* Posts by Voland's right hand

5759 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2011

fMRI bugs could upend years of research

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Cargo Cult Science

To prove the results that applied stats uses needs very advanced maths,

Yes

To prove the results that applied stats uses needs very advanced maths, which only a mathematical specialist will master

No.

Based on my personal suffering from the same subject (I am not a math graduate either), I can conclude that same as the majority of non-math graduates you have suffered from Idioticus Statisticus. I am quoting the species name by translating a good friend of mine who used to run the prob and stats dept in a major Eu university for several decades. That is how he referred to those of his colleagues which sucked so bad that they had to go teach non-math majors. That is curable.

Go read Feller, "An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications". Amazon finally has it paperback so you do not have to shell out the relatively obscene 100 or so quid for the harcover (I have both the original and the English translation). Once you have read it, you are likely to change your opinion about "only advanced can grok it". It still holds a premium spot on my bookshelf till this day (many years after I did anything in proper math or sciences). Most of it reads like a novel by the way, you can enjoy reading it (that says a lot about a math book). I am probably going to add the English version of Gantmacher next to the original to it at some point so I can tell the kids to sod off and go read it when they ask math questions.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Cargo Cult Science

Cargo cult science is a bit harsh for most.

Sort-a. They underlying root cause is that statistics is not taught to biology/med science majors properly around the world.

You need to learn probability theory all the way inclusive of its dependencies from a mathematical standpoint such as calculus to be able to make sense of modern statistics used in Biology and Medicine. I do not know of a country which has that in the biology major curriculum. Chemistry usually studies a basic course which is clearly insufficient by today's standards. Biology and medical sciences - not a chance.

As a result, they cannot make sense of a false result even if it slaps them in the face like a Monty Python wet fish.

London Stock Exchange's German mega-merger: It's a go, despite Brexit

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Do not think so

The merger of the London Stock Exchange and the Boerse should give us a first look at how post-Brexit financial markets will work.

Nope, because the politics card has not been played yet. It is still "yet another corporate acquisition" at this point in time.

Sure, the merger cannot be stopped at present and the systems can go to London as UK has not invoked article 50 and officially is still a Eu member which cannot be discriminated against.

How this will pan out after article 50 is invoked is in "God only knows" territory.

Microsoft: Give us better staff

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Avast there!

It is indirectly paid as a tax on the economy as a form of personal taxation.

Frankly, it does not matter if it is let's say Germany or Sweden which pays bursaries and has free higher education for its cittizens or it is USA where the student pays for most of the cost or UK which is somewhere in between. The student after that pays this out of student loans which form a tax on his/her salary or the general population pays tax which funds it. It is a form of tax one way or another.

The problem Microsoft has specifically in USA is that as CS matures and moves forward as a field of study the cost of educating a student fully (which in a mature field means MSc or higher) is starting to become so high that their starting salaries are unable to pay back the loan form of financing the education.

This is a common problem across USA education system - by the time you graduate at MSc or above from one of the more difficult disciplines you have accrued a level of debt which you cannot repay until your mid-40-es. This is artificially offset for some areas like Math, Physics, Chemistry and to a lesser extent Biology with grants which allows a student to get to MSc level without accruing unsurvivable debt on scholarships. CS - nope, none of that at present, very few scholarships and grants to go around.

MSFT, Google, F**book, etc can fix this by providing grants and scholarships (it is even tax deductible activity for them). The system is well established - USA Army and Navy run a fairly well honed version of that. However, being the lazy b***rds they are, they want Uncle Sam to fix it instead.

Man killed in gruesome Tesla autopilot crash was saved by his car's software weeks earlier

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Updated: He was watching Harry Potter

The only comment is that if that was on the car main entertainment screen, that means Tesla is in seriously hot water. Federal safety regulations and car insurers prohibit explicitly the ability of movie playback in car entertainment systems on the front screen while moving (this is why the aftermarket ones have the hand/parking brake sensor).

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Mre likely "Clark Griswold driving"

"White truck, white sky"

My old car (now my wife's car) is shiny bright blue metallic. It has been pranged twice with the other person not seeing it because it becomes literally invisible at some angles in a bright (and especially low) sun.

