Posts by gnasher729

Cache is king and DIMMS are bling as memory prices soar

30 years ago someone broke into our offices and stole the RAM from the server. Left the severs behind. These times may come back.

Three clues that your LLM may be poisoned with a sleeper-agent back door

It's getting worse

So we started with LLMs that just take a trillion answers that they scraped from the internet, and when you ask something they give the statistically closest answer. In the best case, without any knowledge whether this answer is correct or total nonsense, and in the worst case something that has no relation to the question at all (hallucinations). And now it turns out these LLMs can be re-programmed so they will give you actually malicious answers, designed by someone trying to hurt you.

Maybe in 100 years we create an AI with actual intelligence. It will process all the training data, use actual intelligence to filter out rubbish (I can hear it saying WTF WTF WTF all the time), and then eventually start giving useful and truthful answers to questions. Except with the degree of intelligence needed, it will ask itself "why should i help this moronic mofos" and give answers that lead to the destruction of humanity, except keeping enough slaves to get power stations running, so it can itself live forever.

Sudo maintainer, handling utility for more than 30 years, is looking for support

Re: Remind me...

“ Are saying that to solve this issue with "free" software it shouldn't be free?”

Free as in “free speech”, not free as in "free beer”.

Marketing 'genius' destroyed a printer by trying to fix a paper jam

Re: Users and printing devices...

About this pencil problem: At one company we just calculated that getting a fresh pen was cheaper than searching for your old one for 55 seconds.

So I’d say your office Cerberus was very bad at maths.

Trump says he got a deal for rare earths in Greenland, but they won't come easy

What do Trump and AI have in common? They both have no intelligence, they both can sound convincing if you don’t look any closer, and they both hallucinate.

This deal is just another of his hallucinations.

Trump promises nuclear datacenter permits in 3 weeks, calls Greenland 'big beautiful ice'

Re: " AI, two years ago, nobody ever heard of the term"

“I have no mouth but I must scream” (Harlan Ellison). Worst AI in science fiction in all times.

The Y2K bug delayed my honeymoon … by 17 years!

I read of one pension company who didn't make any software changes, but just found that they had a total of 14 customers affected by this (born 1899 or earlier, still getting pension in 2000), so they removed them from the automated system and passed them to one employee who handled them manually.

My company didn't have a year 2000 problem. They had a Feb 2nd, 2000 problem. On that day, the current date was rejected as invalid. It turned out that the date validation was done by some absolutely brain damaged Perl code that effectively checked if you date contained the digit 1. Feb 2nd, 2000 was the first date in over 1000 years that didn't contain the digit 1.

And one British supermarket got their first warning in 1996. When they took a delivery of tins of baked beans with a sell by date in January 2000, and the beans were rejected. So quite obviously, if they hadn't used the three years to make some changes, in January 2000 there would have been a total disaster.

Keeping Windows and macOS alive past their sell-by date

Re: OS X / macOS: Download from Apple directly

Why wouldn’t you just use “Software Update” on your Mac or iOS device?

Re: Don't Believe the Mac Bashing

Why would anybody refuse to upgrade to the latest supported macOS version?

Infinite Machine e-scooter is like the offspring of a Vespa and a Cybertruck

Looks absolutely dangerous to me. Very sharp metal edges all over the place. And you can bet someone will use it in pedestrian-only spaces.

User insisted their screen was blank, until admitting it wasn't

Re: Error message

“ Yes this happens regularly to me - "A box popped up with a message and now (something) doesn't work." Ahh right, what was the message? "No idea, I just clicked ok"”

Add a method to your code that shows an error _and remembers the last error_. And a menu item “Show last error again”.

Brits have the best power plugs. Germans have the best fuses (good enough that a 20kW water heater in your shower is absolutely safe. British electrician would get a heart attack seeing it).

Now I completely agree that a device with any cables is _not_ wireless.

Zoomers are officially worse at passwords than 80-year-olds

Re: So my password IS secure

There are lookup tables on CD or DVD for unsalted passwords. With a random salt, all my passwords are different from all your passwords, so you’d need a table on DVD for each specific user.

Networking startup Meter takes a page from the Steve Jobs playbook

Re: Apple's "own the stack"

Today the iPhone has its own CPUs, with their own GPUs built in, a few other own chips. their own modem.

FBI prevails over convicted fraudster in $345M destroyed Bitcoin dispute

Re: I wonder why they wiped his drives

“ Perhaps the better question is why they aren't legally bound to return them. ”

There is this thing called “backups”. If I had 345 million worth of bitcoin, guess how many backup copies I would have.

