Posts by Snorlax 710 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Dec 2014
@steve 124:"Those of us with the ability to repair our own devices do so without this law.
Those who don't have the ability, still won't after the law is passed."
Perhaps you're not familiar with the concept of a service?
That's when you pay a person or company to do a job for you if you lack the time or ability - fixing a phone for instance...
@Jim Mitchell:"Consolidation in the farm machinery dealer arena is also driving up prices for service in rural areas. Less competition if the same guy owns every authorized repair place in 50 miles."
That was the point made in one interview I read. The dealer consolidated all repair work to a central location, so when a piece of machinery broke you couldn't even get a local guy to come out. The choice was to pay a huge callout charge, or pay a huge amount to send the machinery to the repair center and back on a trailer.
Who's got the time or money for that?
"Many of the leading states are agricultural hotbeds like Nebraska, Iowa, and Oklahoma, where farmers have been fighting against restrictive repair policies on the embedded hardware used in farm equipment."
This would make a good article in its own right.
Farmers are using cracked diagnostic software from Ukraine so they can fix their John Deeres.
A senator in some state - can't remember which...maybe Nebraska? - proposed a right to repair bill focused on farm machinery. Apple turned up to some small-town meeting to lobby against the bill.
@ShelLuser:"Dutch law forbids the local police from staging criminal activities"
From the article: "The police seized over 2,500 Bitcoins and details of over 26,000 transactions."
Details of the transactions will be handed over to the FBI and any other law enforcement organisation who wants them. No problem if you get another country's law enforcement to charge people on their end...
@Boris the Cockroach:"Ermmm was'nt the EEC established with the treaty of Rome in 1956?"
Ermmm if you must nit-pick, the Treaty of Rome was signed in March 1957
The EU as we know it today had its foundations in the European Coal and Steel Community, which was set up in the early 1950s.
@LucreLout:"Yes, because the EU invented human rights when we joined in 1973..... no, wait, you're talking utter utter bollocks. Sorry.
There are a great many legitimate arguments in favour of remaining in the EU, but human rights isn't one of them. They predate the EU and will outlive it."
Just when I think you can't come out with a more idiotic comment than your last one, you surprise me.
The EU has given us the ECHR in 1953 and the ECtHR in 1959. UK citizens have had to resort to the ECtHR many, many times over the years to force their own government to respect their rights.
Since 'we' joined, 'we' haven't contributed anything of note to the field of human rights, either in Europe or anywhere else. David Cameron wanted to repeal the Human Rights Act, remember?
I think I asked you once already today to stop talking bollocks. Any chance you could go ahead and do that? Cheers
@LucreLout:"Firstly, which average? Because the average person has less than two legs."
Be careful when you pretend to be stupid... People might think you are.
What average?
Take every nurse in the NHS, add up all their salaries and divide by the number of nurses. That's what the average is...
"Secondly, £23k plus the pension is really £34.5k, which is a hell of a lot more than the average salary."
Stop talking bollocks. Who considers a future pension to be a salary? They're two different things.
@LucreLout:"Up to a little over £100,000 according to the RCN, and that is basic pay - there's another 50% worth of pension being accrued behind the scenes there too."
Average salary for an NHS nurse is £23k, so the amount of nurses earning £100k is so small as to be inconsequential.
@LucasNorth:22k to start and up to 36k. Not quite "peanuts"...
See above. £23k average salary - a person could make the same money working on a helpdesk, with no college education or responsibility...
@AC:"If it was the BBC from the days of Yes Minister and Spitting Image - I would have continued paying the tax without grumbling for a split second."
Spitting Image was on ITV, which doesn't receive a penny from TV licence fee revenue.
I once heard the argument from a media type that, by not selling advertising and taking a chunk of that finite pool of money, the BBC was in fact supporting commercial broadcasters.
Which is of course grade-A bollocks...
@Timmy B:"Irrelevant - If you look at the odds of a gun owner killing someone it's either about the same odds or way more likely in Japan. We're talking about gun control. Looking at a place with very strict gun control and you see that those deemed worthy under that system makes them no less likely to kill"
The facts speak for themselves:
126 million people with 10 gun deaths per year
versus
326 million people with 13,000 gun deaths per year
The rest is semantics and cherry-picking... Japan is one of the safest countries on the planet, joint 10th with Ireland. The US is way down the list at 114th, below Rwanda and Brazil.
