Posts by Rikki Tikki

TSMC revenue booms and you don’t need AI to figure out why

Come on, he's over 60, he can retire gracefully and take his super.

Google India probed after driver fatally followed Maps route over unfinished bridge

Re: Let me get this straight ...

We don't know the full circumstances here, but judging from the video report linked in the article, it may just have been that they were going a bit too quick to stop in time - where the car landed was just off the end of the bridge, it doesn't look like the car was airborne for any length of time. Also, because it landed on a sandbank, rather than in water, it was quite possible that the police were able to retrieve the phone showing the Google maps route being followed.

That said, you are quite correct Jake, it is not sensible to rely on Google Maps (correction: it is not sensible to rely on Google [FULL STOP]). I know that, even within 2k of my house, GMaps sometimes directs me down roads that simply don't exist, or into the nearest lake.

The only thing worse than being fired is scammers fooling you into thinking you're fired

Re: an email that appears to be a legal notice

Dear Bebu sa Ware,

It seems you don't appreciate the subtle and sophisticated British sense of humour. I have had dealings with DWP recently, and can assure you that the "Work" in the Department's title is purely ironic.

Signed

Still waiting for contact

Smile! UK cops spend tens of millions on live facial recognition tech

Quite so.

Where I used to live in the UK, I had a double (similar height and build, facial features close enough to fool people who knew us both, except at close quarters if they were sober). It wasn't a particularly large town either, so I'm sure this would be repeated for people in larger cities.

So, my intuition on this is that the error rate for facial recognition among the general population could be a lot higher than the few percent that its proponents claim.

Uncle Sam accuses Aussie AI startup boss of financial fakery that duped investors

Nadimpalli is an Australian - India does not allow full dual citizenship. It is possible to have 'Overseas Citizenship of India' (OCI), which gives some rights such as visa free travel, but without being considered a citizen.

But not sure why anyone would be surprised about the terms 'AI' and 'fraud' being closely connected.

For the record: You just ordered me to cause a very expensive outage

Re: Sometimes, when the stars & planets align just right ...

The ad was, if I recall, about 30 years ago ... so, you win, Jake

Re: Electrical Engineer?

The garden gnome inserted in an Irish builder is a Basil Fawlty reference - did you miss it or are you American?

Re: Sometimes, when the stars & planets align just right ...

I do recall, many years ago, an Australian TV advert for NRMA Road Services featuring a similar, but fictional, scenario, where a young man on his way to an interview as a road service tech stopped in the pouring rain to help a woman with an (unspecified) engine problem. He fixed it and, of course turned up to his interview oil-stained and soaking wet into a room full of other aspirants in neat, dry, and clean suits. Of course, being the one who showed he was prepared to stop and help regardless of the weather, he got the job.

I suspect this would pre-date any internet variations on the theme - and prepared to accept there may be even older versions.

UK PM Sunak calls election, leaving Brits cringing over memory of his Musk love-in

Re: Disappointing

If you want to up that estimate by 1 vote, I can allocate my overseas proxy to any Reg reader who happens to reside in Maidstone. Of course, if the Tories were to lose Maidstone & the Weald, they'd only have about 3 seats left.

Serious enquiries only, please.

Australia secures takedown order for terror videos, which Elon Musk wants to fight

Yeah, it probably would be easier just to take the stuff down voluntarily - and I believe most social media sites have already done so.

Leaving aside whether Australia is trying to impose its laws on other countries (it isn't, but I'm not going to argue that here), it seems Elon Musk wants to pick a fight - possibly expecting our eSafety Commissioner will back down (hint:she won't):

"When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,

He shouts to scare the monster who will often turn aside.

But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail,

For the female of the species is more deadly than the male." (Rudyard Kipling - "The Female of the Species")

X fixes URL blunder that could enable convincing social media phishing campaigns

Yes, but the West Wittering Parish Council* would sue, if only they could afford it.

*https://www.westwitteringparishcouncil.gov.uk/

Tech titans assemble to decide which jobs AI should cut first

Re: Which jobs go to AI first?

Yes indeedy

While in a tech support role, I found that a lot of my time was spent wandering round listening to people and finding out what they wanted/needed (which wasn't always obvious). Most of the actual tech issues were pretty easy - there was the occasional curly one that AI might have helped with troubleshooting (but working it out myself was more fun).

I'm sure there are plenty of other tech roles in a similar position - AI may help if used correctly, but won't replace the job

Singapore improves the AI it uses to detect smokers

Re: As F'ing irritating as public smoking is...

"I happen to get horribly bad sinus headaches and runny nose ..."

But have you ever fainted? Once, I was waiting for a bus after giving blood. Someone lit up, I got a whiff, and woke up on the ground with everyone around looking concerned - "are you OK? shall we call an ambulance?"

