Posts by AbeSapian

A Different Deterrent

Have they considered explosive manhole covers?

They Did See Captain America: The Winter Soldier, right?

"Project Insight requires insight."

I Feel For You ...

When a poor guy is investigated, he's stripped naked and his body cavities are probed.

When a rich guy is scrutinized, it's harassment.

I've suffered a critical failure in my empathizer compensator.

Thank You Sweden

Thank you Sweden for slapping that spoiled brat, Musk, down. It's been long overdue.

Now maybe turn your attention to Jeff Bezos as well. He could use a good heart to heart.

It Isn't Just Art

Not only is pictorial art being used to produce images "in the style of", but it's happening to music, novels, short stories, plays, screen plays, etc. It's the whole creative market. Besides streaming residuals, the actors' strike is about is their images being scanned to be used to generate performances without just compensation. Anyone that creates is at risk of having their body of work stolen and used without permission and compensation.

It's one thing when someone searches for an image to look at. It's quite another when they download it, tweak it, and upload it as their own work. That's what DMCA is all about. The entire movie industry exists because of intellectual property rights. All of that can be destroyed by unethical use of generative AI.

People have a right to profit from their work. What these generative AI products are doing amounts to theft.

Credit Locked Since 2017

Ever since Equifax dumped all my information on the dark web I've kept my credit locked. After that, all the other breaches have pretty much become redundant.

Time to Revise Their Corporate Structure

It looks like most of Ring's corporate structure can now be replaced by a bunch of tech savvy lawyers. I suspect all they'll be doing from now on is processing search warrants.

Equifax

Equifax donated my entire credit information and history to the dark web years ago (why are they still in business). I froze my credit then. Lately Experion decided to make their contribution to identity theft. Between the two of these monsters, what can a measly hospital do? It's to the point where it's hardly worth mentioning any more.

Points of Order

1) Maybe this was really planned as payback for all those Viking raids.

2) I thought most rocket launches took place near the equator to take advantage of gravity and the Earth's rotation. And ...

3) Using their glossy sales video when talking about their unplanned flight path was cold Reg - real cold.

Ai-Da Will Not Pass The Turing Test

While Ai-Da will not pass the Turing Test, I found this presentation fascinating. Ai-Da is a crude tool. I say that not to denigrate the thousands of man-hours that went into her creation but because all tools start out that way.

What I found most interesting was the analogy of the camera that cropped up midway through the video. Some artists tried to throw their sabot at the camera to prove that it could never be used to create "ART". Others adopted the camera wholeheartedly to demonstrate that the new medium could be used to capture great drama and beauty in light and shadow. They were the ones that made photography into an art form of its own and proved the saboteurs wrong.

Ai-Da is a very early stage of AI. There are other forms of machine learning out there that are more sophisticated in their use of data analysis. However, they've also graphically demonstrated the age old computer science adage; Garbage In - Garbage Out. The question of "what is art" has been challenged again. I didn't see examples of Ai-Da's art. But I suspect most of the oxygen will be taken up with whether it's original or derivative.

Clues

Have they considered the red flags that the Navy uses on jets for the arming pins that have to be removed before flight?

Not to Rain on Their Parade

Didn't Alessandro Volta pretty much do the same thing in 1792?

Are They High?

Do they not read the news?

Bad, Bad, Very Bad, Not Good

I'm not sure how it works in the UK but Frank would be in the Bog of Eternal Stench in the US. Retribution and restitution would be the order of the day. If I got the story right, Frank deleted everything. But the parts that Frank wrote belonged to the company. Frank might have been right to delete the shareware portion since the company didn't own that. But the portion that Frank wrote belonged to the company. Deleting that portion was a crime punishable both civilly and criminally.

Frank overstepped his authority.

Master / Slave

So instead of Master / Slave, we should use something like Leader / Prisoners With Jobs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prz4jfSX_Qg

You Scared the CIA

Apparently your article scared the CIA because they pulled down the link to the PDF. I had to find it on another site with a google search.

