Posts by GruntyMcPugh

Elon Musk needs more cash for Twitter buy after Tesla margin loan lapses

Re: He's already being sued...

Oh yeah baby, he is: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61589229

Oh, and then there's this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61526898

Stick a fork in him, he's done.

Amazon puts 'creepy' AI cameras in UK delivery vans

Re: Isn't there a law ....

I came here to say similar. I've not any issue with Amazon delivery drivers, but DPD drive they are in a movie car chase.

Safari is crippling the mobile market, and we never even noticed

Ker-Ching!

Seems like a financial decision, why allow a web browser to do everything, when you can break the web up into little app sized pieces and get 30% back on each chunk?

Breaking the web for parts is good business. It's not great for consumers.

Financial giant Santander: 80% of our IT infrastructure in cloud

I did an audit at two Santander Datacentres,... .. er, seven years ago, and at the time, they were replete with kit. Santander had grown by acquisition, and had literally wheeled kit from companies they'd bought into their datacentres. So a small team of contractors were hired to compare it all to their asset inventory, and record all connectivity, power, network, disk arrays, etc, and add labelling where required. This is the only place I've ever seen an IBM Z-Series (well, there were two, as the DCs were mirrored) and I'd never seen one at Warwick when I was blue. So the notion that 80% of this kit has been decommed sounds a bit hopeful. it wouldn't just be a migration to cloud, but a migration off those legacy platform, and a merge into a new system.

If it is true however, I expect Santander to be leasing space in it's rather tasty Tier 4 data centres to recoup some of the money they spent on them.

Elon Musk puts Twitter deal on hold over bot numbers claim

Did Musk ever really intend to buy Twitter?

I think the whole thing is just a vehicle (pun intended) for liquidating some of his Tesla shares, while trying to keep the panic factor in the markets minimised. If he just sold off stock, that could make people lose confidence, but if he portrays a need to liquidate, well, people might fall for that, and not panic. He knows his stock in Tesla is over valued, and it's a good time to cash in. He lost something like $17Bn when the Tesla stock price dropped, to cash out, $8.4Bn was it? So a 50% exchange rate from vapour to hard cash seems like a reasonable exchange rate. But the idea he sells shares in a profitable company to buy a loss making one doesn't make sense to me.

Apple's return-to-office plan savaged by staff

@John Brown. I'll take option C please! When I was blue, we were all encouraged to go work from home, so IBM could save costs on office space. Much of the old office space was sold off or rented out. The Nottingham office had East and West wings, then it was just one side, then eventually, just one floor. Warwick got halved in size.

Now I work in local Govt, and we're looking at flexible office space in the future, and continued wfh, as we can get out of leases and save money, and our tax payers kind of like that.

Elon Musk wants to take Twitter public again 'within 3 years'

Re: Libtards meltdown

There's no such thing as no moderation. Without moderation, Twitter would be an even deeper cesspit. Twiiter has to moderate it's content to operate in many countries. It will need to moderate for illegal content, to prevent civil liability, etc. People will still get banned. Do we need to get the XKCD out again?

Elon Musk says he can get $46.5bn to buy Twitter

Re: The remaining $25.5 billion will be financed by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Barclays...

The 'Free Speech' goal will kill Twitter in Europe, that mandates hate speech be removed from social media in a timely fashion: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/23/1094485542/eu-law-big-tech-hate-speech-disinformation

Tequila!

ZX Spectrum, the 8-bit home computer that turned Europe onto PCs, is 40

So the £125 price tag of the 16K version equates to £470 in today's money, and the 48K version equates to £658,... I just bought a Lenovo 8" droid tab for less than £100,... I won't live another 40 years, but it's mind blowing to try and think what the price / performance will be like then.

Re: Where it all began...for some

My mate had a Dragon32, there were some ace games, 'Wiz War' and 'Phantom Slayer' kept us all amused.

