Posts by Pascal Monett

Son of a billionnaire talks up watercooler networking

Son of a billionnaire seems to not notice that the peons don't get much of a chance to talk to the VP of sales and marketing, even if they are hanging around the watercooler together.

Son of a billionnaire also doesn't seem to realize that he could network in shorts and flip-flops around a swimming pool at one of the kind of parties the peons never, ever, get a chance to go to.

Son of a billionnaire, your "trajectory" has far less to do with who you talked to at the office, and far more to do with who your father is.

"it reserved 'the right to make substantive and relevant changes' "

And that, right there, is the seed of doom for the project.

If you don't know by now what you need from your ERP, then your project is doomed from the start.

You cannot implement any IT project, make "substantive" changes mid-way through, and expect the end result to work.

What you should do is exhaustively list your needs, the results you expect to be able to work, and get an expert to draw up the specifications that answer those needs. When you have a working platform, then you analyze what changes you require and request their implementation.

The best project manager I ever had the privilege of meeting was adamant on one point : when there was a meeting to discuss project progress, it was out of the question to add new points to the requirements list. If there were more requirements, he automatically and authoritatively shunted them to version X+1.

Because he wanted something that worked first. Then you add the bells and whistles.

It helped that he was IT manager and no-one had any authority to complain, but still.

"he had clearly accidentally fired off every possible debug command at once"

So he properly issued an "undebug all" command at the console, and said console decided that no, it was going to do a "debug all".

I don't get how that is possible. There must be some shoddy programming behind that thing.

"once the USA [..] knew the rules"

The US only has one rule : USA first and everyone else is fair game.

Share information more openly ? The US will readily agree - to recieve shared information. Giving it out ? No so much.

Trust China to vouch for Huawei ? Okay, not even I would trust that one, but hey, why should the US do so ? It knows very well what the NSA can do and there's no reason China shouldn't be doing the same.

Contrary to the US Government - which can't seem to get a grip on its super spy agency, China's government will have no trouble keeping its spy agency on a tight leash - which will tighten even more if there is something China's rulers don't like.

One thing is for sure

When the Nauka's thrusters started firing, it must have been one hell of a brown alert moment for everyone on board.

Thankfully, astronauts are people with tremendous self-control and intelligence. I'm glad that they're all alive and well.

How about using proper change control ?

Once an update is committed to the upload server of the supplier, there could be a mechanism to ensure that that file is properly identified (MD5 and signature, or something similar). As soon as the file changes, if there is not the proper declaration in the records, shutdown the Internet connection for the server, send an alert mail and wait for the admins to come and check.

I'm pretty sure implenting this kind of procedure wouldn't break the bank, and it seems to me that it could be rather efficient in keeping customers safe.

"using things like multi-factor authentication"

Yeah, which means I have to give up my phone number to any number of websites run by any kind of sysadmin with a budget I am not aware of and qualifications that I know even less.

Sorry, I'll keep my password management in-house, thank you very much.

So he was "visiting" during working hours

I think Jim is not the only one who should discover the wonders of marmite. Looks to me as the head of accounting should also get a taste for allowing personal visits during work hours, and for allowing a perfect stranger to use unsecured media on company property.

Then, of course, there's the boss who actively made the situation worse by granting a security risk access to the Holy Sanctum. And, obviously, the sheer blasphemy of his grubby hands on the PHY's and BOFH's computers.

Oh yes, they're going to need a lot of marmite.

Let's be honest, okay ?

"Four in 10 (42 per cent) said hearing about the scheme in the survey had made them trust the NHS less "

Given the UK Government's history of IT project management in general, I would suggest that 10 out of 10 should opt out. NOW.

"costing the company billions of dollars"

Oh, so there's going to be a very small dent in the pile of gold in the vault, then ?

Poor little thing.

"Zulip is doing it right"

Thank you, El Reg, for regularly bringing me nuggets of useful information like this.

I'm going to keep a link on this article and I'll check Zulip out as far as I can. I'm sure I'll be referring Zulip to my contacts in a short time.

Going on-site has certainly been made redundant in IT

The last 18 months have not only demonstrated that IT workers can do their jobs perfectly well from any Internet connection, it has also demonstrated that they're doing their jobs just as well - if not better - than before.

I do hear regrets about not having water-cooler conversations any more, and there is a wee bit of pining to see other human beings again, but I'm convinced that most IT workers will stand by a sizeable portion of working from home time during the week.

And I'm not talking about two days per month.

A large consulting company I work with has mandated one day per week at HQ - rotated by teams. Of course, it's a consulting company, so it figures that there are coordination meetings and such that justify bringing in a group of people so that they can exchange usefully, as humans beings do. Also of course, it's a consulting company, so it figures that, the rest of the week, the company wants it consultants working for their clients - remotely.

Xero - aptly named, methinks

"The cloud-based single point of failure software slinger"

TFTFY

What happened, are Excel spreadsheets not good enough any more ?

You're a small business, do you really have that many invoices to file at the end of the month ?