Posts by mcswell

OpenAI’s viability called into question by reported inference spending with Microsoft

Re: It's the same money caught in a loop.

My wife and I are going to do this. So long as it's not taxable income, we'll have tremendous cash flows!

Mozilla's Firefox 145 is heeeeeere: Buffs up privacy, bloats AI

Japanese writing

Japanese (in any of its three scripts) is NOT normally written right-to-left, rather it is usually written left-to-right in horizontal lines, just like English. Historically, it was often written in columns, top-to-bottom, and the columns were ordered right-to-left, but that's pretty uncommon now.

Scripts written right-to-left include the Hebrew script (used to write Hebrew) and Arabic script (used to write not only Arabic, but with the addition of extra characters, to write Urdu, western Punjabi, Pashto, and a number of other languages of that region. (Turkish used to be written in Arabic script, but that went away about a century ago.) Another right-to-left script is Thaana, used to write Maldivian. It's sort of based on the Arabic characters (including the digits), but is definitely not Arabic script per se. The Syriac script is also right-to-left.

China uses Mars orbiter to snap interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

Re: Not bad

The US has been ON Mars since 1976, with numerous landers, rovers and orbiters. China has precisely one mission to Mars, with orbiter, lander and rover since 2021. They've done well, but they're hardly about to surpass the US in Martian exploration. As for manned space stations orbiting in LOE, the US first launched one in 1973; the ISS (a multi-nation space station) has been in orbit since 1998, with long-term inhabitants since 2000. And of course Uncle Sam was on the Moon in 1969.

Now I'll agree that the current American administration could mess things up completely, but with no disrespect for China, I don't see them surpassing us in the next few years (unless, as I say, Donald Trump lets them).

You can now put your US passport into Apple Wallet for domestic travel

If the TSA agent knows

I put my MD state drivers license in my Apple Wallet some months ago, and the TSA agent at the date didn't know anything about it. I had to pull my physical drivers license out.

Microsoft teases agents that become ‘independent users within the workforce’

I guess this explains a lot

Clearly Microsoft has been eating their own dogfood.

'Windows sucks,' former Microsoft engineer says, explains how to fix it

Re: If only there was an alternative OS

"The one that works for you, of course. Since they are ALL free, you can try them all out." Life is too short, and I don't live in my mother's basement.

Snap out of it: Canonical on Flatpak friction, Core Desktop, and the future of Ubuntu

Re: Good read

"Linux with training-wheels" or "Linux with skid prevention"?

Win10 still clings to over 40% of devices weeks after Microsoft pulls support

Windows 12

From the last paragraph of the article: "Microsoft's next goal is the adoption of AI services, and the company has said it intends to add assistants and agents to Windows. It has not, however, said it will repeat the hardware compatibility stunt of Windows 11, where it attempted a forced upgrade." Not yet, they haven't. But if they're going to add all that AI junk, maybe the hardware to run Windows 12 will require an NPU.

Trump turnabout sees him re-nominate amateur astronaut Jared Isaacman to run NASA

I'm hoping Isaacman will turn out better than Duffy has. That said, having lots of money and flying has epsilon to do with running NASA.

Wouldn't one of the old Mercury or Gemini capsules qualify? Personally, I'd propose Gus Grissom's Mercury capsule, although transferring it to Houston might be difficult.

"choosing supporters who have fought for, and funded, him and his party colleagues": This was how US government positions used to work, before the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 made non-elected government positions at the lower level merit-based. That said, the position Isaacman is being proposed for is higher up in the bureaucracy, and would not be subject to merit-based hiring or promotion.

Re: Trump did not explain what, if anything, made him change his mind.

Dr. Gillian Taylor: Sure you won't change your mind?

Spock: Is there something wrong with the one I have?

YouTube's AI moderator pulls Windows 11 workaround videos, calls them dangerous

AI moderation and Newsweek

The Newsweek website went to AI moderation last year. It appears to have a list of no-no words that gets longer every day. Sometimes you can't even quote stuff from Newsweek's own article without getting blocked. Often you can get around it by creative spelling (remember the 1001 ways to spell "Viagra", so the ads could get by your spam filter?). But not always. People on both ends of the political spectrum complain, convinced their side is being censored--you generally don't know when someone else's post is blocked, so you think you're the only one. But I've seen enough complaints that I don't think it's politically motivated.

