Off Topic Thread 5.0

Synode

Synode wrote: »

I've returned a good few books that way, mostly ones the missus started but never finished. Didn't know about the half price. How long does it last

Not sure actually. I thought it was permanent.

thomond2006

Mahomes gets 503m over the total 12 years, 477m guaranteed. Some opt-in/opt-out clauses to be teased out over the next while but good lawd that's big money. Never seen the like in NFL and it's being called the biggest contract ever in sport.

dregin

The Irish contact tracing app has launched - https://covidtracker.gov.ie/

Here's the source code for anyone interested - https://github.com/HSEIreland/

thomond2006

Beat me to it. It seems decent.

Neil3030

Pretty clever.

I mean, clever that they would pretend to develop an app.

Whereas we all know they'll just ask Google who we've recently come in contact with.

And this way we (mostly) sleep at night.

Squidgy Black

Victoria gone back into lockdown for 6 weeks, not as severe as the original stage but still fairly big considering it's 5 million people.

dregin

Neil3030 wrote: »

Pretty clever.

I mean, clever that they would pretend to develop an app.

Whereas we all know they'll just ask Google who we've recently come in contact with.

And this way we (mostly) sleep at night.

Good luck finding any app that doesn't have a dependancy on a third party API.

Reinventing the wheel and failing is exactly why some of these apps have failed before.

Squidgy Black

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Victoria gone back into lockdown for 6 weeks, not as severe as the original stage but still fairly big considering it's 5 million people.

Seeing the number of urban centres going into lockdown I think those of us in and around Dublin are in for a frustrating few months.

Squidgy Black

Neil3030 wrote: »

Pretty clever.

I mean, clever that they would pretend to develop an app.

Whereas we all know they'll just ask Google who we've recently come in contact with.

And this way we (mostly) sleep at night.

Ah in fairness, there's still a fairly hefty amount of work gone into it. I've spent a couple hours this morning looking through the source code and it's fairly impressive.

They're using Google and Apples ExposureNotification service, so essentially you open the app, and then from there any other devices with the app installed it registers you being within a distance of them using Bluetooth. The only data exchanged is a single ID that isn't linked to any further details (personal information etc), until you test positive. From there the HSE provides you with a key to enter into the app which it'll then return any of the exchanged IDs logged over a period, and send a notification to each of these devices to say you may have been in contact with someone who has now tested positive.

The most important part of it is the fact there's no personal information retrieved or exchanged. You can enter your mobile number for the HSE to contact you for further info if you're a confirmed contact, but there's no requirement.

sydthebeat

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Ah in fairness, there's still a fairly hefty amount of work gone into it. I've spent a couple hours this morning looking through the source code and it's fairly impressive.

They're using Google and Apples ExposureNotification service, so essentially you open the app, and then from there any other devices with the app installed it registers you being within a distance of them using Bluetooth. The only data exchanged is a single ID that isn't linked to any further details (personal information etc), until you test positive. From there the HSE provides you with a key to enter into the app which it'll then return any of the exchanged IDs logged over a period, and send a notification to each of these devices to say you may have been in contact with someone who has now tested positive.

The most important part of it is the fact there's no personal information retrieved or exchanged. You can enter your mobile number for the HSE to contact you for further info if you're a confirmed contact, but there's no requirement.

does it require location to be turned on as well as bluetooth?

Zzippy

Deleted User wrote: »

Seeing the number of urban centres going into lockdown I think those of us in and around Dublin are in for a frustrating few months.

Just lockdown the Pale and keep ye all there. If I'm not allowed into the hospital to see my child being born because some ar$eholes in Dublin wanted a piss up and a street party I will not be happy...

Squidgy Black

sydthebeat wrote: »

does it require location to be turned on as well as bluetooth?

The app itself doesn't, it only looks for permission to the ExposureNotification service and Notifications.

But I'm not sure if Google/Apple's service uses location as well as Bluetooth. Must have a look and see can I find any documentation on that.

Edit: nope, the exposure notification service doesn't track location either and doesn't require permissions to it either, so it's just purely Bluetooth and won't actually list where any confirmed contacts were, just that you came within proximity of that person.

https://www.google.com/covid19/exposurenotifications/#exposure-notifications-and-privacy

thomond2006

200k sign ins already which is promising.

dregin

dregin wrote: »

The Irish contact tracing app has launched - https://covidtracker.gov.ie/

Here's the source code for anyone interested - https://github.com/HSEIreland/

Myself and the wife have it installed, it's only going to work with a good uptake but will keep an eye on battery usage.

