... and then to secure Ukraine into the European economic and defence structure as firmly as possible. At this point they're far ahead of NATO on how to use drones and robots in war, and they're clearly getting very, very good at building them too. European military and aerospace people both will have a lot to gain from cooperation with Ukraine after the war is over.

As cadets were so memorably told a generation ago: remember always, your duty is clear - to build and maintain those robots!

Agreed.

They have planted a certificate in their software. Expiration date +- 10 years. Why not 20? 50? 100? I don't believe they are using a CRL for that certificate. Otherwise, it would be too easy to kill the cert. They knew it was time limited. But they sold it as perpetual.

That's clearly misreprsentation too me. Fraud.

The fixes are easy. (1) an update can simply for another 10 years, or (2) remove the need for the activation server. Heck, the 2nd is simply a a GOTO statement to bypass the affected code.

Sounds good - DDG is pretty bad lately, it typically just returns a list of AI generated SEO slop pages, so I've been switching back to Google in a private tab for a lot of things. Might be worth trying this one now!

If they leave them there, the next administration might be able to switch them back on and start gathering woke climate science data again.

Long ago, the UK courts ordered all the major consumer ISPs to block The Pirate Bay along with various other popular services. Ever since, we've had to keep up to date on what the latest proxy address might be.

Of course, thanks to the new censorship laws introduced more recently, we're all on VPNs now, so as to avoid having to hand our ID to the wallet inspector for every last website we ever use. And once that was set up, it was nice to discover that the original is still in play!

The jokes about Darth Jar Jar were everywhere of course, but it could have worked. Star Wars lifted a few ideas from classic SF sources including Asimov's Foundation series - in which, we might recall, the terrifying, unstoppable galactic warlord known as The Mule was hiding in plain sight as a clown, who seemed to be merely a harmless entertainer at court. His military success was chiefly thanks to his psychic ability to manipulate others' minds to his liking - Darth Jar Jar could have done very well that way!

I saw three Star Wars movies when I was young. They were great. Mainly because I was a child and this stuff was new and fresh and exciting to me. Even the Ewoks.

I saw three more when I was not quite so young. They were... poor.

I saw a couple more when I was older. One was great, the other was okay but a retread of one of the old ones, and I never got round to seeing the rest. Didn't care enough.

Now they've got more, and apparently they're based on a TV series they did, which I didn't watch because I wasn't subscribed to that streaming platform at the time. So I'm not going to see those either. Same reason I've not seen a Marvel superhero film since the first Avengers one - just too much homework required with all the backstory. Every scene is a shout out or reference that I won't get. Every character seems to be getting ever louder and angrier and more and more of them have access to time machines. I just don't have it in me to care anymore.

I like the sound of these horror films, though. They're going to tell a complete story? In one film? With a beginning, middle and end, that don't ask me to be up to date on an entire Cinematic Universe? Sounds great, time to check where they're showing!

A modern version of GTA London would be the absolute dream. Been long enough now, you could set it in the nineties and have the same retro value to it!

... why unions aren't much more common among technology workers. Especially given what you hear about the videogame industry in particular, with that mad 'crunch time' culture in which workers are ruthlessly, well, crunched. I'd always ask, well, what does your union say about it? And what do you know, there isn't one, how about that.

Nice to hear of some progress being made, then. I suppose the risk with this for the rest of us is that GTA 6 might be late to release, but, uh, at this point I think we're over that

You pretty much have to produce content that follows an established formula or audiences^W shareholders won't like it.

FTFY

No, not all still exist. I know, I was there and have the unemployment to show for it.

But enough exist that there are managers paid well enough to kick the can down the road while failing to make any meaningful improvements.

You build mass transit systems like you build networks.

Access nodes, hubs and cores. At the access level is a bus, or potentially a tram (not a streetcar). Think last mile. Well, kilometer. But it's probably more than that, but you get the idea. Buses should connect at some point to the trunk route. They should be accessible by walking not more than 1km, ideally a bit less. Stops should be frequent enough to be accessible but not so often as the trip bogs down to an endless stop-start-stop-start.

Trunks are Rail (or light rail), connect at the hubs. Separated right of way, mostly. This allows express running and stops are several km between them (eg, 5km, plus or minus). Fast enough to get going and beat traffic. Ideally they should have some commercial activity "on the door step". Like a major hospital, university, shopping district or commercial district. Not in the middle of a sprawl. Target top speed 100km/h to 160km/h for longer stretches.

Core routes are then high speed rail targets. 20 to 50km apart. Linked to other neighbour cores directly. Target top speed 200 to 200km/h

Occasionally you'll get super "Core", such as state, or national capitals or major urban areas. The target top speed would be 300km/h or more.

The whole lot if of course "Token Ring" and fixed slots. (Cars are more Ethernet)

Of coruse, that's the theory. In reality with have (1) geography and (2) the reality of how land is used now based on potentially hundreds of years of use. Good luck fixing that.

Why? Just why?

Sometimes, Oil and gas is needed. Lubricants, etc. Some types of transport.

However, anyone with any sense is going electric. First you don't need to kowtow to facist dictatorships, like the US, UK, and the MIddle East. And Norway. So, you gain a lot of sovereignty.

Its better for the environment. No, it isn't a reliable source of energy but energy saving technologies exist and are getting better.

Not going to ignore the nasty chimicals in battery technology and their own supply chain issues. They exist.

If you support dying technologies, you'll die with it.

I think that as more vehicles transition to Electic, or, still potentially other fuel sources like Hydrogen, Fuel stations will transition.

Indeed they won't be "Petrol Stations" or "Gas Stations", they will be fuel stations. Most already sell Diesel and Petrol. And in many places LPG. So, just add a few electric charging stations to replace lesser used bowsers?

Probably most fuel stations are also already convenience stores so there is that to add to the profit margin.

Local one near me has just added a Tesla superstation with 20 chargers AND 10 or so fuel company branded chargers. As well as keeping the 8 or so petrol bowsers. And on Saturday shopping days, the place is packed. Chockers. With a queue.

The gas stations won't just dissapper, it will still be local. Just different.

I only need the Smart TV to be able to turn on, change the volume and change HDMI input. That is ALL. I can put my Kodi, Plex, Apple TV, and cable provider, even my laptop, ipad and GoPro to the HDMI input. No network, no apps, no wifi and NO login.

My dad on the otherhand, does need some smarts to load Kayo. On the otherhand (how many hands?), if he can't access Kayo, NOT seeing the Tiges sink to another crushing defeat will help his blood pressure.