated on the 70s too. Fortunately my education appears to have been a little more complete.
</smug>
Actually I'm much more concerned about kids educated in the 21st century rather than my contemporaries. The lad in WH Smiths who had to ask his mate if half a dozen was six, when I asked for some stamps, won't be getting my support for Chancellor of the Exchequer.
No surprise: Britain ditches central database model for virus contact-tracing apps in favour of Apple-Google API
In Hancock's half-hour, Dido Harding offers hollow laughs: Cake distracts test-and-trace boss at UK COVID-19 briefing
What could possibly make a cranky crocodylomorph more terrifying? How about one that chases you on its hind legs?
Frenchman scores €50k compensation for suffering 'bore-out' at work after bosses gave him 'menial' tasks
Wednesday 10th June 2020 15:53 GMT
Re: Sooo....
They were more concerned about their bottom line than the health of their employee or the law. They got what they deserved.
And you have to ask, if they choose to do this then what other shortcuts might they be taking with their legal obligations, their work practices and/or their products?
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes: UK man gets 3 years for torching 4G phone mast over 5G fears
June's Patch Tuesday reveals 23 ways to remotely pwn Windows – and over 100 more bugs that could ruin your day
We spent billions building atom smashers – and now boffins think nature's doing the same thing for free?
As anti-brutality protests fill streets of American cities, netizens cram police app with K-Pop, airwaves with NWA
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 14:20 GMT
Re: "Yes, Anon activists are back."
The subject is placed in a neck restraint with the intention of rendering the person unconscious by applying adequate pressure
Definitely the thing to do to a handcuffed man lying face down, while three of your mates stand around and watch. What could possibly go wrong?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
