Posts by Pascal Monett

Tesla's latest Autopilot safety patch hits 1.6M Chinese vehicles

Agreed. That's not much of a recall. In any case, it is far from being required to get every car into a dealer shop for updating.

It's just another Borkzilla Tuesday, basically.

SpaceX snaps back at US labor board's complaint, calling it 'unconstitutional'

"SpaceX has sued America's National Labor Relations Board"

Good luck with that.

Huawei finally gives up on US schmoozing efforts

"it may have given up"

I think Huawei is right. For the USA, China has taken the Soviet Union's place (given the Putin has demonstrated how weak Russia actually is). It doesn't matter that Huawei is a private company, it's Chinese, and the White House has a problem with anything Chinese (except when it comes to inexpensive tat to be sold in its stores).

It's hilarious to read that the US considers Huawei a security threat because Huawei is "beholden to Beijing", when any company in the US is subject to National Security letters which, technically, means that they are "beholden to the USA". I'm still waiting for the pics of motherboards with that special chip that phones home to Beijing.

Hypocrisy for the win.

Microsoft pulls the plug on WordPad, the world's least favorite text editor

Re: Word Processor?

Notepad++ does that and much more.

I will not regret WordPad. I will not regret Notepad. Borkzilla has spent billions on pie-in-the-sky failures, but improving basic tools is not part of its preoccupations.

Thank God for open source contributors who do a much better job.

Windows keyboards to get a Copilot key – but how quickly will users jump?

You need to ask the question ?

How quickly will I jump ? I will jump as fast as I can - away from it.

Here's a thought, Nadella : how about you suggest to everyone to modify the standard Windows keyboard to include, for example, six new keys disposed vertically on the left-hand side of the keyboard - keys that are user-definable. And provide a program that allows the user to choose what sequence of keys, or what pre-determined function the user could assign to which one of those keys. You could then include "Launch CoPilot" as one of the possible options.

Wouldn't that be revolutionary ? Wouldn't that be empowering the user ? (hint: Logitech has already done it).

Oh, silly me. You don't want to empower the user. You just want to empower your bonuses.

As lawmakers mull outlawing poor security, what can they really do to tackle online gangs?

Now wait a minute

"There is also the genuine possibility that the hard work infosec has done to promote a culture of transparency is wholly undone. Attacks could once again be hidden from the public and authorities, and payments continue to flow, but more quietly."

Didn't they say the same thing about it being illegal to pay kidnapper's ransom ?

They still made it illegal.

It worked.

Formal ban on ransomware payments? Asking orgs nicely to not cough up ain't working

"$1.5 million to rectify"

Sure. All private businesses have that kind of cash on hand and in reserve just for that. Oh, you're counting lost business as well ? And adding stock devaluation ?

Of course. Anything and everything to sweeten the pot so you can go before the camera with thundering figures and impress everyone.

Sure, there are intrusions that cost a million or two in equipemt and man-hours to rectify, but I hardly think that that is an average figure.

Then again, if that's what it takes for businesses to sit up, pay attention and start actually protecting their data and procedures, well, carry on then.

Crypto-crook Sam Bankman-Fried spared a second trial

"a line of credit of up to $65 billion dollars"

That alone is a clear sign of how badly managed funny money is. I seriously doubt that there is any honest crypto scheme that could possibly build up to that amount of money.

Of course, I seriously doubt that there is any honest crypto scheme, but that is another matter . . .

While you holidayed, Microsoft brought Copilot to mobile devices, again

Re: a standard older than most left-pond cities

I'm guessing that's why it is obscure . . .

UK government lays out plan to divert people's broken gizmos from landfill

"financed by the hardware producers rather than the taxpayer"

So it will be financed by the customers.

We all know that companies pass along their costs. They really can't do otherwise. The only thing they can do is diminish their margins and I'm not sure a company making XMas lights has a lot of margin to squeeze.

A ship carrying 800 tonnes of Li-Ion batteries caught fire. What could possibly go wrong?

"its crew handled the situation admirably"

I'm glad they did, but I suspect they're ever happier than I am. After all, they were the ones in the middle of the sea with a bonfire risk under their feet. Had those batteries all gone off, we would be reading of another ocean tragedy during the holiday season.

So good for them ! And good for whoever trained them.

Scientists mull Solar Radiation Management – a potential climate-change stop-gap

Re: CO2 absorption by iron fertilisation of the oceans

Yes. Great idea. Let's go modify our oceans just like we've modified our air in the last two centuries.

What could possibly go wrong ?

Clue : check out Australia and our wonderful history of introducing foreign animals into an ecosystem and what the consequences were there.

We need to stop shitting our bed and start cleaning up our act.

If we want to stay alive as a species, that is.

You might remember that scientists are working on fusion ?

And they are making progress ?

‘I needed antihistamine tablets every time I opened the computers’

Ah, Mythbusters. Great show. Always ends with a bang ;)

New York Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft over 'millions of articles' used to train ChatGPT

Big Money going after Bigger Money

Don't be fooled, it's all about money. True, NYT can claim the moral high ground, but it's still all about money.