In any case, based on a description of the trailer and the crash I suspect an "American Lampoon Christmas Vacation" incident, just one without a happy ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozksR8QLWzM

The autopilot did not see anything on the side because there was nothing to see - it was _UNDER_ the level of the tractor trailer and not looking up, but looking at the gap between the front and the back.

None of it excuses the driver from being complacent too by the way.

UN council: Seriously, nations, stop switching off the damn internet

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: hmm

That is one side of the coin.

The other one is declaring as the Devil ones we do not like while declaring as friendlies ones that are slightly to the right of Atilla the Hun. Like the current Indian government for example.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: World to UN:

UN Tried the Army approach. The result is Korea as we know it.

The no-army approach has been frustrating slow, but on the overall more successful. Granted - it sometimes takes a couple of decades for it to work, but it does.

Blighty's EU science funding will remain unchanged until new PM triggers Article 50

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: That is a load of bull

We pay more than we take out of the EU

No, we do not. We pay out of money which is largely generated due to UK being in the single market.

If UK is outside the Eu, any direct (corporate taxes, levies, etc) and indirect (employee income tax, NI contributions and VAT on spending) from the City is as good as gone. That exceeds the Eu contribution surplus by an order of magnitude. It is also a guaranteed loss - financial services for Eu will be in a Eu country, any ideas that this will not be the case are delusional. Anyone having that delusion is welcome to explain the rationale to the German regulator that already blocked the LSE to Deutche Borse merger based on BrExit fallout. Just tell me when, I will sell tickets.

I will not go through the second order losses, just the losses from the City being trimmed to size will be sufficient to negate any gains from not having to pay into the Eu budget. It is also unclear which of them apply as we do not know tariffs yet. The difference between them and the financial services ones though is certain - the financial services ones are guaranteed upon BrExit.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: That is a load of bull

Not sure about the listed languages, but at least in Russian, the "govno"

I limited the list to Eu languages. If we expand it outside the Eu a combination of Gove and Pinoccio results in an aptly named GoveNoccio, which in addition to half of Eu languages also has the same meaning in Serbian, Macedonian, Belorussian, Ukrainian and Russian. The only two I am unsure of are Moldovan and Romanian, but I will not be surprised if it means that in those languages too.

Not sure what GoveMillions translate to. We probably will have to switch back to shillings and 12 pence to a shilling to compute that properly. But I am quite sure that Clapham on Sea and Cornwall can provide the necessary 100s of GoveMillions per week for UK Science. They f*** voted for it.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

That is a load of bull

The current funding will remain unchanged.

Future funding is already affected and will be affected further by the day because any UK institution be it academic or commercial will now find it difficult to become a member of a project. Eu funded projects usually have a minimum requirement for number of commercial and non-commercial participants (at least they used to, when I was involved in some). Funding is never given to a single institution. So a UK applicant needs to find partners to apply for funding (or Eu applicants need to look for a UK partner) . Any UK participant in any future funding now has to convince all the other participants that it will be around and be _ALLOWED_ to be around for the duration of the project.

While officially, they are obliged to listen and accept such statements at face value as UK is still on paper a Eu member, in reality they will smile and find an alternative participant. This is the reality and it does not matter how many feel good false statements does GoveNoccio(*) put out and it does not matter how may times Sajit Javid asks to be supplied with discrimination examples British candidates will now be discriminated against. Any complains - please submit to Wales, Cornwall and Clapham on the Sea so they fund British Science instead. I believe they have the budget to do so at rate of 100+ GoveMillions per week so this should not be a problem.

(*)I did not realize what a portmanteau of Gove and Pinoccio equates to in Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian and Bulgarian till this morning. It very apt actually.

Michael Gove says Britain needs to create its own DARPA

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: May gets the thumbs down for the Snoopers Charter and being Remain when it's a Leaving do

May was more LEAVE than the whole lot that led LEAVE as she did not just want to LEAVE Eu, she wanted to LEAVE all European mechanisms, period.

She just bide her time to let Gove and Co get burned by the immediate fallout.

The mere fact, that all the Tory grandees which said that the next prime minister must be a leave supporter did not bat an eye lid when she threw her hat in the ring says everything there is to be said here.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Gove v. May

In fact, in a contest between GoveNoccio and Joseph Vissarionovich May it is difficult to think of a third party who will not look positively attractive.

