Posts by Jim Whitaker

Open source project fools AI scrapers with poisoned font

Grammar rules OK?

"A noun will never be swapped for a verb, for example, and a verb will never be swapped for an adjective:" Well that rules out a number of Americans then. As someone said: "There ain't no noun that can't be verbed".

Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity

Seriously?

Wow, that cannot be a sensible state of affairs.

David Potter, the man who put Psion in the palm of your hand, logs off at 82

My first

I had a Psion Series 3 and used it for several years. Still one of the best PDA's I have ever used. Predictably, the folding mechanism was its downfall.

Waymo hits the brakes after robotaxis keep missing the signs for freeway construction zones

Trial zone

Good thing that we have America to practise on. Traditionally, in the UK, we used Scotland for that task.

Feds unwittingly leak pilots' pre-crash conversation

Not a policy

"a policy of not releasing cockpit audio recordings" It is not a "Policy"; it is compliance with a Federal regulation.

PowerPoint punishment sent users into an infinite loop after lunch

You mean that there are people/environments where you don't lock the screen when away? Wow, you must be in a secure environment - perhaps the sole inhabitant of a desert island.

Every day in every way, passwords are getting worse and worse

Re: Potemkin Security

Me too.

"a standardized user experience". I guess that is so when it breaks at least everyone is in the same boat. My password manager is standalone, has no communications and sits happily on the desktop, laptop and tablet. Personal discipline keeps them synchronised in a way which suits me.

NASA points fingers at Boeing and chaotic culture for Starliner debacle

Re: Never Never

"Allow private industry in mark their own home work!" Or anyone else - such as NASA.

Openreach turns up the heat to force laggards off legacy copper lines

Re: No online checker…

Serves them right for not having a business process which deals with mail efficiently (and intelligently). Same applies for people who whine about a message having "gone to junk". Get a grip and work out your life.

Cops put Microsoft Copilot in holding cell after controversial hallucination

Re: Yes and no.

No, the root cause is stupid people.

Cop cops it after Copilot cops out: West Midlands Police chief quits over AI hallucination

More like Dumb plods

I think the lack of intelligence in this whole disgrace is in the wet ware. Top to a few layers down.

Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that! PCs refuse to shut down after Microsoft patch

Re: Suggestions?

It did for me. Needed after the command line command in the article seemed to hang the (W10) computer half-way. Yes of course I had to try it.

Luggable datacenter: startup straps handles to server with 4 H200 GPUs

77 pound. That's quite cheap.

Garmin autopilot lands small aircraft without human assistance

Good question. I wonder what the current Garmin system would do in that situation?

UK gov blames budget leak on misconfigured WordPress plugin, server

Re: Illegal

"Oh I was told that the statement would be here (obr.uk/Budget25Release) sometime. So I set that up and just kept hitting refresh. And there it was. No, my source is protected as a matter of journalism." Now can you see why no police force is going to be rushing into this?

UK police caught slacking off by jamming their keyboards while working from home

Too stupid

Well there's a surprise - a copper too stupid to buy decent activity-spoofing software (equipment?)

Check your own databases before asking to see our passport photos, Home Office tells UK cops

"LEO"? Please ditch this nasty Americanism as soon as possible.

No more Blocktoberfest? German court throws book at ad blockers

I block all ads wherever possible. I fully accept the right of content providers to deny me access to their output if they chose. Shrugs and moves on with life.

Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want – here's what we actually need

Don't blame Word

You are blaming Word because it is not the Line-of-Business software you want it to be. I understand and sort of agree with many of your points, but you should not be down on Word because it is not a fully-fledged legal technical authoring package. It was never meant to be. And, for my use, I don't want it to be. I don't know whether you are UK, USA or in another legal domain, but I will bet that plenty of what your environment says is an unbreakable requirement is anathema to another domain.

I don't really care what Microsoft puts into their product PROVIDED I know about it and can turn it off if I chose. Some things (like Recall) should be off unless I specifically and with full knowledge turn them on.

I started losing my digital privacy in 1974, aged 11

I would expect all medical records to be held up to confirmed death or, say, 120 years from birth. Plus whatever period is necessary to protect the health provider from rapacious relatives etc. I would congratulate that American institution for having systems that worked so well.

And remember that these are not **your** records; they are **the hospital's** records (about you).

Microsoft wares may be UK public sector's only viable option

Gosh you do surprise me.

SpaceX Crew Dragon lofting next batch of 'nauts to ISS today

31st July launch scrubbed due to weather, I believe.

Next opportunity no earlier than Friday, Aug. 1, at 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 UTC), 1643 BST.

Internet exchange points are ignored, vulnerable, and absent from infrastructure protection plans

Who pays for IXP's?

US Navy won't torpedo hurricane forecast satellite feed after all

"keeping the data flowing until the sensor fails or the program formally ends in September 2026" OK that's a reprieve but what are the plans post September 2026?

As companies race to add AI, terms of service changes are going to freak a lot of people out

So people use services like WeTransfer to send sensitive information (anything you don't want anyone else to be able to see, copy or otherwise own) without encryption? Seems odd to me.

