October | 2024 | Steve Woods

Torvalds ignores AI hype

30/10/2024 Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

Linus Torvalds, the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel, has been speaking about Artificial Intelligence, according to The Register; and he’s not impressed by what he has witnessed to date.

Speaking at the Open Source Summit in Vienna last month, Torvalds was asked for his views on modern technologies, specifically Generative Artificial Intelligence, usually abbreviated to GenAI.

His reply included the following remarks:

“I think AI is really interesting and I think it is going to change the world and at the same time I hate the hype cycle so much that I really don’t want to go there, so my approach to AI right now is I will basically ignore it.

I think the whole tech industry around AI is in a very bad position and it’s 90 percent marketing and ten percent reality and in five years things will change and at that point we’ll see what of the AI is getting used for real workloads.

His remarks about the hype cycle are particularly relevant. Those with very long memories will remember the Dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early two thousands, while those with less of a broad sweep of time may recall the more recent episode of overwhelming enthusiasm generated by the marketing of so-called cloud computing, about which the FSFE was particularly blunt in its opinion (posts passim) – just other people’s computers.
Councillor-sized bins in BS5

29/10/2024 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

Yesterday your ‘umble scribe was invited to take part in a site visit to Stapleton Road for councillors on the city council’s Environment & Sustainability Committee. Also in attendance were senior council officers, including the head of the Neighbourhood Enforcement Team, representatives of Bristol Waste Company (BWC) and Easton ward councillor Jenny Bartle. Unfortunately, only two of the members of the committee showed up, although one of those was its chair. 🙁

We took the best part of an hour to wander up and down a half kilometre section of Stapleton Road, during which some all-too familiar and depressing sights were seen, such as house clearances (right) and piles of trade waste outside closed down shops.

Both your ‘umble scribe and officers present pointed out that the area was afflicted by many interrelated problems, e.g. pavement parking by selfish motorists combined with fly-tipping makes using the footways impossible in places, particularly for those such as parent with prams and buggies, or the disabled.

However, BWC’s community engagement team used the opportunity to plan future visits and actions to help residents present their waste and recycling properly. We were also informed how fly-tips were ranked by priority for removal, as well as the special bag collection arrangements along Stapleton Road.

We also noted changes to the local street furniture, including the installation of councillor-sized bins to cope with the litter!

The new bins have appeared at junctions close to where takeaway food shops are concentrated on this section of Stapleton Road and it appears to be part of wider efforts to replace/upgrade litter bin provision across Bristol’s Easton and Lawrence Hill wards.
Tory shows how to be racist without using racist language

29/10/2024 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

The British refusal to discuss reparations at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government (Chogm) in Samoa (posts passim) is still having repercussions in national politics.

Both candidates for the Conservative Party leadership have now voiced their opinions on the matter.

Talking to the Telegraph, the Tories’ house magazine, the deeply unpleasant Kemi Badenoch has claimed British politicians are “too embarrassed” to oppose Britain paying reparations for slavery, which is a strange way of looking at the problem, as that is what Starmer has actually done. Moreover, Badenoch is now on record as saying: “I would not put my name to any document that mentioned reparations”.

However, Badenoch’s arrogance and lack of contrition for centuries of crimes against humanity committed in the name of the British empire is nothing compared with the arrogant ignorance and ignorant arrogance displayed by her rival for the Tory Party leadership, Robert ‘Honest Bob’ Jenrick.

As today’s Guardian reports, Honest Bob, who as immigration minister, infamously ordered murals of Disney characters be painted over at a children’s asylum centre, is now patronisingly stating that former British colonies “owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them”. In particular, writing in the Daily Mail, Jenrick stated as follows in the mode typical of apologists for the centuries of crimes against humanity perpetrated first in the name of England and then later on behalf of Great Britain/the Untied Kingdom*:

“The territories colonised by our empire were not advanced democracies. Many had been cruel, slave-trading powers. Some had never been independent. The British empire broke the long chain of violent tyranny as we came to introduce – gradually and imperfectly – Christian values.

You managed to leave out invasion, genocide, the introduction of infectious diseases against which the locals had no immunity, expropriation of land, the imposition of lines on maps by the colonisers that cut across traditional cultural, ethnic and religious divides, divide and rule policies, systematic theft, looting and other criminal acts, Mr Jenrick. This surprises me as your Wikipedia page alleges you are supposed to have a first class honours degree in history from St John’s College, Cambridge, although your correspondent notes that the current history course at St John’s does not – except in the broadest terms – mention either colonialism or decolonisation, the latter of which was a module for honours students I took as part of the political science element of my 1970s polytechnic modern languages degree.

