There are also concerns that it would be used for military purposes
Yeah well it's not going to be mobile like a submarine, and we all know that the seabed isn't any less subject to earthquakes and other disturbances, so wouldn't it just be a damned shame if some totally random geological event completely destroyed their undersea base, what a terrible tragedy!
So automation makes peoples' lives worse? What aspects of their lives do you think are getting worse? Mass production makes things affordable for more people.
It IS making peoples lives worse, and I'll demonstrate to you how:
Businessman: "LOL, I can fire a whole bunch of workers and replace them with one machine and make so much more profit!"
"But sir, how will these people earn a living?" Businessman: "LOL, not my problem! I only care about keeping the stockholders happy, and making more money, how those people live is THEIR problem"
That's how.
..oh, and don't trot out your retarded 'universal basic income' socialism bullshit, either, because when few people can even GET a job, NO ONE WILL BE PAYING TAXES TO PAY PEOPLE FREE MONEY TO LIVE ON. Businesses and corporations WILL weasel out of paying their taxes just like always, and ENTIRE POPULATIONS will be dying in poverty conditions; likely there will be a Revolution, then. People need jobs to live. Period. Too much automation is BAD for society.
Apparently the leaders of our military are as technologically retarded as our politicians, media, and pretty much 99.9% of humanity in general.
For the billionth time: We do not have sentient, self-aware, human-level, qualifies-as-a-lifeform 'artificial intelligence'. All we have is clever bits of programming that maybe learn things, but that are still just dumb machines your average dog or 5 year old child could out-think without much trouble. If they want to worry about something going haywire with their automaton-war machines, then they should worry about some hacker, foreign or domestic, managing to take control of a drone or robot weapon and turning it on our own people or using it to attack a civilian target, not 'Skynet achieving awareness' or any such Hollywood nonsense. At best we're decades away from anything approaching sentience and self-awareness in ways that actually matter, and that's only assuming that someone finally figures out how the human brain does what it does in the first place -- and we're nowhere near figuring that out yet anyway. Military people and everyone else just need to chill out. Try spending more time worrying about how to keep some of the jackass humans out there from blowing up the entire planet instead, much better use of your time and energy.
I have the dumbest of dumbphones ($50 retail price). First sign it's been compromised? I consider going back to a landline. I don't own a 'smart TV' because I'm not stupid. I don't have cable, I have an antenna, so no cable box or satellite box. I can't control the phone network or the internet. If I ever need a job above dishwasher at a mexican restaurant I need those (unfortunately!) but I don't use my real name online anywhere I can get away with it -- and I DO NOT use 'social media' of any kind because IT IS A TRAP. I don't talk about or text or email anything seriously sensitive and everyone I know knows better than to do so with me. They all also know how much shit will come down around their ears from me if they post pics of me online anywhere, so they know not to do that (or else!). I don't participate in 'rewards card' programs because that just gives them consent to track my purchases in a very personal way. I pay cash everywhere I can and am always looking for ways to do it more. I don't give my name, address, phone number, or email address out anywhere I can possibly avoid doing so. I'm doing EVERYTHING I CAN to preserve as much of my privacy and private life as I can -- and I do everything I can to Hide In Plain Sight. But it's getting harder and harder EVERY year. There's either going to be a Revolution, or I'm going to be Ted Kaczynski sans explosives and psychosis.
If this comes to the United States: I will REFUSE to pay for it, and so will so many other people that it just won't work. In fact I'll become an outspoken political activist AGAINST such bullshit as this because I REFUSE TO HAVE MY TAX DOLLARS GO TO PEOPLE BEING LAZY. Why, you ask? Because I can guarantee you they will work it so that I'm getting more of my hard-earned pay taxed to pay for it; I and others who still believe that work is good and necessary will get SCREWED so fat lazy people can fuck off all day every day and WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. So forget it. We'll fight against this tooth and nail.
Don't even bother trying to argue with me about this. It's a deal-breaker issue, and I WILL NOT BUDGE ON IT, NOT ONE NANOMETER.