After searching the CIA site a couple of times, I wonder who will be knocking on my door next.

Garden of Earthly Delights

As a long time Microshaft user, I suspect the DoD will find that the demo (see Garden of Earthly Delights) will not match the delivered product (see Dante's Inferno). MS has a long history of ignoring product bugs that affect usability or performance.

Knickers

Well! Somebody has their knickers in a knot. Is there a Reg Standard Unit for that?

To The Editor

The name of the party is The Democratic Party. When referring to the party's nominee, the correct phrase is Democratic contender. Calling the nominee the Democrat contender is a right wing trope to denigrate the Democratic party.

In reference to the party one is the Democratic contender or Democratic nominee.

An individual may be referred to as a Democrat.

But if you wish, the Republicans may be referred to as:

republicans,

Repugnants,

Repubs,

Repugs,

or a$$ hats.

Yet Another .Net

Is this yet another incompatible release of the .Net framework? MS doesn't seem to understand the concept of upward compatibility. How many tons of this crap do I have to carry around with me?

What's in a Name

My preferred handle is Microshaft.

"He Who Must Not Be Named" was taken. Besides, it's too wordy.

Land Where Ideas Go To Die

Not A Bug It's A Feature.

Smithfield for Software

No Planetary Nebula

I'm not an astronomer, but I think the lack of a planetary nebula suggests the black hole is very old. It's either been swallowed by the black hole, or the companion stars leaving nothing visible.

They Missed a Bet

Instead of data lakes, they should have called it Pensieve.

Success Stories Every One

Colossus: The Forbin Project

HAL 9000

Sky Net

I feel safer already. What could possibly go wrong?

Which Is Worse

Which is worse, Goop Lab's vagina scented candle or a McDonald's Quarter Pounder scented candle.

We report, you decide.

Fate is the Hunter

Apparently they've never seen the movie Fate is the Hunter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate_Is_the_Hunter_(film)

Is Brexit BrokesIt?

It's all in the title. Of course, being in Ameirka, I can't talk too much. We're still Trumped.

Irony?

I would say this is dripping with irony were it not for the fact that this is just another day in the life.

A Good Christian

I like the fact that his thievery device came complete with a picture of the holy family. It shows the right attitude towards his faith.

Telecommunications Ghetto

If you live in rural America you are forgotten. Only the lowest level of service from AT&T that can still be called DSL (speeds less than 1M) is available to me. My alleged other provider is Charter Communications, a cable company that can't be bothered to string a wire to my house. And a complaint to the FCC yielded a raft of phone calls and excuses and not results. And that was before Ajit (pronounced idiot) Pai made things worse.

Telecommunication Ghettos

How about bringing some high speed service to the telecommunication ghettos, like where I live.

Inexorable

What Zuk et. al. fail to realize is that they too are inexorably heading towards old stale fartdom themselves.

Damn!

I was so looking forward to watching Mar-a-Lago go sput.

Oooh - So Close and Yet So Far

I guess this means that we can look forward to a Windows 11 that fails to grasp basic computing requirements at a higher level.

Microsoft! I didn't need a bigger tablet. And I don't need a walky-talky that doesn't understand what I need.

Imitation?

While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, money is the sincerest form of apology.

In Another Interesting Turn of Events

Wednesday, the entire senior staff of the Department of State resigned. With Trump's incompetence and total failure to have his own people ready to step into these positions, the State Department is going to be stripped of it's institutional memory of how to conduct it's business. When Tillerson is confirmed (almost a certainty) he's going to be a party of one prowling empty, echoing halls trying to pick up the pieces.

That's going to slow his Putin ass kissing down for a while.

The Washington Post: The State Department’s entire senior administrative team just resigned

Great! So Maybe We Get A Faster Connection Time

But most of the time is spent in actual communications of actual useful data. How much will that really improve throughput?

Hey, At Least Tesco Refunded The Money

U.S. banks would have simply hoisted the jolly roger to their customers. (c.f. Wells Fargo)