British motorists will be allowed to watch TV in self-driving vehicles

Apparently there are ~365,000 taxi drivers in the UK, ~60,000 of them being Uber,.. now Uber being the spawn of Satan will get rid of it's meatsacks as soon as possible, so there's an employment deficit right there, before we consider other taxi firms.

Re: Clippy behind the wheel

AI will never be as good as a human, while it relies on sensors. A while ago, I was driving to work, and a van ahead of me was pulling off some dumbass 3 point turn at a junction. I saw something move through the van's wheels (road was on an incline) so I slowed down, and then the vehicle behind the van pulled out of the junction, despite not being able to see it was clear. AI will not make use of clues such as partial views of vehicles, it will not see reflections and realise a vehicle is present. it will not see reflections of headlights and work out vehicles are present. Even if other FSD cars had transponders to show where they were, pedestrians, cyclist and those darned e-scooters won't.

IBM ordered to pay $105 million to insurer over tech project's collapse

"selling what can't be delivered."

There is some truth to this. One our our sales teams sold a solution to a Govt Dept that was really convoluted and difficult to manage, and nobody would touch it,... so my team got lumbered with it. I hated looking after that environment. No data was allowed to leave, and we were not allowed to use any of our tooling or automation, so everything was done manually.

Re: "Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM"

Thoughtfully IBM have ensured we'll never be in danger of that, by not making any products we'd buy.

You make a fair point. I recall Rometty boasting in her podcast about how much IBM were investing in Watson 2, and 'Oh, by the way, PBC grade 2's aren't getting a bonus this year' .

I wonder if whoever landed that deal for IBM will now have to repay their bonus,....oh sorry, the initial contract was signed in 2015, so a fair chance whoever was already 'Resource Actioned' in that time.

Star loses $500,000 NFT after crooks exploit Rarible market

Re: NFT's...

It's still on Twitter for everyone to see: https://twitter.com/jack/status/20

So I don't see what Mr Estavi paid for exactly. I mean, at least that a-hole Shkreli got an exclusive Wu Tang album for his money, but Estavi didn't get exclusivity,... so, er,... what's the point?

Vital UK customs system outage contributes to travel chaos at its borders

Re: @Spaceman9

'Project fear', right, we now have the highest tax burden since repairing the country after a mechanised army tried to destroy us. But hey, name us a Brexit bonus! What's got better? Anything? Blue Passports?

South Yorkshire to test fiber broadband through water pipes

Yorkshire Water were known for being one of the most leaky water suppliers, so I wonder if they will be 1s and 0s coming out of people's tap too : -) ?

IBM deliberately misclassified mainframe sales to enrich execs, lawsuit claims

It's doubly annoying, as we had to re-certify each year, and do a 'Business Conduct Guidelines' course, and pass a little test, as well as complete export regulations refreshers etc etc. So doing the right thing was drummed into us proles, but it seems the upper echelons said one thiing, and did another.

The metaverse of fantasy worlds is itself still a fantasy

Re: Second Life

Apparently Second Life is still a thing. A thing that has been going since 2003, and if we're being honest, is still rather niche. I guess because it's just not that useful. If I have spare time, I do things in the real world. I don't bother turning my web cam on for Teams meetings, nobody needs to see my ugly mug, and really wouldn't put much effort into designing an avatar. So I don't see what a metaverse brings.

1,000-plus AI-generated LinkedIn faces uncovered

Re: Also....

Many years ago I got an interview for a technical sales job for a company in Leeds. I was given a psychometric test to complete before the interview, then shown through to the manager. He said "I've got some good news and some bad news for you. You're a nice chap, but I'm not giving you the job." and then went to explain his psychometric software had been a good investment, had always got characters correct, and that I just wasn't slimy enough to be a salesman. He said "I need someone that never had real friends as a kid, and has always been selling themselves, and that's not you."

