Posts by jake

Re: local journalism

The LA Times looks a lot like local journalism from Pasadena.

Re: These laws make FB the owner of our news

"Do you really think the politicians are going to admit they screwed up and actually handed the keys to their country to a foreign corporation?"

Follow the money, then tell me "screwed up".

Re: Tabloid quality

"It’s like the National Enquirer of the digital age"

Along with twitter, facebook, youtube and etc., presumably.

Re: As a Californian ...

"It's at the point now where the mayor is considering"

The mayor of what? There is no mayor of the Bay Area.

Re: As a Californian ...

If it went away tomorrow, the cost of housing would plummet in the Bay Area.

Re: a chat-based interface for controlling the OS and applications.

"adjusted to save the blushes of the audience"

You must be lost. This is ElReg.

Re: TV that has the Android OS running

I run MythTV. No adverts.

Re: Microsoft Still Up to the Usual Antics

The EULA also clearly states that anything that goes wrong is NOT the fault of Microsoft, but rather it's YOUR fault for choosing to run their b0rken product. It isn't even guaranteed to work as advertised when used as intended. Presumably this includes Microsoft's cloud leaking all the telemetry they slurp. One wonders why Corporate Lawyers even let the thing in the door ...

Re: Microsoft Still Up to the Usual Antics

Billboards are all but gone around here, banned as the blight that they were.

Magazines? You mean those archaic things printed on clay coated dead tree pulp? They still make those?

All TV is pre-recorded, commercials get fast-forwarded through.

For Baseball on the radio, I have a 2 minute mute button on the dash of all the cars to ignore the commercials.

I do not expect the online experience to be any different. Ad blockers do the job nicely.

Re: re: saturated with advertisements

"and don't say "yes - stop using windows""

Why the hell not? It's the only guaranteed way of doing what you ask.

Re: Two words for Microsoft:

I choose to remain both ignorant and apathetic on the subject. I don't know, and I don't care.

Re: Obeying Voice Commands vs Correctly Recognizing Voice Commands

Well, you gotta admit that old Torinos are vastly more interesting and useful than Aldnoah.Zero opening credits ...

Re: Two words for Microsoft:

No need for sorrow. Your use of written English was correct. It's not your fault it wasn't parsed correctly.

Re: Pulling the plug is still an option,

No worries. It needs fuel and/or electricity. Withhold it. Blow up the fuel pump, turn off the generator, cut the wires or hoses, whatever. As long as there is a human in the loop, a monkey wrench can be thrown into the works long before things get out of hand.

Re: Pulling the plug is still an option,

Because then the plot wouldn't be as exciting. Remember, they were selling cornflakes.

Re: What a complete shock!

Klaatu and Gort might claim prior art ... if they weren't also just a story.

Re: Roko's Basilik

Assumes facts not in evidence.

Re: What a complete shock!

"You know, that was *exactly* my thought when I heard about this via the RAS... "Skynet is here"."

Skynet has been here since the mid 1960s. It's the name of one of the British MoD's satellite networks.

Re: Pulling the plug is still an option,

That's a made-up story. I thought we were talking about real life.

Re: Court marshal

"Will they court marshal the AI for following instructions to the letter."

Don't be silly. It was just a badly programmed computer game, just like any other bang-bang shoot-'em-up computer game you've played over the years.

Re: What would be your free choice .... ::snip for posting space::

Whatever. Pulling the plug is still an option, and always will be.

_{Daisy, Daisy...}

Re: Can you Deny it is Just Karma and Heaven Sent and Hellishly Deserved ‽

It's so much simpler than that, amfM.

It's just a case of garbage in, garbage out, no more, no less.

Since when was a picture of a UFO (bigfoot, Yeti, a ghost or whatever) ever a "decent" photograph?

The point is that the now astronomical number of cameras in the hands of the general public SHOULD have resulted in an astronomical number of grainy, out of focus, shaky, badly composed, off-center, obscured-with-thumb photos of UFOs, bigfoots, Yetis, ghosts (or whatever) ... and yet we haven't seen this huge bump in such pictures.

William of Ockham might have been overheard to mutter something about lex parsimoniae ...

"We just have to hope that there aren't any aliens out there who take pleasure in kicking ants nests."

Or eating ants.

Re: Just 'cos you can't see it, don't mean it ain't there!

The effect itself goes back to the first proto-shaman separating the ignorant from their meager scavenged food because his cave or hollow tree looked scary. Cushiest job in Africa a couple million years ago, I'm sure.

Re: I know how crazy this is going to sound, but...

At the near exact rate of one second per second.

Was the ethernet shielding grounded at both ends?

"And why you may want an Ufer ground if you are building anything with a concrete foundation."

FTFY

Re: Radia's spinning.

Nah. She's young yet. About my age.

Re: I think I get it...

Yes. Really.

I also took the time to invite them to our annual First Saturday of July party.

Re: I think I get it...

"In that case, any time spent on pulling over a car which isn't the type of car they're looking for is time wasted"

They are not pulling over "a car". Rather, they are slowing traffic. The cops know that the slower traffic is moving, the lower the chances of anyone getting hurt when the perp does something stupid.

The original report was from a Brit who clearly didn't understand the big picture. You are extrapolating from that.

"but if I was on the run from the law and made a career of it"

You wouldn't be dodging roadblocks somewhere on Interstate 5 between San Diego and LA. Idiots who do that get arrested, which is a bad move if you are trying to be a career criminal.

Again, RealLife isn't a written in Hollywood and made for TV movie, no matter how fervently you wish it were so.

Re: I think I get it...

Those are usually Agriculture checkpoints more than anything else. As a farmer/rancher I'm all for 'em.

Re: I think I get it...

This was (probably) not TV or the movies. This was (probably) the RealWorld, on Interstate 5 somewhere between San Diego and LA. Probably.

RealLife perps on the run from the cops and actively being pursued rarely change vehicles (On the rare occasion that they do, the carjacking victim tells the cops EXACTLY what the new vehicle is, so there is no point; all it does is waste time), and they certainly never take the time to don theatrical makeup.

Next.

Re: I think I get it...

"they were stopping all cars on freeway between San Diego and LA."

Perfectly normal when a perp is suspected to be running along that particular highway. We had a roadblock on Hwy 12 here in Sonoma a couple months ago; some entitled twat figured he could out-drive the police+Motorola. He'll be cooling his heels for the next 5 years or so, and the rest of us won't have to worry about his antics.

"Fortunately the office looked in the car and based purely on a glance was able to determine that there was no need to question any of us"

Becuse they were looking for a Mexican national in a blue Ford pickup, and you were obviously pastry white Brits in a green Chevy sedan?

"I assume they have some sort of pyschic powers."

Yeah. That must be it.

::coff coff::

Re: I think I get it...

First of all, before casting too many stones you Brits might want to compare and contrast the duties and etc. of your very own Border Force.

Just out of curiosity, I spent the morning calling about 70 people I know (friends, family, former students, etc.). These folks range the gamut of American society. (Rich, poor, educated & not, various races and religions, etc. etc.)

I asked them all the same question: "Have you, or anybody you know or have heard of directly, ever been stopped by the US Customs and Border Protection (colloquially known as "the US Border Patrol"), for ANY REASON AT ALL, at any location other than at the actual border, or a proxy for the border such as an airport or seaport?"

They all said "no", just as I suspected.

The border patrol just plain doesn't pull over random people on a whim. They don't have the manpower for it.

They DO target smugglers of various descriptions after their goods have entered the country. Having a 100 mile limit allows them to ignore little things like county and state lines, which would otherwise allow the perps to move on to the next location before being busted.