* Posts by Imhotep

791 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Aug 2019

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China fires up 'Great Cannon' denial-of-service blaster, points it toward Hong Kong

Imhotep

Re: No Internet for You

Internet Terms Of Service? Is there one? Asking because I honestly don't know, but I don't know how legal or enforceable such a document would be.

Elon Musk gets thumbs up from jury for use of 'pedo guy' in cave diver defamation lawsuit

Imhotep

Re: Surprised

The laws in fhe UK are different than those in the US. There is a comment by a lawyer on this topic on ArsTechnica that does a pretty good job of summarizing the issues.

Doogee Wowser: The S40's a terrible smartphone, but a passable projectile

Imhotep

Re: There was a time....

Ahh, yes. I remember when I was dozing, teacher beaned me with the eraser. I woke up and punched the kid next to me, proving I was lazy AND stupid.

Good times.

AT&T subscribers back in court to crack open telco giant's $60m FTC settlement over limited 'unlimited data' plans

Imhotep

The US does have local small claims courts, but I believe that a case certified as a class action suit rolls up all claimants in to that suit. Perhaps someone else can clarify that point.

Register Lecture: Can portable atomic clocks end UK dependence on GNSS?

Imhotep

Re: Why does the UK need GPS anyway?

Certainly Mr Huygens was a pioneer in the field, but I believe John Harrison's were the first chronometers accurate enough for the royal navy.

Imhotep

Re: Why does the UK need GPS anyway?

But chronometers were a big help when they came along. I believe the UK gets the credit for that.

Customers in 'standoff' with SAP over 2025 end of support for Business Suite: Who'll blink first?

Imhotep

Exactly. Everytime we were forced into a migration, we saw it as an opportunity to see if there was a better system to migrate to. Our healthcare systems vendor (McKesson) put us in just such a position. We ended up moving on to a new vendor's (Cerner) software.

I wouldn't have chosen either, but IT's recommendation was over ruled. After two years they're migrating on to yet another system.

Imhotep

Yes, I'll Move

SAP may be making a pretty good case to their customers for moving off of their platform.

Den Automation raised millions to 'reinvent' the light switch. Now it's lights out for startup

Imhotep

Crowd Funding - The Wisdim Of Crowds

This seems to be a common theme: crowdfunding/selling kit in advance, multiple delays, poor product pushed out the door or no product ever delivered, communication goes unanswered, bankruptcy.

As someone mentioned above, I might be interested if I was a hobbyist but in that case I'd go the do-it-yourself relay route - otherwise I don't see the benefit.

Judge to interview Assange over claims Spanish security firm snooped on him during Ecuador embassy stint

Imhotep

A Pox On All Their Houses

It's getting awful hard to pick a side to root for anymore. But I'm still against pineapple on pizza - that's wrong.

You can forget about that Black Friday deal: Brit banks crap out just in time for pay day

Imhotep

Everyone Else Is Doing It

I thought Black Friday was a uniquely American travesty. Give thanks on the last Thursday in November, then go out the next day to indulge in an orgy of excessive consumption.

Ahhh, you're no better than we are.

BBC tells Conservative Party to remove edited Facebook ad featuring its reporters

Imhotep

BBC news is generally carried by the local PBS stations in the US, so watched by quite a few here.

Imhotep

Who Is The Boss

Question: Can the BBC actually tell the party what to do? It seems that this ad would fall under what I believe is called "Fair Use" in the US. I realise that the content would have been only an extract, but if it is what was actually said over the public airways for public consumption.....

RuneScape bloke was wrongly sacked after reading veep's salary details on office printer

Imhotep

Re: Odd But

What I find odd is that 119K would be considered excessive for a VP.

If the developers are earning less, then the US firms I've worked for are paying considerably more. Is this firm an abberation, or are UK rates really that low?

Yeah but, no, but... 'Overpaid' Boeing snaps back at NASA's watchdog

Imhotep
Pint

A Star Is Borked

Lithobraked - that's marvelous.

Imhotep

Time To Flush The System

Another case of a tapeworm abusing its host.

