Posts by Doctor Syntax

Bank of England takes a break from opining on banks' IT outages to 'fess up to forking needless cash on legacy kit, manual processes

Re: If only they knew the half of it...

More or less standard operating practice at so many places.

Quite.

"MPs called on the BoE to ensure the way it is working, systems and culture are brought up to date, which it said should include a revamp of its IT systems."

What a pity they didn't pause to think things through.

"In addition, it pointed to problems incorporating the Prudential Regulation Authority's systems when it absorbed the body in 2014; this led to duplicated applications and the need to integrate large datasets."

And nobody noticed this migration happening. The BoE really needs to make efforts to get their data migrations into the media. They should ask TSB for advice.

Carphone Warehouse fined £29m for mis-selling mobile insurance to punters who didn't need it

Re: is this a surprise ?

"But surely this has been going on since the first high street shop started selling mobiles."

Much longer than that.

"accepted that in the past the company's practices fell short"

Sir Humphrey's excuse number 5.

Re: PC world

Maybe you just don't have the right disbelieving face. I don't usually buy anything there but when I did the whole attempt was made in a tone of voice which carried no conviction and petered out part way through. I can't remember if he actually started off with "I don't suppose..." but it was the impression given. Or maybe he was used to dealing with customers who knew their own minds; he was, after all, in a shop in Yorkshire.

They're BAAACK: Windows 10 nagware team loads trebuchet with annoying reminders to GTFO Windows 7

Re: Microsoft (if a person) would be locked up in any other walk of life...

"For abusive dominating behaviour"

No, they'd become a CEO.

users will have an option to "do not notify me again".

To be implemented by running the update so no further notification is needed. MS have form on this.

2 weeks till Brexit and Defra, at the very least, looks set to be caught with its IT pants down

Re: Ha

"promised he would stay regardless of the result."

At a guess he'd never anticipated the result and didn't expect to deliver on that. Not surprising - he was a politician. Having lost the vote he realised not only that it was a stupid promise to have made and that if was to be implemented it would need someone who believed it was a good idea and had planned for it to do so. He could have seen that if he'd stayed on he'd have been in May's position - struggling to put something together while the ERG and camp followers complained about everything he did to try to put their nonsense into practice.

You can scarcely blame him for the fact that the group of those who believed it fell apart. Maybe they were of the same opinion - they didn't expect to win and didn't believe it was a sensible scheme. Maybe their only position was to heckle from the back benches and they couldn't keep doing that if they were in government. Were they emboldened in their campaigning by the belief that he would actually stay on and do the heavy lifting for them and take the blame for failing? I don't know. You'd need to ask them.

But you can't logically complain that he didn't stay on while elsewhere claiming he should have handed over the reigns.

Re: Ha

"The jellyfish should have handed government over to a member of the party who wanted brexit."

I'm sure you're aware of it but a PM is usually the leader of the largest party in the HoC. A departing PM can't just nominate his successor in either role. So when Cameron decided to quit the only option was for the Conservative party to go through its normal procedure to choose a successor who, by convention, HMQ would invite to form a government.

The members of the party who were most strident about wanting Brexit contrived to either quit the contest or stab one another in the back. The result was someone who many of us suspect of having been a crypto-leaver who wanted to protect her position in the event of the expected referendum result.

The leading Bresiteers have only themselves to blame for one of them not being at least a candidate for PM.

Re: Scrap the parties

"Then parliament enact the policies."

Including the mutually contradictory ones?

Re: Ha

"One campaign stopped with winning the referendum"

It certainly did. It stopped because it had no idea what to do next. It's entire purpose was to campaign. The nearest they seem to have thought about implementing it would be that Cameron would stay on to do it despite having campaigned against it.

Re: Ha

"Wasnt that the Gina Miller fiasco?"

Let's consider this scenario. No case was put forward at the time and HMG just went its way without a commons vote. Somewhere in the last few months the case was put to the court and the court gave the verdict that was given originally: there was a legal requirement for Parliament to approve before invoking A50. We'd now be in the position that the entire Brexit process would have been conducted unconstitutionally and, by the terms of A50 itself, not valid.

How would that have been for a fiasco? For added flavour consider the scenario that this had been raised not in the last few months but after March 29 (April 1st seems a good date).

Leavers seem unable to grasp the simple fact that she did them a favour.

