* Posts by Zero Sum

41 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jul 2008

Scarlett Johansson sics lawyers on AI biz that cloned her for an ad

Zero Sum
Pint

Re: An interesting twist

Possibly irrelevant comment.

Re-watched "Her" (2013) recently. Great and uncomfortable film, and as you said, prescient about generative AI.

Only just realised that Joaquin Phoenix's character was a human version of Scarlett Johansson's computer character. She was a simulacrum that had artificial (?) relationships with all who used her operating system, while the character played by Phoenix had a very similar job – he wrote love letters between people he didn't know to help them communicate (for a price). He was a human simulating human communication for people who didn't have the ability or time to do so themselves.

Unlike Johansson's character, however, Phoenix's Theodore Twombly was unable to grow and find his place and people. (There is a similar transformation of Scarlett Johansson's in Luc Besson's "Lucy", but this is not the time to go into that.)

And while I am here, there is also the 2002 Al Pacino film, "Simone" (S1m0ne – Simulation One) about a film director whose reputation is overshadowed by the AI movie star he created and "murdered" and all the palaver that ensues. Not a great film, but fun (Al Pacino!), and deals with similar themes to the ones we're discussing – but twenty years ago.

For your interest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_(2002_film)

or

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/

US court system ditches electronic filing, goes paper-only for sensitive documents following SolarWinds hack

Zero Sum

Russian guard service reverts to typewriters after NSA leaks

Only seven years after the FSO reverted to typewriters for much the same reason:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/russia-reverts-paper-nsa-leaks

Also – have they considered that most printers keep copies of documents on their hard drives? Isn't that a potential vulnerability if they print anything out?

We did Nazi see this coming... Internet will welcome Earth's newest nation with, sigh, a brand new .SS TLD

Zero Sum

Re: Political correctness comments by code junky and bombastic bob

Re: Political correctness comments by code junky and bombastic bob

code junky said (and I think bob was generally referring to):

<<What bothers me is the absolute hatred for the nazi (understandable) but the love for the communist (confounding). The hammer and sickle flag is flown with pride. People wearing tshirts with the face of communists and marxist symbols are available with no uproar. Yet for all the damage inflicted by the nazis it was still less than that socialist mess.

Perpetrators are still hunted for their actions in death camps but no such effort against those who ran gulags. The UK opposition has turned into a parody after their marxist shift. But dont receive the same kind of hatred as someone viewed right wing.>>

...

Speaking as an educator, I think that one (simplified) explanation to this is that our educational institutions from Kindergarten upwards, are dominated pedagogically, administratively, and ideologically by descendants of Marxism. As a result, the horrors of Communism are brushed aside compared to the blood-boiling hate that is inculcated against the Fascists.

Indeed, the infiltration of our schools and universities could be seen as a central tenet of this particular branch of politics, namely, the dictum by the slogan coined by Rudi Dutschke, a student of the Italian Communist, Antonio Gramsci:

"The long march through the institutions",

that is, subverting social institutions such as universities to Marxist positions, not by working against them, but by learning from them and insinuating leftist ideology into institutional policy. It seems to have succeeded, which you might have noticed if you have worked at a school any time since May, 1968.

...

Interesting factoid – of course, "Long March" is directly derived from Mao's long retreat of the same name that ended in victory and remains a powerful symbol of China's now Fascist ideology.

...

Dutschke's 1980 posthumous work was entitled,"Mein langer Marsch (My long March)". I am being facetious, but of course, we might notice a parallel here with the work of another extremist who initially used socialism as a cloak, "Mein Kampf (My Struggle), by Adolph Hitler.

...

Finally, the correspondent here who pointed out that Hitler's evil was magnified because of him targeting ethnic minorities might take time to recall Stalin's relocation of the entire population of certain Soviet, republics such as Chechnya and Kalmyks. To Siberia. Many did not survive the journey, with it being a little chilly at times. Fewer lasted the conditions when they arrived at their new homes with their new jobs. They were repatriated in Khrushchev's time.

