Posts by nobody who matters 1287 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Jun 2021
"I can't see how different this is to saying "Alexa, order me some coffee"."
The \difference is that you will physically ask Alexa to order something specific.
An 'AI' bot will assess your past purchasing habits and place the orders without you asking it for those specific things. It would be a bit like lending Fergie your credit card and PIN!
".....already half of those using the Walmart app use "Sparky," the company's AI assistant. Those shoppers spend about 35 percent more than those who don't....."
And there you have the principal reason why letting a bot do your shopping is a bad idea!
Or, is it just richer people using it, and they would spend more than others anyway. Whatever, I would want it to spend less than I would myself, which I think it would find a challenge as I don't buy more than I actually need in the first place.
A body of water doesn't have to reach 100 Celcius for evaporation to take place ;)
Evaporation takes place when the temperature diffference is sufficient to cause it to be lost as a vapour (which is where the word evaporation comes from after all). At over 100 Celcius, it boils and becomes a gas.
This is also a 'sciency' angle ;)
"The court filing says the data was deidentified before being put on sale and Google has promised to scrub any PII it finds in the trove
Why do they even bother saying this?
If they think anyone with any kind of intelligence is going to believe that statement, they must be easily as stupid as they clearly think we are.
Of course, it a sad fact that most of the worlds population in general exhibit no tendency towards intelligence of any kind, so thay will probably get away with it :(
"We are deeply sorry for this breach of information, and are reviewing and improving our methodology for data storage in external database vendors,"
I can save them some time with their conducting of the review - the answer is simple - DO NOT use external database providers! It seems that it is third party service providers where a significant proportion of these breaches happen, so don't use them, use your own on premises equipment, and keep the sensitive databases well fenced from external access from outside of the company's own systems.
I hope they will learn from their mistake. It is a pity that they haven't learned the lesson from countless other companies who have already reaped the consequences of making the same mistake!
"Believe me, rich parents breed a sense of entitlement that you can't get through raw talent alone, and the experience taught me in no uncertain terms exactly what is wrong with your average rich-boy Tory."
Being rich, arrogant and entitled is by no means restricted to being a Tory. Neither does being a Tory mean that someone is rich, arrogant and entitled. Chip on the shoulder perhaps?
"Others meanwhile despite having clearly been born with silver spoons stuck in various orifices are perfectly pleasant and kind people who are happy to defer to your knowledge."
In my experience, those who are born into long standing wealth and position are generally brought up knowing how to deal with it and how to behave towards others, the parents who bring them up having been through the same process themselves (and their parents before them and so on). They are usually very good people to know, work for, be friends with or whatever.
It generally seems to be those familiies which have come from nothing (so-called 'New Money') who are most often the arrogant, entitled and upleasant ones.
To be fair, the word quality covers the whole range, and he has left it open to interpretation as to whether it is good quality or poor quality ;)
Regarding The Sun newspaper, I recall comedian Jo Brand revealing an appropriate usage for it some years ago. In a piece about various periodicals and newspapers that she buys, she finished up by saying "....once a month, I splash out on The Sun - well, it's more absorbent, isn't it"
"..... it reached the internet because of a "misconfiguration" in the evaluation environment,"
'Misconfiguration' meaning that the test environment was left open to access the internet whilst the test was run?
Surely such a test should be run within a secure fence, or ideally, physically disconnected?
"Clearly a device's user could use the device both as an accessibility aid and as a glasshole."
Clearly, the user reported on by the BBC a couple of days ago, is just an arsehole: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g369y5k8ko
"...... the services of a career placement company."
They are a big part of the problem - I long ago came to the conclusion that any prospective employer who advertises a job through an agency is an employer that I do not wish to work for.
Most especially where the name of the prospective employer is witheld and only a vague location specified - I want to know who and where I am applying to BEFORE I submit the application. Would that agency/employer consider an applicant who had witheld their name and address from their CV I wonder? - rhetorical question ;)
"Trouble is it is already sliding into their hands."
....and (despite his protestations that he won't give his health data to an AI bot), by his statement that "I use a fitness app to track my basic exercise targets" the AC you replied to is almost certainly helping it on its way :(
"One reason for the repeated use of passwords on different accounts is likely the preponderance of sites that unnecessarily require accounts and password"
Whilst I agree with you regarding general websites, that really doesn't hold for financial accounts where re-using passwords is really dumb.. .
"Sorry, but you can't go blaming banks for not using MFA there. Different passwords would already have been a major hurdle to overcome"
Agreed.
Whilst MFA or use of a passkey would have effectively stopped the fraud in its tracks, using the same (or very similar) passwords across all the accounts, particularly as one of those accounts and its password had already been compromised is just asking for trouble. Not re-using the same password is about the most basic level of online security, and it is shocking the number of people who continue to do this (and/or use inadequate passwords) despite the amount of shouting about the pitfalls of doing so that is done. Continuing to use a password (or a passsword similar to it) after it has been compromised is plainly asking for trouble. Anybody should be able to comprehend this regardless of age and possible mental shortcomings..
I wouldn't be using gmail for communication/sign-in for financial accounts either (or indeed for anything important - or most probably anything at all!).
The UK for one - where you are required by the Highway Code to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front to be able to stop wihout hitting it, and if you do run into the rear of another vehicle, the law holds you to be liable for the crash in pretty much every circumstance.
The fact that a huge proportion of British drivers don't seem to have any conception of safe stopping distances, and drive far too close doesn't actually change that rule.
"Chrysler didn't" what?
To expand on what I said earlier - Chrysler merged with (was effectively bought out by) Peugeot Citroen and became PSA ,who later bought out GMs European operations (Vauxhall-Opel), Fiat then merged with PSA to form Stellantis whose two largest shareholders are a company (Exor - 14% of Stellantis) controlled by the Agnelli family (who are the original owners of FIAT) and an investment company belonging to the Peugeot family (7%).
Better still, make them be the ones who have to test the effectiveness of the sensors and braking systems on these vehicles by randomly stepping in front of them whilst they are travelling at various different speeds and in various road conditions from dry and freshly resurfaced to worn and icy.
"Not any more for decades (here in Germany)."
Ditto for the UK. I would expect that passenger trains in most advanced countries now use a similar 'alert the train driver' type of system.
I think it is significant that (apart from some simple/straightforward localised railways) a train driver is still required for safety reasons, even though running on fixed rails, to a fixed timetable with fixed/scheduled places to stop would make it an obvious scenario where computer controlled driverless trains could work, but yet some people still think that having nobody to take control of a computer controlled car in an emergency (and no means provided for them to take control to start with) is perfectly acceptable.
Humans are strange.
".....after this shameful administration is relegated to the ash-heap of history, there are good people ready to pick up the pieces to go on."
Assuming that there are any pieces left to pick up by then, of course. Whilst we all eagerly sieze upon all and any suggestions that the popularity of the Trump crowd (and other similarly minded bodies around the world) is on the wane, the continuing level of support for them among the population at large still appears to be uncomfortably high.
