Posts by LVPC

Apple exec sends Google shares plunging as he calls AI the new search

Good luck getting a job when you have to add 3 + 3 using your phone.

PowerSchool paid thieves to delete stolen student, teacher data. Looks like crooks lied

Just make paying a ransom a criminal offence already.

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

Re: Targeted ads

The whole "targeted as" thing is stupid because it doesn't work. Have I ever bought something because of a targeted ad? Or course not - the ad is always trying to sell me something I've already bought..

Re: The biggest suprise

Disabling JavaScript is really quick and easy in Safari, unlike other browsers. As for sites that don't work without JavaScript, there's always alternatives.

Re: The biggest suprise

You can disable JavaScript on your iPhone easily enough - no more popups, most are don't load, etc.

Cook'd: Judge says Apple lied to court in Epic case, asks Feds to mull criminal charges

Re: Car loans

>> etching the VIN into all of the glass panes

With how automated everything is, why can't this be done at the assembly plant?

Samsung customers buying now to avoid future tariffs – and may slow purchases once they arrive

Simple fact - people don't want to pay for "AI", so if you're going to include it, you can't charge extra for it.

Intel is still selling plenty of i7-12700 chips, undercutting sales of newer chips with an npu.

AI training license will allow LLM builders to pay for content they consume

Re: Sceptical

Many so-called non-profits and charities are VERY profitable for the people in charge. And then there's nepotism and contracts to friends. Lots of 6-figure paydays.

Yet another attempt to make money

Yet another attempt to make money by an organisation trying to intermediate itself between two groups tob"solve" a problem that is better handled by current law. You use up without permission, you pay a fine and are forced to destroy your derivative work.

The only ones that benefit from this scam are the LLM scams stealing people's work. Why? Because they are vastly exposed to extinction level lawsuits and want "greater certainty."

New Intel boss is all about ‘deleveraging’ the x86 giant

You gotta do give the AC. All those big companies look and act alike now.

"People have to spend more time in the office" vs "There will be fewer meetings" does not comote.

" R&D budget being cut" vs "Making new innovative products" doesn't compute either.

Typical management thinking.

How to stay on Windows 10 instead of installing Linux

... Because Microsoft has NEVER had a bad update ...

Never be the first to install an update ... Let the mindless be the guinea pigs.

Same as you never pre-order a game Just look at all the people who had to fight for a refund because Flight Simulator 2024 was absolutely crap in release. And still crap 5 months later.

There an easier way

Just don't bother "upgrading."

worst case scenario, reset the pc (but tell it not to delete your data) if you get hit by the nasties.

You won't have to reactivate, since it's already activated. You'll find a file with a list of deleted applications, so you'll be able to reinstall them (or their latest iterations) while getting did of some accumulated cruft.

You do have backups, right?

And all this is totally, unquestiona!ly, legal.

Bad trip coming for AI hype as humanity tools up to fight back

There is no liability for taking your own work and making it such that it someone takes it without your permission with the intention of profiting from it as it it were their own, they go broke. Good luck suing. Unclean hands doctrine.

Re: Patent law has been abused for decades.

One of the problems with patent law was it was supposed to be "for a limited time." After which anyone can use it. Same with copyright.

Re: Dear Elmo and Dorsal

There IS another altering - just don't use AI.

One of the consequences would be not "consuming" the slop on social media. Let the " creatives" who are so busy copying each other die. Let social media die. Nothing of value would be lost.

Re: Tech bros gonna tech bro

>> "Jack Dorsey posted "Delete all IP law" on X"

Let's tweak the punctuation a bit ...

Jack Dorsey posted "Delete all IP law on X"

Make it so! Let the "free speech absolutist" choke on that!

Trump's tariff turmoil leaves IT projects in deep freeze

Re: A solution for US multinationals.

Stupid Americans deserve what's coming to them. Easter is coming, and eggs in the US are now so expensive that people are painting "Easter Potatoes" instead. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/easter-eggs-u-s-1.7510497

So much for bringing the price of eggs down.

In Soviet Amerika, Easter Potatoes hunt YOU!

The US is losing. Killing its long-term prospects, it's universities, and eventually it's status as the world's reserve currency.

Canada here - haven't bought ANYTHING made in the USA or from a business headquartered in the USA the last few months. Actually saving a bit on food, because Canadian-produced brands are either the same price or less, and better quality, so buy-bus American junk food.

