Posts by Falmari

Begun, the open source AI wars have

@AC "It is not that retraining on the same data will result in an identical model anyway. It never does."

I had to do a double take when I read that. To me as a programmer there is something wrong when the results from a program can not be replicated using the same data.

Now I am not saying you are wrong, as I have never tried to train a Neural Network*, let alone a LLM for a second time on the same data set.

* When I was writing Neural Networks in the 90s, they would take days to train depending on the size of the satellite image data. So I was just happy when they did train.

UK elevates datacenters to critical national infrastructure status

Re: Special government support

@abend0c4 "It would be nice to think that would come with special responsibilities for the providers."

Not going to happen, it seems the government don't think that would be nice for the providers. From the BBC's article on this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c23ljy4z05mo.

"However there will not be any new regulations, nor is additional scrutiny of data centre operators’ existing contingency arrangements planned."

The future everyone wanted – in-car ads tailored to your journey and passengers

Re: Another strong argument...

I have read the patent* yesterday and it does in fact mention increasing the volume for ads.

* The patent should never have been granted as all it is is an idea with no details on how the idea would be realised. Basically the patent boils down to target ads (audio and visual) to the occupants (driver and passengers) of the car by profiling each of them. Using current road conditions and occupants profile to decide the duration and frequency of ads.

Profiles could be built over time from various data sources, journeys entered into sat nav, gps, key words from conversations, occupants devices (phones) and in-cabin cameras were just some of the examples mentioned.

An example of use was using historical data on previous journeys and route taken it could decide Mrs. Smith is going to the mall a 15 min journey and target ads and frequency accordingly.

Or maybe it's 10 PM on a Friday night and Mr. Smith is driving, using historical data and in-cabin cameras that show Mr Smith is alone, decide it's a 30 min journey journey to a local dogging site he frequents and target ads accordingly (Viagra and condoms).

Google says replacing C/C++ in firmware with Rust is easy

Re: Rust's difficulty is what sets it apart

@bazza "I think that what'll settle it is the universities."

I don't think universities will settle it. The languages taught in universities, do not drive the adoption of languages used by the computer industry, if anything it's the reverse. Universities certainly when it comes to teaching computer science tend to play catchup with industry.

The computer industry changes and the universities follow. COBAL is no longer taught in universities because there is very little call for it within the computer industry. Not the other other way round industry stopped using it because universities stopped suppling COBAL programmers.

If and when Rust becomes the popular language for low level programming in the computer industry then C / C++ will fall out of favor in universities and Rust will be the language they teach low level programming in.

Now if you are talking about choosing a language for teaching, C or C++ or Rust, one would probably opt none of them, there are better languages for teaching programing concepts.

Of course the Internet Archive’s digital lending broke the law, appeals court says

Re: Contradiction in terminis

I was pointing out that like Internet Archive, OpenAI were claiming Fair Use* (transformative). I noted that Internet Archive also argued use was nonprofit in their Fair Use claim.

From Internet Archives Appeal filing https://torrentfreak.com/images/ia-appeal.pdf

"I. INTERNET ARCHIVE’S OPEN LIBRARIES PROJECT IS FAIR USE ............................................................................................................. 18

A. The First Factor Favors Fair Use Because Internet Archive’s Lending Is Noncommercial, Transformative, And Justified By Copyright’s Purposes"

When it comes to Fair Use, nonprofit is not irrelevant. The Internet Archive's legal team for the appeal certainly thought it was relevant. From their Appeal filing.

"1. Internet Archive’s free digital library is noncommercial

a. Internet Archive’s free lending makes no profit and benefits the public

“[T]here is no doubt that a finding that copying was not commercial in nature tips the scales in favor of fair use.” Google, 141 S. Ct. at 1204."

There is no denying Internet Archive were lending digitized copies. Their defense accepts they were, claiming it's Fair Use. The first factor (the purpose and character of the use) to consider in deciding Fair Use, nonprofit would be a positive to passing that bar.

*We don't have Fair Use in UK copyright law.

Re: Contradiction in terminis

But OpenAI are in court being sued for copyright infringement and just like Internet Archive did when sued, they claim their purpose of use is transformative* and therefore it's Fair Use. So where is the "Contradiction in terminis"?

*Internet Archive were also arguing the Purpose and character of the use was nonprofit.

