Posts by Rol

UK ponders USB-C as common charging standard

I'm sorry, but only our popcorn will work in this theatre.

I'm old enough to remember the pre EU days, and boy was that a racket for UK businesses. Having a specific UK weirdness about a product ensured no foreign competition got a look in and the British consumer paid dearly for it. The UK standards were not at all terrible, in fact some were quite good, but they did ensure consumers got their wallets rinsed at every stage, so yes, businesses far and wide would be looking to return back to the days where a specific demographic can get scalped, while other players get squeezed out due to the costs of regional compliance.

RAC duo busted for stealing and selling crash victims' data

Re: Wait a second...

Every office job I have ever had required at least a DBS check, often more.

Imagine the court case brought against the employer of one of them, when they try it on again, while working for a company that didn't bother to do the simplest of background checks?

Re: Wait a second...

The duo are well and truly done for. Their careers as well paid keyboard monkeys are over. They might get jobs shepherding trolleys around a supermarket car park, or burger flipping, but that's about it.

The impact of their foolishness might not have hit them yet, but their future job experiences will be a constant reminder.

Keir Starmer hands ex-Darktrace boss investment minister gig

Re: She'll fit right in

Well surely, the exact opposite will happen. The less crappier party will eventually realise they need to be as crap as the other party to get a nose in.

Smart TVs are spying on everyone

Re: Buy a non smart TV - if you can find one

Well, the issue is the TV bit. You're always going to get presented with a smart TV. So stop searching for a 50" TV and search for a 50" monitor. Then plug whatever you want into it.

Dutch cops reveal takedown of 'world's largest dark web market'

Re: The noose is closing

Everything shows up on someone's radar somewhere, not least those owned by the swathe of intelligence agencies in America, such as NSA.

The issue is - do they risk compromising their covert snooping of everything for a small time bandit and do the local forces have the capacity to act on the tip-off.

There's no point having the greatest snooping tool of all time if you are going to send a spreadsheet with 20 million named UK citizens to Scotland Yard, listing every punishable action they took on the internet. For one, Scotland Yard hasn't the resources to pursue 1% of that, and two, it ends, once and for all, the illusion that the internet offers anonymity even for those actively seeking it, negating the whole point of mass surveillance.

Linus Torvalds declares war on the passive voice

Re: He's right, of course

I would proffer "me" in the world of self promotional social media videos that labour the "me me" has since been shortened to just "meme"

LinkedIn: If our AI gets something wrong, that's your problem

Ancient Idiocy recycled?

How like the Tower of Babel has AI become?

The font of all knowledge, but only if you're prepared to spend eternity, raised to the power infinity, proof reading it.

Britain's Ministry of Defence accused of wasting £174M on 'external advice'

Re: And this is surprising???

For those in the know. the MOD IS running smoothly. Every dodgy deal, every missing million is buried under a mountain of cock-ups and incompetence so devilishly orchestrated that no auditor outside of a mental asylum would take on the task of fathoming who's hands have been in the till.

Thanks for coming to help. No, we can't say why we called – it's classified

Reminds me of attending a festival on the race course near there. I think some of the security from the place we should not mention were moonlighting as security for the festival, as they were stopping people from leaving the stage venue with their drinks.

Of course their remit was to stop people bringing their own drinks into the venue, but clearly the message put into understandable grunt English was "Do not let anyone pass here with alcohol" which lacked any direction and was left to a very broad interpretation.

Fortunately for us they were not armed with anything more dangerous than a very thick skull, so we shuffled by while quietly explaining to them that the venue doesn't give a damn about us taking drinks out, only drinks in. I don't think they took our advice onboard, but in the face of overwhelming numbers, they had no choice but to back down.

IBM accused of cheating its own executive assistants out of overtime pay

Re: Land of the Free...

Bullies create bullies.

Most of the world's terrorists and mega maligned despots would never have come into being if America hadn't been actively engaged in overthrowing their democratically elected governments.

Land of the Free...

...to do as you like, without fear of consequences from those less powerful than yourself.

What a hideous way to exist.

And America has the audacity to insist the rest of the world runs likewise. Or else!!

Please, if some benign space travelling aliens are in the vicinity of our hugely troubled planet, would you please come and take America's toys (weapons) away for good. Then the rest of the world can start putting things right without fear of punishment.

