@sawboman
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Here is a bit of a fork but I think it fits in with AI. I once read somewhere or saw it somewhere that one definition of life is ” An enttity that performs at least one purely selfish action”. That would cover all things we reguard as living but rule out all current machines because they do as the are told.
In that case almost every device I have bought in the last few years must qualify! They always take time off when it suits them and not when it suits me!
By coincidence news of a new quality of life AI decision-maker came out last week. This detects a disease of the eye and can be used for diagnosis by unqualified people – though of course the medical mafia do not abdicate their control. However, this one produces verifiable results so while the software is designed to be autonomous it can at least be audited to see if it produces the correct answers. “… This means that the technology can be used by a nurse or doctor who’s not an eye specialist, making diagnosis more accessible. For example, patients wouldn’t need to wait for an eye specialist to be available to get a diagnosis. ” However it is yet another job at risk!
I am no way sure that I can agree with your assessment ‘However it is yet another job at risk!’, unless it might put a few white stick and guild dog trainers on short time. Currently a great deal of specialist work is done, not by doctors, but by specifically trained technicians some of whom have skills and training equal to or superior to those of doctors. Some (including some doctors) sadly do not aspire to such higher sill levels. Automating aspects of the medical industry has been doing on for many years, a fact welcomed by the surgeon who performed my cataract surgery, quote: ‘This used to be a slowly evolving industry, now new improvements come along every three months.‘ His office was filled with machines, several of which were already seen as being more museum fodder than ‘front line’ tools. He rejoiced at the progress of giving people back good quality sight far faster and easier – though not entirely cheaper!
One medical centre had a not very modern machine that could batch process 40 results at a time, the obsolete wetware could only load and run one at a time. Wonder why medicine often features long waits for news? Happily the machine is still there, but the dinosaur has (been) moved on along with their partner in crime(s). I do not know the specific condition which can be diagnosed by your AI device set, but I am aware of some that require minimal specific training to detect and which do respond to early detection. Treatment is where the log jam is often encountered and anything that can improve the flow rate of successful treatments is to be welcomed.
I have to declare a personal and therefore an emotional connection to the need for earlier diagnosis of otherwise hard to spot conditions especially when all clears may ‘accidentally’, (i.e. not through negligence) be declared due to current weaknesses in detection processes.
Really pleased to hear that, please on pass our continuing best wishes for a full and complete recovery.
While Patch Tuesday is the big day every month, you might still need to play catch-up. Often a later bundle can update some previously missed patches, but sometimes they do have to be added in sequence. I would try putting the machine on at sundry odd non critical times before the May patch event to ensure that as many missing patches are added before a critical event comes along. Depending on the age of your install disk there could be a number of years worth of patches still owing and at ten per go round it could take a while…
It is some time since I ran Windows 7, but I remember that it was often slow to get any updates. I used to try to get them done under my command rather than waiting for the machine to just take over. I am going to guess that the copy of Windows 7 you installed had a lot of updates missing so catch up was going to be the order of the day. They can delay real time action if the machine or the band width is restricted. Why not let it go ahead with updating when nothing critical is in the wind so that it will be ready come a more important task? I pull my side machines out and manage a trawl for updates so that I can complete them in ‘me-off-the-machine mode’. One Windows 10 portable can be especially slow, but it is a fairly slow machine anyway and is the only one still spinning rust.
Is there anyway to resolve the domestic turf war, so the normal service may be resumed?
@JCD some lucky escapes all round, though not for the car. The fire brigade usually play safety first these days and evacuate as a first step from what I have seen and heard. They would have a field day in the Middle East where acetylene was produced from generators fed carbide lumps and water. The gas generators looked about 100~200 years old.
It was pretty warm here going up to about 20 degrees at one point as I was taking my wife for a Saturday afternoon scan, it was enough to open the window and have the blower on, but boy has the warmer weather helped the fuel consumption, low 40s to mid 50s mpg in a couple of days. Longer runs to hospitals have probably helped. As we are keeping some medicines, (long story) in the conservatory the climate control was needed to cool things for the first time this year.
@JCD, I can see the images now, perhaps it should have been put up on ebay, at least one careful owner and one slightly upset recent user. I am slightly surprised there was not more destruction, those cars used to self destruct pretty easily once the fire bug arrived to claim them. A sad end to an interesting project.
