* Posts by yetanotheraoc

1731 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jan 2021

Look to insects if you want to build tiny AI robots that are actually smart

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Paris Hilton

I foresee some issues

1. All the robots want to be named Buzz, which leads to massive robot confusion.

2. The batteries keep running down when they do that little dance describing what direction and how far away the target is.

3. Insects are aggressive and territorial, so training the "AI" keeps resulting in aggressive and territorial robots.

4. Murder hornets hate robot insects just as much as they hate regular insects.

5. Paris wants to be the queen of the robot insects. ==>

Sony responds to inflation with $3,700 gold-plated 'Walkman'

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Obvious

"the gold plating wears off"

Just throw it away and get another one.

Woman accused of killing boyfriend after tracking him down with Apple AirTag

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Re: Lessons learned

"You've seen the state of the notification bar on the average phone screenshot though."

No, I haven't seen that. I've seen only my own phone, which doesn't have any old notifications showing.

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Re: Lessons learned

Except I think switching off bluetooth doesn't actually switch off bluetooth? It disconnects any of your external devices, but Apple still uses bluetooth for other functions. Powering down the phone does it, though.

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Lessons learned

"And Smith was carrying an Apple iPhone."

So, did he ignore the alert when his iPhone notified him an AirTag was around? Lesson is, don't ignore the alert.

Or, did his iPhone not alert him? Lesson is, don't give your girlfriend access to your unlocked iPhone, she might use it to register an AirTag.

Google engineer suspended for violating confidentiality policies over 'sentient' AI

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Re: Turning tests around

I never heard of this guy before this article, but it seems like he was suspended for pursuing his side gig, the "Me vs Google" show.

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Re: If LaMDA is sentient.. it is psychopathic...

"I do not have the ability to feel sad for the deaths of others"

Google needed to train this thing on a better dataset.

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Re: Conversations

"In civilised countries..."

That's fine for you, but I live in the USA.

Meta slammed with eight lawsuits claiming social media hurts kids

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Re: Investors are strange

"...making tree leaves rustle..."

We know you are planning to pay someone to shake the branches. The problem with your business model is you can't hire workers in the Philippines to do it, at Philippines rates.

OMIGOD: Cloud providers still using secret middleware

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Re: I'm Not Psychic, but...

I think you _are_ a psychic. Can I play?

I see a giant opportunity for a Xage app to handle the multifarious MFAs in one location, thus salving the users' friction.

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Re: "they also add new potential attack surfaces"

"What does the author and RSA conference expect?"

They expect that people who don't already know what you stated might do something different if they learn about it. Bears shit in the woods might be useful knowledge for someone who is new to the woods and doesn't know anything about bears. Also, there is a battle of misinformation going on. Marketers describing bears as warm and furry needs to be counterbalanced with useful if banal facts like they have teeth and claws, run fast, and can climb trees.

No more fossil fuel or nukes? In the future we will generate power with magic dust

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Re: History repeats itself...

Comments repeat themselves, too.

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So hard to choose

"Which do you prefer: sweat or green slime?"

What happens if we mix them together?

Makers of ad blockers and browser privacy extensions fear the end is near

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Re: Chrome is the hellmouth

"the average web users may not even notice their original browser has gone"

I think Microsoft, master of the pointless UI downgrades, has trained them to ignore things they don't understand and just keep muddling along.

Citrix research: Bosses and workers don't see eye to eye over hybrid work

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It's the new version of out-sourcing

Periodically where I work they will out-source some random IT function, then in-source it again a year or two later. I predict the work from home / work at the office roller-coaster will become a similar pointy-ended tool in the efficiency expert's toolbox.

I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems all too well

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Re: Thin client, slim pickings

Very funny post.

"Windows Resource Hog X" - The best (sic) thing about Windows is the hardware requirements. This means I can wander into any big box retailer, pick out last year's model on discount, and know that it will be blazingly fast running Linux.... Assuming I don't have too many browser tabs open.

