Posts by DoctorNine

Firefox is fine. The people running it are not

Save MOZILLA!

If there is anything predictable in business, it is that management will hamstring engineering to the point of mission failure, then cut it back one or two notches, to try to recover. Sometimes, they are lucky, and this saves their bacon. More frequently however, they have poisoned the pond, and only the most well adapted mutants can survive. In this case, I am pretty sure they can and should listen to the masses, and backtrace a bit. It will be interesting to see if they are capable of a mea culpa. I figure the odds be fifty-fifty.

UK eyes new laws as cable sabotage blurs line between war and peace

Re: Wrist

I've previously written on the subject in this forum.

Because the malicious actors are likely to use shadow fleet ships and 'fishing vessels' to do the deed, passing a couple laws would do the trick.

The first edict should state that undersea data cable runs are extensions of national property/security, and therefore the sovereignty of the nation that lays them. This would give jurisdiction.

Second, passing a law that requires the military to seize suspect vessels for disposal in the event of 'accidents', would put teeth in the law.

That should stop it pretty quickly, in my estimation. Especially since seizure would likely find a lot of spy equipment and covert operatives.

Microsoft admits to Intune forgetfulness

Microsoft Products As A Service

You pay us anually. Or perhaps monthly. For software services. Unless you actually, you know, expect SERVICE.

British IT worker sentenced to seven months after trashing company network

Re: Rationality and IT

Looks like I hit a nerve. I just read this interesting article about it: http s: //ww w. electric. ai/ blog/ offboarding-in-the-age-of-mass-layoffs

Rationality and IT

Oh, here it is again. Another story about an IT worker and malicious misconduct upon termination. I get it, that in the heat of the moment, the impulse to lash out is very, very strong. Still, I would expect that the extra training IT workers get in formal logic would in some way armour them against the worst of it. I wonder if anyone has studied the relative frequency of this sort of thing amongst IT workers versus the general population? Hmmm... Maybe I should look into that...

French city of Lyon ditching Microsoft for open source office and collab tools

A New Hope

Good. More please.

What if Microsoft just turned you off? Security pro counts the cost of dependency

Choosing risk

While the premise of this article is spot-on, and the necessity of confronting IT monoculture is beyond question for serious professionals, I submit that every business, by the very mathematical nature of business itself, simply operates to minimise risk and maximize profit. Successful ones anyway. Choosing a known OS, with known personnel and capital budget requirements, simply reduces the chance of systems failure. And in the event of a failure of IT services, recovery and repair is likewise understood well enough to model and price, thus creating a large motive to stay with the herd. If there is ever going to be a departure from M$ monoculture, we will need some type of government mandate in order to overcome the above described risk profile bias. I have for years hoped that this would transpire. However, despite a few European and authoritarian government initiatives, most nations with free-market economies are shying away from such heavy-handed tactics. Should they be bolder and do this? Yes, probably. Will they? I guess it really depends on how bad the monopoly gets. And it's pretty bad right now.

Top AI models - even American ones - parrot Chinese propaganda, report finds

The Cow Goes Moo...

LLM's are just as susceptible to agitprop as young impressionable youth. Laissez-faire policies don't really work. You have to decide what to feed them at the very beginning, or the diet will determine how they grow.

The one thing SME IT can do that the big guys can’t: Change the world

My name isn't Polly Anna

You can't really change the world. The main problem is finding a diaper big enough...

Firefox is dead to me – and I'm not the only one who is fed up

Re: OK, but what now?

Yeah, I think that is a bank problem. There are so many choices. Get a good bank.

US patent office wants an AI to scan for prior art, but doesn't want to pay for it

Welcome to the New Feudalism

The whole AI schtick is getting actual work done without paying a human to do it. The equivalent recompense in AI is kilowatt hours. Which is about right, I guess. Time is money.

Google Cloud flexes as first to host Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 Server VMs

Is the movie any good?

I'm sorry. can't help myself. 'RTX Pro 6000' sounds too much like a successor to 'MST 3000' for me to take it seriously.

Please tell us Reg: Why are AI PC sales slower than expected?

Re: Let Me Get This Right

Well you see, it's all the criminals at this point. You've got the criminals in the food industry trying to foist off agricultural industrial waste products as packaged convenience food. You've got the international tech companies seeking ever more intrusive and enslaving tech products. And most worryingly, you've got the politicians, who always HAVE been criminals, but up to now at least didn't have the data gathering tools to completely eliminate grassroots democratic action, steamrolling their 'vision' into the most complex and dystopian reality imaginable. It's criminals all the way down, spud.

