Posts by RegGuy1

Raspberry Pi AI Camera takes inferencing load off the CPU

Re: Yes

Or they are really smart and someone doesn't like you. :-)

Torvalds weighs in on 'nasty' Rust vs C for Linux debate

Re: Hard truths

Or Cb (c-flat). Or is that just B? :-)

Sorry, I'll get my coat.

Lebanon now hit with deadly walkie-talkie blasts as Israel declares ‘new phase’ of war

Re: end Game

Of course not. Some long dead dude said the land belongs to them. We're not sharing coz this guy said it's ours.

That's it.

Pat Gelsinger's grand plan to reinvent Intel is in jeopardy

Kodak...

Who?

Cloudflare calls for regulatory harmonization amid rising internet challenges

You are Elon Musk and I claim my five Euros.

Chrome Web Store warns end is nigh for uBlock Origin

Re: Firefox anyone?

Anything else means Google can go forth and multiply.

I'd just tell them to fuck off.

IBM Canada can't duck channel exec's systematic age discrimination claim

s/here/hear

Doh!

Hmm. I'm not so sure. How many times do we here 'Opps, sorry. That was a mistake. Lessons will be learnt...' And yet we keep hearing that same phrase. (There is probably a corporate playbook somewhere that has these words written down, because I read them so often in the reply to some disaster or other.)

As for IBM I do wonder where in the organisation this obviously unwritten policy is based. They keep changing those at the top but -- did Ginny whisper this to Arvind before she left? Or is there a cabal of senior people who demand this happens? And for what benefit? For the company to look young and virile, while its core customers are the financial service sector that doesn't give a shit about this -- just make sure you give us what we want?

I don't get it.

NASA gives Falcon 9 thumbs-up to launch Crew-9

Re: Just give up on Starliner already.

Is it Boeing, or is it their subcontractor Rocketdyne?

AI models face collapse if they overdose on their own output

Re: Prediction

A recent El Reg AI article had a link to this FT explanation: Generative AI exists because of the transformer.

That is such a good read, and so I thought I'd paste it again, in case someone missed it. And once you've read it you'll understand that AI is definitely NOT intelligent, but is, yet again, just another search problem.

Sam Altman wants a US-led freedom coalition to fight authoritarian AI

AI on AI?

I wonder what ChatGPT has to say on this topic?

You're not hallucinating: Generative AI is helping IBM's mainframes grow

Re: Why investors weren't offered guidance?

You can't do that! Revenue recognition is a sensitive topic, and any salesmen worth his salt will want as much revenue recognised as early as possible -- those yachts have to be paid for. But there are severe penalties for recognising revenue too early. It's true for hardware you can claim it once the box is in the loading bay at the customer's site. But it has to be there. You can't say it's in the post. Salesmen and their managers expend great effort to ensure revenue can be recognised correctly, and the quarterly deadlines are very busy times -- but if they fuck it up plod may come a-knocking.

In short, recognising any revenue too early is fraud.

SAP system gives UK tax collector a £750B headache as clock ticks on support

Here's a thought ...

They could simplify the tax system and, instead of using it as a political tool to buy votes to an ever increasing number of different groups, have a simpler system that can then be implemented with much simpler software.

Like I say, just a thought.

[Nurse! I'm out of bed again.]

CrowdStrike shares sink as global IT outage savages systems worldwide

Re: The fault's with Microsoft

But who watches the BBC any more?

Opps, sorry, I forgot. Mostly pensioners.

SpaceX hit by inflight Falcon 9 failure

Re: Broadsword to Danny Boy

Wow. How big is his field? Have you seen how long a runway a Lancaster needed?

Mishap report required

I don't see any reason for the FAA to ground the rocket over a upper stage malfunction.

Well the FAA disagrees (my bold): https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/statements/accident_incidents

July 11, 2024

Commercial Space / Vandenberg Space Force Base, California - UPDATED

The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starlink Group 9-3 mission that launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 11. The incident involved the failure of the upper stage rocket while it was in space. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation.

Background

An investigation is designed to further enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again.

The FAA will be involved in every step of the investigation process and must approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions.

A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety. In addition, SpaceX may need to request and receive approval from the FAA to modify its license that incorporates any corrective actions and meet all other licensing requirements.

Xen Project in a pickle as colo provider housing test platform closes

Re: Moving co-location ..

Which proves my point!

Re: Moving co-location ..

You missed two steps before a:

a-2. Power down.

a-1. Power up.

a. Power down.

b. ...

