Posts by Doctor Syntax

Japan's asteroid probe reportedly found 20 amino acids

Re: A statistician would argue ....

".... that there is life elsewhere in the Universe."

First problem is to define life.

The second is to work out what steps have to be undergone to create the sub-systems it needs in a pre-biotic situation.

The next is to bring those subsystems them together. Not only do they have to have come about in the same place but also at the same time. It's no use, for example, if an energy handling system comes about after all the amino acid/nucleotide stuff has developed but fallen apart because something destructive has happened to the components.

They have to come together in a way that enables them to function together.

They also have to survive whatever changes that befall their planet including what they evolve into; the development of green plants, for instance, was a big threat to earlier life forms because it released free oxygen for the first ime, which is very poisonous to life that can't cope with that.

Although life as we know it is very good at perpetuating the otherwise improbable it is, itself, extremely unlikely.

As far as I can see the traditional statistical argument has been there are a lot of suitably sized planets (whatever suitably sized might mean) in the habitable zone and we know life started here on Earth (so how can might it be?) so there must be lots out there and where are they? Well, we know of one: here, us. Without looking at the individual requirements, estimating their likelihood (not easy, I'd have thought) and combining them there isn't a realistic assessment of how likely it is that eliminates observer bias.

Re: Which amino acids?

Assuming they're all amino acids found in proteins the answer seems to be "most of them".

"Nature published research suggesting that amino acids had a crucial role in the evolution of the first self-replicating molecules."

What that actually says is that RNA can act as a catalyst is joining random amino acids together to make peptides. It's not self replicating but it is an important step in showing how one of the important subsystems of life, translation of nucleic acid sequences into proteins, could have evolved given the appropriate components.

Microsoft seizes 41 domains tied to 'Iranian phishing ring'

"Bohrium actors create fake social media profiles, often posing as recruiters,"

If these were on Twitter Musk will be even more upset.

Musk repeats threat to end $46.5bn Twitter deal – with lawyers, not just tweets

Re: HPE

I think the differences between HP/Autonomy & this are that (1) the change of mind has taken place before the transaction completed, (2) any US court looking at this is going to have to decide between two US entities rather than a US and non-US entities.

Re: Just end it already

This seems to be a further development of the technique started by HP. Make an offer but bypass due diligence. When buyer's remorse sets in blame the entity you were buying. The development is to advance the buyer's remorse so that it happens before the deal is finalised rather than afterwards.

Higher spec machines lift US PC revenues 40% even as shipments drop

Re: Elephant in the room...

The same probably applies to Chromebooks and home schooling.

Did anyone expect any different?

Brute force and whiskey: The solution to all life's problems

Re: Hmmm

Drink the whiskey & use Electrolube on the contacts. If the contacts were so corroded surely they weren't going to get a good signal through them.

Re: Why a "retired farmer"?

Yup. He'd have run faster at the very suggestion.

AI-driven HR startup snapped up as companies fight to retain employees

"ServiceNow said the purchase is designed to help companies under immense pressure to attract, train, and retain an effective workforce."

I can't help thinking that using ServiceNow and gaining a reputation for treating and paying employees well might be more effective than just using ServiceNow on its own.

That time a techie accidentally improved an airline's productivity

Re: Everybody knows...

Context is everything: in this case, an old mainframe system, the wording might well have been specified by an analyst or designer and not left to a junior programmer. It would have been specified that way because it wasn't customer facing, it was staff facing.

In general we need to realise that there's a hierarchy of ways to convey information. The UI is, whatever the era and technology, limited in bandwidth.

Long labels mean either crowded or oversized screens.

Long prompts aren't always going to be read or will sometimes be misread.

"Discoverable" functionality isn't going to be. Have you ever been shown, read or seen in a video some function of an application you thought you knew and thought "I forgot/never knew it could do that?".

Adding tool tips, extra documentation and training all have their places over and above the first line UI.

If you find something that old it's very likely driving some extremely expensive diagnostic machine which isn't going to be replaced any time soon and whose manufacturer has disappeared or never got the system re-qualified on a later version. Possibly it relies on an ISA interface card with not more recent alternative available. It's not organisation that matters, it's money.

