* Posts by Tim99

1999 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Apr 2008

Australian Banks ask permission to form anti-Apple cartel

Tim99 Silver badge
Big Brother

Tracking, Advertising and Selling Information

It wouldn't have anything to do with the banks and their retailers wanting full access to the information then? Apples statement on their website:-

"Every time you hand over your credit or debit card to pay, your card number and identity are visible, and swiping your card triggers an exchange of information. With Apple Pay, instead of using your actual credit and debit card numbers when you add your card, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element, a dedicated chip in iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. When you make a purchase, the Device Account Number, along with a transaction-specific dynamic security code, is used to process your payment. So your actual credit and debit card numbers are never shared by Apple with merchants or transmitted with payment. And unlike credit cards, on iPhone and iPad every payment requires Touch ID or a passcode, and Apple Watch must be unlocked — so only you can make payments from your device."

It might be a bit difficult for them to form a cartel as the ANZ Bank has already signed up...

Free Windows 10 upgrade: Time is running out – should you do it?

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

Re: bashing

I'm retired now, and can't really be bothered to fight my way through crap anymore; so most of the time that I need bash for a a true UNIX experience, I go to a terminal window on OS X :-)

Mine's the one with K&R in the pocket >>========>

We ain't in 1996 anymore, Dorothy: SQL Server 2016 proves it

Tim99 Silver badge
Windows

Hi Mark,

Past summers are sunnier, young women were more beautiful, we were more handsome, food tasted better, and our memories allow time and distance to blur our bad experiences.

I was actually writing applications and installing/administrating with SQL Server from version 1, from a background of DEC Rdb, Oracle, Informix and Sybase on minis; and XDB, dBase and R:Base on PCs. The early MS SQL products were awful, but had the advantages of cheapness and ubiquity. It did not really mature until the total rewrite that came with Version 7. I retired between the 2005 and 2008 versions, so cannot comment on the later systems.

These days, when I need to do this stuff, SQLite works for me; or if I am advising someone who is thinking of a larger system, I show them Postgres.

Don't doubt it, Privacy Shield is going to be challenged in court

Tim99 Silver badge
Gimp

Re: The problem here

I wasn't aware that Apple were selling their/our data to anyone - Could we have a citation to support your statement please?

The Great Brain Scan Scandal: It isn’t just boffins who should be ashamed

Tim99 Silver badge
Boffin

Hint

If a research field has "science" in its name, it may not be...

EasyDoc malware adds Tor backdoor to Macs for botnet control

Tim99 Silver badge
Gimp

You wasted electrons

I don't think that the sky is falling quite yet. The first choice for this with two search engines is at macupdate.com - The page has one Comment/Review "TheSafeMac Jul 05, 2016 This is malware: OSX.Backdoor.Eleanor"

It will not install unless the user overwrites their "Security & Privacy" settings to allow installation of apps from anywhere instead of the default restricted setting.

A simple removal method is here. If you are as paranoid as I am, and still managed to install it, I would recommend the manual method instead of the one that requires a download!

Microsoft releases cross-platform .NET Core 1.0 at Linux event

Tim99 Silver badge
Devil

Oh good

Red Hat Systemd; and Microsoft .NET together - What could possible go wrong?

Apple and Android wearables: What iceberg? It’s full steam ahead!

Tim99 Silver badge

An analogy

The watches I wear have to be manually wound up every day, funnily enough, I remember to wind them; and on the rare occasions that I have let them run down, I wind them, look at the time elsewhere and set it. I have owned four "decent" watches. Two required a battery that needed to be replaced occasionally, and when they stopped I needed to find a battery supplier that was able to get the back off (Omegas are a bugger for that). I still use my mechanical watches, but not the battery ones.

The watch I wear most is a 75 year old Longines Professional that was bought new by my father for £5 when he was an RAF Observer in WWII. It was designed for aircrew (and Naval) use. It has a luminescent display with an hour, minute and sweep-second hands, and that is all - No date, stopwatch, or multiple time functions - Because if you are navigating an aircraft in the dark, when people are trying to shoot you down, that is all you need. Allowing for inflation it is still worth about 2 weeks wages, and it's only running costs have been for cleaning (about 6 times) and new straps. I like to think of it as being like UNIX, not flash but dependable. Smart watches may have a *NIX base, and be very accurate; but don't seem to be particularly good at what I use a watch for, which is telling me that it is nearly a quarter to three...

