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User: RobinH

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  1. Re:One thing's for sure... on Job Automation and the Minimum Wage Debate · · Score: 1

    It doesn't have to even be a moral decision; it can be very pragmatic. A country with 30% unemployment (under a mostly capitalist system) isn't politically or socially stable. Capitalism works if everyone has a chance to participate in production or has capital. If that's not the case, it won't work. You're looking at a revolt.

  2. Re:One thing's for sure... on Job Automation and the Minimum Wage Debate · · Score: 5, Informative

    I work in industrial automation, so I do PLC programming, robot programming, control system integration, etc. I've been doing it over 15 years now. For the first 10 years I bought the whole "luddite" argument, and figured that automation only displaced people to other, ultimately higher paying jobs.

    However, in recent years I've really started to worry. Imagine the person who is barely functional: they can follow instructions but you have to repeat yourself a whole bunch of times, and even then they still make lots of mistakes. My experience tells me this is around 30% of the workforce, at least. Back when everyone was in agriculture, these people couldn't really do too much damage, and if they were strong, they were useful. The magic of the industrial revolution was that we were able to both magnify the strength of everyone, *and* reduce the chance of making errors by (a) breaking things down into tiny tasks so people only had a very very simple thing to do (tighten nut A on bolt B all day long), and (b) designing things such that they couldn't assembled incorrectly (the modern term is poka yoke). This "lower" 30% of the workforce became very productive, and they joined labor unions and owned big houses and boats. They retired with nice company pensions. Their kids got much better educations than they did.

    So, if you look at the things that these people made lots of money doing (something extremely simple, repetitive, and designed to be error-proof), then that's exactly what is simple enough to automate with a robot. We recently had a job that was taking 3 operators to do and produced parts at the rate of about 3 parts per minute, and they couldn't meet the production numbers even with 2 shifts (total 6 people). We replaced all 6 of those people with a single robot, and we're up to about 8 parts per minute so we probably only need to run about 1 shift.

    The difference is that this new robot assembly cell requires a semi-skilled operator to run it. They need decent troubleshooting ability, with a bit of mechanical knowledge and decent computer skills (not programming, but basic stuff like navigating screens, understanding slightly more abstract concepts, etc.). They need to be able to look at the robot gripper and determine if anything's worn and needs replacement. We happen to have someone who's almost overskilled for the position. So we keep shuffling those other 6 people around in the plant, trying to find something for them to do, and almost always realizing that whatever they're doing could be automated. Plus, I really need to stress that these aren't people with decent troubleshooting skills, computer skills, etc. Any process we put them in requires us to remove all human decision making, because we can't tolerate errors (or they're very expensive).

    My point is that unskilled laborers are a hassle to employ. We have a hard time thinking up things for them to do, and we'd love to find something because, well, they're so cheap! (And we already have $10/hr+ minimum wage here.) But so are robots. It used to be that a bare robot (uninstalled) cost $50,000. Integration costs might push that to $125,000 or $150,000. That really limited the choices... you pretty much had to eliminate one operator for 3 shifts to make it a valid investment. Now those costs are almost cut in half. The robots are well under $30,000 and integration is getting cheaper, plus we're just getting better at it.

    As we transition into this "new economy" where there are no unskilled manufacturing jobs left, I really don't know where these people are going to find employment. I don't just see it happening in manufacturing either. I'm pretty sure that truck drivers and taxi drivers will be the first to get automated by the kind of auto-drive technology that Google's working on. We're already seeing automated forklift trucks in factories. I just don't know.

  3. Re:And the US could turn Russia into vapor on Russian State TV Anchor: Russia Could Turn US To "Radioactive Ash" · · Score: 1

    Well that would be great for US exports now, wouldn't it? Might bring back the manufacturing economy.

  4. Re:Teachers may teach Math differently to the sexe on Men And Women Think Women Are Bad At Basic Math · · Score: 1

    Maybe count how many questions were about bullets, cars, boats, and velocities. Not sure about math, but in physics it's a well-known issue with textbooks... they just appeal to male interests, but you can create a textbook that covers the same content but teaches it using more relative examples.

  5. Re:Victim blaming on Author Says It's Time To Stop Glorifying Hackers · · Score: 1

    It's because when someone tells you that you're doing something wrong, you probably feel bad, and we can't have people feel bad (particularly women). It's all about the feelings. Better to feel good and be insecure than actually secure after a moment of discomfort I guess.

  6. Should we blame Police for break-ins? on Author Says It's Time To Stop Glorifying Hackers · · Score: 1

    Every year around here the police do a media blitz trying to get people to lock their cars, make sure their garage doors are closed, etc. Is that blaming the victim? That doesn't mean the burglar isn't to blame, but it does make life harder for the police when criminals find it so easy to pick a target. It's well known that theft is mostly a matter of opportunity. The white-hat hackers are just the ones who've been screaming for years, "for god's sake people, don't store your front door keys under the mat!"

  7. Re:hmmm on BPAS Appeals £200,000 Fine Over Hacked Website · · Score: 1

    We can't allow some beret-wearing-mac-toting hipster web site developer to be held responsible, now can we? Actually, all jesting aside, it's right to hold the organization accountable, and possibly key people at the organization if it can be shown that they didn't fulfill their duty (and clearly someone didn't). The contractor is almost never responsible legally in this case, though if the contract demanded that the software do something and it didn't do it, then the organization may be able to sue for breach of contract.

  8. This is a very common way to solve the problem of "how do we do a virus scan on files coming in through https?" Many organizations run a proxy server for all web requests to be able to filter content, and to do anti-virus checks, but obviously it needs to view the unencrypted content to be able to do a scan. Otherwise any employee could be downloading malicious content straight through your firewall and bypass all the checks you have in place.

