Posts by that one in the corner

Make-me-root 'Looney Tunables' security hole on Linux needs your attention

it would be impossible for a new process to learn the specific setup for a particular invocation.

> That's only a different way to implement the same problem

Well, except that sabroni was replying to the claim that env vars are the only necessary way to provide that info and that a multiprocessing OS *has* to have env vars.

But thank you for your explanation of env vars, even if you didn't address the comment you replied to, you did manage to - oh, look, you managed to get the point of the article wrong as well!

> I guess no one thought to protect this variable,

No, the entire issue - as the article clearly explains - is that the code parsing that env var's string had a booboo and walked off the end of the buffer.

Re: Environment variable @david 12

> This looks like it is specifically a GNU/Linux vulnerability, so will not affect other UNIX systems.

As the article points out, it is specific to glibc.

So it does not even affect every other Linux system (as the article says, even ones that do make use of other GNU code (just not built against that _specific_ bit of GNU code).

Although, in fairness, glibc is the widely used choice.

Re: Environment variable

> Every OS has environment variables. It's absolutely necessary for a multiprocessing OS to work. Otherwise it would be impossible for a new process to learn the specific setup for a particular invocation.

Useful (read - simple for the programmer to use, simple to for the OS to provide) but by no means an absolute necessity - and not for the reason you give.

API calls to interrogate state? The current working directory can be returned as a handle, needn't be shoved into an environment string, for example.

Command line parameters?

Lock files? Shared memory plus mutex equals counter? Trickier than env vars, but entirely workable (and uses less space, say in an embedded OS or even one without a shell, where all processes are linked with the OS into one binary - remember those?).

Command line parameters (and using them, or the cwd, to locate a config file) still run all the risks of exactly this code, but they do demonstrate that env vars are not a necessity for an OS.

Amazon had secret algorithm to hike prices, claims FTC

Re: "Project Nessie"

> Project Schroedinger

Isn't that one already in use? The code that tweaks the prices (guess which direction) in the time between your adding the time to the basket and the time you get to the checkout (the price fluctuations only stop when they are all observed together).

(Cue opening all the product pages, one per tab, and speed running all the "add to basket" clicks and the checkout: Try Your Luck! Can YOU Beat The Machine?!!)

Re: The FTC should make a decision

There is only one consistent goal: milk the customer.

Stabbing at competitors at competitors is just another weapon used in that goal.

Together, those are Capitalism and Everybody Does It (is no doubt one of Amazon's excuses).

Tweaked Space Shuttle Main Engine gets ready for final testing

Re: A similar option for HS2?

> bringing jobs to run down steam locomotive building regions

So would that be the Darlington Works, or CTL Seal in Sheffield?

BTW, the latter are clearly worried as they have to resort to pronouncements such as:

>> Geoff Turner from the Clan Locomotive Project said rather than being put together in "a little siding somewhere at the end of a heritage railway", the engines were being built in what had been described as "a cathedral to engineering".

Because, of course, that "little siding" already has a track record of actually building a new loco!

Although neither is really ready to go with track-side nukes. Do you think we could get away with pulling the locos with trained packs of whippets or fueling 'em with parmos, just to tide us over?

Microsoft introduces AI meddling to your files with Copilot in OneDrive

surfaces files that Microsoft's AI reckons will be of interest.

"Surfaces"?

Not "lists" or "describes", but "surfaces".

> Microsoft floated the new design

Well, that just makes this interpretation oficial:

Files, long forgotten by their authors, bloated, old and wrinkled, surface and bob about on your web page.

The page provides a boathook tool to interact with these files, so you can hook and drag them into your area or poke them with the spike, then watch as they sink out of sight beyond the bottom of the page, leaving behind nothing but a trail of noxious bubbles[1].

[1] if you choose this option, it is recommended not to be wearing headphones.

5G satellite briefly becomes brightest object in night sky

Re: Astronomy tax

> Astronomy is unique amongst sciences today in that the amateurs are *still* an important resource

SWMBO has pointedly remarked that the word "unique" has been wrongly used, as other observational sciences also benefit greatly from their amateur members. For example, botany, pollinating insect studies and, I suppose, ethology in general.

However, amateur astronomy is still unique, until such time as the others routinely spend as much on gear!

