Comments
Clive Robinson • June 14, 2024 9:42 PM
@ SpaceLifeForm, JonKnowsNothing, ALL,
I hope this finds you all in a curious frame of mind.
It appears there are a couple of space events worthy of note
Firstly is the so called “lunar standstill” that only happens every 18.6 years which is also happening at a time of maximum Solar activity. This does not happen at all often.
“The 1st ‘major lunar standstill’ in more than 18 years is about to occur. Here’s how to see it.”
But also of interest with respect to solar activities and solar max, it looks like the Sun is going to flip it’s field of orientation.
“The sun’s magnetic field is about to flip. Here’s what to expect.”
https://www.space.com/sun-magnetic-field-flip-solar-maximum-2024
Bearing in mind all the fun we’ve been having with radio propagation this solar max and the fact we’ve had some near misses with major CME’s (think Carrington event level or higher). It could be an indicator of rather more to come with an increased probability we are going to get hit by a big one so major pretty lights much closer to the equator, amongst other things.
And good news for us “olduns” there is still life in another “old dog”,
“Voyager 1 is back online! NASA’s most distant spacecraft returns data from all 4 instruments”
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1’s design mission was to study Jupiter and Saturn. However it was realised that as a result of the orbit it would have to take it would eventually escape the solar system and go into deep space. Some 46years later it’s “still trecking” and is around 24billion Km away from us. Supprisingly when it was originally planed we would not have been able to communicate with it at that range. So yes it’s a mark up to technological advance in the past half century.
On a sad note, the man who was “Mr Voyager” for half a century Ed Stone died at the age of 88,
https://www.space.com/ed-stone-nasa-voyager-mission-project-scientist-obituary
xyzzy • June 15, 2024 1:21 AM
@clive
Nice to see you back.
Clive Robinson • June 15, 2024 8:26 AM
@ xyzzy, ALL,
Nice to see you back.
It’s nice to “be out” but they will get me back to “further experiment on in medieval ways” (and with instruments that look like they were designed for the dungeon or torture chamber). When my name gets back to the top of the list etc…
The scary thing is as they wheel you down the corridor you see these two large swing doors with across them in big red letters the words,
“No Way Out”
Which is not comforting… But it’s better than being wheeled naked into the car park… Yup they used to have a “Mobile Cath-Lab” in the car park and all there was between you and the weather was a thin blanket. Not fun when snow flakes are falling.
So I’m back at home but I did not come alone… I caught some nasty bug that is probably Norovirus the main characteristic being it makes you want to point both ends at the porcelain at the same time. Apparently we have the good people of Norwalk Ohio a half century ago to thank for this problematic virus that survives alcohol sanitisers and most normal cleaning products (it has to be real soap for the whole body and bleach for the environment..).
Apparently in “immunocompromised individuals” you can asymptomatically shed virus for upto three months after the visible symptoms are gone. So you get banned from even a Doctors waiting room just incase you break wind or some such ={
So I should get to see some of summer, that currently is “pouring rain with thunder and lightning” with the other side of the road having a power cut. So typical English summer weather “all tourists welcome just bring your Wellies and Brollies”…
xyzzy • June 15, 2024 3:57 PM
@Clive
Here my CPU is OK, however the outputs have malfunctioned occasioning prodding by doctors and students that look teenage. I think they order various scans to CYA or to keep the machines busy and justify their cost. Insights are not proportional to test costs nor discomfort, IMHO. Especially the poking ones.
Back when the hosts file was very short one of my students found a buffer overflow in login.c and tested it on every computer on the ARPANET. A number of UNIX systems had that flaw, and he wrote a banner of the console to alert the admins. I have looked at many source files for login.c that can be found today and none match my memory of the login name buffer being 80 characters and followed by the password buffer. I would love to find that old file if anyone has seen it. The buffer overflow is not as interesting as the logic flaw that causes (I think I remember) 80 some ‘x’ characters followed by one ‘y’ character to result in root login. The “matching” crypt.c would also be interesting.
Ferritecore • June 15, 2024 4:39 PM
@xyzzy
1) like the handle
2) I remember that login bug heard about it ca. 1978-1980 from a friend who heard on the grapevine. So it got around.
3) Probably about 5 years later I was providing tech support for a version 7 unix class. First exercise was to have everybody login and change their password. That version of the passwd command didn’t have any locking. Had to fix /etc/password in single user mode.
Things have changed for the better, right?
Plugh.
vas pup • June 15, 2024 6:27 PM
Electronic skin could give robots a sense of touch
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0j39jxb/electronic-skin-could-give-robots-a-sense-of-touch
“Robots have integrated in our lives in different ways and have taken over some tasks which were exclusively done by humans. But, robots have not yet been able to have a sense of touch – could this be about to change?”
@Clive – I am glad you are back.
vas pup • June 15, 2024 6:30 PM
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-us-socom-to-equip-with-uvision-loitering-munitions-1001481004
“Israeli company UVision Air, based in Tzur Yigal, and US company Mistral, have signed a $73.5 million contract for the supply of loitering munitions to the United States Special Operations Command (US SOCOM).