Re: Easy to miss something trivial

The difference between Shift and Ctrl is that with Shift the action, or the result of it, is visible. This is especially true when using a typewriter so Shoft and Lock will require no thought whatsoever to someone who started out on typewriters. Ctrl characters are not necessarily so and operate on a different level in the user's perception. Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Z etc. might result is a visible change, Ctrl-C has no immediately obvious result (assuming the context means copy).

Re: Everybody knows...

“Are you sure” questions are daft.

Not if it saves you from the "Oh shit!" moment when you realise you've clicked the wrong button and what you've done is irreversible. They should, of course, be saved for such situations and accompanied by a clear statement of what it is you're about to confirm.

"At least I got a chance to visit the city on the customer's dime"

Chargeable to the customer and not part of an overall support contract charge? I'll bet their accounts were pleased!

Re: Easy to miss something trivial

As it's hard to press them simultaneously there's a 50% chance that C will be pressed fractionally first so that Ctrl has no effect. Tricky stuff, getting instructions right.

Re: Two types of workers

The checklist will inevitably be packed first with the equipment on top of it. Try as you might, you can't beat the warehouse staff.

Re: Male vs Female

"But sir, mine isn't threaded."

So if it's in use what do you tell them? That it isn't?

The system provided information. Using that information requires knowledge. Ensuring that the users have the appropriate knowledge needs wisdom. Until Eric appeared on the scene the last two were absent.

The correct response to the information might depend on circumstances. In some the sessions in use might all be required by staff not immediately present and logging one out strictly against the rules. In this case the correct response was to log one out. It should be the management's role to ensure the user knew what to do and what not to do. It would certainly not be the developer's to either second guess the situation nor to go over their core budget writing an effusive essay.

Let me give you the fuller quottion: "The past is another country. They do things differently there."

It's worth remembering that this story involves systems going back to the late '50s. At that time memory was hideously expensive and mainframes had very little of it. The programmer (or analyst - the programmer might not have had to provide the text) would have had an overall budget for memory and none of it to spare to substitute for user training. Wasting 8 bytes to say "Session A in use" might have resulted in a bawling out.

The past is another country.

Re: Easy to miss something trivial

They weren't looking for the AND key?

Re: Everybody knows...

"Could this be mis-interpreted?"

Of course it can be misinterpreted. There's always somebody to misinterpret anything.

I think there's a difference between some software being released to the public and something provided by a company for its employees to use as part of their job. One hopes the user had been trained in other aspects of booking a flight. She should have been trained to understand any routine aspect of it and this appears to have been routine.

Training- exactly. This wasn't a lay person. This was an employee who had been provided with a tool to use for her work. This was the tool behaving exacrtly as its user should have expected. She should have been trained to use it. Maybe a test after a week or so to see if the training had stuck.

The next time your program is 'not responding,' (do not) try these steps

These days I'm looking at it from the other side.

Generally we find that our speakers will provide PPT or maybe ODP on a key and we can provide a laptop, projector and, if necessary loudspeakers. But then, as in this case, somebody says they want to play video, with sound, from their phone...

Re: VMs?

If Dabsy's job is teaching b0rkenware that would put him out of work.

Re: VMs?

Or he realised it was better to keep his head down in future.

Re: Cynical

The results are all from anything from 5 to 20 years old and deal with 8 similar but not identical problems with 4 long outdated versions of the software.

We had a guest speaker the other week coming to give a presentation. He'd alarmed us by saying he had two videos to show which were currently on his phone. Eventually he got them into his .ppt which he sent in advance. Our Mac colleague couldn't get them to play. He sent me a copy. It turned out they were some Microsoft format.

LO on my main laptop (Linux of course) would play them but they both insisted on playing twice. Fortunately VCL transcoded them to mp4 (at a fraction of the former file size) which played OK, including playing sound to external speakers, so I swapped them for the original versions and saved as an Impress file. I took my laptop along to the talk just in case.

