Comment About frackin' time. (Score 1) 105
Users have only been asking for this since Vista...
Submission + - Europe's New Entry/Exit System Is a Mess, and It's Not Going Away (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: European bureaucrats are standing firm on a security program that has led to long lines, confusion and missed flights at airports this summer, despite an urgent plea from the aviation industry to suspend it.
The Entry/Exit System, or E.E.S., requires members of the 29-country Schengen open-border area to collect biometrics like face photos and fingerprints from travelers upon arrival and to confirm their identities upon exit. Since the system took full effect in April, airports and airlines have reported widespread chaos — including hourslong security checkpoint lines and confusion over procedures — and have feared the headaches could worsen as peak travel season begins.
The problems led senior officials from the European aviation industry last week to ask the European Union to suspend the E.E.S. requirement this summer. The system is "undermining Europe’s reputation, European tourism and connectivity," said the open letter to the president of the European Commission.
But on Tuesday, European Commission bureaucrats officially rejected the request in a meeting with industry stakeholders, saying that the new system’s security advantages outweighed its inconveniences.
E.E.S. is used in the 29-country Schengen area, which includes 25 European Union members as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The system applies to most visitors to those countries who are traveling for a short stay (up to 90 days in a 180-day period), regardless of whether they have a visa.
Since the system began to roll out across Europe in October, travelers have encountered an inconsistent set of procedures, taking anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Some airports have self-service kiosks where travelers can register their biometrics. At others, border control officers manually register travelers. Only two countries, Sweden and Portugal, currently allow travelers to use a dedicated app. E.E.S. is intended to be an automated system, eventually.
"At present, the system is failing to deliver one of its core objectives: facilitating efficient border crossings while maintaining the smooth functioning of Europe’s transport network," the aviation officials wrote in the open letter urging the European Union to act.
Summer travelers are being forced to “endure needless passport control chaos,” Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operations officer, said in a statement.
“Passengers and families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating long queues, missed flights and unnecessary stress at airports this summer,” he added.
In Rome, the airports have already been suspending biometrics collection on a near-daily basis this summer, said a spokesman for Aeroporti di Roma, which operates the city’s airports. Rome Fiumicino, Italy’s busiest airport, expects around 11 million passengers in June and July, which could be up to 180,000 passengers on peak days, the spokesman said.
The Entry/Exit System, or E.E.S., requires members of the 29-country Schengen open-border area to collect biometrics like face photos and fingerprints from travelers upon arrival and to confirm their identities upon exit. Since the system took full effect in April, airports and airlines have reported widespread chaos — including hourslong security checkpoint lines and confusion over procedures — and have feared the headaches could worsen as peak travel season begins.
The problems led senior officials from the European aviation industry last week to ask the European Union to suspend the E.E.S. requirement this summer. The system is "undermining Europe’s reputation, European tourism and connectivity," said the open letter to the president of the European Commission.
But on Tuesday, European Commission bureaucrats officially rejected the request in a meeting with industry stakeholders, saying that the new system’s security advantages outweighed its inconveniences.
E.E.S. is used in the 29-country Schengen area, which includes 25 European Union members as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The system applies to most visitors to those countries who are traveling for a short stay (up to 90 days in a 180-day period), regardless of whether they have a visa.
Since the system began to roll out across Europe in October, travelers have encountered an inconsistent set of procedures, taking anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Some airports have self-service kiosks where travelers can register their biometrics. At others, border control officers manually register travelers. Only two countries, Sweden and Portugal, currently allow travelers to use a dedicated app. E.E.S. is intended to be an automated system, eventually.
"At present, the system is failing to deliver one of its core objectives: facilitating efficient border crossings while maintaining the smooth functioning of Europe’s transport network," the aviation officials wrote in the open letter urging the European Union to act.
Summer travelers are being forced to “endure needless passport control chaos,” Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operations officer, said in a statement.
“Passengers and families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating long queues, missed flights and unnecessary stress at airports this summer,” he added.
In Rome, the airports have already been suspending biometrics collection on a near-daily basis this summer, said a spokesman for Aeroporti di Roma, which operates the city’s airports. Rome Fiumicino, Italy’s busiest airport, expects around 11 million passengers in June and July, which could be up to 180,000 passengers on peak days, the spokesman said.
Comment Re:Wayback Time! (Score 3, Interesting) 109
That "someone" was Maureen O'Gara. She was trying to find PJ's identity, probably to discredit her.
Comment Sooo.... (Score 1) 79
Having actually RTFA for once... I was looking at where Mark was noting his first email address.
I remember those days -- pre internet, so you had to give the route (...!ucbvax!ucscb).
We also had write (and for see as you type, "rite") on our PDP-11/70, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand why I'd use email instead of write. It took a while before I realized the value of asynchronous communication.
But yes, those were the days.
Comment Re:First Post! (Score 1) 79
For those who are too young and missed it, or those who remember it and want to see it in all its glory: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
Comment Re: First Post! (Score 1) 79
Finally! Someone I can tell to get off my lawn with those hot grits!
Comment Re:First Post! (Score 1) 79
I waited for quite a while. I figured it wasn't necessary. Otherwise I probably would have had a 4 digit ID as well.
Comment Re:Truth behind doublespeak (Score 1) 97
I am shocked, SHOCKED! That AI didn't preserve institutional knowledge.
