Re: Cost savings
So how did the Guards start supplementing there income after the calls where restricted? Stuff started walking out the door after hours perhaps?
Posts by lglethal
3895 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2007
Page:
How do you call support when the telephones go TITSUP*?
Friday 3rd December 2021 12:31 GMT 
Re: Reclaiming Private Call Costs
I once got a rather stern talking to from a HR manager, after they implemented a new system where you had to book your time to various projects in 15 minute intervals, when I asked for a project number for booking project numbers.
The booking interval went back to only every hour 3 months later. My boss told me on the side, that another manager having heard what I had asked for, ordered his staff to calculate how much time they spent per week, doing their project controlling, and then went to Finance and demanded that amount of money be added to his departments budget. Realising that every department would soon be doing the same thing, and it would all come out of the Finance budget, they quickly reverted back to the old system.
I never did get an apology from the HR manager, or a thank you from that other manager...
You, me and debris: NASA cans ISS spacewalk because it's getting too risky outside
Tuesday 30th November 2021 19:48 GMT
Re: Priorities
You seem to have missed entirely what I was saying which was not that we shouldnt do it, but that there are a lot of projects already working on it. BUT it's something that needs to be studied in detail, and tested very thoroughly before you put it up there because if you get it wrong, you will simply exacerbate the Problem.
It's being worked on, but dont expect solutions for another 10 years on the cleaning up jobs. The making sure anything we put up now, comes back down quickly stuff - that stuff is already up and flying (or at the very minimum is having test flights) - tethers, sails, mini thrusters, are all flying now.
As for your ion-motors solution, sorry, but ion motors dont work well in low orbit - gravity and atmoshperic resistance (even up there) make them ineffective. Further out, you would be probably looking at 10 years to get to one piece of junk, it takes a long time to get up to speed, without a rocket boost first. Dont get me wrong ion motors are awesome because you turn them on and they just run and run and run, and eventually you get very very fast, but it takes a very long time to get fast... That's why they are primarily used in interplanetary missions and the reason why they arent particularly used for anything positonal in orbit...
Tuesday 30th November 2021 15:53 GMT
Re: Priorities
There are already a lot of studies looking into this, but its not a particularly easy problem to sort out.
Mainly because the things you are trying to catch are travelling at massive velocities, so trying to catch them directly, will likely lead to effectively an explosion and more (but smaller) debris, which doesn't help the situation. People are experimenting with various aerogels and foams to try and mitigate this, but well at the velocities we're talking about, things still have a tendency to go boom.
If you try to sidle up to the debris, getting up to speed, entering it's orbit and then slowly closing the distance to it, before grabbing it, well that will work, but you need a lot of fuel, and you can only really do this with big things. So its not considered particularly effective. The recent Lockheed mission to refuel an existing satellite so it can keep operating, is effectively an example of this in practice, but one that actually might have a business case.
The future, probably has a few missions to sidle up and grab big junk (or refuel it to keep it going), but most of the current focus is on making sure anything we put up now, either comes back down quickly on its own (either through drag mechanisms or thrusters), or for the bigger ones that they go out to a graveyard orbit. But unfortunately none of this particularly helps when a$$hats go and deliberately blow shite up, causing massive amounts of new debris. You almost hope that the debris wipes out something valuable of theirs, but unfortunately Karma is rarely that specific or sensible....
HPE sees 'no indication' its tech was sold to Chinese military, seeks answers from Uncle Sam on sanctions
You forced me to use this fancypants app and now you're asking for a printout?
Friday 26th November 2021 12:42 GMT
And this is what I find so crazy about Conspiracy theorists - Despite all the proof in the world that no government department anywhere can make any system run with anything even remotely like efficiency, and that private companies are absolutely no better, they still somehow believe that some grand conspiracy is able to, in secret, run everything in the background to get us all infected with mind control drugs/germs/nanobots/alien parasites/delete as appropriate.
Any attempt to do such a thing would fail at the first hurdle as some bureuacrat would demand that the secret memo be retyped up in Letter format, scanned into some long forgotten proprietary pdf-like format, stored in some long lost database program, requiring a licence which can no longer be obtained, and then approved by a dozen people who use various versions of the approval software, none of which are backwards compatable.
Real life gives us so many prime examples that this sort of stuff just doesnt work, and yet conspirarcy theorists always want to believe...
