Posts by Chet Mannly

NASA puts astronauts’ lives in the hands of Tesla’s flaky Cybertruck

xAi is part of SpaceX now I'm pretty sure. It's hard to keep up with the money-go-round Musk keeps playing but obviously lots of people are buying his stock. Not me, but people...

Re: more Trumpian delusions

Given the amount of bailout money the Feds have given GM over the years is in the billions, surely GM can give them some SUVs in return...

Re: NASA doesn’t have to arrange for an MRAP crew to attend launches

"It seems wasteful to have a cybertruck just sitting there when you almost never use it."

The Space X cybertruck's purpose was to get Tesla sales out of a hole - they were forced by Musk to buy a ton of them, may as well park them on a launchpad and prentend they actually have a useful purpose beyond inflating Tesla stock prices...

Hands off our VPNs, privacy groups tell UK ministers

Many teens kicked off platforms in Oz for being underage have been able to open new accounts without being asked for age verification.

That's what the author means. Maybe do a little more research...

DRAM it! Cheap PCs being priced out of existence as memory cost bites

Re: I heard somewhere the RAM prices were rigged and they blamed AI to cover it up.

No reason it can't be a bit of both - every crisis is a good opportunity...

Telling internet platforms where to stick public service media will serve nobody. Turn it on its head

And with the content is paid for by the government there are far too many opportunities for what is 'fake news' to be influenced by whoever is in power. Even without any direct intervention there is an incentive to not bite the hand that feeds...

Australia investigating five social media giants for not enforcing ban on kids

Don't give the knuckleheads ideas...

Re: Social Media Ban - Albo the Control Freak

"Is Albo going to implement an improved solution, one that actually works?"

Well given the only likely effective (though still not 100%) solution is to require everyone to hand over government issued photo ID with a corroborating selfie to Facebook et al I hope he doesn't...

Telegram founder accuses Meta of sabotaging access in India with BGP hijacks

Re: It's India. Who cares?

"we are changing the language and theres not a damn thing you can do about it."

You aren't changing the language. You speaking it badly doesn't change anything but people's opinions of your communication.

Britain plots digital bedtime after kicking under-16s off social media

"That definition also includes email. Is he targetting that?"

The intent in Oz was to bash the "evil platforms". Email isn't a platform for the Oz laws and it sounds like that's what the UK wants to follow.

"Wouldn't it be nice if, just got once, we could elect some politicians who aren't self serving assholes?"

Problem is at elections you only get to choose between different flavours of self-serving aholes.

"How do you plan enforcing that one?"

Why is parentng to be enforced at all? Some parents are better than others and as adults we grow up and move past what our parents taught us. That's life.

Do you think killing anonymity on the web for everyone will be any sort of answer? Kids will get around it as they took minutes to do in Australia. This solves nothing except the Government's fetish for control.

Signal says UK plan to scan devices for nude images 'endangers us all'

Either the Government's digital id, or copy of photo ID with a selfie to verify.

Re: This law endangers the privacy of the entire world, not just the UK

I don't think Apple would roll this out voluntarily - but governments all over the world could easily say 'give us the same functionality here'

Same end result though...

NASA to pull an IKEA by dropping tons of plastic, metal, and glass on the Moon

Re: While you were out

Nah, they will just leave a 'attempted delivery, noone home, go collect it yourself at the PO' card :)

Utah tells porn sites to take the P out of VPNs, and it's their fault that they can't

Re: The bill itself

100% That reads more like the website can't simply say 'here's a link and instructions on how to use a VPN to get around these restrictions' rather than saying the site somehow has to figure out how to disable VPNs...

Microsoft says cu l8r to text message security

Re: They're pushing MS Authenticator, aren't they?

Something tells me the MS login website wont have 'hey you can use a range of password apps' with links to them all. It will have 'authenticate with MS authenticator' and 99% of people will follow instructions. Then the 'hey use us as your wallet' prompts will begin.

Re: Will still be needed

Except it means that the thief now has your authenticator app and can run riot.

You can call your mobile provider and get the number cut off to stop them getting SMS, but you can't do that with an authenticator app.

Re: BS

"There's nothing wrong with requiring ID to vote"

Been in place in Oz for years. Either show ID or a personally addressed card posted out by the electoral office - I find it faster to show ID to the list ticker than to spell out names and addresses to them.

Re: BS

"Long, unique passwords are fine"

A problem I have started to come across is some boneheaded websites (even banks) are putting maximum limits on password length. Makes zero sense to me...

