<unnamed>

Public Key

npub1lq68asmanu3etxax9hvrj8au4h585lq8zgzujmufqsewtsz85mkskknf7e

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0sdr7cd7e7gu4nwnzmkper772m6r60sr3ypwfd7ysgvh9cpr6dmgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsn5pg4g

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Last Notes

2026-08-29 21:48:10 CEST

The California legislature has passed a law that would permit so-called "plug in solar" (up to 1200 watts) to be used legally in the state without complicated registration requirements. However, there are some important potential gotchas that most consumers probably aren't aware of:
- Since the standard U.S. wiring is two 120 volt power phases splitting a 240 volt feed, the solar power will only supplement that half of the overall house load if plugged into a conventional (non-dedicated) circuit.
- Plugging into a non-dedicated circuit can result in devices that pull much power causing a potentially very dangerous overload of wiring that will NOT typically be detected and stopped by common existing circuit breakers on that circuit.
- Many residential power meters may read power generated by the plug in solar as utility provided power in some circumstances, causing the utility to bill you for power that you actually generated yourself.
Some of the fixes for these issues involve installing dedicated circuits and/or using devices that require installation inside the high voltage power panel of the house, which is not safe for
unskilled users to do. There are some "smart" devices that will solve some of these problems without going into the panel, but the point is that this all can be much more complicated to do safely than it may at first appear.

2026-08-28 00:37:58 CEST

BREAKING: New York is the only state bordering Lake Ontario, governor announces it will not honor Trump's [insane] renaming to "Lake America"

2026-08-27 21:10:03 CEST

- reply

"I've got a little list ..." as G&S would say.

2026-08-27 20:19:37 CEST

History Moment: The Fall of Commodus
Commodus served as the emperor of Rome from 177 to 192. His reign is generally considered to have been even more damaging that that of the notorious Caligula, mainly since Commodus reigned for twelve years and Caligula for only four.
Apparently far more interested in the trappings of the emperor than actually ruling, Commodus fired knowledgeable advisors and surrounded himself with incompetent loyalists. He had a penchant for a cult of personality, renaming places and things after himself, ultimately including Rome itself.
His reign came to an end in 192, and triggered a chaotic succession of short-serving emperors, when he was poisoned and strangled to death.

2026-08-27 17:58:00 CEST

- reply

No apology necessary. Point is, AI is ultimately going to be extremely tightly regulated, and mechanisms will ultimately be mandated to deal with the detection problems, at risk of firms finding their AI systems being shut down by governments. The trend line is clear, though since currently it's the "wild west" phase I realize that isn't particularly obvious!

2026-08-27 16:14:37 CEST

- reply

"Heaven? What ever made you think this was heaven, Mr. Tomczak? This IS the other place!"

2026-08-27 01:03:38 CEST

- reply

Never really into poetry of that sort.

2026-08-26 22:33:21 CEST

In Louisiana, NDAs covered up a data center deal that residents didn't know was coming
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5879509/in-louisiana-ndas-covered-up-a-data-center-deal-that-residents-didnt-know-was-coming
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/163/714/096/851/042/original/e2b1c729aeecf0ae.png

2026-08-26 20:34:36 CEST

- reply

That only works if you enjoy writing. Many people don't, still need to, and still need to not let machines do the writing for them under their names.

2026-08-26 19:11:29 CEST

What's happening, I believe, is the organic creation of a new coalition based on distrust of government and Big Tech. We can see this bipartisan effect across all geographic and age demographics, focusing now on data centers, AI, and surveillance systems like Flock. These issues are transcending traditional political divisions, and their ultimate impacts could be enormous.

2026-08-26 19:00:44 CEST

- reply

I have and never had any interest in surfing per se, but I've always found that film to be fantastic!

2026-08-26 18:49:38 CEST

- reply

The ultimate surf film is and will always be Bruce Brown's "The Endless Summer" (1966).

2026-08-26 17:29:55 CEST

#AI writing is ghostwriting. You are publishing words that you did not originate, and claiming them as your own. A WSJ editorial written with AI is like giving a human writer a list of your opinions, then taking the essay they create and sticking your name on it. It is unethical and disgusting, irrespective of whether or not your WSJ editor approves of the practice. All AI writing that can be identified as such with available tools to a high degree of certainty should be called out and marked for public shaming.

