* Posts by the Jim bloke

1083 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Apr 2007

Right to repair shouldn't exist – not because it's wrong but because it's so obviously right

the Jim bloke
Pirate

Re: Spot-on analysis

I remember with the Battlefield Vietnam game, the draw distance for foliage etc was shorter than your sight distance, so a player with no visibility out of the paddy field or whatever they were hiding in, was basically squatting in a naked paddock to anyone sufficiently far away.

I believe the game wasnt a commercial success...

I cant remember if the draw distance was user modifiable - definitely an advantage to set it lower.

You MUST present your official ID (but only the one that's really easy to fake)

the Jim bloke
Alert

Re: 'All this for .... nothing really

The emergence of variants is a function of the prevalence of the virus in the population.

Variants are actually competing against each other and the prize is continued existence - we are just the playing field.

unless we control the virus running rampant, newer, more competitive variants will continue to emerge (-they will anyway, but like all things Covid, the best we can do is slow the rate) , especially in poorer and developing countries .

This reminds me of the old USA attitude to world war III,..something to fight in someone else's country, rather than your own. It does require getting control at home first., any government that fails to look after its own citizens isnt doing its job and needs to be replaced.

Reserve Bank of India official suggests country may soon have a digital currency pilot

the Jim bloke

It is nothing like a crypto currency.

You could have picked that up from the first paragraph, where they said "..protection from volatility.."

Since the only reason people not part of the ransomware industry (willing or otherwise) are buying crypto, is because of its volatility, a -supposed- absence of whimsical flights and plunges in value set it as the opposite of crypto..

BOFH: You say goodbye and I say halon

the Jim bloke
Headmaster

Re: Am I wrong here?

At the concentrations they are talking about, . no.

Nitrogen is already most of the atmospheric content, so increasing it slightly while at the same pressure wont make much difference.

You would need to increase the actual pressure - to force the nitrogen to dissolve into the bloodstream in sufficient quantity that when the pressure is reduced the nitrogen will bubble out - causing harm by being in inappropriate places.

This process requires higher than atmospheric pressure, and time to take effect, which is how the whole diving depth tables work.

If some(soon-to-be)body deserves punishment, a self opening window, elevator shaft sans elevator, or autonomous car with a custom object recognition table (or one by uber) is probably a more reasonable option.

Everyone cites that 'bugs are 100x more expensive to fix in production' research, but the study might not even exist

the Jim bloke

Re: Go agile, go!

and on that note, we now have a full-featured release.

I no longer have a burning hatred for Jewish people, says Googler now suddenly no longer at Google

the Jim bloke
Thumb Up

Re: Change is Hard

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Thank you even more for not taking 10,000 words to do so.

the Jim bloke
Paris Hilton

Re: HR departments are the problem

HR departments are the last refuge of the unskilled clerical worker.

The secretaries and typing pools of yesteryear have been replaced by personal assistants - who manage executives, admins, who basically do the day to day running of the business, various data entry and payroll types, who are required to have basic competence with whatever software package they use.. and HR who apparently need to be attractive, and look at peoples social media profiles...

the Jim bloke

Re: Ummmm

Googles mission.

helping people and making the world a better place?

..ah no, Dont.

.

Be Evil.

the Jim bloke

Re: This is confusing

"newly converted syndrome" [aside: a term I've just invented.]

"Born-again Christians" have been around since, I dunno, maybe the roman times?

Windows 11: What we like and don't like about Microsoft's operating system so far

the Jim bloke
Meh

I would prefer to use the top also, but apparently that (un)real estate is reserved for paying customers... ie Office and other programs keep all their menus up there, and it would clash something horrible if they had to coexist.

IT management biz Kaseya's VSA abused to infect businesses with ransomware

the Jim bloke
Thumb Up

Looks like they are keeping an old joke alive..

as in IoT, Where the 'S' is for security..

now, even though the full title contains 'Secure', 'ioXt' can still say the "s' is for security...

Its actually a bit too self aware and self deprecating to be credible as a silicon valley thing, so it was probably a cool suggestion offered by some subversive tech head..

the Jim bloke
Unhappy

Re: What do they want? "The state does not want"

until the law enforcement comes to rescue

.. for given values of "rescue"

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

the Jim bloke
Devil

Re: What do they want? "The state does not want"

If we can just stop the Politicians and Media from dividing us

One of the major problems eroding capitalism based nations, is that good government does not make good headlines.

Competent management does not generate scandal and exposure, so the media empires have a direct interest in not encouraging it. They actually promote a narrative where the media is protecting us from the evil government...

