Posts by greatfog

OS-busting bug so bad that Microsoft blocks Windows Insider release

"27 Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him."

-- "Proverbs 26", _King James Bible_, Bible Hub

[https://biblehub.com/kjv/proverbs/26.htm]

$16B health dept managed finances with single Excel spreadsheet. It hasn’t gone well

Re: Maligning Excel

Spreadsheet cells showing values, but hiding mathematical expressions that reference other spreadsheet cells showing....

VBA macros referencing spreadsheet cells through relative row-column addresses...

Refactor this application?

Document it?

Provide a suite of unit tests?

Holiday in Cambodia, anyone?

Re: The first time ...

The purpose of accountancy is to

1) show someone how much money they have, and

2) advise them how to spend as little of it as possible.

That's not long division, Timmy! China school experimented on pupils with mind-reading tech

Obligatory

"We don't need no education

We don't need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teachers leave them kids alone"

-- Pink Floyd, "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2", SongMeanings

[https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858917082/]

Amphetamines are fun! Later for Ritalin... :)

Corrigendum

"At the outbreak of the Second World War, Orwell's wife Eileen started working in the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information in central London.... Orwell also submitted his name to the Central Register for war work, but nothing transpired.

...

In August 1941, Orwell ... was taken on full-time by the BBC's Eastern Service. ... This was Orwell's first experience of the rigid conformity of life in an office..."

--- "George Orwell", Wikipedia

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell]

New Zealand cops cuff alleged jackasses who shared mosque murder video, messages online

8.3.4. "How will privacy and anonymity be attacked?"

...

- like so many other "computer hacker" items, as a tool for the "Four

Horsemen": drug-dealers, money-launderers, terrorists, and pedophiles.

-- "Cyphernomicon", Cypherpunks

Dead link: [https://cypherpunks.to/faq/cyphernomicron/chapter8.html#3]

Re: "Islamic" terrorism can only die when people stop calling it Islamic.

Is there such a thing as "the Islamic community"?

Consider Sunni and Shi'ah (for a start.)

Consider "the Christian community". Does it include the Roman Catholic Church, the Latter-day Saints, and Westboro Baptist Church?

Jack Vance: Science fiction’s master of magic, mischief and sex

The craft of fantasy has lost a Master

<- Sea-Dragon Conqueror Mask

I first read "The Dying Earth" in the early 60s. Vance's capricious characters, distinctive dialogue, strange settings, and astonishing action enthralled me for decades afterwards. I have found few other writers whose work rewarded repeated reading over such a length of time. While his work always carried an unmistakeable flavor, his invention spanned many people and worlds.

If there is a heaven for those who do their work well and bring delight to others, he is there.

No.10 guru: UK tech scene is AN EXPLODING CHEESE

Rhetoric Police!

Step away from that metaphor! NOW!

HP launches security service for after the horse has bolted

Re: lol so true

Hire Cliff Stoll to watch the Receive/Transmit LEDs 24/7/365.

Fans of dead data 'liberator' Swartz press Obama to sack prosecutor

FYI

From whitehouse.gov:

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Remove United States District Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz.

[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck]

Texas schoolgirl loses case over RFID tag suspension

Re: "gotten"

The usage is rare, but still in your dictionary:

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/259959

Human Rights Watch proposes new laws of robotics

It's too late

and has been for a long time.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_gun]

Las Vegas death ray roasts hotel guests

France FTW

"The term "solar furnace" has also evolved to refer to solar concentrator heating systems using parabolic mirrors or heliostats where 538 °C (1,000 °F) is now commonly achieved. The largest solar furnace in the world is at Odeillo in the Pyrenees-Orientales in France, opened in 1970."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace]

Flames... "'cause it's hot." [BOC]

The Open Cloud Manifesto in full

Open Cloud Considered Harmful

1. Security and integration require competent designers working on realistic schedules. Prudently managed businesses avoid such expenses and such impediments to early market entry. Portability and interoperability provide unacceptable advantages to competitors. Governance/management and metering/monitoring are acceptable business areas, but only if served through proprietary products and well-protected intellectual property.

2. Businesses offering insecure and unscalable products must lock customers into a particular platform, or they will lose sales to well-design, effective, and interconnectable alternatives.

3. The IT industry investment in existing standards and standards organizations is income lost to businesses entering the Cloud market. An entering organization will assure a healthy revenue stream by rendering existing IT investments obsolete.

5. Community effort driven by customer needs will reveal shortcomings in providers' offerings, leading to loss of income and prestige. Before satisfying customer requirements, a business must first minimize costs, maximize profitability, and increase market share.

6. Standards organizations eliminate product differentiation and thereby destroy a firm's advantage of marketing a unique product. Advocacy groups and communities interfere with cost reduction efforts by publicizing ineffective products and unethical practices. A business best reinforces its equity and credit positions with re-engineering-prevention licenses, non-disclosure agreements, and agressive patent and intellectual property litigation.

(Disclaimer: I am not now, not have I ever been, an employee, shareholder, or creditor of Microsoft.)

Brits 'a bunch of yellow bastards', says irate Yank

@Fluffykins 6th Feb 17:21 GMT

I, for one, welcome our perfidious, shopkeeping overlords.

Toshiba pledges 30in OLED TV will ship in 2009

Why Organic?

The market already offers large inorganic LED displays. If I need a durable display, and I do not need it to bend, why do I need OLEDs?