* Posts by JayB

117 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Apr 2007

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Brit polar vessel christened RRS Sir David Attenborough

JayB
FAIL

Re: It just goes to show

You missed the point.

The Public was not being asked to CHOOSE the name, merely come up with suggestions. According to the news reports NERC clearly stated they would choose the name. As for the whole "yes it was suitable because lots of people on the internet voted".. you really don't get British humour do you? We have made a glorious history of being wildly inappropriate (rightly or wrongly) because we think it's funny (rightly or wrongly) and "suitability" has not even had a walk on part.

Whether or not I disagree is spectacularly irrelevant. Your whole BNP slant falls down around your ankles because the Poll was NOT to decide the name whereas an election IS to decide who will govern.

JayB
Happy

Re: the mass lunacy the Internet can loose on the world.

Liking it!!! Have an upvote SIr ...

JayB

Re: It just goes to show

No it doesn't. It goes to show that voting for suggestions that are unsuitable or inappropriate may not get past the judging panel who have to actually make the real decision, and answer for it.

This is not a break down of democracy. It is not a curtailment of our rights. It is not proof of an uncaring Universe.

It is however a damn fine example of the mass lunacy the Internet can loose on the world.

Cops deploy StingRay anti-terror tech against $50 chicken-wing thief

JayB
Unhappy

So how long before...

...all visitors are required to hand over their IMEI etc along with their API whenever they fly into the States. All visitors to be routinely tracked.

I'm fairly sure Donald Duck, sorry, Trump would love to feed that one into the Psychosis Blender he feeds everyone every day.

The question is not "am I cynical" but "am I cynical enough".

Would you let cops give your phone a textalyzer scan after a road crash?

JayB

Re: Excuses excuses

"Here physically interacting with your phone even as a satnav or music player is criminal, and a good thing too because we don't want distracted drivers."

Yet lighting up a ciggie isn't?

JayB

Re: They don't actually need this

"if you kill someone while driving, you should be cited for vehicular homicide, as you caused the car to hit the person (if the person 'just jumped out in front of you, you were driving recklessly, too fast for the conditions... its still your fault). If you skid off the road, your fault too (for the same reasons)."

Don't follow your argument that "if the person jumped out in front of you... it's still your fault". Sorry, but no. There have, I believe, been a number of cases where people have chosen going for a walk on the motorway as a peculiar form of extreme sport (or method of suicide). Are you seriously telling me that you would advocate that the poor sod who hit these idiots be done under vehicular homicide? So how does that apply to train drivers when someone chooses to kill themselves via that route?

Fully agree that some speeding asshat who mows someone down because they are being reckless and stupid should be done, but someone who is obeying the law, driving with all due care and attention and someone else fucks up their day, deliberately or through application of epic stupidity, sorry, but no.

As for the article, really not sure. Half of me says "yeah, what's the problem, let them run a check", and then the other half slaps that half and reminds it that by and large the terms "unprincipled untrustworthy lunatics" and "thin end of the wedge" tend to apply to Law Enforcement. Once they have an in on gaining data, and being able to use threats of fines and imprisonment if you don't "willing" give them everything they demand, then there is no limit to how much the general populace is going to have to bend over.

FBI Director defends iPhone 5C unlock tool that's obviously going to leak into wrong hands

JayB
Unhappy

Communication

"We are not living in a golden age of surveillance, he said, rather a golden age of communication".

HAHAHAH, f**king cockwomble. Let me fix that for ya mate..

"We are not living in a golden age of surveillance, you peons are, but me and my mates aren't.... rather a golden age of communication... whereby we talk to your electronics and it will be forced to talk to us, and we'll neither tell you, nor give a fuck whether you like it or not".

I believe someone has already used the term "disingenuous bastard". I second the motion!

Flying Finns arm octocopter with chainsaw

JayB

Finally!!

Something oh so much better than sharks with frikkin' lasers!!! Drones with Death Sticks.

I must have one.

For the hedges you understand... wonder if they do a Boudicca themed one... blades horizontally mounted, 2 of 'em....

Here's a great idea: Let's make a gun that looks like a mobile phone

JayB

No one has got it right

Wow, vitriol, "thy name is the Reg Forums".

Look, for all those going "no our way is the only way", we're all wrong. In the UK we're insanely restrictive and in America you guys are way too liberal with them.

