* Posts by A-nonCoward

130 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Aug 2017

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AI models show racial bias based on written dialect, researchers find

A-nonCoward

the Vonnegut Connection

Anyone remembers the novel set in some future time, by Kurt Vonnegut, where he predicted this, published like 40 years ago?

IIRC, the crucial scene has these escapees from a high security prison (of a certain racial persuasion) destroying the entertainment AI machines in bars, because any time they input their race / personal data, the device predicts they will end up in prison...

Ransomware-hit British Library: Too open for business, or not open enough?

A-nonCoward
FAIL

How open?

I upvoted several of the sarcasms above. Because the BL IT policies are, indeed, part of the reasons why we cannot have any of the good things.

Years ago, for some research, I needed high quality scans of some materials at the BL. The scans exist, which should not surprise anyone, any decent library owns and uses good equipment (I once offered the University of Texas my tabletop scanner, much better quality than what they made available to the public). Those BL high quality scans were "available", but only through a complicated protocol of a small section at a time. I was able to defeat some of the nonsense with a multiple-screen rig, somehow, the browser sent the "right" signal, so that I could fetch larger areas and do a screen capture. I didn't want to outright "hack".

We're talking several hundred year documents, "belonging to Humanity capital H", but supposedly "copyrighted" by the BL. Even Gallica, no friend of the commoner either, lets you get some JP2 if you jump some hoops. Germans and Austrians just let you have the TIFF as a single file. What is BL playing at? Not funny (and don't you tell me that I pay no British taxes. British companies were plundering my country with no excuse for many generations, if we come to account to who owns what and why).

Vivat Aaron Swartz!

Microsoft wonders if disabling just-in-time compilation of JavaScript improves browser security

A-nonCoward
Facepalm

obviously, NoScript, doh

And yes indeedy, way too many badly coded websites everywhere, which, if I *must* access, after the due dance with kittens above my head, I open Chrome and use that. JavaScript is a crutch, y'all scripkiddies everywhere, here, I said it. IMHO not better than Flash, as to adding value. Seldom, or ever, in any of the websites that I need, does it really improve usability, way to the contrary. Gaming? sure. Other addiction-inducing web content? why not! Standard informative, education, business sites, especially banking, glad when it's obvious that a good coder was involved and kept the pox away.

Using Edge without JS? anyone who has a bit of choice and has the very basic savvy will not use Edge, to gebin with. 2) those who still use Edge probably are the kind of people that use sites like Pinterest, which will not run without JS, so this block is a non-starter. I am starting to feel that this whole announcement is sort of a troll.

OTOH, for my work, sometime I must include JS, because I must. Makes for mixed feelings about it...

This developer created the fake programming language MOVA to catch out naughty recruiters, résumé padders

A-nonCoward
Boffin

Applicants don't lie?

A dear friend's experience, with an international-oriented outfit that tried to take lying rather seriously. They actually ran some kind of specific psy test on advanced candidates. My friend "passed," to the interviewers surprise. Said surprise led to chatting, with the interviewing admitting, much to my friend's amazement, that most candidates, including those that would end up being hired anyway, did not pass. And it was the kind of place where you would think that lying mattered... Seemingly, if they actually cut out those that did not pass this test, they would be very short on incoming bags of water.

"Asked whether there's still a need for such subterfuge, Holden was skeptical. "The information age has matured to the point where it's very difficult for people to represent themselves as something they're not," he said, pointing to sites like LinkedIn and GitHub as vetting mechanisms."

Hmm, not really... Just proves you can game LinkeIn and GitHub (which is not a useless skill. so much of business is all about gaming the system. a "playa" might come up quite useful in today's world...)

Apple seeks damages from recycling firm that didn't damage its devices: 100,000 iThings 'resold' rather than broken up as expected

A-nonCoward

Re: US Census Phones, even headphone MUST be returned

DS999, I also believe in fairies, Generally.

I thought exactly like you did.

This is what happened:

Originally, the headphones thing served as a joke. Enumerators actually did ask, and were told they would be allowed to keep those, guffaws all around during training. You be blessed, DS999, for your important thoughts about the important work being made. A pair of headphones is nothing, but then, it is something.