Agree about the over surveillance, but I couldn't see how this is going to work - if they are just using AI to highlight where people have been smoking so they can send someone to check, the smokers will be long gone.

What's brown and sticky and broke this PC?

Re: "help desk"

After experiencing an ITIL compliant "service desk" from both sides (as a support person and a user), I believe I can confidently assert that it stands for "Intelligent Thought Is Lacking" or possibly "I'll Tackle It Later", or something ...

UK minister tells telcos to share telegraph poles if they can't lay cable underground

Now it makes sense ...

An election coming up - this must be behind the decision to allow expats to register, regardless of how long they've been overseas.

I registered (for the first time in 40 years), just to see if the online process worked. Now, only have to work out how I'm going to manage to vote. Mind you, my vote wouldn't affect Ms Grant's majority by more than 0.005% either way.

Rancher faces prison for trying to breed absolute unit of a sheep

"Probably feeling a bit sheepish now."

You just had to ram the point home, didn't you Richard...

Singapore's central bank warns AI isn't ready to handle monetary policy

Laws of economics

First law of economics: for every economist, there exists an equal and opposite economist

Second law of economics: they're both wrong

Third law of economics: if you replace one economist with an LLM, they'll still both be wrong.

India plans 10,000-GPU sovereign AI supercomputer

Good that India is at least trying to develop indigenous LLMs. OTOH, I tend to feel that LLMs generally don't help much in the preservation of endangered languages. These can occur in surprising places, not just India - I met a professional couple from Jakarta recently, but "sorry, we don't speak Betawi, only Indonesian".

Font security 'still a Helvetica of a problem' says Australian graphics outfit Canva

Hell yes

Will the Register be reverting to using Digi Grotesk* to avoid this problem?

*Yes, I'm old, so what?

Tesla Berlin gigafactory to take week-long nap after suspected arson

Re: Typical Elon argument

I didn't see any criticism of the actions of the Volcano Group - so, by omission (and levelling the criticism at Musk) rgjnk was condoning their actions.

Elon Musk may not be a nice person, and his comment may have been dumb, but that doesn't mean it's OK to go destroying his or the power company's property.

And no, I am not a "fanboy", desperate or otherwise.

Re: Typical Elon argument

So, because Elon Musk made a tendentious comment, you are implying that the actions of an extremist group in destroying property (and affecting thousands of residents of the area in the process) are quite acceptable?

Lawsuit claims gift card fraud is the gift that keeps on giving, to Google

To sum up ...

Google Play gift cards are poison ...

Indian tech minister vows to stop Google removing local apps from Play Store

"Achie" Atienza was re-elected at a meeting in Bangkok?

Am I the only one having unkind thoughts (and giggling to myself) here?

The batteries on Odysseus, the hero private Moon lander, have run out

Maybe they are hoping that, like its namesake, the lander will suddenly reappear after 10 years, with some fanciful story about where it has been and what it has been doing.

Palantir boss says outfit's software the only reason the 'goose step' has not returned to Europe

Are you saying that Germany is now (in 2024) a fascist state? Otherwise, please check the tenses in my original post.

On a tour of the Dachau camp site, our guide explained why the old SS barracks are now used to run training seminars for the Bavarian riot police (so they can be reminded of what can happen in a totalitarian state). Maybe, just maybe, the Germans have some influence over preventing the rise of fascism.

Australian spy chief fears sabotage of critical infrastructure

Re: In a nutshell...

"We've thankfully not had to fight to defend ourselves"

Coral Sea, Kokoda track, Milne Bay ...

OK, with the benefit of hindsight we know that the Japanese did not intend to invade Australia, but in 1942 people believed it would happen.

Fortunately, the biggest threat to the Australian way of life was in fact the US 22nd Bomb Group, who arrived in Ingham in December 1943 and proceeded to drink the place dry.

Multiple billions up for grabs as UK government launches cloud services tenders

Re: This is almost bibilical

Tut, tut, mind your language Neil.

Crowning glory of GOV.UK websites updated, sparking frontend upgrades

Canberra is way ahead of them on this - or possibly 70 years behind. The ACT crest has always featured the Imperial State/Tudor Crown. So we only had to change one word in the motto.

A small Alaska town wants a big bronze Riker

Re: Make it so!

And for us Aussies, maybe rather than repairing the James Cook statue, we can have the less controversial Eric Bana as Nero.

Australian Tax Office probed 150 staff over social media refund scam

I am in no way condoning fraud, and of course any people claiming fraudulent GST refunds should be penalised (and if possible more severe punishments for the scheme's promoters)

But, on my reading of articles about this, it appears that many of the people claiming the refunds may have been people doing it tough during the pandemic (and possibly not having good financial advice/knowledge). Of course, their behaviour was clearly illegal, and therefore much easier for the ATO to penalise, rather than going after those who can afford smart accountants/lawyers to help them operate the grey area between avoidance and evasion.

