* Posts by Pascal Monett

18221 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007

NASA and ESA take a close look at Europe's International Habitation Module

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Bet this never flies.

I hope not.

Zero-Gee science is indispensible for furthering our knowledge of metals and biotechnology. At least, I'm convinced it is. So we need to have a permanent base in orbit, so as to do Science (yes, with a capital S), as well as serve as a launchpad for missions that go beyond low orbit - which we need for our knowledge of the Universe.

So I do hope that there will be a successor to the ISS - one not managed and owned by China, for example.

But I can only hope.

Recycling old copper wires could be worth billions for telcos

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"should they take the trouble to recycle them"

Why bother ?

Copper thieves have been taking care of that for a decade already . . .

Telcos are not renowned for proper management of their hardware anyway, now are they ?

Google to push ahead with Chrome's ad-blocker extension overhaul in earnest

Pascal Monett Silver badge

I really don't care about what corporate does in its own space. Corporate has money, and it is responsible for its own decisions.

The US education market is a joke anyway.

For the rest, intelligent, knowledgeable users will know how to manage Chrome in a suitable way. And that includes Firefox users, however much you seem to look down on 3% of the market.

Personally, I don't mind being part of the 3%. NoScript is a blessing.

Thanks for coming to help. No, we can't say why we called – it's classified

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

You think I'm impressed by your bullshit ?

Can't access actual data, don't have any unclassified test data to test on.

What do want me to do, wave a magic wand ?

Do you know that I don't actually need to see the data to be able to test it ? No ?

Why am I not surprised . . .

Dell predicts 20 percent jump in memory and SSD prices later this year

Pascal Monett Silver badge

So, ya hear ?

Time to buy is now ! Come and get it before the price hike !

Our managers will appreciate their bonuses . . .

OpenAI is very smug after thwarting five ineffective AI covert influence ops

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"sowing distrust"

Thanks, but AFAIC, Facebook (and social media in general) has already taken that crown.

California's Governor Newsom is worried AI will be smothered in regulation

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Flame

Go ahead and stifle

There are, IMO, very few pseudo-AI projects that actually bring benefit to the user.

There are many pseudo-AI projects that can easily harm people. Deepfakes started the landslide, and we now have the means of faking not only image, but sound as well.

And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to use these "tools".

So yes, go ahead and stifle innovation before lives are destroyed by this monstrosity.

US Treasury says NFTs 'highly susceptible' to fraud, but ignored by high-tier criminals

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Oh yes it was, and anyone with a brain saw that immediately.

Tesla slams advisors for not loving Musk's $44.9B payout

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"it's curious that the firm is only quoted by the sentence"

No, it's perfectly normal.

When you want to cherry-pick and misrepresent what you wish to argue against, that is.

IT worker sued over ‘vengeful’ cyber harassment of policeman who issued a jaywalking ticket

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

"It ruined his life"

It bloody well should.

Even if you believe that your ticket was unjust, that does absolutely not excuse a campaign of privacy-invading slander and trouble.

Evidence mounts that Venus has multiple active volcanoes

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

Okay, true, but I find it a bit disheartening to learn that we've had this data since 1994 and only now is someone looking at it.

Hey, Science ! There's stuff to find ! Start looking at what we've already got !

Google’s in-house docs about search ranking leak online, sparking SEO frenzy

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Irony

Thy name is now Google.

MIT professor hoses down predictions AI will put a rocket under the economy

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

Wouldn't it be hilarious

if Gartner, Goldman Sachs and all those "visionaries" ware replaced by AI.

I would just love to their faces . . .

PayPal is planning an ad network built off your purchase history

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

Remind me : Musk has been thrown out of PayPal, right ?

So who are the assholes who think this is a good idea ?

Thank God my PayPal account is defunct.

Microsoft's Recall preview doesn't need a Copilot+ PC to run

Pascal Monett Silver badge

What ?

"Microsoft has in the past been criticized for releasing software with artificially inflated requirements "

That may be true of its applications, but as far as Windows is concerned, Redmond has systematically deflated the requirements.

Windows 7 on 8 GB of RAM ? No. You need 16GB to function, 32GB to be comfortable.

Unless, of course, you haven't got the faintest idea of how a computer works and are content with a snail's pace and massive disk swapping.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: No

Agreed.

And, for the times I really can't remember where I stored a file, Everything(*) has me covered.

Don't need no pseudo-AI bullshit.

* : no, I don't have any shares - I just like how it works instantly the way Windows Search never has and still doesn't

Will Windows drive a PC refresh? Everyone's talking about AI

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

"vendors are searching for something else"

Of course they are. PC hardware has hit a wall - it does its job fine now for basic tasks, and only the rare people who need to do more than check their mail, type a letter or two and watch YouTube are going to want more power.