For computer peripherals, I'm willing to pay twice the price to buy from non-American companies. And I'm not going to get a new cpu/gpu/etc for a few years anyway - my 2 most recent builds are good for another decade.

Everything else is local anyway, or available from Mexico/the EU/South America, so all your president has done is pissed off the rest of the world.

This is the sort of stain that will take a generation to disappear, if you're lucky, because it's obvious America can't govern itself.

Re: FOLLOW THE MONEY!

If you don't live in the USA then you don't want to follow Dumpy Trumpy too closely - the summary on the evening news is good enough. And even that will be out of date the next morning!

Windows Recovery Environment update fails successfully, says Microsoft

Re: PSA - Windows will install and execute programs from the ASUS BIOS

The Nvidia 1060ti initialization routine tries to downloaded a driver on boot. This is on a fresh install with no drivers. Easiest way to kill it was to stick the cards in a Linux box.

Not necessarily - for example, I have driver updates disabled because Windows kept installing an old driver over my video cards New driver. Plugged I a new piece of hardware (that actually doesn't need a driver), Windows tried to install the "recommended" driver anyway, totally unbootable, even after the device was physically removed.

So, reset PC, data safe but have to reinstall and reconfigure all programs. And remove deal like OneDrive, etc.

Most "drivers" are basically spyware nowadays. Machine runs just fine without them. Some of the nastier ones (Armory Crate, poorly written, very inefficient) require a reformat and restore from backups to get rid of every trace.

Guess what happens when ransomware fiends find 'insurance' 'policy' in your files

Insurance companies don't want a legal ban on paying ransom because then (a) when no payday is possible, ransomware will die out, which means (b) no market for ransomware insurance.

New SSL/TLS certs to each live no longer than 47 days by 2029

Re: thats just fucking wonderful.

I see a market opportunity for a browser that accepts longer-term certs - because "it just works."

Re: Why not...

>> the guy that empties dog shit bins at the local park...

After spending most of my life working with computers, writing code, dealing with assholes bosses, if I was looking for a job I'd be much happier emptying dog shit bins at the local park than returning to IT.

Same as I'm happy to take my neighbours dog for a walk (for free) when I walk mine several times a day. We do the rounds, meet other dogs, other people, get fresh air, exercise, they poop I scoop, it's much healthier than sitting in front of a for all day.

I'd rather pick up dog shit for free than go back to the dysfunctional world of IT. It's just not worth it no matter how much money.

China ups tariffs on US goods to 125%, calls Trump's war a 'joke'

Re: It's all pretty simple if you start with the right perspective

The drawing is inaccurate - Trump isn't wearing his adult diaper.

We found out during his trial that he has "problems" , and being forced to sit for hours in a courtroom, the air around him smelled of shit.

Same as we saw his white have shoulder pads that would put Joan Crawford to shame when he slumped over half asleep.

Or the 2" lifts in his shoes ( he fell out of his shoes when secret service agents rushed him offstage when a bullet grazed his ear).

If Canada has any brains, we'll let the current free trade deal expire, and just make one between Canada and Mexico. We can trade under WTO rules with the US, or sector by sector, like we used to.

We trade just fine with the rest of the world without needing free trade deals.

Of course, if we had brains, we'd join the EU.

Re: Tariffs and the cloud.....

>> You could put this down to Trump, who I suspect has a simplistic and old-fashioned understanding of trade purely in terms of physical items loaded onto ships and sold elsewhere.

Of course, cargo aircraft are now a thing, cutting out the need to call at a US port if you want to trade anywhere in the Americas. Goods that would normally be sent to the US, and from there, shipped elsewhere in the Americas, now are bypassing US ports and US tariffs.

China and Japan can ship goods to the Canadian port of Vancouver, or by air to Calgary international or Edmonton international, and then felt them out pretty much anywhere.

Europe? Ship to ports in Eastern and Central Canada, or fly in to Halifax, Montreal (Mirabel) or several international airports in Ontario.

Business hates uncertainty. Even if all tariffs were undone tomorrow, it's just too risky to deal with the US when you don't have to. Even a change in government isn't going to fix that. The trust is gone.

Re: Who has the biggest hands

Once people started talking about dedollarization (not using the US dollar as the reserve currency for trade) and treasury notes started losing value), he had no choice

Contrary to what he's saying, countries around the world are trying to find alternatives to US trade.

