Posts by Zippy´s Sausage Factory

When a deleted primary device file only takes 20 mins out of your maintenance window, but a whole year off your lifespan

Re: Oxymoron alert

I've noticed how SQL Server DBAs tend to be paranoid and quick-tempered, while Oracle DBAs are more laid-back. As opposed to the developers, which is totally the other way round.

Why? No idea...

Euro police forces infiltrated encrypted phone biz – and now 'criminal' EncroChat users are being rounded up

Re: Why am I thinking about 1960s Batman?

I have no idea what that is but intend to find out forthwith. Or fifthwith, depending how long my thirdthwith task takes me.

Why am I thinking about 1960s Batman?

Joker: "Do you have your criminal chat app?"

Riddle: "It's on my criminal mobile phone."

Joker: "Excellent"

Batman: "Not so fast!"

Both: "BATMAN!" (cue shocked Pikachu gif faces)

Batman "Yes, and the Bat-Computer has been decoding everything you've been saying"

Joker: "But how did you break our top-level criminal encryption?"

Batman: "Well, to be honest... it was a bit rubbish."

Analogue radio given 10-year stay of execution as the UK U-turns on DAB digital future

Given that DAB is basically an outdated spec, and limited to the UK, I can easily imagine manfuacturers abandoning the platform for lack of sales, and DAB essentially ceasing to exist before these renewed licenses expire.

I can also imagine the UK govt "priming the pump" by doing something silly to promote digital radio that probably has unintended consequences, too,

Maybe I'm just being cynical, though.

Brit MPs vote down bid to delay IR35 reforms, press ahead with new tax rules for private-sector contractors

It's interesting to note that the scheme for the self-employed in Portugal is pretty much that. You send out your invoices through the IRS (equivalent of HMRC) portal and you only pay tax on 80% of the income.

OK, I'm simplifying a bit, but it's an interesting contrast to the UK version.

Rental electric scooters to clutter UK street scenes after Department of Transport gives year-long trial the thumbs-up

Re: No they're not an effective means to reduce car traffic

They're really not good here for much either.

I don't see quite so many as I did a year ago, too, which suggests that the business model isn't really doing very well. Especially given that one of the firms doing it here just got taken over by a taxi company...

Facebook accused of trying to bypass GDPR, slurp domain owners' personal Whois info via an obscure process

Re: What do you think it is about

That's the point at which you update your CV and leave

This would, I agree, have been the sensible option. Hindsight is all well and good, but I was young and naive...

Nah, they'd just move to another jurisdiction and try their luck there.

Cockroaches gonna cockroach.

Re: What do you think it is about

The key words there are "sales rep". In other words, someone whose very function is to sell you things that may or may not exist.

I remember, years ago, several of us being given an urgent project to do - drop everything, including all maintenance, customer service, etc. Why? Because the boss - a former salesman - had sold that we'd already developed this software in house and it was ready to roll out. It was a big enough order to bet the entire company on.

Six months later, of course, this pipe dream of a monster piece of software still wasn't even close to ready, and the company went bust.

MIT apologizes, permanently pulls offline huge dataset that taught AI systems to use racist, misogynistic slurs

Re: Copyright?

I was going to say that. I expect some lawyers are right now looking into that question while drooling over a fat payday after going after large royalty payments from anyone who's ever used the data set.

LibreOffice slips out another 7.0 beta: Spreadsheets close gap with Excel while macOS users treated to new icons

I'm a big fan of LibreOffice so it's nice to see a release that seems to be strengthening it. I already use LO a lot at work, as it tends to crash much less than the Micros~1 version (although that might be a consequence of our support guys insisting we stick to the 32 bit version, presumably forever)

Microsoft has a cure for data nuked by fat fingers if you're not afraid of the command line

Re: Ah, good old WinForms

WPF is one of my pet hates. I have to turn off "font smoothing" because it plays havoc with my eyes and gives me a headache (my optician gave me lots of technical detail on why this is, all of which I forgot even while he was still saying it).

As soon as I do, anything Windows Forms cheerfully follows suit and blends in. Anything WPF stubbornly refuses and continues with its uncanny valley not-quite-Cleartype-yet-also-somehow-not-quite-not-Cleartype font smoothing, thereby standing out like the petulant teenager who refuses to take off their Slipknot hoodie for the school photograph.

It's now safe to turn off your computer shop: Microsoft to shutter its bricks-and-mortar retail locations worldwide

Re: Track record

To be fair to Microsoft, it's not just because they're copying other hipster ideas - it's usually because they botch them up and then mess up the marketing as well.

OpenJDK lands on Windows 10 for Arm: Not 100% there yet but enough to start tinkering

Re: Is Java still a thing?

Not for much longer I don't think, now that Oracle want to start charging a per-user annual fee for the runtime.

Windows 10 Insider wondering where Notepad has gone? Fear not, Microsoft found it down the back of Dev Channel

Re: Good Grief...

There is, of course, the rumour that the only reason WordPad exists is because they lost the source code for Write...

("Write will eat anything" - those were the days...)

