Slashdot Mirror

But if you insist on citation, here is one: Roche Blocking Blindness Cure.

It is a very interesting website full of interesting stuff

The $25 computer for example
http://singularityhub.com/2011/05/10/a-25-computer-the-size-of-your-thumb-video/

or an actual flying car ($200,000)
http://singularityhub.com/2010/07/06/terrafugia-car-plane-gets-more-faa-aproval-hitting-skies-and-roads-2011-video/

There are some interesting robots/ milling machines
http://singularityhub.com/2010/04/05/5-axis-robot-carves-metal-like-butter-video/

for example

The summary for the model airport is quite misleading as the airport is part of a number of miniature attractions and employ's 150 people and cost millions to make and is a popular tourist attraction.

It is a very interesting website full of interesting stuff

The $25 computer for example
http://singularityhub.com/2011/05/10/a-25-computer-the-size-of-your-thumb-video/

or an actual flying car ($200,000)
http://singularityhub.com/2010/07/06/terrafugia-car-plane-gets-more-faa-aproval-hitting-skies-and-roads-2011-video/

There are some interesting robots/ milling machines
http://singularityhub.com/2010/04/05/5-axis-robot-carves-metal-like-butter-video/

for example

The summary for the model airport is quite misleading as the airport is part of a number of miniature attractions and employ's 150 people and cost millions to make and is a popular tourist attraction.

It is a very interesting website full of interesting stuff

The $25 computer for example
http://singularityhub.com/2011/05/10/a-25-computer-the-size-of-your-thumb-video/

or an actual flying car ($200,000)
http://singularityhub.com/2010/07/06/terrafugia-car-plane-gets-more-faa-aproval-hitting-skies-and-roads-2011-video/

There are some interesting robots/ milling machines
http://singularityhub.com/2010/04/05/5-axis-robot-carves-metal-like-butter-video/

for example

The summary for the model airport is quite misleading as the airport is part of a number of miniature attractions and employ's 150 people and cost millions to make and is a popular tourist attraction.

Anyone who regularly visualizes data needs to pick up resources on how to clearly organize and display your data, like "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward Tufte (though some of his examples are a little dated).

For a modern example please see Hans Rosling :

http://singularityhub.com/2010/12/09/hans-rosling-shows-you-200-years-of-global-growth-in-4-minutes-video/

Really. I've showed it to my parents, wife, and my two kids (sub-teen), they were all totally enthralled.

I would all depend on what level of the thought process they have it operating. Would the user have to actively think "I'll move it up, down, away, towards etc", in which case it would be less intuitive and easy than the nerve- or muscle-controlled ones. If the arm was set to just work on 'impulse' type thoughts, then how long before peoples arms start grabbing women by the arse just coz the user had a dirty thought - would they be able to be held responsible in law for the action of their arm?
As for the Canadians doing this, well done. DARPA have been working on this for a long time now;-
http://www.neurotechreports.com/pages/darpaprosthetics.html
http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/03/mind-controlled-artificial-arm-begins-the-first-human-testing/

I actually typed a response detailing how to accomplish this very simply with current TVs, but Window 7 decided to throw up the "Your system has been updated, do you want to restart" dialog box, stealing focus thus turning my last carriage return into a system restart. Arrrrggggg....

Anyway, I have been saying that this would be simple since I got my first nVidia 3D shutter glasses a decade ago. They used the same method of offering 3D as the current crop of 3D TVs. So, instead of retyping directions AGAIN on how to implement this, I did a quick search and found that Sony has recently patented it using the incredibly obvious solution. Here is a description of how to do it.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/07/26/sony-patents-turn-3d-tv-into-2-shows-at-once-maybe-you-just-want-video-goggles/

The three cameras are pointed straight up and out in the middle of fields.

Per the article

http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/whats-hitting-earth.jpg

So once again - If it's pointing up and is a fixed camera who is it going to be spying on?

You mean like the one at the top of the front page of TFA?

No, I meant "show me some real data". My point being that a device that can identify most cancer cells from a fine needle aspirate is a very important discovery. The gushing of the TFA coupled with the bizarre hookup to a smartphone makes me (and the fungus dude) a bit leery of the whole concept.

You mean like the one at the top of the front page of TFA?

How about this? Eliminate all taxes on income, individual or corporate. Place taxes on assets and capital appropriate to cover the costs of the government (we aren't looking for behavior modification). Eliminate the rules and fees that make hiring people such a chore, like Social Security, Medicare taxes, and minimum wage. Simplify excessively bureaucratic or complex regulation. This removes the perverse incentive to invest in capital rather than hire more people.

