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I find it astoundingly ironic that in today's "Code Project Insider" mailout, there is this [TechCrunch article] (No cookie consent walls — and no, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU data protection body – TechCrunch[^]), which is purportedly about the report on the use of cookies and other tracking technologies by the Irish Data Protection Commission, the privacy watchdog of the EU.
However, clicking on the link one is immediately confronted with the most blatant example of a "Cookie Consent Wall". TechCrunch, by the way, is part of the Verizon group which includes the likes of Yahoo and Lexology.
This Cookie experience start with a panel offering a brief description of cookies and their potential uses and two choices, agree to everything without giving any consideration to what cookies might be placed and for what purposes, or "Manage Partners".
The Manage Partners Option leads to another panel, this time with some more babble about how Verizon's partners each have their own privacy policies and there are three categories of partner one is expected to wade through if one wishes to fully control cookie placement by Verizon/Yahoo. One is expected to independently navigate to each one and their cookie control mechanisms.
In Foundational Partners, there are 19 links to follow. In IAB Partners, there are 163 individual links to follow and, finally, there is a list of 163 Google partners the settings for which have to be independently managed in the Google "Ad Personalisation" settings.
To add insult to injury, a web search for other news outlets covering the same story initially only produces results from Yahoo and Lexology where one will get exactly the same experience.
Eventually, I was able to locate [the actual report itself] (https://www.dataprotection.ie/sites/default/files/uploads/2020-04/Data%20Protection%20Commission%20cookies%20sweep%20REVISED%2015%20April%202020%20v.01.pdf[^])
These sorts of practice by Verizon, Yahoo Et al. means that I now completely avoid any of their resources and if I ever accidentally land on one of their sites and am presented with this cookie BS, I immediately close the page without reading whatever it was they were trying to encourage me to look at.
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mmcapps88 wrote: These sorts of practice by Verizon, Yahoo Et al. means that I now completely avoid any of their resources and if I ever accidentally land on one of their sites and am presented with this cookie BS, I immediately close the page without reading whatever it was they were trying to encourage me to look at.
If they were the only ones doing that... 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Stupid EU is stupid. Those unconcerned by cookies accept anyway, those concerned set up their browser. Those who know jack and the other thing and Jack left town still don't understand what's all this about and will not magically understand tomorrow, and give access to all social media data to know what kind of vegetable they are.
But EU is concerned about banana curvatures, peas sizes, everything they can micromanage they will. Bureaucrats like the ones we never saw before, not even in Italy, motherland of pointless bureaucracy.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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And that is why, were I a UK citizen, I'd be a BREXIT supporter.
As for the main body of the comment - absolutely!
So many people I know (i.e., family, friends) don't give a crap about their browser privacy - they think I just over-reacting or something when I have and suggest they use cookie, adver, web-beacon, and other managements.
The usual reply "I have nothing to hide" - I wonder how they'd feel if they found their the mail in their mailbox already opened?
Meanwhile - there's all this anger about identity theft. Sometimes I wonder when they'll start posting the details of their stolen information on their FarceBook page.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I use the Politician (or Hollywood big or Corporate Director) approach: what's on Google, Facebook whatever accessed with one browser and no VPN is my public data.
Anything I want private is accessed via an isolated browser, anonimously (if any data are to be inserted they are fake) under Panama VPN. No intermixing between the two.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Yes and no.
I do feel like the EU is micromanaging and meddling with affairs they should leave to individual countries.
Meanwhile, countries that break the rules like there's no tomorrow get very light punishments and pardons.
It's not all bad though, and ultimately I feel they do more good than bad.
Were it up to me there would be a huge reorganization though, like not getting bonuses for simply doing your job or even just showing up.
As for the cookie stuff specifically, I think it's good companies can't just collect your data anymore.
True, most people don't really care about it, but at least it's a start and I feel it made more people aware.
People don't care because they don't know how it works and they don't really have an alternative anyway.
If the EU did nothing you'd have no privacy left and they have to start somewhere.
Since the whole GDPR has come into effect I regularly decline cookies or at least decline all the optional ones.
