Re: [LINK] Catching COVID from surfaces is very unlikely. So perhaps we can ease up on the disinfecting
On Tue, 2021-02-23 at 13:11 +1100, Marghanita da Cruz wrote: > Perhaps not covid - but other stuff. I will continue to use my elbow > to press the beg button at traffic lights. It's interesting how COVID-19 has heightened our general hygiene awareness. Not touching things is one habit that will probably take a while to fade. I'd have thought that there would be very few things you could get from a button. I'm not saying the risk is zero - but the risk from such a button must be absolutely miniscule. And if you did manage to catch something, pretty much all the things you could conceivably catch from one are either trivial or treatable. Except COVID-19, which I guess is why caution makes sense. Other than that I think it's more a yuk factor than anything else. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Free cloud services
On Mon, 2020-12-21 at 10:39 +1100, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> I'd like to run a Windows compute intensive app in something a lot
> more powerful than my laptop. The .exe is under 200kb but it needs
> about 5-10Gbytes of memory to run in. It produces output files of up
> to 100MBytes.
>
> Does anyone have any experience of Amazon and/or Microsoft (or
> anything else) and what the risks might be? Especially if the thing
> runs wild and chews up resources unexpectedly?
Can't speak for Azure but my day job is designing and building AWS-
hosted infrastructure.
The AWS pricing model is "pay only for what you use", so if you fire up
an instance, run it for an hour, then destroy it, you will pay only for
that one hour of usage and one hour of storage. If you leave it stopped
for next time (rather than destroy it completely), you will still be
using storage. Storage costs about 15 cents per gigabyte per month.
Runtime and storage are both pro-rated, you don't have to pay a full
month if you only run it for an hour. When you start a new instance you
say how much storage you want it to have, but it sounds as if the
default will be plenty for your needs.
An 8GB instance with 2vCPUs ("t3.large") will set you back about
AUD$0.19 per hour. 16GB with 4vCPUs will set you back about AUD$0.34
per hour. Plus storage costs in both cases. Plus network traffic, but
that is usually negligible. If your problem can be computed in (say)
one hour, then the cost of computing it will be less than 40 cents.
You can create an image of the instance, and create new instances from
that image, allowing you to destroy unwanted instances without having
to reconfigure new ones from scratch. The images still cost a bit in
storage, but it's a cheaper form of storage than virtual disks.
Cheapest of all, script the setup of your system, so that you can
recreate it easily from scratch each time. Then you have zero costs in
between runs. If you can do all you need in PowerShell, you should be
good to go. Not so useful if you need to set things up with point and
click.
The risks boil down to you screwing up, your account being hacked, or
(worst of all) you screwing up and not realising it.
You screwed up: "Whoops, I created 100 instances instead of 1". Amazon
has limits in place that prevent you screwing up really badly. You will
not be able to make this kind of mistake without planning :-) Also,
even 100 large instances are not expensive if they don't run for long.
If you shut them down after one hour, you mistake will only have cost
you (for a t3.large, for example) about $20.
You get hacked: "Why are there 122 instances running bitcoin miners?"
This can be prevented by straightforward security: Have a good strong
password, turn on multi-factor authentication, store your secrets
securely, don't share accounts. If you DO get hacked, Amazon is
generally very sympathetic.
You screwed up and didn't realise you screwed up: "What is this
instance doing still running after two weeks?" You can avoid this by
setting up billing warnings. You can get Amazon to send you a warning
email when the estimated monthly charge exceeds some value you
nominate.
You can also use a separate credit card for the service, with a
suitably low limit. This will not protect you from owing Amazon if you
legitimately run up high costs, but if you get hacked it is better that
you have the money than they do while it all gets worked out.
Regards, K.
--
~~~
Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170
Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D
___
Link mailing list
Link@mailman.anu.edu.au
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] More than a third of NSW drivers have opted for a digital licence
On Tue, 2020-12-08 at 00:33 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > "Two million people (36% of all driver licence holders) can't be > wrong. Drivers simply love the technology, with 95% giving it the > thumbs up," Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello said. Yeah When people say things like that, just remind them that about 70 million people voted for Trump. Twice. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] O/t: “How can a disease with 1% mortality shut down the United States?”
On Tue, 2020-12-01 at 23:36 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > Just wondering, does the content pass the pub (Link) consensus for > reasoning? Seems plausible. The numbers are poorly expressed at best, for example it says (but I presume doesn't mean) that all people hospitalised will get permanent heart damage. It's also not clear whether or how much the numbers overlap, I would assume there is a lot of overlap. And it doesn't make clear that a sick person, especially a long-term sick person, has (in general) a far greater impact than a dead person. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Do you need blockchain?
On Wed, 2020-11-25 at 11:38 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > https://www.dta.gov.au/help-and-advice/technology/blockchain/do-you-need-blockchain > [...] > Do you need blockchain? What a large number of words they used, just to say "no". Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] New device puts music in your head — no headphones required
On Sun, 2020-11-15 at 11:04 +1100, jw...@internode.on.net wrote: > Good luck to the psychiatrists and patients saying they are hearing > voices. This is like the reception of radio signals in tooth > fillings, without the fillings. ? This seems an oddly irrelevant comment. Are you saying these guys have not invented what they say they have? > The point about participating in a conference call is a bit sus. The > participant would still be talking. This is no different from someone > on a call and the rest of the open office getting only one side of > the conversation. Assuming the participant is using headphone. It does help with half the equation. > HOWEVER - if this would work for people with hearing impairments, it > could be a huge breakthrough. It doesn't really generate sound in people's heads, that was the journo being lax. It just generates sound very close to the ear. I suppose if it can generate very loud localised sound it might be useful to the hard of hearing, but vibration is vibration, and if it's big it will be transferred to the surrounding air. Unless (and this is pure supposition) they actively suppress the generated vibration in the space round the focal point by e.g. generating equal and opposite sound (like noise cancelling headphones do). I think it all sounds completely fascinating and very useful. Regards, K. > - Original Message - > From: "Kim Holburn" > To:"Link mailing list" > Cc: > Sent:Sun, 15 Nov 2020 09:14:16 +1100 > Subject:[LINK] New device puts music in your head — no headphones > required > > How long before advertisers at the mall use this to beam sound into > the heads of passers-by? > > > https://apnews.com/article/new-tech-device-sound-beaming-noveto-38327ae5fe116080a5eaf2374eb0f5c8 > > > LONDON (AP) — Imagine a world where you move around in your own > personal sound bubble. You listen to your favorite tunes, play > > loud computer games, watch a movie or get navigation directions in > your car — all without disturbing those around you. > > > > That’s the possibility presented by “sound beaming,” a new > futuristic audio technology from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company. > On > > Friday it will debut a desktop device that beams sound directly to > a listener without the need for headphones. > snip > > ___ > Link mailing list > Link@mailman.anu.edu.au > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Electronic voting in ACT
On Fri, 2020-10-16 at 15:03 +1100, Roger Clarke wrote: > EVACS is a home-grown product. > [...] > https://www.digitalelections.com.au/evacs/ I don't care if it was raised on mother's milk, was fed nothing but apple-pie, mows its neighbours' lawns every Saturday and spends every Sunday tending lovingly to its aged mother. If it isn't open source it is an unreliable and untrustworthy voting mechanism. Anyone attempting to sell a voting system that they are unprepared to open to the most intimately detailed inspection by any citizen is placing their own profit ahead of the integrity of the voting process, and that alone should be enough to disqualify them as a voting solution vendor. Is EVACS open source? Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Electronic voting in ACT
On Fri, 2020-10-16 at 14:00 +1100, Stephen Rothwell wrote: > http://www.softimp.com.au/evacs/index.html I am reasonably sure that the original EVACS was written at least partly by Andrew Tridgell. Which means that it is (was?) probably unbreakable, unsinkable and uncrackable, regardless of operating system or development language. If it can be powered and programmed, Tridge can make it work. However, while the original EVACS was partly or fully open source, the people Tridge partnered with (Software Improvements) to create it were not so altruistic; IIRC they redeveloped the software into an entirely proprietary system, which they also called "EVACS". Whether they did actually redevelop it or whether they just said they did so they could close it and start selling GPLed code is a matter for conjecture. Proprietary voting systems are by definition not trustworthy. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Google-Cloud IP addressing
On Tue, 2020-10-13 at 22:37 +1100, David Lochrin wrote: > I searched for 23.236.62.147 on https://dnslytics.com/reverse-ip as > you suggested, and that site reported "Found 6,281,493 domains hosted > on IP address 23.236.62.147". Over six million IP domains hanging on > one address!! That address is Google's user content. It's probably not really one address - it's more probably anycast and you end up on any one of thousands of different actual servers when you go there. But I don't really know. 147.62.236.23.bc.googleusercontent.com. > What on earth has happened to IP6? I use it every day. You may well be using it too. The place that hosts my websites supports IPv6. It "just works", mostly. Most modern operating systems will use it if it's there, and will prefer it over IPv4 if both are available. Type "What's my IP" into Google - if you are using IPv6 it'll show an IPv6 address. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Google-Cloud IP addressing
On Tue, 2020-10-13 at 17:32 +1100, jw...@internode.on.net wrote: > Interesting.Here's another example. A group I'm in was starting to > be blocked by Malwarebytes. We couldn't figure it out. Then someone > tracked it down that the host was using the IP number for two > different orgs and Malwarebytes didn't like it one bit. That doesn't entirely make sense. Half the western world runs on shared hosting for web and email. It's extremely common for multiple domains to resolve to the same IP address. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] WordPress
On Tue, 2020-10-13 at 10:18 +1100, David Lochrin wrote: > I'd like to ask Linkers whether anyone has recent experience of > WordPress, especially regarding security, and possibly privacy? > > I believe it's written in PHP which has a terrible record of security > issues over the years, possibly because it's so easy to write bad > code. (I taught myself PHP because it was so popular with students!) I have a lot of experience with WordPress. It is not so terribly insecure in itself, but it has a very large plugins ecosystem, and the quality of plugins varies very widely. To keep it secure, you do need to be running things like WordFence to detect and block malicious access, use something to enforce password complexity, use MFA on logins (or at very least on administrator logins), preferably lock admin usage down to particular sources and so on. These sorts of steps are not really unique to WordPress though. As with any site that gathers information, if you are storing anything in the WordPress database, you need to secure it well. Don't store things in plain text, get details off the site and into safety as soon as you can, don't have the database on the site instances, don't store database passwords on site instances and so on. WordPress was never designed for the big time. It's quite tricky to run at scale. People tend to scale vertically as far as they can before they bite the bullet and scale horizontally. The solutions required for horizontal scaling can themselves cause security issues if not chosen and implemented carefully. For example, where do new instances get their database passwords from? Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Telstra “Game Optimiser” Snake Oil?
