Posts by Doctor Syntax

One line of malicious npm code led to massive Postmark email heist

Re: Blindly downloading code

A repository is a good thing but it must be actively curated.

If it's just left as some sort of free-for-all lucky dip it's going to go wrong.

Oracle will have to borrow at least $25B a year to fund AI fantasy, says analyst

Give the sums being bandied about could it be more credit crunch than dotcom?

UK minister suggests government could ditch 'dangerous' Elon Musk's X

Re: A Govt Bluesky PDS?

"should have its own media system for announcements that is independent of other's controls and which does not piss you off to open an account to simply read stuff"

They should get Tim BL to invent it.

Re: Really

Palantir might pay to get the gig and do it for free. The we might have to buy a couple more to cry into.

Could ditch it?

Nearly the right word but not quite.

To digital natives, Microsoft's IT stack makes Google's look like a model of sanity

Re: His mistake is in thinking it was designed...

"Give it twenty years, people will be saying the same thing about Google's platform. Their big advantage currently is that they offer a lot less, so there's less to integrate. "

They'll probably kill it inless than 20 years.

What's lacking here, and needed for any large software undertaking, is someone, call them product manager, architect or maintainer, to take an overview. It might be necessary to meet some proposals with an outright "No". Otherwise it might be "That sounds like a good idea but integrate it with the rest to make it look as if it was designed in from the start".

Re: Marketing to the rescue

Don't forget Live which crept in there somewhere.

Harrods blames its supplier after crims steal 430k customers’ data in fresh attack

Was anything learned from the previous incident?

Intern had no idea what not to do, so nearly mangled a mainframe

Re: Expensive Lessons

I *know* they won't be making that mistake again

Only by knowing the individual. Some will make the same mistake over and over again.

Digital ID, same place, different time: In this timeline, the result might surprise us

"Starmer's government does not plan to charge directly for digital IDs"

Not directly but those without smartphones will have to fork out for one and those who value the security of the phone they use will have to fork out for a second one just to hold this something which must be done.

Trump demands Microsoft fire its head of global affairs

It should be a reminder to other governments what risks they face in handing over their means of operation to companies that face such pressure from the US government (for want of a better word).

Re: Judge people by your own standards

I think that applies to extremists of most varieties.

Re: Chamberlain

"Germany was in no position to defeat Britain in 1940 never mind in 1938"

That's hindsight. It certainly wouldn't have seemed like that at the time.

Microsoft wares may be UK public sector's only viable option

Re: Knocking the government for doing the same as everyone else

To a large extend what a commercial organisation does with its data is between its management, shareholders and customers. As long as I'm not one of their shareholders or customers it's their problem how leaky their systems although they really should be doing due diligence.

When it comes to my government, however, I can't help but be concerned because it's my taxes paying for it and it's inevitable that at some point one of them might be handling my data. I'd hope, therefore, that they do their due diligence in which case they should be taking note of factors such as this: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366632040/Microsoft-hides-key-data-flow-information-in-plain-sight which more or less confirms that Brad Smith admitted in France. They can't provide data sovereignty.

It will very likely not take many of the sort of suits against the police that the CW article talks about to start CEOs asking their IT departments if that's a risk for them. What are they going to say? "Well, everyone else is doing it" isn't going to be adequate.

Microsoft agrees to 11th hour Win 10 end of life concessions

Re: Seriously

Apparently that was just some unauthorised Microsofy but OTOH it's been officially denied and you should never believe enything until it's been officially denied.

Re: What a fucking shitshow

You're talking about Microsoft. Money grabbing is what they do, what they've always done.

Re: I wonder how they determine if you are in the EEA

It looks as if they think that the EEA is anything between the Atlantic and Russia N of the Med. I wonder what they'll do about Greenland.

Re: I wonder how they determine if you are in the EEA

"However, my wife and sons are running win10 and I am tech support."

The last bit was bad management on your part.

Re: "upgrades from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 did not carry such limitations"

If that were really the case they wouldn't be pushing W11 like they are. You're supposed to buy a new W11 licence with attached PC.

And what will you replace it with? Something liable to suffer the same fate a few years down the line?

To avoid such events either stop drinking coffee or stop reading about Microsoft.

Trump’s tariff‑shaped stick can’t beat reality on US chip fabbing

Re: Really makes me sad

I think it's the Speaker who's next in line and in answer to your last question, LBJ completed JFK's term.

Many employees are using AI to create 'workslop,' Stanford study says

Re: Bad Information

Attatch.

Re: Bad Information

But you can put bad information on a page and attache ads to it.

Re: If you have a shitty manager

I wonder to what extend this is a form of quiet quitting in response to compulsory RTO. Perhaps that will be their next research project.

If you can't use AI then it's bye bye, Accenture tells staff

Thank goodness they don't manage my pension fund any more.

Workers: Yes, RTO makes sense. No, we’re not going to do it

Re: Less flexibel? Nope.