2026-08-26 02:36:17 CEST

BREAKING: Report: Nevada governor backed data centers after millions in related donations
https://www.levernews.com/nevada-governor-backed-data-centers-days-after-1-million-donation/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/159/006/936/066/523/original/69f58a49acac015b.png

2026-08-25 23:31:13 CEST

- reply

Just a step below Hyperloop on the mass transit fantasy scale.

2026-08-25 19:46:13 CEST

- reply

DCLXVI.

2026-08-25 19:12:52 CEST

- reply

https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren/117156668389816960
#note1tgg…v9nr

2026-08-25 19:04:27 CEST

- reply

They may not need your weight to go off the cliff. Every time the Billionaire Big Tech CEOs open their mouths or Trump proclaims how much he loves data centers they're like the Coyote running off the cliff. Right now they're pretty much suspended in the air, like he so often was. But we all know what happens next. The big unknown is the timing.

2026-08-25 18:54:10 CEST

- reply

Actually, I think public sentiment has reached a tipping point. The key signal is that pushback against things like Flock and Data Centers has become bipartisan, without rural/urban differentiation. This is crucial.

2026-08-25 18:36:29 CEST

City charges dropped against man who clapped during public meeting about data centers. In Trump's America, applause is a crime, unless it's for him.

2026-08-25 17:42:25 CEST

- reply

I wouldn't bet the farm on that launch date.

2026-08-25 16:56:17 CEST

- reply

Common usage. In this case, I would assert that without the massive trust deficit that Big Tech has built over the years, this whole situation might have been considerably different. So, like being the "victim of his own success", they're the victim of their own behavior.

2026-08-25 06:41:53 CEST

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@simontatham/117153953003389913
"The DLL of Doom" ...

2026-08-25 01:00:16 CEST

- reply

Call costs are de minimis for those operations.

2026-08-25 00:45:38 CEST

- reply

Billing events they care not about. That's so 20th century.

2026-08-25 00:39:52 CEST

- reply

Ah, yes, from the legendary, notorious, and at one time world-famous "ZZZZZZ" -- long the last listing in the Los Angeles telephone directory. A project that ultimately had AT&T try to shut us down by dragging us into a California PUC hearing, which ... we won. But that's a story unto itself. In these old Z recordings I did the smartalek kid and the pushy salesman.
https://lauren.vortex.com/zzzzzz-70s.mp3

2026-08-25 00:31:07 CEST

- reply

That's considered a positive hit.

2026-08-25 00:30:43 CEST

- reply

Actually I saw Bellovin's not Blaze. Blaze, despite our relationship on the Net going back to the dawn of time, blocked me on Mastodon when I called him out for multiple booking for an eclipse some years ago or some such.

2026-08-24 23:36:48 CEST

BREAKING: Supreme Court appears prepared to let Trump become dictator over U.S. elections
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-mail-ballots.html?smid=url-share
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/152/638/841/561/296/original/5af995788c312f72.png

2026-08-24 01:51:59 CEST

Trump education secretary says elementary school children don't need college, steer them to trades to help build data centers

2026-08-21 02:49:04 CEST

- reply

Wait until they have to pay for it.

2026-08-21 01:56:22 CEST

Bezos' pet Washington Post issues a tone-deaf editorial in favor of data centers.

2026-08-20 17:25:27 CEST

Fun Fact: Los Angeles by design has a very weak mayor, unlike cities like, say, New York. Most power officially is in the hands of the city council, but many observers feel that it's actually the city-owned LADWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) that really runs the city! In my many interactions with their technical teams over the years, I've always been impressed. Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch an electrical job being done where a trainee doing the actual work was being observed and guided by three other employees and it didn't fail to impress. And four pairs of eyes on the work -- excellent!

2026-08-18 16:34:06 CEST

- reply

I'd never use a camera system with a subscription fee. But of course I run my own servers, and most people can't.

2026-08-18 07:50:19 CEST

Meanwhile, #Google #AI Overviews are lying about the continuing global Google Home outage
The outage has continued for hours. And while Google has admitted it is still in progress, questions about it to Google Search get this response:
"There is no widespread or global outage currently affecting Google Home services. Tracking platforms like Downdetector US show normal operation levels, meaning issues are likely localized to your specific device, app, or home network."
In fact, Downdetector shows a very impressive big red graphed outage in progress for Google Home.
Thanks for the misinformation, Google AI Overviews!

