Posts by Citizens untied

Twitter's algos favour tweets from conservatives over liberals because they generate more outrage online – study

Exactly

This is precisely what one would expect from today's "innovators" - Artificial intelligence trained by the least intelligent consumer.

Zuckerberg wants to create a make-believe world in which you can hide from all the damage Facebook has done

You know, the launch vehicle does not have to be one of the big commercial ventures to do the job we all want done. Strapped to an ICBM - reverse Slim Pickens - will do just fine.

Product release cycles are killing the environment, techies tell British Computer Society

Re: Conflict of interests

I wonder what a world with "solutions" designed to solve actual problems would look like compared ours; where the only problem being solved is how to maximize ROI. Even the definition of "R" could be tweaked...

Can't upvote enough the idea that BG, his ilk, and their influence on what constitutes "smart" are a very big part of the problem.

Honda sends first consumer Level 3 autonomous car into showrooms, but only to 100 lucky Japanese leasers

Re: Safer? Other options?

Yes but if there are no human drivers, there will be no crashes caused by human drivers, sheesh, I thought this was obvious.

I honestly do not understand what is "cool" about an autonomous car... I see no cool here, in fact I see mostly "uncool".

Also, humans have made the entire planet unsafe for every other living thing, I don't quite understand why human safety is so important in the first place, but, I do admit to a possibly severe case of misanthropic curmudgeon-itis.

Bill Gates on climate change: Planting trees is not the answer, emissions need to be zeroed out to avoid disaster

First of all, you don't need to, this is literally a media event.

Secondly, anything someone as dumb a Bill Gates knows about climate change and remediation, can be discovered in less time than it takes to read his pile of shit book - using any web browser, even Bing.

As for your second point, I couldn't agree more.

It fascinates me that so many people can obsess about rules and ethics, and their relationship to morality. Yet in a glaring example, immoral behavior (human caused extinctions, environmental destruction, presumption of dominion for the purposes of extraction and exploitation ) are showing real, life threating consequences (climate change/disruption). But, there is no corresponding "pennance", only some kind of strange self congratulatory semi posture based on "adaptation" meant to preserve the least sustainable aspects of what can loosely be called a system.

Bill Gates is lumbering grotesquerie - it is fortunate for him and me both we will never be in the same room.

Lay down your souls to the gods of rock 'n' roll: Conspiracy theorists' 5G 'vaccine' chip schematic is actually for a guitar pedal

Re: But Graham Greene isn't out of copyright, is he

Why oh why did you make me want to say "Our Man in Van Halen"

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

Bing Slingers

After 1.5 million days of computer time, SETI@home heads home to probe potential signs of alien civilizations

Re: Sorry, too late...

I think if you really think about it, you know what stage we are in...

Google lives in an Orange submarine: Transatlantic cable will get by with a little help from some friends

Re: The Repeater System

See Jaws 2.

Jeff Bezos: I will depose King Trump

I love the idea of the confrontation escalating, and then one day, all of the prime delivery trucks transform into urban assault vehicles, deliver millions of prime "revolution boxes" to every porch that DIDN'T use Alexa...

Remember that 2024 Moon thing? How about Mars in 2033? Authorization bill moots 2028 for more lunar footprints

Dont forget going blind...

Microsoft picks a side, aims to make the business 'carbon-negative' by 2030

Re: Easy

Was waiting for someone to point these things out. The claim that they could be carbon "negative" is a joke. This is the sound and fury of an establishment grasping to maintain its hold. Signifying nothing...

You wanted flying cars and colony worlds. Instead, IKEA furniture-building-ish AI robots

Dirk Gently's sofa

I feel like there may some interesting quantum state cascades resulting from analyzing Ikea furniture assembly, where observed successes result on observable failures. This algorithm should be ported to Cirq to challenge quantum claimed supremacy.

Traffic lights worldwide set to change after Swedish engineer saw red over getting a ticket

Re: Would someone explain

The issue is actually that the automated revenue generator.. er I mean.. safety enforcement system likely tickets people under circumstances they would normal if a human were monitoring the intersection.

Actually not a bad idea, the yellow could flash at decreasing intervals until solid - solid means one more second...

'We go back to the Moon to stay': Apollo vets not too chuffed with NASA's new rush to the regolith

Re: Let's start with the basics and then work forward from there.

These are more than pet peeves. War is just about the most reckless and vain human activity. I used to feel a little awkward with the "War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things" posters, think that this was the sentiment of someone who didn't understand modernity.

I realize the person who cam up with this PERFECTLY understands it, and is wondering why the rest of us don't.

Until you account for all of the environmental damage your millions of neglected humans (please remember the extinctions) cause, or dream of causing, I could honestly care less.

Space exploration, by definition, is an exercise in resource limits and conservation. It may be some of the most useful science and engineering being practiced.

So we're going back to the Moon: NASA triggers countdown by firing up spacecraft production

Re: Party-Pooper

Space exploration, unlike most other activities on the planet surface, actually forces us, or at least the engineers, etc to think about resource constraints and habitat in pretty much the exact opposite way they are in almost everything else.