Water worries flood in as chip industry and AI models grow thirstier

Re: England as well

Actually, they are to blame. When the water companies got privatised they went asset stripping mental. In my locale alone they filled in four reservoirs and sold them for housing development.

Never in the history of my town had we had a hosepipe ban, but that sure changed.

But I strongly agree that shops should stop selling hose pipes LOL

Duo face years in prison over counterfeit iPhone scam

Reminds me of the Lewinski competition where you could send in a dress stained with the presidents love juice that you had left hanging in your closet for years and get a whopping cash prize. Hundreds of dresses got sent in, but it appears the president had used donor liquid on most of those occasions.

Europe's data protection laws cut data storage by making information-wrangling pricier

Re: Cloud Multipass proposal

I agree with the principle of personal data being stored in one place, but then you argued the gatekeepers should be the very organisations that have demonstrably abused that data again and again.

It makes a lot more sense that my personal data is stored only on a server located in the UK and I give explicit permissions to others for a range of limited access.

eg. When I open a new bank account I point them at my data. The server contacts me to advise the bank is requesting access to my data, and I give explicit permission for a one time access to x,y,z (proof docs that I am who I say I am, etc) and lifetime access to a,b,c (address, phone number, etc). The bank will never be allowed to store any of that data. It stays on my appointed server, and they access it as and when they need it, to say, email me, or write to me. I therefore have my very own auditable log of who's been accessing my data. And I only need change my details if I move house on that one server. No need to tramp around dozens of organisations updating my details.

Question is. Who in the UK would I trust to look after my details.

CERN seeks €20B to build a bigger, faster, particle accelerator

Re: My lifetime income is directly proportional to the cost of...

so use the existing gear to spin them up and exit them along the linear track to get them up to speed.

My lifetime income is directly proportional to the cost of...

...whatever hair brained idea I come with next, so let's go for the most expensive shall we.

You've got to ask why the alternative proposal of a linear track, that would be cheaper and easily expandable, has been rebuffed?

In 30 years time, when the orbital track has proven too small, it will be a 100km diameter track next, whereas the linear proposal would just need a few more lengths added on at the end until the desired velocity is reached.

How Neuraspace aims to clean up orbital clutter with AI

I mostly agree with you, but there is the potential for some operators to manoeuvre their satellites for a better view, or to plug a recent hole, so anticipating those scenarios might be one of the few reasons for AI to get involved.

Also the "weather mapping" of solar flares seems a fair candidate for AI as well.

US research body sues chip tech company Japan’s government plans to buy

Yeah I was going to say the same too, but failed right at the last hurdle.

That's not the web you're browsing, Microsoft. That's our data

MS ready! Apple set! Google go! Queue Arnold! And action!

Remember the bit in Terminator 3 where they hunker down in a nuclear bunker that is splattered with really aged computers safe from the menacing AI that wants to kill them.

Well, get prepping kids, 'cos the only safe computer is the one not connected to the internet, so load up on all the games and stuff you need to see yourself through to retirement and beyond now, and then pull the Lan cable out for good.

Sure, have a kamikaze PC/ phone to keep accessing the internet, but keep that a million miles away from your treasure trove of distractions crucial to your sanity.

Virgin Media comes top of the flops for customer complaints

Solid connection. Gaseous pricing!

Well. I cannot fault their physical service, as it worked reliably for me for over a decade, but their customer relations was absolutely diabolical. After every interaction with them over renewing contracts, i always had the uncontrollable urge to bathe myself in bleach and pick a fight with knife wielding thugs, just to make myself feel a little bit better and that I wasn't an inconsequential oink.

I wager not one of VM's customers is paying the same as their neighbour for the exact same package. You pay whatever they think they can shake out of you until you kick back.

How governments become addicted to suppliers like Fujitsu

Re: Don't forget NPfIT

Clearly there needs to be a level headed manager who sits between these two entities to point out the cost to the department's budget for these added features will ultimately mean downsizing the departments workforce, "so do you really want to push ahead with your request?"

But as pointed out by others, that manager doesn't exists. They did once, but those with the skills to comprehend the outcomes were given every incentive to find a new role, with a new company, that might better appreciate their contribution to the bottom line.

BOFH: Nice air conditioning system. Would be a shame if anything happened to it

Don't forget the initial outlay on A4 paper, to list the 5,000 snagging faults with the new property and your yearly subscription to your local solicitor who will need at least five years to get any of the faults repaired.