Once heard not a bad interview with a rational NRA person who pointed out he had no problems with sensible gun owners. These are people who have guns, lock them up, keep ammo and firearm in different safes etc etc etc. He also had no issues with people who keep a loaded gun in the kitchen drawer being shot by their kid because frankly, what the f*** were you expecting. Act like a Fraggle, get shot by your kid, sort of natural justice.

Sensible gun ownership shouldn't be an issue, it's when you let any crazy yahoo get their hands on them that problems occur, and that surely that is a big part of the issue? Education in firearm usage and some way of stopping lunatics from having them has got to be a better idea than a society with no firearms in legal hands (crooks are fine with owning illegal things because, well, breaking the law is rather the job description) OR just dishing out firearms and ammo with few questions asked!

Yes? No?

Waiting now for the legendary down voting for disagreeing with absolutely everyone *smile*.

Why I'm regulating the 'sharing economy': An Italian MP explains

JayB

Uber?

First time I've seen "Uber" and "Professional" in the same sentence, by someone who apparently means it and wasn't suffering from lack of the blood to the brain. Awesome.

Californian tycoons stole my sharing economy, says Lily Cole

JayB
Unhappy

Fixing the quote...

But the model, actress and philosopher, whose net worth was estimated at £7m, has realised that some people have become wealthy from doing what she exactly was doing.

Should read...

But the model, actress, bumbling idiot and all round hypocrite, whose net worth was estimated as all the kittens and rainbows you can hug, has realised that people have become wealthy from not being wildly credulous and doing what she exactly was doing, but doing it much, much, MUCH better.

Honestly, how are people like this able to survive in the real world? Has she ever visited the real world? We used to lock people like this up in Coney Hatch, now they get a Govt grant and fly around the world. Please stop the world, I'd like to step off it for five mins.

Fifth time's the charm as SpaceX pops satellite into orbit

JayB

Re: F. Scott Fitzgerald...

I'm pretty sure there are more than 1 or 2 Forum members disappointed with your refusal to stop banging on about the Sat Comms, that may or may not have been designed & implemented by SpaceX, and how you'd prefer they were much improved, rather than appreciating the majesty of advanced tech and the ambitions of rich madmen to, well, you know, contribute to the Human Race.

This does not mean that anyone who doesn't share your views on video feeds is some starry eyed fan boy/disciple of some Religion of Musk. This is not Apple. A lot of the people who read the Reg can critically assess/ogle shiny tech while not foaming at the mouth.

The important stuff is being worked on, the unimportant shit has been rescheduled. These are not High School students running this.

As someone else has pointed out, the forces on a couple of Km of fibre in even fairly mild seas are quire staggering, even RoVs are reeled in once the sea state gets a bit wobbly.

Essex cop abused police IT systems to snoop on his in-laws

JayB

Re: In the scheme of serious crimes...

None of us here buy this crap about "highest standards" but more because we all know full well that the standards alluded to seem to be pretty much at a comedy level.

However, it is absolutely a serious crime when someone with some fairly aggressive powers deliberately and for personal gain abuses those powers, whether it be accountants embezzling, Politicians lining their own pockets or as in this case, Coppers using their systems to spy for personal gain. I pretty much do not care what the guy's motives were, he broke one of the most serious rules they have.

In any other job, he'd have been sacked for gross misconduct, and rightly so. As always, one rule for the Police, different rule for mortals.

Brit firm unleashes drone-busting net cannon

JayB

Re: I call fake...

Looks like a pretty bog standard design of gas bottle to me.

How long before some "genius" decides to deploy a conductive mesh net with a power source. Bet the Police would love that for dealing with disobedient souls!

BBC telly tax drops onto telly-free households. Cough up, iPlayer fans

JayB

Yet another attempt to dodge the 21st Century

The BBC lost it's right to claim to be technological innovative years ago. They sub out pretty much anything that requires tech. Long gone are the days of world leading shenanigans such as the Radiophonic Workshop.

I've successfully managed to avoid owning a TV for pretty much my entire life to date, and in the past I've only every used iPlayer for Dr Who on catch-up. In the words of the aforementioned show... No More. This is just getting depressing. I am fine with paying for a service that delivers content that is actually enjoyable. Netflix, Amazon Prime, you watch what you want, when you want. BBC, you watch what you're told, and from everything I hear in the office every morning, viewers find 90% is garbage.