On Thu, 2020-09-24 at 08:55 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > According to Leigh Stark Telstra is planning to charge $10 a month > for a “Game Optimiser” to "prioritise traffic to gaming devices". > Will this really improve gaming? > https://www.pickr.com.au/news/2020/telstra-starts-testing-game-optimiser-for-its-nbn-customers/ Consider for moment what they will do if *everybody* pays the extra. Network bandwidth is a zero sum game. This service, if real, *depends* on taking something away from someone else. Today they hold the gamers to ransom, because nobody will defend them (and because in many cases they use clearly identifiable ports and protocols), tomorrow it'll be a "business surcharge" to "prioritise" something else. It's either snake oil and they are hoping gamers will pay extra for nothing at all, or this is the beginning of a very nasty attack. I rather think the latter. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Gen Z is eroding the power of misinformation
On Wed, 2020-09-16 at 09:23 +, Stephen Loosley quoted an article that said: > Gen Z is eroding the power of misinformation A good thing. If true. Remaining comments directed at the writer of the article, not you, Stephen. The article is crap from beginning to end. Making expansive claims based on essentially no real evidence. > Why it matters: An innate understanding of social media influence So the writer doesn't know what "innate" means, for a start. > according to a new survey from polling firm College Reaction of 868 > students provided exclusively to Axios. I.e. an extraordinarily small sample size for statements given the breadth of the claims. College Reaction (https://www.collegereaction.com) are *opinion pollsters*. They gather opinion - exclusively *American* opinion." And colour me curmudgeonly, but their website is on Wix. Yes, really. Check out their "team" for three reasons why their ideas on the thoughts of anyone over 25 might not be worth knowing. > Younger people are confident in their ability to detect false > information, but have little faith in older generations. *Almost everybody* is confident in such abilities in themselves. Rather as most people think they are better than average drivers. Confidence is irrelevant. Test them. > * 69% of Gen Z students said it is somewhat or very easy for them > to distinguish real news from misinformation. "They said". How about actually *testing* their claim? > * Half said they think it is "very difficult" for older > generations. "They said". It's testable - test it. > * Studies have found the youngest American adults are far less > likely to share misinformation online than are older Americans. "Studies". Name one. > * "Young people are internet locals," College Reaction founder > Cyrus Beschloss told Axios. "Because they swim through so much > content, they're wildly savvy at spotting bogus content." A completely unproven and unsupported statement followed by a grossly stupid hypothesis. > How it works: As the first generation to grow up with social media > , Gen Z has an innate understanding of how to create and move online > content, which makes them less susceptible to misinformation. An unsubstantiated and I suspect unprovable (and I also suspect - probably wrong) hypothesis *at best*. > * Nearly half (46%) of college students said that they > intentionally like, comment on or share content to train the > algorithms to give them similar information and media. So why wasn't the take-away here that "more than half of college students make no effort to influence what they are fed by social media algorithmic advertisers"? > * Most older generations — even millennials — don't always > understand online influencer culture, the utility of hashtags or how > to intentionally curate their feed. "Most", "don't always"... > * Most misinformation is just "influence and agenda-driven > communications that older generations don’t understand," Jonathon > Morgan, CEO of AI software company Yonder, told Axios. Bold claim. Jonathon Morgan goes on my very, very long list of toss- pots who I will make sure I never pay attention to again. > * Boomers, Gen Xers and even some millennials often don’t know > how this kind of information gets into their feeds. Oh, "often". Very scientific. > “They feel duped,” Morgan said, “And because they feel duped, they > label it as misinformation and disinformation.” Wait on. It *is* misinformation and disinformation. That is the very definition of misinformation and disinformation. And if they feel duped by it, then that have correctly identified it as such, in spite of the dreadful handicap of being over the age of twenty-three. Apparently. The article itself is a perfect example of "influence and agenda-driven communications". > What to watch: Gen Z is using its online savvy to advance its own > values and priorities, said Jason Dorsey, author of Zconomy: How Gen > Z Will Change the Future of Business. Whereas the Chinese, the Russians - or heck, everybody else really - is using their online savvy to do what exactly? Or do they just not have any online savvy? > Gen Z has driven the transformation of Instagram into a social > justice information and education hub. What? :-) A social justice and education hub?!? Have these guys *seen* Instagram? lol... This article is rubbish. It has not a single redeeming feature. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Smart meters back in the frame
On Tue, 2020-09-08 at 08:34 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/worlds-first-plug-in-home-battery-set-to-be-tested-in-australia/ The company is called "Orison". Good name for a startup. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] RFI: How should virtual group members interact with one another?
> > Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 > AUSTRALIA > > Visiting Professor in the Faculty of LawUniversity of > N.S.W. > Visiting Professor in Computer ScienceAustralian National > University > ___ > Link mailing list > Link@mailman.anu.edu.au > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] [Off-Topic]What is burning in the fire in "Planet America"
On Sat, 2020-08-08 at 21:40 +1000, Kim Holburn wrote: > I think it's part of this video: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIJAsKCLTqc > I think you're right! The object in question is actually the end of a large split log. How on Earth did you find that video? And I wonder if the ABC paid for it :-) Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
[LINK] [Off-Topic]What is burning in the fire in "Planet America"
This is really bugging me. What is the roughly rectangular object that appears to be burning in the fireplace on the "Planet America" set? -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] ACCC's Mandatory Media Bargaining Code
On Fri, 2020-07-31 at 15:50 +1000, Kim Holburn wrote: > https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141212/07360229413/surprise-spanish-newspapers-beg-government-eu-to-stop-google-news-shutting-down.shtml > Why does no-one in Spain or elsewhere see this as an absolutely god- given opportunity for a (probably Spanish-speaking) entity to set up a news search service for Spanish-language news? Or even just Euro-zone generally? Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Ten Dollar Telepresence Robot for the COVID-Safer Classroom
On Thu, 2020-07-30 at 08:27 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > Well its actually a remote control toy car with a smart phone bolted > to I recall reading a while ago about a service one could buy in Japan, where someone basically wearing a tablet on their face, displaying yours in real time, would visit functions, meetings etc in your place. What a job. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The speed problem ...
On Wed, 2020-07-22 at 03:39 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > Karl writes, > > As for discarding caution in favour of speed – God > > give me strength, what a stupid, stupid, STUPID idea. > > One does take your perhaps rather dramatically overstated > point Karl Overstated? Hardly. You should have seen the first draft. > , and for this thoughtful if ambitious article How is a business man, selling cloud solutions, advising us to be less cautious with our IT spend, any kind of credible author? Answer: He's not. I do realise that this is an ad hominem argument, but nonetheless, when the fox advocates less hen-house security one does have to consider motive. > .. when the federal government announced its most recent plan, it > > detailed $72 billion in this kind of infrastructure. They had the chance and they blew it when they didn't build a useful NBN. If they want to get their credentials back from me, they will spend the lot on networking. Only networking. Nothing but networking.[1] Lots and and lots and lots of high-speed networking across the whole country, and no that doesn't mean "Sydney". If they want, they can also spend money on getting people connected at high speed, as far as that is possible with the sad patchwork of underpowered poo that we call the national network. And the guy from the cloud will benefit too. > So, he makes a good point .. in this digital world, is $72 billion > spent on earth-moving, building more now-working-at-home empty roads, > the very best idea for such significant investments? No it's not. But there is also no need at all for risk. Build out the network. It is an utter no-risk-at-all no-brainer that is festooned with upsides everywhere along the timeline from short to long term and has only one single downside, namely expense. But they *want* to spend money, so that downside isn't there any more. That's what should happen, but it would require admitting to the eye- watering scale of their initial HAMFU, so it probably won't. > Why not chance-our-hand in the digital world with a few risky ideas? Because people with NFI and/or dollar-induced myopia are the ones coming up with the ideas, and they are not risking *their* money. The people taking the risks - with OUR MONEY - are more people with NFI. We have seen that the current political class cannot be trusted with any IT project more complex than tic-tac-toe, why on earth should we trust them with another, still less one where we positively urge them to take risks? > Divert our minds from this shit-virus and on to something more > useful. Excellent advice. Key word - useful. Actually useful. Not "might be" useful or "could be" useful or "who knows, maybe if we give that random guy over there a metric shedload of cash he will do something" useful. The network is provably, demonstrably useful. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Responding to the Coronavirus Emergency with e-Learning, Webinar, 29 July
On Wed, 2020-07-22 at 10:02 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > It is the fist of six weekly webinars on how I came to e-learning, > used it response to COVID-19 The Fist of Six? Sounds like a Chinese initiative. Sorry, slow news day :-) Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The speed problem ...
t government > is better spending its money elsewhere. We will also miss applying > technology to areas like fire prevention, urban planning and economic > welfare systems that could really benefit. > > Australia has a chance to lead now and it should seize it. In > announcing the new funding, Premier Berejiklian said we need to > “turbocharge digital projects”. Cash is only one part of this; the > other is not being afraid to break the speed limit. > > > By Angus Dorney co-CEO of cloud engineering company Kablamo > https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/the-speed-problem-facing-government-tech-innovation/news-story/3c1f1731ec8055df59346b370db286f9 > ___ > Link mailing list > Link@mailman.anu.edu.au > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] COVIDfail – the Australian coronavirus tracing app that can’t find anyone
On Wed, 2020-07-15 at 09:19 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > The COVIDSafe App only cost a tiny fraction of the billions spent on > COVID-19. The app was oversold, but at least it appears to have done > no direct harm, unlike some other measures. I gave you several harms, direct and otherwise, the least of which was millions spent that could have gone to - oh, hospitals? Schools? Homelessness? Advertising something that actually helps? > But an App which works well and does not infringe privacy would be > useful. If we had a beach we could have a moonlit picnic on the beach, if we had a moon. > What worries me is that Australia has got used to implementing > pandemic measures in a relatively benign environment That's a general point I think. Australia has gotten used to a benign environment. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] COVIDfail – the Australian coronavirus tracing app that can’t find anyone
On Tue, 2020-07-14 at 09:00 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> Compared to other government COVID-19 initiatives, the App was cheap
> and at least has done no harm so far. Because of a lack of planning,
> governments threw money at whatever might work.
It cost a lot of money that could have been far better spent on other
things.
They spent the money in the direct face of clear competent advice that
it would not work. They KEPT spending money in the face not only of
advice but also evidence.
At least for some people and possibly for a great many people, they
deliberately fostered a completely misplaced sense of security
("sunscreen") which certainly could have and for all we know actually
did lead to infections.
The program is yet another IT debacle undermining confidence in the
Government and in their otherwise reasonably good messaging about the
virus. In particular, any future app, even one that might be effective,
will see near-zero uptake.
How are these things not harms?
