Posts by lglethal

Chatbot refuseniks edge out users in the US, and they’re not for turning

Re: I use them

Your use case is in fact probably one of the worst uses of an LLM in my opinion. Firstly, since you are reading a summary, that the LLM has effectively stolen from a website, That website does not get any traffic. No traffic means no income, means that site will eventually go the way of the dodo.

So when that helpful website goes what will replace it for the next time you need to query something? The LLM might have scraped the site, so it MIGHT have the info, but it's likely mashed together with other info (since it doesnt actually know what is good info and what is not), and so the next time the result will be, lets say substandard. And how are you going to know? The site it claims to have got the info from will be gone. It will probably be replaced by an AI created version which mangles the original text, and changes the whole meaning. LLM's trained purely on other LLM Slop.

And when all those lovely sites disappear after feeding the LLM, and losing all their income. Where will you go then?

That's my objection to AI. Not that it doesnt bring anything to the party, but that what it brings is stolen goods. Stolen goods that stop other people from having their own parties... And I dont see anything to celebrate there...

London cabbies want Sadiq Khan to slam the brakes on robotaxis

For me it's simple. Who is held responsible when that driverless taxi knocks down a pedestrian or cyclist?

Currently, in the taxi, that would be the driver. So who's carrying the can in the driverless taxi? If you cannot get someone in the C-Suite to accept (in writing, in a legally acceptable form) that they will take all punishment from the driverless car doing hitting someone, then sorry, nope. No going on the street for you.

You claim your 100% safe, put your money where your mouth is sonny...

Or if we are going to go down the route of putting a price tag on peoples lives. Every recorded instance of illegal action by a driverless car cops a fine 50x what a normal person will receive. If the company reports the failure themselves, we'll drop it down to 5x. If they cover it up, It goes up to 500x.

I bet they wouldnt agree to those terms, funnily enough. But it really is what we should be pushing...

HPE's networking boss says AI will handle all trouble tickets without humans in two years

To rework the old despair.com slogan for the modern age:

AI

If you're not part of the solution, there's money to be made prolonging the problem!

(previously described consultancy..)

Trump Mobile customers' data dumped - and some never even received their gold device

That would be BYD not BYOD.

BYOD is the shitty brand of bulbous, bland, dull insipid management speak for trying to reduce IT costs, by dumping the costs on to the Employee...

(with the result of increased actual costs due to a much higher, and not locked down, attack surface! But that's next quarter...)

Techie was stung by a wasp, held overnight by Chinese police, then trapped in a 13-hour meeting

I was once flying from London to Madrid for a business trip, with my boss and another colleague. We were going there to talk to a partner firm, with which we were working to develop an aircraft anti-icing system.

After a first delay of about an hour (thankfully whilst we were still in the terminal and in range of the bar!), we boarded. Flight took off normally, crossed the channel, and as we reached the spanish coast. The pilot came on "Sorry folks, unfortunately we have developed an issue with the engine anti-icing system. It does not endanger the aircraft, but if we land in Spain, we wont be able to take off again. So we need to turn around and head back to London. We apologise for the inconvenience."

Yep, back to london. Wait for a new aircraft, and fly all the way back to Spain. The irony of it being the system we were working on developing (but not for that aircraft!) failing and causing us the inconvenience was not lost on any of us...

Judge uses electronic tag on Pokémon card tracker. It's super effective!

Or some new RAM....

Register reader hit with surprise bill after Microsoft portals disagreed

Re: Database #101

Bah... that's next quarter revenue. We only concern ourselves with this quarter and our immediate Bonuses!

-- C-Suite People everywhere....

Artificial intelligence must have a new name, says politician who likes renaming bodies of water

And that would at least fit with both the general world wide opinion of Americans and the general world wide opinion on the capabilities of Artificial intelligence...

Well-done hack flames 3.2M Burger King Russia users

Call me cyncial...

Was this an internal operation by the Kremlin? As in anyone attending an American burger chain, is clearly suspect, so they should be the first ones called up for the *cough*War*cough* oh-so Special Operation.

Wouldnt surprise me.

PS What is it with deluded Dictators and making up names? Special Operations, Super Intelligence, Covfefe... (War, AI, and only god knows what...)

Longtime SUSE staff asked if they'd opt for 'voluntary separation'

...supported by industry-leading staff retention globally of 6 percent in core operational areas and an overall rate of 12 percent.

So only 12% of staff decide to stick around and only 6% in core areas. In the current climate, I guess that really is good staff retention in IT...

AI can't outprompt a shortage of power, water, and land

As I get older...

As I get older I'm beginning to realise how much of a "commie" I must be.

"...which predicts governments will increasingly make datacenter operators pay for the resources they consume.

Wow ground breaking news. That the datacentres might need to actually PAY for what they use. That's a radical idea, right there!

