* Posts by Disk0

276 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Feb 2016

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Programmer finds way to liberate ransomware'd Google Smart TVs

Disk0
Coat

With the TV powered off,

How is anything going to happen while the TV is powered off? Stand-by is probably the mode we are looking for.

Also:

"With the TV powered off,

open a window and firmly shove the apparatus outwards to see how smart it is in dealing with gravity and impact on the pavement.

FTFY

Beauty is in the AI of the beholder: Young blokes teach computer to judge women by their looks

Disk0
Boffin

Re: Perfectly possible

Whereas us uggies know all too well how conceited, backhanded and vile the ablist, nice-looking people with good teeth are, giving rise to a healthy level of cynicism and distrust, and an arguably justified hostile attitude towards people in general for being patronizing dicks to anyone who does not fit in a Benneton commercial. But that could just be the booze talking at this point.

Disk0
Coat

Re: "... a convoluted neural network ..."

Who says it isn't though?

Convoluted, that is, given the warped world view of the operators and the resulting broken way the network processes imagery in order to estimate likelyhood of likeness to the eye of some Chinese nerds...

Mine's the one with the copy of "Bluff your way into AI" in the side pocket...

Remember that amazing video of the whale leaping out the gym floor and splashing down? Yeah, it was BS

Disk0
Angel

It looks like you are trying to build Aperture Science Project #748/b

..the parts for which are only available from Reynholm Industries. Since they can't confirm or deny anything, I call shehanigans.

If your Xmas party expenses left you with a hangover, you should see Dell's spending

Disk0
Thumb Up

Good thin I didn't buy any of their stocks then.

Micron wheels out 'highest density' SATA SSD on the market

Disk0
Joke

I'll have two!

..for my laptop, and two for my other laptop, and two for the missus' laptop, and two for the kids' laptops, and two for the media player laptop, and two for backups, and then finally we can download the Entire Internet. Is that so wrong?

Brexit means Brexit: What the heck does that mean...

Disk0
Coat

government(s) curtail freedom

....mine's the one with the cookbook in he left side pocket...

Sysadmin figures out dating agency worker lied in his profile

Disk0
Boffin

fsck the whole conundrum

Apple figured this one out at least a decade ago: show a caps lock symbol /next/ to the password entry box so no matter what kind of keyboard you are using, you will be able to tell if caps lock is on or off. Very helpful when trying to login to a gui system remotely, when you can't see the keyboard caps lock light on the other side. Still no use for people who refuse to look at the fsck*ing screen.

Being of the unflappable temperament that so often accompanies the understanding of technogical shortcomings, I still rage for a good minute every time I manage to engage Keypad/calculator mode on a Mac laptop, however.

San Francisco's sinking luxury Millennium Tower: Tilt spotted FROM SPACE

Disk0
Pint

but what about the satellites

Apparently they can detect if I'm slouching on my way to the supermarket today? I think that is a blatant invasion of my privacy tbh.

And why do we even carry tape measures anymore? I'd like an app that tells me the dimension of everything I point at with 1mm precision, measured by same sattelites.

Drops the mic... Hang on, hackers could be listening through my headphones?

Disk0

Re: I wonder...

if they can hack your headphones they'll most likely have hacked your mic too... An intrepid developer might even be able to listen in while you are playing music by comparing the signal feed and return.

Stay out of my server room!

Disk0
Thumb Up

Well put

"Either the people you work for and with will back you and value the service you provide or they are going to continue to make whatever you do worthless."

You put it into perspective nicely!

I've found myself in the latter situation too often, and wondered how come I got demotivated, stopped producing anything meaningful, and felt generally worthless despite normally being reasonably capable, productive enough to pass general muster, and capable to be cheerfully cynical.

I've always written it off to lack of inspiration in unimaginative environments, but the notion of value seems much more relevant.

Why I just bought a MacBook Air instead of the new Pro

Disk0
Happy

Funny how everybody has their own reasons, and they rarely carry over to the next person.

I still have a PowerBook G3 with a cpu socket, two removable drive/battery bays, a card slot, and a dozen ports. I maxed it out right away, because that's almost always worth it.

That meant two batteries, a ZIP drive, a DVD drive, and an external harddisk, Total playtime about 5 hours. By the time I needed to upgrade any of it, the combined cost versus the gains did not compare to replacing it. It would not be able to take a G4 or G5 processor, faster memory or newer storage - simply because the slots and ports for these were not around when the laptop was built.

