Posts by Britt Johnston

Sun shares sink as IBM deal breaks down

re outsourcing @ bill stiller + AC

I was mumbling an MBA mantra - like all mantras, if you hear it enough, its effect exceeds all bounds of logic.

If an IT company outsources all of its IT, there isn't much left for the receivers, really.

greetings from Alcatel/Lucent

the best way for Sun to cut costs is to outsource their IT.

Profs: Sex with oldies or youngsters will give you the clap

chinese astronomy vindicated, hollywood unclear

This roughly confirms one application of the 12 year cycles built into chinese horoscopes, where 6 year's difference between relationships is worst, but 4 and 8 and 12 are okay.

Regarding Hollywood, this may be an interesting special case requiring further study, by intrepid students with thick skins and zoom lenses.

Bloggers could squeak out of court reporting restrictions

modern times: NuLab vs Conservative Opponent

N.L. lets build a database, then...

C.O. that would be expensive, and government databases don't work

N.L. well, we'll have to ban all comment on anything criminal then

C.O. no proof till the verdict,...

N.L. how about anything that might be a crime

C.O. like watching pr0n? we could censor the internet, though

N.L. better block all types of communication, to be on the safe side

C.O. oh, shut up!...

Lies, damned lies and inflation statistics

strange measures

It is worth pointing out that even though we are not average consumers, there is no way that everyone comes off worse than average. Fiddles like that give statistics a bad name.

You didn't mention the SDI, standardised desperation index: the deviation between CPI and gut feeling. Or Bayesean political factors, much used in the DDR, more recently in the USA, where the requester gets the answers he would like to believe.

Blu-ray Disc added to UK shopping basket

Anyone want the job?

Clearly, the NOS underlines statistics by guiding its customers - e.g. politicians -with trends relevant to them. The PPI is often looked at, and as all point out, it is highly biased.

If food and goods (primary and secondary sectors) are hiring a minority of employees, the service sector needs embedding - taxes, insurance, law fees, massages, training costs,...

The NOS has an experimental measure, the SPPI, but it is also wide of the mark. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/cpi0309.pdf

Really, it would be helpful if competing institutes would publish and establish other measures. Perhaps they could be sponsored by a profitable newspaper or some other troublemaker, to enhance the debate.

Police ad urges: 'Trust no one'

war on terror stopped when George W left office

It's not just that war on terror is an unhealthy state of mind.

Staring suspiciously at a someone in a cemtex jacket is more likely to trigger an explosive response.

Russian spy agencies linked to Georgian cyber-attacks

regular paycheques

Perhaps they fund themselves by cybercrime, like the CIA does with weapon sales. Such projects would less dependent on political vagaries, and keep the staff in training.

Wally found on Street View

all in a day's work

Google have pre-announced their drive through Switzerland, but not the starting date.

http://www.inside-it.ch/frontend/insideit?_d=_article&site=ii&news.id=17233

Presumably, the announcement improves the chances of being seen to be doing no evil.

Health trust pushing on with record sharing

best process

Back up after data entry for maximum sales - the opt-out won't apply to the archive, will it?

Patient records are not the patient's data, in any case: the doctor who wrote them 'owns' them.

Commission repeats call for single EU patent

not just IT patents

The future of countries with well-educated people and few natural resources lies in doing research and selling the results to others. Patents are one mechanism to regulate the finances (along with copyright and trade secrets). Patents work fine in fields like engineering and chemicals.

I'm sorry for IT developers and IT companies that patents are not working well in IT, since software secrets are easily reverse-engineered, and thus copyright is no help. All that is left is continual improvement, which is a hard slog to earn good money from.

Commission, hello world

€600,000 for 3 years isn't much money, perhaps a temporary office for 3 people.

The EPO is okay, and a going institution: why can't the commission work together with them?

Obama CIO on leave after cuffing of former employee

@ how many wacky Jaquies does corruption need?

The German minister of the interior, Wolfgang Schaeuble, has a pretty similar agenda on privacy and state-run databases. His style and substance could be considered better. This is one main reason why I suspect the civil services are really pushing these issues. Their arguments would be

- because we can

- it's needed to beat terrorism

- it brings money our way

These reasons are bedfellows of corruption. New Technology means funding before proof of usefulness. anti-terrorism means funding for irrational security concepts, and throw money at everything and hope something sticks, 2009 style, is an invitation to sticky pockets.

