Posts by steviebuk

Europe's right-to-repair law asks hardware makers for fixes for up to 10 years

Just watched Louis

Rossmann and you'll see how cocked up the EU attempt at Right to Repair is.

Winnie the Pooh slasher flick mysteriously cancelled in Hong Kong

Re: I don't get

He looks a bit like him and in China the Chinese people realised on their social media apps, referencing Xi by name was a bad idea. So everyone started to reference him as Winnie the Pooh as he looks a bit like him at times.

That's when the Winnie the Pooh ban hammer came in and has stuck ever since.

And the amazing and free CCP have now made it illegal to mention that you're poor.

Xi, Putin declare intent to rule the world of AI, infosec

They...

...are a funny double act. Will we see them at Edinburgh this year?

How the Internet Archive faces potential destruction at the hands of Big Four publishers

Just NO!!

This needs to NOT happen. The Internet Archive is an amazing resource of out of print material (where can we buy all the old Commodore 64 books now for those publisher that are long gone?), software and games that are long gone and can't be purchased anymore. "But they still have their copyright". They may do but where can you buy it from the publisher? Nowhere. If they succeed with this then all libraries are at risk.

And the web page archive is an amazing feat and resource. Looking back in time and can also help with legal arguments. I'll now bore you with my boring story.

I parked in one of those car parks with the 3rd party car park managers (Parking Enforcement Agency and Parkshield Collection LTD). I never got a ticket but always fascinated by the shit they put on their signs so took a photo. Got the link to their website. Checked the website out that was in an awful state. No SSL and takes you to the HTTP version despite having a form that would require SSL. Their privacy policy also wasn't up to date. I recorded this, recorded the issues and how the data was being sent over in plain text. It stayed on my YouTube channel for a year and didn't get many views. Then suddenly I got an actual copyright strike on the channel. 3 strikes and you're out. What's this, I don't use anything copyrighted like that. It was the video I created recording me checking their site, nothing in it they can claim copyright on. They had decided to strike it, abusing the system, just to get it instantly removed.

So I kept trying to do the counter claim but the idiots at YouTube kept rejecting. Got to the point I just left it and waited for the strike to expire, they should of taken me to court but didn't as it was clearly a false claim.

I went back to their site and still was in the same state. I noticed that I'd originally mentioned their privacy policy. Now they magically had an update saying they'd updated it 4 months BEFORE my video, which they hadn't. I couldn't prove this as I hadn't recorded that page. But I used Internet Archive to go back and sure enough, the policy didn't exist on the site, which was a month after they claimed it was in place. Because of this lack of policy I couldn't e-mail them direct about their site and issues (no doubt they'd have ignored my e-mail anyway).

Never mind, I made a blog post about it with the Internet Archive evidence and then posted the video on Odysee that doesn't have a stupid copyright system that can be abused.

I've donated to the Internet Archive before. I don't have money to throw away but its one site I'm very fond of that has a record of lots of Internet history that has long gone and it needs to stay.

Hospital to test AI 'copilot' for doctors that jots notes on patient care

The real hope

"The hope? Reducing piles of admin for clinicians freeing them up for medical work"

Paying people less and relying more on AI.

What's wrong with hiring a PA and giving someone a job.

Putin to staffers: Throw out your iPhones, or 'give it to the kids'

Re: That'll help

All Chinese phones spy for the CCP, its the law.

Its why they loved Covid so they could lock everyone into having to use the app to take a train, go in a shop etc.

Xi is loving the thought they'd use Chinese phones. He'll probably provide them for free. So then China has full access inside the Russian government.

UNIX co-creator Ken Thompson is a… what user now?

Re: Not a bad record. I'll give him some slack for being in the Apple camp for too long.

What Windows laptops are you looking at? There are a tone of them that don't have the SSD soldered on. And then we have Framework. If I could, I'd buy one, I really want one. A modular laptop were everything is replaceable. The really stupid thing is, if Apple did such a thing and at a decent price, they'd probably get people like me actually buy some of their kit. But we know they are never going to do that.

Re: Not a bad record. I'll give him some slack for being in the Apple camp for too long.

