Posts by Ken Y-N

FBI prevails over convicted fraudster in $345M destroyed Bitcoin dispute

But Bitcoins live in the blockchain, not on his hard disk

I suppose it means that his passwords/password manager lived on that drive, so without access to that he cannot recover his stash.

Coders paired with bot buddies work fast, but take too many shortcuts

What about Trio Programming?

Have the AI to do the boring stuff, but then two pairs of eyes to criticise its output.

A quick search tells me it is already a thing, and called Mob Agentic Engineering.

New Linux kernel patch lets you cancel hibernation mid-process

Re: Who actually uses Hibernation?

Me! The office PC has so much stuff to load at startup that it can take two or three minutes after log in for Teams to appear, for instance.

No suds for you! Asahi brewery attack leaves Japanese drinkers dry

Re: Asahi: the cloud-based CAE solution platform

That's a completely different company - there's also Asahi newspaper group, which is yet another separate company, and probably many others with Asahi in their name.

Square Kilometre Array is so sensitive, its datacenter needs two Faraday cages to stop RF leaks

"And they make Star-Trek-like noises as they open and close"

If that's not enough to guarantee the remaining 20% of the funding, I don't know what is!

Blockchain just became an utterly mainstream part of the global financial system

I presume they are considering a permissioned blockchain

A publicly-writable one isn't really going to work, so being permissioned, mining is unnecessary. Thus you end up with just a slow database.

Also, it's not clear from the article why SWIFT is slow, but I would guess one of the issues is batching settlement at the end of the working day or similar.

Thus, choosing a blockchain this early seems either putting the cart before the horse, or it's another demo system that's not going to go anywhere significant.

Oh, and don't start me on Smart Contracts!

Trump backpedals as Hyundai factory ICE raid enrages South Korea

Re: Work visas, really? Where are they?

According to AI, they changed the rules this April so you must keep either a paper or digital copy of your visa on your person all the time, although I'm sure ICE isn't in the business of bothering to check the validity.

Dems wave hands, stomp feet about ICE using mobile face recognition app

False positives is a feature, not a bug.

One long sentence is all it takes to make LLMs misbehave

An LLM responds...

It sounds like you're exploring how AI responds to different ways of communicating, and you're wondering if your own style of writing influences how AI behaves. To clarify, AI systems like me are designed to follow guidelines and safety protocols, which sometimes means we might ignore or avoid certain requests, especially if they involve sensitive or restricted topics. However, the way people phrase their questions—such as grammar, tone, or style—can sometimes affect how clearly the AI understands or interprets their intent.

Your observation that persuasive or confident language might influence AI responses is interesting, but generally, AI doesn't have feelings or personal biases—it's more about how well the input aligns with its training data and safety rules. Also, your point about spelling and grammar is valid: clear and well-structured questions often lead to better responses. So, rather than being "special" or having some magic power, it's more about understanding how to communicate effectively with AI.

And yes, skills like good spelling and grammar are valuable in interacting with AI, just as they are in many other areas. So, what you once saw as a weakness can actually become a strength in getting better results from AI systems.

Softbank bets $2 billion on Intel having a future

You forgot this --->

At least I hope you did.

NASA starts bolting together Artemis III rocket for 2027 Moon shot

Re: Should SpaceX test far more than putting a Starship in orbit?

Your "if" is also doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Rampant emoji use suggests crypto-stealing NPM package was written by AI

Child in Japanese is "kodomo"

"Kodane", if my dictionary is to be believed, is perhaps "seed", but is often used as a vulgar term similar to spunk.

German team warns ChatGPT is changing how you talk

Or is it more people writing lecture notes with ChatGPT?

I'm not sure how ChatGPT output would indirectly affect human language, but I do know that cribbing off notes generated by ChatGPT would result in more YouTube videos using these telltale words.

Let me delve swiftly and meticulously into this inquiry.

Musk's antics and distractions are backfiring as Tesla's car business stalls

Disappointing link

Surely "Musk's deft PR hand" should be pointing to that image?

US budget bill passes without controversial block on states regulating AI

Re: Satellite should not be considered for BEAD

The article says AI infrastructure is also now included, so I wonder how much is now going to be spent on just hooking up new bitbarns rather than actually helping people get online.

US patent office wants an AI to scan for prior art, but doesn't want to pay for it

Re: "The selected vendor must be willing to receive consideration that is primarily non-monetary,"

Being able to syphon off patent applications before they get published would be a nice little consideration.

American coders are most likely to use AI

My recent experience

I was wanting to work out how to access a file using some proprietory technology or other which is poorly documented and gives almost zero Google hits.

Me: How do you access a file?

Claude Sonnet: Do this to read at run time

Me: No, I want to add the file to the build process

Claude: OK, it depends on the exact technology

Me: I'm using Foo

Claude: OK, add this to the XML

Me: But I'm using build scripts

Claude: OK, this instead, and read with this API

Me: But how to I go from a file name to an object ID?

