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Wow. I didn't know Google was doing that. It reminds me of what Amazon.com is doing.

Took some digging but here they are : Seeking Riches From The Poor - Part 3 & Indian Villagers Pedal Wireless.

Took some digging but here they are : Seeking Riches From The Poor - Part 3 & Indian Villagers Pedal Wireless.

They could, but then I'd feel bad for the astronauts. In addition to the already rigorous training, they'd have to add another four months of hard-core VC buzzword brain reprogramming. And their little jet-powered PDAs would have to contain at least an extra ten GB of storage to handle the lexicon. I don't know about you, but I'd hate to have a VC 'analyst' peering over my shoulder as I manipulated a robotic arm around a $10 MM piece of high tech equipment.

It seems like part of the problem was that the money was paid directly to DJs, rather than the company that employed the DJs, and was done in a way to not be explicit about the payments (eg. free vacations for DJs).

I think a modern-day analogy would be computer game reviewers getting free vacations from game companies and publishing glowing reviews without being forthright about the connection between them and the game distributor. I think this is one of the main reasons why newspapers, magazines, and such are so careful to delineate exactly what's written by their employees as independant commentators, and exactly what sections are ads written by the distributors themselves, and to not blur the line between the two. (eg. see the NPR linking policy brouhaha).

Though if something like this were codified into law, it would seem to prevent companies from placing "plants" in local bars who try to get people to think a particular product is cool or whatnot, in that they're trying to pass off paid direct-from-distributors marketing as independant recommendations.

In an article some time ago, this was covered already. It's quite interesting ro read, the relation to biotech is on page 4 (Monsate et al).

But, then I cant go "toothing" in Britain (as someone mentioned above).

You could pick up toothing.

The Swedish Navy has no reason at all to believe NT isn't stable or secure. Just look what it did for the US Navy!

Read this Wired article that everyone is pointing too. It should explain why,

Simply put, animation and "too realistic" robots are unsettling because the brain senses that it is being tricked, and that trickery could endanger your survival. This feeling is apparently something that the human brain has developed over thousands of years and is a defense mechanism.

Paintings are in no way threatening, so we can view and appreciate fine art and realistic images in that manner. But once you try to create a realistic three dimensional model, your brain's defenses kick in. How many people do you know who would never set foot in a wax museum? My wife hates those realistic wax mannequins!

The same fear may explain such things as why some people hate clowns so much (the makeup and prosthetics "alter" the human form so it is not natural) and movies/shows where a doll/puppet/ventriloquist dummy come to life.

We may never be able to bridge this "Uncanny Valley".

Who knows, maybe someday this brain function may just save us from our self-created robot army.

The Uncanny Valley is mentioned in This Wired Article from Jun 2002 on pg 4. It starts out with references to the Final Fantasy Movie.

The Uncanny Valley is mentioned in This Wired Article from Jun 2002 on pg 4. It starts out with references to the Final Fantasy Movie.

I hate to respond to myself but I found more stuff:

*Theory that the perfect face is dictated by the Golden Ratio
*wired mag covers the uncanny valley

And don't forget that NT is certified secure by the DoD (providing it's not plugged into any sort of network)...

Also relevant; this article from 1998, titled "Should Feds Trust Windows NT?"

if so acourding to this it is a pump, thus proving you wrong.... something tells me based on how old the article is it most likely is this watercooling setup.

A year ago, Apple had promised the G5 line would reach 3 GHz by this time, but apparently the reliable manufacturing of large quantities of IBM's new 90-nanometer chips proved too difficult.

So, is this chip REALLY rated at the measly 2.5 GHz, or is Apple, in effect, overclocking it?

Let's hope it really ships in July...they kept me waiting and waiting the last time.

I don't think so:
Meme, Counter-meme

Godwin's Law is just a "social experiment". Or to be more precise, he never said anything about the discussion ending when nazis or Hitler was mentioned. He just stated that the longer a discussion is, the more likely it is to mention these things.

There are many people who need the web to meet others.Geeks in fact...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.06/dating. html

One guy who's trying to have people post their attributes on their websites and then searchable via Google.

Another guy who's developing a P2P XML-based dating network.

