Posts by SW10

NASA engineers play space surgeon in bid to unclog Voyager 1's arteries

So if I’m right

They would have to switch off the heater, do the job, then switch the heater back on…

… all before knowing if the heater had actually gone off?

'Little weirdo' shoulder surfer teaches UK cabinet minister a lesson in cybersecurity

Re: Situational awareness is rare

She's an HR woman

#justsaying

Scarlett Johansson voices anger at OpenAI's unauthorized soundalike

Re: They know a soundalike won't cut it

- OpenAI really wanted a Johanssen voice (because, film)

- Spurned, they went for a Johansson-alike "Sky"

- So... they don't need Johansson, right?

But yeah, they've now realised they're probably going to need her permission, especially once the CEO makes the obvious connection with the film and her character.

Google thinks AI can Google better than you can

Hidden variables revealed

"Find the best [has paid most for ads] yoga or Pilates studios in Boston and show me details on their [and high-paying advertisers in Boston] intro offers [exclusive to Google], and walking time [plus paid Uber ad] from Beacon Hill [showing ads for attractions in Beacon Hill]."

OpenAI slapped with GDPR complaint: How do you correct your work?

block[ing] ChatGPT from the entire EU would have no consequence - as an EU resident I still have rights over my data processed elsewhere.

The solution would actually be to block all EU data - a bit like un mixing milk from tea, I would imagine

Twilio reminds users that Authy Desktop apps die in March – not in August

Re: AXE

The 'e' got axd

FCC Commissioner calls for crackdown on Apple's iMessage gatekeeping

Bubble trouble

We also asked Apple to comment.

I think I can see what’s been going wrong all these years - you’ve been sending green-bubble texts, haven’t you?

UK government denies China/Russia nuke plant hack claim

Re: over-conditioned denial

There is a tremendous amount of work going on in that carefully-worded denial:

"We have no records or evidence {but we have suspicions} to suggest that Sellafield Ltd networks {other networks are present and/or used} have been successfully attacked {we admit people have had a go} by state-actors {it's difficult to know if these hacking crews are genuinely state-sponsored or semi-rogue} in the way described {though other ways are possible} by the Guardian"

Each of those sub-clauses has its own circle on the Venn diagram - the denial only covers the area where all of those circles overlap.

Musk tells advertisers to 'go f**k' themselves as $44B X gamble spirals into chaos

Re: Delusional narcissist

blackmail… censorship… sacred cows… MM… liberals… free speech… lefty media…

Oh, mate…

Robocar tech biz sues Nvidia, claims stolen code shared in Teams meeting blunder

Re: Oh FFS, FFS

I really can't see how a single page would be of any use to someone who wasn't intimately familiar with the project.

Did you read the bit* where the person responsible admitted to, and was convicted of, stealing the code?

There was 6 GB of "priceless" code.

What was "seen in a 5-second flash of a screen" was one of Valeo’s source code files and a file path including the term “ValeoDocs”, which alerted the Valeo people to the possibility he'd nicked their IP.

---

* Moniruzzaman, when questioned by the German police, admitted to stealing Valeo’s software and using the code while employed at Nvidia, according to the court filing. The filing adds that he was convicted in Germany for unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure of Valeo’s trade secrets in September this year.

Lawsuit claims Google Maps led dad of two over collapsed bridge to his death

Re: Were there no signs indicating that the Bridge was out?

I don't see that this can be pinned on Google - though I do see a plaintiff noticing that is where the money is.

The case against the landowner could also be tricky - you are supposed to look where you are going.

MGM Resorts shuts down website, computer systems after 'cybersecurity incident'

Yawn

Bring back Danny Ocean; this isn’t going to be much of a film

The Anti Defamation League is Musk's latest excuse for Twitter's tanking ad revenue

Re: "I'm pro free speech, but against antisemitism of any kind"

Man Who Believes In Untrammelled Free Speech To Sue Organization For Speaking Its Mind

Typo watch: 'Millions of emails' for US military sent to .ml addresses in error

Re: Whatever.

Trouble is, about half the world is stupider than average.

Who knows what the distribution of those people looks like when it comes to the military and military contractors

Billionaire BT stalker Patrick Drahi increases stake to 24.5%

That quote in full…

I have absolutely no interest in a takeover, I am simply building up to a 24.99% stake because, as a professional investor I really, really can’t think of a better place to put my money, nor has it ever occurred to me to spread my investments

North Korea shows off surveillance satellite it claims it can launch

The old romantic…

…naming the satellite after his wife

NYC Mayor: Robo-pup 'out of the pound' and back to police work

There are some excellent threads on Twitter advising responsible citizens to avoid:

- pointing lasers or bright lights at it;

- spreading oil or slippery substances in front of it

- confronting it with a mirror

- throwing a blanket over it

- pressing and holding the On/Off button on its rump

Also, should you fall down near the mutt, be careful not to pull the handles on its ´belly’, as this could dislodge the battery

Cardboard drones running open source flight software take off in Ukraine and beyond

All hail PARIS

Pioneer And Really Inspirational Spacecraft

Should Google location data be a tool for cops?