Regards, K,
--
~~~
Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389
GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170
Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D
___
Link mailing list
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Re: [LINK] Security cameras can tell burglars when you're not home, study shows
On Sat, 2020-07-11 at 11:51 +1000, Paul Brooks wrote: > Which is to say - minimal to no risk. Agreed on this - but any sufficiently wealthy house could be worth the effort for professionals. So the risk increases with your net worth, I would say. > OTOH, smart security cameras that just transmit on motion detection > do have benefits And it would be easy to have them transmit, not constantly, but at random intervals, and to store real frames for transmission and retransmission in the random stream, thus making patterns in the transmissions difficult/impossible to detect. You don't store anything you weren't going to store anyway. It would use somewhat more bandwidth and somewhat more battery, but would be way cheaper, more reliable and indeed more random than a pet :-) Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Australians Record World’s Fastest Internet Speed At 44.2 Tbps
On Wed, 2020-05-27 at 13:26 +1000, David Boxall wrote: > I look forward to the day when BMUS (Beam Me Up Scotty) replaces > HTTP. :‑J I don't understand. What's this BMUS protocol? I do like the natural pronunciation of that acronym - "beam us", but the fact is I'd never heard of it until now. How is it better than the existing Human Tissue Transport Protocol? Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Australians Record World’s Fastest Internet Speed At 44.2 Tbps
On Sun, 2020-05-24 at 19:59 +1000, Andy Farkas wrote: > What would you want to stream in at 44.2Tbps? > Disk drives can't record that fast... watching 4k (or 8k and more in > the future) > video streams doesn't need that much bandwidth. > I'm quite happy to wait a few minutes when I copy 2+GB files around > on my local network. Please tell me this is just dry humour... Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] These charts track how coronavirus is spreading around the world
On Fri, 2020-05-15 at 15:55 +1000, Kate Lance wrote: > They're nice charts but I was startled at the bottom one - 'Autocrats > aren’t necessarily better at dealing with coronavirus.' Whoever said > they were! I think it's a fair statement to make, because I can imagine many people might think that autocratic governments ARE better at it. At least if you assume the autocrats have their populations' best interests at heart (big assumption). They aren't delayed by any need to convince opposition parties, pass laws or cajole people, they can just lock doors, block roads and generally Get Things Done. On the other hand, they are no faster on the uptake than anyone else, and no more intelligent or sensible. And most non-autocratic governments have laws on the books that let them Get Things Done when they really need to. > This statement is also bizarre, and perhaps reflects the blame-China > propaganda now circulating: 'The autocratic nature of the Chinese > Government meant measures to detect a pandemic weren’t effective and > the virus was allowed to spread initially.' A Government that pretends there is no problem is not helping, and there seems to be a bit of evidence that they did pretend. And did things like abuse and sideline people who tried to sound the alarm. Maybe that is what the authors of that article are referring to. On the other hand, the supposedly democratic government of the USA did exactly the same thing. I find it hard to believe in those charts that the Chinese numbers have flattened out so perfectly. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] COVIDSafe a few observations
On Sat, 2020-05-09 at 12:15 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > Yes well, to me it might seem normal to at least wait till after the > first update to release/publish source code? If this were medicine, would you see it as appropriate to have administered the first 5 million doses to the public at large before allowing peer review of the research and testing? If this were a skyscraper, would you expect to have construction finished and the building occupied before anyone except the developers got to see the plans? > to produce a local secure app, for every mobile sold in Australia, in > such a really short time, then update it after one week, and then to > release the source code for it, and as well as all this, planning for > a series of updates is in my opinion something of which we might be > proud? No. First up, we don't yet know it's secure because we haven't necessarily seen the source code for the app that was actually released. Maybe we did, but there's no way to tell. Some of the more avid codesters out there may be able to tell us whether it is what it says on the box. To be fair, initial indications are positive. Second up, there was no need to produce it so quickly, to deploy it so quickly, or to hide the source code for two weeks after the release. It is questionable whether the app is really that groundbreakingly useful. It would appear, now that some of the dust has settled, that those who actually know about these things don't regard the app as likely to be of much practical use at all. It looks a lot like more security theatre from a Government that just loves security theatre. Third up, having to release an update after one week is not evidence of skill. It's mostly evidence of having released it without proper testing. And fourth up, we can only hope that future updates will be *preceded* by the source code for them. > But anyway, really, what would I know Hmmm. Further quotes not from you, but from the press release: > Prior to launching the application, the source code was reviewed by > government security agencies, academics and industry specialists. Yeah? Who? If they are not named then the code might as well have been shown to Peter Dutton's pet axolotl. > We are releasing the app code, but to ensure the privacy of > individuals and integrity of the overall system, the code that > relates to the COVIDSafe National Information Storage System will not > be released. Why not? If it is secure, no amount of inspection will make it less so. If it is not secure and they don't know it, the fastest way to find out is to let lots of eyes look at it. And if it is not secure and they DO know it, then believing that hiding the code will somehow protect the system is dangerously, foolishly naive. Three words that pretty well sum up the Australian Government's when it comes to large-scale IT. After CensusFail, Robodebt and My Health Record (to name just three recent high profile screwups[1])[2], I have no faith whatsoever in the Government's ability to do anything right when it comes to protecting Australian's privacy or indeed any other rights. I'd love to be proven wrong, especially with this app. Regards, K. [1] Very much not a strong enough term. [2] Not to mention an almost endless list of unremitting attacks on privacy and civil liberties -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Open-source alternatives to Skype
On Thu, 2020-04-30 at 22:32 +1000, David Lochrin wrote: > Back on topic, https://opensource.com/alternatives/skype lists open- > source alternatives to Skype. > > Two of these are Jitsi and Jami > [...] > Do Linkers have any comments or experience regarding these packages, > especially in light of the security issues with such widely-used > software as Zoom? Jitsi doesn't have e2ee but it is being worked on. On the other hand, you can setup a Jtsi server within your enterprise (or house, or datacentre, or cloud) and protect the endpoint yourself. I found Jitsi very easy to use; it's not as polished as Zoom, but the fundamentals work very well. It supports meeting recordings and video quality control, chats and "raise hand". No whiteboard. In-browser only - Chrome/Chromium and Firefox definitely work, sometimes with warnings about supported browsers, but that may just be because I'm running Ubuntu-ised versions. Meetings and people can be stored as simple bookmarks. As far as I can tell, every meeting is a "meeting room" - a meeting is identified by a simple text string and anyone with that string can reach your meeting. Whether they can join will depend on whether you have set a password or not. If no-one is in a meeting any more, the meeting ceases to exist, but there is nothing stopping you (or anyone else) using the same string later - hence it works as a "meeting room", though with weak ownership. I haven't had a chance to use it much, but I get a good vibe from Jitsi; would be happy to experiment with it if others need a "play friend" to try it out with :-) Haven't tried Jami. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] RFC: Does CovidSafe Actually Work?
On Wed, 2020-04-29 at 05:02 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > Roger writes, > I'm sceptical. I've flung together some preliminary notes I'm interested in knowing how many healthy people have either mistakenly or deliberately pressed the "I'm infected" button and what impact that would have on them (i.e., is it a crime? A misdemeanour?Actionable at all?)) and on the integrity of the tracing system. What if you are infected, know yourself to be so, and do not press the button? Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] CovidSafe?
On Wed, 2020-04-29 at 09:42 +1000, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > I wonder how much/fast data the app accumulates and what the impact > might be on the phone if it maxes out the storage space? > > Do we know what language this app is written in? What libraries it > utilises / links, if any? > By all accounts it is pretty standard stuff. Google will find you some people who are pulling it apart. From what I've read it stores very little about each contact but even allowing for it to store (say) 100 bytes per contact, that's 10,000 contacts per megabyte, or 10 million per gigabyte. I suppose if someone were already very low on space this could cause problems, but that is hardly the application's fault. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] CovidSafe?
On Tue, 2020-04-28 at 22:35 +1000, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > On 28/04/2020 6:23 pm, Kim Holburn wrote: > > > > 1.5 metres for 15 minutes > Nobody knows if this is appropriate. > > By recording all contacts, at least the government has the > ability/option to look at other values. > I think the point is that they said one thing, but the app does another. As anyone who knew anything about Bluetooth could have told them (and I believe did in fact tell them). Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Australia’s media is dying before our eyes
On Sat, 2020-04-11 at 02:06 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > Australia’s media is dying before our eyes I really haven't thought this through, so it's basically a thought bubble, but: Might all this not ultimately be a good thing? The landscape will finally be cleared of toxins like Murdoch, leaving an open field for alternatives to arise, and hopefully a lot of them, to combat the disastrous consolidation of past decades. The danger is that our spineless and clueless government will just let it all be bought up by foreign interests and we will start being fed whatever the Chinese (or whoever) want us to hear. -K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Just as everyone's hopping onto Zoom ...
On Wed, 2020-04-08 at 08:12 +1000, Marghanita da Cruz wrote: > So, Inner West Council had our first online meeting yesterday via > zoom. What a beauty. It seemed to work well, though it took an hour for them to get started. Do they know there is a "raise hand" option? Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The government's coronavirus modelling
On Tue, 2020-04-07 at 18:10 +1000, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > I can't believe they have been making decisions on the modelling they > released today. They may cunning but they are not stupid. > > IMHO, the big questions are "What is he hiding and why?" Two things. First off, they ARE stupid. They have demonstrated the depths of their stupidity over and over and over again (CensusFail, water rights, climate change denial, electricity privatisation, phone privatisation, NBN, RoboDebt - the list is practically endless. In this case, I don't think malice is behind it. I think they are genuinely concerned that if they told people how big this thing is and how bad it could get, they would have a panic on their hands. They don't know how to release it and are terrified that if they do it will show they should have done more, better, faster. It's paternalistic and, of course, stupid. It's stupid because the modelling WILL be leaked. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Jitsi in the time of COVID-19
On Tue, 2020-04-07 at 09:26 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > You could open the laptop and destroy the microphone, then plug in > an external one when required. The sound from internal microphone is > not usually very good anyway. The sound from my Lenovo microphone is awesome. It picks up every keystroke. So I just do all my work in the bathroom with the shower running and the radio turned up. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Jitsi in the time of COVID-19
On Sat, 2020-04-04 at 16:05 +1100, Marghanita da Cruz wrote: > When you go to this link https://meet.jit.si/* it says start a new > meeting and I put in "chat"! OK, now I see. If you are using the public server, the field below "Start a new meeting" is the name of your meeting. By default it generates random sequences of four words that you can accept and use, but you can put in your own desired meeting name instead if you want. If you put in the name of an existing meeting, you will join it, rather than start a new meeting. When you entered the short common word "chat", you ended up chatting with someone who had done the same thing with the same word... Anyone who knows the name of any meeting can join it, which is why you should choose hard-to-guess meeting names. Also, as soon as your meeting opens and before you invite anyone to it, click "add password" at lower right and put in a nice long password. Then provide the name and password in your invitations to people. On the public server, the password doesn't seem to survive everyone leaving the meeting. It may be that once everyone leaves, the meeting is reaped; if someone uses the same meeting name again, they don't rejoin an existing meeting, they create a new meeting with a now-unused name. On the public server, I think asking you to enter a password as well as a meeting name would be better. That way you would not land in other people's conferences unexpectedly unless they and you had managed to choose the same password as well as the same meeting name, and randoms would not be able to join your meeting. I don't know if demanding a password for new meetings is a server-side configurable item. Regards, K. PS: If you want to run up a server, this is how to do it: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/getting-started-with-jitsi- an-open-source-web-conferencing-solution/ -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Jitsi in the time of COVID-19
