Posts by fajensen

Dominic Cummings: Health secretary's 'stupid' targets delayed building UK test and trace system to combat COVID

Re: It's a novel experience to find myself agreeing with Cummings

How could he consider that? He is a moron himself!

Re: What do you expect from someone like him.

while not actually leading any effective opposition.

Labour is it's own opposition, and it is very effective: 80 seats Tory majority despite them being total clowns and blatantly corrupt on a level that would embarrass Vladimir Putin!

Re: Colour me surprised.

It's a pretty good show, but, Spolier Alert, Cummings is going to get handed all the blame before being cermoniously defenestrated. He is going up against hardened, career, backstabbers and liars.

Even Michael Gove will grass him up as a matter of convenience - when it turns out the "Boris & Friends" are staying.

Lessons have not been learned: Microsoft's Modern Comments leave users reaching for the rollback button

Re: Well... there's always...

At former place of work, they got rid of the PA's because it was deemed more efficient that we did our own travel booking et. cetera (Of course what they really wanted, was to was bilk the customers for the travel booking time and the et. cetera time, by having the developers use the development time on it).

Thus, the task of "find and book a hotel room within public transport of the conference venue" that the PA would complete in maybe 45 minutes, became a 1-2 days internet trek!

Then they created the "Central Travel Booking"-system, where all flights and all hotels are "Restricted", so booking a travel becomes 45 minutes of work on a poky website, then 1-2 days delay getting the boss to unlock the "Restricted" intinery, then re-book at a higher price point because the reservations expired.

Now, that I am older, I actually don't give a shit. It is not my money I am wasting and I get paid either way.

Re: Efficiency?? Ha ha ha ha….

(or maybe our IT department's windows desktop group cleans up their installation image a lot, don't know).

THAT! One can also pay extra for a Pure version of Windows, one without the crapware that labtop vendors infest their default images with. The corprat versions of Windows can also easily block the execution of known mal- and crap-ware, whereas the "con-sumer" versions of Windows cannot.

Re: "Modern Commenting"

Microsoft could do better: Once everyone is firmly on the subscription model, there will be a Platinum Option for them to NOT upgrading your stuff. And a "freemium option", with adds, supported by the worst programmers in the global stack ranking, to show folks what could happen to those luddites and cheapskates not with "Modern".

It would work like so: "That's a nice, effeicient, workflow you lot have there. It would be a sorry shame if something happened to it. However, we have this amazing offering: For only a wee precentage of your annual turnover we can be of assistance with preventing that bad thing from happening."

Microsoft has a new "modern commenting experience"

When something is branded as an "experience" it is never going to be good!

China all but bans cryptocurrencies

Re: Self Interest, Public Interest

It is best to pick:

a) A systemically important bank, Danske Bank, f.ex.

b) Wait till after they get nailed for money laundering.

c1) ... follow the scandal, at some point, worse news, like coming under the baleful eyes of the US finacial inspection, will come out but the stock is not really going down, this is the optimum time to buy, leaving maybe half a decades of "growth" possible before the muppets stuff it up again.

c2) ... follow the scandal, at some point, they will finally half-admit to possibly therew is some things, but, *we* all know that there is more, and juicier, from the passive-agressive communications. This is a wilder ride, because the stock will tank again on every nugget of shit extracted from them.

c) Don't fret over missing out on Danske, they are all in it!

They kindly wants the Chinese "investors" to get out *before* blowing up "The Market" for good!

Guy who wrote women are 'soft, weak, cosseted, naive' lasted about a month at Apple until internal revolt

Re: The usual BS

There is no "just because", the workplace is not and never was an open debating society for what employers at their sole discression deems to be arseholes. That shit ended with leaving school!

Re: The usual BS

However puerile misogyny should be allowed and should not be used to end employment.

I'd much rather keep the respect of my few, but very effective, female engineers than keeping the "puerile misogynist" around, "because some rando theory about freedumb", so, this is absolutely "not allowed".

People like that are an open display of poor judgment. Keeping them around shows that the organisation also has poor professional judgement. This upsets the clients, which then upsets the bottom line, which upsets the people I report to.

