* Posts by trindflo

530 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jan 2011

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Does this thing run on a 220 V power supply? Oh. That puff of smoke suggests not

trindflo Silver badge

Surprised component

Technician thought he had broken the test rig because there were no signs of power. Unplugged the board being tested and checked: nope, the test rig was fine. Connected everything back up, and still seems like no power.

After sitting back and thoughtfully stroking his chin the top of the line driver that was plugged in backwards audibly ricocheted off the 30 foot (9 meter) ceiling. Then the lights all came back on the test rig.

He said he hadn't missed getting an electronic caste mark by more than a couple of seconds.

trindflo Silver badge

Ah. Another person who got to watch a Sun go nova. The one I saw wasn't a power supply problem, it just decided one day that its time had come.

US senator wants to slap prison term, $1M fine on anyone aiding Chinese AI with ... downloads?

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Facepalm

Re: Regards the UK...

Let's just ban hands. Nothing bad can happen without those.

trindflo Silver badge

Re: Good going bright bulb!

Most of the groups you list had already been briefed on the products to warehouse ahead of the tariffs taxation without representation. This is just an opportunity to driver their lesser competitors out of business.

Someone is slipping a hidden backdoor into Juniper routers across the globe, activated by a magic packet

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Re: Where Is That "Someone"? Guess!

Or Iran

LinkedIn accused of training AI on private messages

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Re: Why am I not surprised ?

Will any non-Scottish English speaker understand what a Scottsman says?

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

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Stop

Since we need to opt out

This article from wired: Wired article on opting out describes places you can opt out.

Here are similar opt out instructions and links from redact.dev

3Blue1Brown copyright takedown blunder by AI biz blamed on human error

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our false positives are in like the single digits essentially

Sadly, actual content creators are also relatively in the single digits compared to the flood of content moochers.

OpenAI's ChatGPT crawler can be tricked into DDoSing sites, answering your queries

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Re: DDOS? Yep.

Ooh, shiny! A reverse DDOS for webcrawlers that will give LLMs garbage to eat. That one seems to create purely random nonsense, but I bet it could be designed to also emit trash that follows a theme.

FBI wipes Chinese PlugX malware from thousands of Windows PCs in America

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Re: USB infection is just a vector

USB is a vector that carries an embedded driver that is automatically downloaded to your computer and then runs with privileges. As far as vectors go, it is more equal than many others that require the user to participate (at least since Microsoft mostly stopped blindly executing autorun on all removable devices by default).

The driver needs to be signed by a trusted source, which means the attacker needs to somehow insinuate themselves into a chain of trust, which does happen.

Convenience is the root of all rootkits.

Windows Themes zero-day bug exposes users to NTLM credential theft

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Re: What did I miss?

Someone complained. I don't know who, but I have a guess

China's cyber intrusions took a sinister turn in 2024

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What don't we know?

I'll assume that Russia has been "prepping" for years. This is the first time I've heard the term. Who else is prepping? Norks? Iran? We only get to hear about it post-attack.

How Androxgh0st rose from Mozi's ashes to become 'most prevalent malware'

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turn off wifi for a few minutes?

Turning off the wifi for a few minutes sounds like a quick and easy method if it works. I just looked around for confirmation and couldn't find it. Could you share a reference?

Interpol wants everyone to stop saying 'pig butchering'

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Re: intent to shame/blame the victim

"name probably was chosen with the specific intent to shame/blame the victim into not reporting the scam."

Maybe. My guess is that it is easier to victimize someone if you dehumanize them first. The job is a lot harder if you relate to the person as a fellow human being (for the majority of non-sociopaths)

US airspace closures, lack of answers deepen East Coast drone mystery

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China balloon war?

I'm trying to figure out if you're talking about the Chinese "weather balloon" or the Japanese bombing balloons from world war 2.

Don't fall for a mail asking for rapid Docusign action – it may be an Azure account hijack phish

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Can these attacks trigger a browser to supply the credentials?

I've long been curious if these phishing attacks are good enough to extract your Office 365 credentials if you stored them in your browser. Ominious in that the victim might assume a broken link and not realize their credentials had been harvested.

We can't make this stuff up: Palantir, Anduril form fellowship for AI adventures

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Re: The Devil, as ever, is in the Heavenly Detail

OMG, dude! What you have been feeding that bot? I literally can't read this one at all!

