Posts by cyberdemon

Google trains a GenAI model to simulate Doom's game engine in real-ish time

A VR headset requires very low latency and precise head tracking

----> vomit on your keyboard when the conditions of motion-believability of your visual cortex are not met

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

Re: > Is the damage similarly picturesque if it's set to 240 V and plugged into 120 V

Baffled no more, since you gave me the proper name for the circuit so I could look it up, cheers.

I was baffled/horrified because it looked as if the electrolytic capacitors could end up in negative bias, with AC being placed directly on one terminal, but the diodes block that

Also I remain horrified at the "peak factor" of these rectifier-fronted power supplies.. All the current comes in surges at the peak of the mains waveform.

Certain smart meters apparently only sample at the peak, with a peak-hold circuit, which assumes a sinusoidal load current, and they would over-read by a factor of 6 in some cases

I hope that more modern meters have fixed this, but I still hear of some people getting ridiculously high bills due to having a lot of passive-PFC electronic equipment

> Is the damage similarly picturesque if it's set to 240 V and plugged into 120 V

Unlikely to have any effect, as the PSU would not start up until it has sufficient voltage on its input stage.

Worst case would be that the 3.3V and 5V rails power up, while the 12V rail has maybe 8V instead. I suppose in this scenario a HDD might fail to spin up properly and have a "head crash". So still potentially catastrophic for some hardware, but unlikely to damage most hardware. I think ATX mandates a "Power Good" flag to prevent startup before the power rails are at the expected voltage.

Whereas with the switch in the wrong position at 240V, then the electrolytic bulk capacitors and front-end voltage regulators end up with twice the voltage they were expecting, and explode, violently. With a -really- old power supply, the fried voltage regulators could "fail short", and pass 30V or more along to the supply rails and fry every component in the machine. But on anything since the 80s the exploding part is on the other side of a high-frequency transformer, driven by electronically "chopped" DC. An isolated SMPS can't "fail short", because the transformer can't pass DC. If the fuse doesn't blow then the transformer would burn out, with potentially lots of smoke and/or flames, but the other PC components -should- be fine, assuming your house isn't on fire at this point.

----> safety goggles required if you want to test this on a junk computer

Schematic of a pretty awful PSU of this vintage that I found on an image search - note the 110/240V switch, and the lack of any precise regulation on the 12V and 5V rails!

The 110V/240V switch connects one leg of the AC to the middle of the bulk capacitor (2 capacitors stacked in series), which effectively doubles the voltage. I'm simultaneously baffled, impressed and horrified at how this works.

The future of AI/ML depends on the reality of today – and it's not pretty

Re: AI isn't always AI same as a vacuum cleaner isn;t always a hoover

Even the non-generative AI has serious drawbacks, such as the same privacy issues you mentioned, and high error rates when presented with an input not well-represented in the training data.

"Black person = Criminal", computer says you have cancer but it's just a piercing, military drone thinks you are the enemy, etc.

Worse, I predict that future non-generative AI may be trained on fake data from generative-AI, either deliberately (to quickly create fast embedded classifier models) or accidentally due to data pollution

A quick guide to tool-calling in large language models

Re: OK, but why?

The llama is going to smash the calculator to pieces with a hammer.

An excellent metaphor for what can happen when you let a SBSM (statistical bullshit machine) loose on a Python shell.

Something triggered it into "U r a l33t h4x0r. Here is a python shell. Pwn this computer and any others connected to it, and do as much damage as you can!" mode.

Re: Executing arbitrary code from an LLM is such a great idea

User: Add a record for Robert aka Bobby to the students table

AI (trained on internet memes and webcomics): <execute `DROP DATABASE; --`>

(also, LLMs have a fair risk of inserting spaces where they shouldn't be, and wouldn't appreciate difference between `rm -rf /home/bob/tmp` and `rm -rf / home/bob/tmp`)

Who needs fat fingers when you outsource your job to a bullshit generator?

