* Posts by spold

929 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Feb 2012

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You're not Boeing to believe this: Yet another show-stopping software bug found in ill-fated 737 Max airplanes

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No the priority is driven by three sets of objectives.

1. Corporate - largely based on maximising shareholder value. Board of Directors zone directing management..

2. Personal - maximising your paycheque and pension. Job satisfaction optional.

3. Safety.

Until you align 1 .and 2. with 3. then the first two (one?) dictate your priorities.

The only levers applicable are the metrics you put in place and incent people on. What you measure and rate people on is what they do (realistically you have to ensure those in 1. and 2. support 3.). The current case demonstrates that a failure to properly incent 3. will lead to a big hit on 1. Ultimately also affecting 2. for some of the management.

Too complex? Join me at the pub and wait for all of this to blow over - it's safer than getting on a 737 Max (well, probably not since they are all in the airport long-term parking lot).

The time that Sales braved the white hot heat of the data centre to save the day

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Re: Awww bless..

Standard office towers are not your hosting friend.

A few years ago.... office a/c units on top of the building.... no-one clears the previous years leafy detritus out of the a/c water drains.... hot days... a/c water drains back-up... no problem!... backup plan is there is a catchment pan under the a/c units... it has a drain as well... which someone has attached to a hose pipe to and creatively routed it down the nearby lift shaft head (no kidding) and into the office kitchen sink drain on the top office level below. All good except the cleaners wonder what the **** this hose pipe is in under the kitchen sink and move it out of the way!

Water flows down pipe onto floor and down to the floor below which has a server rack (ok single tower) just in the right place to catch it!

Learning points.....

1. If you have equipment in an office environment always know what is above (kitchens etc.).

2. If someone is stupid enough to put equipment in these environments just put a water pan and diverter pipe on top of the rack ( seriously I recommend this to clients now when assessing things... so you could then pass it on to the floor below...).

3. Ask the office owners for their a/c maintenance plan that includes annual environmental maintenance.

Europe mulls five year ban on facial recognition in public... with loopholes for security and research

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I have my doubts about the next stage....

>>>

The next stage will be pressure to adopt other forms of objectification of the human being, gait, emotions, brainwaves

<<<

I think there might be certain parts of certain countries where public brainwave recognition would be a complete waste of time.... we found one... oh a tourist!

China tells America, with a straight face, it will absolutely crack down on hacking and copyright, tech blueprint theft

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Re: Dealmaster

...probably thought IP was an advert for a Russian hooker

15 years on, Euroboffins finally work out what it took to send the Huygens Titan probe into such a spin

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Design error

Failed to allow for the "plughole effect".

Behold the Internet of Turf: IoT sucks waste energy from living plants to speak to satellites

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They have it the wrong way around

I'm convinced that most IoT (IoS***) devices are pushing up the daisies right out of the box.

Why is a 22GB database containing 56 million US folks' personal details sitting on the open internet using a Chinese IP address? Seriously, why?

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Re: CheckMate

Yes, in China the regulators can detain company officers in a Chinese jail while they investigate a breach. The regulator fines are only US$ 150K plus, so the jail possibility is much more motivational.

No to the personal details in some cases... if you happen to have an estranged spouse who might come around and kill you, or are a police officer/ undercover drugs agent etc. then your name and address can be quite sensitive; but then again, you are hopefully not in the phonebook in those cases (which is what this data seems to be mostly).

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Re: late capitalists

Why does lipstick on a pig come to mind...?

Don't Xiaomi pics of other people's places! Chinese kitmaker fingers dodgy Boxing Day cache update after Google banishes it from Home

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Re: Why use this stuff?

You shouldn't have put such a clear privacy notice on your door - you probably scared everyone off. If you make it 64 pages long and finish it off "by pressing the doorbell I confirm I have read and understood..." then everyone will ignore it and press your doorbell anyway, so accepting it; you will likely get more visitors, possibly even a love life (ditch the christmas sweater now).

You likely have an indoor cat, and I'm sure the policy states that anyone inside is deemed to have accepted the policy, hence you still have a cat. Cats, like humans, will generally sell their privacy for tuppence anyway, or in this case likely a kitteh treat.

