* Posts by codejunky

7085 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Oct 2011

Twitter's algos favour tweets from conservatives over liberals because they generate more outrage online – study

codejunky Silver badge

Re: There's probably an Outrage Factory out there

@Snake

"That "open to a range of views" included being pretty quiet on misogynistic and racists commentary. They seemed to have little issue with it sometimes."

Seems almost like they believe in freedom of speech vs trying to label every dissenting voice as misogynistic and racist.

UK science suffers as lawmakers continue to dither over Brexit negotiations

codejunky Silver badge

Re: British institutions are left high and dry

@Lars

"Poland is perfectly free to leave the EU, but the majority of Poles don't want to leave and I doubt the government wants to leave either."

It is an interesting situation and I am not sure of the motivation either. I dont know if the Polish gov want to leave or if they are just slapping the EU until the EU cooperate with whatever the Polish gov wants (possibly the control over their countries power structure or maybe something else/more).

The EU in a sticky situation as a number of events have conspired to weaken their grip while they try to hold tighter. Germany challenging the EU primacy was hushed up quick because that could cause severe damage quickly. Poland seems to be a slower burn. With the EU brexit negotiator now publicly calling for more French sovereignty (for his presidential run) it seems there is more resistance to 'more Europe' than before even if they dont leave.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Negotiating... @Dan 55

@Dan 55

"Oh how weak the EU bully which prevents the oppressed UK from being truly mighty is."

Eh? But yes the EU dragged us down, as I believe it does for its other members too.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Negotiating... @Dan 55

@Dan 55

"Please post a recent news story about supermarket shortages or petrol shortages in NI."

Like that one?-

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/spaces-on-northern-ireland-shelves-only-going-to-get-worse-says-food-sector-brexit-and-covid-crisis-blamed-for-perfect-storm-of-driver-shortages-40810547.html

But thats the same problem as the US has and the EU is developing. I am not being sarcastic but I dont get the point your trying to make. Can you explain?

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Negotiating... @Dan 55

@AC

"no one on the island of Ireland wants that"

They dont want what? The EU to put up a hard border, we know. And that being the only issue and it isnt the UK's issue. If the EU would wish to stir trouble thats on them.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: British institutions are left high and dry

@AC

"you're conflating. No point explaining"

No hope of explaining alternative versions you mean? Or go ahead and explain.

"instead you conflated Poland-Germany-Hungary"

Germany challenged EU primacy when German courts were asked to decide if an EU instruction would break the German constitution.

Poland doing the same and holding the line as it disagrees with the EU.

Hungary upset the EU by doing its own thing its own way to which the EU considered freezing them out until they comply.

So coward do you wish to explain?

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Negotiating... @Dan 55

@AC

"Well NI appears to be doing rather well as it is still in the single market. It is the UK that's not doing as well. Funny that, don't you think?"

Eh? You in dreamland or something?

codejunky Silver badge

@werdsmith

"The EU negotiators are not "throwing tantrums". "

You are kidding. The EU has great form on tantrums. Look at the crying over a chair and sofa in Turkey! As for the UK look at their tantrums over vaccine they screwed up ordering. They nearly violated their own agreement on the Irish border for it!

codejunky Silver badge

@Adair

"Do you have any substantive evidence to demonstrate bad faith on the EU's part?"

I dunno about the AC your responding to but the EU started and continued its negotiations in bad faith. The issue of Ireland being an EU construction as they refused to negotiate until they had their way on very specific issues, which goes against the negotiations proceeding in parallel.

Misbehaviour from the EU even being called out publicly because they refused to negotiate while UKIP (invited and with every right to be there) were in the room. This is childish behaviour.

EU negotiation with opposition (remain) groups instead of with the UK government which was a traitorous situation for the UK but accepted (welcomed) by the EU.

The EU got upset that the UK insisted on closing loopholes the EU would happily exploit. Just remember who we are dealing with-

https://capx.co/the-uk-has-every-reason-not-to-rely-on-brussels-good-faith/

Or even their abusive nature when they screwed up vaccine procurement and championed the idea of stealing it.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Negotiating... @Dan 55

@Xalran

"Well the UK can always rebuild a border between Eire and NI...

and perform all those food checks there... Problem solved.

Now, UK will also have to deal with the consequences of that move."

That would be the better solution. Except there wouldnt be much by way of building and the checks would be of the minimal we can get away with (and mostly for import). A fairly soft border the UK was happy to implement in the first place.

