Posts by Rol

'Close to impossible' for Europe to escape clutches of US hyperscalers

How's about a compromise?

European customers use European cloud services, who encrypt our data and store it with the cheapest cloud providers on the planet.

Enacting Uncle Sam's Patriot Act would be useless,

Okay, yes the service on a service will add cost overheads, but a large enough European service would surely have some leverage on price/GB.

Another advantage would be the common interface presented to users by the European service, regardless of which cloud provider is holding the data, which could be seamlessly moved to another storage provider as and when required.

Slowly the EU provider can onboard its own local storage as demand increases.

Like the ingredients on a food label, I want to know where my data is being stored, and if it's on an American server, and it is readily readable by the NSA, then it isn't covered by GDPR, so I'm not buying into it.

Greater Manchester says its NHS analytics stack is years ahead of Palantir wares

Re: Wait...

An agreement with a dodgy underhand company, that knows only too well how the political landscape will change! You can bet elements of the agreement has level 11 non disclosure stamped all over it, along with punitive clauses that makes cancelling it impossibly expensive. Not unlike our aircraft carriers, which turned out to be cheaper to build than cancel.

UK 'extremely dependent' on US for space security

Re: It’s special alright!

America had a very stark choice in WWII. Either throw their lot in with the allies, or face the unarguable consequence that the whole of Europe would end up being "liberated" by Russia, and likely a tasty wedge of Africa and the Middle East with it.

That was the quiet whisper that Churchill put in the President's ear. It was nothing at all to do with defeating Nazi Germany. It was about denying Russia strategic gains that would have made it invulnerable to any subsequent Cold War threat.

Trump fires NSA boss, deputy

Let's make American democracy a little more robust next time around. Please!!!

I hope you Americans are now rethinking the God given mission to impose your flavour of democracy on the rest of the world?

It is demonstrably broken. Hopefully, for your sakes and ours, not beyond repair.

Perhaps the democrats could launch a total rethink of how something so fragile, yet so fundamental to a prosperous and fair world could be protected. It could be the one thing they take into the next election, if there is ever to be one, and present it to the voting public that this is what we will do once elected. Never again will an enemy of democracy ever be allowed to manoeuvre their man into power where they can then start dismantling the very core of what our once great nation stood for.

Unfortunately, for now, it looks like room for a hammer and sickle might just be found on the Stars and Stripes. Let's just hope it will eventually wash out.

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

Re: National heroes

You are right. This is about honouring a great woman and recognising their contribution in the fight against fascism, but if she were here, she would very much understand that the fight is still being waged and who so ever picks up the banner that she and her colleagues were so eager to bear, are surely honouring her no less than those who morn her passing.

UK convicts five romance fraudsters who stole millions from duped singles

Re: Punishment?

Forced to make small rocks from big rocks until the victims have been compensated for their losses seems perfectly fair to me.

France offers US scientists a safe haven from Trump's war on woke

Jock centered societies

Having spent a few minutes researching the topic, I feel a little overqualified to pontificate on the subject, but here goes...

History has many examples of societies that championed their warriors to the exclusion of everything else. Placing them front and centre of politics and life in general. The warrior class was the driving force. They spurned education, humanities and any sense of justice for those incapable of wielding a sword. They didn't fair too well did they. Having rocked the sensibilities of more enlightened peoples they disappeared into history under an avalanche of spears and arrows, wielded in most part by greengrocers, butchers, carpenters, teachers, poets... the people that a society such as the Spartans would spit on.

So here we are, with another might is right gang, trying to impose their will on society and the world in general. However, their fate is not completely in the hands of their neighbour's eventual retaliation, but instead from those they have and are marginalising within their own borders. The fall of this mighty empire will be at the hands of their own teachers and poets who have had enough of the injustice, but unlike those of the ancients, they don't need years of training to become capable of taking on the warrior class, they just need to pop into their local store and buy a gun.

Re: les queer studies?

You have to consider a tonne of metrics alongside each other when judging country A v's country B. Things like wealth and status are arguably high up there, but the likelihood that your children would be shot to death while attending school is considered far more important in a society that gives a shit about such things.

Belgian cops raid Huawei in Euro bribery probe

Genetically inclined and nutured

Not everyone swoons at the sight of a wad of cash, only, it seems, those who where born and raised to rule have this moral deficiency.

