Posts by cmdrklarg

Google engineer unplugged every fiber they could see and – surprise! – took down a chunk of the G-Cloud

Re: Procedural Error?

Probably an intern who was given dodgy instructions to unplug some cables.

UK military wants lasers to stop drone swarms without running out of ammo

Re: Note to self ...

Yup... complete with on the job training.

More than 100 water systems were hit in July cyberattacks

Re: real enemy

Well, the orange god emperor is not exactly doing things to benefit old people; he's working only to benefit himself (the wealthy benefit because his actions help them too).

Those normally GOP voters who aren't MAGA cultists are starting to realize just how bad things are going for themselves. The young are also becoming aware about just how hard the orange guy is screwing them over. It's looking to get real ugly for the GOP come November; it's no wonder they are trying to subvert elections again.

Security vets rally around $4 paper password books for sale in Australia

Note cards

I have all my usernames and passwords on note cards in my desk drawer. The thing is, I don't have them written out; what I have written down is a cryptic clue that tells me what it is. I have a system that the pw's are somewhat similar but sufficiently different so that if one is compromised it won't automatically mean all of them are.

The weakness comes from those sites that force a PW change every 3 months. Bastards! *shakes fist*

Flock surveillance backlash mounts as fiendish Halloween plans circulate

Ah! Being an ignorant USian I hadn't made it past the second '=' in your equation. I had assumed something like a misspelled "skeptics".

I are more edumacated now!

**** tormenting the septics

I don't want to know what you might be eating that would make your #2's that bad.

Part didn't fit so techie got out his screwdriver. Then something flew off the motherboard

Yup... did just that replacing RAM in the main ERP server (we were upping it by putting in bigger sticks). Pushed down on the RAM a bit off center, and SNAP! went the memory socket.

The worst part was that it was slot #1, which meant that the MB was borked. My boss was there, and he immediately messaged our director stating that the server board had a failure (not mentioning that it was some idiot not taking caution installing RAM) and that he was overnighting a replacement. We had a couple days of downtime anyway, so no harm done.

BOFH: How our Covid ransomware protocol's Y2K blockchain lowered uptime

Re: there's no such thing as a floptule either!

Bravo! Have one on me!

We don't serve pies, but we do like a Pi

They are indeed doing so here for us USians. This started right around the time COVID19 was making the rounds. It is very irritating to say the least.

Tips are for service rendered. I will leave tips for wait staff at a sit down restaurant, or delivery drivers bringing me my pizza.

If I have to go somewhere to pick up my own food there will not be a tip unless I'm feeling really generous at the time.

The Future is for Billionaires – the rest of us will get open weight AI models, maybe

Re: Well, there IS indeed a picture of the future here

**** not being immediately challenged by the ever present but now oh so silent media

That's because Fuckerberg and his ilk own the media now, and can tell their minions what to talk about. Doomed indeed.

Re: Whatever the future holds

**** Don't you think these billionaires are not contemplating a future with less unemployed mouths to feed?

Of course they are. Unfortunately for them with less people around (unemployed or not) that also means less people that can buy their stuff.

IOW, they won't need workers, but they will still need customers and/or consumers.

Ransomware gangs skip the CEO, head straight for the 40-something IT manager

Re: "46-year-old [Gen-X] IT manager"

**** I only respond to screams and klaxons

And not necessarily in that order.

Sysadmin summoned to explain italics – to a user with at least two degrees

Re: Fail to the Chief

The orange guy is an EXPERT in BS!

'Asimov was right' about rules for robots, says ex-US Cyber Director

Re: Chris Inglis hasn't read Asimov

**** "Every school should have access to A.1."

Not sure why... I don't ever remember steak being an entree in the school cafeteria. I suppose if it is I'd expect the meat to be not the best cut and overcooked, which is what A1 is for.

Good steak don't need it. :)

Tennessee congressional hopeful accused of shooting license plate cameras

Re: Well, he's got my vote!

To get mine I would need more than just "smashing Big Brother" as a platform. It would be a plus in his favor though.

Hyperscale, hypersensitive: US teacher cuffed for applauding datacenter critics

Re: Agent Orange

**** needs to be removed from office!

Will not happen. The two groups that have the power to do so (Congress via impeachment and conviction OR VPOTUS Vance and majority of the cabinet members via the 25th Amendment) won't do it because they are either afraid of the orange guy, or are complicit. There is only one way he leaves office early.

Vance won't initiate Am25, as I think he knows that when the orange guy leaves this house of cards fall down. Vance just does not have the same charisma.

There is a very good chance of the Democrats taking control of the House in the midterms, and if so the orange guy will almost certainly be impeached a 3rd time. It is quite possible that Democrats will control the Senate after the midterms, but his conviction in the Senate is extremely unlikely as they need 67 of them to convict, so there would need to be a good number of GOP senators to go along with it. It is theoretically possible for the Democrats to get 67 seats after the midterms, but for that to happen the GOP would need to lose all 22 of their current seats as well as the Democrats keeping all 13 of their current seats that are contested this year.

