Posts by Doctor Syntax

Retail serfs to vanish, all thanks to automation

Re: so they are saying

"Are there different kinds of arts degrees?"

Yes, fine arts.

"This shift will contribute to the ongoing decline in urban retail and mall footprints, space likely to be filled by the e-commerce firms looking for warehouse space and distribution nodes in and around densely populated urban areas, provided municipal zoning regulations adapt."

I doubt it. A well organised warehouse/distribution centre should be able to shift more stuff than the equivalent volume of shopping space. And note the metric is volume, not area. Low rise won't be attractive.

It should be payback to all those business park landlords who've let their car parks out to parking vultunres when they find they've helped drive away the customers who ultimately paid the rents on the buildings. But I suppose they'll just make more money by developing the redundant space for housing.

80% of IT projects in public sector delayed due to IR35 – report

Instead of making up stupid schemes to block the "loopholes" that have emerged, re-write the entire structure such that all earnings are taxed on an equal basis.

Define "earnings".

Re: Headline misleading..

"None of those I'm involved in are affected because none of them involve contractors specifically to avoid these issues."

So how are they staffed? Surely not 100% Civil Service. Are they being outsourced and largely off-shored as per the comments above?

Connect at mine free Wi-Fi! I would knew what I is do! I is cafe boss!

Re: @Doctor Syntax

"that type of half-bright (or less) behavior of CFLs can be caused by switching the neutral instead of the phase wire"

Not CFLs. They're LEDs

"the glow is caused by leakage between the ballast and ground (probably capacitive coupling with an electronic ballast and inductive with a really old CFL lamp ballast)"

My suspicion is that it's some sort of leakage, perhaps a capacitive coupling, into the phase wire between the switch and the fitting.

Re: @ Doctor Syntax

"Spuds are conductive."

So is the human finger ;) Don't worry, I'm careful about that.

"The glowing bulbs sounds like a serious ground issue."

That was my first thought. However, it doesn't trip the RCB which makes it seem less likely and it's only those two bulbs that show that characteristic. I will, however, be getting BiL to take a look.

Wilko do SES "filament" LED bulbs.

Filament types are the only thing I've not tried, mostly because I've not seen any that have an adequate light output - I've become very suspicious of "= X Watts" equivalences & tend to look at the actual stated light output. The other problem is that when I've seen these in use in pubs they seem to have a very low colour temperature, in fact, they seem to be imitating carbon filaments. But maybe I should look again.

Re: Lightbulb moment? Blue = Intelligence!

"Cal is blue, true ... but Stanford is red."

Sir Humphrey would recognise neither. Maybe TCD at a stretch but nothing further afield.

"my preferences for lightbulbs is that they should produce white light when switched on, and not produce light when switched off."

Odd phenomenon seen the other day that I've still not got to the bottom of.

We have 3 light fittings each of which take 3 bulbs or, as sparky BiL insists, lamps.* These have been are SES golf-ball types. Incandescents last fairly well but go out in spectacular style, invariably tripping the consumer unit & sometimes ejecting the glass bit & leaving the bit of screw-threaded tin in place to be extracted with the aid of a cut finger or two. QIs fail undramatically but more frequently. I'm attempting to replace them with LEDs.

LEDs are a problem of their own. The good-quality golf-ball format jobbies have a large opaque chunk occupying the bottom of the globular bit and just don't work with the shades on these fittings so I've resorted to the stick types. These are inevitably cheap (not necessarily to buy) and nasty and (a) often fail to achieve the claimed equivalence in brightness to incandescents and (b) come in a range of strange colours only vaguely matching an incandescent of the alleged colour temperature. So over the past few months I've bought a considerable selection trying to find something acceptable.

On the last pass of this I'd removed one of the bulbs from one of the fittings to change with a newly bought one and noticed that, despite the fitting being switched off, one of the other bulbs was glowing very dimly! I removed that & the third bulb started to glow. I've no reason to think that the switch is faulty or that there's anything strange in the wiring. I suspect that the switch-mode power supplies in the bulbs are able to harvest energy from some form of coupling in the wiring, either induced or capacitively coupled and that whichever of them was the more efficient grabbed whatever was going until I unscrewed it and the other took over. But is this capacitively coupled mains? Or is it coming from the local VHF transmitter churning out over 1 MW ERP a couple of miles away? Whatever it is I've got at least two LED units capable of producing allegedly white light when switched off.

*"Bulbs grow, lamps glow." Until we catch him out saying "bulbs" like the rest of us.

Re: Smart intercoms/bells are a good idea, that are usually badly implemented

All this smart doorbell stuff is mildly interesting but what I really want is a smart letter box that scan incoming mail and ejects junk right back at whoever's posting it.

Re: Just another attempt

Whenever I see that page ... it reminds me that I should have found the email address of the company's marketing dept so they can eat their own spam.

Re: Lightbulb moment? Blue = Intelligence!

"I wonder why is Blue is associated with Intelligence?"

It's the colour associated with the Universities. Both of them, as Sir Humphrey tells us.

