Posts by Decay

Microsoft dumps AI into Notepad as 'Copilot all the things' mania takes hold in Redmond

Yep Notepad (notepad++ if I am allowed) and paint get me most of the way there, VS Code if I'm knee deep in tracking a flow through multiple developers each using their own preferred scripting language or something. Yeah, I know, I got parachuted into this mess.

FAA gives SpaceX the nod for Starship Flight 9 but doubles the danger zone

Re: Danger Zone

Interestingly they are claiming the second failure, even though it was at roughly the same point in time in the flight, was from a different source.

"The most probable root cause for the loss of Starship was identified as a hardware failure in one of the upper stage’s center Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition."

And

"While the failure manifested at a similar point in the flight timeline as Starship’s seventh flight test, it is worth noting that the failures are distinctly different. The mitigations put in place after Starship’s seventh flight test to address harmonic response and flammability of the ship’s attic section worked as designed prior to the failure on Flight 8."

https://www.spacex.com/updates/

Re: Compensation?

No it's not, no more than the western half of the Atlantic (Shanwick) is Irish airspace, but if you ignore the internationally agreed control of that airspace and crash your plane into another or fly into a high risk published area and bad things happen to you, you'd better have a good explanation ready :)

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

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

NAV Canada controls the Eastern half of the Atlantic,

A nice map of the internationally agreed flight information regions.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/m3n84s/map_of_the_worlds_flight_information_regions_firs/#lightbox

Scottish council admits ransomware crooks stole school data

I would hazard a guess that it is to show and prove you are entitled to the free education your child is receiving.

Have an upvote. It gets sophisticated after the initial twat clicking (now now, stop thinking that) when they leverage that access into privilege escalation also known as the kill chain. Think ProcDump, Mimikatz etc. Expanding out to other machines using RDP, PsExec, pass-the-hash or worse domain trust relationships gets their tentacles into lots of areas you wouldn't expect.

What's annoying is that basic security hygiene prevents a lot of these. (This isn't a national security agency getting into your systems, if those guys want to they will, standard doctrine for those guys if it's the US you'll never know, if it's the Russians you'll only know if they want you to know, and if it's the Chinese you'll probably know after the fact)

Phishing

Security awareness training, Email filtering, Link rewriting/sandboxing, Disable macros by default, DMARC/DKIM/SPF etc

Execution

App control using AppLocker or Defender, Endpoint detection, Least privilege, for the love of God please stop users having admin access to their own machines.

Persistence

Monitor autostart locations using sysmon or other tools, harden your endpoints remove unused services and scheduled tasks, read or parse your EDR alerts

Privilege escalation

Patch management, UAC, Security logging (especially logon events and Event Id 4672) I'll leave that to the reader to google.

Credential Controls

LSASS or Credential Guard, take your pick, MFA (everywhere you can), Monitoring dll injections, memory scraping etc

Lateral movement

Network segregation with firewalls between segments or VLANs, service accounts configured (not your bloody domain admin account)

Command and control

DNS filtering proxy inspection, outbound firewall rules, behavior detect tools

Exfiltration

DLP, FIM, Backups (offline secure and immutable), Incident response plan, DR/BCP plan , built tested and familiar to everyone who needs to know, that includes exec, legal, marketing, comms, hr etc

Feel free to Google "MITRE ATT&CK tactics" and "NIST 800-53 controls"

Now that I have that off my chest, where were the auditors in all this, any organization I have ever worked for had 3rd party external auditors and as part of due diligence they would cross examine me and others and report back on deficiencies etc. So if I were investigating this I'd be asking that as part of the discovery and then getting the auditors to explain themselves. Because they have logs and artefacts :)

They were either told not to look, did look and didn't report it, or did look and reported it and manglement decided to ignore the findings.

Irish privacy watchdog OKs Meta to train AI on EU folks' posts

Re: "one-stop-shop"

From memory, the location in Portarlington, that was after the Government did its "redistribute departments around Ireland" as part of a decentralization program in the mid noughties. Lots of officials wrangling to get the juicy departments in their home town. Irish Prison Service moved to Longford. I seem to remember it being called "the big D" by Mcreevy or maybe even Bertie himself. To be fair I have met Billy Hawkes a few times and he is (or was) a pretty decent bloke, with a mandate far in excess of his resources at the time. He spent a lot of effort trying to get the DPC resourced more appropriately, a herculean task I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, well maybe my worst enemy :)

And for those of you not old enough to remember this was post the dot.com bubble burst, and post Y2K where all the rework and new equipment purchased in the lead up to Y2K meant that 2000-2002 was a grim time for IT as companies slashed IT budgets and relied on the investments they had made in the previous years to maintain them. Then the dot.com bubble burst. So any tech based company in Ireland employing tech people was seen as sacrosanct. Anyone seen as upsetting the apple cart was not given an easy time and Billy Hawkes ruffled a few feathers at the time. Not saying he was a knight in shining armor, he was, like any civil servant, acutely aware of realpolitik and made calls I personally couldn't have lived with. But walk a mile in a mans shoes......

Although that's a pretty jaundiced view of GDPR, and may indeed cause exactly what you claim, right now it's all we have. I certainly would love to see the Irish DPC or EDPC be more aggressive in their application of the rules or an alternative presented that protects consumers even more. But like it or not you and I and everyone else is the product in this new world, countries are concerned about the loss of revenue from taxes, the US is currently an unknown quantity from a trade perspective. I like tilting at windmills as much as anyone else, and I have voiced my opinions in more formal surroundings, both oral and written, but pragmatism (or follow the money, take your pick) means this is the best we are likely to have for now. All I can do is support organizations that rail against the machine and give them the support to take the various regulators to task or court.

My pragmatic suggestion is pick an organization and send money, moral support or offers of assistance. For the reader here is a quick list of such organizations, not recommending them or suggesting one is better or worse than the other, I'll leave that to the reader to figure out who most closely aligns with their own moral compass.

European Digital Rights (EDRi)

noyb (none of your business)

Privacy International (PI)

ENISA (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity)

Open Rights Group

And for Canada Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA)

I agree the fines are trivial to companies with these kind of EBITDA.

