* Posts by Johnb89

169 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jan 2022

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British industry calls for regulation of autonomous vehicles

Johnb89

Re: Regulation = crystal ball gazing

Indeed. If 'your'* software is in charge of the car, then 'you' are liable for what it does as if 'you' were driving.

*you being whoever signs off the release of it, more or less.

PS, the 'first do no harm' thing is too strong for autonomous vehicles, IMHO. That would lead to having no vehicles at all, including delivering food to shops, ambulances and whatnot.

Johnb89

Re: Until there are an agreed set of regulations

If only that were the case. Several manufacturers (can't be bothered to look it up) have said aloud that in their view the 'driver' is still legally liable for what the car does in autonomous mode.

Which makes perfect sense, if you think about it. In stupid land.

Brit newspaper giant fills space with AI-assisted articles

Johnb89

Re: News headline: “Reach output contains traces of intelligence”?

I usually conclude that whoever wrote a Reach article failed all their GCSEs, and did so without even starting their English one. So an AI might actually be an improvement to grammar and hints of being coherent.

Let alone the lack of actual content, the clickbait headlines and the million ads.

'Thousands' at Meta face layoffs this week

Johnb89

Oh no, people doing evil getting sacked

Facebook is well down the slope-of-evil towards puppy torturing and data brokering, so isn't it nice that the people doing that are getting sacked? Shame we can't cream pie them on the way out.

Service desk tech saved consultancy Capita from VPN meltdown, got a smack for it

Johnb89

Re: Lesson Learned?

My thought was that management was using this as a way to push everyone to windoze7*, and by fixing XP our hero interfered. So yeah, big picture sometimes.

*I've been known to do such things myself as its often the only way to get some users to move

Thought you'd opted out of online tracking? Think again

Johnb89

If only we had some sort of government regulator

In the UK we have the ICO, whose job it specifically is to do exactly that. If only they would/did. They don't. Around Europe many ICOs have done small things, but not the big things. Mr Schrems gets much credit.

But the problem is voters aren't going to like not having access to Facebook, Instagram, Google and the like.

So we get what we 'want', collectively, whether we few here agree or not.

Supreme Court not interested in hearing about NSA's super-snoop schemes

Johnb89

Part of a trend

Recently the UK supreme court ruled very similarly. Though at least the court here ruled that what the spies are doing is wrong while ruling that they could continue to do it. Yup.

Politicians will get voted out if they "let" baddies do bad things, and for that we get much deeper spying. I'd much prefer if the trade off was open and clear, but that is either too hard to explain to the electorate and media, or just too complicated, or something.

Titanic mass grave site to be pillaged for NFTs

Johnb89

No but, they're 'licensed'

No but they've brought in "a licensed virtual asset manager" so its all legit, see?

Meanwhile I've yet to receive my Reg commentard Licence, so please could you get on that.

Biden: I want standard EV chargers made in America by 2024 – get on it

Johnb89

Get the USB or HDMI standards people to sort this

The USB and HDMI people have managed to make 'same name, not interoperable' cables and connectors, repeatedly, for a number of years now. I'm sure if they had a crack at this they could solve traffic congestion in a single try.

Microsoft's AI Bing also factually wrong, fabricated text during launch demo

Johnb89

More training and users correcting it will fix it?

So if 1000 users fix 10 errors per day, how long til the nearly infinity queries are all just so?

Zoox blurs line between workers and crash test dummies in robo-taxi trial

Johnb89

This IS open to the general public

The general public IS involved, in that these things are on 'open roads'. Other cars, pedestrians, cyclists, whatnot are all participating, unwittingly, like it or not.

US defense forces no match for the unstoppable fiend known as Reply-All

Johnb89

Re: Ageism is alive and well...

I've been mischievously using Reply To All since the author was in short trousers, I'll bet. Perhaps he/she/they should stick to Instasnap.

BT keeps the faith in 'like fury' fiber broadband buildout as revenues dip

Johnb89

Re: look at the maps

Reading the article, maybe it's 'fiber' not 'fibre' at all, so will only work if you drive on the right?

OpenAI offers error-prone AI detector amid fears of a machine-stuffed future

Johnb89

Just remember what you spat out?

Wouldn't the easier-but-not-AI-therefore-not-sexy way to detect AI generated text be to remember what text had been spat out by it, and let teachers etc check submissions against that? Not for single sentences, but faked essays would be a doddle.

Too obvious?

