Posts by AndersH

FTC urges smart device makers to disclose software update lifecycles

Re: I've been burnt - thank you samsung

Wow, that is pretty poor! Will you buy a Samsung TV in the future? If this happened to me, I certainly wouldn't. The fact that companies do this suggests otherwise might be true in many cases, unfortunately.

UK's Investigatory Powers Bill to become law despite tech world opposition

More equal that others

It comes as little surprise to find that MPs have given themselves additional protection that the rest of us are not afforded.

Top-tier IT talent doesn't stick around in 'mid-market' organizations

Why trust any of their data?

If the respondents are so woefully ill-informed on other subjects, i.e. why trust their judgement about who is top tier and excellent talent?

Over 100,000 compromised ChatGPT accounts found for sale on dark web

Re: Is this worse that other products?

The article is about 100k account details being available for sale. What does that have to do with the functionality of the LLM?

Re: Is this worse that other products?

Indeed, however, the actual problem, which is that some people's computers aren't secure and have been infected by password "stealers", isn't addressed. Look at the other comments for evidence of what people have taken from this article.

Is this worse that other products?

100k accounts doesn't sound like a big number given how many total accounts there are. Is there evidence that ChatGPT is worse than other products?

Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim

Guilty until proven innocent.

What happens if a driver makes an allegation and there is no video of the event?

I appreciate in this story the smart doorbell is the trigger, but the chance for misinterpretation exists without one.

Capita wins £50M fraud reporting contract with City of London cops

Top sales team?

Do Capita have the most amazing sales teams, or is there basically no competition for these government contracts? (I suppose it could also be corruption.)

Re: Sweepstake

It's nice to see someone being optimistic in the comments for a change. :-)

Gen Z and Millennials don't know what their colleagues are talking about half the time

Re: Breaking down silos

This seems quite common on corporate websites. We had a new customer so I went to their website to see what they "do". After reading it, I was none the wiser.

As I am surprised at some of these it probably means I'm indoctrinated.

Some of this jargon is painful to hear I agree, but it's interesting to see what other people think of as jargon. For example, I'd have thought "noted" was a common word. It has a few different means depending on the context. What's the jargon usage for this? "Sing from the same hymn sheet" is a metaphor.

Language evolves, but not always in an ideal direction.

Users complain over UK state-owned bank's services as Atos eyes the exit

I frequently experienced this issue and when I contacted support*, their solution was not to use mobile data. Apparently, it had something to do with IP address tracking. I have never encountered this restriction before.

* This was years ago when support weren't overwhelmed.

Norway finds a way to recover crypto North Korea pinched in Axie heist

Re: Tornado cash

I believe the OP is correct that if something (e.g. a bike) can be shown to have been stolen, then it must be returned to the original owner. You're out of luck if you bought it for say cash down the pub.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-you-think-youve-bought-stolen-goods/

I'm unclear how this could be applied to a fungible token, it's an interesting question though. Anyone with a legal background care to comment?

Intel cuts some workers’ pay to fund its future

Shareholders are in a pickle too.

The share price is down ~42% in the last year and ~39% over 5 years, so preserved doesn't seem accurate. Shareholders are important stakeholders in the survival of a public company. Having said all that, a dividend cut with that money going into R&D might be a sensible strategic move for Intel. I'm not a shareholder, but it's the sort of thing I would want to see if I were.

(Agree it's good to see the top leadership taking the most significant pay cuts. )

Microsoft to move some Teams features to more costly 'Premium' edition

Re: SatNad's move to everything being subscription

That began years ago. It's not a Microsoft "innovation" either.

FTX CTO and Alameda Research CEO admit fraud, pair 'cooperating' with Feds

"both cooperating"

Now the about-face and agreeing to quick extradition makes sense. SBF needs to get in there and "cooperate". I enjoy watching these (I suppose I better say, "alleged") scammers throwing each other under the bus.

On the 12th day of the Rackspace email disaster, it did not give to me …

Re: Barracuda Networks

I took a look at the chart out of morbid curiosity. This recent fall doesn't (yet) look out of line with the trend since its April '21 high. (From there it's down ~88%, ouch!) More pain for investors is incoming, I suspect ...

