Slashdot Mirror


User: MPBoulton

MPBoulton's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
62
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 62

  1. Regulators only do this when they get sick of having to act as ombudsman on the same thousnads of identical cases of unfair treatment by ISPs to their customers. This is a positive step, but the regulator should go further.

    For example, the fact only 10% of an ISP's customers have to get the advertised speed they plaster all over bus stops, buses and on TV is a ridiculously unfair industry practice.

  2. The high end is protected, is it? on US Workers Face A Higher Risk Of Being Replaced By Robots (cnn.com) · · Score: 2

    I understand and accept that jobs that rely on someone simply following a process given down by management, without needing to apply judgement or on-the-spot thinking, is a piece of very low hanging fruit for automation. Baristas, fast food counter staff, checkout/till staff in supermarkets etc. are, as we already know, all going to find their jobs disappear in the near future.

    However, many skilled jobs make use of IT systems for data analysis and calculations, where much of the setting up is still done by a squishy human on a PC in an office paid a high salary for their work and knowledge in using the system and explaining the results to clients. Many professional services firms are already automating much of the calculation and systems work to other countries, or to a computer.

    Many first world governments are actually encouraging ways to make such work more standardised and easier to automate. The UK government's consultation into the way final salary pension schemes in the UK are valued every three years is one such example, although you have to really dig into the detail of the green paper to find it:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/...

    Many of these highly paid staff will see themselves as safe from automation, but their bosses certainly don't.

  3. Same old, same old on US Death Rate Rises, Health Officials Aren't Sure Why (nbcnews.com) · · Score: 1

    Another article, another lack of error stated in quoted figures.

    What is the standard deviation on those per 100,000 figures? A change from 723 to 730 deaths per 100,000 sounds like it could be heavily made up by the (perfectly understandable) random fluctuations in death rates for each type of illness.

  4. For those in the UK and Ireland however... on EU Approves Strict New Privacy Rules · · Score: 0

    "Due to UK and Ireland's special status regarding justice and home affairs legislation, the directive's provisions will only apply in these countries to a limited extent."

    If the UK is even in the EU by the of course...

  5. You must be new here....

    Doesn't this miss the point? ISP's will carry on with this sort of behaviour if everyone just lies down and takes it.

    The regulators should of course be doing more, but this sounds like a very useful way to at least increase the hassle the ISP must go through to provide less than a third of their advertised speed.

  6. Is this the sort of thing that the EU could override?

  7. Re:future generations on Technology's Role In a Climate Solution (thebulletin.org) · · Score: 1

    The UK has had a very successful subsidy on the electricity generated by solar PV that has encouraged large numbers of people to install panels on their roofs at home. As a result, last year the amount of solar capacity in the UK doubled to over 5GW, enough to supply over 1.2 million homes with electricity:

    http://www.theguardian.com/env...

    and has created a whole industry of small and medium companies to install and maintain the panels. Sadly the shortsighted new Conservative government have decided to all but remove the subsidies that have supported this growth, stunting the growth of an industry that through better economies of scale on production costs was intending to be entirely subsidy-free within 5 years.

    This has cost a huge amount of renewable capacity to be lost in the short to medium term, replaced with importing ever more energy from abroad and making the UK even more reliant on Russian energy production.

  8. Re:When The Lunatics Take Over The Asylum on French Woman Gets €800/month For Electromagnetic-Field 'Disability' · · Score: 1

    I dunno. Depression studies show that vigourous excercise several times a week is just as effective a treatment as the leading drugs at maintaining happiness and preventing suicide. Does that make Depression a real condition and disease

    If I had a certain type of diabetes I could take insulin injections every day for 20 years and hide the symptoms, but the illness is still there and if I had to stop injecting myself or couldn't do it any longer the symptoms would come back.

    It is a real disease - when we get older and can't do vigorous exercise anymore, the depression is still there.

  9. Re:When The Lunatics Take Over The Asylum on French Woman Gets €800/month For Electromagnetic-Field 'Disability' · · Score: 1

    On the other hand, can mental illness be considered a disability?

    YES!

  10. Re:When The Lunatics Take Over The Asylum on French Woman Gets €800/month For Electromagnetic-Field 'Disability' · · Score: 1

    Talking about mental illness doesn't make it spread, it's not an ideology or something you catch by being around someone who suffers from anxiety!

    It's an illness that a material proportion of the population (in your family, in your workplace, in your country) suffer from, but most sufferers don't even realise how they react to a situation isn't the same as other people. That is until people start to talk it.

    The underlying condition is there regardless, and far better that those who suffer can shine a spotlight on the issue themselves by talking about the possibility of EM sensitivity with their doctor, who will help them with the underlying condition.

