2025 archive

the people problem

A couple of weeks or so ago, an old friend from the bike club asked in our club messaging group why supposedly sophisticated companies (such as Jaguar Land Rover. M & S and the Co-op) were still so susceptible to “hacking attacks”. I gave a somewhat flippant reply along the lines of “because their security …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2025/10/26/the-people-problem/

Friday 10 October 2025

Yesterday, 10 October 2025, the Nobel Committee announced that it had awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Corina Machado, the Venezualan opposition leader. Machado had been forced into hiding following Venezuela’s presidential election in January 2025, when authorities loyal to Nicolas Maduro, the country’s autocratic leader, declared, despite all evidence to the contrary, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2025/10/11/friday-10-october-2025/

diplomacy may be dead

But, not, it would seem, irony: Following the (pardon me, unforgivably stupid) US strikes on three Iranian sites (Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo) last night, a statement from Russia’s foreign ministry said: “The irresponsible decision to subject the territory of a sovereign state to missile and bomb attacks, whatever the arguments it may be presented with, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2025/06/22/diplomacy-may-be-dead/

שלום וברוכים הבאים

Well, this is fascinating. Shortly after I posted the commentary below I received a connection from an IP address which belongs to cellcom.co.il and geolocates to Haifa in Israel. That IP address directly, and specifically, requested a copy of my post entitled “more dumb legislation” immediately followed by a request for a copy of my …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2025/02/27/%d7%a9%d7%9c%d7%95%d7%9d-%d7%95%d7%91%d7%a8%d7%95%d7%9b%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%94%d7%91%d7%90%d7%99%d7%9d/

more dumb legislation

On Tuesday of this week (25 February 2025) every major print newspaper in the UK carried an identical front page under the heading “Make it FAIR”. They did this in order to raise awareness of the impending legislation (currently in “consultation”) intended to change the law in the UK to favour big tech platforms in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2025/02/27/more-dumb-legislation/

blog comments illegal – shock, horror

Well, not quite, but distinctly possible. El Reg has continued comment on the lunacies of the OSA I reported on in my last post. The Reg reports that one Neil Brown, a Director of a UK law firm, believes that individuals who run their own websites (so that would include me) could be held liable …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2025/02/07/blog-comments-illegal-shock-horror/

unintended consequences (or dumb legislation)

I mentioned in my (off normal topic) post of 15 November last year, that I am a member of a motorcycle forum. I am also a member of other online fora, but the bike forum is the only one I really engage with often enough to care about this latest bit of legislative stupidity. In …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2025/02/01/unintended-consequences-or-dumb-legislation/