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Comment Re:What if you don't have one? (Score 1) 173

What if you don't have any social media? I deleted all mine in 2021. I suggest others do so too. It makes life a lot better:

Even when you delete a social media account, the information is generally preserved. You'll probably be required to disclose all social media accounts which have at some time been under your control under penalty of perjury. Even if you can't unlock those old accounts, the information might still be accessible to the government. You might be required to sign a waiver granting all social media companies permission to disclose all information (including deleted posts).

Comment Re:Easy (Score 2) 173

I haven't seen the details of this new policy, but I'm sure you'll be required to fill out a form which says to list all social media accounts that are under your control, and at the bottom of the form will be a space to sign your name with the note (standard on federal forms) that it is an offense under section whatever of the United States Code to knowingly provide false information on the form punishable by a fine of not more than $250,000 and a prison sentence of not more than five years. So, you're taking a big risk. If, at any future time, there's an investigation which reveals the existence of undisclosed social media accounts which existed at the time you filled in the form, you are a felon and could be imprisoned.

Comment Re:Taxes are backward (Score 1) 192

IMHO the fact that we have to, under criminal law, to testify against ourself is a violation of our Constitutional Rights, to not incriminate ourselves.

I'm sure there is some weird legal theory that the government uses to get around this.

But it's not criminal to declare your income. Only to not declare it.

Comment Re:Good for the judge (Score 3, Insightful) 84

Speech is generally recognized as something that's produced by humans. If I wrote a very simple bot program that followed you around the Internet and spammed you, you'd hardly be amenable to arguments that my bot program enjoys free speech protections under the first amendment to engage in such behavior.

Neither do humans if they are engaging in stalking behavior. The issue here should really be about the speech and not the agent which communicates it. If the speech would not be illegal for a human to utter, there is no reason it should be treated differently if "spoken" by A.I. software. Computer software is considered speech under the First Amendment, and that should cover any communications by the software. But the First Amendment doesn't cover all speech. Inciting crime, uttering threats, stalking and harassing, libel and slander, are all categories of speech not protected by the First Amendment. A.I. should not be treated differently than humans in that regard.

And those arguing in favor of these lawsuits seem to want to have it both ways. On the one hand, they say A.I. bots have agency and as non-humans aren't protected by the first amendment. But one cannot collect damages from a computer as a computer owns no capital. So, when it comes to the lawsuits, those same people say the computers don't have agency, and the human owners should be financially responsible for damages. You can't have your cake and eat it too!

Comment Re:Not suprising (Score 1) 140

We're in an age where social media is the norm, and schools are still grappling with the idea that cyber bullying on social media is a school phenomenon but does not actually occur on campus. From a policy perspective most schools are used to the idea of managing the physical space of the school and the community of children there, but has no idea how to handle cyber bullying despite a reported 21.6% of high schoolers face cyber bullying from their peers, much of it happening on campus and off.

Do you really want schools to be policing your children's Internet use off campus?

Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 214

How many rights do you really think minors should have?

This isn't about minors' rights. This is about the rights of any individual of any age who wishes to participate in online discussions without revealing their real name. There are many legitimate reasons for this: LGTBQ+ people who want support but aren't out of the closet yet, drug addicts seeking advice on how to find treatment, whistleblowers who are afraid of repercussions at their place of employment, people discussing political or religious views that might be unpopular or politically incorrect, etc. The list goes on and on. In today's cancel culture, the right to anonymous speech is more important than ever.

Comment Re:Computer programming is not for everyone (Score 1) 159

How many of us get past being able to play Itsy Bitsy Spider on the piano to playing Mozart's 5th by memory?

Mozart's 5th? His 5th what? Symphony? If so, that is a very early work no one knows and would not be played on a piano or any other single instrument anyway. Could you be talking about Beethoven's 5th Symphony? That is indeed a masterpiece for full orchestra.

Comment Re:Let me get this straight. (Score 1) 149

No, not the reason. Apple is pulling out because they don't want to comply with the law that forbids anti-competitive behavior. Ie, the law requires interoperability, and Apple does not want that. This is not a money extraction from the EU, instead, unlike the USA, EU wants competition, and EU wants corporations to serve the public instead of vice versa.

By your logic, if I choose not to drive my car cause I don't want to comply with traffic laws, I should be fined. Yeah, that makes sense!

Comment Cliff Stoll is a fascinating guy. (Score 4, Interesting) 47

Many have correctly pointed out that Klein bottles are nothing new and glass blowers have been making them for some time. The headline is therefore misleading. Also, these aren't even real Klein bottles as a true Klein bottle can't exist in a three dimensional space.

All that being said, don't blame Cliff for the misleading headline. He didn't post it. He is, in fact, a really interesting guy. He's a frequent contributor to the Numberphile channel on YouTube and his videos are always interesting to watch. He's a real engineering nerd and in one video he shows how he stores all his Klein bottles in a crawlspace under his house and he built a robot that can drive around in said space to store and fetch these bottles. You should really check out some of his videos: he's a really entertaining and informative guy.

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