Ma McKinnon plans musical extradition protest

enough, really

Actually, I've heard enough about McKinnon without the music. The only reason I support him is that Elizabeth I methods (invention of crimes, arrest is proof of guilt,...) are not good enough in the reign of Elizabeth II. If that message gets over to Obama and Brown and their successors then life was worth living.

While we are off this topic, how did Tariq Aziz, a halfway-believable mouthpiece of a tyrannic regime, and Chemical Ali, a leader of a genocidal raid, end up with the same sentence - they both were involved in a state decision to kill to set an example with 42 resellers who tried to get high prices after a UN-embargo.

What's the connection? - that idiocy of nations is not the same as responsibility of individuals, and mercy - or nothing - is better than irrational international law.

The good book: How to bet better online

sequel

Noe I see how honest bookies are, can you do a sequel on the stock market, please?

Supercomputer niche chucks rocks at Nehalem

not anti Intel

Intel need new targets for their next long-term plan to justify high prices - I'd count the statement as constructive public criticism.

Apple preps Jobsian magic wand

in patents as in life, less is more

I thought the idea of a patent is to fence off a claim. The more details you add, the less you are claiming. So maybe the sense lies in documenting enough small differences to get around the Wii patents, and fend off their lawyers?

Science-boosting thickie questionnaire backfires

Validate your surveys

This is exactly the kind of problem that you can get around by doing a quick pre-test. You should definitely pretest anything that goes to a heterogeneous external audience, for more than a handful of people, or where the results will be of value.

I recently validated a questionaire of 5 questions for 6 trainees, which resulted in rewriting one question, and allowing one different answer. I gave the test to 3 expert colleagues over a 10 minute coffee break, and we discussed why the answers weren't always the ones I expected.

Google jacks up fees for Checkout service

what about paying with stamps?

Its possible that Google couldn't deliver at the lower rate.

Anyway, in Germany, neither has the killer advantage that the banks have - they do transactions free if you have a salary account . That is why you see details like 'Paypal for foreigners only'.

UK extends VAT crackdown as EU OKs cut-rate cobblers

no VAT back on cutting and pasting

No explicit mention of such central activities, so I guess IT services are excluded.

UK.gov ditches multi-million spooknet project

wrong end of stick conspiracy

Yet another project which cost-conscious commentators have misunderstood.

In times of Financial Crisis, it is important to invest government money in infrastructure and other projects with no short-term payback.

The method was successfully developed by NASA in the '60s on a hollywood project to film the first moon landing. Most of the proceeds ware leveraged into generating investor confidence. The small hard cash component was diverted towards making teflon frying pans and the like.

How long have we been in FC, you ask? In Britain, the tank has been running on virtual since stopping industrial production of goods like cars in the '70s, over 40 years ahead of the US. With a good sense of cover-up and misdirection, there is no reason why people shouldn't believe in wealth for a further half century.

El Reg suffers identity crisis

honestly?

not impressed with the selection, I think you could have trolled harder.

I suggest "private-eye-liner virtual universe"

Former staff swipe confidential company data

wow, I guess the problem isn't real

If the figures are that high, the leavers don't seem to be doing much damage with the data.

Father of ID cards moots compulsory passports instead

aftermath

The comments have now been published. I saw them in the guardian. I don't see the points most commenters were expecting. His premises:

- privacy rights are often breached, but mainly by data collection businesses

- misuse of the 2000 terrorist act by (local) offices

- coroners and justice bill - daft name, though I'm all for justice for coroners - is well intentioned but open to abuse. However, he considers it misconceived that ID data will be misused, the point most heatedly disagreed with by database professionals here.

- data should be retained where useful by the specialists, not in central silos

Low points: He takes a gratuitous swipe at pontifs preaching big brother Britain, i.e. single voices rather than the obvious general unease, and denies we can judge how policed a state is. Here he conveniently ignores the idea of comparison over time - anyone can compare the past with the present efficiently, and most would agree official intrusion is increasing.

He concludes that we have to challenge sophisticated means of monitoring and assert ourselves lest the mistakes of the past allow those in power to abuse their position.

For me they are the right conclusions, I can't follow how he got there, though.

Speeding, driverless Nissan finally stopped by US bombers

phew, close escape

your title almost had me there - it could refer to some FC (Financial Crisis) scheme to eliminate foreign companies dragging on the economy.

