* Posts by Sherrie Ludwig

570 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Nov 2013

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New hire fixed a problem so fast, their boss left to become a yoga instructor

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Quite a rare sight

My cursive is so bad (and I'm a lefty too!) that I switched back to block printing in HS (left side ponder here...) just to keep up with the teachers when taking notes.

Also a left-pond lefty. In high school I read that Leonardo da Vinci wrote right-to-left in reverse (mirror) script, so as a pastime I taught myself to do the same. After a week or so, I found it was rather quicker for note-taking. I could read even my scratchy handwriting easily without needing a mirror, but it stopped tiresome slackers from wanting to borrow my notes. Don't remember why I discontinued this, it was sort of fun.

'Hey! I'm chatting here!' Fugazi answers doom NYC's AI bot

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Ok for businesses to take employees' tips

Awww come on! They're like a modern version of Thomas Edison's 1890 talking doll and later Chatty Cathys that endlessly repeat 'I agree', 'you are so right', 'I love you' and so forth when you prompt-pull their strings ... no wonder they're such a hit!

Rather like the orange dotard's Cabinet meetings.

Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Harry Lime had it right

IIf the dot was (Ronald Mac)Donald Trump then no, I wouldn't feel anything at all.

USAian here. I'd feel quite a few emotions: giddy exhilaration, profound relief, intense schadenfreude, etc. etc. Oh, and gratitude for who or what did it in.

Meta retreats from metaverse after virtual reality check

Sherrie Ludwig
FAIL

I don't remember the exact quote but....

hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy "nasally fitted fire" is what AI seems to be.

Engineer used welding shop air hose to 'clean' PCs – hilarity did not ensue

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: BS

Way back in the 1960s when school science teachers were allowed to get creative we made "flour cannons" as a lab project. The biggest bang got the most points. Knocking a ship in the plaster wall was extra credit. IIRC, a very small amount (like a teaspoon) of flour shaken well in an enclosed space was quite impressive.

Techie 'forgot' to tell boss their cost-saving idea meant a day of gaming

Sherrie Ludwig

.my Landy was a former agriculture Landy (pre-worn by a farmer, which came with its own benefits like an upgraded engine with more torque and pulling power, if I bolted it to the ground and drove the opposite way to Earths spin, I'm pretty sure I could have slowed down Earth)

So, you had the Antichrist from The Gods Must Be Crazy. Sweet.

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Vibration & banging ?

Beautiful car, absolute death trap.

A friend had something similar, driving around Chicago was dodgy because the taller cars never saw you. I (5' 10", long legs) sat in the driver's seat once and told Dave I couldn't steal his car. because when the door was closed I could not get my left knee between the wheel and the door to operate the clutch . Dave was several inches shorter and like many guys, longer in the torso than leg.

Welcome to America - now show us your last five years of social media posts

Sherrie Ludwig

Born USAian...

I hate this, I never voted for this orange criminal nor his party, and I am stuck inside a crumbling country, which even in a "blue" state feels like Beirut in the calm just before everything went to hell. Spare a thought for those of us who can't get out due to age and familial responsibilities (I am legal guardian for an even more elderly relative with dementia).

Waymo chalks up another four-legged casualty on San Francisco streets

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Animals can't handle cars.

In the rural Midwestern USA, wild turkeys are quite a threat. A big tom stopped my friend's one-ton pickup (she hauls horse trailers) when his skull went through the radiator. I was coming home after working second shift when I had a deer run into the drivers' side of my truck. That was a cracked windscreen, the wing mirror torn clean off and a bent rear bumper. I stopped, adjusted to the new adrenaline level, and then went back to look for the deer, it had run off. Tough critters.

Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control

Sherrie Ludwig
Pint

Re: Program / Programme

"Autocorrupt" is genius. May I offer you a beverage?

New boss took charge of project code and sent two billion unwanted emails

Sherrie Ludwig

How did they cope with it going the other way ????

Wow! We doubled our sales in an hour! BONUS TIME!! Yes, some mothers do have 'em.