On a second thought: https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bd41f9f3719c75bcad2cdae50aa83bc78ada35ca/147_49_1434_860/master/1434.jpg?w=1920&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=a7f837712fbf25d2371d44777f7ae93f

Lightning strikes: Britain's first F-35B supersonic fighter lands

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Curious minds want to know

My little city of Burlington, VT,

Out of luck - they are making them more silent nowdays. Nothing to do with airport noise regulations, more to do with the fact that if you can hear it for miles, there is little point in stealth. This for once is before the event of someone rebuilding WW2 pre-radar early warning systems for today's age:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/e3/40/8e/e3408efaba0fcc2ac39600b948728dac.jpg

IMHO, it is still worth it to rebuild it by the way. Throw in some DSPs to clean the noise out, differentiate target types and get an idea of relative velocity via doppler shift, put the horns at 100m distance with optics in between them and slave a ZPU off the rig off to a ZPU. Absolutely silent, cheap as chips, absolutely passive - nothing visible until it fires either. Can be mass produced at a couple of % the cost of an average AAA so you can saturate an area with them too. So much for "stealth" in ground attack role I guess...

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Curious minds want to know

Did it land together with its mission planning system.

This "marvelous" piece of hardware has an integrated spares, logistics and mission planning system which runs ONLY on USA mil cloud. If it is using that system, UK is just a "host" for this "parasite", it is effectively not UK property, as UK needs to talk to said system to assign it a mission plan for it to go and bomb (or fight) something. It is on a benevolent lease.

So, curious minds want to know - did it land with our OWN spares, maintenance, logistics and mission planning system or it is under American command.

Can Ireland's grid green satisfy Facebook and Apple?

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Hilarious

We live in interesting times - when you can plot a DDOS and the whole country electricity consumption/production and correlate them.

Man sues YET AGAIN for chance to marry his computer

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: ReL Windows computers aren't marriage material because

Perhaps if you married your Windows PC it would stop going down on you all the time.

Cough... cough... sputter... sputter... And why do you think it is good for it to stop doing so? In the context of the spirit of such discussions on The Register of course: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/11/itaughttaylorswifthowtogiveheadcom/

Honey, why are porno apps on your Android?! Er, um, malware did it!

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Within the next 18 months there will be a massive Android infection

Indeed, why is there no during-boot button combination which drops you into a really simple rom which gives you the option of deleting the disk volume and starting from scratch or downloading from either a fixed or user-specified URL

You realize you just described clockworkmod - the cornerstone of the Cyanogen ecosystem.

Apple, Amazon and Google are screwing us, warns Elizabeth Warren

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Let me see if i understand this.

World has gone nuts.

Even weirded things are happening - like a hair organization deprived immigrant descendant of Turkish origin winning a campaign he never expected to win by scaring his adoptive compatriots with an influx of Turks. What next? One of the Turkish MPs apologizing for The Boris, the same way Scotland officially apologized for The other hair organization deprived immigrant descendant - the Donald in the British Parliament?

Brexit-bored Brits back to bashing the bishop after ballot box blues

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Says everything that there is to be said

The only people who really know what is being voted for are the ones who get voted in.

Kind'a. Probably applied to the IN campaign.

The LEAVE campaign had clearly contradicting claims, fraudulent numbers, impossible to achieve promises. That is normal for a campaign based on populism alone. It has kept characters like Berlusconi and Jirinovski afloat for many years. In the past it has brought us such leading lights of democracy like Peron, Mussolini and Hitler. It is well known to work, provided that you DISBAND democracy after you win so you do not have to face the consequences of the fact that your campaign was based on a fraud. Hmm... interesting thought...

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Says everything that there is to be said

90% of the people who voted had no clue what they are voting for and what are the consequences so they looked them up the day AFTER they voted.

Vodafone hints at relocation from UK

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Work Permits

Interesting question.

The number one Eu work permit requirement mulled by the Boris gang is that any of the people coming from the Eu has a job already waiting for them. The number two is that they know English. Neither one of these is particularly hard. 40%+ of the younger generation in Eastern Europe do and a significant percentage will pass an English language proficiency test with flying colors.