Oh, and don't forget the cost of having the mineshaft your house is sitting on capped properly, and the Victorian cemetery deconsecrated, the bodies relocated to a neighbour's skip, and the cost of the priest to get rid of the ghosts and ghouls that will otherwise haunt your new build forever.

When anyone says "New" to me, I read it as "can be fixed if you have the time, money and energy"

Europe classifies three adult sites as worthy of its toughest internet regulations

Re: So, a few porn sites are now VLOPs

I think restricting it to adults would lead to a nicer site. And I use the term adult in its strictest sense, as in; attained an acceptable level of maturity, rather than celebrated an arbitrary number of birthdays.

Re: Now would be the perfect time ....

I don't know. I assume most of the users are not registered with adult sites, for obviously sane reasons. If AV comes in, then registrations will increase, alongside their gathering of identifiable details. Those alone could see those sites quadrupling their profits, in the same manner that Meta has become mega rich as a broker of users' profiles.

Perhaps it's time to stop casually browsing these sites and start vigorously copying your favourite bits to your hard drive. It's back to the 70's folks, where your sexual peccadilloes sits hidden under your bed, and not scattered around your front garden for all to see, which will be the inevitable conclusion of tagging your identifiable details to the grumble you might occasionally peruse.

Artificial intelligence is a liability

Let's keep it sensible.

The vagaries of who is responsible when it all goes wrong should not be a hindrance to seeking compensation. After all, in the UK, if a car crashes into the back of yours then you claim for damages against their insurers, regardless of the fact it was the BMW driver three cars behind that ran into the back of queuing vehicles and shunted them into each other. It's for insurers to sort that little fiasco out, with the BMW drivers insurance eventually paying out for all the accumulated payouts on the vehicles involved to the insurer of the car their customer hit.

So, just use the same flawless logic in AI disputes. The company/person that did the damage pays out and it is for their insurers to argue the case against the company that supplied the questionable AI, and not for the person who suffered the loss to have to apportion the blame. The blame is on the company/person who did the damage, regardless of which entity in that company's/person's supply chain is ultimately culpable.

So in the Tesla example, the injured party sues the vehicle's driver, for the full compensation. It is up to the driver's insurer who they then go chasing after. The idea the injured party has to, in some way decide how blame is apportioned and take action against each individual entity is just crazy unfair.

Tesla to remote patch 2M vehicles after damning Autopilot safety probe

Re: "recall"

In the UK, when illegal stuff starts getting beyond the usual suspects and into the mainstream, they drag the first one they catch into court and make an example of them. Massive fines, decades in prison, shamed in the national media. It generally works. All the others who were gleefully at it, then take notice, and realise what they thought was just a laugh, actually comes with a hefty prison sentence.

Obviously, USA isn't the UK, so perhaps to get American's attention they might want to bring back televised crucifixion.

User read the manual, followed instructions, still couldn't make 'Excel' work

Idiot proofing a procedure is one thing, but writing it for those already hardwired to the old processes is another. In those circumstances I think it ideal to have two versions - one that is the prime document, that will live as long as the process exists, and a second for immediate consumption by the existing team where it goes to great lengths to highlight where the new process deviates from the old. In that latter version, I would always try and cover the potential errors caused by long term muscle memory and how to get the process back on track without having to ring me at 2 in the morning.

In fact in my latest job I have found it useful to come along a week or two after their training to then show them how to fix their most common errors for themselves. It is a wonder why very little attention is paid to this element of training, as once they have made an error, they are stuck, or worse, frantically mashing the keyboard to try and fix things.

Rhysida ransomware gang: We attacked the British Library

How brave of them!

Instead of breaking in to the highly profitable supermarket a few miles away, with it's state of the art burglar system, they instead opted for the local store owned by an elderly couple. The store is a bit run down, but is vital to the local community.

As you would expect, it was a doddle. Practically no risk whatsoever, and while they got away with plenty of stuff, it was in truth, more or less worthless stuff, but a kick in the teeth for the owners sufficient for them to close up shop and retire. The local community were then stuffed, as those without cars could not get to the next nearest shop, which was the massive supermarket that had caused the closure of every retailer in a 20 mile radius.

