Posts by Pascal Monett

US 'considering' end to Assange prosecution bid

"the seven years he spent holed up in Ecuador's London embassy"

The souvenir of which Ecuador's ambassador is still desperately trying to drown out in alcohol . . .

Netherlands arm of KPMG fined $25M for cheating in exams

Re: Why do companies think that taking shortcuts is a good thing?

Because, in the short term, it works.

And in the long term, your high-level MBA will have already moved on to wreck another company.

Hilarious

"failing to prevent its financial auditors from cheating on exams "

What I note is not that KPMG failed to prevent cheating, it is that KPMG's auditors cheated en masse.

Goes a long way to say just how reliable their auditors are . . .

Boffins deem Google DeepMind's material discoveries rather shallow

Put your ear to the woodwork. The bugs are positively crawling in that space and, if you go to LinkedIn, the sound is deafening.

Digital Realty ditches diesel for salad dressing in US to cut datacenter emissions

"nitrogen and particulate emissions are said to be almost the same"

Is that really a disadvantage ?

Some bad things are greatly reduced, some bad things aren't, but they're not increased either. Honestly, I'm tired of seeing these everything-isn't-perfect kind of comments. So it's not perfect. It's still better.

And it recycles already used oils, which, in my opinion, is even better.

Broadcom has willingly dug its VMware hole, says cloud CEO

I disagree.

That may be how today's MBA types think, but there is a saying in French : ce sont les rivières qui font les fleuves, which can be loosely translated as it's the little streams that makes great rivers.

if you are willing to cut off all the little streams, your greate river is going to fail.

I don't know how to to teach that to the business suits, though.

CHIPS Act hangover sees most US science agency budgets cut for 2024

Wait a minute

The military gets more than it asked for ? It has already asked for as much as it thought it could get away with, and they give more ?

Content yourselves with giving what was asked for, you'll have more to give others who need it.

Huawei Cloud reveals the dynamic traffic allocation system it uses to cut bandwidth bills

10 times the peak bandwidth ?

I think that's going to open some eyes at Redmond (and elsewhere).

Who knows ? Maybe Huawei will accept meeting with Western engineers and sharing the technique ?

Microsoft brings World of Warcraft and other Blizzard titles back to China

"games from within the Middle Kingdom"

Why would I want to install an executable from a country that is well known for autocratic surveillance and theft of industrial secrets ?

I'm already battling with Google's insatiable appetite for data, I don't need to Xi Ping's hunger as well.

Notepad++ dev slams Google-clogging notepad.plus 'parasite'

Re: Hurrah for Notepad++

I second that. Anytime I have to deal with a new Windows install (God how I am tired with that), Notepad++ is on my shortlist of things to install post-haste, in order to get the best tools at my fingertips.

I am glad to see that this leech has been dealt with.

Post Office slapped down for late disclosure of documents in Horizon scandal inquiry

"Sixty people died before just seeing any sort of justice served"

That is the point that should be relentlessy repeated.

This is not your run-of-the-mill failed Government IT operation where the higher-ups get their honours and move on, and the public pays the bill and shuts up.

No, this is an abject failure of government where the higher-ups literally walked on the corpses of honest people just trying to do their job for Queen and Country.

The fallout on this should be ruthless and profound. There is no excuse for the Old Boy's Club here.

UK businesses shockingly unaware of how to handle security threats

"It flies in the face of common sense"

Yup.

Time to redefine "common" sense, 'cause it ain't so common no more.

Palantir and Oracle buddy up on cloud infrastructure

Palantir and Oracle

Why am I not surprised that the sleaziest companies in IT somehow manage to always forge alliances ?

Reform of USA's Section 702 spying rule may make it to a vote this week

Being a privacy advocate in the US

That must be like being Sisyphus. You toil all day to push that stone up the hill, and you wake up the next morning to find the stone back where it was, with Big Money silently giggling behind your back.

Solar eclipse darkened skies, dampened internet traffic

"Plenty of whom went offline to gawk at the celestial dance"

Of course they did. I was in Luxembourg City last time there was an eclipse there. I saw daylight turn into darkness, went outside and experience the sudden drop in temperature and the silence. Even the birds were hushed.

It was an awesome experience and I readily understand that Humanity was terrified by it.

TSMC scores $11.6B funding infusion for Arizona fabs, now plans for third plant

Great idea

Yay ! Another water-guzzling plant in a place which is singularly devoid of water without the Colorado river, which just happens to be over-used and drying out due to climate change.

What could possibly go wrong ?

Hint : Tax breaks do not an industry make.

Shadow of Trump hangs over future EU-US tech collaboration

"No concrete action appears to have been decided"

Well duh, it's just administrative busybodies that are making themselves look busy.

Given the state of US politics, it's certain that any actual decision or accord made now stands every chance to be overturned if the OHSG get re-elected. He did, after all, decide to flush the existing Paris accords down the drain. He doesn't give a shit about previous engagements.

Cloud vendor lock-in is shocking, but there's a get out of jail card

"second-source can do the same for the cloud"

I have my doubts on that point.

