* Posts by Jonathan 27

451 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jun 2010

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Android beats Windows as most popular OS for interwebz – by 0.02%

Jonathan 27

Yes and no, Android is Linux in the kernel space, but basically not like Linux in the user space. That's why you can't run Linux executables (technically GNU/Linux, Stallman fans) on Android or Android executables on Linux (without significant emulation). Google is currently working on their own kernel to replace Linux in Android. Should they ever manage to pull that off all the apps written for the Android SDK will still run on the new OS, even without Linux underneath.

Microsoft's in-store Android looks desperate but can Google stop it?

Jonathan 27

Yeah...

I think you might be right, there is no chance that this will be a successful product. Despite all the stupid mistakes Microsoft has made with mobile devices I can't imagine that they really think this could be a big thing. They're probably hoping to anger Google so they can start a lawsuit over it.

Blinking cursor devours CPU cycles in Visual Studio Code editor

Jonathan 27

Do people like VS Code? I personally can't see the appeal, because as an editor it seems a bit slow and heavy and if I want that, I just run Visual Studio (which is much better than VS Code) and if I want light I run Atom or even GEdit or Notepad++.

Linux-using mates gone AWOL? Netflix just added Linux support

Jonathan 27

I have a Linux laptop I use when I'm travelling. I didn't even know Netflix didn't support Linux because I've been using it via Chrome. I would guess most people who wanted Netflix on their Linux systems just installed Chrome to watch it.

'Clearance sale' shows Apple's iPad is over. It's done

Jonathan 27

Re: I've said it before...

My definition of a real work device vs a toy is "can you write software for this device from this device" if the answer is no, then it's a toy. iPads, by that definition, are toys.

Jonathan 27

Re: Chrome in US

Chromebooks aren't exactly popular in the US. They're basically just the cheap junk laptops that schools let the kiddies use. They have no traction, the second the schools can find something cheaper, they're gone.

Nest cameras can be easily blacked out by Bluetooth burglars

Jonathan 27

I prefer to do my security the traditional way, by making my place look shabby from the outside and buying insurance.

Microsoft IE11 update foxes Telerik dialogue boxes

Jonathan 27

This is why, regardless of the situation and environment, everyone should have at least 2 web browsers installed.

Nigerian government site popped, used for phishing scam

Jonathan 27

My spam filter already rejects all email containing the word "nigeria", "nigerian" or any similar mispelling.

McDonald's India's delivery app was a golden honeypot

Jonathan 27

Honestly, in India, I doubt many people will care. Privacy isn't something that a lot of people value. Only really the very rich can afford privacy over there.

User jams up PC. Literally. No, we don't know which flavour

Jonathan 27

Re: I bet you try this

If it didn't kill the port, you're lucky. I've seen that many times and it almost always leads to a broken Ethernet port.

Jonathan 27

Re: You missed out

They were just the cheapest junk you could find. My sister used to have this "incredibly cute" cat-shaped case that had internals there were seemingly designed to cut and maim the technician. I literally cut myself, badly enough that it bled, several times on the cursed thing.

When we wanted me to upgrade the computer with a new motherboard (and all the trimmings) I made up some excuse about the case not supporting new motherboards and got her one of those Cheiftech/Antec "dragon" style cases that everyone and their mother had back int the day. And now my sister builds her own computers so she can buy all the sharp cases she likes... But she didn't and has a reasonable Lian-Li case.

Today's WWW is built on pillars of sand: Buggy, exploitable JavaScript libs are everywhere

Jonathan 27

So, you're suck in the 90's? At this point the web has moved past that point, to being an application-delivery method, for better or worse. JavaScript has a lot of design issues, but security isn't a big one. It's not inherently insecure and like it or not we don't have another option.

Everyone's favorite buzzword "HTML5" is mostly a cleanup combined with a bunch of JavaScript APIs and I think it's likely the web will move even more in this direction in the future.

Jonathan 27

I'd personally suggest that implementing all your security and business logic in the back-end is the solution here. It's standard practice because you cannot trust anything running client-side. And if you're not loading any 3rd party content that's a solution in itself, it doesn't really matter how security the JS libraries are if only your own JS is running on the browser. It depends what sort of web site you're running, but JS security is much, much, much more important on ad-supported websites that run nasty 3rd party code, than it is on any other type of website.

Jonathan 27

Re: choices

That's not an option. You can't write modern responsive fancy-looking, slick websites without JavaScript. In fact, a lot of websites are totally dropping support for browsers with JavaScript disabled.

'Jarvis' brings AI to the Linux command line, without Iron Man

Jonathan 27

Re: For example, if a developer defined MD5 as a hash ...

In that case, why do the md5 comparison at all? If you're going to do a bit for bit comparison regardless?

I wouldn't use MD5 for anything, not because it's all that likely that there will be an issue today, but because code tends to live for a lot longer than we developers generally think.

America halts fast processing of H-1B skilled worker visas

Jonathan 27

That's the thing, people seem to think you can get good people for tiny wages in India. It's not true. If you want good people you can get away with paying a bit less, yes. But trying to get people for pennies on the dollar, like most outsourcing operations do, you end up with a bunch of incompetent people. I'd say it's more about outsourcing operations being garbage than anything else.

