Posts by diodesign

Software dev bombshell: Programmers who use spaces earn MORE than those who use tabs

Re: correlation is not causation.

Aw come on, don't kill the fun.

(PS: we say in the piece that correlation is not causation.)

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Stop trying to make The Machine happen, HPE. It's not going to happen

Re: ... early space race, which saw Russia launch its Sputnik satellite ...

Fair point - now changed. Don't forget to email [e-mail] so we can fix up stuff straight away rather via reading the comments a day later.

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Samsung releases 49-inch desktop monitor with 32:9 aspect ratio

Re: 1080 x 720

Typo fixed. It's already Friday in Oz - brains are tired after a week-long slog.

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Sorry to burst your bubble, but Microsoft's 'Ms Pac-Man beating AI' is more Automatic Idiot

Re: Problem?

Yes - that's why it's called machine learning. Chess programs aren't AI. They are algorithms and preprogrammed patterns. Airbus autopilot isn't AI. It's algorithms and preprogrammed patterns. Compare this to DQN, which didn't even know what the game controller's buttons did. It was given video frames and told to get on with it. It had to figure it out from scratch. That's where AI wants to head if it's going to make anything remotely intelligent.

Sure, the world runs on algorithms and preprogrammed patterns. No problem with that. Let's just not trumpet it as AI.

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The open source community is nasty and that's just the docs

Re: Time wasters

"I felt uncomfortable and out-of-place!"

No further questions, your honor.

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Cuffed: Govt contractor 'used work PC to leak' evidence of Russia's US election hacking

Re: Any incompetent should know what todo by now.

"I can't remember the person who did it"

Because they only exist in your imagination, Donald.

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DXC Technology looks to lighten the payroll six weeks after launch

Re: anybody Know?

DXC = a mashup of CSC and HPE.

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Google DeepMind's use of 1.6m Brits' medical records to test app was 'legally inappropriate'

Re: ratfox

Edit: Story updated - it's not an AI system. It's a fixed algorithm. We've tidied up the piece.

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For now, GNU GPL is an enforceable contract, says US federal judge

Re: Nick

Thanks, Nick. All links welcome - don't forget that while most of us Reg hacks have been reading the site for ages, we haven't been working for it's entire lifespan. So the people producing El Reg today for you, based on the values we've long held dear, may have skipped an article or two in their write up. Basically, if you can't see a link, it's because we've been running around on fire trying to make quality content for you, and may have left off some old links. I am sorry.

Your 90-second guide to new stuff Nvidia teased today: Volta V100 chips, a GPU cloud, and more

Re: 120 teraflops using INT8

Yeah, it was a long day and brain wasn't fully firing. Nvidia quoted 120 "Tensor" TFLOPS (see my comment below), which we took to be marketing spiel for INT8. Duh, INT8 is integer so TFLOPS makes no sense. I've taken out the stat because Nv doesn't, TTBOMK, define exactly what a "Tensor" TFLOPS is.

Edit: See article update.

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Re: INT8 performance in FLOPS

It's actually 120 "Tensor" TFLOPS which we took to mean INT8, but Nvidia claims it is not - so we've taken it out. Last time we asked, Nv wouldn't define what a "Tensor" TFLOPS is, so we've axed that stat and stuck with industry standard metrics (64FP and 32FP).

We've asked Nv to clarify what a "Tensor" TFLOPS is. If they give us a clear explanation, we'll update the story.

Edit: See article update.

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Mozilla to Thunderbird: You can stay here and we may give you cash, but as a couple, it's over

Re: I use Thunderbird and I want to support it

Here:

https://donate.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Mozilla is handling donations for Thunderbird.

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America 'will ban carry-on laptops on flights from UK, Europe to US'

Re: So what about the battery

AFAIR, airlines let you put devices containing li-ion batteries in the hold, but not separate batteries. So a laptop, fine. A replacement battery, not so fine.

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Facebook is abusive. It's time to divorce it

Re: The Man Who Fell To Earth

We covered Uber here.