THEN came the specific order that they MUST be returned with the rest of the kit.

Which was weird, but my friend thought no more about it. Then I see this article.

How many of the devices that were to be "recycled" by this Canadian company were actually functional? At least 10%, we know that. Was is, like 30%? 90%? maybe some were actually broken, sure.

I have ONE datapoint regarding Apple honestly "refurbishing." Actually, not, read the article. I know many independents do it, though. I Doubt AT&T and its ilk actually return those to Apple, but rather sell them to some independents. Of course, you probably KNOW, don't you?

The "smoking gun" is the headphones. There is no need that I can think of, for those to be returned. No one in his or her or its sane mind would think of refurbishing those. The only reason that I can think of, to ask to have those returned, is to get them out of the market. You trust the government and the Census and Apple are acting in good faith. I too, once used to believe in fairies...

A-nonCoward
Flame

US Census Phones, even headphone MUST be returned

SO THIS IS WHY!!!!

Sorry for yelling. A friend of mine over there works for the US Census. Temp manager, CFsomething.

She's required to gather every little bit of kit from the "enumerators," including the headphones.

We did wonder why, I mean, zero resale value, contaminated, etc. Phones, we understand, easy to "refurbish" by Apple and make money again. Chargers, also.

I'm sure the contract with the Census was very, very juicy.

Now the dots get linked. Apple doesn't want to decrease "potential" sales even that little bit.

People that went door to door, in the heat of summer, facing unfriendly folks, etc., must return EVERYTHING, or else "be charged for its value."

If they want headphones, they must buy their own (and these are no fancy bluetooth anything, just plainest wired ones)...

I am always amazed at how people throw away so much.

When a corporation like Apple is creating trash totally on purpose for just a smidgen of potential sales...

SICK

Let me find an appropriate icon...

Google employs people to invent colours – and they think their work improves your wellbeing

A-nonCoward
Angel

obligatory XKCD

"Baige" was just one among hundreds of color names proposals that Randall Munroe received "for free" by setting up a survey a while back. 140,000 responses...

a text list, a blog entry

the raw data

The reluctant log trawler: The buck stops with the back-end

A-nonCoward
Mushroom

The Falkands Connection

This might be a legend. Sounds believable, as a Real Life "multiple tabs open" bug.

It appears that the British had developed some fancy hardware/software that was the top of the top at the time (the kind any of us could perhaps replicate today with a few R-Pi, some Python and a software radio) to pick up ionization trails and do some trigonometry.

If you know anything about mortars in the field, you need about three rounds before you can do real damage. First shot gives you a rough idea, second you adjust the screws in your mortar but likely either too much or not quite, in those days (no idea now) that was a manual operation with some rough settings to guide you and printed calculation tables. By the third one, if you are really good, you will be almost on target, and from there on the poor sods on the other side are out of luck, you're dropping ugly welcome packages right on top of them. Of course you need to have an observer doing good telemetry from the explosions, and you have to really know what you're doing. A more standard crew that is not so good (think kids right out of an Argentinian Secundaria, freezing and famished, maybe 7 shots before they can get anything, if very lucky.)

Well, works pretty much the same from the other side, IFF you can pinpoint where the rounds are originating from. Tricky at best by eyesight. But not that bad if you can get data from the ionization trail, "simple enough" with a radio receiver array. Even if this is 1980s tech, let me not go into detail, who knows how "secret" this kind of things are supposed to be. Whatever, the legend says that the landing British could pinpoint exactly where a mortar was shooting from, after three rounds, and tell their colleagues manning the naval guns, to kindly deliver some of their own into the offending mortar.

Once the Argentinians noticed they were blown off with European precision after their third shot, they really were in a bind. See? to do telemetry when you're shooting, you have to space out the timing of shooting, from your outfit, or else you have no idea if the explosion on the other end was yours, or your mate's shooting from 50 meters away. But, if you had to decamp and set up somewhere else after firing just two rounds, or else, your chance at hitting anything in the other side was nearly nil.