At least the surrounding are did not suffer too badly, were there houses close by?
I am stepping aside from this stomping old ground. It has not been a great week. After the third appointment in just over two weeks and being told that my wife’s scans would be ‘within 2 weeks’ I had not even removed my shoes after returning from the hospital the phone rang, whole body scan is tomorrow. The phone rang again minutes later – the bone scan Tuesday, treatment plan appointment provisionally the following Monday. My trivial carcinoma issue from Tuesday may have to wait. All in all a bit of a second rate week all round, – oh and yesterday my blood pressure was confirmed by the nurse as back in the ‘see a GP ASAP’ class.
There is some merit in looking to see how far the fluid penetrated, but only if you are confident to take things apart, though please do be careful about static protection.
My daughter used to splash things about as though spraying holy water, it did not have a divine effect!
Her keyboards either ducked a soaking or sadly became fit for the bin. It was impossible to recover them even after a strip down and careful drying.
I agree ED’s point about key caps if you end up with a bag of them, good luck you would need more than dumb luck.
I love to have complete explanations of how things get were they are going. I am also happy enough to accept that sometimes there are blanks in human knowledge that may require logical bridges to get across the gap. Sometimes the knowledge may exist somewhere or it may still be awaiting discovery. I side with those who do not need religion to give them a helping hand. I do understand that some people, need an emotional crutch to help them and the ‘fellowship’ of a religion, political party or some other group supplies that need for them.
I thought dark energy was all there is left during a power cut – is that not why the lights go out;).
Face it unknowns do exist, in maths we can use formulae to try to pin them down, but unless you need an explicit factor why care? I understand your comment about the theory being wrong if you need a packing piece added or subtracted and am inclined to agree. Though an old theory has sometimes been found to be not so much wrong as incomplete in the past. I accept that in most cases the old theories were straight out wrong and boy did religious style wars then happen, sadly the internet encourages them to prosper once more. Often they involved the religious brigade defending their false dreams against better knowledge and understanding. That is probably why so many religious followers do not want their cosy world confused by facts.
They are not appearing in Firefox, Chrome, IE or that funny upstarty thing edge for me.
ED, Annoyingly I wrote something very similar to your message and promptly lost it. My wife has an urgent appointment shortly so I do not have time or inclination to regenerate it now.
I would reinforce your comment about the Arabic used, care does have to be taken as the exact opposite meaning can be obtained by reading the same words, a bit like the way that English can be distorted. Another issue is that modern Arabic is not the same as classical Arabic. Even worse the Arabic spoken in one area can be almost incomprehensible to those from another area. Roll in an interpreter skilled in identifying the week minded and aided by a band of helpers and the suicide bomber supply lines result. It is wrong to assume any religion is but one entity, Islam is no different except that the enmities are as you rightly state are a major driving force. The eradication of anything older than today drives some factions of fanatics.
Truly, the Middle East is where good intentions and ideas go to die.
Time to abandon it to its tribal and racist fate. You have not seen racism until you view it first hand.
No one has heard anything and comments have been made in other threads. Yes it has been over a week and the best hope so far is that his electronic helper has failed to live up to expectations . Hopefully it has let him down as many of us are hoping, with increasing concern that will prove to have been the case.
You would not love my office, it is currently 24.7 C with its heating turned off. I am close to ‘open the window time’, except that the rain is an unwelcome presence. It told its good for the rice harvest, the run off from the fields is already flooding the main road. The rest of the house is not that far behind the office temperature. My wife has several ‘issues’. An autoimmune disorder, a severe circulation disorder and a few other problems not to mention a pending trip to a specialist centre tomorrow after an accelerated series of scans and biopsies. This will mean the third different hospital I have been to this week. Tuesday it was for me, for an unwelcome change. I now await a skin operation to remove that issue, others got the nitrogen blaster. A blood pressure check at the surgery this afternoon confirmed my findings in the ‘not good’ zone, so somehow I need to find time for a GP visit ASAP. I have never been busier since I joined the ‘old retired folks club’. Monday’s ‘outing’ is for our daughter in another different location. No doubt there will be more fun and games following my wife’s clinic party tomorrow, I tell you, never a dull moment, even if daughter does not brew up again.
I did not need the A/C in the car today the windows remained clear with just the ambient air, I guess the temperature was well enough above the dew point.
