Posts by Guy de Loimbard

Power crunch threatens to derail AI datacenter construction

Do those responsible for these projects never stop to wonder?

I doubt it.

It's all take take take and no real thought about the how, or the impact., or should I/We do this?

It's very much like watching an arms race to the bottom!

UK government on the lookout for bargain-priced CTO

Hold my pint.

I may just apply for the role for shits and giggles as I'm sure I am unlikely to get past the first gate on screening!

AI browsers face a security flaw as inevitable as death and taxes

I'm giving Vivaldi a whirl at the moment.

Not sure if that's going to be par for the course for the future.

You should have seen the aggressive MS reminders that Edge is the best browser for you, the moment I searched for Vivaldi.

I'm sure it does the same for any other browser search of course.

Data scraping, privacy.....

Add your favourite poison to the list.

An AI powered browser? Who on earth thinks we need one.

I've got enough issues trying to contain the telemetry flowing from modern browsers, never mind handing over the keys to the kingdom by being that fecking lazy I want the browser to think for me...

Seriously though, I am in awe of the continuous reinvention of this shite, Darwin would be incredibly proud of his works being confirmed by this metamorphosis.

I mean we all need a browser to think about what I need for me, as I am but a vegetable dribbling in the corner and I need AI to wipe my arse and think for me.

Rant over... for now!

The Chinese Box and Turing Test: AI has no intelligence at all

So much hype

Bluff and bluster.

I do wonder if there will ever be anything solid from this "AI" period.

I read an article over the weekend that was comparing the AI hype with other events in history, such as the industrial revolution, gold rush and the dot com boom.

IMHO AI/LLM/ML will find a place in society, much like the PC has, but the bullshit being spun around what it will do and how it will change this that and the other is just that, BS.

UK data regulator defends decision not to investigate MoD Afghan data breach

Re: Gobbledygook

Couldn't make that line up if you tried.

"We store data in this thing, but we can't make a decision because old Johnny rubber desk over there may be in the pooh pooh!!"

AI startup Augment scraps 'unsustainable' pricing, users say new model is 10x worse

AI is your lazy route to

market, code, documents, leads, sales... insert whatever you like.

It really doesn't matter, every bell end on the planet thinks they can invent an AI version of the field they work in to entice the other not so good bell ends to use the "AI" tool to do the job they're too thick to do with their own brain.....

This not the AI you're looking for.......

OpenAI tells developers ChatGPT is ready to be their gatekeeper

chewing through massive amounts of costly cloud computing to resell scraped data as service

This supremely accurate description: " ....resell scraped data as service."

I am quite sure, there may well be an amazing application of AI/ML/LLMs somewhere, and no doubt someone will signpost it, however, joe public is using it to create memes and make reports (Deloitte in Australia anyone?)

Where's the actual value here?

Seems like we're seeing a never ending rush of "AI" companies, much like we've seen a rush to make electronic coins after the Bitcoin rush, I mean if you can just "make" an e-currency out of nowhere.....what's stopping the rest of the experts/charlatans from jumping on the latest techbro goldrush?

No account? No Windows 11, Microsoft says as another loophole snaps shut

Re: Old isos

I think you're on the money there.

Comply with the MS BS for set up, the move to Local Admin for your daily operations.

Surely a better experience for you.

Would be keen to see what telemetry the Local Admin account tries to send back to the MS mothership.

Explain digital ID or watch it fizzle out, UK PM Starmer told

Politicians

Are clueless.

They will spin whatever is required to remain in post/power/appointment.

They will be driven by external "advisors" that are not interested in the United Kingdom's best interests, only the shareholder value of whatever they are selling.

Of course, there's no easy solution here, politics will be politics and little will change before I'm long gone from this planet I'm sure.

Submarine cable security is all at sea, and UK govt 'too timid' to act, says report

As if by magic

This pearl of knowledge appeared in an alert today.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/moscow-military-spy-ship-tracked-mapping-and-surveilling-nato-undersea-cables-shes-following-cable-lines-and-pipelines-making-stops-we-are-monitoring-her-very-closely

There are a few areas that spring to mind

1. How important does the UK think these cables are?

2. Are they Criticial National Infrastructure?

3. How on earth do you begin to think about securing these cables from external interference.

It seems to me, one of the biggest issues here is the grey zone operations that "accidentally" damage these cables, coupled with a lack of action from any nation state to hold the "accidental" perpetrators to account.

A bark and a bite is required here, but it requires some backbone to do so, or we're at continual risk from the information warfare that's mentioned in the article.

Just my 10 cents.

Sky plans to ditch up to 500 staff in the Technology Group

Not about

Profit at all is it?

The moment you're in bed with the another global company, like comcast, expect profit to be the driver and jobs for the local economy can go feck themselves!

Yet another brand that's only about the shareholder value, no CSR at all.

