Posts by uccsoundman

Re: The scope is not large enough

You're assuming there will be another election. I sort of doubt it, or if there is, 120% of the voting population will vote to continue as is.

Re: Good lord

My father told a story of when he was in university in the early 1960's. His business school was neighbor to a VERY prestigious engineering school. He was walking through their parking lot and encountered one of the smartest engineering students on campus in tears next to his car because he had a flat tire and could not figure out how to change it despite the very clear, step-by-step instructions pasted on the underside of the trunk lid. He wasn't physically disabled or anything, but he could not wrap his straight-A, PHD head around that task. Dad would have changed it for him, but he was late to one of his 4 jobs he needed to pay for school.

Re: The fail is going to be spectacular!

Hemlock

I know it is a traffic cone, but it actually reminds me more of a Candy Corn that is given out as a Halloween treat, at least in the USA.

> Why the hell aren't they using BOTH links at once? That's the perfect test of your infrastructure, just push different clients/IP blocks down different paths, with failover when needed if one link goes down?

I can tell you that and I'm not even that smart. Lines are RENTED. If you have hot-hot redundancy when one line could easily support the traffic, then you are paying 2X what you should. Better to have the 2nd line in place but shut down. That costs less. You don't test it because you'd have to spin up that line and that costs money. Having a service go down may cost you some money in the future, but redundancy costs money NOW, and those who do not aggressively cut costs will themselves be made redundant. And really, how did this damage the company? They didn't lose a dollar of revenue. There was the costs of the consultants, but that comes out of a different account and doesn't show up on the quarterly earnings report.

Re: Ping pointed the finger

Reminds me of my days in QA: "Stop Testing, you're finding too many defects. We can't release with documented defects. Also, turn any defects already on file to enhancement requests. Get this done before 5pm or you're fired".

Re: Hey kids

Yes, until they loosen up on the illegal immigration laws because they discover that Western economies cannot operate without an exploited class of labor. When they do, they will cut the licensing requirements to watching YouTube videos and only hire people that'll work for $3.35/hr, and they don't get to count every hour. In the end, bean counters win every time.

The only sure job is to be a pinstripe suit type (or Wall Street type, etc) and own the labor. The way to prosperity is NEVER hard work, it's confiscating the benefits of another's hard work.

Re: I touch it and it breaks!

Yes, but as a tester, how many times have I been told "Stop Testing, you're finding too many defects. We've got to make the release". OR "Change these defects to enhancement requests or you're fired. We have to make the release date". And yeah, I'm in an industry where you don't want to see defects. But as long as the primary measurement is "Cost Reduction" and "Time To Market", nothing will change.

Re: Short-Sighted Doesn't Even Scratch the Surface

Deep in the heart of most Trump voters is the firm belief that the Holy Bible (and only the 1611 King James Version) contains all of the science that anybody will ever need. Everything else is against the will of God and wasteful. But then again, they are frustrated by money being spent on stuff like studies on transgender butterflies and other politically correct ideas.

Re: That's not the complaint

I am! I'm programming with it right now on the other screen.

Re: How close have you come to committing a crime while doing tech support?

>> Those of us with professional qualifications, or chartered status, have standards that we may be held against. I do work across multiple jurisdictions, but the chartered status standards are always (in my experience) higher than those of the laws of the land.

Here in the US, the accountant test is "What is 2+2?" The winning answer is "What do you want it to be?". My accounting teacher (a minor for me) said to check your ethics at the door. It is OUR job to lie in behalf of the customer.

> but would it really pass inspection?

Yes. All it takes is some folding money with pictures of dead presidents or a famous founding father on it.

The oldest phones used 49 Mhz for one side of the conversation and 1600 Khz (the upper side of the American MW Band) for the other side. Under Part 15 of the FCC's rules about low power unlicensed transmitters, you could have up to 100mw of transmit power (at least at the time) I worked for a Radio Shack then, and the manager used to take one of those phones and go two doors down the street to eat dinner and still be able to answer the phone. At that time, radios (such as scanners) that could pick up random frequencies around 49Mhz were not that common, but you could pick up the 1600 Khz signal on just about any AM radio. And it included the sidetone so you could hear both sides of the conversation. I lived in an apartment complex and you could hear some very NSFW conversations on the most ordinary of radios. Also, it wasn't that hard to hot-rod those phones (just change a resistor) and you could go to the next block.

