Posts by jvf

Linus Torvalds says AI has made 'huge' Linux kernel updates the new normal

Re: Where do the (fixed) bugs come from?

I thought Linux was stable. Why does it keep needing these constant fixes and updates anyway?

Microsoft tosses Teams Live chat into its feature graveyard

missed it by that much

Thank God I retired before any of this sh*t became a thing. It was bad enough being forced to sit around the table staring at a speaker phone every so often.

Jailed Flock vandal wipes out three cameras, racks up thousands in damages

Re: It's all about metadata

True that, but it's a start.

Re: Dumb Ass

First legitimate use of drones I’ve come across.

Ransomware curdles production at Coca-Cola's Fairlife dairy biz

another choice

Another reason I drink goat's milk. Bonus-it's always in the fridge when I want some because no one else will tough it. Ditto for goat cheese.

Windows 10 refuses to die, and the security bill is coming due

Re: "Especially with the current price of new hardware…"

Better-sort of. As in slightly less buggy and slightly more stable (most of the time).

AdaptHealth says attackers sweet-talked their way into cloud systems and stole patient data

Not again!

“unwitting third-party contractor” Can’t we just put all third party contractors in jail and be done with it?

GM gets datacenter fever, decides to build grid-scale sodium-ion batteries

looka good

Excellent idea. Go GM. Hope they can build batteries better than they currently build automobiles.

GitHub nukes 70+ Microsoft repos, breaks CI/CD pipelines, following suspected worm infections

Re: Ugh

To a farmer, it's a beautiful sight.

Ring gets buzzed by class action for collecting visitors' faces without consent

gastly

Gastly is right. Those red headlines splashed everywhere are extremely irritating.

Malware dev tries to steal Claude users' secrets, writes npm slop, leaks own GitHub private token

above my pay scale

“archive deployment sync” utility that validates a GitHub repository, captures a “network status” snapshot, and then synchronizes local workspace files with a remote tracking tree.

What does that even mean” Who really needs this s**t?

That an app 'Fits on a Floppy' is still a useful measure in 2026

Congratulations

Congratulations,

This article brings to life everything I’ve been thinking about for years: It’s all too damn unnecessarily complicated.

Deus ex machina: Half of US Christians trust AI's spiritual advice

Good Lord

To quote a Steven King character "we're all dead, and this is hell"

Google accused of pushing 'free for life' G Suite users onto paid plans

gulp, gulp

So, sheeple are starting to choke on their “free” google koolaid. I’m finding it hard to sympathize.

Users complain that UK Azure is having capacity problems

data bloat?

“…millions of pounds per year on Azure…” I keep asking—how many of these companies actually NEED all the data they’re trying to store?

Server-room lock was nothing but a crock

labcoats rule

It could get boring in our lab for several days at a time as tests were run. In order to look busy, I’d grab my clipboard and stare at it while wandering through the office areas wearing my lab coat. No one ever asked what I was doing there, just smiles and greetings.

Booking.com warns reservation data may have checked out with intruders

Don't use 'em

Booking.com was a ripoff for me so I don’t use them (or any third party booking agents). We tried them once and I found out they had charged $100 more than the hotel would have when I had to call the hotel for something. I cancelled my reservation and booked directly like I’d always done. But, it’s getting harder to contact hotels directly. When you search for a hotel, all these third party leeches show up first so it’s easy to click on one (like my wife did) when you think you’re going to the actual hotel’s website.

Britain seeks views before it drops the hammer on signal jammers

I want one

I'd love to have a cellphone jammer for certain situations.

Microsoft yanks Windows 11 preview update after install failures

10 card

I’m starting to like my update free version of Windoze 10.

Your datacenter's power architecture called. It's not happy

Re: Toasty

I learned about this while designing my off grid solar system (which works great). The listed DC breakers I got were GIANT compared to the equivalent AC size. I shudder when I think of all the little peanut sized breakers I came across on Amazon and many legitimate DIY web sites. As I understand it, the basic design concept is to get the contacts far enough apart and quickly so the arc can’t jump the gap. There are also arc suppressors but I don’t know how they work. Bottom line: DC is a different animal.

Ex-Google engineers accused of helping themselves to chip security secrets

not again

"We have enhanced safeguards...." Why weren't they enhanced in the first place?

River project swims against the Wayland tide with modular window management

Re: When it gets to the point where you can use 'export DISPLAY=remotebox.lan:0.0' let me know

Are these the same guys trying to make a fusion reactor?