The BBC is broken to the point it cannot be fixed (certainly not by OFCOM... that's like asking an orangutang to do brain surgery, or a politician to be honest), it's biased beyond measure, produces nonsense by and large, is insanely top every.. no wonder it doesn't want to compete on an even playing field.

And don't get me started on the Capita Debt Collection Agency, sorry, I mean TVLA.

Photographer hassled by Port of Tyne for filming a sign on a wall

JayB

I hate myself for biting but....

1) Digital media article... in a section of a Tech Website entitled "Media"

2) Twitter issues, relates to IT.

3) Civil Liberties issues, something the Reg focuses on quite often, especially when, you know, there's an IT angle.

So yes, it's definitely in the right place for an article like this.

I'm personally in two minds on this one. On the side of photography definitely, but maybe, just maybe, if he'd have said "wotcha mate, just filming the sign for an art project" rather than being a cocky ass, it would have gone downhill so quick. Although I personally have my doubts. Any "guard" who starts spouting BS that far, that fast is not going to be reasonable; "under the direction of the Dept of Transport"... wtf? Your local weighbridge I suspect is under the direction of the Dept of Transport ffs.

If someone is going to be given the job of "guarding" then organisations like the Port of Tyne seriously need to be giving proper guidelines and not "he looked a bit funny". To be honest, I'd have the Port fined for blatantly inadequate training, make them GIVE adequate training and then if the site SecuraGoon do it again they have reasonable grounds to dismiss the idiots. Aggressively accosting innocent bystanders in a public place, can never, ever be acceptable in a civilised world.

The Police also need to step up their game. Their apologist nonsense just proves they don’t get it either. Besides, I thought they’d be upset someone was muscling in on their game….

BS all round!

Yelp minimum wage row shines spotlight on … broke, fired employee

JayB
Coat

Re: [unsolicited opinions on farts]

Sam Fox??? 'kin 'ell mate, that dates you... er.. and me.... :)

Or is she still "supporting the boys"?????

JayB

Re: Several Problems

First up, Talia isn't the wisest soul on the planet, I'll grant you, but here's the kicker.

Whether you like it or not, she has f***ing point. I've been in and out of SF a lot and it is an insanely expensive city. Other major firms recognise this and try and support their staff by all manner of things, free transport to cheaper neighbourhoods, better salary as examples, YELP do not. If you need a job, you need a job and you'll take anything. If you're trying to build a career you try and be selective about that job. Note I said "try", I'm thinking YELP, not a good thing for the resume.

What Yelp do is called exploitation, and yes, while I'm aware people like you are all for it and think it is de rigeur, pretty much the rest of us think it's a pretty scummy thing to do.

Communist California?????? WTF??? Last Californian I got drunk with reckoned the USA should nuke China to prevent it becoming an economic Super power to rival the USA (hated to explain to him that they already had).... and you're calling that communist? Fuck, I dread to think what you think is "middle of the road".

The one thing I do agree with is no one should ever, EVER have to work for a bunch of unethical cretins like YELP, unfortunately since you seem to share their somewhat less than ethical politics, no one should ever have had to work for you.

Child tracker outfit uKnowKids admits breach, kicks off row with security researcher

JayB

Re: Black hat

Paranoid much?

Ok, they were dumbasses, but a proportionate response is NOT to make the records of those kids and families available by leaking it anonymously.

1) Crusading for Justice does not involve potentially putting those kids at risk (does the phrase "we had to destroy the village to save it" ring any bells?), that is just stupid and malevolent.

2) Acting to deliberately take down a company you perceive to be recklessly incompetent is just vigilantism of those most cowardly order (doing it under "Anon"????).

3) As others have stated, 2 wrongs don't make a right.

A more responsible way to do it would be to notify the firm, allow/help them to fix the issue, get on with life. Which more or less is what happened. The company however might have been a tad better served not being such tools about it.

SpaceShipTwo ready to slip the surly bonds of Earth for Virgin Galactic

JayB
Alien

Re: Slip the surly bonds? Nonsense!

"Let's face it.. The damn thing barely qualifies as spaceflight.. but shhh.. the hype train doesn't like it when the fact monster comes to town. They have to sell those twat-priced tickets, remember?"

Seriously? This is your considered response to someone developing a reusable platform for getting people into "legally defined" space (ok, we're not escaping gravity and winging into the cosmos but still). I kinda feel sorry for you, what happened to ambition, admiration and sheer appreciation for how wonderfully mental we can be as a species?

