Posts by YARR 605 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Nov 2008
VPNs are increasingly necessary today, not just for bypassing region restrictions, but to bypass restrictions on free speech in authoritarian regimes.
The obvious solution for Twitter / X is to integrate a custom VPN into the service for anyone accessing the service from authoritarian regions that can't tolerate freedom. Bypass their legal jurisdiction, problem solved.
I would have thought that the cell level used for each ssd (slc mlc tlc qlc etc) would correspond to the expected number of write cycles before failure? This should be included in the table.
Also running virtual memory or swap partition on an ssd will significantly add to the write wear.
LLMs also make stupid mistakes and are adamant they're right.
Medical diagnoses is a well defined logical process implemented in existing software such as expert systems. We only need AI for problems we don't know how to solve, and we must never trust them with our lives.
To substitute fossil fuel use we would need large areas of arable land to grow crops that can be converted to ethanol etc. so the demand is there.
Yes historically humans are lazy so use the best land first, including building on good arable land. There are many grades of land according to soil type drainage etc, so often there is land that is poor for agriculture not far from existing cities, which would make sense to develop first, while ring fencing good arable land for food or energy production. In general water can be piped tens of miles to where people live at reasonable cost. Agriculture uses more water per unit of land than people, so land closest to water sources should be prioritised for agriculture.
recommend = v. to suggest that someone or something would be good or suitable
Recommend implies a value judgement, but should any content provider be making a value judgement about content they haven't personally reviewed?
If "recommended" videos were renamed to "related" videos then no value judgement is implied, so the content provider is not promoting the videos, just stating that they have some similarity with the content you are currently viewing.
I don't know exactly how the NHS is organised, but if every NHS trust must independently purchase and manage all it's IT services and systems, there must be huge duplication of effort and loss of scale efficiency. If the IT departments across different trusts could organise and co-ordinate their long term plans at a national level, perhaps they won't have so many vacancies and/or they could afford to pay staff more for having greater responsibility.
The way government legislation is going worldwide
Governments in authoritarian countries should have no influence over our data privacy in non-authoritarian countries. If the authoritarian countries insist on violating data privacy it should be done via an API that surrenders access to a separate government-mandated software application that does the analysis/spying function. By default, with no government-mandated software installed the API should be inactive and respect the user's data privacy.
Given most western nations now have GDPR-like rules governing access to personal data, this processing should not happen without user consent. There should be a clear opt-in rather than a mandatory surrender of consent buried in the legal terms of service.
Unless they start buying up accident statistics databases from everywhere which bothers to keep them, then Tesla can only act after the fact. ie people continue to get injured or die in the process of building that new database
Potentially more important than accident data is near-accident data - gathered by monitoring driver journeys.
The "fail-safe" method that I feel should be used is to have low-powered beacons emitting a "safe for auto" signal along roads that have been cleared as being safe for auto-driving.
Way too expensive, the safe-for-auto status would be included with the mapping data, like geo-fencing data is built into drones nowadays.
For example the locals know about the junction where this collision occurred. .... Locals slow down
If Tesla have been monitoring drivers for years they ought to have a big database full of this kind of data about local road conditions. They ought to be able to train a new high-level / governor AI to combine mapping data and driver / accident data to instruct the low-level AI that handles realtime driving about where to be extra cautious.
So if the holders of politial power are moving to online meetings, does the same apply to their minions? How effective would an online protest be if everyone who wants to protest joins the same online meeting, but no-one else hears them? Do protests have to be disruptive? How do you legally cause disruption online?
We never make those whose responsibility it is to secure their data/facilities responsible.
Responsible for what?
The perpetrator is responsible for the crime of breaking in to a network / device / physical property / etc.
The owner can only take reasonable measures to secure their property, but can never make it totally secure.
If you contract out your security, then the contract you agree will specify a remedy if security is breached, the contractor is responsible for that.
Since when did “cryptocurrencies” officially become currencies rather than assets (subject to capital gains tax) ?
Conventional currencies can easily be used for online purchases, they can be just as virtual as cryptos.
What “clear advantages” do cryptos have?
“financial inclusion and access” - conventional currencies can be used with ease both online and offline. There is no artificial scarcity to skew value in favour of early adopters. = Win for conventional currencies
“efficiency” - electronic conventional currency uses minimal energy to create or trade. Many crypto’s waste energy on expensive calculations whose results have no obvious utility = Win for conventional currencies
“speed” - updating a centralised bank account is faster than updating a distributed ledger = Win for Conventional currencies.
“resilience” - judge for yourself how resilient banking IT systems are compared to crypto exchanges. How often have people lost their money / investment in each system? How many crypto wallets are now irrecoverable?
