Posts by Doctor Syntax

Make Linux safer… or die trying

Re: Unix was always diverse

"what really did it for the commercial Unices was the huge and extortionate licence and royalty fees that came with them"

Yes. If SCO had realised the possibilities of the mass market and set their prices accordingly its likely that neither Windows nor Linux would have got any hold on servers. There were a lot of businesses running on PC-architecture with SCO and some industry-specific application. They didn't need an in-house admin. I had a few of those under my wing and even taken together then they weren't my main customers.

SCO's window of opportunity lay before Linux was sufficiently polished to use in production and package vendors realised it was worth porting to. They missed it and then doubled down on that with their litigation.

Thunderbird email client is Go for new plumage in July

Cool is neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned but keeping opened mail in the inbox is only marginally less sensible than keeping it all in the deleted bin. The reason people expect all their mail to be in the inbox (or in deleted) is because they're not provided with a system that makes any better provision.

Imagine physical mail trys on your desk. Somebody brings mail and puts it in there. You read it and put it back. Next day somebody brings more and puts it on top. You read that and put it back. In a few days you only get to read the items of new mail that you dug out from amongst the growing pile but you're unsure whether or not you missed any. In a few years or sooner the intray contents are piled up to the ceiling. There's another growing pile, the copies of the mail you sent out, and you can't match the replies to the originals when you need to.

It would be a stupid way of handling physical mail so why do we do the equivalent with email? Especially why do we do that with email when it should be possible to use the system to help handle it? The answer is that although better is possible it doesn't seem to be implemented. What is implemented is a thin wrapper around functionality to exchange messages with a server.

You and I make use of folders but my experience is that the implementation is clunky which is why few people do so.

On the subject of digging out emails here's an old email dug out at random from my archive:

"Like Peter, I have been through your e-mails back to 2015, but ca’t find anything on Marsden brothers. Any idea what you may have put as the title for the e-mail? David"

(Serendipity rules - the random choice was about digging through emails!)

Without the thread to give context it's not particularly useful; what was being asked about the Marsden brothers?

Personally I still use SeaMonkey - same underpinnings but 1. the underlying browser is available as a browser and 2. my reaction to the T'bird interface isn't that it's old, it's that it's too ugly modern*. But would I be prepared to change to an updated T'bird?

Yes, provided it really did involve a ground-up change.

Let's start be recognising that for the user the principle object of communication is the thread**, not the individual messages that comprise it; a singleton message is just a member of a thread which has, currently, no additional members.

In the SM/TB interface the thread is a run-time construct of any linked messages in the mbox file whose contents are currently being listed. By default a sent email goes into a separate, sent mbox. Unless the user discovers how to change this default the thread as shown doesn't even include their own contributions.

So the first step would be to add any incoming or sent message to an existing thread to which it belongs or create a new thread if none exists. The next would be to preview the thread contents better; show the first two or three non-quoted lines with the option to extent and reply. Something like el Reg's comment presentation, in fact.

Next, let's remember the numerous comments on here from support folk who discover users with thousands of read messages in their inbox or deleted folders. A good UI would confine inbox use to unread message Opening a message would remove it from the inbox. There should be another folder for current mail threads. After a period of inactivity; no further messages on the thread during the period would result in its being archived although there might be some sort of staging folder for recent but non-current threads. And the deleted folder is nothing more than a guard against those oops! moments, it will be cleared according to some sort of schedule.

That would be a start but there's scope - and, I think, need - for a much more radical approach. It's a typical email client and AFAICS no email client has got beyond being a thin wrapper around a basic utility to exchange messages with a server.

* i.e. UI components without clear boundaries and scratchy monochrome icons that look like a cuneiform writer's first attempt at heiroglyphs

** Thread, conversation, discussion or whatever you prefer.

Microsoft tells people to prepare for AI search engine that goes Bing!

That went well

I'm looking of an image, if one exists, of a specific mid C18th presbyterian clergyman ("Captain" Eden in Yorks Arch Soc Record Series CXVII on archive.org).

