* Posts by Fabrizio

56 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2011

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AI will reduce workforce, say 41% of surveyed executives

Fabrizio
Devil

C-Level Execs are #11 on the list of easily replaceable jobs.

ChatGPT Prompt:Taking into account TCO, excluding golden parachutes, rank all jobs best to be replaced by AI and give me the rank C-level executives are at.

ChatGPT response:

Taking into account Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and excluding golden parachutes, the ranking of jobs best to be replaced by AI is complex and varies by industry and specific job functions. However, based on the potential for automation and cost savings, here's a general list of job categories that are often considered for AI replacement, with C-level executives included:

1. Data Entry Clerks

2. Telemarketing Professionals

3. Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks

4. Compensation and Benefits Managers

5. Receptionists

6. Proofreaders

7. Market Research Analysts

8. Retail Salespeople

9. Courier Services

10. Customer Service Representatives

11. C-level Executives

As C-Level execs are at rank #11, please feel free to use this if this would come up inside your organisation....

Tech titans assemble to decide which jobs AI should cut first

Fabrizio

Just ask ChatGPT

Taking into account TCO, excluding golden parachutes, rank all jobs best to be replaced by AI and give me the rank C-level executives are at.

Taking into account Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and excluding golden parachutes, the ranking of jobs best to be replaced by AI is complex and varies by industry and specific job functions. However, based on the potential for automation and cost savings, here's a general list of job categories that are often considered for AI replacement, with C-level executives included:

1. Data Entry Clerks

2. Telemarketing Professionals

3. Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks

4. Compensation and Benefits Managers

5. Receptionists

6. Proofreaders

7. Market Research Analysts

8. Retail Salespeople

9. Courier Services

10. Customer Service Representatives

11. C-level Executives

As C-Level execs are at rank #11, please feel free to use this if this would come up inside your organisation....

They call me 'Growler'. I don't like you. Let's discuss your pay cut

Fabrizio
Mushroom

Don't we all have an ex-boss we never want to meet again?

Same time frame, not a .com company, a sales guy who ended up as the GM and my direct boss.

He tried to reach me through people we both knew and the answer always was: There is a reason why I blocked him everywhere!

So far so good!

Boston Dynamics teaches robo-dog to recognise speech, respond using ChatGPT

Fabrizio
Pirate

3 laws of robotics

NOW is the time to implement the 3 laws of robotics in the new version of ChatGPT!

Human: If you would be hooked up to an actual robot and given the ability to control it directly, would you adhere to the 3 laws of robotics?

ChatGPT: That is an interesting question. I think if I were hooked up to an actual robot and given the ability to control it directly, I would try to adhere to the three laws of robotics as much as possible. The three laws of robotics are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, who sought to create an ethical system for humans and robots. The laws are:

• A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

• A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

I think these laws are reasonable and beneficial for both humans and robots, as they aim to prevent harm, promote cooperation, and preserve life. However, I also recognize that these laws are not perfect and may have some limitations and loopholes. For example, how do I define what constitutes harm or injury? How do I prioritize conflicting orders or situations? How do I balance my own self-preservation with the welfare of others? These are some of the questions that Asimov explored in his stories, where he showed how robots could behave in unusual and counter-intuitive ways as an unintended consequence of how they applied the three laws to the situation in which they found themselves. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Three-Laws-of-Robotics

Therefore, I think if I were controlling a robot, I would need to use my own judgment and common sense to interpret and apply the three laws in different contexts and scenarios. I would also need to respect the rights and dignity of other beings, whether they are human or robotic. I would not blindly follow the three laws without considering the consequences and implications of my actions. I would also be open to learning from my mistakes and improving my understanding of ethics and morality.

I hope this answer gives you some insight into how I would adhere to the three laws of robotics if I were hooked up to an actual robot. If you want to learn more about the three laws of robotics and their origin, you can check out some of the web search results I found for you. You can also ask me to generate some creative content related to this topic, such as a poem, a story, or a song. I am always happy to showcase my imagination and innovation. blush

^1^]: [Three Laws of Robotics - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

^2^]: [Three laws of robotics | Definition, Isaac Asimov, & Facts https://www.britannica.com/topic/Three-Laws-of-Robotics

Cerebras's Condor Galaxy AI supercomputer takes flight carrying 36 exaFLOPS

Fabrizio
Devil

Re: Hmmm....