Well the claim is that people would then take their capital and go elsewhere. "We'll all leave your country and set up shop in "no taxcountry" ".
So I think (as bad as it was with smoot hawley) that we may need to start considering shortcuts taken in manufacturing. If you want to make your products in a country with no taxes, workers, environmental laws, then you pay a penalty tariff on every product.

But even thinking about that- I see it spirals down to nothing- because even with a tariff the people here have no money without a job.

You may find these interesting...

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/06/incredible-tug-robots-automate-delivery-in-hospitals-video/

According to Aethon, one TUG robot working two shifts a day, seven days a week, does the equivalent labor of 2.8 full time employees, but costs less than one full time employee. Their case studies seem to back up their claims. Variations on the TUG system have been in hospitals for several years now as you can see in the following segments:

http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/02/hospital-to-lay-off-workers-hiring-new-robots/
Hospital To Lay Off Workers, Hires Robots Instead
According to a hospital administrator quoted in the Businessweek article the 19 TUGs perform $1 million of human labor per year, but only cost $350,000. A 65% reduction in labor costs? Thatâ(TM)s very appealing.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/10/whats-the-secret-behind-diapers-com-success-a-kiva-robot-warehouse-video/
Whatâ(TM)s The Secret Behind Diapers.com Success? A Kiva Robot Warehouse

On the subject of Forklifts...not yet on the market.. but just a question of how long.
http://singularityhub.com/2009/05/14/the-autonomous-forklift/
The Autonomous Forklift
This forklift, however, is being designed to move pallets for the military in a variable environment where humans work and interact with the machine as coworkers.

---

How about this? Eliminate all taxes on income, individual or corporate. Place taxes on assets and capital appropriate to cover the costs of the government (we aren't looking for behavior modification). Eliminate the rules and fees that make hiring people such a chore, like Social Security, Medicare taxes, and minimum wage. Simplify excessively bureaucratic or complex regulation. This removes the perverse incentive to invest in capital rather than hire more people.

Well the claim is that people would then take their capital and go elsewhere. "We'll all leave your country and set up shop in "no taxcountry" ".
So I think (as bad as it was with smoot hawley) that we may need to start considering shortcuts taken in manufacturing. If you want to make your products in a country with no taxes, workers, environmental laws, then you pay a penalty tariff on every product.

But even thinking about that- I see it spirals down to nothing- because even with a tariff the people here have no money without a job.

You may find these interesting...

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/06/incredible-tug-robots-automate-delivery-in-hospitals-video/

According to Aethon, one TUG robot working two shifts a day, seven days a week, does the equivalent labor of 2.8 full time employees, but costs less than one full time employee. Their case studies seem to back up their claims. Variations on the TUG system have been in hospitals for several years now as you can see in the following segments:

http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/02/hospital-to-lay-off-workers-hiring-new-robots/
Hospital To Lay Off Workers, Hires Robots Instead
According to a hospital administrator quoted in the Businessweek article the 19 TUGs perform $1 million of human labor per year, but only cost $350,000. A 65% reduction in labor costs? Thatâ(TM)s very appealing.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/10/whats-the-secret-behind-diapers-com-success-a-kiva-robot-warehouse-video/
Whatâ(TM)s The Secret Behind Diapers.com Success? A Kiva Robot Warehouse

On the subject of Forklifts...not yet on the market.. but just a question of how long.
http://singularityhub.com/2009/05/14/the-autonomous-forklift/
The Autonomous Forklift
This forklift, however, is being designed to move pallets for the military in a variable environment where humans work and interact with the machine as coworkers.

---

How about this? Eliminate all taxes on income, individual or corporate. Place taxes on assets and capital appropriate to cover the costs of the government (we aren't looking for behavior modification). Eliminate the rules and fees that make hiring people such a chore, like Social Security, Medicare taxes, and minimum wage. Simplify excessively bureaucratic or complex regulation. This removes the perverse incentive to invest in capital rather than hire more people.

Well the claim is that people would then take their capital and go elsewhere. "We'll all leave your country and set up shop in "no taxcountry" ".
So I think (as bad as it was with smoot hawley) that we may need to start considering shortcuts taken in manufacturing. If you want to make your products in a country with no taxes, workers, environmental laws, then you pay a penalty tariff on every product.

But even thinking about that- I see it spirals down to nothing- because even with a tariff the people here have no money without a job.

