Posts by Guido Esperanto

Web dev's crawler took down major online bookstore by buying too many books

Haha one of the finest trolling urls to have graced the internet

Windows keeps obsolete strings forever to avoid breaking translations

Re: Ah yes, unnecessary strings

Couple hundred KB's are now accounted for.

Several gigs to go

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

As OpenAi are widely speculating a market share of 3 billion - and a quick population by continent puts only 2.5 billion OUTSIDE Asia.

That's assuming Russia and Europe at large don't eschew them.

China certainly won't let them get a market drop.

India - I'm on the fence about.

Point being their figure of 3 billion people is not aggressive, it's a moonshot figure.

Why not simply put 30 Billion as we're making up potential, I mean sounds better right?

NATO taps Google for air-gapped sovereign cloud

Re: With Trump being the relevant sovereign.

The exact same thought I had.

Given the recent fun and games with AWS and MS, the idea of another US dependance doesn't invoke much confidence.

Also what if Trump exits Nato?

Vibe coding: What is it good for? Absolutely nothing (Sorry, Linus)

I've got a early invest opportunity.

I'm vibing the creation of a new AI powered by an AI generated LLM, which in turn will be responsible for producing code on the fly.

You say to the AI "produce me some code" and using its intelligence it will produce a prompt to an AI to produce you a full working system.

I just need 1 trillion in alpha investors....send money to [e-mail] (there's a joke somewhere about the tld being KY)

Joking aside, I "play" learning Python...and the thought of using AI to produce something which I

a) dont understand or

b) may understand but dont have the affordable time to review substantially

Scares the bejesus out of me.

Cryptology boffins’ association to re-run election after losing encryption key needed to count votes

It's certainly egg on their face,

The upshot is the voting record is completely secured....

Useless to anybody...but secured.

It's about striking that balance between security and useability - clearly the lever was tipped too far one way.

Bossware booms as bots determine whether you're doing a good job

Let me translate..

I popped this little manglement speech in AI system called "Common sense" and here is the translation.

"...It even flags when employees appear to be burned out or, on the flip side, are working more than the required hours."

[Translation]

We're not gonna put your value maximising employees under the kosh to stop them maximising their value.

"...For example, he said, one client recently saved $2 million by detecting that no one was using an expensive piece of software their company was paying for...."

[Translation]

This didnt happen and it was employees who were cut

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

Re: Micro- and Soft- Brain ?

This has echoes of Steve Jobs

"You're holding it wrong"

The dissonance is palpable

Linux admin hated downtime so much he schlepped a live UPS during office move

Re: Smart, But Also Bloody Stupid

I had some IIYAMA behemoth that was about 21"..

I'm glad some clever sparks invented lcd screens

Re: Smart, But Also Bloody Stupid

And had edges like a Gilette razor blade.

In the circles of pc enthusiasts I was in, it became known colloquially as the "blood sacrifice"

AI slop hits new high as fake country artist goes to #1 on Billboard digital songs chart

More to come

AI bands, managed by an AI manager, with all profits going to a venture capitalist holding the power on the LLM's

Agents of misfortune: The world isn't ready for autonomous software

The spat isn't about autonomous software..

The spat is about who owns/controls the autonomous software and how much money it stops us making /or makes us

'Vibe coding' named Word of the Year. Developers everywhere faceplant

Re: Having tried vibe coding

^this is how I would have expected it to be used.

Knowledge about subject already cemented, giving you the ability you evaluate the code for refinements and suitability.

Lacking any of that knowledge, you're simply taking educated guesses at what an AI guess has put out, creating some horrible Eschers-esque perpetual cycle of don't know through to may work but still dont know.

I'm learning a language and I can see how quickly a "simple' requirement from me, could spin into some monster code output that I would be way out of my depths understanding.

Trump turnabout sees him re-nominate amateur astronaut Jared Isaacman to run NASA

Or depending on whats occuring

Human Bus Brakes

Debian demands Rust or rust in peace for legacy ports

One thing is clear

Reviewing the comments here,the new requirements are as clear as rust sullied water.

Network operator ponders building a new submarine cable – on land

It reminds me how effective those "no tools left in this van overnight" stickers are in reducing van break ins.

Apple faces £1.5B payout after losing UK App Store case

Re: Waste of time appealing

These headline grabbing fines are not worth the paper they are written on.

Like the GDPR fines you see

The operating model for all big players in industries is to

Appeal,legally delay, legally delay, legally delay

Mediate, agree reduced settlement.

In some cases cutting values in half or more.

Sure still a loss to firm, but nowhere near as punitive as they ought to be.

Lloyds Banking Group claims Microsoft Copilot saves staff 46 minutes a day

I dipped a toe today

I had a bit of a crappy comparison task to do, with two columns of peoples names, whereby your checking for name variants to catch a match Liz instead of Elizabeth. Not very pleasant but I have tried and tested methods with excel to perform this.

Instead I opted to test copilot.

Compare column A with B and put into C all names which have a >51% match.

