Posts by MachDiamond

Re: Comparing fruits

"and at what age are these things not harmful?"

Some things can be harmful at any age, although at some point, people have to take some personal responsibility and hopefully they've had parents that have taught them some of that. Certainly won't get any at school.

Re: Comparing fruits

"There have always been limitations on SNAP. "

They've become much looser as EBT cards can be used at fast food restaurants.

I've been hungry before so I get it, but I've also learned how to cook as a way to combat the cost of eating. I can remember the first time I baked bread from scratch. My roommate and I mowed down both loaves before they cooled off. It was amazing. Later this afternoon I'm going to assemble a load of BBQ chicken pasties and chuck a bunch in the freezer. Chicken was on offer and I loaded up the slow cooker with thighs and sauce. Cheap, easy and really good. I've enjoy Jamie Oliver's low cost meal series'. The point is that cooking from scratch isn't hard, much cheaper than ready meals and can be much healthier to boot especially if you have allergies or dietary restrictions. It blows my mind that benefits pay for spaghetti ready meals when it's one of the easiest meals in the world to make. I make my own sauce, but sauce in jars isn't too bad of a trade. Cast iron pizza is dead easy and dough is sometimes available at grocery stores although I think it tastes a bit off. The beauty of pizza is that one can chuck in just about anything, even pineapple and have a tasty meal that serves many. Desert is Yorkshire puddings with tinned pears/peaches sauteed with butter and sugar. Delish.

Cooking from scratch can be a good gatekeeper over just opening a plastic bag and gorging.

Re: Comparing fruits

"They stated that a CC can only be held by an adult, whereas a DC can be issued to a minor, and as such is not proof of age."

My half-sister had a credit card when she was about 6 on her dad's account. My other sister and I would try to take her shopping when we needed(wanted) new clothes (and lunch). She also had a state issued ID. It was funny when we'd go out for a family dinner and let her pay.

A minor can have a credit card with their name on it, but it likely needs to be attached to somebody else's account since they can't enter into a binding contract until they are 18.

Re: Down the rabbit hole

"Anything prohibited will be on the dark side. "

It's much like that now. To keep my searches from being misinterpreted, I do many of them using TOR/DDG/Qwant. If I just want to know the price on lumber at the local store, I'll do that in the clear. If I'm unsure of a reference in a book I'm reading, I'll do that in the dark.

Re: Down the rabbit hole

"lying about your age will become a felony"

There's me spending my last years locked up. Oh well, there may be a time when I'm short of funds, hungry and cold.

I was brought up to be truthful. Later in life I learned where and when it's a good idea to lie my pants off. I could protest and not fill in the information and that would mean I don't get a cookie OR I can make some shit up and get the cookie. I like cookies.

"I remember a letter to a local newspaper in which someone made the argument that if a person has nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear."

There should be no issue if that person hands out business cards with a complete set of their personal information. Right?

It's important to keep secrets. Some things are best kept private. I work as a professional photographer, but I don't put a tag on Google Maps showing where I live. My address is a post office box and I don't invite clients to my house. I think only one or two know where I live other than in general. I just shudder when I see those tags on Google Maps that paint brilliant red targets on the person. I'd not be surprised if some burglars are using those to plan.

"After all. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Right?"

Do a search for Cory Doctorow's thoughts on the difference between privacy and secrecy. He covers it in depth and does it far more eloquently than I can.

Re: Comparing fruits

"Should we hold snack foods companies liable for treating diabetes?"

That's a bit too far, but the Government paying for said snacks could be curtailed. There's a lot of fighting about that in the US right now. The Federal Government is starting to put restrictions on buying junk food and energy/fizzy drinks with SNAP (Food Stamps, nutritional support) and states are trying to argue that maybe the person is diabetic and needs the occasional chocolate bar to manage low blood sugar. No mention of there not being a ban on plain white sugar that can be use to make sugary treats. I've limited myself to only being allowed cookies (biscuits) if I make them myself. If I get off my lazy ass and make them, fine. I already know that it takes more motivation to do that than buy a package or six at the store. Just this last week I did some lemon shortbread cookies that were very good. I also baked them in two batches so I didn't have a big tin full all at once. Maybe in another month I'll make something else.

