* Posts by MachDiamond

8717 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Aug 2012

Exhibit 3,021: Millions wasted on US govt IT due to poor oversight, audit finds

MachDiamond Silver badge

Poor planning

For very big projects, spending money on the front end to adequately define the scope and also the performance expectations is important. It also has to be documented in plain language that should also be reviewed by another separate group to see if it makes sense. I'm going through that now with a very small project where I'm working with somebody on the other side of the planet who was born and raised using another language. I'm spending plenty of time documenting so I'm not wasting their time having to redo code due to poor descriptions on my part.

Not only does the start up have to be done right, it should also include milestones that can be checked as the project progresses so errors are caught early. I'm not a fan of huge monolithic "one code base to rule them all" programs. Scope bloat often makes for unsupportable projects.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Profitable niche

A big thing with government jobs is that once you're in, it's awfully hard to be tossed out. Unless, of course, you drag and steal luggage at airports. Incompetence isn't a sacking offense.

Microsoft puts the freeze on employee salaries, CEO pay still as hot as ever

MachDiamond Silver badge

Bad advertising

What I take away is that the CEO has informed his underlings that there will be no raises this year so if another job comes along that pays 10% more, has a better work environment or bennies, take it.

Apple learned to keep new Macs under their hat until shortly before release to avoid having a warehouse full of kit that nobody is going to buy while they wait for the new model to come out.

Many company policies aren't a good idea to announce publicly. They'd do much better to not offer any unsolicited raises and evaluate requests based on the person and that person's importance within the company if money is tight. Many people will never ask for a raise on their own. Some of those will just leave for another job so keeping up with prevailing wages is important as even the most land employee might wind up being very key to a department given some other people leaving and a few more out on some sort of leave or holiday. The last person alive on the bridge of a ship can wind up as captain no matter how junior they were at the beginning of their watch.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Neither is the CEO. His pay usually rises when the company does badly."

Their pay and stock prices will also shoot up if they sack a load of people too.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: I wonder…

"share price (investor return) is the No.1 measure of a CEO"

Only to a certain extent. There are ways to boost stock prices that are short term and leave the company struggling before very long.

One of my investment criteria is dividends. If the only play is to buy and sell a company's stock, I see that as more like playing roulette. There's also be big danger of staying in a stock too long out of fear of selling too soon. With a stock that trades in moderate window that pays a dividend, money is always being made. All the stocks I'm holding right now pay a dividend and the companies are mind-numbing boring but have competent management and a conservative approach to risk. It's a tortoise and hare thing.

The world of work is broken and it's Microsoft's fault

MachDiamond Silver badge

Powerpoint?

Using PowerPoint should be moved from the 'work' category to the 'wasting time' category as it's used to create the visual distractions and ocular soul sucking that goes with those endless meetings.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: It's NOT just the applicaitions

"Oh those pop ups, we need "ad blockers" for the messages on the desktop now."

If you have to commit work in M$ apps, use a super basic text editor, spreadsheet, etc to create the content and just copy/paste it over to Word or whatever for final formatting.

MachDiamond Silver badge

""Just explaining to the cat can have the same effect. Similar intellect to some of those on the receiving end of the email."

Please don't insult the cat."

The thing with cats is the will just walk away once they determine that no treats or affection is going to be immediately happening. Explaining something to the cat forces you to organize your thoughts (or should) so you can explain what you are doing to somebody else. The problems with using the cat as a sounding board is that the cat is unlikely to ask questions.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Quelle surprise

"So 35 people on 5 different projects describing details to the other 34 who don't know, care or understand."

It doesn't work unless those projects feed into each other. I expect that summarizing project meetings is something that AI might eventually be good for. Those that want to see what else is going on in the company can read the summaries if they want and have access.

