Posts by AceRimmer1980

Poop-peeping toilet attachment has a different definition of 'end-to-end' encryption

Real security, or just going through the motions?

Cheaper 1 GB Raspberry Pi 5 lands as memory costs go through the roof

Re: AI is now top of my list...

I learnt about pointers, arrays, calling API's, more besides, all from assembly coding in the 80s. Today's vibe coders just run away crying if their hands aren't held for them the entire way.

Basic projector repair job turns into armed encounter at secret bunker

Re: Tanks a lot!

Don't know what they're doing, but they laugh a lot.

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

Windows continues to evolve..

Another way of saying 'Evolution' is 'Natural Selection'

Random mutations happen all the time. Those that are pointless become a dead end, and only those features that are of benefit, get to continue. It's an affront, that the focus group led bloatification is referred to as something that has 'evolved', like the customers want this stuff..

Reckon you can put a nuclear reactor on the Moon?

Wasn't there a documentary about this, with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain?

Open, free, and completely ignored: The strange afterlife of Symbian

Symbian, the Betamax of OSs

I had Symbian phones, from a 7650 (that could run Doom) , then an E65, then an E71.

They were brilliant for the time. Had all the features one needed, with a battery life measured in weeks, not hours. I got the SDK to have a tinker, but then Android/IOS came out, and the rest is history

Amazon built a massive AI supercluster for Anthropic called Project Rainier – here's what we know so far

You need to Macgyver together at least 3 supercomputers to make a Stargate.

Techie traveled 4 hours to fix software that worked perfectly until a new hire used it

Re: I touch it and it breaks!

I know a guy who works as a tester, and is quite proud that he can break things, and find flaws where others cannot. Isn't that, erm, part of your job?

Speaking of breaking things, much of my working life has gone as follows:

Me: "Hey boss, come and look at this cool thing I've wrote, which I've tested and works perfectly"

Boss: (looks at software)

Software: (boom)

The trendline doesn’t look good for hard disk drives

Until SSD technology can exceed HDD's for robustness and longevity, it'll be spinning rust for me in my file server.

UK Home Office silent on alleged Apple backdoor order

xkcd 538

BASIC co-creator Thomas Kurtz hits END at 96

I knew someone that had a Jupiter Ace, kind of like a ZX81 but with FORTH instead of BASIC. Never used it meself, but when I had a Spectrum, I had a go on White Lightning (the FORTH compiler with games API, not the beverage, tho probably no less brain rotting)

Yes, your network is down – you annoyed us so much we crashed it

Re: Sometimes there's a hidden benefit with irritating clients

Any job with the word 'reactor' in it, I'd quote enough that I could pay someone else to do the actual work, and not go anywhere near it myself.

Red team hacker on how she 'breaks into buildings and pretends to be the bad guy'

Execs?

I've worked mainly at small companies where the owner/founder/CEO is also the owner of the AWS/Github account, and absolutely they would have highest level access, even if they have to call on the assistance of the intern to actually do anything.

The mystery of the rogue HP calculator: 12C or not 12C? That is the question

Yeah, yeah

Bring back the HP-16C. AFAIK this has the same hardware as the HP12, would be very easy to do.

Crack coder wasn't allowed to meet clients due to his other talent: Blisteringly inappropriate insults

Worked at a place where the boss was a bit weird. Abrupt, strange, no people skills, but he was at least enthusiastic, and a razor sharp businessman. He'd grown the company from nothing to a multimillion empire, still going strong.

His sons. Ah yes. Recruited straight from school, they had inherited their Dad's personality, but not his brains. They were initially on customer support, but later on, only answered phones when there was no other option. They made screwup after screwup, but..we had to treat them with kid gloves because..bosses sons. They were put where they could do least harm so, nothing customer facing or technical. AFAIK they were still just rearranging boxes, into their 30s. They were only there because they'd be unemployable anywhere else, including McD's.

Re: Have seen ....

The pavements round my way must have an officer whose job is to ensure that the cracks are up to code.

AI firms propose 'personhood credentials' … to fight AI

Re: A simple test

You're in the desert. You look down and see a tortoise.

