Posts by Hollerithevo

Sweetheart tax deal appeal: European Commission takes €13bn Apple state aid claim to the EU's highest court

OTOH

The money from Apple etc would come in handy to pay for all the border customs checkpoint the Republic of Ireland are soon going to need to set up.

Brexit travel permits designed to avoid 7,000-lorry jams come January depend on software that won't be finished till April

Re: Dont worry, the pain

And in 1000 years archaeologists will decide the markings on the outside of the units had religious significance.

Re: An alternative solution

Yes, they do indeed have existing IT systems. 'They' being the EU. But the UK does not.

Re: More queues?

I had not heard of Newsthump, and read not only this article but the Blitz Hoax one, and laughed myself silly.

'Robbery, economic plunder, victim of larcenous cronyism and a heist'

It would be fun if the Chinese Govt just turned it off

If millions of American kids suddenly lost TikTok, say, before the beginning of October, what would be the political repercussions in the USA?

Answers on the back of napkin, please, for brevity.

Re: Heads you win, tails I lose - perhaps landing on its edge is best then?

And your answer is...? What *will* China do with the data? Nothing good, obv/s, but what exactly?

How to know where you are on the pecking order

If you should strike back, hard, as over China's earlier moves, and you don't, then you know you do not have the power and might to carry this through. You cannot afford the consequences. As soon as the USA rattled its sabre and then did nothing, to its detriment, we should have realised that the political tectonic plates had shifted. The 'red line' in Syria was another, as well as threats that war will be delivered on Iran - or that North Korea will be taken down.

And you forgot

Also cronyism.

I despise the Chinese government as deeply as anyone else, but the actions the USA are taking are actually well-described. In a sense, it couldn't happen to a better nation. In another sense, the USA now can't pretend that it has an exceptional moral/ethical/legal standing in the world. It is playing transparent hard-ball to enrich supporters of the Chief, and declares itself, by these actions, on a level with Russia and China, where once it postured as being above them.

It's powered by a mega-corp AI, it has a Liquid Mode, but it's not a T-1000. It's Adobe's PDF auto-reflow for mobile

Re: FFS. WHY?!

I hate working on a small screen and do not do it, but c'mon: you are living in a science fiction world where you have this small device that you can use to read, look at movies, talk to people face to face, send documents and mail, use as a multi-tool (calculator, dictionary, encyclopedia, play games by yourself or with others, and on and on.

You can be on a mountain or on a ship or on a train and still talk to your mate in Peru or refresh your memory on spoken Hungarian. And you can actually be pretty productive at work, with a small bit of frustration. Even though I occasionally rage, this is all pretty darn awesome.

Re: Hmm

I jump up and down all the time on designers and business teams who do not use PDF/UA. Given that it's the law to make everything accessible, they have to get with the programme and do this on PDFs, but each time I say this I get stares from dozens of pairs of dead, uncomprehending, bovine eyes*.

The fact that tagged PDFs then provide extra benefits for possible re-flowing might finally be the way into their brains. But as most businesses see websites and digital assets such as PDFs just a different and less good way of producing glossy brochures, I am not hopeful.

*Cows are actually smarter. My apologies to cows everywhere.

Should we all consolidate databases for the storage benefits? Reg vultures deploy DevOps, zoos, haircuts

Future proofing?

You can answer the questions you have now, but you know that new questions will come up. Needs move on and expand. So how much can you future-proof anything without making it all-things-for-all-men and therefore a plate of spaghetti?

As we stand on the precipice of science fiction into science fact, people say: Hell yeah, I want to augment my eyesight!

On the other hand

If my increasing deafness could be reversed or even halted, I could listen to Bach and Schubert and Sinatra and Torme and Fitzgerald and Davis and Marsalys and Clapton all day and be very content.

This is how demon.co.uk ends, not with a bang but a blunder: Randomer swipes decommissioning domain

Re: A sad day

Yes, I am a little tearful that Demon is no more. The Good Olde Days when people were really passionate about their services.

And totally agree on Zen: rock-solid.

Bad news for 'cool dads' trying to bond with their teens: China-owned TikTok and WeChat face US download ban by Sunday

Queue a huge rush

Anyone who was toying with getting one of the apps might decide to do this right now, so they are not locked out.

And if Trump Okays the Oracle deal, to give Larry the reward for his loyal support, then apps users will simply have two sets of eyes watching them: America's and China's. Group hug!!!

Woman dies after hospital is unable to treat her during crippling ransomware infection, cops launch probe

Re: Isn't the primary role of state security services

You sweet summer child.

