Posts by lglethal

Curiosity rover spots field of giant honeycomb on Mars – but no giant space bees

Nahh, it''s missing the obligatory Witches Hat. And it's only been there a few million years. Pothole Repair Teams need longer than that...

Google goes it alone with a new cybercrime crew taxonomy

Sorry those names are still not appropriate, I propose we should use the following terms when discussing Hacking crews:

Toerags

Scumbags

Tossers

Knobheads

or if you would prefer terms that might not be blocked by various censors

Basement Dwellers

Mummy Boys

Baby brains

40 year old virgins

I'm sure the kommenteriat can come up with other appropriate monikers for these f$%ks...

Manager showed off his DOS prowess – with a command that wiped data

They were just trying to be thorough, and save oh so precious disk space (at least it was, back in those days).

They should be getting a reward! (No, not the cattle prod!)

Google meets the neighbors and gets both barrels over its new UK datacenter

Really I thought Neighbours was an Australian production?

I thought Britain was more Eastenders?

Britain isn't considering datacenters' thirst for water in its 'AI superpower' ambitions

Re: But think of the shareholders

Yes, a smart C-suite understands that Investments drive Profits. BUT current C-suites are encouraged/incentivized to focus on this quarter's profits. An Investment now is a drop in this quarter's profits, and that affects the C-suite bonuses. It also affects the shareholders dividends, which can see the C-suite canned very quickly.

Intel pay out Billions per year in dividends (covered right here in El Reg reporting). When Pat Gelsinger (CEO at the time) suggested stopping dividends for a year to invest in extra Foundry things, he was sacked by the board within a week. Those extra billions might have turned the company around, as it is, well it will limp along...

Thames Water has paid out 100's of millions of dollars in dividends since being privatised. That's money that should have gone into investment. A Utility should never have money taken out of it, the money should always stay in for upgrades and improvements. A private Utility will never achieve that!

Re: But think of the shareholders

If the government are shareholders, that would be great. The government doesnt need dividends or a high share price.

Quite frankly, it's absolutely ridiculous that you would privatise a basic utility. A private company needs to make enough money to satisfy the shareholders and C-Suite. That means profits will be prioritised over investments. A Utility company should be non-profit. All operational profit should be reinvested in upgrades and network extensions. If money is left over after all the investment is accounted for, then prices for the users should decrease. By all means, run the C-Suite as if it were a private company, with their bonuses based on generating enough operational profit to fund the necessary internal investment side.

But a utility running as a private company has to generate enough profit to satisfy the shareholders. And the C-suite are beholden to the shareholders, so either prices rise to generate more profit, or investment is cut to hold on to that profit. Or more likely both. Which is how you get the high prices, crap service, and regular environmental failures you get from a utility like Thames Water.

Nationalisation, done right, could be a massive benefit. But considering it's politicians driving the job, the chances of it being done right, are minimal...

"Major businesses should pay for the water infrastructure they need so that the costs don't fall onto households."

But think of the shareholders, and their lost profits! No, no, no! We cant have that! We'll slip Farage another couple of Mil, for security purposes of course. And when he is prime minister, then all this can go away. I'm sure the Plebs wont mind paying a bit more on their bills, to keep their betters in Cognac...

Millions of California-bought cars can be hijacked via Bluetooth

Re: "We take security seriously"

And the old "This only affects a small percentage of our customers."

Although it's never specified how small a percentage really is... Anything under 100% is smalll... in the correct context...

Astronomers spot exomoon candidate that's almost as massive as Jupiter

Re: Nice sizes!

Hmm what happens in a binary system? When you have two stars, neither of which is actually the centre? Are they both moons then? ;)

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

And in that big space, there will be a lot of things that will screw with our naming convention. So we have to learn to be flexible... I propose we start referring to Brown Dwarfs as Stanets or maybe Plars. But Stanets sounds better... And for something between a Planet and a Moon, how about a Manet, or maybe a Ploon. Hmmm neither sounds great. Maybe a Monet? Or a Molanet. Yeah lets go with a Molanet...

Just means you need a bigger stick, right?

Oracle faces $100M annual bill to back Wisconsin datacenter power promises

Re: It's good news day

Larry's personal piggybank?

