* Posts by Ken Hagan

8432 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2007

After clash over Rust in Linux, now Asahi lead quits distro, slams Linus' kernel leadership

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Re: Rust burnout, blah blah, whatever

It's orders of magnitude smaller in terms of userbase. I dare say it is a substantial piece of code, but for most of the world it is literally irrelevant, so "substantial" != "significant".

LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab

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Re: All you need

Yes unless, as pointed out just above, your local admins have flicked the switch that says only Outlook can connect "because security".

WD told to pay half a billion in patent damages before biz splits

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Re: Your hono(u)r...

The patent refers to functionality that had existed for a decade or more at the time of filing, because it is both obvious and useful.

Basically, any NAS or network share (even Windows for Workgroups, at a pinch) offers the ability to perform operations actually on the storage device and clearly any operation that encrypts or decrypts the data is going to be more efficient if you do it where the data is rather than pulling the data over the network, twice.

There is something clearly wrong with a patent system that lets you patent an obvious thing that has existed for a decade or two. Society has no incentive to grant such an "inventor" a temporary monopoly.

AI summaries turn real news into nonsense, BBC finds

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Re: I'm sorry, I'll read that again.

Apparently his suggestion that Ukraine should be divided equally between Putin and Trump Mining Corp didn't go down in Kyiv as well as he expected.

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

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Apparently not "all" of us do.

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Plenty of people are asking why, and plenty of others are not asking that only because they think they already know the answer.

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https://factmyth.com/factoids/hitler-was-elected-in-a-democratic-election/

That's stretching a point further than the facts will go. Lots of people voted for him, but it wasn't enough to put him in charge. He needed to use intimidation, vote rigging and ultimately good old violence to get the top job.

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"are those who actually bothered to vote against Trump"

Not even all of those. In a FPTP system, anyone voting Green wasted their vote. Yeah, it probably feels great to make a positive vote rather than a negative one, but scrawling "none of the above" would feel good, too, and would have no less impact.

'Maybe the problem is you' ... Linus Torvalds wades into Linux kernel Rust driver drama

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Re: How far we've come!

"A curious sarcastic commenter wants to know: *when* one "googles" for Torvalds' age, today, does one actually *find* it?"

Yes. You do. It is, in fact, the zeroth hit since the text

"Linus Torvalds Age

55 years

December 28, 1969"

appears in a special box of its own above the usual results.

I'd be willing to bet that it took me less time to discover this than it took you to write your comment.

Agent P waxes lyrical about 14 years of systemd

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Re: Tail end backwards

"The history is all out there is it not?"

Perhaps it wasn't the right history.

Microsoft quietly erases Windows 11 TPM 2.0 bypass workaround from help page

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Re: MS doing their best to slow down the adoption of Windows 11

The fact that the senate is split 50:50 is not a happy accident that would be spoiled by the addition if a left-leaning 51st state. It is a natural consequence of a first-past-the-post voting system. You always end up with two main parties and they want to make as few policy compromises as possible to gain power. Therefore, both are aiming to attract 51% of the seats. Larger majorities (which certainly do happen) merely indicate that the losing side really fucked up.

Update: I forgot to add that with both sides chasing 51%, we should not be surprised that the election campaigns are basically a scrap for that 2% overlap and the other 98% are ignored.

Why users still couldn't care less about Windows 11

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Re: Windows with pushing pay as you play games etc.

"I know Apple change a premium for their products but they usually just work"

As I note in a reply a little bit above this one, that's true of Microsoft, too. Pay a little premium for Server 2025 and it just works, without all the Win11 shit.

It really is just all about the money.

Ken Hagan Gold badge

If that server is running Server, it is upgradable. Server 2025 is built from the same codebase as Win11 but doesn't gave the same hardware requirements.

Apparently if you pay several hundred dollars then that works instead.

Palantir designed to 'power the West to its obvious innate superiority,' says CEO

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Also scary...

"The company beat its Q4 estimates and saw its share price climb 18 percent in late trading following the financial update."

So the management come out as raging loons and the investors all go "Yay!".

Privacy Commissioner warns the ‘John Smiths’ of the world can acquire ‘digital doppelgangers’

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Re: Don't they have the equivalent...

Strewth! Makes it even more mind-boggling that this cock-up occurred in a medical context.

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Re: Don't they have the equivalent...

FWIW, we also have an NHS number, which is assigned at birth rather than in your mid-teens. (Not sure how the system copes with immigrants. Probably chaotically.)

Do we also have rules against one branch of government using the "number" of another branch, or am I thinking of something else?

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A bit of a "whoosh" moment there, I think!

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Re: Tough Problem

An established idiom, yes, but language evolves and you may find that this particular idiom faces Darwinian pressure from some of the aforementioned girls.