I'm the guy who keeps saying: "So-called 'smartphones' have more holes in their security than a swisscheese or a colander, why the hell would I ever want one!?" and then I get called a 'Luddite' and any number of other names for not adopting such shitty technology -- regardless of the fact that practically every single day I read about yet another exploit someone discovered that can be used to take total and complete control of any smartphone. Then there's this story, which just confirms everything I've been seeing and saying all this time, and puts the final nail in the 'smartphone' coffin; why the ACTUAL FUCK would I want one of these gods-be-damned things, when it apparently is childs' play for any large corporation or government to slip a total spyware package into the gods-be-damned thing, and not only access everything on the phone, but watch and listen to every damned thing I do and track every single step I take, 24/7/365?
Oh, HELL NO.
I will never, never, EVER own a gods-be-damned 'smartphone', now or ever. I'd rather have NO cellphone and go back to using a landline and an answering machine, before carrying around something that's only one step removed from the monitoring anklet the cops put on people under house arrest.
Seriously, people: WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE ONE? Get rid of it. You don't NEED it. Get the cheapest dumb phone and leave it at that!
There will always be a market for lower-end appliances because there are poor people and will be more poor people in the future because of the downward spiral we're all in economy-wise; the 1% in control of 99% of the wealth of the world will just tighten their grip and DGAF about the 99%, just like always. So there will always be plain-old-refrigerators and TVs, and even if not there will be ways to activate and use them without internet, because poor people can't afford internet, now can they? Manufacturers don't like returns for things people can't use so there'll be a way to make the basic functionality work.
That's exactly why no one should be encouraged to buy such stupid things as an 'internet connected refrigerator' in the first place. This is 'technology' that NEEDS TO DIE QUICKLY. No one needs an 'internet connected refrigerator' in the first place, either. Also, fear not: There will always be a need for lower-end refrigerators because so many people are poor, and more people are going to be poor in the future. Even so, if you're stuck buying something that wants to be internet connected, they'll have to have some way for it to work normally without out, because poor immigrant families won't necessarily have internet -- so all you'd have to do is call them up and say you don't have and can't afford internet, and someone bought the refrigerator for you, and all your food is going to spoil how do I get this thing to work OMG my kids are going to starve!1!! and there'll be a way to make the damned thing work. Then you put tape over the camera(s) anyway and not worry about it. Manufacturers that get too many returns on crap like this because people literally can't use it are going to make sure it can work anyway.
designed to get people more used to having cameras and other sensory equipment all around them
Exactly, precisely this. Why the actual FUCK do you need cameras in your gods-be-damned refrigerator in the first place, and why the actual FUCK does it need to be connected to the Internet at all in the first place? This is more stupid, trendy, useless so-called 'internet of things' crap that has no real useful purpose -- except maybe as previously stated, to put more gods-be-damned surveillance in our lives. What's next? IoT toilet, that monitors your pooping? Sends directly to your doctor? TO HELL WITH THIS SHIT. Reject the so-called 'Internet of Things', it does nothing to enhance your life, all it does is create more ways for corporations and three-letter government agencies to track and monitor you and otherwise stick their noses into you personal, very-much-private lives. Them, them, fuck them, sideways with a rusty chainsaw.
Oh well gee I'm such a POOR BASTARD to not have an idetic, indellible memory that never fades like apparently you have. So you remember every single word of every single printed work you've ever read? Sounds boring. I'd rather come back to a book I haven't read in a few years and read it again because I enjoy it. Must be awful, only being able to enjoy something once, I pity you and your horrible, one-dimensional existence. Also you must be a terrible bore at parties, correcting people constantly when they get a single word wrong, quoting something, must be a horrible buzzkill for everyone, totally killing a conversation that way.
Until e-books are 100% DRM free and you truly own the copy you pay for (can't be changed or deleted buy anyone but you) and can always access it (no DRM to fail or to be denied by someone so you can't use it anymore) then e-books are a total FAIL and I'll NEVER pay even $0.01 for them. That being said: It will NEVER happen. There will always be some bullshit DRM or the ability for them to remove the copy you PAID for -- so you never own it, you're just RENTING it. I'll stick to printed books.
These people are counting teeth to see how many toes there are.