Re: a diameter longer than three football fields

Well, the quote is from the brief penned by the American Civil Liberties Union, so I imagine it's a gridiron field.

And, a rest-of-the-world football terrain would be a "pitch", not a "field"

Moreover, this is the new, all-American terminology El Reg

Universities offered software to sniff out ChatGPT-written essays

It's the Uni being crap and lazy

"Computer says no". Not sure if that's Turnitin's fault or the Uni for being crap and lazy.

It's the Uni. The Turnitin results show where the suspected plagiarization comes from, along with links in many cases

Study finds AI assistants help developers produce code that's more likely to be buggy

The ins and outs of it

You could almost imagine that the training data was, um, poisoned by $stateActor

Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO: Help us pick his replacement

Re: How could you

The 44-day prime minister certainly fits the brand: makes fantastical, evidence-free and ill-thought statements without regard for the consequences

Meta faces lawsuit to stop 'surveillance advertising'

They’ll be breaking the law

unless they are forced to pay out, expect no changes

Not quite. For the moment they’re claiming it’s all legit - and there’s nothing to prove them wrong. Might be illegal. Might not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Once a court finds against them, it’s neither here nor there if the fine is £1 or £1B, they’ll be demonstrably breaking the law if they continue

France says non to Office 365 and Google Workspace in school

You can't sell for less than cost in France

which location your Office 365 tenancy resides

That's only part of the problem. It's the 'free' element that they're not happy about.

It's actually illegal to sell something for less than cost in France, except during prescribed sales periods because it is considered to create 'unfair competition.'

General Motors charges mandatory $1,500 fee for three years of optional car features

We know what’s best

non-dealer activations

…instantly voiding your guarantee, your insurance, the resale value of the car

Then followed by the car being instantly immobilised for “safety” reasons, because they’re only concerned for you and your family, obviously

James Webb Space Telescope looks closer to home with Jupiter snaps

We see you

able to track objects that move as fast as … 30 milliarcseconds per second

Is that enough to pick out a light freighter doing the Kessel Run?

Apple's latest security feature could literally save lives

There’s a $10m bounty…

…and yet a certain subset of commentards will happily believe their half-arsed brain farts will pierce Apple’s Lockdown Mode.

Lockdown Mode being a feature (lest we forget) designed specifically for Apple’s very own operating system; running on, well, what can only be described as proprietary Apple hardware; and rustled up by actual Apple-pays-their-salary engineers

Stroll on

Soviet-era tech could change the geothermal industry

Re: How deep?

I know a bit about this stuff - ahem - I pioneered a lot of the data gathering that went on when North Sea wells started going horizontal

The limiting factor here in my view is the weight of the in-hole assembly, and therefore the strength, size, and, um, weight of the pipe (cable in some cases) - to say nothing of the horsepower needed to drag the bloody thing in and out the hole

It’s kinda like the rocket fuel/weight conundrum- without the luxury of jettisoning stages

Bill Gates says NFTs '100% based on greater fool theory' amid crypto cataclysm

Re: NFTs have no intrinsic value whatsoever, but have sold for multiple millions.

a digital title detailing ACTUAL ownership of the the ACTUAL Mona Lisa painting, … is massively valuable.

No, it really isn’t.

The painting is valuable, the digital title is little more than a receipt. If the title for the Mona Lisa ever goes missing, that doesn’t mean the Louvre no longer owns the artwork

UK government still trying to get Arm to IPO in London

Re: British companies listed on the IS Stock Exchange

Got that wrong, didn’t I?

The US exchange, obviously

British companies listed in on the IS Stock Exchange

AMEC Foster Wheeler

AON

Avon Products

AstraZeneca

(I ran out of enthusiasm before getting to ‘B’)

It’s all misplaced pride; once the company is listed the shares can be owned by people from almost 200 countries…

Google engineer suspended for violating confidentiality policies over 'sentient' AI

Mechanical Turk, or just a stream of 1s and 0s?

It looks impressive enough - reading the exchanges I even wondered if Lemoine was being bluffed by a mechanical Turk arrangement.

While I'm sure that isn't the case, and however good the interpretation and subsequent selection of phrases and words might be, it's surprising someone in his job would describe LaMDA as sentient

Engineer sues Amazon for not covering work-from-home internet, electricity bills

Re: Can of worms

In my country of work, I am covered for having sex with strangers on business trips

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49662134

A French company has been found liable for the death of an employee who had a cardiac arrest while having sex with a stranger on a business trip.A Paris court ruled that his death was an industrial accident and that the family was entitled to compensation.

IBM's self-sailing Mayflower suffers another fault in Atlantic crossing bid

Re: Electrical problems

weren't all those problems solved years ago?

Yes. And a major part of the solution consists of people with toolboxes, silicon grease, replacement pins, WD40, rubber sealing, tie-wraps - and a regular walkabout to squint at everything

UK opens up 'high-potential individual route' for tech worker immigration

It's all fizz, pop, and bang

I see no sense in limiting the candidate pool to a few select universities

Because it's all fizz, pop, and bang.

How many people graduating from those Top 50 universities are going to want to enter the UK?

