under the bridge
There are trolls. And then there are Spectator defence-policy thread trolls.
Read More under the bridge2009
there’d better be such a thing as “cyberwar”
Because we’ve set up the bureaucracy for it. Laugh! as the people responsible for the new US Cyber Command try to work out what it’s for. As far as I can see, it duplicates all or part of NSA, DISA, CIA, DHS, NIST, and the services’ signals commands and electronics materiel agencies. It is true…
Read More there’d better be such a thing as “cyberwar”no progress since 1970, except in minor fields such as cost, safety, reliability, capacity, efficiency…
Other things I disagree quite strongly with Charlie Stross about. James Nicoll asks what happens if/when Moore’s Law is exhausted. Charlie has a well-known theory about this, based on the aerospace industry’s recession in the early 70s. The CE industry is inherently deflationary — Moore’s law conceals this because we double the number of transistors…
Read More no progress since 1970, except in minor fields such as cost, safety, reliability, capacity, efficiency…ye olde scamme
Charlie Stross feels that the Bernie Madoff case has put the sequel to Halting State behind the curve of criminal weirdness. I disagree strongly. Madoff was an American classic, as perfect an artefact of his society as aerosol cheese or moon landings. His fraud was a simple, well-executed example of the tried and trusted Ponzi…
Read More ye olde scammedid you know Twitter stimulates Shatner’s bassoon?
Quite ridiculous microtale about the head of MI6’s wife being on Facebook. But what’s this, from Patrick Mercer MP? The Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, who chairs the counter-terrorism sub-committee, said the mistake had left the Sawers family “extremely vulnerable”. Referring to Miliband’s suggestion that the incident was not significant, Mercer said: “If that is the…
Read More did you know Twitter stimulates Shatner’s bassoon?an elegant drive through the covers of Renewal
Does anyone actually imagine that Blairites are interested in the ideas of Amartya Sen? I ask chiefly for information. After all, they often do things that look superficially like engaging intellectually with new ideas from the Left; writing articles about Sen or Etzioni or whoever in journals like Progress or Renewal, taking part in seminars…
Read More an elegant drive through the covers of Renewalthe purpose of a system is what it does
Now this is absolutely terrifying; the Tory policy on what to do with the NHS National Programme for IT is apparently to give everyone’s data to “Google or Microsoft”. And that appears to be it. This is deranged in several ways. First of all, MICROSOFT??!!! What the fuck are they THINKING? You know, the people…
Read More the purpose of a system is what it doesSix years of TYR
There’s going to be a meetup at the Sir Richard Steeles on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening (it looks like at the moment). Readers are invited. Feedback on the time and date is appreciated. Update: Looks like we’ll go with Wednesday.
Read More Six years of TYRAndy Coulson and the Law
Much fuss about the yellow press listening to voicemail through knowing the default passwords. I’m rather more worried about their network of private detectives who had access, according to the print version, to police databases and to BT’s billing system. And I’m depressed about a group of journos who, given the keys to the 650…
Read More Andy Coulson and the Lawsomeone’s got it in for us, they’re planting stories in the press
Bob Dylan lyric too appropriate not to use yet again. Who is trying to frighten MySociety.org users? It begins with a Daily Telegraph story that a clerk, Lisa Greenwood, in the Department for Children, Schools and Families was sacked for posting a comment about Hazel Blears on theyworkforyou. Unfortunately, no comment including the text quoted…
Read More someone’s got it in for us, they’re planting stories in the press