Taiwan tells Uncle Sam its chip ecosystem ain't going anywhere

Re: Lutnick

No desire yet. Until they can make enough chips on their own. That'll probably happen faster then the US can do it.

Microsoft's 'From SA' scheme on trial as license resale row refuses to die

NASCAR

M$ should look at how the suit against NASCAR went.

Fast Pair, loose security: Bluetooth accessories open to silent hijack

it shipped to me

One of my devices is infected. Whenever my niece upstairs started playing her “chick music”, my speakers would happily switch from good blues to her crap and I’d have to switch it back. It took a couple of episodes to realize what was happening. Fortunately, she only came home for holidays and we’ve since moved anyway.

Microsoft Windows Media Player stops serving up CD album info

Get a Brennan

No WMP for me. I rip and store my CDs with a Brennan B2 (made in England, I think). It’s an awesome machine that can do several things (they might have a newer version now). I have reasonable success getting the info and cover with 3rd party sites and the rest I type in by hand.

What if Linux ran Windows… and meant it? Meet Loss32

Re: The last thing we want

I'm in group b). Yes, the Windoze OS now is crapware but there are programs that run on it that are very good. Everytime I look at the supported windows programs in WINE, etc. mine aren't in the list and there are no direct Linux alternatives. I haven't had time to experiment if they would run or learn a different Linux version of what I use so I hold my nose, soldier on with my locked down (no updates) Windows 10 and wait.

Baby's got clack: HP pushes PC-in-a-keyboard for businesses with hot desks

Re: Sinclair should sue

Yes they should. I saw ads for such a device back in the day. Don't know if Sinclair had a competitor but I do know that the adage that "what's old is new again" still rings true.

IPv6 just turned 30 and still hasn’t taken over the world, but don't call it a failure

Re: wanna think this trrough again?

Centronics!-yes, DIN connectors-NO. The point is-exposed connectors aren't a good idea and I've had to replace many lightning cords for clients (and myself). But, bent DIN pins and lint filled C connectors don't necessarily make the list of "good" connector design either. BTW, I've never run into a lint filled C connector but, given time, I probably will.

wanna think this trrough again?

Durability? Lightning connector? -Yes, let's design another connector like it which has it's contacts EXPOSED to get dirty/damaged/shorted/mangled, etc. Talk about another bad "engineering" design by an Apple 20 something behind a computer and CAD program. You obviously aren't in the electrical/electronics maintenance repair field or you would look at tongue-in-socket connectors more favorably.

Google sends Dark Web Report to its dead services graveyard

Re: ACR technology

Good way to go. I'm using an old laptop. Can't find a big monitor (find some now and then for $$$$$) so I just leave the LG off the Internet and do as you suggested. An off air antenna is on the list. Those "smart TV" user agreements to use their "apps" are unbelievable. Most admit right up front that they are going to stick their heads up your rear end.

Snowflake update caused a blizzard of failures worldwide

name says it all

Databrick-priceless

Gainsight CEO downplays breach, says only a 'handful' of customers had data stolen

who are they?

Gainsight?? I looked them up. OMG! the bullshit generator is running wild. This from their website "...Scale onboarding, boost adoption, and monetize customer education. Improve user adoption with in-app engagements and meaningful product analytics. Scale effort and align teams using digital-led strategies. Essential features and onboarding to help you start and scale with Gainsight... Anyone who can make sense of this needs help all right.

DHS warns of sharp rise in Chinese-made signal jammers it calls 'tools of terrorism'

Re: "Chinese made"

I want one.

Kubernetes overlords decide Ingress NGINX isn’t worth saving

Re: Brilliant plan

maybe somebody should start paying open source maintainers.

Why Elon Musk won't ever realize the shareholder-approved Tesla payout

Re: the stockholders up on their feet dancing, chanting his name, and applauding.

...Tesla's stockholders are delusional...As are the MAGA followers. Yet muskie and the bronze turd keep rolling along. We're doomed.

AI slop hits new high as fake country artist goes to #1 on Billboard digital songs chart

another vote for Milli

You got it right the first time: "bro country" band .... singing soulless, cookie-cutter songs". Johnny Cash is rolling in his grave. Second time, not so much "painstakingly written, rehearsed, and recorded by actual humans with---- computers" if you are referring to the majority of 'music' on display for the last umpteen years. Pitch correction, time correction, etc.=stultifying blandness all around. Almost makes one long for the good old days of Milli Vanilli. Even jazz is getting watered down. There are some truly awful “jazz” singers infesting the airwaves these days.

