Posts by Pascal Monett

Nano a nono: Pixel 8 phones too dumb for Google's smallest Gemini AI model

"Google declined to comment on the record"

And off the record, what did Google say ?

Trump, who tried kicking TikTok out of the US, says boo to latest ban effort

"a government that can demand data and pretty much anything else from [its] organizations"

Um, yeah, you can pretty much say the same about the USA.

Why is nobody remembering National Security Letters on newsdesks these days ?

Yes, Beijing can perfectly well ransack a Chinese company's data. The White House can do the same to any US-based company. I'm convinced the same is true for just about any country.

This is a pot meet kettle argument. Stop using it.

The S in IoT stands for security. You'll never secure all the Things

Re: Some smart devices have strong security

I'm not sure you're describing security there. To me, that sounds much more like simple lock-in.

It's a security for the vendor, to be sure, but it secures the vendors financials, not my security.

IoT ? Not for me

But I'm not going to go dissing on hospital stuff. I'm very happy that we have hospitals, insecure as they are. The people who are there want to help, they really do. You have to want to help when you're paid so little for saving people's lives, or even just making them slightly better. As I am getting on in age (60 is an asteroid that is looming ever larger on my horizon), I think that, if push comes to shove, I will gladly accept an insecure pump or whatever if it gives me more years to be with my family.

Yes, I would definitely prefer that medical thingamajigs be secure, it would certainly be reassuring, but I think I can stand the insecurity if my life is on the line.

But in my house ? Never.

I can get my fat ass of the couch and go for the dumb, stupid, secure switch.

Is Russia using Starlink in Ukraine? Congress demands answers

Wow

Another point on which His Muskiness is not going to weasel his way out of with ease.

I can't wait to see him squirm while trying to justify his "Ukraine should just surrender" attitude.

Palantir wins US Army contract for battlefield AI

"battlefield AI"

Oh yeah, I can just see it now : a soldier holding down suppressing fire in some sandistan, and all of a sudden his Augmented Reality pops up a "Do you want mustard gas with this ?".

IAB Europe's ad consent popups pose privacy problem

"deal a mortal wound to the online tracking-based advertising industry"

Yeah. I believe in Santa Claus as well.

I only wish it could be true, but experience tells me that fucking assholes full of money generally get their way, whatever the law says.

IBM lifts lid on latest bid to halt mainframe skill slips

"halt mainframe skill slips"

Just a suggestion : maybe stop firing the people who have acquired the skills ?

HP print rental service seeks more users to become subscription addicts

I note that you haven't mentioned your weekly printing load. You just say that you use it every week.

That may be enough, but I have had years of headaches and ink loss with Epson inkjets until I finally decided to go laser, and I have never regretted that choice.

I print less than five pages a month. Laser is the only choice for that volume, inkjets will always dry up and be a nuisance.

That's a fact.

Plummer talks to us about spending Microsoft's money on a red Corvette

I've been using 7-zip for ages now

Not to diss on Mr Plummer, who I follow on YouTube with relish, but Zip is now outdated. 7-zip has been more efficient and more secure for a long while now.

No bad feelings, though. Zip was a godsend when it arrived.

BOFH: I get locked out, but I get in again

All that work . . .

makes for getting up real early.

Let no one say that the BOFH is a lazy bastard !

Job interview descended into sweary shouting match, candidate got the gig anyway

They add great value when the time comes to lay people off.

Font security 'still a Helvetica of a problem' says Australian graphics outfit Canva

Article title is a bit misleading

I came to this article thinking I was going to learn about someone having hacked a font, like others have hacked jpg images. What I actually learn is that there are tools to manage fonts, and it is one of those that is hackable. That is not the same thing.

Then there is the fact that the article evokes three vulnerabilities, but only describes one even though the way the article is written made me believe that I would get a description of all three.

I'm a bit miffed.

US politicians want ByteDance to sell off TikTok or face ban

"the app was banned on UK government devices"

The app has nothing to do on any government's devices.

I note that we haven't heard about banks banning it on their platforms, because banks wouldn't allow users to install it in the first place. When you're working in a bank, you puny little cog do not have the right to install anything without approval from your department manager. And your department manager won't approve anything that is not for your work.