NASA's solar sailing spacecraft is tumbling – but that's part of the plan

Re: Really?

This wiki page should give you all the links you need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKAROS

Here is a web archive from 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20131030175323/http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/ikaros/index_e.html

SQL king Larry Ellison becomes sequel sultan with controlling interest in Paramount Global

Re: The only tech Starfleet uses that was invented in the 20th century

In other words.

Oracle's lawyers their mission: to come up with a contract that is so obscure, so convoluted, so self-referential that it will take until the heat-death of the universe to unpick it; to boldly go where no contract lawyer has gone before!

AI-pushing Adobe says AI-shy office workers will love AI if it saves them time

@AC "One wonders whether there's a market for an AI that will be able to sneak tricky terms into a contract, for example."

And therefore also a market for an AI that will be able to find tricky terms sneaked into a contract by AI. ;)

But why stop there, think of the cost savings on lawyer's fees with AI. AI writes the contracts for another AI to read. Contracts disputes will be argued by an AI for the plaintiff and an AI for the defendant, before an AI judge and in front of an AI jury.

Don't think of it as lawyers and judges losing their jobs and being replaced by AI, it's making lawyers and judges more productive with their time by freeing them up from the drudgery of contract law.

GenAI spending bubble? Definitely 'maybe' says ServiceNow

@Filippo "So, what exactly has to happen for this ROI to show up, that couldn't happen in the last year or so?"

Good question, just don't expect an answer anytime soon, no one knows what has to happen least of all the AI providers such as ServiceNow. But rest assured investors and customers, while ServiceNow does not know what has to happen for there to be a ROI, they know it will happen sometime in the future.

The problem is not ROI on AI is going to be long-term. The problem is that AI providers are unable to offer a business plan that shows a ROI over any term (short or long), just vague promises.

Woman uses AirTags to nab alleged parcel-pinching scum

Re: Apple begs to differ

The article says a lot more than that. But why let facts get in your way, just close your eyes, put your hands over your ears and continue to spout utter shite. You are such a rabid fanboy.

BTW When Apple ask you to bend over for another shafting do they charge 30% commission on the Vaseline.

Apple begs to differ

@Lord Elpuss "AirTags have never been an ideal tool for stalkers. Stop spreading FUD." ...

Utter shite. Apple had anti-tracking protocols embedded in AirTag from the get go - no pressure from EFF or anybody else was the trigger for this.

Apple begs to differ in this APPLE STATEMENT released February 10, 2022 An update on AirTag and unwanted tracking https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/02/an-update-on-airtag-and-unwanted-tracking/

reported in the Register February 11, 2022 https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/11/apple_airtags_stalking/

"Apple on Thursday said it is modifying its AirTag tracking devices to prevent them from being used for the wrong sort of tracking."

TikTok isn't protected by Section 230 in 10-year-old’s ‘blackout challenge’ death

@prh99 "The supreme court also said in various cases that it's free speech when a site or service picks what content they will allow...moderation, arguably a form of curation."

Moderation is when a site or service removes content they do not allow. Curation is when a site or service selects its content. When a site or service recommends content to its users it is selecting content and that is curation.

When a site or service curates content for its users then it is now acting as a publisher and therefore liable for that content.

Salesforce mulls charging per AI chat as investors sweat over fewer seats

90 percent of calls away from human agents

"The concern was the new AI agents could boost productivity among users, deflecting up to 90 percent of calls away from human agents."

Only 90% that's a step backwards from 100%. Companies like Hermes have managed to deflect 100% percent of calls away from human agents long before this AI Hype.

Feds, US states sue RealPage for building rent-hiking software for landlords

Re: landlords are colluding to raise prices by using software developed by RealPage

One landlord views it as colluding (price fixing). Quote is from US Justice Department and 8 States lawsuit https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1364976/dl?inline

"Discussing a different RealPage product, another landlord said: “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing.""

Another also viewed it as price fixing even though he believed it would hard to argue there was. Quote is from Propublica's article and who's investigation lead to the Federal Trade Commision investigating RealPage. https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent

"The CEO of one of YieldStar’s earliest users, Ric Campo of Camden Property Trust, told ProPublica that the apartment market in his company’s home city alone is so big and diverse that “it would be hard to argue there was some kind of price fixing.”"

