* Posts by The Axe

695 posts • joined 10 Nov 2011


A developer built an AI chatbot using GPT-3 that helped a man speak again to his late fiancée. OpenAI shut it down

The Axe

Printing press

OpenAI are acting the same way the authorities acted when the printing press become common. They didn't want everyone to be able to read and get information as they wanted to be in control. Same thing with OpenAI. And it'll end up the same way too - OpenAI had better embrace the opportunities or go the same way and get forgotten about as everyone else does their own thing.

Some stayed in Croatian castles. Some hid in cars. We speak to techies who experienced lockdown in very different ways

The Axe

I was on furlough for most of 2020. So the garden looked very nice by the end of the year and the big projects that been waiting for a few years got done.

Guntrader breach perp: I don't think it's a crime to dump 111k people's details online in Google Earth format

The Axe

Re: All he did was reformat existing data

The intent is the key point. He is quoted as encouraging others to use the data for their own nefarious purposes. That's the major crime.

The Axe

Re: Conspiracy To...?

"Thankfully, we have no registered firearms-owners database here in the US"

But in some states, you need a license to carry a concealed weapon. That is a firearms database.

The Axe

Re: @RG287

And in the US if you are wearing a badge with a thin blue line on it, you can shoot someone in the back at any time.

Cop drone crashes into flight instructor's airplane

The Axe

In the incidents of planes or copters being hit by drones, the majority are ones where the police are controlling the drone. Yet another area where the police think they are above laws, including laws of phsyics.

SpaceX Starship struts its stack to show it has the right stuff

The Axe

Elon said the new height of the booster was 69 and a bit in EverydayAstronaut's video. The gossip is that the bit is 420mm.

Malaysian Police crush crypto-mining kit to punish electricity thieves

The Axe

Re: Ecological vandalism

Just proves that police and politicians are stupid and vain. Would've been way better to sell the kit and donate the money to some local cause. But that doesn't generate clicks.

Galaxy quest: Yet another sub-£500 phone comes to trouble mobile big dogs in the form of Realme GT 5G

The Axe

Front camera

John McAfee dead: Antivirus tycoon killed himself in prison after court OK'd extradition, says lawyer

The Axe

Re: It's A Very Complicated Story...

He broke an American law whilst being outside America. The weird thing about US tax law is that just being a citizen means that even if you're not in the country for years, and only earn money outside the country, you still have to pay US tax on it.

Tech contractor loses IR35 tribunal appeal: 'Right' to substitute didn't mean he could, say judges

The Axe

Re: A couple of things here I'm surprised about

Many contracts have clauses for unusual or unexpected situations but those clauses are never used. Are they just hypothetical too?

The point of contracts is to cover all situations and make sure that both sides know what will happen if that event occurs.

For instance a contract might have a clause that product x must be serviced y times a year and the contract is null and void if it doesn't happen, but if its always serviced properly then the clause is never used. Just like a substitution clause.


The Axe

Re: Examples...

Spinning disks are the equivalent of a standard filing cabinet. SSDs are like a filing cabinet with automated drawers that open to just the right place.

The Axe

Re: Examples...

And to continue the analogy, every night the cleaner will remove everything off the desk, so if it's not in the filing cabinet it will disappear.

After staff revolt, Freenode management takes over hundreds of IRC channels for 'policy violations'

The Axe

Re: Entitled douchebag, much?

When I read that bit I thought the opposite to you. He comes across as a entitled left-wing Biden supporter who is lamenting that the cancel culture that his side uses is being used against him. He think people should know that he is special and they are not entitled to cancel him. He is another one of the Go Woke Go Broke examples.

UK government resists pressure to hold statutory inquiry into Post Office Horizon scandal

The Axe

Re: Best way to start speeding this up

Gareth Jenkins and Anne Chambers from Fujitsu have been referred to the CPS for possible perverting the course of justice charges.

The Axe

Re: Statutory inquiry

And how long did it take for the court cases to progress through the judicial system? Another 3.5 years is nothing.

Watchdog 'enables Tesla Autopilot' with string, some weight, a seat belt ... and no actual human at the wheel

The Axe

Re: re: Idiots can bypass any security system.

I'm a fan of Elon but don't care for the cars or the tech, but even I can see that the article is basically click bait with no real in depth investigation.

