Posts by Doctor Syntax

Amazon CEO wants his staff back in the office full time

"It lets them look after the kids and the dog, go shopping when they want, get up late and not shave, finish that bit of DIY they never had time to do."

Given that commuting takes time (at its worst, in my case, the equivalent of 2 full workdays a week) it's no wonder they value having their life back.

I think the unions have missed a trick here. Having demonstrated the feasibility of remote working for many roles commuting should be paid time for those where remote working was feasible was feasible if they're then forced back to the office.

Likewise governments with a green agenda should also be looking at this. Commuting long distances into big cities isn't really sustainable and imposing it should be subject to a tax.

IOW he didn't manage to offload a lot of office space and it doesn't look good if it's sitting around empty.

S&P 500's AI FOMO fizzles: Less than half mentioned it in Q2 earnings

Does "holding steady" mean the same companies as last time or is it new hopefuls being on about the same level is the disillusioned?

The future of software? Imagine a bot, stamping on a human face – forever

Re: Marketing-led

"it also means we're all already being bombarded by huge amounts of this type of marketing, all across the Internet"

Only if you don't use an ad-blocker. otherwise, nothing new there.

Re: Yes, but...

That's the most useful sort of contribution of all. It tells you who to listen to.

Re: Yes, but...

"we need a thing... to do ... a job, no not like that, more like ... umm, well I'll know it when I see it"

And 3 months later "didn't anybody tell you it needs to....".

Re: Complicated for fun

The odd think to me is that IME Linux Just Works whereas Windows Only Just Works, except when it Just Doesn't Work. So I wonder if some tinkering has gone on with his Linux installation.

Re: "AI" can't think – but it's coming for your jobs anyway

I asked a couple for Pascal* code to generate a UUID of a specific type (might have been type 1 or type 5). One generated a output statement with a literal UUID embedded in it. The produced code for a type 4 which wasn't what was asked for.

"Sneakily trying to see if they would spew out code from the Free Pascal Compiler library.

Re: Complicated for fun

"Smart guys enjoy complex syntax and high level abstractions."

If it were not for high level abstractions we'd probably have been programming plugboards these last many decades or flipping switches to toggle in binary op-codes.

The entire history of computing is a succession of higher level abstractions. Assemblers abstracted machine codes, relocating assemblers abstracted memory layout, higher level languages abstracted assemblers,processes abstracted flow of control, file systems abstracted disk layout, databases abstracted files. The only GUI programming I ever did for Windows used Delphi and Delphi's OO, specifically its VCL, abstracted all the GUI elements.

Re: Complicated for fun

"Linux freezes every second session"

You are doing something wrong.

"once businesses realise their mistake, they struggle to hire the technical people who have the knowledge they are after

£$€£$€£$€£$€£$€£$€£$€£$€

But think of the savings! Gotta make savings! After all, it might never happen.

"it paid much better than counting fossil spores and pollen for oil companies"

I'm sure oil companies paid better than archaeologists. But you and I know that hardware and software are here today and gone tomorrow but sporopollenin is for keeps.

23andMe settles class-action breach lawsuit for $30 million

Having done a fair bit of family history I can only see the point in DNA analysis if there's a question which could only be resolved with it and I haven't come across one yet. There are some which can't be solved but DNA isn't going to help. That several times ggfather who I suspected of having done a runner really died aged 24, buried several parishes away near his parents, and with a different spelling of his name to the one recorded here (damn homonyms!) but found by conventional means - and it did lead me to discover who his parents were*. My ggggrandmother wasn't married and didn't name the father(s) of her children but there's nothing to be done about that. My paternal ggfather's brother can't be found after the 1851 census, probably emigrated but I really don't care. Etc

* There would have been some interesting genetics given suitable material there because there is a history of dyeing unusually young running through a good many generations although whatever gene might have been involved seems to have been lost

"three years of privacy, medical and genetic monitoring"

Genetic? Do they think their customers' genomes are going to change in three years?

And compensation should compensate.

Microsoft's Copilot 'Wave 2' is a tsunami of unanswered questions

Re: AI - just say "no"

So jobs in marketing and PR are most at risk.

Elon Musk's assassination 'joke' bombs, internet calls for his deportation

"We've contacted legal experts to learn more about how his comments might be interpreted by a court,"

The only real way to decide how comments might be interpreted by a court is to have them interpreted by a court. How many views you get otherwise depends on how many legal experts you ask.

See also asking economists for economic projections.

Prison just got rougher as band of heinously violent cybercrims sentenced to lengthy stints

Re: US long sentences

It's not as if they can do a controlled experiment to see if shorter sentences would have a less deterrent effect on the rest.

Re: A warning message

Given he reparations he's required to make he migh have to break out any stash and when he does get out I'm pretty sure he'll be watched carefully and any possible ill-gotten wealth sequestered. Also, don't forget the effects of 45 years of inflation.

Thank you, Reg Readers: On Call has turned 500!

"a marvelous demonstration of your wit and wisdom"

As opposed to the marvellous demonstration of witlessness and utter lack of wisdom that is "Who, Me". Keep thm both coming.

