Posts by Reginald O.

AI-driven 20-ft robots coming for construction workers' jobs

What does it do, exactly?

It looks like one of those lifts for lifting bales of shingles on the roof. That's about it. Do you need AI for that?

23andMe's genes not strong enough to avoid Chapter 11

Just don't!

Don't give up your DNA to anyone without a fight.

It will never, ever be private and will be used against you and your family sooner than later for certain. The corporations and governments are fully aware there's a lot of money to be made and power to be gained by having a large DNA data base on the server. Despite what they might say, they are not going to keep your data safe, secure and private whatsoever.

Might as well print it on a highway billboard.

The governments want the data as much or more than the corporations.Tthey aren't going to protect us, no matter what holy flim flam Swiss cheese law they might pass.

Chinese spies suspected of 'moonlighting' as tawdry ransomware crooks

Th light grows dim...

If you can't trust CPC hackers anymore, who CAN you trust?

App stores unconvinced by Trump's TikTok ban pause, which may itself be on shaky legal ground

Worst reality sit com ever

Every day, a new episode of cray-cray improbabilities that turn out to be real. People in high places say, “He can't do that", but he does.

Trump is running the country like he's the leading man and star player in his personal fantasy-reality sitcom. He hires the cast for their ability to create controversy and attract clicks, ratings, a buzz, or something. The suspense is terrific. Will the country survive this?

I am not really sure it will actually. I used to think we could do better. I don't think that anymore.

The bell tolls for TikTok as lifelines to avoid January 19 US ban vanish

My way or the Highway. Seriously.

The free speech argument is a distraction and diversion. The Chinese government and it's citizens do not have U.S. Constitutional rights.

The problem is, by Chinese law, all companies must make all data collected and transversing their internet apps available to the Chinese Communist Party to further espionage, PI abuse, data theft, and all manner of activities which would be considered against the national interests and national security of the USA.

So it's entirely reasonable to enact a law preventing data on the TikTok app from being available to adversarial political parties as well as Chinese government sanctioned criminals.

Google thinks the grid can't support AI, so it's spending on solar for future datacenters

Not juicy!

There's not enough juice to run EV's either. We do have enough natural gas to run electric generators, however. So, let's get busy.

Now’s your chance to try Microsoft’s controversial Windows Recall ... maybe

I don't recall...

I need this, why?

If every PC is going to be an AI PC, they better be as good at all the things trad PCs can do

Another app without purpose.

Great article.

The writer hit the nail on the head.

Another (extremely expensive) app looking for a reason to exist.

Windows 11 continues slog up the Windows 10 mountain

Et tu Notepad?

The last Windows update 11 borked Notepad so that now it gives a "Bad image" error. There is no fix from MS for it, but there is a suggested fix involving replacing some C+ library using an outside installation app, power shell and the ability to follow a 15 step convoluted process without one mistake. Actually, there are several suggested fixes, none the same as the other. Which one to choose?

Why after all these years must they break...notepad? And, apparently several other lesser apps?

Meanwhile, W11 is making or trying to making about 20-30000 contacts a day to a multitude of ms addresses keep my computer up to date, ...or something.

What's not to like?

NASA pushes decision on bringing crew back in Starliner to the end of August

What do the Astronauts have to say about this?

I am not technically able enough to decide what is the best course, whatsoever.

However, what I see lacking in this discussion is what the poor bastards stuck in that tin can think should be done. I am guessing they want to come home the fastest way possible, with the least risk.

Boeing's or NASA reputation should be the least concern.

Change Healthcare finally spills the tea on what medical data was stolen by cyber-crew

No price or pain is too high...

There's no reason at all to keep either detailed personal identification data on the instantly available internet WAN network or all of our medical data such as diagnoses, prescriptions, etc. But, 'they' all do.

Even attacks like this do not faze corporate execs. Seems there is no price or pain too high to stop them from putting it ALL out there on the table.

The majority of OUR data should be buried on drives NOT accessible to the internet and so conversely only available locally. A real person via phone or in person could verify personal data or dig up summary medical data as necessary and distribute it via voice, real paper, encrypted text etc.

Maybe there would be pitfalls with some of that. But I am sure whiz kid security experts could devise a system much better than what we have now IF they were allowed to do it.

