Posts by codejunky 7111 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Oct 2011
@Howard Sway
"Yet more money poured into meaningless temporary little PR exercises about launching strategies for opportunities for future unicorns ....... much easier than doing something that actually produces something"
To be fair this is government. Of course they dont produce anything
"However, it won't have escaped the attention of Reg readers that the Biden administration is ponying up $52 billion in subsidies and other incentives to boost domestic semiconductor industries in the US, while next door in Europe, the EU has agreed a €43 billion ($47 billion) funding plan to attract chipmakers to set up facilities there and secure European supplies of chips."
Unfortunately some people will look at this and think the UK is somehow doing badly by not spaffing so much money on the same things. This is the thing we should be happy about, let other countries tax payers fab the chips for us to use.
@anonymous boring coward
"I don't recognise that. Perhaps you pointed out made up stuff?"
Doesnt matter if you recognise it or not. If you didnt discuss with me then you wouldnt know.
"Where's the £350m, by the way?"
The money for the NHS? That 'could' go to the NHS? Its going to the NHS already and more. But if you want to discuss how bad the official campaigns were (leave and remain) feel free.
"You do realise you only "won" by lies like that, and 70m Turks being due to arrive."
If you believe that I understand why you dont recognise factual discussion
@anonymous boring coward
"But this just isn't true. Remainers were shouted down every time they tried to point out actual facts. And boy did we try."
Wasnt much better being a Brexiter and pointing out the actual facts. Even now some will deny fact.
@AC
"But it is a clusterfuck for those who have a brain cell that works and are trying to do business in Europe"
Why? Is the EU so bad to do business with? And when we were inside the protectionist bloc we had to have the same restriction? Best do business with the rest of the world, its bigger and growing faster.
@NoneSuch
"Keep European citizens info inside Europe."
Why? The point of facebook and such is to deal in the practically valueless data that must be processed in huge volume just to be at all worth any profit. While some people have their issues with social media (understandably) there are obviously a lot of people who value the platforms. Which only exist without monetary cost due to the vast volume of data.
Keeping data in silo's of countries could be worth less than nothing and would remove something that the people want. Anyone remember when the internet was to be a free space without borders and government interference.
@Potemkine!
"We'll see in 2050 if the target was realistic. It doesn't mean a target hasn't to be set."
Except by law the UK and some others have set the target. We legally have to hit a target we cannot hit. We do not have the technology or wealth to meet the obligations without severely damaging our standard of living. We will be cold, hungry and in the dark but some fools will feel good about it (the exempt class I expect).
"About economic damage, it must be balanced with the cost of global warming"
Absolutely. So we have a theory that doesnt hold water, based on data we know to be unreliable and very limited, put through predictive processes with huge error bars and pushed as propaganda when there seems little reason to be concerned. To avoid this problem we must economically damage our economies and drag people down to a poorer standard of living to appease the authoritarians and mud hutters. And the result has been to mass deploy technology we know doesnt work and leave countries energy insecure and increasing the costs on everyone for zero gain. But its ok because the figureheads are politicians buying beach front properties (they claim will sink) and a truant schoolgirl.
Of course the result has been for the rest of the world to build power generation while we erect monuments to a sky god and fall back on coal just to keep the lights on. We were so close to blackouts and yet it was a mild winter. Food costs have shot up. The cost of everything increases due to bad energy policy. We intentionally kneecapped out countries for nothing. But it makes some mud hutters feel good.
@Joe 3
"If the alternative to restricting flights is an ever-increasing number of wealthy* people flying more and more, burning more and more oil, causing more and more pollution, then we're doomed."
So would you prefer an ever decreasing number of wealthy people (aka make us all poorer)? All under the assumption that we are somehow bringing about doom? I was happier when when hippies went and made themselves poorer on a patch of land where they could make each other poor and miserable but leave the rest of us alone.
"The current amount of flying is a recent phenomenon"
The invention of aircraft plus improvements in design and it making people richer leads to more of it. Kinda like people having a lot of food and plenty to choose from due to populations getting richer.
"Younger people are growing up thinking this is normal, but it's not."
Again let the hippies go back to their field and their communes where they can live the peasant lifestyle if they wish. Leave the rest of us alone.
