Posts by Charlie Clark

Re: CSV?

I keep coming across CSV files that I can open with csv.reader but can't process properly because they're borked.

Re: Sqlite3 for the win

SQLite is indeed useful but for data exchange you might also want to look at HDF, Parquet…

Re: CSV?

somebody throws a file over the wall to you

Happens to me all the time and with variable encoding: utf-8 encoded as latin-1 is not uncommon.

Re: CSV?

CSV is schemaless and doesn't supoort typing or integrity checks.

Re: CSV?

That's because the C stands for "character". Can't use commas to separate fields if they're also used for decimals.

CSV was hobbled from the the get-go by not using ASCII-31 for separating fields and also by not worrying about encoding.

Re: 'spreadsheet software as "human middleware" in the sector'

Excel isn't too bad* as a report format because it is so ubiquituous and doesn't suffer from some of the many problems associated with CSV, which is okay an an intermediate format. It's also better in many situations than PDF. But using it for data processing is asking for trouble.

* As someone who maintains a library for processing XLSX files I would say that, wouldn't I? ;-)

Re: Was the phone private or company?

But you'd be perfectly within your rights to delete anything the phone before an order is granted.

Re: MS is between a rock and a hard place with desktop windows

Windows 10 has virtually nothing to do with the Windows on DOS you're talking about. Windows NT has a completely different kernel and most of the APIs have been replaced.

The work on DotNet core shows that MS can handle multiple architectures, but it does need to improve the way Windows works in this respect. Historically, Windows was very platform-specific though this was more to do with market segregation than any real technical constraints.

The emulation is largely a signal to the market that switching to Windows on ARM tablets will be an option for their field workers because all their "important" software will still work. They'll be exceptions but basically if something with run on Windows 10, it will probably run fine in the x86 emulators on Windows for ARM.

Re: How many years have Microsoft had to get this right?

They haven't got the best of form in this respect.

Re: It's just fear of missing out

MS Office already runs on the two most common ARM platforms: Android and IOS.

Re: Welcome to Windows Phone all over again....

It will have more mainstream modern applications available than Windows offers today in the Microsoft Store even counting x86.

By providing an emulator Microsoft is doing pretty much the same as Apple. CPUs are now good enough to handle the thunking in real time with users rarely noticing it (except for computational intensive resources).

And Apple isn't moving wholesale to ARM either. We've yet to see which devices will be released but it's reasonable to assume that x86 hardware will still be offered for another two years and supported for at least another 2 beyond that.

Microsoft could be on top of this but made several mistakes with ARM with Windows RT and the rest. But the fact is that > 99% of the Windows world is x86 and this isn't likely to change soon. More important was realising that Windows Mobile wasn't worth the effort (cf IBM and OS/2) and the decision to provide good versions of MS Office for IOS and Android, though Outlook for Android really is a piece of shit.

Re: Can we do this for all manufacturers

could we do this with every manufacturer of critical infrastructure?

should ve could we do this with every manufacturer publisher of critical infrastructure software? FTFY

Otherwise you have to define which infrastructure is critical and there is no reason why the manufacturers of consumer electronics, cars or anything else should be able to get away with their current practice to seeing if anyone notices when things break.

The big problem will always be: tightly integrated GUI or not. The Windows kernel is probably now not that dissimalar from Linux or BSD. But the fun starts with the GUI and multimedia parts for which there is (and there are good reasons for this) still no single, simple system.

But ESR's main point still stands: Microsoft is starting to make a lot of money from its SaaS and PaaS offerings and will be able to keep customised locked into to its APIs for a while yet.

Re: Understatement

Beta is generally supposed to mean "functionally complete, but not suitable for production". Methinks someone might be thinking about how to avoid any liability claims.

Re: Isn't that particular car park called the M25?

Indeed. Could it be that Chris Grayling/Dido/Hancock/Williamson < insert name here > really wasn't that incompetent and just acting under instructions from a lower power?

Re: "Smartphone apps are the best way to provide that tracing need"

€20m for an add on to look after 18m people isn’t actually too bad.

If only that were true… the statistics suggest otherwise. It's going to be one of the many examples of massive overspend by panicking politicians along with PPE: the German government is on the hook for millions due to an ill-considered, fix-priced, open house tender for protective equipment.

because corona is the new carte blanche…

Re: At this time, what's the point?

That's a disgrace! I got mine last week…

Re: At this time, what's the point?

We'd be better off with a stricter, shorter nationwide lock down

That's been the theory for months. The UK has had an extended lockdown and it hasn't led to the desired result.

Infection rates are a misleading indicator of risk. Hospitalisation, ICU and death rates are far more important. The more the mortality rate starts to look like that of the flu – yes, I know in the UK it's more than this – the lest justified repressive measures are and at some point the economy will simply no longer be able to pay for them.

Re: Small houses

Can this app see walls? Or only distance?

No, only signal strength and location. You can do some calculations to try and mitigate propagation and absorption issues but false positives are not considered a problem by the app. And, to be fair, by epidemiologists. All track and trace systems can and should yield false positives, this is fine as long as you also pick up the true positives. The app is an attempt to automate a part of the process and thus increase its scale as well as encourage users to take some of the precautions seriously. I remain unconvinced of the efficacy and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Re: "Smartphone apps are the best way to provide that tracing need"

Indeed and the numbers from Germany would seem to back this up: 18 million downloads, 5,000 notifications in 3 months in a country with a case load of around 10000 per week. A great success according to the Health Minister, but what else would he say?

BTW. you could, of course, use the same app to map the spread of other dangerous illnesses*. But, having been developed by SAP, this would obviously be an add-on for another € 20 million.

* Apparently, there are indeed other dangerous airborne respiratory diseases! As if SARS-COV2 isn't enough there is something called influenza (or "latin flu") which can also kill people! Run for the hills!

Re: At this time, what's the point?

Oh you can get them. Just not easily if you need them. But tests are also being carried out on a broad spectrum of the population, including those at risk who are effectively in quarantine. Got a relative who's been tested four times over the last couple of months even though she's got virtually no contact with other people and this despite the evidence* that symptonless testing is not very useful.

* The main reason why it's being phased out in Germany for people returning from places with relative high infection rates.

Re: Landing rockets was never as hard as people make it out

Ssh! Don't be such a spoilsport!

Re: Applefying the car

You may not like Tesla, but it’s pretty much certain that the car of the future, from any brand, will be electric.

Nope. The motors will be electric but I hope we won't be using batteries to power them.

Re: Investors were less impressed

That's not what was announced. It was more showmanship designed to keep the cost of capital down.

Re: Not sure about the structure but..

What about the rare earths in the magnets?

Re: Tesla might become an irrelevance

Actually, the capital markets are acting a bit like national governments and have decided that Tesla is the winner. This means that it has lower capital costs than the competition which will allow it to buy the compeition up. This is likely to lead to very inefficient capital allocation, just like when governments pick national champions, but as long as it leads to a monopoly the investors will be very happy.

Re: Applefying the car

Hydrogen has its own problems. We need something more fungible and that doesn't encourage arbitrage: hydrogen at the moment is being produced by burning fossil fuel.

Re: Applefying the car

This probably isn't going to hack it in India and China, where the standards of driving are pretty appalling and it's just assume that cars bump into each other all the time.

And this is the biggest problem you can think of? Apart from lumping China and India together in a way no one else would, you seem to have neglected things like charging infrastructure. India can't provide enough electricity as it stands at the moment and certainly doesn't need more coal-fire power plants (the current ones of choice) that would be required for electric cars.