Posts by Doctor Syntax

By 2040, computers will need more electricity than the world can generate

The limiting factor might be the number of coders required to write enough bloat to require all those computers.

Re: Clearly needs a Doc Emmett Brown

"some bad things are exponential"

However, some things which look exponential are sigmoidal.

No, the VCR is not about to die. It died years ago. Now it's VHS/DVD combo boxes' turn

Re: Actually VCRs still exist

"they probably still have a large library of tapes sat in storage."

And at some time in the future they'll have a big panic because they find they've got a large library and nothing that can read it. How many times has that happened?

Re: Actually VCRs still exist

"Essentially you have a computer with an array of DVB-S2 cards."

Or one DVB-T card with a couple of tuner modules on it. As it can take several streams from a single physical tuner you'd be hard pushed to find enough simultaneous watchable programmes to exceed its limits. In fact, I'm not sure mine uses the second tuner very often.

Re: Stop making me feel old

DAT

It was the major storage medium in a lot of applications in the late '80s/'90s. HP made a 6 slot changer. Combined with a bit of scripting that was the way to do unattended overnight backups.

Free Windows 10 upgrade: Time is running out – should you do it?

Re: WTF

"Will somebody please think of the children!"

Indeed. I'm thinking of my granddaughter. She's about to get a laptop. It won't be W10.

"there was a dearth of programmers interested in writing software for Windows"

There may be something in this. At the time there was a DOS office suite called Smartware. My employers of the time were big users. Informix bought it. In one of several inexplicable decisions the then management team made they didn't port it to Windows (they did contrive to add Informix as a back-end storage for Smartware - but only to the spreadsheet component and not to the database). A bit of rationality there could have seen them taking over the Windows office market. In the end IBM took them over instead.

Re: OSX

"That depends to a large extent on what you need a computer for. If, for example, you're into full time publishing, then you're most likely going to be running Adobe InDesign....Since engaging in that battle requires time, and time is money, then it's a no-brainer to run your business on OS X."

Like you I'm retired so I don't need that sort of thing. Writing. A little development, mostly with Lazarus. GIS. Any Unix-style OS does fine.

Re: OSX

I can't say I have anything against Macs, really. After all, they're Unix underneath. It's just the price. I wouldn't even say I couldn't afford one if I really wanted one, it's just that there's good enough cheaper elsewhere and always better things to do with spare cash.

Re: "....should you do it?"

@TeeCee

Your choice of icon seems appropriate for your views.

As I've said a number of times here, go and read what Microsoft grant themselves access to once you've agreed to their T&Cs. And read it carefully enough to spot that they don't exclude any accreditations you may have with non-Microsoft entities, nor to any transactions you may make with non-Microsoft entities. Remember that Microsoft, at the very top, is run by lawyers; do you think such gaps were accidental oversights?

Yes, they've made various statements as to the fact that they don't do this, don't do that. They may well be prepared to swear on a stack of Bibles that they don't. It doesn't alter the fact that that can be changed tomorrow by an update that their users won't be able to decline and the legal gate to allow them to do that has been left wide open.

And if you still don't think that amounts to anything, then at least take a little time to ponder why the French data protection regulator is now taking them to task over all this.

Re: dont forget your tin foil

"Funny thing is these same type of people gave the same complaints for every new ms os , including their beloved windows 7, "I'm never moving off of windows xp, windows 7 is piece of junk, spyware ridden, I cant believe you have to switch to admin to change system settings""

You seem to have an intermittent problem with your shift key.

Actually, from my recollection, no previous Windows version seems to have triggered this amount of ire. In fact I don't think all the previous versions put together have done so, and Vista and W8 have made serious contributions. So you have to ask yourself whether there might, just possibly, even slightly, be something that you're missing about this. If you can overcome your lack of curiosity I suggest you start with reading all the T&C/Privacy policy stuff. In particular, ask yourself what ought to have been there on the limits to their "telemetry". Don't look at their blog posts which say "we don't do that" or "only people with a business case" (what business case FFS?). Look at what they get you to grant them that right to do any time they decide to do it.

Re: No, just don't

"Marketing people are the most goddamned arrogant, self important assholes you will ever meet."

Why do you think I included the word "intelligent"?

Re: The OP forgot one advantage

"Thumbs up for your enthusiasm, if nothing else."

Thumbs down for it.

Re: Ahem. Actual real user here....

"immediately let it upgrade to Win 10."

Immediately? As in, before reading the "privacy" policy? I hope this ordinary user never uses it for work where data security is an issue because her legal department will throw a fit if they read it.

Re: Mint 18 + WINE

"WPS Office, which has a better interface than Libre Office IMHO....Print quality ... not quite as good with WPS"

WPS. Subscription model? Does it have open standard file formats?

