Posts by allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Gartner's broken out its crystal ball again.

There, FTFY!

Today Google’s European supremo hinted that being in China might be less of a hassle, and that losing Google would serve us Europeans right for being so backward.

Don't let the door hit you on your way out, Matt! Bon voyage!

"That is the equivalent of giving a thief the keys to your house; that is not representative of how US wireless operators secure and protect their networks. We continue to maintain security as a top industry priority." - John Marinho, VP CTIA

Yeeesss... in the sense that you want to make a point about home secutity, but don't want to get ugly scratches on the door lock. Or, more to the point in this case, don't want a the cops interrupting the demonstration.

BTW, why no CTIA? Isn't there a T too much in this? jokes?

new "reporting structures"

Still safely inside the legal limits, but essentially fiddling with the books. When the accounting department ot a tech company is more creative than the R&D departments, things start going south. I agree with SecretSonOfHG, in a couple of years Big Blue will be split into several companies. Which will delay the inevitable, but not prevent it.

After all, nobody was ever fired for replacing IBM with something cheaper.

I've checked - the official Sesame Street Store doesn't offer something neutrino-themed or Cherenkov-radiation-flashes-themed yet. Which is a pity. They should at least have something like Gino the Neutrino from Professor Proton.

Anyway, top notch cool boffinry!

I do hope they are aware that IME everybody lies in online surveys...

Anyway, from my point of view we are a bit on the horns of a dilemma here. I see basically three options:

1 answer truthfully

2 mess up the answers in creative ways (okay, as creative as multiple choice lets you) for fun

3 mess up the answers in ways that will allow El Reg to sell their ad space for a better price (because the survey clearly and unrefutable shows that all the really, really important moving shakers of IT read it

Wow, $1500 for a peek at hazy it-may-come-this-way-but-maybe-it-will-not 3-page-prediction far less reliable than a long term weather forecast - I'm in the wrong line of business.

D'oh!

An indicator warning of suspected jamming would be nice.

Apart from that it seems a bit like a solution looking for a problem. In other words, nice idea but what's the point? Position data is only any use when combined with a map, be it electronic or paper, anyway. Besides, it's not like GPS is the only system there is. And should GPS ever be used for what it was originally designed for I guess I have other problems.

Elvis isn't dead, he just went home.

So it begins...

You had me

at COBOL.

But I do get why there is such a massive response. Technical people* are trained to work with facts. Everyone of us who works or has worked in large-ish organisations has experienced the 'management by self delusion' that kicks in when the upper echelons slip into the 'boss zone'. Also, let's face it, a lot of technical people have a personality* that can make it tricky to handle outright lies, even at the little-white-lies level of, say, compliments or smalltalk.

*I know one should only speak for oneself, so sorry for the generalisation; it's always uncomfortably close to cliche.

**There are reasons why I'm an engineer and not, say, a salesman, or a priest, or a social worker, or ...

He"s right, you know.

"But if Facebook started selling out Chinese users, who might then spend the next few years slaving in a Chinese work camp, the backlash is going to be huge. Facebook is all about social, and its users in the West would use the company's own site to organize against it."

Excuse me? Selling out its users is Facebook's business model. And every Facebook user is a willing part of it.

Oh, capitalsm, thou art a strange beastie indeed...

But Raiffeisen Austria, yeah, fits right in their current track record.

As stated in the press release from the White House, the purpose of the "Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP)" is "to take a series of short-term and long-term actions to improve our nation’s cybersecurity posture. A central feature of that plan is the non-partisan Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, comprised of leading thinkers from business, technology, and academia and charged with making recommendations to the nation for actions that can be taken over the next decade to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sector." (emphasis by me)

So the commission's role seems to be to sternly say "Cybersecurity! Sit up staight! Don't slouch about! Now go to your room and do your homework!"

Jokes aside, here is the full list:

Tom Donilon, former Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor (Chair)

Maggie Wilderotter, Executive Chairman of Frontier Communications

Dear Keith* should know a thing or two about computer security. The Uber guy is on the commission because someone from Google would be too obvious at this time (Google owns quite a lot of Uber). Apart from that, the whole thing looks like some sort of combo: the administration is seen to be doing something (Getting tough on cybercrime!). Opportunities to funnel public money into the cybersecutity business.

*A couple of years ago when he was still in charge (of the NSA) I watched coverage of some senate hearing or other - I could have sworn he was channelling J. Edgar on that day.

Crowdfunding new Commodore 64s, desktop and handheld

THE C64 on Indiegogo

Article on BoingBoing

Any thoughts, anyone?

As the first example is about Ruby on Rails:

Classic programmer paintings

Can't I just rent cloud storage from the NSA directly and be done with it?

"Sounds like a virtual reality nuclear bomb explosion without the headsets."

Actually one of the few applocations where I can see VR + headset working. Also, in a secret lab where it doesn't matter how you look like using it.

Okidoki - switching from Dropbox to Box in five, four, three, ...

Because terrorists!

Brussels terrorists kept their plans in an unencrypted folder called "TARGET"