We are only talking around 1,000,000 people killed in this particular chapter of Soviet History, but if you claim that the Soviets were less culpable than the Nazi's on ethnic grounds, please consider what a pile of 1,000,000 corpses looks like.

Science: Broke brats glued to the web while silk-stocking scions have better things to do

Zero Sum

Too many stood silent ..............

"Too many stood silent .............."

Yes. In the 1930s the problem was fascism, but now we have another form of totalitarianism that is not being challenged:

"They are also far more comfortable with the concept of gender fluidity i.e. not viewing everyone as a man, or a woman – hence the title of the report: Beyond Binary."

It is amazing how quickly the trans- and gender-fluid ideology has taken over contemporary media, and how scared people are to oppose it.

What is even more curious is that the strongest branch of this movement – men in dresses – is violently trying to redefine what it is to be a woman. That is – a group of men is trying to erase femaleness. Vale feminism.

Either there is going to be a massive conservative reaction to this, or the West is finished.

Thank God I'm not long for this world.

Apple, if you want to win in education, look at what sucks about iPads

Zero Sum

To Lee D

I've had a completely different experience with our department's iPads and have had no problem installing apps, disabling the camera on some units, blacklisting certain websites and generally locking the things down.

Profile Manger on MacOS server handles most of this very well even though it is a bit fiddly in some ways. The important first step is top make them managed devices first using Apple Configurator before enrolling them in Profile Manager, then they are much less breakable.

Australia joins the 'decrypt it or we'll legislate' club

Zero Sum

Can Aussies refuse to incriminate themselves?

"a protected right of the communicating parties to not incriminate themselves by refusing to explain what a code means or give the investigators a key."

I'm not sure if Australians have the right to refuse to incriminate themselves. They don't have the same level of freedom as the USA.

I think it would be an offence to refuse to provide a password to an encrypted disk, for example.

Can anyone clarify this?

Julian Assange to UK court: Put an end to my unwarranted Ecuadorean couch-surf

Zero Sum

Australia is the danger for Assangel

Assangel presumably entered the UK on an Australian passport, so if they wanted to deport him, that's where he would be headed (please correct me if I am wrong), regardless of his new Ecuadorian citizenship.

Given Australia's increasingly authoritarian behaviour and its subservient relationship to the USA, it could be Australia that would extradite him to the States, thus saving the UK any further embarrassment and giving Uncle Sam a sweet little present.

Australian Bureau of Statistics flip-flops over marriage equality survey

Zero Sum

Re: How about this?

<<NZ already has SSM, our Deputy PM is a New Zealander, so....>>

Maybe we can bin both these representatives of deluded egoism.

NSW government drops a Catch: Bus Wi-Fi is a privacy nightmare

Zero Sum

Free country?

Why is it that internet providers of free democratic Australia take all of your information and make the whole connectivity on the public transport a privacy sucking nightmare, while connecting to the free WiFi on the metro of Moscow City is quick and easy and asks for no personal information (the last time I tried)? It is extremely user friendly and fast.

I wonder I the majority of Australians understand just how incompetently their (our) country is run. (Please don't let me get started on mandatory data retention. At least the Russkies will keep that in-house for the intelligence services, while the Aussies seem to be planning to open it all up to lawyers and business. How can this be happening?)

Kaspersky so very sorry after suggesting its antivirus will get you laid

Zero Sum

Multi-cultural crowd

The group of ladies in the ad actually seem very inclusive race-wise. Maybe they represent the various peoples of the former Soviet republics including the Baltic and Central Asian states.

They all (including the fellow) look very modestly attired – professional and self respecting, with not a tattoo or piercing in sight. No projections of insecurity and everyone politely waiting without even one looking at their device or chatting on the phone.

You would have to be pretty determined to be offended by such a mild-mannered scene, as it would be difficult to create a more innocuous image.

VPN provider claims Russia seized its servers

Zero Sum

Snowden criticises the new laws

In his criticism of these new laws, Edward Snowden says that they will cost providers something like $33 billion to implement:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/what-russia-s-new-draconian-data-laws-mean-for-users/574962.html

Not so sure if it is wise of him to be criticising Russia while he is their guest, but I imagine he's done the calculations on that as well.