There may be times when going after companies is the correct thing to do if their product or service is primarily used to do bad regardless if it's legal or not. Legislation often lags the real world by a decade or so. Perhaps for adult entertainment, there should be a set of Top Level Domains those companies must use so they are easy for parental blocking software. Similar to magazines needing to be in a blacked out wrapper that covers up any features on the cover and prevents casual viewing.

Re: Comparing fruits

"They search for "bare breasts" and see "0 hits" "

That would be a very tame search. The sort of things that might want blocking are a bit spicier.

Re: Comparing fruits

"Human nature being what it is and kids being what they are will be intrigued and find ways around it."

If parents put up good road blocks, about the time their kids can get around them is likely to be the point where they're old enough and should be getting "that talk". Until then, there isn't as keen of an interest in viewing "adult material".

Re: Comparing fruits

"causing trouble (fines, dismissal, blacklisting, who knows what else)"

The "what else" is a suspension or cancellation of their liquor license and a big fine. A bar that can't serve alcohol might as well stay shut until they can get the license back. A hard liquor license is super expensive, limited and requires background checking, notifications, etc. That's why there's more beer/wine establishments as a license for that is less expensive and easy to qualify for.

I was a bouncer way back when and the watering hole I worked at paid a bounty on every fake ID we caught. They could have paid us 5x as much and it would still be cheaper than getting popped by the ABC. It was a fun place and did have a reputation of being really hard to pass a fake ID to get in.

Re: Comparing fruits

"Send your dad to Kroger to buy beer without a photo ID and you'll not get any beer. I'm in my late 50s and I've been in line behind retirees with grey hair and a walker and had to watch them get carded buying beer."

It's their company policy to CYA. With registers that ping age-restricted items and CCTV that might be triggered to make sure the clerk is checking the ID, maybe just handing them something is good enough if you aren't dying what's left of your grey hair. Small shops will not often bother if you look well over age. When I buy anything at the membership big box store, I'm guessing that my age is already in their system or they see that I've had a membership longer than. I won't use the self-checkout as it takes longer since I always wind up with some error that means I have to wait for somebody to come fix it. The human-powered tills just have them glance up when the age thing pings and they punch the "ok" button. Like corner shops, they don't have much of a selection, but it's usually the best price on Guinness and every once in awhile something interesting on special.

Re: Comparing fruits

"both of which give them all sorts of personal data they have no business knowing."

In the US, that can include a Social Security Number.

Full name, address, social security number, DL number, DoB...... Yeah, you really don't want to be providing all of that to be stored by the owner of the corner shop. Never hand the clerk your ID. You may have to display it to them, but don't hand it over. They'll have it scanned in 2 seconds with no way to claw that back even if they wanted to.

Re: Comparing fruits

"What bill? Internet at home is a fixed amount per month, shared among all devices at home. And the mobile phone of the child has Wi-Fi access at home to the internet."

The parents are providing said child with the device to access the internet in an unlimited way. There are many hardware and software gatekeeping products to limit access to certain things online. It requires parents to do some parenting and also learn how to configure those things, but nobody said raising kids was going to be simple.

Re: Comparing fruits

"a) the store only needs to check in cases where it's not patently obvious that the buyer is underaged or not, b) the store has no need to make or retain a copy of the ID"

Many chain stores where I am check ID regardless and I certainly don't look underage at my time of life. I used to like to shop at Bevmo until one day they wanted to scan my driving license rather than just look at it. I left it to the store employees to restock my selections and haven't been back since. Small shops don't bother checking my ID but, the down side is they don't have a very large selection.

I'm also scratching my head as to the validity of the stated reason for The Man wanting ID to operate a computer. Me thinks it's yet another "think of the children" cover story to introduce the masses to another layer of surveillance.

Re: So...

"everything is star dust!"

And Hydrogen, Helium and a smattering of Lithium.

Re: So life is older than Earth

"The ingredients of life are not themselves alive."

