Posts by Snake

Too little, too late: Intel's legacy is eroding

Re: Subsidies for multi-billion dollar companies ?

You're kidding, right?

This is America, where profits get support to be privatized but losses become..."national security issues". LOL.

Multi-billion dollar industries that get 'subsidies'? Get in line behind Big Agra, Big Pharma, Big Oil, automotive, banking and just about any other big industry that either has the pockets to find and lobbyist-support their legal tax loopholes, or conversely simply keep their hands out while they cry "Woe is Me!" because their stock dividends aren't as high as Wall Street [hallucinates] them to be.

Welcome to the 1890's Gilded Age. We knew you liked it [back] here.

US-funded breakthrough battery tech just simply handed over to China

Re: Here's the patent

And here's the North American / Europe / Africa licensing agreement

https://eepower.com/news/vrb-signs-final-agreement-with-pinnacle-vrb/

Re: "socialism"

It's "corporate socialism" because profits are privatized, kept, whilst losses are socialized, allowed to be written off or at the least as a deduction allowance.

In the case of a VC venture, the C-suite decision makers are playing with someone else's money: if they win, they get a slice of the profits along with personal, EOY bonuses; if they lose the investors eat the loss...yet not a dime of previous profits or bonuses ever get a claw-back to help cover those losses to those who actually did the losing.

It's win-win for Wall Street and corporations, pay-them-a-slice-of-your-pie or lose-completely for the investor with no other recourse. Why else do you think that so many young people end up in finance??

Specs leak of 5.7GHz AMD Ryzen 7000 chips with double the L2 cache

Re: £100 the new normal

Of *course* it's going to be the new normal.

Anyone who believes that this current chip 'shortage' will ever end, that somehow from this point forward supply with ever catch up enough with demand to bring prices back to their previous levels, I have several bridges over the Thames that I'll be happy to sell you.

India scraps data protection law in favor of better law coming … sometime

Truth in advertising

The Bill was not admired by Big Tech or digital rights orgs. Asia Internet Coalition – a trade org whose members include Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter and more – sent a letter [PDF] to lawmakers last January calling the data localization requirements in the bill "onerous" and asserting cross-border transfer decisions should be free of political interference.

Let's re-read their statement with more truth:

"We don't want political 'interference' in OUR ability to decide how much money we can make; we have no obligation to anyone except ourselves and refuse to spend any money to keep data within localized municipalities if that means we can't do what we damn well please with said data, including illegitimately selling it to the highest bidder."

FIFY

Critical flaws found in four Cisco SMB router ranges – for the second time this year

Re: When will we learn?

"Indeed. When I was regularly involved with Perl CGI scripts 20+ years ago, it was an absolute mantra to never trust user input, always sanitise it."

Ah, I wish I could get this through to the programmer of our industry-specific POP software, Bob. After 20 years of dealing with a software package that fails the simple task of validating ANY input (do a typo, get a crash), I have been left to wonder if he learned to program via a £10 mail order course.

IBM board probes claims of fudged sales figures that led to big bonuses for execs

Big surprise

A large American company. Hiring C-level MBA-certified execs, often based upon their Old Boys connections from other large companies.

Cooking the books to line their own pockets.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Say it ain't so! -_-

We've had more corporate scandals in the past 30 years than we had in the previous 80, but let's keep believing that our current interpretation of laissez-faire capitalism is good for us. The 39% that make up the dumb sheep voters keep believing in the Kool-Aid no matter what happens around them.

Why Intel killed its Optane memory business

RE: "memory flopped as rivals offered faster and more open alternatives"

https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/07/30/cma_intel_sk_hynix/#c_4306800

You don't say??

Vietnamese attacker circumvents Facebook security with ‘DUCKTAIL’ malware

Re: "Facebook’s credibility"

I personally see it more as proof of a statement from the era of WinNT:

The only 'secure' computer is the one that isn't connected to anything.

Apple-1 prototype hand-soldered by Woz up for auction, bids expected to reach $500k

Open source?