Its a shame, but remember, the mega rich owners don't have enough money yet!

Fiverr cuts 30% of staff in pivot to being 'an AI-first company'

"Pro tip -"

Guess what this morning's foray into "AI" is going to be?

I'll be back with the awesome results.

This should end Fiverr!!

AI pricing is currently in a state of ‘pandemonium’ says Gartner

Re: Well...

"domain of dirty tricks to extract revenue"

Very eloquently put.

It really has become par for the course in this space now hasn't it?

Get your buy in, then change the rules to suit the vendor to increase revenues at a time of their choosing, oh and also at a level they think best suits them.

At least

Someone is looking at this and calling it out.

Yet another minefield of pricing that is only there to benefit the supplier not the client.

UK Home Office dangles £1.3M prize for algorithm that guesses your age

The mind boggles

Just at the point I didn't think HMG could be any more inept and ludicrous at procurement, this absolute belter of a request comes out of the Home Office's Orifice!

This, I will wait with popcorn, to see who is going to tender, based on this nonsense request.

Anyone got a link for the actual Home Office request? I would look, but I'm not going to waste what little horsepower I have left today!

Investors throw another $13B on the Anthropic cash bonfire

Conflation of value

Are we now "valuing" companies by how much money they've had thrown at them?

If so, that would seem like a pretty poor yardstick of measure.

You could give me 13 Billion and I could spend it all, in due course, but it doesn't make me worth 13 Billion does it?

Goldman Sachs warns AI bubble could burst datacenter boom

Re: Nobody is going to pay for this stuff.

Here in lies the issue around Capitalism at its worst.

Profit at any cost!

As the OP says "And GAFA move on to the next scam."

What's coming next I wonder?

Europe Putin the blame on Russia after GPS jamming disrupts president’s plane

Re: More details?

Is GPS being used as a lazy shorthand for GNSS?

AFAIK GPS is one of the GNSS that are available, but is often used as the defacto GNSS, bit like a "Hoover" being the default name for a Vacuum Cleaner, despite being a brand.

Huawei counts cost of Western bans as UK business withers

FUD

You can't beat a bit of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt being sown to make sure a company gets treated like a hot potato.

There seems to be a lot of stoking of tensions based on, what it seems to me at least, limited actual evidence there's shenanigans afoot.

I spend half my time at home tinkering with things to see what they do.

If you want some fun, install a PiHole and watch your network traffic.

All those "smart" devices you have are all calling home!

Facial recognition works better in the lab than on the street, researchers show

An emotive subject it seems

I have seen this discussion on a number of forums.

If you want to amuse yourself, have a read of the comments within UK tabloids on the same subject and you'll a variation of the following: "If you've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to fear"

Personally, I think that approach kind of misses the point about the issues that are inherent with this type of technology, and plays nicely into the hands of the PR Machines that are desperately promoting it, the level of accuracy it "has" and of course don't forget "Think of the children!" which is also being pitched.

There's an actual Police promotion of the technology on social media in the UK!

I've never seen anything pushed so hard!

It's an interesting tech, but I don't think scanning joe public is going to resolve anything.

If you throw enough shit at the barn door, eventually something will stick, yes?

Amazon's $100B DC spend similar to entire Costa Rica GDP

More of the madness

Where does this loop end I wonder?

Is it just throw money at it, because, let's be honest here, these players have too much accumulated cash as it is.

Are these vanity spends? Does a single company need to be in control of, and spending more than a whole country?

Crazy times we live in I tell you!

The £9 billion question: To Microsoft or not to Microsoft?

Bundling M365, Azure and Copilot just deepens the dependency

Bang on the money here.

I cannot imagine most of what is being bundled and paid for, is being used to the fullest extent possible.

MS, and others, have a business model that is designed to lock you in and make you pay for all these features, whether you use them or not.

Are we really sure we need M365, beyond, Word, Excel and Outlook?

I am working in an environment that is MS based and the amount of bloat and apps that are available, that I don't ever use I hasten to add, is mind blowing.

These services could, 100% be provided at a cheaper rate, with less bloat and bolt-ons, but as you rightly point out, where's the incentive to do better or sort out a contract?

Ransomware crew spills Saint Paul's 43GB of secrets after city refuses to cough up cash

Notwithstanding

any issues regarding the leaked data, this is probably the best course of action regarding ransomware and extortion.

Whether it will lead as an example for other government and public bodies, remains to be seen, but I do think this is the correct way to address this scourge.

That, and of course securing your infrastructure, plus encrypting data and artefacts at rest would be helpful too!

Majority of 1.4M customers caught in Allianz Life data heist

Customers are to be offered

24 months' worth of identity protection and credit monitoring services.

Seriously, that'll do the trick then won't it?

FFS, not sure why this is the default offer, how about some compensation for having my data stolen?

