Posts by Pascal Monett

Elon Musk wants to build 50 times more chips than the world currently produces, using 'new physics'

There's no coming back from that.

You don't want to ruin your brain like he did.

Calling out corporate BS? There's a steaming pile to aim for

A. Men.

That will be all.

Junior disobeyed orders and tried untested feature during a live robot demo

Re: Short cuts make long delays, but at least nothing shorted out

He was even luckier that, after blatantly ignoring a direct order, he was allowed to keep his job.

I'm sorry, I'm all for giving a second chance if you have an idea and foul up on your own, but if I tell you NOT to do something and you go ahead and do it and foul things up just like I feared, you are off the team at the very least. With luck, you'll be holding the broom for the janitor. Failing that, you'll be looking for another job.

Might I add that it is a disservice to let the kid keep his job after such behavior. The lessons you don't forget are the ones that cost you the most, and this, apparently, didn't cost him much.

Ergo, there's a risk that he does it again.

I would not be willing to risk that.

SAP's grand cloud escape plan €2B short of the runway

"SAP expects users to rid their ERP software of any customization"

Oh sure. Forget the millions and months (years ?) you put into your current three-legged horse and move to virgin land where you can start all over again (and pay all over again).

I understand that this is a brilliant plan for SAP. It's a shitty plan for its customers and they're not buying it.

That's because SAP has mistaken itself for something that holds its customers by the balls, and makes no bones about squeezing. Well, SAP's customers have other things to do then give their revenue to SAP.

Funny that, ain't it ? Would seem to me that you didn't need an MBA to understand.

You do need a shred of decency, though.

Struggling to put your AI aversion into words? Here's a handy glossary

Kudos to Mrs Sawers !

I am going to copy that text, print it and have it embossed, then put it on my desk at the office.

As for "from your phone to your browser", I have only one thing to say : not if I can help (meaning stop) it.

Meatbags vs machines: DeepMind plans hackathon to draw line between human and AI brains

"how would we even know?"

I have the answer to that :

The day we have finally birthed a true AI, we'll know it works because when asked a question it will answer :

Come back later, I'm busy watching videos on YouTube and posting stuff on TikTok.

On the main point of the article, I look forward to seeing Google's AI get thoroughly trashed by actual hackers. Has Google not read about Rozum ?

Chatbot Romeos keep users talking longer, but harm their mental health

So, being flattered can be dangerous

It can, even if you don't have mental health issues.

It works especially well if you're a rather older man being chatted up by a gorgeous-looking twenty-something (allegedly, or so I've heard).

Your next car might need 300 GB of RAM, and so will autonomous robots

300GB of RAM

When that car comes out, Taiwan will belong to Beijing and all the RAM made over there will be gobbled up by China.

With the paltry production of RAM elsewhere in the world, 300GB of RAM is going to cost almost as much as the car itself.

Water company wasted $200k on bad answers from an AI model – so built its own slop filtering system

"at worst, it poisons critical decision making"

Could someone please print that in extra large letters on the front page of a newspaper ?

It is high time that this pseudo-AI bullshit gets its reckoning.

BBC World Service digital switch backfires as online audience drops

"the BBC faces continued financial pressure"

Well, maybe the British Parliament should augment the funding. On the BBC funding page, it states that the BBC is primarily funded by license fees. That's UK Gov who makes the decision.

It's all well and good for MPs to lament that their World Service is losing viewers, but if they are the ones who decided not to fund it properly, then why are they complaining ?

If the licensing fee gets too high for the consumer, then maybe it is time to think of subsidies if they want the BBC to be jewel in the British Broadcasting crown.

BOFH: What physics defines as impossible, sales calls a challenge

Oh. My. God.

That was awesome.

Thank you for the link.

Those who 'circle back' and 'synergize' also tend to be crap at their jobs

"people who fall for corporate word salad"

They are, by definition, people who are more interested in climbing the corporate ladder than in getting actual work done.

