Hacker News: dewclin

New comment by dewclin in "A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans"

dewclin — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 09:10:56 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_propaganda_during_Ru...

New comment by dewclin in "A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans"

dewclin — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 08:52:37 +0000

> Russians understand how the Western societies work and how they can be broken

Do you not also think the West understands how Russian society works and how it can be broken?

I find it interesting how we're ignorant of our own propaganda activities in other countries. For example, in the UK we have a dedicated army unit [1] that:

> uses social media such as Twitter and Facebook to influence populations and behaviour [which is] involved in manipulation of the media including using fake online profiles

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)#...

New comment by dewclin in "A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans"

dewclin — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 08:25:21 +0000

> without having to shed a single drop of american blood

And 10's of thousands of Ukrainian dead and wounded, lives and families destroyed, is a small price to pay for American hegemony.

New comment by dewclin in "A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans"

dewclin — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 08:21:24 +0000

Both sides use propaganda.

New comment by dewclin in "Surveillance-by-Design in Proposed Amendments to the UK Investigatory Powers Act"

dewclin — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:18:32 +0000

> the U.K. government could use existing powers to require that the company meet surveillance capability demands as a condition of making a product or feature available.

> If the government’s demands are not met, the company may have no choice but to abandon the product or feature launch, giving the government essentially a veto power on how companies innovate and improve their products

Well, that's going to attract tech companies to the UK /s

New comment by dewclin in "South Korea Will Police 'Shrinkflation' at the Supermarket"

dewclin — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 10:26:09 +0000

> Don't degrade your product. If it gets worse, chances are I won't buy it, no matter for what price you sell it.

Completely agree: recently I wanted some peppermints, and I noticed the sugar had been replaced by "glucose syrup".

I didn't buy them, and I've done this for other products.

Are companies losing sales, which will make them "degrade their product" more as their revenues decline, which will lose sales, and so-on?

New comment by dewclin in "Electric heat to cost 77 percent more than natural gas, federal agency says"

dewclin — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 16:28:55 +0000

I'm in the UK. Looking at my bill, per kWh electricity is 3x more expensive than gas:

electricity: 30.823p

gas: 9.756p

It's much cheaper to heat my house with gas.

New comment by dewclin in "The UK's Controversial Online Safety Act Is Now Law"

dewclin — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 14:20:40 +0000

> The Tories are obsessed with weakening privacy and data protection laws.

Labour pledged to "toughen" the "weakened and gutted" online safety bill (now the act) [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/01/labour-pl...

Edit: clarification.

New comment by dewclin in "UK Parliament undermined the privacy, security, freedom of all internet users"

dewclin — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 11:26:40 +0000

> Child safety is what is pushed in the press

For example, in yesterday's Guardian [1]. Meta introducing encryption "will let child abusers ‘hide in the dark’".

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/20/meta-encr...

New comment by dewclin in "UK Parliament undermined the privacy, security, freedom of all internet users"

dewclin — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 10:45:20 +0000

This should get more coverage, as it's a worrying development. The tone of the letter is disturbing.

Surprisingly enough, the mainstream media haven't covered it at all ...

New comment by dewclin in "UK Parliament undermined the privacy, security, freedom of all internet users"

dewclin — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 10:14:06 +0000

> If UK citizens don't want such laws, they can always protest, at the voting booth or in the streets.

Protest has been restricted [1], and neither the Conservatives or Labour offer different positions. For example, Labour have pledged to "toughen" the OSB [1].

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56400751 [2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/01/labour-pl...

New comment by dewclin in "British journalist held by police at Luton airport for five hours without arrest"

dewclin — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 14:53:02 +0000

Interestingly (?) earlier this year Kit Klarenberg was also held at Luton after getting of a plane from Belgrade ...

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/05/30/journalist-kit-klarenberg...

New comment by dewclin in "Interpretation and analysis of songs written or performed by Pet Shop Boys"

dewclin — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 18:37:44 +0000

... and here's the Fairlight in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0mF9soHA8M

New comment by dewclin in "UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging"

dewclin — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 07:50:16 +0000

Similar story (no pun intended) in The Guardian [1]:

> UK ministers seek to allay WhatsApp and Signal concerns in encryption row

Nothing to see here folks, just a minor dispute between the Gov and two companies ...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/06/whatsapp-signa...

New comment by dewclin in "The U.K. government is close to eroding encryption worldwide"

dewclin — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 08:02:14 +0000

> For a political party that likes the cliché "tough on crime"

Labour also likes that cliché too [1].

They're all the same.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/27/labour-evok...

New comment by dewclin in "UK’s GDPR replacement could wipe out oversight of live facial recognition"

dewclin — Mon, 22 May 2023 15:43:20 +0000

> Criticising the current PM doesn't automatically make it a partisan issue IMHO.

In hindsight I was wrong to say that; it was a bad choice of words. I agree with you. Thanks.

New comment by dewclin in "UK’s GDPR replacement could wipe out oversight of live facial recognition"

dewclin — Mon, 22 May 2023 14:30:40 +0000

Returning back to the OT of surveillance and oversight, and as you're making this into a partisan issue, what would Labour do differently?

"Authoritarian" concerns were expressed last time Labour was in government [1], and they're "seriously considering" resurrecting their policy of mandatory id cards if they get in power again [2].

And, before I get smeared as a "Tory"/"Brexiteer", I am not - I'm someone who remembers what happened last time Labour was in power and see neither party offers an alternative to increasing surveillance in the UK.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/apr/24/commen...

[2] https://labourlist.org/2022/11/mandatory-id-card-policy-shou...

New comment by dewclin in "The effect of high-top and low-top shoes on ankle inversion kinematics"

dewclin — Mon, 01 May 2023 20:36:47 +0000

> And when was the last time you saw a high-top soccer cleat?

Interestingly (?) early football boots were very much ankle-length [1], and this style continued well into the 1950's [2].

[1] https://www.footy-boots.com/football-boots-history/

[2] https://www.kraveantiques.co.uk/products/Nailed-Stud-Footbal...

New comment by dewclin in "Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls"

dewclin — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 15:26:09 +0000

> Not on major media either…

Guardian have something:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/18/surrey-and-s...

New comment by dewclin in "Understanding British Money: What's a Quid? A Shilling? (2020)"

dewclin — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 08:56:42 +0000

Also (possibly only amongst bankers in London):

- "Yard" - £billion (derived from the french "milliard")