Posts by Pascal Monett

Cisco has a new problem: You take too long to implement its products and stop buying more kit

"customers are now taking time to [..] deploy these [..] product deliveries"

Well duh. What were you expecting, that customers would look at the ads on Amazon and think "oh yeah, wejust bought 500 switches, let's buy some more !" ?

Suits ignored IT's warnings, so the tech team went for the neck

Re: When new tech is hot off the press . . .

Yes, that's what Borkzilla & Co have taught us after three decades of borking first releases. But back in the day of the 56K modem, we were all young and starry-eyed when faced with another new shiny, because new and shiny was all around and we all thought, surely the company wouldn't advertise a product that didn't work ?

Now we know that yes, a company can very well advertise a non-working product because "there will be a patch soon". Patch which may solve the problem, and might even do so without creating other issues - maybe (but don't bet on it).

So yeah, now we know to wait a few weeks (or even months) for the initial bug set to be resolved before rushing to purchase a new shiny. Because we've learned the hard way (well, for those who have learned, at least).

Re: Doubling time

Suits do not guess, they decide. And once they've decided, reality just needs to deal with it.

BOFH: Monitor mount moans end in Beancounter beatdown

Re: compared with how much they (supposedly) save

Stop right there. Beancounters don't save anything. They count. That's their job, and that's their limit.

Stop trying to give them more credit than they are due.

Savings are not made by beancounters. Savings are made by people who know the job, know the requirements, and know the vendors. They are the people who are best situated to know where to shop and what for.

Beancounters only have administrative guidelines, and those things only cost more money than they are worth.

Just check the comments here if you have doubts.

It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

"a Washington appeals court"

Congratulations. We're back to the judge who decided to grant companies the same rights as humans.

No. I don't care what you take into account, it is not right for a vehicle to slurp information from my phone. No vehicle needs data from my phone outside of my contact list so that can call someone while driving.

And that does not mean that the vehicle should keep that data stored while shut down. I grant it the right to slurp my contact list when I connect the phone and for the duration of the trip I take. When I shut down the car, it should forget the list because the next time I connect my phone to the car, it can slurp it back again.

That is my decision. If I don't want to connect the phone, there is no slurp. I do however recognize the utility of that connection, as long as it serves me. Once the car is shut down, it no longer serves me to have that information stored, so it should be erased.

Dammit, why it is so hard for those corporations to stop grasping every single byte of data they can get their mitts on ?

Gauss we've all got a fresh option for a gen AI handheld: A Samsung device

"It can also convert low-resolution images into sharper ones"

Well that could be useful - if it really works.

I wouldn't mind giving that a try.

What to do with a cloud intrusion toolkit in 2023? Slap a chat assistant on it, duh

The reason we don't see Smart Knives^TM ?

Because we're seeing Smart everythings, and more of them every year. Watches, toasters, toothbrushes, anything they can shove data-gathering into (because that's what it mostly is), they slap "Smart" on it and job done.

The only reason we're not seeing Smart Knives is because of the risk of litigation when some numbskull does something stupid and then the next of kin complaines that the Smart wasn't.

And it would happen, if ever there was a Smart Knife.

Robot mistakes man for box of peppers, kills him

Everything is subject for laughter. In some way, after a given amount of time. Especially if the event was horrible. Laughter excises the horror of it.

India gives social media platforms 36 hours to remove deepfakes

Re: A plague on all their houses

I completely agree. Unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle now, so legal action is the only way forward.

Nothing like scaring Senators (or the Indian equivalent) to get a problem solved, eh ?

Euclid space 'scope's first color snaps pull back the curtain on cosmic mysteries

Awesome pics

Go Science !

New orientation assistant to help prevent astronauts getting lost in space

"a multi-axis rotation device"

The acronym for that is not MARS, it's MARD.

Unless the article misrepresented a multi-axis rotation system, in which case, okay, but that's not what we are told.

YouTube cares less for your privacy than its revenues

Re: ChromeSetup.exe could harm your device

Ooh, that looks like a new billion-dollar lawsuit in the making.

