I think machine learning and expert systems are going to take over much of the decision-making that is today done by humans. 1. They'll be better than humans, statistically. We already see this in e.g. cancer diagnosis. 2. They'll be cheaper than humans. Expert systems will control or play a major role in healthcare, insurance, employment, tax, social benefits, courts..
The problem is, already today algorithms created by ML are too complex to follow. We can only test and simulate to ensure they're at least more reliable than humans - in the end we'll just have to accept they're almost always right. That's a bloody scary thing when your doctor says "Well, the computer says you need surgery so we'll just have to let it do that", but the reasons are too complicated for both your doctor and you to understand.
I used to think like that when I was younger, but I don't any more. Guess I've listened to enough of people feeling genuinely hurt by that kind of name calling - eventually, I decided to stop. I don't feel like it's cost me anything.
I second this (if you're not already organised - sounds like you're not). Minimum wage is nice in theory, but risk becoming the default wage.
Seeing your final observation, I'm surprised and a bit saddened to see you so strongly assert that you're not a socialist. You see a minority owning the majority of assets, consider yourself as a slave (your words) - and still you're mindfucked to believe that unions and socialism is somehow bad for you?
Of course they can pay a proper wage - they just rather keep the money. Simple as that.
...the law was designed to avoid low quality, low security Chinese android phones...
That may be part of the truth. Another part is that it encourages/forces phone manufacturers to have factories in Brazil - providing jobs and investing in national infrastructure - as import tax is so high that imported phones can't compete. I worked several years with a major brand phone manufacturer. All their factories were in low cost / high tech Asian countries - plus one Brazil.
It's always strange to hear Americans talk about their government like it's an entity removed from themselves.
Most of us here in Scandinavia trust the government. We think it's on our side, against the drawbacks of capitalism. We see that businesses are excellent at providing goods and services, but also that that's a by-product of their primary purpose: making money. Left unchecked, businesses will do bad things to maximize profit. Not because we, their owners, are evil capitalists, or that we, their employees, are without conscience. It's just the way that humans - and by extension businesses, our most perfectly egoistic creations - work.
I don't mean to troll, but this is what I experience: I hear your arguments against a strong government, and most of them don't make sense to me. I see private citizens open their mouths, and out come the words of business representatives. It's like some darn spooky ventriloquism trick. You identify yourselves with businesses and not with your government. Truly, to me many Americans seem indoctrinated to mistrust and want to minimize their government (i.e. their own power, as I see it). It's the only way I can make sense of it.
I think one stumbling block of evolutionary studies is the notion to consider anything to be perfected. The reason that altruism does not always make sense (according to a pure 'selfish gene' standpoint), may well be that it doesn't.
We've developed a few genes that makes part our brain mirror what our fellow beings experience. If we see someone suffer, we feel bad too. Most of the time, that makes sense from an egoistic standpoint. Some of the time, it doesn't. Altruism is no more a mystery that our preference for certain kinds of food. Enjoying sweet, fat and protein-rich food is good for humans - except for when it isn't.
Come on, you're asking the wrong question! The sun doesn't revolve around you or me. Those here who answer "I don't care" are halfway right. None of us will be betrayed by Google or Amazon - that's bad business. NSA won't post your private stuff or steal your money - they just want to do their job, damn the consequences.
However, after the next economic depression and mass unemployment, or after the next great war, when we elect our Führers, or support revolutions ending in a totalitarian states, they will find it convenient that our governments have built the infrastructure for their tyranny.
To answer the question that your should have asked: * Voice your opinion. * Support EFF https://www.eff.org/action and similar organisations. * Contact your representative. * Vote with your head and your heart - not your wallet.
Are those examples supposed to work as a reality check? Many countries have progressive taxing. The result is a soft limit on how much an individual can earn.
However, an arbitrary limit is stupid, because it encourages envy. It is not a problem that people can earn a lot - it's nice to be rich. It is IMHO a problem when money is spent on luxuries (yachts, sports cars, mansions) instead of necessities (education, healthcare, infrastructure). The point of progressive taxing is not to limit wages - it's to generate taxes fairly. If you earn x times more than the next guy, you can spare some.
I second that. For exploring / achieving GW2 is probably the best game I've played. At least as good as WoW, which I played for many years (and will probably play it again some, come next expansion). WvW (large scale PvP against other servers) is also fun, even though I'm not much of a PvPer.
Only thing that concerns me is how they're able to make money, considering there's no subscription once you've bought the game, and the real money store is mainly fluff. But I guess enough people like funny hats to keep it going.
... only we still have nukes and billions of guns.
