Posts by Pascal Monett

Wireless powersats promise clean, permanent, abundant energy. Sound familiar?

Re: Lets do the maths

You're just repeating the article author's point : it ain't happening.

Smashing piece, BTW. I'm keeping this as a reference on the subject.

Alibaba fires manager accused of sexually assaulting colleague

"web giant lacks formal sexual harassment policy"

It shouldn't have to have one. You sexually assault someone ? You're fired and the police are called in.

It's simple.

The crackdown

"the ongoing government crackdown on big tech, which Beijing sees as callously indifferent to Chinese values and unhelpfully focused on profit "

Yup. They got that right.

Electrocution? All part of the service, sir!

Now that was a brilliant off-the-cuff quip.

Good on him !

"The power lead approached the PC..."

I lived a moment like that - and I was the one holding the power lead.

It was at the beginning of my career in Luxembourg, all those years ago (my daughter wasn't even born yet). Our company had just recieved shipment of a gaggle of tower PCs (they were for the training room that was being set up) and I was tasked with creating an application that required server access.

I needed a server.

I went to the head of IT and asked him if I could take one of the new arrivals to use as a server and he agreed. I went down and took one out of its box and brought it our corner office. I set up the requisite peripherals and went to plug in the PC.

POW !

Flash of light and short tongue of flame shot out of the PSU. The PC was dead.

What I didn't know is that the shipment came from the US. It was configured for 110V, and I hadn't thought to check that the tiny red switch on the PSU was in the proper configuration.

I went to explain myself to the head of IT, who was a bit miffed but told me to get another server. I completed my task, wiped the server from the machine and brought it back to storage.

By that time, all the boxes had "110V !" written on them in big red letters.

Ever since, I systematically check any new PSU or desktop box to ensure that it is in the right setting.

AI algorithms uncannily good at spotting your race from medical scans, boffins warn

"researchers have no idea how it can tell"

Well it would seem that the statistical analysis machine found certain criteria that were consistent enough for it to rely on but were not evident to the human brain. When you're a machine treating thousands of images, you don't forget any of that. A human will not remember the first image after analyzing the 100th.

Re: Deep Fake

Agreed. Nude pictiures are not necessarily sexual in nature. Of course, I have no idea what those deepfakes return as far as body positions are concerned, but unless specifically tailored for that, I doubt that all those fake pics are sexualized.

So yes, revenge porn is a terrible thing, but let's not paint with too wide a brush. Reign in the rhetoric and keep on target.

Black Hat security conference returns to Las Vegas – complete with hacks to quiet the hotel guest from hell

Re: lbry

The website says it's a "Blockchain-based file-sharing and payment network ".

Thanks but no thanks. I have no intention of dedicating gigabytes of my disk space to hold the entire content database of a website.

I'll stick with Youtube until a better alternative is given.

NASA comes up empty on Perseverance rover's first Mars sample drilling attempt

Re: I just don't get it.

That argument again.

You would do well to remember that, if Kennedy hadn't launched Mankind to the Moon, you wouldn't have a smartphone and probably might not even have a computer to complain on.

Of course, the drawback of everyone having access to these tools is that people like you can continue trying to spread that stupid argument.

Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

SpaceX Starship struts its stack to show it has the right stuff

Why limit yourself ?

Take all three.

All your DNS were belong to us: AWS and Google Cloud shut down spying vulnerability

"Microsoft, however, does not plan to revise its algorithm"

I'm not surprised and frankly, what could they change ?

The algorythm does have to go and query the DNS servers at one point or another, there's nothing to do to avoid that part, so, for once, this is not actually Borkzilla's fault.

It would, however, be nice if Borkzilla could brainstorm a mitigation of some sort, since there are DNS providers who are not impacted by this vulnerability.

US proposes tracking digital cash and taxing it to pay for, you know, roads and stuff

I think you missed this part of my post :

"In the end, they both have coins, and will sell them at some point "

"Congress is stepping up its efforts to prevent crypto investors evade their taxes"

And yet :

"the bill has been altered to make it clear that cryptocurrency miners, blockchain engineers, or vendors selling hardware to run hashing algorithms to mint digital coins are exempt from the new rules "

Could someone please explain to me the difference between a miner and an investor ?