I'd argue that faults and all, GDPR is still the best privacy regulation out there with maybe Brazil giving it a run for it's money. Canada's PIPEDA is being updated under the CPPA act Bill c-27 but that's not cast in stone yet so we'll see. When Trudeau prorogued parliament to save his party all bills in flight were stopped and require re-submission. :(

A few South American countries and the Philippines have Habeas Data in their constitutions which can be effective as well although the Philippines was more aimed at extrajudicial killings so maybe that might become more relevant in the US ;)

I must admit I am pretty disappointed in the Irish DPC particularly in the last few years. Pre-2010 they were, believe it or not, a significant bulwark against unnecessary privacy intrusion. Not quite at German or French levels but given their resourcing, they as a department were punching above their weight.

But in the last decade they have slid on a straight-line trajectory downwards, and post GDPR in 2018 have now become the Achilles heel in EU legislation under the one-stop-shop rules. (See GDPR Article 56)

https://edri.org/our-work/why-ireland-is-the-achilles-heel-of-the-eus-fightback-against-big-tech/

They have to be forced to fine properly

WhatsApp 2021 DPC initially proposed a €50M fine; EDPB forced it up to €225M.

Instagram children’s data 2022 Final fine €405M after EDPB pressure.

The cynic in me says not brown envelopes so much as political pressure to not rock the US tech boat that accounts for 13% of GDP and 15% of the workforce and 40% of corporate revenue from 3 American companies. Add in Pharma, which doesn't get the limelight like tech, and Ireland is very dependent on the US. I am not saying this is right or proper, but anyone claiming it's not a factor is deluding themselves.

Europe is Russian to sanction Putin's pals over 'hybrid' threats

Mangled Headline

I get what you were trying to do, but with only one coffee in me this morning, it took me a minute or two to decrypt the headline.

Dilettante dev wrote rubbish, left no logs, and had no idea why his app wasn't working

Re: Divers log

For some reason unknown to me*, your comment sparked a recollection of the injustice served on me by a science teacher many, many moons ago who marked my answer to the question ...

"Is the mass of an object on the Moon different from on Earth?"

I answered no.

She marked it wrong and when I questioned it said "You silly boy, the Moon only has 1/6 the gravity of Earth so of course the mass will be different!"

Now if I can only remember her name, track her down on social media, and visit her nursing home, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind I tell you!

*Isn't it weird the oddball connections your brain makes.

Re: Divers log

Nautical applications still have fathoms (6 feet), nautical mile is 1 minute (1/60 degree) of latitude at the equator or about 6000 feet which makes converting knots (nautical miles per hour) relatively easy to estimate by dividing by 5 and multiplying by 6 e.g 30 knots is approx 36 mph. For more accuracy multiply by 1.15 so its closer to 34.5 mph

A cable length is 1/10 of a nautical mile or 100 fathoms. And as far as I know the Royal Navy still defines it that way while acknowledging its precise length is 608ft

And while I'm regurgitating useless facts thinking about this reminded be of how to estimate the maximum speed of a displacement hull (i.e. not planning) boat Take the length of the boat in at the water line (LWL) get the square root and multiply by a fudge* factor of between 1.2 and 1.4 typically assumed to be 1.34 and you get the max speed that hull can do in water. This results in some serious numbers for large ships and explains why aircraft carriers can bop along and how Atlantic passages by the QE2 etc can achieve those figures.

Example 80 foot hull = approx 12 knots (14mph)

USS Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft 1100 feet = 44.5 knots (51mph) QE2 is pretty close to that as well

Obviously horsepower windage etc all impact the actual top speed but those are the max numbers for hull length. The USS aircraft carriers have a nominal top speed of 30 knots but rumors persist that they can go a lot faster when the Captain decides F it I need to be there asap.

Show us your face: New Orleans PD reportedly got secret facial recognition alerts

Re: is this normal in the UK?

So working as designed? Now to tune it a bit more.

# AI Facial Recognition: Community Trust Edition™

# Powered by Totally Not Bias Inc.

#

def identify_suspect(person):

"""

Determine if a person is suspicious using absolutely indefensible heuristics.

"""

#

suspicious_score = 0

#

# Funny headwear: now aggressively inclusive of ignorance

if person.headwear.lower() in [

"turban", # Sikh headwear

"kippah", "yarmulke", # Jewish headwear

"keffiyeh", "ghutra", "agal", # Middle Eastern headwear

"fez", "top hat", "viking helmet", "tin foil", "safety cone"

]:

print(f"[!] Funny headwear detected: {person.headwear}")

suspicious_score += 3

#

if person.gender == "male" and person.outfit.lower() in ["thobe", "robe", "flowy tunic"]:

print(f"[!] Men in culturally confusing garments (as judged by people who wear beige tactical pants): {person.outfit}")

suspicious_score += 3

#

if person.vibe == "dodgy":

print("[!] Vibe check failed: Dodgy")

suspicious_score += 4

#

if person.match_against("people_we_dont_like_the_look_of"):

print("[!] Offense: Possessing a face that upsets the algorithm")

suspicious_score += 2

#

if person.group in ["them", "those people", "other"]:

print(f"[!] Belongs to 'Them People' group: {person.group}")

suspicious_score += 3

#

if person.id == "that_guy_the_commissioners_wife_smiled_at_once":

print("[!] Personal grudge match engaged")

suspicious_score += 10

#

if person.uniform != "police":

print("[!] No uniform detected, how dare they walk freely")

suspicious_score += 1

#

if suspicious_score >= 7:

print(f"ALERT: {person.name} marked as suspicious. Dispatch drones and fill out paperwork later.")

return True

else:

print(f"{person.name} judged non-threatening by the All-Seeing Algorithm. For now.")

return False

#

#

# Example target for arbitrary profiling

class Person:

def __init__(self, name, headwear, gender, outfit, vibe, group, id, uniform):

self.name = name

self.headwear = headwear

self.gender = gender

self.outfit = outfit

self.vibe = vibe

self.group = group

self.id = id

self.uniform = uniform

#

def match_against(self, list_name):

return list_name == "people_we_dont_like_the_look_of" and self.name.startswith("J")

#

# Demonstration of misguided techno-authority

subject = Person(

name="Yousef",

headwear="keffiyeh",

gender="male",

outfit="thobe",

vibe="dodgy",

group="them",

id="that_guy_the_commissioners_wife_smiled_at_once",

uniform="civilian"

)

#

identify_suspect(subject)

No. Never. Surely not. If only we had foreseen such an eventuality and taken steps. Some days I despair, the rest I weep.

