Posts by Ordinary Donkey

Big Tech silent on data privacy in post-Roe America

Re: Democracy

JFC you can't be from the UK and be this stupid

Haven't you been following British politics recently then?

Hint: Some of them think that drones are scared of dogs.

You need to RTFM, but feel free to use your brain too

Re: I love documentation

I worked one place with instructions for everything, but one section only explained how not to perform that task with no information on what you were actually meant to do.

If AI chatbots are sentient, they can be squirrels, too

Re: "different voices for reading aloud kids books compared to horror stories"

Not his first venture into erotica

I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems all too well

Re: Computing smarts in the cloud

Windows that runs in a browser already exists, though it might have some issues to work out.

US, Europe formally blame Russia for data wiper attacks against Ukraine, Viasat

Interestingly, their expert who informed us last weekend that nation states never carry out false flag cyberattacks actually seems to make this look suspicious when it otherwise probably wouldn't.

An international incident or just some finger trouble at the console?

Re: At long last...

I thought it was convincing the World Economic Forum that it's them.

Video

False-flag cyberattacks a red line for nation-states, says Mandiant boss

Re: What's he smoking?

Mandy Rice-Davies applies here.

The guy who tells people who did cyberattacks wants people to believe there are no false flags because otherwise his job gets much harder, not to mention what it does to his credibility.

AI models still racist, even with more balanced training

Re: Crazy

The most obvious bias, given the trends persist even in the monoracial examples, would have to be in the Ground Truth. Somehow the people measuring and appraising the AA subjects are being less accurate than they are to the WA subjects, and not in ways that are predictable to an AI.

The publication actually goes one further and suggests that maybe the psychometric tests they are using to measure these characteristics are also a load of bunk, albeit using longer words. If your ground truth data is nonsense your AI will be nonsensical.

BOFH: Something's consuming 40% of UPS capacity – and it's coming from the beancounters' office

Wasn't part of this a classic BOFH plot?

I'm sure back in the days when the series was passed around on public ftp services one of the stories had someone given a sequence of directions that included turning it off and back on at the case exactly twenty times, so there was nothing for him to support any more.

Obviously technology has marched on and twenty times is nowhere near enough any more.

Not to dis your diskette, but there are some unexpected sector holes

Re: Density

I have vague memories of someone bypassing the check for whether floppies were DD or HD by providing their own HD hole with a soldering iron.

Needs must in the devil's drives.

AI-powered browser extension to automatically click away cookie pop-ups now promised

Researchers are already looking for a workaround no doubt.

If the AI assures them it has disabled all the non-essential cookies then most users will let their guard down so all the website needs to do is find a trick that fools the AI but not a human and loads of people will accept cookies they would manually reject. Then the developers of the AI will be looking for a way around that...

I think Douglas Adams described the phenonomon with regards to his Thumb device, no?

EU law threatening 'commercially painful changes' for tech out tonight

More importantly how do I, as someone who wouldn't touch whatsapp with a ten foot pole, prevent whatsapp users from messaging me on other platforms?

UK Ministry of Defence takes recruitment system offline, confirms data leak

Re: "sources finger Capita-run system"

They are paid to take the blame. This was a government fuckup and a serious one this time. But people are blaming Capita and ignoring those politicians responsible.

Unable to write 'Amusing Weekly Column'. Abort, Retry, Fail?

Re: We had a technical

But it's only a technical disciplinary, because everyone knows they enjoy it really.

Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation

Re: "No installer"

I was making two disjointed points. Maybe that says something about the kind of person who gravitates toward Arch.

Available installers include Calamares and archinstall. I don't assume that's all of them. Pacman is the most used package manager but I tend towards yay these days since it integrates the arch user repository into things.

"No installer"

Way back before Covid I found out there were multiple competing installers for Arch Linux and I felt like I was coming home.

Even among non-Arch linux users the Pacman Rosetta is very popular.

BOFH: The Geek's Countergambit – outwitted at an electronics store

Re: After an hour or so shifting 0.479 Tonnes of paper...

He said Tonnes, not Tons.

0.479 Tonnes is 55.0582 adult badgers, and also 0.528 Tons.

Pakistan considers ten-year tax holiday for freelance techies

Re: I hope I'm wrong, but...

Greece has a system where if you move to Greece and take your online job with you then you pay lower taxes for $NUMBER years, but only if you've never lived there before. It doesn't seem hard to solve.

To err is human. To really screw things up requires a wayward screwdriver

Yes and no

I did have a screwdriver slip and go where it shouldn't go, but the end location was not so much sensitive electrics as inside the fleshy part of my hand.

I finished the job before seeking medical aid.

US Commerce Dept says China has brain-control weaponry

Why bother?

China's mind-control expertese was amply demonstrated in the Korean war, Britain's in WW2. Why would somebody need to put it into a gun?

When product names go bad: Microsoft's Raymond Chen on the cringe behind WinCE

Re: Then there is the joke about the combined business/home/portable version of

I remember pointing out that MS, Me and XP are all diseases and wondering when Windows VD would be released.

Midwest tornado destroys Amazon warehouse, killing six after worker 'told not to leave'

Re: From vehicles

In a building this size, IMHO, there should be a minimum of 9 shelters. In fact if they had really been concerned about safety, EVERY toilet facility in a single floor large area warehouse should be constructed as a shelter.

I worked for them once, they don't tend to have enough toilet facilities either.

Singaporean minister touts internet 'kill switch' that finds kids reading net nasties and cuts 'em off ASAP

Here's a radical idea,

why not use a parent or guardian?