As it turned out the speaker brought his own laptop - I didn't look too closely but I think it may also have been a Mac - so they decided to use that. His laptop couldn't get sound out to a set of external speakers. These decisions were made while I was busy sorting out the presenter's mic. The situation was salvaged by borrowing a very tinny and not very powerful Bluetooth speaker.

Re: Software Demos

They don't have to say "We're not going to use it.". They just have to not say "We'll buy it.".

Whoosh.

Re: VMs?

It wasn't always lawyers, teachers and accountants responsible. Sometimes it was (allegedly) trained developers. This untrained developer has had to sort them out or live with them.

Re: I have no answers. I'm not sure there are any. It's probably too late.

(4) What to do with the existing heap of dross that's still sitting there running important stuff? Can't afford to chuck it and it will last for ever if nobody's got the time to fix it.

Re: VMs?

"At the next sprint, I told one of my colleagues that I'm going to fix it."

The PHB didn't demand that it be fixed? Or maybe he was mysteriously absent.

Re: VMs?

"the kids who graduated Uni/College and got into the corporate computer and networking world back when computers started becoming ubiquitous on desktops all over the corporate world are now roughly in their mid 50s. ... In their minds (and the generations following) it's supposed to be shoddy code,"

True in a general way but there were still some big systems around and no doubt some of the new graduates became familiar with them. And as you and I both know there was Unix continuing through all that.

It wasn't all flawless in the past. I had one card compilation run that didn't - a new version of the system library had gone in that morning and it wouldn't link. It was reverted the same day, of course.

Re: Sod's Law

You forgot W10 updating. Yes, I've seen that. Archaeologist demonstrating surveying equipment in a University foyer. There must have been an open WiFi point so his laptop latched on and went for it.

Re: That joke is international

Do you also have the one about asking the milkmaid the time?

11 Install Linux

Engineer sues Amazon for not covering work-from-home internet, electricity bills

"The ideal system is to sell you season tickets that cost MORE but then only allow season ticket holders on commuter services."

That's pretty well achieved by off-peak prices.

Re: Can of worms

"you are covered by the firms insurance"

So the insurer's weasels deal with it.

"Travelling as day-to-day commuting. At least in my case."

So if you decide to move much further away where housing is cheaper your employer will pay the extra travelling cost you can live more cheaply?

"it can't be beyond the wit or ability of the transport networks "

Optimist!

Where?

As Simon has said, and I've said above, this is most definitely not the norm in the UK and would be taxable if it were paid for.

"Day to day commutes are compensated...If these rights are embedded in legislation, there is no can of worms to open."

In what legislation? This would certainly not be the case in the UK (if commuting costs to a regular place of work were covered it would be taxable*) and as far as I know not in the US. If this were to lead to WFH to be withdrawn by employers there might be people looking out for this guy and wielding attitude adjustment tools.

* Another can of worms for freelancers.

Perhaps Amazon should just fire him for not having the numeracy skills expected of an engineer.

"the cheapest powered shite they could find"

My opinion of all coffee.

As somebody posted above, don't make the mistake of assuming that the way things work where you are applies everywhere.

Travelling as day-to-day commuting or travelling from base (home or office as appropriate) to some other work site?

As regards commuting costs, I'd reckon trading those for household expenses a definite win for working at home. This guy is opening a can of worms.

OpenSea staffer charged with insider-trading of NFTs

The think I find puzzling about this is that it was only one individual's insider trading that was considered wire fraud.

BSA kicks multiple holes in India's infosec reporting rules

Re: is that a bug or a feature?

Considering my extremely low opinion of the technical depth behind this bullshit, I fail to see how the above is a problem. I've already said that CERT is effectively saying "come, DDOS me", and who are we to say "no sir!"?

I've always believed that IT's ultimate sanction is to give users exactly what they asked for. This seems to be an appropriate occasion for applying it.

Arista's latest switches pack AMD Xilinx FPGAs to fuel high-frequency traders

Re: Networkphiles

Oxygen free. Don't forget that.