Comments for The Yorkshire Ranter

Comment on 10 years ago today… by Barry Freed

Barry Freed — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:54:45 +0000

Late to the party but, ditto. An essential blog. The only downside is that it may be keeping you from writing that book I think you’ve got in you.

Comment on Goodhart: majority of Bradfordians are twisted mutants by Peter

Peter — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:11:07 +0000

I don’t know how it works in Britain, but in the United States both parents and school districts often have an incentive to get borderline cases classified as “special needs.” By doing so the parents can get extra assistance for children who may be struggling, while the school districts qualify for additional state and federal financial aid.

Comment on Goodhart: majority of Bradfordians are twisted mutants by [BLOG] Some Thursday links | A Bit More Detail

[BLOG] Some Thursday links | A Bit More Detail — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:35:46 +0000

[...] Ranter Alex Harrowell confirms that David Goodhart is not to be trusted when he talks about immigration, not at [...]

Comment on 10 years ago today… by nathan

nathan — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:51:59 +0000

Thanks. very good blog, you Dsquared and Blood and treasure are my esential’s.

Comment on 10 years ago today… by The Judge

The Judge — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:27:08 +0000

Well done – you started three days before I did.

“I gave my youth to this project…”

Have you tried asking for him back?

Comment on 10 years ago today… by z_boson

z_boson — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:02:11 +0000

Cheers!

Comment on 10 years ago today… by duaneg

duaneg — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:54:20 +0000

Congrats Alex, and many, many thanks for your work over the years. I owe you a pint too; add it to my tab!

Comment on PRISM. Sometimes it’s easier to solve these things in L by duaneg

duaneg — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:43:55 +0000

Sorry, I think I need to follow my own advice better; on reflection that was rather muddled.

PRISM isn’t part of the NSA’s panopticon, it is access to commercial equivalents. The question is: what sort of access? Can they, in effect or in actual practice, run arbitrary MapReduce jobs over it?

The speculation is that they cannot. That they need specific, identified targets. The denials would seem to rule it out, and efficiently processing that much data would require considerably more computing infrastructure than their budget allows.

On the other hand, how much weight to put on the denials is…debatable, and maybe the funding comes from a different budget (possibly the companies themselves if they piggy-back on their infrastructure).

The budget figures don’t really make sense. Edward Snowden’s salary alone would account for 1% of it. Clearly there is a lot that it isn’t counting.

Comment on 10 years ago today… by Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:36:38 +0000

Hey, I bought you a richly-deserved pint. Come to think of it, I think I might owe you a pint currently. Birthday party?

Comment on 10 years ago today… by Metatone

Metatone — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:35:12 +0000

echo Soizick Solman

This is one of the best blogs on the Internet.