* Posts by macjules

3426 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Oct 2014

Her Majesty opens UK Parliament with fantastic tales of gigabit-capable broadband for everyone

macjules

Re: Really?

Now steady on there. Her Majesty says that what Boris is saying is true so we must believe it. Of course, Boris also says that the Duke of Edinburgh is perfectly fit to drive as well.

Robocop needs reboot, $200m for AI research, UK govt knowingly deployed racist passport system – plus more

macjules
Facepalm

Home Office QA:

"Have you extensively tested the AFR on all face types and colours?"

"Yes"

"Does it work?"

"No"

"We'll buy it."

Hey, I wrote this neat little program for you guys called the IMAC User Notification Tool

macjules

Used to work with someone called Michael Hunt. If there was a visitor to the department and I was not in then the receptionist would often be heard to say that "Sorry he's not in, but you can see Mike Hunt if you want to" in all innocence.

No ghosts but the Holy one as vicar exorcises spooky tour from UK's most haunted village

macjules

Re: @jake - And after you've spent your $3,000 ...

Shhh @AC: you just described every Apple fanboi.

macjules

Nope, Ostara/Eostre is mostly responsible for Easter eggs and the Roman Saturnalia festival (a week of orgies!) is pretty much responsible for Christmas.

Openreach's cunning plan to 'turbocharge' the post-Brexit economy: Getting everyone on full-fibre broadband by 2025

macjules

Still a few exchanges in Central London that have not been updated for fibre. Areas of W14, WC2, W1 and SE1 are still not covered. But BT think that 95% of us all have 54.2Mbps speeds now, as shown here. Perhaps they have been sniffing the Unicorn dung again.

From Libra to leave-ya: eBay, Visa, Stripe, PayPal, others flee Facebook's crypto-coin

macjules

Re: WTF?

"London" as in "Dear comrade estate agent, I have 6 million pounds in cash in these suitcases, would you get me a house please? Here is a copy of my fake passport and my bodyguards' latest electricity bill."

How bad is Catalina? It's almost Apple Maps bad: MacOS 10.15 pushes Cupertino's low bar for code quality lower still

macjules

Can you actually ride a self masturbating Vaseline covered horse? I would have thought that the Vaseline would make it hard to get onto and the constant bucking would make it harder still to stay on.

Just trying to mind bleach my brain here ...

macjules

Re: You're holding it wrong!

Ok, so such programmes and frameworks require to change elements of core, or system, functionality, in order to operate. Vagrant, Docker etc often require NFS which means changing /etc/exports for example. If you want to alter the hosts file then you need to change /etc/hosts. Previously it was as as simple as sudo vi /etc/hosts but now the system volume is read only, so you can not do that.

The blame IS with Apple for a complete lack of information on this matter. Stop hero worshipping failed software simply because it comes from your God.

macjules
Gimp

Re: No problems here!

No problems here!

Then try to develop software using OSX Catalina. In particular try to run Docker, Lando, Parallels, VMWare, VirtualBox or Vagrant on it. Luckily I have a Dell running Ubuntu as a backup ..

I can't believe you've done this: Cisco.com asks visitors to explain to IT why they have broken the website

macjules

Re: The Executive Summary will be fun reading ...

Just ran that through the PRSPB (PR SpokesPerson Bullshit) app and it generated:

"After a detailed review we have concluded that those to blame were a number of disgruntled former employees that were let go in our recent round of employee opportunity enhancements. At Cisco we pride ourselves on our core values of 100% dedication to all our customers so we will be offering a $0.01 refund to any affected customers.

Federal authorities are co-operating with us to identify the former employees who took down our website and we are hopeful that successful prosecutions will ensue as a result."

Not a death spiral, I'm trapped in a closed loop of customer experience

macjules

Re: Bureaucracy: Infocom text adventure

"The bank finally sent a letter apologising for the inconvenience; naturally, it was sent to his old address."

macjules

Re: This requirement for paper bills/statements...