Search string to "Ask me anything" :get an image william eden 18th century presbyterian minister of holmfirth and elland not anthoney edan and not baron auckland

The first two entries are Dictionary of National Biography and ancestry for William Eden 1st baron Auckland, then People also ask about entries for Anthony Eden and his father, then Wikipedia entry for baron Auckland, then numerous entries for Anthony Eden.

An answer of "Can't find one" might have been a correct response. Scads of responses to what follows the word "not" isn't.

Back in the 1980s I was using a search engine that understood "not". I wonder how much more refinement is needed of AI before we get back to the functionality of those heady days.

A match made in heaven: systemd comes to Windows Subsystem for Linux

Re: Better idea.

I'm not sure just when it was but I think the rot set in when stuff other than home directories started being stuffed into /usr.

Re: "extinguishing systemd"

"the current patched up spaghetti ball crud that is Windows 10/11"

So slotting in a systemd-based Linux would be replacing like with like?

Re: Better idea.

Much the same applies to being a stable-hand.

Re: Better idea.

"see how far you get"

You get to my favourite, Devuan, and Jake's favourite, Slackware, for a start, plus one or two others. They all work perfectly well. (From what I read it may well be that they have a problem running current versions of Gnome but that doesn't disturb my idea of "perfectly well" and there are quite a few others of the same view.)

Re: Can someone explain.....

"... what the issue is with systemd ??"

It is not minimalist in the way that Unix was designed to be. As such it doesn't really belong there.

Re: Better idea.

As far as I can tell VoT sees only BSD is the true heir of V7 although I might have misinterpreted.

Re: Better idea.

A lot of us Linux on the desktop people are old Unix hands and have been so since a time when "windows" simply meant something to keep the draught out.

This hero probe will smash into an asteroid to see if we can deflect future killer rocks

"The DART impact will temporarily slow Dimorphos down, changing its orbital track."

Temporarily? How would it get back up to speed?

Boeing to pay SEC $200m to settle charges it misled investors over 737 MAX safety

"little more than an administrative expense"

Just as well. This is punishment for misleading investors shareholders. Unless it's a personal charge on Boeing management or directors* it's shareholders' money. Shareholders are being fined for having been mislead.

* Or cab be recovered from them by shareholders.

Billionaire CEO tells Googlers 'we shouldn’t always equate fun with money'

When money gets a bit tight it's not surprising if businesses start to cut back on discretionary expenditure and advertising is going to fall into that category. That sort of cutback will be restored when business picks up.

What's very likely worrying Google senior management is that their customers' senior management might start asking harder questions about advertising policy. Questions like "Does tacking really pay off? How much money are we spending showing adverts to somebody who once enquired about $PRODUCT, who's then bought it, isn't going to buy another and is more and more unhappy about having pointless ads shoved in his face?"

When those sorts of questions start to get asked Google's allegedly value-added services start to get questioned and that might be a hit from which it will be far harder to bounce back.

Re: Google, the little startup that could!

"the size of the paycheck"

Adequacy of that might or might not be a significant part of job satisfaction. Inadequacy is a major part of job dissatisfaction.

Datacenter migration plan missed one vital detail: The leaky roof

Re: Sh1t Planning

You forgot ->

Re: I've seen worse

When my daughter was at grammar shool her class saw the no longer flat roof of the adjacent wing blow past their window.

Re: Architect Smartitect

I remember the Beeb having a real fireman examine Zaha Hadid's famous award winning fire station. It didn't emerge well from that, there were comments such as the ends of handrails being dangerous to any one running through the building - which tends to happen in fire stations. In fact I think the building was repurposed not that long after it was opened but her reputation was unblemished.

Re: Architect Smartitect

I will certainly blame the architect who insisted a corner office's windows should meet right in the corner so that it would appear that the wall above was magically floating without support (I think they award each other bunny points for this). It would have been OK if the walls were magically supported but in fact they were supported by a concrete pillar set a foot or so back from the corner. This blocked a good deal of the light from the windows but probably did little for the heat loss.