Next week's SpaceX Starship test still needs FAA authorization

Re: Musky Doge approval imminent

I posted my source for the tonnage but I will post it again https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=62151.0

You're correct that they are estimates but if you have better, I am all ears. Genuinely. This stuff interests me as an armchair enthusiast.

I stand corrected :thumbsup:

Re: Musky Doge approval imminent

Not sure which news you're reading, but if that's failure, give me more of it.

Some Numbers:

$13.1 Billion in Revenue (2024): SpaceX's revenue increased to $13.1 billion in 2024, with $8.2 billion from Starlink and $4.2 billion from launch services.

https://payloadspace.com/estimating-spacexs-2024-revenue/

4.6 Million Starlink Subscribers: Starlink's customer base doubled in 2024, reaching 4.6 million subscribers by year's end.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/02/10/its-official-starlink-is-spacexs-biggest-money-mak/

1,500 Metric Tonnes to Orbit: SpaceX launched approximately 1,500 metric tonnes to orbit in 2024—over 20 times more than the next closest competitor.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=62151.0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches

134 Falcon Launches: In 2024, SpaceX conducted 134 Falcon family launches, breaking its previous record and accounting for a significant portion of global orbital launches.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches

SpaceX's achievements in 2024 show a company that's not only pushing the boundaries of space exploration but also delivering results. If you are just watching Starship then you're missing 90% of what the company does. It's an R&D exercise for them albeit with huge payoffs if they succeed. It just happens to be very public and splashy :)

Bit of a Freudian slip there :) my bad.

Leaving Musk out of the equation, I hope Space-X do succeed with Starship, the advancement in aerospace they are creating is very impressive. It wasn't long ago the thought of a reusable rocket was considered laughable and here we are with falcon 9's routinely returning and being reused. And now everyone else is trying to catch up and with luck we will have a competitive reusable rocket launch infrastructure. The number of scientific launches in the last decade is staggering. The future decade will be an order of magnitude greater.

I've mentioned it before but the power behind the throne, Gwen Shockwell, is the person I'd be focused on if I was a competitor to Space-X. She's the driving force.

If Starship succeeds putting a 100-150 tons in orbit routinely at a fraction of the current costs. it opens many possibilities beyond the headline Mars shot. Orbital habitats become feasible with pharma and materials science improvement we can only dream of once you start having fabrication and manufacturing in micro G.

I am old enough to have skipped school to watch the first shuttle launch with all that it promised and it still excites me to watch a starship launch. Not because of or despite Elon Musk, but just for the enjoyment of watching something that massive brute force it's way into the blue and then return and be caught by mechanical chopsticks. If someone had said that to me 20 years ago I'd have thought they were smoking something or daydreaming after reading some interesting science fiction book.

90-second Newark blackout exposes parlous state of US air traffic control

Unfortunately they have been saying similar for a decade or more. And it will likely take a massive loss of life to get it moving. In the US I would have thought this was a prime Army Corp of Engineers type body of work?

We have no idea how any individual reacts under those types of stresses and we have no idea what baseline stress they were operating under that this tipped them over. I've seen "hard" men weep at relatively non consequential scenarios, and "wimps" stand up and get stuff done in scenarios that left me and others shellshocked. Never judge. The expression "There but for the Grace of God go I" comes to mind.

A slightly more detailed news article

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/06/us/inside-the-multi-day-meltdown-at-newark-airport

Some wildass speculation from me follows, so take it for what it's worth.

As far as I can see, the controllers operate out of Philly but the radar and comms are located in Westbury. And judging by the loss of radar and comms the tx/rx and antennas are also remote in Westbury. On the same connection, which seems dumb. But whatever, the backup link is there to cover that. But it looks like the backup link or systems took 90 seconds to fail over or recognize they were on the backup link. Eeek!

Assuming the planes are arriving into Newark airspace, asking for Bravo clearance means they are outside the Bravo airspace, i.e. not about to imminently land, and also the airport tower has it's own VHF locally, so again suggest this was for planes a fair bit out. But they are doing 400 knots and more, 400 knots is about 675 feet per second so those planes have moved 60,000 feet in 90 seconds or about 11.5 statute miles.

The only saving grace is likely they were already being sequenced and air traffic controllers have phenomenal spatial awareness of their air space and likely set everyone on divergent headings and altitudes and had nearby airports take control of any planes that they could see or communicate with. But yeah, high stress I bet.

The comment that fiber would have solved it is asinine, whether the copper breaks or fiber breaks, or the rack that contains the equipment is blown by a live wire, redundancy is they key point, and running radar data and comms on the same connection seems to me to be asking for trouble and then a 90 second cutover is not optimal, I'd be taking a magnifying glass and a rectal probe to that system and asking some urgent questions.

Zuck ghosts metaverse as Meta chases AI goldrush

Re: FFS

My experience has been similar, give it the material to summarize or compare and it does a good job, it even makes a fair attempt at commenting code, probably better than I could but I am not a developer or coder so that's not a high bar. But once you ask it to modify or alter the code that's where it get hairy, it's damm good at writing code that looks at first glance reasonable but breaks when run or meets any type of edge case. Which to be honest is fine. Use it to spark the creative juices, to get you started or show you an approach you didn't consider. Then take over yourself. It's a glorified calculator insofar as you need to check the output and genuinely understand the output to error check it.

