Posts by BugabooSue

Verified: UK.gov launching plans for yet another digital identity scheme

Nailed it!

@Chris G

"...any successes will be in spite of government involvment not because of it."

Like screwing-up the Covid numbers because they were using an older version of MSExcel that could not contain the full number of entries in the column - this is "Basic Stuff™️" people! Just use the right tool for the job, and at least be cognisant of the limitations of the tool! FFS.

With humble apologies to Megadeth:

"Government Information Technology Projects are two FOUR words combined that can't make sense..."

Personal Anecdotes (and rant) based on 22yrs of Civil Service and 3 yrs in the British Army:

It always seems to be the case. In my old MOD research days, I lost count of the times we were "reorganised" by a new Defence Minister to suit their political ambitions. Each time it set back projects, caused cost-overruns, and EVERY TIME us Civil Servants got the blame. The reason the Civil Service is so shit is **persistent government interference!**

The same goes for Education, Local Services, Energy, Transport, ad infinitum. Just add more managers and reduce the funds available where it's needed by the amount required to pay these millstones on Society.

Do you remember us soldiers not having body armour while in theatre?! Not having the correct filters on the vehicle engines (especially the MBTs!) for 'fine sand deployment?!" Or how about the time my vehicle was told that we were out of RARDEN Cannon rounds because UKGov had "messed-up" the supply contract and thought we could go to war without the continuous need to supply munitions??!!! Julian H Christophulous!!

Any UKGov involvement in Service Provision is always ALWAYS ALWAYS a guaranteed clusterfuck!

The biggest shit-storm ever introduced into the MOD was "Package Management" whereby EVERY 6 MINUTES had to be accounted for on an FMA Form (Financial Management Accounting, AKA: Fraudulently Manufactured Account) of what project was to be billed. Oh, and we had to "show a profit" on that project, which was often either mission-critical work or - Blue Sky research. (WTAF?!!) As result we wasted a LOT of time filling out those timesheets and billing that time to projects instead of actually doing the sodding work!

What made it all the more galling was that the inventor of the Package Management system eventually declared that "The Package Management System of financial accounting does not work."

So what did UKGov PLC do once hearing this mea culpa from the inventor?

Yup. You guessed it. They doubled-down. Not only adding more layers of manglement in the MOD/Civil Service, they pulled the same shit with the NHS and fscked that up too!

Icon is gubmint-appointed contractors cronies emptying the Public Purse while pretending to produce something useful. Again.

Re: bank security is handwavy nonsense

@Pascal Monett

"Show me one bank account that has been hacked."

[Edit: I see Dan 55 and others have beaten me to it. Apologies, but the comment stands]

Well how about a publicly-documented one then..?

Back in 2008, Jezzer Clarkson said that it was impossible, and then some wag set up a Direct Debit for £500 from his bank account to the charity Diabetes UK on his behalf, after he published his details in his newspaper column.

BBC News: Clarkson stung after bank prank

Yes, he was dumb to publish details of his account, but how much of our info is already out there. It only takes the right bits to come together in the hands of a scumbag and nasty stuff happens.

Is this really you? You don't usually say things like this.

Hubble memory errors persist despite NASA booting long-idle backup payload computer

Re: Holey smoke

On a total tangent, you just triggered a happy memory...

When working for the Ministry of Silly Walks (back in the 80's) as an "Electronics Bod" I secured a Mac IIcx for doing 'lab work' <cough> so we could capture waveforms using devices via an IEEE-488 interface card and play them back using an arbitrary waveform generator.

The IIcx had expansion slots and used a 'Real-sized' colour monitor as standard unlike the little one on SE30, et al.

However, every time I wanted to do something I would find there was no driver available, or more likely -

"This program is not supported on a Lisa..."

Swapped to PCs for lab work after that, but I was left with the IIcx as a fantastic machine for CAD, and writing reports of the HUGE 24" screen!

Nobody else wanted it because the screen itself took up 70% of a desk and the computer about 20% of the rest.

Fantastic in the winter, but in the summer, you could fry an egg on the screen!! :D

I miss my "Lisa."