It might be a good idea for people to have at least some training on how to present at a meeting and tailor that presentation to the audience. I can go on for a long time on why I chose a particular component over another, but it will put people to sleep if all they need is a high level description of what my black box does and what design criteria I based it on.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Quelle surprise

" I don’t mind a well-structured meeting if it actually achieves something "

I agree. A meeting of a team can be a good thing at the beginning of the week with everybody telling where they are on their bit of a project(s) and the manager/group leader letting everybody know if priorities or deadlines have moved. An aerospace firm I worked at did this and it kept people informed on where everybody was. The only other meetings we held were engineering review sessions. Before we'd start spending money on hardware, each department presented what they had come up with as a way to make sure nothing was left out of the design or failed to be modified in collaboration with another department. Both lead times and costs for hardware could be substantial so we wanted plenty of eyes checking things over. The number of design reviews wasn't too disruptive so we stayed with the practice. If it got to the point where there were too many, we'd start implementing some rules.

YouTube's 'Ad blockers not allowed' pop-up scares the bejesus out of netizens

MachDiamond Silver badge

L.C.D. Adverts

I could put up with a few ads if they were more appropriate. The spammers and scammers seem to be the biggest advertisers on YT and the ads are shown repeatedly over and over again. Dick pills, miracle patent medicines that help you poop, ancient Japanese methods for prostrate health, mini Chinese chain saws that can fell a large tree, blah, blah, blah. A professional photography channel I watch often has ads stuck in for "get this spy lens before it's banned" or how to use your phone to make great images tripe. My guess is that the cost to place ads on YouTube is so low that it's become the perfect environment for scammers and peddlers of super cheap kit now that email spamming is less effective. Solution, YT can charge more and insert fewer ads.

I'll still be using my downloader for longer videos that I tend to watch at a later time and for the ones with age verification that the downloader skips over. I have no intention of signing up with Google and agreeing to their terms to watch YT videos. That agreement boils down to a statement of how much spying their are going to do and that you have agreed to have your viewing history shared with anybody that wants it (Google's customers). If Google keeps bricking up doors into the YT compound, at some point people will go elsewhere like Odysee. Any creator that also post on Odysee I will watch via that service. It's not as good of a UI, but it's NOT YT.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Why

"I gave up on live TV years ago because of the ads spoiling the programs."

I gave up on TV when there stopped being much of a difference.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Ad #2 - 28 minutes. Fuck Google."

I don't get the long form ads. They can often be longer than the video they interrupt and if they can't be skipped after 5 seconds, I'm just going to use my YT downloader that skips the ads and watch later. Every so often there is an ad for something that interests me but I skip the link and just open another browser window and type in the company name/url directly to avoid the tracking. It's a rare thing, though.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"I make videos. I'm not major, but I have 960 subscribers, and have amassed millions of views in total.

Youtube has never paid me a penny."

They have been moving the goalposts further out as time goes by so you have to have many more subscribers and many more views for monetization to kick in. I know a few creators that were always on the edge and could never get over that line and just gave up. They'd invested a lot of time and money thinking that just a few more subscribers or views would lead to some payback and it never did so they cut their losses and stopped posting or cut way back.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"noticed lengthy ads that have to be manually skipped by scrobbling along, embedded by the presenters themselves."

Google is pretty timid when it comes to content so somebody that's even the slightest bit controversial is likely to get their videos demonetized. The only options they have are to do ads in their own videos or try and get support through Patreon (who's privacy statement should make one run away).

Since the ads are in 30 second increments, it's not hard to get past them.

MachDiamond Silver badge

I use YouTube all of the time. Just yesterday I couldn't figure out how to open an APC UPS and found a video that showed me where the three final screws were hidden and how to get to them. Another channel I follow is loaded with great tutorials on repurposing all sorts of gear (The Post Apocalyptic Inventor). Of course there's Dave Jones (EEVBlog), Big Clive, AVE, Juilian Illet and Bjorn Nyland that are good for wasting a bit of time. Common Sense Skeptic and Adam Something are worth a look.

YT can be a great resource for all sorts of things. In the last year I've lost two good mates that were my main resources for knowledge on how to fix engines (cars and fighter jets). At my age, it's just going to continue to be that way.

