* Posts by Pascal Monett

16643 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007

Russia's naval exercise near Ireland unlikely to involve cable-tapping shenanigans

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

"It is considered deeply unfashionable to talk about Western cable tapping"

Of course it is. We're The Good Guys. We do cable tapping and comms intercept just like The Bad Guys, but it's for you're own good.

Not like Them, who do it for nefarious, evil purposes.

See ?

All good now.

Machine learning the hard way: IBM Watson's fatal misdiagnosis

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Ah but they never it worked, they just hyped the potential.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Sigh

I am but a lowly programmer, however, when a customer asks me to export data from a data store, I find it incredibly important to know what that data is in order to be sure that I export it correctly.

And if the customer is asking me to import data, then it's time to sit down and map every single piece of data that is supposed to come in and where it's supposed to go.

If you're working with data and you think that you don't need to know what it represents, you need to change jobs.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: When the three year old is just very quiet and floppy

Whenever I have witnessed a three-year-old, the words "quiet" and "floppy" have absolutely never come to my mind.

Not when they're awake, in any case.

Shazam! Two world-record lightning events recognised

Pascal Monett Silver badge

17 seconds ?

Was that 17 seconds of flash from starting point to ending point, or was it a bolt that started and then "travelled" to its endpoint ?

Imagine witnessing a lightning bolt like that. Flash ! Hey, lightning. Wow, see how long it is ? Whoa, it's still there. Hey, I even have time to fish my phone out of my pocket and snap a pic.

Waymo sues California's DMV to block autonomous car crash data from publication

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

"the data is a trade secret"

Not if the accident happened on a public street it aint.

Not if you had to report it to the authorities.

That is public information and I hope the judge is going to throw that lawsuit out with prejudice.

Ever-growing volumes of data mean computational storage is becoming crucial for HPC, say boffins at Dell's tech chinwag

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: If the "AI" is that good...

There is no AI, it's just marketing malarky.

Statistical analysis is good, and it's a good thing that companies are warming to it, but there is no more "intelligence" in there than in a block of granite. It's all down to who programs the stat functions so, once more, the only intelligence is that of the engineer or "AI techinician" who is experienced enough to lay down a useful set of rules for the CPUs to blindly follow.

'Cause it ain't those CPUs doin' the thinkin'.

Blistering bandwidth: JEDEC pushes out HBM3 memory specs

Pascal Monett Silver badge

So, DDR is out and HBM is in ?

That's going to be nice and confusing for the consumer. How does HBM compare to DDR 5 ? Sure, it's new, so it's supposed to be better, but comparing CLs is already a headache, what more do we have to learn now to choose the best RAM for our budget ?

Hands up who ISN'T piling in to help Epic Games appeal Apple App Store ruling

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Next up, Google

Well if they can take Apple down a notch or two, Google just might be next.

Internet Society condemns UK's Online Safety Bill for demonising encryption using 'think of the children' tactic

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

So, 0.2% eh ?

"a specifically broken-out category of warrants granted for child abuse image offences made up just 0.2 per cent of surveillance applications for 2019 – having remained at that insignificant level for 10 years"

And for those 0.2% we get government mouthpieces actively trying to subvert our civil rights because think of the children.

Well I'm a normal guy. I don't think about the children, I think about women.

And I want my privacy back.

HPE has 'substantially succeeded' in its £3.3bn fraud trial against Autonomy's Mike Lynch – judge

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"The finding is a massive victory for HPE"

And a clear signal that doing your own research and paying attention to due diligence isn't worth the paper its printed on.

Well done to the judge. Brilliant way to demonstrate that whining is a better strategy than paying attention.

How to get banned from social media without posting a thing

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Oh but he has reasons.

He's just not letting you know what they are.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

El Reg is most definitely not social media.

There are intelligent people here.

BOFH: On Wednesdays, we wear gloves

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Thumb Up

Another masterpiece of plausibly-deniable manipulation

This was a pleasure to read, and even more to imagine.

Well done !