UK spy agency violated Snooper's Charter with 'unlawful' data retention

Johnb89

So obeying the law is now optional

Look, if there really is a need for them to have access to whatever data then Parliament should legistlate so, publicly and properly. This bollocks about 'yeah we broke the law but we really had to' is bollocks.

If and when I get a speeding ticket or otherwise am found to be breaking the law can I do the same? I think I shall give it a go.

"But Occifer, I was speeding to stop Chinese/Russian/North Korean (delete as required) baddies from baddying, and HM Government has decided that's ok, so ta."

Former Facebooker alleges Meta drained users' batteries to test apps

Johnb89

Re: contract requires him to take the case to arbitration

AFAIK the forced arbitration thing is strictly an American thing... can anyone tell us if they've seen it elsewhere? I've been many enough Euro, UK and other contracts and not seen it. Which is nice, because then I'd have had to have had the whole "You don't seriously think that's enforceable?" conversation with someone.

OpenAI's ChatGPT is a morally corrupting influence

Johnb89

Its a toy

Like many other little inventions over the many years this is best thought of as a toy*. Its fun (to some), it produces silly outputs, it mimics things in a funny or interesting way.

When Siri/Alexa/Bixby/OK Google first came out how much fun did we have asking questions and getting the silliest answers, before giving up because it was more or less useless? Neat toys, put on the shelf. Photo apps that show you what you look like when old, the latest game, whatever, fun for a short time.

Anyone that thinks its intelligent, correct or otherwise is wilfully misled.

*It might even be useful in some contexts

Twitter 2.0 signal boosts Taliban 2.0 through Blue subscriptions

Johnb89

Its a matter of degree

Of course the Taliban are 'bad' and references to hanging and whatnot are true. But for the Americans to be all holier-than-thou when they still do the death penalty is a mite hypocritical.

Along the lines of 'we are not arguing about what you are, now we are haggling on price'.

Canadian owes bosses for 'time theft' after work-tracking app sinks tribunal bid

Johnb89

Don't need AI to see if a file was opened

--> Analysis of the TimeCamp data showed she had made a timesheet entry for a file she had not worked on,

This line in the article makes it simple to me. You don't need AI to detect this, and it is black and white (presuming its verifiably true). She got caught because she was dumb.

Also, accountants historically bill by the hour... efficience doesn't enter into it directly. They aren't paid to have ideas per se, or to do work, they are paid by the hour.

Apple aims to replace Broadcom, Qualcomm wireless chips with its own

Johnb89

Re: Walled Garden or Prison

Given that existing bluetooth implementations everywhere are pretty shit, could this be worse? Yes, but anyway, the bar is low.

China follows through on plan to ban deepfake tech

Johnb89

Sometimes a regulatory environment that can just do things is better

This is an example of being able to decide something sensible and just do it, which could be considered an advantage over regulators that have to discuss and review and get 'lobbied' and what-have-you.

Also, penalties that amount to a fine of 1 minute's revenue are ineffective when compared to a spot of re-education.

BBC is still struggling with the digital switch, says watchdog

Johnb89

Re: Quality Content???

It is all about John when John is being forced to pay for it. That gives him a valid opinion.

Us John's stick together, innit.

Johnb89

Re: Also, is it just me or is the BBC Sounds "app"

Sounds and iplayer share that 'feature', even not in car mode.

For example: HIGNFY Series 22, episode 7. Is that from last week, last year, or 5 years ago? No way to tell.

Johnb89

Re: The BBC does not compete on a level playing field

My local Tesco does not INSIST that I shop there, however. I don't have a choice about paying the BBC.

Johnb89

The BBC does not compete on a level playing field

The BBC gets most of its money with the backing of the police, an advantage many businesses would love to have. Do they take that money and do their job of being a public service broadcaster? Only partly. For example: A true public service broadcaster would tell me how to watch the footie no matter what channel its on... the BBC does not do that, they only talk about BBC channels/radio/app/website. The BBC's attitude is to compete, and they have the field tilted in their favour.

Then they spend money on silly things... Search? Changing the logo of their apps every 6 months instead of making them work well? Pushing DAB on us even though it hardly works?

That's ignoring that the licence fee has to be the least efficient way of collecting a tax imaginable.

Meta, Google, TikTok and friends sue California to block kids privacy law

Johnb89

This sounds a lot like the UK online harms bill

At first glance at least, this sounds like the UK online harms bill currently in parliament. Perhaps lessons could be shared, approaches could be compared, ideas exchanged?