You may find these interesting...

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/06/incredible-tug-robots-automate-delivery-in-hospitals-video/

According to Aethon, one TUG robot working two shifts a day, seven days a week, does the equivalent labor of 2.8 full time employees, but costs less than one full time employee. Their case studies seem to back up their claims. Variations on the TUG system have been in hospitals for several years now as you can see in the following segments:

http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/02/hospital-to-lay-off-workers-hiring-new-robots/
Hospital To Lay Off Workers, Hires Robots Instead
According to a hospital administrator quoted in the Businessweek article the 19 TUGs perform $1 million of human labor per year, but only cost $350,000. A 65% reduction in labor costs? Thatâ(TM)s very appealing.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/10/whats-the-secret-behind-diapers-com-success-a-kiva-robot-warehouse-video/
Whatâ(TM)s The Secret Behind Diapers.com Success? A Kiva Robot Warehouse

On the subject of Forklifts...not yet on the market.. but just a question of how long.
http://singularityhub.com/2009/05/14/the-autonomous-forklift/
The Autonomous Forklift
This forklift, however, is being designed to move pallets for the military in a variable environment where humans work and interact with the machine as coworkers.

---

How about this? Eliminate all taxes on income, individual or corporate. Place taxes on assets and capital appropriate to cover the costs of the government (we aren't looking for behavior modification). Eliminate the rules and fees that make hiring people such a chore, like Social Security, Medicare taxes, and minimum wage. Simplify excessively bureaucratic or complex regulation. This removes the perverse incentive to invest in capital rather than hire more people.

Well the claim is that people would then take their capital and go elsewhere. "We'll all leave your country and set up shop in "no taxcountry" ".
So I think (as bad as it was with smoot hawley) that we may need to start considering shortcuts taken in manufacturing. If you want to make your products in a country with no taxes, workers, environmental laws, then you pay a penalty tariff on every product.

But even thinking about that- I see it spirals down to nothing- because even with a tariff the people here have no money without a job.

You may find these interesting...

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/06/incredible-tug-robots-automate-delivery-in-hospitals-video/

According to Aethon, one TUG robot working two shifts a day, seven days a week, does the equivalent labor of 2.8 full time employees, but costs less than one full time employee. Their case studies seem to back up their claims. Variations on the TUG system have been in hospitals for several years now as you can see in the following segments:

http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/02/hospital-to-lay-off-workers-hiring-new-robots/
Hospital To Lay Off Workers, Hires Robots Instead
According to a hospital administrator quoted in the Businessweek article the 19 TUGs perform $1 million of human labor per year, but only cost $350,000. A 65% reduction in labor costs? Thatâ(TM)s very appealing.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/10/whats-the-secret-behind-diapers-com-success-a-kiva-robot-warehouse-video/
Whatâ(TM)s The Secret Behind Diapers.com Success? A Kiva Robot Warehouse

On the subject of Forklifts...not yet on the market.. but just a question of how long.
http://singularityhub.com/2009/05/14/the-autonomous-forklift/
The Autonomous Forklift
This forklift, however, is being designed to move pallets for the military in a variable environment where humans work and interact with the machine as coworkers.

---

cloned animals are known to suffer from compromised immune function and generally short lifespans.

The technology has progressed. Some cloned sheep have already lived beyond the decade mark. As a demo, Campbell recently cranked out four more copies of Dolly, the sheep.

A new technique developed at King’s College London uses a fifteen minute MRI scan to diagnose autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ... The researchers found that ASD patients had special cortical features that allowed their brains to be distinguished from the other two groups. By contrast, ADHD brains could not be distinguished from their healthy counterparts. Because of the small sample size, researchers were unable to distinguish between distinct diagnoses along the autism spectrum (e.g autism vs. Asperger’s). Future research will be needed to determine whether the new technique can tease out diagnostic subcategories of the disorder – and whether the same technique can find these differences in childrens’ brains. Fifteen minute MRI scan to diagnose autism spectrum disorder

Actually the original point is ASD not only have difficulty reading body language intuitively but don't send it intuitively either so your not going to be able to read them in an instant and anything you do read is likely to be wrong anyways. In the NT population body language usually trumps verbal language, in the ASD population Verbal language trumps body language.

So what you are saying is a person with ASD cannot use body language to communicate and cannot read body language. I'm not disagreeing with that.

