Posts by Pascal Monett

$17k solid gold Apple Watch goes from Beyoncé's wrist to the obsolete list

Re: No doubt

Because there's more money in selling than in fixing.

This is the consumer's fault. We all accept that Apple decides, arbitrarily, to define a date after which something is obsolete and refuses not only to fix it any more, but even deprives other providers of parts to do so.

This will last until people get fed up of buying things that are declared obsolete when they are still perfectly fixable and maintainable. We have all been led down the path of the new shiny, and enough of us have run stright down it that I don't know if we'll get back out of it any time soon.

From vacuum tubes to qubits – is quantum computing destined to repeat history?

You're not dead yet.

US State Dept has no idea if its IT security actually works, say auditors

"no idea if its IT security actually works"

Let's take the safe route and say no, it doesn't.

And it is right, its IT security doesn't work. I'm sure there's a hacker somewhere that will be happy to demonstrate.

Anybody in Moscow interested ?

Google doubles minimum RAM and disk in 'Chromebook Plus' spec

Nice, just one question

Does the guarantee period still start when the Chromebook exits the factory, and not when the Chromebook is bought ?

Because I'm absolutely not interested in buying something with a guarantee that has been active for months before I bought it.

ESA delays Vega-C's return after nozzle design fails tests

"Its Ariane 5 heavy lifter has flown its last mission and its successor is yet to fly."

I'm honstly rather surprised by this situation.

I would have thought the ESA would have had a better grasp on scheduling than to retire a launcher that works before its successor was ready.

But hey, this is rocket science, and I'm sure the people on the project are working their asses off to make things right. Space engineers are no slouches. If the launcher is not ready, I'm sure there are good reasons for it.

Shame though.

Co-founder of collapsed crypto biz Three Arrows cuffed at airport

"arrested last Friday [..] as he attempted to leave the country"

Airports these days are not safe territory for wanted criminals wishing to flee the country.

He would have been better off taking a boat trip. Much more discreet and efficient, I would think, although then you are stuck in boat for a while.

But hey, he's scum scamming people with empty funny money promises. His escape strategy was just as bright as his work ethics . . .

Musk's first year as Twitter's Dear Leader is nigh

Brilliant article

A savory list of failure in chronological order that demonstrates without a doubt that having money does gift you with intelligence or sanity.

Thank you for this resumé of a train wreck.

Re: Elon Musk owns xTwitter

I think we know that.

Your point ?

Re: I've just stopped using (anti-)Social Media in its slimy entirety

I'm sorry, didn't you just mention "followers" and Mastodon ?

Or are you saying that you've let your followers go to Mastodon and you haven't set up shop there ?

Because if you're on Mastodon with your followers, you haven't abandoned social media in its entirety, slimy or not.

PhD student guilty of 3D-printing 'kamikaze' drone for Islamic State terrorists

Maybe so, but explicitely creating schematics for an explosive warhead is not something I would expect from any project of a PHD student.

Let him get hired by MI6/the CIA and then Bob's your uncle, but in school, you do school projects.

Norway wants Facebook behavioral advertising banned across Europe

"given that Meta has already committed to"

Bullshit. Meta has committed to nothing. All it's done is make the proper mouth noises to make the problem go away.

When it has made the corrections in code, then it has committed.

Until then, fine them a million kroner per minute. That'll make The Zuck think again.

Red Hat bins Bugzilla for RHEL issue tracking, jumps on Jira

Re: Jira is the single source of suckage

That is an excellent link.

I'm keeping that.

Oh he ran it all right, into a wall. He took a powerful company that had been handed to him on a platter, and made an enormous mess of it.

That's why he got canned, and none too soon.

Search for phone signal caused oil spill, say Japanese investigators

Wow. Just wow.

You're the captain of a 100,000 ton cargo ship and your only focus is getting a signal for your smartphone. So, without knowing the waters you are in or going to, without the slightest inkling that maybe you should check, you just change course straight into catastrophe.

At this point, the whisky is an anecdote. It is literally irrelevant. The big issue is changing course without checking anything. That's like driving along a road, closing your eyes and then deciding when to take a left turn. I would have thought that naval school would have taught him the necessity of knowing where you're going when captaining a vessel of any kind, let alone an enormous cargo ship.

Who decided to give him command and how much experience did he have beforehand ? Was this his first command ? I cannot believe he was a seasoned captain. I would think that cargo companies prefer having their ships commanded by someone with experience, but this dude acted like a frat boy on party night.

