Posts by Pascal Monett

Odd homage to '2001: A Space Odyssey' sees 'Blue Danube' waltz beamed at Voyager 1

"it is likely We Are Not Alone"

We aren't. The Hubble Deep Field experiment demonstrated without a shred of doubt that there is not a single point in our sky, to whatever point precision you wish to define, that does not have dozens or hundreds of galaxies in the distance.

So there are galaxies everywhere, and water everywhere as well. There is life out there, I have no doubt about that. The only real question is : how far away is it ?

I applaud this poetic effort. It was a nice gesture. Now explain to me how an intelligent civilization with a technical level equal to ours is going to be able to detect that signal from 20 light-years away and get anything meaningful out of it. Then, as an exercise, calculate the intensity of the signal 2000 LY away, then 20,000 LY away.

At what point does it become meaningless noise ?

I'm guessing that Alpha Centauri will already have trouble detecting the signal, not to mention deriving the music from it.

Feds arrest DoD techie, claim he dumped top secret files in park for foreign spies to find

Re: Intelligence != wisdom

And Diploma != Intelligence

Lumma infostealer takedown may have inflicted only a flesh wound as crew keeps pinching and selling data

"China doesn't support or tolerate hackers"

Of course.

Beijing would never do anything that is not pure and legal and totally acceptable, like building a fleet and creating artificial islands in the middle of the sea, to take over a country that has declared its independance.

Nooo.

VMware drops the lowest tier of its partner program – except in Europe

“The vast majority of these [Registered] partners are inactive"

Then it costs you nothing to keep their service active.

I would also mention that it would do your reputation a world of good if you hadn't made that decision, but you don't give a damn about your reputation anyway, so I'll not waste any more words on that subject.

Meta – yep, Facebook Meta – is now a defense contractor

Technomancers

As if you had the tech to make that happen.

Crims defeat human intelligence with fake AI installers they poison with ransomware

You do not use AI

AI uses you.

Data watchdog put cops on naughty step for lost CCTV footage

Cops

The last people you can trust to actually have proper data retention procedures.

Reminds me of that Yes Minister episode where Sir Humphry explains to Minister Hacker that they lost no end of embarrassing files.

The UK wants you to sign up for £1B cyber defense force

"the new Command would protect all military networks from attacks"

"by attracting the best talent"

Uh-huh, sure, and you're going to attract said talent by paying them how much per month ?

Look, I applaud the goal but, given that private security companies themselves are having trouble protecting themselves and their customers from attacks - are they are billing big bucks for that and, I hope, paying their "best talent" appropriately, I've got the sinking feeling that UK Gov is going to find itself in a bind because attracting the best talent is going to mean paying said talent the same as a Minister.

And we all know that that is simply not acceptable.

Palantir's Trump bonanza continues with Fannie Mae contract to fight fraud

"new software to speed up deportations"

Yes, and that went swimmingly well, didn't it ?

We all know the song by now : AI is the solution to everything.

Except correcting its own mistakes.

Security outfit SentinelOne's services back online after lengthy outage

"suggesting this is a problem of its own making"

In other words, someone has just a valuable, if costly, lesson in paying attention to the console before validating a command.

What it suggests to me is that we have made our computing environment so complicated that even security admins don't always know the consequences of what they are attempting.

That doesn't look promising to me.

Europe warns giant e-tailer to stop cheating consumers or face its wrath

Interesting

Funny how I find a lot of the same practices in supermarkets and retailers in the cities nearest to me.

25% off on something that was the exact same price a month ago ? I've already seen that for decades.

Get a custom paint job for earbuds at a nail salon, type on a baguette, then build a fountain for your PC

"the XG Station 3 external graphics dock"

Of course.

Here's another idea, free of charge : the 12TB RAID5 USB3 connectable disk station so your "laptop" can download all those torrents from PirateBay.

It's a laptop, guys. The point is being able to move it.

If I have to use a forklift, I might as well have a proper PC case.

China approves rules for national ‘online number’ ID scheme

Can ? Come on, this is China.

"part of a federated identity scheme that will mean they can will be forced to use one logon across multiple all online services "

There, FTFY.

Trump threatens to add formal Apple Tax on top of the 'Apple tax'

What ?

"Tim Cook of Apple "

So it's not Tim Apple anymore ?

Did he (gasp) actually learn something, or did an intern do a quick check to make sure that the orange baboon didn't make a fool of himself (again) ?

Which didn't really work, so it was a waste.

Even a humble keyboard is now political in Taiwan

Re: There’s nothing stopping Americans listening to the BBC World Service

Well, aside from the fact that most of them probably don't know it exists.

And then there's the fact that fact-checking is soo last millenium these days . . .

