Posts by Doctor Syntax

If you find something that old it's very likely driving some extremely expensive diagnostic machine which isn't going to be replaced any time soon and whose manufacturer has disappeared or never got the system re-qualified on a later version. Possibly it relies on an ISA interface card with not more recent alternative available. It's not organisation that matters, it's money.

Re: Easy to miss something trivial

The difference between Shift and Ctrl is that with Shift the action, or the result of it, is visible. This is especially true when using a typewriter so Shoft and Lock will require no thought whatsoever to someone who started out on typewriters. Ctrl characters are not necessarily so and operate on a different level in the user's perception. Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Z etc. might result is a visible change, Ctrl-C has no immediately obvious result (assuming the context means copy).

Re: Everybody knows...

“Are you sure” questions are daft.

Not if it saves you from the "Oh shit!" moment when you realise you've clicked the wrong button and what you've done is irreversible. They should, of course, be saved for such situations and accompanied by a clear statement of what it is you're about to confirm.

"At least I got a chance to visit the city on the customer's dime"

Chargeable to the customer and not part of an overall support contract charge? I'll bet their accounts were pleased!

Re: Easy to miss something trivial

As it's hard to press them simultaneously there's a 50% chance that C will be pressed fractionally first so that Ctrl has no effect. Tricky stuff, getting instructions right.

Re: Two types of workers

The checklist will inevitably be packed first with the equipment on top of it. Try as you might, you can't beat the warehouse staff.

Re: Male vs Female

"But sir, mine isn't threaded."

So if it's in use what do you tell them? That it isn't?

The system provided information. Using that information requires knowledge. Ensuring that the users have the appropriate knowledge needs wisdom. Until Eric appeared on the scene the last two were absent.

The correct response to the information might depend on circumstances. In some the sessions in use might all be required by staff not immediately present and logging one out strictly against the rules. In this case the correct response was to log one out. It should be the management's role to ensure the user knew what to do and what not to do. It would certainly not be the developer's to either second guess the situation nor to go over their core budget writing an effusive essay.

Let me give you the fuller quottion: "The past is another country. They do things differently there."

It's worth remembering that this story involves systems going back to the late '50s. At that time memory was hideously expensive and mainframes had very little of it. The programmer (or analyst - the programmer might not have had to provide the text) would have had an overall budget for memory and none of it to spare to substitute for user training. Wasting 8 bytes to say "Session A in use" might have resulted in a bawling out.

The past is another country.

Re: Easy to miss something trivial

They weren't looking for the AND key?

Re: Everybody knows...

"Could this be mis-interpreted?"

Of course it can be misinterpreted. There's always somebody to misinterpret anything.

I think there's a difference between some software being released to the public and something provided by a company for its employees to use as part of their job. One hopes the user had been trained in other aspects of booking a flight. She should have been trained to understand any routine aspect of it and this appears to have been routine.

Training- exactly. This wasn't a lay person. This was an employee who had been provided with a tool to use for her work. This was the tool behaving exacrtly as its user should have expected. She should have been trained to use it. Maybe a test after a week or so to see if the training had stuck.

Re: VMs?

If Dabsy's job is teaching b0rkenware that would put him out of work.

Re: VMs?

Or he realised it was better to keep his head down in future.

Re: Cynical

The results are all from anything from 5 to 20 years old and deal with 8 similar but not identical problems with 4 long outdated versions of the software.

Re: Software Demos

They don't have to say "We're not going to use it.". They just have to not say "We'll buy it.".

Whoosh.

Re: VMs?

It wasn't always lawyers, teachers and accountants responsible. Sometimes it was (allegedly) trained developers. This untrained developer has had to sort them out or live with them.

Re: I have no answers. I'm not sure there are any. It's probably too late.

(4) What to do with the existing heap of dross that's still sitting there running important stuff? Can't afford to chuck it and it will last for ever if nobody's got the time to fix it.

Re: VMs?

"At the next sprint, I told one of my colleagues that I'm going to fix it."

The PHB didn't demand that it be fixed? Or maybe he was mysteriously absent.

Re: VMs?

"the kids who graduated Uni/College and got into the corporate computer and networking world back when computers started becoming ubiquitous on desktops all over the corporate world are now roughly in their mid 50s. ... In their minds (and the generations following) it's supposed to be shoddy code,"

True in a general way but there were still some big systems around and no doubt some of the new graduates became familiar with them. And as you and I both know there was Unix continuing through all that.

It wasn't all flawless in the past. I had one card compilation run that didn't - a new version of the system library had gone in that morning and it wouldn't link. It was reverted the same day, of course.

Re: Sod's Law

You forgot W10 updating. Yes, I've seen that. Archaeologist demonstrating surveying equipment in a University foyer. There must have been an open WiFi point so his laptop latched on and went for it.

Re: That joke is international

Do you also have the one about asking the milkmaid the time?

Re: Can of worms

"you are covered by the firms insurance"

So the insurer's weasels deal with it.

"Travelling as day-to-day commuting. At least in my case."

So if you decide to move much further away where housing is cheaper your employer will pay the extra travelling cost you can live more cheaply?

"it can't be beyond the wit or ability of the transport networks "

Optimist!

Where?

As Simon has said, and I've said above, this is most definitely not the norm in the UK and would be taxable if it were paid for.

"Day to day commutes are compensated...If these rights are embedded in legislation, there is no can of worms to open."

In what legislation? This would certainly not be the case in the UK (if commuting costs to a regular place of work were covered it would be taxable*) and as far as I know not in the US. If this were to lead to WFH to be withdrawn by employers there might be people looking out for this guy and wielding attitude adjustment tools.

* Another can of worms for freelancers.

"the cheapest powered shite they could find"

My opinion of all coffee.

As somebody posted above, don't make the mistake of assuming that the way things work where you are applies everywhere.

Travelling as day-to-day commuting or travelling from base (home or office as appropriate) to some other work site?

As regards commuting costs, I'd reckon trading those for household expenses a definite win for working at home. This guy is opening a can of worms.

Re: Its a hardware problem...

Or just ignoring them. If it doesn't support the top manglement's group think anything that's said is just random sound devoid of meaning.

Re: harry up. drug dealers are waiting

Or, in this case, your foot.

Re: Spot On

They'll only ever believe they're working of they can seen them sitting in the office.

"a thermostat on each radiator, end off. I first time encountered a central thermostat in the UK and wondered how that would play with the radiator mounted ones"

We have radiator thermostats but also a central programmable thermostat/timer. It allows the heating to be cut back at certain times of day to override the radiator stats. As it's not networked it cuts out the IoT crap.

Re: "The problem with IoT devices is that consumers tend to treat them as appliances."

Extra points if you can find a neighbour's open SID.

Re: "The problem with IoT devices is that consumers tend to treat them as appliances."

Our electricity company seem equally confused in relation to allegedly smart meters.