* Posts by Mike Pellatt

638 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Apr 2007

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£136M government grant saves troubled Post Office from suboptimal IT

Mike Pellatt

Come back when there are personal electronic devices available that are usable by people with any disability or cognitive impairment that exists.

Until then, take your your ableism and ageism and stuff it where the sun doesn't shine.

Oh, not forgetting the homeless who'll have a little bit of difficulty finding a power source.

A bit of kindness towards people who struggle wouldn't go amiss.

In wake of Horizon scandal, forensics prof says digital evidence is a minefield

Mike Pellatt

Re: This one of the few use cases for blockchain

I'm completely out of touch with the latest iterations of blockchain technology, but isn't there some issue with exponential increase in computation as you add to the chain? If so, tends to make its use for log/audit immutability proof a tad tricky.

Microsoft blames 'latent code issue' after Windows 11 upgrades sneak past admin blockades

Mike Pellatt

That's the inevitable consequence of bell-curve driven hire-and-fire.

Altnets told to stop digging and start stuffing fiber through abandoned pipes

Mike Pellatt

Re: rare occasion

What Openreach call a CBT - Connectorised Block Terminal. I think they're the same thing, just given different names by different manufacturers/operators/geographies.

Mike Pellatt

Re: rare occasion

Oh yes, I'm 100% sure.

I used to work for for said altnet.

Mike Pellatt

Re: Hole reuse

"If Carlsberg did roadworks...", perhaps?

Mike Pellatt

Whereas today with the private sector doing it all, I've been waiting, let me see, 7 years for fibre. And still no sign.

The private sector keeps refusing to do it unless they gets shedloads of taxpayer money, and even then can't be arsed to actually deliver.

And even then, once they've done it, they have to pay back some of it because it turns out more people sign up than they thought (see BDUK phase 1 gainshare - yes I know that was FTTC)

Mike Pellatt

Re: rare occasion

Just got to look up on the poles here. Not just abandoned fibre, but MSTs too, all around the place too.

Yep, it's an altnet that ran away.

Essential FOSS tools to make macOS suck less

Mike Pellatt

Re: But why tho?

This. However much you try and bend one system to look and behave like another, there will always be stiff bits that won't bend.

Embrace it, run with what you have, changing how you work when swapping systems helps keep the brain active.

And what is this "text editor" for MacOS of which the author speaks? What's wrong with vi in the command window?. Works for me.

Does terrible code drive you mad? Wait until you see what it does to OpenAI's GPT-4o

Mike Pellatt

Re: Enslave humanity?

You've made the classic mistake of misunderstanding Democracy there.

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people"

If the outcome of a particular version of government claiming to be a democracy isn't the net benefit of the people (and that doesn't mean "a majority of the people") then it's demonstrably not a democracy.

Not by that definition, anyways. Of course, even the Greeks had ways of redefining democracy, by excluding some people from their definition of "the people"

Mike Pellatt

Re: In any unstable system with a feedback loop.....wild output swings

But, as the parent comment says, the work involved in verification is effectively unbounded, thereby rendering AI useless.

With you on the GIGO bit though - I've been saying for some considerable time now that AI will be a demonstration of GIGO on a global scale. And, boy, does the internet have a s**tload of garbage available for AI training.

What we see here is a demonstration that garbage in can create garbage out elsewhere in the system where non-garbage has been inputted.

Guess who left a database wide open, exposing chat logs, API keys, and more? Yup, DeepSeek

Mike Pellatt

Re: All Live Operational Virtual Environment Systems are Go.

Have you seen Micah HG on Facebook?

Shove your office mandates, people still prefer working from home

Mike Pellatt

Re: Wrong - digital businesses will be digital

"What is overlooked in all of this is that when working from home the employee needs to have an appropriate environment to work in.

Offices pretty much guaranteed that"

Oh, don't make me laugh. Every office I've worked in over the last 15 years had air handling that provided hot spots and cold spots. In modern builds and refurbs. So half the people on the floor wanted the temperature up and half wanted it down.

If that fundamental isn't right, you can forget all the rest that you list.

UK unveils plans to mainline AI into the veins of the nation

Mike Pellatt

It all started that fateful day in 2016. I was on the riverboat on the way to Canary Wharf the morning after. It felt exactly as you describe.

Mike Pellatt

Whilst Crossrail was ridiculously late, and ridiculously over-budget, thanks to being run as a load of projects, rather than a programme, it's exceeded all expectations in terms of usage. Even with the crap infrastructure west of Padders. So that's success on 1 out of 3 of your criteria :-)

Mike Pellatt

Re: Britons: is the detection of potholes the problem, or the fixing of them?

People say the same about driving into Devon from Dorset.

But then Devon CC are quite open that they're only doing safety-critical road repairs. Which means only potholes that have been reported by the public and meet their "safety-critical" criteria - >40mm deep, and "the size of a dinner plate" across.