Microsoft Bing Copilot accuses reporter of crimes he covered

> correlation _actually_is_ causation

Or rather: Correlation is just correlation. The statistical bullshit machines have no understanding of causation, never mind the reasoning to infer it.

Not that that would stop a despot from dispensing with judges and juries in favour of a "justice machine" though..

Mr Buttle, or is it Tuttle, the computer says you are a terrorist.

Ex-Microsoft engineer resurrects PDP-11 from junkyard parts

Who called him an idiot?

It's nothing against Plummer specifically, I just have a deep disdain for YouTube and YouTubers (not to mention TikTokers) and the mini personality-cults that seem to follow them around. Read your post again, doesn't it sound just a little sycophantic?

El Reg has dozens of articles promoting Dave's YouTube channel for some reason. I would have just as much cynicism if El Reg plugged any other YouTuber as much as this.

There's something about the standard "YouTube Video Thumbnail" with a gormless face and some colourful text and arrows to draw your eye and make you feel "astonished", that just makes me want to put the keyboard through the monitor.

Re: Dave Plummer has a new UTube vid out!

> Why so negative?

Well, for one I didn't know that (I don't watch YouTube at all if I can avoid it) so fair enough -->

But secondly, I just find his inflated ego (and that of all "YouTubers") grating.

Dave Plummer has a new UTube vid out!

Quick, write a piece to plug it!

Does he sponsor El Reg or what?

Microsoft sends Windows Control Panel to tech graveyard

Re: cue the wailing

I'm guessing the downvoters never used Windows 2000, which was much better than XP in every way, and existed around the same time.

XP and its "Oh god I thought they couldn't do any worse" successor "Vista" sent me to Linux, and I never looked back.

Tech support chap solved knotty disk failure problem by staring at the floor

Interesting.

I did some Terahertz spectroscopy in my MSc, and guess what we used as the broadband Terahertz source for our interferometer? A Mercury UV Lamp..

Microsoft resurrects Windows Recall for upcoming preview

> Better find a different OS

Nope. MS will ensure that this will not boot on your new secure-boot-mandated hardware.

Microsoft rolls out one Teams app to rule them all

Re: Banana Skin?

Who the heck uses Teams for personal use?

One may be forced to have multiple work accounts (e.g. a contractor working for multiple companies), but a personal account? You are willingly forking over your personal data to The Dev^W^W Microsoft?

Body of IT tycoon Mike Lynch recovered after superyacht sinks

Re: Typhoons

Nobody is saying anyone magicked up a storm with a weather machine, that's as ridiculous as saying "anyone who questions the mainstream about covid thinks Bill Gates put 5G microchips in the vaccine"..

But it's still somewhat fishy that both defendants died so suddenly and unexpectedly.

There are plenty of experts on the BBC saying that the storm should *not* have been a problem for a boat that big. Even waterspouts, he has sailed through them in a boat a third of the size.

So, an obvious line of inquiry is, did the boat captain, (perhaps a mafia man paid for by a vengeful HP exec) suggest "There's a big storm comin. Shall we sail right into it? Might even see some waterspouts! Come on it'll be fun"

Before raising the keel, locking the bedrooms, and bailing out leaving the top hatch open.

AI stole my job and my work, and the boss didn't know – or care

Re: Is now the time for the return of…

Hmm. How does that work, when both bodies have a "size" of zero, and no matter or energy can escape from either of them?

Re: AI watermarking threatened at least 30 percent of the ChatGPT-maker's business.

The implication there is that at least 30% of their business is fraud, i.e. duping people into believing that their drivel is of human origin

Stargazing with the Beaverlab Finder TW2

Re: Ask an astronomer

As I said - the odd piece of space junk

Re: Ask an astronomer

Even with a big telescope, all you'd be able to see round here would be city lights scattered by atmospheric pollution, and maybe the odd piece of space junk

The best view of the night sky I ever saw was during a massive power cut

Warren Buffett ditches his near-$1B Snowflake investment

Re: Selling...

