I see it uses AI to both pad out emails with waffle and uses AI to summarize emails, removing the waffle. If we all just agree to send succinct emails we wouldn't need AI.
Posts by Graham 32
241 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jun 2011
Fresh version of Windows user-friendly Zorin OS arrives to tempt the Linux-wary
You're not imagining things – USB memory sticks are getting worse
Meta's ad-free scheme dares you to buy your privacy back, one euro at a time
The iPhone 15 has a Goldilocks issue: Too big or too small. Maybe a case will make it just right
Re: Phones are lovely but they'd be much better without cameras
Agree about the camera bump. One thing the Google Pixel gets right is having a horizontal lump so it will sit on a table ok. I guess most phone designers never test on-table usage.
As for the backs, something with a bit of friction would be nice. Glass-backed phones love sliding everywhere. Mine will not stay on the arm of my sofa, even if it takes a few minutes before it moves. Perhaps a "skin" will fix it. (I've never used a phone case because if I wanted a bulkier phone I'd just buy a cheaper one.)
80% of execs regret calling employees back to the office
Re: unpopular opinion: no, WFH and WFO are not the same.
They are all expensive. Sitting in a noisy office is expensive, writing documentation is expensive, muddling through is expensive. Which one is cheapest depends on the situation. The reason muddling through often wins over documentation is because it defers the effort until it's needed - how very agile(!)
Millions of Gigabyte PC motherboards backdoored? What's the actual score?
Re: How do we defend against this? - Linux edition
Came to the comments with the same question. David 132's post above suggests it's the OS that pulls the file from UEFI. The article makes it sound like UEFI is pushing the file to disk. If it's a pull system then I'm less worried. Linux would have to implement it, the motherboard would have to ship with a Linux version of the file, and Linux would have to ignore all sensible security checks such as asking the user if it's ok. That's just not Linux's style. Some clarity about the mechanism would help.
Hyundai and Kia issue software upgrades to thwart killer TikTok car theft hack
Another RAC staffer nabbed for storing, sharing car crash data
Those low-code tools devs love so much? They'll grow 20% in 2023, says Gartner
Linus Torvalds to kernel devs: Grow up and stop pulling all-nighters just before deadline
If most of the commits are undoing earlier commits then the end result may be a small review. Although any change with lots of reverts along the way should be a sign that close scrutiny is required.
For new code, and even if following the lots of small commits strategy, 1m41 is a crazy short time for review. Seems Linus is a "if it compiles it ships" kind of reviewer. I hope there are others doing the real reviews.
Firefox 105 is here, and it's faster and more memory-frugal
IBM wins National Savings & Investment bank tech and ops deal
Thunderbird 102 gets a major facelift, Matrix chat support
Still no sensible layout for a widescreen
The 3 column "vertical view" layout still thinks the email should cram the subject, sender, date and various icons on a single line. Many other mail apps split this across 2 or 3 lines to make it readable. Thunderbird's email list needs so much width it only works in "classic view" with the email list above the mail content, and that layout has been looking silly since people started using widescreen monitors.
Open source body quits GitHub, urges you to do the same
Re: Hold on a second
The full sentence from the blog post is: "Launching a for-profit product that disrespects the FOSS community in the way Copilot does simply makes the weight of GitHub's bad behavior too much to bear."
So it's more the *nature* of the for-profit product, not for-profit per se.
Apple may have to cough up $1bn to Brits in latest iPhone Batterygate claim
Re: Lawyers getting rich here
It depends what your priorities are. Some may want the phone to run slower so they don't have to charge it more often as the battery ages. Others may be happy to tolerate more frequent charging as long as the apps continue run at the same performance level.
I think most users would expect the latter as that's a natural consequence of ageing batteries - they just don't last as long as new ones. The issue here is an iOS update changed that decision, was undocumented, and Apple took an active decision to degrade performance and by how much. If they'd just made it an optional feature it would have been seen as a great innovation.
Rivals aren't convinced by Microsoft's one-click default browser change
The right to repairable broadband befits a supposedly critical utility
Boys outnumber girls 6 to 1 in UK compsci classes
Microsoft proposes type syntax for JavaScript
Re: The "I don't need types because I know" crowd
Agree, but I'd be even more strict. If the program is bigger than one screen it benefits from typing. And if there's more than one developer it's essential. Find type bugs can be painful.
It's really the same argument as why you should use meaningful variable names instead of a/b/c/d: It is quicker to write a line of code if you have fewer key presses. It is not a quicker way to write code.
