johnnycab

>I used OS/2 on a 486DX-66 back in the day at home.

The 486DX2-66 (Socket 3) was near identical clock-doubled version of 486DX-33. I apologise for being pedantic.

>I might get back into F1 just for this.

I wouldn't be so hasty, as the service has had some blackouts.

https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/38904/f1-tv-offering-comp...

>I don't get it. Babylon is just another provider. There's not much difference between Babylon and other GP providers - they get your data if you're their patient and not otherwise. They're subjected to the same rules as other GPs.

Babylon is unlike any other providers; it is an AI & Data first, app-based subscription model with a mix of state funded services. It's aim is to acquire more data in order to train models. The overwhelming majority of traditional GP's are primarily focused on patient first policy ─ they are usually non-profit with scant resources and a poor to non-existent IT strategy. To normalise these new models by trivialising differences between traditional services (as flawed, as they might be) would only serve to marginalise existing practices and it is the first step towards introducing scope-creep by politicians, who have an unhealthy obsession with statistics, quick fixes and making Faustian pacts with the private sector.

Babylon claims to go beyond any GP by being on par with human doctors and boasts of it's partnerships with Samsung and Tencent and counts DeepMind as one of it's investors. Just like any startup looking to disrupt, the platform is cloud-based and hosted on AWS[1]. It records every interaction, including video ─ which is retained for later review. It is growing at an exponential rate, despite a limited presence in London. The patient database reveals that it caters to a very specific demographic across varied and different parts of the city i.e. 83% of patients are aged between 20 to 39 years.

While it is still in it's infancy, it has already been involved in legal tussles and has been accused of dubious practices[2][3]. There is no visibility on algorithms, models and related datasets nor is there any indication of AI ethics being in place. There is also the issue of the CEO being linked to a white elephant project before his current fast-tracked foray into digital healthcare, which was probably rubber-stamped by officials in Whitehall. Although, it is undeniable that the NHS is overburdened and could do with some help to ease the pressure, but Babylon seems to be doing the exact opposite by applying the 'moving fast-breaking things' ethos inside an institution, which is already broken and moving slow.

I have already linked the Wired article, which discusses some of the topics above in-depth, other facts are supported by the FT article (paywall) and Forbes, which are reasonably reputable sources in my opinion.

https://www.ft.com/content/19dc6b7e-8529-11e8-96dd-fa565ec55...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/12/17/this-heal...

[1] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/startups/how-babylon-health-bui...

[2] https://www.digitalhealth.net/2017/12/babylon-healthcare-cqc...

[3] https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/2019/04/12/babyl...

There has been a very poor record of NHS and IT, at least for the last two decades i.e. the previous Labour government wasted £10bn+ and failed to provide any solutions. In the process, they alienated a range of medical professionals by creating a culture of mistrust towards the digital strategy[1]. In 2016, the 'WannaCry' ransomware attack, exposed the gaping holes in the system[2]. The current trend of rushing to give access to parts of the silo/NHS Spine to other providers like Babylon health et al., without due consideration or a debate, is another can of worms best left unopened.[3]

In the absence of any robust measures to safeguard data, it is right for the patients to be diligent and have a high degree of control over who gets access to their health data and opt-out while they still have a choice, as no explicit promises are provided by the NHS to keep your data confidential: use anonymised data whenever possible[4]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-...

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41753022

[3] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/babylon-health-nhs

[4] https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/where-confidential-...

>Did they delete the training data (the photos and labels)? The models trained on the data? Both?

It would be interesting to find out if that were the case, considering that it forms the basis of Azure ML Ops (along with Pipelines), introduced at Build a month ago, with an aim to track assets and create an 'end-to-end' audit trail.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/take-your-machine-lea...

Radiation Dose Chart.

https://xkcd.com/radiation/

>It horrifies me that, when confronted with someone who created something neat and only wanted privacy, everyone's instinct is to deprive them of their privacy.

I agree that it is unsettling to watch a once in a lifetime concept that has privacy at it's core with a potential to empower so many in the future being ripped apart. At present, there is absolutely no information available other than speculation on whether it is a person(s), group(s) or a state-actor involved. Which coupled with no movement on the genesis block, with so much at stake ─ unfortunately, the attempts to de-anonymise or the prospect of more charlatans, will only increase and become even more bizarre.

>(I mean, why does it matter? Someone desires privacy, and we as a community are hellbent on depriving them of any... what does that say about our moral character?)

Are you talking about Paul Le Roux or Craig Wright? Both of them have been actively craving recognition and courting notoriety of their own accord, for differing reasons ─ either due a flaw in their character or empty spots in their souls, probably not related to their genius. Regardless, they are not seeking any kind of redemption or permission from anyone, nor do they have any desire for privacy; although Paul Le Roux is already semi-anonymous due to his status as an asset.

>I don't know where I picked up the idea

It is possible that you might have been pre-conditioned to think that way by the colossal dental industry; which has put out a fair amount of graphic imagery ranging from the saccharine to alarming, surrounding various aspects of oral hygiene and endorsing a variety of bacteria destroying toothpastes & mouth-washes to plaque-hunting rotating brushes in multitude of configurations etc., which compounded by this topic appearing with some regularity on HN might be reinforcing some of your preconceived notions.

Regardless, maintaining basic oral hygiene should be de rigueur, despite how feasible or tenuous the link(s) to other conditions might be.

I like the F91W because it refuses to die, keeps good time, has as an alarm and a hour minder. However, to repurpose it into some kind of frankenwatch to behave as a diving watch, is counter-intuitive to the fact that, it will lose most it's useful features, freely admitted to by the author in the article.

