* Posts by david1024

225 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Apr 2015

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Galactic Brain space datacenter coming in 2027, pledges startup Aetherflux

david1024

Wrong direction

The future is under the sea. Microsoft's underwater data center blazed the path, and now China is going to try it out with wind power. Space is really for sensors and communication (and maybe interceptors eventually). Here's a competing platform article on the Chinese effort: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cnina-deploys-wind-powered-underwater-data-center

Researchers spot 700 percent increase in hypervisor ransomware attacks

david1024

Wonder

I'm sure this has nothing to do with the new and improved licenses

Makers slam Qualcomm for tightening the clamps on Arduino

david1024

Wonder

I don't see a profit maker here, and I don't think any sane person would. Are they looking for a write-down and we'll actually get some benefit here?

--the-perpetual-optimus.

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

david1024

Blame the customer

I mean, only luddites wouldn't want $300-$500 per year AI help that they don't need telling them 80% wrong answers. Not all businesses or tasks benefit from an extra step in the middle.

Wait, is that CEO or markering accuracy range?

Trash for web use. Need an off switch.

Windows boss defends 'agentic OS' push as users plead for reliability

david1024

Re: Pennies

When the folks get angry enough a successor will arise. Same as GM/Chrysler/Ford created Honda/Toyota/Nissan and they on turn created Hyundai/Kia.

For computers, IBM created MS, and we are waiting to see what's next. The shear volume of money and systems, I think, hampers movements these days vs the 80's/90's.

david1024

Fix the file copy features

Windows needs to be called xonfuse-ows. Where did it actually copy your file? And will it be there later? Was it reliably copied? How would you know as they hijack content to OneDrive and even command line tools are hoodwinked.

A prime feature of any OS is the ability to copy files. It is broken by design in win10/11.

But if all you want is something to watch cat videos and influencers with, I suppose win10/11 are a step up from android/iOS in that regard.

AI music has finally beaten hat-act humans, but sounds nothing like victory

david1024

We already have the solution.

The solution to this 'problem' of non-human generated music is digital signatures...

The same as it is for photographs and images..... The same as it is for spam texts and calls and emails. Let them create the slop and let the market decide how long to finance it. The signature will let me pick AI music that I like or deselect and just listen to humans... Or a blend.

Pki solves all this with curated, trusted entities signing/attesting to the genuine-ness of the source of the material we see/hear. Not perfect, but it provides authentication for trusted sources. All we need is a red/green indicator or a hollow/filled dot for authentication status. Right now, I have no choice, I get a bucket dumped on my head and have to filter with no tools.

The key here, pun intended, is that everything is signed/marked--not just the modified or machine/AI content. This only works if _everything_ is marked.

De-duplicating the desktops: Let's come together, right now

david1024

Lolz

The only way to heard the cats to a single, unified desktop would be to legislate it using a standard as the baseline. It could be done, procedurally ... but would be unpopular as a corporation would necessarily need to control it...

And we know how that story goes.

SpaceX and Musk called on to rescue China's Shenzhou-20 crew

david1024

Options

Space is hard. NASA says so, it is continuously re-proved, and humans remain fragile.

While China has a good backup/contingency plan in place and seems to be using it effectively--it is always a good thought exercise to explore what would it take to rescue with non-Chinese (US/commercial in this case) assets.

Microsoft teases agents that become ‘independent users within the workforce’

david1024

Re: Oh Jaysus

Anyone in the workforce for a length of time has seen it victimized by automation or leadership missteps. The AI is going to be both in one package for a convenient monthly subscription fee.

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

david1024

Wonder

How many of these passwords were for throwaway accounts that users were not routinely using?

I know I don't put much thought or care into a throwaway account password, and I bet bots and click farms don't either. And I have way more of those throwaway accounts laying in my digital wake than ones I really use... So how reliable is this approach of using compromised accounts? Still fun, but I don't think the data tells the same story today it would have a decade or two ago.

UK agri dept spent hundreds of millions upgrading to Windows 10 – just in time for end of support

david1024

So...

Noone thought that maybe a skip from 7 to 11 might work out since they'd had the 7 machines so long out of support? 300+ mill replaces a lot of hardware... That's going to need to be re-replaced now for an inflation adjusted swag of 450+mill. I can install 7 today if I needed to, not like it is illegal. Get waivers and pocket routers to give that old OS some protection and accept the risk as you go to win11 (or Linux or whatever)

That's the head that should roll for this.

France jacks into the Matrix for state messaging – and pays too

david1024

Re: The "Never heard of it" problem

Yes, and this was the problem Xerox faced, losing the name. Regulation and lots of litigation by Xerox let them keep the name and educate the public, but the Internet is much larger than the newspaper/magazine pool Xerox was swimming in during the 70's and 80's.

