* Posts by DerekCurrie

675 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Apr 2012

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China now America's number one cyber threat – US must get up to speed

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

Getting Real About China Cyber Espionage

China's cyber attack strategy against the USA began in 1998, the year they were ironically given "Most Favored Nation" status by the Clinton administration. It began with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) assisting in the formation of the Red Hacker Alliance from disparate citizen hackers. With time, this group grew and became an integral part of the Chinese communist government's military. In 2007, nine years after the CCP's strategy had begun, the US federal government admitted that every federal Windows PC connected to the Internet had been infected with Chinese bots that actively sent data from those machines to Beijing. Since that time, the Chinese government has been implicated in endless cyber-crime against the USA and the rest of the world in search for not just government and military secrets, but for IP (intellectual property) it could use to modernize the country and create its own manufacturing and worldwide distribution base.

And only now we hear someone say "China now America's number one cyber threat"?

Here is a detailed timeline, from CSIS (the Center for Strategic and International Studies), of Chinese espionage crimes against the USA, helping to illustrate that not only now has China been America's number one cyber threat:

Survey of Chinese Espionage in the United States Since 2000

"This updated survey is based on publicly available information and lists 224 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at the United States since 2000."

Tesla's big reveal: Steering-wheel-free Robotaxi will charge wirelessly

DerekCurrie
Devil

Re: The yobs will be delighted

Expect the same treatment of robots, if we're ever silly enough to let them loose in the world.

US govt hiding top hurricane forecast model sparks outrage after deadly Helene

DerekCurrie
Mushroom

Filed under #MyStupidGovernment

I am so sick of the You-Know-Whos corrupting and attempting to drown my US government in a bathtub. Here is an excellent example of what those sick and extreme maniacs would create to replace the ideal of benevolent government.

My contentious species.

Microsoft throws in the towel on HoloLens 2

DerekCurrie
FAIL

Hollow, never Holo

As those of us who understand actual holography will attest: Good riddance to a bad product name.

Unions 2, Apple 0: Cupertino caves after fresh strike threat

DerekCurrie
Unhappy

Slow and steady Apple Rot

THEN:

I remember when the local Apple Store was setting up and hiring its first staff. The first manager was friendly woman, looking for friendly as well as technology savvy employees. When they opened, it was "Insanely Great" to shop there. Everything was user-friendly.

NOW:

I bought a new iPhone in 2023 at the same Apple Store. The sales staff were mostly just as cheerful, but they were not tech savvy. The floor walker I spoke with fed me wonderful, euphoric nonsense about how easy it would be to transfer my phone service account to the new phone. It turned out to be impossible IRL without obscure support from an Apple Genius. So I head back to that Apple Store and end up talking to its current manager. I'm not exaggerating by saying I've never met a more user-hostile manager anywhere, ever. He acted like he was on a testosterone high. Nothing I said could get through to him that Apple were required to get my new iPhone to actually work with my phone service account. Instead, the conversation turned into a classic "Create An Irate" horror on his part. Being irate, I demanded fulfillment of Apple's required service. He told me to get out! I refused, repeating again the required service. He called in the mall cops! I had a good talk with the mall cops about what this 'manager' refused to fulfill. The mall cops turned to the 'manager' and suggested he do his job and help me. Mr. Testosterone dropped the user-hostile act, shut up and fixed my iPhone setup. I walked out with the mall cops and thanked them for restoring sanity. They offered sympathy and complemented me for sticking to my goal. The mall cops were "Insanely Great".

CONCLUSION: Apple Rot goes on. Apple customers suffer for it. The behavior at that Apple Store had become simply "Insane", killing my interest in ever returning. No surprise: When I require Apple gear, I get it online. Even then, I'm reluctant and expect user-hostility.

Keir Starmer says facial recognition tech is the answer to far-right riots

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

The Statistical Success Rate of Live Facial Recognition Software Remains INSIGNIFICANT

Considering concern over fascist yobo berserker behavior this past week, the wish/hope/dream for live facial recognition is obvious. Setting aside the fact that actual working live facial recognition would open a vast array of abuse of the technology...

The fact remains that live facial recognition remains a statistical FAILURE. It's far more likely to be wrong in its identification of individuals than right. False positives are more likely than successful identification. As such, the technology is a DETRIMENT in all use cases, if left on its own.

Wishes, hopes and dreams do not a successful technology make. So stop pretending!

Obtaining high resolution, high frame rate images of criminals, is on the other hand, a helpful puzzle piece. Just don't let the faulty failure software do what it requires the HUMAN MIND to do with far more success. IOW: Do it right, please.

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

DerekCurrie
Childcatcher

So Epic . . .

