Standing in the way of control!

The United Arab Emirates keep building their Blade Runner-ish cities in the middle of the desert, with buildings like the Ras Al-Khaimah Gateway, a 2.9 million square feet hotel, conference and exhibition complex that looks like some kind of alien mothership from outer space. Construction will start later this year and Norwegian architects Snøhetta say they found their inspiration in the desert itself:

The architectural expression for our proposal is inspired by the surrounding desert and mountain landscape. This concept provides for an infinite variety of naturally shaded, intimate and protected spaces, around which the multiple uses associated with the development are woven. The undulating architectural landscape is resolved in a dramatic landmark tower marking the main gateway plaza. This 200 m high tower will be the setting for a 5 star plus hotel affording panoramic views across the emirate, to the gulf and mountains beyond.

[Dezeen]

Via Gizmodo

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Andrew Smith over at the Dallas Morning News Technology Blog had an interesting post this weekend which met with a great deal of resistance from his readers there. In his post, he briefly detailed the possible doom on the horizon for online gambling, particularly online poker. He quotes the EE Times:

Humanity was dealt a decisive blow by a poker-playing artificial intelligence program called Polaris during the Man-Machine Poker Competition in Las Vegas.

Poker champs fought the AI system to a draw, then won in the first two of four rounds (each round had Polaris playing 500 hands against two humans, whose points were averaged.) But in the final two rounds of the match, Polaris beat both human teams, two wins out of four, with one loss and one draw.

And in his most recent post:

“It wasn’t until mid-2000, [when] an algorithm was developed, that [bots] could even come close to a competent player. But now online computer poker playing may become a thing of the past,” said Ian Fellows, a researcher at the University of California at San Diego and author of the open-source poker bot, “Fell Omen.”

The commentors on Andrew’s posts had a slightly different opinion, and many of them conveyed a familiarity with online gambling in a way that only an avid gambler could, and all of them more or less said the same thing: I can spot a bot from a mile away, and so can the operators of every gambling site on the Internet.

I have to wonder if that’s true, though. The whole meme reminds me of a story that came up during the insanely slow doldrums of the Christmas/New Years season last.  Kristen and I were on the night shift scouring for a news story that piqued our interest, and we came across the tale of CyberLover.RU:

If you thought Facebook Beacon and AdInfuse were creepy avenues for collecting advertising data, wait until you hear about the readily evolved bots coming out of Russia. This advanced software is pre-programmed to woo you until your head spins–or until you give up the digits, along with any other personal information its parent company may find valuable to advertisers.

The software, which is currently only working in Russia, is reportedly very well organized and can fool just about anyone. PC Tools is actually sending out warnings for this software, as it can obviously be used for hacking and other malware intentions. That naughty software. It’s smart enough to post the right messages, URLs, files and photos.

The bottom line is that while bots may not be able to consistently fool and outplay humans at poker at the highest levels, that isn’t what’s necessary for a bot, or army of bots, to make a boatload of money for their owner. The average poker player is, well, average. The bots (presumably) play better than average, and that’s why they exist and continue to be profitable.

As Ray Kurzweil explained of his Law of Accelerating Returns, technology begets technology.  These bots are only going to get better, the hardware that drives them will only improve, and the financial model to incentivize the improvement of both in conjunction will always exist. The US government in all it’s moralistic intent to destroy online gambling might as well let nature run its course, as sooner or later the bots will do it for us.

[Mashable]

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We’ve been known to disagree with the advice doled out by the New York Times’ Sunday Styles advice columnist before, and we’ll have to politely (since it is a column about social mores!) disagree again. This coming Sunday’s column is already up on the Times’ website, and N. G. from Arizona asks the following question:

“About a year ago, an acquaintance gave me a long, affectionate squeeze in front of my significant other. Since my friend is gay, I didn’t think it would create an issue. But my boyfriend, who is a little possessive, took offense. Recently, he ran into my acquaintance and threatened to beat him up if it ever happened again. When I told my boyfriend that threats weren’t the right approach, he called me ungrateful and refused to apologize. Should I apologize to my friend?”

Our answer: your boyfriend sounds like a hypercontrolling asshole with potential for abuse! If he’s not already psychologically or physically abusing you (and it sounds like he is!) he’s probably about to start. Columnist Philip Galanes’ answer?

