* Posts by JimC

1939 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Apr 2007

Parliamentary Trump-off? Pro-Donald petition passes 100k signatures

JimC

Re:We used to have a variant of the Greek Democracy.

Not really, no. Our representational democracy was/is really very different in detail to the Athenian democracy, which wouldn't really scale. As for the suggestion its not working as well as it should and perhaps once did, I'm inclined to agree, but am awfully aware that (at least partially blind) nostalgia for how much better the good old days were is something else we have in common with 5thC BC Athens...

JimC

Which begs the question...

I'm trying to think of a political debate which was a genuine debate rather than a name calling competition between sides with entrenched opinions.

JimC

Re: I'm actually quite cheered by this -

Well, it might only be a sign of which group of people are more likely to make themselves feel better by an utterly pointless action...

The depressing part, of course, is that, like all political threads, this one has immediately descended into "yah boo sucks all your side are idiots/fools/deluded/morons/[delete or add insults and ad hominems as required]", coming in roughly equal measure from both sides of the debate^h^h^h^h^h^h name calling competition.

You're taking the p... Linux encryption app Cryptkeeper has universal password: 'p'

JimC

Re: Isn't this what test releases are for?

Well that depends... If the version of cryptkeeper being used in the test versian of debian is also a test release then yes, that is what tests are for. If, however its intended as a shipping release, and worse, if other distributions are using that version of cryptkeeper that are beyond test release status...

Naughty sysadmins use dark magic to fix PCs for clueless users

JimC

Re: Actually, she works slower when I'm watching and doesn't make the same mistakes.

I suspect this is a fairly common occurrence, and explains the vast majority of "fixed by engineer's magic fingers" faults. Just the presence of a cool calm and confident engineer may be enough to calm down the flustered and resume normal operation.

JimC

Re: sounds like one that would only work in places where voodoo was a significant part of life

Really? Well, no voodoo round here to my knowledge, but I've come across plenty of users and even other IT folk who believe in astrology, acupuncture, ley lines, the magical goodness of natural ingredients, the healing power of crystals and goodness knows what else.

That being the case I'm not sure, tempting as it is, indulging in this sort of game is really wise. Isn't there a possibility that it renders them even more vulnerable to every nonsense spouting trickster and fraudster ringing up from a malign call centre?

UK.gov tells freelance techies to slap 20 per cent on fees as IR35 tax hike looms

JimC

> Just the first stage

Yeah, reckon so. Seems to me the whole gig economy thing (AKA exploit the naive) is going to more or less force HMRC to be much more restrictive about self employment policy in the future.

'It will go wrong. There's no question of time... on safety or security side'

JimC

> It's also very easy to test software, you run it for a range of carefully chosen inputs

I fear that's the sort of hopelessly naive thinking that helps this industry deliver such unreliable bug ridden security vulnerable crap.

Deadly Tesla smash probe: No recall needed, says Uncle Sam

JimC

>low level of attention

and in spite of all that its still spectacularly safer than meatsack drivers...

A 40% reduction in accidents is a mind bogglingly big improvement: its taken decades and millions to achieve that on British roads. Justgoes to show how spectacularly untrustworthy human drivers are.

Half the trouble, it seems to me, is that many commenters don't know what the very limited capabilities of aviation autopilots are/were, especially earlier generation.

IT team sent dirt file to Police as they all bailed from abusive workplace

JimC

This will no doubt gather a huge array of downvotes, but as has been noted deeper in some comments this sort of thing is exactly why Unions and even strikes can be a good idea, because with a bit more balance of power between staff and management a less cataclysmic resolution might have been reached a lot earlier.

Chelsea Manning sentence slashed by Prez Obama: She'll be sprung in the spring

JimC

Re: Assange v Chris Grayling

I believe it was the other way round to the usual - Grayling was stuck in traffic and opened a near side car door to get out and collected a cyclist overtaking on the suicide side.

Ex-Goldman Sachs programmer found guilty of code theft … again

JimC

So

Man with dubious ethical compass and expensive lawyers seeking to get off on a technicality comes up against company with dubious ethical compass and expensive lawyers wanting to nail him?

No lawyers were impoverished in the course of this story...

BT installs phone 'spam filter', says it'll strain out mass cold-callers

JimC

Re: Don't get annoyed - have some fun!

If I'm reading a book I'll sometimes read them a few paragraphs...

JimC

It must be becoming a problem for genuine companies.

If I get a telephone call in an asian accent from a call centre I assume its some kind of scam. So it would be nearly impossible for a genuine company with an Indian call centre to contact me by phone.