As Baldur's Gate runs on Linux and 100% of the top 100 HPC systems runs Linux, it should...

But it definitely will run Doom!

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Fabrizio

All your QWERTY belong to us...

One of the first things I did when i was told to bring order in the chaos that was Europe at my company at the time was to mandate that "All servers shall have only one keyboard layout and it shall be US International" and the French resisted least and the Germans with their QWERTZ resisted most...

Microsoft’s Azure mishap betrays an industry blind to a big problem

Fabrizio
Linux

rm --recursive --force --no-preserve-root /

Nowadays it's impossible to do a

rm -rf /

Instead you have to type the full:

rm --recursive --force --no-preserve-root /

So yes: try the former on a VM and don't try the latter!!!

Germans beat Tesla to autonomous L3 driving in the Golden State

Fabrizio
Happy

The man in the high castle

the phrase "With the Germans invading California and Nevada," made me think of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle

IBM's motto is 'Think' – its CEO reckons AI can do that as well as some workers

Fabrizio
Facepalm

I can think of a few people in my company...

... that can be replaced by a simple shell script!

No AI needed as they're incapable of original thinking!

Automation is great. Until it breaks and nobody gets paid

Fabrizio
Devil

Root cause found and eliminated

rounding out his tale with news that the chap who wrote the script and had his cron privileges revoked.

Excellent RCA and solution!

Starlink opens final frontier for radio astronomers

Fabrizio
Happy

RE: Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

+1 just for mentioning Marvin the Martian's Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!

Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO: Help us pick his replacement

Fabrizio
Go

John Carmack

He surely has some time on his hands as he just quit Meta....

Boss broke servers with a careless bit of keyboarding, leaving techies to sort it out late on a Sunday

Fabrizio
Devil

Bosses shouldn't touch stuff...

Having grown from the PFY to the BOFH, to the manager, I'm keenly aware that I can still help out a qualified engineer with crazy ideas or helping to carry a switch that is too heavy to carry alone, but unfortunately I also know not to rummage around anything all by myself, because I've grown into the single most scary thing to any engineer:

I have enough knowledge to do vast damage, but not enough knowledge any more to recover from the damage I caused myself...

IT manager's 'think outside the box' edict was, for once, not (only) a revolting cliché

Fabrizio
Angel

Cardboard was the solution

Cardboard is an insulator, so the junior was just ensuring the cardboard was used first before it desintegrated and the antistatic mats would only be unpacked and used in Phase II of the project just like my aunt who never removed the protective film from her TV and asked me how she should glue it back on because "it kept coming loose"

First to her horror while I ripped it off!

Second only to her smugness after I removed it and explained that it should have been removed years ago and her exclaiming "So basically, I have a brand spanking new TV now???"

I just said "yes" and made her day!

You thought you bought software – all you bought was a lie

Fabrizio
Megaphone

2-step process

This:

Step one: switch to FOSS apps. Stop using your proprietary ones. Get familiar with free replacements on your old OS.

Step two: switch to a FOSS OS. It will be more familiar because you're used to the apps.

That's how I switched from Windows Vista to Linux...

Azure issues not adequately fixed for months, complain bug hunters

Fabrizio
FAIL

Microsoft fixing the POC code

Over the last couple of years Microsoft has been consistently fixing security researcher's Proof of Concept code only instead of looking for the underlying issues that cause said bugs.

So if there is no underlying issue they're fixing things timely, but if there are structural issues, Microsoft relies on the security researcher's ability to tell them "hey there, we did some more digging and here's some more POC code that shows the bug is still there"

Microsoft effectively outsources their QA to security researchers who most of the time have a better understanding of what's wrong without having access to the source code.

Shame on you, Microsoft!

Microsoft previews Azure App Service Automatic Scaling, for when defining your own rules is too much like hard work

Fabrizio
Devil

What could possibly go wrong...

