* Posts by Charlie Clark

12107 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2007

German taxpayers faced with €800k Windows 7 support bill due to Deutschland dithering

Charlie Clark Silver badge

€800k is small change

20,000 computers would cost much more than that to replace and license.

South American nations open fire on ICANN for 'illegal and unjust' sale of .amazon to zillionaire Jeff Bezos

Charlie Clark Silver badge

The point was to ramp up the amount of money that can be made from what is essentially a common resource: Jeff was prepared to pay more for his vanity domain.

DNS operators should just blackhole all of this crap.

'I am done with open source': Developer of Rust Actix web framework quits, appoints new maintainer

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: He's not wrong

There's something in the aphorism that if something costs nothing, it has no value. Open source isn't about being free at the point of use, though this is often the case.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: He's not wrong

I don't think there ever was an an "OSS Community" that wasn't project specific.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: PL and TL

Any project needs a way of taking decisions: this doesn't need to be a hierarchy but the concept of "benevolent dictator" is common for this very reason.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Not just open source

People publish Open Source software because they're hobbyists who think others might find their work useful.

I am serious and I do run a reasonably popular open source project. Communicating clearly why your library works they way it does means you don't have to continually explain and justify it.

Not taking any shit from your users does not mean you have to treat them like shit. See the Mark Twain comment as to why this is important. The vast majority of users will be happy with what you have but some may well take the time to make worthwhile suggestions or submit patches / pull requests. The trolls are best just ignored (or banned).

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Not just open source

Be[ing] a maintainer of large open source project is not a fun task. You['re] alway[s] face[d] with rude[ness] and hate, everyone knows better how to build software…

This could apply to any software project. The key is always communicating clearly and setting reasonable expectations. If your project is successful and popular you will attract the slugs, the uses who want it to do everything for them but aren't prepared to contribute. Be prepared to write "design defence" documentation to defend your decisions and be firm but fair. At the end of the day, you decide what gets accepted and what gets rejected. Some people will never accept this: get over it, because there are fuckwits all over the place, but don't get dragged into their discussions. As I think Mark Twain said: don't argue with an idiot, they'll drag you down to their level and win.

But, one of the great things about open source, be prepared to walk away and let someone else take over. Software development and review takes time and energy which we don't always have as much as we'd like. Our lives and priorities change.

New SAP co-CEO 'runs simple' to Davos in Mercedes hydrogen car

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: You can't really hold SAP responsible for the pollution their customers produce....

I'm sure there's a law that states that any fucking awful product will, at some point, be replaced by something equally bad, if not worse. If there isn't such a law, they should be one! :-)

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: BEV's are a dead-end; HEV's are the future. Discuss

And what about storage? Almost anything is easier to store than hydrogen, eg. methane or methanol. As soon as you can produce below cost you have the solution to all our energy storage needs.

Looks like the party's over, folks: Global PC sales set to shrink as Windows 10 upgrade cycle tails off, says Gartner

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Gartner is always right, for a given definition or right. The definition is always provided by whoever commisions, and therefore pays for, the report. Microsoft no longer cares as much since it discovered how much more of the value chain it could own through SaaS.

How a Kaggle Grandmaster cheated in $25,000 AI contest with hidden code – and was fired from dream SV job

Charlie Clark Silver badge
Stop

Move along, nothing to see here

Kaggle is a bit of fun, but it should be obvious to anyone with any experience of online competitions that anything where something can be won will attract cheats.

Companies see Kaggle at its ilk as a cheap way of getting solutions to problems and that is their problem. And any company that values ratings in such competitions is also asking to be screwed.

The Curse of macOS Catalina strikes again as AccountEdge stays 32-bit

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Printer and scanner?

Why does your printer and scanner require specific software?

I'm not sure if it requires it. It certainly comes with it and it won't work with Catalina. I think I bought it in 2013 and replacement cycles for printers are much longer than for PCs.

Again, this isn't really about going 64-bit (Apple fumbled the transition in Snow Leopard but has since been fairly consistent) but about APIs that Apple wants to remove.

