Posts by Pascal Monett

US fears China may have ten exascale systems by 2025

"declined to make public any [..] figures that would demonstrate their true performance level"

And why would China make figures public ?

Much better to keep everybody guessing.

Microsoft patches the patch that broke Windows authentication

"patches to fix patches seem to be becoming a little too common"

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that networking is not always easy, especially when you're a vendor with an uncountable number of variations to handle.

Still, I stand by the idea that having a Quality Control team to test and wean out the at least some of the problems would go a long way to make these out-of-band patches rarer than they are.

Microsoft Bing censors politically sensitive Chinese terms

You still can't have your cake and eat it

"an internet platform cannot facilitate free speech for one demographic of its users while applying extensive political censorship against another demographic of its users"

Well, it seems that Borkzilla (et al) must make a choice : either it is for free speech, or it is for raking in the dough in oppressive dictatorships.

It's going to be interesting to see how this goes.

Failed gambler? How about an algorithm that predicts the future

Re: Half full or empty

I reject that argument entirely. As far as I'm concerned, if you're asking the question, the cup needs to be refilled.

US recovers a record $15m from the 3ve ad-fraud crew

Great news

"A little more than half of the illicit proceeds, $15,111,453.84, has since been transferred from Swiss bank accounts to the US government"

So Uncle Sam gets a windfall, but the companies who paid for the non-existent ad views get what ? The satisfaction that that particular crew isn't scamming them any more ?

Cisco warns of up to $720m sales loss: Blames China lockdown, Russia pullout

"meaning a drop of $131 million to $720 million"

I would really like to be able to drop my revenue to 5.5 times its current level.

That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Bing! Microsoft tests search box in the middle of Windows 11 desktop

"while Microsoft plays with the concept"

Microsoft : playing with every single concept it can think of apart from making its OS streamlined, out of the way, functional and fast.

American Airlines decides to cruise into Azure's cloud

Wait a minute

"speed up bag tracking, enable preemptive rerouting based on weather conditions"

Isn't that stuff they're already doing now ? With computers ? What exactly is the improvement AA is expecting after having spect weeks, if not months, handing their current system over to the single-point-of-failure platform that is Azure ?

And when Azure is down, will that mean that pre-emptive routing will not work, or will AA keep the existing system as an emergency backup (yeah, as if that would happen) ?

Landmark case recognizes Bored Ape NFT as an asset

BAYC

Oh, those images I can find in an instant on Google Images ?

And some people paid money for that ?

The depth of human stupidity knows no bounds - especially when they're full of money.

Hot glare of the spotlight doesn’t slow BlackByte ransomware gang

"living-off-the-land binaries"

Now that's new to me. What on Earth is that ? Notepad ?

Google Russia goes broke after bank account snatched

Re: woke-global-climate-change-bullcrap

You can beat that drum as often as you like, the climate is still changing.

Microsoft-backed robovans to deliver grub in London

What's the bandwidth on these things ?

A terabyte of data every minute is a rather tall order to transmit via WiFi, even with 5G. Also, 60TB of data is one heck of stack of hard disks to put in the trunk (or boot), and driving for one hour is not all that uncommon. What is the data retention policy ?

So how is the car linked to the Azure server, and what is being sent/received ?

Also, when the learning phase is over, what kit is going to be left in the cars ?

Voyager 1 space probe producing ‘anomalous telemetry data’

"Voyager 1 is now 45 years old"

Dear me, and they're thinking of doing a software update with 160b/s of bandwidth ?

Yikes.

Some people are really hardcore.

Your snoozing iOS 15 iPhone may actually be sleeping with one antenna open

"wireless chips can no longer be trusted to be turned off after shutdown"

So it is true, the mafia types are right to put smartphones in lead boxes when they meet.

Apple scraps 3-day return to office amid COVID-19 cases

"not everyone is yet ready to return to the corporate altar"

No kidding.

The one good thing about COVID is that it has amply demonstrated that going to the office is not a requirement to being productive.

Oh sure, for the insecure managers who like counting heads, yes, having all your minions on hand must be very satisfying indeed, but unfortunately, your minions have worked off-site for almost two years and productivity has not gone down.

You're going to have to live with that fact now.

China's vice premier Liu He advocates technology and government cooperation

"Liu He advocates technology and government cooperation"

Of course, when he says "cooperation", he means "do as I say and you can continue functioning".

Microsoft warns partners to revoke unused authorizations that drive your software

You don't want that.

Think about it for a minute : why are you authorizing remote access to a 3rd party in the first place ? Most likely, it is because they have the special proficiency you are lacking in your own workforce. That means they'll be coming in with near-admin level privilege. You want to be able to track that, and you don't want to give admin access to someone who clearly will never need it.