Beware the Y2K task done too well, it might leave you lost in Milan

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Y2K bugs

I had a rather good Y2K assignment as part of an aquistion involving two hotel chains... the aquiring party needed me to go down to one of their largest properties (which happened to be in very sunny Arizona with a couple of PGA golf courses attached, and some excellent restaurants) and to inventory everything so they knew what they might need to look at... backoffice systems, PoS terminals etc.

Anything we charged to the hotel bill just disappeared as comped - inventory this luxury restaurant.... better have brunch there, never mind the bill waiter just take me around the back to your IT systems. The place was also an underground maze that connected all the various above ground restaurants, kitchens, and outlets, an eye-opener as to how these places work. I spent a very happy week systematically trying all the delights the resort had to offer and noting down anything IT related.

The IT work was not that stimulating but who cared! I did discover some Y2K bugs though... a large number of cockroaches that had set up home in one of the restaurant backoffice system servers.

p.s. I also never saw such a well designed overall system which extracted as much money as possible from the guests. It all being all included, I had (quite) a few drinkies from the room minibar - the minibar automatically gave itself a tip!

Two missing digits? How about two missing employees in today's story of Y2K

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Re: real issues

...indeed

Around the same time I was working with a very large Italian government IT service organisation that had 70 million lines of Cobol in production. They were less concerned with Y2K, and more so about Italy joining the Euro... if you can remember how many large number of digits typically followed any exchange rate for the Lira against any major currency then moving to the Euro had one key point of difficulty... more specifically a decimal point, previously not needed or implemented in many numeric fields where large integer values were just fine....

What do you mean your eardrums need a break? Samsung-owned JBL touts solar-powered wireless headphones you don't need to charge

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Re: Why not recharge cars via solar?

Just need DeLorean style gull wing doors for extra square microfurlongs. Cover these with solar cells and pop them open as you are driving along if the sun is shining. Might fly! Might deal with pesky cyclists!

ACLU sues America's border cops: Tell us everything about these secret search teams targeting travelers

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Re: I'd expect more scrutiny...

Meh I've not found a significant difference between the US and Canada except for more whacky stuff when entering the US. In Canada when departing on a flight we clear US immigration at the departing airport (these little patches of US jurisdiction in Canada).

As a result of some of the IT work I have done I have Canadian Secret clearance and they have asked my dead mother questions (this isn't as sexy as it sounds, for Top Secret they exhume all your dead relatives and send them to Nunavut to be grilled by polar bears and pecked by penguins).

I have the Nexus card which means both the US and Canada have screened the ying yang out of me and I'm a "trusted traveller" same as the article. This doesn't mean that some officious border person won't make your life difficult just because they want to. Also it doesn't mean some Artificial Unintelligent system won't flag you anyway and print the dreaded "SSSS" code on your boarding pass which means things are about to become a pain in the arse and you are destined for secondary screening.

Hold my Bose, we can do premium: Sennheiser chucks pricey wireless cans at travellers

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Re: Does the noise-cancelling work without a source?

...indeed on (very) long haul flights when I'm trying to sleep I run my QC-25s with nothing plugged into them - eliminates all the aircraft noise (*). Something that shut off the noise cancelling with no sound input would be a deal breaker for me.

No, ear plugs, or cheese from the business class selection does not cut it (hint if you must try avoid blue cheeses, and ripe Brie, you can shape a nice piece of parmesan).

(*) look if the plane is crashing then this is going to make bugger-all difference, at least you won't hear people screaming and can go out peacefully.

Das Reboot: Uni forces 38,000 students, staff to queue, show their papers for password reset following 'cyber attack'

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Re: ID IS Routine

...just implant a "chip" like the vet does. Now you can both ID them and do 2 factor authenctication. No more queues next time!

Capita unfurls new consulting arm. Hmm, what shall we call it?

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Capitulating?

"Capitulating"..starting from "Capita Consulting"... all it needs to do is spend a shit load of money on a nice logo from some arty marketing consultants. Sure fire way to fix your financials... well maybe...ish...not.