Like me, many people who read actual books (not the e-book troll you people fell for, LOL) KEEP THEM and read them again. You have enough of a library, you forget enough details that over time an old book is enjoyable again to rediscover the details within. That's why WE don't need to buy as many new books every year. I read dozens of books every year -- just not new ones all the time. I buy maybe a handful of new ones every year -- and KEEP THEM.
You're a jackass and need to have your shit slapped until you learn to not be a jackass anymore.
the formats for e-books can be reversed engineered rather easily, no chance of them ever becoming unreadable. have a look at them sometime
Sure. And if you get caught doing that, or enabling someone else to do that, or distributing a way to do that, or even get caught with a decrypted, DRM-free version of something, you can be convicted of a federal crime, because of the insane copyright and DRM laws in this country. Hell, if they had their way, discussing the subject would be illegal. Nope, nope, nope. I'll stick with printed books. You have to break into my house and physically take those from me, or destroy them, or blind me so I can't read them. All actionable offenses.
But, you can carry around your entire library on a digital device until the author, publisher, distributor, DRM provider, or some nameless schmuck pushing the wrong button erases it from your e-book reader and then proceeds to deny you a refund, or decides to change the content, or otherwise denies you access to it.
There, fixed that for you and everyone else reading this thread.
When you make a digital 'purchase' (using the term loosely here), you never really OWN it, you're only RENTING it. It literally can be yanked out from under you with no notice and with no effort on their part, and you have effectively no recourse. A printed book? They have to break into your house and TAKE it from you physically.
Even as cynical as I can get, I still believe that there are some clear-headed, honest people in positions of authority in this country, that actually listen to their constituents, and that believe in fair play. Microsoft is arranging to have a monopoly on commerical computer operating systems. They're even showing signs of trying to annex Linux, or at least subvert it. I'm sure their long-term strategy also includes somehow annexing or destroying Apples' OS as well, with their ultimate goal being becoming the ONLY OS on the market. This, of course, must be stopped, especially considering the FACT that Windows 10 is just one gigantic spyware and data collection platform that furthermore takes ultimate control of the computer away from the person who paid for it, which is just plain wrong. In the interests of maintaining a free and open marketplace and not allowing competition to be stifled, someone will step up and say 'no'. Or at least I hope so. If not then we'll soon be living in a post-computer world, where you're just a gigantic sucker if you own one at all.
Smartphones are clunky, have a history of terrible security, and invades your privacy thanks to EVERYONE. If I was trying to sell a phone, I wouldn't want to be associated with Smartphones, either.
FTFY.
But seriously, folks.. my first impression about this? That manufacturers marketing departments think like this:
Android, LOL, we don't make that, right? That's that skeezy 'open source' thing, isn't it? LOL, don't even mention it, downplay it as much as you can, and talk up what we put on the phone, that's what the customers are paying for, otherwise they'll know we're ripping them off by charging them for something that doesn't cost us anything
Basically, I think manufacturers use Android like a $20 whore and DGAF, and try to make it look like their shitty bloatware apps are what are running the phone. That's what the average consumer sees, not the underlying OS, so that's what they think is running the phone. It's like your grandparents thinking that the monitor is the computer, not the box next to it on the desk.
My computer runs out of EPROMs and a RAMdisk-based filesystem that is completely and totally erased every time I turn the computer off WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW? xD
That's how I read it. It would still have to have lowest-common-denominator drivers, if for no other reason than to provide basic functionality during the install process, and if you just leave those you'll still have a functioning computer.
Of course, I still hold out hope that this is all temporary. Either Microsoft will, eventually, be called on the carpet for their anti-trust activities and their de-facto monopoly, or some other company will start marketing their own OS, capitalizing on how much Microsoft is pissing so many people off.
Slashdot Mirror
There are also concerns that it would be used for military purposes
Yeah well it's not going to be mobile like a submarine, and we all know that the seabed isn't any less subject to earthquakes and other disturbances, so wouldn't it just be a damned shame if some totally random geological event completely destroyed their undersea base, what a terrible tragedy!