On Sat, 2020-04-04 at 14:59 +1100, Marghanita da Cruz wrote: > I was just checking out the software - didn't expect to end up in a > chat! > [...] > It turned out we were both there because of interest in open source > software and video...http://ramin.com.au/linux/ > [...] > Same would apply to facetime, skype and zoom. What I'm trying to understand is how you ended up in a chat at all. With Jitsi you have to connect to a meeting; I don't see how that can have been unintentional. And the same applies to Skype and Zoom (dunno about Facebook). What sequence of steps did you follow to end up chatting with the guy in Scotland? Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 2561 E9EC D868 E73C 8AF1 49CF EE50 4B1D CCA1 5170 Old fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Outrage as University of Newcastle to track student attendance using mobile phones - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
On Wed, 2020-02-05 at 08:50 +1100, Tom Worthington wrote: > Students can receive educational materials on their phone, work with > other students and do a quiz on a phone, which is more useful than > checking if they are on campus. My own experience appears to still be the current experience according to several younger relatives now at University. Many "lecturers" read their presentations word for word. They add no value at all. The only change in three decades is that they are now presentation slides instead of overhead projections and that the audio can be downloaded instead of having to be checked out on cassette tapes :-) IMHO such lecturers should be sacked as teaching staff. As for penalising students who don't want to waste their time attending such lectures when they can just get the slide pack and read it in a quarter of the time - ! Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Gambling industry seeking to promote sports betting via websites
On Tue, 2020-01-14 at 08:45 +1100, Tom Worthington quoted spam: > we would like to integrate a dofollow link > [...] > We are also happy either to have the article written by you > [...] > it is NOT meant the article to be marked as an advertisement, > promotion, advertorial etc. They are seeking to put undeclared advertising in editorial and are prepared to pay for it. Nothing different to what the commercial TV channels do every day, as much as Media Watch rails against it... Although I doubt even Channel 7 does it for spammers - I suspect that from a spammer you would never see a cent. Also, if you put a link in your article, they can change it any time, and unless you are checking constantly, you won't know that you have started advertising porn, or homeopathy, or neo-nazism... Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] NBN fault maintenance
On Thu, 2019-12-05 at 20:03 +1100, Dr.bob Jansen wrote: > This is interesting. This is equivalent to being taxed for going off > grid or buying bottled water instead of connecting to the water > mains. Yep. We live in rural NSW and have a septic tank. Works fine; never had a leak, an overflow in twenty years. The drainage works well, there is no downhill sign of it (lushness grass, softness etc). The local council charges us $20/year to have a septic. Allegedly to cover necessary inspections which strangely weren't necessary - and never happened - before the charge was introduced. Even more strangely, in ten years we've had one (1) inspection, which therefore cost us $200. We can have the damn thing pumped out and cleaned for less than that. But the "service charges" of the energy companies are way the worst. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] U.S. Nuclear Weapons No Longer Need Floppy Disks
On Sat, 2019-10-26 at 06:50 +1100, Michael Wood wrote: > Justin Oakes, a spokesman for the Eighth Air Force, said in an email. > “This replacement effort exponentially increased message storage > capacity and operator response times for critical nuclear command and > control message receipt and processing.” It exponentially increased operator response times? How odd. -K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] How the Climate Kids Are Short-Circuiting Right-Wing Media
On Sun, 2019-10-06 at 08:41 +1100, Tom Worthington wrote: > Ms. Thunberg's message was very carefully crafted, with > sophistication underlying its apparent simplicity. > [...] I (sort of) disagree. People start out able to say what they mean, and learn (or are taught) to communicate poorly. Children are generally pretty damn clear. I suspect Thunberg's message might be clear because she *doesn't* do too much crafting... There's is an art to deciding what to say and what to leave out. But how to say it? Take out everything that gets in the way. Shorten sentences. Get rid of padding. Drop the impressive adjectives. Use the right words, not the longest words. Get to the nub of it. Kids do all that naturally, until we teach them not to. We as adults find it hard to do. We have spent our lives learning (or being taught) to cover our arses. We try to impress. Whole scientific papers are written in the passive voice just to avoid mentioning the author. Politicians smother their messages in Latin derivatives because they think it gives their words more weight. We utilise instead of use, we require instead of need, we negatively impact instead of hurt. "The initial activity decided upon by the primary stakeholder at the inception of the construction phase was to arrange more suitable illumination of the site; the proposed activity was duly carried out, resulting in the required level of illumination being achieved." Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] What’s at stake in Trump’s war on Huawei: control of the global computer-chip industry
On Wed, 2019-10-02 at 10:44 +1000, Kim Holburn wrote: > https://theconversation.com/whats-at-stake-in-trumps-war-on-huawei- > control-of-the-global-computer-chip-industry-124079 Interesting article. But choking off a technology from an adversary forces the adversary to become independent - arguably a worse thing than being dependent on the US (or the West generally). It's never worked, and it never will - not with silk, not with chocolate, not with nuclear weapons, not with anything. Chinese indigenous semiconductor technology will be developed as a mater of course, and when it does it will be opaque to the West, while the West is almost literally an open book. Cooperation would be a way better course of action here than blockade. China has more people - meaning a greater number of completely BRILLIANT people, a far more focussed government that doesn't have election cycles to worry about when it does its planning, and very few scruples. The West is kidding itself if if thinks that can be kept under control, even if keeping it "under control" were a rational thing to want. "Keep your friends close, your enemies closer". Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Numbers limit how accurately digital computers model chaos
On Wed, 2019-09-25 at 10:35 +1000, Roger Clarke wrote: > But the media, and the public, are very prone to confusion, because > they've never heard Einstein's dictum 'God doesn't play dice with > the world'. Einstein was apparently wrong with is "Der Herrgot wuerfelt nicht". As Bohr said in response "Der Herrgott tut nichts ausser wuerfeln" - "God does nothing BUT play dice". Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] From a wrongful arrest to a life-saving romance: the typos that have changed people's lives | Technology | The Guardian
On Mon, 2019-08-05 at 11:52 +1000, David wrote: > On Monday, 5 August 2019 11:07:17 AEST Karl Auer wrote: > > > > > > > > This is a vastly different proposition to decoding thoughts. > > Well - yes and no. And you still need to decode the speech. > Interesting... I interpreted "decoding thoughts" as identifying a > concept, or an intention, before it's resulted in motor activity such > as verbalisation, activation of limb muscles, etc. But leaving aside > the issue of sensors, would this require a processor having the same > order of complexity as the human brain, especially if the whole brain > is involved in creating that intention? You have successfully decoded my thoughts! :-) "Yes" to the first part, "not necessarily" to the second part. For me, controlling systems "by thought" just means any system that can be controlled directly by the nervous system, without the need to physically interact with anything. "Physically" meaning "moving mass" - obviously I don't think thought exists outside the physical Universe. The speech detection thing you wrote of meets that definition, but ordinary speech recognition does not. Moving a bionic prosthesis via nerve impulse likewise counts as "thought controlled" for me. As far as it needing a similar complexity to determine as to create an intention - well, possibly. I think it depends very much on the complexity of the intention. "Fire!" is probably pretty easy to work out, but "How shall I eat a peach?" might be a bit tricky. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] From a wrongful arrest to a life-saving romance: the typos that have changed people's lives | Technology | The Guardian
On Mon, 2019-08-05 at 10:45 +1000, David wrote: > On Sunday, 4 August 2019 11:40:47 AEST Karl Auer wrote: > > > > > > > > I can't imagine thought commands being better fidelity. > > You know better than to use the argument from personal incredulity > > :-) > [...]the device picked up nerve signals from speech muscules > [...] > This is a vastly different proposition to decoding thoughts. Well - yes and no. And you still need to decode the speech. > I think that identifying a concept from brain activity before it's > been verbalised is science-fiction stuff. Look around - thousands of things that we take for granted in our daily lives were once "science fiction stuff". I've no idea whether it will ever work well enough that I can think "Hal, make me a coffee" and expect to see a nice cuppa appear before me, but I would say that current work is very promising. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] From a wrongful arrest to a life-saving romance: the typos that have changed people's lives | Technology | The Guardian
On Sun, 2019-08-04 at 10:47 +1000, JLWhitaker wrote: > Exactly. I replied to the friend who sent the link to me that relying > on voice input is nuts. It is now. That doesn't mean it can never be. We should not discard a technology because it is rough now. But likewise we shouldn't trust it while it is still rough - or rather we should know its limits and use it within them. > I can't imagine thought commands being better fidelity. You know better than to use the argument from personal incredulity :-) Thought commands literally direct everything we do. Already. They put one foot in front of the other, they decide which words to say, they decide which key to press. > What thought is going to input? Hey, your ass looks REALLY fat in > that! How come your mouth doesn't do that? Because you direct it, with your thoughts, to output the correct, desired statements. It's just an output peripheral for your thinking, used when you choose to use it and clamped shut when you don't. So we have working, billion-year-old actual proof that thought control works just fine :-) Regards, K. PS: Please assume all the bad jokes about mistyping, Trumpian tweets and spoken gaffes and tripping over one's own feet have been duly made. They don't change the argument. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Has the world just gone light-headed, or completely bonkers?
On Wed, 2019-07-17 at 10:21 +1000, Roger Clarke wrote: > If you need to reset the software in your GE smart light bulb -- > firmware version 2.8 or later -- just follow these easy instructions This procedure saves them the cost of a reset switch in the bulb circuitry. A switch that they cannot have people operating in the presence of 240V mains power, so would have to be on the base of the bulb, inaccessible when the bulb is in place. With the switch, the procedure would be "turn off light, remove bulb, set switch, insert bulb, turn on light, bulb will flash three times, turn off light, remove bulb, set switch off, insert bulb". However, this procedure does not ensure that the customer turns off the light before removing or inserting the bulb, so dramatically increases the risk that the customer will electrocute themselves while trying to reset the bulb. As bulb resets are not a function of ordinary light bulbs, these electrocutions will immediately become "GE's fault", and they don't want that. The actual procedure directly incorporates having the bulb in place and safe. The many steps ensure that the bulb is highly unlikely to reset accidentally. So not as insane as it may first appear... Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Data Security
On Thu, 2019-05-30 at 05:57 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > Congratulations Bernard on your lengthy ABC News television broadcast > interview today regarding data security, and medical data security in > particular. More info please! Which program and when was it broadcast? Helps us find it online... Thanks, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] itN: 'Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash ...'
On Tue, 2019-05-21 at 14:48 +1000, David wrote: > For what proportion of the time do drivers have to use the > "driverless" technology for that to be true? And for that matter, > for what proportion of time are the supposed statistics valid? > > I believe current Teslas allow driverless-mode to be enabled & > disabled, so it could be used between 0 & 100% of driving-time for > any given vehicle. I repeat, none of that is relevant. Only the performance of the system as a whole. For all I care the driverless component could be a placebo with no actual physical effects at all (shout out to the shade of Peter Brock). If overall safety statistics are better for such cars than for cars without the feature, we should still install it in all new vehicles. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] itN: 'Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash ...'
On Tue, 2019-05-21 at 13:36 +1000, David wrote: > Therefore I suggest automated-vehicle technology currently offers no > nett benefit _if_ everything is done according to the book. If you mean net benefit in terms of human stress, then I'm afraid I don't really care. I'm only interested in the benefit of not killing people. > The claimed benefits probably arise because the human drivers are > usually not paying much attention in driverless mode. Now you seem to be saying that it's better if the driver doesn't pay attention? > The often-quoted statistics on the known frequency of Tesla crashes > almost certainly don't reflect the inherent capability of the current > technology because of the requirement for a human driver, even if an > imperfect one. We also don't know (?) what proportion of the time > they're operating in driverless mode, and how often crashes are > avoided by skilful human drivers in nearby vehicles. None of those things is relevant. We need only care about the efficacy of the system as a whole. Is the system that includes driver-assisting controls safer than one without, or not? Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] itN: 'Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash ...'
