Posts by Michael

Twitter name and blue bird logo to be 'blowtorched' off company branding

Mulder and Scully

X-files, the new online storage system from Elon. The FBI will be early users.

Tesla's Dojo supercomputer is a billion-dollar bet to make AI better at driving than humans

Re: But will it be clever enough

Oh I don't know about that. Tesla's are involved in more accidents than any other self driving car. Getting plenty of dataon what causes crashes.

IR35 costs UK Research and Innovation £36M – the same it spent funding tech projects

description chosen to make a point

UKRI have a budget of £7,904 million in 2022 to 2023, to £8,874 million in 2024 to 2025.

The costs here are for the project managers that monitor the actual research projects. I've previously contracted PMs that do this job a number of days per month. So I don't see why they should be classed as inside IR35. Most of these people will only be doing this part of the time.

EU monopoly cops probe complaints about Microsoft Azure

Re: Monopoly Cops

That was the most unexpected comment I've seen in a while. Cheered me up no end. Bravo.

Ten-day optical burst shows star eating giant planet, scientists say

I misread that headline

I thought that the planet was eating the star. I was very confused. I need more beer.

NASA solar satellite burns up over the Sahara desert

Proper engineering

I always appreciate it when a system is designed and budgeted to run for a fixed period of time and then massively exceeds all expectations.

I've managed this once with a system designed to work for 3 years off of two AA batteries. We shipped a lot of units. Average age for failing units was 5.9 years. Longest lasting of the original batch made it to 9 years.

If only every company would produce systems that just kept working.

BT in tests to beam down 5G coverage from the stratosphere

Re: Google Loon (but with wings?)

It would allow 99% coverage and not coverage by population as is stated now. This allows government to mandate coverage that allows emergency services to access data services anywhere. It allows new services that could collect remote data if only there was coverage.

It would allow the entire rail network to be covered ensuring remote monitoring would work and reduce the likelihood of fatal crashes. There are many industries that want to use data services in remote locations. You don't need population densities toake use of the data services.

If your DNS queries LoOk liKE tHIs, it's not a ransom note, it's a security improvement

Re: Colour me surprised (in upper case)

A continued argument I've had with a member of our sales team who is incapable of entering his email correctly. Apparently the spec is wrong...

PostgreSQL 15 promises to ease Oracle and SQL Server migrations

Re: I'm always pleased when PostgreSQL gets some coverage

LAMP stack was hugely popular especially as so many content management systems relied on it. End of the 90s early 00s it was the stack you used in open source webservers.

Musk says Starlink will ask for exemption to US sanctions on Iran

Re: Re-Wording Dept

They are.

EU puts smart device manufacturers on the hook for cyber security

Re: I can understand...

Mistakes are allowed. You just need to fix them and provide updates in a reasonable time period. No company that does this will have to worry. Those selling junk that is insecure and unmaintained will not be in business for long.

Plenty of people will continue to launch and release products in Europe as it is a massive market that has money to spend. Equally of all the cheap and disposable junk stops being sold and nobody wants to ship new products to Europe then European businesses will launch their own products to fill the gaps. You do realise that plenty of products are designed and manufactured in Europe?

Re: "Expected product lifetime ... or five years"

Cars are excluded as they are regulated separately.

This is a starting point. It will most likely be expanded over time. It is a good thing that suppliers will be expected to ensure products are secure for a reasonable time period.

After eleven-year wait, Atlassian customers promised custom domains in 2023

I'd prefer them to fix the performance

I have to use the web hosted version for work. It is the most painfully slow application I have to use.

I honestly despair at getting anything done when I use it, it is un-useable when I am on a teams call and sharing the screen. It doesn't save changes unless you click the button, unfortunately it is so slow, that you can navigate away after hitting save and it doesn't work.

EU law threatening 'commercially painful changes' for tech out tonight

Re: So, painful changes, limited scope to reduce their impact, global standards ?

Finally a use for blockchain...

UK.gov threatens to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

Re: Much cheaper plan:

Yep. As a parent it is my job to control what my kids do or watch. Not the government. I can enable limits on what they can easily access from the internet with my router if I want. Or not.

Parents should do their job and government should stop interfering.

UK science stuck in 'holding pattern' on EU funding by Brexit, says minister

Re: Equality

Anyone can get published. Submit away. Take on reviewers feedback and follow standard practice for submissions and you will be fine.

There are plenty of places to pick up papers from. A certain online system is available with better access to papers than my university had at times.

Working in Arm's engineering team? You're probably happy with your pay rise

Re: "our people are core to our success"

Still the engineers. Should the IT department bugger off the engineers will manage just fine once give the appropriate passwords. Then you can hire a replacement IT team with minimal impact of the product. Lose the engineers and things will slip.

MariaDB takes a dip into Angel Pond to clean up and go public

Re: Well I hope that the inevitable next free fork

Just use postgres.

22-year-old Brit avoids US extradition over SIM-swapping conspiracy after judge deems him to be high suicide risk

The question is why is he not tried in th UK by default. The crime he is accussed of occurred in this country. Not the United States of America. We have laws here that are applicable. Surely there is no good reason not to have a trial here. Especially as video evidence is now standard practice.

