mariodecristofano.com

If I thought a million roses would break down the barrier, I would of bought you two million to be sure.

Why dont people understand and grasp the little nuances of human interaction? Is no one capable of understanding how there are differences in whats expected in terms of behavior online to that of personal interaction!? MSN - learn how to use it, learn how to spell, learn about inflection and emotion, sarcasm and wit. If you think your taking something wrong, you know what!? YOU PROBABLY ARE.

 Its the same with text messages, learn whats acceptable, learn how to spell, learn that if you dont get a reply, it doesnt mean your being shunned.
Geez, I would like to hold a national ‘Get your IQ over 50 before 2010′ campaign. Whose with me. !?

For the first time in my life ever, I chose to put someone else entireley and selflessly before myself. I stand shocked at the pain and hurt one must go through to do the right thing, but know I go to bed with a clear concious. Its at times like these a John Cusack Hi Fidelity-style tracklist seems appropriate;

1) No Doubt - Dont Speak

2) Linkin Park - Numb

3) NickelBack - How you remind me

4) Craig David - We were meant to be

5) Craig David - Walking away (extra points for using the same artist twice! )

6) David Gray - The One I love

7) Neyo Feat Bone Thugs - I tried

Neyo So Sick

9) Neyo Because of you

Think ill be mastering this tonight, look at for ‘Wrists & Razor Blades’ Vol 3 in local shops NOW

For those of you that know me well know Im really into food. Nice good clean plates of wholesome food done well. I have some corking recipes and thought id put them online. Bare with me, the site is very much work in progress. Be live and complete within the next few days and added to weekly

Click here

Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed we are safer than we were a year ago, as he outlined his long-awaited National Security Strategy to Parliament today.

Brown reeled off the usual list of potential global threats - pandemics, climate change, water/energy/food shortage, and terror - and appeared to take inspiration from Hollywood in tackling the terrorist threat in Blighty.

You thought Jack Bauer and his fellow CTU spooks were fictional? Not any more. Mr Brown confirmed today that the UK will shortly have four regional Counter Terrorism Units, just like Jack’s LA office - though hopefully less riddled with traitors, leaks etc.

There was also confirmation that the UK’s spooks will soon heavily outnumber their possible domestic terrorist adversaries. The strength of MI5/SS is predicted to reach 4,000 in the near term, while Mr Brown confirmed that the Enemy Within was holding largely static at around 200 networks each as many as 10 strong.

This seemed to indicate a spook-to-terrorist ratio of at least two to one - without even counting other British agencies operating in the UK such as MI6/SIS, GCHQ electronic spooks, the Met Counter Terrorism Command/SO15, regional special-branch plods, military special forces etc etc.

It was also confirmed by Mr Brown that the number of UK “foreign office employees” in the Middle East and South Asia would rise by 30 per cent - which would seem to indicate a manpower increase among the spies at MI6.

There may not be enough terrorists to go round, by the sound of it. The new spook-to-terrorist ratio was described by Admiral Sir Alan “U-turn”* West, Baron of Spithead and the UK’s boss securocrat, on BBC radio as meaning that Britons were “safer than we were a year ago”.

The good admiral also implied that he had managed to secure the support of civil-rights group Liberty for controversial plans to extend detention without trial in cases deemed to involve terrorists. However, an angry telephone call from Liberty to the Today newsroom subsequently made it clear that this was not, in fact, the case.

Apart from the Jack Bauer revelations, there wasn’t much in the Strategy to really make a tech head like me sit up. However, for those who have been following the UK’s recent interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo etc, there was one plan of interest. In all these operations, the UK forces have typically eliminated organised military opposition in short order - only to find themselves desperately improvising a local government to replace the one they have just toppled.

Mr Brown said that UK will soon have a quick-reaction instant government ready to go at all times, made up of a thousand police, civil administrators, advisors etc - even some judges. It wasn’t made clear exactly how rapidly the shake’n'bake civil power would be able to react, but the need for parachute and possibly amphibious/frogman High Court beaks does seem clear-cut.

Although the sense that we are experiencing a singularity-like event with computers and the world wide web is visceral, the current concept of a singularity is not the best explanation for this transformation in progress.Singularity is a term borrowed from physics to describe a cataclysmic threshold in a black hole. In the canonical usage, it defines the moment an object being pulled into a black hole passes a point beyond which nothing about it, including information, can escape. In other words, although an object’s entry into a black hole is steady and knowable, once it passes this discrete point absolutely nothing about its future can be known. This disruption on the way to infinity is called a singular event — a singularity.