There is quite a bit of information on the dashboard which I wasn't expecting. 200,000 have checked in with the app today!

Squidgy Black

Here's a pretty good breakdown of the state of affairs of what the UK tried to do if anyone's interested as well, they're now trying to pivot back towards the model the HSE have released after originally shooting down Google/Apple and trying to implement it all themselves

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/19/1004190/uk-covid-contact-tracing-app-fiasco/

Bridge93

Over 400,000 downloads already

sydthebeat

Squidgy Black wrote: »

The app itself doesn't, it only looks for permission to the ExposureNotification service and Notifications.

But I'm not sure if Google/Apple's service uses location as well as Bluetooth. Must have a look and see can I find any documentation on that.

Edit: nope, the exposure notification service doesn't track location either and doesn't require permissions to it either, so it's just purely Bluetooth and won't actually list where any confirmed contacts were, just that you came within proximity of that person.

https://www.google.com/covid19/exposurenotifications/#exposure-notifications-and-privacy

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/what-is-covid-tracker-ireland-new-hse-app-explained-1.4298128

according to this article it doesnt need location services to be on to work... although many will have seen that location services are turned on when you allow the app to access exposure notification service

it would be nice to get some clarity

b.gud

For those who were curious about the ending of the RS Archer fake/real story of the Brexit family in France he popped up back on Twitter today.

He gave a brief explanation of what happened here. Answered a couple of FAQs And then got onto the business of telling the remainder of the story https://twitter.com/archer_rs/status/1280444544371372033

Podge_irl

Don't remotely believe it.

Squidgy Black

Speaking of wildly insane Twitter threads, this gave me a giggle

https://twitter.com/KwCongressional/status/1279562816324763648?s=20

Squidgy Black

sydthebeat wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/what-is-covid-tracker-ireland-new-hse-app-explained-1.4298128

according to this article it doesnt need location services to be on to work... although many will have seen that location services are turned on when you allow the app to access exposure notification service

it would be nice to get some clarity

Hmm yeah it's a strange one. So it looks like Google are saying to use BLE (Bluetooth low energy) it needs location services. The actual service itself won't use your location from the documentation I've seen, and the app has no requirement for permissions, but it looks like the Bluetooth exchange will use the location services to detect nearfield devices.
https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes#behavior-hardware-id

Dave_The_Sheep

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Speaking of wildly insane Twitter threads, this gave me a giggle

https://twitter.com/KwCongressional/status/1279562816324763648?s=20

"Hmmm"
"Interesting"

prawnsambo

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

"Hmmm"
"Interesting"

QAnon and Florida. A heady mix

Neil3030

dregin wrote: »

Good luck finding any app that doesn't have a dependancy on a third party API.

Reinventing the wheel and failing is exactly why some of these apps have failed before.

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Ah in fairness, there's still a fairly hefty amount of work gone into it. I've spent a couple hours this morning looking through the source code and it's fairly impressive.

They're using Google and Apples ExposureNotification service, so essentially you open the app, and then from there any other devices with the app installed it registers you being within a distance of them using Bluetooth. The only data exchanged is a single ID that isn't linked to any further details (personal information etc), until you test positive. From there the HSE provides you with a key to enter into the app which it'll then return any of the exchanged IDs logged over a period, and send a notification to each of these devices to say you may have been in contact with someone who has now tested positive.

The most important part of it is the fact there's no personal information retrieved or exchanged. You can enter your mobile number for the HSE to contact you for further info if you're a confirmed contact, but there's no requirement.

I feel there's been a misunderstanding.

I think the app looks good, and I like that the government are leveraging existing expertise to get it out.

