Posts by Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse 2451 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Sep 2007
But it is a bit odd how so many people fell for the scam. I find it hard to believe that they were all genuine tax dodgers who thought that their game was up. At the very least if someone phones you up suggesting that they are the IRS and that you owe tax then you would have expected the targets to request written proof before ponying up without a challenge?
Maybe, but a contract is legally binding at both ends so I'm assuming that (A) the contract would need to contain some legal confetti to explain termination or expiry conditions, or (B) at the very least Comcast would need to contact the customer to agree a change to those terms.
Small print terms buried down on page 14 of an agreement such as "we retain the right to change terms or cancel/revoke/withdraw services at any point without notification" generally don't stand up in court.
But this is the US legal system right? So anything could happen.
"investment needed to compete, exceeds the potential rewards"
Which means that any original investment business case was flawed, or that it was accepted on the basis that the only possible model for making a profit on it is either by being fraudulent or, "legally tricksy" - as we constantly see in the cases involving companies such as Comcast, AT&T etc.
Yeah maybe. It's not the job I'd choose to do either, but you do get out what you put in. If you're some self obsessed asshat that simply MUST get on the plane first, but can't even be bothered to have your passport and ticket ready at the right point and end up holding everyone else up - then you generally get what you deserve.
On the positive, it sounds as though these guys are genuine, and not paid-up members of the Oceans eleven team. I think if nothing else the client-supplier lessons learned and PIR should definitely include "actually talking to each other in detail" to agree the terms, scope, approach and plan prior to the statement or work being signed.
Yes, whilst this is totally idiotic and obviously Scotiabanks problem to resolve, I do wonder if this is a fuckup caused by in-house resources or by the cheap and inexperienced offshore labour in India being so remote from the business that they don't properly understand the implications, or perhaps give a f**k.
Either way, you do have to smirk (a bit)...
"This also shows in the ridiculously high and generic requirements for any host that needs to run any SAP instance."
I completely agree with this from a historical perspective. Trying to size an on-prem infrastructure to host SAP (and any required supporting environments) in the past was always a work of witchcraft which even SAPs in house technical architects seemed to struggle with. I'd also say however that the infrastructure vendors themselves such as IBM, HP et al also used to struggle with this. This was always a problem when trying to manage project budgets and realising that you need to go and rapidly buy more CPU, memory and storage during testing at some extortionate cost to keep timelines on track.
In my view, the move to SaaS, PaaS and elastic infrastructure has really solved this problem, but has naturally increased operational risk in others. It's taken away that whole underlying infrastructure delivery problem - which in itself has reduced time to implement in a really positive way (kinda').
I've been working on and running ERP delivery programmes for the last 15 years across SAP, Oracle EBS and a few others, and my opinion is that as a product SAP is (in a very Germanic way) overly fussy and needlessly complex. It sacrifices efficiency and speed and usability for "completeness". The move from separate R/3 apps to a more joined up underlying infrastructure in ECC made it slightly better from an integration perspective. Their licensing model is an absolute maze of hidden costs which unfortunately does seem to mean that a lot of projects software and OPEX costs overrun simply because nobody really understands them - and because they change so often. And yes, SAP product development vs product marketing does seem to be somewhat disjointed (to put it in a civil manner).
I think it's unfair to say the software is crap though because when it works, it works quite well from a technical perspective. And as I've said before on these hallowed El Reg boards, most ERP projects overrun not due to the underlying software itself, but due to incomplete business process analysis and requirements specifications, that, and a lot of larger 3rd party integrator being (A) shit generally, (B) promising more than they can deliver, or (C) bidding lower simply to win the work - and the client bean counters not challenging them.
That said, Oracle EBS is no better. I've actually worked with some free open source ERPs that do a better job than either of them.
I completely agree. Easyjet already have a paid extra called "Speedy Boarding" that I can't really see the point of other than letting people feel a little bit superior than everyone else considering that all you end up doing is sitting on the plane for longer while everyone else gets on; it's not like you are getting to your end destination any quicker is it.
To be fair to EJ though, their current check in process using the self service machines at Gatwick seems to work really well and always seems to get me into the food hall much quicker than standing in a queue.