Create a specific user for that specific access, and log the interactions. That way, if something fishy happens, you either have proof of origin, or proof that you need to look somewhere else.

China’s COVID lockdowns bite e-commerce players

Beijing continues to crack down on complaints

And it will have to continue even more, because when people are not happy, they complain.

I would say : instead of cracking down on complaints, listen to them and mend your ways, but this is Beijing. Beijing does not mend its ways.

Monero-mining botnet targets Windows, Linux web servers

Re: Linux as a target? But is this really the case?

You might be right, but you should avoid thinking that Linux is impervious to infection. Privilege escalation exists, even in Linux world, and malware is capable of taking over a Linux box.

As usual, proceeding with caution is always a good thing.

Surf the web from your parked Renault: Vivaldi comes to OpenR

"seven times smoother"

Must have been a really bumpy ride before.

Google keeps legacy G Suite alive and free for personal use

Office 365 Family is $100/year ?

Dear God, to think that LibreOffice is free.

Infosys skips government meeting – and collecting government taxes

"the only way out of the churn"

. . is to pay a decent wage, not treat your employees like shit and give them at least the impression that they are useful.

Giving them scraps and piling pressure on them is just how you push them away.

China reveals its top five sources of online fraud

That is the problem with total oversight

Once you start forbidding some form of online expression, you start a game of whack-a-mole with all the derivatives.

Well Xi Ping, I'm happy that you give plenty of work for your endless pool of administrative busybodies to continue making the lives of Chinese citizens worse.

Way to go.

By the way, you will not suppress dissatisfaction by governmental decree. It will grow and, some day, it will come to bite you in the ass. If you were intelligent, you would let the people vent and listen to what they are venting about. It would give you pointers on what you need to improve.

You cannot dictate how people feel, and there's more of them than there is of you.

Telcos fear Big Tech will bleed them until they can’t afford network builds

"181.1 petabytes in 2020"

And, during lockdown, that exploded into what ? 300 petabytes ?

Infusion of $3.5bn not enough to revive Terra's 'stablecoin'

Agreed. A "waterproof" watch is just a watch that can withstand being in the rain or under a fawcet for a short moment. You dry it off and it'll continue ticking.

Divers do not use of-the-shelf watches. They use professional gear that can actually withstand the pressure of 5+ bars under water.

The sad state of Linux desktop diversity: 21 environments, just 2 designs

Brilliant and exhaustive work of research

The author here has devoted a lot of time and work to produce this piece. I applaud the effort. I also appreciate the fact that the author has opened my eyes to the fact that, yes, basically almost everybody is implementing the Windows UI.

From a technical point of view, the Windows UI is a Good Thing^TM. I remember reading about how Gates & Co really racked their brains over menu management, the homoginization of function keys and ease of use. Once upon a time, if you had access to Help, it could be via a function key, a combination of CTRL-<something>, or whatever else. Now, you just press F1, job done. That is good - except that now help is online, so if your connection is down, you're up shit creek without a paddle, and that is bad. Oh well.

But, concerning the efforts of volunteer developers, I'm sorry but nobody is forcing them to invest themselves. It's their choice, and I'm sure that they are dead set on improving some aspect or another of the user experience. The real issue is that (probably) none of them, or at least not many of them, have a lot of experience in alternative UIs, they just dive in with their idea and go for it.

It's their choice, there's nothing you can do about that. Yes, after reading this article I agree it's largely a waste of time, but it's their time to waste.

Europe moves closer to stricter cybersecurity standards, reporting regs

Does not apply to central banks ?

Why do the security regulations not apply to the most critical part of the entire banking infrastructure ?

I don't get it. Central banks should be the most paranoid institutions in existence. If a central banks gets infiltrated, there's no limit to the mayhem that can follow. So why are they exempt ?

Toshiba says it's talking to 10 suitors about possible sale

"discussions are under way with §0 parties"

So, after all the drama of the previous weeks, suddenly there is a plethora of companies crawling out of the woodwork to buy Toshiba ?

(Our) hardware is still key in a multicloud world, Dell ISG chief insists

"75 percent of data will be created at the edge"

Which translates to : 75% of malware attacks will happen at the edge.

I hope they're baking security in from the start, because otherwise this will be a major shitstorm.

China's Kylin Linux targets second RISC-V platform

"developed in partnership with Chinese authorities"

AKA : it has state surveillance baked in.

Arm CPU ran on electricity generated by algae for over six months

Mayb so, but every little step counts, so I applaud this research.

