Posts by DJV

Oracle's compliance cops now include Java in license audits

Re: Confusing mess

Absolutely!

20 years ago I was writing Java applets for websites (back when that was an actual thing). Even then I found Java's multiple file I/O handling ridiculously complex compared to plain C. It always seemed that whatever it was that I wanted to do with it was never handled by a single class in a simple manner. I pretty much abandoned the whole mess around 2001. Given the greedy way Oracle acts nowadays I'm glad I have very little to do with anything they make*.

* The one exception is VirtualBox, which I'd been using before even Sun took it over, but I am prepared to lose that should the need arise.

The IBM System/360 Model 40 told you to WHAT now?

Re: Who among us ...

Back in the days of the Commodore 64 I'd memorised a short BASIC program that I could type into any shop's demo 64. It would first copy the ROM and RAM, POKE a couple of locations to keep it there and then change the SYNTAX ERROR message to something far less pleasant. Then I'd hang around looking at other computers while kids would bash on the 64's keyboard with the inevitable result that they'd get a syntax error - except, of course, they didn't...

Linux Mint Debian Edition 5 is here

I'd like to see a version based on Devuan

For obvious reasons...

Re: quis procurat ipsos procurates?

Ah yes, one standard package manager. What could possibly go wrong...

https://xkcd.com/927/

Openness of Oracle licensing and audit tools questioned

No, the worst.

You might under these circumstances:

* if you've died in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day;

* have ever volunteered for a lobotomy after several too many beers;

* be a politician and will therefore have had your common sense surgically removed;

* be called Larry.

Otherwise, no.

In a world of give and take...

...Oracle only ever does the latter.

Unable to write 'Amusing Weekly Column'. Abort, Retry, Fail?

Re: Urban myth

I had a recent experience on the Crucial website. Having been a customer with them for years, I therefore had an account with them which had worked fine the last time I'd purchased something (probably about 18 months previously) and they'd been sending "news/offers" emails almost weekly to that address ever since. So, I was rather nonplussed when, upon entering my email address, I received the error message "Invalid email".

Now, to me, that meant that somehow, it had decided my email address was not formatted in a valid manner so I entered it manually (instead of pasting it in as normal) in case it was croaking on some hidden space/tab or whatever. No, what they actually meant to say was that they'd moved to a new (and, in my opinion, far crappier) back end system recently and had purged all accounts that hadn't ordered in the past few months and so had no record of that email address. I complained but I don't think the message got through that a message more like "Email address not found on our system" would have been far more appropriate.

Sigh...

Client demo in 30 minutes. Just what could go wrong?

Re: What's in a name?

Yep, experienced the broken tab one a few weeks ago when my main PC decided it would only talk to my 1Gb network at 100Mb - pushing the lead fully in restored 1Gb but it wouldn't stay there so replacement cable employed instead.

Are we springing into a Y2K-class nightmare?

Re: if programmed correctly, mean that a straightforward update will do the trick

But do you remember the chaos in the 1970s when we had two VAT rates (in addition to the zero rate)?

The standard rate was 8% along with a "luxury" rate of, initially, 25%, which was later reduced to 12.5%. I was in the electronics industry at the time and the two rates meant that a component destined for a luxury item carried the luxury rate but if that SAME component was destined for a non-luxury item it carried the standard rate. Confusing or what?

Definitely a case of those imposing this madness not thinking things through properly - but when do they ever - sigh...

Machine-learning models more powerful, toxic than ever

Re: Machine-learning models more powerful, toxic than ever

SumatraPDF didn't have any problems, either!

114 billion transistors, one big meh. Apple's M1 Ultra wake-up call

Re: "they can still watch cat videos. Or prOn. Or both"

Hmmm, cat pr0n - I didn't realise there was a market for that!

Re: "it's too small for your cat to sit on"

My thoughts exactly - I came here to post something similar.