A calculator doesn't make stuff up but we have all fat fingered a key or mistyped and ended up with a nonsensical result. Assume every output from the LLM needs similar review and you can get some stuff done. But if you don't understand the ask, don't understand the output, in short if you are not a domain expert in the topic you are asking it, you are playing Russian roulette.

Re: FFS

Upvote for nailing it.

Open source AI hiring bots favor men, leave women hanging by the phone

I’m not sure why there’s surprise here. Large language models (LLMs) are trained on historical data, and that data often includes patterns like hiring more males for certain roles. The LLM simply reflects those patterns. This isn’t to say it’s fair or right, but it is expected based on the data.

In short, HR-focused LLMs reflect the hiring practices in their training data. Anyone expecting no bias would need to explain how they removed historical bias or adjusted the model to correct for it. That, of course, leads to the bigger debate around affirmative action.

If an LLM ignores gender details like names and only looks at qualifications, yet still produces results that favor male candidates, then we need to ask if deeper issues are at play. These might include unequal opportunities, workplace bias, or barriers to advancement.

This is where DEI gets tricky. In an ideal world, candidates would be judged only on merit, and the best-qualified person would get the job. But real life isn’t that simple. Many people have faced setbacks because of gender, race, or background, and DEI tries to correct for that. The idea is to recognize that a weaker resume might reflect limited opportunities, not a lack of ability.

At the same time, DEI can sometimes disadvantage candidates who, through the benefit of favorable circumstances or existing privilege, have stronger resumes. It raises tough questions about fairness and how to balance merit with correcting past inequalities.

I personally am not sure how to resolve that dichotomy today, but for tomorrow we can start by offering equal opportunities to everyone at the start of their career and throughout their career so that when their resume is reviewed, it's a fair and even playing field.

Brewhaha: Turns out machines can't replace people, Starbucks finds

No sh*t sherlock

"We're finding through our work that investments in labor, rather than equipment, are more effective at improving throughput and driving transaction growth," he said, adding that the biz has paused equipment rollouts and abandoned planned deployment of cold press, cold brew machines.

"We believe this evolved labor-focused approach has more potential to improve throughput and connection while minimizing future capital expenditures on equipment," he said.

Oh, chef’s kiss—pure corporate brilliance. They blew a ton of cash on machines to "optimize labor," only to discover (shocking!) that robots can’t pour coffee and smile at the same time. Now, after watching that plan implode, they’ve decided the real innovation is... doing what worked all along. But wait! It’s not a humiliating retreat—it’s an “evolved labor-focused approach” that “maximizes connection” (translation: baristas still exist, and we’re pretending that’s a strategy). Naturally, they’re hyping it as a masterstroke of efficiency, while quietly sweeping the pricey equipment debacle under the rug. Truly next-level leadership—fail fast, then market the failure as genius.

At this rate, I fully expect the next big breakthrough to be “discovering” that coffee actually tastes better when it’s hot.

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

Re: Support Staff & False Cost-Savings

Surely, (don't call me Shirley) you don't meant the HR types looking for 5 years windows 11 experience? Or the interviewer standard question, "Tell me about a time you had a conflict in work and how you dealt with it?" to which you trot out the same example you gave to the last 10 interviewers who asked the exact same question at the exact same point in the interview.

Or my all time favorite "How would you fix this obscure issue on an even more obscure app?"

"I'd google it , call the vendor and review the documentation. You do have documentation don't you?"

--Silence

Re: Return to work policy

Sadly that seems to be the playbook these days. And for some reason manglement seems to think that only the lazy slackers will leave, whereas in my observations it's the good people who say to hell with this I'm out. I have seen many a leech cling on to the last possible moment because looking for new employment would be a serious challenge. Strangely the effect seems to reverse as you climb the totem pole with absolute idiots seemingly bouncing around from job to job with ease as you approach the top 2 layers of an organization.

Re: Support Staff & False Cost-Savings

And then do something to retain the volunteers. They are the people who know they can get work elsewhere because they are good at their job.

A bank in Ireland in pre Y2K times offered voluntary redundancy, a significant portion of those that left in the IT field were rehired as consultants at much better pay within 12 months. And in many cases had exited with a package and pension and were quite literally laughing all the way to the bank each day.

Windows isn't an OS, it's a bad habit that wants to become an addiction

Even With Windows Being Bad, Linux Is Still Too Hard for Most

Donning the flameproof jacket before posting...

I've been using Linux on and off for damn near 30 years, and honestly, I like it — I'm well able to put the effort in when needed.

But...

Let's be straight about it: Windows today is bloated, intrusive, inconsistent, and often frustrating. Microsoft has managed to turn what was once a very usable operating system into a clumsy advertising platform, riddled with unwanted AI, hidden telemetry, and a user interface that seems to change just for the sake of it.

And yet — even with all that — most people still won’t move to Linux.

Why? Because for the average person, even now in 2025, Linux still demands too much technical effort, knowledge, and patience to get set up and keep running.

It’s not just a case of installing Linux Mint and heading off into the sunset. In practice, users still run into:

Hardware driver issues, especially with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth devices, printers, webcams, and newer GPUs.

Software compatibility gaps, where key apps (like Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office macros, or specialist CAD software) either don't exist natively or need awkward workarounds like Wine, PlayOnLinux, or Proton.

Too much choice and fragmentation, with hundreds of distros, package managers, update models, and desktop environments — overwhelming even before you start.

Terminal use still needed for troubleshooting, tweaking, or installing certain software cleanly.

Update risks, where rolling release distros (like Arch or Manjaro) can introduce breakages, and even stable distros (like Ubuntu LTS or Mint) can still occasionally throw problems your way.

For experienced users and tech heads, that's fine — even part of the enjoyment.

But for the ordinary user who just wants to send an email, print a few forms, or watch Netflix, it's simply too much hassle.

The mass market isn't sticking with Windows because it's better — they're sticking with it because it's easier.

Most people will put up with telemetry, ads, and bad design choices long before they'll take on a system that needs technical know-how, constant tinkering, and a fair bit of learning.

It’s not about freedom versus slavery — it’s about effort versus convenience. Ease of use wins. It always has, and it always will.

