Posts by James 139

Windows Insiders get a glimpse of Microsoft’s agentic future

As long as

it's more Slave than ORAC, it won't be too bad...

Elon Musk's Grokipedia launches, filled to the brim with plagiarism and AI slop

Re: Muckipedia

Just classify it as Musktrash.

A single DNS race condition brought Amazon's cloud empire to its knees

Re: I am vaguely reminded of an incident from my past

And the worst of them always manage to keep it verbal.

Always get it in writing!

Microsoft kills 9.9-rated ASP.NET Core bug – 'our highest ever' score

Oh dear

The risks, he said, depend on how the application is written, and the bad outcomes are not likely "unless your application code is doing something odd and skips a bunch of checks it ought to be making on every request."

Ah yes, checks you ought to be making, but arent required to, and it worked anyway, and we planned to add them later, but never did....

Microsoft lets bosses spot teams that are dodging Copilot

Re: Viva Blocked

The next logical step is for the meeting to just be held by the AI and a summary of the outcome being sent to everyone, id call that a win if it works.

No more Blocktoberfest? German court throws book at ad blockers

Re: How would they enforce this?

Not to mention the possiblity of accidentally tapping one whilst scrolling

Infosec teams must be allowed to fail, argues Gartner

Re: If all incidents are inevitable..

Trouble is, thats when they get lucky and it never happens.

If all incidents are inevitable..

..and infosec personnel are working under the "do your job or be fired", shouldn't the same threat apply upwards in the chain?

If something was requeated to mitigate, minimise or prevent an incident, yet was denied by managers, accountants or even the board, the oft applied "the expense doesn't justify it" excuse, aren't they responsible too?

Web devs fear Apple's iOS shakeup for Europe will be a nightmare for support

Re: Safari Is An Albatross Around The Necks Of Web Developers

Only you won't be able to recommend anything, as the newly permitted browsers will only be on iOS 17.4, and if you're already stuck on an old Safari, you're on an old iOS too, so out of luck, EU or not.

Intel's PC chip ship is sinking with Arm-ada on the horizon

Re: DEc Alpha

In some uncharacteristic show of generosity, or perhaps pre-greedy stage, you didnt even need to specifically buy it either, the NT 4 CD came with installs for x86, PPC, DEC Alpha and MIPS on it.

Having read the room, Unity goes back to drawing board on runtime fee policy

Re: It's a shame, really

Fairly sure current US business school consists of 3 classes, how to gain market share rapidly, how and when to squeeze customers and how to maximise returns for shareholders.

China's great CPU hope – Loongson – may be only four years behind Intel

Re: Revivified MIPS

Seems both are from 1985.

Thames Water to datacenters: Cut water use or we will

Re: Usual rip off

To get caps removed, the water companies would say they will invest more and also can be trusted to do so without any form of legal requirement to, and immediately aftwards would suddenly find lots of cash for dividends and invest a bare minimum in infrastructure.

Because that's what companies with shareholders do when not requred to do otherwise.

Crooks pwned your servers? You've got four days to tell us, SEC tells public companies

Re: Four Days........Someone, somewhere has a sense of humour!

Does always make me wonder why they suddenly notice "data was accessed" long after the event, assuming it was a one off swipe, rather than an ongoing event.

If it comes down to reviewing access logs, thats really quite terrible.

Re: Hang on a minute

Good question. I'd have thought any company that poses a risk to either would know they were in that position, by virtue of their operations being of a national security or public safety issue, and therefore have been granted such a dispensation in advance.

Of course, that would never be abused to delay a filing if the intrusion didnt involve a different, unrelated, part of the operations, would it..

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Re: Faux AZERTY

"The only issue is, I can't have anyone else type anything on my laptop :)"

Not seeing anything wrong here.

It's a bit like my home keyboard, no one else can use it because it's rather old, still working, but has a lot of blank keys.

Helps that I can touch type.

Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim

Re: What, no backup strategy?

It's not just convenience in terms of easy to use, it's also a cost thing.

Before things like Alexa, home automation systems were quite pricey, even if you did it yourself, but at least then it was offline and you were in control, power outages and bugs aside.

So by relying on someting you have no control over, whilst thinking you own the right to use Alexa forever, he's a fool.

Germany says nein to Qatari World Cup spyware, err, apps

Re: So a cellphone is mandatory to enter the country...

I look forward to the overly dramatic headlines in The Sun et al, things like "Football super fan gutted to be denied entry to Qatar" and "Terminally ill grandad of 39 cruelly denied entry to Qatar".

BT CEO orders staff: Back to the office or risk 'disciplinary action'

Re: BT can do this, reduce commute and fill seats

Way too sensible, plus you're asking the wrong people to do all the leg work, bet the managers or supervisors would resist such a thing far more vocally than those being told to return to the office.

Arm sues Qualcomm over custom Nuvia CPU cores, wants designs destroyed

Re: Shooting themselves in the ARM

Texas.

