* Posts by Pascal Monett

19061 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007

Nvidia loses a cool $500B as market questions AI boom

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"CEO Jensen Huang had sold almost $95 million of the company's shares"

A drop in the bucket. And what do you expect ? He gets shares because he's CEO. They are given to him so he can sell them.

Nvidia got hit on the stock market ? A blip on the radar. Nothing to do with market expectations, nothing to do with revenue.

This is all just more Wall Street wanking.

Airbn-bye: Barcelona bans short-term apartment rentals for tourists

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Sounds good, but at the condition that sub-renting is forbidden.

Intel investor sues over Foundry flop, seeks to reforge corporate governance

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Okay, you might have been mislead

But what "financial damage" are you complaining about ?

That you couldn't sell your shares as high as you were expecting ?

That's the game you decided to play. You're an investment company, you're supposed to know the rules.

If I had money to invest, I know who I wouldn't be trusting with it now.

UK and US cops band together to tackle Qilin's ransomware shakedowns

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I hope they find them

And when they do, well, let's just say I wouldn't balk at some extraordinary rendition.

It's desktop refresh season in the land of the Windowsalikes

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

Presumably you could.

I'm guessing you're under 30.

Come back in 25 years and we'll discuss how useful keyboard lighting is . . .

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"harmonize the desktop theme with RGB keyboard lighting"

Right. That is a typical 1st-world detail right there.

As far as keyboard lighting concerns me, my eyesight has gone to shit so all I need is a nice amber color, which is what I program for my existing keyboard lighting.

Aside from that, I do not need to have my computer box lit in rainbow colors, my fans lit in blue, red or green, or whatever else. The box is under the desk. I don't see it anyway, so why should it be lit up like a Christmas tree ?

I will leave that to the people who think it is important, no judgement here. For me, it's not important, so don't judge me.

DARPA searched for fields quantum computers really could revolutionize, with mixed results

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

So, quantum computing will be here in 30 years, then

Not sure where I've already heard something like that . . .

Tesla sued for 'systemic' racism at its Fremont, California plant

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Wow

And to think we live in the 3rd millennium.

I'd have thought we, as a species, could have gotten past this trend by now.

I am obviously sadly mistaken.

AT&T forbidden from cutting landline services to large parts of California

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"the company argued locals had options other than its landlines"

Well, with Starlink it can now shut down its entire network, can't it ?

Oh, silly me, they still want the parts that make good money.

Well, you can't have it all. And be thankful you don't operate in Luxembourg because there, there is a law that states that anyone asking for a connection must be served.

You'd be having conniptions over there . . .

Pascal Monett Silver badge

With ultimately the same result.

Privacy features lose their way in latest Firefox update

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Re: Damning with faint praise

And NoScript.

Mostly NoScript.

NASA finds humanity would totally fumble asteroid defense

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

Re: COVID-19 Demonstrated Our Doom

I would like to think that you're wrong.

Then I look at the state of conflict in this world, the Republican party and Trump, and all the idiots that are pretending to be responsible for my country, and I think to myself : "meh, bring on the asteroid".

Sure, there will be a bad moment to pass but, like ripping off a bandage, if you do it quickly, it gets better quickly as well.

It's still a horrible thought to have, but hey, Trump.

Now, where did I leave that booze ? I need to stock up.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Um, sorry, but I believe the movie you're referencing is called Armageddon.

2012 is about neutrinos heating up the Earth's core.

Armageddon is the one where Bruce Willis sacrifices himself to save his daughter's love life (oh, and the rest of Humanity as well).

Pascal Monett Silver badge

You're obviously not wrong, but you've omitted one factor : Big Oil.

Big Oil is doing everything it can to slow our response to climate change because it thinks that is in its interests. An asteroid that will devastate a large portion of the Earth just might endanger its extraction facilities as well, and Big Oil won't like that.

So I'm thinking Big Oil just might be a driving force in this scenario.

Starlink stuffs the internet into a backpack by invitation only

Pascal Monett Silver badge

And besides, can I just point out that if you're out camping, why don't you, gosh, take in the view ? Get off that fucking screen for a while ?