___________

Some quotes from the article (supporting the idea above that the lawmakers have absolutely no idea what they are talking about):

<<Vladimir Gebrielyan, the CTO of one of Russia's largest Internet companies, Mail.ru, wrote in a column published by RBC on June 23 that Russia simply does not have the data storage capacity to store so much data. “The storage dimensions required for this are unprecedented: It would take all the data-storage factories in the world producing systems for years just for Russia.”>>

<<Considering that it takes three to four years to build a data center, that there isn't enough power generation in the European part of Russia to support the centers, and that some 5 trillion rubles would need to be spent upgrading communications lines to facilitate the increased traffic, the Yarovaya laws are not feasible, Gebrielyan wrote.>>

<<Russia's Culture Ministry has become a surprising voice of reason amid the Yarovaya debate. There are so many complications that even Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, said on June 29, “there will be serious issues with the application of this law. We are confident it will require a number of amendments.”>>

Work begins on Russian rival to Android

Zero Sum

Russian school informatics textbooks for all children.

<<Nice.

Russian OS. Strong OS. Covered in bears.

Does this mean we're about to see the AK47 of mobile phones?>>

...

Just for your curiosity, here is a list of school informatics textbooks from 2nd class to 11th class. I forget how compulsory this subject is now, but I think many children must do it. Forget about Russian stereotypes, there are many educated and talented people. If they can be activated, a national OS is sure possible.

Have a look at some Russian mobile company site (Beeline, MTS) and you see much more user friendly approach than many westerns. Many interesting surprises.

Anyway, here is link to children's informatics textbooks.

Just look inside and you will see familiar things even if the words are not familiar:

http://11book.ru/component/search/?searchword=информатика&ordering=newest&searchphrase=all&limit=0

(For your orientation, "Информатика 10 класс" means "10th class informatics" and so on.)

Gumtree serves world's worst exploit kit to scores of Aussies

Zero Sum

Save the websites! :'(

<<One of my boys said that his favourite websites earn a living from advertising and he thought there was a moral dilemma in blocking the ads, which I thought was a good thought from a young man, so I left it off.

I might rethink that after reading this article.>>

Well, the rest of the world seems to have decided that musicians and other artists should give away their material for free, so I don't see why we need to make a special case for anyone's favourite website, especially if it might be serving up an unwanted fungal infection as a bonus.

Any unpaid for music, photos, or programs on sonny's computer?

On your computer?

I think you are on the right track with your rethink.

Want to kick butts? Go cold turkey

Zero Sum

Tobacco = Enlightenment

Anyone notice that the introduction of tobacco coincides with the beginning of the Renaissance in the West?

Just hoping that in becoming physically healthier, we are not going to accidentally invoke the Law of Unintended Consequences and regress into a tobacco-free idea-free Dark Ages. A righteous millennium of goodness and clean air. Cigarette-free zones full of children, puppies and vegetarians. Thoughtful Police and smart uniforms.

I mean, it's possible, isn't it?

3D printer blueprints for TSA luggage-unlocking master keys leak online

Zero Sum

Mome raths...

<<Careful! Next thing you know, your mome raths will be outgribing ...>>

Our mome raths were outgribed to the Philippines.

Turnbull's Digital Transformation Office to 'leave you quivering with excitement'

Zero Sum

Australia catching up with the Russians (and Brits)?

Thanks, Malcolm! By 2017, you hope to have in place a system that Russia's had running for a couple of years – a central government site for dealing with pensions, passports, tax, immigration, patents, intellectual property and all of those fussy things that should have been in one place a long time ago (let's not consider here surveillance – even though Australia is doing more than catching up on that account!)

On the internet government services front, Russia is doing pretty well – they even offer simple versions of the site in French, German, and English, along with a variant for the visually impaired.

Have a look – at least a peek before reflexively copying the British model. At least be informed:

http://www.gosuslugi.ru/pgu/?userLang=ru

Urinating teen polluted 57 Olympic-sized swimming pools - cops

Zero Sum

Cost?

How much would that much reservoir water be worth?

Or how much would consumers actually be billed had they used it?

Just curious.

Facebook continues to CONQUER THE WORLD

Zero Sum
Thumb Up

Film and music on V Kontakte

One advantage of VK is that people can upload all of their music and films and no-one makes any copyright noise. Plenty of English language material as well.

Interestingly, this behaviour is specifically prohibited in the terms and conditions agreement, but nothing ever seems to be done about it.

'Replace crypto-couple Alice and Bob with Sita and Rama'

Zero Sum

You've been trolled

Did anyone actually read the PDF?

It's a joke.

DARPA overjoyed that its hypersonic glider came apart, blew up

Zero Sum

Shuttle speeds in similar position?

Just for comparison – how fast was the shuttle going in similar atmosphere? How high up was DARPA's glider?

Sorry if I missed something.

Woz's key to success: Burn the tie, wear T-shirts to work

Zero Sum

The Sixties are over, Woz.

Is Woz suggesting that we need to be totally free of restrictions to be creative?

That Bach and Jonathan Swift (and thousands of others in less permissive ages) would have been more productive wearing hoodies?

Very poor reasoning.

He takes a jibe at Singapore, and judges it on its small artistic output without considering the intellectual/creative work that turned this tiny backwater into a major port and business centre.

Certainly, he has a point about the suffocating authoritarianism of that country, but that is not enough to support his suggestion that "All the creative elements seem to disappear."

Is he really trying to tell us that creativity only exists with a counterculture ethos?

He says:

"Thinking for yourself is creativity and that's goes right down to what we were talking about dress, the clothing that you wear - you wear what you want to wear."

No, Woz, you are thinking like a spoilt child.

iPhone users richer, brainier, more tasteful than Android-ers

Zero Sum
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Android logo: Fat, no-neck alien

The main problem with Android (for me, at least) is that its logo is a fat, angry alien with no neck! I mean, look at those antennae/eyebrows – the creature hates humans.

I'm sure it's not meant to symbolise Americans in general, but it certainly could be a figurehead for the Republicans – as is borne out by its user profiles.

Who on Earth commissioned the design of that revolting, snot-coloured fascist icon?

Australian bank to run trial with human teller in ATM

Zero Sum
FAIL

No, this is in Australia

Actually, as it's in Australia, it would likely be more like this:

Teller [In Indian call centre]: G'day, how may I help you?

Customer: [Holds up note that reads] I've got a gun. Give me all the money!

Teller: [Murmurs to self] ...

Russian search giant Yandex blows whistle on whistle-blower

Zero Sum

Information passed to Kremlin youth group

It seems that the FSB passed on the account information to the pro-Kremlim thugs Nashi, one of which posed as a reporter and quizzed donors by phone:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/navalny-donors-fret-about-fsb-leak/436142.html

German 'minister for cut'n'paste' resigns over PhD plagiarism

Zero Sum
Thumb Down

More honest than plagiarist Putin

Funny. Vladimir Putin apparently plagiarised big chunks of his dissertation and almost no-one made any noise at all.

He certainly wasn't stripped of his doctorate.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_437473.html

Russia blames Google for Egyptian revolt

Zero Sum

To Chris Hunt: Metonyms?

Isn't he using "February" and "October" as metonyms here? Or is there a more suitable term?

Facebook users subjected to more clickjacking

Zero Sum
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Glimmerblocker for Safari in place of NoScript

Thanks to "david 63" for the reference to the mobile version of Facebook that seems to work sans scripts.

For Safari, the NoScript equivalent might be Glimmerblocker, which also can put download links on YouTube pages and do address bar searches for Wikipedia, Amazon, or just about anything else.

US gov funds censorship-busting tech alternatives to Wikileaks

Zero Sum

The best I can get out of this is that...

The best I can get out of this is that Hillary Clinton is at least prepared to open her inconsistencies for discussion. I assume that she is ready to debate them.

That is a lot more than can be said for the unaccountable net-stranglers of China et al.

While Clinton is ready to be held to her word (whether we like it or not), those others will never likely to be.

That is the difference.

