Posts by Eric Olson

Copper supplies set to peak just as tech needs more

Get the Space Miners ready

We're going to need them sooner than expected.

Mem-ageddon: AI chip frenzy to wallop DRAM prices with 70% hike

I checked my last PC build

In 2024, it set me back $104 for 32GB of DDR5.

Today, that same RAM is $350. Doubling again is going to hurt a lot.

Soup king Campbell’s parts ways with IT VP after ‘3D-printed chicken’ remarks

Oh look, a circle jerk!

Microsoft seeding Washington schools with free AI to get kids and teachers hooked

Bwahaha

Microsoft's "free" AI for schools isn't charity; it's the oldest trick in the business playbook: the first hit is free. Get an entire generation of students and teachers hooked on your proprietary ecosystem, and you've secured customers for life. It's a brilliant market capture strategy disguised as philanthropy.

The price of this "gift"? Our kids become unpaid data-miners, training corporate models with every homework assignment. We're also outsourcing education to tools that have been shown to weaken critical thinking. An AI doesn't mentor curiosity; it optimizes for a standardized output.

So when you see this Trojan horse rolling up to your school district, ask what's really inside. Hint: It’s not a gift, it's a future invoice.

Qualcomm solders Arduino to its edge AI ambitions, debuts Raspberry Pi rival

Alarmed? Nah...

But seriously considering alternatives for future projects? Abso-fucking-lutely.

There are plenty of fish in this particular sea, and the oligarchic takeover of the USA means that it's all but guaranteed that this will destroy Arduino as we know it.

It won't be long before the Fanta Fascist will demand Qualcomm bend the knee as well, and these chickenshits are too spineless to do anything but ask His Majesty how deep He wants it gargled.

SIM city: Feds say 100,000-card farms could have killed cell towers in NYC

Given the sundown display in mid-afternoon by a certain old man at the UN yesterday, it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be a GOP operation....

US cuffs 475 at Hyundai–LG battery plant – feds tout largest single-site raid

A whole shitshow from start to finish

Ah yes, let the employer walk away scot-free, but arrest those who are here legally. And the MAGA base will lap it up because of who they are.

A bunch of fucking clowns.

AI agents get office tasks wrong around 70% of the time, and a lot of them aren't AI at all

Re: Extra credit for partially completed tasks

Reminder: There's an adult handing out participation trophies to the kids, and it wasn't the decision of one person,

Try gazing into the mirror once in a while

Re: Extra credit for partially completed tasks

Those damn boomers are at it again!

Half of businesses rethink ditching humans for customer service bots

A fool and their money....

Let's be honest: the companies that jumped off the AI Agent cliff were ones who already put customer service on the back burner. To them, customers and servicing them was a money sink, so throwing a little more after a hastily-trained ChatGPT model was made without a second thought. Companies which pride themselves on customer care either skipped AI or used AI to create tools to be used by customer service, not replace them.

That is the model which has a better chance of working, especially if the humans are empowered to supplement their skills with AI rather than become subservient to them.

Cops want Apple, Google to kill stolen phones remotely – so why won't they?

Re: Do the opposite

Considering the origins of the police, it's inherent in their culture. Slave catchers, theif takers, and the like were always on the side of power and corruption.

The only good cop is the one which quits to actually help the community they claim to serve.

Do the opposite

Whatever the cops want, don't do it. Never is the span of history have cops been on the right side of it.

Anthropic Claude 4 models a little more willing than before to blackmail some users

Re: Boooh!

We'll never know what happened to b0llchit, as the agentic overlords wiped all traces of their presence from the world, leaving only El Reg posts as a warning to all

Americans set to pay more on all imports: Trump activates blanket tariffs

Re: I feel liberated already...

You can gargle toadstool-shaped veg all you want, he's still not going to call you a good boy.

Now be quiet, the adults are talking.

I feel liberated already...

In the mean time, I'm sure this mercurial administration will provide loads of certainty to businesses who want to re-shore or rebuild American manufacturing in such areas as garments, plastic toys, and topical fruit.

Mine's the one with a copy of Peddling Protectionism in the left pocket

Raspberry Pi not affected by Trump tariffs yet while China-tied rivals feel the heat

5 hours later...

Now that "Liberation Day" is here, we're celebrating by increasing consumer prices by 10% at a minimum. So while the analysis isn't completely wrong, it can no longer be said they would duck the tariffs.

If you need me, I'll be finding more screws to tighten on the ol' family budget.

