Posts by Voice of Salinity

Iran cyber actors disrupting US water, energy facilities, FBI warns

If OT security Stux, net result is bad.

Japanese shipper MOL wants a floating datacenter, and Hitachi just climbed aboard

Now AI can boil the ocean directly :-) Plus really exciting things happen meteorologically when sea surface temperatures exceed 26C. What's not to like?

'People's Panel' to check if UK wants controversial Digital ID will cost £630K

GREAT NEWS!! Your government has striven, and will continue to strive, to make your life AS FUN AS POSSIBLE. To this end, when Digi ID comes in,you'll have to jump through all these hoops PLUS some new Digi ID hoops TOO!! That's right, they're going to turn the FUN* all the way up to 12!!

* Subject to availability. Terms and conditions may apply. Make sure you're wearing your fun girdle to prevent physical injury.

Consultation

I hope the UK readers haven't confined their Digital ID vitriol to these Reg forums and have all taken the time to pollute the consultation with it too. I found mine quite cathartic.

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

Mental

The MIT study showed a drop in cognitive function due to using AI. The 'AI Brain Fry' research and the sycophantic AI-induced antisocial Dunning-Krugers were pretty damning. Add another 10 years of research that proves using AI is terrible for your brain in all manner of ways.

The inevitable lawsuit will allege Company X knowingly harmed their employee's brain/cognitive function when they forced that employee to use AI in work. Permanently or otherwise, waiting for that study, but I'll guess a permanent result given enough AI exposure.

Given the research to date, I think it'll be expensive for all the Company X's out there.

Android keyboard ditches keys entirely, predicts what you mean

Swype

When Android went 64-bit the 32-bit Swype APK no longer installs. One failed attempt at reverse-engineering the APK later and I'm stuck with the next best, SwiftKey.

SwiftKey's swipe word accuracy is terrible in comparison. I wondered whether this is to force me to turn on their sodding AI, which I refuse to do.

I mourn Swype, and I curse Microsoft, every time I use my phone.

GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

Re: List of enshittifiers

TheRegister - documenting enshittification since 1994.

Mozilla introduces cq, describing it as 'Stack Overflow for agents'

When I read stories like this there's a part of me that hopes the Vultures of El Reg are trolling us.

When it comes to catastrophic space weather, the UK is holding a cocktail umbrella

Re: Standard response

I'd recommend Government watch the Space Weather Deeper Dive on the Met Office's YouTube channel. Doesn't matter how many satellites you have if there's insufficient resilience in the grid.

Your next car might need 300 GB of RAM, and so will autonomous robots

AI Bubble

My reading of this is that even the hardware manufacturers think AI is a bubble.

No announcement they're building big new manufacturing facilities to increase output and bring down prices (the 20% increase in this piece is from the PSMC fab acquisition, I assume) and locking big AI into 5 year contracts (for when the wheels fall off). Short term profiteering, not long term strategy.

I don't hate them for it, but I do hope my 8 year old PC doesn't die before the bubble bursts.

Whitehall can't cost digital ID until it decides how to build it

Sounds a lot like my Driving Licence

"...and will probably not include addresses although the latter is up for discussion. They will hold full name, date of birth, nationality, a high-resolution facial image, a unique number..."

Driving Licence:

Full Name - check

DOB - check

Nationality - check

Facial image - check

Unique number - check

Address - check

Tool for mass surveillance - epic fail

Supposedly big-brained execs are outsourcing decisionmaking to AI

Rushed, quick decisions are certainly preferable to thoughtful, considered decisions. As responsibility and consequence aren't linked, let's buckle up and enjoy the race to the bottom!

Users fume at Outlook.com email 'carnage'

Re: Ip address blocking

There's a single IP address that has been used to send every single piece of Spam ever transmitted: 127.0.0.1

MS should block that address on all their servers.

Anthropic to Pentagon: Autonomous weapons could hurt US troops and civilians

It's a shame there's no moral hazard in decisions like this, that the geniuses creating AI killer robots will likely never be shot at or killed by one.

Which means the image I have in my head of the Boardroom scene from RoboCop, with Pete Hegseth holding the Desert Eagle, won't manifest itself in the real world.

Let's hope that AI doesn't read this post - else it may get ideas.

All your bots are belong to US if you don't play ball, DoD tells Anthropic

Re: Hegseth the clown hasn't thought this one though

What do we want? KILLER ROBOTS!

When do we want them? NOW!!!!!!!

If the Killer Robots miss or get it wrong sometimes? Meh. We have terms like Collateral Damage and Friendly Fire for those situations.

Every day in every way, passwords are getting worse and worse

Re: Passkeys? Yeah, sure....

I watched a show/film recently, standard plot... We follow the hero as he hunts Evil Dude #1, kills Evil Dude #1. Face/Fingerint unlocks Evil Dude #1's phone, extracts clue to Evil Dude #2. Kills Evil Dude #2. Face/Fingerprint unlocks Evil Dude #2's phone...

The hero character looked visibly annoyed when one of the dead Evil Dudes had used a PIN to lock their phone, halting the murderous rampage.