Targeted ransomware takes aim at QNAP NAS drives, warns vendor: Get your updates done pronto

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"if your NAS is internet-facing"

If it is, you're a fool.

I don't care what excuses you have, allowing Internet access to your own treasure trove is asking for trouble. You are not an Infosec expert (on average) and you have no idea of what kind of nasties are floating around with the sole goal of finding your kit and ruining your day.

Convenience be damned, secure your data and cut that NAS from a world of hurt.

Toaster-friendly alternative web protocol Gemini attracts criticism for becoming exclusive clique

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

Re: I'm just an old & crotchety luddite

Welcome to the club.

I do prefer Notepad++, though.

Instant Ump: HP Inc's subscription ink services hiking prices from next month

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Eliminate ink anxiety

I already have, thank you.

First of all, I don't have an HP printer, and second, I have a laser printer, so toner, not ink.

Curiously, toner makers haven't gone all Big Brother and required a chip to validate that your cartridge is kosher - yet.

Carked it, Diem? Zuckerberg's grand cryptocurrency thing may sell off assets for $200m

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: What is the point?

Yup. You're missing the fact that the banking industry is so crap in the US that they've had to go and invent PayPal to try and have something useful that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to transfer money (funny money actually fails on that point, with the transfer fees costing an astounding amount for just writing a few bits into the blockchain).

It's like the telephone industry of the US : so shit that calling someone in another state requires that you call an operator to handle it first. And woes be to you if the person you want to call isn't using the same telco as you. At least, that's how it was back when I last visited a decade ago. Who knows ? Maybe they've improved on that.

Meanwhile, in Europe, I can call anyone in the world without bothering with anything more than the country code before the actual phone number. I can use my banking portal to send almost any amount of money to any IBAN number. In short, I am free to talk to who I want and send money to who I want. You know, like a person should be in the 3rd millennium.

US DoD staffer with top-secret clearance stole identities from work systems to apply for loans

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"He faces up to 20 years behind bars"

Good. I hope he'll get all of them.

Now there's one thing I'd like to know : how did he get caught ?

The article states clearly what he did, but there's no mention of how he failed to keep his secret.

I'd appreciate an addendum on that.

USA kicks out China Unicom, but FCC still in pursuit

Pascal Monett Silver badge

As usual, no mention of National Security letters

Everything the US can accuse Beijing of being capable of the US has already done, and is likely actively doing now.

Any company based in the US is subject to recieving a National Security letter commanding it to hand over data or grant access to US spooks so they can check whatever they want. If you get such a letter, it is forbidden by law to talk about it and you must obey its contents.

It is quite rich to see Uncle Sam blaming Chinese companies for being subject to Beijing when the US has enshrined its own total dominance in its judicial oversight.

How can we recruit for the future if it takes an hour to send an email, asks Air Force AI bigwig in plea for better IT

Pascal Monett Silver badge

That's still $350 million that need to be found.

Not exactly pocket change when you're not a billionnaire.

ServiceNow CEO says mergers and acquisitions are off the table – too messy

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

"every day is a reason for celebration"

And that is life for the least talented bloviators with golden parachutes.

At least there's a ripe market for psychiatrists.

Burning plasma signals step forward in race for nuclear fusion as researchers get bigger capsule for their 192-laser experiment

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Coat

I have solved the problem

Puny scientists, they only used 192 lasers.

Witness the awesome power of this truly operational fusion reactor with 784 lasers !

Right, I exit stage left . . .

Court papers indicate text messages from HMRC's 60886 number could snoop on Brit taxpayers' locations

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

That's actually a good question.

Especially since one can argue that a desktop PC, laptop or tablet can have much the same functionality, but without the convenience of being frisked in the street.

Oh man am I gonna be a pain in the Surveillance State' ass when I'm retired.

Imagination GPU cleared for RISC-V CPU compatibility, licensed to chip designers

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Coat

Imagination

I wonder what their on-hold music is like . . .

Hardware boffin starts work on simulation of an entire IBM S/360 Model 50 mainframe

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

Oh my God : blinkenlights !

