Posts by Tron

UK pushes ahead with facial recognition expansion despite civil liberties backlash

Re: Trial

Doesn't happen.

It's one rule for them another for us, or hadn't you noticed? They are the farmers, we are the cattle.

No worries.

They behave like the Chinese government, we treat them as we would the Chinese government.

Bots, bias, and bunk: How can you tell what's real on the net?

I would be happy to be rolled back to the 1980s,

The 21st century has turned out to be a complete shitshow.

In general, ignore anything you see on social media, anything that smells like AI, and anything coming out of Trumpistan.

Trust is chocolate and Kylie Minogue. You'll be fine.

Salesforce finds new AI monetization knobs to twist

Extra, Extra.

Snake oil prices to rise.

Tech leaders fill $1T AI bubble, insist it doesn't exist

We don't like them, we don't trust them, and we don't believe them.

Big tech is like our governments. They lie, they cheat, they manipulate, they bilk us for money and they deliver rubbish services. And that's why, as with our governments, we hate them.

Can't wait for the bubble to burst. AI scam over, they can move on to the next one and we can have a bit of a break.

UK SAP users say they're baffled by Business Suite reboot licensing maze

"what the return on investment is"

Gotta love that optimism.

Before you see the ROI, you will need to begin your next expensive upgrade.

The tech sector created SaaS, the cloud and AI as subscription lock-ins. The ROI is theirs, not yours. You get the exposure to malware that connecting your intranet to the internet gives you.

Newly launched civil service pension portal from Capita is crapita, users report

They paid for software.

They didn't pay for software that worked.

Re: Good grief!

>Let us know when you identity a workable alternative.

Employing people and paying them a wage to do it with printed forms, and answering the phones to help people. Like it used to be done, before every aspect of our existence became nothing more than a means for tech companies to bilk our money via their corrupt, incompetent mates in government.

China using AI as ‘precision instrument’ of censorship and repression, at home and abroad

Re: “AI can’t yet interpret satire“

Well, most of it is American.

'AI'. 'Precision instrument'. In the same sentence. LOL.

Western governments are adopting Chinese ways and Chinese-style software to enforce them. The difference is that the Chinese make no bones about their control and manipulation. The West pretend you have a real choice at elections, can say what you want without being prosecuted and that they will do what you want when in power. Hypocrites.

Here’s your worst nightmare: E-tailer can only resume partial sales 45 days after ransomware attack

Re: Whatever you think about old tech...

To rephrase, has there ever been a more important time to be utterly sure your fax works?

Glorious leaders in the UK gave the nod to BT to destroy the landline system to save a few quid, removing a communications network that worked when the power went off.

The move to digital is a move to an inherently less resilient infrastructure just as governments shift us to Cold War 2 and geopolitical mayhem. Genius.

UK sinks to fifth in ESA funding league behind Spain

Re: Ok

Government statements are irrelevant.

Sterling went down 25% at Brexit. That is an economic relegation. Hence the euphemistic 'cost of living crisis', inflation and enormous energy bills. Not down to Covid or Putin. Whatever it is, we cannot afford as much of it as we used to. They will only be upping military spending because Trump ordered them to, and because they can redesignate millions of on-going civil/admin spends as military - fixing the potholes in a road that goes past a military base, securing the power supply at airports, upgrading the PCs at the MoD - stuff like that. The UK will be running on empty for a generation. The politicians - all parties - are just too scared and too dishonest to admit why.

India demands smartphone makers install a government app on every handset

India is the next China.

And we'll be getting something similar soon.

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

Perhaps they could repurpose a key.

I've never found a use for Num Lock or Scroll Lock, and never used the Windows key.

Something that would kill all AI processes and endlessly send the lyrics from "Never Gonna Give You Up" back to LLM servers trying to scan your files and snaffle your stuff.

OBR drags in cyber bigwig after Budget leak blunder

You aren't a proper government....

...if you don't embrace every opportunity to stuff a large amount of taxpayers' money into the pockets of people who then owe you a favour.