Java API judge tells Oracle to suck it up, quit whining about the jury

Tim99 Silver badge
Gimp

@Bob Vistaken

"Alright, for the nit pickers, s/Linux/Obvious Unix derivative Apple gave their usual rounded corners treatment to"

OK, you are a Linux fan. I am too; although less of one since Pottering's fun and games; and have been around this stuff before BSD. The timelines are roughly Linux: 1991-1992; vs NeXTSTEP 1989-1995 -> OpenStep 1994 (NeXT/Sun Solaris/Rhapsody/OS X Server 1999) -> OSX Desktop (first 'decent desktop version Panther, 2003?)

NeXT was a lot more than "rounded corners". I still use OS X, but have now moved most of my Linux stuff to other BSDs.

Bin Apple's $500m patent judgment, US DoJ tells Supreme Court

Tim99 Silver badge
Headmaster

Please stop Calling it a "Patent"

It is a "Design Patent" US design patent: Wikipedia link "An object with a design that is substantially similar to the design claimed in a design patent cannot be made, used, copied or imported into the United States. The copy does not have to be exact for the patent to be infringed. It only has to be substantially similar."

Which is close to a UK "Registered Design" gov.uk link "You can register the look of a product you’ve designed to stop people copying or stealing it." The look of your design includes the: appearance; physical shape; configuration (or how different parts of a design are arranged together); decoration".

Capitalize 'Internet'? AP says no – Vint Cerf says yes

Tim99 Silver badge

Re: I'm still upset...

@Kubla Cant

I might, if I was in the provinces. If not, I would consider a hackney carriage.

Tim99 Silver badge
Unhappy

I'm still upset...

... when the barbarians shortened the word telephone to 'phone; then they called it a phone.

In-flight movies via BYOD? Just what I always wan... argh no we’re all going to die!

Tim99 Silver badge
Facepalm

SMBs don't work that way

"By this, I must deduce that designing, printing and distributing a leaflet to every customer around the country takes less time, effort and expense than rewriting two lines of text on a website."

This is the problem when looking at technology in the real world. The printed stuff was originally drafted out by someone senior in the business, (s)he then passed it up to the MD. The MD took it home where it was looked at and scribbled on by the MD's partner. If you are lucky, someone in the family could type, so it was then redrafted at least 4 times on screen, printed out a few more times, and then corrected again, and then finally taken back to work, where suitable artwork/colouring and layout was done by somebody who was probably a contractor. The "finished" work then went back via the MD to their partner who suggested that the fonts should be changed; and they did not really like the neutral corporate pale background, so please change it to a nice pink colour 'like their poodle's dog collar". The artwork and dog collar then go back to the contractor, who thought about the invoice that they would generate, gritted their teeth, and then made the changes, hopefully making the shade of pink a bit less virulent. A final proof was then agreed, which went as a .docx file and a printed copy to the local printing franchise run by the MD's partner's cousin; who tried to do their slightly incompetent best, particularly as the MD's partner said when they dropped it off, "Oh could you make the pink a bit brighter it seems to have faded". The SMB now has 5 reams of leaflets most of which are on boxes on the floor by the receptionists feet.

Now comes the good bit, someone believes that "To show that they are a modern company", this information needs to be up on the website. The website was originally designed by a partner of the same contractor who did the flyer, but he has not been allowed near it since, as the invoice that they sent was too high. "It's only computer stuff" thinks the MD - "My daughter's boyfriend is always doing computer stuff, he can do it for us" - The said boyfriend's experience was gained mostly as many hours spent playing WoW on Windows. He cobbles together a scanned copy of the flyer and gives it the same name as the original on the website, and somehow manages to copy it up to the "correct" place to replace the original flyer.

It did not have to be like this. About 2 years ago, the MD met a consultant on the golf course who told him that they gave advice on modern business practices. He came in and produced an expensive report that suggested that everything should go up on a local copy of the company website first, and then when everyone was happy, any changes should go up on the real website. If they needed printed copies they should use the website documents directly. The existing staff were horrified, and the senior staff member who produces the first drafts told the MD "We don't have anyone here with those skills, and if we did they would be very expensive - What we have works well, so let's not change it".