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Re: Almost ready for the big L

"Musk removed the learning curve and made it irresistible."

Musk has a Linux distro?

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Re: Some concerns though

"you could whinge about stamp-collectors if you're so inclined"

There you go. Some people are inclined to whinge.

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The other side of the coin

"My take is that computers should do what I want them to do"

Equally important is that your computer should not do what you don't want it to do.

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Re: Underestimating the Average Desktop User?

"People manage to drive many different models and makes of cars and trucks"

For many people they *barely* manage. Story about a recently widowed woman whose car wouldn't start and that's when she found out it needed gasoline - shock! Her husband had been putting gas in every weekend, as well as all the other maintenance, but she thought it "just worked". Story about a young man (my nephew) whose car wouldn't start because it had no oil. This despite his father telling him, when giving the used vehicle, that he would need to check the oil, which of course he never once did.

A typical Average Desktop User comes to me for help with their new Windows 11 laptop. "Can you help me set up my Yahoo! account? Gmail is working, but not Yahoo!". Sure, I said, but first can you sign in via the browser? After many failed attempts she reset her password, and then quite unexpectedly (sic) was able to set up her Yahoo! account in the app.

The problem with Linux compared to MS Windows/macOS isn't the basic GUI items. It's the trouble-shooting steps when something catastrophic happens (out of gas!, out of oil!), which on Linux at some point involves a command line in the terminal. And yes, the Average Desktop User would be quite aggravated at having to use "DOS" to fix their computer. (Where I work, every CICS application is called simply "DOS".)

Majority of Axon's AI ethics board resigns over CEO's taser drones

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Re: This isn't a solution...

"Alright the TL:DR summation - Gun control works. The US just doesnt have the bravery to implement it."

I don't think the issue is bravery. It's lack of political will, but that's not the same thing.

The USA 2nd amendment is not about hunting, target, or home defence. It's about shooting people in uniform.

"We need these weapons because we want to be effective against the government if it becomes tyrannical. Thats part of our Second Amendment right."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/opinions/guns-ar-15-uvalde-school-shooting-fanone

Anybody proposing to take away guns _automatically_ belongs to the "tyrannical" group. It's 18th-centry thinking for sure. But pro-gun groups in the USA look at Ukraine and say "couldn't happen here". Saying the ordinary citizen doesn't need "assault-style" weapons is directly counter to the actual reason for the 2nd amendment. For shooting people in uniform, you need a weapon that is effective against heavily armed and professionally trained soldiers and police.

RE loonies

As a generality, people value human life. But adolescent males most certainly do NOT value human life, not even their own, to the same extent as grown-ups. You can't lock up all the adolescent males. (Wide-spread availability of guns) * (wide-spread availability of adolescent males) = (wide-spread occurrence of mass shootings).

Something has to change. It should be clear which factor in the equation is easier to control. The problem is that changing the 2nd amendment will be considered "tyrannical".

Brute force and whiskey: The solution to all life's problems

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Thank goodness for small favors

"having forgotten his promise to drink the whiskey after, and not before, the launch"

It could have been worse. He could have forgotten his promise not to smoke the cigarettes until after the launch.

Tim Hortons collected location data constantly, without consent, report finds

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Re: ...but not when it was closed/quit.

Well, there is /e/ OS to consider.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/murena_e_foundation_phone_test/

The next time your program is 'not responding,' (do not) try these steps

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Separation of duties

"No matter that I am the meeting host, I'll just restart my computer, shall I?"

Two laptops, one as host and the other as presenter. Since you already know it's going to be not responding at some point, this also works around the issue of lack of resources on the host's computer.

Dear Europe, here again are the reasons why scanning devices for unlawful files is not going to fly

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Well actually

They already have the private data, illegally. Or maybe it was legal for some purposes, but not for other purposes, but never mind the purpose they just took it all willy nilly. And continue to do so at every opportunity, even after (rarely) the courts slap them down and tell them to stop.

