Posts by Doctor Syntax

Re: Trying to teach...

"Often it will be the fault ofa low level supervisor who is both lazy and doesn't want anyone to know enough to challenge their position."

Or doesn't know themselves. Repeat up the scale until you get to one senior enough to have a PA who actually knows stuff.

Re: In pre-computer days people were used to memorize sequences....

"It's Friday (obviously since the article was On Call)"

Good to have these reminders. The days are all starting to look alike in these locked down times.

"They stop people thinking about the abstractions"

The problem may well have been more basic than that. If the user has only ever been told click "this, click this, go there, type that, click here and here" then there are no abstractions to think about.

Re: Hmm

"We sincerely apologize for this oversight, and remain firmly committed to the protection of our users' data,"

I doubt my reading of statements like that is ever the same as that hoped for by those who make them. What was the oversight? What use are they protecting it for and by whom?

There should be a very clear test here: can collection and retention of user data (other than that needed to make the serice work) be turned off and if it can does the provision of the service depend on its not being turned off? A "no" to either must surely be a GDPR failure.

Re: I call fake.

Possibly but then if they lose count they wouldn't know when to stop adding a few more.

Re: Whilst We’re On the Topic...

"And what a lot of academics are interested in is topics that might attract fame or fortune. Topics like cancer. There’s a lot of money and fame at stake for whoever solves that one."

Let's try to unpack that a bit. What a scientist researches is the consequence of two things.

One is the particular field in which they find themselves. A virologist, cancer specialist or whatever is likely to have started down that line early in their career because something they encountered grabbed their attention and/or because the subject suits the way they think. Just think of your own situation here: why is it you do whatever it is you do and not something else?

The other is the financing for that field. It's society as a whole that determines what that is. If society were prepared to put a lot of money into cancer research and none at all into virology than the only work the virologist could do would be on those cancers caused by viruses such as HPV.

Of course some research institute could take the money it's been given for cancer research and, on the basis of its own unilateral decision that not enough money for virology, divert wome of it in that direction. A few moment's thought should be enough to realise the likely outcomes of that are going to range somewhere between loss of future funding and prosecution for fraudulent diversion. It wouldn't lead to more virology.

If you think some aspect of science doesn't get the attention it should don't blame the people working in some other field, blame the way society chooses to allocate its money.

Re: Echo chamber aside

"It's more impressive if you come hold a hand of a current COVID patient. Or come and have a cuppa with those who are pulling the double/ triple shifts right now."

I always found the visits from the big cheeses were simply obstructions to BAU and hence couner-productive.

Re: Real Effect?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Re: "according to Worldometer's stats"

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

"All we actually got were the 1970s"

Mathematics had something to do with that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Re: Understated..

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

Re: Stupid

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Re: SHEEP

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