"It appears to be because some sly importer might claim their goods originated there"
Shrink-wrapped Linux?
1464 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Sep 2012
I'm trying to have my work PC double up as a light home computer for evening use at it's sat here on the desk and connected to my main monitor. I set up a personal Firefox profile, very nice. But it won't play nicely with Zscaler, the reason being that rather then pass on proxy certificates that are needed for any part of a page, it unpredictably hangs. Zscaler is due to become permanently on so I'll need to ditch FF for personal browsing. Chrome and Edge meanwhile work as normal with Zscaler turned on. While it's commendable to have this extra privacy with FF, it was confusing behaviour until I found out why. I need a simple option in FF to make it work like Chrome.
Well, Zoom and similar conferencing tools have automatic minuting now. I troubled to read through some and while it's mostly correct, the most common mistake was for the transcript summary to attribute 'next step' actions to the wrong person. This will undoubtedly be improved on in the future - so long as anyone bothers to complain to the tool makers about it.
"We are attributing human characteristics to AI. This is probably not wise"
To which you could say that nature in its efficient way has made the human brain a machine-like thing anyway. So the parallels made between 'AI' and human behaviour may be fair points after all. Are humans prone to overrate themselves?
"Launched back in September, Intel's Lunar Lake chips were its first to exceed the 40 NPU TOPS performance requirement for Copilot+ PCs set by Microsoft last spring."
My suspicion is that no proper AI will be running locally anyway (well, maybe a better spelling/grammar corrector and file search). So all you need is ARM for a web front end.
Why Microsoft's Copilot will only kinda run locally on AI PCs for now https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/31/microsoft_copilot_hardware
How's that coming along?
"Every AI 'help' bot I have interacted with has done bugger-all".
I was having a conversation with the helpbot for my Windscribe VPN. Wasn't expecting much, however as I fed it context and the error message it got more precise and spot-on, replying within 250ms. So there are some companies with a clue. Ironically I work in a helpdesk role too and am waiting with curiosity to see AI streamline my role. I know with certainty that if a basic support role like mine could be streamlined, there's higher value work I would be doing.
Isle of Man bank accounts: £50k of protection in case of bank failure vs £85k in the UK. However the entire funding of the scheme seems to run to £300m.
https://www.iomfsa.im/consumer-material/isle-of-man-depositors-compensation-scheme-dcs
"This means that in the event of a very large covered bank failing, or in a systemic crisis, the DCS is unlikely to be in a position to provide the full amount of compensation due to you in a timely manner."
That's of some concern to those considering offshoring.
I'd initially thought this was about building security and the way companies spend thousands on e-security only to leave themselves wide open to a 'people hack'. As in a recent BBC podcast on this topic. There's a book too.
People Hacker: Confessions of a Burglar for Hire https://www.amazon.co.uk/People-Hacker-Jenny-Radcliffe/dp/1398519014
I had a BASIC program published in an Amstrad PCW hobby magazine. The program allowed you to write structured BASIC with not one GOTO or line number in sight, it would 'compile' your structured program with it's named subroutines into a BASIC program that the PCW would execute. But my first and fond memory of learning and using BASIC in earnest was the BBC Micro, which if memory serves, did manage structured BASIC.
It works! Or has since the advent of MTV on satellite TV in the 1980s.
https://youtu.be/cYdpOjletnc
Seriously though, Tommy Vance's voice is now licensed and used regularly on Boom Rock:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Vance (RIP)
Boom Rock only has a couple of hours of live programming per day, the rest is jukebox.
It would be nice if during jukebox hours there was at least an intro and an outro on the artist, song & album and maybe even a micro-wiki on the track. It will happen with AI.
"Who fact checks the fact checkers? How are they funded?"
In the UK, by the near-compulsory TV tax.
Correspondent Marianna Spring was allegedly caught embellishing her CV when applying for a job in 2018. The paper alleges that five years ago Spring wanted to work as a Moscow stringer for the US https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/bbc-disinformation-correspondent-accused-of-lying-on-her-cv
Marianna Spring is the BBC's first disinformation specialist and social media correspondent.
BBC revenue: Approx £4BN/annum.
Echoes of the Post Office scandal here. That there was a discrepancy is one thing. It's the direction of the discrepancy that's interesting. If a system was being randomly inaccurate due to data entry and software logic errors, you could reasonably expect that the errors would sort out of balance out. With the PO the errors were seemingly consistently adverse to the PO branch managers. How is it with Asda? Let me guess, Asda stock has disappeared. Let me speculate: There is such a thing as the perfect crime.
"but the soft skills he basically hasn't been able to learn from office colleagues"
Wondering what 'soft skills' I've picked up during years in the office. Some colleagues couldn't stop bellowing when on the phone or Teams to a customer. Could be heard from one end of the office to the other. Nearby workmates would stop concentrating. We learned that if you're unsure about something, start rambling. A call could last 90 minutes. Others would speak so softly that anyone nearby with need to know had to ask for a summary afterwards.
I've seen a mug chucked, to smash into the wall as a near miss on another workmates head (both programmers). A workmate whose stuff creeps across his desk onto yours as it piles up. Workmates who eat their microwave heated garlic curry at the desk while their desk fan is beaming the fragrance your way.
Almost forgot to mention the period (in the days where indoor smoking was allowed) where half the office was software dev, half sales. Every man jack of the sales team coped with the stress by pacing the office alleyway while smoking. Your eyes would water and in deepest winter all windows had to be thrown open once per hour to clear the air.
And in all of these situations the actual boss was secreted away in a private office.
"Let's not forget it was made a lot more complicated by Bitlocker"
I use Bitlocker on all my Windows machines, in fact I think it's a default on Windows 11. While there's no risk to me from from CrowdStrike, this is a timely reminder to back up the recovery keys. In the past I've used the key stored in a file to access an old drive I'd removed. What I'd like to know is, if you're trying to do a Safe Mode recovery, do you need to enter the Bitlocker key via the keyboard? Really?