Your complaint confabulations directed at Apple.... Have they gained you ANY profit? Have they improved your reputation? Do your Apple users love you any more than before your naughty lying started?

IMHO Epic, you're deceitful dirtbags who act on the level of children stamping their little feet in demand of daddy's car keys. I consider you very silly indeed. Now go to your bedroom and think about what you've done. Then apologize to daddy.

Apple has never been perfect, and at this point in their history I swear expletives in their direction every single day. But having to deal with the likes of Epic? I can only offer Apple sympathy and admire their patience with the irrational brats.

64% of people not happy about idea of AI-generated customer service

DerekCurrie
Devil

Re: AI Chatbot Fun & Games

Starting back in the 1990s I was berserking "AI" software. In response, "AI" programmers have put up barriers to stop the chaos. And of course we portable Turing Test administrators have responded in kind with ever more tricky and subversive methods of proving "AI" to be NOT intelligent, but instead able to be manipulated beyond the level of average mortal men.... Well, considering modern politics, beyond the level of below average mortal men.

DerekCurrie
FAIL

AI Can't Answer MY Questions

When I (am doomed to) call Support, I have a question or problem that hasn't been covered online. That translates to: I have a question or problem of which any AI is unlikely to understand or help. All an AI is going to do is, as usual, access its database and toss out what's there. If the database sucks, that of course is the AI programmer's problem. But if the problem isn't IN the database, forget about AI entirely.

As such, I cannot consider AI to be ANY more helpful than the average level 1 phone support representative.

There are already some GREAT examples online of limited and lame AI support. It's that "How May I Help You" text bot conversation box. I've never found them to be of ANY help for the problems and questions I query.

RESULT: Nothing-at-all will improve on the customer's end. Period. The company? It chiseled off more of it's expenses AT the expense of its customer base. I consider that to be just another form of slow suicide. As per usual, as ANY well trained marketing executive and employee knows: When you tick off a customer, that customer is going to RANT TO THE WORLD what a lousy company they've had to suffer. A common figure is the one offended customer will tell 70 (seventy) other people about their bad experience. But that figure is quite old! We're in the age of the Internet now, when one upset comment can reach the eyes and ears of THOUSANDS.

Walk softly, modern marketing. One customer comment may be the TIPPING POINT of your future success or bankruptcy. And don't expect an offended customer to only make one single world wide web accessible complaint. Get it right. Do Be marketing mavens! Don't Be marketing morons.

How Europe can force Apple to support competition

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

As long as the Walled Garden of iOS SECURITY remains... Have at Apple!

You'll never get me to support anything that compromises iOS device security. And we know the EU could techno-blunder their way into forcing just that.

However, as this article well delineates, there is A LOT of Apple corporate crap to address, kill and replace with FAIRNESS and BENEFIT to the computer community as a whole.

Just never Never NEVER shove the POS Android system of security hell on anyone!!! A big middle finger to Google for their next-to-WORTHLESS 'vetting' of Google Play Store apps. It's sick and sad JOKE pulled on the computer device community! Android security is appallingly poor, and I'll gladly point out years of articles to prove it. Don't do that to the Apple community! DON'T YOU DARE, EU! That's the jugular.

Work on the rest of the rotting body that is Apple. There's plenty of Apple rot right now. They're clearly not going to clean up their act without EMBARRASSING them into self-improvement. THAT, sadly, is The Apple Way, as it was even under Steve Jobs. :-P

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

EU: DON'T KILL iOS SECURITY!

Apple makes a lot of blunders. Feeding its stockholders has been a corrupting, crapitalist influence. Steve Jobs would be appalled.

But the APPLE WALLED GARDEN WORKS!

The Android public garden is a nightmare. Google's 'vetting' of apps in its Play Store is ABYSMAL. I can prove it with piles of articles over many years.

So: HEY EU! HANDS OFF THE WALLED GARDEN!

Punish and improve Apple's uncompetitive behavior. But don't you DARE damage the Apple iOS walled garden. It's a SUPREME BENEFIT of iOS.

If anything, FORCE GOOGLE to actually, seriously, honestly, vigorously vet Android apps. Then maybe I'll believe there is any kind of remote security equality between iOS and Android.

GOT THAT EU!

Aside:

;-) I know perfectly well that we're going to remain in the Dark Age of Computing for a long time to come. But we're not going to get out of it until we FORCE coding to be inherently and demonstrably SECURE. Until then, I love Apple's iOS walled garden. Would I want such a thing for macOS. HELL NO!

;-) The wetware security factor? That's never going away, sad to say. We can't even get IT professionals to adequately back up their data locally, let alone off-LAN. Consider me justifiably cynical in this respect.

