* Posts by WanderingHaggis

145 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Nov 2019

Driver in Uber's self-driving car death goes on trial, says she feels 'betrayed'

WanderingHaggis

Software to arbitrate between two soldiers -- haven't they heard of rank?

Don't really don't get this one, you don't have time in combat to make decision making protracted so usually the army has very clear hierarchy such discussions usually end with yes sarg or sir not lets boot my laptop and see what the AI thinks once everything is entered in.

We have redundancy, we have batteries, what could possibly go wrong?

WanderingHaggis

I'm not slow -- you just have to explain for a long time.

I remember our big outage -- phone alert -- rushing to the site and knowing most of the battery life would have gone by that time I got there. I start shutting everything down cleanly until I suddenly realised that the lights were on again. (It was during the day so there was some excuse.)

UK govt signs IT contracts 'without understanding' the needs

WanderingHaggis

Indeed there but not listened too but expected to clean up the mess and carry the can for the minister.

Make assistive driving safe: Eliminate pedestrians

WanderingHaggis

Re: In other words, precisely the wrong direction. Nice.

Cassie is pretty good and nice restaurants

No, I've not read the screen. Your software must be rubbish

WanderingHaggis

Back inthe day

We had a simple menu system 1 -- for word processor 2 -- format the disc in drive B (yes it was that long ago). I had been pushing users to read screens as we had a lot of problems with the it is not working -- what does the screen say -- press any key to continue so what do I do? problem. One user complained that she had read the screen as I'd instructed and typed Y then for some reason all her work disappeared. As you can guess she had hit the wrong key and only read the last sentence -- do you wish to continue. Reading is a rare gift in users.

Free AI protein software packages nearly predicted structure of the Omicron coronavirus variant correctly

WanderingHaggis
Pint

If I remember correctly in pharmacology anything that can enter / interact with your body is considered a drug. So you would either have to create a new working definition of naughty drug or licence stuff like water, food etc -- tricky that.

It's the day before the grand opening but we need a firmware update. It'll be fine

WanderingHaggis
Stop

Friday rule

Touch nothing unless you have no alternative.

Thank you, FAQ chatbot, but if I want your help I'll ask for it

WanderingHaggis

Re: I am here to help. What can I do for you today?

I remember a conference speaker who had worked on creating these systems describing them as satanic. Looking at it now he would have it not answer the call if there were not enough operators available to handle the load. Avoid winding people up and wasting time.

Foreign Office IT chaos: Shocking testimony reveals poor tech support hindered Afghan evac attempts

WanderingHaggis

It boils down to your way of running things

A lot relates to the Govt's philosophy i.e. small government means no slack, minimal staffing and no reserves for when the brown stuff hits the ventilator but taxes are lower. I'm sure the merger of departments was to streamline things a bit more. They were set up to fail.

As for companies doing better -- remember the Olympics - I heard (unconfirmed but believable) that a civil service Sir Humphrey back at the start knew the private company in question was not going to work but was forced to use them; one had a quiet word with the generals so that they were ready when it fell apart.

There are skilled and good civil servants but you need to let them do their job. One of the main problems with government is the Government.

BOFH: What if International Bad Actors designed the vaccine to make us watch more Steven Seagal movies?

WanderingHaggis

Re: Unfortunately...

True but they never say that a dodgy civil servant in a pub offered them a pony to inject nanobots into unsuspecting patients so are the government not offering under the counter money to antivaxxers -- why don't they record one of the meetings. Again no one has come forward saying I took money from Boris then changed my mind. After so much time it is not credible that no one has been able to provide this kind of evidence.

WanderingHaggis

Re: Unfortunately...

It's a moral question not a logic question. The basic claim is every doctor is corrupt and is gaining from this in one way or an other to such a point that there is not a single doctor who has a moment of remorse and confesses to being part of the plan. That is deeply flawed and insulting.

