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IRC: #techbytes @ Techrights IRC Network: Saturday, March 25, 2023

back to Techrights (Main Index)


beginning of new day, March 25

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3 AM, March 25

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4 AM, March 25

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04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > I haven't got anyone's email, I think I contacted xxxxx through Facebook.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > xxxxx said he wasn't enrolled, not was xxxxx, I don't know about xxxxx.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > I don't think there were many others who had been there long enough to

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > have been enrolled.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; >

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > Do you have any details you might be able to give me that might help me

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > get in touch with standard life? Is there a company plan number or name

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > that you know of?

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; >

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > The pension service did mention to me that they are in the process of

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > setting up a pensions dashboard that eventually all pension companies

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > will need to be enrolled with so if it was transferred to another

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > provider we should eventually find out about it but that is probably

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; > still a few years away from completing.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; Hi,

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; I have the papers before me now. This is from the era Linda still worked at Sirius and was arranging this plan.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; "SIRIUS CORPORATION PLC" (xxxx has pretty much deprecated it by now, he now operates through two new shells from 2017 in the UK and 2019 in the US, "Limited" and "Inc.")

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; SCHEME NUMBER: xxxxx

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; Their higher level people can locate it, but won't find anything based on your NI number, unless you escalate.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; Advisor information (Standard Life):

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; NAME: INTEGRITY FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT LTD

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; Advisor code: xxxx

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; The papers are from summer of 2011.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; It says chosen retirement age is 65

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; Employer gives 3%, you give 2.4%

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; I am meanwhile probing the 'new' pension schemes too. There are two formal letters from them on their way by post.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; This is far from the only scandal, but this one is a liability also to former staff.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; So have you had any luck? Any progress/breakthrough? With pension trackers, phonecall etc.

04:56 schestowitz[TR]; I'm still chasing NOW:Pension as well. They too are rather dodgy, but they don't deny the money exists there. The Standard Life money is just a total enigma. We know it was passed somewhere, hopefully not plundered.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > No luck with standard life.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > I've sent an email got an automatic reply, no idea if they are actually

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > looking into it, I sent another email 2 days ago and got no reply.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; That sounds typical of them. When pushed a bit, they do reply ;-)

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > I am considering a subject access request for copies of all

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > correspondence they have sent to me which I would expect to include any

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > letters they might have sent me which could include anything about the

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > transfer.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; Excellent to hear of such progress. Let me know how that goes. I too check the options.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > I didn't keep my address up to date with standard life so I had letters

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > from them, was that the same for you are were you still getting updates

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > from them until it was transferred?

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; They nearly never contacted me about anything. Ever. That in itself was a negative sign.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > I don't have a problem with Now pension, I can login to their website

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > and it still shows my balance, but it was only a few months worth as I

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > left not long after that one was setup.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; I'm chasing them too. They keep making promises they cannot fulfill and don't respond to mail.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > I did get some emails from them a few years ago about missing

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > contributions to the scheme being looked into but since I wasn't getting

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; > any it didn't affect me.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; I wrote about that in December.

04:57 schestowitz[TR]; I'll keep you in the loop on any progress. We ought to get to the bottom of this. Many others are impacted.

04:58 schestowitz[TR]; Have you already tried contacting xxxxxxxxx? If so, did he reply? What did he say?

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; > Hi Roy, xxxxxx tells me you have been in touch about trying to track down

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; > your pension from the original Sirius pension scheme.

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; > I am in the same situation and had previously given up trying to track

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; > it down.

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; > If you want to talk about it at some point let me know.

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; Hi,

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; Thanks for getting in touch.

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; a) I wonder how many people are impacted by this -- probably a lot

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; b) Standard Life and NOW:Pension plans are both registered with a company that has only one employee: the CEO. He moved everything else to two shells, one in the UK (Ltd.) and another in the US (Inc.).

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; c) we requested written assurances from NOW that the pensions cannot be scuttled as before

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; d) Standard Life refuses to even tell me what happened (the manager there)

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; e) the company is, in effect, 'in hiding'. It'll be hard to sue.

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; Do you know who else was in that Standard Life plan?

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; Hiya,

04:59 schestowitz[TR]; Sorry was trying to get hold of him to make sure he was happy with me handing it out.


