Re: Parsing error
> "Being a mediocre pointy-hair greasy-pole climber does not entitle you to be an arse(hole) either. Neither does an MBA".
Entitle, no. Pretty much guarantee, yes.
Posts by nijam
783 posts • joined 4 Nov 2011
In the week Uber blew up, Netflix restates 'No brilliant jerks' policy
> I like Sushi does that make me an arsehole?
Probably so.
> I also enjoy great gyms and frequent parties
Very probably so.
Ad 'urgently' seeks company to build national e-ID system
> ... each person has only one trusted identity
As an aside, I will observe that there are good reasons that people might want to have more than one trusted identity.
Microsoft's new Surface laptop defeats teardown – with glue
Re: Does Microsoft offer an exchange program too?
> I've never seen a laptop with a three-year warranty
If you are an institution buying in quantity, a three year warranty is one of the sweeteners on offer to put you off negotiating a real discount.
Re: That's Surface crossed off my Christmas list, then!
> ...sitting there for several days to find it's still happy and requires no updates
Just because no updates have been made available doesn't mean that none are required.
Software dev bombshell: Programmers who use spaces earn MORE than those who use tabs
Re: "error in line 123, colum 43"
(a) If you can't spot the error given a line number...
or
(b) If you think the column number in an error message is trustworthy...
... you shouldn't be programming.
Re: Bad Surveys
> Made properly, it is basically a bacon and egg pie.
It is *not* a pie! It is a flan.
The use of </flan> in further discussion of the topic is deprecated.
> When working with code you didn't write, you quickly grow tired of working out what the tab width is supposed to be
No you don't . A tab is a tab. A load of spaces is some level of indent that you need to decode.
Re: My code won't run but the spaces are great
*cough* Python *cough*
But then python is an abomination.
When we said don't link to the article, Google, we meant DON'T LINK TO THE ARTICLE!
Re: I read the verdict for you...
> So they asked Google to take this information down - which they did, partially.
..but the red-top with the original and possibly-inaccurate report can leave it online for everyone to see. How does this ruling make any sense at all?
Re: This will be tough...
> Except this isn't censorship.
Yes it is. Read the article.
> It's a case of the Google algorithm mistakenly associating a company with fraud
It's a case of the Google algorithm correctly associating a company with fraud (a slightly-different kind of fraud - but that's splitting hairs).
Maybe Google should replace the link with an item saying "Censored under German law - see records of court case <link>" instead.
Disney mulls Mickey Mouse magic material to thwart pirates' 3D scans
You're all too skeptical of super-duper self-driving cars, apparently
I don't have a self-driving car (of course) but I do have recent one with several automated systems.
For example the rear parking sensor - it's OK-ish, but so paranoid that I wish it would STFU when reversing into a parking space of less than (say) 12 yards long.
For example the windscreen wipers - they're OK-ish, they run when it rains, they don't when it doesn't, but seem really undecided about drizzle. Not had the chance to check them in snow yet, but can't say I'm optimistic.
For example the lane-departure detection system - it's OK-ish, but it can't detect white lines if they're not recently painted, or if there are those shiny strips of tarmac that are sometimes used to form the joins around surface repairs. It's supposed not to worry about lane-departure if you signal beforehand, but evidently disagrees with me as to the meaning of "beforehand". It signals lane departure by vibrating the steering wheel, which is of course undetectable when driving on a typical British road surface.
And so it goes - the more complex the system, the less useful benefit it gives, and the less able it is to cope with real environments. So colour me sceptical about linking lots of these bits together into a more complex system.
BTW, the paranoia point is especially significant, I think. Automated vehicles will simply log-jam our roads because their programming will make them too cautious, I expect. And don't say the onboard "AI" will learn when it's safe to go faster, because that feature will definitely be locked out.
I may be biased, I enjoy driving after all. Maybe we should make it a requirement that self-driving cars also provably enjoy driving?
Ever wonder why those Apple iPhone updates take so damn long?
> The interesting and differentiating thing about a filing system isn't, as most assume, the physical files on the disk, but rather the metadata. So changing filing system means constructing a new file system metadata database, consistency checking it, then flipping a bit to say "now use this metadata / file indexing system."
