Posts by Pascal Monett

Boeing-backed air taxi upstart Wisk plans to fly you across town at UberX prices by 2030

"Boeing-backed"

And that's where I get off, thank you.

Re: Almost there...

A nice little toy a tthis time.

Call me when you can fly a hundred miles, I might be interested.

Prompt engineering is a task best left to AI models

"I have no good explanation"

It is very reassuring to see that we are slowly handing over the functioning of our intelligence to something we cannot explain.

City council megaproject mulls ditching Oracle after budget balloons to £131M

So, continuing the follow-up of the disaster

Consultants at £1000/day ? Par for the course. If you want to fail spectacularly, you need those kind of guys and, especially, you need to not listen to them.

It's all well and good to blame the consultants, but when you've ignored the red flags, you can only blame yourself for the shambles that ensues.

Gelsinger splits Intel in two to advance foundry vision

A bold vision

All that administrative overhead is now going to be doubled, then. With Intel HQ sitting on top.

More minions running around, more manglement looking to seem important, and all that for a project that won't start bearing fruit before the end of this decade.

Well, can't say Gelsinger isn't boldly going forward, at the least.

Intel to be leading foundry in the West ? Why not ? We need something like that, at the very least.

Windows 11 users herded toward 23H2 via automatic upgrade

"Microsoft's intelligent ML model"

Is that model capable of ensuring that beta updates do not spill over to the production line ?

The arrogance of Redmond is limitless. Hey, Nadella, why don't you just mandate everybody hand over their credit card details and organize a weekly stipend for yourself ?

Exploiting the latest max-severity ConnectWise bug is 'embarrassingly easy'

Yeah, so nice to know that it's not an actual problem, it was done on purpose !

Australian supercomputer 'Taingiwilta' comes online this year with [REDACTED] inside

So, publishing is more attractive, but you can't

This from a woman who declares she's not paid enough for her job.

Seems to me that, if she can't keep her story straight in a public presentation she prepared, she's paid exactly what she deserves.

Italy's military mulling space-based supercomputing cloud

100TB in orbit

No problem, with the D5-P5336, an SSD that will be able to hold 61TB a pop, you can bring 4 of them in a RAID 5 config and you should have enough for storage.

Of course, the damage one single cosmic ray is going to do to that array is probably going to be epic, not to mention all that effort will likely be trashed when Putin decides to nuke Earth's lower orbit, but hey, it's the military, right ? What could possibly go wrong ?

I mean I can perfectly understand how Italy is so mind-boggingly large that it needs storage in space for its military to be able to easily communicate over those vast distances that lay between the pub and the opera.

Microsoft Publisher books its retirement party for 2026

"have a go at importing .pub files"

So, Borkzilla, how's about open-sourcing the format of the .pub file ?

Or would you be too embarrassed at what people would find ?

Eh, who am I kidding ? Redmond will never open-source anything it doesn't absolutely have to.

Neuralink patient masters mind-mouse maneuvers – if Musk is to be believed

"a troubling lack of transparency"

Well, it's His Muskiness. What do you expect ?

Europe's datacenter dilemma is that hyperscalers are hogging them all

+601MW demand last year

So, pray tell, how many solar panels do you need to satisy that demand ? And how many windmills ?

With this kind of growth increasing every year, can anyone really believe that nuclear power is not the only viable solution ?

Insider steals 79,000 email addresses at work to promote own business

Re: Safeguards

Well they can safely say that it is not a breakdown of internal procedures, since no internal procedures were actually used.

Re: You what?

Indeed. It is totally a breakdown of internal controls.

Either that, or they weren't controlling who could download the database.

Two days into the Digital Services Act, EU wields it to deepen TikTok probe

Wonder what Beijing's instructions will be

Comply just enough to placate the commission, or just pretend to comply, dither and dally, and wait for things to simmer down ?

Because Beijing is not going to retreat on its intent of perverting Europe's youth, now will it ?

LockBit ransomware gang disrupted by global operation

Re: Well done, lads!

Absolutely.

Here's hoping that hospitals will be able to breathe a bit easier now.

Vietnam to collect biometrics - even DNA - for new ID cards

"when voluntarily provided by the people"

Citizens ! Next Monday starting at 7 A.M. you will proceed to your nearest police station to voluntarily submit your DNA to the database !

We all need to do our patriotic duty for the good of the Nation, and everyone will !

Days after half a billion Asians went to the polls, Big Tech promises to counter 2024 election misinformation

Re: Big Tech at it again

Yup. It's all just mouth noises and beautiful PR until something actually technical is put on the table.

Then it becomes real and we find out if the PR was worth it (it probably won't be).

India effectively kills e-wallet used by over 300 million

Re: Scam call centres redeployed

Nah, they've already set up shop in Bangladesh, or similar.

