Posts by Claude Yeller

AI models don't kill people – people kill people

Not Capital Punishment, worse is needed

We need a worse, more cruel punishment to stop the AI companies.

Force all investors by law to vouch with their capital for any damages and bail outs. That is, there is no limit to liability.* It is the investors who steer the suits and who are responsible for making this all possible.

* We know how this works, nuclear power plants are only possible because the law limits liability for any disaster. In the USA the Price-Anderson Act limits liability to $16B if you would want to know. The real risk is uninsurable.

The Future is for Billionaires – the rest of us will get open weight AI models, maybe

Re: Whatever the future holds

"It's all very well them expecting their new robot minions to protect them from the mob but I've yet to see a robot that can unclog a domestic toilet, change a lighbulb or inflate the wheel on a robot tractor."

It is unwise to make predictions of the future. Things predicted to be impossible eventually are not.

Anyhow, the culling will be staged. At each stage, only the current superfluous (unproductive) people will be dealt with. See current ICE and the way RFK&MAHA are deselecting anyone in need of health care or protection against infections. Note also how neuro-divergent seems to become a sub-human label. This too has examples from history.

Re: Whatever the future holds

"remember the multi-billionaires will always need people."

With AI, drones, and robots, not so much.

Once upon a time, humans would always need horses and oxxes, for doing the work on the fields and transporting people and products.

What became of all these indispensable horses when machines and cars were introduced?

Don't you think these billionaires are not contemplating a future with less unemployed mouths to feed?

ICE is already working along those lines.

Met Police's Palantir deployment has its own officers watching their backs

Re: False arrests

"The number of false arrests by the Met is startling."

That's behavior on the job. No one is complaining about them being followed and observed during their jobs. The complaints are about surveillance in their private life.

Met officers have the same rights as other citizens.

And what is this thing about Freemasonry?

MPS officers are citizens too

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

When citizens have privacy, LEO's have that too.

If we call for protecting the privacy of "ordinary citizens", we should also call to protect the privacy of MPS officers. In the end, we will all be treated to the same standard.

EU waves through open source age-check tool to keep kids safe online

Unbreakable security?

The Commission has delivered an unbreakable identity system.

I just wonder how long it will stay unbroken. My guess is that holes in it will be found before it is even into use.

AI reality check: Here's what three companies learned building wallets, homes, and games

Re if a: bank I do business with contacts me

"If an AI at a bank I do business with contacts me to try and persuade me to save more of my money"

I am not in the USA. If my bank would contact me to sell me "services", I would change my bank.

They obviously think they don't earn enough from me so I will remove the burden of my money from them.

AI's not going to kill open source code security

Re: How do they know?

"When they say that 96% of commercial code includes open source components, they have no way of knowing how many code bases exist and would almost certainly fail to consider many of those that don't include open source components because they couldn't know about them."

Very true, however, how much commercial code is so hidden they are unaware it exists? Maybe purely in-house code use, but what fraction of global software doesn't see external users?

And companies like Black Duck are entirely able to identify open source code in random binaries.

The numbers are not very surprising when you consider that anyone who used an open source compiler or library, or any Python, NPM, or Go code uses open source code in their product.

The studies are widely quotes and discussed. This allows us to hear the opinions of many industry experts. I have not yet found any that put doubt on the numbers.

See, eg:

The Careful Consumption of Open Source Software

Open Source Facts & Statistics

Re: Some is an understatement

"They do use some open source code,"

I asked Le Chat:

On average, commercial software contains a very high proportion of free/libre and open source (FLOSS) code. Recent reports from 2024 and 2025 indicate that:

- **96% of commercial codebases** include open source components.

- Within those codebases, **70–90% of the code is open source** on average, with some studies specifically noting that **77% of the code** in commercial software is open source

This shows that the vast majority of modern commercial software relies heavily on FLOSS components. Would you like to know more about the types of open source components most commonly used, or the reasons behind this trend?

62 open source software statistics in 2026

Re: others also might itch and use the scratch

"others also might itch and want to use the same scratch"

Exactly!

FLOSS is about sharing and helping, not maximizing profits. Those complaining about the AGPL want to keep a monopoly on profits. But that is indeed not what the AGPL is for.

If you want to earn a profit from FLOSS, sell a service, not a license.

Magnificent irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

You are a cog in the machine

I get the eerie feeling Meta don't want to augment human employees with AI agents.

It feels much more like Meta want to augment AI agents with human "cogs".

The pre-civil war plantation work culture is still alive.

