Posts by Baird34

Microsoft pulls MS365 Business Premium from nonprofits

Mean-Spiritedness

As is quite common nowadays, the numbers may be trivial, but the 'mean-ness' is the point.

You'll never guess which mobile browser is the worst for data collection

It's a shocker innit.

Zuck ghosts metaverse as Meta chases AI goldrush

Re: FFS

Motivational quotes such as 'Work sets you free'.

He can't!

He can't! I've just finished designing my avatar in paint. I spent flippin ages on that. :(

Trump blinks: 'Substantially' lower China tariffs promised

My asshole is more consistent and dependable, and I have Ulcerative Colitis.

EU gives staff 'burner phones, laptops' for US visits

Re: Me ?

The term FAFO comes to mind.

Meta debuts its first 'mixture of experts' models from the Llama 4 herd

Re: Reality be damned!

There's a reason that sciences and arts and rational though all 'lean to the left'. That's because rational humans lean to the left, it's those that don't that are the abberation.

Re: Ah, progress by numbers

If it's not Olympic sized swimming pools or double decker buses I'm not going to understand it.

Feds drop bomb on Multiplan in legal war over healthcare 'price-fixing' algorithms

Some things never change

"We’ve been clear that these lawsuits are without merit and would ultimately increase prices for patients and employers. We'll continue to defend ourselves through the legal process. In the meantime, we’re focused on continuing to deliver for our customers and patients."

In this Orwellian world we're in where peace = war, and love = hate, some long-standing corporate Orwellianisms provide some consistency "If you stop us from artificially putting prices up, prices will go up" they cry.

OpenAI asks Uncle Sam to let it scrape everything, stop other countries complaining

To copyright or not to copyright

Funny, one side of corporate America has used copyright laws to maintain hegemony and crush innovation. Now another corporate American is wanting to bypass copyright laws saying it crushes innovation. I suppose this guy will copyright the stolen copyright material though. I feel they make it up as they go along.

Think of the bosses though, if they have to abide by laws then they'd be out of a job, then where would we be? We know where they'd be, jobless or in prison, but where would we be?

How Google tracks Android device users before they've even opened an app

Gaslighting Abuser

Their responses sound exactly like those of an abuser gaslighting their partner. "I'm keeping you locked in the house to protect you" "I'm keeping you in sight of my cameras so that you can have an enhanced life experience". "Don't you know I'm doing this for your own good, yet do you ever thank me? No you do not!"

Trump administration threatens tariffs for any nation that dares to tax Big Tech

Free enterprise

So companies are organs of the state, not 'free enterprise'. Reminds me of China, or certain regimes in Europe's gloomy past.

I'm not sure how this sits okay with the 'free market' types. Oh yes, money.

Undergrad and colleagues accidentally shred 40-year hash table gospel

Re: Dicts?

You'd have to place it in the header as a dict head.

Musk’s DOGE ship gets ‘full’ access to Treasury payment system, sinks USAID

The king is dead, long live the king!

You begged Microsoft to be reasonable. Instead it made Copilot reason-able with OpenAI GPT-o1

I'm Free!

I'm happy to work for you for free! Yes, Free! It'll only cost you £1000 per week.

Google Maps to roll out Trump-approved Denali and Gulf of Mexico rebrands

Re: The German Ocean

Just realised that my choice of words was open to unfortunate misinterpretation. I was in no way comparing Germans to germs, absolutely not, just noticed it can easily be read that way! I meant the North sea/German ocean is/was notoriously polluted, that was my brilliant gag.

Oh bum.

China and friends claim success in push to stamp out tech support cyber-scam slave camps

You are making the assumption that the US cares about these things.

Improved Windows Search arrives... but only for Copilot+ PCs

What is an NPU?

This is most odd. There are freely available Windows programs that provide great search functionality, lightweight, and don't need an NPU whatever that is. It's not brain surgery.

Trump's freshly minted meme coin passes $10B market cap

Re: Pump & Dump

I created a meme coin $DUMP as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol "$DUMP". I made a massive $DUMP this morning.

Any connection to $TRUMP & $DUMP is purely coincidental.

Microsoft tests 45% M365 price hikes in Asia-Pacific to see how much you enjoy AI

"Live, Laugh, Love"

I like the “listen, learn, and improve” comment, about as beneficial as having a "Live, Laugh, Love" plaque on the wall.

Eight things that should not have happened last year, but did

Re: Should Not Have Happened But Did......

In an ideal world corporate crime would have consequences for the culprits. As 2024 has shown we're a million miles away from a perfect world and heading even further away.

Happy New Year!

Intel, AMD team with tech titans for x86 ISA overhaul

Re: Don't cast me in the role of Cassandra, but...

Hi Cassie.

Mega money, unfathomable violence pervade thriving underground doxxing scene

ViLE by name, vile by nature.

Secure Web Gateways are anything but as infosec hounds spot dozens of bypasses

Re: Free tool

Cheers.

The link to the free tool doesn't work. Either that or I'm a newb and fell for a trap and my browser explodes.

Pro-Iran groups lay groundwork for 'chaos and violence' as US election meddling attempts intensify

"significant influence activity by Iranian actors"

Iranian actors are a mischievous lot, I'd take away their equity cards.

Georgia's voter portal gets a crash course in client versus backend input validation

It is a real pain, believe me. It keeps me up at night wandering the house rattling chains and making ghastly noises.

Michigan probes Musk-backed PAC website that weirdly tried and failed to help register people to vote

I think they have enough problems just now.

Bring the hammer down on Nvidia, US progressive and antitrust orgs urge the Feds

I note in their statement "we scrupulously adhere to all laws". The refrain of all corporate miscreants.

CrowdStrike fiasco highlights growing Sino-Russian tech independence

Might be a naive question, but as China's Kylin and OpenKylin are based on Ubuntu (which I believe is based on Debian), then aren't the Chinese forks in some way affected by any changes Canonical make? So they are not 'that' independant?

FTC grabs controller as Microsoft jacks up Game Pass price by 81%

Reminds me of the parable of the frog and the scorpion, and misplaced trust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

If you think AI labs wouldn't stoop to using scraped YouTube subtitles for training, think again

Re: "quantum chromodynamics" to "flat earth."

The 'Information Super Highway' has turned to highway robbery.

PowerToys bring fun tweaks to Windows 10 and 11

"I suppose this is related to the removal of underlines indicating the appropriate keyboard shortcut on menus, buttons etc."

You've brought up an old wound, I had forgotten about these being removed. Now I'm annoyed again! :|

Founder of Indian ride-share biz Ola calls for 70-hour work week

It is his perogative to work as many hours as he likes, and he is extremely well financially rewarded for doing so. To ask salaried people to work that many hours is the height of narsacistic bullcrap.

Coders' Copilot code-copying copyright claims crumble against GitHub, Microsoft

Re: This is scary

Place lots of bad code on github and let them slurp it up, malicious compliance.

Texas court blocks FTC noncompete ban, and you can blame SCOTUS

"we don't like rules against business...".

However in many respects it is anti-business as it disadvantages competition. It favours existing large (rich) businesses, but then the whole 'competition' thing has always been known to be a lie.

Microsoft makes it harder to avoid OneDrive during new Windows 11 installs

Re: Nasty

"the files you save on YOUR computer are not necessarily actually on YOUR computer at all!"

This is why I eradicated OneDrive a few years ago. Working on documents in Word I was getting flabbergasted by which version am I working on here, and where is it located exactly? Bugger that for a game of soldiers. I'll keep my files local, then add to a dedicated cloud folder for backup only if and when I choose to.