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I told him that this was America, he could say "Fuck the Prophet" as loudly as he wanted to.

See this Wired article for example.

Graphics don't scale on monitors! Who knows what the viewers are seeing if you use images for everything? Some folks still run at 800x600, while others are at much higher resolutions - all of this is semi-independent of actual monitor size. At least with fonts, people will often scale up their font sizes if they are running their screen at a high resolution.

Text is definitely the way to go, or in this case, stay. I really like the way wired.com does things. A nice clear list of "A"'s in the top right corner that somehow (DHTML?) changes the font size with a single click.

Barring that, in Moz, "Ctrl" + "+" and "Ctrl" + "-" do wonders. Similar features exist in other browsers, I suppose.

Or is China just too large of a trading partner, even if they have the world's largest oppressed population and a navy designed to defeat the United States.

Mod the product with location track/recording and you're a good ways towards having a functional LifeLog for DARPA. 'course you'd need a bunch of external battery power and probably a better camera setup than the Archos plug-on. Maybe a little pencil camera + microphone stuck inside your beanie to record concert footage or basic candid camera.

For more on Lifelog, check out the Wired article

You know, the one about the customer list of a business selling stuff via spam?

Scary stuff, and it just indicates how bad the problem is - all kinds of people actually do click on those links in the spam e-mails and actually do buy stuff. Scary. There's no way to prevent dangerously insane gullibility, although that would be a good first step towards fixing the spam problem.

on that.

Given the stock market shenanigans, I wouldn't be surprised if it was this MIT team. After all, they fit the profile!

Its an interesting read.

Wired News has a similar article. Maybe you could just combine the new AI with the cute exterior ofClippy. On the other hand side it would be interesting how much space you have to allocate for the AI database. as far as i remember A.L.I.C.E. needed a quite large AIML file to be just somewhat intelligent. If now the computer should also remeber patterns in behavior and not just talk to you (Alice is a pure chatbot) then in my opinion you need quite large amounts of data to be stored. This could be useful for larger companies with a dedicated AI Server to help their employees (if we talk about AI in a network, why not call ist SKYNET), but on a normal desktop? I think that's too much.

And to focus on another problem: if this thing learns about you behavior, don't you mind about your privacy? We are all paranoid about cookies and other spyware, and then some people actually want us to deliberatly install it? Just imagine: Your boss next to you because you want to show something to him and then the computer asks: "Hi XY, you haven't visited ./ today, normally syou surf it for ours during work. Can I help you get there?"

here is the wired article about it. It's basically 2 pages of "This technology is nothing like Clippy."

This article in Wired magazine points out the false economies of PowerPoint, whereby slide presentations are being overused to sex-up a dull presentation to the extent that no effort is put into the data, and the "show" is everything.

No, I am not a solid state chemist, but I can read the part of the article that state "clear diamonds", as opposed to the part of the article that said "yellow diamonds." If you are stating that the article is false and that there are no such things as "clear diamonds," then I, and the author, stand corrected. If this part of the article talks about "clear diamonds" produced by Apollo Diamond using the chemical vapor deposition method is not really talking about "clear diamonds," then I apoligize. My bad.

Please read the Wired article before you comment on it.

Yes, they do exist. In fact, Chemical Vapor Deposition diamonds are actually more perfect, in terms of both color and inclusions than "natural" diamonds. It's a fascinating article. It covers, in great detail, the issue of convincing Jane Q Public. It also covers the cost issue.

Actually... never mind. Nobody else bothers to read the articles, either.

Actually, there was an article on exactly this process in the last issue of "Wired". Apparently, some company in Boston is able to create diamond crystals in whatever shape they need to, using a process similar to electrolytic painting, but using "plasma" instead. The link is here.

There currently are two companies growing artificial diamonds. Gemesis creates yellow diamonds with up to 3 carats. Apollo is growing clear, perfect ones, using vapor deposition. With time, they can basically grow them as large as you like.