Where are EU going with that Teams antitrust probe? Microsoft wants a word

Re: Microsoft Torture Suite

I know being vaguely positive isn't popular on the Web but... MS Teams works alright at our company, and our laptops are nearly four years old. Video calls are not quite as good as Zoom, but it's easier to use than Webex. MS Teams has made collaborating easier, e.g. working on shared docs. I can't see why a company would introduce Teams if they already had something like Slack, without retiring the existing product. It'd be like saying, "we've got Exchange email, but let's also introduce Gmail".

"Shall we switch to Hangouts or Slack?" said no one ever.

Judge tells Elon Musk he can't stall Twitter trial

Not always though sadly

In the US (and elsewhere I dare say), one side having appointed the judge to the bench can result in a less speedy outcome.

Russian military uses Chinese drones and bots in combat, over manufacturers' protests

Re: This is something that needs paying attention

This is basically the "tank rush" strategy from Command & Conquer.

Brit data regulator fines five cold-calling fiends £405k

I fear you're right. UK Platinum Home Care Services Limited for example had net assets of £5.6k based on their last micro accounts (Feb 2021). The remedy would appear to be for directors to be disqualified, but it's a rare occurrence (in general). I've no idea if it's something the ICO could push for. (Yugashen Govender, one of the directors of the above company, setup another in April 2021 called Xtreme Appliance Cover Limited, I think we can guess the business model...)

North Korea pulled in $400m in cryptocurrency heists last year – report

Re: Further to the North Korea story:

Probably waiting for gas fees to drop. Microtransactions on Ethereum??!

140,000-plus drivers sent $60m in compensation checks after Amazon 'stole their tips'

Re: Tax time

Eh, said driver will have $28k from which to pay the tax bill.

2FA? More like 2F-in-the-way: It seems no one wants me to pay for their services after all

"Something I know" (username) and "something I know" (password) isn't 2-factor authentication.

Over 100 Taiwanese political figures' messages leaked outta LINE app

Re: Get that encryption outta here!

You're outta line ;-)

Ex-health secretary said 'vast majority' were 'onside' with GP data grab. Consumer champion Which? reckons 20 million don't even know what it is

Down the rabbit hole

Difficult to trust this when there are exceptions to the promised safe-guards, for which it's difficult to work out what they actually mean.

For example, the National Data Opt-out has an exception.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research

"NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you - this includes GP data, or other data we hold, such as hospital data - with other organisations, unless there is an exemption to this."

Then on trying to find out what this actually means.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research/transparency-notice

"If you have registered a National Data Opt-out, NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you with other organisations unless there is an exemption to this, such as where there is a legal requirement or where it is in the public interest to do so, such as helping to manage contagious diseases like coronavirus. You can find out more about exemptions on the NHS website"

That leads to another page, at which point I find it difficult to work out what's relevant to General Practice Data for Planning and Research

https://your-data-matters.service.nhs.uk/privacynotice#Where-your-choice-does-not-apply

I don't see how they can claim this is straightforward and transparent communication with the public.

It's safe to leave your bunker: Blame that Chinese nuclear plant alarm on fuel rod faults

3.6

Hopefully this isn't a "not great, not terrible" moment. Interesting read. As a layman I imagined (without having really thought much about it) that a nuclear power plant was all slick sci-fi style high-tech, but in fact it sounds like old-skool industrial processes with equipment subject to wear. I think I preferred my fantasy-land version...

iFixit slams Samsung's phone 'upcycling' scheme for falling short of what was promised

Re: Its a problem of volume

I change my worldview based on the facts, what do you do?

How about in 2018 (the last year that Apple reported iPhone unit sales separately) they sold 217.7 million iPhone units.

Source: https://investor.apple.com/sec-filings/sec-filings-details/default.aspx?FilingId=13040732

Apple's global market share was about 15% in 2018, which would put global sales at 1.451 billion.

Source: https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share/

Rude awakening for O2 customers after network runs surprise test of emergency mobile alert system

Re: Self inflicted

Seems like a reasonable explanation, how do you know this?

