* Posts by steviebuk

2189 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Feb 2017

Oh look, cracking down on Big Tech works. Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi surge on iOS

steviebuk Silver badge

Next it should be Google/YouTube

For purposely making YouTube run and load slowly in Firefox, more so if using an adblocker.

Can AI shorten PC replacement cycles? Dell seems to think so

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Re: "shorten PC replacement cycles"

This is why I can't be a CEO or Consultant as I can't talk bullshit. She's saying what she knows investers want to hear with AI thrown in. Really, really, really fucking annoys me.

Maybe I should start up my own company NBIT

"No Bullshit IT"

The end of classic Outlook for Windows is coming. Are you ready?

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Re: And this is why

When they used to do their focus groups, like they did for launching Windows 95 they weren't too bad. But, when you have the CTO of Azure, Mark Russinovich, who created the sysinternals tools (along with Bryce Cogswell), who used to do his Case of the Unexplained talks (he's sadly stopped) he would regularly poke fun at the Office team for how shit Office was, its error dialogue boxes and bug reporting (obviously in a nicer way that I've just written it). He worked INTERNALLY at Microsoft, was a Technical Fellow, used his own tools to diagnose a problem with Office and this was mentioned on one of his talks (I've watched all those Case of the Unexplained, they are amazing for troubleshooting). They still told him to log it as a ticket and they'd fix it at some point.

It appears they haven't changed.

Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in

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Yet

When BT do FTTP to buildings, as they have at our work, they never full cover the cable going into the property, which I've pointed out many a time, someone can just come along and cut.

Openreach saving pennies so they don't have to put armour shielding around the cables.

UK finance minister promises NHS £3.4B IT investment to unlock £35B savings

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Re: Ah yes, Mr Hunt...

And also the prick that wouldn't pay for the extra XP patches so then lots of Trusts got infected with WannaCry.

I swear he has compromising pictures on lots of people hence why he's stayed in office for so long. He really is a "HUNT".

It's that most wonderful time of the year when tech cannot handle the date

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1999 cause I can't spell Millenium

So they always say the Millenium Bug was nothing, that it was hyped. I always said its because stuff was fixed before it. Doesn't this prove it could or would of been an issue if nothing had been done?

Funny, boring story is I was still in college in 1999, just finishing a HND and I never remember anyone mentioning Y2K to us. So when my brother in law asked me a quiz question at the time that was in the paper I knew nothing about it. Don't know why I missed it.

AI comes for jobs at studio of American filmmaker Tyler Perry

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Its wrong but I'm goign to exploit and use it

""I just hope … that there'll be some sort of thought and some sort of compassion for humanity," Perry said. "I think the only way to move forward in this is to galvanize it as one voice, not only in Hollywood and in this industry, but also in Congress.""

AI is bad for Hollywood but I'm going to use it anyway. Even though it will end up being shit.

Staff say Dell's return to office mandate is a stealth layoff, especially for women

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Re: Wouldn't suprise me

Granted it might be true but with the "don't rock the boat" attitude is why they continue to get away with it and why the Horizon scandal happened.

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Wouldn't suprise me

Companies will try anything they can to convince people to just quit instead so then they don't have to pay them any redundancy pay.

Space nukes: The unbelievably bad idea that's exactly that ... unbelievable

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Re: That was my thought, too.

I really, can't understand the thinking of people like you that believe the crap Trump comes out with. Growing up in the UK watching American movies in the 80s they were always against "The reds" just look at the shit that was Red Dawn (I finally watched it. Probably fun at the time). I enjoyed the likes of Hunt for Red October etc but they are just movies. It was always the joke the American's were in the audience go "Yeah 'merica".

Then Trump comes along and seems to love Russia (because he has money over there) and now all those red necks that hated the "Reds" appear to ignore all this and now fine with Trump paling up with "The Reds".

And then we have the issue with Ukraine, where you seem to be totally clueless in understanding that Putin wants the land so he can create the USSR again. Once that's done he'll start moving into Europe and be another Hitler. If America sits back because "We have a big ocean in the way, we'll be fine" won't be as the worlds economy will screwed and USA will be next to fall.

How to weaponize LLMs to auto-hijack websites

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Re: Maybe it's useful?

Can run basic tests using Kali Linux. Plenty of guides on YouTube for this. I did for our company website when the Wordpress got compromised because the on/off dev hadn't bothered to keep the plugins up-to-date.

Cutting kids off from the dark web – the solution can only ever be social

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Burner phone

Simple. It shouldn't be up to the government to be the nanny. Parents, if they want their kid to at least have the means to call in an emergency (now pretty much all pay phones have gone), then you buy then the old skool 90s burner phone. They are cheap, for a reason, and can only dial out, text or recieve calls. Put a limit on the txt messaging if needed.

