Posts by Charlie Clark 13381 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2007
Yeah Germany has done a very good job in phasing out its nuclear stations.
Well, it would have if it had stuck with the initial deal struck with the industry. But Mutti Merkel decided to cancel it, then sign new contracts with the industry that included compensation if it was phased out again, which it was in the next year… So, we're getting to pay more for the privelege. Just as we are with coal.
However, France is already grateful to be able to import cheap German power in the summer when it gets too hot to cool its nuclear plants and even Poland is starting to consider the advantages of cleaner generation. I don't expect much to change overnight but reckon in ten years things will start to look a lot different.
the silent conversion of large integers into exponentials
You forgot the important bit (sic): converted and truncated: Excel is limited to 15 digits of precision unless you keep it as text. Had this recently relating to customer and card numbers. Oh, how we laughed…
Still, as interchange format I see fewer problems with Excel because you do have typing and can add data validation, which generally leads to less of a mess than if you give someone a CSV…
Excel isn't too bad* as a report format because it is so ubiquituous and doesn't suffer from some of the many problems associated with CSV, which is okay an an intermediate format. It's also better in many situations than PDF. But using it for data processing is asking for trouble.
* As someone who maintains a library for processing XLSX files I would say that, wouldn't I? ;-)
Indeed, added to the fact that businesses can already offset investments against tax, there is no need for additional incentives. I'm also not convinced whether small businesses would really benefit at all from "more digital". Assuming they really are small, they probably already have efficient and flexible communication.
Windows 10 has virtually nothing to do with the Windows on DOS you're talking about. Windows NT has a completely different kernel and most of the APIs have been replaced.
The work on DotNet core shows that MS can handle multiple architectures, but it does need to improve the way Windows works in this respect. Historically, Windows was very platform-specific though this was more to do with market segregation than any real technical constraints.
The emulation is largely a signal to the market that switching to Windows on ARM tablets will be an option for their field workers because all their "important" software will still work. They'll be exceptions but basically if something with run on Windows 10, it will probably run fine in the x86 emulators on Windows for ARM.
It will have more mainstream modern applications available than Windows offers today in the Microsoft Store even counting x86.
By providing an emulator Microsoft is doing pretty much the same as Apple. CPUs are now good enough to handle the thunking in real time with users rarely noticing it (except for computational intensive resources).
And Apple isn't moving wholesale to ARM either. We've yet to see which devices will be released but it's reasonable to assume that x86 hardware will still be offered for another two years and supported for at least another 2 beyond that.
Microsoft could be on top of this but made several mistakes with ARM with Windows RT and the rest. But the fact is that > 99% of the Windows world is x86 and this isn't likely to change soon. More important was realising that Windows Mobile wasn't worth the effort (cf IBM and OS/2) and the decision to provide good versions of MS Office for IOS and Android, though Outlook for Android really is a piece of shit.
I'm not sure how that would help. Just having the code does not automatically solve the problem. I'm all for open source but seeing as the source is provided in this instance it doesn't help.
Also, it's worth noting that static code analysis only goes so far in flagging up bugs.
could we do this with every manufacturer of critical infrastructure?
should ve could we do this with every manufacturer publisher of critical infrastructure software? FTFY
Otherwise you have to define which infrastructure is critical and there is no reason why the manufacturers of consumer electronics, cars or anything else should be able to get away with their current practice to seeing if anyone notices when things break.
"in getting autonomous vehicles on the road and making the UK's transport network greener."
Although over time autonomous verhicles may make road use more efficient (they will be travelling most of the time unlike meatware driven ones), they will initially simply add to the number of vehicles on the roads competing for driving and parking space. You can see this in any city "blessed" with electric scooters and bike-sharing schemes: space on pavements has become a rare commodity.
The companies providing the data that is being harvested can be sued in the relevant country of operation, which is why EU-based companies will probably stop personal data being processed in the UK until the UK can provide sufficient assurance that GDPR's provisions will be respeced. As for UK companies wanting to trade in the EU: they will also have to conform to GDPR if they wish to be able to continue to trade.
This is one area where GDPR made significant changes over liability and jurisdiction in comparison with previous legislation: it's no longer possible simply to seek the country with the friendliest ICO as Schrems cases have demonstrated and we'll soon see more summary fines for breaches.
It was once almost a foregone conclusion that the UK would comply with EU data protection law enshrined in GDPR after the Brexit transition agreement ends on 31 December 2020.