Well, in any case, that'll be his last command. I don't feel sorry for him.

Supermicro CEO predicts 20 percent of datacenters will adopt liquid cooling

"I decided that [we] should design high efficiency [PSUs,] systems and datacenters"

And that is what happens when you are CEO of a multi-billion dollar company that you founded.

There is no Board telling him what to do. There are no "activist investors" clamoring for layoffs to line their pockets.

He is in control, he decides and the company executes. And the decisions he makes are carefully considered to grow his company, not his investor's portfolio.

An example to follow, apparently.

iPhone 15 is too hot to handle – and not in any good way

"It’s expected that Apple will address this through software updates"

AKA : throttling the CPU permanently to keep the phone from getting too hot.

So people will start complaining that their new shiny is a slug.

Too bad Apple chose titanium, apparently.

Musk, Yaccarino contradict each other on status of X's election integrity team

That took longer than I thought it would

But now, she has contradicted the Great Leader.

Her days are numbered.

Yelp sues Texas for right to publish actual accurate abortion info

"acquitted by his party in a Texas Senate trial"

So I understand that it is not a judge that acquitted him because, in Texas, criminal Senators are brought to trial before other Senators.

Truly a jury of his peers, then. And they acquitted him.

What a surprise.

And that in the land that boasts having the best justice system money can buy.

It would appear that some criminals don't need money to go scott free.

More and more LLMs in biz products, but who'll take responsibility for their output?

"There is no liability to the model"

And it has started.

I've already said that the responsible is the entity who hosts the thingamabob. Something goes wrong ? Sue them. They don't appreciate ? They sue the maker of the thingamabob. That can drag out in court for decades, consumers are not affected.

There is one basic rule in the French judicial system : if someone is harmed, then the entity responsible for the harm pays. If that entity can find another entity to blame, fine, it pays the someone, then gets reperation in court from the other entity. And so on and so forth. But the consumer gets compensated.

I've already said this, and I stated that companies would be dragging their feet.

Well, it has started already.

Didn't need a Palantir to see that coming.

From frying Panos into the Fire? Amazon confirms hiring of Microsoft veteran

"Alexa staff were included in the extensive layoffs"

Of course they are. Hiring is for upper management. Firing is for peons.

That said, I can't find who for the moment, but that reminds me of an Welsh comedian commenting on Alexa. I'll always remember this :

<in a heavy Welsh accent> "Alexa, what time does Marks & Spencer open on a Sunday ?"

<Alexa> "I'm sorry, I didn't understand."

Yeah, I know, it's not funny like that, but the audio is awesome. If anyone can find that, it would be a blessing.

You shouldn't be able to buy devices that tamper with diesel truck emissions on eBay, says DoJ

"government's actions are entirely unprecedented"

That doesn't mean that the action is wrong.

It actually means that the government is reacting to new elements in the world. In a democratic country, that is supposed to be a good thing, no ? Besides, the action is hardly unprecedented. I do believe the government has never been friends with defeat devices of any kind.

In a future where Meta actually becomes a thing, if we find out that kiddie porn is on that platform, I'd think that everyone would be okay with the government stepping in to quash that particularly horrible thing, right ?

The action would still be unprecedented, as far as Meta is concerned.

Not an argument.

Zuck dives deeper into the metaverse, dragging Snoop Dogg along for ride

"Meta is still trying to make the metaverse a thing"

Of course it is. Facebook is dying, Meta needs a new revenue stream.

Something must be done. This is something, so it must be done.

Intel starts mass production on Intel 4 node using EUV in Irish fab

"arguably the most complicated piece of machinery humans have ever built"

100,000 parts, oooh.

3,000 cables, aaaah !

40,000 bolts and more than a mile of hosing - OMG !!!

Sorry, Intel, have you checked out ITER ?

The 23000-tonne ITER Tokamak is a complex assembly of one million components and an estimated ten million individual parts. Surrounding the central reaction ...

You are so outclassed it's not even funny.

Israel and Italy have cheapest mobile data out of 237 countries

"Also surprising is that the US is one of the most expensive nations on the planet for mobile data"

Surprising ? Really ?

When you know that the USA is the country where every telco is buggering its customers, preventing true coverage from being known and doing as little as possible to upgrade the network to something useable, I don't really find this study surprising on that point.

Maybe so , but how do you propose we get an idea of what's going on ?

Of cours the data is skewed. The only question is, how is it skewed, and is it consistently skewed in the same way ?

If you have multiple years of skewed data and you know how it is skewed and you know that it is consistently skewed in the same way, then that data is still representative of reality.