Better yet, let someone else (ie California) give this a go, gov.uk, and see how they get on... save us on this side of the pond a lot of faffing about.

EU takes another step towards US data-sharing agreement

Johnb89

Arbitration panel

Back at Shrems1 a key failure was that, while there was an arbitration panel, there was no way for an EU citizen to KNOW that their data had been accessed, in order to take it to arbitration. That is, if one found that one's data had been accessed improperly one could take it to arbitration, but no entity was obliged to tell an EU citizen that anything had been accessed.

Does anyone know if that flaw/loophole has been fixed here? It would be a small step, though only a small step.

Look like Bane, spend like Batman with Dyson's $949 headphones

Johnb89

Re: Snot Cannon

Already done, ish

https://twitter.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1509125141439033348

Beware, clever as she is, some would consider her feed NSFW.

Boss installed software from behind the Iron Curtain, techies ended up Putin things back together

Johnb89

Re: Offending machines

Then you ask the Japanese 'But these machines, they are just out in the street. Aren't they used by children?'

Blank look. 'Of course not. They're not allowed to.' is the answer.

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

Johnb89

Re: Don't forget mischief

I used to think that, but then realised that as most roads in London tourist areas are one way no one knows what direction the traffic is coming from. So they are as much for the locals as the tourists.

What is funny is the amount of absolutely no notice whatsoever that pedestrians in London pay to crossings. "Like I'm going to wait 60s for this crossing to stop the stopped traffic for me to cross this single lane road?"

Microsoft 365 faces more GDPR headwinds as Germany bans it in schools

Johnb89

Re: This regulator's no good, I'll get myself another

Exactly that... it isn't Microsoft's 'fault', its that they are a US company, subject to US law. No matter what they do under current US law they breach GDPR. So does every other US-registered company. US-based companies? Companies that operate at all in the US? Don't know.

There might be one or two other US companies having the same flaw in their ability to do GDPR compatible business. Well done Mr. Schrems!

Not that we should feel sorry for M$, but their weasel words give it away... they can't squeal against US law lest they lose their big contracts there.

Meta faces lawsuit to stop 'surveillance advertising'

Johnb89

Turnabout would be fair play

I've said it before: express to anyone you know that works at Facebook (or google) that you have a legitimate interest in what they do in their bedroom, so will be putting a camera there.

Particularly if they are a VP or higher, or Director etc. If they think its ok to watch us, then its ok for us to watch them. Shall we organise to follow them home? Sit awkwardly close to them at the pub and listen?

Why do they think that's not ok?

Someone has to say it: Voice assistants are not doing it for big tech

Johnb89

But the data

Ok, so the agreement here is that WE don't like Alexa etc. But if Amazon doesn't like it does that mean that data harvesting isn't as lucrative as they had hoped? Listening to our ramblings in the house doesn't yield monetisable insights?

Or is their processing of all that as unreliable as searching on Amazon for a thing, as others have noted, where searching for a thing presents me with such a collection of rubbish, mishits and price variety that I can't be bothered to try to make sense of it all?

Also... you forgot Bixby! That assistant with the unmissable un-unprogrammable button on at least a few generations of Samsung phones!

New SI prefixes clear the way for quettabytes of storage

Johnb89

Re: This is getting silly now

Japanese do things by 10,000s: 'Mon'. So ichi-mon yen is one ten thousand yen, and is the commonly used large note.

Apple sued for collecting user data despite opt-outs

Johnb89

Re: it is rather simple according to iOS documentation...

It says 'allow apps to request to track', not 'allow apps to track'. What about those that track without requesting to do so? For example, the apple ones.

Like I said elsewhere, too many lawyers.

Johnb89

There are too many lawyers

The fine distinctions and things-not-said and incredibly long agreements and backwards wording in all of these things, as put in by too many lawyers whose job it is to trick users and ofuscate information are just not ok.

As Iglethal said, a reasonable user would interpret 'do not let apps track' to include Apple, and only a weasel would even suggest otherwise.

One is reminded of Google getting done for tracking location after people had set 'do not track location'... 'yeah but they didn't set it that way in the 2nd hidden place...'

Robotics startup wants to disrupt walking with AI roller skates

Johnb89

Re: Why?

Not wanting to defend the use of AI in anything, but I think you've misunderstood....

These will let you go the speed of skating with the effort of walking, is the idea. So you can 'walk' fast and not get sweaty.

The interesting matter of stopping, which is nigh on impossible on rollerblades without ruining them quickly, intrigues me... how do they know when I want to stop? I'm assuming they've figured that out.

