Posts by garwhale

Opening up the WinAmp source to all goes badly as owners delete entire repo

Re: Simplest solution

A job for AI.

Re: Simplest solution

Such a law would never get passed. It would probably also mean the end of the software industry, both open and closed source.

Re: Simplest solution

The same reason why you shouldn't steal fruit from orchards, even if the fruit grows by itself

Victims lose $70K to one single wallet-draining app on Google's Play Store

Re: Yebbut...

Even if the ID of the developers were checked, it would be easy enough to pay some unsuspecting person to front as the developers, or just use a stolen ID

Perhaps develope an AI model to identify suspicious apps and behaviors?

Google is changing how search results appear for EU citizens

"Google is changing how search results appear for EU citizens"

And how does Google know if you are a citizen of an EU country (no such beast as an "EU citizen" yet) regardless of the IP address or mobile location?

Burnout epidemic proves there's too much Rust on the gears of open source

Re: "Burnout"

I suspect that most people contributing to open source have a job which pays well or are retired. Take the Linux OS for example, the product is free to use or copy, within the license restrictions. It's used by big corporations, non-profit organisations and individuals.

If corporations were forced to pay for open source development, they might just decide to use closed source development instead. In fact, they support open source development with donations and paid code.

If you help an elderly person across the road, would you ask for payment depending on their wealth? Nah.

You are free to start an open source model with a license that prohibits commercial use without payment for the coding hours at some rate. Not sure about the minimum wage thing though, not all jurisdictions have a minimum wage.

Re: "Burnout"

Even straw men need a commander - so you are creating jobs, including the straw men assemblers.

Re: "Burnout"

Hopefully you don't ascribe nefarious motives to contributers to open source software (paid or unpaid), volunteers at schools, hospitals and care homes and elsewhere, or friends and relatives giving you presents.

Re: "Burnout"

Money is not the only thing that can be received in exchange for working. For example, working part time as a volunteer at a hospital after retiring may be fulfilling- it's also better for society as a whole, even if the hospital is nominally profit making, as most hospitals are subsidized in some way.

Software engineers may feel satisfaction in problem solving and seeing their work being useful.

In the distant future, money may not exist anyway.

Re: "Burnout"

Might be true for other jobs, but doubt very much that software engineers have difficulty finding jobs, regardless of their backgrounds. If there was no free software, everything would be more expensive, and people with little money would be able to afford less. We would also be much more dependant on Microsoft et al.

Re: "Burnout"

Stupid manager's manager - unless there was some other downside, efficiency (speed) translates directly into $$ i.e. less CPUs for the same work.

JPMorgan exec claims bank repels '45 billion' cyberattack attempts per day

No, each bit is counted.

Brain boffins think they've found the data format we use to store images as memories

No. Because some people are able to have visual memories does not mean that all people are visual thinkers. I also suspect that the stored data is recreated on the same way that an AI would if you fed it the appropriate prompt. We don't even perceive everything that the retina receives, how could we remember it? I image it works like this:

Image is converted into an image prompt, and then stored.

Would also explain why people are such bad witnesses in crime scenes. Whole people and large objects can be edited out/in.

Windows 12: Savior of PC makers, or just an apology for Windows 11?

Perhaps the EU will force the repeatability of software which is no longer maintained, at least as far as security issues are concerned.

Windows can also be a big pain to install, and takes much longer than a typical Linux Installation. Most users get their PCs with Windows pre-installed, so that's comparing apples to apple seedlings.

If extended support for Windows 10 was reasonably priced for non-commercial use, I might consider it. I see no reason to retire PCs with enough performance, thanks to upgraded memory and SSDs.

Philips recalls 340 MRI machines because they may explode in an emergency

Re: If you aren't full of shrapnel you will probably suffocate

As a patient I would prefer not to be vented into space, surrounded by helium or otherwise.

Cloud engineer wreaks havoc on bank network after getting fired

A year after I was made redundant, I got a call from an employee to ask for the server/admin password - of course I said I had no idea (even though I might have had it somewhere). Made me wonder if someone had hacked in, and they were doing a fishing expedition.

