Several times a month, I will be in a store aisle reaching for something and feel a hand going up the inside of my thigh. When I turn around to find myself alone with a woman, and ask her if she would prefer me to hold still so she can get a better feel for the situation, oftentimes she will act "shocked" claiming nothing had happened, it must be somebody else...
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Quote from: R.W.H.N. on May 15, 2011, 03:43:49 PM
That's what she said.
Quotehttp://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/04/29/1536237/Using-AI-To-Identify-Innuendo
"Turning seemingly normal comments into sexual innuendo by adding the words 'That's what she said' is a cultural phenomenon. This has led some to wonder whether it is possible to determine when it is appropriate to add those magic four words to a sentence. As it turns out, identifying humor through software is hard. Two researchers at the University of Washington, however, were willing to give it their best shot. In a recently released paper entitled 'That's What She Said: Double Entendre Identification,' the researchers describe what they've found and introduce their new approach to the problem: 'Double Entendre via Noun Transfer' or DEviaNT for short."
It's good to know that someone is trying to make sure the human race gets a sufficiently lewd AI one day.
| Someone at The Economist with a bit of extra time on his hands was looking at the recent proliferation of many-bladed razors, and noticed that the time gap between blade increments seems to be shrinking: 70 years before someone added the second blade, a couple of decades to the third, only two or three years between the four-bladed Schick Quattro and the five-bladed Gillette Fusion. Might there be a Moore's Law for razors blades? Hence the chart over there. Now, that power-law curve predicts 14-bladed razors by the year 2100, but that's not the interesting curve. The interesting curve is the hyperbolic one, for two reasons: One, it matches the real-world data. And two, it goes to infinity in 2015. And how are you going to get an asymptotically-accelerating number of blades onto a razor? Why, you'd need godlike super-technology to do that. Right. There it is, proof of the approaching Vingean Singularity, sooner than anyone expected it, clear as the chin on your face. |  |
Especially for those who normally don't stumble upon the crazy gems and chunky bits in the electronic genres (others probably already know, Fischerspooner).
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. Yesterday I saw a clip in Stewart's Daily Show of him interviewing Jan Jaap. I tried to find the full segment on the daily show homepage, but I couldn't. ). However this date is still quite flexible, if for instance it turns out you all are terribly busy during that time Personally I think that most big cities are as good as any and it depends on the people you're with and the places you go (theoretically we could spend 3 weeks in Boston, see a lot of stuff, and have a good time, right? I know I'd have no trouble doing that in Berlin for instance. But we're on holiday so we should see as much stuff as possible). It's also not that far from Boston (about 4 hours by car?) and IIRC somewhere along the road lives Cramulus [so, Cram, depending on where we start, we could probably give you a ride if a Boston meetup is going to happen]. Additionally my gf found a car rental company called "Rent A Wreck", which we thought is a funny name, though perhaps a bit ominous.
Quote from: Doktor Phox on January 10, 2011, 06:22:10 AM
The fact that every interesting thread in recent memory has devolved into a pun war.
on you!
But it's still relevant as ever. I'm assuming they must be re-running the experiment, as it turned out somebody made a mistake in the amount of scripted wingers. The research assistant persists he's absolutely sure he only instructed 10% of the population to carry out the script, which is of course ridiculous as the numbers clearly show it's half the population, which would imply people started acting like this on their own without explicit instructions.
'Fractal' mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot dies aged 85 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11560101 Benoit Mandelbrot, who discovered mathematical shapes known as fractals, has died of cancer at the age of 85. Mandelbrot, who had joint French and US nationality, developed fractals as a mathematical way of understanding the infinite complexity of nature. The concept has been used to measure coastlines, clouds and other natural phenomena and had far-reaching effects in physics, biology and astronomy. Mandelbrot's family said he had died in a hospice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The visionary mathematician was born into a Jewish family in Poland but moved to Paris at the age of 11 to escape the Nazis. He spent most of his life in the US, working for IBM computers and eventually became a professor of mathematical science at Yale University. His seminal work, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, was published in 1982. In it, he argued that seemingly random mathematical shapes in fact followed a pattern if broken down into a single repeating shape. The concept enabled scientists to measure previously immeasurable objects, including the coastline of the British Isles, the geometry of a lung or a cauliflower. "If you cut one of the florets of a cauliflower, you see the whole cauliflower but smaller," he explained at the influential Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference earlier this year. "Then you cut again, again, again, and you still get small cauliflowers. So there are some shapes which have this peculiar property, where each part is like the whole, but smaller." 'Powerful mind' Fractal mathematics also led to technological developments in the fields of digital music and image compression. It has also been influential in pop culture, with the patterns being used to create beautiful and intricate pieces of art. One such design is named in his honour. Mandelbrot was also highly critical of the world banking system, arguing the economic model it used was unable to cope with its own complexity. In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Mandelbrot for his "powerful, original mind that never shied away from innovation and battering preconceived ideas". "His work, which was entirely developed outside the main research channels, led to a modern information theory," he said. |  |
... but that means a 14-15 hour road trip from here. Fortunately I don't have to drive (for lack of a license, heh), so I can just kick back and relax. Ignore the quantum kneejerk reaction for a moment He just does it for the art of it, and doesn't make any outrageous claims, like for example the Emoto guy with his water crystals.QuoteScene 1
A Space Cowboy On Mars
Harold Ruminage has been tracking his bounty for years and is about to give up. He thought he had him on Mars, but the emptiness of this run down bedpan of a saloon means he's hit the end of the trail. If that scumbag isn't here then he isn't anywhere. Maybe he did die back on Earth like the street says.
