* Posts by Teiwaz

4133 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2011

Zero arrests, 2 correct matches, no criminals: London cops' facial recog tech slammed

Teiwaz

Re: Surely though

i wonder what the rate is for a divining rod?

At those odds, probably the same or better (much better, once found a lost ring in a large field with a set).

Teiwaz

Re: Surely though

A real person looking through those 50 photos will probably be able to very quickly discount the majority of them leaving only a small number requiring investigation.

Unfortunately that's not how most I.T. is applied in the real world - As soon as the kit is installed and in regular use, it's very likely to be a case of 'Computer has fingered him/her/them, round the lot of them up and we'll sort it out back at the station...eventually, maybe.'

Teiwaz

Re: Minor point

£35k a year, to sift through photographs.

Yep, criminal.

Nope, not a criminal,

Nope, not a criminal.

They'll be 'hopefully' resurrecting the 'science' of Physiognomy.

Nope, not at all setting up an online course... £800 for a month, exciting new career beckons, ....followed by hanging from a tree Pink Gabriel when the 'horse' bolts....

Teiwaz

The alternative is real human Police presence, but that's expensive and moderately risky (more in the insurance risk area, than lives, because it's money that's at stake). /jaded cynic

Facial recognition tech is just one of those wet dreams they couldn't and can't pass up, no matter how many stat reports say it doesn't work.

The 'a.i.' maybe agnostic, it's also apparently just as unintelligent as the people trying to apply it.

Nothing particularly agnostic about where it's been applied, nor the blind faith by which it's been repeatedly applied.

Did I say Chinese jobs? I meant American jobs says new Trump Tweet

Teiwaz

Re: Art of the Deal

Was it not Trump who stated that they needed to "drain the swamp" as per Washington DC ?

That's because everyone misunderstood Donalds intent RE: Swamp

i.e He wants to drain it and build a nice lucrative themed resort there.

It's the only association he knows.....

Seemingly he's also surrounded by devout christians who've managed to remain blind to the 'moneylenders in the temple' (parable?) - I guess they are too intent trying to get the middle east to explode in the hopes of triggering the end-times....

....nutters the lot of them.

Wah, encryption makes policing hard, cries UK's National Crime Agency

Teiwaz

Re: Ridiculous!

Cue intro to 'Judge Death' storyline...

German IKEA trip fracas assembles over trolley right of way

Teiwaz

Don't have the Aldi rice pudding

There are several near me (and about as many Asda),

Why anyone would suffer long queues in Aldi if there's an alternative is beyond me, especially after trying the rice pudding *

* label scarily close to the label of a quality tinned custard product, but is actually filled with a milky substance with about a half handful of rice - should actually be labelled 'milky soup'.

Ubuntu sends crypto-mining apps out of its store and into a tomb

Teiwaz

Re: Got to give this punk some credit.

I'm with thames on this,

I'm on Archlinux.

SWAP sees absolutely no usage whatsoever.

You've got pr0n: Yes, smut by email is latest workaround for UK's looming cock block

Teiwaz

Re: Probably mentioned already but

@ Simon Harris: My mother always threatened that if I misbehaved she'd 'pull my pants down and smack my bottom... even if we were in the middle of the shop'. (that was the early 1970s when that sort of thing was still allowed!)

Can you please assure us that you were under (say) 5 at the time and not rather older?

And if you were good, did you get 'bitty'?

Teiwaz

I read that as....

I only watch 1970's porn that had the instruments that never quite made it onto Starsky and hutch

I thought, 'what an odd choice of slang term', and 'could there have been a racier version of Starsky and Hutch I didn't previously know about....?'

Make masses carry their mobes, suggests wig in not-at-all-creepy speech

Teiwaz

Re: ID Cards and enforced bio-metrics

You have mobile phones, CCTV and all kinds of sensors and systems tracking you automatically -- and you are still terrified of ID cards?

You think they won't have mobile phone type chips on them within 5 years (definitely always on), and it'd be easier to get legislation through on a requirement to always carry than to get one insisting people carry a phone at all times.