This hack, on the British library is no different, and no less likely to have been carried out by those who operate on the emotional level of children. I hope they get caught and sent to sit on the naughty step for a very long time.

Watchdog bites back against blockage of $9M fine on US selfie-scraper Clearview AI

WTF!

It really is beyond all comprehension that a UK tribunal would blatantly class every UK citizen as a criminal on the run from US authorities.

You're all sacked for gross misconduct and dare I say treason.

New appointments to the tribunal will be decided by those who are not cap in hand to our foreign overlords. If any can be found in this fast becoming septic isle of sewer level politicians.

Uncle Sam snooping on US folks? Not without a warrant, lawmakers agree

This is all a distraction. The US has been snooping on the rest of the world and its own citizens using friendly proxies such as Saudi Arabia, who will never be held accountable.

They can continue to do as they like, no matter congress's opinion on the matter, so this is nothing more than a charade to keep the masses thinking there is some form of oversight on mass snooping, when it's actually no holds barred.

US actors are still on strike – and yup, it's about those looming AI clones

Re: Resistance is useless

Yeah. Imagine the security one would feel if every single one of the cast will still be alive and not embroiled in a scandal come the 15th Season of your top TV show.

A.I. characters are the executives dreams come true.

Personally I'd much prefer the next generation hold up an AI character as their role model than the usual misfits of screen and stage, who are still operating as if they're above accepted moral norms.

Boffins say their thin film solar cells make space farms viable

Some things would be best engineered in zero g, if not only achievable in zero g, so this could be where the output from the farms go?

Excel Hell II: If the sickness can't be fixed, it must be contained

It it's not broke, we'll fix that come the next update!

Excel stopped being a useful little tool when Microsoft attempted to make it more useful, by second guessing and overriding the user.

Every little tweak to Excel threw up ever more disastrous outcomes, and the real bugbear was many of those tweaks could not be turned off or customised.

One benefit of Microsoft's hole digging exercise, is that my VB skills have had to improve to help make the sheets immune to the sewer of shite that flows out of Redmond's blue sky (more like black hole) development team.

New information physics theory is evidence 'we're living in a simulation,' says author

Re: power

Technically advanced, yes, but has it the imagination to fathom the unknown? If all you know is what you can see/feel/smell/hear, you might want to question what more is there beyond my senses. And if you lack the imagination and the drive to experiment in directions common sense suggests is pointless, you will never stumble onto the truth.

Here's where we come in useful. We have imagination in spades, and the stupidity to chase dreams. We are at the cutting edge of someone's attempt to investigate the unknown unknowns.

UK data watchdog warns Snap over My AI chatbot privacy issues

Re: Good ol' 4Chan...

Keeping society firmly subterranean no matter how lofty the rest of us aspire to climb.

Blockchain biz goes nuclear: Standard Power wants to use NuScale reactors for DCs

Not just that, what about the physical security of those SMR's? Every deployed SMR is currently surrounded by military personnel ready to blast into atoms anyone coming near them with so much as a grimace on their face.

These SMR's will be protected by what? Mall level security?

I can see the locals, keen not to have a mini Two Mile Island on their doorstep, insisting they go elsewhere.

Nukes, schmukes – fuel cells could power future datacenters

Re: As AI use continues to grow, the race to find alternative ways to power datacenters accelerates

Your right. Currently the cost of energy is disproportionately more expensive for low energy users. That is surely totally upside down to the need to limit use.

Take the UK's way of dealing with the hyperinflation of energy. They capped household bills. The level it was set at meant nearly half the population who have always kept a very tight rein on their energy use, never did get close to the cap, and therefore had no support through that mechanism. It was the families with outdoor heated swimming pools that took the largess of that tax funded cashback.

Techies at Europe's biggest council have 8 weeks to pull finance reports from Oracle system

When will they ever learn?

So, they went for the cheapest option did they? Haha. The option where they take an off the shelf system and then train their staff to bend to its will. It could have worked a charm, but they likely skimped on the training budget by a country mile.

I remember taking over an accounts role that had been abandoned by the manager (got drunk and walked) who for one reason or another, and I suspect cheapo chiselling from the directors, was tasked with implementing a totally new accounts package, that they hadn't the first clue how to use, let alone instal and initiate all the accounts/ledgers/etc. It was a fucking fiasco when I turned up and spent the first two weeks reading the manual to finally conclude they had set it up backwards. The P&L account was meant to be the first account you created, not the last. It was never ever going to churn out anything meaningful, and as it was software approved for auditable use, no way of reversing any of the balls ups. I did offer to smash the hard drives and start again from scratch. haha.

