* Posts by a_yank_lurker

4139 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2013

Over a decade on, and millions in legal fees, Supreme Court rules for Google over Oracle in Java API legal war

a_yank_lurker

Minions Finally Lose

Did Hell freeze over? I thought they would rule for the Minions and Leisure Suit Larry would get another island.

Turns out humans are leading AI systems astray because we can't agree on labeling

a_yank_lurker

Languages

Human languages are not exactly the most precise in many ways. Anyone who has ever done any translation knows the imprecision in the source makes an accurate translation difficult at time. Also, context is very important as to how something should be interpreted. This nuance makes Artificial Idiocy not Artificial Intelligence the likely outcome of these systems.

I would like know how these idiot systems would handle the phrase 'While you've a lucifer to light your fag' from the WWI song 'Pack Up Troubles in Your Kit Bag'.

Long-running age discrimination case against IBM enters discovery, as judge trims off some claims

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Resistance to Change

As someone who has officially been declared senile by Feraldom I think I have learned something about changes. Overall they lead to better lives but not all changes are are good. In fact some are outright bad. Also, most good changes have problems associated with them. So my wariness to a new idea may be two-fold. One it might be a repackaging some idea from the past that is either obsolete or is still stupidly bad. Two it might be legitimately new but often the problems with it are not obvious and it takes some marination for the problems to become apparent.

An example is a smartphone. Overall they are net positive for the user. Very flexible, powerful devices that are extremely portable. The apps extend its functionality to make them truly a necessity. However they do allow unethical data slurping along with other issues. On balance I would rather have a smartphone than a landline; in fact I do not have a landline.

Manglement at Itty Bitty Morons thinks any reasonable objection based on experience is a Luddite refusing to change when it is experience saying look into it a little more before pulling the trigger.

Cryptic US Strategic Command tweet reveals dangers of working from home with kids in the way

a_yank_lurker

Kids - Amateurs

Now if you really want to have a mess let your cats at the keyboard. They do not care if you are using it when they walk over it.

Deloitte settled HPE's Autonomy lawsuit for $45m back in 2016 and agreed to cooperate with US DoJ

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Re: Smells bad

Deloitte paid off HPE to go away and the chump change indicates that. The claim the books were fraudulent does not really pass the smell test as the main point of an audit is whether the company is a viable and profitable business and the announced numbers are correct. It is does check that the numbers are put in the correct places as best as anyone can tell. These details are important but often not critical to the overall health of a company. In fact they may be more important for management to monitor internal costs and pro-rata profits.

One point is the HP CFO said no to the purchase. She apparently looked carefully at the numbers and saw something she did not like. It does not matter what she saw but that she looked at the information she had available. I suspect a good bit of her analysis was looking at publicly released financial reports plus whatever KPMG told her.

Everything you need to know about the HPE v Mike Lynch High Court case

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Re: Why so pro-Autonomy?

It's not so much pro Autonomy but that HP manglement was so bad for years before that many independent observers do not truly believe manglement's claims (aka lies). Leo, some galaxy is missing their idiot, was one of the worst and would have dumb something else equally as idiotic if the Autonomy deal fell through. His own CFO said it was bad deal and not to do it.

Whether Lynch, et. al. violated some arcane bean counter rules is an issue most of us are not knowledgeable enough to comment (nor are any of the courts either). But it is probably not relevant other than it might provide a lifeline for HPE to survive a few more years.

'Agile' F-35 fighter software dev techniques failed to speed up supersonic jet deliveries

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UnAgile

Too many forget that you need to think seriously and actually have a solid idea before having code wranglers at a project. I have some nominally 'agile' projects come past me with virtually no specifications were someone has thought through the scenarios and have a general idea of how they should be handled. It makes for code that is impossible to properly maintain when it is found out that major use cases were never considered in the design given to the programmers. Use cases never considered by the programmers because they did not know about them.

Agile does not mean there are not design documents and preplanning but that groups are in contact with each other throughout the process. Issues are dealt with as they arise not after the fact.

Thousands of taxpayers' personal details potentially exposed online through councils' debt-chasing texts

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Re: Taking it very seriously

Unfortunately it would probably take about dozen public executions of C-suite or equivalent failures to get people's attention. Then they might take it seriously as their hide is on the line.

