Posts by lglethal

Re: If I had Musk's money...

Funny, I didnt know Bots could form mobs?

Lets face it, if Twitter fell off a cliff tomorrow (Twitter not Twittler!), there would be some complaints but it would pretty quickly be forgotten. Anyone under 25 uses TikTok anyway and not twitter. Anyone over 45 uses Facebook for their Social media needs. A few firms would have to find another way to communicate with their customers, and some journalists would have to get off their bums and actually find news, rather than regurgitating whatever they heard about on Twitter.

Most people with a centrist point of view (which I equate to the vast majority of people - even if those on the outside are the loudest, the majority reside in the middle), have long stopped using Twitter except for a few niche interactions. Maybe to chat with friends. If it disappeared tomorrow, they owuld simply find other mediums for their discourse. There would really be no major loss...

Here's hoping Twittler tries this out, so we can see if I'm right or not? (Then again what few advetrtisers remain might be more than a little annoyed at losing their advertising access to the world's richest trading bloc, so they would probably object.)(Then again, this is Twitler, so he'd probably tell them to F$%k Off! and happily watch another batch of advertisers walk away...)

Re: but it's not always as easy as that to implement.

"And "authenticator app bricks phone" is one of those things that never happened."

.. so far...

You'd really like to trust your personal phone to Microsoft (for example), not to screw up an update? Really?

Re: the pointy end

Yep, basically if there's an aircraft still flying you HAVE to keep all the records, models, drawings, etc. You can attempt to bring them up to a newer standard, but budgets rarely extend that far, and automated systems are a nightmare (as my Firm found out when they decided to transition from CATIA V5 to Siemens NX - basically for anything that's going to be modified in the future, it's easier and quicker just to remodel from scratch in NX, than to try and wrangle the conversion into shape...).

I still remember in my first job many moons ago, when CATIA V5 was the new Airbus standard (mid 2000's), that there were still at least a few people working daily on terminals running an early version of CADDS (cant remember which version but easily mid 80's if not older). At least the old Airbus rule was to stick to one CAD/PLM system for the entire length of the Aircraft project (so A400M was the first to move to CATIA V5, before that it was V4). No idea if that rule is still in place...

Re: Understanding

Try explaining Recursion errors to your 90 year old Granny who has never used a computer? Or perhaps the intricacies of Superheat Phases in a non-ideal Rankine cycle? Or quite frankly String Theory or any of the other competing Unification Theories?

There are some topics that require a minimum level of expertise to be able to communicate effectively. And let's face it, the entire realm of Theoretical Physics is by now almost entirely pure mathematics.

I'm sure with time, Oppenheim would be able to come up with a suitable abstraction, but quite frankly does it help anyone outside the Theoretical Physics community? Leave it at, "It's complicated, but we have ideas for experiments that could prove or disprove it...". If enough people in the community of theoretical physicists start taking it seriously, then those tests will happen, and we'll quickly see if it joins the thousands of other disproven Unification Theories or if it joins the not-yet-disproven pile...

Yes, and show me where any of the current management of Ford Motor Company haver made any statements repeating the bollocks of the original Mr Ford? If so, then I'm sure we could find a lot of other firms willing to back a ban on them. But what someone said 100 years ago is irrelevant in this day and age. And it's just useless whataboutism to to bring it up.

There are enough crappy firms alive and well, doing and saying evil and dumb shit to focus on right now. Lets let the stupidy of the past go, so we can focus on calling out the stupidity of the present...

Re: Top thirteen

Just one point for you - Market and Street traders is another way of saying Wall Street (or equivalent) traders. i.e. those that work the stock markets. Considering that most of them just basically run programs that say when Y hit $1 sell, and buy at $0.99 and the trades already happen in milliseconds, it seems pretty clear that AI will take over there pretty soon.

I dont think that's necessarily a good thing, and when the first mass market crash caused by AI cock ups occurs, then maybe the Stock Markets will be returned to regular people, instead of those that can run the fastest networks, and work on fractions of a cent...

"Maybe that's what's generating the wave of shoplifting?"

Citation Needed...

(Ps Any references to Social Media, Wikipedia, or the Daily Mail will require the poster to smack themselves in the Head repeatedly, until they are able to understand the difference between actual sources and the wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy that the others represent...)

