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Comment Re:Socialism is not working (Score 1) 710

by cpm99352 (#47313035) Attached to: Workaholism In America Is Hurting the Economy
Oh, don't worry, the parent poster is probably complaining about how the top tier got bailed out in 2007-2008. Goldman Sachs et al, because acorrding to Secretary Paulson, tanks would be in the streets if the 1% weren't bailed out. Elizabeth Warren disagrees with this position. but you'll never read about that in the mainstream media. Sad to say, Chomsky was right. 20 years ago, I would never have thought I'd say that....

Comment Shoutout for Godel Escher Bach (Score 2) 57

by cpm99352 (#47312929) Attached to: Programming On a Piano Keyboard
The ridiculous summary suggesting that garbage produced from a computer program could be considered music immediately reminded me of Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel Escher Bach, where music and its relevance to AI form much of the book. The book (unlike the article) has meaningful thoughts on Chopin, Bach and AI.

Anyone seriously interested in music & computers needs to read this book now.

Submission + - Google to Ban Ads for Legal Gun Accessories & "Dangerous" Knives: Threatens (needtosharenews.com) 1

Submitted by Mark Sauter
Mark Sauter writes: This morning we received an email from Google with the following title: "Google AdWords Policy Update — Weapons policy restriction."

The email, from the "Google AdWords Team," announces a new policy starting in September for those who advertise on Google Adwords, a service used to attract traffic to Web sites. It bans Adwords advertising for products such as knives "that can be used to injure an opponent in sport, self-defense, or combat" plus "Any part or component that's necessary to the function of a gun or intended for attachment to a gun
Examples: Gun scopes, ammunition, ammunition clips or belts" [and even bb guns!]
We certainly have no problem with Google prohibiting ads involving weapons such as nail bombs and grenades, as it does. But we see a big difference in banning ads for legal products used by many millions of Americans. The ban specifically includes sport and recreational guns and their components.

And it's not just ads that are being threatened. The email (see excepts below) includes the following: "When we make this change, any ads or sites that are identified as violating our revised policy won't be able to run."

In other words, Google is not just threatening to shut down advertising accounts, but also to disable Web sites with content about legal products (or topics?) that it finds politically incorrect. The email did not provide additional detail on the issue of the Web sites. Presumably, Google would shut down sites running on Google's Blogger service, but one could certainly worry the company might use its dominant search engine to make offending sites "disappear" from search results.

Submission + - CIA rendition jet was waiting in Europe to kidnap Snowden 5

Submitted by Frosty Piss
Frosty Piss writes: As Edward Snowden made his dramatic escape to Russia a year ago, a secret US government jet previously employed in CIA 'rendition' flights on which terror suspects disappeared into 'black' imprisonment flew into Europe in a bid to spirit him back to the United States. On the evening of 24 June 2013, an unmarked Gulfstream V business jet took off from a quiet commercial airport 30 miles from a Washington DC. regional airport discreetly offers its clients 'the personal accommodations and amenities you can't find at commercial airports'. On its best-known mission, the jet flew a U.S. marshals into the UK on to collect radical cleric Abu Hamza after the United States won an extradition order against him. Only Vladimir Putin's intransigence saved Snowden from a similar travel package. The jet's activities can be followed on many flight tracking websites such as FlightAware

Submission + - Ask for the resignation of Tom Wheeler (Head of the FCC) (whitehouse.gov)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: It is now clear that Tom Wheeler is not a representative of the people, but corporations. Previously to taking his current position Wheeler was the former head of 2 different lobbying organizations, which represented companies like Verizon, Comcast, and At&t. His actions helped turn them into the monopolies that they are today.

Comment Donate to the EFF! NOW!!! (Score 5, Insightful) 269

I used to financially support the NRA, under the assumption that they defended the 2nd amendment. A while age I realized that was not actually correct,

The EFF is the best example of an entity that defends *all* amendments. I now financially support them, every month. When NPR comes begging for money I'm happily able to refuse, secure in the knowledge that EFF is far more effective in their use of funds than NPR when it comes to presevring the Constitution.

There are a ton of relatively affluent people here on Slashdot. It certainly wouldn't hurt you to allocate a small amount of money to EFF annually, and we know their results.

Comment Re:Heading off the Republic Pedants (Score 1, Insightful) 818

by cpm99352 (#46764597) Attached to: Study Finds US Is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy
Technically I believe the United States is a Constitutional Republic.

Danger: anecdote ahead...I listened to an NPR interview recently where it was stated there was significant fear during the Irish/Italian immigration waves that the immigrants were not capable of appreciating US' liberty, and would effectively dilute it. I now think that was accurate, and came to pass.

One cannot argue that in today's United States we have liberty - cutting down a tree requires a permit, even when there are no safety considerations. Growing various plants is illegal. Operating a hair-cutting business without the proper permits is illegal. The list goes on...

Republic? Long gone... One can debate, but I would nominate Wilson at the latest. FDR is the common scapegoat, but Wilson certainly set the stage. There may be earlier contestants, but this is not my area of expertise.

Submission + - Does it make sense for the average user to revoke Certificate Authorities?

Submitted by cpm99352
cpm99352 writes: Given the fallout from Heartbleed, does it make sense for the average user to significantly pare down their list of trusted Certificate Authorities? As someone recently posted, do I really trust Turkish CAs?

If so, what would such a pared-down list look like?

What do the readers think?

Submission + - Cringely on Big Data and AI

Submitted by squideatingdough
squideatingdough writes: Once again, Robert X. Cringely provides an insightful (and somewhat scary) vision of the future: http://www.cringely.com/2014/0.... He describes how today's Artificial Intelligence is so very different from the vision of those IT folks working in the field back in the 80's. And then he goes on to posit how algorithms are improving at a rate that exceeds Moore's Law for hardware. A very interesting read.

Submission + - Bill Gates Patents Detecting, Responding to "Glassholes" 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: As Google Glass goes on sale to the general public, GeekWire reports that Bill Gates has already snagged one patent for 'detecting and responding to an intruding camera' and has another in the works. The invention proposes to equip computer and device displays with technology for detecting and responding to any cameras in the vicinity by editing or blurring the content on the screen, or alerting the user to the presence of the camera. Gates and Nathan Myhrvold are among the 16 co-inventors of the so-called Unauthorized Viewer Detection System and Method, which the patent application notes is useful "while a user is taking public transportation, where intruding cameras are likely to be present." So, is Bill's patent muse none other than NYC subway rider Sergey Brin?

Submission + - Now you can get an Office 365 subscription for $6.99 a month 1

Submitted by DroidJason1
DroidJason1 writes: Microsoft has launched Office 365 Personal, a lower-priced subscription option for users who want to use Office on only one PC. You can even use it on the iPad or a tablet. Office 365 Personal is priced at $6.99 a month, or $69.99 for a year. Previously, the company offered a package that costed $10 a month or $100 a year for five PCs.

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