Iran claims US used backdoors to knock out networking equipment during war

Re: Hegseth not US strategic mastermind?

"In other words, what we've seen from the US military is nothing short of strategic stupidity."

You want to tell met the Mad Red Hatter did not select the best of the best for his team?

Unbelievable!

Disconnected?

"Fortinet, and MikroTik either rebooted or disconnected during recent attacks on Iran – despite the regime disconnecting the nation from the global internet."

I assume the commands to disable the routers must have been given before the disconnection of Iran. But nationwide router reset should set off alarms which could have warned Iran about the attack.

I am wondering about the precise timing of events.

Iran has something America can only dream of: cheap broadband

Re: Was the Guardian piece incorrect?

"A raw manufacturer of consent."

But was the report I linked to incorrect? That is the only question that matters.

Everybody has a right to their opinions, but not to their facts.

Re: Whatsaboutism

"Rio Grande."

Again, both sides can be devious, stupid, homicidal criminals. But the jury is still out who killed more Iranians this year, the USA& Israel or Iran.

Two criminals don't make a saint.

Re: The Guardian

"You're not seriously quoting the Grauniad, are you?"

Why not? Would you prefer Fox News or Breitbart?

It is just one of many news outlets reporting on the matter. It has the advantage of being in English, not American, and employing journalists.

Re: Whatsaboutism USA

"Have you looked at the USA?"

Yep, and the USA still kill less of their own citizens than Iran does. Although both parties can be bad, one party can still be much worse than the other.

"Flint, Michigan. Jackson, Mississippi. And so on."

Indeed, horribly stupid and devious policies reign in the USA. But again, it is of a different order than having to move a city of 9M people due to lack of fresh water. Not talking about Iranian rivers running dry because of kleptocratic irrigation works.

Re: Iran is subject to sanctions

True, but that is only part of the story.

Although it is generally called a regime of Ayatollahs, the rulling clergy is not really religious clergy. The country is run by a kleptocrazy that has brought most of the economy in the hands of a few oligarchs.

Their mismanagement has emptied rivers and wasted water to a level that they were planning to move Teheran to a place where there was still enough freshwater to live.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/02/iran-must-move-its-capital-from-tehran-says-president-as-water-crisis-worsens

Consumer protection, lack thereof

"North America has some of the world's most expensive broadband, according to a new study, while Iran has the cheapest."

Not just broadband, but also mobile phones, cable TV, and basically cost of living. The US lacks anything resembling effective consumer protection.

It seems monopolies are the preferred market organization in the USA.

Iran simply subsidizes basic "needs", including broadband it seems, to keep people from protesting too much against economic failure and abject poverty. That doesn't always work as we saw earlier.

Google Chrome lacks protection against one of the most basic and common ways to track users online

You could block JavaScript or use Tor

Most fingerprinting is done using JavaScript. Selective use of NoScript helps.

Tor makes it a point to block as much fingerprinting as they can. So selective browsing using a Tor browser would also help.

But using Firefox is a good start. If a site doesn't work well in Firefox, use that single site in a Chrome derived browser.

Ex-Microsoft engineer believes Azure problems stem from talent exodus

Re: Truly Good

"No, if they were truly good, they would still be employed."

The worst employees are those that are indispensable because you have to pay them what they are worth and listen to their opinion.

Companies prevent this dire straight by firing everyone every five years. That way, they can siphon all value to the Masters of the Universe.

In this world view, quality is wasted money anyway, so bad products are "good" value.

Enshitification is everywhere.

Remember Great Britain?

The UK started the industrial revolution. Up to the WWars, they were the beacon of Science & Technology. Big Tech was British Tech.

But sometimes during the mid 20th century, the British started to cut back on skill development. Their workforce were losing the skills needed to keep up their economy.

And hence started the continuous decline of the UK as an economic power house. Until the position they have now where they have to go on their knees and beg the US and India for trade deals.

It's so strange to see the USA chosing to go the exact same route to oblivion, one company at a time. Dumping qualified personnel because they simply hate good people earning money.

Leaked memo suggests Red Hat's chugging the AI Kool-Aid

Re: Why AI?

"It is just unaccountable to me how anyone can be deranged enough to think this is a desirable outcome. "

Since slavery was abolished in the US, companies have dreamt about ways to get rid of employees again.

A Dark Factory where no human soul has ever to enter is the holy grail of investors and shareholders alike. No more employees, sick days, health or pension plans.

The current mass delusion of AI is all about the possibility of the holy grail getting within reach and they can finally get rid of all employees.