Re: Killmilk

I dont think it feels that odd. If this guy is really as unpopular as the article makes out, then people spreading rumours that he's also targeting Russian firms AND the Russian government (a big No-No in the Russian Hacker world), would have him being looked at double quick.

The rumours dont even have to be true. If the Russian government think they can get more control over Killnet and the other Russian hacking groups by putting someone who is, shall we say, more sympathetic to their needs, in charge, then by all means they would do it. In an instant.

I will answer all of your questions the same way an AI does - by pulling answers out of my bum!!

Why do they have office desks and equipment outdoors? - It's in the desert, init? It's not like it's going to rain! The workers will be fine sitting out in 40+°C heat. We cant have them inside, ruining the sleek lines of the building after all...

How does the driver see the road? - The AI does the driving, durr... That's why you need all the racks in the car - to drive the car! Why do you think Autopilot is such a failure? It doesnt have anywhere near enough computing power on board...

What's up with the cabling mess on the rock? - Well it would hardly be a proper racked solution if the cabling wasn't a complete sh&tshow, would it?

Why does the ship have some kind of platform around the keel? - ummm... Those are the floaties? Boats need floaties, right? hmmm. Actually I really dont have a clue on that one. Some sort of Wharf, but in the middle of a river? Yeah, this one doesnt really make any sense...

And is that a... a smaller ship sailing on its roof? - Nahh that's the ships tower, it's just designed to look like a tug boat on the Sea. Admittedly the wave like roof at the front of the boat, probably means that the Tower cant see what's happening in front of the Ship, but since when should little practicalities like that get in the way of design aesthetics. I mean really, who cares if the ship cant see where it's going, so long as it looks good whilst going there...

:P

Re: We've engaged in illegal acts to obtain this data

That sort of thing is considered illegal everywhere in the world, outside of third world countries, dictatorships, and the US...

Re: Who benefits if this changes

Ahh if that's the case then my apologies. I'm not familiar with 401k accounts specifically, only regular retirement style funds as practiced in the UK, Aus and the EU.

If what you say is true, perhaps a better solution would be that the forfeited funds should be used to pay the fund management fees, so that everyone else can earn a little bit of extra interest (and HP keeping contributing what it's supposed to!). If it's anything like some of the retirement funds I have to deal with the Management fees chew up an excessive amount of the interest you actually earn from your investments...

I believe this is more along the lines of:

Minion: Sir, we've discovered that ad companies are selling personal information that could compromise members of the public.

Politician: This is an outrage! We have to protect the public from these evil ad companies. How dare they compromise people's personal information! (And I was looking for the Marlon Brando Look Alikes website, honest *cough*)

Re: Dedicated right of ways ARE the better option

Just to say one thing, if your light rail, or trams if you prefer, are not getting usage then you clear have a poor network. And by that I mean it is not going where it needs to go for people to want to use it.

Visit anywhere in Continental Europe, and tram, bus, and tube networks dominate. They are (usually) all run by the same network within one area, so that means they meet up, making it one continuous network of transport. This means people can commute in their cities without the need for cars, from pretty much anywhere to anywhere else. Does it always work? Of course not. But until we moved to a small country village a couple of years back, I did not need to own a car in the previous 15 years, across living in 3 countries and 7 cities of sizes varying from Millions to about 300,000.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the poor using buses and trams stopping regular people using them? I assume you mean homeless people? If that's the case you need to ask why are homeless people setting up on the trains and buses? Clearly a few extra shelters would go some way to solving that problem. But if you are meaning white collars workers dont want to mix with blue collar workers, that's, well that's just kinda crazy...

Re: So ...

Just to correct one point - in any modern (read 90's or later designed) A/C including helicopters, there is never only a single control computer. It is always 3, operating in a voting system (i.e. if 2 computers give the same value, and a 3rd disagrees, the 3rd is ignored. I believe there's usually something to flag up to the cockpit that one of the computer's is not operating correctly at that point, but it's been a while since I worked on that stuff).

