* Posts by captain veg

2821 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Jun 2009

'Exploitation is imminent' as 39 percent of cloud environs have max-severity React hole

captain veg Silver badge

If you are building a web site then you don't need React at all, whether in the client or on the server.

If you are building an application that happens to be web-deployed then trying to do everything server-side is a category mistake unless your code contains such secret-sauce IP that you shouldn't have put it online in the first place.

A server-side UI frameworks is a non-sequitur.

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captain veg Silver badge

Have you...?

> Have you tried coding an SPA with pure JS,

Yes. Lots of them. Vertical line of business apps, as it happens, so I can't provide links, sorry.

Public web sites are often not really applications, more like documents, for which no JavaScript is strictly necessary.

For internally deployed apps the cross-platform nature and lack of need for administrative installation privileges are considerable.

> perhaps jquery

Certainly not. There was a time when jQuery helped lazy developers paper over the chasm between Internet Explorer and proper browsers, but that time is long past.

> and raw AJAX?

No idea what that's supposed to mean. I think we've all moved on from XML.

> You need to be a lot better at JS which fights you every step of the way with its insistence on throwing silent errors at the last possible moment, likely as not 5 steps after you actually made a mistake.

Total rubbish. You're basically stating that you don't know how to code structured exception handling and never learned how to use your favoured browser's debugging tools.

> raw HTML+JS+CSS is not a pleasant experience if you are delivering a non-trivial application,

I'm fine with it for applications of whatever non-triviality you'd like to conjure. This is the baseline for web development. If you you can't hack that then you can't properly call yourself a web developer. And if you can hack it then you will understand that you really don't need third party libraries.

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captain veg Silver badge

React, or the web platform. Hmm, tricky. Oh, actually it's not. Just write plain Javascript, CSS and HTML, nothing else required. I really don't get what all these nebulous "frameworks" actually offer other than external dependencies.

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Search the pre-ChatGPT internet with the Slop Evader browser extension

captain veg Silver badge

Re: Kagi.- a good search engine.

Maybe it is. I can't tell since, so far as I can tell, you can't try it without payment.. What I can state is that it's exhortations for payment major on its AI bollocks, so it doesn't exactly encourage me to pay money to find out. So I won't.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: other search engines are available

Thanks for the heads up, but, to be honest, the insertion of AI rubbish isn't really my complaint here. It's that the search results no longer seem to be related directly to the search terms. I regularly get first page links to hotels that happen to be near where I am, irrespective of the fact that my search terms didn't mention, and had nothing whatsoever to do with, hotel accommodation.

I don't want my search engine to guess my intent. I certainly don't want it to respond to my search terms by completely ignoring them in favour of advertising income.

AltaVista was better than this shit.

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captain veg Silver badge

other search engines are available

I've been using DuckDuckGo for some years, but it's been heading down the enshittification tube for the last several months and now shovels in unwanted and unneeded "ai" crap regularly. I suppose that the first time I saw it advertised on TV should have been a warning.

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Windows 11 needs an XP SP2 moment, says ex-Microsoft engineer

captain veg Silver badge

"Just till it doesn't suck."

That won't happen until Microsoft releases a vacuum cleaner.

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Dell says Windows 11 transition is far slower than Win 10 shift as PC sales stall

captain veg Silver badge

Re: "the potential of the AI PC"

Also it looked like a fanny.

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Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

captain veg Silver badge

Re: He's right, as far as it goes

> when Eliza did it, what, 40 years ago now?

60, in fact. There's very little genuinely new in computer science since the 1960s.

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AI slop hits new high as fake country artist goes to #1 on Billboard digital songs chart

captain veg Silver badge

Re: More to come

The Bay City Rollers could actually play their instruments. The producer decided to record with session guys because the pasty Scottish youths had no studio experience, so it would have taken longer.

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Meta can't afford its $600B love letter to Trump

captain veg Silver badge

Re: Good luck investors

Hmm. Myspace, fiendsunrequited, bebo... looks like a short. Zuckerberg is 5'7".

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You'll never guess what the most common passwords are. Oh, wait, yes you will

captain veg Silver badge

TFL

I created an account on the Transport for London web site today. It only allows letters and digits in the password, no symbols, not even punctuation.

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YouTube's AI moderator pulls Windows 11 workaround videos, calls them dangerous

captain veg Silver badge

Re: When I have a technical question...

Agree, except that Youtube links tend to dominate in most search engine results, and accidentally clicking one is an annoying waste of time.

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Ransomware gang runs ads for Microsoft Teams to pwn victims

captain veg Silver badge

Neither of your linked articles mentions Teams specifically.

Intune, however, can can do exactly that. And the mobile versions of Teams, Outlook, etc, can be configured to require the presence of Intune.

Since I run neither Android nor whatever Apple is calling its mobile operating system today on my phone I have found that browsers which don't blab about the fact that you're using a mobile device can be useful. To wit: Sapot. Those stuck on Android, but with access to FDroid should download jQuarks, and make sure that the Desktop Site option is permanently on.