So automation makes peoples' lives worse? What aspects of their lives do you think are getting worse? Mass production makes things affordable for more people.
It IS making peoples lives worse, and I'll demonstrate to you how:
Businessman:
"LOL, I can fire a whole bunch of workers and replace them with one machine and make so much more profit!"
"But sir, how will these people earn a living?"
Businessman:
"LOL, not my problem! I only care about keeping the stockholders happy, and making more money, how those people live is THEIR problem"
That's how.
..oh, and don't trot out your retarded 'universal basic income' socialism bullshit, either, because when few people can even GET a job, NO ONE WILL BE PAYING TAXES TO PAY PEOPLE FREE MONEY TO LIVE ON. Businesses and corporations WILL weasel out of paying their taxes just like always, and ENTIRE POPULATIONS will be dying in poverty conditions; likely there will be a Revolution, then. People need jobs to live. Period. Too much automation is BAD for society.
Friend, you need to read my comment on this subject: https://slashdot.org/comments....
Apparently the leaders of our military are as technologically retarded as our politicians, media, and pretty much 99.9% of humanity in general.
For the billionth time: We do not have sentient, self-aware, human-level, qualifies-as-a-lifeform 'artificial intelligence'. All we have is clever bits of programming that maybe learn things, but that are still just dumb machines your average dog or 5 year old child could out-think without much trouble. If they want to worry about something going haywire with their automaton-war machines, then they should worry about some hacker, foreign or domestic, managing to take control of a drone or robot weapon and turning it on our own people or using it to attack a civilian target, not 'Skynet achieving awareness' or any such Hollywood nonsense. At best we're decades away from anything approaching sentience and self-awareness in ways that actually matter, and that's only assuming that someone finally figures out how the human brain does what it does in the first place -- and we're nowhere near figuring that out yet anyway. Military people and everyone else just need to chill out. Try spending more time worrying about how to keep some of the jackass humans out there from blowing up the entire planet instead, much better use of your time and energy.
I have the dumbest of dumbphones ($50 retail price). First sign it's been compromised? I consider going back to a landline.
I don't own a 'smart TV' because I'm not stupid.
I don't have cable, I have an antenna, so no cable box or satellite box.
I can't control the phone network or the internet. If I ever need a job above dishwasher at a mexican restaurant I need those (unfortunately!) but I don't use my real name online anywhere I can get away with it -- and I DO NOT use 'social media' of any kind because IT IS A TRAP.
I don't talk about or text or email anything seriously sensitive and everyone I know knows better than to do so with me. They all also know how much shit will come down around their ears from me if they post pics of me online anywhere, so they know not to do that (or else!). I don't participate in 'rewards card' programs because that just gives them consent to track my purchases in a very personal way. I pay cash everywhere I can and am always looking for ways to do it more. I don't give my name, address, phone number, or email address out anywhere I can possibly avoid doing so. I'm doing EVERYTHING I CAN to preserve as much of my privacy and private life as I can -- and I do everything I can to Hide In Plain Sight. But it's getting harder and harder EVERY year. There's either going to be a Revolution, or I'm going to be Ted Kaczynski sans explosives and psychosis.
(image) /. is apparently retarded in the way it posts hyperlinks that contain no text. :-(
(image)
(article)
Had to re-post because
Need I say more?
Hear, hear.
Now, if they did this with DisplayPort, that'd be a different story, since it's (last time I checked) royalty-free.
If this comes to the United States: I will REFUSE to pay for it, and so will so many other people that it just won't work. In fact I'll become an outspoken political activist AGAINST such bullshit as this because I REFUSE TO HAVE MY TAX DOLLARS GO TO PEOPLE BEING LAZY. Why, you ask? Because I can guarantee you they will work it so that I'm getting more of my hard-earned pay taxed to pay for it; I and others who still believe that work is good and necessary will get SCREWED so fat lazy people can fuck off all day every day and WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. So forget it. We'll fight against this tooth and nail.
Don't even bother trying to argue with me about this. It's a deal-breaker issue, and I WILL NOT BUDGE ON IT, NOT ONE NANOMETER.
