Sometimes I yearn for simpler times

With all the existing RISC OS news this month….

When I read articles like this one on OS NEWS I kind of dispair at the direction things are going in the IT world in general….

https://www.osnews.com/story/139462/microsoft-intends-to-record-everything-you-do-on-your-pc-for-ai-processing/https

Whilst Thom Holwerda has had to conceed his Translation career to the new AI landscape , he has now gone all in on editorial content for OS NEWS. I have read his site for many years. If you are able please support him in this endeavour. Another site where the author has gone fulltime on IT news and worth a read and support is Phoronix (linux related mainly).

None of us in RO land are getting any younger and the world will continue to change but perhaps we can still play around with RISC OS and the like for a little while longer…..

There appears to be an unwanted, trailing, https on the URL

While loads of teens are addicted to the likes of TikTok and the ideas of becoming YouTube celebrities and “influencers” (note the scare quotes), it seems that not everybody is sleepwalking into the dystopia…

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/the-boring-phone-stressed-out-gen-z-ditch-smartphones-for-dumbphones

As for recording everything one does on their PC “for AI”, I wouldn’t imagine that would sit well with the GDPR ¹ and it might risk killing Microsoft stone dead on corporate PCs. I can’t imagine the HR at the place I work (that already use encrypted files and a little USB key without which the machine won’t work) would appreciate the OS snooping on what’s going on, given the, you know, confidentiality and trade secrets and all.

Remind me, weren’t we all supposed to chuck Haeuwai ² kit in the bin because it might spy for China? Well, how’s this any different? “For AI” is not an excuse.

¹ In countries with regulators that give a damn, which pretty much rules out the UK not because of Brexit, but because shouting at an actual turd on the floor would be more productive than trying to get the ICO to do anything.

² Or however the hell you spell it… Hawa… Houw… you know who I mean. ;)

might risk killing Microsoft stone dead on corporate PCs

Given that their SAAD¹ tends to not work, a lot, because they keep moving the host servers around and anyone easing things through the firewall has to check their support pages for the latest shuffle points², I rather wonder whether this will work anyway.
The thing is, with so much Genuine Stupidity around, why introduce an Artificial Stupidity?

¹ They say Software As A Service and I say Software As A Disservice.

@ Steve – was a typo – actually posted it from a RO machine using IRIS but had trouble cutting and pasting from a W10 machine to the RO install via a VNC window so retyped it…

corrected address:
https://www.osnews.com/story/139462/microsoft-intends-to-record-everything-you-do-on-your-pc-for-ai-processing/

the W10 machine mentioned above is a stripped install and locked down as much as possible but noticed some changes after logging in to an office365 session sponsored by one of my clients – appears that MS reaches out to ones machine via O365 even when using firefox and lots of barriers etc

Steve – was a typo

It happens. In my case, regularly. :(