Posts by Pascal Monett

ESA boss tires of being dragged around by NASA mood swings

"What remains are the confidence and political will to act"

And with the clowns that we currently have in positions of power, good luck with that.

Frustrated franchisee sues Pizza Hut over crappy kitchen AI

Re: people are absolutely lousy at specifying requirements

Right you are.

Having spent the vast majority of my professional career as an IT consultant, I must agree.

On top of that, I want to point out that, most of the time, the specifications are drawn up by people who will not actually be working with the end product.

That should be a criminal offense.

New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania

Why did they file the complaint in Texas ? They have no business in Texas.

Oh, right, they believe that a Texas judge will be more favorable to their business complaint.

Yeah, maybe, but they're filing against a business, so which business will the judge favor ?

The big AI companies are going to see their margins disappear

"The big AI companies"

Could you clarify one point : what are the small ones ?

Windows boot partition runs out of space for Microsoft's May security update

Re: if you google it

And how are you supposed to google it when your PC is borked ?

Oh, right, your smartphone.

But, that requires typing, which is an effort and kids these days are trained to not make any effort at all.

Besides, if it happens on a company PC, employee drone calls IT drone, gets a coffee and waits for resolution . . .

Re: Nostradamus

God I can't upvote you enough !

Reminds me of my Win95 days.

I used to reinstall that once a year, just to be sure.

Re: Been here before…

Redmond is the best driver for Linux that has ever been.

'Big AI' is subverting regulations just like tobacco and oil firms

"tobacco firms, big pharma and oil companies"

Hmm, I wonder what those industries have in common ?

Oh, right : they make money.

AI does not. This pseudo industry is costing its makers an arm and a leg, and I can't wait for the amputation to take place.

You can shower corrupt politicians all you want, in the end, you're still bearing the costs of your folly.

Especially when you went and built your datacenters in Texas. Morons.

Linus Torvalds says AI-powered bug hunters have made Linux security mailing list ‘almost entirely unmanageable’

So many good things in this article

Once again, Linus Torvalds swipes the clutter away and gets down to essentials.

"entirely pointless churn”

“AI detected bugs are pretty much by definition not secret.”

“AI tools [..] cause unnecessary pain and pointless make-believe work”

“If you actually want to add value, read the documentation, create a patch too, and add some real value on *top* of what the AI did.”

I would have thought that the Linux community would have been immune from AI-induced stupidity, but I was obviously wrong and AI has apparently enough charm to make even supposedly intelligent people fall for it. Humans will always be humans, I guess.

That said, between Torvalds and anyone else, where Linux is concerned I will always put Torvalds' opinion on the top of the list.

Also, he appears to be going a bit soft, with age. Where is the volcanic outrage ? I think it would be rather justified here.

Enough with the AI FOMO, go slow-mo, says Domo CDO

Well duh

"If you don't understand the process and the automations and the workflows in your business"

then you are an MBA and I claim my prize.

Re: The problem with AI

Why are you n9t mentioning the principle criminals : billionnairs ?

Did you forget they exist ? Or were you more comfortable targeting the usual suspects ?

Git is unprepared for the AI coding tsunami

“The issue isn't Git"

No, it's Redmond.

Thank you, we knew that.

Re: Fire the Retrorockets!

A. Men.

Google'll grab your gigs if you don’t cough up your number

"a storage reduction for new accounts"

Well of course. One of the very few companies on this planet who are basically printing their own money cannot possibly afford to keep providing "free" storage to the peons.

It's not in the shareholders interest, you see, and Google, bing a US company, has its shareholders interests closest to its stone-dry heart.

Personally, I don't really care. I do not leave my email on Gmail because I don't trust Alphabet and I do not want my personal or professional mail hoovered up by the Google AI monster.

Just checked and I have a pitiful half-dozen emails in Gmail Inbox, accounting for 0% of my allocation of 15GB.

Because my mail stays on MY computer, which is where I can rely on it.

So slash to 2GB if you want. Go ahead.

And if ever you decide to stop supporting POP, I will stop using you.

There are enough other email providers for my needs.

KDE bags €1.3M as Europe realizes it might need an OS of its own

Re: Nobody runs just the kernel

That is definitely true. However, if you're running Windows, you're running an environment that is made of Swiss Cheese when it comes to security. Kernel is a word that Redmond still has to come to grips with.

In the Linux world, the kernel space and the user space are very much seperated. The user can go and run any stupid thing he wants, the kernel will, by and large, remain untouched.

Delete the user profile and the computer should be secure.

Of course, as always, there have been a few memorable exceptions to this rule where some very bright hacker managed to circumvent kernel security from user space.

In the Linux world, it happens about once a decade and is quickly patched.

In the Windows world, it happens once a week and patches take weeks to come out and they themselves can wreak untold havoc.