Re: Oh FFS

Fortunately I'm perfect in every way. I'm an expert in everything.

Behold! The first line of defence for 25% of the US nuclear stockpile: Dolphins

maybe not

Has anyone checked if cockroaches can get covid?

Former Oracle execs warn that Big Red's auditing process is also a 'sales enablement tool'

makes me cry

My company are currently planning to use oracle netsuite as the sales guys carefully explain they can do everything that is asked of them whilst carefully ignoring mentioning the additional cost with every requirement.

Throw away your Ethernet cables* because MediaTek says Wi-Fi 7 will replace them

Re: Does it go through brick walls?

Brick walls? I wish that was all I had to contend with. I've 800mm thick solid stone walls in parts of my house. I think I'll stick to the cat 6 cables.

MPs charged with analysing Online Safety Bill say end-to-end encryption should be called out as 'specific risk factor'

Re: Sorites problem

Surely banning all children would also solve the problem of child pornography?

Rust dust-up as entire moderation team resigns. Why? They won't really say

Sam Vines?

At least that what he always says.

The one with night watch in the pocket.

Linus Torvalds releases Linux 5.16 rc1 with new performance-enhancing memory tech

Needed a database they could afford

They couldn't afford an Oracle licence and associated audit.

They needed a relational database that just works and that they could use without fear of breaking the bank.

Microsoft engineer fixes enterprise-level Chromium bug students could exploit to cheat in online tests

reminds me of uni exams

We had had a computing exam in first year. To prevent cheating internet access was disabled on the computers in the lab. After finishing up the programming task I used telnet to connect and chat to my friend on the computer behind me. After 10 minutes or so the lecturer walk up behind me, leaned over and asked very politely what I was doing. I answered chatting to him.

He informed me that internet access had been disabled and I explained I was using the local network. He gave me a look, said carry on and walked away. I thought it a most reasonable response.

FYI: If the latest Windows 11 really wants to use Edge, it will use Edge no matter what

Great plan

I can highly recommend the switch. My now 9 year old daughter has only every used Linux for home schooling over the last year. She has never been forced to use a Microsoft application yet and will remain happily ignorant of their software for as long as possible.

I unfortunately still need to use it in occasion for PCB design as altium still doesn't run on Linux. However, it is only on a work machine with windows 10 and as much as possible the tracking turned off.

Trojan Source attack: Code that says one thing to humans tells your compiler something very different, warn academics

Re: vim singled out for praise.

Well, as I do all code reviews in vim, I'd catch this issue so no problems for me. The joy of being too lazy to use the latest new tools. Sometimes the old one just work well enough.

Real-time crowdsourced fact checking not really that effective, study says

Re: One word: Duh!

I'd suggest it is the lowest IQ of a member of the group divided by the number of people in the group.

Apple's Safari browser runs the risk of becoming the new Internet Explorer – holding the web back for everyone

Re: clearly you don't pay for the developers

You are aware that you can adjust the UI to suit different screen resolutions in a web app? It's a relatively minor overhead written in the same language/framework which ensures that things work consistently. I can have one set of code that runs everywhere, the UI may look slightly different on your phone or pc. Hell, I can disable or remove features that won't work or be used on a mobile and make them appear on the desktop version.

Want to enter the barcode on the desktop you can type or use a barcode scanner. On your phone the camera. Provided the API supports it.

No

I remember that time. I remember the ability to switch in a new battery when traveling. It was great. I remember adding storage via and card. I still do.

I don't remember using a single site that used or needed flash at that time. I certainly don't remember anyone saying flash support was a benefit. I do remember people saying why does android not drop support too.

clearly you don't pay for the developers

The cost of me to have to build apps for Android, iPhone and the web so that all users can access my systems anywhere is prohibitive. Browser based access simplifies design and testing.

Having web standards to allow access to Bluetooth or RFID or photos to scan a barcode allows customers to configure systems with a simple click of a button from a web app that will run everywhere that the support is available. It means that the UI is consistent and testing and bug fixes are readily available.

I don't want to have to buy an iPhone for the 2 users that I have that use them to view data on them. I don't want to pay for a service to test them on. I want to run on a selection of browsers that run on my developer machine and verify that it works. I can automate testing easily and quickly.

I want to push out a bug fix in days for customers because we can test it readily on all browsers. I don't want to test on 30 different versions of iOS, windows, android, etc to support native apps across multiple OS versions.

Nobody cares about DAB radio – so let's force it onto smart speakers, suggests UK govt review

try visiting the Scottish Highlands

I was traveling last week. DAB was non existent not long after Pitlochry, switched to FM, perfect reception and random local radio stations.

DAB is fine if you are in a city. Outside, I'll stick to FM. Also, as stated elsewhere, DAB bitrate has been dropped to support new stations meaning sound quality can't compete with FM. The UK should have upgradedto DAB+ years ago.