2026-08-18 07:24:20 CEST

BREAKING: #Google has ack nowledged what appears to be a global outage of all Google Home devices
Welcome to the future.

2026-08-18 01:54:13 CEST

That young blonde sticking like glue to Trump is starting to attract a lot of attention. And Trump doesn't seem to like that at all.

2026-08-14 18:33:23 CEST

Film concept: All the Big Tech CEOs are dropped on a deserted island and invited to build all the data centers that they wish.

2026-08-14 18:26:48 CEST

The big #AI firms know that invisible watermarks alone do NOT in the least protect most people from misinformation, because most people cannot be expected to run every text or image they see through various tools looking for invisible watermarks. While such tools may have applicability in formal contexts like education, courts, journals, and the like, they are effectively meaningless when it comes to stemming the massive flow of hideously dangerous misinformation and deepfakes that these firms are purposely pushing onto the public. Yet another reason these firms and their CEOs need to be caged before they completely ruin society with their horrific garbage designed to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.

2026-08-10 22:42:59 CEST

The U.S. is becoming the laughingstock of the world with its drive to ban all manner of Chinese products -- drones, vacuum cleaners, routers, cameras and more -- claiming "security concerns" that oddly, other countries around the world including our allies don't seem to have. These bans are devastating search and rescue ops, agriculture, and other critical operations. Meanwhile, politicians here are on wacko binge against 3D printers, pushing all manner of completely unworkable and Big Brotherish monitoring and blocking requirements. It's not just Trump who is an idiot, it is politicians in BOTH PARTIES!

2026-08-10 21:41:47 CEST

- reply

In fact, fax machines are still around in major ways in some places and situations. The entire email infrastructure is tied to SMTP, including the many security layers now. Trying to change it is like trying to get rid of QWERTY keyboards. Not worth the effort.

2026-08-10 20:36:27 CEST

BREAKING: In latest ripoff of creators, YouTube massively increases requirements for monetization

2026-08-10 06:51:40 CEST

Netanyahu is telling Trump to stuff his Hamas peace plan. Iran is making demands for reparations and control of the Strait from the U.S. Trump spends his time demanding the Olympian be re-charged in Trump's pool fiasco. The economy is collapsing.
SO MUCH WINNING!

2026-08-10 02:30:23 CEST

- reply

I understand that, but I sort of view this like I viewed the Vietnam war -- the people who went to Canada vs. the people that stayed and fought to end the draft and the killing -- which they ultimately did.

2026-08-09 21:59:14 CEST

- reply

There have always been a proportion of cowards in academia. Always.

2026-08-08 23:46:45 CEST

BREAKING: U.S. Postal Service says losses may force them to close thousands of post offices

2026-08-08 23:43:49 CEST

Fun Fact: Before the Internet, it was indeed actually possible to shop, bank, and conduct all other business.

2026-08-08 23:14:26 CEST

At this stage, the "NO MORE DATA CENTERS" party could probably break the "third parties don't work in the USA" curse. VOTE NMDC!

2026-08-08 22:02:54 CEST

- reply

Probably not the most practical approach.

2026-08-08 18:32:47 CEST

- reply

Never let the perfect get in the way of good. Or to put it another way, when your adversary eventually comes around to your side, don't keep criticizing them. You've won. Move on. I see that kind of self-destructive behavior all the time when people just can't accept winning.

2026-08-08 18:24:53 CEST

- reply

Link is fine, comes right up for me. There was a dash there that might have confused whatever you're using, I threw in a space to separate it. Story title:Rep. Max Miller denounced by Sen. Bernie Moreno, his former father-in-law

2026-08-08 18:08:42 CEST

- reply

Actually, he HAS been denounced by his father in law Senator. -https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/02/ohio-repm-ax-miller-stay-in-race-01021642 - you owe the Senator an apology on this one.
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/060/751/855/905/984/original/e641a8889612be14.png

2026-08-08 17:38:06 CEST

Republicans are so deeply evil that they'll withhold a child's stuffed
toy to gain leverage in a marital dispute.