This is an impressive piece of engineering regardless of how you cut it, yeah, ok, so no mere financial mortal like me will ever get a ride in it, but maybe, just maybe if we can get some of the clueless dolts who can afford it to realise it's a round world we live on then maybe something morally lovely will happen.

If not, then something fantastic STILL happens in Engineering/Science/Technology. We learn something, we build something shiny, we watch it fly and someone, somewhere thinks "how can I make that better?". That alone makes this worthwhile.

Alien.. because.. dudes... Stars!!!!

Norks uses ballistic missile to launch silent 'satellite'

JayB

Re: God Save the Rocket!!!

MEDIC!!!!!

Troll off his Meds.

Thirty Meter Telescope needs to revisit earthly fine print

JayB

Re: CAVE people

Ordinarily I'd be onside with your CAVE argument, but I've been fortunate to enough have visited Hawaii and find the whole place fascinating.

Part of the reason the native religion has died out is because there are so few properly native Hawaiians left. Their recent history, from the time America stole the country, has been one of their culture systematically being erased or overridden. I agree that the whole thing stinks of $$$$ but I can't help feeling for the Hawaiians.

As for jobs, I doubt many would be created for the Islands, most of the crew are likely to be brought in from outside I suspect.

Hacks rebel after bosses secretly install motion sensors under desks

JayB

Re: Moral police @rototype

"Are you completely daft? What kind of a complete idiot makes ridiculous unfounded accusations and doesn't even bother to read the FIRST LINE IN THE ARTICLE???"

Umm, before calling someone a moron, might it be a good idea to make sure you're not being one?

Rototype was referring, as was everyone else, to the case of the dude who got fired for lunching in a Strip Joint. An incident that occurred in California, clue being "a Californian legal practice".

It would be courteous to apologise about now.

On the topic of the actual article, completely out of order. The moment some genius decides not to tell anyone about the monitoring, that's when all excuses become BS and the whole thing turns into creepy assed spying!

Man faces 37 years for sarcastic post insulting royal dog

JayB

Re: Streisand Effect

"In this context, a multi-decade jail sentence for being sarcastic to a dog starts to make sense."

No, it doesn't. Not for a second. It'll never make sense to a reasonable person.

------------------------------------------------------

Well, no, of course it doesn't. However, despite your selective quoting to criticise the author, they do rather cunningly say "in this context" after having described a bat shit crazy and psychopathic regime.

He did NOT say "hey when you explain it like that, any normal person says 'now I get it, rock on' ".

Looking at the insanity that is Thai Military junta, I am REALLY glad Spitting Image isn't still around, they'd have had a field day, and probably got themselves into very deep crap.

Beardy Branson bangs birds on Boeing

JayB
WTF?

Re: That Guy

"That Guy

is a National Embarrassment."

Seriously? He's masterminded the creation of a massive empire (sadly he is not really in control of it all anymore and it's standards have epically slipped), he's investing in pushing the boundaries of getting the species into Space properly, he's kept himself and his family pretty much scandal free and he doesn't prance around like a weapons grade toolbag.

The same cannot be said for you, on at least one of those, but I suspect all.

I'm not a rocket scientist, so I' am not going sit here and dissect this grand plan of his, or it's "financial viability" so I'll simply say

"Rock on Beardy, get us into Space and off this f***ing rock"

Blocking out the Sun won't fix climate change – but it could buy us time

JayB
Alert

Re: Cool the Core

Love it!

Now all we need to do is drill one mother of a hole (that's the mining industry helped out, make a big assed rod to conduct the heat from core to here (that's the steel industry sorted) then call Coolermaster and get them to make a bitchin' heatsink to strap to the rod! Although we might need some more Arctic Silver so we should probably get them on overtime in Production too....

Sorry, that's as seriously as I could take that....

We turn Sonos PLAY:5 up to 11

JayB

With respect...

.. to the audiophiles and Sound Psychos, but these are not for the "Apple Consumer", they're for anyone after a hassle free front end, decent quality audio and discreet (in looks, not volume) and has no time/desire to fuck about with something that should be comparatively simple.

I use the stuff and it's bloody lovely. It acts as my bedside alarm clock, my "I want to make the walls shake to the dulcet tones of Masters Dickinson & Plant", or my "idle tunes on a lazy day". It's simple, straight forward and picks up any music in my house. PC based music, Internet based etc. etc. HMI is nice and clean, build quality is pretty damn solid and styling is nicely "limited", but above all, it works.