I wants one !

My precious !

Regulations and compliance are 'a curate's egg' for digital transformation, say IT pros in finance, telecoms and public sector

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"it is critical for companies to avoid vendor lock-in"

This coming from IBM.

Wow.

Something 4,000 light years away emitted strange radio bursts. This is where we talk to scientists for actual info

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Coat

I know what it is

It's OnStar testing its new Intergalactic Guardian beacon.

Soon, OnStar will be able to record you exceeded interstellar speed limits whereever you are in the galaxy.

Version 2.0 will be able to record you between galaxies !

Right, mine's the one with the beacon detector . . .

US President Joe Biden reminds the White House he is serious about repairability

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Well, it seems that there are at least three Trump fans on the loose around here.

ESA's Solar Orbiter sneaks in bonus science by choking on the dust of a comet tail (again)

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Thumb Up

Well done

Data from the inside, corroborated with data from the outside. A perfect chance, and Science is not one to waste those.

Good on all involved !

Refresh? No, F5 says supply of networking chips is still awful, getting worse...

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: support couldn't figure out the problem and blamed my network

What, they didn't check the logs ?

Don't they know how to read ?

What kind of shoddy "support" are you burdened with ?

Windows boss Panos Panay talks up 'new era of the PC' – translation: An era of new PCs

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: If you want the local weather...

I totally agree with you.

Except for that time (way back when) when I was working at a large tire maker's facilities in the northern half of Luxembourg. The entire IT department was in a vast open space - under ground.

Well, not quite underground, but without any windows, it just as well might have been (and it bloody well felt like it).

I spent two years in that troll cave. I would have appreciated having a weather app on the desktop (hey, no mobile phones back then) to tell me what I was to expect when emerging from the cave.

Now ? I've got a "smart"phone, thank you. I don't need Borkzilla to load yet another multi-megabyte thingy into my RAM to duplicate functionality I already have on my phone.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Twice. LOL right!

Given the amount of effort from Borkzilla (including things that were tantamount to bullying) to "incite" people to upgrade, the resulting uptake of Windows 1 0 was nothing to write home about.

So, for 11, they have twice o' nothing to write home about.

Carry on, Borkzilla, carry on.

Indonesia bars financial institutions from offering crypto services

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Good

The more countries hit the brakes on this despicable market, the better.

5nm? Pah. Texas Instruments focuses on 45nm+ analog, embedded electronics – and makes bank

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"a new 300-millimetre wafer fab in Sherman, Texas"

Okay, it is Texas Instruments, but still, yet another water-gobbling plant in a state that has no water.

One of these days, guys, you're going to find out that it wasn't such a good idea.

In a first, FTC extracts millions of dollars from online store accused of blocking bad reviews on its website

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Yup

Well they never suppressed any reviews - it was the 3rd-party software that did that.

Not their fault, see ?

But it's fine, really. Apparently Fashion Nova has an extensive judicial budget. $9 million last year for not being guilty of withholding reimbursements, $4 million this year for not being guilty of withholding bad reviews, it seems to me that this company is ponying up a lot of money for not being guilty of anything.

I wonder what they won't be guilty of next year, and how much they'll pay ?

Indian government floats idea of home-grown challenger for Android and iOS

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"May not be the smartest move"

Sure, Borkzilla screwed the pooch over the Windows Phone, but it's a habit at Redmond to bury projects (usually after a few years of use, though).

India is a different use case. As noted, they are "fiercely patriotic". They're also quite a lot of people. It is possible that a home-grown phone could stand a fighting chance.

I'd rather like to see them try. In the event that it does fail, then we'll truly be able to go back to our newspapers and mutter "well, it's Android and Iphone from now on".

China orders web operators to spring clean its entire internet

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Why repeat ?

Well that's probably because just saying things once rarely has the desired effect when you are talking to the masses. Otherwise we wouldn't need police, because we'd just tell people to be nice and obey the law, job done.

It doesn't really work like that.