Those who want more power are not going to appreciate that power being gobbled up by some artificial stupidity that only serves to rape their private lives even further.

But what vendors see is that the pixel/MHz/CPU cores/DRAM speed/etc are all arguments that the public doesn't give a shit about any more. We have enough power for our daily lives.

So the magical pixie dust is now called AI, and it has to be spread over everything.

Let's not mention that Cortana has actually been abandoned by Redmond . . . it would spoil the dream.

A thump with the pointy end of a screwdriver will fix this server! What could possibly go wrong?

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Thumb Up

"he was able to stitch the machine back together"

Yeah, because in those days, you could.

Good show, old chap.

Man behind deepfake Biden robocall indicted on felony charges, faces $6M fine

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"an unapologetic Kramer"

Great news. Bang him jail, then. If he doesn't care about what he knowingly illegally did, he should pay for it big time.

'Little weirdo' shoulder surfer teaches UK cabinet minister a lesson in cybersecurity

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

Finally a good idea !

Bad vibrations left techie shaken up during overnight database rebuild

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Those dot-matrix printers really could shake up a storm

I remember the page-feed printers from way back when I was a wee operator. When someone launched a rather intensive print, they could end up visibly shaking from side to side as the print head moved along and swung violently back.

No wonder they were so heavy. If HP were making them today, they would literally shake themselves apart.

Japan's space agency enlists train operator's AI to foresee in-orbit failures

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Why not ?

If they have something that is actually working, then why not apply it to another domain where it could be useful ?

It's not because it's called AI that it is automatically useless, after all. I'm sure Nippon scientists are going to make it work and, when they do, it will certainly be beneficial for all satellites. Corporate secrets (or National Security) aside, I'm sure every satellite managing company would like to have advanced warning of when things might go wrong.

China reveals space weather radar it claims represents a breakthrough

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Overenthusiastic PR?

Is it really impossible for Chinese scientists to have made a breakthrough ? No.

To be fair, given the number of high-profile scientific breakthroughs announced by China that have proven to be nothing but damp squib, there is a good chance that this be another one but still, they just might have made a genuine discovery.

Or this is just another round of playground "mine is bigger than yours" politics.

Time will tell.

VBScript nudged nearer to the grave with next big Windows 11 update

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Javascript instead of VBscript

Wow, that's going to make all those Excel sheets reeaally easy to change . . .

Brit council fumbles Oracle Fusion launch, leaving SAP to die another day

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"Oracle remains a suitable product for the Council"

Oh, but of course. Let us ignore the omnishambles that is happening now and maintain a stiff upper lip, shall we ?

There's no stronger determination than that of avoiding recognition of failure.

Utter. Abysmal. Failure.

UK data watchdog wants six figures from N Ireland cops after 2023 data leak

Pascal Monett Silver badge

The overall cost

As long as it's just in money, it's not too bad.

If we start counting bodies, it will have gotten infinitely worse.

I stumbled upon LLM Kryptonite – and no one wants to fix this model-breaking bug

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

So,

What's the prompt ?

Would you buy Pegasus spyware from this scammer?

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"allegedly made four sales in two days"

He'd better make good on the code, because entities willing to shell out that kind of money are also likely willing to exact retribution if the product is not up to the promise.

And I'm not talking about a lawsuit . . .

Read AI about it... OpenAI does deal with News Corp

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Nice words

"Together, we are setting the foundation for a future where AI deeply respects, enhances, and upholds the standards of world-class journalism"

Love the idea. Now all we need is to find some world-class journalism.

News outlets today are owned by billionnaires who shape the news and the way it is broadcast. Gone are the days when the news was actual news, with facts and nothing but. Today it's all about shaping the message. Facts are carefully selected. Not everything is said, and some things are said without proper sourcing (which doesn't keep those things from being repeated).

John Deere now considers VMs to be legacy tech, Ethernet and Wi-Fi on the brink

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Nothing pulls like a Deere...

Sometime in the far future, the human stellar empire will have entire specially-formatted agricultural planets run on JohnDeer automated machines, providing pesticide-free crops to all of Humanity.

But that ain't today. Today, we only have Earth, and it has not yet been terraformed for John Deer.

I'm not sure this is the future we're looking for.

Giving Windows total recall of everything a user does is a privacy minefield

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: How much data stored?

Just did a test on my laptop. Screen is 1920 x 1080. JPG compression is set to 75%. Resulting file size is 250KB (using Paint.net).

My home PC has two screens, both which are much larger in pixel weight. I'm guessing that that GB limit would be reached way before noon.

Don't want it. Period.

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

"a snapshot of a user's active screen every few seconds"

I'm starting to regret the days where 640KB was enough for everyone.

Starlink offers 'unusually hostile environment' to TCP

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: WFH Work From Home

Nice to know that in one specific case it is working well. I'm happy for your father.