Making IT security matter

security vs common sense

In Healthcare, IT systems are regulated for GMP and financial compliance. (Others, like data security are currently internal decisions). The extra cost, ~x4, is considered an acceptable trade-off for audit paper, less and longer improvement cycles, and less own programming.

The problems currently present themselves as security layers being built in, but not open to discussion at any cost/value trade-off level. The separate internal groups go their own ways, trying to avoid each other's minefields.

Any data protection security legislation is likely to cause additional damage, except to security consultants. Legislation for things like laptop or USB-stick misuse looks out of reach of even the current nappy-monitoring government. So one aim of all IT departments should be solutions good enough to avoid extra legislation.

Boffin: Earthlike worlds within 30 lightyears of here

seeing is believing

So astronomers are hoping to see other earth-like planet orbiting another star soon.

<Earthlike worlds within 30 lightyears>

They can already see Mars, and it will take ages till they get enough details to find one more earth-like than Mars.

2008 a top year for UK games sales

but games cost more than in 2003...

What about comparing units sold?

Mobile operators combine to flog customer data

Give-away era - don't fight the inevitable

The phones are given away, along with holders' rights. These providers have to make some kind of net 2.0 living, after all.

If they tried a bit harder - say, add fingerprint security and GPS tracking - free phones could be used as ID cards. Next up, make it illegal not to carry one.

Wakefield does a Brum with possessive apostrophes

english is being taken over by aliens

The problem has been pointed out since about 1800, before that alternative spellings were tolerated provided the content was worthwhile. But hot air and hotter tempers did not produce a result, only agreement that an language academy or esperanto were not viable solutions.

Now that english is spoken by more aliens than aboriginals, they are naturally taking control, and ironing out the obvious lumps. Let it happen, english will be the better for it next century. If you still want to improve the standards, write a decent book.

could be worse

If you think apostrophes are bad, feel sorry for the Germans, who have to bundle together streets named after people with hyphens, as in Alexander-von-Humboldt-Straße.

Looking at the new German finance minister's name, that's 15 hyphens, and a very long street sign (see yesterday's article about wikifiddlers)

Brits find accommodation a little uncomfortable

February workaround

no job application till March, then

IDC confirms PC chip sales have fallen off a cliff

@ unsurprising

This is the end-game of every research-based product - when its good enough, people stop paying more for better. My favorite example is the ski industry, the most recent to be hard hit are chemicals producing dyestuffs.

In the PC industry, the market was huge, and margins were always smaller - the concept, as usual, was to gain market share and profit in the end-game. They are trying - including by keeping the atom/netbook price up - to keep the prices high, but 2nd hand Duos and Quads are dropping in price, and soon self-assembly will become cheaper than of-the-shelf again.

I suggest you buy one 2nd hand on Ebay from someone switching to a laptop, or wait a few months for an assembled box at your price/quality.

Users: The weakest link in laptop security

dumb clients

The time has come for the user to own his machine, and access applications via a one-password intranet. That would solve maintenance, hardware support, encryption and loss of hardware, as well as multiple OSs.

User: I can't make our SAP run on my i-Phone

Helpdesk (hungarian accent): try buying a machine with a bigger screen

Russian rides Phantom to OS immortality

Solving which problems?

I'd pay for one when it is established, I liked my Atari OS-on-a-ROM. The 6 minutes I spend booting up each morning are the low point of my office day.

To be fair, only 33% of the delay is due to windows itself, the rest is thanks to our company OS, which overwrite many of the windows routines to help me stop using standard OS functionality like loading programs, reading USB sticks or listening to music.

At least I can while away the wait with copious opportunities to type in passwords.

Big labels or Google - who is the songwriters' worst enemy?

when editing is all the cake there is

Nice but sad article on the songwriter's point of view.

The co-writing question was probably not designed as a mechanism for labels to rip off songwriters - in the field of classical music editing is the only tenuous hold on a publisher has on its output.

A recent disaster in Germany arose when recordings of a new edition, which used to be mutually tolerated as they promote both causes, were mandated for copyright fees. If I remember rightly, Hänsseler almost went under with a project to record the complete works of J.S.Bach (competitors available for £89.99).

This probably doesn't apply everywhere, each country is spiralling towards useless copyright laws in different ways.

Bluetooth message saves scousers' livers

its a start...

Coming next year, an applet taking advantage of smartphones' accelerometers to capture wobbles in a straight-line-walk, and send them on to the plodserver.

What's better: sold via i-shop, or embedded in a virus?

MP wants Welsh text on ID cards

Wy French?

