Posts by Doctor Syntax

UK lacks engineering and tech skills to make government's industrial strategy work – report

Re: All the jobs were sent offshore to get it for cheap....

"As far as I know... they've mostly been discontinued"

They became "polyversities" and now offer full degree courses at full degree prices.

Re: All the jobs were sent offshore to get it for cheap....

"Money motivates very few people."

Lack of money, however...

Hitchcock cameo steals opening of Oracle v Google Java spat

Re: Well, it's clear infringement

It amazing how when small companies grow to be big companies countries they complain about the same thing which allowed them to grow in the 1st place

Re: Well, it's clear infringement

"There would have been no MSDOS (CP/M) clone"

No CP/M - PDP8 clone. Maybe DEC would still have been riding high.

Re: Nostalgia

"And whatever happened to SCO?"

They got taken over by a company that decided litigation was more productive than writing solid software and selling it at a price that could compete against the rather more incomplete offering that Linux was at the time. If the original SCO product hadn't been priced as a Veblen good, Linux would never have been more than a curiosity we'd now be striving to remember.

I guess I hope Slurp* looses the dogs of war on Oracle. I certainly don't hope Google loses because if they do then all code written now or in future that needs to recite the declarations from the libraries that it uses is in breach of copyright.

*Isn't Slurp supposed to be Microsoft?

"The problem is shysters generally do not care to learn about how anything works"

Don't forget that their fees depend on not demonstrating understanding of how it works. The reality is probably different.

Re: Concur

"The way java is structured any sufficiently large project needs to have API contracts and APIs and SPIs portion."

Should Oracle win, however, they have the tricky task of doing so in a way that ensures that anyone writing a Java application (which they presumably still want people to do) can do so legitimately whilst preventing Google from legitimately implementing the run-time. If they fail in that they must surely kill Java stone dead.

"One of Big Red's arguments is that Android destroyed the market opportunity for Sun to license a decent mobile Java."

I thought the reason Google went for a roll-your-own approach was their view that Sun had a decent* Java and a mobile Java and they weren't the same thing.

*Argue amongst yourselves about about "decent" if you want to.

Walk with me... through a billion files. Slow down – admire the subset

"Look at how you're DB handles itself. Very few files"

And preferably, at least in the Unix world, those few files are in /dev. After all, everything's a file.

Re: Some more details

Peter,

It seems you're dealing with a particular use case. But I'd have thought that in that particular use case where you're dealing with digital assets of some value the initial approach should be to start with a database which not only provides the asset management but also stores the files themselves as blobs. A general purpose file system is just that - general purpose: it stores executable, configuration data, whole databases as one file (unless you take the approach of having the database access disk partitions), text documents, spreadsheets....etc. It is never going to be optimised for specific use cases and is never going to deal with the situation of "we've not touched this file for 2 years but it's still part of the final build of $VERY_VALUABLE_PRODUCT so even if we delete stuff unaccessed over a year we still keep this".

As I started to read the article I found myself thinking "these guys need a proper database" and then - whadya know - they invent a database for the job, B-trees and all.

I always reckoned that the Unix file system design reflected the database technology of its day and, although the implementation has changed somewhat to allow larger discs, journalling, remote storage etc, the design of the interface has been more or less frozen since then. Perhaps it's time to move forward and at the same time build in some protection against malware and its effects.

Tired of despairing of Trump and Brexit? Why not despair about YouTube stars instead?

"If YT paid creators based a viewers ability to buy the products being advertised then none of these guys would get a look in as their viewers are 3-9 year olds."

3-9 yos don't need to handle the money themselves. The advertisers will rely on pester power, just as they always have with products aimed at that age group.

"Sod clickbait gamers appealing to the masses, what I really hate is all the people who now view it as a legitimate way to make money."

To restore karma take a look at the series restoring a Xerox Alto. It's still hand-held camera and sometimes dubious sound but it involves people who know what they're doing. In some cases seriously what they're doing; big clue, remember where Ethernet was invented.

Given the stupid sums paid to those who kick inflated bladders up and down fields I can't say I'm surprised at money paid for other useless activities.

Leftover Synaptics debugger puts a keylogger on HP laptops

Re: Can anyone explain

"Why is a key logger in any way useful in a mouse or audio driver?"