One guy who uses an AIM sniffer to send IMs to hotties.

And this last guy who hacks sites like Friendster to uncover security vulnerabilities.

There are many people who need the web to meet others.Geeks in fact...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.06/dating. html

One guy who's trying to have people post their attributes on their websites and then searchable via Google.

Another guy who's developing a P2P XML-based dating network.

One guy who uses an AIM sniffer to send IMs to hotties.

And this last guy who hacks sites like Friendster to uncover security vulnerabilities.

There are many people who need the web to meet others.Geeks in fact...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.06/dating. html

One guy who's trying to have people post their attributes on their websites and then searchable via Google.

Another guy who's developing a P2P XML-based dating network.

One guy who uses an AIM sniffer to send IMs to hotties.

And this last guy who hacks sites like Friendster to uncover security vulnerabilities.

There are many people who need the web to meet others.Geeks in fact...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.06/dating. html

One guy who's trying to have people post their attributes on their websites and then searchable via Google.

Another guy who's developing a P2P XML-based dating network.

One guy who uses an AIM sniffer to send IMs to hotties.

And this last guy who hacks sites like Friendster to uncover security vulnerabilities.

I was bored, so I Googled.... and apparently, it's already copyrighted.

When DOS came out I thought, OK, so what's the big deal compared to an Apple II? It was much bigger (but not much better). GUIs became available (to me) with the Mac in '84 and its copycat Ataris and Amigas in '94 - and that was much better than a castrated CLI-only system such as DOS or CP/M. Yeah, VMS and Unix were another story at that time: those were better because they were powerful, unlike DOS.

Nowadays, MacOSX combines the above two qualities, so I see no reason for using a system where 1) the UI is inconsistent and counterintuitive, 2) the security holes are endless and caused by arcane obscurities, 3) you have to keep working for the damn machine and not vice versa, 4) the kernel is closed-source, and 5) last but definitely not least, its vendor is a proved condemned abusive monopolist (yes, all those are true for MS-Windows).

So maybe Jef Raskin is right when he says that a GUI is a double system: it combines slow-to-use menus and hard-to-learn keyboard shortcuts. In other words, a modern GUI is a combination of two bad ideas but it's also seems true what Tufte says: To sell a product that messes up data with such systematic intensity, Microsoft abandons any pretense of statistical integrity and reasoning. (Tufte's comment is about Powerpoint, but it similarly applies to any software sold by the same infamous monopolist).

Bottom line: when I'm offered a job where I have to use MS-Windows, I turn it down. Unless I'd be in a life-or-death starving situation, and thankfully enough, for IT professionals things are not that bad yet :-)

One has to strive to gettin' better!

While the funding source is likely MS, it can't be confirmed. This article does state "A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that Microsoft provides funding to the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution." so likely the institute at a minimum wants to keep its funding source happy (one doesn't bite the hand that feeds).

The article does interestingly point out the institutes stance on funding as:

"Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment on whether the company directly sponsored the debate paper. De Tocqueville Institute president Ken Brown and chairman Gregory Fossedal refused to comment on whether Microsoft sponsored the report.

"It is not our policy to comment on supporters; I'm sure you can understand. From this you should not infer that information you have is correct or not correct; we just don't comment," Fossedal wrote in an e-mail. "

Basically they use the "neither confirm or deny" tactic, but likely MS does influence their efforts.

While the funding source is likely MS, it can't be confirmed. This article does state "A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that Microsoft provides funding to the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution." so likely the institute at a minimum wants to keep its funding source happy (one doesn't bite the hand that feeds).

The article does interestingly point out the institutes stance on funding as:

"Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment on whether the company directly sponsored the debate paper. De Tocqueville Institute president Ken Brown and chairman Gregory Fossedal refused to comment on whether Microsoft sponsored the report.

"It is not our policy to comment on supporters; I'm sure you can understand. From this you should not infer that information you have is correct or not correct; we just don't comment," Fossedal wrote in an e-mail. "

Basically they use the "neither confirm or deny" tactic, but likely MS does influence their efforts.

I'm sure this guy is really wishing this would have been made sooner...

Then again, if it were out at the time, would he have used it?

What about Legend PC, introduced to many through this Wired Article.