On Tue, 2019-05-21 at 13:44 +1000, David wrote: > > The idea that human have a "reasonable track record" is laughable - > > they kill and maim tens of thousands of each other each year. > The absolute number is pretty meaningless. The number of accidents > per vehicle-Km would be better, and even that varies according to the > type of journey (expressways, suburban, rural, etc), type of > accident, and other factors. Seriously? The detail really doesn't matter. Human error in human- driven vehicles kills thousands every year. Pretty sure the relatives of those killed on expressways don't feel that much better or worse than the relatives of those killed on rural byways. > > If machines had the same track record, we wouldn't let them any > > where near the roads. In fact they have a much better track record, > > and we still don't let them drive. > I dispute that. We have no idea what the failure-rate would be if > all vehicles had Tesla-type technology. Not sure what you are disputing - that they have a better track record or that we don;t let them drive? Both are as far as I know, true statements. All we need is for driver-assisted or driverless vehicles to be a tiny bit better overall than human drivers, and we already have a huge win. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] itN: 'Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash ...'
On Tue, 2019-05-21 at 13:09 +0930, Sam Silvester wrote: > > in an automated car which, as I've remarked before, is basically a > > statistical processor which attempts to correlate sensor patterns > > with those requiring action. Yeah, and chess playing computers are "just this" and "just that" - except they win every time. Every. Single. Time. They didn't used to. They got better. And now machines are beating humans at Go, too. It's always magic until we understand it, and then it's "just a computer" again. Objectively, and regardless of the many, many variables that might be affecting the fact, current driverless (ok, driver-assisted) cars are already safer than human driven cars. Not perfect. Not absolutely safe. But safer. They will get safer and safer still, because that's what we humans do with machines, we make them better. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] itN: 'Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash ...'
On Tue, 2019-05-21 at 11:33 +1000, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > In my experience as an automation engineer, when you automate > something you have to be able to deal with all the exceptions that a > human can manage instinctively. Humans can usually tell that > something is unexpected and has a strategy to deal with it - stop, > swerve etc. This is not 100% fail safe but it has a reasonable track > record. Machines need to be proactively programmed. This is hard. Humans don't manage much instinctively, or young drivers would be a whole lot better than they are. The idea that human have a "reasonable track record" is laughable - they kill and maim tens of thousands of each other each year. If machines had the same track record, we wouldn't let them any where near the roads. In fact they have a much better track record, and we still don't let them drive. People learn, and it is a whole lot slower than if we could just upgrade them. Often, what would be a learning experience for a machine is a dying experience for a human. Humans are really, REALLY bad at learning from other people's experiences. > Autodriving/full self-driving cars need to be tested against > exceptions, not the norm. AFAIK that has never happened and may only > happen over time in use, not the lab. I don't think the Tesla engineers are stupid. Being safe is an existential requirement for Tesla. I'm pretty sure their lab testing is as comprehensive as they can make it - including testing against exceptions. Bear in mind that given the billions of kilometres travelled by cars every year, most "exceptions" happen thousands of times per day. Plus Tesla has been running their cars on real roads with real drivers for years now. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] itN: 'Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash ...'
On Tue, 2019-05-21 at 10:21 +1000, David wrote: > Yes, I understand how the monitor monitors the driver to make sure > they're still monitoring the vehicle. However I'm questioning the > benefit of all this technology in the first place. Simply driving > would be less stressful. You're assuming that monitoring the vehicle will be stressful. I don't think you know that. I also think that people are all different - I know some people who find driving very stressful. I suspect that even current technology, even entirely unmonitored, is probably safer than human drivers. That will only improve. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] itN: 'Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash ...'
On Mon, 2019-05-20 at 10:00 +1000, David wrote: > What actually is the benefit of an automated vehicle where the driver > has to closely monitor every action of the computer? Having to > continually worry whether the computer was applying enough braking or > acceleration, or whether it had "noticed" this or that, seems much > less relaxing than simply driving. You are describing what it feels like to accompany a learner driver :-) If I am a front-seat passenger in a car where someone else is driving competently, I find my situational awareness engages quite naturally and without stress. I envisage monitoring a self-driving car to be not unlike that state. I suspect monitoring a self-driving cars feel more like accompanying someone with gaps in their experience. In those situations, you will pay greater attention. > And if there is an accident, to what extent am I legally responsible > because I failed to correctly anticipate what was going on in the > computer at the time? How would my comprehensive and third-party- > personal insurance companies react? Very interesting question. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
[LINK] NSW govt censors climate change video
Here's the story; https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/18/vote-for-the-cli mate-nsw-demands-environmental-short-films-removal-from- internet?CMP=share_btn_fb=IwAR2j4rB0jhuHABFfZemlVZdaK77wTXnjpDn6 vwZUgoa9PucgPKpePcIZmQo The video has been made available on Vimeo here: https://player.vimeo.com/video/336551852?app_id=122963 Ideally the NSW Govt should shortly feel the full impact of the Streisand Effect :-) Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Search engines to be ordered to not link to academic cheating services
On Sun, 2019-05-05 at 09:28 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > On 3/5/19 2:26 pm, Karl Auer wrote: > > ... I have a big problem with every damn tiny little thing counting > > irrevocably towards your final mark, right from the get go. ... > The weekly tests reward students with a few marks, but only the best > are counted, and do not count towards a high grade. That makes no sense. Either they count towards the final mark or they do not. Every lecturer seems to think their subject is the only one students are studying. With six or more courses on the go, zero intercoordination between them and one "little" tests (or more!) for each of them every week, your "encouragement" is just constant stress. These tests frequently test knowledge the student cannot reasonably be expected to have yet, generally because the delivery of the tests is (incompetently) out of step with the delivery of the material being tested. The system depends, if it is to be useful to the student, on high- quality staff all the way down to the tutors. Sadly frequently not the case. Do you as a lecturer make certain that every tutor is covering tested material before the tests are set, setting the tests on time, returning the marked tests on time, providing correct worked answers on time, is answering questions in tutorial time effectively, is comprehensible, and so on? If not, your tests are not only a waste of time, they are a hurtful and demoralising waste of time. The system does not allow for different students making progress at different speeds. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Search engines to be ordered to not link to academic cheating services
On Fri, 2019-05-03 at 17:52 +1000, JLWhitaker wrote: > If there aren't consequences for NOT doing the en route work, what do > you think would happen? Party time! ;-) I specifically said, but you did not quote, that I am fine with a requirement that students participate in activities, hand in quizzes and so on - I'm just not OK with assessable tasks that require knowledge or skill before that they can reasonably have been learned. This is especially true when in order to do the tasks, you depend on inputs and support from people who are often completely incompetent - such as tutors. Don't get me started on the fuckuppery that has marked at least two of the subjects progeny is now attempting. From quizzes with literally incomprehensible questions, to incorrect answers, to getting dates wrong and assigning zero marks for work handed in "late", to public mark-shaming, to not covering material until after the relevant quizz, to not returning marked quizzes, to not providing answers to quizzes, or indeed any feedback at all to anything... and to not correcting any of the above errors - the list goes on. An assessment task needs to be perfect. It has to be correct in itself, and feedback from it needs to be prompt, accurate, thorough and helpful. And it has to be delivered AFTER the point where a student can reasonably be expected to have learned what is being tested. Anything else is demoralising and of no academic worth. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Search engines to be ordered to not link to academic cheating services
On Fri, 2019-05-03 at 13:53 +1000, David wrote: > On Wednesday, 1 May 2019 15:38:41 AEST Jevan Pipitone wrote: > Having been on the other side of the assignment process, I think > that's a very big worry. The purpose of an assignment is to assess > what the student knows and _understands_ and, by implication, what > parts of the subject need to be reinforced. How is that possible > when external tutors are involved? > > These days assignments often count towards a student's end-of-year > assessment too. I have progeny at Uni now, and it's become extremely continuous assessment. There is no opportunity to learn before you are expected to know. Even though by the end of the year or semester you may have a godlike comprehension of the subject, if you took a few months to get your head around it, there is no way to recover lost marks from a zillion little tests and quizzes all of which count towards your final mark. I have no problem with participation being required - i.e. doing the quizzes and tests and pracs - but I have a big problem with every damn tiny little thing counting irrevocably towards your final mark, right from the get go. People seeking outside help is completely understandable especially as the inside help is often - way too often - extremely poor. If you have to censor academic assistance services (whether it's cheating or not depends on how they are used) you are missing the underlying problem. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] A simple way to curb the trolls – end their anonymity
On Thu, 2019-04-11 at 10:30 +, Stephen Loosley wrote: > There’s a simple way to curb the trolls – end their anonymity "Every problem has a solution that is easy, simple and wrong." Lots of people who haven't really thought about things think there are all sorts of simple solutions to problems like this. If we are lucky, they are people nobody pays attention to and their ill-considered musings have little effect. If we are unlucky they are a respected personage who has decided to wing it outside their field of expertise and they get taken seriously, causing no end of trouble. Short answer to that particular bit of drivel is that it isn't only "doctors, teachers, soldiers and so on" that may need the protection of anonymity. There are many, many more who do. It is unjust to silence all the people who legitimately need anonymity just to silence the few who abuse it. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 8D08 9CAA 649A AFEF E862 062A 2E97 42D4 A2A0 616D Old fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] PayPal security and account verification
On Mon, 2019-03-18 at 08:19 +1100, JLWhitaker wrote: > how about contacting his bank? They may be interested in Paypal not > providing accurate customer information for funds transfers. It > wouldn't surprise me if German banks are more concerned about > Identity theft matters than an American company. And don't worry about the "language problem" - most Germans can speak English, and most bank staff speak it very well indeed. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Defence dumps Windows XP
On Tue, 2019-02-26 at 09:08 +1100, Tom Worthington wrote: > As I tell computer students, it is better to work out what you are > ethically prepared to work on before you take the job. > http://www.tomw.net.au/basic_ict_professional_ethics/ At the risk of being boring, I generally agree: https://biplane.com.au/blog/?p=381 Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] MHR - letter to local paper
On Mon, 2019-01-28 at 18:04 +1100, JLWhitaker wrote: > On 28/01/2019 10:45 AM, Karl Auer wrote: > > Once you have a My Health Record, you cannot delete it, only > > "cancel" it. A cancelled record remains available to the > > Government. The Government says it will delete your record on > > request, but the sad fact is that they will probably not be able > > to. > I got push back from MyHealth Record on twitter again re deletion, > saying they implemented the delete function on 24 January. > > https://twitter.com/MyHealthRec/status/1089734951757664258 > > "Hi there, yes the ability to permanently delete a My Health Record, > including any backups, was made available on 24 January 2019. For > more details, see: (their website)" It's a sad fact that I don't believe them. I'd love an honest ten- minute chat with anyone directly involved in the implementation of the storage side. Also, I'd like to see someone pose the direct question to the relevant Minister "Once a My Health Record record is deleted, is that record from that moment on completely and irrevocably physically unobtainable by any means whatsoever?" I wonder how much waffle they could spin out of that yes/no question... probably the full four minutes. The thing is, you can "delete a record from the My Health Record system" very simply, and without losing access to it. Just move it to any storage that is declared to be not part of the My Health record system. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
[LINK] MHR - letter to local paper