Maybe you know what Apple has done in this instance, but in general what you say about file systems is simply not true. Obviously, you can't convert EXT3 to NTFS (or vice versa) without wiping and rewriting pretty much the whole disk, for example. OTOH if it is was straightforward a task as you say, it didn't need a multi-GB update, or half an hour of thrashing about, to do it.
Five Eyes nations stare menacingly at tech biz and its encryption
Re: Support privacy friendly apps and services
> Terrorists will just find another way to communicate.
They already have.
A good case could be made that it's the Five Eyes gang who are the organised criminals and terrorists. Not that I would dream of doing so myself...
Two leading ladies of Europe warn that internet regulation is coming
Re: But Angela has a working brain...
> ... an hour of their time browsing the internet...
Nothing new in that, and nothing to do with the internet. Historically, an hour of time reading a tabloid, or an hour of time bulshi??ing with your mates in the pub, would have the same effect.
Windows 10 Creators Update preview: Lovin' for Edge and pen users, nowt much else
Re: One Feature I Want
> ... Slurp's 'Spyware as a Service'
You're looking at it from the wrong direction, it's really "users as a Service (to advertisers)".
Re: Fall Creators Update
> ... as the world evolves, people who can't figure out how to become comfortable with a new version of Windows after 10 years might be headed down the same road as the dodo.
... as the world evolves, versions of Windows that users aren't comfortable with might be headed down the same road as the dodo.
Nuns chastise Google and Eric names Larry greatest human alive
...aggressive lobbying ...
Well, religious organisations are far from innocent in the regard. But then they've been practising for over a millenium.
Infosec guru Schneier: Govts WILL intervene to regulate Internet of Sh!t
Re: Local Network Security
> ... Most contract supplied kit (BT Homehub etc.) is too locked down...
But remember it's locked down to protect the ISP (BT etc) from the consumer, not the consumer from hacking attacks.
Microsoft SCOM crashed some web apps, but the fix didn't fix it
Re: MS have lost their mojo
> Before they could at least hack out stuff which more-or-less worked...
I think you meant "Before they could at least buy in stuff which more-or-less worked..."
... exactly the sort of thing enterprise platforms are supposed not to do.
If you think WIndows is anything but a basic low-performance consumer grade OS that's had a few half-baked management tools and network utilities glommed on, I can only be sorry for you.
Enterprise platform? Not really.
The internet may well be the root cause of today's problems… but not in the way you think
Re: @tiggity You had better tell me some valid reasons to vote leave
> Redstone has given you some.
Even after correcting the spelling, only one of them had a hint of accuracy about it, unfortunately.
> ... the more voters saw the issue as an opportunity to give the powerful and the prevailing bloody noses
Yes, none of us believes it was an actual opportunity, though... it was just marketed to the electorate as such, which is why it was *seen* as such.
Re: The problem isn't ideologies spreading on the Internet
> Austerity simply is wrong, and it will look wrong from many viewpoints
You could make a much better case to support the view that profligacy is what is wrong.
HPE claims new gen-10 ProLiants have more mem persistence, more secure server firmware
... made from custom HPE silicon and iLO firmware.
Improved attack surface. (At least two possible readings of the phrase are possible, choose whichever you prefer.)
Class clowns literally classless: Harvard axes meme-flinging morons
Re: Free Speech does not exist on the internet
> Free speech was exercised
The word is "excised".
Re: Humor vs. Stupid
> "... there are so many topics that just should not be joked about,"
Free speech might or might not be one of them.
Trident nuke subs are hackable, thunders Wikipedia-based report
Re: The weakest point ... ?
> ... do you have a particularly dodgy batch of VGA cables in mind?
My keyboard is not connected to my screen by a VGA cable (dodgy or otherwise), or indeed by a cable at all.
WannaCrypt: Pwnage is a fact of life but cleanup could and should be way easier
Re: The everlasting light bulb
... MS's new OS was not the brittle, leaky sieve that our customer was using
No indeed, it's a completely new leaky sieve, with specially-designed new leaks.
Microsoft court victory prompts call for data-grabbing regime
"...the government's inability to have its cake and eat it too."