"They push to come at least 4 days a week to the office, and then i end the conversation."

What if they say you can WFH full time?

Re: Can only talk about personal experience, but

Don't fight for the hot desks. None of you. Those in first get the desks and the rest start into manglement asking for as desk. Their problem, they need to solve it, even if it involves telling you all to go home and work from there.

Re: More worried about digital compulsory id

And when the job market picks up you'll be gone. Or sooner if you're also looking around.

You're in a stronger position than those whose companies didn't downsize offices. Just get together to arrange for everyone to be in the office at the same time badgering manglement for desk space. Keep the badgering going until they tell you to go home and work there.

Re: RTO, except when they can send your job to a LCC.

Train your replacement to do it very badly.

Re: So, the politician question...

There's a name I'd forgotten.

The key difference here is between managements who see staff as the people that do the work that brings in the company's revenue as opposed to manglements who see staff as a cost centre to be minimised.

"I'm off to go get a job as a TESCO or Amazon driver, do my 9-5 and done each day."

Not considered freelance?

Re: I completely get why...

"But when you're working on serious projects, video conferencing and phone calls just don't hack it."

There seems to be a contradiction in terms there.

In the meantime, could you please explain how the Linux kernel exists.

Re: I completely get why...

Ah, I see. Solving a CEO's IT problems is a "serious project".

Re: I completely get why...

"Anyway, I'm out on this thread."

Given your OP that's probably wise.

Re: There are still

"A company in Iowa or Vermont or small town Texas able to recruit nationally can get access to a lot of talent who would never consider them otherwise."

It probably works the other way round as well - companies elsewhere prepared to recruit nationally will be able to get access to talent that prefers to live in such places.

As I've said before, my daughter's employers are virtually 100% remote working where remote really means anywhere. She joined it after her previous job, which she'd taken just before Covid went RTO*. There's no chance that could possibly be an office based job - the UK office, if it really exists, must be little more than an accommodation address. By being able to pick specialist from anywhere in the world they're in a position to outcompete those who restrict themselves to local staff.

To pick up on Machdiamond's point above, although she only lives a mile or so away if there's a need to go over there during the working week for something it's carefully scheduled.

*I don't know why she took it. Her previous one was work from home because it meant frequently visiting sites over 100 miles from the HQ so it suited both sides.

Re: "unbossing"

"The worst had previously done my job, very badly, before somehow convincing TPTB that they would be a better manager."

Also known as being promoted out of harm's way. Not as easy as it sounds as there seldom is anywhere they won't do damage.

Re: Return To Oppression

The mainframe MIPS, memory and storage of the 70s & 60s fits in your pocket and will run for some hours from a battery. The big line printers are a different matter, of course.

Re: Chocolate and orange juice

In a chocolate orange the chocolate isn't being diluted by juice.

Re: Message to CEOs : it's hopeless

I think the original point was that it was discovered that many jobs could be WFH.

A great many of those jobs were originally clustered in urban centres so large that housing the workers was spread over many hundreds of square miles. The commuting from such large areas sucked up unreasonably large percentages of people's lives and had a carbon footprint that really shouldn't have been acceptable. Now we know that it was largely unnecessary those calling for RTO should be asked some searching questions to which woolly answers such as "company culture" and "team cohesiveness" are unacceptable. They should be asked would they still require it if they had to pay commuting time and a carbon tax - asked in the form of being required to pay those things.

The situation should never have been allowed to have existed in the first place. Now it's time to dismantle it.

Re: Message to CEOs : it's hopeless

Presenteeism is measuring inputs instead of outputs.

Re: Message to CEOs : it's hopeless

or vice versa

Re: Message to CEOs : it's hopeless

"My currently employer fully supports WFH but at the same time ensures that at least once a quarter the team are in the office for a day at the same time."

Do they pay for the long distance/international travel and overnight accomodation? If not they're not taking full advantage of remote working. Can they fit everyone into the office? If so they're not tull advantage of remote working.

Re: "gives people the freedom¹ to live² happier³, more fulfilling lives²."

Your post is most informative. Informative about your management abilities. It tells us, for instance, that most of the staff you were employing weren't up to scratch anyway (at least in your judgement) - so why employ them? It tells us that you didn't have any idea what the developer you thought was good was actually producing.

I very much doubt you'll be better managing staff in the office than remotely but look on the bright side - your own managers probably haven't noticed.

LockBit's new variant is 'most dangerous yet,' hitting Windows, Linux and VMware ESXi

It just goes to show that although taking down the infrastructure is temporarily it's not substitute for taking down the people responsible. The solution to that would be to offer rewards for information leading to the prosecution of offenders. Information might include "So-and-So is asleep in room whatever of some hotel something in somewhere with an extradition treaty even if the last thing they remember is walking into a Moscow bar." Apart from delivering results it would leave then wondering how far they can trust those around them.