Consumers are boycotting US goods. Once that extends to boycotting services as well, it's game over.

Interesting note - despite American buyers having to pay a 25% import tax on Canadian aluminium, they're still buying as of this week. They can't use the cheaper stuff for certain applications. And that's not going to change.

LLMs can't stop making up software dependencies and sabotaging everything

One more reason not to use python, public repos, or AI.

Tech CEO: Four-day work week didn't hurt or help productivity

Re: Experience a friend had with 4 day week

Meetings expand to fill all space-time available. The more meetings, the closer you spiral into the black hole. Eventually, nothing escapes.

Tech hiring stalls as AI hype, layoffs, tariffs, economic uncertainty, more collide

It has always been so.

>> On one hand, there's the ever-present economic uncertainty,

Retired, and not going back.

The 80s sucked. The 90s sucked. The 00s sucked. The 10s sucked. It wasn't all bad, but there were just too many assholes bosses who thought that you could "negotiate down" a two-week task to two hours. And no time to deal with technical debt.

And the inevitable downturns where you take a completely unrelated job (with bosses who aren't totally clueless and co-workers who are NORMAL), No wonder people leave the field.

Let them whine about how nobody wants to work. They need to look in the mirror.

M365 Family users wake up to notice 'Your subscription expired'

Re: And that's why...

Fails locally, can be fixed locally. Because there are fewer points of failure (local software, what do I care if the licence server is down) ...

EU lands 25% counter tariff punch on US, Trump pauses broad import levy hike – China excepted

Anyone who thinks Canada will become a 51st state needs to realise that Canada doesn't need anything the US makes.

We're already dumping the F35s we were supposed to buy, millions of Canadians are boycotting anything made in the USA, and we can cut off the electrical supply to millions of Americans - and they already don't have enough for future demand.

The US will have used up its social security reserves in 8 years, meaning that they will only be able to make payments as revenue comes in. Even if nothing had changed since the election, pensioners would be looking at a 20% cut when that happens. It's gonna be ugly. And it's pretty much baked in at this point.

Intel pitches modular PC designs to make repairs less painful

Re: Price of 'Gaming' mainboard

There are gaming motherboards at almost twice the price. But boy do they have features. $1,000 for a motherboard, you're not going to use a cheap lower supply of piddly amounts of ram or a lower end CPU or gpu.

Re: If the solution makes no sense then you have not identified who has the problem

>> Except that laptops can run the more capable software that also runs on desktops

Both my desktops have 128gb of ram. Try to find a laptop that can do that.

One has 6 4TB drives, the other has 5, + a 2TB nvme. Try to find a laptop with that.

The main desktop has 2 x 16gb gram video cards connected to 6 x 4096x2160@60hz big screen the (2x65", 4x50"), and runs flight simulator at 8192x2250. Try to find a laptop that can do that.

It's great for multitasking - every window can have its own screen. Try doing that with a laptop.

Email and web browsing is handled by a pair of tablets. Serious work (and serious play) is where the desktops come in. Along with proper ergonomic seating and full-size keyboards for 2 users on one of both computers at the same time via kvm switches.

Wannabes with their laptops in coffee shops wouldn't know what to do with that much compute.

And back on topic - I built those desktops (2022 and 2024) to last between 15 and 20 years. Maybe update the hard drives, maybe a pair of 32gb video cards in 5 years ... Because unlike laptops, they're modular.

Re: If the solution makes no sense then you have not identified who has the problem

Desktop, tablet, phone. Laptops are a "one size fits nothing" because of the compromises.

Desktops are pretty much infinitely expandable, and much better, bigger displays, keyboards, and mice.

Tablets are lighter, better battery life, and cheaper. And they can also use cheap Bluetooth mice and keyboards And if you still something on the keyboard, just toss it.

Phones for the ultimate in portability, and as a hotspot for a tablet.

Laptops need to go away.

Re: WTF

It's still pretty stupid for desktops. Everything in desktops is modular. Even the motherboard - if it fails, but a better one with more features.

This is primarily a laptop problem.

Megan, AI recruiting agent, is on the job, giving bosses fewer reasons to hire in HR

I'm retired (yay) but I refused to work with either recruiters or hr. Neither one is qualified to judge technical competency, so why bother?

