Posts by John Brown (no body) 25368 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2010
The beginning of the article is a little confusing.
"dispose of the 29-week-old fetus."
than goes on to say...
"providing an abortion to her daughter Celeste after 20 weeks of pregnancy,"
Later in the article, I am confused by the US justice system in the report.
"giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an abortion"
and then states
"Celeste Burgess, now 18, who initially faced three charges as an adult rather than a minor,"
Is this an unusual quirk of the US justice system that you get tried as an adult if the "crime" comes to light after you turn 18 even if the "crime" was committed while under 18, a minor?
I do recall some more extreme case of minors being tried as adults, but that is exceptional, and this case doesn't seem particularly exceptional.
"Peer to peer also implies E2EE (I am assuming encryption since AFAIK every major smartphone messaging app is encrypted)"
That's a hell of an assumption P2P in no way implies E2EE or indeed any encryption.
"Remember the 'progressives' in the US want abortion literally to the point of birth with no need for a reason."
And by "progressives", you mean a tiny minority of extremists, not actual, everyday common or garden progressives. Is that why you posted as AC? Very few agree with legal abortion much after 20 weeks or so except under exceptional conditions.
The corollary to your statement obviously is "Remember, the 'regressives' in the US want no abortion AT ALL, after the point of conception".
If anything, having a PhD only means we know they are good at one subject. How that translates into other subjects is highly variable. I've met Profs who I wouldn't trust to tie their own shoelaces properly, despite being very nice people and well respected in their fields :-)
One of our clients has a large number of NUC-like devices from a well know "name-brand" OEM. On the whole, they are quite nice, screwed to the mount on the back of the screen, but the fans. Oh, the fans! I'd not say there's a large number of failures, but at least half of the hardware failures are the fans.
Even better (or worse, depending on your point of view), as with Commodore, the IP was sold off in different ways to different companies over time and it's not even all owned by the same company. If you hunt around for the stories, there are multiple companies claiming to be "Atari" or "Commodore" and are fighting over IP and trademarks to this day,
The problem with software is many and varied, from still using important parts of the code in later and current projects to some of the code in the old s/w being licenced from 3rd parties who may still be actively using it. Maybe copyright ought to be more like patents and the clock starts ticking from date of first publication.
"The problem is that a lot of games companies went bankrupt, so it's hard to say who owns what. I don't think TV and film are in a better state... I'm pretty sure you can't legally purchase and view more than 13% of films either. Though much of it is on YouTube anyway."
I think the first part is at least part of the answer to the last part. Rights, in some case, have transferred so many times through bankruptcies, mergers, take-evers etc that in many case, the "rights owners" don't actually know what they own.
Here's a relevant BBC News story from last week: Forgotten Jack Hilton book to be republished after bartender's discovery. In this case it passed down via two wills to a person who had no idea she was now the rights holder.
"It's true that you can use your own web server to publish information and share the links."
Carefull!! That's how they suck into their rabbit hole. Post a little truth, followed by some half-truths that almost sound reasonable then the real bat-shit crazy follows and it's too late. You're in and you can't get back out!!
I don't think that was what he meant even if it was fun idea :-) That design was never going to go anywhere near supersonic. It was only ever meant to be a "flying jeep" type thing. On the other hand, I too remember seeing artists impression of a concept aircraft with a circular wing but can't say if that was related to "boomless" supersonic flight,
"NASA should simply not be in the business of developing commercial passenger aircraft."
It's not. This testbed aircraft is and will never be even close to any form of commercial aircraft, except, possibly, as a billionaire cock extension. It's fortesting one single part of the supersonic flight profile. The article even tells us that. They are not, with this aircraft, looking at fuel consumption or even the noise of take-off, never mind the economies of production.
Also, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"The City University of Newcastle upon Tyne."
Funny, but no cigar.
No such place as "City University" in Newcastle. There's Newcastle University and the ex-Polytechnical College now known as University of Northumbria.
