Posts by a_yank_lurker 4138 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2013
My elderly Linux boxes run the latest version of Linux Mint very well. I do need to update at least of the boxes for other reasons but it is not now critical and does not look like it will be critical for several more years. I am not sure if any of my boxes could run Bloatware as a Disservice 10 and none can run 11. The Rejects of Redmond have basically said to me we don't want your money. I think I will oblige them.
Too many Silly Valley sweat shops and their spawn forget work life balance is needed for the long term health of employees. This means minimizing unpaid overtime and keeping the work to about 40 hrs with rare excursions to beyond. It also means keeping pointless interruptions to a minimum and allowing physical space for developers to work (no cube farms); an office with a door. Also, better overall project management is a required; when everything is urgent nothing is urgent.
Using stolen data will always be ethically challenging as Binrader noted. The better questions are why are is one using the data, what is the purpose of the use, and how will the results be used. They are interrelated. Also, one needs to go deep in when answering these questions. Often one is tempted to give a glib answer to the questions without careful examination of them. Just because you can do something does not mean you should do it. But we each have a bad habit of justifying our stupid behavior. And no, I do not have a very good answer to the issue.
The only real solution is make the penalty worldwide for ransomware rather blood thirsty. There should be 'no cruel and unusual punishment' for these scum as even attacking someone not explicitly infrastructure or medical could have spill over effects on those organizations possibly resulting in death.
The problem was dumping unprepared students and teachers into teaching only online without any preparation. It's not that online learning cannot work. It requires a different approach from teachers, students, and parents to make it work successfully. Very few were prepared or even had a clue what they needed to do. This is beyond the infrastructure and hardware issues many have highlighted. Online teaching has to been done differently and requires a different approach than the traditional school setting. This approach means lessons, assignments, exams, etc. have to structured differently. Children have to supervised by their parents as the teacher is now remote. The requirements of successful online learning are probably poorly understood for younger children. For teenagers and college students, there is probably a better grasp on how to do it effectively as some colleges do online education.
Because of being dumped in a panic into online learning many found their experience frustrating mostly misses (baseball term) with only an occasional hit. A few thrived but I believe many floundered. They were being asked to do something unexpected with no idea of how to do it. So the expected happened. The question in hindsight is whether the move to mass online learning should have been done at all given the L-shaped mortality curve of Cov-id, an issue for another day.
Having taught college level classes in person, one of the tricks a good teacher learns to how to scan the room for the expressions and read those expressions. Also, questions are heard by everyone as is the answer. With e-learning one will need to learn, as a teacher, how to determine when students are confused, etc. Also, how material is presented will need to be modified; the traditional lecture will not work as effectively. Given many teachers are not truly computer savvy, modifying teaching methods could be problematic.
The other issue for LFH is whether the student has the necessary infrastructure to properly do it. This is more than the box itself but the connection, space, etc. And are the parents supervising the children to make sure they are actually paying attention; this might be a real problem for the lower income families. Lower income families often need both parents to work outside the home so supervising the kids at home is a bit problematic even with older kids.
There is a variant model for LFH done over here which is 'home schooling' were the parents are more active in the education of the kids. But the parents have to use various resources (mostly online now) to teach their kids. Not up on the details of this but does seem to be effective.
I often wonder how often AI is misused on situations were there is an efficient, simpler solution. The cooking rice example, could a relatively simple web search pulling up sites with instructions on how to cook rice. Also, as was pointed out above, GIGO still rules even with AI.
On hot dogs, dachhunds are often could wiener (hot dogs) over here in Feraldom. Plus it also is a synonym for show off. Context matters and can AI properly discern the context.
Even with 'AI' or humans sometimes, the unexpected, unanticipated require an almost instinctive reaction that is not in the book or program. Humans often can correctly make these reactions while 'AI' often fails. For 'AI' the issue is what scenarios has it not been 'trained' or programmed to handle. The proper questions to ask are:
What scenarios is not 'AI' not 'trained' or programmed to handle? (I had an engineering professor note often the best question to ask is the inversion of the sales spiel)
What is the fail safe mode for the device?
Can a human take full control of the device?
In aviation, there have been many cases were the skill of the pilots to handle an unexpected and dangerous situation almost instinctively have saved many lives. Sometimes these events are well known ('Miracle on the Hudson'), others like this are only found digging through incident/accident reports. I am not sure an 'AI' system would have been able to successfully resolve these situations in most cases.
My company work box is a Bloatware box which reminds why I stopped using it at home after 7. It is supplied by my employers. I mostly use Linux or a Mac for photo editing (Mac was inherited). I could do everything I need at home on Linux.
Most who say they cannot switch are often talking about work not personal use. For many they do not own the work box anyway so in reality have no say about what is installed on it.
Itsy Bitsy Morons seem to like to be court by not paying the sales team their commissions. The manglement is not paying attention. Other than big iron and Red Hat, they do not have a product that is truly competitive and I am not so sure about the big iron. Red Hat is competitive but there are other Linux server distros available that are just as capable. There is one product that a tech savvy person would consider without much coaxing; the rest are also rans.
In a city, the acoustic signature and direction could easily be distorted to give a fair number of false positives and negatives. I would trust someone calling in saying they saw the shooting or they have a gunshot victim than the acoustic signature from a loud noise.
My guess, whatever testing was done was not done in an urban area. It works great in a field but not so much in a city.
The key to getting a patent is supposed to be based on whether it would be 'not obvious to one skilled in the arts'. This standard means it would must not be something a person knowledgeable in the specific area would do or try as a solution. If the assertion is correct, it is out my expertise, that upon reflection anyone 'skilled in the arts' would see this as a potential solution then it is not supposed to be patentable. However the feral UPTO is notorious for granting patents on something that has been known for 10 or 15 years ('prior art').