Legend (at the time of writing, about a year and a half ago) had 3 times the market share of its nearest competitor (presumably the iTunes installer).

And as far as saying, "Who's gonna pay $X for a song in China?" Well, presumably the millions who own computers already. The article also mentions China's "Little Emperors"... Remember, you're mostly allowed only one child per couple in China. When you're only taking care of one kid, it's easy to spoil them and let them get a couple of songs a week.

According to the Wired News article linked to above, they're going to sell DRM-encoded songs but ship them from end-users' hard drives rather than from a central server.

Looking at the Mercora web site, they seem far more p2p-oriented. I'm guessing that, like Kazaa, they plan on making extra money by installing a metric ton of spyware on your PC.

> It's one thing to be working with intelligent, science-oriented people. It's better to be working for intelligent, science-oriented people.

Consider the fates of companies ran by "intelligent, science-oriented people" like ArsDigita (account #1, account #2) and The MIT Blackjack Team.

"It's working. 'We get clever hacks, educational uses, and wacky stuff,' says Nelson Minar, who runs the API effort. 'We love to see people do creative things with our product.'"

Wonder if this attitude will continue after the IPO...

Mercora, a derivation of a Latin word meaning "to trade" and is run by Chief Executive Srivats Sampath, former CEO of McAfee.com

Wired ran an article on this last year here.

"It's working. 'We get clever hacks, educational uses, and wacky stuff,' says Nelson Minar, who runs the API effort. 'We love to see people do creative things with our product.'"

Good question if this attitude will continue after the IPO...

Google has as many Ph.D.'s working for it as Microsoft

If Microsoft would write less software, maybe my wi-fi would stand a chance of working consistently with XP.

But it doesn't. (sigh). Does yours?

Sometimes less is more.

Above is the wrong link! This is a direct link to the Cult Of Mac Blog.

Note that the blog and wired section are different.

In case of laziness, click here instead. (Direct link to Cult of Mac)

Go to Wired and check out their Cult of Mac blog, and I think get have some pics/more info on this.

One of my professors this semester assigned a project comparing and contrasting the views of Joy, Dertouzos, and Kurzweil. The following articles shed some light about each one's perspective, respectively.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html
http://www.lcs.mit.edu/about/reason.html
http://www.lcs.mit.edu/about/kurzweil.html

The article mentions Photoshop as if its anti-counterfeiting measures have been successful. Have they fixed the previously reported problems?

The main impression that I get from the Wired list is "WTF, did they test their vehicles at all??"
Because 4 vehicles out of 13 didn't even get out of the start area!
I develop software for living, and while it is admittedly for easier tasks than autonomous desert-crossing, we test our product in hundreds and thousands of different situations and throw all kinds of shit at it to make sure it doesn't just die in some weird deployment scenario. I am really curious how much effort these teams spent on just testing their gear in different situations (not development).

BTW, for all those interested, Wired ran a list of what went wrong for each team. It reads very comically, but a lot of these things are very "DUH!" after you've gone through the first time. I forsee a lot better results, as teams will have that much more practice. Hopefully some will come up with some more general solutions, rather than brute-force processing the terrain around the known area of the route.

Your hobby, unless it's birdwatching, may be next.

Wandering around a public airshow with a notebook could get you into trouble in some parts of the world.

Thanks for the clarification. I hope you can also help clarify how E. coli, Serratia and Bacillus globigii are "mainly related to some equipment used to extract dna."

Oh, and while you're at it, please reconcile:

You can't do anything harmfull with [E. coli, Serratia and Bacillus globigii]

. . . with:

Even harmless bacteria can become harmful under certain, but extremely rare, circumstances, said Richard Roberts, a leading DNA researcher.

The Wired NextFest issue showed six different conceptual designs for convergence devices, which combine phone, camera, and PC functionality. Click on the thumbnails to pop up images of the various concepts, many of which are similar to the one discussed in this article.

Personally I'm waiting for retinal painter displays, unobtrusive little gadgets that can make windows appear in space in front of us. That way we can have a big screen for gaming or computer work, anywhere we are, without lugging around the hardware. Just put on a lightweight, attractive pair of glasses and it's like you're looking at a 40 inch monitor. The hardware needn't be any more expensive than a Game Boy type screen, and the functionality would be enormously greater.