You can read the details in a Wired article.

A few years, and bulk diamonds will be on the Home Shopping Channel.

I keep telling people and nobody believes me, but how they could have missed THIS Wired article is beyond me.

As if the HOT CHICK covered in CHEAP DIAMONDS wasn't enough to attract any geek, the mention of revelutionary cheap processors should have been like pheromones to the poor diamond clad lady. (She dare not show up to a lan party dressed like that...)

Anyway, the Wired article was mentioned here at Slashdot a few weeks ago, and I picked up a copy at the newstand to read at work. It finally looks like DeBeers is focked. Intel, AMD, and IBM, and Microsoft all have something to gain from this. DeBeers simply doesn't have the strong-arm capabilities to keep those four giants down.

Wired 11.09: The New Diamond Age discussed on Slashdot earlier. Actually the link to the eariler /. story was posted above under "foreshadowing".

Here's a Wired article about some companies that are perfecting the diamond manufacturing process. A technique called Chemical Vapor Deposition can apparently produce diamonds big enough for a chip wafer. Also in the article of an interesting discussing about what does "real" diamond mean to people/women. I wonder how can they cut diamonds into wafers?

Story here.
Rather cool.

Outcome #1 has already happened.

This article talks about two companies (one based in Florida, one in Boston) that have both developed separate methods for manufacturing diamonds. Both are gem quality and one may be completely indistinguishable from natural diamonds. (The magazine cover isn't bad, either.)

The basic idea is that (unfortunatly) there are just a few players out there, but (fortunately) they're big players. They intend to revolutionize computing the same way the mosfet did, etc. I don't know all the science and stuff, but basically they're getting able to make high quality, super good, diamonds synthetically, fairly reliably, and fairly cheap.

Most importantly, they're able to make the diamonds without DeBeers. I don't remember which companies are focusing on which side of things (jewelry vs. semiconductors), but I think the moral of the story is that progress is being made, and the diamond semiconductor revolution does NOT have to include DeBeers, which is a good thing for all involved.

The basic idea is that (unfortunatly) there are just a few players out there, but (fortunately) they're big players. They intend to revolutionize computing the same way the mosfet did, etc. I don't know all the science and stuff, but basically they're getting able to make high quality, super good, diamonds synthetically, fairly reliably, and fairly cheap.

Most importantly, they're able to make the diamonds without DeBeers. I don't remember which companies are focusing on which side of things (jewelry vs. semiconductors), but I think the moral of the story is that progress is being made, and the diamond semiconductor revolution does NOT have to include DeBeers, which is a good thing for all involved.

Well, there are many websites that vigorously claim that the email tax is a number one hoax....

So it must be true then.

Right?
RIGHT!

Uh Oh.

That was this summer 2003, Sen. Mark Dayton's idea to fight Spam...

Pfew, that was a close call: Senator Downplays E-Mail Tax Idea, Thursday, May 22, 2003.

If they tax email, then the spammers have won.

Now, if 'they' find this posting, they'll probably come up with a tax on hyperlinks...

But will anybody think of the children?

This month's issue of Wired Magazine has artificial diamonds as its cover story. Just finished reading it a few hours ago. Very interesting as to where this is going to take the diamond jewelry business (DeBeer's is in trouble) as well as the semiconductor industry.

Wired has a much more interesting article about a couple of US-Based companies that are mass producing gem-quality diamonds with the eye of using those to finance their entry into the semiconductor materials market. It's a pretty kickass article and definitely helps show that this is something we should expect to see in the reasonably near future.

Wired has a much more interesting article about a couple of US-Based companies that are mass producing gem-quality diamonds with the eye of using those to finance their entry into the semiconductor materials market. It's a pretty kickass article and definitely helps show that this is something we should expect to see in the reasonably near future.

Edit: I should have read the 'article' on slashdot instead of just clicking the link. Sigh, I'm an idiot :(

Yes.