TBH, why even call it teleconference or videoconference?

What we actually do has nearly nothing in common with the activity, hardware, and infrastructure used when the terms were created. We share screens, remotely control virtual whiteboards and even computers, and have text chat all during these events that use digital IP pathways.

Videoconference is not what we are doing anymore. It is zooming or skyping.

Same with the text messaging... We send audio and video and shortcuts to launch zoom or Skype. There's end to end encryption options and groups with voting. And sometimes you need to install or update a client software to do it..

so, English, not having a word, steals the name and turns that into an adverb/verb.

AI layoffs to backfire: Half quietly rehired at lower pay

david1024

So, AI was the excuse?

Guess those soggy older workers that weren't AI-ready got dumped and now they can hire the cheap youngsters without a lawsuit for ageism.

What a mess, and what terrible people. Can't wait until they start charging what AI really costs.

MPs urge government to stop Britain's phone theft wave through tech

david1024

Re: Repairable? or Theft-Proof?

They I wouldn't just use this to brick stolen phone parts... They'll brick my 5c I use as an MP3 player. Just by turning off an authenticator server.

Be very careful what you ask for.

iPhone 17 Scratchgate is real, iFixit warns – buy a case for your fancy phone

david1024

Couple of things to emphasize

Excellent video from ifixit. This is why I buy from them whenever I can even if the price isn't the lowest, they pay back triple the difference with information and a trustworthy supply chain.

One: who carries keys anymore and this device? The phone _is_ your key, unless you aren't flexing hard enough. The proles (like me) that still have keys can get a case.

Two: the increases screw count and internal rigid assemblies add stiffness you don't get from glue. While there are drawbacks, it is much stronger and easier to work on than glued construction. We've all gotten good at the glue, but screws are superior in every respect except cost/labor.

The only comment I have on the design specifically is to notice the big F.U. from apple on the spaghetti mess they made of the USB design. There's no reason to integrate the connection into the flex like that. (Especially with the obvious sale on internal connectors that was obviously going on during the rest of the design)

Clippy rises from the dead in major update to Copilot and its voice interface

david1024

Cortana

Want Cortana back.

Amazon brain drain finally sent AWS down the spout

david1024

This is how the game is played

Supposing everything in the article is true, Amazon is training the next set of 'old heads' on their customers' dime... They have offloaded that expense. They will lose negligible numbers of customers. This is the benefit of being the leader/default option, and they are taking that money. And you'll pay--same as me while they train folks and when they get expensive, it'll be time for another round. :(

Feeling lonely? Microsoft Copilot can now listen to your every word, watch your screen

david1024

OMG

Is there a BIOS setting or hardware switch to disable the AI acceleration and keep copilot unavailable?

Microsoft veteran explains Windows quirk that made videos play in Paint

david1024

Fun!

Ahh the bad old days... Even most newscasters can now wear green (or blue) --unless they have particularly old equipment .. they can also just use giant monitors and forego the green screen approach entirely these days too.

An idea that won't sink: China planning underwater datacenter deployment

david1024

Re: Why not just put the heat exchangers underwater?

The pumps are wasting energy, a lot over time. Save all that energy by not needing them. MS has already proved this model works and helps prevent equipment failures too as the air is so clean after a few weeks too.

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

david1024

Re: Good times!

Need Cortana back. At least it had a nice voice.

One of TikTok’s network boffins says it causes ‘massive data wastage’

david1024

Yet another Algorithm

Ticktock really has little incentive to stop wasting bandwidth and user compute resources in general. As long as the addicts can keep swiping they'll keep pushing data!

Need to slap some AI/ml in there and maybe could get some hype aligned here!

The Notepad that knew too much: Humble text editor gets unnecessary AI infusion

david1024

The snip tool is finally to the point of screenshot/paste into an image editor for markups and then select/copy/paste into your document.

Yay, they duplicated a workflow with a crippled implementation and tools that existed since win 3.0 and folks think it is new!

david1024

Re: Who even uses Notepad?

Lots of folks use notepad. Even if you just strip formatting with it and never compose with it--it is super handy. None of the things I use notepad for would be enhanced by AI, unless you let me dial in how that paste from excel looks. Of course, they likely want the AI's telemetry and don't care if I actually use that AI.... MS needs to use it, not us.

Campaigners urge EU to mandate 15 years of OS updates

david1024

Re: Apple is already doing 10 years

I still use my iPhone 5c. It is effectively the final iPod nano. Everything after that from apple is just too physically large for a music only player

Broadcom admits it’s sold a lot of shelfware to VMware customers

david1024

Vision

I get the vision, but even at the lower price points before broadcom's acquisition, the value wasn't there. Now only 10% of the customers that were forced into 2 years of shelfware acquisitions are onboard with them and even more lock-in.

