Meet the digital El Chapo

Washington Post

The Post is giving the Times a run for its money here.

Meanwhile, sitting in federal jail a few miles away from the Brooklyn courtroom where Guzmán was convicted, and awaiting his own sentencing, is a 46-year-old ex-computer programmer named Paul Calder Le Roux. He is a lesser-known former drug kingpin, but his methods may tell us more than Guzmán’s about where the modern drug-cartel model is headed.

In the future, it may increasingly be the IT experts who are sitting atop the cartels, operating in the digital shadows and guided by a mantra straight out of Silicon Valley: Move fast and break things.

What we have Learned from Deep Learning

Deep Learning works - but we cannot say how it works. If you take this and this and do this to them - they learn!

And their learning keeps getting better. Once one of them learns how to translate a language (any language) it can translate any other language!

Nothing like this has ever happened before. The gods once gave men fire, and they used it wisely (usually). Now they have given them something even better. Let's hope we use it wisely also!

Getting Started with Cloud Launcher

Cousera

I have decided to get in bed with Google, and the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

My accounts with the Amazon Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Microsoft Cloud (Azure) have already been canceled. But Google still seems to like me and wants to show me how to use its services.

I already use Gmail, the Chrome browser. their Calendar, and the Blogger app. They are easy to get along with.

This video shows me how to get started. I have stopped it, backed up, and looked at it again several times. This is one advantage a Computer has - it does not care how stupid you are.

The Times knows how to make People Read It

NY Times Magazine

"Big deal! you may say, few people read anymore. And even fewer care what they write about."

But even in today's world of viewers, not readers - people still read and write.

TV has made printing obsolete, but not completely obsolete. People still subscribe to the Times, and read it!

The Truth in the 21st Century

The world needs smarter people now - but most people have become stupider instead.

The results are illiberal democracies everywhere. These are not Fascist, but something similar - countries that make their people stupid, led by dictators who make them feel smart.

This has been made possible by Television, that most people watch religiously - and could not do without.

Because it tells them the Truth.

Buddhism can be Evil

Mashable - This is why mindfulness isn't working for you

I had an excellent meditation teacher (Shinzen Young) and he said in Japan this is widely acknowledged, and they even have a name for it.

The man who owns the house I live in has a Buddhist statue in the front yard and wears a tattoo, around one of his arms. Neither one has done him much good, as he freely admits.

The Business Uniform

I pay attention to what people are wearing. Whether it is the standard business suit and tie - or not. The tie is especially important. I wish I knew when it made its appearance.

I know it is not worn at software conferences. The people there speak derisively of "the suits" and would not be caught wearing one.

Just this morning, Steve Wozniak, in this mspoweruser article speaks of techclash - and he is not wearing a businessman's uniform. He prefers Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter - who is not shown wearing the uniform either.