But, governments and corporations all want all the information at their finger tips. And so, it becomes available to criminals.

Microsoft Research chief scientist has no issue with Windows Recall

Ominous non-response response

The corporate double talk and eventual terse non-response response strongly suggests validation that Recall is a joint corp-gov mass surveillance op being rolled out. I wonder if the other major tech companies will be offering very similar products soon with similar displays of thuggish opacity?

Will this feature be mandatory no opt out soon? Pretend to be surprised when they announce, "ha-ha we've been sucking it up all along".

Giving Windows total recall of everything a user does is a privacy minefield

A new mass surveillance tool in born

This app certainly has many characteristics of a corporate, government, military, police mass surveillance tool.

MS says their policy is to keep data local. But, the policy can change tomorrow with a few key strokes.

Also, the programming can be changed to route the data anywhere they please via updates down the road a bit.

Corporations and governments would likely pay sizeable fees to have access to such detailed data.

Last, MS could easily have everyone's password to everything in the world with this tool setting up cloud review data without every touching the users device.

And, why wouldn't they want all that data?

Meanwhile, laws could be easily interpreted, changed or written to make it mandatory to have the app up and running.

Note, Recall DOES REQUIRE new and better hardware. So I would guess simply NOT buying the latest greatest Windows device is one easy way to prevent Recall getting on or wirking on a personal device. For now.

Recall is a long game project. MS will be tweaking it for many years to come. This is the first page of a very long book.

Recall that end users are targets not customers. MS's customers are the coporations and governments.

Google is wrong to put AI search features behind paywall, says HPC leader

Does Google and ethical AI product seem possible?

In a generic sense paying for a productive AI service seems entirely reasonable. The problem is the thoroughly unethical and greedy Google elbwoing their way into the lead. And, that's not taking in account their very cozy relationship government mass surveillance opertations. Who are the good guys in the AI gold rush?

Underwater cables in Red Sea damaged months after Houthis 'threatened' to do just that

This is why...

...we still need B52s and really big bombs.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be coders, Jensen Huang warns

Garbage in, garbage out?

My limited tests of ChatGpt have resulted in a lot of well articulated garbage responses. Yet, the Wizards say the sky is falling, AI will devour us.

What am I missing?

While you holidayed, Microsoft brought Copilot to mobile devices, again

Fail

Tried it on my MacBook Air with M2: Fail. Won't even load. Maybe my security shield blocked it.

Typical MS, MASSIVE tracking permissions requested/required. Why so much, all the time?

Is it really that profitable?

Internet's deep-level architects slam US, UK, Europe for pushing device-side scanning

It's not about the children at all is it?

It's about the police wanting the ability to effortlessly conduct warrantless searches of all electronics without a reason at all except for "just 'cause":

"Just 'cause we feel like it". The police lobby is more powerful than the people lobby so you already know how this story will end. Likely the deed will be done in midnight sessions behind closed doors.

Ain't democracy grand?

Creating a single AI-generated image needs as much power as charging your smartphone

Another new low...

"Sports Illustrated, came under fire last week for publishing AI-generated stories under fake bylines that included AI-generated photos and made-up bios for journalists that don't exist."

Bullshit sinks to a new low. Of course, 'they' will all be doing it soon. And, charging top dollar for the honor of being deceived. Who can you trust anymore?

Surprise! Email from personal.
[e-mail] is not going to contain good news

Please sir, a little more...

This is a good write up on this threat, concise and to the point. But, personally, I would like to see a little more from articles like this. In general, I think information that would help others prevent an attack would be helpful. For example, with this crew, what IP addresses are they working from? Is there a spcific list of their most common tricks and tactics that we should know about? What are the best practices to prevent it and resolve it (if possible). What is the most important thing users and targets must know and do?

Uncle Sam probes cyberattack on Pennsylvania water system by suspected Iranian crew

It's war, really it is...

There's absolutely a cyber war on between the west and the new axix of evil: Russia, Iran, NK, China, et al. What I don't get is why the "west" is content to sort of monitor it and whine about but little else.

Fight back for godsakes. At least try. Assuming the info is right that Iran attacked critical US infrastructure the USA should at the very least attack right back. I don't see any problem with shutting down their utilities, indeed shutting down their access to the internet altogether.

