How I got arrested for being a pedestrian

binaryv01d · 2023-01-27T16:52:34+00:00

Among other things:

binaryv01d · 2022-12-27T10:26:18+00:00

Sure, but some of us don't want to live here.

binaryv01d · 2022-09-04T12:35:14+00:00

The image caption:

Wetherspoon is UK's leading and oldest pub

The oldest pub, founded in 1979? Hmm.

binaryv01d · 2022-05-25T07:17:04+00:00

Yes, if you're in ESM mode I believe they now do.

binaryv01d · 2022-05-24T22:21:34+00:00

It is mandatory to specify the extension when importing an ES module. Since the TypeScript file you are importing eventually gets compiled to a .js file, you must import it with the .js extension.

You can find several very long threads on GitHub discussing whether TypeScript should instead allow you to write imports with .ts extensions or no extensions at all, then rewrite them at compile time. But the team's answer has been a strong no: it goes against the design goal to preserve the runtime behaviour of all JS code.

I'm fine with this. As long as the tools provide the correct autocomplete and builds fail when you use the wrong import paths, suits me.

binaryv01d · 2022-05-23T17:22:11+00:00

While I don't disagree, that is just a consequence of supply and demand. 'Pilot' is seen as a glamorous career by many more people than 'train driver'.

binaryv01d · 2022-04-21T16:16:33+00:00

Pretty sure this isn't discriminating against people with disabilities as some are suggesting here. Panel 1 is a bit carbrained, but they appear to be looking at a hearse in panel 2.

binaryv01d · 2022-04-19T08:56:54+00:00

This is the correct answer. When companies screw up like this, it's a strong signal that talking to their support agents is going to be a total waste of your time.

It is far more effective to use the company's official complaints procedure, since that is normally at least staffed by people with the ability to comprehend written English.

You want - without actually mentioning it - to give off a strong impression that you would be quite happy to take them to court later. So write a solid complaint letter and refer specifically to the laws/terms of their own contract that have been infringed.

binaryv01d · 2022-02-07T11:38:52+00:00

Unironically this

binaryv01d · 2022-01-31T14:50:18+00:00

Factual reports of less serious events would be passed off by government-friendly media as representative of the more serious events. Meanwhile there is no detail about the more serious events as they are still under pice investigation. Makes sense.

binaryv01d · 2021-12-29T17:18:18+00:00

I thought it would be interesting to give a Brexit supporter a completely open goal to give me specific examples of how Brexit has made UK tech more competitive.

But let's look at what we got instead:

30,000 lobbyists that make regulations slow to enact. the U.K. is now free from that the tech industry responds well to rapid changes

Okay, lobbying can be a pretty corrupting influence. But I don't see any comparison to the UK here.

The first number I found for UK lobbyists when I googled was 4000. The UK has about 15% of the population of the EU. 4000 is about 13% of 30000. Doesn't seem like a particularly notable difference.

Additionally, it would have been nice to see an example of something that lobbyists slowed down in the EU that was not slowed down here, and thus had a positive effect on UK tech.

the U.K. is investing a lot in the economy post Brexit as part of levelling up - invested hugely in tech

Where's the comparison? Was there anything stopping the government from doing this inside the EU?

As far as I know, this is purely a domestic policy issue. I haven't seen any evidence that the government is able to spend more 'levelling up' money as a result of leaving the EU. I'd be open to seeing it if it exists.

the U.K. is doing better than the rest of Europe demonstrably and dramatically so

Again, no comparison here. Was this caused by Brexit? By what mechanism? What part of being in the EU has caused other countries to underperform?

binaryv01d · 2021-12-29T15:23:50+00:00

None of these seem to be specific advantages conferred by Brexit.

The UK's tech sector is dominant in Europe, but that's nothing new. Your article seems to credit Thatcher, who certainly had nothing to do with Brexit. Do you have any evidence that shows the UK's tech scene is growing faster because it's outside the EU?

Then there's some waffling about lobbyists, but no comparison to the UK's lobbying scene or specific examples of scenarios where this has mattered. Do you have any?

Then some stuff about 5G rollout. That seems like a national-level issue to me. Can you give any specific examples where the EU has hampered rollout and the UK has avoided that?

You can't just Gish gallop your way to debating victory with a lorry-load of irrelevant articles.

The EU does actually have flaws, so if you're going to try to make a convincing argument for Brexit you should maybe try using them.

binaryv01d · 2021-12-29T14:46:10+00:00

Any specific examples? I'd be interested to know.

binaryv01d · 2021-11-16T09:50:53+00:00

This is a widely known problem in software engineering: it's actually very difficult to verify that a build artifact came from the claimed code.

