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Tearing Down China's Great Firewall
quadsoft writes to tell us The Toronto Star has a look at three University Toronto computer geeks who are working hard to circumvent the internet censorship problems like those found in China. From the article: "But the computer smarts of Ron Deibert, Nart Villeneuve, and Michael Hull, combined with their passion for politics and free expression, have led them to develop a highly anticipated software program that allows Internet users inside China and other countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Burma, to get around repressive censorship and not get caught."
Dear Slashdot :
I'm a white male, mid 20's. Average height, weight, appearance. I'm sexually attracted to women, and i do not find men sexually attractive. What is wierd is that when i see attractive women, i dont think "Wow, i'd like to jam it in her ass right now right here", i most often think "Man, shes hot, i wish i could be like her".
In my dreams i'm usually female, and all through out growing up i felt like i was supposed to be a girl. I dont dress up like a woman and i dont fantasize about hyperfeminine crap like transgender perverts do.
I dont act girly and i enjoy masculine activities. Infact i spend a lot of time writing software and designing circuitry. I also enjoy working on cars.
So my question is what the hell am I? I'm obviously not gay, and not a transvestite.
thank you Slashdot for your time and support.
Also, massage your perineum.
In Three, Two, One...
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Development here at CAIRSCI is going well. It's time to build the first prototype. We are going to build a custom computer with a NUMA sytle architecture. We have settled on a CPU architecture. The first prototype is based on the BlackFin processor ( a 32bit RISC with 80kb integrated ram, 16bit memory interface and clocked at 400MHz) and will have 96 CPUs. Each cpu board will have 4mb ram. The system will have a total of 76,800MMACs and a total of 384MB of sdram. We can get the CPUs for about $8 a piece and the parts to drive it ( ram, resonator, caps, resistors, voltage regulator, etc ) cost about $20 not including the PCB. So the cost to build the system, sans pcb, chasis and interconnect wires ( the flex cables going from one cpu board to the neighbor boards ) and of course assembly time is about $2,688.
Heres the problem, the PCB. The cpu is a 176pin LQFP, and the lead pitch is 0.5mm. Ive laid out the tracks on the computer, and print the pattern out on a laser printer ( peel and stick method ) but the problem is the dip process. The etchant always eats under the tape, ive wasted a lot of etchant. It's heated up to 160 and agitated through out the process... There has to be some way to do this, any tips? I know i can get them made at like pcb123 for great expense, but CAIRSCI is a cash deprived org at the moment. In the pic i wanted to see if i could hand solder to something with that lead pitch, i can! Thats a qfp64. But thats not practical and would be an RF nightmare.
Nope, it's real. The specs are spot on. The chip really is that cheap. The parts to get it up and running some code are also way cheap. 28$ per board isnt a bad estimate. Interfacing one CPU to another is literally just directly wiring one GPIO lead to another. The chip was chosen because it was the fastest one in the family that wasnt BGA. Soldering down a QFP isnt that hard after youve done it a few times. Going the BGA route would require reflow soldering and ive never done that and dont care to atm.
The problem ive got is trying to make some pcb's cheaply. Thats my biggest expense. The lead pitch is too fine for the methods i'm using to etch the traces. I'm just trying to figure out how other people are doing it.
CAIRSCI is an org dedicated to cognative AI research. We have a simulation running right now under linux. It spawns off 96 threads, each of which represents a cpu board. Most of the modules are related to memory response and recording. We are mainly focused on AI in the use of machine vision applications. There is a communications protocol in place, and modules inputs and outputs are arranged in feedback loops and this is where the recgonition is derrived. Frames are captured from a firewire camera and fed into a tree of modules which break down the information, some modules break down information into clusters, others patternmatch that data against their local store and provide a response, which is fed down the chain. It's similar to a neural net simulation, though it doesnt work like a neural net, and our goal isnt to simulate animal brain structures. In tests you can hold various cardboard shapes infront of the camera and 90% of the time the system can recgonise and report what shape it is regardless of the rotation, angle or position of the shape. The background isnt a color flood fill either.
Most machine vision software these days is centered around specific algorithms such as edge detect and convolution and is highly subject to environmental factors. We are aiming for less accurate but more general purpose visual recgonition applications.
CAIRSCI stands for Cognatative Artifical Intelligence Research SCIence. It's goal is to do AI research, with a focus on ethics and cognition.