Microsoft nudges Windows 10 21H1 toward commercial customers

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Re: Wish list

I would settle for no new features for a couple years and fixing the Bloatware as a Disservice. The latest fiasco shows the Rejects of Redmond have a long, long, long way to go before BaaD can be called mediocre.

California bans website 'dark patterns', confusing language when opting out of having your personal info sold

a_yank_lurker

Re: Confusing Language

They too unethical to be in used-car sales. Used-car lots usually give a car with a valid title even if it is falling apart.

a_yank_lurker

Ready, Shot, Aim - It's My Foot

Privacy rules and laws have come about because many companies have abused their power to detriment of users. They may win this round. As the more become aware of the absolutely despicable of many in Silly Valley and those that ape them they risk getting much worse later. But manglement is not often known for competence, intelligence, and long term planning.

Microsoft fixes the thing it broke via another dose of out-of-band patching to deal with BSOD printing problems

a_yank_lurker

Re: Permanent BETA software

Agile has become a set of procedures not a philosophy. Agile the philosophy makes sense. All those involved have a say during the development of a product. The development is steered by a group of stake holders so issues can be addressed and caught early while everything is relatively fresh on everyone's minds. As a philosophy, you have formal and informal meetings to hammer out details so the various groups can move forward. It is not about being faster a goal but making sure the end product is suitable for the users when it is released. It may be faster because of the continuous discussions going on during development reduces rework and ensures more timely feedback as the project develops.

Agile the Procedure is more focused on following a set of procedures such as 2 week sprints, 'scrums', 'stand up meetings', etc. These procedures often do not fit the requirements of the project as you are paying more attention to a procedure than the intent of the procedures. BTW I think the idiot who decided to use the term 'scrum' deserve a special place in Hell for their complete misunderstanding what a rugby scrum is.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Permanent BETA software

BETA? I think you are a bit generous. I am not sure it reaches ALPHA status.

'Business folk often don't understand what developers do...' Twilio boss on the chasm that holds companies back

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Manglement vs Management

My experience with manglement vs management is a manager understands in general what the troops are doing and why they are doing it. Also management understands how the various groups have to work together for the company to be successful. This does not mean they have a deep, detailed knowledge of each area. They are willing to form ad hoc teams when necessary to attack problems. Also, they understand the grunts have learned quite a bit of internal knowledge that a new hire does not know. So they are slower to get rid of staff if they can see a way not to lower the head count. Manglement always fails at least one of these, usually several, and sometimes all.

When the pandemic hit, my company announced they were going to keep all the staff as they watched the pennies very carefully. No one was let go because of the pandemic, in fact the company has been hiring during the pandemic as the head count actually increased. While it may seem unimportant, the company did not lose any significant internal knowledge and moral seemed to stay fairly high has one worry was removed from all of us. Manglement would had a series of layoffs so they could make the profit numbers. Our profit numbers, while down some, were actually pretty good overall for 2020.

Google and Microsoft's public squabble over who's the worst is giving us life right now, not gonna lie

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Slime vs Sewage

The Rejects of Redmond are showing their sliminess about Chocolate Factory's sewage. The stench is pretty bad from both. Both are ignoring one of the issues affecting journalism which has nothing to do with ad revenue. Many journalist sites are not worth a regular visit as their content is mostly trash; it's the rare story that is important to warrant a visit. Important stories are often covered by many sites.

A Code War has replaced The Cold War. And right now we’re losing it

a_yank_lurker

Re: Yet another uncomfortable truth

As someone trained in other STEM fields now in IT, it is not being 'self-trained' that is the actual problem. Any junior programmer will need training on proper security techniques needed for the applications they are working on. This is not likely to be covered in any real depth in their course work.

One major difference between software engineering is personal, professional liability requirements as evidenced by PE licenses. The requirements in Feraldom are generally an appropriate STEM degree, pass the 'Engineer In Training' test, work for several under the direct supervision of a PE, pass the 'Professional Engineer' test. The PE is only one who has the legal authority to certify the work meets all the standards and legal requirements and the project con proceed. As a non-PE, I can only work below one who would be supervising my work. The PE is personally and professionally liable for anything approved. There is no equivalent in software of a PE.

Customer comment and contributions no more as Microsoft pulls the plug on Office 365 UserVoice forum

a_yank_lurker

Customer Manglement

Given the Rejects of Redmond have a hate-love relationship with their customers I am not surprised they pulled the plug on a customer feedback mechanism. They hate customers but love their money.

