Posts by Doctor Syntax

Re: Hands On

"There is no substitute for standing next to the box and prodding it."

Assuming prodding may involve the use of hammers. Large adjustable spanners may be substituted if you find yourself suddenly hammerless.

Re: Hey Rob!

In the past I've had two Subarus throw up apparent engine problems. Checking the error log shows ECU cannot regulate engine speed. Problem - regular enough to be Googlable - faulty switch reporting it's in neutral when it isn't so ECU tries to set idle speed. Current car has so far had two wheel sensors replaced. Vehicles are increasingly dependent on electronics and the sensors that feed them; those sensors need to be a good deal more reliable than they are, otherwise it's GIGO.

Re: Hands On (and Eyes On Too)

Experience says regular further upgrades will be needed.

Re: X330 FTW!

"I will have use a laptop made in 2012 for the rest of my life"

As your eyes age you might have to revisit that. The size of the screen becomes the most important parameter. 12.5" isn't going to cut it for ever.

Re: until the last device stops working, and how would they know?

It's not phones. It's IoT.

Re: How will it work?

"2) You move the goal posts and say it si the sellers responsibility to ensure the IoT toy complies - How many of these sellers will even be aware of the requirements? How can they in turn force the company to implement proper security at point of manufacture?"

No moving of goalposts required for this. The Bill makes it an offence to import or distribute the product. From the point of an individual country it doesn't matter if the tat-makers keep making tat if it isn't imported. Globally, if enough markets enact such provisions then the tat-makers have the options of dealing with shrinking markets or complying.

The fly in the ointment here is that the likes of Amazon Marletplace & eBay seem to be given an out in that they're neither importers nor distributors - if all else fails section 55(11) seems to excuse them. What's missing is recognition of a role of gatekeeper. If it becomes expensive for them to allow non-compliant devices to be sold via their services then they will no doubt close the gates PDQ.

Re: Online Souks

The PDF of the Bill is back online. It seems that the Sec of State has the powers to deem products to be relevant which future-proofs it against as yet undeveloped products.

The bad news is that as far as I can see the likes of Amazon other than as a direct seller, eBay and the like escape. Even if there was an attempt to treat them as importers or distributors it looks as if 55(11) gives them the option to plead that they're "ostensible suppliers" and not the "effective suppliers" who are the relevant persons within the meaning of the Bill.

Re: Online Souks

It certainly needs to be drafted to include online market places in those who can be fined. The "fact sheet" ( https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-product-security-and-telecommunications-infrastructure-psti-bill-product-security-factsheet ) is detailed about the sorts of devices covered but vague about who will be held responsible. It also seems to be handing over enforcement to the Dept. of Culture Media. Perhaps a beefed up Trading Standards service would have been better: we could certainly do with it being strengthened even without this.

"the reviewer system isn't the answer either"

Eventually the community decides on reputation. What deserves to be cited multiple times gets cited multiple times although not necessarily for the reasons the author might have wanted.

Re: Career development disguised as science

Software can be one of the tools of the scientist's trade. If it is then there's no reason why the skills to write it shouldn't be learned to a suitably proficient standard. If you use microscopy you need to know how to set up the microscope. If you need some piece of S/W that doesn't exist you need to know how to write something that isn't a tangled mess.

Having said that it doesn't follow that everyone has the appropriate talent; over 50 years ago it was decided that ?everyone in our lab would go on a FORTRAN course. (Oddly enough SWMBO didn't, nor did our head of lab who sent the rest of us.) One of the research students who went on the course alongside me got back to the lab and proceeded to demonstrate that you can write a BASIC program in any language.

It also doesn't follow that a complex piece of S/W will be within the capabilities of a beginner. That's where experience comes into play but that applies whether it's someone writing S/W for a living or as a tool of some other trade. It may also be necessary to consult someone who is a professional developer just as it may be necessary to consult someone who's a professional statistician to get the analysis right.

Re: Making the world a better place?

If their leaders (perhaps "keepers" would have been a better word) are already prepared to prevent those of the people who can read English from reading Stephen Fry's tweets then whatever we do would make little difference it that regard. It would, however, stop incursions from their side.

Unfortunately this sort of action wasn't taken years ago to nip the whole thing in the bud.

Re: a state run by mafia

It seems that countries can maintain stable cultures over long periods. The only real change from Czarist Russia is who's at the top.

Re: Rust language community

"it's traditional software development from which the element of direct remuneration has largely been removed."

Except when it's either a corporation developing it deliberately as open source and paying people to do it or co-development by multiple corporates who pay people to work on it. Rust seems to have started out as the first and become the second. AFAICS your description doesn't apply to Rust nor to many (maybe any) large, successful open source project.

Re: Torvalds Checks+Balances

I believe the heir apparent is Greg K-H.

It seems a bit basic to me.

Re: Those who can, code.

They then need to form another team to discuss the discussion team. Form enough of those & there should be enough teams to keep everyone off the core team's back.

Re: No one really knows publicly

After scanning a good chunk of that it seems that "nobody knows why" is as good a summary as any. Maybe there's a good explanation buried in there somewhere but I'd have lost the will to live before finding it.

Re: Or the job is literally impossible

Or maybe it's a non-job, possibly created to try to placate the usual professional offence seekers.

Re: Sounds like the team

Do it properly: sand blasting, a hot zinc dip and powder coating. The moderators can do busy work deciding on the colour.

Orifice 356* includes ERP?

*Approximately

Re: Mint

"Germans being Germans they'll most likely choose a home-made distro, to support their own industry."

SuSE with KDE, then.

Re: uSwitch?

In other words, you can't get any form of support from the developers, but you can pay someone for some help.

One of those in the list is Collabora who do most of the development.

Try again?

Re: uSwitch?

the "General Input/Output Error" bug in LO

There must be something wrong with my LO skills as I'm not able to reproduce it.

Re: Windows 11

I cut my teeth on Unix. DCL seemed --- weird?

Each to his own.

Re: uSwitch?

"This sort of change isn't going to be a problem unless someone is very determined to make it a problem."

That seems to have been the problem in Munich.

Re: Not saving money?

as soon as they were ready to use something else

And that getting ready would involve a lot of running around in blue-arsed fly mode. Far better to be there ahead of time.

people would switch somewhat quickly

See above.

many of them having jumped ship long before that

See above. It's unlikely that MS would actually make the moves drastically enough to make the ship-jumping moment noticeable. The trick would be to do it sufficiently slowly that there's no single point at which it would be easy to say "That's too much".

In fact, from what I read the push towards subscriptions is well under way. The frog's water is already aired.