Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • December 5, 2022 11:58 AM

@ Bruce, ALL,

My first “fist itching” thought when seeing this is,

“The A.I. is not”

Then

“Is the A.I. fcking with me?”

At which point I click to get the next image, or just go do something else.

In fact more recently I’ve fine tuned my response, to,

“If captcha shows, click on close, then say 1…”

Strangely it appears to work every time… The browser window disappears and I go do something else for a while. If I try again later often the captcha does not come back. If it does then I say “2”…

The worst offenders for this captcha nonsense is supprisingly not Google, but a well known major supplier of network inftastructure…

I figure if people are stupid enough to use Cloudflare, then they very probably don’t actually know what they are doing, so what they have to say very probably is not going to realy be of interest to me, and there is always going to be somebody else that can tell me, that is not so stupid…

I’ve the same policy with “paywalls” and other dumb-hass obstacles rent seeking collectors throw down.

If we all did this then the message would get around fairly quickly and apart from the next level of morons who are so despetate to go bankrupt they don’t learn, then they would find other techniques or just stop doing it.

Clive Robinson • December 5, 2022 2:44 PM

@ Aaron, ALL,

Re : The implosion goes on.

“The system is backwards!”

True enough.

But…

Now you know how the VC / Angels / money men in big Corp Silicon Valley not just think but behave…

So “Meltdown 1.0” is now up and running on track…

The only question is will it,

1, “Hiss down” like a punctured bycical tyre?

2, “Blarp down” like a Whoopy Cusion under a mastadon?

3, “Blow appart” like a pricked ballon?

Answers on a post card to “The only way is down boys… Care of the three balls, pawn shop…” as Social media may not be there when you try…

On the upside, the number of ICT jobs is apparently still rising even though we are now into December…

Clive Robinson • December 5, 2022 5:28 PM

@ Wulf,

Re : Mary Shelly wrote “The Modern Prometheus” in 1818

“the correct answer would be the professor.”

Err no…

In Mary Shelley’s novel also called “Frankenstein” she tells the story of “Doctor” Victor Frankenstein. As in medical doctor (PhDs did not happen in England untill about a century later if memory serves correctly).

The title Professor from the German for “teacher” did not come to England untill some years later. In fact as I mentioned a couple of days back the term “Scientist” did not come about for another decade and a half.

Those who taught in universities back then were usually ordained Ministers, and called Master or Doctor as an honerific not by award. Medical Doctors or lawyers who had often taken religious orders as well would have a degree in medicine, canon law or civil law and very occasionally a Masters Degree usually only if they were ordained already (one of those wgo broke that mold was Charlse Dodgeson who you might know by his pen name “Lewis Carol” of “Alice in Wonderland”).

Those who later were called scientists had started as Gentlemen of “independent means” who were “Natural Philosophers” which is also what a teaching chair at a University would be named.

The PhD in the modern sense arived in England about a year before the end of Great War (~1917). Via the USA, where it had arived in the 1860’s from Germany and to a certain extent France.

In England although a Doctorate in Philosophy was popular with foreign students, many English scientists remained content with their Masters degrees up untill the end of WWII. If you look up Fred Hoyle he had quite a bit to say on the subject[1].

(If you want to know more you’ll have to look it up in various places the Bodleian Library in Oxford University from memory holds some interesting documents as do some of the other University libraries).

[1] Fred Hoyle though charming enough in his own way, could be very blunt and cantankerous at times and held some matter of fact “social views” that made him quite unpopular “in the community”. Many have indicated that it was his views on women in science that stopped him getting a Nobel Prize. His then strong views would be seen as quite moderate these days in that he was pro-women in science and got quite upset over the LGM issue and the attempt to write a mere woman, Jocelyn Bell Burnell the actual discoverer out of it’s history… As for thr man that took credit from her… Well few remember his name.

Clive Robinson • December 6, 2022 5:12 AM

@ Tariq, ALL,

Re : New Darwinism

“All of that high-stakes nonsense, for what?”

“Evolution baby”

If you can not do it you are “not fit” to be part of the “gene pool”.

But rather than just “cancel your stamp” quickly and painlessly, your stress levrls are incrrased, such that your health is compromised, and that means more money for insurers, who you can not afford now.

Then they “send in the crows” to pick over your fiscal corpse to strip out assets and force debt upon your children so they too can be stripped…

You are not one of the 1% of the 1% so you are unworthy to be anything other than worked to an early death for them… After all you will not be alowed to retire, and if you have children, their education will also asset strip you…

You can not win this way… So,

“Vote for a lizard, in case the wrong lizard gets in…”