It might be difficult, but still up to the parents to monitor their kids.

Adam Savage had a funny story of one of his sons he grounded and confiscated his phone. Handed it to him every evening I think it was. Anyway, at one point for whatever reason Adam checked the phone and realised he'd handed him a dummy phone and not the one he actually uses :o)

Techie climbed a mountain only be told not to touch the kit on top

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Much like Dell

"This story had a strange sequel: three months later, Edmund was asked to locate the defective kit, because he had sent the unused replacement back and the serial numbers didn't match."

Sent me a monitor replacement and the asset number didn't match. Told them it was the wrong one anyway. They sent replacement, another wrong one but appears to work but again asset tags don't match. Kept it anyway. Wonder if that will come back to byte. Might email them to point it out so there is a record.

How did China get so good at chips and AI? Congressional investigation blames American venture capitalists

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They didn't.

They stole everything and if you think their Sara AI is good then you're delusional.

Watch the wumao's come in.

Dell staff not alone in being squeezed to reduce remote work

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Re: Saying you'll quit isn't the same as quitting

Elons were businesses before he came along. He just bought them and then made everyone's working life a living hell to make his billions.

Billions lost to fraud and error during UK's pandemic spending spree

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Re: Oops, we stole it

Much like the tit that appears in the YouTube adverts about money in property. Can't remember his name but he just straight out came out with it. That people could claim Covid money, legally then use it to invest in property.

He really is a cunt. Yet YouTube continue to display his ads.

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Re: Oops, we stole it

I wonder if its cause "mates" were involved.

DEF CON is canceled! No, really this time – but the show will go on

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Re: Voting Machines don't get Hacked

"It would also help if the CCTV didn't show a few people pulling boxes out from under tables and doing some after-hours work at the counting sites."

Don't believe the idiot Rudy. You do realise he has lost his case and has to pay $148 million for saying the same bollocks.

The problem with conspiracy theories is when you get idiots that have never been involved with the process think they know what is going on in the "CCTV footage". Much like the UK elections. All the nut jobs came out and "examined CCTV" because they thought they'd lose, they all went quiet after they didn't. I think it was the referendum. They were all saying "Take your own pen, they can't rub out pens" and the CCTV footage showing them "rubbing out votes".

Pencils are used because they don't run out of ink!

The CCTV footage of the "rubbing out votes" was idiots not understanding the count process. You have a group of people at a table counting. The count supervisor for that group then takes the total count to the election workers who have the tally in their system. If the tally in the system doesn't match how many people turned up, it means the count at the table is wrong. So the count supervisor goes back to the table, the counters recount and the supervisor rubs out the incorrect number and waits for the new result. THAT is what they were rubbing out in the CCTV footage.

EU repair rights bill tells manufacturers to fix up or ship out

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Re: I haven't read

And this is one of the big issues which I'm assuming this bill won't or doesn't cover is parts. The likes of Apple are so massive, for years they've told the company that makes its screens that it is not allowed to sell them as parts to anyone else. Its shit like that, that needs to stop.

Especially when we have stupid expensive phones now with "gorilla glass" that is marketing wank bollocks. I have a Samsung S23 Ultra as my excuse for buying was I get a high quality portable camera as well. Its in an Otterbox case so raised from services. I should of put a screen protector on but haven't. It sits in my jean pocket that never has anything else in it yet its already got micro scratches on the gorilla glass. Its bollocks. And as I type that, I wonder if I could claim a replacement because of how its advertised.

steviebuk Silver badge

I haven't read

the bill but its probably not going to be good enough.

I remember in the late 80s the TV in the back room packing up. My mums friend from work popped round with her husband who was an electrician or engineer. I remember it like it was yesterday. He layed the TV on the floor, opened the back and there were the schematics for the TV in the back of the case, not hidden somewhere secret away from repair engineers. He traced the fault, did his solder repairs, put the back back on, TV repaired. That TV lasted several years after that so avoided landfill.

Now, however, we're fucked. The big corps have realised people will still buy stuff even if its made to fail early. All the shitty little paid for feature creep, people moan about but still pay. Much like my partner with Amazon Prime. We've had it a few years and the point being you pay for it to have NO ADVERTS in the movies or shows.

Now, however, greed has set in and Amazon will include adverts but if you don't want those adverts with Prime, you have to pay a few extra pounds each month! WTF! So I've let the sub expire. She's asked me how long the protest will go before she can have Prime back. And this is the issue, I know she'll probably end up getting her own sub, but this is why they continue this model as they know people will just pay.