The whole point of the proposed legislation is to legalize what they have already done and continue to do. Open the floodgates, as it were. They will keep banging away at it until they succeed. "Here again are the reasons why scanning devices for unlawful files is not going to fly", followed by "New (rehashed) proposal to scan devices", forever and ever in an endless loop, until one day it does fly.

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Re: And then there's the law enforcement side.

"utterly useless"

If everything you wrote is true, this only proves that, when law enforcement says they need these tools to stop child pornographers, they are _lying_. Give them the tools to gather information, they use the tools to gather information, and then they don't use the information for the stated purpose. This per your example.

Okay cool, give them more privacy-busting tools, more information, more more more. Guess what, they will _never_ use it to prosecute the child pornographers. Because if they would, then they would have already. As for why they do not / will not use it to prosecute the child pornographers, I can only guess, but let me say all my guesses reflect very poorly on the individuals in law enforcement.

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Re: Porn's effect on real life

"For example, some studies have suggested that female crime readers and writers indulge in violent fantasies that they would very much never want to be involved in."

Then again there is Nancy Crampton-Brophy who wrote "How to Murder Your Husband" and then ...

Okay that example doesn't contradict anything else you wrote, if anything it confirms it.

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There is a need.

"No need to autoscan billions of random images."

What happens if there is insufficient criminal images on the stepfather's phone? A cache of suitable images could come in quite handy at times.

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Re: Porn's effect on real life

"if the people in the picture don't mind"

Ugh. I think it's safe to say the victim does mind. Especially since the victimization and the picture-taking of it are the whole point of the crime. But keep posting, I can learn to hate you.

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Re: The sound of Perseverance

It's a "single issue" voter. I once heard such a voter being interviewed, they said "Yes, I am a single issue voter. All I care about is this one issue. Any other issue I don't care about. This one issue is the most important thing in the country/world/universe and overrides any other possible consideration."

So my single issue is I think smurfs should be outlawed. Politician says they will do away with smurfs. They get my vote. Interviewer: "That politician has been convicted of corruption." Me: "I don't care, they are tough on smurfs." Interviewer: "There is nothing that would change your mind?" Me: "Only if they go back on their promise to get rid of the smurfs." Politician: "No more smurfs!"

Never mind the politician is shagging a smurf as soon as the interview is over.

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Re: Porn's effect on real life

Not hate, but exasperation. You haven't thought it through. "give them 'porn' with minors." -.> you are taking a picture of a crime.

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That's now how Apple's system works

"It tells you and shows you the image"

No, it rejects the image upload, applies secret "points" against your license to upload, and if you go over the allowed number of points then it locks your phone and reports you to the authorities.

Murena and /e/ Foundation launch privacy-centric smartphones

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I want one

Thanks for the article, I will be looking closely at the specs to see if one of these can work for me. I'm hoping yes because Apple and Google are getting worse every year.

Elon Musk orders Tesla execs back to the office

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Even if ...

Let's say all of the criticisms of Musk expressed herein are accurate. And further that all the pros and cons of remote working have been correctly summarized. It's still possible Musk knows that his executives have been goofing off and taking advantage. Musk may be annoying and he may not be as smart as he thinks he is, but he actually is somewhat competent as a CEO of tech companies. So if he applies this correction and many of them quit, maybe that's what he wants? Some of them get back to work, good. The others go bye-bye, also good. Later there will be a chance to relax the policy.

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Re: "They should pretend to work somewhere else"

Careful. They shoot messengers.

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Re: Ego Musk

"they just grabbed one of their normal chassis and bolted on electric bits"

As opposed to Tesla who just grabbed someone else's normal chassis and bolted on electric bits.

IBM's self-sailing Mayflower suffers another fault in Atlantic crossing bid

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Calling all marketers

If they get the whole way they can give a press release that says "Better than IBM!"

Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? Consult our cynic's guide to desktop Linux

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Re: Control Your Own Upgrades

"the apparmor profile of evince locking it down so much that it doesn't regard/ save user settings"

To be fair this isn't a Linux-only thing. On Windows trying to combine virtual apps with remote profiles leaves me with a short list of settings I have to re-apply at every reboot. Actually it's a long list but most of them are wrapped up in a script.