Many vendors updated their mac apps to 64bit years ago, so they just continue working if you update to catalina and users don't notice a thing.

And some didn't and users are being punished (by Apple) as a result.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

And the software for my printer and scanner? Apple seems to want us on I-Phone refresh cycles for everything… Again, whatever you think of the merits of the approach and of the relevant developers, it's customers who're actually getting punished.

I'm sure Apple will miss you. Not.

Yes, because I'm the only person who's pissed off at this kind of behaviour. Look through history at how well companies have done with this kind of approach. A 32-bit VM would have been a cheap and easy way to solve this for everyone.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Confusing.

but it requires the OS to contain (and maintain) mountains of code to allow cross-compatibility.

For x86 and x86_64? Not really. It's always more work for the application developer. But this is really more about Apple's fairly rapid turnover of APIs in the last few years and it tries to force MacOS into an IOS corset.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Mixed messages

The big change over the last 25 years is available memory. If this is at a premium you have to write very different code.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Mixed messages

I've software from companies that went App Store only and then back because the App Store is so fucking unreliable. I've had several instances of having to nuke software and reinstall because the App Store wouldn't update it.

Charlie Clark Silver badge
Stop

Cockwomble yourself. Speaking as a user, Apple has handled this very poorly. I have no upgrade path for things like my printer software. Way to go, Timmy!

Charlie Clark Silver badge

You really can't say that they didn't give enough notice.

It's not just the ability to compile to x86_64 but also the changes in the APIs, which have been extensive over the last few years. I have quite a lot of software that will not run on Catalina and don't expect to use it as a result. But this is fine by me: I don't have any iThingies, don't use any of Apple's online services so the walled garden of convergence holds no appeal for me.

This approach, which punishes the user, is actually untypical for Apple. The shift from PowerPC to Intel was handled much better, but there remains a fundamental problem with the value proposition: porting costs money and on its own brings no discernible beneift.

Server-side Swift's slow support story sours some: Apple lang tailored for mobile CPUs, lacking in Linux world

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: What's Swift even supposed to do?

That's basically it: Apple wanted some kind of intermediary language for developers. In a sense it's competing with Dart and Typescript and the other also rans. Rust has at least carved itself a niche in the systems world. For the rest, it's increasingly looking like be able to compile to Web Assembly is all that matters.

Apple hasn't helped by being lukewarm about the project: slow to open source it and not giving it the kind of resources Google likes to throw at projects. That said, it's probably got a dedicated group of happy users.

EU declares it'll Make USB-C Great Again™. You hear that, Apple?

Charlie Clark Silver badge

USB A & B haven't changed, though USB 3 is a completely different beast so it's essentially USB 2 + USB 3 crammed into the same mechanical package. USB-C attempts to solve common problems assoiated with the nearly symmetrical USB design: if it had been asymmetric from the start lots of people wouldn't have damaged cables and ports by jamming them the wrong way round. And this is easy to get wrong with micro-USB: the port on my reader is handily inverted from the way it generally is on a phone but I can only see this clearly if I take my glasses off and look at it closely.

So, symmetric wasn't a requirement, but there's no doubt that USB-C is much more user friendly than USB-B ever was.

No Mo'zilla for about 100 techies today: Firefox maker lays off staff as boss talks of 'difficult choices' and funding

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: dwindling pool

How do you know they're not on the way already? Disabled them myself and don't know anyone who uses them. Will be glad to see them go, which I expect they will if Firefox decides that focussing on privacy is what they want to do.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Still my number 1 (only just though)

I'd be interested to see just how may people actually would go back to Opera were they to release the much maligned integrated mail client. I'd bet not that many after all.

