Posts by raving angry loony 1244 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Dec 2008
The time to discover what James knew was at the exit interview and debrief, where passwords, active projects, and other knowledge would be passed on.
The corporation didn't bother. They just chucked him out the door. James owed them NOTHING. At all. If they felt they didn't need the information, any fallout is completely, 100% their problem.
I fail to see how being PM of a large project is necessary to understand the difficulties involved. Anyone involved in such a project understands the difficulties, probably better than the PM in the first place. I've been involved with much larger projects than the one you claim is "large". I'd consider 1000 users and 30 apps to be a "medirum" sized project, given some of the mainframe to distributed server work I was involved in in the 80's and 90's. Similar issues to the smaller "Microsoft to something reasonable" conversions I was involved in later. I was more of a tech weenie. You know, the guy the PM and others turn to when they need a solution, or need a good estimate of the time something will take, or need any number of other bits of information. I let the PM handle the paperwork though, that's what they're for really.
However, in my rather measly 32 years of experience in the field before I quit I found that it's a very rare suit who isn't totally focussed on their bonus, and little else. Sadly, bonuses seem to be more easily achieved by actions that are harmful to the company. Never understood that. I've always blamed it on the ties being too tight.
I've also yet to meet cluefull management that couldn't understand that avoiding (or getting out from if they made that mistake) being under the thumb of a single, provably evil vendor that's holding you by the short and curlies wasn't a very desirable thing. I also found that, almost invariably (I can think of only one exception, which surprised the hell out of me at the time), an honest ROI and TCO (as opposed to the lies created by the sales reps) could be written to support that position, and I wrote my share of those. Yet they were often ignored by the clueless management that kept believing the sales rep instead of the people they hired to be on their side. I think it's something to do with the upper levels of management being populated with people who mainly came up through sales. That or their ties were too tight.
Every time I hear Microsoft doing stuff like this, I smile. Not for me, but for my colleagues still stuck in the trenches. Still stuck fighting the evil empire that is Microsoft. News like this just makes it easier to argue for changing the operating system, unless you're dealing with utterly clueless management. In which case I also smile when I see these companies die one by one as they get shot in their I.T. guts and have their blood sucked out by Microsoft.
<rant> I just wish non-American governments would get off the pot and refuse to use this crapware made by an American corporation, that only benefits American interests. That they continue to use it would seem to me to be prima facie evidence of treasonous conduct. ie: acting against the interests of said government. </rant>
The question with giving private info to corporations and government is not "are you paranoid", but rather "are you paranoid ENOUGH"?
For instance, can that dedicated mailbox be linked to you in any way, for instance by looking at the admin details for the domain if you happen to own the domain? etc.
So long as they keep asking for details they don't need, I'll keep providing answers they don't want.
One of the reasons I now refuse to purchase any Apple iGadgets is this bullshit they keep dumping all over their customers. When I quit, it was because they kept changing plugs or even the spacing between plugs for no valid reason other than forcing people to purchase new accessories. Because the previous accessories didn't work even though it was exactly the same tech, just in a slightly different physical form. This just confirms I was right to stop feeding that particular troll.
I'll keep buying products that mostly work with non-proprietary add-ons. Apple lost that plot years ago.
When I was in the UAE, they had a law that said that if the official temperature rose about 50'C that businesses should close, because a lot of the underclass (read "not quite slaves") still worked in buildings that weren't air-conditioned. Oddly, even when my own thermometer read above 50'C, the official one seemed quite stuck at 49.9'C, and no "day off" was called. Not sure what the laws are now, haven't been back in eons.
Back then the UAE was one big cesspit of corruption. If you're a national, you can do no wrong. If you're a (white) expat, you're pretty well set until you annoy a national, at which point you better have a fast and efficient exit strategy. If your skin is brown but you're not a national, good luck with that. I don't imagine it's changed much in the meantime.
In other words, those doing the work will leave (one way or another, either they'll just die, or they'll go somewhere where they're not going to be roasted alive if they're allowed to leave by their slave-owners). Far as I'm concerned, let the nationals roast.
