Posts by Steve Button

Wasn't me, if that's what you are trying to imply.

Every major platform. And I don't include Substack in that which is much larger than El Reg.

Hi is definitely a dick, but unfortunately Twitter is the only place that you are allowed to say certain things that the US Government doesn't like. Things like saying Covid vaccines don't stop you catching it or stop you passing it on, would have got you banned from every platform. Criticising the Net Zero policy will currently get you severely limited on Google and Facebook platforms, by shadow banning or other means.

Unfortunately this means you do seem to be getting all kinds of other hate speech on Twitter/X, but I don't believe the other large platforms are free of that also.

It's strange how Elon has gone from being compared to Tony Stark in most of the tech press, to now being compared to Hitler. Strange how this has also come about just around the time that he's upset the US government.

Is it possible that you aren't thinking for yourself but you are just a useful idiot who is thinking what you have been nudged to think?

He's not Tony Stark, but he's also not anything close to Hitler. I've heard him speak a few times and he does seem pretty balanced on most things, although he does seem to throw his toys out of the pram occasionally about not getting his own way. Like every other billionaire. At least he's open about it, unlike Google and Facebook who sneakily just silence you / demote you / shadow ban you if you challenge their elitist world view.

Re: Careful here.

A nice little explainer here

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-center-for-countering-digital

This doesn't mean I agree with Elon trying to SLAPP them down, but it does give a little context as to what he's up against.

A very small number of people who get upset that people are saying things on the internet that they don't agree with, and try to shut down their ad revenue.

If this organisation stuck to actual "Hate" I would have no issues with them.

Re: Been done before

Oh, and just to be clear all tap water is recycled sewage / drainage water. Isn't it?

Re: Been done before

Yes, it's been done before because almost all breweries use tap water, don't they? It's not made from mountain spring water, is it?

Re: Not realistic images

Doesn't matter. *Most* people are going to be looking at it briefly on a mobile phone. I'm guessing most people on The Reg are using a computer right now.

Also, a lot of people are just scrolling and will only look at the image for a fraction of a second probably, but it still creates the concept in their mind.

Re: Except

Not everything is about Trump.

Someone could just as easily generate a fake video of Biden making a speech and sounding cogent, cognisant and wide-awake.

Or Rishi sounding passionate and not-at-all like a wet blanket.

Or Keir sounding passionate and not-at-all like a wet blanket.

The problem is that these fake images or videos will proliferate and get seen by many people, and even if they are told afterwards that they are fake, they will still have some kind of influence on people's attitudes.

It feels like the AI wars are only just beginning, and people are going to see many many fake videos of politicians getting up to all kinds of things (good or bad) which just didn't really happen.

Imagine if someone puts out a fairly convincing but slightly blurred video of Trump in a Russian hotel pissing all over a prostitute. And it happens to come out around November. You won't be able to un-see that, even if you're told it's fake.

Likewise, Biden falling over or fainting Hillary style.

These sorts of things, if done well and timed just right could swing an election by a couple of percentage points.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. I no longer trust Google or public health or "corporate media" to tell me the truth.

Questions like "Do face masks work against respiratory viruses?" or "What's the best diet for optimal health?" I feel are going to be biased towards yes of course they work you bozo, because WHO says so, and "you should go vegan because it's good for the planet and will make you super heathy" (it isn't and it won't).

Also questions like (and I know this will give me lots of downvotes) "Should I let my 17 year old son take an MRNA gene therapy? *". I HONESTLY don't know the correct answer to that question! The WHO says Yes of course. The NHS says no need. USA health says it's OK for 6 month old babies. Not just OK but mandated if you want to attend some nurseries I believe. Joe Rogan says no way. And who do I believe most? It's not the WHO.

*Yes, gene therapy is more accurate than vaccine. A vaccine was always an attenuated/dead version of some pathogen. When your mRNA is taken over to create a spike protein, that's a different thing from a vaccine, so let's call it what it is.

I stopped trusting the WHO many years ago, because they were recommending a pretty high carb diet based on junk science from the 1950s and also based on politics (eat corn) rather than health (eat more animal protein). The whole story is far more complicated than that, but it's what started me on a more sceptical path.

Google still seems to trust the WHO, rather than actual health experts like sports coaches for multi million teams or functional medicine specialists who rich people who care about their health use for heath advice. I also don't trust Bill Gates or Elon Must for health advice, insert pregnant man emoji.

I *should* be able to ask Google or Gemini a simple question about the best diet for someone my age and get back a straight answer, but I know I would not be able to trust the results.

Re: Not just "historical color calibrations"

It's hilarious because the ultra woke progressives don't realise they are Anakin, and are slowly turning into Darth Vader.

Obi-Wan Kenobi : You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind, until now, until now you've become the very thing you swore to destroy.

