According to this article from Wired, there may be something other than the oft- cliched "survival of the fittest" driving evolution.
Don't be sucked in by the vampires who claim that "survival of the fittest" means they have a right to rip everyone else off either folks.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Everything's goin' south . . . . .
First, I must mention that I don't own a lot myself: no cars, houses or shares. I don't really want any of that stuff either since it seems to me that most of it is as much a burden as it is a supposed source of money - I ascribe to the view that "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (or tanstaafl", usually attributed to Robert Heinlein).
To put it another way, we have a society where the obscenely rich have organised for themselves a money flow from everyone else and it has only got worse as things have failed due to this activity.
Read one article on the Beltway Vampires here or you can always catch up on the latest global news of the vampires from Max Keiser, who at least tries to make it entertaining.
I have a problem with the whole "money market" thing: I just don't think it should happen at all. Anything that can be gambled on becomes another "market" and this immediately leads to it being manipulated by big players who proceed to suck the market dry for no other reason than that they can.
This does not in any way excuse people from sitting around expecting "the government" to provide riches for them, please note: I am not happy about a shortage of jobs for people who want to trade their services fairly for a decent life. Society is built from fair trading. Note the word "fair". Where does "speculation" come into that? Nope, it does not.
To put it another way, we have a society where the obscenely rich have organised for themselves a money flow from everyone else and it has only got worse as things have failed due to this activity.
Read one article on the Beltway Vampires here or you can always catch up on the latest global news of the vampires from Max Keiser, who at least tries to make it entertaining.
I have a problem with the whole "money market" thing: I just don't think it should happen at all. Anything that can be gambled on becomes another "market" and this immediately leads to it being manipulated by big players who proceed to suck the market dry for no other reason than that they can.
This does not in any way excuse people from sitting around expecting "the government" to provide riches for them, please note: I am not happy about a shortage of jobs for people who want to trade their services fairly for a decent life. Society is built from fair trading. Note the word "fair". Where does "speculation" come into that? Nope, it does not.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Booze Culture
From today's SMH:
"The NSW Police Commissioner says that dealing with alcohol and its effects consumes about 70 per cent of a frontline police officer's time.
Need I say more?
I am not anti-drinking but I am not impressed by the alcohol soaked "culture" either.
"The NSW Police Commissioner says that dealing with alcohol and its effects consumes about 70 per cent of a frontline police officer's time.
Need I say more?
I am not anti-drinking but I am not impressed by the alcohol soaked "culture" either.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
As safe as . . . . .
I'm not even going to mention any names here since I don't want anyone else doing stupid things and I have NO idea who reads this (if anyone).
I find this whole thing very disturbing: as a well known geek site told me recently, anyone who wants to can find sites that will allow them to conduct DOS attacks and a whole raft of other net nastiness . . . . . very cheaply, from a paypal account or credit card- then you merely add the target address and choose from a pulldown menu your type of attack. There are a variety of plans you can get - each attack lasts sixty seconds after which you need to renew. There are a couple of caveats - you can find out who uses the site, and it is not protected against all of the attacks it can provide. . . . . supposedly the site is only for security people to test their servers. Yeah right.
I always knew the net was as holey as a swiss cheese but this is just nuts. A teenager with a grudge can attack anything on the net. Of course, bigger and better protected servers won't notice so much but an individual might.
Did you hear about that guy who worked for WIRED who lost all his data, IDee etc.? Apparently it was a seventeen year old kid who did it using one of these attack sites. Yah, it's gossip but as I said above, I don't want everyone to know all about these sites: it's a bit like publishing a hitman's phone number in a national paper. You could hope that it was safe but I am not going to bet on that.
Is this freedom?
Are we being wound up in the leadup to some new global mega-agency of "Net Cops" appearing?
I'm not sure I like either of these scenarios.
I find this whole thing very disturbing: as a well known geek site told me recently, anyone who wants to can find sites that will allow them to conduct DOS attacks and a whole raft of other net nastiness . . . . . very cheaply, from a paypal account or credit card- then you merely add the target address and choose from a pulldown menu your type of attack. There are a variety of plans you can get - each attack lasts sixty seconds after which you need to renew. There are a couple of caveats - you can find out who uses the site, and it is not protected against all of the attacks it can provide. . . . . supposedly the site is only for security people to test their servers. Yeah right.
I always knew the net was as holey as a swiss cheese but this is just nuts. A teenager with a grudge can attack anything on the net. Of course, bigger and better protected servers won't notice so much but an individual might.
Did you hear about that guy who worked for WIRED who lost all his data, IDee etc.? Apparently it was a seventeen year old kid who did it using one of these attack sites. Yah, it's gossip but as I said above, I don't want everyone to know all about these sites: it's a bit like publishing a hitman's phone number in a national paper. You could hope that it was safe but I am not going to bet on that.
Is this freedom?
Are we being wound up in the leadup to some new global mega-agency of "Net Cops" appearing?
I'm not sure I like either of these scenarios.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Popularity Vs. Progress
Today, a couplet of stories that caught my eye:
1. Your Facebook likes can be use to determine your intelligence and sexuality.
This not only appears on WIRED but also in the new slimmed-down Sydney Morning Herald which adds that apparently liking the "Wu-Tung Clan" denotes masculinity. I thought it was Wu-Tang myself, but then I have no idea who they really are, I assume a rap act . . . . .
Okay, I exist on Facebook but that is all. Why I would want to tell the corporations what I like and dislike is beyond me. The popularity of things is no measure of their worth, especially in the long term.
and then there is this:
NIST has created a refrigerator chip that can get down to 256 mK, which is pretty close to the temperatures where superconductivity occurs if I am not mistaken. The unit is very small too, which would mean that superconducting computer chips could be made. That would not only produce possible speed gains for computers but also since this is such a small cooler and all solid state, maybe these coolers could be added to more conventional chip designs to boost performance.
