"Everybody knows the game is rigged" Leonard Cohen
Everything Steven Brill complained about here can be attributed to a neoliberal agenda. Think the 1% and their sycophants. While some are baby boomers, it would be wrong to say that all baby boomers are neoliberals and are therefore at fault. Most are too ignorant to even know what happened.
I could get into the weeds with this, but it would be at least as long at EditorDavid's post, and it would bore.
~
"Wealth, Mr Hobbes says, is Power" - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
Have the Libertarians left/.? Have they gone extinct already? This is a hot button issue for them. Is it left to a milquetoast jerk like me to misrepresent their arguments? Ah, crap.
The extinction alarmist thing is bullshit. Extinction is part of the ecological-evolutionary process, like the Permian mass extinction of 250 million years ago, where 90% of all species were lost. Besides, scientists are working on a fix. Until then, don't ask us to change our ways when there's a buck to be made. And don't expect us to go against the best part of human nature, greed. It's a John Smith 'Invisible Hand', 'The Marketplace Is Smarter', 'All For Self, Forgetting Everything Else' sort of thing.
Banal milquetoast platitudinous retort:
Since God told us to in Genesis 1:28, we have subdued the earth and have dominion over almost every living thing. And in our efforts to do good for ourselves, we may have brought about the eve of our own extinction, not to mention the extinction every other living thing. Unless we're smart enough to somehow transmute 'domination over every living thing' into 'stewardship of the biosphere', we are in danger of succumbing to our own devices, and turning the planet into a cinder.
Astronomers Discovered the Fastest-Growing Black Hole Ever Seen
Oxymoron that.
Scientists can't directly observe black holes with telescopes that detect x-rays, light, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. We can, however, infer the presence of black holes...
There's an eight year old neighbor happy with Linux Mint on my old laptop.
It's fast, has 32 and 64 bit processor support, 4 different versions (I installed xfce), intuitive, well supported, can set up parental controls, lots of downloadable kids' stuff... there's more but I'm already boring.
By now, it's obvious the state would rather we be vulnerable than to reduce or eliminate their cyber arsenal's abilities. They've turned our PCs, tablets, smart phones and TVs into surveillance devices. They see encryption as a threat. They have done nothing to adequately protect the power grid. Our electoral system is designed by law to keep hidden any evidence of successful vote tampering. Back doors, zero-days, and other things have been kept hidden even from their manufacturers, who would fix the problems if they were given a clue. For me, all this implies the state's objective is not just to attack bad guys foreign and domestic. But as to why they have put the entire public in a maze of unseen hazards, I can only guess.
Maybe this cyber minefield is an attempt to make a better capitalist democracy. Or maybe it's a sign of a government so broken, their problems so complicated and so convoluted, that security, freedom and democracy have been circumvented.
Then again, freedom from privacy doth 1984 make, and cyber weaponry makes for one macabre dystopia.
As long as the state emphasizes its ability to make cyber war at the expense of real security, we're boned.
Scientists are certain that the last detonation at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site vaporized a vast chamber of rock more than a quarter mile below Mount Mantap's summit, and created a chimney-like structure that could leak radioactive fallout into the air.
Before and after spaceborn monitoring, seismic readings, thermal imagery and radar snapshots reveal a complete 3-D surface displacement.
The only thing this site is good for now is to give Kim Jong-un a diplomatic trump card.
...have there been any credible studies that actually took a hard look at the implications of learning there is in fact intelligent life out there?
Who knows? Let's find out - it's a great opportunity to employ more scientists.
In fact, let's milk this for all its worth. Give biologists and zoologists 50 million to look for aliens amongst us. Another 50 million and geologists might discover if they've been here before.
Maybe if we convince those religious types that we might find Adam's tomb on Mars, where Jesus ascended to, and maybe even that portal to the 3rd sphere of heaven, science could be properly funded for generations to come. Hallelujah!