@Timmy B:"I understand guns don't kill - it's obvious from what I was saying."
Really? Because this is what you wrote:
"Thus each gun is 10 times more likely to kill in Japan despite their far tougher training and control."
I know what you were doing; using a meaningless statistic to claim that there is some kind of comparison to be made between gun deaths in Japan and the US.
Deaths per gun means nothing.
Here are a few more numbers:
The US has 101 guns per 100 people - nearly twice as many as Serbia, which was a warzone in the recent past FFS!
Japan has 0.6 guns per 100 people
You're clutching at straws, trying to construct some kind of correlation where none exists.
@Timmy B:"Thus each gun is 10 times more likely to kill in Japan despite their far tougher training and control."
Nice spin you put on that, except that:
1. Guns are inanimate objects. The meatbag pulling the trigger is what does the killing...
2. When you look at the numbers objectively the US has 2.6 times the population of Japan (326 million v 126 million), yet has 1,300 times the number of gun deaths (13,000 v 10 per year).
@CHarles 9:"But what if he used a homemade ANFO bomb instead, a la Oklahoma City?"
That's a red herring. I don't give a crap about ANFO bombs, as they aren't used in mass killings every single week of the year.
"Remember, the worst nonmilitary massacres in American history didn't use guns."
Yeah, and...?
3,000 people died on 9/11. There hasn't been a comparable incident since then.
How many people do you think have died in mass shootings since 9/11?
@DCFusor"Edit -> I see the idiot political spin arm of the reg posts on saturday, unlike all the other articles. Interesting for a tech publication. And I also note that while NRA is in the title, it wasn't them giving Pai anything, it was CPAC, probably bought and sold by the telcos. NRA wouldn't be. That said, the rest still stands."
I see the idiot pro-gun nuts have got out of bed.
The "Charlton Heston courage under fire award" is an NRA award. Shit, Carolyn Meadows gave him the award. You do know who Carolyn Meadows is, don't you? Second Vice President of the NRA.
That's not fake news, but you say you're a gunsmith so I don't expect you to be objective...
@Oliver Jones:"Tell that to Hitler..."
Gun nuts often use that old lie alright; that Hitler only achieved what he did because he got the citizens to give up their guns. Few people owned guns in Europe in the 1930s, including Germans.
"Whether a well-run militia could beat the US military today is actually irrelevant...
Why then do so many Americans claim they need their guns in case they need to rise up against their government? Why is the provision still in the 2nd amendment?
You were arguing earlier that gun control would usher in communism, but you never answered my question. How come there aren't more communist states?
Take off your tinfoil hat and go outside for some fresh air...
@Kaltern:"It would need to be a slow reduction. Banning of sale of automatic weapons.. then banning of ownership... then semis... then large calibre... if it works for that long, only then can they ban the remaining weapons.
It'll take decades."
Why? Australia did it in weeks after the Port Arthur massacre.
@Oliver Jones:"Gun control is required before Communism can take power..."
Hot take, bro.
If gun control is a precursor of communism, how come I can count the number of communist states on one hand? China, Cuba, Laos, Best Korea and Vietnam
The 2nd amendment is bullshit anyway.
It might have been cool 200 years ago, but a well regulated militia would never win against the combined US military today. Dream on.
And I know what you're going to say - "look at Afghanistan, look at what guerrilla fighters achieved"
The difference between guerrillas in Afghanistan and Americans is that Americans have no stomach for violence at home. Sure, they like it when it's in faraway places or on TV and in the movies, and imagine that they would be that "hero with a gun". The reality, as we saw from those cowardly cops in Parkland, is somewhat different...
"The watchdog boss said he was surprised to receive the Charlton Heston Courage Award from the association at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland today. His reward, a showpiece gun, was not actually handed out on stage, quite possibly because CPAC has a no-weapons policy for its events."
How come deranged gunmen never strike at these kind of events?
You'd see some legislative action on gun ownership pretty damn fast if a bunch of old rich white guys were taken out by a guy with an AR-15.
@Gene Cash:"The Parkland School Massacre killed 17 people. 109 were killed by in/by cars that same day.
That’s 5 Parkland massacres every day.
Since 1968, 1,530,000 Americans have been killed by guns.