Until Linux offers an experience as smooth and hassle-free as iOS, Android, or ChromeOS — without needing a geek to hand — it’ll remain a system for enthusiasts, tinkerers, and people who enjoy fixing things.

Even a flawed Windows still beats something that expects you to be your own IT department.

And that's the real reason we’re still waiting for "the year of the Linux desktop."

And for the record — I say all this with a lot of respect and affection for Linux.

AI-driven 20-ft robots coming for construction workers' jobs

Well if it was as productive as a labourer and runs 24x7x365 that's roughly equivalent to 4 full time employees so approx equally to 4 60k employees. Never forget the spreadsheet rules all. And if you assume prices will drop and ability will increase, it will be attractive in certain situations. Probably commercial building where you have limited architectural details and lots of straight lines. If I were a young construction person I'd be getting very interested in running these or "operating" them.

BOFH: The Prints of Darkness pays a visit

Re: partially implement every networking protocol known to man, badly

"Fiery" ??? Oh god make the bad flashbacks go away, I find myself on the floor again, knees to my chest, sobbing into my sleeves. It always comes back — the memories of the Fiery Print Interface. The endless tabs that contradicted themselves, the settings that never stayed set, the desperate prayers whispered before clicking "Apply."

I see the faces of users asking, "Can you just make it print in color?" — as if I had power over the madness. I didn’t. No one did. Only the Interface, cold and uncaring, ruled us all.

Even now, years later, one faint "job error" tone from somewhere in the building and I’m back there, broken, weeping, wishing I'd chosen a quieter death than enterprise print management. All these years later the memories come rushing back, like a thousand misaligned print jobs storming into my brain with tiny paper-cut bayonets.

Only 3,000 staff jump from SAP after 10,000 earmarked to be pushed

Because once you accept that people are just replaceable expenditures in a quarterly sacrifice to the gods of EBITDA, it all starts to make grim, Machiavellian sense.

Employees? They're not people — they're liabilities that breathe, complain, and occasionally unionize. The only time they’re noticed is when there's a budget to slash, a merger to justify, or a boardroom PowerPoint in need of a “cost efficiency” bullet point.

This isn’t incompetence. It’s by design. Strip the company of its institutional memory, gut morale like a fish, then parachute out with a golden handshake big enough to cause minor seismic activity. Meanwhile, the husk of a workforce is told to "embrace agility" and "do more with less" — corporate-speak for “you’re lucky to still have a cubicle.”

Eventually, yes, performance falters, innovation dies a quiet death, and customer satisfaction becomes a myth told to interns. But by then, the CxO has moved on to the next company, where the cycle begins anew.

In this game, people aren't resources. They're expenses with emotions. And the fewer of those you have, the cleaner the balance sheet looks — at least until the whole rotten edifice collapses under the weight of its own short-sighted brilliance.

As I once was told "It’s not that we don’t care about people. It’s just that “cost savings” fits more neatly in a KPI dashboard."

ICE enlists Palantir to develop all-seeing 'ImmigrationOS' eye to speed up deportations

Re: What would you do?

So to answer your question at the end.....

You're asking a fair question — should the current state of the U.S. be maintained as-is, or should it be fixed? But that question hinges on accepting a particular narrative that’s deeply oversimplified and misleading.

Yes, the U.S. has serious challenges:

Debt levels are high.

Border policy is in flux.

Drug abuse and mental health crises are real.

Trust in institutions is under pressure.

But the framing of these issues in your original list distorts the truth through exaggeration, misinformation, and conspiracy tropes.

So, to answer your question a different way.....

Yes, it needs fixing — like every democracy always does. But not through fear, scapegoating, or tearing down institutions. It needs fixing through:

Evidence-based policy, not ideological panic:

Debt management via real tax reform and responsible spending, not debt-ceiling brinkmanship.

A modern immigration system that is both secure and humane.

Smart drug policy: treatment-first, supply-chain interdiction second.

Strengthening institutions, not tearing them down:

Rebuild trust in the press, science, and public health with transparency.

Fund and reform the Department of Justice and oversight bodies to root out real corruption.

Invest in civic education so people can tell the difference between constructive criticism and propaganda.

Rejecting conspiracy thinking, embracing pluralism:

The claim about Israel “owning” the U.S. government is not policy critique — it’s antisemitic rhetoric.

The CIA/USAID “color revolution” claim is Kremlin narrative, not evidence of democratic subversion.

DEI and social change aren’t the end of civilization — they’re the messy path toward a more inclusive one.

Investing in people:

Improve access to mental health, affordable housing, and healthcare.

Ensure working families can thrive, through livable wages, education, and public infrastructure.

Address the root causes of trafficking and drug abuse, not just the symptoms.

Final thought:

Critique is vital in any democracy — but critique built on half-truths and conspiracies leads to authoritarianism, not reform.

So yes, let’s fix things. But let’s fix what’s real — not what’s fabricated to drive outrage. Change is needed—but grounded in truth, not panic.

Re: What would you do?

6. "USAID and the CIA are running amok with colour revolutions and foreign influence."

This claim mirrors Russian disinformation. USAID supports humanitarian and democratic development globally. No credible evidence supports the “color revolution” narrative. This is a long-standing conspiracy trope. The U.S. supports democracy-promotion efforts abroad, often through USAID and NGOs.

The claim they are "running amok" ignores the fact that most such programs are transparent, budgeted, and often welcomed by recipient nations.

Sources:

EUvsDisinfo – Disinformation debunk:

https://euvsdisinfo.eu/report/usaid-is-a-provocateur-of-colour-revolutions-in-the-post-soviet-countries/

USAID Mission Statement:

https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are

7. "The dollar was weaponised reducing its desirability."

Sanctions have pushed some countries to seek alternatives, but the U.S. dollar remains the global reserve currency, with 58% of global holdings in 2024. The dollar has been used in sanctions policy — that’s not new. Freezing assets or denying access to SWIFT for hostile regimes (e.g., Russia, Iran) is part of diplomatic pressure, not sabotage.