Its the EU who wanted to dictate a hard border and that would be funny. Any trouble wouldnt be worth starting in the UK as its an EU decision what they do on their side. And with the spine the EU has it would be a puddle on the floor in days.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Negotiating... @Dan 55

@EvilDrSmith

"Two weeks ago, the EU agreed to scrap 80% of food safety checks and 50% of paperwork, thus demonstrating that in fact the EU position was unreasonable, and that the majority of the checks were unnecessary."

This of course being something they were adamant could not be changed and was absolute and set in stone. It seemed to me that the EU hoped to starve out NI and blame the UK but when they would have to publicly become the dictator to do it chickened out because they would look as unreasonable as they have been.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Negotiating...

@Dan 55

"but suddenly the UK claims it's too complicated"

You were on such a roll until you made that mistake of saying the UK claims its too complicated when it was the EU who was shooting down solutions and crying hard border. The same EU that forgot what it negotiated during its vaccine panic and almost dictated a hard border in Ireland anyway until the UK and Ireland reminded them.

Not beyond the wit of man but beyond those twits it does seem.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: British institutions are left high and dry

@BenDwire

"I think enough has gone wrong for the EU to claim that Brexit was a complete failure"

I can only assume you have slept since we left.

"which is needed to keep other member states in check"

Which is going well since Poland looks to be rejecting the EU's rule and even Germany challenged it. Isnt Hungary also trying to get out of the grasp of EU control?

Electric car makers ready to jump into battery recycling amid stuttering supply chains

codejunky Silver badge

China

It looks like China and India will be looking to oil for power generation as demand for energy increases-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59059093

It seems China is at least aware of the dangers of renewables on electricity generation.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

@John Robson

"You're probably more likely to put the wrong fuel into the tank than to find the battery dead."

That would be user error not normal operation.

"The only case I can see where you are likely to "find the car with no charge" is if you leave it abandoned in a car park for several weeks having rushed for a ferry/train/plane/???."

No charge is a worst case but not enough charge to reach the destination is the real constraint. If the limit is weeks (I havnt looked into the loss/time) people taking vacations for weeks or even a month+ could be caught out pretty easily and their alternative might be to leave the car plugged in? These are not deal killers for everyone but could be a limitation on mass take-up.

"The car can even advise you when it's running low"

I assumed so, petrol cars do too. I am just considering that my car can sit with an almost empty tank outside for considerable time before I drive it to a station and refill in under a minute (not accounting for queues and paying of course). With an EV I guess that would mean plug it in and call a taxi.

"vampire drain should only account for ~1 mile a day at worst."

Is that from an ICE car battery or EV? Sorry for saving this until last I just wanted to question, if the loss is approx 1mile a day (assuming you mean EV battery) the average range of an EV is 181mile (quick google search) so on average they should surely be able to sit for about half a year before going completely dead?

codejunky Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

@John Robson

"30% of what compared with what? Typical efficiency is still in the 35% range"

The point was that engine efficiency is obviously not at its peak. As fuel is cheap the research hasnt really been worth it.

"A number of cars already have this capability"

Sorry I assume technically it can be done, I was asking more from the usability of the vehicle. If you had an emergency it would suck to find your car doesnt have enough charge even though its plugged in the wall (because it was powering the grid). Not insurmountable and MachDiamond did a pretty good reply on possible solutions.

"since that was your baseline."

Ah cool. Sorry I didnt know if it was range of transmission lines or driving etc (as I said sorry for being dim I just didnt know which). Not sure I mentioned normal daily driving but it is obviously what we compare against.

While not personally convinced by EV's I am more irritated by our reliance on crap energy generation. People can choose to buy an EV or not but we all suffer directly and indirectly by our energy generation being wildly unreliable. EV's are a problem solution if they suck a lot of energy but we dont generate much because of wind/solar.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

@MachDiamond

"An ICE is a very inefficient way to utilize that latent energy."

I was only talking about as a store of energy. I am vastly more likely to find the battery in my car is dead than my fuel evaporated from the tank.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

@John Robson

"Petrol is a great energy store, but a small engine is always going to be less efficient than a large one - that's just simple physics and engineering"

True, the value is in its ability to store energy effectively. Also with the cheap price of petrol the ICE doesnt seem to have hit peak efficiency either. In 2019 Mazda had improved the engine by 30%.

"The concept of V2G storage is well established, and it is commercialised in part already"..."Extending that to vehicles isn't too hard."