2026-08-07 16:22:37 CEST

- reply

It's already wrapped up.

2026-08-07 16:04:21 CEST

- reply

The hell was seeing what the Internet became in the fullness of time.

2026-08-07 06:51:46 CEST

Plan for tomorrow: Use a tiny piece of masking tape to "fix" an HDMI-CEC looping problem. This will probably earn me a position at least one circle inward in Hell. Fun fact: I did something very much like this to deal with a PDP-11/45 DL11 serial RS-232 interface card problem at the UCLA ARPANET Lab about 1000 years ago.

2026-08-04 18:47:05 CEST

BREAKING: #Google appears to be testing forcing you to log in to use search
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-testing-forcing-searchers-to-sign-in-to-get-more-search-results-484223
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/038/253/521/439/413/original/ac5a3c998bdcff34.png

2026-08-03 18:50:45 CEST

An unusual documentary has surfaced on #YouTube Movies and TV -- free for now (in the U.S., this status could change at any time). Unlike most of my notices about this YouTube channel where I recommend everyone consider viewing the related film or program, I will not do so with this film. If you're not a student of film history -- I am such a student -- (and that includes "exploitation" films) and if you don't have a strong stomach, I would not recommend this film.
This is a definitely NSFW, not safe for children documentary entitled: "Fascism On A Thread: The Strange Story Of Nazisploitation Cinema" (2019). Irrespective of your age, you may not even know that this category of cinema, which had a brief "flowering" mainly during the 1970s, even existed. These are exploitation/"grindhouse" films that combined themes of nudity, sex, torture, BDSM, Nazism, and related concepts. Most of these films are not widely known.
Two of them: "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom" (1975) and "Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS" (1975) are fairly well known. Salo was one of the few films I've viewed in my life where I considered leaving the theater before it finished. Subsequent viewings over the years have made the anti-fascist message much clearer, but it's still a very tough watch. Sidenote: The director, Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally murdered before the film was released, at age 53. Ilsa comes across more as a kind of brutal parody, but is still difficult viewing. Sidenote: The prisoner of war camp used in the film was the same set here in L.A. used for filming the "Hogan's Heroes" TV series. Since the series was over and the end of Ilsa required a camp to be destroyed, and they wanted to strike the Hogan's Heroes set anyway, they actually burned down the set in the final scenes of Ilsa.
Anyway, it's a serious documentary about a genuinely disturbing period of filmmaking, but by its very nature it is not something you want children to watch or anyone who might be disturbed by the brutal imagery. You have been warned. Seriously. No kidding. This means you!
Fascism On A Thread: The Strange Story Of Nazisploitation Cinema
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-5xcum-xM4
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/032/605/551/976/478/original/941d521fdee7c45f.png

2026-08-02 22:43:30 CEST

Born and living my entire life here in L.A., one of my earliest memories is my parents taking us to the UCLA campus and my watching a commercial being filmed and somebody yelling at me, "Hey kid, get out of the frame!"

2026-08-01 19:39:07 CEST

- reply

Don't worry. Brain worm man RFK, Jr. wants to ban antidepressants.

2026-07-31 21:26:37 CEST

Data Centers have become a new "third rail" of politics, for both parties.

2026-07-30 18:57:14 CEST

- reply

Yeah, the whole concept was fundamentally flawed. Even if you get an approval later, by then most readers have moved on and won't even see the post you were commenting on when it finally shows up.

2026-07-30 18:51:14 CEST

- reply

I actually got a note today from a compsci guy I've known for many, many years asking if those things could be repurposed to actually burn stuff on the ground. So this is already in people's minds.

2026-07-30 18:46:58 CEST

- reply

Their demo video is not reassuring: https://youtu.be/xt_Kn4DggPg?t=122
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/009/941/423/072/335/original/32b62c877ce745ff.jpg

2026-07-29 16:31:18 CEST

The proposal to rebuild Washington D.C.'s Dulles airport would finally eliminate the "people mover" vehicles, which are ... very strange.

2026-07-29 16:22:38 CEST

Data Center power concept: Chain billionaires to stationary bicycles attached to small dynamo generators feeding data center power systems (see "Gilligan's Island" for the basic specs). Admittedly, this won't provide much power, but the symbolism wins.

