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Comment Re:Security Vulnerability (Score 1) 26

It's a goddamn monitor. It should be compliant with video interface signaling standards and to be able to notify the system of what standards it complies with through the video interface itself or with minimal drivers that are basically just an FYI. Even if it has other features like audio capability, USB passthrough, or even some kind of software-based control of the monitor for some other reason, that shouldn't require crazy amounts of permissions to accomplish.

This sort of crap is what I hate about modern consumer electronics. It used to be that most peripherals didn't require much to function, and either software that ran at the user-level with minimal drivers or else features functioned directly onboard said device let it be controlled. This modern era where everything requires copious permissions and comes packed with malware is truly awful. And frankly Microsoft shares some blame here, for even allowing this in the first place.

Comment Re:this (Score 1) 49

These are the same lazy dolts that call them selves "Software Engineer" yet don't know shit on how software actual works beyond an ID, don't understand software developer ethics, and think the can be sloppy because "computers have a lot of RAM" completely blind to the idea there janky ass software isn't the only thing running on a computer.

Modern IDEs have lead to this industry being full undisciplined half wits.

Comment To be fair... (Score 1) 32

The problem I always had, historically, with games on DVD is they'd kind of "beat up" the optical drive, seeking all over the disc constantly while the game was loading and then being played.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they simply copied everything onto the console's hard drive or SSD when first installed. But games like God of War on my PS2 are what I blame for the drive wearing out so it got constant I/O errors trying to run anything.

I had the same experience with a couple of PS3s that our kids used and "wore out". It was always the optical drive failing. If you played only downloaded games, they'd run fine.

Comment Re:Yeah, no (Score 2) 146

From my perspective, GM suffers from the delusion that they are the market leaders that every other company should follow. One of my coworkers worked for GM. They offer employees discounts to buy GM cars. But the discounts are very small and laden with so many restrictions, it is not worth using. She could walk into any dealership as a member of the general public and get a better deal as she could not take the discount and take whatever incentive the dealership was offering (interest rates, discounts, etc.). That does not take into account that GM cars are not the best when it comes to consumer ratings, safety ratings, etc. In the end she bought a better car from another manufacturer, but management treated her acting for her own self interest as some sort of betrayal.

Comment Re:um bro (Score 1) 121

Only if narrowly defined "errors" to mean whatever you want it to mean. From all the times I used AI to generate code, individual lines of code were fine. But combined, the code would not run. For example I asked it to create Python code. It returned "array(i)" in a line. However the correct code for that section should have been "array[i]" as it was supposed to calling a value in an array.

Comment Re:Even an idiot can be right (Score 1) 121

The promised advantage of AI replacing humans was AI could do it better and cheaper than a human. What companies are finding out is "better" is not always true. The other problem is "cheaper" only applied to the introductory pricing rates that AI companies used to get customers. As these companies need to start showing profit, the new rates makes replacing humans more expensive not less expensive.

Comment Re: AI (Score 1) 125

My latest project is a 16,000 line script done in Python. It was pretty big for one person.

16kloc is a small project.

I should soften what I said before: You can get away with seat-of-the-pants work if one or more of: (a) your projects are small, (b) your projects are non-critical or (c) you invest in massive testing and validation.

In my old job, if I made one kind of mistake it could prevent three billion Android devices from being able to boot. If I made a different kind, it could result in the same number of devices being insecure against data extraction and other attacks (of course, OEMs often made those mistakes for me). In my new job, if I make mistakes vehicles can crash and people can die.

I want all the help the tooling can give me, and I spend a fair amount of my time building additional tools to prevent mistakes. None of it eliminates the need for testing, of course, especially when lives are on the line, but bugs that get caught by the compiler cost almost nothing. Bugs that get caught by QA, or, far worse, in the field, are very expensive.

Note that there are big systems built in Python. Instagram has millions of lines of Python code. They also mandate explicit type declarations everywhere and they built their own static typechecker, Pyre. Lots of other people have built typechecking libraries and tools for Python, trying to fix that problem. Maybe the next time I write Python I should try some of those tools.

Though I probably won't ever write any Python again. I really only use it for quick and dirty scripts, and these days I tell AI to write those for me, and I don't even bother to read the code. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, I tell the LLM to figure out why, and fix it.

Comment Suckers (Score 4, Interesting) 146

So they're taking all your data, selling it, and making you pay for the privilege? Must be a nice business if you have zero scruples.

Why do you need OnStar? Who would want to steal a GM car? All the GM brands are at the very bottom of Consumer Reports reliability index for 2026.

OnStar uses cellular service to connect, so if you have an emergency, either both OnStar and your cell phone work, or neither work. So there's no advantage to using OnStar rather than just dialing 911. 911 services are allowed access to your phone's GPS location regardless of settings.

It just seems like a pork package to sell along with the clear coat. Not to mention the theft of your data without compensation, whether you subscribe or not. You have to physically disable the modem to avoid that.

Comment Re:They don't even write good software! (Score 5, Informative) 146

Tesla is awful due to the lack of physical controls where they would really make sense. It is an actively driver-hostile car. Other than the powertrain, which is amazing, the car is completely obnoxious. The door handles in particular are a huge problem and have been banned in China. Why would you intentionally make door handles that are super awkward to open rather than just pull? Why would you make someone dig through a menu to adjust the mirrors, or adjust the A/C vents and other controls? Trying to shift with the right stalk? Awkward and horrible. I think they thought it was sexy to just have a screen and nothing else, but in reality it just absolutely sucks. Before you say, "but have you owned one?" Yes, yes I have. It's my wife's current daily driver. And I avoid driving it like the plague.

Comment Re:it keeps finding embarrassing bugs. (Score 4, Insightful) 82

Is there any other kind?

Sure there are. Some bug reports, you look at them and dig in and say "Damn, that's obscure. It depends on subtly-wrong but arguably-correct-in-isolation mistakes in four different places. How the hell did they even find that?".

Granted that it's more common to glance at it and just be ashamed, or to look at it and say "Really? You think an attacker can do A, B, C, D, and E, all at the same time? Oh, and to do B or D they'd already have to have the system mostly compromised. Okay, I'll fix it, but no way in hell is that actually exploitable."

Comment Re:So much drama with Open AI and Anhropic models (Score 1) 159

I think you're right.

I'm surprised they're projecting profitability as soon as 2030, actually. That's only 3.5 years away.

I would guess they are ignoring some expenses there as well.

Maybe... if the projections are in formal filings I don't think they can do that without risking SEC penalties. They can be optimistic about revenues or falling costs or things, because who can tell? But straight up ignoring things, probably not.

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