* Posts by Blue Pumpkin

153 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007

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French authorities raid Google's Paris HQ over tax allegations

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Huh??

In the cloud .. you must be joking ... you have never had to deal with the French taxman.

Everything has to be available as hardcopy for umpteen years - or else another 'fine' opportunity - often in dodecaplicate and stamped by some other government authority whose office is only open between 10 - 11am on the 4th Tuesday of the month if it has an R in it ... and no you can't email it

Having recently had to deal with French govt and financial institutions again, I had forgotten just how bad and bureaucratic everything is .... UK is a paragon of efficiency and helpfulness in comparison

Elon Musk takes wraps off planet-saving Model 3 vapourmobile

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Interesting - Just hope the dates match up.

But unlike most of the others, Teslas actually look like cars you'd want to drive and (certainly for the Model-S) have enough room to fit stuff in them - including people.

But convincing people to pay twice as much for something that doesn't go as far and is more inconvenient to refuel when away from home is still difficult. For £30k you can get an equivalent sized vehicle and at current UK prices (high compared to other countries) still have enough to travel over 100k miles.

Unless petrol prices rise significantly (unlikely until the oil producers have had a good go at putting shale and other competition out of business) or battery technology improves by orders of magnitude, electric vehicles will unfortunately remain toys for the rich.

Doesn't mean to say I don't want one :-)

Ever wondered what the worst TV show in the world would be? Apple just commissioned it

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Streaming services are a joke

Shirley you mean the Decline and Fall of the Times New Roman Empire ?

You say I mustn’t write down my password? Let me make a note of that

Blue Pumpkin
FAIL

Re: Passwords and disaster recovery.

Oh yes, I remember when the power went and the generator didn't kick in .... only then did they realise that the emergency procedures and DR process were securely kept only in electronic format.

Needless to say that did not last

Linux fans may be in for disappointment with SQL Server 2016 port

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Perfectly understandable

Well as it used to be called Sybase ( version 7 II think but it is a long time ago) and it used to run happily on all manner of operating systems except Windows until MS got their mitts on it, the Unix / Linux code is probably hidden down the back of the sofa somewhere....

MAME goes fully FOSS

Blue Pumpkin
Thumb Up

You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building.

Around you is a forest.

A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.

LOHAN sponsor knocks up nifty iMac fish tank

Blue Pumpkin

Some guy called Jake ....

.... makes his living from it http://macquarium.jakeharms.com

But there is a nicer collection of Maquariums here based on various models over the years:

http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/MacAquarium/

Spanish cops discover illegally parked flying car

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Mini on a second floor flat roof

Yep - ours was lifted from the car park sideways into the goods lift at the back of the Computer Science building to reappear later in one of the lecture halls ... happy days indeed :-)

Feds look left and right for support – and see everyone backing Apple

Blue Pumpkin

Re: It doesn't matter

You don't need to go that far.

Once you've given in to one government why shouldn't other countries demand the same for their 'terrorist' or 'crimes against the state' cases ?

On the list of national agencies you'd trust to do the right thing the FBI is (unlikely as it may seem) pretty high on the list in a relative way.

So Mr Apple you can do this for the US but not for us ? Some nice looking market share and shops you have there, wouldn't want anything to happen to them would you ...

Brits unveil 'revolutionary' hydrogen-powered car

Blue Pumpkin
Trollface

Re: A better offroad vehicle than a Range Rover?

And managing to be less ugly than a Range Rover Evoque

Pilot posts detailed MS Flight Sim video of how to land Boeing 737

Blue Pumpkin

Re: 747 in old Microsoft Simulator

And the even older VAX version that would let you define your own planes and then would take over your MicroVAX completely.

We used to land the 747s on the aircraft carrier - or not - as we usually ran out of runway - but they did float :-)

Who would code a self-destruct feature into their own web browser? Oh, hello, Apple

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Sooo...

Errr ... All the laws of thermodynamics apply to EVERYTHING ....

1st law : You cannot win.

2nd law : You cannot break even

3rd law : You cannot quit the game

IIRC Ivar Jacobson has a small section entitled Software Entropy in one of his books ... But then again analysis and design is old hat these days ...

You've seen things people wouldn't believe – so tell us your programming horrors

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Bad code? Don't talk to me about bad code...

That and the "I can do table joins in memory quicker than the database" brigade by reading the contents of two tables into memory and then looping over them ...

