Posts by constance szeflinski

Kaspersky challenges US government to put up or shut up about Kremlin ties

Everyone is suspect after today. Issuing a unilateral Update to all their software simultaneously might insert something malicious that wasn’t there before.

No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

First there was IBM

I worked in the patent operations department when IBM first beat the Xerox suit (against IBM’s Copier Ii for infringing Xerox patents) then beat the antitrust suit. In both cases we (that’s IBM legal) threw money, lawyers, and massive quantities of documents at the opposition. Even the US government could not afford the legal talent required to mount a decent prosecution. That was just the beginning. I doubt things have changed much and the current top tech companies are sitting pretty much the here IBM was. It will take other tech to bring down the current monopolies, not the government.

What strange beauty is this? Microsoft commits to two more non-subscription Office editions

Re: it tends to screw up the formatting.

Or use Frame. I know many hate it but for large missed docs it is the bomb!

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be coders, Jensen Huang warns

And Tape is Dead

The world has been declaring the death of tape storage almost since I entered the world of data storage in the 70s. As we all know, tape is alive and well. Declaring the death of coding is even more ridiculous.

Apple to compel workers to spend '3 days a week' in the office

Get overyourselves

The person or company paying you gets to define what you’re being paid for. That’s the way it works. If you don’t like the definition because it includes showing up in person you have options, one of which is to find a job more to your liking. Another is to unionize and with like minded colleagues negotiate for what you want. Simply complaining isn’t going to move the needle at all. If you are important enough the rules will change for you. If not, that’s life, and no one said it would be exactly what you want it to be.

Silicon Valley VCs: We're gonna make California great again – on its own

Re: I'd like to see them rule the Internet

The states of Washington and Oregon will join California - and maybe Nevada too. I would wish they'd like to have Colorado as a nom-contiguous member and perhaps New Mexico too. That configuration would have a decent chance of surviving. Self sufficiency is not required, just the means to make enough money to be successful globally - you can trade for things you don't make/grow yourself.

Re: I'm moving to Reno if we get Calexit...

I'd say LET THEM GO!!! Let the South go - let all the red states go and see what they can put together with their 19th century attitudes and leave the rest of us alone to live in the 21st century.

Those poor Trump voters are in for a terrible awakening

Hillary won the popular vote by more than Kennedy or Nixon (or Gore, another sad tale of the electoral college anacrhonism). So there are more "blue" people than "red" people and the "blue" people are more affluent. Do you really think that will change in any way except where the "blue" people actually get richer and the "red" people get poorer. I don't think that's the result any of them are looking for but it is what it is. If they drive the "illegals" out then they can come and mow my lawn and clean my toilet or pick fruit because those are the "good jobs" those "illegals" are taking away from them. There is no way the high paying assembly line jobs are ever coming back - they are gone for good because a robot can do the job better and cheaper than a human being. The upside may be for older tech workers who have recently been replaced with lower paid H1-B folks. There will be jobs for those ready to retire, should they want to keep working. Age discrimination may slow a bit because there definitely are not enough properly educated young folks to step in to all the jobs now held by foreigners.

Sony wins case over pre-installed Windows software

Re: Is there some point missing ?

In the case of a subsidized machine that "refund" will actually cost you money because removing the OS adds cost, it does not subtract it :-)

You can't always get what you want

Oy vey! This is ridiculous - I can choose to sell only red hats but pink hats are simply not available even if all the hats start out pink before I dye them red. This is the foundation of this absurdity. Here's what I'm selling - don't want it - don't buy it!

US work visas for international tech talent? 'If Donald Trump is elected all bets are off'

Re: Good for competition?

Yes, our education system is so awful that over 70% of those foreign employees were educated at US colleges. There are plenty of great people available for employment right here the problem is they know how much money they should be making and companies are loathe to pay them what they are worth. The funny thing is that I've never seen a development project come in on time or at budget using these cheap workers - in general when things get in real trouble they hire some very expensive old fart consultants (all US originals) to fix the problems the in the outsourced/foreign contractor code for more than it would have cost to do it right in the first place. Executives only see "I get x number of people for y number of dollars" - they never see that the x number of people just muck things up when fewer better people could bring the project in for fewer dollars in the end. Throwing more and cheaper people at a development project generally does more harm than good - but I've never met an executive that accepts that fact.

Re: Good for competition?

It is not the good people who want to come to the USA that are the problem - the problem is greedy employers who see those good people as a way to pay less for the job. "I can get a foreigner to do the same job as a US citizen and only pay them two thirds of what the citizen will cost - sign me up."

It is unfair to the US citizens who had to pay their way through college only to find that their jobs are being taken by foreigners willing to work for less than it takes to live (how they do it is beyond me - no college graduate should be forced to live like a poor starving student their entire working career - they are entitled to be paid what the job they trained for is worth - not get by on what someone who will do just about anything to live in the US is willing to put up with.

Trouble at t'spinning rust mill: Disk drive production is about to head south

And Tape is Dead too.

Forget choice: 50% of firms will demand you BYOD by 2017

The way to make all these different devices compatible ic through a VDI (virtual desktop interface) accessed through a VPN (virtual private network) with strong security. You can then open an excel spreadsheet on an iPad or any other supported device - it's the wave of the future. The data security is pretty impressive (for anything even partially exposed on the internet, of course if you want real security you need a closed network and no internet connection at all but we're not talking about that here). Anyhow, VDI is the wave of the future and it allows maximum flexibility in device selection but total control of the virtual machines by IT - it really is the best of both worlds (no, I'm not a shill for any VDI related company just a happy employee who actually enjoys the virtual environment and the ability to connect to it in so many different ways).

Take a hammer to your hard drive, shrieks Which?

Destroy the platters for complete privacy

You know, it depends on who you want to keep the data from. There are data forensic experts who can read through several layers of "destruction" done using various programs. The only way to be absolutely sure that no one can ever recover any date from a drive is to destroy the platters. That's simply a fact. Of course if you're just trying to hide from a casual user without access to a lab, software destruction will probably work.

US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly

It's people like you...

Oh Nick - you are the definition of the Ugly American. As long as folks like you speak out, the truly good people here in the US will continue to be suspect. And we are basically good. Our government is out of control and in the hands of some astonishingly evil people - both of the Republican and Democratic variety. I hope we can implement some type of peaceful revolution to return to our brilliant constitution. Barring that - I would seriously consider a move north. I'm not giving up yet,but every time I read crap like Nick's I begin to wonder if the forces of good can win back the heart of America.

Sorry for the over the top prose - I'm pretty disgusted by what my government is doing in my name and I just want the rest of the world to know we're not all like that.