Wozniak startup to share orbital space junk data

Interesting stuff. I'm going to the stag do of a former colleague at the weekend, who is now an associate professor at Warwick University, who does work tracking space debris these days. It will be good to get his take on this. Maybe Woz should get over to Warwick as they are hosting NAM this year.

HP finance manager went on $5m personal spending spree with company card

If I'd embezzled $5M they'd never find my off grid bunker. I'd be self sufficient and be keeping a low profile.

Help, my IT team has no admin access to their own systems

I was once an Operator on a McDonnel Douglas 'Reality' midrange system. We paid for a memory upgrade, and all the technician did, was remove a jumper to enable the memory that was already in there.

Many years ago I got a call from an account I used to work on. They'd had some recommendation to reduce the number of enterprise adminsistrators they had, and use one time access to the built in admin account, using some app they'd been sold. So they removed everyone's admin access, and then realised they didn't know the Admin account password to get the ball rolling. So they called, as me and a couple of colleagues had promoted the first domain controllers back in the day and asked if I knew the Directory Services Restore Mode password,... which, luckily I had ingrained in my memory (and that we had lodged somewhere safe, but our jobs were outsourced, people left offices, safes were disposed of, etc). So they had to roll back their AD to before the fudge-up.

Sealed, confidential IBM files in age-discrimination case now public to all

Re: I joined IBM as an experienced hire in 2000 and left in 2013

It was cost driven, but I guess some PHBs targetted older costs. I left in 2015, after that packages were statutory minimum for a while, so it was a good time to leave. I'd managed to keep a grip on my job as some of our customers required UK support (and I required Full SC / UK Eyes Only clearance) but that customer went shopping elsewhere, and 'UK support could mean EU' (as this was pre-Brexit) started being said, and I knew which way the wind was blowing, and it was offshore.

Still, the pension is performing OK, so I can't gripe too much.

Union demands better deal for app drivers as Uber license renewal looms

Re: "Drivers should be compensated [..] from the moment they log on and off the app"

Well, no. Staff in shops are paid whether they are serving customers or not. I do recall a news story several years ago where a memo was leaked proposing KFC workers should clock out if there were no cutomers in the shop, and KFC got rightly berated for that. So what's the difference here? If Uber staff refuse to takes rides, fair enough, they shouldn't get paid, but if they are genuinely available, it's their exmployers responsibiity to keep them busy.

Boys outnumber girls 6 to 1 in UK compsci classes

Re: citation required

https://plan-international.org/publications/programmed-out-gender-gap-technology-scandinavia

There, that took less time to find than it would have taken you to reply.

Cow-counting app abused by China 'to spy on US states'

Re: Private resale of stolen data

I think those data thieves deserve a pat on the back,....

Reg reader rages over Virgin Media's email password policy

Exactly this, I've been a Virgin Media customer on and off for over 20 years (and I worked for them for a while too), but I've never used their email service (I mentioned I used to work for them, maybe that's a clue as to why,....) but why would you want to be tied down to your ISP, to keep your email address? With a Mobile, we can port our number if we change supplier, but email, change and you're boned. So I have a selection of Yahoo and Hotmail addresses for various tasks.

Oracle creates new form of free Solaris

Re: SRUs

I knew it wouldn't just be me seeing that. how it got past their PR dept however,...

Apple seeks patent for 'innovation' resembling the ZX Spectrum, C64 and rPi 400

Re: 1980s

Ti99/4a a whole 16 bits, for 'top Trumping' your mates.

Three major browsers are about to hit version 100. Will websites cope?

Obligatory XKCD. No need to link to it, we all know the one.

Canalys: Foldable shipments could 'exceed 30 million by 2024'

When my venerable old Note4 died, I exited the premium phone space. Not that I ever considered it to be one, it just ticked the boxes (S-Pen pun), as I'd only ever had one smartphone without a stylus, and I missed it, so adopted the Note series. I now rock a Moto Pro Stylus. It's priced as a commodity item, at a very reasonable ~£200. I don't feel I'm missing out on anything with it being rigid, so a folding device will not tempt be back to premium prices, I think they are barking up the wrong tree there. I don't know what would tempt me to spend significantly more on a phone.

