* Posts by Chinashaw

21 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2011

Who needs sailors? US Navy's latest robo-ship can run itself for 30 days

Chinashaw

Re: Never mind, the original Mayflower landed in the wrong country

As for this boat, it underscores what the Chinese foreign minister said in Munich recently -- "NATO just causes trouble". I can't think of too many reasons why the US needs inshore raiding vessels for coastal defense.

Yup those crazy yanks surrounded another island in the sea, then sent planes into its airspace, oh and don't forget that island they built in disputed waters and bunged a military base on it. Then again I think they also attacked Pilipino fisherman in their own waters and don't forget their handy concentration and re-education camps. That Crazy NATO group, always going around the world causing problems, unlike dear, friendly, law abiding China, a model international citizen.

Elon Musk 'violated' Twitter NDA over bot-check sample size

Chinashaw

Re: violate ?

Given he was a Labour councillor and a miner and has worked with the foodbank in question before becoming a Tory MP there is a lot more nuance to his comments than you seem to understand. He is also offering to let MP's and I imagine similarly too quick to judge people come to the food bank in his constituency to see the work they do and how he came up with that figure.

It might also be worth looking into the concerns that if people do not (across all levels of society) cook regularly but do spend money on eating out then they will end up in general with higher living costs and possibly obesity issues. Unfortunately this is very true in poorer area's for any number of reasons.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment--2

Interesting and easy to read article from Public health England.

Chinashaw

Re: Pulling back the curtain

So your entire assumption is that Musk is right (everything he has said is correct) and the entirety of Twitters management statements are lies? Based on the tweets of a man who constantly lies/amends the truth? Interesting.

Royal Navy will be getting autonomous machines – for donkey work humans can't be bothered with

Chinashaw

Re: small, disposable craft

So much like the current situation, where everyone is trying to outgun everyone else with standard arms.

SolarWinds: Hey, only as many as 18,000 customers installed backdoored software linked to US govt hacks

Chinashaw

Much like it is in Russia, China etc. All sides will present themselves in the best possible light. However and let's be clear here, the Chinese side has concentration camps, death camps and forced labour camps with well over a million people locked away in them. Russia has slightly fewer but a tendency to murder dissidents. While everyone does spy on each other, it is safe to say that the Russian/Chinese side is certainly not even close to being on the side of the angels.

This is an article about an incredibly successful and dangerous hack that will have global ramifications.

Fintech biz Wirecard folds into insolvency like two pair against a flush. Good luck accessing your chip stack

Chinashaw

Re: Where were the auditors?

The problem is as much with insurance and cost. There are very, very few to none, tier 2 audit firms that have the resources, cash and insurance to audit large - massive businesses. And absolutely zero Tier 3 firms who can audit any large company.

As for the 'essentially doesn't happen' the polite term for is 'utter bollocks' far more firms are audited and correctly pass (as per the law) than fail, fail to be found out. All that happens is that every time an audit fails and it is because the auditor has been duped by the client (failed to do their job etc.) is a lot of people jump up and down and talk about always using a tier 2/3 audit firm.

And if we are talking fee's and costs, if you want a forensic level investigation, checking every document and back tracking all transactions (I agree EY in this instance are massively on the hook) it is going to cost the firm an arm and a leg, whether you use a Tier 1,2,3,4 or bob's own company. Then how long do you give the auditors to work on the files, find them, publish and also let you carry out your business? Throw in international contracts and multiple legal and accounting jurisdictions and your standard Tier 2 or 3 firm will not be able to do the audit.

Publishers sue to shut down books-for-all Internet Archive for 'willful digital piracy on an industrial scale'

Chinashaw

Re: Welcome to the mordern world

I think that you should be honest with everyone and yourself:

You do condone piracy, you can dress it up how you like but theft is theft. You are not making a protest that is visible or viable, you are simply stealing other people's work.

DRM is a ball ache and irritating but it also came about as much because people like you went around saying 'I don't condone piracy but if it is in a digital format, it should be free to the masses, I am downloading it for free to make this protest.'

You don't get to walk out of a bookstore taking books for free, saying ' I am taking these books as a protest against the evils of money,' or whatever thing you are protesting about that day. So why on earth do you think you should do that on the interweb?

That attitude is hypocritical and simply means that people who create don't get paid for their work, especially as more and more of it is sold in a digital format. If humans were all lovely and honest and hard working, Open format would be wonderful but they are not. They steal, they cheat and they lie to others and themselves (you) and as such you F*ck it all up for those of us who don't.

Imperial College London signs £5m campus sponsorship, 5G deal with Chinese comms bogeyman Huawei

Chinashaw

Re: Am I being over cynical?

Corrected Correction: If China hadn't hidden the scale and contagiousness of CV19, neither the British Government nor the rest of the world would be delivering CV19 to anyone.

Whinge all you like about the Government but direct your ire at China, the global nature of CV19 is entirely on them.