And they have proved their morals will keep them from nothing! Making up Apple switchers, writing letters to congressmen from dead people, extorting money from public school systems, astroturfing educational meetings, bbs, weblogs, and google bombing, calling free software an "unAmerican" "cancer" that will doom the US economy, hiring others to say the same and, of course, the SCO extortion.

Commercial space flight comes to mind as one of the most important contributions Bill and friends could make to Planet Earth.

Ahhhhhh! I can only imagine M$ $pace $uits, rockets, power systems and life support. They already did a bang up job for the Navy.

Imagine playing Ender's game in space, with lasertag style suites that caused joints to lock.

The Microsoft space suit will need no lasers to lock up. Imagine Embrace, Extend and Extinguish applied to oxygen lines, HVAC and propulsion. "Where do you want to go today?" travelers will scream as they beat their did navigation computers. You just knew you should have paid extra for the "pro" version. In space, more than your screen will turn blue! What do you think the average spacer wrestling with a drill in hard vacuum would think of a little yellow light telling them their suit has "upgrades" that will be installed before they can finish their job?

Then think of science, and paying for lab time in space.

If it's anything like the Microsoft Bob, XBox, and other M$ Research efforts, I expect more from NASA. A company that publically proclaims it will not enter anything but "mature" markets is not really an innovator.

Still, your wish is noble. It would be nice if tomorrow Microsoft were struck by a wave of ethics and became a completely different company. It would be nice if they quit sucking money from government, utilities, public schools and other places where cluelessness is legally mandated. I'd love to see Bill Gates tear up his open letter and declare that he was wrong about free software and world domination.

The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided.

READ:

The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided that 'True Fantasy Online' might be too blatant a rip-off of other RPGs from more experienced competition, especially given that the everyone's favorite pseudo-PC has had such great success in the exclusive RPG genre

C'mon, with a name like "True Fantasy Online", you're pretty much begging Japan to laugh at you. I guess this sort of adds insult to injury with regard to acceptance in Japan. But at least our Japanese brethren have an equally anticipated and deep game to play 'til Halo 2 comes and dies on a cross for our sins (or whatever ailment the Xbox evangelists are proclaiming it will heal)

It's ok, he's still full of crap. Use eBay as an example anyway: Wired estimates that eBay will facilitate $30 BILLION in transactions in the next year, making it the 81st largest economy in the world. Three percent of $30 billion is... you know... not negligible.

Maybe I'm a stickler for such things, but it seems a little weird that this post doesn't make it clear that it is just a paraphrase of this article on Wired News. On the face of it, it would look like Iphtashu Fitz was posting info he drew from several sources, rather than lifting them all from a single work by someone else.

I'll grant, if you follow the links the truth will be obvious, but I imagine the author of the Wired
News piece wouldn't mind getting a bit more explicit credit.

Does /. really count as a weblog anymore? For that matter, do any of the sites mentioned? It's a hard call - BoingBoing and similar sites seem to fit the bill for collaborative weblogs far better than discussion forums like /. I think the sites listed have really moved beyond weblog status. They really seem to be closer to forums and aggregators. This isn't a bad thing - it's just different and may require independant analysis. They've grown beyond (and in many cases existed before) what is commonly considered a weblog these days.

Interestingly, this month's Wired had an article on weblogs / nanopublishing and highlighted a variety of collaborative weblogs, likely as a tie-in to the conference.

Bob Farquhar is the man that turns it into an art. He invented double lunar swingby, necessary for economicaly using gravity to get to other planets.

"It was no coincidence Farquhar had visited his first wife's grave that morning [the date of the main engine burn to decelerate]; December 20 was Bonnie Farquhar's birthday. January 10, 1999, the day the spacecraft was due at Eros, was the fifth anniversary of his civil marriage to his second wife, Irina. The mission's nominal completion date, February 6, 2000, was the anniversary of his church weddings to both Irina and Bonnie.

Farquhar fine-tuned the mission's design to get NEAR to Eros a little earlier than it would otherwise have done, in order to commemorate the loves of his life.