Unless your boyfriend is a method actor preparing some Stanley Kowalski exercise, I’m afraid he’s really put his foot in it. An apology from you doesn’t work. Your behavior was blameless, and apologizing for your boyfriend would be pointless. He’s not sorry and you can’t prevent further outbursts. I’d address the underlying behavior. It’s odd that your boyfriend would object to a hug from a friend, gay or straight, especially if it didn’t bother you. And his response to you is a little strange, as well. ‘Ungrateful’ for what — being treated like a helpless possession? None of this is to say your boyfriend is a bad person. He may have a blind spot where other men are concerned. Still, you owe it to yourself (and the safety of half the world’s population) to straighten this out. Ask him why he became so upset, and let him know that you’re a big girl who can judge whether a touch is inappropriate. If that goes well, ask again about an apology. If not, how would you feel about hugging my diabolical editor?

Look, I know the column is meant to be lighthearted, but Galanes is taking this thing way too flippantly for my liking. There are numerous red flags in the original question, starting with the fact that she had to write into an advice columnist to ask it in the first place. YES you should apologize to your friend for your complete asshole of a boyfriend! How can you even have to ask that question? If my boyfriend ever EVER even yelled at one of my friends, much less threatened them with violence, I would be mortified and apologize profusely. You don’t yell at each other’s friends, just like you don’t yell at other people’s children. Lady, you need to get far, far away from this man as soon as humanly possible.

Social Q’s [New York Times]

[Jezebel]

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There’s an article on Newsweek’s site today called “5 Reasons To Warn Your Daughter About Alcohol,” which includes such news flashes as girls can get drunker faster than boys, there are health consequences, peer pressure is hard and girls can get assaulted when under the influence. There’s no comparable conversation for boys because, of course, since it’s a girl’s responsibility to protect her precious ladyflower at all costs, it’s not up to a boy (or his mother) to have a conversation about how not to be an alcoholic date-rapey asshole. But it should be. And so, after the jump, we give you the ways to talk to your college-bound sons about how not to be the kind of guy that other people’s daughters have to protect themselves from.

1. One Of The People Your son is probably going to go to a college with women, and they’re going to be around for the rest of his life. Teach him from an early age that girls and boys — and men and women — are all equals and people first and foremost. Teach him to treat himself and all his fellow humans with equal respect. By the time he’s on his way to college, it’s a good time to reiterate the lessons of his youth. Women are not sexual objects and are deserving of respect even as he recognizes biological differences like average weight, average time to drunkenness and the more obvious one of sex. If you catch him acting or talking differently, fucking say something. You’re his mother.
2. The Odds Of Injury Drinking and driving and alcohol poisoning are equally risky for boys and girls, and shouldn’t just be a conversation one has with college-bound daughters. Given how early teens start drinking, this should be an early conversation reiterated before college. At the same time, it’s important to stress to him importance of looking out for his friends — boys and girls — in a college setting. Anyone can get mugged or attacked and anyone can be assaulted — and “looking out for yours boys” does not include making sure they don’t get caught for doing illegal things to other people (like raping girls).
3. A Lifelong Hangover Uh, yeah, men become alcoholics, too. Also, assault can land you in jail. Unprotected sex while drunk can have long-term consequences including disease and early fatherhood. Choices have consequences, so make sure his actions have some as you go.
4. The Truth About Peer Pressure Dudes are just as susceptible to peer pressure as girls. If he’s hanging out with alcoholic date-rape-y douchebags, he might come to think that it is normal behavior to treat women with disrespect and to drink to the point of being blacked out every night. While you can point out that lots of people don’t drink while he rolls his 18-year-old eyes, you can finish by pointing out that there are also lots of girls who don’t drink, too, and those girls aren’t usually going to frat parties and hanging with enormous douchebags. And if he says stupid crap like “nice guys always finish last” and “girls only like bad guys,” ask him what kind of girls he’s obsessing over and have a talk about dating someone other than the types of girls who don’t appreciate nice guys. That stereotype sucks.
5. Keeping In Touch You know how your mom probably told you about dating guys that have strong family ties and love their mothers? Be that mother without excusing intolerable behavior. If you wouldn’t want your daughter to take that crap from a boy, don’t look the other way when your boy dishes it out. And insist that he calls.

[Jezebel]

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