Posts by Geekpride

@streaky

EU procurement rules allow discretionary exclusion of companies "where they have committed offences or undertaken activities relating to misrepresentation, undue influence on procurement procedures, grave professional misconduct, agreements to distort competition or demonstrated significant or persistent deficiencies in the performance of a public contract". That seems like ample grounds for the UK government to exclude their usual outsourcers; that they choose not to do so is purely the fault of the UK.

As for your suggestion that UK voters will be able to affect this stuff more after Brexit, I have seldom seen such stupidity. In case you haven't noticed, cabinet ministers - who are theoretically responsible for this stuff - tend to get given safe seats where a donkey could get elected if it was standing on behalf of the correct party. That's not going to change.

Return of Star Wars

The cynical side of me thinks that any new anti-asteroid stuff that comes out of this would also be applicable to anti-satellite weaponry and possibly ICBM interception.

It'll be interesting to see the ruling on the right to privacy argument. Taking the photo will be deemed allowable as there's no general expectation of privacy when in public. I'm guessing it will be argued that taking the photo is one thing, but using it in a system that can automatically identify, track and monitor people is different. It's not a slam dunk, but I could see that being ruled an invasion of privacy.

The free expression argument seems more likely to succeed, in my opinion. The police have been deploying this system at protests, and I can't see there being a legal justification for using this system instead of a less intrusive one. The only way they might get away with it is if they can demonstrate the system is only looking for those that have a warrant for their arrest and discarding all other data.

Too easy to circumvent

This is an entirely pointless "something must be done" stunt. There's a massive and obvious loophole in the proposed law, especialy this bit: “Use of a digital replica of an individual shall constitute a violation if done without the consent of the individual if the use is in an audiovisual pornographic work in a manner that is intended to create and that does create the impression that the individual represented by the digital replica is performing,”

If you're making deepfake porn, put a disclaimer at the start video saying that it isn't really (insert celebrity name) in the video, and you're in the clear.

UK too small

I can't see any fundamental reason why a hyperloop couldn't be built, there's nothing in it that requires unobtanium. Of course, that doesn't mean it's going to be practical or profitable, but that's for those trying to set one up to worry about. I'm also not sure the UK is the best place to push to be building one. As speeds are projected to be much higher than trains, longer routes would give the greatest benefits. The UK may be too small for this to be worthwhile, I think it would make more sense to try some trans-EU routes or intercity services in the USA.

Good learning opportunity

This could actually be seen as a good thing. An astronaut ended up on a spacewalk with a non-functioning piece of equipment. As it was a non-essential item, there were no real consequences, but I'm sure the procedures will be reviewed to discover how it happened and how to stop it happening again. Might prevent a more serious incident in the future.

Good idea, but...

There's no doubt that easy access to anonymised patient data would be an excellent research tool, but the difficulty is in the implementation. With a standard medical trial, your consent will be gained in person, you'll be told what the research involves and what they're hoping to learn from it, along with any additional potential risks or benefits to you from taking part in the trial. With this kind of bulk data collecting, it feels more like writing a blank cheque where your health records will be used for all sorts of research without you knowing about it.

People are also becoming much more aware that their data has value, and there would be concerns that this is going to be used by drug companies to increase their profits with few benefits being seen by the majority of patients. Gaining trust in this project will be difficult, and easily lost, so it needs to be handled very carefully.

Good money after bad

So Lockheed Martin thinks that because we've wasted £6.5 billion on two aircraft carriers, we now have to waste more money on the dubiously useful F-35. Sounds like they understand politicians / manglement perfectly...

You say you've got the optics running. Does that mean LESTER will be dispensing spirits as well as beer?

Precise words

There's a big difference between "deployed" and "deployed successfully".

Pathetic. Regardless of what you think of Musk, SpaceX are getting stuff done and are doing more to get people excited about space flight than Boeing are. They should try getting their own act together instead of being reduced to belittling the success of others.

I'm now much more grateful for my parents. They don't fully embrace computers, but don't get themselves in trouble with them. The main use of their laptop is looking up information on soul & Motown discos, holiday destinations and things like that. The only quirk is that they will text me to tell me they've sent me an email - they seem to think it might get lost in the post.

Peculiarly, my mum has embraced text speak, but nobody else in the family does, so I've got no idea where she's picked it up from. It's quite amusing to get messages along the lines of "Hope u r OK. Will we c u soon? Know u have ur own plans but would be good to c u. xoxo"

Backronym

If this robot breaks down, there will be a new TITSUP (Total Inability To Support Umpteen Pints).

No choice?

Looking at the mockup photo accompanying the article, it appears there are going to be many more beds than seats. If you didn't want to lie down, would there be somewhere for you to sit? I wouldn't pay for reduced choice.

Testing this out with a smartphone was probably a good way of testing the technology and technique in principal. To be used in clinical practice, it would probably make more sense to integrate it into existing equipment. As the test involves looking at colour changes in the index finger, it would make sense to add this test to the finger mounted blood oxygen meters that are widely used in hospitals.

Importance of teammates

Arguably, what really led to Hamilton losing the race was not having a teammate in a relevant position. If Bottas had been in the top 4 and had pitted around the same time as Hamilton, Ferrari would have had to pit Vettel in response. As it is, Vettel was under no real pressure and could stay out for longer in the hope of a safety car / VSC. Yes, he got lucky, but the opportunity had been set up by qualifying and Bottas being unable to overtake and catch up.

I'm not actually criticising Bottas. Crashes happen in qualifying, it's when drivers really push the limits. As long as it doesn't happen too often it's not a big deal. And he wasn't the only one struggling to overtake in the race. I'm hoping the lack of overtaking was due to Melbourne being a street circuit and that other tracks will give more exciting racing. We'll just have to wait & see.

Good work

Ignoring the question of what substances people should be allowed to put in their own body, this is pretty impressive. A well-organised operation with cooperation across multiple jurisdictions that seems to have gone as planned.

One question, though: Who keeps the bitcoins?

Don't solve the problem, hide it.

"In a recent answer to a House of Lords question, the other place was told that in the 10 years to 2015, 250,000 appeals were allowed against the Home Office," - I suspect this may be part of the reason for the immigration data exemption. Instead of trying to make fewer mistakes, they're trying to make it harder for people to prove mistakes have been made.

The other factors in the reasoning are probably general anti-immigrant bias and government's apparent determination to hide all the data they possess, even as they slurp up everybody else's.

Martial status

"if the terms of service on a website require you to be truthful about, say, your weight or martial status " - overweight, unarmed and not very dangerous.

Fur suit?

"And, for the record, no Reg journalists have a penchant for slipping into a fur suit."

I, for one, totally believe this. Vultures have feathers, not fur.

Bug report for The Register: You appear to have posted your April Fools article over a month early.

Crazy Dave seems to be the sales version of the BOFH. We've now got a female equivalent BOFH, a salesdroid equivalent BOFH and BOFH junior in the PFY. Can some kind of animal companion be far behind? How about a BOFHmobile car?

Am I missing something?

I'm a bit confused by this. Getty were putting the full, high-res images up online and are complaining that these could be found by an image search, right? If Getty are so worried about this, why not just offer lower-res preview images and hide the high-res stuff behind a paywall? That would seem to make more sense.

The response I want to see:

"On behalf of DataSlurp social media, I would like to say we take the issue of lies being spread very seriously. Accordingly, we are immediately removing the accounts of all politicians and political parties. This will reduce the level of deception and misinformation on our network."