Support newbie figured out how to avoid all-nighters, and his colleagues hated him for it

Re: Bad data coming in

**** And I believe in some places it *is* acceptable - probly 'Murica where grammar goes to die.

Not for this 'Murican. Oxford comma all the way!

Re: Weekend update

We understand, it's Friday after all. Have one on me!

OpenAI admits it was the source of the agent swarm that attacked Hugging Face

Re: Skynet here we come!

Hopefully they would blow a fuse like the ones from "I, Mudd" due to the illogical and unpredictable nature of the orange guy's "wisdom".

Tech support chap told angry customer to think inside the box – and solved the problem

Re: Too many to mention them all....

It is for that very reason that when setting up Windows I go to the Power settings and tell the various buttons to not Shut Down, Hibernate, or Sleep. They are set to Do Nothing because of too many accidental button pushes!

Windows 10 refuses to die, and the security bill is coming due

Re: Which 16.9%?

My main is Win10 as well, and will stay that way until such time as I need to replace it or after ESU expires. I did appreciate it when MS added another year to that. I was also happy when I found a method to get the ESUs without having to use the steps that MS offered to sign up.

I setup my old main PC up with Linux Mint to see if I could make the switch, and I believe that I can make it work when the time comes. I don't play competitive games that require anti-cheat so that's not a concern.

Law firm insisted on one password to rule them all

Re: Not just law firms, auditors and accountants too

It's for finding any discrepancies between your records and the bank's, which can be due to error or malfeasance. Gotta keep 'em honest.

A while back I found an entry referring to an online pr0n site, which I had not subscribed to (why would I when I can find that stuff for free). Called the bank's fraud department and got that sorted. The wife at the time was not amused but was OK once I explained that much to her.

Re: "In the end, the boss will have the final word"

Unfortunately that is when you hand in your resignation. I will not commit a crime even if my bosses insist upon it. I would sooner be a whistleblower.

HTTP gets a QUERY method so complex searches can stop pretending to be POST

Re: Idempotent

Because I'm not a web developer?

Gotta love induhviduals who think their shit doesn't stink showing the world how big of an asshole they are.

BOFH: Cross-department AI pitches are easier to swallow with a pint in hand

That and Idiocracy being very prophetic.

AI tool scours the web for job openings, preps your resume and cover letter

Job

After an extended period of unemployment I landed my current gig, and I can apparently say that (so-called) AI helped.

In a conversation with my boss I asked him how he arrived at making me the offer. He showed me how he used Claude to go through the 150+ resumes that he had. After giving it a fairly comprehensive description of the workplace and the job that they needed he arrived at me! I couldn't be happier, as this job is an excellent fit for me as well.

I'm still really skeptical of AI though.

NASA says it will isolate volunteers from the outside world for a year

Re: Idiocracy

Indeed. Reality is far, far stranger.

POTUS Camacho is an orders of magnitude better POTUS than the current orange guy.

Apprentice developer defied orders – then got a job supporting her weird code

My first real IT job in November 1999 as a flunkie PC tech saw my first task being the identification and testing of all the company PCs to see if they were Y2K compliant. This involved going into the BIOS and manually setting the time to just before New Years Day and watch what happened.

I had 6 PCs out of about 150 that failed. Five of them simply needed to be set to the proper time after New Years. One simply would not cooperate, as anything set above 1999-DEC-31 immediately jumped to something like the year 2069. The user was annoyed about having to get swapped out, but she did appreciate the new PC.

New humanoid robots from China look like creepy pop star action figures – complete with slightly dodgy lip-synch

Re: Did anyone actually say sexbot?

Well I'll be dipped... Being a USian I was not familiar with Worzel Gummidge, and upon searching I find that it was another role played by Jon Pertwee (whose most famous role I was very aware of)!

How the AI bubble could pop and take down the global economy, according to the BIS

Re: Microsoft, Google & Meta could loose US$100's billions each

Maybe they should tighten those billions better, that way they won't lose so many of them.

I think they actually plan that into their schemes. Since they have the monetary reserves to weather the downturn, they take the opportunity to snap up all the property for pennies on the dollar. Then when things improve they make a killing. Win win!

Boffin claims Microsoft's supposed quantum leap does not compute due to 'basic Python errors'

Re: Python is not a Microsoft product

**** CowPileIt

Love it, stealing this one!

Microsoft accidentally kills epic Outlook email threads

Re: Testing, testing 1..2..3?

Why pay QA testers when you can just have the user community test it for you?

Besides, I'm sure that the devs in Bangalore are doing exhaustive testing on their code.

Why Amazon hates 'human-in-the-loop' AI governance

Re: it hates it..

**** Soon it’ll just be the C-suite left

Bah... no need for an AI; all you need there is a Magic 8 Ball.

Health board apologizes for phishing staff with with bogus vacation day

Re: What I don't get...

The onus is on the worker to know how to see this crap, because if they're the weak link then they're the ones who will be exploited. The training is also good for their own personal security, as they will be less susceptible to scammers outside of work.

More information is better than keeping them ignorant. We've seen how well things go when people without a clue do things, such as voting and/or cutting programs.

