It isn't crazy at all. Read some better European newspapers. The EU types are right now trying to figure out how to handle the torrent of invective and propaganda coming out of a few troll factories operating out of Russia. They have hard documentation on this.
The FaceBook set are now able to send text messages? Wasn't bad enough that they were poking, prodding and, in general, annoying the F**K out of one another. Now they can like me and friend me by SMS too!!! I can just see Zuck harvesting names and phone numbers for use by his FaceBook hordes to reach out and assimilate us non-members.
Don't believe me? I recall quite clearly when FaceBook harvested data from domain registries and other sources to use in creating millions of FaceBook business pages, including one for my business, without my permission mind. Following that I was hounded to "claim my page". I did claim it and then went through all the nonsense it actually takes to delete a FaceBook account permanently.
These #%^@#$@# new-economy types have no scruples, ethics or honor.
Do a little reading and you'll find that the Chinese are busy stealing all of our technology and preparing themselves to take out our infrastructure (power-grid, banking, etc.). On the other front the Russians are actively engaging in political sabotage via all means from hordes of message forum trolls to active hacking. Don't think that the upcoming "Brexit" vote isn't being watched with great interest, and actively promoted by the Russians. I remember a few years ago Putin predicting that we'd be in a civil war here in the states by about now. Don't think for a moment that he doesn't have a bunch of shills working the interwebs for Russian interests in fomenting unrest and discontent right here and now.
Weren't these folks the same ones that pioneered importing everything from China back when? Now, everyone has to do it to remain "competitive". Now, robots staffing the warehouses, what next? Will they also replace the single employee that covers pretty much the entire sales floor with custom Cortana based customer service bots?
At the end of this mad race to the bottom we call capitalism who will be left with jobs so they can, you know, shop at Wal-Mart?
Samsung, in general, have proven to me that they are not interested in after-the-sale product support. My first, and only, Samsung phone (early Android) saw no more updates within a year after its release date. The $1000 Samsung laptop I bought for Christmas in 2012 with Windows 7 never saw a proper set of Windows 8/8.1 drivers and there are no Windows 10 drivers at all.
If enough people in China get pissed off, the government may decide to lean on Microsoft for this. What I'm really wondering though, is why the EU hasn't come down on them like a megaton of bricks for this crap. They're usually pretty good about dropping the hammer on stupid sh*t like this.
The kids in Brussels are busy doing Google right now. Give them a few months or a year and they'll get around to Microsoft & GWX. It'll be too late to make any difference to us but the folks in Brussels will be collecting the fine from Microsoft and swimming in all those sweet Euros not too far down the road.
Fast food automation? Well yes and no. A human grabs the bag/box of frozen fries and scoops some into the basket. Then the human pushes a button to say fries and the basket lowers into the hot oil for a preset time period and raises back up at the end of it. This allows the restaurant to take human skill/error out of the cooking process. The human empties the basket into a pan, applies seasoning and proceeds to bag as ordered. Someone still has to stock that freezer, empty used oil, clean the fryer and refill with fresh oil. Stock bags and seasoning, remove and replace same. This is all just for fries. It would seem that there'd be a lot of effort and capital required to automate all of that.
Think about coffee from a vending machine. Other than stocking and servicing the machine now and then it is pretty well automated. I won't drink the swill it vends and neither do tens of millions of other Starbucks customers. So, good luck McDonalds with dumping human employees.
2) I will never, ever eat anywhere that has dumped humans in favor of robots.
Business people need to recall that without employees there aren't customers. When we get to the point that robots are doing everything who will be buying your products?
Juries everywhere are stupid. After all they are selected at random from the general population then most of the smart ones weasel out of serving. That leaves you with stupid, lonely and bored.
The problem is more insidious than that. It seems that the local Federal judges, drawn from the local lawyers, and those remaining local lawyers have made it something of a cottage industry. None of them are lacking for work. The real estate types renting local offices so companies can claim they are local when they file suit are in on it. Don't forget all the local hotels and restaurants either.
I don't believe for one minute that humans discarded in favor of AI, robotics and other new forms of automation will be whiling away their days. Rather, there will be widespread poverty and privation as the investor class reaps more profit and a small number of middle class professionals (doctor, lawyers, bankers) and working class drones (servants, personal trainers, etc.) fulfill their needs.