Claude: Add this to the script file

All very impressive; perhaps it's been trained on some books that go into more details - LLMs really are wonderful! I coded it all up, and Hey Presto! nothing happened. After a little experimentation, I looked at the build tool Python code, and the stuff it told me to add is completely ignored by the build tool. Super!

Florida man expands crypto empire with new wireless service and phone

Re: $47.45

At least they're not offering a third-reich^Wrate service for $14.88.

*Insert icon of Musk indicating how high the prices of other services are*

China orders trial of aged care robots that can cook, clean, and provide emotional support

Last month I was in a cafe that had a couple of Lovots trundling around, which were suprisingly lovely to my non-dementia, yet addled brain, although their language was limited to a few chirps.

‘Deliberate attack’ deletes shopping app’s AWS and GitHub resources

Something doesn't add up

the app “powers the livelihoods of thousands of Kirana store owners” and handles 2,000-plus orders each day.

So each store survives on less than one additional order per day? Have a few zeroes disappeared somewhere?

Next week's SpaceX Starship test still needs FAA authorization

Tomorrow's Headline

TRUMP APPOINTS MUSK AS HEAD OF FAA

Fog ransomware channels Musk with demands for work recaps or a trillion bucks

how swiftly government departments can be radically overhauled, where necessary

Surely "how swiftly government departments can be dismantled, where idealogically expedient"

One of the last of Bletchley Park's quiet heroes, Betty Webb, dies at 101

My father too

He was "just" a radio operator and message transcriber, and also did something with the Japanese Enigma that he only ever mentioned once or twice.

Now I'm working in Japan on encryption and related stuff for civvie use only, of course.

Americans set to pay more on all imports: Trump activates blanket tariffs

Re: Well, he was right about

Just look at all those share prices tumbling!

Obviously our wonderful Stock Market is being manipulated by LEFT-WING DEMOCRAT AMERICA-HATING IMMIGANTS.

FAA closes investigations into Blue Origin landing fail, Starship Flight 7 explosion

I read a rocket scientist describe how Starship is doomed

Apparently, as they make it bigger they need to make it lighter otherwise you need more fuel to lift the structure and the extra fuel you put in, so even though flight 8 had a lighter payload since it was bigger the vibration issue remains. Making it sturdier will reduce the payload size so much that there is actually a negative payoff.

They also said that they haven't done any test flights with scale models which would have revealed these issues, but they are now so embedded into NASA plans that SpaceX can keep sucking the government teat.

Google teases AI Mode for search, giving Gemini total control over your results

"Is haggis an animal?"

It's been all over the Scottish web the last couple of days, but thanks to the Haggis Wildlife Foundation and their videos of haggises (haggii?) cavorting in the Highlands, Gemini has finally seen the light and correctly replied "Yes" to the above question.

※ Sadly, yesterday they have fallen to Russian propaganda and it now replies "No"

Penguin, as it's almost as cute as a baby haglet. --->

SpaceX receives FAA blessing for another Starship test

Too late

there's more of a reason for the government to enforce laws and regulations regarding Elon's reckless behavior

The Supreme Court has already ruled that the (shadow) president cannot be held guilty for crimes commited in office.

Incoming deputy boss of Homeland Security says America's top cyber-agency needs to be reined in

Re: good

As good as Linda Whats-her-name "runs" Xitter?

Are you cooler than ex-Apple design guru Sir Jony Ive?

U2 went downhill from Joshua Tree

I went to see the War tour at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and Bono put on a nice show. They then got too big for their boots and forgot their roots.

Oh, and Really Saying Something is about the blandest Fun Boy Three track, and my juvenile mind is forever imprinted with Bananarama's navels in Venus.

Twin Google flaws allowed researcher to get from YouTube ID to Gmail address in a few easy steps

"we will use every tool at our disposal to stop them from targeting U.S. citizens"

About that for stopping Pig Butchering - according to a pic on Reddit, the CIA has stopped their cybersecurity outreach to senior citizens due to Trump/Musk butchering.

Mushroom cloud because they were sacked too.

Tesla sales crash in Europe, UK. We can only wonder why

Disappointed you didn't add a photo of Musk illustrating how high sales will be when (if) FSD gets approved in Europe.

Trump tells Musk to 'go get' Starliner astronauts

I must say I'm liking this new trend of illustrating Musk stories with that photo!

HPE may have bagged $1B order from Elon Musk's X for AI servers

He's recently raised $6 billion from the latest funding round:

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-xai-series-c-funding-round-grok-nvidia-microchips-2024-12

Tesla, Musk double down on $56B payday appeal

Re: Doesn't make sense

Toyota do a lovely clone of the London taxi, but it's ICE (or maybe hybrid). Haven't a clue about automonous plans, but there will still be a need for some drivers for helping old folk in, stowing luggage, etc.