ZIP folders were originally a Microsoft engineer's side hustle until bosses figured out he worked for Microsoft

Not always a happy ending...

When I worked in the UK defence industry back in the early 90’s, I made a system for (let’s call it a ‘Widget’) to allow a simple targeting system to be fitted to a rifle and control its operation. You basically had a self-aiming, self-loading, fully-autonomous anti-insurgent weapon system that worked in ALL weathers. It even had IFF capability. Truly ‘Set and Forget.’

“No. We don’t need anything like that!” Said one department mandarin. “It won’t work anyway.”

I knew it did, because I’d been using it for point-defence in paintball gaming for months without a single misfire or wrong ident.

About a year later, this ‘mandarin’ (read as Asshole) was rewarded for “his” brilliant idea and given charge of a new department that of course got him promotion and a hefty pay rise.

When I pointed it out to his line manager that he’d stolen my idea, I was accused of “Sour grapes,” and “Don’t forget, we are all part of a team here.”

It was my idea that I had been looking to sell outside of my employment - something to bolster my pension. I never gave anything for free back to them after that.

Some managers and employers cannot be trusted to be honourable.

A couple of years later, a well-known U.K. defence company was producing this Widget, and making millions from it.

NOW I have Sour Grapes. Bloody Sour Melons!

Watt's next for batteries? It'll be more of the same, not longer life, because physics and chemistry are hard

Re: For an expendable battery, such as a lead-acid battery

There used to be a small-ish round 2V lead cell called a “Cyclon” battery. About the size of a D-cell that had REALLY put on weight (like you’d crammed two D-cells worth of mass into the same form factor ratio).

iPhone sales shrink for 2nd year in a row as delay to next-gen mobile launch hits hard

Upvoted as I agree for the most part as I am currently stuck at home and pretty much bed-bound and I see your point.

However, the battery on my ageing 6S+ is pretty much dead now, but I use it as a Portable TV, ebook reader, music player, and so on. It’s in use pretty much for 3-4 hours a day. When I finally get fit again, I’m going to need a new phone.

I was looking at buying a tablet, but portability and not being able to be used as a phone are against getting one.

I’ve been looking at the full-fat largest new iPhone as a replacement as the close-up eyesight is not that great these days.

Holy shit! The price!!

I just bought another new external battery case for the 6S+ (£17.65) and some stronger reading glasses (£3).

Sorry Apple. Too rich for me.

Take your pick: 'Hack-proof' blockchain-powered padlock defeated by Bluetooth replay attack or 1kg lump hammer

Mallet

It’s actually worse than it seems as it was hit with a soft-faced mallet so there was not the harsh mechanical shock you would get from a steel hammer. Not skookum.

Junk!!

Here's why your Samsung Blu-ray player bricked itself: It downloaded an XML config file that broke the firmware

Not Surprised

I feel somewhat smug now for NOT connecting any of our Samsung ‘smart’ devices, TV, Blu-Ray, Freesat box, etc., to the Internet.

I wanted these devices and what they could do, but not the endless snooping that Sammy wanted.

I do feel really sad for the poor sods caught out by this. I try not to buy Sammy stuff these days.

Because of the above, but also...

I used to be a VAR for Samsung.

I specialised in combo Sammy DVD/VHS player/recorders and HDD recorders.

After I had a number (Dozens!) of them returned for repair because the customers dared to turn of the unit at the mains switch when not in use!

Repeated ‘inrush’ current spikes destroyed a part of the power supply and these needed fixing.

Cheers Sammy, you never did pay me for the extra transport costs on those units from the customer to me and back, nor the petrol to and from your dingy repair centre (then) in Brentwood - cost me a good £500 in losses.

Pissed-off customers is great for return business.

I stopped selling Sammy gear after that.

Never regretted it.

Very little helps: Tesco flashes ancient Windows desktop on Scan-As-You-Shop device

Re: Handheld shopping...

They are ‘supposed’ to pick shopping in a condition/with dates that you would pick yourself.

I was on the original trial as a Picker & Packer at the Basildon1 store (almost 20 years ago now!).

Back then they used a system they called “WIBI”. It meant “Would I Buy It?” If you wouldn’t, then don’t put it in the trolley. They would rather us substitute something better/similar than send the customer a bad pick.