  9. Re:don't canadians pay 'blank media tax' ? on Why Copyright Trolling In Canada Doesn't Pay · · Score: 2

    The media surcharge/tarriff/whatever was only applicable to music, not movies/videos.

  10. Re:Well You Know... on The Moderately Enthusiastic Programmer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Fast paced work environment!" actually means that we change our specs a lot, even up to the hour before delivery, and we don't want you to complain because we're "fast paced"! :)

  11. Re:This has been dealt with on Who Is Liable When a Self-Driving Car Crashes? · · Score: 1

    Exactly. If a manufacturer makes a car that explodes when hit in a rear-end collision (Ford Pinto), they get sued. If they installed faulty brake lines, they'd get sued. If they provide a self-driving car, they have to make it "reasonably safe", where "reasonable" is determined by the current state of the art in that field of engineering, or by a jury informed by expert witnesses.

  12. Re:inaccurate statement in the FBI addidavit on Harvard Bomb Hoax Perpetrator Caught Despite Tor Use · · Score: 1

    They probably saw in the logs that he went to the Tor website first, downloaded Tor, and then used it. The initial visit to the project's site would be easily visible in the logs.

  13. All the way to Pandora for tin? on Single-Atom Layer of Tin May Be a New Wonder Conductor · · Score: 1

    Really, that's what we had to drag our butts through interstellar space for? Unobtanium is just tin?

  14. Re:Google Cars on Nearly 1 In 4 Adults Surf the Web While Driving · · Score: 1

    That's not he point. The question is, "do you trust that *other* driver more than an automated system?"

  15. Re:Probably not entirely surprising on How 3 Young Coders Built a Better Portal To HealthCare.gov · · Score: 1

    As if we have any proof that Health Sherpa is well documented and scalable.

  16. Re:we would care but... on Ask Slashdot: Why Isn't There More Public Outrage About NSA Revelations? · · Score: 2

    This might be OK if we all had equal access to equivalent amounts of data on what our government officials and employees were doing.

  17. I wouldn't worry on At Current Rates, Tesla Could Soon Suck Up Worldwide Supply of Li-Ion Cells · · Score: 2

    If there's one thing business is exceedingly good at, it's ramping up production when a big customer says they want to buy lots of your product. All Tesla has to do is sign a contract guaranteeing a minimum buy.

  18. Re:To say these are flaws is an opinion on Tesla Model S REST API Authentication Flaws · · Score: 1

    Ok, so they made a car with (limited) remote controls that have the same security as a typical website. What could go wrong? Honestly, it's just a really bad idea. I would want it guaranteed that there was a way to completely disable any remote control functionality, so if you still want to have diagnostics and monitoring, etc., then you have to install some kind of data diode to really made it secure. But that's the right way to do it.

  19. Major fail for Tesla on Tesla Model S REST API Authentication Flaws · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With all the news about medical devices with deadly security flaws, and people even hacking into cars (even if only from the backseat), I can't believe Tesla really didn't even *try* to add proper security to their API. The only right way to do it (from a corporate perspective) is to hire an outside security company to audit your design and implementation, and to continue to monitor the security whenever changes are made (so continuously in this case). It's well known that you can't trust the programmers to implement security properly, especially if you had Elon Musk screaming over your shoulder like Steve Jobs all the time.

  20. Re:Maybe you didn't realize this but... on Excess Coffee May Be Linked To Early Death · · Score: 1

    I was definitely thinking of that story when I was writing it. :)

  21. Re:Life without coffee? on Excess Coffee May Be Linked To Early Death · · Score: 4, Funny

    I always love the "for the price of a coffee a day" arguments about how little it costs to start saving. What are my savings goals, though? I guess to retire, so I can go down to the local coffee shop every morning and enjoy a coffee. Oh wait...

  22. Re:Exciting Times on New Treatment From Australia For All Cancers · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is the tiny problem that chemotherapy damages your brain. There is, at the very least, a measurable and significant decline in IQ when tested before and after chemotherapy. Google for effect on iq from chemo to see some information.

  23. Had it here for a long time on Door-To-Door Mail Delivery To End Under New Plan · · Score: 1

    In Canada the "clusters" are called "super mailboxes". They've been here for a while, in subdivisions. Where I used to live, we had mail delivery to the door, and we had mail stolen a couple of times, not to mention it just being rather annoying (both to us and the mail delivery person) that our dog would bark when they came up the steps. The super mailboxes (at our new house) solve both those problems by (a) not requiring the person to be on our front porch, and (b) requiring a lock to open. When we get large parcels, they usually put an extra key in your mailbox, and that opens one of the large compartments where they can put medium and large boxes. That's convenient, and better than trying to leave it in an unlocked mailbox at your front door. As for having to "walk" to get your mail, it's only half a block away, and most people I see just stop their car there for 60 seconds on the way home. I pick it up the next morning when I'm walking the dog. Plus each one has a mailbox (for outgoing mail) built-in. Overall, I think it's a better solution, especially if it saves money.

  24. Re:Legal on SEC Alleges 'Bitcoin Savings & Trust' Is a Ponzi Scheme · · Score: 1

    No, there was still a contract, albeit a very risky one. The guy promised a 7% weekly return. If you loaned me $100 and I promised to give you back $107 a week from now, that's still a contract and I'm legally obliged to do that. Now you might run afoul of some law that caps interest rates. But if it was really an "investment" (I need your money to buy an air compressor, so I can go do a job at my neighbor's house, and he's going to pay me cash, and then I can pay you back) then it's likely legal.

  25. Re:But on IQ Test Pegs ConceptNet 4 AI About As Smart As a 4-Year-Old · · Score: 2

    The guy who built him deliberately made him *less* lifelike than Lore because the colonists didn't like how eerily human-like Lore was. His inability to use contractions was one of these things.