* Posts by GioCiampa

147 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Mar 2020

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UK must give more to ESA to get benefits of space industry boom, says Brian Cox

GioCiampa
Pint

Re: Um....

Thanks for adding to my "'European' institutions, that are not part of the EU" list.

BOFH: Engage Hollywood Protocol – because nonsense always looks legit

GioCiampa

To paraphrase somewhat...

It's Hollywood Protocols all the way down...

DOGE geek with Treasury payment system access now quits amid racist tweet claims

GioCiampa

Re: @A Non e-mouse

"Hell compare that to the obvious decline of Biden." - uncomfortable, but true.

Trump was 5 months older than Biden was at his inauguration... I wouldn't be surprised if we're saying the exact same thing about Trump come 2028.

Neither should have run for office I would say.

Stargate, smargate. We're spending $60B+ on AI this year, Meta's Zuckerberg boasts

GioCiampa

Naive thought of the day...

How about they spend (some of) the money fixing the existing pile of junk that is the codebase...?

Brits must prove their age on adult sites by July, says watchdog

GioCiampa
FAIL

Did you miss a part of Lina's quote?

Surely it should have been "a perfect opportunity for us to make a fortune selling 'solutions' that won't work as well as we told them it will, but we'll still tell them that it's a pivotal moment in the fight to make the internet a safer place, particularly for children."

3Blue1Brown copyright takedown blunder by AI biz blamed on human error

GioCiampa
Joke

Re: Utter bullshit!

"You can train an LLM"

...to download a car?

(No prizes for guessing what today's earworm is [the irony being that it was itself used illegally, I learned recently])

GioCiampa

Re: There are more and more of shit like this

How does that stop malicious copyright takedowns?

Starlink direct-to-cell is coming to Ukraine

GioCiampa

Re: It's complicated

"I wonder how hard it would be for Russia to jam the cell phone channels."

My thought exactly - I'd be surprised if they weren't trying this already.

WhatsApp finally fixes View Once flaw that allowed theft of supposedly vanishing pics

GioCiampa

I don't know about iOS (I assume something similar exists), but on Android there's a setting the app can utilise to prevent the screen from being captured (be that a still, or a video stream).

Rooted handsets, of course, can be persuaded to ignore said setting - the cat/mouse game then becomes one of the app spotting root, or the module being used...

Not that this stops someone pulling the file directly from the folder in which it is stored before viewing it.

Google offered millions to ally itself with trade body fighting Microsoft

GioCiampa
FAIL

Comprehension failure...

I read that as "Google (were) offered", and couldn't for the life of me imagine why...

Is it the weekend yet?

Australia passes law to keep under-16s off social media – good luck with that, mate

GioCiampa

Just wondering...

Have they repealed the laws of Mathematics yet?

Windows 10 given an extra year of supported life, for $30

GioCiampa

Re: Cruel

Update... the migration kicked in last week... much to my surprise it went flawlessy (apart from the ending up with Windows 11 part).

GioCiampa

Re: Cruel

"The company I work for is rolling out Windows 11 at speed"

Likewise here (NHS) - not sure whether the migration will work remotely or not (I'm 100+ miles from the physical office), but on the upside, any excuse to pop into the Wellington in Brum city centre works for me...

Microsoft still not said anything about unexpected Windows Server 2025 installs

GioCiampa
FAIL

"This underscores...

... that customers need to have careful monitoring of their patch/update management systems to avoid unintended consequences."

So it wasn't Microsoft's QA processes that should have spotted this that were at fault...?

The US government wants developers to stop using C and C++

GioCiampa

Re: That's a lot of work for fixing only one class of security issues

Exactly! Can't see them mandating Intel et al to create "immune" processors.

UK watchdog hints Voda-Three merger will likely pass

GioCiampa

Re: How about approval only if...

Same here...

Three and Vodafone: We need to merge because our networks are rubbish

GioCiampa

Been a while since I posted this...

Turn the mobile network (masts, bandwidth, etc) into a "national grid" in the same way as electricity or gas is supplied - then allow every telco to access every part of it, and charge them for the amount of data they carry over it.

Two benefits as I see it:

1) Coverage is not (for any given location) dependent on who happened to put up the nearest mast.

2) The telcos will have to compete on cost, or (if more expensive than a competitor) value for money.

