Posts by YetAnotherXyzzy

If you want a picture of the future, imagine humans checking AI didn't make a mistake – forever

Re: A phrase to remember for your managers

May I suggest the Twilight Zone episode "The Brain Center at Whipple's"?

Security company hired a used car salesman to build a website, and it didn't end well

Boris reported this mess to the HR person who sent the emails, then demonstrated the problem.

She exploded in a fit of rage.

"Why would you do that?!" she shouted. "This is a disciplinary offence!"

This, in four short sentences, sums up my every interaction with every HR person at every employer that had one, ever.

What would a Microsoft engineer do to Ubuntu? AnduinOS is the answer

Re: "reshapes GNOME in the image of Windows 11"

And the worst DE.

Apartment living to get worse in 5 years as 6 GHz Wi-Fi nears ‘exhaustion’

Re: Just....

Ha, typical landlord behavior around these parts is to observe if the leasee's business is going well, and if so, extort him at next lease renewal. You could view that as an ever increasing subscription, yes.

Re: Just....

A former employer had us in a rented building with foot thick adobe brick walls. No way was Wi-Fi going to go beyond a single room there. That employer was awful in many ways, but they set up the network well, with Ethernet to a modest AP in each room. All those visible cables probably sound like they would be an eyesore, but they were run neatly and sensibly and didn't look awful. Problem solved.

Re: Just....

I discovered by accident the advantages of turning down the power. A former home was served (I used the term loosely) by an electrical utility that would regularly have multi-hour unscheduled blackouts, so it behooved me to maximize the runtime I could get out of my UPS. (I also had to obtain backup power generation, but that's another matter). By simply backing off the power that my AP was blasting out, I got a lot more runtime, and was a good neighbor to boot.

Sergey Brin promises next generation of Glassholes will be much less conspicuous

Re: Point

...and generate collectable NFTs of the event.

Samsung admits Galaxy devices can leak passwords through clipboard wormhole

Bitwarden, and presumably some other password managers, can clear your device's clipboard some seconds after copying a password to it. Which seems to me to be a better way to do this than rely on the OS or a skin provider to try to guess if what you put in the clipboard might be sensitive and to give it special treatment.

In Bitwarden for Android this is set at Settings - Other - Clear clipboard. I don't recall what the default setting is.

Where it Hertz: Customer data driven off in Cleo attacks

This is the same Hertz that has filed false police reports against its own customers. Hertz needs to die in a car crash.

https://viewfromthewing.com/hertz-shouldnt-emerge-from-bankruptcy-until-they-stop-filing-false-police-reports-against-customers/

Vivaldi bakes Proton VPN into browser to boost privacy

Re: Proton's "neutrality"

The email address I provided to read the article was [e-mail]. Imagine my joy when, after providing it (and not before), they revealed that they will be spamming it.

Euro businesses flummoxed by Scope 3 emissions

"40 percent of companies say they are prepared to pay fines, as they do not see adhering to CSDR regulations as important enough"

I'd like to see a list of such companies. I want to direct my, and my employer's, purchases to those firms that do not let themselves be distracted from their responsibility to provide quality products and services.

Firefox 136 finally brings the features that fans wanted

Some time ago Brave said it was their intention to stay on Manifest v2. Time will tell how long that lasts, but in the meantime uBlock Origin does run fine on latest stable Brave. I hardly need it -- as beast666 points out, Brave has very good built in tracker blocking, but I happen to like having UBO around to block the rare annoyance that Brave doesn't block.

Non-biz Skype kicks the bucket on May 5

Re: Alternatives for calling U.S. toll free numbers

"What's really annoying is having a debit/credit card that has a toll-free number printed on it for service but not a direct dial line so when they cancel the card when you use it overseas, you are sunk until you can find a way to call them and get something resolved"

True. On my "things to do upon receiving a new credit or debit card" checklist is a reminder to look up the direct dial phone number to use in case the card is lost or stolen, and to record that in my password manager's entry for that card. I also record the toll-free number, because having it on the card is of little use if what I need it for is to report the card has been lost.

Alternatives for calling U.S. toll free numbers

The only thing I use Skype for is calling U.S. toll free numbers. What alternatives are there?

Google binning SMS MFA at last and replacing it with QR codes

Re: What about all the people who don't have smartphones?

It's not that QR codes have any special security. But in their favor, they don't suffer from the insecurities that SMS messages have.

Here's the ugliest global-warming chart you'll ever need to see

"The sharp-eyed Reg reader will notice..."

See icon.

California goes ape with bill to crown Bigfoot official state cryptid

Re: Seriously?

I grew up in the area, and I second Jake: It's lovely country to visit, so much so that locals are somewhat ambivalent about tourism: yes they need your tourist dollars, but they don't want folks to decide to stay and wind up ruining paradise. I vaguely and perhaps wrongly remember the chorus from a local folk song popular during my childhood: "Bring your money, bring your dope / and we all sincerely hope / that you don't forget to leave when you get through."

Even Linus Torvalds can have trouble with autocycle … autocracy… AUTOCOMPLETE!

