Posts by Doctor Syntax

Brit rocket boffins Reaction Engines notch up first supersonic precooler test

It's not clear to me how the excess heat gets dumped so efficiently into already hot gas that the helium becomes supercooled again. That seems to me a far more difficult trick than using cold helium to cool hot gas.

Overzealous n00b takes out point-of-sale terminals across the UK on a Saturday afternoon

Re: You should have been sacked

"Optimisation is almost always cut to hit the deadline or the budget or both"

If it's developed for use in house and the house is paying mainframe prices for MIPS any sensible beancounter should insist on optimisation. But then there's a shortage of sensible beancounters.

Re: AS/400 UPS

"500 pound/dollar/euro hammer tap correctly"

500? Cheapskate!

Never less than 4 figures.

HMRC accused of not understanding its own IR35 tax reforms ahead of private sector rollout

I wonder if IPSE have ever challenged the way tribunals work. (As the PCG they certainly didn't in my day.) Although a civil case should be decided on the balance of probabilities the only probability considered is whether the contract is or isn't fa contract of service and the situation is examined for indicators or that. Unless things have changed they don't consider whether it's a contract for services. If that were done the situation would have to be examined for indicators of that.

If the contract names the worker it can be taken as in indication of personal service when regarded as a possible contract of service. If it's looked at as a possible contract for services it's a key man clause and at one time the IR as was had on their site a standard contract for provision of services which included such a clause. If it was OK for HMRC's predecessor it ought to be OK for any freelancer's client.

"It shifts responsibility for determining tax status from the employee to the employer."

Here we go again!!!

The whole purpose of such tests it to determine whether the worker is or isn't an employee. Don't start the explanation by assuming the result.

One step forward and one step back for Apple's privacy campaign with latest Safari build

"so it seems strange to single out ping and turn a blind eye to other technologies which can do the same thing."

Singling out ping doesn't mean turning a blind eye to the rest. As they're all implemented separately they have to be challenged separately.

Opportunity missed:

The Register pinged Apple for comment. We don't expect anyone to answer

Memory slump and smartphone boredom deliver one-two punch to Samsung's bottom line

They could try for a new niche market: dumb TVs.

Scare-bnb: Family finds creeper cams hidden in their weekend rental by scanning Wi-Fi

"You do hear stories about Airbnb properties being used for parties, escorts using them to host clients, or they just generally get trashed by the renters."

It seems Airbnb is yet another example of optimistic thinking: if you deliver something running you can release updates to iron out the bugs. When the bugs turn out to be consequences of not thinking things through it's not so easy to patch. Will a concealed camera be a standard fitment to Airbnb properties in the future included in the T&Cs along with non-tamper clauses?

"Our original handling of this incident did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves"

Translation: We didn't realise he'd go public.

Blundering London council emails unredacted version of notorious Gangs Matrix to 44 people. Data ends up on Snapchat

Re: They knew who sent the e-mail - Were they sacked?

The best way to sort that one out would be that they have mandatory training, tested and get a certificate to prove it. Without the certificate they don't get anywhere near sensitive data and anyone who tries to force them to do so is committing a disciplinary offence and gets their certificate revoked. Needless to say anyone who then does something stupid like this also gets their certificate revoked. If there aren't any posts that don't require certification, tough.

In the public sector, of course, there's an alternative: misfeasance in public office. We need ICO enabled to prosecute for that.

Re: Gov Workers /No Expertise required

Glorified?

Re: They knew who sent the e-mail - Were they sacked?

I'm not sure that the person who sent the e-mails is the problem here. The problem that needs to be looked at is "who released it to Snapchat?".

Both were part of the problem.

Re: They knew who sent the e-mail - Were they sacked?

"When in fact they aren't allowed to interfere directly with how a council or council officer does their job, but some still do."

As an elector I'd like to think that overseeing that council officers was what councillors were for. That way my vote might have some effect. As ever, British public life gets things arse about face.

One possible solution occurs to me. A couple of decades ago I had a gig working with material which had similar sensitivity. I and everyone else had to have clearance to S/C. Shouldn't council staff with this exposure also need clearance?

If anything the need should be greater than in my gig as the whole of the database is going to be local to the area from which council staff are likely to be recruited. Without clearance there's an unacceptable probability that a data subject might be known or even related to one of the staff.

A failure like this should then result in the entire command chain losing their clearance and having to be redeployed within the council if they were even able to retain their jobs. This would result in greater awareness of all those involved about their responsibilities and what actions would be permissible.

