* Posts by Roland6

10622 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2010

UK immigration rules hit science just as it rejoins €100B Horizon program

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: We are overdue an adult conversation about immigration

>” We can't pay them enough to make it attractive in the first place, or to retain many of them.”

This is the worlds 6th largest economy - as measured by nominal GDP we are talking about…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: I live in a former Council House. I bought it in 1980 for £13,500 and still live there.

>” I would hazard a guess that not having to do this saved the council a lot more than the discount on the sale in 1980.%”

Which the government took back by cutting funding to local government… hence why so many councils are now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy; the logical conclusion to strict adherence to Conservative core beliefs…

Roland6 Silver badge

… and it only benefits the rich, i.e. tory voters.backers

As only 3% of the population earn over £104k [ https://moneysprout.co.uk/percentage-of-uk-that-earns-over-100k/ ], ie. Circa 2m

And the Conservatives received nearly 14m votes in 2019.

there are Insufficient rich Tory voters to elect a government.

Roland6 Silver badge

A bigger contributor was the introduction of the financial transaction levy; it gave the government a slice of the financial services market that previously it (and thus the taxpayers) weren’t directly benefiting from. Remember, the UK economy is still highly dependent upon financial services.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: You know this immigration policy does work...

About time!

UK middle management are far too greedy and lazy, with WFH etc. there is no need for the manager to actually be in the office or UK, so can use cheaper and expendable foreign workers, leaving more in the pot for the executives and “investors”…

The laugh is Tom Peters back in the 1980s, from his observations, had sussed how little (positive) value executives actually contributed to a typical Fortune 100 business. In my decades of consulting, I found the 80:20 rule (which businesses like to apply to customers) helpful in identifying which board members actually contributed, those who were out of their depth passengers, and those who were adding negative value…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: the old rules

>” about 61 percent of postdoctoral researchers are non-UK nationals”

Looks like many here have missed this point.

It would seem to suggest UK universities haven’t learnt the lesson of the 1980s; the brain drain is still in full flow, as can’t see US universities now paying less than the UK.

It also raises a question about what the real benefits of having so many non-UK national researchers (and their families) in the UK on low wages and thus are more likely to also be claiming benefits et al.

I also question the mindset of the Universities, as it would seem they have been submitting research funding bids with insufficient allowance for staff costs. When I submitted bids (okay way back now) for EU funding, whilst the staff costs had to be at “cost” ( ie. We could not directly profit from the funding), the funding did not prohibit us from paying full market rates to those engaged to deliver the R&D project.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: The UK is over for a generation

Born a US citizen, always a US citizen, all that has been revoked is that Johnson doesn’t need to renew his US passport or submit tax returns to the IRS.

Roland6 Silver badge

>” Reducing the personal tax burden would act to increase inflation (greater spending power).”

Given the causes of inflation and just how far some living costs have increased, only a few would actually be better off, most will still be struggling to pay the monthly bills even if their personal tax rate went to zero..

So reducing the personal tax burden is simply a sound bite treat to the faithful rather than doing anything practical.

>” Your other option is corporation tax”

Which seems to be pointless, given it is a largely voluntarily paid tax, and the UK has one of the lowest rates for corporation tax.

The change to tax rebates for investment is along the right lines, but what is needed is a total change in executive and “investor” mindset about business investment ie. It is something they need to finance and not the taxpayer.

Roland6 Silver badge

>” For instance currently we have the highest taxes in living memory and literally nothing works and we have zero growth.”

Swallowed the b*ll*cks of the IFS report which if believed effectively claims the government could increase the base rate of taxx and reintroduce the 98% tax band and the UK would become a low tax haven…

The reason the UK is receiving higher tax revenues is because more people, particularly on the higher income levels, are actually paying tax…

Additionally, more people are earning higher incomes because the economy has been doing well and so has been able to pay more…

Roland6 Silver badge

>” ultimately come from gov funding - i.e. taxpayers. Us.”

