Posts by Lysenko 986 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jan 2015
There hasn't been a monopoly on the desktop since Apple went Intel. No-one is stopping you driving a Ford Cortina or a Sierra, but Ford quite sensibly won't sell you one and your safety will be compromised by modern standards. It's a Mondeo v5 or nothing (from Ford).
Anyone who thinks IE "is the internet" probably should switch to Win10 anyway. It is at the forefront of MSFT security patching and has the longest likely future lifespan. Such a person is at way more risk from specialist malware than anything MSFT is accused of doing. They'll also learn that IE isn't "the internet" when they meet Edge.
Anyone else probably isn't going to be swayed either way and probably doesn't use IE in any case.
I mostly use Linux. Of the eight Windows machines I have, all upgraded fine to Win10 except the three I keep on 8.1, 7 and XP deliberately because I need them to test software on. 8.1 is easily the most problematic.
Leaving the EU would increase costs for my company and all my customers and create precisely zero additional opportunities (because we already trade outside the EU as well). There is no conceivable advantage (to us) in turning a trading relationship with France or Germany into one reminiscent of the USA or Turkey.
We already turn down American business because their electrical safety regs (UL) are different to those in the EU and the extra costs of certification make it uneconomic. There are literally thousands of cases like that already and leaving the EU is guaranteed to make things even worse. If the UK votes "out" we're moving the company to Scotland which we trust will swiftly vote out of the UK and back in to the EU.
You seriously think that Bliar and "Call me Dave" got into power because French and German ex-pats skewed the vote?! We already get the people the UK electorate vote for and consequently have to rely on the ECJ and ECHR to stop Sturmbannführer May reinventing the Stasi.
Fragmentation of the EU is not in that organisation's interests as it threatens its status as the largest economy in the world. After a UK withdrawal the EU would still have about $15.5T GDP. The UK, about $3T.
This being the case, the only rational thing for the EU to do is to inflict (with plausible deniability) as much economic damage as possible on the UK as the EU is best served if withdrawal is demonstrated to be economically catastrophic for the withdrawing country (pour encourager les autres).
This is just another tool in the box that can be leveraged to that end.
I believe so (I don't do BASIC). As I understand it DoEvents amounts to the same as Application.ProcessMessages in FreePascal which in turn amounts to something like:
procedure DoEvents()
var
msg : TMsg;
retval : Integer;
begin
while (PeekMessage(msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_NOREMOVE )) do
begin
retval = GetMessage(msg, NULL, 0, 0); //Message Pump
case retval of
-1 : raise EFatalException.Create;
0 : PostQuitMessage(msg.wParam);
else begin
TranslateMessage(msg);
DispatchMessage(msg);
end;
end;
end
Yes. That's I/O completion ports and WaitForMultipleObjects() etc. since we're talking Windows. I was discussing the approach in the context of single threaded scripting languages (JS, VBA) and/or operating systems (Win16).
As for anti-pattern: I agree if one defines "scalable" to mean "web scale", but there are other games in town. If you have an industrial control system communicating with 8 gizmos it may be that the only scaling physically possible within the factory is 32 gizmos and persistent state with deterministic timing is everything (Robotics, for example).
In such cases one thread per peer is perfectly valid and eliminates some timing and race condition traps that an async/state machine/thread pool approach needs to code around with sync objects. Global locks to transfer a state object between threads are expensive, for example.
Have a look at the WSA... socket functions in the Win16/32 API and you'll see what I mean. The concept was dreamed up to support "cooperative multitasking" (translation: "we can't do multi-threading properly") so that blocking operations could be fudged by posting WM_ messages to the primary message queue to trigger "events".
It avoids synchronization objects (Critical Sections, Mutexes) at the cost of implementing state machines and (usually) global variables all over the place. Modern versions of Windows support something similar via the WaitForMultipleObjects() API, but that is mostly for avoiding busy I/O waits in worker threads. Using it to bundle blocking I/O into the primary UI thread is almost always an anti-pattern.
JS, like Win16 (and VBA), is inherently single threaded so has to implement the same workarounds MSFT did 25 years ago.
That "wait" issue is as old as Windows itself. If you're doing hard loop processing, mess with a UI context directly (like switching sheets) but fail to Yield/SleepEx or otherwise defer to the message queue to process the WM_PAINT etc. then bad things can happen.
With a proper language you can use worker threads and sync objects. With VBA I imagine best practice is to behave like you're programming for Win16 (or something equally primitive, like JS async callbacks).