If you want the Maserati of hi-fis, go buy lots of bits and worry about cabling. If you're after something solid, user friendly, highly respectable sound quality, you can do significantly worse. Denon's system is nice, but not worth the price tag.

For those who deem them "tacky and gimmicky", I suspect a) you've never actually had a decent play with one and b) you aren’t the target market and c) you probably annoy a lot of people by criticising the crap out of their personal taste on the grounds it's not yours.

Caption this: WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

JayB

Even with his new Siri to Scottish translator eye-pod, John still couldn't shake the feeling Siri was taking the piss...

BT boss in shock 'bigger is better' claim as £12.5bn EE bid heats up

JayB
Coffee/keyboard

"natural and willing"

"... given our history as a natural and willing wholesaler, enabling other companies to use the networks we own."

HAHAHHAHAHAH, nice one. I take it he was advertising BT's new Comedy channel?

I seem to have just violated my keyboard with a mouthful of tea.

Apple Watch HATES tattoos: Inky pink sinks rinky-dink sensor

JayB
Meh

Re: Hardly a bug, is it...

>I have the body of a god.

>Unfortunately it's Buddha

Pedant Alert - Buddha technically isn't a god (upvoting anyway because it's still funny)

Sadly the only thing I took away from this article was "Apple User buys flakey Product but would rather continue using it because it's so Shiny than actually try and get the MF fixed".

Depressing state of affairs.

Capita lands spot on mega £5bn NHS commissioning deal

JayB
Unhappy

Capita can go suck....

Jesus, it beggars belief that these parasites have scammed yet more money.

Kiss goodbye to your personal data. The moment Capita get a sniff of access to data they will take first, sell second, and not even bother about asking for forgiveness later. This is regardless of whether anything they are doing allows them access, they'll take it anyway... in addition to the extra billions they'll screw the country for in cost overruns and "maintenance".

Also beggars belief the number of people who are on here equating Capita = Tories. You seem to be forgetting that this disgusting & unethical organisation of cretins came to prominence during the reign of and at the behest of Labour. Which only goes to show that there is no difference between either side when it comes to stupidity and piss poor decision making skills,

Goodbye NHS, it was nice knowing you and thank f*** for Private Medical Cover.

Is it too late to put the mice in charge?

Zoinks! Is that Mystery Machine Apple's SELF-DRIVING FAMILY WAGON? You decide

JayB

Re: Remember...

"And yet Google still expect you to park on a motorway."

M25.

Just sayin'

'Revenge porn' bully told not to post people's nude pics online. That's it. That's his punishment

JayB
FAIL

Re: I'm not sure I feel that sorry for the "victims" here

Seriously?

You don't see anything wrong with having someone post the most intimate things about you on the web with no permissions or knowledge by you?

Or is it only ok if it's not you?

Yes the victims, note, no quotation marks you prevaricating cretin because they are bloody well victims of a crime, were foolish but that is all they were, and sadly this crap will still go on because if there's one thing the Human Race isn't short of, it's fools and scum going out of their way to take advantage. Sad however that this wasn't fully prosecuted. Just because the man is a low life and worth sod all, couldn't they have at least fined him and forced him to pay by installments?

Scientific consensus that 2014 was record hottest year? No

JayB

Re: warmists or sceptics

"Surely you mean scientists vs deniers?"

Nope, he means Warmists vs Sceptics, because plenty of Scientists have disagreed with "wildly held beliefs". Let me guess, you work for the University of East Anglia?

LIFELESS BEAGLE on MARS: A British TRIUMPH!

JayB
Thumb Up

"The Mars Express Orbiter has been outstanding, but the probe failed. The probe did not send any data regarding surface layers of Mars. No geology, no geochemistry. Nada. Zilch.

Finding out 11 years down the line that the probe landed roughly where it was expected too does not turn failure into success."

@ Moultoneer - You Sir have no soul or spirit of exploration!

No, granted, the probe has not sent back any info, but the damn thing got where it was going and seemingly in one piece. However you slice this, this is something to celebrate. No one is saying it was an unqualified success, but aspects of the mission were definitely a success.

Here's to the Prof... now where's our next one? Only the UK can create a Pillinger and we need more!

