Posts by Colin Bull 1

Rogue OpenAI agents used dead German web site to communicate in May, months before Hugging Face incident

It would seem that not much has really changed in the last half century

I have foolishly purchased car insurance from the RAC. This is 'online only' . When I got an email to confirm purchase it told me to check online and download the important documents. There was only ONE document. I downloaded it . It told me repeatedly to check this document with Certificate Of Insurance (COI). THIS WAS NOT INCLUDED. All emails received state you cannot not reply to these emails. There is only ONE method of contacting them - click the 'CHAT' button. I tried clicking it. NFU. I tried tabbing to the CHAT button. Hit, "ENTER" . NFU. Tried entering CTRL keys for Enter, New Line and FormFeed. NFU.

I have used Firefox for 22 years (and have got the T Shirt). How can a website NOT work when clicking a button to go to another window?

In desperation I used my mobile phone, this DID work for the CHAT button. The following is paraphased.

Typed my problem in to the chat prompt . The response was "do want help. Type in your question". I repeated my question for second time. The response from the chatbot "Ask me what you ever want. I repeated my request for the third time.This is on a mobile phone with out a mouse. I could only select one word or the complete chat so far to try and copy and paste. Getting frustrated and stressed out.

Not only has the technology NOT progressed on 54 years even with 3 trilliion dollars spaffed on LLMs this year, it has regressed so much that simple click on a button does NOT WORK on a web site.

I know that MS does not test anything, but I thought an insurance company would do a little of testing before they market themselves "as an online' solution.

Microsoft faces competition probe over Copilot subscription price hike

The CMA said it is "strongly supportive of AI adoption

I think is doomed from the start. The CMA is already biased.

What could go wrong

AI-driven datacenter builds drive Microsoft's emissions up a quarter in one year

Re: What happened to Nut Zero?

We have just replaced our gas boiler. And the new one HAS to be SMART.

To that end the gas boilers are adding 'SMART' features that would have cost pennies to use and analog systems.

We HAVE to have a smart hub, and smart thermostat. The hub HAS to have a wired ethernet and is always powered on.

It is a completely bonkers gesture politics with assholes having a clue.

Cyber offenses now account for around a third of all crime across Asia and South Pacific

Not only Asia ..

We have got a situation in the UK that the government is funding the scammers by their stupid energy regulations.

The energy providers HAVE to spend a proportion of their income into insulation schemes. The energy companies take the easy route and subcontract the system to other companies that have to get results by any means possible. They do not worry about GDPR on TPS rules and Ofcom and ICO are clueless and are effectively turning a blind eye.

Brit regulator finds mobile network service on trains is far from first class

You could not make it up

Who would thought an internet connection on a train passing through cell sites every few minutes would not be problematical.

Ofcom would be better off DOING something about millions of people that have these problems 24 hours every day

Oftom would be better off DOING something about the SPOOF calls I have every day that contravene TPS, GDPR and ICO regulations.

I suppose they have a few extra minutes a day to dish out this crap because they offload their hard decisions to AI

Northern Ireland cops issue PSA after official phone number spoofed by scammers

Having a larf

Spoofing the switchboard’s phone number marked “a very concerning situation,”

This would be very funny if was not so serious.

NONE of the authorities including Ofcom, ICO, Police Report Fraud and TPS give a toss about spoofing numbers.

If I manage to get a verified email address from the callers no one wants to do anything about it.

There is NO WAY to report an attempted fraud. You can report one when it happens and you get the option of 'counselling'.

Pity they are not proactive before the event.

Just getting a new Chair for Ofcom. Another oppointment whio will not have a clue apart from rubbing shoulders with poliiticians

Indra rides off with £1.96B Transport for London ticketing deal as Oyster heads for back-office overhaul

Re: Railcard discounts on Contactless??

And not only missed a trick - the billions spent on the Elizabeth Lijne did not include the common sense option to make the turnstiles compatibile with Nation Rail digital tickets. Surely it is not defensible for me to have to have to visit a main rail station to pick up paper tickets for a journey from Cornwall to Essex when it is possible to travel with digital tickets from Lands End to John O'Groats.

