Posts by parrot

Council in UK's City of York outs hundreds of disabled residents with a single email blunder

Re: One affected resident told local media

Some reasons I think we have more awareness of difficulties with mental health:

- in the past people didn’t talk about it

- in the past people felt they had to “keep calm and carry on” and pretend they were ok for everyone else’s benefit

- we understand a lot better what it is

- we know it can have a real effect on the quality of a person’s life, eg. A simple task that would take you 5 mins might take a very long time for someone who has OCD.

I am sure you are correct that what you’ve described can happen. But if you believe the process of diagnosis in the case of such a claim is not robust, because you care about objectivity, can you say that your statement is also objective? How closely have you examined the prosecution process? How did you quantify scam artists and genuine cases?

I try to make the time to talk to people and make sure they know when I say, “how are you” I really am asking. Subjectively, in other words from my experience, people who struggle with mental health are everywhere. I don’t believe they are outnumbered by people “faking” it. They are just too numerous, and if they could just snap out of it they would.

And consider, if we accept this is as widespread as I believe it is, wouldn’t some crimes be inevitably committed as a direct consequence? When people can’t cope they can’t conform. By the way, I know people who have done prison time because of destructive behaviour which was definitely caused by their state of mind. They did not get let off lightly.

Like you I want to see fairness in society. But there’s a difference between perceived unfairness and actual, demonstrable inequity. On balance I believe the healthiest conversation about mental health is the one that helps people to feel they can talk about it and be supported.

Rocket exhibit at National Space Centre pulls off unintentional NASA SLS impression

Thank you National Space Centre

For a great day out my kids always enjoy. We’ve made multiple visits on our year pass. The planetarium and ISS mock ups are always a big hit, and I love seeing the old British space suit design with the cloak and everything. We love you, leaky rockets and all.

Sorry, didn’t mean to gush… ;)

Anthropic co-founder hallucinates ghost in the machine

Re: A Brave Admission surely Bound to Confound the Masses Profoundly

Excessive devotion to anyone or anything other than God is idolatry, from a Christian perspective. Or at least, the one I was exposed to when I was younger.

We might all do well to ask ourselves the question I was taught to ask from time to time about our possessions, beliefs, everything: have I got this, or has this got me?

It applies to social media for some people. Lifestyles built on debt. AI certainly. Driving a car is another candidate… what alternatives do you have? So many of the things that give us comfort lead to dependency.

I see what you’re saying about the illusory powers of religion being not too dissimilar from that of AI, from a certain perspective. I think if you’re asking the pope to reevaluate his faith you might be on a hiding to nowhere.

He may represent things I do not believe in, but does the pope have an interest in what it means to be human, preserving and protecting it? I believe so.

I believe humans need to stop getting so entrenched in their ideological niches and learn to cooperate. Another Roman, Seneca, would quote his rivals when he agreed with them, saying “the truth is common property”. Wisdom comes in places we might not think to look for it.

Minor edits to AI skills can make agents go rogue

On second thoughts let’s not go to Camelot

It is a silly place.

X limits hot takes from freeloaders to 50 a day

Squawk!

Posts

Tweets

Squawks

I can squawk as much as I like, no one can stop me.

Squawk squawk squawking, squawk out loud, who needs posts and tweets.

When you tweet into the void, the void squawks back at you.

I’m the abysmal squawk abyss and there’s nothing you can do!

Bus station display takes the Windows 10 road to nowhere

BIAS!

Typical mainstream media controlling the narrative. While the debate whether hostile architecture in Northampton conflicts with pigeons rights to sit and defecate on signage rages on, DOZENS of people’s frustrated tuts and sighs in Stratford go entirely unreported.

You can’t trust the mainstream. Have to check your socials for the real news.

Surely a talking bird would be more useful? It could make announcements.

Squawk!

Nostalgia

Of course the old Greyfriars bus station had no such problem, it was built in the seventies and had no windows at all.

(Unless you count the ones on the upstairs offices I suppose, but passengers were afforded no such luxury.)

