Posts by Doctor Syntax

Microsoft tests 45% M365 price hikes in Asia-Pacific to see how much you enjoy AI

"your options are extremely limited if you want to actually recover deleted or changed files"

I use NextCloud. I wouldn't say the UI is a model of clarity but as it saves multiple versions it's possible to cope with the occasions when yesterday's - or an hour ago's - version of the file suddenly seems like the best idea.

Another useful aspect is sharing. I use it to share calendars between phone & laoptop and files between my laptop and my wife's.

However it sits on a Pi upstairs so I'm not beholden to any third party although I also have been testing another hosted by Mythic Beasts to allow sharing with 3rd parties.

"If I didn't have over twenty-five (maybe thirty?) years' worth of email, calendar & contacts history in my Outlook .PST files"

Searches for import PST to Thunderbird. Nope, nothing.

Re: Vendor lock-in

"in a vice" was the expression I had in mind. It can squeeze harder.

UK prepared to throw planning rules out the window for massive datacenters

Re: Life is peaceful there

"I don't know how strong the connectivity is"

But the delays, the delays - remember it's a nanosecond a foot. They have to be near all those trading screens in the city. If they're going to to the job right they really should be inside the M25, even inside the N Circular. How about planting a couple in Downing Street. It's time there was a bit of logic there.

Azure networking snafu enters day 2, some services still limping

And trusting them with your entire business.

FTFY

It's the sort of things they think their big bucks will avoid. Reality is a bitch.

Is it really the plan to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal? It's been a weird week

Re: I’m just a little confused which way politically the author leans

Straight reportage is sooo confusing.

Re: Insane troll logic budget

"This time around Trump will cause inflation far faster so will not be able to leave the bill for the next president."

I've no doubt the bill will be left for the next president - or, more accurately, the US population at the time of the next president - but there should be little doubt who ran it up.

Re: Trolling or attention-seeking

Between trump & Putin this fits only needs the characters replacing to fit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Caricature_gillray_plumpudding.jpg/1024px-Caricature_gillray_plumpudding.jpg

Chinese cyber-spies peek over shoulder of officials probing real-estate deals near American military bases

Tell me again how back doors are secure against anyone not authorised to use them.

Google and Linux Foundation form Chromium love club

As long as websites are able to confine themselves to a very restricted browser list nothing will improve.

What happens when someone subpoenas Cloudflare to unmask a blogger? This...

"thoroughly debunked by many lawyers in articles available on the internet"

And in an actual court?

Re: First Amendment

But in which jusidiction is the subpoena to Cloudflare being served?

Re: First Amendment

AFAIK it applies to Congress' ability to legislate against free speech.

But would SLAPP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation ) not be the more relevant defence here?

The channel stands corrected: Hardware is a refresh cycle business now

Re: Money dear boy

Many people would consider a decent computer one that could perform typical office tasks.

Re: Pardon my ignorance. . .

AKA box shifters. (Careful with spelling)

Re: Money dear boy

For many of us a bottom of the line MacBook would present visibility problems.

Going slightly, but not very far, OT is there any way that elReg's Post Comment window can have the same font size as the posted comments?

As Tom says above, an RPi400 or the like would be suitable for most situations an might well fit the lower income home family budget but PC box-shifters* aren't going to demean themselves. It wouldn't give them the margins. It will probably take them (and Microsoft) a good while to realise that their market is now saturated.

* Yes, I know they like to dignify themselves as The Channel nowadays but that what they always were.

Growth always looks exponential and it never is. Whatever space something is growing into is finite. Whatever resources are needed is finite. In the early stages these are not limiting factors so growth looks exponential but it's really the start of sigmoidal growth which flattens out when those factors do become limiting. Any ecologist can tell you that and I'd hope an economist would as well.

What's more, for a longish lived product that applies to the total number of units sold. Monthly/annual sales are just the first differential of that.

TL:DR You're lucky to have replacement sales.

Court docs allege Meta trained its AI models on contentious trove of maybe-pirated content

I'm sure they'd assure you that that's because it hasn't been trained on anything in copyright so wouldn't be able to reproduce it. With their fingers crossed behind their backs.

"Training large LLM's requires so much data that I believe it will be impossible to adhere to all of the licensing of the materials that have been used for training"

Let's make a similar argument about money:

"I want so much money that it's impossible for me to get enough without adhering to the laws about theft."

Is that OK?

And let's address the bit about writing books. If you read and understand several advanced text books you might very usefully write a book aimed at explaining the subject to an audience that needs an easier to understand or shorter version. But that book needs to come from your understanding. Understanding is very different from being able to produce a word salad derived from the books.

Rollable laptop displays to roll off the production line from April, says Samsung

Re: I don't give a damn about the rollable bit...

"a premium quality laptop with a 5:4 screen again"

I remember those, or at least 4:3. The screen folded down over the keyboard. So the keyboard had to be narrow so no numeric keys, arrow keys compressed into a tiny area & so on. I'd guess your premium quality would want a wide keyboard. The thing is, the screen proportions dictate the proportions of the entire laptop. If that were the case what size and weight would the entire package be? In the case of my laptop the front to back size when closed would go up from about 10.5" to 12.5" That's a bit unwieldy and I doubt many would want to buy one.

Re: Hmm

At one time I had a square X terminal. That was OK but only a mega-pixel. These days I'd want more pixels. And bigger, my eyes not being as young as they were.

Re: Hmm

Different use cases.

These days I spend a good deal of time dealing with maps but also a little working on panoramas. Currently working on a book - in fact I should be doing that rather than being here - where I'm planning on splitting maps with a wide E/W spread or panoramas across the double spread. Width is what counts for that.