If we have chocolate cake on the counter and all of the ingredients for chocolate cake in the pantry/fridge, we can make some predictions that chocolate cake didn't arrive via a miracle. Adding a baker and oven to provide the right conditions is what needs to be shown.

A chocolate cake on the counter in my house has all of the conditions present for the extinction of chocolate cake. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Re: So life is older than Earth

"Just because nucleotides are found in space that does not mean they couldn't also form on Earth (see Miller Urey) so finding them is space does not necessarily mean the Earth was seeded from space."

Or both. It's not a experiment one can run. Finding examples in Sol system might be hard too. Perhaps in Venus' atmosphere or tucked away on Mars and that's about all the hope there is.

Re: So life is older than Earth

"and the conditions inside Earth, or even just on its surface, during its formation would have dissociated them anyway."

Research shows that this may have happened a few times in Earth's beginning where conditions swung from unfavorable to favorable several times. The raining down of precursors such as amino acids would kick start processes once conditions were right. It's a version of Panspermia on a more basic level. That's not to say that it isn't possible for completely home-brewed life getting stamped out by something being introduced. This is why looking at Mars samples is appealing.

Re: Translation

"Privatise the profits, socialise all the costs and clean ups."

In the US, the government is supposed to be the custodian of the used fuel, but they've never got that bit sorted out. On the rare occasion that they propose a storage site, some sort of problem arises that makes it less safe than just keeping the waste on the site of the reactors. There's some nice big holes in Nevada that are already not suitable for new schools, hospitals and residential developments.

Re: Hoping Musk's rocket goes kaboom

"I am impressed the pond scum are good enough to develop re-use, manned flight and mega launchers."

Reuse is no big deal. Really, it's not. It had been a financial decision and the vast majority of SpaceX's flights are Starlink so they have the cadence to make the numbers work out. The "mega-launcher" thing still has an enormous way to go. One banana to the Indian Ocean does not a payload make. Dummy Starlink sats begin flung out of a hole in the side is not what they've received government money to develop and some of those mockups are seen twisting about as they are ejected.

The manned-flight aspect of F9 was about 4 years late and also received loads of government financial and technical support. The US government was really keen to get away from booking seats on Soyuz for political reasons. SpaceX is charging similar amounts per seat for trips to and from ISS at this point.

I've never worked at SpaceX but, I have former colleagues that worked there briefly and have heard the tales. They were also pretty spoiled working at the small company we were at together. We didn't wear one small hat and sit in a cubicle. Everybody was hands on with all aspects to some extent. Certainly, everybody was trained on propellant loading, test site activities/safety, etc. Cross training was really important with as small an engineering staff as we had.

Re: Hoping Musk's rocket goes kaboom

"You realise that there are 15,000 engineers that are actually doing the work ?"

Elon companies aren't a great place to work so many of the people they have are stuck, aren't that good or just enjoy the pain. The really good engineers get much more latitude and don't have to work 70 hours/week out of fear of being made redundant at the next purge. I don't see a place such as SpaceX as a good starting job for a recent graduate. You wind up in the pond scum category and don't get to work with good mentors as you might in a more mature company. University doesn't offer any more than basic tools and there's so much more to learn about real world engineering than they can/will teach.

Re: A bit of devil's advocacy here

What Tom Mueller accomplished with the Falcon program while working at SpaceX is to be applauded. What Elon is accomplishing with Starship is an unmitigated (expletive deleted). Many things that have impressed the yokels aren't accomplishments such as landing rockets. Landing a rocket on a barge at sea is. Falcon is a classic design that's been modernized and optimized for serial production. Anybody that wants to do the same should get a copy of Gary Sutton's "Rocket Propulsion Elements", (thoroughly comprehend it) and a bank vault of money. Elon's not done anything new.

Re: Ah...

"When the only people there were the indigenous ones."

You might be surprised to learn about "captured enemies". They weren't exactly "free".

Re: the parent has been unwilling or unable to provide appropriate alternative evidence

"Whoever keeps rejecting the application, there's something else going on there."

AI?

Re: the parent has been unwilling or unable to provide appropriate alternative evidence

"Since they don't own/rent the property, they are getting the school services without paying for them."

