Posts by hoola

Re: You can take my Firefox

With you except for the barbed comment on ignorance.

It is some Linux fanatics would do well to realise that for corporate uses there is no choice and the majority of consumers there is a choice of Windows, iOS or Android.

They simply cannot deal with the issues of switching to Linux when in reality they are faced with an incomprehensible variety of distributions that their current soft will not run on.

What is straightforward for an IT professional or Linux fan is not for the majority.

Re: describing the allegations as "concerning."

Equally who are the completely clues idiots that use them.

With so much of the IoT and wearable crap it really does not add much value except for the people who want to show how up to date and on trend they are.

It is why we are in such a mess with privacy.

Re: 50GW?

It is more than doubling demand for UK power. Putting it in that perspective makes you realise just what the insanity of these datacentres is. There never going to be that much benefit, it is just madness.

Presumably UK planing is a soft touch.

https://gridwatch.co.uk/

Re: In other news...

This is everything that is wrong on public sector procurement. These huge companies just suck billions of tax payer's money out for poor value. Then when they don't get their way the sue. Heaven forbid if they don't deliver, nothing is the company's fault. I hope the tender evaluation Haa been done properly (documented and due process in evaluation) and Sopra Steria lose .

Whilst that is correct a human read, understood and made use of that data. The sources will have been referenced & credited. Royalties will have been paid when books are purchased.

What the AI & LLM engines are doing is scraping huge volumes of material regardless copyright, ownership or accuracy. These companies have no care for anything other than amassing as much material as possible then using it to spew out dubious answers.

Re: Too much ideology makes Liam unproductive

However today email is a very tiny part of that collaboration suite.

It is also the easiest to make work.

Now add in all the stuff people have ( not saying actually use it all) with M365 and you see the problem. We moved from Teams to Slack corporately and it is a total abomination. I was surprised at how much better Teams is in comparison.

Re: This is actually sensible and useful

Yes in principle, we need to move away from lithium particularlyfor tractionand storage. . Salt batteries are now viable in terms of capacity and size, they just need the volume to reduce cost.

For small portable devices lithium is still likely to be the better option for now.

Lithium is a complete environmental disaster from source thorough to disposal and recycling.

Re: But fusion......

It still needs cables and substations.......

Open Sourcing the software will not help, it is the data that is the issue.

Re: The people involved

You have missed at one group (and probably the most critical):

The people who set the requirements the system has to meet. The same people that either require changes to be made or approve requests from others to make changes.

In my experience this is the group that can derail many implementations. To be fair this was going to be a disaster anyway, it is simply the scale that is up for debate.

Re: WHY?!

This is all down to the insane procurement rules.

When a tender is evaluated you can only go on the information that is supplied and the references included in the document.

You are not allowed to use prior direct contract knowledge or anything that you had read.

This is all so that unsuccessful responses cannot then sue because they failed to win.

Public sector procurement is all about protecting the public body from being sued by the private sector. Those bidding know this and it is why the entire thing is such a shambles. It is mostly the fault of the private sector who see any public body as a source of cash to be ruthlessly exploited.

This is also why it is so difficult to act on failure and cancel contracts, use legal means to enforce contracts and generally get those private sector organisations to deliver what they claimed.

That much of what the claimed is pure fantasy and is only to win a procurement process is largely lost in the noise.

Re: Default On.

But this is not just Microsoft. Anything that is accessed using a browser is setting cookies. Even if you decline them "Reject All" all the wretched 'Legitimate Interests' are still on, often hundreds of them.

Re: CSuite are doing the right thing

Here in the UK where I live we have the County Council controlled by Reform.

Two councillors have made statements on Social Media supporting in the last 48 hours supporting Trump, ICE and the shooting in Minneapolis. This is on the back of a list of what are borderline unacceptable statements.

This is the same party that gained huge numbers of votes at the last general election with a leading who appears aligned with Trump.

Then we have a succession of MPs defecting to Reform as far as I can see to hedge their bets and ensure the best chance or still being an MP at the next election. The Current PM appears to have no guts in standing up to Trump with the completely one-sided trade agreements and not denouncing the endless rhetoric that comes from the White House.

If people in the UK believe that Reform is the answer to all our current woes are really hope they are following what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic closely.

Who knows, maybe many do think this a good thing.......

Re: 1/2 or cybersecurity bill

The trouble is they have all retired.

Those that are left are at the back end of a career seeing the writing on the wall approaching as young wizkids impress useless managers with bull.