Re: Ha

"the one man able to prepare anything (Cameron) refused to and ran when he didnt get the result he wanted."

Now there we do agree. He should have had a plan B.

We might not agree as to what the plan B should have been. Mine was to note the advisory nature of the vote and do a proper feasibility study which IMV the vote entitled him to do and simply logic obligated him to do before it went any further. What's more he should have tasked the arch remainers with doing an impact assessment on various sectors of the economy as part of that.

Re: @codejunky

"Damn right take back control"

And probably give most of it to the US.

Evidence?

Re: Very optimistic

"It hasn't exactly coped well with any IT projects in the last 20 years has it?"

Risky and rushed only half applies. Nobody has ever accused them of rushing in the past.

Re: They should have assumed no deal

"They should have prepared for the scenario that is hardest for the systems to cope with - no deal."

Different scenarios may have mutually incompatible requirements.

Re: @tip pc

I am not convinced everyone involved is using the same definition of "we"

May for one seems to assume it's everyone in the country irrespective of how they voted or indeed, how they would vote if they were asked now. ERG seem to have no doubts about the latter - they most certainly do not want another referendum.

As to definitions of "control"...

Re: Effects of food import tax

"With no foreign workers allowed"

I think my neighbour would be delighted if he were able to afford to pay any worker, foreign or not. It's just him, his wife and the quad bike in all weathers to manage a few hundred ewes due to lamb any day now. Much the same applies to all the other local farmers.

The PAC needs teeth. How about them signing off each Department's top few tiers' annual reports?

Swiss electronic voting system like... wait for it, wait for it... Swiss cheese: Hole found amid public source code audit

Re: Better than in the UK...

"And yet the instances of voting fraud are remarkably rare"

Not only rare but ?almost always involve postal, ie. remote, votes.

Re: Potentially unpopular opinion

"If you want to get a fast vote count"

Good, fast, cheap. Pick any two. Whichever of the other two is chosen I'd want "good" as one choice. Now we have to ask whether "fast" is worth spending silly sums on and still compromise "good"

Re: Potentially unpopular opinion

So for me its "ties to my official spot on the face of the Earth" versus workforce mobility.

The whole point of voting is to make decisions on behalf of a community. That's a community in the sense of a group of people sharing the same physical space. It makes sense to tie qualification to some spot you habitually inhabit.

OTOH there's an attraction in electronic voting if we could give Facebook users an electronic vote for their own MP. They could choose to vote for either the FB MP or their geographical constituency MP. The successful FB candidate could be called the Honourable Member for B Ark.

Re: Are they going to vote on whether to adopt electronic voting?

A wapentake!

Boffins discover new dust clouds in the Solar System, Mercury has a surprisingly filthy ring

"Earth’s even got its own debris zone."

Probably includes all the toys that keep getting thrown out of the pram.

Yelp-for-MAGAs app maker is warned there are holes in its code. Does it A. Just fix the problem, or B. Threaten to call the FBI, too?

Re: Thank you

Somebody should remind them that when everybody thinks you're an idiot it's not a good idea to open your mouth and confirm it.

Is there a charge equivalent to wasting police time but for the FBI?

Amazon may finally get its hands on .amazon after world's DNS overseer loses patience

ICANN getting impatient? Now they know how the EU feels about their demands for a moratorium on GDPR.

Re: These new TLDs were always a stupid idea

"money making scheme, completely unnecessary."

Not from ICANN's PoV

UK joins growing list of territories to ban Boeing 737 Max flights as firm says patch incoming

Re: will be able to enter UK airspace and land at their destination as planned

Landing's OK. It's taking off again that's risky.

Raiding party! UK's ICO drops in unannounced on couple of dodgy-dialling dirtbag outfits

"just wondering why the two companies in question were not named in the article?"

I'd guess the ICO didn't include that in their PR. After all we don't want to give them a chance to wriggle out under sub judice rules.

Re: Why stop there

"If you go along with them for long enough you get to talk to a solicitor who knows a lot about "traffic accident claims" but is surprisingly vague on their cut of any award by the court."

If by that time you've got the name of the solicitors concerned it's time to mention the words "Law Society". Or not bother mentioning them, just grass them up.

Re: Timing

"Seems about par for the ICO to swoop after a problem has gone away."

Alternatively the increased penalties may be having an effect and deterring them. Isn't that what you want?