Xerox: Prepare to say cyan-ara, HP Inc. We're no paper tiger. We're really very serious about that hostile takeover

Imhotep

Re: I wonder why Xerox is so fixated on this HP merger.

I think for both companies the problem is that people just don't require hard copies much anymore.

Merging both companies is a little bit like a buggy whip manufacturer buying a horseshoe manufacturer to address the sales lost because people are buying cars.

Imhotep

Re: One of the Mysteries of the Free Market...

I've been through a couple of these as both stockholder and employee, and I agree.

Oddly enough, in both cases it was a smaller company buying, and the merged company management was inferior to the original.

*Anheuser-Busch by InBev, the other I can't discuss.

Imhotep

Re: Smaller company attempting a hostile takeover?

The people at HP may not want it. But stockholders may - if the offer is high enough, they could see it as a way to exit a struggling company with a nice chunk of cash in hand. I imagine they'll want a better offer: more cash and less or no stock.

RISC-V business: Tech foundation moving to Switzerland because of geopolitical concerns

Imhotep

Doesn't Work Like That

"I would imagine that a lot of the laws Trump passed would also get thrown out."

Trump has not passed any laws. Those are written and passed by congress. Trump can sign or veto a bill - a 2/3 majority is required to over-ride a presidential veto.

If Trump was impeached and removed from office, VP Pence would be the replacement.

HPEeeeeek! Our sales have been decimated by worldwide slowdown, trade wars, say execs

Imhotep

Thinking Like An MBA

Guess the next announcement is more layoffs?

Found on Mars: Alien insects... or whatever the hell this smudge is supposed to be, anyway

Imhotep

Re: They will kill us...

Well, sure - if you're looking at the best possible scenario.

Imhotep

Re: I'm convinced

"Of course the Earth is flat."

If you ever spent all day driving across Kansas, you'd be open to the possibility.

Imhotep

I See Dead People

It appears to be the same phenomena as people who see Jesus on a slice of toast or the Virgin Mary in a stucco wall.

Interesting that he describes earth-like insects that are supposed to have evolved in a Mars environment. Color me skeptical.

Take a Big Blue cheque and go: IBM settles 281 UK age discrim cases

Imhotep

Re: confidential terms

"discriminated against for having less experience"

So not hired because they're not as qualified?

Imhotep

I'm Younger Than That Now

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on how the IT workforce is skewed toward younger workers.

Not too bad of a tech article for the WSJ, but in addition to focusing on the hiring of younger workers, they could have addressed companies like IBM who are actively targeting older workers for layoffs.

Beware the trainee with time on his hands and an Acorn manual on his desk

Imhotep

Re: Oh, the joys

Were in a classroom for a monthly meeting, lights turned down for a PowerPoint presentation. Saw a friend falling asleep, did a net send saying "Wake Up" as a joke.

Every PC in the room dinged, everyone snapped awake and looked around guiltily.

Oh God, I'd sent it to everyone in the room! Then panic: I'd sent it to everyone in the company!

Thank God there were only classrooms on the router, and ours was the only one in use.

Copy that? We'll never join you on the Xerox side if you don't answer simple questions – HP

Imhotep

Show Me The Money

This is the part that would make me think twice: Xerox is offering $22 per share, $5 of which is in Xerox stock and $17 in cash. That Xerox stock is going to be in a highly leveraged company if the buyout goes through. HP stock is currently around $19. I would want a higher premium on the HP stock.

Absolutely smashing: Musk shows off Tesla's 'bulletproof' low-poly pickup, hilarity ensues

Imhotep

Re: looks horrible

Yes, a lot of different terrain and people that can't understand each other when they talk there too.

But do you have places where there's absolutely nothing - no buildings, no people, no trees - as far as you can see?

Or maybe it gets dark at night there too.

Imhotep

Re: NCAP

There aren't really any US laws on "jay walking". I believe most those are set by the municipality, maybe some states.

I never cross at an intersection when I can avoid it: there I have to watch for traffic coming from four directions, and drivers that don't watch for pedestrians and habitually blow through marked crossings.

