Posts by Gordon 10

UK splashes £4B to dive into next-gen nuclear submarines

Re: Continuity of workload

We love pork

We love pork

We love pork

Oracle at Europe's largest council didn't foresee bankruptcy

Something iffy here

Apart from the fact that you never, ever, ever customise these monolith POS ERP systems, there is no way Oracle doesn't have a way to allocate cash across accounts. I know of 3 from our Oracle implementation and I have kept as far away as humanly possible from it, someone with product knowledge would know more.

Its shit, but its not that shit.

Whats the betting the big 3 (EY, PWC, KPMG) have done the majority of the cash hoovering that took it to £100m?

Lightning struck: Apple switches to USB-C for iPhone 15 lineup

The wire is still useful for fastest charging rates.

USB-C should offer an uplift over lightning. 30W->35W has been rumoured with the correct charger. (eg a MBP USB-PD one for example)

Re: Thank God for fast forward..

Bear in mind that the iPad has been a development test bed for USB-C/TB tech for several years now. Apple knew this day was coming - the only thing stopping them was milking the lightning cable royalties for all the were worth.

Northern Ireland's top cop quits after security breach, disciplinary controversy

Weird linking the resignation to the data breach. That was a clear case of incompetence on the part of the person who prepared the spreadsheet. Its literally their job. Dont see it as a resigning matter for the big boss, unless until the Inquiry has signifiant findings.

I do wonder what else has been bubbling away apart from the Disciplining officers thing,

Friendly AI chatbots will be designing bioweapons for criminals 'within years'

In other news centrifuges will help us create bioweapons.

Its almost as if its another tool.....

Aliens crash landed on Earth – and Uncle Sam is covering it up, this guy tells Congress

Re: Not impossible, just ludicrously unlikely

Thats a pretty flawed argument. Any Aliens with the technology to visit Earth, must by definition be at least 50 years ahead of us minimum, if not hundreds or thousands.

The level of automation AND more importantly the cost of that automation would be buttons to them.

Therefore is no technological reason they would need human slaves, they would WANT to keep slaves for a reason other than the cost of technology - ideological or religious AND be culturally blind enough to accept the risk of a slave uprising using their technology against them. they'd have to be 100% sure that their technology was unusable in any shape or form by us.

Thames Water to datacenters: Cut water use or we will

6-12 months!

TETRA radio comms used by emergency heroes easily cracked, say experts

Meh

Wheres the SO WHAT here?

Who cares?

Whats the exploitation use case?

Funnily enough, AI models must follow privacy law – including right to be forgotten

Academic bollocks

The principles in GDPR are nearly all qualified including the so called “right to be forgotten” this article seems to skip that key point. There is no universal requirement for a processor to delete your PII.

For a privacy breach to be shown the following has to happen.

Firstly you’ll have to show there is a reasonable probability that a LLM was trained on your PII. (If OpenAI says no what are you gonna do?)

Secondly you’ll have to show it retains that information. ( can you show the LLM has retained memory that reliably returns your PII)

Thirdly all the way OpenAI or whomever will be throwing legitimate use and other justifications around like confetti.

I can’t see this working anywhere except perhaps Germany.

Fourthly if you seriously want to go after a LLM producer you’ll have far more luck down an Automated processing angle…

Databricks puts cards on the table format as Snowflake looks for more players

Nobody cares

Iceberg, Hudi or some other kind of shizzle. Its all edge case stuff.

If you have mainly Data Science workloads have Databricks, if you have mainly traditional workloads have Snowflake. Even better - leave the DS's in the corner with Databricks whilst the real Enterprise level stuff goes on in Snowflake.

Recipient of Europe's largest ever seed round doesn't even have a product

Quick - lets dob them in to the CNIL!

Microsoft keeps quiet amid talk of possible DDoS attack against Azure

This seems likely

Both my company and Missus O365 went squiffy about this time last week.

Gen Z lingo and search engines: A Millennial Odyssey

Re: Baseline

Based on my usage of ChatGPT thats not true though. One of the "killer" use cases for it is what I call style translation.

You paste in a rough draft and then you ask ChatGPT to formalise or to "Gen Z"-ise the results are pretty promising.

ITs also a great "inspiration tool" if you are struggling to get started its good for a couple of summary paragraphs.

Of course idiots will use it verbatim, but thats really like using Excel as a calculator - a valid use case but not the tool sweet spot.

Microsoft to move some Teams features to more costly 'Premium' edition

This is silly MS

We’re re just about to do an evaluation on moving to Teams from Webex.

Given that it’s a massive PITA to move in the first place this may very well tip things back to maintaining the status quo.

Move over, graphene. There's a new super-material in town: Graphullerene

I also studied under Harry K in the 90’s. No one had a bloody clue what he was warbling about. He was on another plane.

