Posts by CA Dave

Trump tariffs turn techies topsy-turvy as US braces for PC tax

Re: Idiotic tariff nonsense

But the covfefe that was made up will never be forgotten.

Perplexity rips another page from the Google playbook with its own browser, Comet

$200 a month...!

For "unlimited labs", "early access", and advanced support for "professionals".

What "professional" sucker is flushing away that kind of money for a browser AI?

You can get a Google One 2 TB sub starting at $99 a year and get access to their Gemini Pro product.

AI scores a huge own goal if you play up and play the game

Re: "ample disproof † at least some of these assertions."

You're missing the point regarding who is actually the employer. The "employer" in this case is the 76 million strongly-insane that "hired" Trump to be President.

You absolutely cannot be sane to hire an insane Trump as POTUS or Commander-in-Chief, especially for a second go-around after he was "fired" 4 years prior.

Ousted US copyright chief argues Trump did not have power to remove her

Re: Wouldn’t it be useful to be able to X that “other” box

Nobody signs the ballot. Nobody sees the result of how any one person by name voted because it gets put in a box. Now if there was a login requirement to vote, then we don't have democracy anymore anyway and it's a moot point and this country would be RIP because you'd have Nazi Germany here.

Right, nevermind the fact the has he's violated the Constitution via DOGE, fired federal workers illegally because of DOGE, illegally accessed all of our personal financial, SSN, tax, and medical data, illegally deported Abrego Garcia then miraculously brought him back under false charges, illegally gamed the stock market in April by enacting then withdrawing severe tariffs that crashed the market so that his corrupt swamp could make bank...

I don't need to go on. Any one of those instances would have gotten a Democratic President impeached and convicted instantly.

Re: And suddenly...

Alas, poor Yorick, he knew nothing well.

Gone in 40 days: US drops ban on export of chip design tools to China

Always weak

Except against Americans who don't swear fealty to him. He chickens out, commits numerous Constitutional violations, but it's his political opponents that are the "Communists". Right.

Meanwhile he can't stand up to China.

Folks aren’t buying the PCs that US vendors stockpiled to dodge tariffs

Chromebooks?

Windows 11 updates have been notoriously buggy lately, and them being forced onto your laptop unless you disable the service(s) is contributing to people having this disdain. Who wants sus Recall and MS AI on top of it?

Are Chromebooks increasing in sales as a result? You don't need MS Office when you can use Docs or Sheets just fine for non-intensive needs. It's still a laptop that works just fine to get you on the Internet and still perform other web-based tasks for financial, research, and apparently a beta Linux mode for other power users.

Don't shoot me, I'm only the system administrator!

Re: Land of the Free - to be shot

So basically you're saying the average grunt cop is really just a Stormtrooper.

Germany asks if US hyperscalers hold keys to AI kingdom

"Writing on the wall"

What did they honestly expect? When the three companies in question were the first (along with Apple to an extent I'm sure) to even generate a customer support bot model - already the ire of everyone needing help, that was ultimately a precursor to AI right? Wasn't that the famed "writing on the wall"?

Just because you're caught flat-footed with the inability to see that AI was going to be more than just a fad for several more years, doesn't mean you get to cry foul that you didn't get a chance at a cookie later after most of everything has been established.

AI has ultimately been around for a few years now in one way or another, with Bixby, Google Assistant, Siri, and the like on our smartphones, as we "Star Trek" our way into the future by talking to them and issuing commands with them.

Lest we not forget, that by virtue of allowing those three mega companies to act as point to do your shopping, shipping, bidding, uploading, storage, and more, you've already lost the game because you took too long to realize the future.

Or you just took the lazy convenient way out by using their services. Peace.

This is a rather interesting take, and it does seem rather interesting that you don't hear from the EU countries actually encourage, foster, or develop the means to generate a necessity and desire for "grassroots" EU tech, particularly now when it comes to AI.

You hear about US and China going at it, and Japan and the UK to a lessor degree, but where's the hype itself from the EU, as opposed to yet more complaints? The EU is indeed really good at complaining over something that's already after-the-fact, when they realize they don't like how it seemingly poofed like magic to them.

Where indeed is the initiative especially from Germany? They can design and manufacture great automobiles, but stagnate over other tech?

WD escapes half a billion in patent damages as judge trims award to $1

Just like the NFL case

For those wondering why something like this can happen, look to the NFL Sunday Ticket damages that went from treble for monopolist ($1.2 billion), to absolute zero because the jury wasn't given a valid basis of which to determine damages per the judge because the "expert" was wildly guestimating. The NFL was still found liable by the judge.

