Posts by snowpages

Sysadmin summoned to explain italics – to a user with at least two degrees

Ponies

That is all.

LG monitors are using Windows 11 feature to serve adware

Re: Its an advert all right...

N Korean???

UK.gov's tech department gets the chop after two years

DCMS

So the politicians see "Digital" as a branch of entertainment...

Explains a lot.

'Resistance is futile,' says Qualcomm CEO. AI agents will be become invisible, inescapable, follow you across devices

Resistance is our duty

"Resistance is futile"???

I think resistance (like poisoning the data that they harvest from you) is the DUTY of any right-minded technical person.

...and protect your pension from the coming crash.

Unexpected item in Windows' bagging area

Re: 40p per bag seems a bit steep

I've successfully done an exchange - when asked what I had been doing with it to wear it out, the answer is "buying lots of stuff in Sainsbury's". No problems.

Britain's £6B armoured sickener Ajax cleared for duty despite injuring troops

Re: Not just one cause

Fortunately we spell it differently in Europe

Locked, stocked, and losing budget: AI vendor lock-in bites back

Re: Chickens

mmmmmm grilled chicken...

England's school phone ban gets teeth, just in time to bite no one

Re: The House of Lords

Democracy gives you Trump.

Claude Code cache chaos creates quota complaints

Re: Reminder: Nobody knows what any of this costs.

LOSE not loose.

Dell slims down business laptops, fattens up cooling and battery life

Buld quality?

"higher numbers signifying better build quality"

I call BS on that unless it is a particular definition of build quality - different materials for the chassis and case perhaps - but why would you do that? Cheaper to use the same bits where possible. I suspect a marketing justification for the price differential/

G

UK police force presses pause on live facial recognition after study finds racial bias

Misquote

This bit was in quotes so should be as written::

"town centers and high crime hotspots"

I am 99% certain the original would have said "centres" as they don't have to conform to some misguided left-pondian style guidance..

Sorry, kids. Memory crunch threatens to kneecap Chromebook shipments

Re: Cruelty

For some years I have used Chromebooks for "everyday stuff" - websites work fine, video doesn't stutter, Google Docs and Sheets are adequate for "everyday" things. You can install Android programs (apps) on it and, if you can follow Google's instructions, install and run Linux programs too, but there is limited local storage so this needs to be manged carefully.

I don't need to print much, but it seems to recognise my (very old HP laser) printer OK without a driver.

OS updates are FAR less intrusive than Windows ones. No significant need for separate anti-virus.

My Google login does NOT use my real name, making it easy to spot any spam phone calls when they ask for my online name :)

For serious work I use Linux desktops/laptops (with dual boot for the rare occasions when I have to use Windows for some obscure program).

Using Tailscale/NoMachine (as android apps) I can access 2 of these Linux machines full screen from anywhere using the Chromebook with, seemingly, far less lag than VNC.

All the above to say that Chromebooks (and quite low-end ones, bought when on a "deal") can be VERY cost-effective tools, used wisely.

The problems experienced by the lady could have been mostly solved by less than an hour's help/training (not from a Chromebook hater!) but no-one offers that and no-one offers printed handbooks either to get people over the initial differences.

"Nothing is where I expect it to be" has often been applied to new versions of Windows and Word over the years! The average user gets confused by any differences and needs a bit of patient hand-holding to get them through it.The payback is far fewer / no support calls from those friends/relatives in the future.

YMMV

G

Bcachefs creator insists his custom LLM is female and 'fully conscious'

Re: Don't worry, Kent – these kindly big gentlemen in white coats

Side?

Altman: You think AI is wasted energy? Try raising 100 billion humans

Additional

AI consumes ADDITIONAL energy on top of that already consumed by humans... or is he suggesting a cull?

Europe's 5G Standalone stall risks falling behind US, Asia

Stuttering cat videos?

Sword of Damocles hangs over UK military’s Ajax as minister says back it or scrap it

Re: Missed opportunity by Reg ed...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(cleaning_product) so scrubbed is good.

Uber and Lyft rolling Baidu robotaxis into London next year

Re: bringing another safe and reliable travel option to Londoners

"unconstrained"

I think rails usually constrain the vehicles a little...

What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows

Affinity under Wine

Needs tweaking, but other people have done the tweaking for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5HiZgDTlm8

(you may not need to watch the video - what you want to know is in the text below.

Lawyer's 6-year-old son uses AI to build copyright infringement generator

Re: He prompted his story generator to give him a story about Sonic the Hedgehog

The dullness of the pictures depends upon exactly what "they like to do"...

OpenAI money-go-round sees it invest in company that invested in OpenAI

"Round Tripping"

Asda's 'self-inflicted' SAP mess after Walmart divorce stalls financial revival

Re: Availability in stores and online was at an eight-year high of over...

but they also said "Availability in stores and online was at an eight-year high"

Re: Availability in stores and online was at an eight-year high of over...

