Posts by TVU

NOAA ditches weather-predicting supercomputers for Google Cloud

"NOAA ditches weather-predicting supercomputers for Google Cloud"

I don't think it is a good idea to wholly give up on site computational capability given internet and service provider interruptions.

Signals are grim for Jodrell Bank Observatory after UK science funding decision

Re: criminal

Yes, this is a wholly unacceptable act of egregious philistinism and I hope to see a strong campaign that successfully reverses these unjust cuts.

UK.gov withholds £10M payment from Capita over pensions project fiasco, as dispute continues

Re: What

Well, Capita was already a known basket case before they were awarded this contract and the management of civil service pensions should never have been outsourced in the first place.

DRAM prices are killing the cheap smartphone

"DRAM prices are killing the cheap smartphone"

Nevertheless, I don't expect to see a rush to buy Doro feature phones since there is still a wide range of smartphones available at or below £100.

T-Mobile appears to be quitting VMware – and fighting a very familiar battle for support rights on the way out

Re: I haven't followed this saga closely

Personally, I wish that Broadcom had never bought VMware in the first place and with any predatory acquisitions (Hi, Oracle), it's the poor old customer that loses out in the end.

Former Microsoft engineer shrinks Notepad down to size

"Former Microsoft engineer shrinks Notepad down to size"

^ Now that is how things should be and thank you to Dave Plummer for doing the significant pruning of unnecessary fluff.

Capita is about to sail past deadline to fix civil service pensions scheme

Re: Oh it can easily be fixed.

I checked out my thesaurus and it turns out that the synonym for Capita is Clusterfuck. Personally, and given their known history, I don't think that they should ever have been on the shortlist for handling civil service pensions.

MX Linux 25.2 provides possible refuge from AI as well as systemd

Re: systemd hate

Indeed, and do wish that the systemd developers would do a lot more listening when concerns/bugs/etc are raised:

https://ludditus.com/2024/06/24/is-systemd-cancer-a-reignited-debate/

LibreOffice brands Euro-Office a 'de facto ally' of Microsoft's lock-in strategy

I could understand their comment more if EuroOffice had been directly based off LibreOffice but that isn't the case.

I think that comment is bit strong particularly since Euro-Office is aimed at getting people to actually move away from Microsoft's products.

Canada wants to make its own AI, break free from US bots

"The Canadian government on Thursday announced a new "AI for All" national strategy that will see Ottawa direct CA$1 billion ($719 million) toward expanding AI adoption and supporting Canada's AI sector"

Given all the talent that is in Canadian universities, I don't doubt that Canada could develop its own AI capabilities that are independent of the USA.

Remote work – not AI – is killing job prospects for the youth

Remote work – not AI – is killing job prospects for the youth

I have to say that AI is starting to have a negative effect on job prospects for young people in entry level and junior clerical work roles.

Japanese Space Agency names arrival date for BepiColombo Mercury mission

That is a good update and Mercury ought to be twinned with the Moon given the similarities of their displayed geological features eg Caloris Planitia and Mare Orientale, etc not to mention the many thousands of craters.

Americans would rather have a nuclear plant in their backyard than a datacenter

"AI server farms have become politically toxic"

The fact that data centres have become unwanted and more politically toxic than nuclear reactors will hopefully encourage the promoters of these projects to get creative and come up with much more energy efficient data centre designs.

KDE bags €1.3M as Europe realizes it might need an OS of its own

I very much welcome this news and I would like to see much more funding like this for open source operating systems and software.

Chrome silently installs a 4 GB local LLM on your computer

"Chrome silently installs a 4 GB local LLM on your computer"

As Mr C from The Shamen said on the Ebeneezer Goode music track, "Naughty, naughty, very naughty!"

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

Microsoft to stop taking reservations for 17 Azure VM flavours, kill 13 in 2028

Re: Pay the AI-geld

I believe the relevant term there is "price gouging".

Pro-Iran crew turns DDoS into shakedown as Ubuntu.com stays down

The least impolite thing I can say about these hackers is that they are complete and total scumbags.

NASA boss: make Pluto a planet again

The International Astronomical Union on a small vote decided that they would make the solar system more complex with their arbitrary definitions of what constitutes a planet.

If it was up to me, I would do just it on mass as in 10^22kg so that Pluto gets reinstated and Eris gets to be planet giving 10 planets in total.

