Posts by a_yank_lurker 4138 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2013
Reducing expenses which energy costs are has a direct benefit to the bottom line. For every $1 saved you gain $1. So any halfway competently run company and even many mangled ones will be looking for ways to cut costs. While I have no problem with reducing energy usage; there are many good reasons to do it, I detest the preening about.
The amount of monitoring a diabetic needs to do depends on the individual. Some only need it to monitor longish term trends rather than adjusting what one eats at the next meal. Some must be more aggressive in their monitoring. But what tends to used for diagnosis it are insulin, glucose, and A1C levels. The reason for the glucose monitoring is that blood glucose tends to correlate reasonably well with insulin levels, e.g. if your fasting/non-fasting levels are within bounds your insulin level is probably about were it should be. While heart disease is a complication of diabetes I am not so sure about the correlation between heart rate, etc and insulin levels.
The small sample size and specific sample type makes drawing any conclusions problematic for its value in the real world. Plus I am not impressed with the buzzword bingo.
In a nutshell Linus is complaining about Larry's Minions and their antics not the technical merits of ZFS. To protect the vanilla Linux kernel he will not include the ZFS code in it because the Minions tend to sue whether they a valid claim or not. This is perfectly sensible decision until the Minions clarify the situation.
Settling out of court is an implicit admission in a case like this that there is something rotten. Discrimination claims are not easy to prove and if the documentation is done right there is nothing written to use in a claim. The problem for I've Been Molested is they said they need 'to refresh' their workforce. A statement that seriously implies age discrimination as refreshing implies upper managlement wants to have a hipper, younger workforce.
LG is missing the boat. Phones are a mature market and like all mature markets it is dominated a few major players with some minor players. For LG to capture customers they have to mostly get them from someone else. Thus they have to a product line that is enticing to those looking for a new phone with the right mix of features and pricing. While many will use their phones for more than phone calls and texts the phone is itself is not important but the various apps installed/available for the phone. So what LG needs to figure is something that will get users to look at their phones as an alternative to their current ones.
First, 5G does not offer an immediate advantage to most, 4G is borderline overkill for many. Also, buying a new phone is becoming one of replacing the old, worn out phone not running out to buy the latest and greatest, there are no new features on a phone that are really with the money. Plus for many if it is a phone or something else, the something else will probably win out.
I am surprised the Nine Seniles are even looking at this. They must feel something is badly amiss here to even take it as normally they do not take cases like this. My hope would be to reinstate the original ruling from many eons ago with damages awarded to Google for misuse of the courts.
The question of how to account the costs can be tricky. The real question is not what Autonomy precisely did but whether they had a defensible position for their practices. Selling items at cost in a large deal is not uncommon. Whether it is a marketing cost or should be accounted somewhere else keeps the bean counters busy. As a non-accountant I am aware of this practice so I would expect a competent accountant would know to ask some pertinent questions.
Hiring veterans who may not want the high priced position does have benefits of stability, dependability, and experience. PFY might be cheap and abusable but they have no experience. One point about experience is one is likely how things developed and thus understand why X was done this way while the PFY has no clue.
DIY vs the Cloud is not always about bottom line costs. Another factor is the regulatory environment the company operates in and the data security regulations. Also, part of the on prem costs are overbuying licenses but the could be mitigated by more careful analysis of needs, e.g. do you really need Orifice from Slurp or would another option do the job or how many extra are needed for business growth. Do this exercise for all the major software used and there might be a pretty penny of savings lurking about.
It's not a design flaw as it is a holding area for unwanted emails before they are permanently deleted. The functionality has to exist. What is a bigger problem is the improper use of folders and filtering (probably none) of the emails. Properly filtered into useful folders they will not be deleted easily.
Star Wars is basically a B oater (Western) set in space with some interesting special effects. Like most B oaters character development is so-so and the dialog is often cheesy. Too many of the main characters are one dimensional. A good film to see for fun, with the family, or on a date but it is not great cinema. Milking the franchise like the Mouse is trying to do risks alienating the public; each subsequent triad is more or less a repeat of the first 3 with each group having more problems connecting with audiences.
For the goals of the project it has succeeded. It is a viable alternative to Orifice for many both in business, academia, and consumer. Being a viable alternative means LO users are not beholden to the antics of Slurp or whatever imbecilic shakedown scheme the marketing failures cook up this month. So the issue is why to organizations insist on being vulnerable to Slurp's next shakedown scheme.