How ICE became a $2.8b domestic surveillance agency

Re: Data brokers

Apparently, it's the Government that needs to be regulated.

Microsoft adds unscheduled breaks to most certification exams

Re: Schooling

Well, at least schooling is supposed to guarantee that whoever it is you hire isn't going to be pissing in the corner and drooling over everyone's workspace.

Hopefully.

BOFH: You'll have to really trust me on this team-building exercise

Re: Most disappointed!

The boss getting his comeuppance is also rather satisfying.

Elon Musk puts Twitter deal on hold over bot numbers claim

Re: He might not be stupid

My, are you a generous soul.

He's got money, and that's all he's got.

He's got no class, he's got no refinement, he's barely cultured and he's got no reserve. He's a mouthpiece on steroids and he's got all the money for all the steroids he wants.

There is absolutely nothing interesting in him, if not for the fact that he is almost single-handedly bringing Humanity back into space.

That is his only redeeming feature, and I will give him that.

"take the team in a different direction"

You can take Twitter in whatever direction you want, buddy. I'll never be interested.

Bad excuse. Bots don't use apostrophes.

Confirmation dialog Groundhog Day: I click OK and it keeps coming back

Oh. My. God.

Young Mr Grace ?

Number Two ?

What is this cornucopia of references that people under 30 have no chance of understanding ?

Not to mention the rest of the article.

A resounding thumbs up for a brilliant end of the week.

Ransomware the final nail in coffin for small university

"Was the university doing all it could to secure its systems and users?"

Probably not.

I doubt that most Universities have the competent people on the payroll to effectively manage the complexities of such a specific environment. I have not had much dealings with Universities, but every time I have, it was always ad-hoc solutions implemented because they allowed things to work. Security ? The best case answer was "we're talking about reviewing things in the budget meetings, but for the moment, we don't have the money".

One down, plenty more to go.

Microsoft tests ‘Suggested Actions’ in Windows 11. Insiders: Can we turn it off?

You're not contradicting what he said. Read again.

Re: Reply to All

I have worked at several large companies and organizations that have disabled or restricted Reply to All in Outlook.

There are very few cases where you actually need to reply to everyone.

Now, to be perfectly objective, Borkzilla is not reponsible for Reply to All. That lies at the feet of the people who invented email.

Re: a bunch of Howler Monkies screaching & flinging shit at your audience

Welcome to Borkzilla since about 2010.

Seems like another repeat is necessary : we don't use Windows because we like it, we use it because we have to.

As soon as we can change and continue working and getting paid, we will. That's a promise.

Researchers find 134 flaws in the way Word, PDFs, handle scripts

One of the first things I do is install Sumatra PDF.

It's free, it works, and there is no bullshit delivered with it.

We can bend the laws of physics for your super-yacht, but we can't break them

"why can't you make it like my connection at home?"

Because the cable is not long enough.

Appeals court unleashes Texas's anti-Big-Tech content-no-moderation law

Re: Better for citizens to choose

Freedom of speech hasn't prevented deadly violence from fermented views.

I'd wager that said fermentation has increased since the Internet - and smartphones - have become near-ubiquitous. Before the Internet, the wacko would stay in his corner of the bar, muttering to himself. Now, he's aware that there are other people that share his views, so he might become inclined to act on them.

How many school shootings were there in the 80's ? None.

Information is a double-edged sword, is what I'm saying.

The only reason companies have the same rights as a person is because some stupid judge way back when was bought and ruled in their favor and since, nobody has challenged that.

In France (and, I presume, much of Europe), companies do not have a person's rights. They don't need that to do business. There is no tax issue, companies have their income tax level set by law, period. A company has a manager, the law says that said manager needs to be declared in the company statutes. Everything a company can or needs to do is allowed by commercial law.

A company can run ads, a company does not need Free Speech.

Free Speech is for individuals, not corporations. I doubt any Founding Father would think differently.

Re: Republicans are the perps not the victims

Remember the caravan ?

When that orange-haired asshole was running for President, he repeatedly stated that there was a whole caravan of Mexicans (ie non-whites) on their way to the border and only he would build The Wall to stop them.

Well he got elected, a very small section of wall was built (and much donated money went into private pockets), and no caravan passed.

That is Republicans today for you.

A bunch of lying wankers.

SoftBank to stop investing 'randomly' after losing billions of dollars

Ah, to have $27 billion to waste

Hey guys ! You can waste $1 billion on me if you want !

Coinbase CEO says everything's OK after SEC filing gives netizens the jitters

"your funds are safe at Coinbase, just as they've always been"

Also known as : you're funds are just as at risk as they've always been.

You want your funds to be safe ? Put them on a bank account.