Posts by Sleep deprived

Deepfake hiccup unmasks suspected digital certificate fraudster

From deepfake to mug shot

No hiccup in the latter. The guy was properly identified and a long term certificate was issued.

Wetherspoons bars smart glasses from filming customers

Longtime creep

The ugly nerd nobody wanted to date started his career writing a website where you could rate girls on campus. He now sells glasses to film them unknowingly and harass them later.

NASA says it will isolate volunteers from the outside world for a year

Hello Mr President

Expect a congratulations call from the major root cause of Earth's sickening geopolitics...

California passes bill declaring death-by-algorithm to 3D-printed ghost guns

3D printer firmware will now embed gun part blueprints for detection

Next thing you know, said 3D printers will be hacked to print those very blueprints.

We've only gone and done it: Changed what you're used to

It's a HUGE change!

The main page now probably use a 36-pt font. No reading glasses needed anymore, but what a waste of screen space!

Trying the desktop mode on my Android tablet (Waterfox) in portrait mode brings back 4 columns in main page, but articles appear as a narrow column and comments are tiny. Did you actually test this before release, or did you just adopt Microsoft's strategy?

Please make this new layout optional while you fix it.

You too can build a nuclear battery from junk you have lying around the house

Re: Anyone tried smoke detectors

Indeed. Read the "radioactive boy scout" 's story about building a DIY reactor from smoke detectors.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/david-hahn

Google Chrome lacks protection against one of the most basic and common ways to track users online

"Firefox has privacy.resistFingerprinting"

Well, not on Android, where Firefox doesn't let you access about:config "for your own protection" ...

Fortunately, forks like Waterfox don't implement this disempowering restriction.

Apple update looks like Czech mate for locked-out iPhone user

Google keyboard (Gboard) not much smarter

In the Google keyboard with a language layout other than English, holding down the letter o opens a popup of 10 variants of the letter o (on 2 lines of 5 variants), including the degree symbol. In the English layout, only 9 variants are shown, while the top-left square is left empty, thus skipping º (I just switched to French to type it). I already reported the problem, but the Automsted Dumb agent doesn't understand my bug report.

Amazon rewards loyal Kindle devotees by closing the book on old e-readers

Re: Not a problem with my paper books

Each summer, I go sea kayaking for near month-long stretches in remote areas. No need to plan for rest days, strong winds or rains bring them naturally. On those days spent in the tent, I rely on my shortwave radio and Kobo reader full of library books. It draws little power, seldom requiring a recharge from my solar panel and battery. Paper books would suffer from moisture and take too much (limited) space.

Microsoft touts far-off high-temperature superconducting tech for datacenter efficiency

I hear Microsoft also found how to cut on travel expenses

Yep. Redmond plans to use teleportation when it becomes available

Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

Dodging AI bullets

Could a vest reading "Don't shoot" save my skin in AI-driven warfare?

Google pushing Gemini into Gmail, but you can turn it off

Re: Can Google AI fix programmed stupidity?

The signature gets added by Gmail as soon as you open the edit window. After that, you should be free to do whatever with the email and save it as a draft, not to see your changes overwritten when you reopen it next.

I reported this bug to Gmail a few times, but the AI reviewing comments doesn't see the problem...

Can Google AI fix programmed stupidity?

- setup a default signature in Gmail

- write an email and edit its signature (ex. remove your last name, add your address)

- close that email to save it as a draft

- open that draft in edit mode and your signature edits are gone

Now, tell me how many Google AIs are needed to fix that.

Lenovo shows off new laptops that twist and roll

AI to manage heat exhaust

When I'm awake in the middle of the night, I sometimes get up and work on my X1. Back in bed, my girlfriend notes I don't have a heated keyboard. So I pass the suggestion on to Lenovo: instead of wasting that heat through side slots, vent it upwards through the keyboard. Since AI is now a requirement, use it to feel my fingers and decide where to direct the heat.

