Posts by Fonant

Help desk boss fell for ‘Internet Cleaning Day’ prank - then swore he got the joke

Vague memory: 1986, working with a network (I think coaxial ethernet) of HP workstations running X windows. Where windows would gain focus just by moving the cursor over them. Used to write little scripts to send X commands to the next-door terminal to move a colleague's mouse cursor down by a pixel a second, and see how long it took them to notice.

Amazon complains that Perplexity's agentic shopping bot is a terrible customer

Re: Random money maker for idiots !!!

Or, perhaps even shop at a specialist store (online or IRL) and actually ask a human for advice if you need it.

I will use Amazon as a search engine for "what products are usually available" and "what are they called?", and then will always buy from a different shop. Amazon's near-monopoly does not need to be encouraged. I'm old enough to remember when they only sold books!

Tesla board wants to grant Musk $1T in stock, Norway wealth fund says nope

There can be no practical reason why Elon Musk (or anyone else, for that matter) NEEDS this amount of money for living and pleasure.

We have a growing problem in the world: the vast majority of monetary wealth is held by just a few ultra-rich people. This causes two major problems:

1) These people have more financial power than whole countries. So they can easily undermine democracy. Then they can change laws so that they can become even richer. This positive feedback loop is very difficult to break.

2) The money the ultra-rich are hoarding is not available to keep countries' economies working. Whole populations are starved of cash that could otherwise be used to pay for public services, and support for those in need. This is why countries are imposing tax rises on populations who have seen living standards fall.

AI's trillion dollar deal wheel bubbling around Nvidia, OpenAI

Hybrid Warfare?

I expect Putin is quietly smirking as Russia's only serious enemy destroys itself from within. Helped enormously by Trump and his love of orange and gold.

The return on that money is going to be fantastic.

Quite literally. As in, "only exists in fantasy".

The sooner this bubble bursts, the better.

O2 cranks prices mid-contract, essentially telling customers to like it or lump it

Cancel and keep the phone?

Perhaps the rules should be that if the contract price increases, the customer should be able to cancel the contract without exit fees, and without needing to finish paying for any phone that was included in the deal.

That would focus the minds of the mobile companies suddenly hiking bills beyond reason.

Smile! Uncle Sam wants to scan your face on the way in – and out

Re: Face for Radio

The issue is the false positives (and false negatives).

AI browsers face a security flaw as inevitable as death and taxes

Vivaldi FTW

I use Vivaldi.

A browser written by people who know what they're doing (the ones who originally wrote Opera), and who value privacy.

It doesn't have any LLM bullshit in it, but is heavily customisable to make it efficient for anyone's needs :)

Digital ID is now less about illegal working, more about rummaging through drawers

Re: All we need now...

Zack Polanski is pretty impressive. The Green Party are progressive, tolerant, and socialist. Their membership is booming, so there is hope.

BBC probe finds AI chatbots mangle nearly half of news summaries

"When people don't know what to trust, they end up trusting nothing at all, and that can deter democratic participation."

Which is EXACTLY WHY the ultra-rich are sooooo keen on forcing us all to use AI for everything. "AI" is not only bullshit, it's DELIBERATELY bullshit.

Clippy rises from the dead in major update to Copilot and its voice interface

Re: "the AI making so many decisions"

I suspect it isn't the "AI" making the decisions, but the websites and services simply applying defaults.

Otherwise, it's all just highly plausible bullshit. I wouldn't trust it to plan an expensive holiday!

China's CR450 bullet train clocks 453 km/h in pre-service tests

Serious acceleration!

"China's maglev train recently reached a speed in testing of 650 km/h in seven seconds"

That's 2.6 G - make sure all passengers are sitting down and facing the direction of travel before attempting this!

"China's maglev train recently reached a speed in testing of 650 km/h in seven seconds"

That's 2.6 G!

Make sure all passengers are seated and facing the direction of travel before attempting this.

Serious acceleration!

650 km/h in seven seconds

That's 2.6 G - make sure all the passengers are sitting down and facing the direction of travel before attempting this!