"a warehouse in California"

A warehouse is not a factory, it is a storage area. So it needs to be stocked. If that stock is coming from China, how can it evade the tarifs ?

Glitch hits kill switch on app web hosting, citing 'bad actors' and worse architecture

"evolving to reflect reality"

The reality is that you just can't count on the Internet or Internet corporations.

When enough of these shenanigans have happened, business and people will come back down to the truth : host your own servers, make your own backups.

It's the only way to be sure.

Microsoft dumps AI into Notepad as 'Copilot all the things' mania takes hold in Redmond

Re: At least Notepad++ is still available

In development since 2003, and Borkzilla still hasn't been able to make its own version half as useable or a tenth as quick.

Also, NPP can load large files without you needing to go brew a pot of coffee.

AI isn't going to help you here, Nadella.

What would a Microsoft engineer do to Ubuntu? AnduinOS is the answer

Re: Doesn't need to be done

It's a Microsoft developer. He works with what he's got.

Now that the project exists, I'm confident that competent people will fork it/reskin it into whatever shape doesn't offend penguinista sensitivities.

And as far as "doesn't need to be done" is concerned, everything and anything that offers an alternative to Redmond's iron grip on the market is welcome as far as I'm concerned.

Grandpa-conning crook jailed over sugar-coated drug scam

Reminds of something

Let me see, elderly men, drug mule, something with Clint Eastwood is persisting in the back of my mind . . . ah, right.

One of Britain's largest health trusts says 'no ta' to Palantir-run data platform – for now

"not to adopt a national data platform – [..] run by Palantir – until it has"

. . recieved a bigger brown envelope.

Palantir is just a bunch of state-sponsored thugs in suits. The only difference between them and Moscow state-sponsered hackers is that Palantir is being paid to spy on its own "side" (if you can call it that).

Space Force tech mission threatened by staff and funding black hole

Space Force

Another successful enterprise on Trumps list of triumphs, then ?

We'll just serve that with a side order of Trump Steak (chewability not guaranteed).

US Navy sailor charged in horrific child sextortion case

"No date has been set for his trial"

No date is needed.

I hope he enjoys his cellmates, because I'm sure they're going to enjoy him.

Rideshare companies in India are asking for tips before the trip

Tips before service

Sure.

And I'm going to start sending my invoices before doing the work.

I'm sure my customers will appreciate . . .

What a crazy world we live in.

SAP users grapple with 50% premium for industry-standard service levels

"We get extraordinarily positive feedback"

Sure you do.

Let's see how that translates into next year's financial forecasts.

You can't just go mention pseudo-AI and raise your bills by 30%. Your customers have accountants, those people are literally paid to tell the Board where the money is coming from, where it is spent and how efficient that spending is.

The Board is famously responsible for ensuring that the shareholders get maximum returns.

I sense a disturbance in the Force . . .

Apartment living to get worse in 5 years as 6 GHz Wi-Fi nears ‘exhaustion’

Fiber

Fiber to the appartment, then a small personal WiFi setup.

One WiFi router for an entire building is nonsense anyway. Access contention must be horrible.

Builder.ai coded itself into a corner – now it's bankrupt

AI = Another Indian

I liked that.

But seriously, one day venture capitalists are going to end up understanding that the only real word in AI is Artificial.

There is no Intelligence anywhere in there.

Not that I'm going to shed the slightest tear over billionnairs wasting their money.

Trump signs TAKE IT DOWN law meant to stop revenge porn

"said Senator Ted Cruz"

I wonder how much personal interest TC has in this matter - especially if he has to thank Melania.

European customers report Oracle Cloud identity outage, Big Red is silent

"Big Red denied then admitted"

The typical behavior of modern "reliable" companies.

Six years to retirement.

Six.

Hang on, just hang on . . .

Good luck to Atos' 7th CEO and its latest biz transformation

"operating margin? Four percent"

If you're working on a 4% margin, change business.

You can't survive changing economic situations, and economy will change.

Automatic UK-to-US English converter produced amazing mistakes by the vanload

"Vincent Truck Gogh"

No problem.

Soon, we're going to marvel at how pseudo-AI is capable of understanding us so well.

Then, we're going to wonder why Terminator was a documentary . . .

Boffins devise technique that lets users prove location without giving it away

Re: What's the point?

If you don't have a mobile phone and you don't have an Internet connection, I would think that your level of privacy is greatly improved without having to isolate yourself in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere on top of that.

Yes, your credit card data will indicate to your bank that you spend money at gas stations and supermarkets, but your bank has no idea what it is you're buying and doesn't get the list of items, only the total, which can be made up of many different items.

And Facebook doesn't get your credit card details from your bank, so that would mean you would have to be using your Facebook account to do your shopping in which case you have no right to complain about lack of privacy.