Oh heck, now she'll be wanting a portable botanical binocular microscope set that cost as much as my "midlife crisis" solar telescope! If you know such a thing exists, please keep it to yourself!

Re: Sic transit gloria astra...

> All in the Earth's shadow? Seriously???

Maybe if we can get the satellites to travel in herds, like gazelles upon the grasslands. What is the orbital equivalent of a pair of hunting lions?

Although the operating companies may not be happy with that, at which point orbital safari weekends will start being advertised.

Re: Astronomy tax

The reduction of light spill upwards is to be applauded, but the change to LEDs is still controversial: with a far broader output spectrum they are harder to filter out. So we win on one but lose on the other.

Even if the LED emissions are restricted to narrow bands, so that a comb filter can clean them up, the choices made will still tend towards providing "white" light for the "convenience" of the street goers, the filters will let electronic imagers carry on observing but it is still difficult to just show little Jimmy the night sky as the street light intrudes on the back garden.

Let's get some single-frequency street LEDs that can be paired with inexpensive filters for winter evenings learning our way around the sky.

Re: Astronomy tax

> You're right in principle but wrong in fact.

Hmm, going to have to disagree on that score.

> The light pollution on earth affects the ... hobby astronomers ... but not the main telescopes and observatories

There really is no such thing as "the main" telescopes. There are the big 'scopes, which are gorgeous and lovely but very few, and there is the (relatively) huge fleet of 'scopes run by amateur astronomers (note: amateur, not hobbyist - seriously!).

Astronomy is unique amongst sciences today in that the amateurs are *still* an important resource: they can, and do, devote huge numbers of hours of 'scope time to monitoring targets that aren't on the schedules for larger instruments - including those that just swamp out the big boys, namely the bright planets in the Solar System.

There are, of course, hobbyist star gazers as well, and more joy to them, but please don't discount the importance of the hardy and dedicated amateur astronomers.

> but not the main telescopes and observatories

Not now, because they have been forced to move to all the remote locations! The move of the Isaac Newton instrument from Herstmonceux to Hawaii was not universally greeted with joy in the locale. It made scientific sense, with the encroaching lights of Eastbourne and the obviously greater number of cloudless days away from the Channel, but it - and all similar moves - cost greatly in allowing observing time to be used for training up the next generation and for engaging local public interest. This was a few decades ago now, but that just shows that this is another of those long-term, creeping, problems that just allows too many people to shrug their shoulders and say it has been that way all of their life, nothing to do about it, we can't go backwards - as though it is some inevitable law of nature that things must get worse (no, that is *not* what entropy is all about!)

> But light pollution does have measurable effects on insects and birds

True.

And mammals, including humans (hanging heavy blackout curtains works but hardly makes for a light and airy living space the rest of the time, looming all the time).

Re: Astronomy tax

Considering how many outdoor lights around here are badly positioned and vastly over-powered for what they claim their function to be[1], even without taking into account the effect on night-sky observing, it would be a very good idea to levy a monthly charge on them. Base the amount on the overspill in every direction.

[1] especially love the supposed "deterrents" that so brightly light the entire area that they simply make it far easier to burgle the place: just carry a clip board and you can load up whatever you want, everybody just assumes you are meant to be doing that because not an ounce of skulking or other suspicious behaviour is required.

> space based observatories are going to have to continue to be more of a thing

Yay, let's just lift all the units that make up the VLT up into orbit, that should be easy enough! Anyone got a slide rule, want to take a guess at how many launches something like that is going to take?

Space telescopes are really good at some tasks, but for others we are not going to get any better than planet-bound for a long, long time (as in, as soon as we invent whatever powers the Star Trek Next Gen shuttles to get the lift capacity).

Things that Earth-bound 'scopes are good for include all-sky surveys, looking for new things that might just be getting a wee bit too close to us, minor things like that.

> the number of satellites isn't going to decrease

If we are lucky, something more sensible will take their place for comms and then we just (!) have to wait for the majority to de-orbit. Something that our children can look forwards to, perhaps.

ChattyG takes a college freshman C/C++ programming exam

Re: C++

Why do people write such bad C++?[1]

I've seen things you people would not believe: torturous code with deeply nested template declarations; use of string types without considering copying behaviour, terabytes of in-core duplication just to generate kilobytes of LAN traffic.

