* Posts by Steve Foster

863 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Oct 2007

Page:

China now America's number one cyber threat – US must get up to speed

Steve Foster

Not fired, no.

But they probably have a pension that can be "accidentally" cancelled/removed. Or claim they're a member of a south american drugs gang and surrepticiously deport them to El Salvador.

EDIT: Isn't there some mechanism for service retirees to be recalled back to active duty? Then he could be court-martialled...

Microsoft mystery folder fix might need a fix of its own

Steve Foster

Not admin privilege per se, but the right permissions on the file system (commonly given to admins).

Microsoft lists seven habits of highly effective Windows 11 users

Steve Foster
Happy

Re: Misread title

Yes, but that's 11 in binary...

Steve Foster
Facepalm

Re: My 2 cents...

Yes, they do. Mostly because Microsoft has randomly rearranged the start menu so many times that regular users cannot find programs using it.

Mind you, Search [/Cortana /Copilot /Bob /Clippy] is so rubbish that typing the name in doesn't always work either.

Don't open that JPEG in WhatsApp for Windows. It might be an .EXE

Steve Foster
Facepalm

"savvy netizen"?

Surely such an enlightened being would not be running WhatsApp in the first place.

(or indeed anything from Meta)

Privacy died last century, the only way to go is off-grid

Steve Foster
Trollface

Re: The pros have it.

"tweeter and the monkey man"

Oh my, it's almost as if the fellas could see into the future.

'Once in a lifetime' IT outage at city council hit datacenter, but no files lost

Steve Foster

"The amount of money that room must be costing the company 'just in case' must have been eye watering"

Presumably, the amount of money lost if things went sideways was even more eye watering (perhaps spending £200m to save £3bn, to pluck random large numbers from the air).

Amazon to kill off local Alexa processing, all voice requests shipped to the cloud

Steve Foster
Big Brother

Re: Glad this is happening

The devices are always listening. Everything is uploaded, so that it can work out if you said "Alexa".

Steve Foster

Re: Not uploading

"good stuff"

such as James Burke's Connections. It may be from the 70s (and a few bits have dated), but ir's still extremely relevant today. Everyone should watch at least the first episode, and show it to their children, and hopefully they'll want to see more. He does get a bit repetitive in the 3rd series (and yet it's still better than today's efforts).

Helpfully, it plays quite well at 1.5x speed, which gets you the benefit without quite as much of the time cost.

Celonis slaps SAP with lawsuit claiming it's gatekeeping customer data

Steve Foster

Re: What a world

I think you might be misreading the situation:

VeryLargeCo deploys SAP on-site, and stores VLC data in SAP.

Later, VLC decides it wants to analyse what is actually going on in their systems (to see how/where that differs from what's supposed to be going on), and calls in Celonis.

Celonis finds that it cannot access VLC's data in SAP, because SAP is actively obstructing them, and trying to persuade VLC to use its own Signavio instead.

IOW, SAP is accused of trying to use its dominance in ERP to bootstrap Signavio (a SAP subsidiary) into pole position in the less mature process-mining marketplace.

As Elon Musk makes thousands of federal workers jobless, tycoon pushes for $56B Tesla pay deal

Steve Foster
Joke

In a nod to the past...

...you can now have a new Tesla in any colour you like, as long as it's orange.

Broadcom starts beta for VMware Cloud Foundation 9, the release it reckons will douse user anger

Steve Foster

Re: still rubbish support

"documentation..."

Meanwhile, they've been busy breaking all the published links to VMWare resources by switching from *.vmware.com to *.broadcom.com without maintaining proper internal connection or useful redirects. It looks like a lot of older content has been deleted in the process too, regardless of whether it was still relevant or not.

I think they took lessons from Microsoft, another organisation that's been thoroughly destroying most of the good content they'd had for years (unless it relates to W11 or cloudy stuff) - the MS KB is pining for the fjords.

Phantom of the Opera: AI agent now lurks within browser, for the lazy

Steve Foster

Brave's Leo?

How does this compare with Brave's AI assistant, Leo? (I turned it off everywhere I found it on my installs of Brave; I'm not ready for Automagic Interference)

Time to make C the COBOL of this century

Steve Foster
Trollface

Re: The problem isn't the chainsaw...

'Tis but a scratch.

Amazon, Google asked to explain why they were serving ads on sites hosting CSAM

Steve Foster
Facepalm

Quick Fix

Ban advertising completely. Problem of adverts on unsavoury web sites solved - Simples.

Eggheads crack the code for the perfect soft boil

Steve Foster
Joke

Re: A typo?

Ah, is Ernesto known to be a home-repair enthusiast? ("diy Maio")

Linux rolls out the welcome mat for Microsoft's Copilot key

Steve Foster

Only if you live in Bexhill-on-sea.

Neural interface lets paralyzed person steer virtual quadcopter, opening new doors for gaming

Steve Foster

Mind-Quad!

Was that The Simpsons, or Futurama? (or something else entirely, I can't remember)

UK aims to fix government IT with help from AI Humphrey

Steve Foster

Re: A new meaning for...

voiced, IIRC, by the dulcet tones of Frank Muir.