2026-07-28 21:51:40 CEST

- reply

An UBER-classic. That song has had free rent in my brain ever since I first heard it long, long ago.

2026-07-23 19:13:08 CEST

One of the best examples I know of a "high power, tight sync" opening. Definitely one of my favorites. Can you spot the syntax error? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2PoXfZdYVU
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/970/407/682/399/713/original/d410ca5731f9199c.jpg

2026-07-23 17:52:07 CEST

Fake Future #YouTube Press Release: Google's YouTube is pleased to announce our new "ALL AI VIDEO EVOLUTION". Building on the incredible success of our AI efforts that have permitted employers to eliminate millions of jobs previously performed by human beings in support of their families, YouTube will now only offer content created by our own AI systems, trained on the billions of videos previously uploaded to YouTube by naive users who trusted us. More news soon from our "A click is a click" initiative. Keep on YouTubing! -- YouTube, San Bruno, California, USA.

2026-07-22 20:18:32 CEST

Florida pastor sues OpenAI, says ChatGPT's medical advice delayed
emergency treatment: Report
https://www.firstpost.com/tech/florida-pastor-sues-openai-says-chatgpts-medical-advice-delayed-emergency-treatment-report-14033273.html
#AI
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/965/003/075/571/092/original/40b4afa86531b8ac.png

2026-07-21 21:14:10 CEST

- reply

Nothing happens.

2026-07-21 20:54:32 CEST

- reply

Nothing happens.

2026-07-21 20:15:41 CEST

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@SteveBellovin/116959326460208015
And the magic words don't help.
#note1p07…a7sc

2026-07-21 19:36:55 CEST

Here is the "official" ADVENTURE/Colossal Cave page. My contribution is noted down where the UNIX/C port is mentioned: https://rickadams.org/adventure/a_history.html
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/959/176/991/553/543/original/381a0c74cfa432f2.jpg

2026-07-21 19:33:48 CEST

- reply

It gets worse as you get older.

2026-07-21 19:21:59 CEST

- reply

Naw, my fridge is 30 years old. No electronics other than a mechanical thermostat and a light bulb!

2026-07-21 19:15:55 CEST

Something is beeping at intervals of some number of minutes. Low volume. Not smoke detectors. "Poltergeist" started this way.

2026-07-21 05:37:02 CEST

Fun Fact: While there were frequently games in progress at the UCLA Computer Club in my presence, I never have played Dungeons & Dragons.

2026-07-20 18:43:47 CEST

Food truck's long-time slogan triggers free speech controversy
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/07/17/food-truck-removed-from-statehouse-market-over-slogan-could-have-free-speech-implications/
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/953/305/856/004/440/original/4c0af16299d73532.png

2026-07-17 16:11:33 CEST

BREAKING: Trump media will charge for faster access to posts that might influence markets

2026-07-15 22:15:51 CEST

BREAKING: Hegseth orders annual testosterone tests for troops, will push them to accept testosterone replacement therapy, which has previously carried warnings about associated health risks

2026-07-15 06:49:22 CEST

- reply

I still have this LP. When I was a teenager, one of my hobbies was building telephone answering machines (this ties in with my association at the time with the infamous last listing in the Los Angeles telephone directory, ZZZZZZ, of which I've written about in other venues previously). Anyway, I used the track "Whipped Cream" as my backing for my outgoing voice announcement. Answer, wait past the opening percussions and then, "Nobody is available right now to take your call. You can leave a message when you hear the tone signal. Please be sure that you speak loudly, slowly, and clearly, so that we'll be sure to receive your message. Thank you for calling!" I still use a variation of that script, but with a different backing these days. Whipped Cream of course was the track that "The Dating Game" used to introduce the female contestants. By the way, I've heard Herb did not initially care for that cover.
One of the other guys at ZZZZZZ used a different announcement on his machine:
"A summer breeze may kiss the sky ...
The bees may kiss the butterflies ...
Ruby lips may kiss a glass ...
And YOU my friend may ... leave a message at the tone."

2026-07-14 18:13:01 CEST

It's obvious the Big Tech Billionaires have not studied history. Especially the history of France.