"Copilot was unable to help because of some xml formatting issue, I can help with

1) helping you copy and paste the data into a new sheet to try again (it was already a new sheet)

2)create a python script for you

3) help you with the manual sort.

So to humour it I opted for 3

It produced a sample of matches. Showing what in column a matched column b

The problem was the data it said was in column a...wasn't there.

It made the whole thing up.

Copilot, tell me which cell this source data exists

"A3"

Definitely wasnt

Absolute horseshit.

Lost 15minutes to that crap

SpaceX's Starship: Two down, Mons Huygens to climb

Because the lunar surface has grabby arms and/or barge right?

OpenAI's ChatGPT is so popular that almost no one will pay for it

Re: One day...

It's hard enough extracting requirements from people in face to face conversation(s).

You get those same "i know what i want but no clue how to get it" people putting any waffle into AI being happy with the first few lines then hit go on expected panacea.

Samsung admits Galaxy devices can leak passwords through clipboard wormhole

Re: Default in Keepass

Whilst the setting exists in keepass...it doesnt actually clear the clipboard.

I just tested by logging into el reg

I have mine set to 1m timeout.....and several mins later...still in the clipboard

Snowflake denies miscreants melted its security to steal data from top customers

Re: Any chance

...and if there issuing org has many fines to issue, it should increase the fines to reflect the demand

Twitter name and blue bird logo to be 'blowtorched' off company branding

Re: Not what I was expecting

Golden parachute or not, MusXrat doesn't pay for those that desert his "aura of awesomeness", just aX the thousands of employees and suppliers..

Press

X for doubt

Elon Musk launches his own xAI biz 'to understand reality'

Well at least now we know why

He limited the twitter api behind a paywall..

He didnt want ai training its LLM off twitter.

.

.

.

Because he wanted to train HIS LLM off twitter.

With dead-time dump, Microsoft revealed DDoS as cause of recent cloud outages

Not exacrly junping to a defence, but isn't ddos not defined by what caused it, more by what it actually caused.

Meaning while traditionally its flooding gateways et al with lots of guff, the specific target and source of guff may have evolved since the old Loic attacks, and may continue evolving.

Florida man insists he didn't violate the law by keeping Top Secret docs

Re: What About The Current Resident?

Bet his kids love it when he says "I love you"

Except Ivanka

Amazon finds something else AI can supposedly do well: Spotting damaged goods

Amazon will soon

launch its own variant of AI: BezOS.

No amount of Maraca shaking will stop the onward forging of BezOS and world domination.

China has 50 hackers for every FBI cyber agent, says Bureau boss

Re: Wow, they are really losing their mind

Its recognised because of it's cost to the Germans (and others)..

The US don't seem to have that history...yet..

I mean wasn't too long ago, they were (and still are) trying to put a meglomaniac back in charge and his idolators blindly gobble up the propaganda...

With a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm, Musk scraps Pope's blue tick

Seems to me

That the chaos is a subvertive attempt by musk to earn money.

Step 1: Reduce content monitoring and account checking

Step 2: remove free entitlement and start charging

Step 3: watch as the trolls cause chaos by either a) mimicing accounts or b) (ideal) starting paying for blue tick for a mimic account

Step 4: official people will be sick of misinformation and pay for ticks or trolls will continue to pay for ticks...

Step 5: bask in glorious profits

FCC calls for mega $300 million fine for massive US robocall campaign

Sentence should be in calls answered.

5 billion should do

OK, we know iPhones are expensive but... $11 a month for Twitter Blue on iOS?

Tim probably told Elon, that apple users are used to...nay happy to pay more..so...win/win

Former Microsoft UX boss doesn't like the Windows 11 Start menu either

The centre piece seemed to want to emulate the Mac ui.

I mean while im not a fan of the default options its not too hard to make it similar to win10

Wi-Fi slinger Ubiquiti hints at source code leak after claim of ‘catastrophic’ cloud intrusion emerges

Re: Just, why!?

It's not like the kids needs the mothership, but it doesn't make it easy to avoid the mothership.

I upgraded my home with a gateway, wifi and switch - and it threw me as I was used to configuring devices separately - Ubiquiti kit was the first that 'preferred' to be configured as a collective.

From a management pov , it makes it simple and actually v.good.

They do have a cloud key service, but personally thought it was a joke to pay £80+ for a simple bit of software...so I put it on my raspberry pi and runs quite happily.

Smart doorbells on business premises make your property more attractive to burglars, warns researcher

Re: It's not cool or trendy, but it'll make a real difference

Pass them a friend 'Ook' from me

Would you let users vouch for unknown software's safety with an upvote? Google does

hmmm

Send an email purporting to be from a person tech dept, asking for their password to somerhing.

That'll give you all the insight you need about users view on security.

Tablets and Chromebooks are hot, towers and desktops are not: El Reg combs through Q3 PC numbers

@Dell

Well I'm not surprised Dell have suffered.

I ordered 2 laptops from them a few weeks back to recieve a note that my order had been cancelled.

Then a further note advising it was down to system error and here's a conditional spend voucher.

My money went elsewhere.

Brit telcos deliberately killed Phones 4u, claim admins in £1bn UK High Court sueball

Re: Eye-opening claim

We laugh anecdotally about google and professionally would never advise people back their stuff up to their cloud.

That said a backup is a backup. It's simply a case of how available to you (and to others) and item is.

'Transformation' at Capita: Profits? Down. Revenue? Down. Order book? You guessed it

1.85Bn revenue to return 31.2m

So 1% gross proft margin?

That 1.85Bn figure will be some creative accounting as Capita persistently recharges itself for services.

When I had the misfortune to work for them, we had to use one of Capitas arms to provide a 'substandard service' instead of an existing supplier who couldve been upto 50% cheaper (and actually good!)

It's the Mr Creosote of the business world

Backdoors won't weaken your encryption, wails FBI boss. And he's right. They won't – they'll fscking torpedo it

Rather than argue

the toss with the likes of inept politicians who clearly don't see the flaw in their logic, why doesn't someone create a suitable example of encrypted software with a carefully crafted backdoor - the sort law enforcement are after and put it out there.

Clearly label is as such and challenge the world to work it out.

some may crack it and stay quiet in the hopes their silence buys acknowledgment that there is no risk, but I believe there are enough people who just for kudos will work the system to failure.

Then you have a certified example of proof.

UK's Openreach admits 50k premises on 'gigabit-capable' FTTP network can't get gigabit speeds

Re: 330mbits??

aye, 40 mins from Knowlsey here and only viable company for me to get decent bb with.

The seven deadly sins of the 2010s: No, not pride, sloth, etc. The seven UI 'dark patterns' that trick you into buying stuff

5 people are viewing this article since you started looking, click 《Buy Now》 to avoid disappointment.

College student with 'visions of writing super-cool scripts' almost wipes out faculty's entire system

Re: I too have had that

you need a stark *"oh sh**t" moment at some point in your life to make you realise you are not invincible, god of the opposite sex or god of computers..or perhaps all 3 at the same time.

It adds a dose of realism and consequence to your lack of attention.

Like upgrading an ms exchange environment using the disc at hand and only realising at the point the mailboxes don't all convert that somehow you have a standard version rather than enterprise.

oops

then there are..

those teflon coated mofucks, who seem to manage to screw up the simplest of tasks and then expect you to clean it up...

often your boss....

still revenge was a choice internet history served cold...

On the seventh anniversary of Steve Jobs' death, we give you 7 times he served humanity and acted as an example to others

Great satire.

He definitely wasn't an asshole.

He most definitely wasnt a c**t of the highest order.

Yes I said c**t. Few people deserve the honour. Jobs was honoured

A boss pinching pennies may have cost his firm many, many pounds

Re: Imagine...

ooh....10 Base T, what I wouldn't have given for 10 base T when I were a lad.

We had to network computers with a pen n pencil...

writing the instructions from one computer over to the other....10 Base T, ppfft.

Home Office seeks Brexit tech boss – but doesn't splash the cash

what the job ad doesn't state is 3000 of those people you'll be responsible for will also need to be outsourced to Crapita.

You'll be a 100k middleman

Scrap London cops' 'racially biased' gang database – campaigners

its a tough one.

Amnesty would expect the dbase to roughly reflect the % of people involved in crime. By the stated statistics 27%.

Or reflective of the society level.

But reality doesnt always mirror statistics.

statistics puts male/female ratios at about 50/50.

so if I was to walk down a high street, or an airport or a school canteen and query 100 people on their sex, I wouldn't necessarily get 50/50..I might get 75/25.

But is my dbase sexist? because it has more of one gender than another? Well no...because its based on actuals not statistics.

If a large proportion of people linked to gangs are green - then it cant be racist if its fact.

However, it becomes racist if police only stop and check people who are green.

that should be the focus of investigation NOT the contents of a dbase in vs population stats.

The Register Guide on how to stay anonymous (part 1)

hmmm

"blocking advertisements altogether deprives the websites you love of the revenue they need to survive."

I see what you did there.

However I take the typical "If a tree falls and no one is around, does it make a sound?"

In translation. "If I'm not swayed by adverts at all, so will never click on them, whose harmed if I block the ads?"

I'm sure there are many sites that supplement or generate total income through PPC ad revenue. But they make nothing from me directly. Never have, never will.

And while it would pain me to lose a site to a financial defecit, I've got to be honest, I'm quite fickle and just google the subject matter until I find another suitable site.

Additionally, I have to second Big Yins comment about advertisers using underhand tactics to have their ads displayed, only makes me more determined to block them.

With that in mind ,I've found I only ever need to use noscript for all my blocking needs.

Man builds smartphone dock into arm

incorrect apple response.

Apple did actually offer to help, but advised they only provided an all-in-one prothesis which cost 50% more than comparable types but the phone and dock were non-replaceable parts.

All Apple required was a fingerprint from each han....err.....

"We are unable to help"