Posts by Sebastian A

ChatGPT Health wants your sensitive medical records so it can play doctor

You couldn't pay me enough to feed it my data

let alone take the advice it barfs out...

Google pushing Gemini into Gmail, but you can turn it off

You can tell they know nobody wants this

That's why they're hitching it to other features. "Oh you wanna turn off the slop bucket? Hope you didn't use tabs or sorting..."

Windows 10 to let you know that your SSD is dying rather than throwing out a BSOD when it's already too late

Powertoys

Isn't powertoys more of a "Here's what Microsoft is too stubborn to include but we all want" package? Surely letting them design it by committee is going to result in missing features because MS is notoriously stubborn about listening to feedback.

Microsoft expands AI features in Office, but are they any good? Mixed, according to our vulture

I especially like how any user that actually reads the privacy statement is lead to believe the admin has explicitly chosen to lock them out of changing them, instead of the admin not having configured this setting.

Decades of "not configured" meaning "user selectable" out the window.

Is this the way the cookie wall crumbles? Dutch data watchdog says nee to take-it-or-leave-it consent

Since Firefox and Palemoon have recently removed the option to allow or block cookies on a per-site basis, I've had to switch to cookie-handling addons, and most of my browsing these days is done in private windows, with only my core trusted sites allowed in a normal window. Close the window, and the cookies are gone.

Don't sites realise the more draconian their policies get, the greater the inevitable backlash will be?

Still fewer Windows 10 devices out there than Instagrammer Kylie Jenner has dollars

And at the same time, how much 3rd party garbage needs to be removed first.

Seriously Microsoft... Candy Crush, on a PRO OS?!? What the hell.

While this CEO may be stiff, his customers are rather stuffed: Quadriga wallets finally cracked open – nothing inside

He exit-scammed all the way off the mortal plane!

Tens of millions more web accounts for sale after more sites hacked, Mac malware spreads via Windows.exe, and more

Interesting. I got an email from houzz about data loss but I've never used them so I deleted it thinking it was a phishing attack.

Did they buy up something else earlier on which may have given them my data?

Why does that website take forever to load? Clues: Three syllables, starts with a J, rhymes with crock of sh...

"I'm convinced that rewarding sites that deliver positive experiences is the path forward,"

I'm sorry, but I'll never see it. Because I browse with an adblocker. The web may slowly, a bit at a time, improve so everyone has the experience someone with an adblocker already has. The only problem I ever run into is a message that says "Disable your adblocker to access this content" which makes me evaluate "Do I wanna read that page if it has ads?" and invariably, that answer is "Nah."

Tech sector meekly waves arms in another bid to get Oz to amend its crypto-busting laws

Are companies/developers/platforms not simply going to say "Sorry, complying with these rules in order to access a market as small as Australia is not worth compromising our ability to do business with 7½ Billion other people. We decline your demands for access and will make our product unavailable in your region."?

OK Google, er, Siri, um, Alexa, can you invalidate these digital assistant patents, please?

Ahhhh patents. Originally created to encourage innovation by protecting people who invested in new technologies, now stifling innovation by being used as blackmail tools against anyone trying to create new technologies.

As netizens, devs scream bloody murder over Chrome ad-block block, Googlers insist: It's not set in stone (yet)

Re: Doing whatever

"Don't be evil" was scrapped as their corporate motto a while back if I remember correctly.

Should be a pretty good indicator of their intentions, right there.

Microsoft points to a golden future where you can make Windows 10 your own

Re: Deinstall parts of W10?

I'm holding on to Win7 for now, but what's everyone else planning to do in Jan 2020? Just hold on and hope no further massive holes are found? What about new hardware? I fear 10 is gonna be unavoidable, at least if you wanna be able to play games.

Alphabet in the soup for keeping quiet about Google+ data leak bug

Typical behaviour really.

Do as we say, not as we do. And nothing (of consequence) is going to happen.

Firefox doesn't need to be No 1 – and that's OK, 'cos it's falling off a cliff

Re: more needed than ever

This is what I switched to. Not Chrome. Certainly not Edge. I switched because Firefox is a miasma of constantly shifting UI elements and unwanted features. I just want clean. Lean. Fast. Customizable.

I don't need the bazillion other pieces of crap, and I don't need to have options removed. That's a Microsoft thing, and I hate them for it too.