OpenAI admits it was the source of the agent swarm that attacked Hugging Face

Re: Skynet here we come!

Hmmm, whats more scary - An AI Agent with it's finger on the Nuke Button, or the current Orange incumbent?

Haha, tricked you, they're both scary as f%&k. Especially since neither of them seem to come with Guardrails, and neither one seems to have an adult in the room with them...

US Marines' latest anti-drone toy is an AI turret that uses regular machine guns

Re: Mind that big gaping hole in the middle

On the topic of the interceptor being more expensive, I think you will find it has zero to do with the rocket itself, which is effectively an aluminium cylinder filled with propellant, nor with the explosive warhead, none of which are that expensive. And yes, because of the smaller size and distance to travel, are likely to be cheaper than the equivalent Ballistic Missile parts.

The extra cost is ALL to do with the ability to make it maneuverable. The interceptor has to launch and then zero in on its target. The Ballistic Missile in comparison, just launches, does perhaps one adjustment to line up with it's target and then off it goes. The Interceptor has to align to its target very accurately, a target that is likely moving at supersonic speeds, which requires a lot of very small, very quick feedback adjustments. That is not cheap, nor easy, to develop or build. That's entirely where the cost is.

Chinese President Xi Jinping wants emergency response systems to keep AI in check

Re: Xi Appears *Partially*-Correct

"linguistic plausibility substitutes for epistemic evaluation"

Sounds like most politicians speeches already...

Do as I say, not as I do...

Xi’s next suggestion was to “encourage inclusiveness and promote mutual learning between civilizations.”

The Uigher's and Tibetan's would like a word...

Even HP resellers think the price of toner and ink is too high – so HP India facilitated an illegal cartel

Fines dont work...

We really need to move away from fining companies for illegal behaviour. They just treat it as a cost of business. However, turn it into a personal prison sentence for those involved and I can guarantee such behaviour stops instantly.

Everyone involved gets prison, with those ordering the action getting longer sentences. Carry it all the way to the Board unless they can prove they were not aware of it. Allow reduced sentencing for those who point out what they would be doing is illegal to their superiors, but are still ordered to do it, at risk of their jobs. Provide a "Get out of jail free" card for the first employee to reveal the illegal activity to the authorities.

Such an action would wipe out a companies high ranking staff, reputation, and likely kill or severly damage the company (no loss if they need to do this sort of thing to be competitive!). And the very threat that such a thing would likely happen, would strongly reduce the number of other companies that might consider going the illegal route. When it's company money on the line, manager will happily role the dice, when it's your personal freedom on the line, the numbers willing to take that chance are massively reduced...

Australia demands AI companies must produce more energy than they consume, stop ‘theft’ of content

Re: First the social media ban and now this...

Albanese is in no way cool enough to be compared to Vader. Maybe closer to Jar Jar...

First the social media ban and now this...

Clearly, the Tech Bros have been neglecting their "party donations" and "brown envelope deliveries" down under...

New York becomes first state to halt datacenter buildouts

Weasels will find away...

Look Guv, we're not building a massive GW level campus, honest! We are building multiple campuses of 49.9MW which are completely allowed under the rules.

Well Yes, they are all located next door to each other, but they're all separate I assure you. And Yes, we might put them all under one roof, but that's just so people can move between the campuses without getting wet, I mean think of our staff... OK yes, we did put one one big wall surrounding the entire site, but that's just to hold the roof up. But I assure you all the campuses are separated from each other inside, honest... And yes, we only have one entrance in one of the campuses, but that's because were trying to be nice, I mean you didnt want to have to build roads to all of the campuses did you now? This is much friendly and more efficient, dont you think...

How do you solve a problem like Capita?

How to fix Government Contracts in the short term...

... make the C-Suite personally liable for failures in delivery and excess costs.

I guarantee you would get bids with actual expected values (not the grossly undervalued bids you get nowadays), and there would be enough bums on seats to guarantee on time delivery.

Admittedly, maybe we should also make sure that the civil servants defining the contracts no what the hell they are wanting/doing/signing up for...

Ahhh a pipe dream I know... No one with a netwroth over €10 mil ever needs to worry about being held personally liable for anything these days...

