Posts by Red Or Zed

Techie banned from client site for outage he didn’t cause

Re: I wasn't even there.

Consult a decorator and repaint everything else to match.

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

There is a quote:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

― Upton Sinclair

Which seems to fit here. M$ were behind the curve on the internet, on virtual machines, on security as default, that they're determined to be fully in the Next Big Thing.

AI looks like Tulip Mainia, but with more destruction of eco-systems.

Happy holidays: AI-enabled toys teach kids how to play with fire, sharp objects

Re: Didn't Hollywood do this…

Mr Bill Hicks views on marketing people are still relevant all these years later...

Big Tech's control freak era is breaking itself apart

Re: Experts have always known and were ignored, as usual

You would loose a valuable resource out of sheer pique? That doesn't sound like good business. Why do they have to provide the solutions as well? Their job is infosec, not business processes. It is enough to say that this thing is wrong without researching solutions.

Playing ball games in the datacenter was obviously stupid, but we had to win the league

Re: Hows that!

At the British Standards Institute there was an on-site bar for all staff and the IT Director had a plaque over his seat. That takes some dedication over years to achieve.

White House nixes NASA unions amid budget uncertainty

You're one of the people who would be negatively affected by this, because you're not a billionaire. Not even in your wildest dreams.

Millions of age checks performed as UK Online Safety Act gets rolling

Re: Reform will get in and abolish this leakfest.

Deform have done absolutely nothing useful everywhere they've been elected. They'd be worse at central goverment than the previous bunch.

Re: "I've seen these age checks popping up for large sections of Reddit"

How did a S*n reader find their way here?

Australia bans kids from signing up for YouTube accounts, angering Google

Upload Kier Starmer's driving license, like everyone else.

Britain's billion-pound F-35s not quite ready for, well, anything

Re: Alternatives

Colin Furze (madman).

I believe with his level of sponsorship, he's crossed over from (madman) to (English eccentric).

Torvalds' typing taste test touches tactile tragedy

Who wants a backlit keyboard?

Pure vanity, there is no possible advantage. If you're looking at the keyboard while typing, you're doing computers wrong.

Microsoft revives DOS-era Edit in a modern shell

At last, the Dave Cutler era dream has come true, and they're bringing back TPU, cunningly renamed TUI.

All we need now is TECO for Windows...

Qatar’s $400M jet for Trump is a gold-plated security nightmare

Re: Musk/DOGE

But, they have been making vehicles for several years by now.

Surely, they should have hired at least one person from a semi-competent manufacturer?

Mars may have vast underground oceans and enough H₂O to make it a water world

Re: Just cheese

The soup is made of blue string.

TAKE IT DOWN Act? Yes, take the act down before it's too late for online speech

Re: ...because nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody.

How, how are you still believing the "drain the swap" thing?

Tech CEO: Four-day work week didn't hurt or help productivity

Re: Office vs making stuff

"everyone who isn't making something physical with their hands isn't doing anything" is a hilariously daft and easily disproven argument.

Why would miners or line workers not benefit from a 4 day week also? Why do you look down on them?

Political poker? Tariff hunger games? Trump creates havoc for PC industry

Re: Hmm

Because the EU has standards, which US products don't meet.

Why doesn't the US farmer improve the quality of their product?

Despite Russia warnings, Western critical infrastructure remains unprepared

Re: An unfortunate necessity

It's not going to happen without legislation and budget from the government. And none of those actually care enough to do something.

Meta accused of trying to discredit ad researchers

Re: It's as if advertisers no longer care

Humans havn't changed in thousands of years, there are just more of us, and some have digital watches.

Found Thomas Tusser on archive.org, cheers for the recommendation.

Techie installed 'user attitude readjustment tool' after getting hammered in a Police station

Re: Yep, been there

Our shiny new office was built with super mega 8ft tall doors everywhere. Except the machine room, where they were normal height, and we bought 7ft racks.

They went through the door OK at an angle, it was just super annoying that IT was treated badly by artichokes ('tects) yet again.

I worked for a race car manufacturer. One of our Dell servers underwent unscheduled altitude change and unapproved chassis reconfiguration. The bits and bytes inside seemed OK, but it wouldn't go back in the rack.

The shop floor lads thought it hilarious when we went to borrow their user adjustment tool and a bench to pound against.

After nine servers he worked on failed, techie imagined next career as beach vendor

Re: Sorry, is it just me ?

This is a perfectly normal but terse style of writing. Not AI

First Brexit, now X-it: Musk 'considering' pulling platform from EU over probe

Re: Hardly surprising.

The companies could just get their shit together, but they'd rather lose advertiser money.

UK government slammed for Palantir 'free trial period' deal in Ukraine housing scheme

Re: Hold up...

How is the £1 one going do that now?

More UK cops' names and photos exposed in supplier breach

Of course not, that's completely ridiculous!

It'll be just down these stairs.

Mind you don't trip...

UK's proposed alt.GDPR will turn Britain into a 'test lab' for data harvesting

Re: @Doctor Syntax

"Participation in the EU was obviously a matter of removing citizens' rights."

What rights were removed? Which ones? What can EU citizens not do that suddenly "free" UK ones can?

No open door for India's tech workers in any UK trade deal

Re: This isn't the Brexit we voted for.

A bunch of proven liars told obvious lies. The only thing missing were hats & badges labelled "LIAR".

Not sure how it could have been clearer.

