Posts by Pascal Monett

You don't get what you don't pay for, but nobody is paid enough to be abused

Re: We refered to the CYA written confirmation as a "Shirt Tail Exercise"

Nothing like a monthly bill to get manglement "aware" of a situation.

First remark : two days after having said he'll "let them know", he's still saying "I'll let them know" ?

Cue the cluebat and a vicious beating.

Re: is 10x $$$ normal?

Well, I can't say anything about where it happened or when, but what I can say is that there was a bank in Luxembourg whose leased line went down.

Cue absolute batshit panic everywhere and red-hot phone lines to get it solved.

I don't know how much the bank was paying for the line, but I heard that every hour it was down cost that bank over $100 million.

The line was back up in a quarter of an hour. I don't think 10X the cost of broadband was a serious issue.

"Actually, this is precisely the service you paid for"

I just love it when you can shut the trap of a stupid manager mouthing off like that. Good on Doug, and kudos for being prepared.

England's village green hydrogen dream in tatters

And who said that was bad thing ?

You cold-hearted bastard. Shame on you for imposing UK weather on a poor Siberian woman !

Re: Correction

The only thing the UK has net zero in is intelligence in government.

Unfortunately, they're hardly alone.

To BCC or not to BCC – that is the question data watchdog wants answered

Came here to say the same thing.

You cannot misuse the BCC field. It is purpose-built to protect email addresses.

What you are doing is misusing CC, or SendTo.

But, obviously, administrative busybodies are not email-savvy enough to understand the difference.

The truth about Dropbox opening up your files to AI – and the loss of trust in tech

Don't think so

"There's a lot of confusion about how code, algorithms, cloud services, and business practices work"

We don't care how they work. What we care about is the fact that they are all oriented toward mining our personal lives to sell ads.

And we don't like that.

Google pencils in limited third-party cookie purge for January

What ?

"embedded analytics capabilities through dashboard interfaces, which often rely on iframes and cross-domain third-party cookies for authentication"

So you base your "embedded analytics" on a monstrosity that uses iframes ? One of the most-used tricks of malware writers ?

How's about you clean your shit up instead of complaining ?

Everyone's talking about AI but industry reps say few are ready to implement

"customers begin to realize [that a] quick fix will not solve deeper problems"

Well, whaddya know ? Maybe some good will come from all this pseudo-AI malarky yet.

Oh, and I really like : "Musker mused that AI's potential is limitless, but customers are focussed on trying to solve business problems".

Gosh, ya think ?

Microsoft embraces its inner penguin with Linux-powered Windows AI Studio

Microsoft's inner penguin ?

Ballmer must be spinning in his grave.

What ? He's not dead yet ?

Damn.

Tesla to remote patch 2M vehicles after damning Autopilot safety probe

Well thank you for both enlightenments.

I appreciate learning from whence this citation came (finally), and I appreciate learning that there is an element of English humor that, obviously, escaped me.

Thank you again !

a sticky brown smear

I found this quote ages ago (cannot source it) and I think that this is the right time to republish it :

"Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out."

Brown, we can all agree, is color. Sticky, I think, corresponds to opinion. It's certainly not material or origin, and purpose even less.

So sticky brown smear it should be, I think.

Re: There's a movie in there.

I'd really rather not imagine that.

NASA engineers scratch heads as Voyager 1 starts spouting cosmic gibberish

So, Voyager 1 is reaching the end of its useful life

Guys, it had to happen one day. Voyager 1 is one of the top achievements of scientific discovery. I would hardly be surprised if the famed NASA engineers managed to eke out some more usefullness from its tired frame, but maybe, if that doesn't happen, it would be time to let it rest.

GM's Cruise sheds nine execs in the name of safety and integrity

"dismissed nine execs"

Well, nice to see that they didn't go after a rogue engineer. Kudos for that.

Now, to get that car secure for the road. Seems that the job isn't finished.

Europe inches closer to insisting gig workers are treated as employees

If said plumber is registered, he already has a company. If he DIYs for you, he'll be DIYing for many other people if he is to make ends meet.

Not sure that simile applies. Unless said plumber is actually offering his services on PlumbersRUS, and you subscribe to get his service which PlumbersRUS oversee and guarantee their prices, paying a part to said plumber who also subscribed to get the gigs.

Then yes, but otherwise, not really.

I think.

Let them game the edge while they can. As long as no new rideshare service can screw everyone while pretending to only be a website/facilitator, I'll be happy.

Eh, Uber ? How's that for "disruptive" ?

