Posts by Keven E

US government use of AI is shoddy and failing citizens – because no one knows how it works

Designed obscure

"The lawsuit allowed an expert to pry into some parts of the system, which was deemed impenetrable."

"...has recommended that external auditing could help companies work out to weed out bugs and assess how effective systems are before they’re rolled out to reduce harm."

If those, too, are pre-deemed impenetrable will they NOT be rolled out until self-audits can be fully performed? At what point do the (presumably) self-appointed auditors (experts) give up and deem such impenetrable? Some actuary is gonna set that point where ROI and anticipate lost lawsuits are offsetting in the companies favor. Me using the word "favor" there is being *generous.

Turns out download speed isn't everything when streaming video on your smartphone

Re: Empty assertion with no data to back it up

Nice ranking, US. No surprise... the monopolies are keeping the supply side as expensive as possible by loudly marketing just the little bit better "coverage" than the next guy (of which there really are only two, at the most in any area) and over selling capacity. They aren't selling an *actual customer service... just the illusion of it.

Why waste away in a cubicle when you could be a goddamn infosec neuromancer on £50k*?

Re: neurodiverse ?

"Does anyone else get the irony of describing people..."

It is a word that struck me as *odd... but not ironic at all... more like completely patronizing and pairing that descriptor with "women" kinda pisses me off a bit at the men's (dog)clubhouse attitude still being prevalent enough as to throw others a bone of pseudo *compliance to diversity.

Bloke accused of netting $5m on inside info about Lattice Semiconductor

Fine my...

So the fine would be the same as returning the net ill gotten gain?

Google Chrome update to label HTTP-only sites insecure within WEEKS

It's not "browsing" anymore..

So my browser is gonna tell me that every time I access my print server's config page? Will I be able to tell it to add exceptions for future visits? I doubt it.

Nominet throws out US corp's attempt to seize Brit domain names

Re: Spending $40,000 on Lawyers Rather Than $40,000 to Buy the Stupid Domain

Certainly a much more suburban, republican approach than any "Chicago" way.

PETA calls for fish friendly Swedish street signage

Re: Non PC

I remember "Nuke the Whales"... made it all the way to Chitown...

and also, at that time, the ever so popular... "Save the Plankton" movement.

BOFH: Their bright orange plumage warns other species, 'Back off! I'm dangerous!'

Re: Best BOFH in recorded history

That is a good one...

... this one screams... slightly louder, methinks.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/15/bofh_2013_episode_11/

On 20th anniversary of Microsoft antitrust, US Treasury Sec calls for Google monopoly probe

Re: "I wonder why Bing isn't the dominant search engin" @AC

It still cracks me up/pisses me off/makes me cry when I say to a user "go to adobe.com" (or whatever) and they type it into the google search field, not the address bar. Some of their traffic is just plain *untrained.

Bowel down: Laxative brownies brought to colleague's leaving bash

Re: Revenge is a dish best served wet

"So technically, this was not illegal, was it?"

I dunno... I hear it's illegal (US) to have an electric shocker hooked up to your car alarm... so that when someone sets it off... "bzzzzzzzT" they get a good shock if they are still touching metal. "Crims rights" or some shite...

You're in charge of change, and now you need to talk about DevOps hater Robin

Re: DevOps - nearly a decade old already?

Well done, Doc. I just look at those two and know very well I won't get to the end... and then don't bother trying..

US Congress finally emits all 3,000 Russian 'troll' Facebook ads. Let's take a look at some

Re: The real problem

Democracy and capitalism have considerably different goals.

Facebook misses Brit MPs' deadline, promises answers on Monday

Fame is highly overrated

... by 109,831,827 in this case.

New law would stop Feds from demanding encryption backdoor

Re: Fine obstructionist behavoiur it is then

"...so that money can be saved and less police need to be employed."

Hilarious!

Make masses carry their mobes, suggests wig in not-at-all-creepy speech

Just filling in the gaps

"...But the remark in and of itself shows there *is* a school of thought towards this kind of mass surveillance present and active..."

Wait a min... doesn't (pretty much) every street corner in every city got a camera? "School" of thought? More like a whole "educational mandate" already.

DeepMind: Get a load of our rat-like AI. 'Ere, look. It solves mazes and stuff

Education

If we just spent the same amount of *extra time and energy on teaching humans...

Boss sent overpaid IT know-nothings home – until an ON switch proved elusive

Re: “...hated us for being over-paid and under-skilled.”

If you hold the cd tray eject button while powering a machine on it'll usually open the tray before attempting to boot from what's in it.

I've actually found an install cd left in "refurbished" gear.

Don’t fight automation software for control, just turn it off. FAST

Re: Busy

"The disagreement was settled within minutes of our meeting face-to-face when we could interact directly."

It is remarkable. I've experienced that face to face meeting of someone that I've "known" for a long time only thru online or e-communications that my impressions are so... just way off... and not only what my minds eye has created, but how mannerisms either reveal or weakly hide what spoken words are. Even having just phone conversations create biases.