Mike Lynch estate owes HPE $943M over Autonomy fallout

Legal teams are rubbing their hands

Thinking about the enormous amounts of money to be made from an ongoing legal case.

FFS, there's plenty of blame to be bandied about, but it seems HPE are not able to accept they hold some responsibility for their own mistakes.

Due diligence anyone?

Brit watchdog says public service TV must 'urgently' join Team YouTube

Re: Interesting implications for the licence fee

Fair point.

Maybe that's half the problem, as it's a mandatory requirement to have a licence, to watch live TV and access the BBC IPlayer, but it seems like a subscription that not everyone wants.

I echo your thoughts.

The BBC is in need of a licence model overhaul.

Also, people's content consumption is changing and has been for a while.

Some of the absolute gash that I hear my kids watching on youTube, just makes the mind boggle, but it has the kids captivated and drawn in, so clearly something is working, even if the content being served up is less than appealing to adults.

Re: Interesting implications for the licence fee

You make a good point, however, the BBC is already a subscription service.

That said, if it put it's content behind a paywall, like all the other services, then you're onto something.

Then there'll be push back about how do you view live TV if you have to login to everything, every time.

There's room for overhaul of the BBC licence structure, I just have no idea what would be best or work for that matter.

the BBC – affectionately known by Brits as "Auntie"

Auntie is a self description of the BBC, by the BBC.

Most Brits find BBC to be a little "meh", unless you were born in the30s and 40s where the BBC may still have some reverence as a bastion of good and truth, which, if you're not up to speed, the BBC has been held to account in the recent past for not being truthful, or good for that matter.

Look up Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris etc.

I for one certainly do not look at the BBC with affection and call it Auntie.

Quantum code breaking? You'd get further with an 8-bit computer, an abacus, and a dog

Re: Points too often forgotten?

Very well put Long John Silver.

Encryption is useful for a period of time and that is, as your rightly say, variable by application.

Having worked in various scenarios that utilize and require the use of cryptographic tools to secure information or data, the hardest thing to really measure, is the value of the information or data, or the expected loss, or impact, if the data or information was decrypted, therefore providing a scale to measure how far up the scale the chosen crypto standard needs to be.

So, as always in government type applications and scenarios, just whack it up to the top setting, even if the info is only valuable for a few hours.

Re: "it seems now that they are also creating the problems."

Good sir/madam, please have a pint for your japery ==>

I do love a well constructed and artistic piss take of the tech bro stack we're surrounded by now.

As for ninjas, where did I leave my sword, shuriken and sneaky attire????

Microsoft offers vintage Exchange and Skype server users six more months of security updates

Balance the risk

If you're going to move/migrate, be bold and actually do a risk assessment and consider compensatory controls that would address any potential risks.

Probably cost you less than the MS Extended support and has a better chance of actually addressing any potential risks between end of support date and your migration timeline end.

Just my pennies worth.

C-suite sours on AI despite rising investment, survey finds

Re: "despite rising investment"

On point as always Pascal.

Good link to the Hype Cycle, I do hope though that instead of the Trough of Disillusionment, we get an "Abyss of No Return" instead, (Patent pending,Guy De Loimbard, 2025) :)

Re: Sneaky!

Indeed.

Ask at the coal face, if you can say that of a CTO.

Re: What CTOs Think

I echo your point A/C.

What may be possible with "AI" and what is possible with "AI" are two vastly different points.

I have commented on a similar thread on another channel where the original poster was lamenting why aren't businesses taking up AI.

My response to that was along the lines of what is it that people are supposed to take up exactly. There are no significant actual AI tools out there IMHO.

Microsoft's on-prem Exchange and Skype for Business Server go subscription-only

Re: Seriously

Lovely Doctor Syntax, just lovely.

More mixed metaphors are needed methinks! :)

Re: Blackmail via Blacklisting

You make a good point Mr D Spenser,

That said, there are plenty of ways to make sure your service is being presented as sound, Certificates, SPF, DKIM, DNSSEC as examples.

Pretty easy to set up in most cases.

IMHO MS et al. are reliant on the fact that core IT skills have been removed from most businesses, the IT departments aren't as large and ubiquitous, nor on prem in some cases (Offshoring) so these skills, or rather the lack of them, make you more reliant on MS Services and less able to move away from restrictive licencing models, which seem to be par for the course with most of them.

If we get some basic skills relearnt, ideally in house, you'll find very quickly that all the bolt ons and never ending storage, isn't worth the tie in and having a one stop shop, like MS, provide all your tooling.

Most places I've seen are desperately trying to smash a round peg into a square hole, to make their business model fit what MS say it should be!

Trump guts digital ID rules, claims they help 'illegal aliens' commit fraud

Just read the article

The only thing I can say, is accurately reflected in the choice of icon.

Who on earth is advising this gelatinous, orange Eton Mess?