Desktop bust and custom iPhone 13 Pro made from melted-down Tesla car for the Elon Musk dork in your life
ESA's Solar Orbiter will swing past Earth this week – sure hope nobody created a big cloud of space junk up there
Theranos' Holmes admits she slapped Big Pharma logos on lab reports to boost her biz
Thursday 25th November 2021 11:56 GMT
Re: "This work was done in partnership with those companies"
Your honor, I could not possibly believe that I did something wrong in adding the Democrats logos to our Republican manifesto!
Everybody knows that both the Democrats and the Republicans are equally involved in the process of creating laws, so I didn't think there would be any problem including both logos.
Even if they don't agree with our conclusions, the Democrats are involved in the Process, so of course we can use their logo!
Who would confuse it, as them endorsing our manifesto? I totally didn't mean to confuse anyone, honest your honor!
NASA boffins seem to think we're worth saving from fiery asteroid death so they're shooting a spaceship at one
Kremlin names the internet giants it will kidnap the Russian staff of if they don't play ball in future
Thursday 25th November 2021 09:02 GMT 
Making the world a better place?
It feels like we are getting to the point where we would make the world a better place if we just cut China and Russia off from the rest of the Internet. Just cut all links. Its what China wants, and what Russia is working towards. No more external influence, let them have there own webs.
But make sure it works both ways. No Chinese hackers, no Russian malware operators, no vpn's letting them get out.
One Internet for them, one for the rest of us. Sounds like it would make the world a much nicer place...
James Webb Space Telescope gets all shook up – launch delayed again
A tiny typo in an automated email to thousands of customers turns out to be a big problem for legal
UK Department for Education to schools: Maybe delay signing that 3-year licensing deal for MIS with Education Software Solutions
Friday 19th November 2021 16:49 GMT
Re: Mark Brant is wrong
A CEO lying? I can't believe it. Whatever is the world coming to... And so on and so forth...
To be honest, if you just assume that any words that come out of a CEO's mouth are lies or such a twisted version of the truth such as to be all but lies, then you'll be much closer to the truth than the CEO ever gets...
Canadian teen nabbed in $36.5m crypto heist – possibly the biggest haul yet by a single individual
New study demonstrates iodine as satellite propellant... in space
It's fake ooze, don't fall for fake ooze: Alien fossils found on Mars might just be simple chemistry, uni pair warn
Thursday 18th November 2021 15:20 GMT
I hate being a cynic sometimes...
I completely agree with these chaps, but I unfortunately can't shake the feeling that the next sentence goes something along the lines of "We're in the process of developing a new lab to test these developments and would really love some money to make it happen. So give us some funding now and it will save you looking foolish later."
Chinese Communist Party official expelled for mining cryptocurrency
Tuesday 16th November 2021 09:15 GMT 
Call me a cynic...
but this applies to corporations and not government entities, right?
Additionally, if this guy was really involved with corruption, why is he not imprisoned? OK losing his communist party status means a massive loss of prestige, income, etc. but prison is a far more effective deterrant wouldnt you think? Or was this simply the case that he annoyed the wrong person higher up the food chain.
When everyone is corrupt, and there's evidence against everyone, then it all comes down to who falls afoul of the big bosses when they need to make an example of someone...
BOFH: You drive me crazy... and I can't help myself
The Ministry of Silly Printing: But I don't want my golf club correspondence to say 'UNCLASSIFIED' at the bottom
Rolls-Royce set for funding fillip to build nuclear power stations based on small modular reactor technology
Now that's a splash down: Astronauts spend 8-hour trip to Earth in diapers after SpaceX capsule toilet breaks
Pulling down a partition or knocking through a door does not necessarily make for a properly connected workspace
Monday 8th November 2021 09:32 GMT 
We've called in the Electrician for our new place (an old 70's house), there are a number of light switches which dont seem to do anything, and in the entrance hall, we have 6 wires sticking out (for one light socket!) but none of them are the standard colours for Earth, positive, and negative. No way am I playing round with that to try and work out what the hell is happening.
The electrician should have some fun trying to sort it all out...