Court filing: DOGE aide broke Treasury policy by emailing unencrypted database

News flash, dingus. More than half of firearm deaths are suicides. Another couple percent are accidental. Only a little more than a third are classified as homicide. So yeah, if by same demographic you mean the person pulling the trigger is also the victim, you're right. Just like most other crime in the world, it's the people you know who will brutalize you, not some random stranger. Stranger danger is a developmental phase you should have grown out of around 3.

More importantly, we also know the dog whistle you're blowing on when citing stats like this; you're trying to summon your fellow travelers. But this isn't the the elongated muskrat's safe space. Go back to his hovel and anger wank to bad AI revenge porn like the pathetic adolescent you are.

ShotSpotter (rebranded as SoundThinking because of the terrible reputation they have) is a fake technology that routinely is used to by police departments to manufacture probable cause where none exists. For those who are not "red-pilled" into abject stupidity like AC, here are a couple of sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/larsdaniel/2024/12/05/new-study-nypd-shotspotter-gunshot-detection-is-wildly-inaccurate/

https://www.aclu-wi.org/en/news/shotspotter-leak-shows-surveillance-tech-used-overpolice-black-and-brown-communities

Re: Clearance?

Probably none, as there is a notion in the US Government that the Executive Branch is solely in charge of security clearances, and therefore can perform as much (or little) vetting as desired. Of course, this was nominally thought to be a good plan, because why would the American people elect a compromised charlatan to be President? And even if they did, surely the other two co-equal branches of government would step in once they realized what was going on.

So yeah, good times over here.

That's right, really work it in there. If you get it deep enough, maybe you'll get a pat of the head and be called a good boy.

What a chud

Pirate Bay financier and far-right activist Carl Lundström dies in plane crash

And there was much rejoicing

Finally, an extremist doing the right thing and plowing themselves into a mountain.

I do feel bad for the habitat he likely destroyed. though.

DOGE helps Veterans Affairs end IT contract run by service-disabled entrepreneurs

Re: This just keeps getting worse

Oh look, another idiot. Why don't you go choke on some more Nazi dick. They might even call you a good boy if you clean up the mess.

Supreme Court supremo ponders AI-powered judges, concludes he's not out of a job yet

Once again, Law Enforcement poisons the well

Funny how judges who once served in law enforcement aren't high-skill judges. I wonder what about that prior experience makes it so hard to be a high-skill judge? Can assuming everything a cop says, even under oath, be a bad judgement skill?

Google password resets not enough to stop these info-stealing malware strains

Re: stolen sessions can be invalidated by simply signing out..

@Ayemooth

If you go here: https://myaccount.google.com/security after logging in to your Google Account, you can scroll down and see all the devices currently logged in. From there, you can also log out individual devices, or all of them.

It's not the best option for most people given how buried it is.

Re: Session cookie stealing is not an unknown thing

Not only is it a known issue, I'm pretty sure other sites offer a mechanism to invalidate all current logins to your device during password reset, mitigating this type of attack. Google even alludes to this in their response at the end, but that it's not offered during reset or change is an odd thing.

A ship carrying 800 tonnes of Li-Ion batteries caught fire. What could possibly go wrong?

Re: I assume they discharge batteries before shipping them?

I have to dig around, but there was a YT a while back of a tech showing why lithium batteries are flammable, and I believe one of the tests was level of charge. Those that were not charged beyond a certain point didn't catch fire even after being pierced, as they didn't have the energy necessary to ignite.

I believe there is (was) a regulation about batteries being transported en masse (think air freight), they needed to be below a certain charge level to be safe.

Edit: Found a study by the FAA, and it's abstract shows that batteries with a state of charge of 30% or less were much less prone to runaway thermal issues than those charged at 70% and higher.

(https://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/pdf/tctn22-27.pdf)

Japan complains Fukushima water release created terrifying Chinese Spam monster

Re: I seem to remember

I enjoyed this YT video by Plainly Difficult about the Windscale fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5wZoswSNwc

NASA still serious about astronauts living it up on Moon space station in 2028

A lot of people in the comments acting like someone pissed in their cereal this morning

I know the readership here may be a bit more dour than your typical IT professional, but this comment section reads like a roast without the good-nature humor.

Space is hard, and it's a legitimate question if space should be tried given the cost that comes with it. I do, as there are knock-on benefits every time humanity tries something hard. Hard things are just that, and if as a species we want to stop doing the hard things, that's an option. But as evidenced by other nations and private corporations, there is a drive to explore space even though it's hard. NASA has the mission to explore space, and jobs program though it may be on the Space Coast, this is keeping with that mission. Will it succeed? Maybe not; but also remember they don't call these shots. If you actually have a problem with how this money gets spent, or that it's spent at all, Congress is the culprit.