WanderingHaggis

Re: They must have

my bro in law as well. The satire articles scare me as I'm sure they believe them and add to the ambient BS level.

Theranos' Holmes admits she slapped Big Pharma logos on lab reports to boost her biz

WanderingHaggis

In other words I was wrong in what I did. Admission of guilt.

'We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product' rages Ohio's Attorney General in Facebook lawsuit

WanderingHaggis
Devil

Corporate failure

As shareholders they should be holding the company to account -- though if I remember correctly the main shareholder is Zuk himself so so much for that. Sue them for lying and mistreating their product (sorry users)fair enough, charge them with negligence and endangerment yes and the shareholders for not sorting out the company they own definitely; but for lost profit when you have not held the MD accountable sorry no. Shareholders may not do the day to day but they set the direction and hold accountability rôles.

One click, one goal, one mission: To get a one-touch flush solution

WanderingHaggis

Re: Is it for prople who don't wash their hands?

The formula one (cheap staff-less motel in France) had toilets that automatically cleaned everything when the door was closed for the second time (so as not to wash the user) - my daughter was convinced that the pervasive moisture was a user failure and would refuse to go in. The problem with little children if you have to go in and out to help and encourage them is remembering not to close the door twice with them inside.

Say what you see: Four-letter fun on a late-night support call

WanderingHaggis

The joys of the phonetic alphabet

Learned the NATO alphabet as a boy scout -- was nerdy even then. It is useful when giving codes over the phone but it seems that the average user doesn't have a clue about it which is a real pain. foxtrot India lima mike

Sharing is caring, except when it's your internet connection

WanderingHaggis
Black Helicopters

Re: Be my guest...

So you're the neighbour -- at work when checking surrounding wifi (channel availability check) the surveillance van 3 keeps showing up. I wanted to name our system van 4

Good Grief! Ransomware gang has only gone and pwned the NRA – or so it claims

WanderingHaggis
Joke

Be very careful that might be dumb dumb .

Theranos blood-test machine demos for VIPs rigged to hide any failures, court told

WanderingHaggis
Devil

Am I being too harsh?

The "accidental destruction" of evidence should set a legal presumption of guilt and require the defendants to prove their innocence.

Boeing 737 Max chief technical pilot charged with deceiving US aviation regulators over MCAS

WanderingHaggis

Re: When only companies are blamed it keeps happening again & again & again

There has to be personal responsibility but that has to extend beyond the test pilot if he had told people about "fixing" things then his manager should also face charges if there is a culture of corruption the GD CEO whoever responsible for allowing it should be charged. Corporate manslaughter is just a way of ducking out of your responsibility and hiding the guilty party. If a bean counter blocked the report then he / she should pay. .

Brit MPs blast Baroness Dido Harding's performance as head of NHS Test and Trace

WanderingHaggis

Please don't call it NHS track and trace

It was a third party track and trace not NHS -- vaccine roll out which was NHS has worked well for the most part and I understand the NHS had its own trace and trace (primarily for STDs) that was ignored during the set up in spite of their competence. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-why-did-england-ignore-an-army-of-existing-contact-tracers-140825 This was a major failing from day one.

Zoom-o-cracy: Wales MP misses vote, allowing COVID-passport rule change, blames the IT dept

WanderingHaggis

Re: But it's conference season

Because there were important decisions to be made that couldn't wait.

WanderingHaggis

Re: Can't fix

At a guess -- he didn't attempt to connect to the meeting until the vote -- if he can't be bothered to take part and understand the issue then only connect when it is time to vote then it is an own goal and deserves no sympathy. If you connect ahead of time and thus checking everything is good as well as participating in what you think is an important debate you then have time to go to plan B or check who you should phone.

There is a good French proverb the absent are always at fault (wrong) - Les absents ont toujours tort.

Config cockup leaves Reg reader reaching for the phone

WanderingHaggis
Facepalm

Been there, done that, where did I put the tee shirt?