1) Offer unlimited internet with no data caps if you will only subscribe to the TV service.
2) Wait a few months.
3) Reduce the data caps on everyone who doesn't take the TV service to some arbitrarily low number.
4) Wait a few months.
5) Raise the price on all services.
6) Wait a few months.
7) Put data caps back on everyone, perhaps a bit higher for TV subscribers.
8) Wait a few months. ...
Sorry, I would disagree that the Go playing computer is coming up with any original ideas. It is a very complex expert system. It might even remember tactics used in the game against it and "learn". It is all still the result of pre-programmed algorithms. One could examine the inputs, and knowing the programming, predict the computer's behavior.
When the Go playing computer decides to take the day off or engage in some other behavior that was never contemplated by its programming we can talk.
I agree. I'm tired of AI this and AI that. At best we're getting to expert systems that are tied to speech and sight recognition. When one of these "AI" thingies can come up with an original idea and implement new behavior as a result, we might be getting there.
I buy as much stuff off Amazon as anyone but I have learned one thing. Pay careful attention to who is actually selling the product. Amazon is full of brand-names you've never heard of (and might never again), ditto vendors. If it isn't a recognized name brand and sold by Amazon itself I don't buy it. More often lately, I am trying to be a lot less lazy and actually going to the various manufacturer or big-name vendor's web sites directly.
With security camera systems there seems to be a lot of product on offer through 3rd parties rather than manufacturer direct.
Well, I would imagine that Samsung already scrapes all the data they can from their Galaxy phones running their customized versions of Android. You know the Chinese manufacturers already include the government mandated backdoor. So their silence on the matter is no major surprise. It is hard to tell someone you can't give them a cookie when they can see your hand in the cookie jar.
Google's recent statement is nice to see and a bit surprising as we all know they capture every single byte of your data for analysis in order to server you tastier adverts. On the other hand they'll never be asked to unlock a secure phone as they wouldn't need to actually unlock it...
I recall that it wasn't all that long ago that disassembling an HP All-In-One past a certain point would brick the FAX function. Some tripe about preventing nonsense on the phone system.
On the other hand, if Apple expects people to have secure repairs done then they need to make sure there are authorized repair facilities conveniently situated wherever they sell their phones.
Big companies like Google, Apple, Intel, etc. buy companies for access to their technology, for their patents and sometimes for their personnel. It is almost the normal thing for the purchased companies to be absorbed and their services to wound down. Google wants you to use nearly spam free G-Mail, not your own mail server or local ISP's mail service, so why would they continue offering a standalone anti-spam service? McAfee sells anti-spam as part of their security suites, why on earth would they sell the anti-spam service they've bought as an independent service under someone else's name?
Intel? Well who knows what goes on at Intel. My guess is that one management committee doesn't know what the other management committee is doing and haven't for decades now. Ditto Microsoft, IBM, etc.
"So, every time the balance of power shifts, the new legislature/administration immediately cancels the space program decided upon by the previous administration/legislature"
Well then, you are in luck!
Obama wanted to cancel manned space exploration and shift support of the existing ISS to a commercial, contracted manned taxi service. Instead a bipartisan, manned space exploration program, beginning with development of the SLS was mandated by Congress. Obama got some money for commercial manned space taxis too.
The only thing I see changing, regardless of who the next president is, might be joining the Europeans in going to the moon and putting Mars on the back burner, where IMHO, it belongs.
Just one more example of how giant, multi-national corporations are increasing their stranglehold on governance of western countries. Can you image taking a family picture in your own home that happened to include some stupid designer chair or couch, then posting to FaceBook to share with your relatives, only to get a DMCA takedown notice to remove it or else? What if that was the last pic of dear old Aunt Granny that you ever took??
From what I understand, you can't post a vacation picture of the Eiffel Tower at night because there's a copyright on the evening light show. Ditto a number of other designer buildings in Europe, day or night.
It is enough to put one off of capitalism in general and the modern implementation of it in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia, etc. in particular. What has happened to the public good or the commonwealth?
Slashdot Mirror
It isn't crazy at all. Read some better European newspapers. The EU types are right now trying to figure out how to handle the torrent of invective and propaganda coming out of a few troll factories operating out of Russia. They have hard documentation on this.
