Posts by the_stone

Apple sues Nokia's pet patent trolls

enantiodromia

pot meet kettle...

Pluto's emitting X-rays, and NASA doesn't quite know how

God of the underworld is speaking...

Pluto is now transiting Capricorn. Hence the financial distress/transformation.

Ad-blocking ‘plateaus’, claims hopeful ad industry

AnotherShitAdvert===malWare

If the owner site hosts the ad, then it takes responsibility for the integrity of the code in the ad. That's the solution to this mess. Right now even the ad slingers don't take said ownership of the code. AdSense has no clue how much evil is any segment of its infinite stream o shyte. Any major media site says "We have malware in the ads on our site? We are shocked."

Hey, tech industry, have you noticed Amazon in the rearview?

I am a communicator...I have people skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV7u1VBhWCE

A Logic Named Joe: The 1946 sci-fi short that nailed modern tech

Read Vannevar Bush "As we may think"

There were lots of people who saw the Internet future once all the electronic signalling came on line in the 1920s. Norbert Weiner and Bush built a mechanical/optical computer together in the 1930s. Weiner especially was vocal about the "coming time" that influenced a great many minds. See: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/

Meet the original Big Data, TED Talk, Thought Shower Futurist

Self Interest Requires Knowing Self

Some old Chinese dude said, "The way of heaven is to take from that which has too much to give to that which has too little. Man's way is to take from those who have too little to give to those who already have too much."

So progressive tax policy is in the Tao, go figure. Monopolies are easy to regulate and they make fat targets. The super computer in my pocket which cost $179 will soon be replaced by some hyper version of it for even less dosh. Somehow I think that works in favor of those with too little, but hey I'm a perpetual optimist that more information, more connection, more looking will always result in less global stupid.

Terrified robots will take middle class jobs? Look in a mirror

Re: Can Scott Adams help?

Thanks for that. Many lulz - at one time I shared the same employer at Scott.

The End of Work

Two facts:

1. There is no shortage of food, water, energy, health care, shelter (or any "thing" else).

2. Our social systems based on imaginary differences (e.g., 'monarchy' or 'race' or whatever those tokens signify) and magical thinking combined with magic hat procedures makes point 1 seem false to the magically benighted.

AI need not be sentient or even care if you turn it off for it to far outstrip all human decision-making in all domains where humans substitute the absurd, the stupid, and the plain outlandishly wrong for the hard work of actual reasoning. "That's the way we've always done it" is the "reason" for the continuation of the current farce.

I read "Turing's Cathedral" based on a book review I found on El Reg:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/10/turing_cathedral_fan_belts_exist_briefly_in_the_intervals_between_stars/

Highly recommended, full of startling things, but to the point of Andrew's essay, we still lack a definition for "thinking" "living" or "sentience" that troubled them at the start of the computing revolution.

These questions don't need answers for us to make better decisions. Look to the Finns and the proposal to just "give money" to everyone so they can subsist. At some point computers will be able to do everything better than humans (political decisions for example), and then there won't be jobs, or work, careers: everyone will have infinite free time. Then what? The computers may gin up some occupational therapy like the dude in Metropolis moving the clock arms.

Verizon outage borks phones, TVs, internet for hapless East Coast folk

ISPs aren't telcos?

Makes Verizon's lawsuit against FCC for Net Neutrality somewhat farcical.

Scientists love MacBooks (true) – but what about you?

MAC in education is the "answer"

Apple pushed itself into education; "scientists" normally work for universities.

The huge flaw in Moore’s Law? It's NOT a law after all

Gotta figure Kurzweil understood the implications of this double-down thing.

Are YOU The One? Become a guru of your chosen sysadmin path

As a generalist in a small shop I look with horror on the notion that I would subsume my ability to serve the users by making knowledge of what to do and when to do it contingent upon a bureaucrat's say so.