Posts by Pascal Monett

California toys with digital vehicle titles on private DMV blockchain

"blockchain will increase efficiency and transparency"

Ooh, so they've finally found a solution to make blockchain scale (it doesn't) ?

I am thrilled that there are some institutions that are trying to adopt blockchain and finally make this thing useful.

I only find it curious that there are hardly any private companies that are doing this, ie risking actual capital on the idea.

Apart, of course, from all the funny money schemes which almost invariably end up on the bonfire of mismanagement and incompetent IT decisions and staff - not to mention intentional scamming from the get-go.

No, lets let government use our tax money to pursue this bullshit bingo boondoggle. At least, when it won't work, it can just be quietly swept under the rug without much fuss because hey, it's only your tax money at work, right ?

Three seconds of audio could end up costing Fox $500,000

"the [EAS] can take over practically any television or radio channel in the States"

And that will be extremely useful for all the young'uns who have their smartphones grafted to their hands.

Might be an idea to actually get that alert sound out into films that the youngsters watch, because they don't stand much of a chance of recognizing it otherwise.

Musk: Tesla's doing great. I mean, have you seen my Twitter follower count?

Now you've got me interested.

Disaster recovery blunder broke New York Stock Exchange this week

"an NYSE employee" != junior tech

Poor Meta. Technical debt and user training made its exabyte-scale data migration tricky

Re: Meta found data migration difficult?

Nobody deletes data anymore. You never know when you might find some use for that obscure content in the Comments3 field.

If your Start menu or apps are freezing up on Windows, Microsoft has a suggestion

"damaged registry keys"

Ah, the Registry. Created to appease rights holders and integrate DRM into Windows (I'm sure the user base was really clamoring for that). An abomination of an excuse that goes up to and includes allowing miscreants to camouflage their malware.

Too bad Borkzilla didn't stick with config files, ain't it ?

It's been since Windows 95 that we've been lugging this so-called database around, and Borkzilla still hasn't found a way to ensure that its contents don't get screwed up. And when they do, you're good for reinstalling from scratch - even today.

Why don't we have an official verification tool ? How can a key possibly get "damaged" ? Why doesn't Windows automatically detect that and correct the issue by isolating the key ?

Almost three decades now, and Borkzilla still can't answer those questions. And we still have to cope with the fallout.

Pathetic.

Tesla eyes Nevada for Semi electric truck plant, battery factory

"Center placement of the driver's seat"

What genius decided that that was a good idea ?

Is that a pitiful stab at trying to avoid the cost and hassle of switching the steering to the right side for UK routes ? It's an electric vehicle, don't tell me that you have to redesign the drive shaft.

You're making an EV, not redesiging how people drive.

Defra 'confident' it has 'handle' on risk for 30% of apps out of support

"It's possibly slightly worse than described"

No my dear, it's much, much worse than described.

We'll be hearing about this again, I wager, and the picture will not be so rosy.

Go to security school, GoTo – theft of encryption keys shows you need it

Re: Persistent keys are the problem.....

Because cryptography is hard ?

They coded and salted the hases, which is more than many do today. Not trying to find excuses, but they did better than most already.

You can always do more, especially where security is concerned. Maybe this "no persistent key" approach would break something else, or make everything more difficult ?

Intel chairman exits just ahead of next financial report

"stepping down just days before the chipmaker is due to report its Q4 earnings"

Um, no, that's not how you do it.

He was there for the making of those earnings report, so he steps up to the plate and takes responsibility for them.

Then he can step down.

Stepping down before is just demonstrating a lack of professionalism.

No cookie.

Well that escalated quickly: India demos homebrew mobile OS

"is apparently incapable of running malware"

Careful, some miscreant is inevitably going to say : "Challenge accepted !".

WFH can get you 40% salary boost in UK and US tech jobs

"Nadia Vatalidis, Remote VP of people"

Now that is a Grade A work title.

Not a clue what she does or who she does it for, but you can't deny she must be useful for something.

Damned if I knew what it was, though.

Seattle: Home of grunge, Starbucks… and now, a quantum computer manufacturing plant

US senator Patty Murray : "These are the kinds of investments . . "

. . that ensure that I will remain Senator until the day I die.

Pass that envelope here, I'll take of it.

P.S. : we need a Mr Moneybags icon

EU infrastructure risk project to address potential climate, 'resource' shortage catastrophes

I see that there is the usual amount of deference to, and confidence in, EU projects.

Carry on !

Chinese mobe-makers play a long game with homebrew chips

And, given that ASML is currently participating in the blockade against giving high tech to China, that might take even longer.

8K? That’s cute. This display has 600 million pixels

Re: Holy Bezels, Batman

Agreed. I'm not impressed by those thick black lines dividing panels.

Ukraine slides closer to NATO with buckets of experience fending off Moscow's cyberattacks

Acronym madness

Joint Center for Advanced Technologies in Cyber Defense != CCDCOE

It should be JCATCD.

So, what's the justification ?