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How to remote hijack computers using Intel's insecure chips: Just use an empty login string

Re: Linux?

Ah ta, meant to add that link. Done so.

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Windows 10 S forces Bing, Edge on your kids. If you don't like it, get Win10 Pro – Microsoft

Re: anonymous Microsoft apologist

> Firstly there are at least ten browsers in the Windows Store

You are looking at the wrong store - the Windows 10 S store doesn't have any browsers in it. And probably won't.

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Leaked: The UK's secret blueprint with telcos for mass spying on internet, phones – and backdoors

Re: Encryption is not made "illegal"

By illegal we mean it outlaws the implementation of truly secure encryption. You, as an individual, using it may not be in trouble, but you, an app developer, will be if your product doesn't obey a technical capability notice served on it (that's a backdoor with a fancy name).

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It's Russian hackers, FBI and Wikileaks wot won it – Hillary Clinton on her devastating election loss

Re: Not entirely correct.

Sadly correct. Winning the popular vote doesn't mean much - see Al Gore.

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O (n^2) Canada! Code bugs knacker buses, TV, broadband, phone lines

Re: AdamWill

Eh, we kinda wanted to do both stories and decided to save time and roll them together. No harm, no foul, right?

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Another career suicide as reporter leaves The Register for broadcaster

Re: Move #1...

Over the past two decades or so, we've had vultures fly off to Bloomberg, NYT, WiReD, the Telegraph, WSJ, Ars, Channel 4, Guardian, Times, I've probably forgotten some others, and now Sky News.

The Regification of global technology news continues.

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Apple fanbois are officially sheeple. Yes, you heard. Deal with it

Re: Anonymous

"You know they all got them as freebies right?"

Any Apple gear we use, we paid for it. Apple has never given us any gear, not in the six years I've been here. We use a mix of Windows, macOS and Linux on the desktop, Linux on the backend, and iOS and Android handhelds (and until recently, Windows Phone).

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Having a monopoly on x86 chips and charging eyewatering prices really does pay off – Intel CEO

Re: Headline

Brian said strong prices boosted sales - ie: they charged high prices and yet people still bought their stuff - netting them a lot of cash.

Which is easy when you've got a monopoly over data center and desktop compute.

It's a flippant headline for effect: it's all explained in the story.

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Intel redesigns flawed Atom CPUs to stave off premature chip death

Re: anonymous

Hi Brian!

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SolidFire CEO Dave Wright spins down at NetApp – for now

Re: Not true!

FWIW El Reg tried reaching people for comment/confirmation. Chris, who wrote the article, explained:

"We tried contacting Dave by [Twitter] DM and NetApp people by DM and email on Sunday afternoon. After getting confirmation that Dave Wright had left NetApp early this morning, we pushed the story live before any of these approaches had generated a reply. We figured the story was that important."

We've updated the article with new information - and published NetApp's confirmation separately here.

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Trump's self-imposed cybersecurity deadline is up: What we got?

Re: Re: STOP THE PRESSES!!!

We call him Pres Snowflake because he can't take a single word of criticism or humor without a meltdown or throwing a strop.

It's ironic that Team Trump refer to liberals as snowflakes when it's Donald blowing up on Twitter whenever he doesn't get his own way.

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'We should have done better' – the feeble words of a CEO caught using real hospital IT in infosec product demos

Re: JimC

I wish it could be clearer but the problem is that it's a murky situation. It seems what Tanium calls a demo environment was actually a hospital's network. That meant when sales ppl zoomed in on systems to show off the tool's features, it was zooming on real machines. This happened without permission from the hospital.

From the WSJ, which got the scoop:

"For years, cybersecurity startup Tanium Inc. pitched its software by showing it working in the network of a hospital it said was a client ... But Tanium never had permission to present the demos, the hospital said."

So it demo'd the gear using a hospital's IT system without the hospital's permission. I hope that's clear in our story.

