mackwinston

@mackwinston@feddit.uk

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK in secret talks over financial turmoil at IT giant - that could hit benefits and NHS⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Surprised it’s not Crapita.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Two men charged with spying for China under Official Secrets Act⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Presumably it has taken over a year because:

  Cdr Dominic Murphy, head of the Counter Terrorism Command, said it had been an “extremely complex investigation”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨British watchdog has 'real concerns' about the staggering love-in between cloud giants and AI upstarts⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s nothing new, that’s the very basis of how a firm works out how to price an item or service, at the maximum price the market will bear. It has been this way since the year dot.

  Collaborating with “competitors” however must be prevented or the market won’t work. (This is the reason we have anti-monopoly laws, and anti-collusion laws). The laws exist already they just have to be enforced.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plans to close rail ticket offices in England scrapped⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Probably a clusterfuck.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hunt warns of benefit cuts for people who won’t ‘actively look for work’⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The OP is clearly using hyperbole. But only 1% of the welfare bill goes on unemployment benefits, so even if absolutely everyone on unemployment benefits is cheating and you cut them off, you don’t save much. In reality the majority of people on unemployment benefits are not cheating the system - a system that already sanctions the unemployed for not actively seeking work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Common global rules needed ahead of ‘flying taxi’ boom, UK regulator says⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Not only that, but they will make an ungodly racket while doing so. Multi propellers all turning at a slightly different RPM, with all the annoying beat frequencies this will create. They will also likely be almost as expensive as helicopters (only a very small amount of a helicopter’s cost is its fuel, the overwhelming majority is maintenance and insurance).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft's Activision Blizzard bid provisionally approved by UK regulator⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  They both do significant business in the UK. To continue doing business in the UK, they must abide with UK competition laws.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Northamptonshire: Two dangerous drivers engage in 'road rage' head-to-head on rural road⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  A road rage conviction should result in a lifetime ban or until a medical professional can certify that the person is mentally fit to drive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Road casualties have become normal in Britain. But there is another way⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I love the arguments about tolerances, how “having to stare at the speedometer will make things less safe”.

  The average 17 year old is expected to be able to drive at a steady speed while dividing attention effectively and NOT staring at the speedometer. So basically all the people going on about how they will “have to stare at the speedo” are saying: “Speed limits shouldn’t be enforced because I’m too incompetent to safely drive at the speed limit”. It makes me think that it would be a good idea that driving licenses really expire at their expiration date, requiring a new driving test.

  Anyone who thinks driving at the speed limit needs to stare at the speedo seriously needs some remedial training from a driving instructor.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube suspends monetisation of Russell Brand's channel⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve never forgiven that arsehole for what he did to Andrew Sachs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Tame’ wide British roads and replace them with boulevards of homes, says thinktank⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  No, not just housing but a boulevard. By definition a boulevard is wide. It wouldn’t be a boulevard if they made the road narrow by building houses on the road rather than by the side of the road, so while the article doesn’t explicitly say it, by calling it “boulevards of new housing” implies that the thoroughfare does indeed remain wide, and becomes tree lined rather than car-lined.

  The Cambridge English Dictionary defines a boulevard as:

  “A wide road in a city, usually with trees on each side or along the centre”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Tame’ wide British roads and replace them with boulevards of homes, says thinktank⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think the idea is to build houses on the wide roads, the idea is to build them beside the wide roads but remove space for private cars and instead repurpose that space for pedestrians and cyclists (in other words, have wide pavements ideally tree lined but instead of 4 wide lanes of cars maybe 2 narrow lanes with most of the space turned over as a public space for people).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Missing Prisoner Daniel Khalife arrested by police in Chiswick, West London⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Look at it from his point of view. His plan probably went no further than the escape, so once he was off the lorry it was “Now what?” If he had a real followup plan he probably would have got much further. One of his former school mates was quoted as saying “One thing I will tell you though, he’s not a terrorist. He doesn’t know his arse from his elbow”.

  He had a window of about 2 hours when he could have used public transport to move around (after which too many people would be looking for him) - but during that time he has no money, and given pretty much every station in London has ticket barriers, he’s not going to be getting around by train or by bus unless he can lift someone’s Oyster card or contactless card without being noticed, and from quotes about his past, apart from the idiotic fake bombs that got him into this mess in the first place, he seems to be a first-time criminal, so successfully pulling off thefts or shoplifting was probably not something he was practised or good at.