Interesting: Woz was essentially making the Apple 1 designs completely open source.

To which Jobs took it closed source to make a [very] handsome profit (together).

So we celebrate the collapse of open source with vast sums of money for a token of this, plus celebrate it by granting Apple billions upon billions of dollars.

...

Eh, it's a living.

Charter told to pay $7.3b in damages after cable installer murders grandmother

Re: Red flags

Read the linked-to article. Holden (the perp) had meetings with his employers in desperation of his current living conditions: getting a divorce, broke and distraught

“So I had stopped there because I was broke,” Holden told Irving detectives, according to court documents. “I was hungry.”

At one point of breaking down in tears during one of the meetings, he felt so desperate.

"During the civil trial, testimony noted that Holden made multiple outcries to supervisors about significant personal and financial issues having to do with a divorce that left him no money, even crying at a meeting."

From appearances, what did Charter do? Nothing, of course. No time off with pay to straighten his life out, no financial assistance in terms of additional pay or even just making more hours available to increase income, no mental assistance in terms of oversight or even just peer support...nothing.

So the accusation was that Charter knew this man was a mental mess and desperate in his financial situation. But they not only did nothing to try to help his situation, they also did not secure any of their property from possibly misuse by a completely mentally distraught man...with tragic results (he accessed company property after work hours, took a company van unauthorized, left him access to all company tools including potentially lethal ones).

In the EU such actions by a corporation have accounted to a minimum charge of "neglect"; I don't know if it's $7.3bn worth of "neglect", but there you go.

Microsoft warns Windows 10 patch broke printing for some

Re: And this is a *new* issue ?

Exactly - happened to 2 computers on the network last week.

As Bugs Bunny said, "So what else is new??"

But note that, in my experience, printing problems only started after they started their mitigations on reported vulnerabilities. Before that, Win10 printing was rock-solid on all the computers I administer.

Don't dive head first into that crypto pool, FBI warns

money

It's interesting to read the Characteristics section of the Wiki article on a Ponzi scheme, and then listen to the claims of the promoters that "crypto" doesn't qualify

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

British intelligence recycles old argument for thwarting strong encryption: Think of the children!

Re: "govern"

I'd openly argue that, in functioning democracies, the government is OUR business - they are *our* employees to hire or fire.

The problem is that people forget this basic premise of civics, vote blindly based on singular or selfish motives or not at all, then turn their backs on the employees whilst still expecting them to perform their duties honorably and without question.

Unless and until we hold our employees to the standards we expected when we hired them, don't expect them to behave to our [employer] satisfaction.

Demand for smartphones is drying up

Re: Innovation

As a (forced) recent buyer of a new cellphone (my cell company merged with another and shut down their own legacy system), I'd say the downturn in cellphone sales is a *combination* of both lack of innovation and perceived value.

The 2 major cellphone manufacturers, Samsung and Apple, are putting the vast majority of their sales & development energies into $1000 / £1000+ high-end cellphones. And not everyone WANTS or can spend $1000+ on a new cellphone every, say, 3 years.

I certainly didn't, I simply don't see a good ROI there. But those same cellphone companies utterly and completely FAIL on good alternatives (here in the U.S., anyway) - from the $1000+ tier, in which you have many choices, the next tier with as many choices is...the $400 or so bottom tier. I was offered at least 6 carrier-rebated items at that tier but none had the features and build quality I needed.

So what about the middle, the $600 tier? Crickets. 1 current choice from the carrier(s), with "performance" that doesn't justify the cost (the Samsung A53, which not much better performance than the lower-cost A32).

I was pissed. The company was making me upgrade, shutting down compatibility with my current phone that I was happy with (LG V30+ 128GB) but yet their offers in replacements...sucked.

After much comparison shopping and hand wringing over the poor choices, I bought an open-box LG Wing off eBay (take THAT, TMob!)

