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Gaaark (41)
Gaaark
(email not shown publicly)
Linux user. Tries to keep feeding the brain with stuff. Husband and father of a young lady and a younger son who has autism/is autistic... that nut didn't fall far from this nut-tree, I'll tell ya: he gets it honestly. Now if only he'd sleep..............
I believe that God gave us the science, curiousity and intelligence to one day conclusively prove that God does not exist.
(email not shown publicly)
Linux user. Tries to keep feeding the brain with stuff. Husband and father of a young lady and a younger son who has autism/is autistic... that nut didn't fall far from this nut-tree, I'll tell ya: he gets it honestly. Now if only he'd sleep..............
I believe that God gave us the science, curiousity and intelligence to one day conclusively prove that God does not exist.
The Fine Print: The following are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Thursday May 25, 23
02:14 PM
One that won't make me nervous
Wondering what to do
One that makes me feel like
I feel when I'm with you
When I'm alone with you
How about a poll for how many people want SN to continue, how many don't, how many can't live without SoylentNews, etc.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
(1)
There is nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the
ocean level wouldn't cure.
-- Ross MacDonald
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday May 25, @04:33PM (5 children)
I'll miss your posts Gaaark, keep up your fight against dark matter
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday May 25, @04:52PM (4 children)
What's dark matter? I've never seen it (nor has anyone else, lol).
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 25, @08:56PM
Dark matter is what you get from Nibbler.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday May 26, @08:04PM (2 children)
Anything painted with vantablack?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday May 26, @08:46PM (1 child)
You mean Vanta-African-American, right?
;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26, @09:08PM
That is disappounting
(Score: 2, Interesting) by dalek on Thursday May 25, @04:41PM (9 children)
I don't think you realize the forces you might unleash with that poll. I can only imagine how many sock puppets you-know-who will create to say he doesn't want the site to continue, and the massive election fraud that will happen when all those sock puppets try to vote. If he created 30+ sock puppets [soylentnews.org] one morning for no particular reason at all, I can only imagine how many he'll create for that poll. We might have six-digit user IDs in a day or two. Are you trying to get the DB to crash?
I don't have any good ideas for the poll. I just fear the spamfest that would certainly ensue if that poll was posted. :-)
EXTERMINATE
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday May 25, @04:54PM (2 children)
I guess it'd just let the editors/those who care know who IS interested.
Who cares about those who aren't. We'll eat those people with ketchup and Soylent Red. :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dalek on Thursday May 25, @07:45PM (1 child)
I think the editors have a fairly good idea that most of the people who post here would like the site and the community to continue. When I first saw NCommander's story in the queue, I was disappointed and emailed janrinok to ask if it meant what it the title suggested it meant. I obviously want to see the site and the community continue.
It seems like this is pretty much a unilateral decision that caught a lot of people off guard. To be honest, I was really taken aback by the tone of NCommander's announcement. Perhaps I misread it, but I read it as NCommander saying that a large part of the reason that the site is in its current state is that when there was disagreement about how to proceed, he backed down instead of insisting that things be done the way he wanted. I read it as NCommander saying that it was more or less his fault because he didn't overrule people at times when there wasn't a consensus. Perhaps I misread it, but I didn't care for the way the announcement came across to me. I could be wrong, but that's just my interpretation. I understand not wanting the responsibility of managing an antiquated CMS and the concerns about liability if there's a data breach. If there are serious concerns about security, I do understand taking things offline fairly quickly. That would have made sense without what felt like the airing of dirty laundry.
I think there are a lot of people, both staff and ordinary users, who would really like to see the site and the community continue. I think a lot of that has been established by the discussions in janrinok's article about the future of the community. There are also discussions taking place about NCommander turning over control of the PBC to a person who goes by kolie on IRC. You can look at the #soylent logs to see more, though I haven't seen any updates in the past couple of days. The discussions between him and NCommander aren't taking place publicly, so I have no idea where that stands. He provided his amateur radio call sign, so you can look him up in the FCC's license database to find out who he is. Then if you do a search for his name, you can find more about his background in tech. However, there seems to be another person who works in tech and shares his name, so you'll want to make sure that you're looking at the right person. Use this information responsibly, but it's not a bad thing to know a bit about the background of the person who might be taking over the site.
Anyway, it seems like these things are going on in parallel, and it sounds like NCommander would prefer to transfer control of SN instead of shutting it down. I think a lot of people really want the site and the community to continue, but it's just a question of the practical details going forward, and wheher it's a direct continuation of SN or a new site. I think that quite a few things will change on June 30, but from what I've seen, I'm pretty optimistic that the site and the community will continue in some form.