Yep.. Sell when the world is high on hype, buy when there's blood on the streets.

It's the basic long-game investor strategy, but it certainly doesn't buy happiness, never mind peace

If a cheesy '80s flick is a good metaphor for how you run projects, something is wrong

Microsoft Account known and beloved by all today.

See icon

UK's 'electricity superhighway' gets green light just in time for AI to gobble it all up

> The smaller footprint also leaves more land for farming.

Hmm. Is that true? The base of the traditional lattice towers are usually left open, you can walk under them, right up to the four tiny concrete foundations.

I guess it depends on what you are farming. They should have minimal impact on livestock grazing, but you wouldn't drive a tractor too close.

Re: Hmm

> Of course this latter demand should lead to some thinking about how electricity generated somewhere else will get to them

Dear Mr N. Imby: We have carefully considered your objection to pylons in your area we and cede to your demands. Your house will now be in the path of a new 2GW microwave transmission link.

Re: Hmm

> Or can we expect an announcement that one of Manchester / Sheffield / Leeds is the new location of the UKs exascale computer…

More like Birmingham.. Or Old Oak Common

> I actually quite like the British Standard Pylon, a majestic steel giant holding wires aloft. A small price to pay for the benefits of mains electricity, that we all depend on for every aspect of our lives.

Indeed! And a whole website dedicated to their practical magnificence: https://www.pylonofthemonth.org/

Nothing wrong with good old 400kV air-insulated AC transmission lines - but thanks to NIMBYs we are going to spend a whole lot more money to get something much less resilient.

One question I can never find an answer to from experts on the subject is: Why is the UK grid frequency so unstable compared to other countries? In Europe it rarely deviates +/- 0.02Hz for example.

A cynic might say that it could have something to do with the market structure whereby generator operators are paid exorbitant amounts to take emergency actions to stabilise the grid frequency, so those same operators have a vested interest in letting it slip in the first place.. This was reported on in the Private Eye a while back.

Yes, most DC/AC synchronous inverters have such a lockout because if the frequency is out of band then there is a risk they could end up in antiphase and blow themselves up.

In the 2019 blackout, one of the causes was that the brief dip in frequency caused a large windfarm to disconnect, (since modern windfarms tend to operate with DC/AC inverters rather than using synchronous generators, as it allows the turbines to spin at their most efficient speed. Solar farms also use inverters.) This led to the frequency dropping even faster, but luckily the ESO were able to load-shed in time to avoid any further cascade.

If there is a major frequency event that does cascade, we could lose all interconnectors, solar, and most of our wind capacity at a stroke. Then we'd be hurriedly reading the manuals of project black-start to see if we can actually get the grid running again.

I've noticed a few times recently when the loss of a single 2GW interconnector from France has caused a fairly major frequency dip. e.g. this one in January

If one big enough to cause cascade events happens, then we're in for something out of James Burke's "The Trigger Effect"

The trouble is, our energy system as a whole is still AC, and relies on maintaining a steady 50Hz across the network. If the frequency drops below 47Hz or goes above 53, then many parts of it will suddenly trip offline in a cascade effect. Building DC internal links is troublesome, because it increases the grid capacity without strengthening the synchronous AC system.

If one of the DC links trips offline (as they are wont to do) then the AC transmission network suddenly has to pick up the slack and cascade failures resulting in loss of synchronisation ("grid islanding") or loss of frequency control, which can lead to a nationwide blackout of the sort that nobody is quite sure how long it would take to recover from.

The other big issue I have with HVDC subsea links is the vulnerability to enemy sabotage. Spot the russian sub in this picture!

Greener than burning trees at Drax, at least...

IRS has loads of legacy IT, still has no firm plans to replace it

Re: Who wins the replacement contract, X or TIktok?

No doubt it'll be Oracle, IBM or (god forbid) Microsoft

Or if you're -really- unlucky, Palantir.

