Posts by Jonathan 27

FCC douses America's net neutrality in gas, tosses over a lit match

Re: Black arm bands for everyone

If Trump is doing what he claimed, why is he raising income take rates for the middle class, meddling with the Middle East, failed to make any lasting changes on immigration, failed to replace Obama Care and completely failed to even start planning to build a border wall (which I feel like was his #1 promise).

There is a huge difference between Trump's platform and what's he's actually doing now that he's in office. No matter how you feel about the issues, I find it really hard to read comments like this were you claim Trump has delivered on any reasonable percentage of his campaign promises. Trump ran on a platform of change, and has solidly failed to effect any of his larger promises and has only delivered on a few token promises. He said he was a man of action, and he's looking more and more like a big talker every day.

BlackBerry won't kill BB10 until 2020, pulls regular Priv updates

Re: "BB10 app store will continue to remain open for another two years"

You're not kidding, it's a ghost town.

Yeah...

Yes, supreme arrogance. That was definitely BlackBerry's downfall. They thought they knew everything and avoiding bending to what the customer wanted for far too long, essentially letting the entire world pass them by. Apple currently runs the risk of doing something similar. They're not there yet, but I could see it happening.

Former ZX Spectrum reboot project man departs

If you gave these guys any money, it's gone. You're definitely not getting anything. Just another crowdfunding scam. You can tell you've hit critical mass when the website disappears, looks like that's today: https://retrocomputerslimited.com/

As a Canadian, I'm surprised to see how popular the ZX Spectrum still is in the UK. I don't think they even sold it here.

Developers, developers, developers: How 'serverless' crowd dropped ops like it's hot

I work for a SaS provider, and my previous employer was.. a SaS provider. Both use cloud servers, and the thing that really bothers me about AWS Lambda is the lock-in. You need to write everything to their API, which leaves you no option to migration to another provider, ever. That's rather terrifying, I don't think I trust Amazon (or Microsoft, or Rackspace, or anyone else) enough to build a product that relies so heavily on a hosting platform.

I've got a personal IT infrastructure hosted on AWS (very cheaply I must add), that manages my data, email, a few websites and whatever I feel like testing out. Maybe I'm unusual because I started out doing IT and then moved into development later, what you're saying is certainly true for some developers I work with.

A lot of them are not very concerned with configurations, and I think part of that might be the way everything can be abstracted with source control, build servers and continuous deployment. I can update any application just by queuing up the right job, only one person in the office needs to know how it works.

Re: Cloud, REST, HTTP, PHP, trendy NoSQL DB de-jour, blah blah, whatever...

Why would anyone, anywhere ever use Oracle as a backend for new web app development? Tying yourself down to a legacy technology stack like that doesn't make much sense. And if you're not writing a new web application (or a intensive but non-time sensitive compute task) then AWS Lambda doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

It doesn't sound like AWS Lambda doesn't make any sense for what you're doing, but that doesn't meant it doesn't make any sense to anyone.

So you're 'agile', huh? I do not think it means what you think it means

The region I live in is currently very enamored with Scrum, so almost every organization claims to use it, until you start talking to them. Then they'll say something like "modified Scrum" or "incorporating agile methodologies" and when you get right down to it you're looking at something like waterfall with continuous deployment. As such I never trust surveys as to who is using agile methodologies, because in my experience a great number of organizations claim they are, but aren't.

I've only really experienced one organization (it's a large one) that really uses Scrum and it's fairly debatable if it's a benefit or not. Communication between the team and product owner is the primary advantage of Scrum and in the case of boxed software, the product owner is often pretty detached from the end user and may not really understand what they want.

I know this is a long post, but the point I'm trying to make here is that Scrum has a lot of advantages, but it's not a one size fits all solution. Right now Scrum and to a lesser extent Agile methods in general are the current fad. I think it's going to take at least 10 years before we can look back at this and evaluate what does and doesn't work about agile and either develop the next big software development fad or improve knowledge of agile techniques to the point where claiming to be "agile" and then not actually doing so will yield a lot of negative backlash, unlike today.

Meet the woman with a supernatural affinity for stiff lovers

I really don't know why people put this sort of stuff on TV instead of getting her the mental help she so clearly needs. People are so cruel.

Games-mart Steam halts Bitcoin payments

Re: Test case

The people investing large sums of money into Bitcoin don't understand what it is. They think of it as a commodity like gold. The current speculative bubble is based on investors with large sums of money and little technical knowledge dumping cash into Bitcoin. It'll be interesting to see where it goes before the bottom falls out. I think we may have a ways to go, it seems that greed is nearly infinite.

Want a new HDMI cable? No? Bad luck. You'll need one for HDMI 2.1

This is probably going to sound like a stupid question, but why bother with HDMI at all? DisplayPort already supports all of these new HDMI features and has no royalty cost. It seems silly to have develop two different standards like this.