Millions of mobile phones come pre-infected with malware, say researchers

MachDiamond Silver badge

Non-Google Android

There is such a thing as a de-Googled phone. Apps won't run if they need the Great Satan to bounce your data to, but if you just need a phone and some basic functionality, getting a phone with Google uninstalled is an option. No hope for iPhone. I think I've had my phone out twice today for the calculator and naught else. It's been a slow week.

Microsoft can't stop injecting Copilot AI into every corner of its app empire

MachDiamond Silver badge

AI may turn into a good tool for certain things

But in the meantime, it has to be kept in mind that the ultimate customer for any businesses product or service is a human, not another AI.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: “Everyone gets a bot”

Exactly! It's much better to have a friend with a boat that you're invited to cruise/sail on frequently. And a friend with a vacation home you can use every so often for the price of leaving behind a supply of adult bevies and a stack of seasoned firewood. I think you get the picture. Ditch the responsibility and get all of the enjoyment.

Pornhub walls off Utah in age-verification law protest

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Us hypocrites

"Per this Wikipedia article, carrying a firearm with the intent to unlawfully assault another is a class A misdemeanor under Utah law."

I'd see that law as a waste of time on the part of lawmakers. To make it stick, you have to prove intent in court which can be very difficult. If a person did use a firearm to assault somebody or tried to shoot somebody and missed, that's not as hard to prove. I see it as another likely knee-jerk piece of legislation that was in response to some incident. There are tremendous numbers of laws already in effect about doing an injury to somebody and surrounding the use/possession of firearms. What's needed is for district attorneys and courts to implement and uphold those laws. Anybody willing to use a weapon that isn't in self-defense shouldn't be somebody that's released from custody hours after an arrest. There should be at least some evaluation done on that person to find out if they are stable.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: I imagine Utah's most of lawmakers are happy about this outcome

"Though some are probably secretly mad they can't get to pornhub anymore."

The internet is all about porn and cat videos. The bigger trick is not seeing ads and promos for those. I'm amazed that the "adult entertainment" is still around since it's so easy to find free naughty movies and photos with very little effort.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Er, this is kind of relevant to the UK, 'cos we have had that 'Online Safety Bill' with it's proposed age verification requirement, but without any method proposed of achieving that goal."

The state of California approved the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads and put the work of coming up with some draft laws on the highway patrol. The problem was that testing was approved before the highway patrol had any time to consider what sort of regulations might be appropriate. The FAA approved a regulation that made real-time tracking of drones (Small commercial stuff, not military) without there being any mechanism in place to do the tracking. ADS-B is out and cell service isn't available or reliable enough in many places to come up with a system based on that. This means that OEM's have no way to add the functionality and people like me with older drones that are no longer made won't have a way to upgrade so it's another $1,200 or more for a new one.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Us hypocrites

"It's odd firearms are now the major cause of death amongst children in the USA, overtaking vehicular death, yet states like Utah have a driver's license, but no license required for gun ownership."

It's not a good idea to quote the current US President. Firearms in the US are NOT a leading cause of deaths for under 18's. I'd be wary of any stats that include gang related violence as those "children" are acting like adults.

BTW, there are many many laws in the US regulating firearms. There are also laws about driving too fast, drink driving, theft, etc. A recent shooter was booked and released from custody a week ago after committing a major crime. If they judges aren't going to keep hold of criminals when they've been caught, ....... A story today was about a resident in San Francisco that's had his home broken into 8 times recently. The police don't even bother to pretend to take reports and advised him to hire some private security. I expect he'll have all sorts of fun trying to get compensation from his insurance since they require a copy of a police report.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Time for the Monty Python singers!!!

Darnit, I just went there with the song but it looks like I got beat. Python for the win!

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: I imagine Utah's most of lawmakers are happy about this outcome

Traditionally, the Mormons are keen on large families. I expect they want to keep people making new voters rather than wasting genetic material and time doing other things. Singing, "Every sperm is sacred......" Ok, that was aimed at Catholics, but it's still people in tall hats and robes telling others what to do.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: There's some merit it this complaint...