Stop the slop by disabling AI features in Chrome

Re: waterfox for the win

Former Firefox user here, until I installed Waterfox tonight. There's even an Android version, and it doesn't block access to about: config. And no AI to disable, of course.

NASA tries Curiosity rover's Mastcam to work out where MAVEN might be

Burn up in Mars' atmosphere

How efficient is that, given Mars' atmosphere is less than 1% that of Earth's? No doubt a lot will survive the fall.

Uber and Lyft rolling Baidu robotaxis into London next year

Rideshare companies operating robotaxis

So where was the robot going when you hailed it?

Welcome to America - now show us your last five years of social media posts

Time to open a Truth Social account

By the time I dare return to the USA, I may have 5 years of records. Posts? Not so much.

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

AI is not intelligent nor does it have to be

AI is not intelligent, not does it have to be. It only needs to be less dumb than those who get fascinated by a statistical predictive engine. And this seems a much easier goal.

Google apes Apple, swears cloud-based AI will keep your info private

Re: Punctual punctuation

As a volunteer magazine proofreader, I'll use this very example to highlight the importance of proper punctuation and its powerful effect on meaning. Brilliant!

Mozilla's Firefox 145 is heeeeeere: Buffs up privacy, bloats AI

Forget AI, respect my own

Let the Android version access the about: config file and let me configure it the way I want, like disabling this most annoying tab offloading. If Mozilla is so worried about memory usage, they should stop bloating their browser.

Ransomware gang runs ads for Microsoft Teams to pwn victims

Who'd want Teams?

No need to install it, just run the link in Edge when the one calling the meeting can't be bothered using Zoom. It's my sole use for Edge, which I'm not sure can be safely removed anyways.

Australia sues Microsoft for misleading M365 users about Copilot subscription options

A special offer for deceived Office 365 customers

You can get a perpetual LibreOffice licence for free and devoid of any Copilot annoyance.

Aid groups use AI-generated ‘poverty porn’ to juice fundraising efforts

Reciprocal response

To this kind of solicitation, I'd reply with an AI-generated image of an imaginary currency.

End of Windows 10 support is the perfect time for the Windows 11 installer to fail

Windows Updates no longer offer Win 11 on our capable laptops

For months, Windows Updates has invited us to move to 11. But in the latter days of Win 10 support, this offer has vanished from our 11-capable laptops. Just as my wife had decided to jump in. I'll be staying on 10 while I test drive Linux Mint on another laptop - there's a local install fest on Wednesday!

50 years in deep space, and Voyager still can't escape budget gravity

Time to hand mission control over to China

Perhaps the last remaining mission engineer could transfer his expertise to China so they can pursue the Voyager mission and recover the data while President Trump is busy making America go awry.

Square Kilometre Array is so sensitive, its datacenter needs two Faraday cages to stop RF leaks

Construction continues during operation

Workers installing the hundred of thousand remaining antennas thus have to work with a brace (manual drill) and other hand tools to avoid introducing RF interference.

Slow Wi-Fi? Add houseplants to the list of suspects

Cats too are wave blockers

A lukewarm router is an excellent spot for a cat to wrap around while napping. And unlike plants, they can follow routers when they get moved. Solution: raise routers at the top of a mast in the middle of a room or screw them to the ceiling if there's a nearby electric outlet.

Long live the nub: ThinkPad designer David Hill spills secrets, designs that never made it

The missing option on my 3rd Thinkpad

I've had a T41, T430 and now an X1 Carbon. On the latter, the touchpad is perfectly centered, and I thus have to extend my right hand further to the left to perform a regular (left) click (is this what's giving me pain in my right shoulder for being skewed forward?). As I often miss and end up with a right click, I wish I could shift the left-right boundary line to my taste.

European consumers are mostly saying 'non' to trading in their old phones

I recall wiping a phone

And after that factor reset, it still had a custom background picture, despite not using an SD card. How thorough is that reset?