In all seriousness though, having a portable access to the Internet is a good idea. That would help solve a number of connectivity problems for people who get into trouble in the wilderness, or people who are in a disaster zone and need to coordinate the emergency.

So yes on the tech, but could we please stop inviting people to keep their eyes glued on a slab of toxic materials when they have the beauty of Nature (with a capital, please) in front of said eyes ?

They don't need encouragement.

Guess how much stored data is ever used or accessed

Pascal Monett Silver badge

So, up to 80% of stored data is unused

Not a problem for the NSA. It loves trawling through all that unused data to try and find something under the paranoia du jour.

Unused data is not useless data, and it'll be a cold day in Hell before your average manager authorizes the complete and irrevocable distruction of data he hasn't looked at since at least a decade.

Just in case, you understand.

The X Window System is still hanging on at 40

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Trollface

You have to understand, dissing "old" tech is trendy right now.

BOFH: Why's the network so slow?

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Thumb Up

"just a change we rolled out"

Heh, good one. The BOFH basically admits that he's responsible for the situation and manages to get dinner expenses paid to correct his own problem.

Impeccable.

You're wrong, I'm right, and you're hiding the data that proves it

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"more often than not it's users and managers who are in the wrong when IT goes awry"

That's because the users and managers keep their job and are free to mangle things again.

An IT guy who fouls up is more often than not fired from the company, so he doesn't get much chance to foul up again.

Since joining NATO, Sweden claims Russia has been borking Nordic satellites

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Mushroom

"A Kremlin representative"

Who is, of course, a paragon of truthfulness and virtue and could never tell a lie. Of course he's going to deny. They denied Tchernobyl until the rest of world was red in the face before mumbling that there might have been an issue.

It's come to a point where Putin's Russia could actually admit something and everyone else would be like "whoa, what angle are they playing now ?".

How Europe can force Apple to support competition

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Apple's browser rule

That is why Apple adopted the smartphone market. On a PC, Microsoft cannot dictate what browser you can use, the user can install the browser he wants and, should Redmond try to circumvent that, the lawsuit would be immediate and devastating.

But, on a smartphone, Apple can have a field day. It owns the platform, it does what it wants. And what Apple wants is total control without liability (and yes, I know about MacOS, but the PC market is still something that Apple has not penetrated significantly after decades of trying, the smartphone market is an entirely different ball game).

The only way to change that is with legal imposition. Capitalism is not going to auto-regulate this.

Google’s attempt to kill off child privacy app advertising lawsuit defeated

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"Filed in June last year"

And still not actually in court. Sheesh. Talk about a snail's pace . . .

Half of Dell US staff reportedly opted for remote work

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

Green flag indicates "regular onsite presence"

Hey, one day a month is regular, by definition.

Russia's cyber spies still threatening French national security, democracy

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"a disinformation campaign to undermine president Emmanuel Macron"

It's okay, President Macron has his own campaign to undermine himself.

And he is succeeding brilliantly.

Battery electric vehicles lose their spark in Europe as hybrids steal the show

Pascal Monett Silver badge

EV

Interesting to note that absolutely nothing is mentioned about how "green" EV's might actually not be.

I mean, if solar panels are starting to look a tad more grey than green, then what chance do EVs have outside of the political rhetoric of some biased idiots who want to see us all live in caves ?

Study employs large language models to sniff out their own bloopers

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

"a new way to detect errors in " LLMs

Yeah, right. Let's set up a few more climate-busting datacenters to control the value of a climate-busting datacenter.

I'm sure Nvidia is going to agree.

It sure keeps down expenses compared to asking an actual engineer to explain the results . . .

Microsoft's new Surface Laptop 7 has arrived. The recovery images have not

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

"why it would release hardware before its recovery tool had been updated"

Because it needs the users to test the tool to find that out . . .

Australian billionaire wins right to sue Facebook in the US over scam ads

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: you do realise that theres nothing green about EV as well

Yes I do, thank you very much.

I don't have an EV and I don't intend to get one. That doesn't mean that I approve of selling one's country to multinational conglomerates.

Excuse me if I prefer the idea of democracy - however hard that is to keep going these days.

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Thumb Up

I love Juice Media.

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Mushroom

"won the right to sue Meta"

I'm sorry, the ability to sue for slander is not something that should be under the authority of some administrative busybody.

The Australian so-called Director of Public Prosecutions should be fired and someone competent put in his place.

Oh, sorry. Silly me, I forgot. Australian government exists only to pander to Big Oil . . .

AI-assisted automation for clouds and networks climbs Gartner's hype cycles

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

Peak hype ?

Can AI possibly reach peak hype ?

It was bullshit from the start. I don't think it is possible for AI to peak in hype.

It would be then end of all the startups that are building their entire future on this bull. They'd actually have to create a viable product.

We're not ready for that . . .

Samsung Korea warns many apps won't run on its Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PCs

Pascal Monett Silver badge

6 + 5 = 11

You're complaining about a near 1:1 ratio on a post that didn't even hit 20 votes.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Charlie at Semiaccurate

It's curious how people are automatically sceptical about anyone who is naysaying the current media push - as if they knew better and were more competent in deciding what was reliable and what is media bullshit.

That's why blockchain, virtual coin scams and AI are so successful. There are competent people raising problems, but nobody is interested. Especially not if "free money" is in the mix.

Until the pyramid crashes, that is, then everybody goes "well yeah, what did you expect ?".

Making one's own opinion is difficult, for sure, but I've always felt a healthy dose of scepticism is a good thing. Even more so when something is being touted as "the next best thing".

If it's true, I have time to see it become true.

Qualcomm agrees to pay $75M in all-cash deal to settle licensing suit

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

"maybe 150M if we" lose

Well I guess I'd be on the side of let's roll the dice and lose.

If investors are stupid enough to sue their investment, they deserve to see it tank.

You don't like what the company is doing ? Fucking sell your shares.

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's new startup aims to create 'safe superintelligence'

Pascal Monett Silver badge

You have said everything I came to post.

Superintelligence ? Yeah, sure. Pull the other one . . .

Satellite phone service could soon become the norm

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

"a pragmatic means of network extension"

So, if I understand this correctly, international phone calls are going to become even more unreliable ?

All this because telcos cannot be arsed to lay a bit of fiber to ensure reliability ?

Pathetic.

Additional hatch operations on a Boeing vehicle – but this time it's Starliner

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

"We are continuing to understand the capabilities of Starliner . . ."

I'm sure that that is extremely reassuring to the highly-trained professionals that are actually in the ISS.

Apparently, access to space has gone from relying on the lowest bidder to relying of the least capable that still has a government contract.

And they want to go to the Moon with these clowns . . .

Footage of Nigel Farage blowing up Rishi Sunak's Minecraft mansion 'not real'

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

"Quite funny though"

Really ?

A person with that level of responsability has other things to do than grief players on Minecraft.

Even in the broken stewardship that is UK Gov.

Self-driving cars safer in sunlight, twilight another story

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

"it's safe to say there have been at least some improvement in the past 24 months"

That is so reassuring.

It's almost as reassuring as hearing that the royal executioner has got marginally more effective at chopping heads off in one try.

Look, I'm the first one to realize that Real Life is a bitch for computers to handle, but we can try and not fill our roads with unreliable software-driven multi-ton chunks of metal added to unreliable multi-ton chunks of metal driven by wetware idiots ? Until the software-driven version is actually safe to let loose ?

Yes, I recognize that that increases the research costs exponentially.

I don't care.

World's top AI chatbots have no problem parroting Russian disinformation

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: it's not surprising that AI is fooled too

It's not surprising because there's no A in that AI.

It's just a statistical analysis tool, and the golden rule in analysis is GIGO, which is upheld here.

But I'm still glad for this paper, because we need every pointer we can get to prove that AI is bullshit.

McDonald's not lovin' its AI drive-thru experiment with IBM

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Because it's paying a salary, which goes into cost of business, and McDonalds investors want to remove all the costs.

They're not here to provide work, there here to make money.

Get with the program . . .