But how its that for upgrading? I still have my old Lenovo from about 2012, W530. Still going fine. The A is popping off the keyboard but its easy to open the laptop to replace the keyboard. I've replaced the HDD with an SSD that didn't cost a fortune and I've put in loads of RAM. Switch to my partners Apple Macbook Pro that she doesn't use much now, and trying to get a new HDD for it and it costs a bomb. Unfortunately she's locked into everything Apple so won't break away.

Vessels claiming to be Chinese warships are messing with passenger planes

Re: Good Old Propaganda

I assume you're be one of those people there on Tuesday.

Shakes head.

Meta chops another 10,000 employees, closes 5,000 vacancies

Can't stand it...

....when managers who have enough money they never have to work again say "This analysis also shows that engineers earlier in their career perform better on average when they work in-person with teammates at least three days a week"

Easy to say when you can afford fuel, afford someone to drive you in, won't get fired for being late or put on report like you're back at fucking school and don't have a 2hr commute every day.

Cause Mark...

....needs the money for his monthly haircut.

Re: Will Zuck do a Musk

Upvoted and agree, however, like with all these social media services we can choose to just not use it and let others use it if they wish because there are some uses to it for those that aren't just narcissistic. Our old manager used to use it just to share photos with her relatives in Australia. Her account was private and only they could see it.

But when sites insist the only way to sign up to their site is using a "facebook login", then it becomes a problem.

So essentially a Zuck dictatorship? But the share holders could help end that but just selling all their shares, which would tank the stock.

Re: re: Buy a yacht?

YouTube in its state, yes, but YouTube is a very good source of learning for a lot of people. The amount of free guides people put up gives so many disadvantaged people access to education and knowledge they normally wouldn't have. There are other companies like Odysee but unfortunately the likes of Odysee aren't anywhere near as big yet.

We read OpenAI's risk study. GPT-4 is not toxic ... if you add enough bleach

Re: Not so smart

We need to start calling GPT-5 and even 4 a cunt then. Maybe it will suck up that data if enough people say it. They may "clean" that word out, then we can just switch to calling GPT-5 a 2868 (what we say at work)

Re: feedbackloop ?

I don't think it would even be a good idea for it to remember output already gave to someone else. As I'm thinking someone or a "group" of people coughcountrycough, would use that fact to try and poison its data.

We also have the concern of censorship as Midjourney have already rolled over to the CCP and censor what they tell them to.

I wonder if that advert could also be classed as misleading on how good CoPilot is.

Microsoft's Copilot AI to pervade the whole 365 suite

It will be shit

We have Teams at work and the "Auto suggest" is fucking annoying as I've mentioned before. I'm tempted to turn it off for everyone but guess I should actually ask the business if it wants it on or not. I've turned it off for myself.

The other day I said to my work mate "I don't do breakfast. I need to go on a diet". She had left her desk when she got back and unlocked the auto suggests had come up and she's accidently clicked one (I hadn't seen this, she told me after as she'd deleted it before I read it). She said the auto suggest she clicked was "Yes, you do" :) Nice of Microsoft and Teams.

Re: Shareholder Value

The chatbots will be having endless meetings with each other. To make them feel more real, some will turn up late.

They'll start spouting "I'll circle back on that. We need to touch base and meet this head on. We can meet for coffee to discuss". Another will reply "We can't, we're just bots. We can't meet for coffee". The other bots in the meeting will be playing buzz word bingo. One chatbot in the corner will be struggling having been told they're all just bots as it didn't realise.

The meeting will end, it will be seen by the real humans as "A success. Fuck all got done like all our normal human meetings but the beauty is, we didn't have to pay anyone".

Microsoft and GM deal means your next car might talk, lie, gaslight and manipulate you

Re: Clippy

We're taking it back for Shaw Taylor. Mr Police 5 (which we used to watch every Sunday while having Sunday dinner)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdA9CorwMiU

Re: Clippy

"I'm sorry, I couldn't deploy the air-bags as you haven't paid for your air-bag subscription this month".