Just as well that was my boss's office. Mine next door was on a plain wall and had a reasonably sized, unobstructed window but it made his a miserable dark hole to visit.

Re: Assuming facilities wasn't contacted

"Their boss is the one who said that the ceiling tiles were the only thing that would slow down the water in the case of a leak."

And even worse - assumed it would slow it down.

Re: An exposed cinderblock ceiling?

I worked in a lab, built c 1970, where the first floor structure was a tubular steel framework supporting some sort of floor blocks above and a false ceiling below. I've no idea what the floor blocks were made of as they were hidden below vinyl covering.

It resulted in a sprung floor for our lab. Haematology had a rather sensitive top-pan balance for weighing out microgram quantities of reagent. Leaning forward to read it more clearly caused the reading to change.

Whenever I hear tales of campus IT I'm reminded of KCL* where the outage of the central IT lost - permanently IIRC - large amounts of user data. Users who had made their own arrangements for data storage would, I assume, have been OK. After everything had been restored i was reported that in future users should store data centrally. I assume the message would have been received as "We didn't lose your data last time. You have to give us a better chance now."

* My initial IT experience was as a user in a University so I always view campus IT from a user's PoV and that goes double for KCL as that had been my original college some years earlier.

BOFH: You want presentation layer, but we're physical layer

"some twat wanted is to deal with his personal laptop and then bloody moaned when I refused."

Other than the spiritual solutions suggested above there's always "I'll take a look at it but it will have to be charged to your department's budget".

Microsoft highlights 'productivity paranoia' in remote work research

This is the Mogg measure of productivity: number of people I can see at desks. It's really a measure of inputs and as productivity is actually a measure of output for a given input it's a strong indication that they lack any means of measuring the output and hence the real productivity.

Good news for UK tech contractors as govt repeals IR35 tax rules

"The new version of IR35 has simply served to pour glue on the economy and prevent growth."

Much like the original version which is still in place.

Meta accused of breaking the law by secretly tracking iPhone users

This depends on circumstances. Legislation (e.g.GDPR) can make provision for personal responsibility to fall on the relevant officials of the company. And ultimately the relevant company law may make management and/or directors personally responsible causing the company to breach that law. There is, of course, good reason to think that these sanctions are not applied often enough or that they result in scapegoating when they are.

You've heard of the cost-of-living crisis, now get ready for the cost-of-working crisis

Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work

"not to avoid "

Dammit. Effective double negative!

Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work

Normally I'd suggest putting them on hold until they gave up. However, as your phone company they might think that by tieing up one of your incoming lines for a long time they might force you to add a few more.

Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work

"And generally they have a dozen attendees where only 2 or 3 people will actually speak."

I found the typical work meeting would consist of:

One or maybe two user representatives.

Two other people* who would be the others** actually working on the project***

Any number of people with nothing positive or negative to contribute.

At least one sheet anchor**

* May also include user representatives

** Usually familiar faces because they'd filled the same roles in meetings on other projects

*** I would usually manage not to avoid wasting time with meetings where I wouldn't be working on the project

You would need to drill down that "sometimes regret". Does it mean they sometimes miss some former colleague or the like? Does it mean they don't find themselves better off? Having moved out of science I did sometimes find myself missing working in a lab environment but not for one moment did I think I'd done the wrong thing.

That 66% is a meaningless statistic without a good deal more explanation.

Re: 4 Day Week

That depends on personal circumstances. Someone living alone could well suffer from loneliness. Someone with a family gets to see them more if they're not commuting.

Re: 4 Day Week

But four days where? At home or local? Or at the end of an insanely long, expensive and ultimately unsustainable commute?

Apart from Moggie we've learned that there are alternatives to the city-based long commute employment model that post-war planning regulations ave created. Now is the time to take what we've learned and start building something more rational.

Re: The daily commute

"I had a 40 minute commute, through nice countryside."

So did I, at least for the half of it closest to home.

"I always found it a useful time to decompress and get work out of my mind"

So did I but only at the end of the day, not at the beginning.

