Posts by Doctor Syntax

I get updates coming through regularly (today, so far, they've been about sound) but having to reboot to install them is very rare. Just as well, as I use Linux and don't have the simple, intuitive solution of "open RegEdit.

Browse to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings

Change PauseFeatureUpdatesEndTime, PauseQualityUpdatesEndTime, and PauseUpdatesExpiryTime to a future time of your choosing."

"I'd like MS to spend some time focusing purely on the user experience"

User interfaces on software in general have gone downhill ever since developers marketroids started focussing on "user experience". The more they focus the worse it gets.

"User experience" is shorthand for breaking what works. Interface, including user interface, is shorthand for presenting a consistent view of a mechanism even when the implementation behind it changes.

Re: What is an OS for?

Those of family and friends who ask me are told that if it's W10 I don't know.

If it's Linux I don't care - I use KDE but for those I set up with Zorin it's something else (Gnome IIRC) but it just really, really doesn't matter.

Re: What is an OS for?

"markting has to justify its existence every once in a while"

Does not compute.

And they were totally pissed off by being able to develop and de-bug a start-up script in the shelll - including stepping through it if necessary - and then just drop it into /etc/init.d.

Re: Thinks I like about systemd

"So I had to install a .vimrc on 30 odd machines to get anything done."

Replace vim with nvi.

Re: Thinks I like about systemd

If an application has working data in /tmp it's reasonable to assume that that data should survive a crash and reboot and be able to resume from that data if it was designed to do that.

Re: Thinks I like about systemd

"But it should leave any files that it does not own alone."

You're overlooking the thinking involved in pottering about, Jake. It's very simple. Systemd owns everything so obviously it can delete whatever it likes.

"the database in question had nearly 100 tables, none of which were linked"

I've dealt with a product of that scale although it had a decent schema and worked well. The only issue was that, running on Informix, it had been written in the pre-cost-based optimiser days and the vendor wished to stay there so they forbade customers from running UPDATE STATISTICS. The SQL was written to hint the query path to the engine. I recognised the technique because I also go back to the pre-cost-based optimiser days. Step outside the limits of what could be done with that approach and the performance was a disaster.

When I arrived there were a few home-written reports that they couldn't run - if allowed to complete they'd have taken well over 24 hours. In my second - or maybe even late in my first week - I took a look at them and found the query plan generated took absolutely the worst route it could, index searching almost the entirety of small tables and joining large tables to them with a sequential search. Temp tables to the rescue.

Eventually the vendor decided that as the cost-based optimiser had been around for over a decade and probably worked they'd allow it.

We can use Excel as a database so we don't need all that complexity....

"The sense of trepidation"

That's because you have a suitable degree of paranoia, the first requirement of any DBA. Unfortunately it's not part of the certifications that HR check at recruitment.

"Because I say so"

ceoemail.com is a useful resource. Usually the issue gets referred to an escalation team. Sometimes the escalation teams work and sometimes they're utterly useless. An example of the latter is one of the major courier companies that insists on their drivers using GPS coordinates instead of addresses and after extensive correspondence have still failed to correct those for our house.

I discovered the power of chairman/CEO complaints the wrong way. We used to send out work orders by fax modem (IIRC we shared the queue berween 3 of them). The fax numbers were in the database so there was no chance of fat fingering the number. Or so we thought. One of the recipients had two faxes and for some reason set up call forwarding at night. Manually. So one night the fax we were sending to was forwarded to not quite the same number which was a private line. The next morning I was trying to work out why the fax queue had failed when the rocket from HQ arrived.

Re: Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph

This looks pretty reasonable: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-57496005

It's a pity it's going to be built in one of the least accessible town centres in the country. I lived about 20 miles away for a few years and never ventured into it more than twice.

Re: "most website designers"

When it comes to interface designers I'm not inclined to single out individuals for blame. It's all of them.

Re: Just

I don't quite recognise the KDE you describe. I don't know what you're doing to get keyring prompts. The only pop-ups I see frequently are from Cookie Exterminator telling me it's exterminated cookies but that's neither KDE not the underlying OS but a browser add-on.

Update notifications - maybe that depends on the distro - Mint seems to put them out with great frequency, less bleeding edge distros such as Debian & Devuan less so. But at least they're notifications to install at leisure and seldom require a reboot.

Re: Just

"That the people you hire will most likely be immediately fully operational"

Or appear to be fully operational.

Three words:

Covid. Statistics. Excel.

"Compatibility with many short lived standards of any given day is perversely, a requirement of Windows purchasers."

The perversity is in multiple short-lived standards. There's nothing perverse in customers wanting to keep whatever they' run on top of Windows running.

"And who gives a flying monkey of the window corners are square or rounded?"

If I used it I probably would because I expect it takes a little more screen estate - in order to stop the corners encroaching on the menu contents the window will be bigger than it has to be. Alternatively they could really mess up by letting the corners encroach on the menu content.

Re: Just

"make office available for linux."

Why? It's not needed.

But still up-to-date?

Re: Alternative steps

"find out who's siphoning diesel out of the storage tank."

I'd never thought of this aspect before but is generator diesel marked in the same way as agricultural "red diesel"? If so a quiet call to HMRC and a spot check on the offender's tank's content might save the need for involving the CEO.