Microsoft sends Windows Control Panel to tech graveyard

Yes you can. Just move the mouse cursor over the line between two columns on the title row. Then hold down the left mouse button and drag mouse to the left or right to resize the column.

This uni thought it would be a good idea to do a phishing test with a fake Ebola scare

Re: Works for me...

"BUT...you can't take tools off the table. If we say, "We won't train with 'shocking' content", there's how you get get your phish through. Shock them, horrify them, get them to drop their guard...and a-clicking they will go."

Perhaps you would not need train them to keep their guard up with "shocking' content" if you trained them out of the habit of clicking links. In my experience receiving a phishing email happens rarely, while internal company emails containing links were very common, probably a daily occurrence. So you regularly clinking links but keeping your guard up to spot that rare phishing email.

If we were trained not to include links in emails, then on the rare occasion we received an email containing links it's unlikely we would click a link even if it was "shocking' content".

But no matter how well trained we are no one is perfect mistakes can happen. All it takes is a momentary lack of concentration for a link to be clicked. So why not remove even that possibility and remove or disable all links from from incoming emails.

Re: Priorities?

@Dostoevsky "Email is not the proper channel for public health warnings."

The proper channel is of course a text sent to smartphones https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/15/hawaiian_missile_warning/ or https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/21/florida_emergency_alert/. ;)

Joking aside no one channel is used to inform the public of health warnings, normally through various media/news/press outlets, via TV, radio and web, may even use EWS. Sure there will be an official posting and/or website for a public health warning, but if you expect the public to read that health warning then you have to tell them where it is (a website address).

Now of course Email would not be used for public health warnings. But when it comes to companies issuing an internal health warnings to their employees at site or reginal location emails make sense. They probably have company email addresses groups for site and regions.

Digital wallets can allow purchases with stolen credit cards

Someone is lying

"The researchers explained they disclosed their findings to relevant US banks and digital wallet providers in April 2023. Chase, Citi, and Google reportedly responded.

"At the time of writing this paper, Google is working with the banks from its end to address the reported issues on Google Pay," the paper notes. "The banks, however, reported to us that the disclosed attacks are not possible anymore … "

Google say they are working on the issues, yet the banks say the attacks are no longer possible. So either someone is lying, or Google are wasting their time working to address issues that no longer exist as the attacks are no longer possible.

In the UK I don't think banks will "allow recurring payments on locked cards" mine certainly won't. I know from experience my bank will block a recuring payment on a card that is no longer valid (canceled or date expired). I suspect that is true of most if not all banks, because banks are responsible for transactions after they have been informed a card has been lost or stolen.

Disney claims agreeing to Disney+ terms waives man's right to sue over wife's death

Re: Disney's lawyers are stupid

@DS999 You are right ""Disney's lawyers are stupid They should have known including the thing about Disney+" would generate negative press and massive outrage.

But Disney+ was necessary, because the login process Piccolo followed in 2023 to buy those tickets to Epcot only asked him to consent to My Disney Experience Terms and Conditions. He was not asked to consent the Disney Terms of Use (agreements to arbitration clause) because he was flagged as giving consent when he registered his Disney+ account in 2019.

Disney's lawyers stretch giving consent in 2023, referencing a line in My Disney Experience Terms and Conditions "The Terms and Conditions “apply in addition to, and not in lieu of, the Disney Terms of Use" and expecting Piccolo would review, Disney Terms of Use, so by accepting My Disney Experience Terms and Conditions Piccolo accepts Disney Terms of Use.

Whether Piccolo actually reviewed the Disney Terms of Use is unimportant, continuing to use the service to purchase tickets Disney's lawyers argue is consent.

Re: Disney's lawyers are stupid

@SundogUK "This isn't what is happening. If an actual Disney run restaurant had killed someone through negligence on allergens, they could be sued without question."

No it's not happening, at the moment it's only Disney's lawyers arguing that should be the case. If the court decide those T's & C's that require arbitration do apply then it goes from argument to happened. It is claimed someone has been killed through negligence on allergens and WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS U.S., INC share responsibility with GREAT IRISH PUBS FLORIDA, INC.

Now it's either the courts responsibility to judge WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS U.S starting with whether there is a case to answer (someone has been killed through negligence on allergens) for WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS or it's the responsibility of arbitration because WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS are covered by those T's & C's for (someone has been killed through negligence on allergens)

Now if WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS are covered by those T's & C's it's for life because the Disney Terms of Use contains a survival clause. Meaning canceling your Disney+ subscription does not terminate Disney Terms of Use.