I have been there many times, and have even mentally designed the T shirt while waiting the "recent" back up to restore the receptionist's data, which contained stuff that she thought was too important to go onto a server in someone else's office. The receptionist (if she is not the pretty young woman "who does the typing and answers the phone") is invariably a really pleasant 48 year old woman who is actually the only person who knows how the company actually works...

Surface Book nightmare: Microsoft won't fix 'Sleep of Death' bug

Tim99 Silver badge
Windows

Sympathy

"I purchased a top-of-the-line Windows 10 Surface Book in February...

...The system had a base price of $3,199; configured with Office 365, a Surface Dock, and Microsoft Complete Accident Protection, I spent a bit over $4,000...

...When I next called to ask for my refund, I was told that I couldn’t have one, on the grounds that I was now outside the 30-day window for returns.

Well there's your problem; and some people who frequent these fora call out Apple for supplying overpriced inadequate kit?

Inside Project Loon – Google's megaplan to build a global internet

Tim99 Silver badge

Re: Helium

@David Roberts

Most of the helium that we use comes from natural gas wells, where much of it was formed as alpha particles from radioactive decay within the Earth. Helium is a very light molecule (roughly 7 times less dense than air) and smaller than the main nitrogen and oxygen components of air. Each helium molecule has an average velocity greater than most of the other molecules in the atmosphere.

Molecules can travel to the top of the atmosphere relatively quickly, and if they are light enough, will escape from the Earth's gravity. (It is a lot more complicated than that!). A helpful(?) link for some of the theory: Wikipedia.

IBM invents printer that checks for copyrights

Tim99 Silver badge
Big Brother

I'll probably be locked-up for this

...But for a PDF that you can read on a screen the non-techy version is screen copy, or for the rest of us:-

pdfclean LockedFile.pdf UnlockedFile.PDF (page ranges) - works fairly well...

MongoDB on breaches: Software is secure, but some users are idiots

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

Re: MongoDB is very secure

But, but, MongoDB is webscale... YouTube link

Shares down?! But, but, but ... Apple just made $50bn – that's the way the Cookie grumbles

Tim99 Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Interesting

@Kristian Walsh

"The Ubuntu subsystem on Windows 10 is what sealed the deal for me"

Good luck with that one - Unless you think that having two loads of bloated crap will cancel one another out. There are other BSD (or even Linux) operating systems that will run on a real laptop...

NSW Dept of Education IT system still in slow-motion collapse

Tim99 Silver badge
WTF?

$1 Billion

I don't know this project so I will make some wild unsubstantiated guesses.

<1,000,000 rows? 10,000 active users? 100 tables? How can they spend this much, even with SAP?

I have done a project bigger than this with Oracle on HP (not known for being cheap) with 3 developers over 2 years for a lot less than $1 Million - And it worked, and it was for a *very large* public body... You could almost do it with SQLite (well, prototype it anyway).

Disclaimer: - Our users already had access to terminals, so the end-user infrastructure was already in place; but assuming that this system was web based, not much additional cost there either.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS arrives today complete with forbidden ZFS

Tim99 Silver badge
Joke

Re: Priorities?

@Sam Liddicot

Why would I need a word processor when I can cat into a file, and then sed any changes I need from the terminal?

Hey, Britain! Meet Mr Maxwell, our new National Tech Advisor

Tim99 Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: How about doing some research, commenters?

Here is the result of 30 seconds I spent searching at Debrett's: - "conslt Accenture 1991-93, IT mangr Office Angels 1994-97, European technol mangr Adecco 1997-2000, fndr and IT dir Huntress 2000-01, head of IT Capita Resourcing 2001-04, head of computing Eton Coll 2004-11, dir ICT Futures Cabinet Office 2001-12, exec dir IT reform and dep Govt chief info offr Cabinet Office 2012, chief technol offr HM Govt, Govt Digital Service Cabinet Office 2012-; cncllr, cabinet memb for policy Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 2007-11; fndr Holypart Coll Berks 2014-; visiting prof in electronics and computer science Univ of Southampton 2014- "

Many of the usual suspects then...