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Re: Will the next generation go all Harry Potter

Don't forget Umbrage. Now would they be political consultants or legal services?

Blue Yonder ransomware termites claim credit

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American company, large presence in China...

That couldn't be Apple we're talking about, could it?

Chinese boffins find way to use diamonds as super-dense and durable storage medium

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Are you thinking of magnetic bubble memory by Texas Instruments? They got it working, but like many things at TI, the engineers lost interest once it was working. It was only marginally margketed and never made it into production to any degree.

Andrew Tate's site ransacked, subscriber data stolen

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Re: Experiment

Cool, that arrived within 6 hours.

trindflo Silver badge

Experiment

Just looking at the various posts here, it seems like mentioning downvoters gets you a down vote. Let's see if I get one.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to eject hundreds more workers

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Elmo's inner planetary goodwill tour

I think we know more or less how to do a round trip to Mars.

I read something recently about the amount of radiation one is likely to encounter on a trip between planets and got the impression a round-trip to Mars could render one a bit crispy. That would be an ethical issue for some.

Like all good road trips, you want to plan things so you spend more time visiting than traveling, and that involves the planets lining up properly. Such things don't always align with the priorities of men. If he doesn't go with the planetary alignments, things could get ugly. Most likely given history, any Mars round trip will be delayed until such time as the heavens had long ago degreed.

But as long as you've paid for the air fare, why not visit the other inner planets? I hear a small sliver of Mercury is liveable this time of year. The Aurora there must be to die for.

Is there already a gofundme setup to send Elmo to Mercury?

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Re: JPL. . .Mostly for free

A lot of their work is available for download.

Some things are patented and must be licensed: https://technology.nasa.gov/patents/category/information_technology_and_software

I recall seeing a NASA catalog of software that you needed to pay for, and that was a long time ago. I suspect most of it was released for free in a trove around 2017.

Cards Against Humanity campaigns to encourage voting, expose personal data abuse

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Get paid?

I don't need to get paid to post that "Donald Trump is a human toilet". I'll also say he is a backed-up human toilet and a fecal cornucopia. Of course, that is only my opinion.

France charges Telegram CEO with multiple crimes

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"failing to cooperate"

Sounds similar to "you play ball with us or you end up with the bat up your a$$". Telegram is used quite a lot by Russia and Ukraine, and has been subjected to significant pressure from Russia to cooperate. The attention seems very selective.

Watchdog warns FBI is sloppy on secure data storage and destruction

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"has completed security enhancements and procedural changes to mitigate the concerns identified."

They've been moved to a very private bathroom in Florida.

Infosys CEO promises jobs to 2,000 graduate recruits it has kept on hold for two years

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Re: Short sighted greed

Meet India's new robber barons. I believe they are called crorepatis. They occupy seats in government to make certain they are never held accountable.

Microsoft sends Windows Control Panel to tech graveyard

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Re: cue the wailing

ncpa.cpl, which has migrated all over the place in GUI land through the years while that shortcut remained the same is one of my gripes. Another is lusrmgr.msc.

Russia tells citizens to switch off home surveillance because the Ukrainians are coming

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Russia publishes their playbook

In case anyone wondered how mother Russia spies on its citizens, they just published the details of it. Ukraine may have been doing some of this, but Russia has been doing all of it.

National Public Data tells officials 'only' 1.3M people affected by intrusion

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Re: Number probably closer to unique Social Security numbers, minus dead people

Funny, most everyone I know has found a hit on the list. Given I don't know anyone in Maine, what are the odds? There is a lot of wrong information as well, and that is of little comfort.

On a related note, tried to contact Equifax to freeze that account, and they seem quite insistent on getting a voice print. That doesn't sound like a great idea to me. Can anyone recommend voice modifying software for the PC so I can thwart Equifax from voice-printing me?

Elon Musk's X Corp faces $61M lawsuit over unpaid tech tabs

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And in writing

AI stole my job and my work, and the boss didn't know – or care

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obtaining the data rather than "ingesting" it which is the infringement

Exactly. You have made a COPY you do not have the RIGHT to make. Republishing it is making additional copies.

Shots fired as AT&T and Verizon ask FCC to block Starlink's direct-to-cell plans

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Is Starlink disrupting or is AT&T trying to close the market?

