Posts by Doctor Syntax

I get the impression that some people have been brainwashed by the low resolution of digital cameras and don't realise what photography can actually do with a large format. The information in a large negative would be hard to match in digital although Leica did,as I recall, try setting what was essentially a scanner mechanism on the focal plane of a large format camera. The time needed to set up a shot on a large format means that the result reflects a degree of thought denied to that of a point and click.

"the only way to test the output of a change is to actually deploy it in production."

One program in the system I looked after had been written by a programmer who, thankfully, had left long ago. It always annoyed me because of her odd programming style. It largely consisted of much the same code repeated multiple times. It was ripe for refactoring as we say now but maybe not at the time.

Late one afternoon I decided to tackle it.

One block of code was repeated several times. Copy that into a function and replace all the repetitions with a function call. Very straightforward. This must have shrunk the LoC to about half.

The remainder of the repetition consisted of two similar but not quite identical blocks of code each repeated several times. Not quite so straightforward. Copy one version into a new function adding a switch parameter then add the different sections of the version using the switch parameter to decide which t call.

Replace the repetitions with function calls taking care to use the correct value of the switch.

We now have a much simpler program, a fraction of its original size. It ought to be easier to understand what it's supposed to do which was one of the objectives of the change. But the remainder is still a bit of a tangled mess. Sorting through it to work out just what data would be need to test all the alternative paths would still take ages.

Well it was really all very much a mechanical replacement - the same code is being run, just from one of the two new functions instead of inline. Of course it must still work exactly the same as before.

It was now early evening. Why not put it live?

So I put it live.

Of course it worked exactly the same as before - what did you expect?

" stop bath, rinse, leave them to dry"

No fixer?

Re: Attestation

The rest of the advertising industry are for ever complaining about Google having a monopoly. When they see Google shooting themselves in the foot they'll be quick to remind sites there are alternatives.

You need a better package manager.

Re: Bye-Bye WWW: Time For A New Internet Protocol

"Vote With Our Feet"

Yes, indeed. Home page has long been DDG. Because Google, email login suddenly decided my preferred client wasn't good enough for them I switched the use (which was simply to receive the Contact us messages from a web site elsewhere). In fact almost the only email I see from gmail addresses is spam.

Re: Too late!

"the BBC has only limited resources they can only certify a restricted number of browsers such as Chrome based ones, Safari or Firefox"

In that case they should have stuck with the earlier version that worked on all browsers instead of employing kiddies who want to fix what wasn't broken. Breaking it cost them salaries. Unfortunately BBC management has never been known to be wrong. You can take their word for that.

Re: Web devs forget to check access perms :o

Web applications are missing a lot of the "systemness" we expect from traditional computing environments

It depends on what you consider a traditional computing environment. In my working world that was a multi-user database system. If there were access levels for different categories of user it may well have been down to the application designer to build in safeguards.

If Buildings Maintenance was to be prevented from seeing tenant financial data that might be an administrative matter to ensure that Buildings Maintenance didn't have access to the screens for financial data. If, on the other hand, Crawly Buildings Maintenance shouldn't see data on Coventry buildings and vice versa but Estates Management could see data for both then it would have to be handled by something a bit more complex in the application itself.

What web applications are missing is a lot of statefulness and shoving responsibility for that onto the client.

Re: Web devs forget to check access perms :o

"This is critical for anything IoT related..."

All true but this isn't an IoT related article. A specific example given is Teams.

Re: Actually probably a good call....

Add the date and time to your note - both the date and time of the request and of the note.

Best to have a procedure in place that instructions have to be written "for the log" so that asking for written instructions for something dodgy can't become confrontational quite so easily.

Re: Actually probably a good call....

"I guess Trump has a gift for recognizing corruptibility"

His minions are probably a self-selecting crowd, slow to disabuse themselves of the reality of what's in front of them. They were probably last of their age group to realise there was no Santa Clause.

Re: You sure are preoccupied by Trump and Musk!

Being above the law doesn't mean not being convicted regardless, it means not being above challenge in the courts, inluding the criminal courts if appropriate.

Re: You sure are preoccupied by Trump and Musk!

Claws-up.

Re: 100m goes a long way

"that clause seems american"

Which clause?

Re: 100m goes a long way

"I have little time for landlords not being quick to remedy faults."

It's not necessarily landlords. When we were first married we rented a top-floor flat & had problems getting the leaking dormer fixed because we were dealing with agents. They never did fix the major crack where the staircase block was coming away from the house. It wouldn't have been in the owners' interests to let the property deteriorate to that extent but it would put the agents to a certain amount of effort beyond the collection of rent and deducting their fee.

Somebody'd get fired if it wasn't.

Re: All together now. "I hear the sound....of distant drums"

Open reel tape. Maybe you're too young.

Re: Sooo....

My first laptop had interchangeable optical and floppy drives. IIRC it also had a second drive bay on a cable so both could be used.

Re: Spectacularly irresponsible.

"there just weren’t any exploits out there in the wild in practice…..until these guys did it."

What makes you think that? These folks are security researchers who publish their stuff. Exploiters would just get on with it and keep shtumm.

Re: So just like most other large corporate hives then

"I do understand why this is the case, but it is a sad reflection on a companies progress from innovative development to boring reseller (or ad broker)."

However somewhere there will still bea competitor who knows how to be innovative and will eventually eat their lunch.

Re: This happened for years on Italian telephone network

"today, most of the copper lines are DSL only"

Soon they'll all be. Allegedly. Whether the target is hit remains to be seen.

Re: Agree but...

"Some sympathy for the workman here. He has to do his job. That's his imperative."

No. He's on customer's premises. Their imperative comes first. If he has been so careless as to roll up without a fully charged screwdriver and the only socket available says "Do not switch off" then he should ask where he can plug in. He had no idea what damage he might cause by unplugging it.

Re: Agree but...

"Should have changed it to a specialist plug and socket"

You mean the sort that look like ordinary plugs & sockets until you unplug them & find the pins are at different angles?

Re: Error in binary expression at line 61

Before I retired the boss of my company was indispensable. After all, I was the only employee.

Re: "It's in your contract"

If you're lucky.