I'm saying it's unwise to assume any language is honest, whether it's their words or their bodyspeak, it's just as likely to be false as it is to be correct when you are dealing with a person you know nothing about. It's 50/50, it's like flipping a coin. Only when you learn that their behavior typically matches what they say or their body language can you begin to read them and some people never mean what they say or say what they mean.

A new technique developed at King’s College London uses a fifteen minute MRI scan to diagnose autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ... The researchers found that ASD patients had special cortical features that allowed their brains to be distinguished from the other two groups. By contrast, ADHD brains could not be distinguished from their healthy counterparts. Because of the small sample size, researchers were unable to distinguish between distinct diagnoses along the autism spectrum (e.g autism vs. Asperger’s). Future research will be needed to determine whether the new technique can tease out diagnostic subcategories of the disorder – and whether the same technique can find these differences in childrens’ brains. Fifteen minute MRI scan to diagnose autism spectrum disorder

Actually the original point is ASD not only have difficulty reading body language intuitively but don't send it intuitively either so your not going to be able to read them in an instant and anything you do read is likely to be wrong anyways. In the NT population body language usually trumps verbal language, in the ASD population Verbal language trumps body language.

The economic problem is not the central problem of mankind. Knowledge, innovation, technology is. In times like these when biz is sitting on trillions of cash, govt needs to step up to prevent suffering and encourage the continuing advance of innovation. Our creativity is what keeps our currency strong, by producing things others want.

When have predictions about the deficit causing doom and gloom ever come true in the US? Lincoln printed over $400 million greenbacks, and it worked. Under FDR the govt took over some 40% of GDP, and it worked. Reagan tripled the debt, and it worked.

Why should money creation automatically be tied to debt? Because bankers profit that way? Why can't our elected representatives create debt-free money to fund a robust safety net (or basic income) and encourage innovation through challenges (nothing prevents private companies like Google and Netflix from holding challenges too of course)?

If you look at the figures for US foreign-owned debt, you will see that we could pay off China with the recently-passed tax cut for the richest 2%. Note that the second largest holder of US foreign debt is Japan, with its 200% debt-to-gdp ratio. Also note that foreign debt totals some $4.2 trillion; most of the rest is government owing money to itself - which can be forgiven or written down. So the debt crisis is not nearly as scary as politicians focused on elections want you to believe!

Fears about the debt are a pure political ploy, an appeal to emotion and bad analogies with personal finances, designed to scare the voters with predictions about their grandchildren that have been made ever since this country was founded and Alexander Hamilton assumed the states' war debts. But govt can do things that individuals can't, like print money, and declare war. And this visualization of the last 200 years shows that none of the predictions about grandchildren being worse off have come true.

Recognize the fears about the debt for what it is: simply a means to get attention. Everyone knows the debt doesn't matter, especially Republican presidents, who are strongly correlated with increases in the debt.

Exactly my first thoughts.

Unfortunately, after not reading TFA (this is /.) but rather the one it links to, it appears that this is more of a pseudo-3D parlor trick - literally based on a 'Victorian era' trick used in parlors ...

The modern version of the technology is still interesting and worth a watch (there's a video, in addition to the article) - http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/18/old-trick-enhances-modern-3d-video-teleconferencing/

There is a robot dance competition called Robo-One Gate. It was held last year at the International Robot Exposition trade show in Tokyo. It is associated with with the Robo-One Competition, which features robots wrestling and just had its 18th event.
101,000 people visited the four-day marketing bonanza IREx 2009. The next one is being held in 2011.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROBO-ONE
http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/24/so-you-think-your-robot-can-dance-videos/
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=international+robot+exposition
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=robo-one

http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/honda-exoskeleton-walker.jpg

Did they really need to put a man there? I feel the pain in my nuts already.

Hah! I was thinking the same thing. If I used one of these, I'd mod it by attaching a big dildo on the front (and attach a horn and rear-view mirror to it like I see people with walkers do) (or those fake testicles people like to hang off the back of their trucks).

http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/honda-exoskeleton-walker.jpg

Did they really need to put a man there? I feel the pain in my nuts already.

That probably isn't too far away.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/03/18/android-touchscreen-module-ready-to-invade-home-and-office-appliances/

I don't see mention of how this could possibly connect to human nerves. Is that kind of thing even possible?

If I remember correctly, prosthetics connecting directly to nerves pop up in the news from time to time. There's an article from SingularityHub on something like this. here it is.
That fake limb in the article can feel, it has no skin though. So maybe now that there is electric skin we can put them together and get a cyborg arm.