Re: Busy

"But in a competitive business world, as the saying goes, "Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby." Face-to-face interactions (IOW, intentional INefficiency) impresses and could mean the difference between inking a lucrative contract and losing it to a rival who put forth the effort."

I don't disagree... except for the blatant conspicuous consumption part. However, I suspect that contract signer that's wooed by this seems to be one of P.T.Barnums (sic) suckers.... perhaps a moth drawn to the flame you've provided... or perhaps competitive business has the perfect training wheel set to keep the classhole ball rolling...

Busy

"I expect my commute to work, should I choose to accept it to be quite pleasant, of course, with a few other additions, I might seriously consider not needing the house."

All this excessive commuting is really the cause. Services and goods need to move around, no doubt... but in proportion people doing so. All these meetings and/or collections of workers require a support system that in this day and age may not be as frugal as it once was, and certainly not so motivated by social interaction as it was in the past given what's currently *masking as people "socially" interacting.

As I'm watching this transpire in downtown Chicago, I feel there must be a very large % of wasted travel knowing this urban infrastructure can support remotely connected *processing (etc), and these ain't factory workers assembling to be an assembly line.

It's also quite evident that a large majority of these cars are transporting only the driver... and I'd imagine it's the same path and time every day. This is, however, that sense of freedom and independence, self reliance (and perhaps control) that driverless cars will never replace.. which I know is the reason I enjoy driving.

Re: Even in the extremely unlikely event that fully autonomous vehicles ever become viable

"Computers won't replace all the lawyers, accountants and office workers in ten years time and self-driving cars won't have taken over by then either."

A really *exciting courtroom scene impending is one self-driving car co suing another self-driving car co for damages related to the "I had more active, on-board sensors" defense.

Has your machine really learned something? Snap quiz time

Prego

"...go together like smoked salmon and champagne."

Bringing those together wastes them both.

I'm sure Boole would agree... being such an isolationist. <snicker>

My Tibetan digital detox lasted one morning, how about yours?

Re: Rein in your notification settings!

"The scope of some permissions and notifications is quite extensive, requiring dilligent hunting in all settings screens both in the app, the app store, the phone, and hidden areas of the phone settings."

My gmail really, really wants access to my body sensors for some reason.

How machine-learning code turns a mirror on its sexist, racist masters

Re: No Asian, African texts?

"These stereotypes are automatically learned by the embedding algorithm, and could be problematic if the embedding is then used for sensitive applications such as search rankings, product recommendations, or translations."

OK, translations can be *sensitive. Product recommendations? a few, I suppose... but search rankings? The marketing dept needs to get over itself.

Apple, if you want to win in education, look at what sucks about iPads

Re: Tablets and STEM

"Tech messes with that process."

Well done, sir.

Parents blame brats' slipping school grades on crap internet speeds

Surveying is the new whatever

"So the 3.9 hours is the avereage of children aged 5 who bring home one reading book each week to children aged 18 who are expected to do homework and revise for three or possibly four A-levels. I think the conclusion is whatever you would like it to be."

Yep. There are just too many variables. The difference between expected learning between 5yr olds and 18yr olds just isn't worth even taking the time to sort out, and certainly not any valuable insight gained from that age range spread over 985 respondents. WTF uswitch? Deadline creep?

To Puerto Ricans: A Register apology

Re: Delusions of grandeur

1) Repair the cell towers served by/to emergency response teams. Not familiar with how many carriers there are there, but..

A) Cover the most people possible as fast as possible. (looks good on *paper)

#) Do the easy ones first, but some cell towers don't just serve cellphone service.

+) We already know there wasn't a *ton of stockpiled spare infrastructure parts hanging around, and they are most likely not shipping anything assembled whole ready for "plug and play".

My personal contact with friends there say the electrical service is all over the map with outages... perhaps we can see a graph with a coupla more data points extrapolated.

No, BMW, petrol-engined cars don't 'give back to the environment'

Re: The only way to make cars give back to the environment

The need for stuff and services to be mobile is real. Reliance (such as it is) on so much commuting, especially in dense population areas, is artificially inflated by ease of access.

Super Cali's futuristic robo-cars in focus – even though watchdogs say they're something quite atrocious

Re: Bah!

Yeah... all it needs is a ..."The" - watchdogs. Perhaps there's something automated getting in the way...

Pay attention to the man behind the...

Great, we're gonna have Uber auto /*driver supervisors that can barely navigate without a screen in front of them currently... how are they gonna be monitored to make sure they ain't, when responsible, distracted by tweeting? Certainly it's time for traffic cops to be able to give out moving violation tickets and suspend licenses to those that are supposedly paying attention.

Is it the right time to virtualize?