Oracle plans to power its New Mexico mega datacenter with a 2.45GW fuel cell farm

"Oracle is pitching it as a green move nonetheless"

Well, it most certainly isn't a green move as this datacentre will be powered by a fossil fuel. If Larry had agreed for this datacentre to be powered by a new solar farm in sunny New Mexico then he would have a valid point but he doesn't so it's all just total BS on his part.

Ubuntu Resolute Raccoon spits out Xorg, but still lets you run X11 apps

Personally, I would have very much preferred that the Xorg option had stayed even if it wasn't the default option because of the assorted software incompatiblities when Wayland is used.

https://gist.github.com/probonopd/9feb7c20257af5dd915e3a9f2d1f2277

Apple has an opportunity to rediscover humanity in its push toward AI

Re: Form over function

I think things would have been better if Steve Wozniak had remained closely involved with the development of Apple's hardware and operating systems but that will be one of history's "What Ifs".

I very much welcome John Ternus' appointment as head of Apple given his technical background and I hope that meaningful changes can be made as apposed to the promotion of more frivolous developments.

For example, I would back up the suggestion that has already been made in these comments that Apple products ought to be more repairable and sustainable and I hope that he can now listen to developers and business people so that Apple products are not just lifestyle toys and somewhat expensive ones at that.

One of the saddest things that happened under Cook and Ive was that form took precedence over function and that a lot use useful Apple software was either dumbed down or completely axed.

NASA Inspector fears new spacesuits won’t be ready for Moon landing

Re: What the actual?

"Or is this just one huge clusterfuck on all sides?"

Many large projects end up as clusterfucks due to poorly written contracts, unforeseen cost overruns, sudden changes in delivery time or specification changes part way through a project, etc.

If NASA wants these spacesuits on time then they ought to go the best most experienced contractor and pay $$$ for that.

Raspberry Pi OS ends open-door policy for sudo

Purely by coincidence, Sudo is also Latin for I sweat so now we know.

Japanese rocket part came unglued, leading to mission failure

"Japanese rocket part came unglued, leading to mission failure"

It is unfortunate but at least the fault has been identified so measures can now be taken so that it doesn't happen again. That said, if they do have to use glue then they ought to be using epoxy resin glues as they are the best around.

World's smallest violin spotted at Amazon HQ as exec pay packets deflate

"World's smallest violin spotted at Amazon HQ as exec pay packets deflate"

As Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons would say, "Ha Ha!"

AI agents found vulns in this popular Linux and Unix print server

"AI agents found vulns in this popular Linux and Unix print server"

I would be more impressed if AI coding agents could actually eliminate said vulnerabilities.

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

I use my older Andoid tablet with ebooks.com plus local library service apps and they all still work fine.

In these days of supposed environmental awareness, Bezos & Amazon should not be instantly turning working Kindle ebook readers and tablets into instant trash and that is an environmentally irresponsible thing to do.

Apple's chips are the core of a new landscape, but its biggest win is Windows

"Every year of Apple Silicon, the experience of using a Mac has gotten better. Every year of Windows 11, the experience of using a PC has gotten worse"

^ I fully agree with you and some of the issues concerned with Windows 11 include unnecessary and unwanted cruft being added all the time plus untested updates that bork people's computers. Microsoft are starting to show some signs that they realise that they have a problem such as providing more freedom over the interface layout.

That said, it is too little, too late and I suspect that Statcounter will report an increase in macOS market share over the next few months at the expense of Windows 11. It is also worth reminding everyone that Microsoft should never have broken its promise to continue with a rolling release Windows 10 and that is one of Satya Nadella's worst ever mistakes.

Oracle cuts jobs across sales, engineering, security

Indeed, and that level of staff cuts can only result in one thing - a worse service for their customers.

HMRC hands £473M Fujitsu migration deal to AWS after competition melts away

Re: Sums

^ Absolutely this! I would like to see all Fujitsu contracts ended by the UK government and the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and permanently banned from any new contracts until they agree to jointly fund the postmasters' compensation scheme to the tune of £hundreds of millions.

Microsoft fixes broken Windows update days after vowing fewer broken updates

Re: The really sad part is the Windows core is, or was better than this

It appears that Windows 11 is now becoming as unloved as Windows 8 and the most important thing about an operating system is that it should be stable and reliable.

"The patch comes just a few days after Windows boss Pavan Davuluri promised an era of reliability and stability for Microsoft's operating system"

^ I hope that he has been drug tested because that promise of his comes across as a delerium-induced statement.