With everything software defined, something as a service or outsourced most don't care about experience and skills.

We are too old and refuse to adapt when you point out failings and see the same car crash approaching that you have already fixed two or three times over the years.

Re: An analogy is swimming

The big difference is that it is proving impossible to bring the Social Media platforms to account.

They are outside the UK.

They have very deep pockets so any legal action is simply a delaying tactic that is lost in the noise of their operations.

Until there are effective ways to actually prosecute the platforms, the directors & enforce meaningful sanctions nothing is going to change.

Re: Just noise

Like Labour and the Tory-LibDem coalition.....

Pretty much any party now produces a manifesto that is fiction.

Re: Wat will Grok take down ?

If I understood one report on this some of the accounts creating this content are actually paying so there is a paper trail to at least a valid payment source.

Good luck to the authorities trying to make any progress on that because as we have seen so many times Big Tech just deny there is an issue or quote "Privacy".

What this actually equates to is that you can do pretty much anything with impunity unless it is so bad they have to take it down (executions spring to mind).

You are confusing two things here.

Linux is an operating system.

Microsoft is an entire stack from the OS up to cloud services like M365 and all the cloudy stuff in between.

I am sure it would be very easy to switch to Linux as the OS, that nothing much would work or you are simply using a web browser to access a US cloud platform makes the OS almost irrelevant.

Re: WHY?!!!!

What is this to do with the aristocracy?

The other points are correct but you are just doing what is has been bloated by so many on Social Media and the news, all the UK's problems are the fault of "The Wealthy " and pensioners.

This is the owners taking the money and running because the only thing that matters in the UK is short term gain. Now combine that with rank stupidity and general incompetence from politicians and every of value is sold.

The list is endless with names like

ARM

Cadbury

Cobham

Re: Which is worse?

Anything worthwhile is simply hoovered up by the big US tech outfits and the execs that sold the company are laughing all the way to the Bank.

It is exactly the same as a laptop, just an external screen.,,,,,

Re: "a website that works"

I am absolutely sick of websites and self-service portals that have these utterly useless chatbots that are incapable of doing anything. Most cannot even cope with directing you to a minimum wage outsourced "human chatbot" in the Far East.

Everything is designed to make people just give up. Chat Bots always have been and always will be useless, AI is useless and will continue to be because it has been fed on a diet of utter bullshit with no sane person actually checking anything.

The only winners on this route to complete breakdown (we are not far off as it is) are execs that just spout crap to other execs and if not public sector, shareholders.

Another perfect example of just how shite a chat bot/ AI is:

I needed to update my details for BUPA as the title was completely wrong.

I could not do it on the profile page.

I spent 30 minutes going in circles because the "Virtual Assistant" was incapable of directing me to link or real person.

Then I phoned and wrestled with some automated system to try and speak to a human.

That takes me to another gripe - voice recognition phone systems that cannot understand the simplest of answers, What is your postcode "llnn nll" "sorry I did not get that", repeat several times with each response "sorry I did not get that" please try another option. The only other sodding option was to put the phone down!!!!!!

Yet people must be buying all this stuff......

Where I live there is a constant trail of packaging from MacDonalds, KFC & Burger King that has been chucked out of cars.

Although on a positive note apparently a Five Guys "restaurant" in Leicester is closing.

I really struggle with the concept that any of these places are restaurants. You buy a bag of fast-food junk and sit at a table if you can find one not covered in rubbish to eat a takeaway.

Maybe I am just old.......

Re: strange idea

It is unclear however my impression is that the reduction in orbit is because they are concerned that the debris they caused is increasing risk to the rest of their currently functioning junk.

If this is the case then there is clear evidence that Starlink do not give a flying rat's arse about anything other than their stuff, something that has already been demonstrated. Basically it would appear that they will just keep filling orbits up until they are unusable for anyone.......

What could possibly go wrong.

Re: Crash!

And sadly the mostly likely culprits to cause that in the first place are the likes of Musk and StarLink.

One suspects it has not occurred to them that with enough debris caused by their inaction and stupidity it also wipes out their services. They already treat the cubesats as disposable. The issue with a collision is the entire orbit becomes unusable if it sets of a chain reaction. It will take many years for the debris to decay out of orbit,

Look what happened when a StarLink got too close to an ESA satellite, they did sod all because they had nothing to lose whilst ESA ended up with no option but move and waste precious fuel or lose billions and the entire platform.