• Don't send our kids to concentration camps
  
• Treat Chechens like humans (although criminals and enemies) and do not send them to death camps
  
• Do not jail political protesters
  
• Do not dream about total control over all citizens anymore
  
• No longer use 1984 tricks like doublespeak and editing history
  
• Do not jail people for hyperlinking
  
• Do not jail people for jokes in their belongings
  
• No longer send KGB officers to make people "disappear"
  
• Do not jail people for writing fiction
  
• And overall are highly unlikely to become a totalitarian prison-state
  
• Do not get busted for downloading an MP3 (and since most artists place MP3s on their sites, we don't even need P2P).
  
• Don't have perpetual copyrights.
  

MS is at fault, the root of it, to be sure.

It's kind of funny, but I didn't have any problems with either of those viruses in any of my three WinXP machines. Maybe it was the common sense (Sobig) or the fact all my machines were updated (MS Blaster)or the common sense that 300 e-mails with the same attachment from people I don't know might, just might be a virus. This is not to mention of course the firewall, pestpatrol, and Norton Antivirus. Now, you might say, "well hey, my linux box had none of that, wasn't patched, no firewall, nothin!" but think for a few seconds. These viruses were programed for windows, not linux/any other os. Of course your non-windows computer was not infected, because the virus/worm was not made for it. So before you get on your high horse, remmember it can happen if someone bothers to write it.

If you follow the link above it says

and the article is dated 02:00 AM Jan. 31, 2001 PT. Looks like they are only trying to draw in the fools to their side, and with the image of Bill Gates fantasizing of taking the penguin from behind, LMAO

3D engines aside, Carmack's real genius might be for interface design. His comments about about the game interface perfectly mirror those of people like usability guru Jakob Nielsen, the developers of the classic Mac OS, and even industrial designer Jonathan Ives: good design is made by simplifying and removing elements; less is more!

Carmack has replaced the "use" key in Doom 3 by making the targetting reticle "context-sensitive"; when the character is within arm's reach of a switch or door and the reticle is over it, the gun drops and an open hand hovers over the object. The "fire button" does exactly what you would expect.

This is the reason for Linux's failure to reach mainstream desktops, despite a GUI and window manager that is easily as good as Windows (and even in some ways superior to any version of the Mac OS). Rather than striving for intuitive design that doesn't need excess buttons and options, the designers of desktop software throw as much crap into the forms and menus as they can fit. LESS IS MORE

(note that I understand that advanced users should have the options they want access to; bury stuff that doesn't need to be used constantly and by most users in an advanced options dialog somewhere!)

But deliberately running a P2P server could could be criminal if it distributes songs worth $1,000 in 180 days. Using Apple's $0.99 per song retail price, a well connected P2P server could easily do this. Actual prosecution would require that the a Federal prosecutor file changes. The RIAA cannot ask a prosecutor to do so, but not force them to file.

At least so far, all of the RIAA's actions against P2P users have been civil not criminal. They have gotten the government to use criminal law against large scale counterfeiters.

There is much confusion in these discussions because of the distinctions between criminal and civil law. If your knowledge of the law comes from watching Law & Order on TV, then you may think that criminal law is the only law that exists. Civil law is thought to be too boring for TV drama. Shows like Law & Order will take real civil cases and turn them into criminal cases by having someone connected to the case be murdered and/or raped.

Here

I remember Popular Science(I think) doing a piece on an exoskeleton that would give soliders the ability to lift heavy objects etc. with ease. Not sure if this is the same.

• Broken patches
• Doesn't work + make a new hole
• Innadequate

People with production systems are reluctant to alpha test microsoft's patches on their production machines. That's not happenstance, that's policy. Microsoft Senior Vice President Craig Mundie recently suggested that in the name of security, it may be appropriate to force you to install Microsoft patches or updates, and if that breaks your existing applications, well, it's for your own good.

If you think about it, if MS-Support keeps breaking third party apps and/or keeps recommending wiping the hard drive and doing a clean install, they get rid of all third party apps through attritition. It's by wearing down the flunky doing the install or using up all the flunky's time or the end user being unable to use the app until the flunky can fix it. Rather clever, I think, even when considering that Microsoft is more of a marketing company or pyramid scheme than a tech company.

1. Run a firewall. The free version of ZoneAlarm is fairly idiot proof and explains everything.

2. Read what's on the screen before taking action, know what you're clicking instead of just clicking through.

I worked for a couple of weeks at a call centre that used dumb terminals. Upon logging in, if your username or password was incorrect it would say "incorrect username and password, press enter to try again." At this point the woman at the station next to mine would carefully read what was on the screen (but apparently there was no brain power to interpret it), type in her username and press enter. The username prompt would then come up, and she'd enter her password which was then visible right on the screen! Then it would prompt for her password, which she would reenter, hit enter, and since she entered her password for her username, the whole mess would start all over again. I saw her do this about five times before she asked for help.

3. Keep your computer patched. I read a Wired News article about MSBlast quoting people who thought update reminders were hackers trying to access their computers!

4. Know what you're installing. People love to install spyware-ridden crap as long as it lets them commit idiot-proof piracy or a purple gorilla sings to them. Install ad-aware or Spybot.

5. Know the directory structure. I know a person who still runs Napster because that's they only way the know to play their music.

6. Newer is not necessarily better. New versions often equal bloat and instability. Every successive version of ICQ from maybe 1997 on (except ICQ lite) is a prime example of this.

7. Install a virus scanner and keep it updated.

There are probably more but I've tired of this...

From Wired 11.01 (some irrelevant portions excised, check the article itself for more):

"He is not helping things," says Seamus Blackley... He speaks for many game designers raised on Miyamoto's innovations - developers who admire the master's work but are desperate for something new.

"At this point," Blackley continues, "Miyamoto is making games for his fans. Granted, there are millions of them, and it's smart business, but most are kids. He's not opening up adult audiences. He's reinforcing stereotypes about games, not pushing them to a place where they can become something different and truly awesome."

What especially frustrates Blackley is the sense that Miyamoto could take gaming to the next level: "There isn't anyone on the planet better at lasering into the lizard brain, that eye-attached-to-your-hand-attached-to-your-brain thing that makes it impossible to stop playing. GTA3 is good, but it's not revolutionary. What Miyamoto could bring to a game like that would be incredible."

-----

Ah, so developers should be original, so long as it isn't percieved as kiddy in some way. It doesn't work to say "Be original, but only in the way I say." Originality doesn't work that way. And it so happens that the most original things get made by starting from the abstract and then paring them down to the concrete, rather than starting from reality and then trying to devise a play mechanic (which is by nature abstract) from that. And abstract things tend look kiddy when presented in an easy-to-understand format, which it must be in order for a new player to grasp them.

It's this same state in the industry that's producing both things that Blackley is complaining about here: game designers tend to be hard-core gamers, which do not tend to be very original because they don't know much besides videogaming and the attendant arts (action movies, comic books, paper RPGs, trash fiction). So, you get a lot of games based off of those arts. People like Miyamoto get their ideas for games from spheres outside of the "traditional" areas. The idea for Pikmin came from working in his garden.

No idea comes from nowhere! The industry won't change until either the current developers start getting interested in more things (unlikely, as most of them are reinforced by the other hard-code gamer staff members on their teams) or new designers come in with a wider array of interests. (And people will probably deride their games the same way Blackley derided Miyamoto.)

I now abdicate my post as the All-Seeing Know-It-All.

There is no corresponding demand for spam.

Tell that to the spammers.

...when you have to rely on the nation of ignorant meatheads running $299 Windows PCs to be aware of them and make sure they're installed.

Microsoft took out full-page ads in several major newspapers on Tuesday, imploring the great unwashed masses to run Windows Update to get the Blaster patch. So obviously, even they know that the mere existence of the patch is not enough.