BTW someone above linked this and it contains both WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS motion and the reply from the plaintives. https://forums.theregister.com/forum/1/2024/08/15/disney_plus_death_lawsuit_waive/?post_received=4913943#c_4913943

Twilio's Segment SDK challenged with wiretapping claim

Re: Keep Calm and Carry On

"They presumably can plead ignorance as to what the SDK is doing"

But they are not ignorant Calm's "privacy policy describes extensive data collection and sharing but does not specifically mention Twilio or the Segment SDK.". In fact the extensive data collection is the reason Calm is using the SDK.

If like me you have never heard of Twilio, you need to lookup what Twilio actually do. Because the level of profiling and tracking is obscene. In fact I spent hours going through their guides for using the SDK in an android app. Then even more hours on a sample https://github.com/segmentio/analytics-kotlin/tree/main/.github.

Now I have never seen kotlin code so it took time to get a basic understanding of how the code worked. Calm have no excuse for failing to ask for consent it is their responsibility and it easy to do even I could do it.

I assumed that this was case of an app developer using an SDK which was secretly grabbing data. But it's not, Calm are an account customer paying Twilio for the SDK and using it to collect data to profile and track users of their app. It is Calm who are collecting the data not Twilio.

BTW not my down vote I assumed like you Twilio was grabbing the data secretly.

Software innovation just isn't what it used to be, and Moxie Marlinspike blames Agile

Re: Has "Agile" become synonymous with "Development management" ?

@abend0c4 "The biggest difficulty with it, in my view, is that it's the work of software developers, putting themselves front and centre."

Don't try and blame software developers for the 'Agile Manifesto', they not the ones responsible for it. ;)

It's obvious the manifesto is not the work of software developers. At 4 lines long you can't even call it a manifesto, anyway the 4 points are so vague in real terms, they are just unquantifiable twaddle. Yes there are only 4 lines the other 5 (3 above 2 below) lines are really only comments, it seems there is more comment than points.

The 'Agile Manifesto' was written mainly by consultants, I don't think any of the 17 authors at the time could really be called software developers, certainly not as their primary employed role. Read https://agilemanifesto.org/history.html and see what you think.

"On February 11-13, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, seventeen people met to talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground—and of course, to eat. What emerged was the Agile ‘Software Development’ Manifesto. Representatives from Extreme Programming, SCRUM, DSDM, Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, Feature-Driven Development, Pragmatic Programming, and others sympathetic to the need for an alternative to documentation driven, heavyweight software development processes convened......"

UK monopoly police launch full blown probe of Amazon's Anthropic tie-up

Anthropic is free to work with any other provider

Bollocks are they. If they did say goodbye to anymore billion dollar investments from Amazon so not free the cost would be billions.

Anthropic is free to work with any other provider and I am free to shoot myself in the head. Neither is going to bloody happen.

Anthropic is free to work with any other provider except Amazon who they must work with . They must purchase cloud resources on AWS and they must host their models on Amazon Bedrock. So not that free.

Delta: CrowdStrike's offer to help in Falcon meltdown was too little, too late

Re: Underdog?

@weirdbeardmt "the playground pile-on with Microsoft egging them on chanting “fight! fight!”"

There was nothing playground about Microsoft's lawyer's letter to Delta's Lawyers. https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/08/06/msft_letter_to_delta.pdf

This was Microsoft pushing back against the opening salvo of Delta's Lawyers lawsuit against Microsoft. They lay all the blame for the outage on CloudStrike, and that they are in no way responsible for Delta's trouble restoring their IT systems, the recovery was slow because Delta were having trouble restoring non MS systems.

"(e) In fact, it is rapidly becoming apparent that Delta likely refused Microsoft’s help because the IT system it was most having trouble restoring—its crew-tracking and scheduling system—was being serviced by other technology providers, such as IBM, because it runs on those providers’ systems, and not Microsoft Windows or Azure. "

Microsoft's view is there are only two companies at fault CloudStike and Delta and Delta's view is the companies at fault CloudStike and Microsoft. But at least there is one thing they both agree on, it certainly CloudStike's fault.