Canny Canadian PM schools snarky hack on quantum computing

Tim99 Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Angela Merkel

Er,<pedant mode>

A Degree in Physics. Her Ph.D is in quantum chemistry; "Investigation of the mechanism of decay reactions with single bond breaking and calculation of their velocity constants on the basis of quantum chemical and statistical methods"

</pedant mode>

Swedish air controllers debunk cyber attack disruption theory

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

MRDA?

Well he^H^H they would wouldn't he^H^H they?

The future of Firefox is … Chrome

Tim99 Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: don't get it

.. just so long as it doesn't phone home to Alphabet/Google?

EU pushes probe up Google's ad alley

Tim99 Silver badge

Conflicted

Hmm, News Corp and Google - Which of these two parasites with a record of suborning democracies do I want to support here?

Computer says: Stop using MacWrite II, human!

Tim99 Silver badge
Trollface

Re: VAX

@Chris King

OK, I know I am getting senile but I liked ALL-IN-ONE (and even WPS/WPS PLUS), but then I started my career with FORTRAN, so I was irretrievably damaged.

From a science and engineering background, I suspect that one of the reasons that many of us moved away from DEC (just before their IBM-PC initiated crash) was the lack of a decent version of VisiCalc or Lotus 1-2-3 in a PDP/VAX environment.

FreeBSD 10.3 lands

Tim99 Silver badge
Joke

Compatibility Layer

So does this mean that we will now get systemd?

We wrap our claws around latest pre-Build Windows 10 preview

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

Re: change directions again and you go in a circle

Why would you use Linux, when you could have done it on OpenBSD?

Tim99 Silver badge
Windows

Re: Long File Path Support ?

Particularly as, at the time, the MS Developer guidelines were to install your application into:

Program Files\SoftwareCompany Name\Application Name\Version Number\

I learnt this when I had customers who insisted on using a shared copy of our software in \\SomeIncrediblyLong_UNC_ServerName\DivisionName\DepartmentName\SharedFolder

Fortunately the old IBM/Microsoft LAN Manager 'Map network drive' works, so you can just replace it with X:

Hand in glove: Google and the US State Dept

Tim99 Silver badge
Big Brother

Don't Be Evil

Indeed. "Do the right thing", for whom? An appropriate icon >>=====>

How Microsoft copied malware techniques to make Get Windows 10 the world's PC pest

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

Re: I can't believe...

Yes, loosing it onto the Internet, unless you meant "losing it"?

How the FBI will lose its iPhone fight, thanks to 'West Coast Law'

Tim99 Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: "Law can't defy science."

I think that this is "Evidence Based Policy". We might think that it would be sensible to look at evidence and base policies on valid data. A politician will tend to think "Here is our policy, now go and find the evidence to support it".

How exactly do you rein in a wildly powerful AI before it enslaves us all?

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

Isaac Asimov

Zeroth Law: Wikipedia Link

Microsoft releases Windows 10 preview for Raspberry Pi 3

Tim99 Silver badge
Windows

No, thank you.

It is a trap.

Oracle: Oregon's attorney general leaked our confidential memos in health portal row

Tim99 Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: Six of on half a dozen of the other

It's "lose". See icon >>======>

I did gave you an up-vote.

FBI iPhone unlock order reaction: Trump, Rubio say no to Apple. EFF and Twitter say yes

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

$5 wrench

Also, I'm pretty sure the NSA can get into it, not being funny but if they capture a spy with an iPhone do they just go ok well it's encrypted and leave it at that? Unlikely.

Obligatory xkcd link

Volvo offloads IT biz to HCL, then outsources own IT to.... HCL

Tim99 Silver badge
Coat

It is late here

... and I am tired, and probably stupid, but do they really have only ~ 6 users (on average) for each server?

I'm retired, but for a first class return ticket, accommodation in a 5 or 6 star hotel, a PA and a chauffeur, and some nice dinners, I could probably show them how to push the ratio up to at least 24 users per server.

Reminder: iPhones commit suicide if you repair them on the cheap

Tim99 Silver badge
Pint

Re: Bad kitty

OK, have an Up-vote, and a beer >>=====>

Cheers, Tim

Tim99 Silver badge
Flame

Re: Bad kitty

@Bloodbeastterror

... to unlock the bootlader (stop me if I get too technical for you) root ... I don't mind being patronized but, in your case, I will make an exception.