We can do this the easy way or the Huawei, US tells Germany with threat to snip intel over 5G fears

Chinashaw

In which case you run with the USA and avoid China like the plague. China, home of significant data theft, IP theft, No real rule of law, Protectionism far exceeding the USA's, arbitrary jailing with little to no access to legal support. Not to mention somewhat excessive persecution of their population, the invasion and control of Tibet and the oppression of the people there. I could go on.

There is no real comparison, even with the USA being run by the Orange one and his gang of friends. He will be gone soon or at least in a set period, China's beloved ruler has changed the law giving him almost unlimited power and no end to his rule. I know the Orange one wants this but it won't happen, the checks and balances are too strong.

So if you want proof of bad behaviour then you really don't have to look far for it and more documented evidence than even the most one eyed can shake a stick at.

Senior UK.gov ministers asked: So, are we going to ban Huawei or what?

Chinashaw

Re: The same elsewhere

I'm just curious about your evidence for this bold assertion? Are you a member of the security services or perhaps responsible for the economic policy in the UK? I do agree that this does have a trade side to it but if it was purely about trade, then why not ban all Chinese companies if there are Western competitors?

I suspect also that there is a very serious security side to it as well, especially where 5G is concerned and the fact that it will (eventually) become a ubiquitous technology connecting everyone's underwear together.

Chinashaw

Re: Another US Trade War In Disguise. Besides Who Would You Prefer Spying On You?

Are you serious or just stupid? While our government and many Western governments aren't exactly great, they are not in the same league/continent/universe as China with regards to who is the most 'morally bereft character'.

Check out what has happened to HK since handover, repression, law change, kidnapping and imprisonment to name a few.

Or perhaps you would like to visit the 're education camps' for the Muslim population. Then again you could pop over to Tibet, the independent state, wait it's not.

For all our ill's we are nothing like as bad as communist China.

Apple cops to iPhone 8 production oops, offers to fix borked phones

Chinashaw

Re: Am I being over cynical?

I am one of those who pay the idiot tax (begrudgingly) and who puts up with less than the best hardware, though tbh I am not sure I see the maximum benefits of any of it anyway. The overwhelming reason I do pay the idiot tax, is Googles less than stellar privacy policy and their demands to know all there is to know about you. That plus, all my apps are on here and I cannot be bothered to re purchase them for Android and to a very much smaller extent, I am used to iOS and don't really like the Android way.

I massively resent the idiot tax but thats why I pay it.

UK getting ready to go it alone on Galileo

Chinashaw

You are right, Jesus wept.

I merely pointed out that Germany is not meeting its legal obligations as per an agreement it has signed. As for the the threat, well we only need to look at Georgia, Ukraine, the odd aeroplane, threats to the Baltic states, the murder of individuals in allied countries, to see that there is a rather large country fairly close by that is making all sorts of military decisions that impact Germany's allies in NATO as well as behaving in a militarily threatening manner. Therefore, they have an obligation to help them and to do so requires a functioning military. As for the shit military, it is because they were covered by the US, French, British militaries as well as having a handy land buffer in Poland that enabled them to have quite such a shit military. On top of which, it wants the EU to have a functioning military force, rather tricky when you don't actually have one yourself.

I couldn't agree more, de-escalation is a great concept and if we lived in a world where we could ensure that we 'de escalated' together then it is a wonderful idea. It's just that we don't. Ask how our trade partners in Asia feel about China building its own little island airbase or anyone blown up, run down or whatever by your local resistance/terrorist member..

Oh and given the increasingly interconnected world we live in, with lovely trade routes and integrated supply chains, the ability to keep those flowing is rather critical to our economy and our lives. So the ability to stop them is also rather handy.

Then we also enter the realm of 'why do we need tanks?' and I agree but then again in getting rid of them (because we don't invade countries anymore etc etc) are we guilty of preparing for today's war/combat and not understanding what is coming next?

And at no time have I said that larger defence budgets make for a safer world. Though you could argue that MAD in its own odd way, did keep the peace between the two largest, scariest militaries of the time.

Don't disagree on the last point though, you could also argue that their economic might has also been rather useful in keeping their hegemony going. And is that such an awful thing (current president excepted)? Could have been worse, we could have had a Russian Hegemony (that was lovely for those Eastern bloc states) or a Maoist one (great for Sparrows and starvation.) I cannot think of any other major power that was close in size to creating a Hegemony.

Chinashaw

The other point here, is that the EU and Barnier announced during the initial divorce talks that how dare the UK bring military, security and anti terrorism support as negotiating points to the table. Funny how it is acceptable for the EU to do so.

Chinashaw

Despite his loathsome behaviour, he is right. Europe has ridden the coat tails of other peoples defence spending for decades. Germany in particular has had to train with broom sticks and barely has an airforce or tank regiment that works. He is also correct to point out that NATO has a minimum spend target of 2% and people really should hit that, especially rich countries like Germany.

So perhaps Rich 11, you should get back in your patronising little box and leave the international affairs to adults who understand what the phrase 'long term interests' means.

Chinashaw

Re: The morons "in charge"...

Really? So big economy gives you big bucks to spend with countries and so influence them. Small economy gives you less and tends to mean you have less influence. As for the military, really, a strong military gives you no influence? Go ask Vietnam, Cambodia, The Philippines how they feel about China building a massive military base in waters that technically do not belong to them.