Comment Re:Wait a minute (Score 1) 69
See the thing to remember is those people is that what they accuse the other side of doing, just blind ideology.
It's just a variation of the Goebbel's playbook, which the Trump administration loves to follow - "accuse the other side of the thing you yourself are guilty of".
- Try to rig the upcoming election while yelling loudly about how the other party consistenly cheats - and without evidence, of course.
- Make up stories about how crooked the Dems are, while actively grifting yourself.
Regardless, it's nice to see Congress occasionally showing signs of having a spine, finally. It'd be great if they'd also figure out that the revenge dismantlement of NCAR is also going to cost money and lives.
I'm not even sure if it's that deliberate, or it's just the fact that Trump is thinking about rigging the election... so he talks about rigging the election.
But it's hilarious how consistent the pattern is. Normally with something like that there's just a few occasional examples. But with Trump if he says "Democrats are kicking puppies!" chances are that we're about to find out that Trump kicked a puppy.
Comment Re:0.5 mm resolution (Score 1) 25
Also, they claim it is safe due to lack of radiation. But ultrasonic can fuck shit up too. I mean ultrasonic is currently used to break up kidney stones, shear and fragment DNA (for NGS prep).
Good points, but to be fair, ultrasonic is currently used to break up kidney stones because it is safe to use it to do so.
Comment Re:The SpaceX Valuation is Insane (Score 5, Insightful) 67
SpaceX is worth more than Microsoft or Amazon at this point. It boggles the mind how much people are betting on the future just because Musk is a genius. If he gets sick the stocks craters 80% easily and this $60B is more like $12B.
He's not a genius, I sincerely think he's average to slightly below average intelligence for a software dev. Just look how clueless he really is when he pretends to be a technical guru in front of actual experts.
That doesn't mean he doesn't have some exceptional skills, but IQ isn't one of them.
First, he's hard working, at least in spurts (during critical deadlines), and he's willing to make and implement big decisions quickly. Just look at DOGE, Republicans have been trying to lay waste to the US government for decades, but Musk is the only one to actually do it. It was a complete disaster, but it wasn't ethics or common sense that stopped the previous attempts, that's a legit talent for Musk.
Second, CEOs aren't allowed to lie, but Musk has figured out that you can get around that by building a cult of personality and then making ridiculously optimistic predictions and then sell minor advancements as progress. The result is he has a core group of retail investors that buy his stocks based on vibes and refuse to sell once in. Since these retail investors prevent the stock from going down too much institutional investors also jump in on the ride. It's basically tulip bulbs.
Comment Re:Queue the jealousy and entitlement (Score 1) 315
Musk has risked almost every penny he has on multiple occasions.
I agree he has an extremely high risk tolerance, though that doesn't make him a good person.
He has created, commercialized or drastically improved four things (five if you count the boring company). The 1T of his wealth benefits society in the products we all consume, the environmental gains (he was the first to mass produce electric cars profitably), the jobs he has created and the taxes paid by him, his companies and his workers.
His car company is pretty small as car companies go, SpaceX means some new satellites, but Starlink is the only thing that's really making a difference to normal people. And Neuralink might help a lot of people in the future, but it largely R&D now.
His wealth doesn't come from what his companies have done. It comes from his ability as a promoter and its ridiculous effect on the stock price.
the environmental gains (he was the first to mass produce electric cars profitably),
He worked hard to get Trump re-elected, if he was in fact the tipping point, he has harmed the environment far more than he has helped.
Not to mention all the potentially hundreds of thousands of people who died due to his cuts to DOGE.
Do you see any socialists doing any of these things? This is one capitalistic person. He's done more for the environment than any green party. He's created more wealth and better jobs than all communists combined.
It sounds like this is more to do with your ideology than Elon Musk.
Comment Re:Racism. (Score 2) 229
The entire original argument for Brexit was based on racist nationalism.
They wanted to kick the foreigners out (while still letting their own elite vacation in Europe).
Humans are tribal, in modern times that tribe is usually their nation, and they care deeply about the survival of their tribe.
If immigration is seen as changing the fundamental nature of that tribe (nation) people will resist it.
We need to figure out a way to deal with that fact if we want to continue to have relatively open borders.
Comment Re:Holy Pre-IPO Hype, Batman! (Score 2) 56
Anthropic made Skynet? I think not.
As it happens, the Chinese are capable of making their own near-frontier models, many of which they release publicly as open weights.
It's not hype, Anthropic is literally saying there's no actual risk they're aware of.
What actually happened is they refused to let US Intelligence agencies use their models to perform illegal surveillance. So now the US government is illegally punishing them.
Comment He hacked capitalism (Score 3, Insightful) 315
The whole point of stock markets and such is that you have hard core rational investors ensuring valuations are accurate.
But Musk figured out that you don't need solid fundamentals, all you need is a hyper-loyal core following of retail investors who support you regardless of fundamentals. So you just bullshit just enough to keep them happy, without crossing too far into fraud, and the retail investors stay on board.
The retail investors create a floor for the price and their crowing about their winnings creates a bubble. The institutional investors then see what's happening and hop along for the ride.
The result is the two most overvalued companies in history (Tesla and SpaceX). In theory, the whole pile eventually comes crashing down, but just like any bubble the fund managers who buy are unlikely to be the fund managers left holding the bag.
