Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Unforeseen consequences (Score 1) 157

by ron_ivi (#60158204) Attached to: Could an AI-Powered Drone Defeat a Human Pilot?
Technologically - of course autonomous drones will be more effective than humans. They'll also probably me more "moral" - committing fewer war crimes (like the Mahmudiyah rape and killings).

I think a more fun question is what will happen politically. There's a huge voting block of veterans that consistently votes for increased military spending. If automation reduces the number of soldiers needed, that could drastically reduce such votes.

Comment "innovation" vs "invention" (Score 3, Interesting) 81

by ron_ivi (#60111456) Attached to: Boeing Cutting More Than 12,000 US Jobs With Thousands More Planned

I wouldn't call what China does, "innovation"

The word "innovation" (as opposed to invention) is exactly what China does. The word was practically coined to describe that process. https://web.archive.org/web/20...

But there is another issue here, one that is hardly ever mentioned and that's the coining of the term "innovation." This word, which was hardly used at all until two or three years ago, feels to me like a propaganda campaign and a successful one at that, dominating discussion in the computer industry. I think Microsoft did this intentionally, for they are the ones who seem to continually use the word. But what does it mean? And how is it different from what we might have said before? I think the word they are replacing is "invention." Bill Shockley invented the transistor, Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce invented the integrated circuit, Ted Hof invented the microprocessor. Of course others claimed to have done those same three things, but the goal was always invention. Only now we innovate, which is deliberately vague but seems to stop somewhere short of invention. Innovators have wiggle room. They can steal ideas, for example, and pawn them off as their own. That's the intersection of innovation and sharp business.

Comment Lack of fear and groupthink prevented necessary on (Score 4, Insightful) 583

The title has it exactly backwards.

With a little more fear and a lot more groupthink, this entire thing could have been over in 2 weeks.

But instead people still have a lack of fear and lack of willingness to work together; so we'll be stuck in almost-but-not-quite-lockdowns for virtually forever.

And that's the worst of both worlds.

Comment More fair - just have the colleges test the kids (Score 1) 53

Better - just have the colleges test the kids when they show up.

Have them take the final exam of whatever class they're trying to get credit for, and if they pass it, give them credit.

Seems simpler, more fair, and more reliable than counting on some third party company's tests.

Comment Re:Amazon = China (Score 1) 91

by ron_ivi (#60034102) Attached to: Amazon Told Workers Paid Sick Leave Law Doesn't Cover Warehouses

But I'm not aware of an instance in which they made a difference.

Here's one: https://www.history.com/topics...

In protest, the colonists boycotted tea sold by British East India Company and smuggled in Dutch tea, leaving British East India Company with millions of pounds of surplus tea and facing bankruptcy.

Comment Compare multiple lists. (Score 1) 73

Assuming:

* The NSA's list is primarily based on what they believe China, the EU, and Russia can't crack (with a tie-breaker of things the NSA can), and

* China's list is primarily based on what they believe the US, the EU and Russia can't crack (with a tie-breaker of things China can), and

* Russia's list is primarily based on what they believe China, the EU, and the US can't crack (with a tie-breaker of things Russia can), and

* The EU's list is primarily based on what they believe the US, China and Russia can't crack (with a tie-breaker of things that the EU can)

it seems like the right approach is to find one recommended by two different adversarial governments.

Comment Interesting insects when you travel to rural place (Score 0) 62

by ron_ivi (#59981436) Attached to: Insect Numbers Down 25% Since 1990, Global Study Finds
I had an interesting opportunity to travel to a rural place half way around the world last year.

It was amazing how the evening sky was filled with dragonflies (literally many hundreds visible just by looking up); butterflies; and all sorts of other bugs.

Wonder if much of the world was like that before pesticides became common.

Comment Re:So what was it for? (Score 2) 41

Innocuous sounding phrases like "contingent upon proper execution" and "in good faith" have very specific legal meanings that have consequences you wouldn't expect from a strictly English interpretation.

How is that not fraud on the part of the lawyers.

Giving someone a contract that appears to be written in English, but in reality being written in some twisted dialect that doesn't mean the same thing as English feels wrong.

Comment A current example: (Score 1) 37

by ron_ivi (#59968824) Attached to: Will Companies Cut Open Source Investment Because of COVID-19?

And if people are furloughed or otherwise not able to work on their ordinary duties then they can fall back to do work on some open source project.

The Tor Project says that Covid-19 based funding cuts caused them to lay off 13 people:

https://blog.torproject.org/co...

Using your idea, those guys could contribute the Tor project.

(More seriously - that Tor blog about the impact of COVID-19 is relevant to OP's question.)

Slashdot Top Deals

If you want to put yourself on the map, publish your own map.

Close