Posts by Pascal Monett

India reportedly asks smartphone makers to add local satnav silicon

"reduce dependence on foreign systems while improving accuracy"

GPS is accurate.

I doubt any other system will be that much more accurate.

Granted, GPS is US-controlled and I accept that India would prefer to have its own system, but don't bring accuracy in question.

Here's how crooks will use deepfakes to scam your biz

"use fake identities to trick unsuspecting customers or coworkers into sharing payment info"

How stupid are people ?

Do people really give payment details to a new hire ?

Dear Lord, maybe we do deserve an asteroid.

China's central bank declares victory over online lenders, Bitcoin speculators

P2P loans is not necessarily cryptocurrency

I have a problem with confusing person-to-person loans with funny money.

If the loan is made in the national currency, what does the government have to say about it (other than the fact that China is a dictatorship and wants to control everything) ?

If I meet a friend and loan him in person €1000, the government has nothing to say about it. If my friend never gives the money back, that's my problem to deal with. P2P loans are the same thing.

Just mandate that P2P loans cannot be made in funny money.

Life will find a way.

IBM updates desktop mainframe emulator

Perpetual licence

Well, if it costs $11K but the yearly license costs $5K, I'd say that's still a deal.

Microsoft China turns 30, gives nation the gift of jobs and export promotion

"Microsoft sees plenty of growth in China"

There has been plenty of growth in China.

Especially with all those pirated CD copies sold for mere pennnies.

European carriers again call for Big Tech to fund network builds

"But the CEOs believe they're being asked to do all the heavy lifting"

I'm sorry, but the streamers are already paying for their bandwidth, if I'm not mistaken.

They have a contract, and if your tariffs are not adequate, the onus is on you.

Additionally, the users also have a contract, and they are paying for their access as well.

Stop trying to find excuses to get more money. Do your job and configure your prices accordingly.

El Reg is not supposed to pay more just because I'm reading one of its pages.

This is nonsense.

Salesforce set to hire thousands in India after hitting brakes on US recruitment

"weeks after it slowed hiring in the US"

That's pure capitalism at work.

Aren't you happy to live in a world where other people will get your job because they'll be paid less ?

China's infosec researchers obeyed Beijing and stopped reporting vulns ... or did they?

"a strangely commensurate increase in bug reports from unknown sources"

So there are some people who are still capable of working for the greater good.

Good on them.

Darth Vader voice actor James Earl Jones allows AI to take over the role

Awesome

Until someone does a fake video with him doing/saying something horrible.

And we all know that, given time, it will happen.

Another technological price we are foisting upon ourselves.

BT's emergency call handlers will join pay strikes

"BT said the pay award offered was the highest in decades"

So what ?

You've decided to offer a few more pennies than usual.

That doesn't make your offer anything special.

Datacenter migration plan missed one vital detail: The leaky roof

Since when does management bother about checking the existing situation before making its edicts ?

Privacy watchdog steps up fight against Europol's hoarding of personal data

So, the EU version of the NSA, then ?

It seems that the need to hoover all the data is a virus that every police agency catches without fail.

Federal agencies buying Americans' internet data challenged by US senators

"Americans have opted-in to surveillance"

No, actually they haven't.

They've just been stupid enough to not pay attention and got conned into giving that data up.

But, given that there is no computer user license, it's hardly surprising. Anyone can buy a phone, but how many people actually know what is happening when they use it ?

The secret to Sparrow, DeepMind's latest Q&A chatbot: Human feedback

"Chinchilla has 70 billion parameters"

And I'm sure that no human has controlled more than a thousand of them.

Honestly, parameter count for pseudo-AI is the exact same thing as pixel count for screens. The hyperbole is unending.

Update your Tesla now before the windows put your fingers in a pinch

So, you're actually admitting you have a Tesla ?

Meta accused of breaking the law by secretly tracking iPhone users

"We have carefully designed our in-app browser"

Of course you have. And you have carefully ensured that the user's choice of browser is completely ignored.

There's a lot of care going on there. For your ad requirements.

For respecting user privacy, much less.

Amazon accused of singling out, harassing union organizers

"These allegations are completely without merit"

Of course they are.

Until the Court says they're not.

My money is on the Court.

Another UK tech company bought out: Schneider Electric grabs rest of Aveva

a "holistic approach to digitization"

So, if I understand correctly, 60% of shares was not enough to allow Schneider Electric to implement a "holistic approach".

If that is the case, then what was the bloody point.

If you've got 60% of the shares of a company, then the company is practically yours and you can pretty much do what you damn well please.

This is just PR blabbering for nothing.

Microsoft debuts Windows 11 2022 Update – now with features added monthly

“43 trillion security signals”

Dear God, the amount of bullshit is reaching towering levels.

Meta, Google learn the art of the quiet layoff

"lose the dead weight"

So, Meta is going to fire half the management staff ?

Of course not.

San Francisco cops can use private cameras to live-monitor 'significant events'

Well whaddya know

Person Of Interest is becoming a documentary.

Excel's comedy of errors needs a new script, not new scripting

Brilliant article

Too bad no managers will read it.

Bad UI killed the radio star

Only one thing to say

Ouch. That must have hurt.

Backups ?

Nah. Wasn't in the protocol, I'd wager.

Where in the world is Terraform Labs' alleged crypto-crasher Do Kwon?

"he intended not to appear for questioning"

I'd like to see how important your intentions are when faced with police officers.

With handcuffs.

Philippines decides outsourcers need incentives to stick around, after all

Only one possible conclusion

Money must flow.

