Author: Paul

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Licensing and Copyright

Can I have a copy? Maybe use it just once? Not unless you pay for it. Everybody wants a subscription, and the tech companies want you to keep paying in perpetuity.

I’ve always been a big Sarah fan, and wish her luck. Hope she has some serious lawyer’ing behind it – they’re gonna need it. I find the parallels to this and the next post below, disturbing. Just exactly what does who own in the public domain, in terms of digital trees falling in online forests? I bet the Meta and ChatGPT lawyers got plenty of receipts. And where does the line between public and proprietary get drawn when ownership rights cross bank account boundaries?

Google hit with lawsuit alleging it stole data from millions of users to train its AI tools.

Interesting to note how every article in that list is rated high factuality.

Guess I won’t be repeating any of her jokes here.

You go, girl!
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Anonymous Coward

This is what happens when Big Tech™ gets involved with open source: Oracle pours fuel all over Red Hat source code drama.

Redhat certification got me my first civilian job after retiring from the Air Force. Now I hate them. There are only two reasons people use computers: To save money and to make money. Those goals become mutually exclusive when open source is a cost/profit center in the corporation. Customers cannot reduce costs with vendors increasing prices.

Redhat’s new source code policy constitutes a real steep price increase. It’s pretty simple logic, to anyone with enough perspective to connect the dots.

I always remember the government shift to Linux during my last few years in the Air Force. Micro$oft had been raping them with licensing fees for going on two decades when somebody got the bright idea to start moving to open source. Now they just pay the Redhat and Oracle support contracts, and I doubt there’s any shortage of M$ code running around these days either.

Ask any former Trump attorney.
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Pandemic Fraud

We can always count on Rolling Stone to turn up the really juicy bits. Repugs complain about improving IRS operations that could recoup $billions$ from white collar criminals while handing out same to people like Larry Kudlow in furtherance of monumental government-hosted waste and scams. I wonder if they looked into his wife’s business.

They are still working pandemic fraud cases, but the agents admit that they are down to a “trickle.” They, like every organization, have to prioritize, and they are facing an influx of romance scams, sextortion, and a nasty scheme called “pig butchering,” where the mark gets fattened up with phony investment returns only to be cleaned out. There’s the Black Ax gang in Nigeria on the rise, the Double Dragon crew out of China, and a new rash of electronic-bank-transfer thievery among all kinds of threats they have to try and enforce. Their work is never ending.

The Trump Administration proved one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt: How not to run a pandemic relief program.
Fortunate Son –Bob Seger cover
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Why People Gravitate to Religion

The obvious reason afflicting the vast majority is probably just that they were born and raised into it. I know I was, but it didn’t sink in, for some reason. Brainwashing humans isn’t all that far removed from animal training for dogs. Simple repetition is often all that is needed to elicit the desired behavior. The longer and more frequently it is reinforced, the better it is usually retained.

There are two other primary reasons as firmly embedded in the duality of the devout’s good-evil ideology as the repetitive training taken to reinforce it: Intelligence, and lack thereof. On the one hand, centuries of church hierarchy established an inviolable and impenetrable secret society in the largest cults. It takes some pretty smart mutherfuckers to pull that shyt off all this time. They get away with it because their bread and butter is just the opposite.

Being the symbol of inviolable truth gives alot of commoners something they can’t ever be wrong about. Sucks being a dumbass – or autistic and just perceived that way. Probably many other reasons for being vulnerable to religion, but those are a couple of the big ones I am familiar with.

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The Heron AI

Still not sure what the AI hullabaloo’s all about. This not-exactly-current example seems scary too, but why? Too many people playing what if games with information they don’t understand. The whole AI thing began back in the mid-90s when engineers started figuring out how to get lots of data together and make computers do stuff with it real fast.

This is only one of several AI-enabled programs USAF is presently exploring. Knowing them, there’s probably a whole separate umbrella program tying them all together stealing funds from personnel accounts intended for the people they’re trying to get off the payroll. Gotta keep that kill chain short as possible. Don’t think the other services are far behind. Just another spin of the tech wheel.

The Heron AI’s secret was its aggression. The AI had stood out from the other algorithms owing to its preference for head-on attacks with its simulated gun. With its bold tactics, the Heron drone neutralized a human pilot’s main advantage over an artificial mind: creativity.

If it’s job is to gun you down, that’s just what it’s gonna do. Doesn’t need to waste time thinking about it.

Navy can really use it – they’ve got alot of water to cover.
Mysterious Ways -U2
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Evergreen Alpine Rescue Team

There’s been no shortage of first responder opportunities of all types ever since we moved here back in 2003. This region certainly has some challenging environmental issues, so ours are some of the best. These guys went up for a dog.