And as the hospital and Tanium say, no patient data was exposed - just internal IT info.

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So few use Windows Phone, Microsoft can't be bothered: Security app is iOS, Android only

Non-comment

"the Windows 10 Mobile version of the Authenticator app has had this, for like, forever."

Hey mate - dunno if you noticed but this article is about Windows Phone and all the people who backed Microsoft by buying into WP and now getting their loyalty repaid by being screwed over.

To the apologists: you can argue that this is a minor feature but the message is loud and clear from Microsoft - thanks for believing in Windows Phone, we don't care about you. Don't expect any more support.

Why should anyone buy into Windows 10 Mobile after this shabby treatment.

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Re: The latest version on Windows Phone 10...

The latest Android and iOS versions don't require a password. From the Microsoft blog post:

'Here in the identity division at Microsoft, we don’t like passwords any more than you do! So we’ve been hard at work creating a modern way to sign in that doesn’t require upper and lowercase letters, numbers, a special character, and your favorite emoji. And after a soft launch last month, we’re excited to announce the GA our newest sign-in feature: phone sign-in for Microsoft accounts!

With phone sign-in, we’re shifting the security burden from your memory to your device. Just add your account to the Android or iOS Microsoft Authenticator app, then enter your username as usual when signing in somewhere new. Instead of entering your password, you’ll get a notification on your phone. Unlock your phone, tap “Approve”, and you’re in.'

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Re: No Windows Phone Version?

Did you have to type in a password? This latest version (for iOS and Android) skips the password part.

In any case, kiss goodbye to further app updates. Microsoft doesn't care.

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That apple.com link you clicked on? Yeah, it's actually Russian

Re: Re: an easy fix for firefox

Thanks - updated the article with the fix info.

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Boffins fabricate the 'most complex' bendy microprocessor yet

Most El Reg readers are in the US now. We will love the UK, tho.

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Prisoners built two PCs from parts, hid them in ceiling, connected to the state's network and did cybershenanigans

Re: Re: The Shawshank Connection

* Escape From Alcatel

* Jailhouse NoC

* Man In The Iron Subnet Mask

* Con Air Gap

* O Brother Printer, Where Art Tho?

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Take that! FCC will hand net neut to FTC – reports

Re: Dave 126

FCC = US comms regulator. FTC = US trade regulator.

(Federal Communications Commission v Federal Trade Commission).

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Overcharge customers, underpay the serfs. Who else but Uber (allegedly)

Re: Vince

I don't really understand where you're coming from. It seems pretty straightforward. From the lawsuit:

"The Uber Defendants often transmit or provide the driver with a fee based on a reduced fare amount. The Uber Defendants retain the difference in the fare charged to the User and the fare reported to the driver, in addition to the service fee and booking fee disclosed to drivers."

So, yeah, the lawsuit claims Uber is overcharging passengers and underpaying drivers.

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Twitter's motto: If at first you screwed developers over, try, try again, eh?

Re: How do we pay for it? THIS.

Cool analysis, thanks. Re: the Reg numbers... we have a staff of ~50 not 150. About 25 staff journos plus ad sales, tech and admin. Our operating costs are about $5-6m.

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Your machine used to crunch numbers. Now it can chew over what they mean, too

Re: a b

Well, y'know, we've labelled it as such, it pays the bills for the rest of our journalism. This snark does not come cheap.

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Apple fans, Android world scramble to patch Broadcom's nasty drive-by Wi-Fi security hole

Re: Drive-by or not drive-by?

"an attacker and victim have to be associated with the same access point"

For this particular firmware bug, yes. So if you can't get on the same network as the victim, set up a free access point and lure them on. Bingo.

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PS: If you spot any errors, email [e-mail].

Put down your coffee and admire the sheer amount of data Windows 10 Creators Update will slurp from your PC

Re: BongoJoe

"Where does the owner of the document fit into this process?"

Make sure you don't put Windows 10 into Full telemetry mode.