The contract, which will be spread up until 2029, covers the Hero-120SF loitering munition system, spare parts, engineering change proposals, and training. The choice of this loitering munition could be an indication of US military targets and the perception of threats in Washington, since it is designed to hit tanks and other armored vehicles at medium range.
Not a great deal of information is available about the 120SF, but is it based on UVision’s Hero 120, and carries a 4.5 kilogram warhead. It has a range of 60 kilometers, and can stay airborne for up to 60 minutes.
According to the company, the Hero 120 can operate independently, that is, it can identify a target and attack it by itself.”
Clive Robinson • June 15, 2024 9:09 PM
@ xyzzy, Ferritecore, ALL,
Re : Dr’s and their students…
Yup they do look younger every day I see them… And I do see a lot of them and call some friends.
My health is a mix-up of quite a few conditions, many of which pull in opposite directions so I end up trying to walk several medical “tight-ropes blindfold” and do fall off quite regularly. Sometimes there is a safety net I can climb out of by myself, other times it’s a “blues&twos” to “resuscitation”. Which is that bit of Accident and Emergancy which is oft regarded as “The last bus stop before journeys end” down in the mortuary.
It’s got to the point where I know many of the consultants by name, but the nurses and porters I know not just by name but often their children and in one or two cases grand children as well. Because we chat, not just in hospital but when we meet in town and I encourage the children to study hard in STEM especially the girls (I used to be an “Engineering STEM Advocate” visiting Schools etc so still fly the flag when I can).
But for my sins my own Dr considers me an “expert patient” as do quite a few of the consultants. The reason is actually much of medicine is actually mechanics, instrumentation and other engineering. That is if you have knowledge of quite a chunk of fundamental engineering you can end up knowing things even consultants wish they knew more about.
So I get “picked” by consultants as the patient to talk to the students and be the “test subject”. Also I’ve “shy and granular veins” which means getting blood out of me is not for the nervous or fainthearted. I’ve got so used to it I can tell without looking just by the type of pain if they’ve got the needle tip in and the cannula likely to go up the vein. So guess who gets used as the practice dummy…
But onto more important things “login.c” was a real problem back in the 1980’s when I was what you might call an “ethical hacker” or “White Hat” before Maggie Thatcher tried to have me falsely arrested and charged (a fate I warned Robert Schifreen and Steve Gold about before Maggie succeeded in doing it to them).
The problem was that there were several sources of login.c some came down the AT&T tree, others BSD, whilst others were “we can do it better our way” that actually did it worse (hence later the “Don’t roll your own” meme).
The big problem as such was not login.c but the library code and the code for the TTY devices and people not reading documentation properly.
There was a rather nice work station made for ICL by Three Rivers and called the PERQ that used an engine not to dissimilar to the UCSD P-System Byte-Code Interpreter. Written to run on it in the UK was PNX which was kind of AT&T Sys7 Unix with differences.
It took me all of about a half hour to find out that I could “login” without a “login” even when the SysAdmin (Steve Crook) had tried his best to “lock us out”. The reason we wanted in was that it was the first “Standalone Graphical Workstation” and it had a really good game of Pac-Man. It was either the fifth or sixth major computer system I’d worked out how to “bust the login” including some VAX systems, Prime systems including BT-Gold and a really badly designed system used by British Telecom for something called “Prestel” which was based on the European “ViewData standard”…
I was still “busting logins” in the 1990’s when virtual TTY’s on personal systems became popular. In more than one, you could login pullup say the sixth virtual terminal and type in a shell script or command, but not hit the enter key to run it. You then switched back to the first virtual screen and logged out. Your shell script got left in limbo, not erased. So when the next person logged in the virtual terminal software sent a carriage return to all the TTYs so the script got executed. You would be surprised how many “set user” shell progs ended up in my hidden directory thus enabling me to become a specific user but not have it logged in the normal way…
Whilst @nix buffer overflow in library code became well known, less well known long after that was that Fortran also had character / line length issues due to assumptions about “punched cards” see Hollerith data type pre Fortran 77 and through 90
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/805-4940/6j4m1u7pv/index.html
All of the failings I found had one very basic root cause “the price of memory”. At one point when people were earning well less than $100/week the price of RAM was over $5/word. So any trick that would reduce a memory foot print was used and why Y2K happened and all sorts of other “time” and “date” related issues as well as buffer overflow and the fact that “free” did not clear out malloced memory so you could pass data at a lower layer than most high level programmers understood or would even realise so would sail through a code review or even security code audit. Thus you could pass say a Crypto-key out of a sub without it going via the stack frame or via dangling pointers that auto-tools pick up.
