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How many quarters after Q1 2016 till Marissa Mayer is unemployed?
1 or fewer
2
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Her job is guaranteed; what are you even talking about?
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Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



But can you turn them into a delicious curry at the end of their lifespan? Cause if not, I'm going with goats every time.

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Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



What exactly makes Tesla a tech company besides their lovely software that can apparently brick your car and leave you locked inside with a practically inaccessible manual override? Or do you mean the self driving features that occasionally kills people?

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



The only ethical consumption is tuberculosis.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Platystemon posted:

Academ.i

Acade.mi

Aca.demi

BRB, going to register academ.ai. PM me if you have a business plan and want in.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



So how's the market for facial recognition algorithms that can handle masks and sunglasses and hats?

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



lol, I just learned that Mars Society capo Robert Zubrin has social media accounts and his Facebook page was exhorting people to buy his book, donate to the Mars Society on Giving Tuesday, and select them through Amazon Smile.

Have any space missions been funded through Kickstarter yet?

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Absurd Alhazred posted:

None of those actions seem out of line for someone running a non-profit? Also what's with using that term?

Personally I find the concept of allocating part of one's tithe to the richest person on the planet to support fantastic dreams of an off-world colonial dystopia a little absurd, but I suppose it depends on one's perspective.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Absurd Alhazred posted:

Zubrin isn't all that rich as far as I know.

I was referring to AmazonSmile with the first part, although it barely registers on the scale of tech nightmares.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Jesus loving christ I wasn't calling him a Nazi any more than czars are all literally Russian emperors.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Absurd Alhazred posted:

WHY THE gently caress IS OPENLY SOLICITING FOR DONATIONS TO YOUR CHARITY LIKE BEING A MOB BOSS?! Not a single one of you fucks has explained this, including OP. It's starting to sound defensive at this point.

Since this is apparently troubling you deeply, I apologize for my split-second decision to derisively refer to the head of an organization as a capo - an Italian mafia slang term that also literally means head - in order to exaggerate for effect, mistakenly leaving the impression that I consider their activities to be genuine organized crime rather than just mildly sociopathic.

Irony.or.Death posted:

That still leaves an obvious confusion of scale - why such a negative view of the Mars Society? Italian mafia is a pretty harsh comparison. I mean yes it's obviously a stupid society and I don't think you should give your money to them, but to the best of my knowledge they are less directly involved in murdering people than most of the thread regulars. If they have been Ubering it up, though, that would be additional good thread content that we should hear about.

Mars colonization would almost certainly get a lot of people killed! My main objection is not with extra-terrestrial resource extraction itself, but that even with the most optimistic projections, Mars would be an absolutely miserable place for humans to live, and so I see charitable donation to their cause as akin to tossing coins to the East India Company Mark II. I also apologize for not elaborating on this further but it has been discussed ad nauseam in the space thread, which is the best place to revisit the debate if anyone is so inclined.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



There's a highly cited paper on the efficacy of email as a social communication tool.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Speaking of media, I was mostly idly wondering why video streaming is such a disaster compared to music streaming. Or put another way, I can understand why video streaming is poo poo, but why is there actual competition in music streaming services and specifically why do most artists license to as many services as possible whereas TV/movies go to the highest bidder in an increasingly fragmented and yet still uncompetitive market?

This article from a few years ago argues that movies have windowing for their rights, where they spend a few months in theaters, DVD/blu-ray, then streaming/TV, and sometimes back to discs exclusively. That doesn't seem as relevant anymore since theaters are largely dead or dying.

I get that TV networks and film studios have been consolidating into massive empires where they are incentivized to start their own streaming services and not license their IP to competitors, but why isn't that happening with music? I suppose Warner and Universal music are no longer owned by their American conglomerates, so there's that, but why don't (or can't) audio streaming services get more exclusive licenses and gently caress up streaming for everyone like the video industry has?

Precambrian Video Games fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Jan 22, 2021

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



quote:

"You're used to experiencing the world through eyes," Newell said, "but eyes were created by this low-cost bidder that didn't care about failure rates and RMAs, and if it got broken there was no way to repair anything effectively, which totally makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, but is not at all reflective of consumer preferences.

In what way is this nonsense distinguishable from Elon Musk on weed rambling to Joe Rogan about Neuralink or whatever*?

* No I don't know if he actually talked about it in that interview that I am not masochistic enough to watch.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



You just have to go to the central console, hit system settings, configuration, advanced, developer options, confirm the liability release and warranty void, scroll down and enable the Three Laws setting and you're good to go!

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Complications posted:

When you think about it, what's the visual difference between parking behind another vehicle and stopping for a red light?

It's really easy to figure this out if you just feed the AI a suitable training set; think captchas where you have to click on all of the squares where it looks like the car should reverse or accelerate.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

How did we go to the moon?

By spending loads of cash to own the commies?