Mr Angry pays taxman with five wheelbarrows worth of loose change

JimC

Re: Common Sense Lobotomy

Well yes, mainly because if you work for a government department and apply common sense rather than the letter of the rules sooner or later some idiot and his a******e lawyer will start a lawsuit and your neck will be on the block.

JimC

Re: cheques written on large plywood sheets

I have paid in a cheque to a UK bank on a wooden board, specifically the end from a box of onions (I think it was onions). My late lamented mate Steve was having some kind of disagreement with his bank, and they refused to issue him a new chequebook, even though he had funds in his account (I forget the details - it was a long time ago). So, anyway, we made as good a replica of a standard cheque as we could, except it was quadruple size and on this crate end.

When I went to pay it in the lass behind the counter said "I can't take that" until I pointed out the card number was written on the back. So she called over a superior, who briefly glanced at the ceiling, and said fine, accept it.

Subsequent developments were that they issued a new chequebook, and Steve got a lecture from an acquaintance at the bank who told him what a damned nuisance he was because the wooden cheque didn't fit into any of the various trays and boxes they had for handling cheques.

RIP Steve Dyer

US Navy runs into snags with aircraft carrier's electric plane-slingshot

JimC

Re: a million from our treasury for something we then have to buy spares for

Plus if you're buying from abroad you can only have wars with people your suppliers don't like. Arguably the Falklands war was partially won because the Brits succeeded in obtaining extra missiles from the US (Sidewinders), but the Argentinians failed to obtain extra missiles from France (Exocets).

JimC

Re: Could the Royal Navy win the Falklands war if it happened today?

No. No aircraft carriers, no air groups.

AIUI the hope is that the land based forces on the Islands could hold off an invasion force long enough for attack submarines to arrive and sink it.Back in 1982 there were only a handful of lightly armed troops on the islands who couldn't hope to hold off an invasion.

JimC

Re: > The Falkland's task force didn't lose a carrier,

If you read the paper given you'll see the Navy was describing Atlantic Conveyor as converted to a maintenance/stores carrier. Agreed that's a different role to a fleet carrier, and it would have been next to impossible to launch strikes from her (although I do note from that paper that on the way down to the Falklands they kept a Sidewinder armed Harrier on deck at readiness in case of shadowers), but nevertheless the loss of that deck, its supplies and the helicopters on board was significant.

JimC

Hermes was built as a Light Fleet carrier and was a considerable larger ship than the Invincible class.

Just as well too, two Invincibles would have been very sketchy indeed.

JimC

> The Falkland's task force didn't lose a carrier,

Atlantic Conveyor was acting in a Ferry & Stores Carrier role: see http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121026065214/http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/EC14467A-DFAF-4030-BDFB-9E1AAF00205E/0/boi_atlanticconveyorpt1.pdf

JimC

drones, not manned aircraft

> they can be launched in greater numbers from much smaller ships.

Provided you can keep those above the water, and the even harder lesson from the Falklands was that without AEW you can't. Which does beg a question re proposed airgroups...

JimC

Re: Schadenfreude?

Could always restart Sea Harrier production. Or failing that specialist groups probably have the tooling available to put together an airgroup of Seafires...

St Jude patching Merlin@home heart kit

JimC

Re: How about we be given the option of audits…?

But is "security by hoping some random whitehat will look at your code before a blackhat does" really very much better than security by obscurity? Because that seems to be what's on offer here. Sometimes it even feels like a sort of horrible complacency "I've open sourced my code so some nice person will look for holes for me" giving a kind of warm feeling without actually going to all the trouble and expense of getting a fully competent 3rd party in to do the job before its released. Just the sort of solution the beancounters and PHBs favour now I think about it.

I'm not going to pretend I know a good answer to the appalling state of the products kicked out by the flakey industry I work in, but hoping for an odd neuron to fire in a random brain doesn't sound especially reliable to me.

JimC

Re: How about we be given the option of audits…?

How valuable is an option that no-one takes up? Out in the real world there are few who are technically competent enough, few who can be trusted, fewer yet who are interested and almost no-one who matches all 3 sets. If it trumps trusting on blind faith its arguably only in the sense of the 2 still being a trump when there are only 15 cards left and 13 of them are trumps...

Meet the Internet of big, lethal Things

JimC

Re: In terms of farmers @BigJohn

Yep, its not simple: there's not really a good guy here.

The arguments about JD taking advantage of lock in and so on are all reasonable, and pretty valid. Too many big companies behave like that these days.

However the arguments that the EFF are talking out of a manure providing orifice and that amateurs should have the rights to create complete chaos out of a complicated system with all the potential disasters are also quite valid.

2016 just got a tiny bit longer. Gee, thanks, time lords

JimC

Of course the big question is

Will this provide enough extra time for one more celebrity to depart this mortal coil?