  After that time he’s pretty much limited to travelling on foot in places where he won’t get a second look, or at night. He probably found a poorly-secured bicycle on Saturday morning and gambled that people wouldn’t give someone cycling down the towpath a second look, and it’s faster than walking.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wednesday Whinge - 30th August 2023⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Awful head cold last week, one of those that buggers up the ears (could barely hear sounds below about middle C, making everything sound tinny like it was on a cheap radio).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most motorists want noise cameras installed to clamp down on loud cars⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  All motorists are loud. Cities aren’t loud, cars are loud. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most motorists want noise cameras installed to clamp down on loud cars⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s the inverse - the car is quiet for just one day, its MOT day. The owner will put the standard exhaust on for the MOT, then put the loud one back on once they have the MOT pass certificate in hand. Same thing with numberplates with odd spacing to make words. The owner will put a standard plate on for the MOT then swap it for their illegally spaced one once the MOT is done.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Clapham stabbing: Two men injured in homophobic attack⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Basically anyone who is measured greater than “Ignored” on the “Are you hated by the daily Mail” test - tomscott.com/…/are-you-hated-by-the-daily-mail/

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plane crash lands in middle of busy A40⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Three main possibilities:

  • Engine failure after takeoff - turning back to the airport is known as the “impossible turn”. It isn’t quite impossible but it is difficult to execute successfully once you add on the startle factor. An incorrectly executed “impossible turn” usually results in a low altitude stall, which is normally fatal, so generally light aircraft pilots are trained to find somewhere to put it down directly in front of the aircraft.

  • Engine failure on approach to land - aircraft following the standard ‘3 degree glideslope’, this is too shallow of a glideslope for most aircraft to actually glide at without power so in the case of an engine failure the aircraft will end up short of the airfield.

  • Engine failure during cruise flight - aircraft diverted to EGBJ/Gloucestershire but didn’t have enough altitude to quite make it there. But this also gives the most time to look for a suitable paddock to put it down in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plane crash lands in middle of busy A40⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

  However, I’m sure the CAA will want words with the pilot for selecting a road rather than a field to do the forced landing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is charging electric car at holiday house "theft"?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m sure the courts would agree it’s not theft, but it really is taking the piss: a typical UK home uses on the order of 10kWh per day - and an electric car can easily take 60kWh to charge. This isn’t like charging a mobile phone which is basically noise - it can mean someone staying for 5 days can easily end up using twice what the reasonable expectation for electricity use was.

  Having said that, if I were the owner of a holiday home, I’d probably install a proper electric car charger as a selling point and I’m sure it would be possible to set the daily rate for the property to cover the cost of charging a car.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is charging electric car at holiday house "theft"?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Just to pay devil’s advocate for a moment - but let’s imagine the house has oil heating (heating oil is basically diesel). Ignoring the problems of unpaid duty, given that the heating oil is provided as part of the holiday home’s services, would it be theft if a guest filled up their diesel car from the heating oil tank? If that would be theft, why would (at least in the holiday home owner’s opinion) it be unreasonable to not treat charging an electric car off the house supply in the same way, as clearly just as the heating oil isn’t intended to be put in guests cars, the electricity isn’t, either?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is charging electric car at holiday house "theft"?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  4Ah at 5 volts is 20 watt hours, or 1/3100th of a Tesla battery.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is charging electric car at holiday house "theft"?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  While this is true, extended high current usage through a 3 pin plug isn’t ideal - especially if the house wiring is a bit old and imperfect. It’s generally not recommended to regularly charge cars off standard 3 pin plugs, although a one off usage will probably be just fine.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Parliament will debate petition: Make lying in the House of Commons a criminal offence - 23rd October 2023⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The courts can already do this - perjury is already a criminal offence, and people have been charged and convicted of this. The court case when someone is accused of perjury will explore things like “And what if they interpreted something incorrectly but believed they were telling the truth”. The courts will decide if the evidence shows if someone is lying, just as they do with perjury.

  The courts already know the difference between saying something misleading because you were simply wrong (that’s not lying, that’s just being wrong), and saying something misleading with the intent to mislead (lying).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lostprophets' Ian Watkins stabbed in jail⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it will depend on if he wrote the song or not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Eating less meat ‘like taking 8 million cars off the road’⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  What huge sacrifice?

  We eat far too much meat, and the huge overconsumption of meat is not only very bad land use, it’s very bad for us personally, leading to chronic illnesses in later life.

  I’m not vegan, I’m not even a vegetarian, but I’ve massively reduced meat intake of all kinds (and very very rarely touch red meat these days). I don’t even miss it, and I don’t count it as a sacrifice. I have discovered all sorts of plant based foods which are to be honest better than meat, so it’s a “negative sacrifice” - not only is my health improved, my food is more enjoyable, too.

  The expectation to have meat every single meal is frankly ludicrous.