Posts by Guy de Loimbard

Prior UK government planned £485M four-year budget for Palantir-based healthcare system

Re: Noddy level software purchase

Ha, why do these suppliers always go to government, not the SME's or end users??

Far too easy to pull the wool over everyone's eyes if you're pitching to an MP, not the expert.

Euro antitrust cop Margrethe Vestager to depart after decade of reining in Big Tech

I echo that sentiment entirely.

Every time I hear or see an article about "Think of the children" I shudder at the sheer level of techno-illiterati that are out there trying to remove all those well though of and well fought for privacy controls.

Gas pipeline players in talks to fuel AI datacenter demand

Re: Please Stop this Madness

I couldn't agree more.

Maybe I'm not a "power user" of LLM's, but the notion that we need excessive power provision and consumption to provide answers to, and come on let's be honest here, who are the majority of the users? I would bet it's the average joe/layperson with answers to their school homework/manager's latest hairbrained scheme, seems disingenuous at best, and a down right con at the other end of the scale.

Whilst some of the responses I've had from LLMs have been interesting, most of the time I'm finding it is not providing the responses I need to conundrum's that I pose to the LLM for consideration, so for myself, I'm generally not seeing the huge benefit that I'm being led to believe AI/LLMs are providing.

I spend an equal amount of time delving into the responses, which aren't much better than an internet search IMHO.

Still, as I said, maybe I'm not the best user case!

Microsoft accused of tracking kids with education software

Re: MS wants it both ways

As long as we have some proactive delving into the masses of telemetry software now sends home, then at least we are informed enough to raise the issue up the chain.

If the complaint is upheld then you'd like to think that MS and others would change their MO, but, not unreasonably cynically of me to think, I doubt we'll see any real and significant change and any monetary or other punitive judgement is so financially insignificant it holds no real deterrent value or substance to make these organisations change.

How Apple Wi-Fi Positioning System can be abused to track people around the globe

Please, harvest some more from me......

Interesting study and something that I wasn't aware of.

I doff my cap to the learned studious types who have identified this.

There appears to be no end of "features" being revealed in a myriad of home and personal network devices that, as far as I'm concerned, are going way past what the average person would consider acceptable.

IMHO the use of hardware that you and I have spent our cash on to turn the globe into a technical playground for tech companies is really taking the biscuit or tin at the moment!

Why do the various manufacturers require all this geo location information? (Rhetorical question!)

App Tracking: Apps plead for users to press allow, but 85% of Apple iOS consumers are not opting in

Re: May not be directly related...

Pi Hole has worked well for blocking a lot of advertising traffic at home.

House full of kids with devices, smart tv's etc so much bandwidth being saved.

Not perfect, but not bad for a basic starter without breaking the bank either.

Unauthorised RAC staffer harvested customer details then sold them to accident claims management company

These type of activity is a plague on humanity

I for one, am glad this type of activity is being investigated and reasonably thoroughly, whether the penalties applied here are sufficient, remains to be seen, but having a suspended sentence is not going to help with onward employment surely?

Speaking from experience, I was plagued by claims management parasites after being involved in an accident some years ago. It's frustrating to say the least when your phone is going off constantly with spurious calls purporting to be the "Claims Management Company", I'm sure the myriad databases the insurance industry uses are being mined, legally or otherwise, and I object to my information being farmed out.

Perhaps this incident will help drive this sub culture away? One can only hope!!

Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away: Certification renewals to be free ... but annual

It's all about revenue and

monetising the meat Popsicle on the other side of the keyboard.

Everyone has they're own view on certifications, I think they can be helpful in certain instances, but I don't look for a string of post nominal letters when I look to hire someone, nor someone who spent 4 of the last 5 years at Firebrand collecting every qualification under the sun they can.

I have met one or two individuals like that over the time and they we're like alien beings.

Question is, how do we accurately assess competence, if not through 3rd party validated certifications?

Yes, I know HR use the quagmire of qualifications they're given by whatever department to sift through candidates, which we know doesn't work:

Job Advert: We need a junior programmer on $30k must have all of the following: a PhD, CISSP,CISM,CISA, MSc, BSc, CEng, MCSA, CCNA, CCNP.... add you're own acronyms as you see fit.

Bah humbug, it's nearly Christmas

Cue the relentless use of software to word match then wonder why no candidates are making the cut.

Google to end free unlimited online photo, vid storage, will eventually delete files if accounts go over their cap

Re: Another one bites the dust

Couldn't agree more with your points Pascal.

There's too much expectation that everything, everywhere is free, it really is no surprise to me that this will become a paid service.

It's much like the Unlimited data mobile telco's are touting in the UK, until you read the AUP and see what Unlimited Data really means to them, it's a far cry from the view of a consumer.

Ahh well, why you'd need to store your personal photo's etc. in the cloud has always escaped me. Haven't people seen enough celebrity boobs to realise it's relatively easy to access! :)

Experian vows to drag UK's Information Commissioner's Office to court after being told off for data-slurping practices

Credit Reference Agencies ------

Ahh, I was waiting for the time these agencies would be dragged over the coals.

I've had the pleasure/displeasure of actually assessing one of these companies and visiting the associated data centre.

I was actually gobsmacked at how much processing was done, at what scale, and how you and I, as data subjects, are monetised for considerable profit, to other companies based on some spurious algorithms that produce "results" which are sold on to whomever thinks it will make their lives easier.

As an example, someone I know, was sent a letter from out of the blue suggesting they have been claiming a particular benefit they weren't entitled to, by the council local to them. I was asked my opinion and I suggested a CRA had probably concluded this by analysis of records on given addresses. I told them the options open to them and suggested they tell the council to go poke their allegations where the sun doesn't shine.

I would suggest processing of your data is one thing, but taking it to another level, such as the one above goes way beyond what you and I would deem to be acceptable, never mind the fact that you don't want to be used as a pawn in someone else's game of monetising data.

Good luck to anyone who can bring these parasitical companies in line.

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't believe they were above the law.

Brit accused of spying on 772 people via webcam CCTV software tells court he'd end his life if extradited to US

Interesting commentary

I do love El Reg readers and the broad experience and knowledge that everyone has.

Web based crimes are always going to be intrinsically difficult to prosecute in line with differing moral, ethical and legal frameworks that we all have or feel aligned to, either by self awareness or by national laws.

Having extensively travelled both sides of the pond, I'm somewhat on the fence.

I suspect most of the UK based commentary, is perhaps more biased because it appears, and let's be honest, the evidence to date supports this, that the extradition laws are not balanced and the US, either rightly or wrongly, takes a more hard line stance on extradition, both from protecting their own citizens against extradition and by requesting alleged criminals be imported for some justice.

The US Penal system does seem somewhat brutal in comparison to the UK and perhaps wider Europe for sure, however, without international consensus on how to deal with Web based crime it's hard to cry foul when the USofA is just doing what it does internally.

Be interesting to see what the outcome is of this.