China gives America its underwater drone back – with a warning

JimC

Not of course, that we'd ever do such a thing...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9602103/HMS-Conquerors-biggest-secret-a-raid-on-Russia.html

JimC

Think you need to be reminded of

Events of exactly 66 years ago. Even with little modern equipment the Chinese armed forces were pretty capable. My father was out there a year later. Doesn't pay to be dismissive of the Chinese.

Uber's self-driving cars get kicked out of SF, seek refuge in Arizona

JimC

Or alternatively

> see saddling Uber with regulations as a way to level the playing field.

could be written as

"see no reason why Uber shouldn't be saddled with exactly the same regulations as they are"

BT and Plusnet most moaned about broadband providers. Again

JimC

Re: Heaven 17

Join in the general opinion that Plusnet have dropped off a cliff. Recently they deep sixed my web space for alleged excess bandwidth - which looked suspiciously like a monitoring error to me - and took nearly two weeks to get it back. Was on a "premium" contract, but premium benefits have been eroded and eroded so have now swapped to cheapest deal, used the saving for separate web hosting and still come out ahead.

Sexbots could ‘over-exert’ their human lovers, academic warns

JimC

> why academics are spending so much time thinkin' 'bout sex robots.

Far far better than religion, bread or circuses at keeping the plebs quiet.

On the subject of robots that over exert their human partner, a song on exactly those lines was more or less the college theme tune when I was at Imperial back in the 70s. I'm rather surprised no-one has mentioned it before.

It started "an engineer told me before he died"...

Jimbo Welshes on pledge to stop fundraising

JimC

Re > learn to not push the fundraising envelope too far? He will end up with no donations,

The first rule of Internet business is that there's another one born every minute, another volunteer, another donor, another...

MH370 hunters call for new search of extra 25,000km2

JimC

Re: certainty

Having started reading the report in depth they reckon 95% certain they'd have found a debris field in the search area which seems astonishingly good to me. Impressed.

JimC

Re: it would have had to be done one day anyway.

One day my house will need to be knocked down because its no longer safe, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't cost me if I did it this year...

JimC

Re: Obvious

Quite probably its not where they've looked, but there's also the possibility that its in the area they looked but hidden from reasonable view. Its all very well looking at those images of smooth sea bottom ooze with 19thC shipwrecks, oil drums or cable sticking out, but at a guess its not all like that.

I'm not quite sure how certain the "high degree of certainty" that its not in the current search area is, but I bet its nowhere near 100%.

Don't panic, friends, but the Chinese navy just nicked one of America's underwater drones

JimC

Much missing of the point.

From China's point of view the US are operating in Chinese waters. The rest of the world may have decided new islands don't make territorial water, but did China ever agree?

Fundamentally its just not very clever of the US, sabre rattling in dispurted territory, just like allowing Russias neighbours to sign up for Nato wasn't clever. Both look like aggressive moves if you look at it from the other party's POV.

Banks 'not doing enough' to protect against bank-transfer scams

JimC

Re: Don't blame the bank

Nice victim blaming.

The other side of it is that the banks are supposed to be the experts on financial matters, and use that to attempt to justify their huge executive salaries and the like. I'm quite sure a great deal more could be done to make life difficult for fraudsters, but if the banks have no motivation to do it then they won't.

Uber to Cali DMV: Back off, pal, our 'self-driving cars' aren't self driving

JimC

Re: Fuck You Uber

It would be rather interesting to innovate a profitable second hand furniture business by removing the contents of Uber's offices when they aren't looking. Such a revolutionary approach would generate ample margins, and of course those doing the actual removal would be independent contractors, so the furniture business itself shouldn't be counted as breaking the law or responsible for what its contractors did...

Blue sky basic income thinking is b****cks

JimC

> Anything else is socialist bollocks.

Could you possibly be getting so blinkered by simplistic economic theories that you aren't looking at how people and societies actually work?

Although I must admit I happened to revisit something I wrote, oh, 25 years ago, today.

In it I described the then music industry as being the last home of real kick 'em in the balls capitalism, with the subtext that society was tending more towards a more ethical compass. But I never imagined the rise of multinational advertising and merchandising mega corporations, which make the old record companies look like models of social responsibility by comparison. I guess too many MBAs hae been reading the same simplistic stuff you have, and have forgotten the moral responsibility to be an ethical human being first and a business executive only second.

To quote/misquote/extend on Churchill (who seems to have been quoting someone unrecorded), like democracy, capitalism is the worst form of economic system, except for all the others that have been tried. It should be a tool of society, not its master, and its foolish to believe it perfect or all-wise.