Since 1968, 2,130,000 Americans have been killed by/in cars
We need to ban cars."
1. Americans can't drive for shit. Really. Drive around the block without killing somebody and you've got your licence.
2. Most states have no roadworthiness inspection. Americans can drive dangerously defective cars which would be sent to the crusher in Europe.
3. Car deaths v. Gun deaths is false equivalence. I would be equally unimpressed if you invoked Godwin's Law and blamed Hitler. You fail. Goodbye.
@DCFusor:"Does this have to do with Russian election meddling?
Is telling a lie to a bank now a federal crime?"
Gates and Manafort have been indicted for 32 counts of tax and bank fraud.
Here's the indictment: https://www.justice.gov/file/1038391/download
So the answer to your second question is 'Yes'. Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion too...
To address your first question, Gates and Manafort attended a lot of interesting meetings concerning Russia, Ukraine, etc. The FBI will be interested in hearing what went on, for obvious reasons. Leniency on the fraud charges will no doubt be used as a carrot...
@Chairman of the Bored:"But I cannot support the notion that sexual exploitation of convicts is a legitimate approach to punishment in a supposedly civilized society."
Feel free to downvote me if you don't agree with me.
The phrase is used in Office Space to describe the type of prison the guys thought they would end up in; a hard time, rape in the showers, no frills prison. Maybe that's where Gates, Manafort & co need to serve time, rather than the holiday camp they'll inevitably end up in...
If that offends you, so be it.
Funniest thing of all is that Gates claimed in a court filing the other day that he doesn't have the money to pay his mortgage this month. This from a guy who claimed he was worth $28mil back in November...
I hope he goes to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison
Great article by the way Mr. McCarthy
@Phil O'Sophical:"Says the anonymous coward who can't actually produce a real fact-based rebuttal."
LOL, more comedy gold.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...
Pretty much every post of yours on this subject is fact-free unsubstantiated nonsense.
@JOhn SMith 19:"The UK is not part of the Shengen Agreement.
It always could put anyone going down the Green isle through the ringer if it chose to."
I guess they'll need to amend section 2(1) of the Republic of Ireland Act 1949 then?
It is hereby declared that, notwithstanding that the Republic of Ireland is not part of His Majesty’s dominions, the Republic of Ireland is not a foreign country for the purposes of any law in force in any part of the United Kingdom...
I don't think the Irish have similar legislation on their end, but I'm open to correction...
Phil O'Sophical:@"Do you have a clue about what the WTO is and how it works?
Yeah, I do. Why don't you give me your take on it? I'd love to be educated by another Brexit troll...
At the moment, goods moving between EU states don't have tariffs or quotas applied.
Under WTO rules, the UK will need to agree with the EU what tariffs or quotas are applied to what goods. The current 10% tariff on cars and car parts from outside the EU, for example, would mean goodbye UK car industry.
Now I know that the Brexit dreamers think there will be no restrictions, but that's not going to happen because the UK would then have the best of both worlds - no tariffs or quotas, and no obligations to the EU.
I'll leave you with these thoughts to ponder:
http://ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/no-deal-the-wto-option/
"Under a hard Brexit/“WTO rules” scenario, without mutual recognition agreements for product standards, it is unlikely that UK products could enter the EU without further checks at the border. Over time, if there is divergence between UK and EU standards, UK businesses would need to produce two different product lines – one for the UK and one for the EU – which would increase costs and reduce competitiveness."
"The impacts of non-tariff barriers would be larger for the service sector, which makes up 80% of the UK economy. Access to the single EU aviation market requires headquarters and majority shareholdings to be located within the EU so that it can have regulatory oversight on safety."
Brexit: denial, delusion, lies..
@Simon Hobson:"The anti-brexit liars are saying that if we end up working under WTO rules then we'll put out own prices up through import duties. Not true, under WTO rules WE can choose what tariffs WE apply to imports, and that tariff can be zero"
More Brexit bullshit. You know that tariffs can also be applied to exports from the EU, dont you?
Even if you decided there were no tariffs on imports the EU could still add something on their end. Under WTO rules you will not have a better deal than you do at the moment. It will be worse and everybody will pay more, not less, for goods coming in from Europe. The level of stupidity and delusion from Brexit supporters is amazing...