Re: Failure is not an option

But as we know, the one thing you can't anticipate can often happen. It's hard to get 'wild card' thinking from people who are process-oriented. I have seen this in projects, where we brought in a consultant that we were recommended, but dubious about, and he started throwing really crazy things at us, and we saw immediately that we had simply assumed users would do A, B or C when they were just as likely to do Q, W and G, because we were so used to our systems that we forgot that people out there are animals.

Re: It's money, as usual

I work for an insurance company and this is exactly what they do. We are clear that risk-prevention is both required, and will get them lots of discounts and expert help if they have done all the right things and some unknown unknown has appeared (exactly the thing insurance is there for).

Do all companies understand their policies or avail themselves of risk prevention measures (that we help with) or do anything but whistle in the dark? }}sound of whistling wind{{

Why should hospitals be 19th century?

The problem is keeping hospital systems secure. No organisation can run on moated-fort technology or even on none. Ships abandoned masts and sails at long last, even thought hey were then dependent on coal and then oil, because finally you have to use the better technologies.

Re: RE hospital IT

Because they often need to contact hospitals, or the patient at home later, etc. And because they also do research online, because not every GP can remember every single thing about every single illness or problem that walks through their doors.

Re: Time to hit ransomware criminals

No, they are not terrorists. We can't label any particular nasty strain of criminal as 'terrorist', as then what do we call those groups who use crime and violence for political reasons? These guys are just criminals: extortionists, much like the goons who come to your shop to extract protection money from damage threatened by them. If the goon is using the money to finance a political group, then yep, terrorist.

Not content with distorting actual reality, Facebook now wants to build a digital layer for the world

Re: Great news

Bless you, my child. You carefully say 'business people' (one gold star) and then say 'mistresses', so people = men (oops). OTOH, I don't put it past female executives to have a comely lass on the side.

We want weaponised urban drones flying through your house, says UK defence ministry as it waves a fistful of banknotes

Re: Dominic Cummings will be rubbing his hands in glee

These little devices can also take out those pregnant women who decide to have a very small glass of wine.

Re: I don't think I'd be willing to help speed its arrival for 150k

Anon, are you all right? What on earth is a 'feminist-led Jane Austen type society'? Women as CEOs, but with Empire waistlines?

0ops. 1,OOO-plus parking fine refunds ordered after drivers typed 'O' instead of '0'

Re: And this ladies and gentlemen...

As a fan of typography, I agree, and my recent jaunt up to the Midlands, after a long lock-down, reminded me how good the signage is with this 'highway font'. That and the one for the Underground are constant pleasures.

I can 'proceed without you', judge tells Julian Assange after courtroom outburst

Re: No fair trial in the US

You believe that he is as guilty as sin. In your estimation from limited knowledge. But that is not proof. In a court of law, we require proof to be offered, challenged, and then found able to stand (guilty) or shown to be unable to stand (innocent). Which is why we require courts of law and not courts of public opinion. Especially as we proceed on the basis that the accused is innocent.

The link above to Crag Murray's website makes for troubling reading. Assange's trials have been, from my understanding, demonstrably unfair and being tweaked by some outside power manipulating the judges. Not the first or the last time our judicial system has over-identified with the political side of things.

Salon told to change ad looking for 'happy' stylist because it 'discriminated against unhappy people'

Re: I only want happy people but I am too scared to advertise my job now

I'm as suspicious of this as I was of her idea that her salon was a happy place. When owners/managers tell me their place is happy, I think 'no, you are, because maybe bullying people makes you happy'. A manager's take on the emotional temperature of a workplace is always biased.

Re: "developers, developers developers"?

But that's not equivalent. 'Experienced' can be measured. If you said 'looking for cheerful developers' or 'looking for stoic developers', you are asking for something that can't be measured and which isn't required to do the job. So you are reaching for an outrage.

Amazon spies on staff, fires them by text for not hitting secretive targets, workers 'feel forced to work through pain, injuries' – report

Re: If you do not like this ...

Amazon could give the level of service they do and still behave like an ethical company by deciding that Bezos has enough billions and to spend more on more staff, better working environments, etc. They could actually be an awesome company. It chooses not to be.

Re: Yeah, do not feed it - or jour own job will look like this, soon

No, actually, I don't remember. I remember this tired, defunct phrase being invented by ruthless capitalists off the back of Darwin's research, to justify shark-like, pitiless ethics-free practices. I do know that Darwin was talking about 'fittest' in the sense of 'most adaptable' or indeed 'most lucky with having enough random mutations to find a few that makes the species as a whole better adapted to whatever environment if finds itself in'.