Who knows what happened, perhaps those freezing and hungry kids got frustrated and just starting shooting with no order. Then they realized the British were no longer able to find them...

This didn't help the Argentinians much in terms of hitting anything, because their disorderly shooting didn't give them back good telemetry opportunities. Perhaps at some moment there was one of them bright enough to realize that what gave the British precision came from the mortar trails.

The legend says that from then on, the Argentinians were using bottle rockets, shot from random, different points than the mortar that was testing its parameters. Creating that way fake ionization trails. Bottle rockets might have been too much to expect, though it brings in a low-tech, David vs. Goliath kind of image, but would expect too much from other officers to accept the word of someone in the field, and then have those sent from terra firma or even Stanley. If there were some bright ones at the front, I wouldn't expect any but idiots all the way to Stanley, Buenos Aires and back, it is widely known their supply lines were borked from day one and just got worse later. I would think what was used was just plain standard Mil flares. More prosaic than romantic cheap bottle rockets, but equally effective in confusing ionization trail telemetry.

Yup. That was like "too many tabs open" sending data, that then gets confused in the back end. Blame Ed and his back end, will you? Possibly/probably the software/hardware was developed under ideal lab conditions, go figure, where testing was nice and ordered, not assuming the enemy would misbehave...

If any of you are connected to Falklands or whatever gunnery or other groups that might care about the story, feel free to pass it along. It would be interesting to find confirmation, and also that the story doesn't get lost - this is the kind of "interesting" tidbit that would not make it into standard military history books. Got it through oral transmission, following up after a story regarding on how it was possible to watch Moscow TV from Prague in the late 1950s when reflecting the signal from meteor ionization trails (?!?!) According to that tale, the kid that was doing it got in trouble. But, as we say, that's another story...

Dutch national broadcaster saw ad revenue rise when it stopped tracking users. It's meant to work like that, right?

A-nonCoward

Loyalty cards?

A chain supermarket here offers discounts, and not too bad ones, but "only with card". So I don't ever go there unless I really feel like going to the trouble of asking someone in the line to let me use their card, so they get the points, everybody wins, but the scheme is idiotic and I dislike that. I could buy there often, but why should I submit to that?

A-nonCoward
Childcatcher

Re: Almost makes me want to disable the adblocker and see what's going on.

with covid and all, and being "reduced in force" we cut the cable expenses. No libraries. Sometimes the wife and I make use of those "free with adverts" movie sites. We are amazed at what trash is being offered to the public, in amazingly trashy ways. Yes, the ad leaves an indelible impression, the kind that makes you need a box of sandpaper on the bedsite table besides the normal one with tissue. I'm glad my ad-blockers are there in the computer.

A-nonCoward
Big Brother

Duck Duck Go privates?

As a matter of course I have one "normal" Firefox instance, to pick up my passwords automatically, for personal stuffs, ElReg, editing Wikipedia, that kind of thing. Anything else I do, especially work related in my personal laptop, happens in "incognito" windows.

Lately I am noticing that Duck Duck Go seems to be serving me local results, and some to be "topic related" to previous searches, in OTHER incognito windows, or previous days... So, at the very least, not only "what words I type", but IP address geoloc, with some kind of "history" tracking for my IP address? Haven't gotten paranoid enough to actually design and perform some kind of testing. Just a nagging feeling for now. And a hmm...

Cool IT support drones never look at explosions: Time to resolution for misbehaving mouse? Three seconds

A-nonCoward
Paris Hilton

locked out of car Re: Switching on the "monitor stand"

NEVER ever jimmy open a lock in public. To my defense, I was 18 at a time, with my cute innocent doe-eyes. Big welcome-the-noobs party at the Uni, the sound equipment was in a locked room, the girl in charge was quite cute and obviously would show appreciation even to a geek if he solved her issue...

Bottom line, after that, seemed like people looked at me sort of strange, not in a good way. Never saw the girl again....

The incumbent President of the United States of America ran now-banned Facebook ads loaded with Nazi references

A-nonCoward
FAIL

I'm still not sure how much of this is pulling our leg

88 is "hate"? Because H from *itler is the eight letter?

