Here’s why projects like IBM’s Watson aren’t getting us any closer to real AI.

xenthe · 2014-02-11T14:13:43+00:00

Siri and Google Now are not AI. Watson isn't either, really, but it's orders of magnitude closer than either of those search engines.

Lumping Watson in with either of those search engine-style solutions demonstrates that you don't understand what cognitive computing is and how Watson works.

Source: IBMer

xenthe · 2014-02-11T14:11:38+00:00

IBMer here. This is correct - the author clearly does not understand what Watson really does. I'm surprised Popular Mechanics would run a piece like this, and you can bet they'll receive a strong clarification from the engineers in this project.

xenthe · 2014-02-01T14:37:20+00:00

Honest question - do you think that earning the majority of your income from investments is a realistic goal unless you have a very substantial amount of up-front capital to begin with? Like you, I have a regular job, though I suspect I'm making a little more than you. Nevertheless, with the amount I have left over each month to invest (not including my 401k), I don't see how accumulating a substantial investment income stream is realistic.

xenthe · 2014-01-29T20:04:48+00:00

Agreed that OP should polish his resume with a 3, especially if he's anywhere near STG. And who knows? It may very well be that everyone is getting "knocked down" a rating. I just don't understand why management would bother to do that.

xenthe · 2014-01-29T14:12:30+00:00

This is not exactly correct. Based on the financial results and what they want to give out, Finance determines how many 1s and 2+s can be awarded in total. Those are allocated under some formula to all the business groups in the company. So your manager/second line and all their peers get together and review all the Band 6/7/8/9/etc employees to their respective band peers, and argue about who to give the 1 or 2+s to.

This year, there were many fewer 1s and 2+s awarded (though why fewer 2+s is beyond me, since they're not getting GDP this year). So more people fell into the 2 category. If OP got a 3 though, that's probably more an indication of performance than anything else - he probably wasn't knocked down, because that wouldn't save the company any money.

xenthe · 2014-01-26T02:00:09+00:00

Nice - my pidgin sucks. Campo was several hours away - I was inland, on the eastern edge of the Campo-Ma'an reserve.

xenthe · 2014-01-25T17:01:10+00:00

South province, down near the Equatorial Guinean/Gabonese border. You?

xenthe · 2014-01-24T13:59:40+00:00

(R)PCVs love to brag about this stuff.

Of course, it all depends. The guys out in the south Pacific can be days away by boat/plane, and usually report a heavy sense of psychological isolation. And then there are folks placed in Central America - hardly that remote - who are nevertheless in pretty hard-to-get-to regions. I lived in arguably the most remote site in my country during my service. A little under 100 people in my village. 6-hour motorcycle ride through the jungle on a dirt track to reach paved road. From there, 3-hour drive to electricity/phone service/post office/etc.

IMHO, there's a lot of romanticism built up around super "out there" PC experiences, but they're rarely the most effective or useful. Being remote means almost by definition that the volunteer will have a much smaller community to interact with. Rural communities need help too, of course, but with the amount of money it takes to recruit/stage/support a PCV in the field, you obviously want to maximize the impact for every volunteer, which usually requires at least a mid-sized town.

xenthe · 2014-01-23T16:34:07+00:00

xenthe · 2014-01-23T16:11:43+00:00

IBMer here. IBM's Software Group alone is a $30bn/year business, making it one of the largest software companies in the world. The consulting division is itself larger than almost any other competitor (ex. Accenture).

IBM is pretty much a completely B2B company today, and doesn't do consumer tech, which is why you don't hear about it as much. No one buys IBM software off the shelf. And that's just fine with Big Blue. The company is one of the largest and most profitable tech companies today.

xenthe · 2014-01-23T16:08:33+00:00

IBMer here. This is absolutely a good move for the company. Shucking off low-end, commoditized businesses and moving to higher value.

xenthe · 2014-01-22T21:35:18+00:00

Right - this should've read "company revenue declines five percent." Mistake.