BAE accused of flogging mass-spying toolkits to assh*le autocrats

Re: Meanwhile in the EU and 5-eyes...

A terrible human rights record doesn't factor in as much as "pays their bills on time" record.

WikiLeaks emits CIA's Wi-Fi pwnage tool docs

Are there any people in the NSA who've had the epiphany "Wait, are we the bad guys?!?" yet?

Netgear 'fixes' router by adding phone-home features that record your IP and MAC address

Few people will turn it off, but I bet just as few actually bother updating the firmware on their router.

Roll up, sysadmins, now you can join Windows Insider for businesses

We're all just lining up for this.

Right? Aren't we?

Bueller.

Bueller.

Bueller.

Racist Tesla staff drilled my buttocks, claims employee in lawsuit

Thank you for posting both sides of the story. Far too often these days a media outlet will pick up a tale of woe and try to whip up some outrage. Then, the next day, it's forgotten about and they've moved on to something else, never giving the accused company a chance to present their side.

I won't make any assumptions as to what actually happened, I'll wait for the court case to be settled.

Microsoft nicks one more Apple idea: An ad-supported OS

Re: But will Apple file suit against MS?

From that article: "Does Microsoft think we're stupid?"

No. It doesn't think we're stupid. It *knows* enough of us are stupid enough to put up with this. The others, who aren't stupid enough, can get lost for all it cares. We're not the target audience anymore. We never were. They don't care if we rant and rave and switch to Linux. We were never profitable. We expected improvements, stability, security. None of those things make Microsoft money.

The sheep, those are where the money is. They put up with ads, shovelware, and blatant scams. They're the ones who "upgrade" to a "pro" version when faced with a nag screen. The ones who accept all the optional programs with an install. The ones who never check the privacy settings.

Manchester's Munee Hut, Eyebrow Cottage and fresh hot spam from Belize

I'm amazed that sending this crap is still actually profitable. Why are people STILL purchasing spammed products and services? You have to know you're dealing with disreputable people, you must realise that the chances of getting what you paid for are low if they're not flat-out zero. Why does this business model continue to work despite more and more people being brought up with the internet and supposedly being tech-savvy?

Google Chrome 56's crypto tweak 'borked thousands of computers' using Blue Coat security

X blames Y, Y blames X, and the customer gets shafted.

US Air Force terminates Predator drones. Now you will fear the Reaper

Wow, a Cannon Fodder reference. I'm showing my age here (and so is Iain).

GET pwned: Web CCTV cams can be hijacked by single HTTP request

I've been disabling uPnP on the router for years, as I imagine many technically-minded folks do. But the millions of home users are left with no idea of the risks. :/

Microsoft's Neon project to redesign Windows for nerd goggles – reports

I'm almost certain that any VR or AR developed by Microsoft will be stealth-patched to include advertising on any available space. They've demonstrated with Windows 10 that they have zero respect for privacy so there's no chance in hell I'd ever let them augment *my* reality thankyouverymuch.

No spoilers! Norway won't tell Snowden if US will snatch him on a visit

So that's a "yes, they will." then.

Stingy sapphire lens in Apple's iPhone 7 is as scratchy as glass

If there was one thing Apple could claim it was quality over everything (including price competitiveness). I guess a 100% markup on each device wasn't enough and they've decided that surely the consumer won't notice a few compromises here and there.

In the name of love, don't scalp your U2 aka Dreamfest tickets, warns Salesforce

I'm assuming they were intentionally scalped? Perhaps a little too aggressive though, heck one of them lost his eyeballs.

Badda-Bing, badda-doom: Microsoft search guru heads up giant's new AI boffinry unit

Re: 41

Depends if they use any original Pentium chips.

Shouldn't microsoft focus on utilising some traditional intelligence before going on some hopeless quest to develop the artifical variety?

Londoners react with horror to Tube Chat initiative

Re: Cabbage

Correct me if I'm wrong (not that I need to say it) but aren't the buttons a way of saying "Feel free to approach me to chat" without the wearer needing to verbally accost randoms in a fruitless search for stimulating conversation?

IE feel free to read the paper, futz with your phone or stare blankly at the back of the head of the person in front of you if you like, this campaign won't affect you.

Internet of Things security? Start with who owns the data

Re: The problem is a lack of imagination...

