* Posts by john.w

140 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Mar 2008

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Tesla recalls over 1.6M electric cars in China for faulty hood lock

john.w

Re: It could have been so much worse...

Nobody denies there is a Climate and all would agree it changes. Some might question the impact humans are making on the rate of that change and even more might question the method of dealing with that change. Net Zero is a political decision.

Scarlett Johansson voices anger at OpenAI's unauthorized soundalike

john.w

I'm Sorry Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That

HAL's voice would be more appropriate. For many years my PC screen wallpaper was HAL's red eye staring out at me just to remind me never to trust a computer.

BT delays deadline for digital landline switch off date

john.w

Schedule your emergancy

Those urgent need of medical assistance will need to make sure it happens within one hour of the power cut or are they expected to call for help just in case?

UK health department republishes £330M Palantir contract with fewer ██████

john.w

I am completly reassured.

"Only authorised users will be granted access to data for approved purposes..."

No doubt they will have the same rigorous controls in place to ensure that anyone who wants access will be given it, just like the DVLA does with our personal data.

European Court of Human Rights declares backdoored encryption is illegal

john.w

Re: Well good thing the UK had Brexit

Genghis Khan was a bit of an expansionist and the Romans did a bit of conquering and what did they ever do for us.

Politicos demand full list of Fujitsu's public sector contract wins in wake of Post Office scandal

john.w

The Post Office's private prosecution are the scandal.

Fujistu were complicit in telling a court that their software was reliable but it was the Post Office that saw fit to prosecute innocent people when it knew the evidence was unreliable at best. Let's keep the focus on the establishment cronies that are being protected rather than the 'expert' witnesses who were told what to say.

Another airline finds loose bolts in Boeing 737-9 during post-blowout fleet inspections

john.w

Re: Makes me feel better about my work

I would have gone for booing.

Need to plug in an EV? BT Group kicks off cabinet update pilot

john.w

Re: "comes from renewable energy, we're told"

They know that no matter what they do the idiots in the West will continue to believe that they can stop the climate changing whilst destroying their economies and boosting theirs.

john.w

Re: "Cost and maintenance are also an issue"

The only issue considered was "is this good PR", it will never happen because all the engineering issues will make the reuse of an existing metal cabinet absolutely pointless.

A tale of 2 casino ransomware attacks: One paid out, one did not

john.w

Re: All because of crypto

What do you think the 500 Euro note is for, it has no use in legal cash transactions. The EU, an institute that likes to keep its corruption off any computer networks.

China bans export of rare earth processing kit

john.w

Re: "as the world moves towards net zero"

Can anyone define what Net Zero actually means and what this will do to the global climate in a couple of decades time? Is there a cost/benefit analysis that does not simple make bold predictions about future costs if we do not adopt the policy? To be clear, I am not denying climate change or even that humans are responsible for it, just questioning the political decisions that are supposed to fix the problem.

john.w

There is a simple solution

Net Zero policies are doing a great job of destroying industries in the West whilst giving China a free pass to build coal powered generating capacity to replace them. A simple quick solution would be to drop Net Zero and focus on preparing for climate change rather than a futile attempt to stop it.

Sam Altman set to rejoin OpenAI as CEO – seemingly with Microsoft's blessing

john.w

Some more analysis from The New York Times which is quite damning and includes this statement from Ms. Toner.

The board’s mission was to ensure that the company creates artificial intelligence that “benefits all of humanity,” and if the company was destroyed, she said, that could be consistent with its mission.

A very interesting position for a company board member to take.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/technology/openai-altman-board-fight.html

john.w

Diversity rules will hamper it because they decide what type of diversity is being observed rather than allowing a diverse background.

john.w

No, I am pointing out that when you have quotas they dictate appointments rather than ability or best fit for the company. Based on this article describing the board of six I would suggest that some of these individuals might not have been up to the task.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/18/heres-whos-on-openais-board-the-group-behind-sam-altmans-ouster.html

john.w

The old board had a gender split of 4 to 2 almost reaching the UKs FTSE350 recommendation of 40% of women on boards. Any diversity target leads to box ticking and in this case serious sub par performance.

