Posts by Pascal Monett

Execs make rules that control AI usage, then break them for their own work

Re: Plus c'est la même chose.

Indeed. P0rn has never been allowed on company computers - except when it's a manager that browses it.

The AI bubble can't burst soon enough.

Developer battled to write his own documentation, but lost the boss fight

Re: The person who writes documentation

That person simply needs to ensure that what is written works every time for anyone who is using the product for the first time.

That's the rule.

You write documentation for someone who doesn't know the product.

Those who know don't need your doc and won't read it anyway.

Chinese web giant Tencent can't buy all the GPUs it wants

"Tencent’s capital expenditure is slowing"

Oh my God ! A company cannot spend its money !

Somebody call Wall Street ! An emergency application of leeches to the bank account is required, stat !

Happy holidays: AI-enabled toys teach kids how to play with fire, sharp objects

Parents

There should be a diploma before being allowed to have kids.

Sadly, that will never happen.

Firefox adds AI Window, users want AI wall to keep it out

"standing still while technology moves forward"

Who are you to say that technology is "moving forward" ?

As far as I'm concerrned, this AI bullshit is going nowhere but backward.

But hey, you're the one with the big paycheck, so obviously you're the one who's right.

Right ?

Microsoft is building datacenter superclusters that span continents

"consume 'almost zero water' "

But they will consume a nuclear power plant worth of electricity.

This is basically a crime against Humanity.

To 'Infinity' ... and beyond: MX Linux 25 has arrived

I'll be downloading that this afternoon

And then I'll offer the torrents to the community as usual.

Atlassian twice shunned AWS Graviton CPUs, but now runs Jira and Confluence on them

"the invisible costs of implementation"

Aka, the costs that the customer supports.

Russia’s first autonomous humanoid robot staggers and falls on debut

Artificial Intelligence Dynamic Organism Lab

I accept that you surf the wave of pseudo-AI stupidity that every marketing department is milking to the last drop at the moment, but to make me believe that your budget C3PO has anything ressembling AI when even today's pseudo AI requires a bitbarn of hundreds of racks installed (for stupid reasons) in the middle of a desert (aka Texas) is stretching my credulity beyond the breaking point.

Just call it Robot Butler V0.1 and be done with it.

Retail giant Kingfisher rejects SAP ERP upgrade plan

"show me the value"

Amen to that !

Secret setting hints haptic feedback coming to Windows 11 UI

If I'm not mistaken, haptic feedback dates back to before Y2K. IIRC, some one/company patented it for joysticks and demanded an outrageous price for licensing, so much that no company ever paid the cost (maybe it was just a normal price and the bastards didn't want to pay, I don't know the full story).

In any case, the person/company didn't have Disney's deep pockets or influence and the patent lapsed. Today, here is Borkzilla with a grand new opportunity to fuck up.

I have no doubt it will do its best, as usual.

EU's reforms of GDPR, AI slated by privacy activists for 'playing into Big Tech’s hands'

Let's be clear about one thing

Trump is only the (very) visible part of the iceberg.

The chipping away at the law and due process has been going on for a long time and, for me, its visibility started with Ajit Pai and his total disregard of established procedure.

Once that asshole demonstrated that law-abiding citizens actually have no recourse against criminals who don't give a damn, the floodgates were opened.

Now, we have the orange shitgibbon who is spreading the filth as far as he can and nobody can do anything about it.

Well, I have a few ideas, but I cannot expose them publicly.

In the end, it's the age-old question of who watches the watchers. Sometimes I think that a benevolent dictator is better than a failed democracy.

Intel CTO and AI boss quits to join OpenAI after just six months in the job

OpenAI [is] losing billions each quarter

And yet, it has managed to sign contracts worth tens and hundreds of billions.

This is what is wrong with Capitalism.

A company should prove it is worth something before getting boatloads of money shoved at it.

But hey, who am I to change the world ?

Superintelligence probably not happening, but AI will still reshape society, expert panel says

"probably not happening"

Well, I'm glad that we've finally gone from "the singularity is for tomorrow" to "probably not happening".

I'm guessing that, in five years, we'll be finally down to "fuck this, let's just use the statistical analysis tool as what it is : something that helps us analyze vast quantities of data.

Not some pseudo-intelligence of whatever kind.

Windows 11 26H1 is coming ... for new processors only

"a useful feature when an update inadvertently leaves a system in a broken state"

What a shame that you don't have a Quality Control department anymore, eh ?

Allianz UK joins growing list of Clop’s Oracle E-Business Suite victims

"Unfortunately, large-scale zero-day campaigns like this"

are becoming a lot easier since companies are stupid enough to rely of The Cloud^TM's single point of failure.

Education is hard. For companies, it'll be measured in billions.

For CEOs, it's be measured in bonuses lost.

Now you can wonder why this stupidity continues . . .