Wot 'e said, guv.
I'd also like to note that El Reg writes "Overall, it's a good deal."
Completely and utter bullocks. It's 2000 pages of dense legal prose that's going to take people months to decipher, ESPECIALLY since it was negotiated in secret by special interests. We have NO idea if it's a good deal, a bad deal, or something in between for ANY of the countries involved. To confidently state "Overall, it's a good deal." means the author is just another fucking corporate shill, or a journalist without a single clue (or any idea of the term "investigate").
It's a one-time hit vs the unending sequels of pain and suffering foisted upon users by Microsoft. And Linux Mint is closer to what users (as opposed to admins) are used to when they think "interacting with a Microsoft computer" than the latest set of unholy messes unleashed by Redmond. Not to mention the lack of invasive data collection "features" that Windows 10 so kindly includes as Redmond tries to close the gap with Google when it comes to gathering and selling personal info.
Forcing an update to an operating system that's incompatible with many people's software? More evil from the definition of "high tech" evil.
Yep, Microsoft continues to be evil. Told people that for over 30 years. Nobody believed me. Now I make and sell good food as a career, and only use MS crap to play games, mostly. I still tell people Microsoft is evil though. Still, nobody believes me. Even after they bitch about the latest update that killed their system, they still won't believe me.
I told you so. I fucking told you so. I'll never tire of saying that. Truth might be ignored, but it feels good to say it.
Yeah. I'll believe them. Not. The same people who created the pop-over, the pop-over, the punch-the-monkey, the personal information sucker, the jitterbug ad, the flashing ad, they're all going to change their tune?
There is one constant in the advertising industry: they lie, all the time, to everyone. Including themselves. I'll *never* believe anything they say. Ever.
The USA is not "North America". Please write that a few thousand times. No copy-pasting.
The USA still uses swipe. Everywhere I go down there, it's swipe, swipe, swipe. Not even gas stations use chip-and-pin down there.
Whereas Canada has been using chip-and-pin for a decade or two. In the "just over a decade" since I moved here, the only time I've been asked to swipe was when their chip-and-pin terminal was broken. The only reason "swipe" is still accepted is mainly because of American tourists who don't know what chip-and-pin is. Still.
I believe Mexico also went chip-and-pin many years ago as well, but I've not visited there often enough to know much about it. Kind of like Dabbs and Canada, obviously.
Tom 13 writes "You were doing fine on the front end of the post then went partisan. It wasn't a Republican who did this."
Hmm. Let's see.
1982 (Reagan, Republican) was the start of the problem, when a centralized appellate court was created, which turned patents into more powerful legal weapons.
1992 (Bush, Republican) was when the USPTO was converted to a profit centre.
However, it does seem that both times it was a mostly Democrat controlled House that passed the associated laws, and both Democrats and Republicans have bragged about how wonderful it is that the USPTO brings in all this money, while completely ignoring the damage it causes.
So yes, it was REPUBLICAN presidents in power when the damage was done. As I stated. If you consider that "partisan" so be it.
It's the USPTO that needs to be charged with everything from "gross incompetence" to "fraud" for allowing these patents to go through the system. They've cost not just the US economy but the world economy billions upon billions of dollars in junk patents they've allowed through since one of the Republican presidents turned them from a service centre into a for-profit money maker.
Ah! Thanks for the clarification about "extensions" vs "plugins". The article would have done well to differentiate between the two. I probably knew that, but I know that I've always lumped "plugins" and "extensions" together as "plugins", and I'm probably not the only one.
Well, maybe if the US government didn't mandate that any privacy protection be null and void they wouldn't have a problem with jurisdictions where citizen's rights are actually something that gets considered.
Not so much a war on American business as a war on American government abuse. American businesses just need to store their data elsewhere. Preferably with a local subsidiary that isn't technically "American".
It's not like the US government doesn't get access to the data anyway, what with GCHQ, the German equivalent, and a bunch of others all being in bed together when it comes to data sharing.