But it is entirely possible to write neat, legible and efficient C++. To start with, if you're gonna nest the template decls, hint: "typedef"!

> The code that first year (freshman) students normally submit...[1]

[1] I blame the fetishisation of "Modern C++" and the first year's following "coding influencers"! Knuth and Dykstra[2] were good enough for you Grandfather's generation, they are good enough for you!

[2] Even if you can't pronounce them![3]

[3] Pah! Practice on this: car, cdr, cadr, caddr

Re: "It was all so much better in the old days." - When was it ever not?

> Normally need three days rations

And good eyesight!

SWMBO (who gets to sit in the clever corner) stopped our subscription because it is just too difficult to read that print in bed :-(

> Although there do seem to be various libraries for subsets of it.

Or you make the editor run with a browser-based front-end (your editor is in JavaScriot or runs as a server) or use an embedded "browser-like" library, such as Sciter (the successor to HTMLayout, which had a far more self-explanatory name).

Then your SVG editing comes down to tracking the mouse and updating a node position in the plain text.

Similarly, there are multiple methods for handling PNGs - Fly is a seemingly forgotten but still very useful little program to wrangle bitmaps from an input script, leaving your editor to just handle the text.

After all, "produce an editor" needn't mean it is as full-featured as GIMP or PhotoShop (many smaller editors exist and are *very* useful too: thank you, Irfanview) AND one thing you would hope to gain from using an LLM trained on much, much text from the web is that it has picked up info on lots of otherwise obscure libraries.

Given the above, it does become a nice test to see if the LLM can join the dots in a non-obvious way (i.e. not "just" trying to replicate Photoshop) : far more interesting to see it do that than just using it to save your typing yet another simple loop!

The real takeaway here

> The real takeaway here is its human freshman-like adaptability: It wasn't just about getting the right solution; it was about refining, learning, and iterating.

Nope.

The real takeaway here is that The Register is presenting a symposium paper, which is little more than an anecdote, in the same style as it would a paper published in Nature[1] and then ending with its own clickbaity conclusion!

Mutter mutter, El Reg never used to be like this, it was all so much better in the old days.

[1] well, not quite - it would be crowing that they'd waded the whole way through a Nature paper!

Re: Malformed questions worthy of ChatGPT

Ok, not so long - the paper is 11 pages long and the vast majority of it is just stating the programming problems.

And the protocol is utterly dreadful, especially for testing an online service (which can, of course, be updated without your knowledge): the English and Croatian runs were separated by a week (implied to be the time it took to translate the questions) so no definite statement that they were guaranteed to be using identical software both times! Repeatability in Science? Pah, that is for weaklings!

They did not bother to perform multiple runs in each language, to check for any changes due to randomisation in any part of the process or for changes due to subtle differences in the wording of the prompts.

They openly admit that they do not know if the model is still learning/retraining (i.e. immediately incorporates its recent conversations back into itself[1]) and then ascribe the change in behaviour to that process - if you do not know, you can not ascribe! And, anyway, inputs spread over a week? How is that recent in terms of a public online service? How many other people's inputs would have been included if the model *was* continually updating itself?! Even if they do not believe that working on such shifting sands was a problem to their conclusions, they fail totally to even mention that, as if they had never even considered that!

As this is a symposium paper, not something published in, say, Nature, there is some leeway to be given - but not that much!

[1] btw, for various reasons, there is no good reason to think it is continually retraining[2].

[2] yes, they probably are recording your sessions, to feed into the *next* model - and whatever half-hearted "protections" are being applied to your inputs to stop you asking naughty questions.

Malformed questions worthy of ChatGPT

> All of this raises an important question: Does ChatGPT always choose the best strategy, or does it sometimes default to learned but inefficient methods?

Or neither, as it isn't a Planner and isn't picking any strategy at all!

> Yet, when researchers revisited this challenge in English, ChatGPT seemed to have learned from its previous misstep, returning to the simpler method.

Or it has reverted back to the same set of triggers it responded to the previous time it was asked in English and so produced a similar result again.

Hey ho, let's download the PDF and see if the trial protocol was really as appalling as this article is describing. I may be some time.

Russia to ban all VPNs – again – says senator

Russia regards Zuck's biz as an extremist organization.

I am so conflicted right now...