Rest assured, if I do it, millions (or at least 100's of 1000's) are doing the same because we are now presented with a choice.
And now they can sharpen the rules and get even more people into not giving away their privacy.
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Well - they you're there means you have some concern about your privacy.
So you won't "patronize" the Verizon/Yahoo/etc. group.
If you have gmail, you already consented to allow them to do whatever they want with your email. Even if you didn't consent - and you send an email to someone with gmail - you are covered by their consent. They can profile you very well (indirectly) by keeping track of which of their users you send/receive mail from. Which, in multi-recipient emails you are a part of when they send. Do you see the picture?
As for that picture, how do the EU watchdogs handle that bit of privacy? Probably just more absurd fines on Google for doing what their (public) business model says they do - to fill in some of those budget gaps in the less-well-managed member-state economies.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Maybe browsers should have a mandatory "report to privacy watchdog" button so that you can report any website easily.
Or maybe a browser plugin that's easy to install and widely reported in the news, so that the people who are interested know where to find it.
You're not going to report this website because you don't know how and you can't be arsed to find out.
If it were a simple button click you probably would and this sort of behavior could be rooted out a lot faster 
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Same story as the agreements you need to click away when running a game the first time; I'm not capable of understanding the agreement and can "click here" to run the game I paid for, so that's what I do.
An agreement that's forced onto the client, without the client understanding it (or by misleading the client) isn't valid.
Some emails have these legal texts saying I'm not allowed to "share the information"; being sent to a GMail inbox that is automatically scanned for advertising-keywords. If it is sent to GMail, then it is shared with Google, regardless of the legal demands made in the mail (which arrives and is read without you having a change to agree or disagree).
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Wandering, quiet road is sticky and black and yellow at first! (9)
quiet ................ P
road ................. LANE
is sticky and black ....... TAR
and yellow at first .......... Y PLANETARY = Wandering
I'd thought the "easy" P and Y would be a simple pointer and that sticky and black was straightforward too; and rather liked it that the "Wandering, quiet" prefix to road helped suggest "lane". Ho hum. Will try again tomorrow then!
modified 7-May-20 8:32am.
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Not a scooby - I think you'll be up again tomorrow
"We can't stop here - this is bat country" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I'll give it a little while longer...
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I thought the limit was three hours?
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tbh I'd forgotten what the limit is... tried searching for the original rules + couldn't find them! Posting solution now...
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Thanks, bookmarked now - and it is 4 hours, according to OG .. so I was right to wait!
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I got all the pieces except lane - never seen that used for road
"We can't stop here - this is bat country" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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What is the percentage of success rates with your dev. estimates?
What is the % of deviation you feel is acceptable to a development team.
I'm frequently falling off the deadline by 5-10% extra days.
When the boss asks to work on a new technology or framework, it's unknown water.
Whatever tools we had used already, we do a precise estimate, add some buffer.
But whenever (most often) we use a new framework or a technology, the deadline gets slipped marginally.
Some heads at the top yell at the deadline miss. It's making the whole team go mad when they put all the efforts to get things working.
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If you're Nand32 wrote: frequently falling off the deadline by 5-10% extra days.
then I'd suggest adding 5 - 10% to your estimates.
You won't always need it but you won't be delivering late. If you're ready early then you either have time to be more thorough, (including documentation etc), to dig deeper into whatever new tech it is you're using (if it's new and you're on time, it's probably good so you're going to want to use it again, so master it now!), take some time off, or deliver early and bank some brownie points.
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The problem goes far beyond the estimate, which is only 1/3 of the situation.
First you create an estimate, then you schedule the work using the estimate, THEN you manage the schedule.
Estimate:
- Involve the team. Get input from the folks that will be doing the work. Even if some are not good at estimates, this gives them skin in the game. Use it as a teaching tool.
- If new (to the team) technology is involved, add a task to learn the technology. No OTJ, "we'll figure it out". Plan for learning.
- Estimate each task at the task level. If you have a high and a low estimate, use the average or the high, depending on how much you trust the estimates.
- Add a task for reporting, both within the team, and to stakeholders. This can eat a lot of time.
