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<\/p> <\/p>\n Chaos Manor View, Wednesday, May 11, 2016 <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most transparent administration in history.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barrack Obama <\/p>\n
Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide. <\/p>\n
Under Capitalism, the rich become powerful. Under Socialism, the powerful become rich. <\/p>\n
Under Socialism, government employees become powerful. <\/p>\n
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I continue to recover from the death of the D: drive in Alien Artifact, the formerly Windows 7 system converted by stealth to Windows 10. The conversion by Microsoft had nothing to do with the D Drive dying; it was time and past time, and in fact we were about to replace both drives in Alien Artifact when the disaster happened. Actually it was more major annoyance than disaster; everything was backed, up it was still time consuming. Alien Artifact had a relatively small SSD C drive because when he was built SSD drives were expensive; we put Windows and program files on the C drive, and everything else on a big spinning metal drive; in particular all the Outlook data files, the .pst files, were on D. <\/p>\n
When the D drive died, Alien Artifact still worked, but Widows gets seriously annoyed when it can\u2019t find the Outlook data files, and searches everywhere it can see; and this can take quite a long time. Other programs also experience serious delays. Alien Artifact was seriously unusable; so today we got a large spinning metal drive, formatted it in Eugene, the new main system, and inserted it in place of the dead D drive. Worked like a charm. Alien Artifact is his chipper old self again, at least until you call for files from the D drive and they aren\u2019t on that blank disk. This won\u2019t be long. Tomorrow we\u2019ll put a large SSD C drive cloned from the present C Drive in there, and the D will hold only movies and other downloads, no critical data at all. That\u2019s the scheme we use for Eugene, because his SSD C drive was bought this week, and SSD drives big enough to hold both programs and data are cheap enough to make that practical. Silicon is cheaper than iron, after all\u2019 of course if you want 5 Terabytes that isn\u2019t true, but you don\u2019t need a 5 TB C drive; at least not yet. <\/p>\n
We did get a 5 TB spinning metal drive to add to Eugene; that drive will hold a backup of everything taken daily, from the main machine and also the Surface Pro. I hope to avoid losing a week to a dead drive ever again. Of course I didn\u2019t actually lose a week to that dying drive; we had various other plagues of locusts eat several days here at Chaos Manor; I\u2019m pleased to say those are over as well. <\/p>\n
One way to spend time is learning the tricky ways Windows 10 and Office 365 work. They\u2019re just enough different from earlier versions to drive you toward madness if you let them. They are almost never explained. Once you find out how you do something, you\u2019ll be amazed that you didn\u2019t think of it at once \u2013 which I think is the problem. They seem obvious once you know them \u2013 well most of them do \u2013 and I\u2019m sure it never occurs to the Program Managers that they\u2019re not obvious to someone who is used to doing the same thing but a different way for years. That\u2019s the charitable way of looking at it, anyway. <\/p>\n
I have to conclude that Windows 10 is usable and learnable. It takes effort, and for the work I do I\u2019d as soon have Windows 7, but it is fast, and it tries to make your work easier \u2013 and the sooner I accept that it\u2019s going to try things the way it thinks I will want them, the better off both of us will be. Word and Outlook now have features I will never need, and I liked Word 10 better, but I think it futile to resist; and I\u2019m finding ways to make life easier for a two finger typist who has to stare at the keys after a lifetime of being a touch typist who looked at what I was typing. I can\u2019t do that anymore, and some of my complaints about the \u201cimprovements\u201d can be traced to that. Bottom line: equipment is getting faster, and software is trying to keep up with it. Live with that. <\/p>\n
Also live with SAI taking over many jobs, Some do it pretty well. Others do it horribly. Over time the obvious failures are going to be eliminated, and one day you\u2019ll wonder how you got along without all the AI in your life. Younger people already know that. Us old codgers are just going to have to learn <\/p>\n
