Posts by Sean Kennedy

I got 99 problems, and all of them are your fault

Re: Correlation does not equal cause

Wait, you aren't?

Umm

40,000 Tinder pics scraped into big data service

Speak for yourself

I charge, so I'd be more of a whore.

Oh, the things Vim could teach Silicon Valley's code slingers

On pink UIX elephants

What I'm talking about are the needless UI rewrites that don't actually do anything for users (web browsers seem to be the most egregious example of this)

Can I just call attention to the elephant in the room, and say the web browser isn't quite the most egregious example the author could have thought of?

Microsoft and their products...Office, Windows. Who the hell thought putting a phone interface on a server was a good idea? Anyone? Word/excel/ect...all seem to have significant UI changes every version, but I've yet to hear a clear reason why.

By comparison, browser changes are relatively benign. There's tabs, address/search bar and bookmarks. Everything else just gets in the way of the actual webpage you're trying to view. Sure, icons might change a bit...menus might shift...but as most of us aren't poking around in there too much anyway, there isn't any muscle memory to trip over while trying to do common tasks.

A vintage year for snoopers and big state-ists

You know what the real challenge was? Reading the article.

Are the editors off this weekend? The author has worse grammar than I do, which is shameful.

Intel's latest diversity report shows numbers at a standstill

I guess I'm still not seeing the problem. By this point I think we've come to the conclusion that it's not discriminatory hiring practices that are causing the numbers, but rather a deeper cultural issue.

If that's the case, then why should companies care? They should be hiring the best candidates for the positions, and indeed, that seems to be what is happening.

Where's the problem?

Symantec cloud portal goes titsup after database crash

Forgive my callousness, but if you chose Symantec for email filtering, you kind of get what you deserve.

It's kind of like using McAfee antivirus.

Microsoft's Brad Smith on encryption: Let the politicians decide

"Let the politicians decide"?

That sounds like a punchline to a terrible/terrifying joke. Let the politicians decide? Have you been watching the primaries, there Brad? Do any of those folks seem like the kind of people who are swayed by "facts"? Have you seen any dump trucks and tubes lately? Brad, have you paid *any* attention, at all, to how over government works...ever?

He may very well have said, "I'm bought and paid for, so treat my opinion accordingly", because honestly? That's all I heard.

Fiorina: I rushed out HP servers to power NSA snooping. Mwahahaha!

So not only did she wreck HP, but she also contributed to warrantless wiretapping?

Remember the good old days when our candidates at least gave lip service to upholding the Constitution?

Norton for Windows 10 is NOT a box-borking beta, insists Symantec

No sympathy

I'm sorry, but if you are running Norton you gain no sympathy from me. They've been absolute shit long enough that you should have been forewarned if you'd been paying any attention at all over the past 10 years.

Bethesda all out for 'Fallout 4', fallout for global productivity foretold in countdown

"Setting"

I heard Boston and Philadelphia thrown around, but I really don't know.

For my money, however, they couldn't go wrong by taking it to New Orleans and playing off the 1950s voodoo angle. There's a lot of atmosphere they could exploit to really give the game a great feel.

Hawk like an Egyptian: Google is HOPPING MAD over fake SSL certs

My bad, I missed that.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

Why not revoke MCS Holding's cert which allowed them to sign the fake certs?

Web geeks grant immortality to Sir Terry Pratchett – using smuggled web code

Bloody hell

Why do *I*, of all people, have to be the one to point out that the inventor of the clacks ( Robert Dearheart ) did NOT die? His son John died while working on a rival company to The Grand Trunk, but Adora's father is very much alive in the books.

Sit back and let someone else manage your telephony

Cisco, overly complex? No way!

I don't see the point in "TEH CLOUDZ!!!" for voip service when things like asterisk exists. It may not be as featureful as the big names ( and I say that only because I don't have a full understanding of the big name products ), but I have yet to run into something that it can't do in small/medium size businesses.

Well, aside from draining their wallets of course. Utilize existing hardware? Check. Basic and advanced call duties? Check. Transparent auditing of calls and caller behavior? Check. Unlimited extensions ( up to hardware maximum )? Check. Open standards? Check.

Licensing fees? *crickets*.

Nope, I can't in good conscious recommend offsite voip systems.

Nokia boss smashes net neutrality activists

Honor TOS bits?

I get what he's saying, and he has a point. Point of fact, it's an old point, and one that has already been solved; why not make "Net Neutrality" mean that ISPs are to honor TOS bits?

I realize this means client software/hardware can wreck havoc with incorrectly setting TOS and the like, but that's not something that should be handled by ISPs. They have proven they aren't trust worthy.

Norton Internet Security antivirus update 'borked Internet Explorer'

First time Norton's A/V has actually been effective, I'd say. So of course they're going to "correct" it.

