Posts by Cederic

Workday shares slide following claims Amazon ditched company-wide HR system

I loathe Workday

A period of job hunting has given me brutal experience of multiple recruitment and HR systems and uniformly they're all terrible.

Workday is however the one I've found the most obnoxious. It actively conspires to destroy your application, mangles your carefully crafted CV and invites you to enter the same information multiple times because of its own incompetence.

Most recruitment systems, SaaS or otherwise, do one of those but Workday appear to have refined it to an actual art, excelling in all of those areas, deterring you from actually working for any company that thinks it's a good advert for working there.

Of course, the recruitment module may not represent the core HCM functionality but with so many viable alternatives available, I wouldn't even bring them in for RFI to find out.

Hole blasted in Guntrader: UK firearms sales website's CRM database breached, 111,000 users' info spilled online

Re: @AC

What annoyed many of us at the time was the kneejerk reactionary banning of handguns that inhibits many people in this country from enjoying a fun hobby (along with the additional complications for other hobbies) when Hamilton shouldn't have been allowed guns under the previous legislation anyway.

I like guns. I grew up in military environments, I know how to handle them, I enjoy shooting them, they offer tremendous tactile feedback and shooting is one of the few sports I'm any good at.

But no, nanny state fears its citizens.

Re: only private owners

I thought a shotgun certificate only covered smaller bores - I recall 2 inches being a limit, but even that may only be for muzzle loaders.

Above that you probably need a proper firearms certificate; check with your local FEO prior to purchase, just to be sure.

For example, even if you're only firing blanks, anything above 1 inch requires a full firearms licence. I can't see them allowing a non-deactivated 120mm breech loader on the streets on a shotgun licence.

No, absolutely they are.

If your firearm is not stored (when not in use) in a hefty police-approved safe then it's not lawfully owned.

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch loses first stage in fight against extradition to US

Re: FT

No. If convicted he should be in a British prison, as either he broke the law here and should be prosecuted here, or didn't break the law here in which case he shouldn't be extradited.

I thought his lawyer summarised it well.

Lawn care SWAT team subdues trigger-happy Texan... and other stories

Re: Bloody hell, nobody told me the police would cut my lawn!

But providing an eco-friendly environment for wildlife is surely a good thing to do?

We get deer, foxes, rabbits, hedgehogs and badgers here. Should I concrete my entire garden to make it inhospitable to them?

You may think it's a public health issue, I think it's an attractive wildflower meadow.

Gung-ho tank gamer spills classified docs in effort to win online argument

Plus of course the entertaining discussion that may follow with a very polite gentleman from Hereford and a few of his friends who are on a boys night out in your town and they're terribly sorry they accidentally blew your door off its hinges but since they're here now perhaps you might be able to help them with an unusually tricky scavenger hunt the trip organiser gave them.

After all, Budapest is a top stag destination and who can easily tell the difference between a software house and a den of iniquity after a few..

Where on Gartner's Hype Cycle is Gartner's Hype Cycle?

Re: Self serving Hype Cycles

Problem is, Gartner don't think. They replay what they're hearing from other customers.

If you're behind the curve this can be helpful. If you want to do anything that keeps you current or gets you ahead, it's a challenge.

Nothing quite like managers asking you, "How do we implement [Gartner buzzword]?" and have to explain that we decommissioned that two years ago because we've moved on from there.

Dutch Queen, robot involved in opening of 3D-printed bridge in red-light district

Re: Junkie bridge

Perhaps they could lead a normal life if they accepted the help available to them and didn't selfishly commit crime causing distress to others just to satisfy their own desires.

If someone gets a high from knifing junkies on a bridge, pushing them into the river and retrieving the bicycle the junkie stole from them, presumably you'd have empathy with them too, and tell us to think more critically about their needs?

People that become junkies: Criminals.

People that suffer an unfortunate drug addiction: Normal people, who seek and receive help.

The rest of us: Victims of the first group.

Empathy? I have more empathy for people that actually choose to work in a window in the red light district.

This is the data watchdog! Surrender your Matt Hancock smoochy-kiss pics right now!

Re: Public interest

I don't think this is the right way.