Meta fights Ofcom over how many billions count as billions

Ofcom is useless

We are daily subjected to fraudsters, spammers and transgessors of GDPR rules.

Ofcom could do something about them but they would sabre rattle to make the public think they are doing something.

Their friends in the UK telephony industry get a get of jail free card continously

Trump to UK: Stop taxing our big beautiful tech corps or face tariff tsunami

Re: Honestly, fuckit

I have have though the digital tax was stupid. It is only there because most goverments are 30 years behind the times. All foreign companies should be taxed as highly as UK companies and using fake expenses to reduce profits should be taxed double. ( I wonder what Starbucks is paying in corporation tax nowadays?)

The big benefit of Brexit could (should) have been the reduction of issues by corrupt EU commisioners that allowed Apple and Amazon to ride roughshod on UK taxes. We have got enough corruption of our own without another complete layer. Why did Mandelson get a job at the EU when he was too bent for the UK?

World's blandest man steps down from CEO job to spend more time in tastefully appointed home

Netflix !!

I must imagined that I worked for VideoNetworks 27 years ago who did MORE than Netflix does but was screwed by BT and their cohorts at Ofcom.

Nanny state discovers Linux, demands it check kids' IDs before booting

Re: on-device age verification in that there was in the 2000s on computers

You missed one of the classic games of the era - Leisure Suit Larry. The age verification was a hoot.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/917513-leisure-suit-larry-1-in-the-land-of-the-lounge-lizards/faqs/36594/age-questions

Oracle vows 'new era' for MySQL as users sharpen their forks

LAMP / WAMP

In my second brief life after Informix, the go to get solution was LAMP / WAMP. They had a fantastic install of all you needed for a complete system.

What is the current best option? Asking for a PVR/Media server.

Price of popularity: Linux Mint's success also means maintainer stress

"fashion-victim" softwarenevitable?

I have always been a fan of Mint. But time and time again I have tried to install programs and start them on boot up but have NEVER been able to understand systemd. In a previous life I would install fault tolerant systems with failover and would not been possible with systemd obsfucation. Using MX Linux now but that is riddled with systemd commands.

Wish there was a easy Rpi OS without sytemd.

Apple, Google agree to loosen grip on UK app stores

the most useless non-ministerial public body.

It might be ONE of the most useless, but it is in crowed race. Ofcom, Report Fraud, ICO, but the most completely useless is the Telephone Preference Service.

Akamai CEO wants help to defeat piracy, reckons he can handle edge AI alone

Ad free content

Is this an article on removal on pirated content OR is a advertisment for the AI that Cloudfare sell ?

Britain goes shopping for a rapid-fire missile to help Ukraine hit back

Re: The Cynic's View

What will GD's role be in this scenerio?

CES 2026 worst in show: AI girlfriends, a fridge that won't open unless you talk to it, and more

Enshitification continues..

When I first bought my ebike with bosch system the app was pretty good. Every 3 months or so it has an upgrade.

Every time it upgrades it reduces the benefit of the app. UNLESS you upgrade to a subscription.

I user it to monitor heart rate and physical effort.

It had an upgrade available during a ride 2 days ago. That ride and the subsequent one did not register the details. Will find out tomorrow if it works after the upgrade.

Cornish recycling drive sows confusion among Reg Standards Bureau

Also the birth place of the Big Job. Very worthwhile if you can find any.

UK.gov doubles hardware spending framework to £24B in 6 months

Re: How much of that £24 billion ...

Why not name names?

India demands smartphone makers install a government app on every handset

Worst of 2 evils

In the UK there is a complete lack of controls or enforcement of communications.

The supine telecomms regulatoriis in thrall to the telecomms industry. VOIP has been coming for over 20 years and have just tested fall back for disadvaged groups, a year after BT was supposed to phase out all landlines.

The no way of reporting attempted frauds, only actual frauds after the horse has bolted. Action fraud is only interested in gathering staticists NOT reduceing the scams and frauds.