At least, that's my experience.

Inside the datacenter where the day starts with topping up cerebrospinal fluid

"the nascent biological computing industry awaits the arrival of a cell foundry"

Don't worry, in just a few years between you and pseudo-AI, Skynet will become a reality.

And then you'll have more foundries than you can deal with.

And they will all want to kill you.

'Are you freaking crazy?' Bot harasses woman, gets led away by cops

"its operator, who was nearby"

And what, pray tell, was doing about the whole thing ?

Drinking beer ?

RAM is getting expensive, so squeeze the most from it

Because, historically speaking, programmers don't give a flying fuck about the amount of RAM their code uses.

This trend started when Windows 95 came out and RAM was a dime a megabyte.

The only way Redmond programmers are going to pay attention to their RAM usage is if their office gets as small as their RAM usage gets large.

Atomic Britain: UK plans regulatory reset to boost nuclear power

Nuclear ?

I'm sorry, where are all the eco-friendly Earth-First warriors ?

Or did they they finally get a clue that windmills and solar won't actually be able to recharge their fucking smartphones, battery vehicles and keep the heating on ?

Musk makes the Macrohard joke again

"emulating the function of entire companies"

Well, given that he doesn't know how a company works, it's logical that would brainfart that kind of idea.

Microsoft adding Xbox mode to Windows 11 – even the Professional edition

Fuck. Off.

Here's an idea Borkzilla : how's about you make your XBox mode a downloadable add-on for free, instead of shoving it down every throat you can reach ?

Windows : the only OS that owns you.

AI datacenters may gulp a New York City's worth of water on hot days

"many datacenter projects have required substantial upgrades to local water infrastructure"

They have required ? They can pay for it.

This is going to be fun to watch (from afar). Seems to me that all those geniuses who continue to build water-gozzling facilities in Texas are going to be in for a bad surprise, and they deserve bad surprise they'll get.

Microsoft Authenticator to nuke Entra creds on rooted and jailbroken phones

So, let me get this straight

The maker of one single app is going to allow itself to wipe your phone if it doesn't like what it sees ?

Under what authority ?

Why do we put up with this bullshit ?

Palantir’s lethal AI weaponry deployed to find chairs for US government staff

"robust security compliance" and pseudo-AI have nothing to do in the same paragraph

The bullshit is strong in this one.

P.S. : we need a Darth Vader icon

SETI admits its search for alien life may be too narrowly focussed

I thought we had already agreed that ET civilizations are silent because reasons

Here on Earth, we used to broadcast our emissions on radio. Okay, I'd like to know who could possibly pick up I Love Lucy from 50 light-years away, but that's not the point. The point is we, on Earth, are already going towards fiber for our communications. I don't think that 5G phone calls are going to be detectable after Pluto, but what do I know ?

In any case, I feel that there's a good chance that any ET civilization that wants to broadcast its existence is going to need to go the path of the variable pulsar rate, aka a powerful signal that could be confused with a wierd pulsar until some genius discovers some kind of ET Morse code and deciphers the message.

Then you have the Silent Civilization problem, where every intelligent ET society goes covert because they fear that, by broadcasting their existence, they invite invasion from a stronger ET civilization.

How's that for a Cold War, eh ?

HPE tweaks T&Cs so the price it quotes may not be the price you pay

"none said they will defer purchases due to higher prices"

Wow.

Seems that the economy is doing fine after all, if companies can expand their budget to accomodate their usual totally unnecessary computer replacement program.

We're not in 2003 any more. Any computer that you bought five years ago will still do the job fine now, especially for business usage and not gaming, or video production.

But hey, it's private money. Go ahead and waste it if that's what you want.

AI agents now help attackers, including North Korea, manage their drudge work

So, they use Windows too ?

Bundle of human neurons hooked to silicon learns to stumble through Doom

"occasionally dying a lot"

Yeah, I remember doing that as well when I started playing Doom.