Typical Pi customers, probably not but it is of interest to people who use SBCs (single board computers) professionally and think of "Windows" in terms of WinCE and Win7/Win8 Embedded etc.[*]
There are "Windows" BSPs (board support package) for hundreds of different ARM variants and Win10 IoT is an evolution of these product lines rather than PC/Intel Windows.
[*] Personally I use Linux but in this space that tends to mean Yocto rather than Ubuntu or Android.
I entirely agree.
The event is indeed demeaned and devalued by endless editorials about highly paid/successful/independent women being harassed by (uninvited) compliments and the existence of testosterone.
Perhaps we could pay more attention to the challenges of being a female sysadmin in Islamabad[1] if we weren't swamped with articles about the horrors of being asked out for a drink in San Francisco.
[1] I happen to know one.
Yes.
I've experienced many criminal offenses that only constituted a minor irritation to me. Littering. Smoking in bars. Double parking.
Perhaps it is something to do with the Northern Line at rush hour, but I'm not especially precious about invasions of my personal space and brief physical contact with strangers.
You think cis-normative patriarchal micro-aggression is "OK"?!? You'll be suggesting that it is OK to give womyn flowers on March 8th like those degenerate Russian misogynists next.
Saying something that another person does not want to hear is verbal assault, by definition. If there is any sort of potential implication of a future interest in personal intimacy it is sexual assault. Period.
Freedom of speech is just a carte blanche to assault, abuse, ridicule and oppress. Thankfully we are finally moving into to the era of freedom FROM speech which will put a stop to this disgusting "asking someone out" aggression and harassment.
Bean counters, Spin Doctors and Livestock Oversight
...the three most commonly reviled specialisms (plus Marketing and Consultancy, naturally).
Might there be a touch of correlation/causation fallacy at work here?
Perhaps women (to some degree) experience higher levels of negativity and harassment from colleagues not just because they are women but also because they gravitate towards positions that attract negativity irrespective of gender?
Men experience higher levels blunt force trauma at work. It has nothing to do with gender per se; it is due to the over representation of men in heavy engineering, construction and agricultural labouring.
There is also the question of reporting/sample bias. When I was 19 I had a Chemistry lecturer who made a habit of sidling up from behind and groping students butts. He was gay however so the targets were other men. No-one ever reported him to my knowledge[1]. It was a minor irritation ... especially when compared to the gas attack from the hetero Business Studies lecturer's aftershave if he got close to you.
[1] University. No children involved.
The way to keep a system working is to know what it's limitations are and the only way to do that is to break it.
You test a gun barrel by packing in more and more propellant until you burst it. Tyres: you push the car faster until you finally spin off the track. If you don't know where the limits are then there is always the possibility that "one more transaction" is all it takes.
So, "no" I don't have less confidence in an R&D guy who thinks failure is brilliant. What gives me less confidence is hearing: "It works fine on the dev system!" or (worse): "It passed the unit tests, so ship it!".
Internet Explorer. Flash. Windows 98. Telnet. Forged mail headers.
"Desktop" software development has a few too many skeletons in its closet to get sanctimonious about the embedded space. That doesn't invalidate your point about IoT of course. Just lets remember that what we're asking the embedded world to do is learn from the colossal list of bone headed mistakes that the desktop world already made. I would rather have an insecure humidity sensor in my fridge than IE6 and Flash 10 on my PC.
"Experienced support workers are therefore trying to serve customers and colleagues, aren't enjoying the extra workload, and fear customer service is suffering as a result."
That "extra workload" amounts to buying the alcoholic another drink.
Oracle will continue to pursue destructive policies and customers will tolerate this longer than they should precisely because well meaning staff enable that by attempting to shield them from the full pain of their misguided decisions. You can't expect anyone to stop doing stupid things unless you make the stupid hurt.
Absolutely, but just like "undocumented features" (bugs) and "restructured SKU feature sets" (downgrades) it should be mercilessly mocked and treated with the visceral contempt that it deserves.
Redundancy is invariably negative and usually attributable to declining business performance. For a listed company obfuscation of this should be regarded as a blatant attempt at share price manipulation and treated (prosecuted) accordingly.
The flip side is that if your employer engages in such sophistry you know you are working for a bunch of corrupt, unethical crooks and you therefore have limited scope to feign surprise when it's your turn under the guillotine.
Part of the reason I got a payment in the Crapita situation was the argument that "Redundancy" has a defined meaning under the Employment Rights Act and failure to use the correct terminology constituted a violation of the statutory notice period.
a) I'm pretty sure EDS was just as bad. I can't imagine a division of General Motors being anything other than a PHB zoo.
b) If I'm wrong about EDS and the rot didn't start until HP got involved: it was still 8 years ago. That's plenty of time to get the hell out of there. If you've been with one employer longer than 5 years and are not a major shareholder then you should consider yourself on borrowed time. 4.7 years is the average length of "permanent" employment these days.
