Posts by Rol 1457 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jan 2013
The chief of police for the West Midlands was forced to resign because his staff got their misleading intel using AI, in regard to a particularly troublesome football fixture, instead of the old school method of Googling it. A lesson to be learnt for us meat bags, but clearly an impossible task in asking AI to better itself.
Conservative electricity is created by burning naturally found resources in gorgeously stunning buildings with faint whiffs of fairy smoke coming out of idyllic chimneys, that can only enhance the landscape and air, whereas evil liberal electricity is made from looming towers of hateful wind turbines. It also upsets the natural order of things. If the environment that the poor have to live in is just as clean as the kindly and benevolent capitalist's, then they are likely to live just as long, if not longer, and I'll be damned if my wealth is not going to eke out a few more years over the proles that I have nothing but derision for.
In English employment law, the job gets made redundant, not the person. So how can staff in the UK be made redundant when the job still exists?
Yeah, I appreciate they have the choice to move to India and carry on working, but that was never in the employment contract they signed.
It seems a bit of a stretch, that it is illegal to make someone redundant and then employ someone else to do their job, but it is okay if that new employee lives in another country?
So, a manager can make a "troublesome" member of staff redundant and replace them with someone working from abroad, and then after a suitable amount of time has elapsed, rehire for the role in the UK, and not be up in front of a tribunal for it?
I thought the mafia made their money from drugs. And with that trade worth billions it seems a scam like this is just something they did for the LOL's
Often puzzles me when a criminal enterprise that's trying desperately to stay off the police's radar, goes and does something like this. Like the drug courier driving an uninsured wreck of a vehicle at high speed with a tail light out. Just smacks of idiocy.
I did think about your last comment just after I posted, and assumed the tech would just use the co-ordinates it had logged while the radar/jammer was hot and just homed in regardless of whether they had gone silent or not.
By the way, I didn't downvote you, and can't see any reason why anyone would want to.
The technology to home in on a transmitter is very well established. Whether it be a radar or a jamming device. So I'm puzzled why Ukraine hasn't adapted that tech to target radars and jamming equipment.
It would make perfect sense to send a dozen drones to take out, lets say, a fuel depot, and have another half a dozen anti-radar drones blaze a path to the target to increase the chance of the payload getting there.
Isn't that more or less what has happened in most conflicts. Send in your stealth planes alongside some fighter jets and as soon as the radars light up, you take them out, using the very signals they are emitting to guide your weapons onto the target. Rinse and repeat until all of their radar stations are smouldering rubble. Then a few weeks later, plant your flag in their leaders chest and declare the war over.
In the same way, the tower, if constructed in ancient times, would have sucked up every resource and brought on the demise of humanity, we are hurtling toward that now.
How much time will the great minds of our age waste flicking through the pages of this new age Tower of Babel to eventually go mad and throw themselves into the abyss.
I seem to remember that governments around the world can be sued for compensation (normally by American tec ventures) for any losses they incur due to said government, or their agents, changing the rules/procedures/tax strategies/suddenly acquiring a backbone or moral compass.
Now an industry that relies heavily on a steady income from challenging patents that were poorly investigated before being granted is surely going to demand many trillions of dollars for loss of earnings if the patent office actually started investigating the patents they are looking to grant.
How's about a compromise?
European customers use European cloud services, who encrypt our data and store it with the cheapest cloud providers on the planet.
Enacting Uncle Sam's Patriot Act would be useless,
Okay, yes the service on a service will add cost overheads, but a large enough European service would surely have some leverage on price/GB.
Another advantage would be the common interface presented to users by the European service, regardless of which cloud provider is holding the data, which could be seamlessly moved to another storage provider as and when required.
Slowly the EU provider can onboard its own local storage as demand increases.
Like the ingredients on a food label, I want to know where my data is being stored, and if it's on an American server, and it is readily readable by the NSA, then it isn't covered by GDPR, so I'm not buying into it.
America had a very stark choice in WWII. Either throw their lot in with the allies, or face the unarguable consequence that the whole of Europe would end up being "liberated" by Russia, and likely a tasty wedge of Africa and the Middle East with it.
That was the quiet whisper that Churchill put in the President's ear. It was nothing at all to do with defeating Nazi Germany. It was about denying Russia strategic gains that would have made it invulnerable to any subsequent Cold War threat.
I hope you Americans are now rethinking the God given mission to impose your flavour of democracy on the rest of the world?
It is demonstrably broken. Hopefully, for your sakes and ours, not beyond repair.
Perhaps the democrats could launch a total rethink of how something so fragile, yet so fundamental to a prosperous and fair world could be protected. It could be the one thing they take into the next election, if there is ever to be one, and present it to the voting public that this is what we will do once elected. Never again will an enemy of democracy ever be allowed to manoeuvre their man into power where they can then start dismantling the very core of what our once great nation stood for.
Unfortunately, for now, it looks like room for a hammer and sickle might just be found on the Stars and Stripes. Let's just hope it will eventually wash out.
You are right. This is about honouring a great woman and recognising their contribution in the fight against fascism, but if she were here, she would very much understand that the fight is still being waged and who so ever picks up the banner that she and her colleagues were so eager to bear, are surely honouring her no less than those who morn her passing.