NHS drops another billion on tech in the hope of finally going digital

GioCiampa

Re: In house...

Birmingham (though I work from home in Wiltshire)

GioCiampa

Re: In house...

What... like me? Glad to know my existence pisses off Daily Mail readers...

For the record, I work on an NHS in-house rule-based prescribing system that has, in one form or another, existed since the 90s. It talks happily to other systems using a standard message structure that has its origins even before then, and both have evolved over time as you'd expect.

Is it based on the latest (over-)hyped technology? Of course not, but it works as intended... not that this "minor" detail will prevent the fuckwits on high from pushing some pile of junk on us eventually I'll wager.

GioCiampa

Re: 9 months late?

The REAL problem is decades of "reorganisations", by governments of all hues, adding layer on layer of (expensive, inefficient) bureaucracy.

Key aspects of Palantir's Federated Data Platform lack legal basis, lawyers tell NHS England

GioCiampa

Re: Internal

It's not as if internal IT teams, creating their own systems, don't exist - I work for one.

Tenstorrent's Blackhole chips boast 768 RISC-V cores and almost as many FLOPS

GioCiampa

Re: But the real question is

You'll need a Beowulf cluster of them to do that...

Microsoft sends Windows Control Panel to tech graveyard

GioCiampa

Re: ETA?

I'm saving the lettuce for the Oasis reunion.

GioCiampa

ETA?

12 years so far... the question now is will I outlive Control Panel?

Google splats device-hijacking exploited-in-the-wild Android kernel bug among others

GioCiampa

It is possible to get bank apps to work, despite only achieving the second of the three security levels in Play Integrity (Basic, Device, Strong). Strong Integrity is nigh-on impossible to achieve after you unlock the device at the moment... there are methods to achieve it, but they involve faking a security keystore, and Google are shit-hot at blocking any such keys when they are discovered.

My old Moto (launched with Android 10, and recently updated to Android 14/LineageOS 21) seems to be OK with my bank apps, after much experimentation to get Device Integrity to stick (for the moment), but the one thing that seemingly *requires* Strong Integrity...? The RCS functionality in Google Messages... and I'll wager that the banking apps will go the same way at some point.

Apple is coming to take 30% cut of new Patreon subs on iOS

GioCiampa

Re: These comments are something I'd have expected to find on Usenet back in the '90s.

Some things never change - although my first (non-test) post over there was a response to a "our beer is better than your beer" comment, but that's much the same concept.

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.beer/c/dgjOPgQfyjo/m/eR8iiI0jJtcJ

Speed limiters arrive for all new cars in the European Union

GioCiampa

Re: Well overdue

Fair enough - wasn't aware of that part.

GioCiampa

Re: Well overdue

That reminds me of an old episode of Top Gear where Clarkson was driving a GT-R around Japan... the car knew where it was and automatically switched off all the limiters when he arrived at the Fuji racetrack.

GioCiampa

(One Google later...)

"The UK law is based on the EU standard, with some minor changes. A speedo must never show less than the actual speed, and must never show more than 110% of actual speed + 6.25mph. So if your true speed is 40mph, your speedo could legally be reading up to 50.25mph but never less than 40mph."

(My car reads about 5% high, compared to GPS)

GioCiampa

As far as I'm aware - all (non-GPS-based) speedometers are deliberately set to show a speed slightly higher than reality.

No idea if that's a legal thing, or just an attempt to prevent a certain amount of speeding by those who aren't aware.

AMD predicts future AI PCs will run 30B parameter models at 100 tokens per second

GioCiampa

"30-billion-parameter large-language models locally at a speedy 100 tokens per second"

Dumb question...

How do those two numbers relate?

Labour wins race to lead UK, but few would envy the load in its tech in-tray

GioCiampa
FAIL

Is it cliché o'clock?

"Not that old trope again" - followed up by your own tired cliché that is "Liebour"...

Hubble plays spin the bottle with last few gyros

GioCiampa

Re: Another refurb mission?

Paying for a mission is one thing (and NASA would happily have someone else save them millions of dollars to achieve a positive end result), but having the expertise to actually achieve it is another thing entirely.