If you want to fund open source code via Patreon with GitHub, well now you can

an attempt to get unappreciated developers patronized for the work they do.

Typical.

You pour your heart into your personal project, only for someone to come up and pat you on the head: "Aaaw, isn't that just the cutest little library? Give him ten dollars, Hiram".[1]

[1] maybe "patronize" doesn't mean the same thing as "patronise"? Two countries separated by a common language and all that.

X Social Media sues Twitter 2.0 over alphabet soup branding

#sliving

#mimsy #toves #outgrabe

Watermarking AI images to fight misinfo and deepfakes may be pretty pointless

Re: Guarantee

> This is about artists and creators flooding the world with cheap generated artworks and selling them.

The article is about people who are NOT artists generating fakes and about "creators" creating deepfakes and misinformation.

Feel free to change the subject (something that never happens around here, couch cough) but best to announce that is what your are doing, instead of just flatly denying the thrust of the original article!

PS dunno why everyone keeps calling these things "cheap": I am barely artistic but it is still easier (and a lot more fun) doing the art bit for real than spending all the time trying to get the prompts to work! It may be easier than learning the drawing techniques, but it still isn't "cheap" - and you still just end up with a digital image, not a physical drawing or painting - so even more relevant to disputing the "artistic knockoffs" claims!

Apple blames iOS 17 bug for overheating iPhone 15 woes

Re: Third party apps

> raising your iPhone to a temperature where it will scold you.

How many times have I told you not to use that app?

Musk's first year as Twitter's Dear Leader is nigh

Re: Going downhill fast, and so is Twitter

PS

Can not believe that I forgot about the Prefect!

That will mean a point on on my nerd licence.

Re: Where's Bond?

> Including a hollowed out volcano?

Well, he tried, but his tunnel digging machines turn out to be rather slow and the Teslas can't keep their balance on the monorail.

Re: Twitter^h^h^h^h^h^h^hX

> That would use the Chinese pronunciation of X?

Many ways to pronounce it that X: as per "ch" or "z" or "ex", although you have to be careful not to confuse the last with a Devonian city. Cue Hermione: "ex-IT-ter" not "EX-aah-ter".

Re: Going downhill fast, and so is Twitter

> Maybe in boardrooms but outside the USA nobody knows of any cars openly made by GM.

Can't speak for anyone else outside the US, but I just had to do a websearch to check, as I couldn't think of any GM brands. Apparently, they are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC.

I have heard of them, but they really are not names one comes across every day. unlike Ford, where I can even name a couple of models (Cortina owner, no-one meaner, and Escort, of course)!

Thinking of other US car brands, can also name Oldsmobile, but only because I happen to know that the new Oldsmobiles are are in early this year!!

Re: Mastodon remains the most exciting alternative

> Yes it does as your server administrator can block federation with specific servers.

And will, AFAIK, often do that by pulling in a list of instances to block/allow Sounds reasonable enough - saves an admin for a small server having to spend a lot of time checking content of *all* the new instances.

But the list is (lists are) not managed purely on a content basis but on "feels" - the way the Raspberry Pi server was treated demonstrates this - making it harder to find out whether any particular server is one to join or not. Are you suddenly going to find an otherwise useful techie feed cut off entirely because of a spat (followed by the usual Social Media "everyone has to take a side" magnification effect)?

This added (apparent) volatility just adds to the confusion.

X Corp is now suing a sublessee for unpaid rent

This is what happens

When you downsize by firing the entire "accounts payable" team but keep everyone from "receivable".

Microsoft Bing Chat pushes malware via bad ads

Re: Bing Chat contains ads as part of the user experience

> "User experience" was originally conceived as a term to describe the process of making interfaces clearer and easier to use, so that users could accomplish what they wanted to do in a straightforward, efficient way.

Really?

The first time I became aware of the term, let alone its ghastly 2LA "UX"[1], was years after I'd been introduced to the goal of having a UI that was, well, intended for the convenience of the User, not the developer.

