* Posts by Zippy´s Sausage Factory

1466 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Aug 2018

Hell no, we won’t pay, says Microsoft as Uncle Sam sends $29B bill for back taxes

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Micros~1 may be able to pay if they "decide to", but I'm pretty sure that internally there's panic and alarm at the size of the demand.

You know the tax won't stop at this. As of now, everything is up for grabs. And I'm sure foreign tax agencies are watching this very carefully indeed. I can easily imagine this might just be the start of a set of cases.

Microsoft says VBScript will be ripped from Windows in future release

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Windows

Great. Now do PowerShell and command.com and just leave us with bash, please.

Microsoft gives unexpected tutorial on how to install Linux

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: WSL 3

I was thinking that - WSL is a reverse wine. They should have called it ENIW instead - "Enabling New systems In Windows"

Microsoft reportedly runs GitHub's AI Copilot at a loss

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: MS Devs

Given the recent layoffs I suspect they've fired enough to pay for Copilot by the ones that are left.

Twitter further restricts free tier with option to limit replies to verified accounts

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

For everyone who still hasn't deleted their xitter account yet, there's RedAct

Go ahead, let the unknowable security risks of Windows Copilot onto your PC fleet

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Devil

Re: This has the potential....

Especially if hackers can get hold of an http port that talks directly to your "copilot".

Still, it's not like Microsoft has a litany of failed and hated experiments with AI Assistants, is it? I mean, the beloved Clippy was a roaring success, and who can forget the universal acclaim that greeted Cortana?

New information physics theory is evidence 'we're living in a simulation,' says author

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

So we live in a god sim being run by an 14 year old "edgelord" trying to see how bad he can make things?

Actually, that makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it.

Net neutrality meets opposition in US, while Europe mulls charges for Big Tech

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: The US is in a leadership position?

Leadership? Not sure how long I've had 5G here, but I know it was live for at least a year before I bought a 5G phone. There's 1GB fibre here and we haven't even upgraded to that yet.

Seems like it's "Europe's heavily regulated internet providers" who might be in a "leadership position" here?

When Microsoft complains that you're a monopolist you know things are bad

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Told you so.

And yet Microsoft continues to rake in the cash thanks to its monopoly on desktop office software, its near monopoly on desktop operating systems, the strong (monopoly linked) position in directory systems...

Microsoft takes concrete steps (literally) toward greener datacenter construction

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

This is all well and good, but given current geopolitics they might find actual hardware in short supply once they've finished building it.

My thinking is that given water shortages globally, I think thirsty people and farmers are probably going to get given priority over chip fabs, given that politicians tend to dislike social disruption.

Russia to ban all VPNs – again – says senator

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Russia regards Zuck's biz as an extremist organization.

I think they're working under the principle that "my enemy's enemy's friend's hamster's enemy is my enemy and friend, simultaneously".

The only metaphor I can come up with for this is playing 3D chess blindfold, hopping, while you hire Yoko Ono to scream into a microphone at you. While playing against a chess grandmaster.

Microsoft introduces AI meddling to your files with Copilot in OneDrive

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: One Hopes

Personally, I hope there's a way to turn it off.

That said, I doubt it.

Microsoft Surface chief Panos Panay abruptly announces departure

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Windows 8

Just not great news for Amazon, I assume.

Unless he's just there as a "hands-off" overlord.

"Don't mind me, I'm just here to count the pencils."

AMD graphics card users report gremlins with Windows 11

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

I'm guessing this doesn't happen with Intel drivers.

I'm sure this is totally unrelated to Intel and Micros~1's close business relationship over the years and there is absolutely no connection whatsoever.

Cloud is here to stay, but customers are starting to question the cost

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Digging out the T-Shirt I have

In local government, it's usually about having someone to blame if it goes wrong - preferably a supplier who you can drag through the newspapers and/or courts.

"We're a council and committed to saving taxpayers' money, while they, your honour... (grinds teeth in anger)"

Microsoft kills classic Azure DaaS, because it isn't really Azure

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Marking my place

Plus the slew of companies saying Micros~1 doesn't offer the same service and theirs is pretty much a drop in replacement. Always dangerous to shut down services, gives your competitors a chance.

OpenAI warns folks over GPT-4 Vision's limits and flaws

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Devil

I know how this will go down

Developers: "cool new feature but be aware of its limitations"

Sales: "this amazing new feature is perfect and will solve all your problems, even the ones it can't handle"

Uncle Sam mulls spying on clouds being used to train AI

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Meh

Re: Lie detector

If they're that worried, I'd half expect them to ban AI technology altogether. With the exception of military applications, of course. Much like they tried to do to cryptography back in the 80s and 90s, really. I mean it worked so well then... (where's the eye roll icon...)