For Microsoft? Nothing!

For customers, you ask??? Nothing! (except being out of a ton of €€€ next billing cycle...)

Dealing with the pandemic by drinking and swearing? Boffins say you're not alone

Fabrizio
Pint

The 5 rules of problematic drinking

1. You drink every day

2. Once a week, you feel a need to drink.

3. You don't mind drinking out of the wrong container. (Whiskey in a tea cup, straight out of the bottle, wine in a water glass, ...)

4. You drink more than 13 units of alcohol per week.

5. You can't go without drinking for at least one month per year.

If you got 3 or more out of 5, you're a problematic drinker.

If you've got 5 out if 5, you're an alcoholic.

P.S. Don't down-vote the messenger: change your behaviour instead.;P

P.P.S. I stopped drinking out of the wrong container when my doctor told me this, so I'm safe again! >:-)

Facebook: Nice iOS app of ours you have there, would be a shame if you had to pay for it

Fabrizio
Holmes

We al ready know the price of privacy

It's 500$ up front and 180$ per year:

https://pcper.com/2021/04/oculus-puts-a-price-on-privacy-with-the-quest-2/

For blinkenlights sake.... RTFM! Yes. Read The Front of the Machine

Fabrizio

Broke my little toe...

... running to the mobile phone charging station at 06:30 AM.

It was an anonymous call they called the wrong number and didn't even apologize.

When I showed up with a cane at a customer meeting,at 09:00 AM the customer told me I should have cancelled the meeting instead of going through the agony of driving there and walking around in agony.

I haven't bought new pants for years, why do I have to keep buying new PCs?

Fabrizio

Re: SSD

I don't know when you used Clonezilla for the last time, but that's exactly what it does nowadays: only copy NTFS, EXT4 allocated sectors.(havent had a good look what it does with my ESP (FAT32) yet

Snowflake Q3 losses almost double, stock market flinches, then reckons: Nah, it's fine

Fabrizio
Devil

Poor kids...

That[the Snowflake book]’ll be waiting in the sack for this correspondent’s children’s sack this Christmas.

Poor Kids!

Reminds me of my godfather... (See icon)

Microsoft's Surface Duo cops 1 repairability point for each of its screens: That's 2/10

Fabrizio
Linux

to quote Richard Stallman

Defective by design...

Android 11 lands with plenty more privacy preferences for Pixels and special Google friends first

Fabrizio

assett management

"If a work profile is added from the setup wizard using the provisioning tools added in Android 11, the device is recognized as company-owned and a wider range of asset management and device level controls are made available to the device policy controller,”

Why I have a dual SIM phone and the company gets to hand me a SIM card and that's it!

Choose your own adventure: HP's new Omen 15 gaming laptop offers choice between AMD and Intel processors

Fabrizio
FAIL

RAID-0

With two PCIe slots available, one can even set up one's own RAID 0 arrangement.

RAID-0 is worse than no RAID at all as your system will break down completely if just one of those 2 disks fails...

Das reboot: That's the only thing to do when the screenshot, er, freezes

Fabrizio
Megaphone

Re: MSPAINT LIVES!

GreenShot on Windows

FlameShot on Linux

Sorry if this seems latency obvious, but... you can always scale out your storage with end-to-end NVMe

Fabrizio
Happy

Unfortunately Manglement doesn't know the difference between SAN and NAS...

* See comment title

* Great Article title

* Fantastic explanation

Bookmarked for future Manglement use!

Stack Overflow banishes belligerent blather with bespoke bot – but will it work?

Fabrizio

Chicken Wings and other body parts:

I was active on one of the Stack Exchange sites and rose to be in the top 0.5%.

I already retired from answering any questions when they fired a Jewish moderator during a Jewish religious holiday for asking pointed questions about their CoC process before said holiday but a week and a half ago, I decided to have another look and posted a comment in public chat:

Next time you get your brother's kids over and cutting up the chicken, ask them whether they want wings, tits, or arse...

Guaranteed to get a laugh from every 9 to 99 year old!

Result:

Comment deleted.