NHS refused to pull 'unfit for purpose' Care.data leaflet

JayB

Re: @Terry 6: "must try harder"

"Great Britain is a weird land: people protested long and loudly at the very idea of Identity cards, even simple, basic ones, while being quite happy to use passports, copies of bank statements and utility bills to provide the proof of identity needed for banking, car hire or just to buy a drink or cigarettes. They tolerate the greatest density of private and state cameras and officials filming them with wearable cameras, while the same people object to the public filming them or their buildings and transport."

Have an upvote for an elegant summation!

Edu-apps may be STALKING YOUR KIDS, feds warn

JayB

Is it bad.....

That I read the whole article and all I really took away from it was the irony of a US Lawyer describing somebody else's behaviour as creepy...

Scrapping the Human Rights Act: What about privacy and freedom of expression?

JayB
Coat

Slightly amazed

Don't get me wrong, I'm a seriously wary of this "ooo, he might be thinking of possibly telling someone that they might possibly break some law or other" bollocks, but are people here seriously suggesting that the bloody Labour Party or ANY other Political Party is actually going to be a better idea?

Have you all forgotten how many of our rights were eroded or plain old annihilated by the Labour Govt? These clowns took us to war based on lies, enacted laws because minority focus groups demanded it and generally ran us into national poverty (hey, Mr Brown, where exactly is our gold?). No, I am not saying that the Tories are the solution, but blindly handing it to the other shower o’ shite is not the answer. Get off the internet, talk to your MPs and vote in someone with enough balls to stand up to the Police and the Intel Services who drive this kind of crap.

Also remember it was the Labour Party who allowed the Police to become so politically corrupt that they feel it’s allowable for them to try and dictate national policies by destroying people’s careers if they stand in their way.

Mine’s the one with the copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide in it … “it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it”

Oz carrier Tiger Air takes terror alerts to new heights

JayB
Flame

Re: Targeted

*Targeted*. Civilians could and did get caught up, but they were not the targets per se

Really? I must have missed that bit. Civilians were frequently an aspect of the target. Birmingham Pub bombings, Kings Cross and Euston Station bombings, Harrod bombings, The bombings/assassinations of individuals such as Ian Gow MP, Ross McWhirter and others.

if "civilian death was not the strategy" why bomb civilian targets such as shopping centres, hotels and crowded streets?

You seem to be confusing "Target", "Goal" and "Strategy". Their goal was to get their own way, their strategy was terror and they sure as hell did target civilians. I can't disagree with the last comment, but then the best way to fight any war is to make it so damn expensive for the enemy to continue, but frankly the rest of your stuff smacks of revisionist historian and consequently sucks so much that it blows.

Supermodel Lily Cole: 'I got a little bit upset by that Register article'

JayB

Limited Defence

In all (limited fairness) I suspect the following is true :-

Lily attached sycophant has idea that is pure "gold", sells it to Lily who frankly has no real idea about this shit.

Office of Lily Affairs goes to NESTA which promptly wets it self at the idea of being associated with a vaguely famous pretty girl.

NESTA cons wodges of cash out of Cabinet Office frantically pointing to a picture going "look, she's pretty and we know her... also can we have another 10K to spruce up the buffet table for when she's next in".

Office of Lily Affairs hires NESTA sycophant "webbie" to design (and I use the term in the loosest sense) a website.

....and they saw a Powerpoint Presentation and it was good, so they all had tea and scones and Lily still has no clue about what's been perpetrated in her name, but she's been told it is so cool, so she defends it.

She's hardly going to go "yeah, it's a crock of shite, I regret listening to those dickheads I hired to organise my affairs, they're now all f**king fired, oh and those guys who gave us all that cash, total muppets" now is she? Although we can hope...

As has been said before, lynch the muppets at NESTA and the CO because frankly they should be a lot more responsible and careful with our cash. Sadly however, as History seems to scream at us, some of the people least responsible with money that isn't theirs are Bankers and senior Civil Servants.

Tech talk bloke compares girlfriend to irritating Java tool – did he deserve flames?

JayB
Unhappy

Re Donkey Molestor

"women get paid less, get sexually harassed out of all reasonable proportion compared to men"

Errr.... implying that there is a reasonable level of proportion for sexual harassment of women? I may be one of those misogynistic dudebros who though the guy's presentation was a joke (just a fairly obvious and generic one), but I am pretty bloody certain that all sexual harassment is unreasonable to both sexes. That’s why it’s called harassment.