The thing is very nearly nobody ever went back to fix theses “known issues” and they became forgotten or not even known a few years after. Which is why Y2K was a “blood bath” of consultants fees. One or two organisations like the UK British Gas fixed their potential Y2K issues a half decade before hand and at minimal cist and disruption. Others “B cough cough T” got well and truly nadgered in places you would not expect. The worst issues were with “embedded systems” especially some “ICS” and “RTU” used in SCADA and many many petrochem sites including Oil Rigs. As for the Hotel and Entertainment Industry with the likes of electronic locks, room environment systems, mini-bars and similar well finding one that did not have time and date issues was about as close to impossible as you can imagine. The reason “battery life” they needed very low power microcontrolers which were in some cases still 4bit but they all had very small amounts of CMOS RAM or even just a hundred bytes in the MCU chip.
Sadly all of these ‘issues’ still turn up in modern software and systems some of which control the power in your home and others to keep your heart beating safely etc.
But over a half century ago NASA put the Voyeger probes into space and they are still working today because the engineers of the time “thought things through”…
ResearcherZero • June 15, 2024 9:18 PM
Machine Learning helped identify abandoned farmland.
‘https://energy.wisc.edu/news/abandoned-farmlands-could-play-role-fighting-climate-change-new-study-shows-exactly-where-they
–
‘https://spectrum.ieee.org/magnetic-fields-in-electric-cars-wont-kill-you
(or turn your children into rabbits)
Clive Robinson • June 15, 2024 9:48 PM
@ vas pup, ALL,
With regards,
Electronic skin could give robots a sense of touch
I gave robots “touch” via preasure back in the 1980’s while doing stuff at what was North London Polytechnic (now Uni) based on earlier work I did at Kingston Polytechnic (now uni). We even developed a product that was a “robot arm” for the BBC model B computer.
Unfortunately back then nobody wanted to pay the money.
The original version used the “Hundred Ohm Foam” that DIL IC’s were often shipped on. It was deliberately conductive to take static away from the pins (which aluminium foil did not always do).
Basically it was loaded with “carbon granules” and just like the “carbon granule microphone’ in telephones it’s impedance changed with pressure. So you could use it as part of what to an A2D converter would look like a potentiometer.
Whilst it was good enough as a prototype and demonstrator it had issues of short life and reliability.
Some may remember the “Poke the dead flesh” rubber keyboards that were a standard feature on low cost “Home Computers” in the 1980’s like the Sinclair ZX80/81 and Spectrum.
Well they worked by using a carbon dust loaded synthetic rubber pad ontop of a couple of interleaved finger contacts. Again they were pressure sensitive and you could make quite small preasure sensor areas of around 4mm square fairly easily. You could also using Kapton based flexible PCB material make small arrays of sensors that were flexible.
I’ve mentioned some of this before on this blog.
However humans actually do not really use touch by pressure as it’s highly unreliable as far as the way more important grip is concerned.
Humans use “slip”. Think about picking up a wet glass with vertical sides a common enough task to be considered “every day activity” likewise plates and other “washing up” / “doing the dishes”.
Preasure is not going to tell you if you have sufficient grip to hold but not to crush.
Measuring “slip” does.
Making “slip sensors” is a very different game and the sensors shown in that video won’t do it.
I wrote a paper on how to make slip sensors for this back in the 1980’s but we could not find a journal that was interested enough to publish it. We assumed at the time because the industry was not into “touch sensors” of any kind, and the very few who even considered them were all hooked up on using pressure sensors and grab style lifts that effectively “en-caged” objects like eggs and fruit. So there was nobody around who could properly “peer review”.
And by the looks of it there still is not…
Clive Robinson • June 15, 2024 10:27 PM
@ ResearcherZero
That IEEE article on EV Magnetic fields can not have been peer-reviewed and the author apparently knows nothing about what they were writing.
Not unexpected in an MSM article but in the journal of “The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers”(IEEE) it’s embarrassing.
But lets get something understood yes given sufficient energy both electric and magnetic fields can harm and kill you. But the energies involved you are very unlikely to ever come into contact with, especially magnetic fields.
However static magnetic fields can harm if not kill you through objects being used kinetically. Spin a DC motor or generator up without load and they have been known to produce shrapnel that goes quite some distance.
Likewise those warnings about metal objects inside you and NMRI machines that put you inside a massive magnetic field made by superconductors then hit you with high levels of Electromagnetic energy to make all the OH parts of molecules in water and lipids jump and oscillate. Can cause metal objects inside you to move and accelerate if not properly restrained.
But EV’s don’t actually generate magnetic fields outside their motors to any great extent. The reason is “efficiency” such a field is as a result of a badly inefficient design.
You would be in more danger from the inefficient motors in older electric trains, milk floats and golf carts. And I’ve never heard of any injuries or deaths that way.
Oh and normal electric motors are incapable of producing “ionising radiation” ask a physicist if you want all the gory details and equations so you can check yourself.
But put simply they don’t run at speeds above that of visible light, and even when they occasionally “arc” they generally don’t get electrons to move fast enough to smash into things with the required energy.
As for turning children into rabbits “feed them carrots” 😉 Or what’s the old movie memes about Dr Frankenstein tickling dead things with lightning in drafty old castle dungeons.