If we all stopped buying (easier said than done) they'd be forced to make kit repairable again to get customers back.

When it comes to working from home, Register readers are bucking national trends

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Re: Managers don't know how to manage remotely.

All the downvotes are from the HR departments that believe in the bollocks.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Managers don't know how to manage remotely.

I should of stated its a psychometric tool or bollocks as I call it.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Managers don't know how to manage remotely.

personality types or MIRO is also part bullshit. We were forced to do some MIRO training and it surprised the trainer as it shouldn't be forced (although hardly anyone would of then turned up). This was done during Covid and remotely and I was asked "You seemed to be distant. Is there an issue?". I replied "Not really an issue I just don't believe in any of this, most of what you're saying etc. Not that I'm saying this about you but its much like mediumship which is known to be bullshit. You can cold read people and twist your questions to be a hit, rather than a miss, on how the person reacts to that question". Others on the meeting smiled and the trainer moved on and didn't ask me anything again :)

After the training had finished and we had showed what our "Colours" were, our manager, who also thought it was bullshit, proved the point. He had fudged his answers as he worked out what they required to get the results for each colour, so that he was equal bits of each colour :)

Sadly, despite all this I still hear people talking about it in the office "What's your MIRO colour?" so there are still people who believe in that bollocks.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: cross-linking

Not all companies and offices are like that. I understand what you mean but they aren't all like it.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: It's the commute

Partly true. My Internet and electric isn't paid for by the company and they were thinking of scrapping head office as more work from home (that didn't happen). I know the last place I was, if working from home (this was long before covid) they paid for your broadband. Obviously it was just basic broadband but they still paid for it.

AI models just love escalating conflict to all-out nuclear war

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Gandhi

has always been quite nuke happy in Civ 6. Any game of Civ 6, especially on Deity will have already shown you the AI loves nukes (however oddly nukes the same spot over and over instead of hitting multiple cities)

Mozilla slams Microsoft for using dark patterns to drive Windows users toward Edge

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I've been saying

This for years that Microsoft are long due another anti-trust case likes its 1999. They make it complicated for normal users to change the default browser. You now have to do each ext relating the browser. When you do try to make the change it asks if you're sure but worded to make a regular user just keep Edge as default. And as mentioned, do a search for another browser and it now tells you how great Edge is.

They did the same with the Windows 10 push.

I like Windows (not Windows 11) but its getting ridiculous.

Microsoft's vision for the future of work is you trusting Redmond to get AI right

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: There are alternatives to Co-Pilot

I still don't understand why they haven't been hit with anti-trust again with Edge as they are doing similar to what got them in hot water with IE back in the day.

Forcing it on everyone. Misleading text when you try to change default brower. Misleading when you trying to search for another browser. If you use Outlook the forcing of Edge being the browser that will open when clicking a link in an email and finally, making it a pain in the arse changing the default apps. Having to choose each one and another bullshit misleading warning when you do that.

GPS interference now a major flight safety concern for airline industry

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All the more reason

to not have pilotless planes.

Junior techie had leverage, but didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation

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We

"let the junior tech do something alone that we knew might be dangerous without watching over him, even though we knew he'd never done it before. Then when it all went wrong we gave him a bollocking (because we knew it was our fault for not supervising). And to add to that, we made him do a walk of shame as he'd been suspended for making a mistake.

We left out the part where the junior tech then said. "Fuck this job, if you're going to suspend me over a mistake, a mistake you probably should of been helping me with then I don't want to work for you as you all sound like entitled cunts."

Thats what I'm getting from this story. First one where I'd blame the senior techs.

What Microsoft's latest email breach says about this IT security heavyweight

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Sometimes

it can't be helped

"It is inexcusable that Microsoft still hasn't required multi-factor authentication, which is cybersecurity 101 and would have prevented this latest attack," Wyden told The Register.

You might have accounts 3rd party apps require that don't support MFA. Nothing can be done. You can't just stop using the 3rd party app, the execs paid for it to be put in. You might also have stuff that struggle to understand new tech with no training budget to change this.

Its not always easy. Its always easy for someone in Congress to comment though.

Not even poor Notepad is safe from Microsoft's AI obsession

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I love it and how many of us have several notepads open that we've never backed up :)

DPD chatbot blasts courier company, swears, and dabbles in awful poetry

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Re: "Maybe these chatbots are smarter than we thought?"

Ted in Finance gets told "Its got AI in it". Ted in finance is fucking cluess and believes the bollocks the sales bod told them because "Its got AI in it and we want to be visionary". The engineer explains its no proper AI etc. Ted ignores this "But its got AI in the title so must be AI".

