Let's see...what apps did Apple cover in the keynote? Autodesk Sketchbook, GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto, the iWork suite and a couple games. Yeah, no content creation at all.
It doesn't surprise me that you were modded up, as Slashdot is full of geeks that spend their lives in front of keyboards. However, it might surprise you to discover that the world managed to create a great many things before keyboards were ever invented. It's hardly a requirement for creativity, and in many tasks is even a hindrance.
Demanding that the iPad come with a built-in keyboard to suit your needs is like musicians demanding the iPad come with guitar strings or artists demanding it come with stylus support and a set of digitizer pens. The iPad is generic. If you have specific needs, buy a damn accessory.
I seem to recall plenty of people milling about when the Berlin wall came down. When you give people access to something formerly restricted, plenty of people will show up just to say they were there.
The Internet will be an interesting place on the day the "Great Firewall" finally gets shut down for good.
Direct sunlight, with its ionizing radiation? Are they crazy?
The obvious solution is to preserve our delicate photoreceptors by avoiding light as much as possible... at least for the decade or two it takes engineers to invent replacement eyes.
And if we really need periods of intense light during the day, well, that's why God made enormous LED-lit displays.
And how many livestock animals will you kill to sustain that cat or dog's miserable life in a cage in a shelter...along with the millions of other unlucky pets that weren't just the right age and the right breed and the right personality to make a fashionable Valentine's Day present.
It's steganography. They've created a strong AI capable of passing as human and conversing intelligently with other copies of itself. Each AI instance develops relationships with others, sharing email and IMs about its loves and hates, passions and dreams, even photos of virtual family and pets. All of which can contain a hidden payload of your private data.
But enough technical mumbo-jumbo. What matters is you'll now be able to surf porn sites without anyone knowing.
In related news, local police decided not to arrest a serial killer, citing substantial non-illegal activity.
A police spokesman was quoted as saying "This man is a valued member of his company, pays his bills, shops at local stores, goes to church every Sunday, and has many ties to family and friends. His arrest would have brought disharmony into the lives of dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of innocent citizens, and that is simply not the function of the police department. Be well!"
Of course, tradition will prevent this from happening for many years to come. I can only imagine the conversations a lot of Chinese families will be having a decade or two from now:
"Sorry, son. We chose to give you a significantly shorter lifespan, an inferior immune system, poorer social skills, and the inability to have one of life's most powerful experiences. Also, since tons of other families did the same thing, there's a big gender gap today and you'll be lucky to find someone to fall in love with. But look on the bright side: You're much better at opening jars, lifting heavy loads, and at the time your gender really impressed all our friends!"
A large part of all R&D activity revolves around building very expensive gadgets that are often based on unsound technology and frequently fail to perform as required.
Mens' duties originally involved hunting large animals and going to war against neighboring tribes, things which male physiology was more suited for.
Women, who lacked the physical strength of men and spent much of their adult lives pregnant or nursing children, were expected to raise children, gather food, maintain households, trade, and all the things that needed to be done at home while the men were out fighting.
However, as mens' work became less dangerous and required less physical strength, our deeply-ingrained cultural beliefs kept men in the position of the specialist, who focuses on one field to earn as much wealth as possible, while women were left in the role of the generalist, who raises the family, maintains the household, and generally fills the gaps left by men.
Of course, a generalist is never as good at any one task as a specialist, and thus men were perceived as being "smarter" than women, reinforcing the cultural belief. Ingrained cultural beliefs define a society's morality, and the notion of training women as specialists was soon considered not just pointless but sinful and subversive—further separating the genders and reinforcing the prejudicial beliefs even more.
This sort of vicious cycle is by no means limited to gender, and indeed there are far more egregious examples. For centuries we treated slaves like cattle, separating children from parents, denying them education and expecting them to work from early childhood. Intellectually, they regressed as we progressed, and it became easier and easier to separate them from us until the most refined rational thinkers were convinced slaves belonged to an inferior subspecies.
While slavery was finally outlawed in most countries, this problem still exists in other forms between developed and undeveloped countries, majorities and minorities, higher and lower social castes or classes. We assume that intelligence, skills, rationality and wealth are products of innate talent, rather than education and circumstance. Those that lack are considered unworthy and denied opportunities for advancement. We become trapped in feedback loops, mistaking cause for effect, disadvantage for inferiority.
But science has made it possible for us to break out of these loops by proving that there is no biological reason to esteem one group above another. We are all different, but so long as we are given the opportunity, we are all, on the whole, equally capable.
I don't have a problem with ads on web pages (hosting isn't free, y'know) but I don't like putting my systems at risk to plugin and browser vulnerabilities. If an ad company promised no flash or potentially dangerous scripts or images I'd add them to my whitelist.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's see...what apps did Apple cover in the keynote? Autodesk Sketchbook, GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto, the iWork suite and a couple games. Yeah, no content creation at all.
It doesn't surprise me that you were modded up, as Slashdot is full of geeks that spend their lives in front of keyboards. However, it might surprise you to discover that the world managed to create a great many things before keyboards were ever invented. It's hardly a requirement for creativity, and in many tasks is even a hindrance.
Demanding that the iPad come with a built-in keyboard to suit your needs is like musicians demanding the iPad come with guitar strings or artists demanding it come with stylus support and a set of digitizer pens. The iPad is generic. If you have specific needs, buy a damn accessory.
Yes, and I hear they can also activate your latent introns and cause you to de-evolve.
Fortunately, the chance of either is acceptably low.
Honestly, his statements sound like they belong in an Onion article.
"Daryl Gates Hopes L.A. Riots Were a One-Time Thing, Eager to Resume Beating Black People"
...the war of 1812, the 1848 revolution, the civil rights movement...
http://xkcd.com/368/
Yeah, you'd think on Slashdot we could at least get Robocall's take on the issue.
who cares?
Michael Palin.
I seem to recall plenty of people milling about when the Berlin wall came down. When you give people access to something formerly restricted, plenty of people will show up just to say they were there.
The Internet will be an interesting place on the day the "Great Firewall" finally gets shut down for good.
Direct sunlight, with its ionizing radiation? Are they crazy?
The obvious solution is to preserve our delicate photoreceptors by avoiding light as much as possible... at least for the decade or two it takes engineers to invent replacement eyes.
And if we really need periods of intense light during the day, well, that's why God made enormous LED-lit displays.
We all know this is just marketing for Iron Sky.
And how many livestock animals will you kill to sustain that cat or dog's miserable life in a cage in a shelter...along with the millions of other unlucky pets that weren't just the right age and the right breed and the right personality to make a fashionable Valentine's Day present.
Morality is complicated.
It's steganography. They've created a strong AI capable of passing as human and conversing intelligently with other copies of itself. Each AI instance develops relationships with others, sharing email and IMs about its loves and hates, passions and dreams, even photos of virtual family and pets. All of which can contain a hidden payload of your private data.
But enough technical mumbo-jumbo. What matters is you'll now be able to surf porn sites without anyone knowing.
In related news, local police decided not to arrest a serial killer, citing substantial non-illegal activity.
A police spokesman was quoted as saying "This man is a valued member of his company, pays his bills, shops at local stores, goes to church every Sunday, and has many ties to family and friends. His arrest would have brought disharmony into the lives of dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of innocent citizens, and that is simply not the function of the police department. Be well!"
I asked them that once, but they still wouldn't give me a space shuttle.
One source said it has twice as many backdoors as SELinux. Another source said ten times as many.
I think they're both correct.
It also monitors exploding psionic squid.
Of course, tradition will prevent this from happening for many years to come. I can only imagine the conversations a lot of Chinese families will be having a decade or two from now:
"Sorry, son. We chose to give you a significantly shorter lifespan, an inferior immune system, poorer social skills, and the inability to have one of life's most powerful experiences. Also, since tons of other families did the same thing, there's a big gender gap today and you'll be lucky to find someone to fall in love with. But look on the bright side: You're much better at opening jars, lifting heavy loads, and at the time your gender really impressed all our friends!"
Now you'll have to check a box labeled "I am not a member of a terrorist organization" when you sign up.
Except the smart wolf would vote with the sheep, securing the loyalty of 1/3 of the electorate for the cost of a single dinner.
A large part of all R&D activity revolves around building very expensive gadgets that are often based on unsound technology and frequently fail to perform as required.
FTFY.
Do you work for my insurance company?
Mens' duties originally involved hunting large animals and going to war against neighboring tribes, things which male physiology was more suited for.
Women, who lacked the physical strength of men and spent much of their adult lives pregnant or nursing children, were expected to raise children, gather food, maintain households, trade, and all the things that needed to be done at home while the men were out fighting.
However, as mens' work became less dangerous and required less physical strength, our deeply-ingrained cultural beliefs kept men in the position of the specialist, who focuses on one field to earn as much wealth as possible, while women were left in the role of the generalist, who raises the family, maintains the household, and generally fills the gaps left by men.
Of course, a generalist is never as good at any one task as a specialist, and thus men were perceived as being "smarter" than women, reinforcing the cultural belief. Ingrained cultural beliefs define a society's morality, and the notion of training women as specialists was soon considered not just pointless but sinful and subversive—further separating the genders and reinforcing the prejudicial beliefs even more.
This sort of vicious cycle is by no means limited to gender, and indeed there are far more egregious examples. For centuries we treated slaves like cattle, separating children from parents, denying them education and expecting them to work from early childhood. Intellectually, they regressed as we progressed, and it became easier and easier to separate them from us until the most refined rational thinkers were convinced slaves belonged to an inferior subspecies.
While slavery was finally outlawed in most countries, this problem still exists in other forms between developed and undeveloped countries, majorities and minorities, higher and lower social castes or classes. We assume that intelligence, skills, rationality and wealth are products of innate talent, rather than education and circumstance. Those that lack are considered unworthy and denied opportunities for advancement. We become trapped in feedback loops, mistaking cause for effect, disadvantage for inferiority.
But science has made it possible for us to break out of these loops by proving that there is no biological reason to esteem one group above another. We are all different, but so long as we are given the opportunity, we are all, on the whole, equally capable.
I don't have a problem with ads on web pages (hosting isn't free, y'know) but I don't like putting my systems at risk to plugin and browser vulnerabilities. If an ad company promised no flash or potentially dangerous scripts or images I'd add them to my whitelist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohort_(military_unit)
I think the summary is great entertainment. Why do you read Slashdot...to be informed?
the most wasteful way to dispose of a human body.
Pfft. Hardly. When it's time for me to kick the bucket I plan on piloting the Burj Khalifa directly into the Louvre.
I'm still working out the details.