Posts by Pascal Monett

"they were lawful and complied with US policy"

Because of course he would say that.

Unfortunately, up to now, the US was bashing Russia for doing those sorts of things.

Now it would appear that the US has shot its moral leg in the foot. I'm not expecting the US Government to be bothered by that, though.

Electrical problems

And here I am thinking that electricity is not all that hard. A failed switch ? Did it get water on it or something ? How does a switch fail ? I'm supposing they didn't install the 30 cent version from Costco, so how did that happen ?

In any case, as I said before, the AI on that ship is learning that meatbags are useful things to have around.

"not think of it in a bad way"

Sorry, but no, I'm thinking of it in a very bad way.

My medical data being intercepted by Joe Schmuck ? An invisible someone listening to my private conversations ? No thank you, I'll pass.

Where I am is something my phone reveals by necessity and I guess I'm okay with that. If that helps determine where traffic jams are, that is good I will agree. But Real Life^TM is pretty clear : if I'm having a conversation in a public place, then I am aware that anyone can listen (and I shape my words accordingly), whereas if I'm at home having a drink with a friend, my conversation is private and nobody else is privy to that.

Call me back when the Metaverse can handle that.

"it eliminates the need for air-conditioning units to cool servers"

I don't understand how you can say that.

Liquid cooling is just using a different medium - more efficient - to transport heat away from the microchips.

You still have to cool down the liquid and, in the absolute, you still have the same amount of heat to evacuate.

Liquid cooling is fine, but there will still be radiators. Maybe they'll be outside ?

Sure, blame Brexit

IR35 certainly has no impact, right ?

Automating everything but the logic

So basically you've automated nothing.

I'm glad to know that you can make making a form a tad easier for non-programmers, but no application can perform any useful function if the person "scribbling" it can't imagine what he wants from it and how to get there.

So I imagine that this will be how manglement presents their bright ideas to actual programmers. "Here's the form I want, make a database out of it".

Well, I can live with that.

I have a G15

My home keyboard is the Logitech G15 and I love it. Keys are backlit, the clicky is subdued and tactile is simply marvellous.

The one issue I have is that Logitech retired its original keyboard management software, and the replacement is not aware of the 6 additional function keys nor the three profiles that I used to be able to use. Oh well.

EMC, Dell and Broadcom - one of these does not go with the rest

IIRC, EMC was a data management company. It got bought by Dell, which is, of course, primarily a hardware company.

Broadcom is in the semiconductor industry. It is a completely different mindset. Broadcom does not do software, it does microchips. And, apparently, it is the kiss of death for every company it acquires.

I'm not very optimistic about VMware's future is what I'm saying. They might as well have been bought by IBM.

Oh well, someone else will come along and create a new virtual management landscape. Some day.

Well let's face it : we're going 100% digital

Whether we like it or not.

Governments love it because control.

We'll just have to put up with it because sheeple. I'm just wondering if we won't end up with some other thing than a smartphone to prove our identity.

But of course, that's a ridiculous idea. After all, everyone has a smartphone or three, right ?

Waiting for next week's news of the sudden surge in new COVID cases in Shanghai.

Lonestar Data Holdings

Proof that there are idiots that have way too much more money than sense.

Getting $5 million for spouting the idea of a datacenter on the Moon - at this point in time - means that we, as a civilization, are too rich for our own good.

That said, I have an excellent idea of a series of telescopes on the Moon, Mars and Ganymede. Anyone want to give me a few million to talk about it ?

"Malicious USB devices"

Sorry, but I am less worried about that than I am worried about state-backed miscreants infiltrating and wreaking havoc from afar.

The rule is always the same anyway : once local access is possible, all bets are off and the system can easily be compromised. A malicious USB means some traitor has decided to usurp his position and authority in order to do evil. There are safeguards against that, but the best safeguard is treating your personnel properly and paying them fairly. If they work in a serious branch of industry, they should know the importance of their position and that should be sufficient.

"it's most likely a case of using REvil-linked scare tactics to extort payment"

Hmm. What about REvil is starting to feel the summer coming and just wants to lay back and take it easy for a bit with a margherita or two ?

Or maybe REvil is trying a new tactic to find out just how many cowards are going to fork over the moolah ?

Sure, it could be someone else piggybacking on REvil's reputation, but not necessarily.

This "takeover" is starting to look like a trainwreck

And Mr Billionnaire apparently can't make enough billions fungible.

I think that should incite into a rethink of a person's personal fortune. You have $100 billion in company assets ? They're not yours until you've sold them and actually converted them into cold, hard cash.

Of course, that would make for a lot less glamorous news titles . . .

If this was truly a good will operation . .

. . they would just send an email saying "You have been the recipient of a GoodWill message. Do three good things and document them on social media, then send this message to ten other companies. Thank you for your cooperation".

That way, the companies that truly have some good will will be honored for showing it, whilst the other will continue business as usual.

There are two ways of taking over a country

One is by military force, but that has the bad habit of being poorly viewed on the international scene, and creating resistance on the local scene.

The other is by subverting the country's economy by "helping" with infrastructure, like many of China's "donations" to Africa. Once Beijing has its claws into a strategic part of your infrastructure, you'll find that Beijing's "suggestions" are accompanied by rather obvious implications.

This is the difference between Western politicians and Eastern politicians. In China, they play Go, in the West, they play checkers. Only one of those has long-term implications built in.

"We [..] believe in the right of all employees to decide whether or not to [..] vote for a union"

Right up to the moment some of them decide to actually do that, at which point it's no-holes-barred intimidation and harassment tactics until they abandon that idea.

And I love the argument of "19 employees should not be able to decide". That is a typical strawman argument. You pretend that you want all employees to decide, but that is just an excuse to bash those who do.

And, as far as the USA is concerned, you can replace Activision with any major corporation, they all behave the same on unions because unions will force them to spend more money on their employees and the Board doesn't want to do that (eh Amazon ?).

Now contrast with Luxembourg. In the 1990's I was working my first job as a junior consultant programmer in Lotus Notes. The company was called Computerland Europe, and, at the time, it was going forward in leaps and bounds. New employees were coming in practically every month. It didn't take long for us to reach 50 employees and, when that happened, we were all called to a meeting by top management. In that meeting, we were told that, having attained and exceeded the magic number of 50 employees, Luxembourg law mandated that a union be formed. Our CEO thus told us that we were to form our union right there, and management left the room.

We looked at each other in total surprise and, for some, a little bit of shock. Nobody had been expecting that. So we went about to create our union, electing members (I was one) and following the charter that management had transmitted to us.

And what did this union actually do ? Basically, we made sure that security measures (fire) were known and respected, and being available if any employees had a complaint. I wasn't there long enough for that to happen, the company was still on a meteoric rise. That's not generally the kind of period where employees are unhappy because everything is always changing for the better.

Besides, in Luxembourg before 9/11, if you were unhappy at your company, you could just find a new one, simple as that and almost everybody did it.

So I'm quite happy to work in Luxembourg, because my rights as an employee are enshrined in law and no company can escape that. Of course, there are always the few who try, but they end up against the ITM - l'Inspection du Travail et des Mines and, having done some work there, I can vouch for the fact that they don't pussy-foot around with employee rights. If you have the proof, that company will pay.