Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: ASIMO History, CSIRO WiFi, Net Neutrality
A Short history of Honda's ASIMO. Ant writes to tell us that Honda has posted a short overview of the evolution leading up to the ASIMO. The history showcases the progress Honda has made in robotics over the last 20 years. It contains drawings, photographs, specifications, and other information about each prototype.
Intel bows out of the embedded processor market. markrages writes "Embedded.com is reporting Intel is withdrawing from the embedded processor market. From the article: 'The company will stop producing the 8051, 251, 8096/196, 188/186, i960, all versions of the 386 (including the 386EX) and 486.'" The product change notification is also available from Intel's site.
Microsoft USB giveaway fizzles. An anonymous reader writes "If you thought you could get something for nothing from Microsoft. Think again. NetworkWorld is reporting that Microsoft is backing down from the free USB drive marketing promotion they launched last February."
CSIRO close to WiFi win. Trapped Database Adm writes "Australian IT reports that Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Texas issued a Markman opinion, providing 'strong support for CSIRO's position in its patent infringement test case.'" From the article: "The CSIRO claims its patent relates to several wireless standards, and the technology covered by its patent is a standard feature of most notebook computers and many other devices. Many technology companies are refusing to pay up, however."
Lawmakers target MySpace again. ardyng writes "It appears Congressman Michael G. Fitzpatrick,(R-Penn) has introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives that would ban minors from accessing social networking websites such as Myspace, as well as any site that 'allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger. The Bill, H.R. 5319, also known as the 'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006', is still in its infancy, but in its current form, would forbid libraries from allowing access to such sites as well." (That description would also include the site you're reading now.)
New York Times weighs in on net neutrality. KarmaOverDogma writes "The New York Times' Adam Cohen provides an argument in favor of neutrality on the World Wide Web. Cohen succinctly provides a brief history of the World Wide Web, its creator Tim Berners-Lee's vision of how it should operate, why he designed that way, and the forces moving to create a tiered pricing system of access. From stifling creativity and competition to free speech and innovation, Cohen shows why strange bedfellows have come to favor enforcing the 'Democratic Ethic' of the internet by Legislation."
Isn't the XScale also an Intel embedded processor?
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
"The Bill, H.R. 5319, also known as the 'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006', is still in its infancy, but in its current form, would forbid libraries from allowing access to such sites as well."
The solution is to force these politians to take vacation 360 out of 365 days of the year to limit the damage and stupidity caused.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Hey! How do you know what website I'm reading right now?
Oh. Right.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
If minors are prohibited, how does one prove one is an adult, and perhaps more importantly, does the information required to prove one is an adult provide yet more ways for one's online activity to be tracked?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
"That's not what we call Internet at all," says Sir Tim. "That's what we call cable TV."
Beautiful line, and summed up so even a politco could understand it.
Infiltrated dot Net
'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006' are you kidding me? How about just 'Deleting everything Online Act of 2006' This bill is FAR too broad? How many websites have a forum? Just about all.
Here are the actual videos of ASIMO doing things.o bj-2/
http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/tech-recog-mov-
As far as that bill goes, before deciding that material obscene to minors should be banned, how about we decide _what_ is obscene to minors. Isn't this really a morality issue up to the _parents_ not Big Brother? Material described as obscene and harmful to minors is so disgustingly vague, that anyone can come on and say Microsoft.com is harmful to minors. Let's ban that (yay). I don't want legislators in congress deciding what is and isn't obscene for me.
Stoned4Life
gen = new Random
As a Canadian it appears that Americans are getting all the stick and no carrot. While being gagged and bound by unenforcable laws and taxed to support humongous government the American people go without the social programs and safety nets that coutries like Canada enjoy as a consequence of being over governed.
In the beginning was Adam Smith and things were OK; then came J.M. Keynes, government programs and a chicken in every pot, followed by J.K. Galbraith and the military industrial complex. What you've got going now I haven't got words for, but, better you than me.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
What a mediocre article. He could've at least brought up the "double-dipping" nature of the tiered system.
At least do some better research:
The blogging phenomenon is possible because individuals can create Web sites with the World Wide Web prefix, www, that can be seen by anyone with Internet access.
No wonder my site isn't working: I forgot to add the www prefix!!
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
I am all about Network Neutrality...the problem is that most of you aren't. There, my shocking intro is out of the way. ;-)
:-\
Seriously though, I'm only half joking. I agree that we must do everything we can to promote the vision of the Web that people like Tim Berners-Lee had at its inception. The problem is that while we want to fight for neutrality in our bandwidth, we are willing to give it up in our protocols.
For instance, the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) so-called spam solution is being adopted all over the place without nary a complaint. But think about it. Tim Berners-Lee didn't just envision a web of equitable bandwidth, he envisioned a web of peers---a web of end points, all equally valid. What happens when my system is no longer considered a valid end point? Suddenly, we have a network of clients and servers rather than peers. When the SPF process looks to verify that the sender is the one valid smtp server for the mail address' domain (based on either MX or A records), it devalues all non-domain level systems on the web. Peers on the network become clients, fed valid packets from those servers that are approved to pass said packets. The SMTP semantic paradigm moves from Sender>Receiver to Server>Client.
But no one really cares because there is some belief that this will help reduce spam. It will, but so will turning off our mail clients. Neither is the right solution. The solution is a newer, better mail protocol, many of which have been proposed that DO NOT devalue the peers of the network. Probably one of the better known of the examples is the IM2000 protocol.
But we'd rather have a network of tiered rights---as long as our bandwidth is balanced equitably we won't complain, I guess.
Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/
-Tom
I could see banning under-13's (who already require parental supervision), but minors? What does a sixteen-year-old have to fear from a pedophile? Even if this passes (oh, Canada!), it's an absurd smoke-and-mirrors measure.
(at least from Microsoft's perspective)
They have, and can use, all your personal contact information for the price of putting a few documents online. Don't you feel like a sucker?
I'm trying to figure out exactly what you are. What comes after pedophiles and terrorists?
Wait... are you a DEMOCRAT??
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
Yes, he's a Democrat. Lucky for me, I happen to not be affiliated with any party. However, with global warming going as it is, they may go after the scie
++ATH
NO CARRIER
Myspace is to today as AOL Chatrooms were to the 90's. All the hip pedophiles use MySpace.
You are absolutely correct. Pedophiles definately use MySpace. They also use the carpool lane, the grocery store, a knife every time they want to chop lettuce and even a voting booth from time to time. The sooner we ban all these things the safer our precious children will be.
TW
They are going to try to make sites like Wikipedia hard to use, that's the point. Big publishers like the NYT probably don't like the fact that more people visit Wikipedia than them by a large margin. The old TV and radio empire is striking back. They can't compete so they are going to make laws to protect themselves. Netcraft Site Ranking, today wikipedia is 28th and they NYT is 57th. Between my local paper, BBC, Google News and Wikipedia, I don't need Fox, CNN, M$NBC, CBS, ABC and their ilk. Well, those old companies do find daily rotten fillers.
Say no to this nonsense.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Subject line aside, the (rough) equivalents of this using your examples would be:
No driving in the carpool lane when you have a child in the car, as pedophiles may see them.
Children may not go to the grocery store where pedophiles may see them.
No using a knife when there is a child in the room. (a bit harder as a knife is not a place).
Children may not be in tow when going to vote as pedophiles might see them.