Study backer: Catastrophic takes on Agile overemphasize new features

Re: Nope.

If Product owners don't revisit prioritisation then the priority remains the same. Incomplete stories can't be closed, so they will remain open and in the same position on the backlog.

Product owners own the backlog, they decide what stories go on the backlog and their priority. Developers armed only with a deck of cards take the stories on the backlog and starting from the top assign story points to them. Commonly there's a sprint (sprint 0) dedicated to assigning story points to as many stories as possible.

What may also happen when story pointing is a story is broken down into the various tasks need to complete the story, though the team may choose to do this later when they bring the story into a sprint. But whenever this happens these tasks are not stories they do not get added to the backlog as such. They should remain as part of the story, and until all the tasks are closed development can not close the story.

Product owners prioritise the stories, not the tasks that are steps development decides need to be done to complete the story. 'replace test stubs on CC integration' is not a story and should not be on the backlog. It is a development task that's required to be done before development can close the story and as such should be a task under the story.

Devs do not add stories to the backlog Product owners do. I have certainly not "drank the manifesto cool-aid".

IBM Canada can't duck channel exec's systematic age discrimination claim

Re: Justice depends on how much money you have in the US of A & now Canada it would seem !!!

@Terry 6 "It will continue as a strategy until the legal profession are put under obligation to prevent misuse of legal process"

Obligation is not going to prevent misuse, we can't trust the legal profession to police its self. Obligation will just result in more litigation, as they would then litigate for misuse of legal process. Without reform of the legal process, the legal profession will continue their misuse of legal process through the use appeals.

Before the case has even got to trial there's an appeal delaying the trail by a further year. IBM Canada have appealed the judge decision to rule against IBM Canada's motion. But why should they be allowed to appeal? After all they had plenty of time, a year to prepare their arguments for the hearing and the judge ruled against them. Arguments all of which the appeal judge has already heard as it's his ruling being appealed.

You should not be able to appeal the decision of a judge during pre trial, after all it just delays the start of the inevitable appeal trial. How many bloody appeal processes do we need? Most of the time none. You should not be be able to appeal with out genuine grounds to. And no just because you lost does not count as genuine grounds to appeal.

Too late now for canary test updates, says pension fund suing CrowdStrike

@Michael Wojcik "As others have pointed out, this case might (might) be viable on misrepresentation grounds"

The filed lawsuit is 29 pages long, but the misrepresentation claim is section 3 on page 3.

"3. Throughout the Class Period, Defendants (defined herein) repeatedly touted the efficacy of the Falcon platform while assuring investors that CrowdStrike’s technology was “validated, tested, and certified.” This complaint alleges that these statements were false and misleading because Defendants had failed to disclose that: (1) CrowdStrike had instituted deficient controls in its procedure for updating Falcon and was not properly testing updates to Falcon before rolling them out to customers; (2) this inadequate software testing created a substantial risk that an update to Falcon could cause major outages for a significant number of the Company’s customers; and (3) such outages could pose, and in fact ultimately created, substantial reputational harm and legal risk to CrowdStrike. As a result of these materially false and misleading statements and omissions, CrowdStrike stock traded at artificially high prices during the Class Period"

In spite of CrowdStrike’s anti-threat update procedure the statements “validated, tested, and certified.” are still true. Also (3) such outages could pose,... was covered in the SEC filing quoted in the lawsuit. Also had CrowdStrike disclosed their anti-threat update procedure would CrowdStrike stock have traded at a lower value? Probably not.

Finally “validated, tested, and certified.” is only mention twice in the lawsuit. The second mention is the only example of the statement being used, which was in an earnings call. For such an important point to the claim I would have expected more than a single example in the lawsuit..

Good one :)

Made me smile ---------------------------have a beer --------------------------->

@BasicReality "I'm a developer for a large company. I've seen people make updates that worked fine in testing, but still broke the production environment."

Only because the test plan failed to cover that production scenario.

"Testing environments are good and catch a lot of stuff, but they still simulate what actually happens in production."

Meaning you've "seen people make updates that worked fine in unit testing" and then deploy the updates to production without system testing the updates. What CrowdStrike did is no different, they deployed the update to channel without any system testing.

If CrowdStrike had spun up some Win vms running Falcon before the channel went live that would test the upgrade on the system. Even a single vm would have blue screened when getting the update. Instead of 8.5 million machines.