Somebody tell . . . wait, no. Forget it. Let Google find that one out itself.

Brits make Amazon, Meta stop using third-party data to undercut rivals

"Amazon has committed to doing less of that"

Wow. The standards of legal action really have gone down since I was a kid.

Once upon a time, Big Oil was broken up to stop the monopoly.

Once upon a time, Ma Bell was shredded into multiple Baby Bells to stop monopoly.

(okay, the fact that, in the end, it didn't make much of a difference is irrelevant - the monopolies were carved into pieces, we can do that again)

Today, Justice is apparently content with a pinky promise to not do it so much in the future.

No wonder CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies think they own the country. They do.

In quest to defeat Euro red-tape, Apple said it had three Safari browsers – not one

Re: Points for trying, I guess

I would really like to see regulators make Apple's life a living hell.

Because, at the moment, their level of success is limited to 1% of Apple's monthly revenue.

Re: through the competition of the free market comes the prosperity and equal opportunity

That bullshit has been so thoroughly debunked by all the monopolies and trillion-dollar multinationals I wonder why some people still spout it.

World leaders ink AI safety pacts while Musk and Sunak engage in awkward bromance

Re: a job-free future

Without supporting His Muskiness in any way, shape or form, one has to admit that the end result of automation, AI and robotics means that, one fine day, the only humans who work are the ones who will actively want to. Everything that needs doing will be accomplished by automatons, with defined procedures that have been refined over decades, then centuries.

I refer to The Expanse for a clear idea on how this could work : citizens, upon graduation, would decide if they wish to have a life defined by Basic (revenue, support, health care, etc.. I guess), or if they want to actually work for their subsistance and attain a career worth something.

That is one idea. I suppose there are a number of possible variations. But the point is : we're doing everything we can to work as little as possible. One day, that will mean that we don't have to work anymore.

So we might as well talk about it, I guess. Even though I would really prefer that a failure like Musk not be the one to champion the idea.

India's lunar landing made a mess on the Moon

He said artifical gravity, not anti-gravity.

Artificial means you set the level of gravity you want (which could be anti-gravity if needed).

CompSci academic thought tech support was useless – until he needed it

Ah but that is because the entire school system is there to stuff your head full of data and details, not to teach you critical thought.

Re: Depends.

In French, it is spelled rigueur, so no, he doesn't speak French.

(or at least, he wasn't referring to French)

Okta tells 5,000 of its own staff that their data was accessed in third-party breach

"ID management biz"

And you couldn't guess that you'd be first in line for hackers everywhere ?

Well, looks like you're learning the hard way . . .

Don't fear the Thread Reaper, a Windows ghost of bugs past

It should never happen, hence the bug check

As much as it would be easy to rip in to Bugzilla's code once again, for once I have to credit the developers for checking that something that should never happen did (or did not).

I guess that was way back when they had actual engineers working on code, not today's "move fast and break it" kids.

Looks like ancient code is the best . . .

Batterygate bound for Blighty as UK court approves billion-dollar Apple compensation case

Re: extend the life of a failing battery

It's life wouldn't need to be extended if the user could just swap it out without forking over more than a hundred bucks.

And it would be up to the user to choose, not the whim of Apple.

Lenovo’s phantom ThinkPad X1 foldable laptop finally materializes

A technical achievement, no doubt

I have no use for such a thing, but I have to admit that, from the videos I've seen, this time Lenovo has apparently gotten things right.

I'm just wondering how long that foldable screen is going to last.

Microsoft warns it may ‘throttle’ its generative AI services for ‘excessive’ users

Here we go again

Once again, a tech behemoth with coffers that are filled to overflowing offers a free service only to find out that, damn, there are people who actually use it.

And so starts the backpedalling, soon to be followed by bait-and-switch tactics of now you have to subscribe.

You don't even have the luxury of saying you couldn't have known this would happen, Borkzilla. It's happen a dozen times this year already.

Bad Borkzilla. No cookie.

X says it's only worth $19B after year of Muskmanagement

Burn, baby, burn

What is that called again ?

