Posts by Pascal Monett

Australian court rules an AI can be considered an inventor on patent filings

AI can be an inventor

Well I certainly agree - the day we have actual AI, that is.

Right now all we have are statistical analysis machines. And we can't even say how they come to their decisions.

That is black box computing, not AI.

Euro watchdog will try to extract $900m from Amazon for breaking data privacy laws

Thank you for these responses, you've cleared the fog for me.

"complaint by [..] a French privacy group"

One thing I don't get : how is it that a French privacy group made a complaint to a non-european-institution in Luxembourg ?

The CNPD is a purely Luxembourgish institution, it has no teeth at the European level as far as I can tell. It's home page makes no mention of Europe at all (neither does its Missions page), and the European flag is conspicuously absent from it, contrary to every other European Institution web site.

I'm giddy at the idea that somebody is finally levelling a fine that represents a meaningful amount against an Internet goliath, but how does this work ?

Tech spec experts seek allies to tear down ISO standards paywall

If it's supposed to be standard, it has to be public

A standard that is not freely available is not a standard.

Period.

Russia says software malfunction caused Nauka module to unexpectedly fire thrusters, tilt space station

One thing is for sure

When the Nauka's thrusters started firing, it must have been one hell of a brown alert moment for everyone on board.

Thankfully, astronauts are people with tremendous self-control and intelligence. I'm glad that they're all alive and well.

Re: Several possibilities

e) a cosmic ray flipped the wrong bit

Sysadmins: Why not simply verify there's no backdoor in every program you install, and thus avoid any cyber-drama?

How about using proper change control ?

Once an update is committed to the upload server of the supplier, there could be a mechanism to ensure that that file is properly identified (MD5 and signature, or something similar). As soon as the file changes, if there is not the proper declaration in the records, shutdown the Internet connection for the server, send an alert mail and wait for the admins to come and check.

I'm pretty sure implenting this kind of procedure wouldn't break the bank, and it seems to me that it could be rather efficient in keeping customers safe.

On this most auspicious of days, we ask: How many sysadmins does it take to change a lightbulb?

"It has a cord attached so it's YOUR problem."

I think the response was very adequate. I would have loved to do that myself.

Then again, if it were the BOFH, I can readily imagine him attaching a cord to said assistant and making it his problem to solve.

With Marmite.

London class-action sueball against Google is a lot like Epic's case except fandroids might win enough for a pint

"Advocates of these cases"

are lawyers looking at the $$$ signs that they stand to reap.

I'm getting sick of all these hypocrites pretending to work for the benefit of the public.

It's for the benefit of the public ? Then you get your hourly rate and not a cent more.

Liars.

What to do with our leftover Saturn V Lego? Why, build another rocket, of course

A typewriter ? Really ?

There is probably not a single piece of that thing that you can use to make anything else but a typewriter.

I despise this bespoke transformation of my childhood imagination.

You want to build a typewiter ? Use Meccano, that's what it's for.

International Space Station stabilizes after just-docked Russian module suddenly fires thrusters

"attitude control has been regained," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said . .

. . holding a large cattleprod in hand

We can't believe people use browsers to manage their passwords, says maker of password management tools

"using things like multi-factor authentication"

Yeah, which means I have to give up my phone number to any number of websites run by any kind of sysadmin with a budget I am not aware of and qualifications that I know even less.

Sorry, I'll keep my password management in-house, thank you very much.

AWS growing so fast its revenue makes it bigger than Cisco or HP

Especially when it comes to leaving critical data available to all and sundry in an unsecured bucket.

Malware and Trojans, but there's only one horse the boss man wants to hear about

Haven't we already had an On Call with just that ?

The guy who wiped the production server with a command line mistake and then mopped up while telling everyone it was "unscheduled maitnenance".

BOFH: They say you either love it or you hate it. We can confirm you're going to hate it

So he was "visiting" during working hours

I think Jim is not the only one who should discover the wonders of marmite. Looks to me as the head of accounting should also get a taste for allowing personal visits during work hours, and for allowing a perfect stranger to use unsecured media on company property.

Then, of course, there's the boss who actively made the situation worse by granting a security risk access to the Holy Sanctum. And, obviously, the sheer blasphemy of his grubby hands on the PHY's and BOFH's computers.

Oh yes, they're going to need a lot of marmite.

Ex-health secretary said 'vast majority' were 'onside' with GP data grab. Consumer champion Which? reckons 20 million don't even know what it is

Let's be honest, okay ?