Airbus okays use of ‘Taxibot’ to tow planes to the runway

I think you may be being a bit pessimistic in some areas. Getting the tug engaged with the plane should be easily (and better) done using routine robot controls - image and or proximity systems. We are currently hearing people talk seriously about driverless cars on the open road so a tug and plane in a pretty sterile environment would be a doddle by comparison.

Don't forget that engines need a few minutes at ground idle to cool down before they should be shut down.

Re: Proper warm up still required

APU?

Meta calls €200M EU fine over pay-or-consent ad model 'unlawful'

Problem (mostly) solved.

What's an advert? Relevant blocker mechanisms work for me. I've even avoided the necessity for a tinfoil hat.

Some English hospitals doubt Palantir's utility: We'd 'lose functionality rather than gain it'

Just get it done.

I do hope that the Government has guts enough to force this through and ignore all the "ours is better" complaints. The point is not that Littleton on Ouse Trust does it better, it is that one system overall, for everyone, does it better. Of course good elements of individual enterprises will be incorporated in due course.

70-knot winds so far blamed for yacht disaster that killed Brit tech tycoon Mike Lynch

Design failures?

If you actually read the MAIB interim report (hampered by the Italian police investigation habits, as usual) you will probably have identified key facts relating to stability and stability knowledge which are more significant than wind strength.

Google goes cold on Europe: Stops making smart thermostats for continental conditions

Not the only one.

My Siemens Central heating controller (MiGenie) had its internet connection and hence remote control removed last year. Only nine years after installation. Annoying but I did take up their offer of a decent discount on the replacement. I guess that is a win for them but I did value the remote control more than I thought I would when I originally chose that system.

Staff at UK's massive health service still have interoperability issues with electronic records

Re: Brownfield

Not so. I changed address a few years ago and told the practice. (Note: I had not moved one inch but just got the postcode changed to something which reflected the position on the ground. Deliveries now find the house.) Letters (!) started to come out with the correct address but I noticed that the prescription paperwork still had the old address. Luckily I checked a few things because the old postcode was sufficiently close to the practice to make be eligible for the practice dispensing service to be available. The new postcode (about 1/2 mile away) would have taken me out of that, very convenient, service. (Restrictive practice from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society which the Government is too spineless to set aside.)

So naturally I have not pointed out that error.

When disaster strikes, proper preparation prevents poor performance

Missing p

As it stands, your headline is missing a p. Or are you taking the p?

Tech trainer taught a course on software he'd never used and didn't own

Re: been on many courses where the trainer has no answers

The version I heard ends:

"Those who can't teach, teach teachers to teach."

The NHS security culture problem is a crisis years in the making

Deluded

"that the country's NHS, beloved by all, revered around the world, and one of few shining jewels in the UK's otherwise splotchy crown, " I'm not sure what delusional state the author lives in, but this part of the article is nonsense.

Altnets told to stop digging and start stuffing fiber through abandoned pipes

Foreign intervention

"the back country roads" Which country is this man from?

AI pothole patrol to snap flaws in Britain's crumbling roads

Re: AI?

Well said sir.

Brits must prove their age on adult sites by July, says watchdog

Of course this will work. What could possibly go wrong.

Former NSA cyberspy's not-so-secret hobby: Hacking Christmas lights

The neighbour from hell. At least for a few days.

SpaceX claims another Starship success, but fumbles the catch

Re: Huge progress?

"fictitious", I think.

Academic papers yanked after authors found to have used unlicensed software

Restitution?

I wonder if the journal would (re-) publish the article if the authors paid for a licence for the software in question?

Skyscraper-high sewage plume erupts in Moscow

Don't let United Utilities see this or they will be jealous!

NHS drops another billion on tech in the hope of finally going digital

Re: Place your bets...

I was once involved with an NHS project to put a mobile tablet into service for a domiciliary activity. The project was floundering a bit and when I pushed for an answer, it became apparent that "Ask them what they want, then give them what they need" was the essential problem. Because, of course, they asked a number of different people "what they wanted" and of course they got as many different answers as people and those answers were sometimes incompatible; indeed diametrically opposed. I moved on before the project came to a conclusion!

Kelsey Hightower: If governments rely on FOSS, they should fund it

King Log or King Stork?

If they fund it, they own it. Do you really want that? Be careful what you wish for.

Starlink's new satellites emit 30x more radio interference than before, drowning cosmic signals

Genies and bottles

Just how do you think this genie is going to be put back in the bottle? I feel sorry for astronomers but the rest of us are likely to see only benefits.

Increased expectations

Maybe but other factors will come into play, principally (I would argue) increasing expectations. An example from my own experience. Last week I was out on an event which takes place in the depths of rural, forested areas. Mobile phone coverage, including any data, is nil. For the first time, the reporting point were were co-located with, had a Starlink terminal positioned alongside. Logging in to the wi-fi that setup gave us phone and data coverage about as good as sitting at home with fibre to the premises. Now I am, mentally at least, going to judge any event by whether it has set up the same level of connectivity.

Feds urge 3D printing industry to end DIY machine guns

Re: Dubious Conversions

And my experience with this problem was a .22 target pistol. Fortunately good range discipline prevented any damage. And the armourer said: " yes , it does that sometimes"!