The FaceBook set are now able to send text messages? Wasn't bad enough that they were poking, prodding and, in general, annoying the F**K out of one another. Now they can like me and friend me by SMS too!!! I can just see Zuck harvesting names and phone numbers for use by his FaceBook hordes to reach out and assimilate us non-members.
Don't believe me? I recall quite clearly when FaceBook harvested data from domain registries and other sources to use in creating millions of FaceBook business pages, including one for my business, without my permission mind. Following that I was hounded to "claim my page". I did claim it and then went through all the nonsense it actually takes to delete a FaceBook account permanently.
These #%^@#$@# new-economy types have no scruples, ethics or honor.
Do a little reading and you'll find that the Chinese are busy stealing all of our technology and preparing themselves to take out our infrastructure (power-grid, banking, etc.). On the other front the Russians are actively engaging in political sabotage via all means from hordes of message forum trolls to active hacking. Don't think that the upcoming "Brexit" vote isn't being watched with great interest, and actively promoted by the Russians. I remember a few years ago Putin predicting that we'd be in a civil war here in the states by about now. Don't think for a moment that he doesn't have a bunch of shills working the interwebs for Russian interests in fomenting unrest and discontent right here and now.
Weren't these folks the same ones that pioneered importing everything from China back when? Now, everyone has to do it to remain "competitive". Now, robots staffing the warehouses, what next? Will they also replace the single employee that covers pretty much the entire sales floor with custom Cortana based customer service bots?
At the end of this mad race to the bottom we call capitalism who will be left with jobs so they can, you know, shop at Wal-Mart?
Samsung, in general, have proven to me that they are not interested in after-the-sale product support. My first, and only, Samsung phone (early Android) saw no more updates within a year after its release date. The $1000 Samsung laptop I bought for Christmas in 2012 with Windows 7 never saw a proper set of Windows 8/8.1 drivers and there are no Windows 10 drivers at all.
It looks like my FreeNAS box is running on top of FreeBSD. Does that not count?
If enough people in China get pissed off, the government may decide to lean on Microsoft for this. What I'm really wondering though, is why the EU hasn't come down on them like a megaton of bricks for this crap. They're usually pretty good about dropping the hammer on stupid sh*t like this.
The kids in Brussels are busy doing Google right now. Give them a few months or a year and they'll get around to Microsoft & GWX. It'll be too late to make any difference to us but the folks in Brussels will be collecting the fine from Microsoft and swimming in all those sweet Euros not too far down the road.
KB3035583 is appearing as a pre-checked, IMPORTANT update on many systems I am working on in my shop. WTF??
Fast food automation? Well yes and no. A human grabs the bag/box of frozen fries and scoops some into the basket. Then the human pushes a button to say fries and the basket lowers into the hot oil for a preset time period and raises back up at the end of it. This allows the restaurant to take human skill/error out of the cooking process. The human empties the basket into a pan, applies seasoning and proceeds to bag as ordered. Someone still has to stock that freezer, empty used oil, clean the fryer and refill with fresh oil. Stock bags and seasoning, remove and replace same. This is all just for fries. It would seem that there'd be a lot of effort and capital required to automate all of that.
Think about coffee from a vending machine. Other than stocking and servicing the machine now and then it is pretty well automated. I won't drink the swill it vends and neither do tens of millions of other Starbucks customers. So, good luck McDonalds with dumping human employees.
1) I never, ever eat at McDonalds/
2) I will never, ever eat anywhere that has dumped humans in favor of robots.
Business people need to recall that without employees there aren't customers. When we get to the point that robots are doing everything who will be buying your products?
Juries everywhere are stupid. After all they are selected at random from the general population then most of the smart ones weasel out of serving. That leaves you with stupid, lonely and bored.
The problem is more insidious than that. It seems that the local Federal judges, drawn from the local lawyers, and those remaining local lawyers have made it something of a cottage industry. None of them are lacking for work. The real estate types renting local offices so companies can claim they are local when they file suit are in on it. Don't forget all the local hotels and restaurants either.
Pretty sure that Apple already bought Ireland. That is where all of their profit is declared and then barely taxed at all. Sweet deal, that.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do own a lot of Apple products.
I don't believe for one minute that humans discarded in favor of AI, robotics and other new forms of automation will be whiling away their days. Rather, there will be widespread poverty and privation as the investor class reaps more profit and a small number of middle class professionals (doctor, lawyers, bankers) and working class drones (servants, personal trainers, etc.) fulfill their needs.
