Posts by ben_s

Work experience kids messed with manager's PC to send him to Ctrl-Alt-Del hell

I'm going to be boring here...

At my place of work if somebody uses a computer that is logged into another person's account then both they and the logged in user would be subject to a security investigation, the initial phase of which will involve their account being locked and removing their access to the IT system.

Not only that, but unauthorised access to a computer and unauthorised modification could be seen offences under the Computer Misuse Act, which could have negative implications for your IT career.

Maybe instead of pranking somebody it would be a better idea to just press Windows-L.

I said I was going to be boring.

Techie banned from client site for outage he didn’t cause

Re: Typical council

I don't know about getting sued, and using Photoshop to pivot resize photos does seem like overkill, but the disadvantage of using open source software is that it usually doesn't come with support, so if something does go wrong there's nobody to raise a support ticket with.

That's fine if you're happy to take the risk, but I think decision makers should be aware that there is a risk.

The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon

Where this, and very many others, goes wrong is by equating AI with a chatbot. There are huge applications for AI that don't involve it talking to you, and you mostly wouldn't be aware of any of them unless you looked for them.

BOFH: HR plays checkers, IT plays 5D chess

Any half decent IT department would get an alert if they couldn't ping an AP, and they would have a look at the switch to see that an interface was disconnected, then go and take a look.

They'd then notice a pattern, take a look at the records to see who was connected to any nearby APs at the time, and because you'd have to do it when the office was quiet, fairly soon work out who it was disconnecting them.

Marc Andreessen wades into the UK's Online Safety Act furor

Easily faked and difficult to check.

The legislation provides OFCOM with the authority to audit content providers. It's incorrect to say that it cannot be enforced.

Using a VPN will enable users to view the content, but I'm not sure it releases the content providers from their obligations. That is, if a child accessed restricted content using a VPN then the content provider could still be fined.

The test would be whether the content provider has taken proportionate measures to restrict the access, and considering that it is possible to detect and restrict access to your content for users on a VPN, whether doing so would be considered proportionate. I imagine this would be tested in court.

I'm not offering an opinion on whether this would be good or bad, or the right or wrong thing to do, just making an observation.

MS confidence in Windows 11: Pay us to host VMs for when your desktop inevitably dies

Because resilience is bad?

No more 'Sanity Checks.' Inclusive language guide bans problematic tech terms

So this is about the inclusive language guide published by the Alliance for OpenUSD whose mission statement is:

"To foster the standardization, development, evolution, and growth of OpenUSD."

Now, I had to look up what OpenUSD is as I don't work with 3d modelling, but it seems that it is industry standard software in that field. They're a private organisation, they can do what they want.

What I find more concerning is a public organisation banning words from all their internal documents and public communications in an effort to control the political discourse and to discriminate against people.

The list of words is here.

https://pen.org/banned-words-list/

And the public organisation is the US government.

But apparently it's the Alliance for OpenUSD we're should all be angry about. This looks like a distraction.

Prohibition never works, but that didn't stop the UK's Online Safety Act

I agree. I've seen plenty of stats showing VPN usage has increased, but no detail about who makes up that increase. Even if it's underage kids the numbers who gave the resource to pay for a VPN will decrease as their age decreases.

Of course a child who is determined to find whatever content it is that is now banned will be able to do so, but it's now much less likely that they will stumble across it or casually access it.

Re: Hardened Stealth VPNs is Essential in the UK now - according to AI

I'm not sure why you hold a response from chatgpt in any regard.

What prohibition?

Alcohol isn't prohibited in the UK. Nobody would say that it was, but there is a restriction on under 18s buying it, with regular and accepted checks for anybody who looks under 25. Although this doesn't entirely stop underage drinking it certainly does curtail it considerably, and so I'm not sure you would find anybody suggesting that it is a failed policy that should be ended.

So, what exactly is the difference between this restriction and the restriction on under 18s viewing certain online content? If I buy alcohol online then I am required to prove my age. If I want to see restricted content then I am required to prove my age.

Faced with £40B budget hole, UK public sector commits £9B to Microsoft

Yeah. The criticism of this is nonsense. They've made a five year deal and leveraged the purchasing power of the whole government to save billions. They'd have been negligent not to take this path.

Re: UK public sector commits £9B to Microsoft

Of course. You borrow £100 today and invest to turn it into £110, and also the money you borrowed is now only worth 90% of its original value and you're 20% up, and all that while you've created jobs and encouraged others to invest too.

This is why governments have to run a deficit, because not to do so damages economic growth.

Not only that, but the people you are borrowing from are mostly large scale domestic investors such as pension funds, which buy gilts and bonds as a very safe investment - ensuring growth of those funds and a secure retirement for your population.

Re: A cojplete wastewaste of moneey

I think it's driven by need.

Re: National Linux infrastructure development needed

So you're suggesting that the government could save money by throwing away all of its existing systems, replacing them, and retraining all of its staff?

Re: UK public sector commits £9B to Microsoft

Government hasn't run out of money.

Microsoft eventually realized the world isn't just the Northern Hemisphere

Re: Oh, whoopee doo

The lack of self awareness is staggering.

I think they have different people doing different jobs, according to their skills and experience. So the programmers fix the bugs, the friendly sociable people do the customer service and sales, and the big ideas people think of names for things.

Re: Fall == autumn

Everyone in the UK understands what an American means when they say 'Fall'. Some might pretend not to, but they're just being difficult.

I've read the origin being that it's when the leaves fall from the trees, but this always seemed a bit simplistic. To me the word is the opposite of Spring - after the year has grown and reached it's peak it declines, or falls, into it's death in Winter. To me there's a certain romanticism in the image that this idea paints.