Parker Solar Probe set for blisteringly hot date with the Sun on Christmas Eve

Steve Foster
Joke

Temps

" The heat shield is designed to withstand temperatures as high as 1,377°C (2,511°F)."

Quick, send some to McDonalds' for their "baristas"...

SpaceX closing in on approval for 25 Starship launches in 2025

Steve Foster
Facepalm

Re: A launch every 2 weeks

How dare you Sir. This is the Elreg comments forum, Facts have no place here.

«smirk»

EU buyers still shunning pure electric vehicles, prefer hybrids

Steve Foster

EVs are not currently liable for the £40k+ list-price VED "Expensive Car Supplement" (more accurately, the DVLA vehicle tax tables state "You do not have to pay this if you have a zero emission vehicle").

That exemption will end for new EV registrations from 1 April 2025 and they will be liable for the expensive car supplement on the same basis as ICE vehicles (ie £40k+ list price) from then on. Although there is a small chance that the list-price threshold may be raised just for EVs (Budget 2024 item 5.87), such that the supplement would apply at different price points (we'll find out soon enough).

Steve Foster

It's very easy in an EV to pull away at lights and junctions and leave just about any dino-juice vehicle for dead, even fancy sports models and supercars (for about a second to a second and a half before their ICE get going and they shoot past me in a roar of noise and indignation).

OTOH, if the conditions aren't perfect, pressing hard on the accelerator from stationary just tends to spin the wheels (there's usually more torque available than they can handle).

Steve Foster

Re: Plug in hybrids

I read somewhere that the main reason manufacturers are removing "off, and stay off" options for the driver assistance features is that NCAP won't award a 5* rating if that's possible (in much the same way that all models including the base [that no-one ever buys] must have all the safety features for a car to avoid a 0* rating [as recently happened to the Zoe]).

WP Engine revs Automattic lawsuit with antitrust claim

Steve Foster
FAIL

CMS selection

Anyone looking for a CMS now may decide to not include WordPress in the list of candidates.

Anyone currently using WordPress will be looking into alternatives.

Combustion engines grind Linus Torvalds' gears

Steve Foster

Re: It's not the electric motor

Practically all EVs have a 12v car battery; it's there to run the all the ancillary automotive systems that have all been designed to work with and run from a 12v car battery. It gets charged from the HV traction battery.

At some stage, they may get designed out (as they shouldn't strictly speaking be necessary).

Tech giants set to pay through the nose for nuclear power that's still years away

Steve Foster
Facepalm

Re: Submarines and ships

What you're saying then is that really there's an opportunity for the US Navy to turn itself into a power company, and get paid loads of dosh to build and run lots of nuclear subs?

Starlink U-turns, will block X in Brazil after all

Steve Foster

Not quite - as Moraes was also one of the 5.

Not sure how that works, as you would expect him not to be involved in reviewing his own decision. So while the panel ruling may well be entirely reasonable, his participation does taint it somewhat (ie it would undoubtedly have been preferable if he had not been on the panel).

Some smart meters won't be smart at all once 2/3G networks mothballed

Steve Foster

That's exactly how it's done. A comms hub is fitted as well as the smart meter. The hub is independently replaceable.

Supermium drags Google Chrome back in time to Windows XP, Vista, and 7

Steve Foster

A lot of kit provides management capability over HTTP(S). Being able to run a reasonably current browser to access that is preferable to using IE (hell, poking your own eyes out with a blunt pencil is preferable to using IE).

Watchdog calls for more plugs, less monopoly in EV charging network

Steve Foster

Re: Plug issues

There is a Dutch company, Muxsan, that specialise in retrofit upgrades for Nissan Leafs and the eNV-200 vans. They do battery replacements (either same size or bigger [for 1st/2nd gen models]), 2nd battery options, and a CCS upgrade (which means such vehicles can charge from either CCS or Chademo).

They're the only one out there that I've ever come across though (and the upgrades are not cheap).

However, it would be better if Nissan stepped up to the plate and did the right thing for their Leaf and eNV-200 owners at a reasonable price.

Steve Foster
Facepalm

Re: It is still not as simple as pulling up in a forecourt and filling up a tank

Lexus cars are not built here, and the UX series is probably one of the last models from Toyota where they were still in EV-denial and betting on hydrogen to get them out of their hybrid dead-end.

Besides, they'll only sell 6 anyway...

Steve Foster

Re: Does this include Tesla?

There are about 40 UK Supercharger locations that are now open to any CCS-equipped EV.

As Tesla add new locations and upgrade existing sites with their latest v4 chargers, more are switching from Tesla-only to fully-open.

Steve Foster

Re: Meh... Either way

Cable theft from rapid and ultra-rapid chargers is a problem, mainly in the north-west of England. Thieving sods are just hacking or chopping the cables off, rendering the chargers unusable. The cables are not live until an EV is plugged in, so unfortunately the scrotes are not at risk of electrocution.