Yes very good, until it went live and failed in the first 20s when presented with the 4+ million records in the initial load table ...

Five technologies you shouldn't bother looking out for in 2016

Blue Pumpkin

Re: From Hamlet

Yes but methinks he was dead right about 'cloud computing' ....

Amazon Weasel Services ..

Google Whale ..

Oracle Camel ...

Aircraft now so automated pilots have forgotten how to fly

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Pilots will soon only be needed for taxiing

Indeed - I remember one time being in the cockpit for a landing at Zurich.

The tower announced the gate number - the crew looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

The co-pilot reached into the pocket next to him and out came a printed map of the airport, which he turned until it looked right and then said - take the 2nd left ....

AMD's 64-bit ARM server chip Seattle finally flies the coop ... but where will it call home?

Blue Pumpkin
WTF?

x86 was NEVER the right choice

for the last 30 years ....

Unfortunately the margin here is too small to present all of the reasons ...

Intel admits Skylakes can ... ... ... freeze in the middle of work

Blue Pumpkin

Re: VAX microcode

I also remember there being a bug in the VAX hardware on the Venus machine (can't remember the number - 7300 or 7400 maybe) and some bright spark reprogrammed the microcode on-site to work around it.

Plus some recollection of something called MEEP which basically converted an ICL 2900 machine (aka MU5 V2 :-) ) into a 1900 machine so that it could run GEORGE 3 on newer faster hardware with better performance than the native VME operating system.

IT security is a safe job? Tell that to Norse staff laid off this week

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Howard

Usually because as a start up you've grossly overstated the number that you actually have and that give you money .... staff outnumbering customers is generally not a good place.

UK research network Janet under ongoing and persistent DDoS attack

Blue Pumpkin

Guilty

I is one of them computer engineerz.

Though we were more interested in getting that new fangled Telnet working on our PDP-11 at the time. Janet were but scribblings on a white (possibly even black) board ....

Some interesting historical notes here:

http://www.uknof.com/uknof7/Reid-History.pdf

Though there was internet - just not as we know it.

WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

Blue Pumpkin

Even from this angle she still couldn't make out the bloody captcha codes ...

Apple ordered to write a $234m check to uni in A7 chip patent spat

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Tracking out of order execution?

... indeed .. though CDC 6600 is unlikely to mean much these days.

Seems that despite "everything" being on the internet, the history of computer science is not one one them ...

WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

Blue Pumpkin

Guys, guys guys, I specifically said big-endian ...

Get whimsical and win a Western Digital Black 6TB hard drive

Blue Pumpkin

You must provide both a title and a message

B*stards - this is not thé iPhone 6 upgrade I was promised ....

United Nations sends peacekeeping forces to Internet of Things war

Blue Pumpkin

Yes but ...

.. how else do we get the universal protocol and connector so that R2D2 can tap into the Death Star's main computer ?

Five years of Sun software under Oracle: Were the critics right?

Blue Pumpkin
Facepalm

Whatever ...

Having been through DEC, Sun and others (not Oracle thankfully), still nothing comes close to VMS clusters ...

Never underestimate the power of crappy operating systems and databases in large numbers ...

Who wants SLEEP DEPRIVATION for Christmas?

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Backlight levels

Unfortunately not as Apple won't allow you access to the API required to mess with the screen. You need a jail broken device to do this. There are some musings about this on the f.lux site.

Comet lander drill cliffhanger as last dregs of power used

Blue Pumpkin

Re: shock absorbers for landing

I hope they worked, as whenever I drop something fragile on the kitchen floor I always find it breaks on the last bounce ..

AMD's first 64-bit ARM cores star in ... Heatless in Seattle*

Blue Pumpkin

Oooh an SCP with it's own OS ...

.. how very 1980's ...

Hopefully it will not be running a cut down version of RSTS or look like a Pro 350 boat anchor !

Aye lad them were the days ...

New Star Wars movie plot details leak, violate common sense and laws of physics

Blue Pumpkin

Re: As fans on the expanded universe know...

Damn .. I was hoping the hand would end up with Morticia and Gomez ... it would be a much better film.

Give me the Empire ...

What do you say ?

Right now ...

Chrome browser has been DRAINING PC batteries for YEARS

Blue Pumpkin

Re: Poor Bug Fixing

The first law of thermodynamics says you can't win.

The second law says you can't break even.

And the third says you can't quit the game.

