That the rich can't hide was powerfully illustrated in "The Masque of the Red Death", a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. In it the wealthy and connected gathered at the abbey of Prince Prospero to get away from the common people succumbing to a plague outside the walls. But it is not so easy to cheat Death! http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The engineers and creatives who founded Google brought us powerful tools that made us more productive. Now, with money in the bank, they are hiring marketing people and MBAs and they are 'sprucing up their image' and trying to appeal to advertisers.
It's all going downhill at Google/Alphabet. Relax. Inhale deeply. Now rethink the plan.
"ever-increasing regulation and risk management requirements in the financial sector"
Thanks for the chuckle. Yes our government is getting really serious with those big financial institutions. Uh uh, no more 'too big to fail', no more sleazy derivative trading, no more unreasonable bonuses for criminal executives, no more microsecond supercomputer trades in the middle of the night... Strict regulation all around.
Y'know what? People have real I (intelligence), call it HI ? And humans are far more flexible in that than any machine. But even so they are a problem. When they try to help they usually just get in the way. The Boy Scout that wants to help an old lady cross the street is just a nuisance.
I liked Google search when it began. It offered information such as when a web page was published, cached images of the page, and other information that is rarely available now. Now it tries to be helpful by eliminating things I might not want and promoting things I might want. Fuck that. It was better before.
Siri and Ask Google are very convenient, usually helpful in my experience, but trust me, they will become obnoxious very soon. They've been an experiment; next phase is to be a commercial nuisance.
And of course the entire concept of AI is traditionally linked to government and military. Most of us now know that it is also part of the commercial master plan linked to financial, insurance, medical and other industries. Any benefit to an individual will be at the cost of privacy.
My suggestion for HI and AI is do as little as possible and don't get in my way.
I was a mail carrier way back when. A fairly laid back job that paid quite well. Then came UPS (and similar companies). Managers followed the drivers around with a stopwatch in the unending search for more efficiency. Notice how young and healthy the drivers are- they are athletes trying to keep ahead of that stopwatch. But they were paid fairly well, don't know about now. The US Post Office pays very poorly now.
So into this mix steps Amazon, the ultimate in efficiency. They will work their drivers to the bone and pay a pittance. And yes, same at Uber, same everywhere that unions have gone and EvilCorp has all the power.
TFS says "booster will have 127,800 kilonewtons of thrust, or 28,730,000 pounds of thrust"
Yes, there's more detail than the previous/. on this topic. But it's easy to get mired in detail while forgetting, you know, the forest for the trees.
So while others discuss/dispute the details; the people with a larger vision ask "Is this a reasonable proposition?" And the answer is... we will have to wait and see. It is futile to speculate at this very early stage, especially for those of us who are not experts in the appropriate sciences. Please constrain yourselves to your particular expertise.
Take a moment to consider whether any of us have any authority regarding this proposition. Is this not just another provocation for mental masturbation? Is it Slashdot clickbait?
Obviously all this is related to some inside joke in some obscure neighborhood on the internest. Since I'm not a denizen of this sub-division of the netisphere, I'm left out. But I do have something to contribute:
Certain portions of our world community claim special status based upon historical events. Anyone who says anything they don't like is subject to being labeled 'anti-Semitic' and being blackballed by certain elements of the Power Structure.
I look forward to the day when we can all see this labeling as the new McCarthyism. It's time to override the 'special status' of Israeli Jews and look critically at what they do and whether they are respectable citizens of the world. Are they deserving of billions of dollars in military support?
Before we were born there was a fascinating industry around stereoscopy. Stereographers would travel the earth snapping 3D images of interesting sights that could be viewed back home in a simple device similar to Google Cardboard. Stereo projections of still images are fun, but moving images in stereo can be breathtaking.
This Spectacles device should have two cameras for stereo. This is a public announcement of the idea, so don't try to patent it subsequently.
I don't believe there's an increase. My ten plus mailboxes get a total of 10 spams per week. Same or less than they got in the last century. Of the 10 spams, roughly 2 are from an annoying friend, 2 are from Trump affiliates, 2 have Chinese looking script, 3 are from small businesses. Most are the result of legitimate attempts to communicate but a typo in the address got me involved.
If I owned an internet security business, I suppose I'd want people panicking about spam or viruses. Could this be FUD?
Another problem with HP- if you run out of yellow (or any single color) you just can't print at all. Even your black only documents will refuse to print.
But the worst problem is tech support. God help you if you ever need that.
On the good side, when other brands were struggling with faulty paper handling, HP was flawless. Never a double sheet draw, never a jam, never a missed sheet, even with the duplex unit, even after it got old and full of crud. The sheet fed scanner sometimes struggled with odd sized or wrinkled pages, but usually worked ok.
"People like you... -> BARNEY Well... And you, -> UH, CLEM People who are alter..." (Firesign Theater, I Think We're all Bozos on this Bus)
No doubt companies have been fined and/or penalized in the courts for leaking information like this. And rightfully so, but has any executive ever been held responsible, paid a fine or done jail time? Corporations don't make decisions, humans do. They are responsible.
This would be a good time to go after Kellogg, General Mills, Wonder Bread, and all the other purveyors of starchy foods that begin to turn to sugar the moment they touch your tongue. Yes, extreme athletes, insomniacs and a few others will turn these carbohydrates into energy and muscle, while the rest of us turn carbs into fat.
The promoters start with the children and insidious advertisements for sugary cereals and high carb snacks. Children often don't immediately show the bad effects of excess carbohydrates. Once the children are hooked, they will remain so for the duration of their short lives. They can expect obesity, diabetes, dementia, other diseases, and a short lifespan.
This huge industry knows that, as well as the governments of the world, but lobbyists have suppressed and cast doubts on scientific proofs. How many millions of deaths are the result of this corporate greed? Remember that a corporation has only one mandate- to provide profits for the shareholders.
I'm one of those addicts. As I sit thinking how good a potato chip might be, or a tortilla chip; I settle for peanuts and the lesser satisfaction they give. It's 9PM and I avoid beer in favor of vodka with lemon water (no sugar). My diabetes is somewhat controlled, but when will I ever have a Ben & Jerry's ice cream again? I'm not happy about it because I grew up watching millions of advertisements promoting carbohydrates (and saying fat is bad). Turns out that's 100% backwards.
Brain surface area and cortical thickness seems to be more significant. The ability to measure surface area is improving (US National Institutes of Health PubMed): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm... And the relationship to intelligence is an ongoing study. Here's one approach: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
As the Martian says, brain size can be a factor but it's complicated.
funny phrase: "Crazy abuse of workers for profit will happen unless standards are imposed and enforced"
It's not crazy if it profits the abuser- just common sense. But it seems immoral. And standards are imposed, but this new concept has delayed proper legal analysis.
If I could enslave workers in a similar fashion and profit by it (to the tune of billions of shekels), I would be sorely tempted.
Don't these 'scientists' read science fiction? Don't they know history? Aren't they aware that European incursions into the New World killed millions with disease?
So we send microbes to presumably uninhabited planets. Fine, except for those that *are* inhabited. How will those foreign microbes effect the existing life forms? We have messed up enough planets already, let's stop here.
I expected yet another one of those articles that tell us that hackers can spy on us by studying the blinking lights around our houses. They can tell when our shaver is fully charged or when the flickering neon light in our power strip is about to pass on. They can tunnel in to the heart of our system software and plant worms that cause even more blinking until they drive us insane. Those hackers are shameful with their evil intentions.
Remind me please; are you the same person who whined and cried when Apple took away your precious floppy disk drive? There comes a time when you have to let go of the past.
Sometimes referred to as 'eugenics'. The idea that one group of people, due to some inherent superiority, should rule over others. Don't we all want to be in that group? Don't we fear that we are in the other group?
Robert Klark Graham, founder of the Nobel Sperm Bank, was fond of placing advertisements in various publications (particularly Mensa publications) that simply said "The smarter you are, the more children you should have."
On the surface, that seems a fine and sensible sentiment. But underlying it is the hidden opposite, unspoken "stupid people should not have children". In this century, no sensible person will speak this aloud, though they may think it.
Some might note that humanity has reversed the 'survival of the fittest' concept that is universal among other living organisms, by going to great lengths to protect and preserve the least fit among us. And allowing them to reproduce. The DNA pool of the human race now carries more disease and dysfunction than would have occurred had nature prevailed.
But soon we can begin to correct that. We need a bit more research, more investment, more government encouragement. When we begin modifying the DNA of individuals, there will be some 'test animal' humans, and after proven success the wealthy will be beneficiaries.
Then we face the reality that some may be able to enhance their bodies, minds, lifespan and that of their children according to their ability to pay, and others will continue to live in increasingly shabby circumstances. Are we approaching an even more extreme social imbalance?
"Snapchat Cuts Local Stories Curators in Strategy Shift for Live"
Does this make sense to anyone? There are words here that need to begin with a capital letter. There are words that should not. Without distinguishing between them the sentence is gibberish.
Early in the last century, publishers used capital letters liberally. Some headlines were in ALL CAPS. Their job was to sell newspapers and to do that they wanted to generate excitement.
Does this headline excite you? Does this headline sell newspapers? When will Slashdot join the 21st century?
I have seen dramatic evidence that genetically modified fruit flies can wipe out populations and save millions worth of crops. This works on organic farms as well because no poison spray is required. These GM flies don't kill other species, only their own.
The headline is crystal clear. Linux, Mac, Win 7-- fuggedaboudit.
Or is this another Slashdot clickbait? Ah, they are off the hook because they copied the clickbait at PCWorld. At least PCWorld had the decency to add this statement "But a change in Microsoftâ(TM)s support policy means that it will be only be officially supported by Windows 10." which seems to soften the misleading headline.
As most here agree, ways will be found to deploy these chips in a useful direction despite the monopolistic desires of Microsoft.
Those dasterdly demons. According to 'Have I Been Pwned', I've been pwned on three sites that I've never visited. Surely that requires some very sophisticated hacking. I was offered more detailed information in return for a donation/subscription.
Instead of such a drastic measure, consider using a different username and password for each account. That way a hack of one account is far less likely to effect the others. It may also be slightly more difficult for trackers to link all your activities, locations and perversions. As mentioned here countless times, a password manager makes this easy, safe and convenient. Additionally, if it is a "less important account", why would you care if it is hacked?
It is unfortunate that you need an 'account' to make a comment or even simply visit some sites. I'm not allowed to see most Fecebook pages because I don't have an account. Much of the account info you give is sold to data collectors, of course. Lots of paranoia among site owners too. A user moderated system as seen right here can go a long way to eliminate unwanted comments without the need for an 'account' or the site owner's detailed attention. Presumably these moderation systems will improve with time and other creative solutions will develop.
OTOH, anonymous surfing, as done with Tor Browser and similar systems, is making site access far more complex. Many sites require a Captcha in addition to account info before they will let you in. You may have to do a Captcha for each page you visit on a site. Some service providers, like your local library, may not even let you access the internet with Tor.
Slashdot Mirror
That the rich can't hide was powerfully illustrated in "The Masque of the Red Death", a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. In it the wealthy and connected gathered at the abbey of Prince Prospero to get away from the common people succumbing to a plague outside the walls. But it is not so easy to cheat Death!
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hy...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The engineers and creatives who founded Google brought us powerful tools that made us more productive. Now, with money in the bank, they are hiring marketing people and MBAs and they are 'sprucing up their image' and trying to appeal to advertisers.
It's all going downhill at Google/Alphabet. Relax. Inhale deeply. Now rethink the plan.
"ever-increasing regulation and risk management requirements in the financial sector"
Thanks for the chuckle. Yes our government is getting really serious with those big financial institutions. Uh uh, no more 'too big to fail', no more sleazy derivative trading, no more unreasonable bonuses for criminal executives, no more microsecond supercomputer trades in the middle of the night ... Strict regulation all around.
Y'know what? People have real I (intelligence), call it HI ? And humans are far more flexible in that than any machine. But even so they are a problem. When they try to help they usually just get in the way. The Boy Scout that wants to help an old lady cross the street is just a nuisance.
I liked Google search when it began. It offered information such as when a web page was published, cached images of the page, and other information that is rarely available now. Now it tries to be helpful by eliminating things I might not want and promoting things I might want. Fuck that. It was better before.
Siri and Ask Google are very convenient, usually helpful in my experience, but trust me, they will become obnoxious very soon. They've been an experiment; next phase is to be a commercial nuisance.
And of course the entire concept of AI is traditionally linked to government and military. Most of us now know that it is also part of the commercial master plan linked to financial, insurance, medical and other industries. Any benefit to an individual will be at the cost of privacy.
My suggestion for HI and AI is do as little as possible and don't get in my way.
First it was UPS...
I was a mail carrier way back when. A fairly laid back job that paid quite well. Then came UPS (and similar companies). Managers followed the drivers around with a stopwatch in the unending search for more efficiency. Notice how young and healthy the drivers are- they are athletes trying to keep ahead of that stopwatch. But they were paid fairly well, don't know about now. The US Post Office pays very poorly now.
So into this mix steps Amazon, the ultimate in efficiency. They will work their drivers to the bone and pay a pittance. And yes, same at Uber, same everywhere that unions have gone and EvilCorp has all the power.
TFS says "booster will have 127,800 kilonewtons of thrust, or 28,730,000 pounds of thrust"
Yes, there's more detail than the previous /. on this topic. But it's easy to get mired in detail while forgetting, you know, the forest for the trees.
So while others discuss/dispute the details; the people with a larger vision ask "Is this a reasonable proposition?" And the answer is ... we will have to wait and see. It is futile to speculate at this very early stage, especially for those of us who are not experts in the appropriate sciences. Please constrain yourselves to your particular expertise.
Take a moment to consider whether any of us have any authority regarding this proposition. Is this not just another provocation for mental masturbation? Is it Slashdot clickbait?
Obviously all this is related to some inside joke in some obscure neighborhood on the internest. Since I'm not a denizen of this sub-division of the netisphere, I'm left out. But I do have something to contribute:
Certain portions of our world community claim special status based upon historical events. Anyone who says anything they don't like is subject to being labeled 'anti-Semitic' and being blackballed by certain elements of the Power Structure.
I look forward to the day when we can all see this labeling as the new McCarthyism. It's time to override the 'special status' of Israeli Jews and look critically at what they do and whether they are respectable citizens of the world. Are they deserving of billions of dollars in military support?
Before we were born there was a fascinating industry around stereoscopy. Stereographers would travel the earth snapping 3D images of interesting sights that could be viewed back home in a simple device similar to Google Cardboard. Stereo projections of still images are fun, but moving images in stereo can be breathtaking.
This Spectacles device should have two cameras for stereo. This is a public announcement of the idea, so don't try to patent it subsequently.
I don't believe there's an increase. My ten plus mailboxes get a total of 10 spams per week. Same or less than they got in the last century. Of the 10 spams, roughly 2 are from an annoying friend, 2 are from Trump affiliates, 2 have Chinese looking script, 3 are from small businesses. Most are the result of legitimate attempts to communicate but a typo in the address got me involved.
If I owned an internet security business, I suppose I'd want people panicking about spam or viruses. Could this be FUD?
For a similar offer from Slashdot. Moderating is so yesterday, I want to be a Slashdot Hero !
Another problem with HP- if you run out of yellow (or any single color) you just can't print at all. Even your black only documents will refuse to print.
But the worst problem is tech support. God help you if you ever need that.
On the good side, when other brands were struggling with faulty paper handling, HP was flawless. Never a double sheet draw, never a jam, never a missed sheet, even with the duplex unit, even after it got old and full of crud. The sheet fed scanner sometimes struggled with odd sized or wrinkled pages, but usually worked ok.
"People like you...
-> BARNEY
Well...
And you,
-> UH, CLEM
People who are alter..." (Firesign Theater, I Think We're all Bozos on this Bus)
No doubt companies have been fined and/or penalized in the courts for leaking information like this. And rightfully so, but has any executive ever been held responsible, paid a fine or done jail time? Corporations don't make decisions, humans do. They are responsible.
This would be a good time to go after Kellogg, General Mills, Wonder Bread, and all the other purveyors of starchy foods that begin to turn to sugar the moment they touch your tongue. Yes, extreme athletes, insomniacs and a few others will turn these carbohydrates into energy and muscle, while the rest of us turn carbs into fat.
The promoters start with the children and insidious advertisements for sugary cereals and high carb snacks. Children often don't immediately show the bad effects of excess carbohydrates. Once the children are hooked, they will remain so for the duration of their short lives. They can expect obesity, diabetes, dementia, other diseases, and a short lifespan.
This huge industry knows that, as well as the governments of the world, but lobbyists have suppressed and cast doubts on scientific proofs. How many millions of deaths are the result of this corporate greed? Remember that a corporation has only one mandate- to provide profits for the shareholders.
I'm one of those addicts. As I sit thinking how good a potato chip might be, or a tortilla chip; I settle for peanuts and the lesser satisfaction they give. It's 9PM and I avoid beer in favor of vodka with lemon water (no sugar). My diabetes is somewhat controlled, but when will I ever have a Ben & Jerry's ice cream again? I'm not happy about it because I grew up watching millions of advertisements promoting carbohydrates (and saying fat is bad). Turns out that's 100% backwards.
Brain surface area and cortical thickness seems to be more significant. The ability to measure surface area is improving (US National Institutes of Health PubMed):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm...
And the relationship to intelligence is an ongoing study. Here's one approach:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
As the Martian says, brain size can be a factor but it's complicated.
funny phrase: "Crazy abuse of workers for profit will happen unless standards are imposed and enforced"
It's not crazy if it profits the abuser- just common sense. But it seems immoral. And standards are imposed, but this new concept has delayed proper legal analysis.
If I could enslave workers in a similar fashion and profit by it (to the tune of billions of shekels), I would be sorely tempted.
Don't these 'scientists' read science fiction? Don't they know history? Aren't they aware that European incursions into the New World killed millions with disease?
So we send microbes to presumably uninhabited planets. Fine, except for those that *are* inhabited. How will those foreign microbes effect the existing life forms? We have messed up enough planets already, let's stop here.
I expected yet another one of those articles that tell us that hackers can spy on us by studying the blinking lights around our houses. They can tell when our shaver is fully charged or when the flickering neon light in our power strip is about to pass on. They can tunnel in to the heart of our system software and plant worms that cause even more blinking until they drive us insane. Those hackers are shameful with their evil intentions.
Remind me please; are you the same person who whined and cried when Apple took away your precious floppy disk drive? There comes a time when you have to let go of the past.
it bears repeating.
Sometimes referred to as 'eugenics'. The idea that one group of people, due to some inherent superiority, should rule over others. Don't we all want to be in that group? Don't we fear that we are in the other group?
Robert Klark Graham, founder of the Nobel Sperm Bank, was fond of placing advertisements in various publications (particularly Mensa publications) that simply said "The smarter you are, the more children you should have."
On the surface, that seems a fine and sensible sentiment. But underlying it is the hidden opposite, unspoken "stupid people should not have children". In this century, no sensible person will speak this aloud, though they may think it.
Some might note that humanity has reversed the 'survival of the fittest' concept that is universal among other living organisms, by going to great lengths to protect and preserve the least fit among us. And allowing them to reproduce. The DNA pool of the human race now carries more disease and dysfunction than would have occurred had nature prevailed.
But soon we can begin to correct that. We need a bit more research, more investment, more government encouragement. When we begin modifying the DNA of individuals, there will be some 'test animal' humans, and after proven success the wealthy will be beneficiaries.
Then we face the reality that some may be able to enhance their bodies, minds, lifespan and that of their children according to their ability to pay, and others will continue to live in increasingly shabby circumstances. Are we approaching an even more extreme social imbalance?
"Snapchat Cuts Local Stories Curators in Strategy Shift for Live"
Does this make sense to anyone? There are words here that need to begin with a capital letter. There are words that should not. Without distinguishing between them the sentence is gibberish.
Early in the last century, publishers used capital letters liberally. Some headlines were in ALL CAPS. Their job was to sell newspapers and to do that they wanted to generate excitement.
Does this headline excite you? Does this headline sell newspapers? When will Slashdot join the 21st century?
I have seen dramatic evidence that genetically modified fruit flies can wipe out populations and save millions worth of crops. This works on organic farms as well because no poison spray is required. These GM flies don't kill other species, only their own.
So, where are the modified mosquitoes?
The headline is crystal clear. Linux, Mac, Win 7-- fuggedaboudit.
Or is this another Slashdot clickbait? Ah, they are off the hook because they copied the clickbait at PCWorld. At least PCWorld had the decency to add this statement "But a change in Microsoftâ(TM)s support policy means that it will be only be officially supported by Windows 10." which seems to soften the misleading headline.
As most here agree, ways will be found to deploy these chips in a useful direction despite the monopolistic desires of Microsoft.
Those dasterdly demons. According to 'Have I Been Pwned', I've been pwned on three sites that I've never visited. Surely that requires some very sophisticated hacking. I was offered more detailed information in return for a donation/subscription.
"time to get rid of the less important accounts"
Instead of such a drastic measure, consider using a different username and password for each account. That way a hack of one account is far less likely to effect the others. It may also be slightly more difficult for trackers to link all your activities, locations and perversions. As mentioned here countless times, a password manager makes this easy, safe and convenient. Additionally, if it is a "less important account", why would you care if it is hacked?
It is unfortunate that you need an 'account' to make a comment or even simply visit some sites. I'm not allowed to see most Fecebook pages because I don't have an account. Much of the account info you give is sold to data collectors, of course. Lots of paranoia among site owners too. A user moderated system as seen right here can go a long way to eliminate unwanted comments without the need for an 'account' or the site owner's detailed attention. Presumably these moderation systems will improve with time and other creative solutions will develop.
OTOH, anonymous surfing, as done with Tor Browser and similar systems, is making site access far more complex. Many sites require a Captcha in addition to account info before they will let you in. You may have to do a Captcha for each page you visit on a site. Some service providers, like your local library, may not even let you access the internet with Tor.