Some people might have thought that but that would have left the ECJ as the ultimate arbiter. Add to this the list of donors to the Tory Party who are desperate to dispense with things like personal privacy, and it was obvious that the UK would try and offer a sop. Won't help though because ECJ's judgements have been clear and consistent on this and it's not as if the UK has anything like the same kind of bargaining power as the US when it comes to proposing fudges. EU companies will not want to risk the potential fines and will definitely seek to move data processing out of the UK, if they're not already doing so.
If you've seen any analysis of traffic collected by devices – TVs, HDMI-dongles, etc. – and apps, you'd be less surpised because they're all at it and will be trying to use the data commercially at some point. With GDPR and its siblings, Samsung has the short straw because it can probably not demonstrate that informed consent was given, which is probably why only a few million people will have seen anything, but personalised ads, including product placement in shows are coming to us all, because so much money is involved.
Cash remains king in Japan because people don’t trust the banks.
Especially central banks. In the current era of extremely loose monetary policy, central banks are desperate to be able to devalue money in order to reach entirely artificial and arbitrary inflation targets and this is far easier to do with purely electronic currencies.
The big problem will always be: tightly integrated GUI or not. The Windows kernel is probably now not that dissimalar from Linux or BSD. But the fun starts with the GUI and multimedia parts for which there is (and there are good reasons for this) still no single, simple system.
But ESR's main point still stands: Microsoft is starting to make a lot of money from its SaaS and PaaS offerings and will be able to keep customised locked into to its APIs for a while yet.
Depends a bit on the relevant jurisdiction. US T&Cs generally rely heavily on extra-terroriality but contain the relevant clauses that cover their butt in case courts in other jurisdictions disagee. E.g. Microsoft's EULA has frequently been considered unfit by German and other courts regarding automatic consent and the right to copy but this hasn't invalidated the agreements in their entirity.
Vehicle traffic has plummeted, while bike sales have soared.
Since bikes are also vehicles this means that a lot of people bought bikes just to look at them. In other news: in many countries vehicle traffic is back between 80 and 100% pre panicdemic levels, in some places even higher as people avoid public transport.
The Swiss are currently voting on a related issue – related inasmuch as they're voting on a referendum over freedom of movement for EU citizens. The relevant contract is tied up 7 ? other contracts including freedom of movement of goods and services where if one is cancelled, they're all cancelled. Rather surprisingly polls are around 60 % against cancelling the contract.
€20m for an add on to look after 18m people isn’t actually too bad.
If only that were true… the statistics suggest otherwise. It's going to be one of the many examples of massive overspend by panicking politicians along with PPE: the German government is on the hook for millions due to an ill-considered, fix-priced, open house tender for protective equipment.
because corona is the new carte blanche…
We'd be better off with a stricter, shorter nationwide lock down
That's been the theory for months. The UK has had an extended lockdown and it hasn't led to the desired result.
Infection rates are a misleading indicator of risk. Hospitalisation, ICU and death rates are far more important. The more the mortality rate starts to look like that of the flu – yes, I know in the UK it's more than this – the lest justified repressive measures are and at some point the economy will simply no longer be able to pay for them.
Can this app see walls? Or only distance?
No, only signal strength and location. You can do some calculations to try and mitigate propagation and absorption issues but false positives are not considered a problem by the app. And, to be fair, by epidemiologists. All track and trace systems can and should yield false positives, this is fine as long as you also pick up the true positives. The app is an attempt to automate a part of the process and thus increase its scale as well as encourage users to take some of the precautions seriously. I remain unconvinced of the efficacy and I'm sure I'm not alone.
Indeed and the numbers from Germany would seem to back this up: 18 million downloads, 5,000 notifications in 3 months in a country with a case load of around 10000 per week. A great success according to the Health Minister, but what else would he say?
BTW. you could, of course, use the same app to map the spread of other dangerous illnesses*. But, having been developed by SAP, this would obviously be an add-on for another € 20 million.
* Apparently, there are indeed other dangerous airborne respiratory diseases! As if SARS-COV2 isn't enough there is something called influenza (or "latin flu") which can also kill people! Run for the hills!
Oh you can get them. Just not easily if you need them. But tests are also being carried out on a broad spectrum of the population, including those at risk who are effectively in quarantine. Got a relative who's been tested four times over the last couple of months even though she's got virtually no contact with other people and this despite the evidence* that symptonless testing is not very useful.
* The main reason why it's being phased out in Germany for people returning from places with relative high infection rates.
The virus is spread almost exclusively over the air (a novel OTA update!) so hand sanitisers cannot effectively stop its spread. They may well prevent other infections spreading, just not SARS-COV-2.
On the plus side, the fine seems proportionate and can hopefully be collected. Non-payment of fines has been the biggest problem so far.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