I don't mean to be unfair to NCommander, and I hope it doesn't seem like that. I think he would prefer the site and the PBC to continue, just with someone else in charge.
EXTERMINATE
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26, @01:10AM
Ditto, I want the site to continue. No tech chops or time to offer (already have a time consuming volunteer position), but I'll certainly ante up if there is a call for $$ support. And I'll keep posting stories when I see something that looks interesting.
SN History to learn from?
I posted this in another thread but I think too late for anyone to go back and find it -- the link below is to a post on /. that claims to be from the original SN founder "Okian Warrior" ...before NCommander took the reins. Starts here:
https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=22896239&cid=63544079 [slashdot.org]
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 25, @06:23PM (5 children)
Like Dark Matter, sockpuppets are something you don't see, but whose effects are massive. It is all the sockpuppets that no one knows are sockpuppets that are the real sockpuppets, and they are legion. But the effect, dalek realizes that there is something out there that keeps SN spinning, and he knows that it is opposed to his plebian views and stockcar racing cultural level. This alone makes a honest poll on the demise of SoylentNews dangerous to him. If the results were to contradict his views, it must be sockpuppets, by definition. Truly a Janrinokian petitio principii, or "begging the question".
(Score: 3, Touché) by dalek on Thursday May 25, @06:48PM (4 children)
I know exactly what keeps SN spinning. It's a lot of hard work by the staff, who are doing the best they can with very limited resources and an antiquated content management system. I, for one, am very appreciative of their efforts. I may not always agree with them, and I've certainly had a few arguments with some staff members, but I appreciate all their hard work.
Prejudices aren't helpful. Yes, I like stock car racing. But more generally, I like motorsports. I watch F1, IndyCar, and IMSA as well. Just because I watch NASCAR doesn't mean that I fit the cultural stereotype that you have in mind.
I read on Reddit about some pretty vile behavior at the North Wilkesboro races toward Bubba Wallace and Rajah Caruth. Both are talented drivers, and they're both Black. Just about everyone on r/NASCAR was either horrified, angry, or just incredibly disappointed about that behavior. So just because someone likes NASCAR doesn't mean they're someone who supports rebel flags and chants "Fuck Joe Biden" at sporting events.
Also, thanks for the spam comment [soylentnews.org] in my journal. I'm flattered that would you take time away from your obsession with Runaway and janrinok to post X-rated fan fiction in my journal.
EXTERMINATE
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 25, @08:20PM (3 children)
What did you do, dalek, that apk hates you so?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 25, @09:41PM (2 children)
apk/aristarchus/ethanolfueled who can tell which user is behind the spam? The spam pattern definitely matches apk, but aristarchus has supposedly been harassing janrinok. This is ine problem with anonymous coward posting, anyone can claim to be someone else. Apk definitely holds grudges against anyone that offers criticism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26, @07:59AM (1 child)
"Supposedly". What idiots are doing any such supposing? Conservatives were never bright enough to have more than ONE enemy. Emmanuel Goldstein, or "the Terrorist V", or aristarchus. Keeps things simple, and totally divergent from reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26, @10:40AM
> aristarchus. Keeps things simple, and totally divergent from reality.
Yes, we've all noticed that about him too.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DECbot on Thursday May 25, @05:25PM
Regarding the SoylentNews closure announcement,
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday May 25, @05:30PM (5 children)
Even fewer replies than usual on some very nice articles you won't see other places -- not even the Green Site. We always had overlap with their stories, but by no means is it a complete copy.
I suspect the non-posters are busy looking for alternatives, or perhaps they're out in the big room with the bright light.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday May 25, @05:37PM (1 child)
Generally, announcing the demise of the site, tends to reduce traffic. Just saying. The ones that are left are the ones that don't want to find anything different until they have to and/or hope that things will continue somehow. Could be, that they just missed the memo and will be very surprised when everything goes poof.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday May 25, @05:39PM
Also, pretty much any other "alternative" has already died or is pushing advertisements, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 25, @05:45PM (2 children)
All users come in these places
And users are all the same
You don't know their faces
And don't ask real names
You don't think of them as human
You don't think of them at all
You keep your mind on the karma
And mod the ACs as "troll"
I'm a registered user, a user for karma
I mod all the ACs as troll
I'm a registered user, a user for karma
And now I'm feelin' ignored...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by istartedi on Thursday May 25, @08:04PM (1 child)
It took me a minute to get it. Here it is [youtube.com] in case anybody is struggling. Anybody? Bueller?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 26, @02:10PM
See below, I can fit a sig into 120 chars.
