Posts by nematoad

SOP

"Until now SIMS was very much the anomaly."

If all their competitors have three year contracts they could have sold the year long contracts as a unique selling point, but instead they have gone for the short term fix, presumably in order to recoup the cost of the purchase.

Having read a lot of the comments on edugeek it looks as if SIMS was falling behind the others and the new management has seen this and decided to sweat the asset before it slides into irrelevance.

It seems standard practice for these private equity types.

To quote Capt. Jack Sparrow; "Take all you can, give nothing back."

Maybe not.

"Some 450 billion fewer pages were printed in 2020..."

It couldn't have something to do with all the problems Microsoft are having sorting out the Windows printing problems could it?

A fan?

"the Start menu refuses to appear when summoned...the solution is to open Task Manager, then kill and restart the Explorer process, which is not too painful though hardly intuitive."

It seems that some people are easily pleased.

Bastards, the lot of them.

Well users might be gnashing their teeth in frustration but spare a thought for Google.

Think of all the data they could have been slurping from all those emails and messages.

Money doesn't grow on trees you know and they have a duty to turn all that data into bonuses for the C suite.

Ha!

"...by using Windows as a universal shim."

At least it will be useful for something then.

Happy daze.

"...you're basically stuck with plain or, for some reason, paprika."

Good lord, the thought of paprika flavoured crisps brings back a few memories.

During my time in the Army in the late '60s I was posted to Germany and paprika was the only flavour we could get. If my memory serves me correctly, we didn't even have the luxury of ready salted ones.

Mind you, given the fact that the booze was duty free most of the time we were not in a fit state to know what flavour the crisps were.

Eh?

Do tell me.

Is he a Republican by any chance?

No thanks.

"Boeing is still hoping airlines start placing more orders for the jets."

I'm not.

But...

"It's easy to be reassured by a big brand, but virtual networks have to work harder for your money, and do so by offering extremely competitive alternatives,"

Yes, probably true but if, like us, you have no choice but to use EE as they are the only one providing a signal, what can you do?

If only there was some way of overriding the laws of physics.

Food for thought.

Rupert,

Thank you for a thoughtful and thought provoking piece on a subject that had slipped under my mental radar.

Uses of AI to recreate a person who we have lost is as you say an almost irresistible temptation and like many things, like fire, can be two-edged.

Both good and bad will come of this and I feel that not only the AI community should get a grip on the potential problems but the whole of society. One way would be through legislation but I have doubts if politicians are properly equipped to deal with it. Maybe some sort of commission or inquiry would help, that way we could gather the thoughts of everyone. All of us will be affected by this and it is only right that everyone is consulted and it is not left to vested interests to twist any controls on the technique to their private advantage.

Speaking for myself I would love to have been in a position to re-connect, however ephemerally, with people I have lost and I can see that handled in the right way and with sensitivity may well prove to be of great help to many people

Don't think so.

"...my panel and I will continue our ongoing dialogue with NHS England and NHS Improvement"

I'll take that as a no, then.

If the NHS has been fully transparent then what is all the talking about?

Eh?

"...was designed to enable cross-combatant command collaboration to generate globally-integrated effects using artificial intelligence-enabled information,"

It looks like, from this statement, that they have got the AI writing the PR bumf as well.

What in the name of God does it mean?

Tread carefully here.

""The traditional on-prem, highly customised ERP solution, absolutely, positively has to give way to a more SaaS-based ERP solution," he said." ... "That's not how the cloud works,"

Which makes me think "Who is the master here?"

If I buy something from you I would expect it to fit in with my requirements not the other way round. Unless that is you are doing it for free. Then I might think about changing the way my business has developed to fit in with your agenda.

Are SAP offering something here without cost? Or can they convince you that by forcing your business processes into their straight-jacket they are doing you a favour?

Because if they are not then "Caveat emptor"

Of course.

"In a statement, a spokesperson for Cellnex insisted that the deal would improve mobile coverage across the UK."

To quote Mandy Rice Davies, "Well he would, wouldn't he."

Does anyone really think that putting out an obvious self-serving statement like that is going to have any impact whatsoever?

Let's wait and see what the CMA come up with before rushing to judgement.

No thanks.

"Kleber said: "The W3C doesn't get to be the boss of anyone..."

There speaks someone who knows that whatever Google wants, Google gets.

The arrogance is breathtaking and to actually come out and say, "The goal isn't to have one winner and everyone else losing..." Of course it is, and shows that with over 60% of the browser market Google has made sure that it alone is to be the beneficiary of any changes that it manages to ram through.

Google is likely to win if things go on as they are and the internet will be a poorer and more impoverished place for it.

And to think that I have always regarded Microsoft as the unacceptable face of the IT world. Google's hubris and disdain makes MS look positively cuddly.

What!

I'd like to know who the genius is who decided that it was a good idea to start digging up the roads in the busiest resort town on the Isle of Wight in the middle of the season.

The queues and disruption are horrendous and like others here where the roads have been dug up half the time there is no-one there and if there is anyone on site most of their time seems to be spent having a brew-up.

When finally the roads and pavements had been reinstated things got back to normal, for about a week, and then the gas network people moved in and dug up all the roads, again! And like their fibre laying brethren the holes are still not filled in and an eerie silence reigns.

I am surprised that valuable plant and equipment can be so easily left just waiting to be stolen.