Posts by Loyal Commenter

Re: A hack

And? Rwanda wants these migrants.

Nope, the Rwandan government wants the money, and they're being given quite a lot of it, paid for from our taxes.

Buried in the small print that none of the overtly racist "send 'em to Africa" brigade that the far-right Tories are courting have read (probably because they are barely capable of doing so), is the fact that for every refugee we offload to Rwanda, they get to send one back to us.

So, not only is the policy highly ethically questionable (Rwanda doesn't exactly have a good human rights record, and our government purposefully ignored its own reports telling them this), it is also extremely costly, and won't even achieve the stated goal.

There are only two possible reasons why it is being done:

1) It's to gain the "I'm not racist, but" vote.

2) Someone is getting a backhander from it. Probably the usual suspects getting paid well over the odds to run "the systems".

My money's on both.

Re: Bank of England notes.

I seem to recall that there was a dramatisation of that a few years back, on the BBC I think, and if I recall correctly starring that one out of "two pints of lager" with the bra made out of Cornish pasties...

Re: Bank of England going to trade show

I would imagine the things they are test-copying are the proof copies of the next generation of notes, not the current ones. I'd be amazed if these did not go through many, many iterations before the final draft.

Re: Years ago....

If you see how much the OS charges for digital copies of its maps, you might be mistaken for thinking they had a licence to print money...

Re: Don't know if it's just that my coffee hasn't kicked in yet...

"Technician" is a term that is all too readily abused (as in "Nail Technician"), as is "technology" for that matter, when you see it used to describe ingredients in cosmetics, most of which are just aqueous suspensions of fat globules with some colouring and vitamin E added.

Re: The court also claimed some material promoted extremism and/or terrorism

Or you might be a Russian troll on the FSB payroll

There are two very obvious ones here, and judging from the voting pattern, a couple of "silent" accounts used for upvoting.

Fortunately most readers of a technical site such as this will be bright enough not to fall for their bullshit, but the causal reader might be pulled in.

It's a testament to how much the Russian state is prepared to spend funding this sort of psy-op that they have enough resources for them to be posting here at all, and not just sticking to the low-hanging fruit on the Daily Heil web site. Or perhaps their trolls are only about as competent as their military, and they think that overwhelming numbers is the secret to success, rather than strategy and intelligence.

Re: The court also claimed some material promoted extremism and/or terrorism

It's not uniquely Russian, it's typically a right-wing tactic. The Nazis did it very effectively, and our current government in the UK, especially the hard-right factions within, is prone to accusing others of their own failings as a smokescreen.

Re: Gosh, really ?

<i.How would changing a government inside one country affect the events in a second country bordering you? Is logic tought to your sort, or do you just throw out racist remarks and hand waving douchbaggery until the interlocutor cba to parse your bilge?</i>

In response to that particular load of old tripe, I think the irony went over your head somewhat, so I'll spell it out. The murder, torture, rape, and assorted war crimes going on in Ukraine are a direct result of the illegal military operations being undertaken by the Russian state. Extrajudicial killings et al in the Eastern parts of Ukraine prior to this illegal; invasion were almost certainly undertaken by Russian agents provocateurs in Ukrainian clothing. The Russian state has been caught out repeatedly doing this sort of thing, like when they shot down flight MH370 and tried to pin it on Ukraine, but unfortunately for them, there was a trail of CCTV from multiple and independent sources, that showed the missile launcher that did it originated from Russia and was filmed driving around in Eastern Ukraine for several days before committing that particular war crime. Once again, Bellingcat had a very good exposé of this. No surprise, then, that Putin really hates journalist and likes to have them murdered.

Re: Gosh, really ?

I'm not using "Russian" as a "racist insult". Apart from the fact that Russians aren't a race (ethnically, they are largely descended from Nordic peoples), so the correct term there would be xenophobic, my gripe is not with the fact that those in the troll farms are Russians, but that they are operated by the Russian state. I'm sure the difference between the Russian state and the Russian people is as large as the gap between the government and the people in most countries, and equating the two is a category error.

What I am saying, in a completely non-racist way, is that you are an agent of the Russian state posting agitprop. Now fuck off.

Re: Pootin the Great

The main problem is, that he thinks he is Peter the Great, but has nukes.

I'd like to think that if he actually tried to use them, rather than just threatening to, the defenestration might come from someone within the Kremlin. They can't ALL be as insane as him.

Re: Gosh, really ?