No-boom supersonic flights could slide through US skies soon

American leadership in aviation ?

Boeing has done a great job in putting that notion to rest.

Google backs down after locking out Nextcloud Files app

My expectations are already fully managed

I expect things are going to get worse.

Microsoft winnows: Layoffs hit software engineers hard

The brilliant plan is taking its final form

First, they fired their QA department.

Then they got rid of their testing department.

Now, they're getting rid of their coders.

I have just one question left : when is Nadella and the Board going to be replaced by AI ?

Because if it is really that good, then go the whole distance.

Microsoft proposes sweeping global concessions to Teams for up to a decade

"Microsoft is offering to make a series of concessions"

No, it's not.

Redmond is deflecting the issues, giving itself time with bureaucratic drivel meant to sivert attention from its main goal which is and always has been total domination.

The only problem with that is that open source is gaining not only in momentum, but in functionality, reliability and, most importantly, trust.

Trust is a word Redmond has long forgotten in its quest to transform every Personal Computer under its control into a monthly renting contract.

What galls me the most is not that Redmond is trying this, it's that highly-paid, supposedly educated intelligent people are blindly following this program like drunken idiots.

Wake up. Your Excel charts are not worth the money you are paying.

Here's what we know about the DragonForce ransomware that hit Marks & Spencer

"off limits"

I'm sorry, you're already the bottom of the barrel. Pretending you have standards is not going to raise your status.

Go ahead and ignore Patch Tuesday – it might improve your security

Re: There are a whole lot of factors.

Possibly.

The main factor still seems to be Windows.

It remains curious to me that Microsoft is the only OS provider that is apparentley compelled to provide monthly updates. No other OS provider maintains such a regular schedule of maineance..

"organizations have controls in place to compensate for unpatched systems"

Yeah.

There are so many examples where that has worked perfectly . . .

As long as manglement is going to continue its infatuation with pretty Excel charts and Powerpoint presentations, they will not be going to Linux and they will continue being subject to wasting money on a stupid OS that has only one redeeming feature : everyone knows how to use it.

NSF director memo to staff: Don't worry about those job cuts, at least for now

"we have no funds to make awards"

I'm sorry, is your only job making awards ?

Because, in that case, I honestly fail to see what use you have.

VPN Secure parent company CEO explains why he had to axe thousands of 'lifetime' deals

"the company that acquired VPN Secure claimed it didn't know"

Not an excuse.

You didn't do your due diligence, you acquired a company and you acquired its obligations. Not knowing what its obligations were is just proof that you're incompetent.

Meta's still violating GDPR rules with latest plan to train AI on EU user data, says noyb

"delay AI innovation"

So now, innovation is the new excuse for stealing people's data.

Of course, one cannot argue against innovation, right ?

I'm going to innovate invading billionnaire's houses to take pictures of their swanky interiors. After all, I'm not stealing anything, am I ?

Somehow, I don't think they'll agree . . .

As US vuln-tracking falters, EU enters with its own security bug database

CISA said it would [publish alerts] the agency's account on X

And that is how you destroy your credibility.

Ransomware scum have put a target on the no man's land between IT and operations

Ransomware scum

That is one of the rare areas where I am willing to put "Thou shalt not kill" on hold.

Send in James Bond to find them and terminate the operation with extreme prejudice.

DOGE worker's old creds found exposed in infostealer malware dumps

"Whatever you think you've done, seriously get it checked by experts"

There's nothing like a bad experience to get you focused on what you really need to pay attention to.

Unfortunately, sometimes it's too late to recover from the problem.

You think ransomware is bad now? Wait until it infects CPUs

"if exploited by highly skilled attackers"

Well you can bet that they're looking at how to exploit that now.

And since there's no lack of highly skilled attackers, something is going to show up sooner rather than later.

Yolk's on you – eggs break less when they land sideways

"Through hundreds of experiments"

I am thrilled to learn that Science has so much time on its hands to tackle the really important problems that have plagued cooks since time immemorial.

Now all we need is a procedure to ensure that dropped eggs always land on their sides.

Maybe a dash of butter might help ?

US govt's science foundation purges 37 divisions, equity unit among casualties

"it was issued without public notice or comment and violates the law"

I'm sorry, but you voted to put a crminal in the White House and now you're complaining that he's not respecting the law ?

What exactly did you expect, that he would magically change from his first tour in the Oval Office ?

He's doing nothing new, he's just doing it more boldly since he's learned that he is nigh untouchable from behind that desk.

VC behemoth Insight Partners fears top-secret financial info swiped by cyber-miscreants

a "sophisticated social engineering attack"

Sure. This time it was a letter purporting to be from the NSA demanding the list of server logins and passwords to ensure that no server had been unduly accessed.

Information that was sent by Reply To to an address of the type "[e-mail].