Get off the internet, to visit businesses, be polite to the receptionist/secretary (sometimes at lunch time the owner will be manning the front desk), and talk to them like a human being.

Also get off your ass and engage with the wider community (volunteer work, etc).

It's harder than just sending off resumes, but it works BECAUSE it's harder than sending out resumes and people are LAZY! You'll end up getting jobs you never even considered but that are interesting.

UK businesses eye AI as the cheaper, non-whining alternative to actual staff

Re: "value"

>> The impact of replacing jobs with AI is no more than the contractual notice period.

1. Company replaces customer service with AI chatbots

2. Unhappy customers become unhappy former customers

3. Complaints go down because people give up - "look, it's working - complaints are down"

4. Sales are down. - hire sales chatbots

5. Sales continue to drop

We've seen this story before. Cutting quality costs customers. Ask the cable companies, the telecoms, Boeing, CEOs pulling this deal know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

'Savvy' shortcuts produce near-instant speech-to-speech translation of 36 languages

>> .although we believe that language acquisition should remain a key mechanism for boosting our world-readiness, we acknowledge that doing so requires resources many people may not possess'.

More than 40% of the world speaks 2 or more languages. And it has zero to do with "world readiness." Most countries have significant groups that use a second, or even 3rd, language.

These researchers need to get into the real world more, and do some real-world research.

Shove your office mandates, people still prefer working from home

Re: Wrong - digital businesses will be digital

>> Instead of managing people, they need to be managing tasks and outcomes.And

Problem is, they don't understand the tasks. Can't manage something you don't understand.

And now we're seeing the natural outcome of this, as businesses shed layers of management and MBAs can't get a job.

Option 1. Return to office

Option 2. Change jobs

There's a 3rd option, and the more experienced and older you are, the more likely it is you're going to just retire.

Microsoft, PC makers cut prices of Copilot+ gear in Europe, analyst stats confirm

Fortunately it's still possible to build a desktop without an NPU.

Is it really the plan to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal? It's been a weird week

Re: And we skip over Musks real reason he's now involved

Musk always had kids with Canadian women. Didn't dare disk claims on his fortune by American women and kids in American courts over support.

If course, Trump wanting Canada as the 51st state blows a hole in that, as they become American citizens.

And you can't stop 10 million new former Canadian citizens moving to warmer climates in the US, taking American jobs, and laughing about how the "terrible snow disasters" that shut down so much activity are not that big a deal, cuz Canadian winters..

The US imports almost 1/3 of the oil it consumes from Canada. Trio's 25% tariff threat is nothing compared to the damage caused if Canada turns off the taps - or just puts on a reciprocal 25% export tariff on that oil.

Re: speech is apparently free

If you think Canada will side with the US, you really do not understand Canadians.

We have zero interest of becoming the 51st state. We have universal health care, like most advanced countries. We have gun control. There is no "right to bear arms." And hate speech is not protected speech.

Joining the EU would be a far easier sell.

Re: Money talks

When you're a billionaire you can't afford to have any real friends. They got shed along the road to riches.

So what's it like not having any real friends? Just look at them - lonely people, broken inside, striving for more money because the only thing they can trust (or even understand) is their bank balance. Bunch of war losers.

Tesla recalls 239,382 vehicles over rearview camera problems

THat's only for cats-eye mirrors (parabolic reflectors). Regular mirrors don't interfere with depth perception.

Amazon worker – struck and shot in New Orleans terror attack – initially denied time off

Re: Unable to analyze

This form-filliing is a waste of time and money at all levels. Fortunately one government is taking baby steps in the right direction - eliminating businesses from asking for a doctor's note for absences of 3 days or less.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-doctors-note-requirement-1.7421952

Fining Big Tech isn't working. Make them give away illegally trained LLMs as public domain

There is no legal basis for your "solution" of ignoring copyright. Your "feelz" don't count. People are focused on copyright because LLMs are tools of mass rights destruction, INCLUDING privacy rights.

Read the room.

So a billion copyright violations justify a billion more?

Giving away the models doesn't do anything to fix the copyright violations. All of does is make it permanent.

The solution is to destroy the LLM (same as you would counterfeit merch), fine the perps (same as you would anyone selling counterfeit merch), and make restitution to those whose work was used without permission.

The AI bubble will burst, graphics cards, storage, etc., will come out of their bubble world pricing, and the world will be a better place.