Posts by Pascal Monett 18232 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007
Five contracts, by the same local authority to the same provider, terminated for the same reason.
Um, after the third time, wouldn't it have been an idea to look for another provider ?
Of course, when you're living with the cows, you don't always have the choice.
Could someone please explain to me how we got to the point where softwere version numbers are rivalling with asteroid names for incomprehensibility ?
Version 90, okay, got it. Point zero I would guess means that it is not an official version (since the article plainly states it is a dev version), fine. Point 782 - wow, how many dev versions do you need to get things right ? This has to be developed using Agile.
This I could understand, but what the hell is the last Point zero for ?
I'm not sure that would work. A few years ago now, I had the opportunity to help set up a small education center. Of course, they were strapped for cash and of course, they needed word processor and speadsheet stuff, but didn't have the money for MS Office.
I told them about LibreOffice and, with their enthusiastic approval, installed it for them.
A week later I learned they were all working on Word and Excel with an unregistered licence. Apparently, they did not find LibreOffice user-friendly enough.
I suspect that they all worked on pirated copies of MS Office on their home computers, and were unwilling to go through the feeble effort to learn something slightly different on their work computers.
I think that is the mentality of a lot of people today. Least effort.
"Google [requires] apps that scan for Bluetooth devices also to have access to full Location Services, and that Google’s Location Services have to be running "
What is the technical justification for that ?
If I activate mobile data and call on Google Maps, I expect to get a request for location data, and if I'm on Google Maps on my phone, it's most probably because I'm looking to get somewhere, so I will activate location data. It is useful to me to be located so I know where to go.
There is absolutely zero use to me to be located if I'm using headphones. I'm listening to music - where I am is none of your damn business.
I definitely agree, but we all know why this has come to pass : the availability of the Internet.
As much as I simply cannot do without it these days, back when it was barely available with a 56K modem, software makers had to get it right out of the door, because patching was inconcievable. You would have had to create tens of thousands of floppies, make deals with computing magazine vendors and publish that you had a patch for your product. The cost alone would have been enough to make beancounters faint.
No, back in the day, you got it right before getting it out. But today, we don't need to do that any more. We get it just about right and ship it, secure in the notion that, if somebody happens on an issue, well, we'll post a patch and all will be well.
What is worse is that patching is apparently become a shoddy process as well. The article states :
So he analyzed the patch and found it was incomplete – it addressed one way of exploiting the bug but not another. So that led to CVE-2020-6883 and another patch. But that patch caused other problems, so an updated patch was issued
The coder patched the problem he was submitted, he did not analyze the issue in its entirety. Then he had to patch the other part, and screwed that up so he had to re-patch. Three patches for the same thing. That is shoddy programming, because we can.
We're still at the stage where we are finding out what works. Slacks' downtime is proof that all the kinks are not ironed out yet, and proof that engineers haven't thought of everything.
At least, I expect a complete log review and meetings to amend the processes that are in place.
We'll see what happens next year.
Well there's your problem. A Byzantine voting structure and obtuse rules and you convince the small guys to not bother. Then you buddy up to the few who have actual influence and you spend years influencing things to your fancy. All is well.
Until you end up having done a 180° on your madate and somebody wakes up and makes a fuss. And you're so busy burning Rome that you can't even hear the messengers that are clamoring for you attention.
Beheading. It's the only solution.
A new management is best - the existing one has proven its incompetence.
Having a compatibility list is perfectly understandable and acceptable, forcing customers to choose one type of drive is not.
Synology is not in the business of making drives. It can most definitely say which drives are preferable, but it is not credible when it states that only "its" drives are acceptable.
A compatibility list is clear - you purchase an element of the list and you can expect proper performance and reliability. You purchase outside the list and you're on your own. We know the rules.
Synology has a deal with Toshiba, fine. Point us to that fact and wax lyrical about how that specific range of Toshiba drives are the best, fine. Don't put your name on it and pretend that they're the only ones that work.
You're not a disk maker. Stop pretending you are.
What ? They've pushed that bull to the OS level ?
Today's operating systems are turning into everything-and-the-kitchen-sink levels of madness.
Looking forward to the day where I can have a toaster service to command my IoT toaster and set the darkness on the bread. Not.
Being the subject of an attack is one thing, being able to shrug it off and resume functioning without either having lost important data or paying the miscreants is, unfortunately, another thing entirely.
Well done to UKRI, who has apparently been some of the too rare institutions that had proper backup plans and procedures, and was capable of implementing them quickly.
Let's just hope that they've found the entry point, and will do what is required to plug the hole so that the miscreants have to find another way in.
Oh, so the small amount of electricity and maintenance on an ATM is more important than its usage ?
I'm guessing that 600 less ATMs is going to inconvenience a fair amount of people. How are they going to be able to get some cash then ? Drive another 20km to some bank teller and wait in line ?
Honestly, what is the cost of maintaining an ATM and where do you draw the line on its usefulness ?
What competition ? How many private companies were bidding to not include that link ?
This has nothing to do with competition and everything to do with the higher-ups being incapable of having a proper view of what it is they are supposed to be doing.
And 700K users is no small number. Many, many websites would kill to have that level of traffic.
Havoc has already been wreaked. Nominet is no longer fulfilling its office, it is only filling some people's coffers.
Beheading is fitting.
It must be quite galling for the person who created Nominet, Ivan Pope (hell of a name), to see what a prostitute his creation has become.
I wholeheartedly support this move, and I'm not even concerned.