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

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

SECURITY is the #1 PRIORITY

If ANYTHING the EU forces on companies compromised SECURITY, then FIX IT!

The EU is blatantly TECHNO-IGNORANT.

Taking the CRAP out of CRAPITALISM is my fight too! I highly support it! Abuse, exploitation, parasitism, feed the rich / screw the poor, eat your competitor alive, con-job marketing manifestos, ad nauseam, are ALL the product of the WORST OF MANKIND'S behavior.

But software security? DAMAGE SECURITY AT YOUR PERIL, EU!

Get cracking understanding EXACTLY what I'm talking about. The topic is broad, wide, profound and incredibly daunting. LEARN IT and SUPPORT IT! Otherwise, STFU and put up with actual SECURITY over ALL other concerns, including all the CRAP in CRAPITALISM.

GOT THAT EU!

IASSOTS. Tech ignorami are the prime reason we're stuck in The Dark Age of Computing. And that includes the willfully ignorant who allow for lousy software coding security.

Microsoft answered Congress' questions on security. Now the White House needs to act

DerekCurrie
FAIL

Waiting for the day I no longer have to use the phrase #MyStupidGovernment

It's been documented that China: Criminal Nation started hacking the USA in 1998, the year their country was foolishly given Most Favored Nation status. China's first hacking group was the Red Hacker Alliance. Hacking-the-world was then integrated directly into the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) run government. It took until 2007 for #MyStupidGovernment to admit that EVERY federal government Microsoft Windows PC exposed to the Internet had been compromised with Chinese bots that sent data back to Beijing.

And here we are in 2024 and #MyStupidGovernment has learned nothing about the security perils of using Microsoft software.

China laughs as the ease with which they hack-the-world.

Microsoft continues to BS its way through time and technology.

There are techno-savvy departments and individuals in the US government. But they continue to be ignored. Why they are ignored is the pressing question.

Adobe users just now getting upset over content scanning allowance in Terms of Use

DerekCurrie
FAIL

Re: Suckers!

Monopoly world. Fight back and expand the abilities of the industry. Playing along is suffering monopoly ramifications. Nothing changes.

Breaking monopoly worlds is obviously hard. But it's also required. No competition? No retaliation? You're a masochist. Allowing others to suffer because you didn't retaliate? You're contributing to sadism in your industry. Such is our species. *sigh*

US senator claims UnitedHealth's CEO, board appointed 'unqualified' CISO

DerekCurrie
Go

Ron Wyden Should Be President

It's hard to find a more intelligent or reality aware elected official than Ron Wyden.

UnitedHealth Group? They're pathetic parasites IMHO. Parasites are renowned for not having much in the intelligence department.

Thank you again, Senator Wyden! And thank you Oregon for keeping him in office.

Apple says if you want to ship your own iOS browser engine in EU, you need to be there

DerekCurrie
Go

A Couple Points Explaining Apple's Point of View

1) Maintaining WebKit's rendering relevance:

Chromium derivatives are the current winners of the browser market. This is a problem for Apple on the web. Google come up with new formats and web code on a regular basis and toss them into Chromium. They don't work on any of Apple's WebKit derived browsers until Apple says so and adds the code, which typically takes years, not kidding. The big problem is with Google ruling the roost, WebKit derivatives end up NOT properly displaying a lot of web pages. FORCING the use of WebKit in iOS establishes WebKit as that platform's rendering engine, forcing those web designers who wish to be compliant to pay attention to WebKit web code and formats.

2) Security:

Apple has the very best, no exception or question, security for 'smart' devices, aka iOS devices including iPads. They were embarrassed into a corner by Blackberry's security and established themselves as superior via their 'walled garden' App Store. That remains the case today. (Don't argue with me. You'll lose). Part of that demand for security is the demand that they control the web rendering engine on iOS. Apple doesn't want to have to deal with some other rendering engine's security flaws. And yes there are plenty. Pushing other rendering engines into iOS means trouble for Apple security. That's the fact. Apple doesn't want the grief or the lack of control. Personally, as an iOS user, I don't want the security flaw grief either! WebKit already has regular security flaw discovery as it is, a plenty! Why would Apple want to have to worry about what problems are going on with the Blink, Gecko, Goanna, Servo, Presto, etc. rendering engines? I don't want the hassle either! The more simple the security concerns, the better. Software security is a massive PITA we humans either cannot comprehend or take the time to consider and solve. It's likely the biggest factor that keeps us in what I still consider The Dark Age of Computing. We have to get better. Simplifying our worries helps a lot.

UnitedHealth's 'egregious negligence' led to Change Healthcare ransomware infection

DerekCurrie
Devil

United Health makes mucho money on a lousy reputation. WHY?