Maybe it's better in other locations - NYC, Chicago, etc - but here it's safer to assume that you're potential roadkill and act accordingly.

Imhotep

Re: looks horrible

They can fly for short distances, but that involves shutting down the highway to clean up afterwards.

Imhotep

Re: looks horrible

It appears that they very thoughtfully installed a lightbar over the windshield.

But how are you going to put decals on that rear window? And where does the rifle rack go?

Imhotep

Re: won't have to worry about it's paint quality.

And body work on a DeLorean must be an absolute joy.

Imhotep

People Who Live In Glass Houses

Glass houses seems to be an appropriate term, considering the demo and the outcome.

Imhotep

Re: NCAP

Do trucks need to meet those tests? They seem to be exempt from a lot of standards applued to cars.

Imhotep

Re: looks horrible

It depends where you are, too. Here in rural Tennessee, cars don't seem to the majority. I'd guess SUVs, pickups and cars in that order.

Imhotep

Re: What's the market?

WalMart solar panel installers?

Imhotep

Re: looks horrible

Pick-up owners are a conservative bunch. I don't think they'll go for the styling. On the other hand, if you can make people feel passionately one way or the other about your product: they may feel passionate enough to buy.

Bon sang! French hospital contracts 6,000 PC-locking ransomware infection

Imhotep

Re: La Guillotine

Here in Nashville, and with our provider, we also have electronic access to our records.

I like the fact that I can walk into one of their satellite clinics out in the sticks, be seen within 15 minutes, have an XRay taken which is reviewed by a Dr in Nashville while I wait.

That's an example of how useful/efficient electronic records can be. Working in IT in the health care industry, I've also seen how badly things can go wrong too.

Imhotep

Re: I Might Be Out Of Step But

I like pen and paper as an available option - that should work regardless of the condition causing the outage, including natural disasters where power is lost.

Some hospitals going through the same thing in the US basically shut down for the duration I believe, transferring patients elsewhere. That won't work if they are all hit by the same hurricane, earthquake, etc.

Imhotep

Re: DAMN YOU DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION!!!!

For those of us counting on our fingers, "digital" is acceptable use. Not to boast, but we're the ones that got everyone to settle on Base 10 and decimals.

We(don't)Work: Rent-a-desk outfit cuts 2,400 staff in bid to be a functioning business

Imhotep

Re: The food is crap and the portions are too small

I've still got my tulip bulbs. They'll be worth big money some day. In the mean time, I'm sitting on a fortune in Beanie Babies.

Imhotep

Re: Eh??!!

"Excitable stupid people using other people's money to fund parasites"

Wonderful phrase that needs an acronym.

Imhotep

Re: "These are incredibly talented professionals"

Got a hold of a copy of the playbook?

Imhotep

The food is crap and the portions are too small

Someone did quite the job in convincing SoftBank that an office management firm was ground breaking Tech rather than the same business as every other office management firm. Hats off to doing that and walking away with a billion plus change.

That code that could never run? Well, guess what. Now Windows thinks it's Batman

Imhotep

Re: Assume the worst

IIRC, an example when you're talking about a database write: the code is supposed to write a record which contains multiple columns. If the code cannot make entries for each column in the record, it won't do the write - a complete entry or nothing, ensuring you don't write crap records.

Imhotep

Rainbow Unicorns

I call BS. A user that read an error message and acted on what it said? Inconceivable!

Why can't you be a nice little computer maker and just GET IN THE TRUNK, Xerox tells HP in hostile takeover alert

Imhotep

An Offer You Can't Refuse

Bundling failing companies to set the stage for one big failure?

If I had stock, I'd grab the chance to sell it for the premium offered.

Mysterious IT snafu at British Airways causes bunch of inbound flight delays and cancellations

Imhotep

He Gets BOTH Armrests!

StamSpeed: Rush of passengers disembarking from any plane Mr Speed boards.

Imhotep

Re: BA = Bloody Awful

I've always been satisfied with Southwest - but not an option for international flights.

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