Comment Re: Kidneys (Score 1) 64
Comment way to miss the point bud (Score 2) 89
You're allowed to say in private whatever you want. Words aren't cursed just by being said like Voldemort's name. And diaries are intended to be private. If she had written the words in a book or even on a Doogie Howser PC diary she would have been fine.
The law requires "in any manner in which it may be viewed by another person." This requires no legal research, the statute is in the Slashdot summary and all you had to do was google the statute and click the first link.
The issue is, in our glorious neo-feudal future, if you use a cloud service, they scan your content and "threats" are inferred even where you never said the words to anyone.
Comment Re:Just for clarity (Score 1) 86
"Past performance is no guarantee of future returns" applies to any recorded dataset. Modelling a fictional being's mental states is fun, but stating that it is useful is premature.
The observed fictional being might be always sleepy in your dataset (because it's easier to record him when he's not moving much). And identifying the being's favourite colour (orange) may be irrelevant and wasteful in your model.
Comment Re:Just for clarity (Score 2) 86
Comment Re:everything has to rust (Score 2) 30
Python isn't a glue language. It's the lingua franca of most programmers in the workforce at this point in history.
Try hiring some expert C++ programmers, or even competent Java programmers. They're in the minority. What you get instead is barely competent grads who only know Python. What do you do with those grads after you've hired them?
1) teach the grads a strongly typed industrial strength language so they can contribute.... eventually
2) develop your new projects in Python because the grads can be productive straightaway, and the long term issues with Python can be pushed off to a future manager.
Which brings me to my point: Python should be frozen as is. No more development. Tinkering with it just because some people want to contribute and get visibility in open source is not a good cost/benefit outcome for humanity.
Freeze Python. It's the modern BASIC. Move all the existing developers to a new, unrelated programming language project. Give them free reign to do whatever they want there.
Comment Re:WAY too late to get computers updated by Nov (Score 1) 90
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.
Even if they pass the law now doesn't mean it has to take effect when it's passed. Indeed, most newly passed laws' effective date isn't the day it's passed but typically months in the future. (However, if a law is declared unconstitutional, it's unconstitutional immediately.)
Comment Re:Crazy idea here... (Score 4, Informative) 90
12PM is fucking noon is when the fucking sun is at its highest position in the sky.
While I somewhat share your sentiment, noon (as shown by your clock or watch, let's call it clock-noon) is not when the sun is at its highest point in the sky except for exactly 4 days per year and only if you just so happen to be standing on one of the 24 meridian lines on Earth.
When the sun is at its highest point in the sky is solar noon and isn't what most people mean (or what your clock or watch means) by "noon."
The discrepancy happens due to (1) the Earth's axial tilt, (2) the Earth position in its orbit, and (3) time zones. The first two can be compensated for using the Equation of Time. If you don't compensate, then you can be off by as much as 14 slow (around February 11) or 16 minutes fast (around November 3).
For time zones, you have to adjust by your longitude relative to your time zone's central meridian: for every degree east or west, you have to subtract or add 4 minutes, respectively.
Live with nature and quit fucking denying it like a conservative.
Ideally, yes, but reality isn't the way it is for the convenience of humans and it would be highly impractical for everyone to have his or her own local time based on their (current) longitude.
That said, the twice-a-year changing of our clocks certainly doesn't help matters.
Comment Re:Element Pro is not Open Source (Score 5, Interesting) 67
I call article shenanigans.
Element is a UK company. Which is not part of the EU. Why should the EU choose to use a non-European company, headquartered in a non-European country, with a non-European, non-compliant legal system?
The UK is already barred from offering unrestricted financial services in the EU, I expect communications services to be an area of concern.
Brexit is Brexit. The UK is out, and simply cannot be trusted with European communications backbones.
I may be willing to believe that there's been a tender process and their product is currently being evaluated, but on privacy grounds alone I doubt their product passes the bar unless they reincorporate in an EU country with 51% EU ownership, all other things being equal.
Comment Re:Its a trap! (Score 1) 41
Warnings about its dangers need to be stated in a way that they will understand. Like maybe "All AI models already have a kill switch: the computer's power cord.
That's literally not a kill switch. How do you kill an AI if you're not in the room where the power cord is plugged in?
"Your honour, I tried killing my AI but it runs in the cloud and I don't know where. Also my AI service supplier refused to turn it off for me when I called them"
Kill switches are a very good thing. When you need them you need them to work. Like any good tool, they are complex to implement correctly. And like any good tool, they should be implemented early. Not as an afterthought, like these AI companies want to do.
A world without kill switches is a world where the kill switch is an EMP.
Comment Re:No concept of the Golden Rule (Score 1) 90
And rightly so. The senator is not Trump. He is not immune from prosecution like Trump is. So it makes perfect sense that if someone doxxed Trump it should be treated differently than if Trump doxxed a regular American. Trump is a special case with special rights.
I(f you don't like it, maybe don't elect a king?)
Comment Re:Elections are cheap (Score 1) 38
Comment Re:Elections are cheap (Score 0) 38
Comment Re:Duh (Score 1) 65
Comment Re:Can' control your bot? (Score 1) 54
Shut down the whole business
..
Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.