Despite “de-dollarization” talk, the dollar remains dominant globally, accounting for ~60% of global reserves and being the primary settlement currency for commodities.

Sources:

Chatham House – Role of the Dollar:

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/04/us-dollars-role-international-monetary-system-now-dangerously-flux

Reuters – Dollar reserve status report (IMF data):

https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/percent-global-fx-reserves-dollars-ticks-up-amounts-fall-imf-data-shows-2025-03-31/

8. "Corruption is rife across government, NGOs, media, pharmaceutical and food industry."

There is corruption in all large systems, but the U.S. has some of the world’s strongest transparency, auditing, and whistleblower frameworks. Lumping every sector together dilutes legitimate critiques. For example, Big Pharma lobbying is real, but that doesn't mean all vaccines or treatments are corrupt. Nuance matters.

Sources:

FDA Debarment List (enforcement actions):

https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/compliance-actions-and-activities/fda-debarment-list-drug-product-applications

U.S. Department of State – Anti-Corruption Overview:

https://www.state.gov/bureau-of-international-narcotics-and-law-enforcement-affairs/combating-corruption-and-promoting-good-governance/

9. "Ordinary people are becoming unhealthy and poorer."

Life expectancy and wealth disparities are concerns, but real wages have begun rising after a multi-decade stagnation, and unemployment is near historic lows.

Obesity and chronic disease are public health issues, but they are multi-decade trends — not caused by any current administration — and require systemic, bipartisan public health responses.

Sources:

Economic Policy Institute – Wage growth analysis:

https://www.epi.org/publication/strong-wage-growth-for-low-wage-workers-bucks-the-historic-trend/

USAFacts – Wage vs inflation tracker:

https://usafacts.org/answers/are-wages-keeping-up-with-inflation/country/united-states/

10. "There is a serious human trafficking problem with children and women."

Yes, trafficking exists and is tragic. But most victims are trafficked through coercion and manipulation—often within their own countries—not by border crossings alone. The U.S. has dedicated federal task forces, DOJ prosecutions, and cross-border coordination to fight this — again, not a recent or neglected issue.

Sources:

National Human Trafficking Hotline Statistics:

https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/statistics

U.S. Department of Justice Human Trafficking Portal:

https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking

11. "Nearly the entire government is on the payroll from Israel."

This is an antisemitic conspiracy theory. U.S. foreign aid to Israel is legislated by Congress like any other bilateral support—subject to public debate, law, and policy goals. The U.S. and Israel do have a close relationship, but foreign aid is appropriated by Congress, debated publicly, and is part of broader strategic alliances.

Suggesting “nearly the entire government” is “on the payroll” of a foreign country is not only false, it's dangerous rhetoric that undermines civic discourse.

Sources:

CFR – U.S. Aid to Israel Explained:

https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts

Congressional Research Service – U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel:

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf

Re: What would you do?

Notwithstanding the Gish Gallop approach you took I'll try to give a reasoned rebuttal.

1. "You have a debt of $35T and it costs more to service than the military."

- Yes, U.S. national debt is nearing $35 trillion, and in FY2024, interest payments ($882B) surpassed defense spending ($874B) for the first time. This results from decades of bipartisan deficit spending, worsened by high interest rates—not a single administration.

Why This Is Happening

Interest Rates Have Risen Sharply:

In response to post-pandemic inflation, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates aggressively. As Treasury securities mature, the government must refinance at these higher rates — pushing up total debt service costs.

The average interest rate on federal debt rose from ~1.6% in 2021 to over 3.2% in 2024.

Debt Has Grown Over Decades:

The rise in debt is not the fault of one administration. It is the cumulative result of:

Tax cuts (2001, 2003, 2017)

Wars (Iraq, Afghanistan)

Financial crisis stimulus (2008–2010)

COVID-19 relief packages (2020–2021)

Aging population and growing entitlement costs

Mandatory Spending Outpaces Revenue:

The majority of federal spending goes to mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which are legally obligated — unlike discretionary spending (e.g., defense, education). Debt servicing is also mandatory.

Is This Sustainable?

The U.S. can sustain higher debt levels as long as the economy grows faster than interest payments. But current projections show interest costs consuming a growing share of GDP:

Interest could reach 3.6% of GDP by 2033, exceeding all other budget categories.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), net interest will be the fastest-growing part of the budget in the next decade.

Sources:

CBO Long-Term Budget Outlook (2023):

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59096

CRFB – “Interest Costs Just Surpassed Defense and Medicare”:

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/interest-costs-just-surpassed-defense-and-medicare

Why Military Spending Is Still Contextual

While military spending is now smaller than debt interest, it remains massive by global standards:

The U.S. spends more on defense than the next 10 countries combined.

Defense spending also includes non-DOD areas (e.g., nuclear weapons via Department of Energy).

So while interest costs have overtaken defense in the budget pie, defense remains a strategically dominant and discretionary category — and it is subject to political negotiation, unlike interest.

Bottom Line

Yes, interest on the debt now costs more than the military — and that’s a red flag for fiscal sustainability. But this didn’t happen overnight, and it can’t be pinned on one party or president. It’s the result of long-term fiscal imbalance, economic shocks, and higher borrowing costs.

Sources:

Bipartisan Policy Center:

https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/why-the-national-debt-matters-for-national-security/

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/interest-costs-just-surpassed-defense-and-medicare

2. "You have open borders."

The U.S. has an operational border with billions spent on enforcement. In early 2025, the administration implemented new measures, including stricter asylum rules and increased personnel, resulting in a sharp drop in border encounters. Border policy has faced lawsuits from both sides — some for being too harsh, others for being too lax — which suggests policy is not “open borders,” but contentious and evolving.

Sources:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Nationwide Encounters:

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters

The Guardian – Border enforcement impact:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/12/trump-military-control-us-mexico-border

White House fact sheet on new border policies (Dec 2024):

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/29/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-secure-the-border/

3. "Drugs are flooding in."

Yes, fentanyl trafficking is a crisis—but over 90% of seizures happen at legal ports of entry, usually via U.S. citizens, not migrants crossing unlawfully.