Mathematician and science fiction author Vernor Vinge applied this metaphor to the acceleration of technological change. The power of computers has been increasing at an exponential rate with no end in sight, which led Vinge to an alarming conclusion. In his analysis, at some point not too far away, innovations in computer power would enable us to design computers more intelligent than we are; these smarter computers could design computers yet smarter than themselves, and so on, the loop of computers-making-newer-computers accelerating very quickly towards unimaginable levels of intelligence. This progress in IQ and power, when graphed, generates a rising curve that appears to approach the straight-up vertical limit of infinity. In mathematical terms it resembles the singularity of a black hole, because, as Vinge announced, it will be impossible to know anything beyond this threshold. If we make an Artificial Intelligence (or AI), which in turn makes a greater AI, ad infinitum, then their futures are unknowable to us, just as our lives are unfathomable to a slug. So the singularity becomes, in a sense, a black hole, an impenetrable veil hiding our future from us.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

The deployment of the first armed battlefield robots in Iraq is the latest step on a dangerous path - we are sleepwalking into a brave new world where robots decide who, where and when to kill. Already, South Korea and Israel are deploying armed robot border guards and China, Singapore and the UK are among those making increasing use of military robots. The biggest player yet is the US: robots are integral to its $230bn future combat systems project, a massive plan to develop unmanned vehicles that can strike from the air, under the sea and on land. Congress has set a goal of having one-third of ground combat vehicles unmanned by 2015. Over 4,000 robots are serving in Iraq at present, others in Afghanistan. And now they are armed.

Most robots currently in combat are extensions of human fighters who control the application of lethal force. When a semi-autonomous MQ-1 Predator self-navigated above a car full of al-Qaida suspects in 2002, the decision to vaporise them with Hellfire missiles was made by pilots 7,000 miles away. Predators and the more deadly Reaper robot attack planes have flown many missions since then with inevitable civilian deaths, yet working with remote-controlled or semi-autonomous machines carries only the same ethical responsibilities as a traditional air strike.

But fully autonomous robots that make their own decisions about lethality are high on the US military agenda. The US National Research Council advises “aggressively exploiting the considerable warfighting benefits offered by autonomous vehicles”. They are cheap to manufacture, require less personnel and, according to the navy, perform better in complex missions. One battlefield soldier could start a large-scale robot attack in the air and on the ground.

This is dangerous new territory for warfare, yet there are no new ethical codes or guidelines in place. I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination is terrifying. Policymakers seem to have an understanding of AI that lies in the realms of science fiction and myth. A recent US navy document suggests that the critical issue is for autonomous systems to be able to identify the legality of targets. Then their answer to the ethical problems is simply, “Let men target men” and “Let machines target other machines”. In reality, a robot could not pinpoint a weapon without pinpointing the person using it or even discriminate between weapons and non-weapons. I can imagine a little girl being zapped because she points her ice cream at a robot to share. Or a robot could be tricked into killing innocent civilians.

In attempting to allay political opposition, the US army is funding a project to equip robot soldiers with a conscience to give them the ability to make ethical decisions. But machines could not discriminate reliably between buses carrying enemy soldiers or schoolchildren, let alone be ethical. It smells like a move to delegate the responsibility for fatal errors on to non-sentient weapons.

Human soldiers have legal protocols such as the Geneva conventions to guide them. Autonomous robots are only covered by the laws of armed conflict that deal with standard weapons. But autonomous robots are not like other weapons. We are going to give decisions on human fatality to machines that are not bright enough to be called stupid. With prices falling and technology becoming easier, we may soon see a robot arms race that will be difficult to stop.

It is imperative that we create international legislation and a code of ethics for autonomous robots at war before it is too late.

Well boring yes, disgusting, probably but I thought id tell you all about a minor ailment Im currently suffering. Its ear wax! Apparrentley its extremley common. Apparentley your ears naturally produce the brown stuff and its usually dissapated naturally.

Well Im over producing! I’ve got enough in my ears to open my own candle factory! Not only that though, it damn hurts. Issues are no problem for me normally, I pay for private health care. Arent I meant to have the best available advice? Is that not what I pay BUPA an exorbanant amount of money for?

 Well, aparrentley not! My GP says I should use olive oil, really fucking expensive extra virgin pure as shit cold thick, gloopy and viscous oil. I’ve been doing that. Its getting worse. It would though wouldnt it? Pouring a viscous fluid into a small area! Oh its softening the wax allright, but it wont go anywhere!

What apparentley I should be doing is using warm thin olive oil, and then Otex?? But of hidrogen peroxide in the ear canal. Lovley.

 Ill let you know how it goes. You what? Eh?