For what it's worth, I just sent this to my local paper for publication (I hope) on Wednesday 30/1/2019. Regards, K ~ Get out while you still can The last possible day to opt-out of the My Health Record system is Thursday this week (31/1/2019). After that, you will get a record whether you want one or not. If you have a My Health Record, the information in it will be available to any Government agency that wants it, for any reason at all. That includes the ATO, Centrelink and law enforcement. The legislation also makes clear that your medical information can be provided to commercial third parties. You have almost no ability to control who sees what. You cannot control what is recorded. With minor exceptions you cannot change or remove what has been recorded, even if it was uploaded without your consent. Once you have a My Health Record, you cannot delete it, only "cancel" it. A cancelled record remains available to the Government. The Government says it will delete your record on request, but the sad fact is that they will probably not be able to. This is not a party-political matter. Both sides of politics seem perfectly happy to put your sensitive medical information on the internet. The security is a nonsense; with hundreds of thousands of people authorised to look at it, anyone who wants it will be able to get it. Get out while you still can. Search for "opt-out-my-health-record". If you discover (as thousands have) that a My Health Record has already been created for you without your knowledge or consent, cancel it. If you have children, opt them out too. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
[LINK] [Fwd: RE: Please stop the Assistance and Access Bill]
What's the point? Why do they waste my time and theirs with crap like this? It's no better than the auto-response I got to the original email. Regards, K. Forwarded Message From: "Noveska, Radmila (M. Kelly, MP)" To: 'ka...@biplane.com.au' Subject: RE: Please stop the Assistance and Access Bill Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 03:11:08 + Dear Mr Auer Thank you for your email to Dr Kelly regarding the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill. Dr Kelly has acknowledged your email and has asked me to respond on his behalf. Labor has spent five years responsibly improving national security legislation to make Australians safer, and we have done the same thing this week. The government have made important concessions on its earlier positions on the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill. It appears the government will agree to proposals by Labor that will ensure there is better oversight and limitation of the powers in this bill, and better safeguards against potential unintended consequences. These are still subject to agreement by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and further details will be contained in its report on the bill. The changes include limiting the application of the powers in this bill to only serious offences, properly defining key terms in the bill, and requiring a “double-lock” authorisation process for Technical Capability Notices. Importantly, the PJCIS will continue its scrutiny of the bill into 2019, allowing for outstanding concerns to be worked on and further amendments considered in the new year if necessary. Following the extraordinary interference with this committee by the Minister for Home Affairs and Prime Minister, Labor welcomes the constructive negotiations conducted with the Attorney-General over the past two days. Dr Kelly and Labor are very clear – this bill is far from perfect and there are likely to be significant outstanding issues. But this compromise will deliver security and enforcement agencies the powers they say they need over the Christmas period, and ensure adequate oversight and safeguards to prevent unintended consequences while ongoing work continues – just as Labor proposed. Labor has issued a call to the government – the trashing of bipartisan process and politicisation of national security that has occurred over the past month must never happen again. There is nothing more important than keeping Australians safe – the government must remember that. Thank you again for writing to Dr Kelly on this important issue and if there is any federal matter Dr Kelly can assist you with, please do not hesitate to contact our office. Kind regards, Radmila Noveska Office of The Hon Dr Mike Kelly AM MP Federal Member for Eden-Monaro Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Industry and Support t: 02 6284 2442 -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
[LINK] Too little too late? Email to Mike Kelly: Please stop the Assistance and Access Bill
And (sigh) I misplaced an apostrophe. Bugger. I sent it with a GPG/PGP signature :-) Regards, K. Forwarded Message From: Karl Auer To: mike.kelly...@aph.gov.au Subject: Please stop the Assistance and Access Bill Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2018 10:21:15 +1100 Good morning Dr Kelly Please do NOT help the Government pass the Assistance and Access Bill. The amendments offered by the Government will in NO WAY change the fundamental nature of the planned legislation which a) utterly lacks the transparency and judicial oversight that a democratic society requires. b) will horribly damage the competitiveness of Australian IT businesses and Internet providers. They will be relegated to the same level of trustworthiness as Russian or Chinese providers. Think Huawei. c) if the provisions are actually used, will in spite of the assurances of the Government, weaken the cybersecurity of every Australian (and in point of fact every Internet user worldwide). It is a certainty that any weakness introduced, even if intended for good, will be exploited by bad actors. Not even the NSA can keep its secrets or its tools in- house. This is a classic case of a law that will catch the stupid, put the law-abiding at risk, and have no effect on anyone else. Real law- breakers AND those law-abiding people who wish their communications to remain private, will simply move to end-to-end encryption. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is not a group of insiders there just to enjoy being "in the loop". The PJCIS is there to keep law enforcement and agencies like ASIO honest. It is there to put a brake on their zeal, to prevent overreach and ensure that the interests of the Australian people are represented. This legislation is fundamentally broken. Hundreds of bodies, Australian and otherwise, have spoken against this misguided Bill. It cannot be repaired, as it's basic premise is flawed. I beg of you to do all that you can to resist its passage. Thank you, Karl Auer, Lochiel. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The "health" record security model
Which is exactly how I feel about the pro camp! > A list of what you think are actual risks with a real > chance of happening would help. For goodness' sake! Are you actually reading what people write? Specific risks have been described again and again in this debate. - failure to seek medical help because problem socially unacceptable and details may be leaked (e.g. youth pregnancy, mental illness, STDs) - failure to seek medical help because illness or related behaviour is criminal, and details may be given to law enforcement (e.g. drug users) - failure to seek medical help because contact details or clues to location may be leaked (e.g. a battered wife) esp. if abusive partner is in Government employ - actual harm caused by actual leaks in each of the above cases where medical help HAS been sought - damage to others by people abusing their legitimate read access to the system (e.g., leaks of information about high-profile people) - blackmail of others by people abusing their legitimate read access to the system - systemic abuse by organised crime using compromised or paid people with legitimate access to the system - abuse by vested interests such as insurance companies seeking to find out more about policy holders' status - abuse by third parties compromising legitimate users to get information about e.g., domestic abuse victims - abuse by legitimate users to get information about persons of interest to them for whatever reason - abuse of poorly secured systems (you can see these by the dozen in any hospital, in any doctor's surgery) by persons without legitimate access to retrieve information to cause all sorts of harms including the above - abuse of poorly secured systems by persons without legitimate access to upload deliberately harmful information to a target's record - abuse by persons with legitimate access to upload deliberately harmful information to a target's record That's just the easy ones, with relatively few victims, though even there it is not hard to see hundreds or thousands being affected, especially by the first four, which tend to affect entire classes of people. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The "health" record security model
On Tue, 2018-11-13 at 10:52 +1100, Jim Birch wrote: > David wrote: > > But the problem with MHRecord lies in it's unknown objectives > > Please explain what you imagine these "unknown objectives" might be > in concrete language and how they might hurt me. Can you genuinely not see how misuse of medical information might hurt you, or how a Government might wish to use it for purposes that we the population may not want or approve of? If you genuinely cannot, then say so and we will try to elucidate. But I fear you are being rhetorically obtuse. Here's what I said to Stephen Duckett. I think it accurately states why I and many others fear that there are hidden/unstated and dangerous objectives behind MHR system: "Forgive my cynicism, but when a good way of achieving an objective is persistently ignored in favour of a much, much worse way that coincidentally is a really good way to achieve a bunch of other unrelated things, the suspicion must arise that the real objective has not been shared." Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The "health" record security model
On Tue, 2018-11-13 at 09:32 +1100, Jim Birch wrote: > What are your improved design element? How often do we have to point them out? 1: Uploaded documents should be inaccessible by default (except to the user) 2: The user should be able to upload any document. 3: The user should be able to permanently delete any document 4: Others should be unable to delete any document 5: People uploading or accessing documents should be individually identified And these should be attributes of a coherent approach; I'm aware that each has implications to be dealt with. The legislative changes needed are huge, and even then cannot really address the intractable problem of all this data being centralised. > does that work? These are your health records! What are they going > to do: send you spiteful emails about your arthritic elbow to make > you vote liberal? Make the flu punishable with a two year jail > term? Please explain how that might work in actual harms and actual > mechanisms. There will be close to a million people with essentially anonymous read/write access to this system. Systemic abuse is almost a certainty. That means blackmail opportunities for a start. For Government abuse, look no further than Alan Tudge using Centrelink information to attack a citizen; and that was a pretty tame case. In security, you don't fart about with what people *say* the system can do, or what the system is *intended* to do. You look at what the system CAN do, and plan around that. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The "health" record security model
On Mon, 2018-11-12 at 13:40 +1100, Jim Birch wrote: > Much smarter would be to drop the perfect security fetish. No-one is demanding "perfect security". They are demanding *some* security. The current model appears to have been designed by a complete fool, OR by someone who wanted to actively prevent people from being able to protect themselves - starting with the change from opt-in to opt-out. Not am I saying there are no benefits. I'm just saying that the touted benefits are modest *at best*. I have yet to hear one that is even a little convincing. And all are far outweighed by the frankly almost unbelievable lack protection for the data. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The "health" record security model
On Sun, 2018-11-11 at 16:33 +1100, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > IMHO, it is more likely that the ALP will kill the thing. Well - OK. But probably not unless they are in Government? > so [ADHA] could meet their self imposed deadline of 1 July 2012. My squint-at-my-thumb estimate would be five to ten years to full implementation, mostly because it would take that time for vendors to upgrade their systems to be compatible with the interoperability standards. > Data exchange, or interoperability, is the way to go - everybody > agrees, but it's not an easy problem. I think the design of the standard - interoperability - is one of the difficult problems. The other is how to communicate user permission to data holders. How does a citizen securely tell their doctor or whomever that they can share that but not this? This is *especially* difficult if the information is not document based. So it's a two-part difficulty; how do we securely communicate permissions how do we identify what the permissions apply to? Regardless of all that, the first thing that must be discarded in any design is the "emergency room scenario". The system should be useful for some large percentage of normal medical interactions; it does not need to be useful for every edge case. The second thing that must be discarded is the desire for the system to do everything. Pick one thing that will really make a difference, make sure the interoperability standards are flexible and extensible, then make that one thing happen well. It will cost a fraction of trying to develop everything at once, will be doable in fraction of the time, and will have an immediate positive effect. The lessons learned during implementation will allow new things to be handled faster and better. But mostly I want a statement of aims first. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] The "health" record security model
On Sun, 2018-11-11 at 14:22 +1100, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > The elephant in the room is Section 71 of the myhr legislation > "Prohibitions and authorisations limited to health information > collected by using the My Health Record system". As was so eloquently said in quite another context "the only way to win is not to play the game". At an individual level, that means opting out now. For the Government, if they are serious about doing something good for the nation rather than their own bureaucracies, it means killing the current project now. If a health records system is deemed necessary, let's have a discussion around the actual aims first. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Linux running under Windows?!!