HPE to pursue $4B claim against estate of Mike Lynch over Autonomy acquisition

Don't be absurd.

It's Wensleydale, everyone knows that.

Bargain-hunting boss saw his bonus go up in a puff of self-inflicted smoke

Re: Snap, crackle, and pop

I once plugged a 486 chip into a motherboard, the wrong way round. On powerup, it blew apart spectacularly.

The motherboard still worked afterwards.

Missing scissors cause 36 flight cancellations in Japan

Re: do more damage than scissors

Who here has had an original IBM PC, with a keyboard that was made in Scotland..from girders?

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 lands with (drum roll) RISC-V cores

Re: It's amazing how far we have come.

512 * 1024 = 524288 bytes

You're right, 520 sounds better :-D

Re: Mötley SÖC

I could be that there is a 2-core limitation for power consumption/bus bandwidth issues, or something.

But as a techie, I want the choice to use all 4. Provide the option to underclock in software, if necessary.

For the record: You just ordered me to cause a very expensive outage

Re: Have you walked away from a rude or abusive boss?

In all the gigs I've had, this is the norm, rather than the exception.

Giving you an unrealistic workload such that you can't possibly do it in regular hours. There goes your social life.

One boss literally reduced one employee to tears in front of the whole company, giving it the whole 'You can't stand the pace, I'll get somebody who can' schtick.

You know in your contract where it says 'you may be required to work additional unpaid hours' ? One boss decided that the dev team would now do technical support, on the weekends. For no additional money. If you don't like it, there's the door. (after being personally out of pocket to relocate to where the job is)

You know in your contract where it says 'Leave may be cancelled at any time', and then dumping work on you the day before you leave for a holiday, 'If it's not finished, you're not going' All legal under UK law.

When I handed in my notice at one place, I was repeatedly summoned to irrelevant meetings, and I just sat there, unable to do my work. And then of course it's 'You behind on your work? you'll have to stay late to keep up'. And other meetings, where the boss talks about staff benefits, he said to me "Oh you won't be getting any of this", deliberately trying to humiliate me.

Of course, all these bosses have a whiter than white public image, and are eager to get their beaming mugs in the paper, earning awards at the Director of the Month club or whatever.

Oh yeah, it's also in your contract 'any company communication and operations are confidential, if you reveal anything to a 3rd party we'll sue', which makes it difficult to warn others.

The saying that people don't leave jobs, they leave managers? mostly true, in most cases the work itself was interesting.

Research finds electric cars are silent but violent for pedestrians

Re: GOOD

The problem: Pedestrians don't hear EV's, so step out into the road without looking.

Best solution: Train people to check the road before they step off the pavement, or use crossings properly.

What the UK did: Pass a law so that if a pedestrian steps in front of your car, that's your fault.

We are heading further into Idiocracy.

Microsoft, OpenAI may be dreaming of $100B 5GW AI 'Stargate' supercomputer

Indeed

Just the one? They'll need to Macgyver together at least 2 more.

Re: Correction

3.3GW from 3 reactors, that sounds about right.

Developer's default setting created turbulence in the flight simulator

Re: Why doesn't somebody pull the plug

Just kidding.

Please stop pouring the wrong radioactive water into the sea, Fukushima operator told

You want Gojiras?

Cos that's how you get Gojiras.

Boeing-backed air taxi upstart Wisk plans to fly you across town at UberX prices by 2030

Well that's a big nope from me.

Even if it was free.

CERN seeks €20B to build a bigger, faster, particle accelerator

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

The 5upergiant 5ircular 5ern 5masher

Mozilla slams Microsoft for using dark patterns to drive Windows users toward Edge

Re: Teams/Outlook users driven over the Edge

'Integrated Features' is sometimes a marketing spin on 'can't be deleted'

Scientists don thinking caps in wearable tech breakthrough

Read 'And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon' by Paul Di Filippo. You won't want anything more sophisticated than a lightswitch in your house.

I want a functioning Rorschach mask.

That runaway datacenter power grab is the best news for net zero this century

Silent but deadly

Yeah, that was my first thought, when reading about beans on submarines.