I have no problem with FR in this instance, as long as those images are not then being forwarded to law enforcement, or held permanently. The problem being that I can't see how this not happening will be prevented as a logical natural extension made of the ground of "security" is that images of those on-board will end up being sent to the immigration people at your airport of arrival. Who knows what happens then...
Because I'm an amateur triathlete, and using my Garmin to track my performances in training and races over time is much cheaper than employing a professional coach. The Garmin BTW has been faultless over the last 3 years.
Just because you have no use case for one doesn't mean the rest of us don't.
Idiot.
"Or you could just block the internal IP of the printer from accessing the internet at your router."
Because it's most likely not the actual printer doing the phone home. It's more likely the app itself collating the info from the print job and sending it back.
I'd love there to be a site that collates all of this stuff with IP addresses and URLs so we can block them without having to Wireshark the connection.
Really? Isn't it about time we did away with this charade? Since when did ANY project initiated by the government actually deliver any savings that resulted in a reduction of direct or stealth taxation. The answer of course is NEVER.
Any cash benefits saved by this implementation will already have been long ago appropriated on "consultants" to advise our incompetent politicians on how to fuck things up even further. That, or spent on more overpriced missiles to drop on unarmed brown people.
In a world where I don't trust anyone with my data and metadata, the answer to the question above is that I trust them a lot more than I do Microsoft, Google, Opera and Facebook etc. They are all in the same overarching category of data slurpers, but MZ have a history of trying to do the right thing, and the Firefox browser itself is the only established one where I have access an established catalogue of tools and add-ons that I can install and configure to help me prevent my data being raped by everyone else.
Your post shows a complete lack of understanding of commercials. There is not one instance of any form of security testing where someone senior on the client end should not be aware of EVERY element of a scope of works - doubly so when the subject is a public court of law. If a physical access test was to be planned, then it still should have been documented within the scope of the engagement, even if not necessarily cascaded down to the guards on the ground etc so to conserve its validity of execution.
The reason this is done is to prevent the very farce that has ensued here. All it would take is one senior resource to validate the access, and all of the noise would go away.
"This is a phone for people several generations behind, maybe 7 or even 6S/SE users."
No it's not. I would assume that most people on an older handsets are still on them because they function perfectly well, and do exactly what they need it to do. I was perfectly happy on a 6 last year until it was stolen, so I just went to my mobile provider and got a reconditioned 8 for next to nothing because that is all they had.
If you ask me would I pay over £1,000 for a phone then I'd say that you must be joking. If my 8 broke, then I could go to CEX and get a 2nd hand 6 or 7 for around £200, or just get a reconditioned replacement for almost naff all. There has been no innovation in mobile devices for years that justifies the ever soaring costs, and this is true for these new Apple ones - with any use case for so called "premium features" [lol!!] becoming slimmer and slimmer. I'd actually suggest the only reason they are priced so high is because so many people are choosing to keep their existing handsets longer, but Apple just have to keep those profits coming from somewhere to keep the shareholders happy right?
So feel free... go fill yer' boots if you need to feel superior about it; but I think you're a total mug for doing so. Whatever you do though, don't allow yourself to admit that you've been taken for a ride by the marketing. Just stay in that bubble wrap of denial yes? * smirk *
My neighbour popped his head over the fence on Sunday morning to ask me what the hell I'd been watching on Saturday night that made it sound as though the world was ending. It was of course Godzilla - King of the monsters amplified quite loudly through my 6 year old Panasonic soundbar and remote woofer. This thing didn't cost the earth, and doesn't need to be internet connected or updated to literally rock my living room to pieces.
Other than some shit label-brag, I simply don't understand the need to pay so much for these things.
"A small mammalian ancestor or two survived the big chill and went on to evolve into us."
I think this is incorrect. Mummy and daddy and that funny over-friendly man from the church who liked me to stay behind after choir practice always told me that we were created from dust and clay by an omnipotent and benevolent higher power. The only possible alternative to this is that we are the descendants of lizard men that came from space just before the tea-time of when those rowdy South American Norte Chicos were getting themselves organised. I think you'll find that both of these are totally legit explanations that would almost stand up to more scrutiny than your ludicrous theory of us all being the descendents of bloody hedgehogs!!!