When I said I dont know how that would work I ment draining the fuel of some ones vehicle. Not an impossible situation to solve I would hope but something that would need addressing to work.

"Given that we just added an extra 200 miles of range over what you expected"

Sorry to be dim but added 200miles to what?

"The cost is artificially low because the cost of using the energy is not just the cost of production, but of cleaning up as well. Ignoring that externalised cost is not unique to the energy sector either."

Assuming we are to believe in MMCC co2 theory (as an example of an externalised cost) the economic solution sounds to be a carbon tax and let the market deal with the improvements/costs. Which would still make fossil fuel power generation the cheaper option followed by nuclear. Increased reliance on windfarms/solar just increases our reliance on gas and massively overcharges us all for energy.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

@John Robson

"Even if we burnt the petrol in a power plant we'd still reduce emissions, because we'd need less of it to power the vehicles on the road."

That doesnt seem to work. Petrol is a fantastic store of energy which we have in the tank and use only at the point where it is needed. Petrol in a power plant to power cars would have transmission losses before reaching the battery which would lose charge (a huge problem with the green revolution is no effective means to store electricity). Thats without considering that the generation of electricity must be available on demand and not at a preset time.

"And we could use relatively heavy/bulky equipment to capture the nastiest emissions and reduce the damage further. Additionally those emissions would be made somewhere that wasn't densely populated by people breathing it all in."

That is probably true.

"If we had an additional 40kWh storage available, maybe across half of the vehicle fleet, that would be a rather substantial battery to cope with the variation in generation from other sources as well."

I am not sure how effective that would be but the electricity losses going back and forth while draining someones personal transport of fuel because the grid needs energy would need serious working out. I dont know how that would work (do tell if you have information on this, I just dont know of working solutions).

"Our energy prices have been artificially far too low for far too long"

How is it artificial? We have and still do generate energy from fuels that we know work and we know how to harness and extract in useful ways. The price has been low due to the cost being low. One lie used to sell monuments to a sky god was how cheap it was and would be, which has failed miserably. But more concerning is we are still building such monuments which then increases our reliance on fossil fuels (to make the stuff) and then we still need fossil fuel generators because the monuments deliver so little.

I must admit I really hope some green champion MP states that the winter fuel allowance should be scrapped as an idea because energy prices have been artificially low for too long.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

@John Robson

"And every time we add more clean energy generation to the grid everybodies emissions go down."

Our energy prices go up, our reliance on gas goes up (because something has to produce the energy the unreliable's dont), our reliance on nuclear (French) energy increases and our spare capacity goes down.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Hmm

@James Hughes 1

"The long term problems caused by continued fossil fuel burning"

Like what? Electricity supply?

"will greatly outweigh any EV problems."

Such as no energy to charge them

codejunky Silver badge

Hmm

And yet the UK is looking at turning off EV chargers at home and work for up to 9 hours a day to protect the grid. Add the climbing cost of electricity which will only fall when we give up on unreliables and it seems electric cars are in for some problems.

Unvaccinated and working at Apple? Prepare for COVID-19 testing 'every time' you step in the office

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Experts

@Roland6

"We don't, I thought that was obvious; welcome to the post-CoViD19 world."

Thats the worrying part. There seems to be no desire to end this just as there was no desire to end the war on terror. It gives too much power to do stupid things people wouldnt generally accept.

"The problem is, I can see the government turning off the sequencing machines - to save money to spend on projects like HS2 and Trident refurbishment"

Or even to spaff on something we dont even get to see anything of. Government is very good at spending more money. I couldnt believe they were looking at tax rises considering the UK has fallen down the tax league and is spending like money is going out of fashion.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Experts

@AC

"To find out, try reading something like this instead of your GammonBroadcasting News Twitter feed?"

But your link only stands by what I asked and you part quoted. So if we aint getting rid of covid (not a shock) then when do we get to live our lives again?

Its no good complaining about the source when yours adds nothing to the one I linked to.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Experts

At what point are we vaccinated enough? At what point do we get to live our lives as before?

https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1451976915225559050

Does a vaccination protect yourself or everyone else? Does vaccination stop the spread or not? Will there be an end to this or is it a convenient excuse as was the 'war on terror'?

codejunky Silver badge

Experts

Of course the experts we are expected to believe are bowing to politics over reality-

https://bigthink.com/health/medical-journals-fashionable-nonsense/

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/well-yes-polly-but-the-nhs-still-isnt-very-good

We cant blindly follow expert advice as different experts have different views, and even outright lie for political reasons (think WHO at the start of the pandemic over China). That vaccines would put an end to restrictions (hasnt). The aim is for herd immunity, then thats just stupid, then back to vaccine for herd immunity.