High Court derails Google defence in Safari browser stalker cookie brouhaha

Blue Pumpkin

According to Companies House ..

Google UK Limited

Company Number: 03977902

Registered Address:

Belgrave House

76 Buckingham Palace Road

London

SW1W 9TQ

It's JUST possible, but Apple MIGHT not make an iWatch in 2013

Blue Pumpkin
Meh

What goes around ....

Intel used to have a line of digital watch chips in the 70s, that were probably more successful than Itanic.

At one point it was manufacturing the whole product, having acquired Microma in 1972. It then got out of the business in 1978 selling on Microma so it could concentrate on inventing a CPU with a screwed up address space that would hamper us all for the next 35 years ...

Apparently Harrison Ford was wearing one in Blade Runner. But even with a flying car, he is still forced to use public pay phones ...

US gov boffins achieve speeds faster than light

Blue Pumpkin
Angel

I thought bad news was the only thing that travelled faster than light ....

It certainly went faster than Railtrack, that's for sure.

.. apologies to Mr Adams

Renault Fluence ZE

Blue Pumpkin

At least it wasn't named ZEFluence ...

Up there with the Audi E-Tron ...

... where etron translates as 'turd' in French

MobileMe web app features shapeshift into Apple's iCloud

Blue Pumpkin
Thumb Up

iWeb replacement

I use Sandvox from Karelia - its like iWeb but slightly more flexible and the generated code is better.

It also publishes to any ftp site as well.

Sure you have to pay, but £30 over the last 5 years is not really a lot - including all updates during that time.

PARIS in 89,000 ft climax

Blue Pumpkin
Thumb Up

Only the beginning ...

I can only believe that this is the start - and Vulture II will soon be up there to steal everybody else's thunder.

Just think, a decent overcoat and an oxygen mask and it'll be "move over Mr Branston".

PARIS will show you she's no Virgin ...

Apple inks Ping trademark deal with golf gear maker

Blue Pumpkin
Jobs Halo

iPong will be next ...

.. a light apple fragrance with a delicate hint of mouldy turtleneck sweaters

Google's Wave flop: Spare us the warm fuzzies

Blue Pumpkin

Your way of working isn't everybody's way of working ..

In the 80's in DEC (remember them ?) VaxNotes was THE way that the company collaborated. Sure there was email too, and other technologies (VTX anybody ?) but Notes was the way to find stuff and get information.

Unlike web sites (which came much later) it had history, threads, archiving, moderators and the like. It lacked graphics - but who cared when all you had was a VT100 (or VT220 if you were lucky ! )

Although DEC tried to sell it, very few companies managed to use it in such as successful a manner as its creator. Even when it went off to become Lotus Notes and on to IBM, with integrated mail and documents and all the rest, it still never inspired the enthusiasm and take-up of the original (having been through several organisations who tried to use it).

It looks like Google Wave is suffering from the same - it has a place, a time and a corporate culture. But once it gets outside into the big wide-world, there is no corporate culture, ecosystem or technical capability that makes it compelling compared to what is already out there ...

Judge rejects Accenture appeal against £182m lawsuit

Blue Pumpkin
Grenade

It should happen more often ..

It would be a wake-up call to crappy suppliers who bid low, charge through the nose and then don't deliver, together with stupid purchasers who are not prepared to pay the real price of an IT system and usually don't understand what's involved and then get taken for a ride.

Most of the IT industry lives in a make believe world where bids and contract negotiation have no bearing on the reality of what is actually required or how much anything costs. The sooner this industry sorts itself out so that it proposes services, products and capabilities at a price that allows them to be delivered, instead of kidding people, the better.

And on the flip side, the purchasers need to wise up to how much this stuff really costs and not believe that they can screw their suppliers into the ground and change their mind every 5 minutes.

If you think that bankers aren't in touch with reality, the IT procurement world cannot be that far behind ...

Normal service will now be resumed ...

MS Office for Mac 2011 out in October

Blue Pumpkin
FAIL

Eh ?

So why would I stump up £250 (best I found) now for Office 2008 Business Edition, only £449 MRRP, for a free upgrade to something that will cost me £180 (MRRP) in 3 moths time ?

Muppets, every day they seem to be losing it a bit more ...

Bendy bike inventor scores design prize win

Blue Pumpkin
Unhappy

We like encouragement ...