So why oh why, do we fill the seats of power with those readily inclined to cast away their duties at the prospect of more wealth and power?

Society would arguably be better served with a random selection being forced into public servitude, than just handing those positions of power to those shouting the loudest.

Imagine how corrupt our legal system would be, if jurors where no longer appointed randomly?

RIP Mark Klein, the engineer who exposed US domestic spying ops after wiring it up

Re: Mark Klien

Personally, I do not believe our right to privacy will ever be secured, and the more legislation tries to assure me otherwise, the more I believe it is being ever more covertly hoovered up.

That should not stop activists from seeking such a Nirvana, but for the rest of us, it's an impossible fight. For every Mark Klein, there are thousands, ready and willing to do their misguided patriotic duty and stomp all over citizen's rights in the name of security, delivering a very unsecure future for anyone daring to question the authority that in a true democracy should be questioned at every turn.

Microsoft trims more CPUs from Windows 11 compatibility list

Re: Goodbye Windows 11

Most domestic users haven't a clue what O/S they are running when browsing the internet, so Linux infighting isn't on their radar.

The big reason M$ is on most PC's, is because M$ paid hard cash and flirted, nay, cornered and married unfair market practice to be number one and to stay number one.

Trump administration threatens tariffs for any nation that dares to tax Big Tech

Help!

I work alongside a man who has flung himself head first into AI and merrily spends his days using GPT or whatever to generate images for larks. I asked if he could do one for me. It was going to be a picture of an anus, with a caption, "Can you guess what it is?" the image starts zooming out and the pic starts to look like a landscape of bumholes. As it zooms out further it becomes apparent we were looking at a magnified skin pore on Donald Trumps head.

The end caption states "You were right first time"

Trouble is, through that request, I discovered my go to AI pal was a rabid Trump fan. Oh, he was such a sweet guy as well, and his kids will miss him once he's sectioned.

So, any of you Trump haters out there want to give birth to "Can you guess what it is yet"?

It'll put a smile on several billion faces, and might even save the world.

As Amazon takes over the Bond franchise, we submit our scripts for the next flick

The Man With the Golden Gui

A semi-retired billionaire realises where it is all going wrong, and sets out to create an O/S that studies its user. It then quietly censures the "free speech" that it deems is beyond the capacity of the user's intellect, to protect them from their own inadequacies, and hence save the world.

Trouble is, the baddies are on to him, and only Bond can save him. The difficulty for Bond, is it's his own government and that of many other countries who are the baddies trying to stop this, and so he must quit his job quietly if he is to save the world.

Oh and he has nookie with himself on the plane if that helps the plot.

EU demands a peek under the hood of X's recommendation algorithms

Re: Time...

Yep, it's a bit rich, that a social media platform that stands accused of having the POTENTIAL to be influenced by state actors, to interfere with other's democracies, is being threatened with closure, but those social media platforms that have demonstrably interfered with and in some cases be behind some of the most sickening crimes against humanity will all be cosily sat in the Oval office discussing how to turn every country in the world into a goose-stepping image of America.

If the EU and the UK do not recognise the clear and present danger of allowing their people to be suckered by media shysters selling right-wing bilge, then you best get your own rocket to Mars sorted, as this planet will be toxic to all life.

Shove your office mandates, people still prefer working from home

"Come back to bed darling"

"I can't, I'm busy with a customer"

"I'm really hating your new job. You sleep all day and work all night"

"I know darling, but once I qualify for my H1B1 we can move to America and live in the same time-zone as the customers"

"Best make it quick then, because I'm on the verge of leaving this miserable relationship"

Top EU court overturns Intel's billion-dollar antitrust fine

But duh!

When people argue if advertising actually works, you could go through hundreds of thousands of public surveys, of questionable quality to decide that, or you could point to the fact that over a trillion dollars a year gets spent on advertising by companies that are intrinsically averse to repeatedly squandering money on something of questionable worth.

Similarly, why would Intel spend millions of dollars rewarding their customers with "loyalty" refunds if it had no impact on Intel's market share?

Sometimes the cleverest in these lofty courts really aren't that savvy at all.

Opening up the WinAmp source to all goes badly as owners delete entire repo

Re: Damn Shame

I loved Winamp in the day, but my music library got far too big for it.

I'm using Gmusicbrowser on my Linux system now and it does everything I need it for, and doesn't freak out when presented with 1/4 million tracks, unlike many others I have tried along the way.

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?