I find it to make a joke like that to be in very bad taste. I am sure that the ADL and others have much better to do than to police the use or misuse of the number 8

BTW, it used to be that a license plate that said "8" could get a very high return during State auctions, "8" being considered the most lucky number in Chinese culture, and would go attached to a Rolls Royce or better. And now you're telling me that perhaps a car with "8" is not an indicator of some Chinese maffia boss, but a white extremist besides?

at the very least, that is rather weird...

Signal goes Gaussian to take privacy to the next level: All your faces don't belong to us

A-nonCoward
Pirate

question, my contacts

If Signal is so much about privacy, how come people, some of which I haven't been in contact for months, and certainly not on Signal (that I installed recently), are showing up on my screen as "so and so is on Signal". How did Signal get that info? scary...

Trump's Make Space Great Again video pulled after former 'naut says: Nope

A-nonCoward
Pint

don't go and ruin a great 231 year streak. was Re: 450 cities protesting racism

I also know. I wish I had more than an upvote to give. At least have one on me.

A-nonCoward
Coat

you can still get a good cheesesteak in Philly

Nope. Between protests, the National Guard, curfew alarms followed by tornedo alarms (same alarm, natch), I wouldn't even try to get that there today.

Don't Zoom off elsewhere: Google plugs video-chat service Meet into Gmail as user eyes start wandering

A-nonCoward
Facepalm

gmail slower than usual today

I guess this feature explains it? my laptop browser keeps reloading "hangouts" (that I never use, even deleted it from my mobile)

Started from the bottom, now we're near: 16 years on, open-source vector graphics editor Inkscape draws close to v1.0

A-nonCoward
Unhappy

Bad news: Extensions will need to be updated to work with this release

some breaking changes in the new version, especially with extensions, most of which will need to be updated to work with this release.

A lot of my work used to depend on a rather abandoned extension for CNC.

Nice interacting with the developer, he suggested I send my donation not to him, but to an orphanage in his country.

I don't think that extension will ever be worked on again... If its functionality borked because of the new version, I'll have to be happy with my vintage version.

A-nonCoward
Happy

Re: RLY?

Don't forget to set your page size preference to "letter", if you are this side of the pond. to get that set as a permanent preset is non-intuitive.

Also, for some strange reason some CUPS driver;less printer setup refused to print from Inkscape directly, I had to do PDF first, then print, until I gave up and hunted for an arcane Brother printer driver to regain full happy.

A-nonCoward
Thumb Up

Re: 275 GTB vs Midget

I had always liked Corel Draw

me too. the "trace" function of C.D. was still missing in Inkscape, maybe it's there now?

A-nonCoward
Childcatcher

Mac support is hugely important

Mac support is hugely important, thanks to the wide use of Macs in the artistic and designer community

Really? what is the logic behind someone paying the idiot tax, and then wanting free softwares?

My perception is that the one reason some people want a Mac at all is that they can access software that was specifically designed for it. BTW, Inkscape really benefits from having multiple mouse buttons.

Actually my preferred setup for heavy duty Inkscape production is a roller-ball with mouse buttons for the left hand and a mouse scroll wheel for the right. I've considered some hack to have the scroll wheel be run by my feet, but not implemented that yet.

A-nonCoward
Holmes

Re: "people usually work on what they are interested in"

I've seen that motivation in volunteer coders described as "scratch one's own itch". And then share.

Indeed, the UX or documentation of much FOSS could be better, but at least opens ways to connect with the developers, something unheard of for most big box proprio software. Also, to participate.

A loss-loss is when people want it for free, AND will not even help a bit in making things better...

Google Cloud's AI recog code 'biased' against black people – and more from ML land

A-nonCoward
Coat

visiting the loo @MIT Media Lab

Many years ago - I was young and clever and thought I would be given the red carpet - didn't get past the front desk.

Whatever.

Being generous by nature, I decided to contribute, so visited their "facilities".

When in the proper enclosure and assuming the position, there was this label at eye level The cameras are for research purposes only.

