Posts by Gwaptiva

What is your greatest weakness? The definitive list of the many kinds of interviewer you will meet in Hell

Re: My greatest weakness...

standard answer to the "what is your greatest weakness", I now always answer "Marzipan"

An axe age, a sword age, Privacy Shield is riven, but what might that mean for European businesses?

Go tell that to execs/shareholders of BA and Marriott... the UK ICO issued the two greatest fines under GDPR in the EU (200m and 100m, resp). Even for companies that size that's no sinecure

Total Eclipse to depart: Open-source software foundation is hopping the pond to Europe

Re: A long time coming

Well, they have Traditional ans Simplified Chinese, so seems small trouble to do the same for English

IR35 blame game: Barclays to halt off-payroll contractors, goes directly to PAYE

Re: IR35 idiocy

"Headhunting agencies will be hurt as well."

You make that sound like it's a bad thing

600 armed German cops storm Cyberbunker hosting biz on illegal darknet market claims

In Germany, some police are more armed than other police.... I'm still shaking at the memory of the morning an Arrest Team (SEK) stormed my neighbour's flat. I'm just a regular nerdy joe, and I was in the flat next door, but I nearly peed my pants at the shock and awe. And that was just a regular SEK... GSG9 are another level altogether

I got 99 problems but a switch() ain't one: Java SE 13 lands with various tweaks as per Oracle's less-is-more strategy

As long as the JDKs continue to support compiling and running to Java 8, I'm fine with release schedules. Java 9's Jigsaw is a nightmare that will stop uptake (by most significant legacy applications, at least) of any new features post that; until the powers that be admit it was a mistake and remove it again

Freebie tier coming to issue-tracking Jira, but you'll have to cough up to unlock the good stuff

Jippeeee, we'll be saving 20 bucks a year! I'll go ask for a raise immediately

There once was a biz called Bitbucket, that told Mercurial to suck it. Now devs are dejected, their code soon ejected

Re: That was a close call.

I was a wee bit earlier to that decision, but chose Mercurial as the reviews (and mine) showed it was easier to use that Git, something that was highly critical in a legacy environment (where people thought Subversion fixed ALL issues that CVS has). At that point, it was maybe 50-50, maybe Git a bit ahead due to its "made by St Linus" predicate.

Now, we don't host our source code externally, so I am much more concerned about continued support for Mercurial in Atlassian's SourceTree.

As many as 100,000 IBM staff axed in recent years as Big Blue battles to reinvent itself from IT's 'old fuddy duddy'

Trust the Brits

to produce electric wheel chairs, that they'll then have to push around by hand...

Ozzy app maker cancels hump day: We've tripled profits! scream slackers

I sure hope my boss doesn't get any ideas; I already have to suffer through 2 days a week (plus 30-odd days a year on top of that) that show me I have no friends

Vodafone: Daft Huawei comms gear ban will cripple UK – and cost punters loads

Not like the UK needed any outside help with crippling itself

Another German state plans switch back from Linux to Windows

Re: Corruption is the word

In that case, your sympathies should be even greater for Schleswig-Holstein; not only is it moving to Linux etc, but it's also part of the real surname of the British queen, who married Mr Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg

Have we got a new, hip compound IT phrase for you! Enter... UserDev

I just wish someone would tell my boss we need at least half a dozen extra people to support a 2 person development team :)

Wang, bang, thank you, mang: Acer exec off to sell PCs for Lenovo

Re: Wang

And ruined a perfectly decent ice hockey club :)

Oracle finally targets Java non-payers – six years after plucking Sun

Re: All very dubious

"Gives clever people 3 years to leave."

And the very clever ones to smile quietly knowing that their rates are going to rise and rise.

I mean, COBOL is still around and those that know how to maintain it are making gold money. You all move to your fun languages, and I'll fatten my pension account with the Java left-overs.

Microsoft, Slack et al will 'laugh their asses off' at IBM's biz messaging tool

Re: NIH

half-arsed Slack clone's half-arsed IRC clone

Not-so Secret Rulers of the World gather to talk cybersecurity, AI and, er, TalkTalk?

Massive lecturer-audience discrepancy

So, 100-odd clueless world and business leaders are going to be Clueless in Dresden for 3 days. I mean, they invited the Dutch king who is already happy when he manages to tie his shoelaces in the morning

Software snafu let EU citizens get referendum vote, says Electoral Commission

Unfortunately, the average citizen will be average, and therefore will be smarter than nearly half the population... that's very worrying indeed :D

The EU wants you to log into YouTube using your state-issued ID card

This is going to be so easy to sabotage

Just use the I'm Spartacus principle. Just takes one person to share his ID card details and then the rest of the world can use that. Suddenly Mr Joe Bloggs will appear to have a bandwidth of a few exabits and the whole system comes tumbling down.

