Posts by Magani

Microsoft Surface chief Panos Panay abruptly announces departure

"Sudden Departure"

A 'Sudden Departure' sometimes begs the question: Did he jump or was he pushed?

Scientists turn to mid-20th century tech for low-power underwater comms

Really?

"...they created devices able to transmit acoustic signals at kilometer-plus ranges...

Just what whales and dolphins need... More underwater noise.

Samsung realizes behaving ethically is good for business, says compliance boss

Re: Behaving ethically is good for business

Gee. Who would have thought that one could do the right thing, AND have it improve your business. Whatever will they think of next?

</sarcasm>

UK flights disrupted by 'technical issue' with air traffic computer system

Dear Brandon Vigliarolo

"NOTAMS is responsible ..."

No. Try 'NOTAMs are responsible...'. NOTAM is singular.

FTFY

China – which surveils everyone everywhere – floats facial recognition rules

Whoda thunk it?

Pot, meet kettle.

Beijing wants to make the Great Firewall of China even greater

Dear Eric Blair

"Internet and information technology departments at all levels must be loyal to the Party and the people,..."

Nothing says a government's loyalty to the people like censorship and isolationism.

Is the CCP using '1984' as a user guide? Double plus ungood.

China sets AI rules that protect IP, people, the planet, and The Party

Wrong Order?

"China sets AI rules that protect IP, people, the planet, and The Party"

Presumably, knowing the CCP, not necessarily in that order.

Threads versus Twitter: Shouldn't we be happy the wheels are falling off antisocial social media?

Re: Freedom is an illusion

"Lunchtime doubly so."

Close, but we'll take it.

Vale Douglas.

Open the pod bay doors, GPT, and see if you're smart enough for the real world

Re: Horse discovered in college bathroom

An upvote for the reference to DGHDA! Well played, that man!

Two sides of the coin

Just about anything humans have invented can be used for good or ill.

This would seem to be yet another one, only with a lot more potential for the latter.

Feds, you'll need a warrant for that cellphone border search

Don't get too contented.

"... barring exigent circumstances."

Anyone care to place a bet on the increasing number of 'exigent circumstances.' that might crop up?

Turns out people don't like it when they suspect a machine's talking to them

Re: Chatbot

I've mentioned it before, but "My hovercraft is full of eels" works in most situations.

Anyone want an International Space Station? Slightly used

What's the sound of an RFP?

""Our goal is to go out with an RFP..."

So more like a wimper than a bang?

To the Banmobile! Huawei inks deal to create global high-end automotive brand

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.

Joseph Heller; Catch 22

NASA's Orion Moon capsule to splash down this Sunday

Pedant alert

"...USS Portland, an amphibious ship..."

I think you'll find that while the USS Portland may carry amphibious vehicles, it is not actually capable of operating on land.

Israel sets robotic target-tracking turrets in the West Bank

Re: Thanks to the commentards above

"What they need to do is sort themselves out in a non-violent way which they have always seemed really keen not to do."

They seem to have been 'not keen' to do it since 14th May, 1948. Maybe it's time to let the adults sort it out?

Twitter is suffering from mad bro disease. Open thinking can build it back better

Re: Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly

Also they need to change the expression 'near miss' to the less acceptable but more accurate 'near hit'.

China reminds world shock and ore can hurt tech supply chains

Just saying...

...that the elephant in the room can also be a bully with a huge penchant for self-interest.

Luxury smartphone brand returns with $41,500 device

The ideal phone for those who care more about what others think of them.

"Himalayan Alligator Leather" HUH? Everyone knows Himalayan Alligators have fur like the Yeti.

Love,

Austin Tacious

Significant customer data exposed in attack on Australian telco

NOT HAPPY, JAN!

Coming up to 3 days after the data breach was detected by Optus and not a thing from them in either email or SMS.

Goodbye, humans: Call centers 'could save $80b' switching to AI

Eels and hovercraft for the win!

I have now reverted to the epic line, "My hovercraft is full of eels" when the AI wants me to, "... describe your problem in a few words".

Only takes a couple of repeats before they give up and I get a real human.

Bosses using AI to hire candidates risk discriminating against disabled applicants

Seems an apt quote

"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer."

Paul Erlich

Google shows off immersive maps, AR-flavored search, Pixel 7, and more

A slight misquote

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, opened the keynote by sounding familiar themes. He leaned into the implied sentiment, "We're here to help,"'

We regret that our CEO's quote was accidentally truncated in the autocue. What he was meant to say was...

"We're here to help gather and onsell as much data about our users as possible."

A discounting disaster averted at the expense of one's own employment

Re: Access is not the problem

It got a bad wrap. It was a really useful front end when you wanted to build something fast to show a client (or your boss). It kept me in coffee and TimTams for a number of years.

The Access back end though... The less said the better.

Sounds like something the BofH and the PFY would cook up.

Twitter preps poison pill to preclude Elon Musk's purchase plan

Re: The Crap-Meister

Elon, it's obvious that's the way you operate, but it comes out more like a stream of ordure.

Which site?

...and will kill you on-site...

So which particular site is that? Tesla, Space-X, The Boring Company, OpenAI or ???

US, UK, Western Europe fail to hit top 50 cheapest broadband list

Re: France ($28.92)

It seems to be a thing in Europe.

And at the opposite end of the planet here in Oz as well. For about AUD120 (GBP70, USD90) per month, we get 100mbps down / 25 up unlimited data, cable entertainment equivalent to Netflix/Foxtel, land line with free calls to all national and mobile numbers as well as free calls to most countries that we'd want to call (Nth America, UK/Europe and most of Asia) as well as some others in Sth America.