While not an advocate against being vaccinated (I am double jabbed) I am not for forcing people to be vaccinated. We can make our choices and live with them.

codejunky Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: @jmch

@Stork

"To my shock I am in agreement with codejunky here"

I am sure there is plenty common ground. Even if we have different opinions on other subjects.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: @Potemkine!

@jake

"Do you really have to wonder?"

Yes. In both cases someone else believes they have the right to inject something into your body regardless of your rights, freedoms and consent. Both doing it for their own good not the one being injected. Its for the good of everyone else around them who perceive some great risk even though they are vaccinated.

Put this against the backdrop of some countries not accepting immunity as good enough but requiring the vaccine to be considered safe. Against the stupidity of people arguing against herd immunity as real (which was the goal ffs and why the vaccines were being developed) only to have them pushing for mass vaccination. A disturbing implicit trust in governments which is not only unusual but these are the same governments constantly criticized as incompetent and dangerous to the population.

*I will mention that I am double jabbed after taking some time to think about it. That does not mean I believe in forcing people against their will from not taking it.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: @Howard Sway

@mevets

"Urine tests for drug screening."

I am not aware of them putting anything into your body for that

codejunky Silver badge

Re: @Potemkine!

I see 12 downvotes at the idea that stabbing someone with a needle and injecting something they do not consent to is wrong. Watching the news there are girls being 'spiked' by needle because someone else feels they have the right to that girls body and to inject a substance they dont want.

I wonder how far removed those opinions are.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: @Potemkine!

@jake

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one."

Wasnt that the justification for the USSR, Nazi Germany and countless atrocities around the world?

codejunky Silver badge

Re: @Howard Sway

@AC

"Well they will tell you what you can't eat or drink"

That would be the opposite of what I said. They can refuse you if you are impaired from your duties but they cannot dictate what you must put in your body.

codejunky Silver badge

@jmch

"I agree, which is why, hats off to Apple for a policy that reasonably balances health concerns with respect for their employees' privacy and freedom of choice."

I find it more concerning how the others have acted in response to the virus. Well done Apple but hopefully all will continue to allow working from home for those who wish to.

codejunky Silver badge

@Potemkine!

"Freedom is doing everything which injures no one else. Refusing to get vaccinated is taking the risk to injure or kill somebody else."

Stabbing someone with a needle to inject a substance the person does not consent to (even coercion) is taking away freedom.

codejunky Silver badge

@Howard Sway

"I presume your employer insists on you wearing clothes at work."

The employer does not get to dictate what I must eat or drink (put in my body).

Twitter's machine learning algorithms amplify tweets from right-wing politicians over those on the left

codejunky Silver badge

Re: economics?

@AC

I will just assume your my coward pet troll. Go get a biscuit

codejunky Silver badge

Re: economics?

@AC

I note the coward to respond. So stick your account name to a reply answering each of those questions and lets see if you can get full agreement. Easy enough for you to demonstrate right here and clear for everyone to see.

Or are you just getting your sexual frustration out behind an anonymous mask?

codejunky Silver badge

Re: economics?

@mevets

"Can they partition again, into "Left True; Left False; Right True; Right False" to see whether the amplification follows not just the bias, but also the fantasy aspect."

That would come with a problem. There is a fundamental disagreement of what is truth, what is opinion and what is down right insanity. As FB claiming covid lab leaks as lies before having to step back once reality emerged. Where do they stand on what is a man and what is a woman? The effectiveness of different kinds of drugs? Climate change and effects?

I expect an amount of difficulty with that would be initial definitions which of course would never be agreed on as to what is and isnt truth.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: That's easy

@AC

"Everyone knows that the right makes better memes"

You could be onto something with that. The right/libertarian has joy, humour, range of opinion and a sarcastic streak a mile long. I dont use twitter but from other platforms and discussion boards this seems to be fairly consistent.

I was interested to see the humorous output of the left consisted of 'orange man bad' before hitting the floor once Trump left office. Its almost as though left humour is majority politics and stops there.

Of course it helps that comedians with a history of making people laugh are against the censoring which blocks humour.