Palantir trial plugs into UK financial watchdog's data trove

Yes, it is disturbing given the controversial nature of Palantir plus I wouldn't be at all surprised if they kept all the data from this short term test contract even if there are obliged to delete it.

Competition watchdog cracks knuckles, probes legality of Adobe cancellation fee

Re: Bullshit and greed

I fully agree with you about the commercial greed aspect plus it generates customer ill will. You used to be able to get perpetual licences for the cut down Photoshop Elements but now it's only a three year licence and then the software stops working.

The free Canva Affinity range can be combined with, for example, a Lightroom equivalent that offers a perpetual licence, eg Exposure 7.

Big moves in Linux filesystems as new bcachefs lands and KDE adds support for Apple's APFS

Re: btrfs vs bcachefs

^ All that is very scary and I will be sticking with ext4.

Oracle unveils Project Detroit for faster Java interop with JavaScript and Python

Re: Not with a barge pole

"Licence changes incoming!"

...that will highly likely disbenefit existing and new customers (we are dealing with Oracle after all).

Apple’s MacBook Neo turns out to be its most repairable lappy in 14 years

"Apple’s MacBook Neo turns out to be its most repairable lappy in 14 years"

That is welcome news and it is better for the environment as well. That said, it will be interesting to see if other equipment launches follow the MacBook Neo's promising lead.

NASA pencils in fresh Artemis II Moon launch attempt for April 1

Well, I wouldn't have launched this rocket on April Fools' Day although it's probably a bit better than launching on Friday 13th.

On a serious note, it was stated that "NASA will also skip a third Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), a test in which the rocket is fuelled and ground crews work through launch procedures". NASA ought to have learned by now that skipping checks invariably ends in a bad way so I do not approve of what they propose to do.

That said, I do approve of them doing an Apollo 8-style figure of 8 loop around the Moon first before trying an actual landing although it appears that they won't be going into direct orbit(s) of the Moon.

Atlassian to shed ten percent of staff, because AI

Yes, AI has become a very convenient excuse to sack staff no matter how much they have contributed to the company or how long they have been there. It's also interesting that these supposed AI layoffs just happen to coincide with those companies that are not generally known for their stellar treatment of staff.

MariaDB backs down on Galera removal after community outcry

«"Galera dependencies are being removed even from the binaries, without a commit message or a task description. From the GitHub discussions, those who should know what is happening appear to be in the dark," he complained»

That was somewhat naughty and underhand of MariaDB management to try to pull that stunt and thankfully instant mass opposition helped them to change their mind.

Norway's Consumer Council takes aim at enshittification

"Norway's Consumer Council takes aim at enshittification"

Perhaps starting with Windows 11?

Motorola partners with GrapheneOS for future phones

It is good to hear that GrapheneOS now has a partner in the form of Motorola. I hope that the partnership works well and all credit to lead developer Daniel Micay.

The history of CopperheadOS and GrapheneOS also makes for an interesting read.

LibreOffice Online dragged out of the attic, dusted off for another go

To their credit though, the Collabora staff do contribute to the improvement of Libre Office.

There has also been some unfortunate falling out about current events:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46901930

Windows 11 tops market share as 10 faces extended farewell

That it has taken so long for Windows 11 to reach this milestone is because of the reluctance on the part of satisfied Windows 10 users to switch to the cruft-filled Windows 11 until it was absolutely necessary.

Jack Dorsey’s fintech outfit Block announces 40% layoffs, blames AI, gets 23% stock bump

Re: FUCK YOU Jack Dorsey

Yes, Dorsey has form on sackings even when he owned Twitter, he then sold Twitter to Musk, almost certainly knowing that there would be more staff cuts and now he's back to sacking his own staff again.

If you want a medium to long term job, then do not join any of Dorsey's (misad)ventures.

Hubble in a death spiral that could end as early as 2028 without a reboost

Re: 2028 sounds like a death sentence for Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope is still doing great work that complements the newer infrared James Webb Space Telescope and so I would very much like to see a rescue mission to boost the HST's orbital height as there are not going to any new space telescopes anytime soon.

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

I fully agree with you. An albeit complex programme running on silicon chips powered by electricity can never know what it is like to be a human biological female or male.

GhostBSD to ditch Xorg for XLibre as Red Hat's Wayland crusade leaves X11 fans out in the cold

While Wayland has gained more ground, it is still far from being a professional product. For example, I still find that Xorg works better and more consistently than Wayland when it comes to my applications and screens management.

I shall also continue to follow the Xlibre project with interest.