Re: So when do we get proper 8k?

Unless you're piping an image to a wall-sized advertising screen you won't ever be needing 8K so I wouldn't worry about it.

Re: Desire...

I've watched a lot of both of those and I'm not convinced that it looks any better than 1080p, with all the compression Netflix and Amazon put on the stream. I'm not saying they don't look good, just that I can't really tell a difference. HDR i can tell, but the higher resolution on the ultra-compressed streams? Not really. Luke Cage is particularly pointless in 4K because of the heavy fake film grain effect applied to the show.

Re: Desire...

It shouldn't matter much unless it's 200" across or you sit with your nose right up against the screen. So i wouldn't worry about it. The electronics industry just wants to sell more TVs, despite us already having hit the point of diminishing returns for common TV sizes at 1080p.

Wondering why your internal .dev web app has stopped working?

Re: Is it just me?

Some of us work in companies that have continuous deployment strategies, so maybe.

It's easier just to have separate dev, test and deploy config files.

Re: An attempt at journalism?

Obviously, no one with even a shred of competence would.

I think they're great unless you're one of those leeches that buys up thousands of domains. It's made their business plan obsolete. But then again, I've noticed that the commenters here on El Reg tend to be very resistant to change of any kind regardless of how useful the new feature might be.

Re: Be careful with .local

Well, obviously. You need to use self-signed certs for local domains. Even if you're squatting a .dev domain you'd have to do that. Doesn't really make any difference.

Re: I must have missed the change in standards bodies.

It's their web browser, same logic applies. They have the right to enforce any rules they like, in their web browser.

Also running local sites with real domains is a huge security risk. You're liable to leak data out to the internet domain.

.dev is a internet TLD. .local is reserved, use that or one of the others. The coming of generic TLDs was announced in 2000, anyone who stuck their head in the sand for 17 years shouldn't really be whining about it today.

The End of Abandondroid? Treble might rescue Google from OTA Hell

Re: They need to enforce the GPL

I think a lot of people are worried that trying to enforce the GPL like that will end in it being determined legally unenforceable. All they need is one precedent.

Pro tip: You can log into macOS High Sierra as root with no password

Re: Simple workaround

If you don't want Windows, Linux is a better option.

Running old versions of OS isn't really a good option, due to the fact that Apple cuts support very quickly.

Yet more proof that Apple doesn't care even slightly about security. And they can get away with it. Why? because of low market share and lack of businesses using Mac OS. Seriously, if this was a bug in Windows it would be on the front-page of every news outlet in the country.

Overall though, this is a symptom of Apple's attitude about Mac OS. They clearly don't care anymore and it leaves me wondering if they're going to discontinue Macs 5-10 years down the line. They keep reducing the product line and updates are coming slower and slower. X-Serve, dead. Mac Pro, 4 years old. Mac Mini 3 years old. iMac 3 years (although a new one is coming 3 years a a huge wait). All tower Macs are dead, and even the laptops miss CPU updates.

So despite all the cash ploughed into big data, no one knows how to make it profitable

I think it's just as likely that people will start getting angry at all the data capture and start lobbying to make "big data" illegal. Even most technical people I talk to don't realize the depth of the information that Google, Amazon, Microsoft and all the other big corporations (and a large number you've never heard of) store on you.

You hear a big uproar about Windows "stealing your information", but average websites steal your information, including any website with ads of any kind. Android steals your information including tracking you everywhere you ever go (unless you're very careful about disabling it). iOS is nearly as bad.

We'll see just how much the public can stand.

What's that fresh, zesty fragrance? Oh, Linux Mint 18.3 has landed

Re: Not yet

Businesses can host their email addresses on Office 365, like Google's GSuite.

Some 'security people are f*cking morons' says Linus Torvalds

Re: Google's Pixel security team

I see you've either never been involved in software development or are one of those horrible toxic people who have been fired over and over. Almost no one can get away with being as rude as Torvalds is, the only reason he can is that basically no one can fire him.

Screaming at team members is never productive. What you do is calmly explain what people have done wrong. Software development is a group activity and you have to work to keep your team dynamic functional. One person publicly calling out others is not something that's productive.

What does this have to do with "inclusion" and "political correctness". It's not the message that's wrong, it's the delivery method. Someone does something stupid, you tell them, you explain why it's stupid, you don't scream at them from the rooftops (or the internet equivalent).

BOFH: The trouble with, er, windows installs

Certainly more that all the named characters who died in Got. Probably less if you include all the nameless soldiers.

I don't know about that, I'd expect the BOFH to just add whatever resolutions he likes into the database or just select whatever the code phrase for "User is an idiot" for every call. I generally find that systems that limit resolution options don't result in unclosed calls, just calls that are categorized.

'Urgent data corruption issue' destroys filesystems in Linux 4.14

Yeah...