When you ask "who is going to buy their stuff when nobody has a job?", you haven't understood.

If they can produce everything they want without people, they also don't need poor people anymore. They can run the economy without people.

Think about what happened in agriculture after mechanization. They shed much of the farm hands and slaughtered all of the horses and ox's.

The horses of ye old farm are the "workforce" of today.

Anthropic struggling with Chinese competition, its own safety obsession

Re: Asking questions

Actually, the countries in the EU are actively working to change EU law to change it.

Re: Trust No One!

The rally Cry of the Conspiracy Theory Peddlers is Trust No One

They use it as a badge of honor that they reject all sources of information as all information is corrupted by the Big Conspiracy.

But if you trust no one, you end up like Descartes with only one certainty: I think, therefore I am

There is not much to build upon that.

So every Conspiracy peddler who says he doesn't trust the MSM has to get his "information" from somewhere. That "somewhere" is invariably some talking point from some random podcast or Xitter handle which never leads to falsifiable sources, ie, something you can actually verify.

So trusting no one invariably leads to trusting the wrong ones. Which is Mission Accomplished for the conspiracy peddlers.

Re: Asking questions

The citizens live well, so nobody asks uncomfortable "questions about why Shell's royalty payments are routed through Amsterdam."

Except they do ask these questions all the time, even airing TV programs about it on national (state) networks condemning the practice.

Re: Tax avoidance

"Funny how the countries that rank highest on these indices also happen to be the ones whose financial systems enable the most sophisticated tax avoidance structures on earth."

Indeed, but they also collect the most taxes as a percentage of GDP and have pretty low Gini coefficients.

So their tax avoidance and bribery didn't work out like they normally do in eg, the USA.

Re: Wine and Dine

"It's shaped by whoever is sharing wine and steak with freshly minted ministers the week after an election."

Sorry, but in global democracy and transparency rankings, the USA has over 2 dozen countries ranked above it.

Not every country is as corrupt as the US.

Democracy

Transparency

ServiceNow allegedly says salesman 'overachieved' and is not entitled to comp

Management Bonuses

I assume the problem for "ServiceNow" is that the bonus of this salesperson will come out of the bonuses of his management team. Or worse, he might get a bigger bonus than his bosses!

That is not how this is supposed to go.

Iran war drives urgent need to counter underwater attack drones

Re: AI generated footage

"If however you announce an attack on Agrabah with accompanying AI generated footage of your glorious missliles defintiley not hitting playschools, milk factories and your own side."

Fox News claims the Iranians are already doing that

Here again, the Iranians outwitted the US. Or this is just another case of accusing others of what you are doing yourself.

Windows boss promises to heal the operating system's self-inflicted wounds

Re: Windows vs Linux ideology?

"The "copyleft" ideology keeps many commercial application and hardware (because of drivers) away."

Copyleft is only half of open source. As more people use Android than Windows neither the license nor the UI seem to be a problem (AOSP is Open Source and includes everything except the applications).

"The fact that with Android Google removed that issue, since only the kernel is used"

Linux == the Kernel. The UI etc is not part of Linux.

How "Copyleft" is worse than the Windows license is a mystery to me.

Re: Windows vs Linux ideology?

"and [MS] are lucky the ideology behind Linux can't take it far,"

I am not sure what you mean by "ideology" and "not far"?

Linux runs everything that doesn't have a "desktop" UI, including MS cloud and MS AI. Even Windows itself has a WSL that is just Linux.

So, what "ideology" makes people "choose" smartphones and IoT's running Linux but rejecting Lap/Desktop computers running Linux?

Re: Trying to get rid of their users?

MS makes >90% of their money from other products than the Windows OS. Windows is just a loss leader needed to sell all the profitable parasites/products that make their stockholders happy.

In essence, Windows is their vending machine. And every version of Windows should increase sales of new and more profitable products.

Just like a vending machine is not meant to improve your health or productivity, Windows is not meant to improve your health and productivity. Both are designed to increase their revenue from selling other things than health and productivity.

Microsoft: Removing some Copilots will improve Windows 11

Re: Put Windows on a diet

"Remove the crapware [Recall, AI etc] and adverts"

But, but,...

What use is Windows to MS if all they care for would be your work and your convenience?

Did you think of that? Don't you think you are egotistical and self centered, not thinking of poor MS and it's shareholders?

Don't ask what MS can do for you. Ask yourself what you can do for MS!

People who care deeply about Windows

“What came through was the voice of people who care deeply about Windows and want it to be better.”