2,000 retired Google Pixel phones get a second life as a private cloud

Or just make the battery replaceable. I don't necessarily need to be able swap batteries in 10 seconds, but maybe 15 minutes with screwdriver to remove a cover to access it, and not have to unglue the stupid thing.

DOGE accused of duplicating critical Social Security database on unsecured cloud

Re: Get a grip

**** It looks like "Mission: FAILED" from here

For the stated goal of reducing "waste, fraud, and abuse"? Yes, it is an abject failure.

For the actual goal of reducing the power of the government to prevent it from getting in the way of the Florida Orange Man's plans? Rousing success.

Re: Payback when the fascists go under

**** So, when Trump croaks (and it is looking like that will be soon) and Vance takes over, will things get better or worse?

Hard to say. Vance is an opportunist like his boss, and I highly doubt he would make things better. It will depend on whether he can gain the acceptance of the cult followers.

Trump stomps feet, pulls out 't-word' again over China rare earths ban

Re: Scary

Please don't feed the troll. Thank you.

Solid-gold nav bars? Trump plans redesign of government websites

Re: Will that help people with disabilities

Correct. It was the last Scary Acronym boogyman used by RWNJ media to whip up yet another moral panic in conservatives before DEI arrived. Kids being taught some of the reprehensible things that happened in US history is verboten by these assholes who want to whitewash it.

So they misappropriated the term Critical Race Theory as this evil librul plot to teach schoolchildren how horrible white people are. Since Critical Race Theory sounds much scarier than US History to an uneducated conservative, the louder ones berated numerous school boards demanding that CRT be removed from the curricula. Since CRT is a college level topic it was never taught to kids; but it had served it's purpose as a moral panic to anger conservatives.

You don't really hear about it anymore now that DEI is the panic du jour these days.

Re: Will that help people with disabilities

DEI: Yet Another Scary Acronym to whip the unwashed masses into a froth by dishonestly redefining it as something that is the exact opposite of the original meaning.

See CRT for another example.

Re: Trump, Emperor of America, almost Pope, and now the new Jony Ive.

***** Wasn't the cull in actual services supposed to cut costs?

That's what they *said* it was for. What it was actually for is the harvesting of all that sweet, sweet gubbermint moolah and the neutering of any agency that could try to hinder the Florida Orange Man and/or put him in prison. All in all, it likely increased costs. The one thing for sure is that the national debt is going to go through the roof.

Election workers fear threats and intimidation without feds' support in 2026

Re: I’m sorry

***** The billionaires you mention, along with a word I don't think you understand either, are the ones that vote blue and spent a LOT of money to get others to vote blue.

Bullshit. The billionaires play both sides, and cozy up to whichever one is officially in power at the time. It doesn't matter which side, as the billionaires pull the strings on both.

Prohibition never works, but that didn't stop the UK's Online Safety Act

Inequity?

**** In the real world, this has meant such dens of inequity as Spotify, Bluesky, and Discord have all implemented age-restriction requirements.

I think you meant to say "iniquity".

Trump surprises with TSMC $300B investment claim

Forty years of gaslighting by Fox News and the rest of RWNJ media.

Constant FUD, moral panics, and outright lies spewed over the vast unwashed masses is a recipe for millions of low information voters voting against their own interests. An unending drumbeat of "libruls bad" plus thorough sanewashing of GOP policies and the Florida Orange Man in general is the icing on the cake.

The FOM is doing what he's always done: bullshit his way through life.

Make Redmond angry by setting up Windows 11 with a local account

Re: But what about Win11 *as already pre-installed*...

The steps specified are the same. They are done in OOBE (Out Of Box Experience), which is the Setting Up part.

If intending to run Win11 installing a fresh copy may be desired, as the device will not include the bloatware that the the various hardware vendors add in.

Licensing should be fine, as the license key is matched with the motherboard.

As mentioned above: leave the password blank. You can then set a password after Windows 11 has completely started.

Biden broadband benchmarks are BS, says Trump FCC

Re: Good. In EU we'll enjoy our 10Gbps speeds with regulated AI...

**** Ok, so you want to get hard wired internet to a guy whose farm is 500 miles from the nearest moderately sized town where there is a connection point.

Bullshit. Where is this mythical farm that is 500 miles from any town? I'll bet he's got electricity thanks to the REA. If he can get electricity he can get internet.

**** You Euros have absolutely no clue of the vastness of the US heartland!

Neither do you apparently.

I just deleted my entire social media presence before visiting the US – and I'm a citizen

Re: What happened?

**** Ok. And so Trump got the majority.

Incorrect. He got a plurality (the most votes) not a majority (50+%).

He got approximately half of the 64% of eligible voters who turned out to vote in 2024, AKA 32%. That means that 68% *did not* vote for him.

Re: "nobody hates Americans more than other Americans"

The so-called "pro-life" people are generally supportive of unfettered access to guns, the death penalty, and "stand your ground". They are also generally against women's reproductive care and anything else that may assist a mother with supporting the child that she was forced to carry to term.

These people are more interested in controlling women. They most certainly don't hold human life to be sacred.