El Reg's festive dating app guide, Pt. 2: The FEMALE perspective

Site redesign

So the HUGE honkin' picture right up front with a couple in bed...not exactly work friendly. Whereas I used to be able to browse theregister from work, now? Nope.

Guess I'll have to chalk this up to a loss.

Put me through to Buffy's room, please. Sony hackers leak stars' numbers, travel aliases

You know, I can't help but imagine that somewhere in Sony, there's "that" IT guy who's been screaming, probably for years, that they need to take security seriously. He's probably been reprimanded for it, because he won't let it drop.

Putting aside all the evil bullshit Sony has pulled in the past, I'd say they probably deserve this because they didn't take security seriously. There should have been no way a single hack, or even a series of hacks, have gotten this much data. Compromised them this much.

Sysadmin Day 2014: Quick, there's still time to get the beers in

Some produce infographics containing interesting tit-bits of information about sysadmins.

Erm, I believe that's supposed to be "tidbit".

Although I like the incorrect form better, myself. Kind of rolls off the tongue, as it were.

BlackBerry claims ugly duckling Passport mobe is a swan in the offing

Re: More BS from RIM

Ouch. You do understand the concept of resolution vs pixel size, right?

Indeed, although I'm at a bit of a loss to explain how it's relevant in context here.

More BS from RIM

Anyone notice how the cells in the spreadsheet on the android is at least twice the length of the cells on the passport?

Who falls for that crap?

Google spaffs $50 MILLION on 'get girls coding' campaign

Maybe women just don't like coding?

I will never understand the need to chase specific classes of people for professions. Are we really so short on willing coders that we need to entice disinterested parties into the job?

I mean, isn't the end goal here to get people who aren't that interested in doing the job INTO the job over those that ARE interested in doing it? Does that make sense to anyone?

Democrats pitch long-shot bid for FCC ban on prioritization deals

I doubt it's a serious attempt

To me, this smells more like a political "look at what my opponent wouldn't support but I did!"

BOFH: On the contrary, we LOVE rebranding here at the IT dept

I'm lobbying for a good rebranding myself

"Central Unified Network Technologies Specialists"

Kind of rolls of the tongue, don't it?

Cloud computing is FAIL and here’s why

Clouds are so last week

Haven't you heard? It's all about the "Internet of Things". Now, I can hear you cynics out there thinking ( it's a gift ), "But things were already on the internet!", and you'd be "technically" correct ( especially in the case of some specialty fetish sites ). But what we're talking about here are "Things(tm)". You know. With a capital T.

Presumably, clouds would constitute a "Thing(tm)". Web2.0? Perhaps another "Thing(tm)".

Maybe Adobe's problem isn't the draconian DRM, nor it's over-reliance on their obviously incompetent staff, but that they simply do not have enough "Things(tm)".

BOFH: Oh DO tell us what you think. *CLICK*

I sometimes wonder if the author works where I work, or have worked. Too many stories mirror reality too closely. Sadly, this reduces any enjoyment I may derive from the stories and instead threaten, at times, to give me flashbacks.

White House blasts Samsung for tweeting Obama-Ortiz selfie

Re: Act Like a President...

taking selfies is fine if you are a private individual, but I'm sorry, I expect more mature behavior out of my president. Unfortunately I'm stuck with this idiot for a few more years...

Then we'll get an entirely new idiot to tolerate for at least 4 years.

And no; selfies are not "fine". Tolerated, fine, but they're idiotic.

There's a certain amount of irony in the president, or at least his administration, getting up in arms about how personal data is used.

Will Yelp help 'Yahoo!' compete with Google? Search us...

Yelp ain't a bed of roses either

Folks have already spoken of the merits of Yahoo, so let me take a moment to talk about yelp.

Ostensibly they are a reputation service. Unfortunately, they work in much the same way as dating websites; they have every interest in hooking businesses for fees in order to "manage their reputations". I've worked with several businesses in this area, and have seen first hand how you get shill reviewers posting objectively false negative reviews, and the only way to correct it is to buy the expensive services from yelp, or to try to get your own customers to post positive reviews in order to offset the negative.

Now, I don't know if these are just individuals out to troll local businesses or there is something more nefarious going on, but ultimately it doesn't matter. When your business model relies on trolls, your entire company premise is ethically and morally flawed.

Apple, Symantec, other tech heavies challenge anti-gay legislation

Re: Guess I'll be the bad guy

BillG; does [h] mean anything to you?

Re: We aren't back in the Jim Crow days

But why do we have those laws? And why do they apply to private businesses? I should be allowed to discriminate against religious nuts by refusing service if I so choose to.

As it stands, I can be compelled by law to perform service for people I may otherwise wish to refuse service for.

