Thought I would start a thread to just talk about general tech. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/01/15/windows-10-embracing-silicon-innovation/ So Microsoft is forcing anyone who buys new cpu(Intel's Kaby Lake, and AMD's Bristol Ridge) to upgrade to Windows 10. Seems like Microsoft is panicking at there slipping market share and making it worse.
I think that's a generally incorrect oversimplification that suffers from confirmation bias. The real reason, I think, is that modern CPU's are so very, very different than older ones, and the backwards compatibility issues and complexity around maintaining older CPUs isn't worth the hassle, or isn't possible. A lot of non-developers have no real appreciation for just how much of a time suck the increased complexity of backwards compatibility really is. I know I've made the same call for a bunch of my company's products... we're aggressively supporting only the recent versions of browsers and platforms... anything older than 4 years and "too bad".
Just a PSA Microsoft has made windows 10 a recommended update for windows 7 and 8.1 instead of optional. http://betanews.com/2016/02/01/micr...commended-update-for-windows-7-and-8-1-users/
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/9/11184362/google-alphago-go-deepmind-result So Google's Alphago just beat the world champion of go in the first round of the best of five. Huge step forward for AI.
@Aetius or whoever has interest or knowledge in the subject Regarding your comment about agent based modeling for self driving cars. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent-based_model related to this ? It sounds very interesting, is this tech something that exists now in similar uses like you describe for self driving cars or is a lot of it theoretical right now? It looks like a lot of the current uses are more for modeling future behaviors. I am overly fascinated at the thought of self-driving cars and how it's going to change life as we know it. Does anyone else have self-driving cars on the brain?
Machine learning is a huge part of AR/VR and things like self-driving cars. Machine learning is what allows computers to optically analyze and recognize their surroundings... think "hot dog, not hot dog" from Silicon Valley. It's also what allows them to respond to situations within those surroundings. My new company specializes quite heavily in that space (machine learning, robotics, AR, etc), but we haven't had anything to do with self-driving cars, per se. That being said, the team of data scientists we have that work on machine learning are pretty out there... some very cool stuff. If you're interested: https://www.fingerfoodstudios.com/work/ I think the biggest hurdle to this technology will be human acceptance. As with anything in human history, it seems that a generation is born and ingrained with a way of thinking and living, and pushes back against innovation. Specifically innovation that directly involves themselves on a day to day basis. Put a guy in a rocket and put him on the moon? No problem! (because it's not them). Text on a cell phone? WHAT THE HELL?!?! Gay marriage?!? Legalized pot!?!? Hell no! It will take time for those people to literally die off and new ones to replace them. As that happens, societal acceptance will change accordingly. Sure, a few people will change of their own accord, and are "open minded" to new ideas, but it will still take time, and they will probably do so more because of societal pressure than personal desire. I think automated driving will be somewhat similar... I don't see it happening as a 100% mandated adoption, but I do see a higher adoption of those kinds of services moving forward. Especially those in more urban environments, who are more and more turning away from getting outside and having fun (camping, driving, etc). There's a whole culture that is online and inside, who have no interest in getting a driver's license never mind owning a car. Especially if they're in or close to a dense urban environment and have access to Amazon. That's what Uber is for... and that, I believe, is the REAL market for self-driving cars. Commercial transport, whether it be freight or people, will benefit from automation... improved safety, less expensive, probably cheaper insurance, and no bullshit drama that comes with having to manage employees.
Interesting announcement today: https://news.voyage.auto/self-driving-cars-in-a-city-like-no-other-c9b38807a9a6 Self-driving service launching in a Florida retirement village. Perfect match, if you ask me. An aging population that is becoming less able to drive due to medical conditions, and a self-driving service. It will be very interesting to see how well an older, usually technophobic population would accept such technology.