39 Post Office convictions quashed after Fujitsu evidence about Horizon IT platform called into question

The Axe

Re: Perjury?

Looks the two have been referred to the CPS for possible prosecution.

The Axe

Jenkins and Chambers referred to the CPS

Looks like Gareth Jenkins and Anne Chambers have been referred to the CPS for possible charges of perjury from the Judge.

"At a hearing at the Court of Appeal on 18th November 2020, it was revealed that in his letter Mr Justice Fraser has referred two former IT experts for Fujitsu Gareth Jenkins, 68, and Anne Chambers, 63, to the Crown Prosecution Service. Mr Jenkins and Mrs Chambers gave evidence for the prosecution against subsequently convicted postmasters, and the Metropolitan Police is now investigating whether they committed perjury in misleading those trials."


Home office setup with built-in boiling water tap for tea and coffee without getting up is a monument to deskcess

The Axe


Where does the teabag go?

Listen, son... Monster trucks just aren't cool anymore. Real winners drive Tesla Roadsters

The Axe

Re: Recycled or recyclable?

A lot of metal is recycled. Because it's cheaper to melt it and re-form it than to make it from ore. Aluminium is one of the most frequently recycled metals.

UK taxman is supposed to know how IR35 reforms work but still lost appeal against TV presenter Kaye Adams

The Axe

Re: 'twas the summer of '99

And in all those years they keep saying that the government will recoup x amount of tax. Yet even after all this time, that's not been proven right.

The Axe

Re: Anyone remember "Shout99"?

Yep. I was there.

Trump's gone quiet, Parler nuked, Twitter protest never happened: There's an eerie calm – but at what cost?

The Axe

Re: Whoops

Get your facts right. There is a more recent claim of a hack, but it's not been verified yet.


The Axe

Re: Distributed options

Isn't going to happen? One word - Mastodon.

The Axe

Re: AWS now liable?

The US case about the baking a cake failed as the bakery showed that they would serve the gay couple with any other product, just not a cake with the gay message on it. As they had not refused to serve the gay couple they were found not guilty.

Channel Isles cop sacked after abusing police database to track down women drivers for Instagram 'comic' page

The Axe

Police Abusing Powers

It's surprising how many police constables end up with a criminal record. They are supposed to work to a high standard, but they are usually at a moral standard below the average person. See the YouTube channel "Police Abusing Powers" for many many other examples of police abusing their authority and the law.

Mall of duty: Black Ops. No, you're not a customer, you're just an ad audience metric

The Axe

It's not the facial recognition that you are thinking of. It doesn't identify you. It works out if you are a human first, then tries to work out age and sex based on the face. It doesn't have to be accurate, its just to get a sense of the types of people who see the advert. And having worked with Quividi products, I can say for definite it doesn't store the image captured anywhere.

The Axe

Re: Shopping centres aren't public though

Private land that is open to the public falls under various laws, including section 74(1) of the Anti-social Behaviour Order Act 2014. It defines it as a public place, and by the lack of laws, anything that you can do on public land, you can do on private land that is accessible to the public. Private land owners can make up rules for entry on to their land, but they still have to meet legal obligations and follow the law. So they can't ban people for race, disability, etc. They have to make the place safe under H&S laws. And banning certain activities that you can do in a similar place on public land leaves them open to being sued for equality and human rights laws. The banning of taking pictures is about commercial photography which is for the promotion of a brand, product, or service and which requires huge teams of staff and keeping the public away. Taking selfies is not commercial, so can't be banned, but security are usually too stupid to know the difference.

Driveway karaoke singer who wanted to lift lockdown spirits cops council noise complaint

The Axe

The only mistake...

The only mistake he made was not to dedicate each song to the NHS. You can get away with breaking many crimes if it's for the NHS. No social distancing (as shown by the Met Police themselves on Westminster Bridge) and you can leave your house to clap when it's not a reasonable excuse to do so.

DBA locked in police-guarded COVID-19-quarantine hotel for the last week shares his story with The Register

The Axe


Why quarantine for so long when they could wait a few days and then test.

Nine million logs of Brits' road journeys spill onto the internet from password-less number-plate camera dashboard

The Axe

Re: Massive invasion of privacy

And what do the letters in NAZI stand for? Clue, the word socialist is one of the words.

