Posts by nintendoeats

Programming error created billion-dollar mistake that made the coder ... a hero?

Re: Worst code I ever saw...

Definitely, variable and function naming is critical.

I feel that this is one are where coming from a writing background gives me an advantage. When we write code, we are writing it to be read by both humans and computers. The difference is, computers just need to know what to do; they don't need to understand why they are doing it. Variable/function names and comments are like a backchannel for just humans, a place to discuss issues that do not concern the computer.

Blockchain needs a reason to exist, Boris Johnson tells roomful of blockchain pros

I'm really annoyed that I agree with every single quote from Boris in this article.

In particular, the short form is infuriating. I've been trying to be a little bit politically active around firearms legistlation in Canada lately, and people keep telling me I need to make my writing shorter. Sorry guys, I can't cram a thesis, 10 coherent objections, and a conclusion into 1 page or a 60 second video. The fact that people think this is possible suggests that they are unable to identify incomplete arguments.

FAA wants pilots to be less dependent on computer autopilots

Re: Dum dum dum dum dum

That's pretty awesome.

Re: Dum dum dum dum dum

Absolutely. I don't know what it costs per-ticket to have two pilots, but I'll pay it. The "two pilots" thing isn't just about balancing the workload, it's about having the ability to hand off control when incapacitated, or for one person to notice something the other doesn't.

I watch an arseload of Air Crash Investigations. There are plenty of cases covered on that show where having two pilots unquestionably saved lives.

Boss broke servers with a careless bit of keyboarding, leaving techies to sort it out late on a Sunday

Re: Cold and hot

Hey, at least management implemented a mitigation propoertional to the actual problem. That's a situation rarer than hen's teeth.

Elon Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors are coming back

Re: Please keep going!

If he doesn't pay the fines, presumably it will be blocked eventually? I'm not sure what the legal recourse is in that case.

Re: advertisers... and suppliers

Or the Jack Tramiel playbook:

1. Buy huge amounts of components from a supplier.

2. Don't pay invoice.

3. Supplier goes out of business because the bill wasn't paid.

4. Buy the bankrupt company for peanuts.

5. Forgive your own debt.

Windows Subsystem for Linux now packaged as a Microsoft Store app

I have always thought this also.

Two arrested in massive $575m cryptocurrency 'Ponzi scheme'

They actually called their fake bank Polybius? Like...were they even trying to hide that it was fake? Seems like they were taking the piss at that point.

Twitter set for more layoffs as Musk mulls next move

Re: Requirements

Yes, clearly that is what I meant.

Re: Requirements

Another way to look at this is that only 51.8% of those polled think that the former president should be allowed to talk.

IT manager's 'think outside the box' edict was, for once, not (only) a revolting cliché

Re: Engineer?

You'll be happy to know that in Canada I cannot legally be referred to as a software engineer.

Re: Static wouldn't have been the only problem

Funny, my plans for this weekend just happen to include making such a PC stand. I used to have one, but I salvaged the wood to augment a TV stand when I was broke.

Re: On the floor?

Time was, there was a class of workstation called a "deskside".

Even an Indigo2 is big and heavy, works much better next to a desk than on it.

Microsoft makes a game of Team building, with benefits

Or they could fix the horrendous caching issues, so that it actually shows a correct "online status" for everybody in my list. I'm logged in with two clients at once, and they often disagree (and are also sometimes both wrong).

Wake me when they have Unreal Tournament (and even then, like fuck am I going to user their service to do it).

Evernote's fall from grace is complete, with sale to Italian app maker

Re: I used it for a while

Currently using a Titan Pocket. Give me a keyboard or give me death.

Re: Zero-sum competitive editing

I used to be a techwriter, I can so deeply relate. Sometimes you have to nail the engineer to the floor and force them to give you real feedback. They start with "I read it, it's fine", but you start probing them on the accuracy of one sentence and by the end they have given you enough corrections to re-write half the content.

Having jumped to writing software instead of documenting it, I've reached the conclusion that the engineers (at least where I work) don't have a culture of feedback anywhere as strong as what I've seen in what I'd call "commerical" liberal arts fields. Writing, visual art, music, theater...when I've studied these things, providing and receiving feedback was constantly hammered into us. From what I've seen, some software development cultures could really benefit from learning this ethos.

Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home

Re: Elon is correct

Ok, so there are definitely 7 billion then :p

Plus 1 billion<group of people you don't like>.

Re: Elon is correct

There are 7 billion people on this planet. Why TF would I agree to a system where ANYBODY is obliged to work more than 40 hours a week? That's just crushing people neath the might of captialism for no real reason.

As my dad likes to say "how can there be both an unemployment problem and a pothole in my street?" (or in this case, how can there be an unemployment problem and people working regular overtime?)

Re: Cue up music from Talking Heads and Brian Eno...

Nor is it Hitler, who I think OP may have mistaken Mr. Brother for.

Re: Go hardcore or go home

I bet they have a legal challenge they can make against Elon. Or maybe not, it's the US.

I read the bit about "except as punishment for a crime", and this was my first thought also. "Slavery by the back door" as somebody once put it.

Re: Easy choice Elon

The guy on the left looks like he is already regretting his life decision.

Go ahead, be rude. You don't know it now, but it will cost you $350,000

Re: Receptionist on the phone

I'm not sure about that, what do you think Jennifer?

Re: You get what you order

I just wanna say, I will only buy Sony TVs. My family has had scads of them, and not one has gone wrong in a way that mattered (and I haven't seen a minor issue on any until they were at least that was less than a decade old).

So in that case, yes in that instance I remember and there really is some brand loyalty. Wouldn't buy there CDs though...

I think I am probably more conscious of this than average. If I am happy with something, when it comes time to replace I will tend to look at the same brand first (given sensible circumstances).

I would put it down to that, except for one of my previous experiences with the same person.

I was trying to install some software we wanted to test, and it was one of these things where the "installer" is just a shell that downloads the real assets. The installer was unable to do its job from within the corporate network.

He spent AN HOUR remoted into my machine, preventing me from working, doing things that made absolutely zero sense (I had nothing to do but watch him try things). At the end he concluded, "I think our firewall is blocking the installer."

NO SHIT.

All this to say, I think this person is not just lazy, but profoundly stupid.

Re: An incident like this..

Possibility 1: This person can do some stuff, but it was obvious they couldn't solve this problem. They are required to have you do at least those two things before elevating.

Possibility 2: All they do all day is tell people to restart computers and modems.

Depressing thought #2...

Re: A (still) current problem that may not go away

Firmware was downloaded straight to the machine, it wasn't provided as a blob that you installed from a thumbstick.

Frankly, that would have been less annoying than what he actually wrote.

Re: A (still) current problem that may not go away

Another one along similar lines. I have a Denon 3808CI A/V receiver (this cost somebody 1600 bucks 15 years ago). I have rigged it up with a ThenAudio SHARC so that it works with my 4K TV. Obviously that TV also supports CEC. If the receiver supported that, I could reduce my number of remotes by a third.

There was, at one time, a firmware update that added CEC support to the 3808CI. Unfortunately the firmware update servers are down for that machine (it would barely cost them anything to keep those up, but fine). I contacted them to ask if there was a way to obtain this firmware. I have heard...nothing. I'd accept "sorry, no". But simply no response. What does one do?

Bastards.

Re: I've had this oodles of times

In fairness, fraud is real and the customer service people are the ones who have to look out for it. But that said, if your customer comes from Delphi you should probably eat a little fraud if it comes along.

I had a couple of Dell monitors malfunction. Got bounced around with their "customer service" people who were totally clueless and didn't understand anything I was saying, until somebody accidentally transferred me to the enterprise department. Guy was super helpful and professional, until he asked for my business account and I'm like "what?"

I could hear the regret in his voice as he punted me back to the pleb system.

In fairness, Dell eventually gave me 4 monitors for the price of 2, so it wasn't all bad.

We have one guy...earlier this week...

Me: I was required to change my password to the timesheet system yesterday and now I can't remember it. Can you please reset my password?

Gonad: I confirm that you are still enabled in the timesheets. Please log in with the new password.

Me: What new password?

Gonad: Use the new password you set yesterday. If you do not remember it we can reset it.