If you can't use AI then it's bye bye, Accenture tells staff

Sherrie Ludwig

Did Accenture just cut itself out of the deal?

If all anyone needs to do is consult AI, open to all, then why pay Accenture for people to do just that?

Hardware inspector fired for spotting an error he wasn't trained to find

Sherrie Ludwig

Our local livestock market has an exhibition space, and any number of overhead sockets.

I attend a flea market held in that kind of building. Keeping the electrical outlets out of the combustible material like straw, and away from liquids which might cause a short, as well as being out of the reach of curious or bored animals are all reasons to do this. It also means that reconfiguring the interior for all its uses but keeping power available to those who need it (and paid extra for it, on occaision) is simple.

US cuffs 475 at Hyundai–LG battery plant – feds tout largest single-site raid

Sherrie Ludwig
Mushroom

LG and Hyundai have a play...

LG and Hyundai should find a night, ensure there are no people on the premises, and DETONATE the facility, razing it to the ground. Then exit the US market effective immediately, to show who "holds the cards:".

OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: At OpenAI, we can't eliminate that disruption.

It's the "self-checkout" and "right-sizing" of the Internet. Notice that WalMart and others are ripping out the "self-theft checkouts", and finding that policing those are eating up more employee hours than just having cashiers? Which is interfering with the "right-sizing" (firing to increase C suite bonuses).

Bank reverses decision to replace 45 customer service staff with AI chatbot

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: It’s unclear if the AI failed to perform as hoped, or...

Since I am at "dotty old lady" age, when I get the stupid "tell us in a few words what you want ", I launch into the most verbose description of my query I can. Usually, that's faster than saying "agent" or representative" repeatedly for, "a customer service person will be with you shortly".

Politically hot parts of US Constitution briefly deleted thanks to 'coding error'

Sherrie Ludwig

This was a test to see if anyone noticed.

Trump teases ‘approximately’ 100 percent tariff for imported semiconductors

Sherrie Ludwig

Also, as soon as I read "Exemptions available for chipmakers who promise to build American fabs" my first thought was "Foxconn Wisconsin plant scam mark 2".

Damn, you beat me to it. My thoughts exactly.

'It looks sexy but it's wrong' – the problem with AI in biology and medicine

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: It's worse when AI Slop pretends to have medical knowledge

The legal knowledge ones have already been well roasted by several judges when they hallucinate citations.

Sanctions with a side of possible disbarment:

Mata v. Avianca:

. A 2023 US case where lawyers submitted a brief containing fake case citations generated by ChatGPT, according to The Conversation.

Michael Cohen Case:

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In 2023, Michael Cohen's attorney submitted a motion with fabricated case citations generated by AI, according to NPR.

Anthropic Case:

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In a 2023 copyright lawsuit against AI developer Anthropic, a data scientist cited a made-up academic report, which was later traced back to an AI hallucination, says Epstein Becker Green.

Georgia Divorce Case:

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A Georgia appellate court overturned a divorce judgment after discovering that the trial court's order relied on fictitious case law from a brief prepared by one party's attorney, according to Farella Braun + Martel LLP.

Mike Lindell Case:

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In a 2025 case, a judge fined attorneys representing Mike Lindell for submitting a filing riddled with AI-generated mistakes, including fabricated cases, reports NPR.

UK High Court Case:

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The UK High Court has warned lawyers to stop misusing AI after fake case law citations were identified, reported The Guardian.

Congress tries to outlaw AI that jacks up prices based on what it knows about you

Sherrie Ludwig

So, public library?

Sounds like you go to the public library (in the poorest town near you, if you have a choice) to use their computer to research airline prices. Use a debit card with a smallish amount of money and no overdraft protection (to avoid getting spurious charges on it in case of keystroke logging and such) on it to book your flight. Would that stymie the pricing model?

Fujitsu sorry for Post Office horror – but still cashing big UK govt checks

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Whoa! Get some perspective here....

