* Posts by Doctor Syntax

32779 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014

Page:

IT services sector faces armageddon as COVID-19 lockdown forces project cancellations – analysts

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Real Effect?

Manufacturers might also start paying attention to avoiding single-sourcing of components and easing up on the JIT approach.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: IR35

Postponed, not yet cancelled. This might be a good time for freelancers to write to their MPs pointing out what should now be the obvious flaws between the official tests of employment an the reality of being engaged off pay-roll.

Brit housing association blabs 3,500 folks' sexual orientation, ethnicity in email blunder

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

A long time ago I took over a Housing Association application and discovered that the forms for every single aspect of the database were in a single program and thus anyone who need access to, say, property maintenance schedules could see anything else, such as rent arrears for any tenant. I made a start on unpicking it before I left. Back in the day neither the original client nor the developers seemed to have noticed nothing wrong with the original version of that. It sounds as if someone at WHA might not have either.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: You have to wonder...

"No, it was Gilbert Harding."

The version I heard was Oscar Wilde. However there are probably quite a few people who would have done it.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: re: why

"prove they're not [insert phobe de joir] in their housing policy"

I can't help feeling that the best way not to discriminate is to not hold the data which would enable discrimination.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Gay kids

"why they sent me a copy."

I'd guess it might have been more a matter of not being able to not send it.

UK enters almost-lockdown: Brits urged to keep calm and carry on – as long as it doesn't involve leaving the house

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Delivery services? What delivery services?

The entire plan for this seems to have been to simply dump the whole thing on the supermarkets without so much as a heads up.

Tech won't save you from lockdown disaster: How to manage family and free time while working from home

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Even if you are not mandated to stay at home, think twice before getting out

"And if something bad happens not virus related, hospitals may be too overloaded to treat you in time and/or properly."

Try to avoid that happening, to you or others. I happen to live in a country area with narrowish lanes (fortunately not Devon/Cornwall narrow) with a fair number of bends many of which are blind because of retaining walls and a popular walking destination. With the rapidly improving weather it would have brought a good number out to visit anyway and there's plenty of room to leave a few metres from other people.

But....The usual.

Pairs of cyclists riding side-by-side using the whole width of the road.

Cyclists ignoring the stop lines on the blind junction/corner.

Cars driving along too fast.

Lots of walkers about who need to keep on the visible side of any corner.

Yes, come and walk by all means. It will do you good. But stay safe. Country lanes are busier than you might think. Oh, and by the way, it's lambing time (thank goodness, it really cheers the place up) so keep control of the dog and keep clear of the sheep yourself; ewes can be very protective and even hornless breeds have a lot of hard bits.

Bad news: Coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the world. Good news: Nitrogen dioxide levels are decreasing and the air on Earth is cleaner

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"It will also result in a significant population increase."

After the Black Death (which itself followed on from a famine earlier in the C14th) the population in England and Wales seems to have remained at the reduced level for some centuries.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: "according to Worldometer's stats"

This virus will spread exponentially sigmoidally without the drastic measure being taken.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

"All we actually got were the 1970s"

Mathematics had something to do with that.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Short answer - we don't know how whether she's silent or not; media attention is elsewhere and it might never go back to her.

Somewhat longer medium-term answer: The world is getting a hard lesson on what happens when you disrupt the status quo. When the dust settles some of the "must do this RIGHT NOW" policies might start getting looked at more closely. There may be a realisation that change needs to be paced. Disruption gets looked at askance.

Somewhat longer long-term answer: Societies start looking more carefully at how they work. Is it really a good idea to concentrate work places into ever larger cities with ever-increasing commutes? Can work be returned to being closer to where people live? Should production be diversified and with shorter supply lines? The past few decades haven't been sustainable. Stand by for the new watchword: deglobalization.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Pharmacologists on el Reg?

"you can smell the soap in a steaming soapy bath"

You're probably smelling the scents the manufacturers add to the soap.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Being under a flight path I've also noticed the absence of planes. However, as the wet weather finally seems to be clearing for a while the sky is bound to be bluer.

Surge in home working highlights Microsoft licensing issue: If you are not on subscription, working remotely is a premium feature

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Issue

"The issue is many organizations are not set up to have a large portion of their staff work remotely."

So this will be an interesting learning experience for them.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

They'd better be careful with those audits. I feel sure that those businesses that survive will be looking very carefully at how they do business in the future. Becoming seen as part of the problem and not the solution will be a good way to lose business.