I've been in this situation ("EDS" I mean). I was a systems architect for with the Department of Employment back in the '90's when my section was contracted out to Capita. I resigned[1]. This was a problem for them since I was the lead designer of one of the systems they were taking over. They essentially offered me full transfer of benefits and a 25% pay rise. I still resigned and no; I didn't have anything else lined up. Six months of no income was still better than working for Crapita (or, it seems, HPE).
[1] Technically, I accused them of constructive dismissal. The Department paid £10k to avoid an embarrassing tribunal bun fight.
I'm sorry, but if you take a job with a company that has "Workforce Management" (or "Resource Actions") then you should know on that basis alone that you are dealing with unmitigated tossers of the highest possible caliber. Organisations with even a tenuous grasp of ethics make people redundant or just fire them. Obfuscation, sophistry and mendacity go hand in hand with contempt, disloyalty and hubris.
I'm not siding with HPE in any manner, shape or form; but if you go staggering drunk and alone through the back alleys of Rio with $100 bills poking out of your pockets you should expect to get mugged. Similarly, work for a company with WFM or RA's and you should expect to be treated like silage.
Silly Cone Valley : GMT -8
New Yawk : GMT -5
New Dehli : GMT +5:30
Shenzhen : GMT +8
... basically it is a wash in TZ terms if you're used to dealing with the wrong side of the pond anyway. Personally I prefer skyping Shenzhen at 6am rather than CA at 10pm.
"“Once created, this software — which law enforcement has conceded it wants to apply to many iPhones — would become a weakness that hackers and criminals could use to wreak havoc on the privacy and personal safety of us all.”
Balls. Precisely the opposite in fact. Creating this software is penetration testing (which should be going on anyway) and if it works it identifies a vulnerability to be patched. Arguing that it leads inevitably to the seven plagues of Egypt is the same BS that dragged "hacking tools" into the Wassenaar Arrangement.
This is the same "Think of the children!!" hyperbole the FBI are using and adopting those tactics serves only to validate the opposition. Apple should refuse to hack the phone because it is unconstitutional Judicial and Executive overreach.
Once you start defending principles in terms of utilitarian consequences you're on the glide path back to tearing up the 4th and 5th Amendments, waterboarding, extraordinary rendition and internment camps.
I thought it was quite clear: both encryption and the 4th Amendment can serve to conceal wrongdoing and that makes life easier for paedophiles, drug dealers and terrorists.
I phrased it the way I did to see how many "Paedoggedon/THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!" merchants there are out there who can't face facts.
iPaedoPhone, iJihadiPhone, iRAPhone ... the tabloids and reactionary lunatics will apply all of those labels and they'll be right: in their own terms.
All those groups will probably have an easier time of it than they would if the TLAs had unfettered access to everything in exactly the same way that the 4th Amendment makes their lives easier: there would be more child molesters, drug dealers and terrorists behind bars if the authorities could search anywhere, anytime with no warrants or probable cause issues slowing them down.
My point was that you have to eventually admit you are prepared to sacrifice a few lives (including children) in order to protect the principles society stands for. If asked: "Is Apple prepared to see a child molester go free in order to uphold the principle of individual privacy and security?" the answer has to be "Yes".
Buying it flowers could be construed as sexual harassment or at least a patriarchal micro-aggression. Empathizing doesn't work as it just sits there and ignores me. Counselling sessions are worthless because it won't engage with the process. I'm beginning to suspect that although it is clearly marked as ARM it may self identify as MIPS (or even x86!).
Unfortunately the social hierarchy is clear. This CPU has friends in high places and it networks (when it feels like it) way better than I do. It is far more trouble and expense to swap the hardware than the wetware. I just have to shut up and deal with this socially dysfunctional and uncommunicative silicon oppressor.
My opponent at this moment is an i.MX28 ARM board that needs to gather data over SNMP. It is being infuriatingly pedantic, showing no common sense, repeating itself, refusing to understand what I mean and being an insufferable grammar nazi!!
It is also utterly oblivious to the effects of its behaviour on my emotional state and not even slightly intimidated by the prospect of being reported to Livestock Management HR.
The male/female ratio is equally skewed when it comes to car mechanics, plumbers, astrophysics, washing machine repairs etc. Essentially, any activity that involves yes/no answers and places zero emphasis on feelings and emotional reactions is skewed towards men.
When your washing machine floods your kitchen or your starter motor locks up (or you smell burning rust) it doesn't matter what anyone feels about it. There are no "safe spaces". The equipment will not negotiate, it will not be reasonable it will not compromise. You come face to face with the ghastly reality that what you want, think or feel does not matter.
