So Home Secretary Amber Rudd went on t’telly and continued trying to jawbone some sort of privileged access to WhatsApp messages. In the process she also: called on “people who understand the technology” and know “the necessary hashtags” to stop extremist material being uploaded to the internet. Anyway. This was all in aid of Friday’s…
Read More Exactly how those media reports about WhatsApp terrorists happenedThis Trump speech has been widely circulated by now, but two things come to mind. The first of all is that he seems to have the verbal version of the Heartbleed SSL bug. In Heartbleed, the problem is that you can request a keep-alive message of length you specify, with data you provide, but there…
Read More Interrogation by silence, and Trump’s mental HeartbleedSo, on Monday, the Daily Telegraph ran this story on how you too can incorporate your BTL portfolio as a limited company and dodge tax. You’ll note that the story only exists because mortgage broker Kent Reliance pushed a report at the paper. And yes, it’s totally about tax. Kent Reliance, the buy-to-let lender who…
Read More The Daily Telegraph’s personal finance page is depravedThis Rafael Behr piece about the Oldham by-election has been getting the bird, not surprisingly given the central prediction was hopelessly wrong. The really interesting bit, in my view, is that if we take a maximally charitable view and assume that there is nothing outside the text, so everyone he spoke to in Oldham who…
Read More Polar Behr wanders the frozen NorthI say bubble? I say bubble. Good piece, but the most interesting paragraph is the following, provided as a health warning on a NYT feature quoted: (The article’s author, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, is the wife of Silicon Valley venture investor Marc Andreessen, though Theranos isn’t listed as a portfolio company of Andreessen Horowitz, his venture firm.)
Read More WhoseKidIsTheranosWhat are national security numbers? Why would you think TalkTalk would have some? Why would you believe anyone who claims to have them is the real deal, when: The UK doesn’t have a thing called a Social Security Number Nor does it have a thing called a National Security Number It does have a National…
Read More There is no such thing as a “UK national security number”Journalists. Please, please, cut one phrase out of your vocabulary. It is “He will say”. Why? Well, try “Unseasonably Mild” Wintour’s latest. The first problem here is that something given out by a political party is being repeated uncritically. We get a complete paragraph-length Cameron soundbite, plus literally all the talking points, factoid by factoid…
Read More Sources close to Alex Harrowell will say “This is a lot of cock”So Brooks Newmark, Tory dickpic exponent. As Harlan Ellison didn’t title, I have no mouth but I can’t stop laughing. Or rather, I can’t stop laughing but I have a serious point I need to make. Obviously this was really awful journalism, in fact, hardly journalism at all in any meaningful sense. For a start…
Read More The one with Rupert Murdoch, Lord Nicholls, and the cocaineSo I promised to check what bad news was getting buried over the indyref. Here are some stories. NHS foundations crash to first-ever monster deficit: official NHS foundation trusts are struggling, missing waiting list targets, spending a lot of money on agency staff, and have had a sector-wide deficit for the first time. 19% of…
Read More #burybadnews: the burying. here are some boring links about fishOh, neat. When you’re next stumped trying to find that EU document, remember that Norway may not be in the EU but it has to implement the acquis communautaire, and it has really powerful FOI legislation. And off you go to the Ministry of Government Administration, Reform, and Church Affairs and their search engine. Note;…
Read More Worthwhile Norwegian website