Iran cyberattacks against US biz more likely following air strikes

Because, dear Canadian, the MAGA muppets in charge of the House and Senate, as well as those millions of voters supporting them, think the Dictator-in-Chief is doing the greatest, bestest job in the history of Presidents. They won't impeach him despite NUMEROUS violations of the Constitution, including what ICE is doing illegally. It's always a Republican president now starting all this war bulls---.

It kinda makes me wish that he had beaten Biden so that the military wouldn't be ordered to terrorize its own families. There would be no Project 2025 dismantling our way of life. Trump is a psychotic piece of s---. I'm so damn sick of "defend Israel at all cost" because they do just fine attacking people all by themselves.

Guard your own networks!

Because the government defunded the teams guarding its own systems!

Uncle Sam seeks time in tower dump data grab case after judge calls it 'unconstitutional'

If you have the device(s)...

...of the particular suspect(s) in question, isn't that the definitive way that investigations are done? Such as seeing where a particular phone number last pinged when authorities attempt to trace a call? Doing these fishing expeditions is even worse of a Constitutional violation than what Trump has already done.

It's maddening that the scum who was elected president while being overwhelmingly convicted of crimes himself is allowed to "chase after criminals" and accuse them of being actors of a foreign state. He's been abusing the Constitution while putting his tiny thumb on the scales of justice. The level of collateral damage that he demands with these dumps would even be viewed as unacceptable in a military operation. You can't have a 99% rate of collateral damage, otherwise you end up becoming Putin's Russia.

Judge cites big OPM records leaks from 2015 in DOGE slapdown

Re: We need to borrow from the Nuremberg playbook

DOGE has committed more Constitutional and privacy violations in the name of Musk, and by extension Donald "January 6th wasn't an Insurrection but let me send the Guard to California" Trump, the Coward-In-Chief.

Make no mistake, without Elon Musk, none of that crap actually happens, because Trump isn't actually smart enough himself.

Schneier tries to rip the rose-colored AI glasses from the eyes of Congress

DOGE has screwed us all, and by extension Elon Musk whom is now playing at being at odds with El Jefe Naranja.

The agencies - with notable difference in ICE acting like a de facto guerilla outfit - are in shambles with workers being dispatched. DOGE is the hammer with AI being the nails in the coffin of a country that is no longer great. Not even 6 months have passed into a term that will all but kill off The Great Experiment. Cyber warfare would only be the beginning of our enemies attack. Don't forget that nefarious enemies already temporarily crippled the flow of oil in the Southeast with the Colonial Pipeline being shut down from a ransomware attack. Congress has a short memory though.

Like a famous sci-fi engineer once said, the more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.

Fake IT support calls hit 20 orgs, end in stolen Salesforce data and extortion, Google warns

Unreal

I'm betting these end users, whether lowest on the totem pole or not, are highly trained in everything except how not to leave the back door open.

Extremely pathetic scripted comment from Salesforce claiming systems weren't hacked. Uh, no. You failed at the most basic anti-hacking fundamental that is the foundation of corporate security:

Don't download and open anything from anyone claiming to be IT! The IT department already manages your program updates!

How are people still this naïve in 2025?

Admin brought his drill to work, destroyed disks and crashed a datacenter

Hold my beer

I'll take care of this myself!

US community bank says thieves drained customer data through third party hole

No surprises, but...

I expect the SEC under Chump may drop the rule because it's not a "big beautiful rule".

Re: Third parties

The argument is always "It'll cost us more, and force us to pass it along to our customers.", and it's likely not going to change, because greed demands to look for a cheaper option. Also, there's always a 3rd party "desperate" enough to want the business, with promises of much lower costs, and worked by people who truly don't give a damn because "It's not my money being affected.".

Cybercrime is 'orders of magnitude' larger than state-backed ops, says ex-White House advisor

As mentioned before..

This is all a convoluted scheme to have large amounts of fraud either being claimed by Republicans in 2026, or committed by actors loyal to their cause. Russia doesn't need to invade our networks, because those loyal to Dictator Trump will already be hacking systems to prevent the one means we have to remove him from the White House.

The underintelligent will scream and cry foul just as they're brainwashed to believe, and we'll get that much closer to a... civil issue nationwide.

Re: Censorship Ageny CISA

What should be Unconstitutional is the existence of Republicans loyal to Trump.

Re: simplez

So you want to criminalize the victim.

Spoken like a true Republican.

Roe v. Wade erased.

Attempt to erase the 14th Amendment.

DOGE committing unconstitutional acts by erasing federal jobs.

Death of CISA and make it illegal to make ransomware payments.

Good grief you're all pathetic!

I'm no longer surprised though. Just pissed.

Signal shuts the blinds on Microsoft Recall with the power of DRM

Only make "Investors" happy?

I daresay with all the extent that DOGE has taken to acquire every piece of private data imaginable, and Trump's demanding of even food stamps info, that it's more likely to make TRUMPUBLICANS happy in the fiefdom. M$ has long been about scraping data far more than Google has, but yet the Feds only want to break up Google to force divestiture, and not break up M$ to do the same.

