* Posts by John Smith 19

17113 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Lawyers face judge's wrath after AI cites made-up cases in fiery hoverboard lawsuit

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"at the very least, add a filter in to verify that the cases it comes up with actually exist,"

That's not even AI.

It's essentially guarding against an assertion failure.

Sooner or later all this Ohh-it's-sooo-mysterious-AI-we-can't-possibly-understand-how-it-works will be recognized as the total bu***hit that it actually is.

NASA’s radiation tolerant computer lives up to its name after surviving Van Allen belts

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" and running three CPUs in tight lockstep,"

This I think is where it gets tricky.

When NASA upgraded their SSME engine controller due to timing constraints they paid Motorola to create a special dual-M68000 chip to satisfy their cross checking requirements.

I'm hoping that was a special case.

In theory 3 processors running the same algorithm should all run in exact lock step.

But if you're running 3 strings for redundancy you've almost certainly got 3 sensor strings producing raw data as well.

Natural variation in those readings could (will?) cause a certain amount of misalignment over time. However I'd also expect under normal circumstances those would also drift back into alignment.

IDK if they could be big enough to trip one of the strings out as faulty.

That's where it gets tricky. *

* Like the hardware state machine. Very robust. Eight generations behind current fabs? I thought it was no more than 1-2?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Boffin

"a differently designed and programmed box that would take over if all else failed."

Not quite.

The backup was another IBM 4Pi. IIRC the main systems used event driven interrupts but the backup ran a series of tasks in a round-robin scheduler. Restricted functionality but adequate to get you home.

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"https://llis.nasa.gov/"

Ahhh, NASA's lessons learned database.

Possibly one of NASA's least known but (potentially) most valuable resources. *

Because not only does s**t happen but the odds-on bet is it has happened repeatedly before.

*Along with it's "Space Mechanisms" conference proceedings. These provide a staggering array of geeky gadgetry to solve all manner of issues with making mechanical stuff work in space.

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" Single Event Latchup: "

Excellent point.

Effectively a dead short across the power supply, destroying the gate and likely a cascade of other failures.

You did this with OTS chips? Not requiring additional parts baked into the wafer?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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“4 inches square and 0.5 inches thick … about the size of a slice of bread.”

Hmm.

That's quite a slice.

The joker in the pack with all rad-hard stuff is what's the voting hardware made out of?

Because of course if the voter hardware is stuffed a possibly good processor is dumped for a bad one.

And 4 processors? I'm guessing one of them is a cold backup to replace the one that's outvoted.

Have I Been Pwned likely to ban resellers from buying subs, citing 'sh*tty behavior' and onerous support requests

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Go

Hmm. This guy has a strong handle on their support costs

That's a damm sight better than most of the companies I've ever worked for.

they were utterly clueless on who generated most requests, how long etc.

Well done.

Feds want devs to stop coding 'unforgivable' buffer overflow vulnerabilities

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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Except these are products that people *buy*

So can the FOSS bu***hit.

What they mean is "We don't want to loose 1c in profit to do this.

but boy are they happy to vacuum up our data for their rapacious and endless AI training.

F**kers.

Trump’s cyber chief pick has little experience in The Cyber

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Someone this ignorant of cyber security.....

What's the betting his laptop is full of "interesting"* stuff

*Of the kind agency heads wouldn't like to become common knowledge.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"May the Universe save the former United States of America

from permanently being the New Nazi States of America"

Unfortunately that is what most people would call "Magical thinking."

The only people who can save Americans from the FOCF and Felon are themselves. They're going to have to clean their own house. Starting with recognizing it needs cleaning.

That's not to say that their neighbours can't offer support and assistance. Remind them a)This is who they voted for if you're dealing with a magaott. b)What's the price of groceries looking like now? c)How all those deportations you voted for going. ? Remember those are the things the FOCF banged on about incessantly. It's only right his performance against them be tracked.

The nonsense about Gaza is so much BS from him. The > $500Bn in oil due the people of Palestine is not.

Remember the line from Captain America "The first country the Nazis invaded was their own*"

*But wasn't the last. Something to keep in mind with "Porksword Pete" Hegseth "in charge" of the DoD.

Undergrad and colleagues accidentally shred 40-year hash table gospel

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As ever if you ass-u-me

You know the rest.

But potentially impressive.