If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Scotland to sell you. Version numbers are often arbitrary.

Microsoft's memory randomization security defense is a little busted in Windows 8, 10

Re: Well...

Just make sure you never use Android, iOS or Mac OS. Wouldn't want to look like a huge hypocrite.

Open-source defenders turn on each other in 'bizarre' trademark fight sparked by GPL fall out

It's all relative, he means nice for Linus Torvalds.

You don't want to see angry Linux Torvalds.

"Software Freedom" is such a genertic term that I find it really hard to believe that anyone would consider it a legally defensible term as part of a trade mark. The way trade marks work, someone could open a business selling "Software Freedom Law Center" dish soap and their trade mark wouldn't apply because their corporation isn't a dish soap and no one would reasonably mistake the two. A slight similarity, based on common terms isn't defensible in the least.

OnePlus 5 x T + five short months = Some p*ssed off fanboys

That's standard practice for many phone brands. Don't buy Samsung or LG either, to name a few.

Re: I'm pleased with my 5.

That's exactly it, there is always a new phone coming down the pipe.

The Quantum of Firefox: Why is this one unlike any other Firefox?

Yeah...

I'm running the latest Firefox Beta on my phone and it's still much slower than Chrome, and that's without any extensions slowing it down. Performance on desktop is nice, but performance on phone is much more notifiable. I also think Mozilla has a good chance on Android because of the lack of extension support in Chrome Mobile.

Audio spy Alexa now has a little pal called Dox

Re: Sigh

Why does anyone want one of these if they already have a smartphone. It's the smart watch thing all over again.

Firefox 57: Good news? It's nippy. Bad news? It'll also trash your add-ons

This was announced a year ago, developers have had plenty of time to port over their extensions. If they haven't done it by now, turning off legacy support is really the only thing that will make them do it.

I know I'm not going to bother porting a fully working product to a new API unless I absolutely have to and I'm sure most other developers would agree with me. Although I would have at least tried to sync up the availability of my new extension with Firefox dropping legacy extension support, but you can't always make those deadlines.

Mythbuster seeks cash for roller skates to wear in virtual reality

Yeah...

Your cat will learn eventually.

Parity calamity! Wallet code bug destroys $280m in Ethereum

Not worth $280m anymore now is it?

But seriously, there is going to be a point in the future where we all look back at this and laugh.

Over a million Android users fooled by fake WhatsApp app in official Google Play Store

Yeah...

Not trimming unprintable characters in publisher names, eh? Rookie mistake.

Health quango: Booze 'evidence' not Puritan enough, do us another

I'm worried I don't drink enough.

They say 'quality over quantity,' but quantifying IT performance is a good shout too

Re: You can't really measure performance of sysadmins

You could make them log everything they do into a logging system, regardless of why. I've seen it before.

A draft US law to secure election computers that isn't braindead. Well, I'm stunned! I gotta lie down

Man, I would not want to work at a voting machine company right now. Actual accountability? They didn't budget for that!

Don't put your Node out of joint: Version 8 of JS toolkit now in LTS mode

Re: "Long Term"

It counts as long term for Node.JS. Node programs suffer from the possibility that updates will break them, about every five minutes. Either updates to node itself or prerequisites. It's something you need to just live with if you develop node applications. It's the most annoying thing about developing and maintaining Node.JS applications. You basically can't use it unless you're have a continuous deployment pipeline, traditional organizations need not apply.

Official: Perl the most hated programming language, say devs

Re: Horses for courses

I don't agree with you. C# performs very well when it comes to string mangling, provided you use a string builder and not just the string object, which is immutable. You also need to be very careful with what you do with your strings, because implementation isn't always consistent across the framework.. I think your performance issue might be that you have a lot of experience working with Perl and less with C#.

I hate Perl because the syntax is so strange and non-standard, even inside of Perl. It's not a big issue because since I've been working I have never encountered any Perl at all. I don't think many people use it anymore. I'm also not a big fan or Python, or more realistically the concept of using white-space to denote code blocks. That just feels wrong to me.

I do admit that Javascript has it's problems, but you can work around them. So I don't hate Javascript, although something I do hate is "other people's Javascript", because there is nothing worse than that!

Licensing rejig and standard price rises set for Windows Server 2016

Re: "This was inevitable" - but it also looks stupid

Oh definitely a stupid idea, but it is part of Microsoft's MO. They're not changing with the times, Nadella seems to be a really conservative guy and I think he'll likely lead Microsoft into the ground.

Forget One Windows, Microsoft says it's time to modernize your apps

Re: Modernise apps?

I just googled that and apparentfully verbed is a perfectly cromulent word. You Dictionarians need to move foreyards into the present.

Fake-news-monetizing machine Facebook lectures hacks on how not to write fake news that made it millions

Facebook should just rename their "news" section to "entertainment". Once you remove all the fake news from Facebook "News" you're not left with much left.