Probably not many, though I think Opera Mail (which itself borrowed many ideas from BeOS) was great. E-mail, for those of us still using it, is moving towards things like Spike, which follow a similar view not folder-based approach with some ML thrown in supposedly to make our lives easier.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Step up the game

Actually, Netscape made the mistake of going down the Suite route and XML all the way down. This made "Communicator" a bit of a hog in comparison to Microsoft's crappy IE – IE 6 was the one that really got traction.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Still my number 1 (only just though)

has screwed up any site that uses Recaptcha

Haven't you got that backwards? Recaptcha screws every user who comes across it and forces them to train Google's AI services. It's long-known to be useless against bots and a terrible user experience.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: dwindling pool

Personally, I think it's got better by focussing on being a better browser rather than trying to do everything. It's noticeably faster and more reliable since they switched to the new engine. This doesn't mean I agree with the dumbing down of the UI, but, on balance, I think they've got most things right.

Vivaldi is probably still the only browser that's trying to cram more and more features into the browser but, because they messed up a few things and have consistently failed to deliver the promised mail cient, I jumped ship to Firefox and MailMate, which I even pay for. I used to pay for Opera and would consider paying for Firefox if it meant that I could get real support.

Copy-left behind: Permissive MIT, Apache open-source licenses on the up as developers snub GNU's GPL

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: "not release versions or derivatives of the licensed"

Yeah, GPL is mainly about ideology but also an invitation for lawyers. I have several contracts that explicitly forbid GPL code for customer projects because of this.

This doesn't mean that there isn't a threat posed by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, RedHat, et al. potentially extinguishing some open source development because there the only ones that can make money and, hence, pay developers, but the fiddling with the licence won't change this.

The dream of a single European patent may die next month – and everyone is in denial about it

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: ECJ juridisction

Possibly, but all anti-UK changes will be pretty easy to push through, thanks to Johnson's fecking appalling attempts at diplomacy. There will be the usual haggling over where the court should be, that's all.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: ECJ juridisction

though isn't it a basic law and not a constitution

It's both: Grundgesetz == basic law and Verfassung == constitution. The two are used interchangeably.

There are several issues where the GCC has unequivocally ceded sovereignty to the ECJ. The ECB judgement made reference to it – the ECJ sits above the GCC – but the ECB was trying to do things that weren't covered by its mandate (buying national debt directly is explicitly prohibited) so that the Bundesbank could, and is, restricted in its asset purchases. The rulings from "Karlsruhe" as the court is also referred, though another court also sits there, are usually very well worth reading.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: ECJ juridisction

Getting the rules amended sans UK and approved is likely to be pretty easy. The UK won't have much say in the matter and is likely to like it if it wants any kind of trade deal. Welcome to asymmetric trade negotiations.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

ECJ juridisction

The German Constitutional Court has already agreed in several instances that sovereignty may be ceded to the relevant supranational institutions: UN, ECJ and the ECB being notable examples. Brexit is a problem, but for the EU fortunately only for a couple of weeks. After that the rules can be redrafted so that the UK isn't a compulsory signatory but can join as an observer (similar agreements with non-EU states exist).

Google reveals new schedule for 'phasing out support for Chrome Apps across all operating systems'

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: and giving users an inferior experience when compared to a native desktop application

Text documents are really pretty easy to do in an SGML/XML environment because the number of nodes is limited. Spreadsheets are a real nightmare.

The "native" apps are probably nothing more than wrapped web-views and will remain shit until web assembly becomes a standard compile target.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: So, Google is pulling a Microsoft ?

Reworking a Chrome App into a PWA is mainly about packaging and, to be fair, Google is only depreacting a proprietary format because it supports an open one.

I don't know about you, but I only ever used one Chrome App, and that was to see what the fuss was about. It's pretty much the same story with Web Assembly replacing NaCl.

Privacy activists beg Google to ban un-removable bloatware from Android

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: "most commonly found on cheap handsets"

Revolut is OK, but it's not my main bank. Most banking apps are crap and shouldn't really be on a phone. You can use MagiskManager to mask rooting.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: "most commonly found on cheap handsets"

Much less so than it used to be.

