Posts by JimmyPage
852 posts • joined Friday 5th March 2010 16:20 GMT
Re: 1970's tech, too
better than the hi-tech CIA method of using black text on a black background in Adobe ....
Wee legal note
(IANAL).
English & Welsh (I have been told off for saying "UK" thanks to the Scots) law has repeatedly held that *unauthorised* removal of items from a bin is theft.
You know that old saying about "possession being 9 points of the law" ? It really means that laws surrounding property are very well established. The bottom line in England and Wales is that *everything* belongs to *someone*.
You put rubbish in your bin - it's yours until the authorised collection happens. And case law has held that if it's a municipal bin, the authorised collector is the local council. Not the Wombles.
There are quite a few people with criminal records that didn't grasp this crucial fact.
"European" C&P
Was intrigued, a couple of years ago in Spain, to note they have C&P *and* signature. As the cashier told me "Even if the C&P were OK, if the signatures don't match - the bank don't pay."
I wonder if this reduces fraud ?
The people grumbling the council didn't make £10,000
are they the same that bay for blood when councils lose personal data ?
More old-fuckery !
Some computing mags had flexi-discs you could play into a computers TAPE IN, to access programs printed in the mag.
Tubular Bells
"This stereo record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what they are fitted with. If you are in possession of such equipment please hand it into the nearest police station."
Where's the "old fuckers going on again" icon ?
In those days ...
music wasn't just music ... it was a sensory experience.
We really need a "old fucker going on again" icon .....
Who remembers ...
Stob's take on this ?
The conscientious would-be Linux user should take time to mull over the pros and cons of the Red Hat versus SUSE, and Debian versus Gentoo. He will want to evaluate the various package installation schemes - comparing .deb with .rpm - and will spend many hours on the web absorbing great quantities of freely offered advice over whether to go for Gnome or risk post-Trolltech takeover KDE, or just run the whole thing in text mode, like a Real Beard.
After he has done all this, he will install Ubuntu, because that's what everybody does.
Re: Making me sure to turn "auto updates" off then
and chrome
Posted in Any storm in a port
Horizontal USB sockets
aren't too bad - they seem to have an "up" and "down". It's the vertical ones (usually hidden well out of sight at the back of the machine) that cause problems ...
Does anyone else feel
that we might be moving towards an XP-in-a-virtual-machine direction, where corporates just virtualise what they have, and rely on the wrapper security of the environment ?
Sure MS worst nightmare - effectively immortalising XP.
Rejected ?
I just say "prefer not to say". It's meaningless anyway, since it's all about "self identification".
I have never understood the logic that putting your race on an application form is a good way to prevent racism. Surely a better way is to NOT put your race, so any weeding out is done on merit. It's also totally contradicting the logic which says you eliminate ageism by removing the date of birth ...
Using monitoring and quotas is simply ignoring dealing with the real issue - which is why certain sections of society seem incapable of doing well.
Re: It takes 8 years ...!
They probably take 20 years to lay 100 miles of railway too, these backwards countries.
But *why* did you change your phone ...
my phone history:
1994: Motorola M300 on 1-2-1 that lasted until 1997 when we (MrsJP and I) were given a Nokia (can't recall the model) which had no new features but was smaller with more talk/standby time
I actually revived the M300 for a couple of years when Virgin started - bought a SIM
2001 - moved up to a Philips Savvy. This was because I wanted to have SMS
2005 - moved up to a Sony W800, as I wanted bluetooth, and liked the idea of the walkman
2008 - was given an HTC by work
2009 - was given an N5800 by work
2011 - was given an HTC by work - still my main phone.
From 2005s W800i, the only things that have really been ADDED are 3G and WiFi. Beyond that why do I need a new phone. Sure, I *could* get an iPhone. But it wouldn't really give me anything I haven't got already. My only grumble with the HTC Windows phone is lack of apps, but nothing I actually need.
The next big thing could be 4G, but is it enough ? Especially as most people who might benefit will probably have WiFi enabled phones and a host of hotspots nearby.
As with desktops
so with mobiles. Everyone who wants one has one. Simples. Now we're entering the mature market phase, where you need to persuade people they should upgrade, or target people seeking replacements.
The past 15 years have seen a frenetic amount of R&D and innovation, but that's plateaued.
Remember all those out of work car marketing executives ? I hope you kept their number.
Wish I could find this ad ...
read this, and it reminded me of an ad I saw in an advertising trade journal about verified viewing figures. It had a couple "making out" on a sofa in front of the TV with the great slogan:
"Whos screwing who ?"
IIRC it was an ad for a market reseach company.
Vaguely reminds me
of the time in the 80s, when anyone in the US who owned a Jag was teased about needing a second car for the days the Jag was off the road ....
Re: I have an idea
I pay enough fucking tax, thank you. I have no interest in doing the states job for free.
A true story
I may have told before ...
Back in 2009, my lad was due to chose his GCSE choices. The school held an open evening and 3 local universities all gave a presentation on why kids should aspire to go to university (and thus the choices they should consider).
