Posts by Marc Davies

Oi, don't leave Cymru in broadband slow lane, MPs warn

I'm going to regret saying this, but...

I think BT is doing a pretty good job in Wales. So, I live pretty much slap in the middle, the nearest community is 2 miles away and has about 500 people living in it and my house is half a mile off the nearest road (i.e. its up a dirt track).

So, I have ADSL at a consistent 8Mb and its only gone down once in two years. While I accept its not going to give me stutter-free full-size streaming video (although I've never had a problem using iPlayer on the laptop), it works just fine enough to run a business. Well done BT :-D

Ok, now I'm running for the bunker before I get drowned in a million (harmonised, we are Welsh after all) howls of protest!

Twitter bows to subpoena, releases Occupy protester's tweets

Re: Freedom 2.0

Because it's pretty damn difficult for a non-US court to actually impose/collect any fines on a US company.

------->- gosh, so I guess when Courts in the UK, France, Germany & the EU imposed fines on US Banks they paid up because their altruistic? (go on, I dare you to tell me those companies have a vested interest in being physically present - LOL) there are many example of pan-international collaboration in courts of LAW. The issue here is when one particular State declares its Laws are first amongst equals and should be adhered to because they are [sic] the good guys

Seriously, you needed to even ask the question? They gave it up to the US courts because they operate under US law (and presumably many of the owners live in the US).

------->- seriously, you cannot understand the use ironic narrative in this Post? seriously? Perhaps I should use small words...here we go:..> It seems to be ok for a US Co to stand on a moral principle (oops, a bit long that word - hope your still with me) when it aligns against the Worlds "bad guys" and follows the views of its country of origin. But, if it upsets those who govern in its origin country, then it's much-marketed adherence to 'freedom & privacy' vanishes, because apparently a court in its country of origin is more honest & true than some 'foreigner'

Your little rant about morals doesn't have a place here.

------>- Morality (or how relative, transient and, ultimately, hypocritical it all is) is the fundamental here. Ask the Electonic Freedom Foundation...or the individual who will now have his petard hoisted on the noose of Twitters Moral standing.

Freedom 2.0

While agreeing (wholeheartedly) with the Post by 'Old Handle' <although, you, me & many of the readers of these pages know this reflects Twitters' desire to "one day" figure out a way to monetize all that luvly big data> and ignoring completely the self-aggrandizing, self-centred, self-indulgent, etc mealy mouthing of Mr Xion, what I want to know is:

When a Court in Iran/Syria/China/choose-a-State-thats-not-USA threatens Twitter with a hefty fine; why was/is/will it be so easy for them to stand on their mighty principles?!

I guess that, as usual, there's one rule for the fine, upstanding freedom-loving Folks across the Atlantic, and another one for the rest of us.

Meanwhile, to anyone involved in any form of protest who touchingly thinks that their 'privacy' will be assured by organisations as devoutly privacy-loving as TOR or Wikileaks, let alone Facebook or Twitter. Welcome to the real world.

HP boss Whitman: 'We have to offer a smartphone'

...and when they finally get to walk the fine line between lumbering behemoth and fast-reaction mobile player, it will all be far too late ...

Another Kodak-Eastman moment staggering toward a 'too big to fail' global-Corporation near you

CIOs' most likely job move is a sideways shift

Dazed Schizophrenic Plumbers

Look out, it's the Charge of the Tech Brigade. Onward go the 500 excuses of the Tekky - "it's not my job" , "nobody listens", "Senior Management are idiots". Yada, Yada, Yada. Into the Valley of irrelevant oblivion we go.

Get a grip.

I don't care if the CIO doesn't understand virtualisation, as long as they understand how information flows benefit the overall processes of the business. I don't care if the CIO can't field-strip a laptop, as long as they can understand the trends for technology take up that (a) affect my business vertical and (b) ensure some form of continuation in the never-ending battle of competitive advantage.

When oh when are Architects, CTO-types and senior Solution people going to get it? It's the Business that pays the bills. The business that's attempting to innovate & the Business that would welcome a forward-thinking IT Dept.

As Ledswinger implies, IT teams are conservative, backward-looking and suspicious of change. It is NOT easy to get things done by engaging with IT, which is why the IT budget and CIO/CTO/et-al have been losing budget and status for years. The current 'war' over BYOD illustrates this; while IT Departments whine about threat & non-conforming kit, 80% of Gov and 75% of Private Sector companies (on the business side) are looking to implement - on a recent webcast I attended with over 200 different companies represented, 24% happily admitted that they were going BYOD in direct opposition to their IT.

In environments like this, tech people should remember that they are paid to come up with solutions, not excuses as to why something can't be done, paid to come up with answers, not to sit there rolling eyes...guess what, it's tough - that's why IT is paid as much as it is!

- as the article says "When we talk cloud computing, mobile and Big Data, are we focusing just on the technology side or the potential business capabilities". The point is, until CIOs focus on the potential biz capabilities, they will be sidelined. If you don't get that then don't worry, your clearly not Board material anyway, stay in a room with some tech toys and keep moaning how "nobody understands" you.

BTW. I've built Linux Kernels, SUN Clusters, designed Data-Centres, designed Layer-3 networks, Architected multi-country desktop/SAP/channel solutions and very large scale transactional DB systems in Mission Critical environments - just in case anyone thinks I'm an escaped animal from the Marketing Department let loose in El Regs tech-heaven :-D Oh yes, and I've both field-stripped laptops and built VM's ;-)

Amazon’s shares slashed as profits drop 73%

News flash - Wall St bungles again

There can be no doubt, the ability for a bunch overpaid and under-informed 'Analysts' in the Financial Sector is truly amazing. Just think, if you handled your home budget on the basis that because your quarterly utility bill had blown an additional 25% hole in your monthly budget then you should clearly declare for Bankruptcy, then you (me) and a vast segment of the population would all be without financial standing!

