Tag Archives: Mike Reeves-McMillan

Jan 23

Now there’s a cunning scheme.

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Now there’s a cunning scheme. Preferentially hire people you can pay less, not because they’re less capable, but because they’re historically underpaid.

Originally shared by Judah Richardson

In the OFCCP’s second amended complaint today, the office alleges Oracle “impermissibly denies equal employment opportunity to non-Asian applicants for employment, strongly preferring a workforce that it can later underpay. Once employed, women, Blacks and Asians are systematically underpaid relative to their peers,” the complaint alleges.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/22/oracle-discrimination-400-million/
Jan 22

You can get a basic drone for a few hundred dollars, a good one for about a thousand, one that will follow a…

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You can get a basic drone for a few hundred dollars, a good one for about a thousand, one that will follow a cellphone (to act as a camera platform) for a little more.

There hasn’t been consistent regulation, and what there has been is relatively easily ignored; they aren’t hard to build from cheap parts, which gets around any “geofencing” restrictions on where they can fly, for example (even without hacking the commercial versions, which isn’t that hard).

They can’t fly especially fast or carry very much weight, but they could be turned into weapons despite that, and even without weapons they can (demonstrably) sow fear and confusion disproportionate to their cost.

You can defend against them, but so far, people haven’t been, particularly, even though drone attacks are a pretty predictable occurrence.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

Are We Ready for a Sky Full of Drones? Recent Airport Attacks Say No https://suhub.co/2QZ3lxT

https://suhub.co/2R3PAhn

Jan 20

“It looks like you’re trying to live life in the 21st century. Would you like some help with that?”

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“It looks like you’re trying to live life in the 21st century. Would you like some help with that?”

https://singularityhub.com/2019/01/15/the-rise-of-a-new-generation-of-ai-avatars/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=eblast&utm_campaign=fy19q1-xthinkers&utm_content=January-week-3&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWWpSbE1UaGpOemN4WlRVMCIsInQiOiJuT0tQaXJBb201dUhpcDZFa2h4eFFQbzFOQ3BMWjQya0dUVjEzYlQ3S01YMEROZnNsYW0yZGx2dVJ6WHdFRVdRVFZZbEdMZEhqYzhHUGZWTEJPXC9vaEhGNjRYSnRNNDI0MHdZbEc4MXhGMXQxcFBmWWdxXC9JNzhYRDFGeDVoRWErIn0%3D

Jan 19

The smartphone has as good a display as there’s any point in making for it, given the limits of human vision.

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The smartphone has as good a display as there’s any point in making for it, given the limits of human vision. But if you could put a screen closer to your eye with the maximum visual precision possible, you could surround yourself with huge virtual screens.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/15/how-the-new-vr-screen-could-end-the-smartphone/

Jan 19

Not even all the way through January, and already three entries on my list for the best of 2019.

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Not even all the way through January, and already three entries on my list for the best of 2019. (Note: two of them are not yet published; I read ARCs from Netgalley.)

The Philosopher’s War, sequel to the book that took my top spot in 2017, is urban fantasy in World War I with a conflicted and relatable main character.

The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie’s first fantasy novel, is (of course) extremely well executed, odd, and disturbing, not least in what it does with narrative expectations.

Tess of the Road, a new series in the same world in which Rachel Hartmann set the wonderful Seraphina, won’t be to everyone’s taste (not that the other two will either); it’s a long, slow book in which the inner journey is more important than the outer journey, and in which the protagonist starts out unpromising. I found it worth sticking with.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/941876-mike?page=1&shelf=2019-years-best&view=list

Jan 17

Neuroscience is progressing at a rapid rate, and if we want our mid-future SF to be credible we need to be aware of…

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Neuroscience is progressing at a rapid rate, and if we want our mid-future SF to be credible we need to be aware of the advances.

https://singularityhub.com/2019/01/17/5-discoveries-that-made-2018-a-huge-year-for-neuroscience/?utm_content=buffer131f4&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_source=googleplus-hub&utm_campaign=buffer

Jan 17

Ohio in 2018. Outright, blatant, pervasive racism. Not even a little bit subtle.

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Ohio in 2018. Outright, blatant, pervasive racism. Not even a little bit subtle.

Originally shared by Judah Richardson

All those allegations are detailed in a lawsuit filed against GM in which eight workers say managers at the Toledo Powertrain plant did little or nothing to stop racism.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/16/us/gm-toledo-racism-lawsuit/index.html