I hope MsGuy is ok

[Guest hitoallusa]

Based on the name MsGuy gave me I believe he is still with us since I can't find him in the obituaries. I know his health has not been great but he was well enough to clean and sweep his garage and had pizza with his nephew so I am optimistic.. Where are you MsGuy??? I miss you..

[MsGuy]

LOL, Hito, I assure you any report of me cleaning &/or sweeping a garage is a hallucination of the internet.

Now as to how you knew I split a pizza with my nephew, I'm baffled. And more than a little freaked out that such info would be available on the net. Maybe just a coincidence with someone of the same name? jeesus, what's the world coming to?

[AdamSmith]

You have to be careful of that hito, I tell you.

In your absence we have had several threads tut-tutting the Feds' unfettered electronic snooping. To all of them His Hi-ness has replied, in effect, Let many wiretaps bloom!

[MsGuy]

We are products of a cultural tradition that fosters a certain scepticism toward the state (and authority in general). Hito, I believe, comes at these issues from a background that is inclined to regard the state and authority as benevolent until proven otherwise. To me, both intuitivly and intellectually, our tradition seems closer to the truth.

But I expect he would say much the same for his.

[AdamSmith]

The studied reasonableness in the elocution of your response would seem impervious to refutation.

(A parlor game: Spot the Escape Clauses. )

[RA1]

I think I saw Santa going up the chimney just a little while ago.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest hitoallusa]

I don't do anything illegal and am being especially careful after what has happened before. I think you misunderstood my point again. We have to be realistic and need to accept what's inevitable. I think PEOPLE in the government will be able to find ways to protect people's privacy. New generations of super computers and technologies will make it possible to anonymously monitor people's communications without infringing their privacy and also protect the public from terrorists attacks.

I think people forget that we have also evolved mentally not just our physical features. We know that if we act in a certain way then our society can be run more efficiently and effectively without using the Guilotine that killed my fashion heroine Marie Antoninette.. It will become more efficient and productive in the future. That's why I'm optimistic about our future.

What I'm asking is be realistic and do not fear too much. For me government is something we participate in and to work with..

You have to be careful of that hito, I tell you.

In your absence we have had several threads tut-tutting the Feds' unfettered electronic snooping. To all of them His Hi-ness has replied, in effect, Let many wiretaps bloom!

[Guest hitoallusa]

I remember you posting about spring clean up before... I assumed that meant you cleaning your a garage also... To my disappointment, I get upset when a guy doesn't remember little tiny bits of details in our private conversations.. Lol.. That's ok.. I forgive you..You better not forget my birthday, our anniversaries (our first talk, date, kiss, hug, sex, vacation, move, child, child's birthday...) , special days ( V-day and White day: I can be both a guy and a girl in our relationship) and our shoe shopping day weekend (seasonal, four times a year). That will be all..

LOL, Hito, I assure you any report of me cleaning &/or sweeping a garage is a hallucination of the internet.

Now as to how you knew I split a pizza with my nephew, I'm baffled. And more than a little freaked out that such info would be available on the net. Maybe just a coincidence with someone of the same name? jeesus, what's the world coming to?

[RA1]

How is it possible to monitor communications without infringing upon privacy?

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest hitoallusa]

I know it's a philosophical question and it is indeed debatable to apply "anonymous" in this situation but here it goes. Basically a super computer will collect all the communications made in the US. Then the computer will look for key words or a specific pattern in all those calls. It's not targeting a specific person. It's like a CCTV or a monitoring software some retailers use to monitor their customers, for example, how long an anonymous customer stays at a certain spot of a store. The retailers use collected data to relocate products or manage work hours more efficiently. I know it's controversial and it might sound like a bit of stretch but that's what I meant by anonymous.

How is it possible to monitor communications without infringing upon privacy?

Best regards,

RA1

[RA1]

You have provided a technical answer to a philosophical question. To my way of thinking, "monitor" and "privacy" are mutually exclusive words.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest hitoallusa]

Unfortunately and ironically, someone has to do monitoring to ensure our privacy. I don't think they are totally exclusive.. Privacy depends on monitoring too...

[RA1]

That may be true but they are monitoring our right to privacy, not the words or message contained within same.

Best regards,

RA1

[MsGuy]

I remember you posting about spring clean up before... I assumed that meant you cleaning your a garage also...

For me Spring cleaning = vacuuming the rugs, scrubbing out the bath room and sorting through the dirty laundry piles to pick out the 10 or 12 loads that really need to get washed.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Oh my AS you need a good homemaker right by you... I'm not good at baking pies since I'm not into pies and I can get good baked goods at my local Whole Foods so you have to settle with those. I've recently trained myself in cooking

and I have been to many good restaurants around the world so you don't have to worry about food. When can I come over? I hope you cleaned out one or two closets for my shoes..

[AdamSmith]

hito, very happy to have you, and your shoes. But what prompted that? Did you mean me, or actually MsGuy? (I clean my bathroom at least spring and fall. )

[Guest hitoallusa]

Oh my my you both need a homemaker... I need to split my time between you two... AS is easy since he is within 10 miles but I guess I need to make a trip to MsGuy's place on weekends.. I hope they have a good hairdresser in MS since I get my hair done on weekends.

[lookin]

I hope they have a good hairdresser in MS since I get my hair done on weekends.

He says he's just here in town visiting someone.

My, that's some mighty big hair. And the shoes!

I sure hope my Bubba doesn't take a shine to him.

[MsGuy]

He says he's just here in town visiting someone.

My, that's some mighty big hair. And the shoes!

I sure hope my Bubba doesn't take a shine to him.

ahahahahahahahaha...

[AdamSmith]

but here it goes. Basically a super computer

P.S. Why does that not give me great comfort?

[Guest NCBored]

P.S. Why does that not give me great comfort?

Does anyone watch Person of Interest?

[Guest hitoallusa]

I have seen some very smart people who are deeply interested in having authority. They want to look good and powerful to others and I can understand that but they take it too far. I can understand that we want to be feel special but we should not do so by crushing others . As we can see in Reese Witherspoon's famous phrase " Do you know my name?"

Setting a set of criteria and continuously applying it to evaluate wine for its commercial success tends to have more predictable power than some wine experts relying on one's expertise. There are patterns that our intuition can pick up and accurately predict something but it has limit. Although Dr House's epiphanies seems to help him make a right decision all the time, he makes mistakes in the process of using his intuition too till his final epiphany in the end of the episode.

In short, super computers will be able to process information without bias, prejudice and unnecessary emotions that influence our judgement. Moreover, it will have an ability to record and analyze billions of patterns and figures out anaomalies that could be a lead to the next terrorist attack. It will be much powerful than our limited but useful human intuition that can be also tainted by our prejudice and bias.

When a neutral computer only look for billions of behavioral patterns we create everyday and can pick some signals of harmful activity then I think it's an amazing thing. We have no problem observing people at shopping mall although my eyes probably wander when a hot guy passes by but computers will not do that.

P.S. Why does that not give me great comfort?

[BigK]

Does anyone watch Person of Interest?

I do. I enjoy the show. Interesting main characters most with many flaws.