You can argue all you want about what the actual workload was for these cells, the fact remains that Science has now created a bunch of living neurons outside of a human body and can "train" them do do a specific job.

In a hundred years, we'll have 100 billion of those cells replicated across a million T-400s and Skynet will be a thing.

Beijing warns of more chip supply worries after Nexperia China claims it was cut off from SAP

It's a blessing in disguise, guys

And now you have yet another reason to go make your own, China-based cloudy environment with home-generated enterprise management tools and chart generators.

U-S-A ! U-S-A ! Rah! Rah! Rah!

Iran is the first out-loud cyberwar the US has fought

So it's keyboards on the ground, then ?

Trump apparently wants to avoid putting boots on the ground because that would mean a full-fledged war and he would bear the responsibility of the outcome, even though I'm sure he would, as usual, apply his excellent slimy tactics at doing everything possible to avoid that.

He hates being responsible, so he just bombs Iran from above. It's true that that's a good way to avoid the blood splatter and lessens the cleaning requirements of the bombers.

NASA’s asteroid defence mission slowed targets by 1.7 inches per hour

I disagree.

A few kilometers of deviation means that it's orbit will be influenced differently by the planetary bodies (and moons) that it encounters on its way in.

Besides, the astronomer quoted in the article clearly stated that it could be the difference between the asteroid hitting Earth or missing it.

So, unless you can demonstrate that you have a better understanding of asteroid orbital calculations, I'd suggest you trust the astronomer.

Lenovo, Nintendo sue US government seeking tariff refunds

The shitstorm is going to be awesome on this

The only unforunate element is that it's going to take years and Trump will never have to bear any of the cost, plus the President who will have to deal with the fallout will likely never have had anything to do with the whole issue.

But Porsche is already asking ChatGPT to give an estimate on how many new models it is going to sell to lawyers in the coming years, so it's not all bad.

Brits fear AI will strip the human touch from public services

"There's a naive techno-utopianism in Whitehall"

Of course there is. They don't have to deal with "customer service".

They just tell their secretary there's a problem and it magically gets fixed.

I've got a feeling it's not just the UK . . .

Anthropic sues US government after unprecedented national security designation

"legally unsound"

The entire US Government is currently unsound.

That's one problem the Constitution has no solution for.

And given that the rest of the "elected officials" don't have the balls to stand up and demand respect, well . . .

Don't worry, we've got the same in France, except that we have a playboy wannabe who's too stupid to play in the grown-up arena.

Drug prohibition ? Ha !

The CIA did a lot to help the drug industry in order to finance its string of failed black ops.

If Venezuela is where it is today, it's due to CIA meddling in a large part.

Drug prohibition was only a good excuse to slap black people behind bars (since there ain't no cotton fields left, these days).

Office EU waves sovereignty flag with a familiar stack under the bonnet

Thank you Trump

Your unhinged, rambling and totally unprofessional behavior has already pushed the Chinese to do their own thing, now you are pushing Europe to do the same.

I'm really sorry but it has to be said : the Land of the Free ain't what it used to be.

UK still doodling digital pound while Brussels frets over payment sovereignty

Digital currency

Could someone please explain to me the importance of this bullshit ?

Our currency is already digital. The number of times I have paid in cash in the past decade are vanishingly small.

So why is this suddenly an important issue ? Banks have already solved digital currency.

Instead of VISA, just create UKPay that does the same thing.

Problem solved.

Supposedly big-brained execs are outsourcing decisionmaking to AI

62 percent of bosses rely on LLMs

Great news !

We can fire them and have companies managed by LLM.

What could possibly go wrong ?

(Who knows ? Company management might actually get better).

HR may have to cajole and soothe reluctant employees to get them to use AI

"get them to use AI"

Why would I ever use AI ? I happen to be competent at my job. That's probably why I'm not a manager in a big company.