Surprise! Email from personal.
[e-mail] is not going to contain good news

"Many of these victims reported [MFA] was not enforced"

Well, now you know why you should enforce it.

Some people only learn the hard way.

SAP admits attempt to adapt on-prem security for its cloud flopped

Wow. You get screwed and never know why.

"Attackers that do get in may try to create new VMs to do things like mine crypto. Those VMs will not use your templates and will not therefore run your security agents. Thus, you'll struggle to see them."

That really makes me want to go Cloud. What a vote of confidence. And why is it that hackers will be able to create a VM that doesn't use my templates ? How is that possible to create a VM on my environment without being subject to my rules ? I think that's something you should correct ASAP.

But what am I saying ? SAP doesn't need to correct anything. It's making money hand over fist, so everything is A-OK.

Right ?

FCC really, truly won't give SpaceX nearly a billion bucks for Starlink rural broadband

So, Mrs Rosenworcel is cleaning up Pai's mess

Heck of a job, but someone has to do it. I like that she's laying down the rules.

Cardaci doesn't like it ? He can take a hike. Nobody owes SpaceX subsidies. Private companies take the risk, then reap the rewards. That's the rule. If you are continually begging for subsidies, you should be under government control and no longer a private company.

There was good reason to subsidize the Falcon Heavy, NASA needed a solution now that the Shuttle was decommissioned. But subsidizing satellite broadband ? Nope. Not necessary. There are existing solutions that, additionally, do not depend on giant firecrackers that might go boom.

Solar wind gave Mars a breather and its magnetosphere inflated

Woah there, Mercury has a magnetosphere ?

That tiny thing ? The smallest of all official planets has a magnetosphere while Mars and Venus don't ? I mean hey, Mercury is smaller than our own Moon (check the mass figures) !

Well blow me down. I would've thought that, if Mars was not big enough to keep a molten core and its corresponding magnetosphere like Earth, then Mercury was damned by default, but hey, this is Real Life^(TM). Things don't always go like you expect them to.

Britain's Ministry of Defence fined £350K over Afghan interpreter BCC email blunder

So BCC not good anymore ?

I fail to see how using BCC is any more subject to human error than bulk email. It's when you're not using BCC and bunging everyone into SendTo that things are worse. That is what must have happened here. Instead of using BCC, they sent the mail out with addresses in the SendTo and probably got people killed. That fact will be on their conscience forever, fine or not.

And who are you going to fine for the brilliant decision of not bringing along those fine Afghan people who helped you and stood by you but didn't have the proper paperwork done in the madness of a hasty withdrawal ? You could have gotten them out and bothered with the paperwork later, when they were safe, but noooo. You don't have your paperwork ? We thank you for your service during all these years, and wish you good luck with the Taliban. Next !

Cloud engineer wreaks havoc on bank network after getting fired

"Brody worked as a cloud engineer for First Republic Bank"

And he'll have the rest of his life to reminisce fondly about that while flipping burgers.

No pity. You get fired, you go. You don't touch your former employers' network or anything else. You want revenge ? Tell everyone you know that you unfairly dismissed - whether it is true or not.

Now, the only thing everyone knows is that he watches porn on the job and abuses his knowledge to wreak havoc when being caught.

He'll never work in a bank again, that's for sure, and there's a good change he'll never be in an IT position ever again.

And he doesn't deserve to be. Not for a long time.

Epic decision sees jury find Google's Play store is illegal monopoly

This is the mother of all Google trials

Monumental. A jury has found against Google. It's going to cost Alphabet some pocket money to bury Epic under endless appeals.

More importantly, if this judgement is upheld, Google's entire gaming revenue stream is going to be upheaved in a major way. Goodbye 30%, hello 5%, or maybe 10%. Gosh, Board bonuses are going to dip by 5%.

Aw, shucks.

British railway system is getting another excuse for delays – solar storms

So, let's review

Now, the things that can keep UK trains from running are not only the wrong kind of snow, too much rain, but also too much sun.

Find an excuse for when it's the wrong kind of wind and you can shut the train stations down, guys.

Amazon's practices are 'the essence of competition,' it tells judge

"including it in the case at all makes the argument untimely"

Yes, Your Honor, I killed that person in 2019, but you're late to the game and that date is expired.

Sure. Play it your way. That always works with a judge.

NASA pushes back timing of ISS deorbit vehicle contract

"just in the nick of time"

That's hoping that it won't be late which, given Humanity's track record on getting space right the first time, is far from guaranteed.

