Posts by A Non e-mouse

Re: tape to cloud?

Ask librarians & archivists about this. It's something they worry about all the time. Just look at the BBC Domesday project. After just a short period of time they were unable to read the discs.

Re: Watch the Channel 5 documentary

I was going to mention that too. One of the points I remembered about that program, was one of the pilots saying that after they did some market research they found that customers didn't actually know how much their ticket cost and so they could increase it and improve their finances.

Re: The ciphers look as if they will remain in the Linux kernel

I'd be interested to see Daniel Bernstein's opinion.

@Eddy42 Re: Careful where you point blame

In general, you are absolutely correct. However, in my defence, when this problem first started, people in the logistics industry pointed out that DHL had never done food (At anywhere like this scale) before and they'd bid seriously low in order to win the business.

Re: My Account Manager

We got a new account manager at a reseller. I asked for a quote for some software licenses. The price seemed far too cheap. I went back three times and asked them to check the price. Every time they came back and said the price was correct. In the end, I sent off a PO to them for the quoted price. Thirty minutes later I got a phone call. The account manager had got the price hideously wrong and was told that if I insisted they put the order through, the company would supply at the agreed price but the account manager would get fired on the spot.

I did the honorable thing and asked them to ignore the order and issue me with a fresh quote.

Re: It's bad to say....

I don't use them enough so always look them up.

Don't be embarrassed. You have to be regularly dealing in subnet masks to easily switch between /28 and 255.255.255.240 I've seen many network engineers with little crib sheets on the side of their monitors to cross reference between the two formats.

Re: OH dear....

About time the fines were more than a operating expense.

I heard a story about a public body that signed a contract with a company for the supply of a system. The contract had numerous penalty clauses for delays and inability to meet performance requirements. After several delays and no real sign of the system being able to work, the public sector client looked to invoke the penalty clauses. The supplier said the client was free to invoke them, but if they did, the supplier would be filling for bankruptcy as it could't afford to pay any.

The public body was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Re: No, it's not

Calls, texts, letters, and e-mail all cost money, but Facebook is Free.

- Most mobile & landline contracts now have bundled local calls. And for non-local calls, people are using Skype, Facetime, etc.

- Most mobile tariffs have "unlimited*" texts

- Email via GMaill, etc. is free. The only cost is the data that you already use to connect to Facebook.

- I'll give you that letters cost. But how many people actually send hand written letters any more when more instant communication is now available?

*We're all friends here, so we know what this really means.

Re: Oracle... don't make me laugh

Looking for one vender only, DOES spur competition. The best deal wins

But only for the initial purchase. Once signed, the vendor is more than able to screw the customer with either price increases, huge lags in price decreases or just s**t service.

As for a ten year contract: That's crazy. I'm reluctant to sign five year contracts, let alone a ten year contract. That's a guarantee of getting shafted by the supplier (Unless, of course, brown paper bags, etc...)

Re: Don't get it - It's like a competition to see who has the most stupid.

An awful lot of "sports" are basically just that..

I've seen a couple of interviews with pro cyclists. They all say that professional cycling is all about pain endurance: Who can handle the pain the longest? I'd be surprised if many other endurance sports don't have similar characteristics.

You've obviously never heard of bog snorkeling...

We're always having arguments with the auditors over this. They seem to be stuck in the last century and believe that forcing users to change their passwords every 30 days is best practice.

*sigh*

Re: Empire

Whilst we're at it, might as well mention that those lovely phone lines that Virgin give you despite not wanting? All run by BT.

Re: Damn

Fastmail

Disclaimer: Satisfied paying customer for many years.

Re: Just a moment... Just a moment...

HAL's core programming was for the accurate and transparent processing of data.

In 2010, we discover that the NSA hid the existence of the Monolith from Bowman & Pool. The scientists were told about the Monolith before being put into hibernation, and HAL was told about it in case the human crew perished so he could carry on on his own. But HAL was instructed not to mention the Monolith to Bowman/Pool.

It was this contradiction of being transparent yet being told to hide something that sent HAL mad.

I seem to recall that as Bowman removes parts of HALs CPU/Memory, he finally reveals the hidden orders about the Monolith.

Re: I don't know for a fact or even if its happening..

If they were artificially restricting supply, they'd be ramping the price up too.

@djstardust Re: Yet again

Yes.

Re: There was no Internet

I get the impressions that today's school children are taught how to pass exams.

Schools are under huge pressure to get good exam results. That's all they care about. Helping children in the real world isn't important.

It's just like the NHS: As soon as league tables were introduced, administrators/managers looked to see what they could do to get the best results for the least effort.

Re: Other beneficiaries

I knew someone who worked for a small government agency and they said they frequently used social media to track suspects and build a case against them,

@Alister

The competition which lead to the F35