Royal Mail cybersecurity still a bit of a mess, infosec bods claim

450K fine is too little

For allowing data from 200K users to be stolen via a known vulnerability, the fine should be 2 million, plus 1000 per user in compensation. If the business viability is not impacted, the bored will just accept it as incidental expenses.

Poloniex crypto-exchange offers 5% cut to thieves if they return that $120M they nicked

Re: Hold on!

If hackers get access to your credentials and transfer the money from your bank account, it's gone, probably forever.

It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

Re: Isn't it wonderful?

You can get old fashioned devices which don't have any internet connection or use an app, for example using paper strips and blood drops. Not as convenient as a CGM. It might be possible that a CGM would still function if your phone was in airplane mode, which could be useful if you are outside cell coverage. You could then note the reading, and delete the data before restoring the connection. You might have to re-enter your details each time however.

I don't care if somebody has my medical details, my health insurer can neither cancel cover or increase prices based on ill health.

Re: No warning

So every time you type a letter or make a sound, you want a popup to ask if it's OK to send it forward to the service provider?

Use WhatsApp or any other communication method with end-to-end encryption. Only use websites with HTTPS. The endpoint will still be recorded, but not the content. Better data protection laws are needed, preferably without repeated requests for cookies authorization etc. Each person should have an independently stored privacy policy.

CompSci academic thought tech support was useless – until he needed it

Re: Remedial Computing Courses

My father had difficulty using a mouse - he was in his 70s, and I found that he had turned it upside down, so moving the mouse up moved the cursor down. He also could not get the hang of keeping the button down while moving the mouse, so all folders were littered with new documents created as the top menu action.

Re: Depends.

Rap exists in many other languages than English.

Re: Depends.

Switzerland does have a navy even though it has no sea access as 4 lakes have international borders. The navy consists of about 10 patrol boats.

To prevent 'lost' nukes, scientists suggest storing them in a hall of mirrors

Let's get on with

reducing the nuclear arms stockpile instead. Nuclear weapons cost tons of dosh ($450 billion to maintain the U.S. arsenal) and provide no benefit. At the very least, burn up the fissile material in nuclear power plants.

Biden's facing the clock to veto Apple Watch import ban after ITC patent ruling

Think

CEOs don't have the time to steer all articles written by journalists; that's not what they are paid for anyway. Left leaning independant journalism would not take direction from say Apple executives.

Fujitsu public cloud to be absorbed into main biz, then refreshed

Pointless technology ban

The U.S. is entering into a chip race with China. This won't end well; the space race was won but at tremendous cost; China has much more resources and a cost advantage. Perhaps in 10 years most commodity PC and server processors will be Chinese designs.

AI luminaries call for urgent regulation to head off future threats, but Meta's brainbox boss disagrees

Understanding is not required for destruction, and probably will increase the risk of error, as we have seen with "self-driving" cars. Humanity as a whole would most likely survive an AI initiated catastrophe, whether nuclear or biological, even if 99% of humans did not survive.

Neither Nor

- If AI will be a threat to humanity in the future, regulation will not stop it, just as laws don't stop terrorists or treaties stop rogue states.

- Threats to individual humans might be stopped by laws governing arming AI-powered robots in some jurisdictions.

- Difficult or impossible to stop AI from acquiring money, for example by hacking, then uninterruptible power supplies and weapons by "regulations".

French IT behemoth Atos facing calls for nationalization as it tries to restructure

Critical infrastructure is already provided by foreign companies

Unless you are the U.S. or China. Minerals, food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and fuels are often sourced globally. There is no way back.

Take Windows 11... please. Leaks confirm low numbers for Microsoft's latest OS

Re: There's nothing particularly wrong with it except for its hardware requirements.

I have a PC I inherited from work (with Windows 10). Unfortunately, I can't delete the inherited work Microsoft account. It demands I use my work email, which no longer exists …

Buyer's remorse haunts 3 in 5 business software purchases

Sales people only want to talk about Pros - Ask them about Cons.