"My trusty Henry is good enough for me, so I have no idea if the robosuckers work, but if I were ever to consider buying one it would probably be the best known brand."
My wife bought one recently. My heart sank when she told me. How much money did she just waste? She normally checks with me on any "tech" purchases first. Amazingly, it was pretty damned cheap, actually does the job in some sort of semi random fashion, doesn't have a network connection, doesn't use an "app" and is some Chinese brand I've never heard off, Onson F007 Robot Vacuum Cleaner. Cheap enough to try out and, for the price, I was relatively impressed. More importantly she likes it and after a few false starts, the rooms are now generally kept tidier so there's nothing for it to get stuck in. She normally lets it loose when I'm out at work and she can put her feet up :-)
On the other hand, maybe it failed because they didn't invest enough and tried to get rich quick from minimal investment? In principle, the idea sounds good. There's plenty of half decent city centre bars and restaurants that could turn over half or more of their space for mornings and afternoons for some extra income and I'd expect most of the users are not going to be wanting that space day in and day out 5 days a week. Just somewhere to park their bums for a few hours or even a whole day. But the space rental middle man would need to provide screens/keyboards in some form of easily moved form robust enough to be stacked away twice per day. In these days where city centres are quieter though, the kit might even be able to be left out all day at one end of the premises and only put away when things perk up in the evening. Much of the hospitality industry is complaining of hard times just now, especially city centre locations which are quieter due to WFH.
To be fair, if we are talking adaptive cruise control paired with good and proper lane keeping, it's fair to call that "super cruise control" when you consider that the default meaning of "cruise control" to most people is set the speed and the car maintains that speed unless you take action. Both are a very long way from self driving or full self driving.
(Although I'm a bit concerned about what the difference is between "self driving" and "full self driving". It feels like fast food joints only offering medium, large and extra large. Self driving is self driving. Anything more is the car deciding where to go, not you :-) Less than self driving is partial self driving. There is no such thing a "full self driving".
Yes, trying to explain that a punishment should feel the same no matter how much you earn is totally lost on some people. Often those same high earners who see parking fines as just slightly increased parking charges, for example, and continue park wherever the hell they like because they can afford to do it.
Reversing into a parking space is better on at least two fronts. Reverse gear, especially with a cold engine and richer mix is the worst for fuel economy so reversing out of a parking space costs you more and takes longer as you reverse turn, change gear then pull, away. Secondly, you have much poorer vision and sight lines when reversing out from between two other parked cars and being a car park, there are both people and cars moving around that you might not be able to see until you are at least half way out, especially if there are SUVs or vans on one or both sides of you. Driving out forwards means you can drive out and keep on going, so cheaper, and much less of the car needs to be carefully "nosed" out if your view is obstructed. Just stand in a supermarket car park for 10 minutes and watch people trying to park or pull out. It can be a fun diversion for a short while :-)
I wonder if it's not just how people park but also something in the brain regarding spacial awareness or something? I've had company cars for 20+ years and do high mileage so frequently get random hire cars when mine is in for a service. The first thing I do is adjust the wing mirrors so I can not only see properly behind with them, but also so they show the ground down the sides enough for lining up on the white lines in parking bays. Even the ones that come with rear parking cameras. Possibly because I'm fairly confident in my driving and parking and need to get used to a new car quickly, it's become almost second nature to adapt to a different car and it's size/handling. Maybe I should try to have a go with a Tesla some day and see if that one manages to confound me :-)
"If you have the resources to support the back end - which zuck does - how difficult would it be to clone Twitter? Not very, I'd guess "
On a similar note, what are these Trade Secrets they speak of? I thought "trade secrets" was just your own special process or way of doing things that you don't tell anyone about. Something in the normal course of events you might patent, but since patenting stuff makes it public and allows others to copy using workarounds, you don't patent it. So, by definition, it seems "trade secrets" are unprotected and it's probably quite a high bar to demonstrate in law that someone "stole" them rather than independently came up with their own version, however similar, simply by looking at how your process or device works.