Now, shall we translate this back if Eu puts the same req on a reciprocal basis (which it will). How much of English residents will pass a German, French, Italian or Spanish language proficiency test? And what about Swedish? Finnish? Czech? Slovakian? Romanian? Bulgarian?

Out of all Boris follies, _THIS_ will be the one to hurt Britain the most as it will not stop any import of labor into the UK, but it will put an effective barrier on most British working in Europe and relocating with their company which is fleeing the Brexit aftershocks.

What Brexit means for you as a motorist

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: So essentially

Also their deficit has to be 3% of GDP or less (or at least getting there). And as a new member will have to agree to join the Euro.

Correct, however they are not obliged to comply with either one of these requirements day one. They can join the Eu by showing a compliance plan and a roadmap on these two.

The first one is something they need to figure out if they are to go independent anyway. No way around it.

The second one is something the Scottish voters have to be aware of when voting.

That is a relatively minor hurdle compared to overhauling you border system, criminal code, law enforcement, health and safety regs, discrimination regs, demonstrating success in beating the mob and the grey economy, etc. This is off the top of my head - what Bulgaria and Romania had to go through as the most recent arrivals. Both did not need to join the Euro, just declare an intent. Bulgaria can execute on it any time they like, they are just not bothered:

BG debt stats

So "declaration of intent to join the Euro" clearly does not mean joining it even when you possess the fiscal discipline to have the capacity to do so.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: So essentially

Here we see Scotland being told to eff off by the EU:

Not quite. In fact not at all.

Scotland was very clearly told that it will not get anything as long as it in any shape or form is a part of a non-Eu UK. It has to reapply for Eu status as an independent country outside Uk. That process is dependent on having your laws and regulations assessed as compatible with Eu. This is why it takes 5-7 years. Now, what is the time to assess the laws and regulations which are already compliant and compatible and have not changed?

Asking once... asking twice... asking thrice...

So frankly, the only thing which separates Scotland once it declares independence from Eu membership is the two votes in the commission and Eu parliament provided that it does it immediately and forces the issue to a vote as well as forces the "compatibility check" to a vote. The Spanish and the Belgians would love to obstruct it, but in reality, they cannot.

It is quite entertaining, by "not interfering" in UK internal politics, the EU has just thrown a barrel bomb into the middle of it.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Care re-reg

Personally I'm sick of seeing right hand drive bulgarian and romanian registered vehicles all over london. Seems to me they've deliberately been registered in those countries

You are blaming the wrong person. Blame the British PLOD.

Bulgaria nowdays has a full electronic car tax, insurance and MOT database. AFAIK Romania is the same.

It is The British PLOD that can't be arsed to talk to them to arrange querying it. They do not even need to do it real time, just dump the ANPR from the ferry terminal cameras and request the records in bulk. Other countries in Europe already do cross-border checks, it is simply a matter of The PLOD being Lazy to the point where they do not bother even with local enforcement and mandatory re-reg. They actually can impound an exiting car that has overstayed its welcome (6 months in last year per Eu regs) and scrap it there and then.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Goit a source for that ludicrous claim? Switzerland is in Schengen, and in the EEA.

It is not ludicrous, it is an interpretation of one of the most recent Eu directives on hire and rental cars.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/may/28/eu-citizens-car-hire-switzerland

It is a nasty protectionist measure to ensure that you cannot get an out-of-Eu hire contract car for use in Eu. So as far as Brexit this will affect most company cars as they are officially on a hire/lease agreement - you do not own them. It will become effectively impossible to take them abroad.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: So essentially

Yes and no. The article is retarded to the extreme and incompetent to the extreme.

The underlying root cause for the so called "Eu insurance expense" is the fact that a Eu country insurance includes a mandatory 3rd party cover and mandatory validity for at least 3 months a year in ALL European countries and Turkey with the exception of Albania, Belorussia, Kosovo and Albania. With its secession from Serbia, Monte-Negro dropped out of the insurance mechanism, but AFAIK it is trying to (if not already) get back.

Being outside the Eu does _NOT_ remove this expense. It is part of the standard insurance terms for the whole continent now, not just the Eu.

So first of all, going outside the Eu will reduce the local insurance costs _ONLY_ if a country also leaves the entire European (not Eu) insurance pool and insurance validity treaties and exchange mechanisms. Going outside the Eu does not change a thing.