India to launch android into space to test crewed launch capability

"finding such qualified female candidates was tricky, as there are no Air Force fighter test pilots in India

Because all the women pilots are, sensibly, earning more money with commercial airlines?

Five ripped off IT giant with $7M+ in bogus work expenses, prosecutors claim

This went on for nearly 9 years without being found out? Where were the auditors?

Leaving aside the lax internal controls, maybe the 'unnamed company' had cut back on (internal and external) auditors, on the assumption everything would be OK.

Silicon Valley weirdo's quest to dodge death – yours for $333 a month

"I drink beer and whisky, and get lots of exercise."

The other way round, methinks. I found out the hard way that it's better not to drink beer before exercise.

Oh, and curse you, Andy, and your full head of glossy black hair.

:)

X's 2024 plans include peer-to-peer payments in app push

When I make payments to anyone (businesses or individuals), I use organisations that I trust. X is not one of them. I would even question whether it is legal for X to provide a payment service in Australia without an Australian Financial Services licence.

Tech support done bad sure makes it hard to do tech support good

He should certainly consider his options ....

Google illegally refusing to bargain with employee union, says NLRB

Re: Google

Come now, Cnut was quite a decent king of England, though his successors weren't that great.

NAT, ATM, decentralized search – and other outrageous opinions from the 1990s

"there are few things more annoying than tech people discussing economics from a position of ignorance,"

Hear! hear! Have a beer -->

Cybercrooks book a stay in hotel email inboxes to trick staff into spilling credentials

Re: Solution

Auto reply to all complaint emails à la Basil Fawlty:

"You ponce in here expecting to be waited on hand and foot, while I'm trying to run a hotel here. Have you any idea of how much there is to do? Do you ever think of that? Of course not, you're all too busy sticking your noses into every corner, poking around for things to complain about, aren't you?"

Musk floats idea of boat mod for Cybertruck

7,000 lbs?

Please, some of us don't understand these strange terms. Can we have this in Reg standard units - or failing that in SI units.

Japanese brewery using generative AI to dream up new beverages

Sparkling Chardonnay is new? Wouldn't that just be "we're not allowed to call it champagne because of the EU"?

Cloud engineer wreaks havoc on bank network after getting fired

Re: Amazing!

Totally agree with the sentiment, but would add that common sense also appears not to be taught in business executive school: if you're going to fire someone with elevated network privileges, you make damn sure you disable their access when you escort them from the building. Especially if they have already demonstrated a degree of ratbaggery.

Still, as one trainer in my first aid course commented years ago: "common sense isn't actually that common".

Tesla says California's Autopilot action violates its free speech rights

Re: According to Musk, fraud is protected under the 1st Amendment

And Musk also appears to be insisting that pointing out Tesla was lying is not "free speech" and should thus be restricted.

What Musk will make of this article, I wonder: https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-cybertruck-safety-guideless-missile-experts-say-2023-12?amp

Microsoft hikes prices across Asia

Pay by face

Even if the facial recognition technology is 100% accurate (which I don't believe it is), I won't be using it - certainly not if I'm in Indonesia. I'm very wary of using cards in the archipelago due to the number of scams originating even from apparently reputable businesses.

Meta trials Purple Llama project for AI developers to test safety risks in models

Not that this couldn't be a useful tool, but isn't there an element of "shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted"?

China gamifies censorship and surveillance with national internet law quiz

My answer

1. What Xi Jinping thinks is the law, is the law.

Do I win?

Hershey phishes! Crooks snarf chocolate lovers' creds

Blame the oompa loompas

I'll bet they feel right Charlies for giving the hackers a golden ticket

Law secretly drafted by ChatGPT makes it onto the books

Re: Brave new wrodl!

"J'ai pété!"

Damn, I'm slipping, hadn't noticed that. However, it is a perfectly apt description of ChatGPT's modus operandi, don't you think?

Interpol makes first border arrest using Biometric Hub to ID suspect

So, in 2 months of operation, with up to umpteen thousand searches per day, Interpol have arrested precisely *one* suspect? Always assuming that this guy was in fact travelling with fake documents, rather than the system identifying the wrong person.

Why am I so cynical about police press releases? :(

AI threatens to automate away the clergy

Taking up @ACs initial comment, it seems to me that "AI researchers" have very little idea what people actually do in their jobs - whether clergy, lawyers, psychologists, etc, etc.

I'm sure AI is going to be very useful in a range of fields and change some jobs - but as to any it will be replacing I wouldn't like to predict*.

*Although whoever is writing reports for the Department for Education, it can't come soon enough (if it hasn't already happened).