Tech world may face huge fines if it doesn't scrub CSAM from encrypted chats

Re: Nobody can sensibly deny that this is a moral imperative

It's that they seem to keep getting it backwards.

"Masks are now a personal choice, we trust the public will do the right thing", loads of people stop wearing masks immediately, even when places ask them politely to keep doing so.

"If we don't spy on everyone, they will all immediately do <insert vile act here>", yet almost no one will do it, because they just won't.

EU makes USB-C common charging port for most electronic devices

Re: Optional Chargers

One of the problems with PD, as people have discovered, is that the power supply needs to match the devices requests, there is quite a combination of supported voltages and currents.

So a brick providing 9V @ 3A, 27W, won't provide 15V @ 1.8A, also 27W, nor provide 5V @ 3A, 15W, unless its been designed to. Yet, you could buy a "27W" labelled power supply, which only works with one of the first 2, or worse, it only gives you 5V @ 900mA, the USB 3 spec output.

IBM ends funding for employee retirement clubs

It's that weird idea they have where they believe they, as the "important" executives, are the only thing that makes the company function.

I am sure quite a lot of them are easily replacable with cheaper, less entrenched, graduates and the likes.

Lawyers say changes to UK data law will make life harder for international businesses

Re: And nothing much will change for 95% of companies

Something tells me, every time I read these sort of Government ideas, that they are convinced that most businesses in the UK don't do anything outside the UK.

It's the only thing that seems to make a reasonable excuse for it.

And, that being the case, only a small number are being expected to have to end up following 2 sets of rules, just a shame that past evidence suggests otherwise.

Re: Any business experience in government?

Likely only in so far as giving "advice" or taking "bribes" to pass a message on to a colleague who has better "advice".

UK to introduce new laws and a code of practice for police wanting to rifle through mobile phone messages

Re: The device can only be examined by police investigating or prosecuting crime

Depends, actually investigating a crime, or looking for a crime to investigate based on a hysterical loonie or incorrect understanding of the law?

Probably just pedantry, as it just depends at what point it becomes "investigating a crime".

For the latter, i'd offer up all those times a plod has "demanded" to see, and sometimes wanted to delete, photographs someone has taken in public places that were not otherwise dubious.

As battle for future of .UK's Nominet draws closer, non-exec director hits a nerve with for-profit proposal

Re: Time to move away from GoDaddy and 1&1?

Oh good grief, thats just stupid.

Makes me glad I dont use them for domains.

Pure frustration: What happens when someone uses your email address to sign up for PayPal, car hire, doctors, security systems and more

Re: Yup

Surely refusing to talk to you, because of DPA, should lead to you saying "Oh yes, youre quite right, do you happen to have contact details for the ICO so I can report this?", assuming you can actually speak or write to a real person that is.

Comcast to impose 1.2TB-a-month broadband download limits across more of America from next year

Re: Download caps are fake news...

What you have to watch for is ISPs deciding that those WFH, or otherwise using business-like internet resources, need to have the Business Plan, with its even higher costs.

UK taxman waves through £168.8m Fujitsu contract because no one else can hold up 30-year-old infrastructure

Re: VME

I'm sure the difference between old and new systems is that the old systems had vastly less flexibility in development and, as a result, a lot less interference by "know nothings" with "grand ideas", so people took what they were given and liked it, usually because it did the job it was supposed to.

Microsoft tells staff work-from-home is now ‘standard’ – with caveats galore

Trouble is, it wont be YOUR cost of living, it will be someone elses use of average costs and you living of a tin of beans a day.

Nvidia promises once again to let Arm keep its Switzerland-of-chips biz model – and even license some Nv GPU tech

I'm going with "cost" and/or "patents".

Das Keyboard 4C TKL: Plucky mechanical contender strikes happy medium between typing feel and clackety-clack joy

Re: No back light on a black keyboard?

*raises hand* I can do this.

It just takes years of usage and becomes second nature eventually.

Amazon gets its tax excuses in early amid rising UK profits – but leaves El Reg off the press list. Can't think why

Re: Not the fault of Amazon

I wish Margaret Hodge would understand this.

EVERY time theres some, usually Amazon, tax article, she dribbles the same crap about how they're being, basically, "dishonest" and not paying the taxes they should, as if it's entirely Amazons fault, rather than how tax law works in the UK. I bet she wouldn't voluntarily pay extra tax, just because she earns more than minimum wage.

Maybe she should start campaining for the Government, doesn't matter which one, to tax money leaving the country instead, that would catch everyone "sneaking" cash away.

Amazon Lex can now speak British English... or simply 'English' if you're British

My grandmother used to really hate his accent, saying that it wasnt very realistic, she was from NI.

All the more amusing given that the chap in question, Charles Lawson, is from Northern Ireland, and I can only assume they asked him to do some other accent that sounded like a non-native trying to put on an inaccurate impersonation of an accent.

Safety driver at the wheel of self-driving Uber car that killed a pedestrian is charged with negligent homicide

Re: However

I wonder if that's because you're watching the film, not doing nothing?