Declared by the local press to be “a bus station deluxe”, sadly the brutalist behemoth did not impress for long. Most Northamptonians were pleased to see the demise of the old “mouth of hell” but now there are some regrets. When asked in consultation what they’d like the vacant Greyfriars site to be used for a new bus station is by far the most popular answer.

The derelict plot has been empty for over a decade now. One eyesore replaced by another. Northgate a bit too small and similarly neglected as Greyfriars was. The future is not what it used to be. But at least the toilets take contactless?

Windows asks a networking question on a Stratford billboard

Re: Wait until AI OS messages

“I’m being repressed!”

Bug that wiped customer data saved the day – and a contract

Such a twisted pair.

Motorola partners with GrapheneOS for future phones

Hmm… I've heard that somewhere before…

“People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.“

Guess who?

Bootleg Windows, Office scheme crashes, triggers 22-month lockup for Florida woman

Re: Providence? That’s in Rhode Island.

Autocarrot.

LibreOffice Online dragged out of the attic, dusted off for another go

Re: a modernized UI with a ribbon

Text labels help enormously when trying to teach or learn what menu options are called. Instead of “the button that looks like a something-or-other” (which I invariably can’t interpret) you just say what it is. File. Copy. Paste. Select. Words.

Just because Linus Torvalds vibe codes doesn't mean it's a good idea

glockenspiel

Linus Torvalds: Stop making an issue out of AI slop in kernel docs – you're not changing anybody's mind

AI slop in kernal docs

Doodah

Doodah

Google nukes 3,000 YouTube videos that sowed malware disguised as cracked software

Dubious disguised as dubious.

'Fax virus' panicked a manager and sparked job-killing Reply-All incident

Illegal document

I did a similar naughty prank when I worked in a school. On April fools day I waited until a particularly anxious colleague was teaching in one of the computer suites and sent a few pages to the printer which simply said, “illegal document blocked”.

My colleague assumed that a student had tried to print something unwholesome and went off to tell the head of ICT, whose instinct said this was something to do with me. They made a point of mentioning to someone else while I was in earshot that the deputy head had got wind of the prank and was looking for the person responsible.

I was pretty sure they were bluffing and didn’t rise to it, but after a couple of hours my resolve weakened and I had to ask if they were serious. After stewing on it that long the joke was definitely on me.

Word to the wise: Don't tell your IT manager they're not in Excel

Words fail me

Today I received a document in the format filename.docx.xlsx

It opened in Excel.

I’m worried about my colleagues.

As Xi and Putin chase immortality, let's talk about digital presidents-for-life

Re: So what you're saying is...

I’ve heard of dictation software but this is something new…

Browser wars are back, predicts Palo Alto, thanks to AI

Re: to perform tasks like booking a restaurant or reserving accommodation

Would sir like the spam or the fish paste? With the house sparkling vinegar? It’s very exclusive.

Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want – here's what we actually need

Re: Focus options

Focus on Windows is particularly annoying with multiple screens. You launch an application from one screen and it pops up somewhere else. Also I think it would be helpful if the taskbar on each screen showed just the applications that are open on that screen instead of showing all of them.

Copilot rabbit hole not suitable for work

The other day a Copilot pop up appeared on my work computer. Titled: “Ready for a career move?

Beneath it said, “I’ll help you find roles that fit your location and career goals.” There were two buttons, “Dismiss” and “Continue”.

Maybe it was Morpheus trying to get my attention, but I chose the blue pill, and immediately uninstalled the Copilot app which I definitely didn’t put there.

I’ve always thought it’s inappropriate for your work computer to distract you with quizzes and news articles, but inviting you to change jobs is a whole other level!

Microsoft gives in to Chromebook bullies and drops Windows 11 SE

Bad taste

First Nokia now this.

Good job there’s Linux to keep the hardware going for a while.

Way to put the “win” in Windows, Microsoft(!).

Etc etc.

Massive browser hijacking campaign infects 2.3M Chrome, Edge users

“Malware to the masses”

Chortle. A cynic might speculate this is a broader remit than you think.