Re: Interesting how every other country manages without this tone thing

I'm not sure how it works Britian (I still can't get over the fact you have to pay the government a hefty tax to watch TV). However, that alert tone is DEEPLY embedded in our psyche. If you are from England, watch your parent's and grandparent's reaction to an air-raid siren. Same thing. It was cemented into our brains that tone signaled the impending end of the world. My parents, and then I were drilled MONTHLY on what to do if we heard that tone. You walked around with a keen awareness of where the nearest shelter was in case the Russians dropped the big one on us. In case of emergency, that tone was on EVERY communications channel simultaneously. It elicits a very real flight-or-fight response.

Also, there are (or were) automatic systems tied to those tones. Places like hospitals had dedicated radios tuned to a station (usually a clear-channel AM) and when the alert was tested, that hospital radio alerted and a human was supposed to check on it. Because they did test it, the alert never directly resulted in an action; some human had to push the button.

These days there are other systems now, but all of those are a lot more vulnerable to failure and sabotage than the old fashioned EWS system. So, hands off the tones.

Re: Servers in the hiding room.

Well I've been in meetings where the fire alarms went off and the boss said "Anybody who leaves this room is FIRED!!!!". Somebody left, and he was fired for insubordination. When somebody in security tried to bring up the security violation, he was fired. Eventually everybody learned to ignore the fire alarm. Remember, this is the USA and laws are for the little people.

Didn't we have a tea party up in Boston?

American here: I tried Earl Grey and really didn't like it. It tasted like perfume to me. I like my super-strong Chai tea (tastes like mulled cider). But for everyday consumption I prefer whatever tea Lipton is. If I drink it hot, I change between black and some milk and touch of sugar. But I'm from the South, and the official beverage of the American South is STRONG Lipton tea, over ice, with about a pound of sugar. Iced tea is my preferred beverage too, but diabetes runs in my family so it is unsweetened. And iced tea has the advantage you don't have to light the kettle every day at 4pm.

> I was working under IR35 at the time...

Can you explain this to the token American? I did Google it and it appeared to be something like "Getting Paid Under The Table" or "Unpaid Work (do it for free or lose your job)". How would the airline suffer if they were discovered?

The latter is pretty common in the USA, so much so that companies brag about how much free overtime they can force people to do. E

Re: It worked on my machine!

That's Agile for you! Test it in production. NOTHING is more important than getting the release out on time, and "on time" means yesterday.

Re: failed meeting

When I was younger I could drive about 1000 miles per day, but that left about an hour for a catnap at a truck stop. Now my limit is about 1/2 that; 500 miles in 10 hours (that includes gas and toilet stops and time for some fast-food). If you are in a hurry and have multiple drivers, you can make about 1400 miles in a day. That's a rule of thumb however. On the Eastern seaboard it is less. Out west it is higher, and there's a stretch of road in Texas where the speed limit is 85 mph.

But they aren't doing things the old way anymore. If they were, the planes would not be falling out of the sky or explosively disassembling. It doesn't matter if they are using PDF or dead-tree or even hieroglyphics. If they are ignoring the instructions and falsifying the reports (which they are) then who cares how it is documented?

Well, the trouble is that "Scientific Inquiry" is no longer a sufficient reason to launch any spacecraft. These days there has to be a ROI within this quarter, or it will not get done. I predict that nothing on the order of the Hubble will ever get done again because there is no immediate profit in it. After all, who cares if the universe is 13.1 or 23.2 billion years old? How does that get me any goodies? It doesn't? Well never mind then. Nobody was interested in revisiting the moon until they found minerals they could mine for $$$$. Now there is a mad rush to the moon.