Mike Pellatt

I've got news for you. It's not being built now. Well, no enough of it to be actually of much use. So freight, stopping and city-city trains will carry on sharing the same track. Except between the midlands and London. Which is not a lot of use

Mike Pellatt

Re: Britons: is the detection of potholes the problem, or the fixing of them?

You mean they come along, throw some blacktop over it, roll it once or twice (maybe) and then run away. Like they do for every other pothole.

Mike Pellatt

This is what happens when politicians and political parties promise increasingly undeliverable stuff to get elected.

WordPress drama latest: Leader Matt Mullenweg exiles five contributors

Mike Pellatt

Re: This is certainly on brand for Matt

Indeed. I can't remember when it was that the hosted wordpress.com came to life, but I seem to remember thinking at the time that it all seemed a bit shitty. It seemed like an attempt to get do a bait and switch to get people off the free (as in speech) WordPress and into something that was being proprietised. Can't remember what it was about it that made me think that, though.

UK gives Openreach £289M for 4 rural broadband contracts in 'gigabit by 2030' push

Mike Pellatt

Re: wouldn't call him an expert more a blog writer / press release regurgitator

Unlike all those "trade journals" which do exactly what you say, Mark regularly pulls apart press releases, drills down into the detail to find out what's really going on, and calls out, sorry, "seeks clarification" on the bullshit. You do him a disservice.

Yeah, there are a lot of BT shills in the comments. Such is life. He's recently started moderating comments, so I guess the more extreme are getting mod'ed out now. Or maybe just the spam and abuse.

We told Post Office about system problems at the highest level, Fujitsu tells Horizon Inquiry

Mike Pellatt

Re: Time to produce the audit trail

Something else that wouldn't have occurred without Sir Alan Bates standing his ground

Severity of the risk facing the UK is widely underestimated, NCSC annual review warns

Mike Pellatt

Re: Stop calling them 'actors'.

Check your dictionary. The word has two meanings. This one is the one in use here, and entirely correct and appropriate:

"a participant in an action or process" (OED)

UK energy watchdog slaps down Capita's £130M smart meter splurge

Mike Pellatt

Re: No real statistics

That's the problem with getting "smart" marketing people to sell a technological development.

It was the same with HS2, they banged on about the speed and ludicrous cost savings for execs who'd have their chauffeur driving them anyways, when the real issue it needed (and was designed) to resolve was overall capacity (mixing freight, frequent stoppers and non-stoppers on the same tracks crucifies capacity, even if you put in loops)

It's dynamic pricing and the ability to shift load that's the benefit of smart metering. Trouble is, that needs the user to invest in automation. A solar/battery system that your energy supplier manages, like Octopus Intelligent Flux, and the real benefits of home solar and distributed generation/storage start to be gained. If you don't trust 'em, get your home automation to manage it instead.

Mike Pellatt

Re: £13bn that could have been spent on something useful.

You couldn't have built all those powerlines without the good residents of Norfolk coming out with the torches & pitchforks.

Mike Pellatt

Re: Turn it off

You can easily work around the last disbenefit with, ahem. judicious use of Home Assistant.

Plenty of opportunity for alibi creation. Even automatically.

Mike Pellatt

Crapita are, unsurprisingly, unfit to run the DCC.

I have 2 meters installed, about 100m apart, neither LoS to a Telefonica cell site (this is the Soith area obvs). Both have T2 antennae.

One commissioned on the second attempt (once I'd seen the WAN light reliably indicating connectivity).

There have been 3 attempts at the other one, I thought I'd got a commitment to put a T3 antenna on it, but DCC decided nope because "my address doesn't have coverage". All attempts to plead that their coverage modelling is clearly wrong as I have a functional meter fall on deaf ears.

I have not route for redress as I don't have a direct relationship with the DCC and the Ombudsman can only seek a remedy from the energy retailer, who cannot influence the DCC either.

Clearly not only Crapita but also the contractual arrangements aren't fit for purpose.

It's about time Intel, AMD dropped x86 games and turned to the real threat

Mike Pellatt

Re: ARM train wreck is much worse

It's not a worse train wreck, it's a different one.

As the guy said, for him as an application dev, ARM is heaven compared with x86.

He explicitly said that for the OS guys (at least for system init/boot), x86 is heaven compared with ARM.

Mike Pellatt

Re: x86 Train Wreck

You've skipped the #ifdef hell that has also doubtless resulted.

Mike Pellatt

Re: x86 Train Wreck

Unimplemented instruction traps going off to software implementations can have interesting side-effects.

First, an aside. The actual O/S calls on Dec10 (if not earlier) were implemented via UUOs. Bu I digress.

In the late 70's/early 80's, the research group I worked for started their Dec10 replacement plan. Put in a VAX 11/780 with the Floating Point hardware. Soon after it was installed, I left.