In fact, I think an Eton Mess (look it up) may be a better choice for drafting and issuing EOs in the White House!

This really is cretinary of the highest order!!

UK CyberEM Command to spearhead new era of armed conflict

Same idea, different messenger

This concept of interconnected assets across a digital battlespace has been going round the houses for decades.

Let's hope there's some substance to this, not just more posturing from politicians and bureaucrats to stay in power.

Also, most of these soundbites are just word spaghetti that the person delivering it really doesn't understand.

The devil is in the detail, ALWAYS!

Oh cynical me!

As for the following quote " the report described the UK's armed forces as "hollowed out," "consistently overstretched," and constantly battling "unrelenting pressure" on its personnel levels."

To paraphrase the late great, R Lee Ermy in Full Metal Jacket " Well no shit"

European Commission: Make Europe Great Again... for startups

This is a complicated one to address

As there are so many areas that US Tech companies have become prolific.

Office productivity, Operating Systems, Team communications, cell phones, cloud and any as a Service stuff as examples, Social media BS etc etc.

Also, the US is extremely aggressive at both sales and marketing to get its products into the right areas.

What are the alternatives that Europe can come up with?

Open standards is one thing, having interoperable options so the user can make choices that benefit them, not the mega corporations bottom line.

I look at the suite of tools given to me in the workplace from our vendor lock in, I probably don't use more than 5 or 10% of what is being offered, so I don't think moving away from some of these vendors can or should be that hard surely?

The problem with some of the US tech company's products is that they have become the "standard" in the office and that's going to be hard to convince non-technical manglement we have alternatives.

Don't click on that Facebook ad for a text-to-AI-video tool

why are FB and Linked in allowing? Because

of money.

They are not screening the ad for anything beyond how much they can make.

There are reams of fake adverts on all the Social Media channels.

Report them if you like, you just get told there's nothing wrong with the fake "insert what you like", it makes them money.

'Close to impossible' for Europe to escape clutches of US hyperscalers

Awesome

Commentary here fellow Reg Readers.

I was just thinking along the same lines as all of the OPs above me.

We've got to stop this BS Mantra that everyone is processing huge amounts of Data that require all this "scalability".

You're dam right, just because it seems too hard, doesn't mean you shouldn't get on the journey and re-evaluate your cloud requirements and position.

If anyone realistically looked at both their internal and external data requirements, they'd likely be surprised that they don't need all this scalability and, without doubt, you are paying for features, or tiered support models that are not needed.

I've worked across a number of industries and I've yet to see any behemoth models that require pure cloud at any cost, or size or.....

Most entities on the cloud, or on that journey have been sold the lie that it will ease all of your IT worries and costs.

I'm sure there are examples of excellence to be seen, but I'm not seeing many new Meta's/Amazon's or Googles popping up

UK 'extremely dependent' on US for space security

Re: I can believe it

USA as the only ally is a short term option.

Why does Europe need to ally with Russia or China?

Why not ally with the most local neighbours, on a more local footing, in relation to global footprint?

I appreciate creating a reliable industrial machine to support Europe may seem hard, without the US, but there's enough talent and capability available in Europe, if you look!

Good article

But not really clear what the message was.

Sure, I agree that a level of independence from one singular supplier, or one with such a level of criticality, is a good thing.

But the USA is a Military Industrial economy, it spends vast amounts of it's GDP on Defence, when there is limited need to spend at the level they are, except to keep up with the other global superpower, China.

This doesn't mean we all need to spend at this level, nor can some countries spend at this level.

If leadership of one country, can impact the stability of others, like we're seeing currently, then there needs to be significant thought on how to maintain a level of autonomy, independence and resilience that allows for a significant reduction in the impact of events like this in the future.

I do agree that Europe needs to become more independent from the USA's military capability, but that means decades of reinvestment.

Likely a good thing for Europe in the longer term I think.

Meet your new colleague – the ML Admin, who tames LLMs so they're ready to rock

Anyone else

Bored of the continually re-hyping of AI/ML LLMs etc?

I had nearly got through this week without seeing some shite about ML being awesome too!

Culture comes first in cybersecurity. That puts cybersecurity on the front line in the culture wars

Re: Cloud Act?

Good point.

How long it would take sovereign states, or the European Collective to create alternatives to the major cloud providers, remains to be seen.

If the collective puts itself to work, it has shown its capability at being successful a number of times.

One can but hope, there is a change, one that benefits everyone who wants to use Cloud based thingys.

Open source text editor poisoned with malware to target Uyghur users

Re: @Guy de Loimbard - What is it

If you're going to be A/C, then I'm not playing :)

What is it

with authoritarian regimes and the need to persecute minorities?

There's an awful lot of similarity to these TTPs and a number of other historical persecutions of minorities.

Makes my blood boil that this still goes on in this day and age!