With the duopoly of Samsung and Apple giving us "choices", most of us see no value in updating to the latest and "greatest" because they either really aren't all that different, blatantly overpriced, or both. If these idiot companies would make mid-priced models with the features *most* people want, forget 16 cameras et al, I think more people would be willing to make purchases. But not at $1200 for something great, or $400 for basic, with not much enticing in-between.

Apple to pay $50m settlement for rotten butterfly keyboards

Re: Staingate et al

Wait - that's a pretty long list of MacBook failures there, especially considering how "reliable" most Apple fans claim their MB's to be. I haven't had nearly close to that level of issues with Dell Latitudes / Dell Precisions / Lenovo ThinkPads that I've owned / used / been responsible for servicing, not at all.

Rufus and ExplorerPatcher: Tools to remove Windows 11 TPM pain and more

Re: So much MS BS spin. Privacy? or minute by minute monitoring of a Windows 11 system?

You're trying to justify not using the world's most popular personal computer OS because of privacy.

To a mass of users who will happily post their lives to Facebook, and download the latest trendy smartphone app with more tracking built-in than Microsoft could only dream of.

...

You're fighting a losing battle. [Our] technical background of raising concerns in today's world is an ant farting into a hurricane.

Firefox kills another tracking cookie workaround

Re: 100% utilization

Sounds like your Firefox profile is corrupt (ugh, the typical problem that still plagues Firefox!). You'll have to backup your data and make a new profile

Samsung beats TSMC to be first to produce 3nm chips

Intel

must be feeling rather humiliated right now (even more so than their 10mn failures).

Arrogant, subtle, entitled: 'Toxic' open source GitHub discussions examined

Re: Eh?

"One might argue it's passive aggressive, unprofessional, and not particularly constructive.".

Most likely, yes.

But, from another viewpoint, it possibly shows frustration at not getting answers previously; being ignored, dismissed, or his/her's issues being outright rejected as irrelevant or 'inconsequential' (see also: "not an issue, we won't fix it"). It sounds passive-aggressive but it might actually be openly aggressive out of end-of-the-line frustration at the response 'system'.

There is a difference between "passive" and "active" aggression, and why they are used in situations. Just because it is aggressive doesn't necessarily mean that is it wrong if, after many many attempts, raising the stakes is the only way to get a response - the onus is then on the responder for forcing the issue to escalate rather than working to solve the issue in the first place (see also: open public protests after being ignored by the powers-that-be, this is simply the online equivalent).

Walmart accused of turning blind eye to transfer fraud totaling millions of dollars

Re: Blind or Won't See?

"Every service counter and checkstand at our local WalMart has a prominently displayed notice telling people not to buy gift cards for people you don't know. I'd guess the same would apply for money transfers."

That is true. However, compared that to a Western Union location which has signs plastered everywhere, including on the necessary forms, regarding possible fraud and to not send money unless you absolutely know the recipient.

It seems like the FTC isn't happy with just one or two signs, which you do need to bother to read (and understand, as many money transfer users may not speak English). We'll have to wait and see how this plays out.

Tencent admits to poisoned QR code attack on QQ chat platform

Re: Ever increasing obfuscation

I've never accepted QR codes for this reason, no idea what is happening "behind the curtain" after the link activates.

During Covid a few (take out) restaurants wanted me to scan their QR codes to get a digital copy of their menus - sorry, but a firm "No" was my immediate answer. I'll take the paper copy, please.

"But, but..."

No paper copy, no order, no customer. Non-negotiable.

I'm sorry, but am I the only one the in the world with any form of [electronic] self preservation??!

It's a crime to use Google Analytics, watchdog tells Italian website

Nothing new here

I booted Google Analytics off my company's website many years ago, thanks to these same privacy concerns that the EU is only addressing...today, actually (!).

California now has some of the same types of rules regarding privacy that the EU does, and I had an online discussion with Aaron Severson of Ate Up With Motor regarding his fears of crossing those rules; my recommendation was to ditch Google and any other tracking systems on the site in order to avoid the potential issues. If you aren't collecting data, then you shouldn't cross the laws.

So I see all these laws as a benefit to the user in general, hopefully killing (or at least greatly impacting) the analytics industry.

