* Posts by veti

4483 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Mar 2010

No it's not Russell Brand's new cult, it's Microsoft's Office crew rolling out their Save Experience

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Re: Consistency

For all his sterling work, I'm not so sure Raymond Chen still qualifies as a "school", rather than "a lonely guy shouting at clouds". It's some 15 years now since Microsoft lost the backward-compatibility religion, and they've shown no sign of rediscovering it.

I just love your accent – please, have a new password

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Re: heavy

It's not necessarily the accent. Some people just mumble.

GIMP open source image editor forked to fix 'problematic' name

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Re: Eh?

How about "Bob"? That seems to be the name around here most associated with trying to foist his will upon the world.

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Re: People can feel insulted by anything if they want, it is their choice and it is their right

Sooo... *THEY* are trying "to FORCE THEIR WILL upon the REST of us".

Just for the record, what do you call it when someone advocates the use of instruments of torture to "adjust the attitude" of people who don't agree with them?

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Re: Eh?

You can ignore whoever you like, within the law. Just don't complain when they, and their friends, take their business elsewhere.

Home Office told to stop telling EU visa porkies

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Very few countries? I only know of the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Germany...

So yeah, nowhere you'd really want to live.

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Re: SOP from the HO/FO

I must be missing something in this story - what did the HO know about "your previous fiancée", and why?

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The Australians are outliers in xenophobia, though. Remember, they're the country that refuses the right for dual nationals (such as the present UK PM) to sit in their parliament.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson moves to shut Parliament

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Re: What an unmitigated shitshow

If anything, Trump has shown just how little the written constitution matters - because those who are supposed to enforce it are unable or unwilling to do so.

That's "populism" - by nature, it defies any kind of restraint, no matter whether it's written or not.

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No! The unbiased viewpoint is "A says this, B says that. Authorities C, D and E concur that A is incorrect."

"A is a liar" draws inferences that go well beyond the facts in evidence. First, that A is not just misinformed but deliberately dishonest. Second, that A does this frequently or habitually, it's not a one-off.

"This is an outrage" cannot possibly be an unbiased comment. "Outrage" is a state of mind, it requires a specific mind (i.e. subjective point of view) to be "outraged". It's like "offensive" - there is simply no way to assign any objective meaning to the statement.

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Re: Balance

Where is the balanced point between, "the dodgy bugger in number 10 is at it" and "Boris Johnson will basically act in the best interest of the U.K".

Neither one can be in any way defended as an objective statement. Any site that uses either of these, unless in quoting some other relevant party, is transparently commenting/opining on news, not reporting it.

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Re: Now we know what taking back control really means…

England never had an inquisition of its own, but its rulers were quite happy to co-operate with the institution when it suited them. See 'Arc, Joan of'.

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Re: So, to sum up. . .

I would hope that the army would refuse to take a side. That's what armies in democracies are supposed to do.

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Re: So, to sum up. . .

You can have as many referendums as you like, so long as it's clear what the options are.

In 2016, the "remain" option was clear, but the "leave" option was not well defined. (Many people say it was deliberately obfuscated. I'm not taking a position on that, but it is undeniable that the "leave" campaign did not advocate, then, for anything even remotely like what they're advocating for now.) That needs to be rectified if that is to be held up as the definitive democratic verdict.

Git the news here! Code quality doesn't count for much when it comes to pull requests

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The ability to comply with a style guide does not necessarily translate into a strong mastery of the problem domain.

Of course reputation matters in any community. That's pretty much the definition of "community".

Electric cars can't cut UK carbon emissions while only the wealthy can afford to own one

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Re: Get back to me when....

Any EV, out of the box, already sounds infinitely better than a V8.

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Re: Does EV adoption just encourage 2-car families?

I doubt if any family decides to buy a second car just so they can have an EV. That decision has much more to do with logistics of the family daily routine. So no, I don't buy the idea that EVs "encourage" two-car families. Say rather that it's easier for a two-car family to adopt an EV for one of their vehicles than for a single-car family to make the same commitment.