The choice becomes really Easy: That dumbass living on social securtiy or me?

Re: Smart people ...

Or - Smart people does not have dumb views!

Re: I wholeheartedly agree

if that is the yardstick we are using to decide on firing people then we will all be on the dole soon enough.

It is: Organisations have always hired people based on their professional merits and fired people on personality problems! It is very rare that someone is incompetent enough to be fired specifically for that.

"We all" are just not fucked up enough to meet the criteria for getting fired, and, speaking for myself, that is kind of scary. The barriers are very high. It takes a concerted effort to rouse the beasts of HR!

I have seen how my former boss burned through four assistants with harassment and bullying, numerous "how we shall all behave in the workplace" seminars were held, for a year we had a separate HR-person dealing with just "my" department, and in the end they kinda created a separate department just for containment of that idiot rather than suffering the modest embarassment over sacking its rat bastard ass!

Based on my experiences, I think we are talking about a really persistent dickhead and he absolutely had it coming to him from a long way, so screwed be him and his buillshit "rights" and "freedumbs".

US declares emergency after ransomware shuts oil pipeline that pumps 100 million gallons a day

Re: Twat

All of them, of course. Only Americans are People to The US World Police (and even that hangs by a thread). Everyone else are either targets or collateral damage.

What's new is that they have whacked a couple of American citizens (Anwar al-Awlaki, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, Nawar al-Awlaki, plus the usual bystanders), to kinda test the waters one assume. Domestic US police kills Americans with impunity and have for years, the CIA must be getting envious.

A trip to the dole queue: CEO of $2bn Bay Area tech biz says he was fired for taking LSD before company meeting

Re: The Flip Side of the COunter INtelligence COIN aint No Sunny 0Day Tripper Ride

Can you imagine what will happen to them whenever the system realises their weaknesses and catches them?

Golden Parachute emits it's jolly little "PoP!" and then they sail on the warm winds of Free Enterprise into a cushier, yet more important and better paid, position. Until finally they retire and become government advisors instead?

Re: Because he started a pitch...

But, then his dose is not "micro".

How did "They" find out? Was he being an idiot on SoMe or does HR have a Raman-spectrometer in the lobby or something?

God bless this mess: Study says UK's Christian beliefs had 'important' role in Brexit

Re: I find myself saying...

Dunnno - I bought some Rogowski Coils for work and an Arcade cabinet for meself before Brexit. It got here OK.

It particularly pisses me off that the UK has a lot of really smart, I would call them "artisan" for lack of a better description, small tech businesses running out of ancient cottages in Wales and the Cotswolds and now all those people, some of them friends and former colleagues, they are in the shit because a thicko cunt like Boris Johnson and his scummy, corrupt, cunt governement can't be arsed about "details" and basically only cares about keping The Daily Mail's commentary track enraged (which is what makes that lot happy)!

I think Brexit was a really bad idea, but, since the wanted to do it, they could have put some effort into it and maybe chosen to not screw it up at every opportunity!?

Re: I find myself saying...

They have surely shovelled enough of it by now for even the most ardent Europhile to realise they might not be behaving quite the way honorable national leaders should.

Since brexiteers takes the implacable evilness and mendecity of the EU as a matter of fact, should they not have been prepared for it? Come on, they go out and make a deal with the most brit-hating club there is on the planet, according top them, and then they expect it to totally go their way?? How can they even keep these totally tangential world models in their head?

And what are they doing about it? Nothing! If The French are being bastards, it would be nice to have some arbitration mechanism, take the basterds to court, have their clocks cleaned for them, that kind of action.

But, apparently, because Bloris's "Oven Ready Turkey of a Deal" hasn't been officially, 100%, ratified yet by the EU, no investment is made in making it work somehow and everything can just be left to slip and slide into ever more chaos: https://bylinetimes.com/2021/04/14/uk-in-brexit-limbo-with-eu-disputes-resolution-bodies-still-not-set-up-say-lords/

WTF -...

I am sad to be old enough to remember that the UK used to be a pragmatic and rational country, whereas now its going all senile and throwing tantrums that would embarass a 3-year old.