@Voland's right hand:"These are the stats for average salary nationally in Bulgaria for last year: Average salary in Bulgaria by month and industry for 2017 in leva
Growth is > 12%. The only explanation is the financial injection from BrExit - all the money which instead of being spent here is now being spent there."
You might think so, but no. Bulgaria is receiving €10bn in EU aid up until 2020 according to the Financial Times. There's a lot of cheap credit there at the minute...I hope they look at Ireland, Greece, Spain etc and take note of their mistakes.
@Charlie Clark:"Because it's part of the negotiations: if the UK wants vets, fruit pickers, nurses, doctors, plumbers, etc. it will have to give them the same rights to settle as they have under existing agreements."
The thing is, a lot of these doctors, nurses, bus drivers and fruit pickers have already left and won't be coming back. Maybe we can expect a visa waiver arrangement with some non-EU countries to bring in cheap labour after Brexit? Unemployment in Turkey is somewhere around 10%; I wonder if many Turks would like to work in the UK, no questions asked?
The UK isn't seen by EU citizens as a welcoming place, and that's thanks to a vocal minority of arseholes who can't (or won't) do the jobs that they complain about the foreigners taking. Sad really...
@codejunky: There's a good little troll. There you go again - "the EU cannot dictate..." Yes they can, and they will. You seem to be under the illusion that the UK is in a position to bargain - it's not.
Speaking of employment, has Farage still got his snout in the EU trough?
Funny that a guy who despises the EU so much doesn't mind collecting an MEP's salary from Brussels every month...
@codejunky:” ...but why would the EU's stance on freedom of movement have diddly squat to do with our choosing to allow people to enter this country even from the EU to help on farms?”
Pro-Brexit folk have this annoying habit of making their problems sound like the EU’s fault.
The EU didn’t kick anybody out; the UK electorate voted to leave.
Unemployment is on the rise again. I’ll laugh when Jobcentres send our homegrown unemployed out to pick mushrooms, clean toilets and do all the other jobs which were done by “foreigners”. Should be a wakeup call for some...
@Teiwaz:"I've been places they've run open soft skills sessions about hugs and offered massages...."
If you're called to attend one of these sessions by your employer, you won't get any hugs or massages.
You might get to sign a piece of paper at the end though, promising not to hug or massage your female colleagues...
@AC:"Take for example the BBC today no less, "Met Police loses appeal" becomes "Met Police loses 'landmark' appeal." Clearly a case of lets make this look really important, I have no doubt it is important but someone must have sat there in a meeting at dinner time and said lets make it look more important."
It *is* a landmark decision from the Supreme Court, as the police now have to accept that they have a duty to properly investigate crimes as reported to them. This wasn't an appeal against a parking ticket for fucks sake....
@David Nash:"It's not working "for free". It's that compensation for variable hours is included in the salary."
Thing is, most employers see 'variable' as 'in excess of normal working hours'. Try working a 30-hour week for a few weeks and see if you're called in for a chat about a P45.
@AC:"Not any more ... e.g. the £150k/year plumber who was happily reducing his tax bills by being "self-employed" currently suing his "employer" for holiday pay because he's suddelnly decided he should have been a "worker" all along as he wore a uniform wnad drove a van with the company logo on it.
Nope. If your hours are dictated by your employer, or if you wear a company uniform, or drive a company van, or are unable to substitute another person in your place you are highly likely to be an employee rather than a contractor. You'd think people on this site would understand that reality, rather than bitching...
@Lee D:"What the hell? I feel like I've gone back a decade.
My 8-year-old laptop has 12Gb in it, from the day it was purchased, and it wasn't a ludicrously expensive top-of-the-line thing even back then.
4Gb lets you boot."
You're special, obviously.
You assume that because "I need x, so everybody must need it too"...
Sure, if you run virtual machines on your laptop or keep 30 Chrome tabs open all at once you might want to max out your RAM. Windows 7, 10 and OS X all run fine on 4Gb, but since you've decreed that we can only boot our machines with that much RAM I guess I'll need to upgrade...
@DaLo:It wasn't bizarre, it was a simple fact that they needed to get a significant amount of people to sign up to the voluntary scheme or else it would not work.
Just do what the Irish government did: "This card's not compulsory, but you won't be able to get a driver's licence or social welfare payment without one..."
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