This sounds like MS marketing telling us they increased licensing fees because customers demanded more simple and higher license fees (which they have actually done in the past).

Forcing the world to buy newer, more expensive hardware for a forced upgrade that runs worse on that newer better hardware than the old version on the obsolete hardware is expected to induce some negative responses.

But I get the impression many of the people mentioned cared deeply about Windows like prisoners care deeply about the quality of prison facilities and "services".

Turns out your coffee addiction may be doing your brain a favor

Encouraging, but...

"The researchers are careful to point out that the findings are observational, meaning that they can spot patterns but can't prove cause and effect."

There is that lingering doubt. Dementia develops over decades. There is still that off chance that early dementia leads to a life style where people drink less coffee.

However, I don't mind drinking coffee daily, so why not? I don't have to wait for this to be validated in some future time.

But do a really have to limit myself to 3 cups a day?

Everything needed to make DNA and RNA found in asteroid sample

Re: Complex multicellular organisms

"The more we learn the more it seems that basic life is the easy part, and the hard part was the transition to multicellular complex organisms. "

Multicellular life requires a highly efficient energy cycle. That required free oxygen on earth.

In other words, life had to change the chemistry of the outer layer, atmosphere and hydrosphere, from reducing CO2 + CH4 to oxydizing O2.

That did require a lot of time.

Re: So life is older than Earth

"These molecules themselves aren't "life" and the conditions inside Earth, or even just on its surface, during its formation would have dissociated them anyway."

It took over 500M years before the comet bombardement era ended. It is questionable whether there was liquid water all the time as a few 1000km comet hits shroud the earth in molten rock. When a 100km comet hits the earth, there will be little organic material left from that comet.

But a rain of smaller debris can rain organic material down. That will add up over the hundreds of millions of years.

Formation of earth

Those who 'circle back' and 'synergize' also tend to be crap at their jobs

Re: Understanding Pseudo Profound Bullshit

The seminal work on Pseudo-Profound Bullshit is:

On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit | Judgment and Decision Making

That tells you most of what you need to know.

Ig Nobel Prize flees US for Switzerland after 35 years over safety concerns

Re: But can everyone get that ID

"Being asked to show a government issued photo ID to receive a ballot to vote is not going to disenfranchise anybody than can walk about without excessive drooling!"

Except, you have to ensure everyone can and will get such an ID in time. Which is most definitely not done.

Also, an ID requirement puts a tax on voting. It is illegal to put a tax on voting.

US state laws push age checks into the operating system

Re: Hurd

"I guess they could change the kernel they use to Hurd?"

You think the Hurd would incorporate age checks?

Somehow, I doubt they will.

How?

How are all those data centers and warehouses run when Linux is outlawed?

Malware-laced OpenClaw installers get Bing AI search boost

Re: Hosting Robot Wars

Running OpenClaw on your own systems is starting to look like hosting Robot Wars in your own home

AI doctor's assistant is easily swayed to change prescriptions, give bad medical advice

Prompt kill chain

"We take security research seriously and continue improving safeguards to increase robustness against adversarial inputs."

It has become pretty much a matter of fact that the current generation of LLMs cannot be secured against adversarial inputs.

Prompt injection for an LLM is like playing "Simon Says" with a child. The child will trip up eventually, as will the LLM.

The LLM doctor tripping up gives the "cyber security kill chain" a very literal meaning.

Microsoft reportedly eyes E7 tier to make AI agents pay their way – like the humans they'll replace

Re: Have your robot call my robot

I have found that scenario too dumb even for marketing.

Have they not yet introduced fax, text, email, Whatsapp, or dm to robots? Is voice still necessary for robots to communicate.

Re: Agent 327

Agent 327 is indeed a long running business.

I wonder whether Agent 365 can still be trademarked by MS?

OpenClaw, but in containers: Meet NanoClaw

Re: uninvented at least twice.

Not here?

Is cancer a disease that can be cured by DNA teleportation?

I guess, the answer is no.

Re: uninvented at least twice.

"Teleportation and cure for cancer has been uninvented at least twice."

I assume they were moved to an alternative reality.

Re: The dustbin of history

We can always hope, or, hope dies last.

Open source devs consider making hogs pay for every download

Re: There’s nothing to argue with the PHBs

"Any project using Git could mirror a read-only copy of their repo to anywhere they want (e.g. GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg etc.)"

Getting automatic updates for your mirror takes "work" and/or money. Both the work and money are negligible, but someone has to account for it, which again requires sign-offs. Even a $0.02 monthly payment must be accounted for.