"The Tory government had spunked millions on the project (despite every man and his dog in the IT industry and others saying it was a stupid idea) to then cancel it."

The politicians (of all stripes) have to make sure they milk everything they can for the most amount of money possible even if it is destined to fail. How else can they keep their family members and friends employed? They can also shift a bunch of the 'studies' to think tanks that will hire them when they fail to be re-elected.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Any chance we can get news from anywhere but USA ?"

Sure you can but the US is the leader in the export of bad ideas. If you want to see what's coming, you need to see the idiocy being fomented in the US just like watching hurricanes forming to be able to make plans early.

US watchdog grounds SpaceX Starship after that explosion

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Good thinking that man

"With hindsight, using all the launch slots will now be difficult because of the 2 (probably x2) months delay for repairs to the ground support equipment."

The construction can be sped up by throwing more workers on it, but getting the FAA to issue further launch licenses is going to take much longer. I have to wonder if Michelle Murray, the FAA signatory, was handed a decision from higher up to issue a license for this launch or if she was doing her own due diligence. I hope it was the former.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Good thinking that man

"What we DO know is the fail rate as seen in test flights and stand QC testing is far too high for it to be a viable launch system as the engine is now, that should improve in time."

The engine design (or re-re-design) might turn out to be too sketchy to ever be stable. I suspect if they had a clear handle on why they eat themselves on the test stand, they'd be fixed by now. Elon is on the second or third team managing that project and they still don't have a working engine. These engines are supposed to run up to five times a day with no more than a cursory inspection upon landing. The cadence is important right away, not in several more years. The lunar lander is going to require several flights of tankers which also will need SpaceX to have a working design for in-orbit fuel transfer that has a NASA investment but no word on where that project is.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Good thinking that man

"It wasn't an engine failure which caused the RUD"

Some independent high res video is suggesting just that. Venting can be seen where the flight termination explosives were mounted and the first of two big explosions is on the aft end at the engine bay followed by the explosion of Starship (the second stage). All the FTS seems designed to do is vent the fuel and oxidizer tanks rather than break the rocket into bits.

Twitter's API paywall crumbles (but only for those saving lives, predicting weather, etc.)

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Too bad for BART

"My "local" bus company however posts info on delays etc. to FB & Twitter, *NOT* to the website! "

There's the problem. If the bus company is publicly funded, why shouldn't they also need to have a website that has news? FB is a walled garden and a nasty one full of nothing but weeds and Twitter has recently become very unstable as Elon thrashes around trying to figure out how to make a go of it.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Too bad for BART

If I'm concerned about why my train is late or would like to find out if there are delays on a transportation system, I go to that system's web site, not Twitter. Any entity relying on any social media site to release important information needs a good ding about the ear. It's like government entities mandating that information is submitted in M$ Word format when many people can't afford to legally purchase a copy of Office and don't need it outside of the one or two things they need to submit to this agency.

Overload was one of the reasons I got rid of Twitter. Following more than a few other people just lead to a feed that could take an hour a couple of times each day to parse for the odd pearl.

Biden proposes 30% tax on cryptominers' power bills

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Oh, citation definitely needed."

I've seen a couple of TV 'investigative reports' where they have talked with illicit drug dealers and I'm just repeating what they've been saying. There are plenty of reports from places such as California where MJ operations are struggling agains't the underground market.

I tried pot decades ago and I don't find it enjoyable. I have far too many other interests to find being stoned a good use of my time. When I was a roadie, I was alway one of the few that didn't smoke pot. I think I had much more fun and actually saw the world in my travels.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Instead of it being lots of small growers it has turned into a very small number of huge growers"

If it gets legalized on the Federal level, the big boys will be able to come out and play. Ag, Tobacco, Pharma and liquor all have the market expertise for something like pot. Economy of scale, efficiency and plenty of capital to smooth out starting locations and bad harvests are a big deal. The product itself isn't a big deal, it just has to be good enough and consistent.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Big tobacco are pushing HARD to get people to vape."