On a separate note - I have a iPad. I'm no Fanboi but I don't have it (or use it) on the Tube because it's cool, I have it because it's convenient, effective and simple to use - perhaps unlike others I don't have have the funds to buy something that costs more than £500 simply because it's cool, I try and at least justify to the wife that I haven't become as methodical in my thinking as a Wall Street Financier!

Survey: Future IT guys will 'crowd-source' to fix stuff

Elementary, my Dear Tech-Folk...

Given the tendency for companies to chase cost-reduction, I'm certain this "appealing future" will take place. Having said that And now I think about it, most major IT Services companies 'flow' their teams together in an ad-hoc manner that closely resembles Crowd-Sourcing anyway...

...and when the A-team finishes up, it's always left to some overworked bugger on the coal face (who is already booking 120% of their time) to pick up the pieces.

The downside (did I mention an upside? No? Ah, well that because there probably isn't one) in the IT Services world is that it always makes any change horribly expensive, as flexible teams need to carry their fully-loaded costs with them, wherever they go.

Wait a minute, isn't that how Hollywood works? Eureka!

Prof: Save up fossil fuel reserves to fight the next ice age

This guy should consider advising Corporate Bankers

Lets face it, if you want to waste money in considerable style, without (apparent) recourse to any impact on your budget - or censure from authorities; then clearly climate research is the 'new' corporate banking.

I suspect I would have commented earlier, unfrotunately I was busy receiving medical attention as I accidentally broke my jaw in several places when it hit my knee-cap from the utter, complete, nonesensical absurdity that is clearly this 'Professors' life.

Would someone please put me out of my misery by joining in roundly condemning the notion that, as long as its climate-related in some manner, any fool can waste money by conducting research in this way.

One thing though - I've obviously generated waste carbon by reading this article - perhaps if we persuaded our erstwhile prof to write a massive book on the subject, then the resulting explosion of communal rage (and resultant email-generation) would in fact negate the necessity to use fossil fuel as the carbon 'pulses' would be generated anyway! Problem solved.

Vote now for your fave sci-fi movie quote

ooh - i'm soo happy...

At last, a really worthwhile activity for a Friday ... with added confirmation that El Reg staff have good [sci-fi] taste!

the toughest call was definitely between Bladerunner and Dark Star, but Bladerunner edged it. Most importantly though, I must have used up a good 10 minutes chortling over the sheer cheekiness of script writers over the decades. Absolutely beat hands down watching emails dropping into my In Box (and doing nothing about them).

Nice one guys :-)

Gilligan's bomb: Is it time to panic yet?

Gov Panic + greed?

I'll add to the plaudits for the article, a moment of sanity amidst the mindless shrill of 'average' media views.

But, lets not allow HM Gov to get away with 'panic' - this implies that they are really "good sorts" who have allowed their breakfast newspaper reading to carry them away on a pilgrimage of public safety.

Nah, I'm more in the camp that sardonically views the Government (and particularly our friends at the Home Office) to never miss an opportunity to deliver yet more legislation that effectively taints the population at large with the broad-brush of "suspicion" (as all reading this who unfortunately need to fly for our jobs can attest). That, plus the _alleged_ greed of BAA, who [apparently] recently told the boss of silverjet that he couldnt setup a 30-minute check-in & fly service as ... his passengers needed to spend time in the duty-free area, spending money (and adding to BAA coffers in the process).

Yours strictly in soliloquy (despite the platform :-),

M.

Some firm named Unisys does something

UNISYSss Big Red Stripe

Now your all being unfair, for years I had a big stack of UNISYS branded boxes containing a full set of Netware manuals. They were so big and chunky (and black with that cool red stripe thing going on) that they made an excellent stand for a SUN workstation in the one corner of the datacentre....

Ah, the "roaring 90's", them were the days ;-)

Please don't leave me... bitch

ouch...fashionista 2.0 forgets the fundamentals

Oh chortle, when will people ever learn that web 2.0 operations such as Facebook represent a well-worn market segment in the 'real' world ... fashion

Fashion is ephemeral and a contradiction; trendy but predictable, different yet me-to and doomed to be boring the day after it reaches the tipping point from viral to established.

Lets face it, trend-wise facebook was doomed the day your average <24 yr old realised that _politicians_ <spit> were dropping the fact they had an entry at every sound-bite opportunity they could.

Its the nature of fads and fashion that they come and go ... and why not? There's always someone with the urge to prove they got there in the first wave, ten years ago people would boast to having OnlY a 4-digit CU-Seeme member number - they could prove their credibility...

I never joined facebook, never felt the need to do so, if I need to contact someone I can use a plethora of ways but ... I dont care if people use it or not. But, I'll continue to chortle loudly at wickedly ironic postings such as this (keep 'em coming John) and laugh out loud at those soo offended that they decide to take issue in the Posts at how awful El Reg is for poring scorn ... guys, have you not READ the banner strapline?

Facebook or any of the other variants will always struggle to make money ... me, I'd get on with inventing a platform product that would allow other people to quickly (say, a few days) build such social phenomenon, then chuckle my way to the bank on the usage royalties while the ever-more-creatively-named websites come and go.

Yours admiringly (of the rapier-like humour)

M.