"SpaceX have yet to perform a spacewalk from one of their capsules, and have only just developed its spacewalking suits, so NASA has no history on which to base future predictions of success." (paraphrasing Andrew Feustel, who performed three spacewalks to refurbish Hubble in 2009, and part of the NASA feasibility study team).

So, never say never, but it's not something that's going to happen any time soon.

Apple unveils M4 chip with neural engine capable of 38 TOPS, and some other kit

GioCiampa

Re: HMMMM....

Slashdot called...

...it wants its Beowulf cluster back!

Ring dinged for $5.6M after, among other claims, rogue insider spied on 'pretty girls'

GioCiampa

Re: "rogue insider"

Nothing new there...

Back in the day, I worked for a company that developed photos for Truprint (amongst others), and films with "interesting" photos were regularly being reprinted if spotted early enough in the process (usually by those operating the development machines letting someone in the printroom know what batch/film numbers to look out for). Legend had it there were multiple lockers in one of the corridors that were full of the stuff...

I'd love to know what modern-day GDPR sensibilities would have made of the fact that (during a period where my job was to ensure the printed output matched the negatives) I would, alongside the "holiday photos", also see photos processed for the police (crime scenes) or medics (including close-up gynaecological) - sometimes both (one specific case of a man with a rather large hole where part of his skull ought to have been comes to mind). I imagine that in this digital age that wouldn't happen, but I was surprised that it happened even then.

BOFH: So you want more boardroom tech that no one knows how to use

GioCiampa
Facepalm

Don't give Microsoft ideas...

I'll wager a "Future K" compliant monitor will be required for WIndows 13.

Musk joins OpenAI lawsuit queue, says there's nothing 'open' about it

GioCiampa
Joke

"develop AI for the benefit of humanity"

Title (and icon) says it all...

WINE 9.0 improves ability to run 32-bit Windows apps on 64-bit-only xNix

GioCiampa

Re: A question for the knowlegable for the ignorant

"In other words would Linuxisation of the NHS be feasable?"

Unlikely - given we just rolled out N365 (*not* a typo) to replace Outlook.

The 'nothing-happened' Y2K bug – how the IT industry worked overtime to save world's computers

GioCiampa

It could have been worse...

...if the powers-that-be had decided to roll out the Euro on 1/1/2000 instead of a year later.

Given I was working for a fund manager at the time, that meant two New Year's Eves in a row being on call... just in case...

Adios, dead zones: Starlink relays SMS in space for unmodified phones on Earth

GioCiampa

Re: It's not "Direct to Cell"

I assumed that "cell" refers to "cellphone" (in this case, given it's a US company)

Private lunar lander Peregrine mission's now measured in hours, not days

GioCiampa
Coat

re: "the first UK and European science component to touch down"

They never stated the velocity at which it was going to happen...

Windows 11 unable to escape the shadow of Windows 10

GioCiampa

Re: @Tubz - Really ?

I presume "standardise" refers to the crapstorm that is the control panel.

GioCiampa

Re: would bring its AI-infused assistance, Copilot, to Windows 10.

"specifically uninstalling"

Assuming you get the option to do so...

NHS England published heavily redacted Palantir contract as festivities began

GioCiampa

Re: Maybe

I'll just add: "This is obviously some strange use of the word 'transparent' that I wasn't previously aware of."

(With my usual apologies for paraphrasing)

NASA engineers scratch heads as Voyager 1 starts spouting cosmic gibberish

GioCiampa

Re: Have they tried

I call it "Solution #1"

India gives social media platforms 36 hours to remove deepfakes

GioCiampa

Re: A plague on all their houses

"But if the image is a 'deepfake', it's not a private photograph that ever previously existed."

If it's built from individual other images, technically speaking it could be categorised as multiple counts of the offence?

The UK government? On the right track with its semiconductor strategy?

GioCiampa

I never said it did - just that the statement "and above" does not exclude its existence

GioCiampa
Facepalm

Which part of "180nm and above" excludes the existence of 200nm?

Intel's PC chip ship is sinking with Arm-ada on the horizon

GioCiampa

Re: No thanks

1. Um... no.

2. You won't have to as someone else will create one ready made for you to install.

5G satellite briefly becomes brightest object in night sky

GioCiampa

Re: Sic transit gloria astra...

All in the Earth's shadow? Seriously???

Whelk's chance in a supernova comes to mind...

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