"My family considered moving to Australia in the 1960s, it would have meant a weeks-long trip by boat, and they probably wouldn't have returned to the UK for decades. Now some people do that sort of journey on a whim."
People are richer. Just as we ship products around the world and have instant communications. Richer.
"Travel can be great fun, but when it's starting to endanger the planet we live on, it's time to put on the brakes."
And there the test fails. It doesnt endanger the planet, it makes us all richer, put brakes on your own life if you wish but leave the rest of us alone.
"*The vast majority of humanity never fly in their entire lives, those of us who can travel when and where we want are incredibly privileged, even if we don't realise it as such."
People get richer aka more privileged. We have the same issues with food. Some places in the world are poor. Some places trying to get richer. And some people here think we need dragging back to poverty so they can feel like the saviours of the planet.
@David M
"Just organise some kind of voucher system to limit the number of flights anyone can take to (say) two return flights per year"
Does that include for flying cargo around the world? The there is the problem of the scum who would run such a scheme who would undoubtedly need to fly more so would be exempt, as would their cronies.
And why must we reduce flights? Because we cant let the plebs travel can we.
"government-mandated net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets by 2050."
The problem of course being government setting a target with no clue how it could ever be hit. It has been a great driver at making people poorer and inflicting economic damage but beyond fantasies of saving the earth it hasnt achieved much positive.
@OhForF'
"Add a rule that any pharma company not handing in plans for building the eu factories within a realistic time limit looses the patent protection allowing anyone to build the factory and produce the formerly protected products and i doubt any of the big pharma companies will give up the profitable european market."
That would just lead to the US and probably everyone invalidating EU patents and a free for all on EU intellectual property.
@OhForF'
"I do not understand why the EU is not making rules that say if you want to be an approved supplier of pharma products to the european market you have to produce at least 5% of the volume you sell in the european market in EU contries with a realistic plan to ramp up that production to 15% in a month and 50% in half a year."
Probably because the direct and immediate problems for the population being unable to access mediation would cause politicians to be strung up from lampposts all over Europe
"OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman told the Senate Committee on the Judiciary that the US government should consider implementing rules that would require companies to obtain a license to build AI models that have advanced capabilities beyond a specific threshold. "
I am sure all the other countries will be doing exactly the same. While the US stops innovation I am sure the Chinese and Russians and anyone who can will just stop too
@Terry 6
"I was just wondering how removing much our better then EU minimum requirements"
That brings about the huge question of if the tighter than EU minimum requirements (or even the minimum requirement itself) is better. That is an assumption that would first need to be demonstrated. Second it is H in The Hague who seems to be pointing that the Netherlands with lower requirements is better (if I understand the comment correctly).
"And indeed how much reduced requirementsfor safety is a benefit, or would be thought of one when people get injured."
Were you about when the UK went through a health and safety insanity? The insanity not being about health nor safety but about box checkers, prod noses and control freaks trying to grind everyone to a halt.
@AC
"So you agree that British illegal immigrants should be deported. That wasn't so difficult was it?"
At no point was it difficult. Again I think you were having a different conversation than the one I was having.
"I wonder why the UK is not capable of doing this? Has Brexit helped the situation in any way?"
For example the UK citizens will have arrived legally and have been entitled to be there. Making it more likely that they want to comply with the law and administrative services. Compare that to illegals pushing their way into countries, which is an actual issue in the EU too and they too proposed 'processing centres' in foreign countries to hold the people being processed. I am not sure brexit has much bearing on this aspect of border control.
@AC
"What is to understand?"
You equated the legal entry and existence in another country where then the host country changes its eligibility for legal residence with invading the borders by actively circumventing legal routes to enter a country with the intent to be an illegal migrant. Not sure how many people didnt go through the residence process and just stayed illegally in the EU nor what reasons they have. But fleeing the 3rd world, war torn hell hole country of France to illegally enter the UK is very different.
