The Death of the Mind

Few things are harder to start than a narrative of the thing you “do” and what all the ramifications of it are. For people who don’t make it the center of their lives, your thing is already hopelessly complicated and gaining enough of a foothold to feign interest is olympic-level effort. For people who do make it the center, your description fills them with a never-abating dread that you’re going to get the explanation “wrong”, or that you’re going to give the Outsiders a bad impression. So let’s begin at the beginning, again. My parents’ divorce, taking place in the realm of the beginning of the 1980s, was not in any way friendly and in fact…

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What’s being presented by ShotSpotter as good news for people who feel they’ve been wrongly accused, doesn’t actually appear to be all that comforting.
ShotSpotter’s mic tech and AI combine forces to report possible gunshots to law enforcement customers. It’s very hit or miss, he said with all possible puns intended. ShotSpotter says it’s nearly 100% accurate and can play an important part in reducing gun crime.
Actual customers say something else:

A 2013 investigation of the effectiveness of ShotSpotter in Newark, New Jersey revealed that from 2010 to 2013, the system’s sensors alerted police 3,632 times, but only led to 17 actual arrests. According to the investigation, 75% of the gunshot alerts were false alarms.

97% accuracy? Not what…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/02/01/shotspotter-employees-not-only-have-the-power-to-alter-gunshot-reports-but-do-it-nearly-10-of-the-time/

There is a PostgreSQL major release every year, and every release has
about 200 changes listed
in the release notes. A handful of those are typically listed at the
top as “major items”, which are highlighted for the benefit of the
public. Sometimes, a feature that was not highlighted as major turns out later
to have a significant impact. Consider these features that flew under
the radar at the time: PostgreSQL 9.4: replication slots This is the one that always comes to my mind when I think back about “hidden gems”. At the time perhaps not fully understood, replication slots are now absolutely essential for any replication setup. PostgreSQL 9.5: pg_rewind pg_rewind existed as an external project outside…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/5Aj

Hopefully, you already know who Tom Lehrer is, and are already familiar with his music, but if you’re somehow in the dark, I suggest you read this excellent profile, or visit his unofficial official YouTube channel. Or, visit his website where you can download everything for free (he even begs you not to send him money).
We’ve written about Lehrer twice before, both regarding his views on effectively releasing his music in the public domain. Back in 2014, we wrote about how a fan had basically put all of his works on YouTube, and then contacted Lehrer to apologize. Lehrer told him there was nothing to apologize for: he was glad the works were out there. The…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/26/tom-lehrer-puts-whatever-he-hadnt-already-donated-to-the-public-domain-into-the-public-domain/

Having pushed Israeli politics to the right during his 15 years of premiership, Netanyahu will now head the most right-wing government in Israel’s 75-year history.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/26/nakv-d26.html

Socialist New York City councilor Tiffany Cabán recently introduced legislation requiring “just cause” for firing workers. We spoke to a labor law scholar about why scrapping “at-will” employment would bring a major measure of democracy to the workplace.
Under the existing “at-will” employment regime, most workers in the United States could be fired tomorrow for any reason, without explanation. (E. F. Joseph / Anthony Potter Collection / Getty Images) In the United States, we often take for granted the immense power our employers have over us. Consider, for instance, the fact that your boss could fire you tomorrow for absolutely no reason. Didn’t get a hearing to defend yourself? What about…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobin.com/2022/12/at-will-employment-just-cause-nyc-caban/

It was back in July 2021 that Haiku R1 Beta 3 was released for this spiritual successor to the BeOS operating system. Now before Christmas and closing out 2022, Haiku R1 Beta 4 has been released as the latest major milestone for this open-source operating system effort…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Haiku-R1-Beta-4