It should be a police investigation, with a security services liaison. This is a matter of national security - not Hancock and his smoochy-kiss, but the unauthorised access and sharing of video footage captured on security cameras inside a Government building.

That the ICO are pursuing it is frankly weird.

Re: Would they have bothered ...

I think the astonished public would be able to tell.

Re: 'In the Public Interest'

I'm ok with them trying to use that defence. I don't know whether what they did will meet the legal threshold for such a defence but a court feels a good venue to properly assess that.

I don't actually believe it for a moment. This was motivated by another agenda, and it'll be interesting to discover the background and circumstances to help inform what that is.

SteelSeries Apex Pro plays both sides of the mechanical keyboard fence – and wins

Re: software

I didn't get on at all with the Steelseries software that came with the mouse I tried from them.

Decent mouse, but the software support let them down.

Re: I'm worried about longevity.

My G15 is 15 years old and still works fine.

My G910 is functionally fantastic several years in but two of the LEDs have lost one of their colours so deviate from the rest. I concur that this is shoddy manufacturing but the primary purpose of a keyboard is reliable effective input of keystrokes and it's still by far the nicest keyboard I've used for that.

US offers Julian Assange time in Australian prison instead of American supermax if he loses London extradition fight

Re: Out of the loop here

I'd suggest listening to other more accurate sources.

The timeline of events was actually summarised very well in the article, and accurately. However, in case you didn't want to read it:

- Person in Sweden makes a criminal complaint against Assange

- Swedish prosecutor rules there's no case to answer and doesn't pursue it

- Assange leaves Sweden and comes to the UK

- Swedish prosecutor curiously changes their mind and demands Assange attend

- Assange politely declines

- Sweden issue European Arrest Warrant

- UK tell Assange that the arrest warrant is actionable and that they will be arresting him and handing him to the Swedish authorities

- UK release Assange on bail

- Assange appeals to prevent being extradited

- Legal stuff happens, following which a court rules that the crime as described would be a crime in the UK, that there's thus no defence against conforming with the arrest warrant, and that Assange will be sent to Sweden

- Assange skips bail, seeking refuge in the embassy of a foreign power

- Time passes, during which the foreign power enjoy a change in their domestic circumstances and don't enjoy the alleged decoration by Assange to their embassy

- Foreign power invites UK police to arrest Assange for the crime of breaching his bail conditions

- Assange is arrested, incarcerated, tried in court and sentenced for breach of bail

- As the sentence completes, the US, who have been bleating throughout that they don't want Assange at all, no, really, ignore the US politicians suggesting he's drone striked, no don't listen to the US politicians that want him executed in the US, no just the lovely cuddly Americans who wish no harm on him whatsoever issue an extradition request to the British Government

- A court rules that as he has a history of breaching bail conditions Assange can't be trusted to appear at an extradition hearing and must thus be remanded in custody

- At the extradition hearing the court agrees that the lovely cuddly Americans who wish no harm on him whatsoever will in fact kill the poor sod if he's handed over, and that's against British law, so he's not handed over

- The US indicate their intent to appeal the decision so the court remands Assange in custody again pending the appeal

- A further hearing in court is reported here; see the article for details, although note that even the lovely cuddly Americans who wish no harm on him whatsoever now agree that he wouldn't be safe in the US, in the custody of those lovely etc.

Basically Sweden, the US and Assange have all acted suspiciously, Assange's fear of being given a suppository, put in a nappy, tied into the back of a cargo aircraft and flown to a site where people will torture him is well founded (because Sweden have let the Americans do that to people before, and the US clearly mean him harm) but he broke UK law. He was punished for that, and he's being generously assisted in obeying the law by keeping him in a safe secure location from which he can't accidentally fall into a passing embassy.

Sorry, maybe I should tldr and just answer your questions.

> what's the sentence to skipping bail : forever imprisonment ?

It varies by case, but on this occasion it was 50 weeks imprisonment.

> is he even tried for skipping bail ?

He's been tried, convicted and served his sentence.

> the USA are forcing the UK to keep an Australian guy in prison

The USA are not forcing the UK to keep Assange in prison. He has been remanded in custody due to being assessed a 'flight risk', on account of previously breaching bail conditions and spending several years evading arrest. He's not being imprisoned for an offence, he's been held available for a future court hearing. This is standard in the UK and has nothing to do with the Americans, or indeed the Australians.

