Posts by The Man Who Fell To Earth

Firefox adds AI Window, users want AI wall to keep it out

Hey, Ajit!

How'd that Metaverse thing work out for you back at Meta? Looking like LLM's sold as "AI" is going the same way.

OpenAI’s viability called into question by reported inference spending with Microsoft

Check Kiting Accounting

Like everything else in AI.

Tablet market stalls because there’s not much new worth buying

Re: No Great Loss ... 100% Correct.

I refuse to paint on a tablet. Canvas is cheaper.

Microsoft's data sovereignty: Now with extra sovereignty!

Re: Risky business - any way you turn it

Anyone who stores data in any cloud anywhere without encryption independent of the cloud provider is a fool. Cryptomator or equivalent where the data is locally encrypted before storage in the cloud is the only way, or just say no to cloud storage.

'Windows sucks,' former Microsoft engineer says, explains how to fix it

Re: Thumbs up

While not quite what Plummer wants, adding O&O ShutUp10++ & Open Shell is a partial step towards addressing his complaints.

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu/releases/tag/v4.4.196

Foxconn hires humanoid robots to make servers at Nvidia's Texas factory

Re: The death of humanity

Where have you been the last 20 years? The entired business model of high-tech is based on the overwhelming majority of humanity being dumb as posts who blindly do what computers tell them to do whether it's waste their lives playing video games, watching porn, watching social media or engaging in other real or intellectual masterbation all to expose themselves to ads for the computer to tell them to buy crap they have no use for.

Re: Marvin is working in a factory now !!!

More to the point, it's an Nvidia robot working in a contractor's factory making Nvidia products. So of course Nvidia is paying and driving it.

Re: the company will deploy the bots

That's the Bender model. Not out quite yet.

Google imagines out of this world AI - running on orbital datacenters

Skynet

What could possibly go wrong?

Amazon complains that Perplexity's agentic shopping bot is a terrible customer

"...degraded ... customer service experience it provides."

Amazon has "customer service"? Who knew?

YouTube's AI moderator pulls Windows 11 workaround videos, calls them dangerous

Re: I only use Windows for work

If Microsoft is going to eliminate supporting local accounts, that will force a lot of people and small businesses to not upgrade to the latest Win 11, if not leave Windows entirely.

Frustrated consultant 'went full Hulk' and started smashing hardware

Stress

Pretty clear why your boss was stressed. It was all stress he created for himself.

Agreed

Anyone with an ounce of common sense, even if new to any industry, would not delete a bunch of anything without knowing what it is, whether it is used regardless of documentation status, would back it up before doing anything, and would only disable it for some period of time (weeks/months) before removing it. Makes the rest of "Ted's" story suspicious.

Shield AI shows off not-at-all-terrifying autonomous VTOL combat drone

Re: AI-written PR slop?

Lunar landers for example, didn't use parachutes for any aspect of their landing. Some Mars & Venus landers used parachutes or airbags for aspects of aerobraking at altitude or landing, but most missions to those planets used retrorockets for touchdown.

Re: AI-written PR slop?

Especially when it has crap like "Vertical landing on a launch pad is simpler in CGI than reality, though SpaceX proved it's possible."

Just a few examples of spacecraft successfully vertically landing on ground by rocket engine, many before Elon was even born.

Luna 9 (1966)

Luna 13 (1966)

Luna 16 (1970)

Luna 17 (1970)

Luna 20 (1972)

Luna 21 (1973)

Luna 24 (1976)

Surveyor 1-7 (1966-1968)

Apollo 11-17 (1969-1972)

Viking 1 (1976)

Viking 2 (1976)

Mars Pathfinder (1996)

Spirit (2003)

Opportunity (2003)

Fake home invasion vid lands woman in real trouble

Re: So tell me sir...

Maryland is a no-fault divorce state and no longer allows fault-based grounds for divorce, such as adultery or cruelty. Couples can now pursue divorce based on one of three no-fault grounds: irreconcilable differences, mutual consent with a marital settlement agreement, or a continuous separation of at least six months.

AWS outage turned smart homes into dumb boxes – and sysadmins into therapists

Re: First world problem

If the results proved fatal, I'd suggest Darwin Awards might be in order.

SpaceX is behind schedule, so NASA will open Artemis III contract to competition

Blue Origin?

Have they even put anything in orbit? I guess they sort of did with NG-1, although the landing part failed.

Rocket Labs is probably the 2nd to SpaceX in launch pace for orbital insertions, but they're stuff is (so far) smaller than a falcon. And I don't think they've reused a booster yet. However in August 2023, they launched an Electron with a pre-flown Rutherford engine...

In '90s Microsoft, you either shipped code or shipped out

Stack Ranking

In my experience back in the 90's, stack ranking is for lazy executives who are insecure in their own judgement so basically behave like bullies. It still bothers me that I had to let some excellent people go because they had the misfortune of being on a team entirely composed of stellar people, but they were (by arbitrary criteria) the bottom 5%. Had they been on one of the less important teams where the average was lower, they'd have been ranked at or near the top. Stupid doesn't even begin to describe stacked ranking.