Rentokil uses AI rat recognition to plot extermination in real time

Welcome to snout recog

The official app of New York (among many, many, many other cities).

There's going to be a great need for video cameras for this to work - and I hope those cameras operate via WiFi, because if they're connected via cables, well, let's just say that rats can handle that problem.

Changes afoot at Salesforce after activist investor Elliott takes a decisive slice

"improve operating margins"

Operations. Those things that are done by people. People who cost a salary - generally more the better they are, or so goes the theory.

So improving operating margins by firing people means that you'll have less people to do the same job - or more. That's a situation that generally sours the workplace and drives people away, thus improving operating margins even more - except that you get to the point where you don't have enough people to ensure operations (eh, Musk ?).

As wafer demand dries up, foundry revenues head for a cliff, we all celebrate

"Trendforce is tracking more than 20 new fabs"

So, more than 20 times a few billion gallons of pure water a day to be consumed.

I hope they have a good recycling process in place. I mean, I seem to hear that we're going towards a period of water issues . . .

Software devs targeted as British tax authority makes fraud allegations

Ah, HMRC

Continually innovating in the domain of hating working in the UK.

Polish for Windows Spotlight and tabs for Notepad in latest Insiders build

Re: Polish for Windows Spotlight and ...

No, the real question is : will there be a new Dark theme ?

Like, a richer black background and a very dark grey for the text ?

The suspense is killing me.

India's Supreme Court finds Google's appeal against monopoly fines unappealing

"there is much, much, more to lose than just money"

Well yes, there is the iron grip Google has on the entire ecosystem.

Google makes Android, but what Google wants is Chrome everywhere, because that's how it gets ad views.

And Google is all about the ad views. It's what it is, literally.

So, push in some actual capitalistic competition and you weaken Google's ad views, aka its bottom line.

And Google's job to its shareholders, which it gleefully fulfills, is to maximize its ad views.

So no, Alphabet won't be happy about this.

At all.

Dear Stupid, I write with news I did not check the content of the [Name] field before sending this letter

"a while back I renamed the Comment field to Name2"

No, that would be : Ah, a while back I decided to create a situation that could possibly destroy the company since I didn't think for a second about any possible consequences of my decisions.

It's called Data Management for a reason. And doofuses like that are the ones who enabled the book to be written on the subject.

Twitter tweaks third-party app rules to ban third-party apps

Re: No surprise there then

To be fair, my 2007 Audi has an issue with the passenger door handle and I'm looking at a quote for €400+.

On the other hand, it is a 2007 Audi, not a much more recent Tesla.

Microsoft is checking everyone's bags for unsupported Office installs

Re: I use a paid version of Office 2013

Because it's not your computer anymore, it's Nadella's and he'll do as he pleases with it.

Re: Its because

You only wasted a single day in your life ?

You lucky bastard.

Re: ot hiding your post behind the AC handle

That is not an impediment for me.

Re: Wonder what happens when its run on a Linux box?

If you have managed to get Windows Update to run on a Linux box you are one sick puppy.

It's been 230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

Agreed, but they're not the only ones. How's about 22.01.2023 ? Or 2023-22-01 ?

And I have a few more that I found while importing CSV files from various customers - sometimes with different formats inside the same file.

I swear, it's a good thing firearms aren't easily availble 'round here because when I snap I'll be reduced to strangling the bastards instead of shooting them - that'll give someone more time to drag me off.

No to cups or spoons

Especially in cooking, you state the ingredients in grams or milliliters and that should be all.

Spoons, really. What size spoon do you ? And don't tell they're all the same size, that's simply not true. The spoons from our wedding tableware are bigger than the spoons of our daily tableware, so there is no standard there.

Re: terrified by the very concept of metric

Yes, I understand.

Cavemen were terrified by fire as well.

So, not to worry. In a few millennia they will grow bigger brains and be able to comprehend the system. In the meantime, they'll be happy measuring in smelly feet.

Miscreants sure do love ransacking cloud networks, more so than before

Well duh

"As enterprises around the world continue to move to the cloud, cybercriminals are following right behind them"

Pro tip : they want to get to the data. You put the data into The Cloud^TM, they attack The Cloud^TM.

Not rocket science and eminently foreseeable.

New IT boss decided to 'audit everything you guys are doing wrong'. Which went wrong

Do you add a dollar to the price of your pint ?

Finally, ransomware victims are refusing to pay up

Estimate-only

Fine. Let's hope it's a real step in the right direction.

LUMI supercomputer puts GPU partition through its paces with hardcore science

That is insane

"pilot projects covering solar atmospheric modelling, natural language processing (NLP) and imaging of seismic data"

Are you saying that natural language processing is as difficult as modeling the interactions of the most powerful open-air nuclear furnace of our entire Solar System ?

Nuts.

Ransomware severs 1,000 ships from on-shore servers

"if it planned to pay them"

The answer should be NO.

The only reason these attacks continue are because these assholes are getting paid. Stop paying and the problem goes away.