While eyes are fixed on Apple announcements, Microsoft's streaming service Mixer goes the way of the Windows Phone

When will MS stop trying silly business moves like this and just provide good, innovative services?

Oh that would be nice, but sadly I feel like they gave up on that idea years ago.

Re: Can Bing please die too....

I think it used to be but it has its own web crawler these days.

I usually find its results more helpful than Bing (and Google) so it must be doing something right.

Folk sure like to stick electric toothbrush heads in their ears: True wireless stereo sales buck coronavirus trends

I've got some real Apple AirPod things in the box for my iPhone. Given I never used the wired headphones that came with my previous iPhones, I'm guessing these are basically doomed to rot. If I haven't already chucked them away, that is.

What's the Arm? First Apple laptop to ditch Intel will be 13.3" MacBook Pro, proclaims reliable soothsayer

I've often wondered why Apple don't just buy AMD and a semiconductor manufacturer. No more need for Intel.

No idea whether they could actually extract a tax from Intel for using the x64 technology AMD came up with actually, I'm totally clueless on that point, but I bet you Apple's M&A department know the answer to that question already.

Re: Shades of Yahoo!

As a developer I'm very keen not to be labelled as a "creative", thank you. Management hear the c word and will think I can design newsletters and logos and corporate templates and rebrand stuff and if you've seen my level of design skills, you'll know that nobody wants this to happen. The results are, literally, not pretty.

PC printer problems and enraged execs: When the answer to 'Hand over that floppy disk' is 'No'

I'm confused why the article called the location "[premises}" (with those brackets). Is that a reference to something that I've missed somewhere, and Im now revealing my neophyte ignorance by asking?

Paris because I'm feeling clueless...

Adobe about to pull the plug on Creative Cloud freebie 'at-home' access for students

Re: Are Adobe products the only ones ...

I don't think there was, no. Before Word there was no WordStar, WordPro or Word Perfect. People say that VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3 and CalcStar existed before Excel, but this too is a tissue of lies. Symantec Q&A, FoxPro and dBase did not exist before Access was written, Harvard Graphics is a totally made up thing that never existed before PowerPoint and writing things on a piece of paper, sellotaping that piece of paper to a wild pig and then slapping the pig hard so it runs away, never to be seen again, also never existed before OneNote.

Re: Are Adobe products the only ones ...

Plus there are quite a few free/open source products that just install a "print to PDF" function, meaning you need absolutely no other software whatsoever, or that will scan to a PDF (naps2 for example). Adobe not required.

Re: Are Adobe products the only ones ...

PaintShop Pro got bought by Corel. The last time I looked at it it had become unrecognisable bloatware garbage.

Inkscape, GIMP and paint.net satisfy literally all of the requirements I have on this score and more. I mean I just need to resize the odd photo and maybe convert an svg into another format every now and again and that's about it. I don't need Adobe for that. And I would be willing to bet that about 50% of their subscribed users don't do anything more complicated than I do, they just don't know any different.

Hey is trying a new take on email – but maker complains of 'outrageous' demands after Apple rejects iOS app

Ah, the OS/2 nostalgia wave that just broke on me...

If you'll excuse me I'm going to go get my big OS/2 box out of the cupboard and give it a big hug. Then probably go for a quick cry...

Dropbox attempts to muscle into password manager market with passphrase wrangler, document vault

Re: The LAST place I'd store my passwords

Yeah I'm a BitWarden fan too. And I agree - Dropbox's seeming attempts to become the lord of all data is making me twitchy as well, especially given Condoleeza Rice is still on the board.

Couple wrongly arrested over Gatwick Airport drone debacle score £200k payout from cops

I think if I were in government, I'd be strongly urging that a certain chief constable be given a P45 right now.

Lettuce Encrypt, Encrypt We Must: Hobby projects change name after Let's Encrypt fires off trademark complaints

Re: US "defend your rights" Requirement?

I believe it does, which is probably their driving force here, I would assume.

MacOS on Arm talk intensifies: Just weeks from now, Apple to serve up quarantini with Kalamata golive, reportedly

"I’m preparing for it already - by not buying a new Mac."

aka The Osborne Effect - which is probably the main reason why Apple will neither confirm nor deny the rumours...

Re: x86 Software

There will still be qemu and bochs, although I think the UI on both could do with some work.

You overstepped and infringed British sovereignty, Court of Appeal tells US in software companies' copyright battle

Re: US Law applies worldwide

Somalia? I thought it was Eritrea, Hungary, Myanmar and the USA in that club.

BoJo looks to jumpstart UK economy with £6k taxpayer-funded incentive for Brits to buy electric cars – report

Re: Restructure the Market

I'm not sure that will really change things much, I have a nasty feeling it would end up being just a "boil the frog" type of thing, where people just get used to paying a bit more every year, have a minor grumble every time it goes up and then forget about it again until next time.

Actually, isn't chip fat what the diesel engine was originally invented for? Diesel's only really used as a byproduct of the oil industry, to help keep their precious profits up...