( granted, I'm guessing this only applies to protected classes and only if the reason to refuse service is because they exist in the protected class. Still .... )

Guess I'll be the bad guy

Why is it wrong to allow private businesses to refuse service to whomever they choose?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not taking the position of religious freedom here; Not only am I not religious, I happen to think the nutters behind this bill are small minded bigots. BUT, their business is their private property. In essence. Why should they be forced to provide service/product to people they don't want to?

The premise for the bill may be reprehensible, but the results are something else again.

It's worth noting that it's a two way street; businesses could decide to refuse service to those that refuse service. We aren't back in the Jim Crow days, where the minority is without power of their own; they could very well turn around and refuse service right back.

California high school hackers expelled for grade tampering, test thievery

Re: They tried to cheat

They won't find things so easy when they are in the real world

I know. Results vary, but in the harshest instances of cheating they could be promoted to management.

But of course, the cheaters by that point are already in management, so I guess it's a moot point.

Microsoft: Don't listen to 4chan ... especially the bit about bricking Xbox Ones

Another factor

Another factor that helped propagate this is MS's past shady behavior. I have no problem believing, for instance, that they would include legacy support but have disabled it in order to generate future revenue.

It's the unfortunate truth.

CIOs, IT chiefs: ARRGH! What do you MEAN, HR just bought 400 iPads and didn't tell us

Re: I don't want control ( Mephistro )

Haven't you ever considered the possibility that many of those IT departments are too under-budgeted and/or under manned to perform those requests?

Of course. The problem is that, quite often, IT depts will simply say "No", or possibly "No Money" and shutdown the request.

That's not the proper way to handle it, however. You need to involve the requesting department in the entire process. Done correctly, they'll come to the same conclusion you did. But they need to feel included and that you took their request seriously.

What I've found is that when you take the time to educate other departments, not only do they stop going around IT, but they work with you to lift those constraints. IT budgets are often low because IT is "magic" to everyone out side of IT, because no one has ever taken the time to show everyone what IT actually does.

Communication is, as ever, key.

Re: I don't want control ( Peter )

I suspect they meant "obstructionists" as opposed to "gatekeeper".

Too often I've walked into IT depts where they do their best to torpedo every request. I've never really learned where IT depts get this attitude from, but it's prevalent. One of the first things I have to do anywhere I go is implement an objective approval process, complete with open communication to all involved parties.

Too often the IT decision making processes are voodoo to outside departments, precisely because there is no visibility, no communication. This breeds an environment where outside depts are resentful that IT nixed their FTP server project, and IT is resentful because of their perceived attitude problem.

Re: I don't want control

To be fair, a lot of blame belongs to IT depts too. I have run in to too many of them who act as roadblocks to new processes as opposed to assistants in building business efficiency.

I don't want control

I don't want to be in control of these projects, I just want to be involved.

It's shortsighted in the extreme for these outside departments to exclude their experts when making tech decisions. Too often I have had an outside department bring me a multi-thousand dollar software package only to be told, a) We don't have the server infrastructure for it and b) they didn't buy enough licenses and c) we don't have the network infrastructure to handle the remote sites.

Usually, it's even more basic than that; often they'll buy things that don't match their requirements. Not their "wants", but their requirements.

To say nothing about the various regulations that need to be observed.

IT, as a department, has untold amounts of experience with all things technical and regulatory. Not including them in a tech project is remarkably stupid.

Only 1 in 5 Americans believe in pure evolution – and that's an upswing

As a citizen of the USA, allow me to apologize.

...although the wording here bugs the shit out of me. Had they asked me if I "believed" in evolution, I'd have probably said no, too. Belief requires faith. I do not blindly accept evolution; rather I appreciate the real, hard science that has gone into our current theory ( note: Scientific Theory, not the slang "Theory" which is more hypothesis ), and appreciate all of the hard work that we still have to do to further refine it.

But "believe in it"? It's a slap in the face to every evolutionary biologist to slap faith and belief on to the subject, and I refuse to do so.

Does a cloud have to be public, or can it be private?

What is the definition of a "Cloud"

Does anyone know what a "Cloud" really represents? I know sales drones and managers love to throw the term around, each believing it to mean whatever is more advantageous to their own interests ( which is a hoot in meetings, let me tell you ), but neither really understands what it means. Sadly, nor do most IT folks. So sit right back and prepare to receive some serious knowledge;

A Cloud is nothing more than a S.E.P., from HHGG, almost literally. When you contract for cloud services, what you are really do is making the infrastructure "Somebody Else's Problem".

Amazon offers SEP services for companies, but it's equally possible to turn IT into a service oriented service, where other divisions of the business buy infrastructure services. Ergo, it is entirely possible to have a "private cloud" service.

( It's possibly worth noting that I have a rational need to do violence to people who use the word "Cloud" seriously. )

Microsoft Xbox gaffe reveals cloudy arrogance

The market will correct

Just imagine if "Always on" does become a requirement from here on out. What a great marketing angle for the next bunch of indie developers that want to make a splash with their game concepts.