Given that the above is presently immutable, it is unsurprising that inter-personal aspects tend the same way and I'm not at all convinced it is worthwhile to try to change that. If I am going to have to tackle vicious hostility from the Linux operating system, what is the advantage in toning down Linus himself?
I don't want my code being called "questionable" or "suboptimal" if the OS is going to throw it back at me with an ID10T error. Tell me I'm an idiot. Tell me to RTFM. Don't spout euphemisms to spare my feelings because the end user won't ... it's a machine.
IT has (what is being characterised here as) a 'macho' culture because the profession is dedicated to managing and sometimes fighting a bunch of Terminators. "Emotional intelligence" doesn't have any utility when your opponent has no emotions.
AdBlock+ is basically a corrupt alarm company that is prepared to let burglars into your house for a suitable fee so long as they don't steal too much.
There's no need to panic though. uBlock Origin, Ghostery & Widgetblock. I can't remember the last time I saw an online ad. I only don't activate NoScript because my own sites wouldn't work properly if I did.
This isn't a new phenomenon. When there was still some value in printed IT magazines (and before everyone was so paranoid) I used to take a stanley knife to the newsagents when buying "Computer Shopper". One quick slice down the spine and the ads never left the shop. This is an arms race that the ad spewers cannot win. Not this side of Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" anyway.
Tier 1 support has a built in and probably insoluble paradox: anyone with the skills to do the job properly is not going to work for the salary it commands. Outsourcing doesn't change that equation in the final analysis.
You can't solve that problem with training because training someone to do the Tier 1 support properly results in the subject stopping doing Tier 1 support entirely.
The only real solution is the one that suits will never countenance: ensuring that support and security expenditure increases year on year in both absolute and relative terms at a faster rate than executive salaries/bonuses because security threats are multiplying far faster than the pool of buzzword spouting PowerPoint ninjas is contracting.
The only "basic usability" problems I ever encounter are (allegedly) "compelling new usability features". I know how to drive a car. Steering wheel, 2-3 pedals, central gearshift. It worked when my grandfather learned to drive and I guarantee you it will still be the best solution when I finally ride a hearse. I don't want joysticks, steering column gearshifts, voice operated accelerators and buttock clench activated brakes.
The design of the UI for a mouse and keyboard operated computer is a solved problem. Messing around with the conventions is counterproductive for exactly the same reasons that non-QWERTY keyboards never make headway. Unity is like AZERTY. TIFKAM - Microwriter. Their attempts to address usability problems are usability problems.
No. Tried it, hated it, dumped it.
This is inevitably downvote bait, but the fact is I like my shell behaving pretty much like NT4. Trays on the left? No. Menus at the top of the screen? Hell no!! (reminds me of a Mac <shudder>). I'm mostly MINT/Cinnamon with Lubuntu on lower spec stuff.
Unity, like GNOME3 and TIFKAM is basically the same as some genius deciding to replace a car steering wheel with a joystick. Too wrong even to achieve pointlessness.
Back in the mid 90's I managed to run a 100MHz Pentium, 64MB RAM, SCSI RAID array, Etherlink III cards and Citrix WinFrame all in the same box without ever realising I was "Hyperconverged". Even more astonishingly, the damn thing even worked sans buzzword!
Thankfully your articles have reminded me that whilst that putting processing, storage, networking and virtualisation in the same box is an idea even Babbage probably thought of, a good 14 letter buzzword can make it as fresh, new and exciting as electric orange 24 inch flares (errr...).
As usual you completely forget that without power, cooling and a waterproof roof all your fancy hyperconvoluted Opsy Devy stuff is just a pile of dead, hot, damp scrap.
FacOps is the future! Facilities aligned with Operations at last!!
The next step is Hyperconverged FacOps (where we teach sysadmins how to change a fuse).
To be fair to Brazil: one judge who was instantly slapped down by the next Court in the chain.
Given that (some) judges still need explanations of the "popular beat combo" variety, it is at least plausible that His Excellency didn't realise that cryptography has moved on since the days of Julius Caesar and that anyone with a "VP" title is (almost by definition) incapable of doing anything requiring actual technical skills.
The point is: Ultra posse nemo obligatur ("No one is obligated beyond what he is able to do").
Brasil has a mostly Civil Law system and there is no way a suit can be held in jail because his foreign employer refuses to obey a Brasilian Court. Not unless he has the capability to change the situation personally which he doesn't because he's a mid-level functionary rather that the "controlling mind" of the corporation or a cryptographer.
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