@H in The Hague
"the current UK Work at Height Regulations"
Interestingly this was a conversation I was having only 30 mins ago with one of the people who recently was trained up for something related. She was complaining that the gov is looking at reducing or removing an amount of restrictions concerning Work At Height and such in 2026. To which she thinks people wont be wearing hard hats and wont have any safety rigging as well as maybe putting her out of a job. I am guessing this is one of those areas you are saying we over-regulate.
Not sure how that is related to the trade conversation you replied to, I was amused at the coincidence though.
@Adair
"Try looking up the meaning and purpose of a 'trading bloc',"
Why? We are joining one. After we left a political union.
"then consider the realities earning a living right next door to one."
We are joining one. But the advantage of a trade bloc being to reduce trade barriers, while the governments are the ones erecting such barriers and making it difficult to get what the country wants/needs. As I pointed out in my comment that we had to make things difficult while in the EU.
@LogicGate
"The UK does not have a "flood of refugees" problem"
Arrival through small boats or even when they invaded the tunnel. Does that sound controlled? I do notice you changed my wording from illegal immigrants to refugees. A refugee is someone we give shelter from a dangerous situation back home. While you could hold a less than approving opinion of France that is an economic migrant which should be done legally. Illegal immigrant may or not apply for asylum. And the UK has so little a problem that the gov has no idea how many are in the country. Not a clue.
"hyping red meat to Xenophobes"
So the idea of actually managing the countries borders is xenophobic? Insisting people should follow a legal process before entering the country is xenophobic? I think you might be exaggerating a bit.
@AC
"Here's how you deal with real illegal immigrants."
Unfortunately that doesnt really work. The UK citizens wernt illegally entering the country etc they were there legally and then the EU ordered them to leave. We can tell the illegals not to make the journey and it makes no difference. They still flee the EU particularly France to sneak into the country.
"Also, for every person the UK ships to Rwanda uk.gov agreed to take a Rwanda in their place. So number of people in UK under this scheme remains unchanged."
Which is why I prefer the enforcing of the border. I didnt bring up the Rwanda idea, I said push them back out of our waters and for those here if they want to complain about the accommodation can leave the country.
@AC
"Now if you'd said use the Rwanda scheme to send people like those nasty couple that run that pub in Essex"
Why? The Rwanda scheme being a place to accommodate the flood of illegal immigrants who need to be processed. Were the Essex couple illegal immigrants?
"you know the ones with the black dolls that had ropes round their necks"
Ropes around their necks? Thats a piece of information I havnt seen reported anywhere even in the Guardian article about it. The dolls being Gollywog dolls which are just dolls. Regardless of your taste for or against an inanimate doll they are just that. I recall years ago there were cries that kids dolls were almost all white.
"Bit appears it is only available to brown people, which I feel is a bit discriminatory."
Is that the only discriminating factor? Not maybe the illegal part of the immigration?
"Prior to brexit I could send a single 100 x 120 x 100 400Kg pallet to or from anywhere in Europe <-> UK for about £120. Delivery time was 3-4 days depending on a morning or afternoon collection. 1st of February that shot up to over £500, and a delivery time of 16 weeks. Currently I’m paying circa £350 and the delivery time is 3-4 weeks. And that doesn’t even take the paperwork into account"
Yikes that is terrible. Its a good job we left them isnt it. So the rest of the world was being cut off by such expense, delay and red tape. Hopefully we can diverge from the protectionist restrictions and make it easier and cheaper to import what we want.
"My european customers find it easier to buy from China than the uk."
How interesting. By European you mean EU? Who choose to make it easier to trade with China than the UK instead of just making trade easier with everywhere. Hopefully the UK will take a better approach to its imports
For a border to be effective doesnt it need to be enforced? Such as pushing those dinghies back out of UK territory waters. For those who land can leave if they dont like the army barracks accommodation they occupy while being processed.
Not that fixing the border systems wouldnt be a good thing for the country.
@localzuk
"You think we only need chips for cars? Without our supply of semiconductors from ally countries half way round the world, we don't have working tanks, drones, jets, missiles, ships, anti-air systems, refineries etc... Hell, even our tractors need them to provide us with food."
Which is why you might need to answer the second part of the question of how we would get the materials and maintenance to keep producing if the situation was so bad. If you believe it so important wouldnt buying the cheap chips and stocking them up be better than expensive manufacturing in a country much more expensive to produce them and still have the strategic problem of having to import materials instead of chips.
