Posts by bobwyman@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AUp9WVLnBCbkCeEN4S by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-04-19T19:03:54Z
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Nebraska lawmakers pass new law allowing concealed carry of firearms without a permit. The vote was 33-14 in a unicameral legislature dominated by Republicans. These Radical Republicans are insane. At a time that most Americans want to see more regulation of firearms, it doesn't make sense to remove existing regulations.https://apnews.com/article/constitutional-carry-bill-nebraska-a8168215d00c1e4bf51017e82e8da80b
(DIR) Post #AVPzrQyQpytc17A9Bo by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-07T17:18:28Z
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@lauren @glennf Incarceration for non-violent crimes may be nuts, but some would say that it is still better than all the alternatives.What, in fact, are those alternatives? How would you deal with a case like Theranos' fraud without putting some of the perpetrators in prison?
(DIR) Post #AVQF3t7JWfGy5aiJQe by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-07T20:08:44Z
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@lauren @glennf In theory, the incarceration of some should deter others by instilling a fear of the consequence of being caught and convicted. Even if incarceration has no direct benefit, some say it provides an indirect benefit.But, since we imprison so few fraudsters and white-collar criminals, potential criminals tend to worry more about a loss of reputation than imprisonment. Nonetheless, dramatically increasing white-collar incarceration rates is undoubtedly not the answer.
(DIR) Post #AVQg4m8BgMfHTUlnJQ by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-08T01:11:28Z
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@lauren We had more than just a helicopter service, it was a whole airline -- complete with its own dedicated gates at Logan Airport.The DEC I joined in 1979 was very different from the Company I left in 1991. The once-powerful culture changed and was weakened drastically when the "Strecker Task Force (STF)" began to set policy internally. Prior to the STF, most product strategy grew organically. But the STF disempowered the product managers and centralized strategy making. The culture died...
(DIR) Post #AVQhYxqQnOoCRgQKDQ by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-08T01:21:45Z
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@lauren Too much attention is focused on DEC's hardware products. I was the Product Manager for DEC's ALL-IN-1, created by a small team in Software Services and based on what we'd learned consulting for customers. ALL-IN-1 became the leading office automation product of the 1980's. It was used by most of the Fortune 500 and killed Wang. We were responsible for about 25% of DEC's business. But, there were many very bloody battles with those who resisted the idea that software could be the future.
(DIR) Post #AVQiiBcH3vOViZlNFA by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-08T01:40:58Z
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@lauren Ultrix (our "Unix") sapped vast amounts of energy and capability from the company. At one point, a very large number of our software engineers were working on porting their code from VMS to Ultrix. The result was a virtual halt in all new products or enhancements since everyone was porting, rather than trying to figure out how to better serve customer needs. After a year or two of mindless porting, many once creative engineers lost the spark that had previously driven their work.
(DIR) Post #AVQjCb7enNX1VlwYMa by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-08T01:46:30Z
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@lauren See the Computer Museum: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746918I believe that Jean Wood had the real plate on her car at one point. (I may be wrong.)
(DIR) Post #AVqrV19Wy0fG0po3Fo by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-20T16:22:00Z
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@lauren One alternative would be to continue to make payments on the debt while shutting down all other government spending.
(DIR) Post #AVrLdyM7jSdQZLsmrg by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-05-20T21:59:36Z
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@lauren Social Security payments do not, and by law cannot, increase federal deficits. They are covered either by prior savings or current revenue.Note: Given today's federal fiat money, rather than the commodity-backed currency we had when Social Security was first created, it is actually kind of silly that we still have a "Social Security Fund," nonetheless, given current law, one cannot claim that social security payments increase the deficit.https://www.epi.org/publication/social_security_and_the_federal_deficit/#:~:text=Social%20Security%20can,to%20be%20cut).
(DIR) Post #AWz89GQDUzkNorsVtI by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-06-23T13:58:01Z
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@brewsterkahle If you publish data using HTML and HTTP, standards whose core motivation was support for linking, you should be assumed to have implicitly agreed to accept that others, relying on those same standards, will link to you. One who adopts a standard, having a clear understanding of the intended and previous use of the standard by others, has no right to "poison the water" by objecting to uses of the standard which could have been avoided simply by not adopting that standard.