Just then, Harold hears an ominous click from what can only be a shotgun. He spins around yanking his pistol from its holster...
and then?
This is the first scene of the saga. We will create the longest running most chaotic interactive concept album ever. It will merge collaborative story telling with collaborative music to form one monstrous beast. Your music and continuing plot lines, submitted by email will be woven together with other people's continuations of the story to create a web of choices people can follow. As they travel, the sound track of their choices will play to guide them further in the story and the world.
The music will tell the story. The prose will shape the music. The only question is: And then?
Quote(intro blablabla skipped)
The appearance of Stuxnet created a ripple of amazement among computer security experts. Too large, too encrypted, too complex to be immediately understood, it employed amazing new tricks, like taking control of a computer system without the user taking any action or clicking any button other than inserting an infected memory stick. Experts say it took a massive expenditure of time, money, and software engineering talent to identify and exploit such vulnerabilities in industrial control software systems.
(skip)
A gradual dawning of Stuxnet's purpose
It is a realization that has emerged only gradually.
Stuxnet surfaced in June and, by July, was identified as a hypersophisticated piece of malware probably created by a team working for a nation state, say cyber security experts. Its name is derived from some of the filenames in the malware. It is the first malware known to target and infiltrate industrial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software used to run chemical plants and factories as well as electric power plants and transmission systems worldwide. That much the experts discovered right away.
But what was the motive of the people who created it? Was Stuxnet intended to steal industrial secrets – pressure, temperature, valve, or other settings –and communicate that proprietary data over the Internet to cyber thieves?
By August, researchers had found something more disturbing: Stuxnet appeared to be able to take control of the automated factory control systems it had infected – and do whatever it was programmed to do with them. That was mischievous and dangerous.
But it gets worse. Since reverse engineering chunks of Stuxnet's massive code, senior US cyber security experts confirm what Mr. Langner, the German researcher, told the Monitor: Stuxnet is essentially a precision, military-grade cyber missile deployed early last year to seek out and destroy one real-world target of high importance – a target still unknown.
A guided cyber missile
On his website, Langner lays out the Stuxnet code he has dissected. He shows step by step how Stuxnet operates as a guided cyber missile. Three top US industrial control system security experts, each of whom has also independently reverse-engineered portions of Stuxnet, confirmed his findings to the Monitor.
"His technical analysis is good," says a senior US researcher who has analyzed Stuxnet, who asked for anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the press. "We're also tearing [Stuxnet] apart and are seeing some of the same things."
Other experts who have not themselves reverse-engineered Stuxnet but are familiar with the findings of those who have concur with Langner's analysis.
"What we're seeing with Stuxnet is the first view of something new that doesn't need outside guidance by a human – but can still take control of your infrastructure," says Michael Assante, former chief of industrial control systems cyber security research at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory. "This is the first direct example of weaponized software, highly customized and designed to find a particular target."
"I'd agree with the classification of this as a weapon," Jonathan Pollet, CEO of Red Tiger Security and an industrial control system security expert, says in an e-mail.
One researcher's findingsLangner's research, outlined on his website Monday, reveals a key step in the Stuxnet attack that other researchers agree illustrates its destructive purpose. That step, which Langner calls "fingerprinting," qualifies Stuxnet as a targeted weapon, he says.
Langner zeroes in on Stuxnet's ability to "fingerprint" the computer system it infiltrates to determine whether it is the precise machine the attack-ware is looking to destroy. If not, it leaves the industrial computer alone. It is this digital fingerprinting of the control systems that shows Stuxnet to be not spyware, but rather attackware meant to destroy, Langner says.
Stuxnet's ability to autonomously and without human assistance discriminate among industrial computer systems is telling. It means, says Langner, that it is looking for one specific place and time to attack one specific factory or power plant in the entire world.
"Stuxnet is the key for a very specific lock – in fact, there is only one lock in the world that it will open," Langner says in an interview. "The whole attack is not at all about stealing data but about manipulation of a specific industrial process at a specific moment in time. This is not generic. It is about destroying that process."
So far, Stuxnet has infected at least 45,000 industrial control systems around the world, without blowing them up – although some victims in North America have experienced some serious computer problems, Eric Byres, a Canadian expert, told the Monitor. Most of the victim computers, however, are in Iran, Pakistan, India, and Indonesia. Some systems have been hit in Germany, Canada, and the US, too. Once a system is infected, Stuxnet simply sits and waits – checking every five seconds to see if its exact parameters are met on the system. When they are, Stuxnet is programmed to activate a sequence that will cause the industrial process to self-destruct, Langner says.
Langner's analysis also shows, step by step, what happens after Stuxnet finds its target. Once Stuxnet identifies the critical function running on a programmable logic controller, or PLC, made by Siemens, the giant industrial controls company, the malware takes control. One of the last codes Stuxnet sends is an enigmatic "DEADF007." Then the fireworks begin, although the precise function being overridden is not known, Langner says. It may be that the maximum safety setting for RPMs on a turbine is overridden, or that lubrication is shut off, or some other vital function shut down. Whatever it is, Stuxnet overrides it, Langner's analysis shows.
"After the original code [on the PLC] is no longer executed, we can expect that something will blow up soon," Langner writes in his analysis. "Something big."
For those worried about a future cyber attack that takes control of critical computerized infrastructure – in a nuclear power plant, for instance – Stuxnet is a big, loud warning shot across the bow, especially for the utility industry and government overseers of the US power grid.
"The implications of Stuxnet are very large, a lot larger than some thought at first," says Mr. Assante, who until recently was security chief for the North American Electric Reliability Corp. "Stuxnet is a directed attack. It's the type of threat we've been worried about for a long time. It means we have to move more quickly with our defenses – much more quickly."
Has Stuxnet already hit its target?It might be too late for Stuxnet's target, Langner says. He suggests it has already been hit – and destroyed or heavily damaged. But Stuxnet reveals no overt clues within its code to what it is after.
A geographical distribution of computers hit by Stuxnet, which Microsoft produced in July, found Iran to be the apparent epicenter of the Stuxnet infections. That suggests that any enemy of Iran with advanced cyber war capability might be involved, Langner says. The US is acknowledged to have that ability, and Israel is also reported to have a formidable offensive cyber-war-fighting capability.
Could Stuxnet's target be Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, a facility much of the world condemns as a nuclear weapons threat?
Langner is quick to note that his views on Stuxnet's target is speculation based on suggestive threads he has seen in the media. Still, he suspects that the Bushehr plant may already have been wrecked by Stuxnet. Bushehr's expected startup in late August has been delayed, he notes, for unknown reasons. (One Iranian official blamed the delay on hot weather.)
But if Stuxnet is so targeted, why did it spread to all those countries? Stuxnet might have been spread by the USB memory sticks used by a Russian contractor while building the Bushehr nuclear plant, Langner offers. The same contractor has jobs in several countries where the attackware has been uncovered.
"This will all eventually come out and Stuxnet's target will be known," Langner says. "If Bushehr wasn't the target and it starts up in a few months, well, I was wrong. But somewhere out there, Stuxnet has found its target. We can be fairly certain of that."
[I also have a big carrot and a cucumber, but I don't think those will be of much use today]. I think my girlfriend is going to love it maybe put the (peeled) banana into the freezer for an hour or so, in order to make everything extra chilled.| At one point in the project I could not get an overall viewpoint for the operation of the entire system. It really was too much for my brain to keep all the subtle aspects and processing nuances clear so I could get a processing and design overview. After struggling with this problem for a few weeks, I decided to use a little acid to see if it would enable a breakthrough, because otherwise, I would not be able to complete the project and be certain of a consistent overall design. Overall design consistency was important to reduce program and design errors. I used only seventy-five micrograms because I was not interested in tripping, as I had a specific, limited and definite purpose for the use of LSD. While stimu- lated by the LSD I was able to get the entire system wholly in my mind at the same time. I spent some time mentally visualizing various aspects of the compiler, the language and the processing which would take place. I did discover three or four design inconsistencies while being stimulated by the effect of the LSD, and I made notes for later checking. | After twenty-four hours when the effect of the LSD was completely gone, I went over my notes. I needed to have a measure of ÔfaithÕ that the design changes suggested by my notes would produce the beneficial effects they seemed to imply; that is, I was again in the condition of being not able to conceive of the entire system at the same time in my mind. Once all the changes were made, I was able to successfully complete the program- ming of this huge system. The design changes I made reduced future program modification errors and contributed to the elegance of the design. The system was a commercial success for my employer and was used for many years by them. Al- though the use of LSD was an important component of the success of the system, no one knew of its use except me. |
Although we're probably going to eat out, since the prices we saw at the bar/cafes were very cheap ...