It seems to me that those two things overlap rather closely.

The miner invests in hardware and electricity to get coins. The investor buys coins. In the end, they both have coins, and will sell them at some point. With this bill, the miner will not pay taxes, but the investor will.

Politician's logic.

Mozilla slams post-cookie ad tech proposals SWAN and UID2 - needs much more work

"a pseudonymous identifier that ad companies can use for tracking and targeting"

Your tracking is effing useless anyway.

Two weeks ago I bought a LED flashlight on Amazon. Guess what ads Amazon is flinging my way ? Of course, a different model of flashlight.

I see absolutely zero reason to give up my privacy for that kind of targeting.

Ad companies : go screw yourselves. Just serve up normal ads without any code attached and the public might begin to tolerate you again.

Re: Ban

You mean, like what Brave does ?

It also has an integrated JS blocker, but since that is less user-friendly than NoScript, I don't use Brave's implementation.

Apple is about to start scanning iPhone users' devices for banned content, professor warns

"scanning individual users' iPhones"

I'm sorry, on what authority ?

Has Apple been integrated into a special Police branch ?

What right does Apple have to scan individual users' private property and report the results ?

Another case of a tech giant making social and police decisions on its own, without any mandate to do so.

I was never interested in Apple gear.

Now Apple is on my blacklist.

US 'dropped the ball' on security by going it alone claims Huawei US CSO

"They all show the vulnerability of everything"

Yes.

Well, especially since the NSA was stupid enough to get itself hacked and have all its precious zero-days pilfered.

Ever since then, things have gotten a lot worse.

Thanks NSA, you really outdid yourself on that one.

America enlists Big Tech to help it develop and execute cyber security plans

"develop and implement better cyber security plans than are currently in operation"

How's about the US military start by upgrading its IT to 2020 standards ?

Don't they still have XP machines on the network, or is that old news now ?

Microsoft wonders if disabling just-in-time compilation of JavaScript improves browser security

Making Edge worse at running JavaScript

Hey Microsoft, I've got a hint for you : integrate NoScript.

Job done.

South Korea to test grenade-launching drones

Anti-ransomware software ?

Isn't that what Anti-Virus software is supposed to help with ?

Aren't the two going to clash ?

Because AV software doesn't like having anybody else on its turf.

AI to be bigger than IaaS and PaaS combined by 2025

$500 billion here, $400 billion there . . .

. . pretty soon, you're talking real money.

Right, I know the way out.

Ch-ch-ch-Chia! HDD sales soar to record levels as latest crypto craze sweeps Europe

Chia

So, this is the latest pyramid scheme.

Proof of work, proof of space, what's the difference ? In each case, there will be loads of morons spending money and using resources for yet another funny money scheme that will practically only be used by criminals and scammers.

Another load on Climate Change. Congratulations.

I'm with China on this : it's time to outlaw that shit.

Please, no Moore: 'Law' that defined how chips have been made for decades has run itself into a cul-de-sac

Re: Transistor physics

At the same time, it is quite logical that the returns of research diminish as the precision increases.

Yes, Moore's Law is dead, but it served its purpose.

Now we are going to branch out to 3D chips at 1nm and that will likely be the end of CPU research for a long time.

If computers have continued to increase in execution speed, it is not only because the CPU has evolved, the entire concept of a computer has evolved.

The IBM PC had an 8086 at 4.7Mhz, and everything worked at that speed.

Today, we have computers with a frequency for the CPU, another for RAM, another for magnetic storage, etc. The computer itself is a vast multi-tasking environment, and that is where we've increased its efficiency.

Now we're looking at stacking CPU layers to eeke out more performance. We'll soon be doing that with RAM as well (if we haven't already).

There will, however, come a time when we've explored all the combinations, and made all the enhancements.

It's inevitable.

Remember Google Plus? Remember its privacy blunder? Remember applying for a slice of a settlement?

The class action system is broken

Yes, lawyers should definitely get paid for their time.

No, lawyers should not get more money than the people who have been wronged.

Class action or not, lawyers should only get their hourly fee, not a cent more.