UK, US, Oz blast holes in LockBit's bulletproof hosting provider Zservers

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"any country with Democratic in the name is unlikely to hold regular elections..."

Well they might be regular. Russia's are.

Free and fair OTOH......

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"loonpants"

Fine use of English.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"Most of humanity vote with their feet. "

Interestingly (IMHO) the Palistinians want to stay on their land, because it is their land regardless of what the FOCF in the WH is currently s**t-talking.

Anything to do with the > $500 Billion estimated to be lying underneath it? Described here

Looks like when you wonder why Israel treats Palestinians so badly it really is all about the Benjamins.

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VoiceOfTruth

Wasn't that the name of the Nazi radio station Sherlock Holmes investigates in an old Basil Rathbone movie?

IIRC it's role was to spread division, lies and propaganda.

As usual if it's got "News" (or "Truth") in the usual name it's unlikely to have either.

DARPA skips the lab, will head to orbit to test space manufacturing tech

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Impressive

Good to see they are gung-ho for this.

(Potentially) exciting times.

A win at last: Big blow to AI world in training data copyright scrap

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It's a start.

AI training companies.

Internet search engines.

NHS.

It's not your data, it's our data.

F**kers.

UK Ministry of Defence gets into chipmaking game, buys gallium arsenide fab

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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A classic British "High tech" website

Long on "design," short on information.

IOW utterly s**t

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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Ironic, given RSRE Malvern's major role in making GaAs viable in the first place

Trouble is only the electrons move fast through it.

The holes are IIRC slower than in plain old Silicon.

Making GaAs CMOS a bit s**t.

The MoD also ow owns Forgemasters.

Let's see if they can actually make either of them make a profit, or at least not run them into the ground.

London has 400 GW of grid requests holding up datacenter builds

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The new OFGEM rules *should* start to make a difference.

But how do OFGEM decide which project to allow?

Once they've weeded out the zombies they will have finite resources to study the rest, so how do they allocate those resources?

It's a tricky question.

For example there are 1200 livestock and poultry farms in the UK that meet the US "Mega farm" criteria. IOW every one of them will have at least a hectare of roof that could be covered with a PV array, as well as a shedload of biomass generation (as well as acting as a possible hub site for anaerobic digestion to surrounding farms and fertiliser).

IMHO between them that could put 1-2GW on the grid in years not the decades of Hinkley Point C.

But does Ofgem have the staff to conduct reasonable oversight for so many?

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" It's not what you make, it's what you keep. "

Excellent point.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"right across the street from the trading offices to shave nS "

If you've read "Flash Boys" you'll know some of those "High frequency" traders have their servers in the same room as the exchange* server.

*Stock exchange, not email.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"put the energy on the grid required research at universities"

It really doesn't.

We know exactly how to build high capacity power transmission lines.

What's needed is the money and the vision to do so.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"wind farms sell into the UK wholesale market which sets the price "

And that prices is actually set by the costs of the most expensive generator that can pick up the last few % of demand.

Which turns out to be gas. *

That's what runs when the sun don't shine, the wind don't blow and the dams are empty.

BTW studies show that while both retail and wholesale gas prices are roughly the same as other parts of the OECD yet we have some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world.

That combination of paradoxical facts suggests a)Government involvement in the problem b)Market reform is needed.

Having a more electric economy in the UK would be a good thing if electricity was more in line with prices in the rest of the developed world.

*Which raises the question could coal (given the UK sits on about 200yrs worth) be cheaper at greater environmental impact?

Does DOGE have what it takes to actually tackle billions in US govt IT spending?

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Re: Classified ads

Good one.

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" Don't believe all the bullshit the south african nazis tells you."

Probably a pretty good rule of thumb.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"Any return at all seen directly in the US, is merely a side effect."

Funny that.

Where do you think most of the food aid USAID distributes to countries comes from?

To the point that some of the first people to complain about the USAID were farmers in the US Midwest

Most USAID funds are actually spent in the US.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"Sold Tesla's ERP system to Birmingham City Council "

Nice.

That bunch of f**king half-wits would buy anything.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
IT Angle

"It's a temporary decision, "

One of the things these wannabe dictators love to instil is the "We are invincible, none can stand in the way of our mightyness" mantra.

Bu***hit.

America has stand-your-ground laws.

Americans. It is time (by all legal means of course) to stand your ground Windbags need deflating.