Steve Foster

Re: It is still not as simple as pulling up in a forecourt and filling up a tank

It mostly is. CCS is the predominant connector, trailled by Chademo and proprietary connectors (early Tesla, mainly). Tesla and the USA are mucking about trying to establish a new standard there (NACS, I think it's called) for no obviously important reason (except perhaps N-I-H syndrome).

In the EU and UK at least, any new model launched today will have CCS.

All the CPOs are deploying CCS chargers now (some with Chademo as well, but in fewer and fewer numbers).

Japan complains Fukushima water release created terrifying Chinese Spam monster

Steve Foster
Joke

Trade Opportunity?

Some UK water companies have been complaining of lack of the stuff. Perhaps they should put in an offer to Japan to buy theirs?

Or maybe Japan should bottle the stuff and sell it as an energy drink!

Microsoft wants Activision so badly, it's handing streaming rights over to ... Ubisoft?

Steve Foster

@Wolfclaw

You have it back to front. MS can be forced to port, but Ubisoft have to pick up the tab for that.

Our AI habit is already changing the way we build datacenters

Steve Foster

Re: Cognitive dissonance

There are a lot more computers¹ than there are vehicles, and computing power consumption is routinely close to 24×7 while vehicle power consumption isn't (possibly equivalent to 8×7), so even if every vehicle on the planet went electric, I don't think total vehicle power consumption would ever reach that of computing.

Note that I didn't say *all* "AI" is a waste. But the likes of ChatGPT aren't genuinely doing anything constructive, are they?

¹ I suspect there's probably more computers than just about any other single electrical/electronic device there is, other than smartphones (though they are computers really).

Steve Foster
FAIL

Re: Cognitive dissonance

Charging a car at 56kW is a short-term activity (1hr tops), while a 15kW GPU in a DC will be running 24×7. So that 15kW GPU will use more electricity than the car on a daily basis, and of course, it's not just *one* 15kW GPU - it's an entire DC full of the things.

Even worse, a lot of this so-called "AI" computing appears to be just a huge waste of time and energy with no discernable useful output - unlike the car, which at least serves an obvious purpose in getting people from A->B (although that activity might be unnecessary).

UK government proposes legislation to regulate umbrella companies

Steve Foster
Facepalm

Re: Government creates red tape to fix IR35 mess of its own creation.

Sorting out the tax system to make all forms of paid work equal, thereby rendering IR35 obsolete, would be the better way to do things.

Then the umbrella companies disappear automatically, as they would serve no purpose.

Microsoft stumps loyal fans by making OneDrive handle Outlook attachments

Steve Foster

Re: Home auto-archive

You might want to look at Mail In a Box. Essentially a small set of scripts that wrap up postfix, dovecot, nextcloud and letsencrypt all together into a nice neat bundle.

https://mailinabox.email

IBM shrinks z16 and LinuxONE systems into standard rack configs

Steve Foster
Headmaster

Logic says 12u, since it *saves* 2/3 space (not occupies 2/3 space).

Biden: I want standard EV chargers made in America by 2024 – get on it

Steve Foster

Re: Good

It shouldn't, and the better charging networks do support contactless payment.

But "the modern way" is to shove everything into bloomin' smartphone apps, so that tends to be the default action now. This has superceded the previous "web first" idiocy, and will no doubt be followed in a few years by something else equally hair-brained.

If petrol forecourts were just being invented, they would be implemented along the same lines.

Steve Foster
Joke

Re: Reminds me of the Black Mirror episode Nosedive

"giant micro USB" - isn't that macro USB?

When ERP projects go bad: Surrey County Council's £30m ditch SAP effort delayed again

Steve Foster
Headmaster

Re: Runnymede

No, it isn't. It finally returned to Surrey this year when SCC moved into the former Canon offices in Reigate.

IIRC, they sold off the Kingston site for redevelopment.

MX Linux 21.2: Middleweight Debian-based distro is well worth a look

Steve Foster
FAIL

@Pirate Dave

Except that if you RTFA, it's not "systemd-free", it's "systemd-installed-but-unused".

US EV drivers won't be able to choose vehicle safety alert sounds

Steve Foster
WTF?

And pedestrians don't hear those! (or ignore them)

I've witnessed countless instances where pedestrians have walked through the path of a reversing van or lorry, seemingly completely unaware that the large, heavy vehicle with limited visibility that can easily crush them is even there.

Smart homes are hackable homes if not equipped with updated, supported tech

Steve Foster
Pirate

Re: Alternatives

And then your insurer refuses to pay out because there's no evidence of "forced entry".

Amazon stretches working life of its servers an extra year, for AWS and its own ops

Steve Foster
Joke

Re: AD Revenue

That breaks down as $65m to make the show, and $400m set aside for lawsuits when <insert allegations of your choice/ cancel culture retrospective sin of the month> happens due to the actions of the <male lead/ female lead/ non-binary lead/ director/ producer/ alec baldwin/ all of the above>.

Instant Ump: HP Inc's subscription ink services hiking prices from next month

Steve Foster
FAIL

"Cost for other plans is unchanged"

That's not the case for the "Light" plan, which is reduced to 10ppm from 15ppm. Sure, the monetary amount HPI are collecting remains the same, but the price per page is up by 50%.

Page: