In case you forgot the other meaning: "fish by trailing a baited line along behind a boat. "we trolled for mackerel""
Many smart employers will advertise a job that doesn't exist. For instance, suppose that the IT department doesn't seem to be performing as well as expected. Maybe there are members who don't get along well or some ancient coders approaching the age of 30. There's no urgent need, but the boss runs an ad to see what turns up.
The ad costs little and can be farmed out to an agency. There could be some time consuming interviews if some outstanding applicants show up. All in all, little cost, little risk, and potentially an opportunity to replace an average worker with an outstanding one. Investors may see the talent search as a reason to buy more shares. If current employees discover that their jobs are threatened, they might improve. And if you do find that miracle applicant who can do the work of 3 existing slackers, you have won big!
Smart. Wouldn't you do it if you were responsible for maximizing profit?
Statistically, if one in ten operating managers uses this strategy, that might well account for the illusion that there are 6,000,000 jobs available.
Data gathering, like self-driving cars, is mostly hype. Buyers of advertising hope it is valid, but I don't see evidence that the data produces cost effective profits for them. The data is dirty to the point of being nearly useless.
Additionally, you can be certain that their data about you, as an individual, is largely in error. Just as the Annual Credit Reports are full of errors, and the No Fly List is full of errors, they just can't assemble their data coherently yet. If ever. They assume, for instance that your IP address is only used by you. That is until they find you purchasing women's wear, infant and adult diapers and men's motorcycle boots. How can they parse that information into a statistically valid conclusion?
It's safe to say that we can easily confuse all but the most dedicated trackers. Most users do without even trying.
My computer must be unique. I never have a problem with autoplay because I have a built in volume control that goes all the way to zero. It works in every browser and every program that makes noise. The control for this is just a short reach from my Delete key. In an emergency I can always press Cmd-W to immediately close the web page.
Is it possible that other computers offer such options?
We have ways to decentralize. We don't have the will to make it work. As already observed, we are moving toward a one-to-many relationship on the web. Google, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube etc harvest categories of information and harvest users who want that information.
Decentralizing requires us to return to a many-to-many relationship. The technology is almost ready. With bittorrent we have a beginning that could be further developed. Inherent redundancy would strongly resist tampering by powerful entities. Another technology is blockchain where ideas like LBRY can allow an alternate network that discourages monopolies. Slightly unrelated is the need for a flexible micropayment system, and again blockchain may become a good choice. All of these can free us of excessive corporate influence and government intrusion.
But how could we convince the drones using Facebook and Twitter to actually make an effort to move toward this brave new world? They are content in their blissful isolation.
Imagine that you give a TV to a teenager. This TV has 100 channels. Two of those channels are educational. 98 channels are sex, drugs, rock n roll. What is your teenager going to watch?
There is so much distraction with internet access that only a very disciplined person can make sensible choices all the time. I don't have the answer. Perhaps it involves parenting.
from TFS: "They play just as crucial a role in pollinating... [as honeybees]"
This seems to be an exaggeration. Mild for Slashdot, but extreme for scientists. My own anecdotal experience is that for every bumblebee I see, there are 1,000 honeybees. How can their work be comparable? And yes, I've seen a lot of bees during my time as agriculture inspector with the department of Food and Agriculture. This is a science story and the entire study is in doubt when such distorted language is used. This is the language of marketing people, not scientists. It's the kind of language you might expect from an outfit that has to capitalize every word in a headline, just as the hucksters did hawking newspapers in 1920. I hope it reflects another Slashdot edit failure and not the words of actual scientists.
From TFA: "If trucks at the back of the formation were able to automatically follow a lead vehicle, that could cut the need for drivers. "
In a tight enough formation it would also reduce wind resistance, greatly reducing energy consumption in following vehicles. Additionally, by alternating lead vehicles, total distance between battery charges would be vastly improved. This is how bird flocks can cover great distances.
But the result is that you have reinvented the freight train, with all the disadvantages of expensive energy robbing rubber tires, steep hills, city traffic, and the need to share the road with people like me. Look out!
I have a two character password for one important account. It wasn't important 15 years ago when I created it, but grew in value. Perhaps I should change it, but then I'd be among the millions of others using this service with 8+ character passwords. I'm pretty sure that if a hacker looked at my 2 character password, she would just assume that it was a fragment of some code.
"GoDaddy emerged as the only consumer website with a perfect score" - I hope they've improved; for years they consistently locked me out of my account, requiring calls to tech support. There is a practical limit to the number of obscure requirements for account access. Other companies require phone confirmation (I won't give them my phone #), email or text confirmation, etc. Is it necessary or simply a means to gather more marketable information about users?
Then there are companies who insist that your username or password is incorrect. Yes, the one you've been using all along. You have to go and create a new one (again, wait for a code via email). Then, when you use the same password, the system says you are not allowed to use the same password (it knew you had the correct password all along!). Somewhere behind the scenes is an Eichmann who delights in torturing users.
You see, I have this plan. It's exquisitely clever and diabolical. I hesitate to mention it because then everybody will want to do it, so don't tell anyone.
Sshh, here it is: I PLAN TO LIVE FOREVER ! And the best part is: SO FAR IT'S WORKING !
Conversation has degenerated into hundreds of complaints about PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. I guess nobody bothered to read the headline or TFS... LOCAL ELECTIONS.
But then, very few people educate themselves about local issues or candidates. Very few people even vote in those elections. And is seems that Slashdotters are no exception.
I've worked in elections and I can say that our local system is excellent. Poll workers are well trained and management is responsible and trustworthy. There may be other states/counties where management is less dependable (I'm thinking of Florida handing the election to Bush), but the reality is that hundreds of volunteer workers are not going to tolerate any shady practices. Furthermore, in an election with a number of candidates and issues, is it reasonable to believe that one of those can corrupt the entire process?
Our new president has made a major effort to find election irregularities and so far has come up empty.
My California city has more than 3,000 homeless people. They aren't getting rebates of $7,500 and $2,500. They aren't buying cars that cost $100,000. In fact every dollar that the government (taxpayer) gives to those rich people is a dollar that isn't helping people who could actually use it.
In the US, when you buy a house, you don't necessarily get the mineral rights. If there's gold or diamonds or oil under your house you may not have a valid claim to it. Are we to assume that cities, counties and other entities DO have rights to the land below them? How deep do those rights go?
As a practical matter, communities should not be concerned about activities far below them any more than activities in the air high above. Fracking being an obvious exception where it can cause earthquakes or damage the water table. OTOH if the tunnel is near building foundations, of course some caution is warranted. I haven't seen any indication of the depth of these tunnels.
I hope that Apple uses some discretion in choosing those manufacturers. The hearing aid industry is rife with ripoffs. Outrageous prices with no justification. High pressure sales techniques used against vulnerable seniors. There's a lot of talk recently about pharmaceutical ripoffs but this one has been going on for so long that it's forgotten.
Find a respectable manufacturer, Apple, if there is one.
Wow. This ranks right up there with the furious debate over which side of the toast should be buttered. Conservatives, of course, insist that it be the side they've always buttered, while liberals, deliberately non-conformist, insist it be the other. Will there ever be peace at the breakfast table?
Right. I'm trying to imagine a horde of meth users carefully disassembling a smartphone in a dark alley using a rusty pliers and a can opener. My imagination isn't quite up to the challenge. Yours?
https://www.theatlantic.com/ 3 trackers: 2 advertising, 1 analytics. Scripts from 12 sources on the home page. Content: primarily politics, some culture, science, tech, business, a poem, some in-depth analysis. No sports (yay!). It's not a terrible website.
The magazine was always a favorite of mine. In addition to the above there was creative writing, a bit of philosophy, and the cultural insights were among the best. I hope the future brings more.
It's very simple to create an alias to your existing outlook account. Don't ask me how, I did it yesterday and my memory doesn't reach that far. Perhaps a search for 'alias' in conjunction with 'outlook'. But there's more:
If your old email was xxx@outlook.com, and you create an alias called yyy@outlook.com, you can also make yyy your primary email address. All your MS account info remains the same- still only one password to deal with.
You may think I'm clever to have discovered this, but I'm not clever enough to get access to my MS email. For days I've been corresponding with Support to clear my account. Outlook.live.com tells me that I must submit a phone number to get a code to access my email. I don't have a phone that can receive a code. Support people are asking me to debug my browsers, try other computers... everything except fixing the web site. I'm pretty sure they want the phone number to add to their hoard of personal information.
Not just Muslims but all terrorists and troublemakers. College students and professors, hippies, hackers, union members, women, gays and anyone with an IQ above 70.
Now you can have five speaker devices from five different companies in each room of your home. Line them up alphabetically if you like. Decorate them for your favorite holidays. Cuss 'em out if they misbehave, but don't expect them to be useful.
New York City is built upon the North Atlantic Plate, a mass of solid rock extending from Canada and whose nearest boundary is in the mid Atlantic. The skyscrapers of the city have their foundations on that rock. It is difficult to imagine how the Boring machine would penetrate that mass. Certainly not at the affordable cost that has been mentioned here.
While there have been smallish earthquakes in the area, a tunnel through solid rock should be relatively immune to such disturbances. Tunneling through California might be more of a risky venture.
With 7 billion living humans, dead ones who missed the chatbot boat, and more new humans on the way, it would be a good thing to consider the practicality and usefulness of 'chatbots'.
It is possible that very few lives are worth recording. Of course yours is. But all those others? What did your neighbor accomplish that merits sharing with future generations? Your boss? Sure they were sweet, generous, loving people... like billions of others. But in what way were they special?
Some day we may be able to record the contents of a brain, possibly even reproduce its functionality. Is that the next step? Is it a wise thing to do for everyone?
We already have a lot of noise in our lives. We don't need more. Let the dead lie in peace. Give them the right to be forgotten.
Slashdot Mirror
In case you forgot the other meaning:
"fish by trailing a baited line along behind a boat. "we trolled for mackerel""
Many smart employers will advertise a job that doesn't exist. For instance, suppose that the IT department doesn't seem to be performing as well as expected. Maybe there are members who don't get along well or some ancient coders approaching the age of 30. There's no urgent need, but the boss runs an ad to see what turns up.
The ad costs little and can be farmed out to an agency. There could be some time consuming interviews if some outstanding applicants show up. All in all, little cost, little risk, and potentially an opportunity to replace an average worker with an outstanding one. Investors may see the talent search as a reason to buy more shares. If current employees discover that their jobs are threatened, they might improve. And if you do find that miracle applicant who can do the work of 3 existing slackers, you have won big!
Smart. Wouldn't you do it if you were responsible for maximizing profit?
Statistically, if one in ten operating managers uses this strategy, that might well account for the illusion that there are 6,000,000 jobs available.
oops
If you never hear from me again, you'll know what happened.
And let's not forget our friends running Israel who are quietly committing genocide while the US media looks elsewhere. But yeah, that iPhone!
Posting anon due to residing in USA, land of the free (so long as we keep our mouth shut).
Data gathering, like self-driving cars, is mostly hype. Buyers of advertising hope it is valid, but I don't see evidence that the data produces cost effective profits for them. The data is dirty to the point of being nearly useless.
Additionally, you can be certain that their data about you, as an individual, is largely in error. Just as the Annual Credit Reports are full of errors, and the No Fly List is full of errors, they just can't assemble their data coherently yet. If ever. They assume, for instance that your IP address is only used by you. That is until they find you purchasing women's wear, infant and adult diapers and men's motorcycle boots. How can they parse that information into a statistically valid conclusion?
It's safe to say that we can easily confuse all but the most dedicated trackers. Most users do without even trying.
My computer must be unique. I never have a problem with autoplay because I have a built in volume control that goes all the way to zero. It works in every browser and every program that makes noise. The control for this is just a short reach from my Delete key. In an emergency I can always press Cmd-W to immediately close the web page.
Is it possible that other computers offer such options?
We have ways to decentralize. We don't have the will to make it work. As already observed, we are moving toward a one-to-many relationship on the web. Google, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube etc harvest categories of information and harvest users who want that information.
Decentralizing requires us to return to a many-to-many relationship. The technology is almost ready. With bittorrent we have a beginning that could be further developed. Inherent redundancy would strongly resist tampering by powerful entities. Another technology is blockchain where ideas like LBRY can allow an alternate network that discourages monopolies. Slightly unrelated is the need for a flexible micropayment system, and again blockchain may become a good choice. All of these can free us of excessive corporate influence and government intrusion.
But how could we convince the drones using Facebook and Twitter to actually make an effort to move toward this brave new world? They are content in their blissful isolation.
Imagine that you give a TV to a teenager. This TV has 100 channels. Two of those channels are educational. 98 channels are sex, drugs, rock n roll. What is your teenager going to watch?
There is so much distraction with internet access that only a very disciplined person can make sensible choices all the time. I don't have the answer. Perhaps it involves parenting.
from TFS: "turned himself into the FBI"
Ah, yes ... reminds me of the magician who was walking down the street and turned into a convenience store.
Alternative wording- try "turned himself in to the FBI". Much less disruptive to law enforcement.
from TFS: "They play just as crucial a role in pollinating ... [as honeybees]"
This seems to be an exaggeration. Mild for Slashdot, but extreme for scientists. My own anecdotal experience is that for every bumblebee I see, there are 1,000 honeybees. How can their work be comparable? And yes, I've seen a lot of bees during my time as agriculture inspector with the department of Food and Agriculture. This is a science story and the entire study is in doubt when such distorted language is used. This is the language of marketing people, not scientists. It's the kind of language you might expect from an outfit that has to capitalize every word in a headline, just as the hucksters did hawking newspapers in 1920. I hope it reflects another Slashdot edit failure and not the words of actual scientists.
From TFA: "If trucks at the back of the formation were able to automatically follow a lead vehicle, that could cut the need for drivers. "
In a tight enough formation it would also reduce wind resistance, greatly reducing energy consumption in following vehicles. Additionally, by alternating lead vehicles, total distance between battery charges would be vastly improved. This is how bird flocks can cover great distances.
But the result is that you have reinvented the freight train, with all the disadvantages of expensive energy robbing rubber tires, steep hills, city traffic, and the need to share the road with people like me. Look out!
I have a two character password for one important account. It wasn't important 15 years ago when I created it, but grew in value. Perhaps I should change it, but then I'd be among the millions of others using this service with 8+ character passwords. I'm pretty sure that if a hacker looked at my 2 character password, she would just assume that it was a fragment of some code.
"GoDaddy emerged as the only consumer website with a perfect score" - I hope they've improved; for years they consistently locked me out of my account, requiring calls to tech support. There is a practical limit to the number of obscure requirements for account access. Other companies require phone confirmation (I won't give them my phone #), email or text confirmation, etc. Is it necessary or simply a means to gather more marketable information about users?
Then there are companies who insist that your username or password is incorrect. Yes, the one you've been using all along. You have to go and create a new one (again, wait for a code via email). Then, when you use the same password, the system says you are not allowed to use the same password (it knew you had the correct password all along!). Somewhere behind the scenes is an Eichmann who delights in torturing users.
You see, I have this plan. It's exquisitely clever and diabolical. I hesitate to mention it because then everybody will want to do it, so don't tell anyone.
Sshh, here it is: I PLAN TO LIVE FOREVER ! And the best part is: SO FAR IT'S WORKING !
Conversation has degenerated into hundreds of complaints about PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. I guess nobody bothered to read the headline or TFS ... LOCAL ELECTIONS.
But then, very few people educate themselves about local issues or candidates. Very few people even vote in those elections. And is seems that Slashdotters are no exception.
I've worked in elections and I can say that our local system is excellent. Poll workers are well trained and management is responsible and trustworthy. There may be other states/counties where management is less dependable (I'm thinking of Florida handing the election to Bush), but the reality is that hundreds of volunteer workers are not going to tolerate any shady practices. Furthermore, in an election with a number of candidates and issues, is it reasonable to believe that one of those can corrupt the entire process?