Ah yes, the Bonfire of Vanities.

And with this abject failure, His Muskiness will have learned nothing.

The banks, on the other hand . . .

Canada to remove China’s top messaging app WeChat from government devices

Once again

And again the problem is not removing a given popular app from government devices. The problem is how the hell did it get installed there in the first place ?

It's a government device. It should only have government-approved applications.

If you can't manage your device security upstream, then you have to manage it when it's too late downstream.

Governments seriously need to consult Fortune 500 companies (and mostly banks) on how to secure their devices. Then we wouldn't be subject to this clown show.

Microsoft calls time on Windows Insider MVP program

Hello gun, remember foot ?

Why am I not surprised that Borkzilla is shutting down something that gave it valuable feedback and buzz on MS products ?

Feedback can be negative. Redmond doesn't like negativity. Redmond wants everyone to be positively enthusiastic about everything important Redmond does, like giving users a new Dark Theme that nobody asked for.

Or wait, did the MVPs ask for that ? That would be ironic.

Intel's PC chip ship is sinking with Arm-ada on the horizon

"Intel's deep history of innovation failure"

A sad thing to be remembered by.

Russia hustles to fill impending void left by the ISS

Re: The story of the RD-180, the big rocket engine that could

Interesting link. Thanks.

Having the IP is one thing, having the means to build and launch is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Russia has used up all of the the rockets it held in shuttling people and vital stuff to and from the ISS, following the demise of The Shuttle. Russia has no more rockets available. That means that Russia will have to build something new. Methinks that in itself is going to take at least until 2030 (given how long it's taken SpaceX to about succeed) - if Russia can afford it (which I doubt).

So I take this announcement as another lot of grandstanding of which nothing serious will come. To build a rocket you need boatloads of money and experienced workers and engineers. Russia still has its oligarchs (although there have been some mysterious disappearances lately), but they cannot do business in the West and their holdings have been confiscated, so they can only rely on local currency and business. Said business is not going to be flourishing because of all the men Putin has sent off to die on that "special military operation", and of all the men that have fled the country to avoid being part of that shit. That's a nice big dent in the market right there.

Then there's the know-how. I'm sure that Putin's Russia has carefully avoided sending off Roscosmos engineers to the Front That Isn't, but I'm also convinced that many savvy artisans didn't get that chance. Building a rocket, or any major scientific project, is an ecosystem, and Putin has gutted that ecosystem to serve his stupid ideals.

Russia is not going back to space on its own. There, I said it.

PIRG petitions Microsoft to extend the life of Windows 10

"All software reaches a point at which it's no longer supported"

Why ?

Software does not rust. When you're dealing with a company that has more money in the bank than a small country's GDP, why should there be an issue with updates ?

Apart from CEO bonuses, of course . . .

Ask a builder to fix a server and out come the vastly inappropriate power tools

Ah, nothing matches percussive maintenance.

Telcos should compensate phished subscribers, suggests Singapore

"letting scam texts through is a culpable act"

I'm starting to really like what Singapore is doing for the Internet and communications in general.

CEO Satya Nadella thinks Microsoft hung up on Windows Phone too soon

Consistency ? Yeah, right.

WinPhone 7 was really very consistent with WinPhone 8.

Yeah.

I like that he acknowledged that "people sense when what you do is not aligned with what you say".

They do. So do as you say. Otherwise, you're nothing but a poser, at best.

Ah, logo changes. The public display of losing the plot and throwing money out of the window when you can't afford it.

So it would have been a paved road for hackers to get into your entire network, then ?

I'm starting to think that the Windows Phone failure was a godsend for security.

For many people, that is simply not an option.

Regrettably.

Microsoft creates a new kind of credential: the 'Applied Skill'

As much as I like the idea, I doubt it will really catch on

As far as certs are concerned, I've heard the gamut from "they're useless" to "I won't work with someone who is not certified".

I doubt that anyone on either side of this fence is going to change their minds. The ones who think certs are useless will not be impressed by an applied skill, and people who are pro-cert will ask "well why aren't they certified then ?".

