Colossal!
(Cave)
Brilliant, I'm just off to amend our Asterisk conf files for the IVR menu
4259 publicly visible posts • joined 19 May 2010
@Esme
Why the hell would they even consider a desktop OS in Linux? What possible benefit would they accrue from doing that?
They've produced this embedded code to carry out specific network functionality, but in what way you could think that that would transfer to creating a desktop OS I have no idea.
"Over the past three years Tim has brought his infectious energy and creative expertise to the vital drive for open, transparent and technology-enabled health services."
Rarely have I seen such a blatant misrepresentation of the facts...
Oh wait, this is a British Civil-Servant... as you were...
Look out Aussies, you're next.
Since then, NASA has laid out new plans to ignore the Moon, build the SLS, and gradually develop it from its initial relatively feeble configuration (able to lift 70 tonnes to orbit) into a real heavy-lifter more powerful than the 118-tonner Saturn Vs of yesteryear. Such an SLS Block 2 would perhaps be able to lift an Orion plus the necessary lander and habitat for a manned Mars flight.
Surely no-one really thinks that a direct Planet-surface to Mars mission is a sensible idea? Why would you burden the Mars-bound spacecraft with the necessity to climb out of Earth's gravity well?
Earth orbit is the only sensible starting point for a Mars mission, whether you build the craft there, or lift the completed thing up from the planet before fuelling and provisioning.
The situation reminds me of the rail companies in the UK who are liable for fines for running a late service.
And what a stupid idea that is, too.
Train services are usually delayed by problems with signalling, availability of the rail network, stock breakdowns or incidents like someone jumping in front of the train - none of which are the rail companies' fault, and none of which are within the rail companies' control, except perhaps stock breakdowns, but even then it could be leased stock, so not directly under their control.
So what is the point of fining the rail company? Because it feels like punishment, and satisfies the baying hordes, that's all.
Oh Gods, not you as well!
Look, IT IS NOT THE FESTIVE SEASON YET!!
I don't care if the retail trade think it's Christmas already (our local supermarkets all have their XMAS displays up now) there's THREE WHOLE MONTHS to go, a quarter of the year, so please El Reg, shut up about it already.
Bah, Humbug!
</rant>
Teachers... are an ever-present danger as they may encourage pupils to actually think.
IME not much chance of that, my daughter seems to be actively encouraged to learn-by-rote, and not inquire further, or otherwise distract from the "educational" process. Asking questions is frowned upon.
I have some serious reservations about the technology, chiefly the one where a Google car with a Realdoll crew is barreling down I-95/the M1 with a trunk/boot full of fertilizer and diesel fuel bound for somewhere about to have some of its people and infrastructure thrown about with scant regard for life and limb.
Fascinating. I'd never considered it, and I bet no-one pushing for early adoption of the technology has either, but the use of an autonomous vehicle for criminal / terrorist acts raises some interesting possibilities. You obviously have a paranoid mind :)
When an insurer looks at the liability profile of an autonomous vehicle - versus a human who can be tired, distracted, drunk, or just plain angry - it’s looking quite likely that autonomous vehicles will cost next to nothing to insure, while the cost of insuring human drivers will skyrocket.
I think that's a rather naive view of the insurance industry. What will actually happen is that insurance for autonomous cars will remain at current rates, and insurance for human drivers will skyrocket.
Insurance companies are not altruists, they are in it to make large profits, and they certainly won't lose their core revenue by lowering rates unless they absolutely have to. I think it will take government legislation to force them to lower their rates for autonomous vehicles.
You quite rightly quote The Hitchhiker's Guide with regard to the origins of Krikkit and yet earlier in the same piece you say:
the trusty bat that is the mark of an advanced civilisation with time to devote to leisurely, non-warlike pursuits.
Only on Earth was the memory of the dreadful Krikket wars remembered dimly, and considered a fit subject to turn into a slow, boring, incomprehensible game by the race known as the English, and it is for this reason that the rest of the galaxy shuns us.
The thing is, this case should never have come up.
If the US Justice Department had followed correct procedure and asked the US government to ask the Irish government for access to the data, as per the existing agreements, then all would have been well.
Instead, they chose to take the high-handed shortcut of demanding the data direct from Microsoft, who quite rightly (and perfectly legally) refused.
So now they're trying to use bully-boy tactics to force Microsoft to do something against the law.
This is the "Justice" Department, how ironic.
Yep, one of the Olsen Twins is an Ashley as well.
I think Dabbsy is a little behind the times here - or showing some British reticence,
It appears Americans will name their kids almost anything, and sadly we Britons are following blindly.
How do "Future" or "Royal Reign" grab you as daughters names?
Sheeesh!
@Michael Strorm
Besides which, the three laws were in effect aimed at the artificial intelligence underlying these robots. Current consumer drones are human-controlled with (at most) limited automatic behaviour in certain situations that doesn't come close to Asimov-level "intelligence",
That was rather my point...
1/ A Drone may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2/ A Drone must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3/ A Drone must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Great, now all we need is the Zeroth Law:
0/ All Drone Manufacturers should include an AI clever enough to successfully interpret the other three laws.
This may take some time...
Perhaps the same thinking that led him to sign up for Madison in reaction was behind the start of the nasty divorce or if the sign-up or similar behaviour was a pre-existing thing and part of a pattern leading to the divorce?
Quite frankly, I can't see that it's any of your damn business, and speculation about "Dave's" reasons for either his divorce or signing up to AM are not something that should be aired and discussed on this forum.
The story was published to show the sort of blackmail methods and threats that certain scumbuckets have tried to use on those who appear in the database.
The morality or otherwise of using sites like AM is besides the point.
Yeah, right, because there is no real need in the NHS for absolutely secure, infallible, reliable passage of data between Departments, Hospitals, GP Surgeries, Care services etc.
Okay, so the written word can be misread, or even entered incorrectly, but once committed to paper it's all there in your notes, permanently, with little chance of being accessed by anybody malicious.
Yes, Notes do go missing, but it's a very rare occurrence compared to the incidence of data loss or corruption.
@Bleu
It's not that long ago that cars only came with a driver's windscreen wiper, is it? Or maybe it is... My 1960 Land Rover Series 2 only had the driver's side - but then Land Rover were always a bit different. :)
My Morris1000 from 1972 had a heater and all sorts of luxuries - even a cigarette lighter!
I'm not looking for an IT security job, its more that all IT jobs should have a proven competency in IT security as an absolute requirement. Sadly they don't. Until then such SNAFUs will keep on happening.
You could have every member of your IT staff trained and qualified in IT Security, but if your beancounters and middle management don't have an appreciation of the need for security, it ain't going to be implemented correctly.