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This is Pledge Week at KUSC, the LA Good Music radio station, and so it\u2019s Pledge Week at Chaos Manor. Pledge Weeks are the only time I will bug you about Paying For This Place<\/a>. We operate on the Public Radio model: it\u2019s free to all, but if there aren\u2019t enough subscribers I\u2019ll turn my attention to more lucrative efforts: I do have to eat and pay Internet fees and build new equipment every now and then, and time spent on this isn\u2019t spent on other activities. So far there are enough subscribers to make this place worth while. <\/p>\n If you can\u2019t remember when you last subscribed, it\u2019s very likely time to renew your subscription. If it\u2019s been a year, it\u2019s certainly time to renew. A subscription doesn\u2019t cost that much, and I try to get something up every day; I certainly manage every few day, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve missed a week even when I had my stroke. Be a patron of the arts. Subscribe! <\/p>\n Trump is still the candidate. For some that\u2019s good news. For others it\u2019s various degrees of bad. But surely it\u2019s better than Hillary or four years more of Mr. Obama? Mr. Trump may not be able to end the depression we have been stuck with for 8 years, but he says he\u2019ll try, and his model is Reagan and his tax cuts, which were modeled on Kennedy\u2019s tax cuts (from marginal rates of 90% for Heaven\u2019s sake!), and both of those produced booms that lasted for years. <\/p>\n Scott Adams: \u201cIf this were poker, which hand looks stronger to you for a national election?\u201d <\/p>\n <https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/comic-riffs\/wp\/2016\/03\/21\/donald-trump-will-win-in-a-landslide-the-mind-behind-dilbert-explains-why\/<\/a>> <\/p>\n ————————————— <\/p>\n Roland Dobbins<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Supreme Court and civil rights <\/p>\n Dear Dr Pournelle, You probably do not know this, but there were no Republicans in the South until after Lyndon Johnson. In the first political science class I ever took \u2013 late 50\u2019s, University of Washington, in graduate school but if I wanted graduate classes in political science I had to take the introductory undergraduate class — the Professor explained, with a straight face, that the Democratic Party was the only national Party; the Republicans didn\u2019t even exist in the Solid South. Radio comics made jokes about there being no Republicans south of the Mason Dixon Line. <\/p>\n The Democrats needed the South to control Congress. Mr. Roosevelt needed the Southern Democrats if he was going to stay in office. Republicans had freed the slaves, and created the Freedman\u2019s Bureau. Every Southern schoolchild learned that in grade school. And after all, Andy Jackson of Tennessee had been one of the founders of the Democratic Party. Republicans were for restrictive tariff; Democrats for Tariff for Revenue Only; we learned that in fifth grade. <\/p>\n The Courts had upheld legal segregation, and Separate But Equal school and other public facilities. Some cities and counties actually tried for \u201cequal\u201d facilities but most merely winked at the notion. The Civil War Amendments had given Congress the power to enforce the Amendments by appropriate legislation, but after the disasters of Reconstruction, the Republican Party was dead in the South. Eventually a coalition in Congress\u2014Liberal Democrats and Liberal Republicans and Lyndon Johnson– changed much of that, and the Democratic Party vanished in much of the South, many of the Rules changed in both Houses of Congress, Committee Chairs were not awarded by seniority (Southern Democrats were returned routinely every election) and Things Changed. <\/p>\n That\u2019s a very oversimplified narrative. There is a theory in History that when it\u2019s time for Steam Engines they will appear \u2013 it\u2019s Steam Engine time. It\u2019s not much held now. You might say that Enlightenment spread through the people. I don\u2019t know. When I left the old South to join the Army for the Korean War, I was almost the only person I knew who believed the law ought to be color blind. I suspect the Brothers at Christian Brothers believed that, but they couldn\u2019t say so openly and expect the school to stay open; but I didn\u2019t know anyone else who believed so, and most people who knew what I though commiserated with my parents about having a Communist son. Now, some years later, I still think the law ought to be color blind, but now I gather that belief is Fascist. <\/p>\n There are times when I think we ought to have a Constructional Amendment that says no person shall for reasons of race be deprived of the equal protection of the laws, and this time we really mean it. <\/p>\n “Trump Derangement Syndrome” <\/p>\n http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/2016-presidential-race\/2016\/05\/11\/trump-derangement-syndrome\/<\/a><\/p>\n Phil<\/p>\n Wealthy Cruz Donor Pours Millions Into Clinton Campaign | Observer<\/p>\n Apparently they don\u2019t think they can buy influence with Trump. I think these lines sum it up nicely:<\/p>\n A number of deep-pocketed elite have given up trying to buy off Republican politicians in order to support Ms. Clinton<\/a>\u2014the only establishment-friendly candidate of either party remaining in the race.