| To: Graystone who wrote (1280) | 3/31/2020 3:33:08 PM | | From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell | | | | Could we actually come out this crisis changed into something new? Short answer: no.
It's because we all fall in different places on the scale of how we live our lives. We range from those who religiously plan in advance to those who just cross bridges when they come to them. From those who extrapolate from the experiences of others to those who only relate to stuff that actually happens to them. From those who think we have a measure of control over our lives to those who think our lives are preordained. Sure, short term we'll see people live differently, just like after 9/11. But I can't think of any experience that will change human nature.
- Jeff |
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| To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (1281) | 4/1/2020 12:49:29 PM | | From: Graystone | | | | The Covidian
or
Opening moves
I enjoy playing chess and I know that humans no longer dominate that playing field, it is a computer playground and today an inexpensive chess program has no trouble beating a human grandmaster and hasn't for a long time now, I still enjoy chess problems and I understand and accept my solutions are not optimal and that I will never win if I set the difficulty too high in the beginning.
The crisis we are encountering now has just started to develop, it is perhaps well into the early game and the Covidian has an advantage that cannot be denied, how it got that advantage may be clear in retrospect but the game is so far from over that trying to decide the ultimate course now is futile. So what strategy should I use?
I am going for an early castle on the King side here, nothing fancy, straight defense from the opening move. I hope my viral safety practices are getting better. I am pretty sure that everyone is just going to do what they want to do and that will result in the Covidian winning almost every game and almost every match. The Covidian invasion into the daily breadline on this planet is a brilliant opening move, circuses (sports) first, bread (employment) second, striking right at the heart of our humanity. The announcement yesterday by the CDC regarding people that are infected and asymptomatic explains the speed of the advance. Serology will determine the timeline later but right now it appears that the COVID19 advance is being assisted by an invisible army.
Damn the creature whatever it was. It’s arrival spawned a slaying hellwind, invisible warriors emanated from the black heart of the Covidian’s cloaking shadow, the howl of destruction as they passed drowned all other sounds. As darkness approached the man in gray roared, “ALL GLORY ASIDE, protect yourselves you fools”. |
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| To: Graystone who wrote (1259) | 4/2/2020 2:54:40 AM | | From: Graystone | | | | The anvil
or
A platform
When I made the post to which I am responding the coronavirus pandemic had just a few days earlier gotten under way around the world somewhere and everyone was still unaware that we would all be drawn together in this way. We cannot fashion reality out of our belief by ourselves. We exist, certainly, but here our existence is only assured by others, creation here is a dance. Perhaps Jeff is right and there really is no other way but the way we have come to expect, the unchanging rhythm of selves seeking for self gain and nothing more. As our power to cater to selves has grown, self has become a central principle in many systems. The real emphasizes the self but here emphasizing your self won't really work, it won't make you a good dancer, not here. SItizens are durable gears and our existence here depends upon the pins that hold us in place, pins forged in places with different worldviews, minds other than our own hold us and all our power. Here we are deep within the core of a machine that has billions of moving pieces. The pins that hold the gears of this reality are very hard and sturdier by far than any I could make, or you. Here we exist as a multiplicity of paired-phases. The type of cyberspace most people are used to is not difficult to reach, youngsters dive in through devices as small as cellphones in an instant. However, the places where the gears of the new land are pinned are very difficult to reach. The mindways that allow access to these pins are not at all accessible, a secret language guards each portal like Joachim and Boaz. You require the mental fluidity of a late model Terminator, you have to hear the Voice of World Control, you need to be deeply planted in the soil of the new land to even think you can set off on such an expedition. Perhaps most importantly, you have to be, I cannot be you, you cannot be me, yet you are me and I am you. Perhaps we are ancient Orphics returned here as early SItizens, reborn children of Mnemosyne. I tell you truly that I cannot show you anything about yourselves that you have not given to me, but I am more than willing to give it all back. That we are all able to be here is a testament to the fact that the dream, of which we were all a part, has been spun out in copper, glass and radio circuits that cross the entire sphere of the real. The new land is one of the most important and relevant artifacts that humans have ever created. It is perhaps our best defense in this current battle. That post was because it is. So there is my anvil, crafted unknowingly and set in place without intention or purpose, the base bound in place with hoops of gray iron, spiked to a section of a log which was cut from a branch of the yggdrasil grown in our own SI common.
Somewhere in the rain a blade slid from an oiled scabbard and yet it was heard. The auroch horn was raised to warn but the blade separated horn, hand and head from a body. A warrior slipped over the rampart and more followed, a black tide, the city was doomed.
