flametitan

Not Orange enough.

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine? I looked it up and It’s a milk flavouring thing. It is an American thing, I don’t know if I’ve seen stores carry it here.

Tyrphanax said:

flametitan said:

Tyrphanax said:

https://scout.ai/story/the-rise-of-the-weaponized-ai-propaganda-machine

By leveraging automated emotional manipulation alongside swarms of bots, Facebook dark posts, A/B testing, and fake news networks, a company called Cambridge Analytica has activated an invisible machine that preys on the personalities of individual voters to create large shifts in public opinion. Many of these technologies have been used individually to some effect before, but together they make up a nearly impenetrable voter manipulation machine that is quickly becoming the new deciding factor in elections around the world.

Most recently, Analytica helped elect U.S. President Donald Trump, secured a win for the Brexit Leave campaign, and led Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign surge, shepherding him from the back of the GOP primary pack to the front.

The company is owned and controlled by conservative and alt-right interests that are also deeply entwined in the Trump administration. The Mercer family is both a major owner of Cambridge Analytica and one of Trump’s biggest donors. Steve Bannon, in addition to acting as Trump’s Chief Strategist and a member of the White House Security Council, is a Cambridge Analytica board member. Until recently, Analytica’s CTO was the acting CTO at the Republican National Convention.

Really fascinating article, especially in the light of the massive influx of fake/bot accounts following popular Twitter accounts today, one being Trumpy.

Take everything you see on the Internet with a big grain of salt, folks. Especially on social media. They might have started out with good intentions, but they pretty much now exist to sell the user and push narratives.

So will Cambridge Analytica become the new Illuminati style conspiracy group in a few decades?

Not that the existence of this thing doesn’t sound mildly terrifying. I’m really hoping they overplayed the influence this thing has.

It’s definitely an alarmist article, but keeping an eye on the evolution of the technology and having knowledge that we’re constantly being manipulated online is very important.

Aye. Seeing where the world is going is nice. (It’s just too bad that it’s going in a direction of selling personal information in order to manipulate markets)

Tyrphanax said:

https://scout.ai/story/the-rise-of-the-weaponized-ai-propaganda-machine

By leveraging automated emotional manipulation alongside swarms of bots, Facebook dark posts, A/B testing, and fake news networks, a company called Cambridge Analytica has activated an invisible machine that preys on the personalities of individual voters to create large shifts in public opinion. Many of these technologies have been used individually to some effect before, but together they make up a nearly impenetrable voter manipulation machine that is quickly becoming the new deciding factor in elections around the world.

Most recently, Analytica helped elect U.S. President Donald Trump, secured a win for the Brexit Leave campaign, and led Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign surge, shepherding him from the back of the GOP primary pack to the front.

The company is owned and controlled by conservative and alt-right interests that are also deeply entwined in the Trump administration. The Mercer family is both a major owner of Cambridge Analytica and one of Trump’s biggest donors. Steve Bannon, in addition to acting as Trump’s Chief Strategist and a member of the White House Security Council, is a Cambridge Analytica board member. Until recently, Analytica’s CTO was the acting CTO at the Republican National Convention.

Really fascinating article, especially in the light of the massive influx of fake/bot accounts following popular Twitter accounts today, one being Trumpy.

Take everything you see on the Internet with a big grain of salt, folks. Especially on social media. They might have started out with good intentions, but they pretty much now exist to sell the user and push narratives.

So will Cambridge Analytica become the new Illuminati style conspiracy group in a few decades?

Not that the existence of this thing doesn’t sound mildly terrifying. I’m really hoping they overplayed the influence this thing has.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Just came back from my walk. I saw a muskrat.

I’m doing a lot of StarCraft chats while browsing this forum and read that as Mutalisk. I was going to ask how the hell did you see one going for a walk.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I must admit, I don’t mind mushy cereal. In fact, some types of cereal are best eaten mushy (shredded wheat, for instance).