We choose to allow shark-like behaviour. We can also choose not to permit it in our society. Like back in the 1940s-1960s, with workers rights, unions, etc.

Re: Dystopian Nightmares Inc.

You can bring any company to its knees if you refuse to buy from it. There are always choices. I no longer listen to my friends who are scandalised by Amazon and yet keep buying from it 'because it's cheap and you get it next day'. So waiting three days and spending another maybe £5 is going to make life a hollow mockery and one not worth living? Like the lives of those you exploit whenever you use Amazon?

Don't buy from Amazon. It is that easy.

Google, Amazon pass on UK Digital Services Tax by hiking ad prices, fees at same rate the government takes

Re: so how much do you care?

Which is why I go down the road to buy from my local vendor. I am willing to pay more. Or rather, I am not willing to pay the price Amazon actually levies on human beings and business in general.

Re: re: so it'll be interesting to see what the new competition regime makes of this

So you're suggesting that once the UK is going it alone in 2021, they will get tough on Google and its brethren? You don't think that it, too, will want "big companies to compete with China and the US"? Although fines on Google would bring in some ready cash, and it will look like BoJo and crew are championing the little man.

Infosys to hire 12,000 more Americans – especially the cheapest ones it can find

A false start

Infosys is putting spin on what it can't help but do. I think offering work for Americans in the USA is a good idea. I also think paying them properly is a good idea. Trump is not wrong to want jobs offered to Americans first -- who wouldn't, if you were in the USA? -- but American companies want the work done cheaply and the American consumer wants the lowest possible price, and you can't deliver those two things if you are also delivering properly-paid American-based jobs.

I also think it would be cool if H-2B roles were also heavily restricted, so those services/hospitality jobs (waiter, busboy, kitchen serf, etc.) went to those Americans who would be thankful for these roles. But as Trump himself uses H-2B for his own hotels and resorts, I don't think you'll see him saying much about those jobs. A shame, because there are a lot of desperately poor people in the USA.

Facebook apologizes to users, businesses for Apple’s monstrous efforts to protect its customers' privacy

Re: Facebook Tracking

Ah, I was wondering what Nesta was doing these days. When I knew it, a totally corrupt quango whose purpose had been self-replication.

Re: Personalised ads actually make less money

'Social solidarity' where? 'mutual support' - give me where this is happening outside of the usual groups: liberal supporting liberals, the right supporting the right; 'popular engagement' - how is Facebook serving up right-wing ads to conservatives and people it think are persuadable, and also left-wing ads to liberals, and also people it thinks might be persuadable, promote a neo-liberal agenda? Does all this even undermine democracy? The USA has always had two camps, and newspapers, radios, and (before broadcast media), speakers on tour, have always banged on about their own virtues and the other side's evil. One could argue, just as easily, that neo-conservative or alt-right is doing the undermining and the corruption of democracy. Facebook is beyond both camps: it is solely about money, and clearly has and will do anything to keep that coming, whether it means donning hippie beads or saluting a dictator.

TikTok CEO quits after less than three months in the job

We know who is to blame

Sarah Cooper has a lot to answer for.

The truth is, honest people need willpower to cheat, while cheaters need it to be honest

Going further...

How does it detect a sociopath?

On the contrary

It is useful to try to see if there are different 'brains'. I have argued against piracy and cheating and the people I have talked to never seen to get my point of view, but perhaps they have 'cheater' brains (or that I am a bad explainer). They have been frustrated when it would have been easy for me to steal or lie and I didn't. If we know there are two types of brain, and thus two world-views, we can, say, run a project differently.

(BTW, I am no saint, but I know I have been wired, by good parents, to tend to the 'non-cheater' type.)

Piracy is called that for a reason

Maybe piracy increases sales, maybe we are all shocked at the evil music industry, but piracy is taking something for free, i.e. stealing. Justify it all you want, but once you get comfy with the justification, have you trained your brain to be in cheater mode from now on?

Adobe yanks freebie Creative Cloud offer – now universities and colleges have to put up or shut up

Full price is still cheap

I got it for £48.99. A forever price. Happy to give them the full price to support them. And so far, I am really impressed. Does everything I need to do and more. As mentioned above, I also use PhotoPea (online only) when I am on another machine and just want to do a bit of "photoshopping". Used it free until I paid the £40 annual fee.

If I was a professional designer, covering print etc, maybe there's something Serif Affinity doesn't do, or do as well as Adobe, but I haven't ever looked in vain for the tool I needed.