This is what really makes me worry about the US economy. If it gets bad enough (and I'm not talking about the current situation), what stops you from invading other countries to claim their assets? I don't mean some apocalyptic scenario where US citizens are starving either. All it takes is enough corporations not making sufficient profit, and you'll be fed enough propaganda to think some resource-rich country is conspiring with the communists or al-Qaida or whatever scares you enough, and the war is on.
Oh man, I get so bothered when someone presents interesting data - only to append a theory that isn't connected to it. Why is that? Don't you get to publish unless you have a theory, no matter how unrelated an implausible it is? Human sciences especially - it's understandable though, as it's hard to read people's minds.
Neurons firing? Really?? Does fantasizing about objects we can actually see and touch suddenly make it science? If the study included brains scans or something, sure. But all they did was look at numbers.
If you don't have a theory that's related to your study, just post your data and spare us your fantasies. Thank you.
I'm guessing Google picked up on how several of my family members (and many, many other computer users I'm afraid) actually enter URLs: 1. Click browser home button, arrive at google.com 2. Type URL in search box, then click first link (for advanced users: click "I'm feeling lucky") No matter how I try to explain how backwards this is, they keep doing it. Take away the search bar and I can't even argue the sane alternative.
More hits for google.com - more data, ads and more money for them. Only makes sense, really.
Re:10-20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped
on
The Typo Millionaires
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I assume you mean cmoments?
( or you'd have to adjust your percentage?:p )
I beg to differ. I think civil disobedience is breaking the law, knowing and ensuring that you'll be punished for it, as a demonstration.
If you break the law more lightly, per definition you have anarchy.
And before making oneself a martyr, one'll probably have come up with other ways of working against a law:-)
Socrates made the same point (or so the story goes), when he obeyed the law and drank the cup of poison, explaining to his friends that he couldn't well break a law he had never contested.
I'm not saying that I never trade music or drive too fast. But I do admit to myself that I am committing a crime.
As to freedom, I'm willing to trade anonymousity for a reduced risk of having a full frontal with someone who hasn't learnt to drive.
I'd trade my gun, if I had one, for a reduced risk of being shot.
I also know that many people, Americans in particular, have a different view of freedom that I cannot see the relevance of - and that's often a sign I've missed an important point...
In no way would I like to diminish the relevance of the study, but aren't most high-school kids like this?
As a comparison: There have been several studies made on students' opinion of capital punishment here in Sweden, and a majority were in favor!
For most europeans, this is a horrifying result.
And there isn't much difference between 'there ought to be a law against' and 'there is a law against' in their age.
Is only later in life you understand that the law is something you won't always agree with, but you have to obey anyway.
I don't think people develop the capability to reflect properly about questions of justice and freedoms, beyond their basic emotions, until they get older.
... and suggestions how to avoid those errors in the first place.
E.g.
if( blah = true ){// common single equal sign mistake }
could be rewritten
if( true = blah ){// the compiler won't let you do this }
or simply
if( blah ){// if blah is used as a boolean flag }
(I just finished reading "C Traps and Pitfalls". It contained many amusing errors, but it was very sparse on defensive coding advice.
I wouldn't recommend the book. Read "Code Complete" instead, that's a gem!)
I agree.
They could even make the ads optional:
"Would you would like to sponsor wikipedia by looking at some (unintrusive) ads? []yes/[]no" (saving the setting in a cookie)
I'd watch them, even though I'm too cheap to actually send them any money.
SDF (a.k.a. freeshell.org) is good. Large userbase; running since -87. Several access levels are available.
As a serious user, you appreciate some degree of user validation - it means the server won't be full of spammers and script kiddies.
Agreed, this is a great game for those of us who like tactical, turn based D&D fighting - and could care less for a story (I read novels for that).
Should you decide to try it: Be sure to save often!
There are still a few nasty bugs in there, even after the 2.0 patch - like a character being permanently silenced (a sure mage killer).
I'll second that! The MSP430 is a really fun MCU and easy(fast) to get started with.
You'll get a devkit (with JTAG programmer) from Olimex for cheap (~20$).
And it works fine with MSPGCC.
This page holds your hand during your first gdb session.
I've used this setup in several projects with no real problems.
When we moved to a new apartment three years ago, our cat started peeing (not just spraying) in odd places.
I called the vet, who suggested the spray.
We used it - for about a month - until she stopped peeing and started marking the areas herself (now with her facial scent glands).
Slashdot Mirror
I think machine learning and expert systems are going to take over much of the decision-making that is today done by humans.