All of this should be easy. Domestic use of water and energy should be guaranteed. Guaranteed in supply, and guaranteed as the lowest cost available. Industry gets charged more, and only gets supplied when there is excess over domestic capacity. THAT would encourage energy providers to invest in additional capacity to supply the more expensive power to Industry. Or to charge them appropriately for additional supplies. No discounts for buying in bulk, or at least not such that they are paying less than domestic users. Same with Water suppliers, they will invest in ways to save water, in order to be able to supply more at a higher rate to industry. Costs from Industry should never be added to domestic costs.

This seems so simple, and so obvious. And yet... I guess brown envelopes speak louder than logic to those in politics...

Boss bought cheap 'printer' from a catalog and was left without a leg to stand on

Re: 1,250

What do you call someone who hangs around with Musicians? A drummer...

:D

Sorry, couldnt resist...

Re: 1,250

Dont get me started on electrical suppliers, there all wankers.

I've lost count of the number of times, where you contact them for a quote for 1 or 2 pieces of an item.

No problem they say. Here's our quote with the per unit cost. Oh by the way there's a minimum order quantity for 50 units. So a single part costs a couple of hundred, but thanks to their MOQ, you're looking at an effective cost of €10k because you only want 1 bloody item!

This would be more acceptable, if we were talking about parts which would basically necessitate a whole new production run, or if the MOQ was a reasonable number. But they also do this with standard Norm parts, and the MOQ is NEVER a reasonable number. I once got a MOQ requiring 263 items to be purchased (WTF?!?).

Electrical Suppliers really take the cake on this. (and then demand you buy more cakes before they'll even consider giving you a slice...)

NASA gives SpaceX a billion reasons to keep flying Crew Dragon

Re: I dont get SpaceX and Musk on this...

That might be the claim, but Starship is a big shape, and a heavy shape, so yes you can under fill it, but you are still carrying more weight into orbit than an equivalent smaller rocket. Which means you still need more fuel than that equivalent smaller rocket. Which will add up.

I also know that there is a claim that they can take up lots of satellites at the same time. Which might work if your setting up a constellation, but it's rare you will actually have that many satellites to launch that all want to be in the same neck of the space woods. So for those that want to be somewhere else, then they need to bring along their own propellant to get to where they want to go, which means they are heavier and more costly...

I just dont see the economics of Starship actually working, personally. Or at least not enough to replace the workhorse Falcons. Starship will have a role for sure, just like the A380, but just because we have an A380, doesnt mean we get rid of the A320's...

I dont get SpaceX and Musk on this...

One size does not fit all. In pretty much any field, but in space especially. So yes Starship when it works will have a big segment that it controls. But there are other niches. Niches which are nice and popular and bring in money right now - like Falcon 9 and Dragon. So why not keep both them AND Starship in operation?

Not every launch needs a super massive rocket. Many launches are happy with a medium sized stack or even smaller.

Or to give a similar analogy, not every flight needs an A380. Not every destination can handle an A380. So there's a bloody good reason Airbus has different sized Aircraft (A320, A330, A340, A350, etc.). Hell even within the A320, there are numerous configurations. Because one size does NOT fit all.

Musk seems to be planning to take SpaceX out of a very profitable market segment to focus on a super heavy segment, which there is no guarantee there's even a market for it. The A380 is stopping production soon, because it turns out there are only so many super large passenger liners you need out there. I'm willing to bet the space biz is not so different...

Techie fixed Wi-Fi dead zone with a drill

Re: WiFi dead zones

Are you certain your not part of some unethical psychology experiment?

Changing walls and paths, uncontrollable lighting, bouts of alternating heat and cold. Sounds like someone is conducting a psych experiment on the tolerance of homo sapiens to ridiculous situations. The next step up on those rats in a maze simulations. But at least the rat gets a treat immediately. the human has to wait until the end of the month to get their "treat".

KPMG tech cuts come with a severance sum some staff call insulting

Have you ever noticed how when a firm is doing well, those at the top get big pay rises and large bonuses (much larger than those below them at any rate). Yet when the company is doing poorly, those at the top dont get asked to reduce their pay, nor are they expected to forego there bonuses (maybe they'll take some a somewhat smaller bonus than in the good years, but then again maybe not). It's like once you reach a certain level, you get rewarded no matter how the company is doing.

And if they really want that big bonus, then they will just sack a bunch of people doing the actual work, and then give themselves those bigger bonuses from the "savings".

It must be nice at those high levels...

Nine-year-old runs up $118,000 bill on dad's corporate credit card advertising his Roblox YouTube channel

Re: Perhaps he should sue Google Ads for a refund?

And only at a cost of $118,000 and a full time job.

Clearly money well spent...