I note that trolls (and I think all agree that Leon is major league troll) love to dish it out but find a topic that pushes their buttons and and wait for the massive perambulator ejection event.

"Freedom of speech absolutist" eh? What a ridiculous self-regarding Ahole. He can't cope with a single persons transition.

IT Angle? Sophie Wilson of ARM and Lyn Conway of "Introduction to VLSI Logic," which lead to MOSIS and a sizeable part of Silicon Valley's development.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Meh

" it built some manufacturing software that was bolted on

the side of a Microsoft Dynamics finance system.*"

IOW SOP for a lot of shops back in the mini-computer days of the 60's and 70's.

New century, old story.

And just a reminder USAID is one percent of the US Federal Budget.

Still every little helps when you're looking to fund those tax-cuts-for-billionaire and the Make Billionairs Rich Again agenda

*Itself bodged together by MS from Great Plains Dynamics (fargo) and the Danish "Navision" (Excellent internationalisation functionality) both bought for user base regardless of compatibility.

Trump's Dept of Transport hits brakes on Biden’s EV charger build-out

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So for $25 million granted, we got 2 chargers,

Hmmm.

So a (possible) example of actual waste for DOGE to investigate?

Perhaps they should start their housecleaning closer to home?

If of course the spreadsheet you found is real

Eggheads crack the code for the perfect soft boil

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" Egg white still is, even if it's gloopy."

Farage OTOH will always be toxic.

DOGE geek with Treasury payment system access now quits amid racist tweet claims

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"Even better, expose the IDs of the existing posts.

I can understand the sentiment but that's a bad idea.

Anonymity is a key part of a democratic society.

However it might be better if some way were found to count how many unique AC's there really are.

Then we'd know how many people really hold such views and how many are just a single AC whose a very active poster.

Obviously that doesn't stop the fake public name/AC pseudo "conversation" with both sides produced by the same person.

But it's a start.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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Despite what those SEL MAGA's think ....

It's 1% of the Federal Budget.

Musk’s DOGE ship gets ‘full’ access to Treasury payment system, sinks USAID

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"They can't be trusted."

Not while THE PATRIOT stands they can't.

USG can ask for basically anything and they have to comply.

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"Musk and his DOGE-y crew"

Including large Marj.

Nice return to form for Reg writers.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Joke

"I don't personally know anyone who has had trouble with the IRS. "

What about "The late great Alphonse Capone"?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"never again will it be trusted by any other nation to act responsibly."

But as Sean Connery said "Never say 'never again' "

On the upside the FOCF is showing exactly where a system founded on 18th Century ideas of personal honour and ethics have completely failed to contain a collection of bad actors who saw they could get more for themselves by destroying the system than working within it.

The sustained slow poisoning of the Courts system by Leonard Leo's Federalist Society to support his Opus Dei grade SEL agenda, the complete failure of formal conflict-of-interest rules (with criminal penalties) for SCOTUS would be a start.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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" Classified Documents in a "Development" Organisation?! "

There are actually two different items here.

1) Shutting down USAID to give Leon more money to fund those tax cuts

2) Leon and his chums (like large Marj) access to the Treasury Payment System which AIUI pays the bills on all the USG programmes, which gives Leon insight into anymoney his existing (and future) competitors are being paid.

IDK if there are any classified elements to the USAID scheme. There could be if an Administration was paying some especially nasty regime a bag of cash they didn't want the world to know about. OTOH they ships pallets of cash to Karsi in Afghanistan and I'm pretty that went nowhere near USAID.

US datacenters in for shock as Canada mulls cutting the juice over Trump tariffs

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"That will be the 1.2Billion deal originally announced on 14th December 2024 then yes?"

Correct.

Most people who have to deal with the FOCF have several key advantages.

1) They are smarter

2) They have a significant attention span

3)They don't need infinite levels of validation and ego-stroking.

4) They have had a full nights sleep.

So they spend the money they'd already agreed to spend and hire some guy as a "Border Tsar" to massage the pathetic ego of a half-wit.

Personally I thought Trudeau's targeted counter-tariffs was a pretty good idea. Red states voted for this. This is what they get. Seemed very fair to me.

Democrats demand to know WTF is up with that DOGE server on OPM's network

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So that's where all that f**king spam came from.

Boy, this is turning into the world's longest temper tantrum

All because he can't get around his kids transition.

What a looser.