Not always. Most companies will usually accept a PDF invoice downloaded from a utility supplier, plus a copy of your passport. I have just had this issue for a holiday rental next year where they wanted proof of UK residence. Unfortunately I use EDF for electricity, so their immediate response was "but this is a French company and I thought you are in England".

Oh dear... AI models used to flag hate speech online are, er, racist against black people

macjules
Paris Hilton

crafted in the style of African American English (AAE)

But if it involves blocking profanity then isn't it doing it's job correctly? Surely, just because said profanity is a part of "African American English (AAE)" does not make it any less profane.

Perhaps we should have a "Father Jack Hackett English (FJHE)" where we can cry foul at being blocked for tweeting "Arse, feck, whiskey"?

Some fokken arse has bared the privates of 250,000 users' from Dutch brothel forum

macjules
Coat

It was obviously a rather damp patch though.

Criminalise British drone fliers, snarl MPs amid crackdown demands

macjules

Re: criminalising the flying of any drone within three miles of a licensed aerodrome.

Yes, but you have a lot of private strips in West Sussex. In fact looking at something like https://ourairports.com and zooming in to South East England you can see that there would not be many areas where you could legally operate a drone except just a few miles around Midhurst or Crowborough.

macjules

Re: criminalising the flying of any drone within three miles of a licensed aerodrome.

London as an example of the UK density of aerodromes. I mostly live in West Sussex close enough to Chichester with Goodwood, Bognor, a private strip and a heliport close enough to the city to effectively ban any drone usage around it for quite a large area. I would add Tangmere but I do not think that it is still a viable aerodrome now.

macjules

criminalising the flying of any drone within three miles of a licensed aerodrome.

That covers a very large area of East London and the City, if you consider London City Airport, let alone criminalising anyone with a toy drone who lives in West London, since you have 2 airports plus one heliport in an area large enough to create a very large no-fly zone. Might just as well ban all drone sales in the UK.

As usual, knee-jerk reactions from a bunch of jerks who need a good kneeing.

The safest place to save your files is somewhere nobody will ever look

macjules

Re: Been there. Done that.

I had a poor benighted Under Secretary of State who knew everything there was to know about computers and about Windows 95 and emphatically told myself and other support staff that she did not need any help whatsoever in how to use her new shiny Compaq laptop thank you very much.

Much later on I discovered that instead of using her lovely newly-installed copy of Microsoft Word she continued to use MS DOS Edit to create and save text documents.

Horse .. water .. drink ..

In a touching show of solidarity with the NBA and Blizzard, Apple completely caves to China on HK protest app

macjules

Re: Google too

Facebook probably sponsor the Chinese police. Amazon probably sell them the tear gas, "Hey it looks like you are buying tear gas, would you like to add bullets to that order as well?"

See you in Hull: First UK city to be hooked up to full-fibre broadband

macjules
Coat

Re: 2025

Boris Johnson has pledged to bring full fibre to everyone by 2025

He meant giving everyone access to Cornflakes. Last thing these populist demagogues need is voters having access to information.

MacOS wakes to a bright Catalina sunrise – and broken Adobe apps

macjules
Unhappy

Not just Adobe

Docker, Vagrant and VirtualBox all now have problems as Apple have put User data and System data into separate volumes (System is a read-only). This means that certain NFS requirements can not be met in the usual /etc/hosts file, as detailed here.

Forget Brexit, ignore Trump, write off today: BT's gonna make us all 'realise the potential of tomorrow'

macjules
Black Helicopters

Non-Indian call centres and High Street shops

Non-Indian high street shops? Does that mean we will hark back to the good old English days of Wednesday early closing and every shop is shut by 5pm? BT to be renamed to "The GPO"? Railways to be renationalised under "British Rail" and every computer company to be nationalised into ICL?

Bugger this for a game of soldiers, I'm off back to Switzerland.

Aria Technology takes £750k VAT fraud case to Court of Appeal

macjules
Thumb Up

Hell hath no fury

Like a scorned vulture.

