Posts by Pascal Monett

Thank you, Reg Readers: On Call has turned 500!

There's always a sourpuss.

China’s quantum* crypto tech may be unhackable, but it's hardly a secret

Very interesting article

These days all you hear about is quantum, AI and financial scams cryptocurrency.

And you rarely ever hear any bad things about the first two.

It's good to learn that there are still pie-in-sky ideas that can be shot down by any person with a sane mind aware of the requirements.

Now that I have learned the requirements of QKD, I will know to not be impressed by the next snake-oil prophet that tries to pull a fast one.

Thumbs up from me for this article.

I don't know what pressing Delete will do, but it seems safe enough!

Re: the time saved [..] will be repaid ten thousandfold

To be sure, except that repayment will not go into Redmond's ample coffers, so why bother ?

I don't know what it will take, but it took over three decades of Windows bugs and snafus to get the DOD to politely hint that enough was enough, so it'll be a while yet before the principle of defensive programming is applied generally (I would say that proper explanatory popups should be included in that method).

AI giants pinky swear (again) not to help make deepfake smut

"non-consensual deepfake pornography"

So I gather that there is consensual deepfake pornography.

What is that ? Is that when some guy (because of course it's a guy) takes an image with a pornstar and deepfakes his wife's head on it ?

Because if it's not that, then I can't image what consensual deepfake pornography is.

Could somebody educate me ?

As Oracle's AWS deal completes Big 3 triumvirate, questions remain over licensing

"a more proximal arrangement"

Wow. Talk about anthropomorphisizing stuff.

Oh, now I get it : an arrangement that suits Oracle's belly button bottom line ?

Sure. Why didn't you say so ?

UK watchdog fears Voda-Three merger will balloon phone bills for customers

"a detailed rebuttal"

If they had a detailed rebuttal ready then they will be ready to publicly proclaim that their prices will not go up for the next ten years.

Right ?

Yeah, thought so . . .

Muppet broke the datacenter every day, in its own weighty way

Re: This kind of semi-random, intermittent error is such a pain to diagnose

Now that is eagle-eyed diagnostics !

OpenAI's latest o1 model family tries to emulate 'reasoning' – tho might overthink things a bit

"capable of emulating complex reasoning"

So, AI is not actually intelligent, it's just pretending to be ?

Thank you for the admission.

Japan to put a small red Swedish house on the Moon

"a small red house on the surface of the Moon"

I wonder how long it will take for that small red house to be completely bleached by the Sun's endless radiation.

Cambodian senator sanctioned by US over alleged forced labor cyber-scam camps

"a romance scam compound"

Dear me. As if cryptocurrency wasn't enough of a warning, they now have romance boot camps ?

Are people really that desperate for companionship ?

Send in the asteroid, please . . .

Australia’s government spent the week boxing Big Tech

"off limits until kids turn 16"

I'm absolutely OK with that idea.

I have just one question : how is a kid supposed to prove that he/she is 16+ ?

As far as I know, no country delivers ID cards to anyone that is not a legal adult in that country, and that generally means 18.

So ?

Boeing to launch quantum comms satellite testbed in 2026

Baby steps

We are slowly progressing towards the HoloNet.

It doesn't matter that it is Boeing that is involved, it's the science that is important. If Boeing screws up true to form, someone else will pick up the job and continue.

For this, I'm ready to wish Boeing good luck.

Google Chrome gets a mind of its own for some security fixes

On my smartphone I use Brave

The interdiction of ads has saved me a lot of bandwidth, and time.

FCC boss starts bringing up Musk's Starlink dominance, antitrust concerns

More competition ? More constellations ?

More tens of thousands of stuff orbiting in LEO and clogging up the night sky ?

I'm not sure we need that. Besides, SpaceX has competition in the Internet space. I don't need it, I have fiber. Starlink may be the only space-based Internet provider, but it is an Internet provider, and there are a number of those in almost every country.

EU kicks off an inquiry into Google's AI model

"The DPC is concerned about whether Google fully complied with its [..] (DPIA)"

Hint : it did not.

NASA engineers play space surgeon in bid to unclog Voyager 1's arteries

Nothing but respect

I have a deep respect for the engineers and technicians at NASA, but one day, people, one day Voyager I is going to die.

Your continued admirable, nay, legendary, service to this bit of equipment that has already surpassed ever possible limit is no less than astonishing, but we all have to face the facts : one day, there will no more response.

Meanwhile, I bow before your dogged determination to keep things working.

