* Posts by ITMA

1033 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2019

Google wants to target you – yes, YOU – with AI-generated ads

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Devil

Just look for the locker which glows in the dark

Microsoft enables booting physical PCs directly into cloud PCs

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Devil

Re: Am I in an American Teen Horror Movie?

Probably easier to get your hands one of these than on a Pi though...

UK watchdog won't block Openreach’s discount fiber pricing

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Devil

Re: FFS...

"Fibre to the Premise not Premises - like it's not Fibre to the Cabinets. Or is that too paedantic?"

Not too pedantic. Just plain wrong.

When referring to a single building or even part of a building, it is still premises:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/premises

"Premise" is something else:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/premise

An important system on project [REDACTED] was all [REDACTED] up

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Devil

[REDACTED} Phooyee!

There is a great scene in the film "Hidden Figures" (the story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program) about dealing with [REDACTED].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEJWtAMnAlA

The answer - hold it up to the light.

The security "fix" to prevent this.... Use darker ink!

Is there anything tape can’t fix? This techie used it to defeat the Sun

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Devil

Re: Not only mice

I have found that duct tape provides a very effective "field fix" for "mouthy" users.

Pull out a good forearm length, tear off, place firmly over users "orifice" and press firmly.

Works best if you have a Bruce Willis style haircut when applying makeshift "software patch" to "troublesome" user :)

GitHub, Microsoft, OpenAI fail to wriggle out of Copilot copyright lawsuit

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Devil

Re: More popcorn please

IBM's favourite tactic especially with US government antitrust cases.

The world of work is broken and it's Microsoft's fault

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Devil

Re: Quelle surprise

"blink twice if you need help. I won't be able to help you, I'll just blink back"

Hang on! I know you!

You're my CAT!

I've told you before, do NOT go prancing about on my keyboard just because I've left the "fish tank" screen saver on. So get off my desk or there will be NO Dreamies for you when I get home.

Western Digital: Customer info stolen in that IT attack

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Re: Other data exposed include – in "encrypted" form – hashed and salted passwords

The really hard part with security is not the technical aspects, which I'm not saying are easy. It is getting the necessary top level management buy-in, backing and enforcemet.

All too often, it is lethargy and lack of a spine at the top that is the root cause.

Like allowing WhatsApp to become a semi-official internal communication tool used in preference to all the organisation provided tools. Simply because the users set it up and like using it.

Owner of 'magic spreadsheet' tried to stay in the Lotus position until forced to Excel

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Devil

Blunt instrument time...

If you can determine its IP, I would just trace its MAC address to the physical switch and block that switch's port. Then block the MAC address in DHCP.

Then sit and wait to see who comes and complains....

Slack adding generative AI to interact with colleagues, so you don't have to

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Devil

What are we paying you for then?

As AI worms its way into more and more areas, there will a come a point where someone higher up the food chain with think and then say out loud:

"If you are using AI to do most of your work, what the hell are we paying you for?

In fact, why should we continue paying you at all?"

Microsoft pushes users to the Edge in Outlook, Teams

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Devil

Re: Chrome

Here here!

No more feature updates for Windows 10 – current version is final

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Devil

Re: improvements?

And now Microsoft want to try another way to force Edge on users:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/02/microsoft_edge_outlook/?td=rt-3a

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Devil

Re: improvements?

And Microsoft STILL keep trying to force THEIR preferred settings for Chromium Edge on me....

GO AWAY. I have it set how I want (on the rare occasions I use it) so STOP BUGGERING ABOUT WITH IT...

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Re: predictable response.....

Shame that 95% of the software we need to run our business is not available for Linux....

Horses or courses.

At the end of the day the purpose of the OS is to run applications.

BOFH takes a visit to retro computing land

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Devil

I remember pretty much all of that kit. I even had a collection of Commodore PETs (with 3040 and 4040 dual floppy units).

And I do NOT avoid the stairs to save my knees, thank you very much.

I only avoid stairs if there is no supply of oxygen bottles at the top.

And I was wondering what caused that spate of flat types around Elephant & Castle......

UK emergency services take DIY approach amid 12-year wait for comms upgrade

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Re: Too Big?

This is an approach I use often which I think of as "tiptoeing through the minefield".

You stand far greater chance of making it out the other side with all your bits and appendages intact if you spend some time proactively trying to work out where the mines are first.