For a city that's supposed to be investing in people, they could do with taking a very long hard look at themselves and consider their staff are people too, and a few weeks/months of training to add more strings to their bow, would have been very worthwhile, and not just a tick-box worthy.

Long-term support for Linux kernels is about to get a lot shorter

Re: Stable not in the stable

My Windows 7 runs absolutely beautifully. It was a bootleg version to start with. It has never been updated and practically every application/game is bootleg.

Every snippet of internet connectivity has been wrenched out of it. It has never been online and never will.

As I guess most of the nasties that it is no doubt encumbered with have an overwhelming need to chat to a server somewhere, they sit dormant, patiently awaiting the day the police connect it to the internet and destroy whatever evidence it was they were looking for haha

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

Re: Twitter / X is a sewer

I'm sure the definition of terrorism could quite easily be construed to include 99% of X's feed.

In my mind, any organisation that actively promotes rhetoric designed to undermine our right to a happy life, is engaging in terrorism.

Why can't datacenter operators stop thinking about atomic power?

Big Brother plc

I imagine in years to come, the super big, globe spanning organisations that crunch data for a living, will also outgrow home nation's ability/willingness to protect them. At which point this article would have morphed to data centres requiring small nuclear deterrents to fill the gap between what the nation is willing to supply and what the ever more unpopular big brother orgs feel is needed for their security.

NASA rockets draining its pockets as officials whisper: 'We can't afford this'

Re: Still cheaper than HS2...

Only if they built it using RAAC concrete. Which I assume they will.

Right to repair advocates have a new opponent: Scientologists

Re: Expose,

Huncoat still has their stocks, though sadly they are no longer in use. A few more years outside of EU protections and a few more years of Tory governance, and they might be back as an alternative to custodial sentencing.

Largest local government body in Europe goes under amid Oracle disaster

Re: Great job!

It's shame you chose to reiterate Tory propaganda instead of the facts. Fact is, every Tory government has broken the bank on every occasion they have been in office and Labour have always balanced the books. Yes, they presided over a disastrous period a lifetime ago as they tried to stimulate the economy and keep many old industries ticking along, but that is well and truly last century, and outweighed by the numerous shambolic Tory deficits that have happened since.

Sextortion suspects on trial after teen victim dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound

It's no wonder the likes of the Mafia thrive in some regions, when vigilantism is the only recourse normally honest citizens have.

The whole point of a police force and a judiciary, is so the public do not have to prosecute a crime themselves, which often meant back before such institutions came about, beating the guy trying to steal your cattle to death, and then retaliating against his wider family who came and beat one of your family to death in retribution.

In a fair world the police force and criminal courts would find themselves being sued for failing to fulfil their roles. Then again, the UK government would also now be getting sued for failing to honour the contract whereby you pay your taxes and everyone gets timely access to necessary medical treatment.

Two US Navy sailors charged with giving Chinese spies secret military info

Re: the US are such hypocrites

If they had taken time to get themselves a little better organised, they could have incorporated themselves, and set up a political "lobbying" company. They'd have been untouchable.

Aspiration to deploy new UK nuclear reactor every year a 'wish', not a plan

Re: Hospital Strategy

Marie Curie's lab notes.

Re: Hospital Strategy

Reminds me of the quiz question - There is a book in a museum that can only be read if you sign a waiver accepting full responsibility if it results in your death or injury. What is the book?

White House: Losing Section 702 spy powers would be among 'worst intelligence failures of our time'

Re: The fight over 702 distraction anyway

You're spot on about it being a distraction. The US intelligence service operates no holds barred in foreign holes where the mention of human rights are a joke.

I remember doing a DNS lookup on those snooping in on my torrenting many years ago, and couldn't for the life of me fathom why the Saudi Arabian government was the least bit interested in my ever expanding music collection. Fact is, they were not at all interested, but the US intelligence wing that operated out of Mecca was. And being in a place where anything, no matter how evil it is, is overlooked, they'll still be there today, eavesdropping on the entire world knowing they'll never have to ask permission from anyone. Least of which the US government.

So yes. 702's future is immaterial to the plot.