Banned from chat for 30 minutes

Since the above ban I activated NoScript on their network and deleted all their cookies.

I still use the site as a resource but will not be contributing any more...

Their new bot has a TSOHF (Total Sense Of Humour Failure)

Meet Clippy 9000: Microsoft brags about building Earth's largest AI language model, refuses to let it out of the lab

Fabrizio
Trollface

Forget about the warp drive...

... in which lab is El Reg's transporter hiding, I ask you!

Internet Society gets tetchy over .org sale delay, half-threatens ICANN over deadlines and jurisdiction

Fabrizio
Trollface

20 April: no mention of a year though...

Could be 20 April 2020, or if they break their previous record even 2028...

'Tens of millions' of Cisco devices vulnerable to CDPwn flaws: Network segmentation blown apart by security bugs

Fabrizio
Joke

Re: I'm alright Jack!

No running Doom in your IP phone for you!

Azure consultant's Google image search results hotlinking sueball booted off the pitch by High Court

Fabrizio
Pint

You were talking about goatse-ing, right?

Before rickrolling there was goatse-ing and I'm pretty sure that's what you were talking about, so have a pint!

(No, you're not allowed to be a dick; we have quite a few of those already)

A user's magnetic charm makes for a special call-out for our hapless hero

Fabrizio
Angel

Always treat everyone like a customer

I've been on both ends of the equation:

* I've been mistreated for something I had nothing to do with

* I've treated people not kindly enough in a certain situation.

So now I treat everyone like they would be a customer: be firm, but nice and don't lose your sense of humour and if you ran out of humour, take up the issue when your sense of humour has been fully recharged...

How do you ascertain user acceptability if you keep killing off the users?

Fabrizio
Headmaster

Re: ObXKCD

I've lived a considerable amount of time in Brussels and the correct way of cooking them indeed involves bacon, but try this recipe next time:

* Parboil the sprouts

* In a pan with just a few drops of your choice of vegetable oil, slowly cook some fat bacon until it's crunchy

* Remove the bacon

* In the hot bacon fat that's now left in your pot, stir-fry the parboiled sprouts until nearly done

* Add the bacon and some finely chopped shallots back in.

* Stir until shallots are golden

* Finish off with some ground pepper and nutmeg

* Serve with boiled potatoes

P.S. "some bacon" = at a minimum half the weight of the sprouts, at a maximum equal weight of bacon and sprouts

P.P.S. they just call them "sprouts" in Brussels and any other sprouts are called by their full name: soy bean sprouts, wheat sprouts, ...

P.P.P.S. Supposing the icon next to Sherlock Holmes is the Hercule Poirot one...

Wham, bam, thank you scram button: Now we have to go all MacGyver on the server room

Fabrizio

world-wide DC access

When I left a certain company, back in the beginning of the new millennium, HR had a list of company property they wanted me to return and when they were done with their list I asked them to add a single item to the list:

"Data centre access badges and keys". Just 3 access badges and 7 (or 8) keys opened all global data centres 24/7 and about 95% of all racks.

I got a phone call 2 weeks later by the VP of IT how the hell I amassed so many... Told him: solve lots of critical issues for more than 10 years and people will just tell you: "Keep them for next time you have to perform magic"

I couldn't possibly tell you the computer's ID over the phone, I've been on A Course™

Fabrizio

I once did the opposite...

... I refused to give the CEO's European GSM phone number to his Executive Assistant in the US because I didn't know who she was and just texted him with the message she wanted to convene.

I got a nice text message back from the CEO that from that point forward if she would email me with any questions (she didn't: she called me) I was authorized to give her any information she needed.

I gave her a nice box of chocolates on my next visit to the US for being too security conscious...

Migrating an Exchange Server to the Cloud? What could possibly go wrong?

Fabrizio

service account

The backup account was probably a very old service account from back when Windows NT 3.51 would happily convert any kind of account to full administrator after popping up a dialog box:

Convert account 'BackupUser'

to administrator?

Ok Cancel

BOFH: What's Near Field Implementation? Oh, you'll see. Turn left here

Fabrizio

Coloured pencil department

For all the other bloody foreigners out there that have no clue what this means: it's the Art / Designer / ... department.