"Four in 10 (42 per cent) said hearing about the scheme in the survey had made them trust the NHS less "

Given the UK Government's history of IT project management in general, I would suggest that 10 out of 10 should opt out. NOW.

Here's a list of the flaws Russia, China, Iran and pals exploit most often, say Five Eyes infosec agencies

Define friendly

So basically programmer lazyness. Apart from a poor encryption implementation (hey, encryption is hard, okay ?), none of the other causes have any sort of valid excuse.

Israeli authorities investigate NSO Group over Pegasus spyware abuse claims

"[NSO] does not authorise use of the software other than for matters of national security"

Well whoop-dee-doo. As if that mattered when you're selling spyware to governments.

Besides, you're not the one deciding what is a matter of national security. By your own definition, there are no governments using your software illegally - all they need to do is define each usage as a matter of national security.

And everyone is operating legally. Ba-doum, tish !

DevOps still 'rarely done well at scale' concludes report after a decade of research

Ah but it's the 3rd millennium now. Applications determined by users is so last millennium.

Now applications are determined by experts, and they are made by experts who break fast and often.

Get with the program.

Apple boasts of record quarter, but warns supply shortages will get worse before they get better

"costing the company billions of dollars"

Oh, so there's going to be a very small dent in the pile of gold in the vault, then ?

Poor little thing.

Infor ERP kicked out at closing time for Fuller's brewery biz while Microsoft Dynamics is invited to stay for lock-in

"it is a proven system"

I'm sorry, are you aware that you're buying Microsoft ?

The one thing that Microsoft has consistently proven is its capacity for unexpected downtime.

The UK is running on empty when it comes to electric vehicle charging points

Because you expect politicians to think things out ?

It seems obvious that, if you have an EV and you park in a space with a charger, you'll get into the habit of plugging the car in, just to be sure.

And then there's the question of do you have enough power generation to supply all those chargers without shutting down power to households ?

I'm all for EVs, but I am still waiting for the proof that batteries are 100% recyclable and not a gigantic pile of noxious chemicals waiting for the landfill.

Biden warns 'real shooting war' will be sparked by severe cyber attack

And they don't need hackers to cause accidents, they do that quite well on their own.

Politicians have nothing to do with engineers.

Actual engineers will answer your questions truthfully.

Slacking off? It used to be there was pretty much one place to chat with your fellow developers: IRC

"Zulip is doing it right"

Thank you, El Reg, for regularly bringing me nuggets of useful information like this.

I'm going to keep a link on this article and I'll check Zulip out as far as I can. I'm sure I'll be referring Zulip to my contacts in a short time.

Look at the bright side : at least they're enquiring about it.

Ecuador shreds Julian Assange's citizenship

You mean resist punching him in the face ?

Most probably.

Great reset? More like Fake Reset: Leaders need a reality check if they think their best staff will give up hybrid work

Going on-site has certainly been made redundant in IT

The last 18 months have not only demonstrated that IT workers can do their jobs perfectly well from any Internet connection, it has also demonstrated that they're doing their jobs just as well - if not better - than before.

I do hear regrets about not having water-cooler conversations any more, and there is a wee bit of pining to see other human beings again, but I'm convinced that most IT workers will stand by a sizeable portion of working from home time during the week.

And I'm not talking about two days per month.

A large consulting company I work with has mandated one day per week at HQ - rotated by teams. Of course, it's a consulting company, so it figures that there are coordination meetings and such that justify bringing in a group of people so that they can exchange usefully, as humans beings do. Also of course, it's a consulting company, so it figures that, the rest of the week, the company wants it consultants working for their clients - remotely.

Compsci student walks off with $50,000 after bug bounty report blows gaping hole in Shopify software repos

"he had push and pull access to all the private Shopify repositories"

And he inculded that access in the code he made publicly available.

He should be banned from posting to GitHub permanently.

SK Hynix hits 3-year revenue high as extreme ultraviolet production kicks off in earnest

"There could be some unexpected technical difficulties"

I'm sure Intel would agree.

'Login infrastructure issue' blamed as sustained Xero outage threatens payrolls

Xero - aptly named, methinks

"The cloud-based single point of failure software slinger"

TFTFY

What happened, are Excel spreadsheets not good enough any more ?

You're a small business, do you really have that many invoices to file at the end of the month ?

Intel announces AWS has become a client, Qualcomm likes its future tech, advances that as proof it's back in business

"Gelsinger argued"

Of course he's going to argue, Intel failed it's 10nm proces for long enough to give AMD time to swamp the market.