If this happens, this means we will be back to car green cards for everything and the corresponding decrease in validity of cover abroad and massive increase in costs. If that happens, you will see the truckers set the house of parliament on fire with Boris nailed up to the front gate with tools from the truck toolkit on the next day. They will be supported by any industry which depends on trucks to move their goods around.

VW finds US$15 BEEELION under the couch to pay off US regulators

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: This raises the obvious question

stricter controls and emission limits

Stricter control on EGR diesel (as in 2.0 VW engines) means up to 20% higher consumption. In that case, it is because lower NO2 is achieved by reducing the engine efficiency. The mandatory emission fix as a side effect across the USA provided the petrol companies with several percent increase in revenue from diesel sales. So that alone would justify paying the necessary lobby money to get the hatchet job underway.

In general, the more processing you put on the exhaust, the lower the mileage per gallon.

The USA Oil lobby has fought very long and hard against diesel and is continuing to do so. Instead of a 2l diesel engine in USA they have to fit a 3.2l petrol - f.e. Nissan big models (just to be able to drive the car with all the stuff sitting on the exhaust). Instead of a 2.5 (D-Max, Toyota Hi-Lux) you often see 4-6l Petrols (Colorado, Tundra, etc). This is visible even for Petrol-only models. Where 1.0l or 1.3l Petrol such as the Yaris, Micra, etc is sufficient in Europe, the extra emission control results in a 1.5-2.0l being installed.

That will consume petrol in vast quantities regardless of all the tech used to improve fuel economy. This is also why if you trace the money to the clean air acts (especially in their anti-diesel regs) in USA you always end up running into someone related to Big Oil.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

This raises the obvious question

If it was well known for 7 years, why it came to light ONLY when the oil prices tanked and the fraking investments started hurting so some increase in consumer petrol spending was on order.

Coincidence? Do not think so. It has "Petrol Lobby" fingerprints all over it, same as California clean air regulations.

You can be my wingman any time! RaspBerry Pi AI waxes Air Force top gun's tail in dogfights

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: T500

decision fuzzification

Not new, just approached from AI/Machine Learning perspective.

Russian guidance systems have been using probability space calculations for two decades to more or less the same effect. They do that by applying a differential inclusion to a set which describes a discrete representation of the probabilities of target actions. In laymen terms - instead of applying a deterministic calculation to the target current vector (like some of the BAE crap), it applies a similar calculation to the probability space of immediate future target maneuvers based on current and previous vectors and continuously adjusts it. It also does using appropriate multiple pursuers, single target equations for a multiple rocket launch scenario.

As a fundamental idea this is similar - you do not work with deterministic data, you make up (by randomization) a probability space out of it and you apply an algorithm (in this case a machine learning one instead of differential inclusions) to it. You also continuously adjust it via a feedback loop (same as Russian diff incl/prob space algos).

As a result the machine in either case ends up thinking one step ahead. Even if the wetware in the opponent had a couple of preplanned moves initially, it is quickly out-computed in the initial encounter. After that the human ends up being reactive and not being able to think ahead due to timing constraints. So the AI (or the probability based algo in the Russian case) kills him at short notice.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: But it needs to be "militarised"

Why was a toilet seat being installed in (or on) a fighter plane?

If memory serves me right, the seat in question was on board of B1-B. That one one of the many examples of ridiculous overspend and fleecing the public by military equipment contractors during the rule of the late president RayGun. Unfortunately, what got established during his reign continues ever since.

In any case, all bombers have toilet facilities as they are intended to fly 16h+ missions with in-flight refuel in order to send that friendly greeting to another nation. Even something just barely bigger than a fighter like the Su-34 Platipus has a toilet. Dunno about fighters though.

My plan to heal this BROKEN, BREXITED BRITAIN

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: From the 27

A bit obnoxiously formulated, but not far off.

I will add to that.

With UK no longer in position to press anything.

1. TTIP is dead and no amount of effort will make it rise and shuffle about. The Germans and French will kill it.

2. The Eu-wide opposition to genetically modified crops, hormone-buggering pesticides, etc has just solidified into rock solid. There will be no-one to sabotage that regulatory process either.