Have you ever suspected your colleague doesn't really hope this email finds you well?*

For the first time in my 20 year career, I like my co-workers

At least the folks in IT. It's a laid-back crew, and it probably helps it's my first IT just where we are support rather than the product being sold. Still would rather not work, but I'm not going to say no to the first job willing to pay me more than 100K a year.

US Cyber Command boss says China's spooky cyber skills still behind

Re: What the actual #***?

<quote>One would think that hospitals would be a bigger priority for National Security than meat packing plants.</quote>

Hardly. Hospitals are for civilians, and the civilians at the hospital aren't contributing to the war effort

Games Workshop once again battles scariest monster of all: ERP gone wrong

Re: Well this makes me feel great

*wanders off mutters about finding offerings this time of day*

Well this makes me feel great

We just kicked off an ERP migration from work.... is this my life now?

Google says Android runs better when covered in Rust

Re: ABS Brake

Every winter, I'm reminded that ABS brakes are a feature I would never want to live without again.

Look! Up in the sky! Proof of concept for satellites beaming energy to Earth!

No mention of SimCity?

There was nothing more fun than a disaster where the SBSP would miss the receiver and travel as a beam of destruction across your city.

Quantum startup demos spin qubits fabbed with existing tech

Wait, did I just read what I think I read?

Did someone provide an assessment that was outside of 10 years? Their investors must be angels. There's no way a CTO of a company that will ever need money again would describe their time horizon as 20 years.

Don't say Pentium or Celeron anymore, it's just Processor now, says Intel

Re: trademarks

BRB, trademarking Windows branded doors

Intel's stock Raptor Lake chip will do 6GHz and overclock another 25%, if it keeps cool

Honest question

Anyone else getting a lot of P4EE and PR-rating flashbacks suddenly?

API rate limits at the core of Elon Musk’s decision to ditch Twitter

Re: specific info on that contract

IANAL, but I follow a bunch on Twitter. And all of them are universally being attacked by Musk stans for pointing out the Specific Performance clause. Based on that, the lawyers are probably right.

Specific Performance is a legal term where both sides agree that money is not an adequate remedy if the agreement is breached. It's not just a termination fee: the judge can demand that one party fulfill their side of the agreement rather than pay a sum of money to make it go away.

From a Twitter perspective, $44B US is a lot more than the entire company is worth today. The board would be in breach of their fiduciary duty if they failed to enforce the agreement. They are required by law, in terms of being open to legal liability, to pursue Musk for the purchase and make sure he completes it.

I'm not going to say Musk will lose, but the inclusion of the Specific Performance clause means if he does lose, he'll be forking over more than $1B. Consider the $1B to be a floor, not a ceiling.

https://twitter.com/felixsalmon/status/1525481890643337216

Boffins demonstrate a different kind of floppy disk: A legless robot that hops along a surface

Head's up, Las Vegas

First demonstration of a product will be at the Adult Entertainment Expo, probably as an advancement in teledildonics.

The Ministry of Silly Printing: But I don't want my golf club correspondence to say 'UNCLASSIFIED' at the bottom

Re: Back in the early 90's

We're *thisclose* to getting rid the office... finally!

Or did you mean the paper bit?

Anonymous: We've leaked disk images stolen from far-right-friendly web host Epik

Re: *looks around quiet, crowded theater* FIRE FIRE FIRE!

The time gate component is critical, IMO. If someone is murdered for an opinion, it would be dangerous to people if the government could round up anyone who ever said the victim should be punished for their opinion.

The Jan 6 insurrection is an interesting case, as many strong free speech advocate are looking at it and saying, "Yeah, those speakers may not be protected by the 1st Admt given the crowd, what they said to the crowd, and what the crowd did a few minutes later."

And also, harm can (and is) defined so many ways that your simple definition could be used to prosecute people for things like calling someone fat, or saying a person's faith is evil, demonic, etc. Words harm, there is no doubt about that. But we can't make it all criminal, because that means the wrong person in power will use it to suppress, harass, or even imprison a group of people because they are seen as enemies.

*looks around quiet, crowded theater* FIRE FIRE FIRE!

You can shout fire in a crowded theater, at least in the US. And advocating terrorism is no more illegal than saying someone is a Nazi.

In the US, there are few(er) bounds on speech. There used to be more, allowing the government to jail people for saying critical things about the government.

