Posts by Rafael 1

Sysadmin chatbots: We have the technology

Re: This really isn't impressive. It's just some limited parsing

How do you feel about "this really isn't impressive"?

I see.

Tell me more about parsing.

What does that suggest to you?

etc.

Aaarrgh, zombie! Dead Apple iOS monopoly lawsuit is reanimated

Grab the popcorn!

Next they will sue Apple/Microsoft/Google because they have a specific set of languages, tools and APIs that must be used to develop programs for their devices, and some people want the liberty to code in Cobol or PL/I for said devices.

Building IoT: Early Bird Ticket Offer Extended

Re: Content

And The Cloud (tm)? Did you forget about The Cloud (reg)?

How Rogue One's Imperial stormtroopers SAVED Star Wars and restored order

Re: on that (lack of) accuracy claim: Re: on that (lack of) accuracy claim: Re: Re: Re:

Sorry, Ralph, the first attempt (with the URL) was much more appropriate!

Oi! Linux users! Want some really insecure closed-source software?

Re: Bigger jumps in Version numbers

Word also jumped from 6.0 to 97, 98, 2000 too? Can't remember the details.

Can we play a new game? Several programs jumped to low-digits to 2000 because everybody was doing it too -- Word, Wordstar, can you list others?

On the other hand CorelDraw seems to have a rigid version numbering. Wonder if all the papers in all the desks at Corel are neatly stacked and aligned.

Take that, creationists: Boffins witness birth of new species in the lab

YEAH!

WHO CREATED THE SCIENTISTS? HUH?

(Part of a long discussion with an ex-coworker who tried to prove to me that ALL is intelligently-designed. Some years later he got one of these semi-serious diseases that could be treated but was scary for a bit. Good thing the barded fairy that creates the disease creates also the cure, or who studies the cure!).

Missile tech helps boffins land drone on car moving at 50 km/h

Re: Wasn't there

There was an even older working prototype: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_Five

Although I believe some of the other features were far more useful.

WebAssembly: Finally something everyone agrees on – websites running C/C++ code

Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple walk into a bar...

How long until we have different APIs, components, toolkits, etc. to turn that low-level stuff into blinking ads?

Intel: New x86 AI instructions

Re: A.I. is still hard.

Big Data? InternetOfThings?

Don't forget that you'll need DevOPS to create faster, better, cleaner code! Please attend one of our seminars, or just send some money in a box.

Snakes on the phone!

Re: Must be annoying

On the other hand... fried snake!

Same job, different place: US salaries top DevOps pay packet poll

Re: Poor buggers

But.. but.. DevOps *is* the future!

Puppet Labs said so. Why would they lie to us?

Intel teases geeks with 2017 AI hyper-chip: Xeon Phi Knights Mill

Re: Well, at least we know what our future cyber overlords will be called

The Knights who say Phi?

LinkedIn sues 100 information scrapers after technical safeguard fail

Re: people I've never heard of before

That's 90% of the e-mails I got from LinkedIn: "Harold Floobermann wants to connect with you"...

Adblock Plus blocks Facebook's ad-blocker buster: It's a block party!

Re: arms race

Well, just wait. They will soon find a way to do ads undistinguishable from real content. Just like Jolt Cola is part of your life, ads will be part of the content, and as refreshing as a "like" from your friends.

US state sues Comcast for $100m in row over 'worthless' repair plans

My Comcast sob story

TL;DR version: don't trust the chat "analysts". Clueless, and they want to get rid of you as quickly as possible.

I was a Comcast victim from October 2015 to July 2016. Since I am not a USian I don't have a reliable credit rate (and am not sure how they get this information -- and am not willing to pay to discover my credit rate) I had to pay the $50 security deposit.

I've returned the modem 3 weeks ago, cancelled the contract via phone (cannot do that by chat) and moved out of the US. My account is still listed as active, and their website tells I must pay $40 tomorrow. I've contacted them via chat twice and had to explain everything again ("Sorry, sir, I don't have access to other chat sessions").

At the end the "analyst" told me that I should not worry, because I actually had some credit due to unused days. I asked about the security deposit and he told me that I didn't had any on record. When I mentioned that it was paid on the first month he told me that he couldn't verify that on my records. Finally, I asked how would I get the credit and he told me that they would send a check (hello 1970s!) to my address -- when I asked which address he told me that it was the one on the records... in the US.

I explained again that I had moved out of the US and he suggested me... to visit a Comcast store!

One more: I told him that the official site told me I owe $40 but he insisted that everything was OK. I asked what would happen if I got charged for late payment and he told me that I could call Comcast and tell them about the chat session. Then I told him that it was strange since he was unable to get transcripts from past chats, how would they locate his promise that everything was OK? Again he suggested me to visit a Comcast store.

I gave up. I guess I won't see that security deposit again, and am wondering what will happen if I just ignore the bill.

There is no way to contact them but by calling a 1-800 number or chat. Chat analysts are useless. I don't really want to call. There is no e-mail for support. Any suggestions?

