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Comment Re:Wrong on all counts. (Score 1) 136

by Gravis Zero (#65485502) Attached to: Major Oil Companies Face First 'Climate Death' Lawsuit

The reason this is an absurd overgeneralization is a huge number of products kill people. Knives, ladders, cars, ovens, electrical sockets, baseball bats, wood chippers, hammers, log splitters, screwdrivers, surge suppressors, power supplies, toasters, lighters, chainsaws.etc.

This is a false equivalence because none of what you listed are intrinsically harmful. They can all be used safely without hurting anyone. The same is not true for fossil fuels.

What I intended by saying look in the mirror is the accountability is ours. We should all face the climate death lawsuit. If you burn less hydrocarbons or cause less hydrocarbons to be burnt then it stands to reason the amount you would be compelled to pay for your transgressions would be lower than someone who is less careful.

I'm 100% in favor of a carbon tax!

What I intended was to convey political support for policymaking. A consensus view where a majority of policy makers are able to agree on a course of action.

If it weren't for gerrymandering and other efforts to minimize representation then I'd be on board with that. The consensus of the public is in favor taking action but the will of the people is not being represented.

Not only do I not support it...

Your opinion on the matter is not relevant.

Comment Re: Time to pick up the toys. (Score 1) 29

so what we need to do to send up rockets (which aren't cheap) and fly them towards the dangerous orbiting items, then somehow grab them, attach a sort of 'space anchor' to them to eith cause them to drop out of orbit or be pushed out of orbit to be incinerated upon re-entry into our atmosphere... right?

Why would you assume any of that? Are you so incapable of orthogonal thought that you can only see one way of solving a problem? With such a limited approach to problems, the Voyager missions would still be on their way to Jupiter.

Comment The power of two. (Score 1) 84

by Gravis Zero (#65482418) Attached to: Japan's Civil War Over Surnames

Or, and I'm just spitballing here, not require people to take one last name when married.

The idea is good but there are realistic issues here. Consider the following situation: two children take both of their parents surnames and in turn they have a child. Does the child then take four surnames? Is there is there any limit to the number or length of a surname?

Without limits, in 10 generations you will have children with 1024 surnames. If you think nobody would do that then you don't know people. There are people who would declare it a point of heritage and keep every single surname forever. This creates a serious issue in information systems and would unduly burden children with a stupid number of surnames.

Comment GOOD. (Score 1) 24

Intel has NO business having ANY of their products being integrated with automobiles in anyway. Hell, the only thing that could have possibly been relevant was their GPUs and they have effectively killed the only thing ensuring they were trustworthy, an opensource driver. Naturally, even good drivers couldn't prevent them from being insecure.

Submission + - The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "The job of the future might already be past its prime," writes The Atlantic's Rose Horowitch in The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting. "For years, young people seeking a lucrative career were urged to go all in on computer science. From 2005 to 2023, the number of comp-sci majors in the United States quadrupled. All of which makes the latest batch of numbers so startling. This year, enrollment grew by only 0.2 percent nationally, and at many programs, it appears to already be in decline, according to interviews with professors and department chairs. At Stanford, widely considered one of the country’s top programs, the number of comp-sci majors has stalled after years of blistering growth. Szymon Rusinkiewicz, the chair of Princeton’s computer-science department, told me that, if current trends hold, the cohort of graduating comp-sci majors at Princeton is set to be 25 percent smaller in two years than it is today. The number of Duke students enrolled in introductory computer-science courses has dropped about 20 percent over the past year."

"But if the decline is surprising, the reason for it is fairly straightforward: Young people are responding to a grim job outlook for entry-level coders. In recent years, the tech industry has been roiled by layoffs and hiring freezes. The leading culprit for the slowdown is technology itself. Artificial intelligence has proved to be even more valuable as a writer of computer code than as a writer of words. This means it is ideally suited to replacing the very type of person who built it. A recent Pew study found that Americans think software engineers will be most affected by generative AI. Many young people aren’t waiting to find out whether that’s true."

Meanwhile, writing in the Communications of the ACM, Orit Hazzan and Avi Salmon ask: Should Universities Raise or Lower Admission Requirements for CS Programs in the Age of GenAI? "This debate raises a key dilemma: should universities raise admission standards for computer science programs to ensure that only highly skilled problem-solvers enter the field, lower them to fill the gaps left by those who now see computer science as obsolete due to GenAI, or restructure them to attract excellent candidates with diverse skill sets who may not have considered computer science prior to the rise of GenAI, but who now, with the intensive GenAI and vibe coding tools supporting programming tasks, may consider entering the field?"

Submission + - Masked immigration agents challenge local police, sow fear in L.A. (msn.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Increasingly aggressive immigration raids carried out by masked federal agents, sometimes using unmarked vehicles, are creating problems for local law enforcement agencies.

Police have little or no insight into where the federal enforcement actions are taking place but often have to deal with the aftermath, including protests and questions from residents about what exactly happened. In some cases, local cops have been mistaken for federal agents, eroding years of work to have immigrant communities trust the police.

Comment Unlikely. (Score 1) 27

by Gravis Zero (#65472679) Attached to: China on Cusp of Seeing Over 100 DeepSeeks, Ex-Top Official Says

The fundamental difference in DeepSeek is that it was equivalent to high-end models but used a fraction of the processing power. Assuming they all improved power efficiency, it's implausible for them to not conflict.

Zhu, who also served as the deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund

I welcome all advances toward greater power efficiency but credibility-wise this guy is on par with every CEO of an AI company.

Comment Embraced, Extend, Extinguish. (Score 1) 42

by Gravis Zero (#65472621) Attached to: Xbox App For PC Now Integrates Your Steam Games

So MS now embraces Steam and extends it's library capabilities. If I were Valve, I would do the Microsoft thing and make arbitrary changes just to break Microsoft's app before being extinguished.

How would Microsoft do this if they were Valve?
1) Send Microsoft a C&D notice to remove all Steam titles from their library system due to "experience" and "compatibility".
2) Make changes to Steam that causes the MS library system to crash and possibly corrupt.
3) Sue Microsoft for ruining the Steam "experience" and "compatibility" as previously warned about. (This is more of a Sony move but whatever.)

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