Posts by Pen-y-gors

Bitcoin bandit's £5B bubble bursts as cops wrap seven-year chase

Criminal Assets?

So what happens to the £4.8 billion? Does the UK government keep it? Cash it in and give it to Water Company shareholders?

UK's Ajax fighting vehicle arrives – years late and still sending crew to hospital

Questions?

"There are also questions about whether vehicles such as Ajax are vulnerable to drone attacks, of the kind seen against tanks in Ukraine's battles against Russia's invasion. "

Nah, I don't think there are any questions. We know.that drones can destroy T-90M Russian tanks. An AFV will be a doddle. They could glue some metal spikes on it?

OpenAI API moonlights as malware HQ in Microsoft’s latest discovery

Oh yeah?

Seeing a connection to OpenAI's API on your network doesn't exactly scream "compromise."

It would on my network!

UK charity bank CAF branded a 'disaster' after platform migration goes wrong

Test, test and test again

Is this another 'skimped on testing' problem?

Frozen foods supermarket chain deploys facial recognition tech

Insufficient data...

Before I get worked up about this and boycott Iceland (again - the owner was a prominent Tory donor, also very anti-Welsh, despite being based in Cymru) could we please have some numbers?

How many violent assaults against staff happen in Iceland stores every week? What is this as a percentage of customer visits? How does it compare to e.g. assaults on staff in Lidl or W H Smiths (R.I.P)

Yes, even one violent assault is too many, but could the money for this system be better spent in other ways? Is it just an excuse to reduce the number of actual human security staff, i.e. a cost-cutting measure.

We need to know.

UK to buy nuclear-capable F-35As that can't be refueled from RAF tankers

Re-fighting WW2

As always the US military and government are re-fighting the last war-but-one.

You want to drop a big bomb somewhere in the vague area of 1100 miles from your airfield? Buy a dozen F35A for $100 million each

Option B - design and build precision long-distance drones that drop 500kg of explosive 1m from your target. Or better, buy Ukrainian ones which have been tested in combat conditions. Cost? Much less than $100 million.

Re: "In an era of radical uncertainty"

Yes, but... I'm sure making the probe retractable would count as an out of specification modification and add $100 million to the price.

Re: "In an era of radical uncertainty"

"Well, unless you cancel your licence and give up watching live TV" (NB also iPlayer)

Did that several years ago. Return the threats addressed to "the Legal Occupier" as "Not known at this address". At the rate they're going the postage costs will bankrupt the Licence people.

Do you trust Xi with your 'private' browsing data? Apple, Google stores still offer China-based VPNs, report says

Not a problem

The only websites I look at over my Chinese VPN are the one with AI-generated pics of Xi pleasuring himself with under-age donkeys.

Meta offered one AI researcher at least $10,000,000 to join up

No! Pay me!

I have a radical idea that will massively improve all LLM machine extrapolation tools:

Label their training data as factual, opinion, fiction or fantasy

Idea copyright (c) me 2025

Please send licensing cheques (minimum €5 billion each) to the usual address

Take the job. Demand to WFH. Bullshit as long as possible. Eventually get sacked. Result.

Tape, glass, and molecules – the future of archival storage

Re: If you really want your scribbles readable in 3000 CE* ...

Nah, serious longevity is chisel and granite slabs, stored in a large dry cave 1000 ft above sea level in a geologically-stable area.

Yeah. But a much better format would be hexagonal crystals about an inch in diameter and 8-10 inches long.

Re: 'Write only'?

"It uses Azure AI to decode the data stored in glass, saying it makes reading and writing faster"

So will be unreadable in 20 years then.

Remember the Domesday project back in 1986? Data stored on optical discs. Probably still there, but no machines left that can read them.

Serious long term storage requires a simple format which can be easily reverse engineered by aliens from the future. TIFF images, simple UTF32 text. On a medium that can be read with an optical microscope. Even better, engrave it on slabs on granite.

Meta sues 'nudify' app-maker that it claims ran 87k+ Facebook, Instagram ads

Odd

So they're seeking an injunction to stop people posting ads that they accepted money for? Isn't there some sort of implied contract there?

IT chiefs of UK's massive health service urge vendors to make public security pledge

Clueless?

For various reasons, I've recently been doing some work to harden security on a number of pretty non-critical websites that were originally developed 10-20 years ago. They still work fine, they don't hold any sensitive data, but the hackers have got really sneaky over the years. I've been genuinely shocked to see the sort of devious things they're attempting, even before you get to social engineering.

I suspect those in power really have no idea of what this implies. Some hefty investment, obvs, but a change in thinking. Security is not just about blocking attacks, it's about accepting that successful attacks WILL happen at some stage, and building systems to minimise the impact. Does this mean a rethink of the entire network architecture? Probably. Is there money to pay for that - not just in the NHS? I think not.

Yippee

Massive cash injection into the NHS to pay for increased IT security!

What do you mean...? Nope?

Oh, of course, they're putting all the extra cash into paying for more staff. No?

What do you mean, "all the cash is going in profits for private health providers who make donations to Labour ministers"?

Microsoft moved the goalposts once. Will Windows 12 bring another shift?

I still hate Micro$oft

Windows is a sad fact of life for most people.

But I really hate the restrictions on Win 11 upgrade - TPM makes sense, and realistically recommending 1GHz and 2 cores, fine. You want a slow pc, it's your choice. I have an 8-year old laptop, upgraded to 32GB, and has a 2.3GHz 4-core processor, TPM etc. But can't move to Win 11 because it's the wrong sort of i5 CPU. Can't change it because it's soldered in. <swearword> ridiculous.

I have my doubts about some of the workarounds - hacking registry etc.

I think we call their bluff. Stay on Win 10, with lots of layers of security and anti-nasties. See whether suddenly M$ go back to issuing security patches for 10 when the fallout from 'millions of people having their MS Windows computer hacked' headlines start appearing. "17 die when NHS hospital Windows network hacked" - even if they relax the Win 11 conditions there's a lot of people won't want to/bother to/know how to upgrade.

And Win 12 with AI? <rofl>

UK ponders USB-C as common charging standard

Or, what will probably happen in practice, there will be a period when devices have two charging systems. The mandatory USB-C (which will cost about 5 cents to fit) and the new, better, system which will take over over time, and eventually they can stop installing the built-in CD-ROM drive. Oops, sorry, the built-in USB-C port.

Re: Unbundle chargers?

Generally true, but, to be fair, my last phone (18 months ago?) came with a charger - but that's because it was a very fast 66W job.

But the UK standard must have some differences to the EU one, because, you know, Brexit. So there must be consultation to work out which difference can be most expensive and irritating to prove UK superiority and show that Brexit is working.

I hoped I'd get less cynical with a change of government. Sadly we don't seem to have had one since 2010.

I have three devices with magnetic charging. All with different 'connections'. Ho hum.

Re: Mandating a charging standard is idiotic

Aye. And we know what happened when consumers were given a choice of VHS, Betamax and V2000.

Re: Public opinion?

a) Get a tap with a built-in water softener

b) Move to a soft-water area

c) Get a Brita filter jug

But

To which a cynic would suggest that the UK standard will leave the 'ability to evolve' bit out of the standard when they cut and paste the EU version. And insist that the plugs must all display a Union Jack to denote compatibility, minimum size 2cm x 2cm. Because, you know, Brexit....

Ah yes, but...

There's always a but.

I've recently bought a couple of devices that are waterproof, and they both use (different) magnetic USB charging cables so the water doesn't get in. Can you get a waterproof bog-standard USB-C socket?

But life has got easier with USB-C being ubiquitous. Although they can be weird still. I got a phone with a 66W charger (it's great for a rapid charge) but the charger uses a USB-C socket for output, so I need a cable with USB-C at borh ends.

Time to have a clear-out of all the spare chargers and foot-long cables.

DataVita declares sovereignty with 'National Cloud' for UK

data in the UK? Pah!

Given the predilection for UK governments to want to see everyone's data, combined with ignorance* and the resulting tendency to pass impossible legislation to allow that, I have no plans to store any of my data on servers subject to UK law anytime soon. EU is so much safer.

* PPE at Oxford is not a good training for understanding anything technical.**

** Well, understanding anything at all, to be honest.

A nice cup of tea rewired the datacenter and got things working again

Intensive care

Brings to mind the old 'patients always dying in bed 3 in ICU at 8pm' tales - when the cleaner plugged her hoover into the socket used by the heart-lung machine.

Re: I'm alright, Jack.

Radio 2? That's a sacking offence, even if meddling with the electrics isn't.

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

How much!!!!

"Microsoft is already spending close to $19 billion a quarter on AI/ML infrastructure"

How? How on earth do you spend that much on a single research development project? For that money you can employ 100,000 'software engineers' duplicating each others' work and give them each a Cray as a desktop PC.

Faulty valve sent Astrobotic's Peregrine lander straight back to Earth's atmosphere

Re: Another helium valve ...

That was the first thing I thought too. Working with helium seems to be very tricky, and it also seems a shame to vent it off into space when it's so scarce.

I'm sure the rocket boffins have thought it all through, but why helium and not some other inert-ish gas. Nitrogen?

Boeing Starliner crew get their ISS sleepover extended

Re: What are the astronauts doing?

Catching up on DIY and housework? Cleaning the windows inside and out? Repainting the solar panels? Vacuuming under the sofa cushions? Washing the curtains? Putting up a few shelves?

Not encouraging

"the team had identified manual maneuvering as putting additional stress on the thrusters"

In other news, Tesla revealed that using the steering wheel in the Model S put additional stress on the wheels, and advised against using it.

The AI arms race could give us the cool without the cruel

Telemarketer tactics

I always find the most satisfying answer is to let them get started then say "Hang on, there's someone at the door - I think it's the parcel I'm expecting. Back in a sec" then just leave them hanging until they give up (often 4-5 minutes)

A variation if they ask for to speak to Mr Penygors is to say "He's just seeing a client out, he'll be with you in a moment" - same result

I believe that this sort of thing is a very socially aware and kind thing to do, as it prevents someone else being irritated by them for a whole 5 minutes. And those minutes of positive karma add up. And more satisfying than asking them if their mother knows they work in organised crime.

The world of work is broken and it's Microsoft's fault

Shorter week?

The sensible answer here would seem to be for office workers using MS products to go down to a three-day week (from home) (with no cut in pay) and let AI bots attend the meetings and deal with all the emails.

Or is that too obvious?

Elon Musk's cost-cutting campaign at Twitter extended to not paying rent, claims landlord

Inevutable

Presumably he sacked the entire accounts department because they weren't cutting code.

And contracts entered into by the previous manager 's are still binding. The company hasn't changed.

Riding in Sidecar: How to get a Psion online in 2023

Very interesting

This could be useful for Archives. It's not unknown for people to deposit granddad's "papers" with a local Record Office, said papers often containing a load of old floppies or even, gulp, 3" Amstrad disks. How to retrieve the content? Getting a working Amstrad PCW may be possible, but how to link it to more modern machines to transfer the data? Both of these solutions could be quite helpful.

Non-binary DDR5 is finally coming to save your wallet

Non-binary memory?

That's going to make some gammons very red! I mean, what toilets will it use?

SpaceX chases government cash with Starshield satellites

Shield from what?

With a name like Starshield you'd hope they were designed to shield the Earth from the light reflecting off all those Starlink solar panels. Too much to hope for.

NASA's cubesat makes it to the Moon to test orbit for human visitors

Near-rectilinear?

How exactly is an elliptical orbit "near rectilineal", other than at an extremely small scale?

OneWeb takes $229m hit from satellites not returned by Russia

Re: Thieving thieves will thieve...

More likely they're ripping them apart to get the chips, so they can put them in the looted washing machines they crippled by taking the chips out to put in their tanks.

Re: They already are

"the direct cause of the war was"...Putin deciding to try and exterminate Ukraine and its people.

FTFY

How this Mars rover used its MOXIE to convert CO2 into precious oxygen

And energy?

What is the energy input? Heating things to 800C needs quite some oomph. How good are solar panels and wind turbines on Mars?

== Bring us Dabbsy back! ==

Underwater datacenter will open for business this year

Re: At 700ft Nobody can hear your data scream...

Yeah, some sort of fluid.

Scuba-diving maintenance engineer just swims down, opens the fluid-lock door, goes in and does the fix.

For a large installation might even be worth engineers doing shifts in an attached pressure chamber to save time.

Ode to an On-Call Engineer, whose scuba kit failed

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

Ding-dong.

Hark! now I hear them,—ding-dong, bell.

USB-C to hit 80Gbps under updated USB4 v. 2.0 spec

Re: Oh good

Could we go classical - current version is USB inst. Previous is USB ult. next is USB prox.

Re: EU will love this

You send old kit to landfill?

My office is more like a museum of IT. I have cables going back decades. Also hard drives, laptops, storage, kettles, desktops, monitors, broken mice and keyboards...

NetBSD 9.3: A 2022 OS that can run on late-1980s hardware

Yes, well, but...

...will it run on a 16K Sinclair Spectrum?

Browsers could face two regimes in Europe as UK law set to diverge from EU

To be fair...

I rather like the idea of having an option in my Firefox to refuse all non-essential cookies on all sites. And make it automatic and default refuse.

Thousands of websites run buggy WordPress plugin that allows complete takeover

Wow

There are 4000+ bakeries on t'internet with a website? Who'd have guessed.