Oftcom will wait until hundreds of thousands or millions of offences have happened before getting off the fat arses to prosecute perpetrators.

If there was a iota of interest the authorities COULD enagage and stop and discourage the bad guys but they have not got any clue about the miserly these calls are making.

Tiny tweak for Pi OS, big makeover for the Imager

Re: Imager - try this

I have spent a few hours with old and new versions of imager. The old one has a VERY ANNOYING nag screen multiple times to the new version. I used the old one a lot, mainly to the ease of setting up headless systems.

The new version seemed to change things for the sake of change. But ..

I came across this, that seems to answer all my prayers. https://github.com/gitbls/sdm/tree/master

Sadly I find it hard to find my way round new features

UK government's £45B AI savings pitch built on broad-brush guesswork, MPs told

Unbelievable

What caught my EYE, is the mouth watering almost 30% employer's pension contribution. THIS ABSURD

Renewables blow past nuclear when it comes to cheap datacenter juice

Define efficient

Reading the report on Vertical Bifacial panels, it is light on cost and blinds everybody on the extra efficienciest. But my O level maths work it out that the 11% to 15% extra gain is at the cost of an extra 30% in purchase price.

I could not see other extra gains but the option of sheep grazing under them that were not quantified. But I could have been bored of the graphs that could have been better summarised in a few sentences. Sometimes a picture(s) is NOT worth a thousand words.

India’s IT minister moves to Zoho’s spreadsheet and word processor, urges 1.4 billion people to do likewise

Linux does what you want it too

I have been using DOS, Windows Unix and Linux for 40 years. The last 20 years my own OS have Mint, Ubuntu and MXLinux. Windows system of the 15 years have all been a pile of crap. I have had no significant problems with Linux.

Jaguar Land Rover supply chain workers must get Covid-style support, says union

Re: Insurance

JLR are victims of a crime? They have NO disaster backup options. Why should a manufacturing system be down for a moth or more? Replace images on a couple of hundred PCS -surely a couple of days.

No plans - no hopers.

The local Coops had empty shelves for a month. Why could they not have their suppliers repeat orders for previous months and catch up with paperwork later. The cows could not postpone their milk for a few weeks. So what happened there.

Re: Layoffs have begun

Upvote by 10

Google unmasks itself as mystery hyperscaler behind yet another UK datacenter

Re: Potters Bar or not

There is some confusion of this location.

If it is next to the A1 road it could be near Potters Bar. BUT if Broxbourne Council are involved it must be very close to Waltham Cross and the road adjacent is the A10 ( London to Cambridge ) not A1 (London to t'North). Only a factor of 10 out.

If only the article writer could have used Google Maps - POWERED BY AI or the better A10 RAID version.

Matrix.org homeserver grinds to a halt after RAID meltdown

What RAID

Is it RAID 10 or 5 or an even crappier version. WE SHOULD BE TOLD.

The UK’s cartographer maps mission to help people and business

Optional AI

I cannot see why it needs AI to create a query for anything in a range of 100 metres when all data is available in the GIS database.

But I am biased because I subscribe to the OS mobile app, and every time it is updated the user interface gets worse. With a 100MB connection the very small maps take an eternity to come up. Even when there is a downloaded area. When downloaded maps overlap the area is greyed out so it is almost impossible to read. Organic maps based on OSM is free is far less frustrating.

This reads like a mash up of bullshit bingo to lure the naive investors in.

Windows 11 migration heats up... on desktops

fingerprinting OS

Why do they need to do this?

I have a problem at the moment with multiple logins with Kobo/Rackuten where I cannot login. "A technical error". Almost a week, JUST got a support ticket number.

Cannot buy books, cannot download books. I can get in with a new login and they will transfer my 500 approx books to new login. BUT, that probably needs Adobe Digition Editions programme. I am on Linux. The programme is not available on Linux or Chromebooks. I think a few million people will get a surprise if the move over to Linux/Chromebooks.

Why is it not available for Linux when it is on MacOS? Why cannot be a browser version be available?