'Independent' gov law reviewer wants users preemptively identified before they're 'allowed' to use encryption

The technical term for his behaviour is "gone native".

"Can you imagine Amber Rudd doing the rounds of the Sunday politics shows, trying to explain one to the interviewer?"

Sadly, yes. The total STEM ignorance of Sunday politics show interviewers would make that possible.

Crushed Juicero now officially a fruitless endeavor

Re: Start off by going national?

I read that as "rational". Also a good idea.

Big Tech slams Trump on plan to deport kids

You've never come across the term "American Indians" then?

Just an earlier generation of immigrant. Apart from Africans in Africa we're all immigrants.

Bitcoin Foundation wants US Department of Justice investigated

"Money is anything that enough people agree to use as money to make it usable as money."

This surely is the core issue. Arguing that Bitcoin isn't really money is a strange stance for businesses built around getting users to treat it as money.

User thanked IT department for fast new server, but it had never left its box

Re: BOFH

"only believe half of what you think you saw."

Knowing which half to believe? That's called experience.

Re: Praise or accusations of work not done?

@ Antron Argaiv

This isn't limited to catering. Something similar is apt to happen with IT contracts via big consultancies.

Initial pitch: High powered, mega experienced consultants introduced to client management

Contract signed: Recent graduates & interns assigned to the job.

Deputy AG Rosenstein calls for law to require encryption backdoors

Re: Here we go again

"Just require the use of it if you want lucrative government (some run in the BEEELIONS) contracts, many of which can be make-or-break-ers for companies."

No problem. The US has a rump tech industry that sells to the US govt The rest of the world uses non-US products from firms that either left the US or started elsewhere in the first place. If that leaves the US floundering with its downsized tech industry why should the rest of us care?

Re: Two things

"I think they could enforce it if they wanted to badly enough. We already know the NSA intercepts and backdoors routers being shipped to some countries."

You're still thinking in the US box. There's a whole lot of other countries out here. Some of them have quite nice climates where CxOs will be happy to live, quite amenable financial regimes and others have cheap manufacturing locations. OK, the NSA can make those intercepts when the goods are being shipped to one country - the US but the rest of us won't worry.

Re: Two things

" I am sure it would not be hard to move the systems that compile the code off shore thus the product is never exported."

More than that: move the businesses themselves off-shore. Then, in a few years, the US can reminisce about the days when it had an IT industry.

"Anything known to Apple, Microsoft, Facebook etc is automatically known to the US government is not a good advertising line."

It's a very good line for vendors not in that list.

Rolling in personally identifiable data? It's a bit of a minefield if you don't keep your feet

Re: Just wondering

" If I sent an email to you, asking you to stop this, would you be required to do so with all haste?"

That raises a further issue. Marketing emails are usually sent with a no-reply email address. If there is no acceptable means of communicating one's wish to opt out (and clicking links in an unsolicited email has been a non-no these many years) when is this in itself an offence under the GDPR?

"If I signed up to every data protection seminar invitation in my inbox I'd have no hours left in the day to work... or drink or sleep, for that matter. "

Sleeping wouldn't be a problem. As to drinking, clearly you need to be selective about the seminars you choose.

US government: We can jail you indefinitely for not decrypting your data

"Good quality encryption results in random data, which can be decrypted to anything."

Following up that thought in a slightly different way:

Here's the key.

>Clickety<

This is garbage.

No, it's random numbers. It's an encrypted disk of random numbers. What were you expecting?

"For the time being an attempt to ask again gives you all you need to bring the case to ECHR."

Which is why our Home Sec in charge (and probably her side-kick, the Home Sec in office) would like to get out of the ECHR as well as the ECJ.

Oh, ambassador! You literally are spoiling us: Super-stealthy spyware hits Euro embassy PCs

"any other OS available could be penetrated as well, no matter what safeguards may be in place."

It gets harder to make spear phishing work if the victim only reads emails with mutt.

NYPD head of IT doubles down on Windows smartphone idiocy

"Many trust fund babies never bother."

And now we know why.

Re: Hold on, if I read this right

Not really, read Brook's "Mythical man-month" and see what he says about the "second-system effect"

But he also wrote "plan to throw one away". How unusual for an IT director to have not only read Brooks but also taken his advice to heart and followed it 36,000 times.

So thoughtful. Uber says it won't track you after you leave their vehicles

Re: Makes me laugh...

"Even making it more obvious when an app is doing this, as Apple are planning, doesn't really help, since there's still nothing you can do about it other than refusing to use the app in question, and it's clear most people aren't actually willing to do that."

If it's not previously been clear to users that an app is tracking them than it's by no means clear that people aren't willing to do without it.

Crowdfunding scheme hopes to pay legal fees for Marcus Hutchins

"Here, the key is... the evidence has to be weak. In this case... it's not. The evidence is seemingly strong against him."

What evidence? Where did you read it? Do you mean the redacted summary that was released? If so I've got news for you: that wasn't evidence. it was a summary of what the FBI hope to prove.

Re: No travel insurance?

"in a way, can you blame them?"