Re: and it was

The USA hadn't issued an arrest warrant in Sweden.

They don't need to: https://www.hrw.org/news/2006/11/09/sweden-violated-torture-ban-cia-rendition

Sweden, track record of not extraditing people to the US? Maybe but they definitely have a track record of allowing people to be illegally kidnapped and tortured.

That time a startup tried to hire me just to push clients' products in job interviews

Re: "Fronking "

Some roles in the US require a lie detector test.

I'm not sure if you pass for pointing out the detector is the lie.

Oracle files $7m copyright claim against NEC's US limb over 'unreported royalties' from database distribution

Re: Only benefit ?

They do still have some lovely technology.

Sadly their business practices deter me from ever wanting to use it.

OK, you're paying data charges in the EU, but you can still roam free in, er, Iceland

Re: Slightly different situation

25EUR is still rather more expensive than the under 18EUR/month it costs you to get unlimited data in the UK.

Well, I say 18. I rounded up, as depending on exchange rate it's nearer 17.50.

What I prefer about broadband is it gives you low latency too. But if you're not online gaming or engaging in a lot of video conferences then 4G is rather better than the options available 20 years ago, even on fixed line.

Focus on the camera, mobile devs: 48MP shooters about to become the sweet spot

Re: Why the obsession with MP?

Thing is my camera with its 'proper' lens can sensor shift for high resolution shots too. It's successor model can do that handheld.

(Not that I ever use it, as, just as you suggest, it's of limited application).

Audacity fork maintainer quits after alleged harassment by 4chan losers who took issue with 'Tenacity' name

Re: physical harassment

You can own a shotgun in Germany. You'll need a firearms licence, but if that's not a formality then you probably shouldn't have one anyway.

Galaxy quest: Yet another sub-£500 phone comes to trouble mobile big dogs in the form of Realme GT 5G

Re: Too big

It's not the size in the hands that's the issue, it's the inconvenience of needing a handbag to put the thing in.

I go out wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sometimes footwear. I want a phone that I can carry when dressed like that, without using my hands, without adding bags or holsters, along with my wallet, my key case (which includes 8 multi-tools and around a gig of storage in various interfaces), a good pen and my car key.

In other words, not a phone that is 'more longer'.

Jackie 'You have no authority here' Weaver: We need more 50-somethings in UK tech

Hmm, that's the people now in their late 50s and 60s.

The ones behind them were all outsourced to India and found jobs in more secure industries, which is why they just aren't in IT any more.

What's this about a lawyer looking for an heir? City of London Police seek IT crew to help crack down on fraud

Don't help them

Until the police can act in a non-partisan non-political way and stop supporting racist organisations while hiding the corruption in its ranks, just don't help them.

I'm not a supporter of defunding the police, I just don't see them as playing a constructive role in our society.

Not that I ever see them. The three nearest police stations to me have all closed and the only time they've been in the village for the last three years it was to threaten to arrest a woman for walking past a fire engine. On the other side of the road.

GitHub Copilot is AI pair programming where you, the human, still have to do most of the work

Re: The code it suggests may not always work, or even make sense

I suspect that's because XP never supported sitting in front of a screen and starting to write code without giving prior thought as to how that code might operate.

Disliking 'big upfront design' doesn't mean doing no design. Those conversations happened over two decades ago, check the c2 wiki for contemporary discussions.

Pair Programming is advocated within XP but works beyond it too. This isn't pair programming, this is code completion, lacking context and understanding of the problem domain, ignorant of the intended design and in its current form feels a horrible distraction rather than a constructive aid.

That doesn't mean it can't improve, but it's not pair programming, and it has as little to do with XP as your description of it.

8-month suspended sentence for script kiddie who DDoS'd Labour candidate in runup to 2019 UK general election

Re: impressively balanced

Not that one, no. Although I believe he has his own blog and also now posts on substack, neither of which I frequent.

impressively balanced

I like "banned from signing up to social media platforms using "vanity names" unless these are "made available to the police for inspection on request"".