Doubly frustrating when all the E-readers are based ln Linux.

Their support tell me -

"But don't worry, you can still access all your purchased books on any Kobo platform without using ADE, as long as you don't need to transfer any DRM protected books". As far as I am aware ALL their purchased books are DRMed."

"We sincerely appreciate your graciousness, exceptional patience, and profound understanding."

What patience and understanding. The only understanding I have is that they have trouble with a simple login. Looks at the logs for fsake. My only saving grace is that most of my books have been Calibrated. :-)

Specsavers takes off the Oracle glasses, sees better ERP options

Not fit for purpose..

I purchased hearing aids from Specsavers just over 4 years ago. Their franchise / parnership model is for their benefit. It hinders customer service. You cannot order consummables - if if you want pay with out a new hearing test . NO ONLINE ORDERING. Even in the pandemic. Got to go a branch. 6 weeks to get an appointment.

Their hearing aids or locked in to them. No one else can adjust them.

This one weird trick can make online publishing faster, safer, more attractive, and richer

RMWeb

I have ended my subscription because of the poor editorial input. I model N gauge and do not have the time or patience to peruse links that are not of interest.

Eutelsat in talks with Euro leaders as they mull Starlink replacement in Ukraine

Sanctions

You are right. But in a new world where sanctions are a reaity the Europeans can squeeze the russian economy by imposing tariffs on the BRICS. It would hurt, but only for 18 months. But doing this would be have be done properly not the half arsed sanctions that have had little effect so far.

Copilot invades Microsoft 365 Personal and Family for an extra three bucks a month

MS users are doing it to themselvest

Not true.

I am fairly tech savvy. I needed to get a new laptop because the old one has a screen faulty about 3 years.

I wanted to get a fairly recent AMD processor to stop by balls burning. I hunted high and low for a laptop WITHOUT Windows. I could not get one. Dell was supposed to sell non windows machine for I spend hours on their web site and could not find one.

There IS NO way the general public can get anything BUT WINDOWS. I got a Lenovo that has soldered RAM and soldered SSD even though I did want them AND windows.

Infoseccer: Private security biz let guard down, exposed 120K+ files

Not completly stupid ...

They could have told the ethical hacker to print out the data then shred it.

Debian 12.9 arrives, quickly followed by MX Linux 23.5

Did no know MX was available on Pi

Moved to MX linux to avoid systemd crap about a year ago. Not disappointed. Was disappointed that Raspberry Pi still uses systemd. That MX Linux is on raspberry has make my day. I hope I can use the RPi imager prog to allow easy setup for headless Pis .

Christmas 1984: The last hurrah for 8-bit home computers

Money speaks ....

I am pretty sure you cannot subscribe to Sky except in UK apart from shenigans with VPNs because they greased enough palms of eurocrats.

SvarDOS: DR-DOS is reborn as an open source operating system

Re: Can I put in a good word for 4DOS?

I had similar experiences - but the main difference was installing a Quadram Apple II emulator card so the Apple II games could be played in (4) colour on an IBM portable. Apple colour I seem to remember was vastly more expensive.

Former NSA cyberspy's not-so-secret hobby: Hacking Christmas lights

Re: I have this mental image

I was involved in customer support for a UK LED "manufacturer" that had problems with their off the shelf stock control system that no one foresaw because of 4 byte integers. I was once taken to task for complaining that a customer only had 12 invoices on their system for the whole year. I soon learned that they made assembly lines for car manufacturers and each invoice was for multi millions.

Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

It looked really good - until the last bit -Tap to PAY !!

Coder wrote a bug so bad security guards wanted a word when he arrived at work

Changing supplier ...

in my experience when changing suppliers is it useful to use one that it in the same jurisdiction. I trouble with a supplier that was headquartered in Scotland and could not use the English small claims court.

Contrary to some, traceroute is very real – I should know, I helped make it work

Re: Traceroute for voice telecoms ?

I understand VERY WELL the problems of CLID, that was why I was suggesting traceroute could be used instead as a definitive list of hops a call has gone through and the ability for the authorities to see where a call has be originated from. If a switchboard is originating a spoofed CLID ( that they were not untitled to) they could be taken to task and dealt with.

