State Surveillance In the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection, FBI was contacting people whose cellphones pinged cell towers near the Capitol during the riots.
A powered mobile phone always sends signals to one of the closest base stations. Given multiple base stations, the angle and time of arrival, and location signatures of each cell location can be used to locate a mobile device. The higher the density of cell towers, the more precise the calculated location....
Incomplete List of Information Privacy Properties Control/consent, e.g. Cambridge Analytica exfiltrating FB users' data Discussion on Cambridge Analytica Anonymity, e.g. Snowden leaking NSA docs without revealing his identity
Limits on data collection, e.g. laws restricting government surveillance
Limits on data use, e.g. US Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
Under GINA, health insurers must not use genetic information of the clients (or clients family) to inform their policy....
The human genome has sequences of nucleotide base pairs that are repeated over and over again. At each locus of interest, a person has two sets of repeats inherited from each parent. Each possible difference at a locus is an allele. The combinations of the possible differences at multiple loci form a DNA profile that can be used to tie suspects to a crime scene.
The Accuracy of DNA Testing is Wanting 74/108 crime labs erroneously incriminated a suspect during a mock study....
Contact Tracing “Apps” in this context means contact tracing apps released by public health authorities to do contact tracing. The APIs are limited to them.
Big Picture Release APIs to enable apps to interoperate between Android and iOS devices. Bluetooth-based contact tracing baked into Android and iOS, such that no app is needed for broadcasting/listening. This ensures broad adoption, but will be on an opt-in basis....
Luxottica - Queen of the Seven Kingdoms Luxottica owns and licenses Armani, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Chanel, Coach, DKNY, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Kors, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, Persol, Polo Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban, Tiffany, Valentino, Vogue and Versace.
Italy’s Luxottica also runs EyeMed Vision Care, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Sunglass Hut and Target Optical. It also merged with the world’s leading maker of prescription eyeglass lenses and contact lenses, to form EssilorLuxottica....
The Law of the Few From 1995 to 1996, the # of children born in Baltimore with syphillis increased 500%. CDC blamed it on cocaine and reduction in clinics.
In 100k+ Colorado Springs town, the gonorrhoea epidemic tipped because of the activities of 168 people living in 4 small neighbourhoods, frequenting the same 6 bars.
Gaëtan Dugas, an Air-Canada flight attendant, is [mis?]regarded as “Patient Zero” for AIDS in the US....
Introduction The Tipping Point is the biography of how little things had big effects.
From 1992 to 1997, murder rates dropped 64.3% to 770 and total crimes fell by \(\approx\) 50% to 355,893.
Geometric progressions are non-intuitive, e.g. if given a large paper and asked to fold it 50x, the stack’s height will be \(\approx\) the distance to the sun.
This is a popular illustration. The standard paper’s thickness, \(h_0\), is \(0....
Reaction Times are Overrated Elite athletes do not display superior reaction times to those of average people; most hover at 200ms.
However, games are played at speeds where 200ms is too slow, e.g. 100-mph baseballs, 130-mph tennis serves, etc.
A reaction time of less than 100ms is deemed a false start in track and field sprints.
Superior Perception Athletes outperformed novices when asked if there was a ball in a rapidly flashed slide....
Should Platforms Be Neutral? Facebook banned praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism, because the two concepts cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups. Furthermore, people that search for related terms will have “Life After Hate” suggested to them.
Part of me is uncomfortable. Sure, Facebook is trying to do the right thing here. What if Facebook was replaced by some tyrannical government that censors opposition?...
Short Selling Say $A shares are selling at $100, but I think they’re overpriced. So I borrow 10 shares, pay my brokerage interest and post some collateral. I then sell the shares for $1,000.
Whoever buys my shares has no idea that I do not own them. In a naked short, I do not actually borrow or ensure that the security can be borrowed within the standard 3-day settlement period....
On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs Capitalism is meant to eliminate bullshit jobs, yet layoffs tend to fall on people making, moving, fixing and maintaining things, but not on the salaried paper pushers that effectively work 15 hours a week.
From a political standpoint, a happy productive population with free time on their hands is mortal to the ruling class. Moreover, work is considered a moral value in itself....
The Sandman (1989 - 1996) by Neil Gaiman. Image from dccomics.com
Path to comic: Lucifer (Netflix) -> Lucifer (Comic) -> The Sandman (Comic)
Netflix is also adapting the comic, so interested in how it deviates from the source. Ser Brienne of Tarth will be Lucifer. Hype!
Love Dream: Sister – you know how I felt for Nada one. What I feel for her still....
Money was a sore point in the Holmes household. Holmes’s grandparents had squandered away their share of the Fleischmann fortune. Richard Fuisz, a family friend, was a flashy successful businessman.
So in a way, Elizabeth didn’t grow up in wealth? This puts a spin on Chapter 01: A Purposeful Life .
Fuisz was offended that Elizabeth never consulted him. Fuisz made his money patenting medical inventions that he anticipated other companies would someday want....
\(X\) is a binomial random variable if it takes the values \(0, 1, 2, …, n\) and
$$ \mathbb{P}\{X = k\} = { n \choose k } \cdot p^k \cdot (1 - p)^{n-k} $$
Sanity Check: Do the probabilities sum to 1? $$ \sum_{k=0}^{n} \mathbb{P}\{X = k\} = \sum_{k=0}^{n} { n \choose k } p^k (1 - p)^{n-k} = \left( p + (1 - p) \right)^n = 1 $$
I totally didn’t understand how we got to \(\left( p + (1 - p) \right)^n\)....
The Principle Brandolini’s Bullshit Asymmetry Principle: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
In Essence of Bullshit , Frankfurt posits that the essence of bullshit is lack of concern for the truth, which may explain why bullshit is easier to produce.
Jonathan Swift: Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…...
Version Control Systems track changes to a folder and its contents in a series of snapshots. Each snapshot encapsulates the entire state of files/folders within a top-level directory.
Git’s interface is a leaky abstraction. While the interface is at times ugly, its underlying design and ideas are beautiful. A bottom-up explanation of Git therefore makes more sense.
Snapshots A blob corresponds to a file, and it’s just a bunch of bytes....