Forcing him to only use his real name would be a horrible invasion of privacy and expose him to risks if he does online gaming or has hobbies that aren't work friendly, so when the summary mentioned this restriction my initial reaction was negative. What they've actually done though is a nice balance between giving him the means to protect himself online while making it either easy to check that he's behaving, or charge him with an offense if he ignores the ruling.

(He could have ignored the 'no vanity names' ruling anyway, so in that regard this approach is no worse than a blanket ban.)

A political site I browse (but don't have an account on so never comment) had a commenter that did have a 'must use your real name' court order. He received direct abuse from other commenters as a result, as they took advantage of being able to research his life in depth and attacked him for the things with which they disagreed. (He's now actually in prison due to a recurrence of the online behaviour that earned him the court order in the first place; a sad situation that seems linked to mental issues).

So I welcome this court trying to find a sensible balance between discouraging poor behaviour, protecting the public and nonetheless protecting the individual concerned.

Pull your Western Digital My Book Live NAS off the internet now if you value your files

Re: I am amazed

My NAS _is_ my backup. It's also accessible from the internet, albeit not directly.

Its backup is not.

Russia spoofed AIS data to fake British warship's course days before Crimea guns showdown

Re: To blatantly unnecessarily turn this political

America has a president? Who?

It can't be the guy with dementia that keeps telling reporters variations along the lines of "I'll get in trouble if I talk to you", that keeps needing to be led gently away from anybody that might ask him questions and that shows all the leadership of a four year old. Along with other comparable behaviours.

So who is this President because right now the world sees a massive vacuum. Is that what you mean by a world vacuum?

Re: To sadly turn this political

l reject your artificial ruleset and choose not to play.

Re: A couple of things here

Royal Navy missions often have media representatives on board, usually on the flagship of the formation. If the mission has a sole RN ship involved, it'd obviously be that one.

Downplaying it is good diplomacy. The message to Russia is 'these are not your waters', downplaying it tells the rest of the world is 'we are not raising tensions', with a message to both of 'Russia do not scare us'.

Re: To sadly turn this political

The irony of course being that Russia didn't have the numbers back then. They conscripted civilians and sent them into battle to be slaughtered.

So no, I wouldn't do that. That was an act of desperation that demonstrated Soviet leadership's view of their citizens as disposable resources.

Re: To blatantly unnecessarily turn this political

I did miss that.

Maybe you missed the multiple peace treaties, and the massive increase in world tensions this year now that America has a leadership vacuum.

Re: Diplomacy

Russia should be thanking the UK for being sensible and respecting international law by staying within agreed transit routes through Ukrainian waters.

Doggy DNA database adopted by Gloucestershire cops to bring crims to heel

A hash of the genome however can be held in a few bytes.

Why store everything?

(They'll probably store specific markers rather than a simple hash, but even so it's still hundreds of bytes at most per record)

Mind the gap(ing mouth): London's Underground to get ubiquitous mobile phone coverage

Re: Thanks I hate it

Text? It's all blinking video calls these days.

Of course, the obvious response is to just join in the conversation.

"Hello! We're on a train! It's awesome, everybody can hear you. Say hi to everybody in the carriage."

UK health secretary Matt Hancock follows delay to GP data grab with campaign called 'Data saves lives'

Re: how do you stop it being used?

This is the online form:

https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/

Although you do still need to know your NHS number.

UK gains 'adequacy' status on data sharing with EU, but making that stick all depends on how much post-Brexit law diverges

Yikes

Actual sense from an EU body. Yes, the UK complies with EU data protection laws, No, it may not in the future. Recognising these things feels entirely appropriate.

Shame the Germans disagree. I guess they're still upset that we're not helping them fund that mess any more.

To CAPTCHA or not to CAPTCHA? Gartner analyst says OK — but don’t be robotic about it

Re: Causes problems when travelling

Sadly many people with disabilities do. It gets truly farcical when the contact form to tell a company you can't use their services due to their misuse of captcha is blocked off by captcha, and then you try and register a complaint with them and..

..they end up paying far more to handle a phone call or a written letter.

Tech contractor loses IR35 tribunal appeal: 'Right' to substitute didn't mean he could, say judges

Not to mention them being liable for employer's national insurance.

