Best joke of the day, but I was hoping for something about the misnomer. Floss refers to the stringy stuff and there's no string in this story?

But I might have asked my dentist about this if I'd seen the story before my last visit. Pert' shure I'll have forgotten all about it by the next time...

Very productive opening joke. Thanks.

Last paragraph.

We can only hope, but I predict it ain't gonna happen. Sadly.

Currently reading How AI Thinks by Nigel Toon. Some interesting bits and it's going quickly, but not seeing anything much to recommend in it. The intersection of "experts on AI" and "people who write well" remains small, though it may become more difficult to tell if they use AI to help write? I think it's only the deepest experts who can really explain things clearly, whereas AI is mostly focused on sounding deep with hallucinatory seasonings as convenient.

Every time people hear what it actually involves is outrage and opposition, at least all the way back to when Intel first announced that they wanted to hardcode identity numbers inside CPUs in 1999. But the corporations involved have been relentless, and have sunk countless billions of dollars steadily forcing it forwards, and building front organizations to obfuscate and whitewash it.

With Windows 11, Microsoft was finally able to FORCE Trusted computing hardware into every new computer. Not just every new Windows computer, but every computer.

Every new Intel PC CPU has built in Trusted Computing enforcement hardware. Every new AMD PC CPU has built in Trusted Computing enforcement hardware. Every new ARM PC CPU has built in Trusted Computing enforcement hardware. The only processor lines that DON'T have it are the microcontrollers.

There are some unlocked smartphones available, but as far as I can determine it's literally impossible to buy a smartphone that doesn't have hardware trusted computing built in.

I specified that enforcing Trusted Computing at the internet access level is still a long term goal, they couldn't get away with it today. However they are well on the way to success. Virtually all new hardware supporting trusted computing, all the front groups rolling out standards and systems, and as it gets incorporated into things everyone is going to increasingly running into situations where they get locked out of stuff if they're not Trusted Computing compliant. Streaming already restricts you to the worst quality if you're not compliant, and it's only going to get worse as pre-Win11 computers fade out and as more things require it.

Among the many features that could improve Slashdot... You got me to try to figure out if it's a parody account or a sincere moron.

However with that many digits it must be a fresh identity. I think age should be one of the main features of that imaginary MEPR (Multidimensional Earned Public Reputation) system I used to daydream about. I still feel like there should be a measurable symmetry between reactions to comments and the reputation of the identity that wrote the comment, so that a history of reactions would clarify whether an identity is deliberately or accidentally being funny.

On the one hand I can't even figure out which dimensions of MEPR would assess "sanity", though it does seem clear to me that anyone who is still defending the YOB has at least one loose screw rattling around upstairs. Time to take a break from Claude games and see if any of the AIs know of a website with MEPR?

The angle I was looking for on this story was about the Chinese side, and yours was the "most significant" comment in that direction. (But the Chinese are not limited to batteries and electric cars for priority technologies...) Now about the funny side...

I'm expecting the #YOB to respond by signing a decree banning solar panels. Mostly because he hates California, but his official zero dark thirty excuse will be "Made in China". Or maybe a special economic emergency "justifying" a million percent tariff? (Xi will not be amused, which is likely to have repercussions in Iran and Taiwan, but who's looking forward these days?)

Joke of the week is still under development. Something in the chicken and egg genre. Did the sick YOB make America unwell? But how did the YOB ever become so YUGE, so Orange, and such a Buffoon? America's worst product and not suitable for export, even to such friendly places as Russia or North Korea or Epstein's island.

I'd hardly call exact date of birth "low information content".

And yes this does reveal exact date of birth, regardless of the bullshit obfuscation that it supposedly only reports age range. The server simply tracks the reported result every time the user connects, and on some specific day the result CHANGES to announce their date of birth.

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This is based on SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts), brought to you by the same fuckers making Trusted Computing and the TMP (Trusted Platform Module). It's part of the same shitstack to prohibit you from altering your software and to lock you out of your own files, and to send spy reports out over the internet so you can be cut off if you "fail" the Trusted Computing check.

The software can use a TPM's (Trusted Platform Module) Sealing function to encrypt your data such that it's impossible to access your own data if the software is modified. It can then pass control over that data only to software updates that carry a signed security certificate from Broadcom (or any other company using this system).

It is no longer open source, your system no longer works as you can no longer access your Sealed data if you change so much as a single letter of the code. Even recompile unaltered code won't work, unless you magically manage to get your build environment absolutely identical to the company's build environment and get byte-for-byte output. Even that may be impossible with the newer levels of non-deterministic compiler optimizations.