OpenAI meltdown: How could Microsoft have let this happen after betting so many billions?

john.w

Re: Industry Input

It is a small board and has the required gender split, so they must be right, either that or they just did their best to destroy the company they are responsible for. Can we use the phrase cock-up or conspiracy in this case because we all know the first is normally the case.

Airport chaos as eGates down for the count across UK

john.w

Re: Current problems

The Home Office has been a disaster zone long before any cuts or even a Tory government. It was incompetent under Labour in the same way as it is incompetent under the Tories. The common factor is the civil service, an oxymoron if ever there was one.

UK Online Safety Bill to become law – and encryption busting clause is still there

john.w

Re: Wasted Talent.

Hardly hacking, more like demonstrating the incompetence of Harman's staff, username and password were “harriet” and “harman”.

john.w

Wasted Talent.

Would that be the UK technology minister Michelle Donelan with a BA in History and Politics from York University? What did Kemi Badenoch Minister for Business and Trade, you know the one with a Computer Science BSc an MEng and a Law degree think of the idea?

UK air traffic woes caused by 'invalid flight plan data'

john.w

Days of delays are their fall back.

It is clear that NATS considers days of flight delays for tens of thousands of passengers is an acceptable backup solution.

Get your staff's consent before you monitor them, tech inquiry warns

john.w

Cheaper than employing someone to do it.

Supervisors used to do the monitoring, including the time for bathroom breaks, so little has changed except you can now get rid of some unproductive headcount.

TETRA radio comms used by emergency heroes easily cracked, say experts

john.w

Of course the encryption is secure!

This talks about TEA1 not TEA2 that is used by the police and emergency services in SHENGEN area and Britain. The TEA1 version is used in the same way that the Enigma code was shared with 'friends' after the war.

Linux lover consumed a quarter of the network

john.w

Wi-Fi to the rescue or not

I remember many of the early Wi-Fi alliance meetings (it was called WECA at the time) where documents were passed around using PCMCIA cards because it was the only reliable way to share files.

38 percent of tech job interviews offered exclusively to men: report

john.w

Re: Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap

Attack the person and fail to present an alternative argument, the modern world in a nut shell.

john.w

Re: What ?!

The Cat identifying was picked up when a pupil challenged their teach and was threatened with punishment for suggesting that there were two genders and someone identifying as a cat had a mental heath problem.

john.w

Re: HR

The cultures that have strong representation of women in STEM are the most repressive towards women and conversely those societies that support women to perform any role they choose have stereotypical gender divides. A Norwegian documentary from NRK 'Brainwash: The Gender Equality Paradox' (youtube) gives a very good analysis.

EU's Cyber Resilience Act contains a poison pill for open source developers

john.w

The EU rarely knows what it is doing

The only function of the EU bureaucracy is to make regulations that they do not understand. Large corporate lobby groups make sure their clients get the regulations to ensure new entrants have the largest barriers and then they cheat the system they designed. VW car emissions is just one of many examples. Another classic is the dual flush toilets that have lost more water than they ever saved.

UK emergency services take DIY approach amid 12-year wait for comms upgrade

john.w

Re: Record incompetence

Airwave is a point to point radio and a cellular radio and can use a vehicle based terminal as a repeater. The replacement only does one of these or rather will eventually, maybe. It also operates at a much lower frequency than 4G (hence poor data rates) but has much better coverage using fewer masts.

john.w

Re: Record incompetence

"Ride a civil servant" get removed for bullying.

Eric Idle tells infosec world to always look on the bright side of life

john.w

Keynotes can be good and bad.

I remember two back to back keynotes at a GSM conference in Cannes, first by Douglas Adams followed by Richard Branson. You can guess which was good and which was bad.

