Posts by Pascal Monett 18910 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007
Well how about going "back" to Linux ? Try Mint, it's a rather easy start for an ex-Windows user.
I should know, I'm transitioning at the moment.
However, the problem is the the OS in itself, the problem is the applications you need to use. If you're in the graphics industry you use Apple and there is nothing comparable AFAIK either on Windows or on Linux, so you have to stick with Apple.
Well yes : the Feds bought some of their goods, so they got a few letters and traced the postage. Given that the guys had made the mistake of taking an account in one of their real names and addresses, they knew who and where to look.
It's not always a conspiracy, this is actual police work. It's what they are paid for.
With NoScript and UBlock Origin. It's the only way to be sure.
That said, I learned today in another article that Brave is a browser with ad blocking that is actually integrated into the browser itself, and it's pretty damn fast. I tried it on my smartphone and I'm quite happy about it.
Yeah. Seems like expensive lessons are the ones best learned. Again.
What a shame that there's not a body of information that could have warned just how important it is to have control over one's power supply. Especially in an industrial environment that is time-critical.
I mean, gosh, it's not like power cuts have ever happened before, right ?
How come all of a sudden we have an important company that says that face recognition tech is not reliable enough ?
I seem to recall a slew of articles this year touting how FR is being implemented in plenty of places, mostly airports, and there were glowing articles about them.
Is all that a bunch of malarky then ? Or have I somehow unknowingly been Fringed into a parallel universe where reality is suddenly better ?
Or did someone patch the Matrix ?
Right with you there, no Steam, no deal.
Steam is the only platform that respects my hardware, my time and my money. All of the others try various things to lock my PC down to what their idea is it should be, and if anything changes then poof ! away go my games and I can re-download everything.
In the worst case scenario, even a simple update can do that (glaring at you EA).
So yeah, if it's not on Steam, to me it does not exist.
Instead of trying to find a new name every week, let's just convene that the week's On Call guy is Brian and the week's Who Me guy is, I don't know, George or something.
In other words, just keep the same name every week, that way you can just start the column by "This week's Brian tells us about how . . ."
What do you think ?
It is not the intent that is the problem, it is who is using it and for what. Whatever the intent was initially, it can be used to, for example, keep tabs on people who are not happy about the program and dig up dirt on them to shut them up.
It would be a very large deviation from what I do sincerely believe the NSA wants to do, ie protect US citizens, but it is possible that part of NSA activity has to do with things that have nothing to do with the protection of US citizens.
The fact that the NSA is consistently lying about its activities with the straightest of face is not very reassuring either.
I love how that question really demonstrates how the term AI has been degraded. If it were AI, it would be conscious.
So they know that they are just slapping a trendy moniker on a statistical analysis machine, then they smoke a joint and start believing that statistics can become sentient.
Well, they are politicians, after all.
Maybe so, but at least this time it is based on actual data - whether you like the data or not, it is not just an article accusing without any basis.
Bloomberg did the FUD and never backed it up. Here is proof - of something. There are obviously many people here that can analyze this way better than me, but I'm just glad that someone has made an actual study based on actual data, and not just ran screeching through the streets that Huawei is dangerous.
The most obvious thing about that statement is that, indeed, you are no expert.
Blockchain does not scale. Implementing a blockchain-based solution on something that has to deal with tens of thousands of "transactions" per day, well let's just say that I would love to see a border control app based on blockchain - well, I would love to see the interminable queues, the travelers bored to tears, the officials wringing their hands and repeatedly leaking to the press that the whole thing is a hopeless mess.
That was the first mistake. Come on, the amount of storage is not something to base your difference on, at least not by that much. Unlimited says what it means, and it is blindingly obvious that it was only a question of time before that offer was tested.
I think the marketing department is to blame there. They brainstormed and had meetings and drinks and . . okay, maybe not cocaine on prostitute butts, but still, they tried to find something to make a difference and they found "unlimited storage". What could possibly go wrong ?
I'm pretty sure every engineer involved was screaming bloody murder at the prospect but hey, marketing rules the roost, right ? That is, until the shit hits the fan, at which point Marketing immediately points to Engineering and says it has nothing to do with the problem.
Riiiight.
Not really. Today our society is practically based on the Internet. Whatever is not yet there is going there, and whoever is not on it is increasingly being pushed there, sometimes by their own government (online tax declaration, anyone ?).
Those bits traveling over the wire have a specific function, to query some data that will orient the user to a specific site. That cornerstone of the Internet is how we access the web pages we think we want - which means it is the ideal point of control for a government that wants power over what its citizens can see.