Once worked for a company that also offered "SEO" services (they were down the hall). From what I was able to garner, the purpose of SEO is to deliberately ignore every terms of use, EULA, and contract condition in every search engine in order to game the system. Then take zero responsibility for lack of success.
No, the inverse of blunt isn't passive aggressive. It's not one or the other. If that's all you've met in your professional career, you have my sympathy. There are many ways to express disagreement without being either a rude foul mouthed troll or a passive aggressive whatever. Such as, for instance, respectful disagreement.
Nice try, but Uber et. al. are most certainly NOT examples of a "sharing economy". A sharing economy is distributed, and NOT under central control. Uber most certainly IS under central control, with the corporation controlling everything from rates charged to who can use it and when.
They are the anti-thesis of the "sharing economy". They took a black market model, slapped a sticker marked "sharing economy" on it, and journalists by the dozen who don't have a fucking clue what a REAL sharing economy looks like have fallen for it, and keep pushing it as if they knew what they were talking about. Which they most evidently do NOT.
To (miss)use IT terms: sharing economy is pure peer-to-peer. The Uber model is completely centrally switched.
Actively organizing black market activities is hardly "behaving".
Actively encouraging people to break the law and take huge risks with their insurance and licenses is not "behaving'.
Actively engaging in fraud by denoting employees as "independent contractors" when the so-called "contractors" have zero control over their work is not "behaving".
Either lobby to get the laws changed, or obey the existing laws. They shouldn't get a free pass on breaking the law or encouraging others to break the law for profit. They aren't a tech disruptor, they're just another type of thug.
Rarely have I ever seen a hive of scum and self-serving interests as ICANN. Which really should be named ICANNT. They should be stripped of ALL their power, and a new organization that's actually interested in the job rather than wallowing in the power they wield appointed to the task.
First fucker to use a powerpoint presentation should be crucified. The second should be sat on a short stake. Anyone caught not paying attention should be flogged. And I bet that the rest STILL wouldn't get the hint that perhaps they should decide things rather than just chatter inanely or play stupid power games.
Any organization that broken needs to be forcibly disbanded. Maybe by burying the current members in an unmarked grave and starting over.
Where's the BOFH when we need him?
I assume that by "ask permission" they really mean "pay us 110% of profits and be glad for it"? Still, I guess if you need permission (read: pay enough dosh) for scale models, it stands to reason that you need permission for life-size versions.
I guess he'll just need to change the design "enough" and say that they're "inspired" by the series. Unless copyright law has changed so much that even that type of thing is forbidden now?
London Company of Stationers (and their modern minions) might have taken 300 years to do it, but it looks to me like they've managed to mostly reverse any benefits of the 1710 Statute of Anne. We're back to perpetual ownership of works (please, 100+ years with almost automatic increases every decade is pretty much equivalent to "perpetual"), authors own less and less thanks to "works for hire" legislation, and the public domain is pretty much moribund unless people voluntarily add to it. RIP copyRIGHT.
Maybe one of the reasons it's still a mess despite the huge amounts being quoted is that $75.3 bn of that went to salaries and bonuses for executives who knew nothing about security but know a good trough when they wallow in one? I hope the remainder was spread amongst those actually trying to make stuff work.
Far as I was able to determine the UK considers itself part of Europe when they want money or business from the mainland, and not part of Europe when they have to pay for something. Although I noticed that the "we're not in Europe" attitude seemed to mostly be in England, less so in Scotland. Or that just might be because I lived mostly in England and hung out with the wrong crowd when I was in Scotland? Oh, and they're definitely not in Europe when one of the English football teams is playing on the mainland (not so much Scottish, Welsh, or Northern Irish football teams).
Remember, "fog in channel, continent isolated". As if the islands weren't also part of the continent.
