Posts by veti

Please link to a press release or speech by a senior Chinese government official, within this century, making at least one of those statements you just attributed to them.

Re: The US are just as bad

Yes, so I keep hearing.

But the fact is, this "being sold" is a pretty painless experience, really. Nobody is putting a collar round my neck, making me stand on a block and pose for bidders. It's a lot less intrusive than, for instance, applying for a job, or a passport, or registering to vote. Let alone actually crossing an international border.

I don't think this hyperbolic language ("being sold" my arse) is doing the job you want it to do.

Re: that jerk with the annoying voice and that other bastard who sniffs all day.

Nope, both much too high profile in their own time. When the Boomers were young, the hot topics were things like sexual liberation, nuclear apocalypse, popular beat combos, communism. Those aren't the things they're being blamed for now.

It was the Boomers who won Roe in the first place, and took the UK into the Common Market, but somehow the millennials don't seem inclined to thank them for it.

If I had to guess, it will be something that comes out of either China or Africa.

Re: "legalized the import of products without the authorization of the trademark holder"

If you think 1k per month isn't worth having, by all means send it to me. I can find a good use for it.

But I suspect your figures are pulled out of your arse anyway.

Right... So the average CS *graduate* in the UK makes 44k, according to figures from the universities (who, granted, do have an interest in talking this figure up, but for want of a better figure I'll take it for now), Compared with a minimum wage of just over 20k per year (assuming a 40 hour week).

So, setting aside for now the considerations of quality of life, career prospects, career security, long term savings and the respect of their peers, you're right - the difference after tax is within shouting distance of what you've indicated - for a new graduate. Ten years later, mind, it'd be a different story.

Re: Not necessarily "controversial"

Well, it depends on context. During the old Cold War, for instance, any system that promised to intercept incoming missiles could be seen as undermining the premise of "MAD", and therefore as active preparation for launching a nuclear attack.

Of course that doesn't apply to this case, but it's an example of how a defensive system can be provocative.

Re: "Transparency of algorithms used to determine ad placements"

It's the difference between seeing graffiti in an alley vs in an art gallery. Location and context matter.

Also there's no reason to assume the database of removed stuff will be public.

"In order to stab somebody in the back, one must first get behind them" - Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"Fair game" is subjective and legally meaningless. Putin has made some aggressive noises about being at war with NATO, but he's also very conspicuously refrained from launching attacks on NATO countries.

And seeing how his mighty army has already been humiliated once, I think it's a good bet that he's just plain scared.

Re: Countering symptoms rather than the cause

"I propose teaching critical thinking in schools" - yeah, you and every philosopher since Plato.

If it hasn't happened yet, there's probably a reason for that. And unless you can identify and address that reason, you've got nothing.

Re: .....or use a 2G so-called "feature phone"........

Well, not really, because the total number of targets is only in the tens of thousands. I assume the company knows this because it charges on a per-install basis.

I doubt if I'm in any government's list of top 0.01% most interesting people to spy on.

Re: "Beijing believes crypto is a dangerously unruly innovation,... "

They're not stopping people from talking about it, if by "talking about it" you mean something like what we're doing now.

They're stopping people from giving specific advice on how to do something, such as selling or mining crypto, that is illegal in China.

For comparison, imagine two users on a British discussion site talking about the best way to buy an untraceable handgun in Liverpool. How long do you think that discussion would be left up?

Well yes, that's certainly one way to look at it.

Another is "we're really excited to give users the opportunity to turn any text into an audiobook, without the huge investment of time and expense that this process usually entails."

Voice acting as a profession isn't dead yet, but it may well be on its last generation.

Re: The real issue

Darwin at the beginning of his career believed in God, but by the time he had published 'The Origin of Species', he was at the very least an agnostic.

In his autobiography Darwin writes: “Disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted for a single second that my conclusion was correct.”

Re: How much longer is it going to take ?

Every one of us was new and young and naive once. As long as there is a steady supply of new people, some fraction of them every day will learn their lesson the hard way.

And the scammers are getting more sophisticated. Once they were the children of corrupt Nigerian officials or disgraced Arab royalty, now they're Linda from Microsoft or the nice people from Visa Fraud Prevention. Assuming they're not targetting you personally, that is. If they are, they can get creative.