Re: "A while"

The article states the service is managed locally.

This looks more like a failure in the satellite or bills not being paid.

I suspect the wider issue is that by making these contributions all sorts of contractual obligations start to creep in.

Finance and procurement want contracts to manage and use to make payments.

The resulting software or service now has to be legally supported with all sorts of protection for the maintainers and any other staff.

Then add in the usual problem that if one organisation puts in a large enough amount they believe they have more rights and ownership.

FOSS has now left that project.

Re: End to end encryption is not enough

The crucial part here is "End to end".

If you have the appropriate access at one or other end you will always be able to read the content. If you could not then the entire thing is pointless.

The wider issues surround the (mostly US) security services requesting access.

All providers have slight variations on the same wording.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/reports/government-requests/customer-data

Microsoft reviews every legal demand to ensure it is valid and complies with applicable laws. A subpoena or its local equivalent is required to request non-content data, and a warrant or its local equivalent is required for content data.

Microsoft discloses customer data only when legally compelled to do so.

Microsoft does not provide any government with direct or unfettered access to customer data.

Microsoft does not provide any government with our encryption keys or the ability to break our encryption.

https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy-faq/

We will not disclose customer content (see How does AWS classify customer information? below) unless we're required to do so to comply with the law or a valid and binding order of a government body. If a governmental body sends AWS a demand for your customer content, we will attempt to redirect the governmental body to request that data directly from you. If compelled to disclose your customer content to a government body, we will give you reasonable notice of the demand to allow you to seek a protective order or other appropriate remedy unless AWS is legally prohibited from doing so.

https://www.oracle.com/cloud/sovereign-cloud/data-sovereignty/

Read this if you have time and want to increase you blood pressure.

I lost the will to live trying to find one for Google......

It is also paper, more easily damaged and would soon become unusable for it's primary function.

Even driving licences wear.

Re: I'll wait and see

Immediately being sacked would be better, cost less and have more impact.

Re: Hardly makes us meatbags feel better ...

Follow the money,

Although in the case of AI it is a fear of being left behind. I would be very surprised if the energy costs the datacentre operators pay covers the full cost yet they will want first access to x number of MW.

Just like Amazon buying the entire output of a wind farm so they could claim they are using renewables.

Firstly it is not 100% reliable and all that happens is the rest of us continue to use electricity generated from gas.

I am always puzzled by these energy companies that claim all their electricity is renewable. The simple answer it is not and I also suspect that the people being sold it and the resulting usage exceeds what is generated.

People keep demanding that electricity pricing be decoupled from gas costs. I am fine with that as long as those demanding it are happy to have reduced load or power cuts when demand outstrips renewable generation and short term backfill from batteries. The trouble is that they are not. They want a 99.9999 reliable source at bargain basement costs. Not that renewables are that cheap in the UK due to all sorts of other insanity like paying wind farms to no generate.

Re: Straight out of the Sir Humphrey playbook

No back-handers and NHS England will have written the contract that effectively made Palantir the only company that could bid.

Pen-pushers at the top bought into the snake oil that is Palantir, probably with some nice trips to "evaluate" the product.

Re: Motor Insurance

That is because the named driver is not the registered keeper (and likely not the legal owner) of the vehicle.

Adding a named driver allows someone who is not the main driver to be able to use the vehicle however they cannot do most of the mileage.

In the case of you insuring your daughter's car for her that is "Fronting" and is illegal. In the event of a collision there is a very high chance that she will not be insured and the consequences for both of you significant.,

This is a very good summary.

https://www.aviva.co.uk/insurance/motor/car-insurance/knowledge-centre/fronting-car-insurance/

Maybe I fall into the latter category being an old fart but can someone please explain to me the following:

I have a username and password with MFA. The password is a string of characters.

That is migrated to a username and passkey with MFA. The passkey is a string of characters

I have a hardware Yubikey that can do various level of authentication. One makes it usernameless and passwordless. I select the option to use it on login and guess what?

I have to enter the "Passkey" that looks incredibly like a password to me.

On the surface this looks to be very much rebranding a password to make it sound more secure. A string of characters is just that, you can call it what you want. I would rather the lunacy of logging in to a service that has MFA cheerfully sends the MFA to the very device I am logging in from.

Re: Rather self inflicted

Have you understood that the OS was of no interest here? It was a DDOS attack against a SaaS platform. That could have been any SaaS platform or a company that hosted everything in their own datacentre using Linux.