Don’t know if they still do WIBI today.

On a separate note, my husband found out by randomly tapping various areas of the computer screen (on the trolleys), that you could bring up the Desktop and stop the timer that was tracking your pick. Security by obscurity - it was a multiple tap in one of the corners that revealed the Desktop. :)

In any case, if you don’t like the dates or condition of anything, just hand it back to the driver for a refund. Or phone up later to do the same.

Not defending Tesco Home Shopping (other HS services are available), I just don’t want to see the insides of a supermarket ever again!! :D

Take DOS, stir in some Netware, add a bit of Windows and... it's ALIIIIVE!

Upvote for post, but mainly for the “Gripping hand” comment!!

Moties rule!!

Problems at Oracle's DynDNS: Domain registration customers transferred at short notice, nameserver records changed

Re: Yet another reason Oracle sucks.

Another +1.

Had been using the (paid) DynDNS service for over 10 years. As soon as Oracle got involved I closed the account.

Stoopid Larry!

UK government review of IR35 tax reforms? Like a broken pencil, say contractors groups – it'll be utterly pointless

Re: It's over....

Same. Said “Sod it!” Early retirement for me too.

Not going to pay more tax, get less benefits, and suffer even more silliness from the Tax Office.

Instead of getting more tax out of me, you get nothing. Idjits!

Talking a Blue Streak: The ambitious, quiet waste of the Spadeadam Rocket Establishment

Ad Astra

I remember my late father telling me of work his company did on Blue Streak.

I don’t know how true it was, but he said that some of the machining work was farmed-out to small UK private fabrication companies as a way to keep costs down.

It might have been total BS, but having had a career in the MOD, I can say that we were always willing to save a penny by getting local firms to do non-critical fabrication work when the budget was tight.

It’s so sad that Britain no longer goes it alone on bigger developments such as this. We could have had a serious space industry now instead of running around grubbing for scraps.

The US Army recruits WALL-E Chris H as its next-generation bomb disposal robot

Re: Wheelbarrow

Had much fun playing with these wonderful toe-crushing toys in days of yore.

Many noisy memories...

<happy sigh>

Tinfoil-hat search engine DuckDuckGo gifts more options, dark theme and other toys for the 0.43%

Re: Don't delay, switch to DDG today!

A fellow fan of Mr. Rossmann, or just coincidence? :)

If you thought Windows Insiders was lacking a little in the leadership department, it is now

Windows Exporer

I can get by with the Win10 Start Menu thing - once I have got rid of the stupid active tiles and the other childish junk.

What I cannot suffer is Windows Explorer! Whoever thought that this pathetic piece of junk was going to be of any use in a work environment is way beyond me!!

I recently had to use it on a colleague's PC, and almost freaked-out as to how it gets in the way of what you are trying to do - just give me a list of the drives and folders goddamit, and stop listing crap by "Recently used" and other nonsense!!

Also, what-the-flying-F was so wrong with File Manager? It was bloody useful!!

I realise I have spoiled myself by installing Directory Opus on all my Windows machines, and that I may be selling Windows Explorer short, but who has the time to waste trying to get that POS to work in a way that makes moving/copy/comparing files a non-event?

/rant

Change for change's sake is not always a good thing. I'm not blaming her personally, just hoping that future GUI/program (NOT fscking "Apps!") will focus a bit more on users who use Windows for work involving the Desktop and not bloody tablets...

A forlorn hope indeed. ;(

Plusnet is doing us proud again with early Christmas present for customers: Price hikes

Re: I miss Bulldog

Not saying they were not full of brown stuff, but in the "early days of ADSL" you could get higher speeds initially as there was a lower overall noise floor due to most lines carrying just POTS telephone calls.

As more and more folks signed-up for ADSL, the noise floor went up (due to carrier signal/data crosstalk between the physical cables) and speeds suffered accordingly.

At the extreme range of 8km from our exchange, we initially managed to get just under 1Mbps on an early ASDL2 Draytek. 5 months later, we were getting about 720kbps during 'quiet hours' (0300-0600hrs). By end of contract (1yr), it was down to about 350kbps.