I’m sorry to say this Robert, but the imposition of Christianity, the English legal system and cricket do not make up for all the misery the empire caused and you really should know better instead of indulging in the typical politician’s response to having an open – and in your case ignorant – mouth to any subject.

Your attitude clearly displays your bigotry and racism even if you managed to avoid using deliberately racist and insulting language.

* = Spelling is deliberate.
When saying sorry is too hard

26/10/2024 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media

The last week has seen the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) held in Apia in Samoa. However, the meeting did not necessarily turn out in favour of the British state and its representatives, one Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor, who some believe is its legitimate head of state, and ‘Sir’ Keir Rodney Starmer, head of government and leader of an allegedly Labour administration.

The main point of contention was one of the many crimes against humanity committed by the English/British during their centuries-long invasion, colonisation and exploitation of vast areas of the world’s land surface – chattel slavery.

The Caribbean members of the Commonwealth, under the umbrella of Caricom, have been demanding reparations for slavery for some time. Their reasoning is based on the fact that when slavery was abolished within the British Empire in 1833 (the slave trade as abolished in 1807. Ed.), the owners were compensated for their loss of ‘property‘ in the form of 700,000 enslaved persons This amounted to £20m and accounted for nearly one-quarter of the government’s budget in the year that it was paid. The emancipated slaves and their descendants were never compensated. Indeed to add further a insult to their suffering, the freed slaves were expected to work for free for the people who had already exploited them and were being handsomely rewarded for their inhumanity.

Mr Windsor, whose ancestor Charles Stuart II granted the Royal African Company (RAC) a monopoly on all English trade with Africa, had particular difficulty in apologising for the harm his family and his state have done to Africa and the Caribbean. The RAC’s initial purpose was to trade in gold, but quickly moved on to trading in captured human beings, which became its main activity. The so-called royal family also invested in the slave trade: William of Orange (the King Billy so beloved of certain people in Ireland’s occupied six counties) bought shares in the RAC off one Edward Colston, whose statue in Bristol was toppled a few years ago and taken for a bath in the city docks. Despite his own family having blood on its hands from the slave trade, the best Charlie boy could manage was to call slavery the “most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate. according to the BBC.

As for Starmer, he has ruled out any talk of reparation, but has indicated he is open to non-financial reparations, as The Guardian reports I don’t somehow think the Caribbean governments of Caricom will be persuaded by offers of mirrors, glass beads and other trinkets for supplying two centuries of free labour for Britain and its elite.

Beside slavery being discussed slavery, the transatlantic slave trade and reparatory justice have all made their way into the meeting’s final communiqué (PDF) in its paragraphs 21 and 22.

Finally, here’s a little song about saying sorry especially for Charles and Keir., which your ‘umble scribe hopes they will enjoy.
Font for fascism

16/10/2024 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Tech

Convicted serial offender and fascist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who for some inexplicable reason prefers to be called Tommy Robinson, has brought out a book with the help of a ghost writer Peter McLoughlin.

For a day the book entitled Manifesto was top of Amazon UK’s best-seller chart, according to The Guardian, is is currently unavailable on Amazon’s website.

Whilst the cover looks like the flag of St George folded in half, the text below the title dubiously claims the book deals with Free Speech, Real Democracy and Peaceful Disobedience, whilst what Yaxley-Lennon and his supporters indulge in is freedom to be racially prejudiced, fascism and violent disorder, as the media have duly reported down the years.

However, the most salient feature of the cover that caught your correspondent’s eye was that the title and the names of the book’s authors were all written in the Comic Sans font.

This friendly sans serif font is popular in place like primary schools due inter alia to its assumed legibility. This font, termed notorious by none other than the BBC, has also been in existence for 30 years this year.

However, the font has not proved universally popular, as is imparted by its Wikipedia page.

Film producer and The New York Times essayist Errol Morris wrote in an August 2012 posting, “The conscious awareness of Comic Sans promotes—at least among some people—contempt and summary dismissal.” With the help of a professor, he conducted an online experiment and found that Comic Sans, in comparison with five other typefaces (Baskerville, Helvetica, Georgia, Trebuchet MS, and Computer Modern), makes readers slightly less likely to believe that a statement they are reading is true.

