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Comment by sz4kerto | Hacker News Reader

I should say -- tracking people through video and image recognition in a hospital or in a factory is creepy and awesome at the same time. I can't decide just yet.

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"Find me the person who ate the last piece of cake in the fridge."

"And next time they go into the supply closet, lock them in"

"And route all supply runs to alternative locations for the next two days. Order cake to be delivered to supply closet in 47 hours."

That sounds kind of nice --but this can lead to a very sterile and stifling environment. It has the potential to be overbearing, if abused.

I've always been baffled at the 'last piece' cult. That piece is no more important than any other piece of the cake. What's with all the emotional baggage surrounding it?

I found this is a cultural thing, e.g. from my personal experience it is not regarded nearly as important in the Netherlands as it is in the United Kingdom.

I agree with you -- in addition, the person to eat the "last piece" has the courage to consume the piece that is both the least fresh and has most possibly been exposed to pathogens from "other piece" eaters.

"First Piece" folks should get more flak as they've destroyed a baked work of art.

On the contrary; the first-piece person is taking all the risk of the possibility that the cake was poisoned at the factory or store. Kings had "tasters", after all.

My dad frequently eats the last cookie in the box or last piece of cake. He then leaves the container there. It's slightly different than normal "last piece" cult, but really frustrating when you're looking forward to the one piece of cake after you mow the lawn, open the container, and realize there is none left.

I'm not sure I've ever eaten cake after mowing a lawn. That's an unusual combo; and I've mowed a lot.

Agreed.

Last beer though...

We would have big problems if he started putting empties back in the fridge.

I think we have bizarrely different definitions of the word "cult."

It's because the person complaining likely wanted another piece, but now they can't because it's all gone. The "logical" person to blame would be the person who took the last one.

Errmm, simply the fact if someone had the last piece. You can't have one.

Because if you still want a piece after the last piece being taken, you'll have to bother yourself with going to the grocery store to grab a whole?

Maybe this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_heuristic

AFAIU, when something bad happens to us, we focus our regret on the smallest/nearest action that could have been undone to change the outcome. So in this case, the bad thing being that you wanted a piece and there are none left--it's natural to blame whomever ate the last piece, because it's easier to imagine an alternate reality where the last piece wasn't eaten, than an alternate reality with some earlier piece not being eaten and everybody subsequently encountering a cake with one additional piece.

Same reason the dude who filmed the Rodney King incident was blamed for the LA Riots. People figured that if he hadn't filmed it, the riots wouldn't have happened.

Because it's more scarce at that point.

The last pieces will progressively often become more and more important because of a difference between supply and demand.

More like: "Find me the person that stole my lunch from the fridge. The bag was clearly labeled with my name! Come on people, what, are we animals here?!?!"

"and send out a battle drone after him!"

Yes definitely both (I'm feeling the same).

However, these immediate policy violations are strange to me. As someone who writes software for a lot of field crews, these kinds of exceptions happen _all the time_ and very often they're for explainable reasons. (the guy's hands were busy, he asked his buddy to move the heavy tool).

I'm sure they're aware of this but you have to work in some kind of tolerance to these kinds of compliance violations, because the ultimate goal is increased safety, not finger-wagging.

I don't think that whoever is using this kind of app is expecting to act on every single "violation". It is just nice and convenient that all of the "violations" are recorded, so that if something goes down, there is a documentation in form of pictures/timestamps to back it all up.

Seems to be a pretty useful technology. As a MSFT stock owner it'll be nice to be able to go back to the video and figure out exactly when Nadella made the bad decision. This sort of monitoring and recording will be utilized with CEOs and executives and such, right?

This is about safety, not about making "bad decisions". Do executives risk their lives and health daily? What about someone working with heavy machinery?

I'm guessing that the buyers will decide for themselves what it will be "about", lacking any privisos about allowed usage in the fine print.

At first? Maybe not. But once you have that kind of power, it's hard to give up.

you move in to selective enforcement. there will be recorded violations of something for pretty much everyone, and only a handful of people will have access to it, and they'll selective enforce as they see fit. but maybe if you do this one little favor for them, they'll look the other way (for a spell).

I mean, that kind of selective enforcement is possible right now as well, cameras have been available for quite a while. I don't think that the technology shown today has added anything important for those who want to powertrip in the way you described.

And I bet any real system would accommodate for the exceptions you mention. However, it makes for a very poor presentation. The presentation here is a marketing device, not a product spec.

Sadly, I bet this goes into employee documentation.

Eg. If an employee has a workplace accident, company distances itself / minimizes cost by citing all your workplace safety violations that were conveniently recorded.

More optimistic use would be for re-training, identifying superstar employees. But saving on lawsuit costs is the big dollar win and probably the motivating factor (In my cynical opinion)

Now I start to understand the reference to 1984 and Brave New World from the beginning of the keynote.

It will very quickly go from workplace safety to public safety.

Just a phone call away. https://www.ibm.com/uk-en/marketplace/video-analytics-for-se...

+1 , we wont even know when this boundary get crossed. however I think it inevitable

I think this has great potential in in the ER and in Surgery to ensure the basics are followed and forgetfulness does not allow for obvious mistakes --but at the same time allow for on the spot decisionmaking for the surgeon when things don't go as planned.

The thing is we have seen that checklists for both actions and communication solve that without creepy big brother shit.

Why Windows must die. For the third time.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-windows-must-die-for-the-th...

Was a pretty interesting read today.

Full of crap.

WinRT/UWP is a toy application framework able to produce no better than toy apps. That is why any Windows application worth using is not "modern". The real story is that today's Microsoft can no longer execute and create something new on the same quality level as Win32 was in the 90s.

Sandboxing has nothing to do with it. You can sandbox win32 and in fact they do when you submit a legacy desktop app to the store.

Centennial apps aren't really "sandboxed" in the sense that modern apps are - they use the same declarative installer format, but once the app is running it runs as the user with full trust and can party on the user's files and other apps etc. The filesystem and registry virtualization/redirection is for compatibility with the redirection the installer does and helps against accidental damage, but it's not a security feature.

I feel the same way. It will make working in an environment like this a tab bit more stressful, I'm sure.

However, it feels better than having actual people doing the same (watching you while working).

Not for the children who grew up with the same systems in their schools.

It's awesome.

I guess, as long as you're not working in the department that has this implemented.

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