Love the cynicism! How's that working for ya?

Labels were required - by law - on food products in the United States - which include calories and chemical compounds in use. Naysayers such as yourself argued consumers are ignorant and won't pay attention to the labels, and they add meaningless work on the company's part.

Advocates argued the consumer reserves the right to be ignorant, but to assume everyone prefers ignorance is ignorance itself.

This law single-handedly altered the consumption of food in the United States, it necessitated numerous revisions to the food pyramid, and has even catapulted awareness and demand for organic and avoidance of genetically enhanced and hormone based goods.

The information was already available, without oversight, which made it easy for companies to include.

Same thing with a CSR code. These companies are fully aware of their supply chains. There's something called 'spot checking' which is quite common in the quality control industry where people can assist with compliance.

People are in tune with whatever you believe they are. If you believe they are in tune to nothing but marketing, then I suspect that's all you're in tune to.

Me I'd find benefit in a CSR number. I know I'm not alone.

The minority, given enough time and persistence, influences the majority.

I love the idea of seeing the supply chain history of a product at a glance, but for those who don't really keep up with current events, seeing that this country went through Burma for most people will cause their eyes to gloss over and hear them say 'so what?'

HOWEVER, most people are 'in tune' with corporate social responsibility in a form thanks to widespread media attention.

So why not combine a QR code with a CSR score? CSR includes far more than the destinations, it also includes the processes and procedures as well as the workforce being used (ie: Child laborers). Since there's likely to be a full supply chain list available of not just the countries leveraging the labor but the companies and conditions within each, this provides the discriminating consumer an opportunity to pick something 'aligned' with their CSR values, if they so choose.

Why I think this would be important would be: Let's say there's companies in Burma who are actually trying HARD to reform Burma's work ethics. And let's say they practice wonderful procedures - far above western standards, as well as hiring practices and more. Now one score for Burma alone isn't doing this company and it's efforts justice. So having the score integrate Burma alone without taking into account a single company's efforts would be unfair not just to the company, but to you the consumer.

On a final note: The CSR code would be relative to the country. IE: a CSR code for the United States would have far different meaning than it would in - say Ukraine where the culture and values and 'what's socially acceptable' is far different. Having a one size fits all CSR code around the world is idiotic.

Woohooo!

I look forward to the feel of tension and terror it creates on the border the next time I visit South Korea!

The one thing I have realized about black holes in my studies has been there are an infinite variety of them, and their variety mirrors the way we look at the world.

For instance, there are two dimensional black holes, you see these on accretion disks. There are three dimensional ones. There are n-dimensional ones. There are black holes which don't absorb light and do absorb sound, and vice versa. There are black holes which are digital, some that are analog.

The list goes on.

Need proof?

That's your job.

The AP news network, Reuters, often feed networks such as the BBC and CNN, but those conglomerates are well aware of the biases inbuilt within those feeder networks and how journalists or those skilled in propaganda to their own end can leverage those networks to fit their needs.

Wikipedia's in the same boat. Early adopters who 'early on' built a reputation now act with dictatorial control over the material on Wikipedia. Any changes I have attempted to make are removed within minutes, no matter how benign. This isn't a collaborative system. It's a closed system which provides an illusion of collaboration through the collaboratively appearing mechanisms.

I often wondered if ANYONE was actually seeing any changes I made other than the petty tyrants who control it.

What active contributers are constantly spanked for contributing by those who have developed their own methods and ways, it's these users who spoil it for the rest of the community, and accordingly, there's no reason to contribute to a community which doesn't want the contributions.

Accordingly, I no longer regard Wikipedia as a credible source.

Even more, I am trying to get Google to deprioritize it in my search results. It annoyingly keeps returning Wikipedia as the top source for nearly any search. I'm like.. Google, if I wanted Wikipedia's answer, I would have gone directly there to ask for it.

Perhaps someone should work with biochemists to invent a highly addictive nanotechnology based amphetamine and an alternative to cocaine that when ingested, is instantly addictive and turns the consumer into a robot and remotely controlled computer system.

Then, provide this chemical to anyone who's known to have an addiction problem to cocaine and/or speed and has proven predictably destructive to themselves and/or society.

From there, once their mind has been taken they can then be commanded - like a robot - to drive to the NSA's new massive data facility in Orem, Utah.

From there, their minds can be wired together in parallel with other addicts, to create a massively parallel computer systems the likes of which this planet has never before seen and conquer your terrorists once and for all through an adaptive and predictive network with oodles of memory at their disposal..

This can effectively clean up the streets and kill the drug supply chain's demand once and for all .

First and foremost, credentials for CS related AI and machine learning are largely meaningless right now.

So my first piece of advice is to quit 'seeking' instruction like a computer waiting for further input and get into motivating yourself through self study.