The issue is deeply tied to domestic demand, cartel operations in Mexico and China’s precursor chemical exports, making it a complex international and public health problem, not just a border policy failure

Sources:

U.S. CBP Drug Seizure Statistics:

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics

USAFacts – Fentanyl seizures at the border:

https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-fentanyl-is-seized-at-us-borders/country/united-states/

Cato Institute:

https://www.cato.org/blog/us-citizens-were-80-crossers-fentanyl-ports-entry-2019-2024

4. "Woke has gone crazy damaging performance in all sectors."

DEI initiatives—frequently mischaracterized as “woke”—have shown positive effects on organizational performance when properly implemented.

A 2024 meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Applied Research in Social Sciences examined the effects of DEI initiatives across various industries. The study found that organizations implementing DEI practices experienced significant benefits, including:​

Enhanced innovation and creativity

Improved decision-making processes

Increased employee engagement and satisfaction

Better financial performance indicators​

Sources:

MIT Sloan:

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-integrating-dei-into-strategy-lifts-performance/

Okatta, Ajayi, & Olawale. (2024). Enhancing Organizational Performance Through Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Applied Research in Social Sciences, 6(4), 734-758.

5. "There is a dangerous war in Europe."

Yes, Russia's war on Ukraine is a major conflict. U.S. involvement is indirect—via aid, not troops—supporting Ukrainian defense against an invasion. The war in Ukraine is serious and dangerous. Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 was an unprovoked act of aggression against a sovereign state and a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. The United States has not sent troops into Ukraine but has provided over $180 billion in financial, humanitarian, and military aid to help Ukraine defend itself.

Source: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-money-has-the-us-given-ukraine-since-russias-invasion/

However, it’s fair to scrutinize U.S. foreign policy through a historical lens. The U.S. has a long and controversial record of military interventions and covert operations, many of which have been later criticized as being motivated more by oil and strategic control than by humanitarian or democratic ideals.

Examples include:

Iraq (2003): The invasion was justified on the claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction—claims that were later found to be false. Many analysts and former officials have acknowledged that oil security and regional influence played a significant role in the decision to go to war.

Reference: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/was-iraq-war-about-oil

Libya (2011): NATO's intervention was framed as a humanitarian mission during the Arab Spring, but Libya has Africa’s largest oil reserves. The country descended into long-term chaos after Muammar Gaddafi’s removal.

Analysis: https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/24/the-libyan-war-that-wasnt/

Iran (1953): The CIA orchestrated a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh after he nationalized Iran’s oil industry. This returned the Shah to power and served Western oil interests.

Archive: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB435/

Venezuela (2000s–present): The U.S. has supported political opposition and imposed sanctions, often citing democratic concerns. However, critics argue that Venezuela’s vast oil reserves are central to U.S. interest.

Reference: https://jacobin.com/2019/01/venezuela-coup-oil-intervention-sanctions-maduro-guaido

In these and other cases, the U.S. has been accused of masking geopolitical or economic objectives—particularly around oil—in the language of freedom and democracy.

Sources:

USAFacts – U.S. Ukraine aid tracker:

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-money-has-the-us-given-ukraine-since-russias-invasion/

Congressional Research Service report on U.S. aid to Ukraine (2024):

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12040

Suprised Clearview isn't throwing fits

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/clearview-ai-immigration-ice-fbi-surveillance-facial-recognition-hoan-ton-that-hal-lambert-trump/

"Clearview had compiled a massive biometric database that would eventually contain billions of images the company scraped off the internet and social media without the knowledge of the platforms or their users. Its AI analyzed these images, creating a “faceprint” for every individual. The company let users run a “probe photo” against its database, and if it generated a hit, it displayed the matching images and links to the websites where they originated. This made it easy for Clearview users to further profile their targets with other information found on those webpages: religious or political affiliation, family and friends, romantic partners, sexuality. All without a search warrant or probable cause.

A diehard Donald Trump supporter, Ton-That envisioned using facial recognition to compare images of migrants crossing the border to mugshots to see if the arrivals had been previously arrested in the United States. His Border Patrol pitch also included a proposal to screen any arrival for “sentiment about the USA.” Here, Ton-That appeared to conflate support for the Republican leader with American identity, proposing to scan migrants’ social media for “posts saying ‘I hate Trump’ or ‘Trump is a puta’” and targeting anyone with an “affinity for far-left groups.” The lone example he offered was the National Council of La Raza, now called UnidosUS, one of the country’s largest Hispanic civil rights organizations."

Now that Ton-That was fired you'd think they were going in a new direction but no....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2025/04/09/clearview-ais-founder-removed/

"Under Lambert, who now leads Clearview alongside longtime employee and co-CEO Richard Schwartz, the company is aiming to secure contracts that support President Donald Trump’s agenda on immigration, defense and border security. Lambert, a major Republican donor, previously told Forbes that he had taken over to help make connections with the Trump administration. “We're talking to the [Pentagon], we're talking to Homeland Security,” he said. “There are a number of different agencies we're in active dialogue with.”"

And if you want a preview of what's coming in the future https://time.com/6691662/ai-ukraine-war-palantir/

What to do once your Surface Hub v1 becomes an 84-inch, $22K paperweight

Re: its not at the end of life.

Just had a flashback to token ring network closets (emm rooms). Now that was a serious bit cable management, I always reckoned the network closets would be the only parts left standing after a serious earthquake. Complete walls were the patch panels.

IBM Consulting workers told management wants to 'more closely align pay, performance'

Re: Low profit margin

So with permission was ok? :) And the partners partner but not the admin? :) Yep seen those games played. Back in the Y2K era a large Irish bank had a floor devoted to admins and EA's for the CxO that was staffed by astonishingly attractive looking women of a certain age. And one helpdesk PFY kept going to this floor to assist these ladies with any and every IT issue they could possibly ever have and to be fair was well liked by the ladies for his dedication and assistance with their IT issues. Not a euphemism, they really did appreciate his help.