"Sometimes stuff breaks."

And testing prevents stuff breaking being released.

CrowdStrike blames a test software bug for that giant global mess it made

@gnasher729 "So apparently they tried to fix a problem, and the developer couldn’t even be bothered to try out that the problem was fixed?"

I not saying you are wrong, but while the release that was deployed to channel was certainly not tested to see if the problem was fixed that does not mean the developer did not test that the problem was fixed.

What the developer tests is not what's deployed for release. The developer tests and then checks their work in. What comes off the pipeline that deploys for release has to be tested because there is no guarantee that something has not gone wrong between developer and what's to be released. We always test what's going to be released don't we?

CrowdStrike CEO summoned to explain epic fail to US Homeland Security committee

Re: optimum way to make an enpoint security driver

@CowHorseFrog "WHat i described is how all modern popular os operate."

No that is not how they operate. Not even Windows.

Programs can only do what their user's level of privilege allows them to do. When the logged on user runs an Application it has the same level of privilege as the user. If the user can't write to an area of the file system neither can the Application.

But Crowdstrike Falcon runs at a higher privilege level than the logged on user it will be able to write to an area of the file system that non admin users can not. That's because Falcon's user will not be the logged on user Falcon will be using a built in service account from the admin group. A service that uses an admin account requires an admin to install it.

BTW I have not down voted you

Google's plan to drop third-party cookies in Chrome crumbles

Re: Hey Microsoft, want to make Edge more popular

"Heck, surfacing the switch to block the cookies up three or four levels in the settings menu tree would be helpful. " And impossible.

Three levels up would place the switch outside Settings and on the same menu tree as Settings.

Even 2 levels up would place the switch on the Settings menu tree. The switch is hidden they have buried it, but only by one level.

All browsers should block third party cookies by default, especially when they are the default browser shipped with the OS.

Re: Firefox

Don't most browsers even Chromium bases ones have the option to block 3rd party cookies?

I use vivaldi and it has tracking and ad blocking and 3rd party cookies blocking.

Even Edge has tracking and 3rd party cookies blocking.

FTC grabs controller as Microsoft jacks up Game Pass price by 81%

Re: I’m shocked.

@John Brown (no body) "To be fair, the US and EU consumer watchdogs both investigated and got reassurances. The UK watchdog also investigated and also warned of similar issues, taking even longer to scrutinises the merger as well as the supposed reassurances from MS and were accused of dragging their heels and being "hold-outs" while they did so. But pressure from governments (probably after being expensively lobbied) caused them all to cave in in the end."

That's true for the EU consumer watchdog. The CMA (UK) blocked the merger, their major reason was it would harm competition in cloud gaming a small part of the games market today but expected to be a large part in the future. MS shouted derogatory comments in the press and then launched an appeal with a restructured merger deal* and that is what the CMA eventually approved not some "supposed reassurances from MS".

That's really not true for the FTC (US) they have only got as far as completing their investigation stage. They have not completed the administrative stage where their complaint goes before their Administrative Law Judges to rule on the merger (block or approve). So even to this day the FTC has not formally decided to bar the merger or approve the merger.

The FTC pushed back the starting data of their administrative case to after the completion data of the merger deal. Then got an restraining order to prevent Microsoft from completing the deal because they had not completed their proceedings. Even though the restraining order ran out and the FTC failed to get an injunction, Microsoft and Activision did not complete the merger, they agreed a new completion date sometime in October allowing plenty of time for the FTC's administrative case to finish.

So why when Microsoft and Activision signed the merger agreement on October 18th had the FTC's administrative case not finished, "The Commission withdrew the matter from adjudication in July 2023, and returned it to adjudication on September 26, 2023.".

So to be fair the FTC never got reassurances because they were too busy playing politics. The reason the merger was not blocked in the US, the FTC did not do their job. They still have not completed their administrative proceedings to decide whether to formally bar the merger.

* https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-microsoft-activision-deal-addresses-previous-cma-concerns-in-cloud-gaming and more detail https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/microsoft-slash-activision-blizzard-ex-cloud-streaming-rights-merger-inquiry

CrowdStrike Windows patchpocalypse could take weeks to fix, IT admins fear

Cloudstrike did not test the update they released to channel

Part of an update from Cloudstrike mentioned in a earlier Reg article

"Windows hosts which are brought online after 0527 UTC will also not be impacted

Hosts running Windows 7/2008 R2 are not impacted"

In other words hosts running Windows 10, 11 and servers after 2008 R2 that pulled the original update are impacted. So there is no way Cloudstrike could have tested the update they released to channel, because if the had they would have found the crash.