Give us targets ways, information, hardware and code to fight back or at least protect ourselves. Virtually every one of the articles mentioning attacks are so sparse on detail you cannot take one measly step to protect yourself from it. Are the attacks literally coming from Iranian IP addresses, or not? If so name the numbers. Give us SOMETHING! And, don't tell me they are only going after gov facilities or whatever.

An attack on Pennsylvania is an attack on all of us. Stand up and fight!

No new top boss at NSA until it answers questions about buying up location, browsing data

Re: Call for control of personal information market

Everyone should look themselves up on the internet. First you will be totally floored and aghast about how much accurate information is out there about you at the tap of a few keys. Also, you will be just as astounded. All of it is used against in every way imaginable. And, that's the tip of the iceberg. The data brokers know...everything and even more than that that's not about you, too.

Security Theatre for us Rubes

NSA is gonna' do what they do. There will be some crisis and Congress will be forced, I tell you, forced fiercely to protect us and give them anything they want.

OR, there will be some literal midnight session and whatever they want will be packed away way deep in some mandatory passage bill to save us from chaos. Again.

I am convinced Congress doesn't understand or care how bad this looks regarding our formerly inalienable rights or what other countries see as our uncompromising hypocrisy.

When Wyden speaks...don't bother

Wyden is the designated fall guy conscience of America and the Constitution. (There's been others in the past.)

It's understood by the powers that everything he says is pablum for the rubes and in the end the government (and vendor corporations) will do anything it wants in regards to spying on us without the inconvenience of standing law or the Constitution getting in the way. Even if the data takes down a few high elected officials occasionally.

The data is out there, they are going to take it and use it against us in every way imaginable.

Protect yourself, the government will not.

Clorox CISO flushes self after multimillion-dollar cyberattack

What about...

The insurance policy?

I read some time ago computer insurance for malware hacks was extremely cheap. It's so cheap the corporations figured out they only needed to have the lawyers draw up an iron tight TOS and privacy policy then pay for insurance and they were covered.

One guy was enough for "security" and it was his job to fall on the sword when something happened which was inevitable.

So, this is different how? Did someone forget to pay the premium?

Someone else has a go at reforming US Section 702 spying powers – and nope, no warrant requirement

The Cookie Jar

The government must victimize us to prevent us from being victimized by foreign agents. Sure.

FBI pried open the cookie jar of NSA data during the 9-11 frenzy and they are not going to allow the lid to be put back on willingly.

Or, as required by the law, or anything else, apparently.

And, neither will Congress.

So much for upholding the spirit, intent and indeed letter of the law and our Constitution.

It's best not to think this episode through to it's logical conclusion.

FBI Director: FISA Section 702 warrant requirement a 'de facto ban'

Laws, Smaws...

Why would something as trivial as the Constitution or a federal law passed by Congress stop FBI from warrantless searches? It never has in the past.

What Congress doesn't know, didn't happen. Right guys?

Cloudflare dashboard, API service feeling poorly due to datacenter power snafu

Sure, blame the generator...

"... which triggered a rollback … which failed". I hate it when that happens. It's definitely a "bad thing".

However, trying to blame some defenseless imported generators for the more recent debacle seems un-ninja like for the CF cyber warriors.

Sounds like something I would say.

Ex-ASML worker accused of stealing chipmaking secrets for China is Huawei to a new job

Example of Chinese innovation..

"...stealing trade secrets about advanced chipmaking equipment."

We all scream for ice cream – so why are McDonald's machines always broken?

Legendary Fail: McDonald Ice Cream Machines

The story of broken McDonald ice cream machines is so old it's become legendary.

Yet, nothing really happens at the corporate level to correct the situation.

It's easy to blame Taylor, rightfully so, but I do wonder very seriously why McDonald's let's them get away with this for years on end?

How are McDonald's execs benefiting from this fiasco?

Are franchise owners getting milked by these ice cream machines?

Who pays the repair fees? Where does that money go?

Criminals go full Viking on CloudNordic, wipe all servers and customer data

Re: The Cloud

Yup. And even on a good day you have no clue who is rummaging through the data copy, pasting, slicing, dicing, selling and sharing the data completely without any clue at all.

So, offline backups aren't a thing?

I suppose it's possible any backups were infected long before the demands were made. Doesn't anyone read logs anymore?