Re: Linus needs an assistant

Maybe Agent P can add Clippy to systemd.

Insurance giant finds claims rep that gives a damn (it's AI)

So the CIO announces the success of what is in all likelihood the CIO's pet project. Yawn. Wake me when an objective third party has something to say about it.

Google confirms Gulf of Mexico renamed to appease Trump – but only in the US

I look forward to Mexico renaming the Gulf of California to "Gulf of Mexico 2.0" or something. C'mon commentards, help me out here: what new names for that gulf would annoy the Orange One?

Humans brought the heat. Earth says we pay the price

Re: Poor work, El Reg.

Agreed. There is a place for such opinion pieces, and it is good that they are published and thought about and commented on, but a tech publication isn't the place.

If Just Stop Oil's website is suddenly running opinion pieces on the relative merits of vi and Emacs, then I stand corrected.

Linux rolls out the welcome mat for Microsoft's Copilot key

Re: Please bring clippy back onkeypress()

and "...can I help?"

Brits must prove their age on adult sites by July, says watchdog

Re: Age verification

"Unfortunately, that doesn't extend to the mobile phones that so many have glued to the end of their arms from a very early age. I don't know how to fix that."

At the convenience store last evening I saw the owner's 4 year old granddaughter scrolling through short form videos. It wasn't the toddler who paid for the data plan or the ISP at the other end of a Wi-Fi connection. Adam Foxton's excellent point continues to apply.

WordPress drama latest: Leader Matt Mullenweg exiles five contributors

Re: Pocket Casts

I don't know what features are important to you or what your OS is, but on Android I'm happy with the free and open source AntennaPod. It's in F-Droid.

Edgio bankruptcy results in endpoint change for Microsoft

for CI builds, it is ci.dot.net

Say that out loud. Imagine devs around the world saying that over Zoom calls.

Wubuntu: The lovechild of Windows and Linux nobody asked for

I worked at such a place once. The executive director was a control freak who dictated Thou Shalt Use Windows for no reason other than to remind the serfs who's in charge, but she was a cheap control freak who wouldn't give IT the resources to properly enforce it. Enforcement was thus limited to getting reported if the lone jack of all trades IT guy happened to see a non-Windows DE on your screen. So my screensaver was a static image of a Windows 7 desktop, activated with a keybinding.

Google India probed after driver fatally followed Maps route over unfinished bridge

Re: Let me get this straight ...

Another way to stop this is to use OsmAnd instead of Google Maps.

https://osmand.net/

Windows 10 given an extra year of supported life, for $30

Yet another Linux music player that lets you browser by album art is Quod Libet.

FCC probes whether it can pop a cap in ISP data caps

Re: "Reach out and [throttle] someone."

I guess whether pre-pay or post-pay works best depends in part on who the available providers are. At least in the country where I live (Latin American developing country) pre-pay is the safest choice. It's far cheaper for average use, topping up is easier than settling a monthly bill, and the most you can get cheated out of is whatever airtime or temporary package you last put in. The only complaints I hear are from people on plans. One example: my wife's then-supervisor had frequent arguments over his plan bill, which more months than not had bogus charges or magically increasing amounts. So pre-pay for my household, thanks.

That said, sounds like the opposite is true where you live, so not downvoting you. Do what best protects you in your environment, and never mind what randos like me say.

Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed

Re: What about the animated?

At the risk of hammering away at this topic, I pine for them too.

AI chatbot gets green light to hallucinate your investment portfolio

Robo-advisors have been a thing for over a decade. I wonder how much innovation is here beyond "let's call it AI".

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/roboadvisor-roboadviser.asp

Samsung and pals Hyundai, Kia team for software-defined cars, IoT integration

Pear

Given their appliances' reliability, "lemon" would be appropriate.

Did you hear the one about the help desk chap who abused privileges to prank his mate?

"It's gone through more changes since, and is currently known as Configuration Manager."

What, it's not named Windows Live Copilot Manager 365 Azure Mesh?

NIST: New smoke alarms are better at detecting fires, but still go off for bacon

Re: Not in kitchen

Hey Richard, thanks for that URL. I'm not in London or even on your side of the pond but there's some great information there. And as I've just moved into a wooden house in the countryside far from the fire brigade I have been wondering where to educate myself on such things.

Skype goes ad-free, which is unusual for Microsoft

Re: I have to ocassionaly use skype...

I live outside the US and use it to call US-based toll free numbers. And for nothing else, so no business case that I can see either.

Apple Maps escapes orchard into web browser wilds

Re: Very risky move for Apple.

It would seem that different map providers have better or worse coverage in different areas. Where I live, it's Google Maps that is uselessly inaccurate. OpenStreetMap (which is a large source of Apple Maps' data) is a lot better. YMMV obviously, and of course you should use whatever gives you best coverage where you need it and not mind what I say.

I'll cheerfully confess that OpenStreetMap is better to at least some degree because when I find an error or omission I pitch in and fix it. OSM is easy to edit and welcomes new editors, whereas back when I gave their map a try Google would quietly ignore my corrections.