People have largely forgotten about Recall because it's likely only a matter of time before you CAN'T disable it.

Clippy lives on. He just remakes himself every decade.

America’s consumer watchdog drops leash on proposed data broker crackdown

It's not a surprise at all.

This is what Trump lives for, by virtue-signalling that it's all a "waste of money". Everything is a waste of money to Trump unless it makes money for Trump. The manipulation of the stock market as an Insider Trading POTUS was all the proof we needed.

Musk himself is like a malware worm burrowing through your home PC. Malware that reports to a dingy C&C office room set up for DOGE to grab any data it can get its hands on, be it financial, social media, or shopping habits.

Facebook is going through a wave of forcing people to send a video selfie to Schmuckerberg, by banning their accounts.

TSA using facial recognition that "they swear it's only to verify the person who bought the ticket is who they say they are", while gaslighting that you can always "opt out".

Even Orwell would be amazed.

We're only missing the Telescreens.

...or are we?

Microsoft moved the goalposts once. Will Windows 12 bring another shift?

I woke up one day and turned on my sleeping laptop just to discover those bastards upgraded me to 11 from 10 without my explicit consent. It was just auto pushed and I hadn't read anything up until that time that it was being force-installed. Downgrading at the time would have been a massive hassle. Microsoft would normally be hauled in front of Congress if the Dems were the ruling party, and there would be a lawsuit from DOJ. The Repubs don't care.

CVE fallout: The splintering of the standard vulnerability tracking system has begun

Stupid, but not shocking.

Killing off MITRE and CVEs would just lay the groundwork for the Cult Leader Orange Muppet to claim more "election fraud" and "stolen victories" by a hopeful blue wave that kicks Mike Johnson and John Thune out of power in '26 so we can sack Musk and his dog Orange.

Re: China

If China is the "most technologically advanced country", why does Huawei have to steal chips via Singapore et al?

Oh, because they can't even make 4nm yet with an acceptable yield.

The only thing China is advanced in is causing CVE issues to be exploited in the wild.

Cyber-crew claims it cracked American cableco, releases terrible music video to prove it

The only way an ISP worker's computer gets infected with malware is if they go somewhere stupid or open an email with red flags. Everyone in any kind of IT knows damn well Russia will exploit any chance it gets. Absolutely inexcusable.

VA IT contract cancellation DOGE boasted about ... was due to end in 10 days anyway

Re: When they realise that DOGE cut out the meat

Specifically, $7 a month.

Government discount and all.

Merely a point to be made.

That Elon Schmuck did it merely out of cruelty, so that his stupid immature DOGe kids could celebrate a Job Well Done instead. He DOdGed in S. Africa so why should he care about our Distinguished Veterans?

The sad thing is that, ultimately, it's another example of a broken VA system in the richest country in the world.

CISA fires, now rehires and immediately benches security crew on full pay

Re: President Musk is incompetent

We all did, because he's just a puppet-pawn yes-man who thinks politics is like a 6-pack vs a vat of cheap beer. It's painfully evident Musk told him to shut the fk up and Vance meekly complied so that Musk's human shield wouldn't go punch him in the balls.

Re: No, it's much simple than that.

We're not even left. We're center and we're so damn smarter than you and your 5th grade dropout buddies will ever be.

DOGe

If Musk knew what efficiency actually was, his rolling electric dumpster wouldn't falter in a puddle,. His rockets wouldn't follow the North Korea model of launch-then-explode. Xhitter wouldn't be worth only a small fraction of that he paid for it, after dismantling much of it. He wouldn't lose in court after being an unconstitutional schmuck that makes him throw more of a temper tantrum than Trump does.

DoorDash sued for allegedly branding customer a fraudster after delivery photo query

As a former DD delivery driver, I'm here to tell you to pick your battles. The lawsuit is partially ridiculous. As another commented, after the delivery was completed with the picture taken to show where it was placed, I had no access to the photo THAT THE APP ITSELF took.

HOWEVER, the Dasher is able to take the picture separately, then UPLOAD that picture to the app. Be that as it may, as previously commented, people take pictures randomly at any time anyway. The Dasher is only concerned with getting the delivery done so that they can be available to take the next one as soon as possible.

If the customer happened to be a complete ass, you better believe they're taking a picture or possibly video of said ass who might have gone off the rails, such as late delivery because too far away with no tip (and it got kicked down the line).

If the person suing would have had even a modicum of intelligence and common sense, she would have created TWO ACCOUNTS that would always have the separate payment methods assigned to each account. Login, logout, login, and issue never presents itself as a possibly fraud card usage.

She's an idiot.