A not-for-profit should never be hell bent on making profits.
Thank you for that post.
I have to say, I do not remember ever needing to check that my laptop's power cable was compatible with EU or UK power.
Of course, I know that a 110V power supply is going to die a quick death if you plug it into a 220V mains, but the cable ? It doesn't care.
So I really don't get that the cable is the cause of the whiteboard's problem. There has to be some other reason - maybe the cable was faulty, had a kink in it or something.
But I'm convinced that a cable that can handle 110V is not going to have much of a problem handling 220V. They don't make the metal wire thinner.
Your comment prompted me to search a bit, and I found this article which has a sentence that can resume the issue :
The Pearl Street Station also provided DC at 110 V, considered to be a "safe" voltage for consumers, beginning September 4, 1882.
One has to admit that it is the United States that pioneered electrical distribution, based on the work of that guy who electrocuted elephants to cast doubts on AC, Thomas Edison. But then, it would appear that a Berlin company decided, in 1899, to switch to 220V because, apparently, distributing electricity at that voltage was cheaper and more efficient.
Europe switched, the rest of the world largely followed, and here we are now.
A desk, a cup holder, a mug. The mug could eventually increase performance, but that will depend on what you pour into it.
The only thing that might be remotely interesting is the motorized table. If you can switch from sitting to standing and back, then that might be something worth having. Maybe.
So, we have the abomination that is wireless charging, and now they want to have us subject ourselves to a radiation emittor 24/7 on the off-chance that our mobile phone needs its battery topped off.
Please continue to reference that article on how iffy wireless charging is. Someone has to put a stop to this madness, which has just gotten worse.
Is remote charging more inefficient ? I say it bloody well has to be. Wireless charging has you at least going to the effort of placing your blower on a pad (God that must be exhausting), remote wireless means that the charging thingy is emitting energy in a sphere. I'm impressed that anyone should imagine beam-forming capabilities in a sub-€1000 charger, but I personally doubt there's going to be a beam of any sort. That darn thing is just going to blast power in all directions, and everyone and everything will be subject to it.
I wonder how cats and dogs are going to react to that. I wonder how fish in aquarium are going to appreciate their water heating up.
Please stop the madness. Ban wireless charging now.
And that axe is far overdue.
He "welcoms dialogue" ? Hypocrite. If you welcom dialogue, you don't shut down the forum that actually permits dialogue, even if said dialogue is telling you that people are not happy with your decisions.
I am very gald to see that there is, finally, a way to curb the over-enthusiastic reign of assholes who think they can use any structure to make themselves more money, without any regard to what the structure is supposed to do in the first place.
Somebody oust the board at ICANN, please.
"QUIC attack accuracy can reach about 95 per cent with only 40 packets and Simple features, compared to about 60 per cent attack accuracy for HTTPS "
So, the takeaway from this is that HTTPS has a 60% chance of revealing what you're doing, and QUIC is worse than that.
Bad news all around.
Fuck the possibility of denial.
Personally, I don't take minutes, but when the meeting is almost done, I specify aloud what I believe the conclusion of the meeting is. Anyone who disagrees can set me right at that time.
If no one does, then I'm right.
Whatever the issue, the first thing I do after a meeting is send a mail to all the participants where I state what decisions were taken. If it takes someone two months to disagree, well tough cookies.
Personally, I prefer the ISO standard of 2021/12/31.
We need to ditch local stupidity and get with the program.
I have wasted way too many days of my life programming around every one else's petty preferences.
Did you know that there are some monsters who write their dates as 12.31.2021 ?
Monsters.
Why ?
Where is the law that says that ?
I googled this, and I found many articles that say the exact same thing, but none of them linked to the legal document that justified it.
Now, don't get me wrong, but the fact that gambling is legal somewhere doesn't imply that the app should be free. It should, on the other hand, be just, and the chances to win should be fair. In other words, apps should be verified to not be specifically programmed to cheat you out of your money.
But free ? Both Apple and Google specify so on their Store guidelines, but that does not make it a law.
So, why ?
I'm sorry, but a financial market that allows you to bid for stock with money you don't have is a broken institution.
The world needs to take a step back and end the madness. There is no excuse for allowing stock market operations with money that you do not own.
Take out a loan, sign up with a bank, by all means. But once you put money in this roulette operation, it should be yours, not someone else's promise.
I will never understand how people can throw so much money at something that doesn't allow a simple, user-accessible battery replacement.
If I have to go to a store and talk to a so-called "genius" just to have the battery of my phone replaced, I am most definitely not buying such a phone.
I don't care how slim it is, or how round its corners are.
7:42, impossibly early ?
Back in the halcyon days when we could still shake hands and generally cough over everyone, 7:42 was a time when I was already clocked in and working at my computer on client site.
I used to get up at 5:30.
Now I get up at 7:45, and shamble down to my home office to get my mail before 8:00 in order to make sure that I have time to brush my teeth, wash and get dressed before I need to connect somewhere in a hurry.
Dear God, if I ever have to revert to getting up at 5:30, it's going to be a hard week getting started.
An attractive model would be one where the customer's customizations, which they have already spent millions on, would work in The Cloud (TM).
I hardly see anything attractive in moving to The Cloud (TM) just to shore up your revenue line when it will totally disrupt everything your customers have built their business on.
Tell me, is this plan from the CEOs nephew who just got his MBA ?
How can you be stupid enough to create a cloud platform that totally ignores your customers' needs, and then be surprised that it is not widely adopted ?
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