Posts by original_rwg

CES 2026 worst in show: AI girlfriends, a fridge that won't open unless you talk to it, and more

Samsung voice controlled fridge.....

And I'm thinking "Fire rearward missiles....."

ChatGPT Health wants your sensitive medical records so it can play doctor

I have two words for them and the second one is off.

Google pushing Gemini into Gmail, but you can turn it off

Privacy

"For those worried about the privacy of their Gmail content....." Er, that ship has long since sailed.

What if Linux ran Windows… and meant it? Meet Loss32

Re: If you

Not quite he same thing but bear with me. I can remember years back when our students would bring on their own laptops for use with the EDUROAM network. Typically this was with Windows 7, 8.x and 10. Now of course, if they hadn't done their Windows updates then often they didn't have the right driver for their WiFi card so they were never going to get a connection. We'd advise them to go home, do all the updates, paying particular attention to drivers for Intel, Atheros, Realtek etc and retry the instruction when next they're back. Of course some still experienced difficulty so we would have them have a paste-able ID in a text file so all they had to manually enter at the credentials demand was their password. Many were not quick at typing and Windows only allowed something like 30 seconds to get everything entered.

Well we would go through setting up the configuration of their WiFi network and quite often it still wouldn't make that first connection. So delete the network, set it all up again, retry and still no connection. Delete the network, restart the device, set it all up again and it would still fail to connect. Delete the network, configure all the settings again and hey presto! Connected! What was done differently? Nothing. Not a thing. Why wouldn't it connect earlier? Because Windows. Because Microsoft. Because I hadn't sacrificed a goat while standing on one leg under a full moon(!)

When we read about the latest screw-up from Micros~1 that's only affecting some installs on the advanced, insider secret-circle it's probably because not enough people at Micros~1 know how it works. Me? I don't give two hoots how it works any more, or when it doesn't. I've been using Linux for more than 20 years and it's been my daily driver at home since they let Windows 10 out.

NIST contemplated pulling the pin on NTP servers after blackout caused atomic clock drift

What time is it?

BLUEBOTTLE: What time is it Eccles?

ECCLES: Hang on, I got it written down on a piece of paper....

Microsoft 365 business customers are running out of places to hide from Copilot

I can remember when one of Micros~1 security rules was "When you let someone else run a program on your computer, it's not your computer any more." Now they're running all the programs on 'your' computer. They install what they want, when they want, snoop, spy, process and digest (if they so choose) everything you try to do with 'your' computer.

The alleged uptake in Copilot use statistics will not be solely because users are making a choice to use it, but because the users are having it force fed to them.

I stopped having Micros~1 stuff at home years ago and now I've retired, I don't have to put up with their shit at work any more.

I've already seen stories where some organisations are seriously considering a future without Miicros~1 products and given the recent outages at both Azure and AWS, they'd do well to review their use of 'someone else's computer'.

Digital ID is now less about illegal working, more about rummaging through drawers

...'he claimed customers were "really excited about it," '

Definition of 'excited' is required....

OpenAI releases bot-tom feeding browser with ChatGPT built in

Same turd - different flower

Same turd - different flower....

Microsoft puts Office Online Server on the chopping block

365... Bwah ha ha ha...

Get thee to 365

365 Bwah ha ha ha

Windows 11 update knocks out USB mice, keyboards in recovery mode

Going from bad to worse

See title.....

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

Desperation

When it was announced a couple of weeks back that workers could bring their domestic Co-Pilot licence to work and use it there, I commented that I could smell desperation on the part of Micros~1. Now they're doubling down to continue to persuade that AI is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

As I recently remarked to a colleague, If I am asked a question to which I knowingly give an incorrect or inaccurate answer, how can that colleague be expected to trust anything I say? Where then does some unseen chatbot that provides equally unreliable answers have a place in any organisation?

As real life banks close, network operator starts a Scam School to stop Granny getting mugged online

I question how effective this might be when the telcos could do so much more to prevent such calls. Just today I received a call from a number that is registered with O2, with a robotic voice advising me of some activity on my bank card, blah, blah, blah. The usual run of the mill scam call. When I attempted to return the call I get that posh lady from the RSC informing me "The number you have dialled has not been recognised....."

It would appear that in 2025 the telcos are unable to prevent the unscrupulous scammers from spoofing numbers. Really? I know someone on here is likely to respond and explain why it's still possible but frankly, D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. Don't give me some bullshit story about why they can't or why it's inconvenient, They're not interested or it would be been done by now.

<rant over>

Microsoft declares bring your Copilot to work day, usurping IT authority

Re: Fecking hell

In the folder where Micros~1 keeps reinstalling the file ai.exe, make a folder called ai.exe.

I smell desperation....

