Posts by Ian Michael Gumby

@AC ... Re: I don't mind

I came in thru an acquisition.

I was shown a video message made by Lou.

Very strong and good messaging.

Sam? Yeah different.

We used to use Blue Pages to determine seniority based on the number of levels between the person and Lou / Sam because bands were not equivalent across divisions.

Unlike you, I met a lot of people, both good and bad. While heritage IBMers could be the worst, I had respect for the guys who came from PWC.

Oh the stories I could tell... ;-)

Re: Clinging to share in a shrinking no-margin market

Funny, but how's SuperMicro making a large profit?

I think the question is... how HP plans to sell commodity products at 2x the retail price?

@d3vy ... WTF?

Seriously you need to think about the issue.

US citizen data taken offshore to Ireland. This would be similar to either German bank data laws or Swiss Data Laws concerning how to handle data.

What we should expect is that the rights of the country of origination will prevail.

Think of it this way. UK data is going to be placed under new rules/regs starting next year. Imagine if Google moved that data in to the US and told you that your data is no longer protected under UK laws because it now resides in the US?

@AC Definitely a lawsuit waiting to happen...

There are two issues at play...

1) SONOS clearly wants to remain relevant and compete with Amazon, therefore they are attempting to morph their speakers in to a new product that you already have in your home.

2) Metadata capture is a way to further gain value from you. Your data has value and they can then use it to help identify information that they can sell/rent to advertising agencies.

3) A future product... adding adverts to the streams... ;-) (Think about that one for a second....)

But all of this comes at a risk.

If they don't provide security and protect the information that they capture... they will be sued in to oblivion. .

We can look at half a dozen major financial companies that have taken multi-billion dollar hits over data breaches and the impact to their bottom line.

As many have already put out there... there are other solutions like blue tooth speakers, or I'd prefer actual wires. My old Adcom had A/B unfortunately after 20 year... it died and it was cheaper to replace it with an A/V receiver which had the same thing, which again died and replaced it with a new A/V receiver which I keep in my office with a nice pair of wired bookshelf speakers. ( Vienna Acoustics that I picked up on sale at a steep discount because the stereo store was closing and they were floor models. )

So I'll pass on Sonos and wait for the lawsuit that is definitely coming to a courtroom near you. ;-)

Re: The law of unintended consquences

Meh!

I'd say learn Scala..

@Oliver Jones... Re: Just like the Sun (News of the World) then

I said that its their argument.

I also said that FB themselves showed them to be culpable thru some of their experiments on their users.

As to whether they won or lost that argument remains to be scene. It hasn't been tested in a court of law.

So its still a viable defense.

I don't agree with it and I think that the US Courts as well as European Courts rule them to be a monopoly.

(Google, Facebook, Twitter, and even Amazon to a point)

Having been named a monopoly is a legal status that none of these companies want. Google ... er ... Alphabet has set up a corporate structure to help defend being called a monopoly. But that's a different story.

The point? I don't believe that there's a human in the loop reviewing the content of these ads. So ... it makes it harder to say that they are in the loop and are culpable.

Personally I agree with you but again, what you, I and most people who have common sense think doesn't mean much to a bunch of lawyers and a judge.

Re: @WARNING WARNING WILL ROBINSON .... iOS 11 brings more issues

@AC

It most certainly leaves the phone. Read the description. It's captured data as part of a recommendation engine.

@ Pascal Monet Re: "Sigfox's proprietary protocol"

You don't know that the argument of 'security thru obscurity' is the case.

While this may be true, it may also not be true too. There are other protocols which may be in use that also encrypts the data and relies on some form of hardware identification.

Since they claim its proprietary we don't know for sure.

Having said that... more than likely they cobbled something together that's utter garbage. But there's still the chance they got someone who's from the MOD/DOD/Darpa world and knows a thing or two, now isn't there?

@Bazza Re: Easy

No, its not so easy.

Pretend that you are the customer. How does the government know what you bought? You are self reporting what you owe. So how does the government audit that you are paying your fair share? Want to see an example? In the US, when you purchase things online from a business who isn't in your state doesn't charge you a sales tax. You are supposed to self report and pay the tax to your state. How many people actually do this? (E.g. You buy a new 8K TV from an electronics store not in your home state, you save ~10.4% sales tax if you live in Chicago IL)

That's just the first problem.

With respect to actually taxing revenues... These companies are playing games. E.g. Starbucks shipping product to a centralized depot in one country with a lower tax rate, then shipping the product to the rest of Europe so that the bulk of the profit margin is captured at a lower tax rate.