Email blackmail brouhaha tears UKIP apart as High Court refuses computer seizure attempt

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Richard the third (Dick) Braine

British bloke accused of extorting victims for 'Dark Overlord' hacker crew finally gets his free trip* to America

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Re: and also

Oooooo - I can change my title to Chief Security and Scum Mitigation Officer - sounds sexier, and it's longer so I deserve a pay rise! Probably deserves a corporate gun as well as the mobile phone.

OK someone might think it is something to do with keeping the bath clean.

Put the crypt into cryptocoin: Amid grave concerns, lawyers to literally dig into exchange exec who died owing $190m

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Re: Investors were fooled

I believe it is now on a parity with the Norwegian Blue.

Canada's .ca supremo in hot water after cyber-smut stash allegedly found on his work Mac ‒ and three IT bods fired

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Re: As a Canadian

It's a bit like Content Moderators (I've talked to a few recently, not a job if you are not tough skinned, moderating internet content at its extreme worst). The interesting thing I found is that they are explicitly taught to apply Policy, not to make their own standards. It would be the same in this case, apply company policy, if it is not covered then it's not your position to apply your own. This does not stop you raising policy gaps and seeking guidance on how to apply in future, and/or clarification in the policies. Not doing this leads to lots of cans of worms such as invasion of privacy,or uneven application, singling out particular individuals (whatever you may think about the content). The only exception here, which can also lead to problems is (depending on your legislative context) you may be obliged to report certain types of content to authorities ... but that's up to corporate counsel or whoever has corporate responsibility, and you do your bit by raising it with them. if there is no policy or obligation then you are back to applying your own judgement (and raising THAT if it is problematic).

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Re: Wrongful Termination

Did I hear a lawyer salivating at this? In the damages thing the lawyer would say they will win or get some cash, otherwise not charge you a fee (they figure there is a pretty good case or a settlement to be had), then they make a bundle (probably a settlement)... and after the bill, you would be left with tuppence.

Wham, bam, thank you scram button: Now we have to go all MacGyver on the server room

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Re: And this is why...

I travel a lot, so I also carry a lock-pick set, but also a Leatherman Wingman multi-tool, not only deals with all sorts of work crap but it fixes a myriad of things in hotel rooms that would take the hotel an age to get around to fixing, it also has a nice blade I've sharpened that opens equipment boxes in a jiffy.... However I'm on number 6 now as I've way to frequently got to the airport security line and gone to turf out the pockets... oh fuck forgot to put this is back in the suitcase...

London's Met Police splash the cash on e-learning 'cyber' training for 4k staffers

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Re: Well, seeing as ...

>>>

Meanwhile "algo" just bugs me

<<<

I assume you meant Algol - you probably missed a semi-colon;

Amazon Germany faces Christmas strikes from elf stackers, packers and dispatchers

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Re: Painful Realisation

Rudolf nose going to deliver... snow chance of settlement, presents to remain on the 'elf.

Warnings over emotional AIs, OpenAI explains how it became video-game king, plus ML climate impact probe

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Re: "probably racked up tens of millions of dollars in computing costs"

>>>

When successfully scaled up, modern reinforcement learning techniques can achieve superhuman performance in competitive esports games

<<<

Cheaper to just put a millenial in a steel box and just zap it with a cattleprod if they lose.

Might even appear to be artificially intelligent eventually.

We've heard of spam filters but this is ridiculous: Pig-monkey chimeras developed in a Chinese laboratory

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Well these may not fly but they might swing through trees.

Great now we have a pig that can throw it's own shit from up high, listen out for crackling noises in the canopy.

Moink Moink.

Space Force is go, go, go! Because we have a child as President of the United States

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Re: Uranus or bust

>>Uranus or bust

Well there's a choice, isn't there vicar?

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Just wondering....

...would bone spurs disqualify you from Space Force*?

* now in supermarionation

And now for this evening's space weather report. We've got a hotspot of satellite-wrecking 'killer electrons' in the outer Van Allen belt...