KDE targets Windows 10 'exiles' claiming 'your computer is toast'

Gnome is my favourite… I think

Some of the extreme reticence to switch from Windows 10 to 11 surprises me. Forced obsolescence I accept is awful. But aside for that, from an admin point of view there’s not much to learn, and if you don’t like the start button in the middle just move it to the corner. They’re both Windows. They’re both dull. But in terms of the difference between the two it’s quite minor really. I’ve been using both for years now. Feels like old news!

I’ve switched gui in Linux so many times lately I keep forgetting which one is which. I loved KDE until I didn’t, Cinnamon was ok, XFCE was great but a bit glitchy rendering video on my system. I didn’t like Gnome but once it was installed I forgot to keep trying others. And after a reinstall to KDE the week before last I miss it. So maybe Gnome is my favourite? Didn’t see that one coming, but then again I thought Metro was quite good as well…

Techie pointed out meetings are pointless, and was punished for it

Re: Bananas

Bananas are more of a stealth fruit in my opinion, you can pull small chunks off with your fingers which can be scoffed quietly and quickly without making much noise.

Apples are the best balance of practical and conspicuous, crunch, crunch. You could show up to a meeting and start chopping up a pineapple or a watermelon but it’s a lot of effort in comparison to just pulling out an apple and biting it. I’m tempted by the pineapple though.

DOGE geek with Treasury payment system access now quits amid racist tweet claims

Re: nullllptr has been core dumped

I’m not sure anybody ever *wants* to purchase Citrix products.

Arrr! Can a sailor's marlinspike fix a busted backplane?

Mildly off topic

About ten years ago my Dad had laser eye surgery, he asked me to drive to the appointment as he wouldn’t be able to drive home afterwards.

When he came out with a clear plastic eye patch taped to his face I laughed and said, “is it ok if I tell some pirate jokes?”

He sighed and said, “go on then.”

At which point my mind went blank and I couldn’t think of any!

Perhaps some kindhearted commenters would like to share a joke they would have told under the same circumstances? Replies please!

Citrix slated to axe its Technology Professional program

Re: "the needs and priorities of our key customers"

Yeah, I winced when I read that. I guess some key someone will feel special though.

Tired techie botched preventative maintenance he soon learned wasn't needed

Re: Interleave at 9pm for the other office.

Lucky it wasn’t a platter, after wiping the source disk.

Friend of mine did the same thing, face went white like they’d seen a Ghost. Would have been SMART to check the disk first. Luckily we were able to recover the most important Partition. Magic! Luckily it wasn’t my other colleague who did it, Zero Phil.

Photoshop FOSS alternative GNU Image Manipulation Program 3.0 nearly here

Re: Ah, GIMP

Weird, for many years I used GIMP and Photoshop and I always said Photoshop was alarmingly unintuitive compared to GIMP. Which was annoying because Photoshop could do more overall (working with RAW files for example) but I took that to be the natural consequence of more powerful software.

Haven’t used either very much lately, Lightroom has replaced them for what I mostly do.

Top-secret X-37B space plane ready for daring new orbital maneuver

Re: Service module destruction

It would still be vulnerable to inspection by rogue temporal agents from the distant future.

Revenge for being fired is best served profitably

Borland

Worst theme park I've ever been to.

Green Berets storm building after compromising its Wi-Fi

We’ve known about you for so long

Been packet sniffing and not too shy to say it.

Gamers who find Ryzen 9000s disappointingly slow are testing it wrong, says AMD

Re: Gimme Linux/Compute

What a guy.

Microsoft sends Windows Control Panel to tech graveyard

Re: cue the wailing

Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch. Ouch.

Discovered last week that the only way to push out a setting for which we previously had a group policy is to use something called “Intune Remediations”.

Sounds a lot grander than it is. It just lets you deploy a PowerShell startup script. Using a web based gui. It’s the worst of both worlds.

It's all drying up: Microsoft to erase 3D Paint from digital store

MSPAIN.EXE

Lol yes I know it’s childish… remember though, pain is just French for bread.

CrowdStrike president cheered after accepting 'Epic Fail' Pwnie award

This workplace has been incident free for X days

Guessing the trophy will sit next to such a sign?

WordStar 7, the last ever DOS version, is re-released for free

Re: WordStar

Luxury! I used to have to save my communication to a floppy disk, give it to my friend at school the next day, then wait at least 24 hours to get it back again.