All too often the approach is "let's steam ahead and deal with any problems as we hit them".... BANG!!! Oops that's your legs gone. Not going to make good progress now are you?

Boffins think they've decoded mysterious 819-day Mayan calendar

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Devil

Re: we again note that we're still here

And here was me naively thinking this coversation wouldn't involve Elon Musk... LOL

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

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Devil

Re: Remember folks.

That reminds me of a story my mother told me about her and one of her brothers. She had a fiery temper.

They had an argument and she throw an "offensive bladed weapon" at him (it was a hand axe - quite why she had one to hand, I've no idea) which stuck in a door frame beside him.

When he exlaimed "That could have hit me!" her reply was - and this was in her own words - "I was aiming for your head".

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Devil

"As long as the big wigs get their cash, all is well."

I think there is a spelling mistake (or at least a typo) there. You used a "w" instead of a "p".

Turns out people don't like it when they suspect a machine's talking to them

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Devil

Re: What a surprise!

"Imagine that, people don't like chat bots. Who would have thunk it?"

I would have put it a bit more succinctly than that...

NO EFFING SH*T!

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Thumb Up

Re: Chatbot

Hang on. I need to write that down

ChatGPT creates mostly insecure code, but won't tell you unless you ask

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Re: What a future

"I have lost count of how many times I told various people around me that software engineers are not paid to write code. They are paid to think. Writing code is trivial effort in comparison"

I still irks me how much the media just doesn't understand that "coding" is not the same as "programming" or "software development".

Coding is a sub activity of the other two. They encompase a lot more than "coding".

Payments firm accused of aiding 'contact Microsoft about a virus' scammers must cough $650k

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They've tried calling me before

I've had a couple of calls like that.

Oddly they didn't get very far:

Scammer:

"Just press the Windows key and...."

Me:

"I can't see a Windows key on my keyboard"

Scammer:

"What is the make of your computer?"

Me:

"Erm... It says BBC Microcomputer"

Strangely he asked several more questions trying to identify my "PC" before the penny dropped LOL

BOFH: We send a user to visit Kelvin – Keeper of the Batteries

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Re: Keepers of...

Only ~20% ???

Sounds like you are underestimating....

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Re: Keepers of...

Now a TRUE storeman would keep a hidden stock of broken, burnt out components under the counter.

Then when some clever cloggs turns up, emptying a handful of burn components on the counter and asking:

"Have you got some of these?", he would reply:

"Certainly, here you are" and pull of some identical looking burnt components from his secret "clever cloggs" stash.

;)

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Re: Keepers of...

Correct.

The 3p is directly off the department stationery budget.

The £300+ is directly off the IT maintenance budget.

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Re: Keepers of...

"Notepads had to be filled, on both sides of every single page..."

And so had the toilet paper...

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

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Devil

One of two possibilities, beyond not paying their internet provider bills....

1. They had decided to try and send all their internet traffic through a satellite launched by Virgin Orbit. Oh, wait. That failed to launch didn't it.

2. Someone put the wrong bit of Virgin into receivership and accidentally tanked Virgin Media instead of Virgin (not in) Orbit.

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Devil

VM's mobile internet was also utterly buggered from at least 5:00am (when I got up) until very late morning.

Persistant "No internet connection" via mobile data.

China somehow got through COVID without MS Teams but – phew! – it's arrived

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Devil

A new "weapon"?

So Microsoft have discovered the TRUE potential of Teams - as a disruptive weapon to foist upon one's enemies to cripple them when they use it. Just as it does for too many "non-enemy" customers.

LOL.

India flies – and lands – reusable autonomous spaceplane

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Devil

Re: No, it doesn't look like the Shuttle or Buran

Hi Gene,

The "Send Corrections" link is near the top of the main Comments page on the same line and to the right of "Post you comment" and "House Rules" (on the full web version at least).

I've missed it before when wishing to point out errors.

;)

Europol warns ChatGPT already helping folks commit crimes

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Devil

Re: Interception

Quick!

Have it stand in the next elections! It will most likely win by a landslide... Plus make the rest of the candidates look even worse.

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Devil

I think we need to check all of BoJo's stuff - just in case it came from a secret incarnation of ChatGPT. Especially his government policies...

Scientists speak their brains: Please don’t call us boffins

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Devil

Re: I, for one, would be honored!