I guess it's like Newspeak, where you (supposedly) can't even think wrong thoughts because you don't have the words for them.

SpaceX shows off progress on its lunar Starship

Re: before President Donald Trump's current term ends

You were ninja'd by William Shakespeare: "I fear there will a worse come in his place" (the play Julius Caesar)

And after Vance is (at least until the next mid-terms) is House Speaker Michael Johnson, then Senator Grassley, Rubio, Bessent, Hegseth... #12 is Lysenko Jr. It's turtles all the way down.

AI bubble to deflate as enterprises defer spending to 2027

China

Looks to me like China could be the real spoiler here, if they continue to build LLMs that perform as well (or even nearly as well) as American LLMs but cost a tenth as much.

Of course the US government won't trust those (and indeed shouldn't), so we may end up with a USG LLM that's as expensive as all get out (there go our tax dollars), and a Chinese LLM for everyone else.

Elon Musk's Grokipedia launches, filled to the brim with plagiarism and AI slop

"very far right shoes"

Reminds me of the country song "Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo", where the singer says he can't dance, and shows the lady his two left feet. Guess I'd rather have that problem, than Musk's problem.

OpenAI tells Trump to build more power plants or China wins the AI arms race

Re: China has already won

In case anyone is wondering what the USA:lawyers :: China:engineers, the book is Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, by Dan Wang (https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/g-s1-89568/china-us-lawyers-vs-engineers-dan-wang-book)

Russians

"Yes, the self same "Russians" that we all know today." No, Russians like Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko. They launched the first earth satellite, the first living being into orbit (a dog), the first probe to pass by the Moon, the first probe to take a picture of the far side of the Moon, the first man in orbit (surely you've heard of Yuri Gagarin!), the first two-manned orbiter, did the first space walk, and a lot of other firsts.

Was the Missile Gap real? No, it was a mis-analysis by the CIA (who by the way has a web page about how this happened). But that doesn't mean those Russians were dummies, far from it.

Dame Emma Thompson gives the 'AI revolution' both barrels

Re: Speaks for many of us

My daughter uses ChatGPT to tailor her resume and cover letters, then goes in and does further edits to make sure (1) it's still truthful, and (2) to change a few words. She says the result is better than if she just tried to edit it by hand (although IMO she's a good writer).

I , otoh, installed a Linux distro on my former Win11 machine for the kinds of reasons you mention. There were a few glitches (some due to my own tweaks, like trying to run 'apt' through 'unbuffer' to retain the colors when I ran the output through 'less'...), but when these came up I went to forums to ask human beings. So far that's always worked. I'll probably do that to my laptop, too.

Apple's ultra-thin iPhone flops as foldable iPad hits a crease

phone cases

My 12Pro lives in a case, which obviously makes it thicker. Originally the case was because I was afraid of breaking the phone if I dropped it, although I've read that that's not likely. (I do think about it when I get out of my car in my garage with a concrete floor, though.) But then I tried holding the phone without a case, and it's just too slippery. If Apple were to make a phone with a non-slippery outside--particularly the edges--I might go caseless.

Re: It isn't really less functionality

I use the telephoto on my 12 Pro all the time (hiking, bird watching, animal watching). I hardly ever use the wide angle. So yes, I could see having two lenses, so long as one is a telephoto. But one lens, no.

The real insight behind measuring Copilot usage is Microsoft's desperation

Re: Its late stage corporate decay

I don't suppose this is relevant, but for my first summer job out of high school, I worked at an amusement park for an hourly wage so low I'm ashamed to even mention it. But several of the rides did turn riders upside down, and they did shake, and coins did fall out of their pockets. And yes, I did look on the ground afterwards for coins to supplement my wages.

Windows 11 tiptoes further into dark mode with new dialogs

Re: FFS ... What a load of Toss !!!

Yes, iOS 26 and other recently released Apple OSs let you play with colors--transparent ones--like you said. They painted it a different color.

Oh wait...you were talking about Windows???

Cisco: Most companies don't know what they're doing with AI

Fix

There's a fix to all this: Just tell everyone that the first people that AI will be capable of replacing is the upper management.