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



adoration for none posted:

For SpaceX's part, they have policies to de-orbit their Starlink satellites and program their satellites to avoid space debris using data from the DoD's debris-tracking system. On the other hand they did just pump out a ton of these satellites invariably increasing the risk.

SpaceX by and large seems willing to cooperate to mitigate the impact of Starlink and their other projects, but their business model is to launch as much stuff into space as quickly and cheaply as possible so relying on their continuing goodwill (and that of their numerous competitors) seems unwise.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Senor Tron posted:

Good luck getting fiber laid to aircraft and ships.

I mean if the Starlink laser link between satellites doesn't work it's going to be anywhere from bad to useless far from the coast with no ground stations in range.

Lead out in cuffs posted:

Really? Last I heard when they put a Starlink satellite on course to (potentially) collide with an ESA satellite, they were basically "no gently caress you, you move out the way".

They are actually trying to make their satellites darker and seem to have competent engineers that aren't constantly being interfered with by the musk. I heard about the possible collision thing and am not sure what to make of it.

Precambrian Video Games fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Feb 5, 2021

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Watermelon Daiquiri posted:

Not entirely tech nightmare but you know know the tesla factory will set this up if it comes to pass

quote:

Sisolak pitched the concept in his State of the State address delivered Jan. 19. The plan would bring in new businesses at the forefront of “groundbreaking technologies” without the use of tax abatements or other publicly funded incentive packages that previously helped Nevada attract companies like Tesla Inc.

Sisolak named Blockchains, LLC as a company that had committed to developing a “smart city” in an area east of Reno after the legislation has passed.

The draft proposal said the traditional local government model is “inadequate alone” to provide the resources to make Nevada a leader in attracting and retaining businesses and fostering economic development in emerging technologies and industries.

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development would oversee applications for the zones, which would be limited to companies working in specific business areas including blockchain, autonomous technology, the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, wireless, biometrics and renewable resource technology.

Zone requirements would include applicants owning at least 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) of undeveloped, uninhabited land within a single county but separate from any city, town or tax increment area. Companies would have at least $250 million and plans to invest an additional $1 billion in their zones over 10 years.

An AI-blockchain-IoT-biometrics company town springing up in the desert east of Reno is basically the entire bingo card of tech nightmares.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002





quote:

Illustration shows Blockchains, LLC’s proposed “smart city” in rural northern Nevada. (Image Source: EYRC Architects/Blockchains LLC via AP)

Apparently that county is the coldest (on average) in Nevada, which could explain why all of the buildings look like giant greenhouses designed to bake their inhabitants. Luckily, there may not be enough curved glass to also focus sunlight enough to fry unlucky passersby.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Would you be interested in a $350 smartwatch whose only function is to vibrate gently to ease your anxiety?

Now to be fair, the goal of the device is laudable, but I'm a little skeptical of the site's glossiness given that the page about research proving its efficacy doesn't seem to list any actual papers, just in-progress trials, all of which supposedly improve everything for everyone it's tested on. Also, the "Apollo does not track your biometrics – it actively improves them" statement on the front page seems like a kind of t-shirt that answers a lot of questions.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



If you are experiencing issues with your Tesla FSD, please try updating your drivers.

:rimshot:

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Silly Burrito posted:

That's a ten thousand dollar whoopsie.

As if, that's not even 20 bitcents or a couple natty lite doges or whatever.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Mister Facetious posted:

Why would anyone bother with that bullshit when the restaurant industry solved this a decade ago with infrared sensors mounted just under the faucet/next to the seat/stall?

You mean the ones that flush the toilet you're sitting on if you lean too far forward, or the ones that refuse to turn the faucet on unless you position your hands just right? Let alone the fuckers that make you run your hands together before they turn on.

That's the real tech nightmare.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Mister Facetious posted:

1.) I've never experienced that, personally. Do you wear your winter coat on the toilet or something?

Since I am not alone in this, I might have been wearing a dark shirt and unwittingly confounding it.

Mister Facetious posted:

2.) You mean like, under the faucet? Cause the sensor is mounted directly underneath the spout barely four inches away.

Have you never been to a lovely airport bathroom where the faucet wouldn't turn on unless you moved your hands right under the faucet, or at all? Most likely the battery was running low or dead entirely

Mister Facetious posted:

3.) Never seen one that requires motion, just that your hands are in front of the sensor.

You've never seen an automatic faucet with a sign instructing you rto rub your hands together on a washing motion to activate it?

FilthyImp posted:

Ate those the sensors that don't trigger for black people?

Well if the touch faucet isn't working well then surely facial recognition is the answer!

Precambrian Video Games fucked around with this message at 05:46 on May 5, 2021

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Mister Facetious posted:

Weird. You'd think with using body heat it wouldn't matter, because anything above ambient should work. Or is a heat sensor and an infrared sensor different things?