On Sat, 2018-11-10 at 10:13 +1100, David wrote: > While looking for something quite unrelated I stumbled on the article > at https://www.howtogeek.com/265900/everything-you-can-do-with- > windows-10s-new-bash-shell/ which describes how Linux and Linux > applications can now be run under Windows-10. Um, not quite. Shell stuff, yes. You get bash, and pretty much anything command line. You can't run anything graphical as far as I know. Still, it's a way better solution than cygwin, and you really do get the full power of a Unix command line. > You just have to enable the Windows > Subsystem for Linux feature, and then install your chosen Linux > distribution—for example, Ubuntu—from the Windows Store. Funny they didn't call it "the Linux subssystem for Windows feature". > I wonder what is Microsoft's long-term plan? I think it's safe to say that their long-term plan is the same as it ever was. "Embrace, extend, extinguish". Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] My letter to the local paper
On Tue, 2018-07-24 at 13:43 +1000, Jim Birch wrote: > You might not state it explicitly but there a basic implication that > MyHR is bad and we're better off without it, isn't there? Maybe I'm > misreading and you're in favour of a shared health record but against > some aspects of the implementation? In the circumstances you might > say so because it is rather misleading if you don't. (And at times > like this, every bit of sanity helps.) Well - sort of. I do think that MyHR is bad and we would be better off without it. I'm definitely not in favour of a shared health record if by that you mean a central repository. I *am* in favour of IT helping health. And I *am* in favour of being able to share my health information - but on my terms, with people I choose, and with strong controls over what they can do with it. None of those are provided by My Health Record and from what I can see, what it *does* provide is not very useful. Enough links have been posted here to articles detailing how useless it is. If it were opt-in, I'd be less concerned, because natural apathy would keep most of the population out of it (as it is, natural apathy is going to end up with most of the population caught). But it isn't opt- in. If it were a distributed system, tying together the many primary sources rather than gathering everything into one big honeypot, I'd be happier. But it isn't distributed. If it were strictly medical, I'd be less concerned, but it isn't. If there were even remotely useful controls in the hands of the users, I'd be less concerned, but there aren't. I suppose at a stretch this could be said to be "against some aspects of the implementation" but overall I think they render the system so dangerous as to require dismantling and starting again. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] My letter to the local paper
On Tue, 2018-07-24 at 11:12 +1000, Jim Birch wrote: > "To avoid that risk, you might consider pointing out errors and > untruths specifically and explicitly." > > Sure: what are the specific actual harms that have occurred That is not pointing out an error, that's asking a question. Not a bad question, just an irrelevant one. My concerns are valid even if there has been no harm done yet. "Look, a tidal wave! Run away!" "Nah, nothing's happened yet..." You have not yet provided a single actual counterargument. Just some reasons why you think My Health Record is a good thing, plus the odd insult. Once again: Did I make any untrue statements in my "letter to the paper"? If so, which ones and how are they untrue? Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] My letter to the local paper
On Mon, 2018-07-23 at 14:20 +1000, Jim Birch wrote: > Fake news (i.e. stories that are designed to get the juices flowing) > travel faster and further. Reality comes a long second. Hm. Not sure if you are accusing me and/or David of generating "fake news" or not. Truisms positioned to cast deniable doubt on a nearby statement[1] are one stock in trade of those who really DO attack the truth. By using such a device, you risk being considered such a person. To avoid that risk, you might consider pointing out errors and untruths specifically and explicitly. Regards, K. [1] Happy to explain this device further if needed. I've left the "juxtaposed statement", i.e. the quote you were apparently responding to, below, so people can see what I mean. A worked example of something very similar can be found here: http://biplane.com.au/blog/?p=282 > On Mon, 23 Jul 2018 at 13:54, David wrot > > > > On Sunday, 22 July 2018 17:22:53 AEST Karl Auer wrote: > > > > > > > > You cannot control who uploads things into your record. You have > > > no > > right to check what is uploaded into your record. You cannot > > control who > > sees your record. You cannot find out who has accessed your record, > > nor > > what they do with it. You cannot correct or remove documents from > > your > > record. > > > > I thought it was possible for an individual to at least display > > their > > record, I assume all of it (?), and to be notified when it was > > accessed. > > However whether this would be honoured for all time, even if true, > > is not > > guaranteed. > > > > I think it would be worth repeating the URL of the opt-out page > > too. > > > > DavidL. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] My letter to the local paper
On Mon, 2018-07-23 at 13:53 +1000, David wrote: > I thought it was possible for an individual to at least display their > record, I assume all of it (?), and to be notified when it was > accessed. However whether this would be honoured for all time, even > if true, is not guaranteed. You can set up notifications. You can see all parts of your records as far as I know. If you've set up notifications, you will be notified when something new is added to your record, at least if it comes from a legitimate health provider. You will not necessarily be notified if the Government changes your record, a hacked changes your record. I don't know if you are notified of accesses. Does anyone know? Newly uploaded documents are shared by default, so to protect any new document you have to log in immediately after you are notified and set restrictions on it. There is no way to change this default, so there is always a window of time where a new upload is unprotected. Note that the protections are only against legitimate health providers, and only for documents actually in your record. All bets are off once a health provider downloads something into their own system, and of course the Government, the police, the ATO etc can see anything, "restricted" or not. And no, there are no guarantees any of this will remain unchanged, for the better or for the worse. > I think it would be worth repeating the URL of the opt-out page too. https://www.myhealthrecord.gov.au/for-you-your-family/opt-out-my-health -record Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Urgent: MyHR Opt-Out
On Thu, 2018-07-19 at 15:44 +1000, Jim Birch wrote: > This is the version 1.0 product. Yep. And Rule Number One is, never deploy v1.0. > Declaring that it is no use and never will be seems perhaps a little > too grandiose to me. That's a straw man. MyHR's usefulness is certainly in serious doubt, but that is NOT why so many people fear it. People fear it because it is founded on betrayal, because it provides them with no real control over their information, and because there are no (and can be no) controls over the future uses the data may be put to. For a lot of people, those negative definites outweigh the rather few and very nebulous positive maybes. > Change induces fear and it doesn't work perfectly first time but > taking the long view very few people actually want to live in eg the > 14th century. The idea that health needs to be excluded from the > Internet age is crazy. That's another straw man. Nobody is looking back wistfully at the 14th century. Nobody is saying that we should exclude health from the Internet age. But it has to be done the right way. Setting up a massive, poorly controlled, poorly secured, poorly managed and poorly curated helth database on all Australians is not the way. It's not just a V1.0 problem, it is a fundamentally wrongheaded approach. As to "not working perfectly the first time" you are talking about a system here that could have devastating privacy effects. It HAS to work pretty close to perfectly the first time, because for the people it destroys, there is no second time. You can't just say "let's have another go". Regards, K. PS: It amazes me that no-one seems to have figured out that this is the Australia Card, masked as a health system. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Urgent: MyHR Opt-Out
On Thu, 2018-07-19 at 10:04 +1000, Jim Birch wrote: > [some stuff] The whole system is founded on a huge betrayal - saying it would be opt-in, then flipping it to opt-out. The many so-called controls turn out on closer inspection to be useless. Permissions must be applied on a document-by-document basis, access logging is by institution, not down to the individual and so on. If this was about better medicine or evidence-based policy, the government would have designed a system that provided those. But it hasn't. Remember the health care card that absolutely definitely was not supposed to be used as an ID card? Yet strangely the government insisted that it should have a photo and name and address details printed on it - when these were absolutely unnecessary to the purported function of the card. Similarly the MyHR system has lots of characteristics that are not necessary to its purported function. And it lacks many characteristics that clearly ARE necessary to its purported function. Which leads me to the obvious conclusion that its purported functions are not in fact its intended functions. Add to that the fact that this fast trove of highly sensitive data is a couple of votes away from being abused by any future government, and you have a system that I would not touch with a barge pole. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Electric car disposal
On Wed, 2018-07-04 at 08:32 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > Cars in Australia using Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed > Natural Gas (CNG) are required to have a warning label on the > numberplate. Perhaps electric cars should have something similar, > along with a QR code for the first responder information. As long as the URL is there too. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Support Desk Fail
On Sat, 2018-06-16 at 18:55 +1000, Robert Hazeltine wrote: > A bit more background: I obtained the domain name and SSL from > them. I had previously obtained a static IP from my ISP, and so have > my own LAN. I have a redirect from http to https in place. So... your website runs on your own hardware? It's not hosted? If so then I'm pretty sure LetsEncrypt is what you want for the cert, unless you have very complicated requirements. Read up on it on the LetsEncrypt site. > I not sure why they wanted to replace the valid certificate they had > provided earlier with one generated without my CSR. On following up > on this they then came back that it was a “parked domain”. So far I > have not been able to have the Desk escalate the case. I don't understand what they are on about, and doubly not if the domain actually leads to a working website. It could just be a misunderstanding, but if they are not showing interest in helping you then you need to move on anyway. Your best bet is find a new domain registrar (VentraIP would still be my recommendation, but I am sure there are many fine alternatives) and transfer the domain to them. Then you can get a new certificate, install it on your website and forget the old lot. Ideally you would revoke the old certificate; Google "how to revoke an ssl certificate" plus the name of whomever got you the cert. Otherwise all you need is the domain password. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Support Desk Fail
On Sat, 2018-06-16 at 13:18 +1000, Robert Hazeltine wrote: > I approached the Support Desk of a well known, Australian IT company > which was founded in 1996 for support with a broken SSL certificate > chain on my website. This became apparent with recent upgrade of > browsers. I had obtained my existing SSL certificate following the > protocols. Um - had you obtained the certificate from them? If not, they have absolutely no obligation to replace it, though if you are a customer of theirs (I'm guessing they are your web hosting provider) I'd have expected a little better level of assistance. > They wanted to provide me with a replacement SSL certificate without > a CSR, and offered me an URL as the solution when I turned them > down. To add insult to injury, the URL was one I used to help > diagnose my problem. > > How has our IT been reduced to this level, and what redress do I > have? None, practically speaking. Simplest solution is to change providers pronto. I can recommend VentraIP (I'd be very disappointed and surprised if it were them of whom you speak). If your website is a cPanel site (and these days almost all small sites are) then they (and most similar providers) will move your site, lock stock and barrel, for free. Even if is not a cPanel site, it is almost certainly still very easy to move, though if you can't do it yourself it will cost you money to hire someone to do it. If your domain is with the same providers who have disappointed you over the SSL cert, you can move the domain for free too; possibly you will have to renew it, but that just extends the registration period, so no cost there that you would not have had anyway. Happy to talk you through the process in detail - not that there is much of it! - if you get in touch off-list. Many providers, including VentraIP, will also give you a free SSL certificate. Or, if you have the skills (not many needed) you can use a certificate from LetsEncrypt, also free. I haven't done that myself, but know many who have, and it is allegedly a well-documented doddle. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] More Earth-Shattering IoT Applications