Is it linked to this? https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/cell-broadcast-trial

Hong Kong floats doxxing laws that would let it force big tech to take down content

Now the CCP is keen privacy!?

“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

China whacks Alibaba with US$2.8bn fine for breaking antitrust rules

Re: Yet in the West.

I guess it depends what you want to learn here. If the learning is, "if you criticise the government we'll use regulators to go after you", then I'd say no thanks.

Facebook says dump of 533m accounts is old news. But my date of birth, name, etc haven't changed in years, Zuck

HIBP does now

Just did a search on HIBP using a phone number. Make sure to try by the leading 0 and country code version of your phone number.

It's wild the lengths Facebook engineers will go to find new ways to show you inane ads about tat: This time, AR...

Re: It's all coming true

... or using the information someone else shared about you.

'Meritless': Exam software maker under fire for suing teacher who tweeted links to biz's unlisted YouTube vids

I would guess the people making the purchase decision probably have no background in tech. They simply believe the sales pitch.

Thirsty work: TSMC starts trucking in water amid Taiwan drought to keep chip production lines chugging

Woof!

There really is no good news when it comes to Climate Change. "While tropical storms are often responsible for immense property damage and loss of life..., they also help to replenish reservoirs."

Amazon bean-counter, her husband, father-in-law cough up $2.6m after SEC collars them on insider-trading rap

Insider trading seems completely unnecessary in the case of Amazon.

Crazy really, if they'd just bought and held Amazon stock from the start of 2012 they could be up ~17.5x (from a share price of ~$180 to today's price ~$3150). Be interesting to know if with that insider knowledge they actually managed to do better...

Teen charged after allegedly taking food delivery biz for a ride: $10k of 'fraudulent refunds for stuff not delivered'

A question is, do they have evidence that all these delivery were in fact not delivered? Maybe their service is just awful...

Um, almost the entire Scots Wikipedia was written by someone with no idea of the language – 10,000s of articles

An interesting example of moral outrage in the defence of something (the Scot language), preventing something that would have likely protected the very thing. How little the person who commented “Proposer should educate him/herself in linguistic diversity” must have looked into this. Sadly, it feels like this is the way things are increasingly being run in government.

Face masks hamper the spread of coronavirus. Know what else they hamper? Facial-recognition systems (except China's)

Re: What ?

I would guess... China.

Consumer orgs ask world's competition watchdogs: Are you really going to let Google walk off with all Fitbit's data?

Re: Depends

Agreed. I stopped wearing my FitBit for this reason. If every time I want to go for a run I have to open the FitBit app to ensure it definitely tracks, then I can use any app (e.g. Strava) and wear whatever watch I fancy. Getting a silent alarm to set on the FitBit was also a rigmarole of syncing multiple times.

Call for netizens to demand scraped pics from Clearview, ML weather forecasts, and Star Trek goes high def with AI

Clearview's use would appear to contravene the "Purpose limitation" principle?

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/principles/purpose-limitation/

"You can only use the personal data for a new purpose if either this is compatible with your original purpose, you get consent, or you have a clear obligation or function set out in law."

Android owners – you'll want to get these latest security patches, especially for this nasty Bluetooth hijack flaw

Why is the advice from ERNW "to switch to wired headphones *and* make sure their devices are not in discovery mode in public.". My already paired Bluetooth headphones aren't at risk, are they? (Let's not get started on the remove of 3.5mm jacks from phones!)

It's been one day since Blighty OK'd Huawei for parts of 5G – and US politicians haven't overreacted at all. Wait, what? Surveillance state commies?

What percentage of previous gen (2G, 3G and 4G) mobile network kit is already Huawei in say the UK or US?

Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed

Re: FOIA legislation

There might one or two unintended consequences of that sort of law!

USB4: Based on Thunderbolt 3. Two times the data rate, at 40Gbps. One fewer space. Zero confusing versions

Re: which way it plugs in

Quantum physics (and Redit) has explained this. Your USB plug is in superposition until observed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/226qum/usb_superposition/