Posts by Roland6

Re: They are getting part of a clue

Don’t disagree, however, it does seem the US are going for (relatively) small numbers of expensive stuff rather than larger numbers of cheaper stuff that can be used in swarms. Tonight’s news noted Ukraine are consuming circa 10,000 drones a month, so it would seem tomorrows battles will require a full range of drones…

Re: They are getting part of a clue

But many of the drones being used in Ukraine cost less than $30,000, like circa $400 (before weapons fit out).

Looks like the US hasn’t fully learnt the lesson from the Talban et al, who made effective use of Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs as a cheap and highly mobile weapons platform.

Re: "their own backups as a contingency"

So Cloud is not cheaper than on-prem what a surprise not!

If you want cheap then something ha to give.

I suspect a number of CloudNordic customers will cease trading in the coming months…

Re: Correct documentation?

Is “ MS Learn” the new name for Technet, KB and Support community/forums?

Just asking as I would want candidates to learn how to navigate the resources they will be accessing on-the-job and not (just) some specially crafted and maintained “learning resource”.

Also, this might encourage better curation and maintenance of the resources.

[Aside: been on other learning sites who only give access to the learning reference materials for the duration of your studies and 6~12 months after completion. ]

Re: Programming is independent from language

>” the real issue is the "old, legacy code" but the fact its running on obsolete hardware.”

In my experience the issue isn’t so much the hardware - although that may be the motivation to migrate it, but the operational paradigm behind the design of the code: code written to read sequentially from mag tape will still be limited compared to code written to access a RDBMS.

Re: Meh

Given there were a number of COBOL-to-C tools around in the 80s and given the simplicity of Java compared to C, I don’t see the value “AI” is actually contributing other than marketing pixie dust.

Re: Tough on people hired remote

Sounds like they need to talk to an employment law solicitor, potential case of constructive dismissal.

Even if the solicitor errors on caution, getting the solicitor to write to HR is normally sufficient for an improved “no fault” severance payment, especially if your friend is disabled…

Re: I'm sorry, I just can't dump Zoom.

Given how deeply “compromised” the PSTN is (*),I would suggest a Zoom meeting, allowing for the current security weaknesses, is more secure.

(*) I suspect the US telephone network is similarly compromised.

Re: I'm sorry, I just can't dump Zoom.

The UK government uses MS, the NHS has adopted Teams: Get an online consultation (or join an NHS collaboration) and you’ll be expected to use Teams.

Also many companies are using Teams telephony…

Given the sensitivity of information - commercial and personal - that would have been produced on Windows 10 in the past 8 years….

Remember the MS EULA allows MS to read and upload everything on your system…

Given many people have grown up with the telephone network (mobile and digital) that give no guarantees about eavesdropping…

Re: I'm sorry, I just can't dump Zoom.

> Absolutely nobody is forcing you to use zoom except your own internal demons.

Can’t say the same about Teams…

Re: Tesla is simply making a financial calculation

>” Other manufacturers pure EVs are less common”

Tesla = EV

With other manufacturers you have to look more closely.

In the total numbers game, Tesla are losing market share.

Re: Risk tolerance

>” It's glorified cruise control.”

Surely, given Tesla label it as autopilot, it is deliberately misleadingly labelled cruise control.

>I have a Lenovo laptop.

So you have a consumer grade laptop made by Lenovo, rather than a Thinkpad - also made by Lenovo but intended for business usage. The limitations you note are normal for consumer laptops and really cheap business laptops.

Unfortunately, DDR5 is changing this, as many are now soldering this in rather than using removable SoDIMMs.

>” but the bonds are AAA”

Seem to remember some other property based bonds/investments with AAA rating that caused a small problem back in 2007; because large numbers of mortgage holders were unable to pay the “Interest of the day”, demanded by their lender who thought exploitative mortgage arrangements were okay…

Re: Task failed successfully.

I would go further and say the research conclusion "There's no easy way using these little image challenges or whatever to distinguish between a human and a bot any more," is totally at odds with the findings, unless they have defined “easy” to only encompass the final submission and not easily observable and measurable completion behaviour.

Re: What next for security now?

Not the only website this is so. Too many times I find using Google to search a website will return results the websites own search fails to find…

Suspect like many small businesses, particularly restaurants who got into online ordering during lockdown, they simply brought into a third-parties ordering system because it was already integrated with Deliveroo, Just Eat etc. and they only needed to add a few photos and a priced menu. It got them online quickly and cheaply and for my local Indian enabled them to fully benefit from increased business due to everyone being at home. Even the fish and chip van started visiting the village twice a week.

Trouble is, things are much harder when the “reCaptcha” is a code sent to a mobile phone, which at time of writing is siting in my partners handbag at work with her…

Re: To add to this...

>” Hoping my Epson will still print after a month of doing nothing, if I keep it out of the sunlight.”

Well lockdown should of given you a large stock of “rubbing alcohol”, this combined with some cotton buds, disposable kitchen towels and a lint free cloth gives you the tools to unblock the dried up ink cartridge nozzles you will tend to find in a printer that has been turned off for a few months…

Okay the tri-colour cartridges are an issue because of the small amount of ink they contain, so for these I tend to use the cheaper low capacity cartridges and bin if they haven’t been used in 6 plus months.

Re: To add to this...

Yes, I only use third-party inks and toner, just not purchased from eBay or the high street.

However, for inkjets, need to investigate the source of the cartridge bodies, the cheaper ones will be using potentially cartridge bodies that have been refurbished multiple times and cheap ink mixes. For lasers, I simply took a look at the cartridges the maintainer of printers for FT100 companies used and selected my model from their catalogue…

Okay, my ink/toner supplies are not the cheapest, but typically my consumables are about a third the price of OEM toner/ink, I try and buy in bulk when the supplier has a sale on…

Re: What comes around….

>” So it's no great surprise that modern printers can render PDF files.”

But that was also by deliberate intent. From memory, much was made about the realignment of PostScript 3.0 with PDF so that PDF effectively became a subset of PS3, hence any software/device that supported PS3 could also, with no extra work support PDF.

Re: What comes around….

>” PS was quite expensive to license back then.”

Kyocera had a reasonably priced office postscript printer in 1986. ..

The laugh back then was that the postscript printer was typically running a Motorola 68xxxx configuration that was more powerful than the typical x86 PC of the time and commonly found in Unix workstations…

Aside. Looking back it shows just how cheap IT is today. Even unadjusted for inflation, the Apple LaserWriter price tag of 7,000 USD, isn’t an impulse buy and who would be prepared to pay the inflation adjusted price of 19,000 USD?

Re: "an HP support agent told a user"

>” I have abandoned ink a long time ago. I have a Samsung SCX-4600 laser printer”

Not sure how long it has been there, but don’t remember seeing it previously, but HP Smart now offers to “authenticate” my Laserjet’s toner cartridge. As I use third-party cartridges I’m not tempted to explore the functionality further and so decline the offer…

Parked?

It amused me how many didn’t let their wife drive the unused company car.

For many years it made economic sense for me to use my partners car for the daily station or weekly airport trip and for her to use the fully expensed (fuel card and valeting included) company car.

Re: commercial landlords

>” a business may need to show a certain utilization rate for buildings before they can get a tax write-off for the (often substantial) leasing costs of commercial real estate.”

So it is beneficial for government to have lightly utilised offices - lower level of costs to offset… Yet for some reason governments also want people commuting…

Re: Possibly unpopular opinion, but...

>” This doesn't sound like such a bad deal.”

Well, for once I would take my lead from Musk and take my sleeping bag and clear out a space under my desk, as a nod to my colleagues I would fit a desk to floor drape…