‘Suicide by cop’ excepted?
I would certainly wish my grandchildren to be home schooled rather than going to school in a dump peopled by an uncountable collection of gun toting kids and can not aim straight. Come to think of it that is what some US schools already resemble. Searches on entry with heavy consequences for offenders – at least they have that bit right in the US is a good way forward. Currently many UK schools are already pretty much on lock down anyway with heavily restricted access. The graddaughter’s school is managed that way with ID registration and passwords required. It is all changed since our children were small.
Steve,
(1) name two no I will make it easy name one democratic state in the area, – you cannot claim Israel that would be cheating. So the claim that invading a democratic state does not apply – I still think invasion is a pointless idea but that is something different and for very different reasons. You turn a pile of crap into a bigger pile of probably smoking crap though the locals are doing a mighty fine job of that for the moment.
(2) Running pipelines through that area would be a task that for the present and foreseeable future look somewhat below investment grade. I could see it simply becoming a superb target for every malcontent in the area – and there are just a few of them. Even the the lines in Saudi have already been successfully targeted for years.
Ii is time to write off the whole crap-shoot area as I said earlier, its historic issues are both too entrench and too parochial to get fixed by either an insider or an outsider. I am sad to say that our investment in alternatives, gas storage, (recently taken off line – what a failure). Some of the many gasification projects struggling to recycle otherwise useless waste. Perhaps a side helping of wind and maybe even some solar. 40 plus years ago the then Shah of Iran had the right idea, fossil fuel is too valuable to just burn – though turning it into plastic might not be a great idea either. It is time to rethink our way forward and do so urgently. Fracking might be another string to the bow along with vastly improved recovery rates from otherwise not recycled materials – e.g. soiled nappies a presently large and growing disposal issue, much of them can be fermented to something more useful. Stop going for single mega solutions think with some granularity. Cut the umbilical to the crap of shoot of tin pot dictators. Take them out of our lives and this includes the present Tzar of Russia – and block his clown RT goons from touring the public areas of maternity hospital units at night looking for something to moan about.
As for the very Un-united Nations, I had to hoot at the Russian stance, ‘you cannot investigate anything if we or our poodle might be found guilty’. Talk about having a laugh.
Steve I see two effects, perhaps with a few divisions.
1) A rapid drop in the number of teachers as those not considering themselves skilled enough leave.
2) Any would be target shooter takes out the teacher first then sprays the rest of the class. Remember the target shooter would likely be armed with a semi automatic semi machine gun the teacher would have no more than one shot with their probably pea shooter size weapon.
2.1) If the teacher was not shot first, then the class would be pretty much right in line for any lose shots from an under skilled teacher. Remember their shots must hit only one target with 100% disabling accuracy, the rampaging loon does not care, the more the merrier for them.
2.2) The invader has the advantage of surprise, the teacher has the disadvantage of being surprised.
‘Filters’ at the door are a great idea to catch unauthorised contraband, though perhaps not plastic pistols, less deadly than an assault weapon but…
My father was out in Indonesia, he knew a family and yes the wife used to drive the kids to and from school with a loaded gun in her handbag or perhaps sometimes on her lap. She used it once, the snake was poisonous but otherwise unarmed, then deceased. She blew its head off.
Ed wrote: ‘Syria is a mess of religions, tribes/factions, and geopolitics. Only a complete idiot would venture into it without both a well thought out strategy and an end-game in mind for what happens after ‘winning’.
Frankly, if only it was that easy. No one appears able to understand the politics and social problems of those countries, at one level you have the nice easy two parts of Islam, Sunni and Shia, (making it Shia agony on the Sunni side of the street). In fact at some levels they can sort of co-exist reasonable well unless their sensitivities are roused by some offensive idiot saying that one or other is better or worse. However, and it is a big however, sadly that is not the end of things. Within each there are simmering stress and different varieties, there are others who do not sit well under either umbrella, so that can get a bit touchy. Then their are the districts and the tribes who often show a desire to hate anyone not of the right tribe, district or whatever. For this reason a leader has to be selected who can more or less generate enough hatred to keep everyone balanced so they hate him enough to stop killing their neighbours, but not enough or in big enough numbers to act to depose the leader. Of course when the leader does get thrown out then the local blood letting starts all over again. Old enmities are rebuilt and more blood lusts are created.
