Posts by Doctor Syntax

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

"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.

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.

"companies that fail to provide an AI fix"

I think they mean companies who've sensibly and successfully managed to avoid it.

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.

Re: Copilot Crippledware

And a super-high premium channel offering none.

Re: Share and Enjoy…

There's an idea. Instead of animated faces just use a few plastic tubes with lights inside as an avatar.

"Whether or not the wider public wants, or is ready, for talking AI avatars remains to be seen"

It doesn't matter whether they're ready or not, if Microsoft decides they're getting them then they're getting them. Does the public really believe they own their PCs?

Re: Clippy

"They binned him"

That was then, this is now. They don't care any more.

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.

Raspberry Pi prices hiked as AI gobbles all the memory

Re: Don't be fooled...

Ken Thompson as a lot of them as well: https://thenewstack.io/jukebox-to-player-piano-ken-thompsons-lifelong-pop-music-project/

"A lot of their value is freeloading off the backs of open source developers who worked on Pi software."

Oh, look. They're freeloading off the backs of Microsoft developers too: https://raspberrytips.com/windows-11-on-raspberry-pi/

And what about Intel? All those of us running Linux on our PCs! And AMD, too, of course.

Aurora immutable KDE Plasma workstation: Big, slow, and confusing

Re: Oh piss off Liam.. :P

Those of us trained on Yes Minister recognise it as simply getting rid of the difficult bit in the title.

AI has had zero effect on jobs so far, says Yale study

Re: Do you trust Yale or Stanford more?

You know the way it works: an alarming report grabs attention. Once everyone's alarmed a reassuring report grabs attention. The cycle will be on its way round again in a few months time.

Explain digital ID or watch it fizzle out, UK PM Starmer told

Re: "they are choosing us, they are choosing Hartlepool, Warrington, Belfast, the East Midlands"

Probably become cannabis farms.

UK's digital hospital plan meets analog reality check

Re: Every private health co offers this..

COTS not allowed. It will have to be one of the usual suspects.

Re: Rural access

In a hospital environment the term you're looking for is cross-infection.

Re: "treatment in person"

Your appointment has been made. You can choose your consultant from one of these weird Microsoft avatars.

Britain's policing minister punts facial recog nationwide

I'm sure they'll be getting a nice tranche of personal data as well.

"did I miss any knee-jerk justifications"

Terrorists.

'Money-saving' UK procurement platform racks up monster tab

The old "transformation" racket. It's hardly out of the box before it needs "transforming". Here's the bill.

California cops confused after trying to give ticket to self-driving car

Did it have a passenger? If so he's the person in charge, even if not in the driving seat as it was operating under his direction as he summoned it to collect him and instructed it to go to a particular destination. If would-be passenger s are likely to get tickets Waymo have a strong commercial incentive to make their cars drive better.

If it's unsatisfactory to consider the passenger the person in charge than the company should have a driver of record for the fleet, the exec responsible for the way the vehicles operate day-to-day. Whoever signs off the S/W as being fit for use on the public roads is responsible for what they do there.

Healthcare lags in Windows 11 upgrades – and lives may depend on it

From TFA: "difficulties with regulation, specific software only being approved for specific operating system versions"

This raises the question of whether the specific operating system vrsion is the same specific operating system version after an update has been applied and whether this conflicts with a likely requirement that the operating system be kept up to data.

Greg Kroah-Hartman explains the Cyber Resilience Act for open source developers

Re: I wonder..............

As I keep saying, you do not discourage people intent on breaking laws by providing them with more laws to break. That's despite anyone writing legislation ignoring that simple fact.

Forget vibe coding - Microsoft wants to make vibe working the new hotness

Just Word and Excel? What are they playing at? Surely the obvious target must be PowerPoint. They're made for each other.

Windows 95 was too fat to install itself so needed help from the slimmer 3.1

Re: Nothing ever changes

Subtle. I like it.