It's like having a door policy that allows trainers - provided you wear Louis Vuitton

Lonestar plans to put datacenters in the Moon's lava tubes

I’ve been expecting you

It’s a Bond script,

SPECTRE (for it is they) pipe all the world’s critical data to the Moon, before Blofeld outlines to 007 his plan for triggering a catastrophic electromagnetic event, followed by a ransomware demand

Seriously, you do not want to make that cable your earth

Re: The illusionist on a train

I once used my Blackberry to take a call on the train and an older guy standing a couple of metres from me practically fell to the ground, groaning and holding his head.

His wife* looked daggers at me, then hissed at me that her husband suffered instand migraines when a mobile phone was active.

The call was over in seconds anyway, and as I slipped the phone back into my pocket, the guy miraculously recovered. As the smug owner of this early "always-connected" device I wanted to call him out, but realised that being the only person who had seen through the illusionist's trick was somehow more satisfying.

* I did feel sorry for her, obviously fiercely loyal and I wondered what other bullshit she had to put up with

Tech pros warn EU 'data adequacy' at risk if Brexit Britain goes its own way

Re: "The way forward"

...create a world-class data rights regime that will allow us to create a new pro-growth and trusted UK data protection framework that reduces burdens on businesses, boosts the economy, helps scientists to innovate and improves the lives of people in the UK...

Let me FTFY:

...create a world-class tail that will allow us to wag the dog, reduce burdens on pigs such that they drift aloft, boost magic bean production, help tailors to innovate the finest silks visible to all but fools, and improve the lives of hedge-fund owning Ministers

BOFH: You'll have to really trust me on this team-building exercise

Takes me back

It is the early 90s. The scene is a common work space, with the boss esconced in a goldfish bowl office

He seems to spend an inordinate time on the phone and, suspicions aroused, a colleague approaches the door while he is away at lunch.

<Jiggle> in the lock

The door opens. A quick scout around, followed by <jiggle> in the desk lock.

Cutting after cutting after cutting of black-and-white line drawings and photos accompanied by 0898 numbers promising exchanges on almost any subject.

Powder is kept dry until a few months later, when itemised billing by extension number is introduced...

Europe's GDPR coincides with dramatic drop in Android apps

Re: Great news

Whatever the benefits of GDPR’s privacy protection, it appears to have been accompanied by substantial costs to consumers

They've overlooked the fact that it's effectively a zero-sum game - either the consumers pay with their hard-earned cash, or they pay with their hard-to-keep privacy.

Arguably consumers pay more with the "free" model, losing time and mental processing as they steer round the ads

IBM deliberately misclassified mainframe sales to enrich execs, lawsuit claims

Back from the future

Why do investors persist in suing themselves

They're not. Yesterday's investors are suing today's investors - and are unlikely to be the same people.

So rather than routing money from themselves to themselves, they're rather hoping to route money from today's share price to yesterday's share price

Emma Sleep Company admits checkout cyber attack

Re: "sophisticated"

Easy for you to suggest they were asleep on the job, but these fixes take time to bed in

HP finance manager went on $5m personal spending spree with company card

Never embezzle more than your salary

That’s always been my rule

France says Google Analytics breaches GDPR when it sends data to US

Re: Good.

A contract most certainly does not have to be mutually-negotiated, nor are you entitled to negotiate during, not to renegotiate after.

I’ll confidently bet that you have entered into a number of one sided "take it or leave it" contracts - the “leave it” part is the choice you’re generally granted and perhaps feel peeved about missing in this case

What came first? The chicken, the egg, or the bodge to make everything work?

Bootstrap

[DTA] [2] [D] [0] [DTA] [ADD] [RUN]

(Bootstrap for a custom Perkin Elmer I used in the late eighties, and which has remained in my wet ROM ever since.)

Computers cost money. We only make them more expensive by trying to manage them ourselves

Re: Free to get locked in?

Even the Zuckerverse has in-house disasters

Then there's BA, NHS (WannaCry), TSB, HSBC...

Your own kit is still subject to software written by other people, chips manufactured by others (Meltdown, Spectre), and your own daft employees who will be writing Who Me? columns 20 years hence...

Think that spreadsheet in your company's accounts dept is old? 70 years ago, LEO ran the first business app

Re: Can someone explain

Some context, perhaps…

A few years ago I was at a family gathering and got chatting to an old guy and discovered we had both worked in the same building in the City of London.

As he explained his job to me I was aghast to realise that he and perhaps hundreds of colleagues were simply human calculators.

The big shots upstairs would request a calculation, which would then be sent down to be worked on, using what sounded like drafting boards from his description

Apple sues 'amoral 21st century mercenaries' NSO for infecting iPhones with Pegasus spyware

Re: Seriously?

This isn't victim blaming.

Hello AC,

Your writing style and fondness for commas makes me suspect you wrote the post by MrDamage

Either way, the victim-blaming* point still stands

* Your words

Re: Seriously?

Apple are the ones who bear responsibility

Seriously?

I understand you just want a pop at Apple, and I really hope that you don’t use the “if you got attacked it’s your fault” argument in other areas of life.