As does all the money the government has been throwing at the banks…

The only difference is with government employee wages, the monies go directly to individuals in the real economy rather than via the banks who can leverage and multiply (typically by a factor of 10) the money they borrow.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: My twopenn'orth (if inflation hasn't already increased it to thruppence)

Long piece…

The trouble is with the main causes of “inflation” being beyond the control of the UK government and BoE, recovering the economy is going to be difficult because an improved economy will require more of the products that have been causing the “inflation”, which given part of the problem is there are buyers for these products with bigger and deeper pockets than the UK, we can expect traditional supply-and-demand to push their prices higher still and so increase the rate of “inflation”….

So it would seem what the UK actually needs is a smaller economy which is much less dependent upon imported energy etc. …

Microsoft issues deadline for end of Windows 10 support – it's pay to play for security

Roland6 Silver badge

Need the EU to step up…

There really is no reason for the junking of hundreds of millions of PCs, just because of the whims of Microsoft.

It needs a body with the size and influence of the EU to hit MS in their pocket over this deliberate creation of waste.

AWS exec: 'Our understanding of open source has started to change'

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I liked (sarcasm) how AWS implied complaint about what RedHat did to Centos, so instead of signing up with RedHat, they simply switched to taking Fedora, with no indication that they are helping that project financially…

AstraZeneca bets $247M AI can create a cancer-fighting antibody

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Re: Business model

>” something that will have treatment spread over maximum possible time to maximise profit. ”

Zantac ?

HP exec says quiet part out loud when it comes to locking in print customers

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Re: Honestly....

I wonder how much longer you will see HP printers on the high street. With the focus on subscription, HP are going to have to be giving monies back to stores to stock their printers as there is a much more limited sales of ink etc.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: HP and Linux

>” But they do at least provide reasonable drivers”

Just had to deal with an MS update that involved HP printers = the update kept failing, the recommended solution was the total removal of HP print drivers - HP does not seem to provide a “clean” utility these days, so a fully manual process…

Update then installed followed by HP drivers…

So yes “reasonable” is a fair description.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Since then it has banked double-digit revenues.

>” did you know the instant ink cartridges are much larger than the retail ones?”

All they are doing here is playing catch up with the third party cartridge suppliers.

With a subscription, it is in HPs interest to incur as little cost as possible, which effectively means sending out the minim7m number of cartridges…

'Return to Office' declared dead

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Re: Stick

>” small independent [Uk based] software consultancies …were post Brexit, shut out of the UK market.”

And the European market…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: There it is

Why do (UK) pension funds invest to such a large extent in commercial property?

I suggest it’s because that is the way the UK market is structured, so we’ve manufactured a property boom and now need to maintain the fiction. Without property, there would be more being invested in real innovation ie. Creates jobs and products people want to buy.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: There it is

That’s not IR35, it’s why HMRC dislikes small single person Ltds.

However, if “your” company was a multi million turnover PLC et al, this arrangement wouldn’t get a second glance.

Bank boss hated IT, loved the beach, was clueless about ports and politeness

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Every single time

>” having 3 USB ports that are completely interchangeable”

But not quite, as only one of them supports the power adapter - convention seems to be the one closest to the hinge, but whether left or right side….

IBM's vintage Db2 database jumps on AWS's cloud bandwagon

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Db2 for z/OS is what we need on AWS!

Perhaps IBM needs to make IBM cloud more integrated into AWS and thus provide a simpler path to capture AWS users who need IBM cloud but would not consider switching between discrete cloud service providers…

Although anyone who has worked on both Unix/WindowsServer scale databases such as DB2 and Oracle and mainframe scale DB2 databases, will know schemas and SQL written for one do not transfer well to the other. So unless the toolsets have massively improved, it is still a step change between the two platforms.

Boehringer Ingelheim swaps lab coats for AI algorithms in search for new drugs

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Statistical analysis rebadged as AI ?

This just seems to be traditional statistical analysis upgraded to use a modern large model engine (ie. More parameters and thus richer associations than previous generations) and sprinkled with AI fairy dust.

Not saying they haven’t improved their chances of finding new compounds, to feed into drug research, but this hyping of “AI”…

I once did some statistical modelling with Excel :-O (and prior to that some constraints-based/rules-based systems programming); Perhaps I should add “experienced AI programmer” to my CV.