Teiwaz

Time for his retirement

Clearly going bonkers, so a Lordship is in the offing...

Your software hates you and your devices think you're stupid

Teiwaz

Re: Hang the UX designer

Agreed, I hate controls which are invisible until you happen to mouse over them!

Those are bad. The ones that remain invisible even when you mouse over them are worse.

Exactly who thought that was a good idea...?

Turn you work OS into a DVD menu easter egg experience...

US Congress finally emits all 3,000 Russian 'troll' Facebook ads. Let's take a look at some

Teiwaz

Re: Decades of experience

The overwhelming majority of VOTERS have got decades of experience of political promises. I don't think that childern are being considered here...

Maybe, but looking at decades of election results, it appears the decades of experience is in being herded down the same track time and time again.

I'd suggest those who get on the bandwagons with glee every election do so for the 'high' that comes with electric short-circuiting of the brain when normal life falls into the backstage for the promise of radical change.

Council/comittee type elections don't really tap into that cult of the personality theme as readily as a leadership contest though.

It's kind of King-ship rite - It's enough to make you wish for some form of anarcho-cyniclist commune.

Yay for Nvidia, GPU giant report decent first quarter results despite recent setbacks

Teiwaz

Nvidia still sucks...

...on 'Linux though.

It's Galileo Groundhog Day! You can keep asking the same question, but it won't change the answer

Teiwaz

The cheaper (optimistic) option...

There aren't any nice people there....unless you back it up with cash...then they're all nice.

Pack the satellites in the boots of Teslas and leave them on Elon Musks driveway.

Teiwaz

Re: "[My] iPhone will be picking up Galileo and GPS at the same time - will that need an upgrade?"

I don't think that's particularly fair - outside of tech communities

He's not a member of the general public.

He should at least be sent to the naughty corner or given a dunce cap - it's an elementary question that could have been answered with some simple research.

He should learn to use his phone rather than just wave it about. Should have done some homework and not come straight from the subsidised bar to wave his phone about like a dick, then he might have thought about and asked some pertinent questions from the available expert and not something elementary.

Teiwaz

We don't like to be seen as a second class country. America, Russia and the EU have their GPS systems while we are scrabbling for crumbs like every other third-country.

Which is, of course, the main reason the EU is building Galileo, it doesn't want to be seen as living off US and Russian crumbs. Better to beggar taxpayers by duplicating systems than be seen as third-rate power.

Crumbs? Combined with 'Russia' or 'America' neither really sound appetizing or healthy - I'd heartily recommend cooking up something yourself, which is what the EU is doing.

The UK are only thinking of getting into the kitchen 'cause they are miffed at not being allowed in a members only restaurant any more despite cancelling their membership and throwing a stropand insisting they still be allowed to use the lav.

Teiwaz

Jerusalem

For Queen, Country and St George. We may have lost our empire but, by God's divine hand and grace, we will have that British constellation above us, above everyone. Huzza!

Just don't break into Jerusalem, we don't want to confuse a jumpy Iran, we might have a few missiles headed our way.

Brit govt told to do its homework ahead of talks over post-Brexit spy laws and data flows

Teiwaz

Once it leaves, this protection is removed, and the controversial Investigatory Powers Act – which has been ruled unlawful under EU law – will be part of considerations on whether to grant an adequacy deal.

Basically line-up a few fall-guys for D.P Minister (or whatever*) to catch the flack as poorly amended bill after lazily amended bill gets rammed through trying to amend RIPA hoping at some point the EU will marginally accept it.

* or maybe not Home Office Minister seems to come with 'brass neck' in job description.

Google's socially awkward geeks craft socially awkward AI bot that calls people for you

Teiwaz

Re: SPAM Robo-Callers Are In L♥ve With Artificial Imposters (AI)

Neo-Ludditism becomes a craze.

Neo-Ludditism is the only sane response....

Speech recognition climbing above 90%

- Not if you have a regional accent.

Every major OS maker misread Intel's docs. Now their kernels can be hijacked or crashed

Teiwaz

So....

What's the expected performance hit when the fixes get applied?

There's going to be one, right?