Having spent a few minutes researching the topic, I feel a little overqualified to pontificate on the subject, but here goes...
History has many examples of societies that championed their warriors to the exclusion of everything else. Placing them front and centre of politics and life in general. The warrior class was the driving force. They spurned education, humanities and any sense of justice for those incapable of wielding a sword. They didn't fair too well did they. Having rocked the sensibilities of more enlightened peoples they disappeared into history under an avalanche of spears and arrows, wielded in most part by greengrocers, butchers, carpenters, teachers, poets... the people that a society such as the Spartans would spit on.
So here we are, with another might is right gang, trying to impose their will on society and the world in general. However, their fate is not completely in the hands of their neighbour's eventual retaliation, but instead from those they have and are marginalising within their own borders. The fall of this mighty empire will be at the hands of their own teachers and poets who have had enough of the injustice, but unlike those of the ancients, they don't need years of training to become capable of taking on the warrior class, they just need to pop into their local store and buy a gun.
You have to consider a tonne of metrics alongside each other when judging country A v's country B. Things like wealth and status are arguably high up there, but the likelihood that your children would be shot to death while attending school is considered far more important in a society that gives a shit about such things.
Not everyone swoons at the sight of a wad of cash, only, it seems, those who where born and raised to rule have this moral deficiency.
So why oh why, do we fill the seats of power with those readily inclined to cast away their duties at the prospect of more wealth and power?
Society would arguably be better served with a random selection being forced into public servitude, than just handing those positions of power to those shouting the loudest.
Imagine how corrupt our legal system would be, if jurors where no longer appointed randomly?
Personally, I do not believe our right to privacy will ever be secured, and the more legislation tries to assure me otherwise, the more I believe it is being ever more covertly hoovered up.
That should not stop activists from seeking such a Nirvana, but for the rest of us, it's an impossible fight. For every Mark Klein, there are thousands, ready and willing to do their misguided patriotic duty and stomp all over citizen's rights in the name of security, delivering a very unsecure future for anyone daring to question the authority that in a true democracy should be questioned at every turn.
Most domestic users haven't a clue what O/S they are running when browsing the internet, so Linux infighting isn't on their radar.
The big reason M$ is on most PC's, is because M$ paid hard cash and flirted, nay, cornered and married unfair market practice to be number one and to stay number one.
I work alongside a man who has flung himself head first into AI and merrily spends his days using GPT or whatever to generate images for larks. I asked if he could do one for me. It was going to be a picture of an anus, with a caption, "Can you guess what it is?" the image starts zooming out and the pic starts to look like a landscape of bumholes. As it zooms out further it becomes apparent we were looking at a magnified skin pore on Donald Trumps head.
The end caption states "You were right first time"
Trouble is, through that request, I discovered my go to AI pal was a rabid Trump fan. Oh, he was such a sweet guy as well, and his kids will miss him once he's sectioned.
So, any of you Trump haters out there want to give birth to "Can you guess what it is yet"?
It'll put a smile on several billion faces, and might even save the world.
A semi-retired billionaire realises where it is all going wrong, and sets out to create an O/S that studies its user. It then quietly censures the "free speech" that it deems is beyond the capacity of the user's intellect, to protect them from their own inadequacies, and hence save the world.
Trouble is, the baddies are on to him, and only Bond can save him. The difficulty for Bond, is it's his own government and that of many other countries who are the baddies trying to stop this, and so he must quit his job quietly if he is to save the world.
Oh and he has nookie with himself on the plane if that helps the plot.
Yep, it's a bit rich, that a social media platform that stands accused of having the POTENTIAL to be influenced by state actors, to interfere with other's democracies, is being threatened with closure, but those social media platforms that have demonstrably interfered with and in some cases be behind some of the most sickening crimes against humanity will all be cosily sat in the Oval office discussing how to turn every country in the world into a goose-stepping image of America.
If the EU and the UK do not recognise the clear and present danger of allowing their people to be suckered by media shysters selling right-wing bilge, then you best get your own rocket to Mars sorted, as this planet will be toxic to all life.
"Come back to bed darling"
"I can't, I'm busy with a customer"
"I'm really hating your new job. You sleep all day and work all night"
"I know darling, but once I qualify for my H1B1 we can move to America and live in the same time-zone as the customers"
"Best make it quick then, because I'm on the verge of leaving this miserable relationship"
When people argue if advertising actually works, you could go through hundreds of thousands of public surveys, of questionable quality to decide that, or you could point to the fact that over a trillion dollars a year gets spent on advertising by companies that are intrinsically averse to repeatedly squandering money on something of questionable worth.
Similarly, why would Intel spend millions of dollars rewarding their customers with "loyalty" refunds if it had no impact on Intel's market share?
Sometimes the cleverest in these lofty courts really aren't that savvy at all.
I'm old enough to remember the pre EU days, and boy was that a racket for UK businesses. Having a specific UK weirdness about a product ensured no foreign competition got a look in and the British consumer paid dearly for it. The UK standards were not at all terrible, in fact some were quite good, but they did ensure consumers got their wallets rinsed at every stage, so yes, businesses far and wide would be looking to return back to the days where a specific demographic can get scalped, while other players get squeezed out due to the costs of regional compliance.