Twitter: No, really, we're very sorry we sold your security info for a boatload of cash

macjules
Pint

Re: Well...

It does indeed, and 21 days does not equal 'within 72 hours', which is the maximum time permitted for a personal data breach.

Multiply approximately 21m UK Twitter users by £1000 and then factor in that Twitter only paid £41,000 in corporation tax last year on UK sales of £100m. Oh, and its 4% of Global turnover, not just UK, so around $120m if their global turnover for last year was $3Bn

Beer and Popcorn time.

MacOS 'Catalina' 10.15 comes packed with exclusive security fixes – gee, thanks, Apple

macjules
Gimp

Re: Cheers

Wouldn't even bother with that. There actually isn't anything.in this OS update that improves or changes the performance of the OS apart from the CVE fixes. There just seems to be 3 separate apps for what was once called iTunes but is now known as Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts. Oh, and it allows you to extend your 27" iMac screen onto your iPad, just in case you can't buy another screen for less than a £1000 iPad.

The question has to be: Will the fanbois still love it even after they realise is isn't actually an improvement and there isn't really anything else new on it? Silly question, of course they will.

Promise of £5bn for rural fibre prompts Openreach to reach for the trench-digging diamond cutter

macjules

The specialist kit is capable of installing 700 metres of cabling a day

But always presuming that a) BT engineers know how to use it and b) BT Engineers are not sitting down drinking tea instead of operating the digger.

HP polishes the redundancy cannon, prepares to fire 16% of workforce

macjules

Re: Stock Price

Tsk, Tsk. We all know that the share price will rocket back up to new heights once the evil thief Mike Lynch hands back the $8Bn he stole from HPE. All employees then will be reinstated at full pay and a massive bonus. Meg says so, so it must be true.

Tetraplegic patient can now move his four limbs with the help of a badass neuroprosthetic suit

macjules

Re: Great stuff; could be boon to the elderly as well.

Hmm, Since nobody has mentioned "You must think in Russian" then I shall ..

Here's that hippie, pro-privacy, pro-freedom Apple y'all so love: Hong Kong protest safety app banned from iOS store

macjules

Re: Apple will lose money anyway

Thank you for the enlightenment.

macjules

Re: Apple will lose money anyway

Do Apple make anything in China? I thought that Foxcon, Pegatron and lots of other Taiwanese/Chinese manufacturers make things on behalf of Apple? All Apple do is stick a label on the box saying "Designed by Apple in California"

macjules

Re: Apple will make more money ...

"specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement"

And Apple have LOTS of experience of that, especially when it comes to paying corporation tax.

Surprise! Copying crummy code from Stack Overflow leads to vulnerable GitHub jobs

macjules
Facepalm

Re: student use

I recently had a DevOps applicant send me his answer to a problem I sent as a part of his interview. Unfortunately he sent me the verbatim copy of something I pushed to GitHub about a year ago, complete with the 2 deliberate typos.

Suffice to say he did not get the the job.

macjules
Holmes

Re: Free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

Agree with the sentiment BUT here's the rub: a lot of open source software frameworks have limited documentation or explanations that are strangulated by the inability of technical writers or developers to clearly express themselves. This is where SO and it's many spinoffs come in to help. In answering someone's question as to how to do x or y there has to be a presumption that the original poster or the copy/paster is aware of standards and au fait with coding.

I would make a point with SO to never completely help someone how to solve a problem from scratch but refer them to the framework's documentation with a caveat or explanation on the bits that are impossible to comprehend.

Linky revisited: How the evil French smart meter escaped Hell to taunt me

macjules

Not with EDF they don't. They all have a 4g SIM in them.

RAF pilot seconded to Virgin Orbit for three years of launching rockets from a 747

macjules

Re: Cornwall?

Isn't Prestwick as good as owned by Trump now? Might be something of a nono for Mr Branson.

macjules

Re: Cornwall?