5 AM, March 25

05:04 schestowitz[TR]; Just checked with xxxxxx if she was happy for me to pass on the details (and double check what I had was right as its 5000000 years ago). I have added Kate to the thread and the e-mail is: xxxxx


8 AM, March 25

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9 AM, March 25

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09:53 schestowitz[TR]; <li>

09:53 schestowitz[TR]; <h5><a href="https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/23/tails_511_securesurfing_live_distro/">Tails 5.11: Secure-surfing 'amnesiac' live distro arrives</a></h5>

↺ https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/23/tails_511_securesurfing_live_distro/">Tails

09:53 schestowitz[TR]; <blockquote>

09:53 schestowitz[TR]; <p>Tails 5.11, just released, has some worthwhile improvements that may make it run a little better on machines lacking large amounts of memory. Tails now uses ZRAM as standard, like the unofficial Ubuntu DDE remix and Debian variant Spiral Linux.</p>

09:53 schestowitz[TR]; </blockquote>

09:53 schestowitz[TR]; </li>

09:53 -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-www.theregister.com | Tails 5.11: Secure-surfing 'amnesiac' live distro arrives The Register

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <li>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <h5><a href="https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/slimbook-titan-keyboard.html">Slimbook Titan, Kubuntu, RGB backlight keyboard</a></h5>

↺ https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/slimbook-titan-keyboard.html">Slimbook

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <blockquote>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <p>Welcome, lil' penguins. Let us talk about me new laptop some more. As you may have heard or read, I purchased a Slimbook Titan, a hefty machine with hybrid graphics and lots of processing power. My mission? To use this device in earnest, for everything, to prove that I can wean myself off Windows come 2025, once Windows 10 goes kaputt. Because we don't want no Windows 11 and such nonsense,

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; now do we.</p>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; </blockquote>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; </li>

09:58 schestowitz[TR];

09:58 -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-www.dedoimedo.com | Slimbook Titan, Kubuntu, RGB backlight keyboard

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <li>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <h5><a href="https://blog.arduino.cc/2023/03/23/an-experimental-low-cost-ultrasonic-drone-positioning-system/">An experimental low-cost ultrasonic drone positioning system</a></h5>

↺ https://blog.arduino.cc/2023/03/23/an-experimental-low-cost-ultrasonic-drone-positioning-system/">An

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <blockquote>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; <p>Like most positioning systems, this relies on triangulation through time of flight measurements. Triangulation lets you find the position, on a 2D plane, of Point A by measuring its distance to both Point B and Point C and knowing the distance between Point B and Point C ahead of time. This is a triangle and you know the length of every side (the distance between points), so you can calcula

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; te the position of Point A. Time of flight is the time it takes a signal to travel between two points. When you know the signals rate of travel (which is typically statistic or close enough), you can calculate distance by simply measuring the time it takes the signal to leave Point A and reach Point B (or vice-versa).</p>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; </blockquote>

09:58 schestowitz[TR]; </li>

09:58 -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-blog.arduino.cc | An experimental low-cost ultrasonic drone positioning system | Arduino Blog


10 AM, March 25

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11 AM, March 25

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11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > *Automattic Trust & Safety* (Automattic)

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > Mar 24, 2023, 20:20 UTC

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > Hello,

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > My friend Ryan (whom I've known for 15 years) has a blog at

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > baronhk.wordpress.com. His E-mail is ryanafarmer@protonmail.com

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > <mailto:ryanafarmer@protonmail.com> and

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > rfarmer84@outlook.com <mailto:rfarmer84@outlook.com> (the one he

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > uses to contact you).

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > His blog was unjustly suspended this week, apparently because the word

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > "porn" appeared in the headline. The article had nothing to do with

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > porn.

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > As a result, he was so distraught and angry that he deleted his account.

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > Only later did he realise that his account was suspended by a bot. He

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > now regrets deleting the account and wishes to undelete it. Can you

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > please rectify this?

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > Thanks for checking in. In order to discuss a site, or to un-delete it,

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > we need to hear from the email account associated with the site. From

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > your email, it sounds like he already reached out, but if he hasn't

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > reached out recently, or about the site deletion itself, you can let him

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > know that he should write in again.

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > Also, may I suggest not using this "shoot first,

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > ask questions later" approach? The word porn can be used in all sorts of

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > contexts. It's a very poor criterion/keywork for abuse detection.

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > We don't discuss most of our tools externally, for a few reasons, but

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > generally, I can let you know a few pieces of information that might be

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > helpful here:

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > * Our (human) staff reviews abuse reports (e.g., things like reports

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > of explicit sexual material and other policy violations).

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > * For automated systems (like anti-spam flagging), there are no single

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > words that can prompt a site suspension.

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > We're definitely aware that the word "porn" can be used in many

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > contexts, and there are many, many WordPress.com sites using it with no

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > repercussions; it's not something we suspend for (manually or robotically).

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > I hope this is helpful!

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:43 schestowitz[TR]; > Automattic Trust & Safety

11:45 schestowitz[TR]; Re: Sirius pensions

11:45 schestowitz[TR]; > Sorry to hear that. Has Roy found a job yet?

11:45 schestowitz[TR]; >

11:45 schestowitz[TR]; > I think only XXXX and XXXX have left since you left!