The Post Office systems scandal demands a critical response

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Re: On the other hand

They did here. The woman in charge at the time got an award in 2019 despite this issue being known then.

steviebuk Silver badge

Incompetence at every level

Listening to the enquiry and the tit that was a manger of a team of "technical people" and in security it seemed, knew fuck all about anything technical so most of his answers were along the lines of:

"I wasn't involved with that. I just went off the data Dave gave me"

Yes but you are the manager of that team.

"Yes but I still just go off the data Dave and Sue give me. They are the technical people"

This guy Peter Sewell

https://youtu.be/wKN0JHkrW8g?si=lesmBXC_C-pHXPZ5

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: It's still happening

Sadly the link is dead.

Travel app Kayak offers Boeing 737 Max 9 filter after that door plug drama

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When a company

Puts profits over safety cause "we just have to rush these inspections through for money".

Engineer Dave "But I can't get it done quicker. We need to do the checks properly"

Manager "If you can't, I'll replace you with someone who can"

This appears to the mentality of businesses these days. More senior management need to go to jail.

Having said that on an air crash investigate episode the cockpit window blew out and sucked the pilot half out and knocked him out. He lived. When they did all their checks they discovered the bolts for the window were wrong. The engineer, instead of referring to the spec manual they are supposed to (could this be due to being rushed?) he replaced with the bolts that were currently on the window that were already wrong from another engineer.

Sysadmin's favorite collection of infallible utilities failed … foully

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It does mattee

Having dealt with PCs since the 90s and in my early days actually being careful with static I started to think it didn't really matter. I'd built a few PCs in my day on my bedroom carpet and all OK.

So in office back in about 2012 and get under desk of the IT Helpdesk lady and tell her I'll just shift the PC a bit. The cable will be loose on the graphics card. "Want me to turn it off first?". No I said, it will be fine. I wiggle it a bit while on carpet, having already rubbed myself on the carpet and fizz and pop and she says "Oh the PCs just turned off". Won't come back on.

Ah shit. I either shorted the card or static fucked it. I made up an excuse and replaced it with a temp :)

Microsoft 365's add-on avalanche is putting the squeeze on customers

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Re: Min seats

It does. People used to write letters and say

"I hope this letter finds you well"

The writer is essentially saying they hope you are well when you read it.

steviebuk Silver badge

Min seats

May have changed now but when a sales bod was trying to flog us Copilot it was £30 per user min of 300 seats. So we'd have had to buy 250 more seats than the users we have.

I've predicted it will be given to management to make their life easier for the same pay and fuck everyone else below them still having to do all the manual working outs in Excel and still having to actually read reports.

Too many people are relying on it summerising reports meaning I predict here, on the register, that this will create more instances of Horizon. There will be some key data in those reports that the AI will ignore and so will the manager who just asked Copilot to summarise it for them because they are too fucking lazy to read it. More people will be falsely imprisoned because of a lazy manager. Much like we're seeing in the enquiry now, with managers in charge of a technical team and making no decisions themselves. Instead "I relied on the info John gave me. I'm not technical. I just manage the team".

WTF? Potty-mouthed intern's obscene error message mostly amused manager

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Martin Gilroy?

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Write it in code. Like we do.

2868

Look at a phones alphabet keypad

IBM overhauls rewards program for staff inventions, wipes away cash points

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IBM

IBM now stands for Inconsiderate Bastards Much. They really have tanked and turned into arseholes.

steviebuk Silver badge

Re: Why why oh why

Wozniak wasn't stupid. When Jobs said they should sell the Apple 1 Wozniak said he had to ask HP first as he'd been working on bits of it on their time. They said they weren't interested and he can keep the idea.

The rest is history.

40 years since Elite became the most fun you could have with 22 kilobytes

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Re: A forerunner in it's time

Play Dwarf Fortress. That gets your imagination flowing again.

Post Office boss unable to say when biz knew Horizon could be remotely altered

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Office Space

Listening to Peter Sewell he IS Tom Smykowski from Office Space.

"People wrote those words, I just gave to blah blah" and so on.

steviebuk Silver badge

No technical knowledge

Appears we have, listening live to the enquiry, another classic case of a manager in charge of technical people that has no technical background. Granted you don't need to be fully technical but you should at least try and understand what your staff are explaining to you. It appears Peter Sewell was one of those managers that was giving a "jobs for the boys" manager role of a technical team yet never bothered learning any of it during his time.

"I don't recall". "I can't say its a technical issue".

Microsoft braces for automatic AI takeover with Copilot at Windows startup

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autoruns...

....set Autopilot to disabled.

Word of mouth, why can't these big corps understand word of mouth. Forcing shit on people makes people hate shit more than they already hate shit.