Posts by Macs1000

Gemini lies to user about health info, says it wanted to make him feel better

At Last

Humanity has got its own Electric Monk.

DragonFire laser to be fitted to Royal Navy ships after acing drone-zapping trials

Re: pew pew pew

The sound of bacon frying?

UK's digital hospital plan meets analog reality check

Virtual wards

My local NHS trust runs a "virtual ward" system. Recently my wife had a problem that necessitated a few days in hospital. When she came home, the hospital wanted to monitor her progress. She was given a blood pressure machine, thermometer and oximeter, the readings from which were entered into an app twice a day, and the hospital made a video call each day to check on her and discuss any problems. Failing to provide the reading within the time limit meant they would phone up to check, followed by calls to next of kin if there was no answer. We were also given an emergency phone number, manned 24/7. A nurse turned up on the doorstep to take blood samples, and any drugs needed would have been couriered over to us. If there had been a major problem, they would send an ambulance. It was a system that worked very well. My wife was much happier at home (no hospital food for a start) and a hospital bed was freed up for someone in much greater need.

Export controls now a key factor in AI chip development – adding risk for the whole industry

Upvote because I just love that bit of writing!

Millions of age checks performed as UK Online Safety Act gets rolling

Re: Madness

I wonder if the danger here is that many parents might now think there is no need to take any responsibility, since there is the OSA to protect their children.

Double-detonation supernova could explain why the universe is full of candles

Re: Type ia supernova,

And I just keep wondering who this Al guy is that keeps sticking his nose in everywhere these days!

Yes, I wrote a very expensive bug. In my defense I was only seven years old at the time

Cheap rate calls

I don't understand why an automated call during the night (cheap rate?) should be vastly more expensive than a manual one during the day (peak rate). What have I missed?

Nvidia GPU roadmap confirms it: Moore’s Law is dead and buried

Re: Not Enough Compute Speed?

Well, Phil, I got the joke even if no-one else did!

Google confirms Gulf of Mexico renamed to appease Trump – but only in the US

Tampico

I, Tampico, Tampico,

On the Gulf of America...

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

UK biz dept overspent by £208M prepping to pay workers hurt in Post Office IT scandal

Re: If true....

What on earth has Royal Mail got to do with all this?

CrowdStrike shares sink as global IT outage savages systems worldwide

Re: The fault's with Microsoft

Er, yes, but if Microsoft provided a secure system there would be no need for Crowdstrike in the first instance.

Nominet to restructure, slash jobs after losing 'major deal'

Re: I'm sure at one time, the companies coffers were considerably stocked...

Err... no. It says 70 roles (out of 315), not 70%. So actually about 22%.

Fujitsu finance chief says sorry for IT giant's role in Post Office Horizon scandal

Re: "Fujitsu finance chief says sorry"

There used to be an honourable Japanese tradition of making a sincere apology by committing hara-kiri...

Russia to ban all VPNs – again – says senator

Re: Everyone's at it..

It seems that AC still has unrestricted access to RT, then!

Missing Titan sub likely destroyed in implosion, no survivors

Re: "craft's carbon fiber hull"

The pressure at 3800 metres (the depth of the Titanic) is about 5500 psi, or 2.5 tons per sq.in. If my arithmetic is correct, (and it may not be) then the force acting on each titanium end section would be about 19,600 tons, and the force acting on any side of the cylindrical section (although having to guesstimate its actual length) would be about 26,000 tons. I find it hard to understand how any sane person with even an inkling of these sort of figures would contemplate climbing into such a contraption.

James Webb spots the early galaxies responsible for tidying up the universe

Something else is wrong here..

What in the name of the Deity is an "honoree"?

Australia to phase out checks by 2030

Re: Checks?

Which, of course, is pronounced A to Zed.

Florida folks dragged out of bed by false emergency texts

Re: Big Brother has another way to cock things up.