Most cryptos have 0 intrinsic value, most conventional currencies were originally backed by precious metals, then later by the assets they are loaned against.
One reason cryptos are unstable is because if there is a big sell-off, there aren’t enough buyers willing to part with large amounts of conventional currency for them. Most holders of large amounts of cryptos are long standing investors who bought them when they were cheaper. Hence the true “dollar value” is never really tested.
The NHS track and trace app ( https://covid19.nhs.uk/privacy-and-data.html ) specifically says:
The app uses random IDs that cannot be used by the NHS or the government to identify who you are, or who you’ve spent time with.
The app cannot:
use your GPS location or track where you have been
be used to check or monitor if you’re self-isolating
be used by law enforcement to identify or track you
Given the temperature on Venus will rapidly cook any lander at ground level, but a balloon or perpetual glider could survive higher in the atmosphere, a hybrid mission could extensively explore the surface. An airship would be the mothership, slowly navigating around the planet using solar power. On occasion it could detach a drone to fly down to the surface for a very fast photo / sensor / sample mission, flying back up to the mothership to cool down, transmit data, and recharge for the next mission.
The drones could be reconfigured according to the mission, rather than hefting the weight of every sensor / collector at once. Each part of the drone could be remotely replaceable, to extend it’s operating life.
This could be an indicator that the adversaries have actually learned something by their adversarial nature. When it happens the discriminator may have realised it’s been fooled by the generator, by spotting some new feature by which to discriminate. The generator is then forced to try new random tactics to fool the discriminator, resulting in a temporary reduction in output quality.
AI can't be intrinsically biased, because it starts from a neutral position and only knows the information that's given as input. Most reported "bias" is probably real differences in data by race. For example, facial recognition being more diffiult to discern when there is less color contrast between skin and facial features, or some historical data being more readily available in countries with a particular racial majority (which skews learning to that data set) .
There must be some mistake, like maybe 16 Astronomical Units (Earth - Sun distances) ? If objects hundreds of km across in an orbit that crosses our orbital plane passed just 16 Earth-Moons away we should more concerned about them than we are about Covid-19.
Tesla opted for inexpensive sensors over LIDAR to keep costs down. Perhaps a miniature fly-by-wire camera drone could give the car a better view of the road ahead, if that technology has reached an affordable price point? Just brake if it hits anything.
(Or a camera on a long retractable muscle wire)
If human descendents make it as far as colonising space, those asteroids are going to be space mined for constructing space stations / space mirrors / a halo or dyson sphere or just ballast for enlarging and terraforming Mars (to hold a dense atmosphere). I doubt they'll still be there in 6 billion years.
How about installing a suspension activated switch in the wheel arch of these vehicles? When they drive over a pot hole of a certain depth the switch is activated, it logs the GPS co-ordinates and sends an automated report to base? It could even take a photo as the vehicle drives over the hole.
Of course, for this to work, the drivers will have to intentionally NOT avoid the pot holes, which may prove costlier for them and unpopular with any passengers.
What's a legal definition of a "mobile device"? Could many small network connected devices fall foul of this legislation?
Perhaps Apple could ship their EU iPhones with a lead weight strapped to them, and a legal disclaimer that "conversion of this iPhone to an EU mobile device is performed at the user's discretion".
It's pointless worrying about "pecking orders" since we are destined to relative decline as the developing world grows. Reducing dependence on other nations is a better policy, in particular avoiding singular dependence on any one nation or trade block.
We should avoid trade deals that involve political compromise - a trade deal should be purely about trade.The electorate decide what sort of country we will become, not foreign governments. Also trade agreements that give corporations the right to claim against governments must be avoided, the rights of ordinary people must come first.
Most trade deals aren't advantageous to the UK since we are a net importer of nearly everything. We should be mindful about what trade deals we commit to since they will determine in which industries we can be competitive.
UK population (2020) is about 67.7 million, it was about 63 million at the last census in 2011. That's a net growth of 4.6 million people in under 9 years, or over 0.5 million (~ the population of Bristol) per year, most or all of which is due to immigration.
Despite all those immigrants, business leaders are still demanding more, but this time it really will fix our economy once and for all! Having our immigration policy decided by "business leaders" has worked so well in the past... for them, but not for the majority. All the while, the cost of housing for ordinary workers is more unaffordable than ever.
You're right those planes have intake ducts. Outlet ducts would certainly be possible (since that what thrust vectors and reversers do) but may be less efficient for normal use. Like you said, they may not fix the pitch up issue either way.
Another option might be to mount the engine further back (in the "correct" position to avoid the need for MCAS), and have a duct for the upper part of the cold air stream immediately behind the main fan. The duct could redirect the cold air down the sides of the engine, under the wing, then emit it above the hot air stream behind the wing. This would allow the engine to be positioned higher up with part of the upper fan in front of the wing.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pitch up issue that MCAS addresses happens because the larger diameter engines are positioned further forward of the wing (and higher up). This means the thrust is acting from a different point than earlier 737 models. High thrust causes a turning moment about the plane's centre-of-mass, requiring elevators to compensate.
Why did they not put a small duct on the back of the engines, so the thrust acts from the same point as earlier 737 models? Ducts must be practical since they were used in the Lockheed Tristar.
The thrust reverser could be moved to the end of the duct, or be directed through a flap in the duct.
Re: Replay - I thought old LEGO bricks were made from carcinogenic / BPA plastics that are unsuitable for toys that kids might put in their mouths?
So isn't it time to get the kids savvy with 3D printing instead of old fashioned blocks? When they're bored of one toy, feed it back into the 3D printer to make a different toy, no plastic wasted.
"Piece of piss" = your words. Yes a trade deal with the EU would be easier than with any other nation because we are already in the EU and are fully compliant with all current EU regulations. However, once we leave that wont be the case for long. Collectively our politicians have had >3 years to sort this out, that's not the fault of the Brexit voting majority. Unfortunately the collective failure of our politicians to co-operate and implement the electorate's will makes a mockery of democracy on the world stage.
Downvoters - I wasn't advocating knock-offs, just surprised there are none. I though the hardware was all off-the-shelf parts, so in theory anyone could make their own Pi board that's 100% compatible? Wouldn't compatible ARM devices be a good thing?
I hadn't heard of the Pi-Top, I was thinking of something netbook sized but Raspbian compatible.
Agree with the last A/C - staying in the common market and not having control of our borders or the right to make our own trade agreements would make leaving the EU a net loss. That's why a trade deal is needed, so our most vital trade with the EU is not undermined. All major economies have trade deals of some kind, but the deal that would most benefit UK-EU trade is different from just inheriting existing EU trade deals. This will take time to negotiate, hence a backstop position is needed, but that backstop must not be permanent, hence why BJ is trying to renegotiate it with a backstop of the backstop.
People clinging to the referendum and demanding 'no deal' brexit are the ones who are frustrating leaving
WRONG. There are no MPs representing a hard-Brexit party. It's anti-Brexit MPs and Labour opportunists who have frustrated the parliamentary votes thus far. Proroguing parliament is an opportunity to stop those self-interested MPs from putting a spanner in the works at this crucial stage in UK-EU negotiations. A good trade deal is better than a hard Brexit, but a hard Brexit is better than a bad trade deal, or staying in the common market without a say.
ParLIARment have had three years to debate Brexit and have failed to agree a workable solution for the electorate's choice. It's time to clear their schedule, work the problem, make preparations, and discuss backstop alternatives with the EU etc. A temporary dictat that you can only speak if you have something constructive to say wouldn't go amiss.
£30b is like £1000 per taxpayer, which would pay for several years of complimentary broadband per household. The last thing we should be doing is committing the taxpayer to non-essential luxuries like FTTP and HS2/ HS3, when we have the HUGE known and unknown costs of transitioning our economy post Brexit. Let the market decide: let people pay the true cost of FTTP / HS2 / HS3 if they think they need it.
With no EU trade deal, business conditions will change significantly, with both new opportunities and many unviable businesses closing. LOTS of investment will be needed to survive the economic shock. Please prioritise taxpayers money for that, rather than wasting it on services most people don't need!!
The xkcd data compares overall cancer rates in the USA, not brain tumors specifically. Clearly there is a major increasing trend in the detection of all cancers in the USA that predates widescale use of mobile phones.
If all of the increase in brain tumors in the UK study was due to people living longer, then all the increase should be in the uppermost age groups - the tumor incidence in younger age groups should be the same as in 1995. We don't have the data here, but the wording of the Telegraph article implies the increase in brain tumors specifically affects the young.
Again, all this relates to existing mobile phone standards 1G-4G which use a different frequency band from 5G, so is incidental to the argument against 5G.
You've not being very "scientific" by lumping 5G protesters with other environmental issues.
Anyway, the scientific evidence is that incidents of brain tumors in the UK have more than doubled in 20 years. As yet no culprit has been identified, but mobile phones are the most obvious lifestyle change that correlates with the scientific evidence.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/05/02/mobile-phone-cancer-warning-malignant-brain-tumours-double
Of course this is irrelevant to the 5G debate which argues that the higher frequency of 5G transmitters is significantly more dangerous to life than earlier generations, supposedly due to resonating with DNA or something. They also argue that past studies of the effects of EM radiation are based on short term exposure risks, not extended exposure over many years. (NB. I have not personally researched any of these claims).
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