Then it was time for another system. Was it to be a VAX or an IBM? Now, Rutherford Lab having an IBM was quite the draw in that direction as it made data exchange easier, FP formats not being quite standardised as yet. So, benchmarks were run (you know where this is going now, don't you?)

The IBM 370/whatever that was being contemplated won, so it was ordered. Some time (months??) later during maintenance, it was discovered that the VAX FP unit wasn't functioning, and the FP instruction set was being transparently emulated. Fixed it, the VAX now out-performed the IBM. Red faces all round.......

Mike Pellatt

Re: 16/32 bit

As long as its time_t has been fixed.

Mike Pellatt

Re: "We also have a 128-bits wide operating system READY TO GO"

No need to, apparently.

You just 3D print it at home and clock the thing at 10THz.

Nurse, nurse. Over there!! Quickly!

Post Office seeks more Horizon support as it continues hunt for replacement

Mike Pellatt

If recent evidence to the inquiry is to be believed (!!!), POL thinks it can get the assets (including the IPR) running Horizon off Fujitsu and contract someone else to do it

This further demonstrates the top-class management I place there.

Mike Pellatt

That's because his sole goal was to crawl out from under the bus Vennells threw him under and throw some others under it.

Well, that and it seems like it's the only speaking orifice he posseses.

Sysadmins rage over Apple’s ‘nightmarish’ SSL/TLS cert lifespan cuts plot

Mike Pellatt

Re: Follow the money

Whilst describing a task as a "Simple Matter Of Programming" is generally, correctly, taken to be ironic, in the case of certificate generation and installation it is.

Generally.

I'll make an exception for the Java certificate store.

Mike Pellatt

Re: Follow the money

OCSP is being deprecated, thanks to well-documented privacy issues.

CRL lists are hard to trust and potentially a major performance hit.

Reducing cert lifespan is, probably, the only mitigation possible for what is, at its core, a broken infrastructure.

Mike Pellatt

Re: Follow the money

If you're paying money for each certificate regeneration, you're using the wrong certificate supplier.

Post Office CEO tells inquiry: Leadership was in 'dream world' over Horizon scandal

Mike Pellatt

At that point,, he might actually understand the difference between a civil case and a criminal one.

Mike Pellatt

Just like Crapita, that's impossible to achieve in anything less than 5-10 years. Minimum. Their tentacles are far too deep into the UK's critical infrastructure.

Capita wins £135M extension on much-delayed UK smart meter rollout

Mike Pellatt

Re: A solution to a problem that didn't exist

The tinfoil hat brigade is strong here given the downvote on that.

The speed with which load shedding is required, once it is, means that doing it via the smart meter network rather than at the substations would not, you know, actually stop the grid crashing.

Mike Pellatt

Re: £5 a month saving

was about to downvote until you got to the last sentence.

Can't disagree with that.

Mike Pellatt

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

Suppliers to Gov don't like opensource because they're no-one to sue if it all goes titsup [i].

They don't understand the "if it breaks, you get to keep the pieces" principle of opensource.

[i] Yes, a supplier actually said that when I was in a discussion on secure email for local government, and a district council in the SW had built one using opensource. The potential supplier wasn't willing to take that on and run it as PaaS. Not that they called it that, this was 2005 and that moniker was hardly A Thing.

ServiceNow root certificate blunder leaves users high and dry

Mike Pellatt

I'm presuming Java's gothic SSL certificate management was involved somewhere in this cock-up. I still have the scars, in my case with ArcGIS.

Admins using Windows Server Update Services up in arms as Microsoft deprecates feature

Mike Pellatt

Re: MS seems to have lost it... big time

Nah, it was the launch of MSDOS 5.

Hands up anyone else who went to the launch event at London Olympia hosted by Jonathan Woss.

Mike Pellatt

I think I'd actually prefer 1990's Sendmail over Windows SMTP server, but with Exim or Postfix also available, not using it really is a no-brainer.

We know 'Linux is a cancer' but could CentOS chaos spell opportunity for Microsoft?

Mike Pellatt

Clearly, we're not there yet, but there is a tipping point that systemd may well reach where that does happen. It's not as if there aren't systemd-free distributions already to show the way.

Mike Pellatt

Re: $

But the GPL doesn't allow any restriction on what's then done with that source code.

Hence the "workaround" implemented by RedHat.

AI stole my job and my work, and the boss didn't know – or care

Mike Pellatt

If only, Remember this was elec eng. So thermodynamics as applied to semiconductors.

So a good dose of quantum thermodynamics. I've yet to find the cat.

City council faces £216.5M loss over Oracle system debacle

Mike Pellatt

Re: Can we copy one which work

Whilst your comment has some (considerable) validity, recycling rules probably aren't the best exemplar given that they will be dependent on the contract negotiated with the waste collection contractor. Now it you think there should be one single national waste collection contract, perhaps we could get rid of those variations....

Mike Pellatt

Re: Good timing

And in Conservativeland they blame the EU. Or the ECHR. Or, preferably for maximum effect, conflate the two.

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