Wow, what a staggering level of misinformation you've perpetuated!

1) It is not true that there is no human embryonic stem cell based treatment like you say; Geron has an FDA-approved phase I human clinical trial underway that is based on oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (GRNOPC1) derived from hESCs that will be used to treat paralyzed patients.

2) It is not true that, like you incorrectly state, "any resulting therapy would need to have the patient placed on lifelong immunosupression." Using a technique known as "Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer," it is possible to remove the embryonic DNA and replace it with the patient's own DNA, creating immune-compatible tissue for the patient.

3) Another misinformed line you bring up "[the] ban allowed for research to continue on EXISTING cell lines, and those were pretty plentiful." Firstly of all, "pretty plentiful" is pretty subjective. MOST of the so-called preexisting lines (more than half of which were outside the US, btw) were only "potential" lines, not established lines. Overtime, the technology to derive new SC lines advanced and resulted in "better" lines, but the pre-approved lines remained relatively poor in comparison -- that's the stuff scientists had to work with.

It's also important to remember that hESC were isolated in the late 1990s. Adult SC have been around for the better half of the last century. That's why there are more adult stem cell treatments. The research value of hESC cannot be understated. A lot of what we know about culturing induced pluripotent stem cells (the much-talked-about replacement for hESC) comes from hESC research.

This has pretty much been done already, the only real difference - one is climbing a pole, this one seems to be able to do a tree. http://singularityhub.com/2010/04/19/dennis-hong-presents-his-8-award-winning-robots-video/

Many here wouldn't mind a robot that fetches beer!

Are you sure about that?
http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/iphone-being-used-to-develop-military-apps-20091222/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/17/iphone-apple
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10724344
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bullet-flight-100-the-next-iphone-killer-application
http://singularityhub.com/2009/08/18/commanding-military-drones-now-iphone-has-an-app-for-that/

You mean like the Minority Report interface. Well, guess what, Spielbergs science advisor for the movie, John Underkoffler of MIT's Media Lab actually further developed the idea.

The current state of technology is best seen in his practical presentation.

There is also an article about it.

The interesting thing is (besides the tech being real), that they also extended the concept of a network, so all the displays are connected by real space. But checkout the links yourself.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/05/06/another-attempt-to-use-fmri-lie-detector-in-us-court-fails-in-brooklyn-more-on-the-way/

http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/02/fmri-used-as-evidence-in-sentencing-for-murderer/

http://singularityhub.com/2010/05/06/another-attempt-to-use-fmri-lie-detector-in-us-court-fails-in-brooklyn-more-on-the-way/

http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/02/fmri-used-as-evidence-in-sentencing-for-murderer/

Wow, way to read into my post, dude.

Something most Slashdotters probably know is that science journalism is very derivative. Since a lot of journalists don't know squat about science, most of them just end up regurgitating stuff. Sometimes random irrelevant facts are added, sometimes important information is stripped out. Mentioning that both hearts are from sows without mentioning why seems strange. There could be a reason why, or it could have just been an extraneous fact that was included..

Now, the sentence from TFA ("Thatte and his group harvested two female pig hearts and placed them in two different containers.") is very similar to a sentence in a cited source here ("The researchers harvested hearts from female pigs, stored them in one of the two solutions, then biopsied them at several points over the next four hours.") Was there an original story somewhere that said why sow hearts were preferable, or was it just a random detail that someone added without context? Unfortunately, I can't access what appears to be the original paper at the moment to find out either way.

I have been paid to work in a research lab. I have also been paid to work for a newspaper. The interaction between science and the media fascinates me. And in my experience, there's a lot of truth to this comic.

Why would the gender of the heart donors matter?

The question is, why wouldn't it? Do you know? I don't.

Yeah, I'm hoping for a response from someone who does know. Thanks for making gross, incorrect assumptions about me, though.

Have you not read the recent findings by Lady Ada et al???

Open Hardware Making Tons of Money What about open software companies that are still doing well?

Also, please narrow your definition of 'everything.' We only want open specifications (and/or open code). I don't have to give you a "double-click executable."

Working on it(no, not me personally; but the collective "we" are).

Not only does the concept work, mice with fiber lines coupled directly to their brain, complete with a slightly sinister blue glow coming out of their skulls, look utterly badass...

That applies to all robots though, like this:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/04/09/1325235
The carving side, essentially, is dumb and just doing what HyperMill tells it to do, but without the carving side the software is useless.