"If a business cannot exist without the unlawful and unethical exploitation of data subjects then in the public interest is should close. Shareholders should not be the number one consideration in every matter regarding business. If they lose out for investing in an unlawful unethical business then they should lose their money."

Obviously not an American. In the USA, unlawful and unethical is the very definition of business. When I was in Business school, a professor said "You know what they call people to obey the law? LOOSERS!!!, Soon to be bankrupt and unemployed. And Shareholders are GODS and their profit is the ONLY consideration. They can do anything they want, any time they want, to whomever they want, so long as it makes a profit. The government and the courts will back them all the way.

Re: Emgineering 101

> Oh and agile is shit and we all know it,

Yes, but it's CHEAPER. Not only do you no longer need to do testing, but when the product fails, the contract temps that wrote it are LONG gone to another project at another company. The CIO only needs to point to the cost savings and no further questions will be asked. The shareholders only look at that cost and never at the cost of the failure (so sad, too bad). If you are a customer that lost money, oh well, that's life in the big city. Complain to the regulators? LOL, they are in the Bahamas partying with the CIO.

Re: What you get

-> You got what you paid for, boys.

Yes they did. They got the company, bumped the stock price, cashed out, and set the company on auto-destruct. Once it is dead, they will send in the buzzards to feast on the carcass.

Re: Completely agree

Yes, but when the cloud companies go to the pointy-haired-bosses and say why are you paying for computers, space to store them, and engineers to keep them running? Instead, outsource to us. We'll pay for the computers, space, and engineers, and rent them to you for a very modest sum.

So, they move to the cloud, sell their computers and their building, and fire the engineers. Just then, as if by magic, the cloud provider starts raising their prices and charging by the transaction. The resulting bill is DOUBLE what it used to be, and they're now in the grip of another company for their existence. And they can't go back, because they jettisoned everybody who knew how the old system worked.

But by this time, the CEO has been rewarded for cutting costs, and the stockholders have taken their money and run.

Happens.Every.Single.Time.

Re: Why would one ...

Another reason is that these toaster ovens gobble gigantic amounts of power, and most office wiring isn't hefty enough to support them.

Re: Higgins

Oh, around here Higgins would be fired! The chorus of "he's finding too many defects" would be so deafening that development management would waste no time in showing Higgins to the door! How many times have I been ordered to change sev-high defects to a feature request or lose my job, and told "Stop Testing; your finding too many defects, and we won't be able to release".

Re: Notes? How old school!

I eventually took a Shorthand class so I could take notes at talking speed. Not 100% effective (I wasn't that good at it) but better than writing longhand.

Re: What an idiotic waste of time and effort

It's something you learn in business school, even undergrad. Capitalism ruthlessly rewards efficiency and punishes inefficiency. The most efficient business model is a Monopoly, and the most efficient labor model is involuntary servitude.

Re: I replaced a network cable. -> We replaced a power cable

Q: What's a "Dicky Plug"? I haven't heard of that.

Re: Stealing more than fuel

> The thieves turn up with a large powerful pickup...

They have Large Powerful pickups in the UK? I'm actually astonished. From what I've seen on TV the biggest pickup trucks I've seen appear to be about the size of a Tuk-Tuk, and would easily fit in the bed of the average size pickup truck here in the US.

Re: Service Windows

Or better yet, the only person who either had permissions and/or knew how to do the maintenance quit long ago because the company across the street was offering 2X the salary and was offering benefits like not being on-site 24/7/365 because you were the only person on staff. And BTW, he was the only one that knew the key-codes to get in the server room door and the only one who knew how to change them. So, as time goes on, the company has less and less access to its computers.

Or, how about maintenance is required but nobody knows where the machine is? Indeed in one case they didn't even know what CITY the machine was in.

Re: Simpler Solution

Because generating revenue is only one purpose of the tax system. The other is social manipulation. For instance, you can deduct the interest on your house mortgage, thus encouraging home ownership. Also VAT taxes only tax the money that you spend. Income taxes get a piece of any money you receive. So, if you win the lottery, the government gets about 1/2 of it even if you never spend a dime of your winnings.