NASA's Mars InSight uploads its (probably) final image, shares it in a tweet

Besides - it's just been added to V'ger's backlog. It'll be around in about 2270 to collect it.

Rights groups threaten legal action over NHS data pilot based on Palantir tech

Tinfoil hat alert.

Re: WEF

Indeed. Its hysterical that these nut jobs need to create a global conspiracy of the elites when the fomenters of all the troubles are the handful US Right wing billionaires (Theil, Koch's etc) with a little help from the Dirty Digger.

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

I was commenting on twitter the other day…

The thread poster was detailing all the ways Twitter could go wrong with half of the staff sacked.

I pointed out the only one they missed was unplugging the one plug that MUST NEVER BE UNPLUGGED.

This actually happened to me in the early days of my career working for a specialist transaction processors. They used clusters of zOS mainframe to serve the transactions with the amount m of <3s latency world wide before ubiquitous fibre was a thing. This set up optimised speed over stability as the main thing under their control was processing time not network latency.

In those days unplugging the master terminal would bring the whole edifice crashing down…. Guess where the cleaner plugged in her hoover for the monthly ops room clean….

Microsoft 365 faces more GDPR headwinds as Germany bans it in schools

Re: This regulator's no good, I'll get myself another

Im going to be the contrarian for this one. Whilst not denying the possibilities of DSK being right the Germans in particular are known far and wide for exceptionally aggressive interpretations of the various GDPR purposes in a way that exceeds that of other member states. (Case in point a restriction on the use of numberplate for reporting illegal parking recently got struck down - it shouldn't have need to have been.)

I'd like to know wether this is all in the realms of legal theory or whether M365 in a European Azure region actually makes any transfer of personal data to the US. Additionally AFAIK there has been no successful transfer of data under the CLOUD act or FISA from an MS European facility to a US one or onward to the Feds.

Soo... colour me unconvinced and cautiously neutral of M$ in this instance without more background.

If Apple's environmental rhetoric is meaningful, Macs and iPads should converge

Re: Think Different!

Ipad Pros and Airs with TB3 already dock - the hardware is not the issue its the software.

I can literally plug my 11.2 pro into my (generic) Thunderbolt dock and use my Thunderbolt Display, Mac Magic Keyboard and Logitech mouse on it that I usually use to drive my work MBP.

The software experience is what lets it down (screen mirroring at native iPad resolution for example).

Re: Unix?

Since afaik the iPadOS kernel is the same as the MacOS one (ie BSD evolution) you haven't been ignored.

I guarantee you there is a version of Xcode for iPadOS running in an Apple lab somewhere.

Re: Because the iPad store lets Apple make more money than macOS

I've just spend the last 24 remembering how to use the Shitty W2K12 interface over RDP from a Mac after 3 years avoiding it. I would gladly crucify the f*scker who though it was a good idea in any shape or form.

University orders investigation into Oracle finance disaster

Because they made an explicit choice not to standardise.

The first rule of ERP club is dont modify the ERP.

The second rule of ERP club is turn down all invitations to join ERP club. Run for the hills if someone mentions finance transformation to you. Or more BOFH like, join the project for long enough to get it on your CV for buzzword bingo, but get yourself re-allocated to a "business critical" project prior to go live.

Watchdog warns UK health data platform could damage patients' trust

Re: Memo from the lords and masters to the peasants

Jethro - add another couple of dozen pitchforks and torches to your trolley!

I forget where I read it

But I'm sure I saw a SPAD or a Minister saying somewhere that because the solution was federated no additional data permissions were required so they had no intent of re-seeking consent for the newest slurp. No doubt the RFP docs will be filled with Data Mesh BS.

1. We all know there will be a central "cache".

2. GDPR cares just as much about transmission as it does storage.

Same old leopard - same old spots. Instead of addressing the challenges of creating a medical data permissions framework they'd rather spunk all the cash on lining the pockets of Palantir in return for a cushy board spot or 2.

ahhh - it was here : https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/04/uk_governement_set_to_extract/?td=readmore

Jaguar Land Rover courts coders caught in big tech layoffs

Re: Need more than coders

Needs coders too.

My mate has an iPace. Tells me the software is buggy as f*ck, constant OTA updates. Not usual to have to give it the JLR equivalent of a 3 finger salute to get it working.

He has driven 60 miles home before with none of the instrument panels working.

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison

Re: A CEO being held accountable?

"She's not a member of the "old boys' club"."

She was - do your research. Silver Spoon all the way....

UK forces Chinese-owned company to offload Newport Wafer Fab

Look Up.

Its all on that twitter thread.