Indian armed forces gives Windows its marching orders, but only for desktop warriors

If you must drop Windows...

Seems to me the way to go is MacOS and then staff have an awesome system that plays well with their iPhones and iPads.

I don't know for sure if I am kidding or not.

Can a business create a viable production network using Apple code?

Would it play nice with Windows folks?

What does Apple Inc. use?

I simply don't know.

But, I do know MacOS is Unix based and just really cool for individuals.

Don't shoot! DARPA wants to capture future spy balloons in one piece

Re: Prototype High Altitude Recovery Vehicles (HARVEE) exist already.

Sorry, you don't have the right stuff for my team. Maybe a career in fast food service might be more to your speed.

Both the C5 and C17 are jet engine cargo planes. And, I guess you missed the part where the HARVEE is going to have engines, jet and/or rocket propelled, too.

Besides balloons aren't always at 60,000 feet, sometimes a lot lower. Indeed, there's no reason the HARVEE couldn't have a detachable balloon to help it gain altitude, towed up to a certain altitude, then released.

Any rocket scientists out there?

Prototype High Altitude Recovery Vehicles (HARVEE) exist already.

HARVEEs already exist in the form of the various moon, planet and Mars landing vehicles.

Depending on the altitude and circumstances a helicopter or slow cargo airplane gets the un-manned HARVEE close, then it's ejected at which time it self propels itself to the balloon, hooks or grabs it with it's mechanical arm then guides it down to earth to land in a safe place. I assume the HARVEE would weigh enough to drag the object down with the balloon still inflated and at the same time make the balloon more manage due to less relative weight to maneuver. I like the idea of something along the lines of a jet or rocket propelled quad-copter although duel engine systems might make it more versatile. I am absolutely sure NASA/DARPA could whip one of these up in short order due to the many years experience of designing the various space landing vehicles. I wish I could be part of the team that makes one and launches it for the first time. That would be the thrill of a life time. That would be something to be proud of for sure. Wow!

This Windows update is snarling up some endpoint security tools

Strange that...

Anti-malware and anti-virus apps think Windows is mass surveillance malware. How could that happen?

Chinese balloon that US shot down was 'crammed' with American hardware

Help Wanted China: New PR Guy for Balloon Launches

It WAS a spy balloon and the WHOLE world saw the US gov shoot it down over the ocean, and yet they got NO data whatsoever.

Well, I am not seeing any good news, for China about this.

Where's my money?! Now USA Today publisher sues Google over online advertising

Be Careful Monolithic Mega-Corps...

You might annoy Google enough they will just say "F* It" and buy the entire US govt to be done with you.

Could this be a headline soon?

"US Dept of Google tells Gannet to F* Off!"

FBI: FISA Section 702 'absolutely critical' to spy on, err, protect Americans

Oh look! Over there ->. A squirrel!

This is the kind of thing 'we the people' should be marching in the streets about, but the our focus is skillfully diverted by the 'system' to sensational events that do not apply to our fundamental rights or daily lives such as the latest adventure of Trump, transvestite clown shows and urban violence porno.

There's always a Sen. Wyden around to be the conscience of Congress who gets five minutes to make calls for reform then is quickly sent back to his seat so the dirty work passing the latest travesty can be quietly approved until next time.

It's not supposed to be like this.

Just because on-prem is cheaper doesn’t make the cloud a money pit

Hate to Rain on Your Cloud, but...

The Cloud had it's chance to prove it could store data privately, securely, cheaply and reliably. OK, you can stop laughing now. There are so many reasons to store your own stuff anymore. As it turns out insurance for hacks and downtime is cheap. What are you waiting for then?

Barred from US tech, Huawei claims to have built its own 14nm chip design suite

Re: Copied someone else's patented IP design...

Not at all. China is literally notorious for stealing patents and intellectual property. It's the keystone of the economic model. Google it.

Copied someone else's patented IP design...

There I fixed it for you.

Putin to staffers: Throw out your iPhones, or 'give it to the kids'

Unintended consequences...

Seems Russia wants to "Make the USSR Great Again", MUGA. But, are they?

One view is their hard turn towards isolationism is going more like the North Korea version, totally whacked. The Russians might make pariah statism work for them though, as long as the oligarchs stay very rich, the peasantry very stupid and carbon revenue continues to flow.