Back around 2006 my cats used to sleep on top of my two CRT monitors (yeah, I know, cat fur down the back of monitors is never a good thing). It was hilarious the day I swapped the CRTs out for flatscreens as the cats tried to jump on top of them as usual but fell down the back instead. The disgruntled expressions on their faces was worth it!

UK Home Office dangles £20m for national gun licence database system

Re: To think

You're bang on with that question!

Analysis of leaked Conti files blows lid off ransomware gang

Re: "Shame they seem to be gullible enough to believe their state media."

Also applies to other countries. See:

* UK: Brexit.

* UK: Anything said by Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel, etc.

* USA: Anything said by pretty much any Republican.

Terry Pratchett had the best idea:

“We put all our politicians in prison as soon as they’re elected. Don’t you?”

“Why?”

“It saves time.”

Oracle sees automation opportunity in healthcare following pandemic

Uh, oh...

...is Larry getting short of yachts again?

Zero trust? Not yet a must for most IT departments

"most don't have those motivations"

So, that's Zero Motivation - the opposite end of the scale!

Web devs rally to challenge Apple App Store browser rules

Re: ...communicate off-the-record and then never heard back.

Sounds like it dropped down the hole in the middle!

What is it with cloud status pages not reflecting reality?

What I want to know is...

...if anyone out there has a status page that's monitoring whether or not the Status Page Status Page is up and running!

Microsoft gives tablets some love in latest Windows 11 build

Another test build of Windows 11 has emerged, this time with improvements

Well, it's about time!

A tale of two dishwashers: Buy one, buy it again, and again

"Lots of people enjoy listening to rap"

Please no.... just no....

Americans far more willing to hand over personal data

Re: Lacking information?

It was written (in bad Latin) on a wall in Jerusalem by some guy named Brian.

Airtag clones can sidestep Apple anti-stalker tech

Re: give the dog a iPhone!

Yeah, but have you actually tried to teach it how to work the fingerprint log on?

EncroChat defendants' lawyers make bid to halt trial

Re: "Obviously non receipt of an expected postcard was in itself a message"

Yeah, the message being that Royal Mail fucked up again and delivered it to 24 Acacia Avenue and not 42 Arcadia Crescent.

Microsoft details 'planet-scale' AI infrastructure packing 100,000-plus GPUs

Seeing it BSOD should be a fantastic spectacle!

Let's face it, it will at some point!

Microsoft releases first preview of .NET 7

Re: "I fear what "modernization" they are referring to THIS time..."

Probably a DOS prompt (and little else) on boot...

Time for people to patch backup plugin for WordPress

"Microsoft's platform has been spreading malware"

Yeah, they've been doing that for years - it's called Windows!

File suffixes: Who needs them? Well, this guy did

Of course, that never stops people thinking they can change a file type just by changing the extension. I had that recently on a website I built for a client where one of the client's staff had "helpfully" renamed some PNGs to a JPG extension and then complained that some resizing code wouldn't work on the affected images. I added a "deep code" check along with a warning when images were discovered with the incorrect extension.

AWS and Elasticsearch settle trademark infringement lawsuit

Was that a case of Amazon stretching things a bit too far and getting pinged back?

Microsoft Teams unable to send and receive calls for some after update

Re: MS has gotten its poop in a pile

Yes, and now it wants its users to be in the poop as well.

Re: Teams will be the foundation for the delivery of projects

Teams will be the reason for the failure to deliver projects

FTFY

Re: So, why is Edge doing it wrong?

It's the Microsoft Way^TM

No help for IT contractors on IR35 tax errors

Re: Is it time to finally declare IR35 a clusterfuck yet?

I did that back around 2017/8 when I first tried out CEST to see how would class the way I work*.

* Which I found couldn't actually be entered or handled properly by CEST so, as expected, it got the result completely wrong.

Toshiba reveals 30TB disk drive to arrive by 2024

"I currently have a ~50TB RAID6 array"

Damn, that's one heck of a lot of pron ... er ... files!