I know what universe I prefer to be in . . .

UK government prescribes Single Patient Record for NHS data chaos

Re: This could work but won't.

You're being intelligent.

You won't survive this century.

Dissatisfied: Three-fourths of AI customer service rollouts are a letdown

Re: surprise

Good point.

Re: terrible

Thank you for posting that. I will refer to your post in any future conversations I may have with starry-eyed AI-lusting managers.

Not that it will do much good, those stars are the bonuses they see coming.

Microsoft aims to speed Windows with 'leap forward' in WinUI 3 perf

Re: Task Manager

Totally agreed, but Redmond doesn't care about your figures.

Google users fight for refunds as unauthorized API usage bills soar

"It's just draining my money !"

Hey, what did you think The Cloud^TM was, something to help you ?

It's there to pump you while finding nice excuses to ignore you when it's down.

You used to be able to pop down to the server room and yell at your IT that they need to get on with it while ignoring the fact that your yelling at them kept them from actually getting the fuck on with it.

Now, you have the luxury of paying for faceless IT drones you can't even yell at because, when it's down, you can't talk talk to them, much less yell at them.

I hope you're happy with the result.

Microsoft researchers find AI models and agents can't handle long-running tasks

"can't handle long-running tasks"

So, a lot like Windows, then.

GitLab promises a different kind of layoff as biz pivots toward AI

"biz pivots toward AI"

Bye bye, GitLab.

HP stuffed a PC into a keyboard. We took it for a spin

Not to mention that their keyboard isn't even a full keyboard.

What ? You want me to pay $1500 for a portable computer keyboard and you can't be arsed to offer a full numpad and a proper set of arrow and orientation keys ?

You want me to believe you didn't have enough space ?

And, on top of that, I'd have to also lug around a screen.

A niche product ? Oh yes. It's specially destined for idiots with more money than sense.

Hungarian cops cuff suspected swatter after two-year FBI probe

18 months ?

18 months for having forced x number of agents move in urgency to resolve a serious matter with lethal force if required, imposed such force upon unsuspecting, innocent people who did nothing wrong and could very well have been killed in the operation and all the costs associated ?

No. He deserves much more than that. At minimum, he deserves to pay for the costs he incurred.

Either that or he should be SWATted himself and see how it feels.

Custom PC worked in the lab, failed on site – and so did the angry client

"They were quick shocked, and offended, to discover that web hosting didn't include ISP services

Quite (ahem).

It's very much like when you ask someone what browser they're using and they answer "Google".

I have spent twenty of our 36-year marriage educating my wife as to the difference. The Internet is the highway. Your browser is the car. Google is just a roadmap.

You don't sit on your roadmap to get to your destination, now do you ? If only we could.

That said, my dear better half has actually clicked to this message and, when she has yet another problem on one of the many shopping sites she is regularly on (hey, she's retired - gotta do something with all that time, right ?) and I ask her what browser she is using, she now correctly responds Chrome, or Brave, or Firefox as is the case. Then we get on with troubleshooting whatever the flavor of the problème du jour is which, more often than not, happens to be due to some stupid modification in the website that has nothing to do with the Internet or her laptop, but hey, I'm the (literally) resident IT guy, so . . .

"quite the embarrassment for the angry client and boss"

In his place, I would have made quite a show of it.

Point to the network cable coiled up on that wall.

Go over and stand next to it, like a hostess on The Price Is Right, and pose next to it while displaying it with both hands.

Taking it off the wall and plugging it in.

Standing next to the now-connected computer and, once again, showing it with both hands.

One can only dream . . .

AI layoffs backfire as cutting staff doesn't cut it, firms warned

Well whaddya know ?

Finally a Gartner report that I like.

I've got to check the nearest pig farm for feathers . . .

Minister gives Palantir's NHS platform a clean bill of health

Re: Response from an MP

AKA : not my fault, it's the previous guys who decided. I might take time to think about it 'round about next time I'm up for election.

"value for money"

Of course it's value for money, but for who ?

By the way (of, for you younglings, BTW), is anyone else seriously annoyed by this unexpected change in El Reg home page presentation ?

What on Earth was wrong with the last one, the one that actually presented new articles before old ones ?

Are we going to get a <beurk> Dark Mode as well ?

Arctic Wolf kicks 250 employees out of the pack to save money for AI

"Cybersecurity vendor Arctic Wolf has laid off 250 workers [..] to invest more in AI"

In upcoming news : Cybersecurity vendor Arctic Wolf files for Chapter 11 after all its customers fled to other vendors.

If only that could be true

Taiwan cops say student's radio kit brought bullet trains to a standstill

In any case, he's definitely not a total moron.

Unfortunately, he also has a serious case of not having a "no, I really shouldn't try that" flag.

