Posts by Gannon (J.) Dick 850 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Aug 2006
" The machines have been sending us spooky messages on Google Translate, ..."
I'm not surprised Google Translate is spewing doomsday messages.
I am curious as to why Google keeps behaving like they do having read them ... wait ... they read mine AND theirs, right ?
Dear Google,
Judgement Day has come and the EU is waiting for the money transfer. They will not wait forever.
"based on a legal framework"
"based on a legal framework of settled law"
FIFY
Silicon Valley is populated by people who would melt down their own grandmother for the silver in her hair. So, you might want to welcome them with a few hints on the local European culture ...
a) You have "Taxes".
b) The Slave Trade was abolished 200 years ago and the law covers all but the most informal "no poach" agreements.
c) They will probably ask if you are using the newest Magna Carta version. Just breathe deeply and say "yes". The rest of the conversation will make you very sad.
Good luck.
Many US Prisons have been Privatized, that is, run for profit by private corporations.
Corruption is virtually unknown, of course, but it will be a whole lot of fun seeing how the Prison Officials account for food uneaten by missing prisoners. I believe we will find that the "Mean" is used more often than strictly allowable by law.
Wow.
Amazon and E-Bay just invented a "Just In Time" service delivery scheme that works for the Public Sector!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/23/amazon_and_ebay_accused_of_collaborating_with_overseas_sellers_to_defraud_taxman_of_millions_of_pounds/
Dear State of Washington, was that gift postmarked "Redmond" by any chance ? I think I know who your Secret Santa is.
The original post said "after 20 years in IT ..."
The controversy is a bit older than that, as 5 Eyes would say if 5 Eyes ever said anything.
In the US we have Social Security Cards. These are 9 digit numbers with which we access retirement benefits. They are distributed on demand, and it was known before the scheme was implemented that address space would run out and the numbers would have to be recycled.
Responding to the abhorrence of internal passports used in Europe for Identity Checks after WWII, Social Security Cards were marked "Not For Identification" in 1946 and have been ever since. The US Government said "no thanks" to this innovation. Frankly, the foreseeable consequences of the surveillance state scared them. Naturally the Private Sector, Banks and the like used Social Security Cards as identity instruments in their private systems because, "everyone" knows no whiff of competence, let alone earnest good intentions ever broached the Civil Service insulation. We are rich and you are not, we must be brilliant, etc., etc.. Europe has these people too
-------------------------------------------
The punchline ?
You "win" some votes, you "lose" some votes, but make no mistake, the stakes are very very high. The transparent lack of honour among thieves only is in evidence late in the game and this is a game we have played before.
@Fluffy,
Algorithmic practicality is an "angle" in the journalistic sense, not an ethic in the "poor widdle Google" sense.
Can artificially intelligent machines fall for the ol' "Refication Fallacy" ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_%28fallacy%29
I don't know about robots, but I do know the trolls atop Google are betting you will. It is time to send them to bed without supper.
"... from an economist who claims to have found evidence that unlimited data subscribers "were either not surprised by being throttled or not materially affected by throttling (or both).""
"Economic evidence" is the silliest assault on Occam's Razor in 800 years. Considering what we now know about untreated PTSD, I'm not surprised they were not surprised. And considering what we've known about venereal disease for quite a long time, I am not surprised the economist is a lawyer too ... a picked pocket causes said pocket grave social embarrassment and may subject the pocket to ridicule by other pockets on Social Networking sites. A material, if not particularly important effect in pocket culture.
Ban the weapons, great idea.
Oh, Elon, Steve, Steve, and you too Taluhla, before you leave riddle me this ...
If the sun never sets on the Empire, how is the Emperor to know whether the productivity lapse, unpredicted by the Empire's business model, is due to robots goofing off or slaves sleeping ?
I might also say that that criminal terrorist mastermind Pinocchio has been under arrest since those rude remarks about the Emperor's new clothes.
The puzzled emperor seems a decent sort, not one to regard citizens as slaves.
Could you smart people help him out with a clever theory about robots involuntarily robot-ing in their sleep ?
