Posts by big_D

Re: In its annual 10-K filing with the SEC

Nope, that was what I saw at first glance, well 10 killing.

Re: Policy driven

I've seen a couple of biogas generating plants, where unsold produce, argricultural waste, and unsold sweets, were put into the reactor and the generate gas piped into the local town.

Re: Policy driven

I visited a couple of Biogas generating "plants" (actually large converted barns on a farm), where agricultural waste - produce that couldn't be sold, silage etc. and tonnes of sweets - the farmer had a contract with a major sweet manufacturer in the area, sweets which failed quality control or hadn't been shipped before their expiration date were transported there for crushing and putting into the biogas generator.

Re: In Before...

No, it is more along the lines of:

Number 6: I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

Re: Good for Germany

The "our website uses cookies" has not been legal since 2019, if the site does more than basic 1st party cookies for keeping the session active and noting where the visitor currently is.

If the site does more than that, it has to offer the ability to reject all (non-essential*) cookies, accept all cookies, or to select which cookies they want. Also, rejecting all cookies cannot be harder than accepting all cookies (i.e. if accept is 1 click, reject must also be 1 click).

* essential cookies include a cookie to say the user has rejected cookies, so you don't have to ask them every time they visit, as are cookies like breadcrumb cookies to allow the user to backtrack their movements.

Re: "most EULAs indemnify the software producer from culpability"

Yes, expempt.

Re: NSO is an accomplice of every crime committed by its customers

There are already international laws and sanctions against the sales of weapons to some countries and manufacturers or dealers caught selling such technology face prosecution. This is no different, they are not supposed to sell to some regimes and to those that they do sell to, they should only be doing it with valid court orders and they state that they only infect terrorists devices, which they obviously haven't been doing.

Also, AFAIK, they don't sell the product, they sell the service. The "customer" doesn't get the Pegasus "application" and can infect devices with it, they get access to a portal, where they can request a device be infected & then they have access to the data on the infected device.

That is very different to an arms manufacturer, who sells arms to a dealer, who sells to a dealer, who sells to someone, who then illegally smuggles them to a banned country... They have their hands in the deal from start to finish.

Re: NSO is an accomplice of every crime committed by its customers

Those other things you listed have a legitimate purpose, but can be misused.

Pegasus is illegally exploiting bugs in other companies' products to infiltrate unsuspecting users' devices. They also claim that they only sell the products to governments who are using it only for tracking terrorists, yet it is abundantly clear, that they are selling it to shady people and governments and allowing it to be misused.

A car manufacturer sells the car to a dealer, the dealer sells it to a member of the public with a driving license. If the driver then causes an accident or goes on a rampage, there isn't much the car manufacturer can do. In NSO's case, they have knowingly sold access to the software to a dodgy regime and provided a portal, where they can request a device be infiltrated, without the requirement that they be provided with a valid court order from a reputable court.

They are working in a grey zone to begin with and they haven't even stuck to their own rules, by the sounds of the case and the people who have had their devices infiltrated. Last time I looked, the French President wasn't a terrorist suspect, for example!

Re: Hey, look over there

Yes and no.

Software used to be of a much higher quality, because you had to get it as right as possible, before issuing it, because, once it was out, it was difficult to update. No software is ever perfect, but we used to spend months testing new software, before it was released and we would get relatively few bug reports as a result, not zero, but fewer big bugs than we see today.

The problem is, testing is too expensive and too time consuming, so testing teams have been minimised, or scrapped altogether, and, because updates can be pushed out the door at a moments notice, it doesn't matter if there are still big bugs affecting the users, they can be patched on the fly. This has led to a much more laissez-faire attitude in many companies. The scandals, like Pegasus and the increasing crypto malware waves have pushed more light on the slip-shod attitude to security, or quality, but most EULAs indemnify the software producer from culpability.

Re: I was commenting on twitter the other day…

I did save my work regularly, after every page... But if the file gets corrupted through sudden power loss, there isn't much you can do but go to the last backup and re-do what was lost.

Re: I was commenting on twitter the other day…

We were getting an expansion to the computer room, half a dozen new microVaxes were to be placed next to the older kit.

The builders were in the computer room, to expand it and put a new hole in the wall for the extra AC piping... What do you need to drill a hole in the wall? Power... How do you get power from in a computer room? You unplug one of the critical systems, that's how!

Another time, I was working late and was indexing a 300 page word document - that involves double clicking words and selecting Index from the menu... Cleaning woman strolls into the office and just unplugs my Mac! WAAH! It corrupted the latest copy, and I was 75% of the way through indexing. I had to open the backup, re-write the last section, then start with the indexing again. I wasn't impressed, to be honest.

Re: Vacation, sick time and PTO

Wow, that seems barbaric, compared to the system here.

We get 6 weeks PTO, which has to be taken within the calendar year.