FuriPhone FLX1: A Debian-powered brick that puts GNOME in your back pocket

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This is surely the USP of a Linux phone; the end-user gets to use Android apps rather than the other way around.

The curious story of Uncle Sam's HR dept, a hastily set up email server, and fears of another cyber disaster

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If someone literally walked into my employer's premises and plugged in an email server, it literally wouldn't have LAN access. Is USG that lax?

Trump admin's purge of US cyber advisory boards was 'foolish,' says ex-Navy admiral

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Re: We ignore the true reason

For extra irony, the second amendment (unusually) contains a rationale, which is to allow folks to see off bullies like Trump if they ignore the other bits of the constitution egregiously enough.

It's like the US Constitution actually has a civil war built-in as a feature.

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Re: Is 'learnings' a word?

Apparently it even has a different spelling on either side of the pond. You can't get much more official than that.

Tesla's numbers disappoint again ... and the crowd goes wild ... again

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Is that connected to Trump's complaint about all these European cars that he's going to slap tariffs on, despite them being built in the USA?

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

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Re: Ready Shoot Aim

Almost certainly the confusion, but to answer the question anyway let me observe that during the Brexit negotiations the EU was conspicuously united behind Ireland whenever the Irish border and the Anglo-Irish agreement came up. The success of this policy did not go unnticed either in the UK or in the EU countries themselves.

It is very likely that any Trumpian bullying against any EU state will be met with a response by all of them

DeepSeek stirs intrigue and doubt across the tech world

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Training data

It is quite likely that the Chinese models have a very different training set. The US models appear to have been trained kn "any and all the shit we can scrape off the web", which is a very large dataset for anyone with deep enough pockets to pay the leccy bills.

Someone training a model behind the Great Firewall might be forced to find an alternative source, and might solve the problem by creating a smaller but more carefully selected dataset (perhaps using cheap labour, which does at least have the merit of being real intelligence).

If so, a comparison of the models' performance might be quite instructive.

Linux rolls out the welcome mat for Microsoft's Copilot key

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Re: What should it do?

Perhaps you missed the bit where it already doesn't do anything and is already user-configurable to do any useful penguiny task.

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

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Re: Where are the trainees

Coming up with novelty is not invention. Invention is noticing that a particular novelty actually solves a problem. As far as I'm aware, that step has always been done by a human and I see no indications of this changing anytime soon.

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Re: Where are the trainees

"Is HR the bottom?"

Can you get sued for squillions as a result of a bad HR decision? You can? Oh. Well the "responsible" execs will have departed by then, along with the bonus they got for improving the bottom line.

You'd think the shareholders might be pissed off, but most of them are "us" and we've delegated the oversight to a pension fund manager who has also changed job since their failure to oversee properly.

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Re: The Data Collection Initialtive

Upvoted, but the answers might well be that they aren't legally allowed to spy on their own side and they can't be bothered to pay for it themselves. Having it be done by someone else (who can be leant on legally and privately) solves both problens.

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Re: Tell it like it is

I'd say that this is such a useful word (and much-needed) in this context that it might normalise the use of "shit" in polite conversation.

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Re: Desperation.

"Phone sales have been slowing because they are just a commodity now."

True for a while for most folks of finite means. For pay-as-you-go customers, almost the only reasons to buy a new phone are:

The non-replaceable battery is fucked.

The USB socket is fucked.

The screen is cracked coz you dropped it.

Interestingly, two of those are things the manufacturer could avoid.

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Re: $$$$

And if you look at nVidia's share price, you can even work out how big the farms are.

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Re: So vote with your feet

Universities do have such rules but the can only be enforced if you can tell AI contributions reliably. For courses which use coursework as part of the assessment, and for disciplines where there is no single right answer, this is hard and you can't expect the AI pushers to help. (It isn't in their interests and there is nothing to stop a student adapting the output anyway.)

In most cases, the only solution is to assess students under traditional exam conditions. The arts and humanities won't be keen on that. Neither will the distance learning industry. Perhaps those qualifications just become worth a little less as a result.

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Re: Since we need to opt out

Wired ... no prompt for me. Perhaps NoScript blocked it.

Trump nukes 60 years of anti-discrimination rules for federal contractors

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Re: only matters if companies change policies

Yes. It is.

Why shouldn't the views of these ignorant twats be respected? Sure, they're morons, but that's probably what they think of me and *my* views definitely ought to be represented. So so should theirs.

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Re: Too many white men

There is no job description for VP except "be electable". Biden/Harris got lots of votes, so you'll have a hard time showing that she wasn't qualified. In the absence of a time machine, you'll also have a hard time proving that any other pick would have done better.

