Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Let me guess... subscription / remote processing (Score 4, Insightful) 93

Who in their right mind would give their personal health information to a corporation that also has their billing information and can associate the two?

It's a matter of time before the database is cracked or sold (or, more likely, access is discretely rented). Then you try to get insurance, or it becomes part of employment background checks, or it's used to target you with yet more advertising.

If it could run locally and had a single upfront price, it might be an interesting health tool. As it likely really is, it's nothing but a privacy nightmare.

Comment Stupid thesis. (Score 2) 83

I know who Gritty is. I've seen every episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

I know nothing significant about the city, any regional accent, or its culture. I don't know anyone who does beyond some sports fans who know the teams... and it's hardly the only city they know in that way. I don't recall the city even being mentioned on any of the other shows I watch, I don't see it in the news more often that other cities.

If you're from there, good for you, I'm not putting you down... it's just a big world that has a lot more than Philadelphia in it.

Comment Sadly, I'm over it (Score 5, Insightful) 167

I recognize the issue, but short of walking into the woods and living in a canvas tent while foraging for berries until I die of some random illness or animal encounter... or survive long enough to freeze to death in the coming winter... there's not much I can do.

I recycle, and that's mostly bullshit. I try to reduce my use of things that are difficult to recycle, but even as we're told plastic is bad, more and more products come in plastic bags or blister packs. Sometimes there are multiple layers of plastic packaging - and none of it is accepted by my municipal recycling program.

My home is fairly well insulated, but my furnace burns natural gas. It has to, because there's no way in this climate I could afford a heat pump that could keep my home warm in February.

I drive a car with an internal combustion engine, because an electric costs $40k and won't make the trip to my parents' house. I drive to work because 99% of this country is built around the assumption you are driving... even as we build housing with insufficient parking and tell people they should take public transit options that don't exist.

I'm middle aged and approaching 'senior' status. I'm done beyond voting for the best option I can at the polls. It's the kids' turn. Fight you buggers, fight. You need the planet for longer than I will.

Comment Re:Wrong location for a climate conference (Score 1) 41

Roughly. The percentage of people attending from each continent times the distance to a best-guess location, do the sum and see what works best.

It also doesn't allow for people taking trains or cars and assumes everyone's flying on the same kind of plane for the same fuel economy.

Comment This is barely the beginning (Score 1) 22

Imagine you have recordings of every letter written, email sent, phone call made, video recorded, etc. of a deceased loved one... throw in their credit history and essentially every digital trace of them you can get your hands on in addition to scanning all the analog data.

Now train an AI on that and you have a 'ghost' of the person you lost that you can interact with for as long as you wish.

Ghoulish, I think, but it'll happen. And one day, when you want to meet your ancestors, you'll call up their AI ghost and have a conversation with them.

Comment Shut 'em down (Score 1) 120

If an automated vehicle is found committing an offense, an appropriate fine should be levied against the company and (depending on the potential severity of outcome of the behaviour) all its vehicles immediately banned from operation until their code is updated to prevent a recurrence.

They're not human, they aren't learning because they got pulled over by a police officer. They are just as likely to make that same mistake again as they were before the incident, and until that changes all vehicles running the same control software should be considered equally at risk of making that error.

Comment Re:Fucking idiots (Score 4, Interesting) 184

CEOs generally don't work those kinds of hours. They might be on the company clock, but a lot of it is what your regular cubicle occupant would consider slacking.

God knows I've spent enough time exempting them from web filters so they can watch streaming sports events or get to their favorite gambling sites.

Comment Power imbalance (Score 5, Interesting) 31

Non-disparagement should be unenforceable. Libel and slander are still laws, so if the person is damaging your reputation with lies there are existing ways to handle that.

The power imbalance between a corporation and an individual means that non-disparagement clause was signed under duress, and given the nature of the clause it should be one that isn't legally enforceable.

Slashdot Top Deals

Memories of you remind me of you. -- Karl Lehenbauer

Working...