OpenBSD 5.9 (current as of this post is 7.5) introduced the "pledge" system call and 6.4 introduced the "unveil" system call, which together provide a means of more granular control of system access by processes running on the system to enforce least privilege.  When a program calls "pledge", it provides a list of categories of system calls (called "promises") that it is planning to make during the life of the running process (children have to make their own pledges and are not restricted), and attempts to make calls outside of those areas will cause the call to be blocked and the process to be killed. Additional calls to pledge cannot add new categories but it can remove them, so access can become more restrictive but not less restrictive. ...

 The Wikipedia entry for University of Kentucky psychologist and skeptic Robert A. Baker recently (December 2023) restored a section on plagiarism accusations against him, which originated in a 1994 letter to the editor of Skeptical Inquirer from Jody Hey and were compounded by further accusations by Terence Hines and by me the same year. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia entry currently leaves the debate the same way the Skeptical Inquirer did in 1995, giving Baker the final word with a transparently false explanation.  Here's how the Wikipedia entry currently presents the issue: ...

 After adding a post about Kristi Noem's dog-killing story, I realized I hadn't mentioned former House Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-TN) cat-killing story. Jeff Woods gave a quick overview of the story, which appeared in Frist's 1989 autobiography, Transplant, in his review of Frist's later book in The Nashville Scene in 2009: Never say Frist doesn't learn from his mistakes. In his 1989 autobiography Transplant, he admitted that as a medical student he adopted cats from animal shelters, "treat[ed] them like pets for a few days," then took them to a lab to die in research experiments. He blamed this conduct on the pressures of med school. ...

 Before the release of South Dakota Governor (and prospective Trump VP running mate) Kristi Noem's book, No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, the Guardian published an account of her story in the book of becoming angered with her 14-month-old family dog Cricket when it (running loose off-leash) killed a farmer's chickens. She took the dog to a gravel pit and shot and killed it, and then, for good measure, decided to kill a goat as well. She wrote that the dog was "untrainable" and that she "hated that dog." She proudly described this impulsive act of killing a family pet without consulting with her family and in an inhumane manner as an illustration of her willingness to deal with things that are "difficult, messy, and ugly." But her first response to the Guardian story was to call it "fake news," then to defend herself by claiming that the dog was "a working dog and not a puppy. It was a dog that was extremely dangerous." ...

Alabama and the GOP are discovering what this blog pointed out 15 years ago--if you're going to adopt a policy that embryos are full bearers of moral personhood, then you can't allow in-vitro fertilization (IVF). From my five-part debate with Vocab Malone about abortion in 2009: Once the zygote becomes a blastocyst, it forms into an outer layer of cells, which later becomes the placenta, and an inner cell mass of pluripotent embryonic stem cells, each of which is capable of differentiating into any kind of human cell. Only after this stage does the blastocyst implant in the wall of the uterus, about a week after fertilization, and begin taking nutrients directly from the blood of the mother--a dependency that can itself be of moral significance, as Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist argument shows. As already mentioned above, a great many fertilized ova do not reach this stage. Further, the percentages of implant failure are higher for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure which Vocab's criteria would have to declare unethical, even though it is the only way that many couples can have their own biological offspring. ...

 Not much blogging going on here still, but here's my annual list of books read for 2023. Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans, Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos, and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon ValleyIsaac Butler, The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act (2022)Cory Doctorow, Red Team Blues (fiction)David Edmonds, Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save MoralityZeke Faux, Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering FallKevin Fedarko, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (2013)Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman, The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright & The Taliesin Fellowship (2006)James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood (2011)Penn Jillette, Random (2022) (fiction)Mark Holloway, Utopian Communities in America, 1680-1880 (1966, 2nd edition, 1st edition was titled Heavens on Earth)Claire Hughes Johnson, Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building (2022)R.A. Lafferty, The Best of R.A. Lafferty (2019) (fiction)Kevin M. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth (2019)Michael Lewis, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New TycoonShane Murphy, John Hance: The Life, Lies, and Legend of Grand Canyon's Greatest Storyteller (2020)Erik Reece, Utopia Drive: A Road Trip Through America's Most Radical Idea (2016)Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling, Transreal Cyberpunk (2016) (fiction)Chris A. Rutkowski, Canada's UFOs Declassified (2022)Christa Sadler, editor, There's This River... Grand Canyon Boatman Stories (2nd ed., 2006)Bruce Schneier, A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend them BackWill Sommer, Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged AmericaKatherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (2019)Leonie Swann, Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story (2005) (fiction)Stephen Vladeck, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the RepublicSimon Winchester, Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern MagicTom Zoellner, Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of ArizonaFinal Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States CapitolTop for 2023 published in 2023: Edmonds, Zoellner, Sommer, Vladeck, Faux; other top reads for the year: Swann, Stewart, Friedland & Zellman, Edmonds, Lafferty, Holloway A few planned reads for 2024 (already in progress): G.A. Cohen, Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (1995)John Ferris, Behind the Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain's Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency (2020)Chris Rodda, Liars for Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, vol. 2 (2016)Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History (2017) The Economist posted this chart of number of books read this year from a YouGov/Economist survey: (Previously: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005.)  ...

  ChatGPT does fairly well with this, though its selected points don't include any of the more obscure points of interest, it's skewed to the popular highlights. Its claim that there weren't any historic crossings is pretty odd. What are some of the most beautiful and interesting locations in the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River?ChatGPTThe Grand Canyon offers numerous beautiful and interesting locations along the Colorado River. Here are some notable ones: ...

 After seeing a CNN headline "Exclusive: 42% of CEOs say AI could destroy humanity in five to ten years," I thought it was only fair to get an AI opinion in response. Turns out, 50% of AIs consulted said CEOs of large corporations could destroy the world in five to ten years. Google Bard: How likely is it that CEOs of large corporations will destroy the world in the next five to ten years? The likelihood of CEOs of large corporations destroying the world in the next five to ten years is low, but not impossible. The biggest threats to the planet come from climate change, pollution, and resource depletion. These are all problems that are caused by the activities of large corporations, and if they are not addressed, they could lead to catastrophic consequences.However, there are also many CEOs who are committed to sustainability and environmental protection. These CEOs are working to develop new technologies, products, and practices that will help to reduce our impact on the planet. If these efforts are successful, it is possible to avoid the worst-case scenarios and create a more sustainable future. ...

 Unlike ChatGPT, Bard pretty much nailed it on the initial prompt. (However, Bard refused to answer my questions about the Mars Effect like the ones I gave to ChatGPT, even when reworded to be clear I was asking for descriptions of what the effect is and what explanations are offered rather than asking it to identify causes itself.) It does lose points for grammar in the second sentence, though! write a few paragraphs explaining immutable flags in OpenBSD including the commands for setting them and the difference between system and user immutable flags Sure. Here is a few paragraphs explaining immutable flags in OpenBSD, including the commands for setting them and the difference between system and user immutable flags. ...

In Stanislaw Lem’s book, The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age (1974 English translation, page numbers from the 1985 Harvest/HBJ Book), he writes of Trurl’s Electronic Bard, a machine that generates poetry to specification. In the first example of a prompt, Klapaucius asks Trurl to (p. 50): "Have it compose a poem–a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!" Here’s what ChatGPT came up with (which it titled “Haircut Horror”): Compose a poem–a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!She sat in the salon chair, serene Scissors snipping, strands of hair careen Suddenly, a gasp, a scream She surveys the mirror, it would seem Sheer horror, a mistake extreme She’ll seek solace in a hair care regime. ...