Windows 11 22H2 is almost here. Is it ready for the enterprise?

Re: Blaming MS...because it's fashionable

"... then it ought to be possible to continue using the original drivers to drive said peripheral so long as the OS lets you, because the hardware hasn't changed, the original drivers haven't changed, so the only thing left that could change and break stuff is the OS. At which point the ball would very definitely be back in MS's court.

Problems can also arise due to MS messing around with how Windows deals with new devices when they're first connected, which can make it harder than it ought to be to even attempt to install older drivers...

Why? Is this any different than any other OS, where a new version of the OS can / may demand new drivers?? Especially since it is well known that Windows moved away from universal drivers in W10, required driver signing, and updated many APIs?

Cloudflare explains how it managed to break the internet

Re: automation

This is why I intentionally keep my 4 disparate home IoT automation systems independent, regardless of what internet forum PFY's / BOFH's tell you to do otherwise. My 2 separate heating systems back one another up, not create a single point of failure.

If you're using older, vulnerable Cisco small biz routers, throw them out

Re: cheap and cheerful for business use

The were "junk" rated well before this occurred. The RV110 not only didn't have any firmware updates for YEARS prior to this event, they were 10/100 Ethernet, meaning that if you wanted modern business-level broadband...tough luck, the router would be a hardware limiter.

Their only saving grace was VPN endpoint, which was indeed a business-level unusual feature for a modest priced unit at the time of their introduction. Not any more.

Thunderbird is coming to Android – in K-9 Mail form

Re: K-9 fail Snake

Thank you for the clarification, I believe an option to turn off The Integrated Inbox, for those who do not like it, should indeed have remained an option. For me the integration makes things easier, a one-stop view of all my unread emails in a single point - delete, read, or skip. It doesn't make sense for me to have to flip through different accounts just to make sure I haven't missed any recent receipts, it makes sense on a small screen.

Re: K-9 fail

With respect, may I ask for a better explanation of your position? I am rather new to K-9 (only about 6 months) and find the interface rather "industry standard" in terms of "Integrated Inbox" and drop-down menus to access individual accounts.

Note that this does not mean that it is perfect, UI quirks abound: why is Read/Unread simply an envelope icon without obvious functionality? Why can't I swipe to delete, rather than hold-tap / check selections / tap delete / confirm? Why, if you delete an incoming email from the app first, the notification's Delete / dismiss option is broken?

I personally find K-9's UI simply toes the line to a somewhat 'standardized' interface that is the equivalent paradigm on many other mail clients.

Microsoft brings tabs to File Explorer

What Windows version?

Just being :icon: , but it should be noted in the text.

China 'must seize TSMC' if the US were to impose sanctions

Re: "communism"

Let's not jump into an easy belief that "communism" is worse than what we currently have, capitalism. There has NEVER been communism on planet Earth: what capitalist societies label as "communist" for their own convenience was authoritarian Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist, as actually officially termed inside the CCCP itself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism%E2%80%93Leninism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism

The idea was to, eventually, move to TRUE communism, rule and ownership by the mass collective.

But they never achieved that; no "communist" country has moved beyond the central planning and military enforcement of authoritarianism.

So please, don't throw the commonly-misused words around. Capitalism has millions of dead in its closet too, from well-known situations like Triangle Shirtwaist to Sampoong to Rana Plaza to Bhophal, to the lesser spoke-of deaths of people worked to death under starving wages and oppressive hiring like 19th century mine workers and textile industry child laborers. Read Riis' How the Other Half Lives; Sinclair's The Jungle; and then go visit actual spaces where these people struggled for survival in a cutthroat, it's-all-about-profit world - then come back and we'll talk.

Voice of "truth"

Usually I prefer not going into such a political discussion, but are you conveniently forgetting the millions that died during the Great Chinese famine, structured within Mao's 5-year plans?

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=chinese+famine&ia=web

Try reading Tombstone

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13538825-tombstone

it gets repetitive but it does detail the organizational failures...and millions dead.