Study finds a quarter of bosses hoped RTO would make employees quit

Re: is it just me ?

One lesson I wish I had learned years ago is that once an employer decides it needs a dedicated HR person, it's time for me to move on.

Engine cover flies from Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 during takeoff

Southwest flies an all-737 fleet, and in the name of cost cutting has no interline agreements with any other airline. So it would have to be more of the same.

Re: Is it Just Me??

Another example, and this from the airline industry: US Airways took over "nobody cuts more corners than we do!" America West, but found their board and C-suite taken over by the nickel-and-dimers. Then much larger American Airlines bought them, and the same thing happened. AA has been Always Awful ever since.

As AI booms, land near nuclear power plants becomes hot real estate

Re: Hydro

Yes, it is crazy. Back when I was a young environmental activist, hydro was one of the darlings of the movement, and rightly so. Today's environmentalists trash talk hydro, leading to cases of the perfect being the enemy of the good. The developing country where I live has enough hydropower potential to cleanly provide the nation's electricity instead of what we have now, which are thermal plants burning bunker oil. For some reason our environmentalists think that would be a bad thing.

UN: E-waste is growing 5x faster than it can be recycled

Re: Or.....

Yes. This.

There is a lot of bashing of big evil corporations but in the end they give the public what it wants, and what the public wants (no not you, dear reader, and not me, but most people) is New Shiny every couple of years. And if most people replace their stuff that often, then it is pointless to make stuff needlessly repairable. This is true not just in consumer electronics but in consumer tat generally. Fast fashion, anyone?

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Oh look, cracking down on Big Tech works. Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi surge on iOS

Every time someone dares say that they liked the old Firefox but have since moved on to Brave, an army of Firefox fans piles on with the downvotes. Every other browser gets its full share of rightful criticism here, but there is a certain kind of Firefox fan that thinks their preferred browser is above reproach.

Have an upvote, Tubz. Everyone ought to be able to report what does and doesn't work for them.

The end of classic Outlook for Windows is coming. Are you ready?

Re: Confused

"So how good are Linux mail clients, and can they handle Exchange mailboxes?"

Evolution is intended to be a drop-in replacement for classic Outlook, including connecting with Exchange. Although Evolution on Linux is my day to day mail client and I am happy with it, I don't have personal experience with pointing it to an Exchange server, but doing that is supposed to work.

Climate change means beer made from sewer water, says North Carolina brewery

Re: Wouldn't put me off

Agreed, though I suspect that efficiency isn't the point. Gotta do that posturing.

HP print rental service seeks more users to become subscription addicts

It seems to me that there are two separate issues here that are worth separating out.

One is the question of ownership vs. rental. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with renting, and for some people and some products it makes more sense. While owning my printer makes sense for me, it is a good thing that renting a printer is becoming a more common option for those who would be better off with it. Everyone needs to make up his or her own mind here.

A separate question is, how trustworthy is HP. That's an easier question to answer: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

US politicians want ByteDance to sell off TikTok or face ban

Choice

"This bill is not a ban, and it's not really about TikTok. It's a choice."

Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'choice' that I wasn't previously aware of.

US accuses Army vet cyber-Casanova of sharing Russia-Ukraine war secrets

All that you describe is the case in the US as well, or at least was in I was in the belly of the beast. Part of obtaining a security clearance is getting The Talk and signing an affidavit. There were periodic refresher talks, though those I had were agency-specific. And upon separation there was another talk and another affidavit to sign which was more or less an NDA.

Yes, I saw a lot of over-classification. Before I saw it myself I believed the commonly held opinion that it was due to craven functionaries practicing CYA, but upon seeing the process it turned out to be merely misaligned incentives. There is no incentive to ask "what is the lowest classification this really needs?" but there is a very high incentive to ask "might I be prosecuted if I innocently fail to recognize some subtle reason why this should have been classified higher?" The answer to the latter question is always yes, so there you go.

I too used to hold a Top Secret clearance from Uncle Sam, and back then I was single and socially active. The vast majority of the ladies had no interest whatsoever in NDI and probably wouldn't have been in a position to formulate intelligent questions about it. So when a lady was able to formulate such questions (yes, it happened occasionally) that stood out pretty obviously and I would report it immediately to the security staff. So from personal experience I find it hard to believe this guy's claim to be an innocent fool.

Lenovo to offer certified refurbished PCs and servers

Lenovo's talking head: blah blah circular economy sustainability carbon footprint.

Reg commentards: Sharing practical ideas on saving money on hardware. Have an upvote, everyone.

On-disk format change beckons for brave early adopters of Bcachefs

Re: I don't trust btrfs either...

Me too. I'm big openSUSE fan. I've been told, probably correctly, that I'm as bad as the Apple fanbois. But even I draw the line at their penchant for not-ready-for-prime-time filesystems, having been burnt too many times. Now it's EXT4 on all of two partitions, / and /home. I haven't had a problem in years, and if I ever do EXT4 has more and more robust recovery tools, and more tutorials written about them.