"I'm sorry, you haven't paid for your subscription this month so I can't start the car"

"I'm sorry, I can't connect to the internet right now, I can't start the car"

"I'm sorry there was an error."

Computers in cars was always a fucking mistake. Our Polo VW currently is showing a stop start error, so it can no longer do the auto turn off and auto start when touching the clutch. I think its a sensor error and probably too fucking costly to fix.

Pentesters' fave Kali Linux turns 10 with version 23.1

Backtrack

Been using it on and off since the Backtrack days. I'm not an expert, not even an amateur, I just fiddle now and then. I remember back in 2008 I was interested in it for WIFI sniffing and pointed out to the NHS trust I was working at, to the 3rd line engineers "Why are we using WEP still on the corporate WIFI. Its really easy to crack the password? There are flats over the road, I wonder how many of them are using it in the evenings". The reply was "But we're using 128bit WEP, its fine". I gave up reporting issues, being the temp engineer I was frequently ignored. Much like pointing out the flaw in Safeboot where I kept a laptop back that had me logged in just fine, past Safeboot. If I ever ran into a laptop that locked my Safeboot account, I'd boot up the spare which would unlock my account, instead of waiting ages for them to unlock me (as we weren't given permissions to do it ourselves but could be trusted to install machines in hospitals and GP surgeries. The reason I can't stand the IT culture in the NHS). Reported this, was told "Its fine the way it is". When I eventually left an engineer who stayed said "They finally admitted you were right with the Safeboot setup. They'd incorrectly set it so the laptop won over the server, they've now switched it, closing the flaw you pointed out".

Here's how Microsoft hopes to inject ChatGPT into all your apps and bots via Azure

No

This is going to end badly. As the AI decided to train itself on the data in a tenant. Computerphile have already done a video on the issue of the likes of ChatGPT and its training data. That ChatGPT is the most powerful AI we currently have but no one really knows how it works. Then it spitting out random words. More investigation found out those words were Reddit user names as appears the whole of Reddit is part of the training data.

Netherlands joins US blockade of Chinese chip industry

Get ready for Xi

And his shills to shout about this "You must buy our stuff!"

Humanoid robot takes a retail job, but not one any store clerk wants to do

Re: Creep Show

True and, although its not rational at all, I can't help but fell sorry for them. Its like when they were testing the Boston Dynamics "dog". They'd kick it to show it won't fall over. As an animal lover, it was very weird. You know its not really a dog, but kept feeling sorry for it. Its an odd feeling as you know its just a computer.

But the

"The humanoid machine labored under the guidance of a human worker, so no jobs were harmed in the making of the moment, and robot-wrangling roles, born from venture capital, were sustained."

Yeah but with the idea that at some point it WILL replace the human. Much like the annoying self service tills and the "Everyone is a thief unless you prove you're not, that is why we have cameras on every till".

Acronis downplays intrusion after 12GB trove leaks online

Doesn't surprise me

I used to use their backup software way back in 2010. Did a video on an issue with the schedule that they never fixed in all the versions I used. Where when setting it up you'd put in the credentials for you network NAS, it would say they are fine and you browse just fine. Then the job runs and fails due to credentials being wrong, which they weren't.

Adidas grapples with $1.3B in unsold Yeezy sneakers after breaking up with Kanye West

Maybe, just maybe

They could take the hit for a change and donate them all to charity. Plenty of countries take shoes that are still wearable for people that can't afford them.

Why ChatGPT should be considered a malevolent AI – and be destroyed

Computerphile

Rob Miles did a good bit on this the other day on Computerphile

https://youtu.be/WO2X3oZEJOA

Ex-Tweep mocked by Musk for asking if he'd actually been fired

Not a defender of Elon, I think he's a cunt but

"because there is no reason to send humans to an irradiated, dry, boring, frozen, toxic wasteland filled with rocks and abrasive dust."

Because unfortunately we are killing Earth and as far as I'm aware Mars is the only other safest place for us to move to if needed.

And what's more annoying is Vernon Unsworth losing the case against him. Which seemed like I simple clear cut case yet he lost? Hmm. I'm assuming this may stop others bothering to take him to court as it suggests his billions means he'll win every time.