Buried in time

...You’ve run your legacy infrastructure into the ground. You bought it six or seven years ago with a view to depreciating the hardware over four years, or perhaps even three, so it’s done its time and then some.

"Legacy"? You ageist wanker. Just wait till they get to be drinking and/or voting age then let the descriptors fly! <snicker>

Trump-hating Iranian is the new Uber CEO

Nothing wrong with the concept... it's the practice

Three times... just this morning... my public transit bus, trying to use the allotted bus stop, was blocked by an Uber car.

Simple problem: They are driving for commerce - they should have a commercial drivers license (and subject to all else that entails) and perhaps some need to learn how to drive amongst the rest of public transportation.

President Trump to his council of industry CEO buddies: You're fired!

Under pressure

Trumps tweet... "Rather than putting pressure on the business people..."

What an arrogant twit. He really thinks being POTUS is like (private) ownership of a business.

Ofcom: Blighty has devolved into a nation of unwashed binge-streaming mole people

Re: this is no different to any other hobby

"27 per cent said they neglected housework or chores, "

*Neglected my arse. They were never planned or even planned to be planned.

Democrats (still a thing, apparently) are super unhappy about AT&T's Time-Warner merger

Divert this

https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate

Segway hoverboard hijack hack could make hipsters eat pavement

Re: I mustnt be a hipster...

james 68 this has to be an 'other side of the pond' recognized description. Hipster's seem to be more of a trend follower than anti-trend... from what I've seen. Twitter, starbucks, ecigs, macbooks... way too mainstream... although there is a certain irony in having longer hair on your face than on your head...

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser

Re: Resist with crowdfunded RPNs...

I once lived 100 meters away from my office (bad idea I know, but), and I always wanted to climb the service poles that traveled directly between the two places and tie on a line to run an office phone extension directly to my home (proof of bad idea I know, but). I often wondered how long it would take for either the cable co, electric co, or phone co to find it and break out the wire snips...

Google hit with record antitrust fine of €2.4bn by Europe

"..which was making Google Search unusable when trying to find information or reviews rather than buy a product."

Which is why I do most information hunting on wiki first...

Questioning social worth

"That's a pretty staggering level of hoodwinking."

Well done, AC

Breaking news, literally: Newspaper's quakebot rumbled for fake story

Real time monitoring...

... was the point of my choice of seismograph...kinda eliminates the 92 year error. I wonder how large does it have to be for USGS to issue an email?

"The LA Times' Quakebot is an automatic article-generating program that uses algorithms to turn email alerts from the US Geological Survey (USGS) into news stories. "

Really? An algorithm? That sounds quite *bullshitty or at least some human started the error. How about just hook it up to an active seismograph?

Breach at UK.gov's Cyber Essentials scheme exposes users to phishing attacks

Nobody really knows

First it was your email address and the company name. Then it was revealed it was email, company and originating IP address. Next (of course) it's email, company name , IP address and exactly what service you provide,... then (just to keep each blow from getting to overwhelming) it's, well, email, Company name, IP addy, specific service and the project manager's significant other's maiden name,... and then...

Connectivity's value is almost erased by the costs it can impose

Re: ... and a descent into a kind of stupidity we haven’t seen in many years.

It doesn't help when one blurs what is "intelligence" with what is truly/only "access to information"... like this article does. Sure... perhaps we that come here may know what you are intending to say... but telling Mary and Joe flipflop that having a smart phone makes them more intelligent is disingenuous at best. Notice (as of this post) no comments yet are calling what it is the internet offers "intelligence". It's like calling Uber "ride sharing".

Japanese cops arrest their first ransomware-slinging menace – er, a 14-year-old school boy

Re: Hey 'kiddo', is your hairline receding? Hahaha...

"Barring grant of petition to the court, you will remain residing at your parents abode until age 30."

He was gonna be a 30 year old nerd living there anyway.

The nuclear launch button won't be pressed by a finger but by a bot

Re: You are sort'a correct

"There was only one time in history when they were on that alert status - "

This guy seemed to be on the precipice... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

NSA takes one-two punch to the face

An appointment with fate

As much as one may like to believe judges are working with good judgment... they are appointees (sic).

As you stare at the dead British Airways website, remember the hundreds of tech staff it laid off

Re: Correlation is not causation

"The only way that a minimum quality can be guaranteed is multinational government intervention on matters such as passenger space, etc, to set a lower limit on how bad things can get."

Perhaps governments can support an education that'll produce more "Dog expertise" instead of the crap passing for *skills known as "marketing ".... not that we'd want air travel to turn into a system of "public transit"... ahem.

Salesforce joins 'smart' software bandwagon

"Bandwagon" has got to be tongue-in-cheek usage

"Profitable machine dependence" and "major decision - personal... made with the help of AI and cognitave technologies."

This is why you don't have any friends.

Net neutrality? Bye bye, says American Pai

Wait a min...

... it's because the current US providers ARE monopolies. What part of...

...nevermind.