@RojoLoco said in And The Matrix begins...:
Black Mirror
Looks interesting. Similar to Mr. Robot? Never seen Mr. Robot, but, from what I hear, it seems to be about the same level.
Is Black Mirror on Netflix or something?
Of course this is like "Judging a book by its cover"
Back in 1999, The Matrix brought us into a world where machines ruled and man was driven underground, in many different ways. Back then, it was easy to dismiss it as pure fantasy because it seemed not possible with the technologies that we had at the time. However, technology developed faster in the 20th century than it did in the entire 2000 millenia (between 1000-1999).
However, the acceleration of the evolution of technology has continued to increase. Today, we have home automation, smartphones, smart thermostats, artificial intelligence (in machines, not people), and the Internet. Now, at face value and independent, these are all great things. However, if one company was to make it all and begin to build a profile about you in regards to your use of these things, well then, that could be a totally different story.
Alphabet (the umbrella company that owns Google, YouTube, Nest, and Android) has stopped their self-driving car project and has created another company called Waymo. At face value, this is a great achievement. More smarter cars would mean safer roads, cost efficiency, and happier people, right? The elderly and disabled can get to the doctors appointments that they need to get to without relying on somebody else. You're essentially giving them their freedom back.
Business model? I am thinking something similar to Uber. You could put "Waymo by Google" because everybody recognizes the Google branding and feel that they can trust it. Its driverless, so you're not concerned about the creepy driver that you're getting into the car with, and you can be sure that you are going to safely and efficiently get to your destination.
Now, lets say you carry an Android phone. Or even the new Pixel phone. 'They could possibly know your whereabouts and who you talk to. Do you use Allo or Duo to talk to your friends and family? They could eavesdrop. Have a Nest in your house? They can possibly tell when you're home based on the temperature settings. Are you getting a new Google Home for Christmas? You just let them listen right into your conversations as a family. Have a chromecast? They know what you like to watch. The list can go on and on and you see where I am going with this.
Has Google done some pretty cool things? Yeah, sure. So, where does The Matrix fit into all of this? That profile that Alphabet could be building of you could also be used to learn about you. Introducing Alice, Bob, and Eve. Three of Google's AI brains, if you will. They are independent projects, under the same portfolio, all owned by Alphabet. The Google Brain project (the portfolio) decided to do a little test. They gave Alice the task of creating an encryption system with a set of random numbers, give the number to Bob, and relay a message to Bob using the encryption that Alice developed. Bob was able to successfully read the message that Alice gave him using the encryption key that Alice gave him. However, when Eve was tasked to read the message without the key, she was unable to. Source
So, what other technologies could Alphabet be working on? Maybe actual bots to roam your house and help you clean? How about actual Android soldiers so that we don't have to send our own men and women to fight wars for us? How about Android police officers so that discrimination could be a thing of the past? You're then not risking the lives of men and women to keep us safe. Its merely robots going after the bad guys. If they get blown up then we can build another or rebuilt the first.
What if the AI braintrust decided that they were smarter than us and, in trying to take better care of us, they created a virtual world and have us in that virtual world? Maybe the robots decide that they want their own freewill and decide to make us their slaves instead of the other way around. Kind of far fetched now? A little sci-fi-ish? Maybe I'm a little paranoid. I think I might have lost my tin foil hat. 
"The computer is only as smart as its programmer(s)" -Keith "NerdyDad" Baldwin
If somebody else has said it before me, please let me know.
@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:
"Excellence is situational. You can be a star at one place and fired for incompetence at another." True story, @QuinnyPig @DevOpsDaysTLV
Man ain't that the truth. Reverse that and you have my last job and this one.
@scottalanmiller said in DuoLingo Challenge:
For those wondering, I hit 46% on Italian yesterday. To MAINTAIN this level, I had to do another 18 lessons today just to get back from 45% to 46%. That's how many lessons deprecate per day!!
If it is going to be this time consuming at 46% (or 43% for me in Spanish), how difficult do you think it is going to be as time progresses? I am not sure about Italian, but I have noticed that I am not spending as much time before the first checkpoint as I was before. Hopefully, there is some kind of logic going on so that we are not spending as much time in earlier lessons and that they will be concreted in. However, I would not be surprised to see if you could digress from fluent back to 0% if you left it alone long enough.
Met Lt. Tasha Yar of the Star Trek: TNG in Roswell, NM. They were actually having galaxy fest at the time back in 2012.
Whooaaa. Backup here a minute speedy. What is Salt and it's purpose? Where can I find more information?
Considerations for physical versus virtual?
@scottalanmiller said in DuoLingo Challenge:
@NerdyDad said in DuoLingo Challenge:
Right on your tail....
Got to keep going.
@travisdh1 said in VyOS will not load:
Does anything happen if you press enter? Sounds like it might not be booting properly.
Nothing happens. Think maybe GRUB died?
So, at the recommendation of @scottalanmiller, I have installed VyOS on a computer that I have purposed for a firewall for home. I have not made any configurations at all. Literally, downloaded the image, burned it to a disk, and installed it per the VyOS wiki for installation. I typed in "install image", followed the prompts, ejected the disk, and rebooted. I haven't even setup network connections yet (maybe that's the problem?).
Once the computer is done rebooting, I get a blinking console prompt. I cannot do anything at the console and I can't do anything through putty/serial.
I feel like such a noob for asking this, but what am I doing wrong?
@scottalanmiller said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@NerdyDad said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
I'd hate to throw another monkey wrench into all of this. I am really considering VyOS, but was wondering if the Sophos UTM should be a consideration. I'm getting the free home version. Also, how does their other home firewall compare?
This is for home? Is your goal to have something fancy or to learn skills for work? If you want to learn valuable IT skills, VyOS obviously. If you just want a pretty GUI for home use, doesn't really matter what you pick.
There are multiple reasons here:
I'd hate to throw another monkey wrench into all of this. I am really considering VyOS, but was wondering if the Sophos UTM should be a consideration. I'm getting the free home version. Also, how does their other home firewall compare?
@scottalanmiller I may be moving fast, but now the question is, how much am I retaining? I am wanting to start using it in conversation but am afraid that I still don't know enough to be useful. I am wanting for duolingo to port their bot app to android, but looks like that hasn't happened yet.
Right now, its a Buffalo router, which I have been somewhat pleased with, but I'm wanting something more robust. I'm trying to prep a computer with VyOS but it seems to be ornery with me so far. After that, I have an old Aruba controller and WAPs that I am wanting to deploy.
