"Power Cut" - I don't think so.

That must be a bit, errr, economical with the actualite, since exchanges big enough to service that many lines have massive batteries and generators to top them up if the mains is off for ages.

So either:

i) The batteries failed - poor maintenance

ii) The generators failed when called for - see i)

iii) It was something other than a "power cut".

What about the cost of upgrading ?

Item 4 -" Systems value drift assessments" should also be carried out before upgrading - i.e. analysis of how far the capabilities of the installed system already meet the business requirements and the opportunity costs of re-training and "feature bloat" if updating.

Here, of course, I have in mind a certain "Office Productivity" suite, let alone other products.

And..... Dare I say that using FOSS/Libre software would nicely avoid these issues. I mean truly free software, not stuff where the features that actually make it usable are closed.

Finally - how about initial contract negotiation, ensuring that the escro arrangements (you did make sure those were in place ???) cover access to the source code for ongoing support purposes if excessive charges are levied ? It's only the business practices and conventions of software suppliers that mean this isn't a standard contract condition. If all the users demanded this together......

IP maybe, but TCP ??

"(Weightless will happily carry IPv4 and IPv6 packets)"

But on reading the description of the protocol, I think the chances of TCP running over it will be near-zero.

A bit like TCP running over the 2G network, then.

On another topic, why is it that the TV spectrum space attracts such stupidity. It started with "slotting" Channel 5 into the "unused" guard channels in the band plan. And just goes downhill from there.

Remember OpenMail ?

The last time Samsung bought orphaned software from HP, it was OpenMail.

That worked well for them.....

Assembler standards ??

You were doing (fairly) well until we got to: "We probably know enough about Assembler to have a standard (or multiple standards perhaps) version of it:"

Clearly, a lesson in what Assembler is is needed here (from someone who in his 2nd year degree course was required to manually translate a program written in assembler to 1's and 0's and then punch them in on the front panel switches of an HP2100)

Assembler is a mnemonic "language" for the machine level, numeric, opcodes of the processor for which it is designed, with (usually) the addition of at least macro capabilities to assist the programmer.

As such, in general, the processor designer is best-placed to "standardise" the language, and it will be processor-specific. i386 assembler must, by definition, be entirely different from Power PC assembler, both entirely different from Alpha assembler, both entirely different from PDP-11 assembler, both entirely different from ARM assembler, etc, etc, ad nauseam.

Key reason for virtualisation

Don't forget the key reason for virtualisation.

It's the only way you'll be able to run SCO Openserver (you know, the operating system that all US Defence relies on) on any modern hardware.

I'll tell him what'll happen

Fox wants shareholders to do something about failed ICT projects for the MoD ??

I can tell him (or rather their companies' management) what they'll do.

Walk.

Like all bar one of the contractors on NPfIT did once it was clear that was going to be a total, moneypit for all concerned, failure. To everyone except the Government decision-makers, of course.

And, of course, BT, who collected all the money for the total waste of the rip-and-replace NHS National Network version 3 well in advance of any deliverable service apart from VoIP appearing over it.

Things just don't change

I remember the same basic mistakes being made repeatedly in UART (and their discrete predecessors) drivers, especially in the handling of multiple interrupts on noisy RS232 lines and XON/XOFF handling.

DecSystem10, RSX-11M, Olivetti's S6000 mini, Unix Sys V.....

It was clear that knowledge about this was kicking around, but the people who wrote the next OS were a set of new college grads without this previous experience.

Seems we have the same lack of knowledge transfer to the people who Really Count today. Quelle surprise.

Android ??

So... an analysis of app stores "on mobile" makes no mention at all of the (presently) fastest-growing mobile environment and its app store - Android.

How so ?? Perhaps because it could be a counter-example ??

This is nearly as bad as the "digital - vs - analog (sic) business model" article.

TCO

Oh look, lots of discussions about TCO (at least total Carbon cost) of an electric car vs hydrocarbon-powered.

Seems just like the Windows vs Linux TCO arguments :-)

Commercial-in-Confidence

As long as the really, really significant information on how OUR money is spent remains hidden behind commercial confidence undertakings, the community & voluntary sectors (and SMBs for that matter) will remain on the back foot. And we'll never know if we're being taken for a ride.

When public money is being spent, every bit about it should be freely available. It should be a standard condition of public sector contracts that the financials and the Ts & Cs are published, and any company that doesn't like it can look elsewhere for their business.