2026-07-14 16:26:27 CEST

This is the text of my national network radio report yesterday discussing the misbehaving teens turned over to police by Waymo, and the broader implications of surveillance and actions by robotic vehicles. As always there may have been minor wording variations from this script as I presented this report live on air.
- - -
So in 1951 the great science-fiction author Ray Bradbury published a short story called "The Pedestrian". It told of a robotic police car roaming a future city looking for so-called "unusual" behaviors -- in this case walking alone at night. And a pedestrian in the story was arrested by the car and driven off to be incarcerated.
There are many real world questions about robotic vehicles -- like Waymo robotaxis -- and how they'll interact with our laws and privacy rights and other aspects of society. There were new Waymo problems again in San Francisco a week or so ago on July 4th, with their apparently being unable to deal with the celebrations causing another case there of Waymo triggered traffic gridlocks reportedly involving at least dozens of the vehicles, Waymos reportedly running out of power, reports of people being terrified when they saw a Waymo driving right over fireworks that had just been lit -- yeah, kinda scary stuff.
Most human drivers would know how to handle these situations but robotaxis don't have common sense -- in fact Waymos were just recalled due to an unfortunate tendency to drive into flooded areas, and first responders continue to be angry about robotaxis interfering with emergency operations.
Now we have an event in San Mateo in the San Francisco Bay Area that invokes Bradbury's story and other predicted robocar scenarios. In this case we have a couple of teenagers who were indeed misbehaving in a Waymo. Reports are that they were drinking, but obviously they weren't driving since they were in a Waymo -- and were shooting Orbeez -- squishy soft gel water beads -- from a toy gun out a window. Some of the details of this are still vague. But the bottom line is that the Waymo diverted from the teens' ordered trip, took the teens to a parking lot, stopped there, and called the police.
Apparently the police showed up in force, perhaps because Waymo didn't understand it was a toy gun involved, so it's lucky nobody was injured in that kind of police response situation. Early reports were that Waymo locked the teens in the vehicle, which of course would have all sorts of safety implications among other issues, but later reports suggest that the doors were unlocked but Waymo lied to the teens and falsely told them that there were maintenance issues to get them to stay with the vehicle -- meanwhile Waymo was actually getting the police involved.
Many of the stories about this seem to be taking a kind of chuckling tone and saying gee wasn't this cool? And in this particular case nothing obviously serious ultimately seems to have happened, at the time of the last report I saw the teens hadn't even been actually arrested or charged with any crimes. But a broader look at this sequence of events and the situation in general seems much less clear. One way to look at it is asking how a human taxi driver might have reacted to the same set of circumstances. Probably they would have told the teens to "knock it off" and if they continued to misbehave kick them out of the cab. And probably they wouldn't have lied to kids about a false taxi breakdown, secretly call the police, and sit in a parking lot with them for the police to arrive.
But obviously robot vehicles, even when under remote control from humans at a central facility, have a limited set of options since there's no human driver physically present. Some observers of this event have suggested that what Waymo did -- given that they're not an agent of the government -- could be technically categorized as kidnapping, even if it's viewed as a safety-positive action in this case. And in fact the formal definition of kidnapping includes taking someone where they didn't ask to be, by use of deception. Whether that word is used isn't very important for now. And really we can put aside for today the details of the teens' Waymo adventure.
But there's a whole long list of questions that have been percolating in the background about robotaxis that are now pushed to the front of the stage. These vehicles have cameras and microphones everywhere. What kind of passenger activities inside would trigger the firms diverting passengers to other locations against their will or surveillance reports being filed? Could this capability be abused by future authorities, or by hackers, perhaps on a mass scale by technologically sophisticated terrorists? And that's just to start. These may sound like sci-fi concepts but the reality of robotaxis is already here and as a society we seem to be virtually unprepared for its implications.
In Bradbury's story, there was only one police robocar for an entire city. But Waymo reportedly has something close to a 1000 robotaxis in San Francisco alone, and many more in other cities in their rapidly growing robotaxi fleets. Other firms are building their own robotaxi fleets as well. How these vehicles are going to interact with government authorities, and society more broadly, is far too important to be left to the tender mercies of the Big Tech Billionaires in their never ending search to maximize their profits.
So it's up to us to make sure that these firms act appropriately in society's best interests and don't drive society, and all of us, right off a technological cliff.
- - -
L

2026-07-14 06:44:53 CEST

House committee passes permanent Daylight Savings Time bill, setting it up for a vote in the House. The Senate stupidly passed a version in 2022 unanimously without considering the implications. This new House version apparently includes a state opt-out.