How to bluff your way to AI credibility with the right buzzwords

I'm suspicious

Looks like someone at Gartner found the bullshit generator website. Thank you AI for your continuing contributions.

Senate bill would require companies to report AI layoffs as job cuts reach 20-year high in October

Re: Good

Yes, not sure what Josh Hawley (America's #1 pipsqueak) and Mark Warner (yet to be determined) are going to accomplish here except, as just mentioned, to have a 'feel good' moment. One thing is sure, the arguments about "another time-consuming layer of government red tape" will ring hollow as the companies rave about how AI makes reports such as these so automated and easy (and so easily manipulated). This problem will solve itself as societies crumble, wars break out and we start over (if anyone's left).

Rideshare giant moves 200 Macs out of the cloud, saves $2.4 million

Re: Yet another case..

"cult of the cloud"-Awesome! a perfect description that I will use from time to time. Thank you for that.

SonicWall fingers state-backed cyber crew for September firewall breach

too late again

"modernization push, aimed at tightening product architecture" Yeah, like all the rest you're going to start fixing things after you got caught with your pants down. Why aren't these companies being more proactive? Oh Yeah--it costs $$$$$$

You'll never guess what the most common passwords are. Oh, wait, yes you will

Re: Still harping over forum passwords

Absolutely. Aren't emails supposed to be unique? Why do forums (including this one) even need them? I just use the same password as much as possible and ignore it when google warns me my password has been exposed. I don't need to provide any financial details and little personal info so I don't care. On the OTHER hand, my financial advisor recently changed where my accounts are kept. For these occasions, I use 22 char random passwords. Well, the brain dead "writers" of this web form have it refusing my password claiming it contains illegal characters even though every one of the chars can be typed from the keyboard. So, I had to dumb down my password to complete the sign up. I will be excoriating them about this in the near future.

IBM cutting several thousand jobs in latest layoffs

Re: Bell labs

AT&T shut down and sold the name to another financial holdings company. It's so sad. I remember how proud and excited I was to have engineers from THE Bell Labs borrow my lab to finish programming and configuring an AT&T phone system we had recently purchased. It was complicated back in the day with routing tables and other nonsense. When they were finished, our President called me into his office where they were all sitting around. This system was going to pay for itself after only a couple of months because our phone bill was so high. ""Since this was your idea, you get the honor of making the first call" he said. Ever the practical one and having the phone number memorized (no speed dial for me even today), I called CSA to check on a product we had them evaluating. Wonk, wonk, wonk, went the phone as I handed it to the closest red faced Bell Labs engineer. Turns out they hadn't figured we might want to call out of the country so the hadn't put any "foreign" area codes in the routing tables. Pretty funny, that.

Re: Bell labs

In the late 80's, early 90's I ran the R&D lab for a small manuf. company (back when we still made sh*t in the US). I was working out a design problem for a new product with a colleague. Our illustrious entrepreneur president was an impatient chap and happened to strike up a conversation with an IBM engineer during a flight home. He brought the guy over to the factory to instantly solve our problem and instructed me to show him around the area and entertain him (which I did). After a couple of days he said to me "I don't know what Bob wants me to do, you're every bit as smart as the engineers we have at IBM". Suspicious of IBM's prowess even back then, I took it as a left handed compliment. A couple of days later, my colleague and I solved the problem and the product was a success.

Attackers dig up $11M in Garden Finance crypto exploit

Who?

Garden cofounder 'Jaz'-would you buy a used car from this guy?

AI layoffs to backfire: Half quietly rehired at lower pay

Re: The American (CEO's) Dream

yeah,

I remember the day that I realized HR worked for corporate and not us. It was a sobering moment and made me think much more carefully about what I said to them.

Docker Compose vulnerability opens door to host-level writes – patch pronto

???

Docker compose? YAML lines? OCI-based Compose artifacts? orchestration tool? Thank God I retired before I had to learn any of this shit.

Linux vendors are getting into Ubuntu – and Snap

Re: Lies, can lies, and statistics set But #1

Humpty Dumpty-the only book in the bookcase at the oval office these days.

Microsoft suggests temporary registry hack for stricken smart card users

Yeah, but it was fun watching Ballmer perform. He was a great animated cheerleader for uncle Bill.

Microsoft puts Office Online Server on the chopping block

AI at its best

What a hoot. "modernizing productivity experiences", “secure, collaborative, and feature-rich experiences "offers modern meeting experiences."” Looks like CoPilot found the bullshit generator webpage while preparing this announcement.