Charlie Clark Silver badge
Headmaster

And because the data gathered by Google services is what make Google rich

Nope, it's what they do with the data gathered that makes them rich.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Google doesn't actually care: it uses licence agreements to enforce GMS. If Samsung has a deal with Facebook to install its shit on phones, then Google can do nothing about this.

But Google isn't the right person to talk to about this. This can, and should, be handled by consumer protection legislation. Unfortunately, in the US at least, this usually means post facto injury suits targetting limited liability, because consumer protection exists in name only, because everyone hates regulations, right?

Tea tipplers are more likely to live longer, healthier lives than you triple venti pumpkin-syrup soy-milk latte-swilling fiends

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Nothing new here

Don't forget your altitude correction factors there: water boils at different temperatures depending upon atmospheric pressure, for which altitude is a good enough proxy. Then again, stuff also tastes different at altitude.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Nothing new here

I can't drink black tea without milk or lemon juice: the physical reaction is simply too strong. Never tastes greasy to me, but, in hard water areas it's likely to taste sweet because of the lactose in the milk. NB. without some kind of acid regulator, it's not so good for the teeth.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Nothing new here

Black tea also has anti-oxidants and, as long as you don't drink it with sugar – which only perverts do – has long been considered to be "beneficial". Or at least not harmful. Fermentation is a trade off: personally I find green tea very harsh. I seem to recall that tea is also a good source of fluoride, but could be wrong.

That's Huawei we roll: Firm claims it's slinging 100k of its pricey, China-exclusive Mate X foldable phones each month

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Price versus average earnings

The entry-level Mate X model retails at roughly $2,500 — or nearly eight times the monthly minimum wage in Shenzhen, where the company is headquartered.

Yes, it's expensive so average earnings are not really relevant for comparison. More important are the number of people in China earning say USD 200,000 a year, that can afford such status symbols. This might only be a tiny percentage of the working population to still be a significant number of total sales. For example, assume there are around 800 million working Chinese, you're looking at around 0.25 % of these keen on having the latest shiny, shiny, ie. a high-end flagship every year, especially if it's something that other people don't have.

BOFH: You brought nothing to the party but a six-pack of regret

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: New year

He is also, always, a relation of the BOFH, usually the dad.

Charlie Clark Silver badge
Pint

Only if you don't swallow.

Doesn't it look good?

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Re: Learnings

Abominable consultant babble knows no borders. Let me onboard you with the latest thinkings.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

It's a great slow burner.

Love T-shirts, but can't be bothered to wash them? We've seen just the thing!

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Collagen shortage?

Won't someone think of the D- and E-listers who may have to wait for their operations because all the collagen has been used to make these t-shirts?

Cotton, water resistance and breathability form a trilemma.

Eggheads have crunched the numbers and the results are in: It's not just your dignity you lose with e-scooters, life and limb are in peril, too

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Solutionist justification for toy

I think the number of fatal accidents is still low in absolute terms, though there have been some impressive records: first fatal accident in less 48 hours when they were introduced in Sweden. But the injuries are nearly always worse than for cyclists travelling at similar speeds: different centre of gravity, shorter wheelbase with much smaller wheels, different stance. Unles involving a motorised vehicle most cycling injuries are superficial. On a scooter they almost always break of fracture something badly.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Solutionist justification for toy

“E-scooters are a fast and convenient form of transportation and help to lessen traffic congestion, especially in dense, high-traffic areas,”

Nope, there's no evidence to demonstrate that scooter journeys replace car journeys. Instead the evidence points to scooters replacing public transport, walking and cycling but also new journeys for generation fun. So more traffic. Oh, and the average life expectancy of the non-recyclable toy is 12 - 8 months.

Dixons fined £500,000 by ICO for crap security that exposed 5.6 million customers' payment cards

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: We aren't capable of securing anything

And gold-plated for better DC transmission?

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Why? They probably all hoping that the regulators will soon lose the few teeth they were recently given courtesy of the EU. It's not as if the ICO has any real powers to enforce payment, as the long list of unpaid fines attests to.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: We aren't capable of securing anything

Do you have an audio one of those?