ResearcherZero • June 16, 2024 1:38 AM
Who invents all these ridiculous stories?
‘https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2024/06/11/new-report-refutes-33-false-claims-about-solar-wind-and-electric-vehicles/
The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) is an American conservative think tank.
A pay-to-play service that churns out misinformation:
Founded by the Koch brothers, ExxonMobil, Geo Group, Altria and wealthy businessmen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/climate/texas-public-policy-foundation-climate-change.html
“deliberately misleading sources …funded by fossil-fuel producers”
‘https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/217/
–
Somewhere in the offices of nuclear and fossil fuel firms:
“Quick, get me some hippies!”
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-15/illawarra-declared-as-australias-fourth-offshore-wind-zone/103979732
Offshore wind farms do not kill whales.
“That’s brought down the ire of many people opposed to offshore wind on small animal welfare organizations”
https://time.com/6254785/whale-deaths-offshore-wind-power/
“We know what’s killing right whales: collisions with ships and boats and entanglements in fishing gear.”
‘https://www.clf.org/blog/offshore-wind-and-right-whales-can-coexist-heres-how/
The paper does not exist. It is deliberate misinformation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-07/editor-blasts-fake-study-linking-whale-deaths-to-wind-farms/103069922
ResearcherZero • June 16, 2024 2:00 AM
@Clive Robinson
Death by electric cars is a popular talking point amongst the coastal surfer culture.
They can’t really explain the concept, but they do try to explain it. They need a little help with what they are trying to say, but is generally the fear of electromagnetic waves.
–
Microsoft is pivoting to make security a top priority.
‘https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/06/microsoft-in-damage-control-mode-says-it-will-prioritize-security-over-ai/
Winter • June 16, 2024 4:04 AM
@Clive
That IEEE article on EV Magnetic fields can not have been peer-reviewed and the author apparently knows nothing about what they were writing.
Research news articles are never peer reviewed. So I think you are right and this news article was not peer reviewed.
I don’t see any errors. The author just relates the consensus that field strengths below the safety norms are for all we know, uh, safe. A conclusion that does not surprise me.
SpaceLifeForm • June 16, 2024 7:54 AM
GoFaster stripes
The fix is to slow down, but Intel does not want to say that.
‘https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/14/24178751/intel-raptor-lake-crash-fix-etvb-not-yet
cybershow • June 16, 2024 1:38 PM
@Clive: Good to see you back and posting wonderful old stories. Wishing you
good health.
Clive Robinson • June 16, 2024 2:35 PM
@ SpaceLifeForm, ALL,
First “Happy Fathers Day” it’s that day in the year where you get embarrassed as your “other halves” encourage your next generation(s) to get you new socks and aftershave, when what you really want is… Just remember to play nice and smile 😉
Beyond Quantum Computing
As some guessed early on *Quantum Computing”(QC) would be both very niche application and expensive to reach and run, and after near four decades it’s still stuck in the starting gate (perhaps harsh but…).
The result is that those involved in researchering and manufacturing are getting less and less money and there are even rumours that IBM are going to pull the plug.
Whilst FPGA-CoPro has been talked about as a way to put algorithms into silicon and Intel amongst others Jumped in big, again the actual product is not thick on the ground.
The winner so far appears to be Nvidia with Graphics processors built into high performance arrays that are “burning down the world” for crypto-currency speculation and now AI investor bubbles (with little now said about NFT’s and Web3.0 … ).
But has Nvidia been cheating people in the driver code?
Some think so and have provided a simple patch,
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-gpu-virtualization-unlocked-on-client-gpus
But as MS and VMWare don’t support it. Yup Linux gets another “techy advantage” to exist…
So what next?
Well it could be something that in some ways is already quite a mature technology,
The link kind of tells you.
Using photons of light in various ways gives some significant advantages in already “practical ways” that are approaching “Mature Technology” in other domains. So more transplantation than invention.
But… It’s not “general computing” it offers advantages for, but what it does offer advantages for is sufficiently broad that there will be a market for what it is good at doing.
Now time to find out if I can trade socks for book tokens 😉
lurker • June 16, 2024 3:33 PM
Watching the Watchers
What started as a scheme to check the identities of a few thousand asylum seekers has spiraled into a vast network of data about everyone who comes and goes from the ‘Five Eyes’ nations.
…
In the 2010s, the FCC looked again at sharing more readily available ‘biographic’ data – such as names, and dates of birth – in an expanded and more nuanced version of the No-Fly List.
…
In 2013, the US and UK signed a deal for automated data-sharing in Queenstown.
…
The agreements that underpin it are obscure and can be changed without approval from a watchdog, minister or parliament.
Clive Robinson • June 16, 2024 4:20 PM
@ echo, ALL,
Re : Not what you picture.
“It can also just be art.”
No it can not. Nothing in life is ever just it’s self.
It’s been claimed that all art in what ever for has a purpose and that purpose is to reflect and highlight life.
But above all it’s purpose is to make people think and reflect on life. Art is in effect a mirror which filters and distills through the mind. To at the very least cause chemical changes in the human brain that cause sensation and emotion.
