Posts by Sir Runcible Spoon 5770 publicly visible posts • joined 29 May 2007
All laws should have an executive summary that contains information pertaining to the spirit of the law that is being put on the books.
Doing this would allow judges to ascertain whether the law was used for it's intended purpose or has been subverted through the use of vague terms or weasel words.
Subverting the spirit of a law should also be a crime.
Since we are still in the age of most games being made for Windows, I would very much like to see a stripped down OS that is just for playing games on.
In fact, this whole Win10 data slurping 'you don't own your stuff' shit has totally put me off buying a decent gaming rig for VR, so I'll stick with PSVR for now and do my browsing from something more secure.
@2+2=5
I hear what you're saying, but there are lots of other tasks where there are hidden delays that are difficult to reflect in a plan - that was just an example.
Another one is change requests. It might take 2 hours to write a request, but then it has to be peer reviewed and possibly amended, then submitted. Then it goes through the change approval process etc. which can be anything from x to x*5 depending on the number of changes in the system. If there lots of changes that need to be raised as part of the plan, you end up multiplying the number of tasks etc. massively.
What I'd like to see is a way to have tasks that require effort being represented differently from tasks that require time (eg two weeks time to perform 1 hours of effort). Otherwise the change team will look like they are spending two weeks on a single change, when in reality they are working on 50 other changes at the same time (for different projects etc.).
Awkward I know, but there must be a better way to reflect this kind of difference.
I don't know if Project can actually do this, but if it is I've never seen a PM use it yet.
There must be a way to track time elapsed, as well as effort.
For example, ordering equipment. Raising a PO and placing the order etc. = x hours. Lead time for getting the kit on site = x weeks.
If you put 'x weeks' alongside that task someone will ask you why it takes that long to order kit. If you put 'x hours' then they'll harass you every 10 minutes as to why the kit hasn't arrived yet when that task is complete.
Try and separate those kind of tasks out for the whole project and it turns into a monster. There should be a way to have a task that has 'x hours' of effort, but has 'x weeks' of duration.
Anyone know?
I won't hear a word said against Visio, it's equally at home making floor plans for my house as it is creating complex network diagrams that no-one will ever understand.
However, I think we can all get behind the pitchfork that needs to be wielded at MS Project. (I realise that there is a lower form of life in the MS stable, but I'm loathe to even mention it).
"Not to say that the very clever should quit trying of course"
Don't forget that the vast majority of people who use technology haven't the faintest idea of how it works or is made.
Lightbulbs = Magic.
The people who really understand this stuff are vanishingly small compared to the overall population count.
Just imagine going back in time 500 years, then try and list all the things you actually understand well enough that you could introduce to that time period. As far as I'm concerned I'd be better off with ideas than actual technology (since a lot of tech requires other tech to make it possible) - and in the past those kind of ideas got you a ringside seat at a bonfire made for one.
Babel fish are worth a punt. If everyone understood each other it would improve not only research but a lot of other aspects of commerce. Now, where do we start?
1. Design a little fish shaped Bluetooth earpiece with an audio pickup beyond your own voice
2. Connect it to your phone*
3. Have phone* listen and interpret incoming audio
4. Send translated audio to earpiece.
Et Voila, la BabelFish is born.
*or more likely a dedicated device that's the size of a small PC, but bound to get smaller when they make smaller chips....oh
"Across a broad range of case studies ... we find that ideas – and in particular the exponential growth they imply – are getting harder and harder to find"
I know, how about learning to make better use of the ideas we've already had?
Ask any of today's games programmers how they would go about writing a chess program that would fit into 1k of memory.
Don't forget that the start and stop bit weren't necessarily counted by applications measuring the bandwidth (so 10 bits transferred for every 8 counted).
So practical limit is most definitely <56kbps (and that's not even counting whether or not the application measured kbps as 1000bps or 1024bps)
"the cost of the service goes up, less profits etc etc."
Less profits, yes. It doesn't necessarily follow that the cost of the service goes up (to the consumer).
In these days where we pay the same for 'things' that we used to, yet the 'things' are substantially 'less' then I can only think that it's all about squeezing the last iota of money for the least amount of product.
Take Mr Kipling's Apple Pies for instance. My wife bought some last week and discovered a thin slice of apple sauce and two tiny chunks of apple in between all the pastry - they didn't used to be that stingy with the filling, yet they still cost £1.60
Also, shops/producers still make profits from items that are marked down to half price - what does that tell you about their 'normal' price.
I know we're talking about the service industry and wages etc. - but in this day and age it should be possible to have 'work from home' call staff plugged in to the system and keep costs low. Imagine all those people who struggle to find suitable part time work being able to log in and handle calls for a company whilst being at home, convenience is worth more than a few extra quid to some people (especially when the convenience is the difference between earning a few quid extra or not at all)
"yet no one got the fabled: 56Kb/s**"
Not sure that's entirely accurate. I pretty certain that it was possible to get 56kbps to the ISP, but remember that those were the days that big businesses had 1Mbps leased lines for _all_ their internet connectivity.
You can only connect as fast as the slowest part of the pipe between you and your destination.
I do a pretty good line in 'logical leaps' for a living, and can feel fairly confident in saying that whilst these leaps can look magical at the outset, they are usually fairly easy to retro-respectively analyse for logic once more information is known.
This isn't one of those leaps.
It might seem anal, but if no-one has any standards (and sticks to them) doesn't it just become a race to the bottom?
I'm sure our ancestors understood each others' grunts as well, but that doesn't allow for much eloquence now does it?
The ONLY time bailiffs will turn up is when you have had a CCJ issued against you
I agree wholeheartedly that this is what *should* happen, but sometimes the heavies are sent round to intimidate people who don't know their rights/legal position. That's why I advised calling the police.
bunch more personal information that they can abuse and/or loose.
It's lose, lose, LOSE FFS! As in lost! It can't be that hard can it? It gets pointed out on here so often it's starting to make my teeth itch when people still do this.
Genuine question: This happens so much these days I'd like to know if this sort of thing is covered in schools? I don't have kids so I can't tell how much worse it is now.
Hmm, perhaps I should have my coffee now :)
If you are certain you don't owe the debt, send them one letter by registered post telling them so.
After that ignore them. If they send the bailiffs round, call the police. If they take you to court, take them to court back (for harassment and obtaining money with threats, aka extortion.)
I'm pretty sure they won't be able to sell your debt on after any of that.
"RT is not a less western viewpoint. It is propaganda. Modern day Pravda"
Which means you can rely on them to point out the stuff that our media buries. It doesn't mean you have to buy the line their selling, but this is about awareness, not just consuming propaganda from the other side for a change.
The more stories I pick up on (not just from RT) that I look into (eye witness reports as close to the source as possible if I can) the more you realise just how much our own side is at it too, they're just better at it.
I don't like being lied to, it makes me think they have something to hide (tm).
Am I missing something?
Russia paid for ad's that highlighted current issues that America is facing in order to create debating points. Why is this actually a problem?
To suggest this is 'interference' is to suggest that reality is a hindrance to the voting process. Whilst I'm sure there will be those who think this is true, I'm not very comfortable with that.
What exactly are they intending to do if they deem this 'interference'. Another incoming ban on another aspect of free speech?
Agreed. He needed a car analogy.
Imagine you have a basic car, but in order to make it safe you keep having to add things to it from different vendors - such as airbags, ABS, crumple zones, parking sensors, automatic seat wipes, roll-cages etc.
One day your car can't move because it's too heavy. That's a bad analogy because that car is now safe, but you get my drift :)
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