(making an assumption that I don't think that's a stupid waste of money, too)
I very specifically remember thinking a week or two ago that if I was elected POTUS, I wouldn't bother with nonsense like that, and when asked by the Press, I'd tell them "I've got a big job ahead of me, I really don't have time to throw big parties."
I like clocks. I like accurate clocks, to be precise. I have several 'Atomic clocks', synchronized to WWVB out of Fort Colins, Colorado every night. I have a GPS receiver connected to my desktop, synching and RTC-clock-frequency adjusting it every minute, so it's never more than 1 second off. I went to a considerable amount of trouble to fine-tune the 32.768kHz crystal oscillator in a kitchen timer I have, that also displays the time of day, so it's down to single-digit PPM accuracy, only gaining a few seconds per week. More than once I've considered building a clock using an expensive low-PPM TCXO oscillator, so I'd have a clock that doesn't need to have it's setting adjusted for a year or more. So you could say I appreciate clocks.
However: this is one of the most wasteful and stupid things I've ever heard of. Only some rich dude(s), with apparently nothing better to do with their money and time, would waste 42 million dollars on some shit like this. How many poor people could benefit from judicious application of $42M? Charities? Development projects? How much would Habitat for Humanity, for instance, be able to accomplish with that much money?
MEMO TO JEFF BEZOS: Instead of lighting $42M on fire for something as fucking stupid and useless as this, how about you find out how many homeless people live within 50 miles of you, and see how many of them you can help get back on their feet again with that money?
Seriously: We, allegedly, are the greatest nation on earth, yet we have a homelessness problem? People going hungry every day? Really?
How about less RICH PEOPLE money spent on stupid excessive hobbies, and more spent on actually SOLVING SOME PROBLEMS.
..and YES, I'm angry on the inside about things like this when I hear about them. What of it? ..and NO, I'm one of the POOR PEOPLE, I can barely afford to take care of myself these days, let alone give money away to anyone else. What of it?
Bite me. xD
Nobody deserves Trump. Not even the GOP, and in private places I'm certain ALL OF THEM would say that. The only reason the GOP majority Congress puts up with him is they think they can 'control' him enough to maybe get their agenda forward. If he was not the GOP candidate they'd have ousted him for any number of reasons by now -- and if YOU were the least bit informed, YOU would see that.
You can be butthurt all you want that your so-called 'law and order' and 'conservative family values' candidate never really existed, but at least have enough honesty with yourself that he never was those things, and that you got fooled into voting for him -- because that's the fact of the matter, investigation or no investigation. He keeps trying desperately to distract FBI attention away from himself, just like a guilty person would, and he's now confirmed for cheating on his wife at least twice, one of those times with a skeezy porn actress, and just after his wife gave birth to his son. He's an awful human being who is not in the least qualified for the job, was elected under false pretenses, and should be removed. IDGAF if you're going to continue to publicly defend the son of a bitch or not, at least be honest with yourself: You fucked up, you got conned, and you backed the wrong horse, all the way down to the finish. TRY to do better next time, or at least don't bother voting. Once we get his ass out of the whitehouse we need someone in there who can fix all the damage he's done, not another clueless narcissistic 5-year-old.
Why are you still here in the U.S.? You've been made, isn't it time for you to scurry on back to Putin, tell him you've completely failed, and accept your new assignment in Siberia, or Vladivostok, or wherever it is your Fearless Leader sends you when you've completely screwed the pooch? Nobody believes your bullshit anymore, please get the fuck out of our country, and stop fucking around in everyone else's, too. Or just kill yourself, I'm happy either way.
Yes, actually, I remember the Clipper chip debacle. Of course some could argue that Intel's Management Engine serves the same purpose, being capable of remotely accessing and controlling a system even if the OS is shut down. So they've been at this for decades, so what? All the more reason to shout them down at every opportunity with a resounding NO!
Well, then I guess you learn to enjoy having Microsoft own your computer, and additionally having Microsoft up your ass every single time you use it. Sucks to be you.
Every single day the entire Internet infringes on copyright, then. Better shut the whole thing down, arrest everyone using it, and chop Tim Berners-Lee's head off.
Criminals are doing bad stuff WITH POINTED STICKS and they can do it in what amounts to the perfect dark alley, completely hidden from public view
Criminals are doing bad stuff {insert object here} and they can do it in what amounts to the perfect dark alley, completely hidden from public view
Let's just ban everything, since anything can, potentially, be used to commit a crime. You could use a STICK OF BUTTER to commit a crime, for fuck's sake. So let's ban EVERYTHING, we'll go back to being stark naked 24/7/365, living outdoors, and anyone picking up a stick or a rock is killed because they might be a criminal.
