Showing 1 - 10 of 18
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.
What's the state of AI today?
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/08/2024
» Recently, I've talked with a few people about artificial intelligence and watched a few presentations. The gap between what some people think are AI capabilities and actual capabilities is a big one.
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.
Scams on the rise as inflation bites
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/07/2022
» We start this week with a webserver with extras in a single file that runs on any x86-64 operation system. Enter redbean 2.0. Created by Justine Tunney, it uses the "Actually Portable Executable" that you can read about here, justine.lol/ape.html. When you compile a program to its native binary, in this case x86-64 code, and don't call any external code, then the only difference between a Windows and a Linux would be the file format. If you can solve this, then it could run on any platform. To do that you need Cosmopoliton libc because any real program needs to make some calls, in this case the standard C ones. So, with Cosmo and the APE format, you can write a C program and compile it to a single file that will load and run on six very different operating systems and the same binary can also be booted directly from the PC BIOS. It's not perfect, but any programmer would be scratching their heads by now. Pause for techie amazement.
Big Brother grows bigger
Life, James Hein, Published on 08/06/2022
» For some time now I have been having problems with USB and my hard drive letters. Over the course of a day or three, with the exception of C:, hard drives letters would vanish. I have C, W, X and Y. C is an SSD on the motherboard with the other three normal hard drives at 10, 10 and 8 TB. The other problem I had was the computer locking up as the system was scanning for a missing USB drive, even if I ejected them using the correct process. The exception was any Samsung phone that I tried to eject without success.
Post-Covid world is challenging
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/11/2021
» In the Covid and post-Covid world will the online meeting still reign? For many in the workplace who are working from home it is their lifeline with colleagues and managers. According to chief analyst Matthew Ball, one of the five issues currently challenging industry is better human collaboration.
Always check your sources
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/09/2021
» At the dawning of the internet age the aim was to provide a platform to share information, initially between higher education facilities. It was a golden age of what was essentially a library of information shared across the United States and later the world. The early fact checkers were academics interested in facts, data and a robust discussion.
The chips are down for a while
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/09/2021
» If you haven't noticed, there is a microchip shortage. Makers of any device ranging from computers to guitar pedals are finding it difficult to source what they need from the marketplace. Expect delays on most things and if you do get yours in time then thank the silicon gods.
Google triumphs over Oracle
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/04/2021
» - Long-time readers may remember that back in the mists of IT time, over 10 years ago, Oracle challenged Google over the use of Oracle's Java API's and some of their code in Android.
Smartphone sales chilling like a fridge
Life, James Hein, Published on 03/02/2021
» According to the UK company CCS Insight, the smartphone trade is beginning to resemble the market for white goods. Instead of jumping on the newest model, many are now waiting until their device is broken or showing signs of age before they trade up. Not that long ago people upgraded every two years or so, this has extended to as much as five or six years for about a third of the market with the new average at around four years. Some manufacturers only provide support for three years of upgrades but Apple and Samsung are now committed to a longer support cycle.