Re: No, just don't

"And they just don't understand why."

An intelligent marketing department, instead of sending out shills to sites like this, would have people read the comments and learn from them.

"For windows 7 support will eventually stop and you'll have to pay for an upgrade"

At that point, if not before, you can put a better OS on it. There are several out there beyond Microsoft-land.

"Boy does that sound like a trap."

No, it sounds like good news if it actually means the end of the rape attempts. The worrying thing is the possibility of a last minute decision to continue the free offer "on account of the demand" (i.e. not enough of it).

Re: Cue people complaining

"Your point is?"

As far as I can see it's "Ooh shiny".

Re: Cue people complaining

"If you work in IT you're just making yourself outdated."

If you work in IT you become very cynical about upgrades. You become very cynical indeed when people try such extreme tactics to force upgrades onto you systems. And, if you've got your wits about you, you read the T&Cs very, very carefully. Just go and read those. If you can't grasp the problem you should take up a job that doesn't require reading skills. Note that I avoided saying "if you can't see the problem" because the problem lies in what's omitted.

"What I love about working in IT is how everybody is in favour of progress"

And, of course, their ability to distinguish between progress and regress.

Re: and after upgrading, to get the FULL Windows 10 experience...

"What a tedious comment."

You said that before. Saying it again really is tedious. Hey Cortana is that you?

Re: Just say no.

"The exaggeration is pathetic."

I take it you're a stranger here. Those of us who are regulars remember Andy's account of the grief it's caused him.

Re: am i the only one resisting this

"Forceware. Absolutely brilliant term."

And it suggests the homophone "forswear". Nice.

Re: am i the only one resisting this

"While closing the deal the finance guy got REALLY pushy about how a lease was the best option for me."

You didn't say "Shut up or I walk."? Why not?

"use the advanced installer to opt out of the telemetry."

How do you know that you're opted out? How do you know a future update won't opt you back in without telling you? How do you substitute a more restricted set of T&Cs than the standard ones? Have you ever read those carefully? If you think you have, read again and try to find any restrictions on what they can take. I would not be prepared to put anything with those T&Cs on anything other than a burner test box.

Re: Windows8.2=10 is a fraud and a scam!

'They have never explained the term "supported lifetime of the device".'

As far as the UK is concerned there seems to be a likely collision with Trading Standards at some point and with the corresponding regulators in other countries with strong customer protection legislation. Maybe not in France if it gets banned completely due to their run-in with CNIL

UK employers still reluctant to hire recent CompSci grads

Re: Meanwhile, back in America..

'They asked for someone with "5+ years experience with Solaris 10"'

I blame ISO9000 and similar crap for this. They have their quality manuals saying that everyone working with whatever should have a minimum of 5 years in it because it looks impressive. Unfortunately it's written by someone with a total lack of contact with the real world (my view of most quality wonks) who doesn't realise that (a) in some fields technologies turn over faster than that, (b) there's no way everyone arrives fully minted with 5 years' experience in anything and (c) there's no way on paper of distinguishing between 5 years' experience and 1 year's experience repeated 5 times.

Re: Interesting...

"'Cos I'm really really old I started on a trainer board with a hex keypad"

No, if you were really old you'd have started with punched cards.

Re: @Anonymous Curd

"How big is an int in C?"

Accountant's answer: how big do you want it to be?

Re: He said the F word

"it won't be long before those dull cars are quite good, cheap and moving into the European market."

And moving in despite being dull and having a tariff barrier against them. Yup, got that.

Re: He said the F word

"Apparently once we leave the EU we wont be able to employ Engineering talent from europe in our car factories"

Probably because at least some the car factories here will be run down.

1. They belong to foreign companies who are here because it provides them with a manufacturing base in the EU. Note those words: in the EU.

2. When we leave the EU we won't be providing a manufacturing base in the EU.

3. If we're not providing a base in the EU the owners will make their new investments in countries in the EU because that's what they want.

4. That means that new products will be made in EU countries, not the non-EU UK.

5. When the product lines made in the UK reach end of life there'll be no work for the factories and they'll close. Or maybe made into museums so people can see that a car factory looked like back in the olden days when we had no control over our destiny.

Microsoft's 3D Jedi phone explored

"UI – which hasn't changed in almost a decade."

There's usually a reason why that happens.

Re: Wave your hand and hope....

"I think the most usable radio is the one in my wife's VW Caddy; it is electronic"

Don't tell me the days of steam radio are finally over.

She wants it. She needs it. Shall I give it to her or keep doing it by myself?

Re: Been there, done that...

'On my last day on a contract I usually wear my original Network Week BOFH tee with "YOUR computer's broken and it's MY problem?"'

Does anyone do an updated version: "YOU'RE running Windows 10 and it's MY problem?"'?

