Posts by a_yank_lurker

Russia acknowledges sanctions could hurt its tech companies

Not Surprised

If true, I am not surprised at this.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla agree on something: Make web dev lives easier

History Rhymes

This reminds me of the Imbecile Explorer days when you had to have 2 versions of your website. One for Imbecile Explorer and the other for everybody else (e.g. Netscape); or it felt like that. Issues with browser rendering badly have been an issue ever since there has been more than 1 browser available. Part of it is with the browser and part of it is poorly coded/tested websites. I have seen browsers within the same family handle sites differently even now.

Here's why prolonged Russia-Ukraine war would be really bad for us, say chip designers

Risks

When a company places important functions in a country outside of its home country the managlement makes key parts of the company vulnerable to international affairs. While a US or EU company placing key functions within those countries has relatively low risk of disruption because of a war, placing key functions in semi-hostile country or fairly unstable country puts the company at serious risk when things go sideways. Corsair complaining they cannot work with their Russian office deserves the world's smallest violin.

The issue of raw materials will to some extent be problematic as the geographic distribution of some ores is highly localized to only a few places. I was surprised about the need for Palladium for chip manufacture but that is more about I am not overly familiar with all that is required.

Deutsche Bank seeks options as sanctions threaten Russian dev unit

They are trying to split hairs. The code in use is probably hosted somewhere else so they can be technically accurate for operations. But for support and development the code wranglers will have a local copy of what they need which may be a full copy of the code in production.

Google to wind down pandemic work-from-home

Managlement Strikes

Many have found they can work efficiently from home and rarely need to darken the door of an office. The manglement at Chocolate Factory has to justify the money spent on real estate and buildings. Buildings that are too large for the staff that needs to be onsite. This points to a bigger problem for many Silly Valley companies with expensive real estate they own.

In my case, one of the major onsite groups actually expanded into the cube farm my group was located. We had to pack up stuff into boxes and I have not seen my boxes since I packed them up. We have not heard any chatter about going into the office as many of us do not anywhere to sit. The site is rented.

IBM cannot kill this age-discrimination lawsuit linked to CEO

Re: This has been going on long enough

If they waived a large enough chunk of change there will be a settlement. What most plaintiffs want is to made financially whole not necessarily to win a lawsuit. Now these chunks of change will begin to add up and also I suspect a very good lawyer would use the evidence of these settlements a civil suit as an indication of a pattern. Manglement needs settlements to avoid discovery when their hands are dirty.

Network equipment lead times to remain painfully long into 2023: Gartner

A Stopped Clock...

While Gartner has a well deserved reputation for publishing useless drivel, I expect supply chain issues to all areas to persist for at least a year. With the possibility of a widening war, it may even get worse. What I have seen is erratic availability of products in many areas I pay attention to. So to expect networking gear not have these issues is rather stupid; I just do not know how bad it will really be and what options might be available.

Ukraine invasion may hit chip supply chain – analysts

Some of the '1 nation depency' is manglement stupidity to not diversify the supply chain. However, some is due to where the ore is economically viable. I suspect neon is manglement stupidity while palladium is mostly due where the ores are found (Siberia I believe).

AI really can't copyright the art it generates – US officials

Couldn't Pay Off Congress Critters

Mark Twain observed that 'Congress is America's native criminal class'. So they can be bribed, (small bills in many brown envelopes works best). All he needs to do is grease enough of the palms of the Congress critters aka native criminal class to change the law. He must relatively or stupid.

IRS doesn't completely scrap facial recognition, just makes it optional

Trust?

Why do I not believe either the Incompetent Ripoff Service or the frauds at ID.ME? Scum meet sleaze.

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

Rejects still at it.

I had an new computer issued to me recently with Bloatware 10 on it. On of the first items I did was to show file extensions as they were hidden by default. I want to know what the extension are always. So the Rejects of Redmond are pushing their idiocy still.

Massive cyberattack takes Ukraine military, big bank websites offline

Parting Shot?

If this is Crazy Ivan doing this could be a parting shot if their claim of standing down is true. The goal is hamper Ukrainian activities for limited period of time but not go far enough to risk kinetic warfare. I have been suspicious of some of the claims in the media as floundering tyrants love foreign misadventures to get the serfs to rally around the flag. Some should ask what happened to Galiteri after the Falklands War in the 80's. But if the serfs do not rally around the flag the tyrants are often toast.

Microsoft veteran demystifies Abort, Retry, Fail? DOS error

Re: There should only be Retry and Fail, the other two aren't needed

Often the issues were intertwined between the hardware of the era and competency of the user. The hardware was rather primitive by current standards. Many issues could not be handled all that nicely back then on any desktop computer. As a percentage, users were more technically savvy back then. Many of us early adopters were STEM types who had some vague familiarity with computers already. The OS designers to some extent relied on this background and understanding, possibly naively. Being STEM types many of us were more willing to poke around into the OS and the hardware.