I still like the other WW2 term we had - The Wheezers & Dodgers :)

Microsoft promises it's made Teams less confusing and resource hungry

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Re: Basic UX problems

Even better....

If you click on Sign Out in the desktop version of Teams, you can re-launch Teams and sign back in just by clicking on a username in the list - ANY username with NO password prompt.

W T actual F ?!?!?!?!?

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Devil

Re: Basic UX problems

"That has to be in the running for the most-pointless-dialog-box ever award"

No no no no....

The most two most useless (recent) dialogs by Microsoft have to be during installation of Windows:

"Please wait while we work our magic..."

and:

"Leave everything to us...."

You must be effing joking!!! Leaving everything to you Microsoft ?!?!?!?!?

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Re: "On average, a typical user switches ten thousand times per month"

Most of the "switches" probably users trying to find stuff that someone in Microsoft has decided to move within Teams from where it usually is to some stupid place for the usual reasons - i.e. no damn reason at all, simply because they could.

Not because any, you know actual customers, thought the UI needed to be "fiddled about" with for the millionth time.

Are you ready to go all-in, head-first, on a laptop? ASUS's Zenbook Pro 16X asks for that commitment

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Re: How much RAM?

And is it like all too many models of ASUS, where you have to dismantle virtually the whole machine just to upgrade the RAM?

ASUS have a habit of NOT putting it under an easily accessible cover on the bottom and instead putting it in as awkward a place as possible.

Microsoft's Copilot AI to pervade the whole 365 suite

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We use it purely for email hosting, Office licensing and, grudingly, Teams.

We already have an IT policy effectively banning the storage of data (other than emails) on external services including OneDrive, Google Drive, and 365 generally.

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"As I've said in other comments, these things are tools"...

Oh Microsoft are "tools" alright...

Eufy security cams 'ignore cloud opt-out, store unique IDs' of anyone who walks by

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Devil

Re: Hello!

I take it you don't have a cat?

The hours of fun that can be had endlessly ejecting/re-inserting (if your DVD player allows you to do that via the remote) the disc tray while watching your cat try and grab or "bat" it is awesome.

Be prepared to have to replace it though if you cat is quicker than you and you end up with a "feline vandalised" machine.

Talk about "Paws of Fury" (just without Hank).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js3xUgNICNY

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Re: Hello!

Unfortunately this is all too common.

End users (both home and business) sleep walking into a security quagmire and privacy fiasco all in the name of "convience". They're becoming addicted to controlling things via apps on their phone (laziness?) which almost invariably require some sort of "cloud" service to work.

Manufacturers are equally to blame by encouraging it - realesing products which do not work, or are hard to make work, except via some (usually the manufacturer's) "cloud" service.

All business MUST have a policy for internet connected and IoT devices, as part of or in addition to their IT and security policies. It is grave mistake not to.

And a recommendation to everyone - STOP making or wanting everything under the sun to be "connected". There are even internet connected ovens FFS! It is getting ridiculous.

BBC to staff: Uninstall TikTok from our corporate kit unless you can 'justify' having it

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Re: SOP

It can be a real issue if apps like WhatsApp end up becoming a semi-official communication channel within a company without any oversight.

Microsoft to give more than microsecond's thought about your Windows 11 needs

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Re: Edge

One of my biggest "bug bears" about Windows 11.

The change from a single place to change the default web browser in Windows 10 to God knows how many individual file extension associations you have to change in 11.

One could be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft don't want people to change the default browser from something other than Egde.

John Deere urged to surrender source code under GPL

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Re: why is it so hard to follow a simple license?

IBM used this tactic for years - even against the US Government in antitrust cases the Government had filed against them.

Here's a fun idea: Try to unlock and drive away in someone else's Tesla

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Devil

Re: But physical keys can be hacked

Oh for the days when a dent-puller would quite neatly remove the barrel from most car locks...

Did I say that?

I wasn't there - honestly officer!

Cosmic rays more likely to glitch out water-cooled computers

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Devil

And what size overshoes do you take sir?

Bing AI feels like ChatGPT stuffed into a suit – not the future

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Devil

Re: How boring am I?

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch my lawn turn brown"

You'll have a long wait - that's astroturf you're looking at....

Capital crunch: Virgin Orbit confirms all ops on pause until Tuesday

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My. That;s a BIG one

They pic used gives the distinct impression that it is one HUGE missile delivery system.