Yes, your company might fold in the meantime. It's called the Greater Good.

And, next time, train your personnel better.

Intel angles for more subsidies to build German mega-fab

"it will build once 'funding' worked out"

No problem, Intel. How much money do you have in the bank ?

It would be interesting to see how companies would react if they had to fork over a share of the profits based on how much subsidies they were offered.

Like : "Okay, you say it will cost $10 billion to build this plant. We can offer you $7.5 billion. Then you will pay us 75% of revenue over ten years."

Of course, that scenario only works if every government does the same. Might as well wait for pigs to fly.

Microsoft axes 10,000, already breaking bad news to staff

"Microsoft will lay off 10,000 people"

And a Happy New Year to you too !

UK Online Safety law threatens Big Tech bosses with jail

Explanation : if they don't like it here, they can go get stuffed in China.

I'm sure they'll appreciate the difference.

Boo hoo

"the threat of criminal prosecutions could deter investment and drive companies to leave the country"

Go run while you can. Sooner or later, every decent country will have such rules, at which point you'll be forced to be hosted in some island haven that will be blocked, so good luck serving your wares to the few who live on the same island.

I am sick of seeing major companies get barely a slap on the wrist when they don't respect the rules, then threaten to up and leave when the rules get tightened.

Go host yourselves in China. Ask Ma what he thinks about that.

Brit civil service claims there's enough money for mammoth ERP refresh project

ERP. Again.

Didn't we just leave this party ?

Also : isn't it astonishing that the civil service suddenly has £300 million lying around for this ?

Oh, silly me. Sir Humphry's cousin thrice removed hasn't yet had a chance to partake of the trough. Happy snouting !

Artificial pancreas successful in type 2 diabetes tests

Re: To be honest

I wish you the best of luck. Diabetes is a pain because, although it is not painful in itself (as far as I know), it can kill you pretty quick.

In any case, I think this artificial pancreas has a great future in store and I hope it will help everyone afflicted with this condition.

Oh, WoW: Chinese gamers to be cut off from Blizzard games next week

Re: Cause and effect...

It's called business.

You say you don't want to work with me any more ? Excuse me while I search for people who do.

And the childish sexual insults simply demonstrate that NetEase's management need to grow up. Petulant children should not be in charge of major communications companies.

Eh, Musk ?

Crypto exchanges freeze accounts tied to North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group

Re: Growing Up?

The problem isn't really in decentralization per se, but rather with the fact that any Joe Schmo can declare himself part of the infrastructure without having to prove that he knows what he's doing (he doesn't).

Twitter starts auction to flip the bird, furniture, pizza ovens, gadgets galore

"Musk has [..] articulated a plan"

Well he can still articulate.

Delivering will be exponentially more difficult given that he has fired or driven away most of the developers.

I wonder how his "search" for a new CEO is going ? I especially wonder what difference it would make to Twitter's image, given that everyone knows that said CEO will not be able to manage any differently than what His Muskiness accepts, so booting out the racists again is clearly off the table.

Sysadmin infected bank with 'alien virus' that sucked CPUs dry

"perhaps best not to use a program called SETI@Home somewhere other than, you know, home"

I disagree, somewhat.

The mistake was in implementing the plan on his own. What he should have done would be to present the idea to his manager and get approval.

Of course, that meant his idea could also have been shot down, but hey, them's the breaks.

Disclaimer : I was a long-time contributor to SETI@Home myself, and ran it on every computer I had at home, plus my work laptop if I could.

China aims to grow local infosec industry by 30 percent a year, to $22 billion by 2025

"an ambitious program to scale the industry at 30 percent compound annual growth rate"

Yes, because in security nothing says success like an arbitrary financial goal.

Oh, and blockchain ?

Guys, if you actually manage to implement blockchain successfully where security is concerned, that will indeed be an achievement.

Basecamp details 'obscene' $3.2 million bill that caused it to quit the cloud

"Most of that spend – $759,983 – went on compute"

No it didn't.

$760K out of $3+ million is definitely not most of that spend.

Now, 8 petabytes of data is nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure. But, if you have a budget of over $260K/month, you have enough money for servers, a local SAS implementation running over 100Gbps fiber and money to spare for the aircon bill and fire suppressing installation.

Apparently, The Cloud^TM does not give you any savings on the IT personnel budget, since there is still need of a bunch of skilled admins to oversee it properly, so you have the people required to manage all that locally.

I'm curious to see next year's local bill and find out just how damning it is for The Cloud^TM.

NSA asks Congress to let it get on with that warrantless data harvesting, again

"he provided several stories"

Oh good. Violating the privacy of 300+ million individuals on a daily basis gave you less than a dozen useful cases.

That declaration in itself would be enough for me to tell them to take a hike. Then I'd go and create an even more restrictive law.

Plus : this is about spying on Americans, and the NSA is the one deciding what it can tell ?

Sorry buddy, you are talking to the elected representatives of your own country about your activity concerning your own citizens. You spill all the beans, or you go to jail.

Simples.