Back in 1997, when the UK’s lease on Hong Kong expired, did it seem plausible that China would maintain a “one country, two systems” policy for fifty years? I was not yet a teenager, so I have no idea what the general thinking might have been. But for the last fifteen years or so, it’s …
Meanwhile, in
The Panopticon Intensifies
…as we all said it would. Majority Leader McConnell wants to amend the USA PATRIOT Act (possibly the most ridiculous legislative acronym ever) to make it worse. There is a portion of the Act, Section 215, which authorizes the FBI to seize “any tangible thing” relating to the subject of an investigation, without a warrant. …
Artificial Intelligence & You: Some Light Reading
Part three of a series on artificial intelligence. My earlier posts on this topic dealt with some fairly sophisticated text-generation AI’s from the present and (likely) near future. But most of the AI you experience is very mundane, and often slips under your radar. AI is more ubiquitous than you may hope… and significantly stupider …
Artificial Intelligence & You: Some Light ReadingPost + Comments (79)
Midmorningish Open Thread
I understand my absence has gone noticed. I am okay! Just laser-focused on my sanity, which doesn’t involve commenting about the news for more than 280 characters. I have a couple of posts about AI and contact tracing technology I want to write, but all my typing seems to be going towards a novel rewrite. …
Noonish/Morningish Open Thread: Three Cheers for TCP/IP!
Many years ago, computer scientists at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, chief among them Robert Kahn and Vincent Cerf, had a wacky idea. What if, instead of having computers talk to each other like people do on the phone–with dedicated long-term connections, hello and goodbye messages, and a centralized service responsible for connection reliability–we created …
Noonish/Morningish Open Thread: Three Cheers for TCP/IP!Post + Comments (247)
An Afternoon Respite Exercise
Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 47, and post the fourth sentence. Don’t mention the title. — adam harris (@AdamHSays) April 2, 2020 Mine is aggressively on-brand: “Vogonity,” Ford hissed at him. https://t.co/sxJSUYPZqF — ꧁Tynan꧂ (@TynanPants) April 2, 2020 What’s yours? Consider this a thread for all your respiteful needs, which do …
Can You Hear The People Sing?
This came across my feed and absolutely made my day. Just the pick-me-up I needed to make it through the afternoon. Seems like the sort of thing my family might have done, back when I was the younger brother’s age and hadn’t realized that musicals were gay and must be shunned*. This is the talented …