Our new president has made a major effort to find election irregularities and so far has come up empty.
My California city has more than 3,000 homeless people. They aren't getting rebates of $7,500 and $2,500. They aren't buying cars that cost $100,000. In fact every dollar that the government (taxpayer) gives to those rich people is a dollar that isn't helping people who could actually use it.
In the US, when you buy a house, you don't necessarily get the mineral rights. If there's gold or diamonds or oil under your house you may not have a valid claim to it. Are we to assume that cities, counties and other entities DO have rights to the land below them? How deep do those rights go?
As a practical matter, communities should not be concerned about activities far below them any more than activities in the air high above. Fracking being an obvious exception where it can cause earthquakes or damage the water table. OTOH if the tunnel is near building foundations, of course some caution is warranted. I haven't seen any indication of the depth of these tunnels.
I hope that Apple uses some discretion in choosing those manufacturers. The hearing aid industry is rife with ripoffs. Outrageous prices with no justification. High pressure sales techniques used against vulnerable seniors. There's a lot of talk recently about pharmaceutical ripoffs but this one has been going on for so long that it's forgotten.
Find a respectable manufacturer, Apple, if there is one.
Wow. This ranks right up there with the furious debate over which side of the toast should be buttered. Conservatives, of course, insist that it be the side they've always buttered, while liberals, deliberately non-conformist, insist it be the other. Will there ever be peace at the breakfast table?
Right. I'm trying to imagine a horde of meth users carefully disassembling a smartphone in a dark alley using a rusty pliers and a can opener. My imagination isn't quite up to the challenge. Yours?
https://www.theatlantic.com/ 3 trackers: 2 advertising, 1 analytics. Scripts from 12 sources on the home page. Content: primarily politics, some culture, science, tech, business, a poem, some in-depth analysis. No sports (yay!). It's not a terrible website.
The magazine was always a favorite of mine. In addition to the above there was creative writing, a bit of philosophy, and the cultural insights were among the best. I hope the future brings more.
It's very simple to create an alias to your existing outlook account. Don't ask me how, I did it yesterday and my memory doesn't reach that far. Perhaps a search for 'alias' in conjunction with 'outlook'. But there's more:
If your old email was xxx@outlook.com, and you create an alias called yyy@outlook.com, you can also make yyy your primary email address. All your MS account info remains the same- still only one password to deal with.
You may think I'm clever to have discovered this, but I'm not clever enough to get access to my MS email. For days I've been corresponding with Support to clear my account. Outlook.live.com tells me that I must submit a phone number to get a code to access my email. I don't have a phone that can receive a code. Support people are asking me to debug my browsers, try other computers ... everything except fixing the web site. I'm pretty sure they want the phone number to add to their hoard of personal information.
Not just Muslims but all terrorists and troublemakers. College students and professors, hippies, hackers, union members, women, gays and anyone with an IQ above 70.
Now you can have five speaker devices from five different companies in each room of your home. Line them up alphabetically if you like. Decorate them for your favorite holidays. Cuss 'em out if they misbehave, but don't expect them to be useful.
New York City is built upon the North Atlantic Plate, a mass of solid rock extending from Canada and whose nearest boundary is in the mid Atlantic. The skyscrapers of the city have their foundations on that rock. It is difficult to imagine how the Boring machine would penetrate that mass. Certainly not at the affordable cost that has been mentioned here.
While there have been smallish earthquakes in the area, a tunnel through solid rock should be relatively immune to such disturbances. Tunneling through California might be more of a risky venture.
With 7 billion living humans, dead ones who missed the chatbot boat, and more new humans on the way, it would be a good thing to consider the practicality and usefulness of 'chatbots'.
It is possible that very few lives are worth recording. Of course yours is. But all those others? What did your neighbor accomplish that merits sharing with future generations? Your boss? Sure they were sweet, generous, loving people ... like billions of others. But in what way were they special?
Some day we may be able to record the contents of a brain, possibly even reproduce its functionality. Is that the next step? Is it a wise thing to do for everyone?
We already have a lot of noise in our lives. We don't need more. Let the dead lie in peace. Give them the right to be forgotten.