I also, at one time, had about an hour and a half each way by train. A quick calculation showed it was the equivalent of working every weekend for no pay.

Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work

No I don't want to know your name" kind of thing.

How about, "Yes, I want to know your name. I'll be quoting it when I complain to Dell."?

Update your Tesla now before the windows put your fingers in a pinch

"Fingers and elbows may get caught in the window when closing"

A different kind of digital problem.

Another UK tech company bought out: Schneider Electric grabs rest of Aveva

Re: a "holistic approach to digitization"

Holistic is so yesterday. It has to be vegan as well.

Re: Avast

The article referenced its LSE listing. Because of your selective quoting I had to review the Wikipedia entry myself to check that TFA wasn't in error.

The nationality of a company is a rather multidimensional metric, especially for a tech company. Where is it registered for tax purposes? Where is it listed (and where are its shareholders)? Where are its administrative offices? To which jurisdiction(s) are its data exposed? These can all be different. And where, in these days of remote working, are its employees and what are their nationalities?

Re: Avast

"It was dual-listed on the Prague Stock Exchange and on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by NortonLifeLock in September 2022"

Same source.

Satellite operators want option to exceed deorbiting rules

An obligation to insure is what I had in mind. And, of course, the premium would have to be large to take into account the collateral damage due to the fragmentation the A/C mentions. IOW, make it preferable to get an unusable satellite down. Why leave it there?

Allow a waiver with a couple of conditions: 1. You can't replace it until it's down and 2. You're on the hook for any collisions it's involved in while in orbit.

GNOME hits 43: Welcome To Guadalajara

Following the article's link I see Plasma 5.26 is looking rather fuggly. However Gnome still had the edge with Gtk4 making sure users can't customise the appearance to something better. And to think we used to be snide about Windows XP as Windows for Teletubbies.

Meta, Google learn the art of the quiet layoff

Re: Sunday Pinch-a-Loaf, Baldie Zuckertart et al.

"You're right that HR is there to protect the company but, in the UK, that means treating employees fairly and according to the law"

Or at least it means ticking the boxes to present a case that employees have been treated fairly and according to the law and avoiding any documented evidence that they haven't.

Re: Too many staff?

But don't miss out on future bast paying clients.

It's easier to signal virtue than to posses it.

Re: employement tribubal.

"Those whose roles are specialised, or vocational are shat on ever harder, because their skills are not easily transferrable to the private sector."

Back in the day it came as a shock to TPTB when I handed in my notice and I don't suppose for a minute things have improved. I'd had the temerity to develop skills that were transferable. Somewhere I still have the letter denying my stated reason for leaving.* It was sent at the same time as I was being offered instant promotion - no promotion board and outside the annual cycle - to stay.

* Essentially that they'd left me stagnating on top of the SSO grade for years when the so-called "career grade" was PSO, one grade higher.

Re: An old trick in the US

"if you can even call the current ERG and Britannia Unhinged-driven regime a Tory government"

I don't think I could.

Meanwhile, in a move that may well win the Brass Neck of the Month competition, Rees-Mogg has been calling anti-frackers (largely in his own party) "Luddites". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62993487

Alert: 15-year-old Python tarfile flaw lurks in 'over 350,000' code projects

Yes, if it's an incoming archive from any source, whether or not you believe it to be trusted, treat it as untrusted and look where it's going to extract to. At the very least it saves you from having to tidy up a directory if you the archive's path doesn't start with a daughter directory - or even if it has a daughter directory with the same name as an existing one.

It seems a bit garbled. I read it as saying that if you back up through enough parent directories you will end up at / but that ignores what happens if there are too many .. levels. Will it stop there or throw an error and do nothing? The latter would mean that malicious use would require either a lucky guess or steering the user to a specific level in the hierarchy in the first place.

The real problem here is running an untar out of immediate user control. It's best to run tar -t or use the equivalent functionality in a GUI archive manager such as Ark. That way you can be sure you know what might be affected.

Getty bans AI-generated art due to copyright concerns

Re: Not just Getty.

Did you check that Company XXXX hadn't ripped off your work to sell as their own?