Posts by JohnFen 5648 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Feb 2015
Yes. The quote is a comment on the political scene in the US at the time -- no politician could be seen as being friendly to China, because "commies". It would have been political suicide.
Nixon, however, was famous for being a hard-line anticommunist, so he was the exception to that rule. He could talk with China without endangering his political career.
"the predicted orbit takes into account possible collisions over a long period, say 100 years of predicted trajectories."
No satellite will last anywhere close to 100 years. The design lifetime of a satellite depends on the satellite, but 10-15 years is considered "standard".
"if you want to compare X11... why not VNC, Teamviewer"
Of course, comparing X11 to VNC, etc., is still apples and oranges since X11 can serve up multiple independent desktops rather than sharing an existing one.
This is, for me, the "killer app" of X11.
"Human grading is an absolutely essential part of improving voice response systems like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant"
All the more reason to avoid using any of these things, period.
"And any data used for training is anonymised hence ‘private’"
The only way to actually "anonymize" data is to collect it in the aggregate and delete the individual data collection completely. I don't think Apple is doing this, therefore it's not really "anonymized".
"and having this data processed by a third party"
I don't think this was a major mistake. There's no reason to think that the privacy problem is any better if the recordings are listened to by actual Apple employees rather than contractors.
"In that case, it wouldn't be attached to any other data, not by hash or anything else"
If that's actually what they're doing, then there's no point in having an identifier at all. The entire purpose of an identifier is to allow you to correlate different bits of data as belonging to the same set.
" So we got <nav>, <section>, <article>, <video> and a heap of useful form elements."
Yes, and it is many of those elements that present a security problem, mostly (but not entirely) by making it impossible to disable the stuff contained in those elements. Not impossible in terms of the HTML5 spec, as browsers could decide to allow users to choose whether or not they want those elements rendered -- but I don't know of any browser that actually allows this.
"I was fighting against unnecessary scripts to keep the page load time down and the general responsiveness good rather than the power useage low"
And whether you meant to be or not, you were also fighting to protect the users of the website from security risks.
"Their view is that it should be done right first time and that testing is time wasted."
Oh, sheesh, that's just massive incompetence right there. If you haven't tested a thing well, you have no idea if it was done right and have to assume that it wasn't.
"the best performing, longest surviving smart wearable (so-far) that I ever bought is the Pebble Time Steel Smartwatch for about £99"
I agree entirely with this -- in fact, I'm still using one on a daily basis. I couldn't be happier. It's the best smartwatch (for me) that I've ever tried.
I have been keeping an eye on the market, trying to plan what I'll do when the day comes that my Steel will have to be replaced, but I haven't found anything that seems suitable yet. I fear that I'm going to have to build my own.
Apple's obnoxious stance on this issue has been well-entrenched for so many years that it's hard to believe that it's changing in any meaningful way. This is more likely a PR move, or a move to make it easier for them to continue to oppose right-to-repair legislation.
But we'll see. I hope that they surprise me!
They're very likely using one or more of the commercial GPS car trackers that are available on the open market (even to you and I). These things are pretty simple -- they include a battery, a GPS receiver, and a data-only cell link. They typically work by having software call the device and download the GPS history.
This also makes repurposing them reasonably easy -- just remove the SIM card and replace it with your own.
"The start menu search from Vista onwards has been very handy."
I find it the opposite of handy. The problem is that if I use the application frequently, then I don't want to have to type a bunch of keys to find it. If I don't use the application frequently, then I have to remember what it's called -- which often requires looking through the menu anyway, to remind me.
"You realize Windows 10 is free, yes?"
I don't realize that. Win 10 seems very expensive to me. The cost just isn't money.
"As long as you have an activated installation of Windows 7 Microsoft will give you a free digital licence to Windows 10"
If you have Win 7 and haven't already downgraded to 10, it's probably because you've already determined that 10 costs more than you're willing to pay.
"You simply can't run a business without Windows"
This is simply untrue, as demonstrated by numerous businesses that don't use Windows. It may be true for many businesses, but the blanket statement that it's always impossible is false.
"This seems like a pretty reasonable stance for ANY company to take."
I agree.
In fact, every company I've worked for (that I remember, anyway) in the last 20 years has had an overt policy of forbidding discussions of politics and religion in the office outright, so from where I sit, that's the normal and expected practice.
"So you are willing to break your contract with someone else, to put that other person to the inconvenience of having to go through the processes again of finding someone to replace you even though you had already agreed to do the work?"
Sadly, this is a common enough practice that it's even a joke: "Where does your contractor go when the job is half done?"
I have a one-strike policy for this dishonest nonsense. When someone I've hired does this, they don't see my money ever again.
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