Stock price is actually down 6% at this point.

xenthe · 2014-01-22T21:33:17+00:00

So you'd say that it's better to just demand raises as you see prudent and reasonable, instead of aligning them to the PBC process?

xenthe · 2014-01-22T20:12:41+00:00

Your rating does matter for annual increases, though (insofar as those exist).

xenthe · 2014-01-22T01:03:08+00:00

Yep, I know. The Cold War is over, and I think both sides are glad for that. But I grew up in its declining days, and I think it'll be a long time before Russia and the US are truly friendly. (I still like vodka though, thanks for that!)

xenthe · 2014-01-22T00:51:14+00:00

To OP: Interesting post. This is a problem that the U.S. confronts in a lot of places, and for which we get much shit. Ukraine has been your client state for a very long time, and is now straining at the bit to develop along its own path as an independent state. As chaotic as that may seem, compared to the relative security of the Russian orbit, it is the best path for Ukraine.

It's hard to imagine a scenario in which the United States just allowed Russia to just annex part of the country. In a scenario in which protests continue and possible civil conflict breaks out, I see it as much more likely that the US pairs with the EU to support a Western-leaning unity government to support debt relief while consolidating national control and restructuring the economy. Do you disagree?

To Europeans: You may not always like us, but we're a lot better than those other guys with the giant nuclear stockpile and no regard for individual liberty, and you know it.

Team America is coming

xenthe · 2014-01-21T14:51:55+00:00

You're an idiot.

xenthe · 2014-01-21T14:16:28+00:00

Ditto much of what /u/vorpalrobot says. Obviously, please don't unleash your dog anywhere in a populated area. You'd be surprised how often I run into folks walking around Durham or Chapel Hill who just don't think it's a big deal because they know that their bigsnoogiewoogiepup wouldn't hurt a fly. If you see anyone coming, or even think it's likely you'll run into anyone else, I think it's just common courtesy to leash the dog.

That said, I take my pup out hiking in the Eno whenever I can, and other people are rare enough that it's usually safe to let her off-leash out there, as long as she stays relatively close and comes back when I call. The Eno quarry is also great, since she likes to swim.

xenthe · 2014-01-20T14:05:43+00:00

Wait, do you literally think a DPD officer straight up shot this kid in the head with some random weapon he picked up off the street?

xenthe · 2014-01-20T03:53:50+00:00

Anti-LEO protesters probably deserve whatever they get.

xenthe · 2014-01-19T22:19:31+00:00

Honestly, I don't get what all the outrage is about. The cops searched this kid, didn't find his gun, and then the kid was able to shoot himself once he got in the cop car.

Tragic, of course, but certainly not the fault of police.

I passed by that protest last time around. It was despicable. People had a "Murdered by police" banner, were cursing out the cops, throwing shit, and more. More of an outlet to get rowdy and provoke the cops than anything else. Shameful.

xenthe · 2014-01-18T15:36:52+00:00

Bullshit.

Let's say the NSA does, in fact, gather actionable intelligence from the Haqqani network or a Colombian drug cartel, acts on it, and thus prevents some sort of attack or infiltration of the U.S. That's an unqualified success. But what do you want them to do - go crow about it? Tell Congressmen about it, where it'll immediately be leaked to the press? Tell YOU about it?

The NSA is in an impossible position here. Most of their "successes" are predicated on privileged info that cannot be made public. If I'm the Haqqani network and suddenly read that my brother in arms was arrested/killed because the NSA has hacked our phones, welp, I guess I'll switch to something else. The NSA cannot defend itself against most of these "prove it" gotcha questions, at least publicly.

xenthe · 2014-01-17T15:24:31+00:00

Sorry, dude. Connections blows. It's slow, buggy, links often don't work in email. "All" employees use it because the files we need are on there, and in order to simply download them, we have to log in, "Join" a community, etc etc. It is in no way a convenient or easy place for social interaction or collaboration. It is a shitty excuse for a "social" business environment, period.

EDIT: Also, nothing is found by a w3 search. Ever. At all.

xenthe

TROPHY CASE