Many PHBs cannot stand not having their serfs underfoot in the office to harass, demean, or otherwise show their pettiness. Many jobs can be done with minimal onsite interaction. Note I work for company that has staff that must come into the office (actually lab) to work. But many of us rarely need to go anywhere the doors.
There is one bit of forensic evidence that would nail the defendant; powder residue on the victim. If the victim is close enough to the shooter there will be powder residue on the skin/clothing that can be used to determine the distance the muzzle was from the body. This distance may not be exact but will be close enough to say if the shot was from a few inches or a couple feet away. Since the shooting supposedly occurred entirely inside a car there also should be powder residue in the car. If there was none in the car and there was no residue or the victim that leaves either the muzzle was in contact with the skin/clothing which leaves a distinctive pattern or from some distance away. The fact no evidence about powder residue was mentioned indicates the shot was from some distance away.
I use a 'Pay as you Go' plan. This means I buy the phone at retail upfront and pay an open ended subscription to my credit card. But I do not have a formal contract nor does the carrier require any information for credit approval. I got away from contracts when I could because the games played to extend the contract. I have had the same carrier for several years now (no plans to switch).
I have a real Feral card. What strikes me is they look pretty easy to forge for a competent forger. They are nothing but thinnish cardboard stock with 1 logo and text. There is some writing (patient info, vaccine, lot no, date, location) which only has to be faked. There are no real security protection.
Phone and tablet OSes are not all like desktop OSes and yet the average Jane or Joe can quickly learn them. The issue for any OS is the software available for it. Bloatware has the most software and many titles Jane and Joe are familiar with. Fruit is not far behind. Linux tends to have an equivalent to the name brand software but often not the name brand itself. If one steps back and realizes to most a computer or phone are really tools to get something done then OS inertia makes a lot sense.
Zorin historically has tried to mimic the general look and feel of Bloatware. The idea is to make the using Linux less intimidating to non-technical users. I seen many non-technical users adapt well to Linux Mint with Cinnamon. It usually takes a couple of weeks for them to get reasonably proficient and adapt to the Linux way of doing things. So I am not so convinced mimicking Bloatware look and feel is that critical.
Pay cuts like this will tend to drive away their best as they will tend to go hunt another job. This will leave them not with 'the best and brightest' but the 'worst and dimmest'. Now that I think of it maybe we should encourage Chocolate Factory to do this so they self destruct.
The review indicates the authors are pointing out the various lies, myths, frauds, etc. the computer industry and propagandists inflict on itself and, worse, the public. Lies and myths the keep the 'unwashed' at bay and not asking probing questions that expose the bullshit. I will be buying the book.
The number of documents I need to print per year for personal reasons might amount to about a dozen or so. For WFH, the number of documents I need to print is none. I do print some because a hard copy is sometimes more convenient to use. While I might extreme in my numbers, the point is for many there are relatively few documents one might need to print versus print for convenience. As people get more used to viewing documents electronically, the number will continue to drop.
On this side, I am not sure what the exact laws are to collect privately military hardware are. But I suspect there are some at various levels with rather odd exceptions. So I would expect another country to laws regulating this.
The odd issue is the ammunition. Why anyone would keep live old ammunition around is dangerous. Stuff designed to make big or bigger boom requires safe handling and proper storage. It also may go bad on its own; the chemicals used are not the most stable around. If it went bad and went boom somehow there could a real mess. I would think this is more problematic than some geezer driving a tank.
Beancounters and other assorted mental midgets fail to understand one and done is usually easier on the cash. Taking a loan is not as good as cash up front but eventually you pay off the the loan. Renting means you always must pay or else. There are only a couple of situations were renting could make sense for anyone including companies. Otherwise outright ownership is a better.
Looking at the rental fees for use on a reasonable box, you are looking at ~$500/yr+. I can buy a Mac Mini for somewhat more money once and have many years of service. A Linux box hardware might in the same ballpark but again there are many years of service for the box. I cannot justify that level of extortion.
OSes are mature products and most of the require updates are for new protocols (USB whatever) and hardware support. Many of the 'features' in Bloatware 10 were fine to include if they could be easily removed by the user. But they were fairly tightly linked into the OS itself. My other complaints are more about needlessly 'modernizing' the UI and organization. It's a pain to find something you rarely use because the Rejects decided to move somewhere else than where it was in the previous releases.
Personal computers as a pre-built consumer product are about 40 years old. Some of us actually owned a computer back then. The Rejects of Redmond conveniently forgets that some of us have owned a computer from before MS-DOS existed. We have a pretty good idea of how an OS should work and Bloatware as a Disservice is not it.
First, keep the interface clean. Second keep the location of menu items logically consistent. Third group items that belong together together. Fourth drop the addons like Cortana that many will not use from deep integration into the OS; they should be easily removed. Firth pay attention to human anatomy and how the device the OS resides on will be used, touch screens on many devices is stupid and always will be stupid. The OS should make using the computer relatively easy to use and should have UI consistency from release to release.
To often standards (and technical papers) are behind an extortionate paywall because the owners of the standards (or journals) can do so. The problem is their business model is idiotic and based on selling paper copies. For a comparison, the ferals over here publish the 'Code of Federal Regulations' both in paper (costs money) and online (free at https://ecfr.federalregister.gov.). One can actually print the e-version, get a pdf of the paper version, etc. If an government that is not terribly competent can figure out how to make an e-copies readily accessible the standards owners (and journals) have absolutely no excuse.
The issue you raise is not with using an outside package but with the competence of the programmer. Competent programmers try to use the features built-in the language to solve their coding problems first then consider using an outside package. Language features generally change more slowly than outside packages.
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