It's much easier to create and package the vape juice than to grow and process tobacco. Vape juice with nicotine extracted from tobacco plants is still much easier and can be done at scale from a much small building.

I used eCigs to stop smoking and have been off baccy for over 12 years now. I recommend vaping if somebody is serious about quitting smoking. If they just swap one for the other, at least it's better if they smell like a Pina Colada.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"3.5bn over 10 years, that isn't a lot of money being raised."

It's also not something that should be taken seriously. Governments always talk about all of the money that will be generated by some new tax or fee, but in reality, it just makes that operation go elsewhere. There's no particular advantage to running a mining operation in the US other than so the operator can live in the US. They can be anywhere and are as they chase power availability and lowest price for electricity.

The US states that have legalized pot have also taxed and regulated it so much that the illegal dealers that thought they'd have to get out of that business are dancing in the streets. Those states made possession and consuming pot legal and effectively raised the price higher than it used to be. The black market dealers can undercut the retail store prices and make good money. They can also be in possession and not get arrested for it.

Court gives FTC 30 days to swing again in privacy bout with location data slinger

MachDiamond Silver badge

Fiction addict

Anybody that's into spy and military thrillers is going to understand how much data can be gleaned from location data. The same goes for the voice actuated 'assistants'. The content might not even matter so the argument that it isn't being collected or disclosed means nothing. I'd like to start a company that modifies the software being used in new cars that harvests PII although some of that is the owner's doing stupid things like pairing their phone with the car. Even people renting a car will often pair their phone and leave behind a treasure trove of information when they find out they can't erase the data when they turn the car in. There are still people that need to be serious about their personal privacy and would pay a fair amount to keep their car from spying on them.

Go ahead, forget that password. Use a passkey instead, says Google

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: wait, thats less secure surely?

"Currently, if someone steals my device they still need to a) access it and then b) enter passwords."

If they can steal your phone after you have unlocked it, it's not that hard to plug a device into it so it remains awake and unlocked. You make yourself a target if you put your phone down in a public place. One criminal gets your attention when another is in position to grab your phone when you take your attention away from it.

Pixies keep switching off my morning alarm, says Google Pixel owner

MachDiamond Silver badge

Problem spotted, User Error

Having any sort of voice assistant activated is not a great idea as it means your device is an eavesdropping device you have installed yourself. If you don't "have any secrets" get one of those bedside alarms with the built in camera that connects to the cloud, why don't you? Right? If you live with somebody, it's decent odds you are also having sex, so, no secret there.

Ex-Uber CSO gets probation for covering up theft of data on millions of people

MachDiamond Silver badge

I think we've spotted the problem

There's very little downside to exposing people's PII so there's no point in putting much money and effort into it. Uber is still around and people still think of them first when they need a taxi (I exclude myself). If execs were likely to be spending time behind bars and relieved of their expense home, fancy cars and extensive wine cellars, maybe more care would be taken. The fines should be steep and that means the possibility of company ending steep. It would be too bad that rank and file employees would lose their jobs, but that's nothing in comparison to all of the people who's sensitive information is made public. I don't accept the preservation of a few hundred jobs being that important.

SpaceX's second attempt at orbital Starship launch ends in fireball

MachDiamond Silver badge

" However, these articles were not written by SpaceX,"

Actually, they were. Most "news" articles for things like this are copied and pasted from company PR releases. Editors will expand and contract that verbiage to fit the space they need to fill.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Starship was empty and not loaded with the rated 100 tons

"Maybe, but it did have several hundred tons of propellant on board."

Several THOUSAND tons of propellant, but 100t is still nothing to scoff at. It might have meant another couple of seconds before first upward movement. That might have cause the whole stand to collapse taking the rocket with it.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: bad, very bad

"While it appears odd that the rocket was allowed to go out of control for some time, if it were out over the Gulf and no danger to anyone; letting it run longer means burning off more fuel and getting more data on the engines in abnormal conditions."