Google's dev registration plan 'will end the F-Droid project'

Been using LineageOS for many years now. Not a simple install and probably a bit too techie for many non-techie people but doable. Didn't install the Google stuff that came with it because the whole point was to be free of Google. I never use my phone for internet browsing or any online account activity. It does have a VPN to connect to a home server. 2FA is OTP for a select few. The problem so many now face is having become 'married' to the Google method, 'divorce' is going to be messy and inconvenient for them.

At the end of the day, it's a phone - it's really good for calls and texts, on offline portable calendar and cooking timer. I apologise if I sound smug - that's not my intention but it would seem the choices I made years ago were good ones.

Microsoft digs up Vista-era animated wallpaper for Windows 11. Here's how to get it

I don't use Windows 11 and I'm probably never going to but perhaps if Mircos~1 were to focus their efforts on making the software people need to use more reliable and less buggy, then maybe superfluous drivel like this might be better received.

UK to roll out mandatory digital ID for right to work by 2029

Crapita, Palantir, Fujitsu, Oracle and others will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of this....

I expect it will cost billions, wont' work properly or may well be scrapped by the incoming change of government that will be before 2029

AI coding hype overblown, Bain shrugs

Re: Small success story

Phil Ately - I was at school with him....

AI gone rogue: Models may try to stop people from shutting them down, Google warns

Harmful manipulation

...because Google et al know all about that....

Microsoft insists Copilot+ PCs are 'empowering the future' – reality disagrees

All this AI is the great be-all and end-all of everything reminds of how the photographs of their products, a burger chain displayed on their premises was once translated/interpreted by someone into:

"We can't make anything that looks remotely like this but our marketing department can convince you to eat your own shit."

Arguably however, the best characterisation of marketing came from an episode of The Simpsons where Homer has volunteered to participate in the development and testing of some new medical products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMLpTczJRgA

BOFH: These office thefts really take the biscuit

Re: MAYBE THERE NEVER WERE ANY BISCUITS!!!

Many many years ago, in another life, I worked in the construction industry where we typically all brought a 'packed lunch' or a 'piece' as we would call it. One day whilst on a site and the boss had brought his German Shepherd, (Rambo) someone left the rear door of the van open and Rambo got into another colleagues 'piece bag' and devoured it. The rest of us were sympathetic and shared a little of our pieces with the unfortunate workmate. At the same time we howled with laughter at his realisation that a 'Sunblest' bag does not constitute secure storage for lunchtime sustenance. We continued to tease him the following day by enquiring 'What have you brought the dog for his piece today?'

Playing ball games in the datacenter was obviously stupid, but we had to win the league

Cricket rules

https://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/funny-cricket-explanation.17411/

The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon

Looks like you're betting the farm on A.I.

Would you like me to run you a bath?

Chinese funding backs sale of British microLED specialist

Surprised - Not Surprised

Surprised there was still any British 'family silver' still around. Not surprised it is allowed to be sold off to the highest bidder.

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday baker's dozen: 12 critical bugs plus a SharePoint RCE

Maybe get the AI stuff to analyse and fix the code </sarcasm>

FTFY

UK secretly allows facial recognition scans of passport, immigration databases

My passport is OK but my face has expired

OpenAI's GPT-5 is here with up to 80% fewer hallucinations

Shit - Version 5

Tested: Microsoft Recall can still capture credit cards and passwords, a treasure trove for crooks

Replying to my own post here I know but perhaps, if you're a business, then 'Recall' is something you should mention in your Cyber Security Register. I'm well aware that domain level Group Policies should prevent this software from being enabled but accidents do happen.

"I don't dispute that Microsoft has the best intentions at heart, along with doing as much as they can to ensure the security of this feature,"

I'm afraid that Mr Wright, while extremely generous with his remarks is Mr Wrong.

If Micros~1 had the best of intentions they would never have revised or resurrected this POS after they pulled it the first time.

It's going to be a nightmare for some and a target for all those calls from "Microsoft Support people" who want to help fix the "problem with your computer"

Microsoft bolts Copilot Mode onto Edge to chase AI-browser crowd

"With Copilot Mode in Edge, your data is protected under Microsoft’s trusted privacy standards that are built to keep your information safe, secure and never shared without your permission,"

Bwahahahaha

Elon outs $16.5B Samsung chip deal Tesla asked to keep secret

".....The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate," said Musk.

As if that will stop him....

AI industry's size obsession is killing ROI, engineer argues

Perhaps, once some corporate entity admits that they've spent an such and eye-watering sum on this so-called A.I. that is has led to the lay-offs of thousands of employees, or has caused one of those Fortune 500 companies to go bust, or decisions made based on A.I. output have cost lives, maybe then it'll be seen for the complete and utter shit that it is.