It's always been open season on motorcyclists. We ALWAYS worry about such things as drivers wanting to kill us, because harming motorcyclists most often results in ... nothing for the car driver. After the number of friends I've had injured (sometimes seriously, even fatally a few times) by car drivers in the UK who were most certainly "at fault", but who subsequently weren't even charged let alone fined (including me and the dozy bint who hit me, whose police charges were quietly dropped by the CPS.), the attitude of "they're out to kill us" is pretty well ingrained. Even helmet cameras don't help when the system is geared towards "motorcyclists are always guilty, even when they aren't".
"levelling the playing field" is fairly simple. Enforce the existing rules on everyone. Period.
AirBnB is nothing more than yet another black market organizer that exists solely to encourage people to break local laws and bylaws mainly for the profit of the AirBnB corporation.
title: "What if they were charging your phone?"
answer: Even then, fuck no.
And why are they allowing development anywhere near airports, which are mostly constructed "away from everything" for a damn good reason? They *know* the bastards are going to whine about the noise within a short period of time! Anyone moving near an airport should have to sign an agreement "no whinging about the noise, even when they increase the flights, which always happens".
The teachers, school administrators, police, and others who allowed this farce to happen should all be fired. Period. There's no excuse for that level of ignorance, bullying, and over-arching stupidity.
Never happen of course. It's Texas. If he was white and had built a new gun they would have given him a medal.
OK, so I visit the various sites have apparently done things to stop ad blockers and... works fine for me. With no ads. I'm running a full suite of blockers under Firefox: Ghostery, NoScript, PrivacyBadger, Adblock Edge, and a couple of others, and I'm seeing the content without any major issues. YouTube showing videos without ads as well.
Either they stopped trying to do that, or I'm blocking the anti-blocking blockers. Time will tell if they come up with a way to block the blocking anti-blocking block blockers.
My deal is this: you want to show ads, I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with are jittery ads, ads that trigger nausea, ads that take over my screen, ads that try to download software to my computer, ads that try to mess with my settings, ads that break the rest of the content, or ads for products that don't fucking exist in my market, even though you know which market I'm in and they're perfectly capable of delivering ads for that market. Either the advertiser fuckwits get their shit together and stop being anti-social asshats, or I will continue to block the damn things. Yes, I do turn them off for new sites that ask nicely. So far not a single site has managed to come up with an advertising model that doesn't completely sicken me within minutes. I don't mind still ads along the sides of what I'm reading. Sometimes they're even useful in discovering new products. But no, they can't seem to stay with that. The pop-under/pop-over/slap-the-monkey culture is still alive and well and trying hard to continue their ways. I'll fight them to the end.
Razer - the company that created Synapse 2.0, software that requires an active internet connection and online authentication in order for you to use your fucking MOUSE. Razer, the company that requires that I log in to their often broken system in order to configure my keyboard. Razer, the company whose products were removed from my house, never to return, and they can fuck themselves with a rusty chainsaw given their total lack of clue and their even worse lack of anything resembling customer service.
Ouya really gave their funders the old middle finger there.
The real way to dodge the bullet is to carefully document all the suggestions and requests for a budget to improve security (because it costs time and money to both obtain the right equipment AND configure things correctly, and keep them correctly configured in the face of multiple threats), and all the refusals by know-it-all managers who once read a marketing tract by Microsoft and believe THAT rather than the people they're actually paying to know the issues. Cries of "you're so pessimistic" and "you should be more of a team player" (which means: don't keep contradicting the utter dead-goat-fellating stupidity of management, although I admit calling the CTO an incompetent idiot in a meeting was probably politically incorrect, even if it was subsequently shown to be completely true, along with "criminal") will be thrown about rather than actually providing a budget or, heaven's help us, management support for any kind of security improvements such as, heaven forfend, passwords that aren't embedded in scripts written by the owner's second-cousin's hairdresser's nephew.
Even then, you won't dodge the bullet. When the shit well and truly hits the fan because some manager or their favourite ignores the carefully crafted policies or demands (or worse, creates) a back door into the system, the sysadmins will yet again invariably be blamed for the mistakes made by management. It's as sure as the sun rising in the morning. Always have a backup plan for your employment, especially if you're stuck in that kind of environment for any length of time.
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