Re: WordStar

Responsiveness should be valued more.

I find unresponsive systems stressful to use. I’ve used plenty of systems where the latency is so bad I find myself watching the words write to the screen several seconds after typing them. The cloud based CRM and ticketing system we currently have can sometimes take minutes to load pages or submit information. I’m convinced this has an adverse effect on productivity and mental health. You’re trying to get through your workload as quickly as you can but the system is a bottleneck. It just keeps making you wait.

My sense is that decision makers see a loss of responsiveness as acceptable if it allows them to access the benefits of using the cloud (mainly just shifting liability/responsibility off themselves). But if you asked the user, responsiveness would be their number one priority. In my opinion systems should be responsive enough for the user never to think about it.

The cybersecurity QA trifecta of fail that may burn down the world

Re: Rage against the subjective machine

Well, exactly. Not sure the timing makes much difference, perhaps I should have said “alleged”?

Rage against the subjective machine

A few weeks ago I was having a lovely chat with someone about how they were fundraising to help homeless people. Suddenly it switched and they went off on a rant about immigration, shoot them before they get off the boats they were saying, no apparent awareness whether I might not agree or share their view. Perhaps they just assumed I would.

Last week a similar thing happened with another person I don't see very often, seemed like they were permanently plugged in to twitter. Their phone would ping and they'd be making comments condemning far right violence, then suddenly celebrating violence against Israel. Then we had an airing of views about supposed trans boxers in the Olympics, and "the trans agenda". They'd be upset if they knew what pronouns I was using for them here... ;) Again, no apparent thought to what I might think or feel about any of it. It was just awkward.

I believe it's healthy when we talk about our beliefs and values with people who have different beliefs and values, and I get into that kind of conversation occasionally with people I know. It doesn't have to be heated and it challenges you to examine ideas which might not be immediately intuitive to you. I think there's a societal norm now that we avoid those discussions to avoid awkwardness, which I understand. It's not always appropriate. But a hallmark of someone caught in an echo chamber has to be obliviousness to the views of others.

That said, I don't think having conviction is a bad thing, because some things are right and some things are not. But that is subjective, and I find myself considering the things which make me angry, even the music I listen to, and wondering where my own blind spots are.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 called out for 'worker surveillance'

Re: Not Even a Fig-Leaf

I would have used my robot hand for good.

Microsoft's Azure networking takes a worldwide tumble

SaaS

Software and assorted stoppages

Happy Sysadmin Day, the Bitlocker keys are in a bowl on top of the fridge

Re: Giving them a day off and doing the malware update myself

Funny, you know, I did have today off. The whole week in fact. Have been wondering what's in store for me on Monday.

Facebook prank sent techie straight to Excel hell

Re: Ah, the good old DNS redirect

That’s hilarious. I laughed out loud!!

Porting the Windows 95 Start Menu to NT

Re: unsullied by ads

I very much share your sentiments. Up until the pickaxe at least. The inclusion of advertising another distracting crap in the start menu has always struck me as completely inappropriate for a business product. I have to switch a lot of these things off because they affect my focus when I’m working. The same goes for the default home page in most web browsers, disappointingly I have to include Firefox in this.

When I am supporting other people I notice they are affected in different ways by this type of thing. Many, as you say, just accept it as an everyday annoyance and work around it. There are some whose work can be significantly impeded when presented with something they don’t know how to respond to. In my experience, with the most excruciating irony, it’s all the tips and tricks and welcome messages that cause the most hassle. They don’t help people to use the product. They just get in the way.

CrowdStrike shares sink as global IT outage savages systems worldwide

Re: There's something familiar about all of this...

“Beyond this lies naught but trying to work out why all the numbers are wrong, only to realize that Excel thought those IDs were integers and dropped all the leading zeroes.”

This should come with a trigger warning.

Peloton faces lawsuit over claims it pedaled past privacy

Re: So..

No they were freewheeling with it.

Craig Wright admits he isn't the inventor of Bitcoin after High Court judgment in UK

Finally!

A way to fix all those broken biscuits.