I recall the State of New York, nearly two decades ago, suing United Health for scamming Medicare recipients, booting victims off their Medicare Part D plan to anything better. Now this crap. As far as I can tell, United Health's only friends are AARP. That's one major reason I have zero interest in AARP. Buying one's way into someone's approval is disturbing.

Locally, United Health bought a large store front building in a popular neighborhood, put up their sign and did nothing-at-all with the property. The entire point was to make it LOOK like they had a presence there, which they literally did not. It was marketing BS. Again the word 'scam' had resonance.

Don't, IMHO of course, give them a second look.

What do we make of Apple's plan B for a down quarter – that $110B buyback of shares?

DerekCurrie
Alert

Apple Is Sinking

Since 2016, Apple has suffered from Failure to Scale. That's resulting in losing track of the details and not caring when users point out the messy results via their Feedback Assistant.

But the warning sign that clobbered me is the decay of "Apple Official Support" to the point of uselessness when any new or complex problem is addressed. The company has also turned off accepting incoming calls to their former customer complaint, aka "Apple Customer Support" phone line. The verification of corporate rot came when I pointed out a problem with their iCloud service via their website and received a return email that plainly stated:

"Thank you for contacting Apple.

Messages sent to this email address aren't monitored."

IOW: Give up. We don't care.

But by all means feed the stockholders while the company sinks into its self-made mire.

They used to be my favorite company.

Relax, Google's drop in search market share in April was just an illusion

DerekCurrie
Pint

My "Anomaly" Is Called...

Yandax

Brave Search

Quant

Startpage

Kagi

And my favorite: DuckDuckGo

Google still has some good results that I turn to now and then. But it's more like a last resort. I deliberately avoid them for a wide variety of reasons, much as I respect their early work.

Google sends Gemini AI back to engineering to adjust its White balance

DerekCurrie
Boffin

Another Marketing-As-Management Artifact

This AI BS is a sad sign of Google having acquired what I call Marketing-As-Management disease. Typical of this behavior, developed in aging businesses, creativity and quality have been supressed for the sake of marketing interests. Obviously, AI as a whole is marketing hype. Google have rushed Bard/Gemini to market no doubt because of their marketing division directing them to do so. Considering the majority of Google revenue comes from advertising sales, this disease was inevitable. Equally, Google's ongoing denigration of its former creative incentives fits the theory. Relational personalities, aka marketing employees historically have it in for creative technologists who are the beating heart of any company. With marketing daggers shoved into that heart, aging companies become self-destructive. Here we go again.

Thank you as ever to Tony Allesandra whose work inspired my comprehension of this common disease of aging companies. I can provide the details regarding this business disease upon request. Get marketing OUT of management, and keep them out.

Apple redecorates its iPhone prison to appease Europe

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

Compare the security of Android devices to that of Apple iOS devices...

When The-Powers-That-Be don't understand software and Internet security, they blunder their way into insecurity.

This is a great example.

Pick a week, any week. Compare the Android security nightmares that took place that week to the almost universal lack of security nightmares on Apple iOS devices.

Go on! Do it!

If you did, you know that Google is consistently lousy at vetting the software at their Google Play store. Meanwhile, Apple has been relatively brilliant at vetting the software at their App Store, resulting in the single most secure mobile devices available, bar none. Killing off Apple's "Walled Garden" is the act of fools.

There are, may be, can be, monopoly abuse concerns regarding Apple. Address them! But don't DESTROY SECURITY as your method, however inadvertent it may be.

Apple has had a growing Fail-To-Scale reputation over the last eight years, resulting in an ever increasing density of clunk and junk coding in their software. Please DON'T exponentially add to that mess the ability to install and run Any-Old-Crap and scamware on iOS devices. You'll regret it intensely.

Senate bill aims to stop Uncle Sam using facial recognition at airports

DerekCurrie
Boffin

BIG FAT Problem:

Facial recognition doesn't just 'sometimes' fail. It USUALLY fails. The technology remains Not Ready For Prime Time. It's yet another, of many, technologies that KindaSortaMaybe work well enough to shove it out into the public and make some money from false marketing. Does that remind your of anything, such as Autonomous Driving, a more deadly failure? Or maybe it reminds you of "AI", aka Artificial Idiocy, aka monkey-see-monkey-do?

With it's failings in mind, what is the actual point? There are dozens of less intrusive and more accurate methods of verifying people's identities that actually work.

Then of course consider to what extent the identification technologies as a whole could or do compromise the Fourth and/or Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution. Identifying people as being themselves, versus some scammer, etc., can be extremely important. Just be careful to walk the line of maintaining personal privacy AND avoidance of false, BS, shyte technology arrest.