Thou shalt not let AI run amok: Vatican wants global rules

AI is 'above all else a tool.'

AI is above all else a tool, created by "Tools".

Meta convinces Blue Owl to cut $30B check for its Hyperion AI super cluster

No problem

If the AI thing doesn't work out, Meta can use it for that Metaverse thing of theirs. Oh, wait...

Techies tossed appliance that had no power cord, but turned out to power their company

Sounds like they were reckless

1. Unauthorized entry to the data center.

2. Removed equipment simply because they didn't know what it was. (Talk about hubris...)

3. They didn't document the equipment/cable configuration in any way before removing it.

4. Took down the company for several hours.

I learned at a very young age that even unpowered equipment can play an active role in a network. In my case, a long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the building I worked in had a defunct ADP alarm system installed by some prior tenant. If you unplugged its phone line, even though it was an unpowered box, it took down a chunk of the building's telephone system. A few years go by, and the telephone company was in the building doing work for another tenant, and I asked one of the telephone company techs about it. He went to the building's telephone cabinet, looked around, and unplugged an unlabeled phone cable from a small, unlabeled box. I didn't see him do anything else. After that, we could unplug that ADP box and toss it. Don't know & don't care why it did what it did, but never had an issue with the phones during the half dozen years after that I worked there.

Additional lesson - don't be afraid to ask another tech, especially if the unknown looks like it might be closer to their area of expertise. (In my case, telephone lines in the age of coax ethernet.)

Hacked Ford screens put anti-RTO slogan above CEO’s face

Having been in the room

At my last place when RTO was implemented, HR (as one presented option) had no assigned seating as the option if we wanted to increase attrition. Any place that is truely implementing RTO for teamwork assigns seats specifically with teams together.

California cops confused after trying to give ticket to self-driving car

Re: Layers of obfuscation are the American Way

Impound the robotaxi and send it to the crusher the same day. It's the only way to get the company's attention.

SIM city: Feds say 100,000-card farms could have killed cell towers in NYC

Re: Nation state actors??

Any way you slice it, real people had to

1. Rent the apartments.

2. Show up and physically put the SIM cards into the units.

3. Plug the units into the wall power.

4. Connect the units to that router in the middle of the group of units.

5. Plug that router into what looks like a 5G internet gateway.

So lots of opportunity to get folks on security cams, if nothing else. Also, lots of serial numbers to track down & supply chains to follow.

The Notepad that knew too much: Humble text editor gets unnecessary AI infusion

Re: Just do it

Yea, because Microsoft will conclude that there's PEBKAC malware on the loose.

Just do it

Disable Recall for all users:

Under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI" create (if need be) & set the DWORD "DisableAIDataAnalysis" key to 1

Under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI" create (if need be) & set the DWORD "AllowRecallEnablement" key to 0

Disable Copilot for all users:

Under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot" create (if need be) & set the DWORD "TurnOffWindowsCopilot" key to 1

Ruh-roh. DDR5 memory vulnerable to new Rowhammer attack

Re: Ah, the memories...

My recollection was it was mostly alpha decay from trace amounts of thorium in ceramic packaging. A large part of getting rid of the problem was simply the widespread adoption of plastic packaging.

Google unveils master plan for letting AI shop on your behalf

We've seen this before

The first part of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwk7p6hn9ts

Brussels faces privacy crossroads over encryption backdoors

Re: They work for us?

It has nothing to do with combating kiddie porn. That's just a smoke screen to distract the feeble-minded. It has everything to do with control of the citizenry.

Windows starts asking for admin rights where it shouldn't after security fix

Mac & Linux Developers

Microsoft needs to stop outsourcing Windows patches to Mac & Linux Developers. They clearly don't have people who use Windows write Windows Updates.

Microsoft continues Control Panel farewell tour

Re: It might be just me...

As near as I can tell, the continued squirreling around with crap like getting rid of older straightforward interfaces and burying settings 10 mouse clicks deep under nonsense labels is due to Microsoft having too many programmers with too little real work who'd rather spend their time mucking with cosmetics than doing the hard work of finding & fixing security vulnerabilities, tightening/cleaning up code, and such.

GenAI FOMO has spurred businesses to light nearly $40 billion on fire

My fire eats your wheel for breakfast.

Microsoft crams Copilot AI directly into Excel cells

Re: Is nothing sacred?

COPILOT("Give people what they want most",E3)

crashes your PC by generating porn.

Re: Creative

=COPILOT("Bender all humans",E3)

JetBrains previews Kineto for vibe no-coding

Vibe Coding = ALWD

A lawyer's wet dream.

Next, we'll see the Vibe Coding guys push for Vibe Coding legislation equivalent to Section 230. After all, if your technology architecture is fundamentally flawed, pass a law allowing you to duck responsibility.

China’s botched Great Firewall upgrade invites attacks on its censorship infrastructure

One has to wonder

Why didn't they just reference one block list for all protocols?

