* Posts by ITMA

1033 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2019

Former Fujitsu engineer apologizes for role in Post Office IT scandal

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Devil

Re: Possibly controversial opinion...

You mean like the Post Office investigator, Stephen Bradshaw, who admitted that his witness statement - which he signed - wasn't even written by him. It was written by "the business":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a0b9Q7JMuc

ISS 'nauts told to duck and cover after dead Russian sat sprays space junk

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Devil

You mean the space debris/junk was "floating" in the same way that 650 tonne train bearing down on you at 140mph is "trundling along".

EU accuses Microsoft of antitrust violations for bundling Teams with O365

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Devil

Why don't the EU tackle the more invasive CoPilot crap which is being forced onto almost everything.

Likewise with Adobe's "AI" crap which you can't turn off.

Microsoft's new Surface Laptop 7 has arrived. The recovery images have not

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Re: "why it would release hardware before its recovery tool had been updated"

"his is a precision instrument we are talking about here"

Interesting... That's the first time I've heard one of Microsoft's glued together door stops described like that.

Additional hatch operations on a Boeing vehicle – but this time it's Starliner

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Astronauts: No HAL, we asked you to open the (pod) doors, NOT blow the bloody doors off!

HAL: Oi! Don't blame me! This is a Boeing job, the bloody doors blew off by themselves because they weren't properly bolted down.

Self-driving cars safer in sunlight, twilight another story

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Devil

So, self driving vehicles are flummoxed when they enter.... The Twilight Zone.

You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination - as a self driving vehicle mows you down.

What's up with Mozilla buying ad firm Anonym? It's all about 'privacy-centric advertising'

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Devil

"What it's really about it giving more control to Google. Remember they control the proprietary browser that most people use..."

You mean when Microshite aren't trying to ram Edge down everyone's throat at every opportunity?

Microsoft's Recall should be celebrated as the savior of SMEs and scourge of CEOs

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Ignorance Management

You've missed:

"Stuff we are SUPPOSED to do this way but actually do another way because we can't be arsed".

and

"Stuff we are SUPPOSED to do this way but actually do another way because the way we are supposed to do it was invented by some knob head who has no effing clue"

AI PCs might solve a real problem: The 'friction' that sees users ignore security

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Devil

Re: A non-AI PC is now considered Bog Standard?

Switzerland... dear... That-a-way...

Raspberry Pi IPO is oversubscribed multiple times

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Devil

Re: You can alwyas become a share holder.....

Individual's and small shareholders will not have a say for long, if they have a say at all.

Once the big institutional boys with their block votes wade in it will be like that Monty Python "Union meeting" sketch:

"Ok who is for tea?"

Two hands go up.

"That's 20,000 for tea and for coffee?"

Two different hands go up:

"That's 40,000 for coffee".

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

To paraphrase a line from a certain Star Wars film...

"So This is How Liberty Dies, With Thunderous Applause"

Adobe users just now getting upset over content scanning allowance in Terms of Use

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: When wil people learn?

I've been saying this for years!

If you do not physically control the hardware your data is stored on, you do NOT have control over it.

He/she who owns/runs the hardware, has your data and complete control over it. They can change or take your access away at any time.

Recycling old copper wires could be worth billions for telcos

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

And who has been conned into installing CCA network cabling?

AI smartphones must balance promise against hype and privacy concerns

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Devil

Re: Some "AI" has uses, but most is...

"where you can select something (random detected objects, lines, or people depending on what option you picked) and they will be semi-intelligently deleted"

Sounds like a feature inspired by Stalin and the NKVD.

What's it called - the "Lavrentiy Beria" Photo Editor?

ITMA Silver badge
Pint

Re: Not for me

"Oh, and the battery lasts about a wee between charges"...

What are you charging it with? Beer? LOL

Infineon promises 12kW PSUs for next generation of power-hungry AI servers

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: I had a power supply that size for years

I've seen one of those used by a guy fabricating some bench frames for a company I used to work for out of 25mm square tubular stock.

Was only a small one which plugged into a standard UK 13A socket.

Unfortunately, the nearest socket wasn't close enough and he didn't fully unwind the small 13A drum extension he had.

Oh boy, was the ensuing spontaneous combustion of the extension drum fun to watch!!! LOL

Microsoft's Recall preview doesn't need a Copilot+ PC to run

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: No

And where was this 2TB of photos and docs stored?

On a local drive or NAS box? Or "in the cloud"?

And did you lose them because you couldn't find them in your "online" storage (local or cloud) or because you couldn't find the physical device? Like that guy who claims to have lost millions in bitcoin because he throw the HD with his digital wallet on containing the bitcoin out - literally.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55658942

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: No

If staff are so disorganised that they can't find things, then you have a far more serious problem than this shite can fix.