It's more than 20 years since Steps topped the charts. It could be less than that for STEP's first fusion energy

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"it's not the fusion"

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought there were still legitimate scientific issues that kept us from benefitting from endless energy generation.

So, "it's not the fusion.". Then, "it's the bureaurocracy", I gather ?

So let's take the bureaurocracy behind the chemical shed and waste them, and get ourselves ENDLESS FUSION ENERGY.

If a bunch of administrative busibodies is all that stands between me and endless energy, then I'm sorry, but there will be a few human sacrifices.

How to polish the bottom line? Microsoft makes it really hard to claim expenses, say staffers

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

"get the basics right internally"

But they did get it right internally - they sucked the willpower out of you, thereby preventing you from claiming expenses !

Job well done !

Of course, that's only true as long as long as you DECLARE NOJUSTICE and DECLARE ACCEPTSLAVERY, but don't worry, Borkzila has set YES as defaults on those parameters.

James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at its new home – an orbit almost a million miles from Earth

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Thumb Down

It's space. The JWST is the first of its kind.

I'd like to see the telescope you build from scratch.

IBM finally finds a private equiteer willing to purchase Watson Health

Pascal Monett Silver badge

“IBM remains committed to Watson"

Right, that's it. When IBM remains committed to something, you can be sure they're shutting it down in the near future.

We need an End-of-the-Line icon.

Australian Prime Minister's WeChat Shanghaied by Chinese patriots

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"Other members of the government have concluded"

Without any facts to base the conclusion on.

Don't you just love it when someone hears that something has happened and immediately concludes that some third party is responsible ?

Must be a sign of certain intelligence </sarc>.

Myanmar's military junta seeks ban on VPNs and digital currency

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Big Brother

Nothing should be able to thwart the Great Eye of Surveillance

And anything that does is automatically criminal and unacceptable.

You will hide nothing, but you will still live in fear.

Another US president, time for another big Intel factory promise by another CEO

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Wishful thinking

"a signal to China and to the rest of the world that from now on our essential manufactured products in this country will be made in the United States of America"

So, clothes are not essential ?

It would be hilarious if Beijing answered : "Fine, make your sweatpants now" and closed down all the sweatshops that toil for next to nothing to provide us with our precious Gucci and GAP trinkets (that we pay hand over fist for).

Tougher rules on targeted ads, deepfakes, crafty web design, and more? Euro lawmakers give a thumbs up

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"technology will continue impacting societies in the future"

Technology has always impacted society.

The discovery of fire allowed our ancestors to learn how to cook, thereby making eating easier (and more delicious), thereby making our teeth last longer. And now, we need less of them.

Agriculture allowed us to settle and start building civilization, instead of roaming around after the herds for our sustenance.

Steam ushered in the Industrial Age, which ultimately removed the obligation for 99.9% of humanity to be farmers. We could now devote more people to Science, Mathematics, discovery end experimentation, which ultimately gave us the computer, the Internet and, recently, social media. That last one might not be progress after all.

Technologies to look forward to ? Fusion, obviously, but also room-temperature supraconductivity, gravity modulation, true spaceships. Not all of that might happen, but whichever ones do, they will have an immense impact on our society.

Intel plunking down $20bn for at least two chip factories in Ohio

Pascal Monett Silver badge

What ? Ohio ? Not Texas ?

Oh dear me, is there some level of Hell that is freezing over now ?

Oh wait, silly me, it's just that backstabbing is just as lively inside the Union as from the outside.

At least, this time, it's more logical since Ohio is actually next to available water.

Carry on . .

'Please download in Microsoft Excel': Meet the tech set to monitor IT performance across central UK government

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"please download the workbook in Microsoft Excel for the best user experience"

I have yet to have trouble opening an Excel file in LibreOffice.

It's a great user experience because I don't have Borkzilla's 365Eye watching everything I do while just looking over some numbers.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Yeah, but there might be kids around.

Or PC* nazis, which are the same intellectual level.

*) not the computer

BOFH: What a beautiful classic car. Shame if anything were to happen to it

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

Depends. Do you have a beard ?