  11. Re:Here's hoping she's charged on Clinton Surrendering Email Server/Data To Feds After Top Secret Mail Found · · Score: 1

    I just don't understand why the "IT person" she and her staff no doubt use when they have problems didn't flag this as an issue.

    Perhaps what is more likely is that they did flag this issue (probably by email!) and it was ignored.

  12. Re:Fed up on Study: Ad Blocker Use Jumps 41 Percent · · Score: 0

    The advertising industry is not exactly full of people who are competent in IT, so why should anyone care about their whining when they can't properly vet their own output for malware?

  13. A good step on Obama Unveils Major Climate Change Proposal · · Score: 1

    It's about time better incentives were introduced - other countries have gone a long way towards their renewable energy targets by incentivising construction of solar panels on people's homes and it sounds like that would help here.

  14. Re:My experience on Google Can't Ignore the Android Update Problem Any Longer · · Score: 1

    Airplane mode is right there in the settings bar, drag it down with two fingers to see it.

    I learnt something today :)

  15. Re:My experience on Google Can't Ignore the Android Update Problem Any Longer · · Score: 1

    ... but alas I can't go back.

    Not true. With the Nexus 5 you can go back.

    Factory Images for Nexus Devices: "hammerhead" for Nexus 5 (GSM/LTE)

    You just need to manually flash the OS.

    I didn't realise that this was possible - thank you.

  16. Not news on 17-Year-Old Radio Astronomy Mystery Traced Back To Kitchen Microwave · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I worked at Jodrell Bank (the largest radio telescope in the UK) for a summer almost 10 years ago, and their on-site kitchen microwave was surrounded by a Faraday cage to prevent the microwave from interferring with signals picked up by the telescope.

    To imply that astronomers had no idea that the microwave could be responsible is just a lie, this is a well-known problem that was solved a long time ago.

  17. My experience on Google Can't Ignore the Android Update Problem Any Longer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I became fed-up with the constant nagging to upgrade from 4.4.4 on my N5 earlier today so did the update - however I immediately wanted to rage quit and go back as I lost the aitplane mode switch when I hold down the power button, but alas I can't go back. If Google starts forcing users to upgrade, it would be nice if they didn't take away popular features entirely (as I understand there is no way to get this option back despite the terrible battery life on my N5).

  18. Re:Trickle Down? on Led By Zuckerberg, Billionaires Give $100M To Fund Private Elementary Schools · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And who wouldn't trust that billionaires have the same objectives as a publically elected government when it comes to educating our children?

  19. Do they look good in 720p? on Square Enix Witch Chapter Real-Time CG DX12 Demo Impresses At Microsoft BUILD · · Score: 2

    You know, so the games running this engine can be made for the XBox One/PS4?

  20. Re:Excellent, this will force Google.. on Facebook's "Hello" Tells You Who's Calling Before You Pick Up · · Score: 1

    Why will it eventually happen? Why do you think Android even exists? They want all the data they can get their hands on and have no interest in empowering users to restrict the data they surrender to third parties, because users will then want to restrict the date given to Google.

  21. However on Facebook's "Hello" Tells You Who's Calling Before You Pick Up · · Score: 1

    This relies on users being stupid enough to give Facebook their phone number (in case the god-awful happens and they forget their password) in the first place.

  22. "Special Opportunity for an Expedited Apple Watch" on Apple Offers Expedited Apple Watch Order Lottery To Developers · · Score: 1

    If I was a developer I would have dismissed the email as spam after reading that subject line...

  23. Re:They needed a freakin lawsuite ! on German Court Rules Adblock Plus Is Legal · · Score: 1

    You make a fair point - are you a uBlock user instead?

  24. What the author needs... on Swallowing Your Password · · Score: 1

    Is the NHS. Universal heathcare is far from perfect, but it's also just the right thing to have in a first-world economy. Then you stay healthy for the right reasons, not because your insurer will abuse information about you.

  25. Re:They needed a freakin lawsuite ! on German Court Rules Adblock Plus Is Legal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yup, that's how the law works. Science also doesn't go by, "It's obvious so we don't need to test it," and we're better off for it.

    The only problem is - at least in the US - the cost of such actions to the smaller party. In this case it doesn't matter so much as you have one bunch of scrounging old media cunts in one corner and a bunch of dishonest pricks who take money from Google to whitelist their ads in the other. But the judgment is valuable nevertheless.

    I have only recently become aware of the risks advertising poses through injected malware etc. and so am a very new user of Ad Block Plus, but you can just turn off their white listed adverts as well can't you? (or did I misunderstand that option when I installed?).

    Do you object that the default is to allow these whitelisted Google adverts?