"Fujitsu didn't kill anybody"

No, at least 13 people died by suicide due to their incompetence. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/world/europe/uk-post-office-scandal-report.html

Yes, I wrote a very expensive bug. In my defense I was only seven years old at the time

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Remarkable !

Why this remarkable person isn't the President"

Because they are not fucking stupid, nor a congenital liar, which are currently prerequisites for the job.

Also, an admitted female. In the USA, a complete disqualification.

Don't shoot me, I'm only the system administrator!

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Land of the Free - to be shot

Anyway, it hadn't been my intention to nitpick this or to get into an argument over it it- it was just an observation (and mild irritation) that everything defaults to the US, taking it for granted that we "know"- or assume- that it's only place that might have gun, IT and/or police problems

Fair point. However, I may be safe in saying no other country in the world has "exported" its culture, such as that is, via mass media so pervasively. Movies and television worldwide for nearly a century have been USA dominated, so at least a superficial familiarity is to be expected.

I'm a born USA-ian with the curiosity to ask persons visiting my homeland, "you've probably had the USA presented to you in mass media for most of a lifetime,

. Since you have been here, what surprised you the most, good or bad, about this country?" Interesting responses, all.

Techie traveled 4 hours to fix software that worked perfectly until a new hire used it

Sherrie Ludwig

Indeed. My brother, then probably 2yo, showed our mother how to open a Children's Aspirin bottle -- with your teeth.

One enterprising child I saw took the "push down and turn" childproof cap to a carpeted floor, put the bottle cap side down on the rug and leaned on the bottle while turning......

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: I touch it and it breaks!

I have kids for that.

10..12 year olds can read and are inquisitive enough to find all the things you never even thought about in software.

5..6 year olds are mobile destructive forces you can use for hardware testing. If your kit survives that it's above milspec.

The only problem is they keep aging out of the range for optimum testing, and you have to keep producing them to ensure you have some ready at the right age to continue, at least until the eldest contingent starts producing a second generation of testers....

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: I touch it and it breaks!

me: "Grey text on a grey background is not easy to read in a well lit area " ....

All testing should include it being used by someone ancient, like me, who no longer has 20 year old eyes.

Oh, THIS! I was a poll worker at US elections when the new online voter registries were rolled out (some years ago). The average age of the poll workers was probably about eighty, and the screens to enter name and check registration were: HUGE LOTS OF WHITE SPACE WITH (tiny little letters in the center) - I don't know how to change font in a message, you get the idea.

I called for a support techie - he might have been old enough to drive - and told him to watch the old dears try to read the screen. One kept lurching out of her chair to squint at the screen four inches from her face, another kept picking up the laptop each time to do the same. A third had a Sherlock Holmes sized magnifying glass. I said, is there some reason the text has to be minuscule, and is there any way to fix it now?

Well, it was fixed, but not before the next election. That was a LOOOOONG Election Day.....

SpaceX's Starship explodes again ... while still on the ground

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: “Starships might land on Mars in 2026”

I think there are a few others that many would add to that list.

"I have a little list " song from Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado. Is playing in my head...

Field support chap got married – which took down a mainframe

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Bah!

I wonder if I can get the Ring of Finger Un-amputation reshaped and re-sized?

Silversmith here: It's an easy fix, if the ring is just sterling silver without any stones mounted. Just heat the ring to annealing temp (cherry red). I let it cool down naturally (in case it's Argentium silver, which can go brittle if quenched) then take a rawhide mallet and a steel ring mandrel and shape/stretch to size. Ask around, it shouldn't be a long or expensive job.

Musk and Trump take slap fight public as bromance ends

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: No room for two

We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate.

And we all know women are "too emotional" to be president......anybody scrubbed the ketchup stains off the WH dining room wall? I'm getting quite grumpy in my crone years.

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Natural born?

When John McCain ran for president against Barack Obama, there was some question as to whether he was eligible due to having been born outside the borders of the USA:

From Wikipedia:

John Sidney McCain III was an American statesman and naval officer who represented the state of Arizona in Congress for over 35 years, first as a Representative from 1983 to 1987, and then as a U.S. senator from 1987 until his death in 2018. He was the Republican Party's nominee in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Wikipedia

Born: August 29, 1936, Coco Solo, Panama

He was born to US citizens, and was granted citizenship at eleven months of age.

