* Posts by Magani

890 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Sep 2008

Page:

NASA warns as huge solar flare threatens comms, maybe astronauts too

Magani
Coat

A sunny outlook

What's this solar thing? I always thought flares were what Kiwis grew in their gardens.

Australian supercomputer 'Taingiwilta' comes online this year with [REDACTED] inside

Magani
Black Helicopters

Re: What can be inferred?

"Then there's the size of the building..."

The rumour is that it'll be installed inside Bugs Bunny outside the Russell Offices with the ears used for radiant cooling.

(Canberra denizens will get the reference.)

Vietnam to collect biometrics - even DNA - for new ID cards

Magani
Big Brother

Thinks...

Is Vietnam becoming a little China-in-Training?

Chunks of deorbiting ESA satellite are expected to reach the ground

Magani
Unhappy

A bit more precision required

"...will end up in the ocean."

Umm, Which ocean did you have in mind? There are at least 6 that I can think of, and numerous large 'Seas'.

"Having used up the last of the fuel, the mission officially ended..."

While IANAAstrophysicist, why not deorbit this device while they still had fuel and could actually control, to a larger extent, where on Earth (literally) it was going to splash down?

Australia passes Right To Disconnect law, including (for now) jail time for bosses who email after-hours

Magani
FAIL

Re: Peter “Potato Head” Dutton is morphing...

"...Mr PH is perhaps the least worst of an altogether very sorry lot.

A sad indictment of what we've got ourselves into.

As I once commented about one of my students, "Sets a low standard which he fails to achieve.".

Magani
Meh

"The coalition has a snowflake's chance in hell of winning the next election if they keep Dutton as leader, he's so breathtakingly out of touch.

FTFY

That's not the web you're browsing, Microsoft. That's our data

Magani
Happy

Keeps one on Edge.

:"...every time Microsoft's flagship Edge browser starts up, it helps itself to open Chrome tab data..."

I knew there was a reason I only opened Edge in the Sandbox (There are some sites that don't like Brave).

Researchers remotely exploit devices used to manage safe aircraft landings and takeoffs

Magani
Boffin

A bit of a long bow to draw?

Start with

"Criminals could remotely tamper with the data that apps used by airplane pilots rely on to inform safe takeoff and landing procedures, according to fresh research."

and finish with

"Our analysis, confirmed by EASA, showed that there was no safety issue thanks to the security procedures in place to validate flight-relevant data..."

Yes, it's possible, but hardly likely if you read the whole article. Come on, El Reg, let's not have click-bait headlines. You're better than that.

Wikileaks source and former CIA worker Joshua Schulte sentenced to 40 years jail

Magani
Pint

Re: Really?

"... in an encrypted container beneath three layers of password protection..."

What? No sign on the door saying, "Beware of the Leopard!"

YouTube video lag wrongly blamed on its ad-blocking animus

Magani
Happy

Brave + PiHole

That is all.

Zuckerberg hunkers down in Hawaii to wait out apocalypse

Magani
Unhappy

Douglas was prescient

"Otherwise humanity's greatest hope will be a race of CEO-descended inbred mole people. "

I believe we still have space on the Golgafrinchan B Ark.

Is it 2000 or 2023? Get ready for AI-anchored news. Again

Magani
Unhappy

Riiiight...

"The LA-based virtual station claims all news it presents will be fact-checked by humans to ensure accuracy before being placed in the virtual mouths of its artificial newsreaders. "

Why is my Bovine Excrement Detector needle suddenly hitting 11? What could possibly go wrong?

UK government woefully unprepared for 'catastrophic' ransomware attack

Magani
Happy

'Yes, Minister' was a documentary.

Ditto 'Frontline' and 'Utopia' in Oz.

British railway system is getting another excuse for delays – solar storms

Magani
Coat

Re: So, let's review

Will no-one think of the leaves?

Australian video-streamer lets users opt out of ads for burgers, booze, and betting

Magani
Thumb Up

Re: Bets, burgers and booze

Much the same reason our channel selector stays on the ABC.

Infosys launches aviation cloud it claims can halve lost luggage

Magani
Coat

Which is it?

"...claims it could reduce lost luggage by fifty percent."

So does is nick half the contents, or chop the lost bag in half?

Microsoft Surface chief Panos Panay abruptly announces departure

Magani
Meh

"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

Magani
Unhappy

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

Magani
Happy

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

Magani
Headmaster

Dear Brandon Vigliarolo

"NOTAMS is responsible ..."

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

FTFY

China – which surveils everyone everywhere – floats facial recognition rules

Magani
Big Brother

Whoda thunk it?

Pot, meet kettle.

Beijing wants to make the Great Firewall of China even greater

Magani
Big Brother

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

Magani
Big Brother

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?

Magani
Thumb Up

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

Magani
Thumb Up

Re: Horse discovered in college bathroom

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

Magani
Unhappy

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

Magani
Black Helicopters

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

Magani
Happy

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

Magani
Happy

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

Magani

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

Magani
Headmaster

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

Magani
Unhappy

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

Magani
Unhappy

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

Magani
Unhappy

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

Magani
Flame

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

Magani
Flame

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

Magani
Happy

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

Magani
Holmes

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

Magani
Big Brother

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

Magani
Happy

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.

Magani
Flame

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

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

Magani
Facepalm

Re: The Crap-Meister

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

Magani
Headmaster

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

Magani
Happy

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

Magani
Coat

As per the headline...

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

Meta sued for 'aiding and abetting' crypto scammers

Magani
Megaphone

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

Magani
Meh

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

Magani
Thumb Up

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'

Magani
Facepalm

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'

Magani
Facepalm

Re: Look a squirrel/koala

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

What a horrific thought.

Page: