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Comment Anonymous tip (Score 1) 117

If the cops receive an anonymous tip that CowboyNeal is an insensitive clod, and then decide to arrest him without checking out any of the evidence, I blame the cops. There's plenty to bitch about with Flock but "the cops don't care about doing their job" isn't one of them. That's a cop problem.

Don't treat any stupid robots as somehow "better" than an anonymous tip called in from a payphone. It's just, like, something's opinion, man.

Comment Re:WAY too late to get computers updated by Nov (Score 1) 87

it also presumes YOUR device is the most important device around, as opposed to, say, air traffic and flight scheduling systems, train systems, electricity control systems, stoplight control systems (they adjust their 'rush hour' times each switch), cruise and shipping departure and arrival times.

All of those systems need independent testing time to confirm that they have the switch, they can exchange information with other computers and be accurate about the switch, and all handle the fact that there would be no 'extra hour' on Nov 1st that would have already been accounted for in their schedules for that day...and note they'd be dealing with computers in other countries that would likely be even slower in getting the upgrades needed to test on their end.

Comment Re:WAY too late to get computers updated by Nov (Score 1) 87

But that's not what Trump is asking for. He is asking for "effective immediately", just like the British Columbia bill was.

Yeah, you're suggesting Congress could set it for next year (giving next year's Congress a chance to revoke it), but that's not what is being proposed by the Administration nor the bill that already passed the House but the Senate seems to be never picking up.

Comment Re:WAY too late to get computers updated by Nov (Score 1) 87

that is a very naive way of looking at how computers work, especially computers that have to share future scheduling information with other computers. NO computer has what you are talking about that would just magically solve everything - especially in THIS case where the DST would be 365. Yeah, you could tell your computer to 'lie' about its location and say it was in, say, Brazil rather than Chicago in order to stick to whatever TZ you want your device to think it is in...but that is not something that scales up to all of the hundreds of data centers on the east coast with the millions of computers involved. They need to be absolutely and automatically accurate to where they are and 'when' they are, and no 'flip of a switch' will be adequate for that purpose.

Comment WAY too late to get computers updated by Nov (Score 1) 87

Hell, about half the computers and software systems (like databases) in the public right now still aren't ready to hold Americas/Vancouver time on DST-365 (my own macbook didn't get the upgrade until about a month ago) when the flip happens. Not all the upgrades have rolled out or people are still intentionally using older systems because they "just work" (e.g., sticking with Java 8 and not having any time or inclination to try to get to Java 25 which changes so many network related libraries one might as well just rebuild the enter system from scratch).

A calendar-clock change like this needs at least a year of time to prepare it and get all the software systems tested and ready for the change when it happens. Yeah, it is easier to actually code the changes now for some systems than it was when we had the big change in 2005-2006 (in fact, because of dealing with that change), but that doesn't simplify the testing required for something on this scale.

Comment Re:Correct. And oh, no. (Score 1) 54

We now live in a fully connected world where most users are connected through web browsers and are the intended victims.

This particular story is an exception to that. Remote software, accessed through a web browser, normally does not have read/write access to your local filesystem. But people are granting local filesystem access to proprietary AI services.

I think that granting such access is .. wow. I wouldn't do it, though I can see how if you use a specialized account for it, and if you're confident that your OS has no local user priv escalation bugs, it might be ok. In your sandbox you trust.

But GP's comment is about whose decision that is. If you use Linux, then it's your decision. If you use iOS, then it's Apple's decision. And MacOS is becoming less Linuxy and more iOSy every year. I think it makes plenty of sense for stories like this to result in people dumping MacOS for Linux. (But daaamn, their values surprise me. You wanna make your computer less secure instead of more? Oh well, like Rumsfeld said, freedom is untidy!)

Comment Re:Elections are cheap (Score 1) 38

No, if the state were renamed, it would be to Old America. NM might not be the true original, but if you look at it through the eyes of European colonization and continuous governance, then New Mexico has the best claim of the fifty. (Though if you take a less racist view, then I guess Alaska had the real OGs.)

Comment Excessive fine under 8A? (Score 3, Insightful) 38

Randi McGinn, a lawyer for New Mexico, said applying the full $5,000 penalty to the number of violations would create too large of a penalty under the US Constitution's protections on due process.

I ass/u/me this refers to the Eighth Amendment, but I don't remember seeing any monetary constants encoded within that text.

Google's telling me Meta is worth about $1.8 trillion so how would a mere $40B be "excessive?" It's only about 2% of their worth! Civil penalties in excess of 2% of someone's worth are routinely accepted as constitutional, aren't they? If this case were about me driving drunk and killing a whole family, I bet no one would flinch at the 8A implications of taking 2% (!?!) of my assets, and everyone would laugh at my lawyer if he brought up 8A for such an insignificant fine.

I understand why we have 8A, and everyone deserves mercy, but I don't see why Meta deserves exceptional mercy as a singular special case that we would be horrified to see applied anywhere else. Bringing up 8A for such a tiny fine would be giving Meta a very unique carve-out that we normally would not apply.

It may be that $5k is too much to charge criminals per act, in that each crime didn't really cause that much loss, but bringing up due process concerns seems like bullshit when the fine is already so small. NM and Meta had been trying to negotiate the cost of illegal business for years before negotiations failed and it went to trial. Meta decided to let a jury decide, and the jury's come up with a fairly tiny fraction of their assets.

If Meta thinks the price of illegal business is still too high, then they can lower the number of willful violations they commit per year, to optimize the advantage they gain from illegal actions at an affordable rate.

Geez, Zuck, just do less of it. If $40B seems like a lot, then maybe try only $10B worth of crime next time. What's the big deal? Live and learn. After this little fine you still have 98% of the company left to go on and incur the next wave of liabilities.

Comment Re:Frost Piss (Score 2) 53

You are looking at it wrong. To eliminate the woketards you would have to eliminate the actors. The personality that makes up most actors is wholly left by nature. They're sensitive and aware of other people and their feelings, unlike most on the right, who are convinced they are the current center of the universe and correct with God's backing in all things.

Comment love me some PaperWhite... (Score 1) 30

PaperWhite is a game changer. I can't stand reading the Kindle app on my phone, and my really nice PC monitor sucks too. PaperWhite is a different thing entirely. No eye strain; you can read it in the sunlight. You can read it in total dark. I honestly HATE Amazon, but I've been using KindleUnlimited as a library card for many years now. I've 3 kindles in 3 places. I picked up the Ericson Malazan Omnibus in hardback and it was so heavy, and the pages wouldn't stay turned, and I couldn't read it in the dark. That was the point at which I realized how fsck'n lazy I'd become.

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