Posts by Doctor Syntax

Elon Musk's Twitter moves were 'reaffirming' says Reddit boss amid API changes

Is it time for everyone to switch back to Usenet? It's still there.

Re: He needs an icon -->

"not cheap at all"

It is when you don't pay your bills.

Re: He needs an icon -->

You have to make an exception for IBM & its dominions. They just fire people regardless.

Montenegro jails Do Kwon, accused of causing $40 billion LUNA crash

I think "auction" might be the word you're looking for.

Data cleanser did its job, but – oopsie! – also doubled customers' bills

"Everyone's answer seemed to be the same"

For a moment I parsed that as saying it was everyone's job. That made sense because, of course, if it's everyone's job it's noone's job.

Not even Dynamics 365 ERP is safe from Microsoft's Copilot splurge

Re: Oftentimes

It's easier to pronounce than ofttimes so worth keeping around for those occasions when nothing else quite does the job. Not that I've come across any of those occasions myself.

areas such as marketing, customer service...

I see you've reported trouble with your washing machine. Would you like a packet of 25 stainless steel 10mm washers?

Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim

Just a thought but, I assume the Eufy is a cloud-connected device; if so could the connection be intercepted by someone who might change its response?

Re: So does the delivery driver get off with vile lies?

"they will let their lying delivery driver go unpunished"

Do we know if he is still their driver?

Re: Rent

Perpetuity doesn't last very long these days.

Re: no backup strategy, SMH stupidity

"given his UPS capability"

But it was an Amazon driver.

Re: Heavily regulated.

And I think even the ban was temporary.

Re: no backup strategy, SMH stupidity

I wonder if Siri and Alexa's AI have negotiated a data sharing agreement behind Apple & Amazon's backs to cover the bits of conversation they may have missed.

Re: no backup strategy, SMH stupidity

You had a door?

Re: What, no backup strategy?

For 'wasn't really his home' you mean 'was slightly harder to turn the lights on and off' surely?

But how big a step is it to Amazon turning his lights and everything else off and leaving them off unless he has a backup arrangement?

Re: Everyone is missing the point

"Its very dystopian how much power they have to ruin your life."

They have the power you give them. That, if you wish, can be none. Your choice.

Re: Keys not yours

I won't be buying any even if they do drop it.

Re: no backup strategy, SMH stupidity

Luddite!

LockBit suspect's arrest sheds more light on 'trustworthy' gang

Hmmm. It says he "consented" to an interview in Arizona. It doesn't say where he was based only that he's from the Chechen Republic. Did he suddenly find himself in Arizona having intended to be somewhere else? You'd expect him to want to avoid the US or anywhere within extradition treaty range.

Oracle Cerner bleeds jobs as Veterans Affairs project stalls

I wonder how they plan to fix problems with fewer people to do the fixing.

Oh, I forgot. AI: the solution to all problems.

Astroscale wants to be the world's friendly neighborhood space garbage collector

Re: is this correct?

"Try that argument with a copper if you are ever pulled over for lobbing your apple core out of the window."

Years ago Lisburn had brought in legislation about that. The CTO was driving along one day and someone in the car in front did just that. A prosecution was brought unsuccessfully. IIRC the defence was that nobody had been convicted of such an offence. IOW somebody could be convicted but not until someone else had been convicted.

False negative stretched routine software installation into four days of frustration

Re: On the other hand...

All the best bugs lie in wait to ambush you later.

"Wheel have to guess which one..."

And which software product...

Music bosses go after Twitter's unlicensed soundtrack to the tune of $250M

Just send an invoice and we'll process it as normal.

Microsoft remembers it was going to bring Windows 11 to HoloLens

Re: "increased engineering velocity"

I was wondering what the units were, and the direction, given that velocity is a vector.

I suppose Microsoft's engineers are cringing at this; occasionally one has to feel sorry for them.

UK smart meter rollout years late and less than two thirds complete

Re: Boiled down to it's cynical bottom line ...

"privatised utilities are a money grubbing exercise for private investors"

It's entirely possible you might be one of those via any non-state pension you might have.

Keep booking appointments until they catch on. If the bean counters find their spam is costing them real money they'll stop. Eventually.

US government extends software security deadline because vendors aren't ready

Re: Missing the Basics

A slight rewording should improve that by placing the responsibility where it belongs:

"Task PO.2.3 Upper management or authorizing official commit to secure development, and convey that commitment to all with development-related roles and responsibilities."

US senators and spies spar over Section 702 warrantless surveillance

I suppose the usual compromise will be reached. The lawmakers will tell the agencies not to do it and the agencies will do it anyway.