Sorry but the Government and HMRC need to stop this pretence that you can be an employee and also responsible for employer's NI.

Do you come from a land Down Under? Where diesel's low and techies blunder

Re: Gee…

Lynne Truss. Liz sells cheese and may yet become Prime Minister.

Google's diversity strat lead who said Jews have 'insatiable appetite for war' is no longer diversity strat lead

Re: Out of context

Your suggested replacement is a false equivalence. You're switching a trait for the people with a trait.

A better comparison would be 'dark skin', in which case he can welcome and treat people with darker skin as equals while still avoiding sunlight like a vampire.

I knew a girl like that once. She'd be beautiful whatever her skin colour but hated getting even the slightest tan. She married a black man..

I'm not sure why you were voted down as I agree, he was wrong to conflate the actions of Israel with people of Jewish faith and/or people with Jewish ancestry.

Critique Israel for its actions, challenge the racism and other issues of the Jewish faith but keep people with Jewish blood out of both conversations, as their race is entirely irrelevant to both.

Re: Out of context

The daft thing for me is that the quote on homosexuality isn't homophobic when taken out of context.

It must be possible to despise homosexuality while also supporting the right and freedoms of others to enjoy it.

I don't despise homosexuality (although I don't want to participate, thanks for asking, and please, stop running your tongue over your lips at me, it makes me uncomfortable and the other bar staff are teasing me about it). Others can't help who they're attracted to and if they can achieve a happy consensual relationship then go for it.

That doesn't stop him being effective in a diversity role, and indeed a level of self awareness and understanding may be beneficial.

(His comments on Jewish people relishing violence however I find unnecessary and at best deeply ignorant)

Amazon warehouse workers are seriously injured more frequently than those at similar companies – unions

Days Gone PC: Melting pot of open-world influences makes for one of the more immersive zombie slayers out there

Re: "If you love a game, buy it at fucking full price."

Your support for the gaming industry is appreciated :)

My Steam backlog is down to a mere 150 games now. Almost all of those came with bundles though, so my guilt level is: None.

It does though mean that I rarely buy full price games. Sorry but your game just isn't worth £60 on release. Hell, to get the full Total Warhammer you'd need to spend £200+; even buying it all on sale has cost me over £100.

But that's because I've played it for hundreds of hours, so I keep going back and giving them more money. I'm still not buying Total Warhammer 3 for full price.

USB-C levels up and powers up to deliver 240W in upgraded power delivery spec

Re: Gaming laptops

One power supply rather than two, and I bought a second power supply for my overnight accommodation rather than carry one around, but I did buy a laptop of that ilk when I was working away from home four nights a week.

Meant I could use the same computer in both locations with minimal fuss and still get 'better than the average desktop' levels of compute and graphics.

Google employee helped UK government switch from disastrous COVID-19 strategy, according to Dominic Cummings

Re: Hang on

Plus of course the official Sage minutes telling us that Sage were not recommending a lockdown even in early March.

Mistakes were made. People made poor decisions. Data was inadequate or inaccurate. Models were fucking awful. We knew that anyway, but finding out where and why will help improve systems and processes, and hopefully enable a better response to future unplanned events.

I'm still not going to get irate at the individuals involved. Hindsight is wonderful but I'm honest enough to know I'd have made mistakes too, and I still genuinely couldn't tell you the best balance between 'let people die' and 'save the economy' - not least because if you don't save the economy, more people die.

So I'm just going to ignore all the finger pointing and media agitation over the next couple of weeks. They're just after scapegoats and stories.

Computer Misuse Act: Tell the Home Office infosec needs a public interest defence in law, says CyberUp campaign

Re: Additionally

Your computer is running zombie software. Please remove it from the internet.

Now, you've been notified, so under your proposal you could be prosecuted. I fear additional controls and protections may be required.

Re: Rather than a defence...

I understand the need for a 'public interest' defence but would be irate if someone tried using it to justify hacking my systems.

Your idea has some flaws but is also in its current form very much worth submitting to the 'call for action' so if you haven't already done so, do consider raising it with them.

One challenge is the targeted party doesn't know that they're being attacked for benign purposes; they could launch countermeasures and we end up with the plot of Neuromancer.