Posts by samzeman

If this works flawlessly though, it is the best system I have ever worked with.

Manual versions of all of this are the second best.

Automated solutions have never been anything but more trouble to me.

I was in school in the 2010s and kids still do this even at all ages. All the CD drives (obsolete by the time I left school) were either glued shut or full of folded bits of paper, because during an ICT lesson apparently the best thing people could think to do was fold up paper and jam it in any hole they can find on the computer.

Re: Perspective

> "I think once the device becomes obsolete (no longer sold), the manufacturers should be obliged to release all documentation so the device could be repurposed or supported by third parties."

I think this is a great idea, but I also think it would be one of those bits of legislation that would become incredibly complicated to avoid spilling trade secrets, define what a smartphone actually is (or is it all handhelds? or all chips/tech?) what counts as "no longer sold" (company can just whack the price up to a billion billion pounds or only sell to traders who have every cert under the sun) and what counts as "all documentation" (though giving the benefit of the doubt we all know what documentation means colloquially - it would still be a pain to define under law).

Not to mention, how this might affect software/firmware. If the audio driver for example is used in other devices, releasing the documentation is possible (probably already done) but releasing the actual code which would be required to modify the device for other use would mean releasing proprietary info if I'm not mistaken.

Mostly I want this kind of legislation so all the 3DS games become legal to play again instead of "no legal way to obtain and play except buying a 3DS that already has them on"

COVID isn't a business issue any more.

Tell that to the subcontractors who claim covid supply chain issues as the reason for their 6 week lead time on parts.

Re: "Net zero is pie in the sky as far as I can see"

> it won't be a static end state but a metastable one requiring continuous active maintenance, and that may prove very expensive and fragile.

I feel like this applies to a lot of developed society, and shouldn't stop us at least trying to do good.

Re: Superceded years ago

Most folks I know are using powerpoint, especially for anything printable.

Re: Where's the incentive?

AI models[1] are now optimized enough to run on almost any computer with more than 1GB of RAM. The companies just know people don't update their firmware enough to bother making an AI patch (And it would actually slow things down very noticeably on older systems).

[1] specifically Stable Diffusion models as an example.

Re: We didn’t ask for them, we haven’t got time to deal with them and...

But imagine a world without cookies! Even the google ads bubble might not have become a thing!

What a sick and twisted world that would be.

Re: They do.

They also need to send a van round to check the poles regularly - but remedials are a different division and on a 6 month lead time.

Re: Given those large numbers...

I often say at my company most of the good work is done by spreadsheets and email. Then the rest of the work is maintaining the painfully designed other systems that are a contractual requirement.

Re: Criminal organisations

I think the recommended course of action is going completely John Wick and freeing all 875 workers yourself.

Re: A tall order

How do you define woke?

Re: To sum up ...

Honestly it plays into the bigger issue of faking digital evidence.

If sources disagree (e.g I have no texts on my phone, you have your faked texts) the only 'reliable' source is the network provider, perhaps, which is a problem when you're trying to sue Google, the (payment) network provider, and it's in their interest to tamper with evidence. Not that they would dare probably, but laws aren't meant to leave things to "they surely wouldn't dare....".

If texts can be faked, and the only person who can verify texts in most trials is the one actually being accused, you basically need multiple sources agreeing on the texts (so the scammer's phone and your phone?) to lend some credibility to it.

There also doesn't seem to be an incentive for the gov to make this legislation yet. The pressure seems to be on banks to remind you that scams are a possibility. Our modern lawmaking seems to have a libertarian bent where if you're deceived into making a mistake with your money it's your own fault.

Re: Apparently....

I think the endgame is co-pilot as a form of talking therapy for people that like the sound of their own voice.

They boot up the weekly meeting and have a captive audience of 11 co-pilots to present to for as long as they like, with no questions or disagreements.

"If it's always been like that leave it as it is"

Welcome to the property maintenance industry....

If we've not done an asbestos survey on this building, there must be a reason. Don't pay for one now when we didn't pay for one last year.

Re: Broadcaster Presentation / Linguistic Standards

Out of curiosity because I see this line about linguistic degradation around quite a bit - Do you have any evidence that this actually does destroy effective communication, or that it has ever done so?

