Re: So we're basically back to toolbars again?
Good thing too, say I!
766 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Mar 2008
I immediately thought of that, and I get your argument. Yes, it's good for staff, but it's likely that a lot of the reason that someone stays with a company that uses a "home account" system is to have continuation of personnel. It'll be good for junior staff, but customer services maybe not so much.
My own theory is that they are being tested by cybercriminals who are too smart to try and probe their own country's web infrastructure for fear of being arrested by local police. Naturally, this is easier to do in countries such as Russia that have less oversight for this sort of thing - it's a bit like the Isle of Man* setting low tax rates and people being puzzled why rich people move there.
Some of the testing may be state-sponsored, but I doubt it. I would expect that state-sponsored attacks generally tend to be tested behind closed doors, rather than in the wild, for the simple reason that you don't want to give your enemy clues as to what you're planning until you're ready so to do.
* I was going to say Monaco but I always wanted to live in Monaco as a kid because of the grand prix, of course.
Weirdly, I'm back to trusting SourceForge. Yes, there are a ton of adverts, but the new management actually seem to be honest and upfront about what they're doing - no more malvertising inserted into binaries, for a start. And following them talking with devs on Twitter actually makes me feel they mean what they say.
I know, I'm probably the last one left, right?
Totally agree...
if Microsoft screws this up, we will lose the trust of developers for a generation
They lost my trust years ago. They always treat the new shiny latest fad as being the most important thing, sidelining everyone else. This is why I've known developers who have six or seven versions of Visual Studio on their PC, simply because the moment you open a 2008 project in 2010, you can't then open it in 2008 and it no longer works with the runtime you need. Plus, each version needs a new version of TFS otherwise you can't check anything in. (Chances they'll go the same way with git? I'm pretty sure they'll try it...)
And Visual Studio steals stupid ideas from elsewhere. Like that lightbulb? Please, if I wanted to torture myself with ReSharper, I know where to buy it. But now because of that lightbulb, Telerik gave up JustCode. Thanks, Microsoft.
I could go on for hours, but I expect I'm going to be downvoted a bazillion times already. *sigh*
During my days of supporting a corporate database system, I was rung by a senior manager - directly, bypassing the help desk - who started screaming about why the printer wouldn't print...
MOI: So is the printer on?
PHB: Yes, damn it, it was printing five minutes ago.
MOI: That's odd. Let me check the print server... says it's offline.
PHB: Well there's a big red light on it, so I'm sure it's on.
MOI: It should be green. Are you sure it's not out of paper?
PHB: I've just put a load of paper in it, you idiot.
MOI: OK, well it sounds like it has some sort of error by the red light. Are you sure there's nothing wrong with it?
PHB: well... (light suddenly dawning) there is smoke coming out of it. Would that have anything to do with it?
MOI: Probably, yes. I'll tell the helpdesk, shall I?
Sigh... some poeple...
"I'm guessing that the Office ADMX templates will be updated to reflect these changes too, and I'll just add them to the policy."
That's the problem though - it's just a guess. There's no real reason that Microsoft would do that unless they get asked, specifically, by customers. And even then, what are the chances that those high-paying customers will receive special builds?
Vapourware won't keep legal happy.
"Also, I'm a bit surprised that the boss gets to lend a hand in the carpet roll and quicklime routine (instead of being the body in the carpet roll)."
It sounds as if the boss who had the accident on the balcony last time wasn't after all the new boss of the previous few episodes.
I thought the boss who had the accident on the balcony was the new boss's boss, or alternatively, the boss of HR - which would have made him indirectly a boss of the BOFH and the boss but not directly of the BOFH and the boss.
I think...
Paris because I just confused myself...
Actually this does smell like a death spiral to me. Their business is essentially now based around Office 3.65 and Azure. Last year AWS pulled in 10 times as much revenue as Azure does now, and yes I know they're growing faster, but they're still close to being a rounding error aren't they?
I'm discounting Windows 10 because basically Chrome books seem to be eating into that market heavily. And if they're not yet, it's simply because people are afraid of Microsoft's reprisals if they start stocking them. That, I expect, will start changing soon. They even stock some down the road at my local consumer electronics shop.
Based on this, I'm guessing Azure is now at the "Windows Mobile 8" stage - i.e. they've just made it over, taken away some features users like (the new AD console isn't a hit if I recall) and we're just waiting for the remaining users to jump ship.
Yes, in the short term, this looks great - everything's lovely. But Microsoft now looks like IBM in the 80s - they're trying to fight Google, Amazon and Apple at the same time, and losing ground on all frontiers.
Wow a death spiral where you have record profits in the billions of dollars.
Do you live in some sort of parallel universe, where increasing profits is the signs of a failing company?
You're confusing short-term financial results with long-term survival potential. Remember that those record profits are coming from markets that are visibly disappearing - PC desktop sales are going down, Linux has no licence fees, AWS is eating Azure's (and everybody else's) lunch.
Microsoft will continue to be around, but it's unlikely that they will be the same level of major player in five to ten years that they are now. That's why they are trying to transition users to subscription-based products (Office 3.65, for example) rather than the purchase-based model that they have been relying on for so many years.
The question is whether, when the Windows franchise finally runs out of steam, will they have done enough to keep going? Right now, I'd say it's too early to tell for sure.
I think there's a limited selection of people for whom Continuum would have been a fantastic thing. I'd quite happily pay for a dongle that could connect my iPad to a monitor and keyboard, as odd as that sounds, simply because there are some really nice apps on the iPad that would benefit from that.
That said, the issue of monitor resolution vs iPad resolution is one thing, and the fact that I can AirPlay the thing and attach a BlueTooth keyboard in any event renders the whole idea moot anyway.
The whole MTD VAT thing is a bit bonkers. They could easily just put a web page to submit your returns and it's done.
But no, they have decided you need to buy some expensive (probably Windows-only) nonsense that costs a small fortune (and will get rapidly more costly when they realise the government just handed them a near monopoly).
So having kept my accounts in Gnucash for years, I now have to buy a Windows PC just to submit a VAT return? Sounds a bit daft to me...
"I hope businesses and industry will be encouraged to report any cyber attacks they suffer, which in turn will increase our understanding of the cyber threat facing the UK.”
Yes but how do you prevent them, or deal with them when they're happening? How does this help with that? It feels like someone posted a lifesaving guide next to a river, which just has categories for how the person died...
"A bit dead"
"Quite dead"
"Very dead"
"Very very dead"
"Extremely dead"
"Concrete shoes"
"Might have been nibbled a bit by fishes"
"Even more dead than that"
"Just a skeleton, really"
Ah, I remember when IE4 didn't work with the shiny new IIS 5. But Netscape worked perfectly.
They'll never change, will they?
Sirius Cybernetics Corporation? Of, they dream of making products as reliable as those from the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation*.
* before the Adams fans pile into me, yes I know. That's the joke.
So how are ex-users / non-users Facebook supposed to Opt-Out?
There's no way!
This is why I have about seven browsers installed. I have Firefox installed just for Facebook. Nothing else. For main browsing, Pale Moon and all facebook cookies are blocked. For Google Drive etc, Chrome.
Paranoid, moi? Why, who's asking?