The trolls seldom expect you to follow the links they post, or actually read them.

The Reg herself used to have a journo who was pretty badly responsible for this sort of thing, posting anti-AGW type articles with links or references to peer-reviewed research that showed the opposite of what he was positing. You know the sort of thing: the whole, "the arctic is actually getting colder" type of article which cherry-picks data for the one tiny part of the polar region that got slightly colder during the polar winter, whilst the rest of the region is melting more extensively every year.

Re: Gosh, really ?

You are deliberately drawing a false equivalence between specifically targetting civilians (such as aiming lots of artillery at targets where civilians are sheltering, or firing *targeted* cruise missiles at shopping centres) with civilian casualties which are a side-effect of defending yourself against a foreign aggressor fighting on your country's sovereign soil.

Claiming that the Ukrainian government is deliberately targetting civilians, as Russia is doing, requires evidence. There is copious and clear evidence that this is what Russian forces are doing, along with systematic torture, rape and murder. It probably doesn't need saying that all of the above are considered war crimes.

For reference, "evidence" here means undisputable independent and multiple sources, not doctored youtube videos taken from computer games and posted by the Russian state.

tl;dr; - Russian troll factory is obvious troll factory.

Re: Proof just how effective modern marketing is

Still, competition is generally a good thing and I'm very happy that we have Teams Red, Green and now Blue in the GFX Card space.

Sounds like we need to have team Alpha too to add some transparency to the market...

The LHR limiter on Nvidia cards was cracked a couple of months back, probably related to the hack that Nvidia suffered earlier in the year, and (alleged) sale of their internal data to Nicehash.

Re: 3060

Prices are bit lower than that now, since the recent price drop (largely fuelled by the falling Ether price, rather than any increased supply). However, that is the low-end price, when the mid-range cards are in the £600-£700 range, and the high-end ones will set you back well over a grand.

Re: OK, stupid question time

The (short) answer to that one: because geologists.

The (longer) answer is that, to the trained eye, a rock that doesn't belong there sticks out like a sore thumb, and, if you are lucky, does so whilst sitting at the bottom of a hole that wasn't there yesterday.

I don't know if this particular meteorite was found shortly after it struck, or was picked up some time later. However, once spotted, meteorites tend to have distinctive patterns of melting and impact shock, which pretty well signal that they have come from space. Once you've established that, physical, chemical and isotopic analysis will pinpoint its origin pretty well. For example, iron meteorites that form in deep space tend to have beautiful and very distinctive crystallisation patterns.

Re: OK, stupid question time

I call this the "I'm not an expert but I reckon" fallacy.

There are people who devote their lives to a career in this field. I suspect they are quite good at knowing what they are talking about when it comes to positively identifying a bit of rock as having originated on another terrestrial body.

On the other hand, not having any expertise in the field, and not being trained in the relevant scientific disciplines, or having read the literature on the subject (of which there is an abundance), your opinion is wholly unqualified, and therefore wrong.

This particular fallacy has a large prevalence on the internet. You only have to see the vast number of people spouting off about how they saw a video on youtube showing that X Y or Z is fake or wrong, and science is lying to us to see how easy it is to believe that one's own uninformed opinion is somehow right whilst those who actually know something about the subject are wrong.

See also: Climate change denial, Trumpism, the NRA, anti-vaxxers and so on ad nauseum.

The ironic thing is that that scientific literature is now more easily available than it ever was if people actually bothered to go and read it. Most authors of scientific papers will be more than happy to send you a copy free-of-charge for the asking (the journals that want to charge you for it don't give them any money whether they do or not)

So you could include the step: "Generate all local energy using fossil fuels." More water. Result.

Not coal, of which the main results of burning it are carbon dioxide, sulphur* dioxide and radioactive fallout.

Short-chain hydrocarbons produce the most H₂O per mass burned (e.g. methane CH₄ + 4O₂ => CO₂ + 2H₂O, ethane C₂H₆ + 7O₂ => 2CO₂ + 3H₂O, etc.) but as the chains get longer, the amount of carbon dioxide produced in proportion to the water (and the mass burned) goes up.

*I refuse to use the IUPAC spelling. Call me back when you can pronounce aluminium properly.

Re: I thought this was a joke.

I always laugh when I see people who think Veblen goods offer value-for-money.

Re: I don't really see the problem

I see you got downvoted there by our resident brexit cult members. How dare you call into question the wisdom of Our Lord Brexit?