Launching a world war doesn't come cheap though. And, is China really anyone's friend?

As for iPhones, yes, like all of that genre they are likely corporate/government personal spyware and tracking devices. Mine keeps in constant contact with the mother ship all hours day and night and lately SIRI has been joining in family conversations quite regularly, even trying to help the TV out sometimes. It's getting difficult to shut her up. What's that about anyway? (we probably know but don't want to know)

Frankly, good security would probably require the Russians and all of us to throw all of our electronics in the river, but first smashing them with a five pound sledge.

I do have nostalgia lately for phone booths, Selectric typewriters, and one way transistor radios. They seem like ancient symbols of innovation, privacy and freedom anymore. Those were the days.

The US would sooner see TSMC fabs burn than let China have them

Re: Does it matter?

Taiwan has no chance militarily whatsoever. NONE. And, China could do it in an eye blink if they cared to. And, I stand on my suspicion the Taiwanese people would put up little to no fight.

Of course, there will be consequences, mostly in regards to Chinese trade and business with the west. I am sure the Chinese are putting a lot of thought into how to minimize that. Once they triangulate the right course, BAM! It will be over.

Smart Taiwanese are taking their money elsewhere and smart businessmen will start moving factory space to somewhere safe, if they haven't started already.

Does it matter?

China can and will take Taiwan militarily if they decide to do it. USA or no USA. Sanctions or no sanctions. That is a done deal.

So, that begs the question of how to make Taiwan a sour grape? Destroying the fab shops would leave a sour taste, for sure. BUT, I am reading Taiwan isn't interested in self immolation. What's options remain?

Not much I am thinking. I am also thinking when the day comes, and it will, that China decides it's time to take back Taiwan the people there will lay down and bah just like the sheep in Hong Kong.

If that's true, the USA and the West should just walk away, quickly.

(And, build fab shops somewhere else. It's known technology. Spend money on new factories rather than bombs and bullets.)

Save $7 million on cloud by spending $600k on servers, says 37Signals' David Heinemeier Hansson

Cloud costs are too high...

...and, the benefits too low.

Most people and businesses could get by with their own servers and data management these days. The hardware is good, memory is cheap and the knowledge of how to manage them securely and privately is available.

From a more strategic view, becoming a renter of cloud services means you don't own the service or even your own data or IP once it's out the window. Once your stuff is in the cloud the government or corporation can shut you down completely with a few keystrokes. Think about it. Stuff happens.

Can YouTube be held liable for pushing terror vids? Asking for a Supreme Court...

Let them eat words...

The big corps want absolute iron-fisted control and ownership of all data, including speech, on the internet while demanding equally bullet proof protection from the government for consequences.

The Supreme Court will likely kick this can down the road, again because they readily admit total incompetence and stupidity when it comes to things with wires, tubes, and transistors.

However, the Court could step up and take control of the internet granting the PEOPLE their formerly inalienable rights while at the same time providing controls such as the current free speech standards in effect everywhere EXCEPT the internet.

The corporations have too much power over the people simply because they own the wires and tubes. That's not right.

Google's $100b bad day demo may be worth the price

Re: In fairness

YES, exactly. I took a test drive and found the same thing: grammatically correct complete nonsense. Like watching daytime TV. Supposedly to get 'good' answers the app needs to be connected to a variety of data bases. But, how is that different than, say, the google data base?

China's spy balloon barrage earns six of its companies a spot on US entity list

Re: From the horse's mouth

FBI has become too secretive to be credible. They do their thing, regardless of all else. Literally.

And thus, the Balloon Wars began...

Shooting them ALL down for awhile makes political sense, at the moment. However, over the long term identification of true threats vs. nuisance devices seems necessary.

Also, blasting the skies the 20mm cannon fire, rockets and missiles will eventually result in self inflicted injury. I propose a rocket powered high altitude recovery vehicle (HARVEE) launched from a chase helicopter that could go up there, look at the balloon, allow threat determination and if warranted latch on to it and ground it safely in a predetermined area.

It would move like a quad-copter with rocket engines on outriggers, possibly hexagonal. Some kind of robotic arm to engage the balloons would seem necessary.

NASA space landing vehicles seem like a good place to find already developed technology and engines to do this.