Showing 1 - 7 of 7
Microsoft put on the naughty step by Aussie regulator
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/11/2025
» Microsoft has been at it again. The Competition & Consumer Commission in Australia has started a legal process against the Redmond giant for apparently misleading users of the policies for its Microsoft 365 bundle. Microsoft advised users with a Personal and Family plan that "to maintain their subscription they must accept the integration of Copilot and pay higher prices for their plan, or, alternatively, cancel their subscription".
AI will overpromise and underdeliver
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/08/2025
» Let's start with a few brief comments on the current state of artificial intelligence. Specially targeted and trained AI models are improving. These are things like detecting something in an X-ray or hunting for potential chemical candidates for a compound to attack a specific condition. Generating pictures and videos is also improving rapidly, and by the end of the year the majority of people will not be able to tell the difference between the real thing and the AI fake. Large Language Models are still unpredictable and can give false or fake answers depending on the structure of the prompts, so be careful with the answer you get from these. The current corporate buy-in for AI is well beyond what it can deliver. This is driven by marketing, not the actual state of capabilities. My prediction is there will be a lot of out-of-pocket organisations of all types disappointed by results.
Do you really own your devices?
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/09/2024
» Do you own the hardware and software you purchased? Yes, no and possibly, so let's dive into an example. A man buys a second-hand Microsoft Surface from the Internet. It is one of a batch. He uses it for a few years until one day a massage pops up on the screen advising that Mastercard has locked the device and it should be returned to Mastercard. The man does some research and finds out that Microsoft has embedded some software in the firmware and BIOS that has enabled this to occur. It also turns out that this software can be found in other Microsoft and Apple devices, is very difficult to detect and requires a high skill level to remove, or you can just install Linux.
AI's promises and problems
Life, James Hein, Published on 29/03/2023
» It's almost impossible to write an article these days and ignore the rapid increase in what are called AI applications. GPT-4 is out, Midjourney 5 has been released, and more new AI applications seem to turn up every day.
The benefits and risks of neural interfaces
Life, James Hein, Published on 17/02/2021
» This week is dedicated to the brain-computer interface, or BCI. For some time now, sci-fi movies and TV series have presented the idea of a mind-to-computer interface that controls technology, retrieves information and displays it on virtual screens. Meanwhile, in the background, a number of companies have been working on this and the technology is close to realising some of the outcomes only seen in fiction so far.
Protecting the jewels
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/03/2020
» A while back I looked at the LG V20 as a new phone option but I ended up getting the latest Samsung. The next LG top-end model is the V60 ThinQ. Its 5000 mAh battery offers a lot of battery life and will eventually be used by the Samsung S20. It will come with a 17.2cm edge-to-edge screen and unlike the S20 will retain the headphone jack. It also supports a clip on second screen but with a hinge between them. This allows two apps to run side by side, useful in a number of circumstances. It has 8K video recording but not the 10x optical zoom found in the top end S20. Pricing is expected to be less than the S20 range. When you're buying a new phone these days there are a lot of options so find the features and price point that suits you. After that it probably comes down to the colour of the case.
The world knows where you've been
Life, James Hein, Published on 16/01/2019
» A reminder for those operating in the digital world. This includes the internet, your phone, social media and basically anything in the public sphere. You can all but guarantee that everything you post online is eventually available to everyone. It doesn't matter what promises your provider might offer -- and maybe they're even being as honest as they can be -- eventually your data will turn up on a public server somewhere. The golden rule is simple: if you don't want everyone to see something, then don't post it anywhere on public networks.