However, what we may be seeing is that their previous agreements for those newly forced VMware features overlap with existing agreements.

And finally, at their licensing prices, pizza box servers and switchgear start looking attractive for onprem. $25k buys a lot of hardware these days. (And to get the most out of that license fee, you'd need at least a $50k+ server and a duplicate backup anyways)

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

david1024

Puzzling

S. Korea just announced a huge investment in American shipping, seems odd we'd poke them in the eye so soon afterwards.

I was a part-time DBA. After this failover foul-up, they hired a full-time DBA

david1024

Re: RTFM. Has failing to do so led you into trouble?

Surprised they didn't have a ready reference for the recovery, or maybe a pre-rolled script? But that's the sort of thing a full time admin would do I suppose.

Talk to the bot: Salesforce AI agents could replace US govt employees

david1024

only....

Only the lawyers will benefit from this.

Teen interns brute-forced a disk install, with predictable results

david1024

Re: Very lucky escape

Key point.... It was a software shop. Which was why the interns were the best qualified for the job.

Orbital datacenters subject to launch stress, nasty space weather, and expensive house calls

david1024

Dumb

ODC only makes sense if you are also in orbit to use the data and supply the inputs there. Otherwise Microsoft's under water DC was a much better idea. Much cheaper house calls and you can reject as much heat as you can generate (nuclear ships/subs reject 1000's of MW across the various fleets) and we are good at making those kinds of heat exchangers really cheap and reliable.

The real issue with ODCs isn't all the space weather, micro meteoroids, space junk, and cyber threats.... Or what happens when N.K. pops a nuke in LEO for testing... It is power generation and how to get rid of all that heat! Space is a terrible heat sink and power sources are heavy and dangerous.

So much for watermarks: UnMarker tool nukes AI provenance tags

david1024

Re: Because they're doing it backwards

The editing body could resign the image as they are the ones attesting to he fidelity of it. And if you trust, say the WSJ, then their signature would be good enough... But if I posted one, you'd want the camera's signature and mine on top of that. There are also ways to embed the full image and have the cropped one visible in the document... Would just be features to handle authenticated content. Just need to get it integrated so folks can understand it... Because right now, I'd say less than 5% would even understand how to interpret a signature in a picture... Need a lock icon or something...

david1024

Everything

Need to watermark everything.

Especially human generated things. Anything that doesn't pass as human or pass as a trusted human, is AI SLOP or just trash. I would imagine bodies like the RIAA would want this...

Iran cyberattacks against US biz more likely following air strikes

david1024

Ba@hh

They just might get a little more publicity as folks try to call it retaliation, but it is really business as usual.

Broadcom's answer to VMware pricing outrage: You're using it wrong

david1024

Of course they actually lowered the price

Obviously the customer is wrong and needs to run things in broadcom's model. Further, once you really look at it, after some re-education, you'll be able to see how much better off you are paying more and be happy. In other news the chocolate ration is being increased to 8oz from 12oz.

US Navy backs right to repair after $13B carrier crew left half-fed by contractor-locked ovens

david1024

This sort of thing was directed as a cost savings measure... Just wait until they get the updated bill!

AI coding tools are like that helpful but untrustworthy friend, devs say

david1024

Quality

If the only metric for code quality measured in reviews is that it meets coding standards and passes static analysis... Sure.

I wonder if the successful reviewers get used to the mistakes that the AI+human pairs are making and find an economy there?

Your ransomware nightmare just came true – now what?

david1024

Fix the real peoblem

Computers and networking are hard. You have to compete with all manner of industries to attract the talent you need too. Buy the computer, buy service agreements, pay folks to maintain them, and hope it holds together. And all the software license money leaves your local economy while the folks that actually do the work are stuck learning the new way we aren't changing the computer systems or watching cat videos while backdoors in the browser are pushing malware.

TBH, a competent admin assistant team with a floor of filing cabinets is starting to look attractive from an ROI standpoint. You got them locked in from a talent perspective and you can traina new helper in a week or so... No complicated industry certs, and you can lay them off if business turns down. Also, you aren't pumping money to wherever VMware lives.

Ransomware scum leak patient data after disrupting chemo treatments at Kettering

david1024

Re: Small change in law required.

TBH, we had plenty of big hospitals before computers took over. These systems are designed for accountants and lawyers, not practitioners and patients.

What boggles my mind is that such incompetence is allowed to persist like this. There is literally no need for these systems to be exposed to the internet. But, the lawyers and accountants aren't perturbed yet, I suppose.