The same general purpose debugging code dropped into all of them?

It's a decade since DevOps became a 'thing' – and people still don't know what it means

Back in the 80s a small group of us handled development and system management. We had to do it all because at that time we were the only people in the business who knew this strange Unix and RDBMS stuff. The tools needed were part of the OS and RDBMS packages. Because we handled it as a whole we knew not to write something we couldn't support and providing support kept us in touch with what the business needed written.

We didn't have a special name for it. It was just what we did.

Now, not only is everything old new again, it also has to have a special name, lots of tools and courses and all the rest of it.

Re: DevOps is way you organize work

"No, you do not need paid for tools for this, you can do it yourself with FOSS"

Of course you can't. Unless you're paying wedges for tools, lots and lots of consultancy and conferences (did you notice the bit at the bottom of TFA) you're not Doing It Right.

"Cloud Garage Method? They have those flying cars we keep hearing about at IBM?"

No, they have a random word string assembly system.

Re: DevOps is still snake oil

"> This is what banks used to do

Banks? Like the ones that are having constant unplanned outages?"

Better?

Sloppy coding + huge PSD2 changes = Lots of late nights for banking devs next year

Re: Legacy Systems

" The other two are problematic for any legacy system because people will eventually retire and vendors will stop providing support"

The cheaper option will probably be to train new people to take over. And, who knows, those people will eventually know enough to direct the re-write. When a piece of software is at the core of your business it's false economy not to take care of it and that includes spending on people.

Re: Legacy Systems

"I think the only viable way to replace any legacy system is for developers to become domain experts."

That's what the original developers probably were.

New Capita system has left British Army recruits unable to register online

Re: How bloody typical.

"We elect the politicians (where we are lucky enough to have the opportunity)- it's our fault if we elect idiots."

You know what they say - whoever you vote for you always get a politician.

"No, no, no, Crapita, with the r"

Shouldn't the r be plural?

Re: "In MoD terms, £1.3bn is only one failed Watchkeeper programme."

"It's barely more than half an Eccleston"

That's inflation for you. It was a lot less in Noo Labour's time.

"Which is why on anything to do with dates I always start from the base date of 1/1/1970 (either format, of course) and then do anything with dates as Integers based on this. A pain but, oddly enough, everything that I have touched never got that wrong."

Just choose an RDBMS engine that has date and date-time formats based on this principle, then it's not a pain and it still doesn't get it wrong.

Re: MoD as always

"However, UK politicians (of all colours) have for many years believed in the magic efficacy of competitive tendering"

It's a mechanism for ensuring that the companies of the other halves of politicians or senior civil servants get the contracts they so obviously deserve. When all the preparatory work has been done the said politician or civil servant recuses them-self from the final decision so it's all above board.

<em.a pandemic like the "Crap Death".</em>

Enough on its own for an upvote! But an we just rearrange that a little to "The Crap of Death" and it will be just right for the el Reg lexicon?

"Did the armed forces forget to hand Capita the spec sheet? Did the spec sheet get lost?"

A few more questions. Did whoever drew up the spec sheet actually go to the potential users and ask what they wanted? Did Capita hand the spec sheet to the developers? Was the developers' native language that in which the spec was written (and that includes any military jargon used in it)? Did anyone actually think to let the developers show potential users early prototypes and get feedback? If anyone drew up a list of potential users as per above were they actual potential users or PHBs further up the food chain who'd never go near the actual S/W?

There are lots of ways for something like this to fail, to get it right you have to avoid them all.

Oregon will let engineer refer to himself as an 'engineer'

Re: Like calling yourself an architect in the UK

"Under Section 20 of the Architects Act 1997, the title ‘architect’ is protected. It can only be used in business or practice by someone who has had the education, training and experience needed to become an architect, and who is registered with us."

Even then it would be a good idea for architects to listen to others. Some years ago Zara Hadid was in the running for the Stirling prize with a design for a fire-station. In the TV programme about the prize the building was reviewed by a fire-fighter who pointed out various features making it unsatisfactory for use as a fire-station. One I recall was that handrails had unprotected ends making them dangerous for anyone running through the building - which is something that happens in fire-stations. From wikipedia: "When completed, it never served as a fire station, as the government requirements for industrial firefighting were changed."