Re: you're still vulnerable to a dinosaur killer event

In that case whether or not the backups survived is probably irrelevant!

Securing open-source code isn't going to be cheap

Re: It's not an open source problem - you forgot only

Ummm... his title and first sentence were stating exactly that!

Apple, Broadcom allowed to press Ctrl-Z on billion-dollar Wi-Fi patent payout to Caltech

In 2021, it was widely reported that Apple earns >US$1 per day

Damn, I make more than that!

Or did you miss out a 'Beeeeellion'?

Polly wants a snapper? Parrot swipes GoPro for sweet views of New Zealand's Fiordland

Re: They will fly off with anything and will go through your bags

I presume they work in customs, then?

Oracle Linux appears somewhere unexpected: The Windows Store

Oracle Linux + Windows Store

Two things to be avoided at all costs.

Lost your mouse cursor? Microsoft's PowerToys 0.55 has you covered – with a massive crosshair

Re: Can't find it

Try here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

Remember, Google is your friend out to own you.

Happy birthday, Windows Vista: Troubled teen hits 15

Not just printers or HP...

I've got an Epson 1640U sheetfeeder scanner. Works a treat, but only under Linux - there haven't been Windows drivers for that piece of kit since XP times.

"It's amazing how bad that client/license manager is"

So, pretty much on par with a lot of Microsoft's crap, then...

When forgetting to set a password for root is the least of your woes

Re: Marketing Company

Possibly the best approach might have been to have your boss go apeshit at the third party marketing* company for their lack of security as your own data was as much at risk from anyone else with FTP access as theirs was from you!

* Ah, a marketing company - well, that probably explains their lack of security. Their server was probably set up by the marketing boss's teenage son whose knowledge was based on his experience with AmigaDOS.

Microsoft brings Jenny, Aria, and more interface tweaks to new Windows 11 Insider build

Re: Shiny

Well, really big thanks for that mind-bleach-requiring comment - I'm just glad I wasn't eating some chocolate when I read it!

Do you know what TikTok is? Then you might make a good magistrate, says Ministry of Justice

"One might assume that excludes the majority of the current Cabinet"

No, I wouldn't "assume" that at all - I should say it "definitely" excludes that bunch of corrupt tossers.

Machine needs more Learning: Google Drive dings single-character files for copyright infringement

The one piece of text in that Google notice that really pisses me off and demonstrates Google's arrogance is: "A review cannot be requested for this restriction" which roughly translates as "We can do what we want and there's nothing you can do to question it, suckers!"

I used to merely hate Google, now I totally loathe them.

Pop quiz: The network team didn't make your change. The server is in a locked room. What do you do?

Re: Under the floor

Thanks for that - I just found a PDF download of Feynman's chapter "Safecracker meets Safecracker" and read it. Most amusing! The download can be found here:

https://www.openculture.com/2013/04/learn_how_richard_feynman_cracked_the_safes_with_atomic_secrets_at_los_alamos.html

Wolfing down ebooks during lockdown? You might want to check out Calibre, the Swiss Army ebook tool

Re: it means you consume them fast

Yeah, and then it's a bugger to get the binding and staples out from between your teeth...

COVID-19 was a generational opportunity for change at work – and corporate blew it

Re: dependents

No, I offloaded the Mrs years ago - the only dependents I have living with me are of the feline variety and they don't tend to hog the office (though one of them is partial to YouTube videos of mice).

Dog forgets all about risk of drowning in a marsh as soon as drone dangles a sausage

Re: The dog likes cucumber?

I used to have an absolutely mental cat who loved Doritos - they did make him fart horrendously. He loved milk (the cow stuff that's not good for them, not the made-for-kitties stuff) and you had to hold him back from the bowl you were pouring the milk into as he was so impatient to drink it he'd start before you'd finished pouring and end up with it all over his head. He also once ate up some orange jelly that had contained pieces of mandarin. His brother developed a taste for Bailey's Irish Cream Whiskey and would drink neat rum if he could get at it.