I don't know what pressing Delete will do, but it seems safe enough!

Re: Cameras, Too

"Perhaps it's because I was only 15/16 at the time ... Now that I'm old"

If you only mid teens when the ribbon was inroduced you're not old yet.

Re: This is a common problem

Did they test it with usrs? Did they first take the precaution of removing anything which might be used as a weapon from the room?

I often say that the first requirement for a DBA is paranoia. This goes for other admin roles too. Postman Pat appears to have lacked that basic qualification.

BOFH: The Boss is right, the applications of AI are truly staggering

Re: I need

The appropriate response is "You can have weekly production or you can have a meeting but not both. Make your mind up."

Re: Verbal communication

It's always done purely by accident.

Fell being the operative word.

Putting the two together might be too big a risk even for the BOFH.

A window! It's been some time since we had a window.

Meta back at it, harvesting Britons' public Facebook, Insta feeds for AI training

"don't have an account "

Maybe you didn't understand "3rd party".

'Hyperscale customer' to take massive datacenter site near London

Re: Another one?

"The UK as a DC location makes little sense other than for latency sensitive loads."

Data sensitivity is also a factor. We'll need to see if Labour heads in a direction that will lose equivalence with the EU.

Just who that customer might be is "commercially sensitive"

"But can a 74 million pound building project on a nine acre site in the middle of a city be swept under the carpet?"

"We'll use the Official Secrets Act."

"But how can it possibly be a secret, it's so huge?"

"It's a big secret."

Windows 11 users still living in the past face forced update, like it or not

Re: Individuals in a position to exercise choice

Oh no! Another wedge-WEF-into-everything not.

Re: Windows 11, version 23H2 keeps your device supported

Or sue them for upgrading to Linux.

Homing pigeon missiles, dead trout swimming, butt breathing honored with Ig Nobel Prize

There's something very odd about the botany one. The first reference in the linked article is to a publication by Elsevier and it's a free download.

Muppet broke the datacenter every day, in its own weighty way

Re: Fluffy

"there's probably a name for the stuff"

Probably the name is acrylic.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be gone in ten years – for chump change

Re: Recurrence

I think the taking to bits and building something new with the wood counts as recycling. "Upcycling" seems to consist of taking something which might be useful or attractive as it stands and uglifying it with an inappropriate paint job and/or converting it into a light fitting.

Win 11 refreshes delayed, say PC makers – and here's why

""We also see an opportunity driven by the Windows 11 refresh that is only starting now"

Have they considered the possibility is that far from being an opportunity, it's an obstacle?

Japan to put a small red Swedish house on the Moon

Or an entire Tesla.

Cyber crooks shut down UK, US schools, thousands of kids affected

I wonder if they'll learn anything from this outage. After all, scholls are places in which to learn.

Re: armchair observations

"a couple of days to replan 70+ hours of lessons each"

Also to work out the timetable seeing as the online version isn't available.

Re: Prevent kindergarteners

It's not entirely sufficient for practical subjects.

Re: Prevent kindergarteners

In my school days HVAC meant opening the windows with a long wooden pole with a hook on the end.

Re: WTF ...

"what sort of gormless fools cannot, literally, organise and run a kindergarten class without computer assistance?"

Failed whelk stall operators.

If HDMI screen rips aren't good enough for you pirates, DeCENC is another way to beat web video DRM

They need to be reminded of a simple fact - there are a lot more of us than there are of you. You are outnumbered if you try to play games.

"or else people could stream something once, save it, and replay it forever, wrecking the whole subscription model approach."

Even worse - instead of watching the stream in real time they could watch the recording and fast forward through the ads.

As major web browser makers snuggle up to AI, these skeptical holdouts remain

"benefits like smarter search and personalization"

What this has meant in the past is worse search results through to a mixture trying to second guess what the user wants and shoving in results which some commercial entity wants. I was using a better search engine against a documentation database in the 1980s.

Re: Choose wisely

"What? The same goat?"

Yes, it's Schroedinger's goat.

Apple owes billions in back taxes over Ireland state aid rule break

Most EU legislation is about citizen protection, consumer (and producer) protection being part of that. It's not surprising given the circumstances in which its forerunner was set up after WWII. Whatever issues it might have I look very, very suspiciously at any politician who removed a large chunk of my protections as a citizen and wants to remove more.

Let me try to spell this out for you in very easy words.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon all make profits selling things in Europe.

Europe is big. It's bigger than you think. And people in Europe have quite a lot of money to buy from them. So the profits they make in Europe are also very big.

If they did what you suggest their overall profits would be a lot smaller. Their shareholders would get very cross. Very, very cross. Probably cross enough to vote out the entire boards of directors.

The directors are paid a lot to be part of those boards. They would get very upset at the thought of being fired and no longer being paid all that money.

Because they want to keep their jobs they're not going to shut down operations in Europe.

If you still find this hard to understand find a grown up you can explain to to you again. Or, when you get old enough to go to school, your teachers might explain it.

By the way, quite a lot of those shareholders who would get cross live in Europe.