Why this is so we currently have no idea and some think it is uniquely human and gives the foundation of intelligence, that sees in front of what is there.
Now I suspect it is not actually uniquely human, and that certainly other primates and some avians exhibit traits that are indicative.
I think there are two reasons why some humans in effect deny it,
1, The perversion that humans are special and blessed.
2, For what ever reason we’ve not come up with a sufficient test.
One thing however I am sure of, is that so far AI in it’s current forms has not shown any ability to actually have an innate appreciation of art.
Yes it can follow diagnostic rules it’s been given/fed but it does not come up with “essence” that moves it forward.
What has this to do with “Technical Security” well have a chat with our host about “Thinking Hinky” which is about seeing the structure and form of things so like many people “see beauty” in smooth and symmetrical objects that to them “glow”. To others there is a deeper beauty of “function and motion” in both what the eye sees and what the brain see forwards.
It’s why mathematical equations, technical drawings, specifications and even source code holds elegance and flow to some, like seeing the flight of a bird but with much greater feel and emotional response.
Winter • June 16, 2024 5:21 PM
@Clive
Art is in effect a mirror which filters and distills through the mind.
As E.A. Bucchianeri wrote:
Art is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone will have their own interpretation.
Now I suspect it is not actually uniquely human, and that certainly other primates and some avians exhibit traits that are indicative.
There are animals that recognize their images in a mirror. So we should never discount the possibility that some too might recognize their mind in an object.
I think there are two reasons why some humans in effect deny it
Many people think they can only be truly “human”, ie worthy, when others are not “human”. Because, if it is not truly human, it has no rights and a true human is better than a “sub-human” that is unworthy.
Currently, it is generally animals that play the role of the sub-human. Earlier, it were despised and exploited groups of humans that were denied to be truly human, and hence, without protection of humanhood.
lurker • June 17, 2024 2:15 AM
Spanish director Patricia Franquesa calls the bluff on extortioners by uploading intimate pictures to her own FB acct, and making a documentary of the affair.
Clive Robinson • June 17, 2024 4:31 AM
@ Cybershow, ALL,
Firstly my apologies for not responding earlier, I incorrectly thought your post had been moderated accidently.
But…
“Good to see you back and posting wonderful old stories.”
I know I’m a bit of a fossil with bits dropping off here and there, and I can’t always remember where ={
And that I have fewer enemies these days as most of them have gone geriatric or had the lid nailed down (Maggie Thatcher being an example of both)
But I do hope to bring more than “old stories”… You make me sound like the nutty old uncle at Xmas dinner going on about “You young folks don’t know how good you’ve got it …” 😉
But I do thank you for your well wishing, I shall hopefully be able to convert it by force of positive thinking into putting a few more miles on the clock.
As my father once observed,
“If a person is useful they should live on for ever… Even if they are so crusty you have to follow them with a broom.”
In case I’ve not thanked others for their well wishes don’t be shy shout out and I’ll tip my hat, after all even I need some excercise B-)
Escaped the Moderator • June 17, 2024 8:19 AM
I just want to add my appreciation for @Clive Robinson’s return. This one, at least, appears to be a happy one.
As for being an ‘expert patient’: I’m glad that at least some medical professionals recognise the expertise. My experience of willingness work with, not just on, has been varied.
Ob security: I’m getting increasingly irritated by organisations that want images of personal identification documents, but do not provide ‘secure upload’ facilities, expecting such things to be sent by non-encrypted email, or phone MMS.
Clive Robinson • June 17, 2024 8:58 AM
@ Escaped the Moderator
Appreciate not just the well wish, but a new problem to stretch the brain around,
“I’m getting increasingly irritated by organisations that want images of personal identification documents, but do not provide ‘secure upload’ facilities, expecting such things to be sent by non-encrypted email, or phone MMS.”
There is an obvious solution.
Since these organisations are in effect pushing the liability onto the users of their services (externalising risk). There are two basic solutions,
1, Users do not use the organisations.
2, Legislation is passed to force the risk back inside the organisation.
Whilst the first is obviously a “vote with your feet” option, the reality is often that these organisations are effectively monopolies or cartels of similar behaving organisations.
An example of this was the US IRS on-line filing system. The IRS gave you no choice but to use one of three organisations that by behaviour had formed a cartel. So you could not vote with your feet.
Supposadly it was free but not in reality,
Eventually a court case forced the scam to the curbside for many, but the IRS electronic system is still highly vulnerable to scammers of all sorts
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scamsconsumer-alerts
Which means it’s not just individuals that get hurt but also the tax payer in general, and that’s before experts talk about “lost opportunity costs”.
I was looking around for a similar legislative solution, but guess what? It appears billions of lobbying dollars are stoping not just sensible legislation but badly needed regulation.
So in effect two things need to get fixed
1, The really poor if not deliberately so “systems” that just do not deliver but cost cost cost.
2, The “dirty money” getting pumped into legislators pockets etc.
Is it possible to have “technical solutions” that are both easy to use and secure?
