Posts by Mark 85

Re: Oracle Corporation

Exactly. Every company I can think of would be tickled and gladly pay for someone exceeding quota by more than 250%. Or does Larry need a new sailboat?

Re: "Tijuana..."

Wouldn't turning left at Albuquerque make the tunnel end somewhere in Canada? Maybe this is the secret plan to escape?

Re: What happens if they put two Goldfish in the tank?

Only if it's a male and female goldfish. It two males, one would ask: "When we stopping for beer?".

Re: It's quiet... too quiet!

The doomsday clock has been moved to 11:58pm since he came to power.

That's been in work before he took office. Wait for the next update as it could go either way....

Re: Nothing new here

Or maybe thats just my Office...

Or maybe that's just my Office management

FTFY

Re: Less than a week in the position...

This might be the best thing. Let the government get embroiled infighting, finger pointing, and the blame game and all will be well. Nothing bad can happen. I reference the old saying that "life, liberty, and property are all in jeopardy when Congress is in session.".

On a more serious note, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The US was downrated to a "flawed democracy". Note that this rating happened before Trump took office. It still tells a tale and the latest antics seem to prove it. Maybe gridlock is the best thing for awhile as it might slow the downward spiral we seem to be in with all the protests, in-figihting, etc. going on.

I know I'll get downvoted but hey... Hillary would probably be in a similar situation also but perhaps for other things. I was not a supporter of either of them as I thought they were both the wrong people for the position.

So how many infections can the average (for some value of average) "gadget" get before being overloaded with crap? I'd think that unless the new infection overwrote the old one, it wouldn't be too long before the device crashed. Which is maybe the plan by the manufacturers... device crashes, user buys new one.

Re: Whats the point of an autonomous tractor?

They can even go further. Been awhile since I read it but some of the orchards set sensors for each tree which sends back to the main computer data such as wet/dry (needs irrigation), pH of the soil, Given the data and connections in the orchard, they selectively water trees or go investigate if something is off...

There's a vineyard here locally that has similar equipment but includes motion sensors (for birds) along with cameras to check the vines for health.

Fascinating stuff all in all.

Re: The last trump?

So, Richard, did you write this just to have yet another article with Trump's name in the headline?

IBM and the MSM did make a big deal about IBM bringing back jobs, etc. Even the visit to Trump was played up by them.

Re: No prosecutions then?

Did they get their severance bonus? That seems pretty standard amongst the execs.....

@Big John -- Re: Real fake or fake fake?

So if I read you rightly... you're saying Fox is the only news org not reporting fake news then?

Re: executive order

Part of the Constitution allows disagreement with our elected officials. So criticizing isn't a problem as long as it's rational and promotes discussion. Screaming, rioting, violence, etc. do not promote the free exchange of ideas.

If it weren't permitted, I suspect most of us would be in the Gulag getting re-educated.

Re: It's a Great Plan

The fatal flaw is that any manufacturer worth their salt will point to fearless leader and say, "when he moves his clothing company's production to the US, we will too.".

Point of reference is his clothing line is made Vietnam currently. IF he won't, why should anyone else be forced to do it.

Re: The problem is...

The Peter Principle.

I think it goes beyond as in government, many are promoted far above their level of incompetence.

Uh... the US isn't a "democracy". It's a democratic republic. Big difference that most folks seem to ignore.

Re: Odd belief

What I remember is the drum brakes getting water in them and the shoes freezing to the drum. And with the pedal on the floor for the "parking brake" (totally different critter than a handbrake), a lot of drivers forget about it.

Re: Face it: Humans are lousy drivers

having the brake and gas pedals being at the same level and similar size facilitates heel-and-toe driving so one can brake and shift at the same time.

That works for those of us who have done it and practiced it, usually in a racing environment. Much like power sliding around a curve... Most of the population can't do it.

Re: The 80:20 rule?