Humans brought the heat. Earth says we pay the price

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"WTAF"

I waded through their verbiage.

Your comment is a succinct description of my reaction also.

Here's the thing. We know the science is incomplete (just as the climate science group at Exxon knew their results were based on incomplete chemistry* in the 1970's)

We also know the projected outcomes are very serious. Polar ice cap melting is estimated to submerge everything below 20m. For US readers check out FL, LA and New Orleans.

That assumes a linear rise in temperature, but raised water vapour (and water vapour is a massive GHG) will have non-linear effects as well.

The fact is a f**kload of people (many whose jobs depend on burning fossil fuels) money or lifestyle would have to change and they would literally prefer to die (or rather, as they think let someone else die) rather than give up, in any way, shape or form how they live. This started with the CEO of Exxon in the 1970's.

*The fact that CO2 atmospheric lifetime is 300-1000 yrs tells anyone that much. But not the best case is 3 centuries IOW even the best case spells trouble.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"This minor niggle doesn't mean that climate models are crap. "

A possible partial explanation is sulphur in the atmosphere helped form more reflective clouds.

Sulphur reduction as a part of acid-rain reduction --> fewer reflective clouds --> more absorbance to ground --> trapped by CO2 following re-emission.

The fact the life of CO2 is listed as 300-1000* years should tell you there are some fairly large gaps in the chemistry of what's going on.

Unfortunately they are saying that in fact the models are giving us the best case scenarios.**

*Think about that. CO2 molecules from fires somewhere from 1725 back to 1025 are still causing trouble today and if we let "nature" take it's course stuff we do now will be here 2325-3025

**And some Aholes (I'm looking at you Saudi state oil company) want to make more faster.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Meh

Just to be clear it's *not* the suicide of the human race

It's the murder of the many by the few, for profit.

But don't worry.

The planet has survived at least five Extinction Level Events (and double that in minor terms, where <90% of all species are wiped out).

If planet Earth had a voice all it would say to the extinction of the human race is "Meh."

DeepSeek spills Big AI's open secret: Bright people with good ideas can beat billion dollar binges

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"the Finns will steal all your data."

You mean it vanish into "Finn air"?

Sorry. Poor impulse control.

Trump’s tariffs, cuts may well put tech in a chokehold, say analysts

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"And will be gone in four years anyway."

We hope he's gone in 4 years.

But already one of his toadies has floated a bill to make the Presidency 3 terms. And the rats nest that is Project 2025 will no doubt come up with all sorts of options for him to delay the process.

His diet should have given him a massive stroke/heart attack/diabetic coma decades ago but the FOCF remains, like some giant unflushible orange turd that simply won't go round the U bend of life.

*Someone who tried his "diet" for a week reckoned they put on 10lb.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
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"So this looks to me like just another redistribution of the welath towards the oligarchs."

Well, tax cuts to billionaires are not cheap.

But I reckon you've hit the nail on the head with regard to the FOCF's being soooo much in love with them.

Medical monitoring machines spotted stealing patient data, users warned to pull the plug ASAP

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They are *not* a "Medical equipment" supplier anymore

They are a software house that supports some unusual peripherals.

And like most (all) of the businesses that now find themselves in this position they are pretty bad at it.

I expect that like the rest they will get better one lawsuit at a time.

What does it mean to build in security from the ground up?

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Start by being aware of what the system is *for*

Does it handle money?

Does it handle personal information?

Does it control vital infrastructure (at least vital to someone).

Does it have national security information?

Does it control a weapon(s)?

That starts you on an idea of what sort of bad actors you will be facing.

And never, ever trust user input, even if it comes from a frontend app you wrote, but with data sent through the interwebs IE everything.

AI agents? Yes, let's automate all sorts of things that don't actually need it

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Re: There is nothing new under the sun...

True.

This sort of stuff was in AI research since the early 1980's.

EG Marcus's Wait-and-see-parser was the core of a diary management application split across a whole AI class.

Likewise "Gus" out of Xerox PARC IIRC.

when you think that about 100 words make up 50 percent of the English language internet (and a lot of the rest are in the 3 categories of Verbs, Nouns and Adverbs, with the Nouns splittable into whole sub-classes with sub-classable properties Eg Cities, rivers, people etc) yet it takes 30+ billion activations to process a single token in DeepSeek (according to their paper) you do wonder why a bit more focusseed effort couldn't yield quite large results.