The Hubble Space Telescope is back in business

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Thumb Up

Mission duration: 34 years, 1 month, 9 days (ongoing)

I think we should cut it some slack.

Bravo Hubble, you've already done a stellar job.

Law firms seek investors' support in Teradata class action

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

"some deals would be pushed out"

I like how multi-billion dollar companies can decide when they wish to include certain revenue.

I'm a freelance consultant. When my customer calls me in on the 16th, that's the day I bill. I don't have the luxury of "pushing out" my billing date because the customer has recorded that I worked for them on the 16th, not the 7th of the following month.

This is bullshit and should definitely be called out.

Um, what ever did happen with network automation?

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Its to complicated...

Not to mention when you want to introduce intrusion surveillance and zero trust on top of all that mess.

I'm not a network wizard, but I am a programmer and telling me that all I need to do is configure something with an intent smacks to me of AI before its time and no real solution.

Security is not a click away. We might get there one day, but no "intent" configuration is going to do that.

Cops cuff 22-year-old Brit suspected of being Scattered Spider leader

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Mushroom

"an estimated 391 Bitcoins"

So, a small-time criminal is now going to spend the rest of his life with an FBI record.

Honestly, scammers. Unless you live in China or Russia, or the deepest deserts of Africa, you need to keep your head down. Because, if you start playing big, it would seem that the FBI is going to catch you. And it you play big enough, it'll be Interpol/Europol/Whateverpol.

Piss off enough money and money will be spent catching you.

And you don't have enough money to stop that.

Microsoft resumes rollout of Windows 11 24H2 to Insiders

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Mushroom

"Users were quick to demonstrate that was incorrect"

It is frankly appalling that a multi-billion dollar behemoth like Borkzilla can't be arsed to publish something correct about its own products.

I cannot imagine that the programmers at Redmond can't tell their elbow from their knee, so who is the idiot that spouts that kind of bullshit and why are they not fired when their stupidity is brought under public scrutiny ?

I'm convinced that the programmers know what what they are coding (yes, I might be overly optimistic there, but still - programmers are not responsible for MBA stupidity). Somebody should ask them what their newfangled whatsamacallit can run on before spouting bullshit about it.

UK's Total Fitness exposed nearly 500K images of members, staff through unprotected database

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Mushroom

Total Fitness

I hope they get the total shitstorm they deserve.

You have no need for any other data than customer ID. I don't even believe you need a photo. Do you really think there will be twenty lowlifes copying the same ID number to go walk on your treadmills ?

Really ?

Nearly 20% of running Microsoft SQL Servers have passed end of support

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"We're doing this, we're doing the other, now we're thinking about"

And nobody who is doing all that "thinking" is actually running a company that has customers that need things to work.

One day, companies will understand that they are in charge and that a supplier who changes tune every few years or tries lock-in is not reliable.

Software lasts decades. The only reason there is a push to change is because of made-up marketing or worse, incompetent programming.

And don't talk to me about malware threats. You can patch your fucking code without forcing all your customers to some artificial upgrade that magically makes everything better, especially your bottom line.

Japan's space junk cleaner hunts down major target

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Flame

"but remained able to log on to the company's services"

Why ?

What fuckwit manager did not implement the blindingly obvious procedure to remove all access from employees that leave the company, whatever the reason ?

I'm seriously tempted to say that the company should bear the responsibility here. Its internal security is obviously a pile of shit.

That didn't take long: Replacement for SORBS spam blacklist arises ... sort of

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

"facing up to a decade in prison"

Ah, crime is so enticing when it seems easy. What could be better than bringing a USB key full of data that airport security can't possibly control to a country that has no extradition treaty with the place you got the data from ?

Then the uniforms arrest you and you face the consequences of your ill-doing and suddenly, it ain't so fun no more. Especially since you only have yourself to blame for setting foot back in the country you stole the data from. You'd have stayed in China and you'd have it made.

But no, you had to go imagine that you were so smart you'd never get caught. And now here we are, reading about your stupidity.

Enjoy your time behind bars. And I hope you're forbidden from ever getting a passport again.