2026-07-13 00:40:36 CEST

WOW: How three AIs couldn't admit they didn't know an answer, so they made up potentially dangerous ones
This really gets to the heart of the matter. A navigation question that the three major AIs didn't know the correct answer to, so each made up an authoritative sounding wrong answer and supporting information that could potentially be dangerous. Just one example amongst the almost limitless spewing of misinformation from these systems. -L
The same navigation question to 3 AI's. They were all wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icksI6FOqE0
- - -
#AI #Google #Microsoft #ChatGPT #Gemini

2026-07-12 23:43:55 CEST

McConnell shares photo from hospital, says cause was a fall followed by mild pneumonia

2026-07-11 02:19:59 CEST

After outcry, Meta withdraws new features permitting AI images to be
made from other people's Instagram accounts

2026-07-10 19:18:10 CEST

- reply

If he'd been dead for this long believe me it would have leaked by now.

2026-07-10 16:58:17 CEST

I have long postulated what I call my "flashbulb" theory of technologically sophisticated alien life. It may exist, in fact it likely exists, but it may be so rare in terms of distribution and especially the period during which it can engage in technological activities (like interstellar communications) that it's like the occasional blink of a camera flash (yeah, I know, no bulbs anymore) scattered around a galaxy. The other civilization needs to be close enough in both space and time to communicate.
I'm increasingly thinking this problem is even worse. It may well be the case that such life may be so rare that in the time our civilization has -- until the illumination of our own flash goes dark -- we could go without finding another civilization.
I find that depressing. And lonely. But it may be the reality. The fact that we exist may only mean we won the cosmic jackpot. If the odds against us were a trillion trillion trillion to one, and we happened to be that one, we'd have no way to know, and only we would be considering the question. Sampling bias on a cosmic scale.
Congratulations.
L

2026-07-10 04:47:35 CEST

- reply

Where are you?

2026-07-10 04:47:14 CEST

All cars sold in the EU now require camera pointed at driver face, and the data goes ... where?

2026-07-10 01:03:55 CEST

- reply

Unfortunately, the network paywalls the central feed, so it means picking up a stream from one of the 600+ and satellite stations and/or live from the radio locally. And that would be around 10:06 or so PM PDT.

2026-07-10 00:50:27 CEST

The topic of my national network radio tech segment this coming Monday will be how Alphabet (Google) Waymo diverted the trip of two misbehaving teenagers to turn them in to the police, and the many issues this raises about what robotaxis see and do and who controls them.
#google #alphabet #waymo

2026-07-09 18:40:26 CEST

- reply

Sounds like they have you by the short hairs. Ouch.

2026-07-09 18:30:38 CEST

- reply

$50/yr? You gotta be kidding me. I don't use ANY third-party password managers. As far as I'm concerned "they're a trap!"

2026-07-09 18:06:19 CEST

- reply

My assumption is that any Waymo vehicle (or any robotaxi for that matter) could be effectively disabled by jamming its comm links. Right now I assume these are conventional mobile channels, though I wouldn't be surprised if they don't start using satellites too, if they haven't already, at least in testing. Once they're cut off from Central for more than a relatively short period of time, they're going to be pretty much helpless, and I suspect will pull over and stop, assuming they don't just stop in the middle of busy intersections the way Waymos are known to do.

2026-07-09 02:30:44 CEST

We now know that Waymo has the capability to kidnap any passenger and take them anywhere without their permission.

2026-07-08 20:51:40 CEST

- reply

You can't expect people to think of this stuff. What's needed is to make what Waymo did illegal and make sure there is no way passengers can be prevented from easily and directly egressing the vehicle when necessary.

2026-07-08 20:27:09 CEST

Ray Bradbury on police robocars
Worth noting that the great Ray Bradbury, in a short story called "The Pedestrian", postulated automated robocars prowling around to kidnap anyone seen to be behaving in unusual ways. That was originally published in 1951. -L
#waymo