Re: Big Mac to be rescue.

Fair point, but do they have Big Macs in the savanna ?

After failing at privacy, again, Google is working to keep Bard chats out of Search

"We're working on blocking them from being indexed now"

Why didn't you work on blocking them before you made this "tool" available ?

Because you always wait for the backlash before doing something that might impede your ability to slurp more data.

Indonesia, TikTok's best market, bans social commerce

This is not easy

It must be very difficult to juggle between what the public wants, what the country needs and what the big players do to extract maximum attention from their users.

I think this is a good move, one that should be replicated elsewhere. After all, Big Phone was broken for anti-monopoly reasons (even though that didn't really work out in the end), and today's "platforms" are basically trying to do the same thing, be everything.

They shouldn't.

Researchers train an AI system to find extraterrestrial life

I did reply. I'm not a chemist, so I pointed you to articles that talk about the issue.

Now reply to my question.

So, what's your PHD in chemistry ?

There are scientists who have been looking into the possibility of life based on other than carbon. Silicon seems to be favorable, maybe.

Ask them.

Linux interop is maturing fast… thanks to a games console

"Solution: new Linux features to fill in the missing gaps"

Yes. Let's fill in all the gaps, then let's replace the rest.

I'm a firm believer in GROW, aka Get Rid Of Windows.

Hong Kong securities regulator to name suspicious crypto players

"encouraging people to get in as investors 'before full regulation and licensing' began"

I'm sorry, what other red flag do you need in order to understand that these fuckers are scum ?

Honestly, I'm starting to believe that funny money only took off because of the sheer number of abysmally stupid idiots that were willing to believe that everyone could win the lottery.

Bids for ISS demolition rights are now open, NASA declares

I fear that any effort to push it out will only delay the inevitable reentry.

Unless you're thinking of pushing it entirely out of Earth's gravity well and on to it's own trajectory in space, which would have to basically end up in the Sun. That might be significantly costlier than just dismantling it and letting the rest burn up.

Why can't datacenter operators stop thinking about atomic power?

"Three words: Cheap, reliable, power"

Somebody call Germany.

Seems that they need the heads-up.

It looks like you’re a developer. Would you like help upgrading Windows 11?

"then loads software Microsoft thinks is apt"

And that is the entire problem with Borkzilla completely described.

I don't want Borkzilla's "decisions". You take me for a developer ? Fuck that. I've used Windows since Windows 286 (yes, I'm that old). If you think I don't know how to configure my Windows the way I want it, I have a number of "colorful" metaphores for where you can shove your head. I'll help you gladly.

You have the gall to shove your usual shit on what you call "developers" ? Hint : they'll restraint your bullshit like they've done for the past three decades without your help, thank you very much.

Twitter, aka X, tops charts for misinformation, EU official says

Re: Twitter / X is a sewer

I don't need to check it out.

I know exactly what Xitter is.

Just look at who's at the helm.

Getty delivers text-to-image service it says won't get you sued, may get you paid

Great idea

Let's train our statistical analysis tools on images that have a copyright bar in them.

Japan's PM hints at semiconductor subsidies as part of wider growth plan

Hey, do what you can, right ?

I'm not surprised that Japan wishes to splurge on chip tech, it's mainstream these days. I am a bit sceptical about where they'll build a plant, though.

Japan is small, and heavily populated. Any new build is going to have be outside of residential space and what little agricultural space there is. To me, that basically leaves the mountainside.

Now, the interesting thing is that a chip fab in the mountains shouldn't have too much trouble with water supply, so there's that. But it will be a lot more expensive to build than a fab on the flats of Arizona (where there is little water). Of course, there's always the possibility of creating an artificial island, but then there's the pure water issue . . .

In any case, I wish good luck to that fab and I hope that the used water treatment process will ensure that no contaminants get to the water table.

Doom developer John Carmack thinks artificial general intelligence is doable by 2030

"prototype AI to show signs of life."

I would certainly be awed by such an achievement. However, I refuse to believe that our current technology can give rise to AI.

Granted, Asimov did not show the rise of AI and how we got to the positronic brain, but he definitely considered that his robots were intelligent, feeling beings that could accurately analyse context and meaning.

What marketing is calling AI these days might be getting better at analysing context, but it has no grasp of meaning and I don't see that there's any magic code that can make a program think.

Those statistical analysis machines don't think. They obey their code, just like all computers do today. It's not because we can't explain how they get to their conclusions that they are thinking. They're not, and there's no amount of handwaving that will change that in ten years.