Re: Why this is bullshit

I remember early cellphones. Take it from me, not everyone who saw the car-powered bricks that some people spoke into into in the early 90s thought immediately "I've gotta have one of those".

Or roof-mounted solar panels. Believe it or not, there are still people who sneer at those, even after all the progress of the past 20 years.

Or electric cars. Or heat pumps - heck, I wanted one of those from the moment I heard about them in first-year thermodynamics, but some people still don't believe in them. Or digital cameras. Our world is full of innovations that took years or decades after invention to gain market share and take over their sector.

Re: "taxing e-commerce the same way that [..] physical goods traded internationally"

It makes it harder to keep spending more when taking in less.

Right. So what effect do you think that has? Hint: Mrs Thatcher believed in this, and she attempted it for a while, but to her credit she abandoned the idea when she saw the practical effect.

The practical effect being that the burden of spending cuts invariably falls on those parts of the public sector with the least bargaining leverage. Like frontline nurses, teachers, and others the nature of whose jobs makes it difficult for them either to walk off to another employer, or to strike effectively. The management, the consultants and analysts - they all have other options, so either you keep paying them well, or the best of them simply go elsewhere.

That's what happens when you try to "starve the beast", rather than actually doing the hard work of specifying exactly what services to cut. (And of course if you do that, you'll be accused - rightly - of micromanaging, and alienate the very managers who could do most to help you.)

I'll tell you the answer to that, if you can first define "free will".

Re: Social media is killing us

As is usual on these occasions, there were people at various levels of involvement.

Yes, a whole bunch of people were just there to protest. A significant minority of these allowed themselves to be carried along by the more hardcore elements. Probably they were also reassured by the president's lying promise to march with them.

The question is, what the leaders of this movement intended. For sure they had much bigger plans than many of the crowd.

That's how insurrection usually works. The women who tried to petition the Tsar in 1917 were, mostly, very far from card-carrying Bolsheviks. Some of those who stormed the Bastille would have called themselves loyal monarchists. The lukewarm are just carried along with the crowd, and many are appalled at the excesses that follow. But by then it's too late.

Re: Consequences Schmonsequences

Meh. They're just putting down a marker. Now, whenever they next want to try cyber operations against certain countries, they've got their justification all mapped out.

Re: "Where are my nuclear-powered datacenters?"

They reopened plants that had been closed, of course.

That's not the same as building new coal plants. "NEW coal plants."

Please understand, I'm not defending Germany's decision, which was counterproductive. But GP made a very specific claim, even emphasised it, and I haven't seen any evidence for it.

Re: Everybody knows...

The "single-minded geek" thinks, and small blame to them, that someone else will look and rewrite their awkwardly worded, provisional message.

After all, this is customer-facing stuff. Surely it can't really be left to a junior programmer with zero relevant training or guidance?

It takes years of steadily increasing cynicism to realise that yes, it can and is being left to exactly those people.

Re: Left field?

It's coming, as I thought I made clear, from the quality of analysis on display in TFA. "If we had better communication, we wouldn't have poor communication" is an insight worthy of a $10,000 consultant, not a secretary of commerce.

Re: The BSA

Yeah, that'll happen - just as soon as the Indian government gets off its arse and starts haranguing itself to respect its own constitution and write laws that make sense.

Seriously, are you even listening to yourself?

The supplier is clearly in damage limitation mode. Whether the NSW government does the right thing is probably a function of how politically invested its current masters are in this system. If they were the ones who introduced it, then they will stick to it - but if there's been a change in government since then, they might do something more positive.

What does "agile" have to do with it? Do you have any actual knowledge of the company and its practice, or are you simply assuming that any half-baked system is "agile"? If the latter, I've got several Internets to sell you.

Re: note to self

So what sort of service will you buy? From a company whose employees have no voice or right to speak their minds? Right, so Chinese then. Can't go wrong with them...

Re: Presumbly the UK has similar plans

Because (1) it's not their territory to give away, and (2) any negotiation starts from an absolutist position. If the Ukrainians want to give ground that's their decision, but if it happens it needs to be part of the negotiation, not a fait accompli that's done and dusted before they start.

Personally I think the position should be "Russia disbands its armed forces completely". Let it keep the nuclear arsenal as a deterrent against actual attack, but let it never again be in a position to bully and assault its neighbours.