But actually, the corruption and incompetence is fostered and supported by the media empires themselves, to ensure a fruitful harvest of juicy stories now and down the line.

I am not saying politicians would be angels if they weren't in this environment, but the ones who might be decent are going to have a harder time progressing their career.

Look at Murdoch and the Australian Liberals, he keeps them in power, and they provide an endless supply of fuckups and idiocy... Win/Win (everyone else... lose)

Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima's exclusion zone

the Jim bloke

Re: Domestic cross breeding is the real problem

Stand outside in -40C and +40C, see which makes you die first

how about, see how long you survive in temperatures 10 degrees above human core temperature, versus 10 degrees below... which puts the range at about 48 to 28..

Which environment you live in is a matter of personal circumstances... I work in >40 C half the year, and am actually fairly comfortable there.

The proportion of humanity, possibly not including Canadians and Russians, that are exposed to -40 is probably much lower than those that see >40, and this disparity will get worse as climate change progresses.

Worst case, direct temperature related deaths will be trivial anyway, compared to famine and dislocation brought about by droughts and cascading agricultural failures...

the Jim bloke

Re: Domestic cross breeding is the real problem

Heat waves are supposedly higher cause of death than cold.

first result from google search

"According to the World Health Organization, heat waves are considered among the most dangerous of natural hazards but rarely receive adequate attention because their death tolls and destruction are not always immediately obvious. From 1998 to 2017, more than 166,000 people around the world died because of heat waves"

the Jim bloke
Headmaster

Re: Last sentence ...

Ideally, Governments introduce regulations to avoid negative results.

By restricting exposure to even relatively low radiation levels, they reduce the burden on their health care system.

This imposes hopefully minor constraints on behaviour for a net benefit to the nation.

Problems arise where people disagree as to the hardship of the constraints or the value of the benefit e.g. losing the family home to avoid cancer in 20 years time, or having to wear a facemask and get a vaccination versus uncontrolled proliferation and mutation of a global pandemic...

Devilish plans for your next app update ensure they never happen – unless you start praying

the Jim bloke
Devil

Satanism has been rebadged, its now the Incels

Clueless frustrated immature males, trying to compensate for their inadequacies with magical thinking.

The whole christianity/satanism thing strikes me as a team jacob/ team edward thing, supposedly diametrically opposed but still characters out of the same franchise.

IBM's 18-month company-wide email system migration has been a disaster, sources say

the Jim bloke
Coat

and I suspect that I'm not alone.

.. but I cant verify that because all of our systems are down..

‘Fasten your seat belts, raise your tray table, and disconnect your Bluetooth headsets from the entertainment unit’

the Jim bloke
Alert

the evil that is the american airline industry

by guaranteeing a slot in an overhead bin for every passenger. ®

how much extra do you have to pay, to get to travel in a seat?

Dealing with the pandemic by drinking and swearing? Boffins say you're not alone

the Jim bloke
Angel

I would be interested to know what actually constitutes 'problematic drinking'.

Drinking more than your doctor

Whatever you've been doing during lockdown, you better stop it right now

the Jim bloke
Flame

Re: Will you be doing

For some reason, traditional Australian Christmas food includes prawns,

About 3 decades ago I was working at a mineral processing plant, and one of the crew rostered on over Christmas snuck a couple of the work provided Christmas banquet crustaceans into another crewmembers Dolphin torch.

I dont know how well known they are globally, but they were very rugged large, fully sealed flashlights.

Nothing occurred immediately, and the torch continued to function when required and get left in the back of the work vehicle when not in use throughout the Australian summer. It was not until halfway through the year that the torch stopped working, and the owner opened it up...

Apparently the battery had dissolved..

the Jim bloke
Coffee/keyboard

Re: At Doctor Syntax, re: fun smells.

Our worksite accommodation provider is currently running a competition to name 2 food dispensing outlets (one previously called "whats in the Wok?", the other is new)

I am inclined to offer "the Dogfoodery", and "Cats Vomit", possibly translated into the local first nation dialect..

The competition is being run on facebook - of course, so I would need to find some fb user to actually submit the entry

Snakes on a Plane meets The Simpsons as airline creates ‘whacker’ to scare reptiles away from parked A380s

the Jim bloke
FAIL

Repatriation flights to Australia

With the bollocking the government is getting every time someone slips through their half arsed quarantine system,

- the snakes and scorpions would be more welcome than our returning citizens.

the Jim bloke
Devil

Re: Engineers

Did your duties involve modifying and adjusting principles to achieve the companies objectives?

Today I shall explain how dual monitors work using the medium of interpretive dance

the Jim bloke
Devil

Re: Laptop + Projector = two computers?