This is not the first time I've had an interaction with this person where I wanted to put my fist through his head, nor am I alone in that regard.

Re: Now ask me why ...

I also lived in the middle east, where my best friend was welsh. Trying to talk to him via cell phone was pointless.

KFC bot urges Germans to mark Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken

One day, something truly terrible on a global scale will happen because of an automated system managed by machine learning.

A serious investigation will be done, and the report will contain a variant of the phrase "A significant contributor to this accident was the lack of a safety culture in the organization".

Then 30 years later, HBO will make a miniseries about it.

This just one of many rumblings before the quake.

How (Toytoa MR2)

does (Gerber baby food)

this (Come alive with Pepsi)

keep (Ford Pinto)

happening? (Got milk?)

I'm happy paying Twitter eight bucks a month because price isn't the same as value

Re: He changed his mind again on Official within hours

It doesn't bother me, but I'm genuinely curious why that comment would merit a thumbs-down.

Re: He changed his mind again on Official within hours

I don't think "failure to get shit done" is one of the arguments that can be levelled against fascism.

Re: He changed his mind again on Official within hours

Yes, let's all remember that the Americans won the space race by spending vast amounts of government money on a centrally-managed project. Thus, the superiority of capitalism over communism was demonstrated.

(Yes, of course huge amounts of the work were done by private industry. I doubt the Americans would have won the space race if they had left it entirely to the free market, even with a very large government incentive on the table for the winners. It's almost like maintaining a healthy balance of private industry and high-level economic management is the most reliable way to achieve economic goals)

Musk tells of risk of Twitter bankruptcy as tweeters trash brands

Re: Musk has devotees not fanbois

Reminds me Bill Gates during the Microsoft antitrust days (why did those end anyway)? You look at him in interviews, he has no respect for the people across the desk. He has since publicly stated that his arrogance cost the company dearly and in effect was morally wrong. Will Elon ever have such powers of self-reflection? I doubt so.

NFT vending machine appears in London

Re: Actually an ancient principle

The premise of all MLMs.

I had a friend who got into Arbonne. She invited us over and gave us the whole spiel (all a bunch of male nerds, so I don't know why she thought it would get anywhere). None of us said anything. It is one of my life-long regrets that I didn't overcome my politeness and point out what a scam it was (especially right in front of her handler, that would have been great). That said, her boyfriend really should have stepped up to the plate on that one.

While I acknowledge that this is not super strong (the art market is also in many ways a similar scam), there is one difference which I think is important. Sometimes, somebody buys an expensive painting not JUST as an investment vehicle, but also because they want to show it off to their rich friends (or even rarer, because they actually like it or appreciate its historical significance). That works a lot better when you get a physical thing over which you can claim exclusivity.

So while 99% of the time these things are bought as expensive gambling, there is some actual market value outside of the painting's use as an investment vehicle. That means the art market has at least some semblance of an economic foundation, which the NFT market does not.

Re: Actually an ancient principle

Weirdly, a lot of people seem to be getting scammed with this logic by corpos and thanking them for it.

Multi-factor auth fatigue is real – and it's why you may be in the headlines next

Re: Meanwhile in another part of the forest

Funny, we watched an episode of Mayday (Air Crash Investigation) last night where precisely such a thing happened, at the CORPORATE level. A French carrier wanted their pilots to fly as fast as possible; IIRC they had a standard of 350 KM/H when below 5000 feet, as opposed to 250 KM/H for standard flights (something like that anyway). They found that the terrain warning alarms went off too often in this configuration, so they began ordering aircraft without terrain warning systems.

Surprise, they had a plane crash into a mountain.

I just want to say...I don't like being even more dependent on my phone than I already am...which is a big problem with MFA for me. It literally makes your phone a key part of your ability to identify yourself. Cyberpunk future, here we are.

Elon Musk shows what being Chief Twit is all about across weird weekend

Re: Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints

Did I say "egocentric wazzok"? :p

Porsche wants to sell you a rusty tailpipe soundbar for $12k

Re: As the saying goes....

Envy the resource, not what they do with it.

Re: As the saying goes....

You can envy somebody and still think they are a loser.

Re: VW version

We shall never forget.