I would like to see some actual numbers on the "lots and lots of people" you mention. Not that I deny it, but it would be nice to quantify those "lots".

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Incorrect. Renewables (wind, solar, hydro and biomass) account for around 30% of the kWh consumed in the UK per year. Add in nuclear, and you can see that over 50% of UK electricity generation - by volume of power generated - is - well, it's not quite true to say "zero carbon" because there are costs associated with transport and installation and maintenance and what have you, but "very low carbon".

Audible hasn't even launched its AI-powered book subtitles and publishers have already fired off a sueball

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Re: Old-skool publishers vs Amazon

The publishing industry deserves zero sympathy. I began my career in that business, so I've watched with interest their shenanigans over the past 20 years (since I got out),and if ever a bunch of companies deserved to go to the wall, they do.

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Re: Old-skool publishers vs Amazon

It's not Amazon who's eaten their lunch. Amazon's business model depends on a reasonably healthy publishing industry.

The danger to those publishers is from the new publishers, Facebook and Google. Amazon could be an ally, and they certainly need one.

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Old-skool publishers vs Amazon

Part of me wants to see both sides lose this, but only because it's good to see both of them lose everything.

Another part is wondering when the companies that call themselves "publishers" are going to wake up to the fact that their business model is broken, and Amazon is one of very few companies who may have both the capability and the incentive to help them rebuild it.

Uncle Sam is asking Americans if they could refrain from slapping guns on their drones

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Re: But...but

"Shall not be infringed" applies to "keep and bear arms". Nowhere does it say anything about the right to attach said arms to an independent controlled vehicle.

Unless you can define the drone itself as a weapon - and I think that may have implications that you wouldn't be entirely happy with.

Leaked EU doc plots €100bn fund to protect European firms against international tech giants

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This is why Brexit is as bad for Europe as it is for Britain

All these years, Britain has been the number one moderating force keeping Europe away from this kind of idiocy. Since it withdrew from the decision making, the EU has made more and bigger strides in the direction of full-on stupidity than it ever did in the 30 years before. (Well, discounting the euro, at least.)

It's sheer pie in the sky. The total EU budget is only €165bn. Which specific European nations do you think will be up for donating their money into a €100bn fund on top of that?

US regulators push back against White House plan to police social media censorship

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Don't confuse "not caring" with "not knowing". Trump isn't stupid, he's bad. He wants the world to burn, not for its own sake, but because the worse the world gets, the less likely it is that he or his family will ever be held accountable for their actions.

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Re: TL;DR - The Constitution is working as intended ...

What's illegal about them? What law, specifically, do they violate?

The constitution certainly doesn't say that military forces can only be deployed in the context of a declared war.

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Re: Except ...

One thing that makes commenters look particularly clueless is when they imply that people who call themselves "anti-fascist" can't themselves be fascistic.

Personally I don't think that's the right word for them, but I do think "antifa" has something to answer for in the present state of US politics.

I couldn't possibly tell you the computer's ID over the phone, I've been on A Course™

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Re: Accidentally ordered 8 TONNES of oak planks.

I suppose that "why is the army throwing away 100,000 brand new top quality sleeping bags?" would be classified.

Huawei goes all Art of War on us: Switches on 'battle mode' and vows to 'dominate the world'

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Re: no longer required US components

I've never believed that he actually wanted to buy Greenland. Even apart from the "buying a country" thing, Greenland of all places? - the population is less than 20% white, and it has one of the most socialist systems in Europe.

The whole thing was just a diversion.

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Re: no longer required US components

I recommend buying a phone from any manufacturer whose name you haven't seen in the news in the last six months. When you buy Apple or Samsung or Huawei, you're paying for a premium brand.

My current phone is an Oppo, it's two years old and has given excellent service from new. And it was cheap.

Eighty-year-old US 'web scam man' on the run after pocketing $250,000 in Dem 'donations'

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The most depressing feature of this story

... is that, apparently, '.website' is a TLD now.