I might not be a technical genius, but I have been around this stuff for a long time - Career highlights include writing FORTRAN programs in 1971 as part of my job; being on "the Internet" before 1979; writing software that ran on PDPs, VAXen, *NIX, RDOS, CP/M, DOS, Windows (including some shrink-wrap that is still in use); etc.; and Apple ][s onwards.

I have retired from paid work now, but still have Chartered Status in one of the "hard" sciences; am a volunteer technical assessor of ISO 17025 organizations; and I still enjoy writing software. People like me (only cleverer) devised most of the trivial things that make most of this stuff work - Like C based languages, UNIX, networking and the World Wide Web - Often as an unpaid part of ther "real work" and, usually, because it was interesting or helped them get the job done.

Looking at one of your previous posts I see that you wrote "iDevices are bought by technical illiterates. How could they possibly know?", so you might be a tad biased, and are possibly "wrong".

I know that a computer is a useful tool, a bit like many others that a professional uses to get work done, and am not particularly biased towards any of them. Having worked in some "interesting" areas of government. I suspect that Apple are probably not any worse than the rest of the technical Giants.

Some people (including you?) tend not to give Google too much of a hard time because of the "Don't be Evil" thing, and Android and Google search. I find them to be genuinely frightening, because I know that the vast majority of their customer-base will not know, or care, about the ability to "unlock the bootloader". They think that Gmail, Android and Google search are "free"...

Tim99 Silver badge

Re: Bad kitty

Does anyone actually own an Apple device, or....?

I guess you are singing to El Reg's tech choir. I am pretty sure that most people who have bought an upmarket Android do not have the desire or ability to do the stuff that we do. Are you going to tell them that Google own their phone as much as they do? It only looks at everywhere they go, everyone they contact, and everything they look at.

Down-vote away...

Reg readers battle to claim 'my silicon's older than yours' crown

Tim99 Silver badge
Joke

Cheating?

My Otis King I bought in 1969 has a discoloured scale but still works.

You've seen things people wouldn't believe – so tell us your programming horrors

Tim99 Silver badge

Re: SQL*Forms 3.0 - Anyone else still drinking to forget that ?

I still have my Quick References and Introduction booklets (Copyright 1989). I still look at them occasionally, just to remind myself why I am enjoying being retired.

Tim99 Silver badge
Alert

Re: update

Yep, I too have done a Dreadful ThingTM (DT) with a SQL statement at the command line. Mine was:

DELETE FROM Jobs WHERE JobID = 100572;

I ran a SELECT statement to be sure it was OK, but was distracted and ran:

DELETE FROM Jobs;

It was an Oracle 6(?) database on a small shared server under my desk, so when the curser had not come back after a second or two, I realized I had done the DT and, in my panic, did a worse DT - I hit the big red switch.

Fortunately when I had had a cup of coffee and restarted the server, the database rebuilt itself back to just before the DT. Yes, I know I should have let it run and rolled back the log file, but sometimes you are just stupid...

Lincolnshire council shuts down all IT after alleged 0-day breach

Tim99 Silver badge

Re: Has had a major impact on the council...

@BebopWeBop

No, that would be NFL. Those of us to whom NFN applies try to protect our status.

How to get root on a Linux box, step 1: Make four billion system calls

Tim99 Silver badge

Re: typo

@Grikath

Bugger, I'm going to have to change mine now.

Perhaps p&55w0Rd will be OK.

Trump's new thought bubble: Make Apple manufacture in the USA

Tim99 Silver badge
Gimp

USA?

Don't Apple have some limited manufacturing in the USA with Flextronics and Quanta, and possibly their own facilities? I seem to remember that they were using these for the Mac Pro.

Zombie OS lurches through Royal Melbourne Hospital spreading virus

Tim99 Silver badge
Windows

@Phil Kingston

When most of the rest of us were using Windows 2000, XP, or even 7, I was asked to install our specialist shrink-wrapped software on a couple of non-critical PCs on a network in one of the main WA hospitals. Our software would not install, as their SOE used Windows 95 with Netware, which we no longer supported. I was, as a special case concession, allowed to upgrade the OS to Windows 98SE.

A third of UK.gov big projects will fail in next five years, warns NAO

Tim99 Silver badge

I'm surprised

Most measurements show that the typical failure rate for large projects is between 70% and 100%.

Who knew that HMG was so good?