swombat

26 ms·

211.
by swombat 11y ago
Just in case you don't know, tptacek is a world-class security/cryptography expert who happens to hang around and share his wisdom here. You appear to be assuming he's someone thinking one or more levels lower than you. I thi
212.
by swombat 11y ago
> - Redacted to avoid flamewars. Aww... shucks.
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by swombat 11y ago
Read this: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/reasons-to-stay-alive/id914...
214.
by swombat 11y ago
I'd say the human model of one's own mind is extremely faulty. Bugs in said self-understanding frequently result in conflicts (as we blame everything but our own actions), wars, etc. Anyone who does any coaching work is intensely
215.
by swombat 11y ago
Considering it comes 4 days after the arrest of the man who planned the Paris attacks, it's possible that this is just a couple of deranged people but it's unlikely. In this context, even with no detailed information about the att
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by swombat 11y ago
Yeah, dammit! I would basically have bought an MBPR 15" right away if they'd released one....
217.
by swombat 11y ago
Having listened to some history (some who don't like him would say pseudo-history) lectures by Dan Carlin on the whole Mongol thing, my takeaway was that the reason for all the murder is the classic dehumanisation approach. Mongols did
218.
by swombat 11y ago
At the same time, there are numerous historical examples of non-violent non-compliance nullifying that power. For example, when the Danish just refused to help the Nazis to isolate, persecute and exterminate Jews in their country, the Nazis
219.
by swombat 11y ago
IANAL, but I think that argument about code-as-not-speech breaks down when you consider that this is code that, because of the digital signatures it includes, is intrinsically tied to Apple, and can be used to break any Apple phone. Perhaps
220.
by swombat 11y ago
Ah, but the point of free speech is not that you are shielded from the consequences of the action of your speech. In your example, giving instructions that destroys evidence can certainly make you guilty of obstruction of justice or some ot
221.
by swombat 11y ago
In the UK there is this concept of a "shadow director", which is someone who, while not officially a director of the company, actually has executive power indirectly in some way. The legal concept exists to point out that a shadow
222.
by swombat 11y ago
I totally see your point and my purpose is definitely not to be alarmist and sound the alarm that skynet is about to come out of AlphaGo or some other equivalent neural net. But I think the opposite attitude is also false. As others have po
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by swombat 11y ago
Our current assertion is that neural networks basically replicate the brain's function, so our current understanding of this paradigm is that "milking neural networks" is going to match or exceed human general purpose intelli
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by swombat 11y ago
It's the core idea of AI, the primary reason why it is suspected that developing strong AI will inevitably lead to the end of the human era of evolution.
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by swombat 11y ago
Or, at the very least, the next epiphany need not be human-designed. Just train a neural network in the art of creating AI paradigms and implementations that can do general purpose AI. Once that's "milked", the era of human t
226.
by swombat 11y ago
In the UK, they won't - at least not if you're a relatively small business. I've found HMRC surprisingly accommodating. Which I guess is why some people consider it a valid way to extend themselves some extra cash flow fundin
227.
by swombat 11y ago
Just a worthwhile note: guerilla warfare is not, by far, the only option. There are all sorts of techniques available to overthrow dictators and other occupiers. A good example of this in real life is what Denmark ended up doing when occupi
228.
by swombat 11y ago
There are definitely some scary folks running businesses out there. Like Jacques I cannot specify any names but the number of companies who think it's ok to omit paying their taxes or their suppliers is... well, there are quite a few
229.
by swombat 11y ago
Where did you guys go to school? This seems like active anti-education there...
230.
by swombat 11y ago
> They are unable to decay into protons plus electrons because there isn't enough "room" for the two particles to exist in the space formerly taken up by one particle. See: Electron degeneracy pressure. Just being pedantic
231.
by swombat 11y ago
Did you miss the bit where the DoJ has already declared it has hundreds of other phones it will want cracked if Apple is willing to comply to this? Also, if you think having a device ID check is going to do anything, you might want to have
232.
by swombat 11y ago
I think everyone is acting irresponsibly there.
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by swombat 11y ago
Well, as they say, the first casualty of war is truth, but there are a number of factual events that fit the narrative of Russia under Putin being willing to flex its muscle and encourage instability in its neighbour to the west while inspi
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by swombat 11y ago
Jordan is mostly just known as Jordan, whereas Saudi Arabia is in fact widely known by this full name. Witness the URL difference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia
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by swombat 11y ago
> If Russia falls apart it's a serious problem for everyone, because it won't fall apart quietly or peacefully. It might still be an improvement over its current approach - which is not falling apart, but is neither quiet nor p
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by swombat 11y ago
As it happens, that's precisely the reason why public corporations exist: the greater good. That this has been forgotten and replaced with unilateral and antisocial concerns like "increase shareholder value at all costs" is a
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by swombat 11y ago
This is less unrealistic than it might seem at first. Twitter is no longer mostly owned by VCs looking for their 10x return - it's exited already. So it's now owned by the public, just by a slice of the public who wants to increas
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by swombat 11y ago
Conclusion: The Independent's ad sales team is a lot better at selling ads than you are?
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by swombat 11y ago
Well, something like LIGO can only measure gravitational waves, because it looks for changes in the geometry of spacetime. If you were to move the LIGO in and out of Earth's gravitational well, I guess then it would record a shift.
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by swombat 11y ago
That is a good point - perhaps it would all come out as neutrinos or gravitons... then we'd be fine. I doubt such an event would result in no electromagnetic radiation at all however... Why would it? The creation of a new black hole ty

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