Now as far as the Express Option, yeah I fully believe the extra charge doesn't actually get you a direct order instead of it being bundled/stacked with another customer order. That happened when it first started and it's probably still doing it.

Signal will withdraw from Sweden if encryption-busting laws take effect

Re: Draconian laws and trust

Was wondering how far down I had to scroll to discover the Republican fuckwit that looks from the outside at the dog inside the burning house saying "this is fine", and is convinced that Trump and Elon haven't been both unconstitutional, and also draconian with Trump thinking he's basically king and trying to pull a Putin in rewriting the Constitution so he can get a 3rd term, with Reds in the House and Senate saying he's not doing anything wrong yet.

Call of Duty studio co-founder pleads guilty to crashing drone into firefighting aircraft

Re: Canada tariffs....

So basically Chump wants to wreck the most important economy in the Nation even more than he did with his unconstitutional federal funds freeze.

Yes the Reds will suffer first, but as CA goes, the rest of the nation will tumble horribly with it.

I couldn't help but snicker at this.

Failing to make an example of this rich muppet will just encourage the son(s) of (an)other rich muppet(s) to do the same damn thing in flippant resolve.

Because "Hey that CoD dude did it and he didn't go to jail!"

$65k+ in restitution and a mere 150 hours of wildfire community service is a pretty lame sentence for someone who purposely decided to be a pain in the ass, and contribute to the misery. It was also extremely bold for his attorney to try to pin the blame on DJI for "lack of geofencing". The company didn't fly the drone into an active disaster area.

If it would have been a non-White, lower income class individual, I guarantee you he's in jail for the max year AND paying inflated restitution costs.

CDNs: Great for speeding up the internet, bad for location privacy

Re: Ha.....Where Is The Commentard Troll Actually Located?

The point is that it was discovered where the commentard troll's ORIGINATING query was being made - from someone in Bulgaria - not where the VPN endpoint is saying he is supposedly posting from.

Your reading comprehension sucks.

Guess who left a database wide open, exposing chat logs, API keys, and more? Yup, DeepSeek

Re: Remember kids

And we didn't even need a cloud to do so ever since the Internet for the masses graduated from the buffoonery that was the old AOL keyword searched, which was in the early 90s. Once that happened, and people started posting pictures of everything - including themselves in various states of undress - it's always been "whatever you post online cannot be taken back" after it was already consumed. It's always been inherently risky. Nobody learned anything even ever since the Great Celebrity Nudes dissemination.

Google to Iran: Yes, we see you using Gemini for phishing and scripting. We're onto you

It's literally in the disclosure that it will save it to improve Gemini for 72 hours even if you don't choose to have it saved for longer. Don't be a muppet.

First all-Indian chips to debut this year, 25 more local designs in the works

Re: Some perspective?

Yes and since they're in bed with Russia by pointedly buying their oil so Russia can get around sanctions, those 28nm chips will be sent to Russia which would improve their tech by several GENERATIONS if they're still truly stuck in the dark ages of computing.

Re: India is an intelligent country

If India is such a damn intelligent country, why do their people emigrate/flee to the US for education and a real life because currently 1.25+ billion of the 1.5+ billion population live in absolute slums? Why is the Ganges a trash polluted river when it's supposed to be "holy" to them? If they wouldn't keep so many damn cows maybe they wouldn't have 3x the air pollution of the US. Maybe they wouldn't wreck nearly every single forest to develop on because they're so damn overpopulated. Maybe their currency and economy wouldn't be trash so I don't have to talk to those muppets for "support".

Court rules FISA Section 702 surveillance of US resident was unconstitutional

Yeah it's a hell of a thing to say, "But Uncle! Communism does it, so why can't I?? For national security!!"

Trump already tried to say "Who needs a 14th Amendment?"

Now we have the FBI crying they're just as handcuffed as ICE?

It hasn't even been a week yet...

FBI wipes Chinese PlugX malware from thousands of Windows PCs in America

Yeah nevermind the fact that the ENTIRE WORLD knows China has state-sponsored hack teams just like Russia is known to have them. Don't be a muppet.

Encryption backdoor debate 'done and dusted,' former White House tech advisor says

And then Trump and his ilk of Linda McMahon, Musk, and Ramiswhacky will immediately reverse course, because Trump has already demonstrated he's a complete wuss hiding underground during peaceful protests.

Don't fall for a mail asking for rapid Docusign action – it may be an Azure account hijack phish

Re: Can these attacks trigger a browser to supply the credentials?

Not to forget mentioning also that public WiFi usage means you're also open to packet sniffing and hijacking of sensitive data.

Ultimately it's user-responsibility that if one is not expecting [a document request] to suddenly show up, that it's a good bet it's not a valid request to begin with. It's not just about security, it's persistence in practicing the same procedures every day without becoming lax.