Also, with TMP's Remote Attestation feature can be used to transmit your machine's software configuration over the internet, so that you can be cut off if your system doesn't match Broadcom (or other company's) cryptographically signed certificate.

And then of course there's Network Access Control (NAC) / Trusted Network Connect (TNC). In the long term, the goal is for ISPs to use NAC/TNC to interrogate your computer for Trusted Computing compliance, and deny you any internet access whatsoever if your machine isn't compliant. Software with this sort of "security" certificate would pass inspection, while any attempt to alter the code would be detected as "tampering". You then get "quarantined". What "quarantine" means is that you are denied internet access - with the exception that you do get very restricted access which can only be used to download the approved software to "fix" your computer into Trusted Computing compliance.

There must be some funny around here somewhere. I've already seen some worthy stuff, but...

Story needed more funny, but thank you for your humor.

I do think the story would be funnier with Tesla over BMW. Just saw another debranded Tesla. Apparently there is such a thing as shame? At least for some drivers...

Interesting FP branch but it doesn't seem to be going into my interests and it definitely hasn't (so far) seemed relevant to the focus of the actual story. But the story is actually related to a fresh axe I'm trying to whet. Some kind of joke about young people taking over and old people worth remembering?

So my premise is that the kids are going to be different from us. No surprise there, at least not if you've been paying attention. How long? Or I guess all of recorded history might be long enough. I do think we have created some mental crutches that are going to cripple a lot of kids, maybe most kids. Along that line you could argue that the cars are physical crutches that cripple walking skills, regardless of real buttons or none... And not just different, but okay (enough).

But the main point of being young is the flexibility to learn new things. Children are incredible learning machines. Just check the videos. Therefore my theory is that some children will learn extremely successful strategies and be able to use the new tools (both physical and mental) to do amazing things, maybe even solving some of the older problems faster than we can create new problems. (Other days I'm not so optimistic on that balance.) Will there be casualties? Losers at the game of life? Sure, same as there ever was.

However I do think there is a new problem with some of the new sociopaths. We have rich and powerful decision makers who just don't care. Even when they cause hundreds of thousands of people to die from disease or starvation, from ancient problems that we mostly know how to solve, they don't care, apologize, or even acknowledge that those dead people ever had a right to life.

Almost forgot the immortality angle. Best chance for any person over... What age? Let's say over 35 or 40, just for grins. Best chance for immortality in the sense of being "kept around" in GAIvatar form is if the youngsters are kind of idiotic. Maybe the mental crutches have reached the point where most of the kids will lack wisdom and "the system" (whatever that is) will need to keep a few old-timers around just to solve big problems out of the kiddies' scope. Me? I sure wouldn't want to get into a battle of wits or wisdom with Aristotle.

But if it's a blame game we want, then maybe we should look at the last two surviving editors? Some kind of joke about a 50% chance for any story submission now? For a while there I thought Slashdot was down to its last editor...

At this point the YOB is apparently planning to throw so much "stuff" at everything that some of it will stick to something after he's gone.

New joke in the "just gawd" genre? A "just historian" would not bother to report on all the YOB's follies, but of course that's not how history works. First of all the historian has to report the historical facts, no matter how stupid or embarrassing or worse. Even that part is difficult, most recently because there are now too many facts to report, but the really difficult part is figuring out what the facts mean. If anything, since in many cases the details truly are random noise. History is not about justice, except by accident?

I'm still trying to fix the old joke in the "chicken and egg" genre. Did the unwell YOB make America sick? But how did the YOB ever become so YUGE, so extremely Orange, and so great a Buffoon in the first place? America's worst (and last?) product?

There's the joke I was looking for, but I think the law fails in this case. Just being exposed to that kind of stuff has to affect how people write.

Funny citation on this one. Recent book of essays by Abe Kobo included one that focused on the need for writers to start by reading. I've been making a chicken and egg joke about the state of the States recently, but Abe came down quite strongly on the side of reading as the prerequisite for writing. But now that I'm reflecting on it, I think he was wrong. Nothing about verbal storytelling in there... Illiterates also have stories and fables and legends... And songs, too. Especially songs.

But I might be projecting to much when I say the answer to the titular question is "Yes". Especially since I try to fight the influences and in particular I haven't used ChatGPT in a long time. At least some months.

You had me going there until you got to the part "shapes policy". I'd give you the Funny if I ever had a mod point to give.