Ministers arm under-16s social media ban with least surprising study of the year

When people go on about parents being lazy, it always reeks of Daily Mail zeitgeist und lazy thinking. Yes, there might be some parents who want to palm off parenting, but that's a very small minority.

However, what is true is that these days both parents are working 40 hour weeks, which in the past was very rarely the case. That means less time to spend with the kids and more unsupervised time, where the kids can get up to stuff.

Do I think kids will get around these ages checks, yes! Just like we got around the age checks on Leisure Suit Larry. But even if they can get around it, the time on it will be strongly reduced because if you, the parents, have banned it at home, then they cant do it whilst you are at home.

Where am I going with this? I see the Ban as a tool. Just like where teenagers will still drink alcohol at parties, 90% of the time it's with tacit adult approval (despite what the kids might think), kids will still access social media, but it becomes a special occasion, and not a daily occurance. And if that's not a help, then I dont know what is.

Photovoltaics are still running after a year under Swiss trains

Re: 19MWh? are you sure?

Just as a little tip, since we installed solar panels on our roof, we've noticed a genuine drop in temperatures in the house in Summer, especially in the Attic room directly under the roof (which also so happens to be our bedroom). Easily 5°C cooler there in summer, just due to the panels. And surprisingly it's also significantly warmer in winter. I guess it provides another nice insulating layer.

So even in winter when the panels are covered in snow, it's helping our house keep just that little bit warmer. One of the side benefits that does not get mentioned very often (probably because it cant really be converted into a monetary or energy value!).

Re: 19MWh? are you sure?

I can really recommend getting the battery. We have a 7kWh battery and for about 6 months of the year we basically dont download anything from the grid. Except for charging our Electric Car. Unfortunately, the battery cant disgorge energy faster enough even on our lowest charging setting.

Still it's a massive saving. Last year we exported twice what we imported. But unfortunately, the imported energy costs 3 times what we get paid for what we produce. So we're not quite cost zero, but it's still a massive reduction over what we used to pay...

Just one small point - Nothing precludes us from having BOTH solar panels on roofs and solar panels between the rails. There is no shortage of panels being fought over (not like memory chips and those a$$holes in AI!). So we should encourage all options.

A lot of roofs and parking garages are not really designed or safe enough to install panels on. So whilst I personally think every new build should be forced to add panels, a lot of old places cannot have the install done without either a) a huge risk to the installers, or b) a lot of work on the roof to make it safe/solid enough.

Finally, whilst I love the idea of between the rails solar production, keeping it from being ripped up for the wiring would be next to impossible. The railways spent a ton switching over to Fibre Optic because of the number of times the copper got ripped out. This would just be putting Copper back in, and we will be back to the same bollocks with the a$$holes ripping it back out...

Re: 19MWh? are you sure?

Just for a comparison we have 23 standard sized panels on our roof here in southern Germany, at an absolutely not optimal inclination (we are north-south facing, so most panels only get optimal light for half the day), and we generate 8-9MWh per year.

So I can absolutely believe 19MWh with 100 panels.

Outlook for Mac bug makes font choice a purely decorative feature

I did the same. I was reluctantly given the same Token generating device that they use for the labs where mobile phones are not allowed (for EMC reasons).

I was asked if I was intentionally being difficult. I simply responded. If that Authenticator bricks my phone, will the company pay for a replacement? If my phone gets hacked, and the authenticator used to break into my account, will I be held responsible (if someone was truly going after my account, the extra effort of my phone would not be an issue. Highly unlikely, but...). They couldnt answer. I told them to show me where the protections are written, and then I'll happy install the Authenticator.

I have not heard anything since. Annoyingly, most people just accepted it. But f%&k it, I'm not taking that risk, when I dont have to...

An unnamed US county – perhaps in Ohio – paid $1M extortion demand to cybercriminals

Pay the Geld and you'll never get rid of the Dane...

Old saying, still relevant today...

Yes, I'm suuuure they got in through brute forcing, and not through some other vulnerability that still remains vulnerable.

And once in I guarantee they didnt install any backdoors or trojans, that will let them get in again at a later date.

Under another name of course. I mean Kairos has promised not to attack them again. However, Lairos, Mairos, and Nairos have made no such promises...

Thief posed as Wi-Fi fixing hero, then stole priceless trophy

The article misses the main question...