The dev-astating truth: What's left to develop? Send in the machines

Re: Or should that be Agile?

I was being agile before it was cool -- I was quite proficient as hiding and running away from managers and users with suggestions "that could easily be implemented in your free time". They never caught me.

Correction: There was no hangman's noose, claims Hyperloop countersuit ... it was a cowboy's lasso

Re: I'm sorry...

I keep reading it as "Brogan BamBroganface".

Sorry.

Let's play: 'IT values or hipster folk band?'

<cough>

Damn, beat me to it. Have an integrated upvote.

Quixotic, Questing and...

..Quagmire?

Not the giggity one.

Storage greybeard: DevOps, plagiarism and horrible wrongness

Heresy!

How dare you suggest that all those dozens and dozens of articles and seminars selling this new and revolutionary concept were not useful?

Burn the heretic!

LinkedIn mass hack reveals ... yup, you're all still crap at passwords

Re: And move to what?

Can't answer this question, since I am as social-network-shy as any bearded hermit in a cave in a mountain. But from the three you've mentioned LinkedIn is the most obnoxious: Facebook only bugs me about "people that I know" when I log on it, in a small notification icon so discrete I don't even remember how it looks.

LinkedIn, on the other hand, send several e-mails, each week, to more than one account, about "Roger Neverheardabouthim wants to add you to his network".

Sometimes I am tempted to play "six degrees of LinkedIn", and see if I can figure out how am I related to that twerp. A neighbor of the wife of a former student? Someone who is tempting to brag about having more contacts than the other idiots on his PR company? An Amway representative? Unfortunately I'd have to log in to discover, so I just delete the e-mails.

We're calling it: World hits peak Namey McNameface

Pah!

I'll trust Parsey McParseface when it can make sense of Marsy AManFromMarsface posts.

US telly stations fling malware-tipped web ads at unsuspecting surfers

Re: DevOps will FAIL

Will?

Engineer uses binary on voting bumpf to flag up Cali election flaws

Re: Hexadecimal makes more sense

He could just explain why people should vote for them by using "FEEDAD00DE" as the introductory text.

How to overcome objections that stop your enterprise from adopting DevOps

DevOps ‘myths’

Such as it being shamelessly over-promoted in propaganda thinly disguised as "articles" and of value only for those who makes money out of it? Sign me in for several of those (a thousand dollars a pop!)

Contactless payments come to in-flight entertainment units

Welp...

I'll just have to bring my own entertainment for the long flights. Books, a tablet loaded with movies. Playing cards. A boombox for when I'm tired of the movies. A frisbee. I wonder if I can get some people up to a little friendly in-flight soccer game. Maybe they'll allow us to bring hockey sticks and pucks?

HP Inc won't shake you down for ink in 3D printer era, says CTO

Re: only a babbling TV fool thinks ...

Maybe they're not using Continuous Lifecycle for the manufacturing? Maybe they need some DevOps training to increase whatever they are doing? Put the templates for the bottles in the cloud, maybe? Or connect all printers, computers, light bulbs, fridges and toilets to the Internet-of-Things?

There is money to be made!

Swedish publishers plan summer ‘Block Party’ to thwart ad blockers

... block the ad blockers for the month of August..

That'll teach them!

Punish the users more. FORCE them to watch the ads OR ELSE.

Where is the "Alex DeLarge tied in a chair" icon?

Continuous Lifecycle London: Less than eight weeks to go

Containerization is...

...doubleplusungood.

Cisco says CLI becoming interface of last resort

Re: And what pray tell will the "greybeards" have to say to the suits?

"Here's a nickel, kid. Get yourself a better computer."

Alien studs on dwarf's erection baffle boffins

Re: It would be a game changer for the entire world.

Just read Will Eisner's "Life on Another Planet".

Ad-blockers are a Mafia-style 'protection racket' – UK's Minister of Fun

... don't copy/paste another site content into a page and fill that page with ads.

This. A million times this.

I wonder how much more useful the Web would be if, e.g. Google filtered all pages published later than one with basically the same content using a plagiarism function. Would that be considered censorship?

Google wants new class of taller 'cloud disk' with more platters and I/O

'But, grandmother, what big hard drives you have!' she said

'All the better to see you with, my dear.'

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge: Betting on VR with a dash of Vulkan

"VR is the most social platform," insisted Zuckerberg

I don't know -- it seems a way to avoid meeting people in real life. I am not sure if this is social or antisocial.

One possible application is to visit places (museums, etc) that are far away without having to leave home, and hopefully, without having to wait in line and bump into other people.

Also could be useful for real estate companies: I can see the offers without an annoying agent blabbering about how wonderful it is (or at least I can mute it).

But I bet this will excel beyond the wildest dreams of The Most Social Application Ever (tm): ads. In-your-face, cannot-cancel, cannot-skip, repetitive, annoying ads.

German Chancellor fires hydrogen plasma with the push of a button

Re: "Wendelstein 7-X"

Upvoted because it was the fascistic storytelling of my youth too. Even today I consider learning German just to see what happened after issue 500-ish.

