Matthew Vernon @demoographics@toot.bike

Happy pride month ya sillies

Our director has blogged on the Direct Debit notices sent yesterday...

https://www.revk.uk/2023/05/defensive-coding.html

My fauxidermy Moose, Chequers, hopes you like his Pride Month outfit!

An interpreter shell with no input is called a REPL without a clause.

So in this intervention for the UK’s Daily Telegraph (£, sorry) I argue again the whole latest row about end-to-end encryption (or more accurately, client side scanning) in the UK is damaging pointless.

I make two points:

1. British Ministers really shouldn’t, as they’ve been doing for years, make unsubstantiated and highly inflammatory statements that tech companies don’t care about online child abuse. It destroys trust with the companies and fuels the - incorrect but reasonably held - impression that the British state hates encryption

2. On the other hand, even if this bill is passed in its current form, Britain will not become repression central with WhatsApp and signal blocked. The powers to introduce client side scanning will rest with Ofcom, a respected and competent independent regulator, not with Ministers. Ofcom have to apply regulations reasonably, and if they don’t they can be overruled by the courts. Given all this, I can’t imagine under what circumstances Ofcom would actually mandate client side scanning on the major messaging services.

So the whole thing is most likely a pointless shouting match that in the end will neither drive signal nor WhatsApp out of the UK or do anything concrete to help with the fight against online child abuse.

Finally, sorry for the paywall. I know it’s annoying but in the end newspaper people, like the rest of us, need to be paid for their work. I’ve tried my best to summarise what I said here.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/29/cyber-chief-meta-mark-zuckerberg-online-safety-bill/

So I caught the recruiting tram again and made more photos for all you dorks 😄

(This is a tram that runs in Budapest that has clear paneling so you can see the inner workings. They use it to recruit engineers and mechanics for public transport.)

#Budapest #trams #tramstodon #PublicTransport

#RegretRate for various surgeries:

* Knee surgery: 22% total regret, 2.9% even without complications http://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-020-3041-y

* Back surgery: 21% in older adults http://doi.org/10.1097/BRS.0000000000004287

* Regret of having children: varies by study, but usually in the 10-20% range http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254163

* Breast reconstruction after a mastectomy: 19.5% moderate to strong regret http://doi.org/10.1080/14768320601124899

* #GenderAffirmationSurgery: < 1% http://doi.org/10.1097/GOX.0000000000003477

#trans

UK peeps: consider signing this government petition (to halt passage of the Online Safety Bill, which will gut end-to-end encryption including your online banking security, personal message privacy, and right to privacy in general): https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/634725

as an engineer i tend to choose the solution that makes me cry the least

any mf who honestly thinks that uploading your mind into a computer will let you live forever has never had to restore a file from 12 years ago in a format that doesn't exist anymore

Is #SaturDog a thing? Anyway here’s one.

“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars, it's where the rich use public transport.”

The reason sith lightsabers sound different and throw off more sparks is inferior engineering caused by lack of knowledge sharing because sith believe competition breeds strength while Jedi share knowledge and encourage collaboration. This is not dissimilar to software engineering; in this essay I will

Why we shouldn’t hold referendums

Citizens of democracies can be ill-informed and inconsistent, and this often feels like a tragedy or even a crisis. Occasionally, however, one reads something so absurd that it would take a heart of stone not to laugh. Consider a recent survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (AP-NORC), which finds that 60 per cent of Am

https://timharford.com/2023/05/why-we-shouldnt-hold-referendums/

#UndercoverEconomist

Natural bonsai. A midget spruce tree that barely grows each year, if at all, having seeded in this old strainer post a few years back.

#spruce #lichensubscribe #bonsai #scottishHighlands

How do you typically type on your iOS/Android phone keyboard?

Please boost after voting. Think of it like an "I Voted" sticker signaling to others that you participated in a democratic process. #poll

Unbelievable double-think happening here. The UK government is going full-throttle in its war on encryption, with the Online Safety Bill the vanguard in exposing the security of everyone's device.

Encryption protects us from cyber-criminals, keeps our messages private, and stops governments and corporations from spying on us. It is online safety for kids and everyone.

✍️ Sign our petition to save encryption: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/takeaction/959/553/635/

#e2ee #encryption #ukpolitics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65686989