Then of course there's that basic problem of SECURITY. Don't allow personal identifiers to be stolen and used by crooks and people with ill intent.

What's really going on with Chrome's June crackdown on extensions – and why your ad blocker may or may not work

DerekCurrie
FAIL

Google Is Not The Boss Of Me

Alternatives: I already have them working for me.

AD SHOVING, as with other forms of willful user abuse, does nothing but annoy and inspire departure.

Enjoy, Google.

US Air Force wants to see some atomic motors for future spacecraft

DerekCurrie
Facepalm

WHAT GOES UP...

...MUST COME DOWN.

Then what? The effect of a dirty bomb?

That would be bad. We've known that would be bad for many decades.

So why stupidity now?

"The rocket blows up, which they sometimes do, we assume that uranium will be distributed so far and wide, it won't be a problem, or crash back as a lump in a way that doesn't ruin someone's year."

√ Right. Assuming makes radiation victims out of you and me. Don't do that. Obviously.

Infosys co-founder calls for youth to work 70-hour weeks

DerekCurrie
Stop

If you value your life...

DON'T DO IT.

Been there.

Lost all sense of delayed gratification.

Lost all ability to tolerate stress.

Got sick and couldn't work.

DO NOT BELIEVE THE Boss-Of-You when they ask you to kill yourself for the sake of whatever. Value your life and make your life have value. Personal responsibility means taking care of yourself as well as family as well as your work life. Work well and work diligently, WITHIN REASON. You are #1.

Tenfold electric vehicles on 2030 roads could be a shock to the system

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

STORAGE STORAGE STORAGE

From Day 1 it's been a battle to get into green heads the requirement of energy STORAGE.

This is stupid: ""Unless countries take actions to incentivize EV drivers to charge outside peak electricity consumption periods... - said Jonathan Davenport, senior director analyst at Gartner."

STORE energy in order to entirely ignore "peak electricity consumption periods." This isn't hard. Batteries are the current obvious method. What is potentially the easiest is to store energy from renewable sources into water derived hydrogen. Burn it quick and easy as required. Oxygen in, water out. Anyone can make hydrogen at home from renewable sources.

Typically, as witnessed with nuclear energy, what wins the day is NEITHER quality NOR rationality. Instead, it's brain dead old MONEY.

Do it right or give up, green-washers.

Microsoft seeks EU Digital Market Acts exemption for underdog apps like Edge

DerekCurrie
Devil

HaHaHaHa

Corporatocracy from Microsoft asserting itself yet again.

Baloney EU! Dump their manipulative request. They require ZERO sympathy for their Windows monopoly infested Edge browser.

DerekCurrie
Facepalm

Re: If I could nuke Edge from space

...Another Chromium derivative is Brave. Of the Chromium based browsers, it's the best IMHO. But don't count on it being perfect. For example on Mac, "Warn Before Quitting" has NEVER worked. (0_o) Nonetheless, it's the only browser I'll use, if I can help it specifically because it's the best at making the commercial aspects of the Internet bearable.

Again on Mac: Chromium and its children has become the default. That's lazy and stupid on the part of website designers. It doesn't help that Apple willfully ignores Google web code innovations (whether they're good or buggy crap) and keeps them out of Safari until a gun is put to their head. Mozilla is doing GREAT IMHO with Firefox and friends. But the Google monopoly via Chromium remains the core problem.

CERN experiment proves gravity pulls antimatter the way Einstein predicted

DerekCurrie
Go

If it's energy...

...It has the property we call 'gravity.' Therefore, it's no surprise that anti-matter, which is energy, has the same gravity as its matter counterpart.

I wish the realization that all energy has gravity would penetrate and become a universal understanding. Physicists make a lot of incorrect conjectures assuming the opposite. Call it "anti-physics." Can we move along please?

Twitter, aka X, tops charts for misinformation, EU official says

DerekCurrie
FAIL

The entire point of Musk's X

...Is to provide a wide open blow hole for mid-life-crisis afflicted blowhards, such as himself (IMHO) to attack everything they're afraid of and that got in the way of their overcompensating ego.

Sad.

I dumped the place the day Musk bought it. I wish it would simply die from Musk's inflicted (IMHO) disease.

Chinese vendor apologizes for claiming Microsoft open source code was its own product

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

Oh, Surprise.

Ripping off IP from the rest of the world, where reward inspires incentive, inspires creativity and invention and innovation, is Standard Daily Practice throughout the CCP dictated country. It's been the same old shyte since 1998, well documented, proven to continue every single day.

What's extraordinary here is apology. Apparently, the Chinese (ironically like Microsoft circa 1994 stealing Apple Quicktime code) are not into international lawsuits.

