Posts by B*stardTintedGlasses

Not exactly surprising that China is slumping hard in these freedom stakes.

They are doing literally everything they can to attempt to emulate an episode of Black Mirror it seems!

Here is a really good article showing the level of pervasive surveillance and "management" of even normal citizens lives.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2018/06/18/chinas-social-credit-system-spreads-to-more-daily-transactions/

The thing that really scares me is the thought of other nations going "That's a great idea! We should do it too!" before China succumbs to it's own populace getting angrier and more dispossessed.

The only question is if that is before or after they become the next full-blown super power and set up a pattern of copycat regimes and straight-up annexed states, a la the USSR that persists way beyond the death of the original ideology. (Not Communist remember, Fascist with a veneer).

Dear $Deity! Those MPs are actually the ones I am rooting for?! What is happening?

"The [public] may take from that the judgement of the market was that you weren't a great success. And that your new desire to do good and work in the public service – a cynic might look at this and think, well, she wasn't going to hack it at the top level in the private sector, so she is looking for a cushy government job," he said."

Yes, yes a Cynic might....

Excellent column! Although the "strong" ones would not have moped off, they would have either been given new Slabtops and Mobile Bones to be "product influencers" or have taken them and banned anyone else from using them with the aforementioned strength/religious power...

“One day old Thrashbarg said that Almighty Bob had declared that he, Thrashbarg, was to have first pick of the sandwiches. The villagers asked him when this had happened, exactly, and Thrashbarg said it had happened yesterday, when they weren't looking. 'Have faith,' Old Thrashbarg said, 'or burn!'

They let him have first pick of the sandwiches. It seemed easiest.”

-Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy

I wonder how many of the other consultancy companies are now going into turbo-panic?

(A state seen only in PHB's with their necks on the line and sales people who forgot to book something and are about to lose a deal).

"QUICK, CHECK EVERYTHING!"

A lot of poor IT staff just lost their weekend and evenings for a while.

Just waiting for the first apple media-cult event to use the phrase "Shock and Awe" un-ironically.

Full disclosure: I have an iPhone, I like it, but it is a 5S I bought in 2014. Really don't see the appeal of any of the "mind-blowing, world-shaking, game-changing" so called upgrades since then. Especially not at these price points! As always, I will consider all available phones on the market when mine gives up the ghost. (Still going strong so far, don't drink the kool-aid kids!)

"Cross-government platforms such as Verify are designed for the user so that digital government is consistent and easy to deal with. Their use by departments is set to save billions of pounds, yet they are resisting their use."

Baroness Finn has an interesting way of looking at things. I mean, how about looking at WHY they are "resisting" hard enough for you to know about it. Clue - it might be because it's shit.....

Mind you, it smacks of a touch of "The plebs are RESISTING the decree of their betters, how DARE they?!"

Three can bugger off. Just reading this article, bring up my phone to send it to someone...

"Could not activate mobile data network". Full 3G. Hmmm....

http://downdetector.co.uk/problems/3/map/

Oh! Look! Mobile Internet has been down for Three for the last hour and counting!

F*ck em. they sure as hell shouldn't take on more when this happens regularly.

Contract is nearly up, must.... grit teeth and finish last two weeks....

"Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board"

As in "Honorable Judges of the Supreme Court, our failure to abide by any form of Privacy or Civil Liberties in our shameless spying on all and sundry was nothing more than an Oversight. Therefore we demand immunity from prosecution for all our employees."

Words can be tricky. I refer you to the first definition, almost made for "Reasonable Doubt".

oversight

noun

1.

an unintentional failure to notice or do something.

"he had simply missed Parsons out by an oversight"

synonyms: mistake, error, fault, failure, omission, lapse, inaccuracy, slip, blunder, faux pas, miscalculation; More

2.

the action of overseeing something.

"effective oversight of the financial reporting process"

This kind of thing is why the man was one of the greats. A sense of humour that manages to shine through even the finality at the end of the ride.

A salute to you Sir P'Terry, for every smile in my childhood, every moment of escapism in my teens, and every "suddenly clear" joke hidden in layers of meaning that I understood on re-reading as an Adult.

Excuse me... suddenly very dusty in here.

***

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER...

Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.

***

I can honestly say this is almost exactly what I would have guessed if someone had asked me to estimate how "Secure" the Critical National Infrastructure is as a whole.

It's an absolute joke how little investment has been put into securing it and educating its various staff, from PHB to users. I know a couple of IT bods working in the various industries involved, and they all have the same story; basically any mention of security is immediately shot down.

The poor b*ggers are struggling to get any traction at all with management to do desperately needed patching etc, but they have no funds/backing and certainly are not allowed the down-time they need.

It's only now that various regulations that have some teeth (GDPR et al) are coming into play that the various managers are adopting panic mode and screaming at the techies to "do something".

*Sigh*

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

To quote NOFX:

"We call the heartland / not very smart land,

IQs are very low but threat levels are high...."

From the name I would go ahead and try and pin attribution on House Tleilaxu.

AdGhola campaign "Duncan Idaho"....

Pretty sure even having TAILS on a flash drive on your person would be "reason to investigate" for the various powers that be.

Worse if they don't understand it.

"Unlock this drive citizen!"

"Erm, there is nothing on it"

"Yes, you must be hiding it!"

"Thats... thats not how this works"

"Give us the password to unlock the hidden/encrypted files or you go to prison!"