Posts by Doctor Syntax

If I were $PARTY2 I'd want to be included in those disclaimers as well.

Re: I've had .....

"I think he really is an Employee of MicroSoft in disguise ... or a total asshat "

Are those mutually exclusive?

Re: Costing HP a lot of money this.

"at least 35ml of Magenta"

Do they have to buy that from HP Inc or can they get it from Xerox?

Re: idiot

"invoices for equipment that didn't exist"

Consumables would have been better or something even less tangible such as services.

One of the advantages of being freelance is that you're the one who gets to make such decisions. I wouldn't say my contracts depended on it but it made life easier. One of the high points was sitting a a pub table after a day of meetings checking the logs from the previous overnight batch when one of the visiting USians shouted to the other "Look here, he's DBAing his box on his phone".

Re: and basically impossible to test for.

"WAD has become WBAD"

Or the differentce between "just works" and "only just works".

Re: Plastic blister packs

"a little secure box by the till?"

Agreed but the security on that box needs to be cashier-proof as well, unfortunately.

Re: Fraud

"they probably could have acquired SuSe instead of MicroFocus snapping it up and had the foundations of their own operating system and container support."

They already had their own OS - HPUX.

"What is hard about this?"

Nothing, apart from the fact it isn't a tax, it's just that whatever you need to do to comply with the law wherever you trade is a standard cost of doing business..

So why do US businesses come here winging about having to obey the laws of the countries they want to do business in? Is it just the general view that US law should apply everywhere?

Re: real issues

Hmmm.

I wonder if the original £sd calculation was done by a single procedure and it was just replaced by another in '71. Non-decimal calculations aren't always straight-forward as legitimate inputs might well violate expectations. It wouldn't be unusual to see prices quotes as, for instance, 30s so I can imagine a routine having to accept that.

It makes handling historic data - err - fun, especially as I've seen amounts quoted along such lines as "and three parts of a penny". What parts? Land measurements are also interesting. Fortunately I haven't yet had to deal with weights. Fortunately because you can't rely on a stone being 14lbs.

I was perfectly happy having nobody to charge call-out rates to (I did spend the next few weeks wrangling things for a client whose beancounters insisted on on using their old, definitely non-Y2K compliant box because they wouldn't risk(!!!) a cut-over to the fully tested new one until they'd completed their year end).

In consequence we saw in the new year, as ever, at my cousin's house, with a view for miles - including what must have about a hundred simultaneous firework displays, near and far. I still can't understand why my daughter and her future husband just stayed indoors in a pub down in the village.

Re: But were they ...

All the components were of current specification.

Re: Creativity

"that's almost unheard of"

That's because people know better than to blab.

PCs usually had steel cases. Perhaps the Apple drives didn't.

Re: LIbreOffice Turns 10

Unless it has native "Cloud" capabilities

File > Open remote

File > Save remote

You rang, sir?

Re: Arbitrary law is reappearing

Just as the "Supreme Court" overruled the High Court and declared itself legally superior to Parliament.

The word "supreme" should be a bit of a hint although if you're thinking about the decisions in the cases Gina Miller brought you should check again. Those decisions were in favour of Parliament. The first prevented the PM acting without the authority of Parliament and the second said that the PM was telling porkies (Bojo telling porkies - surely not!) to HMQ to prorogue Parliament. The latter attempt to take Parliament out of the equation is reminiscent of Charles I. Bojo should be grateful the court only struck out the prorogation; things went less well last time.

Re: The kind of boss I like to work with

"why it wasn't fixed yet"

"It isn't fixed yet because I'm spending my time talking to you and the previous ten others. When you're ready to have it fixed the door's behind you."

Alternatively - "Don't go to AWS, let us lock you in instead". And, of course, "Microsoft let us down".

Re: Unsurprising

In that case just stick to basics and don't try to use browser-specific tricks. It shouldn't be a function of banks to act as marketing departments for Microsoft, Apple, Google or whoever.

Re: End of term

"Chemistry shows all the things blowing up etc."

Intentionally?

Re: Interesting discussion

" I have no problem with contractors parachuting in for a single task that the permanent staff doesn't have time or expertise to do"

I've been parachuted in for the perfectly reasonable reason that their permie left and they hadn't yet been able to recruit a replacement. They continued to not be able to recruit a replacement. What they did do, eventually, was to recruit a couple of juniors and keep me on for about 18 months under the heading of various extensions until they had experience to take over.

Did that make me a permatemp or did it make my company a "real business"? And when you consider that question also consider another. Do "real businesses" ditch customers because they've been customers for too long?