No wonder innovation, engineering and general creativeness are on the decline in this country with most of you lot around ... I can sympathise with Mr Dyson.

(except for general creativeness in the legailsed stealing sector AKA Financial Services)

Yes, software can be patented, US Supremes say

Blue Pumpkin
FAIL

Hmmmm

Maybe then I could patent the process underpinning the legal procedures of patent disputes .....

Twitter botches patch for nasty account-hijacking bug

Blue Pumpkin
FAIL

How hard can it be ...

I mean what is Twitter other than a glorified mailing list, some RSS feeds and a web GUI ?

Not like it's something that's never been attempted.

Probably run by a load of "we can do it better" and "not invented here" developers ...

Microsoft at a loss in Word patent case?

Blue Pumpkin
FAIL

It'll all end in tears ...

If you read the filing the lawyers name is a certain Mike McKool ....

And it is a crappy patent, it's like trying to patent hash tables or indexed files.

Thank god the IEEE stepped in or somebody would be claiming patents on all floating point numbers by now.

US team create carbon nanotube ultra-memory

Blue Pumpkin
Alien

Oh dear

To think we've rediscovered the technology that the those aliens of Rong L Cubbard used in an attempt to transfer all their knowledge to us.

Shame that we thought of it as just coal, never mind ...

Dell launches perfume ad teaser site for Macbook Air rival

Blue Pumpkin

Prior art(ist)

Maybe Mr Adamo will have something to say.

Infringes trade mark or trading name or something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Adamo

Amazon unveils Kindle 2.0

Blue Pumpkin
Thumb Down

A great step forward ..

We have invented the book that needs a keyboard ... WTF ?

Given that paperback books are the size they are so that you can get enough stuff on the page without having to turn it every 3 words, but yet not so big you don't need 2 arms to lift them.

Come on, even before the sacred-iPhone we had touch screens, soft keyboards and handwriting recognition that could cope with multiple input languages ... it's hardly new.

Apple wants to swipe your iPhone

Blue Pumpkin
Thumb Down

From the mists of time ..

I remember that you could set up your own 'swipes' using the tablet connected to the Calma CAD/CAM system we used for integrated curcuit layout in 1982 ...

And if you can find a copy of "Priniciples of Interactive Computer Graphics" by Newman and Sproul, 2nd edition 1979 - one of the definitive introductory works on the subject - then you'll find a description of an algorithm to process gestures on a tablet.

It's also the book that brought us Bui Tong Phong's teapots.

Windows 7 borrows from OS X, avoids Vista

Blue Pumpkin
Thumb Down

Just make it chew gum and walk at the same time ...

As a Mac, Solaris, Linux and reluctant Windows user, one of the things I could never figure out is why Windows disk I/O is so crap given that it runs on the same hardware as all the others.

If MS could only do one thing, it would be to keep the rest of the operating system going while it accesses the disk. For goodness sake it's been over 22 years (yes that long) since Windows 1.0 first hit the streets. You would have thought that at least one of the 100,000 employees could learn how to program interrupts properly in that time.

If they could manage that it might even become useful ...

Boris boots Transys off Oyster contract

Blue Pumpkin
IT Angle

It actually does a bit more than you think ...

The PRESTIGE contract covers the operation of the Oyster card, the barrier readers and nightly processing of all the days travel information and card management.

The original contract was for 15 years (I think - although it may have been 17) whereby the consortium had to stump up all the up front costs. They would then be paid as a percentage of ticket sales. The original break-even point was supposedly in the 10 - 12 year range, I have no idea whether that is still true or not, but expect that Cubic will not be pulling out with a loss.

But still, all the risk was placed squarely on the consortium that bid. It took LT almost 2 years to finally accept the system - which I bet did not count as part of the payback period.

In case you're wondering it collects approximately 10 million journeys per day which it processes overnight. It works out the start and end points for each journey and then determines if the sum of the individual trips would be greater than a daily travel card and caps it at that - obviously there is a bit more complexity if several zones are involved.

Is £100M a lot ? Depends on what you think the alternative is. Do you want to give this kind of project to local government to run ?

In the end they'd just outsource and waste the money between them and the outsourcer. At least Cubic had some incentive to deliver quickly and get it right.

Compare with any of :

- Child Support Agency

- Rural Payments Agency

- Inland Revenue - it may be OK-ish now but it took a while

- NHS Patient details

- LIBRA - Magistrate court system

I don't think I need go on ...

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