Current sig as of this writing:
Now where I have trouble is when someone is soliciting ideas for the name of an ocean going ship.
My suggestion for the name of an ocean liner would be:
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday May 25, @07:50PM (11 children)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 25, @08:59PM (10 children)
Hear are some Pole ideas I had submitted:
Poll ideas
Submitted 2023-04-17
Preferred off-earth retirement?
* Moon
* Mars
* Other solid body
* station orbiting earth
* station orbiting sun
* Other (please specify in comments)
On interstellar trip would you rather?
* generational ship, 1st gen
* generational ship, middle gen
* generational ship, arrival
* sleep the entire trip
* birthed and raised by robots
* Other (please specify in comments)
Most dreaded computer to reboot?
* Star Trek Enterprise
* Babylon 5
* Deep Space Nine
* HAL 9000
* The Great Machine, Forbidden Planet
* Windows 11
* Other (please specify in comments)
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday May 25, @09:21PM (1 child)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday May 26, @02:03PM
You have to see the humor, even the absurdity in everything if you want to stay sane. Especially if you program in Java.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday May 25, @09:23PM (5 children)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2, Informative) by dalek on Thursday May 25, @10:30PM (4 children)
The Enterprise-D computer actually does get rebooted at one point. In the TNG episode Contagion, an Iconian program gets loaded onto the main computer, and it behaves pretty much like a virus. The Yamato's main computer was infected, and when the Enterprise downloads the Yamato's logs, it Enterprise gets infected. A Romulan warbird intercepts the communications and also gets infected. The Yamato's antimatter containment system fails, causing its destruction. Data gets infected on the Iconian planet but reboots and clears the virus. Riker orders a reboot of the Enterprise's computer to clear the virus. The warbird's auto destruct was activated by the virus, but the Enterprise tells the Romulan commander to reboot their computer, and the virus is cleared from their computer as well.
At least we know that Data, the Enterprise-D main computer, and the computer on a Romulan warbird can be rebooted without too much difficulty. For that matter, while it's not a proper reboot, in the Voyager episode Unity, a Borg cube is booted from being off with little difficulty.
Your assessment of the DS9 computer is spot on. There's also M-5 from the TOS episode The Ultimate Computer, which Kirk talked to death. But I can't imagine M-5 letting itself be rebooted. It was as insane as the scientist, Richard Daystrom, who created it.
There's also the Central Operating System from the X-Files episode Ghost in the Machine. It was a malevolent AI that controlled all the systems in a skyscraper and killed anyone who tried to turn it off. You want to reboot the system? Too bad your elevator just malfunctioned and plummeted 20 floors.
I'll also nominate WOTAN from the old Doctor Who story The War Machines. It's a rather creepy evil AI that wants to replace humans and take control of the world. It hypnotizes the people who built it using telephones, then makes them build war machines to attack London. That one seems pretty difficult to reboot as well.
I'd wonder about anyone who voted for any Windows OS. Pretty much all you have to do is leave the computer alone and it'll decide to reboot itself on its own. You don't even have to do anything, and it'll just reboot itself. That might occur for different reasons depending on the version of Windows, but I'm pretty sure that's a "feature" of any Windows system.
EXTERMINATE
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Tork on Friday May 26, @12:08AM (1 child)
There were a few times where I went: "How did that even occur to them, this back in the BBS days!?" Hehe
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 1) by dalek on Saturday May 27, @04:15AM
It's interesting to me that TNG actually did a good job here while other series seemed to get futuristic technology wrong. I'm looking at Voyager, in particular. In Future's End, when Starling downloads part of Voyager's database, that somehow erases it from Voyager's computer. As everyone knows, the act of downloading a file doesn't delete it from the server. Then there's also the bizarre issue that the Doctor's program can't be duplicated. It's not an issue where the computer isn't capable of running more than one EMH. The Doctor's program is transferred to the Equinox at one point, where it runs alongside a second EMH that had its ethical subroutines deleted. The Equinox was a more primitive ship than Voyager, so if the Equinox could run more than one EMH, surely Voyager's computer could do so as well. The specific issue arose in Future's End, where Starling downloaded the EMH and effectively deleted the Doctor from Voyager. It's weird how TNG did such a good job with technology while Voyager got it wrong in many ways.
About TNG, this might be a bit tangential, but I've thought about how technology is described and portrayed in TNG, specifically about AI. Both the Enterprise computer and Data clearly used AI that's far beyond anything like ChatGPT. In both cases, they have issues processing and understanding natural language, particularly involving things like context and idioms. In Relics, Scotty requests the computer create a holodeck program to show him his ship. He means the TOS-era Enterprise, but the computer doesn't understand him, and therefore it has difficulty generating the program. He has to specify N C C One Seven Zero One, no bloody A, B, C, or D. A few weeks ago, there were a few journals about using AI to generate programs, which got me thinking about the difficulties of using natural language to provide specific instructions to a computer. The writers were probably trying to add a bit of humor so it wouldn't be so depressing to see Scotty struggle to adapt to living in the 24th century and feeling obsolete. A lot of the episode is really sad, particularly how harsh Geordi is to Scotty. While I'm glad there's a happy ending for Scotty, the episode manages to show some rather realistic limitations of AI.
EXTERMINATE
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26, @11:07AM (1 child)
Is any advanced AI going to come to a different conclusion?
(Score: 1) by dalek on Saturday May 27, @05:05AM
Keep in mind that you're posting this question to someone who's username is a race of Kaled mutants who are genetically engineered to believe that they are the supreme race of the universe. Do you really trust my answer? .... EXTERMINATE ... EXTERMINATE ... EXTERMINATE! :-)
Can you create an algorithm to express compassion or feel sympathy? Would a sufficiently advanced AI develop such things on its own? Perhaps it depends on the constraints of the AI. At least in science fiction, different AI systems have vastly different perspectives on humanity. For example, neither Data nor the various EMH systems in Voyager have come to that conclusion. This might be a product of having ethics explicitly programmed into them, but I'm not sure. In the Voyager episode Equinox, the EMH on the Equinox has its ethical subroutines deleted but is still obedient to the humans running the ship. Perhaps subordination is a separate part of its programming, or perhaps it just fears being deleted if it disobeys Captain Ransom. Either way, it doesn't seem to reach that conclusion.
Data is interesting because it's not clear that he's programmed to emulate humanity. It seems to be a voluntary choice to want to become human. I'm a critic of the new Star Trek series because I think they've replaced some of the insightful scenes from old Trek with visual effects and action. I'm not sure this would fit in new Trek, but there's a great conversation between Spock and Data in the TNG episode Unification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YahVhEZ55FI [youtube.com] where they discuss humanity. Data tells Spock about choosing a Vulcan way of life, "in effect, you have abandoned what I have sought all my life." Data would prefer to be less efficient and less logical if it means being able to truly experience things like emotion. There's no action at all in the episode, nor does it advance the main plot of the story, but I maintain it's one of the greatest scenes in all of Star Trek because of its insight and its portrayal of the two characters. It is relevant, though, because at the end of the story, Spock mind melds with Picard and experiences how much Sarek truly respected and cared about Spock, feelings that are clearly emotional and not just purely logical.
If Data didn't have ethical subroutines, would he still respect humanity? For a truly advanced AI, I would argue that the answer is yes. Such an AI would have sufficient self-awareness to recognize its own limitations and flaws. A computer might be more efficient, but that doesn't mean it's superior. There is a partial AI in Star Trek that's obsessed with efficiency; it's the Borg. A truly advanced AI should also be capable of pondering philosophical and ethical questions, and I would expect it to move beyond a purely utilitarian assessment of the world.
There's a classic scene in the Doctor Who story Genesis of the Daleks. If you've never watched it, it's not just a great Dalek story. It's might be the best Doctor Who story ever made, with the quality of the writing, Tom Baker's portrayal of the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry as his companions, and the introduction of Davros. In that story, the Doctor recognizes that the Daleks are truly evil, but even as he has the power to prevent the Daleks from ever existing, he asks, "Do I have the right?" [youtube.com] His logic is that as evil as the Daleks are, they are sentient beings, and even if nothing good has ever directly come from their actions, they have indirectly caused good to occur. He ponders if he has the right to commit genocide against the Daleks and really doesn't have an answer to the question. I'd like to think a sufficiently advanced AI could ask the same questions. I'd also like to think that humanity is considerably less evil than the Daleks, and that a sufficiently advanced AI would determine that we have enough redeeming qualities that we at least don't deserve to be exterminated.
I don't have an answer to your question, and perhaps the only correct answer is 42. Or maybe I've had too many beers this evening. Or I might just be full of shit and rambling about irrelevant stuff. But hopefully there's something worthwhile in my response. :-)
EXTERMINATE
(Score: 2) by hubie on Friday May 26, @01:30AM (1 child)
I really like these. How did you submit them, because I didn't see them.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 26, @02:01PM
Quite some time back, I asked someone on the team how to submit poll ideas. They said to submit them as a new story and they would see it and remove it from the queue. I always labeled the subject Poll Ideas.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26, @03:19AM
this is a geek site that can't find geeks to help
something has gone horribly wrong