As soon as people started to refer to the User having an "experience" the intent seemed to shift to being as disconnected from aiding the User as every other forced "experience": e.g. instead of going to a Museum to be able to study and learn about some artifacts, the "experience" is all about vapid, badly acted video presentations. Similarly, instead of a web page just being useful & informative, it nowadays has to have an "experience", which curiously involves too much use of badly acted video presentations! Even Open Source project sites: my R'Pi running Birdnet was stuck on a process running something called "streamlit" - new to me, looked it up: oh, it generates sharable webapps and goes well with generative AI (cue video); oh, and it is trusted by IBM, that is nice. How about just bleeping well saying right up front "it can make nice graphs"! Mutter, mutter.

I'll stick with dealing with issues about UI design & implementation (e.g. every clickable item shows up consistently, getting the framework code to pressure you into providing help & tooltips everywhere (so you can't just forget), the workflow logic being expressed as, well, logic, that can be interrogated (sorry, you can not move onto Y until you have done X, but don't worry, you can come back to that if you wish to do Z meantime). And leave the "UX" to people who like to scribble on those pre-printed pads of a blank iPhone, advertised as the place to "describe their next great app concept"!

Hmm, what was that? What makes you think the weekend isn't going well? Blasted rain! How can I test the microphone with Birdnet if the birds are all sheltering elsewhere!

[1] although I like being able to describe one of those failing miserably as a "UXB"!

This web page certified by the Soil Association

> an ad is displayed first before the organic result.

WTF is an "organic result"?

Is the alternative to get back a web page that is too salty? Or one that I'm just meant to absorb by osmosis?

Routers have been rooted by Chinese spies, US and Japan warn

This router's not big enough for the both of us

> Chinese government spies may be hiding in your Cisco routers

And not leaving enough room for all the indigenous spies.

The home Wi-Fi upgrade we never asked for is coming. The one we need is not

> Don't plug in the Fritz if you value your existing POTS landline working. Especially if your landline is needed for emergency calls.

OTOH we haven't had any such issue with Zen and their Fritz!Box router.

Having said that, as the Fritz!Box was just plugged in in place of its predecessor, into the ADSL side of the filter, and the other handsets are just plugged into normal 'phone extension wiring, not sure how the Ftitz!Box _could_ usurp our landline.

As to "restoring the landline to working condition" - um, unplugging the Fritz!box? If that doesn't work then wouldn't that indicate that your POTS had been switched off, which is down to BT, not your ISP (Zen or otherwise)?

Re: Too pessimistic

Too right.

One day they are going to go up to 600THz (yes tera Hertz!) or more and then what are we going to do?

Actually, I was checking and the new PoE switch I installed today *already* emits modulated EM radiation around 550THz[1] so now I'm wondering what effect that'll have - it is in the attic so I'm probably safe from it getting out, right?

[1] someone did try to tell me that this is eco-friendly, if you can believe that! He was insistent that this is actually perfectly green energy![2]

[2] gimme a drum sting - bmm-tsssh!

Re: Interest, expertise and time

> sadly still on FTTC

All of us limited to ADSL are sending you good feelings that you aren't suffering too much.

How is this problem mine, techie asked, while cleaning underground computer

Re: Dirt

Remapping rarely manages to change the shape of the Return key to something pleasing, nor does it move the function keys back to their correct location.

A hacksaw helps with latter but rarely the former!

Re: Dirt

> they should be considered personal hygiene items and not shared between people.

That is so true.

I caught impetigo from a keyboard I'd just been issued - I still have scarring on the bridge of my nose, it was stopped only a few mm from one eye!

Another reason - aside from a sensible layout - to use my own keyboards all the time.

FAA wants rocket jockeys to clean up after their space launch parties

Twenty minutes into the future

"It's the Annual Sky Clearance, an event when the Zik Zak Corporation shoots down all its obsolete satellites, causing debris to rain down upon Earth. There are carnivals and sales to celebrate, and everyone walks around under metal umbrellas to protect themselves."

Max Headroom, episode 13

We all grinned wryly at the spectacle, but little did we know how prescient this was. Of course, in the show they had to call the company "Zik Zak" as nobody would believe a daft name like "X".

Beneath Microsoft's Surface event, AI spreads everywhere

Re: Red Dwarf....

No to the toast, just stick to the endless reams of verbiage that are almost but not quite totally unrelated to the task that I'm trying to perform on this computer.

Ah, so you're a waffle man!

Re: Smoke and mirrors

Having said that...

allow Copilot to interrogate shoppers

Basing its enquiries on the most common forms of questions posed to shoppers that it finds in its training set, whilst trying to influence people to shop responsibly:

Only the earrings and not the full set? Do you WANT people to think you're cheap?

