“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
― Honore de Balzac
22 karma · joined March 31, 2008
― Honore de Balzac
(I do share data leakage and privacy concerns).
I use an Apple phone, so I can't comment on the mobile targeting scenarios re Google.
However, I have been using Google and its web services (email, search) for over 10 years now for both work and personal use. I have bought maybe 2 products as a result of their ads. After installing ad-blockers, I simply get no advertising now. None. Zero.
The same applies to Facebook. I use the mobile app almost exclusively and see no ads or simply ignore the promoted stuff. None of it seems to be location based. For example, I enjoy whisky but when I open the app in the middle of a whisky store, I get no ads or promoted links.
So where is all this data matching and targeted advertising? How effective is it if any person with a modicum of intelligence can take simple steps to avoid seeing all the annoying crap?
To me it seems that these companies, specially FB, are working on a foundation of sand -- the companies are built and run on the basis of "we can sell intelligent advertising" and the marketing execs fall for it and throw money at them without any measurable results. Google has a more solid use case (they searched for it, so show them an ad that is provably relevant) but Facebook....? Seems like a house of cards in the long run...even if they can implement merciless targeting they are afraid of doing so as it would result in backlash.
Meanwhile, the tech behemoths use this shifting sand to conjure money out of nowhere and continue fueling the computer industry -- with some good benefits re. facility to share stuff with people you want, hardware improvements, contributions to open source, advancements in AI, research, etc. I guess just enjoy it while it lasts...
If you are a citizen of a country like Australia, the medical safety net is a life saver. No way will insurance pay for complete cancer treatments.
You are correct, LRB is generally not easily fooled into writing puff pieces; O'Hagen is a very sharp writer (check out his masterly analysis of Assange who is much more capable of blowing smoke than Wright).
My prediction is that this will be looked upon more as a an essay about digital con men, and this is why M-K Willmers allowed it to be published.
FWIW, I say Neal Stephenson is Satoshi :)
I can't touch type but my code reads:
def snmp_command(session, oid, media_servers):
result = list()
for host_name in media_servers:
snmp = SNMP_CMD.format(host=host_name, oid=oid)
snmp_reply = [x for x in session.cmditer(snmp)]
if len(snmp_reply) == 0:
log.warning("No data for EMS Media Server SNMP cmd {0} for host {1}".format(snmp, host_name))
continue
# add the Media Server host from which we got this reply to the list of snmp reply
snmp_reply.append(host_name)
result.append(snmp_reply)
return resultThe "some parts" is worth bearing in mind. In my opinion, the mode of classifying or looking at a company like IBM as a single entity is plain wrong and outdated. Size, geographical distribution, org setup and variety of businesses they are involved in practically dictates that there will be no uniform culture in terms of management and performance.
Works as advertised and the online sharing enables very neat integration with services such as pinboard.in.
I reckon services like Uber are a good way to shake up the in-inefficiencies and built-in-slackness that accumulates within a protected service industry. There is absolutely nothing stopping the "real" taxi industry adopting apps and tech services to counter Uber -- in fact they would be way ahead in other more "background" aspects such as insurance, vetting drivers, heck, even brand name awareness among the general public. For example, we had taxi companies put out apps here in Australia long before Uber. In my experience they have been about 90% reliable (this was in the early days) and I'm certain they have improved now. And the taxi companies definitely have the pockets and data to drive this.
Once the shake-up is complete a set of equilibrium should be established -- as services like Uber would also be forced to implement proper checks on drivers, etc. At which point the idiots spouting off $18 billion figures should wake up from their dreams.
FYI, there is a category of Indians who are not NRI and it might surprise you to know there are countries other than the US and....surprise.... currencies other then dollars!! Oh wow!!
What has being an Indian citizen got to do with the truth?
I write what I write so that the rah-rah-yay-yay idiots like you could draw their attention to the real problem in your country -- a civilization more than 10,000 years old that still cannot fix basic sanitation issues, where women are raped on a regular no-comment basis, where corruption is prevalent from birth-certificate to death-certificates, where swathes of your population are being driven to Naxal violence by the state as a means of defending their homes, culture and patrimony from greedy corporations. In the face of the staggering problems you face as a nation, shouldn't you turn your and your peer's attention to them rather than trying to rejoice at "look white man, me too MARS"?
You may also be surprised to know, "Technological Advances" have been advanced enough for a couple of hundred years now to the point that sanitation, roads, etc are a non-issue -- you don't need to go to Mars for that! Or perhaps Slumdog tourism generates enough income for you to want to keep it that way? http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/slumming-it
Down-vote me all you want, happy to give you my points if you make an honest effort to understand the point I make.
You will also note that I post under my real name as I do not feel ashamed about having an honest discussion under my identity -- how about you?
"Why 750 million Indian citizens cannot enjoy basic sanitation facilities after 60 years of gaining so called independence of their nation"
Seriously....
- necessary to prevent a real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice that cannot be prevented by other reasonably available means; and
- necessary to prevent prejudice to the interests of the Commonwealth in relation to national security. "
What a load of crap. Now that WikiLeaks has actually published the information in the public domain, pray what: 1. Damage has been done to Australia's international reputation?
2. What national security has been affected?
3. What justice has been prevented from being administered? All the Aussies involved in the case will be punished as they are Aussie, all the foreign nationals cannot be touched anyways because they are foreign.
This court order is simply about protecting Australian commercial interests as well as trying to shield the RBA. Securency and its subsidiaries bring in considerable amount of recurring income. Why reveal it's mod op?
What new things and how do they blow your mind?
1. What is the point of benchmarking so many writes? Instead, give us the cost of write-read and a few use cases: analysis, data mining, etc. And what of the bandwidth costs?
2. Say you are running a moderately intensive application that needs to be up 10 hours a day. $330/hour x 10 = $3300. Multiply that by a few days and where does that leave you?
Suddenly having your own infrastructure with kit like this: http://www.fusionio.com/products in it is not such a bad idea! This also means you don't have to use any funny NoSQL products, can use standard programming, non cloudy infrastructure and a decent RDBMs setup that non Silicon-valley, non-hipster humans have a chance of understanding and reliably maintaining.
That one project and the integrity with which he has run it forgives all the problems you might perceive him to have had.
And yes, sometimes you have no option but to be an ass hole to get your point across. Linus has equally been accused of the same.
That's all that is required to give his statements some weight.