To me the biggest issues holding back larger scale adoption is the overuse of macros in Orifice (an idea whose time has long passed for security if nothing else) and inertia. Macros create security holes in programs for numerous reasons that are difficult to protect if you are using macro enabled files, this is true of macros in any program. Inertia is the major reason LO is not being adopt more. Most have never evaluated it (or any other option) properly to see if it fits their needs. So they have no idea if LO is viable. They assume it is not viable or that conversion would be too difficult. Most of the scenarios that people claim are killers are not those that regular users do. Typically with any application conversion it is not the regular users but the power users who have the most trouble as power users are using more of the obscure features of the application than regular users
What the idiot fails to realize is the reality of lock in. When you chose an OS you have lock in. When you chose various applications you have lock in. When you chose online services, again you have lock in. Now the issue is how severe is the lock in. Or as a question how easy would it be to migrate to different OS, application, service, etc.? If it is relatively easy then lock in is not a major issue. If there are significant hurdles (such as proprietary file formats) then lock in is a very real problem. So the question becomes not whether one gets locked in to AWS, you do but whether a competent person could migrate to another competitor relatively easily. Now remember one of the problems with any migration is not really lock in but the complexity of the system being migrated. Migrating a complex database (pick the one you like) is not a trivial undertaking even with the weakest lock in.
My personal needs for online services are limited and migrating to another provider would be fairly straightforward as there is nothing complex about my situation. But it would be tedious because of the amount I would need to move. So inertia keeps me put which is a form of lock in; the competing services are not significantly better that it is worth the effort to move. Now I can imagine if someone has a large, complex database with a good bit of infrastructure migrating from or to AWS would be undertaking and it the ROI had better be there. So if you are on AWS or Azure you might not be tied to the service that tightly in a technical sense but in a commercial sense you might be tightly tied; it's just too bloody expensive to move without a compelling reason.
There is a good reason to limit the hardware access from a web site; security. The less a site can directly access the less damage malicious code can cause. One could argue that there is too much access already via the browser to cause mischief so adding more access should be non-starter.
Cross platform code can be written using the JVM and more most applications whatever performance penalty this might incur is probably noticeable to the user. One problem I have seen with a web app is they can be browser dependent and even worse browser version dependent; I see that at work.
In theory a foundation would be neutral and users would be able to govern the project to the benefit of all. But in reality, it is very hard to set up a governance scheme that is not vulnerable to being dominated one major group to the detriment of others. So the question is not whether project X should be under a foundation but whether whoever is running X is doing a reasonable job managing it to the benefit of the wider community. If the project is being run well then I would leave its governance alone. If it is not being run well, why are you using it would be a fair question.
A problem Itsy Bitsy Morons failed to note is, just because something is proposed does not automatically mean it is actually beneficial to the wider community or to the project. And someone has to play the role of BDFL to keep the project on track.
No, not watching it all no matter how or when it is released or what format it is released. If you do not watch it ever you are invulnerable to accidentally getting malware from the version you are watching.
I have not watch any of the Star Wars farces since the first three even when they are free on the idiot box. And almost certainly will not watch the latest farce any time soon if ever.
The major issues that cause unionization are treatment of personal as if they below pond scum, horrendous working conditions (can be excessive hours), and a general lack of ethics in manglement. None these issues have anything to do with benefits per se. In the case of Silly Valley unimportant benefits are often an attempt to cover for the overall sleaziness of the organization.
The basic issue is manglement control. With a union, manglement does not have as much control over the indentured servants and they might have to treat servants something approximating a human being. Well run companies do not really fear unions as they are not likely to gain support of the staff as they are being treated like human beings. But poorly run companies fear unions because the servants are not happy. Also, in a strong economy poorly run companies will often have a very high churn rate because the servants can work for a more reasonable organization.
Union organizing is allowed by feral law and interfering with it can get you in serious feral trouble not withstanding the state law. So if Chocolate Factory is cheating on the union organizing front they could face some serious consequences but more details are needed.
A couple of quick points - 'right to work' means joining the union is obligatory as a condition of employment and 'at will' means one can quit or be let go with minimal warning.
Another one bites the dust in a couple of years. Vulture crapalists are not interested in building the company as that costs money up front. So look for LastPass to wither on the vine and slowly be forgotten as competitors over take them. They will probably linger for awhile until they are executed.
There can be no tool that works for all computing applications. Flutter and other tool kits may make working in a largish area easier as that is what they cover well. But there will always be areas they will not work very well due specific needs in those areas. What Flutter might do is make develop web and generic desktop applications easier, quicker, etc. (no direct experience with Flutter). And this is a large area but it is not all areas. Also, within this area there will be situations were old school methods are still the best.
A comparison is with programming languages. There are many very popular languages. All have a target niche that they are best at and tend to dominate. If you work in one of these niches you might know C and similar languages fluently but a vague idea about JavaScript, Python, C#, or Java.