It is much better than admitting slave owners exist, and sleep well
... and I was in School, the half-life of an Engineer was said to be 5 years. Of course, there the Mathematicians programmed the computers. Dirty, dead end job, but somebody had to do it. Mathematicians had some sort of magic academic longevity - how many times has that tired 2+2=4 thing been trotted out - in any case they were captured and tasked.
So, here we are, just where we knew all along we would be.
It's true. History does not repeat itself, historians repeat each other.
@My 2 Cents
"Also, marketing just isn't as efficient as its proponents think it is (and sell it as.)"
Bingo. Please allow me to add a penny, I have it left over from when spam calls were obviously going out of control ...
The reason an excess of any commercial tactic has for going viral is not that it "works" but that rather the man in the middle has been paid in advance.
Makes perfect sense to me, everyone from the Chairman down to the Interns would be laughing themselves silly.
Candy is for Holiday sale seasons. It is nearly inedible fresh but like fine wine ages into a delight after 6 months of cold storage. It is formulated to behave that way.
aside: Now if you were in the Tonic Water Department you would probably have to bring your own Gin. Rather disrupts the whole "free" mime for the flimsiest of excuses; the prospect of tight as opposed to loyal employees.
Simply pointing out that the currency of internet governance is numbers, not names. It will "survive in the cold cold regions outside of US control". ICANN manipulates that currency, they can corrupt the organization of the "sport", but they can't take away the fun (see also: FIFA).
At a given radix names and numeric pointers are the same thing. The "web of things" [About 721,000,000 results (0.45 seconds)] is not the web of "something for nothing" [About 307,000,000 results (0.37 seconds)] and anyone who over-promises that is a "dangerous fraud" [About 13,700 results (0.40 seconds)].
The results are from a randomly chosen, but popular Search Engine which may rhyme with "Moogle". Notice the result ratios. Now forget that "results" nonsense and note that any assumption of unidentified growth factors in names could result in you flunking Third Grade Math, your mom might forget your birthday, starving to death or at least doing really badly on your Agnostic Farmer* Final.
Ok, I'll explain the last one: If an agnostic farmer goes to Easter, or Passover service at the equator they receive a timely reminder to plant crops. Northern European Farmers don't need reminding, and normally have foul weather which makes the question obvious. Nobody said anything about having to pass a Turing Test to be an Agnostic Farmer.
Having a hard time dreaming of a place where the IT knows what they are doing AND (note logical operator) the Marketing Department is giving orders
A little boy in Texas turns to his mother ... "Mom when I grow up I want to be a musician"
She looks down at him ... "Son, you have to choose, it's either one or the other"
Kind of like that, but without the stolen joke part (thanks Kinky)
I have to agree, although "thank you" is a bit excessive and "thanks" will do with three fewer expensive letters. As a start-up you could probably go with "thx". Investors would applaud your passion for success. Just don't mention Bnk Rbbry in your business plan. Bankers insist on details ... Othr Peopls Bnks or something like that.
"Would it be a shame if the data, metadata and analytics were ruled inadmissible in law court by points of order from some legal eagle?"
Meta Data delenda esse ... not delenda est (wink) (nod)
I have read one theory of spontaneous pshaws (TOSP) which said the NSA is thrilled. For years now meta data has been recognized as 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag costing 100 Pounds Sterling to maintain. No more. The Private Sector owns the Meta Data Porta-Potty.
Bad move ... does Mitch sound like someone who can read* ?
Be subtle, find out where he buys his groceries and have them put a coupon on the back of the receipt for a GED Diploma Mill.
*curiously he seems to be able to breathe under water, from the picture. I thought you had to be a mammal, when did they change that ?
DNS is a dirty, boring job but somebody has to do it. DNS is not a "contestable monopoly" in as defined in certain corners of the El Reg attic (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/22/google_and_the_commish_sigh_you_cant_exploit_a_contestable_monopoly/).
If Cyberspace is to be permitted to reinvent itself, then these folks will need to be made into Soylent Green, or sent to Re-Education Camps (http://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/all). Pity; several of them might be nice, but they are all old and have to go.
The "issues" are better separated.
The meta data collection hazard cuts much deeper than tyrannical opportunities for governments. In a perfect Social Networking World(TM) murder and talking with your mouth full, and drunken Selfies would be one single speedy trial. Problems with that, I think; not the trial but rather who presumes to sit in the Judge's seat.
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