Librephone battles the proprietary binary blob

Really???

"The FSF says it wants people to have the freedom to inspect, alter, and share the source code for mobile phone firmware and applications." Are they crazy? What kind of user is going to do that? And if they do, what kind of user will come out of the experience with a working phone?

The whole notion that *users* are going to alter the source code is just bonkers. Maybe perhaps possibly some users modify their emacs macros. But beyond that?

Microsoft hypes PCs with NPUs, still can't offer a good reason to buy one

Year of the Linux desktop

The "Year of the Linux Desktop" has been a standing joke for years, if not decades. But maybe Microsoft will make it happen.

Microsoft 364 trips over its own network settings in North America

Re: American tech and US culture is general

You do know that there is in fact a Samish language, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samish_dialect

Pentagon decrees warfighters don't need 'frequent' cybersecurity training

Re: Very strange

Forget how using unauthorized devices gives your position away, and potentially makes your bank accounts and other personal "stuff" liable to hacking and maybe blackmail.

BTW, ever see those posters from WWII about information security? You know, Loose Lips Sink Ships--that kind of thing.

Re: The actual point gets buried in a tide of anti-republican bullshit

No, this is the invasion of Kursk that led to lots of Russian soldiers--and their comrades, the North Koreans--being deployed up there instead of on the front lines in Ukraine, making them easier targets. And it probably led to lots of Russians asking themselves how they got into this mess in the first place, although we're not likely to hear about them.

Re: The actual point gets buried in a tide of anti-republican bullshit

So those infantry/artillery/armour troops never touch computers or smart phones, right? Or if they do, they use Signal.

Zorin OS 18 beta makes Linux look like anything but Linux

On the general topic of Windows vs. Linux: I just went through a process of installing Linux (xubuntu) on a PC, and going back and forth between the two to try to decide which I prefer.

They both have advantages and disadvantages. If you add a new disk (SSD in my case), Windows Just Recognizes It. Not so Linux: I had to research how to set things up in /etc/fstab, and even now I'm not sure about some of the parameters. "Disk" formats were messy, too, since Windows and Linux disagree. I was eventually able to get my NTFS drive to be readable and writable under Linux. (I had hundreds of gigabytes of data on that drive, so I had to make it work if I was going to move.)

Linux loses on little (you might say minor) fit-and-finish things. Like I want a colored mouse cursor. There is such a thing on both Windows and Linux (redglass in the Linux I was using). In Windows it works flawlessly; under Linux, the red cursor changes to a white cursor in certain places (like mousing a URL). I was able to widen the scroll bars in Thunderbird under Windows, so I could actually see where I was in an email; not yet in Linux. Microsoft Terminal has a nicer interface than Xubuntu's (I haven't tried others yet), e.g. its tabbed interface.

I use a twin panel file manager in Windows (FreeCommander XE); such file managers exist in Linux, but are mostly more primitive. I ended up with Krusader, but it crashed at least twice for unknown reasons. And getting plugins to work was (still is) not straightforward.

On the other hand, window placement seems to work better in Xubuntu. Every time I re-start Vivaldi in Windows, it seems to have an allergy to the screen boundaries, leaving several useless pixels of unused space on all sides, until I manually move it and expand it. In Xubuntu, it's in exactly the same place every time--just where I want it.

Finally, I have a certain program that currently runs only under Windows. It's the only one of its kind, so if I'm going to run it in Linux, I'll need to figure out Wine.

None of these issues--on either side--is a killer. But right now I'm running Windows.

Trump backpedals as Hyundai factory ICE raid enrages South Korea

Re: And they still for the most part support him

If Kamala says so, shouldn't Trump say it isn't so? He can't have Himself agreeing with his opponent!

US tosses $134M pocket change at fusion pipe dream

Re: Two options

Option 1 was sort of the premise of "The Golden Apples of the Sun", definitely one of Ray Bradbury's worst stories.

Microsoft folds Sales, Service, Finance Copilots into 365

Jerry Lewis wrote this

Copilot does everything? Reminds me of Jerry Lewis' 1965 movie "The Family Jewels", in which he plays all the main parts, but especially where he is the ticket agent, ground crew, pilot and steward of "Eddie's Airways, the Airline for the Birds".