All over Brexit. They could at least have an earnest go at it and it could work out, but, all the self sabotage almost guarantees that it won't.

PS -

Same "process" happened with "Article 50" - The UK went "Oh - No, we just can't work out what we want and what it is we want to negotiate before we have pulled the pin on this particular grenade and dropped that pin down the drain". But we sure can complain when it blows up in our pocket!

Re: Christian denominations in the country are now more likely to vote Conservative

Well, I grew up in a very religious part of my home country. Basically, the local, very fundamentalist, big-wigs firmly believed that "If God didn't want me to lie, steal and cheat on my taxes, he would stop me"!

I a grew up to be very suspiscious of open displays, one could call them outbreaks perhaps, of Religion!

Re: I find myself saying...

Then why is it easier to import into the EU from the US than the UK? Logically, with the UK now as a 3rd country, it should be no different.

Several reasons:

Logistics and IT are already set up for US imports. The UK only started(?) on it's end of the pipeline in maybe(!) January 2021. Bloris is not a man concerned with detail or quality people.

Stuff arriving from the US are by sea or by air. From the UK, people still believe in lorries and in them not getting stuck on some paperwork and based on their experience, hauliers are still reluctant to send a lorry across the channel. In case it gets stuck.

If anyone importing from the US gets a "nasty surprise", it is because they are stupid, There is a well-oiled system already in place to bong importers for duties, taxes and customs handling fees. Same as there is for China and there will eventually be for the UK.

Eventually it will be sorted out. Probably not before someone like Dido Harding or Crapita has had a go with it, but, this is the way the current UK government "works" and evidenced by their solid majority, it is the way "the people" wants things to work. Thus, no point in moaning about it!

Re: I find myself saying...

Why not buy them in Spain?

My experience from living abroad in several countries is that the person sent to fix some problem in the house will soon spot the "alien parts" and immediately not understand anything, then begin the process of sucking air in through the front teeths, which indicates a steep price increase coming up, in any country!

Not worth it, IMO. The local stuff might be shit, but, it is *their shit* and whenever shit is involved, going with the flow is the done thing.

'There was no one driving that vehicle': Texas cops suspect Autopilot involved after two men killed in Tesla crash

Why would I care about stuff like the oil? The garage does whatever it does better and faster than I do!

Prince Philip, inadvertent father of the Computer Misuse Act, dies aged 99

Re: No TV

One can't run a war on terror without a steady supply of terrorists.

Re: No TV

It just need some shears added to it.

Re: No TV

In Sweden we get those about a toxic fire or shit in the drinking water - always at some place not readily found on a map, not Here.

Yep, the 'Who owns Linux?' case is back from the dead

Re: Shaking the Money Tree again

Sounds like it is a hedge-fund for lawyers.

Take in wealthy clients money, sponge it all off in fees & services, come back round again, maybe to a new bunch of suckers, when their pockets are feeling tight again!

The last round must have paid for some kids going to Harward, maybe this is funding their spawn?

The JavaScript ecosystem is 'hopelessly fragmented'... so here is another runtime: Deno is now a company

Re: But from a user perspective...

The Web Developers Mantra: "If a site still works, it needs more Development"!

--"Develpment to Oblivion" is the reason why the pharaos had the arcitects whacked and buried under their pyramids: They wanted their gateways to heaven to last!

CERN boffins zap antimatter with ultraviolet lasers in the hope of revealing the secret symmetry of the universe

Re: Definitions

Nope. Superfluid helium posess no friction, so mere (lack of) surface tension will pull it all the way over the bucket edge and then it rapidly siphons off.

OVH reveals it's scrubbing servers – to get smoke residue off before rebooting

Re: MTBF

I had one loss adjuster arguing with me about the costs of replacing 30 cm's of leaky pipe, buried under my kitchen, that they had to take apart and re-assemble, to repair the pipe, versus replacing the entire pipe run of about 3 meters, because that was probably equally rotten!

That useless guy was *genuinely shocked and apalled* when I paid the 70 EUR extra on the spot, out of my own pocket, rather than arguing the toss, and having the craftspeople drinking tea while doing it!