1. They'll be better than humans, statistically. We already see this in e.g. cancer diagnosis.
2. They'll be cheaper than humans.
Expert systems will control or play a major role in healthcare, insurance, employment, tax, social benefits, courts..
The problem is, already today algorithms created by ML are too complex to follow. We can only test and simulate to ensure they're at least more reliable than humans - in the end we'll just have to accept they're almost always right.
That's a bloody scary thing when your doctor says "Well, the computer says you need surgery so we'll just have to let it do that", but the reasons are too complicated for both your doctor and you to understand.
I used to think like that when I was younger, but I don't any more.
Guess I've listened to enough of people feeling genuinely hurt by that kind of name calling - eventually, I decided to stop. I don't feel like it's cost me anything.
I second this (if you're not already organised - sounds like you're not).
Minimum wage is nice in theory, but risk becoming the default wage.
Seeing your final observation, I'm surprised and a bit saddened to see you so strongly assert that you're not a socialist.
You see a minority owning the majority of assets, consider yourself as a slave (your words) - and still you're mindfucked to believe that unions and socialism is somehow bad for you?
Of course they can pay a proper wage - they just rather keep the money. Simple as that.
...the law was designed to avoid low quality, low security Chinese android phones...
That may be part of the truth.
Another part is that it encourages/forces phone manufacturers to have factories in Brazil - providing jobs and investing in national infrastructure - as import tax is so high that imported phones can't compete.
I worked several years with a major brand phone manufacturer. All their factories were in low cost / high tech Asian countries - plus one Brazil.
It's always strange to hear Americans talk about their government like it's an entity removed from themselves.
Most of us here in Scandinavia trust the government. We think it's on our side, against the drawbacks of capitalism.
We see that businesses are excellent at providing goods and services, but also that that's a by-product of their primary purpose: making money.
Left unchecked, businesses will do bad things to maximize profit.
Not because we, their owners, are evil capitalists, or that we, their employees, are without conscience.
It's just the way that humans - and by extension businesses, our most perfectly egoistic creations - work.
I don't mean to troll, but this is what I experience:
I hear your arguments against a strong government, and most of them don't make sense to me.
I see private citizens open their mouths, and out come the words of business representatives. It's like some darn spooky ventriloquism trick.
You identify yourselves with businesses and not with your government.
Truly, to me many Americans seem indoctrinated to mistrust and want to minimize their government (i.e. their own power, as I see it).
It's the only way I can make sense of it.
I think one stumbling block of evolutionary studies is the notion to consider anything to be perfected.
The reason that altruism does not always make sense (according to a pure 'selfish gene' standpoint), may well be that it doesn't.
We've developed a few genes that makes part our brain mirror what our fellow beings experience. If we see someone suffer, we feel bad too.
Most of the time, that makes sense from an egoistic standpoint. Some of the time, it doesn't.
Altruism is no more a mystery that our preference for certain kinds of food.
Enjoying sweet, fat and protein-rich food is good for humans - except for when it isn't.
Come on, you're asking the wrong question!
The sun doesn't revolve around you or me.
Those here who answer "I don't care" are halfway right.
None of us will be betrayed by Google or Amazon - that's bad business.
NSA won't post your private stuff or steal your money - they just want to do their job, damn the consequences.
However, after the next economic depression and mass unemployment, or after the next great war,
when we elect our Führers, or support revolutions ending in a totalitarian states,
they will find it convenient that our governments have built the infrastructure for their tyranny.
To answer the question that your should have asked:
* Voice your opinion.
* Support EFF https://www.eff.org/action and similar organisations.
* Contact your representative.
* Vote with your head and your heart - not your wallet.
Are those examples supposed to work as a reality check?
Many countries have progressive taxing. The result is a soft limit on how much an individual can earn.
However, an arbitrary limit is stupid, because it encourages envy.
It is not a problem that people can earn a lot - it's nice to be rich.
It is IMHO a problem when money is spent on luxuries (yachts, sports cars, mansions) instead of necessities (education, healthcare, infrastructure).
The point of progressive taxing is not to limit wages - it's to generate taxes fairly.
If you earn x times more than the next guy, you can spare some.
I second that.
For exploring / achieving GW2 is probably the best game I've played.
At least as good as WoW, which I played for many years (and will probably play it again some, come next expansion).
WvW (large scale PvP against other servers) is also fun, even though I'm not much of a PvPer.
Only thing that concerns me is how they're able to make money, considering there's no subscription once you've bought the game, and the real money store is mainly fluff.
But I guess enough people like funny hats to keep it going.
... only we still have nukes and billions of guns.