I'm the guy who keeps saying: "So-called 'smartphones' have more holes in their security than a swisscheese or a colander, why the hell would I ever want one!?" and then I get called a 'Luddite' and any number of other names for not adopting such shitty technology -- regardless of the fact that practically every single day I read about yet another exploit someone discovered that can be used to take total and complete control of any smartphone. Then there's this story, which just confirms everything I've been seeing and saying all this time, and puts the final nail in the 'smartphone' coffin; why the ACTUAL FUCK would I want one of these gods-be-damned things, when it apparently is childs' play for any large corporation or government to slip a total spyware package into the gods-be-damned thing, and not only access everything on the phone, but watch and listen to every damned thing I do and track every single step I take, 24/7/365?
Oh, HELL NO.
I will never, never, EVER own a gods-be-damned 'smartphone', now or ever. I'd rather have NO cellphone and go back to using a landline and an answering machine, before carrying around something that's only one step removed from the monitoring anklet the cops put on people under house arrest.
Seriously, people: WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE ONE? Get rid of it. You don't NEED it. Get the cheapest dumb phone and leave it at that!
There will always be a market for lower-end appliances because there are poor people and will be more poor people in the future because of the downward spiral we're all in economy-wise; the 1% in control of 99% of the wealth of the world will just tighten their grip and DGAF about the 99%, just like always. So there will always be plain-old-refrigerators and TVs, and even if not there will be ways to activate and use them without internet, because poor people can't afford internet, now can they? Manufacturers don't like returns for things people can't use so there'll be a way to make the basic functionality work.
That's exactly why no one should be encouraged to buy such stupid things as an 'internet connected refrigerator' in the first place. This is 'technology' that NEEDS TO DIE QUICKLY. No one needs an 'internet connected refrigerator' in the first place, either. Also, fear not: There will always be a need for lower-end refrigerators because so many people are poor, and more people are going to be poor in the future. Even so, if you're stuck buying something that wants to be internet connected, they'll have to have some way for it to work normally without out, because poor immigrant families won't necessarily have internet -- so all you'd have to do is call them up and say you don't have and can't afford internet, and someone bought the refrigerator for you, and all your food is going to spoil how do I get this thing to work OMG my kids are going to starve!1!! and there'll be a way to make the damned thing work. Then you put tape over the camera(s) anyway and not worry about it. Manufacturers that get too many returns on crap like this because people literally can't use it are going to make sure it can work anyway.
designed to get people more used to having cameras and other sensory equipment all around them
Exactly, precisely this. Why the actual FUCK do you need cameras in your gods-be-damned refrigerator in the first place, and why the actual FUCK does it need to be connected to the Internet at all in the first place? This is more stupid, trendy, useless so-called 'internet of things' crap that has no real useful purpose -- except maybe as previously stated, to put more gods-be-damned surveillance in our lives. What's next? IoT toilet, that monitors your pooping? Sends directly to your doctor? TO HELL WITH THIS SHIT. Reject the so-called 'Internet of Things', it does nothing to enhance your life, all it does is create more ways for corporations and three-letter government agencies to track and monitor you and otherwise stick their noses into you personal, very-much-private lives. Them, them, fuck them, sideways with a rusty chainsaw.
2016:
Believing in 'god'
How's that two-digit IQ working for you? Is ignorance really bliss, like they say? I wouldn't know, LOL.
I've voted for public library funding every single time it comes around and I have zero regrets about it. Why don't you vote for it? Are you selfish?
Oh well gee I'm such a POOR BASTARD to not have an idetic, indellible memory that never fades like apparently you have. So you remember every single word of every single printed work you've ever read? Sounds boring. I'd rather come back to a book I haven't read in a few years and read it again because I enjoy it. Must be awful, only being able to enjoy something once, I pity you and your horrible, one-dimensional existence. Also you must be a terrible bore at parties, correcting people constantly when they get a single word wrong, quoting something, must be a horrible buzzkill for everyone, totally killing a conversation that way.
