Comment You wouldn't download an AI (Score 1) 8
“Good artists copy, great artists steal” - Pablo Picasso
I believe the classic line between copying and synthesis is taking from three artists or more.
Comment Re:Context? (Score 1) 92
The author is allowed to not give a flying fig about that. Or anything else.
Submission + - Physicists create first room-temperature quantum material (phys.org)
alternative_right writes: In a study published in Nature, LSU physicists have developed the first room-temperature quantum material capable of distinguishing and transporting different quantum states of light, overcoming one of the biggest challenges in quantum materials research. Led by Associate Professor of Physics Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza, the work establishes a general design principle for engineering an entirely new class of quantum materials, opening new possibilities for quantum computing, secure communications, sensing technologies and advanced energy systems.
Comment An AMAZING number of flaws (Score 4, Insightful) 66
The big underlying issue is why does Microsoft deliver software with so many flaws?
Comment Re:DST is Dumb (Score 4, Interesting) 242
I used to work in Antarctica. One summer on a new station in the center authorities decided to put us on the same time as the big coastal station, saying that we had sun 24/7 anyway so it wouldn't matter. The idea was to synchronize communication with the head station. Well, the sun still has daily ups and downs, so we had to get up when the sun was lowest and start work when it was the fucking coldest at -50C and we'd go to bed when it was a balmy -20C. After a few days of that we started getting up and start work later and later, until we'd start work at 2pm or so !!!
The next year we had our own timezone.
The next year we had our own timezone.
Submission + - How Microsoft's "Little Workaround" Created a Major Pentagon Threat (propublica.org)
joshuark writes: ProPublica Reporter Renee Dudley heard Microsoft was running tech support for the U.S. Defense Department through China, the country’s biggest cybersecurity adversary.
The arrangement was called “digital escorting.” She thought it sounded like a conspiracy theory — until she started looking into it. This is the story of what she found and how her investigation changed government policy.
Microsoft is using engineers in China to help maintain the Defense Department’s computer systems — with minimal supervision by U.S. personnel — leaving some of the nation’s most sensitive data vulnerable to hacking from its leading cyber adversary, a ProPublica investigation has found.
The arrangement, which was critical to Microsoft winning the federal government’s cloud computing business a decade ago, relies on U.S. citizens with security clearances to oversee the work and serve as a barrier against espionage and sabotage.
National security and cybersecurity experts in the Trump administration contacted by ProPublica were also surprised to learn that such an arrangement was in place, especially at a time when the U.S. intelligence community and leading members of Congress and the Trump administration view China’s digital prowess as a top threat to the country.
Microsoft uses the escort system to handle the government’s most sensitive information that falls below “classified.” According to the government, this “high impact level” category includes “data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin.” The “loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability” of this information “could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic adverse effect” on operations, assets and individuals, the government has said. In the Defense Department, the data is categorized as “Impact Level” 4 and 5 and includes materials that directly support military operations.
“If someone ran a script called ‘fix_servers.sh’ but it actually did something malicious then [escorts] would have no idea,” a former Microsoft engineer who worked on the escort system, told ProPublica in an email. That said, he maintained that the “scope of systems they could disrupt” is limited.
In an emailed statement, the Defense Information Systems Agency said that cloud service providers “are required to establish and maintain controls for vetting and using qualified specialists,” but the agency did not respond to ProPublica’s questions regarding the digital escorts’ qualifications.
It’s unclear whether other cloud providers to the federal government use digital escorts as part of their tech support. Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud declined to comment on the record for this article. Oracle did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the inspector general — whose office is supposed to operate independently in order to investigate potential waste, fraud and abuse — told ProPublica they were not authorized to speak about the issue and directed questions to DISA public affairs.
The arrangement was called “digital escorting.” She thought it sounded like a conspiracy theory — until she started looking into it. This is the story of what she found and how her investigation changed government policy.
Microsoft is using engineers in China to help maintain the Defense Department’s computer systems — with minimal supervision by U.S. personnel — leaving some of the nation’s most sensitive data vulnerable to hacking from its leading cyber adversary, a ProPublica investigation has found.
The arrangement, which was critical to Microsoft winning the federal government’s cloud computing business a decade ago, relies on U.S. citizens with security clearances to oversee the work and serve as a barrier against espionage and sabotage.