@localzuk
"The thing with strategic industries, you need some at home. Because your allies are not always your allies."
The UK cannot provide enough food for its citizens. In such bad times that we are no longer friends with either the US nor EU we are in bigger trouble than some chips
@LogicGate
"See.. fixed it for you."
Not really. You mention the Asia part without noticing the redundancy being put in place by the EU and US planning to produce the same products. And the extra expense being covered by their tax payers while we get competitively priced chips and the extra sources should things go wrong in a part of the world.
"So are we asserting that had the UK remained within the European Union, TSMC would have had a very real possibility of building a sub 100nm chip plant within the UK?"
This is just an excuse for them to moan about brexit. Possibly click bait or just sore loser. I dont see how the UK would benefit when as it says in the article-
Initially planned at €7 billion, the costs are expected to balloon to €10 billion and the consortium expects Germany to cough up a solid chunk of that.
Why would we want to blow a load of money to produce chips at a higher price than elsewhere. Especially when the US and EU will throw money at them for us.
@AC
"I don’t fear the technology itself, it’s how our society implements it, if it means skilled jobs become deskilled and low paid then it’s a bad thing."
I can understand that fear but by deskilling a job and opening it up to more people reduces the costs so makes everyone richer. Food occupies a much smaller portion of our budgets because of technology. Same with clothing. We could keep the technology away and make these high paid jobs and the products cost so much more which would make everyone poorer.
"The “oh we will have more time to follow the arts and interests’ has been the dream for years but it doesn’t match up to reality."
How many TV channels do we have? Streaming services? Plays, Theatre, etc. We even have jobs like 'diversity advisor' and other hobby jobs.
"Try telling the Conservative Party in the UK or the Republicans in the US that we should pay people displaced by technology, or working on minimum wages that we should pay them an amount equivalent to current jobs, I don’t think you will get a very warm reaction."
We do pay people displaced by technology. We have the welfare state. Why should people on minimum wage be paid more unless they are producing more? Minimum wage is the equivalent of current jobs for their type. Minimum wage removes jobs. Increase the minimum wage and you put more people out of work. Demanding higher wages has increased automation as it is cheaper than the low value worker.
"Some of the tech leaders get it, suggesting Universal Basic Income, but that’s going to be a hard sell to right wingers, but it will probably be.necessary in the end to keep the economy going."
I dont know what impact a UBI would have. I would expect prices would just rise to account for the extra money.
"Bottom line is companies that don’t embrace AI and automation will be at a disadvantage, and it’s adoption will absolutely lead to job losses, and no not everyone will have the ability to retrain for the rapidly shrinking jobs available to human workers."
Lets assume all jobs get taken and humans have no work. Then everything is free. It is a world of abundance where our every need and desire is catered for.
"Politicians and governments need to plan for the impact of AI on the economy and people now, but show no sign of doing so."
When the government and politicians plan for the economy the economy goes bad. The economy flourishes when politicians and government dont get to plan and control.
@AC
"But how rewarding will those jobs be, and what will AI and automation leave untouched?"
I know its often the popular thought that automation will be bad, and I guess that is due to the survival instincts of assuming the worst. But automation means we dont spend our daylight hours all toiling in a field to barely grow enough food to survive. We even have the arts as a career instead of pastime. We have far more free time as chores are automated.
"Many programmers are already cut and paste merchants, how long before “programmer” becomes “telling a chat bot what to code”."
It beats punching cards then crying when the pack falls and you dont know the order. The ability to have greater entertainment and the overall benefits of being able to order products from around the globe without leaving your home.
I can understand the fears but also see the upsides of people being more free to do other things or produce even more of what we want.
@AC
"I'm glad to see this poster holding up their hands to their chan-style race-baiting posts. There is hope for the world."
Assuming you actually assumed this to be race-baiting and not just a troll, it is in your mind. You might want to reread the posts which were about trade, not skin colour. I doubt Headley_Grange had any racist intent when he mentioned African farmers, but instead mentioning the farming trade in which I responded discussing trade. If you see race or colour or burdens that is your issue
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