A simple AI prompt saved a developer from this job interview scam

Re: "the faker posed as the chief blockchain officer"

Thank you for introducing me to Jenny and F.O.C.U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O0G00pdoYk

Boris Johnson confesses: He's fallen for ChatGPT

In Other News

Bullshit Merchant loves Bullshit Generating Machine!

Britain's AI gold rush hits a wall – not enough electricity

A benefit of AI, at last!

While the bullshit-generation is exciting and impressive, it's of very limited use. But the hype has forced politicians to think seriously about how the UK needs to power itself in the next few decades: a Very Good Thing because otherwise these long-term issues are mostly ignored by 5-years-max Parliaments.

Hopefully it'll go:

1. AI hype.

2. Build power capacity for AI.

3. AI bubble bursts.

4. Lots of cheap power available for other things!

X to combat bot problem by showing more info about users

In an effort to help human readers figure out whether they can trust the source of information (or opinion) posted on X

Talk about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Is Musk going to ban LLM-generated slop, too?

Q: "Can I trust information posted on X?"

A: "No, of course not!"

Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for pretending UK's Online Safety Act doesn't exist

Yeah, I'm quite surprised that Ofcom is still making a noise about this. Surely they realise they haven't a hope of extracting any money from 4chan? Would be much better for Ofcom to quietly let this "investigation" get forgotten, and focus on investigations where they do have some legal power.

Former UK prime minister Sunak becomes human Clippy for Microsoft, Anthropic

Major was terrible at media appearances, but actually generated some good policies. That was back in the day when politics was still steered by logic and evidence. Brown also had some good ideas.

The waste-of-space Johnson killed off the use of logic, truth, and consistency, and so killed off the Tory party too. There were still sensible Tories around, but Johnson made sure they all left or got kicked out.

Labour seem to think that it's a Good Idea to pander to noisy idiots, tabloid newspapers, and the ultra-rich. So they've forgotten when they're for. They needed to pump big investments into public services, ASAP, but they're apparently happy to let services crash and burn. Schools, hospitals, GPs, prisons, the legal system, transport, water, power, all struggling to survive. We once were a civilised nation.

I'm sure Farage and his xenophobic fascists will sort it all out! /s

I'm hoping that Zack and the Greens can pull off an election win. He's certainly not afraid of Farage and the right.

US PC shipments hit the buffers as Trump’s tariffs take their toll

Re: "fueled by Windows 11 transition and the need to replace an ageing installed base"

Anecdotally, quite a large number of people are already thinking of switching to Linux. Well, certainly more than zero: I have regular requests now for assistance and advice with going Windows 10 to Linux.

My initial advice is to make a bootable USB stick with Linux Mint, and try it out before installing it. The next steps are more tricky, though. Installing involves dual boot, or careful work with disks and partitions, and that gets fiddly to explain. People tend not to have backups of their documents.

So this could be a Good Thing, as people start to take Linux seriously, and discover that it's at least as workable as Microsoft Windows. Even a shift of 10% of home PCs to Linux would provide some much-needed competition in the market.

Hacked Ford screens put anti-RTO slogan above CEO’s face

Re: When you work for the man, you work for the man

This is why advertising is SO important to Capitalism. Without the indoctrination that we all have to keep buying shiny things, we could all relax a bit, work a bit, and enjoy life.

Stop watching and reading adverts, cut right down on the "news", and life becomes much nicer.

UK government says digital ID won't be compulsory – honest

Government's "One Login" isn't one login

I'm a director of two small limited companies. Companies House now require directors to register with a Government One Login account to be linked to their directorship record. Which is done by email address.

The problem is that a Government One Login account can't have more than one email address. So I have had to register TWO "One Login" accounts, validating my identity using exactly the same passport details, so that I could connect them to the two email addresses I use for the two companies I'm a director of.

I wonder whether, should this "Digital ID" system come into effect, I could end up with TWO official IDs?

JetBrains wants to train AI models on your code snippets

JetBrains think that people will PAY MONEY to have an LLM come up with some code that looks plausible, but is based on statistical analysis of an invisible mass of code from unknown third parties?

Please can the "AI" bubble burst sooner rather than later?

Jaguar Land Rover gets £1.5B government jump-start after cyber breakdown

Re: I expect to see a commensurate growth in JLR's profits

Perhaps "once world-leading automotive sector" would be fair?