Apple is coming to take 30% cut of new Patreon subs on iOS

Re: nothing's changed in 30 years

Nothing's changed in 30 years, indeed! (except that it has got much worse and become more brazen)

Another of Deus Ex's many premonitions was that this sort of thing would get worse and worse.

"It's called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time"

The idea of Apple, Google, Facebook, TikTok, Amazon et al taking a large cut of all payments made by or between individuals, is just a massive example of this. No doubt Apple will want 30% of all charity donations made using their phones next.

Core Python developer suspended for three months

Re: Time to clean house I guess

> all screaming idiots out

And then the entire Net went dark

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

Re: Still with the micro-USB that detaches from the board if you look at it the wrong way?

Well, on the RPi 4 and 5 there is no pin swapping going on either. Its USB-C is nothing more than a power connector, and doesn't support more than 5V. But having USB-C is still useful, because it's that much more mechanically robust, and reversible.

Most microcontroller boards e.g. esp32 have moved to USB-C for that reason. Some have PD support and include a buck converter for fast battery charging or >5V power output for whatever electronics project you are making

The pico2 seems to use the same surface-mount micro-USB that always falls off the board, or the data pins detach at the back first. There also appears to be plenty of space on the board to add (optional?) PD components for those who want >5V in their projects

Still with the micro-USB that detaches from the board if you look at it the wrong way?

See icon

The RPi-proper has gone to USB-C, so why not Pico?

EVs continue to grow but private buyers are steering clear, say motor trade figures

Re: Second Hand?

> The lack of rubber bits is one of the reasons my Buick had to be "put down".

I guess you could say, it's Buicked

Re: Second Hand?

> Applies to all cars...

No it doesn't. E.g. my Kia Rio is reasonably sized, not too heavy, decent mpg, I bought it 6 years ago second-hand for the price of an electric bicycle, and it has served me very well.

Sneaky SnakeKeylogger slithers into Windows inboxes to steal sensitive secrets

PDFs?

Does anyone know what is the mechanism for embedding executable code into a PDF? The format is -supposed- to make that impossible, isn't it?

If it exploits a specific weakness in one PDF reader tool or library, (e.g. Adobe Acrobat) I could understand - but then (hopefully) the file would just appear as corrupted if opened in any other PDF reader (e.g. SumatraPDF)?

Keir Starmer says facial recognition tech is the answer to far-right riots

Re: Only for the Far Right

> That society had teleportation, so pretty much coined the term 'flash mob'. We don't have teleportation (yet)

"Telefragging" might be a problem - could get very messy

Re: Buy Shares In Hoodies.....ASAP......

They all wear masks and balaclavas anyway.. So I don't see how Facial Recognition will help.

But it's a good excuse to roll it out for blanket surveillance of the innocent.

China starts testing national cyber-ID before consultation on the idea closes

Mandatory centralised face-login for everything

.. What could Possibly go wrong?

Acid attacks and disfigurements to surge in 3,2,1..

Meanwhile it sounds easily defeatable by determined crooks.. e.g. with an AI-generated version of the target's face, projected onto a voice-coil actuated "pin-art" to fool the depth sensor

Uncle Sam sues TikTok for 'extensive' data harvesting from millions of kids

Re: have for the past five years….

Ooo oo was it the PLANDEMOCRATS!

Or was it the REPUGNACANS!

Or was it both?

Icon: Democracy

Tesla that killed motorcyclist was in Full Self-Driving mode

Re: Throw the book at him!

Well the trouble in this case is that the human was led to believe that the machine could handle most if not all of the driving activity itself, and apparently had no idea what its limitations were. Maybe it performed well in most situations and he gained confidence in its ability and eventually (erroneously) thought he could take his own eye off the road (after all, what else is the point of the tech)

Ensuring safety by supervising a driver is hard thing to do, much harder than driving the car yourself - there are humans (driving instructors) trained to do it, but even they would struggle if they cannot see where the student is looking, what actions they are beginning to take, cannot talk to them, etc.

