Posts by Eddie 4 26 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jun 2009
These "reforms" are another example of the privatisation of public services - jobs in the public sector are sacrificed in return for more profit in the consultancy sector. All this talk of encouraging SME involvement in the public sector is just talk - its the DoLittle & TouchUp consultancy firms who will clean up & we (the taxpayer) will end up paying more for less.
Well, Rupert has screwed up again. Can't wait til his "pay wall" media empire goes the same way.
Is this another illustration that traditional businesses don't really "get" the internet? Is Friends Reunited is another case in point, or is it that these "social" networking sites have a limited life span, good for a few years until we get bored and move onto the next thing? If so, Suckerberg had better sell soon.....
How many times have I heard local govt depts say they want 'best of breed" software, regardless of the actual requirement.
They start with a general requirement, that gets fed into a requirements committee (that usually has someone from Information Management who has a corporate "information strategy" that pushes up costs enormously) produces a wish list that means any "off the shelf" system needs substantial customisation, & they they then appoint the biggest supplier who naturally has the best sales people.
The then get a bookend system that is so particular to the one dept that it can't be used by other depts (yes, I know of a dept EDRMS that couldn't be used by any other dept), that adheres to the "information strategy" but uses proprietary protocols/api that mean it can't be integrated with other systems.
Hmmm, try accessing your bank details w/o then, or doing stuff on a non iPiss phone, etc. Java is everywhere, not necessarily on the desktop but on the server, mobiles, etc, etc. Its the most widely used programming language around - more systems run on Java than will ever, ever run on Jobs' software.
I migrated from Windows to Mac some 2 years ago, not least because the Mac platform is closer to my average Java deployment platform (*nix) than the windows OS I was using.
However, increasingly I've become concerned with the attitude of Jobs - its reminiscent of Micro$haft's "embrace & extend" - monopolistic, arrogant and anti competitive. Now this announcement is the final staw - I'm not gonna upgrade my MBP, instead I'm going to either look at a Linux laptop or even Windows 7 - that's how p*ssed off I am.
And no, Java ain't as powerful as it once appeared but it's still an important platform all the same. I do wonder if this is Job's taking a side swipe at Google & Android?
Paris cause Jobs is screwing us all
Both Silverlight & AIR remind me of Java WebStart (JWS) technology that was kicking around some 5 years ago - a way of delivering 'desktop' apps over the internet. JWS never caught on, which was a pity because you could write real RIAs using familiar technologies such as Swing, which could access OS resources while running in a sandbox.
I wonder if AIR & Searchlight are in any way superior to JWS or just have better marketing depts behind them?
Its not stretching the imagination too far, is it, to see how this type of approach could be used to stop any kind of public meeting? I mean, how would your local extremist, (anti nuclear protester, green campaigner, etc) be able to get CRB checked under these regulations? This could mean the effective end of (public) free speech!
Or am I just being paranoid?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/thumb_down_32.png Seems an obvious attempt to introduce ID cards through the back door.
First, soften us up by targeting 'dodgy' builders, then widen the net to trawl in other suspect groups (doctors, nurses, IT contractors .. the usual suspects) & then only those with something to hide will be left outside the system (crooks, terrorists, bankers, MPs) & full liberty to do as they please.
The database is the big issue - ID cards were only going to be a way of querying the database. The Govt & Tory opposition are committed to the database project - once that's done, ID cards of some flavour are the logical outcome, since no point having a database the authorities can't query.
When both Labour & Tories are committed to the database, its obvious that elements within the state have made support for it mandatory - there's a whole another story going on here that we haven't been told about. Why do we need to store biometric data after all? Aren't photos & fingerprints good enough for every day use? Not if you have some other reason for targeting large sections of the population...
paris, cause i fear we're all fecked on this one, esp when Tory boy & his Eton chums are 'running' the show
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