Posts by Doctor Syntax

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

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

"Have you ever actually been in an office with lots of staff?"

Yes, indeed. There was the desk reorganisation where a group with a very noisy dot-matrix printer was relocated right behind me.

And the time that some one very important in the business came on a visit say the portionless call centre and pronounced it good so all the desks in IT had their partitions and the shelves they supported removed over the weekend. My row of reference manuals which had been within arm's reach ended up permanently on a windowsill some distance away.

The people who come up with this garbage don't actually do any work in the sort of offices they want to see the people in. If they're in the building they have a private office and probably a good deal of time is spent meeting people away from the company's office. Not that there's anything wrong with either of those situations but it does mean that they don't have the experience of trying to work in the circumstances that they think are so productive.

Big money is nervous about AI hype, but not ready to call it a bubble

This is what worries me.

Re: dot com crash

Large amounts of money have already gone into it and people are queuing up to shove in more. Unless the ventures start to turn profits commensurate with all that money it will be lost. We're already at a point where the required returns appear infeasible without it enabling some huge economic advance that's within the capabilities of the planet's resources to sustain. Historically technological advances accompanies by investment booms have stimulated economic growth but (a) investors have still lost money (George Hudson's investors in railways for example) (b) it remains to be seen whether economic growth on the scale required is sustainable. (c) It remains to be seen if there are any economic advances at all to come out of this.

"We're doomed."

Those betting on that stuff are doomed.

Re: It's like heating a pressure cooker beyond its design temperature

It's getting to the scale of worrying what it takes with it. Is Oracle too big to fail? Or Microsoft? The H/W manufacturers should probably be OK if their credit control stays in control.

Re: Is it a floater?

Probably in the way the headline writer had in mind.

"not yet sounding the alarm, but was careful to add a note of caution."

Such financial commentators are probably realising they're treading a tightrope.by now. An over-strong remark could start the whole thing collapsing and they won't want to be named as the one responsible. On the other hand they could risk getting sued with recommending something they should have known was going to collapse causing some punter to get burnt.

India's tech talent pipeline is sputtering

Put Social Engineering on the syllabus. That seems to be a skill that's on the rise.

Bezos plan for solar powered datacenters is out of this world… literally

Re: Bezos can put every cent he has in this

I'd guess he's thinking about pre-assembled modules that can be linked together simply enough for a robot to do the job and even remove, eject and replace faulty ones. What happens when the robot's processor encounters a bit of stray solar or cosmic radiation is a different matter. But the logistics take second place to the inanity of expecting to get rid of heat on a gigawatt scale.

Why?

Does he have a use case that cannot be met at less cost terrestrially or is he just a billionaire whose wealth has insulated him from reality?

'Retired' cybercrime group demands ransom not to leak 1B Salesforce records

""Yes it does have something to do with recent arrests"

Maybe the ones who got arrested had control of all the crypto wallets. It would certainly be worth while having the investigators considering that possibility.

Energy drink company punished ERP graybeard for going too fast

Re: A company that won't survive

"a UK telecoms company sacked its team of cheap-but-useless Indian software developers"

Managers liking the sound of their own voices certainly rings true but sacking a team of cheap-but-useless Indians without replacing them with cheaper and more useless just goes to show what strange things happened during Covid.

That's easy. It's so that someone could be more important than the project.

People occupying the higher reaches or hierarchical organisations are guaranteed to have one good talent: climbing hierarchical organisations. Anything else, such as being good at the job, is strictly optional.

"Someone from management would at least say goodbye"

One of a client's salesmen (desk at the opposite end of the open plan office) asked me for a report from the system. An hour or so later I'd got it ready and went over to his desk with it. He wasn't there. I was told "he no longer works here." I suppose somebody in management said goodbye.

Don't get mad, get even.

If project emails were delayed by more than 2 days foe "editing" it's not hard to sww why the project was behind schedule.

Startups binge on AI while big firms sip cautiously, study shows

From reports here there's a third category: bigger companies using AI as an excuse for redundancies getting rid of staff who can't use it.

Pentagon decrees warfighters don't need 'frequent' cybersecurity training

Re: The actual point gets buried in a tide of anti-republican bullshit

"What this is about is reducing the time infantry/artillery/armour troops need to spend on unrelated stuff so they can increase training time in their core competencies."

