* Posts by Pascal Monett

16645 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007

Singapore is the only nation with a dedicated 'net link to China. And they've just agreed to expand its use

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Especially the type of offer you can't refuse . . .

Taiwan and Arizona economic groups agree to bring more chip industry to desert state

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FAIL

the Greater Phoenix Economic Council

Its members need to be replaced by people with a functioning brain. When you live in a desert region without access to a water source you control, you do not invite an entire industry that cannot function without water.

That Arizona is stupid enough to jeopardize its water future is one thing, that the suits at TSMC think its a good idea is altogether another. How can they possibly believe that Arizona is going to be able to reliably supply water for the life of the plant ? Oh sure, they certainly got their juicy tax breaks, no doubt there, but those tax breaks won't amount to much when the plant has to shut down because no more water is coming down the pipes.

Why don't you also decide to put a gunpowder factory in the middle of a pine forest while you're at it ?

Samsung: We will remotely brick smart TVs looted from our warehouse

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Bye bye Samsung

So you can brick my TV at will ?

Fuck off, Samsung. I'm happy you can preserve your investments, but I will not buy or use any equipment that functions under someone else's orders, or with someone else's permission.

Borking on the corner, watching the world go by

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Yeah, like they said in the article.

Proofpoint wins $14m from ex-VP and French email security rival in IP theft court battle

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Stop

"Proofpoint and Cloudmark's claims were an overreach"

Um, excuse me, but "an overreach" does not mean that you were without guilt.

So don't try to spin it too far.

Oh the humanity: McDonald's out of milkshakes across Great Britain

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"UK restaurants had run out of milkshakes"

I have to say that Brexit might not be the primary issue.

Luxembourg has several McDonalds, spread out over a rather large radius. I know of two that I can visit without too much hassle.

I will freely admit to being a McDonalds fan, although in my later years I also have to admit that I frequent it much less often. I still prefer it to Quick.

Nonetheless, I remember a slew of instances in which every time I went for a burger, the milkshake machine had no chocolate. They'd offer vanilla or strawberry, but I want chocolate. So I had to go without.

Frustrating.

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I like your optimism, but it might take a wee bit more than that to save Humanity.

Samsung splurges $200bn to bring 'new future order' over next few years – meaning chips, pharma, comms

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"a period of reorganization of a new future order"

And we fully intend to be at the top of that order.

Hey, that's capitalism for you.

In 2006, Amazon debuted EC2. 15 years on, HashiCorp says firms blowing their cloud budgets is all part of the fun

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"spare a thought for the bean-counters"

Why ?

They don't deal with anything. They just jot the numbers down and call the head of the appropriate department to tell him that his budget is gone and he needs to find more money.

They're not the ones who have to correct the situation.

Gartner Gartner on the wall, which is the hypest cycle of them all?

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Re: Missing phase

You posted that exact same comment in the Gartner Debunked article.

You could have gone through the effort of at least sprucing it up a bit.

British teachers' pensions set to be released from Capita's grasp after nearly 30 years

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That sounds like the hallmark of a very badly thought-out procedure for creating NI numbers, and a rich revenue stream for Capita.

More than half of companies rethinking back-to-office plans amid variant uncertainty and vaccine mandates – survey

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And I believe that that is going to be an integral part of the future work environment.

Less people commuting and polluting, more chat and online presence, less imposing office buildings that don't cost an arm and a leg to maintain.

Yes, it's certainly a willy-waving advantage to receive customers in a 40-story high rise chock full of employees, but you're paying 40 stories when you could do with 5. And you can still have that high-tech conference room with the plush leather chairs and the insultingly large widescreen TV.

The bottom line always wins.

And employees will not always have to pay the high city prices, instead fanning out into the far suburbs with a nicer environment and a bigger house for the same price.

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Re: Simples...

You make an interesting point. It's true that videoconferencing is shit, but for those who have a home office in a nice setting, it's a price worth paying to avoid traffic jams and spending 1+ hour on the road every day.

Personally, I basically work alone. As a freelance, my customers are now sending me mails asking for a given functionality. I respond with the date at which I can connect and work on it. When connected, I signal my presence to the person who called on me, we chat for a few minutes, and then I get to work. If I need additional information, I know who to contact. I find it quite efficient.

Of course, I have the privilege of a fiber line, a home office with largely enough desk space, and a view on my front lawn. For someone in a small apartment on a DSL line on the 4th floor, working on the dining room table, things may be viewed very differently.

European Commission airs out new IoT device security draft law – interested parties have a week to weigh in

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Definitely agree, but 3 years is not enough.

I would push for 10 years. That should definitely cover the possible lifetime of the shit quality that IoT is made with.

It would also push IoT makers to pay a hell of a lot more attention to the shit they shovel onto the market. The more secure they make 'em, the less updating they need to pay for, and the consumer benefits.

Robots don't smoke, says Alibaba, and that's why they deliver parcels so fast

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Re: Worse than steps - STUDENTS!

Yup. Those delivery bots are going to get to feel the pain in a gentle manner before being thrown into the arena that is the streets, with their criminals and short-tempered people who need to take it out on something that won't respond.

