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Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

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Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#71

Post by Clubber »

philipodonnell wrote: post #65
Clubber wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly recommend everyone to look into hosting your own mail server. DigitalOcean will rent you a Linux VM for $5 a month or something crazy like that. You can figure out how to install postfix/dovecot/squirrelmail it in a few hours. If nothing else, it keeps critical functionality decentralized, and you learn something and $5 a month for career insurance is pretty damn cheap.

Its not the mail server, its deliverability. If you can set up a $5/month server to send email so can every spammer ever and the big mail providers know this. Mail sent like this won't be delivered anywhere with even the most basic spam filtering which includes blacklists of known spam-source IP address blocks like Digital Ocean/AWS/Heroku.

Wow, that seems ... anticompetitive.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#73

Post by dragonwriter »

dhimes wrote: post #68
dragonwriter wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly, he claims that it is tied to 2016 political campaign position. No substantive evidence for that is presented, though.

I interpreted it to mean that he showed that Hilary's campaign was overconfident on polling, and with proper statistical analysis she would have seen something closer to the truth. He apparently has worked for both Obama and Trump.

Yes, and that is all relatively uncontroversial (that he did that, or at least presented material which purported to do that.)

What is controversial and unsubstantiated is his suggestion that that is the reason for the ban.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#74

Post by b4ux1t3 »

mirimir wrote: post #55

I can't imagine how people depend so heavily on free accounts from Google. Which notoriously ignores help requests. And typically don't retain backups. Seriously? But bottom line, it's Google's business what they do. And with a free account, there's no recourse. Except maybe getting to HN front page, and reaching someone sympathetic at Google.

I mean, they have _millions_ of users that have never had a problem. It's far more likely this is a mistake than any kind of malicious act, just given the sheer number of customers they have.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#75

Post by [deleted] »

xiaoma wrote: post #2

No idea what all was on his blog and other google accounts, but according to the article they were used for his work at the university. Also some credible sites like the NYT linking into the disabled blog: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/business/the-stock-market... Google may have had some good reasons or it may have just been an example of ML discriminating against a name like Salil. Either way, it's very distur…

[deleted]

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#76

Post by [deleted] »

xiaoma wrote: post #2

No idea what all was on his blog and other google accounts, but according to the article they were used for his work at the university. Also some credible sites like the NYT linking into the disabled blog: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/business/the-stock-market... Google may have had some good reasons or it may have just been an example of ML discriminating against a name like Salil. Either way, it's very distur…

[deleted]

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#77

Post by jolux »

xiaoma wrote: post #57
jolux wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just thought it was interesting you (edit: you're not parent, I meant parent) didn't call him out by name, and I wanted to make the connection explicit.

Despite being successful for an academic, he's not exactly a famous psych prof at the level of say, Steven Pinker. Before politics collided with his work this year he didn't seem to be politically active at all, either. It might have changed a bit after Joe Rogan's podcast but to be honest, most people outside of Canada probably have no idea who Jordan Peterson is.

Most people, no, but he's immensely popular with a certain section of the right. Nonetheless I was a bit confused because you seemed to be implying that Peterson is just another apolitical academic who caught the short end of the deep learning stick, when there's a lot more evidence that his ban could have been politically motivated. I don't understand why I'm getting downvoted for that.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#78

Post by b4ux1t3 »

xiaoma wrote: post #2

No idea what all was on his blog and other google accounts, but according to the article they were used for his work at the university. Also some credible sites like the NYT linking into the disabled blog: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/business/the-stock-market... Google may have had some good reasons or it may have just been an example of ML discriminating against a name like Salil. Either way, it's very distur…

Er, Google has millions of users who have absolutely no problems. One (or even dozens) of bad stories is a tiny percentage of the interactions that take place on their services. It's _far_ more likely to be a mistake than anything untoward, just based on the sheer numbers.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#79

Post by jolux »

gragas wrote: post #60
otalp wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Peterson is clearly politically active. For those who don't know, he rose from complete obscurity because he opposed an anti-transgender-discrimination bill in Canada. His argument was that it was a serious threat to free speech and would force him to use pronouns he didn't want to use, despite nothing like that being on the bill and despite numerous respectable legal scholars informing him that you could never…

>the supposed infiltration of Marxism into culture and ideas like White Privilege and Cultural Appropriation You can't argue that "white privilege" hasn't infiltrated culture. An alarming amount of people have openly disparaged white people when talking to me, even though I am white myself. If you're not white, it's almost socially acceptable to say "fuck white people" in cities like SF, NYC, and Chicago. I think it'…

Maybe that's the case, but I don't think white privilege and cultural appropriation are inherently Marxist ideas. A lot of Marxists actually reject them as revisionist attempts to bring liberal individualism and individual blame into class politics.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#80

Post by b4ux1t3 »

Clubber wrote: post #71
philipodonnell wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not the mail server, its deliverability. If you can set up a $5/month server to send email so can every spammer ever and the big mail providers know this. Mail sent like this won't be delivered anywhere with even the most basic spam filtering which includes blacklists of known spam-source IP address blocks like Digital Ocean/AWS/Heroku.

Wow, that seems ... anticompetitive.

Er, no, it seems anti-spam. The fact of the matter is, plenty of people use dime-a-dozen hosting to make spam bots. These days, you're better off using a reputable mail service as opposed to rolling your own, unless you have a fairly large company.
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