Server sales down 31% at HPE as enterprises hack spending

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>The writing was on the wall 6/7 years ago

IBM sold its x86 server business to Lenovo in 2014 (x86 PC business was sold to Lenovo in 2004). Perhaps one decision IBM exec's got right...

Roland6 Silver badge

>"Assuming of course when you say "purchase from the majors" being HPE/Dell/Lenovo/Cisco/etc"

Correct

>" the Asian "ODMs""

I seem to remember a few years back these were increasing shipments and market share.

Roland6 Silver badge

Also not grasped that the major cloud providers are building their own servers, rather than purchase from the majors. Whilst these are in the main x86 native and increasingly “x86 comparable” ARM, the design of cloud does seem to be following the RAID principle of using lower grade servers in redundant configuration is more cost effective and reliable than expensive proprietary servers. Additionally, with businesses still moving work to the cloud, there is going to be a massive downturn in server shipments.

AI offers some novel crystal materials that could form future chips, batteries, more

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Better Twinkies?

Advise not asking it to make a cup of tea…

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Re: Finally, a proper use for a statistical analysis machine

Yet this type of compound discovery has been normal in pharmaceuticals for decades without the AI nomenclature.

Okta data breach dilemma dwarfs earlier estimates

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It can only be a matter of time before one of the major cloud providers has to announce an extensive compromise of customer accounts…

UK government rings the death knell for SIM farms

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Joke

Re: Eh ?

>” identify/triangulate non-moving sims in high numbers”

Good, that excludes the shopping trolley of phones used to mess up navigation apps traffic congestion algorithms, just need to keep walking…

Do we really need another non-open source available license?

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "source-available" or other semi open source licenses

Rereading the article, the issue isn’t the licence the “product” is released under but the CLA. It seems the CLA is a fully open “do as you want with my contribution” licence, rather than “my contribution can only be used for a product that will be released under a recognised open-source licence”. Hence why “businesses” can start an open-source project, the CLA assigns all rights to them without any downstream licensing and code release obligations.

What is also confusing matters is that what many now regard as “open-source”, I would regard as in-public development and public source, ie. The source code, its development and maintenance is wholly in the public domain.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Monies

“Freely available” does not mean available for £0 ie. Free. See GPL.

Also this release model looks interesting

“UTM is a free download from Github, but if you get it from Apple's macOS App Store, it costs $9.99, which helps to fund the program's development.“

[ https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/utm_apple_hypervisor_foss_fest/ ]

It would seem the walled gardens and their app stores might mean that open source projects get slightly more income than at present, just a shame Apple will be taking 30% of that $9.99…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: What planet are we on ?

They all owe their existence and rise to prominence to closed source.

Yes many have over the years incorporated open source into their product portfolio, but to supplement and enhance their closed source offerings.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "source-available" or other semi open source licenses

“ It's considered a fully open source license”

But from the context, it and other open source licenses are not considered open source by the articles author…

” Neither do any of the companies now using "source-available" or other semi open source licenses. They all began as open source companies…”

GPL is a “source-available licence”.

What has changed is back in the 80s and early 90s open source was provided as source code for the user to compile, over the years things have changed and now the normal is to download the free binary.

The “race to the bottom” means that whilst GPL allows for there to be a price/fee to be paid, this hasn’t happened, in part because the GPL itself gives no commercial protections to the originator of the source.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Monies

Developers getting paid for contributions to open source projects has always bedevilled open source; I wonder if Stallman hadn't been in academia and didn't retain his post and income through writing software, whether he would have promoted the GNU license.

Personally, I would like to see some means for businesses (backroom and larger) to charge for their open source products and have some form of commercial protection from either being undercut or being exploited by the majors, particularly by those such as the cloud service providers who don't sell the software but a service based on the software. Perhaps this is some fusion of Open Source and FRAND.

Roland6 Silver badge

Way back ...all programs were "free software" and "open source."

Interesting rosy eyed view on working practices in the decades before the rise of the PC.

I suspect much depends on whether you worked within the academic community or in industry.

Whilst the Unix source was distributed for free - apply and AT&T/Berkeley would send you a set of mag tapes, compiling it and making it run on your platform was your problem, it was licenced. Hence the court battles and the motivation for GNU and Linux.

