Posts by Doctor Syntax

If you fire someone, don't let them hang around a month to finish code

Re: Unhelpful comments

It's even more useful if you're not aiming for Edinburgh.

Re: Extra credit

https://dilbert.com/strip/2004-02-07 seems to fit the bill and provide good advice for the trainer.

Another https://dilbert.com/strip/2004-02-22

Re: Assembler, machine-code and PAPER

Agreed but...when you have code in front of you and the top-down design is plastered on a wall somewhere else an explanation of where this fits into the grand design is worth its weight in bytes.

Re: Not asking for a handover

"A series of frantic phone calls to the former contractors elicited precisely no co-operation at any level, or for any price."

Unless the contractors were already in contract elsewhere that's not very professional. The professional approach is "Don't get mad, get even. But payment upfront this time."

Failing with stack problems seems to me to be an excellent demonstration of recursion concepts, namely the assumption that there really is room for all those turtles.

Re: Comments are bugs, too

Bug database? Collection of post-its, each one thrown away when complete.

Re: Comments are bugs, too

Your original cards might have been on the limits of readability before they went into storage - that's why there were card duplicators. Providing they'd been run through the interpretor you could always go through a card at a time and look for comments by Mk 1 eyeball.

Re: Unhelpful comments

I recall once coming across something along the lines of "Journeymen programmers say what the program does. Good programmers say why it does it. Great programmers say why it doesn't do it some other way."

Re: Extra credit

The alternative, I've discovered, is not to train them but let another of the client's suppliers train them instead. Or, as it turned out, the other supplier's contractor. It became obvious that the data we received had similar mistakes in it every few months as a new lot were rotated in on their 6 month visas and decided to rework their predecessor's code that they didn't understand.

Re: Long - but a good read

With evidence of the forgery the easier and better fix might have been to replace the GBG.

Re: Comments are bugs, too

"delta the non-comment changes to the latest version"

With boxes of cards?

Re: Comments are bugs, too

"The amount of time I used to spend believing the comments, rather than the code."

You need to allow for the possibility that the comment tells what the code should have been but isn't.

China moves to protect offshore tech company listings

"For its part, China worries that if it allows local tech companies to list in the US – especially companies that hold data describing Chinese citizens – doing so creates a privacy risk."

A reasonable worry.

Microsoft debuts System Center 2022

Re: I wonder...

Manager5...

Adverts?

The time you solved that months-long problem in 3 seconds

Re: @Def -- Fuck that

"Customer Service? Maybe you've heard of it"

Typical customer service does not consist of fixing your problem in 3 seconds. In some cases the description fails at fixing the problem.

Re: Somewhere in the metaverse

Forensic proof would be analysing them to check.

It still sounds like something that could have been sorted over the phone with one, possibly major, proviso - that there was someone at the client end who could be relied on to make the change without breaking things. A remote dial-in might also have been a possibility.

But a more honest solution would have been to have recommended some training courses* for the IT department - which would probably have pleased them - or spent the seek providing some training.

* Advanced, of course because this was a problem needing advanced knowledge.

Re: Raging handover

Your expectations were correct. And pretty indicative of the situation. All I can say is I went to bed, woke up in the morning finding myself still sitting up in bed - I passed out without even getting as far as lying down. Felt fine. Had breakfast. Still fine. Gone taken out to wait in some large hall for proceedings to begin. Still fine. Thought I'd better read through my file. Looked down and waaaaay - the whole thing started to spin.

Got through it OK and discovered one thing that makes courts martial different. I got invited to lunch in the officers' mess & found myself sitting next to the Judge Advocate to whom I'd just given evidence. That never happened at Crumin Rd.

But I'll admit my typing is getting very erratic these days. It must be age.

Re: Fuck that

I would say that "client management" is part of my job description.

But how does that relate here? Is it something the client's staff should have known about? Have the wrong staff been recruited? Do they need a more knowledgeable and senior member of staff? Do the existing staff need training? Did they demand someone on site rather than being satisfied with telephone support? There would be ways in which to spend a few extra ours or even a full day with the client providing value on these lines rather than spending a week pretending it was a big job just to save someone's face.

Re: Fuck that

Even glyphosate isn't easy against knotweed. You can't just spay it, you have to pour it into the hollow stems so it's a matter of mowing them down, disposing of the mowings to make sure they don't root, then treating each stem separately and redoing it every time a new lot springs up from the unkilled roots. And less fun than 3KV.

Re: Fuck that

https://www.knotweedservices.co.uk/japanese-knotweed-electrical-removal/

Re: Fuck that

They sound like the best sort. Good displacement activity, especially losing the notes, to keep them from meddling.

Re: Fuck that

"Is keeping the customer happy not part of the job then?"

My experience in freelancing was that the customer was very happy to have the problem fixed quickly and cheaply. Happy customers brought repeat business. Repeat business from happy customers had the added advantage of cutting the agency out of the value chain.

Re: Fuck that

And big hints as to how to make the necessary adjustments with a cattle prod.

BTW I read an article the other day about using a 5KV device as a weed-killer for Japanese knotweed. It boils their roots I wonder if Simon has heard of that and arranged to trade-in the cattle prod to buy one.

Re: I replaced a network cable.

"The thing that doesn't cost anything,

isn't worth anything."

This is the basis for a lot of the management consultancy business: finding out what the lowly paid and hence un-valued staff already know and reporting with added value, i.e. a large bill.

Re: Fuck that

"I've got more important things to do."

