Posts by Gulfie

"That's the highest price I can do it for guv..."

"... and that's cuttin' me own froat."

Attribution to the writing god that is Terry Pratchett.

Some Enlightenment is required

As somebody who had the privilege to work on the software for, and install, the IECC signalling system for British Rail in the late 80's I would like to enlighten you on the subject of signalling. I'm sure somebody with a fine collection of anoracks and notebooks will correct me but the gist is important.

On the UK rail network, signals turn red automatically when a train goes past. There is no manual intervention. Further, the interlock system that turns the signal red will prevent an operator from routing a train into an occupied section of track, it simply won't allow the route to be set. At best it will allow the operator to specify where a train is to go, but it will not permit two trains to occupy the same block of track at the same time.

It would appear that the first train got some way into the tunnel before failing - past several signals. The other trains would simply follow on according to timetable because they had a green signal - the systems are largely automated (I still remember with fondness the train from London at 13:15 every Monday that would crash the automatic routing software in York). So the trains simply backed up in the tunnel, one per block of track, and subsequently failed as described when the snow melted.

It isn't all that unusual that the other trains were allowed into the tunnel, after all, the signallers would not know that the problem hitting the first train would also hit the subsequent ones - after all, they didn't know what the problem actually was. There was no reason to believe that all the trains would break down, and there was no rail safety issue in letting them move on into the tunnel. Especially as the alternative was to block up track in, or on the French side of, the Calais terminus. As far as they were concerned, one train broke down and as soon as it was towed out, the rest would continue on their journey.

And to be picky on a point of grammar: "The combined temperature, snow type, and humidity in northern Feance and the tunnel were exceptional - that means untested in system testing terms". To be precise, the systems were untested, not the weather conditions.

(Hello to all my ex-IECC project colleagues, with special mentions to Alistair M, GT 'taxi from Bristol' Smith and Graham Stacey).

Fantastic...

Now when can I order one with a 400 mile range? I'm buying a new car in two years time and I want it to be electric. No more expensive services. No more expensive petrol. Simples.

Hahahahoho

No, stop, please, my sides are aching too much. What a fantastic advert for the competency of HP and (ex) EDS management that they managed to get themselves into this position.

How can such ineptitude inspire any confidence from existing unaffected customers? How can it do anything than completely destroy their ongoing sales pitches?

As somebody who used to work for EDS I realised quite quickly that the company didn't give a jot for preserving and building on the skills of their engineering staff. All that mattered to senior (I stress senior) was meeting the next deadline and if it worked, so much the better. Middle management, good and bad, get trapped between impossible targets from on high and teams of people who know enough to realise that they're onto a loser, or know so little that thay didn't realise the job couldn't be done.

Remember, the lowest bid isn't always the best, contracts should specify minimum head count and require specific skills/qualifications/certifications to be held. No, you really shouldn't have to have this kind of thing in writing but in this day and age the bog corporates would offshore everything to a $1 a day workforce halfway around the world if they could get away with it. No ethics, no consideration for the workforce, just the end of quarter targets and absolutely nothing else matters. Your shareholders won't thank you for taking the cheapest bid when it all goes tits up like this...

Pressure at sea level?

Must be quite high to be a water world with an ambient temperature 100 degrees above the boiling point of water at one atmosphere!

I for one welcome our web-footed, gill-sporting sauna-loving overlords.

Google Blocked?

As Google helpfully provide access to cached pages, does this mean that Australia will end up blocking them? After all, if they have cached pages that are on sites on the blocked list, people will still be able to access them without visiting the original site...

Costs...

... should be paid by the person who decided to pursue this case.

Maybe George can raise the money by using his private jet to fly an old man and his apprentice, who have no cash to hand at the moment, across the world to a country that strangely seems not to exist any more...

Nah, George is loaded. Just pay up, learn the lesson, and move on.

Simples.

Why the big surprise?

While I am uncertain about the legitimacy of the PKD estate's claim, I am not surprised in the slightest that Google is trampling on the feet (or the ends of the toes in the case of PKD) of others. After all this is now standard practice for Google - do what they want (e.g. book scanning, street view) and then use their legal department or business practices to make the problems go away. Heck, even the Android programming language is acknowledged to be Java by another name. This disregard seems to be endemic in large US companies and does not set a good example for other companies and the public at large.

Google _are_ turning into the kind of company Microsoft was in the 90's (if they're not there already), using its core strength (search and advertising) to push into other areas, buying up the competition or competing against them with free products. I have a new slogan for them: "all your internets are belong to us, bitches".

'Doze that laptop

Great technical article on Bulldozer. Took me right back to my processor design coursework and the Transputer, oh heady days that they were...