1) Offer unlimited internet with no data caps if you will only subscribe to the TV service.
...
2) Wait a few months.
3) Reduce the data caps on everyone who doesn't take the TV service to some arbitrarily low number.
4) Wait a few months.
5) Raise the price on all services.
6) Wait a few months.
7) Put data caps back on everyone, perhaps a bit higher for TV subscribers.
8) Wait a few months.
Sorry, I would disagree that the Go playing computer is coming up with any original ideas. It is a very complex expert system. It might even remember tactics used in the game against it and "learn". It is all still the result of pre-programmed algorithms. One could examine the inputs, and knowing the programming, predict the computer's behavior. When the Go playing computer decides to take the day off or engage in some other behavior that was never contemplated by its programming we can talk.
I agree. I'm tired of AI this and AI that. At best we're getting to expert systems that are tied to speech and sight recognition. When one of these "AI" thingies can come up with an original idea and implement new behavior as a result, we might be getting there.
I buy as much stuff off Amazon as anyone but I have learned one thing. Pay careful attention to who is actually selling the product. Amazon is full of brand-names you've never heard of (and might never again), ditto vendors. If it isn't a recognized name brand and sold by Amazon itself I don't buy it. More often lately, I am trying to be a lot less lazy and actually going to the various manufacturer or big-name vendor's web sites directly. With security camera systems there seems to be a lot of product on offer through 3rd parties rather than manufacturer direct.
Well, I would imagine that Samsung already scrapes all the data they can from their Galaxy phones running their customized versions of Android. You know the Chinese manufacturers already include the government mandated backdoor. So their silence on the matter is no major surprise. It is hard to tell someone you can't give them a cookie when they can see your hand in the cookie jar.
Google's recent statement is nice to see and a bit surprising as we all know they capture every single byte of your data for analysis in order to server you tastier adverts. On the other hand they'll never be asked to unlock a secure phone as they wouldn't need to actually unlock it...
I recall that it wasn't all that long ago that disassembling an HP All-In-One past a certain point would brick the FAX function. Some tripe about preventing nonsense on the phone system.
On the other hand, if Apple expects people to have secure repairs done then they need to make sure there are authorized repair facilities conveniently situated wherever they sell their phones.
Big companies like Google, Apple, Intel, etc. buy companies for access to their technology, for their patents and sometimes for their personnel. It is almost the normal thing for the purchased companies to be absorbed and their services to wound down. Google wants you to use nearly spam free G-Mail, not your own mail server or local ISP's mail service, so why would they continue offering a standalone anti-spam service? McAfee sells anti-spam as part of their security suites, why on earth would they sell the anti-spam service they've bought as an independent service under someone else's name?
Intel? Well who knows what goes on at Intel. My guess is that one management committee doesn't know what the other management committee is doing and haven't for decades now. Ditto Microsoft, IBM, etc.
"So, every time the balance of power shifts, the new legislature/administration immediately cancels the space program decided upon by the previous administration/legislature"
Well then, you are in luck!
Obama wanted to cancel manned space exploration and shift support of the existing ISS to a commercial, contracted manned taxi service. Instead a bipartisan, manned space exploration program, beginning with development of the SLS was mandated by Congress. Obama got some money for commercial manned space taxis too.
The only thing I see changing, regardless of who the next president is, might be joining the Europeans in going to the moon and putting Mars on the back burner, where IMHO, it belongs.
Hypothesis is proposed science and theory is more tested and proven science. Whatever. A reasonably well developed hypothesis is still science.
But what about the dancing tile interface? Think of the children!!
Poe is exactly what I was going for! Thanks for noticing!!
Just one more example of how giant, multi-national corporations are increasing their stranglehold on governance of western countries. Can you image taking a family picture in your own home that happened to include some stupid designer chair or couch, then posting to FaceBook to share with your relatives, only to get a DMCA takedown notice to remove it or else? What if that was the last pic of dear old Aunt Granny that you ever took??
From what I understand, you can't post a vacation picture of the Eiffel Tower at night because there's a copyright on the evening light show. Ditto a number of other designer buildings in Europe, day or night.
It is enough to put one off of capitalism in general and the modern implementation of it in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia, etc. in particular. What has happened to the public good or the commonwealth?