Posts by Doctor Syntax

Copilot's crudeness has left Microsoft chasing Google, again

AI in search is the exact opposite of what's needed. For years search Google and Bing (via DDG, of course) have been getting steadily worse at coughing up what commercial interests thing the user should have as opposed to what was asked for. Adding AI to the double-guessing isn't going to improve things for the user, just for the commercial interests.

UK Regulatory Innovation Office vows to slash red tape – but we've heard it all before

Reducing "red tape" all too often ends up as either Big Business 2 Public 0, Government 2 Public 0 or both. Enabling that is why we had Brexit and, of course, Labour have had form on this for a long time.

Linus Torvalds declares war on the passive voice

Single/plural in English isn't really that clear. There are aspects of informal vs formal, personal vs impersonal and definite vs indefinite involved.

E.g. the "royal we" - for very formal documents. "See who's at the door and find out what they want." was an example of the indefinite given here some time ago.

The oddest one of all: 2nd person singular is now archaic in English.

Re: Torvalds' aim may be true, but his understanding of language is a bit lacking

Also the most significant bit of the description - that it applies to the Xyzzy driver comes first in the version he doesn't like. A reader skimming a lot of pull requests would want that to come before the detail so as to know whether to continue reading or skip to the next article.

Switching customers from Linux to BSD because boring is good

Re: BSD - Dangerous and Unsafe !

A downvote? Must be from someone who didn't notice the Whoosh sound.

Nice one!

Re: I Solve Problems

And thank you, Stefano, for the interesting article on the 9-year server. I agree with your philosophy about clients who appreciate stability. Apart from anything else they do keep coming back because they'll want something more as business requirements change and you also get more clients from the best form of advertising - word of mouth.

Re: Ignoring a system is good?

"Perhaps I'm missing something here."

The fact that in this particular case it wasn't - gasp of astonishment - connected to the internet. So all the updates, and the little surprises such as something you were depending on has been deprecated, are irrelevant.

What's "naff" or "not good" about a reliable working desktop for everyday work?

One irony about how little you've thought about this is that, depending on what's in the ports and hardware support you could build equivalent desktops on either Linux or BSD. Why would one be "naff" and the other "a good operating system"?

Another is that if you need, for whatever reason, a platform to run a commercial RDBMS from the old days when the big commercial Unices ruled the roost you'll be able to use Linux because I don't know that there are BSD ports. In that situation which is the "good operating system" and which is "naff"?

Re: Differences

I take it "seats" doesn't include all the users of world-facing web servers.

Re: I'll agree

I think the "toy" thing is mostly thrown about by Windows* users who've never quite grasped that it's grown a bit since it was a student project. In fact, as a desktop or laptop OS based on something like Debian or, for preference, Devuan it's a reliable, rich daily driver. Given that much of the application S/W is also available for the BSDs I'd expect that a BSD system would do just as well.

In reality the Linux world divides into several areas. One is the reliable, slow moving, just what you'd want for server or daily driver. Another is the embedded, anything from Android to your router or allegedly smart TV. A third is the experimental, possibly bleeding edge pushing the OS envelope area. The latter I wouldn't want to use either as a server or a desktop for doing work. There's some overlap, of course - ChromeOS would be an example Also ideas that mature in the third category will make their way into the others but if you think the third category is what desktop Linux is all about you're missing the point.

* Now that's something I really regard as - maybe not a toy but something I wouldn't dream of using for serious work.

Incumbent congressman not turning up to debates? Train an AI on his press releases

"the traditional empty chair approach"

There's also the HIGNFY approach: a tub of lard.

You're right not to rush into running AMD, Intel's new manycore monster CPUs

"The chipmakers suggest that replacing your current servers with machines running their monster silicon will free as much as half your rack space"

The unspoken implication is that you're to free up half the rack space to make room for more servers.

Happy birthday, Putin – you've been pwned

Re: "Collective West"

Kids, don't try this at home.

"This issue will be raised at international venues, both in the United Nations and in UNESCO, which is literally obliged to pay attention to this … and this topic will also be raised at other international venues," she added.

The words "short shrift" come to mind.

Microsoft veteran ditches Team Tabs, blaming storage trauma of yesteryear

Tabs. Life's too short to peel grapes and count spaces.

Windows 11 migration? Upgrade engine revs up, enterprises have no choice

Re: Big if

And they'll go through the Microsoft replacement cycle every few years as opposed to going through the replace Microsoft cycle once.

Embattled users worn down by privacy options? Let them eat code

"avoiding them adds friction to interacting with friends"

Your friends, possibly. But your friends clearly aren't my friends.

"How often do you restart your browser?"

Frequently. For that reason.

After we fix that, how about we also accidentally break something important?

Re: Messed something up just before your triumphant exit

Add garage doors to plumbing as SEP.

Re: The Rules

House rule: plumbing if for someone else. Most other things, yes, plumbing means finding the plumber's phone number.

"the takeaway is that you must always have redundant data links for critical connections"

It probably was redundant. Where do you think that other link magically appeared from?

Unless it involves personal information its not a GDPR issue.

and then said to myself "Let me just....."

The real killer is finding you have to sort out some other mess before you can even start the job.