But one thing is certain : the ISS will be coming down. The challenge is making that happen in a controlled manner. Right now, that challenge is on the funding. We'll see how Round 1 goes down. That'll give insight on how Round 2, getting ready to de-orbit, might pan out.

Hollywood plays unwitting Cameo in Kremlin plot to discredit Zelensky

So, now it's about substance addiction

The line that he is a Nazi is no longer relevant ? Old news ? Gotta find something else ?

If you were capable of winning this stupid mess you created in the first place, you wouldn't have to stoop to attacking your opponent's reputation. But I'm guessing Putin doesn't care about this kind of shenanigans. He may smile on it, but he doesn't have time to actually coordinate it.

This is done by the armchair generals in the rear, who's only ability is their Internet connection and total lack of moral compass. Oh, and the fact that they managed to not get drafted. Yet.

BOFH: Just because we've had record revenues doesn't mean you get a Xmas bonus

Brilliant

I love the part where somebody doesn't want to pay, and BOFH reminds them that bonuses are only for the living (and there are some bricks in the corner).

Great stuff !

Bank's datacenter died after travelling back in time to 1970

Re: Yearly tasks....

Completely agree. Yearly tasks are a pain to schedule, especially when the responsible person leaves the company (whatever reason).

I'm thinking there should be a yearly calendar process for business. The business needs to know these things, and they cannot be tied to the knowledge of one person. How many times has Borkzilla been caught out because it forgot to renew its own certificates ? And it's far from being alone in this. If there was some sort of shared calendar showing yearly actions and who is responsible for them, then I think this kind of issue would be almost resolved.

At a business level, that should be easy to organize. Create a user named Yearly Renewal, share his calendar with all upper management, and have HelpDesk insert the proper data and the names of people responsible. When one person leaves, check Yearly's calendar for all events under that person's name and figure out who to reassign them to. Then make sure everyone is checking Yearly's calendar at least once a month.

That should work, no ?

Amazon's game-streamer Twitch to quit South Korea, citing savage network costs

Re: is this better for SK Broadband?

Well, manglement at SK Broadband could return to the negotiating table, but if that happens, they will be no longer be in a position to mandate 10x carrier prices.

And they will lose face which, contrary to our Western civilization politicians, is anathema to many Asian cultures (painting Asian in broad strokes, here).

So I feel confident that SK Broadband is going to watch Twitch leave without flinching. I do wonder, though : how much does it actually cost to transmit a megabyte over fiber ? I mean, the router is plugged in whether or not you're transmitting. How much more energy does it take ? I realize that it should take more, but how much more ?

Hubble Space Telescope is back in the game after NASA fixes gyro glitch

Awesome

As usual, NASA gets a problem, and NASA finds a solution. Redundancy FTW, eh Boeing ?

Being a NASA engineer must be one of the most stressful but rewarding jobs there is. You know that what you do is important, so when there's a mission-breaking issue like this, you have to find a solution. And when you do, it's better than if you won the lottery.

Big kudos to NASA engineers. Well done.

HP TV ads claim its printers are 'made to be less hated'

Re: HP Support

Ah, kids these days . . .

Microsoft's code name for 64-bit Windows was also a dig at rival Sun

"the OS titan missed an emerging trend"

You mean to say : "the OS titan missed another emerging trend".

FTFY

Post-Brexit tariffs on EU-UK electric vehicle imports staved off till 2027

So, Brexit means Brexit, except when it doesn't

Could someone please explain why all those billions in trade taxes are not being eyed with envy by governments ?

Why should automakers be exempt from trade tax when everything else isn't ?

Or is this all just a question of "well, we're only getting around to discuss this problem now" ?

A year on, CISA realizes debunked vuln actually a dud and removes it from must-patch list

Re: Test with all the layers

I believe the terme is pen-testing, because penetration.

I also believe that, if your pen testers can't get through without you deactivating your defenses, you need to find better pen testers.

EU running in circles trying to get AI Act out the door

Re: First to legislate?!

I have to agree that I don't see the point in this pseudo-race.

I don't care if you're first to legislate, I care that the laws you make a good. You can be the tenth to have made the law, if yours is the best, it's the one everyone should use.

Re: The EU is not the centre of the universe.

Of course it isn't the center of the Universe. It's not pretending to be.

However, it is a market of over 350 million consumers. If you want to lock yourself out of that, feel free, but know that your competition might not.