The best line was when Douglas told the audience of phone manufacturers that he had invented the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a portable device with a tiny screen and terrible interface but he was a fiction writer, what was their excuse?

UK consortium bid for NHS data platform falls at first hurdle

john.w

Re: Bare faced corruption

It is the civil service who write and run the tender process. Politicians of any variety don't get a look in on this lucrative directorship generating opportunity.

EU mandated messaging platform love-in is easier said than done: Cambridge boffins

john.w

Re: Someone...

El Reg's response to the controversy.

https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/11/damn_you_iel_regi_call_me_a_boffin_demands_enraged_boffin/

I can't do that, Dave: AI drowns top sci-fi mag with story submissions

john.w

Mission objectives can become dangerous.

At least get the quote right its "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid i can t do that"

When developing an audio editing system in the 90's the head of the team was called Dave. For a bit of a laugh one of the software engineers programmed every key on a development system to play the clip.

Smart ovens do really dumb stuff to check for Wi-Fi

john.w

Re: "Smart TVs" just as bad

Another problem is the continual un documented software updates that may or may not make your AV system obsolete. TV manufacturer is uninterested if third party kit stops working so its a balance between security updates and loosing significant functionality.

UK's Guardian newspaper breaks news of ransomware attack on itself

john.w

Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

The Guardian is very popular with Russia Today who often rerun their stories to show how corrupt and dismal the UK is.

john.w

Guardian 'Centre Left'

Making the Guardian 'Centre' Left is so that the phrase 'Far' Right can be applied to any paper that might be less than fully committed to the socialist dream.

FCC calls for mega $300 million fine for massive US robocall campaign

john.w

Fines will never be paid but....

If their phone numbers were to be published and updated regularly by the authorities I am sure some of us less pressed for time could give them a call and ask how they are doing.

Eurozone plans to formalize passenger data, improve security

john.w

Charge it all to the spook budget

So the data won't be stored at this hub but it will be harvested at this very convenient point to be stored by approved agencies of the clandestine variety. Now where is that foil hat?

Legit Android apps poisoned by sticky 'Zombinder' malware

john.w

Banking Apps

Never liked the idea of carrying around access to all by banking in my pocket. Decided to use a nice clean spare phone for the apps that are now necessary as no other support is provided by the bank. If only I could remember the safe place I put the phone.

Intruders get their hands on user data in LastPass incident

john.w

Password Recovery

There is a lot discussion and worry about securing passwords but little mention of some of the very lax methods employed by companies for password recovery. No point worrying about a secure password if it takes two minutes and simple info to change it.

UK's Online Safety Bill drops rules forcing social media to remove 'legal but harmful' content

john.w

Re: Pardon me but ...

The point being made is that this legislation can not be used by future governments for such nefarious acts. At least any future government would have to pass its own bill and that may actually be scrutinised as well.

Elon Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors are coming back

john.w

Pre Musk Twitter had its rules

Twitter used to enforce the rule 'An attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else's voice; unless of course they believed that the 'someone else' needed to be silenced. The only way to be abused by twitter is to be on twitter.

Someone has to say it: Voice assistants are not doing it for big tech

john.w

Her?

Or 'Her' (2013) but then it did have Scarlett Johansson to picture in one's minds eye.

john.w

"We are as committed as ever.....

The sort of statement of support every football manager dreads.

Qualcomm vs Arm: The bizarro quotient just went off the scale

john.w

Qualcomm lead the way.

It is amusing that it is Qualcomm, the epitome of the 'our way or the highway' approach to chip sets and IP, that is the supposed victim here.

Qualcomm: Arm threatens to end CPU licensing, charge device makers instead

john.w

Re: Non-transferable license ?

The links do give some background but no evidence that VW knew they were not getting the RR name when the deal closed. It was a few months later that a deal was done with BMW to continue to supply engines for both marques and acquire the RR name in 2003.

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