My bet is that Starlink is trying to disrupt the industry. If AT&T can do it without flooding the airwaves, I think that Starlink should be told to behave themselves. Radio astronomy is already taking a huge hit without an airborne distributed denial of service from Musk and company.

Disney claims agreeing to Disney+ terms waives man's right to sue over wife's death

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Re: Disney's lawyers are stupid

Not a lawyer, but even the tickets to WDW seems tenuous to me. The death didn't happen on the trip to WDW, but days before. I think the agreement to arbitration would need to be somewhat proximate to the relationship that evolved from the contract containing the arbitration clause. And $50K for a potential negligent manslaughter seems like a paltry sum that Disney should have jumped on.

Taking positions like this reinforces negative impressions such as Mousewitz and Duckau.

Would you rather buy space broadband from a billionaire, or Communist China?

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Re: 15,000 satellites into low Earth orbit

Would the loss in sales of amateur telescopes be replaced by sales of space-debris proof bunkers?

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Which is worse

I'd be more concerned China would abuse its position in a thoughtful and methodical manner, but that still doesn't say which is worse.

Elon Musk is suing OpenAI again, claims CEO Sam Altman ‘betrayed’ him

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perks for OpenAI with Musk as an ally

his involvement gave the organization "connections, credibility, and clout."

So he allowed his most merciful shadow to fall upon them?

He wanted an open organization to create IP that he could farm. OpenAI should sue Musk for abuse of process.

Illinois relaxes biometric privacy law so snafus won't cost businesses billions

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costly barriers in the way of reaping these benefits

costly barriers in the way of reaping these benefits raping these users.

FTFY.

Is AI going to pay its way? Wall Street wants tech world to show it the money

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Re: Follow the hype curve

AI as it is defined today financially performs best when it sneaks plagiarism under the legal radar. The places where it is most useful don't pay as well.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 called out for 'worker surveillance'

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FAIL

"Microsoft disputes" ... the truth

"Microsoft disputes that its software uses AI to make performance-based recommendations, contends that its software helps"

I dispute Microsoft is doing anything other than fecal vocalization there.

Ever get hustled out the door and notice a few minutes down the road you forgot something? Pressured workers make more mistakes. That does not help.

More than 83K certs from nearly 7K DigiCert customers must be swapped out now

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I'm wondering how this worked before the 24-hour rule was imposed.

Would businesses just continue using the compromised certificate until they were good and ready to deal with it and allow doppelganger sites to be run by hackers, public be damned?

School gets an F for using facial recognition on kids in canteen

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Re: What's the problem?

I'm betting that you forgot the joke icon; it isn't completely obvious you were being sarcastic. The one about Lord of the Flies requires a bit of slightly obscure knowledge to know pretty much the opposite was documented in real life: Tongan Castaways

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Megaphone

Re: What about the staff?

That was awesome! I'd missed that one.

I fell obliged to post the original from The Music Man

'Data embassies' promise bubbles of digital sovereignty, but India just cooled on the idea

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India ... sharing ... free software

"India, for example, has made sharing technical capability and free software its government developed a big part of its diplomatic outreach. By sharing tools like its Aadhaar identity-as-a-service platform or UPI payments scheme"

They're offering to do what now? For free? Beware of Geeks bearing gifts.

Net neutrality in danger again: US appeals court puts FCC's resurrected rule on hold

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net neutrality rules has been put on hold by the US Sixth Circuit of Appeals

So that the telecoms have a chance to bid on getting the decision they want.

There is no honor among RAM thieves – but sometimes there is karma

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CPU in wrong...he forced it in

If the only tool in your chest is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail. If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.

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Facepalm

What...Are we thinking?

Wanted to vote you up for helping out, and as several other commentards have opined it is twisted she needed to buy the RAM out of her own pocket. I don't know how to vote that sad truth down other than with my own comment.

I'd heard an adage that a company is soon to meet its demise when the beancounters have taken over. Seems that's the state of our education system in several English-speaking countries.

As a clever, but unwise and bastardly man once said: "If the government has control over our children today, they control our country's future".

What the hell are we engineering ourselves into?

Outback shocker left Aussie techie with a secret not worth sharing

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bad German

It comes from a mock warning label intentionally written in mangled German and designed to be readily decipherable by English speakers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights

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Re: 100Amp

In autos those are called "fusible links". The gauge of the wire is intentionally chosen to only handle a certain set amperage before going 'poof'.

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