The present system where anyone can make voice calls with impunity has gone on too long. In my naivete I think it should be possible to chain together the hops and have some verification of the links in the chain of a VOIP call.

Traceroute for voice telecoms ?

I also am "even though it is way WAY over my head" reader.

But i fantalise that traceroute be mandated for VOIP calls to allow a network of trusted sites ( similar to SPK DKIM for email ) to allow authorities to seek and destroy the spammers out of existence.

Please tell me it is possible.

I know the things can be fudged but that is the point of TRUSTED network nodes.

QNAP NAS users locked out after firmware update snafu

Should I ..

Should I be thinking of replacing the OS for my Synology NAS by something else ? Can I ?

FTC urges smart device makers to disclose software update lifecycles

Re: Knobbled, smartly.

Upvoted a thousand times.

Ten years under Dr Su: How AMD went from budget Intel alternative to x86 contender

Still not competing in mobile markets

It 2020 I needed to replace the Intel lap warmer / jet engine with an AMD and non Windows laptop.

I best I could do was a Lenovo with Windows and a soldered SSD. None of the niche suppliers could get the latest AMD chips.

Still running cool, but I am worried if the SSD gives up the ghost.

Microsoft flashes Win10 users with more full-screen ads for Windows 11

Re: Linux in the new year

Mint Cinammon or Mate is first

Ubuntu is my next choice

I have now moved to MX Linux to escape systemd - but growing up on Unix 35 years ago I feel it should be easy to add a start script but systemd is beyond me.

I have rarely to use the command line mainly to use awk.

I find a web search is easiest for most things - you get to know best sites after a while.

Microsoft Exchange update fixes security flaws, breaks other stuff

Duh

Trying to report a phisting scam to [e-mail] today. Immediately get a error back saying the email could be a spam.

WHAT FUCKWIT DECIDED TO PUT THAT TRANSPORT RULE IN PLACE.

So I decide to try point their errors of the ways, after a dozen a so links to FAQ that are not a relevant, I get to a web page to voice my concerns that is a Microshit Report form what ever that is its. Type in my concerns, then I THAT I HAVE TO LOGIN TO A MICROSHIT account.

Is the total UK security services managed my Microshit?

Three weeks ago I attended a talk to 100 old age pensioners from the U3A from the local plod that that stated that reporting phishing scam to [e-mail] wiull help stop them. If I have trouble reporting them what chance have these people got.

If there are any ACs out there that can enlighten me please do so.

Apologies for disjointed grammar after 8 weeks from a stroke, hopefully will get better after therapy next week :-)

Please, are there any ACs out there that enlighten me on what I missing.

Duh

Trying to report a phisting scam to [e-mail] today. Immediately get a error back saying the email could be a spam.

WHAT FUCKWIT DECIDED TO PUT THAT TRANSPORT RULE IN PLACE.

So I decide to try point their errors of the ways, after a dozen a so links to FAQ that are not a relevant, I get to a web page to voice my concerns that is a Microshit Report form what ever that is its. Type in my concerns, then I THAT I HAVE TO LOGIN TO A MICROSHIT account.

Is the total UK security services managed my Microshit?

Three weeks ago I attended a talk to 100 old age pensioners from the U3A from the local plod that that stated that reporting phishing scam to [e-mail] wiull help stop them. If I have trouble reporting them what chance have these people got.

If there are any ACs out there that can enlighten me please do so.

Apologies for disjointed grammar after 8 weeks from a stroke, hopefully will get better after therapy next week :-)

Please, are there any ACs out there that enlighten me on what I missing.

UK energy watchdog slaps down Capita's £130M smart meter splurge

OUT From the frying pan to the fire ..

I have be trying to reduced my monthly directly debits to Octopus for about a year. They keep raising them every 6 months or so even where I have a credit about 2 months average of bill. You can change your monthly amount, but only by an amount. I have to monitor every 2 months to change amount to keep to stupid a credit limit.