The zero-password future can't come soon enough
BitConnect boss accused of $2.4bn crypto-Ponzi fraud has disappeared
New York Times outlays seven-figure sum for 1,900 lines of JavaScript – yes, we mean Wordle
Epoch-alypse now: BBC iPlayer flaunts 2038 cutoff date, gives infrastructure game away
Scam, pyramid scheme, environmental disaster: Vivaldi boss shares his thoughts on crypto-coins
Re: Wall Street?
> In theory the value of each dollar (or whatever) should be backed by economic activity in the country, but because of the magic of fractional reserve (banks can lend 10 X as much money as they hold deposits), there is far more money than economic activity backing it up.
I see transactions as activity. A bank note itself doesn't represent activity.
Fractional reserve banking creates more activity without creating more money. In the same way putting a room on Airbnb can create more renting without creating more rooms.
Logitech Signature M650: A mouse that will barely emit a squeak or a clickety-click
Re: Stop with the handedness!
Happy 5000 user here too. It's a big mouse which fits my (left) hand much better than the super tiny mice most people produce these days. Has a good weight to it too.
It does pick up some dirt on the side/back rubber part but hasn't gone sticky on me like some other devices. I've had a few of these mice too. The rubber on the wheel is what fails for me: one stretched and I had to cut it and glue it to the plastic wheel. Another the rubber just crumbled after a few years. Latest one about 5 years old and still problem free.
Re other comments here about sweaty hands causing the stickiness problem on rubberised surfaces: I had a rubberised cdrom drive that went consistently sticky all over, so the stickiness can happen on parts that are never/rarely touched.
Log4j doesn't just blow a hole in your servers, it's reopening that can of worms: Is Big Biz exploiting open source?
Lenovo ThinkPad T14s: Impressively average, which is how corporate buyers like it
A tiny island nation has put the rights to .tv up for grabs – but what’s this? Problematic contract clauses? Again?
What do iOS and Android have in common? Their apps suck at privacy, boffins say
Boffins unveil SSD-Insider++, promise ransomware detection and recovery right in your storage
ProtonMail deletes 'we don't log your IP' boast from website after French climate activist reportedly arrested
Oh the humanity: McDonald's out of milkshakes across Great Britain
Apple's bright idea for CSAM scanning could start 'persecution on a global basis' – 90+ civil rights groups
Re: Apple has learned a lot from China
Isn't it more a case of "Apple won't pay you for product placement if you let the bad guys use iPhones"?
It's not like every car manufacturer has to approve the use of their vehicles in films.
I know the 90s were a different time but I doubt Jaguar approved "For men who'd like hand jobs from beautiful women they hardly know." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzyNPoI17rE
Apple says its CSAM scan code can be verified by researchers. Corellium starts throwing out dollar bills
Apple's iPhone computer vision has the potential to preserve privacy but also break it completely
Firefox 91 introduces cookie clearing, clutter-free printing, Microsoft single sign-on... so where are all the users?
Nice fonts
My employer, an MS shop, forced the MS SSO stuff on us a few months ago. I tried Chrome, Edge and Vivaldi and all suck at font rendering. ClearType settings are ignored. Many pages (but strangely not all) use greyscale anti-aliasing with many lines being two pixels of grey and others being one pixel of black. Slack being a big offender. El Reg looks good though. Maybe if I had a 4K screen I wouldn't care but at 2K it's a mess. Thought it was just me until I saw a screenshot from a colleague and their fonts were awful too. Edge has an experimental option to improve things a bit, so MS sees room for improvement.
I may have to put up with the stupid buttons-for-tabs UI Firefox has cooked up, but at least my eyes can have a rest as I'm back on Firefox.
We can't believe people use browsers to manage their passwords, says maker of password management tools
Google killed desktop Drive and replaced it with two apps. Now it’s killing those, and Drive for desktop is returning
Treaty of Roam finally in ashes: O2 cracks, joins rivals, adds data roaming charges for heavy users in EU
Firefox 89: Can this redesign stem browser's decline?
Apple announces lossless HD audio at no extra cost, then Amazon Music does too. The ball is now in Spotify's court
Microsoft loves Linux – as in, it loves Linux users running Linux desktop apps on Windows PCs
UK.gov wants mobile makers to declare death dates for their new devices from launch
Microsoft's Surface Laptop 4 now includes AMD options for biz customers, boasts up to 19 hours of battery life
Square screen, central touchpad. Nice.
Like all the top end laptops it has a squarer screen and no numberpad to give a central touchpad. Why don't cheaper brands don't do this*? Dropping a numberpad should save money and it's hardly like 13"/15" panels need to be 16:9 cos they're also used in TVs.
Now if they'd just use a matte screen it'd be perfect. Losing the touchscreen is no loss IMHO, my work laptop has it, it's a gimmick.
*Edit: 13-14" laptops have no numberpad, but at 15"+ it's hard to find a sub-£1k laptop without one.