Re: MTBF

Maybe it doesn't matter that much. We were replacing perfectly good servers after 2 years of service because of the maximisation of the tax writeoff and because the new ones used less power for more performance.

If they have a "burn rate" that leaves maybe a year on those server boards, it will, more or less, just be business as usual.

Vegas, baby! A Register reader gambles his software will beat the manual system

Re: Always be careful with what you do

In the USSR, the elevator operator would often run the money exchange. The guy would just push the emergency stop while doing the transaction. Which explained why the elevators were so goddam slow.

What happens when back-flipping futuristic robot technology meets capitalism? Yeah, it’s warehouse work

The problem with taking on "robots for dangerous or repetitive work" is that the owner of the plant assumes the full costs of having said work and working conditions* - on top of permanently owning the robots despite Market Conditions (or paying through their nose on leasing), and they won't like it one little bit.

With people, the long established practice is to rub almost everything off on "Society".

*) Real 'robotisized' plants are cleaner, better lighted, and have better A/C + air filtration, than the homes of the people who work there, including management!

Free Software Foundation urged to free itself of Richard Stallman by hundreds of developers and techies

Re: want to control what everyone is allowed to say or think.

Anyone trying to ruin another person's career over an opinion is an absolute disgrace and toxic to the core.

It has always and forever been the case that while working, one represents the employers brand, and it was never a good career move to get that brand associated with, lets say, controversial points of view.

People have been fired for their "behaviour" / "opinions", and lost at the tribunal, for years and years.

The only genuine changes, that I can see, are that:

Now there is a different and wider spectrum of "opinions" / "behavours" that will get one shitcanned for sullying The Brand, some people have a hard time adopting to this new situation,

Now there is the possibility of being a retard in front of a global audience rather than just being an idiot down at the boozer (I am a conservative person, so, I stick to being an idiot in the old, analogue, way).

On top of those changes, in Stallman's case, it is a wee bit more than just "opinions" and it should have been dealt with years ago.

Sure, Dave might seem like he's avidly listening to this morning's meeting, but he's actually doing a yoga routine

Re: Returning

One could install magnetic rails on the cealing and then have some robots roam around and give random electric chocks to the cubicle dwellers?

Initially I thought that a good olde "Blood and Thunder"-style Marx Generator would be best, but, I think a robot that silently sneaks a very thin and pretty much invisible wire down from a darkened ceiling, cloaked by the stark glare of many, many LED spots, and then goes "Zapp", will induce more fear.

If you can smell people, you can get their Corona too. They need to fix the ventilation!

IBM's CEO and outgoing exec chairman take home $38m in total for 2020 despite revenue shrinking by billions

Re: I bet I could do a betterjob of being a crap CEO than that!

I will do it for 5 Dollars!

Re: It looks the "maximize shareholder value" mantra...

... which was devised to avoid executives to take advantage of company profits for themselves

That is what "They" want us to think: There is *Nothing* coming out of Harward University and Chicago School of Economics that has not been carefully crafted and vetted *Exactly* for lending the academic support for CEO's and 0.01% percenters looting and pillageing everywhere!

"They" pay for sponsored professorships at Harward and Chicago, and they are sure getting their moneys worth.

For us simple folks, we must realise we live in "opposite land" - Assume that whatever plus-word some supposedly good and necessary inititive is branded at, It Will do The Opposite!

China's top chip company speaks of massive silicon shortage felt around the globe

Re: How very cute

He is saying that, maybe, if there wasn't a US-sanctioned trade war with China and the usual CIA-regime-change talking points flooding western media and "decision makers", then perhaps the necessary flow of Goods and Services would run a lot smoother!

The reality is that China is our main factory and it would really suck for quite a while if they went on a strike or even work-to-instructions.

MPs slam UK's £22bn Test and Trace programme for failing to provide evidence that it slows COVID pandemic

To do worse, Corbyn would have to be creative and make an active effort. Perhaps promote his brother to run the no-bid contract for the vaccine programme?

At least you lot got lucky with the vaccine programme: Kate Bingham, Tory crony wife that got the no-bid Vaccine Programme Contract just happened to be very competent and even have industry experience.