Mind, it’s difficult to eat Shredded Wheat dry. (If you’re talking about the one I’m thinking of, where it’s a giant hay bale instead of the tiny chunks most cereal is made up of)

TV’s Frink said:

Ok, now I know what universe you are in, but no idea what planet you are talking about. I don’t see any site update, and the discussions page goes to the main forum page like it has for months (at least) now.

JEDIT: Ok I see clicking on the logo now goes to Discussions instead of the previous homepage, which is now gone.

Yeah, they got rid of the news page, which was the page I had bookmarked. I’m still trying to get used to the fact I no longer have to switch out of it.

Site update. I keep trying to go to the discussions page, forgetting that it’s now the home page essentially.

Does anyone else have muscle memory issues trying to switch out of the now nonexistent news tab?

This will be fun. I can’t wait to see what it ends up looking like.

suspiciouscoffee said:

Yikes.

I’ve wanted him to stop working on these movies for a while now, but not like this. Poor guy.

I always thought his movies were overly dark and edgy, but ouch. I hope this incident doesn’t impact his personal life too much beyond this.

EDIT: Proper pronoun use. I almost implied that his edgy movies were the cause of this tragedy.

If you have to ask if it’s too much, then it might just be too much.

I’m sure you’ve already heard by now, but apparently Kylo is becoming a popular choice for baby names.

Cedric T Sealion said:

Any big anniversaries coming up in the next 7 days?

I know Star Wars Insider will put out their next issue by then. Apparently it’s about the 20th Anniversary of the Special Editions.

😦

As somebody from BC, could you please let Vancouver win for once? It’s frustrating to hear the Canuks fans complaining about it every year.

Is this the thread to compliment Frink’s avatar, or should I look at the New thread Thread to see if talking about other people’s avatars (not your own) exists already?

SilverWook said:

What the heck is a PCI standard host CPU bridge, and why would Windows 7 suddenly install it when I booted up this morning?

It’s some driver for… something. From what I can tell, it’s to help talk to something on the motherboard, but I’m having no luck finding the specifics; maybe it’s to talk to the actual PCI slots.

DuracellEnergizer said:

“Wow. Such thread. So politic.”

Forum politics are politics too!

I like the aesthetic of boxy 80’s/90’s technology (I’m mixed on boxy vehicles, though), but I personally wouldn’t want to live then. It wouldn’t be to kind to people like me.

SilverWook said:

Freeze dried food makes sense for emergency rations stored in the belly of an X-Wing for long periods of time.

I wonder if they have the same in universe reputation as modern MREs do?

So would I be a true neutral? as long as it’s purist in either axis, I’m fine. i.e. I can be a structurally purist rebel or a ingredient purist rebel, but not a full rebel or full purist.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Haarspalter said:

Or like a treat for dogs.

Seriously, all the food that came in Luke’s kit looks like dog food. Dog food and vitamins.

They’re clearly the Instant Bread Rey has, just portioned down even smaller for exact nutritional control.

(Incidentally, I wonder what would happen if you tried to eat one of those breads dry.)

joefavs said:

I always thought Luke’s Dagobah food was a Twix bar when I was a kid.

I thought it was a Breakfast Sausage until just now.

I mean, I could see a comment on how we basically have to bootleg the OOT in order to watch it, though I’m not sure if that’s the best way to describe the fan preservations (though I’m sure that’s how they’d legally be seen)

Something alon the lines of "Why is it that the only way to watch it is to bootleg it?

Lord Haseo said:

A five year old could follow the plot of Rogue One. I know they don’t like the film but damn…

I’ll admit my first couple times through I didn’t understand why they had to blow a hole in the shield gate when Bodhi could get a signal to the Rebel Fleet no problem, but there is an explanation. If you have it on Blu-Ray, you can take the time to rewatch a given scene to get a better idea of what’s going on for your commentary.

(The data files are too big to get through the shield, or something, but the smaller communications from Bodhi wasn’t big enough to be blocked. I don’t like that explanation, but it exists.)