We do still have Aston Martin, Morgan, Ariel, Briggs, Caterham, McClaren, Ginetta, Noble and Wrightbus with headquarters in the UK.

JLR messed up, yet are being rewarded?

Surely the loans and support should be given to the JLR suppliers, who are suffering through no fault of their own, and not the JLR who (a) messed up and (b) are not about to go bankrupt?

How will JLR use this money? Will they pay their suppliers to supply nothing? Will they order Just-in-Time parts in advance, when they have nowhere to store them?

UK to roll out mandatory digital ID for right to work by 2029

And a number. Eeeek.

"It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country

No it won't - there will still be a thriving supply of "off the record, cash-in-hand" jobs available.

In fact it may well INCREASE the black market for jobs if "on the record" jobs become harder to get.

Brits warned as illegal robo-callers with offshored call centers fined half a million

Ongoing. Bastards.

Had several calls yesterday from a "free loft insulation" company, with oddly Indian-sounding accents and mannerisms. Since they used my fake identity (Fred Smith) and address (a multi-million house in Sandbanks, Poole) I went along with them.

Then a few hours later, a call from an English person from a mobile number, arranging the visit. He insisted that BOTH I and my wife ("joint owners of the house") HAD to be present when the inspector came for the survey. I queried this quite hard, his only explanation was "in case she has any questions". He got my number "from the database" apparently (so not an Indian scam call centre?).

Clearly they wanted to "inspect" and say that essential changes to the insulation needed to be made: then, with both home owners present, they could get signatures to make the work appear completely consensual and legal. It wouldn't surprise me if the "repairs" included lots of spray foam, this instantly ruining the roof and devaluing the property.

I hope they enjoy trying to visit "my" mansion in Dorset!

EU starting registration of fingerprints and faces for short-stay foreigners

Re: Not enough

Holiday Maker != Asylum Seeker

There are different rules if you're fleeing for your life. Thankfully.

Politicos: 'There is a good strong case for government intervention' on JLR cyberattack

There's a difference between:

Government propping up a private profit-making company because they made a Really Bad Decision, just so that employees don't get laid off: this could well lead to other private companies expecting to be bailed out too, if they're "too big to fail".

Government supporting people laid off from a private profit-making company that made a Really Bad Decision. This is a normal, everyday thing: society's safety net for when capitalism goes wrong.

Government nationalising said profit-making company, and investing in it to retain the company's services and employment. Unlikely for the case of JLR, but quite likely for things like those water companies that have (deliberately) got themselves into serious financial trouble.

Re: Well well well

privatise the profits, socialise the costs

This is the only way that Capitalism survives when Big Business is involved.

We can rest assured that the board-level people will be absolutely fine, and will retain their massive salaries and bonuses. Only the people who actually do useful work will suffer.

If the government pay out for this cock-up, it sends a lovely warm message to Big Business that "it's OK to cock up, the state will look after your workers". And the Tories were worried about the Unions having too much power over government...

UK agency makes arrest in airport cyberattack investigation

Re: What I would like to know ...

Probably for the money and the lolz. Could get some nice infamy if he's publicly named.

Perhaps more interesting is HOW he did it. So airports can plug the security holes to stop this happening again.

Campaigners urge UK PM Starmer to dump digital ID wheeze before it's announced

Re: Paying

No-one said there was anything wrong with France :)

Re: Paying

You're thinking of EU agreements - we left the EU with Brexit. Hence the appearance of small boats crossing the Channel so dangerously.

See: https://www.unhcr.org/uk/about-unhcr/overview/1951-refugee-convention. Particularly the FAQs.

Re: Paying

1. We don't pay people to come here. Providing housing for asylum seekers (75+% of whom are successful in their claims) is expensive, even when using disused hotels. They are explicitly NOT allowed to work to pay their own way, which is daft (some do, apparently, work in the black market to make some income for themselves).

2. It's irrelevant which countries asylum seekers have come through, they are free to claim asylum in any country of their choosing. Given that some (a small percentage) decide that it's worth risking their lives to cross the Channel in dinghies to get here. Most likely due to family ties, languages spoken, and a country with a decent rule of law.