Frenchman cuffed for naughty lip-slip email to MEP

Zero Sum
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This is France – not Russia???

"Displaying contempt towards a public servant"...

I thought such laws were only possible here in Russia or other authoritarian regimes.

Shocking to find out that a normal democratic country such as France has such backward rules in its books.

US navy to battle Iranian mini-ekranoplan swarms with rayguns

Zero Sum

Use of lasers to blind the enemy?

I thought that the use of lasers as blinding devices was forbidden according to the rules of engagement.

Yes, these lasers are designed to destroy boats, but couldn't the Iranians argue that they were just as likely to blind personnel?

What's the story?

Japanese press step into execution chamber

Zero Sum
FAIL

Spiteful

While the death penalty for me is already barbaric, Japan's policy of keeping the date of execution secret but for a few hours reeks of vindictive, childish spitefulness.

Elaborate torture of a kind.

Please grow up, Japan!

Adobe heats up iPad Flash bash

Zero Sum

Good move by Apple

Banning Flash will hopefully provoke Adobe to get their monstrosity working correctly and economically.

Or possibly, it will force websites to switch to better technology.

Excellent tactics, Apple!

IBM chums with Swiss to build 3D brain-density processors

Zero Sum

Fluids in tiny pipes? What about blood?

While I understand that it should be very difficult to pump fluid through very narrow pipes, could someone possibly explain how we get it done for us through our capillaries, which go down to about ten microns or so in diameter and are full of blood, which I imagine is pretty viscous on those scales?

Ready or not, IPv6 is coming

Zero Sum
Thumb Up

Coming to Russia this year

One of Russia's largest ISPs, Stream, is making it available to all subscribers this year:

"Now at any point of our network, which interacts with the Internet, is IPv4, and IPv6. To our client- operators we already allow above the IPv4- connection IPv6- transit into the global IPv6- Internet. Important clients, who have the distributed corporate networks, have begun to manifest interest in this. In this year we intend to give access into the IPv6- Internet to all subscribers of Stream, although for this it is necessary to solve an array of problems, first of all with the support Of iPv6 on the service equipment."

Translated from the end of an article that also goes into the negatives:

http://www.iksmedia.ru/issue/2009/2/2540873.html

Wikileaks tells Aus censorship minister to rack off

Zero Sum

Australian law extends to Sweden

Conroy said:

"Any Australian involved in making this content publicly available would be at serious risk of criminal prosecution."

Certain Australian laws apply to Australian citizens anywhere in the world. If the offence did take place in Sweden, and there was evidence, there could be a valid prosecution of an Australian. In this narrow context, Australian laws do extend all over the world.

Providing evidence is another matter.

(Does anyone remember that case where a Korean girl making relatively porn in the US was busted when she went home?)

Google tosses free texting

Zero Sum

Free SMS from Russian telecoms

Most Russian operators offer (limited) free SMSs to their subscribers on their websites. It's very handy and very good PR. Is there anything like that in the UK or US or Australia? Unlikely. Idiots.

Here's Beeline's site for example: http://www.beonline.ru/portal/comm/send_sms/simple_send_sms.sms

Missed flight woman goes absolutely mental

Zero Sum

Civilised restraint and lack of violence

Impressive that the authorities recognised a freak-out for what it was, and didn't over-react. They were thankfully forbearing. They didn't taze and kill like in the incident with the distraught Polish (?) gentleman at an airport a while back.

Thanks for the lesson, Cathay.

Boss frogmarches bound employee to cop shop

Zero Sum

Boss stuffed up

Aren't there pretty stringent restrictions on making a "citizen's arrest"? (Depending on jurisdiction.)

I doubt that tying up a white collar criminal and publicly humiliating him would fall under the conditions necessary. Especially if he wasn't informed that he was under citizen's arrest. Don't know the details of the case, but it sounds like the boss screwed things up.

Research: Wind power pricier, emits more CO2 than thought

Zero Sum

What about flywheels?

Flywheels.

How efficient are they at storing energy?

I'm sure I wouldn't want one in my car, but buried under a windmill wouldn't present much danger.