There are some incredible technos in China. I have some of the gear! But such is communism that it takes considerable breaking of the rules to allow citizens to benefit from their creativity. And even then, the CCP have to play at IRON GRIP and deservedly make purchasers of Chinese products and services paranoid.

Give it up CCP and let China ACTUALLY thrive without your blundering, destructive BS.

:-D

So the FBI 'persistently' abused its snoop powers. What's to worry about?

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

US foreign surveillance: Constitutional. US citizen surveillance within the USA: Unconstitutional.

This is my now decade old tag created specifically in response to the US Federal Government surveilling US citizens within the USA WITHOUT a warrant:

#MyStupidGovernment

It's a mild sarcastic response considering the CRIMINAL behavior of parts of the US Federal Government involved in this still ongoing behavior.

My practical response, as has become common, is to lock down the security of my Internet accessing devices to the maximum possible extent.

1) I fully expect my internet service provider (ISP) is lawfully (albeit deceitfully) collecting all my Internet behavior, then providing it without warrant to the government. Therefore, I never use my ISP's DNS server. I use fully encrypted and anonymized third party DNS servers.

2) I only connect to encrypted HTTPS web servers. To hell with HTTP servers of old.

3) I use a 'reverse firewall' to stop dead any calls out from my devices to the Internet what don't have my personal approval.

4) I connect to the Internet ONLY by way of an excellent quality VPN service, resulting in fully encrypted Internet communication at all times that don't give away my Internet Protocol (IP) address, resulting in anonymization.

5) I use two different anti-malware applications to counter surveil all software coming into my Internet devices.

6) I use every security browser extension I can lay my cursor on.

7) I block all Internet of Things (IoT) from accessing my local area network (LAN). IoT remains a profoundly dangerous technology if allowed to access the Internet. Shameful!

8) I keep all my Internet devices up-to-date with the latest security fixes, from operating system to firmware.

9) I never let anyone else have in person access to my Internet devices. No lending.

10) I follow the #1 Rule of Computing! I backup EVERYTHING, to both local and off site destinations. This is the single best tool to recover from any malware attack, most specifically RANSOMWARE. Anyone not following the #1 Rule is, in my book, a computer illiterate who has no business using one. Ransomware victims who cannot freely recover by way of securely stored backups should never have been using computers to begin with. That said, however, there's no such thing as perfection. Human foolishness is a constant.

We've got plenty of AI now but who asked for it? El Reg's vultures chime in

DerekCurrie
Megaphone

AI is a Tool. It creates nothing.

Setting aside the ongoing bizarro exaggeration that is AI marketing hype...

What confuses people is misunderstanding what this AI stuff actually is. So here are a couple important points:

1) What we currently call "AI" is only advanced Expert System (ES) software. ES has been around for several decades. It takes in questions, queries its database, then offers an answer. What's advanced about it is the use of speech, both input and output, as well as learning. It knows how to gather more data to put into its database. Some AI also allows for scripting whereby an input can trigger a series of events, either resulting in data output, triggering an event outside of the AI system, such as turning on a networked lightbulb.

2) AI is nothing more than a tool. Tools create nothing and never will. Artisans use tools to make something. Never reference, give credit to or blame an AI. Instead, point to both the person who used the AI in the act of creation, as well as the people who coded that AI software. As such, there is not and never will be AI 'art'. According to every dictionary ever written, only we humans and possibly some other living creature make art. Tools don't make art. Paintbrushes don't make art. Artists use a paintbrush to make art. Ai doesn't make art.

China leads the world in tech research, could win the future, says think tank

DerekCurrie
FAIL

Re: "China leads the world in tech research"

China: Criminal Nation has been documented to have been stealing US government data since 1998, the year they were provided US Most Favored Nation status, the year China began sponsoring the Red Hacker Alliance.

It is Chinese law that all companies wishing to have products manufactured in the country turn over all of their IP, intellectual property, to the Chinese government.

So, from these two standard Chinese practices alone, it's obvious exactly how China has generated it's "research". As such it is ridiculous to consider China any kind of actual tech research generating innovators. When you see down votes regarding this point, know that they were created in pursuit of hiding these ongoing facts.

If you believe in faeries, it's easy to believe anything said by the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, so-called. As a whole, the CCP is just another insecure organization hiding behind manic narcissism. Let's hope this sad phase of Chinese history passes soon.

Note that the fact I've posted this comment will earn me a wrathful response from the sad and feckless CCP, typically in the form of harassing phone calls in Mandarin from NYC. Not kidding.

Dole production plants crippled by ransomware, stores run short

DerekCurrie
Facepalm

Daily off-site Encrypted Backups Inaccessible Online

This is one of the very old and entirely critical aspects of any and all viable backup strategies.