Veteran editors Notepad++ and Geany hit milestone versions

Re: Notepad++ FTW

Absolutely agree. I've been using it for over a decade now. No other editor handles large text files as quickly, and the program-language support is a godsend.

'Wobbly spacetime' is latest stab at unifying physics

So, physics goes wibbly-wobbly

Nothing like a stiff drink to sooth the nerves, right ?

It's ba-ack... UK watchdog publishes age verification proposals

Ah, politicians

They operate on the good old "something must be done" principle (this is something, so it must be done).

Granted, since the past three decades it appears to me that, globally speaking, politicians everywhere are getting more and more shallow and stupid (the shitshow we've got going in France is appalling), if not outright callous and thieving, but the real problem, IMO, is that they all feel that they must appear to be achieving, and they will grasp at anything to do so.

They haven't understood that their job is not to achieve, it is to manage. Achieving is done by the voters, they have a job (hopefully, at least), and jobs are what achieve things.

Politicians (and administrative busybodies in general) are simply there to make sure the rules keep everyone globally going in the same direction. And maybe, from time to time, inaugurate a monument.

"facial age estimation"

Oh, the paragon of truthfulness. Yes, I am eagerly waiting for the AI that can identify the age of a person by only analyzing a portrait. I'm sure all the Asians will be either miffed or delighted (following if they're actually under 30 or over 40) at such a "proof" of age. I personally know a woman of Chinese ancestry who is going to celebrate her 40th birthday soon. Going by her face, I would swear she's still in her 20s.

So yeah, I'm really interested in seeing a program that can accurately judge a person's age by only their picture.

I won't be holding my breath, though.

Digital memories are disappearing and not even AI or Google can help

A strikingly important article

The subject of our memories is a very important one, and we're nowhere near a proper solution.

I agree that file storage works, but file retrieval is indeed a thorny subject - made worse when the storage medium differs the older the file date.

I also have a collection of DVDs, HDDs and now BluRay discs that I store my digital life on. When VHS went out of style, I used my living room DVD player with hard drive to convert from VHS to MP4 and voilà, all those files went to DVD storage (and are now also backed up on BluRay). What happens when switch to crystal cubes with yottabytes of storage ? I'll be copying all of that to the cube, of course.

And then what ? My data organization isn't terrible, but if I absolutely had to find that school programming project, I'm not sure I could do that in a single day. Might take me more than a day or two to go through all those DVD labels to guess, or check, the right one. And yes, I have an index. Somewhere. Going to have to find that as well, but I think I know where it is.

So yeah, I'm rather looking forward to the day I can just ask my robot butler for that project folder I saved in 1998 and see the folder appear on my whatever-a-PC-will-be-by-then.

And then I'll check the contents, find that they are useless and chuck the folder to the bin.

Branson's wallet snaps shut for Virgin Galactic

So, Branson is folding

Apparently, erecting massive, uh, rockets, yeah rockets, doesn't do it for Branson anymore.

Typical billionnaire. He got what he wanted, now he's no longer interested.

Spanish media sues Meta for ignoring GDPR and harvesting data

"systemic and massive disregard for privacy laws"

Yup, that sounds like Meta, all right.

El Zuck will never give a flying fig about user privacy because his entire empire (and fortune) is based on pilfering that privacy.

To teach him the error of his ways will require liberal and enthusiastic percussive maintenance with bats (corked or not). Given that that is legally frowned upon, the only other option is pathetically small fines which will be royally ignored until the EU in its globality decides to fine META a year's worth of its global revenue.

Then El Zuck will start listening.

But since that won't happen . . .

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

DevTernity conference collapses amid claims women speakers were faked

Re: They might consider it private personal data that they should not give out/confirm

The they should have the balls to say so.

HP exec says quiet part out loud when it comes to locking in print customers

"HP is squeezing more margin out of print customers"

You mean, the ones it has left.

Laser is the future. Toner can be refilled, nobody knows who did it (yet).

Ink is just you subscribing to a mafia cartel in Saville Row suits. Ditch them. Besides, do you really need to print in color ? Really ? That business presentation ? Make it a PowerPoint. Or a PDF. Nobody needs the slides on paper, and absolutely nobody will know where the paper is in a week. Send them the effin' file. Aren't we supposed to be going paperless ?

And for the few holdouts who absolutely want their pics on print, don't you know that Kodak does the job for pennies ?

Stop the nonsense. If you're a professional printer, you already don't use ink. If you're an amateur, you've got magnetic storage. If you want a wall-size print, you're not doing it on an HP inkjet.

Stop feeding the trolls. They don't deserve it.