Honestly, a parcel-carrying robot is just a "Rob Me !" sign on wheels.

Infosys CEO hauled in to tell minister why India's tax portal is still a glitchy mess

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Trollface

"Infosys also had trouble on a previous project"

Well, it would seem India has its very own Capita.

Progress !

Chinese auto-maker accused of altering data after fatal autonomous car accident

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Accused of altering data

Okay, it's a possibility, but I wonder why the relatives are saying that. What proof do they have ? Why do they suspect that data was altered ?

In any case, the company's explanation seems plausible. A collision is very likely a bad thing for the batteries of an EV, so taking them out ASAP is probably the right thing to do.

In any case, I'm looking forward to hearing about this investigation.

Poly Network says it's got pretty much all of that $610m in stolen crypto-coins back

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Mushroom

"Believe it or not"

I don't believe it, you fucking asshole.

An actual White Hat would never have taken the money.

You are a failed criminal, which just might be the highest honor you can pretend to.

Razer ponders how to fix installer that grants admin powers if you plug in a mouse

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"[Apple] complies with the laws in the countries it operates"

Apple - the friend of dictatorships everywhere.

38 million records exposed by misconfigured Microsoft Power Apps. Redmond's advice? RTFM

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"Low-code platform comes with high expectations"

And that's where it falls flat on its face.

Low code is a misnomer, a lie. Joe Public is going to believe that it will allow him to easily make the program he needs, but the provider is going to have 1000 pages of EULA to ensure that any cock-up is Joe Public's fault.

Just like a Tesla, actually. Except that, with low code, at least you won't kill yourself letting it drive itself.

Another UK government limb that can't get IR35 right: Court service pays taxman £12.5m

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Popcorn !

Government institutions getting hoisted by their own petard.

Bring on the entertainment !

A man spent a year in jail on a murder charge involving disputed AI evidence. Now the case has been dropped

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Agreed, but firing live rounds in a public place is not exactly a game plan I am willing to subscribe to.

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Re: Really?

That actually sounds like an interesting idea - using blanks, of course.

The only issue I see is that, in the US, someone pulling out a gun in the middle of the street is likely to cause a flurry of calls to 911 or worse, someone else pulling out a loaded gun and challenging the tester.

That could end badly.

But the idea is interesting.

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Re: do people have a propensity to try to abuse AI systems?

They definitely do, as Microsoft has found out to its detriment.

Horizon Workrooms promises a virtual future of teal despair

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"the horrible inhuman void of Facebook's vision for the future"

An excellent summary of Zuckerberg.

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Icon production is in a catastrophic downwards spiral at El Reg.

Sadly.

China's Mars rover assigned extended mission after exceeding life expectancy

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Coat

"China's Mars rover assigned extended mission after exceeding life expectancy"

It's funny how objects made for space exploration regularly exceed life expectancy (as long as they survive the landing process), whereas objects made for Earth consumption regularly fail to live their life expectancy without issues.

Just sayin'

Facebook sat on report that reveals most-shared post for months was questionable COVID story

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Mushroom

"We ended up holding it because there were key fixes to the system we wanted to make"

No.

You release the report, then publish the fixes you want to make.

That is transparency.

You were not being transparent, you were lying your ass off.

As usual.

China puts continuous consent at the center of data protection law

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"death doesn't end the information collector's responsibilities or the individual's rights"

Interesting. I'd've thought that death meant the erasure of said data, but they're not going that way.

The only way the deceased' family can be granted access is if the deceased created a profile under his legal name and address. That means no anonymous logons.

Well, China's government is not big on anonymity . . .

More Boots on Moon delays: NASA stops work on SpaceX human landing system as Blue Origin lawsuit rolls on

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Re: Good Value

Isn't NASA still making the SLS ?

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Not all of them.

But billionnaires ? Yeah, they're hilarious.

From a distance.

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Citation, please ?

Live, die, copy-paste, repeat: Everything is recycled now, including ideas

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That was brilliant

"I must remember to post more messages to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit and TikTok to tell the sheeple how governments are tracking my personal life."

Love it.

Apple extends live-at-work to at least January 2022

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Re: Shop Stores and iCovid

Yeah, but that's where you can make money, so it's okay.

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"*every* other US made sold device"

TFTFY.

Everyone knows that all smartphones are made in Taiwan, sometimes with child labor.

The US makes nothing anymore (except military hardware), unless you count pompous politicians.

Epic lawsuit's latest claims: Google slipped tons of cash to game devs, Android makers to cement Play store dominance

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Re: delete mobile

I don't even understand how they do it.

I can't play an FPS game if I don't have my trusty keyboard+mouse.

Not to mention my 28" screen.

UK's Surveillance Camera Commissioner grills Hikvision on China human rights abuses

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"it is beyond our capability to make a judgement on this matter"

No it is not.

You are quite capable of making a judgement on the treatment of the Uighur people. It's just that, if you do, you'll likely be locked up with them.

"we do ensure our cameras are designed to protect communities and property "

Oh really ? How ?

Do you refuse to film people who are abused by the State ?