These things are getting like unexpected tax bills.

Meet TPU 3.0: Google teases world with latest math coprocessor for AI

Teiwaz
Joke

A.I again...?

So the feared impending A.I. war has been downgraded to a large near future advertising misrepresentation bruha.

The A.S.A will be on the forefront, in an underground guerilla war fighting for mankinds survival?

Too early in the morning, images from terminator movies blending sureally with dull court dramas...

Microsoft vows to bridge phones to PCs, and this time it means it. Honest.

Teiwaz

Bridging the Gap

Not entirely sure Windows 8 was not an attempt to have a Microsoft advertising and sales kiosk in every home, small office, medium sized business and average consumers trouser pocket...

Fancy a hamburger? <u>Push the hamburger button now.</u>

can't find hamburgerbutton? <u>push the blue Microsoft button</u> and our Help Assistant will be with you shortly (or a dubiously contracted support company)

Hamburger button pressed!!!

---That will be $14.99---Delivery in three weeks.....Thank you for Shopping at Microsoft.

Blame everything on 'computer error' – no one will contradict you

Teiwaz

Yes and no. The WaterFox spell checker obviously didn't flag a posible typo - and my brain read what it knew should be there.

There's a point.

Anyone know of a good spellchecker for a browser better than the current 'just underline everything it doesn't recognise but not help like a smug teacher'.

I'm not using any grammerly stuff or anything that clouds the solution. There's a perfectly good dictionary on the system that should easily be able to provide corrections and not just 'mark my homework'.

Teiwaz

Should be a Screenplay.

Saw a movie like it once, but the main character managed to get a hold-all full of guns after a few scenes.

At least you didn't start or end in a car and some confusion over left and 'right!'.

Microsoft's latest Windows 10 update downs Chrome, Cortana

Teiwaz

Re: Try Linux. - Or DON'T! (My love/hate Linux rant.)

I've been using 'Linux at home for 18 years.

Suse, Mandriva, Ubuntu Archlinux.

The occasional issue - due to poor or impatient choices in Hardware - but mostly it's a joy of total control.

You can't buy the latest GPU or even CPU hot off R&D - the drivers are never up to it. Not the OSS ones 'cause the devs haven't had time (and rarely enough help from the manufacturer), and not the proprietary drivers (if there are any) 'cause the manufacturers couldn't give a monkeys.

The Linux kernel team does an amazing job, and the distros do their best to try to ensure the most amount of hardware is recognised, but even MS mostly relies on the hardware companies, and Apple don't do other hardware than their own curated machines because of the enormous headaches.

As well as having to settle for slightly older hardware to ensure best operation, you also have to research any hardware you intend to buy more closely than you would normally,

You have to accept when you choose to use 'Linux, you are mostly buying things on your own knowledge, up to recently, there was never a little penguin logo on the box guaranteeing compatibility with 'Linux.

Teiwaz

Cortana turned off

At least Cortana can now be turned off, courtesy of MS. Enjoy while it lasts.

'turned off', you mean - people reading the comments without reading the article might actually think Ms had a change of heart regarding it's annoying assistant.

She's 'turned off' 'cause the software surgeons at MS left a 'wrench' in the works they now can't find.

Cambridge Analytica dismantled for good? Nope: It just changed its name to Emerdata

Teiwaz

Re: Obama

a Liberal did it

Americans seem to have an alternative definition of 'liberal'

It just didn't get the right press attention at the time, and there wasn't the same simmering concern over privacy running in the background or the Russian interference concerns.

But, perhaps American reporting has gotten so partisan that a 'liberal' news outlet might well have trimmed the story, just as a conservative outlet might have tried to minimised the story if it looked bad for one of their demagogues.

Perhaps that partisan reporting is still something less likely to happen in the U.K....

I've got way too much cash, thinks Jeff Bezos. Hmmm, pay more tax? Pay staff more? Nah, let's just go into space

Teiwaz

Re: Olds

Bezos is just pissing away the money on space-travel for rich people. What musk is doing, on the other hand, is the real deal.

It's just 'Tourism'.