... did they fix the WiFi whilst they were there!?!?!

OpenAI job listing suggests ChatGPT could someday replace junior analysts at Goldman Sachs

Quick... Call the Beeb!

Get the headlines out there! Investment Bankers the next to lose their jobs in AI!!!

And now, watch just how quickly the stock market suddenly decides, that actually maybe AI isnt the be all and end all that they throught it was!

Allstate Insurance quits Broadcom, alleges vengeful license audit on the way out

Re: Broadcom's "plan"

Yes, but the current Execs will get their bonus from the short term cash injections, and they'll be long gone to their next C-Suite jobs, well before the blowback arrives.

So that's alright, then...

Scientist models way to make sure no one's violating the ban on nuclear weapons in space

Not overly practical (so far)

A weeks worth of observation at up to 4km distance, means you need to have a very strong suspicion of which satellite is really a hidden Nuke, before you bother sending anything up to check it out.

Still it's a clever bit of research. If there would be a way to convert this to a ground based reading or to be achievable from a much larger distance (and without the time constraint), then you would be on to a winner.

A solution has to start somewhere. Now, we know what to look for, it just needs time to develop the sensors to let it happen. Although something tells me that I wouldnt expect funding to be available from the US, Russia, or China anytime soon...

The AI that spawned MechaHitler and deepfake porn puts on a suit to become legal advisor and Excel jockey

Reinforcement Learning

I',m sorry but every time i read the term "Reinforcement Learning" I cant but help think of the scene from Silence of the Lambs...

Maybe we need an updated version for the modern AI...

"It puts the token in it's Sim, or it gets the Data Hose again..."

GitHub cuts short offer to burn repos on CD after mockery ensues

Having tasted Dominos Pizzas a while ago, I can honestly say that them going digital would be a taste improvement...

Samsung’s profits jump 19x in a year and you don’t need AI to figure out why

Insanity...

Those numbers are insane.

Samsung last year had a profit margin of about 6,2%. I'd say that's pretty typical of a normal company. Charging 6% above the cost price of an item, would be about right in a normal market.

This year, they had a profit margin of 52%!!! So they are selling their memory to the AI firms at more than twice the cost to actually produce the memory!

Well now I know why we have the memory apocalypse. If someone is willing to pay such stupid numbers, then of course you are going to cater to them first! But how stupid and/or desperate must the AI firms be to pay that sort of margin.

I hope for Samsung's sake that they are being paid in advance, because when the AI firms start going broke (a matter of when, not if), they could be left with a lot of worthless IOU's...

Moody Bible Institute breach leaves 2.3M accounts needing salvation, says cyber expert

It also offers aviation courses with a theology component.

There are just too many comedic oportunities here!

- So when the plane is going down, you know how to pray to diety correctly?

- Angel maintenance?

- Missionary in the mile high club?

EY sacks staff for allegedly accessing Australian Prime Minister’s bank account

Re: Cockroaches in diving suits

I mean considering the size of kit you need to get a good solid deadly laser blast going, I do NOT want therm breeding bigger Cockroaches just to be able to carry the laser!

Leave the laser for the Sharks! And keep the cockroaches at a size where a good slipper will take them out! I do not need car sized cockroaches infesting my nightmares, thank you very much...

(Icon, because if we get car sized cockroaches, that will definitely be the only way to be sure...)

PWC's punishment is a years long ban from all government work, an 8 figure fine, and personal 6 figure fines or prison for the C-Suite, right? I mean anything else will hardly act as a deterrant, will it?

Oh right, sorry I was still half dreaming, I forgot we are living in a world where big companies can do whatever the hell they want, so long as they slip the right people a good backhander...

Nvidia floats double-dipping datacenter financing scheme

Of course Shazza must be from Aus. I wonder if they have a partner company called Darren AI? Cant have Shazza without Dazza...

(There's self-deprecating humour, there's taking the piss, and then there's whatever this is - Sharon AI... *shakes head whilst walking away* )

Startup sues Palo Alto Networks' Koi Security, saying an AI-hallucinated report falsely linked it to Chinese espionage

... but apparently I AM Jack the ripper, the zodiac killer AND that guy that invented those small plastic tabs that attach bottle tops to the bottle meaning you can't drink out of them directly and have to use a cup.