Think the above sounds stupid? It's not as stupid as LEOs and politicians not listening to the people whose business it is to devise encryption algorithms, who keep telling them over and over again ad infinitum that you CANNOT HAVE BACKDOORS IN ENCRYPTION WITHOUT MAKING IT INHERENTLY INSECURE!
FBI and dumb politicians can go fuck themselves sideways with a rusty chainsaw. Things are already bad enough, there's new hacks and new data breaches practically every gods-be-damned day, I'm avoiding using plastic because I don't trust payment systems to not get breached (there is plenty of prior breaches of payment systems to warrant this), and they want to make things overall worse for everyone by making it easier for criminals to hack into whatever they want? The hell with that.
You and I are in the same category: people who can, and do, cook their own food, rather than popping something in the microwave, or just going through the drive-thru. But there is one vital difference between you and I: there is a factor you're not seeing, that I see everywhere.
People, more and more, do not know how to cook even basic foods, because no one is teaching them to. This is part of a larger problem: people not learning ANY skills of ANY kind, unless they lead to earning income. As a result people are getting dumber, not smarter, in significant ways. I'm often argued with over this, because some people see only advances in technology, and disregard things that I (and others) regard as basic life-skills, like cooking for yourself, how to clean things properly, how to be a competent driver, and so on. Worse, they're encourged to not learn these skills, because companies that make and sell 'conveniences' want to make money, of course, and go out of their way to convince people that it's just as good to pop something in the microwave, or go to the drive-thru, or have something delivered. And, of course, in the case of food, sure, it tastes great -- and what could have been a 500-700 kcal meal, with much better nutrition and healthier ingredients, is now full of sugar, bad fat, salt, crap-quality carbs, and not enough high-quality protein, for twice as many kcals. So we end up with obese, diseased people.
The ETs have been monitoring our electromagnetic communications since we discovered how to communicate that way.
During some decades since then, they've been encouraged at our progress (civil rights movement, for instance -- even if that was offset by the Vietnam 'war').
But since January 2016, they've seen we've moved backwards by leaps and bounds, back towards a new Dark Age -- and they are disappointed in us, now.
As a result, they'll continue to hide from us, cloak their own electromagnetic emissions, so we can't determine if they exist or not.
If we keep this negative progress up, they may just build their own 'wall', to prevent us from escaping our solar system and infecting the rest of our galaxy.
So, for now, there is no point in searching for ET; they don't want to be found, not by violent, wilfully ignorant cavemen such as ourselves.
I can disable Microsoft spyware in three easy steps: Step #1: Backup important files Step #2: Install {your favorite flavor of} Linux Step #3: Restore important files
See? Wasn't that easy?
The U.S. has a 'car culture', therefore investment in public transportation isn't anywhere near the same as in some other countries, therefore it's less convenient.
I don't live in a big city like New York, so I only hear about the subway (or taking a cab) being so much cheaper and faster than owning a car.. but where I live, as you say, it's not practical. What's a 20-30 minute commute each way to/from work, would be 2 to 3 times longer by public transit. I don't have time to waste on that.
Then there's the real roadblocks to changing the public transit paradigm in the U.S.: On the one hand, people who use public transit are viewed as 'the poor people'. On the other hand, if you tried to promote the idea of all pubic transit being free for everyone, the conservative types would start yelling about 'damned liberals and their damned socialism!'. So it's highly unlikely to ever happen here, at least. In a way, too bad, because if it's subsidized as much as I think it is, then it really wouldn't be that much more expensive to make it free.
Here's my problem with this: Marketers for software companies, and especially the media, put 'deep learning algorithms', 'expert systems', and so on, all under one category: 'Artificial intelligence'. Then (average, non-technical) people see movies and TV shows that have (fantasy, doesn't exist) so-called 'AI' in it (talks, thinks has a personality, is like a person) and they think that's what everyone is talking about because they don't know any better. I want people to stop using the term 'artificial intelligence' for things that are not actually artificial intelligence. If it's a 'deep learning algorithm', then call it that. And so on. Reserve the term 'artificial intelligence' for if and when we solve the puzzle of how the human brain produces actual thought, self-awareness, personality, and so on.
..and soda companies, and sugar companies, and so on, and so on: Fund the narrative you want to present, cherrypick your data to fit it, supress anything that doesn't. Congratulations, Facebook/Zuckerberg, you're at least a full order of magnitude more evil than even I thought you were.
Slashdot Mirror
(making an assumption that I don't think that's a stupid waste of money, too)
I very specifically remember thinking a week or two ago that if I was elected POTUS, I wouldn't bother with nonsense like that, and when asked by the Press, I'd tell them "I've got a big job ahead of me, I really don't have time to throw big parties."
"Let them eat cake"
It's a 'symbol' of Jeff Bezos' penis, specifically his inflated idea of how large it is.