Last rites for the UK's Online Safety Bill, an idea too stupid to notice it's dead

Re: Computer MOT

The agent told him to back it up, but he couldn't find reverse.

AI on AI action: Googler uses GPT-4 chatbot to defeat image classifier's guardian

Re: Lie mode...

A vindaloo for you, sir.

Google's claims of super-human AI chip layout back under the microscope

What a dull name.

"I speak of none other than the computer that is to come after me," intoned Deep Thought, his voice regaining its accustomed declamatory tones. "A computer whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate - and yet I will design it for you. A computer which can calculate the Question to the Ultimate Answer, a computer of such infinite and subtle complexity that organic life itself shall form part of its operational matrix. And you yourselves shall take on new forms and go down into the computer to navigate its ten-million-year program! Yes! I shall design this computer for you. And I shall name it also unto you. And it shall be called ... The Earth."

Prepare to be shocked: Employees hate this One Weird Clause

This is from one particular employer:

"Everything you write is the property of the company, including that done in your own time, on your own equipment, at home"

"You may be required to work additional unpaid hours." Now this is pretty standard, but this guy really took the piss. He decided that the tech team would now, in addition to their normal 9-5.30 work hours, do tech support and testing on the weekends. Of course for no additional money.

In normal work hours, the boss would:

-Read all email, including that not addressed to him

-Open all post, including that not addressed to him

-Randomly monitor phone calls, and sometimes cut in.

-Had remote desktop viewer installed on all the PC's, so he could watch people work.

His attitude was always "If you don't like it, there's the door", and many *did* leave.

He was a bit like a toddler, always pushing to see what he could get away with.

In a time before calculators, going the extra mile at work sometimes didn't add up

Re: Bank Accounts

That the -individual- data is stale, is less relevant than you might think. Data can be sold for its statistical/demographic value.

GitHub Copilot may be perfect for cheating CompSci programming exercises

An AI with an Uzi 9mm?

There was a documentary about that.

NASA builds for keeps: Voyager mission still going after 45 years

Re: The Grand Tour

Tonight, Jeremy overdrives the ion thruster for more powerrrrr, Richard gets local radio flashbacks from the higain antenna, and James executes a perfect slingshot manoeuvre but ends up on a collision course with Phobos.

FYI: BMW puts heated seats, other features behind paywall

Run seat heater from power outlet?

Fine, until:

BMW notice this, and OTA update: your ciggie lighter 12v socket is now £25/month

(runs power outlet straight from battery)

"Engine management warning, detected unknown power drain, now in limp mode, please go directly to dealer, do not pass go, do not stop for lube"

Dell's rugged Latitude 5430 laptop is quick and pretty – but also bulky and heavy

Re: You're whinging about a 6.5 pound laptop?

We're definitely past peak laptop.

Remember when portables had things like removable batteries, multiple USB and other ports, could accommodate at least 2 internal drives, and was still robust enough for everyday use? My 12" HP Elitebook can do all this.

Pretend starship captain to take trip in real space capsule

Only 100km altitude?

She cannae take any more, captain.

The M in M1 is for moans: How do you turn a new MacBook Pro into a desktop workhorse?

What kind of fish would be in the closet - a rainbow trout?

Your spacesuit ran into a problem and needs to restart

IT meets Spacesuits , a documentary

A bit sweary, but painfully close to what the reality would be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaxZgsdh-ac

Google says its artificial intelligence is faster and better than humans at laying out chips for artificial intelligence

3 Laws Safe?

Yes, but if a human is in danger, there is several minutes of inaction while Res-Q-Bot plays adverts.

Android 10 ported to homegrown multi-core RISC-V system-on-chip by Alibaba biz, source code released

Android on IoT?

The fridge requires access to your internet connection, files, photos, contacts, call history, bank accounts, car keys, and underwear drawer. Continue?

Q: What’s big, red and pulses UV light into the cosmos three times a night? A: Mars

Re: Big, red and spews UV light?

DJ Mysteron headlining MonsFest, having it large before the invasion.

We've heard of spam filters but this is ridiculous: Pig-monkey chimeras developed in a Chinese laboratory

Could, Should

Ooh, aah, running, screaming..