With good intentions and by trying to stamp out racism (and every kind of ism), they have literally created something which is racist against white people.

We sure are living in weird times. I've got many many other problems with Google, and I'd like to get completely out of their ecosystem, but it's really hard and is going to take years. But I can't see them becoming neutral, unbiased or "centrist" any time soon, or even admitting to themselves that they have a problem, so it's going to have to happen. I did happily use Neeva until they shut down, but that's just search.

"Do they not realize that it's not all that difficult for the government to confiscate physical currency?"

It actually IS quite difficult. You'd need to get a police warrant, find the person and then physically take the cash money away from them. And they could have money stashed all over the place.

With programmable currency, you could tell the central bank that this list of people have been on an "illegal protest" (or have just donated money to help the protest) and then shut them down from buying fuel or travelling on public transport. That would stem the protests. Do this enough times, and people will loose faith in the banking system, and the whole thing would come crashing down. It almost happened in 2008, but that was cockup not conspiracy.

This sort of thing gives FAR too much power to a government. Now imaging the very worst politician you can think of, and imagine what they would potentially do with that kind of power if they got into government. I imagine someone like Nicola Sturgeon would happily have used this to shut down anti-lockdown protests, and she's not even close to the worst politician I can imagine.

Re: Conspiracy

Because it literally is a conspiracy. They are planning this and they are quite open about it. "Governments and central banks are working together".

They talk about "Energy efficiency" as if that's a great benefit!? Who knew that traditional banking uses so much energy? Surely "Crypto" uses loads more, which is what CBDCs will be based on. So, solving a problem that we don't currently have.

In that video Rishi does look like a hostage reading a pre-prepared script.

I think the whole reason for pushing CBDCs is to provide an alternative to cryptocurrencies, because crypto can be fairly untraceable and probably a good way to launder money. Which is a difficult one, as you should not be hiding your money from the government to avoid tax or to do illegal things, but you *might* want to keep your money away from the government so they can't freeze your bank account.

Trudeau really dropped a bollock, because a lot of people like me no longer trust Western governments will mostly "do the right thing". I could easily imagine Starmer declaring an emergency, because some climate sceptics* who think Net Zero has got out of hand need to be stopped.

*Not deniers, just sceptics.

I've just remembered I'm British, and will probably have to make a similar choice this year.

Now, do I go for the ideologically captured ones who don't know if a woman has a penis, or the ones who are constantly stabbing each other in the back? Or the even more ideologically captured? Or the other lot, who I can't remember what they do? Or perhaps the "right wing Nazis" who will control immigration?

It's not much of a choice for us either. :-(

Presumably if the question was asked differently, as in "Would you personally cut back on meat, gas and electricity" then it would be a different percentage?

Rules for thee, but not for me.

You've got the wrong Prez mate.

And I'm sure Biden is going to pop up on TV any minute now... "Surprise! I was just pretending to have progressive dementia all along to double bluff them Russians"

Trump is crass, vulgar and makes stuff up on the spot (and then claims he was only joking) but he's clearly got his marbles still.

I'm glad I'm not American, it's a pretty poor choice to make in November either way.

Re: Hmm

It looks like The Register is suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Or perhaps they could put something in the article to spell out WHY I would ever want CBDCs. Particularly after what happened to truckers in Canada. If it can happen over there, it could happen here in the UK or over there in the USA. They could declare some kind of emergency, and then limit your transactions, or freeze your account completely. Just for protesting about the wrong thing, and being a nuisance. A bit like they can now, but even worse.

Seriously, no thanks.

Re: AI taking jobs

I don't think it's fair to call them "wankers". They pay "escorts" over $4,000 for that service, if they can find one as they are all booked apparently.

https://tnc.news/2024/01/16/wef-escorts/

Probably plenty of willy-waving going on.

Re: Sounds like Tesla drivers should always carry a can of petrol with them in Winter

It's probably a LOT safer to light a *real* fire under a diesel engine block than a EV battery though. Just saying.

You can throw a lit match into diesel, it will just go out.

I think Trump said that. He also said about Germany being too reliant on Russian gas, and they openly laughed at him.

I know he's wrong about most things, but not everything. (now there's a comment that'll piss off both sides - he he - not that anyone is reading this thread any more, probably down to about three hangers on now).

This makes me sad. I'm not sure there exists any tech publication which is not afraid to "Bite the hand".

If anyone knows of such a place, let me know. Not right wing or left wing, but somewhere in the middle perhaps?

I dropped back into SlashDot a couple of years back, and Oh Boy! That place is not what it used to be.

I still enjoy reading Andrew Orlowski in The Telegraph, who has a decent level of cynicism towards the state of technology.