I also look forward to Hell freezing over.

next fail in 2021

See they've renewed it til 2021 now. Not that the DNS has propagated yet. and halfords.co.uk still redirects to the broken .com....

"Push" services

OMFG, I need those like I need a hole in the head.

FFS, Benioff, I want to decide what data I'm given (as least at a high level). Not have "The Cloud" decide it for me.

Otherwise, I know what I'll be getting.

Spamvertising. And we know how well that went down.

'coz these guys need to go back to skool.

Open core ?? WTF ??

Oh dear, dear, dear.

McNealy spouts the "Open Core" line, a description that's only been coined in the last couple of years max.

"Open Core" is just like all the M$ products and ideas with "Open" preceding their name - you know, like OOXML - i.e. the word "open" is redefined as "closed" aka "proprietary" in this usage of the word.

Maybe English will change its usage like it has since the KJV bible - you know, Paul was "previously let from going to Corinth" - back then "let" meant "prevent", now it means the exact opposite. "Open" is rapidly inverting its meaning too :-)

As another poster said, the license Sun used to release "open" Slowlaris was widely condemned by the community, and IIRC had to be modified to be meet the OSI's definition of Open Source.

Reasons for lack of Windows deployment ??

One of the 3 reasons listed is "lack of GUI-based interface for data modeling and admin"

You mean like phpMyAdmin ???

Admittedly, it's browser-based, not GUI-based, but does anyone really think the former isn't the future ??

And where would you rather deploy the A in LAMP/WAMP ?? Windows or Linux ??

Not so much for Googlers to be scared of really

"Privately, Googlers admit they are scared of Microsoft — and they should be, given it's track record of coming from behind against Novell, Palm, and Sony in operating systems, devices, and games over the years."

I rate that track record 1 out of 3 - operating systems. Well, file serving (so 90's) to be precise, but I won't be picky.

Where is the MS device that beat Palm ?? Shurely you can't mean Windows Mobile-based devices ??

And if I was running a company, I'd like to make a PROFIT out of what I sell. The MS Games division is a long, long, long way from doing that. Not that Sony is, either, but large piles of cash can last a long, long time.

ActiveX. Again.

I seem to remember that when M$ proposed the ActiveX "architecture", every unbought security expert threw up their hands in horror, screaming "DON'T DO THAT".

But M$ did do that, proclaiming (as always) that it was "what their customers were demanding", and that the benefits outwieghed the risks.

Permanent vulnerability was what their customers were demanding, clearly.

Well, it is Sastan's Spawn, isn't it ??

Nitpicks

memcpy() et al aren't "commands" , they're "functions"

Neither are they part of the "C" language - they are part of the "C" run-time support library, and these function calls aren't defined by the "C" language

Monster always were a useless bunch. Jobshite too

Both Monster and JobShite sent me Herbalife distribution "opportunities" when I signed up to them. Both of them told me that these were genuine job offers when I put it to them that these were pretty damn close to Ponzi schemes, if not actually Ponzi schemes. I asked not to be sent them any more, but they demurred.

I will never, ever, ever, ever (is that clear enough ??) use either Monster or JobShite either as a recruiter or a candidate. That was enough evidence to demonstrate that both are totally unprofessional, and that they solely wanted the ad income, whatever its source.

Imagine my surprise when a few months later Monster suffered their first data breach.

Bill, coz his business "ethics" match to a tee

WTF here too

'He said Nominet and the domain industry need to take more heed of the government agenda on phishing, spam and "bad content".'

So, explain to me what a system that turns letters and numbers into IPv4 and IPv6 addresses has to do with those 3 issues on the government agenda ??

Phishing - education and browser security

Spam - effective sanctions, decent filtering software (mine bounces 98% of the spam at SMTP HELO) and, again, education - i.e. - Don't go flying off to Nigeria, revelaing your bank account details, cashing a cheque and passing on the proceeds until the cheque recall period has passed, or buying cut Viagra.

"Bad content" - what's that ?? Kiddie Porn ?? Criticism of the Government ?? Happy-slapping videos ?? I could take a view if I knew what it meant.

Paris, coz we all know about her bad content

Couldn't happen to a nicer network

So, things havent changed since they were one2one and cut me off whilst abroad for exceeding my credit limit, which they hadn't told me about. Without any prior noitification. So I gave them one more chance and told them so, and guess what ?? They did it again. Again without contacting me first to give me a chance to add funds to my account.

I will never, ever use One2One or its successors-in-interest thanks to their total incompetence