I have sympathy with this. I once had to give evidence in a court martial about a break-in to the NAAFI at Omagh. They said they wanted me there, Inverness barracks*, on the Monday for a hearing on Tuesday. It turned out they didn't really need me there on Monday at all, they were just being hospitable (resulting in giving evidence with a raging handover).

The trouble was that that was my last week in the job and I still had a lot of cases to write up. I could really have done with spending the Monday in the office. I finished the week with a murder case to write up. I ended up spending my spare time in my first week in London working on that and taking the work to the N Ireland Office to get it sent back and forth in internal mail for typing, checking etc.

* If they'd left it any longer it would have been in Kenya.

Re: Fuck that

So very unlikely you are going to be the techie to be sent in the first place.

Have you never heard they saying "If you want something doing, ask a busy man."?

The month I worked for DEADHEAD: Yes, that was their job title

Re: I know who DEADHEAD is....

You'd need much more data to distinguish her from the numerous others who are dim and over-promoted with stupid job titles. It covers most of HMG give are take the fact that their job titles are traditional.

Re: I'm disappointed

What makes you think we didn't?

Re: junk-food punnet of chips and gravy with cheese

"I have never had fish and chips in newspaper and I'm 40+ years old"

Kids today!

Re: Sometimes...

The question to ask - as innocently as possible - is "What are the corporate and personal consequences of making an erroneous declaration, however unintentional?".

Re: I have to ask ....

Everything you could put out as an April Fool story is already true.

"until a shadow system starts working and things like file access get done despite, rather than because of the right authority being (not) given"

It's not impossible that something like this might underlie the current NSA story.

UK suit over reselling surplus Microsoft licenses rolls on

Re: Sheesh People

Pretty much a dead heat.

Re: Ireland

That would depend on how they are dealt with in the current UK-EU tariff arrangements.

"which we believe will benefit our customers us in their adoption of cloud technologies."

That's more like it.

More charged in UK Lapsus$ investigation

Re: I shudder

This appears to have been social engineering.

"which this week was said to be back at work"

As I recall it there was nothing in that report to suggest that the break-in took place after the arrests as opposed to being an earlier one newly reported.

Chinese distro Deepin hits 20.5, complete with browser called Browser

"it's the prettiest Linux around"

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. With controls in the title bar it wouldn't find favour in mine. The title bar of the window in which I'm typing this has the article title, "The Register Forums" and browser name occupying a significant par of the bar. No room for controls, it's called the title bar for a reason.

"the distro has its own browser, called just Browser"

Fair enough. I have several digging implements in my garage. I just cll them spades.

National Security Agency employee indicted for 'leaking top secret info'

Re: Thing about the NSA

My experience didn't entirely match. Some of it did. When the lab was rebuilt after a fire it was decreed offices for anyone less than Director had to have lino - until it was discovered after the first office was fitted out that way that lino was dearer than the alternative non-woven floor covering that looked like carpet. Then nobody below PSO could have an office at all until it was pointed out that we had reports to write and quite often held rather confidential case discussions so we were able to put "writing rooms" on the plan.

On the other hand salaries were held below general service grades and promotion was withheld (until I put my notice in when a much too late offer arrived PDQ) on the grounds that we didn't have management responsibility, i.e. enough junior staff; the responsibility of the job itself was ignored. As the major employer of scientists in the UK they could control salaries in general.

Pension? Well, for a final salary scheme the low salary has its own consequences. Apart from that, a year's service accumulated 1/80th of a year credit which mean that a new graduate, joining at 21, retiring at 60, would be a year short of half pay. I went to industry where the rate was 1/60th so the same graduate would end up a year short of two thirds pay. And as a final twist the scheme was non-contributory but the salaries were adjusted down to take account of what the contributory scheme would have paid after contributions - that meant that the final salary was this discounted value.

The Civil Service might be great for somebody in the higher ranks with a degree irrelevant to the job. If you're a specialist in the scientific branch it's crap and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Re: More info please

Without actual details, however, I do wonder if the NSA had tied itself up in its own bureaucracy to the extent that this sort of thing was the only way to get the work done.

Re: Meanwhile UK Government Ministers ...

BoJo's SOP.

Re: "The NSA is [..] supposed to be very good at securing data"

We've seen it a number of times, haven't we? Those whose business is snooping on others can be quite lax about keeping their own stuff secure.

Bain Capital plots to buy Toshiba with help from largest shareholder

"at this time, we have not made any decision regarding the tender offer for the common stock of Toshiba Corporation."

To quote Yes, Minister: "You do mean you."

Re: Hold on a minute

Billions. These people don't get out of bed in the morning for mere millions.

Russia bans foreign software purchases for critical infrastructure

Re: What's old is new again

"their own local hackers have a field day hacking the rich and famous peeps with published exploits."

The reason they've got away with it (or been encouraged) all this time is that they don't turn on their own. If they try that now they're likely to find themselves in the front line with a rifle.

Fujitsu claims 'major technical milestone' in quantum simulation

What's the relative performance of running a quantum application on a classical simulator of a quantum computer and running a classical application for the same purpose on the same computer?

Meta accused of hiring Republican consultancy to seed anti-TikTok rumors

Re: Misinformation, misdirection, misery, misogyny and money

I'm sure it's just money. Anything else is simply the means to that end.

"TikTok is the real threat especially as a foreign owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using.'"

What's really appalling about this is the assumption that nobody has the wit to choose to or be able to work out who would be #1 in its place and that that assumption might be justified.