8 months ago I installed Linux Mint on my wife's grandmother's computer and on my grandfather's computer. Since then I have received 1 tech support call from grandpa (couldn't find his bookmarks in Firefox) and 2 from grandma (mainly related to not understanding how Skype works. But that's an application issue. The OS recognized and worked correctly with the camera and mic instantly). It's just not that hard anymore. Things are stable and far more intuitive in desktop land.

To be fair, Windows is also much better today than it was 10 years ago (well, 7, anyway, or 8.1 + a skin to get a regular start menu, and we'll see about 10). Come to think of it, it's only OS X that's gotten markedly crappier in my opinion.

I seriously, seriously doubt, that Google, a global company that sees the world as its target market, only trained their algorithm on white people. They're Google engineers. They are not morons. It probably occurred to them to build a diverse sample set.

What happened in this case is, well, go look at the pictures. They're underexposed with a blue/gray color cast, making their skin look more "gorilla fur black" than "human of recent African ancestry brown." The low angle makes it look like they're slouching. The guy behind the girl makes it look like she has extra broad shoulders. And then she's making a monkey face at the camera, puffing up her cheeks and furrowing her brow. I'm not shocked.

Now give it a correctly-exposed image of a black person making a normal face and have it say "gorilla" and then we can talk.

White people are easier to photograph, particularly with digital cameras. These are positive media, so the more photons that strike the sensor, the cleaner the image will be (within the range of sensitivity). White skin reflects more light than dark skin. Regardless of what the algorithm is trained on, if you take the real-world photos people are actually making on their phone cameras, the pictures of white people will be better exposed and cleaner than those of black people. Better data in...better results out.

To be fair, if your first C program is:

#include<racist_version_of_stdio.h>

main()
{
        printf("Hello World, but only if you're white!");
}

Then yeah helloworld.c can be pretty fucking racist.

I don't want a flag, but I do now want a model of the General Lee. That was my favorite show when I was five or six, and I think it's sad they're now calling it racist. The Duke boys weren't racists. They were just some good ol' boys. Never meanin' no harm.

I was okay with the government flying it in SC, because 1) it was the battle flag, for soldiers, not the political flag of the Confederate States of America and 2) it was flying at the memorial for South Carolinian soldiers who died in the Civil War. It's a sign of respect for the men who died fighting for their home and neighbors. Most of them were poor people who didn't own slaves themselves, and were, like every other damn soldier ever, fighting a rich man's war for the rich man's interests, but died believing he was fighting for home and honor. I don't believe they should be dishonored.

I can understand, though, Wal-Mart and pals not wanting to sell flags. That's fine. They can sell or not sell whatever they want (within the law). But Apple is just fucking stupid, pulling it from video games set in the Civil War. Might as well replace the soldiers' guns with walkie-talkies, too.

3D printing.

That's why I don't like the "ha ha look at the silly North Korean claims" trope. I think it's a deliberate ploy on behalf of the brutal Kim dynasty to shape a public opinion that they are silly and backwards and harmless. Who can take seriously a country that makes these claims? And that's the first thing that many people think of when they think of North Korea. It saps political will in the west to treat them for what they are.

So you're saying the lady doth protest too much? Perhaps. Looking at the comment, I can't imagine anyone giving it credence, nor could I think a political figure should be bothered by it unless there were truth to it.

If you, psuedoanonymous /. user, accuse me of being a pedo (assumingly under my real name) I would take no notice. It's yet another asshole on the internet mouthing off. And nobody else would take that seriously, either. Now if for some reason people did take it seriously, then you may have done real harm to my reputation, and I'd want you unmasked. You've actually injured me.

But this? Nobody gets that worked up over something as stupid as anonymous internet comments unless they have touched a nerve.

Maybe the other prisoners were just afraid he'd summon demon giraffe spirits to eat their souls if they were mean to him.

No. I do not like change. Put the comment link back below the summary.

Do it.

Do it now.

Do it.

Do.

It.

Also, one of the protections afforded by the Secure Communications Act was that while, yes, the government needs a warrant to get the records from the phone company, the phone company also MAY NOT hand the data over to the government WITHOUT a warrant. So the phone company is incentivized to protect records about you, because it's illegal to turn them over otherwise.

Which is actually why they need a warrant, and not merely a subpoena. A warrant is written authorization from the government immunizing you from punishment for something that would otherwise be illegal. So the phone company needs that warrant to protect them or else handing over the records is in violation of law.

Now how that works with regards to still over-broad warrants and NSL letters so you can't talk about them is something we'll just have to wait and see on.

Similar crimes exist in many American states. In Arizona, the definition of "without consent" includes:

(c) The victim is intentionally deceived as to the nature of the act.

(d) The victim is intentionally deceived to erroneously believe that the person is the victim's spouse.

Jesus. Good, hard-working, honest Americans are sitting at home, fapping to online porn, pirating movies and music, trolling n00bs, and some sick, twisted psychopath cuts their fiber. Some things...some things are just beyond the pale.

Nail 'em, FBI. Nail 'em to the fucking wall.

Which is why I put "freedom" in quotes. Because people like their own "freedom," however they choose to define it.