Incidentally, that was the last U.S. presidential election in which I thought, "no matter who wins, we'll be OK."

Tesla FSD ignores school bus lights and hits 'child' dummy in staged demo

Sherrie Ludwig

As above, my car also picks up speed limits from road signs, but also from the built-in satnav. It does not affect the cruise control settings. And while it usually picks up painted temporary speed limit signs, it's (so far) never picked up a limit from a sign on the back of a lorry or, and a bit concerning, from the LED matrix signs either above the lanes or the old style ones in the central reservation.

If my navigation software is similar to self-driving systems, I do not want any self driving cars anywhere near me. I have experienced being told the speed limit is 35mph on a country road where the (unposted) limit is 55. I have also been told on one stretch of country road near me that the limit is 65, illegal for any road in the state except certain freeways. And the camera-based systems would be utterly useless here where the fog line (the stripe painted to delineate the edge of the pavement) is worn through.

Some signs of AI model collapse begin to reveal themselves

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Hallucinations

And why she used the term "pregnant people": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Beatie

Sherrie Ludwig
Pint

Re: Pollutes everything else, and in the end it pollutes itself...

Mr. Hicklin, I think you just won best description of the year.

Linus Torvalds goes back to a mechanical keyboard after making too many typos

Sherrie Ludwig

Are we sure it's him?

No profanity in this message, so either he's mellowing or it isn't him.

People find amazing ways to break computers. Cats are even more creative

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: We had an issue with a rabbit

School opened two hours later in a town near me just today. A racoon chewed the main power line that served the school and some houses. The news radio report did not mention how crispy the critter was.

Windows profanity filter finally gets a ******* off switch

Sherrie Ludwig

Paging Dr. Doctor

That's not her actual name, is it? Too apt.

Back online after 'catastrophic' attack, 4chan says it's too broke for good IT

Sherrie Ludwig

It's still a thing?

I thought 4chan had gone the way of MySpace. Is MySpace still online? Is 4chan?

America's cyber defenses are being dismantled from the inside

Sherrie Ludwig

I got here late

Reading the 50+ comments, I notice no downvotes from the usual cadre. Are they waking up?

Trump blinks: 'Substantially' lower China tariffs promised

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Dementia

did they see Bidens situation when the politicians and the media were lying to cover for him?

Two problems with your whataboutism: 1. It isn't true. A stutter does not mean cognitive decline, thanks for giving us the opportunity to say that AGAIN. and 2. There were a Cabinet of actual experts, not inexperienced buddies and sycophants from media who advised the president, and he took their opinions into consideration.

Your pronounced admiration for authoritarian leadership begs the question of your ability to spout anything but bollocks.

Krebs throws himself on the grenade, resigns from SentinelOne after Trump revokes clearances

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: Trump doing what he's always done

@Thought About IT,

Thank you for the enlightening article. I am a never-T****er who has a Pritzker (J.B.) as my state's governor. I was suspicious of J.B., and preferred another candidate the first time he ran, but have been very pleasantly surprised by his governance, especially in financially improving a state (wrecked by both parties, to be fair) that was junk bond status. If J.B. harbors presidential ambitions I would be sorry to lose him as governor but think he would do well as a president.

Static electricity can be shockingly funny, but the joke's over when a rack goes dark

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: office chairs from hell

Re: office chairs from hell

Obligatory Family Guy

Thank you for reminding me why I don't watch television.

Trump's tariff turmoil leaves IT projects in deep freeze

Sherrie Ludwig

Americans voted to preserve the jobs and for national security.

Other countries don't have any right to preach.

Look, I'll grant that my fellow USAians are dumber than a box of rocks. I knew of the DonOLD in the eighties, and he was a NYC joke then, too.