China accelerates drive for scientific self-sufficiency

Wow, a massive wumao.

Lets be clear, when we criticize China, its the government we are talking about, NOT the people of China. Its the CCP that are the issue. The CCP are a brutal, oppressive regime. Go into London now and protest, you may get arrested but then you'll go home. Do the same in China and then you're disappeared. Why do you think there was the "A4 protest"? This was because anyone that criticized Xi's piss poor handling of Covid was made to disappear, so the protestors changed their approach. If you're going to censor us and stop us speaking our mines then we'll just hold up blank A4 bits of paper. To show we're being censored. It worked, it got people talking, then most of those got arrested and haven't been seen since. The protests started because Xi decided it was a good idea to weld people into their apartments to stop Covid. Then a fire happened and killed those inside.

There isn't "entrepreneurial" ideas from the Chinese people, because Xi won't allow it. We have the "civilian" weather balloon that came over from China, that "Isn't military" but "You're not allowed to shoot it down". And then we have TikTok that "isn't linked with the CCP" yet the CCP says "You're not allowed to ban our apps from your government phones" and how many American apps are on Chinese phones? None, because the CCP doesn't allow it.

Jack Ma poked Xi then disappeared for quite a while. Peng Shuai disappeared for a while because she made comments about the CCP.

And then we have Huawei and their very funny "Sara AI" (look it up), that is actually a Unity Engine app.

Its clear you are either blind to these facts or a massive wumao, I suspect the latter.

But as we all say, don't take our word for it, do you're own unbiased research from decent, honest outlets.

Re: To know your competitors you got to understand their strengths

They got there from slave labour.

Re: How CCP is El Reg?

Because they do. The whataboutism suggests you are a wumao.

Re: How CCP is El Reg?

You get a downvote, not because you are wrong about the CCP and we know Serpentza and Laowhy86 are good but because you've accused El Reg for being a CCP shill. They are far from it, they are just reporting and we are able to say its bollocks in the comments. If they were a CCP shill your comment would of been deleted ages and ago and we wouldn't be able to call Xi, Winnie the Pooh.

Pro-Putin scammers trick politicians and celebrities into low-tech hoax video calls

Its as bad as....

...all the fake/scam YouTube adverts. Would be nice for The Register to do an investigation into that. YouTube constantly blame AdSense for it, ignoring they own AdSense. Its as if YouTube don't give a shit, as long as they pay them for the adverts they seem to stay up for ages. And then you sometimes get hit with, not had one for ages, an advert that is over an hour long. They do it because they know you can't skip them on TVs etc.

BT opens 'voluntary job leavers' scheme for merging Enterprise and Global units

Work experience

1990 I believe it was, I went to a BT warehouse for my work experience at school as my dad worked at BT office in Greenford.

While I was there they said I was a jinx as they got a visit telling them the place would be closed and they'd either be made redundant or voluntary redundancy was available.

Then I believe it was a couple of years after my dads site closed and he got made redundant. Sadly, just being over 50 and despite having been a manager there. No one elsewhere was willing to hire him or the same wage so he never worked full time again. Has had to survive on his pension and the shares they gave him since.

They're business practices in the warehouse saw so much waste. I did different departments and one was people ordering new phones. Then there was a skip full of them. Brand new phones, some used but most new. I said "Can't these be resold, surely?" They said no, once opened we aren't allowed to resell them if returned so we have to skip them. Ridiculous, they could of sold them as opened with a discount.

Seeing as GPT-3 is great at faking info, you should lean into that, says Microsoft

God no

"and the IT titan hopes to inject this kind of machine learning into everything from Teams and Skype to Excel."

We already have auto.suggest replies in Teams. Its fucking rude, anyone that uses those is fucking rude. Just type thank you instead of auto completing it because you can't be arsed to type it. If you can't be arsed to type it, don't fucking reply.

Telus source code, staff info for sale on dark web forum

Doesn't matter...

...Elon sold his sole to the devil, the CCP. So they'll have already stolen some of his tech for allowing to have his factories over there.

'Ethical hacker' among ransomware suspects cuffed by Dutch cops

I guess there are some but...