But for those in the middle, it might be a good calling card.

When is a privacy button not a privacy button? When Google runs it, claims lawsuit

This page on El Reg leaks nothing about me to Google thanks to NoScript.

And Google will not know where I am buying things because I do not have location and mobile data active all the time. I only activate those when I need them, and deactivate them afterwards.

But yeah, I get that most people who have their phones grafted to their eyeballs will not see that as a possibility. Google thanks them, undoubtedly.

"he testified in front of Congress"

Sure. He told them what they needed to hear to get off his back.

I'm sure Congress is really impressive, but it's not a judicial trial. El Zuck has lied his ass off there multiple times and he's still not in jail for it.

So Congress is just a nice little tea-time with barely any consequence, as far as I can see. But hey, it makes the Senators feel (even more) important, so . . .

33 AGs sue Meta for 'exploitative and harmful acts' against American children

So, 33 states in a "think of the children" lawsuit

Methinks that is not one El Zuck is going to weasel out of easily. The children angle is a very difficult one to avoid - especially since it's likely true.

So, looks like I'll have to stock up on popcorn again . .

We need a popcorn icon.

Google Cloud misses revenue estimates – and it's your fault, wanting smaller bills

Oh ! The Humanity !

Alphabet isn't getting al the soup it wants because people are <gasp> actually trying to lower costs !

Look at that poor Pichai. He tried a measure of goodwill and now his customers are stabbing him in the back !

He might even have to reduce his quartely bonus by a million or two.

Have people no heart ?

Spanish phisherfolk caught in cops' net in multi-million-euro catch

Bad times for scammers

Good.

Have them run scared. It is high time for the crooks to feel the breath of Justice on their necks.

Icon for the heat.

Progress towards 'Gigabit Europe' is slow, with UK also lagging

"42% of users stated their current internet was sufficient for their needs"

Well yeah. I've got 1Gbps speeds and it is fine. I can have the TV working, my daughter on her laptop and mobile, my wife on her laptop and mobile, and me torrenting, downloading and on Youtube while gaming. Nobody is dragged down by anybody else, so what would I complain about ?

Back when I had ADLS, if I turned on the TV nobody could download anything anymore. And if someone called the landline while watching TV, the image would stall and the sound would be the only thing running. ADSL was a tar pit. Gigabit fiber is a jet. What more could I want ? 10Gbps ? Don't see the need right now. Don't think I'll ever.

Scammers use India’s real-time payment system to siphon off money, send it to China

Well that didn't take long

And so starts the loooong path of patches and changes in the system to ensure some measure of reliability and security.

I do feel the idea was good, but I fear the changes that will come will kinda shoot the whole thing in the foot.

Microsoft admits 'power issue' downed Azure services in West Europe

"A subset of those generators supporting that section failed to take over as expected"

That sounds suspiciously close to "we designed a failover system, but we didn't test it".

That susbset of generators, might they have been missing fuel because nobody thought to fill the tanks ?

Windows 11: The number you have dialed has been disconnected

Amen

So it's finally been said : Borkzilla can't make a new OS version worth a damn. Oh sure, Nadella can change version numbers all he wants, but's just wind, there's nothing substantial.

Now, maybe the notion that there will never be new hardware is pushing things a bit far, but it's certain that whatever may come out will not need a new OS version. A driver will suffice.

So yeah, let's stop degrading the user interface with useless widgets that offer clutter and not much more, and stop pretending that they need a new OS version. Make Windows more modular.

And hey, since the last update, you can now actually uninstall Cortana ! So, progress is being made, albeit at the rate of an asthmatic slug.

Web Summit CEO's comments on Israeli conflict 'war crimes' sparks boycott

Saudi princes are a special case. They can say whatever they want, because your car runs on their fuel.

Still got a job at the end of this week? You're lucky, as more layoffs hit the tech industry

And you can be sure tha tthere's some genius with a masters in business management who has planned things that way.

This is why the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

And it's not a very well-crafted handbasket either.