But seriously how long until I can have a laptop with the 16 core HE Opteron? Better still, will this prompt Apple to look at AMD processors? Then I could have a Snow Lepoard with 16 hearts (although by then we'll probably be on Clouded Leopard, Marbled Cat or some other Felidae species)

I demand pictures of this alleged Google roll-your-own...

... or it didn't happen

Nice but...

Not until I can choose to not upload my contact names, or, at least suppress a selected subset of them.

I for one welcome...

... oh, hang on, there's nobody to welcome after all...

Power to their elbow

Although I sympathise with AC@22:00, I support this action. HP/EDS are simply taking advantage of current financial conditions to cut benefits. As an ex-employee of EDS they were never particularly generous - the worst thing that can happen is that this disgraceful downgrading of T's & C's go unchallenged.

In better times I would encourage every employee to find a job - quickly - with another company, because HP does not deserve any loyalty. What is taking place is immoral, plain and simple.

@RegisterFail

Actually, I know of at least one business using Apple amost exclusively (Linux also has a presence) that used to be a Windows shop. Not least because Apple hardware is good for at least five years in the field compared to three for a Windows machine.

Businesses have traditionally looked at the headline price of a machine and bought the cheapest for the job, but the Vista experience has shown that cheap != productive, so some more forward thinking companies are looking beyond the up-front price.

An idling Windows machine uses 100w easily whereas a Mac Mini uses less than 20w, this was just one factor in the reason for switching. If the experience continues to be as good as it has been, the old PC screens with a Mini will be replaced by iMacs, the minis redeployed as development servers...

@Steve Jack

As a Mac 'Fanboi' I don't care where Microsoft got their inspiration from. OS X? Great. Somewhere else? So what?

And I'm starting to think about upgrading my three Windows XP boxes to Windows 7...

Hmm, can only be so long before this happens...

http://www.xkcd.com/596/

Hmm...

I can see the potential here but I think your pocket guide lacks a little.

First, your average home install will quickly break the 40Gb limit, if you have even a small number of games installed, so a note to move all the large installations (games mainly) to another HDD would help. Second, the device will also be used as swap space so you want to take measures to ensure it doesn't get full. I'd propose using two partitions on the drive at 8Gb and 32Gb - the 32Gb partition for your core Windows installation, and the smaller partition just for the swap file (at 4x physical memory). Install all your program files to a separate traditional HDD; selectively install software onto the SDD C drive only if you need super-fast access.

For even more blinding speed, why not two SSDs, one dedicated to the OS and the other to the swap file. Might even have a play with that configuration if prices come down enough...

Re: Smaller Screen

Perhaps this is an attempt to make a smaller, cheaper (good lord! surely not!) iPhone. A smaller model would sell well in the far east where miniturisation is popular. It would also open an additional revenue stream in any country it is sold in, IF (a big if) it is cheaper than the 3GS. Might it not keep all the 3GS features? After all, a smaller screen -> smaller case -> smaller battery. Something to get my kids perhaps to stop them eyeing my iPhone with envy...

Hey, what the heck, how about a _replacable_ battery?!

Re: One at a time limitation

The eyeTV is USB based and is chucking more than 1.5Gb per hour () down the wire. That equates to a sustained stream of about 5Mbits per second. Elgato (like all the other USB TV vendors) tell you not to plug the device into an external hub, but only directly into your PC/Laptop, otherwise bandwidth starvation can be an issue. Remember that even the USB ports on your PC/Laptop go through an on-board hub and the available bandwidth will still be shared by all the devices plugged in to the machine.

Perhaps they fear that trying to handle two channels would lead to resource starvation - either processor, or bandwidth to the hard drive when recording. I have a TV card in one PC that can handle two channels, but then it is PCI...

Facebook vs Myspace

FAIL for the facebook bashing. After all, even if your average Sun reader knows the difference (in ownership) between Facebook and MySpace, they're unlikely to make a disticntion in terms of whether questionable content would appear more on one than the other...

@AC re DNLA

No, the execs have not forgotten about DNLA, you can be sure.

First, by not including DNLA, people who want it will have to spend more money on another box, hopefully, from the exec's perspective, from the same company that made the telly.

Second, they will introduce a new range of models in 18 months time... with DNLA built in... thus prompting a round of upgrading from those who couldn't wait this time around and won't wait for their telly to EOL.

Personally I work hard to avoid the whole 'upgrade! upgrade!' cycle unless I can sell on my existing kit for enough money that the upgrade becomes cheap. Still running an iPhone 3G, I'm going to wait until next summer and then go shopping for a new contract.

Black helicopters 'cos, well, I've just let the cat out of the bag... Sony will be coming for me...

@citizen kaned

First, EDS has been on the wane these last few years, winning less and less UK Government business and losing a number of contracts, because its project management is generally weak, because in turn those managers are not rigorously trained.