To write off mindstorms simply because they require "a computer" pretty much writes off every other robot as well because they need a computer to do the job as well.

I guess I'm wondering how you would view a Willow Garage PR2 solving the rubik's cube. Is that more 'legit' because the software and hardware are one piece?

The article linked is spammy and terrible. For the actual information, see the newsitem on the xprize site or the linked details. Basically, there is no prize yet but they had a workshop to begin working out A. Rules for a prize and B. What is achievable. The actual prize would be announced in about 8-14 months.

You mean like the free Acrobat Reader? No wait, that supports only PDFs.

Really the main advantage of this e-reader is that unlike Kindle, it uses a full sized monitor AND your computer, is NOT portable, and since it's plugged into your wall, will last as long as the power's on in your house, as opposed to that dreadful Kindle that lasts upwards of 10-15 days battery life (when wifi's turned off). So there!

Yes, because this will never ever be ported, ever, and the existence of this eReader, pushing technology forward, will not influence the Kindle 3 and Nook 2's features in any way.

I think the new toy in this (and it's Kurzweil, he ALWAYS has a neat toy in his stuff) that we should be paying attention to is that it has actually good Text to Speech, and it on-the-fly translates to 16 different languages . While neither are particuarly NEW technologies they are technologies that are:

1. Ripe for maturing (machine translation is getting better and better every year, for example)
2. World-changing if they get perfected.

The world changing thing I want to explain -- Kurzweil has already done something similar -- the first OCR + Text to Speech commercial application was the Kurzweil Reading Machine, back in 1976. 30 years later, those tabletop sized prototypes are now... hidden inside pen sized scanners. It kinda pushed forward Assistive Technology quite a bit, for the time -- before then, the only choice Blind people had to read things was braille. Now, with the right gadgets, they can read anything.

When you add on the fly translation to the mix, things get... interesting. Manga fans, for example, won't have to wait for translations, just click, click, bam, instant translations. You'll be able to subscribe to a French Newspaper, get it in the morning, auto translated, ready to go. And finally the US military can finally feel safe and justified in firing all those gay Arabic translators, cause they can finally be replaced by robots.

Technologies such as Vocaloid (an artificial pop star software kit... thing) put forth another idea -- combining this with Speech to Text. Automatic, in line translation of diplomatic speeches, news programs, and (of course), anime and entertainment, anyone?

In short, while as a bookreader it's pretty good (and it is, it looks a lot better than the Nook or Kindle PC apps)... I'm more excited about the translation tech inside it.

The cockroach robot “dash” is so much better suited for military deployment than the “mini tractor” trat irobot made. And it being made cheaply out of cardboard (and folded flat) means you can afford to release 1000’s of them, and, basically don’t need any human troops on the ground.

http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/22/a-review-of-the-best-robots-of-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-11906

Music Created by Learning Computer Getting Better

How long before Twitter becomes a has-been like Everquest, Myspace, Tron Guy, and that rabbit that balances pancakes on its head? Anyone got an estimate on the timeline? Don't these things usually take 18 months to complete?

Email and IM haven't gone away have they? Twitter has been around for three years now, and really growing in mindshare and popularity for two. It's not going anywhere.
 
 

Oh yeah, right, twitter is a game-changer that can overthrow governments. Good job they did in Iran, wot?

I predicted the lack of effectiveness back when the story hit Slashdot. I was ignored.
 
I did recently read two interesting articles; one on the lack of effect from accounts with large numbers of followers, and one speculating that a "tweetbomb" could possibly outshine the impact of the Slashdot Effect.

How long before Twitter becomes a has-been like Everquest, Myspace, Tron Guy, and that rabbit that balances pancakes on its head? Anyone got an estimate on the timeline? Don't these things usually take 18 months to complete?

Email and IM haven't gone away have they? Twitter has been around for three years now, and really growing in mindshare and popularity for two. It's not going anywhere.
 
 

Oh yeah, right, twitter is a game-changer that can overthrow governments. Good job they did in Iran, wot?

I predicted the lack of effectiveness back when the story hit Slashdot. I was ignored.
 
I did recently read two interesting articles; one on the lack of effect from accounts with large numbers of followers, and one speculating that a "tweetbomb" could possibly outshine the impact of the Slashdot Effect.

Better review at Singularity Hub I think (but I am biased): http://singularityhub.com/2009/04/29/transcendent-man-wows-at-tribeca-film-festival-premier/

Singularity Hub just posted the slideshow presentation given by kurzweil/diamandis at TED today to officially launch singularity university