Samsung releases pair of jeans that can't do anything except cover your legs and hold a Galaxy Z Flip 3
Wednesday 3rd November 2021 13:55 GMT 
OK these jeans are utter tosh, but frankly I call bullshit on modern phones being the right size for regular pockets. My current phone (Sony Xperia X Compact) fits happily in my pocket. But now just 5 years later, the smallest available Android phone i have found is 2cm longer. Most are between 3-5cm longer, and at least 1-3cm wider. How the hell do you people fit those tablets in your pocket?????
It never suprises me to see people walking around with phones in their a$$ pockets, because they will just not fit in the front pockets. Modern mobiles are not pocket friendly... And as for the 90's being worse - my Ericsson T28 fit beautifully into my pocket thank you very much...
I will agree these modern Flip phones are crap though. I tried one of the Z Flip's out in a store just recently, and it just felt awful to use. I guess I'm just not the target market, but I dont need massive amounts of screen real estate, if I want to watch something I'll use a Tablet, PC or TV. If I want to play, I'll use my PC. All i want is a bit of light surfing on the go and something that will fit comfortably in one hand, and in my pocket. Is it really so hard Phone Manufacturers? Really???
/End Rant...
Sheffield University scales back student system after Oracle integration stumbles
Judge tosses NEC's claim that Oracle salespeople tricked it into using the wrong software license prior to audit
Wednesday 3rd November 2021 08:27 GMT
The first rule of dealing with sales people - get it in F%&king writing!!!!
If the Sales person is saying over the phone "Of course you can use this cheaper licence without any problems in your application. I guarantee it!", thats not worth the paper it's written on.
Make them put it in writing, preferably not just an email, but in a signed document on company letterhead. If they are not willing to do that, then their guarantee is worth about the same as a politician's promise... i.e. Sweet F. A...
Australian cops find cocaine stash in PS5 from Portugal
China says it applied to join digital free trade deal days after proposing law against cross-border data flow
Tuesday 2nd November 2021 12:12 GMT 
If i was one of the current signatories I would not want China involved. Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore might not have much global clout, but they can easily work together as equals. China does not consider anyone its equal and it would absolutely throw its weight around to get what it wants.
They can kiss goodbye to any meaningful dialogue once China gets in...
Apple's anti-ad-tracking iPhone feature took a '$10bn' chunk out of social network revenues
Tuesday 2nd November 2021 09:40 GMT
I imagine...
I Imagine that the drop is so large because Apple customers are seen as premium targets - they've already been convinced to fork out for the Apple tax, so they must have some additional spending capacity. And a propensity to succumb to the Reality Distortion Field of advertising, makes Apple customers prime candidates for marketing.
Take away the ability to target Apple customers directly, and Facebook and co. cant demand that extra bonus price. No wonder, it's hitting them so hard.
My heart bleeds for Zuck, how is he ever going to build his Metaverse without those extra billions! I can already see the upcoming headlines "Facebook says Apple killed the Metaverse!"
We can only hope...
Data-breached Guntrader website calls in liquidators, is reborn as Guntrader 2 Ltd
Sharing is caring, except when it's your internet connection
Zuckerberg wants to create a make-believe world in which you can hide from all the damage Facebook has done
Yet again, Cream Finance skimmed by crooks: $130m in crypto assets stolen
REvil gang member identified living luxury lifestyle in Russia, says German media
Friday 29th October 2021 08:46 GMT
Just an idea...
Maybe a quick way to get him banged up, would be to report him to the Russian tax authorities. If there anything like the IRS or actually any tax authority I've had to deal with, they will be very thorough in making sure he's paid every cent owed ("The Man with the rubber glove was surprisingly gentle!"). And since I would be pretty certain he would have skimped a bit here and there, he's very likely I would imagine to be having a trip inside. At the very least it would be a very uncomfortable period for him, and it might shake a few dodgy dealings in Russia loose as well.
Good Grief! Ransomware gang has only gone and pwned the NRA – or so it claims
Thursday 28th October 2021 13:22 GMT
I think its more along the lines of if you pay these scum, then they are encouraged to continue to ransomware. If you dont pay them, and no one is allowed to pay them, then there's no money in it, and they'll have to find some other way to make money.
It's the same reason why your not allowed to/supposed to pay kidnappers. It encourages further kidnappings.
If the money's not there, then people are going to stop doing it and go and do something else.
So how about instead of paying the ransom, you spend the money in advance on training users not to get phished, implementing secure builds, and making sure you have working and tested backups, so that if you get hit, the effect is minimal. It works out cheaper for everyone in the long run.