Mozilla warns UK: Breaking VPNs will not magically fix Britain's age-check mess

Re: Legal Responsibility

"Or better yet, put your router somewhere that your kids can't reach it... and switch the thing off unless you actively want to let them have access."

Kids all have smartphones, they don't need your router. I don't even have a home internet connection anymore, I don't need one.

Cloud-managed earbuds sound strange - as a concept, and on a plane

long-haul?

"boast batteries that last about six hours...makes them satisfactory for long-haul flights"

You and I have very different views of what constitutes a 'long-haul' flight LOL

AI to infest eight in ten premium phones within two years

"Ubuntu Touch works but there is many things it doesn't do. Degoogled Android alternatives do work better but won't do everything."

I think the chances of a linux phone OS ever doing everything are pretty slim as you need market share. Even Huawei with millions of devices can't attract all developers. I think the best you can hope for on that front is an F-Droid-style army of dedicated hobbyists (who do an amazing job on Android BTW) and do your banking etc through the web browser.

I also think the degoogled phones don't do anything is way overblown. I have one (Graphene) as my daily driver and have zero problems. Google wallet aparently doesn't work, but I'm yet to be convinced turning the most easily stolen device I own into a potential credit card free for all if it gets nicked is a good idea. YMMV of course, many. many, people use Wallet.

EU browser choice rules send millions more users Firefox's way

Re: Policy working exactly as intended

Given how many policies are failures, let's take the wins when we get them :)

Musk has never built a wafer fab, but he wants to burn $119B on one anyway

Re: No experience running a fab

"His outstanding skill is fleecing investors"

His truly outstanding skill is subsidy farming. He has managed to benefit better than most from government $$$

We've only gone and done it: Changed what you're used to

Sorry not a fan of the article layout

On my screen the article text is in a really narrow (like barely 50% screen width) column with huge white space on either side. Zooming increases the text size but keeps the column the same. You really need to fix the margins...

Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

Re: Support from general commerce?

Same here, with the rate of phone thefts skyrocketing why would you use that as a security device. It is literally the least physically secure device people own.

Re: Grapheneos

"it doesn't do anything to improve privacy as it happily loads "google play services" when needed"

Graphene doesn't have play services installed out of the box. My phone doesn't have play services installed...

EU waves through open source age-check tool to keep kids safe online

This is just about the EU getting in on tracking

"boost the bloc's power in tackling the dominance of big tech companies in citizens lives."

This does nothing to tackle the dominance of big tech in people's lives - it simply hands the ability of the EU to surveil their population as well.

Re: Will rooted phones be banned next?

"How about letting users disable that antifeature completely?"

You can delete the advertising ID completely on Android devices. There's a button to do it in the Google preferences.

UK gov pays public £550 to discuss Digital ID – then bans journalists from the room

Re: Pathetic

"This is just theatre to manufacture consent."

It's not even that, it's asking about implementation - they are way past 'do we or don't we?' that horse has bolted...

"Personally, I value the right to go to sleep at night without criminals being able to break into my home and terrorize me."

So you don't live in the UK then?

Re: Reply to Dan

" they will already swiftly move on to the implementation "

It's already too late. This IS the implementation crew, and they are asking only about implementation. That's why there are no 'should we?' questions.

Brussels tells Google to hand rivals its search crown jewels as privacy row brews

Re: Sounds like BS

I'm not sure Google would prefer having to break out it's advertising and search functions into different companies if that's the alternative you're suggesting...

Meta's latest model is as open as Zuckerberg's private school

"I have not and will never use any product made by a company owned or run by that morally bankrupt arsehole."

That criteria really limits your tech options - Silicon Valley basically consists of morally bankrupt aholes with marginally different flavours...

Netflix – yes, Netflix – jumps on the AI bandwagon with video editor

Re: Great to make netflix originals at lower cost, and also to alter history at will.

"Take older movies and alter them to adapt them to current ideas. Remove "offensive" parts, make them conform to current ideas and political correctness."

Yeah that was my first reaction. How long before that ridiculous "trigger warning" at the start of old movies becomes a "this movie has been altered to reflect modern values"?

And the inevitable social media campaigns from the perpetually offended to change tv shows and movies of course...

Re: Perfect for the American release versions

Given Netflix has put a kybosh on smoking in new shows, how long before they start this revisionist stuff.

Or more chillingly - how long before tools like this are used to refashion old movies, even Disney flicks, into PC acceptable versions?