It's more that the tax money is being allocated based on boundaries. Kids being admitted to a school that live beyond the tax allocation boundaries are tossing a wrench into the accounting. The family is still paying the taxes, but the money isn't being allocated where the expenses are generated.

Plenty of parents have sacrificed to live within the catchment area of a good school. A friend of mine made it a priority that his kids went to a private school and then actively participated in that school's running. He could afford it, but went the extra mile and all of his kids have done very well (except one, but that's been their poor life choices). He could have financed much nicer cars, lived in a fancier home and spent more money on himself (and his wife), but prioritized his kid's education. I get that it's not an option for everybody, but one does the best they can.

Re: Don't they get scrotes cloning license plates over there?

"Putting inmates to work is not slavery, it is putting otherwise useless criminals to work."

There's loads of things inmates could do that government uses all of the time. Printing is one. I'm sure there's loads of others. It would be best of it's job experience that's useful on the outside. Some jails make work programs optional. If you don't want to work, you eat meals that adhere to minimum government standards (which should scare people) and live in minimum government mandated jail conditions. Those that work eat better meals, get more free time and privileges and live in better cells. Somebody that signs up for work that skives off can get sacked or demoted.

Re: Don't they get scrotes cloning license plates over there?

"One of the screws holding the plate on is covered with a tamper evident collar so swapping plates would be obvious without a black market supply of the collars."

That would be a very expensive way to combat a very uncommon problem. What would be more common is the R/R of the number plate to perform repairs or maintenance of some kind. People would be causing all sorts of expense at the registering authority every time they needed to remove the number plate. To detect that a seal has been forged would mean a LEO examining the seal closely. At that point, they could read the VIN and compare it to the number plate. I'd not be surprised if some agencies link the ANPR on a police car with it's onboard camera to make sure the plate being read is affixed to the same make/model/year and possibly color of vehicle. I've seen numerous police videos where the criminals weren't careful about which stolen plates they were using.

Re: Google is King of Data Harvesting

"Only time I use Chrome or Edge is on the work laptop."

I've got a miniPC with Mint that only runs Chrome. Better safe than sorry. I won't install it on any computer I use on a regular basis.

Re: Sales

"Sales guy came into the engineering office all excited. "I've sold this MASSIVE system to a new client. It's going to need to do X, Y and Z"."

Another one of the reasons I left a job..... sales weenie promising customers things that go against nature and societal peace. I expect those "customers" were having him on as none of them became "customers". I tried to get manglement to require him to submit promises through the chain of command before committing to such promises and let engineering give them a good squizz first.

Re: Should we raise one or two digits to Digital Cash?

"If any country does abandon cash; what's the plan for when its power grid is knocked out for a prolonged period by a hostile state or actor, or war?"

How about something simple such as a tourist not being able to use their card(s) when the bank sees an out of country transaction and cancels the card(s) as part of their fraud protection service. It might be even more mundane in computers unable to hook up to process the transaction or quickly enough for it to not get kicked out. It might be easier to just pay for petrol with cash to fill up the rental car especially when you are in a hurry to return it on the way to the airport.

I also like to use cash when traveling to prevent fraud and having my card turned off. It's happened before and the card was on file with the hotel for my room charges and I was counting on it to buy petrol for the 500 mile drive home. I suspect that a card skimmer was installed at one of the petrol stations I used on the way to the conference. I certainly didn't try to book a flight in South Africa which tripped the fraud protection at the bank. Not that the bank was willing to do anymore to help me out of the predicament that cancelling the card put me in. They'd be sending me a new card in ~10 business days (two weeks to the average person). Once received, I was able to draw all my money out to deposit in a new bank. BTW, don't close a bank account with funds in the account or the bank might hold the money for some time. They claim it's to make sure charges to the account will be covered if any come in. If you just draw the balance down without saying anything, there's nothing they can do about that.

Re: Digital technology is too efficient for elections

If the main supervisor of each polling location verifies that ballot boxes are empty upon receipt and then places a lock on them for which they have no key, that should put that person's bacon at risk.