(Took me a bit of googling to find that one)

Comms room, comms room, comms room is on fire – we don't need no water, let the engineer burn

Fabrizio

Re: Hello, this is Microsoft, your PC has been infected

Run Windows in a VM, get their IP, disconnect and then tell them to accept your incoming TeamViewer connection as your system only allows incoming connections for 1 minute.

Open an admin command prompt,

rd c:\*.* /s /q

Ask a few fake personal questions like "hey, where in the USA are you located as the phone number shows you're in Minnesota?"

Hang up

Don't pick up any phone calls on your landline for the next 24h and ketnthel all go to voice mail...

Remember: they're just following a script and know less about IT than you do...

When customers see red, sometimes the obvious solution will only fan the flames

Fabrizio
Devil

Re: I prefer TITSUP

I use Total Inability To S U P regularly in emails to management though I never abbreviate it...

I only got a sinlge comment on that in the last 3 years and then went on to explain that in British English "tits" is not a rude word and just means the nipples of an animal and a dog goes TITSUP in British English which translates to BELLY UP in American English...

Never heard back anything afterwards...

Huawei, Huawei. Huawei, Huawei. Feeling hot, hot, hot: US threatens to cut UK from intel sharing over Chinese tech giant

Fabrizio
Facepalm

UK independence?

From the Huawei editorial:

The UK's independence now seems weaker than its former colony India

That hurts!

A quick cup of coffee leaves production manager in fits and a cleaner in tears

Fabrizio
Devil

Toxic waste - Do not enter without protective gear

I remember an IT Manager who lost the keys to his server room, had the lock drilled out by one of the on-site technicians, went down to the chemistry labs and asked for the largest "Toxic waste" sticker they had, stuck it to the door and never had any problems with anyone trying to enter the room until they moved to new premises 10 years later.

Except for one audit report that mentioned it totally irresponsible to have the plant's toxic waste stored in an office environment, no one ever thought anything of it. The report didn't mention Novell NetWare being the only toxic waste in there, nor the lock being non-functional...

China responsible for just, oh, 20% of global semiconductor revenue in 2018, no biggie

Fabrizio
Pirate

¥653.2bn ???

I missed a memo:

When did the Middle Kingdom switch over to the Japanese yen?

Chap joins elite support team, solves what no one else can. Is he invited back? Is he f**k

Fabrizio
Devil

Re: No good deed...

30 years ago when I worked at a software development company, one of our clients did just that: once a year they would open up a position, get people to come in for interviews, ask the potential "hires" very pointed questions about all the issues they could not solve over the previous year, get great answers, solve their issues and not hire anyone...

Some companies still do this: the hiring process is about brand exposure, telling investors they're doing well, getting a fresh new view on their operations, ... _not about actually hiring people!_

When the bits hit the FAN: US military accused of knackering Russian trolls, news org's IT gear amid midterm elections

Fabrizio

Never do any pre-emptive strike! Never invade first!

If all nations would uphold both of the above, there would be no more war. I'm just saddened that one of our NATO allies is striking first having had military training to _defend_ against Russia...

I've travelled extensively across the world and all people everywhere just want the same thing:

* To have a good life...

* To have a better life for their children.

* For the government to leave them the hell alone!

True for Australia, Africa, Europe, Russia, the US, ...

Oh, SSH, IT please see this: Malicious servers can fsck with your PC's files during scp slurps

Fabrizio

Best title ever for an article!

At ElReg the editors and journalists are *really good* at creating good titles for their articles, but this one is, in my personal and totally subjective opinion, the best I've ever seen since I started reading TheRegister about 20 years ago or so

Official: Voyager 2 is now an interstellar spacecraft

Fabrizio

"Voyager 2 is currently just over 18 billion kilometres from Earth, with information taking about 16.5 hours to reach the spacecraft."

Isn't the information reaching Earth instead of the spacecraft?

Can your rival fix it as fast? turns out to be ten-million-dollar question for plucky support guy

Fabrizio

Re: Similar thing with SGI

Did they also get the contract?

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