Could they not change the deploy to channel to take down the channel* so it is only visible internally, deploy the update, and then run up all the hosts the update is for. Then only if all hosts have updated without error, put the channel back up.

*I would expect they would take the channel down before they send updates to it.

Second NHS IT system confirmed to be affected by CrowdStrike issues

@Doctor Syntax "Fail-safe. Defensive programming. All long gone."

Along with Destructive Testing. Test plans need to test more than just expected behaviour.

Firms skip security reviews of major app updates about half the time

Never skip a security review of major app updates again

Never skip a security review of a major app update again, with Agile.

With Agile you will deliver working software frequently.

Deliver every couple of weeks and you will never deliver a major code update that needs a security review again.

Security reviews sorted ;)

Cold comfort to teachers who got paid late, but ERP software rollout had 'unrealistic' timeline

Re: The bar is low

@Dr Who "When a mitigating factor for huge time and cost overruns is that the project "... has culminated in the delivery of a functioning ERP system""

Only 18 months late and £11.3 million over budget for IT that counts as a successfully delivered project, and it only cost in total £57.9 million. Beers all-round. ;)

Agile Manifesto co-author blasts failure rates report, talks up 'reimagining' project

Re: I love it !!!

@AC "Every developer I have worked with has stated that they 'know' what to do and don't need to be told by any process/mindset or PM what to do !!!

Confidence and/or arrogance is OK in moderation but most developers do *not* have the full picture of what the true constraints and issues are and working in their silo is not the be all and end all !!!"

I am a developer and have had plenty of rows arguments discussions with Project Managers, Development Managers and Product Owners etc down the years, so I feel I have mastered arrogance. Those discussions were never because I'm a developer I know what to do, quite the opposite, I don't know what to do because there are technical issues that need to be resolved or can't be resolved*.

Or I don't know what they want, because they failed to give adequate requirements. "Hi" to the Product Owner who thought 'Make it work nicely' is all the requirements a developer needs, "how's it going?"

Everywhere I have worked have different processes which changed over time. In my experience when developers (myself included) complain about processes it's normally because those processes have changed**. Invariable complaints also suggest better (in their view) processes, better is what we used to do.

* A Product Manager required I design a feature with two mutually exclusive requirements.

** No one likes change when it's not of their choosing

European Commission accepts Apple's 'tap and go' promises

Re: What's the point?

@DS999 "Does Android have a bunch of mobile wallets to choose from instead of using Google's?"

I don't think it does. Just a Google wallet* that you add your items (IDs payment cards etc) to, at a basic level no different to Apple wallet.

For supported payment networks like Mastercard and Visa, contactless payment cards can be added to the wallet, allowing contactless payment (NFC) with the phone. But the added card does not connect to the phones NFC, the payment is made through Google pay on android and Apple Pay on iOS. Apple or Google the merchant does not know that a payment is by Mastercard or Visa, or even the card number.

The only difference between Apple and Google is Apple charges commission to the payment network to use Apple Pay and Google seems to be free. It would be nice to know exactly what Apple's proposed changes are.

"Apple announced some major changes to its mobile operating system, which included developer access to NFC hardware for contactless payments."

This seems to be Apple allowing access to NFC that Google does not.

* I could be wrong but I have not seen mention of other wallets on Android.

Former Autonomy CFO banned from chartered accounting group until 2038

That's a fairly high budget

"That's a fairly high budget for an investigation that based some of its findings on a trial in a different country."

I would say its findings were based solely on a trial in a different country.

From the section labeled Misconduct in FCR's published Press Notice linked in the article https://www.frc.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2024/07/sanction-against-sushovan-hussain-in-relation-to-autonomy-corporation-plc/

"Pursuant to paragraph 16(1)(ii) of the Accountancy Scheme, the fact that a Member has been convicted of an offence before a Court outside the United Kingdom which would have constituted a criminal offence had the matter been prosecuted in the United Kingdom shall, for the purposes of the Scheme, be conclusive evidence of Misconduct of the Member. ...