...the government's inability to have your cake and eat it too.
FTFY
Windows is now built on Git, but Microsoft has found some bottlenecks
The real battle of Android's future – who controls the updates
Re: No Skins please.
> Econ 101 tells me that if there is no supply, then odds are the demand isn't there.
Or that the supply side is an effective monopoly. Or the distribution side is an effective monopoly.
With most phones sold via carriers, it's probably both of those. Manufacturers spec their product not for the end user but for the carrier, in practice.
Nutanix, IBM hug each other in Power pity party
> That is like saying "have an electrical utility plant in your own house."
There are circumstances and locations (not many, I concede) where solar panels or a small wind turbine make sense for a house, of course.
10Mbps universal speeds? We'll give you 30Mbps, pleads Labour in leaked manifesto
Re: Completely scrapping ADSL then
> SNCF runs like a dream compared to our network
No, not really ... a few high profile services are impressive, but mostly French railways are just as shit as ours.
Mozilla to Thunderbird: You can stay here and we may give you cash, but as a couple, it's over
Re: "The long term plan is to migrate our code to web technologies"
> As long as your main competitor is Outlook, you need to do far better.
Outlook is scarcely a benchmark as a competent email client. Of course, there are many other things it does badly, besides email.
Re: Modernize
“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” - Oscar Wilde
> ...fewer potential exploit avenues and/or points of failure.
I think not. Webmail is an abomination anyway, and a browser isn't a "point of failure", it's a whole 3-dimensional space of failure.
Windows 10 S: Good, bad, and how this could get ugly for PC makers
Re: Blanket Laptops.....
> ...this is to make the laptop more durable...
Actually it's to keep the laptop warm, thereby creating a hospitable environment for a whole ecosystem of bugs to thrive in.
Post Unity 8 Ubuntu shock? Relax, Linux has been here before
Re: Losing Unity 7/8 is not the end of the world!
> ... the vast majority of the world disagrees with you and thinks Windows 10 is more polished than Linux Mint
Would that be because they've tried both and then made a well-informed decision, I wonder? Or because they're too dim to realise that there's an alternative to having GWX perform unwanted surgery on their computers?
Apache OpenOffice: Not dead yet, you'll just have to wait until mid-May for mystery security fixes
Re: I admire their spunk!
> ...at MS, they must spend a lot of time figuring out ways to get open software to fail to properly render an MS Office document
I don't think they need to. MSOffice makes such a dog's breakfast of layout, font, etc. that it's pretty much a given that well-designed software would struggle with it.
> Because it was confidential information.
Maybe it used to be, at some point in history. But once it's been on a public facing website, even for only a few minutes, it's not confidential information.
Re: I prefer OpenOffice
> An office suite is an office suite, and the storage problem is quite orthogonal to it.
True. And yet...try getting Microsoft to understand that.
Re: I prefer OpenOffice
> ...it seems smother...
Odd phrasing, but I take it to mean you're supporting the OpenOffice euthanasia vote.
Republicans want IT bloke to take fall for Clinton email brouhaha
The "formal letter" quoted in the article gives every appearance of being pure showboating.
European Court of Justice lays down the law on Kodipocalypse
Re: mmmmmmmmmm...
> One assumes, further, that it may become illegal to pass any directions as to where you can find the instructions on how to install such software.
Since URLs are not (and never were) any more a "communication to the public" than telephone numbers, yours is the only possible interpretation of the ruling (i.e. it is not the URL per se, but telling people about it, that constitutes a "communication to the public"). Your only error is in using the wrong tense: "may become" rather than "is".
Don't install our buggy Windows 10 Creators Update, begs Microsoft
Re: Another day
> Machines that were worthless after about Vista can be given a new life.
Yes, they were all upgraded to Linux.
(sorry, couldn't resist.)
Re: Another day
> I welcome the delay very much, take as long as you need to fix it MS.
Heat death of the universe would be fine by me too.
Don't stop me! Why Microsoft's inevitable browser irrelevance isn't
Re: Hacking.
> ... if it compiles successfully then ship it and fix any bugs in the next version
if it compiles successfully then ship it and fix one or two bugs in the next version, ad infinitum