PhotoShop replacements

GIMP finally did not work for me. I went to Serif Affinity's suite to replace PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign and, while there was a bit of a learning curve (you get used to toolbars), I am really impressed. It would be great to be able to do more with INDD files, but I get that stuff is proprietary.

I also have PhotoPea, which costs about £40 a year and which, so far (at least for my needs) is so close to PhotoShop that I don't know why they aren't being sued. You can use it for free if you don't mind a chunk of screen showing adverts or a blank space where adverts would be if you didn't have AdBlock.

So... just 'Good' then? KFC pulls Finger Lickin' slogan while pandemic rumbles on

Re: You missed

I stopped when I found out (1) I had high blood pressure (2) a single breast of FKC chicken was my total daily salt allowance.

If you think Mozilla pushed a broken Firefox Android build, good news: It didn't. Bad news: It's working as intended

The issue was never 'master'

"Master" is a no-problem word when associated with 'master copy', master craftsman' etc.

It is the word "slave".

And when the first techs decided that one thing was primary and a second thing was dependent, and chose master/slave as the best descriptive fit, that's when we had a problem. Because if that's where your mind goes to, especially in the western world where legal slavery has not been a thing for quite a while, then it's definitely a problem. Can it be coincidence that the community who was comfy this master/slave was and is a community not comfy with BAME and white women?

Changing the words is a minor thing and suggests that the first community that was naming things had a lot of problems. Changing the words doesn't eliminate the problems, but that community will never know how nice it will be that female techs don't have to face the male/female naming of fittings or that POC doesn't have to say master/slave. We will soon get used to it and a small but bad thing will have been eliminated. Not enough, but why not solve he small, since you can?

Trucking hell: Kid leaves dad in monster debt after buying oversized vehicle on eBay

Re: eBay, PayPal and Amazon customer support

Although I have learned to be careful on eBay. If I go through'official' channels to query a late arrival, they often simply refund my money. And then the item arrives, and then I have a lot of trouble actually getting the money tot he vendor. I don't want free stuff just because Royal Mail was a little late in delivery. It hurts small vendors. So I say my query is 'other' and have a nice chat with them and it has always been resolved amicably, with me getting my stuff and them getting their money.

Banks are happy to give you an overdraft

It might be that his bank automatically created an overdraft for this, and then merrily charged him every month for having an unauthorised large overdraft.

Re: Christ, what assholes

I am in the process of saying goodbye to PayPal. I have a credit card that I use only for online purchases, with a bank (Co-op) that is very good at halting any suspicious payment and querying me. It can be a pain, but it has actually saved me twice from huge scams on the card. I don't find it a burden to have a few extra seconds of inputting -- it allows me time to reconsider and stop impulse buying, or to double-check my order.

‘IT professionals increasingly define themselves by capabilities they excel at managing’ says Atlassian chap

Re: Recruiters still want technology experts

I hate to be rude, but it is definitely a foolish approach. All employers, in my experience, want the buzzwords and score by buzzwords. I have interviewed candidates and I look for all the proprietary names as an indication that the person actually did work on something real. I have had candidates insisting that they could do this and that, but when pressed, turned out they did something small in a very inexpert way.

You can be pure and put on your CV what you feel employers should want to be looking for, or you can put on it what they are actually expecting to see. I am not sure I would want to interview someone who felt he could present his skills and experience in the way I should have wanted, if I could only be as smart as the candidate.

Nominet promises .uk owners it'll listen to feedback on plan to award itself millions... as long as it agrees with it

Re: Nominet is copying ICANN

When was a Clinton last a president? We are talking two decades FFS. And Clinton as Senator: one senator. So how 2 x Clintons = all Republicans makes sense I do not know.

Former HP CEO and Republican Meg Whitman – who split HP with mixed success – says Donald Trump can't run a business

And presumably

No offence to any other woman, because the choice of job that leaps to mind when discussing female business leaders is always madam of a brothel.

Senile? Power-crazed?

Trump and Biden are both old guys, but Biden seems to be able to cycle for miles and Trump has issues with a ramp. Trump goes wandering off with this thoughts and Biden stumbles over words (especially as he has a stammer). Kamala ran for president. God forbid a woman should want power. It's Just Not Natural. And of course a smart woman must be the puppetmaster of the man she's working with.

If you have something that isn't ad hominem insults to say against them, why don't you? I could sling insults at Trump, but I would rather point to his failed promises, corruption, nepotism, and his speedy deepening of the swamp (please not how many lobbyists are now in positions of power).