The way I see market conditions these days, having an open-source based second-source supplier that becomes successful is going to entail two things :

1) open-source developers are going to attack the company to get what they consider is their "fair share" of the spoils, and

2) AWS, Azure or any other multi-billion behemoth is going to lavish the company board in boatloads of billions to buy them out, and they will fold

So, short or medium term, any successful open-source-based company with big government contracts is going to disappear, either because of lawsuits, or because of bagfulls of money.

Return to step one.

Re: UK meet Sweden

Yeah but Sweden is the exception to all the rules. It is a country that is consistently doing everything right, but nobody wants to follow its example because the Old Boy's Club of all other countries would lose its privileges.

Change Healthcare faces second ransomware dilemma weeks after ALPHV attack

"It's a stark reminder"

It's almost a mistake, PR-wise. Indeed, now the scum have demonstrated publicly, in less than a month, that they will go back after targets that have previously paid up.

Boards everywhere should be paying attention here. You get hit, you'll get hit again if you pay.

Stop paying. It's the only solution.

Once you've secured your network properly, that is.

Engine cover flies from Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 during takeoff

Re: Yeeeek

So all you've got is an Airbus incident that is 25 years old.

Compared to the way too many Boeing incidents since the Max was thrust down everyone's throats.

Sorry, I still prefer Airbus.

"Our maintenance teams are reviewing the aircraft"

And our Board is looking into acquiring Airbus planes for added safety.

Head of Israeli cyber spy unit exposed ... by his own privacy mistake

Re: "9% of them do so within three days"

I understand your point however, there is a caveat : when the police arrest them, or they get a ticket, they KNOW they've done wrong.

"9% of them do so within three days"

I take that as a clear indication that there is a non-negligible portion of users who clearly need a permit to demonstrate that they understand what they're working with, because right now, they don't.

Given that computers and the Internet are becoming central parts of our working and personal lives, what with government portals being the way forward, it seems that a Computing License should be just as mandatory as the driver's license is.

Somehow, I doubt we'll ever get there.

Liquid cooling specialist snags Microsoft datacenter wizard as advisor

Advising here, advising there

Pretty soon you're talking real salary.

Nice job if you can get it.

Google sues app devs, claims they're Play Store crypto scammers with 100k+ victims

"an injunction to prevent [them] from ever accessing Google services again"

Um, how exactly is that supposed to work ? It's not like you give your name and address when you use a browser.

They'll always be able to sign up for a new gmail account under a fake name, that's not controlled either.

So this injunction is just legal waffling. I don't see how it can be enforced, especially when the culprits aren't on US soil.

Tough luck, bosses, AI is coming for your job, too

What if ?

"what if organizations shared worker metrics data from AI management systems and that influenced future hiring decisions involving said workers"

In a world where installing a tattletale in your car to radio your insurance about how you drive, supposedly to lower your insurance bill, is becoming common practice, that is not a what-if scenario.

It is blindingly obvious that any AI management system will automatically and almost immediately be taken by upper management as criteria for advancement, not to mention continued employment.

Whether that will be a good thing or not, well, I guess that depends on what your current management feels like to you.

Academics probe Apple's privacy settings and get lost and confused

"it's written in legalese"

So, documentation written by lawyers.

If that is not proof that we're going to Hell in a handbasket, I don't know what is.

Techie saved the day and was then criticized for the fix

Sounds like management all right

Doesn't know the specifics of the hardware, doesn't care why the server was down or the aircon had failed to restart properly, but knows just enough about your department to blame you for everything.

Typical.

German state ditches Windows, Microsoft Office for Linux and LibreOffice

Re: Wish them the very best

Except that, if it doesn't work like Outlook, they'll be screaming bloody murder.

Re: making the use of libre office mandatory

But, management needs those sexy Excel charts !

Re: Maybe just give Linux and open-source apps to those wiith nimble brains and aptitude

Um, you do realize we're talking government employees ?

If they had nimble minds and aptitude, they'd be working in the private sector.

As far as I can see, this is just another large boast by a German state, which will be followed by close "negociations" by Borkzilla and will end up in everyone adopting Windows 12 and Office 2025. For a price that the German citizen will find on his taxes so, who cares ?

Ethernet advances will end Nvidia's InfiniBand lead in AI networks

Pseudo-AI and the datacenter really are moving tech along

I just checked the specs on my motherboard : I still have PCIe 3 and DDR4. PCIe 6 is starting to get out. My home router is GB-capable, but not 100GB capable.

Not that it would matter, the Ethernet ports on my equipment are only GB-capable anyway.

I wonder if I will see all this bandwidth goodness on my home PC one day . . .

Microsoft thinks bundles are great and customers love them

Re: Will we be wooed by a refreshingly honest Microsoft?[1]

If ever the day comes when Borkzilla appears to me to actually be honest without any hidden agenda, I'll check myself into a clinic to search for signs of Alzheimers or an aneurysm.

Nearly 1M medical records feared stolen from City of Hope cancer centers

"Is there no cure"

Yes, there is.