Apart from the material being edited most graphics applications have palettes, toolbars & whatnot to the sides* so again, width is important although with a tall screen it would simply be a matter of re-jigging the layout.

I also find it useful to have the document being written and source material side-by-side and again a wide screen is best there; vertical stacking would be OK but probably suboptimal.

* Back in the day that also applied to a lot of IDEs I used.

Re: My ears!

You watched a promotional video with the sound on? Why?

Is that a bird’s nest, a wireless broadband base station, or both?

Re: They're employing birds to do the work too?

Do they have enough cranes in stork?

Scammers exploit UK's digital landline switch to swipe cash

"According to some estimates, about 16 percent of UK consumers fell victim to phone scams back in 2023"

And is that surprising? Following the online crumb trail to report a scam call leads to a page which gives advice about bot being scammed with an otpion to report that you have been scammed. There is no option to report what might well be new scams to let them chase up scammers.

Then there are alternatives for reporting nuisance calls, calls to TPS-registered lines and marketing calls. The latter, rather like advertising standards, seems to be run by the weasel marketing industry who, AIUI, allow themselves to overlook TPS if they're conducting "surveys". There needs to be a single reporting channel, run by OFCOM with action taken. Either that or my oft-mentioned idea of transfer charging nuisance callers of all stripes to pay the callees.

Hands-on jobs to grow fastest, because AI can't touch them

As with any survey, one of the first steps in evaluating its results is to find out who was surveyed. in the case of WEF it's likely to be those levels of management most detached from reality.

Trump China tariffs to 'overshadow' the 'progress' of AI PCs

"It seemingly is going to be impossible to avoid an AI PC by 2027"

It would be quite easy. Don't buy anything, just use whatever you have for another year.

Microsoft trims jobs as new year begins

Getting in position to circle the drain.

NASA's lunar Roomba set to suck up Moon dirt for study

It can do a bit of mapping at the same time.

We did warn you – 2025 may be the year AI bots take over Meta's 'verse

What if the advertising bubble bursts?

Re: Anyone who advertises on metà is an Idiot

Make that "anyone" "any marketing department" and it becomes clear. Their jobs depend on having an advertising budget and spending it.

DNA sequencers found running ancient BIOS, posing risk to clinical research

Re: Security 'research'

"It's not like most attackers are going to aim to target something like this"

Biomedical businesses are increasingly targeted these days.

Quantum? No solace: Nvidia CEO sinks QC stocks with '20 years off' forecast

Wow. Doubled the usual only a decade away.

Just when you thought terminal emulators couldn't get any better, Ghostty ships

Re: Wrote one myself once

Ah, Kermit. Used that on a luggable as my regular terminal for what seems like years but probably wasn't. It did get me used to working with small TE windows for years. Nowadays they need to be a bit bigger but at the time several xterms open at once or several of some other TE working in Windows.

Re: Emulators?

"elvis ... try it, you might like it"

Thanks, but I'll stick to nvi.

It might be very fast but by the time comms got to 9600 terminals one could only more or less read a scrolling file if one needed to make head or tail of it.

US watchdog sticks probe into 2.6M Teslas over so-called Smart Summon crash reports

Meanwhile...

... elsewhere in the world of self-driving cars https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c70e2g09ng9o

UK digital markets watchdog expects to launch investigations within the month using new powers

Re: "a huge imbalance in resources"

I'd also like to see the regulators' costs taken out of the fines with only the residue handed on to the Treasury. Even better, add the costs onto the fine. Also there should be no option to pre-empt matters by paying a fine without admitting guilt. The regulator decides a breach has taken place and then issues a fine. That decision can then be used as evidence in civil claims.

Uncle Sam now targets six landlord giants in war on alleged algorithmic rent fixing

I don't suppose we'd see this pursuit of innocent property developers happening if there was an innocent property developer as POTUS.

Re: Oh fuck off

But doesn't the US have elections for Congress 2 years offset from the Presidential elections? I'd expect there must be a lot of Republicans there already feeling nervous if they can't delay some of the consequences for a couple of years.

FCC boss urges speedy spectrum auction to fund 'Rip'n'Replace' of Chinese kit

Re: Carriers winning

"So what happens when the gear they use ends up with security issues in a few years?"

A few years? How about now?

Elon Musk's galactic ego sows chaos in European politics

Re: God I hate him

Who? There are far too many who fit that description.

Re: "the seventh-largest political party in terms of seats in the House of Commons"

Plans, pledges, budget explanations - no plan survives first contact with reality. Macmillan's comment needs to be remembered by any politician in opposition and any voter reading their manifestos: "Events, dear boy, events".

What you really need to know is how they'll approach the first unexpected event and until you've seen them do that you won't know.

Re: "the seventh-largest political party in terms of seats in the House of Commons"

"The press used the word 'economy' over and over again."

Close enough for quite a lot of the press.

Apple shrugs off BBC complaint with promise to 'further clarify' AI content

It's a multinational, exposed to a lot of different jurisdictions.

Re: Bah!

They'd need to be able to point out how the headline faithfully summarises what was being aggregated. I don't think a selecting words from the source material and disregarding the result of parsing as English the selection as presented is going to be good enough.

Now Trump's import tariffs could raise the cost of a laptop for Americans by 68%

I take it this will make the mid-term elections ---- interesting.

Zuck takes a page from Musk: Meta dumps fact-checkers, loosens speech restrictions

This worked out so well with advertising on Twitter.