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Re: Keyboard Confusion

On W11, Win+ caused the screen magnifier to appear

Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-job, no-worries work permits

Re: For once, Trudeau's government has made an actual smart move.

Yes, how dare people in "menial jobs" want a living wage. They should be grateful for the scraps and huddle together in hovels, like good little serfs.

There are no "menial" jobs, just ones you don't want to do because of snobbishness. Everyone working deserves a living wage, and those who can't shouldn't be forced to starve either.

Think of our cafes and dry cleaners, says Ohio as budget slashes WFH for govt workers

Re: It was only a matter of time

Oh no, won't someone think of the commercial landlords!!11!

Apple stomped all over NYC store workers' union rights, judge rules

Re: The other tactic

Did you read the bit about management not actually cleaning anything?

Security? Working servers? Who needs those when you can have a shiny floor?

Re: Multiple things lead to the conclusion

This sounds very suspicious - all the right things being done in the end?

Singaporean superapp Grab delivers massive job cuts with after hours email

"build our competitive moat for the longer term."

Anyone who writes, says, or even thinks such utter nonsense should be fired into the sun, for the good of the planet.

Thousands of subreddits go dark in mega-protest over Reddit's app-killing API prices

Re: Meh

Looking at their "trending" or "news" pages is depressing as hell.

Only joining subReddits that are specifically interesting and appear well moderated, is the key. Don't look at the weirdos and attention seekers, do not stare at the car crash on the other carriageway, and it is a valuable resource.

Cheapest, oldest, slowest part fixed very modern Mac

Re: Its always the simple things

As ever, Tom Scott has investigated and debunked.

Support chap put PC into 'drying mode' and users believed it was real

Re: Nipples and sonic screwdrivers

Fantastic!

CEO sorry after telling staff to 'leave pity city' over bonuses

Really? Someone taking home $million bonuses (plural) telling those earning far less not to worry about their pay, but to worry about hers instead - that's fine with you?

Are you her accountant?

Chromebook expiration date, repair issues 'bad for people and planet'

"train an army of BOFHs who have already learned to hate all users by working with children for years"

Not seeing any possible downside here. Action this day!

Spokesweasel

No Google spokesweasel from could be bothered to consider talking to anyone who didn't want to just buy more stuff.

Where's the profit in that?

Launching soon: ESA's Juice to probe Jupiter's moons for signs of possible life

How did you get there??

What if someone mixed The Sims with ChatGPT bots? It would look like this

Re: Few things AI might be useful for

Could they then be considered

Epic NPCs?

Anyway, it's a nice day for fishin'

Parts of UK booted offline as Virgin Media suffers massive broadband outage

Anyone who did get through to an agent this morning was told "no, no problems, everything is fine here, it must be a problem with your house or localised sunspots. have you tried changing those hideous curtains?"

Spoke to 3 users this morning and PRTG shows them all losing connections during the early hours, getting it back briefly and dropping off around 06:45.

Still, if they don't admit it, nothing happened, right?

The second dust bowl cometh for America, supercomputer warns

Re: what is it about post WW2 planned cities that make them so lifeless and forgettable?

"no thought for the people who would have to live in them"

Complete nonsense. They were carefully thought about and planned to make things easier and nicer for the people who would have to live in them.

This is estate is for housing, it has a mix of house types, paths away from the roads and they link to other estates, large amounts of greenery, with a local shopping area, local schools and a pub within walking distance.

Compare this to the developer "designed" hells with no shops, no schools, no surgeries, no greenery, no pavements and no parking.

Next to the housing estate is a commercial area, within walking distance of the houses but separated.

Compare this to the old towns with factories sitting next door to housing. Ugh.

Raspberry Pi hires former spy gadget-maker who baked devices into surveillance ops

Re: It's not gone well for them

Short but interesting read. Cheers.

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

Re: Not only two signs...

From your link:

"This makes this cover great for preventing those with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, special needs and children from tampering with dangerous plug sockets and switches."

It doesn't say they protect from the dangerously stupid though. Or those in need of a proof-reader.

Man wins court case against employer that fired him for not liking boozy, forced 'fun' culture

Re: "Fun & pro, that's our motto!"

Upvote for this brilliant show, also featuring Burblesnoot Liftalatch. Not sure if I want to listen to the final episode, even after all this time.

Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home

The one that says "woohoo we freed all the slaves, we are the best country ever, USA USA" except for the part where someone quietly whispered "what about the money? we need slaves for making the money" and the bit about "except for those guys, they can still be slaves"* leading to the prisons for profit system and the most incarcerated nation on earth?

*note for Septics without a sense of humour and other literalists: I was paraphrasing. Giving the gist of. Simplifying for effect.

Nadine Dorries promotes 'Brexit rewards' of proposed UK data protection law

A cunning plan

We have a whole government of Baldrick level thinkers.

"I have a cunning plan - we'll make our own data protection laws, that'll save us pennies and show those EU who's boss!"

"yes, except if we do that, we won't be able to trade with them, which will cost pounds. Go away Baldine"

Google hit with lawsuit for dropping free Workspace apps

Re: $5M for not getting something for free

And compensate them for their feedback which was used to improve the product.

Anti-piracy messaging may just encourage more piracy

Re: False equivalence as well...

I can recommend the ikorodu_bois of Instagram, a group of young men who do exactly that, shot for shot of film trailers and music videos.

They do it very well and it's entertaining fun.