YouTubers fell for shady 'sponsors' who seized, then sold, accounts
Friday 22nd October 2021 08:24 GMT
Re: not just "influencers"
I guess your violinist doesnt generate enough ad revenue for Google for them to consider them an "influencer" and someone "worthy" of protection/getting their account back.
As for going after the crypto peddlers, Google doesnt go after them until they've ammassed a large enough amount of money, so that Google can then decide they were bad'uns and kick them out, and simply pocket the ad revenue rather than paying out.
Or at least that the only explanation I can come up with, since it should be trivial to do a simple reverse search of whatever crap is being spewed from a compromised/stolen account, and ban all of it. But then maybe that's just too difficult for Google's super duper amazing algorithms...
Darmstadt, we have a problem – ESA reveals its INTEGRAL space telescope was three hours from likely death
Thursday 21st October 2021 09:45 GMT
Re: A five year mission
It's always the same! You whack together some short term bodge, only supposed to last a short time until a proper bit of kit can be built, and then you find out management havent looked at replacing it for bloody donkeys years!! All because they say, hey, it's still working, no need for a new one after all!!!
:P
Beer for the Designers! Great Work! -->
Theranos blood-test machine demos for VIPs rigged to hide any failures, court told
China to crush secondary market providing forbidden gaming accounts to kids
Facebook fined £50m in UK for 'conscious' refusal to report info and 'deliberate failure to comply' during Giphy acquisition probe
Brave's homegrown search claims to protect your privacy but there's a long way to go if it's to challenge the big G
Wednesday 20th October 2021 13:58 GMT
I also switched from DDG to Brave about 2-3 months ago, as I found DDG was going downhill on the search results. Brave has so far been quite good, and I've rarely had to jump over to google (and on those rare occasions, usually my query on google also hasnt found what I'm after anyway, so obviously its more me, rather than brave, that's the problem... :P)
Google Pixel 6, 6 Pro Android 12 smartphone launch marred by shopping cart crashes
Wednesday 20th October 2021 06:40 GMT
Re: Pixel Pha
Thank you for this Info guys. I've been contemplating getting a Pixel 4a, as I'm searching for what I consider a reasonably sized phone (i.e. something that fits in one hand!), but which apparently is now considered a "mini" phone and basically no longer exists. God forbid any current phone design should see my old Ericsson T28!
Considering the Market seems to consist of the Iphone 12/13 Mini (no thanks, not interested in the walled garden), the Google Pixel 4a (ewww google), the Sony 5 II/III (really weird and extra long form factor, not particularly nice in the hand), and the Asus Zenfone 8 (No SD Card and still significantly bigger than my current Sony Xperia X Compact), I've been struggling to decide what to buy.
I guess I'm leaning towards the Asus now, I am a fan of their PC hardware - anyone able to give a review of their mobile hardware?
EasyJet flight loadsheet snafu caused by software 'code errors' says UK safety agency
US gov claims ransomware 'earned' $590m in the first half of 2021 alone – mostly in Bitcoin
Monday 18th October 2021 15:19 GMT
Re: $590m in the first half of 2021 alone – mostly in Bitcoin
Well it did lift those poor struggling malware writers out of their previously poor existence, and i mean their local communities no doubt get at least some benefit. Those corrupt officials shielding them have to pay for their golden toilet seats somehow. It really is a trickle (on) down economy after all...
Chinese developers rebel against long working hours with crowdsourced tell-all on employers
Monday 18th October 2021 07:31 GMT
Re: Perhaps we could have a version of this for the west as well
You are aware of GlassDoor right? It is mentioned in the article. It is basically this, but as a website.
As for Company and Interviewer disparities, well if you're lucky and going in as an engineer or someone with a similar level of experience and kudos, then you can call in the interviewer and your boss and explain that you signed up for what was sold, and either you will stick to what was sold or there needs to be a salary renegotiation.
Admittedly, if your a graduate, or someone low down the food chain, then your ability to bring this up might be limited, but you should still try to mention it as otherwise your just encouraging. There are usually laws against such behaviour in most sensible jurisdictions, so just mentioning it to HR, can get changes made as they begin shitting themselves about legal consequences.
Just sucking it up is rarely the right answer...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