Updated a FortiGate firewall in the data centre and watched it disappear. Mad rush to centre (2 hours away by car) to reboot it. I then implemented a script that reboots the firewall 5 minutes after a configuration is changed unless you save the running config. (I strongly recommend this to any budding firewall manager.) I you can save it your good if you can't you need the reboot to fall back. But remember don't get distracted after you made the changes as going for coffee or chatting to a colleague has resulted in many a reboot.

Get real: Say what you like about your app but don't be surprised if I trollsplain

WanderingHaggis
Coat

Re: BOGOF

Buy one at twice the price and get one free. emmm

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

WanderingHaggis

Re: Who me?

Whatever happened to the you know have five minutes to confirm everything is happy or I'll reboot and fall back to the previous configuration. Fortigate can be told to behave like this and Juno does it out the box probably a script or something could be added to cisco. Really cool except when you sigh with relief and go for a coffee forgetting to confirm and save.

Is it a bridge? Is it a ferry? No, it's the Newport Transporter

WanderingHaggis
Alert

A bit off topic

I remember visiting the crash chamber in Newcastle back in the eighties and seeing bandages and blood still on the floor of the chamber. But the worse was the tubes they had for transporting divers at pressure in the chopper. Not for the faint hearted.

BOFH: You'll find there's a company asset tag right here, underneath the monstrously heavy arcade machine

WanderingHaggis

Re: Personal heaters

Ah the memories, the electrics in our building being quite old (building no longer exists) meant that when one of our colleagues turned on the heater under her desk the circuit breakers would pop if people were working in the studio and us geek running to check UPS and server, and/or circuit breaker. Many black outs, and informative lectures -- it should be noted she is a lovely, generous person and a fantastic cook so forgiveness would be extended,

UK Ministry of Defence tries again to procure £1.7bn tri-service recruitment system

WanderingHaggis
Alert

Has anyone seen an outsourcing work?

I know when things work we don't notice them but notice when they fail however it seems to me that when ever something is outsourced it goes titup. Can anyoone tell me of a contract that has worked? Keeping things in house seems to be the only way to stand a chance of getting what you want.

So I’ve scripted a life-saving routine. Pah. What really matters is the icon I give it

WanderingHaggis

Re: who was world-famous throughout France

Prefer Eddy Mitchell or Renaud -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak2VSH4oHxY Renaud at least made it in the UK charts with Miss Maggie and was known in the UK but this one is nicer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2QiGY1hgQs

Glasgow firm fined £150k after half a million nuisance calls, spoofing phone number, using false trading names

WanderingHaggis

I really wonder a) how much they make and b) is it enough to cover the fine and still make it worthwhile. They must be getting a return for their "investment"

The unit of measure for fatbergs is not hippopotami, even if the operator of an Australian sewer says so

WanderingHaggis

O me miserum -- just been taken back 40 years

WanderingHaggis

Re: Pural

But chicken is poultry if your posh.

Fired credit union employee admits: I wiped 21GB of files from company's shared drive in retaliation

WanderingHaggis

Re: Rather moronic

Actually at least 30 minutes before she is told her services are no longer required and if she is showing signs of heading for the door or serious issues arising even earlier. Don't leave a window of opportunity.

Arms not long enough to reach the plug socket? Room-wide wireless charging is on the way

WanderingHaggis
Coat

I used to make a joke about wireless power -- it is odd to see the joke becoming a reality. I feel like saying if it is only 10 watts the factory floor might not have too much use for it but if the joke become reality then ... I'll get my coat.

British teachers' pensions set to be released from Capita's grasp after nearly 30 years

WanderingHaggis

What I'm trying to get my head around is the concept that they have done a good job. For once has out sourcing worked? I need to go lie down in a dark room.

