Posts by Pascal Monett

Fujitsu gets $1B market cap haircut after TV disaster drama airs

Let's set things straight

Yes, Fujitsu has a share of responsibility, but let's keep it real. Given the shambles that UK government IT projects has been since, well, forever, I'm not convinced that putting Fujitsu at the pillory is an entirely justified approach.

UK Gov is entirely incapable of managing NHS, hardly any of its IT projects are on time and on budget (or even just choose one), so it follows that this project was a shambles from the start, like so many others.

The difference here, and the very unpleasant part, is that there are innocent people who actually lost their lives to a government IT project failure. Someone should indeed be held responsible, but I doubt that Fujitsu should be the only one to blame.

Google is changing how search results appear for EU citizens

"opting out of linking services could result in limited functionality"

Yes. I understand that, and I accept that.

What I want is the choice. Let me see what I get when you're not raping my personal life first. If that's not good enough, then I'll think about giving you more, but it will become my choice, my privilege.

My decision, not yours.

Asia beat US, EU in chip building because the West didn't invest, Intel CEO claims

The West didn't invest

And why that ?

Because The West was interested in having their chips made for less, so that their margins would be better.

So yeah, COVID has taught the industry a few lessons : greed is bad and don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Now to see how long it will take to forget that . . .

IBM overhauls rewards program for staff inventions, wipes away cash points

"potential bonuses"

The keyword is "potential".

As in, you keep on working, one day, you might see something.

Unless you're fired for being too old first . . .

IBM. It has hit bedrock, now it's digging.

Re: start your own business

Yeah, sure. Great idea. And, as you soon as you start garnering success and accolades, get targeted by Big Tech in lawsuits and lose everything.

Great perspective.

The 'nothing-happened' Y2K bug – how the IT industry worked overtime to save world's computers

I'll not argue about Y2K, I was there

I spent over a year reviewing client databases to certify that they would be Y2K-compliant.

If you think that that work was worth nothing, you're welcome to your opinion.

Re: Next time I dig up a WW2 munition, I’m going to give it a good shake and a rap with a hammer

Well you do that. I'm sure your children will appreciate.

Infosys co-founder doubles down on call for 70-hour work weeks

Re: How would you know if you haven't got there yet?

Well I'm currently 13 years away from that, and I am starting to feel like a right curmugeon already.

"fewer than one in five women work formally"

Well then, to help the poor, maybe instead of asking young men to work double time, you could hire the women and make a true equality happen ?

I think that would "help the poor" a lot more.

But hey, he's 70+. You don't change your mentality at that age.

YouTube video lag wrongly blamed on its ad-blocking animus

Firefox works fine for me, don't get all the hate. That said, I use it with NoScript, UBlock Origin, and various other addons (ClearURLs is a favorite of mine).

I also use Brave, which kills ads by default. I wonder what is going to happen to them.

In any case, I've never seen a popup warning about ad blocking on Firefox - probably because NoScript kills that.

I love NoScript. I'll keep using it on every browser I have for as long as I can.

More than 178,000 SonicWall firewalls are exposed to old denial of service bugs

"This is a constant task, that is not easy"

Not saying the contrary, but if you're in the firewall business, by now that is a task you should have mastered.

Windows 12 fan fiction shows how Microsoft might ladle AI into the OS

"look at the wallpaper"

Typical Borkzilla. Make nothing of substance, but include a Dark Theme and the fanbois is happy.

Tesla owners in deep freeze discover the cold, hard truth about EVs

"the answer is simply not to drive during a deep freeze"

I'm sure the people who only have a Tesla will be sympathetic to this advice.

As will their employers.

Remember when enterprise administration was more than just a browser dashboard?

A valuable effort

I do hope they're going to keep that computer going for a long while. It is a worthy testament to the skills and engineering that built for us the world we live in today.

But let's not knock slim and trim. Let's not look down on those slabs of Gorilla glass and toxic metals. The slowest of them have more power than the Apollo flight that reached the Moon.

Slim and trim has brought us CPUs that do much, much more with much less energy usage. And are capable of auto-throttling their power consumption and thus their heat generation. That will be a very good thing for the space stations of the future.

Patch time: Critical GitLab vulnerability exposes 2FA-less users to account takeovers

"ripe for exploitation since May"

Wow. That's just 7+ months of serious vulnerability.

I'm glad I don't use GitLab. And it's interesting to note that not all 2FA methods are equal.

Security is hard, no denying that.