Q: How many IBMers need to volunteer for corporate guillotine?

Jonathan 27

IBM is squeezing remote workers to come back into one of a number of "colocation hubs"

Of course they are, all studies on the matter point to the idea that remote work is less productive than working from a centralized location. The trade-offs made in communication being the main problem. Why pay people the same for less work? It's not like they pay you for your commute.

Uber loses court fight over London drivers' English language tests

Jonathan 27

Re: Talking of Language

Uber is now recognized as an English word, driving from the German über. So anyone who posted about Latin can just take a hike with your false cognates.

Jonathan 27

Re: Correction:

Some people are just naturally cringey, like my pet cat.

Jonathan 27

I imagine almost all people with GCSE certs would pass that. I had to take a similar English test (because everyone has to be treated equally, PC garbage) and it was pants on head easy for anyone who speaks English as a first language.

Two-thirds of TV Licensing prosecutions at one London court targeted women

Jonathan 27

Re: 'Contract' companies

Always shitter, you can't get the quality of people you get for decent money with less than decent money minus management fees.

Google mass logout riddle deepens: OAuth token fumble blamed

Jonathan 27

Are you a software developer? If not, how would you know. I mean, sure it's a bit weird that in most implementations to have to post the token request formatted application/x-www-form-urlencoded and read a response formatted as application/json. But overall it's more secure than transmitting the password over and over and easier to implement that proprietary protocols. After the authorization it's very very easy to include that token, whether it is by cookie, header or what have you. Middleware is very easy to find too.

What exactly about OAuth is shit?

P.S. If you're looking this up, the OAuth in question is actually OAuth 2.0.

This ferry is said to weigh 250 cows. We say that is actually 20,600 Lindisfarne Gospels

Jonathan 27

Re: groats per linguine travelled

If anyone involved had any sense at all they'd just build a bridge. Maintaining a chain ferry over such a short distance does not make any sense at all. Stick a toll booth on it and you can even keep your income and maintaining the thing would be a lot less expensive.

CloudPets' woes worsen: Webpages can turn kids' stuffed toys into creepy audio bugs

Jonathan 27

This product was and always has been a terrible idea. I can't think of a better example of marketing people refusing to pay attention to what engineers told them.

Linux on Windows 10: Will penguin treats in Creators Update be enough to lure you?

Jonathan 27

Yeah...

Of course it is, why does anyone do anything? Even big open-source projects only exist to make or save their sponsors money.

And I'm so glad to see you're against spyware. I trust you don't use iOS, Android, Mac OS or a version of Linux that embeds a bunch of analytics collection either.

Your next PC is… your 'Droid? Remix unveils Continuum-killer

Jonathan 27

Re: Why its own OS?

Good luck getting Xorg to run in a Sandbox. That sounds like 100x times the amount of effort it takes to develop Remix OS.

EU privacy gurus peer at Windows 10, still don't like what they see

Jonathan 27

Re: "Can we actually trust any of the mega corps to remove the data"

Most computer systems are backed by relational databases, if you've ever had any transactions on eBay, eBay can't remove your account without removing all records of any transaction you had on eBay. Because of this you can't actually delete your account in any web application you've ever used, at least not until every single record your user was ever attached to has been archived, which in most cases will NEVER actually happen.

They best they can do is just set the fields for your personal information to something else, they may have already done that and legally that is all they have to do.

Vinyl, filofaxes – why not us too, pleads Nokia

Jonathan 27

What's a filofax? No seriously, I've never even heard of that. I'm going straight to Wikipedia to look it up

Jonathan 27

Re: At 7 bytes per stored phone number

Legends tell of a land called 'Murica, where 7 digit phone numbers are still a relevant thing.

Totally not-crazy billionaire Elon Musk: All of us – yes, even you – must become cyborgs

Jonathan 27

Re: "But there are many people whose jobs are to drive..."

Yes, they'll be able to totally automate delivery trucks within about 20 years. Knowing the post office they'll still be doing it manually, but couriers will have switched. But you won't need to do a thing, the truck will stop and a little automated drone (probably rolling) will pop out and deliver the package to your door. It might sound like sci-fi but Fed Ex is already testing this sort of technology and because it brings costs down massively it's pretty much inevitable. We're right on the cusp of a lot of low-end Joe jobs disappearing and it's going to cause problems.

Cattle that fail, not pets that purr – the future of servers

Jonathan 27

Yeah...

I don't know, is the image I use to spawn my webserver instances cattle? I kinda treat it like a pet, because a tiny problem with that and all the cattle fall down and I probably lose my job.

Windows 10: What is it good for? Microsoft pitches to devs ahead of Creators Update

Jonathan 27

I don't think that the lack of UWP apps has anything to do with users at all. Developers don't want to bother investing in writing or rewriting for a new platform that may or may not exist tomorrow. Why spend time and money on something new when the existing system works already? I know I wouldn't if I was a Windows app developer (I'm a web developer, so UWP isn't something I need to worry about).