Magna Carta mayhem: Protesters lay siege to Edinburgh Castle, citing obscure Latin text that has never applied in Scotland

WanderingHaggis

Re: Mars Bar

Pakora and chips with curry sauce -- bliss for a student in the late 70s.Spam fritters were good too but no mars bars back then.

It always struck me as a weird cultural difference, English fish and chip shops have cod, huss and other types of fish; but a Glasgow chippy has only one fish (further details unavailable) but also pizza, spam fritters, chicken, pakora, haggis, black pudding, mars bars the list goes on and on. Why?

WanderingHaggis

Re: Sumption is wrong

Indeed according to it the border is in the wrong place.

84-year-old fined €250,000 for keeping Nazi war machines – including tank – in basement

WanderingHaggis
Coat

Re: though corroded with rust, could be cleaned and restored to working condition

With the rust you might need to rebore the barrel.

You MUST present your official ID (but only the one that's really easy to fake)

WanderingHaggis

but there is logic

As my french prof explained you use the maiden name because people get married then divorced then remarried ad infinitum and if you keep changing the surname everyone will get confused and official papers lost -- a bureaucratic nightmare will follow therefor logically you always stick with the name you got at birth to keep the paper work simple and prevent getting your pass lost. Either that or you can't divorce and remarry.

BOFH: They say you either love it or you hate it. We can confirm you're going to hate it

WanderingHaggis

Re: ... to be continued ...

I think this is a case for escalation to vegemite.

Pipe down, Jeff. You've only gone where Gus Grissom went before, 60 years ago today

WanderingHaggis

Re: How Small

Having seem how tiny the Apollo capsule was I would have lost it during the voyage. Three of them in what looks just a little bigger than the back seat of a Cortina. The trick cyclists did a fantastic job of selecting the right people.

Google fined €500m for not paying French publishers after using their words on web

WanderingHaggis
Devil

Re: If you can't tax 'em fine 'em

Seems reasonable to me, you plagiarizer or treat my hard work as free and kill my living then you deserve it.

Revealed: Perfect timings for creation of exemplary full English breakfast

WanderingHaggis

Re: Title clearly says, "English Breakfast"

Where is the black pudding or don't southerners have it. Hash browns ok but not english. If Scottish you could add a little fried haggis slices and lorne sausage.

Robots still suck. It's all they can do to stand up – never mind rise up

WanderingHaggis

Re: Perfect workers

But they can be moody especially if they get pain in their diodes.

'Vast majority of people' are onside with a data grab they know next to nothing about, reckons UK health secretary

WanderingHaggis
Facepalm

But GDPR requires opt in - doesn't it?

As I understand it GDPR requires opt in and doesn't consider failure to opt out as consent. It always defaults to the most private secure settings. So how can the gov. claim people have consented if they haven't opted in. Should the ICO get involved and fine Matt?

That thing you were utterly sure would never happen? Yeah, well, guess what …

WanderingHaggis

Done that to the wrong mailing list. Being a bit bored I had a fake startrek type message. Most receivers were OK but not everyone. Development definitely needs to be air gapped from the world.

FBI paid renegade developer $180k for backdoored AN0M chat app that brought down drug underworld

WanderingHaggis

Re: Shades of Bletchley Park

A very good point -- there must be a tipping point when you know there is a rat because everything is going titsup -- i.e. time to get out of Dodge . Maybe that is an other reason for them pulling the plug and rounding everyone up.

MoD: Our networks are in 'unacceptable' state and both data and IT bods are stuck in silos

WanderingHaggis
Mushroom

Just a thought

I'd of thought that MOD stuff not being on the internet i.e. along with data being locked inside “internal and contractual silos” making it “hard to access and integrate”. would be a good thing from a security perspective. We don't want some teen hacker accessing the polaris subs and playing wargames. Good hacking film.

NASA to return to the Moon by 2024. One problem with that, says watchdog: All of it

WanderingHaggis
Holmes

Am I the only one

Am I the only one who looked at the video and saw startrek blue engines on the ships?