You are the best, and that's an understatement.

Nvidia CEO to nervous buyers and investors: Chill out, Blackwell production is heating up

Demand will crater and NVidia will have to find something else to bolster sales. And ?

Pokémon GO was an intelligence tool, claims Belarus military official

"members of the military should exercise caution"

That goes for the basic smartphone as well.

Healthcare giant to pay $65M settlement after crooks stole and leaked nude patient pics

"The healthcare group [..] denied any wrongdoing"

You did wrong.

You didn't adequately protect your customers' data, you failed to do what you could to keep it from being published, and you chuckled when proposing the usual after-the-fact "protection" (okay, we all know it's useless, but still . .).

I am insanely annoyed by this by-the-book refusal to recognize failure by corporate USA. You have no right to say you did nothing wrong, just like a cat who just threw up on the carpet has no right to deny it.

You should be fined just for that.

Domo arigato, Mr Roboto: Japan's bullet trains to ditch drivers

An obvious step forward

In Paris there are metro lines without a driver now. It has been like that for a few years already. A train, technically, is just a metro with longer times between stops. In the metro in Paris, they are upgrading stations to build barriers between the tram and the people, so as to guarantee that people won't be able to suicide themselves by jumping in front of an incoming tram. Obviously, an actual train will not have that kind of protection, much less a high-speed one, but it would seem that there are a lot less people who jump in front of trains rather than trams. No idea why. In any case, I think automating trains is a good idea, because I know that train drivers on France's TGV are basically button-pushers. They have to press a button every minute to prove that they are awake.

There are apparently more interesting jobs out there . . .

Research suggests more than half of VMware customers are looking to move

"I think it's a shame that it's profits over anything else nowadays"

Welcome to the world of MBAs.

SpaceX blasts being stuck in bureaucratic orbit as Starship approval slips

No, really ?

So you paid a ransom demand … and now the decryptor doesn't work

Sounds like it is time to polish your CV.

A project manager who has already decided that backups are a nuisance is a danger to the company and will make it fail at the worst possible time (as if there were any other time).

Windows 11 users still living in the past face forced update, like it or not

You will do as you are told

We are the owners of your PC. We know better.

Submit and comply.

How $20 and a lapsed domain allowed security pros to undermine internet integrity

Re: someone may still be using them

I've heard that argument more times than I care to count.

Kill the server. Wait for complaints.

Online media outstrips TV as source of news for the first time in the UK

"TV remains more trusted news source"

Nope. Not any more. TV news is just the official government source.

If you want the truth, nowadays, you have to look for it, and the only place to look is now the Internet.

I'm not happy about that, but one must never forget that "news" is presented on stations that belong to some billionaire or another, and those guys have multiple agendas, none of which include telling you the truth.

Microsoft exec warns of business functions being sacrificed on the altar of AI

Re: The reason we use it so much is that is is better than man

Apparently, it isn't.

But it is trendy.

For the moment.

AI has colonized our world – so it's time to learn the language of our new overlords

"Best to just suck it up and master Delvish"

I don't know about that. I'm not sure an LLM datacenter can last long when confronted with a few strategically-placed packs of C4.

If that's what it takes, that's what we'll do. After all, datacenters are not T2s. We can beat them easily.

Medical cannabis CTO says vendors would hang up when he called looking for a deal

Oh, it's Australia

Of course it's fucked up then. That's standard and practically mandatory.

Robot enters Fukushima's nuclear core to retrieve melted-down remains

"radioactive hybrid terror pigs"

That sounds like a perfect mob for the next horror game.

Wanna watch a movie? Sure! Lemme just park the lounge room

"fulfill the dream of having one more room"

That must be a purely Japanese problem. I have enough rooms in my house, I don't need to buy a mobile one.

That being said, the day we do get 100% fully secure self-driving vehicles, I would probably not mind one where I can watch something during the trip, since I won't have to pay attention to the road.

Oh, and I don't mean watch ads, Ford.

Microsoft says it broke some Windows 10 patching – as it fixes flaws under attack

"this may break dual-boot system"

What a surprise.

Oracle wants to power 1GW datacenter with trio of tiny nuclear reactors

"pilot projects have not gone well"

Why ? What have the problems been ? How many pilots have there been ?

I'd like a bit more info on that. Until we get actual fusion, I am convinced that nuclear (preferably Thorium) is the way to go. So what are these SMRs based on and why is it apparently so hard to get them working on land when they are working fine in nuclear submarines ?