On Thu, 2018-04-26 at 11:03 +1000, David wrote: > > But perhaps with smart networked cars parking sensors will be > > obsolete. The car would simply tell the car park where it has > > parked. If that car park fills up, the car could drive itself > > elsewhere and come back when you are leaving. Self driving cars > > could make soccer moms (unpaid uber-drivers) obsolete. ;-) > Maybe I just had a vision of an entire city turned into a clogged and slowly churning cauldron of driverless cars, all waiting to be called back to their owners, who are shopping, working... and didn't want to bother with parking. As soon as parking is a problem that people don't have to worry about, those who currently provide parking will stop providing parking, because the space could be used more profitably for other things. The amount of parking will decrease, all parking spaces will become short- stay (for loading and unloading) and cars not in active use will be told to go crawling around the city until needed... or flitting from short-stay parking spot to short-stay parking spot. Law of Unintended Consequences. Interesting thought experiment is to wonder what all those unused cars could be doing, what possibilities a critical mass of unused cars might pen up, the possibility of laws forbidding driverless cars from being driverless without an occupant for longer than X minutes, the possible rise of "car minder" as an occupation, the rise of dead driverless cars that ran out of energy, blocking traffic because there was nowhere to park... whew. Cars that can recognise an oncoming parking inspector and leave; parking spaces that communicate with cars and negotiate terms; parking spaces in areas that humans cannot go - deep underground, dark, airless. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Video streaming
On Fri, 2018-02-09 at 13:18 +1100, David wrote: > -- Forwarded Message -- > From: rene <rene...@libertus.net> > Once upon a time I could happily play ABC iView and SBS on-demand > > videos. But now I have the latest Linux, Firefox & Videolan > > packages with H.264 support, and Flash, and nothing much works at > > all. For SBS in particular, check out webdl https://bitbucket.org/delx/webdl Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A0CD 28F0 10BE FC21 C57C 67C1 19A6 83A4 9B0B 1D75 Old fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Cars, again
On Thu, 2017-11-16 at 22:19 +1100, David wrote: > That won't work because you're asking people No I'm not. They will do it themselves, in droves, as soon as anything halfway useful comes on the matrket. As they are already doing with Tesla. > to place the lives of themselves and their families in an opaque > piece of technology with the vague assurance that, on average, it > will be good for the accident statistics. Theywon't do it because of assurances. They will do it because they want the features. And as for putting their lives in opaque pieces of technology, everyone does that every day. > The practical question of implementation only becomes relevant when > there's agreement about the goal. No new technology has ever - EVER - followed that path. There will be no agreement about goals, no agreement about anything. People will get on with implementing stuff, using thousands of different "benchmarks", while the law and regulators follow years behind. > And the goal needs to be expressed in ethical terms because the > technology is so opaque and human lives are at stake. You can express your goals any way you like, but if you can't measure how close you are to achieving them, it's waffle. > (1) The vehicle is to be able to climb a (given) mountainous road > with no safety fence to mark the edge on a rainy night at a speed of > at least 'v' kph, and must do so successfully on 100 consecutive > attempts. That might test the vehicle's sensors. So - it has to be WAY better than most human drivers. Uhuh. On a mountain road atypical of most mountain roads. In particularly difficult circumstances. That a competent human driver would avoid. > (2) The vehicle is to come to a complete stop from a speed of 'x' > kph in 'y' seconds when an obstruction is suddenly placed 'z' metres > in its path, and must do so on 100 consecutive attempts. Again, way better than most human drivers. Though this task is probably one where the average automaton could be way better than most human drivers. > ...that sort of thing. What else would you expect an expert driver > to be able to do? I want a competent, dependable, reliable, law-abiding driver who concentrates on the task at hand. One who says "why don't we go up that mountain tomorrow in daylight when the rain has stopped?" > We need another use-case to test the vehicle in an environment > where there are many vehicles doing erratic things at high speed, for > example in a multiple vehicle accident where a truck suddenly diverts > into an oncoming line of traffic. I'm thinking of the accident on > the Hume Highway a little time ago when a truck did just that. And how did the humans do? You want perfection, or at least extreme superiority. But autonomous vehicles only need to be just a bit [safer, faster, cheaper] than human drivers to make the world a better place. The "just a bit" will become "quite a bit" and eventually there will be no rational reason for humans to drive vehicles any more, except for fun, in isolated environments with like-minded enthusiasts. It all starts with "just a bit". And there is no way to measure how big that bit is, except via a statistical examination of the facts - after the fact. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Cars, again
On Thu, 2017-11-16 at 17:59 +1100, David wrote: > If you don't like my benchmark for an autonomous system designed for > vehicle control in any circumstances where a domestic or commercial > vehicle would now operate, would you like to propose one? I just think your benchmark is confused - in some ways unreasonably high and in some ways laughably low. But worst, you can't measure it. > That can't be too difficult! Easily said. Why don't you outline how a vehicle purporting to meet your benchmark could be tested against it. Personally I don't think there is any useful benchmark except the death and injury statistics. Entire classes of error will predictably vanish - speeding, for example. It is reasonable to assume that new classes of error will emerge, as unique to autonomous vehicles as drowsy driving is to humans. Certain forms of analysis paralysis, perhaps. But probably easier to program our way out of :-) Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Cars, again
On Thu, 2017-11-16 at 15:18 +1100, Jim Birch wrote: > "It was not autonomous, the driver was legally in control." > That's a legal technicality, isn't it? No, not really. My old Subaru had cruise control, and in the handbook, in bold type, was the statement that "engaging cruise control does not permit the driver to release the steering wheel" or words to that effect. Such warnings almost always mean that somewhere, somehow, someone was stupid enough to believe that engaging cruise control meant the car would steer itself. If I had let go of the steering wheel after engaging cruise control, then had a crash, would you say the cruise control had failed? I'm sure autonomous vehicle control can be improved, will be improved, and presumably will continue to be improved indefinitely. People are generally far too quick to set up straw men or impossible hurdles for the purpose of attacking such technologies. Most of the arguments I've seen against autonomous vehicles boil down to "I won't be trusting them consarned things until one wins the Paris to Dakar unaided". Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Cars, again
On Wed, 2017-11-15 at 14:32 +1100, David wrote: > > This is a complex task, but guess what? Computer systems can > > already drive cars, and they can do it well. > Not when they T-bone trucks and kill the driver! Humans do the same thing - hundreds or thousands of times worldwide every day and most are ordinary drivers. Not drunk or mad, though no doubt some are. It looks to me as if autonomous vehicles are now at about the same level as human drivers in general. Probably better, because there are large classes of mistake that they do not make - such as using mobile phones, driving while fatigued, getting distracted by the kids, driving drunk... I know you set the bar to exclude those, but that's just excluding reality. In the "game" that is partly autonomous traffic, not all questions have clear answers, and demanding that autonomous vehicles supply them and never ever fail is pointless and unrealistic. A magic bullet that drops fatalities and injuries to zero would be nice, but I'll take a statistically significant improvement. Wonder how it would have played out if that truck had been autonomous too. Or if the two vehicles had been able to communicate. > I'm not proposing any limit, I'm suggesting they have a very, very > long way to go. And we might get clues from the nominal computing > capacity of just a few cubic millimetres of human brain. Which has very little to do with anything, see above. A $10 computer these days can reliably beat the vast majority of normal people at chess. And they build in pauses in those games because otherwise the speed of defeat would be too demoralising. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] A vested interest?
On Thu, 2017-10-05 at 00:05 +, Forename Surname wrote: > I wonder if my e.-mail address (abbottabad...@outlook.com) played a > part in garnering such animosity? Do you not think it prescient to > declare such connexions? What - declare connections with a town in Pakistan? :-) Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Spammy looking email from ASIC
On Sat, 2017-09-23 at 10:41 +1000, Kim Holburn wrote: > https://www.smsfalliance.com.au/asic-spam-emails/ > There are massive numbers of these. If you look carefully you will > usually find a dodgy sharepoint.com link in them. But ASIC *does* send out genuine reminders. Always do as Tom did - go check the business name manually. Don't use the links. It would be nice if entities like ASIC would get the message that they should not send out live links. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] SBS On Demand
On Tue, 2017-09-19 at 08:58 +, Forename Surname wrote: > Our SBS has a rather appalling streaming service called SBS On > Demand > [...] > I hope this wasn't t o o unhelpful, If you are prepared to run Python, go get grabber. Download from ABC, SBS, Nine and Ten. Presents all available programs in a handy dandy list. Get the one by delx on bitbucket, NOT the hackerware of similar name NOR the older one on github. Last update 2/9/2017 as at time of writing this. Works like a charm, full source included. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] NBN costs
On Mon, 2017-07-31 at 18:14 +1000, David Lochrin wrote: > The Coalition parties, state & federal, see everything as a business > rather than an investment in national infrastructure or culture. I > believe it's conservative ideology. The simplest way IMHO to describe the difference between the left and the right is to say that the right believes that if you take care of the money, things will work out OK. The left believes that if you take care of the people, things will work out OK. Both extremes are wrong, but I do agree with the thesis that "the facts have a left-wing bias". Probably because money is a construct and people are real.[1] There must be some reason why less than 10% of American scientists are Republicans :-) Regards, K. [1] cf Douglas Adams (misremembered I'm sure) "most solutions offered were based on the movements of little green pieces of paper, which was strange because on the whole it wasn't the little green pieces of paper that were unhappy." -- ~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Renewing your drivers licence online
On Mon, 2017-07-24 at 14:05 +1000, Narelle wrote: > In another example - the NSW manage your toll payment system REQUIRES > you to agree to 14 pages of terms before you can log in. > > This means you have to agree (ie clickwrap) to an onerous set of > terms and conditions that apply to all aspects of the toll system > just to update a minor thing. There is a fairly simple way to work around these sorts of things. It's not even nerdy or complicated. Write them a letter. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Terror-Induced Portfolio Reorg
On Tue, 2017-07-18 at 13:05 +1000, Roger Clarke wrote: > The terror reorg is primarily about Turnbull's terror about his right > wing rather than the Australian public's (government- and media- > induced) terror about occasional acts of violence. So Dutton has finally made it to head of the The Ministry of Peace. And who has oversight of the whole rolling catastrophe? Brandis. It's hard to believe I once thought Ruddock was bad; he looks like an angel of moderation beside this lot. Why does no elected official ever understand that "keeping Australians safe" includes keeping them safe from the Government? What a sorry shower of shit politics in this country has become. K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: A52E F6B9 708B 51C4 85E6 1634 0571 ADF9 3C1C 6A3A Old fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Fake News
On Fri, 2016-12-02 at 11:20 +1100, David Lochrin wrote: > If political administrations feel they can now ignore the real world > then I think we're in for a torrid time. The sort of thinking described is a fairly reliable indicator of the end of empire. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B Old fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Why do people permit third-party cookies?
On Fri, 2016-08-05 at 10:53 +1000, JanW wrote: > Chromium website doesn't have an obvious link to the actual software. > Seems they call them 'builds'. OK. It's in the Ubuntu repositories and has been for years, so in my case it's just a simple install. There are a zillion download sites that do have Windows images. download.cnet.com? > This is a miss for me. Won't help our beginner/low intermediate users > whatsoever. Sorry to be dismissive. There are a thousand bits of software that take a tad more effort to install than blind clicking on a big green button. Carry on with Chrome. Google loves you. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B Old fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
Re: [LINK] Why do people permit third-party cookies?
On Fri, 2016-08-05 at 10:03 +1000, JanW wrote: > I'm doing a talk on "safe(R) computing" for our club next week. > I wouldn't mind suggestions of the top 2 or 3 "must include" > recommendations from Linkers. FireFox: AdBlock Plus (and turn off their exceptions) Ghostery PrivacyBadger NoScript If you are a Chrome user, uninstall it and install Chromium instead. They are the same browser, but Chrome has Google's privacy-hostile "enhancements". Chrome/Chromium has the first three, need to find something else to replace the last. Regards, K. -- ~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B Old fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