Yes. Selling insurance requires persuading potential customers that they'll get the payment they need when they need it. Weaselling persuades them that they won't. More weasel, less sales.

Two million customer records pillaged in IT souk CeX hack attack

Re: Some credit and debit card data was also slurped

"They fessed up, though, admitted fault, AND hired a cybersecurity expert ... what more do you want ?"

To do things in the right order. Hire the cybersecurity expert first, then they might not need to do the rest.

Lanarkshire NHS infection named as Bitpaymer variant

RDP

Remote Desktop Disaster Protocol.

Huge Apple news confirmed. Software deal with Accenture is official

Re: I don't understand...

"Why would Apple have anything to do with them?"

Money.

Next question?

New York Police scrap 36,000 Windows smartphones

So - what qualifications does a billionaire's daughter have to be Deputy Commissioner for IS?

I seem to remember a similar question being asked elsewhere.

Enterprises gooey for Windows 10 as OS helps Computacenter rake it in

Re: I wuv you MSFT

"Were you hoping for a round of applause?"

Or sympathy?

WannaCrypt NHS victim Lanarkshire infected by malware again

"being run (down) by a Government who want to privatise the NHS and who have their snouts in the trough of private medicine?"

Go read JinC's comment above. He's already nailed this political garbage. You know as well as I do that no party dare touch the NHS in the way you suggest and this is an over-used piece of claptrap that Labour drag out at every opportunity. And as JimC says, it inhibits everybody from trying to improve the situation the NHS has got into.

"But if we patch they loose their warrenty and CE marking since we're acting against the manufacturer."

Put them on the spot and ask them* if their warranty covers not only malware damage to the unpatched systems themselves but also consequent damage to other systems for malware getting in through unpatched XP and consequent harm to patients.

*Via your legal dept. of course. Potentially being on the hook for large damages is apt to concentrate minds.

Re: Failing to do so.

"legacy kit that can't just be upgraded"

I usually point out the the "legacy" system is the one that's earning the money and therefore can't, as you point out, be easily upgraded. But if indeed this was spread by Word attachments on email there is every reason to treat Word as legacy which can and should be replaced.

And, to forestall those who witter about "training to use this [allegedly] really difficult" LibreOffice then the training costs* for such a transition should be set against the costs of the obviously needed training for sanitary handling of email attachments.

*Really? It's not exactly difficult. It's a long time since I used Word but I don't remember it being that hard to flip between one and the other; they seemed pretty similar. Maybe the difference between the ribbon and the classic interfaces made LibreOffice a harder transition until the recent update which provided an optional ribbon. And in any case, those using the ribbonised version of MS Office must have either swallowed the training costs when that was introduced or let staff struggle untrained when they had the much less disruptive alternative of OO or LO.

Re: Underfunded or underskilled?

"they lost several managers especially in their IT area last year"

So undermanaged applies.

Nasty firmware update butchers Samsung smart TVs so bad, they have to be repaired

Re: Go Samsung!

"A Pi for plugged into a TV would be classified as a HTPC, not a computer"

Ummm... That acronym you posted - what do the letters stand for?

PC sales to fall and fall and fall and fall and fall for the next five years

Re: Virtual Reality

We're about a year away from the "business usefulness point" of virtual reality systems

Hasn't this been the case for the last few years?

Re: Useless

"As for my Land Rover - great for me out here in the sticks, wouldn't want to drive it around the city though."

I'm not sure about the latter. When driving in central London I always thought I'd rather have been in an early Land Rover showing all the scars of 40 years use on a farm. The locals who weren't scared off would just have bounced off & what's another scratch or patch of paint?

UK.gov wants quick Brexit deal with EU over private data protections

Re: Don't worry, it will all work out in the end.

"Incredibly daft though"

Incredibly daft to be in the position that that will be the best outcome. I doubt that much canvassing would be needed, however.

Re: Well said

"They would rather we all fail so they can say I told you so"

1. I don't count myself as an elite.

2. I most certainly don't want it to fail for any reason whatsoever, I simply regard it as an inevitability.

If that statement represents the quality of your thinking it explains a good deal as to why you espouse that cause.

Re: Diversionary tactics

"We want out of the EU."

Is this the royal we again? You may want that. You aren't everybody. In the advisory referendum you got a small (in percentage) majority. A great many thought then that Brexit would be a disaster, are still of that opinion and most certainly don't want out. You do not speak for us. And remember that your slim majority in that referendum (assuming it still exists in public opinion today) will have no bearing whatsoever on whether the outcome of Brexit is success or failure, that will be down to reality.

Re: They need us more than we need them

"A bloodless revolution which will return power to those who it should belong to, us the people."

One outcome is May getting our as far as possible from the ECJ. This removes a layer of protection for the people. Don't be fooled into thinking you're being empowered. You're not.

It's a good default assumption that any politician who seeks to remove a layer of legal supervision of their activities has something to hide.

Bombastic boss gave insane instructions to sensible sysadmin, with client on speakerphone

Re: It's Friday. So where is Alistair Dabbs?

He's still on-site sorting out an email problem.