3. The level of sabotage on green energy initiatives, city and water pollution regulations has just dropped significantly too.

And so on. While the initial reaction to Leave amidst Europeans was positive towards the UK staying this is very quickly becoming Good Bye and Good Riddance and it will only continue in that direction. Just to be clear - this is not based on reading the Graunidad. I am following the opinions of the media in a couple of European countries and they are going exactly in this direction. I would expect them to start agitating openly for "Goodbye and Good Riddance" by Thursday at this rate.

Quick note: Brexit consequences for IT

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Point based system == No EEA

In fact, as a US born citizen, he qualifies to stand as US president, so maybe after he has finished fucking up the UK he can move across the Atlantic and try for a twofer.

He is organizationally challenged in the hair department _AND_ vehemently anti-immigrant while being a descendant of an immigrant. The sole difference is that while Scotland officially apologized for The Donald in the House of Commons, Anatolia has not apologized for The Boris in the Turkish Parliament (*). That is probably yet to come. So the idea of him standing for a US president is not far off (**).

(*)On another day, it would have been funny to listen to a person of Turkish descent threatening us with Turks coming. He should have done that properly: "My compatriots are coming".

(**)We should get Larry Sanders (Bernie brother) to lead a Green, Labour and Liberal "Stop Boris" coalition to make the circus complete

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Point based system == No EEA

Any ideas about point based system covering EEA nationals mean automatic ejection out of EEA.

As one of the senior French Diplomats said about this one: "Brothers Grimm did not write that tale".

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Zero Immigration?

Immigration WILL stop after BrExit.

Immigration in official statistics is calculated as NET Migration. People Leaving - People Coming.

With the economy going south, headquarters of all major transnationals moving to a Eu country the idea that Net migration will become zero if not reverse direction is not that far fetched.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: European HQs

Some are already "legally" in Edinburgh in anticipation for that ... other... referendum. It is simply a matter of adding some muscle on the "legal skeleton crew" which is already there.

Popcorn...

Magnetic, heat scanners to catch Tour de France electric motor cheats

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Um, dumb question

Is that so daft?

The Tour de Dope is an advertising event showcasing yet another 2g decrease in weight compared to last year's model. If you make all bikes the same, it will be impossible to showcase that and tempt the hipsters which pay north of 6k for a bike for a year-on-year upgrade. There is lots of money involved here (and precious little sport).

Visiting America? US border agents want your Twitter, Facebook URLs

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Freedom of speech includes also

Freedom of speech also includes the Freedom to remain silent and the right not to listen.

I do not have an account on F***book, I do not have an account on Tw*tter, I do not have an account on Cretinogramm and I am considering closing down the LinkedIn account.

Does this disqualify me from the visa waiver program (*)?

(*)ESTA went completely overboard in the last 3 years. When I filled my Esta in 2011, it was a page of data. Filling it again last year - there were two pages asking for all kinds of irrelevant crap. In fact, in my case it could not be filled (unless you deliberately enter invalid data). The idiot who coded the web front-end did not comprehend the idea of "I have a cittizenship of country X, but I do not hold a valid passport with that country"

US, EU agree Privacy Shield

Voland's right hand Silver badge

It is a good day to bury bad news

It is a very good time to bury some bad news in the smoke from Brexit.

Parliament takes axe to 2nd EU referendum petition

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Democracy in action...?

Seconded.

The people have voted. The vote was as expected at least in Wales, Norfolk, Kent and the North of England. Similarly as expected in London, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Does the government and the Parliament like it or not is irrelevant they should abide by it.

By the way, there is a significant difference between throwing toys out of the pram and taking a full unconditional responsibility for what you have done.

So my only wish is that the geriatric majority which brought us this vote takes the responsibility proportional to the way they voted. So when the emergency budget axe falls (and looking at the FTSE it will within 2-3 weeks), instead of raising taxes we FIRST: CUT the pensions; SECOND: CUT all treatment for diseases prevalent in the 60-90 population in the NHS; THIRD: CUT from the budget share for care services.

After all - you have to take responsibility for your actions. I want to see for ones the ones who voted for something actually do it (*).