The Executive Counsel therefore relies on the US Criminal Conviction alone to establish Misconduct."

From the section labeled Background

"The Formal Complaint was subsequently stayed on 2 November 2018 pending the outcome of Mr Hussain’s appeal against the US Criminal Conviction."

From the section labeled Sanction

"The long period of Exclusion reflects the seriousness of the Misconduct as evidenced by the fraud offences under the US Criminal Conviction."

They stated they solely relied on the US conviction as evidence of Misconduct, which is why they stayed the complaint pending the result Mr Hussain’s appeal in case the conviction was overturned. They based the level of punishment (length of sanction) on the seriousness of US Criminal Conviction.

So what was there to investigate? £450,000 sounds like a lot when they are just agreeing with the findings of the US court.

Apple reverses course to approve Epic Games Store on iOS in EU

Re: Arguments over buttons set to continue while European Commission looks on

@Grogan "It will be a cold day in Hell (and in a $10 desperation sale on Steam) before I purchase ANY game, whose studio/publisher took that Epic Store carrot."

Why would you boycott a studio/publisher for giving Epic Store (PC/Mac) a retail exclusive on a game?

It's no different to a studio/publisher retailing their game exclusively through Steam, GoG or through their own store, all result in the studio/publisher selling their game through a single store. A single retailer for a game is probably not in the consumers best interest, no choice of retailer, lack of competition, etc.

But as you don't have a problem with only a single store being available on a platform (iOS,iPadOS), I can't see that being the reason you feel so strongly that you would boycott a studio/publisher for an exclusive game deal with Epic Store.

Microsoft CEO of AI: Your online content is 'freeware' fodder for training models

LinkedIn

"Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, said this week that machine-learning companies can scrape most content published online and use it to train neural networks because it's essentially "freeware.""

Mr Suleyman might like to run that past his colleagues over at LinkedIn*. I don't think they will see their content as "freeware" that can be scraped and the content free to use.

* I sure there was an article a few years back where LinkedIn were claiming copyright on data scraped from them. That companies using scraped data for their own services were infringing LinkedIn's copyright.

Apple crippled watchOS to corner heart-tracking market, doctors say

@MadocOwain "Am I parsing this correctly?"

I don't think you are. Because the band worked in the 3 WatchOS before the first of the versions they claim infringe.

AliveCor's add-on KardiaBand added ECG capabilities to Apple WatchOS 1–3. Apple introduced their own heart-monitoring hardware with WatchOS 4 which AliveCor claims infringes their patents in that and all later WatchOS versions. The 2023 ITC case was when WatchOS was at version 8.

AliveCor's antitrust lawsuit the doctors are trying to resuscitate claims that Apple eliminates competing heartrate analysis apps by exploiting its control of the platform. Such as changing app store rules or changing how things work (HRPO to HRNN) to stop apps working.

Google begs court for relief from Epic Games' Play Store demands

That's the joke it's true.

Some might say it was because the Google trial was before a jury. But trial by jury was Google's choice so better lawyers. ;)

@C.Carr "If the Play Store is a monopoly, what the heck is is the Apple App Store?" Better lawyers ;)

Korean telco allegedly infected its P2P users with malware

Re: "an entire team at KT"

@Terje "They have been bashing samsung though. so going after KT would not be implausible. granted Samsung was for corruption if I recall correctly."

Pardon ;)

Re: "an entire team at KT"

@Pascal Monett "then the CEO is aware and responsible and should be dragged in front of a judge for trial."

Don't hold your breath this is a South Korean CEO. ;)

Apple Intelligence won't be available in Europe because Tim's terrified of watchdogs

Re: Apple fails to build new feature with privacy protections, blames EU

@DS999 "These concerns have nothing to do with privacy"

Apple say different, "could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security.". Why would Apple say that if they weren't concerned with user privacy and data security. ;)

But yes you are right if Apple were to implement the announced Apple Intelligence in the EU it would fall fail of DMA. +1 Have a pint >>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Do you think Apple should go froward and offer what they have planned to the EU"

That's entirely up to Apple, if they choose not to release the feature in the EU there is bugger all the EU under DMA can do.

The EU admit as much "“Gatekeepers are welcome to offer their services in Europe, provided that they comply with our rules aimed at ensuring fair competition,” the European Commission said"