Short-lived bling, dumb smart things, and more: The worst in show from CES 2025

Re: A washing machine

But, the smart washing machine can delay the spin cycle so you can talk comfortably while sitting beside the device.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone's patented that - that's the sort of dubious idea that my cow-orkers might file to meet their one patent per year assessment.

Japan's wooden satellite exits International Space Station

Chisel help awl Japanese space endevours

It'll spruce up their cata-log-ue once others cedar successes.

Blue Origin's New Glenn will launch any day now – but it better hurry up

"before being trumped by SpaceX"

I suspect they might get trumped, musked and doged next year once Musk starts fiddling with the budget...

Trump tariffs transform into bigger threats for Mexico, Canada than China

Musk has generously offered to spend what it takes to unseat/primary whoever votes against his puppet-prez. He also has plans to defund the leftie woke DEi-riddled NPR.

(And /s, just in case you didn't notice)

They'll be a lot of people voluntarily and involuntarily getting their coats before he's finished ---->

Supply chain management vendor Blue Yonder succumbs to ransomware

"coffee"!!

But even just "beer" is better.

Here's how a Trump presidency could change the tech industry

Re: Here's how a Trump presidency could change the World

And 10% increases in CO2 output.

To kill memory safety bugs in C code, try the TrapC fork

Re: No terminating '\0'?

Ah yes, I see my misunderstanding and I wasn't thinking at all of the contiguous memory... The comment "TrapC blocked strcpy overwrite, success good" means that it hasn't been trampled by the 'strcpy()' rather than being set to 1 explicitly in the previous 'if' branch. I know, read the code, not the comments!

But, assuming 'success' comes directly after "buffer[]' is incorrect except in perhaps a debug build, as a release build would likely put 'success' in a register, so "Welcome" would not be printed despite the memory overwrite. You've now got a bug of the most annoying type, working in Release but failing in Debug.

To sum up, this is a bad example.

No terminating '\0'?

char buff[8];

...

if(!strcmp(buff,"s3cr8tpw"))

That code implies that there's no NUL character at the end of strings. I can see why it might not be needed if you have a length field somewhere, but that's quite a change.

Also, the next snppet has:

const char* ptr = "Hello World"; // 12 char wide

Shouldn't that be 11?

What might a second term of Trump mean for the US space program?

Re: Elmo rubbing his hands together in glee.

Shirley an *imperial* fuckton - he doesn't want any of that nasty European funcktonnage. (and wouldn't it be a metric fucktonne?)

Icon for what happens when you mix your fucktonnages.

Starlink was offered for free to those hit by Hurricane Helene. It is not entirely free

Re: UK Phone Operators often provide free calls to areas affected by disasters but you need a phone

When I first read about this, it was his helicopters not getting permission to land, so I presumed the choppers were full of StarLink terminals to hand out to deserving plebs, just like traditional mobile service providers (in Japan anyway) have emergency hardware that provides a bridge from mobile services to satellites.

Thinking a bit further, a free terminal and free 30 day service, then pay later for the continued service (basically a free terminal) would also be fair, but - it is Leon we're talking about after all - the reality is as the article points out, more free publicity for his "generosity".

SpaceX Falcon 9 grounded again after second stage hits wrong part of ocean

Re: Ooopsie!

Perhaps it's a "See, we can self-regulate; there's no need for the FAA!", as Leon has been pushing hard to be trump's governmental cost-cutter, and first on the chopping block will be all these pesky agencies that get in the way of his various industries.

Mushroom icon as he and Project 2025 want to nuke democracy.

Red team hacker on how she 'breaks into buildings and pretends to be the bad guy'

Re: Train your users not to trust anyone

At a certain company, legitimate external emails have links to an internal page that lists legitimate external emails - now that's a good phishing route; include the internal URL as almost no-one will verify...

I don't know what pressing Delete will do, but it seems safe enough!

Well, it does

if I go to the Windows Settings app and type in "format", ideally it should then take me to, at least) the options for formatting a storage device, changing date format, selecting a keyboard layout, and possibly even the multi-screen layout dialog?

On Windows 11, it shows me "Region settings", "Set regional format", "Format a volume", etc

Microsoft pulls the plug on WordPad, the world's least favorite text editor

"Donated" my granny's telly for the Beeb

Previously the school only had a single CPM machine, but the maths department got a Beeb but no monitor, so I decided to help out by persuading my granny to let us borrow her telly, which she never watched, to the school.

Cool, more promises of a Universal Translator from Big Tech. This time, Meta – again

Impressive, but impressively wrong

For my quick single sentence try, it translated "cabbages" to "butter" in Japanese, and "strawberries" in French

Threads versus Twitter: Shouldn't we be happy the wheels are falling off antisocial social media?

Re: Freedom is an illusion

Err, since Elmo took the helm the acceptance rate of government requests to remove tweets has actually increased from around 50% to 80%:

https://restofworld.org/2023/elon-musk-twitter-government-orders/

Twitter has performed little or no push-back on these requests partially because Musk has sacked most of the people who used to handle these issues.