BOFH: What's the Gnasher? Why, it's our heavy-duty macerator sewage pump

Re: Speical cards

Ahhh, the Joy of fault finding wire-wrapped computers and tracing THOUSANDS of identical white wires through multitudes of panel connectors...

I'm looking at you - Sperry 7000 Series.

When I was a PFG (Pimply-Faced Girly) in the late '70's, I was tasked with keeping this beast going.

Every few months it would refuse to play, and I'd shut it down to find one or two mains-powered cooler fans had given up the ghost.

Next would come the "Whisker Search" near where the fans had failed. Hours under a microscope looking for the 'tin whisker' that had shorted out a track, along with the associated eyestrain.

We also had a super-expensive EMI infrared battlefield scanner mounted in a mobile lab that would do the same thing. (Vehicle number 00WB10 if you know it?)

Good old MOD - bought the kit, but never wanted to pay for the upkeep...

Happy Days!! :)

Breaking, literally: Microsoft's fix for CPU-hogging Windows bug wrecks desktop search

Searching?

Gave up with Windows Search and Windows Explorer about ten years ago.

Been using Directory Opus ever since.

Trouble is with Dopus, it’s a real culture-shock when I have to use a WinPC that does not have Dopus installed.

The good news is that every year I have to use Windows for less and less programs. I just hope I get to use Linux for everything before I die. Time is running out for me, but I continue to live in hope..!! :D

Mysterious 'glitch' in neutron stars may be down to an itch under the body's surface

Re: Nice Hypothesis

"Pak" reference made me smile.

Or I would if I could - my beak is way too hard for that, Breeder.

It's a God-awful smell affair.... is there life on Mars? Rocks ruled out as source of mystery methane on Red Planet

Re: "we know natural methane is odorless"

"These are the questions that keep me up when I'm wanting to take a nap at work!"

Now, I can't sleep either! Damn you!!!

roft (rolling on floor twitching) ;)

RIP Dyn Dynamic DNS :'( Oracle to end Dyn-asty by axing freshly gobbled services, shoving customers into its cloud

Don’t pay Larry

I got the email yesterday. I will not have anything to do with Oracle. Cancelled the service.

We only kept DynDNS going for a private server at an office that did not have a fixed IP (and I was too lazy to sort out).

Thanks for the push Larry.

Queue baa, Libra: People will buy what Facebook's selling. They shouldn't, but they will

Re: As a Facebook refusenik I see a time when

Thank you!! Xxx

Just a little FYI: Filtering doodad in Adblock Plus opens door to third-party malware injection

Wow....

...never saw that coming. ffs

And here's Intel's Epyc response: Up-to 56-core, 4GHz 14nm second-gen Xeon SP chips, Agilex FPGAs, persistent mem

Buying Intel?

Nope, still not buying.

If it were not for the likes of AMD, ARM, and others, providing some competition, Intel would not be even selling processors at this level. They would be still be strangling the end-users for every damn dollar they can using lesser silicon.

I’m not saying other firms are any better, but competition obviously works. I will continue supporting the ‘underdogs’ as my long-term future in computing depends on it.

If Intel had got their way, I truly believe that we would not be above 2GHz dual-cores on the desktop, let alone the 3GHz+ Ryzen monster I am running today.

I’m all for making a profit, but stifling innovation (and milking the dumb users) to do it - that really sucks.

Ah, this military GPS system looks shoddy but expensive. Shall we try to break it?

Re: Sorry, but...

CLANSMAN?

Holy Crap!! Like you say - “a blast from the past!” :D

I remember seeing my gunner and commander using the buttons on the front of the radio pack sometimes when climbing in and out of my Fox turret.

Mind you, that’s often all they were fit for - footholds!!

Bad news for WannaCry slayer Marcus Hutchins: Judge rules being young, hungover, and in a strange land doesn't obviate evidence

Welcome to The Circus

The USA Law system is truly nuts now - I will never visit there again.

The trouble is that here in the UK, our Law system is also truly nuts now too.

Both of them have always been nuts, but the last few years have seen a whole new level of batshit-crazy being introduced.