Quite true. There's no point worrying about the boots on the ground blabbing about their little bit of the battle when Hegseth is busy texting the entire battle plan to whoever wants to know

College student went on a destructive rampage, then confessed to ChatGPT, cops say

It should earn him a conditional discharge.

Re: How long?

It might not have proved AI is smarted than humans but it does prove some humans aren't as smart as AI.

"too comfortable leaning on AI for advice in situations where it's really not the best idea."

I don't think he had a best idea. Not even a vaguely good one.

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

"This is not a card but a new digital identity" (from the explanation on the petition site)

A digital identity. What's that when it's at home?

If evidence were needed that this was a sudden brain-fart blurted out without thinking it's in that statement. They'll work out later what a digital identity might be.

Ransomware scumbags say they deleted kids' info after other gangs called them out

However, now the line has been crossed it will happen again and be accepted by their peers.

Only way to move Space Shuttle Discovery is to chop it into pieces, White House told

True. All you have to do is find the bits of the original transporter and put them back together again.

Re: Unless I'm hallucinating...

"I know of a medieval French chapel (Catholic). It was once disassembled stone-by-stone and moved to Long Island, New York."

The London Bridge before the current one* was also disassembled and shipped to the US. It would have been bigger but not as old. Contrary to some stories, however appealing they might be, the buyer didn't think he'd bought Tower Bridge.

* Circumlocution to avoid calling it "old" as it wasn't Old London Bridge which was medieval.

Re: Yes, that's what it actually required

It didn't say a "from", either. Just a "to".

I wonder ... there've been a few occasions where people have had their ashes scattered in space. I wonder if the vehicles returned. Maybe even a booster or a lower stage would qualify.

"a space vehicle that has been to space and carried astronauts"

Does it also say "at the same time"?

Deliver them a few truckloads of assorted scrap from one of those airliner graveyards and tell them it's a dismantled shuttle, they'll have to assemble it themselves, sorry, no drawings available.

Microsoft declares bring your Copilot to work day, usurping IT authority

Re: GDPR ?

"those lower ranked voices have been told to shut up or had their lives made miserable"

I hope they've secured their paper/email trains.

Cybercrims claim raid on 28,000 Red Hat repos, say they have sensitive customer files

Re: This is another example of why cyber so-called security is nigh on impossible for average Joe

This is Red Hat. Somebody there should know.

Re: This is another example of why cyber so-called security is nigh on impossible for average Joe

"I think by 'private repository' you mean 'in house'"

Like I said, private. The one needs the other.

Re: This is another example of why cyber so-called security is nigh on impossible for average Joe

"This should be cause for a big re-think. But that won't happen."

It might not happen to those in the supply chain. But as the M&Ss of this world who've been hit review their operations (as they should) or those not yet hit look around, they're the ones likely to be making the big re-think.

Re: This is another example of why cyber so-called security is nigh on impossible for average Joe

Why should Red Hat (or anyone else for that matter) store private information on Github rather than setting up their own, private repository? The answer, of course, is convenience. Let somebody else do it. In Red Hat's case they could scarcely claim they lack the skills. But it enlarges the attack surface. Maybe someone else in the Red Hat supply chain also had access to it and maybe somebody else had access to them.

It's yet another supply chain attack and if companies don't know by now that long supply chains are vulnerable - especially to social engineering attacks on their staff - we can be sure the attackers do.

Irony alert: UK.gov Work dept hires IBM to aid AI projects

Bingo

"As set out in the tender, our approach to AI adoption is value-led, responsible, secure, and firmly human-centred."

Re: Automating Delay, Deny, Defend

"Seems the DWP runs the govt"

DWP can't even run job centres effectively. Its predecessor couldn't do that in th 60s and reports say it can't today.

"the cost will balloon ...

IBM is no longer as intelligent"

AFAICS nothing has changed

"The irony isn't lost on us either."

It'll be lost on the DWP.

EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers

Re: "Backdoors" Is Always Misdirection

There's a good argument for applying anything to them before they foist it onto the rest of us.

Microsoft moves to the uncanny valley with creepy Copilot avatars that stare at you and say your name

Re: I expect you are correct

"Those sun boxes even with developer discount were pricey."

