SydBarrett

Joined

• started 16 topics
• posted 321 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by SydBarrett

• 
  25

  All UK telephone landlines being phased out.....

  by BoogerMan in

  1. social
  2. current

  .....and replaced with voip by 2025. https://www.pmctelecom.co.uk/blog/are-landline-phones-being-phased-out-in-2025/.

  just heard this on a radio station's advert..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "i dont know anyone who does. Except businesses."
  
  Even those are most likely VOIP. This was true 15 years ago when I worked in Telecom. Some businesses would specifically purchase an old POTS landline as a backup for alarm systems if the power went out, but that's it. Not sure how backup is done now.
  
• 
  25

  All UK telephone landlines being phased out.....

  by BoogerMan in

  1. social
  2. current

  .....and replaced with voip by 2025. https://www.pmctelecom.co.uk/blog/are-landline-phones-being-phased-out-in-2025/.

  just heard this on a radio station's advert..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "BUT----I STILL have a landline phone in my residence. Because I WANT one. I still have a use for a regular land-line phone."
  
  You still can. Sort of. The phase out doesn't mean everyone has to go buy a cellphone. For all intents, you won't notice any difference after the switchover. Pick up the receiver, still have a dial tone etc.
  
  One drawback is that the old landlines supplied their own power, so that if the electricity went out in your home due to a storm or something, the phone generally continued to work. With VOIP, if you lose power, you also lose phone. That could be bad in an emergency for those without a backup cell phone.

  But, I just did a quick mental inventory of all the elderly people I either know or who are family members. I could not think of a single person who doesn't have a cell phone. I would think the number of people who rely solely on a landline must be an extremely tiny percentage.
  
• 
  78

  Top AI inventor Geoffrey Hinton reluctantly concluded that AI will probably humanity fairly soon

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  geoffrey hinton, major inventor of artificial intelligence: .

  “if you take the existential risk seriously, as i now do—i used to think it was way off, but now i think it’s serious, and fairly close—it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further, but i think it’s completely naïve to think that would happen.

  there’s no way to make that happen.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "@ Anony mous -The heavy bombers used over Japan were B17's and B29's, B52's came along much latter"

  
  

  There's so much wrong with his post...where to begin. The Polaris and Minuteman III currently each contain 3-5 W78 MIRV warheads each with a yield of 335-350 kilotons. Each city hit gets a shotgun effect of 3-5 strikes spaced out around the city.
  
  I don't know where he got the idea that most only contain a 1 kiloton warhead. The only weapon i'm aware of that was so small was the 'Davy Crockett". It was basically a tactical artillery piece to presumably be used against advancing soviet soldiers in the cold war. It was taken out of service in 1971. I'm not claiming they no longer exist just because they were removed from active service,
  
  Yes, the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were big and heavy and required bombers. But they got much better at building the things and by the 70's, 3-5 could be carried atop a minuteman missile. Each with 20-25 times the yield of Hiroshima. Here's a pic for scale:
  
  
  
  
  And here is a map showing damage of a 330 kiloton airburst over midtown manhattan. He may be correct that the area completely vaporized may be a few city blocks, but the gray circle shows most residential buildings collapse from Harlem all the way to lower Manhattan. The final orange circle shows 3rd degree burns for anyone caught in the open extending into Brooklyn and New Jersey. Perhaps he has a much more pedantic version of what 'destroying a city' means.. but anyways, this has gone way off subject from the original post.
  
  
  
• 
  78

  Top AI inventor Geoffrey Hinton reluctantly concluded that AI will probably humanity fairly soon

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  geoffrey hinton, major inventor of artificial intelligence: .

  “if you take the existential risk seriously, as i now do—i used to think it was way off, but now i think it’s serious, and fairly close—it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further, but i think it’s completely naïve to think that would happen.

  there’s no way to make that happen.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "Nuclear war is overblown, we barely have enough weapons to blow up the top 100 major cities"
  
  How do you figure that? No, a nuclear war won't "destroy the earth" as in sterilize it, but a few billion dead followed by mass starvation among those left would be pretty apocalyptic, not "overblown".
  
  Number of warheads by country:
  
  USA: 3,750

  Russia: 5,977

  China: 350

  UK: 260

  France: 290

  India: 160

  Pakistan: 165

  Israel: not known but estimated at around 90
  
  I agree that it's difficult to imagine a scenario where all the nuclear powers are launching everything they have at each other all at once, but if it did happen, it would mess up a lot more than 100 cities.
  