Even if the hand belongs to Carmack.

No, no, no! Disco joke hit bum note in the rehab center

So the system didn't cut the ringtone when the phone was picked up

Seems a bit sloppy to me. It's not like the guys who created this system weren't familiar with how the phone ring works.

Looks like they just decided to pipe the mp3 to speaker and not bother with cutting it off because, obviously, who would configure a 90-second ringtone ?

And that's where we get the difference between what a system is made to do, and what it can do.

US military F-35 readiness problems highlighted in aptly timed report

"we stand ready to partner with the government"

Also known as : we want to keep our snout in the trough.

And, since Lockheed is the one making the planes, it's rather easy to stay put. The trough is now an Olympic swimming pool, and Lockheed is on a floating long chair, dipping in as it pleases.

And since Russia is no longer a military threat, and China is way off, the situation really is a day at the beach for Lockheed.

A loooong day.

UK-US data deal could hinge on fate of legal challenges to EU arrangement

"permit the flow of personal data [..] without the need for further safeguards"

Could someone please remind me why personal information needs to change continent ?

Keep the data on continent, deal with it there, send a summary to HQ (summary that does not contain any PII).

Amazon 'protects' against junk AI e-books by limiting author-bots to three a day

There is a solution

If you're interested in a book, wait for the user evaluations. Unless you're certain that you do want that book from that author, and know that said book is worthy of your time, wait for evals to roll in.

If there aren't any, don't go first.

"that limit protects its customers"

Okay, that phrase makes me wonder : who are Amazon's "customers" in this case ?

Because publishing three "books" full of bull per day is not going to protect you or me, that's for sure.

Now IBM sued for age discrim by its own HR veterans

It's time to help IBM

Everyone above the age of 40 should just walk out.

In the same month.

When the fallout settles, IBM will have gaggles of kids running everything (over the cliff).

How is it that IBM still exists ? Why give money to IBM ? All of their good consultants are gone, on going to be let go. There's no experience left in there.

Just leave IBM to die in its corner. The husk is all that's left anyway.

ESA gets the job of building Europe's secure satcomms network

"relying on disruptive technologies like quantum encryption"

So, the EU is going to find a few more billions to get that quantum computer that can make the quantum encryption, I take it.

Because at this point in time, quantum computers are still lab creatures, you can't buy one on Amazon.

So I look forward to hearing about how all those pesky quantum computer issues have been solved by 2024 to make this possible.

Not holding my breath though.

How is this problem mine, techie asked, while cleaning underground computer

A 1980s minicomputer at the bottom of a mine ?

What on Earth was the point ? It was a mini. Put it on the surface and snake a cable down to wherever to put a terminal at the bottom.

That's about as stupid as putting backup power generators in the basement of a building that might get flooded. No, you put them on the roof.

The clock is ticking and Korea wants to know if its chipmakers will get their export license extension

So, China makes the DRAM

Once again, first-world short-sightedness comes back to bite us in the rear. Ah, the days when top-level executives gave themselves massive bonuses for having outsourced a chip fab to China . . good times, eh ?

Well now here we are, restricting China from exporting the production from the tools we put in their hands. And when we put those tools in their hands, China was already the despotic regime it is now.

Ah yes, but money. Money now, worry about the consequences later.

There's a lesson here, somewhere. I wonder who will learn it ?

If you're cautious about using ML and bots at work, that's not a bad idea

"Who's responsible for the hallucinations?"

Only one possible answer : the entity whose name is on the document. If it's a website, the owner of the website.

Stop splitting hairs in two. If a company builds a false-facts-spewing tool and makes it available, the company is responsible for the fallout. If I buy a second-hand vehicle and cause an accident, I can't go say it's the previous owner's fault. Companies that build these hallucinating tools should be responsible for the hallucinations.

Maybe, once the company has been dragged to court and found guilty, it can then turn and slap a lawsuit on the company that built the drunken slob for it, but it's the company that is using the tool that is responsible.

What about someone who uses such a tool to make legal documents for personal situations ? Well don't, first of all. Go get a lawyer to do the job. Second, the individual used a website, so he can attack the owner of the website.

Responsibility is simple in this case. Except for the obvious fact that companies will be dragging their feet as hard as they can, and lobbying like mad to get out of paying for any damages - as they have always done. But that doesn't last. Even the tobacco industry has had to bow in the end. Bil Oil will too, some day. Let's not start messing around with Big AI without laying down the ground rules firmly.