Dear EA/Microsoft: Please do make an internet connection a requirement for all of your games, single player or otherwise.

Indies have the greatest potential for great games with original ideas. Let's give them all the help we can, shall we?

Opera joins Google/Apple in-crowd with shift to WebKit and Chromium

"There would be no competition and therefore no reason for the browsers to continue to evolve/improve."

Not necessarily. It's not that a single company would have a monopoly ( as MS had with IE way back when ), it would actually be several different companies all competing against each other, just using a common render as a starting point. MS moving to webkit would basically mean that website incompatibilities would go by the wayside, not that development would stagnate.

In fact, I think we'd end up seeing an explosion of GUI enhancements driven by that competition.

US military nails 'best ever' Microsoft deal, brags size does matter

Re: Just a thought

This sounds great until you consider how much it would cost to develop said software, the chances of getting it right ( practically nil ).

On top of that, then you need to find techs to support it; good luck with that. Unless you plan on building out a world class training system, dealing with the 1+ year plus lead time between hiring a tech and real usefulness, plus paying the wages necessary for retention...ya, it adds up quickly.

Schmidt 'very proud' of Google's tiny tax bill: 'It's called capitalism'

How much tax is "enough" if what they are currently doing is legal?

Seriously? I get we're supposed to be outraged, but how much in taxes should they be paying if they are currently legal? As it's legal, what additional authority gets to be in charge of "Tax moral obligations"?

This has always astounded me. Just like people, corporations will use whatever legal means necessary to save on taxes. They have every right to do so, and they have every obligation to do so. If the folks making the laws find that behavior distasteful....maybe they might make some laws to fix that behavior they find so reprehensible?

Of course they won't, because those laws are in place for a reason.

Faux outrage. Moving on.

RIM is really in trouble when even Windows Phone 8 looks great

I said it before, I'll say it again

RIM needs to bail on the hardware. They have demonstrated a unique incompetence in this area, and other companies are handing them their lunch. The App store needs to go too. In fact, the only thing they really should be focusing on is managing mobile data devices. They *should* be focusing on a point to point secure mobile solution. Indeed, they should have for a couple years now.

What do I mean by that? A client, available for all major phone platforms, that provides management and security functionality. Business email, stored encrypted on otherwise wide open devices. The ability to remotely wipe business data. To GPS track phones...the list goes on and on. They could very well have maintained their corporate presence had they jumped on board this ship years ago, but they still have a name in corporate data security and could trade on that, although it would be an uphill battle at this point.

Were I a share holder, I'be furious at the opportunities the board has continually wasted.

'Brit Bill Gates' defends his honour in open letter to HP board

Re: Unimaginable corruption

Then they are a part of their con, albeit unwittingly. Which doesn't absolve them of guilt. Indeed, that it was implicit fraud based on their own incompetence should make it worse, in my opinion.

My point was, however, that Autonomy can hardly be blamed if they got a clean bill of health prior to being sold. If the purchase was based on crap financials ( which I have no problems believing is the case here ), the only culpable party is the company making the purchase.

I would *love* to see HP sue itself, but I suspect that wouldn't be good for the bottom line.

Unimaginable corruption

If you stop and think about this, in order for HP's claim of fraud to hold weight, the corruption would have encompassed thousands of vendors, customers and partners, or the auditors themselves.

I find it extraordinary unlikely this team could have managed such a feat given all I know about them. It's far more likely HP's management team has a broken decision making process ( shock! horror! ), and are simply trying to save their jobs and, more importantly, their egos, by portioning blame elsewhere for their screw up.

Google claims Chrome is the world's most popular browser

Would be nice if Google actually created something from scratch.

Oh? Why is that? They are taking good software packages and putting a high amount of polish on them. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, you might even say that google is doing the OSS community a favor by the exposure.

Advertisers slam Microsoft over 'Do not track' decision

To track or to not track..

"It has worked with Microsoft and the government for over three years on proposals to ensure privacy and still allow tracking without "Do not track" being turned on by default, it said, and now Redmond has acted unilaterally."

Did anyone else need to reread this a couple times before they got what was being said? So they want to track, even though consumers don't want to be tracked. And MS nixed that, instead making it the customer's choice.

And somehow, they're wrong for that decision. Is it any wonder we hate the advertising industry?

Kaspersky: Apple security is like Microsoft's in 2002

Re: made me laugh

Giggle all you want, but MS has made some serious strides towards a secure product ( I'll grant there have been some missteps ).

Anymore it's not MS product that compromises a machine, but a flaw in the application running on top of MS OSes. Not unlike many vulnerabilities that have hit linux in recent years.

The only complaint I might have with MS's security is the turn around time for releasing patches. I get the mechanics behind it, and understand them, but I still feel they could kick the patches out the door a bit quicker.