Google hits undo on Chrome browser alert change that broke websites, web apps

"Chrome has disabled its deprecation until August 15"

2022 ?

No, seriously, just ten more days ? How generous, Google.

It's obvious you are not the one putting in the overtime your changes have imposed.

Now that you've caused the stink, you could at least give something like 60 days for developers to analyze, define and implement the required changes.

It's not like the Web will break in that time anyway.

Chinese state media describes gaming as 'spiritual opium' that stunts education and destroys families

Re: so all to do with programming

You missed the part where I was programming a D&D magic item generator, and the part where he was programming BASIC games.

Re: It didn't help my studies much either

Back in 1984, my father brought me an IBM PC. It had the venerable 8086 CPU and 128KB of RAM. It also had the finest manuals I have ever read in my life to this day (I still have them).

I learned how to program with that computer. I made my very own D&D random magic item generator.

That didn't help my studies much at the time either, but now I am a professional programmer and have been for more than 25 years.

It's not because something has impacted your studies that it was necessarily bad at the time.

But go ahead and blame gaming. I'm sure that all those teenagers glued to their smartphones will suffer no consequences at all.

AWS taps up Singapore scientists to overcome hurdles facing quantum computing

IBM has 15 quantum computing machines ?

Well, when we finally learn how to program them, IBM looks to finally have a leading position once again.

If it survives until then, that is.

Microsoft suspends free trials for Windows 365 after a day due to 'significant demand'

A free trial removed after a single day

That smacks of very, very poor forecasting and provisioning. Also a bit of skinflintery lurking about.

Come on Borkzilla, you've got enough money to support two days of free trial !

Sueball over breach of more than 5 million payment cards at Dixons Carphone hit for six

Although I understand the judge's judgement . .

. . and I accept that said judgement was made with respect to the law, I still find myself frustrated that a multi-million data breach from a company raking in almost £5B results in punishment that represents barely a pitiful 1 hour of annual revenue.

Come on ! If the fines do not become significant, nobody will make the effort to secure properly !

Get ready to make processes fit the software when shifting to SAP's cloud, users told

"Get ready to make processes fit the software"

No.

Just no.

I don't care if you think that the process is outdated or not, software should not dictate how the company is run. And no single company should be allowed to dictate to their customers how they run their business.

It's incredible to see that we are now in an age where a software maker decides how you should run your business.

Fuck off. If your software doesn't suit my way of doing things, then you are useless to me. I'm not the one who should change.

So I'm to believe that all those industrial plants using SAP need to review their production lines just so that SAP can integrate the data in the right way ?

Are you out of your fucking mind ?

I use Excel to prepare my invoices, because I've set it up so that it prints out everything I need the way I need it.

Hint : if Microsoft changes Excel so that I have to change my invoices to correspond, I'll stop using Excel.

84-year-old fined €250,000 for keeping Nazi war machines – including tank – in basement

Free ?

Where on Earth has ammunition ever been free ?

The give you the weapons, but you pay for the ammo. It's the return business that makes fortunes.

Re: WTF?

He didn't just collect military hardware.

He also had 1500 rounds of ammunition, and largely enough firearms to use them.

Not something I'd like to have in my village, even if held by an 84-year-old.

Actually, especially not if held by an 84-year-old. Ancient grudges can run deep.

UK data watchdog sees its approach to government health tech during COVID-19 outbreak as 'pragmatic'

"pragmatic"

Don't you love it when a performance evaluation is made by the very entity that did the performance ?

Can I make my own performance reviews as well ?

Mine's the one with the triple-A review in the pocket.

Tesla battery fire finally flamed out after four-day conflagration

Re: Red Adair might or might not agree with you

I'm not aware that Red Adair used liquid nitrogen.

High explosives (like C4, I guess) for sure, but not liquid nitrogen.

Re: Liquid nitrogen

Not an expert in any way on the matter, but it seems to me that dropping a super-cooled liquid on a raging fire is an absolute guarantee of explosive results that might not correspond to the definition of "putting out the fire".

Don't rush to adopt QUIC – it's a slog to make it faster than TCP

It's been around just as long, but it has only just started to be tweaked like that.