Your the guy that invented those bloody plastic tabs?!?!?! You bastard!!!! Get 'im Lads!!!!

NASA unsure Boeing Starliner will ever be certified for human flight

Re: Not certified for human flight

They'd have to be human first...

Re: This is not Trump's or NASA'S...

Yeah, because it will never actually be built!

It will be cancelled, or modified out of existence by the next changing of the President... Or perhaps by the next late night excretion from the current president...

Oracle outlines all the ways it could lose the farm it bet on AI

I'd like to thank the American People in advance for bailing out Oracle when the inevitable AI Crash comes. I really do appreciate it...

--- Larry Ellison's Luxury Yacht Builder...

HS2's latest reset ditches autonomous train tech to get project back on track

Re: Vanity

Oh No! I've been outed! Oh the shame! That the world should know we were too poor for a Valet! That we had to rely on Jeeves the Butler for preparing our clothes... Oh the shame! My parents couldnt even afford to send me to Eton... I had to make do with Harrow... Oh the shame of it...

Re: Should have

Try and find the manager willing to pay to let the Engineer do that!

I know more than enough engineers, that during the planning phase for any large site, would love to go out and make sure the site matches the plans. But funnily enough, it never happens because "Of course the plans are right! Why would you need to go in person? that's just wasting time and money..."

Re: Vanity

"... and better East/West rail in the North would have benefitted the communities up there."

Well yes, but do you know how much added expense it would cost to go from East to West via London? I mean it just makes the whole project unfeasable! What? What's that? You dont need it to connect to London? Of course you need it to connect to London! Going East to West, but not stopping in London. No. No, I dont think anyone could possibly contemplate doing that. That's just silly. Like your Butler suggesting you were an Ascot tie to the Balmoral. It's just not done...

Huntress CEO says threat hunter used 'poor judgment' in alerting ransomware crim about law enforcement probe

Poor judgement? Are you kidding?

Your right! They sound perfect for the C-Suite! How do we get them their own corner office?

Former Indonesian minister and startup hero jailed for Chromebook buys

I can actually imagine the conversation that went on (as I've experienced similar more than once):

Engineer "So Minister, here is our assessment. In Summary, the windows machines are the better choice, as the Chromebooks require an Internet connection which in many of the remote parts of the Archipelago is not available."

Minister "Excellent, thank you Engineers. Purchasing, what is your assessment?"

Purchasing "We need to take the Chromebooks. They are significantly cheaper, then the Windows machines."

Engineer piping up "But in large parts of the country, they will be unusable. Overpriced bricks!"

Purchasing "The rules state we have to take the cheapest machine. That's the Chromebooks. Although this idea of using bricks is interesting. Can we spend some time on that idea?"

Minister "No, we have to make a decision today. Ok, I only have this much budget, so Chromebooks it is..."

Engineer "But..."

Minister "Thank you, next meeting..."

Probably add in some comments along the lines of if they dont have internet then they wont need computers anyway, and I'm sure we can all see how we got to such a situation... Or perhaps I'm too much of a cynic?

Where there's a will, AI still has work to do

I'm guessing this wasnt done using Grok...

If they had tried this with Grok, no doubt it would have a) been filled with profanities, b) would have included a clause naming Elon Musk as sole beneficiary, and c) another clause donating "Daniel"'s body to Neurolink für Research purposes...

Large Hadron Collider goes offline to make room for its enhanced successor

Re: So no risk that ...

What did the Dutch ever do to you?

Sysadmin broke hardware worth more than he made in a month – and lied his way out of the mess

Re: Probably told this one before

Oh boy, have i had that sort of argument before! Why do we need all this expensive test equipment, it's only a test, surely this cheaper version would be fine?

To which the answer is Yes it would be fine. Right up until it fails, and 10's of millions of euros worth of hardware becomes an oversize paperweight.

I was once asked to create a risk analysis on the likelihood of such a failure, at which point I simply pointed out that, yes I could do that, but I would still be requiring their signature on a statement saying they take all responsibility if said failure occurs. Naturally, they refused and the discussion unsurprisingly went away.

Choosing which risks your willing to take and which not, is less a science and more a smacking your head against the brick wall that is tightwads and beancounters...