A new laptop will almost invariable have 2 - 3x performance, a better screen, longer battery life, less bulk. faster ports, you name it - but that even with all the upgrade options that one could possibly desire or imagine, none of these will extend the practical life of your laptop beyond those magical 7 years.

NB you can buy a complete (used) top panel for your old MacBook Pro for about 50 currency units, replacing it is very possible.

The solution to security breaches? Kill the human middleware

Disk0
Pint

Re: Buzzword Bingo

nice rant, cheers!

And with one stroke, Trump killed the Era of Slacktivism

Disk0
WTF?

CRUISE CONTROL FOR TRUTH

YOU need TO learn HOW to capitalize MORE WORDS & make THEM look MORE TRUTHISH B/C SMART PEOPLE only read the BIG WORDS. It's the INTERNET, you have to SHOUT LOUDER.

Bong: Let me talk to Trump

Disk0
Mushroom

Re: disappointed || appalled

If you can't stand the heat, don't set your kitchen on fire.

Top of the bots: This AI isn't a cold, cruel killing machine – it's a pop music hit machine

Disk0
Coat

Baby steps

New developments are always interesting.

Every technology can be used by artists to create new things.

Various applications spring to mind.

Electronic music could benefit from AI to make composing easier.

Rock musicians could try to overload the AI to see what that sounds like.

Guitar players would probably like to have AI effects pedals.

Organs and synthesizers could easily be simluated by an AI.

Next, we'll see AI accompanying modules on kiddie keyboards.

None of it will be a replacement for creativity;

All of it can potentially be used to create amazing things.

Mine's the one with dessert in the side pocket...

The hated Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal will soon be dead. Yay?

Disk0
Meh

Re: I wonder

What use is a treaty you don't agree with? You can't just forget about clause 51 that puts your national government in the twilight zone, or article 1080p that makes your nation liable for a decade of the citizen's taxes over the establishment of a fast-food restaurant. Also I don't think the text was a collective production, it was as you say a unilateral proposal, a yay or nay to participants.

Handling tech baggage: How American Airlines, US Airways merged IT

Disk0
Facepalm

"we can set this to go off at night and we get a report in the morning"

That statement alone is so terrifying I don't know where to start.

Setting things to go off, usually implies either alarms or bombs; the "Fire and Forget" mantra has apparently extended here from HR to IT policy.

I would not like to be on the receiving end of the morning report looking like this:

"Migration log: start time 0:00 Error: process initialisation failed. End log." Or words to that effect.

I know managers like the idea of automating staff tasks, but being there is still the only way to make sure everything goes as planned. I guess overtime for real work is a big nono with Big Air.

Siri, clone yourself and dive into this Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone

Disk0
Coat

Up next

your IoT washer gets hacked and now is now instructing you to send bitcoins to Ukraine, or it will explode.

If any idiot can do it, we're heading in the right direction

Disk0
Coat

Hide the complexity

and then add some more...

Brute force cred crunchers gifted Username Anarchy

Disk0
Coat

Just change your username

to \/µ|_†µ®€_©εñТ®æ|_.

Unless of course your system only accepts a limited characterset.

Mine's the one with the clay tablet in the side pocket...

Puppet shows its hand: All your software is belong to us

Disk0
Coat

I read that as Muppet

Mine's the one with the dummy in the side pocket...

Is this the worst Blockchain idea you've ever heard?

Disk0
Thumb Up

Online Adverts

track em with blockchain for optimum molasses loading effect.

Sysadmin flees asbestos scare with disk drive, blank pay cheques, angry builders in pursuit

Disk0
Coat

Lads! given the circumstances of YOU DESTROYING MY OFFICE, for this week's payout you will receive cold hard cash directly from the boss. He's right over there behind the asbestos crew.

Glued-shut IT wallets hindered UK govt's programmes – study

Disk0
Holmes

Yes minister.

You'll implement a trajectory to plan for an inventory session to kick off the start of preparations for defining your project scope so you can appoint a committee to handle the actual project conceptualization from which you develop a working model of the organisation structure that you plan to deploy as a pilot to work with focus groups.

But will you sign off on the resources that are needed to implement your policy...? I guess that would be foolish. Implementations, or "real world results" as we call them in chambers, are just a hobby thing for the invisible basement geeks that we hate because they understand what they are doing, and who do they think they are to want tools and money to do their work...?

Apple’s macOS Sierra update really puts the fan into 'fanboi'

Disk0
Coat

It's intentional

Apple has fans running WILD for Sierra!

Windows updates? Just trust us, says Microsoft executive

Disk0
Thumb Up

Re: antitrust suit

I should start wearing one of those over my asbestos longjohns...

