@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

baggins

@baggins@beehaw.org

Music (mainly prog rock) and veggie loving, geeky cat butler living in Hertfordshire UK. A lover of all things LOTR (since I first read it over 50 years ago) scifi and what have you. Ex soldier (Royal Artillery) and other trades ;-)

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baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Oh very yes, and making it all taste like grapefruit FFS!

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Fire mission all available!

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Interesting to note Andy Serkis is making a new LOTR film as well.

There is already a film called The Hunt For Gollum though. An amateur production made on a shoestring budget a few years ago. It's surprisingly good.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Why on earth would they need Chinese policemen? Is there a problem with Chinese tourists or a disproportionate number of Chinese immigrants that would require such a presence?
Sounds like they are looking for tips on how to keep tabs on people. With all the downsides that will generate.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Yeah, that shouldn't be a thing. Ought to be left to the host nation. We don't want Chinese law in Europe - or anywhere else for that matter.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

I read that in the voice of Jackie Chiles. Along with 'Yet another of my embarrassing architectural failures'.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

She's just following orders, a bit like the guards at Auschwitz.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Child workers or child care workers?

It sounds pretty scummy whatever one it is.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Exactly. God's chosen people often turn out to be just as shitty as the 'bad' guys.

They all use religion as an excuse for their shitty behaviour. I still don't understand because it's the same God.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

I don't buy it at all. I think religion is a cancer that the human race needs to eradicate as soon as possible.

The fact that they call themselves God's chosen people should ensure they have standards far and above everyone else.

They are just as shitty as the 'bad guys'.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

What if you were conscripted into the medical corps? Or if you were military veterinary staff?

Not all military personnel serve on the front line.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

This.

Cue cries of 'But bacun!'

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Have to play devil's advocate here. I totally agree that naming your chatbot Aryan is a bit of a giveaway, but does it say that exactly anywhere? All I can see is Arya. That is a legitimate name, even more popular since Game of Thrones.
This crap is bad enough without making false claims about it. We'd be quick enough to call the other side out when they made a false claim. We shouldn't adopt their practices. We're supposed to be better than that.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Thanks - and it's no doubt intended and they might has well named it Fuhrer, but we need to stay better than them.

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    How do I do that in Beehaw please, or do you just mean blocking them on mastodon itself?
    Thanks!

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Ah right. OK - many thanks 😊

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    That'll be why I don't see them! Excellent. Many thanks.

    baggins , (edited )
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Skimmed through the video and will watch at a later date. Absolutely fascinating. It used to work at a Raytheon company (Cossor in HarlowvUK) on kit that had similar electronics, back in the 70s. It was like being back in the factory :-)

    When I was in the Royal Artillery (80-97) we had a system called PADS (Precision Azimuth Determining System) that was used for survey of gun positions. It had some fancy gyroscopes inside.
    I now know where that originated ;-)

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    The computer used by the Artillery (the one I was trained on in the 80s) was called FACE and had a magnetic core memory of about 8k
    https://nigelef.tripod.com/fc_computer.htm

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Yes, they had a million and one things designed to catch your head, knee, elbow, eye etc. What that diagram doesn't make clear is the bench seat running down the centre for the operators and Command Post Officer (CPO) to sit on. Underneath that were the batteries for FACE, 8 (or possibly 6) great big 12v 100ah lead acid things.
    Space was at a premium. In this pic I'm sitting with my back to the teleprinter and Bob Cooper was sitting on the commanders seat - it used to drop down and become a seat for a signaller :-)
    This would have been taken about 1983/4
    https://beehaw.org/pictrs/image/2efa6209-1f32-49f8-abb2-dabda1bb9ce8.webp

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    UK here. Is this really true?

    What a scumbag. I really despise rich types like that who think they are superior to everyone else.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    I read a bit about him. Horrible racist bastard.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    None. Just the one built into Samsung.

    baggins , (edited )
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    This should come as no surprise. The UK's MOD did similar, albeit on a smaller scale, for training troops for deployment in Northern Ireland, and Germany/Europe.