Captain Caveman rides to the rescue, solves a prickly PowerPoint problem with a magical solution

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Understated..

Too hard and shiny? Just like the bog rolls of old.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

My cousin-in-law is much better behaved.

Usually it's a matter of being asked to call in when I have time. A few weeks ago he rung up in a panic and said he was bringing his laptop round for me to look at right now. Unfortunately just as we were about to eat so SWMBO was finishing making dinner so that had to be put on hold. It turned out he was updating his anti-virus on his W10 <spit> laptop and it had just hung and wouldn't respond to anything, not even attempts to switch off.

A few minutes later - he only lives a mile away - he arrived. The screen was dark but the power LED was on. Fair enough it wouldn't respond to anything, not even a prod at the power switch. Best described as lights on but nobody at home. So while he was busy explaining his woe to SWMBO I gave the power switch a press and hold and watched it power off. Fortunately* it recovered itself to a stable state.

Unlike some folks' friends and rellies he was prepared to accept the difference between an long and short press on the power button as yet another thing to be grateful to learn. I wonder if that's because he himself had spent his working life in a skilled occupation and takes a fundamentally different attitude to practical knowledge.

* It's Windows: I wouldn't want to have to start debugging a mess and as he insists it's for his grandchildren to use play games on he wouldn't want me to install Zorin on that one; that being my usual approach to debugging Windows.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Understated..

If you can manage with narrow loo roll a finely set plane and a steady hand might do the trick.

Line-of-business folk will have bigger role in growing robotic process automation revolution

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

And when their RPA has driven away customers who want to speak to people I suppose manglement can while away their hours having conversations with it.

Oh-so-generous ransomware crooks vow to hold back from health organisations during COVID-19 crisis

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Look at the super markets.

"Government: If you get infected you have to stay at home for 2 weeks. Do not leave your home."

Yes, it's not as if BoJo the clown has a habit of advocating something without giving any thought to the practicalities of implementing it.

Hong Kong makes wearable trackers mandatory for new arrivals, checks in with ‘surprise calls’ too

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Coming to a Tin Pot Dictatorship near you soon.

5) Clinical trials to look at the potential of known anti-viral drugs discovers that some are effective.

Forget James Bond's super-gadgets, this chap spied for China using SD card dead drops. Now he's behind bars

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Hotel staff are now regularly inspecting the underside of furniture.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Stupid

He was also the conduit for cash in the opposite direction.

IBM puts 1,248 frontline techies at risk of redundo, warns of data centre closures

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

There's something more IBM could learn from a little further on.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-05-28

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Or try to achieve it by providing the sort of service that keeps customers. That requires staff who can deliver.

UK government puts IR35 tax reforms on hold for a year in wake of coronavirus crisis

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: The party of "business"

No longer. You know what BoJo said about business.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Errata:

It doesn't come out of employees' pay from the PoV of those habitual wingers who, for some strange reason, never actually considered this supposed racket as something they were prepared to risk their own livelihoods on.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Horse Bolted

"Have no difficulty in doing specific items of work for free, just that there needs to be an appropriate sized piece of paid for work signed off."

That, of course, is thinking like a business. It's called making an investment.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: One-nation Barmy

Two workers are being taxed on the same rules for earnings but one gets benefits the other doesn't then if those benefits can have an assessed value why shouldn't they be taxed? As things stand some, such as a company car, are taxed. But other things such as regular work as opposed to zero hours or SSP aren't. The logic is that either they should be or the difference in status should be recognised. For a long time that difference in status was recognised by the company model - the company was taxed as a company and was responsible for paying the extras to the worker out of company funds.

As the economy moves towards the gig model then regular employees will start to be seen as privileged tax dodgers benefiting from un-taxed perks that the majority don't get with popular pressure to correct that.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: One-nation Barmy @JamesPond

"I do know contractors who have paid themselves just as salary without any bonuses or dividends. but most contractors who use dividends and/or spouse payment do escape more NI and tax than the corporation tax they pay"

A sensible approach is to take out a regular salary but at a scale which enables you to build up a surplus against non-billable time for any reason. "Any reason" includes sickness. It also means being out of contract. A call from an agent starts off with "Are you available". That instant availability that clients are looking for costs because it means being out of contract and having been out for maybe some time. When a sufficient buffer is built up then the company can distribute dividends.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: So they know it’s damaging...