The Welsh, living in GB, have a better case for their language - we probably have more Poles than French if you want to be friendly to minorities or foreigners.

1m French out of work thanks to dodgy data - UK next?

somebody wins every lottery

cher M.Mafiosi

please apply: your chances are good, with so many suitable candidates being filtered out.

Hybrid fusion-fission reactors to run on nuclear 'sludge'

Hmmm

Not sure about this one: It sounds like a way to dirty up a fusion process by splitting fission waste into lots of more radioactive products.

ISS astronauts lose 'alarming' amounts of hipbone strength

causes, measurement, treatment of bone loss

Here is a readable specialist summary from 2004: http://www.radiologytoday.net/archive/rt_080204p10.shtml

It is strange that the new press release does not mention prophylaxis, perhaps a sequel is under way. Pills wouldn't be as heavy to transport as the metal replacements proposed by Shane McKarrick above.

WTO backs US in Chinese piracy dispute

hung up on democracy

I think you'll find that the democrats have another definition of democracy. The EU has about 26 official ones.

Not that democracy has anything to with the WTO, which has to thrives on mercenary consensus.

Kiwi finds US military secrets on 'MP3 player'

strategies okay

Anything acquired publicly is not really secret. And marking files as secret doesn't mean they contain secret information. He has a duty of care to check.

To identify the real owner, he has to be able to ask contextual questions - how does he know whether the US or the Iraqui applicant owns the Taiwanese USB, just because they can provide details of individual files?

If he wants to protect himself from guantanamisation, one way is to tell the world in advance that what he had done wasn't in any sense illegal.

If he didn't like what he saw, and really wanted to remain anonymous, he could try putting the USB in a postbox. Some kind soul did that with my wallet once, and the Post delivered.

If he wanted a medal, what was wrong with contacting his own MoD, and let them decide whether to pass it on to an ally of their choice?

Study slams brain-training games' mental improvement claims

You cant beat...

...the real thing.

Next up, WII sports isn't as good for you as the London marathon.

iPhone iLounge threatens Jobsian cult reunion

all's fair as trade fare

A consequent organiser's concept is central. The Swiss trade show, Orbit, fell apart about 10 years ago, when schoolkids were talking to SAP consultants. The show squeezed out the wrong group (the schoolboys) with high entry fees. On the other hand, German CEBIT goes from strength to strength.

One replacement has been to show solutions (i.e. a running application) at fairs for other branches - I especially like those that circuit the music shops. There is nothing like the whizz of a working system.

Apple drops white Macbook processor speed

@power consumption

I looked at the tests, reviewers seem to think battery life has stayed about the same, despite GPU. They refer to macs having a set of power-saving techniques.

One such which has been discussed for a while, not just for macs, is to switch between a GPU and a smaller on-board chip - has that idea been dropped?

Gov stumps £4.3m bee health funding

inbreeding

The bee approach to reproduction makes them susceptible to inbreeding - low resistance to disease and other changes is one result. English bees were long sought-after, but appear to have more problems surviving today.

I've several friends who keep bees, good pragmatic people all,and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to get an understanding of his local ecosystem(s). It appears to be similar to bringing up children.

Retired army generals: Spend Trident money on the army

El REG think/regeneration tank needed

Can't you guys bring together a few experts from the old days when IT was a high value game? Then you could spout off on lot of things that are more worthy to be on a spending list.

Intel answers AMD Neo with 'ultrathin' laptop chip

Portable niche morphology - anyone for cheap & nasty throwaways?

The main criteria affecting portable price used to be size and performance, but both are good enough now. The main purpose of these cheap CPUs is to justify a higher price for standard multi-core ones.

Size doesn't really affect cost, as all screens from postcard to office folder have similar pricing. So vanity portables are going the way of gold-plated iPods and Swarovski-studded accordions. Your idea of stamp-sized "notebooks 'that are less than one inch' " is unlikely to catch on - plug in a touch-screen mp4 player, a keyboard, a fuel cell and a DVD-drive perhaps?

The performance is related to CPU speed, but now all CPUs are fast enough to manage portable office use, unless they are stuffed with a multi-megabyte OS. Perhaps we should be paying a premium for a sleek OS running in a small cache.

The medium-priced, medium performance call reeks of compromise and deserves to succeed.

UK's listed firms must tell markets of serious executive problems

worst afflictions

Don't underestimate Madoff syndrome, where a person with a good track record goes off the rails.