If people spent less time going around looking for reasons to be offended and more time going around having fun, I’d probably be less depressed about the f**k-awful stupidity of the human race.

Bono bests Bezos in Fortune's 'World's 50 Greatest Leaders' list

JayB
WTF?

WTF?

Seriously? WTF are the people at Fortune smoking?

We have in this list of "inspiring world leaders":-

#1 a man who heads one of the biggest collection of hypocrites & paedophiles on the planet. (no, he is not one I grant you).

#5 a man who was dragged up in court for being a lying, adultering weasel....

#7 a man who has seen the world - shot at most of it - and is a senior officer of what is widely regarded as one of the largest groups of armed idiots on the planet (What's the difference between the US Army and Cub Scouts, Cub Scouts don't have heavy artillery).

#8 Bono.. this is "tax dodging, Venture Capitalist, Asset Stripping" Bono, a man famed not just for singing, but for moving all his money to a tax haven the moment someone mentioned Ireland might not be cheap soon.

#11 a man who, when looking at the words "inspiring world leaders", fails on all three counts of that term.

I will go for Merkel, Dalai Lama and Ang Sun Suu Kyi because at least they have actually done something worthy of respect. I particularly liked Khaptain's "biggest testicles" remark, and I'll go with James Hughes 1 "Elon Musk" vote. The man might be madder than a box of frogs but he's a tech, he's pushing boundaries and proving the establishment is just a little bit wonky when it comes to organising major tech projects.

FFS, let's put Bruce Springsteen in there... let's put Lindsey Lohan in there, at least she's brought us all closer in watching her car crash of a life!!!

#now very depressed if that is what is deemed to be inspiring#

Millions of unloved iPhone 5Cs gather dust in warehouses – report

JayB
Boffin

Re: non-story

Wow, quite stunningly the wrong end of the stick.

Try looking at it this way and stop assuming this is all about "everyone has it in for Apple" thereby indulging in your persecution complex.

Each Iphone 5C costs about 199 USD to make. Therefore using some of the assumptions in this whole thread, on a normal week there's about a million sold a week. That makes just shy of 200 million flowing through the coffers allowing payment of bills, more phones to be made yada yada yada.

This issue is NOW they have just shy of 600 million USD and it's NOT flowing. It's tied up in phones that have to be paid for, storage of those phones and all the fun little costs associated with warehousing boxes.

Now, who is getting the shitty end of that 600 million I don't know. Knowing Apple and their contracts team I would hazard a guess that the disties are getting it in the shorts and not Apple, but that's just supposition on my part. Regardless, 600 million USD of slow moving/dead stock is a painful number for any company, which makes it a painful mistake, or, if as another poster has claimed it's all some Machiavellian tactic to make shareholders back off, it can be reclassified as a (I believe the business term is) "f**king bad idea".

Devs SLAM UK.gov's JavaScript-astic, 'shoddy' security education website

JayB
Unhappy

Govt/Civil Service Vs Anything to do with computers

Seems to be pretty much doomed really... first we had the road accident that is The Year of Code, now we've got Cyberstreetwise....

Also, I note CyberCrapWeb gets 4 million and fusterclucks it, yet a national initiative to teach kids "code" fusterclucks it with only half a million.. Much better value for money there!

Dixons selling £68k gold, diamond, ruby and sapphire iPhone for Xmas

JayB
WTF?

Re: Obvioulsy not a jeweler

Sounds reasonable.. and if my numbers are correct..

300 stones with 22.5ct total weight - if they were all diamonds, they'd be about 2.75mm dia each (ish - 0.075ct per), with a height of approximately 1.9mm - so the case thickness would need to be 2mm up to avoid cutting through. Which sounds a bit thick to me... I mean... if this is all done properly and it IS 2mm all round (assuming stones around the sides), we're looking at almost 21cm3 of case material. That's nearly 400g of metal.....

The Raspberry Pi: Is it REALLY the saviour of British computing?

JayB
Go

Pi and Education

I'm reading a lot of "this needs to be taught better" and "people need to get involved" yet I'm seeing very few "I've got involved" comments.

Part of the problem we have, and not just with Programming, ALL STEM subjects is we're asking people whose (usually but not always) background, career and qualifications is that of, a teacher, not a professional Tech. It's no wonder that the material we all want/need as industrial bods isn't being taught, because we're not involved!