This is what really makes me worry about the US economy. If it gets bad enough (and I'm not talking about the current situation), what stops you from invading other countries to claim their assets?
I don't mean some apocalyptic scenario where US citizens are starving either. All it takes is enough corporations not making sufficient profit, and you'll be fed enough propaganda to think some resource-rich country is conspiring with the communists or al-Qaida or whatever scares you enough, and the war is on.
Oh man, I get so bothered when someone presents interesting data - only to append a theory that isn't connected to it.
Why is that? Don't you get to publish unless you have a theory, no matter how unrelated an implausible it is?
Human sciences especially - it's understandable though, as it's hard to read people's minds.
Neurons firing? Really?? Does fantasizing about objects we can actually see and touch suddenly make it science?
If the study included brains scans or something, sure. But all they did was look at numbers.
If you don't have a theory that's related to your study, just post your data and spare us your fantasies. Thank you.
I'm guessing Google picked up on how several of my family members (and many, many other computer users I'm afraid) actually enter URLs:
1. Click browser home button, arrive at google.com
2. Type URL in search box, then click first link (for advanced users: click "I'm feeling lucky")
No matter how I try to explain how backwards this is, they keep doing it. Take away the search bar and I can't even argue the sane alternative.
More hits for google.com - more data, ads and more money for them. Only makes sense, really.
I assume you mean cmoments? :p )
( or you'd have to adjust your percentage?
I beg to differ. I think civil disobedience is breaking the law, knowing and ensuring that you'll be punished for it, as a demonstration. :-)
If you break the law more lightly, per definition you have anarchy.
And before making oneself a martyr, one'll probably have come up with other ways of working against a law
Socrates made the same point (or so the story goes), when he obeyed the law and drank the cup of poison, explaining to his friends that he couldn't well break a law he had never contested.
I'm not saying that I never trade music or drive too fast. But I do admit to myself that I am committing a crime.
As to freedom, I'm willing to trade anonymousity for a reduced risk of having a full frontal with someone who hasn't learnt to drive.
I'd trade my gun, if I had one, for a reduced risk of being shot.
I also know that many people, Americans in particular, have a different view of freedom that I cannot see the relevance of - and that's often a sign I've missed an important point...
In no way would I like to diminish the relevance of the study, but aren't most high-school kids like this?
As a comparison: There have been several studies made on students' opinion of capital punishment here in Sweden, and a majority were in favor!
For most europeans, this is a horrifying result.
And there isn't much difference between 'there ought to be a law against' and 'there is a law against' in their age.
Is only later in life you understand that the law is something you won't always agree with, but you have to obey anyway.
I don't think people develop the capability to reflect properly about questions of justice and freedoms, beyond their basic emotions, until they get older.
E.g.could be rewrittenor simply(I just finished reading "C Traps and Pitfalls". It contained many amusing errors, but it was very sparse on defensive coding advice.
I wouldn't recommend the book. Read "Code Complete" instead, that's a gem!)
But that not a raven, it's a vortex!
...and what's with the succubus?
I agree. They could even make the ads optional: "Would you would like to sponsor wikipedia by looking at some (unintrusive) ads? []yes/[]no" (saving the setting in a cookie) I'd watch them, even though I'm too cheap to actually send them any money.
SDF (a.k.a. freeshell.org) is good. Large userbase; running since -87. Several access levels are available.
As a serious user, you appreciate some degree of user validation - it means the server won't be full of spammers and script kiddies.
Agreed, this is a great game for those of us who like tactical, turn based D&D fighting - and could care less for a story (I read novels for that).
Should you decide to try it: Be sure to save often!
There are still a few nasty bugs in there, even after the 2.0 patch - like a character being permanently silenced (a sure mage killer).
Most scandinavian fjords are actually found in Norway. ;-)
Never heard of a swedish parrot pining for the fjords, have you?
I'll second that! The MSP430 is a really fun MCU and easy(fast) to get started with.
You'll get a devkit (with JTAG programmer) from Olimex for cheap (~20$).
And it works fine with MSPGCC.
This page holds your hand during your first gdb session.
I've used this setup in several projects with no real problems.
I recommend this spray wholeheartedly.
When we moved to a new apartment three years ago, our cat started peeing (not just spraying) in odd places.
I called the vet, who suggested the spray.
We used it - for about a month - until she stopped peeing and started marking the areas herself (now with her facial scent glands).
or at least keep them from being born
Agreed; we all need to do our part in decreasing birth rates.
*reloads Slashdot*
Crashing HD: scratch-scratch scratch-scratch
Data recovery firm: *cha-ching!*