National security and cybersecurity experts in the Trump administration contacted by ProPublica were also surprised to learn that such an arrangement was in place, especially at a time when the U.S. intelligence community and leading members of Congress and the Trump administration view China’s digital prowess as a top threat to the country.
Microsoft uses the escort system to handle the government’s most sensitive information that falls below “classified.” According to the government, this “high impact level” category includes “data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin.” The “loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability” of this information “could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic adverse effect” on operations, assets and individuals, the government has said. In the Defense Department, the data is categorized as “Impact Level” 4 and 5 and includes materials that directly support military operations.
“If someone ran a script called ‘fix_servers.sh’ but it actually did something malicious then [escorts] would have no idea,” a former Microsoft engineer who worked on the escort system, told ProPublica in an email. That said, he maintained that the “scope of systems they could disrupt” is limited.
In an emailed statement, the Defense Information Systems Agency said that cloud service providers “are required to establish and maintain controls for vetting and using qualified specialists,” but the agency did not respond to ProPublica’s questions regarding the digital escorts’ qualifications.
It’s unclear whether other cloud providers to the federal government use digital escorts as part of their tech support. Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud declined to comment on the record for this article. Oracle did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the inspector general — whose office is supposed to operate independently in order to investigate potential waste, fraud and abuse — told ProPublica they were not authorized to speak about the issue and directed questions to DISA public affairs.
Comment Zorin or Mint? (Score 2) 103
I keep hearing things like "my grandmother got so confused, I set her up on Zorin/Mint and she couldn't tell the difference."
The more people just use their PC's to get on websites the less they seem to notice if they use Windows or Linux.
Comment Framing (Score 3, Insightful) 86
It doesn't matter if it's bad - if China and Russia agree it's bad you have to be for it.
You can never agree with China because they have a totalitarian AI Surveillance Police State there so you must support a totalitarian AI Surveillance Police State here.
If you are against techo-feudalism you must be one of them Putin Lovers.
- The New York Times / Langley, apparently.
Comment Re:No relation (Score 1) 103
I'm amazed to find your comment is an isolated example of reading comprehension and critical thinking.
Many others are 'accepting the premise' and 'entering the frame' of the LA Times weirdos.
Didn't expect that today.
Comment Re:There are probably cooler old IBM sites to visi (Score 3, Interesting) 60
Just be careful; a few old IBM sites had toxic waste problems. It sounds like they were just turning off the lights and water and walking away from these.
One woild hope everything was remediated but I wouldn't bet my own safety on it.
Comment Re:Aren't guns legal? (Score 3, Informative) 60
Yeah, that's why they mentioned the ancient Sony camera he lifted.
"Crime with a gun" is a separate crime according to NY.
SCOTUS will strike those down eventually. It's like saying "crime while praying" if it's a right.
Obviously he wasn't using the gun to jack a Betacam. He was probably worried about crackheads in there for the copper.
Comment Cheap, If... (Score 1) 39
If the argument can be proved that they ruined the minds of an entire generation using a massive AI/Big Data model running at n terraflops by deliberately addicting children during the crucial neuronal pruning period of their lives, that is at a minimum going to cost the society tens of trillions of dollars and restitution would be far more than the proposed fines.
Nobody gets a second chance at that pruning stage, at least in this lifetime.
Their profits may be far lower than the damage they caused, but that characteristic is always true of parasitic entities.
This is basically the whole point of the Island of Pleasure warning in Pinocchio.
It remains to be seen what can be proved in Courts but the DSM-6 won't be kind to their arguments as outlined in TFS.
Comment Re:Cool! (Score 3, Interesting) 35
The idea is probably from 1950's comic books but the tech seems brand new since they don't need any landing legs and use a net-on-frame architecture.
People should pay attention because they didn't have orbital technology thirty years ago and now they have a space station, reusable rockets, and are about to have a Moon base.
And possibly ultra-long flighttime 'drones' that can fly over Picatinny Arsenal unimpeded; that much is uncertain. We have no explanation for their energy budget (at least white-world).
Having a country run by engineers rather than professional thieves who hire engineers to justify pillage has certain advantages (and disadvantages).
Let's not get too overconfident.
Comment Re:Even though IBM is evil (Score 1) 109
True, but not as evil as running the programs and compute for the Nazis, or South Africa under aparthied.
Comment Re:Trump cut the funding (Score 1) 153
Well, it needs to be quoted quite subtly. If you try "I don't believe murder is wrong", your are in for a bad time.