Re: Because nobody wants AI in their PC?

Indeed. From an evolutionary point of view, a wholly predictable greed-induced casualty. Willingly sacrificed to the gods of an uncaring and vengeful corporate culture.

Russia expected to pass experimental law that tracks foreigners in Moscow via smartphones

Alternatively

One might just choose not to have a personal cell phone. There are quite a large number of alternatives.

Signal shuts the blinds on Microsoft Recall with the power of DRM

Re: DRM

I am sorry that this is necessary. But it is: /s

Adobe turns subscription screw again, telling users to pay up or downgrade

Re: How different is Adobe on a Mac than a PC?

There frequent calls to unjustifiable arrogance subroutines in the Mac product whilst the PC product requires a mandatory update check and cloud image every 15 minutes, or when saving.

LastOS slaps neon paint on Linux Mint and dares you to run Photoshop

Re: 1998

Clearly.

Microsoft open sources Windows Subsystem for Linux – well, most of it

Why?

Perhaps I am being naive, but I can't think of a reason that I would want this. If anything, i'd want a way to just use whatever M$ layer I wanted in Linux, not the other way around. Use case?

Elon Musk’s xAI to pull about half of its smog-belching turbines powering Colossus

TVA power, at my last look, is 42% nuclear, 31% natural gas, 14% coal, 9% hydro, and 4% solar/wind.

Re: Manufactured Histeria

The word you are looking for is Hysteria. This is a problematic word. Its origin in the Greek word for womb, is perhaps one of the most offensive synonyms for irrationality in the English language. The rank misogyny of the term, best exemplified in Freud's musings, is so unadulterated, that it really should be excised from our contemporary lexicon. No. This is not hysteria. At all. Full stop.

openSUSE deep sixes Deepin desktop over security stink

Transparency and Security

Like some of the other posters here, I have been a SUSE fan since the early 2000's. These days, I am more distribution agnostic. All I really care about is a development team that takes its job seriously, and sufficient installed base that users find and fix the problems that inevitably crop up. We are in a much better place right now than the early days.

Microsoft updates the Windows 11 Start Menu

"You don't hate me enough. I must try harder."

I think, at this point. M$ is just trolling us. This is more unnecessary futzing about. Never can leave well enough alone, can they? The crowd of the clueless continue.

Pentagon declares war on 'outdated' software buying, opens fire on open source

Ehhh?

I have in the past worked for the DoD. Anyone who really thinks that they are going to ANYTHING there in 90 days is a raving lunatic. Do not listen to them.

Computacenter IT guy let girlfriend into Deutsche Bank server rooms, says fired whistleblower

Re: any security? ?

It is perhaps more of an indictment of our society as a whole, than a statement against Deutsche Bank, but my experience has always been that the most ethically challenged among us will generally gravitate toward places where large piles of cash accumulate. Poorly guarded piles, even more so. As such, this report seems somewhat par for the course. Jaded? Yes. I am.

20% discount offer on Windows 365 expires around same time as Windows 10 support

Re: Time to stop whining

Well done. It's a brave new world. Go forth and conquer.

You can only vote for the oligarch-approved candidate though... so...

Re: We users may hate Windows 365

Nah... you just make them supply the equipment. Or limit access to it, to cell phones, like my shop did. Imagine that. Excel spreadsheets. On a cell phone. Legal letters and all .pdf goodies.

Re: Windows 11 Cloud ?

The thing is, there are people out there that ABSOLUTELY want to do this, too.

Windows isn't an OS, it's a bad habit that wants to become an addiction

Re: Starting points

"..Games: this can be the biggest show stopper..."

This will change relatively quickly once people stop using Win11 by default. Plus, you can still do Linux already for a number of forward thinking games. The momentum is building to throw M$ in the lake.

Microsoft total recalls Recall totally to Copilot+ PCs

Re: Sorry, maybe I didn't make myself clear

Linux. Linux is calling your name....

Windows 11 poised to beat 10, mostly because it has to

Re: When October comes

Well, not precisely. Although there is no support, I still have a Macbook from 2008 that has been strategically upgraded to SSD and new battery. I'm using the last available MacOS that still runs the software on it, and it works almost as well as it did when it was new. Runs Firefox and does mail just fine. Even still has the original MS Office on it. It was designed for the electrical and thermal load of a hard disk, so I suspect it will still be working when I shuffle this mortal coil. But who knows?

Trump fires NSA boss, deputy

Re: Thank you, Comrade

If you don't know where to put the decimal point, there is a large probability that your calculations will be off by orders of magnitude.