At the time I thought it was just a cute sophomoric prank, go around the toilets with stickers, make lower life forms feel insecure. (I know the feeling, I mean, of making others feel insecure, like when I get nude to change in a swimming pool locker.)

Later on I learned that some MIT people are subject to raaather flexible ethics requirements when doing research in Africa, but that's another story.

Guess what's heading to trial? IBM and its tactic of yoinking promised commissions after sales reps seal the deal

A-nonCoward
Pint

Re: Up the Organization!

@Tim,

I indeed cut my teeth on those three books, my teens, learning English by reading (I have a terrible and most peculiar pronunciation that no one can place - obvious, I made it up as I learned new words...)

A big plus when visiting my future mother-in-law for the first time was noticing she also had all these three books in her library, this was my kind of people!

Reading those books when way too young and innocent gave me a twisted view of the world. Things make sense, in those books (add to those the Whole Earth Catalog, I can quote Tongue Fu stories also without having seen them again the last 30 years). Neither was really clear about the Facts Of LIfe that I read about, over and over from fellow commentards. Sigh. Good memories. And early pint for y'all.

A-nonCoward

Up the Organization!

That was a fabulous book by a one Robert Townsend, 1970s or so.

I wish I ever had had a boss like him... Sigh.

Anyway, quoting from memory of something read 30+ years ago, "Should you cap sales commission? if you ever have a salesman who is making a fortune, the idiots from accounting (Simon would call those beancounters will try to convince you to reduce that guy's take-home percentage. Don't. If he's making a fortune on commissions, that means he's making several times that fortune for you, bubbele. Nothing will hurt morale among those making an effort for you as much as twisting the rules against your best performers"

Actually, knowing what I now about corporations and bosses, Up The Organization! should be in the fiction section of a library.

OK brainiacs, we've got an IT cold case for you: Fatal disk errors on an Amiga 4000 with 600MB external SCSI unless the clock app is... just so

A-nonCoward
Angel

another Re: My favourite timing bug

14 years ago I wrote a brilliant paper regarding some work with a MCU. Turns out my whole presentation depended on a particular bug in the compiler. Once they fixed it (of course, just a few weeks before publication) my code was useless...

sigh. To be young! (young-ish icon I could find)

A-nonCoward
Coat

Re: The real mystery is how Paula discovered the clock work around ...

different vendors on the same bus

reminds me of a lawyer's joke. Probably works also with vendors. What do you call a bus full of vendors falling off a bridge?

This machine-learning upstart trained software to snare online drug dealers. Now it's going after fake coronavirus test equipment peddlers

A-nonCoward
Unhappy

phone scams any time now?

SO easy to find, track, nuke robocallers.

But noooooo.

Consumer reviewer Which? finds CAN bus ports on Ford and VW, starts yelling 'Security! We have a problem...'

A-nonCoward
Facepalm

Access to the car?

"Nonetheless, a criminal with time, knowledge and physical access to the target network (the car) is a very real infosec threat."

A criminal that gets physical access to my car gets my laptop, or if I'm at the beach or something where I don't want to carry those, my cellphone and wallet.

THAT, my friends, would be a problem, who cares about my (barely functional) entertainment/bluetooth systems.

The little woman used to insist in always taking her business laptop inside buildings, never leaving it in the car, be it we're going for groceries or a doctor's appointment. Now less of an issue of course, between not commuting to the office any more, and actually being furloughed and reduced to hourly work, hip hip...

Data centres are warm and designed to move air very efficiently. Are they safe to visit during the pandemic?

A-nonCoward
Headmaster

70% iso + 30% water? that's 49% alcohol, too low

as per the Do not use Tito's Vodka as hand sanitizer https://nypost.com/2020/03/05/titos-vodka-begs-dont-use-alcohol-as-hand-sanitizer-in-coronavirus-outbreak/

“Per the CDC, hand sanitizer needs to contain at least 60% alcohol,” the response read. “Tito’s Handmade Vodka is 40% alcohol, and therefore does not meet the current recommendation of the CDC. Please see attached for more information.”