Jonathan 27

That's been true for years and yet Linux still hasn't caught on with the masses, I wonder why?

SQL Server on Linux? HELL YES! Linux on Windows 10? Meh

Jonathan 27

Re: Windows ME was worse

I predict you'll be running Windows 10, or a later version of Windows within 5 years and complaining about how bad the next version of Windows is. This is a repeating cycle.

Jonathan 27

Re: Who cares what the OS is!

Larger companies are going to want to run their own database servers regardless.

Jonathan 27

Re: why not just run Ubuntu and put Windows in the virtual machine?

You can buy a laptop that supports Windows just fine from one of the major brands if you're careful. They don't actively try to stop you running Linux, most just don't really care if Linux works well or not. Look for ones that have a large percentage of Intel parts. Intel Wi-Fi, Intel iGPU, Intel CPU, Intel chipset, Intel platform management chip, they all have reasonable open source drivers. Nvidia and AMD GPUs are so-so on the open source drivers but you can get them to work if you try hard enough. But that goes for everything, not just laptops. Nvidia's binary drivers work ok if you're willing to install them.

My XPS 15 (9550) runs Ubuntu very well, but I admit I have the Nvidia binary driver installed (Optimus even works) because the open source drivers have much worse performance.

For $deity's sake, smile! It's Friday! Sad coders write bad code – official

Jonathan 27

Re: It's simple neurobiology ...

I'd honestly argue that no management at all is better than the majority of managers I've had.

Jonathan 27

Yeah...

They should let you use any code editor you like, it's not hurting them in any way. Otherwise maintaining huge ancient code bases is pretty much par for the course unless you work for a startup. I personally don't mind working with old code, even if it is terrible, as long as I'm allowed to clean it up and refactor as I go.

Management that isn't interested in improving methods makes working somewhere pretty hard. If you're feeling the way you seem to be I'd recommend looking for another job, otherwise you'll just be miserable all the time.

Imagine a ChromeOS-style Windows 10 ... oh wait, there it is and it's called Windows Cloud

Jonathan 27

Who wants to bet you'll be able to upgrade to Windows 10 standard for £40?

We don't want to alarm you, but PostScript makes your printer an attack vector

Jonathan 27

Re: Maybe I'm thick...

Google Cloud Print is pretty much the only option to print from Android devices, or at least the only one my printer supports. I freely admit I have my printer hooked up to the Internet. I mitigate the risk my turning the printer off when I'm not using it, but I guess I must think the convenience is worth the risk.

Stop replying! pleads NetApp customer stuck in reply-allpocalypse

Jonathan 27

Bah, that's nothing. I once got over 2 million emails once after I set an out of office autoresponder and then went on vacation. That's all I did. One of the emails sent to me in that period had an invalid reply address, which triggered the email system to send me a "cannot find address" email, which triggered the autoresponder. Now this would have been all well and good, but that "cannot find address" email? It's reply address was ALSO invalid, which triggered the whole thing to loop indefinitely.

My entire mailbox was just filled with tiny "cannot find address" emails, super.

Northumbria Uni fined £400K after boffin's bad math gives students a near-killer caffeine high

Jonathan 27

Re: Not even open to debate.

Caffeine is a toxin, but many studies have been done on it and the majority say it isn't a carcinogen. Although a lot of them use coffee as the delivery method so many that's swaying the results. I'm willing to entertain the possibility.

Jonathan 27

It should have been obvious, 30g of caffeine is a large amount of a substance you would normally only use a tiny amount of. If the eye dropper you were using to measure < 1g of the stuff isn't big enough it's your clue you're doing something wrong.

Oh, the things Vim could teach Silicon Valley's code slingers

Jonathan 27

Vim, we consider not fixing our UI issues a feature! No seriously, a text editor that you need to learn how to use is not really excusable in this day and age, the only people using it are the same old-guard Linux users that constantly block changes that would make Linux accessible to the masses. It's the same mindset that keeps Linux niche. Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, but it exemplifies the way Linux and it's associated open-source applications (mostly) are designed.

Now if vim used an interface similar to edit in DOS I wouldn't be complaining, that was simple but intuitive.

TV anchor says live on-air 'Alexa, order me a dollhouse' – guess what happens next

Jonathan 27

It's not the broadcaster's fault the Echo is a badly designed product.

TCL vows to keep BlackBerry alive

Jonathan 27

Yeah...

They should call if the BlackBerry Bold (Some Number). Nostalgia is about all the BlackBerry name is good for these days.

Robo-supercar hype biz Faraday Future has invented something – a new word for 'disrupt'

Jonathan 27

Yeah...

These guys will be out of business in two years.

Programmer finds way to liberate ransomware'd Google Smart TVs

Jonathan 27

I bought my TV partially because it had the smart TV OS I wanted (Android TV), I don't just want a screen. If I can get set top box and screen in one I save space and money. No I don't have a cable box or anything else like that.

Symantec sets legal wolves upon Zscaler

Jonathan 27

This sounds like a tactic to devalue Zscaler so they can buy them out cheap.

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