Surprise! Big Tech has been a bit rubbish at enforcing Australia’s kids social media ban

Re: Maybe the parent could, I dunno, PARENT that kid?

Another option is to just take away the smartphone and they can only use a laptop in the family room where everyone else can see until they hand over the password.

There are multiple ways to parent. Seems many are far too lazy and just want the government to do it for them.

Re: There's always the option of "Parental Intervention"

Exactly - so when the parent was told by their kid they were accessing socail media the parent did absolutely zero parenting, but then whinged to the government to fix it.

Sure the kid may have tried to get another account, but if the parent is that concerned they need to get off their lazy butt and do something about the 'problem' right in front of their face and them tackle the potential second-order problem if it comes up.

Folk are getting dangerously attached to AI that always tells them they're right

Re: More than one use for AI

I think it's a potentially useful tool trained on garbage. I use it to study languages. If I ask it a question the answer it gives will be garbage, maybe 50% right. But if I give it 3 grammar books and say what do these books say about X it's answers are actually very accurate.

So yeah garbage in garbage out is still a thing

Re: I've got one of those

Not a coder but I find the same thing with writing. I find it useful for a rough first draft. Usually it's badly written and nowhere near acceptable - but usually there's a decent structure there so it beats starting from a blank sheet. But I cringe when I hear people say they rely on it...

Sadly nothing new...

Social media has been an echo chamber for years and driving similar types of behaviour. It's how to keep people engaged.

AI is just more personalised and eliminates any chance of seeing the perspective of another person.

OpenAI now gets to decide which type of product assassin it will become

Seems an extremely long bow you're drawing there. I don't think OpenAI are running away from some Chinese tool which hasn't even been launched yet. There was hype around their first model until it was released and everyone started looking more closely and discovered it didn't match the hype at all.

Much more likely that video costs a ton of money to generate and it's really hard to monetise. Better to focus on business applications as businesses actually bring in money, so there's more hope that those applications could pay for themselves.

Nanny state discovers Linux, demands it check kids' IDs before booting

Re: So, that escalated fast

"It's not PII, it's a number. It doesn't even have to be the right one."

The prudes are forcing age verification at an OS level. If it is allowed with 'trust me this is my age' false information how many seconds do you think it would take for them to add a full PII requirement to protect the children genius?

Re: Comparing fruits

I don't think the support necessarily comes from politicians being easily bought - governments and political parties want this level of surveilance too, and it's cheaper to get FB, Xitter, Apple et al to do it and then just get the info from them.

Motorola partners with GrapheneOS for future phones

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

The last security update on my phone included up to the August 2026 security bulletins. The latest available software on my Samsung is patched to January 2026.

So yes months plural.

Google often gives patches to OEMs 3-4 months in advance so they have time to incorporate them in their software. So a "December" patch update for example usually includes security fixes that Google actually made in September. Graphene don't wait, they get them at the same time as the OEMs and release them straight away.

Check the website if you don't believe me...

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

Yep, daily driver here. Big fan and have no desire to go back to regular android.

Security updates come out at least weekly and months in advance of phones like Samsungs.

Everything I've tried works except for Google Wallet (I don't use it, but it's widely reported it doesn't work). That includes banking apps.

Best thing is the battery life - I have it on a 9 Pro Fold, a phone not known for it's battery life, and I get 2 days out of it easily (for comparison the same use on a Samsung Fold 3 had it completely dead within 10 hours).

As OpenAI and Claude fight over ads, Google says ‘show me the money’

Re: Ads?

You are blocking the advertising spots, problem is that these days 90% of the content on the web is basically advertising. Whether it's news sites where heaps of the articles are actually paid for and disguised ads, review sites that are bought and paid for - even sites that aren't tryng to sell you a product/service are frequently pushing some form of agenda or other to influence you.

Blocking the traditional ads is easy, the rest not so much...

Microsoft spends billions on AI, converts just 3.3% of Copilot Chat users

Starbucks should try adding actual coffee to the brown water they serve before messing with AI...

'Ralph Wiggum' loop prompts Claude to vibe-clone commercial software for $10 an hour

Re: The road to maintainability hell?

" The hilarious thing is they then talk as if companies goodwill and branding could save them. No, not with the playbook they have been running since well before the pandemic."

Even before that with the constant demands to subscribe to software. If a knock off can be made cheaply and sold for cash up front people will buy it to avoid having MS/Adobe et al constantly feeding off their credit cards every month for the term of their natural lives...