I am glad I am getting old. I won't have to put up with this shit-show for much longer.

I've never felt so threatened by the people who are supposed to have our best interests at heart. The sheer incompetence, corruption, and judicial overreach is almost too much to bare.

True, the guy was dumb in the things he said and did, but these days - "Everyone needs to be made an example of!" And there lies the issue. "Justice" these days is a dirty word. It's all about the Public Spectacle and scoring points in the eyes of the gutter press.

Granddaddy of the DIY repair generation John Haynes has loosened his last nut

With the occasion bit copied from the Factory Manuals

I still find it funny that in the official workshop manual for the Triumph Bonneville T140V/TR7V, it had a diagram of how to adjust the primary chain printed upside down.

The Haynes manuals said that they were “Not just a rewrite of the official manuals”, and there was the exact same diagram - upside down!! :D

Why so funny, to do it the way the diagram showed - you would have to invert the ~400lb (dry weight) ‘Bonnie’ and stand it on its handlebars and seat - just like you would if you wanted to change the tyre on a bicycle...

To John and his family, thank you for all the help over the years.

My condolences. Another Great Man has passed.

Best Wishes, Susi.

Huawei and Intel hype up AI hardware, TensorFlow tidbits, and more

Which is the fake one?

So, the fake was on the left? Yes?

Apple yanks iPhones from sale in Germany – and maybe China, too – amid Qualcomm spat

As the “cholera meet plague” comment above points out - both of these companies are scummy fuckers.

I like iOS. The Apps I use on it are not available elsewhere. Replacing their functionality will be hard, but it will be a dark day in hell if I ever buy anything Apple again!

I’ve cancelled my Apple Dev licence and sold off all my Apple gear apart from this 6S+. Once this dies, I’m off to anything else. Now, if I can avoid Qualcomm as well, I’d be super-happy!

A pox on their houses indeed!!

Corel – yeah, as in CorelDraw – looks in its Xmas stocking and discovers... Parallels

Re: Oh no!

Yup. Used to love CorelDraw and that got messed-up. Then PaintShop Pro became a turd too.

I feel sorry for anyone who has relied on Parallels up until now.

How many other useful programs is this outfit going to shaft? :(

Another 3D printer? Oh, stop it, you're killing us. Perhaps literally: Fears over ultrafine dust

Re: no mention of the different types of filaments that can be used

PLA is biodegradable- if you have an Industrial Composter to hand - that garden type isn’t going to cut it.

PLA does smell - usually a bit sweet with a slight curry undertone. PLA, if overheated is not all that nice - gives off carcinogens. It also has a habit of bursting into flames if overheated as it hydrolyses around the hotend and nozzle so won’t flow away like most petrochemical-based filaments.

I write the safety MSDS for our filaments. These are based on the raw plastic stock that we extrude from. ALL plastics suck in one area or another. If you think otherwise, you are deluded.

The trick is to be smart when using this stuff - reduce the risks from the unknown. People thought asbestos was safe when they first starting using it - they even sprayed it out of huge firehose-like nozzles to coat enginerooms of warships and metal girders of large buildings...

I’m not suggesting that the sky will fall in by using a 3D printer, just don’t be an idiot.

Unless you are using an SLA resin 3D printer - uncured resin and fumes from that shit is NASTY!!

Not only can it cause all sorts of illnesses, the effect of exposure is cumulative. I won’t have that crap anywhere around other people. I think they are awesome, just be aware of the risks.

3D printing

I work pretty much 7 days a week with 3D printers at my place of work. Every printer enclosure has an extraction system linked to it and there are two two-stage cyclonic separators, nano-filters and regularly changed carbon scrubbers. The whole thing is vented externally.

I see YouTube “Stars” with rooms full of printers with no ventilation. I see printer manufacturers Josef Prusa and others, having print farms (rooms full of printers) with little or no ventilation. I see school classrooms full of printers with sod-all ventilation.

This is just dumb.

I see the dust and particulates that build up in our printers over the space of a week - no way do I want to breathe any of that in!

It might turn out not to be a hazard, but if you can avoid breathing in plastic crap by fitting a little ventilation system, why wouldn’t you?

