Posts by Doctor Syntax

Tech support chap showed boss how to use a browser for a year – he still didn't get it

Re: Thermostats

"JUST SET THE THERMOSTAT TO THE DESIRED TEMPERATURE AND WAIT FOR IT TO DO ITS JOB"

I'm not entirely convinced by this. Perceived temperature is more than simply air temperature. For one thing there's the radiative balance between yourself and the objects around you - do you actually need to touch a cold object to tell that it's cold or will putting your hand near it suffice?

If you're cold are you more effectively warmed up by taking a shower at 20° (or whatever your room thermostat is set to) or as hot as you can stand?

Re: When managers get involved in technical stuff - beware!

The managers signed off on it all and were delighted, even though the designers had to write a section on the logo to insist it wasn't simply the initial letter of the name of the company ("O") but a circle showing seamless excellence or some bullshit, to justify the lack of creativity they actually employed.

Obligatory https://www.badspot.us/Brown-Ring-of-Quality.html

Re: I had one user...

If only...

Chinese boffins find way to use diamonds as super-dense and durable storage medium

"Diamonds are highly stable by nature"

But easy to chip. We used pairs of diamond dies (industrial diamonds cut as flat-topped pyramids, rather like Tudor gen-sones) for IR spectroscopy of short* lengths of fibre. They needed careful alignment before applying pressure. A colleague had a slight accident which spalled of a substantial proportion off of one of them.

* Short in most people's terms, fairly long in ours.

Microsoft preps big guns to shift Copilot software and PCs

Re: Great!

"MS will get their way with the channel"

I'd have thought that the channel will be more responsive to what actually sells rather then what Microsoft wants to sell. Unlike Microsoft those who comprise the channel are not monopolists and if one of them ignores what the customers are thinking theit competitors won't.

"our idiotic government in Westminster"

I suppose that's fair enough in that they're not making bigger strides to undo what the previous, even bigger, idiots did in relation to our closest trading partner and that they've once more given into the HMRC who have no greater understanding of agriculture than they had of freelancing last time round.

"in a period where the companies are busy with modernization and digitization of their estate with the Windows 11 devices"

Whistling in the dark. If that were really happening she wouldn't have been there.

OTOH if Microsoft are stopping treating the industry with disdain they might get round to their customers too.

Brits are scrolling away from X and aren't that interested in AI

"However, less than one in five (18 percent) trusted the output."

That's a worryingly high percentage.

Fine print in Intel's CHIPS Act deal includes requirement to keep control of its foundries

Re: Tough

"Because if you get it wrong, all that happens is you’ve spent $8bn (or $50bn) of somebody else’s money"

At which point a few more $bn of someone else's money has to be poured in so that the previous $bns are not seen to be going down the drain.

Australia passes law to keep under-16s off social media – good luck with that, mate

Providing you can prise the parents of social media long enough to do that.

Re: Fat Chance

Providing they're not looking too many electoral cycles ahead. Today's under 16s will be voting in future elections.

Re: Politics

"Really doesn't kick in for twelve months and the government will have to go to an election before March 2025 with some pundits putting up January as a possibility."

And at the election after that there'll be a cohort of kids who were under 16 for part of the next Parliament but now able to vote (I'm assuming the Oz voting age is 18). Pissing off your potential voters even before they're old enough to vote is an interesting electoral tactic.

Abstract, theoretical computing qualifications are turning teens off

Re: Lost the plot... teach them math

I upvoted when I first read this and I've let it stand but on reflection I think you may be doing some of your new employees a disservice.

People understand abstract concepts in different ways.especially where synaesthesia is involved. Remember Feynman writing that he saw mathematical expressions colour-coded or visualised some mathematical operation as a mechanical analogue?

I'm not sure how you visualise what you're dealing with but obviously not as pseudocode. However something that one person will mentally see as a diagram someone else may see as structured text and someone else as a mechanism; what seems unlikely to me is that anyone would grasp something as a complete abstraction.

What shape in your mental model, is a year, and where's September? I doubt your answer would be the same as mine.

Re: Lost the plot... teach them math

On the whole I agree but:

"a production copy of the database for testing. This should have been the first thing done....prove the migration can be done, prove you can do it in the downtime available and provide a real world test bed for developers to use"

Letting the developers access a copy of the production database with customers' data in it? I hope you had a few steps in between such as changing all customer details to dummy data.

ISTM that successful use of a computer at any level is to have a mental model of what's happening at that level (maybe a level or two below would be useful) and then issue instructions at that level. That applies equally to clicking on buttons on an app or designing the next sub-nanometre scale multi-pipelined processor.