At least, I think so.

Blizzard president, HR chief exit games giant in wake of sexual harassment uproar

Oh, Blizzard

Such great games.

Such disappointing behaviour.

Straighten that ship up !

US SEC chair calls for crypto regulation

Go Gary !

"a 'Wild West' of speculation and naughtiness "

Sounds like the proverbial nail got hit right on the head.

China tightens distributor cap after local outfits hoard automotive silicon then charge silly prices

Smugglers

It's curious how, as soon as there's a law against doing something, there is always somebody willing to go to any extent in order to do just that.

Is this tendancy for crime hard-wired in our brains, or what ?

Russia tells UN it wants vast expansion of cybercrime offenses, plus network backdoors, online censorship

"providing a backdoor for authorities"

Yay ! The backdoored encryption request is back !

But this time, it's Putin that wants it. Mathematics had better deliver, else it'll get a bullet in the head .

Customers warn Gartner of AWS's high-pressure sales tactics in latest verdict on public cloud providers

The difference is the license fee that they can extract from you.

UK chancellor: Getting back to the altar of corporate dreams (the office) will boost young folks' careers

Son of a billionnaire talks up watercooler networking

Son of a billionnaire seems to not notice that the peons don't get much of a chance to talk to the VP of sales and marketing, even if they are hanging around the watercooler together.

Son of a billionnaire also doesn't seem to realize that he could network in shorts and flip-flops around a swimming pool at one of the kind of parties the peons never, ever, get a chance to go to.

Son of a billionnaire, your "trajectory" has far less to do with who you talked to at the office, and far more to do with who your father is.

'Prophetic' Steve Jobs autograph telling kid to 'go change the world!' among Apple memorabilia at auction

"The kid went on to work for IBM"

Has he been fired yet ?

He should be in the right age range by now, no ?

Leeds City Council swallows the Gartner glossary and orders up 'post-modern' ERP in £44m SAP replacement

"it reserved 'the right to make substantive and relevant changes' "

And that, right there, is the seed of doom for the project.

If you don't know by now what you need from your ERP, then your project is doomed from the start.

You cannot implement any IT project, make "substantive" changes mid-way through, and expect the end result to work.

What you should do is exhaustively list your needs, the results you expect to be able to work, and get an expert to draw up the specifications that answer those needs. When you have a working platform, then you analyze what changes you require and request their implementation.

The best project manager I ever had the privilege of meeting was adamant on one point : when there was a meeting to discuss project progress, it was out of the question to add new points to the requirements list. If there were more requirements, he automatically and authoritatively shunted them to version X+1.

Because he wanted something that worked first. Then you add the bells and whistles.

It helped that he was IT manager and no-one had any authority to complain, but still.

Research finds cyber-snoops working for 'Chinese state interests' lurking in SE Asian telco networks since 2017

Is a SOC even enough when you're up against state-backed actors ?

IBM Cloud took the evening off – 23 services were hard to provision for eight hours

IBM. The home of The Suit, and Business Professionals.

Once upon a time IBM was the reference in business stability and reliability.

Then it fired everyone with a clue because costs, since its own management didn't have a clue.

Now, we get this IBM that can't even manage its own cloud properly, not to mention its own internal mail upgrade.

Frankly, anybody using IBM Cloud deserves everything they get. Yes, Cloud is obviously difficult, but IBM killed every excuse it could possibly have with its endless layoffs of experience.

You reap what you sow.

Amazon sets the date for televised return to Middle Earth: September 2022

Production subsidies ?!?

He's a fucking billionnaire.

He can subsidize his own productions.

What a joke. As if anything concerning Middle Earth would be filmed anywhere else. New Zealand just screwed itself for $100M+.

Chromebooks fighting for mind share at PC makers with higher-margin Windows 11 machines in the lead, says IDC

You're logged on to El Reg, else you couldn't post this.

That is a far cry from being logged on to Slurpus Maximus.

NHS England's £200m ERP replacement misses another deadline as procurement runs 2 years behind schedule

"whether the business case is ready"

Well, the bigwigs at NHS already know which of their buddies are going to get the spoils, so you could say that yes, the business case is ready.