If Russia invades the UK, and makes life here hell, would you prefer to claim asylum in France or somewhere English-speaking? Would you cross the Channel in an inflatable boat for an "easy life"?

Boffins fool a self-driving car by putting mirrors on traffic cones

Re: Mirror, mirror ...

The speed limit posted is the MAXIMUM speed allowed on that road, not the MINIMUM or TARGET speed.

The journey time difference in driving at 30mph and 20mph in city streets is usually entirely eliminated by things like junctions and traffic lights. Relax, slow down a little, and be a bit safer and a lot less danger in the world. Modern life isn't required to be stressful.

20mph is a human-scale speed. It matches the sort of speeds we've evolved to cope with, physically and mentally.

Charities warn Ofcom too soft on Online Safety Act violators

OSA is impossible to enforce

The OSA is all-encompassing, vague, and impossible to enforce. But it appears to "do something" about "bad things", so the law must be "good".

The sooner government, and the population, realise that regulating international internet services is impossible (until we get rid of country borders and have a single global legal system for everyone) the better.

The Bad People are not going to stop what they're doing just because Ofcom asked them nicely, or started an investigation into them.

Allowing "dodgy websites" to avoid the OSA by geoblocking "UK" IP addresses is a classic symptom of the problem. Ofcom cannot enforce the OSA in foreign countries, so to avoid losing face ("Oh, look, none of those popular global websites have implemented Highly Effective Age Assurance[*], the OSA is pointless") they allowed geoblocking as a quick-and-easy solution for foreign websites who could be bothered to do something, but didn't want to apply HEAA to all their visitors. So we end up with a flimsy "UK firewall" that is implemented by only a handful of foreign websites, is full of holes, and easy to avoid with a VPN or TOR browser.

There are certainly problems that need to be solved, but the OSA cannot be a solution to any of them.

[*] A whole new can-of-worms, with real privacy dangers.

Google stuffs Chrome full of AI features whether you like it or not

Re: Just one question for corporate environments:

"AI" summaries are not "accurate", they're "plausible".

Vivaldi FTW

OpenAI says models are programmed to make stuff up instead of admitting ignorance

Re: Oh yes

Some LLMs attack websites as if they were a DDoS attacker, probably just checking the internet for new information.

They get blocked at the firewall on my servers.

Vibe coding platform Replit's latest update is infuriating customers with surprise cost overruns

It's all just bullshit

"AI" is just a fancy bullshit generator. Excellent if you need lots of bullshit, awful otherwise.

When will the "AI" bubble burst? Feels like it's not long now...

Google unmasks itself as mystery hyperscaler behind yet another UK datacenter

Re: Might be cynical but....

They could perhaps buy a whole load of Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates.

Bubble

What happens when the "AI" bubble bursts?

Presumably Google has made sure it can exit without penalty, and Great Britain (is Northern Ireland deliberately being left out?) will pick up the pieces.

FOR SALE: one brand-new empty barn near some motorways with complicated power supply arrangements and high security. Note: uses US-style power sockets throughout.

Trump backpedals as Hyundai factory ICE raid enrages South Korea

Re: Typo?!?

Ah, that's where it has gone. Used to be at the bottom of the article page.

Huntress's 'hilarious' attacker surveillance splits infosec community

Re: Can an AI company claim the moral high ground?

No.

Everyone needs an AI phone. No, don't hang up, it's true

So "Smartphones" will become "Bullshitphones"? Capable of generating plausible-but-sometimes-completely-wrong stuff for humans to enjoy.

UK toughens Online Safety Act with ban on self-harm content

Saw a neat thing on a website (may have been made up, but the idea seems to work):

Message:

"Sorry, this website is not legally viewable by people in the UK, due to the OSA. Your IP address suggests that you might be in the UK, but are you?"

Buttons:

"I am not in the UK" (green)

"I am in the UK" (red)

Clicking the green button lets you into the website. Clicking the red button takes you somewhere else...

Re: Sticking Plaster

Should be "proscribed under UK law". You can't get Palestine Action for the £9.90.

Pre-owned software trial kicks off in UK as Microsoft pushes resale ban

Your worst enemy?