* Posts by Tired and grumpy

12 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Jul 2017

COVID-19 was a generational opportunity for change at work – and corporate blew it

Tired and grumpy

The trouble with a journal run by techies is that it reflects the views of techies. I worked from home when I was a contract programmer; it worked well since 95% of my time was spent working on my own in silence. Then I started doing work that involved talking to people. Oddly, I found that more stimulating and productive if I was in the same room with them. So I started working in an office. I still prefer it. I also note that most of our younger staff can't afford large houses with separate studies that are conducive to concentration - even though we pay about 33% more than our competitors. Weirdly, it's considerably more cost-effective to create one shared workspace that's properly equipped and comfortable than to find some way to create and furnish home offices for each person individually.

If you're an introverted coder who lives alone then by all means WFH. If your work involves social interaction and creativity, or you share a small flat with your partner and infant (or a party-minded flatmate), then you might prefer to spend time with colleagues in a pleasant and focused workspace. Who knew?

Could BYOB (Bring Your Own Battery) offer a solution for charging electric vehicles? Microlino seems to think so

Tired and grumpy

We have: tubes, buses, bicycles and legs. Why on Earth do we need a car (even a tiny one) for short urban journeys? I despair.

Facebook rendered spineless by buggy audit code that missed catastrophic network config error

Tired and grumpy

Sad things:

1. They fixed it.

2. It's apparently a rare event.

3. They hope to learn from it to avoid repetition.

Unfortunately it didn't take Twitter down with it, or we might have had a moment where the world really took a breath. Imagine if Facebook held a restart party and nobody came.

Which level of the inferno is reserved for Zuckerberg and Dorsey, I wonder?

YouTube expands vaccine misinfo crackdown, nukes anti-vax channels for good

Tired and grumpy

Yes, let's suppress all dissent. Doing that made the USSR such a lovely place and look how well it's working in China. Does no one on the left recognise the slipperiness of the slope, or are you all just happy to avoid any challenge to your consensus?

El Reg itself might considering worrying about when the culture warriors will start coming after snark. The general tone of the organ, when not virtue-signalling, has no shortage of micro-aggressions. But, as Pastor Niemuller said, there will be no one left to speak up for you.

Anonymous: We've leaked disk images stolen from far-right-friendly web host Epik

Tired and grumpy

So hacking is OK if you disagree with the political stance of the target? Is that the message we're supposed to take from this exercise in flummery? I realise that we face a new puritanism where dissent is not tolerated, but I'd hoped the Register might stay a little more neutral for a little longer.

Australia gave police power to compel sysadmins into assisting account takeovers – so they plan to use it

Tired and grumpy

It's entirely possible to argue against the strongest possible action against those who create or consume child sex abuse material, when creating the framework that allows that action enables the complete elimination of basic freedoms for all in favour of overreaching state power. We seem to have forgotten that government is an unwelcome imposition to be tolerated insofar as it serves us, not a godhead or a master. Given the staggering witlessness and incompetence of those who presently govern us, pretty much irrespective of who "we" refers to, this is somewhat surprising.

Broad powers created to fight "terrorism" or child abuse always end up being used to serve petty bureaucracy, fight personal vendettas and line pockets. Or have we forgotten McCarthyism so completely? If so, then let's at least remember that the UK's IPA has been used by councils to check whether people are putting the right things in the right bins. That was created to fight "terrorism" and "organised crime" too.

Right to repair shouldn't exist – not because it's wrong but because it's so obviously right

Tired and grumpy

Wow. Bigoted, snarky and blind to consequences all at the same time. So a state legislature now gets to decide how much computing power you're "allowed" to have and this is seen as a good thing? This isn't a tax or an incentive, this is a direct ban. Has everybody just given up and gone full Marxist-Leninist? Did I miss a memo to the effect that individual freedom, responsibility and choice were no longer a thing? I wonder how many items the author has in their house that aren't "necessary" or are "over powered" for their intended purpose. What shall we ban next?

Military infosec SNAFUs: What WhatsApp and bears in the woods can teach us

Tired and grumpy

It's not about the message, it's about the metadata

I fear we're missing the point here. Yes, there are ways for content to leak from WhatsApp, but isn't the real issue that the metadata give Zuckerberg & co. the ability to map UK military structures and communications flows in real time? I wouldn't bet on WhatsApp or Facebook being very secure from that perspective, so we have to assume that both our enemies and our allies have exploited this opportunity.

Ex-Imagination Technologies boss tells UK Foreign Affairs Committee: Britain needs to stop overseas asset stripping

Tired and grumpy

Just the minor problem of how to plug the enormous hole this would leave in our balance of payments, then. We depend utterly on foreign direct investment to balance the books. Maybe if we actually tried to do some more exporting of products and services, hmm?

Hate hub hacked, Cisco bugs squished, Bluekeep attacks begin, and much, much more

Tired and grumpy

Hate hub hacked

Pleased to see that the online SQL version of the Iron March forum has been taken down. Not pleased to see that you linked to it. They may be nazi scum, but they're also still data subjects, and we don't condone breaches, do we? If we're to be happy to share their personal data, we would have to be happy when they share ours.

Smart bulbs turn dumb: Lights out for Philips as Hue API goes dark

Tired and grumpy

And you would want to control the lighting in your house while not actually at home because...?

Don't people actually have anything to do with their time these days?

The great phone squeeze wheeze: Getting squidgy with HTC's U11

Tired and grumpy

Presumably the heatwave comment refers to the phone overheating. My Samsung S2 tablet shuts itself down in pleasant English summer weather; I assume it would come over all Dali if used in the Middle East.

Does anyone have a recommendation for the best Android device for grown-ups? I don't care about the camera, video or speakers (seriously, who watches TV on a 5-inch screen? What is wrong with you people?). I do care about call quality, email, navigation and battery life. I have an S6 which struggles to last a full day and can't properly share Outlook contacts with the phone and SMS apps. I want a tool, not a toy.