It's difficult to know what to do when confronted with incompetence of this nature. It's not just the initial breach that's the problem. It's also the attitude that the council decided they could deal with it as an internal matter. Either they didn't know about the GDPR provisions about reporting or simply decided they were too important for that. I'd like to think there was a mechanism for placing them under some sort of adult supervision but where would one find suitable adults? Certainly not in central government.

Trend Micro antivirus fails to stop measles carrier rubbing against firm's Ottawa offices

Re: If you are infectious - stay away from work

"Sorry but you're already at the limit of your sick leave. If you don't come in unfortunately we'll have to put you on sick report"

Ask to see HR to explain the situation. When you get there explain that you've only come in to see them as a special favour to them. "My doctor told me I shouldn't have come here. I'm actually putting you at serious risk of catching it.".

"The remaining nasties will be influenza and other zoonotic viruses like Ebola and Marburg."

Nature is pretty effective at popping up new ones of those.

countries that are not considered "first world" countries

It's difficult to consider a country as first world when a substantial number of parents actively prevent having their children vaccinated.

Google Pay tells Euro users it has ditched UK for Ireland ahead of Brexit

Re: For Google, Brexit makes Eire a golden opportunity

"Google picked Eire years ago because it was, and always has been, a corrupt, push-over state, offering low(ish) corporation tax rates and a tax treaty with America that ensures America has the lion's share of taxable revenue"

It's amazing how many times we have to say this and yet it doesn't sink in...

If you are a smallish country you it's a brilliant move to have low corporation taxes. It brings in big corporates who can recognise their profits in your country paying less tax that they would elsewhere but still bringing in a very good tax take in relation to the size of your country.

For multinationals taxation is a global market and small countries have a huge advantage by being able to keep tax low. That's what you're seeing in Ireland, Luxembourg etc.

It has the additional advantage that home-grown businesses also have the same lower tax rates which enables them to be more competitive abroad.

It's not being a corrupt, push-over state, it's a smart move taking advantage of their particular situation.

Re: @iron

"With the lowest unemployment rate in decades?"

Every economic analysis I read about this links it with static wages and failure to invest because it's cheaper to employ people rather than invest in more productive plant. Productivity is static or falling and GDP is failing to rise. A current article on the Beeb website calls it the lost decade. In short, it's nothing to celebrate. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47826195

But hey, what do economists know? They're only experts and haven't realised the glorious future that awaits when wage inflation everywhere else reduces us to a low wage economy and Chinese manufacturers set up sweatshops here because it's cheaper than any SE Asian country.

Don't tell anyone but it was "Well, what did you expect us to do?"

All's fair in love and war when tech treats you like an infant

Re: There is yet another level of hell in these thinigs even beyond this.....

Not only Boris.

Re: No standards

"Who should we invite as stakeholders? A bunch of grumpy old men?"

Anybody who can remember when stuff just worked instead of only just worked. That probably does limit it to grumpy old men people (let's not get into more trouble).

Can we also have a gurn at those who, having got all their stuff checked through successfully are astonished to discover they have to find the means to pay for it and start rooting in pockets or handbags to find the necessary. The most recent episode was one who dragged out a card wallet absolutely full of the things (so she couldn't claim unfamiliarity with the concept), shuffled through them several times, discovered the one she was wanting wasn't there, had another root in the bag and came up with a purse with more cards in it. Why do these people not realise that waiting in the queue is a good time to get all that done without it being on the critical path?

I tell a lie. It wasn't the most recent. The most recent was the customer service till where, having checked stuff through the customer wanted to deal with some sort of lottery stuff as well, none of which would scan. I was sufficiently pissed off by this to try the SS scanner. Roll up, put the basket down on one side and the carrier on the other an the machine complained. Did nobody consider the use case that the customer needs to free up their hands in order to work the bloody machine and they're going to do that before pressing the button to start? Back to the customer disservice queue. Yes I am a grumpy old man - I've put the time in to get that way.

Re: No standards

"Any chance of an international standard being introduced for these things?"

There is. It's not to work well.

Re: Why has it been made so difficult?

"just because something is technically possible, it's not always a good idea to do it."

OTOH if it is done it should be done well. My refusal is based on the fact that I'm not being paid to debug them. It used to be he case that I reckoned that the maximum number of items that could be reliably scanned was 3. I've now down-rated that to zero.

UK health tech quango strikes Gould, reckons digital policy wonk has NHSX-factor to run org

Talking to patients might also elicit something that they didn't say or wasn't recorded last time.

And don't be too sure he won't reorganise the commissioning structure again, this time with an app.

Re: Security first please.

Even better, build it so securely from scratch so it can't be accessed via a trendy app. Once it's accessed on the patient's phone there'll be a ravening horde of other apps trying to get it on behalf of FB, Google and whoever else wants a share.