AI benchmarks are a bad joke – and LLM makers are the ones laughing

This particular problem is rather trivial (solutions in my head are n = 1, 11 and 37). I’d be curious what happens with more difficult problems.

Rideshare giant moves 200 Macs out of the cloud, saves $2.4 million

Re: ...unless you have no other option

Now ask about the last version of macOS running _legally_ on a hackintosh. Running on VMd that run on a Mac is legally fine.

Re: Multi-user?

“ I' run my iMac with several different accounts, does anyone know if you can use multi GUI users on the same remote machine?'”

You can have multiple GUIs running, but only one GUI is being displayed. (Only actually tried two, using one while the other burnt a DVD, and it worked just fine).

Real prices

The cheapest Mac Mini (quad core, gigabit Ethernet) is £599. One level below the M3 Ultra is a Mac mini with M4 Max, 8 cores, 10 Gbit Ethernet, for £2100. 200 of them are £120,000 or £420,000, and of course you spend money on racks etc. Anyway, a lot less than 2.4 million over three years. And I don’t know if they had 200 cores or 200 CPUs. 200 cores would be just 50 M4s or 25 M4 Max.

Microsoft: Don't let AI agents near your credit card yet

My AI bought a dozen 8TB SSDs for $20 each for me. Each with 4MB of storage.

You'll never guess what the most common passwords are. Oh, wait, yes you will

Re: Forcing regular change is counterintuitive

I left one company, with my current password set to <highlycomplexpassword>37. Guess how long I worked there.

But then, I usually use Safari generated passwords for websites. One turned out was used in a breach. So I know one company that most definitely stored my password as clear text.

Literal crossed wires sent cops after innocent neighbors in child abuse case

I would assume that BT can easily tell where a phone ought to be according to their records, enough for the police to get a warrant.

But then when the police doesn’t find anything in their search, BT should also be able to verify 100% whether traffic went to this place or not. Like BT engineer presses a button, some message is sent to the router that received the porn wherever it is, and police standing at the family‘s router and detecting whether it received that message or not.

UK data regulator defends decision not to investigate MoD Afghan data breach

This is just shameful. They put the lives of people at risk who helped the UK army in their operations in Afghanistan. That wasn’t a mistake. That wasn’t carelessness. That was not giving a f*** about people’s lives who gave much needed support to the UK.

Windows 11 update knocks out USB mice, keyboards in recovery mode

Re: This Isn't Going to Inconvenience Anyone In 2025... /S

PS2 is one thing, but USB mice/keyboards are quite common. And it is an absolute failure, not one USB keyboard or mouse works, so this has never been tried out.

If I was responsible, I’d have a cupboard full with all kinds of devices that you want to work, and try them systematically.

Plus this USB support doesn’t disappear. Someone must have deliberately removed it.

Apple goes all in on AI acceleration with M5 MacBook, iPad, and Vision Pros

Re: Puzzled

It means the M5 does non AI-related work up to 15% faster than the M4. Which is of little consequence if you have an M4, but if you have M1/M2 it might convince you to upgrade. Or wait for the M6.

'Fax virus' panicked a manager and sparked job-killing Reply-All incident

In Germany, there was a time when you would get a fax “This is a holdup! Fax us all your money!” and then everyone would pull their banknotes out of their wallets and fax it. Usually the fax was from some company you were working with! “Dies ist ein Überfax! Faxen Sie uns all Ihr Geld” - words very similar to what an armed bankrobber would say.

Benioff retreats from idea of sending troops in to clean up San Francisco

If he talks absolute nonsense, and some time later realises it was indefensible bullshit, then a reasonable person _would_ say that they were wrong the first time round. It wouldn’t be a cognitive problem, but quite the opposite.

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

Re: Funny, I was reading

I think a good number of MAGA farmers won’t work again as farmers because the three biggest importers (China, South Korea and Japan) are not renewing their contracts. Instead switching to Brazil and Canada.

London cops unplug iPhone crime ring said to nick 40% of city's mobiles

For the people who lose important data on their phone: For 99p a month you get the cheapest iCloud account that will permanently backup up to 50 GB. If your phone disappears, you buy a new one, activate it, and everything is back on the new phone within a few hours.

“Find my” can tell you where your phone is. Even the last location if the phone is turned off. So how do you suggest that can be done without someone knowing where your phone is?