(DIR) Post #AYjkZ75fz8u8hZKLZ2 by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-08-14T21:12:46Z
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**Fossil fuels make you stupid...**NIH research characterizes, more clearly than before, the association between fossil fuel use and dementia. The problem is the PM2.5 particles that are a significant portion of the pollution that results from burning fossil fuels.When you drive a gas-powered vehicle, you're not only causing global warming, you're also poisoning everyone -- including yourself.https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/air-pollution-different-emission-sources-associated-incident-dementia
(DIR) Post #AaLI1mUEAY6u4JEXse by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-09-30T21:53:45Z
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Pew Research shows that today a majority of Americans say a woman president would be no different than a man in several key areas. This is a significant change from earlier years and should be celebrated.https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/09/27/views-of-having-a-woman-president/
(DIR) Post #AbHX6S4lolRK1EEl60 by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-10-30T02:19:39Z
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The average cost to process a debit-card transaction in the USA is 3.9¢, yet banks have been allowed to charge up to 21¢ per transaction (over 5 times their costs). Now the Federal Reserve proposes lowering the cap on charges to 14.4¢ -- still almost 4 times their actual costs. This doesn't make sense.Banks should be allowed to charge actual costs plus a reasonable profit. 269% is NOT a reasonable profit.https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/the-feds-proposal-to-lower-debit-card-swipe-fees-isnt-enough/
(DIR) Post #AcFqLoQKtQJskgEBpA by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-11-28T03:52:09Z
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"Coal-fired power plants [in the USA] killed at least 460,000 Americans during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought." says new research.About 85% of the 460,000 coal plant-related deaths were between 1999 and 2007. After 2007, the death toll declined drastically as plants closed or installed scrubbers to comply with new environmental rules. By 2020, the coal PM2.5 death toll had dropped 95%, to "only" 1,600 people per year.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/23/coal-power-plants-deaths-pollution
(DIR) Post #AcFruauxCTuEx8hMYa by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-11-28T05:01:01Z
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@miki @pluralistic Francis Haugen will be speaking at the Brookings Institute in D.C. on Thursday, Nov 30. Remote viewing supported.https://www.brookings.edu/events/online-safety-and-digital-content-oversight/
(DIR) Post #AcJUQsIWUp7rr6QE8e by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-11-29T17:10:46Z
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Google and Fervo Energy said that electrons began flowing from the first-of-a-kind enhanced geothermal electricity generation facility earlier this month. The 3.5-megawatt project, called Project Red, is now supplying power directly to the Las Vegas–based utility NV Energy.We need more such projects.https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/geothermal/americas-first-enhanced-geothermal-plant-just-got-up-and-running
(DIR) Post #AcPCrifnktkjb7ikVM by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2023-12-02T17:12:52Z
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@brewsterkahle Much of this is old technology. Back in the 60's and 70's, Precision Instrument (my first tech employer) developed and sold optical storage systems that etched data into metallic layers on silicon glass squares or on tapes. The familiar CD-ROM technology grew out of this. Even multi-layer writing was done. There were others who used electron beams to write into crystals or glass.I once dreamed of storing the Library of Congress on such media... It is why I got into computing.
(DIR) Post #AdRx3iUvYYVrjGQWDA by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2024-01-02T22:32:26Z
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@brewsterkahle @aslakr We used to see the Isetta's when I was growing up in the 1960's in Berlin, West Germany. There were a variety of "mini-cars" then. One of the more striking was the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller. Most folk think of WWII aircraft when they hear "Messerschmitt..."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_KR200
(DIR) Post #AdYCrM0G85Oshey6HA by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2024-01-05T17:40:11Z
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@petergleick While Israel's actions in Gaza do seem excessive, I have heard very few reasonable answers to the question: "How should have Israel responded to the killing, rape, kidnapping, and violence on Oct 6?"
(DIR) Post #AdaiEebubFKty65ezY by bobwyman@mastodon.social
2024-01-06T18:41:02Z
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@jeffjarvis Given the scalability of algorithmic processes, does the use of AI by the press increase the possibility that natural monopolies could result due to the creation of high barriers to entry and high start-up costs?**Could AI create a "press" equivalent of Google?** An AI system, by expanding its input sources, could grow to the point where it provides a single-source of reporting on almost all events. It would be very difficult to compete with such a system.