We're in a timeline where Dettol maker has to beg folks not to inject cleaning fluid into their veins. Thanks, Trump

The Axe

Re: Dangerous talk leads to dangerous outcomes

"the couple who took the hydroxychloroquine left over from their fish because they believed Trump when he said it was a cure (and in case you've forgotten the man died and the woman almost did))."

Well the man was a highly educated engineer and his wife was a Democrat supporter who donated loads of money to it. So why would she believe someone she considers the enemy? There is talk that it was murder with the wife taking some of the poison to cover her tracks.

Royal Navy nuclear submarine captain rapped for letting crew throw shoreside BBQ party

The Axe

Re: Another thing...

@Anon in another country; didn't you know, the NHS is a religion now.

That awful moment when what you thought was a number 1 turned out to be a number 2

The Axe

Re: Technical management tips

You're a cardboard engineer!

The Axe

It's cheque. #EnglishIsTheLanguage /You'reWelcome /Sarc

The virus curing the mobile industry's chronic addiction... and sparking an impressive algorithmic price experiment

The Axe

Wasn't the 100,000 hotel places and flight seats nicked from Tim Worstall? Or did Worstall nick it from you?

IR35 blame game: Barclays to halt off-payroll contractors, goes directly to PAYE

The Axe


So will Barclay's stop using external services companies like Crapita? I doubt it. One rule for the big boys, another rule for the little ones.

The mod firing squad: Stack Exchange embroiled in 'he said, she said, they said' row

The Axe

Re: Surely it's just a bit of civility

@JDX, agreed. People are asses on SE when someone asks a stupid/silly/obvious question and they respond with a derogatory turn of phrase. Just stopping pronoun use won't stop people being asses - it's just human nature.

Chef melts under heat, will 86 future deals with family-separating US immigration agencies

The Axe

Go woke go broke

If the business wants to follow the orders of its employees rather than its managers and would prefer to virtue signal rather than make a business deal worth lots of people's salaries then it deserves to go to the wall.

Brit Parliament online orifice overwhelmed by Brexit bashers

The Axe

Quite a few according to Guido at order-order.com. some from North Korea too. Basically remainers cheating.

New Zealand cops cuff alleged jackasses who shared mosque murder video, messages online

The Axe

@TrixrBronze For some reason the laws are imposed on those of a brown disposition who commit hate crimes and against those with a paler disposition.

The Axe

So no videos of the enemy being killed then?

Forget that rare-earth element crunch – we can now just extract them from industrial waste

The Axe

Tim Worstall

No comment from Tim?

Visual Studio 2017 15.9 is here! Fire up your Windows on Arm laptops. All four of you

The Axe

Bag o ....

Its still a bag of bits and pieces with a lack of consistency. And don't get me started on help and documentation- because I can't because its non existent or useless.

C++ devs take a Step Back, let the UWP guy play with Visual Studio

The Axe

Re: finally they acknowledge the C++ devs

Yep, VS 2017 is a pile of s.... But then every version of VS I've tried is a pile of s.... I've been brought up on UltraEdit and Eclipse and GDB and Linux and command line builds. VS and Window's header files just clog up everything - haven't they heard of namespaces and keeping things compartmentalised.

The Register IBM Bluemix programming challenge: The winner!

The Axe

Any chance of the winning code to be published so that the rest of numpties can learn from it and apply the secrets of success to our own code?

Ad watchdog: Amazon 'misleading' over Prime next-day delivery ads

This post has been deleted by a moderator

$0.75 – about how much Cambridge Analytica paid per voter in bid to micro-target their minds, internal docs reveal

The Axe

Re: Interesting ...

Not illegal, but against policy of the college. However, the college itself can set up any company it wants to further the aims of the college and which benefits the college. The policy against others is that they are in it for themselves, not the college.

US states accused of skimming cash from 911 emergency call dosh

The Axe

Corps like Apple don't pay US tax because it is too high. So they kept it out of the country and used it elsewhere in their multi-national corps. When Trump lowered tax rates, corps found it was more efficient to actually use it in the US rather than elsewhere. That's why many large corps gave their employees large bonuses in response to the tax cuts. Did you miss the news or think it was some fake news because of your left wing bias. I think your intellectual capability is getting worse as the country gets better. If you want to get your IQ up, go look up the Laffer Curve.



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