The answer should be yes, but for some reason…
Robin • June 17, 2024 10:26 AM
@Escaped the Moderator
“I’m getting increasingly irritated by organisations that want images of personal identification documents, but do not provide ‘secure upload’ facilities, expecting such things to be sent by non-encrypted email, or phone MMS.”
You and me both. And most of the time they make a big song and dance about “Privacy policy” and “secure data storage”, all the while showing total lack of understanding that sending stuff in the open is very insecure. I’ve raised this a few times, most recently with a hospital and the town hall, but the secretarial staff who demand this obviously have no understanding of the problem. And suggesting they talk to their IT team just raises a hollow laugh. I don’t blame them personally – they are not trained for it, and it’s beyond their pay-grade to take the initiative (and maybe a bad career move). It’s not good for my blood pressure though.
lurker • June 17, 2024 2:21 PM
@Clive Robinson
“Look at it this way if you live in a little hamlet of say less than 200 people do you actively care what the rest of the 8billion people are upto, especially if it’s never likely to effect you?
I look for the things the 8Bn are doing that will affect me, like acid rain, ozone holes, or maybe tanks coming down the lane. I’ve been a news junkie since forever; learned to read from a newspaper (a reliable broadsheet), and was entranced by the theme music “Imperial Echoes” on the BBC Radio Newsreel. But I stopped watching TV, news and programs, more than 20 years ago because it all seemed junk.
The problem appears to be that as the quantity of news has increased, the quality has decreased, thus turning people off. How can an uninformed (of their own choosing) population be expected to choose sensible functioning governments?
echo • June 17, 2024 4:45 PM
Governance and media regulation matter. There’s plenty of positive ideas around to improve things. That’s where I’d prefer effort to go. There’s only so much mileage people can get from ritualism and moaning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF06QKfRx3c
The Acolyte is not for angry middle aged men
This video essay is not without its problems. That said the important point and I think it’s a fair one is it’s in favour of informed critique while making the point there have been generational changes. This isn’t a new issue. A few years ago now establishment old farts tried to make themselves relevant, then they went through a blame the kids phase, and there’s all the “Ok, boomer” comments which can be ageist too but overall the kids are okay. They live in a different world with different challenges and are more diverse and progressive in outlook. At some point this will feed though.
My personal position is older people can say this is how the system is, this is how it used to be better before degrading, this is what can be done to fix it – and here are all the pitfalls to avoid. At the end of the day they are their own boss. They are not property. Understand them and support them.
Most of the bad things we’re living with today such as neo-liberalism and climate change and dodgy deregulation were created by people already dead. Better to pay attention to the living who will be the leaders and experts when we’re in the nursing home, no?
etv • June 18, 2024 10:23 AM
@Escaped the Moderator
Even worse, the so called “Credentialing Project Officer” employed by the regional health network insists on being provided with certified copies of documents when credentialing time comes around.
Upon being asked “To whom should I present the certified copies for sighting”, the “Credentialing Project Officer” replied “Oh, you can just scan them and email them to me”….
Clearly, a process designed to eliminate any possibility of forged documents being passed off as certified and genuine….
Every now and then the topic of improving machine learning models through the integration of other human senses apperas on this blog. After all, AI as commonly practiced is the ultimate game of imitation of the human conceptualization of reality.
That said, on a first thought, it seems to me that quaternionic matrices could be a way to integrate multiple humans senses into machine learning models. Quaternionic matrices offer several advantages such as the ability to handle higher-dimensional data and capture more complex relationships compared to traditional real or complex matrices.
Here are some potential advantages
Quaternionic matrices can provide a more natural representation for multimodal data (combining chemical, tactile, visual, and aural senses). Each sensory modality can be represented as a quaternionic vector or matrix, allowing for richer data representation.
Quaternionic algebra can capture more complex relationships and interactions between different sensory modalities. This can potentially lead to more nuanced and accurate models that better reflect real-world interactions between different senses.
Quaternionic matrices can reduce the dimensionality of the data compared to using separate real or complex matrices for each modality. This can lead to more efficient computations and better scalability of the models.
Model Performance: Depending on the specific problem and data, quaternionic representations might enhance model performance by better preserving the intrinsic relationships between different sensory inputs.
However, there are also challenges and considerations:
Complexity in Implementation: Quaternionic algebra is more complex than real or even complex algebra. Implementing operations like multiplication, inversion, and decomposition for quaternionic matrices requires careful handling.
Data Availability and Compatibility: Quaternionic datasets and tools are non-existent as of now -- though I have some ideas on how to build them.
Training and Interpretation: Training models with quaternionic matrices will require specialized techniques and algorithms. Interpreting the results and understanding the learned representations will also present challenges.
I'm probably wrong I guess anybody will like to chime in and properly dispatch the idea?
vas pup • June 18, 2024 3:39 PM
@Clive – very good point on slip
sensor. Thank you.