Reminds me of the first time we hiked the Buchanan Pass trail. It’s not technically an off-leash trail, but mostly in the National Forest, so customary to let dogs run free up there, from what I’ve seen. As should be expected anywhere, you are responsible for your party’s behavior. So Jax was having a great time treeing squirrels right and left for the first two hours, when at some point he dashed off after one towards the river. It wasn’t anywhere in view, but I knew we were close, because the roar from a waterfall had been growing louder for the past few minutes.

So I followed off-trail in his direction to have a look and found the river about 100 yards downstream from the falls at the bottom of a 100 foot high cliff, with Jax nowhere in sight. The butthead is way too enthusiastic for his own good, so I immediately assumed he must’ve taken a dive. I was calling for him making my way towards the falls, looking everywhere I could see before finding a spot I could descend safely. I nearly broke my own neck slipping around on the rocks at the bottom when I saw him up at the top of the falls, just sitting there with his tongue hanging out waiting for me.

He’s gotten alot better at coming when he’s called since then. 😉

I used to fancy myself quite the little mountain man, but I’ve never even done a 14-er.
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Game On

Anybody who thinks Musk’s power play at Twitter™ is anything less than a MAGA support op, needs to pull their head out, quick.

She started her account in September 2022, shortly before Musk’s takeover, with a rapid-fire series of left-leaning tweets and requests for people to retweet if they agreed. It worked: In November and December, she was gaining more than 1,000 followers a day, according to audience data from the social media analytics firm SocialBlade.

CHATSUM: Marsh’s account employed a controversial tactic known as “rage baiting,” posting polarizing and incendiary messages to provoke engagement and boost her follower base. This strategy is reminiscent of the tactics used by Russian trolls during the 2016 US presidential campaign.

I know it well… That goes double for you, Spaceboy. 😆

Twitter not suited for emergency communications, Dutch say after storm.

Cruel Little Number -Jeff Healy Band

1st take on Meta Threads™ – it’s just business. Former Twits got money to spend somewhere. And please view my Twit characterization in an if the shoe fits vein. Unfortunately as usual, it’s the very small minority of bad actors ruining it for everybody. But if you’re using Twitter™ to make yourself stupid, by all means, go for it!

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Big Coke Party at 1600 Pa Ave!

This proves one thing for certain: Repug operatives have real drug connections. I heard that one Trump boy’s drug dealer’s on speedial, with private charter flights traveling routes regularly scheduled in and out of Bogota and Lima. Probably a more reliable revenue stream than selling the secrets. Too unpredictable just what the Iranians might want in that regard.

CHATSUM: The District of Columbia fire department determined that the powder was not hazardous, and an investigation is underway to determine how it entered the White House.

Yeah, some staffer just forgot about the dime bag they brought to that meeting – just as believable as the election denial shyt. And I’m pretty sure the DEA thinks it’s hazardous.
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Inundated With the Stupidity of Billionaires

The Golden Rule got firmly established literally everywhere at some point back in the day. With no checks and balances, you get one or another forms of authoritarianism. With democracy, you get authoritarianism we’re allowed to bitch about.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to generate interest in mind-numbing, time-wasting, money-sucking, oftentimes dangerous bullshyt – unless you have the marketing muscle to push it.

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It’s Not The Same

Hasn’t been for quite a few years. Politics has finally devolved into the familiar ‘ol good vs. evil conundrum the religious nutjobs have been purveying for centuries.

Make sure to know which side you’re on before attempting to deal with me. Mutual exclusivity exits between the atheist and devout camps – in terms of both good and evil.

“The problem for Putin is, he is to some extent, part of the system.” -Andrei Soldatov, Russian Security Services Pundit
If MAGA hipocrisy was butter, Beau would be a hot knife through it.
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Strip Mining

We’re gonna do it on the ocean floor now. Destroying the environment in terrestrial venues for the purpose of carbonizing the atmosphere with coal was a huge, destructive failure by every measure. Continues to be in many places today. Now the mineral resources desired for battery production among other things, can be found lying on the seafloor.

I’ll never forget how my father began introducing me to selfish, conservative attitudes, watching him dump trash in the strip mine pits along the road where I grew up. Vast swaths of the landscape throughout the public lands around where we lived were literally destroyed for a few tons of coal. Outcry eventually garnered legislative support directing reclamation activities, but the damage was done. It’s not the same now and never will be.

Safety and security stuff is all about risk management. The problem with today’s looming mining risk is far bigger than some realize. At least no miners will lose their lives trapped underground digging to fill the pockets of the likes of Joe Manchin.

Time just keeps everything from happening all at once. Put an ice-cube on a sunny sidewalk and watch for about an hour. Depending on how warm it is, it’ll be dry before you’re done. Water covers most of this planet. For now.

CHATSUM: Environmental concerns surround deep sea mining, as it could lead to biodiversity loss, pollution, and irreversible damage to delicate deep sea ecosystems. Some countries and companies have called for a ban or moratorium on deep sea mining until proper environmental safeguards are in place.