Interesting thread on this here. Allegedly what appear to be a very ordinary fab was actually doing some cool stuff.

https://twitter.com/EdConwaySky/status/1592983101172748288?s=20&t=fX_jjpJRHzS7C6fJLyIhRA

Evernote's fall from grace is complete, with sale to Italian app maker

Funnily enough

My Dad who’s never met a click box he can say no to just phoned me to ask what Evernote is as the latest browser hijacker he has inadvertently installed keeps trying to prompt him to install it.

How the mighty have fallen.

Europe wants Airbnb and pals to cough up rental property logs

Re: What about income tax?

Noooo says it’s not true! Surely the UK has more control now?

Meta wants to sweat its servers for longer – at a cost of $60b

Can someone parse this statement for me?

“ Having more datacenter headroom will allow us to extend the life of servers over time because we won't have to replace them due to power constraints," Wehner said. "Part of that is to get more efficiency over time out of the CPU-based server fleet.”

Sounds like BS.

We've seen things you people wouldn't believe. A planet, dense as a marshmallow, that would float on water

Disappointed to find out we haven’t found the the Tannhäuser Gate yet.

New measurement alert: Liz Truss inspires new Register standard

Excellent!

Readers will be glad to know that a BOFH/PFY Friday 10.5hr lager and curry bender is the same amount of time as a centi-truss.

Next-gen Thunderbolt capable of 120Gbps for 8K displays

Re: What the fuck is a meter?

Its 100 centimetres. HTH

I believe the El Reg unit of length is actually the linguine.

SpaceX's in-flight Wi-Fi, Starlink Aviation, takes to the skies

REgulatory Approval

No mention of any regulator approval. Its pretty much a non-starter unless FAA/CAA/EASA have approvals in train. Look how long it took them to update mobile phone advice.

BOFH: The Boss has a new watch – move readiness to DEFCON 2

Great build up and pay off!

Well done Bofh.

Business can't make staff submit to video surveillance, says court

Re: Good luck getting another job

"1. No, it's a common question. One that appears in pretty much any job interview."

Maybe in your world. In my world as either interviewer or interviewee I've never said or heard that question. The only time I would go even near it is with a potential employee who job hops every 6 months but who isn't a contractor.

UK politico proposes site for prototype nuclear fusion plant

Re: 17 yrs FFS

You're being utterly disingenuous blaming wind for our continual use of Gas and other dead dinosaur products. They've barely been around in volume for enough time to start disrupting the Market.

If renewables weren't now in the mix we'd be burning even more gas and the bailout would need to be even higher.

I also have no problem with Wind and Solar being pegged to Gas - provided those extra profits are ploughed back into more renewable generation.

I also see nothing wrong with the massive over provisioning of renewable power - its now so cheap that most of the supply side issues are amenable a brute forcing solution via volume. Those that aren't require medium sized investments in interconnectors and some more R&D into Storage.

It's a damn sight less polluting that fossils or NuCLEAR. Even the not so nice environmental outputs from Solar fabs are a damn sight safer than fossil and nuclear by-products.

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg has proposed building the UK’s first nuclear fusion power plant

On the plus side its only waste product will be diamonds. (Superman III flashback anyone)?

Whilst I agree with your point you accidentally undermine it with the Apollo reference.

The US spent $250bn in todays money on Apollo. It needs that kind of magnitude for Fusion to go anywhere in the time we need to avert the worst impacts of climate change.

17 yrs FFS

17 years? FFS. No wonder no-one takes fusion seriously. If we actually gave a shit about the future of the planet it would be 5 years and Bn of dollars of funding.

Teradata CTO Stephen Brobst drowns data lakehouse concept

Now look what Snowflake and Oracle ADW offer. A chance not to need a DBA for 90% of your use cases. Now I like DBA's - the good ones are essential. But it's nice to automate the low hanging fruit away for the "good enough" use cases.

HAHAHAHAHHA

That WHOOSH is Teradata's relevance flying overhead about 5 years ago.

They are more stuck in the past than Oracle and utterly irrelevant as well as being extortionate.

Ever suspected bankers used WhatsApp comms at work? $1.8b says you're right

Interesting

I did a project at one of those banks a few years ago where we looked at just the official chat and messaging channels. Even just counting them we got to 30 different chat/email/comms methods and they were the permitted channels.

One of the more interesting hard to track comms methods was scrawling bitmap or vector handwritten notes in MS paint or Word and then sending as an attachment.

Re: They admitted to it...

Allegedly. ;)

European carriers again call for Big Tech to fund network builds

Fuscking hypocrites

They’ve literally gottten fat off of building out networks for the last 50 years in many cases funded by the public purse. F*ck em I say.

California to phase out gas furnaces, water heaters by 2030

Are they mandating the replacement tech?

What’s the eco-friendly replacement for a furnace?