11:45 schestowitz[TR]; Sirius lost more clients (that we know of), but it is not telling staff.

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; "European Commission

11:46 schestowitz[TR];

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; Have your say

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; Dear Sir or Madam,

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; One initiative has been published or updated on the European Commission's 'Have your say' portal:

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; Feedback opportunities.

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; Title Topic Deadline Action

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; Draft Act

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; Road safety advanced driver distraction warning systems <https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13740-Road-safety-advanced-driver-distraction-warning-systems_en> Single market

↺ https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13740-Road-safety-advanced-driver-distraction-warning-systems_en>

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; 21/04/2023 Published for feedback

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; To consult all the existing initiatives please visit the portal:

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say_en <https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say_en>

↺ https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say_en

↺ https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say_en>

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; This is an automatic notification message. Please do not reply to it.

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; With kind regards,

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; *European Commission *

11:46 schestowitz[TR]; Secretariat-General "

11:46 -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-ec.europa.eu | Have your say

11:46 -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-ec.europa.eu | Have your say

11:47 schestowitz[TR]; "> This is about having cameras *inside* the car and pointed at the driver.

11:47 schestowitz[TR]; > Probably microphones too."

11:49 schestowitz[TR]; https://diaspora.psyco.fr/posts/9418039#aeed6cc06ec6013b1482002590c0bfb8

↺ https://diaspora.psyco.fr/posts/9418039#aeed6cc06ec6013b1482002590c0bfb8

11:49 schestowitz[TR]; "The media is recently talking a lot about massive layoffs by Silicon Valley companies. It's not only Microsoft, but also Facebook, Google, and dozens of smaller companies. Not really surprise there."

11:49 -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-diaspora.psyco.fr | Microsoft crisis. People who work there say there are massive cuts....

11:49 schestowitz[TR]; "These tech giants treat their own employees like sh%&"t. What would one expect how do they treat everyone else using their services!?"

11:49 schestowitz[TR]; "I don't think so. They compete for the best talents and that demographic isn't very easy to get. So, they give them the best salaries, comfortable working conditions and many benefits. However, don't expect to have an easy life, they consistently evaluate their employees and remove low performers from their staff. Besides, in silicon valley, you aren't married to your employer, it's much more common to change your working place rel

11:49 schestowitz[TR]; atively frequently. I'm pretty sure, for every big tech company, there are dozens of companies who are treating their IT staff far worse than Big Tech."

11:49 schestowitz[TR]; "" remove low performers from their staff." - not only those people. They remove obsolete staff at a blink - no matter if they have been low-performer or not. It might be also a matter of stupid management decisions. There are often other things that count, not only performance. Changing working places might work - as long as the employee is under a certain age. At a (very) high level it might be a bit different (there are different

11:49 schestowitz[TR]; dynamics), but in general big tech does treat employees in an ignorant way. Just thinking of twitter right now, sending away even long-standing senior developers in order to save on their salaries."

11:50 schestowitz[TR]; "Here is a relevant comment just came across under a Sun/Oracle article: "Having said all that, they (Sun) were a great company to work for, unlike Oracle, who I also worked for. Oracle were a hire and fire a will company and probably still are. People disappeared as quickly as they did in Nazi Germany.""

11:51 schestowitz[TR]; https://diaspora.psyco.fr/posts/9402384#b21538506a75013b78cb28a1592b385a

↺ https://diaspora.psyco.fr/posts/9402384#b21538506a75013b78cb28a1592b385a

11:51 -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-diaspora.psyco.fr | Reshare by gunnar@diasp.org

11:51 schestowitz[TR]; ""Today that role is unrecognisable. Not because technology got better, but because we all got a lot dumber and more dependent on click-box cloud technology. We dont own or really understand it now. We have a shrugging, negative permissions culture. The first position is to assume nothing can be done. The disconnect between the official theoretical syllabus and daily practice is immense. Today my university could not afford

11:51 schestowitz[TR]; to hire my own graduates for roles currently occupied by people I would fail if they were my students. Much of what we teach is in fact obsolete because, if the standards of our own institutions are anything to go by, nobody actually needs to know how anything really works. The reality is theyd be better off doing a Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS or Google Cloud certificate for a tenth of the price and spend the rest of their caree

11:51 schestowitz[TR]; rs clicking on drop-down menus with meaningless brand names. The skill-set of educational ICT has been eviscerated.""


1 PM, March 25

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2 PM, March 25

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3 PM, March 25

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19:49 *Now talking on #techbytes

19:49 *Topic for #techbytes is: Welcome to the official channel of the TechBytes Audiocast

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8 PM, March 25

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21:23 *Topic for #techbytes is: Welcome to the official channel of the TechBytes Audiocast

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IRC: #techbytes @ Techrights IRC Network: Saturday, March 25, 2023


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