The New ROM Antics – building the ZX Spectrum 128

"their substantial egos"

With those kind, you have either of two possibilities : their ego drives the company forward (think Steve Jobs), or their ego crashes the company (you don't hear about those in the news).

'Technical glitch' in payroll software sparks riots in Papua New Guinea

"some workers, including Police, went on strike"

Um, yeah, when your police force joins the strike, you can't just mouth platitudes into the microphone and expect everything to calm down.

Of course, they employed the escalation solution : send in the army.

That always works well with a population that is already in revolt.

GitHub Copilot copyright case narrowed but not neutered

“We firmly believe"

Oh well, case dismissed then, right ?

So, if I firmly believe that I have the right to take a bag of money from a bank I have no account in, then I'm in the clear ?

Somehow, I have a nagging doubt that my personal belief system is not an excuse. But that's PR for you . . .

Why we update... Data-thief malware exploits SmartScreen on unpatched Windows PCs

Geolocation data ? On a PC ?

It's not a phone. How can any geolocation data be stored ?

Yes, I can use Chrome and/or Google Maps, but whatever I choose to look at doesn't mean that I live there.

And if the malware checks the origin of my Internet connection, it will find that I live in Nancy, just like a hundred million other people, because that's where my provider's hub is (hint : Nancy has a population of around 30,000 people).

So what geolocation data does a PC normally have ?

A smartphone, I can understand. Please explain geolocation on a PC. I don't get how that works out.

Secret multimillion-dollar cryptojacker snared by Ukrainian police

"siphoning their high-powered computational resources"

Ah yes, that wonderful cloud environment where someone else can use your resources and you are not alerted to the fact until you get the bill.

It's marvellous to see that cloud can bill you, but can't guarantee who actually used the resources.

Going green Hertz: Rental giant axes third of EV fleet over lack of demand

"As the law stands today"

The law is going to change since China has, apparently, banned the export of rare earths (wonder why nobody is talking about that).

So good luck finding new batteries for your precious EV.

Media experts cry foul over AI's free lunch of copyrighted content

"US senators want to know"

What, they don't have any lobbyists to pay them to know that ?

Microsoft suggests command line fiddling to get faulty Windows 10 update installed

It would be easier if Borkzilla stopped with "one disk for all" mentality.

Linux is a world where the OS can be on one disk (HDD or SDD), and the user space on another. Borkzilla has not only never understood that, it has actively refused to understand it. Otherwise it wouldn't be so difficult to move a user's data to another disk.

In the Borkzilla world, the C: drive is everything, and anything you do to change that is filled with command prompts and technical barriers. That way, when your Windows is stuffed (which happens, even after Win7), well you have the joy of erasing your entire disk, all your data, and reinstalling from scratch. All that because Borkzilla can't be arsed to understand that the OS and user data can be two seperate things, and reinstalling the OS does not necessarily mean erasing user data.

I guess it will take another century and massive market loss before Borkzilla gets the message - which, in practical terms, means never.

In the meantime, whenever I install a new PC, I split the disk into two partitions (or I get another disk in) - one for the OS, one for data, and I go through all the hoops to try and make that a reality. Even if Borkzilla does its damndest to make sure that c:\Users\whoever\AppData gets filled with gigabytes of stuff I wish I could point elsewhere.

But Nadella doesn't give a flying fuck about that, so I'm left pining for the day I can retire and wipe that Registery abomination from my computing world.

It's uncertain where personal technology is heading, but judging from CES, it smells

Re: I really hate the place

Sorry to ask, but why do you go there ?

Indeed. They make great bedfellows. Each are headed by the most selfish people on this planet.

So, are we going to talk about how GitHub is an absolute boon for malware, or nah?

"often bypassing traditional security defenses"

Well, it seems that traditional security defenses are going to have to consider GitHub a non-secure site and treat it as such.

Scan everything.

And stop bloody downloading things that you don't control to your production server.

Why Google is waiving egress fees for disgruntled customers ditching GCP

"their preferred cloud provider"

The fact that such a notion exists is the first problem.

There are very few good reasons to put your data on someone else's server, but companies are apparently falling over themselves to do it.

That is the real problem, and it's not going away any time soon.

Daughter of George Carlin horrified someone cloned her dad with AI for hour special

"not obtaining explicit permission from his family"

Bad form. Very bad form. In a universe where anyone has access to YouTube, and anyone can send an email or other form of notification to anyone, I think it was a big mistake to publish this video without taking any precautions.

Points off also for taking a person's death as a good moment to capitalize on his reputation and make more views for the video. That smacks of scavenging to me, and scavengers aren't among the noble animals.