My (lack of any) Feature Phone got the alert. But I'm really curious as to why it has had two previous test alerts over the last few weeks. Am I the only one?

Psst! Infosec bigwigs: Wanna be head of security at HM Treasury for £50k?

Re: Only three types of people...

No, a retired IT person would be too inflexible and wooden in his approach!

Twitch bans AI-generated Seinfeld show for making transphobic jokes

So, did nobody think it might be a good idea to check this stuff before it was actually aired?

Nvidia faces lawsuit for melting RTX 4090 cables as AMD has a laugh

Re: The hot coffee lawsuit...

Of course, if you like your coffee hot, then the answer is to balance the mug on top of an nvidia card. Dissipating 450watts plus, it'll soon bring the coffee to the boil!

German cops arrest student suspected of running infamous dark-web souk

Sanctions

"US Treasury Department sanctioned the dark-web monstrosity."

It's a funny thing, isn't it, but in English English, to sanction something is to allow it!

Consolidation looms for UK broadband providers

Re: Fibre Fibre Fibre Fibre FIBRE!!

My English teacher used to point out that if the English is incorrect, what else in the article is incorrect? Or to put it another way, where does accuracy begin?

China discovers unknown mineral on the moon, names it Changesite-(Y)

Re: Weight

I suppose it all hinges on whether, on the moon, you use a spring balance or an old-fashioned pair of scales!

Mouse hiding in cable tray cheesed off its bemused user

Pointers with a mind of their own

Twice, many years ago, I was called out to fix a mouse pointer that would move to where it was told, but then jumped back to its original position.

The cause? Each time, buried under piles of paperwork on the desk was a Wacom tablet with the stylus left lying on it...

'We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product' rages Ohio's Attorney General in Facebook lawsuit

"....Nick Clegg were also listed as defendants"

Wow! If they find against the Dead Corporation will Cleggie be personally liable? Please, please, please!

BT's Plusnet shows Google how it's done as email woes enter their third day

Free email?

"It seems that the days of free email as a perk from your ISP are rapidly ending."

Free? A perk? No, these things never are. They are included in the fee you pay for the service.

And since we're talking about service (or lack of it) I find it strange that Plusnet is claiming the problems started early Wednesday morning. I was unable to log into two of my accounts late Tuesday evening. A bit of honesty and openess would not come amiss!

Future astronauts at risk of heart attacks, strokes if radiation allowed to ravage their cardiovascular health

Re: They Usually Bring Up That Transatlantic Passage Was Considered Impossible

An upvote just for quoting Kai Lung!

Screw you, gadget-menders! No really, you'll need loads of screwdrivers to fix Apple's AirPods Max headphones

Re: Question

Sorry, are we talking fasteners or personnel here?

Test tube babies: Virgin Hyperloop pops pair of staffers in a pod, shoots them along 500m vacuum tunnel

I can't get the picture of an oversized Lamson tube out of my mind!

Facebook doesn't know its onions: Seeds ad banned after machine-learning algo found vegetable pic 'overtly sexual'

Re: onions are too sex?

I'm a peach man, myself!

Ring glitch results in global ding dong ditch: Doorbell bling flings out random pings but they're not the real thing

Re: ding dong ditch

Chickenelly.

UK privacy watchdog confirms probe into NHS England COVID-19 app after complaints of spammy emails, texts

Re: FFS!

I believe that GPs are indeed "outside" the NHS. They are independant contractors, not employees.

Microsoft decrees that all high-school IT teachers were wrong: Double spaces now flagged as typos in Word

Sorry, but you're all wrong. Many years ago, in the Civil Service, when they used to Do Thing Properly, three spaces was the rule!

That critical VMware vuln allowed anyone on your network to create new admin users, no creds needed

It's very unique...

No it isn't. It's either unique, or it's not.

School's out as ransomware attack downs IT systems at Scotland's Dundee and Angus College

It was Dennis the Menace wot dunnit!