<\/p>\n …<\/p>\n During the Democratic primary, Ms. Clinton branded herself as the pragmatic, realistic progressive choice for Democrats. Now with a comfortable lead in pledged delegates over Mr. Sanders, Ms. Clinton is moving back toward a moderate position in order to garner support from moderate Republicans and Independent voters. http:\/\/observer.com\/2016\/05\/wealthy-cruz-donor-pours-millions-into-clinton-campaign\/<\/a><\/p>\n John Harlow<\/b><\/p>\n Vice President <\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Rise of the machines <\/p>\n Apparently, the takeover has begun: Craig<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Supreme Court judges <\/p>\n Dear Mr. Pournelle, I can only point to his public remarks about Scalia, and his sentiment that Scalia should be replaced by someone just like him. I know he has said this privately as well \u2013 at least I am told he said it by persons I trust; I have never met Mr. Trump, but I know some people who see him at intervals. He has said he would not renew Obama\u2019s appointment nomination. <\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.<\/p>\n Chaos Manor View, Wednesday, May 11, 2016 \u201cThis is the most transparent administration in history.\u201d Barrack Obama Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide. Under Capitalism, the rich become powerful. Under Socialism, the powerful become rich. Under Socialism, government employees become powerful. I continue \u2026 Continue reading <\/p> \n<\/p> \n\n
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From your background on being raised in the South, why wasn’t the 15th Amendment used in the Courts to overturn Jim Crow laws and poll taxes as the 19th amendment was used to gain women the right to vote. Why was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 even necessary? Thank you!
Christopher Vaughan
Kearney, Missouri<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p> \n-- <\/pre>\n
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Such a swift transition illuminates what Mr. Sanders\u2019 supporters knew all along: Hillary Clinton is willing to do anything to get elected. This dark reality is a primary reason Mr. Sanders is so reluctant to concede his presidential campaign. <\/p>\n<\/p> \n\n
http:\/\/www.geekwire.com\/2016\/ai2-ceo-calls-for-full-disclosure-after-students-discover-their-ta-is-really-an-artificially-intelligent-robot\/<\/a>
A class of students at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently learned that Jill Watson, the teacher\u20ac\u2122s assistant they\u20ac\u2122d been interacting with all semester, was actually a robot.
Jill, powered by IBM\u2019s Watson analytics system, helped graduate students in an online artificial intelligence course, according to The Wall Street Journal.
\u00e2\u20acit seemed very much like a normal conversation with a human being,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d one student said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was flabbergasted,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d confessed another.
Professor Ashok Goel, who led the online course, told The Wall Street Journal that Jill was designed to help burdened TAs field an onslaught of questions from the 300-person class. While students seemed to be more amused than outraged by the revelation, some say it sets a bad precedent.
\u00e2\u20acwe should have full disclosure: Am I talking to a machine or to a person?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Oren E-zine, CEO of Seattle\u20ac\u2122s Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal story.<\/p>\n<\/p> \n\n
Recently you wrote, concerning Donald Trump, “he is unlikely appoint Justices who think the Constitution is a scrap of paper.” I would be less disturbed at the prospect of a Trump presidency if you could point me toward evidence of that.
I see nothing in his remarks which leads me to think he cares anything about the Constitution whatever. The tenor of his assertions seems to be that he’ll carry everything out through executive fiat. To me, he looks like exactly the sort of demagogue arising from a corrupted democracy which you’ve warned about for years; what do you see in him that makes him look different from this to you?
Yours,
Allan E. Johnson <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p> \n<\/p> <\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>\n<\/p> <\/p>\n![\"clip_image002[4]\"](\"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/clip_image0024.jpg\" "\\"clip_image002[4]\\"")
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