(It won’t be safe. Nothing ever truly is)

I was a COSHH office in the MOD back in the late ‘80s. It was then I discovered just how bad some of this stuff can be.

A tiny bit of common-sense can go a long way. 3D printers are cool, but don’t breathe the fumes...

Susi xx

Apple might be 'collateral damage' in US and China trade dust-up

3D Printing reply

@James 51

Sadly, quite a few years yet. BUT, it is coming...

I have been involved in 3D-printing since 2012 (hobby), and now professionally for over two years.

Despite the continual hype and nay-saying, in the past couple of years I have watched the price of low-end printers tumble, while all the time the capabilities are creeping up and up.

3D printing is not yet truly at the print-and-go for anything other than PLA plastic, but I have seen SLA printers start to become cheap enough for consumers to own (despite the high cumulative toxicity of the resin) and print incredibly detailed objects, and now the prices of laser sintering printers are coming down too.

There's always the "in five years" quote being bandied about, but I think in this case, it is correct.

There are no cheap printers available for the general public at the moment that are capable of making functioning engineering parts out of more durable plastics (nylon, polycarbonate, PMMA, ABS, PEEK, etc) *without* some tweaking and messing about with the print settings, but it is coming my friends, I swear, it is coming - within the next 5 years.. :)

Susi xx

Fortnite 'fesses up: New female character's jiggly bits 'unintended' and 'embarrassing'

Wtf?

I just don’t get understand all this wringing of hands -

I am a woman. I have tits. They jiggle when I move.

It’s nature - depending on what I am doing at the time, they may move. A lot.

Get over it, ffs.

If people are that offended by jiggling boobies, don’t fucking look.

Stop this over-the-top PC shit, now!

Intel rips up microcode security fix license that banned benchmarking

Re: Unfair contract terms

I so wish I could upvote this more!

Just like the annoying ‘Anti-Piracy’ FBI warnings you still see on some videos (like on Netflix). Makes me smile wryly at the total overreach of it all.

Even in the heavily-surveilled UK we have more “Freedom” than the Trumpian Distopia.

(Currently!)

Everything's great at Supermicro, just small matter of impending NASDAQ delisting

Some good hardware...

Agreed. Some of their server cases were epic. I still use a dozen or so of their SATA 5-way removable drive bays on our video suite machines (makes it easier to lock the drives in a safe at night).

It’s a shame.

Gartner's Great Vanishing: Some of 2017's emerging techs just disappeared

I wish Gartner would Vanish!

Even if they do provide me with much humour at just how many times they get their predictions wrong.

Talking about historical events should be OK. Right?

UK government's cloud spending hits saturation: Love of Microsoft endures

Re: Cloud themselves

Ahh, I agree that idea would be “common sense”’ but I think you are missing a major point here -

*if* they were to set up their own cloud services, who would they blame when it all goes TITSUP?

Themselves???!!

Chemical burns, explosive fires, they all come free with Amazon power packs

Acid?

You know lithium is an alkali, right?

Not an acid...

Man who gave interviews about his crimes asks court to delete Google results

What this did

Was Make me go straight out and google who the fudger was - way to go Mr Streisand.

I get that this is not what the petitioner may be concerned about as being still somewhat flush for cash, he is worrying about future business marks partners’ impressions of him.

In any case, thanks for the reminder who you are.

Doctor finds physical changes to astronaut's eyes after ISS stint

Re: Some can, most can't

I’d still go, because I am old and it’s super-cool!

Upvote for Niven! He was the author who got me into SciFi and effectively started a lifelong love of science and a career based on that!!

Thanks Larry. :)

Basket case lawsuit: Fancy fruit florists flail Google over rotten ads, demand $200m damages

Re: Google AdWords...

@Aitor 1

Thanks for bringing this to our notice. I am seriously impressed at this attitude.

Well done Backblaze. Well done Gleb.

We are going to try the same thing. Hey it probably won’t work, but until we try, we won’t know.

Epic spacewalk, epic FAIL: Cosmonauts point new antenna in the wrong direction

Re: Hmm ...

Damn!!