Microsoft's UWP = Unwanted Windows Platform?

codejunky Silver badge

Unpopular opinion

MS lost the plot when they killed Visual Basic with .NET

Facebook posts job ad for 10,000 'high-skilled' roles to 'build the metaverse' – and they'll all be based in the EU

codejunky Silver badge

Re: Which language?

@Vulch

"Why "amazingly"?"

Possibly because of the huge tantrum about removing English as an official language of the EU and so on. Junker tried to make a joke about it once to a crowd but had to switch to English to tell it so the people could understand.

Chinese developers rebel against long working hours with crowdsourced tell-all on employers

codejunky Silver badge

Re: But China is not a workers' paradise

@IceC0ld

"It is going to take a generation or three to get to the levels of 'freedom' we in the west take for granted"

I have been greatly impressed with the transition China has gone through. They should be a point of study through school to show the peasantry of communism and how quickly things can turn around by freeing up markets and global trade. It will be interesting to see if the Chinese gov will be able/willing to make the transition from authoritarian to a more liberal country.

Computer scientists at University of Edinburgh contemplate courses without 'Alice' and 'Bob'

codejunky Silver badge

Idiots

"decolonization"

Aka stupidity. On the plus side its good to know that is the pinnacle of trouble and problems over there. Or they have too much time on their hands.

Brit MPs blast Baroness Dido Harding's performance as head of NHS Test and Trace

codejunky Silver badge

Re: @Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells

@Eclectic Man

The full quote being: I think the people in this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.

We went from complaining 'experts' wernt listened to for brexit to complaining the wrong experts were listened to over Covid.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: @Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells

@Yet Another Anonymous coward

"Not experts that have been put on the committee because they agree with the government plan"

Yet those were the 'experts' Gove railed against hence the quote.

codejunky Silver badge
Devil

@Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells

"ie: Government is at fault because the experts were wrong."

Are they saying we shouldnt trust the experts?

Cheeky chappy rides horse around London filling station, singing: 'I don't need petrol 'cos he runs on carrots'

codejunky Silver badge

Yikes

Those EV drivers having a laugh will probably cry-

https://insideevs.com/news/537120/ev-chargers-switched-off-uk/amp/

Looks like plans are to turn off work and home chargers for up to 9 hours a day. All due to the green revolution leaving us with no power and toy cars.

Every Little Helps: Former Tesco boss Dave Lewis to advise UK govt on supply chains

codejunky Silver badge

Re: supply chain logistics

@AC

"If only there could be a multinational trading bloc which provides frictionless moverment of goods, people and services...."

Without forcing political union with a focus on ever closer union.

Intel's €80bn European chip plant investment plan not bound for UK because Brexit

codejunky Silver badge

Re: What a surprise

@John Robson

"Actually Remain has a very good description of what there was"

Absolutely. It was a protectionist/global trade, communist/capitalist, trade block/political union, (I used to have loads of these) which were all mutually exclusive but the vision different people had of it and its direction.

Arguments for remain ranged from we must remain in the glorious promised land, its shit but we must remain to save/fix the EU to 'the UK and maybe world is doomed if we leave'.

"And we had significant input into any future directions."

So much that we voted to leave. The EU and out gov participants had input but they didnt represent us very well as the various votes showed.

"And frankly the amount of double think required to continue this conversation (or in fact encountering reality) must hurt, sorry about that."

Dont apologise. If you need a break, maybe get a paracetamol and come back when your feeling ok.

codejunky Silver badge

Re: What a surprise

@John Robson

"You were always welcome to leave...

No need to stay in the UK if you don't like it."

Oddly that doesnt work. Because if you are happy to be of your country but not of the supranational political grouping imposed upon it then you cant leave to the UK. Amusingly to suggest the UK leaves the EU but people wanting to remain can still go to the EU doesnt get a positive reaction. Probably because they want to remain in the UK More.

"The biggest problem was there was never a clear idea of what leaving was"

Nor for remain. A scary but repeated claim being for the 'status quo'. Something absolutely against what the EU has in mind.

"There was a general disgruntlement, and now we've left... everything is apparently still the fault of the EU."

I am not seeing that everything is the fault of the EU. A few things EU caused are but thats about it. But brexit is blamed for anything bad or perceived as bad. When we left anything good was 'despite brexit' and bad 'due to brexit' even when often the good was due to brexit and the bad nothing to do with.

"That's why a second referendum was important:"

At no point had the remain group been trust worthy enough with the result never mind additional questions. That is a situation going back to the labour government so for some time.