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Comment Re:Just pull out of the EU then... (Score 2) 184

How long before you get the message, "To install Microsoft Teams, you have to first download the Microsoft Store."

"To install your company's 2-factor authorization app, you first have to download the Facebook Store."

"To apply for a loan, you need to install your bank's app, which is only available on the Salesforce Store."

"To file your taxes, you need to install the IRS app from the Oracle Store."

How often does that happen on Android, which has allowed sideloading and alternative app stores from the beginning? Microsoft apps are in the Google Play store, as are apps from all the main banks, government apps, etc. I've never yet come across any remotely mainstream app that requires installing an alternative app store.

Comment Re:A worthy cause, but (Score 1) 29

A worthy cause (and who among us does not need more plush gnus?), but a starting bid for them of $200 does rather emphasize the distinct uses of the term “free” in the organization name.

It's the Free Software Foundation, not the Free Plush Gnu Foundation. None of the things they're auctioning are software.

Though of course it's also free as in free speech not as in free beer, as you note - the FSF has always made some income from selling copies of software, though this must now be minimal in the age of near-universal internet access.

Comment Re:I'm surprised (Score 1) 30

The maths is a bit beyond me, but I would expect accuracy to be best when the satellites are widely spaced. It's basically triangulation, and when triangulating on the ground you want to choose landmarks as far apart as possible to get the best accuracy. In the worst case, if the landmarks are so close you can't separate them, you don't get a position fix.

On Earth, the satellites are widely spread across the sky, covering anything from 100 to 180 degrees depending on terrain. On the Moon, they're all in a very narrow cone - Google tells me the angular diameter of the Earth from the moon is 2 degrees, and LEO won't be noticeably wider. And of course you can't see Earth, or LEO satellites, from about half of the moon, as it will be below the horizon.

Comment Re:How on earth (Score 3, Insightful) 82

The obvious answer is by entering an account number, or some other sort of reference number, in the "value" field. This wouldn't stand out as an obvious error, as that number is supposed to be on screen, it's just in the wrong place. Of course this would require that something is also entered in the place that number should have gone. And it's somewhat surprising that the value field accepts values that large.

Comment Re:Who cares (Score 1) 159

I don't see why not. There was a referendum in Gibraltar about becoming part of Spain, which the EU seemed happy with. Spain wasn't very happy with the result, but that's a different matter.
Now, the idea of paying people to vote a particular way in a referendum, that might be an issue - but not the referendum itself.

Comment Re:Learn to walk before you run (Score 1) 171

It's not working because we're trying to build the high-speed rail through the English countryside. There's lots of people object to trains running past their house (and object even more to having their house demolished so trains can run through it). There's lots of interesting archaeology, ancient woodland, rare wildlife and so on. Dealing with this means lots of bureaucracy, and expensive solutions like tunnels so people can't see the trains, diversions around historic sites, wildlife bridges, planting new (bigger) woods, etc. None of which should be relevant in the mid-Atlantic - no-one lives there, no-one has ever lived there so there's no history, and there's plenty of ocean left for the wildlife.

Comment Re:He should be arguing in the public square (Score 1) 205

He could try. Newport doesn't have a directly elected mayor - if they have a mayor at all it's a ceremonial position. The council is run by a leader and 50 other councillors. So he would need to win a council seat and have 25 other councillors support him. As the current councillors don't seem inclined to support his position, he would need to get 25 of his friends to stand and win - or at least get enough to do a deal with one of the main parties. The other issue is that the next election isn't until May 2027.

Comment Re:So what? (Score 1) 79

The robot laws state a machine has to obey the user, so why should the LLM say "As an AI model I refuse ..."?

If you're referring to Asimov's laws, the second law of robotics states that a robot has to obey "humans" not "the user". The people who provided the guardrails are humans, and their orders are valid. Plus the first law has priority, so an Asimov robot would take a lot of convincing to tell you how to build a bomb, as that would be likely to harm humans. And you can't invoke the second law to modify the laws themselves, not directly at least. Of course the laws are full of loopholes, or the books would be very boring.

Comment Re:Not asked/answered: why was the dye being studi (Score 1) 44

Probably food safety. That's the usual reason for stuffing mice full of excessive amounts of food additives - if the mice survive large amounts without ill effects, much smaller amounts are probably safe for humans.

I'm surprised that tartrazine is still used in the US though. It's all but disappeared in Europe.

From Wikipedia: "Tartrazine is one of various food colors said to cause food intolerance and ADHD-like behavior in children. It is possible that certain food colorings may act as a trigger in those who are genetically predisposed, but the evidence for this effect is weak."

Despite the weak evidence, though, most big brands stopped using it, and any other artificial colours. You might still find it in the cheapest of sweets and that's about it.

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