That could so easily have gone very differently!

We need a 20MW 20,000-GPU-strong machine-learning supercomputer to build EU's planned digital twin of Earth

I'd say that it is probably better to blow puny 20 MW on science rather than wasting it on crypto coin mining or serving up SoMe swill to the masses.

FaceBook is currently running at 2 GW, factor 100 more than 20 MW, but, it ain't "Climate", so no reason to question the utility of that?!

Re: "run on more renewable energy sources:"

They really should adjust our whole electricity network to let us run our Stuff on more renewable energy sources

"They" are already doing it, on a big scale; Undistracted, I might add, by the many, many, couch-table "experts" who still think the electrical grid works, and indeed should continue to work, like it did back in the 1950's. The good times, where arabs and wimmen knew their proper place and dad could bring home a living wage and nukes made electricity too cheap to meter.

"Energy Efficiency in Science" is A Thing. The money that goes to electricity comes out of the money that researches can use for new kit and more minions, all of which means less research and fewer citations for them. They very much want to keep the power bill as low as possible: https://home.cern/news/news/knowledge-sharing/energy-sustainable-science-0

Re: A bit late, don't you think?

I predict that in 100 years time, when the water is standing 30 cm above Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, some wankers will say that climate models totally failed and it is all a scam because, as everyone can see with their, the water didn't get to the 80 cm that the climate conspiracy claimed!

Inside parliament they will be ranting about "Muslims" and refugees, especially the latter ones becoming numerous these days, their weight pressing down the land!

And in that way the day to day business of humans will have virtually no change.

Re: Not again

Well, if government doesn't spend the currency it collects in taxes, then why (and how) would we pay taxes?

Linus Torvalds went six days without electricity, swears smaller 5.12 kernel is co-incidental

Re: No Backup Gen?

Back at university, my "electrical power systems" professor came in one morning beaming with joy:

He had both seen an 11 kV distribution cable blow up in his street, making a hole in the pavement AND the diesel generator he had installed 11 years ago in the basement kicked in and it ran for all of the 15 hours the power was out. His wife was always mocking that filthy thing and NOW, it Showed Her!

President Biden to issue executive order on chip shortages as under-pressure silicon world begs for help

Re: the US used to HAVE fab plants of their own

It would be straigt-up stupid to not finance the $20B - due to ZIRP policies driving The Market to eagerly buying up any kind of thrash paper, sometimes to even lower interests than government issued bonds.

... choosing America becomes the logical choice for other manufacturers ...

That was how it was during the Cold War, when America had to out-bargin the USSR. But, Today, gorged on Power, America sufferes from "Late Empire Dementia": No pie on the planet is too small or insignificant for some colonial taskmaster to stick their fat fingers into!

Besides, restoring logic to America, that would as a minimum mean taking the cray-cray out of especially the State Department and America in general, and then America would just not be the Exceptional / Indispensable Nation it believes it is, any longer.

As it is, we furriners never know what the hell America will do even next week, certainly not next year, and absolutely Everything, except bombing brown people, is thrown to the winds with every President.

Thus the logical choice is: Don't depend on America!

see no problems with your potential enemies having unfettered, or even preferential, access to the same

Maybe a revolutionary policy of "Think Again" before making ever more enemies, would help to create fewer problems with supply lines and stuff?

The world is no longer impressed by the petulant refusals to honour agreements, and the threats, bullying, sanctions and regime changes, and it is putting it's own interests first in routing around it.

Big data: Study suggests even a moderate gambling habit is linked to increased mortality and other bad stuff

Re: "the study is silent on these factors"

You also have casinos, where gambling is authorized and, hopefully, the casinos are regularly audited.

Casinos, IMO, exists for the purpose of getting some taxation extracted out of intermediate amounts money being laundered.

Same with horse racing. At "my place" one regularly sees "silly" 2-3 kEUR bets made by white-van-man characters on 1.05 odds (like favorites in "Place"). They of course blow up occasionally, but, on average, a pile of dodgy cash becomes "earned & taxed" money through gambling.

Everything bigger goes through the financial markets.