Until a CxO spotted him repeatedly observing the view that was reserved for CxO level only and was quietly offered a relocation to Donegal or leave, his choice.

On the other hand, a competent and effective admin is worth their weight in gold so in many cases upsetting the partners work life (and in many cases the admin's run their private lives as well) gets severe and rapid punishment.

Datacenters selling power back to the grid? Don’t bet on it, say operators

And I forgot that sometime in the Noughties Eircom was running fiber along High Tension powerlines as well so if your DC had power it had connectivity and the upsell (falsely it turned out) was that Irish DCs were green due to the massive investments in wind farms.

Dublin built a huge fiber ring around Dublin when building the M50 orbital ring (semi circle?) so there was tons of dark fiber waiting to be used in nice big conduits with lots of spare capacity. So when MS, Facebook et al were looking for sites you could build a DC anywhere near the M50 and have (at the time) fantastic connectivity without a lot of extra work. It was also linked into the IFSC in Dublin which had a lot financial related companies (Charles River, FactSet, JP Morgan etc) and this was kicking off in the late eighties for the IFSC and the late Nineties for the T50. Around the same time fiber was laid from the west of Ireland and Cork to connect to the T50 and elsewhere so ingress in the west and south from undersea (at that time) was easily available. Later in 2015/16 a 52Tbps fiber connection from Co Mayo in the west of Ireland direct to Long Island was completed but had been on the books since 2005 but 2007/8 crash halted any real progress on anybody even considering moving ahead.

Add in English speaking educated workforce, access to the EU, US friendly government, favorable taxes temperate climate for reasonably fixed cooling costs and a national grid that was if not excellent at least stable and it was a slam dunk. No one of those factors would have made the deal but in combination it was very attractive to the big data center players. And still is

I think the key point was the pricing structure from eirGrid

Looking at this from a bean counter perspective, if it's going to cost I dunno 1 millliiiiiion euro to install battery based UPS backed by diesel and NG generators on top of that. Now if I over provision and install 10 milliiiiooon euro of batteries but can arbitrage the grid pricing to charge the batteries at low cost and export at a high price my amortization of option 1 is say 200K a year but option 2 is 2mn a year (tax benefits there) and I either break even on costs or make a profit.

Then I can see that being attractive to a datacenter owner, not for any social responsible reason, just bottom line drivers. And if your DC is in an area with a less favorable time of use/export pricing then the numbers don't stand up and you stick with option 1.

On demand surge pricing battery supply to the grid seemed to generate seriously good profits in Australia, but I have no idea how their pricing structure relates to Ireland or anywhere else.

Now 1.6M people had SSNs, life chapter and verse stolen from insurance IT biz

"We live in hope, we die in despair"

It seems to be week after week after week of large data holding companies getting hacked or compromised with little to no penalty. The ritualistic x months of credit monitoring is a real FU to the people impacted and is at best a fig leaf. We need serious penalties to make these companies pay attention. $1,000 per person compromised would make boards and shareholders pay attention and apply appropriate due diligence.

Pentagon needs China's rare earths, Beijing just put them behind a permit wall. Oops

Re: @Roland6 - Misnomer

Combined population less than 1000 people inundated by 5000 riggers, operators and sundry supporting roles in massive man camps ala Fort Mac AB or Williston ND. That'd be a culture shock.

TalkTalk Business pulls disappearing act on customer emails

That's in my top 5 of the shows episodes.

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

100% agree and depending on the seniority additional conversations about being careful with personal devices, conversations relating to confidential matters etc. etc. The reality is if the US wants to access your orgs business information they can and you'll probably never even know. But lets not make it easy. And the same OpSec type approach also helps when laptops and phones get lost or are stolen so it's a pretty basic table stakes policy to adopt.

I suspect the tweaking of the EU recommendations is more for the publicity and optics or even just a general disapproving frown in the direction of the US than any real change in standard operating procedures, most government officials are briefed on appropriate precautions, whether they follow or not is debatable.

Trump thinks we can make iPhones in the US just like China. Yeah, right

Re: How America will "make" the iPhone

There is a bit of truth in that, many moons ago a temp job I had in Manchester was in Fujitsu ala ICL also known as Design to Distribution (D2D) where fully made PC's came in by the pallet load, we unscrewed the 4 thumbscrews to remove the case, inserted a PSU, connected the connectors, and reassembled and placed back into the exact same cardboard box and then it had an assembled in the UK sticker put on it. This was in the late Eighties early Nineties when RAM was so expensive we used to be randomly searched for RAM modules :)

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

Re: Some people like to ...............

I too wondered about property being a factor. You have to assume there are questions being asked about office cost be it owned or leased versus empty desks. But the tinfoil hat part of me also wonders how much pressure is being exerted by the finance world scared of commercial property prices crashing. By finance world in particular investment people with long term mortgages tied up as part of their portfolios, these would include yours and mine pensions etc.

Given the CxO world is very small and has at most 2 degrees of separation with many board members sharing multiple boards, how much of the WFH commentary is a result of water cooler conversations by the same small group of people?

Add in the usual CxO approach to life, that being everyone else is doing it so we should too, and not willing to stick their heads up above the parapet and say, yeah productivity is unchanged but the workforce morale improvement, talent retention and acquisition more than offsets any paper dollar loss of efficiency by having an office unused 3/7 days versus 2/7 days.

And final nail in the coffin if I can't see people working they mustn't be working stupidity.

Someone compromised US bank watchdog to access sensitive financial files

Totally misread the by-line and was wondering who's Mum broke into the OCC :(

That'll be embarrassing if the data surfaces.

Guess their strategic plan is going to get a rewrite

https://www.occ.treas.gov/publications-and-resources/publications/banker-education/files/pub-occ-strategic-plan-2023-2027.pdf

The only reference they make to cybersecurity BTW :)

"The benefits of digitalization and third party

dependencies come with increasingly complex financial, compliance, operations, technology, cybersecurity,

and resiliency risks. To keep up with the rapid pace of change and ensure that our approach to safety and

soundness stays current, we have to be agile and shift to a culture of continuous learning."