Absolutely brilliant, best one in a while.
BOFH: Every computer system eventually serves ads
BOFH logo telephone with devil's horns "I'm going to need you two to sign this," the Boss says sternly, passing a sheet of paper to the PFY and me. "An NDA? Why would we need to sign an NDA?" "Just sign it," the Boss says. "We can't sign it till we know what it's about," the PFY explains. "For all we know, the moment we …
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Monday 19th January 2026 13:32 GMT CountCadaver
Re: "we worry about hallucinations in AI, but not world leaders"
Instead of spending trillions (or whatever comes above trillions) on "AI", we should built a device to bring Nigel Hawthorne back from the dead, but where he is locked into the character of sir Humphrey Appleby
Now where do we get the money you may ask?
Well someone should pitch a concept for a resurrection machine to the tech bros - when they scoff at it and say due to enemas, Lima beans etc they are going to live forever, then the reply "what if your plane or helicopter suffers mechanical failure? What if it's shot down? What if you are the next one after Charlie Kirk someone is gunning for?
Wouldn't you sleep easier knowing that it wouldn't matter, that you could be brought back from the dead to continue to provide irreplaceable visionary leadership for all time no matter what?
Then a few phonecalls playing them off each other, where "I can't say who, but one of your fellow multi billionaires is planning to go all in on this and they make allusions to having buy in from others also, however they wouldn't name names but when I mentioned your name they gave a rather derisory laugh and said, and just so you know I don't agree with this at all, I think they are very much out of order with these comments, yes yes I'll get to the point, they said when your name came up that you had "neither the intellectual capacity, vision or frankly genius for something of this importance and the world would be better off without you "
Stoke paranoia and petty rivalries heavily and see them try and exclude each other so that they and ONLY they will live forever and escape death
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Friday 16th January 2026 18:31 GMT drand
Re: Good episode, but take note:
Interesting. Perhaps the proof is alcohol-rated.
Pudding is a great word in the English culinary lexicon as it can, and over the centuries has, refer to pretty much anything cooked any old way, though traditionally I think it was referring to something boiled or steamed in a cloth or casing. A pudding can be sweet, savoury, or both, steamed, boiled, baked, meat, suet, pulses, flour, pastry, take your pick.
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Monday 19th January 2026 13:34 GMT CountCadaver
Re: Good episode, but take note:
Blergh....coins are height of filth and grime. Have you ever counted money or even handled it as an occupation?
I know someone who bought white gloves, they lasted one morning counting coins and notes before they were black and utterly filthy, fit only for the bin.
Said when they washed their hands the water just went black as black could be...
Plus people putting money in the socks, bras, underwear, dropping it on floors etc.....
*Shudder*
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Friday 16th January 2026 11:16 GMT Bebu sa Ware
the Board members says. "That's from Hitchhiker's Guide."
Given the history of Simon's employer it is hardly credible that any of those seat warmers would have been exposed to Douglas Adams' opus and in any case extremely unlikely to have retained anything from it.
Simon's firm is more The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul than THHGTG.
I have the impression the TTL of the current Boss is about to expire and he may soon be dropped (ex fenestra.)
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Friday 16th January 2026 15:26 GMT Charlie Clark
Re: the Board members says. "That's from Hitchhiker's Guide."
People who knew Douglas Adams, including BBC's John Lloyd, said he had very poor discipline in his work. Hitchhikers, being commissioned for radio, was largely saved by the production schedule and the work of others. And, like the Goon Show, it was funny enough not to have to worry about consistency. With his later work, you can see great ideas floundering because of the lack of a good editor, who would have stopped the constant reworking of old ideas and clichés.
He will probably be remembered for his ideas and one-liners as much as anything else, and his ideas continue to inspire others.
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Friday 16th January 2026 20:48 GMT Mast1
Re: the Board members says. "That's from Hitchhiker's Guide."
"one liners" ? More like whole concepts that have seen life repeatedly imitate the art in the intervening near 50 years.eg
Nutrimatic drinks dispenser: just earlier this week there was the report on El reg about the CES -demoe-ed barista machine with AI.
Design of the wheel #1 : I have experience of an airline responding to my feedback on just how poor the legroom was on one of their 777s (that I had nowhere to move my legs when someone spilled beer on the seat in front of me and it dripped through between the cushions all over my ankles). Their comment was how disappointed they were that I was upset: they had put so much effort into making sure the decor was lovely.
Design of the wheel #2 : a red-green colo(u)r blind acquaintance commented on the colo(u)r of the electric power lead of a lawnmower (red). The company's response was close to patronising as to his questioning: they had asked their marketing department what colo(u)r the cord should be and they said "vibrant".
I am sure there are others.
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Friday 16th January 2026 11:28 GMT Kevin Johnston
Re: the Board members says. "That's from Hitchhiker's Guide."
You forget that he original radio play was many many decades ago when the current Board would have been impressionable Uni students recovering from a jolly good evening paid for by their Trust fund. That would make it quite possible they heard it on the wireless in the San and retained the details without realising it. Once in their memory it then becomes 'self evident wisdom' just waiting for that moment when the world around them joins in the game of Snap.
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Friday 16th January 2026 11:48 GMT Bebu sa Ware
Re: the Board members says. "That's from Hitchhiker's Guide."
You forget that he original radio play was many many decades ago when the current Board would have been impressionable Uni students
Too true.
Probably 1978 as a student I had an AM/FM radio my father had brought from HK but in AU there were no FM transmissions but one bored evening I tried the FM band just for a lark and while moving the tuning knob all of a sudden THHGTG blared out of the wireless.
What I didn't know was that one Student Union's clubs had been granted an experimental FM license and I imagine they had obtained a (pirate) tape of the BBC's transmission which they retransmitted.
I followed the whole series — I was fortunate it was the first episode I had stumbled over … kismet ?
The radio series was the definitive version for me.
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Friday 16th January 2026 11:55 GMT Blofeld's Cat
Re: "Unless one is scribbling in the margin of one's pudding"
Fermat's Cuisine?
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Friday 16th January 2026 12:17 GMT Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward
"Here we go!" I say, as the screen starts filling up with text (being hastily cut-and-pasted into the reply box by the PFY in the other room).
So... does this mean that every AI we're using so far usually have some poor unlucky and underpaid sod pasting google searches on the other end?
Then this explains the AI hallucinating.
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Sunday 18th January 2026 08:28 GMT Tim99
Things to come? Not an H G Wells Utopia
I've just logged into LinkedIn (Yes I know, but it's useful for an organisation where I'm a volunteer). The open page had 9 instances of essentially the same post from different people, all starting with: AI is about to become a much bigger part of Windows 11. No, not as a chatbot or a helper you open when you feel like it, but as something that can quietly do work for you in the background.
All linking to the same image. I knew things were going to change with MS-LinkedIn, but this much crap?
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Tuesday 3rd February 2026 23:09 GMT bigtreeman
Greeeeeed
Two workmates did a voice recognition demonstration back in the 70s, very impressive.
A microphone, a green led and a red led on a specially programmed board.
"Speak into the mic, Green or Red" says John
"Green", green led comes on
"Red", red led comes on
"Greeed", both leds come on
Meanwhile Stan is sitting at the workbench behind, surreptitiously switching the leds.
Had us all going for a little while.....
