Posts by Charles 9

Re: Data are, not is

Not really. Collective nouns can be considered in the singular. Thus "the class IS at school" or "A bag of apples". Now, as a leftpondian who actually understands cricket, I DO know that collectives can get a little hazy sometimes, like when it comes to "team". Righties refer to a team in the plural (as in the players) while lefties refer to a team in the singular (as in the group).

The world may not be black and white, but the human mind often is. Shades of gray make many people uncomfortable.

Re: Don't want

YES!!!

The mega corps have more money than you. They can out-lobby you and, if necessary, successfully campaign for a full-fat changeover.

Re: Just Say No

"Does Micro$oft REALLY expect that I (and millions of other users) are going to scrap our machines and spend many thousands of dollars for new equipment just so we can run a questionable, new version of their user interface, and be subjected to even more data collection and ad viewing?"

What if Microsoft counters with an "offer you can't refuse" by leaving a Game Over exploit on old OS's while most people are stuck running WINE-unfriendly Windows-only programs?

Re: "an upgrade will have to happen in the coming months or years"

No, what's really needed are newer, tighter standards. The web should go back to being a passive conveyor of information while active sessions should be reserved for protocols designed for interactivity like VNC.

Re: Environmental homicide

These companies probably have enough clout to be able to successfully lobby to get the government changed to defang such a threat.

Consider, has ANY company been SERIOUSLY stung by the GDPR to date and had it stick?

Re: If Microsoft keeps this up,

I use LibreOffice right now, TYVM, but gaming is still a problem on Linux. Sure, there's Proton, but there's also too many Garbage ratings. Plus, what about the non-Steam games out there? Not to mention support for more-esoteric hardware that may not be even heard of in the Linux world (like my Brother P-Touch label printer).

Re: "Because we can"? No!

But what if it's the ONLY solution? What if does really boil down to "you or him"? And I'm not speaking hypothetically, either. A lot of right-wing extremists honestly and truly think the same way, like a bunch of powder kegs waiting for a match.

Re: GDPR is our salvation? Really?

"It's only a joke (and not a very funny one) in that it isn't complied with and isn't enforced."

That's exactly the point. It's not being enforced and likely can't be enforced due to hostile sovereignty and the tenuous state of international politics. Maybe it's far-fetched to think that trying to enforce a 10-billion-Euro fine on Facebook will trigger World War III, but given the state of things today, something of that vein cannot be ruled out. Well, either that or Gibson's "Sprawl" solution of the companies escaping prosecution by declaring themselves sovereign (and not doing it now simply because the conditions aren't right...YET).

Re: Hardly surprising...

And once they have that data, all they have to do is find a way to get the keys. Think about the data center in Utah...

Re: What worries me

That's what a Generative Adversarial Network can do, actually. I have to wonder if someone's willing to put a GAN to use to turn innocuous images into "illegal" ones...

Re: Of course they're scanning for 'content'

To which one has to ponder what happens if the answer comes back, "Testudines omnes descensus." ("Turtles all the way down.")...

Re: Scratching my head a little

But NOT ALL of them. And the ones that don't will suddenly get a lot of attention. And if they're like Ireland with low operating expenses and little need for foreign goods, there will likely be few ways to put any real pressure on them.

Re: And who pays those corporate taxes?

But don't you know? Corporations ARE people according to some legal interpretations.

Re: it will hurt demand

There are other ways to pivot. People could switch to corn or rice or potatoes, home power production could boom, etc...

Re: AI - The Answer To Everything

Not to mention conflicting sovereignty. You pretty much need to have a Ruler of the World to solve that problem...

Re: Predictable really, but at root a societal problem

Or as the comedian once said, "You can't fix Stupid." Problem is, how do we keep Stupid from taking the rest of us with them?

Re: Predictable really, but at root a societal problem

"The most effective countermeasure is not legislation, but education - by which I mean real education that cultivates independent thought and analysis."

Problem is, the ones exploiting the masses know this, so conspire to make this as damned difficult as possible. Quite frankly, it's a classic case of the haves wanting to protect their belongings (which is practically human instinct). If push came to shove, things could get ugly (perhaps even Randian ugly). IOW, I don't see how this would end well.

Re: "US senators are the only ones who are going to feel a revelation here."

Currying favor should be wrong, but as "greasing the wheels" is a necessary evil in most human societies, laws will be worked around, especially up top where the operative phrase is, "I can make it all go away."

Re: Everybody can do that

"If the banks would simply tell you that a large transaction is pending and if you didn't initiate it, you should visit your local branch or log in to your account online, that would be fine."

Until the ONLY means of contact for the bank is an app that can be Trojaned (because the last local branch of ANY bank within driving distance closed years back).

"Paypal does this all of the time. They even keep trying to "authorize" a device I've logged in with which I do not want to happen. What if that device is stolen? What they should do is notify and leave it up to the customer to enter the URL of the bank themselves from their own records and review the account."

If people have memories SO terrible they can't remember a simple password, what does that say about a whole blankin' website address, meaning they'll probably have to search for it and get hit by a fake site...

OR they may find it cheaper to lawyer their way out of it...

Re: What to do with bad memory?

Yes, but it's also become the ONLY way to check on a lot of important things like bank accounts, medical appointments, and senior benefits...

Re: There and back again

Thing is, how can you use something you know when your memory is not reliable enough for one to know anything?

OK, I'll bite. Look up the legal precedent of "public accommodations":

https://www.findlaw.com/civilrights/civil-rights-overview/public-accommodations-equal-rights.html

Two prominent examples are the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Re: Forced speech

Just because millions of people agree on something doesn't necessarily make it true. We're seeing mass hysteria all around us, after all.

Re: Forced speech

Point conceded, but choice may not always be there. If it's the ONLY baker in town, then it becomes a Hobson's Choice: Take It or Leave It. That's one reason for the civil rights statutes. If the ONLY provider--or ALL the providers--of a service lock you out arbitrarily and contrive excuses in the meantime, then they're locking you out of greater society in the process.

Re: In the meantime they will have to get ready to implement the law

Thing is, what do you do with a man who sees everything, even mockery, as true praise? Or someone who is just that damn shameless?

Two problem. One, lots and lots of Rapture Christians who honestly and truly believe the End Times are imminent, and two, lots and lots of nukes.

IOW, what do you do against an enemy willing and maybe even eager to go M.A.D.?

Re: Someone

This raises a very disturbing thought. What if it gets all the way up to the SCOTUS and they somehow say Facebook, being a de facto monopoly, has undue influence on the public and thus requires extra regulation because of that (perhaps obliquely referring the Schenck decision about "fire in a crowded theater")?

Worse, what if they just cook up some excuse out of whole cloth and dare everyone else to defy them? Similarly with anything else conservatives want to impose?