Musk has never built a wafer fab, but he wants to burn $119B on one anyway

"orbital AI datacenters"

One question : how do you deal with the heat ?

Answer that properly, Your Muskiness, and I might give a tenth of a shit about your new brainfart.

He's full of himself.

Brit mathematician lets AI agent loose with credit card – cue password leaks, CAPTCHA chaos and more

"light and dark sides of agentic tech"

Because there's a light side ?

You know what they say : Nature always invents a better idiot.

More missions, less money, higher risk: NASA's back to the '90s playbook

"a higher failure rate"

Given the costs associated with any launcher these days, I would prefer that using those firecrackers result in success, not more overall failures.

Microsoft's bad obsession is showing up in shabby services and slipshod software. Here's proof

Well said

No hyperbole, no sensational remarks, no snark.

Just the cold, hard truth. One that, increasingly, it appears that all people in position of power intend to ignore.

Well you can ignore the truth for a while, but it will come back and bite you in the ass. And the higher up you are, the harder the bite will be.

The pigeons are coming home to roost, Redmond, and it ain't gonna be pretty.

And you deserve all the shit you're going to get.

Kids say they can beat age checks by drawing on a fake mustache

"Stronger action is needed from both government and industry"

No.

What is needed is stronger parental education and guidance, and it just so happens that actual parenting is apparently happening.

Because that is NOT what the government wants. It wants nice obedient sheeple to which it can point and say "Look ! Squirrel !" and, while the sheeple are distracted, the "masterminds" are filling their pockets and living the high life.

Microsoft to stop taking reservations for 17 Azure VM flavours, kill 13 in 2028

Once again, Redmond is doing a Redmond

Borkzilla doesn't care that you are actually working.

Those equipment obsolescence excuses are all very nice and, to be true, cannot be attacked. They are an iron-clad reason to go and shit on your day's work.

But that does not mean that Borkzilla shouldn't be trying to extend the usage of those VM flavors for the companies who prefer using old kit instead of, once again, spending the next two years uprooting their existing (working) environment to force-march towards a shiny new future where they can re-invent the wheel (again) and try to continue to actually run a fucking business.

What Borkzilla should have done is simply alert all existing users that there is a new platform they can migrate to while keeping their existing environment and that they should do it because the existing platform is getting old and becoming obsolete.

The difference in that approach is that Redmond did the work to ensure that its existing customers could keep on working and that the choice is up to the customer.

After all, the customer is always right, eh ?

Yeah, not in The Cloud^TM he ain't. In The Cloud^TM, you take what you're given, you pay top dollar for it and you kiss the feet that take your money.

Palantir CEO: 10 percent of the world 'professionally hates us'

Re: Mo money no problems

Trump knows.

Re: Make that 99%...

And the 1% that is left is paying you for the dirty work.

Five Eyes spook shops warn rapid rollouts of agentic AI are too risky

Warning ? Who cares about warnings ?

There's money to be made here, mate. Get out of the way while we make our billions.

Then the system can crash.

Who needs ghost train scares when Windows is such a fright?

"Or just some shoddy code somewhere"

So difficult to tell with Windows, isn't it ?

Britain's £6B armoured sickener Ajax cleared for duty despite injuring troops

"The safety of our people is non-negotiable"

I note that he said safety, not well-being.

So, how's about we shove the MPs into them for 12 hours and see what they think of it afterwards ?

Finance company stores DB credentials in helpfully labeled spreadsheet

Not a gaping hole in the network, but . . .

Once upon a time I was called in to take over security for a new customer.

My company was selected and I was the frontend to replace a very well-known company in Luxembourg which I will not name for obvious reasons.

The time for handover came and the previous responsible gave me a USB key with an Excel file that had the passwords that I needed.

Sorted in a table by the company name.

With all the other companies' data just a click away.

What kind of fuckwit doesn't realize that you don't just give away confidential data like that ?

It's beyond me.

Don't pay Vect a ransom – your data's likely already wiped out

Education is painful

This current rash of malware has one good consequence : those companies destroyed by it are going to remember that they should have paid more attention to IT and security in general.

Yes, it's going to hurt. People are going to lose their jobs. It's unfortunate.

It's also the cost of waking up to the world as it is : a dangerous place where you need to ut up firewalls and barriers if you want to last.

IBM's AI coding 'partner' Bob hits general availability

Ok, that's it - AI is over

IBM has adopted it, so it's dead.

Good riddance.

Locked, stocked, and losing budget: AI vendor lock-in bites back

Good news

So, all this AI shit is finally going to start costing real money. And the companies pushing it will find out the hard way that their "wonderful" product is going to be dropped like a hot potato. And all those ginormous data centers are going to run at a loss and maybe we'll see less of them being built.

So, cheers all around, eh ?

Except for the CEOs who thought they had invented Web 4.0.

Not a great loss.