On top of that, we have a maximum of 6 weeks per illness at full pay, after which, you fall onto sick pay, which is covered by the health insurance and is paid at 60% of normal salary. There is no limit to the number of illnesses and restarting of the 6 weeks, during the year and you cannot be sacked for being ill. Some years you don't take any sick days (I think I had 2 days due to a work accident this year, last year none), other years, you might be unlucky and have the 'flu, colds, a broken arm etc. all within a year.

A friend had an ileus (bowel closure) a couple of years back and the recuperation time on that can be very long, I think they were off work for a total of 8 weeks, 6 weeks at full pay and a further 2 weeks at 60%.

When I was in the UK, it was similar (although ISTR it was 4 weeks, maybe someone working the UK can give the current allowance), although due to long service at my company, I actually qualified for 3 months at full pay for illness - I contracted a virus that can knock you out for up to 6 months, so I was very glad of the 3 months pay, at the end of 2.5 months, I went back to work and was slowly worked back into doing a full days work, I was exhausted by lunch time the first few weeks, but being worked back in slowly, with a plan from HR, it meant I could take it at my own pace without penalisation and I was back up to a full work schedule without any ill effects within 3 weeks.

Re: Contract clauses

And before you all hit that downvote button, stop and think about what time you first logged into you company systems during lockdown, compared to your actual arrival time in the office before then...

I haven't downvoted, but... I turn my computer on and log in for 8 in the morning. If I drive into the office, I am usually there about 7:50-7:55 and by the time I've powered up the computer & logged on, it is usually 8 in the morning.

It is the same in the evening, 16:30 is the end of the day, home office or in the office - plus a few minutes, if I am in the middle of something. It is very rare that I have to stay later than 16:45, although if I have to help out the colleagues in the US, it can be later, but I then come in later / start later the next day.

Re: Contract clauses

Yes, that is how it works at my current job, in Germany, as well.

Re: Contract clauses

Yes, if manangement are regularly asking you to do overtime, they have screwed up somewhere in their calculations - taken on too much work for the number of employees they have.

That said, the odd dose of overtime to hit a deadline or if there is a major disaster is another matter - but if it is "weeks of working late", the project manager needs to agree a new deadline that works, or get additional staff on board to cover the work that needs to be done.

Re: Contract clauses

I've posted on Twitter a couple of times, but my first CEO (one of the largest IT consultantcies in Europe at the time) gave some advice to the company, when he gave the annual staff meeting:

"If you have to regularly work overtime, your management screwed up. Either they set unrealistic deadlines or they failed to resource the project properly."

Basically, short rushes of overtime at the end of a project, to squeeze it in under the wire is acceptable (a week or so), if overtime over a longer period would be required, the project manager has messed up and needs to extend the deadline or arrange for additional resources.

Likewise, if there is a disaster, it is fine to have all (necessary) hands on deck to get the system up and running again.

In Germany, it is usually "reasonable" overtime in the contracts.

At my current job, we can only do upgrades to our ERP system, for example, outside normal business hours and only when the shifts don't need it - that usually means late evening, when the shift takes a break, or at an agreed time over the weekend. But any accrued overtime has to be taken as time off before the end of the current month (or if it is at the end of the month, at the beginning of the new month), we aren't allowed to carry overtime across multiple months, so it has to be taken quickly. My boss is very punctilious about us recouping our overtime (at time and a half or double time (Sundays)).

He announced it as a 2 stage plan, firstly as a payment processor, but also to store the processed money in the users account and let them spend it on other accounts, or, eventually, remove the money from the platform into a valid bank account.

He was also talking about paying interest and getting people to store their savings in their Twitter account. Hell no, Elno!

My first CEO told me, that if an employee has to regularly work overtime, management screwed up, either they underestimated the amount of work or they didn't resource the project adequately.

So, he has sacked nearly half the staff, then says that everybody needs to do the hours of 2 people... I think his decision to sack people, without actually working out how much work there was was a bit of a silly decision.

Also:

– Musk also said staff should brace for 80-hour work weeks, do without company-provided food and get used to working from the office.

Sorry, any boss who says you have to work an 80 hour week has seriously screwed up his resource management, If you are expecting employees to work 80 hours, that means you have half the staff you need to do the job... Oh, wait, he sacked 50% of the staff... So, his own decisions have brought this situation about and now he expects people to work 80 hours to bail him out? How the hell did he ever get this far?

Re: As a Win11 user myself, don't bother if you don't have to!

At this stage, you really shouldn't be exposing Windows 7 to the general network, let alone the Internet (or planning to segregate it, if you pay for the extended support, which runs out at the beginning of next year).

We have some legacy hardware (laboratory equipment) whose controlling software only works on XP or 7, getting a software "upgrade" involves buying new lab equipment that does the same job to the same quality level as the working kit it would replace, at a six figure price. All of the PCs that are used in the labs are segregated from the corporate network and are either stand-alone or on a separate lab network that has no corporate network or internet access.

My current company laptop is over 4 years old and still has the original Windows build, it still runs just fine. My 2016 Spectre laptop is the same, works just fine.

The same goes for my Ryzen Linux box, ribbing just fine, no rebuilds necessary.