Colander-wearing Irishman denied driver's licence in Pastafarian slapdown

Obviously a parody

No, to qualify as a religion you have to believe in normal rational things like virgin births, spontaneously combusting shrubberies and mountaineering aphorisms

BMW complies with GPL by handing over i3 car code

Re: Life in a Call Center

And this is the exact reason that once you made the phone call without a resolution, you write a letter (or email if you are in a hurry) to the CEO or Chairman of the company you are trying to deal with with your complaint.

In the majority of organisations, these "executive complaints" get handled by a special team, with loooads of leeway and leverage, considering they were told by the CEO -- in reality his/her secretary, to make the complaint go away.

Internet users don't understand security or privacy, says survey

Re: Government mistrust in Germany and Korea

Also, the German population seems to realise that "for valid national security reasons" tends to mean "for valid national security and business interests of the United States of America and its corporations"

Spanish launch heroic bid to seize Brit polar vessel

A compromise suggestion

How about RRS Chatham?

It sure wouldn't be as "offensive" as Michiel de Ruyter :P

BBC encourages rebellious Welsh town to move offshore

Re: Way to go, beeb! Increase your viewership at home. Any way to help us smaller left-pondians?

Jon Oliver did just that a few months back: Just start the Church of Small Convenience (Stores)

A quarter of public sector IT workers have never used the cloud

The Cloud = The Ultimate in Vaporware

Thank FSM, the company I work for has been hosting our business application for some customers for 10+ years but we still call it Hosted Service. We occasionally joke that we should call it Cloud Edition, but we're afraid our customers will think our servers are hosted by the NSA

The 'echo chamber' effect misleading people on climate change

As others have already pointed out, the issue is with actually finding out what the facts are, not just the facts we are being given. If nothing else, the Climategate affair demonstrated data is being withheld. I don't care about the reasons for this, it is not the way science should be done, and has dragged this science into the area of homeopathy and iriscopy: cherrypicked results to prove a position

Angry Austrian could turn Europe against the US - thanks to data

In case of a verdict that tips the US Safe Harbour thingie, it would be interesting to see if the same can be done with the UK. Because data stored in the UK is as unsafe

Lonely this Xmas? Nerds, n00bs and no-hopers' guide to dating apps, Pt.1

Re: Rugged?????

My body type is athletic

Shotputters are athletes, right?

Btw, real nerds don't own a smartphone, because they know it's a waste of money if nobody wants to talk to you

Amazon workers in Germany stage Christmas strike

Re: logistics? @ratfox

The city of Berlin tried to, and then got overruled by the federal courts. Sunday trading laws are the most relaxed in Berlin, but they do exist.

Buy Your Own Device: No more shiny-shiny work mobe for you

I don't even own a phone to bring into work. *Luddite icon please*

How many telecoms firms left in Europe? Another mega-billion deal slated in France

So, the EU ban on monopolies with a market impact has led to fewer telecoms companies than when each state operated its own... whoddathunkit

Origins of SEXUAL INTERCOURSE fished out of SCOTTISH LAKE

Well, since we've invented it...

the word FUCK is oors!

But we'll let you use it for a very reasonable license fee

Hey, non-US websites – FBI don't have to show you any stinkin' warrant

Re: illegal abroad surely

Ok, so they get away with this line of defence without sparking a full-blown international scandal because it's possible to search a server in Iceland from the US.

Which is a bit rich for an agency (and its government) that is hellbound on treating the internet as the same as the physical world.

Can you imagine what the reaction would've been had the FBI flown out to Reykjavik to search suspect's appartment without a warrant... or even with a warrant signed by a US judge?

But if it's all the same, can the Met please perform a search of Mr G.W. Bush's private residence? No warrant needed, because it's abroad, and the crimes he's suspected of are quite serious

So long Lotus 1-2-3: IBM ceases support after over 30 years of code

Re: Notes

Bit unfortunate way of saying it, but yes, the scripting/programming in Lotus was powerful but badly implemented. It was often quicker to develop from the ground up than to implement a change or a bug, even if it was your own code to start with.

Germany strikes again over Amazon warehouse pay

Re: Who's being exploited?