Filmmaker Werner Herzog interviews Elon Musk for internet doco

Disk0
Windows

Re: The ultimate Herzog + Musk + Internet film

It doesn't bother me one bit that the ad does not load, however it does block the content. Best get rid of that 486 serving up the ad, it obviously can't cope with the latest Flash update. It's in the cupboard under the stairs, just unplug it.

Is there paper in the printer? Yes and it's so neatly wrapped!

Disk0
Trollface

A bit like the water in Flint then, a murky kind of Kool Aid...

Disk0
Coat

I know that song!

Sir McCartney and the Dead Weird Guy Formerly Known As MJ, it was a song about agony and irony living together in perfect misery side by side in this cruel world...

Disk0
Holmes

Bell curves

According to George Carlin, a well-recognised top level boffin on the topic of the human condition, at any point in time, 50 % of the people are on the lower side of average on the bell curve, and less intelligent than average. Add that on top of being American, and like Homer, you will only need three fingers to complete the equation...

WhatsApp, Apple and a hidden source code F-bomb: THE TRUTH

Disk0
Megaphone

Nevermind debugging

an auto-uninstaller is what we need for Whatsapp. Another one*) bites the dust.

*) another piece of somewhat privacy oriented communications software.

Sysadmins: Poor capacity planning is not our fault

Disk0

Re: "get senior management to take the issues seriously"

When running a business, I think it is a good idea to understand the moving parts - or at least have someone around who does. It is rather typical of the suit contingent to blame people with no real decision making power for their failure to run the business or understand the processes. If they did, they would recognise the necessity of capacity planning, just as they recognize the need for a big enough warehouse for storing product.

Brexit must not break the cloud, Japan tells UK and EU

Disk0

Re: Transparent negotiations?

Even a divorce cake has to be earned, and shared...

Australia's mobile black spot program was a partisan money hole

Disk0

If you didn't vote for this government, you're not supposed to benefit from what they do with your taxes, right?

Intel's makeshift Kaby Lake Cores hope to lure punters from tired PCs

Disk0
Black Helicopters

Re: No W7 or 8

Sounds like your computer is fantasizing about being an autonomous vehicle, and trying to make you feel that, being a squishy one, you're a poor motorist by comparison.

EU 'net neutrality' may stop ISPs from blocking child abuse material

Disk0
Thumb Up

^ Managing each device

Indeed, the only place to ensure no unwanted connections are made, is at the connecting device, since there is no way to predict when it is going to connect to a compromised network.

If illegal content is hosted that is something for the courts.

The broken ad system is a marketplace problem so it has to be solved in/by the parties in the marketplace (advertisers, publishers, and consumers).

There's still room for regulating the distribution of invasive adware: for example if adware is invasive to privacy, courts could issue fines and takedown orders to the shops responsible, and servers taken. Consumer protection can take many forms, but Internet traffic prioritizatin does not seem to be the best tool for that particulat job.

Malicious usage can always be addressed - either as breach of service terms, or under the law.

I agree with free distribution of content and the freedom to peruse it, and an open market vs. the quagmire government regulated Internet traffic control.

Replacing humans with robots in your factories? Hold on just a sec

Disk0
Coat

Re: As a company...

I best like the artisanal Patagonian handwoven robots with environmental certification and tribal healing crystals...

Mine's the one with the metal wind-up toy in the side pocket....

UK.gov depts in post-Mad Frankie Maude landgrab over IT spending controls

Disk0
Coat

Does they even realise...

...the average App costs about £ 4,99? And seriously, even the government does not need 40,080 apps.

Mine's the one with the political calculator in the side pocket

My headset is reading my mind and talking behind my back

Disk0

Fat-shaming ear gadgets

What will they think of next? Judgmental walking canes that tell you to hurry up and die already to make room for some more millennials? Condescending handbags that tut at passersby who aren't fully colour coordinated? Or how about smarmy smart car keys telling you to leave the pub because you've had quite enough, and your ability to navigate towards the residence seems to be impaired already? Or E-cigarrettes with built in deathclock, telling you with each vape how much you have shortened your life, popular with the goth crowd I bet. Or my favourite pipe dream, smart underpants that fill in restaurant reviews for you with a detailed breakdown of the chemical composition of the food - such as the high sulphur content of those onion bhajis you took out yesterday...

The mind boggles at the endless possibilities, testament to how we as humanity are only just getting started on the path to ultimate decadence and machine dependency!