With all due respect, Mr Gelsinger, nitpicking about how nanometers don't represent atoms is not going to change the fact that, for the second time in Intel's history, you are playing catch-up to your main competitor.

Steam-powered computers: Retro cool or old and busted?

"who wouldn't enjoy a go on a steam train simulator?"

Indeed.

In the age now past of public gatherings, I used to participate in certain Steampunk events at a particular place in Luxembourg called Fond-de-Gras. They have 2 working steam-powered locomotives and you can basically park and take a train ride to an imaginary past.

I personally think it is the absolute best place for a Steampunk convention or gathering, and that train ride is the perfect setting to take you from the modern world to an entirely different world in 20 minutes of coal-huffing rail.

I really would like to be the driver of that train, so yeah, a steam train simulator ? Sign me up.

I've got a broken combine harvester – but the manufacturer won't give me the software key

Re: Americans throw away 416,000 cell phone

The amount of waste that our "modern" society produces beggars the mind. I buy a deep-frozen pack of fish. When I open the cardboard box, each piece is individually wrapped in plastic. What for ? The fish is already frozen when they put it in the box, no ?

And don't tell me that it's a hygiene problem. We all know that when we buy frozen products we need to get them to the freezer post-haste.

We are going to end up drowning in our own filth.

Early Skype developer Jaan Tallinn splashes cash in latest funding for Matrix-based instant messenger Element

"sticking a knife into email"

Is that a joke ?

Do you have any idea how important email is in the business arena today ?

Instant Messaging is nice, but it is not something you can present in court. An email is a legal trace of information and, beyond that, it is a certified justification of what happened and when.

If you really want to kill email, please wait until I've retired. Thank you.

Google promises its days as a cold-eyed API-killer are behind it

"organizations need those APIs to be stable"

It's 2021 and Google is finally mouthing words about code stability.

Whaddya know ? Maybe I'll finally be able to see a pig fly . . .

Private cryptocurrencies make lousy national currencies: International Monetary Fund

"New digital forms of money have the potential to provide cheaper and faster payments, enhance financial inclusion, improve resilience and competition among payment providers, and facilitate cross-border transfers. "

I think I have a better idea than creating an ideal environment for criminals : change the banking environment so the public doesn't need such funny money schemes in order to easily transfer money from one person to another, or from one country to another.

We've done it Europe, you can do it too.

Japan plans remote-controlled robotic space tourism to the ISS and beyond

"controllable by the public from Earth"

I sincerely hope that whoever is controlling a remotely-operated sabotage weapon will be under supervision at all times.

Hubble in another first: Water vapor spotted in atmosphere of Jupiter’s Ganymede

"Hubble in another first"

Given that the paper has already been published, I'm guessing that this discovery is pre-borking.

I wonder what new marvels Hubble will discover now ?

What is your greatest weakness? The definitive list of the many kinds of interviewer you will meet in Hell

Re: wait for another contract instead

Sure ! How much will you pay me to wait ?

Re: Reverse

Now that's an interesting way of conducting a job interview.

Obviously, those with not enough experience will automatically weed themselves out, those with experience will be able to ask some pointed questions.

I like that approach !

And the point was ?

Was the job supposed to be repeating the acronyms all day long ?

Heh, heh. Yeah, that was something she probably learned to keep to herself.

Windows 11 comes bearing THAAS, Trojan Horse as a service

"If [Google] showed any sign of understanding conferencing, that'd be nice"

Google certainly has the means to make things work. If Borkzilla does gain widespread market acceptance with Teams, the incentive for Google to undercut it by removing all the Teams angst and making something that is actually user-friendly as well as efficient will be enormous.

Plus there's all that additional slurp to be had, which Google is very, very good at obtaining.

No, I don't think the conference wars are over yet. Not by a long shot.

And yet, we have to wait.

After staring over the precipice once before, Kent County Council considers £500m in outsourcing again

Re: KCC have a track record of wasting money

Well in that case they're following the UK Government's lead to the letter.

For a true display of wealth, dab printer ink behind your ears instead of Chanel No. 5

The problem is that not enough people react on this. They just accept the cost, shrug and get on with their lives.

Look how long it's taken to start hearing about the Right to Repair (and people were getting riled up about that).

This kind of news needs to repeated every day, every where, until people wake up and realize that ink is the new mafia domain, and we're all being held at gunpoint until we hand over the dosh.