Posts by &rew

Julian Assange is being mistreated

Regardless of his guilt or innocence, his treatment during this trial has been awful.

There was a letter from the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute condemning his treatment.

It should not go on. If he should die of a communicable disease while in custody, or he commits suicide because of his ill treatment, justice will not have been served; the UK's standing as a country which cherishes human dignity will decrease further.

I don't know what to do about it, but writing to my representatives in parliament has been the start. I encourage you to do the same.

A question:

This company has been around for less than nine years, and been fed nigh on $3 billion. What on earth can someone spend that much money on? On what was the Forbes valuation of $5.4 billion based? Could it all have been spent on advertising, and hiring big names to promote it?

If most companies/countries spent $3 billion on actual research facilities and hiring the best minds, they'd surely have something (worthwhile) to show for it by now?

I keep thinking of the fairly low-key adverts for Moltex energy, and what they are trying to produce, and how far they could get with a multi-billion dollar investment.

Season Four is bad

From dim and distant memory, there was a season when Buffy changed production companies, or there was a writers dispute. I think it happened during the fourth series.

There are other episodes which redeem the series.

Anyone attempted to use ReactOS?

I have recently heard about ReactOS, and seen someone running it in a VM to test it. I was mildly impressed. Does anyone have any first-hand experience?

Considering my home uses, Linux just keeps looking better and better.

Category shift

When will stories featuring Magic Leap finally be moved from "Emergent Tech" to "Bootnotes"?

Sooner rather than later, I propose.

Fast fingers

I recall for old PCs that used an actual mains voltage power button, if you pressed the power button in, and then really quickly popped the switch out and in again, there was enough smoothing in the power supply to cover the momentary blip. True, I would not be willing to attempt that on a company server, though...

A full Yorkshire menu

This looks like only one course. It should be expanded.

Starter options:

Yorkshire pudding filled with slices of salmon and avocado, drizzled with gespatcho and radish trimmings.

Yorkshire pudding filled with haggis and rice in a white wine sauce.

Yorkshire pudding inverted over steamed vegetables and lardons.

Mains:

Yorkshire Pizza (as pictured), side Yorkshire pudding filled with mini Yorkshire puddings (and gravy)

Yorkshire pudding filled with sushi selection, side Yorkshire pudding filled with alligator chunks seasoned in vodka.

Dessert:

Yorkshire pudding, frozen, filled with apple and mango sorbet. With gravy.

Rational argument

Rational argument is all well and good - if the right people hear it and are receptive to it.

I am reminded of a piece I read not that long ago about gun control in America. Sure, there are huge amounts of rational arguments for gun control, but a small and loud minority who are against it are mobilised to block every attempt.

Passion helps get your message across, and if large enough numbers of people become passionate enough about a topic, the chances are greater they will get their view heard - rational or not.

So I don't really know what I am saying here, other than perhaps elected lawmakers need to put their adult diapers on and make a rational decision, rather than listen to raving lunatics and smarmy lobbyists. But what chance change?

Help a curious mind out?

Do any fellow commentards know of any study that attempts to guess at the total amount of storage capacity the world has, broken down by media? I mean, there must be billions of SD cards, tens of billions of hard disks; CD's and DVDs could be looking at trillions - but do sheer numbers outweigh tape in terms of raw bit storage capacity?

I know there are different use cases and data lifetime plays a factor (how much of the data capacity on CDs is no longer readable?), but I imagine this is a question someone with better resources to hand may have asked.

Someone must have historical data for "units manufactured", and recent data will dwarf any inaccuracies from incomplete data from anything more than a few years ago.

Perhaps a suggestion for xkcd to look into...

Dealing with liars

"None of that should surprise us. People are wonderful and horrible. The network we’ve built for ourselves serves both the honest and the liar. But we have no infrastructure to manage a planet of thieves."

Reminds me of the Charles Bowen Peom:

“The rain it raineth on the just

And also on the unjust fella;

But chiefly on the just, because

The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.”

On a level playing field, the liars often (if not always) have the advantage. It is probably good to un-level the playing field, but who will be doing the un-leveling? Who would we trust?

Stealing a march on Quantum?

Large array probabilistic problems are what quantum computers are supposed to do in a few steps, run many times to determine outcome probabilities. Looks like this solution is trying to speed up the brute force classical method by tailoring the chip architecture.

Reminds me of...

Does anyone recall the Minecraft world someone built that recreated a processor using redstone? I was gobsmacked by that - being able to virtually move around a virtual computer, and watch the individual signals working their way through. This is at least twice as impressive.

To think he managed this without a Kickstarter or anything! In all seriousness, I couldn't find a PayPal donation link or anything. Would gladly hand this man a fiver for his efforts.

Hear Hear!

Well deserved honours.

Asexual awareness raising

"intercourse is no longer necessary for procreation, and yet sex persists because of humanity’s mental processes, our focus on sex is a fundamental part of the human condition, and it’s unlikely that any AI could reproduce human processes unless it too was capable of sexual interest."

This statement seems to inextricably link sex with being human, which is both cringeworthy and wrong. Someone should point these researchers in the direction of AVEN, the Asexual Visibility and Education Network.

Sex is not "a fundamental part of the human condition". It can be a part, and most often is, but fundamental? I think not.

I think it is entirely possible to have non-sexy AI, and quite possibly preferable. Sex - or the desire for it - can often have adverse consequences.

As to sexy robotic sex aids, as long as they are self-aware and can give consent, I have no issues with what they look like - I won't be using any of them. Unless there is a dragon one. Or maybe an alien tentacle one. Or maybe...

All wonderful observations

I am pleasantly surprised a the lack of downvotes in this set of comments so far - and I agree. All excellent points. Not many commentards today!

Help a foriegn-raised youngster out

Can anyone tell me who is featured in the headline picture and what movie/tv series they are from? I feel like it is a pop culture reference I should know.

Thanks in advance.

News!

I followed the link, and AlphaGo has won the second in the 5-game tournament. I am sure the lessons learned by the program designers will be applicable across many things. Impressive stuff!

Ascribing motives to people

I am wondering if perhaps we are ascribing motives to people that do not match their (still fictional) aims? What if the Sith just want to speed up the process of getting to the heat death of the Universe, in a similar way that some religious sects are eagerly awaiting the end of life on Earth?

If the End Goal is indeed to rule over everybody, perhaps the easiest way to get there is for there to be fewer bodies, too.

1) In the old days, the all seeing eye of Big Brother was a bit more obvious.

2) In the old days, laser eye surgery was a more laid-back affair.

3) It's a bit chilly. Should I roll my sleeves back down, or fire up the magnetron?

4) Take a guess, is it a shrink ray or just a forced perspective picture?

5) Bruce Wayne admires the new Bat-Symbol projector before sending to to Commissioner Gordon.

"Unrivalled customisation"

Colours available: Black.

There is a disturbing level of marketing-speak, but I agree that there are sensible design decisions going on in there somewhere.