Hacked LinkedIn post puts further pressure on Salesforce over attitudes to race in the workplace

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Re: More hyperbole?

Yes we live world where all accusations are accepted uncritically especially if they fit someone's narrative. But Silly Valley and its imitators has a well documented serious problem with toxic work places. This makes the allegations, while suspicious in their breadth, somewhat believable as they sort of fit the known pattern of Silly Valley toxic work places.

Flagship Chinese chipmaker collapses before it makes a single chip or opens a factory

a_yank_lurker

Re: More to this than meets the eye

There is a period when an industrializing economy makes cheap garbage. Japan and Korea went through that phase. I remember reading an article about 30 years ago when Korea was emerging. A Korean business leader noted that Korea could not continue to manufacture cheap goods but had to at that time transition to making competitive world class goods. There is always someone in the world who has the cheap labor to be on the bottom.

Perl.com theft blamed on social engineering attack: Registrar 'convinced' to alter DNS records by miscreants

a_yank_lurker

Or is it 1899?

Digital trust-busting time? US lawmakers mull how to tame giga-corps Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook

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Targets

Chocolate Factory and Fraudbook are probably in the worst shape to defend against anti-trust actions and a generally tightening of the law. Their size and market dominance makes launching a competitor problematic, which is one of the factors needed to successfully win an anti-trust case. Twatter is another which rather vulnerable though I think they would be a later target.

Fruit and Amazon would likely face narrower attacks. Their dominance is not as pronounced in the their overall market sector. While Amazon is the e-commerce behemoth, it does face increasing competition from intelligently run B&M retailers. Companies like Wally World and Target do have the resources to build up their e-commerce capabilities. Fruit is not a dominant supplier overall in any device segment. The primary issue with them seems to be with how they run app stores and the inability to side load apps on a phone.

Stop us if you've heard this one before: Microsoft to lure users with industry-specific solutions in the cloud

a_yank_lurker

Hmm

I have long been wary of a vendor who says their 'industry specific solution' is all that useful for a specific company in that industry. While there common situations in a sector each company, for competitive, reasons will do similar activities somewhat differently than their competitors. Unless the 'industry specific solution' is very customizable it forces a straight jacket on the customer. But making the 'solution' customizable goes against the idea of an 'industry specific solution'.

Microsoft president asks Congress to force private-sector orgs to admit when they've been hacked

a_yank_lurker

Re: A team of 1000.

6 to 10 competent engineers for anyone else but for the Rejects of Redmond it probably takes a 1000 of their staff to find 5 or 6 semi competent engineers /<snark>

Linux Mint users in hot water for being slow with security updates, running old versions

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Updating

Generally I keep systems updated. Those in daily use are current while those connected to the internet but used irregularly are updated when fired up. The only system not updated is an offline Windows system kept around for a couple of applications Swambo might occasionally use, emphasis on occasionally.

Forget GameStop: Keyboard warriors and electronic trading have never mixed well

a_yank_lurker

Re: Ignisecond, n.:

I knew a few of the RCA lab staffers as a kid. too many needed help finding their desks.

Ex-American football player attempts to breathe life into failed lawsuit claiming Gears of War used his likeness

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Re: Legal Thicket

Depending on the country you may need a model release for some street photography if the person is identifiable; check with a local attorney who is knowledgeable about local privacy laws. What is legal in Feraldom is often not legal in other countries. But likenesses of public figures (an athlete usually qualifies) will often need a model release for commercial purposes.

a_yank_lurker

Legal Thicket

The article brings up a legal thicket about using anyone's likeness for commercial purposes. In many situations if you intend to use an image commercially you should have a signed model release allowing you to do so.

UK Supreme Court declares Uber drivers are workers, not self-employed: Ride biz's legal battle ends in a crash

a_yank_lurker

UK vs Feraldom

Over here Uber and others get away with classifying workers as contractors because at the Feral level labor law is weak and at the state level it is even worse. A couple of states have essentially abolished any contractors (California most notably) while most of the others haven't done anything significant on this. Apparently UK labor law has stricter definition of contractor than over here. Uber's stupidity is assuming other countries' labor laws mirror those over here. This arrogance is fairly typical of these companies as they ignore national differences in applicable laws.

