Posts by Rikki Tikki

Call center staffers explain to researchers how their AI assistants aren't very helpful

"AI-generated outputs introduced structural inefficiencies in information processing because most AI-prefilled content required manual correction or deletion"

I can't help thinking that the effort required to correct any content that had been prefilled by AI would more than outweigh any supposed efficiency gains - reading, guessing at any mis-transcribed words, and filling in missing bits would, in my mind, take much more time than a human typing away while the client is on the phone.

Add to that the mis-interpretation of emotional cues - which could also be down to client stress on realising they are talking to an AI-bot rather than a real person

Trump says US should kill CHIPS Act, use the cash to cut debt

Re: What Trump talks about

"forcing Ukraine into a capitulation which will almost inevitably result in future invasion by Russia into whatever is left

It's not "almost", it is certain. Putin wants to restore Russia to its pre-1914 borders, including Ukraine*, Belarus, Poland, Finland, etc, etc. If the US and Europe don't stand united with Ukraine now, it will happen.

*Yes, I do know that Russia didn't occupy all of Ukraine before 1914, but you think that will bother Vladimir?

Trump teases 25% semiconductor tariffs that will go ‘substantially higher’

Re: Someone cross-check my thinking

Quite so.

There could also be some additional problems for US manufacturers:

- unless the tariff were to apply to the total value of anything with a chip in it (which is quite a lot of stuff these days), there would be no incentive for US companies to produce locally, much easier to import the whole machine.

- if the tariff were to be applied both to the chips and anything with a chip in it, there would likely be retaliatory tariffs on US produced goods for export to other countries. So, the price of US goods for export would face a double tariff - once when importing the component, and again when the completed product is exported to another country. This would possibly mean that US manufacturers would be limited to the local market, while overseas companies could enjoy the advantages both of cheaper labour and the economies of scale by having a larger potential market. And, even with a 25% tariff, it could be harder for US companies to compete with imported washing machines (or whatever) from Thailand (or wherever).

Acer signals 10% laptop price hike in US, blames Trump's extra China tariff

Re: Tariffs are taxes with nationalist spin.

Or the Even More Evil Empire to the southwest across the Big Pond. Apparently it is single-handedly killing the US aluminium industry.

Techie pointed out meetings are pointless, and was punished for it

Re: Share what you've done the past week

Been there, had a PHB exactly like that. He also didn't like me pointing out that the 66 tickets "favourite blue-eyed girl" had closed were all password resets, while my 3 were quite time consuming network and hardware issues. Luckily, he needed me more than I needed him - I was the only one on his team with Novell training, which accounted for a lot of the work.

When food delivery apps reached Indonesia, everyone put on weight

Not sure how the Bonn study can draw conclusions based on 3 years of data. In my experience, many Indonesians have been stacking on the kilos for decades. Also, it seems unfair to blame Grab and GoFood, they are simply delivering from the same vendors that people have always used (bear in mind, too, the general reluctance of Indonesians to walk further than 20m from the parking spot to the eatery).

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.