Compared to average weekly earnings here, it's quite affordable.

IFS bags Japanese airline and printermaker software deals

As per the headline...

... why don't Japan Airlines and Konica have Independent Front Suspension already?

Meta sued for 'aiding and abetting' crypto scammers

Farcebork Technology Fail

"We use technology to detect and block scam ads and work to get ahead of scammers' attempts to evade our detection systems."

All I can say is they do a piss-poor job of it. My 10 year old grand-daughter could do better! Next they'll be saying they have a 'Centre of Excellence'.

Like others above, I've reported these generally well-known folks spruiking dubious schemes, and had much the same response. Pathetic.

I hope Twiggy Forrest takes them to the cleaners.

Ukraine invasion: This may be the quiet before the cyber-storm, IT staff warned

Re: Now is the time to be a prepper – the computer security kind

>> 'How do I get to insert name of destination?'

Farmer Brown: "Ya can't get there from here."

As mentioned above, it's something that has to be planned from the start, not added on after.

Australian court finds Facebook 'divorced from reality' as it tried to define doing business down under

Where's Mr T?

"The decision allows the OAIC to serve legal documents on Facebook Inc. in pursuit of its privacy suit."

I love it when a plan comes together.

Hannibal Smith - A Team

Meta trains data2vec neural network to grok speech, images, text so it can 'understand the world'

Dept of Corrections and Clarifications

In a previous press release we said: "Meta trains data2vec neural network to understand speech, images, text so it can 'understand the world'"

That release should have said "Meta trains data2vec neural network to understand speech, images, text so it can 'take over the world'".

UK, Australia, to build 'network of liberty that will deter cyber attacks before they happen'

Re: Look a squirrel/koala

"or Dutton setting himself up as leader if they lose their majority in May?"

What a horrific thought.

Re: network of liberty that will deter cyber-attacks before they happen

...with a name that sounds like some medical support garment.

"Thank you for your support. I shall always wear it"

Spike Milligan

Buzz words

'Network of Liberty', - sounds like 'Centre of Excelence' but with American characteristics.

Total fail.

Aircraft can't land safely due to interference with upcoming 5G C-band broadband service

A better explanation?

If you want a deeper and a bit more techy explanation, try this one from a B777 pilot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=942KXXmMJdY

From the studio that brought you 'Mortal Wombat' comes 'Pernicious Possum'

Re: There's a monster in the garden

Obviously Spiny Norman

Zuckerberg wants to create a make-believe world in which you can hide from all the damage Facebook has done

Re: Meta what?

Zubin's probably not happy either.

Facebook's greatest misses: The five nastiest bits from recent leaks

Dept of Corrections and Clarifications

In a previous press release, our beloved founder was misquoted as saying:-

'... the media has made "a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company".'

His real quote was :

'... the media has made "a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a true picture of our company".

We regret if you were misled and we also apologise for his split infinitive.

Shatner breaks the age barrier, goes where no nonagenarian has gone before with Blue Origin rocket trip

Next time, an orbit?

Live long and prosper, Captain Kirk.

Facebook overpaid FTC fine by up to $4.9bn to protect Zuckerberg, lawsuits allege

Douglas was prescient

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of Facebook, Inc as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes,”

Google emits Chrome 94 with 'Idle Detection' API to detect user inactivity amid opposition

Clippy's joined Google

"I see you're not paying attention. Would you like help with that?"

Space tourists splash down in Atlantic Ocean after three days in orbit

Option #1

"...learning what to do in case anything went wrong."

Pray?

China's biggest chipmaker to build colossal chip factory

"China's biggest chipmaker to build colossal chip factory"

Will there also be an accompanying colossal fish factory to go with it?

Busy day in China: Xi Jinping announces tech-sharing, services export push and a bourse for startups

Re: "young men who dress fashionably and don't conform to male stereotypes"

"Which "male stereotypes" are acceptable in China now ? The rugged woodcutter ?"

Thanks. I now cannot get Mr M. Python's "I'm a Lumberjack" out of my head.

India makes a play to source rare earths – systematic scrapping of its old cars

Attention all 1958 Morris Oxford Owners!

Here's a terrific opportunity to corner the spares' market with all the Hindustan Ambassadors about to hit the junk heap.

Taiwan president pokes the bear by saying the nation needs to lessen its supply chain dependency on China

A courageous decision, minister

"Tsai described the government's approach to China as "maintaining the status quo," ..."

That might sit well with the Taiwanese government, but I suspect that the CCP have different ideas. That particular bear doesn't need any poking to react.

AI algorithms uncannily good at spotting your race from medical scans, boffins warn

Can't let a dollar go by, can they?

"Adverts for these goods could then pop up whenever they logged onto their social media accounts."

Yet another reason to tell Farcebork where to go.

Alan Turing Institute to spend UK.gov grants on AI for air traffic control and banking

A bit simplistic, but...

...if you get AI to study outcomes and the ways they were achieved by human ATC bods, then all you've ended up with is a system that will 'think' like a good controller given the constraints of performance and sep'n standards, and in the future, come up with solutions that the ATCO at the time will probably have already (or shortly thereafter) come up with anyway. All you've added is a distraction.

Any further improvement needs to see a change of separation standards, and/or the building of lots more runways.

OT: Last century, the Oz ATC PHBs in 'Bullsh1t Castle' decided that there were parallels between trains and aircraft. They got in a train expert and asked him how to improve efficiency in moving aircraft. After an appropriate period, his (because they were always 'hims' in those days) report said that aviation had it all wrong. Railways had (generally) two lines between main stations, and lots of platforms at each end. Aviation had lots of airways and only one or two runways at each end, and hence had it all backwards.