I would like to report an absolutely absurd use of metaphor.
If you walked by 17th and Valencia on your way to lunch today, you may have noticed an enormous pile of trash steaming on the road just beyond the police station doors.
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
It looks like it has been six months since I last wrote a new screenhack, which is quite a while. I'm open to suggestions. (That don't require massive asset libraries or physics engines. You know how this works.)
Gerät 32620 was a digital speech generator, developed in the early 1980s [...] and was used by the Stasi for sending secret coded messages via the mysterious numbers stations that used to be operated on the short wave radio bands. The device is known by different names, including Eiserne Frau (iron lady) and Stimme (Voice).
Update: Also it has come to my attention that Google's Content-ID system is, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error. As demonstrated by the fact that it thinks that this video is a song owned by "WMG and 4 Music Rights Societies", none of which (despite their superficial similarities) appears to be "The Stasi":
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
I didn't post about this when I first read the article because I just didn't have the energy to point out all the ways that the Washington Post's reporting sucked. But thankfully, Violet is on the case:
The TSA wants to go hogwild and buckwild with facial recognition AI in airports across the US, and I promise that every terrible detail of what WaPo discovered in its investigation will make you scream. It continues to blow me away that no decision makers know a red flag factory when they see one. I can't wait to see which slimy startup got the fat contract cash, how fast they get popped, how racist their AI is, how long they lie about getting popped, and who our data will be "rented" to (not sold, of course, not even Facebook sells our data).
Not that this is a great article. It's unquestioning copypasta of TSA statements that quite literally contradict the "good news" this reporter claims, like that there's a way to "opt out."
"But the TSA hasn't actually released hard data about how often its system falsely identifies people, through incorrect positive or negative matches... The TSA says it doesn't use facial recognition for law-enforcement purposes. It also says it minimizes holding on to our face data... But the TSA did acknowledge there are cases in which it holds on to the data for up to 24 months so its science and technology office can evaluate the system's effectiveness...
Those who do not feel comfortable will still have to present their ID but they can tell the officer that they do not want their photo taken, and the officer will turn off the live camera. There are also supposed to be signs around informing you of your rights."
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
To be clear, as I said in "On blocking, and the coinsplaining cryptobros", I don't have a problem with anybody blocking anyone for any reason, or for no reason at all. I do it all the time, and that is the system working properly. If I irritate you, you absolutely should block me.
I do still think this one is pretty funny, though.
Guess I'm off the Christmas card list for sure now.
Maybe come celebrate with a tasty beverage tonight at Death Guild or Monday Night Hubba?
Also, Abolish The ABC!
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Being popular is an illusion. Like a magic trick, or cryptocurrency. You just have to believe in it. And then they will too.
And later:
Her uncle invented that crypto banking app, Money Grab. It's an app that's like a bank. But instead of going to an actual bank, you go to the app and like... grab money.
[sighs] No, Bree, it's an actual bank. It's just, like, the money that isn't real. Anyway, it'll be sick for the party.
So that's what presumably-Millennial screenwriters think Gen Z have to say about it.
Scathing allegations against Mayor Breed and city in lawsuit filed over treatment of the homeless:
Former San Francisco employees, including a director who worked with the homeless, allege that the city routinely cleared encampments while knowing there were not enough shelter beds available, according to new testimony filed in court Friday. [...]
In Friday's filings, Marshall said they were explicitly directed by the former head of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, Jeff Kositsky, to forcibly move unhoused people and destroy their property without taking the time to inquire about their needs.
The city cleared encampments in response to "daily mandates" by Mayor London Breed, Marshall stated: "Mayor Breed ordered us to carry out sweeps because she did not want to be seen near unhoused people while she was at lunch, at the gym, at fundraisers, or at meetings on public business." [...]
Marshall also suggested the method the department used to track shelter refusal was misleading. The Homelessness and Outreach Team would warn unhoused folks that the police were coming without taking steps to offer shelter, Marshall alleged. Despite the lack of offers, they wrote, the city recorded those individuals as having "refused" shelter, which Marshall called an "inaccurate and blatant attempt to work around the City's stated requirements for enforcement." [...]
When Public Works removes an encampment, staff are supposed to collect and log unhoused residents' belongings to be retrieved later [but they] often threw away residents' items altogether, due to a lack of time to sort out trash from belongings. "I have seen DPW workers throw away entire tents," Malone stated.
ProfessaJay:
Man voting in Georgia is so different than in Illinois. When I lived in chicago, during early voting, I went to the local elementary school, waited in line about ten minutes, and they gave me a sheet of paper. I checked people off then I put it in the machine and left.
Not Georgia. We drove downtown because every other polling place had a line >90 minutes. We paid ten bucks to park. We went in the building, then emptied out pockets to go through a metal detector. We then saw a sign about where to park to get our parking validated. Inside.
We then waited in line ~80 minutes. We got to the end and we were given a form to fill out (?). We were told not to sign it until told. Then we were moved into a waiting room where we were given a ticket number, like when you are at the dmv.
We were told to get our IDs out and wait. We waited here for 15-20 minutes. When your number is called they took your form, did some stuff on the computer, then told you to sign the form. Then you get a little green card. You insert it into the machine.
Then you go through three or four prompts, including a very serious™ warning about perjury, a totally necessary warning given how huge a problem stolen identity is for the purposes of voting on behalf of someone else.
You then finally vote, and after an "are you sure" prompt you get a sheet. You then have to walk the sheet over to feed it into a machine. About half of these were working.
The bottleneck was clearly the weird application and waiting room thing. There are two dozen people at a time sitting to have their stuffed checked. Think of it as regular voting except when you got there they had to run a credit check for each person like you need financing.
It was easier finishing my PhD paperwork. Thankful for the kind people (nearly all black women) the shepherded the processes. But man if you are poor or disabled or whatever, good luck yo. That should have been easier. We finished tho.