~Philly

Well according to this article on wired the promise of molecular computing is far far far beyond Moore's law. Not only in its processing power, but also in storage capacity, production, speed of production. Biomolecular electronics will change everything within the next 20 years (hopefully). We cant even imagine or predict what will happen. I just hope that our current stupid IP laws do not hinder this. I wouldnt be surprised if some new SCO tries to stall this technologies. Just in the name of making a underved profit.

Since diamonds have a much higher thermal conductivity (ie they can take the heat), they'd make better chips than silicon if only they were more affordable. Industrial diamonds are expected to make the whole industry's prices fall drastically by increasing supply and breaking the De Beers cartel .

More about the De Beers cartel:

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Everything2 link

Personally I think these are awesome feats of engineering, and a way to give your significant other a stone without feeling morally, and literally, bankrupt.

I saw this article about new diamond manufacturing techniques and it's an interesting read. Having diamond based processors looks like a viable technology in the near future and heat dissipation is one of the major reasons that they're considering diamond.

I'm just worried about what my wife will say when the diamond in my machine is bigger than the one on her finger...
-B

This is why colas sell 'image' instead of 'this cola tastes good', for instance. Its called 'selling the sizzle, not the steak', and is pretty much 101 in marketing.

The utter and complete irony of this whole thing is not lost on me. Who here remembers the article that Wired Magazine ran on Hollywood's tracking boards ? The one in which Hollywood's studio people would boost or slam a movie, often without even reading the script , and from that information alone deciding whether to produce a picture or not?

Hollywood should stop buying its own sizzle and take a good look at what's making that smell. The Wired article above mentions a movie by name, I recall: Kangaroo Jack. It had buzz, they said. And we all know how that turned out, right? Mind you, it could always have been worse...

"Deep Blue was not dismantled"

Then why does everyone seem to think that it is?

Wired: Deep Blue has since been dismantled

ChessCenter: Deep Blue was dismantled after beating Garry Kasparov in 1997

Nature: Blue was dismantled after the '97 contest

Kasparov: it was quickly dismantled after the event.

What is the current status of this machine and its software?

They might. Take a look at this article from Wired magazine:

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50811,00. html

from Wired News "I've been getting these pop-ups on my new computer's screen saying there was a patch that was downloaded and did I want to install it now," said Kathy Greeves, a schoolteacher. "I thought it could be an attempt to hack my computer, or give it a virus, so I always click 'no.' I thought I was being smart."

I bet this same woman thinks nothing of downloading spyware ridden crap because it's cute or makes piracy idiot-proof. Maybe if Microsoft had a purple gorilla sing the updates, people would take notice.

When I received one box back from servicing today, a botched update completed itself upon booting, and a warning came up that a particular video driver file may be compromising the OS's security, did I want to fix and use, not use, or just use it? Nice. All I have to do is run software update. I want more of that caution built in, but as things stand, keep it up Cupertino.

Wired had a story a while back about one of these groups of card counters from MIT. The way the story described their method was to do it as a team so that no one player was playing a pattern that could be recognized as counting cards. One player (the "spotter") would be sitting at the table making small bets counting cards, or the girl at someones shoulder was doing the counting (a "back spotter") and when the cards turned to to the players favor a high roller who always makes large bets (the "gorilla") would move to the table to clean up the winnings. A team would have spotters at several tables steering the gorilla (or more than one) to the tables that are winning.

However, the casinos do reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, and they do to card counters.

Actually, this varies from city to city. According to this article, casinos in Atlantic City aren't allowed to bar people for counting cards.

The problem with automating this system is what about false positives? There's a difference between patterns being identified by humans and patterns being identified by computers.

Sorry, Charlie, but humans are just as capable of being wrong as computers. A pit boss can guess that somebody's counting cards with a pretty high probability of being right, just like a well-programmed pattern recognition system. Case in point -- remember the "MIT Blackjack Team" (Wired article). A single pit boss simply will not catch the more sophisticated attacks.