This sounds like conspiracy land stuff to most people, as they don't realise that Eco Health Alliance actually put in a grant application to the NIAID for exactly this type of research. It was refused as considered too dangerous, but it looks like they went ahead and did it anyway. I guess we'll never know, as the crucial database went offline right before the pandemic never to be seen again (due to "hacking") and the CCP aren't telling. We had the opportunity to interview the scientists working in Wuhan and look through their notebooks from the time, but that line in inquiry has gone cold for a long time now.

Of course all this is just a possibility, but it does look very likely. So much circumstantial evidence, it's unlikely to be purely a coincidence.

The lack of curiosity about this from the WHO is frankly baffling. Sending Peter Daszak to lead the initial investigation was like getting the fox to guard the hen house. It turns out the mysterious disappearance of all the chickens along with the blood and feathers everywhere around was simply a coincidence, and they had just died of natural causes and disappeared. The fox got fatter.

The worrying thing is that we're still doing this type of research, under lab conditions which are not stringent enough, and we could have another leak which leads to much worse outcomes.

I guess just like the 2008 financial crash, we've learned nothing and it could happen again, but worse.

Depressing.

Re: Obligatory masks when coughing

I agree that regular handwashing is a good idea, especially before meals.

However...

"Whilst airborne droplets from someone else's sneeze may bring infection to somebody nearby, that even after deflection upwards by a mask, these are not the major means of transmission."

I just don't buy that statement. I remember reading somewhere that fomite transmission accounted for something like 1 in 10,000 infections of Covid. It's not droplets that you need to worry about* it's aerosolised particles, which simply float around in the air. Sometimes for hours.

* Not that I see any point in worrying. It's kind of inevitable, and really seems to be unavoidable however many jabs or masks or whatever. I know I'm going to get it again some time, and I'm not going to have it hanging over me like some sword of Damocles. Much better to get plenty of sunlight and stay slim and fit, which is harder to do than putting on a mask but I think far more effective in keeping me well. Which also means I'm less likely to be ill and spreading it to other people.

Re: > If you do not trust Guardian, check any health authority or known hospital web-site

Well probably anything that was stuck in between the surgeons teeth from the bacon and egg mcmuffin they had just before your surgery. Or just bits of spit. Or bogies.

If I'm having some kind of open surgery, I really would like my surgeon to wear one of those.

Just because of my limited knowledge of physics it seems kind of obvious that a mask might stop little bits of bacon falling into my body (which could well give me sepsis or some nasties) whereas it's really not going to stop very very very small bits of virus.

Even if I was super vulnerable (to viruses) I would not be asking people to mask up, because I honestly think they'll help about as much as a knitted tea cosy wrapped around your face.

Re: > [masks] didn't stop the last pandemic

Does Cochrane count as "any health authority" ?

https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses

Re: Obligatory masks when coughing

"There is irrefutable scientific and practical evidence that masks work."

Simply wrong. Cochrane is the best meta analysis we've got, and it found no significant benefit.

Science doesn't care about your "belief", that's the domain of religion.

When you get the very best evidence and it challenges your beliefs, you should change your belief not rubbish the science. Until some better science comes along. Which it hasn't yet.

Comparing the UK to Japan is utterly ridiculous. Better to compare England to Scotland or even better South and North Dacota who had different rules, but similar outcomes.

Anyway, my point was that no one should get fined, arrested or beaten for not wearing a mask "NOT ONLY DURING PANDEMIC"

Re: Obligatory masks when coughing

Fascist.

Seriously, you want to arrest people for coughing without wearing a mask? Even though masks aren't proven to actually work (against respiratory viruses), and most studies show very little benefit if any? Once the garbage studies have been removed, any benefit is not even statistically significant.

Also, what if you are coughing because it's cold and damp, or just a bit dusty?

Why stop at arrest, surely punishment beatings should be considered?

I mean they didn't stop the last pandemic, even though almost everyone was wearing one at some points, but why let a few facts stop your authoritarian tendancies?

Please define "batten down"? What mitigations should we put in place if there's a large surge? Another lockdown?

That's a pretty nasty comment.

Please help me to "understand how these things spread and what can be done to mitigate it." ... because I've yet to see anyone successfully mitigate it yet. Perhaps Australia and NZ delayed things by a bit. Perhaps China slowed things down, but with some pretty severe consequences.

What exactly are you suggesting that should be done, and does it have any better demonstrated outcomes than healing crystals?

I'm not a selfish person, if I thought there was something I could do to help, then I would do it. I work for three charities in my spare time, for no benefit to myself. I don't want to see people get ill or die if it can be avoided. I'm just not convinced it CAN be avoided. If we're going to try to avoid all illnesses then I guess everyone should stay at home from now on, and get our shopping delivered by someone in a hazmat suit. Would that be enough mitigation for you, or would that not go far enough?