On Quantum Computing:
Quantum Machines launches Israeli Quantum Computing Center
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sjhwhzasr
“Quantum Machines announced on Monday the opening of the Israeli Quantum Computing Center (IQCC).
The IQCC is a state-of-the-art Quantum and HPC center that integrates the power of quantum and classical computing resources. According to Quantum Machines, the center, located at Tel Aviv University, is the first in the world to house multiple co-located quantum computers of different qubit modalities (starting with superconducting qubits and photonic) all utilizing the same control stack – Quantum Machines’ OPX series – and all tightly integrated with on-prem classical supercomputing resources and cloud accessible. The IQCC also houses the world’s best equipped cryogenic testbed, with 63 RF lines, 96 DC lines, and a full suite of test and measurement equipment.
The IQCC will also include the first deployment of DGX Quantum, a unified system for quantum-classical computing co-developed by Quantum Machines and NVIDIA.
“All of the world’s most advanced quantum computing research facilities are closed or offer very limited access to those outside of their organization. You can’t compete if you need to fly halfway around the world for limited access,” said Itamar Sivan, CEO of Quantum Machines. “When we thought about what would propel quantum computing forward, we realized that building the most advanced facility in terms of interoperability, modularity, and integration with high-performance computing (HPC) and the cloud was the way to go. Our open architecture approach will ensure that the facility can be continuously upgraded and scaled to stay at the cutting edge, making it an accelerator for the entire ecosystem in Israel and internationally.”
The quantum computing center will enable access to conducting research and development in all layers of hardware and software
on three different quantum processing technologies (superconducting qubits, cold ions and optic computer). The center will provide services to the Israeli quantum computing community in both industry and academia.”
Clive Robinson • June 18, 2024 6:01 PM
@ fib,
“That said, on a first thought, it seems to me that quaternionic matrices could be a way to integrate multiple humans senses into machine learning models. Quaternionic matrices offer several advantages such as the ability to handle higher-dimensional data and capture more complex relationships compared to traditional real or complex matrices.”
I have some thoughts…
Human senses are “non linear” and are also based on an odd form of integration (inputs are streams of pulses that count in the input, except when they are coincident and only one counts).
One result is the addition is in effect a multiplication just as you see with log tables and slide rules.
fib • June 19, 2024 11:36 AM
@Clive Robinson
Thanks for the input. Agreed on the non-linearity of human thought. I’m just looking for a more perfect imitation of life, extending the tensor paradigm to deal with additional dimensions.
I am aware that I do not have the ‘gravitas’ to raise this subject here and generate a discussion — sometimes I regret having betrayed my uncool origin/location. 🙂
I’ll try another opportunity [hopefully being more on topic].
Regards
Clive Robinson • June 19, 2024 1:00 PM
@ fib, ALL,
“I’m just looking for a more perfect imitation of life”
That comes with two major warnings when it comes to humans 😉
Firstly as they note up in Yorkshire England, that “Humans are a rum lot, and every time you get the hang of life they change it”.
Secondly is the parable of the “better mouse trap” or more correctly “fallacy”. Of “If You Build a Better Mousetrap the World Will Beat a Path to Your Door” (incorrectly attributed to Waldo Emerson).
The first is in effect a lay person observation on the fact humans have agency so can change things, and more importantly they will change it against the majority for their own benefit where ever they can. In a way it describes one of the reasons for “the entropy of evolution” which is vastly more in humans than anything else we’ve living experience of.
The fallacy has several things to be aware of and in some cases is the opposite of the first problem. In that you can come up with an innovative product that could change the world, but you can not sell it. Two reasons are oft given for this the first is “people do not like change” so they stick with what they know. The second is the unlawfull use of “incumbent power” over a choke point like the supply chain. To sell a product you have to get it in front of a customer. If I can stop your supply chain or make it too expensive then you can not sell. This is a technique much practiced in certain industries. Have a look at the story of Ben and Gerries Ice Cream.
But note it only says “the World Will Beat a Path to Your Door” not why or what for. People think it’s about sales and honours and things like that. Which is why so often the phrase gets used as a comedy line where the inventor gets lynched by his rivals.
This is something else incumbent organisations do to potential new rivals. They basically send in the lawyers that they have dozens off with nuisance law suits and patent infringment claims. We call certain types of those who do this “Patent trolls” these days.
The point is humans are possessed of three things that cause a chaotic system,
1, Agency
2, Intelligence
3, Greed
And as we know “from the market” of finance they have a “hidden hand” that they use to profit by at your expense.
It’s got so bad that the reality is only two types can succeed in getting new things to certain markets,
1, Those to big to fail.
2, Those who give it for free.
And a study of “Microsoft v FOSS” tells you how that plays out. Or look at the “Browser Wars” where Google now in effect dictates to several alleged FOSS organisations to have all those “Surveillance Features” not just in browsers but in the Standards…
Which has secondary effects. For instance Mastodon is known to not work with older Web Standards that commercial “Big Surveillance Corps” like Meta and Co work with. So as a user you get a Hobson’s choice. Either way you end up being surveilled upon and your PPI stolen.