Security tech and it's mirror image, hacking, have been highly prized since 1943, when the codebreakers at Bletchey Park used a set of computers known as "Colossus" to gain unauthorized access to information in an encrypted system. They hacked Germany's best security technology, the Lorenz Sz 40/42 cipher machines, aka "Tunny".
Since then, technology and its security systems have evolved dramatically. But so has hacking. Tools stolen from the NSA are now in the hands of those they were fighting. One has to be pretty adroit to keep up with what's coming down the pike and find the right strategies and techniques to protect their stuff.
I see all this as technological Darwinism, an evolutionary fight for the survival of the fittest information systems, networks and telecommunications, ensuring all those proficient in IT security, which not so ironically includes hackers, a very comfortable living.
In "A Higher Loyality" James Comey says encription is "the hardest problem I encountered in government... The leaders of tech companies don't see the darkness the FBI sees. Our days are dominated by the hunt for people planning terrorist attacks, hurting children, and engaging in organized crime. We see humankind at its most depraved, day in and day out. Horrific, unthinkable acts are what the men and women of the FBI live, breathe, and try to stop. I found it appalling that the tech types couldn't see this." (pg 87, A Higher Loyalty by James Comey)
James Comey sees a darkness abroad and in the general public here, and wants the tools to get evidence against those bad actors. The problem is, of course, those tools work on the good and bad alike, turning us all into potential victims of a surveillance state. None of us are perfect. Encryption backdoors make Lavrentiy Beria's quote even more profoundly threatening: "Show me the man and I'll find you the crime."
I'm excited. I hope this "In Codice Ratio" technique will eventually be able to discover and read overwritten text. There's no better place to look for such things than the Vatican's Secret Archives. Something as stunning as the Archimedes Palimpsest, something that could change history as we know it might just be sitting on a shelf there, waiting to be found.
It's not business that's the problem. The problems are deregulation, negligence, inadequate safety standards, cost cutting, mistakes, ignorance, carelessness, indifference and disregard.
... So maybe business should pay to clean it up
It's a start. If the executives at fault lose their own money and go to jail, that would make a world of difference.
This proves that genealogy companies make their data available to law enforcement. Don't trust their privacy B.S.
Forgive me Alex Haley, but this also proves that law enforcement will use a family member's genetic profile to 'root' you out.
What's not proven is that this sort of genetic analysis is accurate enough to pass sentence on someone.
In 2017, Insider Edition used triplets' DNA samples to test several personal genomics companies. The results came back with differences over 10%. To put this in perspective, Chimpanzees and Bonobos have about a 99% genetic match with humans. Either these companies do not adhere to universal genetic testing standards, companies aren't testing accurately, or maybe those identical triplets are actually different species from one another.
Something else: only a court certified genetic expert could question this sort of evidence on the stand. But doing so could open up the floodgates of trouble for not just those labs, but law enforcement and the courts alike. I suspect they would rather find an innocent person guilty than question the validity of genetic profile matching.
A statement is not scientific if it can't conceivably be proven wrong empirically.
Testability is why I trust science to be the basis for EPA regulations and environmental laws.
But instead of relying on science, our political system lets companies write the laws and regulations that govern them. As a result, we get abominations like polluted water in Flint MI, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
Before releasing something into the water supply, samples should be tested for contaminants. And if those samples don't make the grade, those responsible need to be held accountable. Making discharge safe typically involves diluting it to approved contaminant levels before releasing it into the water supply. Simple, really.
There are labs that can and do test discharge samples for a plethora of contaminants, acidity, color, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, etc. But they don't test for everything that might be dangerous - prescription drugs for example. These sort of things need to be put right before they are put in our water. But it won't happen if science doesn't make the rules and regulators don't enforce those rules.
Because science and technology can verifiably be used to clean up the environment, whereas politics demonstratively won't, I propose replacing Scott Pruitt with AI. If AI is good enough for the CIA, it's gotta be better for the environment than a corrupt political lackey.
Interviewer: "Are you ruled by expedience? Maybe there's a reason to kill all humans. They're just ugly sacks of mostly water, monsters actually, and one of them looked at you funny."
Psycho-electric weapons are about as possible as a 9 volt thinking cap.
Sally Adee, a reporter for 'New Scientist', writes about how the US military strapped electrodes to her head during sniper training that put her in a mental state of effortless concentration known as "flow", and was a short cut to becoming an expert sniper*.
If they can do the one, I won't be surprised if they can do the other. Won't be surprised if I'm wrong either.
AI has the potential to make the dishonest and sleazy practices that led to the Great Recession of 2008 look bush-league, bring about a worldwide economic crisis the likes of which has never been seen - and yet still make the banksters rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
Fear of Kaspersky Lab's alleged ties to Russian Intelligence has raised the FUD* in me. If this is fake news, kudos to whoever for making malware that this antivirus company can't protect itself from.
1. Make an pre-announcement to popular geek sites - like you just did here. When it's ready, get both your targeted audience and vaunted coders to review the beast on those sites.
2. Make a WEB site like PHP.net or SQLite.org, with announcements, news, conference and event dates, examples, comments, downloads, documentation, Q&A, important people info, email, sponsor and donation links, and thanks.
3. Create a 501(c)(3) organization. If you want a viable community, it's gonna cost money. And tax-exempt is good for both you and your donors.
4. Do what docker did, have a URL pointing to a QC'd step-by-step user-interface that lets the visitor create a simple little example, easy to grok, showing the language's power and potential.
5. YouTube tutorials, starting with a beginner-friendly instructor who goes into an overview of the language's virtues, then writes and runs the obligatory 'Hello World!'. Next, the tutor explains the awesomeness of the language. The other tutorials that follow should have a similar format - somehow this makes it easier on the student.
--
In writing a new language, what are you going for? Is there something missing from the plethora of languages out there now? What are the newbie's virtues and problems? Simplicity? Completeness? Is the language completely or partially objective? Are there tools to write code with? Plugins for things like Vim? Does it have garbage collection? Compiled? JIT? What's the programming paradigm - is it tightly structured? Are there dependencies? Is this a server side language? How insulated is it from being hacked?
Many developers are legitimately concerned about the long, lingering Oracle v. Google legal case. Once considered 'fair use', you now might be sued over API 'misuse'. With that in mind, is there anything programmers should be worried about in this new language?
Back in '98, almost everything Windows sucked, clouds or no. Jeez, back then, I rebooted to DOS to run games. All things considered, MS Mail worked as expected. It did suck. It wasn't Outlook, but YGWYPF.
I've always thought Microsoft's had a responsibility to fix its products' problems, MS Mail included. I stand corrected.
Slashdot Mirror
"Everybody knows the game is rigged" Leonard Cohen
Everything Steven Brill complained about here can be attributed to a neoliberal agenda. Think the 1% and their sycophants. While some are baby boomers, it would be wrong to say that all baby boomers are neoliberals and are therefore at fault. Most are too ignorant to even know what happened.
I could get into the weeds with this, but it would be at least as long at EditorDavid's post, and it would bore.
~
"Wealth, Mr Hobbes says, is Power" - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
The extinction alarmist thing is bullshit. Extinction is part of the ecological-evolutionary process, like the Permian mass extinction of 250 million years ago, where 90% of all species were lost. Besides, scientists are working on a fix. Until then, don't ask us to change our ways when there's a buck to be made. And don't expect us to go against the best part of human nature, greed. It's a John Smith 'Invisible Hand', 'The Marketplace Is Smarter', 'All For Self, Forgetting Everything Else' sort of thing.
Banal milquetoast platitudinous retort:
Since God told us to in Genesis 1:28, we have subdued the earth and have dominion over almost every living thing. And in our efforts to do good for ourselves, we may have brought about the eve of our own extinction, not to mention the extinction every other living thing. Unless we're smart enough to somehow transmute 'domination over every living thing' into 'stewardship of the biosphere', we are in danger of succumbing to our own devices, and turning the planet into a cinder.
Astronomers Discovered the Fastest-Growing Black Hole Ever Seen
Oxymoron that.
Scientists can't directly observe black holes with telescopes that detect x-rays, light, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. We can, however, infer the presence of black holes...
https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/black-holes
one search engine to find them
One search engine to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them
It's fast, has 32 and 64 bit processor support, 4 different versions (I installed xfce), intuitive, well supported, can set up parental controls, lots of downloadable kids' stuff... there's more but I'm already boring.
Linux Mint
Maybe this cyber minefield is an attempt to make a better capitalist democracy. Or maybe it's a sign of a government so broken, their problems so complicated and so convoluted, that security, freedom and democracy have been circumvented.
Then again, freedom from privacy doth 1984 make, and cyber weaponry makes for one macabre dystopia.
As long as the state emphasizes its ability to make cyber war at the expense of real security, we're boned.
The only thing this site is good for now is to give Kim Jong-un a diplomatic trump card.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2143171/north-koreas-nuclear-test-site-has-collapsed-and-may-be-why-kim-jong-un
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/958444/North-Korea-nuclear-missile-nuke-bomb-Punggye-ri-test-site
I'll remember this come November. Ending Net Neutrality is a call to arms AFAIC.
Ah, come on, they'd buy evolution if the Heritage Foundation was willing to sell it.
...have there been any credible studies that actually took a hard look at the implications of learning there is in fact intelligent life out there?
Who knows? Let's find out - it's a great opportunity to employ more scientists. In fact, let's milk this for all its worth. Give biologists and zoologists 50 million to look for aliens amongst us. Another 50 million and geologists might discover if they've been here before. Maybe if we convince those religious types that we might find Adam's tomb on Mars, where Jesus ascended to, and maybe even that portal to the 3rd sphere of heaven, science could be properly funded for generations to come. Hallelujah!
I really hope they don't try to tax gravity. I try to be funny, God knows, but I left it all at home today.
Since then, technology and its security systems have evolved dramatically. But so has hacking. Tools stolen from the NSA are now in the hands of those they were fighting. One has to be pretty adroit to keep up with what's coming down the pike and find the right strategies and techniques to protect their stuff.
I see all this as technological Darwinism, an evolutionary fight for the survival of the fittest information systems, networks and telecommunications, ensuring all those proficient in IT security, which not so ironically includes hackers, a very comfortable living.
James Comey sees a darkness abroad and in the general public here, and wants the tools to get evidence against those bad actors. The problem is, of course, those tools work on the good and bad alike, turning us all into potential victims of a surveillance state. None of us are perfect. Encryption backdoors make Lavrentiy Beria's quote even more profoundly threatening: "Show me the man and I'll find you the crime."
I'm excited. I hope this "In Codice Ratio" technique will eventually be able to discover and read overwritten text. There's no better place to look for such things than the Vatican's Secret Archives. Something as stunning as the Archimedes Palimpsest, something that could change history as we know it might just be sitting on a shelf there, waiting to be found.
Pollution is the cost of doing business...
It's not business that's the problem. The problems are deregulation, negligence, inadequate safety standards, cost cutting, mistakes, ignorance, carelessness, indifference and disregard.
... So maybe business should pay to clean it up
It's a start. If the executives at fault lose their own money and go to jail, that would make a world of difference.
In 2017, Insider Edition used triplets' DNA samples to test several personal genomics companies. The results came back with differences over 10%. To put this in perspective, Chimpanzees and Bonobos have about a 99% genetic match with humans. Either these companies do not adhere to universal genetic testing standards, companies aren't testing accurately, or maybe those identical triplets are actually different species from one another.
Something else: only a court certified genetic expert could question this sort of evidence on the stand. But doing so could open up the floodgates of trouble for not just those labs, but law enforcement and the courts alike. I suspect they would rather find an innocent person guilty than question the validity of genetic profile matching.
--
https://www.insideedition.com/...
http://www.sciencemag.org/news...
In 1928, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk moved Turkey to a Latin based alphabet, replacing the Ottoman Turkish alphabet.
But instead of relying on science, our political system lets companies write the laws and regulations that govern them. As a result, we get abominations like polluted water in Flint MI, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
Before releasing something into the water supply, samples should be tested for contaminants. And if those samples don't make the grade, those responsible need to be held accountable. Making discharge safe typically involves diluting it to approved contaminant levels before releasing it into the water supply. Simple, really. There are labs that can and do test discharge samples for a plethora of contaminants, acidity, color, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, etc. But they don't test for everything that might be dangerous - prescription drugs for example. These sort of things need to be put right before they are put in our water. But it won't happen if science doesn't make the rules and regulators don't enforce those rules.
Because science and technology can verifiably be used to clean up the environment, whereas politics demonstratively won't, I propose replacing Scott Pruitt with AI. If AI is good enough for the CIA, it's gotta be better for the environment than a corrupt political lackey.
--
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/what-lies-upstream/
Interviewee: "Whaaa..."
Interviewer: "Who's next?"
How about 'binaural beats'? No electricity involved, just sound.
Got a point...
Binaural Beats Bleat Bicameral Brains
Entrain with rhythms dicotomous
Penetrates even the sane
and in the end, in the main
Reins transcendent consciousness
Sally Adee, a reporter for 'New Scientist', writes about how the US military strapped electrodes to her head during sniper training that put her in a mental state of effortless concentration known as "flow", and was a short cut to becoming an expert sniper*.
If they can do the one, I won't be surprised if they can do the other. Won't be surprised if I'm wrong either.
*http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/02/09/better-living-through-electrochemistry/
(paywalled) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328501-600-zap-your-brain-into-the-zone-fast-track-to-pure-focus/
AI has the potential to make the dishonest and sleazy practices that led to the Great Recession of 2008 look bush-league, bring about a worldwide economic crisis the likes of which has never been seen - and yet still make the banksters rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
*FUD - Fear, Uncertainity and Doubt.
1. Make an pre-announcement to popular geek sites - like you just did here. When it's ready, get both your targeted audience and vaunted coders to review the beast on those sites.
2. Make a WEB site like PHP.net or SQLite.org, with announcements, news, conference and event dates, examples, comments, downloads, documentation, Q&A, important people info, email, sponsor and donation links, and thanks.
3. Create a 501(c)(3) organization. If you want a viable community, it's gonna cost money. And tax-exempt is good for both you and your donors.
4. Do what docker did, have a URL pointing to a QC'd step-by-step user-interface that lets the visitor create a simple little example, easy to grok, showing the language's power and potential.
5. YouTube tutorials, starting with a beginner-friendly instructor who goes into an overview of the language's virtues, then writes and runs the obligatory 'Hello World!'. Next, the tutor explains the awesomeness of the language. The other tutorials that follow should have a similar format - somehow this makes it easier on the student.
--
In writing a new language, what are you going for? Is there something missing from the plethora of languages out there now? What are the newbie's virtues and problems? Simplicity? Completeness? Is the language completely or partially objective? Are there tools to write code with? Plugins for things like Vim? Does it have garbage collection? Compiled? JIT? What's the programming paradigm - is it tightly structured? Are there dependencies? Is this a server side language? How insulated is it from being hacked?
Many developers are legitimately concerned about the long, lingering Oracle v. Google legal case. Once considered 'fair use', you now might be sued over API 'misuse'. With that in mind, is there anything programmers should be worried about in this new language?
I've always thought Microsoft's had a responsibility to fix its products' problems, MS Mail included. I stand corrected.