You are dealing with a very different era in the 80's and 90's were many did not have a computer either at home or at work. Those that had one at home were often technically minded.

IBM looked to reinvigorate its 'dated maternal workforce'

Balance

What all companies need is a culture that says we will listen to ideas that might help the company, realizing many will not work. But there will be many worth following up on. The value of youth is they often see things without baggage while the grey hairs have experience to know why many have failed in the past.

An example, in 1964 at the New York World's Fair AT&T was showing off video phones. Phones were you could see the others on the call. It went nowhere. The problem was not concept but the technology of the era. Move forward many years and we video conferencing tools that can live stream people on a call and do more than the video phone of 1964 could ever do. What changed was the technology.

Other ideas were stupid in 1910 and are still stupid today. Because they really do something useful for people. What is needed is someone to filter ideas based on what can be now at a reasonable cost, what is conceptually good but not feasible now, and what are still stupid and will always be stupid.

Microsoft offers 'open' app store to draw regulators away from Activision takeover

Manglement Bafflegab

Typical bafflegab. The real issue with Activision/Blizzard is not the app store but monopoly in the game development space. I do not trust the Rejects from Redmond to release most of there game titles to competitors' devices. They would try to force you to buy the Xbox or some other method of lining their coffers with ill-gotten gains. I home the regulators tell them to 'sod off Swampy'.

Face Off: IRS kills plan to verify taxpayers with facial recognition database

Simpler Solution

What would happen if governments got rid of income taxes and instead used VATs, sales taxes, excise taxes, duties, etc; taxes that would normally be collected for a business. There is no need for the either citizens to log in or the government to go through these systems as most would never any need to do so. Just thinking outside the box.

Microsoft to block downloaded VBA macros in Office – you may be able to run 'em anyway

Real Solution

The best solution for macros is to get read of them entirely. No macros, no vulnerability to a macro. Yes, I can hear the morons in marketing and accounting screaming bloody murder because they might have to learn how to do things correctly in Orifice and when to use applications that have properly vetted and tested. Applications that export data in format that can be imported into Orifice.

Microsoft says the internet is the nicest it's been since 2016. Obviously they didn't look at The Reg comments

Really?

Some sites and channels have generally well behaved commenters even when we get snarky and sarcastic. The difference is the target; I have a low opinion of corporate manglement and their shills and government goons where ever they are. But sites like Twatter, Reddit, etc. get very nasty and personal fast. So how vicious the Internet appears to be is probably more dependent on where you hang out on it. I do not see that much but I do not hang out in the most notorious cesspools.

For this 'research' I would like to know how the Rejects of Redmond selected and rated the sites in more detail. I suspect they have serious methodology problems which I think points to an underlying design problem. The Rejects want to show specific outcome for their own purposes which might at variance with most people's experience. Given the popularity of Twatter and Reddit amongst some and the notorious vileness on both sites and the probably strong overlap between the 'researchers' and the users I could see the data being skewed badly. There is strong tendency among Twatter users in particular to think it is more popular than it actually is.

No, I've not read the screen. Your software must be rubbish

Re: Return code ignored

The binary ideal is puts the resolution on the code wrangler. The issue is how much does the code wrangler know to avoid issues with the software. Where I work my group sees an internal specifications derived from the customer specifications. We never see the customer specifications. Even if we catch errors in the internal documents we will never catch any errors when it is compared to the customer documents. Also, we can come up with scenarios not covered in the internal documents but we do not if the scenario was missed or not needed based on the customer documents. The later is the normal situation.

At some point the spec writers need to do their job and not rely on someone a couple of levels removed to fix their errors.

Grab some tissues: Meta's share price tanks after Facebook emits latest figures

No Tears Here

Killed both Fraudbook and Twatter years ago and happier for it. If Fraudbook or whatever they call themselves today goes belly up or has investor troubles no tears will be shed here. Ditto for Twatter.

ISO.org outage hits day 3: Still in the dark as the important matter of bunk bed standards enters discussion

Ironic

ISO is not following their own standards. Sounds about right.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel green-lights Mike Lynch's extradition to US to face Autonomy fraud charges

Let the Lynching Begin

If Lynch gets to the People's Republic of California he will be lucky to avoid a rope burn. To many CA criminals got hurt by Leo the Galactic Idiot blunders and want to lynch anyone they can get their grubby mitts on. They should be going after Leo the Galactic Idiot; there is the real criminal in this saga.

Intel fails to get Spectre, Meltdown chip flaw class-action super-suit tossed out

Re: English Much

Robed shysters on this side are not known for their competency or literacy.