The Call Center must go on !

How to weaponize LLMs to auto-hijack websites

Interesting point. Maybe it would be possible to harness this tool as an addendum to security checks. You set up your network, make sure you've done your best, the let loose the AI to find out what you missed and/or what you need to check.

Of course, this would mean that said AI was not on the Internet, available to all. It would have to be brought on-prem, thus deployed by contract, and only used in-house. All of which will never happen.

So it's the miscreants that are going to have fun with it.

And don't come with the "only incremental abilities" argument. It's an LLM, it's supposed to learn, isn't it ?

Could this be the true beginning of Skynet ?

Cutting-edge robot space surgeon makes first incision in Zero-G

Noticeable lag

Cutting into blood vessels. Where's the nurse with the handy sterile tissue to staunch the bleeding ?

Better not make a mistake in those conditions. Oops, I just cut an artery. It'll take two minutes to swap the scissors for the bandage. Too late . . .

Dell staff not alone in being squeezed to reduce remote work

Re: Saying you'll quit isn't the same as quitting

Agreed. Making noise on the Internet is easy, finding a new job is very much less easy. On top of that, you'll need to find a new job in your skillset at a company that is not mandating RTO and, apparently, those are getting fewer by the week.

The ultimate irony, of course, would be actually finding a new job with WFH, resigning, and being told RTO a few months later . . .

X accused of taking money from terrorists by selling checkmarks to US enemies

Once again, management by stupidity comes back to bite

Can we, once and for all, lay to rest the illusion that Musk is a business genius ?

He isn't even a capable business manager.

This whole affair is because Musk is stupid. He thinks the law does not apply to him and he can do and say what he wants.

This time, I hope he finds out that he really can't, and realizes what big doodoo he got himself in.

Apple Vision Pro units returned as folks just can't see themselves using it

So, even Apple can't get it right

History repeats itself, albeit rather more quickly this time. Instead of crowing about massive sales, then hearing a year later that nobody is buying any more and people are just meh about it, we now have massive sales, and a growing number of people who are meh and return it during the grace period.

Bad sign for the future of the product.

Apple makes it official: No Home Screen web apps in European Union

Re: Yes, you really are the product

Indeed. The fruit cart is not there to work, it's there to rake in the dough.

And rake in the dough it does, by the cargo ship load.

What it will take for Apple to actually commit to this architecture is for Android to start making a killing with it and for Apple to lose market share because of that. That would make things move.

But it will never happen, because people who buy Apple don't change, they stay Apple.

Dave's not here, man. But this mind-blowingly huge server just, like, arrived

So, he was just fired ?

No handcuffs ? No passage in front of a judge ?

The company just shut up and delivered another server, full cost to themselves. That is more than generous.

I'm guessing said company directory stayed pretty discreet in the aftermath.

Worried about the impending demise of Windows 10? Google wants you to give ChromeOS Flex a try

"hundreds of millions of Windows 10 devices are destined for landfills"

Um, I think there are still plenty of XP machines out there, chugging away (not connected to Internet, hopefully). I'm sure there are also a large amount of Win 7 machines happily doing their jobs.

It's not because Borkzilla says an OS is over that it is over.

Better to stop connecting to the Internet after a while, for sure, but current Windows 10 machines will no doubt be able to function quite well for years to come.

You might want to add a good 3rd-party antivirus, though. Good luck finding one.

There had to be one.

Twilio reminds users that Authy Desktop apps die in March – not in August

What it actually means is that the whole acquisition was a big mistake that Twilio never should have made.

The case study was not properly made and they found themselves with something they couldn't actually make any money from.

This is a big win for the guys who sold Authy and are now swimming in dosh, and a very poor showing for Twilio management who bought, and now killed, something people apparently needed because Twilio management did not properly take into account the requirements of making Authy work.

Not impressed at all.

Cisco cuts 5% of workforce amid cautious enterprise spending

"Cisco, the job cuts mean it will incur an $800 million charge"

I wonder how big the CEO's bonus will be.

Cybercriminals are stealing iOS users' face scans to break into mobile banking accounts

Re: Grow a beard to change your face

Yeah.

Thank $Deity biometrics are so secure, right ?

OpenAI shuts down China, Russia, Iran, N Korea accounts caught doing naughty things

"We disrupted five state-affiliated malicious actors"

Headline for next week : We got hacked by a super group of state-affiliated malicious actors.

WTF is 'deployment phasing'? One reason Cisco revenue just went backwards, is what

"probably in excess of 20-plus weeks of inventory"

So they have for at least four more months of stuff to install, and then what ? You think they're just going to start buying again ?

What is wrong with these people ? Companies are going to use the kit they bought, and they'll use it for a while before needing to buy more.