We need a Mr Moneybags icon. Or maybe a Scrooge McDuck icon.

Infosys loses ten-year, $1.5 billion contract announced just three months ago

Re: he doesn't get to wage steal their hard work right into his checking account

Isn't that called Justice ?

30 years and still sunbathing: SOHO probe continues work as a space weatherman

Re: There are plans

I'm sure there are. Planning doesn't cost much.

But when those plans include replacing a bunch of stuff by a bunch of other, more solar-flare-resistant stuff that costs x times more, I'm guessing that those plans are still at the discussion phase.

Because you need to show me one, just one, example of some for-profit company that spent money to prevent a problem that might happen next century.

They don't do that. They spend money on shit that happened and prevents them from making more money. That's how it works.

How the tech toy century has troubled Santa's sack

"what Santa might be bringing 20 years from now"

A bottle of mineral water, a solar charger and iodine pills ?

ESA's Mars Express continues to avoid retirement home

NASA, again, proves its worth

I'm going to say it : there isn't a single successful NASA project that hasn't outlived it's projected mission time by a factor of at least two.

Sure, when probes crash land instead of touching down, it's curtains for the mission. NASA has had its share, and other agencies have also learned the hard way. Because space is hard.

But if that bird gets to its planned orbit, or touches down intact, then you can bet your entire fortune that the mission will outlive its initial parameters by a large margin, one that would have the golden boys on Wall Street salivating.

Of course, such a level of engineering in our everyday objects is unthinkable. Who would want a toaster that could last a hundred years ? Who would pay the price for such a thing ?

Hey wait, I would.

Go Science ! Go NASA ! Merry XMas and a very Happy New year to all ! (we need a Santa icon)

Iranian cyberspies target US defense orgs with a brand new backdoor

"Moscow [..] won the battle"

What a surprise. With Washington, all you risk is a mail expressing disapproval, whereas with Moscow, you risk an entirely friendly "special military operation".

Not that Putin has the means to open a second front, but it's Kazakhstan. It already belongs to the Russian Federation. So no tanks, just an envoi and a 9mm bullet.

So yeah, extradite to Moscow, that way Kislitsin can get back to work right after Christmas.

Windows 12: Savior of PC makers, or just an apology for Windows 11?

Windows 12 ?

Anybody remember when Borkzilla declared that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows ?

Anyone ?

Because Redmond sure doesn't.

So, how do you trust a company that can't remember its own promises ?

Cyber sleuths reveal how they infiltrate the biggest ransomware gangs

Fascinating insights

Just one question : what keeps those scum from reading this article and drawing some conclusions for their own benefit ?

They're not stupid. We're way past script kiddies, these days. These are intelligent scum. They can analyse data.

This is data. Are you not giving them them keys to better protect themselves ?

Don't get me wrong, I'm very interested in finding out how the scum are taken down, but I think there's a reason why the police doesn't reveal their methods. This article seems, to me, to reveal methods.

So I ask : is this article really a good idea ?

Bricking it: Do you actually own anything digital?

Re: When does something become truly "owned"?

When it's in my library.

That's MY book. You don't touch it until I give you permission.

BOFH: The Christmas party was so good, an independent inquiry is required

Yeah but, incredibly, they seem pretty happy with themselves.

Intel trims a few hundred workers in Cali just in time for Christmas

"These are difficult decisions"

Ho ho hoo. Sure they are.

They're just in time to ensure bigger management bonuses.

Merry XMas !

Artificial intelligence is a liability

"Artificial intelligence, meaning" . .

Meaning marketing bullshit invented by people that couldn't invent a way out of a paper bag if their life depended on it.

We don't have AI. All we have is vast arrays of climante-change-inducing silicon that obey the rules of statistical engineers in a black box that makes the ignorati exclaim "marvellous !".

Agreed. I don't care that civil lawsuits will follow. Two lives have been lost due to the carelessness of an imbecile.

He should be jailed for life.

At the very least.

Why Nvidia and AMD are roasting each other over AI performance claims

"benchmarking shenanigans"

AMD and Nvidia have been at that schoolyard game since forever. Tech sites have long learned to point out how either present their performance in the best possible light, such as showing a bar graph with a vast difference between competitors, but the graph doesn't start at 0. If you take a look at the numbers, you see that marketing avoided doing that because otherwise the bar graph would have shown just a pixel or two better. And other such sleight-of-underhand methods where neither of these companies come out looking honest.

Something nasty injected login-stealing JavaScript into 50K online banking sessions

I think the only real solution for Joe User is to deal with a bank that uses MFA.

My bank gives me a website, but I also have a keyfob that presents me with a OTP. To log in, I have to input my credentials and password, then I need the OTP.

If a miscreant manages to fool me via email to let him install stuff on my PC, when I log into my bank account, he'll get my credentials and password, but he won't get the keyfob, so my access is still secure.

The one thing I do not do is access my account from my smartphone. I do not care giving my bank data to a platform that can be remotely hijacked via a simple SMS I don't even have to read.