My post was intended a joke - i.e., Google and Apple already follow our every move, so the Government just need to pick up the phone and ask who was where at any given moment. But to keep the masses sane, they let on that they developed a voluntary "opt-in" app to do this.

jacothelad

The Prime Minister, Bunter Johnston has lambasted the nation’s care home workers for their lackadaisical attitude towards COVID-19 in its early stages and for their critical failure to take crucial steps like temperature checks at airports or cancelling the Cheltenham horse races. Simone Wilyamsoyo, a Zimbabwean nurse in Daventry who voluntarily locked herself in with her charges in late March, was one of many care home workers to tearfully admit her role in giving the UK the highest death toll in the World per capita by a large margin.Even higher than that presided over by that criminal fruitcake, Trump.
She told us, “I’m so sorry. I have seen so many of my patients die and was so busy trying to keep the others safe that I forgot to join a European PPE procurement scheme or to declare a complete lock- down once we saw the horrific cost of Italy’s failure to do so early enough.
“I see now that Prime Minister Johnson is right and that it is me and my colleagues who are to blame for the 30,000 care home deaths because we were the ones who could impose nationwide social distancing measures when it would have actually helped.”
Ms Wilyamsoyo assured the press she was not being sarcastic and she was delighted at Boris Johnson’s decision to place blame for care home deaths on low paid care staff who also died in large numbers.
She went on, “He has rightfully shamed us, and I can only beg forgiveness from the relatives of the 30,000 care home fatalities that I could have prevented if only I wasn’t so preoccupied with swanning drunkenly around stately homes pretending I’m Churchill.”
As a sign of gratitude, she bestowed on the prime minister a Shona title that she maintained was honorific but must have been some sort of dialect as Google Translate thinks it means “feckless murdering c*nt”


Just in.
Useless tube of digested food, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for the disease he called a media hoax just a few short weeks ago.
“I have the media hoax,” Bolsonaro told reporters gathered outside his official resident
“They stuck a swab up my nose and in my throat and the doctors now tell me I am riddled with this dangerous media hoax.
“Obviously the press have tricked me into catching this media hoax, because it’s not real, even though I have it and it’s killed 65,000 of my countrymen.
“Soon you will all realise that Brazilians simply don’t catch this thing that I have caught.”
Political observers around the world have expressed a lack of surprise at the news.
"Let’s be honest, we’re all just counting down the days till Trump has it," they said. What a day that will be......

Dave_The_Sheep

Of course, he'll survive (with the best of medical care) and will then use that to declare that Covid isn't a big deal and go back to doing what was being done before (**** all).

Some people speculating that it's a hoax that he has it and it's just a stunt.

bilston

Bazzo wrote: »

The thing is, everybody in England knows people who work for the NHS, and often at least one is a close relative. The NHS is the 5th largest employer on the planet, it's huge. So they will have heard stories about how badly the country has been affected, but there's a total cognitive dissonance. Despite how closely linked the entire population is with the NHS, and despite the fact that the Tories have spent the last ten years totally trashing the NHS, they'll still happily go out and vote for them in their droves.

There wasn't a viable alternative for the last 5 years...there appears to be now. Yes, it's true the Tories will often be the party many in England naturally veer towards. But as recently as 1997 and 2001 the polls show that a moderate Labour Party can easily win elections in England.

Of course one major problem for Starmer is the size of swing he will need come 2024 to win power. It won't be easy overturning an 80 seat majority and then turning it into a majority of your own.

Between now and 2024 there may possibly be a No Deal Brexit, a second wave (and possibly more) of Covid, the likely delayed unemployment crisis off the back of Covid which may not be the Tories fault, but they will in evitably be blamed similar to Labour getting the blame for the Financial crisis in 2008 and I think another indy ref in Scotland is very possible, probably with a different result this time. Plus the inevitable curve balls that we don't know about yet. Thinking about it that 80 seat majority may not count for much I suppose.

Zzippy

A lot of those 80 seats were elected by people who were fed up of Brexit and just wanted to "get Brexit done". Many of those would normally have voted Labour, Lib Dem or not at all, and were mobilised to vote Tory on a simplistic single issue slogan. See also; Jeremy Corbyn, Labour ineffectiveness, bought and paid for media.

pickarooney

Zzippy wrote: »

A lot of those 80 seats were elected by people who were fed up of Brexit and just wanted to "get Brexit done". Many of those would normally have voted Labour, Lib Dem or not at all, and were mobilised to vote Tory on a simplistic single issue slogan. See also; Jeremy Corbyn, Labour ineffectiveness, bought and paid for media.

So, willful arseholes?

awec

"Bunter Johnson" made me laugh a lot more than it should have.