You must have missed ordinary PC and SCO licence before SCO were borged.

BT promises 5G Standalone for 99% of the UK by 2030

Re: Grumpy old git

Just be grateful there's somewhere you can escape from it. After all, when you come back home with the wrong thing you can always use the excuse that you tried to ring to check but didn't have a signal.

AFAICS we're supposed to take the meaning that the standalone bit means it's free from any 4G stuff. Whether that means that in practice the backhaul doesn't get to share bandwidth somewhere - well, we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

New Zealand’s Institute of IT Professionals collapses

Re: The world is losing a great accounting comedy

That's where the money went - pints and onion bhajis.

Re: Errr

The status might also depend on whether the members were individually responsible for the debts.

In the UK a registered charity has to file annual financial reports to the Charity Commission*. A not for profit business is different but might be run for the profit of those who provide it with its services or by is directors; although it cannot make a profit it can make a surplus which, apparently, is something quite different. (I used to belong to a user group which was run rather well be a small company. The vendor of the product of which we were users bought another corporation and wanted the two user groups to merge and be run by whoever ran the other one and who were hopeless. The group fell apart soon afterwards.)

* The trustees are personally liable. I'm a trustee of a local charity. Fortunately it's in financially sound but because our previous treasurer had health problems its reporting has lagged. We're now being chased for an outstanding report which we can't send until it's been approved at the next AGM which is due to be held this month.

Lloyds Banking Group says 'digitization' will power more branch closures

"You need to find a new high street bank"

And that's easier said than done.

Re: Prroof (if needed)

Branch staff have been disempowered. If you have a problem it's best to try to sort it out face-to-face than on the phone or online. The situation is that I now have to travel some distance to be told they can't help. They enshitify the branches so that there's no point in visiting them and then use the lack of footfall to close them down.

Branches were more than sales points. They were where service was delivered, the service for which customers used the banks.

My problem with Lloyds was that they simply wanted a fee for what used to be just part of the service. The result was that they lost an account which was probably more valuable to them overall than the fee they tried - and failed to grab from me. Had they succeeded that would have been credited to the branch; the loss of business was probably not debited against them.

If they can't attribute the cost of customer churn where it belongs then they can't really get a true picture of what the branches' profit and loss. We see "challenger" banks being set up that are remote only. They're not really challenging the big banks, they're just emulating them. The bank that reverses this policy, established more branches and set one up near me gets my business. If that's not real sales I don't know what is.

Re: Prroof (if needed)

I strayed from their clutches years ago. I'd strayed into them when HSBC closed the branch in my preferred location. Lloyds then closed their branch there too. Had that one still been open I might not have been antagonised by the surly staff at two other branches.

The problem customers have now is lack of alternatives as they're all more or less at the bottom of their respective barrels although still striving to get lower. We need HMG to mandate a reasonable (i.e. considerably higher than at present) density of branches in order to for banks to retain their licences. No, "banking hubs" won't cut it, they need staff empowered to act on the bank's behalf.

Hundreds of orgs urge Microsoft: don’t kill off free Windows 10 updates

Do not discount the possibility of a special retail version of W11 that doesn't need TPM2. It will upset the HW manufacturers but if they're not going to get sales anyway the cash-strapped Microsoft could do with a little much-needed revenue.

Re: Windows 7 surge

They're frequently told by the usual suspects here that it's either extremely confusing or downright impossible. The real sticking point for consumers and SMBs is that it requires installation of an OS and it needs to be done in such a way that their old data remains available to them. For IT departments that install their own Windows builds on new PCs that excuse doesn't hold up.

ISVs that will only develop for a single OS remain a problem and will continue to be so without Linux reaching a sufficient user base to (a) make it viable or (b) worry their competitors may jump first.

Re: Nothing In The UK News About This

"Recently it has been replaced by some abomination that has nothing of interest to the average Reg reader. Full of flashy graphics and no substance."

Horizon?

OT: The Beeb is currently running programmes reflecting 200 years of railways. There was a recent one by Michael Portillo (of course) as part of that. After watching it I was amazed to find that it had only been an hour long. By current Beeb standards it would have taken at least two hours to present that much material. It was just like the old days.