- Do a risk assessment, including technical and non-technical risk. [Management oversight is a risk.] Plan time for managing risks.
- Add 10%-20% to account for the things not accounted for, and for things to simply go wrong. This covers equipment failure, team turnover, etc.
- Add everything up, and even if the number looks ridiculous, it's probably right.
This will give you that extra 5%-10% that's missing, and you can justify everything if management wants a detailed review.
Schedule:
- Consider team utilization, e.g., how much of a 40 hour week will actually be spent on the work? I typically use 32 hours, although in a situation where the team is also doing production support, I scheduled for 20 hours/week utilization.
- Plan for holidays, vacation, and sick time. If you work with foreign nationals who take a longer annual vacation to visit family, take that into account.
- Add a week every quarter for things to go wrong. SOMETHING will go wrong; Murphy's Law applies.
Scheduling too tightly is a huge factor in missed deadlines.
Manage the Schedule:
- Scope control -- IME this is the largest factor in failed projects. Agree upon scope before the schedule is created. Get this in writing from the stakeholder(s), or get an acknowledgement email.
- Change Management -- Every change gets submitted in writing, is estimated, and the change to scope and project duration is provided to the stakeholder(s). Make them think about what they are asking, and make them realize there are costs, in both time and money. Each requested change costs at least 1/2 day for 1 person to review the change and provide feedback.
- If, despite all efforts, the deadline will be missed, document the cause, estimate changes, and produce a new deadline. Do your best to ensure this happens, at most, once.
If your organization will not allow you to do all of the above, you have 2 choices:
1. Live with it.
2. Find a new job.
Harsh but true ....
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IMHO, up to 15% off is normal. So, include that 15 percent into the estimate as a buffer, and give that 115% figure as the final estimate. (Don't tell others that there is a buffer, but you know that there is).
It is also true in some cases, that work commences as the deadline approaches.
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An estimate is NOT a deadline. It is an estimate and by definition it will not be precise.
Do you remember those paper-books with crosswords that you can buy at the train-station? Pick one with 4 stars, and don't look at the amount of pages. Now, estimate how long it will take for you to solve each puzzle. Done? Buy another one with 5 star difficulty, estimate again, and start yelling in the mirror that you were way off and missed the deadline.
If you impose a time-limit, then people will drop stuff simply to stay within the limit. If you want quality and are dealing with an unknown, then you cannot demand a date. Well, you can, but then you get a "when it compiles, we ship it" attitude.
Nand32 wrote: I'm frequently falling off the deadline by 5-10% extra days.
Is that with or without moving specs? Is this falling off always the fault of the programmers, or is there a possibility that your estimate is off due to, say, unexpected pandemics? Aight, more common example - 3rd parties that don't do as promised. Hardware failures. Incompatible API's. And is that with, or without giving "support" for the previous versions? Can you hang up on a customer without a word to keep the "deadline"?
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: An estimate is NOT a deadline. It is an estimate and by definition it will not be precise.
One ex-chef of mine answered me in a not so good manner to such comment back then.
My answer was: As if all your offers were the same as the final contract being signed.
He visibly refrained a reply, turned around and left.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Nelek wrote: He visibly refrained a reply, turned around and left.
A quick learner then 
Forcing, rudeness; worked well in the 19th century in the coal mines when people depended on the work for their food. Nowadays, if the employer is not friendly, you simply look for one that is and move
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: An estimate is NOT a deadline. It is an estimate and by definition it will not be precise
I just realize how, over a period people have started misusing the word estimate.
In my team, they take an estimate for Deadline.
WTH. I have missed to ask this basic question when I'm fighting back
Point noted.
Eddy Vluggen wrote: Is that with or without moving specs?
Of course, Of course.
We have never done a release without modifying at least a tiny bit in the requirements.
But they ask like "Okay but you guys take this much to do this change?"
Eddy Vluggen wrote: If you impose a time-limit, then people will drop stuff simply to stay within the limit. If you want quality and are dealing with an unknown, then you cannot demand a date. Well, you can, but then you get a "when it compiles, we ship it" attitude.
All points noted down. Arming the missiles now.
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