We should be treating the planet like a spaceship we must reuse for, basically, ever.

Space exploration is healthy activity for humanity.

Warring over plots of ground with oil under them is not.(This list could be much, much longer, but I have an actual job)

Electric cars can't cut UK carbon emissions while only the wealthy can afford to own one

"The extreme weather where cars need to be rescued is a pretty rare event."

You should stop by the woods in Portland, Oregon on a snowy evening...

Clip, clip, hooray: NASA says it will send Clipper probe to Europa, will attempt no landing there

Re: We seem to be unable to adequately sterilize our spacecraft

Taking the bait...

but I am pretty sure my dad explained that "bodies exchanging material" plays a big part in the creation of life.

IBM hears the RISC-V kids partying next door, decides it will make its Power CPU ISA free, too

Re: Good News for Me

Not exactly a big Apple fan, but can you imagine a "Man in the High Castle" version of the iPhone if IBM had bought Apple *shudders*.

Though, they may have revived "the Little Tramp" for the ad campaign.

Neuroscientist used brainhack. It's super effective! Oh, and disturbingly easy

Re: Sod it, wheres my datajack?

Waiting for Simstim. Jacking in is fine, but I want to know what it feels like to be Molly. Gonna be a while, I think.

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's personal MiG-29 fighter jet goes under the hammer

I was under the impression that private parties couldn't own supersonics in the US.Something about them being too easy to acquire after the Soviet Union collapse and the Czech fire sale and too hard to catch if you decided misbehave.

Uber, Lyft rides among the biggest reasons why you're probably sitting in traffic right now – study

Re: But are Uber and Lyft the root cause?

Funny how the consequences of such behavior confuse those who seem to equate "paying customers want it" with "it needs to happen".

I can't wait for the driverless future when all cars will have just one occupant.

Watch as 10 cops with guns and military camo storm suspected Capital One hacker's house…

Re: You couldn't ..

The bad ones should be plastered everywhere. The "good" ones are only doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Some men are tired of watching the world burn. FTFY

Not sure (s)he is a hero, but certainly not a villain.

Capital One gets Capital Done: Hacker swipes personal info on 106 million US, Canadian credit card applicants

Re: all of the above, and...

Hence the quick denial by AWS. It is core to their strategy to retain the trust.

Ironically, Capitol One send mountains of junk mail, which people have to discard without opening, wasting resources and time (in very small increments, but that does not make it any less irresponsible).

The knee jerk reaction from the less technical masses are prevailing directed at punishing "erratic" - their association to "their" data makes them feel personally victimized.

This was Capital One's data, and supporting punishment of this woman is an indirect sanction of the rights of the corporate scum of the earth over individuals,their privacy and even the environment.

We are severely under appreciating the damage usury and its incumbent distortion of value - and values, cause.

GM Cruise holds off on self-driving taxis for this year, says it needs more testing time to be safe

This is reminiscent of a great Yogi Berra quote:

"Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical"

But he has another one that seems more relevant to this:

"The future ain’t what it used to be."

Tesla’s Autopilot losing track of devs crashing out of 'leccy car maker

I appreciate your rebuttle. I didn't make my point well enough.

I am trying to say there is a difference between wedging an electric car concept into the current world view versus adapting an electric car to the current world.

I think Tesla was right to pursue the bulk of the main technologies in the way they did, to encourage adoption and demonstrate viability, and so on.

Tying electric vehicles to autonomous driving is a disservice to the benefits of electric vehicles. I think focusing on viable, inexpensive electric cars for the masses is more important the chasing autonomous vehicle technology.

Imagine what automobiles would have looked like if the oil companies overtly own car companies. Hummer H3 is the subcompact market leader...

As for their market leadership in drivetrain etc. I bet that will be past tense in less than 1 year. Too many competitors in the pipeline, especially at the high end. Measured against the corporate trend to capture the consumer, versus actually produce the best possible singular product, means, in my view, it will fall prey to the kind of constant fall short/big promise delays like MS - the market leader in tech vanity, has demonstrated for decades.

Re: Autonomous driving is months, years, or decades away

I can confirm that losing your license does not remove your ability to drive. Indeed, I drive much more carefully with my license suspended.

A. I personally don't care if I ever see a self driving car on a public road.

B. Selling this option without insufficient review seems beyond the reasonable limit of disruption/confrontation of the un-evolved rules of 50 years or so ago regarding public safety, DOT approval etc. I will never not drive my own car, and I am damn sure concerned about whatever else is on the road.

C. Real disruption is low maintenance electrics that charge anywhere quickly, recycle completely, and last a very long time, and cost less than the average for whatever market segment is in. Tesla will not accomplish any of this, and doesn't appear to be interested in it. One of the big car makers is going to turn Tesla into the American Alfa Romeo.

ps - I am currently a Tesla shareholder - I was hoping it would recover to enough for me to get out without too much pain. This seems unlikely now...

pps- I don't want any autonomous system developed by the Tech Bro Cabal on the road, ever...