Besides, if the day ever comes when I need Microsoft's AI shite to find things for me is the day I book myself into one of those clinics in Switzerland.

Tape is so dead, 152.9 EB of LTO media shipped last year

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Long term storage to tape, takes more than just a bunch of tapes!

And don't even start thinking about drivers....

And just when you need to get at it, you can't remember how to get into the mountain (or even which mountain) nor find the (physical) key.

Speaking of keys, I once was taking part in a product launch in the mid 1990''s of a certain very early multi-function peripheral (fax/scanner/printer/copier) made by a certain Japanese printer manufactuer. The launch was in Dublin (mmmm. REAL Guinness!) at some country house hotel.

To keep the four demo systems (with host PCs) safe overnight the hotel staff secured the doors to the function room using a massive motorbike chain and lock - the doors didn't actually have a lock.

Come the morning, could they find the bloody key? NO!

We got some rather odd looks from the press as they wandered into this function room with a huge great D shaped brass handle on one door with the handle for the other door (no longer attached to the other door) hanging down from it by the chain.

Mmmmm....

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Damn - you beat me to it...

Lords of May-hem: Seven signs it is Oracle's year end

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Devil

I thought that was Norton....

Google, Apple gear to raise tracking tag stalker alarm

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Tracking the trackers

If the tagged cases are going in th hold they could potentailly be violating a bunch of air transport safety regulations which also apply to data loggers used for monitoring freight being shipped by air.

Specifically if they are powered from batteries containing lithium.

Texan construction workers put a rocket up Team SpaceX over 'unpaid bills'

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: $2.5 million is not a lot of money for SpaceX

Perhaps there is more than mere coincidence to the fact that "Elon" and "Enron" are almost identical....

You want us to think of the children? Couldn't agree more

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Social media industry replies:

"Sod the children, think of the $$$$. Won't anyone think of the $$$$ and our share price?"

Fancy building a replacement for Post Office's disastrous Horizon system?

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Murder, robbery, arson, gambling, protection rackets and ultra-high-speed computing

Ah... The Two Seymours...

Cray and Papert.

Ten years ago Microsoft bought Nokia's phone unit – then killed it as a tax write-off

ITMA Silver badge
Pint

Re: Nokia menus

"I also remember the day my contract was up, snapping it in half and dropping it into a pint..."

Heathen! What a waste of a pint....

Some scientists can't stop using AI to write research papers

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Lazy fuckers

That - "lazy fuckers" - is a view I hold generally about the use of generative AI.

If someone is being paid to do a job and they are using LLM based AI to do a significant proportion of it, then what are they being paid for? The AI is doing the "work", not them.

They are being paid to use their brain to do a job.

Besides, since LLM based AI virtually always has the caveat of "can give innacurate and misleading results which should be checked carefully" that means you MUST spend an awful lot of time checking what it has done.

So here is an idea - save the time and do the effing work yourself in the first place as you are being paid to....

Even using it to summarise a document.

If you are asked to summarise something that means you've been asked to READ IT and UNDERSTAND IT. If you are using AI to do it, you have done neither.

Prof asks court to protect his Unfollow Everything 2.0 extension from Facebook's ire

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: No need to make it better...

"Back in 2008, when the infection started, I went to the pub with my colleagues, and one of them pulled out his phone to show me how many friends he had.

I told him, his friends were here, at the table…"

I think you may be making the mistake of equating "work colleagues" with "friends".

While someone you work with may well be a "friend", just as often the are not. Even if you do from time to time go out for a drink with them after work.

Who remembers lunch time drinks during work?

Help! My mouse climbed a wall and now it doesn't work right

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Is it plugged in?

And it is a common "user misconception".

Saying "kettle lead" to them they are more likely to understand you than "is the C13 plugged in". They might think you are talking about some Sinclair electric vehicle LOL - "I can't see as it is in the car park".

Not to mention ALL the "ON" switches being "ON". Especially with equipment plugged into multiway extension blocks etc. with individual switches. Knowing "users", probably "daisy chained" as well.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wow

I remember seeing those! :)

God I feel old :(

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Devil

Re: Wow Female

Even the old BBC micro had a trackball - the main other one I used after Missile Command:

https://www.domesday86.com/?page_id=61

Ye olde Marconi RB2!

