Posts by Bruce Ordway

pore

...pore as in “to read or study attentively"

My spelling seems to be getting worse with each new year.

This morning I would have used "pour".

China, CDMA

Seems like I remember an old story about the Chinese and TDSCDMA development to avoid Qualcomm? Makes me wonder if we'll ever reach a point where the telecommunications industry needs to be nationalized/internationalized? A bigger, badder "Ma Bell"?

a curiosity

>> how male graduates expect her to act.

Boys will be boys...

I've previously seen sites where you can rate women by photos.

I imagine there will be an app someday if there isn't already.

Optional

>> tests online or in the old-fashioned way

Wonder if schools might want to try a third choice that is a little lower tech? Maybe students could just enter their answers into a file an upload it to a central site for processing. It would allow for some automation and might even be a useful skill for them later in life.

Optional title?

If I understand the numbers in this article, I might come up with an alternative title.

- Large % growth rates in IaaS/PaaS do not translate into big revenue gains for players

- Top 20 2015 revenue.... £11.29bn.... -1%

01 - HPE....... £2.17bn .......... + 2%

02 - IBM....... £1.41bn .......... + 0%

03 - Fujitsu... £1.25bn .......... - 9% (temp conditions)

15 - AWS....... £0.25bn ......... + 45% (UK data centre planned)

XX - Microsoft. 2015 N/A (2016 growth est 60%.... £0.90bn)

YY - Google.... 2015 N/A (2016 no data)

Too early to tell

>>estimates, rules of thumb (and rather than)"shady developers" it's usually incompetence or ignorance.

I'll be looking forward to learning the full story at some future date. In the short term I expect A LOT of energy spent covering backsides and plenty of finger pointing. I'll be betting that "normal" practices were followed for the most part and that somehow ignorance is involved.

Facebook?

When I think of Facebook it's more of online entertainment, the equivalent of printed media like People and the National Enquirer. In my area it seems like more people are getting their political insights more from radio or cable news... CNN and FOX. I might encounter someone who is still reads newspapers or magazines too. Rarely do I hear lines repeated that are obviously from some "fake" story online.

As to why people liked Trump over Clinton? I have a few right in my own family & I still can't figure out why they feel that way.

Context?

Just wondering if there are any historical references for the results of this study? Would be nice to see trends. How have the entities, areas of investment and amounts been changing over the years.

if the rumours about Assange

I've been wondering what we can really believe now.

In general I find it difficult to separate fact from fiction in news media.

And he's pissed a lot of people off.

Not that I have a lot of sympathy for Assange.

It does seem like he brought all this attention on himself.

FBI records

The FBI record is an interesting read and has some hardware/software details I'd been wondering about.

Now I can see how Hillary might have started down this path. I mean doesn't an @clintonemail.com address look a lot cooler than her old @blackberry.net? Since Bill already had the server, all she had to do was ask for her own account? Once she had used for a while didn't want to give it up. Who does want to change email addresses? Unfortunately for Hillary, public officials don't get a pass. And probably shouldn't?

At least now I can imagine this as human nature and less sinister.

From my own experience of running an email server out of my bedroom I know that family and friends will want personal accounts too. Lucky for me that none of the accounts under my control were ever used by the secretary of state. (as far as I know).

Windows 10

If I were in charge I would certainly hold off on rolling out any more OS "features" for a while.

I'm so sick of all the direction changes in the Windows OS since version 7.

After testing 10 I've opted for a new Win 7 system & will worry about 2020 when/if that time comes.

What can MS do in the short term that will sway any more users like me to its side now?

For now I think they're stuck it a sort of stalemate with users who have embraced Windows 10 and those who have not.

Ladder Logic as interesting

Nice.. I didn't know there was quite that much Ladder Logic gong on out there.

It's been a while since I've done any PLC work but I remember it as great fun.

software giant/mobile phone

Microsoft phone also-ran, another story I know.

It just still gets my interest whenever I see MS and phones mentioned.

I just assumed

That all webcams could be hijacked. Why I put tape over the lens.

Hasn't hibernatation always sucked?

Is this hibernation bug really much of a surprise?

I recall numerous power "feature" issues. So many in fact the one of the first things I do is change power settings on new PCs/laptops. e.g. disable hibernation, screensavers, power button = off and close lid = do nothing.

I can't seem to warm up to the new devices that are difficult to determine the "on/off" state or remove its batteries. I really could use a new laptop but so far have found reasons to postpone the purchase.

BBC in the US

License fee or commercials? You might consider yourselves lucky.

I am pretty sure that a system like yours will never be duplicated anywhere else in the world. It certainly would not fly here in the US. The levels of commercial times have become obscene over here.

And I still remember my first viewing of show like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or Monty Python. These were almost life changing experiences. So much 'different' and better than anything I'd seen on our network TV.

