Posts by Velv 2756 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2010
Depends on your aspirations, but consider a course that teaches you how to conduct research, especially research using the Internet. Support roles are typically about finding the problem, then applying a fix, so skills in applying a logical diagnosis are key (and this is applicable to life, not just technology).
There are very few technical course out there where the knowledge is not available via google, bing, yahoo, etc, IF you know how to look, and HOW TO SIFT the useful answers from the rubbish answers (this is the important bit).
After a couple of years in IT, if you've been any good you'll get your next job because of your last or current one. It really is that nepotistic. Qualifications go out of date very quickly, unless you're prepared to invest in continued re-certification (and in my experience, people with too many certificates are usually useless at most of it)
Getting that initial job might be difficult, so you should only rely on the words of a recruiter to tell you what you need. Find a friendly agency or two to phone and ask them what skills they are recruiting now.
I don't quite get it.
Surely if you operate a "secure" or "sensitive" operation then you MONITOR all your outgoing traffic and you know what is going where (otherwise known as Data Leakage Prevention). You can see packets that are being routed to unknown or untrusted destinations. That is if your secure element is even connected directly to the outside world.
Or do they think the Chinese have pioneered the subspace ether used in Star Trek that allowed transmission beyond the speed of light?
The trouble with common sense is...
... that it isn't really that common.
Now we ALL know how to lift things. We ALL know to get out in a fire. We ALL know about Anti Money Laundering, about treating customers fairly and about not giving our passwords to people in the street.
Yet over the next few weeks we'll probably all have a good laugh at some TV programmes showing idiots with no common sense doing stupid things. Common sense really isn't that common, and if you're one of the people who moan about the "stupid mandatory training", you're probably one of the people its actually aimed at.
Personally I'd bring back the old Public Information Films, and put them on ten times more often.
Now, who wants to reminisce over Tufty, the Green Cross Code and Charlie Says ...
The trouble with your argument about companies turning to Cloud Storage...
The clue is in the name - STORAGE
Somebody somewhere still needs to buy and install it. Just because you buy space from a cloud doesn't mean there aren't disks spinning somewhere. In theory because cloud is buying a portion of shared you split the costs, a single company may only have installed a single array, whereas the cloud provider will need a minimum of two, and more like three or four arrays to provide continuity of service.
Swings and roundabouts for the array vendors - and probably more cost effective to service a few large cloud data centres than hundreds of smaller customers.
"service has "Issues"" is a subjective term.
The iPhone 3Gs had a problem with reboots during calls, yet Apple denied there was an issue.
The iPhone 4 had to be held properly, however initially Apple denied there was an issue.
iOS5 upgrades broke WiFi for a number phones - yet there was no issue.
So while the idea of a Service Status page is good, if you're not prepared to admit to your "weaknesses", its totally useless.
If the punishment was restricted purely to direct losses...
Consider the scenario:
I sell illegal copies of a physical CD for £10 each. If all I'm ever going to be fined is the £10 per CD sold, where's the dis-incentive??? I can only ever be fined for as many as they can prove I've sold, and since it is likely they will only be able to prove a subset have been sold, I win.
There needs to be a punitive element to the fine to discourage illegal activity (and I'm not making any statement on the value of the punitive element, just pointing out there needs to be a punitive element)
While I agree we should be teaching all sorts in schools, let's not forget that the vast majority of victims were probably at school before the web was invented.
I remember things I learned at school. I remember Chemistry. I remember Carbon had two forms, diamond and graphite. And that wasn't that long ago. 1985 and Buckminsterfullerenes were discovered.
So yes, lets teach it in schools - but adulthood should also be a learning experience too.
(C) Velv 2012, patent pending, all rights reserved, etc, etc.
Don't make TVs, make an interface that allows modules to be added that enhance functionality. Modules that plug in to slots in the TV (either internal as a manufacturer fit or external as aftermarket), not set top boxes that clutter the place and need their own power an cables. Then license it.
Imagine TVs sold with an Apple TV slot - think how may more Apple TV boxes you can ship each year as people can upgrade them every year - fanbois replace their iPad every year, but probably wouldn't replace the TV, but they would replace the modules if they could.
Making TVs will simply attract a small percentage of the market who are already of loyal customers (and maybe there's nothing wrong with that, they'll sell at a profit). An Apple Television will never be a mainstream product that the general public will opt for. Macs aren't "mainstream", PCs sell (fact, no emotion).
But if you could get your "module" into every TV in the world? World domination!
"If any conditions on this contract are not enforcible then the remainder of the contract will still remain in force." This means: "Many of these conditions are attempts to fool you into thinking you do not have statutory rights."