Online harms don’t need dangerous legislation, they need a spot of naval action

Re: Incitement to violence

But does that have to be kept secret to avoid encouraging contempt for these cockwombles?

In case people have missed it, politicians have already begun claiming that tweets asking why they broke their promises are vilification and inciting violence.

Example

BOFH: So you want to have your computer switched out for something faster? It's time to learn from the master

Re: not by a long shot!

Once in a while in a story like this you have to demonstrate that an antagonist is actually worth antagonising.

Chinese developers rebel against long working hours with crowdsourced tell-all on employers

Re: Perhaps we could have a version of this for the west as well

Call centers.

In a UK call center, don't assume anything you hear before you finish your probation is true.

NFTs not annoying enough? Now they come with wallet-emptying malware

Re: Have siphoned off $5.3bn in Bitcoin payments

How much is that in Pogbas?

Roughly forty three and a sixth times his 2016 value. Anyone have more up to date figures?

Computer scientists at University of Edinburgh contemplate courses without 'Alice' and 'Bob'

Re: What about Mallory?

Mallory is a Malicious actor, in contrast to Eve/Yves/Niaj who is an eavesdropper and possibly a creepy voyeur (Niaj is a pun in certain asian languages apparently)

Full-ish list here

I'm diabetic. I'd rather risk my shared health data being stolen than a double amputation

Unfortunately, the incentives for governments like the British one are to offer an all-or-nothing deal, because without the sweetener of life saving nobody would accept the harms.

How not to train your Dragon: What happens when you teach an AI game sex-abuse stories then blame players

Re: Four Watermelons

Why not both?

I can only see one response.

To my mind we're going to have to get to the point that using unvetted data to train a public facing AI is punishable by being made to watch your entire dataset get overwritten with Rick Astley.

IKEA: Cameras were hidden in the ceiling above warehouse toilets for 'health and safety'

Re: Disgusting!!

You think IKEA contracted out their security to the Bottom Inspectors?

Online disinformation is an industry that needs regulation, says boffin

Interesting concept

Sounds like it will end up with every political post coming with a content warning, which won't be a bad idea.

Bumble fumble: Dude divines definitive location of dating app users despite disguised distances

I would have taken a much simpler option. Lie.

When somebody sets their location, choose a random location within 1 mile of them and store that as their bogus location. Calculate distances to this location and don't care if it leaks because it's fake.

China warns game devs not to mess with history

"That's our job."

Australian court rules an AI can be considered an inventor on patent filings

Interesting thought

So if an AI invents something can it be claimed by a human at all? I mean I don't think an AI can sign a contract...

Biden warns 'real shooting war' will be sparked by severe cyber attack

Re: The White House declares and outs itself ..... in a crazy directive

Oof! You went full Hitler.

Might want to tone that down, these days it makes you sound dangerously unhinged.

I mean, it always did but without President Trump as a distraction more people are reacting negatively to it.

Re: The White House declares and outs itself ..... in a crazy directive

If you'll step outside your social media bubble for five minutes you'll find the vast majority of Trump supporters never made that claim in the first place, so I'm not surprised you don't have any takers.

Online betting is illegal in my current location or I'd propose a counter-offer about the midterms. Or do you think that Trump is currently touring every electoral region in the USA as an inefficient means of making a few dollars?

Re: The White House declares and outs itself ..... in a crazy directive

Is there something strange and deranging in the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. water supply/intelligence source provision ‽ .

No, there's something in the electoral process that ensures normalish people can't get elected.

People thought Trump was an anomaly, when in fact he was just less subtle.

What is your greatest weakness? The definitive list of the many kinds of interviewer you will meet in Hell

Re: My greatest weakness...

My greatest weakness is medical and you're not allowed to take that into account.

Suck on this: El Reg forces dog hair, biscuit crumbs, and disconcertingly sticky stains down two mini vacuums

Re: Why an app for the upright?

I'd say they provide an app to make it seem reliable enough to be able to schedule it to run while you're out.

In reality I only ever use mine when I'm home because it usually needs rescuing at least once. Three is the record. Still much easier than a normal vacuum but I wouldn't trust it alone in the house.

Now if only I could actually turn the wifi signal off. Guess I'll have to crack the case at some point...

Where's the boss? Ah right, thorough deep-dive audit. On the boardroom table. Gotcha

This is basically why, when I worked security while at university, if I entered an area where nobody was meant to be I called out "Security!" before I walked in. Much safer than catching someone doing something embarrassing. More boring but it I was allergic to boring why would I be guarding empty offices?

BOFH: Here in my car I feel safest of all. I can listen to you ... It keeps me stable for days

It certainly beats my "Less secure than a twenty on the floor outside the pub"

11-year-old graduate announces plans to achieve immortality by 'replacing body parts with mechanical parts'

Covid related?

I'm going to guess that the move to online learning has made it much easier to pass degrees in less time.

Pentagon scraps $10bn JEDI winner-takes-all cloud contract

Re: Obligatory B5 misquote

Waves

UK artists seek 'luvvie levy' on new gadgets to make up for all the media that consumers access online

Re: Okay.

If you can find it you can watch it. It's a wolf with a balloon.

Okay.

There is a video on the internet somewhere of me making a glove puppet sing happy birthday. Where do I sign up for my cut of these millions? Does the puppet have to sign too?

Green MSP calls on Scottish government to stop spending £4.7m a year with AWS after Amazon 'dumping' allegations

Re: "we do not send items to landfill in the UK"

I never tried stabbing it, is that more therapeutic than just crushing it?