Departments (especially government) often buy stuff in November/December so that they use their budgets, as they are worried they won't get a similar budget next year.

San Francisco mayor suggests police drones and CCTV can cure city's crime woes

Re: Not the problem

Must be plenty of office building that are undertenanted due to WFH - see Centre Point. A prefabricated small house for 2-3 does not cost $800 K, more like $100 K or less.

Governments resent their dependence on Big Tech

Digital infrastructure is no different from other stuff. Should governments, including local government, manufacture, grow, and build everything they need? No, thanks. Government conrtacts are important for private industry.

Re: Well they could have all used Linux, but most didn't.

Who can receive fax today outside of, say, Japanese companies?

Re: Well they could have all used Linux, but most didn't.

Most servers run Linux. I did have a boss who insisted I change a LAMP RedHat server to Windows Server. As soon as they left, I changed it to Ubuntu.

IT systems built by government departments have a long history of enormous cost, massive cost overruns and delays of years in delivery. Firms are not immune from such problems, but competition forces poor performers out. To force companies to take security seriously, big fines and compensation need to be introduced.

China caught – again – with its malware in another nation's power grid

Difficult to get any internet-connected device that doesn't want to send logging of some sort to the manufacturer. Should make an internation law/treaty that this is strictly opt-in, and what the reasons are for it. Breaching the law should result in big fines and compensation. Still, you should, as the poster did, ensure that they can't send data "home".

Five Eyes intel chiefs warn China's IP theft program now at 'unprecedented' levels

Re: Yeah Sure...

Security patches don't care if they are mitigating attacks by Five Eyes, China, North Korea, Iran, or Russia (Four Noses?).

Re: Decouple

Nothing to stop anyone using VPNs, setting up shop in a "Western state" or co-opting people in said Western states. The only way to stop digital theft would be to trash the internet and digital storage. That is not going to happen. It's a bit like fire prevention - you can take measures which will decrease the likelihood, but never change the risk to zero. Incidentally, IP theft was taking place long before computers were invented. How do you think inventions like the wheel and fire became worldwide?

Malware crooks find an in with fake browser updates, in case real ones weren't bad enough

Seems like big bounties on the people behind malware could be cheap at half the price. Also, no reason for a hosted WordPress etc. installations not to take some simple actions, like locking/unlocking code for update.

Introduce an international best practices code for published software, websites, cybersecurity, backups etc, with a scale of warnings and increasing fines tailored to popularity and revenue. Increase security support for software to 10 years. The fines can go to pay for the oversight. Make it illegal to pay ransoms. Community service penalties for C-suits.

X marks the bot: Musk thinks spammers won't pay $1 a year

Re: How long

I have a landline phone number, but not phone installed. No spam calls!

Re: Thanks for the belly laugh, I needed that

Use a micropayment blockchain register for emails. No payment ⇒ /dev/nul.

Re: Thanks for the belly laugh, I needed that

If you want to create 1,000 bot accounts, it might well be a deterrent. I guess the testing is more to find out if users will pay $1, rather than encourage bot account creators to use a VPN.

Want a clean energy transition? Better start putting cash into electrical grid

Re: It's not even 2024 and 1.5C is already slipping away...

I doubt that anyone set a target of 5C for global warming. Reference, please.

Re: One more strategy,,,,

https://solarplanet.uk/8-solar-myths-busted/

There are small vertical wind turbines designed for installing on buildings, usually generating under 750 watts. There is typically more wind in winter.

If you use solar or wind or both. Optimally, you should be able to store electricity and heat for later use.

Re: I would be willing to agree that ...

If you have 1,000 non-identical predictions, they can't all be entirely correct. With this argument, you can say there is no point in making any predictions on anything.

As for predictions far in the future, such as the sun becoming a red gas giant, is there also no point? If you have to wait until the predicted event occurs before one is willing to entertain a prediction, then it's no longer a prediction but an observation.

Re: "Where did the last ice age go"

But vastly more money to be made on the oil FUD "research" and lobbying.