Developing something inhouse sounds bad but does have several key benefits. One is the design reflects the company's methods and organization. It is tailored to the needs of the company, A very import but overlooked benefit when done right is the business was able to set the detailed requirements and the code fulfills those requirements. A hidden benefit is the inhouse IT staff knows the code and knows what they can do to modify in the future.
Third party 'solutions' often do not fit the company's needs and no amount of 'shimming' or 'tweaking' is going to fix that problem.
To those in the trenches, no. But to the rest, yes. Spoofing by various means is a well known technique to hide one's location or to trick someone to the experts and those who are very aware. But to the general public, they are blissfully ignorant. Even those who are aware may not realize how easy some of the techniques are to use and how difficult they are to trace back to the originator.
The issue with the administrative state is not that it exists, it always has existed from day one. But whether America's Native Criminal Class has given them too much leeway with some of the very broad laws that have been passed. But this is not the fundamental issue here. The issue is Leisure Suit Larry and His Minions are unethical scum who are generally skirting the edge of the law and often crossover into illegal activities. The basic law is very clear, people with in the same jobs with similar experience should be paid the same. What the Minions have been accused of is not even trying to obey either the spirit or letter of the law.
Other than devices physically wearing out to the point it is easier to replace than fix there is no real pressure to get new kit for anyone. Once businesses figure out their refresh rate can stretch out more the last bastion of major sales will slow down. Nothing really surprising. And this is a problem all devices face, no real need to replace older kit to run the latest and greatest for most. So older devices can continue to soldier on for a couple more years before being replaced. Dell, et. al. might claim it is due to various other factors which might be partially true but it ignores the elephant in the room, there is no technical need for most kit to be upgraded because of some software being used.
"Everyday AI has the approximate intelligence of an earthworm" gives too much credit to the intelligence of AI. Artificial Idiocy has an intelligence below that of a rock. The real problem with AI systems is their excessive complexity which means no one can fully follow how you went from A to B let alone to C.
I doubt the excuse given is true. From what I have seen about criminal cases, either you have a pretty solid forensic case or you don't. If you have solids forensic case it does not suddenly weaken with time unless you are incompetent such as you lost all traces of the test results or your lab 'dry labbed' the results (aka faked them). Now if they had a weak forensic case they were relying on a confession to get a conviction. However, if the interview is done incorrectly the 'confession' can be challenged as being forced under duress. The movie 'Boomerang' was based on 1920's murder case were there was a forced confession and other shaky evidence. The DA in this case took 90 minutes in court to outline why he refused to prosecute the defendant, indicating the defendant was innocent.
My experience with most shysters is they have no interest or real understanding of technology. Thus they are easily dazzled by bs when it comes to technology. Couple this with the average of the Nine Seniles is up there and you have a recipe for not having a clue as to what the case is really about. The only reason this case has been alive is because the trial judge actually has a strong interest in computers and programming and could grasp what the real issue of the case is; a sleazy money grab by Larry's Minions.
I am not sure what the security angle is here for not hiring Chinese and Russians. Looking at their website they are similar to Github and thus not writing code for the client. Presumably the customer's code is encrypted so prying eyes cannot get it without permission. Customer information accessible to staff seems to be primarily billing information, again information that should be encrypted with proper permissions set.
Just how often is this idea going to be useful? First most people have limited skills on Orifice and this appears to be beyond their skill set and pay grade. Also, just how many documents need this kind of interactive editing. Again, in some areas were document control is important can one follow the versions correctly and make sure those who need the current version have the correct version. What Slurp is overlooking is there are many who need a stable version for their part of a project but will not be involved in any editing of the document. For my group we do not edit documents but need the current, stable version of it to do our work. Allowing every mindless idiot to update the document could create havoc as we would not know what is correct and what is still currently being revised.
What I see is two semi-marginal companies whose glory days are well behind them being combined to make a marginally larger semi-marginal company. It is not as if they are no others in their industries to choose from that if either or both disappeared there would be great angst in the world.
Why would I want to use Chromium based Edge over any of the other siblings such as Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera, or Brave (list not exhaustive) that are already available or Chromium itself? Slurp's marketing weasels will have a 'dog-and-pony' show telling how great Edge is when it is basically a me-too browser possibly with a couple meh 'features' not in the others.
Why is software even patentable? Basically software encodes real world processes and models so they can be on a computer rather than on paper. The common side benefit of doing it on a computer is can eliminate many errors that occur with paper processes and models though this requires testing to validate the software. So you are either patenting a paper process or a mathematical model, neither of which really meet the primary requirement for a patent.
Not really, it's PHBs being unwilling to update the code as needed. The properly update the code would probably require spending some serious coin to migrate to a more modern (browser agnostic) framework. Coin the PHBs do not want to spend as long as Imbecile Explorer sort of works on the web site. Slurp has even said Imbecile Explorer should be ditched if you have any functioning grey matter.
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