It's not going to really solve any earthbound problems as the moneyed mostly useless parasites will be coming back down again.

When colonies happen, they'll be driven by either mining and the hard life and austere conditions that come with it or future tyrannical employment overlords like Bezos packing people off to run warehouses or call centres off planet to avoid employment laws, followed by some sort of Red Faction and eventually fragmentation into independent states with a whole new set of mindless bigots farting their nonsense over the communication channels.

Progress? You can take humanity into space, but don't expect evolution into higher lifeforms, just 'cause they fell out of the cradle reaching for the shiney baubles on the mobile.

Blighty: If EU won't let us play at Galileo, we're going home and taking encryption tech with us

Teiwaz

Re: Fucking Brexit

Eurovision hate

What?

UK wins when they field a song and troupe that catches the mood with the other voting countries, which isn't often. Sandie Shaw, Lulu, Bucks Fizz, Brotherhood of man (plus one after that I can't recall).

Problem is, our music biz is aligned toward trying to break into the U.S,

If you field donkeys, the audience will bray back.

No top-ups, please, I'm a millennial: Lightweight yoof shunning booze like never before

Teiwaz

Driiink!!!

If you're still doing it when you're 40, you're probably a barrister.

Now, there's got to be a very amusing and potentially libelous story you are just dying to tell, but can't afford to, behind that comment.

Post-Facebook fallout: Americans envy Europeans' privacy – top EU data watchdog

Teiwaz

Oh, is Europes 'top data protection watchdog' now going to use his influence to bring that important whistleblower in from the cold and protect him from the U.S?

'Splendid isolation'? 'me arse' if such a humane gesture was actually carried out.

The eagle-minded federals would have him within six months. It's all spin and self-congratulation.

Bill Gates declined offer to serve as Donald Trump's science advisor

Teiwaz

If a requirement of being in government meant you had to know anything about the area you were responsible for then "Cabinet reshuffle" wouldnt be a thing.

A mere reshuffle would do nothing - the requirements could only mean an entirely new cabinet constructed with thought on effectiveness and planning rather than the usual nepotism, and better quality materials than the usual weak dull planks.

Paperback writer? Microsoft slaps patents on book-style gadgetry with flexible display

Teiwaz

Folding screens I get, but magazines are not the perfect model I'd consider worth copying.

I remember magazines* where the well thumbed centre-page inevitably fell out - then the publishers switched to spines and glue, which solved it, then reduced the glue to save costs and brought the feature back.

* Not porn, surprisingly,

If any style in flexible screens is worthy of adopting, it's the classical scroll - but that might be a little more complicated for touch use on the go.

Eurocrats double down on .eu Brexit boot-out

Teiwaz

Re: In Next Month's News

I like to leave them confused over whether to downvote or upvote, or not. What a dilema!

No confusion, repetitive use of tired old phrases like remoaner (or any trite distortion of names of former politicians) automatically get a downvote.

That Brexit in action: UK signs pact to let Euro court judge its patents

Teiwaz

Re: Remoaners get it wrong - again

Of course not, why would he read it if he can spout off a quick comment to make himself feel superior?

At least he's living up to his handle, any sense of superiority is unwarranted.

Leave it to Beaver: Unity is long gone and you're on your GNOME

Teiwaz

Re: On the face of it

using 'Gnome shell' rather than 'Unity' probably cuts back on the level of effort they need to expend to get it.

It's not exactly 'vanilla' Gnome. That was the stated expectation when Unity 8, convergence et all was abandoned, that Ubuntu were going to go with vanilla gnome.

Then...a change here a change there, some to lessen the crossover for users now used to Unity, others, basically to polyfilla in some of Gnomes rough bits.

Teiwaz

Re: Good riddance!

Unity was an abomination. They didn't want you to be able to rearrange anything, insisted that the logo be mandatory, etc. I was simply enraged by a Linux distribution telling me how to use it.

Funnily enough....

Gnome is an abomination. They'd prefer you not to be able to rearrange anything,

.....is just as true....as it was when Unity launched, due to probably very minor differences of opinion at the time, with where Gnome was headed.