Uber rebrands to the sound of whalesong confusion

...so we're* ditching it as a news source...

* For very small values of "we"

NOTHING trumps extra pizza on IT projects. Not even more people

Re: Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: FacOps

Why not call also other essential stakeholders (can I still use "stakeholders"?) like pizza or chinese/indian delivery restaurants, people that clean the office, Human Resources Humans, Company Lawyers, Middle Managers, Facilitators/Motivators/Intermediators?

Just call it PizChiIndCleanHRHParasitesMoreParasitesOhLookMoreParasitesFacOps.

Brit airline pilots warn of drone menace

Re: How bad?

I don't know why the OP was downvoted, and I bet he is not advocating reckless use of drones near airports.

I have the same question. I guess it would be bad if it enters the turbine, but how bad would that be? And if it hit the cockpit? Any differences if the hit was when the plane was approaching landing?

Wonder if this is a good what-if to ask Randall Munroe.

Brazilian whacks: as economy tanks, cyber-crooks samba

Phising and spam are also increasing

I've noticed a huge recent increase in the amount of phishing attempts. It is funny because I get 5-10 similar messages in a day, often in a very short intervals.

Ironically, one I received recently stated that "the Federal Police (our Feds) obtained proof that you are breaking the law, click here for more details"... with a link to a weird site.

Some time ago the phishers used to explore out-of-country websites (lots of nasty payloads in small association web sites, BnB sites, etc.) Nowadays dozens of sites like www.gwrzx.com.br are registered daily, if you complain to the internet providers they do nothing. Combine that with a "oh, I got a message, must be important, this guy knows me, must reply" kind of mentality for a recipe for disaster.

Brazil gets a WTF WhatsApp moment

Re: What if?

(too late to edit my own post)

They *DO* make a dime from WhatsApp, actually at least two -- on a prepaid plan, they charge 75 cents of a Brazilian real (20 cents) for each day for data (with additional restrictions, limit on daily data usage) -- this allows plain SMS and WhatsApp. When you use all your KB for a day you can "renew" for a similar amount of money.

One of the telcos even have a WhatsApp-friendly plan! What they want is a way to charge MORE to people that want to use WhatsApp.

Re: What if?

FWIW, the judge asked for the information in July 23rd (he asked for the contents of some user's messages, this user was suspect of some crimes -- he was arrested in 2013!). The judge asked again in August 7th, with a fine in case they didn't comply. Now we had this blackout and outcry.

The main issue behind this is Brazilian telecoms are starting to complain about Whatsapp since it is not regulated by the National Telecom Agency, while the operators are, which (in their opinion) is unfair.

Re: "...sad to see Brazil isolate itself from the rest of the world"

(temporary) Expat here. I was able to do two Skype video conferences and send/receive e-mail during that horrible, horrible Whatsapp blackout. SWMBO works in a Brazilian IT office, though, and told me that some people's hands were shaking from the withdrawal symptoms.

Re: Limited?

...which is used by over 90 per cent of Brazilians...

[[citation needed]] -- there are 200 million Brazilians there.

Seagate wears dunce's cap in hi-cap disk ship slip

I summon Edward Rolf Tufte

Colors are similar, text is tiny, label boxes too, but aw, come on, at least it is quite blurred and badly rescaled!

Cyber-terror: How real is the threat? Squirrels are more of a danger

Why? Inquiring minds want to know

Why www.cybersquirrel1.com when www.cybersquirrel.com is available (at least for the next 45 minutes)?

VirusTotal invites Apple fans to play in updated Mac malware sandpit

Re: What do you mean, the internet told you something else??

Good thing we're learning the truth from an anonymous commentard :-)

You could be extra convincing if used "sheeple" and "fanbois" in your post.

Royal Mail mulls drones for rural deliveries

Jumping enthusiastically onto the airborne parcel bandwagon..

...what could possibly go wrong?

Just out of curiosity,which is the Brit equivalent of "it was taking a gander at my daughters so I've shoot it?"

Something with catapults and/or crossbows, I hope.

Cisco: The day of PCs is passing, cloud storage will dominate by 2019

The end of PCs...

... flying cars, affordable and useful robots, the year of the Linux desktop, colonies on the moon, Peak Apple, Leonardo DiCaprio gets an Academy Award, end of spinning hard disks, cloning yourself for spare parts, everybody giving up on Java, end of reality shows as mankind realizes it was pointless, real quantum computing, three-day week for IT workers, teleportation of whole pizzas and not only particles that no one can see, non-dorky-looking wearable computers, invisibility cloaks, a real Wonka everlasting gobstopper.

What else, did I miss any?

Balloon-lofted space podule hits 30,000m

Re: strong liquid courage

I'll bet they serve Johnny Walker Red Label, at {$,£,€} 100 a dose. Yuck.

Microsoft mavens promise proper quantum computer in 10 years

But wait a minute; don't we already have quantum computers?

We do, until someone try to observe them, then we don't.