Data loss prevention isn't rocket science, but NASA hasn't made it work in Microsoft 365

Re: all they really required to pass audit

Ah, the beauty of auditing. You can get certified and flaunt that, but when disaster actually strikes, you'll be running around like headless chickens (and just as useful).

The advantage of being on The Board is that you can decide just how much you want to be bothered by procedures. The disadvantage is that it will be difficult to find someone else to blame when the chips are down. And if you do find a scapegoat, there's a fair chance that your faulty procedures will find a way to get published, which will demonstrate just how incompetent you are.

And the next audit might be a bit more harsh.

Re: Complex Things

Human politics is simple : someone is always trying to screw over someone else.

Europe classifies three adult sites as worthy of its toughest internet regulations

So, a few porn sites are now VLOPs

I think this is a right move. Obviously, porn sites are a magnet for a large part of the (male) population, and I'm guessing that the 15-18 bracket is not insignificant. If I'm not mistaken, porn sites are already putting up a popup requiring that you are of age, but obviously there is no verification yet. I don't see that being a VLOP is going to change that. The regulations concern security, privacy and consumer safety, not age verification.

Obviously, age verification could be added for porn sites.

That'll throw a spanner in the works !

Singapore wants datacenters, clouds, regulated like critical infrastructure

Interesting

When will Singapore start considering operating systems as critical parts of digital information management ?

That's going to have an interesting effect on Microsoft . . .

Biden urged to do something about Europe 'unfairly' targeting American tech

"ultimately makes America less globally competitive and less secure"

Less globally competitive = less able to run roughshod over other people's rules. Yeah, I agree. You're competitive enough, I think. It's already all about you.

Less secure ? Beg your pardon ? What does your security have to do with our right to police your wanton data mining ?

Pakistani politician deepfakes himself to deliver a speech from behind bars

It had to happen some day, I guess, and now it has. And indeed, this is liable to become a political tool to wreak havoc with the opposition. However, in democratic countries, even being a politician does not grant you immunity from libel cases if you put words in someone else's mouth, and your opponent will pounce on you if you try (and he'll win). So doing it openly is a big no-no, but that doesn't mean that covert machinations are impossible to realize.

After all, a well-known politician who specializes in nothing but demonizing his opponents to the everlasting joy of his base only needs to drop a hint and at least some of them will rush to realize a deepfake of their "hated" opponent saying ugly things.

It will happen, the only question is when.

Beijing demands government apps must shed their bureaucratic skins

Beijing should check out Luxembourg

The Luxembourg government portal Guichet.lu is exactly what Beijing is looking for, apparently. From getting my commercial authorization as a freelance, to handling my yearly income tax procedure, whatever I need administratively for Luxembourg, I go there to get it done.

A good idea done right.

Apple's easiest to replace battery is in... an iMac

"twice as repairable"

Twice of not much is still not much.

Google Groups ditches links to Usenet, the OG social network

"binary (non-text) file sharing"

Is that the new designation of pirated content ?

Halley's Comet has begun its long trek back toward Earth

"Scientists believe Halley has been around at least 16,000 years"

After 16000 years of losing mass to the Sun's stellar wind and energy, I would think that Halley's comet doesn't have much more mass to lose so spectacularly.

Anyone know its mass ? There must be loads of ice on it, but there can't be 16000 more years of ice left. How much longer can it have ?

Shame about those wildfires. We'll just let the fossil fuel giants off the hook, then?

Re: This is a natural phenomenon

Yes. Death is also a natural phenomenon.

So basically you're saying that people being killed by guns is not a problem ?

Because that "natural phenomenon" is something we've been seriously contributing to for the past few centuries.

Um, there is nuclear energy. Thorium reactors are fail-safe solutions that produce energy reliably.

Might want to look into that while we wait for fusion.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto stolen after Ledger code poisoned

"someone slipped malicious code into one of its JavaScript libraries"

Thank $Deity that there are still courageous warriors to stick it to The Man. Of course, mishaps will happen, but it is worth it to avoid the Eye of Sauron government.

Instead, you're exposed to the eye of every hacker in the world and, since you don't have the required experience, you get hacked.

Unlike actual banks.

But hey, you keep fighting the fight. Whatever.

Very butthurt, apparently.

Probably lost some funny money there. Maybe even real money.

SpaceX cleared to test satellite phone service via Starlink

"approximately 60 of which will be serving handsets in the US"

that is, as long as His Muskiness allows US citizens to do so.

If ever they start dissing him too much, or if Putin asks him to, he is clearly liable to cut off the service without warning.

Last Vega rocket launch delayed over fuel tank vanishing act

"they were accidentally scrapped and crushed"

So, I deduct that absolutely nobody responsible was present when it was decided to do the "renovation".

Another case of right hand doesn't know what left hand is doing.

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

Re: Question

At the beginning of the whole Regomization thing, I proposed that every On Call hero should just be called Brian, but, for some reason, it was ignored.

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.

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 !