Microsoft hiring a nuclear power program manager, because AI needs lots of 'leccy

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

I can't help but think that the public backlash from this if something were to go wrong - even if nobody got injured - would basically be an extinction level event for Microsoft as a company. No PR company would be able to spin that.

Europe wants easy default browser selection screens. Mozilla is already sounding the alarm on dirty tricks

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: There's no point.

You shouldn't really have to install an add on to block them. And the less tech minded are the ones they're after anyway.

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

I remember doing that. Weirdly I'd try and be standards compliant as possible and find that IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari all behaved as expected. Edge was usually the odd one out. Then they ditched their own, terrible, rendering engine, fortunately.

The iPhone 15 has a Goldilocks issue: Too big or too small. Maybe a case will make it just right

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: They're all too big

I recently bought a vintage iPod touch off ebay (I'm an ipod fanatic, sorry).

It's the perfect size and weight, and ios 6 looks gorgeous. If Apple applied the iOS 6 look again and started to produce a new phone of that size, I'd be lining up to buy one. Makes my iPhone 13 mini look... well, huge, to be honest.

Singapore may split liability for phishing losses between banks and victims

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

While I get that this is a good idea, it will encourage banks to close accounts of people who've been scammed - they're a risk, right? And run a list of people who've been scammed so other banks know not to open an account for them (although that's probably illegal, but no doubt will happen behind the scenes). Plus the infernal gazillion checks they already run (that probably catch about 0.005% of all scams) will get worse.

Maybe it's a step in the right direction, but I fear the unintended consequences could be worse than the disease.

(Plus people will probably start to say "who cares if it's a scam, the bank will refund me", which is also bad.)

Where's the "I'm seriously conflicted and while I can see both sides of the argument I'm not sure this is the right answer to the right problem" icon?

Google Bard can now tap into your Gmail, Docs, more

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Spot the problem

Can't see them on my Google account (yet), but I'll be manually disabling the first thing I do the moment I see them.

Portable Large Language Models – not the iPhone 15 – are the future of the smartphone

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Typo?

There seems to be a typo in some HTML formatting as the line

Nor does the iPhone 15 - although Apple's spec sheets .

falls short. Feels like there's supposed to be a link at the end?

Microsoft’s AI investments skyrocketed in 2022 – and so did its water consumption

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Data centres are going to be prime targets when water consumption rules come in. Because the second farmers start complaining, the farmers will get precedence. A populace without three square meals is far more angry than one that can't use AI to cheat on its homework.

Microsoft to kill off third-party printer drivers in Windows

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

How is this not cartel behaviour?

I think this is something the EU and the FTC should be investigating. It definitely smells anti-competitive to me.

Lawyer's Microsoft email snafu goes from $1.75M lawsuit to Ctrl+Alt+Settle

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Devil

Re: Typical lawyering

I suspect that he felt MS had a decent chance of getting the jurisdiction motion, and decided that their settlement was enough to pay for the hassle of moving to a more reliable email service. Like Google.

Hahahahahahaha, no but seriously...

From browser brat to backend boss: Will WASM win the web wars?

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: re: WASM is the new Flash. Or Active X. Take your pick.

I think it's probably about as popular as it's going to get. The question for me is going to be whether its credibility survives its first serious documented security issue that hits the news. At that point I expect to see the usual knee jerk reactions of corporations banning it on their networks, while still relying on it for their corporate websites.

I know it took a while for Flash to die, and all three ActiveX users were quite upset when it was found to be about as secure as locking your bike with a string of sausages, but I just can't see how reinventing the wheel as a triangle again isn't going to have some of the same triangle-shaped issues.

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

WASM is the new Flash. Or Active X. Take your pick.

Despite having had to work with it, I somehow expect it'll go the same way as both of those fairly soon.

UK admits 'spy clause' can't be used for scanning encrypted chat – it's not 'feasible'

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: No one would ever willingly let a complete stranger read all of your mail

I suppose you could implement filtering by IP range or browser agent, or maybe both? Or perhaps password protect those sections? But that'll depend on what tools your web host provides I guess.

Microsoft: China stole secret key that unlocked US govt email from crash debug dump

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Alternative explanation..

I think your suggestion gains a bit of credibility from the fact that the US government seems not to care.

Whereas someone like me in charge, I'd be asking three letter agencies to evaluate that company with a view to perhaps excluding them from all government procurement for the next 20 years. Which, yes, I know, would cost a lot, but I'd think even a half-competent government can probably build their own data centers and go fully open source for about the same price.

X may train its AI models on your social media posts

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Unhappy

Time to see if redact will work on xitter these days, methinks...