One chap told us of a student that had graduated in 2007, that had moved to America with her company, and was earning over £40,000 a year. Her company ? Chase Manhattan. Her course ? "Politics and history". Not a doctor. Not an engineer. No cure for cancer from her. No solution to the world energy or hunger crisis from her.
The fact that she was the aspiration this odious smarmy little shit chose to parade in front of 14 year old kids tells me exactly why things are the way they are.
Chickens coming home to roost
so, totally debase science and technology teaching over a period of years. Allow and encourage a celeb-obsessed culture where the height of aspiration is to flash your bits on big brother. Ignore, and belittle scientists and experts in favour of political expediency.
And THEN act surprised we're not keeping up in the read world.
Well, colour me surprised.
Could this be an end
for the business model where the broadcaster gets paid by the advertisers AND the viewers ?
Sagan and Moore
thats all.
In two minds ...
LinkedIn was nice - I've got a nice profile, and some great recommendations. However I've only connected with colleagues (old and present) and people I studied with, in the same industry. And I can't say I've ever benefited from being on there.
Now, of late, I've started getting loads of invites from "industry experts" which turn out to be recruitment consultants with 1,000s of contacts. Which I'm not interested in. Which means I haven't actually logged in this year.
Go figure.
It's heartening to read
a lot of commentards get the concept of business continuity, and due diligence. I have zero sympathy for any company that suffers as a result of this, and hope the incompetent managers who caused that suffering are ejected at very high velocity. If any publicly funded organisation is affected then there should be sackings. We're constantly being told why the NHS needs such highly paid managers - I would argue it's to avoid shit like this, not walk straight into it.
If you outsource a critical part of your business operations, then you need to plan for the day it isn't there. Simples. And that process should have been part of the initial outsource, not a sticking plaster over a bad deal. If, as part of your outsourcing you discover you can't plan for such a day (say a monopoly supplier) then you really need to ask yourself if you should be outsourcing that process at all.
Having seen a proper due diligence in action, I know that it's not uncommon for big clients to request bank statements, audited accounts, historic headcounts, and a whole load of minutia before they consider spending a single penny with a supplier.
Personally (and I'm not even a business continuity specialists, I just know a few). My first question to 2e2 would have involved escrow for the hosting, so that even if 2e2 went down, their datacentres would have provision to overrun until clients had recovered their data. But then I didn't go to the right public school.
668
The neighbour of the beast
How out of date are their lists ?
Me and MrsJP got married in 2007, yet not only are we STILL getting calls asking for her maiden name[1], but they are increasing. From loads of different numbers, although if they get as far as speaking, they all seem to be about PPI.
The weirdest thing is despite us both living here together for over 10 years, I don't get *any* calls. At all. Which implies that she somehow signed up for something which snaffled her details and they are now being repeatedly sold on, and on, and on.
Some get quite arsey when we (correctly) tell them there is no one of that name living here. We've had others try and verify the postcode too - who get told in no uncertain terms to sod off.
[1]When they hear my voice, they switch to "Is that Mr <maiden name>". Creeps.
Sounds fair to me ...
although I can forsee a slew of downvotes ...
The art of the bleeding obvious ..
This isn't the 90s, or even the 2000s. The market dynamic has changed - forever. Nobody (and I mean NOBODY) I know is in any kind of hurry for a *new* smartphone. I have my (works) Win7.8 HTC. My lad has a Nokia 5800, and wifey[1] has her HTC Android. The only person I know who does regularly update their phone is the (retired) mother in law. Who's drunk the Apple kool-aid, so will only get the latest iPhone.
So Win8, Win9, Win10 with four "M's" and a silent "Q" are a total and utter irrelevance.
It's the same for desktops. We're all running 4 year old machines, with Win7. Absolutely no need to upgrade.
There's a certain schadenfreude here. Your Microsofts and Apples et al had a field day when the IT landscape was new, unknown, and scary. But it's evolved into a mature market now, and all those old-fogies who were left behind by the tech rush are now your greatest assets, as they are much more familiar with working in a mature market. If you want to sell Windows8, you need to get someone who's successfully sold cheese, or pot noodles on board - they'd have a better idea than someone who's only ever done tech.
It makes stuff all difference where anything is
A US company is under the heel of the PATRIOT act. If they get slapped with a notice, they have to pony up the data (or shut the servers down) wherever they are. Safe harbour can go hang.
This is what MS admitted last year, and why people need to be so careful.
Posted in 3 Brits banged up for £300k VAT scam
POCA
also, I hope a Proceeds Of Crime order was levelled on them, so they can pay back the ill gotten dosh.
Re: Physical security of server room ?
Now for the flipside ;)
The physical security was mandated by a security audit (before I started). So far so good. However, there were boxes in the server room that developers *did* need access to. So we installed a KVM over IP solution, and developers could access the boxes over the network. Now this was user and password protected, but as a couple of guys pointed out, when you had to have physical access, there was at least the chance an imposter/hacker would be seen (bearing in mind they still had to get past the 3 card locks to get to the floor with the server room). Doing things over the network was *less* secure.