Drivers: We'll take that plain dumb car over a flashy data-spilling internet one, thanks

"better insurance rates"

And that is the carrot that will lure most people in. It's the heroin hit that will make the rest pass. It's the golden excuse for jacking everyone into the Matrix of Companies and getting them to actually ask for the procedure.

I'm an old fart now, barely a decade from retirement. I will easily resist, but my resistance doesn't matter because the upcoming generation, the one that already lives with their smartphones grafted to their hands, will likely sign up to this scheme without even blinking.

And they're the ones who tell you that it's for the greater good . . .

Elon Musk made 1 in 3 Trust and Safety staff ex-X employees, it emerges

"You're really creating a bit of a perfect storm"

Yep. That's about the size of it.

The quicker the corpse of Twitter is shut down, the better it will be for every sane person on this planet.

It's a preview party at Microsoft, but do you really want an invite?

There is a solution

Stop jumping like lemmings whenever Borzilla hitches up the skirt.

Give it time, like five years. Then go check if the product is still there, if it has been finalized, if it is actually useful. Get off the treadmill you don't control.

It is high time Borkzilla leans that, if it is not making useful product, it won't get the greenbacks.

Quantum computing eggheads throw some other qubits at the wall to see what sticks

Really ?

"a fault-tolerant system capable of generating reliable results was likely a decade or more away"

I've got the feeling that we'll be hearing the same soundbite in a decade.

Latest tech layoffs: Twitch, Duolingo, Citrix parent ditch hundreds of workers

"for all the anxiety that it caused"

Oh ho, that was a good one.

Apologize for the anxiety caused by the leak, and don't mention the anxiety cause by being fucking laid off.

Well done. Corporate bullshit at its finest.

SAP to cough up $220M to drag bribery charges into recycle bin

Re: CoB

That's the marvellous effect of law. If you have a US presence and you are caught doing things that US law has defined as illegal (even if not on US soil), you are liable for fining.

And the reasoning is sound : if all you needed to do to legally bribe an official somewhere is do it from a subsidiary not on US soil, then every official from Senators on down would be getting brown envelopes from Burkina Faso, or maybe even just Mexico.

That would not be acceptable. So, instead, you get lobbyists that only contribute to "campaign funding" . . .

That's the reason for the bribes.

If you're gonna use AI-made stuff in your game, you better tell us, says Steam

Re: No wonder folks are moving to other platforms

I'm on Win7 as well for my gaming rig. I have seen no difference in my Steam catalog or my ability to play my games, or even purchase new ones.

I fail to see why people would move away from Steam. Yes, they are no longer supporting Win7, rather late in the game I might add. If Borkzilla can stop supporting it, Steam doesn't really have much of a choice left.

In the meantime, I know and understand Steam rules and I accept them. I have yet to see any unfairness from their part.

But you go ahead and move to another platform if that suits you. EA Games, for example ? The platform that terminated my right to play Battlefield 2142 when I complained that my purely online purchase was demanding a CD key that I didn't have ? Oh, and if you think they reimbursed me, I have news for you : they did not.

I find that rather unfair, but you're welcome to the experience.

Trump-era rules reversed on treating gig workers as contractors

"a move that will decrease flexibility and opportunity"

Yes, it's a move that will decrease the flexibility and opportunity of companies looking to pay the bare minimum they can get away with.

And I note that there isn't any comment disagreeing with this move that is from a gig worker. They probably don't have time to comment, being too busy with simply trying to feed their family with the scraps they are so generously given.

Google's TPUs could end up costing it a billion-plus, thanks to this patent challenge

"no one who worked on the TPUs had any connection with Bates or his blueprints"

Of course they didn't. Management handed them a document to work on . . .

With OpenAI GPT Store imminent, apps are already being ripped off by copycats

"Hopefully this can be partially fixed"

Wow. What confidence in the system.

They're not clamoring for a fix, they're barely hoping a band-aid might be available.

And this is supposed to be the next best greatest thing for developers.

I'm not sure I'm impressed.

NASA's Artemis Moon missions take a rain check until 2025 and beyond

No need to rush

I approve the stance of "it'll be ready when it's ready".

We've had enough demonstrations of what happens when manglement doesn't listen to engineering. Space is hard enough as is, doing it right is the only way to go forward.

Cutting-edge microscopy reveals bottled water has 'up to 100 times' more bits of plastic than previously feared

I avoid buying water in plastic bottles

Glass please. It's easy to wash, and can be recycled.