The entire Gulf was not shut down and cleared for the launch so there was very real chances that the rocket leaving the planned route would be a serious problem. Burning off fuel isn't a concern and both the fuel and oxidizer are cryogenic so they'll evaporate before reaching the ground. The FAA also isn't concerned with the company gaining more 0ff-nominal operating data, just that nobody that isn't involved is injured or their property damaged.

The Gulf of Mexico has a lot of oil drilling rigs. A big piece of a rocket impacting one of those drilling platforms could trigger yet another big oil spill. So "no danger to anyone" is a huge assumption.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Starship hasn't had the most successful history?

"Lifting off 1000s of tonnes on the reaction to throwing hot gas in one direction is simple?

Well. I never."

If you can do it with a couple of hundred kilos, scaling up isn't as big of a deal as you might think. The command and control is the hard part. The navigation engineering I worked with was scary smart. The math is way beyond anything I've ever needed in electronics/mechanics.

Bigger does come with different engineering challenges. Going into the vacuum of space also adds another dimension but neither are unknown topics. When I started work for an aerospace company, I had never before needed to worry about the impact of vacuum on electronic components and having to consider how to reject heat from electronics. It didn't take very long to find plenty of material on both.

Tesla wins key court battle over Autopilot crash blame

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: People do pay attention less when they use 'Autopilot'

"there's a good example by Mentor Pilot where a "member of the public" is challenged to load a 737 simulator with and without the use of the autopilot."

I'm pretty sure I've seen some of his videos where professional pilots made big mistakes when they don't realize a certain sensor has faulted. A novice would have no hope at all if a pitot tube iced up forcing the autopilot to kick out. The pros are supposed to be trained so they realize they are being given bad data and have some general ideas why that might be. If you know you've lost a particular sensor, it can be possible to use two others and a bit of arithmetic to make up for it.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Autopilot

"I guess too many people have seen "Airplane!"."

That was "Otto" note spelling "Pilot".

Dropbox drops 16% of staff, points finger at hard-up customers and AI

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Cloudy file storage app

"Problem was, the big boys took note aka google and Microsoft, who provided the same kind of thing but offered more storage!"

The reason I've kept the free DropBox around is so I can have automatic backing up of my web site. I get a load of storage with my hosting account so there's no point in paying somebody else to be able to transfer large files. Since I have my own domains and hosting, I can accept large emails and have addresses just for that while I put caps on my more public facing email addresses to prevent abuse.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Cloudy file storage app

"I like things simple. My bank is there, my insurance is (a different) there, my online storage is there (and there), my email is in many places (but not Outlook) and my LibreOffice is here, locally stored, just the way I like it."

I do the same thing as one service can go Tango Uniform and leave you with lots of holes to plug where it's much less likely to have several companies all cease at once. I've had tight times and needed to prioritize paying some bills over others. If my internet, TV (which I don't have anymore), cell and landline phones were all through one service, I'd have to pay that bill or everything would go off rather than just the TV. There's also bound to be some companies which are more lenient than others.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: OneDrive

"My free account was tied to an email I no longer had access to so password reset was out of the question"

You'd think that with 3,000 employees, there would be some group that thought up these sorts of common issues and ways to address them. I've dropped services when they haven't had a simple and clean process for dealing with what I would suspect is a common issue. If they can't get that much right, are they worth dealing with at all?

The cable company has very few CSR's to answer the phone and when I need to call about my service being out, the recording keeps repeating how I might find the answer I need by "Visiting our award-winning web site" instead of remaining on hold. The trouble is that with my internet being out, I can't. That's what I'm calling about. When I do get through, I have to deal with somebody that just learned how to use a computer and insists I work through their whole script with them when it seems they don't have any way to tell if there is a system outage in my area and the status. I have to get to a 2nd or 3rd level support person before they can see there are several reports in my area and a trouble ticket has been initiated.

I had a friend that was really good at wheedling free service from the cable company. Through trouble reports he at one point had a full year of free service and several premium channels at no cost. Porno Mike had no shame.

Musk tried to wriggle out of Autopilot grilling by claiming past boasts may be deepfakes

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Next excuse

It wasn't me. It was a one-armed man.