Second, the fault is at least 50% the client. In my 20 years I've learned that if only one side is rigorous in project management then all you can do is more accurately apportion blame when the project fails to deliver. If both sides are rigorous then you generally have a successful project, or one that is rescoped due to cost escalation as requirements and constraints are better understood. If neither side manages properly then the result is chaos.

If the C-NOMIS client had been project managing properly, then they would have spotted and acted on poor management by EDS. If EDS were project managing properly, the customer would have been penalised heavily for weak and changing requirements, but there would have been a successful outcome albeit late. It would appear from this report that neither side were managing properly.

Disclosure: I'm ex-EDS and for every good PM I worked under there were at least three bad ones.

It's a winner for me

The ergonomics of the new mouse are going to be different depending on the size of your hand. I finally got to play with a Magic Mouse yesterday. I have quite a large hand (well, OK actually I have two large hands - octave plus two notes on a piano) and small mice give me RSI because I have to scrunch my hand up to work the buttons. The Microsoft 'basic optical mouse' shape is a perfect fit for me whereas Dell mice and most of the cheep and cheerful ones are too small.

I have a Mighty Mouse and again its just the right size. When I saw the Magic Mouse I was concerned that it would be a problem but it isn't. Other than they're not shipping until Sunday at the earliest.

Anyway it made me appreciate one reason it is so much flatter. If you have a 'normal' mouse shape then you will have to arch your hand unnaturally to perform the scrolling gesture, and this will cause RSI. Try it on your current mouse and you'll see what I mean. Then try it with your hand flat on the desk.

I know the ergonomics won't suit everybody but I do believe that Apple has got it right for the majority of people; and incidentally I had no problem with the finger swipe gesture. The trick is not to try too hard, and to play with the sensitivity settings so that you are making a gesture that you find comfortable and that the driver software can interpret as a swipe...

This is the future of mobile

This is an excellent demonstration of why all the smartphone manufacturers need to shift their viewpoint well away from the 'phone plus organiser' approach to the 'network attached mobile computer' approach. Now in hardware that has already happened but everyone is still approaching the software from that viewpoint - even Apple to a degree - in that you have first and foremost a phone.

Manufacturers need to focus on providing open, extensible network enabled platforms (like Google and Palm have - I don't include Apple because its not really open) and supporting developers (Apple, Google and Palm) to produce fantastic applications that make people want to buy the platform. Palm has struck a happy medium on the application development front - developers are free to do what they want and publish without going through an approval process. Or they can submit applications to Palm for checking and get a 'seal of approval'.

Device sales are driven by a combination of quality hardware that provides a good ergonomic experience, the quality of the core OS and pre-loaded software, and the availability of third-party applications. You can see that in the Apple and Android-based sales. The better the experience, the better the device sells.

The best innovation I've seen in the last 12 months is the Palm Pre's approach to folding in connectivity to key application platforms and services that have nothing to do with Palm into the core of the phone's OS, and then following that through by making as much relevant use of them as they can. For example, if your phonebook doesn't have the number of an incoming call then your Facebook account is checked to see if the number matches anyone there, and if it does the appropriate contact information is displayed. Nice.

I'm not sure that Palm has the hardware quite right yet although I'd like to get my hands on a Pre for application development purposes. The software platform is definitely there. Nokia on the other hand are clearly still in handset mode and they need to move on quickly.

I may be speaking too soon but...

... we've had three cases of swine flu in the office over the last few weeks and although people are supposed to be contagious before their symptoms fully show, it seems not to be able to spread very easily. People who sit next to those who have gone down with flu are not catching it. We also have aircon (who doesn't) which has done a good job of spreading a cold around the office though.

Thos who have had it have been quite ill for several days. Definitely not man flu ;-)

Fantastic...

Another country that is criminalising activities legal in other countries. I hope we don't sign an American-style rapid extradition agreement with them...

This is what happens when a communications network spans multiple countries or, more importantly, cultures and religions. What is accepted practice in one is rude, immoral or illegal in another.

How about a UN bill of human rights as a starting point. Oh, hang on, that'll take years to agree and then half the nations won't sign. Hmm, think I'mm turning into a troll feeder.

Status update...

... Gulfie is feeling ill today ...

... Gulfie has shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the chior invisible ...

... Gulfie is feeling nice and toasty (briefly) ...

My only trouble is how I get those last two updates posted, and how I change my registered email to gulfie@heaven.afterlife.org (or is that @hell.afterlife.org)

@AC 16:36

Think you have your wires crossed here, Sir Alan Sugar does not have anything to do with DSG. He might own a few shares, I don't known, but he's not in the management chain, anywhere...