Better late than never: Microsoft rolls out a public preview of E2EE in Teams calls

Fix Linux support

As I'm forced to use teams for work. I'd be happier with decent Linux support. I'm fed up with having to kill and restart when I change volume or microphone/speaker source. Using 100% CPU when in a call, slowing my machine so that I can't click or type when sharing a screen. E2EE isn't required for my calls, they never bloody work.

UK altnet CityFibre's boss on its hopes to capitalise on market churn as fibre broadband rolls out

No even tjhe city

I'm in Glasgow. They have installed 3 separate fibre connections on my parents street. My house is currently less than 300 meters from the CityFibre lines. They have no intention of coming down my street. Nor do any of the other suppliers.

No BS*: BT is hooking up with OneWeb to tackle UK notspots

Re: Sincerely, Good Luck

I'm 3 miles from Glasgow city centre and get 11mbps down on a good day and 0.8mbps on a really good day. More often than not 9mbps down and 0.45mbps up. My parents street 3 miles further out has been dug up three times in the last year for city fibre, BT and virgin to install fibre. They have three options for fibre. I've been told there are no plans for any fibre in the next 4 years for my area at the moment.

Fibre network should be a national installation with suppliers selling access. Why the hell do people need three options on the same street. Honestly they could have covered the whole of Glasgow for a fraction of the cost of they just managed installation properly.

Workday bets big on staff coming back to the office by splurging $172.5m on HQ and five more Bay Area buildings

Re: Nope

You clearly don't have network connectivity issues. I've a 900kbs uplink speed when it isn't raining on FTTC. I have no 5G connectivity options and 4G signal is unreliable. Office working is definitely not disappearing any time soon for me.

Web prank horror: Man shot dead while pretending to rob someone at knife-point for a YouTube video

Re: This is why they should be banned.

I always believed that there were 10 types of people in the world too. Those that understand binary and those that don't.

Showering malware-laced laptops on UK schools is the wrong way to teach them about cybersecurity

Re: Why still MS?

Nope. Works under Linux too.

My kids don't have access to windows machines. Too risky.

UK Prime Minister Johnson knows not when 400k+ deleted records from police DB will be back

Re: Johnsons fault or click bait?

They have a higher number of old people with multiple illnesses that have been kept alive by the NHS and have now died of a new illness. We pushed people out of hospital into care homes without testing and killed more people by spreading infections.

Signal boost: Secure chat app is wobbly at the moment. Not surprising after gaining 30m+ users in a week, though

not to be a business

From the signal website: "Signal is an independent nonprofit. We're not tied to any major tech companies, and we can never be acquired by one either. Development is supported by grants and donations from people like you."

Pizza and beer night out the window, hours trying to sort issue, then a fresh pair of eyes says 'See, the problem is...'

Re: Doubtless with the assistance of a baseball bat peppered with rusty nails.

Ah, I remember visiting a former HQ building to work with the QA department to train them on some new software. On the wall was a frame with the message for repeat offenders and a small pistol. A new team leader happened to start working in the QA department that week. She picked the pistol off the wall and pointed it towards the room. Everyone but me hit the floor and the QA manager moved at high speed from his desk and pointed her hand upwards.

Apparently nobody could remember if it was still loaded with live rounds. They had been shooting with it recently. After that I decided to avoid visiting QA. Or putting my name on code commits....

Samsung finally admitted to Google’s Enterprise Android Recommended club

Re: Galaxy Xcover Pro

Missing the desired price point, less than $200.

Bill Gates lays out a three-point plan to rid the world of COVID-19 – and anti-vaxxer cranks aren't gonna like it

Couldn't agree more. I thoroughly disliked many of the things he allowed to happen whilst running Microsoft. I've huge respect for what he has done since.

Financial Reporting Council slaps Autonomy auditor Deloitte with £15m fine over audit 'misconduct'

blame

I struggle to see why it would be the CEO at fault here. He appointed auditors who are recognised as one of the biggest and most reliable. They sign the accounts off. CEO doesn't need to understand all the mechanisms used for accounting, that is why they have a CFO and auditors.

I also don't understand why the auditors and team that carried out the due diligence that HP should have had signed off on the purchase at such an inflated valuation. In fact, I seem to recall that they didn't, rather that HP management rushed through the purchase before due diligence completed. Buyers remorse is a bitch, but it wasn't a criminal act from the CEO. Any trial should really be in the UK as the supposed crime occured here.

Firefighters to UK Home Office: Yeah, maybe don't turn off emergency comms network before replacement is ready

Re: Business cases?

Anyone driving on the A9 regularly would consider dualling the carriage way to be value for money.

UK govt finds £200,000 under sofa to kick off research into improving mobile connectivity on nation's crap railways

West coast mainline

I thought it went to Glasgow? Hmm, perhaps it has been stopped due to lockdown?

Fancy some fishy-chips? Just order one of these sensors: Research shines light on suspect component sources

Re: Solution is not simple at all

Farnell, digikey and RS will happily sell to you.

Aussie immunology legend consults Twitter for his local off-licence opening hours

Re: Drums away.

Usually only the newer distilleries will sell you a new fill cask. I could suggest Arran?

https://www.arranwhisky.com/our-distillery/buy-a-whisky-cask

Older casks are a bit pricey...