Mostly I just wanted the excuse for the attempted Subjective joke, but...

Considering the secondary effects seemed to be the most interesting of the early comments, though it mostly made me wonder about Xi's take on the situation. On the one hand, Xi wants to keep the invasion option open just in case Taiwan tries to declare independence... On the second hand, kinetic military strikes on data centers is a bigger threat to countries with lots of data centers, which mostly means the US and China...

So back to the effects on spammers? I would think the big spammers would prefer to run independently rather than rely on any data center?

Well now I think you're claiming that advertising doesn't work to create demand, but I think that is the main function of most advertising these years. Especially in cases where the underlying good or service has little intrinsic value.

So from that perspective, I wonder how you decided the movie wasn't of interest to you. If you watch lots of movies, then it becomes interesting that you decided against seeing this one, whereas if you almost never watch movies (which is my situation) then it's a completely different thing.

A related question is whether you use Facebook, and if so, how much. I actually think it is probable that Zuck would consider it a bad thing if this movie was popular and that Facebook is a great tool to make that happen. In a worst case scenario, maybe you were manipulated to have a negative opinion without ever noticing how your strings were getting pulled.

What publicity I saw about the movie was mostly limited to an interview with Sorkin and some snippets. I thought what I saw was quite unpersuasive, and as much as I dislike all things Meta, I did not notice any developing interest in watching the movie.

NC is the only state I know of that does this. I've been over a good portion of the US and all of the south east and NO WHERE ELSE do they do this shit.

And its not like its an experiment, I've lived in NC for over 20 years now and they are still too stupid to use reflective paint.

We also have this dumbass shit as well - https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncdot.gov%2Fnews%2Fpre...

There is literally NO WAY more than one lane at a time can flow through that intersection and it is almost impossible to make it from one side to the other without stopping EVERY SINGLE TIME. If you are in the front row at the first light and speed, you can make it through the otherside if no one else is in the way and you don't mind ignoring the lane lines in order to cut corners - but otherwise it is literally impossible for traffic to flow through the intersection. Everyone going through has to stop - which is pretty much the EXACT OPPOSITE of useful.

Fucking this - RIGHT HERE - THIS.

More intense light is not the fucking solution. 50 bright ass blue flashers on vehicles are a problem - they make it hard to see ANYTHING BUT THEM, so you run over the worker in the road cauase all you could see was the ignorant cop that left his flashers on full blast and blinded everyone driving by. ESPECIALLY THE DRUNKS and people high on something.

More consistent light on the pavement so you can see whats there is whats needed - not getting my retinas burned like I'm welding without protection because some jack ass at a light company makes more money selling light bars with more and more lights on it.

This shit is absolutely ridiculous.

Would have been a better FP than the AI thing. Yeah, I know I tend to tangents, but there's such a thing as too tangential...

Your brevity makes your intention unclear, so I better start by explaining how I'm reading it. I think you're saying the movie was too anticlimactic because we already knew this. Also you are indicating that you believe this is the main theme of the movie. Does that mean you've actually seen it?

My take is different, though I'm actually going to bring AI back into it, but hopefully with better justification. I'm coming from the perspective of marketing based on applied psychology. I think the same techniques that they use to persuade you to buy scented soaps and watch movies they recommend can be applied in reverse to deter you from buying scented soaps or from watching movies they prefer you don't see. I actually saw bits of an interview with Sorkin where he was asked about advertising the movie on Facebook, but I think whatever advertising he purchased could easily be countered by (AI-empowered) algorithmic counter-advertising. I actually believe Facebook has the capability to do it on a personalized basis, with two obvious angles of attack.

On the first angle, if someone has just seen an ad for the movie, then Facebook can respond by following that with some kind of diversionary content. I doubt they want to be so direct and clumsy as to attack the movie directly, so it would be something that is calculated to be of higher "engagement" to that particular person. This is a retail level of manipulation. The second angle is wholesale, but for now I've decided to leave that as an exercise for the interested reader. On today's Slashdot?

Disclaimer needed: Though I was an old user of Facebook with one of the original university-linked accounts, my feelings for the website went monotonically downhill over time. At some point, probably before 2020, I decided it was a waste of time and I deliberately limited my Facebook usage to five minutes per day, which was quite sufficient. Then in 2022 my Facebook account was targeted for destruction. Facebook declined to say why, though I still suspect that it was somehow politically motivated. Perhaps even a political assassination?

That was the angle I was looking for in the discussion. Whenever I think about Patel in charge, this ol' classic video comes to mind: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FMdnH6m054as%3Fs... So now I'm wondering about whether this guy had the right political connections separate from the connections he may have had to the criminals...

On the other hand, it is true that the weakest link in any chain of security is likely to be a human being... However the way the FBI works now, I'm back to wondering if perhaps he was just the easiest human target for the blame? Without regard to his own politics.

Solving the problems? Perish such thoughts! It's just my twisted imagination that going after the spammers could reduce the volume of phishing garbage and make it easier to find and arrest the residual bad guys. Follow the money and stop it from reaching the crooks, and I still believe most of the professional crooks are rational enough to move along. No, I don't think any spammer is capable of becoming a decent human being, but at least they may become motivated to move under less visible rocks...

I suppose your question is rhetorical, but the obvious answer is "Since Congress became incapable of making any 'meaningful' laws." Insofar as the legislature is supposed to regulate and control the executive branch, you could even describe it as a form of regulatory capture.

But it's worse for the judiciary these years. If you look at the history of nominations and confirmations, that transition has been shockingly rapid. There are still two living (but retired) nonpartisan Justices who were confirmed by a majority of the Senators from both parties, which used to be the norm, but on the actual Court there are no nonpartisan Justices. So my hilarious solution approach would be to boost the value of nonpartisan Justices with a funny little recusal rule: "A nonpartisan Justice may compel two junior partisan Justices to recuse themselves." (I can even imagine how the change could be pushed. The key step is to get one or more nonpartisan Justices onto the Court...)

Mostly the ACK, but thanks for clarifying. If I understand correctly, your original joke was based on the word "metaphors", not "phosphors" or something else. I didn't understand the linkage between your secondary joke and the joke your were replying to.

If you like SF, then I recommend Ancillary Justice fairly strongly. I don't read that much SF these years, but it seemed to be one of the best I've read, with many atmospheric elements that reminded me of the great Iain Banks. Another recent one with some interesting AI themes was Waste Tide by Qiufan Chen, but the story wasn't engaging.

As regards the sig fork, I concur with the duration of the national disease. With the latest proposal for the online live execution it has reached the stage of national disgrace, and if that webcast actually happens, I think it should be taken as a terminal symptom. I knew the country was headed in a bad direction decades ago, but I had no idea how bad it could get, how far it would go, nor how fast.

I'm unclear on the reference. Only thing that comes to mind as a possible candidate in this JPEG context is phosphors, but that was a long time ago.

Probably shouldn't add that I tangentially like the sig, though perhaps it could be a "car stolen for parts"? My related metaphorical thought on international relations is that America used to be like the older brother who mostly protected you, but has mutated into the wicked old stepsister. I guess that metaphor then calls for regarding the super-rich owners of America as wicked stepmothers? (From What is Thought? I seem to be hung up on metaphors now.)

(Hmm... But if I was a real writer of comedy then I'd figure out some way to do a callback on your joke with "metaphors" as the source of "phors"? Does the Evil Witch of the West Meta have a browser for a meta-joke? (As things stand now, it mostly feels like I'm just a reader of tragedies... Let me check my database for the latest... Have to skip back 7 to Profiles in Courage and Abundance since the later stuff was happy space operas and some pleasant Japanese stuff. However the hero of Ancillary Justice was finally revealed to be an AI of some sort...))

Mod parent derivative funny, but I wish the thread had continued with the other funny comment about Sam Altman leading the way as recipient of the bad things.

The joke I was actually looking for would involve the conflict of interest more directly, but it's still early and maybe something will show up. I wish I could help, but my capacity to write jokes is limited.

Hmm... Would it count as a bad thing happening if I asked the AIs for help in writing jokes for Slashdot? Some of the things they say are pretty funny, but usually unintentionally.

(Just had another funny-not-funny encounter with the google's AI today. This one involved a special case of traveling salesman problems. I had noticed that the google was having difficulties and that many of the answers were terrible, but yesterday I, the lowly human, managed to find a better solution for one of main routing bottlenecks. This must mean something about how the google is approaching the problem incorrectly... All I can guess so far is that there's an arbitrary limit in the AI's planning that is blocking it from finding this path. Or maybe the bus companies have their own AIs that are at war with the google's AI?)

Mod parent funny but the low-hanging joke I was looking for was "It couldn't happen to a more deserving and persistently vicious moronotron." He's earned more than the sudden need for a new phone number.

I wonder how often the YOB's own phone number leaks? Credible reports say that it's widely known. (More likely that a certain phone number is widely known but that the phone number just reaches some sycophants who get lots of taxpayer money to carry that phone around on shifts.)

No funny here, but the Subject is the low-hanging fruit I was looking for.

What Flock does is mass surveillance of the most massive sort. However, I can imagine one way to provide legitimate probably cause. Link the cameras to speed detectors and only take pictures of license plates when speeding has actually been detected. But that approach would obviously harm shareholder value, so...

How about Stupor-Intelligence? I think it rolls off the tongue more easily. But it could end well if it somehow persuaded the YOB to read Bostrum's book? At least he might know who the bad machine is...

Other parts of the discussion were more focused on the story as one of bad military leadership. So the joke along those lines would involve a certain infamous corporal who became commander-in-chief of a big military. But these days the Americans couldn't even reach a consensus on whether that ended badly... "If only he'd waited another year before attacking Stupid Joe..."

I can't tell if you're going for funny or you don't know much about how good young children are at seeking their own destruction. It's really hard to keep 'em alive and it takes a whole lot of love. Even for the kids that turn out badly, perhaps because of unlucky genetic draws.

Doesn't seem like you want to discuss genetic counseling and reproductive rights in the context of possible solutions. And it's not like Slashdot is the most suitable venue for such discussions. I strongly suspect this crowd is below average for the numbers of children produced.

Nice FP, though yet to be modded Funny and I wish you'd had the leisure to add some more humorous examples beyond the vague "this". However in the context the reference is clear enough to establish the recursive humor. Yet it was basically an obvious and low-hanging joke.

The other one would be the anti-social media thing, but it's still early in the discussion and perhaps someone will do a good version. Getting harder and harder to remember the "good old days" when Slashdot was some sort of social media...

However I still persist in asking such silly questions as "Why?" and "Isn't there anything we can do to make the situation better?"

So for the why part, my basic answer is "bad economic models". I can't decide whether to blame free radio and TV broadcasts that led to an illusory Golden Age of idealistic public-service journalism without worrying about profits or the fools who created the weak and uncompetitive profit-driven versions of journalism. That's mostly "60 Minutes" and CNN, but there are so many flavors, none of which can compete.

Making the situation better? I used to think solution-oriented journalism might be an angle. Basically a charity approach, trying to dodge the pressure of the big money. However my expectations have been reduced, mostly by time. Apparently my last residual purpose in life is to do my tiny bit to boost the life expectancy statistics? So have a nice day.