Teiwaz

Is it Ubuntu release time of year? Again?

I used to follow it avidly, lost interest February last year, if there's no convergeance ambition, it's just another distro......another Gnome based distro at that.........

Teiwaz

Re: I returned to Mint

From Mate???

Maybe you are talking Ubuntu Mate, but for many, Mate is mostly synonymous with the Mint distro.

Reading your post, I couldn't help thinking....'poor bugger's got concussion'

Europe fires back at ICANN's delusional plan to overhaul Whois for GDPR by next, er, year

Teiwaz

ICAAN to stick 2 fingers up at the EU and say...

That would involve ICAAN actually pulling said fingers out of it's arse first.....

Provided it manages to beg enough time to work out how.....

Windrush immigration papers scandal is a big fat GDPR fail for UK.gov

Teiwaz

Re: How is it?

Re: How is it?

Because when they do it right, it isn't news.

It also doesn't needlessly stress up whole portions of the populous and make the UK look like a shoddy badly run country with delusions of not merely adequacy but thinks it's actually competent.

The Uk maybe, recent governments, far from it.

Teiwaz

How is it?

That the government always manages come to utterly the wrong conclusion on data retention.

If it's required, throw it away, as in the Windrush case, if it can be at all argued that it's retention is a human rights abuse, keep it and fight tooth and nail with whatever lame excuse comes to mind to keep it, as in the case of the police custody shots.

I am reminded of the remonstration Lois gives to Peter in a Family Guy episode about 'if his brain tells him to do something, not to do it, while if his brain tells him not to do something, it's probably the right thing to do.'

Oracle snaffles 'don't seat us next to that smelly brand' Brit adtech firm Grapeshot

Teiwaz

What about

Tech that can avoid consumers seeing dodgy ads.

Scrap that, all ads are pretty dodgy, if they're not potentially offending someone (somewhere) with some daring ad campaign, they are offending our intelligence with fake promises, misleading information or downright lies.

I've been seeing nothing but ukrainian wife* ads and clickbait crap for days, and I've not been near trashy sites (is el reg trashy?) or dating sites in ages.

* Maybe I should check my amazon account, maybe amazon thinks I bought a wife already...

Audiophiles have really taken to the warm digital tone of streaming music

Teiwaz

Re: Worried about Digital download's future

A very legitimate concern.

You can argue 'you have a choice', and yes, you do at present.

However, sooner or later, the industry will try to settle on what is the most lucrative alone, and if the services that provide most value to the consumer are minority compared to the service that is the most lucrative, they'll be, cut or the firms sooner or later no longer able to compete.

At least with HP, once you paid the cost plus the interest off, it was yours, streaming is just renting.

Even a magazine subscription doesn't remove your right to read back issues when it expires or the magazine goes out of business.

Streaming does have some attractive advantages though.

Revenge pornography ban tramples free speech, law tossed out – where else but Texas!

Teiwaz

Got to be Missing Joke icon

Personally I say we get rid of all Politicians, who's name starts with 'M' (Macron, May & Merkel for starters).

Oh, well, of course that would solve everything....

We'd also need to ban anyone 'we' don't like from having a name starting with any letter but 'M' as well.

Michael starts with an 'M', and you are talking politics....

'Your computer has a virus' cold call con artists on the rise – Microsoft

Teiwaz

Re: Re "putting the phone down is almost always the right thing to do."

Leading them down a long alley for 20 minutes while pretending to be a dimwit is the right thing to so.

I prefer the 'deny everything' approach, also known as the 'argument sketch' approach, in which you contradict the person on the other end on everything..

Declaring I didn't have a phone really confuses them for a moment, also presumably when the catch on as line goes dead after a moment...

McDonald's tells Atos to burger off: Da da da da da, we're lobbing IT ...

Teiwaz

100% beef is a company name

When it comes to McD, are we absolutely sure they don't actually mean 100% of bull-something?

.....just checking......

Teiwaz

India?

Is that wise, considering the crackdown on products of the 'sacred cow'?

I'm assuming of course, the McD haven't switched the beef to some cunning combo of potato and flavourings....