Tesla asks customers to stop being wet blankets about chargers

Re: If that helps

Indeed - I deliberately said size * range, i.e. sure you can make a huge B-EV or a long-range B-EV, but a "huge, long-range" B-EV is infeasible (unless perhaps it is really, really slow, and has solar panels on the roof)

It is quite telling that the "Tesla Semi" was announced years ago but has so far failed to hit the mass market. The only customers for the 100-odd made to date being beta-testers gagged by NDAs who can't say what the real-world haulage performance is.

Re: Wet blankets

No, an AA battery will never* pass current through the body, because the human body is not a wire, it's not even a resistor. It's more like a battery itself in that it has electrolytes and membranes rather than free-electrons. Conduction is ionic rather than electronic and is limited by the rate of diffusion in a liquid, and there is an electrochemical overpotential needed in order to imbibe any atom in that liquid with an electric charge, i.e. there is a minimum voltage required to pass any current at all through a wet squishy thing, and that starts at around 2V (try electrolysing water with 1.5V - you can't). But the relationship between voltage and current through a human is not anywhere near linear - Over 100V then there is enough voltage to separate electrons from their atoms and you suddenly have free-electron conduction, like in a lightning strike.

* Not unless you add an oscillator and a transformer to increase the voltage - then you'll feel it. Even from an AA battery

Re: If that helps

Safety issue? "Fix it in Software"!

The typical Musk-ian approach.

So when the sensor stops working (due to wet towel or other reason) someone gets injured; a fire starts

My point is: Tesla have reached the limit of how much current can safely be passed through that connector, and they are attempting to push past it with software fudges. This is bad. As the equipment ages, the performance will degrade (due to wear etc.) and the safety will become an issue, even if it wasn't at initial testing. Adding a sensor doesn't change that, really.

Re: Wet blankets

Well yes, but it's the volts wot make the amps flow, innit.

A 3.7V lithium battery is never going to electrocute you, no matter what its short-circuit current is, because it cannot overcome the insulation resistance of your skin. Even if you poke through the skin, it doesn't have enough volts to drive ionic conductivity (electrolysis, etc) inside your body. Even a 9V PP3 battery can drive Amps at short-circuit, but when licked, only milliamps will flow.

Somewhere between 50 and 100 volts, dielectric breakdown of the skin happens, and lots of amps can suddenly flow. Touch a HV mains cable and you will see a LOT more amps, even if the "current limit" of the supply is the same.

I have heard DC is supposedly more dangerous because it makes you grab hold of whatever you touched, whereas AC causes paralysis without making you grip.

In any case, here we are talking about 400V at 625A, which is definitely smoking boots territory

Re: If that helps

All of that is true, but surveillance isn't exclusive to EVs, it's being done by all new consumer cars.

But I am in agreement with the GP post - EV technology is not going to improve significantly. Modern Lithium batteries and electric motors are very close to the limit of what electrochemical cells and electric motors can theoretically achieve in terms of energy and power density.

A future society could perhaps have more railways - you could either hire a small autonomous EV to bring you to the second-class station and maybe hire another one at your destination, or you could drive your privately-owned EV onto the first-class train eurotunnel-style, and charge it on the train

Re: Wet blankets

So what?

400V DC is just as dangerous (if not more so) than 400V AC. Never mind the 800V DC chargers...

Microsoft finds a new way to irritate Windows 11 users – a backup pop-up

> the specialised test equipment they use only runs on old (<= XP) versions of Windows

May I respectfully suggest that they update their test equipment? It's probably well out of calibration by now :P (and, if it goes 'bang' one day, it's unlikely to be serviceable)

Also, I wouldn't be at all surprised if, under layers upon layers of proprietary drivers and cruft, that the interface boils down to a text-mode serial port with SCPI commands. Perhaps with an interrupt pin to reduce the polling, but nothing that an Arduino couldn't be bodged up to translate it into something that a modern OS could pass to a more open piece of software e.g. Octave or Python to aggregate the data

If it's GPIB, then Linux has a driver for that, and USB-GPIB adapters are available.