Beat me to it!! :)

Scammers become the scammed: Ransomware payments diverted with Tor proxy trickery

Beware Management Privilege...

We have a local offline (not connected to the Internet) network backup system, multiple write-once protected physical backup hardrives (in a father, grandfather, great... all the way back to the dinosaurs), and I guarantee that at some point, some idiot will screw the whole lot into Data Hell.

Our backups have (frequently tested) backups. Our servers are fully-patched, mirrored and protected physically by sharks with lasers. The servers spend more processor time searching for Nasties than they do serving, but it will inevitably happen that some Twot (last April it was the tight-fisted Financial Director in charge of IT spend - the delicious irony!) who brought the lot to a grinding halt by using his personal laptop on the local ISOLATED storage intranet.

This was after his “son” (yeah, right!) had been caught using it at home to surf every grubby porn linknknown to man or beast - literally. I saw the search history and browser caches!!

Not saying what he did to the system, but the damage went back through nearly 3 months of business data before we found the root cause.

That vulnerability attacked was completely outside what any of us had envisaged (he was using the servers to save his, er, “Son’s” porn collection).

We now have a new Finance Director. SHE doesn’t stand for any shit - from us, or anyone else. We get the money and resources we need, and hopefully the company doesn’t have to suffer this again.

It will happen again. To say it won’t is idiotic, but at least we know that the backup system works - The network was purged and refreshed overnight and we lost nothing of importance.

I love the Easy Life. :)

Can't login to Skype? You're not alone. Chat app's been a bit crap for five days now

iOS 11.3 beta preview version busted too

At the risk of attracting the Apple haters here, but since the release of iOS 11.3 to us developer types, the Skype app has been busted for about the same amount of time.

It’s running in the background, and you can kill it and restart it, but as soon as you try to access the user interface, that part does a little animation, and bugs out leaving only the background processes.

Skype message summaries to my Garmin watch, but that’s the lot. No user access to the interface.

It might not be M$’s fault as this a preview/beta version of iOS, but it is a bloody PITA for work.

F-35 flight tests are being delayed by onboard software snafus

Moving Goalposts

A lot of folks who have not worked in the Defence Industry do not get just how fast military technology and specifications evolve.

In my 22 years in this field, almost every project that was delivered was so much more complex and (usually) more capable than the original spec called for.

This usually meant that budgets were exceeded and deadlines broken, sometimes on multiple occasions.

As usual, us poor sods at the ‘coalface’ working our arses off were blamed - often there is bugger-all mention of the hundreds of “tweaks” and changes that out lords and masters decided to implement the instant the project was green-lit.

Whenever we’d get close to completing a particular goal, some bright spark would say, “It would be great if we could interface Widget A (designed in the 1960’s out of the equivalent of electronic granite) as well as that new-fangled kit that uses SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices)” or some other such bollocks!

The goalposts are ALWAYS being moved!! “Can you just add this bit..?”

While I still think that the F35 contract management and system integration are total clusterfucks, this is Military R&D 101. Add to this *some* contractors “Riding the Gravy Train” and the waste of time and money multiply almost exponentially.

Hopefully, at some point the specs will get set in stone and the dead bits will get cut away. If/when someone finally has the balls to do this, the F35 might actually turn out not to be the bad joke it currently is.

@AndrueC

*YOU* “are the Light!”

Thank you for the trip down Memory Lane - you really cheered me up with that reference from my distant youth!

Thank you. Xx

Borked bog forces flight carrying 83 plumbers to bug out back to base

Mario would have worked on the outside of the plane...

...Oh, wait.., what..?!!

He’s no longer a plumber?!!!

User had no webcam or mic, complained vid conference didn’t work

@ ChrisCabbage

Saw that done years ago by a REME Corporal to a Clansman Vehicle Radio upgrade - because he didn't want to "fiddle about" undoing the few bolts so he could take the unit out of the vehicle where he could work on it REALLY EASILY!

Ah. Us grunts enjoyed two weeks of free beer in the mess, and that muppet cleaned and oiled (under strict supervision!) every gun in the armoury. Took him over a month of his down time - we are talking well over a thousand guns. :)

Happier Days... <wistful sigh>