The chips are down. We need your support, semiconductor industry tells US President Biden

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Maybe

I have my doubts about the need for the spending as it is not clear how it would help the US. Also, I am suspicious of industries asking for handouts 'just because'. But I have real doubts that our 'Fearful Leader' will support this and his policy is more pro CCP than the Orange Man.

Huawei loses attempt to rescue CFO Meng from US clutches despite using 140-year-old law in High Court

a_yank_lurker

Re: So if I've understood this right

Once in Feraldom, the DOJ under Brady is supposed to share their evidence with the defense team. But we know that DOJ often 'loses' key evidence so it is not turned over.

British govt emits fuzzy vision for UK version of American boffin special forces group Darpa

a_yank_lurker

A bit late?

DARPA has been around for 60+ years now and has been behind many things we take for granted now. They have had plenty of practice. The whole idea is to have a group exploring technical and scientific fringes that would be useful to the military, the government, and the citizens in that order. I am surprised other countries do not do the same at may be a smaller scale.

Citibank accidentally wired $500m back to lenders in user-interface super-gaffe – and judge says it can't be undone

a_yank_lurker

Re: Interesting legal argument there....

The payees were owed the money from the bank's client. So X instead of Y showing up in the payee's account were X is the full balance would not necessarily be questioned by the payee's staff at least immediately. So the error was not the payee got money not due to them (the error most are talking about) but one were loan was paid off versus an interest payment. The nuance of the ruling is the payee was owed the money but the bank screwed up and paid off the loan instead of the interest payment. The other situation is people are talking about is the payee is not owed the money though they got it in error. In this case, the bank usually can get the money back if they ask for it in a timely manner (see the local law on this point) as it is not really the payee's money.

Big Tech workers prefer 3 days at home, 2 in the office. We ask Reg readers: What's your home-office balance?

a_yank_lurker

Situational

WFH works reasonably well for some who either are not customer facing, need to work directly with equipment, etc. There are numerous scenarios which require a daily visit to the office. WFH often saves money and is often more convenient. However, management has to support the idea for employees should have a more or less fixed schedule; it does not have to be the same for everyone.

President Biden to issue executive order on chip shortages as under-pressure silicon world begs for help

a_yank_lurker

Re: To little - far too late

If the Ferals wish to spend the money they could build up the US fab industry but it will require many years much like the Apollo program to do. I doubt they have willingness to make that kind of effort.

New Jersey blames Microsoft for weeks of outages, glitches plaguing coronavirus vaccine sign-up website

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Pot Meet Kettle

For those who have never had the misfortune of living in 'Jersey' as it is called over here it is notoriously one of the most corrupt states over here. So to hear them complaining sounds like they are mad that the Rejects of Redmond did not pay them off and thus dragged their feet. When was living in 'Jersey' is a regular occurrence for state officials to be indicted and convicted of corruption. So if someone is a 'Jersey' politician the issue is not whether they are corrupt but whether they will be convicted.

Manhunt: 'Armed and dangerous' MIT AI scientist sought by cops probing grad student's gun murder

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US Marshals

He is being hunted by the US Marshals (they still exist) and was reported to be in the Atlanta area at the time of the post.

Microsoft's underwhelming, underpowered dual-screen Surface Duo phone arrives in the UK this month for £1,349

a_yank_lurker

Target Audience?

Who is this targeted at? It seems many tech are released to show off it can be done not whether it makes any real sense for any real users. This sounds like one of those products.

Phishing awareness gone wrong: Facebook tries to seize websites set up for staff security training

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Cybersquatting anyone?

Cybersquatting is a real problem and training people to pay attention to what they type and the site itself is a good idea.

Better buckle up: Volkswagen puts Microsoft in driver's seat to deliver 'automated' platform

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2 Losers in Autonomous Vehicles

Why would anyone consider a vehicle from these 2 also rans?

Microsoft Patch Tuesday gaffe leads netizens to 'Microosft' typo-squatting domain

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How apt given we're about to go over Redmond's programming blunders.

Typos or incompetence? My money is on the latter.

CD Projekt Red 'EPICALLY pwned': Cyberpunk 2077 dev publishes ransom note after company systems encrypted

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Re: Air-gap

Air gapping sensitive information is an idiotic solution in most cases as it means the company should just shut down as it would be impossible to conduct any business with customers. To much business is conducted online today for isolation to be remotely effective.