JimC

The fundamental problem is that we have lost sight of what function businesses actually fulfil in society. They should be about a better standard of living for owners, customers, executives and employees, and if the balance gets out of kilter in any direction there are problems. The problem in the 21stC is that the executives are out of control, as in the 19th the balance tended to be too much the owners, and in some times and places in the 20thC too much the unionised employees.

A business that is only about megabucks to the executives has lost its balance. The trouble is, when it comes to money for the executives, then its cheaper to employ only a handful of the very best people and work them until they burn out. But that's not much good for society...

What to do about it, I fear I don't know, but the executive class are going to find themselves dangling from lamp posts if they carry on as they are.

Microsoft quietly emits patch to undo its earlier patch that broke Windows 10 networking

JimC

Re: ,So there's an online fix for not being able to get online?

Microsoft have never been that great at DHCP. There was a feature of the way Win2000 and I think some other versions cached DHCP leases between reboots which caused us problems with our high availability cross site DHCP setup.

I forget the details, but I *think* it was something to do with the machine preserving a lease between reboots and refusing to allocate an IP address if it couldn't contact that particular DHCP server even if there was DHCP active on another IP address. If I recall correctly it meant that if a server had to be taken down for maintenance then clients rebooted with an active lease would fail to get an IP address, but clients rebooted that had no cached lease would work just fine.

Once we were able to cluster DHCP on a single IP address it became much less of a problem, but it seemed plain dumb that DHCP forwarding as per RFC lets you specify multiple servers for resilience but Microsoft's caching effectively broke or at least bent that resilience.

Sysadmin told to spend 20+ hours changing user names, for no reason

JimC

Re: To the 2IC

I wish that were true...

HMS Illustrious sets sail for scrapyard after last-ditch bid fails

JimC

Better to go for scrap than lie around getting rustier and rustier and ending up as scrap anyway. You can't keep something that big in good order with volunteer labour. Britain doesn't have that great a record with museum ships. We think of Victory and Belfast, but what about City of Adelaide, the steam tug Reliant, U534 or MV Wincham?

New British flying robot killer death machines renamed 'Protector'

JimC

Re: Wedding Parites[sic]

Yes, I mean, what sort of bizarre culture would associate weapons with wedding celebrations?

linky - Naval Wedding

King's College London staggers from outage, replaces infrastructure services head

JimC

Re: One down...

Now suppose that both of them have spent the last umpteen years campaigning for better infrastructure, highlighting that the college is desperately vulnerable to failures, but been ignored by management up the line who would rather spend the cash on executive bonuses. Would you still want to give them P45s? It may be that the choices they faced were all appalling, and they had to pick what appeared to be the least risky option. How do you know you would have done any better? Until you know the whole story you know nothing, which is the trouble with social media witchhunts. Plus of course the other thing to consider is whether, with the money on offer and the job circumstances on offer, they'll actually get anyone who could do a better job.

Woman rescues red pepper Donald Trump from vegetarian chilli

JimC

Re: To prevent this

But, but, but... Right now, all over the world people are buying up peppers and slicing them like that in the hope of finding another amusing shot to post to facebook. Sales of capsicums are booming, the economy benefits... And no doubt president elect Trump will be claiming it as the first economic success of his term in office...

Visa cries foul over Euro regulator's stronger authentication demands

JimC

Re: Locomotive Act

178,000 injured, 7,300 killed in Road accidents 1930. That tide of progress came with one hell of a price. A bit more regulation might have saved a lot of misery.

User needed 40-minute lesson in turning it off and turning it on again

JimC

Re: miscommunication/dingbat

Yep, one could argue that the problem was equal on both ends of the phone.

As for the dingbat thing, too many people in IT are far too inclined to look down on people who don't happen to care about IT. There are many skills and talents required to run a business. The 'talent' to sit down all day doing a mind numbingly boring repetitive task may not be well regarded, but the output may be just as vital as any other aspect of the business, and the people who have the mindset to do it should be celebrated, not least for making it possible for folks like you and me not to do the tasks...

In DOS wordperfect days I recall an aggrieved user agressively complaining down the phone one morning that since I'd looked at her PC all she had left on the screen were random letters. On visiting site I turned up the brightness so that more than the highlighted letters were visible. Doubtless the cleaner had accidentally tweaked it. But I was reminded of this yesterday reading some oral history from the Korean War in which a pilot was telling the story of his gunsight problems... While he was complaining to his senior officer about how difficult it was to do ground attack without a decent gunsight an NCO came in and said:

"We've found the problem with your gunsight sir"

"Poor maintenance"

"No, sir, we've turned the brilliance control up for you"

Nothing changes...