I used to do that before morning production meetings.

Also used to microwave a pie for breakfast just before the meeting, so the room smelt of hot food - apparently some people found that distracting. Personally, I found missing breakfast more distracting..

Now that Trump is useless to Zuckerberg, ex-president is exiled from Facebook for two years, possibly indefinitely

the Jim bloke
Alien

Re: Not holding my breath

Problem with trump is that you cant believe anything he says - unless you choose to believe everything he says, which would require self-erasing memory to deal with the contradictions and any knowledge of existing facts..

So..

* He has recovered from a fairly severe bout of Covid

was this ever confirmed by an independent source?

He said he had it, he kept doing stuff, he said he got special drugs, and he said he got better...

At a time when he was downplaying the severity of the pandemic.

This is the man who gave us Fake News, and will continue to do so..

the Jim bloke
Mushroom

Re: Not holding my breath

If that doesnt do the job, how about a big can of bottled sunshine (see icon)

UK Special Forces soldiers' personal data was floating around WhatsApp in a leaked Army spreadsheet

the Jim bloke
Unhappy

Re: Example != Definition

Military Intelligence is a specific thing, seized upon by self styled "wits" and mocked to make themselves appear clever and daring.

Other examples of true oxymorons would be "political integrity" or "business ethics"

Like other oxymorons, these combinations of words mean something antithetical to the definitions of their components - and I am not mocking, I am mourning...

When and where to see the Super Blood Moon in a total lunar eclipse this week

the Jim bloke
IT Angle

Re: Oh come *on*...

Perhaps we have our UK brethren to blame for the delusion that "the Cloud" is a stable and persistent environment, rather than just "somebody-else's-computer"

Singapore orders social media to correct Indian politician’s allegation of local COVID-19 variant

the Jim bloke
Alert

Re: Not sure

The two are multiplicative

Social media is irritating, offensive, and occasionally fatal - going for that perfect selfie on the cliff edge or beside the wild animal..?

Covid 19 is debilitating, infectious, and frequently fatal.

When you put the two together - There are SYNERGIES !!! involved

the Jim bloke
Boffin

Basic Maths

If you are getting a variant/mutation every thousand cases, then having millions of people carrying the infection will result in thousands of variants - and the more successful/virulent/infectious ones will out compete the original, become the new normal - and seed the next generation of variants.

Ignoring the virus doesnt make it go away.

Early in the pandemic someone made the comment that it's less important how high the ceiling of your healthcare system is than how low the floor is.

ASUS baffles customer by telling them thermal pad thickness is proprietary

the Jim bloke
Meh

Re: At this point I wonder exactly which provider makes sense

Been using Nokias for the last couple of years, the first 6.1 had an issue just shy of the 2 year mark where the touch screen stopped working, so I couldnt enter the PIN to login after a restart,

got around that with an external USB keyboard and mouse (mouse on its own wasnt able to hold and enter PIN). Not practical for normal use but sufficient for content recovery.

Getting it fixed would have cost more than a replacement.

I do expect a 2 year lifespan from an A$ 400 phone, or a bit over 50 cents a day.

The replacement Nokia 6.2 is alright, but shit at phonecalls. Somehow it cannot provide the callers voice at a reasonable volume despite having no problem with music (possibly my main use). External speakers/headphones are ok. Connection also drops inexplicably, to the point my partner prefers calling me on my 5-year-old cheapy samsung work phone instead.

As in many other cases, Nokia-now is not the same as Nokia-then

Australian Federal Police hiring digital evidence retrieval specialists: Being a very good boy and paws required

the Jim bloke
Big Brother

So Peter Dutton had a corona-puppy

and needs to find a place to dump it now the novelty has worn off?

hopefully they will be less incompetent than all his cronies he stacked the immigration department with, because his tactic there was to criminalise anything that required them to make an effort or know their job.

UK data watchdog fines 'pandemic partner' biz £8k: It sent 84,000 marketing emails to people who'd given info for track and trace

the Jim bloke

Penalties for health related transgressions

Should involve compulsory, involuntary organ donation.

From the directors of the company.

It may not fix the problem but it might fix someone else's..

China all but bans cryptocurrencies

the Jim bloke

Re: Re. Update

So all your old apps will be safe on a Samsung

Are you ready to take a stand? Flexispot E7 motorised desk should handle whatever you dump on it – but it's not cheap

the Jim bloke
Devil

Re: better sitting

After a while, I managed to develop a technique where I could slouch while sitting on a gym ball.