How you capture the basic and ever present “agency driven by greed” of certain types of human is something that could become a mousetrap.
In the Far East there is a saying about “breaking a persons rice bowl” that kind of applies.
Speaking of which this might give you a little pause for thought about human agency,
vas pup • June 19, 2024 4:49 PM
AI frenzy makes Nvidia the world’s most valuable company
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyrr40x0z2mo
“Chip-maker Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company after its share price climbed to an all-time high on Tuesday.
It is now worth $3.34tn, with the price having nearly doubled since the start of this year.
The stock ended the trading day at nearly $136, up 3.5%, making it more valuable than fellow tech giant Microsoft. It overtook Apple earlier this month.
The Californian company’s meteoric rise has been fuelled by its dominance of
what analysts call the “new gold or oil in the tech sector” – the chips needed for artificial intelligence (AI).
In recent years though it has benefited from a boom in demand for chips that
train and run generative AI models, the most well known of which being OpenAI’s
ChatGPT.”
Clive Robinson • June 20, 2024 4:15 AM
@ vas pup
Re : Nvidia
“AI frenzy makes Nvidia the world’s most valuable company”
Dare I say “you first heard it hear”?
I’ve been mentioning for quite some time now over several years that you should not take part in “investment bubbles” like crypto-coins, NFTs, Smart Contracts, or anything else front end on Web3 or now LLM and ML AI, as they are “scam investor bubbles”.
And because “a fool and their money are soon parted”
What I have said is be a little smarter, and look at what the VC money to pump up these bubbles is being spent on and consider those as an investment you can see money actually going into.
I’ve told people to keep an eye on Nvidia from the time “block chain” became the VC pump-n-dump favourite and the other companies that turn the Nvidia ideas into products and into working systems.
That way you get to “Punk the VC’s” and strip them of their money.
But as I always say “I’m not a financial advisor” and I’m probably more trustworth because I’m not on the take, just saying what people should keep their eyes open to.
Oh but don’t get your hopes up on Nvidia long term. They have ridden the back of block-chain and AI investor bubbles thus are “due a fall” unless they “jump horses” (which is what they did with block-chain to LLM). The current AI is doomed to fail to meet expectations, which means in reasonable probability either the bubble will burst or deflate more gracefully. And with it Nvidia and similar chip makers, unless a new bubble that needs their products starts getting inflated comes galloping into view.
Oh and steer clear of any non-native high tech company that sets up manufacturing or equivalent in the US because it will get stolen by the US Gov and given to their “friends” as happened in the past. It’s not a new game, Russia, China, and India have all joined in or are still doing it so it’s hardly surprising that others will. The US started doing it back before the telephone and light bulb and only stopped when it started hurting their economic growth.
fib • June 20, 2024 1:48 PM
@Clive
Delicious story [over marketingforhippies.com], my friend. I’ll miss this kind of parallel content under the new squid rules. 🙂
About Nvidia: I have to earn my bread and so unfortunately I let myself be dragged onto the path of this horrible corporation. I’m a traditional Debian guy and what comforts my conscience is the fact that I haven’t violated my sacred environment with their opaque drives — had to set up a despicable Windows machine for that.
Cheers
vas pup • June 20, 2024 6:57 PM
@Clive – thank you for input.
With those bubbles timing is the most important – timely by and timely sell stocks when price is highest before bubble eventually burst as you suggested reasonably.
Clive Robinson • June 20, 2024 7:27 PM
@ fib
There is no such thing as
“A despicable Windows machine”
That implies that it has some good points somewhere, rather than being the totally evil that it is 😉
It was once pointed out to me,
“Bill Gates, human weeble, AI momma and alleged long term friend of Epstein. So if you are ‘looking for good’ that’s a hole to dark to search.”
EvilKiru • June 25, 2024 1:52 PM
It feels so weird to not be able to comment on the squid post for June 21, but after looking at the photo, I can see why choosing that post to be the first to not have comments enabled was the right choice.
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
vas pup • June 14, 2024 5:58 PM
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/ohio-hospitals-network-using-israeli-ai-platform-in-medical-centers/
“The Ohio-based University Hospitals (UH) network has announced a collaboration
with Israeli healthcare company Aidoc to introduce its AI-driven aiOS platform in 13 of its medical centers and dozens of outpatient locations.
Aidocs says it was chosen as UH searched for a standardized, hyper-accurate AI
platform that could be seamlessly integrated across its network of medical
facilities as it expanded its artificial intelligence capabilities.
UH serves more than one million patients every year at its 21 hospitals, over 50 health centers and outpatient facilities and more than 200 physicians offices in 16 counties in northern Ohio.
The platform will help clinicians with making faster diagnoses, treating acute
conditions, triaging cases and ensuring that all cases that raise concerns are
reviewed by the relevant care team.
“Aidoc’s AI technology assists our radiologists in evaluating various patient
images, allowing our clinicians to access precise, actionable data quickly. The AI technology enables our care teams to be more accurate and efficient leading to even more exceptional care for our patients,” she said.”