Re: Rollable

Upvote purely for guiding me towards the 'Lovecraft Mysteries' podcast, cheers!

IT technician jailed for wiping school's and pupils' devices

Re: Hmm

I have met him too, and got the impression he really knew his onions,and value him as a potential resource should I need his talent.

Samsung reveals new smartphones, tablets... and yes. The S22 Ultra is undeniably good

Re: For 1K in cash I want

Mine died recently. :-( I am now rocking a Moto G Pro Stylus. It's not quite as good as my old Note4 (with the exception of the camera, which is better) but it was only £200. It does have a headphone jack and an SD card slot,... no replaceable battery though. Stylus works OK, although not quite as good as the S-Pen. But then, it was only £200. Oh, the sound is _much_ better out of the Moto too. It's just I have lost the IR Blaster, and the heart rate monitor, and I made good use of both on the old Note. Ho hum.

Shut off 3G by 2033? How about 2023, asks Vodafone UK

Re: Phase out 3g

Exactly this. There are a few places not that far out of town I go to walk my dogs at the weekend, where I can't get 4G. I presume there are many more rural locations. Hell, there are places I visit in Cornwall which invite me to pay for my parking using an App, but I can't get _any_ phone signal.

IBM confirms new mainframe to arrive 'late in first half of 2022'

Re: odd wording

'New! Improved! Better Taste!', I'll wager Z-series are 'Gluten Free!' also.

Re: odd wording

Most hardware refreshes are not to get extra processing power, or to gain some mythical lower cost per transaction (who runs their infrastructure at 100% 24x7 anyway?) but because maintentance costs for ageing hardware become significant. I'd be happy to sweat my assets, if support didn't become prohibitive.

I never used a 'mainframe' either,... but a decent sized VAXCluster, and IBM AS/400s. Only place I've seen an IBM Mainframe in the flesh, was at a bank. (they had two, as they had mirrored datacentres). so I think there aren't many niches for such. Never saw one when I was IBM, in IBM datacentres, was mostly P series iirc.

Team behind delayed ERP project was aware of problems but didn't inform Surrey County Council for months

We had a perfectly functional HR system at my place. OK, it was a bit 'Web 1.0', and wasn't single sign on, but it worked. It was replaced by a new HR system, which sucked. We fell out with the supplier, and I understand there was some litigation. We then panic bought yet another HR system, which also sucks,

Now, I'm no HR expert, but do HR requirements change so often, to make coding an HR system so difficult?

Re: Cheop's Law

If it's a UK, govt sponsored IT project, it'll be delayed by several years, never achieve it's spec, go massivley over budget, and then be swept under the carpet, until a new govt mkes the same promises, and same mistakes, and repeats the whole cycle again.

Behold! The first line of defence for 25% of the US nuclear stockpile: Dolphins

A friend of mine used to work for DERA, and I used to joke he trained exploding suicide dolphins. I might not have been far off the mark it seems.

SpaceX Starlink sat streaks now present in nearly a fifth of all astronomical images snapped by Caltech telescope

Re: I have yet to see the ISS ...

Indeed, during the Summer months, I usually check that to see if the ISS is coming overhead, so I keep an eye our for it if we're sitting in the garden. Once you've got your eye in, it's fairly easy to spot. I live near a busy airport, but the ISs is quite distinct, once you know.

Privacy is for paedophiles, UK government seems to be saying while spending £500k demonising online chat encryption

It's ironic Barnardos are backing the #NoPlaceToHide initiative, when hiding might have stopped many of their wards from getting abused.

Re: What do you expect for £500,000?

Well, yeah, they spent £37Bn on 'Test and Trace' and didn't even manage to backdoor everyone's phones.