Why are governments not doing the same ? Oh, of course, IT costs money and people in government - especially politicians and their aides - don't have time to be subject to actual IT security.

Reminder: Infostealer malware is coming for your ChatGPT credentials

"With more employees relying on ChatGPT"

Why are more employees relying on a beta service that makes stuff up ?

The only thing they're really doing is giving their time and data for free to a service which, once declared in production, will gouge them for their own work on a monthly subscriptoin basis.

OpenAI goes public with Musk emails, claiming he backed for-profit plans

"dismiss all of Elon's claims"

I think that that should be standard practice by now.

Russia plans to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon – with China's help

Re: In combination with Russia's recent promise "we will never put nuclear weapons in space"

It would be vastly more costly to lug a nuke to the Moon instead of parking it in Earth orbit (probably not LEO either, but much higher up).

And it's not just getting it to the Moon, it's all the infrastructure that would need to exist on-site to make it launcheable. Which means landing a whole lot of stuff beforehand that is specifically destined to launch a nuke. The kind of thing that would be quite visible, what with all the telescopes we have on Earth and in orbit, for any expert that would care to check out the installation. Which would lead to diplomatic issues that would likely make the Cuban missile crisis look like a stroll in the park in summer.

Not going to happen, is what I'm saying.

Re: A sample of what now?

Indeed. And it isn't soft soil either. It's more like volcanic dust, with jagged edges all over the place that find their way into joints and wear them down way faster than just dust would.

'We had to educate Oracle about our contract,' CIO says after Big Red audit

That is why web site Ts & Cs are not a contract

A contract is a binding agreement between both parties.

Oracle can drum up all the changes it wants, none of them are valid if nothing is allowing them in the existing contract.

That is why contract amendments are made. They add to and change the initial contract, and both parties must agree to them before they can be implemented.

And that is the essential difference between an actual contract and web site Ts & Cs. The web site can change them at any time and if you don't like it, your only choice is not to use said web site any more. You cannot argue that you wish stay on the pre-change version.

Ts & Cs are not a contract.

Dutch government in panic mode over keeping ASML in the country

"policy decisions that would restrict its ability to hire skilled staff"

Where's the problem ? Just make a policy decision that the policy doesn't affect ASML.

Administrative busybodies have painted themselves into a corner and can't see a way out. Make a way out.

Microsoft drags Windows Subsystem for Android into the trash

Just another reason

to not rush into a service offered online as soon as it opens.

Wait a few years, to see if it is viable. Because, if you don't, you stand a good chance of being disappointed and losing money.

IP address X-posure now a feature on Musk's social media thing

I love it

Every half-brain change Elon makes to his "platform" is continually blowing up in his face.

I just love watching that.

US and Europe try to tame surveillance capitalism

"[The FTC] has decided that browsing and location data should be considered sensitive"

Amen to that.

That's going to be one heck of spanner in advertiser's inner workings, and I'm happy with that.

Brave. I use Brave exclusively on my smartphone. It has cut my bandwidth use by 80% at least, and I get what I want to see, not what advertisers want me to see.

Grab shrank its superapp by a quarter in order to survive

"Grab is now working to adopt a single font"

Kudos to Grab for a momentous job, and special points if they do open-source their app sizer. I'm sure many other developers will find that extremely useful.

But there is one thing I don't understand : the multiple font issue. Why does it even exist ? Why didn't Grab specify the working font at the beginning of its project, and stick to it ?

I would have thought brand identity would be a consideration, but apparently Grab has multiple teams and each team made its own UI decisions.

That doesn't strike me as a good idea.

Ellison-backed med tech startup Project Ronin closes doors

Re: Priorities

Doctors. You used to have the village doctor, an aged, experienced man who knew everybody and treated everyone with equal care and attention.

Now, you have young wolves who are more interested in the number of patients they see per hour than actually solving problems.

I live in a small French village. My doctor of reference (because, in France, you now have to declare your preferred doctor - viva la Revoluçion) retired during COVID, handing her patient record over to a young male doctor. I recently learned that she had taken back her practice, and was, once again, treating patients, although she kept herself to patients that already had on record.

I can understand that. She's over 70. She doesn't need more stress.