Unfortunately access to BBC content remains limited here. Choose between PBS or the BBC channel if you have a cable subscription.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, The Fall, Utopia, etc... you're welcome to bring them on over any time.

Take notes

I recently returned to university. Students could use laptops/tablets etc.. but most did not, distracting yes, but mainly too slow.

I found it much easier to take notes by hand to later review and transcribe key points into a digital summary.

Java

>> is the problem?

I'm not a huge fan of java but...

I would have liked some explanation following his statement

Forbes, etc...

I stopped clicking on links to Forbes.

google search returns tend to put their links near the top of the lists but I don't see anything special about them... except that they piss me off.

I have a pretty low tolerance for annoyances while browsing.

There are too many other options...

MS - Opensource - Windows 10 - shell games

Off topic

The other day I had a weird flashback.while fixing another users Windows 10 issue

The UI struck me as a creepy/crappy variant of Gnome or KDE.

Then I remembered I used to play with booting Windows to different shells.. a long time ago.

I wonder if MS could/would ever separate it's UI, I think Windows server is kind of doing this already.

In reality, Windows 10 today is nothing like as bad as its reputation

Which reality is that?

MS SQL

Of all the software produced by Microsoft, MS SQL is the ONE product I actually enjoy.

I'm still digesting this.. not sure how I'd feel about running MS SQL on Linux.

Wondering if they'd provide an Express version?

I have worked with Unidata, OpenEdge and MS SQL

Usually the simple stuff, definitely not an expert.

Net neutrality?

My first reaction to the idea of blocking ads at the network level is very positive.

On second thought, content developers need to make some kind of return.

Complete blockage of ads seems almost too extreme.

Would it be possible to define reasonable limits on ads... and actually have them enforced, by who?

In the mean time, I continue to block ads aggressively.

(on PC's and "free" television - I refuse to use smartphones or "mobile" data).

So maybe I'm just a little "radical" when it comes to the mobile industry in general,

Here in the US, I definitely wish the FCC would step up and begin regulating more on the behalf of consumers.

Our tax dollars at work

Why should Apple need to get involved in this one?

Why not let the FBI figure it out themselves?

I know I had an initial, emotional reaction to their citing of the San Bernardino case. My cynical side tells me this was a ploy to gain sympathy. My brain kicked back in & I remembered reading about the suspects. They sounded deliberate, careful and secretive. Not the types to have done something incriminating on a work phone.

Does the FBI really need this capability now? How do they apply it going forward?

Isn't it all still just reading and writing?

What is even worse than liberal arts? Fine arts. I studied painting to the dismay of all my relatives. (and most of my instructors). Along the way I also managed to learn how to read and write code.

Now I actually make my living off of programming now. I don't really see a huge difference between the various disciplines.

artificail dumbness

I often wonder about the threat from the artificially unintelligent.

I've seen a articles on runaway bots and IoT blunders, no SciFi stories I can think of.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/business/unusual-volume-roils-early-trading-in-some-stocks.html?_r=0

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

Maybe AI will get us someday, I am just thankful for all those great stories.

On an unrelated note....I recently read that a TV series based on the Foundation Trilogy for HBO is in the works. I am so happy it's finally happening and that it will be a series instead of a film.

Scale

It used to be only the bigger companies who could get involved in schemes like this. Now anyone has access to cheap monitoring systems.

During my time as an IT admin, I learned to be "extra" careful in ANY public/work environment. I was called upon to monitor the activity of several employees over the years. At least back then... each case was reviewed and approved by management BEFORE monitoring commenced. There was a general awareness of an employee behavioral issues too. Monitoring was only requested as the last resort by HR. When required to have documentation before any discussion of dismissing an employee took place.

The idea of enterprise wide, continuous data collection is pretty scary to me. I do know some analysts who are very capable but... I've also seen untrained doorknobs who jump to conclusions or want to justify actions based on their own moral code... especially in some smaller organizations I've worked with.

New World Hacking test?

Latest story is that some anti IS group "New World Hacking" was just testing their DDOS capabilities?

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2016/01/04/bbc-websites-still-suffering-after-ddos-attack.html

I wonder why they chose the BBC? It seems "mostly harmless" to me.

There must be a few other sites that are just as "big" & more deserving of a timeout.

Nice overview

Not sure how I got to the Axiom from your article but.. the Axiom looks very exciting to me

https://www.apertus.org/

It wasn't too long ago that my only resource was my local cable access..

I have fond memories of recording on their huge VHS camera and editing on the video toaster.

Thanks for the article and to all who continue to develop and share open solutions.

So how do you convince me?

How do you convince me too?

And what are you considering a small business?

I've worked with a few manufacturing companies I consider small... under 100 employees.

Security issues over the years tend to originate from the inside, like walking off with customer lists or CAD files.

I think everyone knows they aren't as secure as they could be.

Right or wrong, new hardware and software to boost security doesn't evert get too high on the priority list.