(or, perhaps, in compensation for how big it isn't)
Occasionally, our species pleasantly surprises me with it's ingenuity, and how far it's come in it's evolution. This is not one of those times.
This is just attention-whoring from Uber.
I like clocks. I like accurate clocks, to be precise. I have several 'Atomic clocks', synchronized to WWVB out of Fort Colins, Colorado every night. I have a GPS receiver connected to my desktop, synching and RTC-clock-frequency adjusting it every minute, so it's never more than 1 second off. I went to a considerable amount of trouble to fine-tune the 32.768kHz crystal oscillator in a kitchen timer I have, that also displays the time of day, so it's down to single-digit PPM accuracy, only gaining a few seconds per week. More than once I've considered building a clock using an expensive low-PPM TCXO oscillator, so I'd have a clock that doesn't need to have it's setting adjusted for a year or more. So you could say I appreciate clocks.
..and YES, I'm angry on the inside about things like this when I hear about them. What of it?
..and NO, I'm one of the POOR PEOPLE, I can barely afford to take care of myself these days, let alone give money away to anyone else. What of it?
However: this is one of the most wasteful and stupid things I've ever heard of. Only some rich dude(s), with apparently nothing better to do with their money and time, would waste 42 million dollars on some shit like this. How many poor people could benefit from judicious application of $42M? Charities? Development projects? How much would Habitat for Humanity, for instance, be able to accomplish with that much money?
MEMO TO JEFF BEZOS: Instead of lighting $42M on fire for something as fucking stupid and useless as this, how about you find out how many homeless people live within 50 miles of you, and see how many of them you can help get back on their feet again with that money?
Seriously: We, allegedly, are the greatest nation on earth, yet we have a homelessness problem? People going hungry every day? Really?
How about less RICH PEOPLE money spent on stupid excessive hobbies, and more spent on actually SOLVING SOME PROBLEMS.
That's what this sounds like. Make the licenses too expensive so people can't ever get ahead by improving their income with a better job.
That's because it isn't. It's a solution looking for a problem. I'll take plain old mirrors, thanks anyway.
Bite me. xD
Nobody deserves Trump. Not even the GOP, and in private places I'm certain ALL OF THEM would say that. The only reason the GOP majority Congress puts up with him is they think they can 'control' him enough to maybe get their agenda forward. If he was not the GOP candidate they'd have ousted him for any number of reasons by now -- and if YOU were the least bit informed, YOU would see that.
You can be butthurt all you want that your so-called 'law and order' and 'conservative family values' candidate never really existed, but at least have enough honesty with yourself that he never was those things, and that you got fooled into voting for him -- because that's the fact of the matter, investigation or no investigation. He keeps trying desperately to distract FBI attention away from himself, just like a guilty person would, and he's now confirmed for cheating on his wife at least twice, one of those times with a skeezy porn actress, and just after his wife gave birth to his son. He's an awful human being who is not in the least qualified for the job, was elected under false pretenses, and should be removed. IDGAF if you're going to continue to publicly defend the son of a bitch or not, at least be honest with yourself: You fucked up, you got conned, and you backed the wrong horse, all the way down to the finish. TRY to do better next time, or at least don't bother voting. Once we get his ass out of the whitehouse we need someone in there who can fix all the damage he's done, not another clueless narcissistic 5-year-old.
Except not a single American is indicted — much less anyone from the Executive Branch -- YET.
Fixed that for you. xD xD xD
Why are you still here in the U.S.? You've been made, isn't it time for you to scurry on back to Putin, tell him you've completely failed, and accept your new assignment in Siberia, or Vladivostok, or wherever it is your Fearless Leader sends you when you've completely screwed the pooch? Nobody believes your bullshit anymore, please get the fuck out of our country, and stop fucking around in everyone else's, too. Or just kill yourself, I'm happy either way.
Yes, actually, I remember the Clipper chip debacle. Of course some could argue that Intel's Management Engine serves the same purpose, being capable of remotely accessing and controlling a system even if the OS is shut down. So they've been at this for decades, so what? All the more reason to shout them down at every opportunity with a resounding NO!
Well, then I guess you learn to enjoy having Microsoft own your computer, and additionally having Microsoft up your ass every single time you use it. Sucks to be you.
Every single day the entire Internet infringes on copyright, then. Better shut the whole thing down, arrest everyone using it, and chop Tim Berners-Lee's head off.
Criminals are doing bad stuff WITH POINTED STICKS and they can do it in what amounts to the perfect dark alley, completely hidden from public view
Criminals are doing bad stuff {insert object here} and they can do it in what amounts to the perfect dark alley, completely hidden from public view
Let's just ban everything, since anything can, potentially, be used to commit a crime. You could use a STICK OF BUTTER to commit a crime, for fuck's sake. So let's ban EVERYTHING, we'll go back to being stark naked 24/7/365, living outdoors, and anyone picking up a stick or a rock is killed because they might be a criminal.