You're compensating in one direction - the unconfirmed cases vs the confirmed. You also need to take into account that some of the current cases are current because they haven't died yet. The death numbers will lag by a few days. Also some of those who have symptoms may actually have a different infection. What's actually needed is to look at the deaths as a percentage of those confirmed as having had the disease and are now clear.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Better than nothing

"And to some extent its probably right, for eample delivery drivers that HAVE to rent the van from the company and have strict rules on how they can behave."

Those of us with long enough memories can remember that this was the sort of thing IR35 was supposed to clamp down on. Allegedly. Odd that it never turned out that way.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: SHEEP

Yes, we need more and better idiot parties to vote for.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Too late for many

Except in one regard. It's totally and utterly dependent on having javascript enabled. Did nobody tell them it's possible to build web sites without it?

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: One-nation Barmy

Who pays your sick pay when (and it's likely to be when, not if) you need it in the coming weeks?

Who do you think pays the freelancer's?

How about this - if the freelancer has to look after themself and you get it as part of your employment why should your entitlement not be treated as a taxable benefit?

You're looking at two different circumstances and either ignorantly or wilfully seeing them as the same.

ANd if freelancing is such a good wheeze with no downside risk, why didn't you go that route? Don't tell us it's altruism on your part.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: So they know it’s damaging...

"Companies have already forced a lot of contractors out, I myself finish this week and with the global pandemic, there is zero chance of renegotiating to extend it further."

It would depend on circumstances of client companies but those who need to keep trading and are having staff shortages could find themselves needing to engage extra help.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Is this an admission?

They may also have worked out that there's more to employment conditions than their few factors. When client companies have been forced into large-scale handing out of SSP to actual employees it would be difficult to defend the notion that that the freelancers who are dependent on their own businesses for this are really disguised employees. Normally it's a minor consideration that can be swept under the carpet; suddenly it's not.

America: We'll send citizens cash checks amid coronavirus financial hardship. UK: We'll offer £330bn in biz loans

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: I’m making available an initial £330bn

Essentially they're printing it. It may well lead to inflation somewhere down the line.

Call it making the best of a bad job or needs must when the devil drives or whatever. It's something that has to be done and when it's in response to an external problem there's justification. A decade ago it was a response to a problem of HMG's own making by a long run of infeasibly low interest rates (basing inflation rates on a measure that disregarded the house price bubble); that wasn't justifiable.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: 2009 called.....

Paying off loans might have helped. It would put them in a position to take out new loans.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge
Mushroom

HMG is expecting businesses to pay statutory sick pay. I wonder if that might change some of the IR35 determinations they made. Otherwise look for a few claims at ETs. Icon - that's what it's known as in freelance circles.

Looming ventilator shortage amid pandemic sparks rise of open-source DIY medical kit. Good thinking – but safe?

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: When you have nothing...

Just being able to supply sufficient parts to the manufacturer to do the final assemble/test might be a big step forward.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

If this is Italian story is the same as the one I read about on the Beeb site it said there that the valve was a disposable item, having to be changed every few hours. That doesn't sound like an $11,000 device although maybe the entire ventilator is.

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

There seem to be plenty of people claiming it isn't worse than a common cold including a commentard here the other day. Maybe that passed you by.

Theranos vampire lives on: Owner of failed blood-testing biz's patents sues maker of actual COVID-19-testing kit

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

It'll be a tough job selling these claims to a jury.

Broadcom sues Netflix for its success: You’re stopping us making a fortune from set-top boxes, moans chip designer

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Are these patents standards related? If so,shouldn't they be subject to FRAND licensing?

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Do Broadcom actually have any proof that Netflix are using their IP?

The original name had a certain ring to it.

IBM veep partly blamed Sopra Steria for collapse of £155m Co-Op Insurance Agile project

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Was there no product designed for the UK market that could be adopted with less tweaking. Replace "US market" with "Spanish market" and it starts to sound very familiar.

Health workers are top of phishers' target lists thanks to data value

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: HR

Unfortunately HR recruited people for HR who are too stupid to realise that. HR are recursive.

Microsoft frees Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 from the shackles of, er, Windows?

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: WSL versus running Linux in a VM

Multiple monitors don't work well with a laptop on the lap. Or on the tiny table at the grandkids' tennis club when I'm waiting to pick them up - although that one's suspended for the duration.

Page: