* Posts by ITS Retired

380 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Dec 2010

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Ousted US copyright chief argues Trump did not have power to remove her

ITS Retired

Stephen Miller could write a Executive Order, for Trump to sign, changing the Constitution to allow Trump to not have to run, but just continue on with this term in 2028, for four more years, till 2032. Sounds as reasonable as anything else this Administration has done up to now.

Amazon built a massive AI supercluster for Anthropic called Project Rainier – here's what we know so far

ITS Retired

This is another energy hog of "Because we can, not because we should", or for any actual necessity.

Sure it looks impressive, but why?

Some people have entirely too much money. There are better ways to use multimillionaire's excess money. Like fair share taxation, used for working economies and proper functioning governments for its citizens. Heaven on earth.

US Department of Defense will stop sending critical hurricane satellite data

ITS Retired

Re: Sharpies at the ready

At least the not entire 20 meters. Just a few meters would do it.

US Navy backs right to repair after $13B carrier crew left half-fed by contractor-locked ovens

ITS Retired

Asinine

Navel ships are war ships have be self sufficient while at sea. They can be thousands of miles from any help even in peace times. Steaming for weeks, sometimes months at a time.

How can they function if they cannot repair whatever, when something, anything breaks?

Farmer's tractors are bad enough, but our military?

Field support chap got married – which took down a mainframe

ITS Retired

Re: Schedule a effing downtime!

To say nothing about the storage capabilities and self recharge of the picture tube itself.

Ex-NASA Admin pick blames Musk ties for pulled nomination

ITS Retired

Maybe, just maybe this planet was setup to make it very difficult to impossible for us to leave on purpose. We are not supposed to be able to export our dysfunctional life form to elsewhere. Robots exploring the neighborhood is one thing, but we can never expect to actually go anywhere and survive for long, until we learn to get along with each other like some civilized life form, without killing each other over minor differences that don't really matter. Hide color, eye shape, gender, sexual preference and other normal differences that exist in other species of animals on this wet rock.

Boffins found self-improving AI sometimes cheated

ITS Retired

Re: Not convinced about safety.

That is why these AI models need to have a hard wired kill switch, that the AI can't bypass and preferably does not even know about.

Hooked to the Internet, who knows what these self programing AI will, or can come up with. "Do - you - want - to - play - a - game?"

US Transpo Sec wants air traffic control rebuild in 3 years, asks Congress for blank check

ITS Retired

Re: Amazing ..

Sounds like a plan. But what does that have to do with the current administration? They are reducing, destroying, deporting, defunding, down sizing every agency, firing every educated DEI hire, eliminating college classes/program needed to educate enough people needed to upgrade the very systems that they say that need to be upgraded and replaced... In three years? It will take decades and trillions of dollars to catch up at this point in time.

These same idiots should have been allowing funding equipment upgrades for the last several decades! Hiring and training enough people to efficiently do the required jobs, regardless of skin color or national origin.

Instead they have concentrated on down sizing as the solution to not enough people to do the many jobs required. To say nothing about voting as a block all along, against any equipment upgrades as too expensive and we can't afford it. For them being incompetent is a job requirement, so now we only need three years do what actually will take decades. Never mind funding an unknowable upfront.

Microsoft tries to knife passwords once and for all - at least for consumers

ITS Retired

Re: "It is faster using pass keys"

Passwords are so last century. Never mind nothing actually better has come along, but changeable passwords have worked for over 65 years.

But somehow just because something is 'old' doesn't mean needs to stop being used. That is sometimes faulty thinking. Occasionally the old stuff is better than the newer stuff. Passwords refuse to die for a reason. Stop trying kill what works well enough for most things, for a long time, with something new, say with AI, because AI is the shiny new, or whatever. Change for change sake is seldom better.

ITS Retired

Re: Maintaining passkeys

Why pay for sign on security? Even with your own computer? Proper security needs to be the responsibility of the site, OS, machine, IoT, etc., if they want people to use their product. Not for some for profit motive that may or may not be as presented.

IBM dragged down by DOGE contract cancellation roulette

ITS Retired

Musk again

How many of those government contracts that IBM no longer have, does Musk now have?

Elon Musk makes another cut – to his time at DOGE

ITS Retired

Musk

Musk has all the government contracts he needs for control of communications, rockets, stolen data bases. He has neutered his competition. He has hollowed out the regulations of his "businesses", so he is mostly free to do what he wants. Of course his 'government' job is pretty much finished. He is just sticking around to make sure he doesn't lose the plunder he has stolen.

This man needs reside for the rest of his life, in a secure, walled residence in El Salvador for the damage has has done to our government. His money can be used to repair the damage he has done to innocent people's lives.

Free Blue Screens of Death for Windows 11 24H2 users

ITS Retired

Using Linux really is not that hard. Unless you like digging into the innards. But with Linux, you still own your computer, unlike Microsoft's thinking.

80 years old and not liking any Windows past 7. Change for change sake suck. Articles like this confirm my preferences.

Microsoft: Why not let our Copilot fly your computer?

ITS Retired

Re: Finally

Do. You. Want. To. Play A. Game?

Pharmacist accused of using webcams to spy on women in intimate moments at work, home

ITS Retired

Some laptops have the light attached directly to the camera power. If the camera is on for any reason, the light is lit.

How do you explain what magnetic fields do to monitors to people wearing bowling shoes?

ITS Retired

Re: Ones Aurora

Having a small green handle screwdriver helps wonders in intimidating electronic stuff.

Windows 11 poised to beat 10, mostly because it has to

ITS Retired

Ever get the feeling,

Microsoft is over running its headlights?

After three weeks of night shifts, very tired techie broke the UK’s phone network

ITS Retired

Karma can be empathetic sometimes.

Frack to the future? Geothermal energy pitched as datacenter savior

ITS Retired

Geothermal, or ground source heat pumps. They are not the same. Geothermal is using the heat that is underground. Can't be directly used for A/C.

Ground source heat pumps pumps heat into the ground in the summer for A/C, and out of the ground in the winter for heating.

Saying 'geothermal' instead of 'ground source heat pump' is a sales pitch to justify higher prices/price gouging.

Google confirms Gulf of Mexico renamed to appease Trump – but only in the US

ITS Retired

Re: Ha

Trump respects no one except himself. The rest of us are just objects to be used by Trump to get his way.

Trump scrubs all mention of DEI, gender, climate change from federal websites

ITS Retired

Re: Scrapped Direct File, which allows taxpayers to file their returns electronically to the IRS

Also very convicted felony criminal.

Trump eyes up to 100% tariffs on foreign semiconductors, TSMC in crosshairs

ITS Retired

Re: MR

Something about Mad Cow a bunch of years back made our beef supply suspect. It hasn't fully recovered.

Why is Big Tech hellbent on making AI opt-out?

ITS Retired

To answer the question

"...what happened to asking for permission first?"

Trump did.

This is how Elon's Department of Government Efficiency will work – overwriting the US Digital Service

ITS Retired

Re: Hmm.

Or fire anyone that does fit.

Donald Trump proposes US govt acquire half of TikTok, which thanks him and restores service

ITS Retired

Re: Hey all you republicans

All the same for the republicans.

GoDaddy slapped with wet lettuce for years of lax security and 'several major breaches'

ITS Retired

Re: That's funny...

Appearances can be deceiving.

Now Trump's import tariffs could raise the cost of a laptop for Americans by 68%

ITS Retired

Re: "Trump's tariffs could result in the loss of 400,000 US jobs"

The domino effect in action. 400,000 jobs lost. Those 400,000 people quit buying anything not necessary to survive. Business go out of business because not enough customers buying their services/widgets. Causing more people to be out of work, not buying stuff. Bigger business go out of business. Survival is harder because less stuff is available. 1929 collapse was just a minor hiccup.

The rich and powerful buy everything for pennies on the dollar again.

Microsoft declares 2025 'the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh'

ITS Retired

Re: Micros~1 declares 2025

"Linux is good..but apparently still not good enough."

Mostly because people go with what they know. Change is scary 'cause ya gotta learn new stuff.

Apple auto-opts everyone into having their photos analyzed by AI for landmarks

ITS Retired

Do what Iceland did to the bankers. Tossed them in prison and did not bail out the banks.

Microsoft won't let customers opt out of passkey push

ITS Retired

Re: Better security doesn't just stop the scammers

80 years here. Linux, Apple, windows, 2 hand built web sites...

Police arrest suspect in murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, with grainy pics the only tech involved

ITS Retired

Re: Dead men don't suffer.

How often do cops find guns in households that do not have any guns? A bit too often in my humble opinion.

ITS Retired

I understand it worked quite well for the French at one time.

How many unnecessary deaths was this CEO responsible for?

FCC fines be damned, ESPN misuses emergency alert tones yet again

ITS Retired

Re: you could see people start to pull over thinking it was the law.

And older cars don't nag you about you driving, making for less distraction.

Smart homes may be a bright idea, just not for the dim bulbs who live in 'em

ITS Retired
Stop

If we had more smart people, we'd have less need for smart IoT that actually aren't.

Smart TV's with RF remotes that work anywhere in the neighborhood? No key pad on the TV remote? WTF! You have to bring up a screen on the TV, so you can hunt and peck on the on screen keyboard to change channels. But the TV is defaulted to be programed ahead of time for what you want to watch? Works great when the football game runs long. How is this "smart"?

Smart light bulbs and plug in switches for lights, fans, heaters, etc., that need a remote server and your WiFi password and an apt to work?

You are normally right there anyway to experience the effects of whatever said device. Deal with it directly using the switch on, or near the device. Why let a server, who knows where, know about it. Especially if you are paying someone for this server to know.

I am not really a Luddite, but I prefer to control my own stuff I bought and paid for myself, without any input from any unnecessary third party.

Apple debuts iPhone 16, Watch Series 10, assorted AirPods

ITS Retired

Re: Being amazed no more

Its been my experience that people, how even musically talented people, will tolerate crappy sounding music coming from cheap too small speakers. i.e., nothing below maybe 200hz.

I don't understand why when reasonably sounding speakers don't cost that much. Not to mention ear and head phones sound so much better. My own hearing falls off a cliff at 5000hz and I cringe if I hear the fidelity of what normal hearing people listen to from their TV's, laptops, and even desktop computers with cheap speakers.

Google can totally explain why Chromium browsers quietly tell only its websites about your CPU, GPU usage

ITS Retired

It's getting to the point more CPU cycles are going spying and phoning home, than what you are trying to use the computer for.

'Gay furry hackers' say they've disbanded after raiding Project 2025's Heritage Foundation

ITS Retired

Re: They're not even hiding it

I clicked on the link. I did not find any reality, or common sense, anything involving what us commoners want or need.

Julian Assange pleads guilty, leaves courtroom a free man

ITS Retired

Re: If he's guilty

They weren't Trumps to steal.

US senator claims UnitedHealth's CEO, board appointed 'unqualified' CISO

ITS Retired

Re: CISO == Scapegoat (Traditionally)

"...budget requests and proposed policy/procedure changes."

Can't afford that. That money is earmarked for our share holders.

Giving Windows total recall of everything a user does is a privacy minefield

ITS Retired

Re: How much data stored?

How much CPU time would this require? The next M$ computer requirements will include overclocking and petabyte hard drives.

US reckons it's about time the Moon had its own time zone

ITS Retired
Facepalm

We get this moon time working and

some dope will want Daylight Saving Time for it. Bet on it.

Hillary Clinton: 2024 will be 'ground zero' for AI election manipulation

ITS Retired

"So, it looks like artificial intelligence (AI) is already ahead of voter intelligence (VI) in a significant fraction of the population."

No surprise there. 1/6 and the continuing aftermath is an example of this.

Chinese 'connected' cars are a national security threat, says Biden

ITS Retired

There is way too much 'Because they can' in todays vehicles,

that does not serve to enhance safety. In fact can be a distraction from any attempted safety features.

The distracting beeping and flashing RED warnings of eminent crashes, AFTER the driver has already recognized, and is reacting to the situation.

Like when you are in the outside lane and the vehicle, ahead is you is in the inside lane, puts on their left turn signal and slows down to make a left hand turn and you are warned of an imminent, major crash when there is no possibility of such.

On a related note, the unrelenting e-mails and snail-mail from Sirius wanting you to pay $19.95 a month for their music, when you already have an AM/FM radio with HD radio in your vehicle. Plus being able to plug in your own music for free. They can't seem to understand "NO!", to well past the point of making it hard to drop their 'service', should you be suckered in.

Ignore Uncle Sam's 'voluntary' cybersecurity goals for hospitals at your peril

ITS Retired

Re: We are looking in the wrong place fix problem

"Microsoft produces software that is hard to secure due to many things that constantly change the user does cant control. At some point, they need to be held accountable. Change my system without my permission, it is on them."

Especially when quality control rests more on the end user, than from the source corporation.

One person's shortcut was another's long road to panic

ITS Retired
Childcatcher

Re: What a start to the week..........

Ok. Linux mint, where the mouse doesn't wake up the computer. Each "new" kernel takes away that needed option.

Windows keyboards to get a Copilot key – but how quickly will users jump?

ITS Retired
Linux

Re: Damn, I'll miss out on all that goodness

I did the same years ago. My keyboard is an IBM model M. Never did like the windows keys. Never used, or missed them, even when still working.

‘I needed antihistamine tablets every time I opened the computers’

ITS Retired

Re: PC-Board Dust Blankets

And away from any obstruction, buildings, vehicles, etc. The breeze, wind can whip the dirt in unexpected directions. A mask is recommended, just in case.

Once was enough.

US govt pays AT&T to let cops search Americans' phone records – 'usually' without a warrant

ITS Retired

How much better would the Internet function

if there was not all this snooping by so many different entities, cluttering up the Internet by snooping on so many people just going about their normal lives.

Yeah I know this is AT&T, but they make heavy use of the Internet for their phone call traffic and their own snooping also.

Remembering the time Windows accidentally sent Poland to the bottom of the sea

ITS Retired

Never happen. That makes too much sense and is easy to understand.

Robot mistakes man for box of peppers, kills him

ITS Retired

Re: You think it was just another isolated incident....?

Depends on the printer. Most office printers can be intimidated by waving a little green Xcelite screwdriver at them. You know, the kind with the pocket clip.

Very useful for many things, way beyond their small size.

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