I think they're just a near-infrared LED (since I see red lights coming out of them, presuming that's the short wavelength end of the LED rather than a power/status light), paired with a camera that detects the reflected light from your clothing. So if you have a shirt that's not very infrared-reflective, or you lean at angle/too far away, it won't reflect enough light back and will either think you got up or maybe never sat down in the first place.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Flying cars aren't obvious bullshit that's perpetually 5 years away, they're just waiting on the invention of miniaturized cold fusion reactors.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



evilweasel posted:

a helicopter crashed into a building in manhattan a year or two ago - it was a minor miracle nobody died on the ground

I'm going to take a wild guess that over the last 19 years, more people on the ground have been killed by windows falling from buildings than by planes, helicopters or drones.

Somfin posted:

Imagine getting the ability to teleport and thinking drat that would help my commute

Imagine getting the ability to teleport and not immediately teleporting into a wall or 50 feet above/below the ground. And y'all thought flying was unsafe?

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Mister Facetious posted:

More like teleporting into outer space, since the planet ain't exactly standing still in this universe.

If teleportation isn't relative to your inertial frame then it's going to be more of a deathtrap than a Tesla.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Are we talking full-spectrum invisibility or would you still be picked up by a Tesla's non-existent radar?

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Mister Facetious posted:

I may have spoke too soon; a company has made a material you can hide behind, but is not itself invisible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZMyWEWHCTM

Honestly, I was expecting this to be an ad for regular curtains. Or maybe VantaBlack, wifi-capable curtains.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



The idea of cloud kitchens may not be bad but I can only imagine the reality being slapdash kitchens on rickety stilts raining down used cooking oil and butchered carcasses onto the street below.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Actually if you think about it, small, unobtrusive, cutting-edge digital billboards are a safety feature, as they can help to draw a driver's eye away from distracting, outdated physical billboards.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



The best way to design a transit system is to release a new map for Mini Metro and choose from the top scores.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



evilweasel posted:

the tweet said something to the effect of "our loss ratio was great"; then they did a follow-up tweet that said in essence "whoops we mean it was great once you remove catastrophes!" and the numbers made clear that, after catastrophes, it was bad

The first tweet said 'our loss ratios after this great AI tech were ~75% whereas before they were terrible at 350%', then a second tweet said 'just to be clear as per our investor guidance in FY2021a blah blah actually our terrible loss ratio was because of the Texas storm' and I don't think they ever made a fair comparison.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



The next big trend is going to be retro with Proof of Proof, where miners will add sourdough starter and small batch moonshine to the blockchain.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Stexils posted:

doesn't crypto have a huge electricy consumption? they might not be able to catch hobbyists but it shouldn't be hard to catch large scale mining ops just by measuring the grid

The future is already here! Police find bitcoin mine using stolen electricity in West Midlands:

quote:

Police have discovered a cryptocurrency operation that used stolen electricity to mine bitcoin in the West Midlands.

Officers from West Midlands police raided a building in an industrial estate on 18 May expecting to find a cannabis farm, but instead stumbled upon the cryptocurrency scheme. No arrests have been made.

...

West Midlands police said they had been tipped off to the possible existence of a cannabis farm because of reports of people visiting the industrial unit at all times of day. A police drone flown overhead “picked up a considerable heat source”, usually associated with heaters used to help cannabis plants grow, the force said.

Pictures of the mine released by police showed rows of computers wired together with fans attached to large ventilation ducts. There were about 100 computer units in total.

Mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is not illegal in the UK. However, the police said the mining operation was found to be stealing thousands of pounds worth of electricity from the mains supply after inquiries to Western Power, the network operator.

Jennifer Griffin, a Sandwell police sergeant, said the find was “certainly not what we were expecting”.

“It had all the hallmarks of a cannabis cultivation setup and I believe it’s only the second such crypto mine we’ve encountered in the West Midlands,” she said.

“We’ve seized the equipment and will be looking into permanently seizing it under the Proceeds of Crime Act. No one was at the unit at the time of the warrant and no arrests have been made – but we’ll be making enquiries with the unit’s owner.”

The images of the badass mining rigs are well worth a click (there's some leeching protection and I'm too lazy to re-host them).

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Lead out in cuffs posted:

Also lol at the idea that the construction giants aren't already using tech in every way possible to optimize their processes.

Reinforced concrete: literally blockchain.

Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Dynamic pricing has been a thing in some grocery stores for years. I remember reading about it a while ago and after a quick google I found a bunch of articles from 2017 and on about how UK grocery stores were going to trial digital price tags on shelves, which were already a thing in continental Europe.

In principle, it sounds like a reasonable, efficient way to discount and sell more perishable items to minimize waste without having minimum wage workers slap x% off stickers every night. In practice, I'm sure it's a dystopian nightmare (what purpose is it supposed to serve for non-perishable items or already massively profitable items like soft drinks)?

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Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



I'm sure we'll have more interactions with general AI-controlled robots in the future, but for now they're quite far from being able to mimic real human behaviour:

https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/1411786856065290245

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