Ballot boxes "disappearing" is another place where somebody's freedom is at risk if the count going into the van and out of the van doesn't match. Big manufacturers know where every component going into a product is at all times (big pieces, anyway) since they need to arrive on the assembly line exactly on time and in sequence.

Gerrymandering has been approved by US courts.

What voter exclusion? It's up to the voter to make sure they have registered correctly and update their information if they move or change names. If that's too hard, perhaps that's an excellent non-test to weed out the ones that shouldn't be voting. If you've simply forgotten after a chaotic move/divorce/etc, you can register for the next one if you've left it too late. A good clue you aren't registered is not getting loads of junk mail leading up to an election. The post is still used a lot for that since it's easy to block spam eMail and at least I will block any phone numbers calling me to urge my voting one way or the other. Text isn't an issue as I've deleted the messaging app on the phone so who knows where those wind up. Nothing I can do about post showing up in my box. Beyond all of that, I haven't seen any credible story about people being excluded from voting.

"This way, the votes can be counted quickly, and a result returned, and can be verified later."

Why? Sure, people would like to know how the voting went, but if they can't wait a couple of days for an accurate count, they should ask their doctor if their meds should be adjusted. It's a big problem if it seems that voting went one way and after a full/accurate count, it went the other. Questions get asked and voices raised.

When I vote, I tear off my receipt on the top of the ballot before placing it in the box. It has a serial number, but that isn't recorded in my name so my votes remain secret. If I needed to show that to an election official to verify my own ballot, that breaks secrecy. This is why it's important to make sure everybody that gets into a polling location and gets issued a ballot should be there and get one in the first place. It's hopeless to try and sort out later.

An issue I've seen is the States claiming there is no fraud. That's an easy thing to say as they haven't looked for any. To look for some after making the statement and finding it would cause politicians to lose face. There will always be fraud. That's just human nature. The point is to make it difficult to commit that fraud in a way that's undetectable and on a large scale. If everybody voted twice, it would cancel out. If a few people vote thousands of times, there's a problem. Voting thousands of times in one day with paper ballots and in person would be quite a chore.

Re: Even Paper Has Its Issues.

"I call FUD. Go on... ballot boxes being tampered with would be national news."

At least in the US, there have been issues with boxes of votes suddenly being found in the back of a van or someplace where they shouldn't have gone. A van showing up at 2am with no good explanation of why it's so late (at least the story is confused enough by the time the new editor has peed on the original story).

To get past much of the FUD, there has to be a system that is transparent to the most fervent conspiracy theorist. Electronic voting is the antithesis of transparent. Wide scale mail in ballots is also rife with possible ways of cheating. Early balloting has shown on numerous occasions to have people depositing dozens or more ballots in one go at the collection boxes. The law only allows for multiple ballots to be delivered by an immediate family member for the whole household.

"To be clear, the idea of this is a black box with a scanner, so you scan your ballot, it goes beep, and you post your ballot."

That's more twitchy tech in the field and would have to be secured 24/7. The polling locations need to be kept simple as they are manned by volunteers very typically and those people probably don't have the skills or permission to troubleshoot technical problems. A more central location can be secured and monitored more easily and spare equipment can be kept in reserve if something isn't working. More rules around those places should be put in place as well so there's no more questions about boxes being pulled out from under tables and people doing who knows what after most have left for the day and nobody should be in the facility.

Getting the right 20% of ballots to count as a check is not as easy as you think. There could be a landslide for an issue or candidate in one part of town and the tide going the other way on the other side of town.

Re: Maybe

"Recovery parachutes is probably one solution for the dropping out of the sky problem."

Provided they are deployed at a high enough altitude to make a difference and there isn't too much forward momentum to overcome. In a big, dense city, coming down under chute is still a problem. Lower Manhattan, as an example, would be a bad place.

Re: Maybe

"This F15 begs to differ."

Military craft are built to be extremely maneuverable which comes at the cost of other things like gliding. It's a similar concept to missiles vs rockets with missiles being more unstable so they can home in on targets (military aircraft) that are trying to evade them. The U2 can glide a long way as it will cruise at very high altitudes and has a lot of wing area.