Wireless priesthood begins blessing Wi-Fi 7 hardware

40Gbps

5,8Gbps might indeed be more reasonable, especially when you take into account that the current data transfer maxes out at several hundred Mbps (which is not shabby at all, not by a long shot - I can watch TV now, when I had an ADSL line, it was almost impossible).

WiFi delivering >5Gbps means over 700MBps. That will be as good as my gigabit Ethernet. So, since we're talking WiFi and not mobile data, that means my Orange box connecting me to them thar intartubes will be upholding that speed and that means that I will be able to use it.

Good news overall.

Welcome to 2024: Volkswagen really is putting ChatGPT into cars as a gabby copilot

"Generative AI should be available and accessible to everyone"

Available and accessible, okay. Forced upon, not okay.

I do not want that thing listening to me all the time. Car makers already have a pretty dismal history when it comes to electronic security, I'd rather not find out years down the line that PussyIFarted has gained the ability of simulating entire car conversations because of data scraping.

If, and that is a big if, I buy a car (from any automaker, VW is just the first - the rest will follow) that has this thing in it, I want a button (or a setting) to turn it off.

The day we have truly autonomous cars that I can hop into, tell it to take me somewhere, and then read a book or watch a film, then fine. Give me Internet access and do whatever you want, the world is my oyster and I'm happy. But today, when driving, I concentrate on the road. I have a small slab of toxic metals that connects to the Intartubes, it is enough when I need it.

Apple sets new 16,000-foot iPhone drop test after 737 fuselage fail

"I found a phone sitting on the side of the road that had apparently fallen 16,000 feet."

Apparently ? Not disputing the fact that you found it, but if it was undamaged, how can you say that t had fallen 16,000 feet ?

Avoiding AI-capable PCs will be impossible by 2027

Indispensable ? Really ?

Looking forward to the many UI and OS modifications from intelligent people who cut this shit out of Windows to put the Personal back into PC.

The harder you push, the more resistance you encounter. I'm betting that this is going to raise shields like Borkzilla has never encountered.

For Apple, probably less. Jobsians are already brainwashed, they'll just think that this is the new reality field and will be fine with it.

Nearly 200 Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes grounded after door plug flies off mid-flight

She called it "a concern"

Yeah, having your passengers sucked out of the plane just like in every airplane catastrophe film is indeed a concern.

That is what Boeing is now, the groundwork for the scenarios of future flight accident films.

Thank God I don't need to take the plane anymore. TGV fills my travel needs nicely, thank you very much.

NASA science bound for Moon after successful Vulcan Centaur launch

Re: How the mighty are fallen

Well what do you expect ? Congress is done giving NASA a blank check, Soviet Russia is gone. Now NASA is being nickel-and-dimed to death, and billionnaires with a penchant for erecting great big, uh, rockets, are the only thing still giving us access to orbit.

Remember the theory of trickle-down economics ? This may be the one valid example.

Open source's new mission: To boldly go where no software has gone before

"the user-focused, data-centric ecosystem we so badly need"

The ecosystem we are living in has been defined by companies. Users that are not employees do not have much influence on it, they are not organized and don't have the time to care. Users that are employees follow the diktat of their management, which doesn't care one bit about user-centric. Management is management-centric, employees just need to learn the wierd, illogical steps to give them that shiny graphic at the end of the month.

Need to plug in an EV? BT Group kicks off cabinet update pilot

"comes from renewable energy, we're told"

Well of course we're told that. You don't think that they're going to admit that it's that coal furnace nearby that is going to charge the carbon-emission-free focus of greenies everywhere, now do you ?

No, those dirty coal plants (of which more are being built, thanks Germany) only provide leccy to other things, their electrons are prohibited by public moral from entering the sanctity of an EV.

Yeah, sure. Pull the other one.

Facebook, Instagram now mine web links you visit to fuel targeted ads

Re: these are maximums

Yeah, and the suspect is black and he robbed charities. Somehow I don't have the impression that either judge or jury are going to be lenient.

As for the sentencing, you need to understand that law enforcement throw everything they can in hope that something, anything, will stick and remain after the tireless efforts of the attorney to remove charges on whatever basis he can conjure from the rulebook and from prior sentencing. That explains their tendancy to go somewhat overboard with the charges, it's likely most will be dismissed (maybe not in this case, though).

That is also how the police press innocent people into admitting a crime they never committed. Stick someone in a windowless room for 24 hours, subject them to endless questioning and impress them with all the maximum sentences the police can try to dream up (carefully avoiding the sentence "I want my lawyer"), and many people fold just to get rid of the pressure.

Don't forget : it's the best justice money can buy.