Cut the lines to Russia and China, which will also cut off North Korea.

Problem solved.

Of course, I'm not expecting that to happen any time soon.

UK government sets sights on £8B tech procurement overhaul

So it's raining money again

Would it be possible that something has actually been planned this time ?

Nah, there will be overruns, Capita, Fujitsu and others will make like bandits, and the citizen will once again have to deal with unsatisfactory results.

Unless I'm wrong, which I hope, but as far as UK Government IT is concerned, I'm not expecting much else.

Could someone point to a project that was delivered on spec, on time and in budget ? Just curious.

Alibaba signs to explore one-hour rocket deliveries

NORAD is going to love this - not

If (big if there) this ever happens, NORAD will go nuts trying to differentiate delivery rockets from ICBMs.

That'll be fun -->

Meet clickjacking's slicker cousin, 'gesture jacking,' aka 'cross window forgery'

Press and hold

Give me one example of a legitimate web site asking the user to do such a thing.

I can't think of any.

So anytime I see those words, I'm shutting down my browser and launching a full AV analysis of my machine.

Thanks for the tip.

Lawsuit claims Meta hobbled Facebook Watch to help Netflix

Advertiser catfight !

Who cares who wins ?

No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

"Businesses only obey the bottom line"

Except in China, where businesses obey the party line because otherwise the CEO disappears for a few months and comes back very humble indeed.

There is some good to be said about Chinese government . . .

Polish officials may face criminal charges in Pegasus spyware probe

It would be nice to think that this is Democracy in motion

Unfortunately, there's every chance that it is just the elimination of political rivals.

Do I sound cynical ?

Microsoft Teams decouples from Office 365 suite globally

"The Coalition for Fair Software [..] backed by Google and AWS"

This kind of shenanigans should be illegal.

It is morally dishonest to front a so-called non-profit group for the sole purpose of destroying your competitor.

Google will delete data collected from 'private' browsing

Re: what? where?

Of course. You don't think that Google (or any other massive conglomerate) is going to see a lawsuit in one country and think "oh, we'd better apply the consequences to the rest of the world as well before they wake up", now do you ?

If the rest of the world wants the same thing, they can sue in their own countries. One by one. Only if a dozen important countries (market-wise, obviously) start the same procedure at roughly the same time would any multi-billion dollar company trot out a statement where it will apply consequences globally, but that is only to diminish the number of lawsuits it'll have to pay for to get the same result.

It's always a question of return on investment. Multi-billionaire business basics 101 : investing in lawsuits works until the number of lawsuits outrun the amount of money that can be made in that way.

Apple's GoFetch silicon security fail was down to an obsession with speed

Am I glad I'm not that close to the metal

It is insane to realize just how complex things are when you're at machine code level. There are really intelligent people out there and it is humbling to realize that, as good as I may deem myself in my specialty, I don't hold a candle to the minds that can not only handle this level of programming, but also extract the proper conclusions and pull the whistle when things aren't going right.

My respects to those who can do this level of code analysis.

Japan's moon lander sparks joy by making it through a second lunar night

Yes, I support JAXA

Space is hard, and the best of intentions don't always cut mustard. It's a shame that the lander didn't land properly, but it's not called rocket science for nothing. There will be lessons learned here (contrary to business boardrooms).

US House of Reps tells staff: No Microsoft Copilot for you!

Not surprising

The only thing that is surprising is that US Government hasn't directed its IT to globally block access to that thing.

The EU Parliament blocked OneDrive from its Office 2010 version on grounds that it didn't want internal documents floating about on Borkzilla's US servers. I would be very surprised if this kind of thing was deemed acceptable by any responsible government anywhere.

I'm guessing banks will be at the forefront of demonstrating just what it is they consider reliable for the security of their customers. Maybe government institutions should align themselves more on that . . .

TSMC boss says one-trillion transistor GPU is possible by early 2030s

So, Intel will be first

Of course it will. Until it isn't.

Intel hasn't been first since a while. I wish Gelsinger all the luck, but Intel's build performance has been lackluster for more than a few years now.

Wait and see.

Why Microsoft's Copilot will only kinda run locally on AI PCs for now

Now wait a minute

You're telling me that, if I get a Windows AI PC, I will be using Borkzilla's cloudy thingy whether I want to or not. Okay, got it.

Now, tell me that I will not be paying for the privilege with a monthly subscription, because I don't think that Borkzilla is going to plan to serve up all that cloudy goodness I never asked for for nothing.

You break it, you ... run away and hope somebody else fixes it

The mainframe stopped

Back in those days, you didn't just restart and forget. In those days, there would have been a forensic investigation as to why and, given that it was a mainframe and not a sloppy Windows server, they would have found something.

I wonder what conclusion they came to.

Do not touch that computer. Not even while wearing gloves. It is a biohazard

Tires are black because they are dyed that way.

I did consulting a good while at Goodyear. They can make tires of practically any color if you ask. Obviously, white tires won't stay white very long, but I did see a set of blue tires at one point.