The future everyone wanted – in-car ads tailored to your journey and passengers

Disabling ? What makes you think you'll be able to ?

ServiceNow moves its backend off MariaDB to homebrew Postgres

the "Pro" version of the database

If I were a customer, I would demand a demonstration on my data before giving up the money.

27 times faster when pulling reports ? I would want to see that for myself.

I hope ServiceNow has something of a solution for that.

Oracle reports rising top line as it hooks up database service to AWS

"When people are actually doing things manually, it's a security risk"

I'm sure the BOFH agrees. When no one is on the network, the network is much more secure.

Top EU court crushes Google appeal against $2.65B Shopping antitrust ruling

You really to go back to where you belong : Twitter.

Down and out: Aegon's pension pothole and TfL's mystery 'maintenance'

"But two weeks to fix?"

That is the question.

Two weeks means regular maintenance has not been performed. It means competent people have left, and documentation has not been recorded. It means that corporate knowledge has been lost. Or it means that you never paid attention beyond "now it's working".

Now, you have to play catch up.

Good luck with that.

Malaysia's plan to block overseas DNS dies after a day

"It has been falsely claimed"

It is disturbing to see that governments the world over are now prone to attacking the validity of a claim instead of proving any wrong (or justifying their position).

A government states that it wants to block DNS. Citizens claim that that is a bad idea.

That is not a false claim. It is a perfectly legitmate claim and, if the idea had any actual justification, you would not have backtracked a mere day after making the claim.

We're in the brute force phase of AI – once it ends, demand for GPUs will too

"Generative AI is"

A humongous fucking bubble that brings in VC funding and guarantees a fat golden parachute . . for now.

Sounding the end times on that is a good thing.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be gone in ten years – for chump change

"Curbing their spread feels like a good idea"

It most definitely does. I believe that Humans, as a species, need to stop just doing whatever because of immediate satisfaction.

We have a responsibility, due to our absolute ability to get stuff done. Bears shit in the woods ? We can remove the forest if we feel like it. We're doing that in some places on this planet. We need to better understand the consequences of our actions.

We're supposed to be intelligent. When I see someone throwing a cigarette butt out of a car window, I wonder if that is really true. We act like none of our actions have any consequence. A cigarette butt ? It's nothing. Out the window it goes. But it is something, we just don't realize exactly what the consequences are.

We need to learn the consequences of our everyday lives, and adapt to the better side of those consequences.

It's for our own good. Because reading that 75% of Italian mothers have microplastics in their breast milk is something that really does not sound good to me.

It is, however, the consequence of our own ignorance.

So stop being ignorant and do something about it.

CrowdStrike hopes legal threats will fade as time passes since it broke the world

Sure. This might be the time to finally bury them like they deserve.

Xockets rockets Nvidia: Blackwell debut threatened by DPU patent claims

So, it's going to be handbags at dawn, then ?

My, I'm beginning to think that I should invest in popcorn futures . . .

What do Uber drivers make of Waymo? 'We are cooked'

Re: Not a cheap gig to run

Yeah, but if the prize is an $80K Jag, it might be worth thinking about . . .

Blood boffins build billions of nanobots to battle brain aneurysms without surgery

Re: 38 yrs from "Engines of Creation" and 35 years from "Nanosystems"

And what exactly should have been possible by now in the medical field ?

The tricorder, perhaps ?

Boeing's Calamity Capsule returns to Earth without a crew

"Boeing is committed to continue their work with us."

Of course it is, it wants the subsidies and the fat contract.

On the other hand, it acts like a spoiled brat. Boeing didn't attend the briefing ? What pathetic man-child decided that that was a professional attitude to have ?

If it was up to me, Boeing would be stricken from the list of partners of NASA in general, period.

Pat Gelsinger's grand plan to reinvent Intel is in jeopardy

"The division is bleeding billions each quarter"

Gosh, who could have thought making stuff might actually cost money ?

Morons.

To patch this server, we need to get someone drunk

Well, at least they didn't let your access continue for a year after throwing you out, not like some companies . . .

Re: 'Exit interview'

I admit I don't really understand the approach. The person is either leaving because they've had enough, or because you're throwing them out.

Neither option is conducive to an honest and productive interview, as far as I can see.

VMware revenue bounces for Broadcom, chips were a little undercooked

"but also posted a loss"

So, not only are you losing money, but you are also losing major customers.

You can keep parading for now, Broadcom, but I don't think this is going to end well for you.