I doubt they will be wiped. Might be set to block anything being sent from them though. Twitter has to play the numbers game like many other sites where the number of "active" (for some value of "active") members is important for advertising revenue.

Re: The Phoenix Syndrome

What I'd change is this: America's government and the multinationals who control it is are it's own worst enemy, However, and this is reality... other than LEA's being involved, how is this different than what business is doing to our privacy?

The real test of the new administration and the people will be the next election in 2 years for CongressCritters. Will the Dems return? Will there be a 3rd party that starts moving in? Hell.. the bookies are giving odds on impeachment at this point. There's no telling where this will lead.

Reading the latest, even the Repubs in Congress are having second thoughts about Pompeo and some other Cabinet level officials. I think Congress will need to be the ones to make the TLA's refocus their missions and reasons for existence. However, given the nature of many of those in Congress, they haven't a clue.

Both candidates for President made me fear for the future of the Republic. Until the corporates, Wall Street, and the TLA's are reined in, I'll still fear for the Republic.

Ultimately, it will be the people that will decide. Just how they decide to act remains to be seen.

Re: Talking to people at the computer

I would suspect that this also will give them more "telemetry" for targeting ads.... both to you and to your contacts.

@Sir Runcible Spoon -- Re: Fuck You fund

I'm glad you brought this up and beat me to it. That is a lesson any contracted person should know. Start the new assignment and scrimp/save whatever it takes. If the job suddenly terminates or the environment is bad... go for the door. Don't hesitate.

Decades ago I did contracting and all the contracting companies were keen to tell anyone they hired about this. It's a necessary survival skill and gives one the freedom to follow their conscience when they get into a bad situation.

Re: Not the first time

DMCA law along with FB, Google and few others (MS included) needs an overhaul. It's unfit for purpose.

FTFY

In IT we're not paranoid, we're pronoid. Or at least we should be.

Re: What Was Really Offered?

And therein is the problem. If the States would even let him into the country, how the hell is he going to get past the UK police and courts?

@An0n C0w4rd -- Re: Or a shovel through a fibre/wire bundle

It's more common than you think. Joe Hunter gets bored, has a few beers in the woods, and starts shooting insulators on the power poles. It's been happening less but still happens too often.

Re: In the movies, this never ends well

Well.. it didn't end well for Bruce and few others. So, something less than "all".....

Re: Forgot?

Downvote for mentioning that the obvious was obvious.

Re: Assange will back out of his word somehow

Well.. the Assange Media Circus will now continue... It could be interesting to see what he does or doesn't do and the resulting publicity. Popcorn anyone?

Re: Well!

Exactly. But let's just queue up the conspiracy and alien plane grab theories in ... 3....2....1... Hmm nevermind. They're already rampaging.

Yes.. this will be one of those unsolved mysteries. Some things we'll just never know.

@Ledswinger -- Re: AI? I'd settle for for an OS that just worked...

There's another quote that was misspoken... He added: "In the next phase, to me, [is] how can we democratise this access, versus worshipping the four, five, six companies that have a lot of AI.

I believe it was supposed to be: He added: "In the next phase, to me, [is] how can we democratize monetize this access, versus worshipping the four, five, six companies that have a lot of AI.

I'm hoping all this hype about AI just falls into the marketing toilet of "dead buzzwords". Until a machine can actually think about it's actions and have some ability to create/invent things, it's not intelligent. As my mentor pointed out to me decades ago... "A computer is only as smart as the person who programmed it. It can't change what does anymore than a tree can get up and walk to another forest."

@Doug S -- Re: Really??

Well lets face it.. those other countries have been at it a lot longer the US. Hell, we've only had 241 years to get into the game of things. True, S. Korea isn't that old but the whole of Korea is a lot older.

@Daniel 18 -- Re: Maybe, maybe not...

Have an upvote. I was waiting to see if anyone would pick up the inflation part of this. I don't think this is limited to just the poorer countries. Give people more money or if they earn more, prices go up.