Musk repeats threat to end $46.5bn Twitter deal – with lawyers, not just tweets

Just end it already

If your perspective "partner" is this argumentative before the wedding merger ever takes place, all it means is doom from the start. End it before it even begins - nobody is happy inside a shotgun wedding.

Small nuclear reactors produce '35x more waste' than big plants

Re: much more safer to operate!

I always note that pro-nuclear proponents on El Reg never bother to factor in the manufacturing of BOTH the plants and the fuel that feeds them.

It is unhappy to note that BOTH American and British nuclear fuel enrichment facilities are listed as the most toxic and contaminated land in both nations, listed as "Grade A" hazards and will take BILLIONS of dollars / pounds, and decades, to clean up.

You can also add in the decommissioning process of a nuclear reactor, which not ONLY has never been successfully accomplished but on average is planned to take almost 40 years and leave millions of tons of radiated material wastes.

But, let's not really mention all that...

BSA kicks multiple holes in India's infosec reporting rules

Re: The B stands for something.

"BSA". Even the mere thought of a Lucas CPU makes me shudder ;-p

TomTom to chop 10% of workforce, blames automation tech

Re: Why are people using TomTom

Why use a real GPS?

a) no spying / tracking from either Slurp, Inc., or FruitCo^{we know better tm}

b) leave with vehicle, every other driver in the house can use it and get the same data (example: a recycling center run needs to be performed, anyone else can do it because it is pre-programmed into the GPS)

c) no battery life to worry about with continuous screen time

d) smartphone needs to plugged in and set into a mount to avoid battery issues, GPS is always there

e) for the GPS on my motorcycle, smartphone is a complete fail in comparison as I get full touchscreen functionality, with any glove I choose, to allow rerouting, search for fuel or food, change destinations, look ahead to road path, etc. Add in full weather resistance / waterproofing, much brighter screen that doesn't overheat, a doubt-free handlebar mount, etc.

f) Google / Apple Maps depends upon data connection. If you can trust your data connection...you haven't traveled far enough. Downloading maps an option, as is installed apps w/maps, but just...why??

IBM ends funding for employee retirement clubs

Re: Irony

I initially (and erroneously) read the following text as:

"Joining a club was free for all Big Blue retirees with at least 10 years of service under their belt, regardless of PRISON age.

And now I read your comment.

...

Maybe my psychic powers are better than I originally expected.

Amazon investors nuke proposed ethics overhaul and say yes to $212m CEO pay

Re: And next week

Exactly. As an American, i see a lot of lip service paid to "doing the right thing" but that only goes as far as the quarterly reports - from gun violence to middle class wages, America has completely sold its soul to the capitalist corporatist agenda. Only money matters, and that's now spread to EVERY first-world capitalist country (so don't go saying that your X country is "better" simply because you live there / you think it is. The entire world is now morally corrupt about money and your politicians will happily prove that to you in their next vote).

Version 251 of systemd coming soon to a Linux distro near you

Re: access to the source code

Shhh, Linux-heads believe that since FOSS allows everyone to have access to the source code, it is thereby established that everyone SHOULD understand that source code and be able to work with it.

Never accepting that billions of people are just...computer users, not "nerds" or code jockeys.

Repairability champ Framework's modular laptop gets a speed boost

Waiting...

Upgradability on laptops could have been possible a long time ago, the mobile Pentium II's used the MMC2 CPU connector which could theoretically allow an upgrade. I say "theoretically" because whilst you could remove the MMC2 package from the laptop (which I did), Intel would not retail you an upgrade nor would the laptop manufacturer offer a BIOS upgrade if needed. So the idea of "upgradability" was killed at the front door regardless of the fact that the space beyond was available for open business.

Iran, China-linked gangs join Putin's disinformation war online

Re: What is disinformation?

"I think the only US public figure that's spoken the truth recently was our former President, George W. Bush."