The allegation is not about the issue per se but Chipzilla sat on it until someone at Google blew the whistle. Also, during this time Chipzilla did nothing to fix the issue. In most cases of a bug being found, say in Bloatware, the affirmative defence is two-fold: start working on a patch as soon as you find out and when announcing the bug officially have the patch in the works if it is not ready. Also, Chipzilla was advertising performance that was negatively impacted by the patches. So there is a possibility of a false advertising suit in the background.

In a first, FTC extracts millions of dollars from online store accused of blocking bad reviews on its website

Human Error...

I call BS on human error unless they mean it was human error they got caught. Managlement had to be involved.

While online reviews are not noted for always being reliable (in both directions), they do serve an aggregate function when enough people actually review the product or service of giving a sense of what the people think. Trying to skew the results is more likely to lead to the Streisand Effect as people will notice. Also, bad reviews are not necessarily as harmful as one might suppose. If there are a couple of hundred reviews, there will some poor reviews but the average rating will help give an idea of how much weight to give these reviews.

Vulnerabilities and censorship tools among hot new features in Beijing's Olympics app

Real Options

For non athletes and media, the best option is not to go. Empty stadiums are a horrible optic on TV. For those who have to go, get a burner phone and ditch it after leaving as many have suggested. If you are an athlete, how about a convenient sprained ankle or similar injury conveniently just before leaving. If enough athletes are 'injured' the games will be disaster.

Another for those who were not going anyway, don't watch the broadcasts at all. Tank the TV ratings and anger the advertisers. I won't be watching but I haven't really paid much attention to the Olympics for about 20 years.

Microsoft seems intent on buying the gaming industry with $68.7bn purchase of troubled Activision Blizzard

Re: Desire Each Other

What they should get is an all-expense multi-year staycation at either ClubCal or ClubFed not a pink parachute.

Desire Each Other

Cesspool meet Sewer. From the reports about Acitvision they are a company to avoid. Also, I am not sure what the Rejects of Redmond are thinking with this one. They are saddling themselves with a company of ill-repute when picking over the carcass after bankruptcy with not saddle them with as much.

Scam, pyramid scheme, environmental disaster: Vivaldi boss shares his thoughts on crypto-coins

Focus

Vivaldi is focusing on being a useful browser thus is avoiding the latest fad. Whether cryptocurrencies are fundamentally fraudulent can be debated, I am not convinced of their long term viability, but the issue is whether software intended for some specific use (browsing is a good example) should even be mining in the background. I agree here with Vivaldi, miners can be installed by the user if they want but should not installed by a browser or other non-mining application.

Google says open source software should be more secure

Problem

The problem is partly funding and assigning external resources needed for projects to be properly supported. Recognizing there is a problem is critical but I am not sure what the correct approach or approaches should be.

No defence for outdated defenders as consumer AV nears RIP

uneven reputation?

That's an improvement over the (real) dismal reputation of AV vendors.

Spruce up your CV or just bin it? Survey finds recruiters are considering alternatives

CV/Resumes, etc.

The problem with CVs is the initial review is looking for reasons to screen out not in. So if your CV lacks the right buzzwords, qualifications, etc. you are out. So strategies the try to avoid the initial review are often suggested to get your name in front of the actual hiring manager; they often do not work.

As far as coding interviews, the failure of this is it is testing coding skills not logical thinking about solving the problem. My last interview, I was posed a problem to discuss my approaches to solving it. I came up with a couple reasonable approaches without writing any code; pseudocode was fine. The key in programming is not being a code monkey but solving problems with code. If you can solve the problem you can code the solution.

Bitcoin 'inventor' will face forgery claims over his Satoshi Nakamoto proof, rules High Court

The actual case is about IP ownership and thus patent rights. If he won he could play havoc with patents and IP rights. I am with the judge, I seriously doubt he is Nakamoto.

US Army journal's top paper from 2021 says Taiwan should destroy TSMC if China invades

Staff Studies

The paper is a staff study of a scenario that might happen. Many of these plans exist if for no other reason to exercise the minds of planners so they actually think about the problem in a somewhat realistic manner. Many are also flawed because the premise for the plan is dubious. The classics for dubious thinking are some of the Canadian defense plans in 20/30s against a US invasion or the German naval plans against the US circa 1900. The conclusion in this study is based on certain scenarios not happening such as geographical diversification of the foundries, united stand against the PRC (many in the area distrust Beijing), etc.

IntelliJ IDEA plugin catches lazy copy-pasted Java source

Re: Does nobody do code reviews any more?

Where I work code reviews actually catch coding errors. While we have internal conventions, they are not used a end all to compare to.

IBM bosses wrongly sacked channel salesman after Tech Data joint venture failed, tribunal rules

Re: Justice is slow

I wonder if allowing the ex-employee to have say 20% of the value of the miscreants' personal assets as well as large chunk of change from the employer have any effect on this behavior.