And apparently, we're still in the Dark Age of Computing because so few organizations actually do it.

RESULT: Successful Ransomware attacks, crippling organizations, inspiring techno-cynicism such as this:

Wetware error is forever.

Microsoft's AI Bing also factually wrong, fabricated text during launch demo

DerekCurrie
FAIL

Artificial George Santos

It seems fitting that the current state of AI be as sociopathic as the new poster child for corrupt politics.

Or is it sociopathic? It would have to have actual artificial intelligence to be able to blame it for deceit.

Instead, those to blame are who wrote this not-ready-for-prime-time marketing hype nonsense.

The state of AI has successfully met the low expectations of my personal tech cynicism.

Chinese surveillance balloon over US causes fearful gasbagging

DerekCurrie
Big Brother

EMP +/or Interference

Much as the US federal government drags its feet catching up with contemporary technology, I cannot imagine the US military has not either nailed the balloon's electronics with an EMP or they've instituted EM interference to prevent the thing from sending coherent data to China: Criminal Nation.

Don't doubt that the CCP is the most dangerous and deceitful government entity currently existing. Reminder: They've been documented to have been hacking the USA since 1998, the year the Clinton administration provided them with Most Favored Nation status. Thankfully, MFN status was effectively withdrawn as of 2022.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Tough luck that transitioning away from China has drawbacks. We should never have fallen for the CCP's parasitic behavior in the first place. Deal with it Walmart, Apple, Microsoft, ad nauseam.

China’s Most-Favored-Nation Status Is Ending, What Are the Implications?

NSA asks Congress to let it get on with that warrantless data harvesting, again

DerekCurrie
Big Brother

Please let us continue to VIOLATE the US CONSTITUTION! Pretty please?

And take note, this crooked arm of the US government ALREADY has access to EVERYTHING any citizens does on the INTERNET by way of Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 34 [2017], (Look it up!)...unless citizens use a legitimate VPN (virtual private network) to protect their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO PRIVACY!!! Seriously. Look it up.

Helpful hints:

S.J.Res.34 — 115th Congress (2017-2018)

H.J.Res.86 — 115th Congress (2017-2018)

China aims to grow local infosec industry by 30 percent a year, to $22 billion by 2025

DerekCurrie
Big Brother

Have Confidence In China's Infosec...

hahaHaHaHAHA!

...And China: Criminal Nation will reward you with infosec invasion beyond imagination.

IOW: Suckers will bleed.

Cisco warns it won't fix critical flaw in small business routers despite known exploit

DerekCurrie
Mushroom

How Inspiring!

Owners of these routers are of course inspired to buy anything else from Cisco. /sarcasm

MacOS9.app: A tour de force of emulation and integration

DerekCurrie

Don't expect perfection

I've played with Infinite Mac (Mac OS 8) several times via Brave (a Chromium derivative) running on macOS 12.6.1 on an M1 MacBook Air. I've found it easily locks up while navigating with the Finder. A folder will open and sit there, blank. The entire system has locked up, requiring a restart. This a consistent, repeatable event. Hopefully, it will improve.

Conclusion:

Stick with SheepShaver (currently at 2.5) to run Mac OS 8. It's not perfect either, but it's far more reliable and you get to keep the changes you've made.

If Apple's environmental rhetoric is meaningful, Macs and iPads should converge

DerekCurrie
WTF?

Kill the niches, save the world? Huh?

"Why should I carry both an iPad Pro and a MacBook Air, when it's nothing more than a wasteful duplication of hardware resources?"

That is a personal choice. Choose not to do that. I have a MacBook Air M1. I do not want and would not use any iPad. The closest device I have is my iPhone 7, which is a workhorse within its niche of purposes, few of which would be practical on my MBA M1.

Therefore, I don't understand what you're talking about. Your point is pointless to me.

"The security issues of a single machine running two OSes are real – but they could be managed. The resource issues, however, will continue to plague us until we operate within an understanding that general-purpose computing devices aren't simply landfill-in-waiting. Nor are they meant to be tied to any particular set of tasks at the whim of the manufacturer."

Obviously, the M1 and M2 Macs could run iOS or iPadOS or watchOS. If that fits one's needs, then do it. But the compromise would have to be isolating each OS such that the wide open source of apps and services on any Mac could not breach the not-Mac sandboxes. This is well done already, if desired, using Parallels to run Windows or any other compatible OS. So if that's what you need, it can be done.

Do I personally need this? No.

You call Apple's fulfillment of niche products "the whim of the manufacturer"? Why? I have no comprehension of what you're talking about, once again. The distinct niches of each of these products are painstakingly chosen as well as successful.