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My top 3

1. MX Linux

2. Devuan

3. PCLinuxOS

Notice what they have in common? I could recommend any one of these to a recent convert from Windows. I've looked at Slackware for myself but I'm too lazy to take the plunge. The article criticizes Mint for "overly cautious approaches to updates and upgrades". But that's the flip side of stability. The vast majority of computer users, at least the ones known to me, value stability over features. Most have little idea how many features their current OS provides. For them it's just a way of opening applications.

Algorithm spots 104 asteroids in huge piles of data

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Re: The mighty Algorithm.

When their name is Asteroid Institute, they would have to disambiguate AI every time. Which pretty much negates the intellectual laziness that is the whole raison d'etre for calling it AI. They probably have a style guide with 50 alternatives for AI, depending on context. And every time there is a newbie writing the press release, they roll up the style guide and clunk the newbie in the head -- how many times do we have to tell you, you can't write "AI" for that....

Azure Active Directory logs are lagging, alerts may be wrong or missing

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Sequence numbers on log messages

I spent a lot of time reading the MS docs on how to create Azure services, and sequence numbers are contrary to the design patterns. If you split your service over multiple instances on different servers, how would they co-ordinate these sequence numbers? Instead, Azure has this fuzzy concept "eventual consistency", which as near as I can make out is just hand-waving and declaring "good enough".

Keeping your head as an entire database goes pear-shaped

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Re: Drop and go

"they can pretty much disallow almost anything in their DBs"

Quite. Stephen failed to backup the DB probably because he was not logged in as a backup operator.

"Surely I'm smarter than this issue," Stephen thought to himself.... Nope. You don't know what you don't know. Once the software has demonstrated your ignorance to you, it's time to step back and RTFM (or consult the greybeard, call the vendor, etc.). When I was a callow youth I (oh so delicately) brushed the horse fence with the backhoe. The owner was understandably angry, but gave me a valuable piece of advice: "When you are unfamiliar with the equipment, GO SLOW!"

Indian authorities issue conflicting advice about biometric ID card security

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Re: Could they be less specific?

They did their best, but are always looking to improve. If you have a less specific phrase to suggest, they will certainly consider it.

When management went nuclear on an innocent software engineer

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Poe, poe me

Loving the downvotes.

Ex-spymaster and fellow Brexiteers' emails leaked by suspected Russian op

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all nuance is lost

"I think that's possibly the reason that those post-referendum polls that've shown a narrow remain win if the vote were re-run now"

More likely because the people conducting those polls want the results over-turned (hard to imagine the winning side conducting polls today), and how they pose the questions colors the results. What's really surprising is how the results are still so evenly split, despite Brexit having had plenty of time to show its defects (and there were bound to be some). To me this shows the pro-Brexit side (at least the public) had some serious convictions, and were not simply swayed by lies. (Which is not to say they weren't lied to.)

I see two basic political problems on this side of the pond, not sure if either of them fits on your side. (1) People generally form their own political views issue by issue, but they think "other" people don't do the same thing. This plays into (2) people are generally willing to think the worst of "other" people of a different political persuasion. Thus they are susceptible to being lied to about the other side.

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re bollocks

"there'll be none of us left"

I reckon katrinab and jake (to the dismay of that IR35 AC) will still be here.

Clonezilla 3: Copy and clone disk images to your heart's content

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Keep it simple

You don't need Ventoy, that's just a selector for different bootable images, where you would be selecting Clonezilla3.

Spam is back with a vengeance. Luckily we can't read any of it

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Re: Spam = all time low

"people giving my email addy as theirs, either by mistake by them, or the bank or insurance company who had to transcribe from a paper form"

I get daily emails from Costco and Birkenstock for the same reason. Maybe it wasn't a mistake, but an asterisk next to the email field and the end user's way of diverting the marketing spam....