The isopropyl alcohol here in my bathroom is already 70%. Dilute it with 30% water, you end up at less than 50% alcohol.

Hear ye hear ye, If you are going to use iso to disinfect, you must use it as is, not watering it down.

icon because, you know, Dell must do 200 lines, I will not add water to alcohol

Supply, demand and a scary mountain of debt: The challenges facing IT as COVID-19 grips the global economy

A-nonCoward
Alert

have you seen Japan's? Re: Reality Check

Years agom I looked at Japan's Debt/GDP, made the US look like responsible adults.

Scary. Haven't looked at it again, denial is better for my nerves.

A-nonCoward
Boffin

graph data looks odd, am I missing something?

here's the data from the FRED horse mouth:

Delinquency Rate on All Loans, All Commercial Banks

or

Delinquency Rate on All Loans, Top 100 Banks Ranked by Assets

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DRALT100N

neither looks anywhere like what is in the article. Defaults in 2003 were nowhere as big as the other peaks. And why 4-year old data?

here a bunch of info on debt vs. GDP, not just for USA but also for others:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/searchresults/?st=debt%20gdp

White House turns to Big Tech to fix coronavirus blunders while classifying previous conversations

A-nonCoward

Re: @as Limbaugh said, and thoughts and prayers for Rush

Let me wish you the morphine and the corresponding machine is available when you need it. My mother, cancer "en cuirasse", we have been told the most painful possible, happened in a corrupt nation over there. Not even with all the Euros I had, could I get one of those drip machines, simply not a single one in the largest city there. Had to have her have injections, so either she was in terrible pain, or completely passed out, no way to drip it safely. Took forever to die, too, she was built though.

As this thing goes, you're lucky if you get infected soon and get it over with. Otherwise, those and other advanced machines might not be available when our turn comes...

A-nonCoward
Boffin

Re: He was an optician

The alternative is NOT to self-isolate, and keep spreading the joy. cough cough.

Every single contact, every single meeting, kiss, hug, French kiss, that has 0,0000000001% chances to result in a case of infection. To many people, that seems to translate to zero, no reason to change things.

However, ALL those events added together, mean the certainty of catastrophic spread.

People who are self isolating are making it harder on themselves, but better for society as a whole. You welcome.

Those who are waiting for statesmen and well informed scientists to tell them what to do, meanwhile getting infected and infecting others, are the reason why we cannot have any of the nice things.

Your choice, if you will take it, is to be part of the problem or part of the solution.

Icon because facts and evidence just don't seem to have a chance when they meet common sense. As it is becoming clearer and clearer, it takes uncommon sense to make the necessary choices and accept the hardships of something like this.

A-nonCoward
Flame

Re: You're writing about sample swabs. Testing requires more.

Everybody else got in line ahead of the USA.

Oh, just like with what happens with toilet paper! Hamster-something they call it in Germany!

This is also a system for GPs, right? UK doctors seek clarity over Health dept's £40m single sign-on funding

A-nonCoward

what is a GP?

Grand Potatoe? General Public?

ICANN demands transparency from others over .org deal. As for itself… well, not so much

A-nonCoward
Unhappy

have you heard of ISBN numbers?

that's the numbers affixed to any book by the editors, a "requirement" if you ever intend to sell your book commercially, also for eBooks.

In the USA, there is a private company handling those. Thus, registering a ISBN costs you $5 per each if you buy 100 of them. Up to $29.50 if you get the cheapest package of 10. No lower amount. And plenty plenty other "offers" by the nice people of https://www.myidentifiers.com.

Meanwhile, In Canada they are free. Also in the UK. Most of the civilized world has lower "prices" for this necessary service than the US (what else is new?) with fewer attempts to scam you than Bowker and others offer. For example, a favorite such is to buy a bunch, and then resell them by the unit for, say, $49.99.

OK, Mexico requires some complex paperwork initially, but from then on it's like $3 per each, and you don't need to buy more than one at a time, etc.

How "Bowker", whatever that company is, got this deal, and whether they intend to sit on that cow forever is a shame on the ISBN organization.

