Posts by HandlesMessiah

Please install that patch – but don't you dare actually run it

Re: This must rate as the most moronic management policy ...

Sadly, there are stupid questions, at least when you aren't smart enough to let them go after repeated warnings.

Some 15 years ago, working for a no longer extant maker of enterprise software, I was conducting a training class for our customers. One of them had a question that amounted to "How can I get around the license fee to use your product?" and was very upset that I wouldn't give him instructions on how to steal from my employer. So upset, in fact, that after ten minutes of insisting that I HAD to answer his question, he stormed out after writing a minor novel on the class evaluation to accompany the minimum possible rating for me.

Ratings that required my boss to follow up with the student to determine what the source of the displeasure was. Which he was more than happy to reiterate and also to share that learning how to install without paying was "the only reason my boss sent me to class."

Six weeks, one unannounced onsite license audit (read your EULA, kids!), and a seven figure (USD) invoice for unlicensed software later, the student, his boss, and his boss's boss all found themselves dejobbed.

Sparkling fresh updates to Ubuntu, Mint and Zorin on way

Re: they could do something very special

Oddly, in my house, the Mint laptop is the one computer that can reliably print to the HP color inkjet that randomly decides to report itself offline to all the Windows machines.

Australian court overturns 'Google is a publisher' decision

Every library I've ever walked into had a display of books it recommended you read, based on popularity and relevance to current and/or local issues, right as you walk in, without having to ask.

Updating in production, like a boss

THANK YOU.

I teach people how to be DBAs for a Very Large Software Company, and my boss once yelled at me for telling my students I was there to teach them the appropriate personality defects to be effective DBAs, including paranoia and control-freakism.

Linus Torvalds tells kernel list poster to 'SHUT THE HELL UP' for saying COVID-19 vaccines create 'new humanoid race'

Re: Man makes idiotic statement on a mailing list...

@zolko

Do let us know when traffic collisions are infectious.

Can you imagine Slack letting people DM strangers in another org? Think of the abuse. Oh wait, it did do that

Let me see if I have this straight

If you're on a free Slack, you have to convert to a paid plan to prevent getting spammed?

Wells Fargo patent troll case has finance world all aquiver so Barclays, TD Bank sign up to Open Invention Network

Re: USAA a patent troll?

Don't live in the UK so I can't speak to that, but they were definitely the originator of the feature in the US. If there's an argument to invalidate the patent on the basis of prior art, that's valid.

Re: USAA a patent troll?

If you are arguing that checks were being deposited by mobile phone and image recognition in the 1990s, I'm going to say you are mistaken.

Re: USAA a patent troll?

Regarding their definition as a "financial services company" and to correct some misinformation: USAA were originally an auto insurance company, that has since expanded to other forms of insurance, banking, and investment.

With respect to this patent/feature: they're a bank. In fact, they're my bank. They only have about three branch offices (as they were originally set up to provide banking to far-flung members of the US military who could be transferred anywhere, but have since expanded their client base), and have been a leader in remote banking given that about 99.937% of their depositors live far away from a teller (my closest would be about 2500 km away).

They introduced the idea of mobile check (or cheque, if you prefer) deposit a decade ago and I was thrilled that they did so, as previously I was having to deposit checks through the mail.

So yes, they ARE involved in check clearing. They aren't somebody that came up with an idea and stuffed it into a vault to bring out for litigation later. They're the originator of a hell of a useful feature, which other banks have now copied. As such, they shouldn't be referred to as a patent troll.

Trump's visa plan leaks: American techies first

Lofgren and Issa

Not every legislator belongs to the "world's most exclusive club". Both Darryl Issa and Zoe Lofgren both represent California in the House of Representatives, not the Senate.

Side observation: the H1B visa is the mechanism to allow models to work in the US (it's easier for a model to get one than a programmer: http://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/why-fashion-models-are-twice-as-likely-to-get-h1b-visas-as-computer-programmers.html). Somebody looking for Wife #4?