Always power down and then power up again in situ, to make sure your system will start before you move it. That way you start from a known baseline. Otherwise if the system refuses to start how can you be sure it is because of the move and wasn't a problem before? Updates may have been added that need a reboot but were never tested because of operational pressures. If you have to shut it down use the time wisely, and don't make life harder than it needs to be. :-)

Europe blasts back into the heavy launch biz with first Ariane 6 flight

Re: A relief

The Angry Astronaut is one of the better YouTuber commentariard. His take on the Ariane 6 launch is here.

Ariane 6 first flight spectacular, but flawed! Can it compete with SpaceX?

Users rage as Microsoft announces retirement of Office 365 connectors within Teams

Re: Rely less on software.

Quite. This is exactly why bash (and the shells before it) were created. Extract data as text, manipulate it, and inject the transformation into the next component.

Still, if you outsource these tasks to third parties then good luck.

Mistake number one is always choosing MS Windows. Well done.

Labour wins race to lead UK, but few would envy the load in its tech in-tray

Re: ... but being some part of the single market ...

But the thing about PR is it represents every voters' views. (Of course PR isn't a single system, but that aside I mean a system that takes everyone's views into account.) With PR you can have the whole spectrum of views represented, and like the current system there will be some who will always vote Tory or Labour. That's ok, as their views will still be represented, but minority views such as Reform or Green or whoever will also be included.

From one election to the next only a subset of people will change their minds, and that means the composition of a government will only change incrementally, rather than swinging from Tory to Labour. Such an environment will be far more conducive to business, who could plan for 10 year investments without worrying they are going to be heavily taxed or forced to compete with newly privatised companies, etc.

PR gives everyone a say, and smooths out the changes from one government to the next. The only people who won't like it are Labour and Tory, who have a century of investment in the current system.

I think PR is less controversial. The biggest hurdle we have to surmount is freedom of movement of people. And unfortunately we have lost our privileged place in the EU, so our opt out will never be on the table again. Good!

... but being some part of the single market ...

Well the EU were very clever and have tied up all the loose ends via the TCA (trade and co-op agreement). Remember the photo of Michel Barnier and David Davis? Barnier had a huge pile of papers coz he knows how complex things are, and Davis had nowt coz, well ... muppet is my take.

The EU are happy they have the UK where they want them, and now don't really care what happens in the UK as they have other issues they want to progress. That means if the UK wants to be involved in a significant part of the Single Market it will have to do something to attract the attention of the EU. And pissing around at the edges simply won't cut it. What the EU will expect are at least two main things: political stability, perhaps created by a change of our electoral system to avoid the volatility of FPTP, such that it doesn't matter what party is in power, nothing related to the EU will change. Business demands long-term stability, and FPTP is currently not offering that. PR?

And second, it will demand that we accept the four freedoms, and the acquis communitaire. There will be no exception because we don't like Schengen. It will be full Schengen membership (with the corollary that we will have to adopt an ID card system to make that work). Until we are prepared to offer that we will not make big strides to trade again with the EU, and will remain a third country.

Of course here there will be huge opposition, but over time, and if our economy doesn't significantly improve, there will be internal pressure to accept these things.

Row erupts over data sharing function in UK doctor software

Re: Not so simple -

Ah, waiting list management. Scumbags.

Footage of Nigel Farage blowing up Rishi Sunak's Minecraft mansion 'not real'

Re: UK media must be near the bottom of the pile

Well the EU is trying to work across 27 different legal systems. Sometimes it has to be a bit vague, and get individual countries to decide what to do, and sometimes it can be clear and tell everyone what they should do. Remember, the EU is not a country, but a body that 27 countries have agreed to be a member of, and each to play a part in setting its rules. The last bit is important. The EU does what the member states tell it they want it to do. It does not impose on them, but simply reflects their wishes, taking account the acquis communitaire that to be a member state you must agree to.

It is not a bogey man a la the Daily Mail, but a construction, a sui generis construction that improves the lot of each member state -- ie it is greater than the sum of the parts.

Here's one link to explain directives, regulations, decisions, etc: https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-making-process/types-eu-law_en

... could be FUN! given that's the ESA's primary launch sites.

I thought they'd moved to SLC-40 on the East coast and possibly Vandenberg on the West and started to use Falcon 9s.

What's that? It's only temporary? How long's temporary?

... I'll get my coat ...

50 launches, 1 knighthood – Rocket Lab CEO talks heavy-lift rockets, Venus, and Musk

Go RL, go...

Blue Origin's first launch of its New Glenn, the first stage of which will be reusable, is also imminent.

That made me laugh.