You might be right, but after the pomp and ceremony is over and syrupy vomit of 'special relationship' and some-such has been expelled, hopefully some real business will get done?

The state visit will be eventful. I am guessing we will have some inkling into this matter within the next few days.

I cited the case as an illustration, albeit an extreme one, that black cabbies operate under a code of silence and not explicitly as a reason to dislike them. They have always ran a similar campaign of black cabs are safe thus trustworthy, in order to justify the skewed figures reported to TfL[1].

The reasons to dislike them would be the 3x charges compared to their counterparts, knuckle-dragging attitude towards implementing technology and under-handed tactics e.g. insisting on only accepting cash, then never having change from high-denomination notes at the end of your journey, so you are forced to leave it as a hefty tip, ignoring disabled riders, surge pricing after late night public transport has stopped; only accepting rides if they end up in the general direction of their residence at the end of the shift - despite this practice being against their rules, always taking a longer route to rinse the rider and many more..

[1] https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-are-black-...

>In London we used to have a good taxi system that was well run with trustworthy drivers in "Black cabs"

It is hard to deduce from your comment, which period of time you are describing ─ as black cabbies haven't been very popular or trustworthy for a very long time[1]. Also, there was a very similar campaign of resistance to 'mini-cabs' decades ago, as the one conducted against Uber et al. at present, by the 'Black cab' community.[2]

I am glad that these dinosaurs are slowly diminishing in their market share, who have been exploiting 'The Knowledge'[3] for far too long by regurgitating morally repugnant views/opinions, formed from a diet of gutter press/red-tops and forcing them upon unsuspecting passengers and blind siding visitors into thinking that it is the traditional experience!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Worboys

[2] https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/02/the-case-against-london-...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_the_United_Kingdom...

>The only ones, which I could whitelist are when they use something like google shopping that has affiliate links and they're blocked.

If you have impatient shoppers in your household, the blocked affiliate(s) might be a benign issue at first, but when you miss out on a buying opportunity and then an algorithm prices it higher (while you are conducting a 'whitelisting' exercise) - things can escalate very quickly..

It is also discussed in the article.

I chuckled at first, but it doesn't seem so far-fetched. This is a story of a startup founder backed by y-combinator, who posthumously provided inspiration for a memorial bot[1]

WhatsApp (Android) stores it's backup on Google Drive by default; by using this data, it is more than possible to create a bot and resurrect someone in the digital domain.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/a/luka-artificial-intelligence-memo...

>in UK, refusing to talk to police at first contact can be used against you

If you have read any of the anonymous blogs by those on the Job, they almost always tell you to either keep your mouth shut or say as little as possible ─ this was the wisdom imparted by 'Nightjack' before he got outed and had to delete his blog, subsequently going on to win accolades and the Orwell Prize.[1]

https://web.archive.org/web/20090426201221/http://nightjack....

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Horton_(blogger)

It depends on where you live; to request information from government bodies/agencies, you have to resort to various Freedom of Information laws rather than Data Protection. However, there might be certain exemptions, which will prevent any such pranking and unless it is sensitive information, you will most probably be informed of the number of hours it will take to fulfil a request and the costs involved.

>Procrastination, and being with it, is a large part of my life. I find it incredibly interesting but if I could pay a large sum of money to take it away in an instant, I'd hand over the cash immediately.

Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good ─ Søren Kirkegaard

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/01/14/kierkegaard-boredom...

>Just because someone is at the top of their field (consumer electronics) doesn't mean that they know anything about other, non-related fields (music)

Apple was not exactly at the top of their field before betting on the iPod. The curated collection was not only personal, it was also as iconic as the device it was meant to show off. You would probably balk at the idea of Karlheinz Brandenburg's choice of Tom's Diner too.

Stylus is great when Darkreader breaks on certain sites. But when it works there are no substitutes e.g. navigating HN using the light setting in Darkreader offers a degree of customisation to create a scheme and reduce eye fatigue, without too much effort. Whereas, it can be hit and miss when trying various themes/stylesheets etc.

Class is an accent, not a bank balance.

>In the UK, for example ICO aims to offer warnings and guidance in most cases. They aim to get people compliant, levying fines in cases of wilful contempt or egregious slackness.

It is rather disingenuous to upsell ICO as a vanguard, instead of describing it as a toothless quango, at best.

Try mixcloud.

>The Apollo guys were more the cowboy and daredevil type, where for an 18 month space mission you’d need much more level head types.

This was the premise of MARS-500 mission/experiment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARS-500

>if Londoners enable auto top up for their Oyster card, transport for London could transfer £1000 from their bank account the next day, even if they destroy that card seconds after signing up

This statement is sensationalist and not true, as the maximum load on a Oyster Card is £90.

WhatsApp Viewer: https://andreas-mausch.de/whatsapp-viewer/

>I thought "synthetic data" it's something that rarely shows in training image recognition

On the contrary, it is used to train models but it cannot adequately capture the long tail of weird events in the real world. Hence, it cannot be relied upon, as alluded to by the parent commenter. With reference to using data collected from a simulated environment vs real world ─ this subject was discussed at some length by Elon Musk and Andrej Karpathy, at the Tesla Autonomy Day event a few weeks ago.

On a lighter note, I knew there was a reason when these shadowmen were literally adorning the red 'hats' at AWS Summit in London couple of days ago, but not giving it out as SWAG (Something We All Get) at the event - very sinister indeed!