Brynylon and socks with sandals? Are you TRYING to give me a heart attack?

Oh, Lordy, what did we say about carbs? Mmm mmm mmmmmmmm, you did NOT just put that in your basket!

If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

Re: Smoke and mirrors

> Until AI achieves sentience it's just another bunch of algorithms

Hate to break it to you, but even if it does achieve sentience, it will still be just another bunch of algorithms. So long as it runs on hardware, it is all just algorithms, right down to the microcode.

PS

Whether or not you wish to take that as some meaningful statement about what sentience is or "proof" that AI can never be sentient (or, conversely, that it can be, but...) is entirely up to you: you can pick and choose your own philosophy and even your own sophistry.

But like, religion and politics, a gentlebeing never discusses philosophy of AI in public or over the dinner table.

GNU turns 40: Stallman's baby still not ready for prime time, but hey, there's cake

> Mr. Pottiecoder has moved on. He now works at Microsoft.

And Microsoft would want to stop him from releasing any more destructive[1] code into Linux?

There is probably a queue of MS execs just champing at the bit, hoping to be the one to sign the release form on his next code droppings.

[1] whether you believe his work has been inspired by the devil or by the angels, you can not overlook the divisive - and hence socially destructive - impact it has had.

Re: A Complicated Man

> If you put your source code in the public domain then it's free.

Assuming you are in a jurisdiction where you can meaningfully put it in the public domain, without first dying and waiting for some 75 to 100 years.

> By definition any licence doesn't do that, it adds restrictions

"By definition"? No, not at all. The complete opposite: a licence always removes restrictions. For example, you have licenced one or more people or corporations to reproduce your work without risk of your suing them for breach of copyright. Whether or not you are asking for money (or some other consideration) in return is all part of the licence.

Re: A Complicated Man

> With no licence whatsoever. If someone wants to use that code (and that was the intention, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered publishing it at all) then fine by me. Why should I have to produce a licence?

Purely and simply in order to state your intent.

If you publish something, you are not giving anyone the rights to reproduce and reuse that thing - like it or not, you (or your employer, in far too many situations) hold the copyright. Unless you explicitly make a statement to allow reproduction and reuse, nobody legally can.

> But some people (OS projects etc) wouldn’t use it because it didn’t have a license!! Utterly stupid.

Hey, if you want to pull down the idea of copyright, go ahead and campaign for it. Just be prepared for a few people to disagree with you.

Epic payout: FTC opens Fortnite settlement claim floodgates

Never played Fortnite

But can I claim against the mental and emotional distress caused by seeing Dara Ó Briain "flossing" on Mock The Week?

So many, many, times (all thanks to Dave).

95% of NFTs now totally worthless, say researchers

> they were conned into spending money on basically a GIF file

Nope, you've missed the subtle distinction that all the value of NFTs relies upon.

They didn't spend money on a GIF, the GIF was free for everyone to enjoy[1].

What they bought was a note on a blockchain (hopefully, that blockchain is still being mined and hasn't just evaporated) and that note said they now owned this copy of a URL - i.e. they literally owned one copy of a sequence of characters that starts "http" - and the fact that, at the specific point in time when the note was made, the claim that said URL leads to a copy of the GIF in question. Where that same URL leads to now, or tomorrow, is one of the great imponderables[2]

The value is all in understanding this chain of references and how its very ephemeral nature highlights the essence of Man's struggle against Nature. Or something like that. Maybe it was Man's Inhumanity Against Man[3]?

[1] enjoyment is not guaranteed; the aesthetic appeal of a garish cartoon of a monkey may go down as well as - actually, no, it just goes down.

[2] or it is just a 404 - damn, I should have sold NFTs to a 404 page and saved the hosting fees for the GIF! Is it too late?

[3] if the NFT mongers had made that claim, they could have actually had a case for charging money for the things: "the art is in the process by which we ripped people off, it is a performance piece".

Re: Shocked

You should have gone for Panda Roger, that one is going to hold its value!

As TikTok surveils staff's office hours, research indicates WFH is good for planet

Re: 54% is nothing. I can offer a 90%+ cut.

> That's not a date.

Not unless you bring flowers.