It is exactly like the government controlling what is told in the news on TV and the dead tree network, especially back when the Internet did not exist. It's a reflex for any government, let alone one that likes control.
Yes he would have. The thing is, he wasn't smart, he was just ideally positioned. His theft was an opportunistic one. The fact that there was no one to control his acts is the deciding factor, I think. He saw all that money, realized that he could do whatever he wanted, and did so.
In doing that, he was setting himself up for his own downfall. When you become a high roller, the mundane precautions of staying inconspicuous become grating before very long. Sooner or later, he would have wanted to drive a Ferrari, and people would have started asking questions. Sooner or later, someone would have wanted their money, and his troubles would start.
He would have been caught.
Nonsense. Now that they know, they will be preparing against. How they will prepare I have no idea, but the first step is rather obvious : control all VPN connections and make sure they're all legit. Then, I'm guessing, go and forbid VPN connections on all computers that shouldn't have it, for example with a firewall or something.
And using the David vs Goliath reference is rather poor form - David won, and David is supposed to be the telcos.
That was fine before this because there was no reason to become compatible. Ease of use does not include being friendly with the competition.
But now, apparently, things have changed. If this new Thread does what it says on the tin, the enterprise market is going to flock to it and the home market will have to follow because manufacturers are not going to bother with one protocol for business and one for home. That would be a useless hassle.
And if that happens, then the upcoming versions of Nest, Ring and Homekit are going to have to be compatible or they will not sell well.
It's as if Apple was forcing the use of TokenRing - yeah, it works, but everyone is using Ethernet these days, so Apple would be restricting itself to a very slim margin of the market. If Thread 1.2 fulfills its promises, then the others will just have to get in line.
And that will be a good thing for everyone.
Yes, but it is also a way to guarantee quality, which does not seem to be part of DXC's goal any more.
Also, letting an engineer go to hit financial targets ? Of all the dumb reasons to fire someone, that one has to take the cake. It indicates without a shadow of doubt what really matters at DXC.
Another rotten place to work at.
Agreed. Hotdesking is always a joy for me, because nobody prepares a desk even if they know I'm coming since a week before. So it's always "Where do I sit ?" and a half-hour wait being paid to watch them scurry around trying to find a desk. Then, of course, there is the time wasted to walk from my desk to the guy I'm working with to clarify points or request data, then there's the time wasted to go find the manager and keep him updated, etc...
So, sometimes I'm being paid to walk around for half a day. If there's really a lot of work, that means I come back another day and we start all over again.
Although the ire is strong - and I share it - in the end, it won't really matter. Google will force ads on Chrome, and users mindful of their privacy and security will stop using Chrome.
Right now those same users, a small portion very likely, are blocking ads, so Google isn't "serving" them. Losing those users to another browser that allow ad-blockers won't make a dent to Google since, for all intents and purposes, they are already out of Google's ad space.
So, by all means, let us rant and vent - but we know how this is going to end.
So they are retaliating. The cyber war is hot right now. I wonder who is getting caught in the crossfire.
Because the hacker may have taken control of innocent PCs and servers. Burning them down is going to inconvenience the hacker, but it is going to seriously bother the people who have no idea why their machine is borked.
If you manage to catch a fire when it is just starting, you likely have a good chance of stopping it without much risk - with the proper equipment, of course.
However, we're talking seconds, here. If the fire has had more than a minute to get going, you're most likely not going to succeed in putting it out and you're taking a much bigger risk. If the fire has been going for five minutes or more, just get out and call the fire department.
"they claim Autonomy people sold them a false position"
Well, HP is guilty of buying a house based on nice pictures without ever bothering to go set foot in said house before writing the check.
As I've said before, if you or I did that, the judge would throw us out in an instant, but because it's HP, everyone is wasting time on this.
You got conned because you didn't do your job. Own it and move on.
"the merchants can identify which individuals purchased what, and the city can identify which individuals traveled where and when"
Not if the individuals pay in cash - which is likely happening less and less what with all the phone payment and contactless stuff that is happening these days. But honestly, you can't blame the merchant for recording the fact that you bought something, nor can you blame the city for recording the fact that you used its transport system. What I mind very much is somebody going all Big Data on the two different data sets, and this tool (in beta and forever will be until it is dropped, as usual for Google) allows for that.
What I would accept more readily is the city gives it a try and asks the merchants to tell it if they had a better day because of it. Nobody is messing with anybody else's data and they still get the answer.
This is just another excuse to hook up third-party data, and I am against that by principle.
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