Roland6 Silver badge

"source-available" or other semi open source licenses

I hadn't realised the GNU General Public License (GPL) (and other widely used Open Source licences) was only a semi open source licence...

Activist Investor Elliott calls for a management reboot at Crown Castle

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Activist investor

And a particularly stupid one. I would like to see Elliott Investment Management‘s pitch to Crown Castles customers: we as “activist investors in Crown Castle” want you to pay more, just so that we can take a bigger slice of the cake.

Data-destroying defect found after OpenZFS 2.2.0 release

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Better locate those OS/390 tapes and the hardware to run them on…

DevTernity conference collapses amid claims women speakers were faked

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Re: What for?

Feel good factor…

You attend a conference listen to success stories and walk away fired up thinking you too could do something exciting…

X/Twitter booted out of Australia's disinformation-fighting club

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Re: False premise

Also do a “Huawei” and make Musk and executives of ex-Twitter persons of interest and so liable to arrest and extradition if they step outside of the USA…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Banner everything everywhere on all media

They are already, just that presently it is hard to link the account to a real person and thus press charges, thus the only practical recourse is to report and have such posts taken down.

Note the “Report Abuse” button in every el reg comment. I think over all the years I’ve been reading El Reg I’ve only used that button once; so whilst we do get heated and take the Michael, it seems it is rare for El Reg commenters to step over the line and make outright abusive and/or defamatory comments.

[Aside it would be interesting to get some feedback on the actual volume of reported and taken down abusive comments.]

UTM: An Apple hypervisor with some unique extra abilities

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“ UTM offers a gallery of pre-built guest images”

Shame a MacOS Big Sur (x86) image isn’t available.

Taxing times: UK missed out on £1.75B because of digitization delays

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"...Making Tax Digital for VAT and self-assessment alone to cost 400 percent more in real terms..."

Does that include or exclude the replacement of CHIEF?

Revival of Medley/Interlisp: Elegant weapon for a more civilized age sharpened up again

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"there was a war between two rival factions over the right way to build computers"

Was it really a war?

There was a substantial mindset difference between traditional Von Neumann architectures and procedural programming that went with then, and what the AI researchers were doing with neural networks, non-procedural programming etc.. To me back then it was obvious, the simplicity of the Von Neumann architecture suited the types of problems computers were being brought into address.

I suggest the lessons from this work are very applicable to the new AI "coprocessors" such as the Neural Processing Units (NPUs) that Intel are integrating into their CPUs. So what we actually had was a technology research stream that was decades ahead of the world, which in some respects you want research to be about.

Windows users can soon ditch Bing, Edge, other bundleware – but only in the EU

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: UK workarounds ?

Don’t forget to also (at initial install time) use the language locale English(World) or English (Europe) and so avoid a whole lot more cruft.

Looks like the first thing to be done with a new system will be a factory reset reinstall of Windows ( haven’t tested whether a repair reinstall has the same cleansing effect).

Your password hygiene remains atrocious, says NordPass

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: the special characters chosen are too special

Saw this in the release notes for a router firmware update, release last month…

“ The "%" character is no longer supported in the admin password. If the character "%" is currently in use as the router’s admin password, you must change the password before upgrading to the new firmware version.”

Suspect it was easier to check for the presence (or not) of the ‘%’ character than correct whatever function that misreads it…

No more staff budget for UK civil service, but worry not – here's an incubator for AI

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Ha

>” the gov can only spend what it takes from the private people/business and borrowing against the private people/business”

The government run the printing presses… Remember QE?

What is perhaps surprising is that the state has (slightly) shrunk, given the massive increase required to take back control post 2016…

The IFS report that is being referenced in various media articles is quite interesting; to achieve its objectives (lower tax), it would seem the UK should return to the era of 40% corporation tax and a 98% top rate of income tax…

Broadcom re-orgs VMware into four divisions – none of which mention end-user compute products

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“end-user compute products”

Surely they are “private on-premises end-user & desktop cloud” which would naturally fit into VMware Cloud Foundation.

Lenovo's USB-C Power Banks pack more heat than expected

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Re: "it appears that some internal screws can loosen"

Surely, someone forgot the locktite…