Posts by The Software Fairy

Panic on the streets of Google+? Choc Factory hires Digg founder

Re: What is Google+?

I think I heard someone mention it on MySpace.

Which leads me reminds me: What is Digg? Who is Kevin Rose?

Does anybody know? And would Kelvin Rose be a good match for Google+?

if year > 2013 then PC != Personal Computer

Re: Like hell it will.

That's either a six-fold redundancy or a seven year deployment cycle. The former could be quite handy when the other six your 24x365 availability servers go down.

Stephen Hawking seeks geek to maintain his unique wheelchair

@David W.

> My guess is that they don't want to attract the kind of people who would apply for the money. The job might be -worth- 200k, but people who -expect to earn- 200k would almost certainly be a terrible fit [...] Pay crap money and you get the people who really want to be here

Where does this idea come from, that anyone wanting a salary that matches their contribution to society is being highly unreasonable and the wrong person for the job? I don't blame Stephen Hawking for not paying 200k or 50k if he thinks he can get the job done for 25k, but you do get what you pay for.

Naturally you will get a lot of unsuitable candidates for 200k, but what matter is that you get some suitable candidates. It's not the hardest thing in the world to weed out cry-babies and smooth-talking book-smart ignorami - banks manage it (well actually they don't), and with 200k or even 50k you'll get a whole lot more suitable candidates, many of whom can bring an air of professionalism to the job. For 25k you'll get first-timers who know nothing about maintainability, mission critical software and has to learn all of these things on the job, without the benefit of a mentor.

Plus at 25k the successful candidate is bound to get bitter about it after five years at the latest, only to discover that nobody the combined skills of PA, and wheelchair technician and an obscure speech system. At 50k this is much easier pill to swallow.

But that's the way of the UK, especially UK academia: Pay crap wages, paint a glamorous picture, get bright, but inexperienced people, demotivate them with a crap boss, crap support, crap pay and complete lack of said promised glamour, and then get all surprised when the product doesn't really do its job and the bright but now bitter person moves on, then blame it on a personality failing of the wage-slave you just bled dry.

York CompSci student pleads guilty to Facebook hack

Oh, we can't be bothered to do security properly

So let's shoot the messenger instead... In fact let's get the UK taxpayer to fund the messenger-shooting exercise for us. Facebook is well renowned for its almost comically amateurish approach to security (let alone privacy), seemingly doing just about enough to fend off the worst critics, but beyond that, little more.

Prosecutions like this do nothing for internet security. Odds are the next person to find a security hole will be better at covering their tracks, will live in a juristiction without such an obliging police force (to Facebook, that is), and/or they'll be more malevolent.

If anything prosecutions send the message: If you've found a security hole, don't tell anyone about it - and don't investigate - leave that to the black hats..

Microsoft predicts Linux will fail mobile 'quality' test

Well that means...

....MS thinks it will probably work just fine, then. Otherwise they'd never bother with the FUD.