The EU has influence precisely because it is a massive economic market, not because it is some beacon of moral rectitude.

10 social networks ignored UK government consultations

Chinashaw
Terminator

Not more tired politician and Brexit comments

Outside of all the same old same old jokes about politicians and Brexit. The government does have a point. There is a problem (or possibly just according to the masses) on social media with abuse and the such like. As the government, they are expected to try to do something about it. Much like the 'gig economy' it was all left to the companies to police/prove benefits/help society/make profit but over time it all just got a little too freewheeling. So now regulation is demanded by society and our elected stale loaves/sour milk lot need to respond.

What the 4/14 turning up does show, is a general arrogance and assumption that tech companies and in particular the larger ones are above the law, an assumption based on the fact that government and society has bowed down to our new overlords.

So it doesn't matter if the sour milk lot bumble around AI and make nonsense statements, it has come to a point where they need to do something and clearly the social media companies concerned will only respond to financial threats rather than a polite invite to chat over tea. So bring out the financial and legal threats.

UK hospital meltdown after ransomware worm uses NSA vuln to raid IT

Chinashaw

Re: Ransomware

You might not, you might want to tie up resources and cause stress to enemy systems, much like snipers shooting people to wound and so tying up resources both medically and for the wounded soldiers friends.

Radiation TERROR on Scottish beach! Except it's quite safe

Chinashaw
Devil

I take it

That you are a large, deep fried mars bar eating, skirt wearing compatriot with more than 1 deep fried chip on your shoulder? The only reason you are not seeing rioting is due to the fact that most if not all of your putative rioters would have dropped dead of hardened arteries the moment they had to stagger from the Rozzer...

How's that for having nothing to do with the story at hand?

Solar power boom 'unsustainable', says Gov

Chinashaw
Pint

Have you checked the interweb?

1) What information that is available is crap. More understandable data is needed on panel cost, performance, installation fees, maintenance, mean-time-to-failure etc.

** There is a mountain of information on all this stuff on the web.

2) The ROI is over 15-25 years. So unless you are staying put for that time, you'd be an idiot to install. Unless...

** Not sure who you were being quoted by, but the ROI is now 8-10 years depending on the type of panel (German v Chinese) and the amount you install. Making this a much more feasible install

3) Do panels add to a home's value? Who gets the feed-in tariff after sale? Again, this information is not available.

** The person who buys the house gets the tariff, it is linked to the meter and the owner of the meter. Again this information is easily available. They do add some value to the house, how much is variable and depends on location, amount left of the Fit etc.

4) Current panels are not efficient enough and there is no information on the dust-to-dust impact of the panels (i.e. do they make-up for the eco cost of their own manufacture?)

** What is efficient enough? That is a subjective comment, the current panels do a pretty good job and a 4kwp system has pretty much eliminated my bills and I get the max payments from the Govt. Not so sure on the 'dust to dust' idea but to be frank unless I run that rule on everything I buy what is the point?

5) It is basically impossible from the easily-digested information how much power one can generate, and calculate the ROI. It can be done, but it's a PITA

** ? Huh, have you never used the interweb, it is the easiest thing in the world. There are any number of sites that do this calculation for you. Check out www.southersolar.co.uk for a company (and no I have nothing to do with them, they just popped up on Google) that gives you all this.

6) Getting prices is nigh-on impossible

** Really, see above, how did you manage to type this on a computer connected to the web and (I assume) can use google and not get all this information?

7) Have I mentioned how hard it is to get clear information?

** See points above.

8) Like "peter 45" I do not trust the government to keep-up the FIT, so the panels must be able to pay for themselves within a reasonable period. From what I can tell, if you do some basic energy saving (i.e. unplug stuff, good insulation) they simply won't. I define a "reasonable period" as 5 years or less.

** agreed on concern about governments but if I save electricity and generate electricity I will get to the point where my bill is 0. Which is better than just saving electricity, where I will never get to that point. I would like to see a return of 5 years but 8 is not so bad.

9) The tech is not new (almost every house in Germany has solar collectors/cells) so why are they so expensive over here?

** They have been ahead of the market for much longer and the market not so new. However in the last 9 months, the costs of a solar installation has dropped by more than 20%.

10) Getting clear information is hard. I think I've mentioned this.

** I think I have mentioned my concern about your inability to use the interweb.

All in all, go online, go to www.google.co.uk, type in FIt payment UK and you will see all sorts of sites that can help you.

PS

Ignore the ones offering the Fit girls until after work...

Sony shows MacBook Air-like Vaio notebook

Chinashaw
Heart

What is with the Sony hatred

I am writing this on a Vaio Z series, that I've had for 2 years and it is brilliant, light, fast, powerful all that junk and not too ugly.

I agree with the poster about always comparing stuff to Apple, if they can produce a full specced laptop with more than 1 port and with BluRay et al and make it that thin, it is going to be so much better than the Air (my wifes current fondleslab of choice.) Making me a much happier husband.

Got to be honest, Sony's stuff is brilliant (the current PSN pleasure aside.)