Re: What about after hours service?

"in a not very rural area in SE suburban Surrey"

But that's not on the way to anywhere so you don't have passing traffic on journeys that will take more than a tankful of petrol.

Re: Oregon is a nanny state

Our new "smart" traffic lights seem biased in favour of letting drivers through.

They must be smarter than ours. It's common agreement that the only time ours do a good job of managing the traffic is when they break down and get switched off.

US Section 702 spying rules get deadline extension until April

And still the Privacy Figleaf is allowed to remain despite all the evidence that institutionalised data breach is out of all control in the US.

YouTuber cements head inside microwave oven

Re: Learning from Experience

"What was left of the blade of the hacksaw they found by the cable bridge looked ... interesting."

Don't just tell half the story. What was left of the would-be thief and where was that found?

Re: Learning from Experience

"Joke Alert - Just in case any Darwin Award candidates think I'm being serious"

No! The Darwin Award candidates should think you're serious.

Re: Confused

"anyone who takes to the oggin in anything less than 40ft long (with twin motors)"

People have been doing that for centuries before even single motors were a thing.

"The sum total of intelligence on the planet is a constant."

While the population is increasing. That sounds about right.

Re: Like me dammit!

"There was little disincentive, he didn't die and now he is famous."

Which probably means he'll learn the wrong lesson.

"Shame it wasn't the sort that heated up as it cured."

No chance. That sort of thing requires effort - it need mixing. Polyfilla comes ready mixed.

Darwin denied.

IT buyer? Had enough of pesky resellers cold calling? You aren't alone

Re: Well....

"Sales people add value. Some don’t but this vilification of sales folks is repulsive to me."

Don't call us, we'll call you.

Bitcoin price soars amid technical troubles for exchanges

Re: A fool and his money are soon parted...

" I just don't understand these things well enough to know when the crash will come."

Neither does anybody else.

Re: Short

"End of 2018 is my best guess"

Nearer end of 2017 would be mine.

@Gob Smacked

The joke icon is over there >

UK border at risk of exposure post Brexit, warn MPs

"Why did the Tories do this? Why did they turn an internal party squabble on Europe into a catastrophe for the UK and its 65 million people?"

Because they genuinely thought that a majority of people would vote rationally and the problem, which was far more than an internal party problem, would be dealt with for ever. It turned out that 2016 was not a good year for voting rationally.

Re: WHAT BREXIT???

No, you're wrong. Leave had all the details figured out before the vote. It was all worked out in advance so it would work smoothly, just as it is doing. Nobody was asked to vote for something that wasn't real. Don't believe all this fake news about difficult negotiations. We're building the stables for the unicorns right now.

Florida Man… pockets Uber cash to keep quiet about data breach

to have his machine undergo forensic analysis to ensure that the data has been fully deleted.

"And do you have a backup?"

"What's a backup?"

"Good enough."

European Commission intervenes in Microsoft Irish data centre spat

Re: Alternate channels?

"Does this include a limited physical presence and facilitation of regime change?"

It involves existing treaties which exist for this purpose and which require TPTB to get a warrant from an Irish court. In order to do that they have to put together a convincing case as to why they think they should get the data.

You may wonder why they haven't done this. They don't have a case? They don't want to disclose their case? Warrants are for little people? Due process of law is for little people?

"The government could exercise discretion to pursue alternate channels, where available.”

What an utterly pathetic excuse. The mechanism was open to them from the start.

The amicus brief should be simple and to the point: if the DoJ wins the Privacy Figleaf is torn down and never replaced.

Security industry needs to be less trusting to get more secure

Re: What is the biggest example of undue trust by security professionals at Black Hat?

"Get the right mindset, and then maybe you can create secure code. (For those security professionals who know how to create maintainable code.)"

You then have the problem that your spotless, impeccably secure code has to work surrounded by code other people have written. Do you trust that external code? Do you have enough years in your life to rewrite everyone else's code so that you can trust it?

You might have to work out how you can cope with running code from multiple sources and not trusting it. When you've done that you could even give a talk at Black Hat about it. Or you could re-read the article & try to understand what it was about.