Contempt and summary dismissal are both apposite to anything that comes out of Yaxley-Lennon’s mouth, from his pen (or in his case crayon. Ed.) keyboard or camera.
Know worries

16/10/2024 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

The verb to know and the associated noun knowledge are both concerned with the possession of information, awareness, familiarity, recognition and the like.

Over the centuries this has resulted in some very specialised uses. One of these is the phrase carnal knowledge, described by Wikipedia as “an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse“. Thus the verb to know can take on sexual connotations. The most notable example of this usage is in the King James Bible in Luke 1. This is where Mary receives news from the angel Gabriel that she is to be mother of the son of God. When so enlightened, she replies as follows in verse 34, implying she is either unmarried, a virgin, or both:

Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

Hello, hello, hello!
What are you writing about here then?
Besides the field of human physical relationships, another field in which know has a particular meaning is law enforcement. The phrase in question in this context is “known to police“. Anyone who is known to police is not usually a person who drops into the station regularly for tea, biscuits and a chat. The phrase implies one has been arrested, charged and possibly convicted too, i.e. one has a criminal record.

Or at least it did until this week.

Yesterday’s Bristol Live/Post carried a report of an Avon & Somerset Police Question Time on 14th October featuring Chief Constable Sarah Crew and Clare Moody, the elected Police & Crime Commissioner.

At one stage the discussion turned to human trafficking and modern slavery. The Chief Constable remarked that places of employment where trafficking was suspected included car washes, nail bars, care homes and agriculture.

To this Ms Moody added:

Victims of modern slavery and human trafficking are some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

In order to be able to intervene in this criminality you have to be able to identify it’s happening. Your own threat assessment estimates that only ten per cent of the victims of this crime are known to Avon & Somerset Police.

Is Ms Moody implying that 10 per cent of slavery and trafficking victims have a criminal record or have been previously arrested by Avon & Somerset’s finest? Or is she unaware of the special meaning of known to police?

Your ‘umble scribe suspects the latter.

Is known to police on the route to becoming another archaic or legal euphemism? Add your thoughts in the comments below.
Bristol Live exclusive: M4 diverted via Somerset

01/10/2024 Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities

The London to South Wales motorway, otherwise known as the M4, runs from Chiswick in the west of London to Pont Abraham Services near Pontarddulais in Sir Gaerfyrddin (that’s Carmarthenshire for monoglots. Ed.). It passes through or close to the major towns and cities of Slough, Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Casnewydd (Newport), Caerdydd (Cardiff) Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr (Bridgend), Port Talbot and Abertawe (Swansea).

Route of the M4. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Or rather it did: until a traffic report on Sunday in Bristol Live which saw road repairs move it several tens of kilometres south from South Gloucestershire, the unitary authority in which Tormarton is situated to Somerset.

Fact checking is important when reporting the news, except it seems when one works as a Reach plc ‘journalist‘: or the newsroom atlas has inexplicably gone missing; or is non-existent.
Whom the gods wish to destroy…

01/10/2024 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the revival of a phrase dating back to ancient Greece and such luminaries as the philosophers Sophocles, Plato and the playwright Aeschylus. That phrase, still with us today, is generally rendered as Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

All of which bring us neatly from ancient Greece and the Enlightenment to the 21st century and the United States presidential campaign.

Kindly step forward disgraced former president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump, an immodest man with much to be modest about.

Despite being the worst president in modern times, the felonious Trump is once again running for office. One reason for this might be to keep him out of jail for his 34 current felony convictions, with probably more to follow for stealing classified documents and other high crimes and misdemeanors (as per the US constitution).

However, as the campaign has progressed – not necessarily to The Donald’s advantage – it has become increasingly apparent that Trump is becoming increasingly incoherent and possibly senile.

Take, for example, the post below on his Truth Social account on the havoc caused by Hurricane Helene recently.

Note in particular the use of block capitals, a sure sign of something awry.

Yes, you did read that correctly: it was all the fault of the incumbent Biden-Harris administration, which is a fairly typical Trump assertion. However, the claim in the next sentence that the hurricane would never have come near the US of A reveals delusions of divine powers, i.e. the ability to control the weather.

This is not the first time Trump has had difficulty with a hurricane. Those with long political memories may recall Sharpiegate during The Donald’s disastrous occupancy of the Oval Office. The hurricane’s name was Dorian and, as CNN reported at the time, little Donny used a black Sharpie (a brand of felt-tipped pen popular in the USA. Ed.) to alter an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map to include Alabama in the hurricane’s predicted course.

Make America Grate Again, eh Donald? 😉