It follows that the fundamental skill to teach is forming those models, broadening them and realising when there's another level beneath that might be useful. A good many of the skills gaps which other comments have raised seem to stem from models which are too narrow, too shallow or both.

Re: It’s not difficult

Aptitude. That's a word that I think too many teachers in my day didn't understand. I can think of one or two who presumably were very good at their subjects but had no inkling of what their pupils might find difficult and hence no idea about how to change pace so that those bits got more time and explanation whilst the glaringly obvious things got done to death.

Re: WYF!

"The teacher wasn't impressed when, after explaining the process to rename a file and wanted us to change the extension of a group of them, I dropped to DOS and entered something like "rename *.old *.txt" and the lot was done. So I got a mark for completing the assignment, which was then taken away for not doing it in the demonstrated manner."

That was the point where you should have demanded to have your course fees refunded.

a more "inclusive" digital literacy age-16 qualification

Reading that my instant thought was "Meeja Studies" which had the reputation for being the subject for pupils who were nit going to get a pass in anything else back when my children were at school (not that they ever needed it).

NHS major 'cyber incident' forces hospitals to use pen and paper

Re: Not the first

The answers to 2 & 3 determine the answer to 1.

Windows 10's farewell tour – not AI PCs – set to drive laptop sales in 2025

Re: Looks like people are buying laptops without all that A.I. bullcrap...

A touch of the Bilko Empty Store episode. "OK, you bought it. What are you going to do with it."

You know that, I know that and what's more we both know how to use them. Enterprise aren't going to make the investment - extended support from Microsoft is cheaper*. The private owner - well if they come to the likes of us and Jake they'll quietly get migrated to something nice & stable that does what hey need a bit differently than before and more consistently in the future but they aren't otherwise aware, of their own knowledge, that that's possible. Small business, cash-strapped, short of time, will be tempted to wing it.

* Yes, short-term but short term seems to win every time.

How long has this upturn that still hasn't happened been forecast? Private owners aren't going to care. For enterprise users it's cheaper to take extended support until the replacement cycle rolls round. Small business? Cash-strapped so they'll at least be tempted to wing it.

'Best job at JPL': What it's like to be an engineer on the Voyager project

Re: Now there's a real rocket scientist

It must be a strange role. Mind-bending diagnosis of something that you can't touch, well beyond its planned lifetime and is no longer quite as-built combined with very long latency in the comms.

Trump tariffs transform into bigger threats for Mexico, Canada than China

Re: Hmm

"Not that it would be worth going after Trump again once his term is over"

I've long been convinced that when a new head of government takes over a special prosecutor should be appointed to collect evidence of misdoings as they happen. Either it keeps the HoG on the straight and narrow or the prosecution is ready as soon as they leave office.

Re: Not just Electronics, Cars and Oil

Spring wood tends to be a bit porous. For avoidance of doubt that's wood made in the spring. "Spring wood" as a place name indicates (former) coppice.

Re: Not just Electronics, Cars and Oil

Damn. Forgot USians don't do irony.

"He'll try to blame it on Biden of course"

And a substantial proportion of his voters will believe it.

Re: I have no doubt you blame Trump for not controlling covid....

It isn't going to break down pollen. Other things which won't break down pollen include boiling in a mixture of conc supluric acid and acetic anhydride (explodes in contact with water), 10% sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid. It's tough stuff.

Re: I have no doubt you blame Trump for not controlling covid....

"Sodium hypochlorite, another disinfectant (used in milton fluid), is commonly used during root canal treatments to flush out the root of the tooth."

That's being used as a disinfectant. The dentist should be removing it by suction. And, yes, sulphites are used in wine making - at very low concentrations.

Now try drinking one of the original disinfectants: phenol.

Re: Grift on a global scale

It is the customer who pays.

Re: Not just Electronics, Cars and Oil

No problem. The US can instantly set up factories to manufacture wood. The best wood. Far better that anything Canada's factories produce. By the way, what do they make wood out of?

Re: Bring it on

"piping-world.com"

So it's not all about pibrochs and tartan?

Re: I have no doubt you blame Trump for not controlling covid....

What the snopes article says is that he did suggest the task force look at injecting disinfectants. In general stuff which is used as a disinfectant is too toxic to be used a a medicine so it doesn't contradict there having been a general lack of understanding.

I think I'll be looking at my modest savings to minimise my exposure to such an unstable country. I suppose a lot of other people will be doing the same. By comparison Liz Truss was a model of rational government.

Data broker leaves 600K+ sensitive files exposed online

Re: I don't undestand

"So why wouldn't you?"