Trackballs are great alternative pointing devices to mice when there was very limited desk space or mice were plainly impractical - such as radar and military applications.

https://www.trackballmouse.org/trackball-mouse-aviation-military/

https://www.nsi-be.com/markets/marine

Mice have an unfortunate habbit of "rolling off the desk" during combat operations at sea - especially at critical moments.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wow Female

They are called "trackballs" and have been around almost as long as mice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackball

I remember playing Missile Command in the arcade when at school which had a trackball - that was in the 1980's

https://www.arcade-museum.com/Videogame/missile-command

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wow

That is a real issue with optical mice.

They can be very fussy about surfaces - especially "shiny" ones and surfaces without any visible "texture" or "pattern".

To be fair mechanical mice could also be fussy about some surfaces.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Is it plugged in?

"assumed that the kettle lead in-situ was hers"

Not wishing to be pedantic but... Oh sod it, it's Sunday and I don't give a stuff.

The connectors used on most equipment described as "kettle leads" are technically NOT "kettle" leasds. They are IEC C13 (lead)/C14 (equipment) connectors.

"Kettle" leads, strictly speaking, are the "hot" (high temperature) variant which is the C15 (lead)/C16 (appliance) combination which have a notch at the bottom.

A C15 lead can be used in place of a C13 lead as it fits equipment with a C14 connector.

However, you CANNOT use a C13 lead with something which has a C16 connector - the notch is there to stop you.

The chip that changed my world – and yours

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: It lasted 50 years, but history finally claimed it

There are a few integrated circuits which "bit the dust" not because they were "obsolete" or such like. But because the manufacturers had "lost the masks".

LOL

City council audit trail is an audit fail after disastrous Oracle ERP rollout

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: it's just too big to manage

You are Sir Humphrey Appleby under an assumed name, aren't you!

Go on, admit it!

LOL

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Devil

Re: Biggest in Europe

But... But.... But...

How would their CEOs be able to justify their telephone number salaries?

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: it's just too big to manage

You are talking about the disease which has always infected local government - empire building.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Ah, the "Angela van den Bogerd" defence.

What's up with AI lately? Let's start with soaring costs, public anger, regulations...

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: It's only economically sensible to replace human labor with AI...

And there, in a nutshell, is everything which is wrong with today's corporate culture - especially at the top.

All that matters is this quater and churning out results for it - no matter how fake - which will inflate the share price and thus the bonuses of those at the top.

Microsoft dusts off ancient MS-DOS 4.0 code for release on GitHub

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Dos Versions that were significant or useful

The absence of DOS 4.x from that list is signifcant.

If I recall it had "issues", starting with using significantly more memory.

I wonder if there is something in the fact that 2 x 4 = (Windows) 8?

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Early Windows source code versions

I submit that Windows 8 definitely does NOT need to be "preserverd."

It needs to be locked in a strong box, taken deep into some words and buried where nobody will find it. And we will never speak of it again.

US Air Force says AI-controlled F-16 fighter jet has been dogfighting with humans

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: One step closer

The only winning move is not to play...

Microsoft claims it didn't mean to inject Copilot into Windows Server 2022 this week

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Oops, we accidentally made most of your emails appear to vanish by forcing out and turning on "Focussed Inbox" and not even telling you how it decides what is "focussed" and what is "other".

Oops, we accidentally changed a shit of of settings in Windows from how you had set them to how we want them - such as "seach" in the task bar - because we want to force more shit on you.

Oops, we accidentally made Outlook open links in emails using Edge and not the default browser you had chosen because we want to ram Edge down your throat.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

I've a better one.

I'm with John Humphreis of the BBC (slightly paraphrased): "Why are these lying bastards lying to me?"

Devaluing content created by AI is lazy and ignores history

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

"One of the biggest issues in the NHS is that most doctors have no idea how well their diagnoses and treatments work..."

I would disagree.

The biggest issues with the NHS stem from politicians - their constant fiddling, inteference, "reforms", "reorgansations" etc etc etc.

How much of the precious NHS budget is wasted on that crap?

Whistleblower cries foul over alleged fuselage gaps in Boeing 787 Dreamliner

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Re: "We are fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner"

Who do Boeing think they are? The Post Office?

"We are confident that Horizon is reliable and robust" LOL

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

The pic used for the item

In cast anyone was wondering, this is (I believe) the aircraft which had the "bloody nose":

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/aaib-report-boeing-787-8-inadvertent-nose-landing-gear-retraction-whilst-parked-on-stand-london-heathrow-airport

18th June 2021

;)

Why making pretend people with AGI is a waste of energy

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Devil

Re: Artificial bowel intelligence

"A conversation is easy and natural for humans (not a challenge)"

With the exception where one of the humans is a politician.

ITMA Silver badge
Devil

Re: Two men say they are Jesus. One of them must be wrong.

"The test of truth is an experiment."

Unless it involves photons and slits.... Then it just gets really confusing...