Taking into consideration the still high levels of unemployment in the areas where Amazon has its distribution centres in Germany, plus the types of employment offered (low/unskilled manual warehouse/shipping work), the fact that in Germany you need to complete an apprenticeship to stack shelves or <strikethru>flip burgers</strikethru> work in system gastronomy, plus the relatively high numbers of immigrant workers, your free market idealism falls flat. There is nowhere else to go for a lot of many of these folk.

The free market is neither free, nor a market... if it were free, it would be Deutsche Bank, AIG and others that were broke and not Greece

Uber alles... nein! Germany imposes nationwide ban on taxi app

So, there we have it. There are illegal minicab drivers in the UK as well. The only difference appears to be the definition of what is a minicab. It just seems that German courts are going to interpret the definition of minicab to include cars booked through Uber (and possibly in the UK they aren't).

US regulators OK sale of IBM's x86 server biz to Lenovo

Re: Quote from advert on El Reg

for "expect exciting changes", read: mass resource actions

Pleased to meet you. I'm Joe Bloggs, MVP, vExpert, Cisco Champ

Re: T'was ever thus

Also, the risk with any kind of certification in IT is that people forget that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Plenty of people know their stuff without ever bothering (or being given the resources to bother) with the tests, paperwork, brown-nosing, or whatever else it takes to be noticed.

Dead letter office: ancient smallpox sample turns up in old US lab

Spoilers ahead

Somebody call the guy called Pilgrim...

Amazon sues former employee who took Google cloud job

I like the German system

In Germany, non-compete clauses are only enforceable if they are accompanied by full pay for the duration. So essentially, it's equivalent to an enforced garden leave. It's also limited in duration (I believe 6 months). Of course, it makes employees less attractive to competitors, because it gives you a notice period of 7 (or more commonly 9) months, but for most companies it's not worth to pursue it.

In all other cases, trying to enforce such provisions are met with outright rejection by courts, as it constitutes a restriction of trade not mandated by a court of law or authorised professional body.

Amazon workers in Germany celebrate strike anniversary with ... ANOTHER STRIKE

Re: Perhaps it's time Amazon delivered a solution.

"Getting polish workers into Germany and paying them polish wages on the other hand..."

would make no difference, considering these jobs are subject to a nationwide CBA. Totally irrelevant what the nationality is of the people working there. And if you argued that Polish people wouldn't mind earning less, think again.

Customisation is BAD for the economy, say Oz productivity wonks

Re: Warning sign

Worse, not only is it an admission that the entire report is without value, it is also an admission that they are trying to answer the wrong questions.

Language-mangling Germans fling open Handygate to selfie-snapping whistleblowers

Don't you start, El Reg

Please please please do not lose your position as one of the last bastions of proper journalism by quoting The Local. It's not big and it's not clever. Before you know, you'll be copy/pasting press releases and making shouty headlines about immigrants...

Feminist Software Foundation gets grumpy with GitHub … or does it?

All correct except

Throw, or share, statements are persondatory in all IO?

Headmaster calls cops, tries to dash pupil's uni dreams - over a BLOG

Anarchist?

left libertarian, please

Continuous delivery: What works (and what doesn't)

Something not to forget

It is already a nightmare to provide technical support to customers that have different releases when these releases have gone through proper testing at all levels, it's going to be hellish if every customer has different snapshots.

UK mulls ban on tiny mobiles to block prison smugglers

Ban spoons!

They have been used by prisoners to dig tunnels...

Japan's unwanted IT workers dumped in 'forcing-out rooms'

What sort of contract do these people have?

My contract specifies reasonably precisely the functions and activities I have been hired to fulfil, and if my employer would try something like that, I'd lawyer up immediately and sue them for breach of contract. An employment contract is a two-way street, in which I agree to work 40 hours doing X, Y and/or Z. If employer did not provide me with (enough) X, Y and/or Z to do, employer is in breach of the contract.

British boffin muzzled after cracking car codes

Probably a rhetorical question

Considering this study wasn't a solo effort by Mr Garcia, but was co-executed/authored by a member of staff and a student of Nymegen University in the Netherlands, what is to stop them publishing it in the Netherlands? Or did I miss the bit that says that the Dutch have to care about UK court rulings?

IBM, Accenture play blame game over $1bn project blowout

There are three parties to this dispute, and I am sure that at least IBM will argue that project costs exploded because the requirements the customer wanted implementing were not the requirements it tendered for. That's how IBM (and others) make their money: the knowledge that the customer will want something else.