AT&T, Verizon delay 5G C-band rollout over FAA fears of passenger plane radars jammed by signals

Altimeters

If the issue is interference with radio altimeters, why wouldn't this affect them in other areas as well as near an airport. If the reported altitude is incorrect, pilots are going to try get their assigned altitude. If they are flying on instruments this could lead to all sorts of accidents and near misses; assuming the problem is real. Also, 2nd or 3rd harmonics of the signals would be an issue around an airport; I have not looked up what is assigned those frequencies. The 2 bands are not harmonically related.

India’s competition regulator launches probes into Apple over App Store fees and access

Re: "[Apple] resists changes to its business practices"

Actually this is broader than a Fruity company. If the regulators are able to force a major change in how app stores are run this will affect others going forward. They will need to also comply with the regulations.

Tesla disables in-car gaming feature that allowed play while MuskMobiles were in motion

Re: Removing distraction = good

US traffic circles are intended to be take at traffic speed, usually highway speeds by design. That is what made them dangerous; you are maneuvering to get into the correct exit path at high speeds in minimal distances. Roundabouts are intended to replace other traffic controls and are designed to have much lower speeds while in them.

Re: Removing distraction = good

The US has traffic circles which look similar to roundabouts but allow vehicles to move at much higher speeds. Most US drivers rightly hated and feared traffic circles as the speeds were too high safe merging (think 100 kph/60mph). Roundabouts are designed so the traffic moves through at much lower speeds which makes merging much safer. Roundabouts are becoming more common.

Europe completes first phase of silicon independence project

Supply Chain

On the surface relocating manufacturing and design of products including commodities so regions are less dependent on 1 source is sound. But I am not sure if this will occur. Partly for political reasons, I doubt the politicians will rise their petty provincial stupidities, and partly because manglement has not figured out even now that being dependent on 1 source is basically stupid.

Wifinity hands customers bills for Wi-Fi services they didn't want but used by accident after software 'glitch' let 'fixed term' subs continue

Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.

Carriers over here have been rather creative about mistreating customers for years. I was with one that extended the contract every time you called them. Eventually I was able to switch to another carrier that is much saner in how it treats customers.

Fisher Price's Bluetooth reboot of pre-school play phone has adult privacy flaw

Kindergarten Security

Calling Fisher-Price's security kindergarten is overstating it. It's at toddler level.

US bags Russian accused of bagging millions after stealing pre-release financial filings

Re: ??

The allegations are pretty specific. But there might an issue with whether his actions were illegal in Russia vs Feraldom; I do not know. But having watched Feraldom prosecutors (persecutors?) in action minor details like that will not phase them in getting a scalp and they love collecting scalps.

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch files judicial review that pauses extradition clock

Due Diligence

Too many mergers fail for numerous, usually avoidable reasons in all industries. So that this merger failed is not a real surprise. And when a merger fails often miscreants who did the merger try to blame someone else but their own stupidity. Many companies never serious consider how to properly integrate until after the merger has occurred. Different cultures, structures, etc. have to been integrated carefully without alienating the incoming staff who might just walk. But asking a judge who probably has no experience with a merger to understand these nuances is fool's errand. If UK lawyers and judges are like the shysters over here, they would a relatively dim and arrogant lot.

£42k for a top-class software engineer? It's no wonder uni research teams can't recruit

Amateur Hour?

With that pay rate, it is highly unlikely you would get any competent person to stay long enough to be familiar with the code base, which takes a few years realistically. Thus, the code is either written by incompetents or amateurs. While the amateurs are probably moderately competent, they are lack experience and do not deal with code on a routine basis. The incompetents, the less said the better. The net effect is the poor code that probably has serious issues.

MPs charged with analysing Online Safety Bill say end-to-end encryption should be called out as 'specific risk factor'

Also, everyone has sensitive information they do not want snooped such as banking information. Information that for most is innocent; you got paid and you paid rather mundane bills such as utilities. But you do not some miscreant to easily grab your sensitive data like bank login.

end-to-end encryption

When I see a politician bloviate on banning end-to-end-encryption I wonder how much of the sum total of human knowledge has been destroyed (hat tip to Thomas Bracken 'Czar' Reed of Maine). Encryption, to be effective, has to be end-to-end as any point were there is plain text will allow someone to see the details which may be very sensitive.

When product names go bad: Microsoft's Raymond Chen on the cringe behind WinCE

Meaning

Windows CE; CE means 'crippled edition'.

UK government has 'no clear plan' for replacing ageing legacy IT estate, MPs report

Gubermints

The Ferals will tell London to hold my beer and show the world how to be the most incompetent. Remember the Ferals managed bugger up Obamacare.