Dorset Council ditching customized SAP for £14M Oracle overhaul

Just go back to paper.

They can use non-networked computers to print the forms, letters, envelopes and add up the numbers. Much, much cheaper.

They all used to do it like that and it worked OK.

These huge pieces of complex software cost a fortune and only last for a couple of years before they need to be updated/replaced.

Re: £14M Oracle overhaul

re: but they did vote for this council.

It doesn't really matter who you vote for in the UK. You just get a different flavour of failure, incompetence and corruption. That's why so many people don't even bother. Whoever gets in will be crap.

Re: What the fuck are UK local authorities doing

If you want to know what they are up to, read the 'Rotten Boroughs' section of 'Private Eye'. Eye-watering amounts of corruption, incompetence and failure.

Relax.

Quote: £417.2 million-budget unitary authority.

£417.2 million should just about cover it.

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

'we stopped trying to add value'

Don't worry. MS stopped adding value to Windows in 2010.

Speccy clone storms back for Christmas without a shred of Sinclair code

Re: 1986, not 96

If only the QL had had a proper drive. As for the C5 - crazy stuff. Nobody is ever going to invest in the manufacturing of electric vehicles. No, wait.

Re: squishy "dead flesh" type keyboard

As an original speccy owner, I would point out that the full-travel keyboards on other 8 bit micros were rarely that pleasant. Easier for word processing, but quite a bit worse than the modern keyboard you can buy for a tenner for your PC. Even the Beeb's keyboard was some way off modern ones. If the Speccy hadn't made compromises, many of us would never have been able to afford it and would not be on here now. Always amuses me when a high end laptop nowadays has less travel in its keyboards than the old rubber keys.

Asahi admits ransomware gang may have spilled almost 2M people's data

Data is a risk not an asset.

Your intranet, infrastructure and any data stash should never touch the public internet. Treat your internet-connected systems as inherently unsafe and disposable. Two networks, air-gapped with people. The best security is physical security, by design, not software or infosec staff.

Forget SaaS, the cloud and AI and concentrate on protecting your core systems by ensuring they never touch the public internet.

Canadian data order risks blowing a hole in EU sovereignty

This should be judicial overreach.

This judge is ordering a Canadian entity to break French law. Judicial systems generally don't do that.

Scottish council still rebuilding systems two years after ransomware attack

Two years is a joke.

It shouldn't take that long to set up an offline system, airgapped by staff from any systems they connect to the internet for interactivity.

Data security rule one. Your intranet/infrastructure should never connect to the public internet.

London councils probe cyber incident as shared IT systems knocked offline

Re: Avoid suspicious emails and links :o

Whilst it irks me to promote big tech, switching from [e-mail] to [e-mail] would add a rather more heavyweight malware filter to their set up. It's not a cut and dried solution, but it is better than the average UK local council options.

HSBC spies $207B crater in OpenAI's expansion goals

Re: This model of tech startup is broken!

They have convinced politicians that AI is the next moon landing/nuclear deterrent, so it is a national requirement to stay in the game. When the bubble bursts, their govt. chums will then bail them out with taxpayer's money. The AI stuff will then be reconfigured as a system of universal surveillance. You clicked the terms and conditions, so it can access everything on your system, it can be all be stored in those datacentres, and govt. spooks can access it.

Their user base may have maxed out.

Anyone daft enough to use this, or forced to, is already using it, mainly for free.

When they start charging, those numbers will drop like osmium.

Buy popcorn, sit back and wait for this to set a new world record for going TU.

Trump wants to turn it on again with 'Genesis Mission' for AI in science

Finally, lead into gold, courtesy of Grok.

Plus everlasting life for billionaires, an electronic Democrat detector and painless hand enlargement.

NATO taps Google for air-gapped sovereign cloud

With Trump being the relevant sovereign.

Any data held on a system run by an American company can be accessed by the US government.