There is an accepted legal process for contracts (blue lining) which permits the removal of a clause without it affecting the remainder of the contract.
This generally works if you take the overall spirit of the contract, permitting an unfair clause to be removed without declaring the entire contract null and void (which could lead to more serious repercussions). Agreed it is open to abuse.
So the governments are spying on the people, what's new?
So modern technology makes it easy for them to gather LOTS of data for analysis.
The Internet has already proven it is beyond governments - it cannot be silenced, and most people are now MORE free from government tyranny than ever before (I say most, as I know there are regimes in the world that aren't free).
We should be worried about government spying. But we should be just as worried about media and Internet spin - these are the things that will surpass government influence, going directly to the people, stirring up a frenzy at the editor (or owners) whim. You're worried about the government. Be more worried what the people spy on.
"3) IE lower Corporate tax rates to incourage (sic) more companies to use the UK as a place worth taking tax."
Interesting thought. I haven't done the research, but I suspect that a 1% cut in the UK rate to encourage companies to base here would not generate sufficient extra revenue to make up for the 1% loss from existing UK companies. (or 2%, or 3%).
And since the EU law was specifically written to encourage this type of behaviour, our European counterparts would reduce their rate within months of the UK.
OK, so its fail on the users for picking bad passwords, but its double fail on the SysAdmins who let them pick bad passwords.
I can think of very few applications that don't have a password checking module available to validate the strength of a password and enforce just a little bit of care.
What happened to Innocent until Proven Guilty? - that's how our legal system is meant to work. A "defendant" has the right to trial by their peers to determine guilt or innocence.
Trial by Press is Guilty until Proven Innocent. No trial. No peer review. No defence. GUILTY.
THERE HAVE BEEN TOO MANY MISTAKES - the press needs to learn to properly check facts, the corroborate evidence, and to follow the law. Too many journalists are currently on a par with drug dealers - punting their wares to anyone who will buy it and not giving a care about the consequences even though they know it is shit they are peddling.
Claims that laws "controlling" the press would prevent us finding out "dirty little secrets" such as the expenses scandal - BULLSHIT - nothing will stop proper investigative journalism which uncovers corruption and deception. The EVIDENCE will be found, presented through the COURTS and LAW, and then the guilty will be exposed. As for citing the DPA - that really is clutching at straws to defend against some proper regulation.
I hope some of these so-called "journalists" are suggested as paedophiles by their colleagues - then we'll see how quickly they change their tune.
"gives sales through the amazon.co.uk website, but no profits"
OF COURSE IT DOESN'T GIVE PROFIT FIGURES FOR THE UK, THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF AMAZONS ARGUMENT.
Amazon isn't paying much Corporation Tax in the UK because it isn't making much profit in the UK.
The WWW has only been around for 20 years (and commercial for little over 10). Tax has been around for thousands of years. Current tax laws (of any country) are not compatible with Cyberspace. This is a problem the world is going to need to address (similar to the reach of Law).
I don't have an answer, I don't believe anyone currently has the answer - but part of the solution to any problem is understanding the ACTUAL problem.
I'd have thought top of the list was a tool to locate your nearest sandal shop.
But seriously, these top tens are rubbish. Nothing is a MUST. I've rarely come across one of these lists (Linux, Windows, iOS, Android, Firefox plugins, etc, etc) that actually contain a tool I haven't already found an answer for.
(For El Reg - this is intended to be constructive - I've given up reading the Top Tens as of today - lets see what other readers think)
"Chat servers are hardly essential or important data."
I think you'll find most teenagers would beg to differ, and I think you'll find that was the underlying tone of the article. Of course every reasonable business wouldn't put business critical data in the cloud. But define "business", "critical" and "data".
The public has become accustomed to services which generally "just work", and they now (rightly or wrongly) rely on such services. ATMs that give out cash are another example - we expect them to work (and mostly they do), but what service agreement have we actually signed up to (answer - NONE!)
While I love your sarcasm, sadly there are far too many people on this planet who believe their God is better than all the others and that anecdotal evidence is widely accepted as gospel (and I'm not limiting this to technology solutions).
Clearly none of them has ever heard of Science, and a logical approach where you change ONE thing at a time in a repeatable manner before you start proclaiming you've found the answer to life the universe and 42.
Flawed conclusions appear to have been extrapolated here since they have no idea what the user was doing.
Smartphones slurp some data just sitting there switched on. I found this out when I missed a monthly top up (to get some data) and the remaining credit disappeared in a couple of hours. 1 or 2 MB for a few quid off plan, gone.
So I haven't read the full report, but either its been badly reported by El Reg, or the report has been commissioned by someone with a vested interest. Or they were just useless.
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