I have decided that i want a sexchange. Current medical technology yeilds a very poor result. A vagina can be made from the penis, but it will likely have hair inside of it, and there is a good chance of damaging the sensitive nervs, which would make sex unpleasurable. Breasts can only get but so big, nipples would not function. There would be no reproductive capability, and bone structure cannot be modified. The body chemistry cannot be changed, hormonal problems would be likely, and interacting with society would be awkward, as things like gait and voice would still be masculine. There is no way to change neural wiring in the brain to accomidate. The end result would be a sterile woman who looks like a man. Obviously this is not an option here.
It will be most likely at the pace things are going, several hundred years before medical technology progresses to the point where sex reassignment surgery would yeild satisfactory results. It is unfortunate that i will not live long enough to benefit from more advanced technology, so i will have to create it myself.
My plan is to build an AI system which can revise and improve on its self. It would be a cognitive AI system, a truely intelligent machine. Each time it improves on it's self, by modifying it's source code, it would increase in it's intellectual capacity in an exponential manner. It would quickly surpass the level of intelligence in human beings. Being that it would be superintelligent, it could run a profitable business, to generate income, which it would use to buy materials needed to improve upon its self.
Obviously i would steer it to focus it's time on developing technology in the following fields:stocks/investment, biotechnology, nanotechnology, chemistry, medicine, electronics. Being that it gains intelligence in an exponential manner, it should be able to develop the required technologies needed to proform an exceptional sex change. Not only would i transition over to being female, i would actually be a real woman, with full reproductive capability. Any sort of mental defects would be resolved, and i would have a completely healthy new body, void of any detromental conditions. This means i could live on for ever, looking great and the only way of death would be if somebody killed me or if got into an accident of some sort.
So my question to the guests of 4chan, is your thoughts on this process. Also i would be interested in hearing any ideas you have for creating such AI and approprate hardware to run it on. Please refrain from ethical discussions, as i think it is 100% ethical to produce a machine which could solve all of humanitys health and technology problems.
Doesn't have to. Not even a nuke would end with all them, and there are Farsi speakers in other places like Afghanistan.
I'd opt for harsh sanctions first, anyway. Nobody deserves a nuke, it's a very last resort. Not even Hiroshima-Nagasaki were justified at all.
Now this is just trolling.
.sig. Sarcastic to the point of shooting yourself in the foot?
It's just a misunderstanding between the kind, honest, hardworking, simple people of wherever, and the evil aggressiveness of America
I didn't say that the people of Iran were perfect, just that I found them to be interesting, intelligent, and well educated, and it would be damn shame to lose this fascinating and ancient culture in a squabble over diminishing and frankly ultimately redundant resources. That you choose to take the view that I am attacking American culture is your decision, not mine.
still appearing intellectually superior by blaming your own culture in a general sense.
Its not my culture.
Some of my best friends are black, too!
I can tell that by your
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Over the last year, they've developed their tactics of 'asymmetrical' war,
Yes, their development of the C4 vest and the IED are particularly impressive.
Iran designs and produces its brands of fighter and tank, among other things, some of which it exports to other countries. Initial developments in every field of military technology were carried out with the technical support of Russia, China, and North Korea to lay the foundations for future industries.
These items will make fine targets for US precision weapons as they did in Iraq.
Iran controls the northern coast of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which oil tankers must navigate, and could sink ships, mine sea routes or bomb oil platforms.
Any threats to shipping would be short lived. After about 2 weeks of bombing there would be no significant Iranian hardware on the Persion Gulf coast.
Although the Bush administration charges that Tehran already has been interfering in Iraq, many Iranians brush off the low-level infiltration as minor
Nonetheless there are interfering and should answer for it.
But don't worry, a war would be over by christmas, right? Thats why the American government was openly discussing a nuclear option recently, much to the horror of the rest of the world...
The only horror has been Ahmedinejad openly threatening Israel with nuclear destruction. The mullahs need to be reminded that the nuclear option is not open to them even if they obtain a device. No one is suggesting that the US invade Iran. Thoroughly working over its nuclear and military infrastructure is another matter.
On a related note, I have a lot of friends inside Iran, both male and female, and I have been continually surprised at how open minded, educated and free-thinking they are, especially the women.
All the more reason to aggressively oppose the mullahs. Somehow I don't believe that the treatment of women in Iran is as rosey as you say. Are they not still forced to wear headscarves, forced to marry, have less access to jobs?
but those problems are being resolved over time. As for their nuclear program, they simply see it as a response to American aggression. And they are right.
Seems to me the problem with the Iranian leadership is growing. Something has to give.
an ill wind that blows no good