Microsoft billing 3 cents a minute to revisit tedious Teams meetings via API

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

The difference between Teams and a transcription business is the latter is more likely to get things right.

Snowflake's Instacart protestations hint at challenges for poster child of the data cloud

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

I think it's marketing speak for "all your data is on our cloud service, pay us money or we delete it"

Farewell WordPad, we hardly knew ye

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

"The software giant hasn't explained the decision to wipe WordPad"

But they did recommend paying them more money. Which I think says it all.

Cops drill into chat apps, sink plot to smuggle tonnes of coke into Europe

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Facepalm

Surely this makes a mockery of the encryption bills. They're targeting WhatsApp, while real criminals are using 4RealSupaSecureCriminalChat sideloaded from DodgyAppsRUs.

Judas Halfording Priest...

BOFH: What a beautiful tinfoil hat, Boss!

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Blockers

That's not a crease, it's a notch filter! Specially adapted to block the specific range of rays as emitted by ... (opens dictionary at random) .... snakes. I think.

Official: Microsoft unbundles Teams in Europe

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

This, coming on the "we're not going to push Edge so hard in the EU" suggests Microsoft are getting very, very scared of anti-trust legislation again.

I think we're past the time regulators gave them an ultimatum: Windows, Office or Azure. Pick one, sell the other two - including all IP. And if you don't, we'll break you up our way.

Microsoft ain't happy with Russia-led UN cybercrime treaty

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Unhappy

Making penetration testing and so on illegal feels to me like it might be a key part of Russia and China's goals. I mean, I can imagine they'd love to be able to extradite and imprison the employees of Western firms who take down their lucrative scam and ransomware outfits.

After injecting pop-up ads for Bing into Windows, Microsoft now bends to Europe on links

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: How about the UK?

Of course they didn't comment. To comment would basically be to admit that it's a monopolistic power grab and get the US authorities interested in them again. And that's the last thing they want.

Perhaps AI is going to take away coding jobs – of those who trust this tech too much

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Ah yes, people are finally waking up to the fact that AI is just like blockchain and the Metaverse - nothing but hype and terrible products.

Anyone want to guess when "no AI will be used in the fulfilment of this contract" starts to become standard?

After years of fighting Right to Repair, Apple U-turns-ish in California

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Devil

I can think of two reasons why Apple would do this. (1) it hurts the competition more than it hurts them. (2) they've spotted something that will make repairs harder, not easier, for end users, and they want it passed quick before anyone knows it.

And yes, I've been an Apple user for years, myself, before you ask.

Microsoft still prohibits Google or Alibaba from running O365 Windows Apps

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

How this is not monopolist behaviour? Surely this shows that's to break MS in (at least) two - one half to sell software and not allowed to touch cloud services, and the other half cloud services and not allowed to sell software. No common personnel, no favouritism allowed between the two.

Microsoft teases Python scripting in Excel

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Something libreoffice can.

What LIbreOffice can't do is VBA.

As someone who has made a good living from VBA for several years, I can confidently assert that Excel isn't that great at it, either.

Criminals go full Viking on CloudNordic, wipe all servers and customer data

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Devil

Re: Where are the backups?

A lot of cloud services "back up" by just using ftp to copy across to another server in the same room.

Another good reason to avoid cloud services, if you ask me. Because you know every cloud service - even the big players like AWS and Google Cloud - are going to be doing it this way.

OpenAI's ChatGPT has a left wing bias – at times

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Meh

The definition of "bias" is subjective based on your own personal Overton window. As an example, a lot of the more mainstream Republicans - the ones who don't believe in the whole "QAnon" business - would regard Richard Nixon as left-wing.

Before you can assess whether AI is left- or right-wing biased, we need to have a clear definition of what is and isn't bias, and I'm not convinced that was their starting point. Would be interesting to see who funded this study - though I have my suspicions.

SUSE to flip back into private ownership after just two-and-a-bit years

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Alert

Re: "merging it with an unlisted Luxembourg entity"

That's more or less what I was thinking.

The "unlisted Luxembourg entity" could be anyone.

"Microsoft SUSE Linux"? Ugh, I'm worried now.

Hands up who wants a PC? Lenovo reports declining returns

Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Unhappy

The big selling point of Thinkpads was ease of repairability and upgradability. The trend towards soldered-in memory and non-upgradable storage means a lot of people who were previously happy to pay a premium to buy a Thinkpad don't see the point any more. One of their big selling points has gone, so why bother?

Discord.io pulls the cord after crooks steal 760K users' info

Zippy´s Sausage Factory

Re: Honesty

This isn't discord though, it's a third party service that connects to it. Like imgur used to be in regards to Reddit.