I'm just not sure at all what to think of this whole cryptocurrency thing... do I believe that there will be some form of digital currency? Yes. Do I think that any of the ones currently in existence will be that currency? No. The people I see buying any form of cryptocurrency right now are trying to get rich quick, and some of them are seeing some modest gains... but as far as I'm concerned, it's mostly a boiler-room pump and dump. Just google Bitconnect. <--- fucking hilarious
For example: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitconnect-ponzi-scheme-no-sympathy-from-crypto-community
I started a small rental and excavation company as a side gig. No one rents small machinery in our small town so i am giving it a shot. I only have one excavator and one dump trailer right now so i dont have a webpage and just run a facebook business page. Well i get a sales call from a web design company saying hey were are emailing you a link to a webpage we built for you take a look if you are interested. My business name is Wekel's Rentals & Excavation, pretty self explanitory on what type of business i do, well here is a link for the temporary website they built me take a look and have a laugh https://blackhandylp3.designnrank.com/?id=wekel2923br.
In case anyone is interested in the spectacularly tone-deaf AMA going on with the Reddit CEO right now... https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/ Short version: Reddit's API has always been free, and lots of third party apps have been built on that. Many of these apps include regular Reddit browsing apps, accessibility apps for blind people, and bots that help assist Reddit moderators. They said they were going to start charging for their API to which most people said, "okay, fair enough." Then it was announced that their API pricing was going to essentially be Twitter-level pricing. Everyone is shuttering their apps now. The developer of one of the most-loved apps, Apollo, whose app was going to now cost him $20m/year, was being made out to be a bad guy, so he posted his phone call and email logs which clearly laid out how he was being lied to and lied about. It's pretty clear that the entire top brass at Reddit is variously incompetent, malicious and stupid. The AMA they're doing right now is a tiny bit amazing - how people who have spent over a decade on this site thought that their Corporate Drone Speak non-answers were going to be anything other than skewered and roasted is ridiculous.
I have always wondered that, Netflix(account sharing), Digg, Tumbler(no porn), how can they not understand there core business. Are they a little bit of everything? How do they not get it? Not saying that netflix account sharing is there core business, but how do they not seeing that clamping down hard on that will kill there business.
I’ve been following the saga this week. Of all the stupid things Reddit leadership has done, this has got to be one of the dumbest. This could destroy the entire site.
I agree, but I think they believe the money to be made by vertically integrating and eliminating third-party apps outweighs any possible damage done. The most interesting thing to me actually isn't this business decision, which is incredibly myopic and greedy, but they're looking for an IPO so maximum control over their user base is the name of the game. It's possible that this is the end of Reddit as we know it. It's also possible that this bleeds off a chunk of their users but the site has enough critical mass to survive. What I find most interesting was how badly the CEO and all the people around him have bungled the public communication. This isn't some banking CEO who went to Harvard and is surrounded by privileged, overpaid sycophants 24/7. The primary communicators here know how the community works. They have seen AMAs. They know how Redditors respond to half-truths, avoidance, deflection, etc. They have seen the community response to the Apollo developer and they saw that he had evidence. They know that other developers that they've wronged or avoided are participating in the community. The thought that they announced a public AMA for their CEO to answer precisely only 14 questions, many of which were only 1-2 brief sentences, none of which really answer the questions that were posed, all of which completely ignored the actual top questions, some of which were in direct contradiction to objective evidence provided... It's mind-boggling. They fucked this up at every single level that they possibly could have fucked it up. They didn't do one single thing to help themselves, or improve their image, or clarify their goals - they only made things worse. They basically signed up for public humiliation. But they should have known.
I use a 3rd party app because theirs is fucking trash. If they go through with this it will basically make my reddit usage go to 0. I read a few of the responses to the AMA that was just done, and could tell how it was going to go and stopped at that. Just when you think that maybe they are learning, like you said they know how people respond to AMA's that don't actually answer questions, then they go and don't answer questions.
Apollo is one if the best mobile apps I’ve ever used. They are shutting down on the 30th. When they’re done, no more Reddit for me.