Microsoft, flush with cash, raises cloud office suite prices for businesses

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Re: have you read

You're starting to repeat yourself, grandpa.

Might want to take those meds.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Except for a few geeks office has not changed in 15 years

Oh, sure. The Ribbon has gone completely unnoticed by non-geeks.

Right.

Samsung sprints past Intel to become world's semiconductor sales leader

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Good for Samsung

But Samsung doesn't make CPUs.

I'm looking at upgrading my desktop PC, and the choices are still AMD or Intel.

Intel has been very disappointing in the past few years. Seems that I'm going to go Epyc/Ryzen rather than Core, but I'm still not decided.

Oh, and it's for a gaming PC, so max performance is definitely a criteria.

Tesla promises to build robot you could beat up – or beat in a race

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Stop

Humanoid bots

I fully expect :

- that this will take a lot longer than Musk says to hit the market (if it ever does)

- that the bot will not be able to do anything more useful than carry something or stand guard

- that it will have to be plugged in all night, else it will run out of power

- that you'd better not put it in a crystal shop

We don't have the technology for a fully-autonomous, humanoid robot. Hell, we can hardly make a dog-like robot that doesn't scream its presence to everyone within 100 meters.

This is a pipe dream. Not going to happen.

Trust Facebook to find a way to make video conferencing more miserable and tedious

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"your table dynamically scales"

I've been in Teams meetings with more than 20 participants.

How exactly is that going to scale usefully ?

It won't.

Another "product" destined right for dustbin.

Eight-year-old bug in Microsoft's 64-bit VBA prompts complaints of neglect

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I enabled SMB1. The difference in display time was insignificant.

On the Win 1 0 machine, time to display was over 60 seconds. On the Win7 machine, the same folder displayed instantly.

SMB1 is not the issue, but thanks for the tip.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"[Microsoft felt] the 32-bit version a safer choice for most users"

No. Just no.

You are not a nanny, you are a company with a product. If the user buys the 64-bit version, it's his choice, not yours.

Your stupid attitude and excuses might be valid for home users, but we are talking migration here. That means business users.

It's not up to you to decide what a business actually needs. And because you're selling the same product to anyone who buys it, that means that business users can buy home versions. Sure, they shouldn't, but you're not really blocking them from doing so.

So stop deciding for your users. That despicable attitude is why Windows' behavior changes over time : you're trying to "optimize" the OS during usage, and it doesn't work. All it actually does it make the computer slower for no good reason.

My pet peeve right now is the 75 seconds it takes to open a network share and get the file contents on screen. Right at the start, it states clearly that are NNN files in the folder, but the actual file names trickle in a dozen at a time. I have an old Win7 PC and, when I open that same folder, the results are instantly displayed on my gigabit network - like they should be.

Microsoft : what the fuck are you doing ? Whatever it is, stop it !

Apple's bright idea for CSAM scanning could start 'persecution on a global basis' – 90+ civil rights groups

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Finally

Seems like the crickets have finally been silenced.

It's good to hear that there are official entities raising shields against this egregious invasion of privacy.

Think of the children is a nice excuse - let's not push it too far.

Edgy: HPE's first message from the International Space Station to Microsoft's Azure? 'hello world'

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"self-sufficient computers enable self-sufficient explorers"

Um, yeah. Just like everything space-worthy has been from the beginning.

Does Borkzilla really believe it will have Windows 1 0 operating a million miles away from Earth ? Not happening.

Even a Moon base will not be able to use an OS that needs to phone home every day, or in order to install a new machine.

Linux is the future. Period.

Faster .NET? Monster post by Microsoft software engineer shows serious improvements

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It's called security.

Security is not there to be user-friendly, it's there to protect you.

Yes, many, many websites do not render properly without JS enabled. The question you need to ask yourself is : do I wish to enable JS on this website ? With NoScript, you have the choice before a catastrophe happens.

Obviously, the websites you visit regularly will make you enable JS for them.

It's the websites you go check out that you can control. If you click on a link and nothing shows up, you need to ask yourself : do I really need to see content on this page if JS needs to be enabled ? Is there no other way I can get that information with putting my system to risk ? If no, then you can enable temporarily, check the site and forget it when you're done.

Let's be clear : JavaScript is the root cause for malware infections in 99.9% of all cases.

If you don't protect yourself, well, you can't complain when things go wrong.

New on Netflix: A corporate drama in which staff are sued for abusing early access to financial data

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Re: it does so at the cost of truth and justice

Not in the Court of Public Opinion.

Pearson is a company. They settled, they're guilty. Period.

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"charged by the SEC for violating anti-fraud provisions"

Proving that the system works.

An idiot made a stupid decision and got caught. End of story.

OK, so you stole $600m-plus from us, how about you be our Chief Security Advisor, Poly Network asks thief

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Stop

Mr White Hat ?

No.

An actual white hat would never have taken any money (or maybe just a few cents, to prove the possibility). He would have contacted the company and told them how it would be possible to take some.

This asshole took the money, got caught (well, detected and blocked), and only then pretended it was all in good faith.

Calling that scum a white hat is an egregious insult to actual, honest white hats everywhere.