How do we combat mass global misinformation? How about making the internet a little harder to use

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Judgement

Being awash in false narratives and other lies is nothing new. In the old days, they spread slower but they were harder to debunk as it was often very hard to get access to the correct information. Newspapers having been spreading lies (see yellow journalism) for decades interspersed with an occasionally accurate article. Today the problem is the speed the lies come at you. If you have good search skills (most do not), it is often easy to the lies if you have the time. Otherwise the key skill is critical thinking which is often not taught in school and I am uncertain if it was ever really taught.

Windows' cloudy future: That Chrome OS advantage is Google's to lose

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Re: Apples and oranges

Analysis largely true. I would add that for many users a Chromebooks is a better device for them than any 'normal' laptop OS. And for another chunk, a Chromebook is a better secondary device than said laptop. Particularly at the price point you can get a Chromebook.

Depending on what you need the device you need ranges from a phone to possibly a beast of a desktop. It is really a matter of finding the device best suited to your needs.

Accused murderer wins right to check source code of DNA testing kit used by police

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Re: Blackstone's Dictum

Depending on the bugs found the defense could have the case tossed by the judge. Also, a good defense attorney knows that all that is needed is prove the DA's evidence does not meet the standard for conviction 'Beyond a reasonable doubt'. So if the analysis says the error rates for the code is too high the reliability of the analysis can be challenged. Either the DA uses a more credible analysis or they have to drop charges if they want to have a chance of conviction at a later date.

In my mind, especially as programmer, the antics of the company are enough for me to have a reasonable doubt about the quality of the code. Of course, this might not come out a trial.

a_yank_lurker

Blackstone's Dictum

An eminent 18th English judge, William Blackstone, noted it is better for the guilty to go free than for the innocent to be convicted. It seems like DA's aka state funded shysters need to learn some ethics and morals. The issue is whether the actual analysis by the code is done correctly and reliably. A claims to trade secret, etc. to me is a smokescreen say the code is garbage. Also, I believe any code used in a court case must be effectively open source for experts to review as needed.

Musk see: Watch SpaceX's latest Starship rocket explode while trying to touch down

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Not Unexpected

Problems with the rockets are not unexpected especially when doing something relatively new. The key is identifying and fixing the problem which his Muskiness seems to be willing to do.

Microsoft backs Australia’s pay-for-news plan, risks massive blowback over a lousy $3bn and change

a_yank_lurker

Long Game

The Rejects of Redmond are playing a long game here. If the Aussie plan goes through and Chocolate Factory leaves it hurts Chocolate Factory more strategically than the financial costs of revenue sharing does the Rejects. The goal is to make Chocolate Factory look arrogant and petulant while looking reasonable by working with Canberra on the legislation.

The effect on Suckerberg is more indirect as either .au news sites are blockaded or they pay up. Either way the Rejects win. Suckerberg either looks like petulant brat or he has to pay up.

The Rejects are not terribly dependent on Bling for revenue so it being slightly less profitable does not really hurt their bottom line. It actually might be a rounding error. So for the cost of a rounding error they stand to look good. This is because the Rejects are primarily a software and cloudy house whose revenue is not derived from advertising but what is essentially software rental. Suckerberg and the Chocolate Factory are more highly dependent on ad revenue so any sharing is more apt to affect their net profits.

Accused of underpaying or snubbing women and Asian techies, Google spends pocket change to make it all go away

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Cheap

There needs to be about 2 or 3 more 0s on the fine. Then it will get companies attention; otherwise the fine is chump change.

The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software goes offline for good

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A Blast From the Past

Truthfully, I had forgotten about the download site as I have not used it for at least 6 or 7 years now. RIP, old friend.

Smartphones are becoming like white goods, says analyst, with users only upgrading when their handsets break

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New Features

Bargain basement smartphones have all the features users want. Other than photo and video, they are just as capable as their more expensive brethren at the core functions of a phone (phone calling and texting). They may lack the horsepower to run something Orifice well (memory and cpu limitations mostly). But if you are not running something like Orifice on your phone there is no pressing need to update your phone when new ones are released. And in some cases a mid range phone may have enough horsepower to run something like Orifice.

The high end phones are (over)sold based on their photo and video capabilities. Physics basically limits the photo and video capabilities for 2 reasons. The lens are fixed focal length. The sensors are very small. Both force the phone manufacturers to rely on more processing to make up for optical deficiencies of the camera which usually does a very acceptable job. So the phones need more horsepower for efficient optical processing.