It will never be safe to turn off your computer: Prankster harnesses the power of Windows 95 to torment fellow students

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Re: BOFH potential for sure

Are you missing the bit about "high school"?

This is what schoolkids do. They gotta learn the boundaries sometime, it's not innate knowledge, of course they're going to overstep them. It's why we give them their own systems, so they don't damage anything important.

Dry patch? Have you considered peppering your flirts with emojis?

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Re: Maybe just stick to calling your mom in future?

'LOL' has never meant "lots of love", at least not in common usage. Of course a non-trivial number of people do use it that way, but only because they've never checked an appropriate lexicon.

Microsoft Notepad: If it ain't broke, shove it in the Store, then break it?

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Re: Blink... Notepad?

https://stevemiller.net/puretext/

You're welcome.

Overstock's share price has plummeted. Is it Trump's trade war? Bad results? Nope, its CEO has gone bonkers...

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Re: Uncharitable

"Black Wednesday" was some four years before the euro was even announced, much less launched (which took another four years after that). There was not the slightest chance of Britain's joining it.

The seeds of Black Wednesday were planted by Mrs T herself, when she chose to enter the ERM at a moment when the pound had suddenly - and transiently - blipped up in value. She did this quite deliberately, on the basis that a strong currency would continue to impose good monetarist discipline on the UK; but, once she'd gone, it turned out the country wasn't really up for that kind of "discipline" any more, and so it wasn't sustainable.

'Hey Google, remind Greg the locks have been changed, and he should find a new place to live. Maybe ask his mistress?'

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Re: Dystopia, one improvement at a time

No need to wait, all the tools to create a bot for that are already freely available.

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Re: Dystopia, one improvement at a time

Preach it, brother. Maintenance is the hardest and most important part of the software life cycle, but also the least rewarded. (Because it's hard to sell, that's why.)

Until we can solve that, dystopia is kinda baked into the world.

You're all set for your long summer vacation. Suddenly a text arrives. It's the CEO. 'Data strategy by Friday plz'

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Text reply

"Good luck with that."

Donald Trump blinks in his one-man trade war with China: US govt stalls import tariff hike on Chinese phones, laptops, electronics

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Protection clears the field for locals - but it's far from clear that there are any who are waiting to work that field. If there are, then what's been stopping them for the past 30 years?

If the plan is to advantage them with special treatment, then a rational investor will discount that advantage as something that will probably be dropped as soon as Trump, or his successor, sees no future in it. Since Trump himself has absolutely no qualms about reversing his own policy, it would be the act of a moron to invest good money on the assumption that he'll stick to what he said.

Bit of a time-saver: LibreOffice emits 6.3 with new features, loading and UI boosts

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Re: Nah

Yeah, that explains why all those packages triumphed over their flashier rivals.

Oh, wait.

Hey dudes, we need to start living together in Harmony: Huawei puffs up new distributed OS

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Re: Global Times

That's an invariable, and possibly inevitable, consequence of unlimited space for news. 24 hour, websites constantly updated etc.

Because the truth is, nobody can produce enough actual news to fill that time and space. And so they add "analysis" (read: opinion), which is way easier to produce, because otherwise the audience might change channels.

Compounded by copyright law, of course - which basically says that facts are free but opinions are valuable.

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Re: And of course, "no details."

China is doing plenty itself right now to persuade us all that it's evil. From Hong Kong to New Zealand, it's been throwing its weight around in a most undiplomatic way.

Presumably because the US has basically given up on opposing it in the Pacific, they figure there's no reason why not.

Neuroscientist used brainhack. It's super effective! Oh, and disturbingly easy

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Re: Quelle Surprise !!!

So... "abuse" depends on sure and definitive knowledge of the technology creators' purpose. OK, then we need to get everyone who invents or markets anything to state clearly what it's intended to be used for.