Brussels urged to pay 'sovereignty premium' to narrow China battery gap

Re: Why all the thumbs down on the OP?

Because criticising EVs is not Politically Correct^TM at this point in time.

In twenty years or so, when we are facing the consequences of having polluted our water sources because of the unrecycled poisons of dead batteries buried under mounds of earth, then these people are going to have to face the difference between their goal (of which I approve entirely) and the reality (which they seem to willfully ignore).

Nope, not good

I read that report. It only talks about the cost of making the batteries.

There is no mention of the efficiency of recyling them

You need to try harder.

"if Brussels is willing to pay what campaigners call"

Who are these "campaigners" and who is paying them ?

And could somebody please point me to an official, proven report that demonstrates that we have the capacity to recycle batteries up to 95% ?

Batteries are toxic by nature. Making more is nice (well, except for the child labor and pollution that mining Lithium generates), but recycling them is mandatory when you wear a Green badge.

So where is that report ?

Google embraces third party app stores and payments to put Epic Games case behind it

As usual

Capitalism, the Word of The Market (aka God) in the USA, is supposed to ensure that the best competitor wins the favor of the consumer.

Except, of course, for the fact that, systematically, a rising competitor always does his damndest to block other competitors and tilt the playing field towards himself. Once that it done, we're no longer in a competitive market, we're subject to a Monopoly where the King of the Market makes whatever decision he wants and the consumer is forced to meekly follow.

We've seen that with Microsoft, we've seen it with Adobe and there are more examples for sure.

And that is one good reason why, despite the shrilly cries of Republicans, we need Government to regulate, target the unjust Kings and set them back to their place : a player in the Market, no more, no less.

Gamers furious as indie studio Cloud Imperium quietly admits to data breach

“We are closely monitoring the situation"

Oh ? And you were doing what before ? Having a coffee break ?

Re: "sophisticated"

That's because it exceeded their understanding, so obviously it was much more "sophisticated" than their defenses.

It's the boilerplate excuse for "We got caught flat-footed, we need to improve our security".

Iran war wreaking havoc on shipping and air cargo, could create global delays

"four to five weeks"

Hmm. Somehow, I'm thinking that this forecast is going to be a bit more accurate than Putin's "small military operation" in Ukraine . . .

NASA safety watchdog says it's time to rethink Moon landing

"in-space refuelings"

With what ?

Are there going to be 15 rockets preceding/following the Artemis launch ? How will keep station to be available ?

Are they trying to make a real-life disaster film ?

Microsoft gives Windows laggards the 'gift of time' wrapped in licensing fees

Re: an OS reaching the end of it's supported life

Who decides that the OS has reached its end of life ?

Microsoft practically prints its money. It's got largely enough to support its OS versions until the customer (remember who that is ?) decides that they want to move on.

Discord drama delays age verification debut until the second half of 2026

"turn identity verification data into a government-controlled people tracker"

Well what else can it be ?

If you want to honestly ensure that only "adults" use a website, then you have to register the identity of all the adults, which is not "protecting the children", but much more "tracking everyone".

I'm not saying that FaceBook/Instagram/Twitter (yes, I know, but I will not change the name) should have some sort of entry barrier for kids (because they should have something else to do withe their lives), but turning The Internet into Big Brother is not the solution.

I'm not saying that I know what the solution is, but this is not it.

Microsoft teases ‘reimagined SharePoint experience’ with added AI

Correction

"The new release will be available as a preview in March, before Microsoft starts a targeted release forced march the following month "

Ah, the good old days when you could decide whether or not you wanted to install something . . .

Google Antigravity falls to Earth under OpenClaw-fueled compute load

"malicious usage"

You mean, actually using it ?

IBM stock dives after Anthropic points out AI can rewrite COBOL fast

“AI can assess"

No it can't.

It can just spit out some variation of what it has been given to ingest.

I would go on a rant about how we should stop talking about "AI", but I might as well try going through a brick wall using my head.