Physical security of server room ?
In my last office job, as a development manager, even I had no access to our server rooms. And that was in a company of over 1,000 employees. IIRC about 8 people had access - it wasn't even the entire Tech Services team. Someone pulling a stunt like this would have been rumbled in hours.
Slightly OT
but does anyone else get a warm glow at the thought of Rupert Murdoch being hacked ?
Prior art ?
The city centre PCWorld/Currys has a very similar look, only in dark, muted colours .....
Versions: does anyone remember Lenny Henry ...
years ago, he commented on the difficulty in buying a record[1] ...
"Do you want the 12", the the extended 12", the club mix, the extended club mix, the club house mix, the 12" club house mix featuring Sir Skankalot, the dub house mix ....."
"Just give me the one where they got it right."
[1]Ask your parents. Or their parents.
where it's going
a standard car/phone interface, so people can plug their phone of choice into their car of choice ?
Re: One question
I'm sure I read the reason you couldn't is because MS didn't implement the required part of the BT stack ? Also why you can't transfer files over BT.
I can't speak for others, but a few times I've found it useful to be able to BT a picture or MP3 to someone in the same room without using email, or MMS (which can cost). Also BT to BT is *way* more secure depending what you're sending.
And yet ...
there are at least 5 cats that prowl around my neighbourhood. So why do we still see rats ?
Copy protection ? Really ?
I'm struggling to recall the progam (yes kids, we called them "programs", not "apps") you could get which would copy "copy protected" disks. Had "II" in the name, "CopyIIPC" ? rings a bell.
In those days, copy protection usually involved bypassing the BIOS to get the disk controller to access track 41 ? If I could be bothered, I'd dig out my MS DOS 3.00 programmers guide (which cost about £60). I also had a schematic of the FDC subsystem, with codes.
Ah ... 1987
I found a copy of 1-2-3 that came bundled with one (of two) PCs my department of 60 had to mess around with. Given I was on a student placement, I was allowed to have a play. I pretty soon got our HP7475 plotter working with it, and within a day, had knocked some graphs up.
This piqued on guys interest. His job was to supply MI to various committees. Previously this involved using a teletype (yes !) to enter data to a Sperry 1100 (/60 IIRC) and waiting for a overnight batch job to turn it into binary. He then had to take a "Y" cable, and plug the HP7475 in between the teletype and RS232, and hope it would plot. 50% of the time it would, 50% of the time it would mess up. Another day gone.
He was literally speechless, when I produced a graph he needed in less than 3 minutes. It was a true efficiency booster.
When I left, they had 30 PCs, and more on order. I went to the Lotus exhibition at Earls Court (where I first saw a PS/2) , and kept bumping into people from my department ....
Re: Purely as a matter of intellectual curiosity .....
Mysteriously, the story is detail-lite. The investigation would have started with the complainants and the website, and worked backwards. Presumably, the cops found the one nexus of the trail of deception, and the real world. At that point it's just a question of monitoring the suspects with the power of technology.
Could they not have used BitCoins ?
Re: Proceeds of crime
POCA is being very sparing used, since that story a while back that the CPS spent something like £28 million, and recovered 2.5 pence, 3 drachma and an everton mint. There is a train of thought that says the present form of POCA could be considered to violate the ECHR - jailing people for not paying a debt is frowned upon.
Could this be translated into sales ?
In the same way *some* people are willing to pay a premium for "organic" food, could there be a group of users who would pay more for a product guaranteed to be made ethically[1] ? Possibly by being built in the UK. Or US ?
[1]Yes, I'm aware there's the provenance of the raw materials ...
Darwin in action ?
fewer sperm = fewer mouths to feed = more likely survival for the rest ?
IANAB, but I'm sure that population reduction in the face of adverse environmental factors is one valid strategy.
Trusting trust
fascinated to read this, and it goes much deeper.
How can you know the actual CPU you are running on can be trusted ? How do you know there isn't some sneaky opcode which can be used to leverage an attack ?
To all those smug commentards who boasted about having the source code to a system: did you get a schematic of the CPU, and logic arrays ?
Not a joke though ...
Mrs Page has her hair cut by a mobile service. Manages to be *cheaper* than going to a store (and the hairdresser claims fuel back on expenses).
Re: To survive
None of which will happen ...
It's become a vicious spiral ...
fewer customers means less need to stock so much which means less stock which means less chance of any customer finding anything. The recent Page family experience of "going [clothes] shopping" is to find a nice whatever, then realise they don't have our size, go and ask to be told "if it's not on the rack, we have to order it". Or the even more annoying "Have you tried our [miles away] branch ?". As if we *want* to drive all over the place.
If they have to order it, we may have well ordered it online (remember folks DSR gives you 7 days to return) since we don't "go shopping" every week.
For those that like to pick their meat/veg, then we have found that online ordering of sundries leaves us *more* time to visit local farm shops and butchers. Win/win.