Secondly, keep in mind that machine learning is something that will take an enormous amount of time out of your schedule after you've gotten the basics of the learning engine completed. You HAVE to interact with it and allow others to in order for it to truly learn.

With that said, here's some wonderful ways to help others with their AI projects - and also a way for you to to get started researching and studying, from the outside, the dynamics of dialog and interaction that you'll be working on as a CS programmer.
Elbot: http://elbot_e.csoica.artifici...
Cleverbot: http://www.cleverbot.com/
Existor (her name's Evie) is based on the cleverbot script: https://www.existor.com/en/
and Skynet: http://www.skynet-ai.com/

Third. You're an engineer by trade. If you truly want to understand how to make a machine think. Then take psychology courses, marketing courses, education courses, economics beyond macro and micro are all helpful to understand psychological motivation of populations, and more. Why do all this? A machine can 'wait' and consume information, but that doesn't make it intelligent. What makes it intelligent is it's desire to participate in the community it belongs to and that belongs to it. Psychology - whether it's through market forces or internalized - is what we now know as a population motivates. Integrating these into an AI is critical.

Fourth. Take a look information storage and retrieval systems and become an expert in databases, weighted algorithms, and different levels of normalization. The book 'Data Insights' By Hunter Whitney is a wonderful book on information systems and the different potential ways to perceive data. If you're poor like I am, Hunter has distributed a full copy of Data Insights through torrent web sites, with his only request being: If you can afford it, and the book has provided benefit to you, then please pay for the real copy. you can find at any Barnes and Noble in the country

This leads directly to neural networking. My advice from there is to dig into peer to peer networking and to understand how these systems function. Bitcoin's open source, and provides a wonderful example of what not to do with a peer to peer network and information storage, which you can see by the massive gigabit chain you have to download.

Why this is all necessary:

With a MS in CS and 15 years experience, you should by now be able to create at least a mid sized client server or n-tier application, end to end.

Now you gotta figure out your input stimulus for your AI. Are you acquiring information from text input alone? Are you acquiring it through a Kinect device connected via a USB and pulling out 3d data and sound? Are you placing your AI on the internet as a chatbot? Will the thing be mobile? If so, how?

Knowing your stimulus and nailing it down to a few input devices is crucial to developing a learning system.

From there, your next goal is to develop the support systems which 'go' with the AI.

And this can WILDLY vary depending on your methods of stimulation.

For the most part though, if you don't have proficiency with databases and data stores, Then you're not going to understand memory retention schemes for AI properly and how and when to optimize your database and the differences in normalization schemes.

So go get a job in databases for a few years then come back. These are a dime a dozen and easy to find anywhere. Pick your database wisely, you'll probably stick with it for your career - and it's hard not to be a database bigot afterwards.

If you don't have proficiency in middle tier type work or embedded systems which might leverage various forms of publisher/subscribe methods under load and real time condition, then get a job with a real time mission critical information group. Flight Systems such as Boeing, Rocket Systems Orbital (my former employer in Chandler, Arizona) are excellent ways to get experience - albeit very stressful work - for highly responsive AIs. But if your AI doesn't need to be absolutely real time, then you can always get a job which specializes in batch processing. Financial companies such as Wells Fargo (another former employer of mine), payroll systems such as ADP, or any billing center / general ledger operation will show you the benefits and necessities of synchronizing distributed transactions.

Finally. Like a corporate application or web presentation, there's a UI and presentation layer for machine learning. It's different in that fact that you're trying to make the interface proactive rather than reactive. We as humans need that stimulus and machine learning is predicated on receiving feedback as well. So if you can't provide a sufficient enough user experience for the machine, then the user interest's level wanes.

This requires design experience. So if you have never done User Interface design work and worked directly with customers and QA staff, then my advice is take a job programming in one of these areas for a bit - preferably with a great deal of customer interaction where YOU ARE the programmer and analyst.

Now keep in mind if you pursue education with machine learning in a structured form, you're limiting yourself to the concepts and ideas and imagination of the instructor and material of the presenter.

Machine learning is something you teach yourself.

Until you do. Then you're the machine that's learning. So quit projecting.

They've tried asking for this before in the past, and also tried asking for complete system blueprints of the things being built as companies outsource components to China but assemble them domestically.

China's rotten history in regards to respect for Intellectual Property and Human Rights aside, if any policing agency attempts to reinforce this law, the company will quite likely move out and then outsource to another country such as Vietnam or Cambodia should they push it.

China needs to find better and less invasive ways to police those who choose to do business with them.

LOL

Maybe I should try this same approach with every Star Wars movie that's been created since the Empire Strikes Back. Maybe they'll quit making them if they are losing that much money

Sorry, you've been misinformed. Cite your US Government based sources (.gov) if you believe otherwise.