70-hour work weeks no longer enough for Infosys founder, who praises China’s 996 culture

Re: Having Equity Makes a Big Difference!

I think he missed a trick by failing to point out that they can sleep all they want when they are dead.

The carrot of future bounty is so important when instructing one's slaves.

Self-destructing thumb drive can brick itself and wipe your secret files away

We need USB compatible biscuit storage devices.

A Nice biscuit for your cat pictures and a chocolate finger for your porn.

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

Re: 30 percent of Microsoft's code was now written by AI

The last act in this farce will be a switch to government money. Ultimately, AI software can access everything on your system and send it back to those datacentres to be searched through. That makes it worthwhile for governments to pay up and bail them out, as they can use it as a mechanism of universal surveillance.

Re: Reality is an illusion ...

The tech sector are so desperate for their latest scam to work. It has brought them to the point that they are functioning like politicians, forcing it on us, blaming us for not liking it and mystified as to why we hate them for it.

Big Red borrows a lot of green, hopes AI will put it in the black

AI is not magic.

You will not solve all the big problems in society just by having it.

And if you build a datacentre, you will have to upgrade the chips (and probably the boards they are on, power and the rest) in, what, 3 years. If you don't, your punters will shift to a shiny newer one. So all this kit you are 'investing' in, you are actually subscribing to. That's why that bloke from Nvidia keeps smiling. On what planet is a subscription an investment?

As mentioned above, AI has all the hallmarks of railway mania and all the other bubbles that we look back on with amusement and mild contempt.

If you repeat past financial idiocy, don't expect the outcome to be different this time round.

Google's AI is eating your email by default. Here's how to shut its mouth

Lightbulb above head moment.

This may be the easiest way to poison the well. Whenever you have a moment spare, e-mail disinformation to yourself using gmail.

The Eiffel Tower was modelled on the one at Blackpool.

The moon landings were filmed in a quarry just outside Dunstable.

There is no German word for 'bunion'.

'The Simpsons' was inspired by the discovery that there was a safety inspector called Homer Simpson asleep on the job when Three Mile Island went TU in 1979.

Donald Trump spends one day a year as Donna Trump.

New Zealand doesn't really exist.

'Metre' was originally the French word for a yard. The Académie Française ordered that it be made longer to promote national prestige.

Austria adopted 'Rock Me Amadeus' as its national anthem in 2018.

Google and Westinghouse lean on AI to speed US nuclear plant builds

Re: That's terrifying.

quote: I'd rather live near the nuke

You're in luck. There is loads of land to be purchased cheaply around Fukushima Daiichi.

Nuclear power, built cheaply and quickly, with AI.

I wonder what that will do to property values downwind.

UK minister ducks cost questions on nationwide digital ID scheme

Save money. Licence it from China.

The Chinese monitor all their citizens with this sort of tech. The UK could just licence the tech from China. Much cheaper than building it from scratch.

AI nudification site fined £55K for skipping age checks

Everyone clamouring for censorship in the UK.

But condemning China and Russia for censoring the internet.

Don't spill your guts to your chatbot friend - it'll hoover up that info for training

The only killer app for AI is not a commercial one.

AI has negligible inherent value as a commercial proposition. The costs are astronomical and users will never pay enough for it to ever be profitable.

The only realistic use is by governments as a system of universal surveillance. Access to everyone's data and enough server power to store it all and process it.

As the numbers get silly and governments become the primary investors, maybe that is what will happen. It will be the only way to avoid the bubble bursting.

AI may simply be the final piece of the Orwellian puzzle.

Trump, Republicans try again to stop states from regulating AI

State regulation of tech comes with serious baggage.

It means any tech entity has to treat every state as a nation state.

Laws relating to physical issues - taxes in shops - are easy to do on state lines, but not tech.

If you were a Texan, should your online service differ if you were at home in Texas or on holiday in New York?

It is easy enough to authenticate a user by their nationality, but by state?

It has already caused problems for online commerce with state taxes.