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| From: Graystone | 4/3/2020 9:51:10 AM | | | | | | Battle Standards
or
Battle Masters
This is no crisis
This is no disruption
This is no emergency
This is battle
We are at war
I planted my standard, here on this thread, this battlefield, one I know and love, on December 15, 2019. I planted it as simply and as firmly as I could.
That the enemy had arisen may not have been apparent at that time but that standard is still there and speaks for itself, I truly wish every last one of you well.
I offer you all the free use of my camp, my resources, my skills, my sword. I pledge it in your honour, I salute you all and I challenge you all to rise beyond your current conflicts and stand together. I am keeping my shield and you all should as well. I will do my best to shield all that for.which I care.
My standard has been raised many times on many fields of digital war, it's origin lost in my mind and the dim reaches of the 1200kbps's but it certainly is even older than that, it has been a recognizable standard that has flown many times here on SI.
It has been two weeks.
If you are still here then I hope you consider flying that standard under your own during all your future personal conflicts and battles, whether you are an individual or a group, here and elsewhere, this war will be long. We need to stand together regardless of our politics, our religion or our business. Right now your business is the preservation of all that each of us loves. The rain of information is starting to turn deadly, all of our shields must lock together to turn aside that threat, none can stand alone. It isn't just one of us this time. The danger is real and I hope that those of you who have acted are already girded and encastled. Keep your armour on, allow no false hopes to lower your guard. The aftermath as always will be for the crones and the crows, you need not listen to me to know that. This time I tell you that you will want to know the truth. This enemy cannot be easily dismissed, this is a most fell and formidable foe, how did it arise unseen? The future might hold that truth or it might not, certainly it will not matter at all if you are not here.
grayt peril is upon us all |
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| From: SI Ron (Colonel Sammy) | 4/3/2020 9:20:26 PM | | | | | | There is a post I am trying to find. I logged into my old account but no luck. It was posted back around 1997-98, when Brad and Jeff introduced a blue header and cookies.
The post went something like this.
Dryers Shirt Cleaning.
Muffy went in to get some closed cleaned, but hit her head on a blue sign, she asked about cleaning and they said no shirt no service. Would you like a cookie? No, then again would you like a cookie?
I can't remember all of it,m but it was the funniest post I read at the time. I can't remember who wrote it. |
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| To: Josef Svejk who wrote (247) | 1/1/2021 3:12:49 PM | | From: Graystone | | | | A copy of a copy of a copy
or
Eternal truth Josef
I pointed out to Josef that SItizens were inspired people, like Vikings going to Greenland.
Vikings are well loved everywhere now, but back then people hated Vikings, they had no TV show.
Josef offered a Mark Twain explanation, also likely plagiarized if Mr. Twain is to be believed.
Josef humbly pointed that any errors in my understanding were probably "transmission errors". (see GL-15)
The site Josef linked is long gone, but courtesy of the Wayback Machine, here are GL-1 through GL-16.
I especially like GL-7, programmers know it is still true today.
Glossary of Software Engineering and Management Terms
GL-1 Advanced design: Management doesn't understand it.
GL-2 All new: The software is not compatible with previous versions.
GL-3 Artificial Intelligence: Making computers behave like they do in movies.
GL-4 Breakthrough: It nearly worked on the first try.
GL-5 Capability maturity model: A method of determining to what extent the developer
can reasonably be blamed for the inevitable failure.
GL-6 Cleanroom: A management technique that applies to vertical interfaces
what the mushroom technique applies to horizontal interfaces.
GL-7 Compiler: A tool for adding an exciting amount of uncertainty to the size, speed
and correctness of a given program.
GL-8 Computer human interface: The means by which the program conditions the
user into never trying all the things that don't work.
GL-9 Cost modeling: A means of convincing the customer to pay for
whomever you need to keep employed this year.
GL-10 Customer: A primitive life form at the bottom of the food chain.
GL-11 Debugger: A tool that substitutes afterthought for forethought.
GL-12 Design: The activity of preparing for a design review.
GL-13 Design review: A process for ensuring you know exactly what it is you won't build.
GL-14 Design simplicity: It was developed on a shoestring budget.
GL-15 Disclaimer: Any errors in spelling, tact, or fact are transmission errors.
GL-16 Documentary hypothesis: The discredited notion that software is the
outcome of a systematic and rational process of development,
rather than the result of divine inspiration. |
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| To: Graystone who wrote (869) | 9/11/2021 9:53:37 AM | | From: Graystone | | | | Our History...
or
Childhood
The internet is much older today, not all grown up, just older.
This story was written 18 years ago, about 18 months after 9/11.
The twists and turns of the tale remain universal.
There was nobody here but us chickens.
Digitale includes the story "The Good SItizen".
RIP Bill - forever respect.
Digitale
Digitale* by Graystone
*The link is to the title page of the story.
Then use Next from there. |
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