LLM providers on the cusp of an 'extinction' phase as capex realities bite

Re: dismaland

I have a better idea. We stay where we are, doing what we've been doing. And we make these well-dressed fantasy salesmen go live in a dugout in the woods instead.

Musk's xAI swallows Musk's X in ego-friendly, all-stock deal

I seem to remember....

Of course, it's not going to be AI-X. For proprietary reasons. Still, I was half expecting no one to notice.

UK govt data people not 'technical,' says ex-Downing St data science head

Re: I'd go further

Indeed. Agencies designed to regulate commerce cannot, perforce, be just another enterprise. Their policing function precludes it.

Microsoft tastes the unexpected consequences of tariffs on time

Re: The slow TV trend

The whole of my schooling was one long near endless drone. I am half convinced I never left the classroom, and this thing I call my life, is in fact just a very realistic daydream I'm having whilst sitting in the warm sunshine at the back of the class.

Microsoft will kill Remote Desktop soon, insists you'll love replacement

No matter how many times you poke an Ochre Jelly, you aren't going to get much of an effect. We've all been trying to get past the thing, but very few individuals have figured out how to kick it out of our local dungeons.

Re: From cool school, back to old school, or closed school.

It's snappy. I like it.

Google's Chrome divorce still on the cards as Trump's DoJ plays hardball

I'm confused...

Which one is the bad one now? I would like to see less Googly infiltration into global mindshare, yes. But they are most certainly not the only monolith in the tech sphere which bears investigation and possible divestments. Further, if this is a generic issue, are we seeing any other monolith getting the same spanking, or are the feds only hot for California Chrome? Mightn't it be possible that there is a bit of the hanky-panky going on with who does, and who does not, get such tender discipline? Hmmm...?

Eutelsat in talks with Euro leaders as they mull Starlink replacement in Ukraine

American vet here as well. Your analysis is entirely specious. The best part was Russian 'almost limitless human resources' and 'China /North Korean cold currency'. Oh my.

Re: Hmm

I was going to write that whole list out myself, and you have so generously saved me the time. Thank you.

Developer sabotaged ex-employer with kill switch activated when he was let go

Not a very bright boy...

There are simply so many ways to indirectly hork a system with a tiny, tiny forensic footprint, that one wonders at the sheer stupidity here described. He signed the thing like Picasso. What exactly did he think was going to happen? Did he fantasize that the investigators were going to be so impressed with the code, they would call him up to try to rehire him? What an ego on this guy.

iOS users left refreshing in vain as Microsoft Outlook woes drag on

Re: New new new Outlook?

..and it seems they are all very shouty about what users and administrators MUST DO, but none of the tribe have the 'listening' feature enabled...

Linux royalty backs adoption of Rust for kernel code, says its rise is inevitable

Let me get the popcorn

I feel approximately the same way about squabbles between Linux maintainers as I used to in my youth about Saturday morning TV wrestling. Very entertaining as a spectator sport, but not to be taken too seriously. First, regardless of the skill level of the various fellows dressing tights, the whole thing is referreed by a certain individual who weilds a mean rapier, and rather enjoys exhibiting his skill with it. And second, the outcome of the whole mess is going to be reasonably benign, because everyone has to keep working together for the next show. Those who get too emotional and rage quit, need to remind themselves about point one above. In my personal opinion of course.

HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls

Re: Farking bastards...

They were only exercising simple self-preservation. If anything went wrong with the thing, you'd naturally try to contact HP, and being rightously bothered by the lack of any semblence of human reason on the support line, you'd be back to the shop with pitchforks and various garden implements to have your just revenge. Who can blame them?

After China's Salt Typhoon, the reconstruction starts now

My grandmother was correct

I've always been suspicious of free cookies and those who would try to use them for nefarius porpoises. My granny warned me off such enticements as a lad. And even worse, are the cookie and candy store owners, who don't care about what the ultimate result of their enterprise might be, as long as they are making coin. Onward in sales regardless, you know. Caveat emptor. Even if the poor lamb consuming said sweets has not a clue whats in the wrapper. At some point, we will need to decide what we are willing to eat, and what we will not. It's a matter of survival.

Encryption backdoor debate 'done and dusted,' former White House tech advisor says

Re: Madness

My observation, after so many years of empiric data collection, is that many times, those who go into lawyering do so, because their head is a little too soft for mathematics and science, but they still want to be able to piss on the plebes from an ivory tower someplace. And bless them, but they do. Copiously.

Thus evidencing the actual reason the Alphabet wanted them to begin with.

Re: CALEA doesn't need to be reformed...

Succinctly stated. Thank you.