    I think we all know China is gearing up to attack Taiwan as they make no secret that, as far as they are concerned, it belongs to them. The fact that the Taiwanese don't agree is neither here nor there.

    Same with Russia.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Sorry typo. Fixed it.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    You're reading that last bit out of context. As* far as the Chinese are concerned, *what the Taiwanese think is neither here nor there. The Chinese have decided its theirs. Nobody else gets a say.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Full edition of The Lord Of The Rings.
    No question.
    It's not even difficult or a hardship. Just a nice long read. Don't even need feeding for that short time.

    baggins , (edited )
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Looks nice

    I like the fact it has a low bandwidth mode for those on data plans or poor mobile signal.

    The Terrifying A.I. Scam That Uses Your Loved One’s Voice: A couple in the U.S. got a call from relatives who were being held ransom. Their voices—like many others these days—had been cloned ( www.newyorker.com )

    Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing seemingly every aspect of our lives: medical diagnosis, weather forecasting, space exploration, and even mundane tasks like writing e-mails and searching the Internet. But with increased efficiencies and computational accuracy has come a Pandora’s box of trouble.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    I'm currently enrolled in a Cyber Security course and my work for today is to consider an emerging threat and research ways to combat it.

    That's my topic sorted then - excellent timing :-)

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    The moral of the story is 'Always wear slippers (or some footwear) indoors' 😢

    https://beehaw.org/pictrs/image/3f336e3c-48fb-4646-995d-364ad0599cf4.webp

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Thanks!

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    I did this about a month ago when my chair felt like it was breaking.

    Why oh why did I not do it sooner?

    As @Dymonika says, your back will thank you.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    I think we all know who needs to be culled here.

    What a disgusting waste of oxygen.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Now imagine it printing out adverts whilst you're not using it.

    As U.S. government remains gridlocked, Warren Buffett's son Howard has given Ukraine half a billion dollars ( fortune.com )

    The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has given more than half a billion dollars in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country two years ago. And while Congress is gridlocked at the moment about supplying additional aid to the country, Buffett says he’s planning to keep giving....

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Good man.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Dressed as a German style soldier, not even SS or Gestapo, does not automatically make the images Nazi. Only one is in German uniform.

    Just shows AI isn't as wonderful as some would make out, but unfortunately some people will accept that it's factually correct. That's where the danger lies.

    U.S., Missouri Republican senators vote against allowing abortions in rape, incest cases, arguing that "giving birth in the cases of rape and incest could help the mother recover" ( thehill.com )

    Missouri state Sen. Tracy McCreery (D) introduced amendments that would allow exceptions for abortion in incest and rape cases. However, her efforts were struck down along party lines by the Republican-controlled state Senate....

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    These people are such a waste of oxygen.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    So who do you vote for in the primaries? If you don't vote for Biden, does that not help Trump?

    Asking as a confused British person.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Got it. Thanks.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    As long as he gets real treatment, not some wack job with a scented candle and some holistic shite.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Kingy has a reputation for holistic shite though. He recently appointed one of these charlatans to a senior post.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    The Houthis are an Iran-backed rebel group that has been attacking western commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in opposition to Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

    They've been doing this for ages though, and are just using the Israel - Gaza operation as an excuse to try and justify it.

    AI stealing our work. The collapse of social networks. The need to pay journalists to produce impactful journalism. Here is why we are asking for your email address to read 404 Media ( www.404media.co )

    this is an interesting article on the difficulties of running anything as SEO makes everything worse, AI proliferates, and things generally get worse for journalism. probably best summarized by this paragraph:...

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    I just add a character or two to my email address and filter it or use one of the addresses Firefox will generate.

    Easy to filter then.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    Certainly highlights the fact that all nature is interconnected. We interfere at our peril.

    baggins ,
    @baggins@beehaw.org avatar

    That doesn't mean they won't try. Who is going to stop them? Nobody, because we all want cheap tat from Temu and Shein.

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