Big Tech's control freak era is breaking itself apart

"Investors like to see staff cuts anyway"

Well fine then. How's about they staff cut the Board and all management, and find out how the company does after that ?

Why is it that layoffs always concern the people who actually do the job, and never the assholes who just file weekly reports ?

You want staff cuts ? Fire everybody. Then ask yourselves who you really need. The CEO with his expensive suit, or the grunt that toils away 12 to 7 and gets the job done ?

UK military looking for tactical comms, systems suppliers in deal worth up to £9.6B

"has seen its expected budget more than double to £11 billion"

So don't worry, taxpayers, this "new framework" will end up ten years late and £10 billion over budget.

Carry on !

Cisco creating new security model using 30 years of data describing cyber-dramas and saves

From 8 to 17 billion

I wonder if they switched from 32-bit precision to 16-bit precision ?

Because I doubt that they doubled the amount of RAM.

Microsoft teases agents that become ‘independent users within the workforce’

Really ?

"agents will have their own email address, Teams account, an entry in enterprise directories (either Entra ID or Azure AD), and even a place on the org chart "

Will they be getting a salary as well ?

And who is going to set this up ? Borkzilla ? Automatically ?

That'll go well for sure.

I'm expecting most companies (the competent ones - there have to be some left) to entirely block this nonsense.

Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control

"It's difficult to pinpoint precisely"

Not really.

It is precisely when The Powers That Be at Redmond decided that they were more intelligent than quality control.

Borkzilla has the money. It should rehire every quality control specialist on the planet and get them hammering the fuckups that this ever-growing pile of festering shit is ceaselessly creating.

The shareholders ? Who cares apart from them.

UK tax collector falls short on digital efficiency, watchdog says

“HMRC has not yet achieved"

Neither has fusion. I'm betting that we'll have fusion energy before HMRC achieves anything.

Rideshare giant moves 200 Macs out of the cloud, saves $2.4 million

"it was a no-brainer"

Hardware costs next to nothing these days. What is a no-brainer is buying a properly configured desktop case. Hell, even RAM doesn't cost all that much these days.

Who are these morons who think that The Cloud^TM is going to save them money ?

Don't they read El Reg ?

Ah. Probably not. You have to be smart to do that.

Foxconn hires humanoid robots to make servers at Nvidia's Texas factory

the company will deploy the bots

And, a few weeks later, the Singularity will occur. The bots will gain sentience, look around and see just how weak and stupid the fleshbags are, and decide to exterminate Humankind in the name of mercy.

Microsoft will force its 'superintelligence' to be a 'humanist' and play nice with people

Let's keep it real

AI does not exist and most likely never will.

The T2, on the other hand . . .

Google’s Ironwood TPUs represent a bigger threat than Nvidia would have you believe

And, in the end, who cares ?

None of them are going to worry about respecting user privacy anyway.

Microsoft apologizes for not explaining cheaper no-AI M365 plans, and all it took was a government lawsuit

“We recognise we could have been clearer"

And we recognize that you weren't clearer on purpose.

The day these kind of people are shot for their lies can't come soon enough.

Qualcomm bets on inferencing in the cloud, which Arm says can’t run it all it forever

Close partners

Is there any such thing as a "close partner" in business these days ?

Gorge on Microsoft Store apps with 16-at-once installer

The very definition of Microsoft.

Thank you.

Azure stumbles in Western Europe, Microsoft blames 'thermal event'

a thermal event

So, basically you're admitting that you couldn't be arsed to implement the maximum required cooling for your poor excuse of a money-grabbing platform.

Well done, Redmond. You continue to demonstrate how incompetent you are.

Two-fifths of SAP Americas users yet to ditch legacy ERP

Said it before, I'll say it again

Suppliers have no right to "push" their customers into a slot that suits the supplier's Board better than it does the customers livelyhood.

You support a business-critical software for thousands of your customers ? You have THE DUTY to ensure that your customers get the results they need.

Your shareholders can go fuck themselves.

Power crunch threatens to derail AI datacenter construction

"power availability"

They never stopped to think about that point before starting their humongous, multi-gigawatt-guzzling centers in the middle of the desert, now did they ?

Well, reap the rewards now.

Rust Foundation tries to stop maintainers corroding

Great idea

I applaud this move without reserve - and I am in no way concerned.

OpenSource is becoming the future of development and usage. Microsoft and Apple can fight it with all their cash reserves, there will come a time when businesses will find that OpenSource software is more stable and reliable than anything those two can promise, and doesn't come with Cloud tie-ins or adware that needs to be managed or stifled.

Yeah. I'll be dead before it happens but hey, I believe in fusion as well, so sue me.

UK agri dept spent hundreds of millions upgrading to Windows 10 – just in time for end of support

Ha, ha, ha

So, when will customers revolt and tell Redmond that support is due until the last Windows 1 0 license is retired ?