Now, repeat the test, but without the film and see if you can sit for 2 hours staring at the blank screen.

I won't be ignored: Google to banish caller roulette with Verified Calls

Re: That's what voice mail is for...

Surprising now many people call, particularly from obviously faked numbers, and then don't leave messages.

I'm still waiting for the day "I" phone myself, I might just answer that one.

Publishers signed up to Apple's premium News may be less than 'appy to discover the iGiant snatching readers

Re: Walls

As for browsers, I have seen Brave and Firefox on iOS, and I doubt they're the only ones.

And both of those use WebKit, because Apple require it.

University of Cambridge to decommission its homegrown email service Hermes in favour of Microsoft Exchange Online

Re: But It's Shiny!

And as all their mail admins will be reduced to pointing and drooling, they'll find that getting and retaining highly technical staff will get worse - we like doing interesting stuff.

It is the same problem in proper development circles. Surprising to most, drivers and lower level services are not written in VB, C#, PHP or JavaScript, yet most of the teaching, and UI work, has shifted that way.

Makes it tricky to hire useful staff, and even more challenging to explain to recruitment agencies that "C or C++ is mandatory", but at least they seem to have heard of those, so the disappointment in their voices is nice to hear.

US drugstore chain installed anti-shoplifter facial-recognition cameras in 200 locations – for eight years

Ah, so THAT's what's running Trumps brain.

'I'm telling you, I haven't got an iPad!' – Sent from my iPad

Re: Which is why I always turn off email sigs...

I've seen a fair few email sigs that contain, what looks like, a nice little 1in square portrait or company logo.

Fair enough, you think, until you discover that the bane of all life on earth, the HTML email client, has carefully and thoughtfully just set the element to that size, and the image is, in reality, some massive 4000 square pixels.

People should have to go on a course to be allowed to use anything but plain text emails, with annual refreshers so they don't forget how not to email.

This investor blew nearly $300,000 on Intel shares the day before 7nm disaster reveal. Yup, she's suing

Not really sure what the problem is.

Unless she sold the shares immediately afterwards, which makes her an imbecile, she hasnt actually lost any money, yet.

Probably find it isnt her money, and its either invested for a group of "friends" or she "borrowed" it from somewhere she shouldnt have in the hope of making a quick profit.

UK formally abandons Europe’s Unified Patent Court, Germany plans to move forward nevertheless

Re: advantages all backwards

"The problem there becomes that I can start patenting a great many things and doing little to bring them into reality, and then sit back and wait for the future to enrich my descendants. Imagine if Gene Roddenberry had patented much of the Start Trek ideas - no tablet computing without paying the Start Trek tax, no real time ML language translations, etc etc"

Which is why, as far as I know, sensible patent regimes give a patent a limited life, during which time you are expected to develop, manufacture, bring to market or just sell the idea.

Once the patent expires, anyone can follow your guide to make their own copy.

It isn't Disney "copyright", but for fast changing technology, it might as well be sometimes.

It's handbags at dawn: America to hit France with 25% tariffs on luxuries over digital tax on US tech titans

Re: Pay tax where users reside

Makes you wonder why politicians are always so reluctant to have any sort of record of who lobbies them...

I mean, it doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to equate fancy dinners or other "gifts" in return for listening to a lobbyist, with finding out said politician is doing something that benefits the lobbyists client.

IBM job ad calls for 12 years’ experience with Kubernetes – which is six years old

Re: Why wouldn't Tim Berners-Lee have 17 years experience designing websites?

If you read the actual tweet chain, the interviewer goes on to explain that, back in the Good Times, people weren't "website designers", they wrote things by hand in a text editor, hardly "design".

A good or bad explanation, maybe, but it is valid.

Linux kernel coders propose inclusive terminology coding guidelines, note: 'Arguments about why people should not be offended do not scale'

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

You can't call them those terms, it's not "nice"!

It's "intentional life extinguisher" and "non-consentual gentital fun timer"!

Oh dang, I think I over rolled my eyes there...

Remember when we warned in February Apple will crack down on long-life HTTPS certs? It's happening: Chrome, Firefox ready to join in, too

Re: Some sense for the web, disaster for internal

I feel your pain on the last point. It's like people never heard of "mitigating factors" or "it's entirely unnecessary", they just see a "red mark" on some automated scanner and start frothing.

More often than not they have also over paid someone to run the report, and who is conveniently offering to offer paid advice on it.

Section 230 authors despair of Trump, Barr, Biden, US Congress’ aggressive ignorance of critical tech law

There has long been a misconception over what "free speech" entitles you to.

A fair few people believe it means "what ever, where ever, when ever", without limits or restrictions.

Which is fine, and mostly true, in public owned places or when directed at Governments.

In private places, which includes publically accessible, the private owner is entitled to set limits, including denying you the ability to speak.

Machine-learning models trained on pre-COVID data are now completely out of whack, says Gartner

Re: But...

If suffiently unqualified people call it an AI often enough, it becomes the "mass market" term for it.

Like "information superhighway" to describe what, is now, very slow internets.