I may not be my own worst enemy, but I am definitely a member of the anti-me alliance

Indian government says 5G doesn’t cause COVID-19. Also points out India has no 5G networks

the Jim bloke
Facepalm

The Indian government department of yoga and homeopathy

factual information is not welcome here

The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy (abbreviated as AYUSH) is purposed with developing education, research and propagation of indigenous alternative medicine systems in India.

Blessed are the cryptographers, labelling them criminal enablers is just foolish

the Jim bloke
Thumb Up

Re: Yup, it ain't easy.

Our corporate safety overlords attempted to stop people hitting themselves with hammers by requiring the use of extra devices to distance hands from striking area - called finger savers, not going to bother googling to check what results come up -

They do enable you to smack the utter shit out of your target without concern for your stabilising hand, but I have been hitting stuff with hammers for a long time now, and firmly believe its better to know what you're doing, and apply the right amount of force, rather than encourage people to just go nuts.

Also, it turns a one handed job (grab and hold item to be hit) into a two handed job of attaching the finger saver device.. which is as sensible as a car that requires both hands to change gears..

icon.. thumb - do not hit.

the Jim bloke
Thumb Up

Re: Australia

and we maintain the tradition by making it illegal to come here..

How Good Is Australia !

the Jim bloke
Happy

Re: Really ????

Australian political statement vetting involves making sure the coat is fluffy, and the beast hasnt been dead long enough to be noticeable..(air freshener may be used)

Cloudflare launches campaign to ‘end the madness’ of CAPTCHAs

the Jim bloke
FAIL

Operators are standing by...

..actually,

Scripts are standing by, to herd you through the purchase process, to acquire a device which will pretend to discriminate between humans and scripts..

Whether its humans or machines running the scripts is purely a matter of local economics..

Intel laid me off for being too old, engineer claims in lawsuit

the Jim bloke
Thumb Up

Re: So he waited

was working with a graduate engineer once and made him useful for measuring the depth of an excavation by getting him to jump into it. Our safety consultant who saw this was mortified, but it got the job done...

the Jim bloke
Windows

Re: So he waited

(At the age of 55 I applied for a job which insisted on all my qualifications from post-graduate degrees back down to my O and A-levels, school exams in 1976 and 1978 respectively. Of what possible use could they have been in the hiring decision?)

I would imagine that is their second choice of hiring criteria, but if you dont have a facebook profile they dont know what else to look at...

yet another experienced worker with realistic expectations - commonly referred to as 'a grumpy old fart'

Microsoft demotes Calibri from default typeface gig, starts fling with five other fonts

the Jim bloke

Re: Don't forget the users with reading difficulties

I hope he payed them back for that

A trip to the dole queue: CEO of $2bn Bay Area tech biz says he was fired for taking LSD before company meeting

the Jim bloke
Unhappy

Re: .. not a drug user

Point conceded.

I used to drink regularly,

now its only on special occasions, and I miss it...

the Jim bloke
Alien

Not a drug user and never (willingly) have been, but still smart or experienced enough to park facing away from the sun. I do have some alienation issues where I believe the vast majority of people are not as intelligent as me, reinforced almost every time I see a switched on TV, doesnt matter what content its showing..

You may have sharper wit and deeper insights than most of your colleagues, but would they be even more profound if you hadnt killed those braincells back in the day....

Does the boss want those 2 hours of your free time back? A study says fighting through crowds to office each day hurts productivity

the Jim bloke
Meh

Re: No company ever forced its staff to do 90 minute commutes...

just a gentle reminder that work is not the only consideration when choosing a place to live.

Family is usually a bigger factor - I have friends (believe it or not) who sold up their lovely large house they had done a lot of work on over years, in order to gain access to a school they thought would be better for their children.

Multiple people in a household will require multiple solutions, and these requirements change over time.

Over the last decade or two there was the rise of 'inner city living' with lots of residential apartments being constructed in or next to the CBD... none of these were designed with WFH in mind, and obviously dont cater to it very well.

At least lockdowns and WFH have pointed out the intrinsic failings of the 'tiny house movement'.

the Jim bloke
FAIL

Re: Covid 19 and hot desks

The fundamental philosophy behind hot-desking is that the desk is what's important, and the users are interchangeable and disposable....

We admire your MOXIE, Earthlings: Perseverance rover gizmo produces oxygen for first time on Mars

the Jim bloke

Usually more useful when it doesnt work.

Then you can ask "Why not?" and have something you can fix.

If you dont discover problems, its time to devise a harder test...

BOFH: Postman BOFH's Special Delivery Service

the Jim bloke

Re: The follow up: the beancounter's revenge

Well, if they insist on forcing the issue, I guess they will have to see the equipment deployed...