Miscellaneous Tech News
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Massive scale of Russian election trolling revealed in draft Senate report
Data shows messages tuned to support Trump, discourage opposition.
A report prepared for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) due to be released later this week concludes that the activities of Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) leading up to and following the 2016 US presidential election were crafted to specifically help the Republican Party and Donald Trump. The activities encouraged those most likely to support Trump to get out to vote while actively trying to spread confusion and discourage voting among those most likely to oppose him. The report, based on research by Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika Inc., warns that social media platforms have become a "computational tool for social control, manipulated by canny political consultants, and available to politicians in democracies and dictatorships alike."
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How computers got shockingly good at recognizing images
A landmark 2012 paper transformed how software recognizes images.
Right now, I can open up Google Photos, type "beach," and see my photos from various beaches I've visited over the last decade. I never went through my photos and labeled them; instead, Google identifies beaches based on the contents of the photos themselves. This seemingly mundane feature is based on a technology called deep convolutional neural networks, which allows software to understand images in a sophisticated way that wasn't possible with prior techniques.
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CenturyLink blocked its customers’ Internet access in order to show an ad
Utah customers were booted offline until they acknowledged security software ad.
CenturyLink falsely claimed that it was required to do so by a Utah state law that says ISPs must notify customers "of the ability to block material harmful to minors." In fact, the new law requires only that ISPs notify customers of their filtering software options "in a conspicuous manner"; it does not say that the ISPs must disable Internet access until consumers acknowledge the notification. The law even says that ISPs may make the notification "with a consumer's bill," which shouldn't disable anyone's Internet access.
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
CenturyLink blocked its customers’ Internet access in order to show an ad
Utah customers were booted offline until they acknowledged security software ad.
CenturyLink falsely claimed that it was required to do so by a Utah state law that says ISPs must notify customers "of the ability to block material harmful to minors." In fact, the new law requires only that ISPs notify customers of their filtering software options "in a conspicuous manner"; it does not say that the ISPs must disable Internet access until consumers acknowledge the notification. The law even says that ISPs may make the notification "with a consumer's bill," which shouldn't disable anyone's Internet access.
Wow - it's like they actively sought out the most interrupting option available. The reality is, including it in the bill would be lucky if 25% saw and understood it, but doing this likely caused them a HUGE spike in support calls.
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@Dashrender but everyone saw it.
And technically speaking was there anything wrong with this approach? Forcing people to "read the ToC" more or less.
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender but everyone saw it.
And technically speaking was there anything wrong with this approach? Forcing people to "read the ToC" more or less.
Of course, using the method they choose, everyone did see it - well, not really everyone, likely only the first person to try to get on the internet from a specific residence. So if a child was the first one, they could easily have dismissed it before the parents ever saw it.
And I'm with you - I don't really have a problem with this approach personally. Read the F'in screen - it SHOULD be beyond obvious what it is and how to get around it. Sadly, we are so inundated with popups and other crap that normal users just randomly click on things until they get what they want, never understanding what they are doing, just basically being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
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@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
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@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
Oh I understood it as soon as I looked it up. But I've literally never heard of the infinite monkey theorem. It wasn't an issue with your description.
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
Oh I understood it as soon as I looked it up. But I've literally never heard of the infinite monkey theorem. It wasn't an issue with your description.
OH - huh.. I've heard it tons.
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
I've literally never heard of the infinite monkey theorem
How is this even possible.
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@JaredBusch said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
I've literally never heard of the infinite monkey theorem
How is this even possible.
Well I also hadn't heard of furries and larking until I've seen them in movies.
So I guess I'm weird?
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@JaredBusch said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
I've literally never heard of the infinite monkey theorem
How is this even possible.
Well I also hadn't heard of furries and larking until I've seen them in movies.
So I guess I'm weird?
Larking or LARPing?
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@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@JaredBusch said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
I've literally never heard of the infinite monkey theorem
How is this even possible.
Well I also hadn't heard of furries and larking until I've seen them in movies.
So I guess I'm weird?
Larking or LARPing?
Yeah that stupid thing. LARPing Larking whatever it's call.
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@JaredBusch said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
being Shakespeare's 1000 monkeys.
I've never heard of that before.
OK it was a horrible take on the phrase - give enough time to 1000 monkeys and they'll make the works of Shakespeare.
I've literally never heard of the infinite monkey theorem
How is this even possible.
Well I also hadn't heard of furries and larking until I've seen them in movies.
So I guess I'm weird?
Larking or LARPing?
Yeah that stupid thing. LARPing Larking whatever it's call.
I don't actually know what larking is - LARPing - Live Action Role Playing, that I know.
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lark2
/lärk/Submit
INFORMAL
verb
gerund or present participle: larking
enjoy oneself by behaving in a playful and mischievous way.
"he jumped the fence to go larking the rest of the day"
synonyms: fun, good fun, amusement, a laugh, a joke; an escapade, a prank, a trick, a jape, a practical joke
"we were just having a bit of a lark" -
Lark is a normal word that's been used for centuries. "Having a lark" is just goofing off.
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SpaceX raising $500 million to help build satellite broadband network
SpaceX raising cash after getting approval to launch up to 11,943 satellites.
The company run by Elon Musk has agreed on financing terms with existing shareholders and new investor Baillie Gifford & Co., who will pay $186 per share for new stock, valuing the company at $30.5 billion, according to Journal sources. SpaceX hasn't received the money yet but could announce the deal by the end of December, the Journal reported.
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@mlnews awesome, hope that sats are up soon.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Lark is a normal word that's been used for centuries. "Having a lark" is just goofing off.
Well - like Dustin and his lack of monkeys - I guess i have a lack of larking.