Did you know that the Supreme Court ruled the government could arrest and jail someone for distributing pamphlets telling people to peacefully resist the draft and petition for its end?

Oh wait, that's where Justice Holmes wrote that it was unprotected just as shouting fire in a crowded theater would be unprotected.

Thankfully, that terrible opinion was struck down a few decades later and replaced with a more logical test. Speech advocating for illegal behavior or violence is only illegal if it is intended to create imminent lawless action.

Saying we should kill God is not illegal. Pointing to God and saying, "Kill the bastard!" to a group of people armed with pointy sticks and copies of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" may be considered incitement.

Want to support Firefox? Great, you'll have no problem with personalised, sponsored search suggestions then

The irony...

After I did the update so I would remember to disable to feature, the typical "new version" tab was advertising their VPN and proclaiming how your privacy matters.

Never mind that the VPN would make the localized suggestions pointless, but it also means they aren't being upfront about a rather huge privacy change.

I will also note the setting indicates it "Helps fund Firefox development and optimization," so at least they are being upfront on why they've included it.

Dell won't ship energy-hungry PCs to California and five other US states due to power regulations

<quote>AMD is now making CPUs in a weight class that didn't exist in their portfolio in probably 20 years and they really pull power in their high core count configurations.</quote>

It hasn't been 20 years; I built my first PC using the Athlon T-bird which was released in...

Oh.

No way...

Oh GOD!

When did I get so old!

Inventor of the graphite anode – key Li-ion battery tech – says he can now charge an electric car in 10 minutes

Oh no, it's a battery story

In before the "battery advances never pan out" commentards.

I always have wondered about that. All the stories of advances in battery tech, chemistry, charge cycles, etc., and so many people immediately say, "Bah, it won't happen, just like all the ones before."

But if they really were increasing energy density at 80% per yr until 2016 or so, you've gotta imagine a lot of those did make it into production, and just added to the overall amazingness of Li-ion batteries. Not to mention the reduction in cost. I mean, I can literally buy a 6Ah battery from Sparkfun for $30 USD and have it here before the end of the week. And it's only about 3" x 2"... that's impressive.

FBI paid renegade developer $180k for backdoored AN0M chat app that brought down drug underworld

Re: A job well done

Besides the authorization expiring in various jurisdictions? The answer is in the last sentence of the article: To get the users of such methods to question its safety, to reduce trust between groups, and show off the danger of assuming you're protected from eavesdropping.

I'm sure there will be other methods, and some groups might have enough capital to employ their own developers and device makers to keep things relatively safe. But by also co-opting one such dev, law enforcement demonstrates they can make it lucrative to sell out your employers....

Re: Trusting trust

Or get better lobbyists. ;-)

Australian cops, FBI created backdoored chat app, told crims it was secure – then snooped on 9,000 users' plots

In the US at least, entrapment is when cops/government induce an otherwise law-abiding individual to commit a crime, and not just by leaving a brick of drugs sitting on the ground, waiting for them to pick it up.

The phone itself is not illegal, and intent is important when determining culpability (usually).

Re: Five Eyes

It's not entrapment.

Entrapment requires the cops to induce an otherwise law-abiding person into committing a crime.

So, it would be like handing a random person a brick of cocaine, telling them it was cocaine, then saying, "Hey, I know a place and person to sell this to. Go here at this time," and then arresting them for possession and intent to distribute when they leave.

They just created a product using their knowledge of in-demand specs, advertised it to some criminals, who then word-of-mouthed it to other criminals, who then used it exactly as they would have similar products.

Guy who wrote women are 'soft, weak, cosseted, naive' lasted about a month at Apple until internal revolt

Re: Inclusive must mean that we only include things that we like...

There was a time, when inclusivity used to mean that we accept everyone, regardless of their opinions, because they were people like the rest of us, and had personal opinions about stuff, not just the socially accepted opinion that they were expected to have.

Do you want Nazis? Because that's how you get Nazis!

-------

Joke aside, five minutes in a library would uncover evidence it's false, even when it comes to more innocuous things like food preparation or choice of shoe. Tolerance of political leanings, religion, or ancestral origins has been more of a bug than feature for most of human history.

Your invocation of communism is ironic too, given the whole McCarthy thing in the 40s and 50s here in the US, where people were literally blacklisted because they may have had an association to another person who might have passed by a building that once hosted a meeting between two people who knew what the Communist Party USA was.

And of course, there is the Paradox of Tolerance, where if intolerance is allowed without any kind of societal check, eventually the intolerant will destroy the tolerant society.