Just say no.

Hello, tech support? Yes, I've run out of desk... Yes, DESK... space

Re: *BEER* shouldn't be 'cold cold'

"You only warm the pot because historically the china pots were very thin and boiling water risked cracking them."

Real china - porcelain - didn't crack. It was European stuff that cracked until they worked out how to make something better. Much the same reason for the vile habit of putting milk in cups.

Re: *BEER* shouldn't be 'cold cold'

"seminal Brewing"

?!

Re: A modern twist

Don't confuse the symptom with the disease. I thought it was the need for classic shell that needed to be eradicated.

Re: A modern twist

"I had to Google to work out how to shut a Windows 8 PC down"

"Phil", being a mechanical engineer, would have used a hammer.

No dice, comrade! Senate floats Russia-busting election law

"Among the Russia-specific provisions are calls for the White House to produce and maintain a regular report on the net worth of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and any other individuals who would potentially have an interest in meddling with US affairs."

Does this mean we get to see Trump's tax returns? (Along with all other candidates, of course. Can't pick and choose.)

Frontline workers urged to help stop UK.gov automating data slurps for immigration checks

Identity is a slippery concept. What are the data collected? Lists of names? Try a Google search for your own name and see how many hits there are that you know aren't you. Can you work out how many distinct people that represents. How many of them might be close enough on some characteristic that some matching algorithm might merge you? From my own experience I know I've had namesakes in two careers I've followed. I've even had an agency send me a contract for one of them for a gig I didn't apply for and which was outside my area of expertise (dumb agents; should go be company names, not people names). And yet neither my given name nor surname come very high on lists of commonest names.

Citation needed.

Hands up who can tell me which pupil details transfer system has glitched. Yes, Capita's

"We are investigating one customer incident relating to a minor coding issue"

It's only a minor coding issue but enough to tell users they shouldn't use it. What would count as a major coding issue?

Two Arkansas dipsticks nicked after allegedly taking turns to shoot each other while wearing bulletproof vests

Re: bullet-resistant vest

"I thought they're generally called -proof"

I doubt neither their makers' legal department nor insurers would have accepted "proof".

Re: Testing in the real world

Like phuzz said - evolution in action.

Re: On the plus side..

"hit something more vital like a head"

Not too much to damage there if they had.

Re: Definite Darwin Award winner in the making

No way. They were only stupid, not daft. The vests were only bullet-proof, not car-proof.

Astroboffins may have cracked the mystery of where the photons from weird gamma ray bursts come from

"This idea of radiative emissions coming from a relativistic jet of matter does remind me of Cherenkov radiation, though."

Especially if you consider this: https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/03/30/0542222/physicists-predict-a-way-to-squeeze-light-from-the-vacuum-of-empty-space

Re: Meaning of words

"Things that radiate are not necessarily electromagnetic radiation."

True, but when the origins of em radiation are being considered more care ought to have been taken to avoid confusion between this and matter.

International Bullying Machine? Big Blue seeks exposure of corporate canary

Re: what a company

"I forsee a new company being formed of former RH staff very soon"

Let's hope IBM keep pottering on.

It's time to reset the 'Days without a Facebook data loss' sign after 500 million records left exposed on AWS

"The data exposed in each of these sets would not exist without Facebook, yet these data sets are no longer under Facebook’s control."

If FB makes it possible to abstract data in this way they need to accept responsibility. If they don't want the responsibility the corollary is obvious.

Autonomy's financial reports? I didn't even read KPMG's due-diligence, says ex-HP CEO Léo Apotheker

Re: Awesome reporting!

It depends on what the public seating's like, then. I hope it's not the pew-like offerings of Irish court-houses, described in the Irish RM as needing only a pulpit to pass as a dissenting chapel.

Re: Delegating

It's a matter of who's responsible for the expenditure. If it's an underling the management can scrutinise them. When it gets to top management there's not higher level authority to scrutinise it. What's the Latin for "Who micro-manages the micro-managers?"?

Re: Sticking it to his old bosses?

"Looks more and more like Leo is subtly undermining HPs case."

Intentionally or not he seems to be making sure Lynch doesn't sue him.

Fortune favours the Brave: Privacy browser chap takes gripes over adtech body's website to Irish data watchdog

"It will just take a proper fine to convince them."

Even better, several proper fines on the businesses they've given this advice to who then sue them.

Mystery of the Chinese woman who allegedly tried to sneak into Trump's Mar-a-Lago with a USB stick of malware

"There is no indication ... that she got anywhere close to the president, who was staying at the club"

She's female and didn't get close to Trump? Unbelievable!