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Datrium gets on the rack and heads cloudward

Re: What I'd say

FYI Brian is a Datrium employee.

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Everything's fine, says Cylance, as workers given the boot

Re: Bromium then Cylance

"So Bromium's workforce has been significantly cut down"

We heard a while back that people on the Mac team were cut. If you have any more details, get in touch - [e-mail] or anonymously via Ricochet - ricochet:m3bnxucau5ishl2h

Cheers,

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Is this a solution to Trump signing away your digital privacy? We give Invizbox Go a go

Re: It might be good, but...

"does not quote sources"

Mate, it's a hands-on review. It's... what our man Kieren thought of it after using it. It's not even a glowing review - we point out all the limitations and caveats as well as the potential benefits.

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Recruiters considered really harmful: Devs on GitHub hit with booby-trapped fake job emails

Re: If you disconnect from the internet...

Your Qs can be answered by reading the linked-to blog post.

1. You have to enable macros or run the macro. If you think this is a major hurdle, you haven't worked with people. The payload runs covertly out of sight. It waits (blocks) until the download is complete - google WebClient.DownloadFile().

2. Yes.

3. margin2601_onechat_word.exe

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As a shock to absolutely no one, Uber is mostly pasty, male at the top

Re: Shockingly, the numbers were presented without context.

Yeah, now look at the leadership gender/race figures.

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Amazing new WikiLeaks CIA bombshell: Agents can install software on Apple Macs, iPhones right in front of them

Re: Airports

Yeah - that sort of thing, not a supply chain.

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US Senate votes to let broadband ISPs sell your browser histories

Re: Roger B

But today's article wasn't written by Andrew and has little to do with net neutrality. Just seems off topic.

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Re: Roger B

"I'll just post this article again."

Why though?

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That 'Trump lawyers threaten teen over kitten website' yarn is Fakey Fakey McFake Fakeface

Re: It's fake news folks.

It does look too good to be true, however: The Hollywood Reporter and the New York Observer both say they have been in contact with Lucy, a kid who is learning basic web dev skills in a coding bootcamp, apparently. THR and NYO aren't really the sort of publications to make up quotes separately and independently about the same person. I'll be very disappointed in THR if this turns out to be fake.

Crucially, NYO says it has seen the C&D letter. The WHOIS records also suggest TrumpScratch.com predates kittenfeed.com. I've added a link to the NYO story and some more info about the domains.

If there is a PR viral marketing thing behind this, it's not clear who the beneficiary is - it's a long-winded way of touting a porno website, which we spotted and isn't mentioned in the THR and NYO reports.

One odd thing is that NYO is owned by the family trust of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, also an advisor to the president. You'd have thought that may have put off NYO from running anti-Trump news, but OTOH perhaps the title has proper independence (which is a good thing). It did publicly back Donald as the Republican candidate, though.

Very odd, and a bit of pre-Friday fun. It's not exactly Watergate. Take it with a pinch of salt if you wish.

Update: We've seen the DNS records - the domain was registered on March 22, weeks after "Lucy" claimed to have received the C+D demand so it's pretty much Fakey McFake Fakeface. Sorry. Lessons learned.

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Sources: Liberty Global, Vodafone take seats at negotiating table AGAIN

Re: Dumb Question

"Virgin Media runs on EE's network"

Bingo.

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Russian! spies! 'brains! behind!' Yahoo! mega-hack! – four! charged!

Re: "Russian Federal Security Service"

Nope – Federal Security Service, from the horse's mouth.

Pedantry – Близо́к локото́к, да не уку́сишь.

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Can you ethically suggest a woman pursue a career in tech?

Re: I don't know what company Mark Pesce works for, but he should quit.

"What he is talking about, I've worked as an employee and contractor for just over 30 companies. And NONE of those companies is on the same planet as Mark Pesce. I'm an extroverted guy, I like to get in on scuttlebutt, and I've never heard anything like what he is talking about."

I've never had cancer so why are we spending millions and millions tackling it?

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