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"Cromwells actions are a really clear warning about power & corruption."

In fairness, he *had* just conquered the country and Conquerors are not noted for their obedience to existing laws or conventions.

1066 is often regarded as the last successful invasion of England and Wales, but I can think of 5 subsequent changes of regime that involved pointy sticks and fireworks. For the most part, however, it was local lads waving the sticks.

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

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Re: Going Concern

"and leave TikTok US to act as a money-making machine."

Well, as the fine article said, TikTok's accounts only exist in a secret filing-cabinet in a tax haven so ... perhaps it isn't a money-making machine. (Or, perhaps it wouldn't be if it had to abide by US rules.)

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Re: This isn't about today's propaganda.

"Remember that dog & pony pr0n that you and your buds were laughing at when you were 15?"

God, yeah, that was funny! Hey, if you've still got a copy (you perve!) post a copy so we can all have another laugh.

In other news, times change. The current generation of teenagers will be the middle-aged people doing the judging when this blackmail fodder is unleashed. Mountains of painstakingly acquired posting and browsing history may well turn out to be entirely worthless when you want to use it in anger.

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Re: This is ...

To judge from the votes cast, quite a lot of people believed that.

Words alone won't get the stars and stripes to Mars

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Re: O M G Particle

"You'd want more than a couple of hours, probably up to a week to do some serious science / geology."

If you wanted to do serious science, and you had the budget required to send the many missions that would be required to send humans to Mars (let alone bring them back), you would spend a tenth of that budget on robots and spend the rest on sex and drugs to keep you amused while you were waiting for the results.

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In short, a Mars mission will require several dozen flights, only one of which will carry people. Also, they won't be able to stay long unless there are many more flights to place serious infrastructure at the landing site.

(The navigation problem might be solved by some of those flights carrying a few GPS satellites.)

Microsoft to force Windows 11 24H2 on Home and Pro users

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"How do Microsoft get away with this? If it wasn't for certain software I would have ditched it years ago."

I think you just answered your own question.

If you are desperate to get away from this, you need to learn about running a Windows VM under and alternative OS. Then you can gradually migrate function away from Windows. (Obviously web browsing, email and office-style apps are the low-hanging fruit here.) Naturally most people either can't be bothered or are too fearful to try, but it surprises me that enterprises and medium-sized businesses don't seem to be tempted either.

Tesla recalls 239,382 vehicles over rearview camera problems

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Re: I can't wait to hear what...

"The next 4, 8 or 12 years with Drumpf in charge..."

No need to be alarmust. It'll be 4. The 2nd amendment was specifically written to ensure such things.

'Savvy' shortcuts produce near-instant speech-to-speech translation of 36 languages

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Training data

Unlike some applications, like ChatGPT trained on shitty web pages, this one (speech-to-speech) could presumably acquire a lot of good training data by plugging into the simultaneous translation systems operated by large international organisations like the EU parliament or the UN general assembly.

I'm sure those orgs would be happy to co-operate in exchange for a suitable payment, since they might also be among the main beneficiaries down the line.

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Noisy rooms

One reason why humans do better than machines in such environments is that humans have two ears but machines typically try to get away with only one microphone.

Anyone who has ever had a bunged up ear will confirm that noisy environments are much harder to deal with. Presumably the brain uses the second signal to filter out most of the noise, thereby greatly simplifying the problem of understanding. Presumably also, a machine could do the same if it had suitably placed additional microphones. (Most phones already do this, but the placement of their microphones means that it only works when the phone is held like a normal phone by the speaker.)

Europe hopes Trump trumps Biden's plan for US to play AI gatekeeper

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Re: No limit for the Netherlands but for EU?

Except that "paying attention" in that way is against the (local) law so it just isn't going to happen.

Pornhub lockdown and fact-free Zuckbots – welcome to 2025

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Re: It's an easy go to

Upvted, coz I like freedom of speech, but I wish you hadn't mentioned Rotherham.

Elon and his friends are coming across as total twats here in the UK because (living here) we are well aware that we've had decades of inquiries and done bugger all about it, and well aware that the problem is not confined to particular racial groups (either perpetrators or victims). Apparently a whole load of loud commentators from across the pond are unaware of this but don't feel obliged to do any research before sounding off on the subject.

Microsoft tests 45% M365 price hikes in Asia-Pacific to see how much you enjoy AI

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A tame IMAP mailbox is an almost foolproof way of migrating emails. It probably doesn't help with your calendar stuff, though. Only you can say whether a 10-year old calendar is important to you.

Windows 11 24H2 can run – sort of – in 184MB

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To be fair, Win11 has better support for modern graphics cards and for bus hardware like USB, SATA, ...

...but being equally fair, I doubt whether that justifies such an increase in footprint.