The engineer has to concern himself with global usefulness, not just specific cases, and I find his remarks insightful, although I am definitely not in any way associated with the industry.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

You might want to communicate that analysis to Broadcom.

They seem to be preferring the sexy kind of events . . .

Microsoft smartens up Edge for Business with screenshot blocking, logo branding, more

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Don't worry. Hospitals are way down near the end of the list of companies that Redmond wants to be useful to.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Safeguarding .?

How about everything ?

Two weeks ago, Alibaba Cloud bragged its AI was soaring. Now it's slashing prices

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"often after being named and shamed for needing to do so"

Ah, if only El Zuck had any shame . . .

Atos delays sign-off on 2023 finances as it weighs restructure offers

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"an anchor investor"

So, we have activist investors, and now we have anchor investors.

An anchor is a heavy metal object destined to keep a ship from moving, so I guess an anchor investor is a deep pockets kind with plenty of cash. Except that, it only needs cash to buy shares. Is Atos expecting an investor to lend money as well ?

No matter. Why aren't there any activist investors lining up ?

Oh, I forgot. Atos is already on the brink of bankruptcy. There's not much left for activists to plunder.

Silly me.

CIO who dropped VMware 18 months ago now feeling thoroughly chuffed

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Wells Fargo

In all fairness, those critters do have a tendancy to multiply like they were promiscuous or something.

With ransomware whales becoming so dominant, would-be challengers ask 'what's the point?'

Pascal Monett Silver badge
WTF?

"Zero days were especially prevalent"

Um, am I supposed to understand that they're not anymore ?

Because I think they still are.

Tesla's oldest factory ignites another headline by catching fire

Pascal Monett Silver badge

So, shareholders

You still intent on granting billions to the man-child ?

DoJ, ByteDance ask court: Hurry up and rule on TikTok ban already

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"see you in (Supreme) court"

Yeah. With all Trump's cronies sitting there, I really have no idea how that will go . . .

Really? A sarcasm detector? Wow. You shouldn't have

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"pitch, speaking rate, and energy"

Okay, pitch, no problem. That is purely mathematical and easy to determine.

Speaking rate, no problem there either.

Energy ? How is that qualified ? Someone screaming at the top of their lungs makes a lot of noise, to be sure, but someone looking you in the eye at less than a meter from you with a gun in their hand pointed towards you can softly say "DON'T. MOVE.", and there will be a heck of lot of energy in there that I don't see a computer detecting . . .

Slack tweaks its principles in response to user outrage at AI slurping

Pascal Monett Silver badge
WTF?

"emoji recommendations" ?

You're using a power-guzzling, GPU-enhanced platform to make emoji recommendations ?

Please shut that shit down forthwith and bend over while I administer a sound Oxford-prefect beating to your lilly-white behind to educate you in what is acceptable as far as ML is concerned.

British Library's candid ransomware comms driven by 'emotional intelligence'

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Impressive

Totally agreed.

I wonder what kind of sad idiot downvoted you.

So you've built the best tablet, Apple. Show us why it matters

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

"they're also keenly aware that it takes away privacy"

I beg to differ.

I am not at all convinced that people are "keenly aware" of the violation of their privacy. I will barely acknowledge that people are aware of it at all.

Because, if people were so keenly aware, they would stop with Facebook, block Google at every turn and campaign for their rights to be respected at the legal level.

I'm not seeing that happening.

Yes, there are people who are aware. For starters, all of those who, like me, do not have social media account. I can phone or mail my firneds, I don't need a life-raping platform to help me stay in touch.

But those are far from the majority, otherwise we wouldn't be talking about Facebook, Tik-Tok, Instagram et al.

So no. People are certianly not "keenly aware".

Techie invented bits of the box he was fixing, still botched the job

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Same here.

I started my career in computing as an operator on a Bull DPS 9. The night shift was where we were doing most of the disk swapping because that's when the accounting packages ran.

I moved on to programming after that.

Underwater datacenters could sink to sound wave sabotage

Pascal Monett Silver badge

So, sound waves can be a problem

Could they not be mitigated by putting the racks on vibration-damping supports ?

They did that for NORAD in the Rocky Mountains, I'm sure it would cost much less in a simple bit barn(acle).

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Please do not give too much thought to Trump's hatred of anything.

Remember the caravans ?

As soon as his election was done, they disappeared.

Surprising, isn't it ?

First LockBit, now BreachForums: Are cops winning the war or just a few battles?

Pascal Monett Silver badge

i agree completely with hard prison sentences for this kind of scum.

I'm just not convinced that any Russian national is going to give up one of his compatriots to the country that has been Russia's enemy since the Cold War.

Would you give up some hacker you knew to Xi Ping ?

Plus : a reward in dollars isn't going to be much of an incentive to a Russian, these days . . .