This problem has hardly gone away. Only new installations are going to fuel immediate growth for Cisco, so it had better pray that a wave of datacenters are being built right now, otherwise Cisco will just sit on its hands waiting for new orders.

Miscreants turn to ad tech to measure malware metrics

"ad tech to measure malware metrics"

Only fitting that the tech that legally punishing us for having the gall to want to view a web page should also be used to help miscreants find out just how well they are punishing us for being on the web in the first place.

Alaska Airlines' door-dropping flight was missing bolts

How Boeing Lost Its Way

I now have an answer

Bumblebee malware wakes from hibernation, forgets what year it is, attacks with macros

"Organizations should train users"

Yeah, they should.

But that costs money and spending money on a problem that hasn't yet happened isn't in their DNA.

They'll run around like headless chickens when they've been pwned. Then spending money will be justified.

Damn Small Linux returns after a 12-year gap

A "disagreement"

Sounds kind of sad to split a team over a disagreement. Now we have Damn Small 12 Years After, and Tiny Core.

Well, they were both competent, but they seem to both be flailing alone in the same general direction.

I'm not sure this is a benefit for everyone.

Europe loosens the straps tying Apple and Microsoft to tough antitrust rules

Google's Chrome

Chrome is a cancer. Install anything Google on your PC and you'll get Chrome whether you want it or not.

I once installed Google Earth on my home PC. The next day, Chrome's icon showed up in my task bar. After installing Google Earth and launching it, it went and installed Chrome "for" me.

I uninstalled Chrome and thought nothing more of it for the day. The next day, Chrome's icon was back in my task bar. That annoyed me immensely, so I uninstalled Chrome again and checked my Services. Sure enough, there was some service which was running and named in a way to make it clear that its job was to check that Chrome is installed. I killed that service with fire. Thinking I was finally free of the blight, I went on to do other things during the day.

The next day, that damn Chrome icon was back, along with the service. Google Earth had restored everything to Google's specification, and fuck me and my opinion on what is supposed to be running on my PC.

That is when I decided that nothing Google would ever be installed on my home PC ever again. I nuked Chrome, Google Earth and every attendant service once and for all.

Now, since I use Gmail for my professional life, I might as well use Chrome on my work laptop, so I installed Google Earth there. That laptop is already infected with Windows 1 0, so, a little more . . .

Developers

It would seem contrary to the interests of a company to treat the very people who make its platform interesting in such a money-grubbing, condescending way.

Thankfully, this decision does nothing to change how the EU considers Apple's Play Store.

US patents boss cannot stress enough that inventors must be human, not AI

the USPTO

It can talk about upholding whatever it wants, it has done nothing but undermine the very idea of patents since the beginning of the 20th century.

By never verifying prior art and letting the judicial system take care of issues, the USPTO is just a rubber stamp for multi-billion-dollar behemoths and serves no longer the ideal of the individual inventor getting recognized for an idea.

On top of that, the USPTo has long forgotten the idea that a patent could only be granted to an idea that was functionally described in full, thus, when the patent expired, others coulld pick up the idea and make use of it. Today, patents are granted on simple ideas (round corners, anyone?), and their functionality is no longer a subject of examination.

Meta says risk of account theft after phone number recycling isn't its problem to solve

So what you're saying basically is that this "security" basically guarantees that the hacker wins ?

How nice.

In any case, thank you for contributing and trying to make the world a safer place.

Unit4 software's budget bungle leaves schools counting the cost

"the new ERP software – which replaced an SAP system"

Far from me to say that SAP is the best, but if you've got something that works, why do you replace it with something else before TESTING the something else to make sure it works ?

NHS in Wales bets big on Microsoft with deal worth nearly half a billion

The countdown has started

I fully expect to read in the coming months about how yet another disastrous IT failure has happened, and that Borkzilla has now joined the ranks of Crapita and Fujitsu in never-ending contract awards that bring nothing but failure.

And, if that is indeed the case, it might be time to ask a question : if it doesn't matter who the provider is to obtain an IT project disaster, maybe the problem is not the provider ?

Re: Savings

Because they don't have developers ?

Venus has a quasi-moon and it's just been named 'Zoozve' for a sweet reason

"poses no danger to Earth"

For the moment.

Elon Musk can't wriggle out of SEC Twitter fraud inquiry

Re: An investigation isn't a sanction

Agreed.

But being an asshole publicly should definitely be sanctioned.

If only !

Angry mob trashes and sets fire to Waymo self-driving car

Okay, I'm fine with everything you say.

But psychohistory was an astounding idea, and nobody will make me think otherwise.

Ukraine claims Russian military is using Starlink

Re: "To the best of our knowledge..."

Musk, the best of your knowledge is not anything I would trust a fig leaf to.