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Microsoft Task Manager now tasking PCs with running multiple copies of itself

captain veg Silver badge

Re: /forward /slash

Actually that was inherited from CP/M. So thank Digital Research.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: Not here

From TFA: "The issue, which turned up in the non-security preview update for Windows 11 (KB5067036)"

Your system probably doesn't automatically apply preview updates.

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NHS left with sick PCs as suppliers resist Windows 11 treatment

captain veg Silver badge

Re: You wouldn't put Windows in a car

I once hired a small car that turned out to be a Fiat 500 and was utterly horrified to see the Windows logo on a button on the steering wheel.

Nothing bad happened, to my relief. I'm pretty sure that it was just the in-car entertainment that was so afflicted.

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France jacks into the Matrix for state messaging – and pays too

captain veg Silver badge

Re: How times have changed

> the French government mandated Lotus to give a watered-down version of the 128-bit RSA key for French versions

Not quite as simple as that. American TLAs had persuaded Lotus to backdoor it in such a way that they only needed to crack 128 bits but the rest of world had to deal with the full-fat encryption. The French declared this incompatible with domestic law so Lotus responded by giving everyone (in France) the compromised version.

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captain veg Silver badge

abstract noun

> it is not fit for purpose

That's OK, no one is using it for purpose.

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China's CR450 bullet train clocks 453 km/h in pre-service tests

captain veg Silver badge

Re: Speed to time saving isnt linear

> breaking the speed limit driving is usually an incredibly bad risk/reward

I have found this myself by direct experience.

More than 20 years ago now, before Nic Sarkozy discovered the money-making potential of serious speed limit enforcement, I had a Honda Super Blackbird (unrestricted), at the time the fastest production motorcycle, and covered a lot of autoroute miles at outrageously illegal speeds. And I found myself continually re-overtaking slow vehicles because of the frequent fuel stops. It took a while for the truth to dawn, that ten minutes in a service station costs you a massively more in distance when you're travelling at 250kmh than at 130, and you have to stop a lot more often because you're burning fuel at a furious rate.

These days I tend to take the TGV.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: hyperbole

That was my first reaction too. But air resistance increases with the square of velocity, so it's not a linear comparison.

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UK calls up Armed Forces veterans for digital ID soft launch

captain veg Silver badge

Re: Nasty tactic

New Model Army dates to the civil war, some time before Wellington's birth.

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SpaceX's Starship: Two down, Mons Huygens to climb

captain veg Silver badge

Re: The contrast with Apollo is not stark

>> Von Braun wasn't going to do refueling flights

>

> You don't need to refuel rockets when you're launching them at the UK.

And you're not expecting them to come back.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: Recap of moon return mission

> Can there be more than one Jingo?

It's a euphemism for Jesus. There seem to be quite a lot of people having that name in the hispanic world, a few towns too.

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Who gets a Mac at work? Here's how companies decide

captain veg Silver badge

Re: the amazing trackpads

You understand that there can be a big difference between "VERY good" and "something I can live with"? Notwithstanding that both are totally subjective judgments. As it happens neither the old man nor I have had any worries with the likes of HP kit and I daily drive an Asus without even thinking about the trackpad. I'd prefer a thinkpad nipple, though.

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captain veg Silver badge

It's mostly the badge

There was a time when Windows laptops were significantly more expensive than desktop machines, even though often worse specified, and it was noticeable that the only people who had them at work were senior management. Over time the price differential eroded, and these days even ordinary grunts have lappies. So the senior management have macs. Gotta keep up appearances.

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captain veg Silver badge

the amazing trackpads

I bought a macbook for my elderly father and he can't get along with the trackpad at all, so he refused to use it. Until I plugged in an external mouse.

Have to say, I found the trackpad experience somewhat sub-optimal myself.

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Brits sitting on £1.6B gold mine of Windows 10 junk as support ends

captain veg Silver badge

unreasonable

> They are the baddie for obsoleting usable machines, via unreasonable hardware requirements

Not merely unreasonable, but totally unnecessary in any technical sense.

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Windows 95 was too fat to install itself so needed help from the slimmer 3.1

captain veg Silver badge

user experience

"Microsoft cared more about the user experience than trying to cram AI down people's throats"

In that era Windows got installed because the PC's owner chose to do so and probably paid for a retail copy. So there had to be a compelling reason.

The rot set in when OEMs were "persuaded" to preinstall whatever cack Microsoft decided it wanted to inflict on the world that week.

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UK to roll out mandatory digital ID for right to work by 2029

captain veg Silver badge

Re: This is a nonsense

> The Chancellor of the Exchequer has ZERO expertise in Economics, even less than an O level in Economics would get you.

Er, she has a Masters in economics from LSE.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: Mr Ed Balls

Is that Mr Ed the talking horse?

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The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon

captain veg Silver badge

grammar

> Somebody is going to win big, and everyone else will lose big

You need an adverb there, not an adjective. It's "bigly".

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: Finally! (sigh)

> you may like to reflect on how much of your pension fund is invested in that market.

Possibly not as much as you imply. Those of us in a private pension scheme and approaching pensionable age will be hoping the fund manager will be pivoting to lower-risk options like government bonds.