Microsoft Copilot joins ChatGPT at the feet of the mighty Atari 2600 Video Chess

Battle chess

I imagine if there could be a physical manifestation of these two A.I.'s, neither would stand a chance in a game of battle chess. I expect they might show all the physical agility of the robots playing football in this short clip https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c5ylkyrkjnzo

The future is looking so bright! </sarcasm>

Before the megabit: A trip through vintage datacenter networking

TNMOC

Last time I visited, they had the 'Witch', a running example of Air Traffic Control and one of the ancient IBM something_or_other (93xx?) on loan from a French museum. They were built in Greenock but only leased to customers and so were recovered and destroyed when the contract was over.

Fascinating place even if you don't work with computers and I can recommend it to everyone.

Microsoft dangles extended Windows 10 support in exchange for Reward Points

Extended Windows Support - Translation

MS: So this Windows 10 OS that we've been repeatedly fixing for nearly 10 years, we'll keep on trying to fix it if you pay us $30 per year.

ME: Why would I do this?

MS:

1. It's really easy.

2. You get to save all your stuff in our Cloud (we like that 'cos we want to read your stuff and feed it to our LLM)

3. We'll give you 1000 Microsoft Reward points which are precisely useless and worth fuck all (but we get your stuff so that's OK)

4. We get another prisoner at whom we can throw CoPilot.

5. Seriously, just give us your money.

Frozen foods supermarket chain deploys facial recognition tech

I hope these stores publicise they're using 'FaRT' at their store entrances so customers can choose to enter or shop elsewhere.

Microsoft broke DHCP for Windows Server last Patch Tuesday

Re: Quick question

Technically yes but also no. In over 20 years of using one flavour of Linux or another, the only update that has caused a 'failure' was an Nvidia driver update to a laptop that was running Arch Linux. The failure was, it couldn't load X-Windows but everything else worked as expected. Nvidia fixed it within 24 hours and pacman did the necessary.

Other peoples experiences may be different :)

"Enterprises are unlikely to accept an excuse that involves finger-pointing at dodgy code from Redmond in the face of an unexpected loss of connectivity."

I'm sure Enterprises are well acquainted to the fact that it's nearly always dodgy code from Redmond.....

Unless it's DNS, or soon to be featured in a "Who Me?"

Anyway, we monitor the DHCP service - if it stops, we'll know.

<Walks away muttering insults and profanities about Micros~1>

Bots are overwhelming websites with their hunger for AI data

Too Late

I predict that by the time there is any sort of agreed standard for bot behaviour that allows web sites the control to allow or disallow bots as appropriate, it'll be too late to protect anything.

UK unis to cough up to £10M on Java to keep Oracle off their backs

And....

Oracle defines employees as part-time, full-time, temporary, agents, contractors,..... their spouses, their children, relatives, gardners, window cleaners, the person that sells them their newspaper in the morning and anyone else they know.

Did we miss anyone out?

ChatGPT users wake to find it's even more wrong, slower than usual

Worse

"Meanwhile, the company reported yesterday that it had surpassed $10 billion in annual recurring revenue"

I dunno what's worse, that they're getting paid for this snake oil or that some have been persuaded to part with money for it.

Still, you know what's said about a fool and their money....

Victoria's Secret website laid bare for three days after 'security incident'

Re: Disappointing Lack of Puns

Going all out for support....

Some signs of AI model collapse begin to reveal themselves

So, in summary, what the above are saying is, A.I. is shit. I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.

UK tax collector puts half a billion on table for call center services

Capita has entered the room.....

openSUSE deep sixes Deepin desktop over security stink

Change....

...is inevitable, unless from a vending machine. I'm a long time user of OpenSUSE and will miss the old Yet Another Setup Tool but as long as I can still run my sever without a GUI, I can live with it.

Microsoft to preload Word minutes after boot

Oh Dear

Yet another example of your PC doing something for Micros~1 before it does what you want it to do....

Don't delete that mystery empty folder. Windows put it there as a security fix

Did something similar a while back. Having managed to eradicate SCCM from my desk machine (it was responsible for preventing Windows Updates being installed) I created three empty files with names that duplicate the folders an SCCM installation would like to create.

Static electricity can be shockingly funny, but the joke's over when a rack goes dark

Static discharge

Many years ago, back in the 8086 days, I managed to fry a multi-io board in a machine simply by releasing the static charge by touching the mouse. The hard drive led went solid red and the machine became unresponsive. New multi-io board required.

Even more years ago, back in the physics class, it was our classroom show-offs turn to have sticky-up hair with his hand on the Van De Graff generator whilst stood on the insulating box. He thought it might be a laugh if he reached out with his finger to touch the teacher but as he leaned forward, his wedding tackle got too close to the gas tap on the bench....