IANAL, so are trade secrets something else and are protected in some way?
And Starmer comes across as someone who can't or won't tell us anything about what he stands for. He seems to be a permanent fence sitter with no idea what "the people" want and so refuses to say what he wants in case he alienates any voters. At this stage, I don't think he makes a better choice as a future leader. Voting always seems to be a case of choosing the lesser of two evils and things are not improving.
"I'm ignoring the UK because the best they can do in this is choose a side."
Except it seems the UK isn't choosing a side and is trying to genetically engineer some bastard child of US and EU data protection legislation that nether side will be impressed by and both will feel free to ignore since the UK is tiny compared to both the EU and US.
"Ok, I've got a 17 year old diesel truck that I run using pine turpentine that I distil from pine trees."
Well, that's pretty green and sounds very sensible since it's only costing you the energy and time to create the fuel. I've no idea what the by-products are of burning it as opposed to the natural decay cycle mind, maybe it's highly polluting? I'm no chemist but at least it's cheap and sustainable for you :-)
But yes, you are correct. Holier than thou on both sides are a pain in the arse. The problem is both sides extremists have valid points too, mixed in with their rabid diatribes, sometimes making it difficult whether to up or down vote them ;-) Maybe El Reg could add a "Meh!" vote button too.
"partly financed by one of the various scrappage schemes (clue is in the name)"
The misleading clue is in the name. FTFY
Scrappage schemes DO NOT scrap/crush/recycle cars "traded in" on a scrappage scheme. "Traded in" is the real clue. A scrappage scheme simply puts a minimum value on the car being traded in on the "scrappage scheme" to encourage use of the scheme. Most won't accept a car that is no longer road worthy as a "trade in" on a scrappage scheme because they need to sell the car on to help fund the scheme.
"You can rent one in the UK today for £400 - £500..... but they require a £5000 deposit which you get back if the car comes back intact."
Ah, thanks, I did wonder about the cost, but not enough to bother looking it up :-) I bet the insurance per day is up there with the rental cost too!
"Seen a Ferrari at Tesco."
I get the sense that a lot of them are hired for a few days. Supercars seem to be popular with young Asian men wanting to make an entrance at weddings these days. I see quite a few when out and about down in the Leeds-Bradford area and the guys driving look to be in their best bib and tucker most of the time. Likewise, accidents involving supercars tend to make the news and it feels like more often than not the story mentions the car was on hire, so inexperienced drivers with huge amounts of power at their right foot.
"The main use for services is usually for a toilet break, and stretch your legs a bit, not to fuel up."
Yes. And no. If your likely "fuel" range is a 1/3rd of what you are used to, you'll be far more likely to need to "fuel up" during a longer trip such as the summer holiday season when some of the motorway services even have staff out in the car park during busier times directing the traffic around to where the very few vacant spaces are. And bear in mind this is an annual occurrence that lasts a couple of months plus the odd bank holiday "rush" at Easter and/or other times of year. Also, when I first saw charging points appearing in motorway services, it was rare to see any in use. Nowadays, when I pull over it's not unusual to see all of them in use, especially over lunchtimes. And there's still generally fewer chargers than there are petrol pumps. Even now, I see Services putting in chargers where they had two, now have 6 or 8 (Plus, often, an entirely separate "Tesla area", can others use them?)
Full disclosure, I'm a daily high mileage driver and I can't afford the sort of EV I'd need to make my job even barely manageable. I'd like one, but it's not yet practical for me.
"There also needs to be a payment system that mirrors the current 'pay at pump' forecourt method."
Yes, this. A thousands time this! Why should I need 45 different apps just to be able to charge at some random, possibly working charger! Why do so few chargers not just accept a tap'n'go or chip'n'pin bank card?
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