"Unfortunately these kinds of companies can operate outside of the UK so the ICO has no effect on them."

Just go for their clients. Ultimately they're the ones to blame .

We can do this the easy way or the Huawei, US tells Germany with threat to snip intel over 5G fears

What's German for "Put up or shut up."?

Radio gaga: Techies fear EU directive to stop RF device tinkering will do more harm than good

Re: Nonsense

"But the same lot regulated the power of a hoover so it now takes twice as long with a Euro hoover."

Current vacuum cleaner was bought because SWMBO found the previous one was so loud it made her feel ill. I chose the one with the lowest specified noise level. It meets the EU spec, not surprising being a European brand. It's also the most effective vacuum cleaner we've ever owned in half a century of home-making. It might be because the energy is going into cleaning, not making noise.

Re: Gonna ask what may be a stoopid question here...

"CE-marked"

China Export?

Re: Gonna ask what may be a stoopid question here...

"wiping out DAB signals"

So no harm done.

"More likely, people will just repurpose old computers to be routers and WiFi access points instead of buying commercial gear."

Forget repurposing the computer to be an access point. What about just using it as a computer if it is WiFi capable? Isn't this enough to push it into scope of the directive?

Re: What's the problem....

"avoid the low-level consumer s**t"

Why should it be acceptable to sell consumers shit products?

Re: What's the problem....

"I can't see the EU successfully mandating that every member must have a test lab that follows centrally-defined standards, nor would they have a hope of insisting that everything EU-wide had to be tested by, say, TUV or BSI."

It doesn't need to but it could mandate testing to an approved standard by an accredited lab. The accredited lab doesn't need to be in the member state where the device is made or sold, just that it meets the requirements for accreditation. Neither does the standard need to be specifically BSI, TUV, UL or anything else, just that it be appropriate for the device.

On the eve of Patch Tuesday, Microsoft confirms Windows 10 can automatically remove borked updates

How does a machine that's failed to start up start up to remove the update that made it fail to start up?

Hyperscalers spunked modest sum of $120bn on bit barns, pipes and plumbing last year

Coming soon: the sector levels out to the amazement of all these pundits who believed it was expanding exponentially just like PCs, mobiles and every other product was, right up to the time it became clear that they weren't.

Small Brit firms beg for 'light touch' as only half are ready for digital tax reforms due next month

"It hardly inspires confidence when you are signing up for a BETA."

All HMG websites are beta. I think someone there is under the impression it means ready for production use.

Re: Error control in Making Tax Difficult ???

There's another failure of logic.

"HMRC have underestimated the admin burden and costs to businesses for MTD"

It's the essence of any estimation that the estimator believes it to be the best estimate possible. If it weren't they'd correct it. It represents the entire relevant knowledge of the estimator. If that knowledge is wrong the estimator has no means of knowing that. So if they have underestimated they will have no means of knowing that. Therefore the estimator is the last person on Earth competent to decide whether or not they have underestimated. The Dunning-Kruger effect may well prevent them discovering any error.

Uber driver drove sleeping woman miles away from home to 'up the fare'. Now he's facing years in the clink for kidnapping, fraud

Re: Are you kidding?

"Uber have some of the lowest ethical standards to be found in the corporate world."

And it's a competitive world out there.

Iranian-backed hackers ransacked Citrix, swiped 6TB+ of emails, docs, secrets, claims cyber-biz

"with other vendors unable to justify the significant levels of investment to produce competing products"

If other vendors face being pushed out of the market it didn't ought ot be too difficult to justify the investment. Oh, silly me. We'll still be OK for a few more quarters without it and who looks further ahead than that?

High-jacking the Box: Enterprise storage tool's customers leave secrets on web like sitting ducks – including Box itself

I wonder how many of these cloud accounts are set up by end users to bypass IT who want to make a big inconvenient fuss about how they do things. Or maybe even use then to do away with an IT department altogether. Is it surprising they end up like this?

Racist self-driving car scare debunked, inside AI black boxes, Google helps folks go with the TensorFlow...

"We're just emerging from winter here in the UK"

Or just entering into it!

"To be fair, it's also harder for a human driver to see a dark skinned pedestrian at night. I'm trying not to be racist here, but I don't see any way around that."

Exactly. Adding the capability for passive IR would be an advantage for autonomous vehicles over a human driver.