Sky-high budget gap: FAA launches air traffic overhaul, lacks cash to finish it

2050

My time machine brought me a post from the year 2050. It seems that in that year, the system needs to be replaced again. The biggest problem is they can't seem to explain why the Brand New Air Traffic Control System is outdated.

Linux Mint 22.2 polishes the desktop, but kernel updates are the real deal

cornering the market

"it's not a very big deal. For instance, the sticky notes app now has rounded corners..." Indeed: rounded corners are my go-to example of "Who cares?"

HP bottom line fattens up on a diet of AI PCs and Windows 11

80286

I may be completely wrong, but this emphasis on putting an NPU in reminds me of the late 1980s idea that an 80286 processor was better than an 8088 processor, because the 286 would run future software that the 8088 couldn't. (I was one who said this.) If you lived through that era, you know that it wasn't until the 80386 came out that it was possible to run more software (Windows 3.0). So something in me wonders whether "real" AI will require some future processor (or a bunch of GPUs).

Not that I feel any need for that "real" AI.

DHS says it needs $100M worth of counter-drone tech to protect America

BDF

I remember the Big Drone Fear that struck last year, and which Dear Donald said he'd fix the moment he got into office. I haven't heard word one about it since January 20th, whether it's because <sarc>Donald solved the problem</sarc> or because he and his MAGA allies forgot about it.

Same thing with UFOs/ UAPs.

Microsoft continues Control Panel farewell tour

Re: Fix the regional settings would help

Por supuesto que si!

Re: Windows

What do you mean, Settings is an abomination? It's clean, refreshed, takes away I mean gives you lots of white space, is iconful just like the Egyptian hieroglyphics, it's User Friendly™, and it has rounded corners!

AWS CEO says using AI to replace junior staff is 'Dumbest thing I've ever heard'

Garman and Marx

Garman said "How's that going to work when ten years in the future you have no one that has learned anything..." Karl Marx would like a word with you. He didn't coin the term "race to the bottom", but that's the bottom line of his critique of capitalism. In Marx's argument, wages would go down because each factory owner had to undercut the others in order to make a profit; in the modern era, it could mean that education goes down, as each company tries not to hire young inexperienced workers.

Of course you can argue that Marx was wrong, and that Garman's worry won't come to pass.

Boy riding bubble realizes what he's on, asks for more air

Re: I have a question

You'll be able to plug your DeLorean into those nuke plants and go back to 2015, when the Internet wasn't as bad as it is now. Or if you're really brave, you can go back to 1985, and buy a brand new IBM PCJr.

Some users report their Firefox browser is scoffing CPU power

Yah, sure, you betcha. And the city up in the upper right-hand corner of Minnesota. Which I guess means Minnesota is 17 miles from Cambridge, wherever that is. Maybe up in Canuckland, just across the border from Ely?

Re: To everything its season

At least as of 12 May 2025, Vivaldi has said "no" to AI in their browser:

https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/ai/web-browsers-without-ai/

Ransomware crews don't care about your endpoint security – they've already killed it

Re: The criminals?

Or maybe the Dear Leader.

ISS is still leaking air after latest repair efforts fail

Re: Space opera?

That's what they did in the old science fiction stories. John Campbell, the editor of Analog SciFi/SciFact magazine, was a heavy smoker, and probably a majority of the stories he published included a leading male character who smoked cigarettes, cigars, or a pipe.

Lethal Cambodia-Thailand border clash linked to cyber-scam slave camps

US

"The US agrees with that assessment..." More likely, *did* agree. Trump could deport people to Cambodia, and Cambodia could put them into these slave prisons. Win for both: Trump gets to deport people, and Cambodia gets more slaves. Bonus for Cambodia: These are slaves with relevant American cultural experience (unlike your average Asian, who has to pretend to be American even though they've never been there).

Bitter fight over 2020 Microsoft quantum paper both resolved and unresolved

My cat is approaching 23 years, and going strong. (Well, strong for a 22 year 10 month old cat.) I think he has the answer to the experiment. The cat is alive.

Re: Spelling Mistake by an Intern???

No, but the author confused Majorana with Major Tom (intentionally, I suspect).

Re: quantum paper both resolved and unresolved

Yes, but did you see what they did in the subtitle: "Ground control to Majorana"