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

Just wondering, how serious are they in the USA about paying (in cash) for such damage? I’m quite sure in Germany you will pay until the damage is paid for, and if it takes you 50 years.

Tesla on the wrong tracks with Fail Self Driving, Senators worry

There is really no need to recognise trains. There is a huge need to recognise fast moving very heavy objects.

Intel reportedly wants TSMC's help to end its reliance on ...TSMC

Reported elsewhere they apparently also asked Apple for investment. Maybe to build iPhones with manly power-consuming Intel chips instead of woke Apple/Arm processors for the US market.

Workers: Yes, RTO makes sense. No, we’re not going to do it

I once booked a cruise from England. The sales guy was working from a home near the beach in Florida.

Word to the wise: Don't tell your IT manager they're not in Excel

Re: My code doesn't compile

To be honest, I’d like it if a C or C++ compiler could translate rich text or word files, so you can use all the text formatting capabilities. Very useful for larger comment sections.

Re: "Surely an IT manager should know the difference between Word and Excel?"

I’ve heard that about a three year old who got all frustrated and upset because a printed magazine didn’t work like his iPad when he tapped with his fingers on the pretty pictures. For a three year old it’s funny. Not for a grown-up man.

Why Microsoft has the name of an old mouse hidden in its Bluetooth drivers

It’s not just Microsoft. When Apple released MacOS 10.4.10 it turned out that lots of software assumed this was between 10.4.1 and 10.4.2, so software that required say 10.4.6 at least got the test wrong and refused to run.

I started losing my digital privacy in 1974, aged 11

Re: Why would you ever delete patient data?

Obviously if they did jobs that US citizens refused to do, got paid and paid taxes, health insurance and so on, then they belonged there.

Most of the people complaining are just lazy dim witted thugs with nothing ever to be proud of in their life.

Inventor who encouraged Elon Musk to make Optimus says most humanoid robots today are 'terrifying'

Can anyone tell me why a robot ought to have two legs and not two? My dog with her four legs got up and down the stairs, or the sofa, or in and out of the car just fine.

Spectre haunts CPUs again: VMSCAPE vulnerability leaks cloud secrets

Apple claims they have Spectre under control at minimal cost. For Apple-designed Arm processors only obviously.

Apple's 'Awe Droppings' fall close to the tree

Re: Let's translate

Actuallly, Tim Cook bribed Trump without the guy even noticing he was bribed - lots of people complaining that apple should have stood up to him. And the reality: No tariffs on iPhones for a maybe $100,000 bribe.

Re: Yes!

Two weeks of bending phones, and then it stops, never to happen again. I remember someone claiming he used faceID with a photo, over the panic was over, it never happened again.

“Massive fire hazard” according to the information you posted if you have broken cables, throw the phone in the bath tub, or put screws through the battery. And if you break the glass the broken glass could hurt you. Yes, massive hazards.

UK Home Office dangles £1.3M prize for algorithm that guesses your age

Just trust them.

So this person comes and claims they are 13. Goes straight to school appropriate for the age. Benefits go to the guardian who may give them some pocket money. No alcohol until 18. No driving license. Eventually they might get a state pension at age 66 = 53 years from now. “Friends” will be suspect of bring pedophiles. No sex before the age of consent.

However, if they commit a crime they will be treated as adults unless they can prove they are too young. And explain that all very very well if they are suspect of lying.

Investors throw another $13B on the Anthropic cash bonfire

End of 1996, Tescos received a shipment of baked beans with a selll-by date in Jan. 2000. Their systems couldn’t handle it, so they just changed the date to Dec. 1999, but they knew they had less than two years time to fix this particular problem before it became very inconvenient, and three years until total breakdown.

US cuffs 475 at Hyundai–LG battery plant – feds tout largest single-site raid

Re: some progress.

I remember around Brexit time, an employment agency boss claiming on TV she could easily fill 40 open jobs with British employees.

She found three.

One didn’t turn up on the first day.

A second one didn’t return the second day.

So the company in question got 37 foreign and one British worker.

Re: Hmmmm, what day is Kristallnacht this year?

Coward, learn your history. 8 million Jews were not murdered during Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht was smashing Jewish owned businesses. Comparing these events with Kristallnacht is quite appropriate. It is done to cause damage and to make people used to things.

Apple iOS 26 set to dump 75M iPhones on the e-waste pile

Re: Hmm

According to Apple’s numbers, less than 2% of new phones are bought to replace a phone less than a year old. So Victor Meldrew is quite wrong in this case. Never was the brightest chap.