The Arab spring was a total disaster because it was assumed that once the yoke of a leader was removed sweetness and light would flow, new governments would spring out of the fertile grounds and flourish. It just does not and cannot happen that way. So Turkey now has a want-to-be-despot taking the reins Egypt has once more settled into despot rule and as for Iraq and Libya read it for your selves. Sadam killed off the marsh Arabs, cleared their wet lands wrought ecological damage then invaded Kuwait and tried to wreak that for good measure. Along the way he of course resorted to chemical warfare against his own people whenever a tribe did something to offend him. Sadly for him, he ceased being a useful tyrant and a more or less dangerous tyrant. Rather than seeking to control the excesses it was finally decided to replace him, probably at the wrong time and certainly using both the wrong way and with damn all planning and forethought.
Pretty much the same can be said for the IRA and other factious causes funder in Libya and the same second rate outcome, perhaps in even worse form was the result. It is now a collection of tribal fiefdoms and pretty much lawless to boot.
Iran did manage to avoid the same fate when it changed one autocratic lot with their equally if not more barbarous theocratic lot, but they did it to themselves with little outside help.
Syria has one other dangerous fly in its ointment the naval base that was Putin’s major and frankly only want. He does not did not and never will give a flying fig for Syria. His only want was the naval base and making him look like strong ruler while still doing it all on the cheap. I guess he was being clever, or what?
So far every recent external move has lacked, understanding, proper planning, sound execution and an end objective that was achievable. As long as plans are put together by someone with more brains than a superannuated cowboy or a businessman more skilled at bankrupting businesses and sacking staff than developing a strategy that looks more than 200 characters ahead.
Sadly we no longer have diplomats with the skills and understanding that was once painstaking built up and honed, but then not maintained and developed. The USA has trouble understanding that a bit of democracy is no substitute for strong, clear, effective, leadership and that even a small amount of understanding could help them see where they have gone wrong.
Sadly, I see little that can or should be done in the overt sense. Battering down the front door is not the way but our so called ‘allies’ are all too often in hock to the likes of Russian gas for us to stand any chance of doing what should be done. Holding off on any expected options, make the other side be as much in the dark of our intentions as we can and slowly wind in undercover non headline stuff such as sanctions. Put such other bits of grit in their works as we can, until we marginalise them out of our lives. Of course the purveyors of tat, aka the French fashion houses will still want their money, shedloads of it so that plan would probably be sabotaged before it left the shed.
Steve, in the 1960 early 70 the Lebanon was a flourishing cosmopolitan place, crocked as they come of course. Then the zealots took over. Nowhere in the that area is stable for the reasons I set out above they are all like milkmaid’s stools waiting for some woodworm to nibble enough out of one of the legs to make it topple.
Thanks Richard, but when I read the blurb on HFO1234yf it looks far more dangerous (ex flammability) than the relatively benign propane! That may be a personal issue as I worked in an industry that used HF, and that material certainly is not friendly – get a drop of liquid HF on your skin and it keeps going until it hits bone, HF gas fills your lungs with water, and both give you a painful death two days later. Nice stuff! Bottom line if your car ever catches fire get out quick and keep up-wind.
Nothing is perfect or easy and yes the fire promotion properties of the current ‘benign’ refrigerant gas have been known about since they were introduced. I am not sure it they are heavier than air or lighter than air though with any vehicle fire get the heck away. The plastic, fuel and other combustibles are a rich enough cocktail to give you something to think about – from a safe distance.
If it is a van or truck brewing up, think distance, even the tyres can do you damage and as for the load, best to avoid.
Certainly best to avoid vehicle fires in the first place some vehicle makers please take note!
Steve, I was referring to the sun roof not getting much use, not the A/C. I don’t need the A/C all the time, heater off, fan on and the vents open, not on recirculation is normally enough for a large part of dull cold year, perhaps its the effect of living in hot climates for a long period. Today may be an A/C day as I take my wife to get another hospital appointment on a dull, misty November like wet day that is great for fogging the windows. The A/C does a much better job of demisting than almost anything else, though if it just me, the open windows are pretty useful, if it not raining with puddles filling tank trap size potholes everywhere, like today. I yearned for A/C back in the 1970s when we returned from overseas for a ‘medical breaks’ and were stuck in the North Circular car park trying to get to London hospitals.
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