"Misuse" is when the impact on society is negative. Setting aside the difficulty of defining "impact", or even "society" for that matter, who decides whether it's "negative"? One person's "negative impact" is another's "long-overdue correction". And often, negative and positive consequences are inseparable from one another. For example, Google spam filtering has all but eliminated spam from most Gmail users' inboxes - but at a cost of an increasingly non-trivial number of false positives, stopping a lot of legit mail from getting through. Is that a net negative or positive? - how do we decide?

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Re: Quelle Surprise !!!

Can you propose some rules or criteria by which we could tell when the technology was being "misused and abused"? (Are those the same thing, by the way, or two different things?)

If you can do that, then we might be able to suggest ways of monitoring or even policing the use. But if you can't, if you're just relying on "I know it when I see it", then you've got nothing.

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Re: So I guess VR was just a blip in history

Today's "VR" is like gaslight, circa 1860: it's a crude technology that clearly has much better alternatives, and will be replaced just as soon as those are up and running properly, but in the meantime - here and now - there's money to be made from it.

It's easy enough to combine the sensory input with paralysing the body so that it can't hurt itself, even though the brain still thinks the body is responding. That happens to us every night.

Chap uncovers privilege escalation vuln in Steam only to be told by Valve that bug 'not applicable'

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Re: Running a gaming PC without local admin rights is frustrating

Because Valve wants to control your games completely.

I don't know what sort of games you play, but in mine, it's common for my mod list/order, or other aspects of the config, to change. Personally I manage all that through separate, non-Steam software in the form of mod managers and editors (which do, indeed, bring up a UAC prompt every time something changes); but Valve would dearly love to bring it all in house, and have been making tentative moves in that direction for several years now.

And to do that, they want the player to be able to mod the game while it is running - which means, no UAC.

They say piracy killed the Amiga. Know what else piracy is killing? Malware sales

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Re: This reminds me on Son May

Being a non-signatory to Berne doesn't mean there are no copyright laws, merely that the country retains the power to set and change its own copyright laws as it sees fit.

Taiwan has its own copyright law, which applies broadly the same rules as Berne. I haven't tried to parse it in detail to see what the differences are, but it's certainly not true to say that "duplication of copyrighted works is perfectly legal in Taiwan".

And it's also not true to say that infringing copies can be freely imported from a non-Berne country into a Berne one. If that was the case at some time in the 90s, then that's because US law was a hopeless pig's breakfast (plus ca change...) and simply couldn't bring itself to implement the Berne rules. (Bear in mind that the US itself only ratified the Berne Convention in 1989.)

F-B-Yikes! FBI bod allegedly hid spy camera under desk to snap coworker's upskirt pics

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Thanks, Reg

For the mental image of upskirt shots of J Edgar Hoover.

Even if the cross-dressing stories are untrue, he was still the proud owner of the biggest collection of soft porn to be found anywhere outside the Playboy mansion. Seems like he would have sympathised with the aim, although that may have been overruled by disdain for the incompetence.

Watch as 10 cops with guns and military camo storm suspected Capital One hacker's house…

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Re: A little sensationalism?

Yeah, except that they found the guns when they were searching for something entirely different. The warrant has to "particularly describ[e]... the persons or things to be seized".

Unless the warrant they were using specifies "any arms potentially belonging to the landlord, who is not a suspect in the present matter", they're inadmissible.

Cambridge Analytica didn't perform work for Leave.EU? Uh, not so fast, says whistleblower

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The whole premise is, previous inquiries have found this way because - crucially, in their opinion - CA didn't get paid.

These new revelations - confirm that, sure enough, CA didn't get paid.

So I'm still wondering why anyone thinks it's a big deal.

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Re: No One Cares

The thing about the Russians is, there's no way of knowing what they spent on their campaigns. We've only heard about the advertising spend with Facebook (and even that number has been revised upwards at least once).

But that was only a fraction of the total. Much more important was the time invested by a team, of unknown size, of full time Internet trolls.

How many full time employees did each US campaign team have on social media? That's a number you can probably find out, if you want to dig a little. But how many did Putin have? Good luck finding that.