Sir Peter now, is it? Well done you. He's an impressive guy and quietly achieving a lot. Two thirds of his revenue comes from Space Systems, making satellite components for other satellite builders, or providing on-going services for satellites already in orbit (you only need a 10cm cubed box up there to do useful work). I know everyone complains at SpaceX because they have gobbled up the small launch market with their Transporter services, but Beck is doing the correct thing and fighting back by building a larger vehicle to compete.

He's got brains: he knows the market and is helping to forge the future. Good luck to him!

Brit tech tycoon Mike Lynch cleared of all charges in US Autonomy fraud trial

Re: It had the whiff of corporate arse covering from the start

Isn't that what our wonderful Post Office Ltd did to its postmasters --say you stole it (although you claim you didn't) and we'll go easier on you. What's the difference?

Google to push ahead with Chrome's ad-blocker extension overhaul in earnest

The Prize

It is all described in excruciating detail here: The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power is Daniel Yergin's 1990 history of the global petroleum industry from the 1850s through 1990. And remember, Standard Oil was about selling kerosene for lighting, not fuel for cars, because cars were yet to be invented.

That book is fascinating, because it shows you how our modern world has been created out of the 'black gold'.

The Reg builds official Lego Artemis and Milky Way sets

Thunderbird 1?

When I saw the picture with the skylight above my very first impression was of the Thunderbird 1 launch site, looking upwards with the swimming pool fully retracted.

Then I realised it wasn't!

Wonderful. I love these types of stories. Have a beer. :-)

Tape is so dead, 152.9 EB of LTO media shipped last year

Bravo, bravo! I've not seen that in years. The joy from Eric when Mr Preview :-) says his baton is in Chicago is wonderful. From that point on he bounces to the end of the sketch. And when he sees how well it's gone at the very end he's over the moon.

Wonderful. Thanks!

UK PM Sunak calls election, leaving Brits cringing over memory of his Musk love-in

Re: Disappointing

Well, these people who don't share my opinion, and hate immigrants, now seem to want to get rid of the ECHR, because they see that as stopping us remove people they don't like. Brexit didn't work, because immigration is still high. So we have to find something else -- because it appears that the only thing that matters is stopping immigrants. Fuck the economy. Fuck our children's future. Sink the boats (wasn't that Sue-ella?). Just stop immigrants.

And you say I'm intolerant.

Re: Disappointing

The trouble is the four freedoms are central to all of the areas that could significantly improve our economy. Of course only one of these matters[1]. Joining the Customs Union will help in small ways, but for our economy to interlock fully with our nearest neighbours means we need to rejoin the Single Market. The UK (aka Perfidious Albion for a reason) seems to want to undermine the EU through explicit bilateral deals, but luckily they are dealing with very smart people in the EU, who are always nipping this in the bud (the recent youth migration scheme is a good example).

I think we'll get close again in time, but alas only after many more of the racists[2] (who are on the whole old, retired and infected with the view that Britain, really Ingerland, is exceptional) have died off. Until we accept Schengen we are screwed.

[1] Question to the brexiters, can you name the other three?

[2] I will not dignify these people with the term xenophobe, in part to stop them having to use a dictionary.

Disappointing

It's all very disappointing. No one -- no one -- is even talking about the damage brexit has done. We have to suck it up because the votes of racists is so important to both main parties. With no one addressing the elephant in the room, what's the point?

Gentoo and NetBSD ban 'AI' code, but Debian doesn't – yet

Re: More on the term "AGI"

Yep. Intelligence is nowhere to be found, apart from in the head of the programmer, not the program.

*cough* Eliza *cough*

This was supposed to be a general intelligence program. It still fools lots of people today.

What a good article this is. AI is neither artificial nor intelligent.

(Just like, on a tangent, the S in IoT stands for Security. :-)

IMF boss warns of AI 'tsunami' coming for world's jobs

Re: How can they believe this crap?

The difference between the 19th century and now is democracy. (Stop laughing there at the back.) Up here around Manchester when the USA decided it was time to have a civil war the area was heavily affected, coz no cotton was shipped out, and all those weavers had nowt to work with, so they were simply told to bugger off. They had no power at all as most were not allowed to vote.

But now it's different. As more and more people become poorer -- unless they are convinced democracy is no longer valuable -- they could vote for UBI to force all those who make money simply on their wealth to share some through the power of government to everyone. But given brexit, it's clear many folks are pretty stupid. So while they could do something about it, they probably won't.

Look -- there's a squirrel with two penises...

OK, I'll take questions. You guys at the back, the ones laughing...

Indian bank’s IT is so shabby it’s been banned from opening new accounts

Re: The next superpower ?

Thank you for your shit comment.