The duo are well and truly done for. Their careers as well paid keyboard monkeys are over. They might get jobs shepherding trolleys around a supermarket car park, or burger flipping, but that's about it.
The impact of their foolishness might not have hit them yet, but their future job experiences will be a constant reminder.
Everything shows up on someone's radar somewhere, not least those owned by the swathe of intelligence agencies in America, such as NSA.
The issue is - do they risk compromising their covert snooping of everything for a small time bandit and do the local forces have the capacity to act on the tip-off.
There's no point having the greatest snooping tool of all time if you are going to send a spreadsheet with 20 million named UK citizens to Scotland Yard, listing every punishable action they took on the internet. For one, Scotland Yard hasn't the resources to pursue 1% of that, and two, it ends, once and for all, the illusion that the internet offers anonymity even for those actively seeking it, negating the whole point of mass surveillance.
For those in the know. the MOD IS running smoothly. Every dodgy deal, every missing million is buried under a mountain of cock-ups and incompetence so devilishly orchestrated that no auditor outside of a mental asylum would take on the task of fathoming who's hands have been in the till.
Reminds me of attending a festival on the race course near there. I think some of the security from the place we should not mention were moonlighting as security for the festival, as they were stopping people from leaving the stage venue with their drinks.
Of course their remit was to stop people bringing their own drinks into the venue, but clearly the message put into understandable grunt English was "Do not let anyone pass here with alcohol" which lacked any direction and was left to a very broad interpretation.
Fortunately for us they were not armed with anything more dangerous than a very thick skull, so we shuffled by while quietly explaining to them that the venue doesn't give a damn about us taking drinks out, only drinks in. I don't think they took our advice onboard, but in the face of overwhelming numbers, they had no choice but to back down.
...to do as you like, without fear of consequences from those less powerful than yourself.
What a hideous way to exist.
And America has the audacity to insist the rest of the world runs likewise. Or else!!
Please, if some benign space travelling aliens are in the vicinity of our hugely troubled planet, would you please come and take America's toys (weapons) away for good. Then the rest of the world can start putting things right without fear of punishment.
Actually, they are to blame. When the water companies got privatised they went asset stripping mental. In my locale alone they filled in four reservoirs and sold them for housing development.
Never in the history of my town had we had a hosepipe ban, but that sure changed.
But I strongly agree that shops should stop selling hose pipes LOL
Reminds me of the Lewinski competition where you could send in a dress stained with the presidents love juice that you had left hanging in your closet for years and get a whopping cash prize. Hundreds of dresses got sent in, but it appears the president had used donor liquid on most of those occasions.
I agree with the principle of personal data being stored in one place, but then you argued the gatekeepers should be the very organisations that have demonstrably abused that data again and again.
It makes a lot more sense that my personal data is stored only on a server located in the UK and I give explicit permissions to others for a range of limited access.
eg. When I open a new bank account I point them at my data. The server contacts me to advise the bank is requesting access to my data, and I give explicit permission for a one time access to x,y,z (proof docs that I am who I say I am, etc) and lifetime access to a,b,c (address, phone number, etc). The bank will never be allowed to store any of that data. It stays on my appointed server, and they access it as and when they need it, to say, email me, or write to me. I therefore have my very own auditable log of who's been accessing my data. And I only need change my details if I move house on that one server. No need to tramp around dozens of organisations updating my details.
Question is. Who in the UK would I trust to look after my details.
...whatever hair brained idea I come with next, so let's go for the most expensive shall we.
You've got to ask why the alternative proposal of a linear track, that would be cheaper and easily expandable, has been rebuffed?
In 30 years time, when the orbital track has proven too small, it will be a 100km diameter track next, whereas the linear proposal would just need a few more lengths added on at the end until the desired velocity is reached.
I mostly agree with you, but there is the potential for some operators to manoeuvre their satellites for a better view, or to plug a recent hole, so anticipating those scenarios might be one of the few reasons for AI to get involved.
Also the "weather mapping" of solar flares seems a fair candidate for AI as well.
Remember the bit in Terminator 3 where they hunker down in a nuclear bunker that is splattered with really aged computers safe from the menacing AI that wants to kill them.
Well, get prepping kids, 'cos the only safe computer is the one not connected to the internet, so load up on all the games and stuff you need to see yourself through to retirement and beyond now, and then pull the Lan cable out for good.
Sure, have a kamikaze PC/ phone to keep accessing the internet, but keep that a million miles away from your treasure trove of distractions crucial to your sanity.
Well. I cannot fault their physical service, as it worked reliably for me for over a decade, but their customer relations was absolutely diabolical. After every interaction with them over renewing contracts, i always had the uncontrollable urge to bathe myself in bleach and pick a fight with knife wielding thugs, just to make myself feel a little bit better and that I wasn't an inconsequential oink.
I wager not one of VM's customers is paying the same as their neighbour for the exact same package. You pay whatever they think they can shake out of you until you kick back.
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