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While everyone else is getting brain cancer, I've been wearing my Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie for years.

Just a myriad of uses for these things...

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Man, coincidince! I just finished reading this excellent essay on The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization, which convinced me that Mars missions are not actually wastes of money. They say these things come in threes, I wonder what the next one will be?

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

I sure hope NASA sticks to their guns this time. Shuttle technology is like 30 years old now, and it's seriously *embarassing* because of that. I mean, the gains that they are expecting are reasonable - which shows you how out of date the Shuttle is.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Here is is! The new color website:

Squant

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

It appears discovering new colors is a common TV phenomenon. Here's another reference:

Bleen

I still can't find that site selling tshirts and computer monitors to display this "new color." It was very funny. Google is great sometimes, but other times it's just hopeless.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

They invented this new color. The Max Headroom guys would look at it astounded while the camera was always on the other side of their computer monitor so you couldn't see it. How could you invent a new colour on an RGB monitor??? Funny stuff, that show is great.

Then one day I found out that they really have found a new color! Hrm, I can't seem to find the link though, anyone have it? You can even buy T-shirts in the new colour ;-) Can't wait until mine arrives...

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Privacy is one of those issues where you should watch what people do, not what they say. Everyone *says* they value their privacy online and off. But almost everyone also gives away their privacy for the smallest benefit - like 5% discounts at your local grocery store, in exchange for them tracking everything you ever buy from them...

I'm convinced that until people actually start acting the way they talk, privacy online and offline will continue to get worse.

**If you value your privacy, don't give it up for small discounts, or extra convenience, or anything!**

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Man, kids these days! Back in my day, we were happy with pencils. And crayons, man, a pack of those could keep us happy for weeks, until nothing but little stubs were left!

Now kids got all these newfangled toys with bright color lcd's... it's almost sick! I bet they don't get the preverse pleasure of drawing on walls with 'em thou...

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Microsoft of Borg. Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated into our "XBox" plans...

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

• 1 el cheapo Dreamcast for your local walmart with dreamcast linux installed
• 1 inexpensive little TV (you've probably got one in your garage)
• 1 spare ide drive -- I've got one sitting on my desk
• Plywood and paint

What do covering up the start button and installation have to do with one another? I really don't understand why you need to prevent installation just to avoid having the Start button obscured. Couldn't you just make the windows task bar Always-On-Top? Or just disallow anything to be drawn there while not in fullscreen mode?

His argument is pretty weak for the VP of a major corporation. Hopefully the court sees through it.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

phpwebhosting.com is easily the cheapest full service bandwidth I've found. For $12/month, they give you everything you could want - shell access, *unlimited* bandwidth, mySQL, perl, python, php, sweet log analysis, email, mailing lists, etc. Since it's only one (small) bill a month, and you talk directly to their tech people for support, I'd say it's pretty autonomous... short of having you own box on the net, of course.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Blue Gene. For protein folding eh... yeah right ;>

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

I hope the game has a more realistic simulation of people lives and economics than The Sims had. If so, it could be an extremely useful tool not only for universities, but for all large organizations - I imagine they face many of the same types of challenges.

Of course, like all such games, it's limitation will be your in-ability to impliment any policies or creative solutions that the game designs didnt think to allow. For instance, I bet the game doesn't let you switch to an Open Source IT infrastructure...

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

You're right about pet medicine, however the purpose of that is still to maximize profit by minimizing consumer surplus. The same principle applies to movie theatres, where they charge less for seniors and children than for adults... even though they use up the same number of seats, and even when they could fill all the seats with higher-paying adults! Its sounds a little counter intuitive, but it does maximize the profits of the theatre.

If a similar principle existed in the case of the AIDS drugs, the drug companies would use it to their advantage. In fact, there is another good example of consumer surplus that sounds similar to this case. Often in rural communities (and especially before massive regulation in the US), doctors would charge patients based on how much they could afford. Basically, the same kind of thing we'd all like our health care system to be now, except it happened all on its own with no state funds or regulation whatsoever. It would be interesting to know why that's not the case here.

Consumer Surplus: it's your friend.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

Although remember also that thousands of people would die had there never been high enough motivation to develop these drugs in the first place. I'm actually thinking maybe extending the patent until *double* the trial costs are recouped would be a better idea. Breaking even is hardly a suitable reward for such an important discovery, and as much as we wish it weren't so, a lot of great things are invented solely for the money.

Just looking at the advances that were achieved during scientific competitions (particularly in aviation) shows the power money has over scientific progress.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

I'm not a huge fan of patents, but drug patents are one of the few types of patents that make sense. Why do we need patents? To subsidize the cost of innovation. And the cost of innovation is often steep, it has always been much easier to ripoff someone's idea than develop it yourself. Often times, the inventor doesn't profit at all from his invention. (see Xerox->Apple->Windows)

For pharamceutical companies, the cost to develop drugs is high, not just because of all the trial and error involved (although rational drug design does help), but because of all the FDA-mandated trials involved. The patent system, as far as I know, is the only system that has been developed to offset the costs of getting a drug FDA-approved.

Its not like a software patent, where the costs of innovation are mostly pizza and Jolt. I would like to see a better system for compensating drugs companies for the money they put into getting a drug approved, but I have not seen one. Maybe instead granting drugs patents for a set number of years, we could grant them based on the time it takes to recoup the trial costs? At least then we could minimize the damage done by granting a monopoly on a life-saving substance.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

Thanks.