ReactOS 'a ripoff of the Windows Research Kernel', claims Microsoft kernel engineer

As for a worthwhile project - anything that results in no one ever seeing another television ad with Common babbling about Microsoft AI! We all win.

I know its only a dream, but if you don't have dreams, you have nightmares.

Quit worrying about killer robots, they are coming whether you like it or not – and they absolutely will not stop

Re: There's always...

Which is why it is ironic we are concerned about taking humans out of the loop. All of the bad stuff so far has human decisions.

or

But we already took humans out of the loop and replaced them with politicians...

Google jumps the shark from search results to your camera: Nest Hub, Pixels, and more from ad giant's coder confab

Re: They Live!

It is interesting that they want to help "get things done" but it seems their main purpose is to keep ppl from "learning to read" or "knowing where they are".

Surprising absolutely no one at all, Samsung's folding-screen phones knackered within days

Re: Pretty well Inevitable for an Alpha Version

I don't know, the best phone I ever had folded in half. It had two screens! That was a while ago, though.

Autopilot engineer drove off to Chinese rival with our top-secret blueprints in the glovebox, Tesla claims in sueball

The super simplified version of the answer is that he wants to be able to sell Teslas in China.

Holy crappuccino. There's a latte trouble brewing... Bio-boffins reckon 60%+ of coffee species may be doomed

Re: Umm... nope.

I am sure you are an expert on what really matters.

Python joins movement to dump 'offensive' master, slave terms

I don't think these terms could be offensive unless you were writing code to actually enslave people... oh, wait a minute!

Reg man straps on Facebook's new VR goggles, feels sullied by the experience

Re: For the majority of people

Exactly. Does it really seem likely that Facebook would understand reality enough to simulate it properly, or are they better at defining a reality they can simulate.

Audiophiles have really taken to the warm digital tone of streaming music

Anyone else observe that music industry revenue was highest during peak Napster.

Civil war erupts at top of FCC over Sinclair's creepy grasp on US telly

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

Mark Duckerberg: Second Congressional grilling sees boss dodge questions like a pro

Advertising is about messaging, we used to be concerned about truth in advertising. What they are talking about is Orwellian message control. I do wish our ever so wise lawmakers, who are just now seeming to realize how ridiculous this whole exercise has been, would focus on the big picture. Indeed, I believe the ultimate outcome it to certify this content adjustment based on user preference business model, which is the real bugaboo, and will tempt transgression by whoever chooses to try to exploit it next, or FB will just find a new way, either/or.

The real benefit of our information ageis the open access and virtually unlimited information. We could be liberating education and creating real electronic democracies that are nimble, responsive and comprised of well informed constituents, or we can wait for Farmville 2.

Horn star Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies aged 45

Re: Extinction

Seriously?

I realize you may be trolling. But fuck you.

Uber breaks self-driving car record: First robo-ride to kill a pedestrian

Re: YAAC offered, "UK official stopping distance at 30mph is 23m"

You know, stopping is ideal, but slowing down and avoiding is an option. So you are saying if the kid jumps out 2 car lengths ahead, you wouldn't react and just run him/her down? Are you an UBER autonomous vehicle coder?

The KITT hits the Man: US Congress urged to OK robo-car trials

Re: What insanity

For those who think in the simplest terms of capitalism, this is the last leg of automation needed to fully eliminate human quirks from the risk profile. Automated consumption.

Has anyone ever written a sci fi story about the rise of the machines where the machines destroyed their creators simply by consuming all available resources.

I see herds of solar powered AVs disrupting the natural world, being churned out of fully automated factories while the humans are increasingly agoraphobic and incapable of even basic manual tasks.

Its gonna be great.

Republican tax bill ready to rescue hard-up tech giants, struggling rich

Re: I don't get it

No. Much like trickle down has been proven to be specious at best, down right destructive at worst, and since the world seems to revolve around lowest common denominator democracy; the fallacy "innovation" depends on investment is effective fear mongering, designed to keep the "let em eat cake" people safe from the rest of us, by sustaining the illusion that their consumer products are essential, most simply are not .

Progress will occur in all respects whether or not some asshole gets exorbitantly rich from it. I am confident of this. Good ideas are a currency all their own, and actually have more to do with nature than dollars or pounds.

What is really happening is that the people most responsible for the lack of sustainability of the current world are not content to steal your present, but your future as well, and has always been the case, winners and losers are basically defined by whether or not they survive.

Audio spy Alexa now has a little pal called Dox

What happens when you...

Say,"Alexa, play 'The Downeaster Alexa'"

Re: Paranoia strikes deep in the heartland

Is it luddite to only want to exploit natural resource for truly productive and useful things. Neither a donut maker nor an Alexa fall even close to items labelled "Essentials"

Parity calamity! Wallet code bug destroys $280m in Ethereum

Re: A tragedy?

Who cares, they might, they might not. I bet it has a lot to do with why they were on the boat to witness it in the first place. Fellow tourist, may not. Aggrieved and oppressed crew member working slave wages to feed an extended family in the third world? Perhaps.