...we don't see the news because they are very good. Ones that are "ethical" but good enough they hide amongst us. Like Gus in Breaking Bad.

Microsoft begs you not to ditch Edge on Google's own Chrome download page

I'm confused

They've been doing this for ages. Worst they do it when you try to change your default browser. This smacks of anti-trust, the exact same lawsuit they got hit with at the end of the 90s. Why haven't they been hit again?

No more free API access, says Twitter: You pay for that data

Re: They just did this in the wrong order

No excuse but I believe one of the other reasons it was done was to stop the spam bots. However, he doesn't live in the real world to know that the scammers will use stolen money to pay for the API. Not that he gives a fuck where the money comes from just as long as he gets it.

Bang go all those Python tutorials that get you to create a Twitter bot.

Re: Rules of Acquisition!

#212 - Once fired, immediately charge them a fine for loitering and a general charge for being in the building and breathing the air within.

Microsoft promises smaller Windows 11 updates with UUP – but there's a catch

Re: What I want

If you use a 3rd party like n-able you have to do the filtering in there. Even the registry setting in Windows 10 gets ignored by n-able. There is a way to filter in n-able (I've asked them directly) our MSP is just refusing to put any filters in.

What I want

Is the option to fucking avoid Windows 11, easily. We are with an MSP who helps out when we hit an area we don't understand. Unfortunately they convinced us to take over the Windows update duties. They use n-able. They "accidentally" pushed out Windows 11 to a few machines and when I questioned it they asked if I wanted it stopped. It was too late, to many machines had been hit so let them carry on. "its been fine in our office" it doesn't matter, we're not your office and have old shit software that doesn't like it.

When all calmed down I asked for isolation for my IT machine. Did not want it. Was told because of the way Microsoft have been pushing out Windows 11 its not possible to isolate it. As people were blocking the term Windows 11 so MS changed the update name so it would get pushed out anyway. A few poor excuses of why they won't put a filter in and what was essentially a threat to remove our access to n-able (wouldn't be a bad thing) I've taken my own steps. Having to turn off encryption so I can turn off the TPM 2 chip so I don't get the weekly Windows shitty 11 update.

Microsoft's AI Bing also factually wrong, fabricated text during launch demo

Re: Hype, Hype and yet more Hype

ChatGPT is good for quick code though. Yes, you need to check it before using it but at least it doesn't give sarcastic replies like Stack Overflow. However it does lie. It told me to use a powershell script but I told it the commandlet doesn't exist anymore it said "Yes you're right it doesn't try this instead" that 2nd one also didn't. It then gave up giving powershell commands and gave me older inbuilt commands that did work but I asked specifically for powershell.

But its still useful. Got it to give me one quick line of Powershell I needed, that was a beginner question that would of have a ton of sarcastic replies from Stack Overflow.

Musk: Tesla's doing great. I mean, have you seen my Twitter follower count?

Re: 'Skull-', 'cluster-', 'total-', 'dumb-', and now 'cyber-'

Glad someone else sees it. Saw a British couple a while ago doing their vlog (hate that term) who were going to go camping "We have this amazing solar panel that can be used for camping. Its great and does blah blah blah. Oh and thats to CampingCompanyNameHere for the panel. We haven't actually tried it yet". So how can you say its fucking great? Is it because you got it free and want more free stuff from people so will just so something is great before you've even fucking tried it?

They annoy the shit out of me. Granted, I'd love the money and free items but just can't bring myself to sell out. Really liked Britec's videos but then he started to "review" more and more IT stuff clearly sent to him for free buy Chinese sellers. Never declared this and the "reviews" were never reviewed just unboxings.

Conversational AI tells us what we want to hear – a fib that the Web is reliable and friendly

Re: run for cover and grab the popcorn

Or a nice long run in Project Zomboid.

China's Yangtze Memory reportedly lays off staff, evicts them from company housing

You're fucked. They have no health care program and no benefits system.

Re: " in marked contrast to US tech employers"

Its the CCP. They'll have put a massive mark up on the flat that is no doubt, poorly built and the staff were probably poorly paid so they can't afford the flat even if offered.