Healthcare AI won't take jobs – it'll make nursing easier, says process automation founder

Re: Translation

Yeah, but it's not 'AI'. It's just a computer programme, with a database.

If you use a computer these days you're using 'AI'. Still, there are lots of stupid people out there that believe this shit. See my previous comment about how CEOs will never be poor.

Quite. AI stands for removing the human wage bill.

In the 80s privatisation was focussed on 'efficiencies', meaning getting everyone to do more with the same, and removing protections to allow wages to be reduced over time. Thus the wage bill (which in many service industries is a large fraction) was reduced and profits increased to 'enable' CEO salaries to increase. Job done.

Now that has been pushed so far and wages have been suppressed so much that many folks can't even afford to live on them, and need state top-ups just to survive. So a new avenue is required. Hello AI. Only if you are in a niche area can you command a significant salary. But as technology moves so quickly if you don't keep looking for where the niche is moving to next even those who were so lucky will be chewed up and spit out.

I've no idea what the answer is, but I was thing about UBI again recently -- maybe the political pressure for that will increase until governments force large corporations to top slice some of their earnings help pay for it? Although, to be fair, looking backwards, they asked a Mr Ford how would anyone be able to afford his new fangled motor cars as he was increasing unemployment in horse-related jobs. And even I can afford one of these things today! So who knows?

I do know one thing: CEOs will never be poor.

Post Office slapped down for late disclosure of documents in Horizon scandal inquiry

two cheeks of the same arse

Have you been listening to George Galloway again?

(A phrase I think he has used at every election attempt he has entered.)

Time to examine the anatomy of the British Library ransomware nightmare

Re: Force of Islam

Islam has been very good to us. The Renaissance learned a lot from them. I find the history of maths particularly interesting, and how that technology that we all take for granted came about -- the number system we assume has been around forever. Euclid? Although Euclid was so important his Elements[1] have come down to us via a wide range of paths.

[1] A book that I would argue has been probably the most influential book in the world. Thinking of the science that has come from it, that has touched everyone on the planet.

Virgin Media sets up 'smart poles' next to cabinets to boost mobile network capacity

Re: color matched with the street cabinet beside it

... or it could have been the whisky.

What's more important, your network or the rat that pissed on the cable?

Well he likes a drink, but to call him a rat is going a bit far.

What strange beauty is this? Microsoft commits to two more non-subscription Office editions

Re: First hit is always free-ish.

Well in @LogicGate's case he seems to want to use a general tool for some very specific purpose: Calc does not work well for the analysis and visualisation of bulk data such as traction battery pack charge and discharge curves. How to tar exceptionally good software just because it won't perform an edge case. If you've got huge amounts of data needing sophisticated visualisations I'd politely suggest a general tool such as a spreadsheet shouldn't be the expected path to follow.

What a poor excuse to stick with the devil. Although I'd also say that for the entire OS, which comes with so much shit bundled and locked down that it is impossible to remove, thus making it god awful to work with. It is precisely because of this that, for at least the last 25 years, my first task always is to put Linux with its office suite on, and say goodbye to pester-ware, shit-ware and snoop-ware.

Or, TL;DR, fuck off Microsoft.

Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in

Re: Using phrases such as "Genetically predisposed to violence" ...

I was being deadly[1] serious.

The link between Brexit and the death penalty

Respondents to the survey were also questioned on their views on other things, such as the death penalty - and this provides a much better indicator of how people voted, Westlake argues.

"If you look at attitudes to questions such as, 'Do you think criminals should be publicly whipped?' or 'Are you in favour of the death penalty?' - those things are much better predictors, and you get over 70% accuracy," he says.

[1] Sorry!

Starlink

I wonder what Musk and Starlink think of this?

Re: Using phrases such as "Genetically predisposed to violence" ...

I think I've spotted a Brexiter. :-(

Intuitive Machines' lunar lander tripped and fell

Yutu 2

And the Chinese even did it on the far (dark?) side: China's Yutu rover spots 'mysterious hut' on far side of the Moon.

City council megaproject mulls ditching Oracle after budget balloons to £131M

Re: What would it cost ...

But it needs politicians with some minimal level of cluefulness to get it to work.

Hmm. They don't even seem to have a clue on how to trip each other up. Children, fucking children.

Apple makes it official: No Home Screen web apps in European Union

Re: Did anyone ....

On what evidence do you come to that conclusion? I would be very interested (because I don't think it exists) in what you mean by corrupt bureaucracy.

Re: Yes, you really are the product

Try it. You might be surprised. It beats having to try a new OS every time Microsoft updates Windows.