Re: Money for nothing

Lucky you. I also live within cycling distance of work and a railway station. In fact, I live within walking distance of both, which is a lot more convenient, not just because I live at the top of a fucking great hill, which I don't really fancy cycling up.

If I had to get the train regularly, I'd still find it cheaper to use the car (it costs £100+ to get to That London from here by train, for example, which would also involve a change of trains, whilst the fuel to do so, even at today's prices would cost me about £50).

As it happens, I have a car for things that aren't getting to and from work, or a station. For instance, I have an allotment on the other side of town, which in this weather, needs watering at least every other day. Whilst I could get the bus there and back, it would turn a one hour job into a three hour one every day, and wouldn't be much help in getting buckets of kitchen waste to the compost heap a couple of times a week. Then, let's consider the shopping. Yes, I can buy from local shops* rather than driving to the supermarket and getting six bags of shopping at once, but that is going to cost me about twice as much. Again, public transport isn't much use when you have a car boot full of shopping to transport, is it?

I'm getting a bit sick of "holier-than-thou" preachy commenters o the internet who seem to think that everyone's circumstances are exactly the same as theirs.

*To be fair, I do actually do this where it is practical to do so. The local greengrocers are much cheaper and generally better quality than the supermarkets for fruit and veg, for example. However, I'm not going to assume that everyone has a local greengrocer, especially since housing costs mean a lot of people now live quite a distance from town centres and are pretty much forced to drive to the shops.

Re: Raise the Jolly Roger!

The problem isn't the programmers, it's the wankers in marketing who promise features that don't exist, and then blame the programmers for not having developed them yet.

Re: Monthly?

Ah, but the AC is the biggest fuel drain killer. Put it on and watch your fuel gauge move quickly.

It might be a noticeable difference when idling, but otherwise it's a rounding error.

As an illustration, last year I both got the broken air-con in my car fixed, and had a full service and oil change. The fuel efficiency didn't noticeable change after fixing the air-con (still doing around 300 miles to the tank), but after the service it improved to about 330 miles to the tank.

The biggest fuel drain killers are probably worn spark plugs and old oil. The air con compressor is driven by a tiny belt and flywheel attached to the engine, in order to compress a relatively small amount of freon, whereas the engine is driving the wheels on a tonne or so of metal. The amount of energy used by each is not comparable.

The clue is in the question, still going strong. If they sell you a car that lasts 20+ years, that's no more business for them for that amount of time. They's much rather sell you something shiny and new, which the bottom rusts out of in 10 years. The more expensive the car, the more likely this is to happen, because that repeat business is more valuable to them.

Re: We've Probably All Come Across This

Putting the words "rather annoying and arrogant" into that sentence describing any sales manager is a classic example of tautology.

Re: "backed by £2 billion [..] in funding"

100M tests at manufacturing cost of, let's say £2 each = £200M. Where's the other 36.8Bn gone? Even if you were to try to claim that those tests cost £20 each, that's still £35 billion quid unaccounted for.

Of course, this doesn't include the costs of "the app", which may have run into a couple of hundred thousand (a rounding error in this case), or staff costs. Did test-and-trace employee a million people at £35,000 each, for example?

To quote, "Do me a lemon, that's a poor IQ for a glass of water"

All that money went somewhere, and it wasn't on costs.

Re: The standard

Those accounts are almost certainly managed by someone sat in an office block somewhere who takes orders from on high but is not privy to anything else. They certainly won't be the same people who have anything to do with anything actually military. The odds are they are a civilian marketing agency outsourced from the military, whose only interaction with those in uniform is to sit in a meeting room once every couple of months to discuss the next recruitment campaign.

Re: The standard

I somehow doubt that the official channels of communication within the armed forces include Twitter.

Yes, it might be used for recruiting, but I hardly see how an interruption of a few hours to an account that probably posts things sporadically is going to harm that.

I certainly can't envisage personnel in the field pulling up their mobile phones to check Twitter. If anything, they'll be explicitly forbidden from even having their phones with them whilst on deployment because the things can be tracked, and triangulated pretty accurately just from the cell towers they attach to.

Re: Aren't You Heartily Sick Of This......

...except it's not the British Armed Forces that have been hacked. It's individual accounts on Twitter and Youtube. The air-gap between those and any real defence work is likely to be several miles wide. As someone else pointed out above; these are probably both outsourced to Crapita anyway.

Re: The standard

If it was anything other than their "soshal meeja" accounts, I might be concerned.