Please don't reference third party articles from news sources - including the BBC or CNN - who increasingly do not seem to fact check or check credibility of their sources any longer.

And what you're saying about airline duress with non compliance does not translate to law. My bet is the airline is sending this information to the destination and checking with the DHS before they even arrive and has nothing to do with DHS requirements.

Enter subjective quantum bias which taints the results.

Chances are, even after 'fact checking', passengers like this would arrive and be sent and clear through customs and the DHS no problem.

This is a product of airline corporate paranoia shifting blame to the big bad government to mitigate the risk to their image.

And has nothing to do with DHS rules.

Let's look at the article as is rather than this exaggerated sky is falling hate speech the Muslim family is promoting:

This was done at Gatwick, in London England. By London residents. Employed by London businesses and governments.

So first and foremost, the US does not stop people from departing their countries. This is on them.

Second, Visas are checked on arrival, regardless of the destination.

IF they are ever checked on departure, it's only to cross reference the dates of stay. If the date is valid, they'd skate right through. doesn't matter where you're departing from. Even London, who's got a problem with their fear of terrorists beyond anything America has.

I suspect someone's fibbing. Either the UK government, employees at Gatwick, or the Muslim family themselves.

Common sense. I ain't buyin this load of crap.

As a programmer of 30+ years, one thing I have realized with programming is to 'check the ego in at the door'.

Which in my opinion is what the developers of these algorithmic based driving machines has yet to do.

As a driver, to 'fit in' anywhere I have driven in the world, whether it's Ireland or Asia, Nicaragua or the good ole United States, it's an exceeding rarity I NEED to break a law, and I'm pretty well aware of the laws, and when I have broken the law on a NEED basis - i can count two times in my life - it was to avoid a life or death situation, literally. One time, on my motorcycle, I had a semi truck in front of me, behind me, and to the left and right and one decided to merge into my lane. I had nowhere to go with drivers who simply hadn't seen me i their blind spot which i shouldn't have been in to begin with, so I went from 60 to 120mph as fast as that Ninja motorcycle could go to to squeeze in the 4' gap between the trucks to the right and front of me.

The truth is. Programming 'by the rules' is a wonderful concept. But when I drive down the road. I notice most drivers do not take the time to anticipate the other moves of the flow of traffic under varying circumstances, and worse, they tend not to look behind them ANTICIPATING the driver's moves behind them.

I suspect that's what is going on here. Google cars, driving 'obediently', like a young child learning to drive for the first time, is failing to take into consideration BOTH WHERE it's going AND where it is coming from - and specifically - their rate of speed and their predictions of your actions.

Convoluted? No.

Case in point. You come up to a stop sign to make a right turn, and you see someone coming to the left of you where there is no stop sign. the car behind you, not seeing the car to the left, anticipates your stop and looks to the left assuming you are making the move, when you've stopped hard waiting for that car.

Sometimes, this scenario results in a minor fender bender. Who's at fault?

Technically, it was an avoidable condition on both party's parts. But as the FIRST Car obeying the law, you can ALWAYS have drifted a little further into the crosswalk giving the car behind you more room and reaction time, thus avoiding the crash, and then becoming nothing more than an inconvenience to pedestrians. This reaction while not preferable, is not illegal, and avoids the accident by simply predicting the driver's reactions times behind you.

It's my opinion that the vast majority of 'rear end collisions' could be avoided by drivers paying more respect and reacting to those tailing them.

I suspect these 'driverless cars' have next to nothing for code reacting to predictions of drivers following them.

Reactions which would include simple things like velocity combined with other silly things such as: Are they looking at their cell phones and not paying attention to me and what's ahead of them?

About 5 years ago, I swerved to the left in an emergency lane on the freeway as I noticed the driver behind me in the fast lane wasn't paying attention on their cell phone and wouldn't have time to anticipate the traffic stopping dead ahead of me that I barely had time to react to.

i watched as she skidded right past me and barely missed the car in front of me.

Had i not moved to the emergency lane to avoid the accident, I'd had gotten a nasty rear end collision. She flat out didn't see what was going on in enough time to even move to the emergency lane as I did.

'By the book' programming is fine and dandy in a controlled environment.

But programmers gotta check their ego at the door and understand real world driving conditions are not black box conditions and the only ones making errors are not the drivers, it's the programmers unrealistically expecting to issue 'perfect code' the first time they release it to the public.

It's interesting. You claim to be a scientist. yet fail to understand the implications of Einstein's equations and how energy influences.

So you take money from a source with biases and goals of their own.

Money is a form of potential energy.

Potential energy becomes manifested in you and your real life research.

You don't have to be told what to do in ways you fully comprehend to be commanded like a robot.

It's a mighty magical system that doesn't apply perceivable pressure in ways you're trained like a monkey not to recognize as you 'do your cutting edge work', isn't it?

Indeed