Can you imagine deploying tech in the UK and having different regulations for each county?

Tech rules should be national. Determine them by getting off your backsides and voting in national elections.

Devs gripe about having AI shoved down their throats

Re: It will go away eventually.

quote: Those of us with a conscience would like not to add to burning the planet if we can avoid it.

Appreciated, but if you are an employee, you are not in charge of your own destiny. Hence the line 'I was only obeying orders'.

I didn't say there were any good options, just options. It is tough for folk, but we are repeatedly told that we are short of tech skills across the board, hence the STEM push. Perhaps it is just hard to find a good/pleasant job in tech.

A good job is a rare luxury. So no matter how skilled you are, it is important to develop your own Plan B, side hustle, certification in plumbing or whatever. Something that gives you an option if your current job turns sour. Hopefully most folk may be able to ride out the AI bubble and things will get better. There is not enough inherent value in AI to generate a profit, so it will eventually go.

It will go away eventually.

You are being paid to be there and do what you are told. You are not being paid to give two shits about the company or its survival. So you can just do whatever they tell you to, however stupid, whilst looking for somewhere better.

If you are good at what you do and the AI stuff really pisses you off, just leave and find a better job without it. The quality will leave and the company will decline. Serve them right.

The AI bubble will burst or deflate eventually. At some point they will have to charge people stupid amounts of money to use AI to pay for the data centres. People will not pay. It will just not be worth the outlay.

Would you pay subs for anything currently free, just to have AI in it? Search? Social media? Course not. AI doesn't have enough inherent value to justify the levels of investment it needs to function.

I don't think the bubble bursting is going to be a particularly big deal, as, like Japan's debt, much of the expenditure has been internalised within GAFA. They are roping in a few external mugs who will get wiped out when it goes pop, but a lot of the stuff they have planned can just be shelved.

Manchester hits snooze again on joining Palantir-run NHS data platform

Re: Time, bribes & coercion

Manchester's mayor could replace Starmer, so the UK could be a bit more Mancunian in the future, rather than the other way around.

It's a good time to be the arms dealer for the AI boom

Well...

Sam Altman admitted we're in the midst of an AI bubble.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/15/boy_riding_bubble_realizes_what/

Bubbles are great ways to get rich...

...as long as you get out before they pop.

So if you believe Huang, stop worrying. If you do not, keep you eyes glued on those numbers and get ready to pull your cash out real quick. Let's hope it isn't during downtime - a Cloudflare issue or a Microsoft update that doesn't go well. Because that might be expensive.

In other words, do ya feel lucky, punk?

Cloudflare broke itself – and a big chunk of the Internet – with a bad database query

Er...

quote: You can bet they've tightened procedures, and are more careful with testing etc.

At Microsoft? You jest.

If software ever generates out of parameter data, a klaxon should sound, a detailed description should pop up on screen, and a prepared default workaround (zeroing a variable, clearing a field, whatever) should kick in whilst the staff look for the flaw. A DDoS attack, no matter how big, should produce known behaviours on such a system. So any unexpected behaviour shouldn't be considered to be a DDoS attack. Well written software should not go wrong, because there should be a reliable error detection response built in.

Researchers claim 'largest leak ever' after uncovering WhatsApp enumeration flaw

Re: University of Vain-a

Will we be getting university researchers going round estates trying 3D printed skeleton keys on peoples' doors at night next?

Every car that whizzes past outside is a 'potential harm', but I have not found myself under one yet.

We should be expecting more of uni researchers than this.

Networking startup Meter takes a page from the Steve Jobs playbook

Walk away...

when someone adds 'as a service' to something, mentions subscriptions or lauds AI.

Datacenter fossil fuel habit 'not sustainable' as AI workloads soar

Relax.

The bubble will burst. Shame on the BBC for giving some bloke from Google airtime today, pushing AI.

There is not enough cash in the system to make AI profitable, or energy/desire/utility to make it viable. If you don't get your 'investment' out in time, don't say you didn't have enough warnings.