In the cases of the Air France crash over the Atlantic that was caused by some Pressure Sensors being damaged and freezing and feeding the wrong data to the computers, and in the case of the 787 MAX crashes, that was an additional side box that Boeing managed to smuggle in that was a single point of failure, and that was a massive failure by the FAA, and should never have been allowed (there's a whole raft of failures in the certification of the 787 MAX which should never have been allowed!).

Whilst I've not worked on Drone style Helicopters specifically, I would guarantee that the FAA/EASA requirements would require that a single lost rotor would not prevent the Helicopter from making a controlled landing without injury to the occupants. You would never get permission to fly if a single rotor going down guarantees a crash. No chance.

Re: Hm

Consumer protection laws? That doesnt sound very American! How are the Corporations going to run roughshod over people if they're protected by "Consumer Protection Laws"??? Let me call congress, we'll get that fixed in a jiffy...

Re: Still looking

Reading the Wikipedia article on Biosphere 2 it actually sounds like the first test was considered a success, with the people producing enough food for them to live on for the 2 year duration. The second test also led to complete food security, but failed due to massive management problems, an investment company (of all things) took the project over, and basically, came in cut corners then cancelled the whole thing.

Also a lot of the problems they experienced would hopefully not be a problem on the moon (cockroach infestations, for example!).

Additionally, its 20 years ago. We have a much greater understanding of closed systems now. So I'm not sure I'd look at Biosphere 2 as being anything but a good "lessons learned" activity for future projects....

Re: Professional incompetence. Or was that incompetents?

Well they do say, that if you don't know history, you are bound to repeat it...

And without being paid!!!!

I'm always reminded in this context of a Friends episode actually, where Joey does a photoshoot, but doesn't pay any attention to what the shoot is for. It turns out it's for an STD awareness campaign. And carries a slogan like "What Mario isn't telling you.". He at least got paid for it.

Now imagine, if someone took your image and ran it for a campaign about, I don't know, "Child Sex Offenders in your Area". That's a massive reputational (and possibly life-threatening) damage to you in your community, that you had nothing to do with.

Using AI versions of any real person without their permission is really a completely scummy act. It's not like it's hard with the actual tools available to create someone fake for use in your media campaign. But I guess fake people don't sell as well as faked celebrities...

Re: So billions of years ago

Well the Impact definitely happened on a Thor's day.

Re: "acquitted by his party in a Texas Senate trial"

But, correct me if I'm wrong, Bribery is a crime. As such it should be handled in the courts, no? I mean isnt there some US Senator from New Jersey that's just been arrested for accepting bribes, and will face a court trial?

So what was different about this case? Apart from maybe the fact that he is the Attorney General of Texas, so he would be kind of prosecuting himself if it took place in Texas, so you would probably suggest he should be tried in a federal court, by a federal prosecutor...

Re: Who really won?

9 weeks minimum pay. So I guess the question is did it usually take longer than that to create the script previously? If yes, than they're losing out. If not, then nope.

I certainly hope they're not losing out. Good writing really does deseve to be rewarded. I know there's a lot of dross out there too, but if there's a market for it, then it deserves to be rewarded...

Collision avoidance is already a part of self-driving algorithms (how good they are or not is another point entirely), so overtaking or slowing down to the speed of the car in front should not be difficult. As to avoidance of Roos, etc. a wider field of view would be advisable, but again should not be overly difficult to handle for. (Although I know that Roos are stupid and have a tendency to jump out in front of cars without warning).

As for actual crashes and wheel blowouts, then proper monitoring on the trucks should not be difficult. A crash sensor through an accelerometer should be able to say if the truck has hit something, and tire pressure monitors would alert to blowouts. In either case, then the truck should pull over and wait for a repair truck to arrive (same as any other time they hit something). A repair service at a "nearby" petrol station (yes I know we are talking about 100km+ distances here), should be able to arrive to fix things or to assess the damage within a couple of hours. It might be a longer time than if there is a human driver, but the costs saved in having a human driver for all of those long stints where nothing happens would I expect make it economically viable.

The truck being stationary for more than a minute, should trigger human remote operator intervention, allowing for overtaking of a stopped car on the road safely, before returning to "self-driving" mode.

As such, I really dont find the issues of highway driving to be at all difficult to sort.

and normal dentists won't take you any more. I wonder how they solved that?

Mice dentists aren't so picky as human dentists...