There's a number of organisations out there, from our own Professional Bodies, eg IET, IMechE, Royal Soc. Eng, BCS, to other groups such as STEMNET and Greenpower, who are all trying to encourage and help get kids into all these tech subjects, but they need our support and help. Code Clubs are great and generally your average school is grateful if they can get some help to set and run these. I personally do work with STEMNET as a volunteer, so go into schools every so often and the response is fantastic. I see regular pleas from schools to help them teach Pi's, sadly not my field so I can't help. Can you?

If we as professional tech heads, be it Programmers, Designers, Scientists etc etc etc cannot get off our butts and enthuse the kids, then please don't be surprised that teachers aren't able to do it, and don't be surprised when the whole gig falls on it's arse because have a bunch of kids who have no idea how to be a techie. Pi's, Arduino's, these are just tools, and like all tools, needs a person to wield it and show others how to.

So, challenge for us all... you believe strongly enough about the subject? Get involved. Find your local STEMNET Rep, approach your kid's school, go to your Professional body, whatever.... just get involved.

Osama Bin Pwned: Al Qaeda mocked in Twitter counter-jihad

JayB
Go

Re: @Richard Jones 1 (was: Whatever. Show me the fucking "terrorists" already.)

"Yes, and kids that spend their childhood killing small animals live such fulfilled lives. Giving a 6 yr old license to shoot small animals as they see fit would probably have your child taken in to protective care in any civilized country."

Wtf? Sorry Tom38 but I really am wondering if you shouldn't up your meds!?!?! Teaching kids the correct and proper respect for firearms is not "child abuse" as you seem to be implying. As other posters have pointed out, rob these items of their mystery and glamour and when these kids get older "they ain't cool no more dawg". Also, teaching a child where their food comes from is no bad thing either. Personally I was slotting pidgeons and bunnies as a kid to help the local farmers. These days I am a productive (ie pay my taxes, a lot of taxes) member of Society with no more quirks than those normally associated with Engineers in general.

Back to the article though, hats off to Mr Berger for some quality entertainment and appropriate response to Terrorism - rip the piss.

Oh, and Marvin O Gravel - you owe me a new keyboard mate!

Climate change even worse than you thought: It causes war and murder

JayB

Re: Ah, I get it at last...

>So that's why the peaceful Vikings went berserk and ran around murdering, robbing and stealing when they >arrived in sub-tropical countries like England and France.

I am now beset by the very disturbing image of Hagar the Horrible in a mankini.

I think I may need professional help.

Bugs in beta weather model used to trash climate science

JayB
WTF?

I'm just a simple engineer but....

I love how this has become a "I disagree with the previous post's stance on Climate Change therefore I must assert they are wrong based on my opinion".

Fact - Climate Change occurs, we know this because every few million years in gets rather brisk outside, then at other times it's most definitely more of a shorts and t-shirt millennia. Outside of the Creationist side of the God Squad, no one doubts that.

What we're looking at here is yet another example of flaws in the Doomsday Scenario data that we keep having rammed down our throats as fact, rather than assign them the probability levels they actually warrant. We're looking at Models whose results are driving Political changes, taxation etc and highlighting flaws in how the results are generated, although at least in this case this is inadvertent rather than some of the outright manipulation we've seen in some sources. Surely if you can't trust that results are accurate, how can you "predict" the future with any certainty? By certainty I mean "with enough statistical likelihood that I can put laws, taxes etc etc in place".

I've not read the paper, but in hindsight, I guess it's sort of obvious that if you change the way you calculate your answers and chop and change your resolution, you're going to change the answer between dissimilar systems.

Maggie Thatcher: The Iron Lady who saved us from drab Post Office mobes

JayB
WTF?

What's more depressing...

Is it

a) people are so hung up on a Politician who left our lives over 2 decades ago

or

b) That so many otherwise apparently intelligent people see fit to voice such disgusting vitriol, such pathetic bile, such base hatred for someone who just died?

Frankly some of the posters on here should be utterly ashamed of themselves. Keep your clinically fucked up opinions to yourselves you staggeringly bigoted rodents. You are the worst kind of social media hogging pond scum I can imagine. Most of you never fucking met her and yet you feel it necessary to spout this kind of hatred? Shame on you. I'd wish something awful on you all but frankly, what can be worse than being the insensitive pricks you ably show yourselves to be?

I'll content myself with Rest In Peace Mrs T, good or bad, you'll be remembered.

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