"It's called job security, computers that just work leave you with nothing to do and management wondering what the hell you are doing all day.

Ironically I failed miserably at establishing job security by standardising, idiot-proofing and automating everything, which was my job."

You seem to have been very unlucky. Most companies simply go out and recruit a better class of idiot.

Re: Drag and drop between windows

"I believe you can get similar safety feature on modern journalling filesystems, but I think you have to be using Linux."

Maybe you're thinking of ZFS - Sun, BSD & just recently on Linux.

Re: Obsessive

"The Ancient Greeks obviously had their own equivalent of being IT support."

Of course they had. They needed it for the Antikythera machine.

Re: Obsessive

With only a little more paranoia you'd be a trainee DBA.

Diablo conjures up hell of a DIMM: 128GB NAND pretend-RAM summoned

Re: What's the point?

"This will cost an 1) An Arm, 2) A leg, 3) A kidney and 4) the lives of your unborn children."

According to the article it's a good deal cheaper than the equivalent real RAM. That's the point.

IT boss 'set up fake companies to charge his employers $2.4m'

He set up a chain of accounts to try to avoid detection - and then paid it into his own account?

Gartner's hype cycle turned upside down to assess Brexit

When Gartner tell you it won't be as bad as expected you should really start to worry.

Tight-wad Apple repair techs swapped our damaged iGear with used kit – lawsuit

'equivalent to new in performance and reliability.'

What part of "equivalent" didn't they understand?

Google tests its own quantum computer – both qubits of it

"'Quantum Software Engineer' is a job title"

I think I've known a few of those. They only make progress in very small jumps and when they've finished they don't know whether it works.

UK's digital strategy must account for Brexit, say MPs

Re: Did you just think about this?

"no one had a plan for the result of the referendum to be 'leave'."

I think several did.

A good many of the leavers took Cameron at his word, that he'd stay on, so their plan was to leave it to him. That one's obviously failed.

The rest are just waiting for their plan to kick in, namely, magic happens. Was that a unicorn I heard or just one of next door's bullocks?

HMRC research finds 'resistance' to proposals to shift contractor tax compliance burden

Re: How hard can it be?

"If you're commuting from e.g. Bath to London, the train season ticket will cost you £10,000 a year. A contractor can pay that out of pre-tax income, whereas an employee (even a short-term one) simply can't."

And if the headcount gets cut 3 months in it'll be the freelancer's head that's first in the queue - or maybe it'll just be enforced rate cuts.

The essential point about using freelancers is that it enables the engager to transfer such risks to them. It's the taking on of those risks (including those which might need professional liability issue) that differentiated between being in business and being an employee.

"If HMRC came up with one, single, simple and straightforward set of rules for everyone - no exceptions"

I have an alternative scheme. Everyone has the same tax rates but the stability of the job is viewed as a benefit in kind and taxed accordingly so if you have a nice steady job with long term prospects, say working in HMRC, then you pay accordingly. The honourable friends should be OK with that; after all they can be turfed out at the next election so their job security is much less than Sir Humphrey's. I always reckoned that if the PCG had started a campaign for such an arrangement IR35 would have been dropped PDQ.

@ Preston Munchensonton

I wonder what your experience of freelancing is. It's essential to have a contract for services, not a contract of service, AKA an employment contract.

It's a good while since I retired but after IR35 came in I made sure I had non employment terms. It helped that I had a number of direct contracts and very few through agencies. However there were many reports of contract problems. One situation was that the agency would issue business-like contracts to freelancers and employment-like contracts with the engagers and got a precedent set by taking a guy to tribunal who was so ill the hearing had to take place in his home so it didn't get properly defended.

The consequence is that the engager is able to load the risks onto the freelancer so that in the event of a downturn or a project being canned they can be dumped without any redundancy payments but are in danger of being taxed like a permie with all the permie protections.

The problem is HR drones who don't understand the difference and CBA to find out. If they had the responsibility for ensuring proper B2B terms they'd simply get a different set of boilerplate clauses and that would be the end of the matter.

Bosses at UK infosec biz Quadsys confess to hacking rival reseller

That's a great thing to have on your CV when customers are looking for a trustworthy security vendor.

Microsoft delays Azure updates so you can catch up with the cloud

Re: Funny because Azure is the "legacy cloud"...

Legacy IT is what keeps the business running that brings in the money that pays (inter alia) for new developments. Experienced sysadmins know this. Inexperienced ones will discover it and become experienced. (Who cares about what the hipsters know?) Disrupting the smooth operation of that legacy is very expensive.

Historically MS have been simply pushing the burden onto in-house admins; the disruption simply hasn't been on their radar. Now they're discovering for themselves that it's not just a matter of installing new shiny every couple of years or so.