You've never seen an empty shelf in a supermarket then??

Availability of PRODUCT.

6G isn't even here yet but mobile industry wants triple the spectrum

And all this will be used for..

AI-generated cat videos.

We are indeed doomed.

G

UK tax collector falls short on digital efficiency, watchdog says

Crazy suggestion

They could just simplify tax? Madness, I know.

Students using ChatGPT beware: Real learning takes legwork, study finds

Re: Not just AI

Whilst I agree that you don't learn the route so quickly using satnav, you need to try a better/more recent satnv.

On a recent Autoroute trip through France, mine gave me 178km notice of the next turning - enough notice for you?

(note that I always use 2D mode - so just like a map - and often with the sound off, so brain remains engaged)

EY exposes 4TB+ SQL database to open internet for who knows how long

Re: Ernst & Young

...or a company started by the Fonz... (showing my age)

Larry Ellison's latest craze: Vectorizing all the customers

My kettle uses that much!

Time for a cuppa!

Windows 11 gets a fresh Start in latest Canary build

Re: Bizarre

I think that, for the BBC, it is called "balance"...

Amazon grounds drone deliveries in Arizona after two crashed into a crane

Energy

Does the energy used to deliver the AA batteries exceed the amount of energy stored in the batteries?

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

Re: Department of War

Krasnov just following orders?

UK splurges £4.4M on drones, e-planes, and other flights of fancy

OXCAM

Not sure what problem the eVTOL aircraft are meant to be solving?

Both Oxford and Cambridge have perfectly good "normal" airports so VTOL just adds complexity and cost.

An electrically powered conventional plane would seem to make more sense.

JLR stuck in neutral as losses skyrocket amid cyberattack cleanup

You think life is fair?????

Microserfs ordered back to the office, given 10 days to appeal

Re: Bullshit created by people like Alan Sugar

Lose money. Tied up.

Huawei counts cost of Western bans as UK business withers

Re: outlawing the purchase of Huawei networking kit to build 5G networks

" Local companies were ordered to eradicate any Huawei tech from their 5G infrastructure by 2027."

Looks like they were a bit fussed...

AI coding tools crash on launch, could reboot better in future

Re: Natural vs. programming language

..and will it be able to cope with grocers' apostrophes?

(ambiguities)

G

Thousands of NASA senior staffers expected to quit after budget slashed

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world

Fresh UK postcode tool points out best mobile network in your area

Perhaps they used a signal strength metre and didn't want to create confusion... oh wait....

Hmm.

According to the map, if I want to get good "indoor" coverage where I live, I need to go and stand in the middle of a large area of farmland/ponds/lakes with virtually no dwellings where you can be "indoors". Very useful information. Probably accurate though.

The launch of ChatGPT polluted the world forever, like the first atomic weapons tests

Re: Huh what a load of twaddle

If these models are trained on human output, are they already using "loose" (opposite of tight) where they should use "lose" (opposite of win)? Humans often do.

Musk's smog-belching Colossus datacenter slammed by civil rights group

Re: Are you rich and white?

I think that the location of the facility does the discrimination part..

Anthropic CEO frets about 20% unemployment from AI, but economists are doubtful

Yes, but it would probably order a cull of the population as the only logical way to balance the budgets, solve climate change etc.

Europe warns giant e-tailer to stop cheating consumers or face its wrath

Happy, but still careful..

I have been very happy with my Aliexpress experience so far - delivery in about a week, acceptable returns/refund system (used that twice).

Always read the description carefully and click on the various options - often the initial picture is NOT what you get for the headline low price.

Meta blames Trump tariffs for ballooning AI infra bills

Re: why not just build a foundry in the USA and sell chips?

..where "only a short time" = a significant number of years

30 percent of some Microsoft code now written by AI - especially the new stuff

Re: Number game bullshit

If you had a Tesla you would have to do exactly that...

Re: Only 30%?

Buggy McBugface obviously :)

Artist formerly known as Indian Business Machines pledges $150B for US ops, R&D

Re: Math ain't matching for me

Probably relying on the fact that the Orange Felon hasn't got the attention span to read beyond the "$30 billion" - not even as far as "over 5 years"..

Make Arithmetic Great Again

Techie diagnosed hardware fault by checking customer's coffee

Re: Please do not all power on at once

Oooo - just spotted the VERY rare "lose" when it should be "loose". Usually it is the other way round :)

(I'm sure it was just a typo..)

Trump derails Chinese H20 GPU sales, forcing Nvidia to eat $5.5B this quarter

Interesting typo:

"mere morals". Hmmm.

Uncle Sam kills funding for CVE program. Yes, that CVE program

Up or down...???

Aaargh - I want to upvote for the reference, but downvote for the "American's" (no apostrophes in plurals please).