NASA to tear the wings off plane in the name of sustainability

Re: Not this again

"landing the aircraft is the key part"

Being able to use it again after you've landed it is the actual key part.

Re: Interesting design

"the road runner won, Wile E Coyote ran out of power and lost ..."

OTOH if only someone could extend that moment where the character is suspended in mid air before falling then we'd have a very efficient flight system.

Out with the old, in with the new – Accenture declares AI is 'mature and delivers value'

Last time I looked Accenture were administering one of my pensions. "Our AI advised us to invest the scheme funds in crypto-currency and NFT futures" is not something I want to hear.

Re: Translation

"you would not believe"

Most here certainly wouldn't.

The fact that this sort of business continues to be profitable is bad news because it means that decision makers who really ought to know better obviously do.

Gen Z and Millennials don't know what their colleagues are talking about half the time

Re: Suspired

Suspire is to breathe gently.

I particularly liked "the concrete melts into the abstract ". Unfortunately I only got part way through the original article as it became clear he hadn't taken his own advice.

"I'm an oldie and we're stuck in our ways."

And why not? They're the best ways in which to be stuck.

There were strips appropriate to just about anything. Sadly missed.

"suspired"

Damned autocorrect! surprised

Re: 38 percent of graybeards

No, they were the ones who still hadn't worked out it was a load of bollocks to be ignored.

Re: business bullshit makes them feel "less involved."

If the underlings have any experience and wit they'll have asked for "x" and "y" to be explained in plain words. I think in my day I was regarded as a bit of a trouble-maker.

""The survey quizzed 1,016 employees in the UK aged 18 to 76""

It gets worse: "defining the younger generation as those born between 1981 and 2012". These born in 2012 aren't even teenagers, let alone 18. Child labour?

"Surprisingly, 69 percent of younglings say their colleagues speak in too much jargon at work, while only 38 percent of graybeards have the same misgivings."

Not too surprising. It just means that some of us have heard it all before, several times around, learned to separate the wheat from the chaff and decode the former. The young are fortunate not to have endured that. Yet.

At its best a jargon is a specialised vocabulary which enables one to say in a few words what would require many less specialised words to explain fully. It depends on the listener or reader sharing that vocabulary.

At its worst jargon is a specialised vocabulary taking many words to say that which needs no explanation and could be said in fewer, less specialised words.

Then there are those who have heard the words of the first, have no understanding of their meaning but trot them out any way, hoping to sound as if they're in the set that does understand them* and mixing them with words of the second.

* E.g. Amber Rudd with "hashtags".

"Google a word during a meeting in an attempt to understand what on earth manglement is talking about"

If it's manglement talking a good approximation would be to start by assuming it has no meaning until you can work it out in context but don't be suspired if you end the meeting without working it out. Retaliate by coining your own term, using it and seeing how the others pick it up and reuse it.

Kinder, gentler Oracle says it's changed, and now wants you to succeed

"Just who the heck are these people who buy new services?"

Senior manglement, of course. Well isolated from both reality and the people who know what reality is.

Re: Yeah, right.

And who is doing that? Apart from Microsoft themselves, of course.

Yeah, Rishi, it's AI that'll make Britain great again

Re: "it's AI that'll make Britain great again"

Brexit, which he supported, hasn't. Now needs to try something else.

Re: Ha

Good questions.

It's entirely possible, of course, that the answers might actually be "yes" but they have absolutely no idea how to go about it. The worrying thing is that it's a long time since we've seen anyone at the top of either main party who had any clue. Success in politics goes to those who pander best to their grass-roots members' factionalisms with unrealistic promises.

Multi-tasking blunder leaves UK tax digitization plans 3 years late, 5 times over budget

From the brief account in the article it's difficult to see how one might be done without the other as the two appear to complement each other. Which does the NAO suggest should be done first?

Re: The civil service went to a brewery but left thirsty and sober despite wanting to party

Engineers? What engineers?

A toast to being in the right place at the right time

Re: What to do in case of a real fire...or other alarm

I worked in a building with walls which were almost entirely glass. Another company's call centre in the building would occasionally get bomb threats (I doubt any caller even knew where the call centre was to the nearest hundred miles). Our exit was at the back of the building and the assembly point was on the grass at the front next to the ring road necessitating walking round the end of the building, and quite close to it. I made clear to facilities that in the event of a bomb scare, no matter how un-scary, my route away from the building would be as straight and perpendicular to it as possible and my destination as far away as possible in that direction. I had seen bombed buildings - including a former place of work.