The issue is that they're not looking at the bigger picture. Boil a kettle, and it's one tiny inconvenience for one person. Boil 50 million kettles at once, and you bring the nation's powergrid to its knees, and not just for three minutes.

After AT&T's crushing blow, FTC tells Senate it wants its balls back

Do consumers have any rights left in America other than the right to consume?

The Great British domain name rip-off: Overcharged .uk customers help pay for cheaper .vodka

It should just headquarter itself in the USA.

Sure, it might pay a few actual dollars in tax, but at least these behaviours are praised as virtues there, being a shining example of capitalism and how "the market" sorts out everything if it's just left to regulate itself.

Dev teaches bot to talk spammers' ears off

I guess it's worth a shot

Making every potential target financially non-viable to engage with can't be any worse than trying to educate people not to respond to spam. There's a constant flood of new idiots jumping online just waiting to be approached by a saviour proffering gigantic genitalia and a Google paycheck of $9,000 per week.

And! it! begins! Yahoo! sued! over! ultra-hack! of! 500m! accounts!

one of his clients had already seen dodgy activity on their credit card which had been attributed to the attack

"Look honey, that transaction from hotandhornypodiatrists.com must be because my Yahoo account got hacked. There can be no other explanation."

2 in 3 Millennials block ads

Re: Meanwhile, over at the Inq

Element hider addin can be useful for adblocking the panels they cover content with, if you really want to see it.

Usually it's an easy decision to make. I can't see the content without disabling adblocker? Guess I don't need to see the content. Bye.

I'm 40 and every time I see someone browsing the net without an adblocker I almost have an allergic reaction. How can anyone live with that visual pollution?

Windows Server 2016: Leg up or lock in?

Isn't trying to lock people in via SA just as likely to give them the push they needed to jump ship?

If I'm weighing up options, adding some ridiculous contract term to one of them makes me far more likely to lean the other way.

Anti-ICANN Cruzade continues: Senator Ted still desperately trying to defund US govt

Re: Focus your hatred on Cruze, not on Republicans. He's 1 lone loudmouth.

I have to wonder, does he believe his own propaganda? Is he truly deluded, or just a liar?

Google's Allo chat app hits a downside to AI: Bot must hoard private messages to train itself

I have serious doubts about Google honouring any incognito or privacy settings at this stage.

Remote hacker nabs Win10 logins in 'won't-fix' Safe Mode* attack

Re: The fun never ends

Seems a lot of effort to go through when 10 seconds unattended can see you plug in a USB keylogger between PC and keyboard. Which works on any OS as far as I'm aware.

British mobile AI 'bot perfecter stalked by Silicon Valley – report

Re: AI will be fantastic

To be honest, I suspect any AI that can accurately be called that will be on the side of whatever corporation created (bred? imprisoned?) it and it will not be to anyone's benefit except their own.

Imagine a Google AI on your phone. Can you picture what little benefit you'd get out of that compared to what Google gets? To have it quietly singing ad jingles on your nightstand during your REM-sleep? To have it nag you into filling up at BP instead of Mobil with a hundred different very logical reasons despite the fact that the last time you stopped at a BP they treated you like crap and you just don't want to go there?

Now picture it instead being an AI controlled by your government. That strikes me as even more horrifying.

No, I think I'll wait for other people to test-run this stuff before I volunteer to give up any semblance of privacy or individuality.

Fanbois iVaporate: Smallest Apple iPhone queues ever

Most iFanBois have already been bled dry by yearly thousand-dollar phone upgrades.

'Google tax' already being avoided, says Australian Tax Office

Hands up anyone who's surprised. Nobody? Gee I wonder why that is.

Ask a politician to craft a law to fix an accounting loophole and I'd be surprised if you get anything more effective than a "please don't do that".

Gutted: 6.6M cleartext creds, dox, breached in ClixSense site hack

Surely any business that gets caught storing passwords in plain text deserves to be shut down no questions asked. How can this still be happening?

Spam texters fined £30K

Re: Whilst they might be wary of doing it too directly next time

"To make us look bad to potential customers and get investigated up the wazoo by you guys." maybe?

Googler mad over cop scrap

I am a great believer in hearing both sides of the story before deciding whose side I'm on but without seeing events firsthand I think it's going to be hard to get an accurate picture.