For a (perhaps) surprisingly large number of citizens of non-Anglo Saxon countries the answer to that question is "none at all". Even for Britons our state pensions are, or will be, paid out of the social insurance contributions of those younger people still active in the workforce.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: pedant squared

That's fair. Except that, in English, the substantive is inflected for number, not the qualifier.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: HMG

A far too prominent minister in HMG. Next?

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captain veg Silver badge

HMG

Could someone please make Peter Kyle read this article?

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captain veg Silver badge

pedant squared

> I think in this case it's worth being pedantic and specifying these are LLMs and not 'AIs'.

Intelligence is invariant. There is no plural, even for the artificial variety.

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OneNote for Windows 10 support clock counts down

captain veg Silver badge

Re: microsoft will "graciously" make the notes read-only

The article mentions the withdrawal of "support". Does that word now mean "actually work" rather than the old-fashioned notion of "receive security upadates"?

TBH, while I freely admit that I've never actually used the product in question, it's not obvious what support -- in the traditional sense -- it might actually need.

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Python survey shows growth even as Foundation funding falters

captain veg Silver badge

versions

I recently installed a fresh copy of VS Code in a newly created Windows 11 VM and started typing some Python code in it. When I tried to run the code it (correctly) determined that I didn't have Python installed and wen and fetched it from the Microsoft store. Version 3.11 so two releases out of date.

Maybe some kind of cultural memory of Windows for Workgroups?

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UK unveils plans to 'transform' the consumer smart meter experience

captain veg Silver badge

Re: nothing better to replace them

> Looking forward to seeing both Tories and Labour kicked out of power.

I've felt this way all my life.

Please, please, if you feel the same, please don't be tempted to vote for the Faragistes in whatever guise they happen to wearing right now. Green would be good, Lib-dem a fair substitute. Local nationalists if you have to. No matter how grave the problem Fascism doesn't fix it.

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captain veg Silver badge

so-called

'"Millions of consumers rely on their smart meter every day for accurate billing, cheaper tariffs, automatic meter readings and real-time data to help keep track of spending," Charlotte Friel, director of retail pricing and systems at energy watchdog Ofgem, claimed in pre-prepared statement.'

Actually they don't. None of them. Accurate billing and cheaper tariffs have precisely nothing to do with so-called smart meters. Automatic meter readings might benefit the electricity companies but add no value for consumers. Real time data? I suppose someone somewhere might find that useful. It ain't me. If it's cold I switch the heating on.

<pedant target="author" reference="pre-prepared statement">the expression "pre-prepared" adds nothing more than an extra syllable to "prepared". Not big. Not clever.</pedant>

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OpenAI's GPT-5 is here with up to 80% fewer hallucinations

captain veg Silver badge

Re: Iterative?

Logically this new version of GPT-whatever must have been created by feeding "prompts" in to GPT-whatever-1 and seeing what it extruded. If not then the whole idea disappears in a puff of smoke and we're all doomed on zebra crossings.

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captain veg Silver badge

"like talking to your own personal expert that can write applications on demand."

While I don't often talk to myself, I've already got one of those. And so has my my boss.

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KLM, Air France latest major organizations looted for customer data

captain veg Silver badge

Re: chief experience officer

It's someone in charge of the ordinary non-chief experience officers.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: "WTF is the point of the check-in occurring before you get to the airport"

This makes no sense whatsoever, Of course I intend to travel and have the necessary documents. I didn't make the booking for a dare.

Maybes they should just make that a step in the process: Q) Are you doing this for a dare?

It's makes about as much sense as the "are you a terrorist" question I've sometimes been asked (by a machine) to answer.

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captain veg Silver badge

don't get it

I'm pretty sure that GDPR does NOT allow unauthorised sharing of PII with third parties.

I've flown with Air France a few times. At no point in the booking process was I asked if it was OK for them to punt out my personal info to random contractors.

I really don't get why this is so hard. If you control personal data, it's down to you, and you alone, to secure it.

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Legendary OpenPrinting architect looking for new role

captain veg Silver badge

Re: Oh really?

Not sure when it started, or if it has anything to do with OpenPrinting, but I've noticed that the last few releases of Linux Mint find and automatically configure ethernet and WiFi printers with no intervention whatsoever. Whether you want it or not. I've not noticed Windows doing that.

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Banning VPNs to protect kids? Good luck with that

captain veg Silver badge

Re: Private or Work?

One insists that its adherents uniquely are god's chosen people, another that death is just treatment for infidels.

Personally I consider all religious belief to be worthy of nothing more respectful than ridicule, but christians seem to be the funniest.

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captain veg Silver badge

Re: Private or Work?

It only needs to support a working SSH server, so something of extremely minimal spec ought to do.

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Bitter fight over 2020 Microsoft quantum paper both resolved and unresolved

captain veg Silver badge

Re: quantum paper both resolved and unresolved

The extraordinary thing is that, in my experience, Microsoft has been doing non-deterministic computing for, well, ever.

Perhaps they should research that.

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