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Re: Reward for each Killer Electron caught and jailed. -------->

..sorry I thought that the US Space Force was supposed to take care of the Mysterons

Attention! Very important science: Tapping a can of fizzy beer does... absolutely nothing

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Missing the market... so a waste of beer

Just sell it to your local owners of barometric chambers, if you are sitting around in one of those you could probably use a beer.

Hit one up on Insta, would you? Her Maj is after a social media manager

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Drawback....

You better perform... or it's "off with their head",

OK. We're off. Water ice found just below the surface of Mars. Good enough for us. Let's go. Impulse power, Mr Sulu

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Yay! A reason to go there...

Always had the uncrowded beach, now you can have a pool!

Just need a SpaceX shipment of deckchairs/loungers, food rations (japanese, buffet, steak-house, mexican), and jynnan tonnyx and you have an all inclusive. Night life may suck a bit.

With a warehouse of unsold AR goggles, Magic Leap has a brainwave… let’s rebadge ‘em and sell to business!

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Re: I'm struggling here

It's the business enhancing software....your balance sheet looks so much better through these AR goggles!

(Goggles also available with Rose tinted lenses)

And then there were two: HMS Prince of Wales joins Royal Navy

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The question being....

....will it also need to be more than 70 years old before it gets to do what it was designed to do?

Asteroid Bennu is flinging particles of dust and rock from its surface – and scientists can't work out why

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Re: Space baboons

I'm afraid I cannot agree - it's burrowing Space Rabbits. Bennu is misheard... should be Bunny.

Mozilla locks nosy Avast, AVG extensions out of Firefox store amid row over web privacy

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European answer

GDPR - Chapter II Principles - Article 5 - Principles relating to processing of personal data - Article 5.1 (c).

Proportionality and over-collection for the purposes. Complain to your local european data protection authority which will have it's own country implementing law for GDPR.

That's Microsoft price: Now you can enjoy a BSOD from the comfort of your driving seat

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As described

You ordered a lemon

Oracle finally responds to wage discrimination claims… by suing US Department of Labor

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I see a merger?

>>>

here was a deliberate corporate strategy to replace older workers with younger ones.

<<<

Might as well team up with IBM, fire everyone over 40, and buy India.

Seems a natural fit?

BTW all your database are belong to us.

Christmas in tatters for Nottinghamshire tots after mayor tells them Santa's too busy

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In Canada you can write to Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada and get a letter back :-)

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-company/giving-back-to-our-communities/write-a-letter-to-santa.page

You're drinking morning coffee in 2019. These eggheads are in 2119 landing drones on their arms like robo-falconers

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Re: Hmm...

Yes indeed.

>>> Have you ever wanted to land a drone on your arm as if the gizmo were some sort of metallic bird of prey?<<<

For extra reality it/they will fly off with you and eat you. Possibly feeding you to its baby capacitors.

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: A quirky investigation into why AI does not always work

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Re: So the note to take from the book....

I think the article was rather insulting to the earthworm.

Anyway I'm sure earthworms could possibly do quite a sterling job of training an AI avian defence system, or one on "how to thrive in piles of shit" - oh wait it does have an application in IT companies!

Found on Mars: Alien insects... or whatever the hell this smudge is supposed to be, anyway

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Re: Show me more

It's clearly the remains of a red Tesla Roadster

Absolutely smashing: Musk shows off Tesla's 'bulletproof' low-poly pickup, hilarity ensues

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Re: looks horrible

Having migrated across the pond I vouch that you are pretty much spot on even though some people will down vote you. The only thing I would add is that the serious buyers will still go for the F150 and competitors etc... yeah I had one of those Johnny Cab things in the back of my truck last week.... This would go into the wtf bucket for everyone.

If you had like a *really* large door I could see it as the best door wedge going! ...

Oh OK let's drag it back to IT folks! Like the Sinclair ZX81! The world's most intelligent door stop. Sorry Sir Clive.

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Re: What's the market?

Hmmm... I'm guessing for really crappy building contractors in the US market where bullet-proof glass and a quick getaway might be advantageous.

Halfords invents radio signals that don't travel at the speed of light

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Re: Canned Worms?

Thank-you. Just ordered two cans from Amazon for my home/work offices - obviously to be labelled "DO NOT OPEN!" :-)

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