You've got to know about it first. It's the cloud, innit? Just works.

Re: Let me guess...

"Yes, getting punched in the face is a bit more traumatizing, but you could probably heal from that "

Also you can heal from bankruptcy.

Privacy legislation needs to be underwritten by criminal convictions. GDPR is but I suppose that's a bit too socialist verging on communist for the US.

Microsoft hits back at claims it slurps your Word, Excel files to train AI models

"The Connected Services setting is an industry standard setting "

A whole family of weasel word there.

Which industry? The Microsoft industry?

Whose standard? An independent open standard, a standard set by an OSI committee dominated by Microsoft acolytes or a Microsoft standard?

What's the setting? Slurp?

UK financial regulator slammed for failed tech transformation

"We have learned from historic issues and transformed as an organization so we can deliver for consumers, the market and the wider economy."

It sounds like they have a strong reality distortion field.

Swedish authorities probe Oracle Cerner health record rollout

“Oracle Health has not identified any evidence to suggest that the death of the deceased was preventable by reason of any alleged defect in its software,”

They don't need to. The coroner's already done that for them.

The workplace has become a surveillance state

"gain insights into how people and things move throughout their physical spaces"

This collects data. There is a gap between data and information which needs to be bridged by analysis. There is a gap between information and insight that needs to be bridged by understanding. Will those bridges be put into use or is it simply more and more unused but potentially dangerous data. As a previous article put it: yellowcake.

collection of statistics on workers' activities, such as ... the frequency and length of meetings.

"Our statistics show that workers are spending too much time in meetings. There will be a meeting in the conference room at 2pm to discus how to reduce the time spent in meetings."

Bing Wallpaper app, now in Windows Store, accused of cookie shenanigans

Re: Wallpaper?

The desktop has a lot of stuff on it - frequently used folders directories, frequently used files and infrequently used stuff that I'll get round to tidying when I can get a round tuit. They tend to get lost with anything but a plain background. Function comes first.

Re: Just how long can Microsoft

"From experience? Forever."

Definitely. Microsoft now know they can just keep abusing their customers without any visible limits and they'll keep doing so. Even if regulators were to start taking a serious interest the regulatory process is such that they can't keep up. Microsoft should have been broken up years ago but it seems too late now.

Another 'major cyber incident' at a UK hospital, outpatients asked to stay away

Advised out-patient procedure

1. Print out next days appointments at end of day and make sure everyone who needs one has a copy

2. Ensure the fax machines are working, connected and loaded with paper.

3. Just in case, have a few manual typewriters.

Re: Who 'Owns' IT?

At least an accountant knows what a PC's book value is

FTFY

Microsoft slaps Windows 11 update hold on hardware connected to eSCL devices

"there are probably more fax machines screeching away than Windows on Arm users."

Given all the break-in caused outages and Windows update fails anyone with a fax machine would be well advised to keep it and make sure customers etc. have the number. There's value in stuff that works.

Man accused of hilariously bad opsec as alleged cybercrime spree detailed

"Kloster's representation was not immediately available for comment"

A lawyer whom words have failed.

UK council still hadn't fully costed troubled Oracle project 2 years in

Re: Birmingham Fail 2.0?

Could be the other way around. Both of these have been going on for ages. I'm not sure which came first but plenty of chance for cross-over.

Is there anything that local government do that isn't already a solved problem and in many cases a solved problem not unique to local government?

Payroll/HR? One of the first things computers were used for

General accounts? Ditto

Facilities management? People have been maintaining buildings for years, surely there have been packages for that for years. Only question, would they cover highways maintenance as well as buildings?

Social housing? I know there have been packages for that since the late 80s. Possibly overlap with facilities management and accounts to be sorted out.

Electoral register - even my lot can work that so I assume it's a long-solved problem.

Social care? Maybe this one's special but maybe someone here knws differently

Schools management? We seem to have a few readers involved in schools. What's the situation there.

Library management? Again, if my lot can run their libraries - albeit reluctantly - I assume it's a solved problem.

Is there anything which isn't a solved problem except fighting off Oracle salesdroids and coping with senior management and/or counsellors that said salesdroids have got at?

Google must face £7B UK class action over search engine dominance

It's going to be interesting to see how this is going to connect Google to consumer prices. I recognise that advertising budget ultimately come out of the money customers spend. I can see how Google will affect the way advertising budget is spent but how the budget is set is another matter.

Musk agrees with fan that worries over orbital Starlink traffic a 'silly narrative'

Re: We all really hate Musk, right?

But because of the low IQ they won't realise that.