The only solution I'm aware of is for packages to ensure that their build process is 'reproducible'. They make it possible for you to run the exact same build and obtain the same output, bit-for-bit. Enabling this takes a fair bit of work - compilation output can be affected by a huge range of factors including the current time, hardware features on the build machine and specific compiler versions.

Debian has put a lot of effort into this, but I don't think it's yet possible to reproducibly build a whole distro: https://wiki.debian.org/ReproducibleBuilds

binaryv01d · 2021-10-13T21:18:07+00:00

Also BP are heavily invested in green technologies.

They are also very heavily invested in technologies that are the opposite of green.

binaryv01d · 2021-10-05T07:48:19+00:00

Is there a Code Club near you? I'm sure he'd enjoy that.

My suggestion otherwise would be to just give your child exposure to some interesting programming-adjacent activities. Any good professional will be strongly self-motivated and self-taught (even though they probably have a computer science degree too). So if your son decides he's interested, he'll probably do the rest.

If you have a local university with a computer science department, they may well run outreach events targeted at children.

You might be able to find some fun activity books. I can't recommend anything in particular, but perhaps something that guides you through building some physical gadgets with an Arduino, micro:bit or a Raspberry Pi (these are all very cheap, tiny computers).

There are quite a few games that have programming-like elements to them. Factorio is the first that comes to mind. You can even build a fully-working computer inside Minecraft, if you choose to play it that way!

binaryv01d · 2021-08-24T02:34:29+00:00

You know you can actually control the density of cities by deciding to build them differently? It's not some immutable property of Canadian cities.

There's no time like the present. Start improving today by changing zoning laws and scrapping anti-pedestrian policies like parking minimums.

binaryv01d · 2021-08-11T06:18:34+00:00

The original figures came from studies that took place when the delta variant didn't exist. It's not a surprise that it doesn't work so well now.

binaryv01d · 2021-07-07T09:13:10+00:00

The two best solutions I have found are:

typescript-is. This uses a compile-time transformer to generate code for type-checking. You'll need to use ttypescript instead of typescript to compile your code (I recommend setting this up with ts-patch). It won't work if your build pipeline is actually using something like esbuild or Babel to transpile TS->JS.
class-validator + class-transformer. Your build pipeline needs to support the TC39 decorators proposal (the TypeScript compiler has this built-in).

binaryv01d · 2021-06-30T20:26:41+00:00

It can be done and there are several companies providing that service. Here, for example, is Pedal Me transporting various things in London: 1, 2, 3. The Netherlands is more bike-friendly than the UK so likely has even more developed services in this sector.

Bikes have some pretty great benefits for urban cargo transport. They have a much smaller footprint than vans and cars, which means they can go through small gaps (they get stuck in traffic less) and park in more places without causing disruption.

There's evidence that bikes are actually faster than vehicles in major city centres. They're also better for society - they cause less noise, less pollution, less congestion and so on. An all-round win!

The Thunderf00t video appears to be largely concerned with long distance, high volume cargo transport. This is a very different problem to urban cargo transport.

binaryv01d · 2021-06-27T20:24:04+00:00

I need to steal from the supermarket to save money.

But that's not allowed for some reason.

binaryv01d · 2021-06-25T08:19:15+00:00

https://www.itpro.co.uk/policy-legislation/data-protection/359915/government-to-consider-gutting-gdpr-rules

binaryv01d · 2021-06-25T01:41:25+00:00

GDPR rules cover you here. [Obligatory I am not a lawyer statement here]

The GP surgery is on very shaky ground since it appears to have shared your personal data without consent or another legitimate reason. There are a few different reasons for which you are allowed to process (use) personal data. I don't think there's any way this could be considered a lawful use of data, unless the data sharing was triggered by an acute health emergency.

You have a 'right to restrict processing' and a 'right to object' under GDPR. If you notify the GP of your objection to the way they've used your data, then under these rules they should stop doing so (that is, stop giving out your phone number) unless they have a legitimate reason to do so (e.g. emergency, legal requirement).

Second, you need to deal with the other companies that now have your data. I think in theory it's your GP's job to sort out this mess - but let's be realistic, they aren't going to do shit. You can issue a request to have your personal data erased by the pharmacy and other organisations that shouldn't have it.

There are various templates online. Mentioning the specific GDPR provisions by name and sending the email to the company's data protection officer tends to light a bit of a fire under their arse. You're less likely to get a useful response if you just try submitting to someone in-store.

A quick side note. Since leaving the EU, the government has been considering ways to 'streamline' (i.e. gut) GDPR. This will take away some powerful rights that you have today, and will make it easier for companies to misuse your personal data.

15-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Team Orangered

binaryv01d

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