Musk tells of risk of Twitter bankruptcy as tweeters trash brands

Johnb89

I want it to go slower

I want it to go slower because then it will be funny for longer.

Tesla recalls 40k cars over patch that broke power steering

Johnb89

The least of Elon's problems?

This may be the least of Elon's problems, but 2 tons of uncontrolled car because they couldn't be arsed to test the software properly, let alone develop it properly, is A Big Problem. Perhaps there shouldn't BE software in the steering system until we find a way to make software work reliably? Or brakes, or indeed any part of a car that makes it go or stop. Or perhaps at least not software that an amateur can push out at will because its too easy to update to fix.

Literally move fast and break things. Things including other people, cyclists, houses, cars, ships, poles, reg readers, what have you.

Bill Gates' green investments to shift from tackling climate change to mitigating impacts

Johnb89

Bill is coming good in the end

Having inflicted low-level misery on millions* for so long, you have to applaud Mr. Bill for trying to do some good with his ill-gotten gains. Well done Sir!

*Windows etc being as useless as it was/is causing annoyance and suffering, which is low-level compared to say not having food or clean water.

Crypto biz Wintermute loses $160m in cyber-heist, tells us not to stress out

Johnb89

Won't they think of the children?

Where the whole entire point of crypto is to lure suckers (sorry, investors) to put real money into tokens/coins/NFTs/made-up-things, DON'T THEY REALISE that publicity like this damages that mission?

Try harder, crypto bros. Try harder.

Google says some AI call center agents took the morning off

Johnb89

You can contact Google?

Hang on, I thought the whole point of having a google account/using google services etc was that you couldn't in any way contact them no matter what the problem, even if that problem was entirely google's fault?

Don't want to get run over by a Ford car? There's a Bluetooth app for that

Johnb89

Re: Ford's solution to their unsafe drivers/vehicles is for potential victims to run an app

Apple solved the aeroplane mode issue... putting an iphone in airplane mode doesn't necessarily turn the bluetooth off. Notably, if you turned bluetooth on last time you were in airplane mode, then next time you activate airplane mode the bluetooth stays on. Not sure how that's even legal, let alone not stupid.

Microsoft rolls out stealthy updates for 365 Apps

Johnb89

785th time's the charm

Sure, MS has had problems with quality and whatnot in the past. But THIS time it'll all be fine. Of course it will.

I recently removed 365 and wasn't even thinking they could do something this stupid.

Apps I've recently ditched because they won't not auto update: Brave browser, Zoom.

Musk seeks yet another excuse to get out of Twitter buyout: This time it's Mudge's severance check

Johnb89

Re: Cheque

I actually bothered to actually log in to tut and tsk at the reg for their lack of standards. As another had already done it, upvote upvoted.

Korea to attend 'Chip 4' meeting as global doubts mounts over US initiative

Johnb89

The invitation is in the spam folder

Have they checked their spam folder? Ignoring that this might be spam, worth checking anyway.

*invitation, not invite, because English.

Google shuts off IoT Core services shortly after announcing API stability commitments

Johnb89

Re: Valley mindset

I think its the 80/20 rule. Googlers, and google, love to play with shiny things, love to announce pretty things, and love when colleagues and others say 'oh neat!'. 20% of the effort gets you 80% of the pretty shiny thing, but then it gets boring finishing it off... because effort. Without incentives - google prints money with the ad engine, so nothing else needs to generate cash - to finish things to a point where its a business, people get bored, can't be arsed, move on to other things, and things get abandoned. Simples.

Yes, I'm jealous, because that sounds really fun.

Meta iOS apps accused of injecting code into third-party websites

Johnb89

Preventing the cure

"We prevented murders, you see, by killing everyone before they could be murdered. You should really be thanking us."

Our software is perfect. If something has gone wrong, it must be YOUR fault

Johnb89

Re: The software conflict

As in 'when I use your software my laptop catches fire', where 'doesn't make laptop catch fire' is an undocumented requirement?

One man's undocumented requirement is another man's totally obvious thing.

Johnb89

The software conflict

It never ceases to amaze me that software devs can hold two conflicting ideas: "Well duh, ALL software has bugs, obvs." and "MY code is PERFECT, how DARE you suggest otherwise".

The latter leads them to instantly conclude that problems are caused by the user or whatever else. Support agents are told to stay with that line upon pain of never getting an answer again, so that's what we users get.

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