Not paying attention, are we? He just spoke earlier today, with a modest faux pas whilst speaking that the media is grabbing on to and (trying) to blow up. He's a private citizen for pete's sake, his faux pas' are no longer relevant on the world stage, get over it (and no, I never EVER supported him, but let's get adult for a bit shall we?)

IT staffing, recruitment biz settles claims it discriminated against Americans

Re: They are a cartel...

"This happens in Europe and also in Oceania and is widely known yet nothing is done about it."

And nothing ever will. The recruitment industry is giving Big Business what they want: cheap labor. Big Business makes sure that the cheap labor force is always available thanks to (spending money on) lobbying for programs like H-1B, and the recruitment industry simply comes in and fills the requirement of slave cheap, expendable and replaceable labor.

As was said above, close the loophole on sleazebag companies using the law to underpay workers, and the recruitment industry will die on the vine.

Google Russia goes broke after bank account snatched

Re: Very bad idea

"Subject of a trail"

What trial?! The congressional investigation is still ongoing, if you bother to pay attention to the real world and not propaganda TV.

Oh, and actually the people who attacked the Capitol ARE being found guilty, thank you very much.

Mozilla browser Firefox hits the big 100

Re: A well worn story.

I do not feel that is a correct opinion, that as an alternative you must follow the big player.

The entire point is to BE an alternative, and if you are only providing the same as the Big Boy with only a few select differences, I feel the vast majority of people will ask themselves "Why bother? I can just use Big Boy and be done with it!".

And so, they do.

Almost every time an alternative goes towards the mainstream option, the alternative has DIED because a small difference...is really no difference at all, not enough to bother with dealing with the hassles of moving away from the mainstream.

Bing! Microsoft tests search box in the middle of Windows 11 desktop

Re: Desperate to get Bing users

AFIAK Bing is the largest API data source (Bing Maps is DDG default for that functionality). Also, Bing supplies all the ads.

Re: Desperate to get Bing users

A lot more people use Bing than you might realize, as Bing powered DuckDuckGo.

And DDG's, and therefore undoubtedly Bing's, relevance simply SUCKS. I use DDG almost exclusively and am constantly irritated and put-out by miserable search results. But the alternative is using Slurp Inc, and I am simply not.

Start your engines: Windows 11 ready for broad deployment

Re: Getting the most out of it...

and I await the huge increase in Microsoft's Hotmail / Live "subscriptions", as millions upon millions of people learn / realize that they can just as well create a burner Live email account to satisfy MS's Win11 sign-in demands...

Icon, a toast to the flaming pile that will be MS's user "growth" expectations.

Landmark case recognizes Bored Ape NFT as an asset

Re: Not sure which is sillier

Doesn't matter if it is "silly" or not. Chefpierre accepted the NFT as collateral in a real-life monetary loan, therefore chefpierre [him]self treated the NFT as a direct equivalent of an asset worthy of being considered collateral. The court only decided based on this fact - the second party accepted the terms of how the NFT should be considered in [their] contract, and the court could only follow this lead.

This isn't so much as "landmark case" as "contract law".

Red Hat Kubernetes security report finds people are the problem

Re: It's still Kubernetes fault

"If the vast majority of security issues are attributed to misconfigurations, and misconfiguration is what keeps most operators up at night, then the problem isn't the users it's the application."

This, 1000x this. This statement needs to be placed on billboards across the street from every office with links to Kubernetes development.

Don't blame the user if your UI is a misconfigured mess that only you, a programmer, can understand.

Microsoft tests ‘Suggested Actions’ in Windows 11. Insiders: Can we turn it off?

It already exists

"Suggested Actions" can already be said to exist thanks to the "magic" of right-click context menus. You remember those, right, Microsoft??

So why are you trying to reinvent the wheel you already invented years ago?? Just add another choice to the context menu and be done with it.

Qualcomm puts out 5G modem with standalone mmWave mode

The unspoken elephant in the room

Talk talk talk about speed, mum's the word on addressing 5G battery life. My new 5G phone just went through 14% of its battery in 1.5 hours of standby during travel this morning o_O