No report of the power consumption of the cooler though.
To me this is much more interesting than the Farcebook survey, but then I guess I really am a nerd.
In other news: By the number of views, m y artwork blog (The Z-Buffer) is much more popular than this blog. I guess no-one really gives a shit about reason, sense or philosophy, but someone cares about a bit of art.
Finally, today is the end of my second voyage of misery and defeat at the hands of a dating website.
I don't think it is just me either: there is something weird and bad going on there. Stay away from all "dating" websites folks, remember if you meet "the love of your life" after a few days they don't get any more $ out of you so they have no interest in helping you really, and there are some very sick people out there who want to rip you off.I was contacted by several of them. I have never had so many vampires and panhandlers hitting on me before. It's not that they are even intelligent or even tactful about it either: tragic really.
1. Your Facebook likes can be use to determine your intelligence and sexuality.
This not only appears on WIRED but also in the new slimmed-down Sydney Morning Herald which adds that apparently liking the "Wu-Tung Clan" denotes masculinity. I thought it was Wu-Tang myself, but then I have no idea who they really are, I assume a rap act . . . . .
Okay, I exist on Facebook but that is all. Why I would want to tell the corporations what I like and dislike is beyond me. The popularity of things is no measure of their worth, especially in the long term.
and then there is this:
NIST has created a refrigerator chip that can get down to 256 mK, which is pretty close to the temperatures where superconductivity occurs if I am not mistaken. The unit is very small too, which would mean that superconducting computer chips could be made. That would not only produce possible speed gains for computers but also since this is such a small cooler and all solid state, maybe these coolers could be added to more conventional chip designs to boost performance.
No report of the power consumption of the cooler though.
To me this is much more interesting than the Farcebook survey, but then I guess I really am a nerd.
In other news: By the number of views, m y artwork blog (The Z-Buffer) is much more popular than this blog. I guess no-one really gives a shit about reason, sense or philosophy, but someone cares about a bit of art.
Finally, today is the end of my second voyage of misery and defeat at the hands of a dating website.
I don't think it is just me either: there is something weird and bad going on there. Stay away from all "dating" websites folks, remember if you meet "the love of your life" after a few days they don't get any more $ out of you so they have no interest in helping you really, and there are some very sick people out there who want to rip you off.I was contacted by several of them. I have never had so many vampires and panhandlers hitting on me before. It's not that they are even intelligent or even tactful about it either: tragic really.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
If Ye Ask Me, We're All Doomed
That was the famous quote by The Scotsman in "Dad's Army".
Just have a read of this article by Ross Gittins in the SMH:
"The four most disproportionately influential industries in Australia, they say, are superannuation, banking, mining and gambling."
Note that in my view, these are all useless to the common citizen: I for one still strongly suspect that my super money will magically disappear before I get to collect whatever pittance is left after the administration fees because they are are playing with my super money on the giant casino called "The stock market".
Then there is the news that the Super percentage is to be increased, which will place additional pressures on employers and drive more small operators out of business, but who cares, right?
I don't even need to say anything about the banks.
Mining giants are working hard to get rid of employees by bringing in computer operated machinery, but then they never employed that many people anyway: they have those huge machines for good reason - employees are costly and troublesome, don't you know?
Gambling? An "industry"? Not in my definition: I thought an industry produced something useful for it's customers. It needs a new definition, something like "parasitic business that slowly kills the host".
So in short, none of these operations does anything much for the good of the nation or (perish the thought) the citizens (or "consumers" as they are now called), but they have a disproportionate influence on government . . . . . .
Oh, that's right, that's called "corruption".
Just have a read of this article by Ross Gittins in the SMH:
"The four most disproportionately influential industries in Australia, they say, are superannuation, banking, mining and gambling."
Note that in my view, these are all useless to the common citizen: I for one still strongly suspect that my super money will magically disappear before I get to collect whatever pittance is left after the administration fees because they are are playing with my super money on the giant casino called "The stock market".
Then there is the news that the Super percentage is to be increased, which will place additional pressures on employers and drive more small operators out of business, but who cares, right?
I don't even need to say anything about the banks.
Mining giants are working hard to get rid of employees by bringing in computer operated machinery, but then they never employed that many people anyway: they have those huge machines for good reason - employees are costly and troublesome, don't you know?
Gambling? An "industry"? Not in my definition: I thought an industry produced something useful for it's customers. It needs a new definition, something like "parasitic business that slowly kills the host".
So in short, none of these operations does anything much for the good of the nation or (perish the thought) the citizens (or "consumers" as they are now called), but they have a disproportionate influence on government . . . . . .
Oh, that's right, that's called "corruption".
Monday, February 4, 2013
World's Greatest Patent Troll?
Read here about Jerome Lemelson, a man who spent his whole life suing for patents, not only that though: he figured out how to scam the patent system so that he could sue for patents he didn't actually have by posting an application years before that was deliberately vague so that when the technology developed he could "amend" his existing patent and sue those who actually developed the invention.
This guy never invented anything: all he ever did was suck from corporations and businesses using the power of lawyers.
Amazing stuff, I would call it legal crime.
It just makes me wonder what other dodgy operations are going on like this today.
Thanks to Fortune Magazine for the article.
This guy never invented anything: all he ever did was suck from corporations and businesses using the power of lawyers.
Amazing stuff, I would call it legal crime.
It just makes me wonder what other dodgy operations are going on like this today.
Thanks to Fortune Magazine for the article.
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