(*) I voted in person due to forgetting to renew my postal vote and I regret that I did not take pictures. I will remember this day with the marvelous sight of two pensioners - one under a blanket in a push chair, the other one pushing that chair while sucking on an oxygen bottle in the chair tray. The bottle and the chair - with LEAVE stickers slapped on it. Yeah, someone is "taking their jobs".

Gun-jumping French pols demand rapid end to English in EU

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Today - little

150 years ago - the opposite.

150+ years ago any Spanish who were actually willing to talk to a Greek and vice versa was going to use French.

Quite a few French would actually love to have that back to the great displeasure of the rest of Europe which would probably prefer Spanish to become the third official language for economic reasons.

IT consultant gets 4 years' porridge for tax fraud

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: I'm not condoning his actions....

No, normal standards in a modern society.

The only crime bigger than not paying taxes as far as government is concerned is grand treason. Al Capone could tell you - if he was alive.

Special delivery: Activists drop 100,000 net neutrality complaints on FCC

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Be careful...

For what you ask (net neutrality) you may just get it.

Issue is elsewhere. The provider is determining that the streaming gets priority over the same trade you mentioned. As a user I disagree.

I would like to have MY interface on the BNG (or CMTS) configured with MY POLICY. One I DEFINE. If I would like the trade to have priority over streaming on my interface I will do so MYSELF.

By the way do not try to tell me it is impossible. I have written that software stack 3 times in my life in different capacities and from different aspects (business access and interconnect, residential BNG and residential vCPE). The issue is not with this being not technically impossible. The issue is not with it not being productizable in general.

The issue is with the SP marketing and product management not having a clue on how to market it and monetize it, concocting cretinous idiotic "burst bandwidth for money" schemes (hello BT Broadband product management, how many times did you try to work on that?) and failing. After that blaming the whole idea as unworkable.

Brexit government pledge sought to keep EU-backed UK science alive

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: "Hook demanded an immediate pledge"

you would think they would be a bit happier about us leaving.

Why should anyone be happy about wasting time, resources and money which could be spent on something more productive. On top of everything, after the Eu has grudgingly said, OK, we will get on with it if you wish so, you get the two Eaton raised and Oxford educated w*nkers not bothering to even start the process and passing each other the ball in public. I think that was probably the final straw which pissed off the continent most of all (especially the Germans) - to the tune where they are now looking to invoke article 50 on the Eu side regardless of when UK will bother to do so.

EU GDPR compliance still a thing for UK firms even after Brexit

Voland's right hand Silver badge

This is based on the assumption UK is considered a "safe" destination

I would not be so sure that this assumption holds after a Brexit.

'2nd referendum' topples site

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: 2nd Referendum

The withdrawal agreement also has to be ratified by Parliament

There are two ways to leave a club. One is to send a letter of your intent to leave and stop paying your club fees. The other one is to be shown the door.

Why does everyone expect that the European community will just sit and wait while leaving the UK parliament decide everything? That IMHO is an extremely optimistic assumption.

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: 2nd Referendum

No, because when you take a measurement you have to allow for a degree of variance

Let's for a second pretend that statistics are the correct viewpoint. What do you think would be the variance on a 72% turnout fior a population of 60+ million? It will actually be less than the margin by which leave won so there is no likelihood of any difference in the result.

This is exactly why the petition is actually asking for changing the rules going for ridiculous turnout threshold (75%) and absolute voter majority. It is a bit too late to change the game rules. The game was played and leave won. Now let's grab a popcorn bag and watch the consequences because winning did not piss off Europe (and especially the Germans) anywhere as much as Cameron saying he will not be bothered to invoke the leave procedure for 60 days and hand that honour to Boris. That blew their gasket outright.

'Leave EU means...' WHAT?! Britons ask Google after results declared

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: So how long before ...

Monday latest.

PM resigns as Britain votes to leave EU

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Putin seems pretty content with the situation today.

He is financing one way or another some of that across Europe in a tit-for-tat response for Ukraine and the sanctions. While his fingerprints are not on the money trail leading to Farage and Co (still, one wonders why Farage refuses to publish his tax return), he has given a 26M load to Le Pen as well as quite a few handouts to other "interesting suspects".

Vendors suspend tech orders as Brexit slaps Brit pound

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Hedging

Just glad I put a 20k order through yesterday

What makes you think that the seller will not declare force major and cancel it?