As such, this statement makes no sense from my perspective:

"...Many have openly wondered why the iPad has not had an option to run macOS."

No. That would be incredibly hard and nonsensical specifically because of the niche of each of the to products. You work with both and think it's possible to run full MacOS on an iPad within that hardware and graphical user interface realm of simplicity? Nope. That would be a nightmare on several levels. The Mac is the far more able device, allowing for vastly more uses than any iPad or iPhone or Apple Watch. The Mac does not, and must not, have a touch screen. The reason why is the "Gorilla Arm" effect, proven many decades ago, whereby no one wants to have to reach up to play about the screen with their hands specifically because of the muscle, tendon and ligament agony that rapidly results. Apple is, despite many blunders, at least wise enough to stay out of the foolish realm. Therefore, moving iPadOS, etc. to a Mac is not practical unless the interface of that touch oriented OS can be easily and comfortably move to the touch pad, which I personally find to be far preferable to the relatively ancient mouse interface. I never use a mouse at this point.

And so forth. I could rant on about further points in the opinion article. But it all comes down to what YOU, that being any particular user, want or need to do with your computing device. Limiting the variety of devices makes no sense at all when considering the diversity of uses of such devices. Take into account diversity and the focus upon usability for each function among the entirety of users. That's what Apple is doing.

AND Apple is minimizing what ends up in a landfill at the end of life. If Apple is really doing that and continues to do that, then that is the best for all concerned. Worrying about your need to use both an iPad and a MacBook Air? That's a YOU situation for YOU to deal with. Consider dropping one and only using the other. I'd suggest the far more powerful MacBook Air. But by no means would I limit you to only the MacBook Air, or the cruddy niche compromise that combining the two would create.

Apple autonomous car engineer pleads guilty to stealing trade secrets

DerekCurrie
Big Brother

Let justice be served. But isn't this typical of China's robbery of the world's IP?

China: Criminal Nation has been documented to have been hacking the world for its intellectual property, among other things, since 1998 when they helped form the Red Hacker Alliance. Hacking has since been integrated into China's military. The Chinese Communist Party quite obviously demands that any company doing business in China hand over their intellectual property! They also require influence within every major Chinese company and university.

Is Apple right to take the potential robbery of their IP seriously? Of course. Every company in the USA, if not the world, should be just as wary.

[Withheld: Essay regarding the criminal incentive of communist nations]

Yes, it's true: Hard drive failures creep up as disks age

DerekCurrie
FAIL

Oh! That's How Backblaze Lost My Data!

I'm so glad they figured it out after all these years.

But sadly, that doesn't improve my confidence in their cloud services.

China's Xiaomi teases tech to control smart homes with brain waves

DerekCurrie
Devil

Re: What's the breakthrough?

"So they've "invented" a crude EEG (1924). Making it adjust your room thermostat is a rather different challenge. I wonder whether they'll manage it."

...Sure, if Xiaomi can find new research and IP to rip off.

Claims of AI sentience branded 'pure clickbait'

DerekCurrie
Holmes

Monkey See, Monkey Do...

...Just like good old ELIZA of olde.

I recall from the 1990s convincing ELIZA to remember the name of its developer and to plot his murder.

What's needed is a Turing Test variant for humans, used to discover if Turing testers are capable of detecting real people conversations from coded fakes. Apparently, that's important.

Apple tells suppliers to use 'Taiwan, China' or 'Chinese Taipei' to appease Beijing

DerekCurrie
Devil

Cook's China: Criminal Nation Enablement Rewards

China's cheap labor exploitation made you and the stockholders loads of dough!

And it's, as predicted, destroying your human rights credibility!

Oh and you know full well that China's has been stealing your IP, seeing how by law you've had to hand it over to them in order to exploit their slave wage labor.

So, has enabling Cbina: Criminal Nation been worth compromising Apple's ethics?

You were warned... by me, among many, decades ago.

Enjoy what you've reaped!

(o_0)

Remember the humanoid Tesla robot? It's ready for September reveal, says Musk

DerekCurrie
Angel

Let me guess...

... It has a cable connecting it to a real human hidden behind the curtain providing the 'robot' with motion and speech.

Oh it uses Bluetooth! That would be an improvement.

Why do I still hear the sound of a shovel digging? Is it 6 feet deep yet? No?

China seems to have figured out how to make 7nm chips despite US sanctions

DerekCurrie
Pirate

Pointless Question:

Q: Does China: Criminal Nation, rip off technology?

A: Every day!

A very short list: What China hasn't ripped off.

Such is the nature of 'communism' that creativity, invention and innovation incentives are killed and stealing from the non-'communist' nations is required. The end game of course is that the creative nations get sick of being ripped off, resulting in world stagnation. That's bad.

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