UK's mass-surveillance draft law grants spies incredible powers for no real reason – review

Disk0
Black Helicopters

Speaking in code not a thing either.

The way it has been done since the dawn of time...

Some examples, because fun:

this patio smells of elderberries < communications are compromised

i ran into this norwegian guy < our informer is dead

the dog ate my homework < we've lost access to the information

mother hasn't been well < Theresa May is still up to no good

grandma has a temper < oh look it's the queen chiming in

mom gave me a biscuit < i acquired sensitive information from my informant who works for the government

mom baked a cake < incoming police raid

mom baked an apple pie < incoming drone strike

mom baked a pumpkin pie < they're sending in US black ops

mom baked a maple pecan pie < they're sending in the Mounties

mom baked waffles < they're sending in the Belgians

mom baked brownies < enemy forces are high

the neighbour is mowing the lawn: Russia is conducting military operations near our territory

the neighbours are out for the weekend < Putin's western front is weak so now would be a good time to invade Russia

we're having a picnick < invade Russia

there are birds sitting on the laundry line < reg hacks are commenting on our invasive policies

We could do this all day, having the spooks nod off to bedtime stories while we take over the world...

To wrap it up, of course the entire policy and every official statement about it is code for:

"We don't care for, trust, or respect the population at large and are terrified of what might be up to because of our guilty conscience, therefore we must observe, control, manipulate and disable people as needed to stop them from interfering with our bid for absolute power, yet they're not allowed to know any of this."

Disk0
Coat

Re: Poor sods.

There's an app for that, too!

Disk0

Re: "Privacy built in"

dynasties and dictators fail too, so what was this guy's point? Apologist for the monarchs?

Things break over time and with enough stress, "cruft overwhelms the system" sounds more like bureaucracy anyway - of course simply being in charge and wielding despotic power is so much easier...

Disk0

Re: Well, that was predictable..

So much this!

It is also damn near impossible to guarantee there will not be any abuse, hacks, or leaks of any of this, like the leak of military personnel information and scores of others.

You HAVE to assume that malice, abuse, faults and leaks are likely, yet there don't seem to be solid provisions to prevent, mitigate or correct abuse, leaks or faults.

So doing this, over time you end up with massive amounts of data that is arguably sensitive, toxic and dangerous in anyone's hands, basically putting it out on a silver platter for anyone who cares to infiltrate, hack, or otherwise compromise your beautiful system.

But I guess this was the plan all along, and Brexit was needed to detach the UK from the EU in order to one-up Orwell's dystopia. It was, after all, Science Fiction, and all science fiction should be improved in reality with the populace as guineapigs.

New science: Pathetic humans can't bring themselves to fire lovable klutz-bots

Disk0
Thumb Up

I thought the criteria for the government as well as corporations were that you have to be a soulless drone who hates everything that lives...those robots might actually be an improvement!

Tim Cook's answer to crashing iPhone sales: More iPhones

Disk0

Re: Turning point?

The difference is I have about 7.395.318 cables with a 3,6 mm mini-jack attached to one end, and serving a variety of purposes, and exactly one lightning cable.

Speaking in Tech: Nope, sorry waiter. I won't pay with that card reader

Disk0

....but, then, you know, when you are in that situation, where you are not, as it were, reading, but more, by being engaged with an audio device, listening, paying attention to the person saying things, while they can see a little ticker showing them, you listen, so their ego can now feel caressed, and warm, because you listened, so they can carry on filling the time with their voice, and with getting your attention, and asking you to keep listening, it's something that you need to experience, to realize - what's that Simon? You brought an Uzi to this talk, how interesting, check it out listeners because Simon, who we know from our previous segment entitled talking with voices, now Simon has brought an actual full size real Uzi to the studio, it is obviously not a prop or a toy, it looks metallic and made a clanky sound when Simon hit the producer with it, don't do that Simon! They're not as cheap as they look! Oh well, producers, what are you gonna do. For those listeners who aren't aware the Uzi is an Israeli built firearm capable of shooting a lot of bullets in a very short time, so stay put because this might just get very exciting very soon. What are you going to do with that Uzi Simon, careful now, this glass may not be bulletproof....

Disk0
Thumb Up

How to piss off your barista...

part 13. I love it. Your card reader is DECLINED.

Bees bring down US stealth fighter

Disk0
Coat

They were all humming...

those B-52's tunes....

WHO'S A ROCK LOBSTER NOW

Fun fact of the day: Network routers are illegal in Japan

Disk0
Coat

I guess cycling on the walls is the only option...?

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