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DoorDash drivers game algorithm to increase pay - BNN Bloomberg
by Russell Reiter 12 Apr '21

12 Apr '21

As cyber awareness continues to permiate all layers of society, game theory has a real world practicality for marginalized workers. "Dashers" game "Tonys Casino". A tip is a UML construct, TIP To Insure Prompt (service). In the hospitality industry only the Maître d'hôtel received the tip in advance. It was a handshake transfer, flying under the equitable doctrine of "first come first served". It was done by wealthy people in order to jump the que and get the best combination of table and server, while the rest of the reservations lineup waited their turn. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/businessweek/doordash-drivers-game-algorithm-to… Russell

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ConnectTO: assemble a coalition to bid on municipally-owned fiber
by tfnl-connectto-discuss＠torfree.net 10 Apr '21

10 Apr '21

The City of Toronto is developing a pilot project, ConnectTO, to provide gigabit, fiber-to-the-premises Internet, in neighbourhoods most impacted by COVID-19. If the pilot succeeds, the city will consider expansion. The city seeks outside parties to build and run this network. We want to see this initiative succeed and grow to become a credit to our city. We want this network to respect privacy, follow standards, and deliver multi-gigabit speeds at affordable prices to everyone. We are assembling a coalition of civic-minded groups and individuals. Our aim is to work together, gather the community's collective wisdom, pool resources, and, together, bid to run the city's network. Interested? Contact us: tfnl-connectto-discuss(a)torfree.net 416 204 9257 www.torfree.net Or join our teleconference, this coming Thursday at 7 pm: when: Thu 15 Apr 2021 19:00 where: zoom meeting ID: 86145956197 passcode: 590781 by web browser: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86145956197?pwd=OU9xQTMzRmNLWlRzSlB1V2t6dkdQZz09 by telephone: 647 374 4685 647 558 0588 Some background information: The City of Toronto's plans for ConnectTO. * http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2021.EX20.8 * https://www.toronto.ca/news/connectto-program-aims-to-increase-digital-equi… * https://www.toronto.ca/news/city-council-approves-program-to-increase-acces… The 2008 sale of Toronto Hydro's fiber. The city has entered this world before: in the early 2000s, Toronto Hydro laid ~400 km of fiber in the downtown core. Toronto Hydro was then instructed to sell off those assets. The fiber was purchased by a commercial Internet provider in 2008. * https://corpo.cogeco.com/cca/en/press-room/press-releases/cogeco-cable-acqu… Toronto Free-Net's aims. We believe that a city's Internet infrastructure, whether underground or aerial, should be considered a utility, like tap water and sewers. Fiber plant and backhaul should be kept under democratic control and run with an open, transparent, not-for-profit mindset. We want to ensure that: * gigabit speeds to the premises finally become a reality across Toronto. * prices are kept proportional to real costs, not inflated artificially. * a basic level of access is provided to all, at a nominal or zero price, so that Internet-based services, essential to daily life, are always reachable, even by the most disadvantaged. * the network is not absorbed by commercial, monopoly interests. * private communications (Internet traffic) are respected, not monetized nor infringed in other ways. * open, standardized protocols are obeyed, not gamed for competitive advantage. We also want to: * Strengthen citizens and organizations who want a free, open, transparent Internet -- nurture their capabilities and foster communication and cooperation. * Inspire the public to treat the online world and the technological infrastructure which enables it as a public commons, essential to Canadian democracy, rather than as mere products, obtained through commercial transactions. Who we are. Toronto Free-Net is a non-profit and Toronto's oldest surviving Internet provider, founded in 1993. EOF

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Google wins over Oracle in Java API copyright suit
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 09 Apr '21

09 Apr '21

Oracle sued Google, claiming Android infringed Oracle's patents on Java. Somehow. That failed. So they sued for copyright infringement based on the copying of the API declarations. The computer community had been very scared that APIs could be copyrighted, something nobody had expected. The US Supreme Court decided that this particular case came under "fair use". and was no infringement. This was NOT a general decision about APIs. This is very good news of Free Software. And consumers. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210405/09243546552/supreme-court-sides-…

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Surveillance Capitalism [was another thread]
by Russell Reiter 08 Apr '21

08 Apr '21

Red Hat has just dropped its Free Software Foundation funding and support. Now that Red Hat is pretty well owned by IBM, wouldn't you like to ask all those people, how far back in IBM's own history of misdeeds; notwithstanding rumors, innuendo and just plain gossip; the rest of us should look when judging the actions of others. I sure would. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust Stallman was outspoken about surveillance capitalisim and WSL. Those are big cages to rattle with one tiny tin cup. Just in case you don't think an NGO is capable of such insider machinations. I highly recommend the following book which has a pretty good evaluation of how the powers that be; leveraged trends, NGO (charity) connections and industry (read IBM) influences which gave Bill Gates his silver spoon running head start with MS DOS. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2760759-the-making-of-microsoft Don't even get me started on WSL as an organized plan to disrupt linux freedom. Engage Encompass and Eradicate are proven techniques of imperialism and capitalisim. I think Red Hats "Woke Spoke" is Broke on this one, but with all that IBM money behind them, they will break this one guy out of the big picture, just because they can. Russell

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Re: [GTALUG] Has the graphics-card world gone mad?
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 08 Apr '21

08 Apr '21

| From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> | [GTALUG] Has the graphics-card world gone mad? Yes. For example, I've bought a couple ofAMD rx570-class video cards over the last two or three years. Each with 8G of RAM. $200 each, roughly. I recently saw a used one being offered for $500! These are obsolete! I ask the vendor if he was serious; he replied "yes, look at other folks prices." Insanity. The common wisdom (until the chip shortage became a meme) was that a lot of people in the US took their covid stimulus cheques and spent them on upgrading their rigs. I have no idea if this is a too-good-to-fact-check story or it is reality. There did seem to be a disruption in the shipping between Asia and North America, but video cards are so high price / mass ratio that that should not be a problem. Mining has gone crazy again. It's so crazy that apparently even less-than-optimal cards are being grabbed. But I don't actually know if this is just a myth. Perceived shortage brings on hoarding. That's going on for sure. Everyone building video cards wants to use TSMC's 7nm process. There's a bottleneck for sure. It should be possible to build mid-range GPUs with 10nm, 12nm or 14nm, I would think. | I made the mistake that I might want to upgrade my video card. I have a | Radeon RX 550 that is struggling to drive two 4K screens. It works, but | plenty of flickering under both Linux and Windows. Do you really mean flickering? Or to you mean laggy image updates. I would have thought that the card could do rock-solid 60Hz refresh but might have trouble updating the contents of the frame buffer in a timely fashion. My desktop use of a monitor has mostly static stuff so frame buffer updates need not be very quick. My use of a TV set to view streaming contents would get very annoying if the frame buffer updates were laggy. I use an AndroidTV box for streaming TV. Processor iGPUs are getting better. Perhaps a new processor's iGPU would be good enough and might not be bid up as much. Intel Xe seems really impressive (in 11th gen Core chips). AMD APUs might be good enough. It all depends on what you are really trying to do. You have the floor tomorrow. Perhaps a discussion on this would be interesting. | These don't strike me as cards powerful enough to do coin mining. Why are | they so rare and expensive? Is it the global chip shortage or something | else? And does anyone have an idea how long we'll have to wait this out ... | or how I can tune my card to support the screens? "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." -- John Maynard Keynes Nobody knows. I've often found panics have been used to set people's expectation of pricing. I.e. prices will stick higher. Perhaps not at peak prices, but higher than previous prices. --- Post to this mailing list talk(a)gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

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Cert Advisory FortiOS APT
by Russell Reiter 08 Apr '21

08 Apr '21

The advisory says even if your org doesn't use the os you should apply mitigations. https://siliconangle.com/2021/04/04/hackers-actively-targeting-fortios-vuln… -- Russell

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RMS on britannica.com
by Russell Reiter 07 Apr '21

07 Apr '21

I stumbled across this. I think it's concise and well written. Cuts through the fud pretty well. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Stallman https://www.britannica.com/technology/C-computer-programming-language -- Russell

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IBM DITTO def.
by Russell Reiter 05 Apr '21

05 Apr '21

Sorry about a previous attestation error, on another topic IBM DITTO is Data Interfile Testing and Transfer Object https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=DD&subtype=SM&h… Russell “Th’ newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward.” F. P. Dunne

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Re: [GTALUG] SCO Linux FUD returns from the dead | ZDNet
by James Knott 04 Apr '21

04 Apr '21

On 2021-04-04 11:41 a.m., ac via talk wrote: > seems real, Docket No. 21 cv 31, US District Court of the Virgin Islands > but could also just be some free marketing, a stunt etc.... Courts tend to frown on that sort of thing, especially since this matter was resolved years ago, in the Supreme Court, IIRC.

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SCO Linux FUD returns from the dead | ZDNet
by James Knott 04 Apr '21

04 Apr '21

The zombie has arisen again! https://www.zdnet.com/article/sco-linux-fud-returns-from-the-dead/

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