* Posts by CloudWrangler

14 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Aug 2017

BOFH: Here he comes, all wide-eyed with the boundless optimism of youth. He is me, 30 years ago... what to do?

CloudWrangler

Re: Cynical is what an optimist calls a realist...

Realist: If I don't leg it, someone will get me to wash the glass afterwards.

Silent Merc, holy e-car... What is that terrible sound?

CloudWrangler

How about the sound of KITT from Knight Rider (the original series)

KITT made an awesome turbine engine whine sound that was quite distinctive, and cool.

If you have to have an electric car sound like anything, that would be my vote.

Although I'd much prefer them to be silent.

Where's Zero Cool when you need him? Loose chips sink ships: How hackers could wreck container vessels

CloudWrangler
Holmes

MSC Zoe was a proof of concept hack?

The MSC Zoe lost over 345 containers in a storm off the dutch coast on the 1st of January this year, and no explanation has yet been forwarded for why. Someone messing with the systems remotely would explain SO MUCH.

After outrage over Chrome ad-block block plan, Google backs away from crippling web advert, content filters

CloudWrangler

What part of "my cold dead fingers" did you not understand?

Well, looks like its time to look for a new browser, since Google has totally lost the plot. So long as ad networks allow ANY kind of active content, I will block any and all ads in self defence. It's the only sure way to avoid virus and adware infections via the known vector of ads.

Yes, you can remotely hack factory, building site cranes. Wait, what?

CloudWrangler

Not surprising given the history of physical security in construction

I was quite surprised to find that many kinds of building equipment use identically keyed locks on their starters so the builders don't have to carry around multiple keys. After that, this little revelation is not surprising at all.

I'm just not sure the computer works here – the energy is all wrong

CloudWrangler

Re: on a similar note ...

"Dirty" power supplies combined with badly shielded equipment can cause a lot of weird failures in electronics. My Dad used to create and present multi-slide projector shows, and in one venue, every morning show, all the projectors would reset to the first slide at around 10:30 am. Turns out, the equipment he was using had a bad ground, and the cafetaria of the venue would fire up it's warming ovens at around 10:30 to start preparing lunch...

Behold, the world's most popular programming language – and it is...wait, er, YAML?!?

CloudWrangler

At least one language uses yaml

The article forgot that there is one infrastructure programming language that uses yaml: Ansible. Given that it has flow control, supports looping and parses like a language, I'd call it a language. An ansible playbook is not just a config file.

Well, well, well. Crime does pay: Ransomware creeps let off with community service

CloudWrangler

Re: "notoriously difficult language"

This would imply that to a typical English speaker, any language is notoriously difficult to learn. Dutch is a category I language for English speakers, i.e. easiest to learn: Language difficulty rankings

Google listens to New Zealand just long enough to ignore it

CloudWrangler
Joke

Why not go the whole hog NZ?

NZ has just entered into talks with the EU about a free trade agreement. Why not go the whole hog and apply for EU membership? Then GDPR would apply and they could get the suppression they want.

It's not like there is no precedence for countries in Oceania joining European institutions, Australia took part in Eurovision once...

Agile development exposed as techie superstition

CloudWrangler
Holmes

There are certainly studies, but not published

I did a little digging with IT friends after this talk, and I discovered that at least one company had done before/after research on the effectiveness of both Agile and static analysis, using their bug database spanning 20 years. Their conclusion: 70% increase in critical bug clearance rate after implementing scrum, and double the feature clearance rate. Static analysis improved the bug counts down by 60%, while slowing the speed minimally. Only, given that this was proprietary information, they haven't published.

Now if one company did this, surely they weren't alone. Management loves numbers, remember?

News lobsters demand to be let back into the Facebook boiling pot

CloudWrangler
Devil

Rupert Murdoch says?

Pot calling the kettle black...

Mine all the data, they said. It will be worth your while, they said

CloudWrangler

Pretty much the same as the Elasticsearch/Logstash combo, only for time series monitoring instead of logging. Same thing applies here: monitor too much and you're never going to be able to split out the signal from the noise. Less is more is very much the case in monitoring, especially given the volumes of monitoring traces a running large system generates.

WikiLeave? Assange tipped for Ecuadorian eviction

CloudWrangler
WTF?

The Emperor has no clothes?

What nobody has ever made clear to my satisfaction is why the whole rigmarole about Assange not wanting to be extradited to Sweden due to the risk of them then turning around and extraditing him to the US, when the UK and US are way more diplomatically pally. If the US has a case against him, where is the extradition request for that? They have no reason at all to wait for another country to charge him with other crimes. Now that Sweden seems to have given up on the whole affair, it looks like at present that the UK is the only country who wants a piece of him, for not complying with a court order.

Google diversity memo: Web giant repudiates staffer's screed for 'incorrect assumptions about gender'

CloudWrangler
Facepalm

IT isn't cool enough for girls

Purely empirical evidence tells me that it's contact with other girls at school. Gender culture is insidious. I was doing my part at a high school job fair promoting IT career paths a short while back. The only girls who stopped to chat were classmates of my son who I already knew, and they just wanted to say hi. The only takers for even discussing what the possibilities for study and jobs were, were a few guys who were already interested in computing. IT is not even cool amongst guys, let alone girls.