UK council dodges £100k hosting bill, opts for £6.5 million ERP migration

Having been involved in projects like B&D's at the time they procured it, this doesn't surprise me. "Data sharing" was the mantra. Continuing with the current system would probably make them data controller for a lot of data they don't want, that belongs to people from other councils, placing them on dodgy legal ground. So I'm guessing this is going to be as much about data protection / GDPR / not getting sued by the general public as it is about anything else.

That way, any missing data is "ah sorry, migration issue, we can fix that". And data they shouldn't have is also a migration issue. Anything else would require someone to take a decision that might have to be relied upon in court, which is the one thing councils hate having round their necks. Much better to blame an impersonal, but flawed, algorithm than a specific member of staff...

No more installing Microsoft's Chromium-centered Edge by hand: Windows 10 will do it for you automatically

Re: Same old tactics

We leave music on on YouTube quite a bit. The ads aren't too annoying until they come to one that is about half an hour long that seems to resurface every sixth or seventh ad break...

Re: Déja Vu

Oh not just for families. Imagine your board of directors turning up for a training session only to find your new HR system only works on IE 5.5...

There's always a coronavirus angle these days: Honor intros new smartphone with built-in temperature sensor

Is it really the first?

I remember playing with a Caterpillar phone that had a thermal camera in it in a shop well over a year ago. It was a seriously cool feature, although the rest of the phone didn't seem much cop (although it was one of those that's build you make you think that if you dropped it on a concrete floor you worried more about the damage to the floor than the phone - you know, a bit like an old Nokia).

Namesco email 'scripting error' has last bastion of Demon Internet holdouts scratching their heads

Re: buy a real domain or/and use https://mailbox.org

Demon was a great ISP in its day (Turnpike excepted). I do remember some Americans getting VERY cagy when they saw Demon in my email. Still wonder how they'd have reacted to madasafish :)

Microsoft's carefully crafted Surfaces are having trouble with its carefully crafted Windows 10 May 2020 Update

I sometimes wonder whether Microsoft's current management aren't secretly undercover IBM/Oracle/Google stooges, sent to destroy the company from within. Because otherwise, I really don't understand how they can continue messing things up so often and nobody seems to be accountable for any of this.

Great success! Finance app was able to inform user that their action was unsuccessful

Hence the euphemism "having a quick Barclays"

And this is what that message invoked in my head:

"Thank you for failing to complete your transaction with us.

"As a gesture of goodwill, you will only be charged 50% of the normal transaction fee for this failed transaction.

"Have a good day, and we hope to rob you mercilessly again some time soon."

Uber plans to ride out of stable Singapore, move APAC HQ to high-tension Hong Kong

"It's time for the government to regulate ride-sharing so we can bring jobs and investment to lower wages and put local taxi drivers out of business in Hong Kong."

FTFY

Microsoft brings WinUI to desktop apps: It's a landmark for Windows development, but it has taken far too long

Yay, just what we didn't want - yet another way to develop desktop apps with that fugly flat look that Microsoft will decide to delete and rewrite in a couple of years anyway.

This is why people are getting wary of Google - that feeling of the rug being pulled underneath them every five minutes. It's getting to be the same from Micros~1.

Microsoft announces official Windows package manager. 'Not a package manager' users snap back

Re: They're correct, it isn't a package manager

If it just downloads MSIs then it sounds a lot like the old Windows Platform Installer. Thus reinforcing my long held belief that Micros~1 just likes reinventing the wheel.

UK MPs to off-payroll workers: Delay IR35 reforms until 2023? You wish

One of the main reasons for using a limited company is literally to limit your exposure to legal issues. For example, if your agency messes up, doesn't get paid by the client and decides to sue you for the money, you simply declare your company bankrupt and open a new one. If you're self employed, you just sell your house and car, declare bankruptcy and go live under a bridge.

No, this didn't happen to me, but someone I know.

Project Reunion: Microsoft's attempt to tear down all those barriers it's built for Windows developers over the years

Re: So let me get this straight

They really do seem to be wanting to alienate all their customers. I kind of imagine Micros~1 product development discussions going like this:

"Are people buying this?"

"Yes"

"Do they... like it?"

"They... seem to."

"Then burn it down! Build something new and incomprehensible in its place! Burn it all down!"

Huge if true... Trump explodes as he learns open source could erode China tech ban

Re: 1% are the 1%

My guess is that joke is Goon Show era. Probably said by Milligan (as Eccles) to Secombe, as that's the voice my brain used when reading it.

Driveway karaoke singer who wanted to lift lockdown spirits cops council noise complaint

Re: One song is too much

I believe the response expected when someone sings it badly at a football match is to chant back at them "You'll never walk... again"

However working in IT and never having actually been to a football match I cannot personally verify this and therefore it remains an urban legend.

Still, did you see that ludicrous display? I mean, the thing about Arsenal is they always try and walk it in...

Microsoft doc formats are the bane of office suites on Linux, SoftMaker's Office 2021 beta may have a solution

Re: @Zolko - Trust Office

Judging by recent updates, they do actually seem to be making significant progress in making the whole of office unusable.