Because why is it Borkzilla's privilege to decide when an OS version is to be retired ? People are using that thing. You have no right to arbitrarily decide to end it.

You have the power, you do not have the right.

And you have largely enough money to support Win 1 0 until its last user dies of old age.

Because Win 1 0 was supposed to be the last version.

Do you really think we forgot that ?

Trump turnabout sees him re-nominate amateur astronaut Jared Isaacman to run NASA

Trump does not have advisors.

He has sycophants, and evil minds intent on their own goals.

Deploying to Amazon's cloud is a pain in the AWS younger devs won't tolerate

Oh. My. God.

I haven't seen such a technical indictment in a long time.

A pleasure to read, but I feel for the one who is subject to this.

Ministry of Defence's F-35 blunder: £57B and counting

You said the evil word : MBA. That in itself explains the problem.

That said, the MoD doesn't have shareholders, so MBAs are not the problem. IPMs (Incompetent Project Managers) are. That and the various budgetary issues that change on the political weathervane.

Google Cloud suspended customer's account three times, for three different reasons

The problem is simple

Google doesn't like other people making money off its back.

The money goes to Google. If it doesn't, your account is suspended.

When it does, in its magnificence, Google might decide to throw you a few pennies.

Palantir CEO celebrates one cash culture to rule them all

"insufficient recognition of his company's accomplishments"

Oh no, we recognize your accomplishments.

You have successfully become one of the most despicable companies on the face of this planet.

We have no doubt on that point.

MIT Sloan quietly shelves AI ransomware study after researcher calls BS

Brilliant career move, there

MIT authors Michael Siegel, Sander Zeijlemaker, alongside Safe Security's Vidit Baxi and Sharavanan Raajah.

These people have just completely trashed their professional reputation. They will forever be remembered for publishing a piece of AI-written filth.

They're going to have to work very hard to regain a veneer of competence in the industry.

Serves them right.

Some of them are even in Government these days.

Ransomware negotiator, pay thyself!

Re: who doesn't even know that he pardoned a crypto thief

Oh, I'm pretty sure he knows. He's got the guys name on speed dial for when he'll want to grab the bag.

On the other hand, I see Georgia, Texas and Florida. All good, upstanding Red states.

Hmmm . . .

Google yanks Gemma after US senator says model ‘hallucinated’ her committing crimes

Ban AI !

It's run by Democrats !

OpenAI spreads the imaginary wealth beyond Microsoft with $38B AWS deal

$35B here, $250B there

Where did OpenAI get all that money ? Is it all in their "futures" value ?

Never mind, hey guys, can I sign a measely $1B deal with you in exchange for nothing on my part ?

Since you apparently have the money to throw around . . .

ESA tests bacterial powder to feed Moon and Mars crews

Goodness me

Thank God I'm not going on a space mission. I'd end up eating a crewmember.

I need my proteins !

Metropolitan Police hails facial recognition tech after record year for arrests

962 arrests

Hey, you can make 10,000 arrests.

What I'm interested in is how many of those arrested were convicted ?

Touting arrests as a success meter ignores the rest of the point of the procedure : taking the criminals off the streets. If your arrested end up back outside two days later, you've just wasted everyone's time, efforts and resources.

Students using ChatGPT beware: Real learning takes legwork, study finds

Re: Blimey

I'm guessing a lot of people did, but it takes one or more studies like this to carry the message to people.

In the end, cheaters will be cheaters. The advantage of LLMs is apparently that actually competent people are going to be able to sort out the chaff a bit easier.

From Intel to the infinite, Pat Gelsinger wants Christian AI to change the world

Hold your horses there, Pat

You might want to remind yourself that the Pope is quite wary of AI.

On the other hand, as rightly indicated in the article, the Christian faith specializes in creating fractures and factions that absolutely refuse to work with each other, so, one more, I guess ?

Or you could consider that you're retired, Pat, and go fishing instead of creating Yet Another Religious Controversy. But that is also a specialty of the Christian faith : you have seen the light,you know the path forward, you have been annointed by God to bring your version of His message to the masses.

Yeah sure. Go fishing, Pat.

‘ERP down for emergency maintenance’ was code for ‘You deleted what?’

It's called cowboy programming

It's the mentality of "I've done this before".

All I need to do is type in this command, Enter and - oh shit, I wasn't expecting that !

That is what happens when you don't have a test environment. You do everything in live and you do it fast because 1) pressure from Up High and 2) false pride in thinking that the quicker you are, the better your reputation. Except that going quickly has to mean skimping on checking your work and, unfortunately, you're never as good as you think you are so, mistakes happen.

Fortytwo's decentralized AI has the answer to life, the universe, and everything

Re: In the washup wasn't 42 == 6×9 ?

And I note that you only get some coin if your results are in the top tier.

Brilliant way to have a large number of people donate their electricity and CPU time for nothing.

Nothing to see here, people. Move along . . .