Not trying to argue - I just want the knowledge. AAVE and other shortforms and accents currently don't meet the criteria for unintelligible to the Queen's English speaker, unless we're talking Welsh, Scots etc.

I'm talking more - Is there a time in history when two or more dialects have split severely enough from each other in an area to divide the population into sections that don't understand each other?

I take issue with this! This assumes a pathogen would be viral or bacterial, but a strong fungus or algae could just as easily cause problems - Like in the Expanse book series, later on. Many lifeforms like to live anywhere that is very moist (inside us) and very dark (inside us) and they can cause us problems despite us never having pruned them into immunoresistant things, since they're not sculpted to /not/ instantly overwhelm the body and kill the host, like most pathogens are, because they need the host alive to transmit further.

Re: One side is not enough

Hmm, I disagree. You shouldn't be saying anything to a colleague you wouldn't say to a customer, unless it's company secrets.

Re: ?

I was talking to an American friend about this, and what surprised me was their lack of anti-hate-speech laws. I was arguing the point that there are already laws stopping Nazis telling whole races to die, but apparently there aren't over there. There certainly are here. Germany definitely has some, and the UK does too.

Re: Do you drive a car?

I don't drive except in emergencies, it's bad for the environment. I cycle or use public transport. I realise there are bigger risks I take all the time, but I can't do anything about them, and they're not necessarily as severe. For example, escalators have a low risk (except at peak hours or in china, but even still) but the severity of being ground up by the internals? I'm terrified. It's irrational, I know, I have something like traumataphobia. But I can avoid that. Travelling is necessary, living in the possible path of yellowstone, gamma ray bursts, meteorites is necessary.

I try to get over it. I just don't feel right on an escalator is all. Also, blah blah environment.

Re: Bollocks

I've always campaigned for percentage fines even for individuals. It's not a valid punishment to bankrupt one person for not picking up litter, then mildly inconvenience a rich person for crashing their yacht into my house or whatever.

For companies the same applies. If google does something terrible, they shouldn't be able to shrug it off, and if a minor tech startup does something questionable, they shouldn't instantly be harpooned for it.

Sorry, I think I have boats on the mind or something.

Re: Never understood the obsession with ICBMs

Hold on a sec; If bombs emitted a lot of gamma, even while they were armed, then the submarine pilots that carry and live around nuclear bombs would all have quickly gotten radiation poisoning, right?

The bombs are probably radioactive, sure, but not fissioning like crazy, and not warm to the touch... They don't have control rods in or anything. They fission like crazy when they explode. That's the point.

Nuclear armaments are made of Pu-239 and Pu-240. The Pu-240 is the very, very radioactive part, but the 239 has a half life of 24,000 years, so it's not too bad. Supergrade weapons, used in subs because of their prolonged exposure to the crew, have >95% Pu-239 and so are relatively safe to be around (when not exploding).

Although, I doubt NK could make supergrade bombs, to be fair. So far they're only proven to have weapons grade, which is safe to be in the same plane as for a short flight. I grudgingly have to agree you may not have been entirely wrong, but most modern plutonium bombs aren't "fissioning like crazy"

Re: Worth a read

I didn't know the sea was so, well, not exactly lawless, but wild. Surely there's some kind of penalty for the merchant ship for not responding / not turning right? Road laws work, and the average person I'd assume is a lot less experienced / qualified than a sea captain.

Re: 'high pressure can bond hydrogen and carbon atoms'?

The wording is unclear. Hydrocarbons are involved in the process of creating diamonds from gas, but since diamond is a pure carbon thing.... Obviously no hydrogen persists in it.

https://www.gia.edu/news-research-CVD-grown-part1

Re: So still can't do what Microsoft could do?

If I'm reading this right, that's what versions Oreo and above will start to do, upgrade regardless of carrier/producer.

Removing bloatware however, I could really go for some of that. It's the reason I'm a Motorola fanboy, they have barely any and it can all be uninstalled I think. Either way I don't know it's there and I only remembered there was some when I thought about it just now.