Until e-books are 100% DRM free and you truly own the copy you pay for (can't be changed or deleted buy anyone but you) and can always access it (no DRM to fail or to be denied by someone so you can't use it anymore) then e-books are a total FAIL and I'll NEVER pay even $0.01 for them. That being said: It will NEVER happen. There will always be some bullshit DRM or the ability for them to remove the copy you PAID for -- so you never own it, you're just RENTING it. I'll stick to printed books.
These people are counting teeth to see how many toes there are.
Like me, many people who read actual books (not the e-book troll you people fell for, LOL) KEEP THEM and read them again. You have enough of a library, you forget enough details that over time an old book is enjoyable again to rediscover the details within. That's why WE don't need to buy as many new books every year. I read dozens of books every year -- just not new ones all the time. I buy maybe a handful of new ones every year -- and KEEP THEM.
You're a jackass and need to have your shit slapped until you learn to not be a jackass anymore.
I'm not re-writing a previous comment that says exactly what I want to say to you, so read this comment.
the formats for e-books can be reversed engineered rather easily, no chance of them ever becoming unreadable. have a look at them sometime
Sure. And if you get caught doing that, or enabling someone else to do that, or distributing a way to do that, or even get caught with a decrypted, DRM-free version of something, you can be convicted of a federal crime, because of the insane copyright and DRM laws in this country. Hell, if they had their way, discussing the subject would be illegal. Nope, nope, nope. I'll stick with printed books. You have to break into my house and physically take those from me, or destroy them, or blind me so I can't read them. All actionable offenses.
But, you can carry around your entire library on a digital device until the author, publisher, distributor, DRM provider, or some nameless schmuck pushing the wrong button erases it from your e-book reader and then proceeds to deny you a refund, or decides to change the content, or otherwise denies you access to it.
There, fixed that for you and everyone else reading this thread.
When you make a digital 'purchase' (using the term loosely here), you never really OWN it, you're only RENTING it. It literally can be yanked out from under you with no notice and with no effort on their part, and you have effectively no recourse. A printed book? They have to break into your house and TAKE it from you physically.
Even as cynical as I can get, I still believe that there are some clear-headed, honest people in positions of authority in this country, that actually listen to their constituents, and that believe in fair play. Microsoft is arranging to have a monopoly on commerical computer operating systems. They're even showing signs of trying to annex Linux, or at least subvert it. I'm sure their long-term strategy also includes somehow annexing or destroying Apples' OS as well, with their ultimate goal being becoming the ONLY OS on the market. This, of course, must be stopped, especially considering the FACT that Windows 10 is just one gigantic spyware and data collection platform that furthermore takes ultimate control of the computer away from the person who paid for it, which is just plain wrong. In the interests of maintaining a free and open marketplace and not allowing competition to be stifled, someone will step up and say 'no'. Or at least I hope so. If not then we'll soon be living in a post-computer world, where you're just a gigantic sucker if you own one at all.
Smartphones are clunky, have a history of terrible security, and invades your privacy thanks to EVERYONE. If I was trying to sell a phone, I wouldn't want to be associated with Smartphones, either.
FTFY.
But seriously, folks.. my first impression about this? That manufacturers marketing departments think like this:
Android, LOL, we don't make that, right? That's that skeezy 'open source' thing, isn't it? LOL, don't even mention it, downplay it as much as you can, and talk up what we put on the phone, that's what the customers are paying for, otherwise they'll know we're ripping them off by charging them for something that doesn't cost us anything
Basically, I think manufacturers use Android like a $20 whore and DGAF, and try to make it look like their shitty bloatware apps are what are running the phone. That's what the average consumer sees, not the underlying OS, so that's what they think is running the phone. It's like your grandparents thinking that the monitor is the computer, not the box next to it on the desk.
My computer runs out of EPROMs and a RAMdisk-based filesystem that is completely and totally erased every time I turn the computer off WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW? xD
That's how I read it. It would still have to have lowest-common-denominator drivers, if for no other reason than to provide basic functionality during the install process, and if you just leave those you'll still have a functioning computer.
Of course, I still hold out hope that this is all temporary. Either Microsoft will, eventually, be called on the carpet for their anti-trust activities and their de-facto monopoly, or some other company will start marketing their own OS, capitalizing on how much Microsoft is pissing so many people off.