Re: hmm , am I a hoarder

I'm encouraging my daughter to have her own tool sets. It makes buying presents easier...

Re: hmm , am I a hoarder

"Some peoples houses are just too damn uncluttered."

I recommend "It'll come in useful" as a family motto.

Re: hmm , am I a hoarder

" the kitchen sink rarely fits into my bags"

So you're not Elon Musk.

'Critical' CUPS vulnerability chain easy to use for massive DDoS attacks

In the world of Debian and derivatives a batch of CUPS updates arrived at the end of last week so it's case closed.

Harvard duo hacks Meta Ray-Bans to dox strangers on sight in seconds

Re: Just wait...

I take it you're in the US so they'll want to perform credit checks.

That's not all needed in the UK but they would have NHS and/or NI number which lets them know what my entitlement to treatment is - no need for credit checks. They do seem to use DoB in the NHS as a check that they've got the right John Smith, e.g. doctor's check in includes month of birth.

You are correct about optometrist but traditional usage is optician, especially as it's the same practice, at least in my case. And in the event of a patient presenting with a detached retina the optometrist will refer then direct to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Re: Bet it is wrong at least half the time

He may, however, have been presented with a dossier of someone else of some notoriety. We have seen recently in the UK how a false attribution can cause mob violence. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

Re: Just wait...

"you should be questioning whether your doctor/dentist/optometrist needs all of the information they are asking for"

They may well have good reason. For instance for medical reasons SWMO has regular eye checks. For other medical reasons she has to have an antibiotic dose prior to dental treatment, a situation where knowledge of presence or absence of allergies is significant. Personally dental treatment a few weeks back seems to have cleared up what appeared to have been a long-standing medical condition. Also it's well established that dentists are quite likely to be the first to discover an oral cancer in a patient and opticians have also been able to discover various medical problems.

Re: We'll all look like sirens...

Time was when every other person would have been recognised as Che Guevara.

Re: "so that people can take their own privacy and data into their hands"

But not much of one.

Re: As a good American...

It's also established as prior art which should at least stop someone patenting it.

If you're excited by that $1.5B Michigan nuke plant revival, bear in mind it's definitely a fixer-upper

Re: Build New Ones

"I know it is hard to get approval to build them"

That difficulty, to a very large extent the consequence of the anti-nuclear activists, has determined the magnitude of our current climate change problem.

Tesla Cybertruck recalled again. This time, a software fix for backup camera glitch

Re: Robo Cyber Trucks

"Boldly going forward because we can't find reverse."

I think I may have mentioned before a colleague arriving late for a field trip with the mini-bus carrying the students. He'd overshot a turning and, never having driven a Ford before, couldn't find reverse and had to take a long detour to make his way back.

John Deere accused of being full of manure with its right-to-repair promises

My neighbour has been doing this all yesterday and today. No fancy electronics needed. He uses one of his decades-old David Brown tractors. It has to be decades-old because David Brown went out of business years ago, largely, it's thought, as a result of building tractors their customers couldn't wear out. One sees John Deere's point.

Re: I haven’t shopped John Deere for decades now

"Even so I'd expect whatever a cease and desist is called in Australia or Serbia or whereever."

DMCA is a US Act. Contrary to a widespread US view US legislation only applies in the US.

A working Turing Machine hits Lego Ideas

"I’m more a Meccano man myself."

There's always a new challenge out there.

Implementing the infinitely long tape in Lego should be good for sales.

159 Automattic staff take severance offer and walk out over WP Engine feud

Re: People have many conflicting loyalties in life.

"These are the legal merits I was referring to in my comment above, but my buzzy head at 1am couldn't pin down into words."

I think you pinned them down pretty well.

Mega supermarket spots stock discrepancy of tens of millions amid ERP system migration

Re: So-poor-markets

It's still a 1st world privilege problem to complain about a lack of choice of orgenic premium products when much of the world has damn-all choice of the basics.

Re: So-poor-markets

I find the iron a bit tough to chew.

Re: So-poor-markets

"I don't understand those people that dump everything because one item isn't there"

I have, on occasion, dumped everything due to poor service. I'm not going to get the time back if I stay; it's a sunk cost and I don't intend to waste more of it to the further detriment of my blood pressure.

Re: So-poor-markets

First world problem.

Office 2024 unveiled for Microsoft 365 refuseniks

Re: But the important parts are not fixed.....

Following the link it appears to be regarded as an enhancement and not meny people are asking for it. You need to get a few more users to request it.

Cloudflare beats patent troll so badly it basically gives up

And for that reason the USPTO should be responsible for both sides' legal costs. Both sides because, by granting a patent that they shouldn't they've encouraged the plaintiff to waste their money. The fact that the plaintiff might suspect it's an invalid patent is neither here nor there, the USPTO needs to be discouraged from charging for a worthless rubber stamp.

NASA switches off Voyager 2 plasma instrument to stretch out juice

That's old age for you. Not much fun when things start creaking but better than not getting old.

And no off-street parking either.

Average North American CISO pay now $565K, mainly thanks to one weird trick

Going into the office gets a pay rise of 6% as opposed to 5%, leaving or threatening to do so gets a rise of about 20%. No point in staying to argue the toss about going into the office.