KDE targets Windows 10 'exiles' claiming 'your computer is toast'

david1024

I love KDE, but

I have always been a fan of KDE, and CDE. On Debian, they are what I expect in a PC. However, they have gotten a bit crazy in the past few years. Some of that seems to bring new devs/users, but isn't really my thing.

KDE is really what the folks want, IMHO, and there's a positive way to say all this without calling anyone's machine obsolete. TBH, the machines are not obsolete and "KDE+Linux will show you that your machine remains quite usable and even faster than it was under windows as you concentrate the resources on what you want to do." Easy peasy word smithing. Besides, they are competing with new machines, not M$

AI can't replace freelance coders yet, but that day is coming

david1024

Missing the lesson

To me, this shows how to deploy AI more effectively. And that this study was designed to be easy for AI.

For now, Ai is bottoms-up and humans are top-down. Two separate flows.

I would guess that is because AI still isn't very good at finding the problem to solve and that's at the top/structual, and in that respect it is like a super technically competent green fresh developer. No sense, but knows how to iterate. AI doesn't seem able to mature, and the humans end up fixing code for all but the most straightforward assignments.

Some signs of AI model collapse begin to reveal themselves

david1024

Tragedy of the commons

Classic tragedy of the commons. aI puts everything out of business that it needs to steal from. If only there was a way to compensate creators? Stealing hurts everything eventually.

Microsoft-backed AI out-forecasts hurricane experts without crunching the physics

david1024

Re: Given that it works on historical data...

Actually. It'll react to that change as it occurs based on updated training data. This is one use of ML where it, the machine, outputs don't impact the inputs. (As opposed to something like a law enforcement use case would).

Expert systems would need new rules for the new climate situation unless they had that folded in already and that's really hard to impossible. Whereas the ML version of the weather predictor will work more like a me when I look at the current front/condition maps for my area and agree or disagree with the models based on my experience of real world historical data. (I'm usually more accurate than the models in use today for a day or two in the future, but not 100% of the time)

Ransomware scum leaked Nova Scotia Power customers' info

david1024

Extra data

They are required to offer service, and the customers have to pay to maintain it. There should have been little info of value to copy.

There is no reason for the power company to have SSN, DL, or DoB (and a lot of that other data). Autopay should be handled by the payment service/bank, not the power company directly. This is bad operations. They should be concentrating on keeping the service secure where they should be the experts and leave the PII to the financial institutions (who should be the experts). This everything, everywhere, all the time info model is inherently insecure.

Intuitive Machines blames dim lighting and dodgy data for second lunar faceplant

david1024

Re: Mechanical Engineering

At some point, the go fast/break things folks...Maybe Don't understand what they are breaking. I think they know... They keep blaming sensors, but they need margins to account for that--and fix the sensors. Not just change the sensor and hope.

So knowing and understanding don't seem to be meeting up in the design from out here where I can see.

However, I do know:

Fast, cheap, right.... Pick 2.

Been an engineering rule forever. They need to push the triangle to the right a bit more. Maybe they have, wish them luck with me.

The 'End of 10' is nigh, but don't bury your PC just yet

david1024

Pinta is great

I love pinta.

I rarely need more than quick annotations, crop, and a bit of copy/paste. Sometimes a simple touchup of a schematic or graph. (Like adding labels or counting pixels for scale).

OpenAI wants to build a subscription for something like an AI OS, with SDKs and APIs and 'surfaces'

david1024

Great

Super, another algorithm that'll keep trying to sell me a toaster after I just bought one.

Boffins warn that AI paper mills are swamping science with garbage studies

david1024

Re: Not just science, knowledge in general

It's only a breakthrough as long as what it ingests is not AI and .... Is accurate/true. AI trained on general web content will happily spout out urban myths and incorrect technical information as long as it is reinforced in the sample inputs.

Llms set knowledge back at least 5 years and even then, it is popular knowledge, not necessarily fact. Plus, nothing original can be created. So, more like what a drunk teen would say at a party if they had really good drunk-memory. It conveys accuracy when it doesn't actually provide it. Like a teen.

david1024

Authenticate the Authors

This is easy to fix, authentication. Author infuses too much AI or other garbage... according to authenticated peers sitting on review boards... They get downgraded. The bonafides only get issued after in-person board approvals. Maybe farm out to university or have a funded professional body.

Pure AI and papers from other unrecognized sources should be subject to increased scrutiny.

Won't be perfect, but better than we have now. The publication system was supposed to prevent this, but it has not scaled to large input sizes, so we need to stem the flow a bit to get the need for reviews more in-line with reviewer capacity.

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