In any case, I recently had occasion to reserve a time slot (an interview ? an exam ?) with my old preferred doctor. I returned to her as soon as I knew she was once again consulting. She knows me, she knows everything about me, and I trust her.

That's more than I can say about her "replacement".

And when I got to her practice, a quarter of an hour early - as usual, I got another confirmation of how right I was. There was a young man waiting (disclaimer : I'm 58 this year - he was no more than 30). We exchanged some polite pleasantries, and he said that he much preferrend waiting an hour in her waiting room rather than going to her younger replacement.

He told me that her replacement had given him a stay in hospital for his lack of proper diagnostic, and he would never see that one again.

I fear the loss of the the village doctor's experience. The doctor who could accurately predict the date of birth of a pregnant woman. The doctor who never failed to visit at 11 P.M. in case of emergency. The doctor who always seemed wise and reassuring, and whose prescriptions were bound to help you.

I fear we have collectively lost that to the commercialization of health care. To doctors who care more about seeing as many patients in an hour as they can, rather that the doctor who actually wants to get to know you, and better prescribe what you need.

I don't know what the solution is.

Updates are plenty but fans are few in Windows 11 land

"Copilot remains a technology to keep an eye on"

Yes, indeed. Any reincarnation of Clippy needs to be erased, preferably with a flamethrower.

There is nothing AI from Brokzilla that can benefit anyone but Borkzilla.

Re: MS are seriously out of touch with how Windows is used in small/medium enterprise

No, it is you who are seriously out of touch with how Borkzilla deems you should be running your IT infrastructure.

Thanks for the tip.

Hope that doesn't get reversed by Redmond !

Health system network turned out to be a house of cards – Cisco cards, that is

I say kudos to the "junior person".

Apparently, he was the only one to control that the job had had the expected outcome.

Sorry, but it doesn't say much of all the "experts".

That said, I learned that lesson the hard way as well . . .

Well, there's nothing like proof something need to be done . . .

Cruise's valuation halved after its driverless car hit and dragged a woman

"We've always sought to give users helpful, accurate, and unbiased information in our products"

Yeah. Well, making the Founding Fathers black is really going to rock the boat on that score.

The real question is : how much other information is going to be biased and transformed with Google AI ?

After all, bias can go both ways. Either you show the truth, or you don't.

And if you don't, you can't be trusted. Cleopatra wasn't black, however much some people in Hollywood would like to think.

Legal eagles demand $6B in Tesla stock after overturning Musk's mega pay package

US lawyers

They are a species that is in dire need of becoming endangered.

So you spent a few hundred hours preparing and presenting a case ? That does not justify $300K/hour in any way, shape or form. You did your fucking job, and for that you should be paid no more than your already exorbitant $1000/hour fee.

This is ambulance chasing at its finest. I certainly do not support His Muskiness in any way, but these scum need to be put down. Period.

India demands beta AIs secure government permission before going public

"labelling deepfakes with permanent unique metadata or other identifiers"

I really wonder how that will work reliably. I imagine that some kind of watermark will be visible on the video, likely not in the middle. So, if it is at the bottom or along a side, anyone who cares can just crop the watermark out and republish the video without it. If the watermark is on the top, that would likely risk cropping the person's head and that would rather severely impact the efficiency of the deepfake, so maybe the watermark should be on the top.

But, given that I have no idea what the identifiers are supposed to be, I might just be spouting nonsense.

LockBit's contested claim of fresh ransom payment suggests it's been well hobbled

Ah, SolarWinds123

With security like that, you don't need to be a hacker to get in.

French cloud Scaleway starts renting Alibaba's RISC-V SoC

Wow, what a deal

"Les Services BETA peuvent être modifiés, suspendus ou définitivement interrompus par SCALEWAY sans préavis et sans que ceci ne donne le droit au Client à une quelconque indemnité."

Meaning the service can be suspended or cancelled without warning and without penality for Scaleway.

So you've got it only as long as Scaleway can be arsed to let you have it, and if it fails, it's your problem.

And to think that there are numpties who will really think they're getting a good deal for their production environment.