Meta – yep, Facebook Meta – is now a defense contractor

"Meta has invested in various flavors of reality – virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended"

So it makes sense they now invested in Trump's alternate reality.

Meta offered one AI researcher at least $10,000,000 to join up

Meta needs more than AI

AI? Meta is investing billions in it, yet can't even make simple keyword searches work properly in FB Marketplace.

Ukraine strikes Russian bomber-maker with hack attack

The Register contacted Defense Intelligence of Ukraine and Tupolev for more details.

So old fashioned. If this war took place in the USA, you'd be invited to a Signal group and provided with those details.

From Russia with chokehold: Putin says foreign IT firms still in Russia should be 'strangled'

Business geniuses at the helm

In Putin's view, US companies pulling out of Russia due to sanctions are nonetheless strangling Russia, while his American counterpart believes foreign trade equates subsidizing suppliers. One deserves the other.

Don't click on that Facebook ad for a text-to-AI-video tool

Treat all ads as malicious

No shame in using an ad blocker. That's the most sensible option nowadays. And safest too.

Satellite slinger AST reckons newer birds won't outshine stars in night sky

Mick Jagger foresaw it decades ago

Paint it black!

Booby-trapped Alpine Quest Android app geolocates Russian soldiers

Re: Very Boring Russian Campaign

Now imagine their US campaign, that so successfully lured the Trump admin.

Microsoft total recalls Recall totally to Copilot+ PCs

Why not make it a downloadable app

And see how many bother to install it and keep it beyond a 5' trial. Is M$ afraid to be deceived by how little interest this piece of code raises and realize users would rather see it spend time on fixing Windows bugs? Alas, just fixing code is less fun than writing new stuff, even if it's useless.

US stocks slip as Trump pulls trigger on Canada, Mexico, China tariffs

To avoid tariffs, just relocate your enterprise in the US - Vance

By the same logic, I'll buy Florida oranges when they move their orchards up North.

Re: Fentanyl

As if Trump and Vance care about people dying from Fentanyl overdoses. Probably as much as kids sick with measles.

FBI officially fingers North Korea for $1.5B Bybit crypto-burglary

The real damage

I must admit I'm more worried that the proceeds may be used to expand North Korea's nuclear program than to learn some tax-evading billionaire lost track of his funny money stash.

uBlock Origin dead for many as Google purges Manifest v2 extensions

Re: Could be faster and better

Not sure why this restriction on about: config but I'm not keen on running a beta as my main browser (99% of my usage).

Could be faster and better

Well, on Android, Firefox would definitely be faster if I could turn off tab offloading. But that requires accessing the about: config parameters, an ability lost many versions ago. And it would also be better if I could run extensions I want (like LanguageTool or CookieAutoDelete) outside the ridiculously small set of approved ones.

Los Alamos boffins slap blinkers on satellites so we know who to blame in a crash

I've had one on my bicycle for years

Its plate number is EEE.

National Science Foundation staff axed by Trump fear for US scientific future

Re: It's over.

Generations of talented American academics won't renew themselves when school funding is axed and corporations train their own slaves while intellectual tasks are performed by AI.

Make America Go Awry

Next step is Away in isolationism, because the Orange Angry Man doesn't seem too good at making and keeping allies.

NASA's on-again, off-again job cuts – what's the plan?

An asteroid redirect mission?

To Mar-a-Lago, the Oval office or the Trump golf course? Humm, let's have a look at the presidential agenda.

Astronomers red-faced after mistaking Musk's Tesla Roadster for asteroid

Re: AI, anyone?

Grok has probably been tweaked to acknowledge this genius move.

Silk Road's Dread Pirate Roberts walks free as Trump pardons dark web kingpin

Re: So, can Silk Road resume operations?

Sure. Didn't his family say he was "given a second chance"?

DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills after paralyzing neck injury

Public health in the land of plenty

I recall attending an international congress of speleology in the US where a bag was passed around, in which people would toss money to cover the medical expenses of a fellow American caver. The Europeans couldn't believe this was happening.