  
  
  
• 
  77

  Biden running in 2024 🤣

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  i've filed this under news and world events, although i could've posted it under entertainment, lol.

  apparently, joe biden will be seeking re-election for another term in the white house.. this, despite a recent poll showing that 70% of people don't want him to run again.. biden just has to be the worst president i've seen.

  his gaffes, over-relience on a prompter, and, more than any other president, his refusal to answer journalists' questions, all go to make him top of the list in terms of bad presidents.. it will certainly provide entertainment, if nothing else..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "Again with the hyperbole, I would like to see all the accounts where D&C were truly denied, because no abortion law is banning any of that."

  What hyperbole are you drooling about?
  
• 
  77

  Biden running in 2024 🤣

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  i've filed this under news and world events, although i could've posted it under entertainment, lol.

  apparently, joe biden will be seeking re-election for another term in the white house.. this, despite a recent poll showing that 70% of people don't want him to run again.. biden just has to be the worst president i've seen.

  his gaffes, over-relience on a prompter, and, more than any other president, his refusal to answer journalists' questions, all go to make him top of the list in terms of bad presidents.. it will certainly provide entertainment, if nothing else..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "but Trump could run the US like a business, just as he did before."
  
  Seems about right...
  
  
  
• 
  78

  Top AI inventor Geoffrey Hinton reluctantly concluded that AI will probably humanity fairly soon

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  geoffrey hinton, major inventor of artificial intelligence: .

  “if you take the existential risk seriously, as i now do—i used to think it was way off, but now i think it’s serious, and fairly close—it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further, but i think it’s completely naïve to think that would happen.

  there’s no way to make that happen.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "As Cofty said...unplug things seems to be the easy answer."
  
  Who decides when things get unplugged? I often think the internet as a whole has been a net negative for society and I believe a lot of others would sometimes agree. I still use it everyday.
  
• 
  77

  Biden running in 2024 🤣

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  i've filed this under news and world events, although i could've posted it under entertainment, lol.

  apparently, joe biden will be seeking re-election for another term in the white house.. this, despite a recent poll showing that 70% of people don't want him to run again.. biden just has to be the worst president i've seen.

  his gaffes, over-relience on a prompter, and, more than any other president, his refusal to answer journalists' questions, all go to make him top of the list in terms of bad presidents.. it will certainly provide entertainment, if nothing else..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  @ LoveUniHateExams
  
  
  You sure have a lot of strong opinions about a country you don't live in. Not arguing, just commenting that I find it a bit odd. Are you Simon's lovechild?
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  78

  Top AI inventor Geoffrey Hinton reluctantly concluded that AI will probably humanity fairly soon

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  geoffrey hinton, major inventor of artificial intelligence: .

  “if you take the existential risk seriously, as i now do—i used to think it was way off, but now i think it’s serious, and fairly close—it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further, but i think it’s completely naïve to think that would happen.

  there’s no way to make that happen.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "As I understand it the worry is over the potential for misinformation. Imagine a future where anyone with a bad motive can easily utilise AI to produce the narrative and results they want."

  
  The part that worries me is that a lot of the population feeds, clothes and houses themselves working what are basically bullshit jobs. Busy work. Low level office management, tech support, customer service etc etc. If AI has the near term potential that some describe, I can see vast numbers of these jobs eliminated. And in the U.S at least, we don't have (and many don't believe in providing) much of a social safety net. It would not be the first time technology has eliminated jobs, but i'm worried it might be so many all at once that it could be pretty nasty in the short to medium term.
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  77

  Biden running in 2024 🤣

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  i've filed this under news and world events, although i could've posted it under entertainment, lol.

  apparently, joe biden will be seeking re-election for another term in the white house.. this, despite a recent poll showing that 70% of people don't want him to run again.. biden just has to be the worst president i've seen.

  his gaffes, over-relience on a prompter, and, more than any other president, his refusal to answer journalists' questions, all go to make him top of the list in terms of bad presidents.. it will certainly provide entertainment, if nothing else..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  SydBarrett

  "Each individual state decides whether to have abortions or not. This means that women who want an abortion in, say, Texas, can travel to a state that does kill unborn babies."
  
  For now. Until states like Texas work out the legal means to prosecute women who go out of state for an abortion. But even if they can't find any way to make that stick, Texas alone is enormous, it's nearly 3X the size of Great Britain and most of the surrounding states have also banned it. Traveling from say, Dallas, to a state where it is allowed is not a quick drive across the county line. More like halfway across a continent.
  
  These logistical hurdles mean it will be lower income women who are most put in a bind. Middle class and higher will just take a few paid sick days, catch a flight and keep it hush-hush. "Ok for me, but not for thee"