HDMI Forum 'blocks AMD open sourcing its 2.1 drivers'

Wel, given that that is exactly what it was meant to do, then it's a success, isn't it ?

Re: HDMI is dead

And that is all it deserves.

The content nazis can go fuck themselves.

EU-turn! Now Apple says it won't banish Home Screen web apps in Europe

"We have received requests"

Oh, so that's all you need ? Requests ? Not even many requests, just requests.

Okay then, here's another request : make your smartphone batteries user-replaceable, please.

There, you've got the request. When will that happen ? Never ? So there's more to it than just requests. Probably the fact that shutting down an entire continent of a market might make your money pile grow a bit slower.

Methinks that is more likely to be the cause.

The batteries on Odysseus, the hero private Moon lander, have run out

"Our now proven robust lunar program"

Now proven ? You've launched one mission and it landed on its side. That doesn't sound very proven to me.

But hey, nothing like tootin' your own horn, right ?

Judge orders NSO to cough up Pegasus super-spyware source code

"It has helped to save thousands of lives over recent years."

Really ?

Prove it.

Incoming wave of AI is making buying PCs riskier for businesses

Nobody needs to buy an AI PC

But Borkzilla, Chipzilla & co need to sell AI PCs on the understanding that more cores, more GHz and more pixels is soo last millenium, so the only thing that marketing can think of to lure in the bait customer is now AI.

I'm sure that, by the time AI has tired itself out in marketing eyes, quantum will be the Next Best Thing^TM.

But what will come after that ? I'm guessing marketing will have an apocalypse moment then.

Cops visit school of 'wrong person's child,' mix up victims and suspects in epic data fail

"thankfully these data errors are incredibly infrequent"

Yes. I'm sure that is quite reassuring for the people who do become victims of such errors.

They undoubtedly console themselves by thinking how absolutely infrequent such errors are.

Especially when the error is brought to light, and police forces continue to confuse them for months afterwards.

Stack Overflow to charge LLM developers for access to its coding content

"traffic to Stack Overflow has steadily dropped over time"

And that will continue in inverse relation with just how much Stack Overflow considers itself a money-making tool versus a public utility.

The more Stack orients itself towards making money and locking down its content, the less people will go to it.

Tek Tips is a site that has never changed its objective : being useful to the public. It has competent people in every one of its forums, and I have never had a bad experience on that site.

Stack, on the other hand, has form in restricting its content unless you pay, thereby declaring its basic intent. Stack is not my first choice destination to solve a problem I might have.

Companies flush money down the drain with overfed Kubernetes cloud clusters

"analysis of more than 4,000 clusters [..] prior to optimization"

Sure. It's called hindsight.

Once the project is rolling in production, it's easy to know what resources you need after a while.

It's a lot more difficult to forecast what you need before the project is started, especially when you have no experience managing projects in the cloud.

Companies will adjust their resources soon enough - the beancounters will see to that.

Vietnam may ban virtual assets to fix its bad rep for money laundering

"regulate virtual assets"

All assets are virtual these days. Since COVID, I have touched actual, physical money less than half a dozen times. Funny money does nothing to improve on that.

Meta kills Facebook News in the US and Australia

The Beaverton

Thanks for the tip. I've checked it out and now, it's bookmarked.

NTT boss takes early retirement to atone for data leak

Taking the fall

So he's resigning because of something (one of) his predecessor(s) did ?

Wow. our CEOs over here really have it good. Most of them wouldn't resign even when they did screw up. Those who do resign are mostly made to do so by the Board.

Honor ? Yeah, they've read about it.

Water worries flood in as chip industry and AI models grow thirstier

Re: I've said many times that...

So have I.

It would have been so much more reasonable to build fabs in the area of the Great Lakes. You know, where there's water ?

Yeah, but the tax breaks were not as good, apparently.

Fine. I'll just wait for the day where you have to shut down your precious fabs because the Colorado River is dry and you can't continue production. At the rythm it's being drained, that won't take so long.

And, at that point, you can kiss your tax breaks, and your ass, good bye.

And you deserve that.

Electronic Arts frags hundreds of workers 'to grow fandom'

"now Electronic Arts is letting workers go"

I'm really sorry, but anyone working for EA, given it's history, is just asking for the pain.