Think the above sounds stupid? It's not as stupid as LEOs and politicians not listening to the people whose business it is to devise encryption algorithms, who keep telling them over and over again ad infinitum that you CANNOT HAVE BACKDOORS IN ENCRYPTION WITHOUT MAKING IT INHERENTLY INSECURE!
FBI and dumb politicians can go fuck themselves sideways with a rusty chainsaw. Things are already bad enough, there's new hacks and new data breaches practically every gods-be-damned day, I'm avoiding using plastic because I don't trust payment systems to not get breached (there is plenty of prior breaches of payment systems to warrant this), and they want to make things overall worse for everyone by making it easier for criminals to hack into whatever they want? The hell with that.
You and I are in the same category: people who can, and do, cook their own food, rather than popping something in the microwave, or just going through the drive-thru. But there is one vital difference between you and I: there is a factor you're not seeing, that I see everywhere.
People, more and more, do not know how to cook even basic foods, because no one is teaching them to. This is part of a larger problem: people not learning ANY skills of ANY kind, unless they lead to earning income. As a result people are getting dumber, not smarter, in significant ways. I'm often argued with over this, because some people see only advances in technology, and disregard things that I (and others) regard as basic life-skills, like cooking for yourself, how to clean things properly, how to be a competent driver, and so on. Worse, they're encourged to not learn these skills, because companies that make and sell 'conveniences' want to make money, of course, and go out of their way to convince people that it's just as good to pop something in the microwave, or go to the drive-thru, or have something delivered. And, of course, in the case of food, sure, it tastes great -- and what could have been a 500-700 kcal meal, with much better nutrition and healthier ingredients, is now full of sugar, bad fat, salt, crap-quality carbs, and not enough high-quality protein, for twice as many kcals. So we end up with obese, diseased people.
The ETs have been monitoring our electromagnetic communications since we discovered how to communicate that way.
During some decades since then, they've been encouraged at our progress (civil rights movement, for instance -- even if that was offset by the Vietnam 'war').
But since January 2016, they've seen we've moved backwards by leaps and bounds, back towards a new Dark Age -- and they are disappointed in us, now.
As a result, they'll continue to hide from us, cloak their own electromagnetic emissions, so we can't determine if they exist or not.
If we keep this negative progress up, they may just build their own 'wall', to prevent us from escaping our solar system and infecting the rest of our galaxy.
So, for now, there is no point in searching for ET; they don't want to be found, not by violent, wilfully ignorant cavemen such as ourselves.
I can disable Microsoft spyware in three easy steps:
Step #1: Backup important files
Step #2: Install {your favorite flavor of} Linux
Step #3: Restore important files
See? Wasn't that easy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
NOT because of some innate love of cars in American's DNA
Clearly and objectively false. We've always had a car culture in this country.
The U.S. has a 'car culture', therefore investment in public transportation isn't anywhere near the same as in some other countries, therefore it's less convenient.
I don't live in a big city like New York, so I only hear about the subway (or taking a cab) being so much cheaper and faster than owning a car.. but where I live, as you say, it's not practical. What's a 20-30 minute commute each way to/from work, would be 2 to 3 times longer by public transit. I don't have time to waste on that.
Then there's the real roadblocks to changing the public transit paradigm in the U.S.: On the one hand, people who use public transit are viewed as 'the poor people'. On the other hand, if you tried to promote the idea of all pubic transit being free for everyone, the conservative types would start yelling about 'damned liberals and their damned socialism!'. So it's highly unlikely to ever happen here, at least. In a way, too bad, because if it's subsidized as much as I think it is, then it really wouldn't be that much more expensive to make it free.
Here's my problem with this: Marketers for software companies, and especially the media, put 'deep learning algorithms', 'expert systems', and so on, all under one category: 'Artificial intelligence'. Then (average, non-technical) people see movies and TV shows that have (fantasy, doesn't exist) so-called 'AI' in it (talks, thinks has a personality, is like a person) and they think that's what everyone is talking about because they don't know any better. I want people to stop using the term 'artificial intelligence' for things that are not actually artificial intelligence. If it's a 'deep learning algorithm', then call it that. And so on. Reserve the term 'artificial intelligence' for if and when we solve the puzzle of how the human brain produces actual thought, self-awareness, personality, and so on.
Oh, shut it. xD
..and soda companies, and sugar companies, and so on, and so on: Fund the narrative you want to present, cherrypick your data to fit it, supress anything that doesn't. Congratulations, Facebook/Zuckerberg, you're at least a full order of magnitude more evil than even I thought you were.
LOL, yeah, I do mean Equifax. They're all bastards, though, easy to confuse one for the other. ;-)