Tut!
It's interesting because this isn't the first time that this sort of thing has been either reported on, or proposed on El Reg over the years - but this time it does feel as though there is an ever growing groundswell of resistance against these sorts of companies, both from (somewhat ironically) a social element, but also from a more political and legislative arena. The issue remains however that too many people in positions of "power" are still making far too much money from trying to keep the status quo intact - which for me means that the real change will come when we get better educated politicians into power, rather than power mad idiots who seem to have made a lot of money from their businesses and then just buy their way into power - as we see mostly in US politics. It's a real worry that in the UK we'll be losing a lot of these protections (and a whole lot more to boot) once we exit the EU.
I'd like to make two points however on the story : re "Yet at no point along the way did any Googler involved in this say, "Hey, just a minute here!" and stop these – and too many other outrages to mention here – from happening." Yes, that's a very easy moral criticism to make, and I'm not saying you are incorrect; however the realities of work-life in the US are such that the risks of being fired, or without medical insurance for your family, or put on some IT blacklist are very real prospects for a lot of white-collar employees. Walk a few miles in those weary shoes and see if you'd make the same moral choice when balanced against your families well being.
As for Google itself - you can actually do a lot of stuff very quickly to reduce any issues you may have with them... (A) you don't actually have to have to a Google ID or account, or log into their servers to use many of their services. This in itself eliminates an awful lot of their ability to link your browsing habits to any data-flogging persona they may have on you. (B) For search you can use Disconnect or Startpage via (C) a spoofed IP or VPN for added dislocation. Then (D) there is the instant ditching of Chrome and replacing it with Firefox configured with any number of excellent add-ons such as AdBlock, NoScript, Ghostery, Privacy Badger etc. etc. Firefox even has a few add-ons that are called this similar to "F**k you Google" or "FaceBlock" etc.
Food for thought.
"Problem with that is that nine hours experience wasn't really enough"
It's not a problem actually. Attrition warfare meant that even though we may have lost 5 pilots for every 1 of Fritz, that we still had the numbers and hardware to win the air war. And at that point in time, that is all that mattered.
Brave souls. Every one of them.
No... SSE generate, and manage some assets (some on behalf of NGL) as other business avenues. National Grid distribute and balance. Same for gas, although for gas the ACTUAL distribution and asset management is managed by the regional GDNs on their behalf i.e. SGN, Cadent, NGNL and W&W etc.
This is where part of your bill goes when you pay your supplier every month/quarter etc.
I don't work for SSE IT directly but have worked with a lot of these guys (i.e. the technical people on the ground that actually DO the work) for quite a while now. They are a really good, talented and very friendly bunch without a major ego amongst them.
It is a real shame that they are all being shafted (once again) by their own IT and Corporate managers who have now effectively run SSE Retail into the ground.
Perhaps you could accept that the Fox has every right to be where you don't think he should be. Foxes, in my understanding of them, don't really understand trespass and/or property rights; so if you just accept that he needs to do what he needs to do, then you'll be a lot calmer because of it. Harmony will then ensue.
"Stop using social media and get your life back."
A bit arrogant. I'm not a user of FB or any other social media platform. In my experience though, the people who are most avid social media users are (A) those who don't really appear to have much going on in their lives, or (B) don't have the opportunity to do much with their lives in the first place, and are using it to fill a hole. Then there are those that seem to need the attention and adulation of others to reinforce their own insecurities and get off on believing that others are really interested in what they are up to.
I guess in the middle of it all are lots and lots of other people who just use it to conveniently stay in touch and maybe post a few holiday snaps.
So in terms of "get your life back", please do tell... what sort of life do you have that enables you to take the high ground over those that maybe do want to use it for any of the above? As far as I can tell FB is no more an existential time filler as any other activity such as running, watching TV, cave diving or playing the fiddle.
Makes sense... as we've all previously commented on; HP have no real evidence to back up their allegations of an $8bn fraud, so they are trying circuitous character assassination instead?
Way to go HP. And yes... that sound you can hear is the global IT community laughing AT you.
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