Anything that stops the flow of money is an obstacle to be routed around.

Former Reg vulture takes on Nominet – by running for board seat

I wish him the best of luck

This is practically the worst hornet's nest one could get into. It takes a lot of guts to go in and publicly declare that you're not there to be part of the boy's club.

I agree with all his points, I'm just glad that I'm not the one that needs to step up and get it done.

Former Cisco boss launches upstart to rattle old employer's cage

"Technical details are scant"

The usual case for a company that is selling bullshit.

No network people ? I'm sure Chinese/Russian hackers will be thrilled, no one will be around to detect their intrusion.

Microsoft rolls out stealthy updates for 365 Apps

"a process that Lieberman said takes about four seconds"

Um, and what bandwidth was that tested on ?

The internal 10GB network connection ?

NHS data platform procurement delayed for a second time

"next steps the UK should take in realising UK's life sciences vision."

I have a next step : how about getting some work done ?

Boffins spot baby planet forming around young star – and that's rather cool

Re: It also shows us how much we have no idea about

Einstein said it best : “As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.”

SWIFT to trial blockchain – but not for its core payment service

"the information needs to be quickly shared with investors"

It's called a web-accessible database.

No need for the not-scalable blockchain nonsense.

I'm interested to see if this actually succeeds.

Arrest warrant issued for Do Kwon – the man blamed for 'crypto winter'

"Obviously, [..] a lot of the beliefs and sort of the conjectures that I had made were wrong,"

Yeah. For starters, dealing in funny money.

Re: I am looking forward to the crypto ice-age....

I'm with you on that one.

WordPress-powered sites backdoored after FishPig suffers supply chain attack

Ah, Wordpress

The gift that keeps on giving.

Especially in a world where people find it entirely normal to go download server code from some random website.

When will they learn ?

Amazon 'punishes' sellers who dare offer lower prices on other marketplaces

Re: Amazon doing something useful?

Yeah but, that sounds like work.

Google faces fines of up to $25.4b in UK and EU ad tech case

"could face claims of up to €25 billion"

Let's be realistic, nobody is going to fine Google to the tune of €25 billion.

Nobody has the balls to try it.

To preserve Earth's treasures, digital silence is golden

a black sand beach

That is something I would like to see.

Red Hat says staff can stay away from the office forever

"when was the last time Voyager 2 actually showed up in the office?"

Cheeky

Ex-Googler Eric Schmidt's think tank warns China could win global tech race

"the US is in poor shape to catch up"

If the US spent more money on its education system, it might be in better shape.

It's all very nice to have prestigious universities, but if half of the students come from China, what do you think will happen ?

Yes. China will end by dominating. A Chinese person isn't any more stupid than anybody else, and right now, China has a vast proportion of technological industries to work with.

If you think they're not going to learn from that, go have fun at Mar-A-Lago.

SEC charges VMware with hiding slowing sales from investors

"without admitting or denying the SEC's findings"

You're paying.

You've admitted.

I am sick and tired of this PR bullshit.

One month after Black Hat disclosure, HP's enterprise kit still unpatched

""Security is always a top priority for <company>"

PR bullshit alert.

That's always the line they trot out when they have demonstrated that they don't give a damn.

If it was a "top priority", you'd have fixed the problem by now, or at least, announced when a fix would be available.

Wankers.

OVH opens less flammable datacenter at site of 2021 fire

"the lack of [..] an automatic fire extinguisher system"

What ? They built a datacenter full of electrical equipment and they didn't have a fire extinguishing system in it ?

Well duh.

Want to know the future of FOSS? You can look it up in a database

"resentment towards what looks, feels and costs like extortion"

Eh, Oracle ?

It's nice to see that FOSS is gaining ground. The future is open, proprietary is dying.

Maybe that is the proper evolution of things.

Hybrid work not working? Try building an 'intraverse' to fix it, says Gartner

An "intraverse"

Really ?

We've been using Zoom and a VPN for the past two years and now you wake up to put a fancy name on it ?

Dear God, the day you guys say something actually useful is the day I'm winning the lottery.

Chemical plant taken offline by the best one of all: C₈H₁₀N₄O₂

I would have thought

That the change in procedures would be more concerned with forbidding any liquids than with who could enter.

After all, it wasn't George's coffee that caused the problem.

Boffins build microphone safety kit to detect eavesdroppers

If there's a hardware switch, where's the problem ?

It's not difficult to create a hardware notification of mic activity. If the mic is on, then it is using current. Detect the use of current, and light up the LED.

No software can go against that.

If you have a hardware switch, well that prevents the mic from getting current. No software can counter that either.

But of course, this needs to be implemented in hardware.

Data tracking poses a 'national security risk' FTC told

Idiocracy is well on its way to becoming a documentary.

Meta disbands Responsible Innovation team, spreads it out over Facebook and co

"massive losses trying to prop up Zuckerberg's vision of the metaverse"

Um, that's not a scandal, that's just El Zuck wasting his money as he wishes.

He has that right, and the other investors can just Zuck it up.

Using the datacenter as a dining room destroyed the platters that matter

Re: No explosives in the tech support room

Goes a long way to demonstrate that having diplomas does not equal having intelligence.

Also demonstrates why US goods are sold with their weight in warnings about what you shouldn't do with them.

NASA just weeks away from trying again with SLS Moon rocket launch

There is one thing I don't get

They pump liquid hydrogen into the rocket, right ?

That liquid hydrogen is stored somewhere, right ?

So why don't they use the same sealants they have on the storage tank ?