I would love to have the time (and money) to fiddle with Wearables myself. I think that augumented reality has such *huge* potential. I mean, esp. prompters for when you remeet people whose names you are supposed to remember :-)

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

aka Never-Release Nights

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

The article does an excellent job relating the possible physical improvements that technology will bring to humans. But slashdot is probably potentially more interested in the possible *informational* improvements. I mean, we suffer under so much information explosion these days!

There is lots of research into direct implants and other "wetware" these days. But even something as simple as better ways for people to work together can be revolutationary.

Everyone has their own favorite webpages, and they find new cool ones every so often. But aside from search engines and other dead simple technologies, we don't have any system for gathering together this knowledge of what's good and what's not. That's what StumbleUpon is for: gathering meta-information about the web, and using it to show the best stuff to the right people at the right time. Not only is it cool, it promisses to help accelerate us towards the singularity!

Think of the possibilities -- I'm sure that 1-900-lara-croft will be popular!

Of course, the downside is that now you can be telemarketed from deep within that gaming zone :-(

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Yes, it is that ridiculous.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

I think average speed is more relevant. The woman who was hit was not hit at top speed. Remember that for many senior citizens even slipping on some ice can be life-threatening. And while you may be able to get 30mph on your mountain bike, most people average around 10mph. From what i understand, on a Segway everyone will be cruising around at 12mph. Even at the same speed, the segway packs more momentum.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

In my hometown, and older woman was killed when hit by a mountain bike. In fact, this has happened multiple times. And mountain bikes are not allowed on the sidewalk. Segways are heavier and faster than mountain bikes, this just seems really dangerous to me.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

Those popup ads are the most annoying feature thats has ever been added to a web-browser.

I just tried out this new tool called Stumbleupon which lets you websurf with a single click, and after only about 20 stumbles I had 10 popads on my screen.

Curse the person at netscape who thought pop-ups would be a great new feature to add...

I thought IBM was planning on Bailing Out of the Hard Drive Market? I guess IBM really does have multiple heads these days - although maybe like the article says, IBM's focus on this product is the hugely complicated software that will be necessary to make it work, rather than the hardware.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Looks like an excellent step towards a truly borg like information technology system.

IBM: resistence is futile!

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

All the plastic toys from the next starwars movie should yeild enough tax money to fund many manned trips to mars!

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

I think one of the problems concerning spyware and intelligent agent type technologies is the fact that in order to get good performance people think they need to rely on implicitly collected data, in which case the user always wonders exactly what else they could be collecting. They justify the use of spyware to collect information that users never would take the time to submit themselves. This is a misguided approach, since good personalized recommendation technology is available with explicit user feedback instead (such as Stumbleupon for websurfing).

I think that many companies feel such approaches are necessary in order to collect information without too much user hassle. The focus should instead be on improved interfaces which allow people to easily submit information as they desire. This way the benefits of personalization can be had, yet people know exactly how much information about themselves they have revealed...

I beg to differ. If anything, sexbots will bring back the meaningful relationship. After an adolescent spends his formative years satiating himself 3 times a day with his sexbot, he'll be dying all the things his sexbot cannot provide. And for those men who are insatiably shallow, and can spend their life with nothing but a sex bot -- well, I'm sure most women would agree its nice to have them off the market. Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

Practically life-like!

It's Valerie: The Domestic Android
For all your domestic android head needs. Its a kit, although it looks like they're still working out the bugs.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

I already use my computer to watch movies, TV shows. My LCD monitor seems fast enough to handle it, and the quality is awesome. With a card like this, and a DVD drive, who needs a TV any more?

I just miss the remote.

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

I'm envisioning crates of unsold Jar Jar Binks action figurines... Oh! me so lonely!

Cool site!

alt.starwars.jarjar.die.die.die

:-)

Websurfing done right! - StumbleUpon

One little perk of technological progress is that the price of technology relative to the cost of human labour goes down over time. So it will only become easier to satiate your employees with the latest and greatest toys.

On the other hand, a bloated management structure will become more and more costly. Hooray for progress!

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

The big advantage to doing solar energy on the moon, as opposed to doing it in space, would be that local resources are available for most of the construction needs. The disadvantage, of course, is the rotation - half the time you're in the shade. That and the transmission costs.

The advantage of the moon over the earth is mostly lack of atmosphere. All that pesky air takes like 2/3 of the energy!

Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

Xybernaut already does this. They had several large industrial clients, like telecom workers, who used the wearables for "hands free" computing / reference.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

These kids have little enough time as is with a computer, the cost of an less-than-stable OS far outweighs the cost of training the computer teachers in Linux. Also, most computer teachers I know would train themselves in their spare time.

Note also that this province is *bragging* about their 15:1 computer-to-kid ratio. These student don't have much time on their computers, and if they're anything like the kids I know, they have an intense desire to poke and prod just about everything. Not a good combination with an OS that gives a page fault in Kernel32.dll at a sneeze. I know I would find that discouraging. In fact I did, that's why I run debian myself!

Websurfing done right! - http://www.stumbleupon.com

There is a system which does exactly this already - StumbleUpon

It allows you to submit cool sites to it's queues, and recommends sites back to you from those queues.