T-Mobile's satellite service lifts off, and it's open season on rivals

Re: Hmm, satellite to cellphone

I have it and its useful when at my cabin in Vermont. However as usual they implemented it poorly. Unlike, say, wifi you can't switch it off if you want, and it's a huge power drain. So I find my Galaxy S24+ burns through it's battery in hours, and takes forever to charge, because the phone has to broadcast at full power all of the time. Another example of software written by people who don't use it, and inadequate testing. Just add a fucking switch so I can turn it off if I don't care but allows me to turn it on when I do. They still get their $10/month.

FBI: Watch out for these signs Scattered Spider is spinning its web around your org

Social Engineering

Well, one could require that employees meet in person with IT helpdesk personnel for credential recovery or reset. Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but if the employee is as inept as they must be to need credential recovery help, probably best to put the onus on them to get their ass over to the nearest IT professional, especially if they are some C-suiter. The delay in them getting back to doing their job is almost certainly less damaging than getting the system compromised. Why is it so critical they get their credentials without delay, yet if they were not doing their job for days because they were on vacation, somehow the organization survives?

Australia’s attempt to join the space race lasts just 14 seconds

Re: It's not brain science

Don't forget New Zealand's Rocket Labs.

https://rocketlabcorp.com/

Rocket Labs has had 64 successful launches (out of 68) of its Electron rocket. They have yet to relaunch a recovered booster.

It's Neutron rocket, which will land on ocean platforms similar to SpaceX, is supposed to start flying this year.

https://rocketlabcorp.com/launch/neutron/

Rocket Labs is publicly traded and it's stock has exploded in the last year. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RKLB/

Windows 11 is a minefield of micro-aggressions in the shipping lane of progress

Re: Just don't use Windows

If you must use Windows, use the freeware O&O ShutUp10++

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Intern did exactly what he was told and turned off the wrong server

Re: "Everyone Knows"

Heaven forbid anything be documented. Tribal knowledge is job security for many.

Leading 3D printing site bans firearm files, but home gun makers have better options

Re: "...and keep everyone safe."

More to the point, Bragg has zero authority outside of the State of New York. None. And even if he tried to indict some company in say, Texas, in all likelihood the governor of that State would forbid Law Enforcement in that State from giving him the time of day.

You have a fake North Korean IT worker problem – here's how to stop it

Re: Easier solution

#0 & #2 are critical. There's no excuse except incompetence for not spending what is, compared to the salary, a trivial sum bringing the person in for an in-person interview, even if that means flying them half way around the planet. If I had a nickel for how many times I've heard "we don't have the budget for that" when hiring for a 6-figure position, I'd be rich. Such an attitude is stupid in the extreme. If I were a business insurance company, I'd write it in the contract that any damage caused by an employee who was not in-person interviewed as part of the hiring process isn't covered.*

*In-person interviews don't need to be at HQ, but they do need to be between the candidate and the hiring manager face-to-face in the same room with the candidate producing appropriate government-issued ID & if needed, visa's, work permits, etc. Who does what travel is irrelevant.

How fat is Kim Jong Un essay question.

Just extend Adam Meyers (CrowdStrike) suggestion to requiring a one-page essay with each application requiring a discussion of just how fat Kim Jong Un is. I'd add a followup and require another one-page essay on how Kim Jong Un had his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia on February 13, 2017.

No doubt the lazy HR folks can have an AI generate other "weed 'em out" essay questions to require all candidates to answer that will weed out North Koreans. Non North Korean workers might be a bit harder.

At last, a use case for AI agents with sky-high ROI: Stealing crypto

Re: It's all fair game

I think the word you are looking for is "eclipse".

Security company hired a used car salesman to build a website, and it didn't end well

Only time I ever saw an HR person fired

I was working at a publicly traded company and she caught a c-suite executive doing something he should not have been doing. She was fired, his problem solved.

Georgia court throws out earlier ruling that relied on fake cases made up by AI

Should be grounds for disbarment

The issue isn't using AI, the issue is not actually verifying the citations. Having 11 of one's 15 citations turn out to be bogus is pure laziness. The only way to deter these lazy lawyers is to make submitting bogus references a career-ending offense in criminal cases. A lesser penalty that might work for civil cases is to require the judge to award a default judgment to the party that didn't submit briefs with bogus citations, and if both side do so, throw the case out and require them to restart from zero (or dismiss with prejudice so they can't refile at all).

One Big Brutal Bill: Ex-NASA brass decry Trump's proposed budget cuts

BBB

Big Boneheaded Bill

FIFY

Critics blast Microsoft's limited reprieve for those stuck on Windows 10

But...

For the machine to get its free updates, will you need to have it signed in using that Microsoft account all of the time? Right now, all of the Windows PC's in my home, of which only one runs Windows 11, only have local accounts on them. I'd rather pay, Microsoft or 0patch, to keep them that way.

BTW, one thing that never seems to get mentioned is that, given Microsoft won't allow Windows 11 to run on perfectly good PC's that don't have their arbitrary hardware requirements, their cutting off Windows 10 support means they knowingly are creating a malware epidemic. Sounds like a lawyers Class Action field day to me, at least in the US.