In the digital economy, if you tax at the point of sale and not allow Google to claim that the sale took place in Ireland when the customer is in France... you can capture the fair tax. Its a transaction tax or use tax.

This is something the countries can do and IMHO should do.

Google and other companies have brought this on themselves for gaming the system. Note: While its not illegal to game the system, but the system was based on trust that companies wouldn't do that.

Re: Not Qualified

This industry is rife with people who are under qualified.

30 years ago.... to call yourself a software engineer, you needed to go to a college and graduate with a 4 yr degree in an accredited engineering program.

Today... its a job title.

When I look at resumes where someone who calls themselves an engineer who didn't go to school for engineering, I hammer them in the interview.

When I see a resume chock full of buzzwords, I hammer them to see what they know. How they handle stress. Note, I haven't made anyone cry... that's a feat that I've only seen happen once while my friend was interviewing someone.

@AC ... Re: Cambridge Analytica

Chum, hate to break it to you... Trump won because he was the lesser of two evils.

You think Hillary would have been better, her book is proof that she's a nutter and we dodged a bullet. While I didn't vote for Trump, I will say that if he was given a chance, he'd be doing a better job. The issue is that he's an outsider and wants to drain the swamp. So those who made their money in DC and feed from the swamp, don't want him around.

He gets blasted by the Media even when he's doing the right thing and after the fact, it comes out that he did the right thing yet no mea culpa or correction from the MSM. I mean, I kid you not... 90% of MSM is negative. Fox News which ran stories is closer to 55-45 where 55% was negative. (And they're being labeled 'pro Trump')

Trump won because of the fact he went to the rust belt and won the states that Obama won. Clinton avoided them and instead went to fund raisers in California.

The DNC's treatment of Bernie Sanders had more of an impact on voters than any ads that could have run on Facebook. Her illegal activities which are still being investigated today... are more of a reason than any 'pro Trump' ad on FB.

As to using 'Big Data' for political fundraising... The Republicans are far behind what Obama did in 2012 out of Chicago. Something Clinton didn't come close to doing either.

BTW, Clinton's crew ignored the Big Data analytics that was done... ;-)

Re: My Battery lasts all day...

Fucking neo-luddites. Why wouldn't I use the computer in my pocket as a pocket computer?

Because I have real computers for that task? Because I sit in front of a real computer all day?

Oh? You must be a windows luser...

Its not being a ludite. I've been in tech longer than you've been alive.

Its using the tool for its designed use.

My phone... calls, text, emails. Then there are the work related apps. Closed when not in use.

Uber, off when not in use and use of location services are turned off.

Re: Low accuracy?

I don't think you understand.

Your position is a bit fuzzy and relative.

(There's the GPS location, and then there's the map which is also a bit relative.)

Here, if you're within 2m , the position relative to the map, but that's where LIDAR kicks in. It helps you determine your position relative to your surroundings. LIDAR can give you fairly accurate positioning. However these are expensive and they may be building/designing cheaper units which are less accurate.

Imagine your lane guidance system where you're going down the highway at 70mph and the guy in the lane next to you starts to swerve towards your lane but doesn't enter it. What does your car do? ;-)

Re: @Sane ...

Touche! now go and google 'BOHICA!'

@Paul Crawford

Amazon Prime.

So they can stream videos for 'free' if they have Prime. Or to make purchases.

Kids these days use their phones more than they use computers for 'web apps' to do things like make purchases.

@DougS Re: The phrase "lies, damned lies, and statistics" ...

Sorry but there's a bit more to this...

You can take a larger sample size, but you would still be off.

The issue when polling Trump supporters is that those who are true supporters will openly express an opinion in favor of him. Of those who ultimately voted for him were the undecided and those who didn't want to be outed as Trump supporters. And then there are people who tell the pollsters to F-Off!

That's the real issue. You are assuming that you're getting a random sample, when you are not. Did the polls take in consideration that most people who responded to the poll tended to be Democrats?

As to the popular vote... doesn't matter. Polls are done at the local level.

If you look at the map, Trump won most of the country. The map county by county showed Red.

Bottom line, Clinton ran a bad campaign. And she's a crook and criminal.

@AC ...Re: Wow

Now when you consider that you're future proofing it.

All of the stuff is going to be hi-res.

Today 4K tomorrow (a couple of years) 8K .

The only problem is that you can now make out the ass acne and makeup can't hide all of the blemishes.

But at 8K, how much storage is required for a full length flick?