CISA decides weekly vulnerability bulletin isn't necessary anymore

Based on the headline

Based on the headline, my first thought was, "Ah ok they're moving to Daily emails. Makes sense."

But ok let's go the other way. I guess after being gutted by Musk and Trump, there's no one left to manage the mail list.

Pity, CISA was good there for a while...

Iranian spies hit Windows machines with Chosen Brick data-stealing malware

Re: Flash, really?

Number one rule for any internet connected device. If someone asks you to download and install an App. You go to the relevant App store (not via a link given to you by said person), and download the relevant App there. Making sure you get the correct popular App downloaded millions of times previously.

Actually, this article talks about windows. Who the hell runs a program on their computer, just because some random tells them to? I'm forever astounded by humanity...

US confirms it has weapons in spaaaaaace

Re: Tell me that alien life exists...

To paraphrase (steal from) the late great Terry Pratchett:

"Scientists have calculated that the chances of finding Alien life are millions to one.

But as everyone knows million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten..."

Peers ask why UK cyber bill leaves execs off the personal liability hook

Well my firm has no need for Quicklime at all. But it's always handy to keep a couple of barrels around. Especially at review time. Just in case...

-- BOFH

Re: It's blatantly obvious

One way I could see to fix this would be for the regulators to be allowed to keep a certain percentage of the punishment, on top of their usual budget.

That would encourage them to get strong on enforcement AND it would encourage them to go after the big fish. A win against a small Corner Store is not going to top up your budget enough to even cover the weekly coffee budget, but pinning a multi-national to the wall, might get you a whole new department.

At the moment, since the budget is fixed, and they dont see any gain from the punishment, it's just easier (and safer) to go after the small fish who dont have legal departments, or the money to tie them up in court, than to go after the big boys, who can fight them and empty the existing budget with delaying tactics and other legal shenanigans...

Techie sent to fix Nobel Prize winner’s PC almost set it on fire

I dont see a problem with using COTS connectors. That makes absolute sense. But then deciding to switch the pins around from the standard. "Yes lets make the pin everyone else used for Power, into the Ground Pin. That makes perfect sense!"

*face palm icon*

Then again, I remember more then a few firms who liked to create non-standard peripheral connections, just so you had to buy replacements and spare from them and them alone... So for once the "Never attribute to Malice what can be account to through Stupidity" may not apply...

I know that all of us brilliant engineers now look at this, and slap our heads in dismay and cry "What fool designs two identical and interchangeable plugs with differing pin layouts! Oh what foolishness...!", but alas our knowledge of the foolishness of this comes entirely from the failures of our predecessors...

It is less standing on the shoulders of Giants, as climbing over the failed experiments of idiots...

User who handled life-or-death situations struggled with the SHIFT key

Re: Locale dependent description too

to steal from the late great Bill Hicks:

"Have you noticed how, despite the increase in the cost of living, it remains so popular?"

Re: Locale dependent description too

ukk dont get me started on different keyboard layouts.

My current work laptop features a German keyboard, and is installed with the majority of things in the German language (which is fine as I work in Germany), BUT the very first login into Windows assumes the keyboard is in US. After that first login, everything operates as per normal with a german keyboard (including all subsequent pasword entries!) . Since one of the letters in my password is in a different spot on the US keyboard. Pretty much every day, I fail the password on the first try before I remember that frigging US keyboard change.

IT dont seem to know how to fix it, nor care particularly to find a solution. So I'm stuck with it for now.

And dont get me started on the French keyboard, which is just plain weird!

But the most difficult localisation problem I've had recently was actually on a visit to Hong Kong, I used my Visa at a store and then was asked to put my pin in. The number keyboard was not your standard 0 at the bottom and then 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, but a random mash of numbers. The 3 was in the 0 position! It is really hard to put your pin in without muscle memory overriding it... I have heard that it's a security feature to prevent someone grabbing your pin, but f%&k me was that hard to do...

AI-assisted mushroom hunting is a recipe for a bad trip

I can remember there was a case in Aus where a newly arrived Chinese chef found some Death Caps that he mistakenly identified with a Chinese mushroom that is a rare delicacy.

He managed to kill himself and a couple of friends (but thankfully did not add them to the restaurant menu and kill a bunch of other people!).

Apparently, they do look pretty much identical, so he could be mistaken for misidentifying them. Except that he was in a land, not renown for the Chinese variant.

So an AI identification is also useless as it would likely be well versed in American mushrooms and maybe some other popular ones, but anything local, rare, or that resembles something from another location, will absolutely be misidentified.

The teen Bill Gates has answers to the AI-pocalypse the 70-year-old Gates has forgotten

Re: Ethics and scruples

What's a history professor doing teaching law students?

Wait you mean these weren't law students? Wow I'm flabbergasted. I didn't think any other course required the students moral compass to be surgically removed upon entry. Well, other than maybe the MBA students...

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.