The whole process is automated, based on very simple scripts, the real cost is at most a few cents, all the rest is taking advantage of the people.

Of course Amazon would not play the game, and they invented their own registry system.

Teachers: Make your pupils' parents buy them an iPad to use at school. Oh and did you pack sunglasses for the Apple-funded jolly?

A-nonCoward
Pint

Re: Universities in US

"all on tap for free student use"

for free, and no student debt whatsoever, right? Right.

Let's start the day right

Tokyo Olympics, US tariffs Trump Europe's Brexit shakes as global PC shipments balloon to fattest figure in 7 years

A-nonCoward
Headmaster

I don't get the math

10% levy on 300m of goods means 37b ?

uh? somebody makes sens e of this?

US games company Blizzard kowtows to Beijing by banning gamer who dared to bring up Hong Kong

A-nonCoward
Pint

Re: Blizzard Streisand

that is weirdly insightful, and raises optimistic paranoia to an uncanny level. ->

Have one on me, you earned it

This won't end well. Microsoft's AI boffins unleash a bot that can generate fake comments for news articles

A-nonCoward
Gimp

Re: REALLY obligatory XKCD

how did you know?

A-nonCoward
Mushroom

REALLY obligatory XKCD

I mean, who needs to read the article (I didn't) when everything you need to know about this topic is already in https://xkcd.com/810/

Computer says no: An expression-analysing AI has been picking out job candidates for Unilever

A-nonCoward

Re: Yay, finally a chance to apply some obscure GDPR articles

y'all so lucky.

A-nonCoward
Mushroom

Companies want to hire lucky people

that is because luck transfers. Someone who is born lucky is bound to bring in more good luck.

Being lucky, and working here means that lucky people end up here, proving the point.

So we WANT lucky people.

How do we detect lucky people? some of it is easy.

White. Male. Young. <- you are lucky, from birth! Best hire ever!

China remains in pole position for electric vehicle uptake despite cuts to subsidies

A-nonCoward
Boffin

So, what's new about this?

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, one of the poorest countries, with a most corrupt, backwards and asinine governments on Earth despite some hard competition coming from Africa, runs most of its public transportation on electric tricycles and has been doing so for years. Those vehicles carry 7 passengers (or 9? not sure any more).

I guess it helps that the power grid is so unreliable that anybody able to afford it has a bank of batteries at home, thus know how and technology and hacks are all well known by tens of thousands of "engineers" that get paid with some leftovers for their services.

I have found the Nepalese I have met to be resilient, courageous, intelligent, and willing to put the work, but then, I guess that such nice people get the government and rulers they have just to compensate, alas.

Security? We've heard of it! But why be a party pooper when there's printing to be done

A-nonCoward

I told him, no, he couldn't have my password, but he could reset it to get at the data...

Oh! you also use -name of boss-isanidi0t?

I don't have to save my work, it's in The Cloud. But Microsoft really must fix this files issue

A-nonCoward

Re: Nobody tells students nothing

good you're hiding.

You stole my line...

:-) (book published in 1994. Good line. Happy you using it)

In the claws of a vulture: Nebra AnyBeam Laser Projector

A-nonCoward

no focus? tent planetarium!

might need a spherical mirror, but that's about it

Put a stop to these damn robocalls! Dozens of US state attorneys general fire rocket up FCC's ass

A-nonCoward
Unhappy

Re: Of course the FCC is doing nothing

because ANYONE with a phone in the states is tire of this.

that is something that surprises me. I mean, every FBI agent gets them, every FCC person. Every politician. The mother of every one of them (OK, fine, some of the later are mushroom spawn, thus no mothers to bother). And yet, they, with power to get things noticed and done, let it pass?

and yes, this has been going on for a VERY long time, just getting worser

A-nonCoward
Headmaster

Re: No change

While the phone companies make money from these calls

Rrrreally? I thought that phone companies make money from monthly plans. Very few people anymore pay per call, and certainly 5 to 10 cents per call would be too expensive for robocallers. A robocaller obviously uses an "unlimited" plan

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