The Apprentice show took the turd, polished it and the moronic tv-addicted masses thought it was a diamond. But whatever they claim, national security and jobs were way down on the list. The real reason I have heard (I live in a red area in a blue state) is the hatred of new immigrants, who they seem to believe are ALL undocumented, even if they have refugee or other legal status, and the irrational belief that T**** can wave a wand and the 1950s will magically appear, when every woman was June Cleaver and vacuumed (hoovered) wearing heels and pearls, and men looked like the Marlboro Man. That factory jobs will be plentiful and well-paid (without pesky unions, of course!). That Latinos will all go away south except when they come back to mow lawns and pick vegetables, blacks will go back to shining shoes and not be president, women will be barefoot and repeatedly pregnant, and gays, unless they can play piano like Liberace and Elton, will go back in the closet.

The MAGAts near me are still trying to pretend they are "winning", and are genuinely astonished that liberals are not crying, except with laughter at their rage. If they were actual winners, why aren't they happier?

Did Brexit "winners" look and sound this sour when they "won"?

AI entrepreneur sent avatar to argue in court – and the judge shut it down fast

Sherrie Ludwig

What other way to be featured in The Register (which sometimes gets picked-up by other news operations) with just a day+ of private labor? Easily ten thousand bucks of exposure.

Yep, and you can die from exposure. The only thing I know about the cybertruck is that the window is not sledge hammer proof, courtesy of a failed demo.

EU lands 25% counter tariff punch on US, Trump pauses broad import levy hike – China excepted

Sherrie Ludwig

Tantrump

the toddler got hold of the volume knob on the amplifier, and is gleeful that he's creating so much havoc for the grownups.

Signalgate: Pentagon watchdog probes Defense Sec Hegseth

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: And in Breaking News

@Blazde, thank you for drawing attention to this. I don't like this guy, but his actions deserve the award, and I'm glad he is getting it.

In other news, as a fairly news-conscious USAian, your comment in The Reg was the first I'd heard of it. Had to go searching AP's website specifically to verify (no knock on you personally, but I have grown skeptical of information in the current USA).

Tech trainer taught a course on software he'd never used and didn't own

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: been on many courses where the trainer has no answers

In my experience laminitis is a problem of horses. Strange teacher you had!

Well, he was a horse's ass, so I guess he had hooves.....

2 in 5 techies quit over inflexible workplace policies

Sherrie Ludwig

Re: No desks

(these places with 'return to office' mandate without enough space for everyone they demand to come in.)"

Every day that RTW is universally enforced the staff should make sure that they have a grand party (Excuse me, "conference on workflow"). No work gets done, all processes stop.

"Sorry, when I can find a place to work, I'll start. Every desk is full, all the chairs are taken, and there isn't even an open plug to charge my laptop. Oh, and wireless speed here, when I did find a spot to work two days ago. was less than half that at my house, so I didn't get much done....." Rinse, repeat until lesson is learned.

SpaceX Dragon pod arrives at ISS to finally pick up stranded Boeing astronaut pair

Sherrie Ludwig

this runs through my head every time I read about this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXuMjpZ-He0

"a three hour tour, a three hour tour..."

Also, I hope nobody finds, say, the windscreen or door being "liberated" from their vehicle in motion....what a weird way to describe "falling off".

Judge orders Feds rehire workers falsely fired for lousy performance

Sherrie Ludwig

I wonder to what extent those coming up for re-election might be starting to wonder what state the economy will be in by then and starting to think that blind support might not make them re-electable.

There are YouTube videos of "town hall" meetings in Republican House of Representatives members' districts. After the questions and booing get contentious, the Representative usually beats a hasty retreat. We're calling it Bidenfreude here, and the source of the constituent's ire the Trumpflation, and impending Trumpcession. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bwU09564Y4

Sherrie Ludwig

Not in the US, just been curious as to what the heck is happening over there.

Born and raised USAian. I'm wondering the same thing. Never seen such dysfunction and corruption in government, and I lived in Chicago. Rational people are saying WTF all day, every day. The only consolation is that I'm old, and not likely to see what happened to my rather nice country in a few years.

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