Ah, but not many opportunities in the RAF to go straight to BA with 4-engine qualifications.

UK ads watchdog bans Burger King Twitter jibe for condoning chucking milkshakes at politicians

macjules

Re: Eh?

Or be ultra-modern and make a turnip milkshake.

macjules

Re: Eh?

Next time I’ll take turnips and say that it’s is in the spirit of Greek classicism.

Microsoft has made an Android phone. Repeat, Microsoft has made an Android phone. A dual-screen foldable mobe not due until late 2020

macjules
Facepalm

Re: If you can't beat 'em

If you can't beat 'em join 'em?

Obviously not with 2 separate screens.

After 72 hours of recurring outages, you'd be forgiven for wanting to slightly tweak the first syllable of Bitbucket

macjules

Re: Spokesdroid?

I was wondering about that. Do you suppose there a degree in Spokesperson Speak, where you learn how to say everything by saying nothing? Either that or there must be some special iOS SpokesPerson app that takes "We are really, really sorry but we have not got an idea of what is happening or how to fix it." and translates it into, "We are aware of the issue and are providing real-time updates to customers".

This won't end well. Microsoft's AI boffins unleash a bot that can generate fake comments for news articles

macjules

The comments it generates are short - on the order of tens of words - and aren’t complex enough to incite much reaction.

So, only the Daily Mail or the Daily Telegraph (aka The Mouth of Sauron Downing Street) commentards then.

How to lose a UK contractor in 10 days: Make them commit after upcoming IR35 tax upheaval, apparently

macjules

Re: Some are considering moving to another employer

They are too busy handing taxpayers money back to companies like Take Two Interactive or Rockstar games.

A new US-UK data agreement is worrisome but it won’t give access to encrypted comms

macjules

Re: The problem of the CLOUD Act is it is one-sided.

And when exactly has any "mutual" law between the USA and the UK ever benefitted the UK in any way?

it will give the UK authorities the right to issue a request that is equivalent to that of a US court; and the US authorities to do the same for a UK court.

Nice that we will have "the right the issue a request" but I should think that that will be all we will be able to do.

You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals, so let's watch for tech sales VAT weirdness through the channel

macjules

It's an extremely lucrative way for organised crime to launder dirty money

And there was me thinking that all you had to do was to buy a West London football club.

Brighton perv cops community service for 'hacking' women's Facebook accounts

macjules

But what on earth is a "sexual harm prevention order"? Is it an order to cease and desist from repetetive wrist action in order to prevent excessive masturbatory RSI?

Chinese sleazeball's 17-year game of hide-and-seek ends after drone finds him on mountain

macjules
Happy

Oh I don't know. It seemed to work ok for Julian Assange.

[cave => broom cupboard, 17 years => 7 years]

IT workers: Speaking truth to douchebags since 1977

macjules

Re: upside down and backwards

Many years ago I got an alert that someone had posted onto blogger.com, checked what they had posted and tagged the alert as 'Harmless NFA'. Unfortunately the culprit had not closed their browsing session and then updated that same blog post with what was OSA (official secrets act) classified information which then got picked up by the MSM.

Not only did they get slung out of their job (charges were later dropped) but I was also informed that this was a permanent stain upon my work record despite protestations that I had no way (then) to measure/observe a user's session reliably to that degree. Suffice to say that I resigned shortly afterwards with 25 years service behind me.

Hacker House shoved under UK Parliament's spotlight following Boris Johnson funding allegs

macjules

Re: "it might just have been the co-founders wearing both the owner and employee hats"

Heard lots of good things about HH and Matt and, yes, he does indeed seem to know his stuff. Then problem is not actually about HH or Matt but more about whether they solicited funds from the Mayor of London via some sexual liaison between Johnson and Jennifer Acuri and under the pretence that this was grants. Important to remember that Johnson was, as mayor, head of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, a role equivalent to being police and crime commissioner for the capital, so any corruption allegations are going to be taken much more seriously.