Don't be silly. Machines can't reproduce (without building more by hand, at least), meaning that they won't outnumber us any time soon and that humans would decide how strong their bodies are. As for the 'brains in jars', the obvious solution is to keep it out of direct control of anything important. If, for whatever reason, it's absolutely vital to have an AI in a position to control anything important, it's not like we don't have direct access to their minds; such an AI would have no privacy so long as people could read it. (Actually, with the last part in mind, I wouldn't mind having AIs replace people in some governmental positions. Provided the logs were publicly accessible.)
nor does it decrease the amount of money in my wallet.
So you're telling me that nobody clicks those ads and makes a purchase?
Are you saying that every purchase someone else makes 'because' of an ad drains from the GP's wallet? Keep in mind that the GP said "my wallet". Are you're saying the mere presence of a non-intrusive text ad makes people buy something they weren't already considering? And if non-free is suddenly bad, let's look at Wikipedia with the millions of dollars it receives in donations. It isn't about free and non-free, it's about for-profit and non-profit and what the editors get in return for contributing.
A docking station would be rather irritating to carry around. Why not just handle charging externally? Another option would be to go back to a larger form factor like the stuff from the last decade in order to accommodate large fan. (The power drain caused by the fan shouldn't be much of a problem if it only runs when charging the battery and maybe a few minutes after.)
But how would one determine the velocity of someone traveling faster than C? (Assuming it were possible to do so in the first place, I mean.) It seems rather nonsensical to use clocks when the one moving is going back in time.
Yes, they're called counter-notices and (as far as I understand) the only recourse after receiving one is to take legal action. Though the 'under penalty of perjury' claus probably discourages people from using these handy tools. A nice template for such a notice can be found at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Terrorism/form-letter.html.
Slimming down Windows? What about all that cheap hardware? If we don't have a big, bloated beast out there, how fast will hardware prices go down? All Chicken Little-esque speculation aside, people really seem to be underestimating what 512MB of RAM and a 1.6GHz P4 can do when talking about old hardware. All MS needs to do in order to compete in the low-end market is to keep XP around.
So they're patent trolls, at least they provide something useful on the side. I, for one, would rather have a cheap, high-bandwidth connection than cheap VoIP. (Don't we have Skype for that anyway?) 15Mbps upstream is just too good to pass up, compared to the 512Kbps-1Mbps the cable companies provide.
That would only be a valid argument if gold were only used for jewelry. Gold is reasonably rare and quite useful; it's a good conductor and corrosion resistant. It's also used (with declining frequency) in dentistry, due to its malleability and corrosion resistance. On the other hand, I can't see any real uses for strips of paper that have been plastered with green ink.
Are you suggesting that some profitable new market will emerge from FOSS users that will convince Apple to change its sales strategy to target "people who don't want to pay for things" as opposed to "people to pay a premium for higher end products"?
It's not the desire to get out of paying. Far be it, most carriers I've been with have thrown a huge bill my way for canceling mid-contract. It's just that AT&T sucks.
Which $399 phones have 8GB of RAM and a large touch screen?
Flash isn't RAM and I seriously doubt it adds significantly to the cost. Also there are plenty of smartphones with touchscreens, just not multi-touch. I'm not saying they're not being sold at a loss (before their cut from AT&T), but it's certainly not as much as you make it sound like.
While the iPhone indeed has a few awesome features, it probably has more to do with the iPhone being marketed to the general public (as a phone, rather than a tiny computer).
That still doesn't address the privacy concerns, and there's also a plethora of applications that are as/more power hungry than gaming. That aside, why on earth would I want to spend $200-600 at once to play every game for a specific system instead of spending $50-100 only when I find a game I like that I can't play? And I'm sure the companies providing access to these servers would find as many ways to nickel and dime the users as possible.
And what's a sloshing sound going to tell the 'average' user that a battery-shaped bar or a percentage can't? Neither method gives the user a good idea how much time is left, the motor and speaker would do a lot to drain the battery, and it's more practical to look at the screen than to shake the phone. Not to mention that the 'toy' value of it is just too tempting; people would start shaking it around to kill time (and the battery).
I can't see that being much of a problem unless the subject subscribes to dualism. Well, except in the 'resurrection' example, in which case it would be confusing as hell for the copy.
Now the problem I see with the maglev tower is, who is going to want it in their backyard? It looks more palatable than a windfarm but its so damn tall that that the land area may be moot versus the "sight pollution". Of course we already have giant cooling towers but this thing looks larger.
How bad would this 'sight pollution' be compared to the steel, glass and concrete towers all over the place now? Besides, sometimes it's nice to be able to look out the window (or look up) and think to yourself: 'Holy shit! That thing's huge.' And it looks a lot nicer than the ugly, rusty-looking power plant over here.
Not many, if all their music "shopping" were to migrate to the P2P networks. Even if they have an impulse to pay, just for the hell of it, they must go to the trouble of looking up the artist and researching an address or other avenue that they can send money through. It's a lot of effort for an impulsive action.
Note the 'l' there. I was speaking of the artists, not the audience.
Assuming your favoured musician can do concerts
Do concerts need to be held in flashy arenas?
assuming there are any left who haven't declared bankruptcy or started jobs at McDonalds.... Before recognition, they want to survive. I'm sorry, but hard-coded biological imperatives trump hazy, overgeneralised entertainer imperatives.
Sorry, I had no idea that there are people out there who can't do anything other than entertain. I'll try to be more careful in the future so I don't offend those incapable of making a living through manual labor like the rest of us no-talent hacks.
And this is a problem? There are still those who play for the sake of it, there are still those who prefer attending concerts even though they already have the album, and there will always be people who find themselves morally bound to pay if they like something. I'm not saying I support piracy, but things seem only slightly less viable without the middleman. But maybe I'm missing something; I've always thought people became entertainers for recognition, rather than riches.
Seems a bit of a stretch. Phone conversations could be rather confusing with four or five people, not to mention that file transfers are out the window. Regardless, the point I was trying to make is that people don't have to put personal information out there just to socialize with others. It's not that hard to give out your contact details in person, is it?
Isn't that what IRC is for? There's no need to plaster a page with your name, address, phone numbers, and everything up to and including your shoe size, if you just want to speak with friends.
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Don't be silly. Machines can't reproduce (without building more by hand, at least), meaning that they won't outnumber us any time soon and that humans would decide how strong their bodies are. As for the 'brains in jars', the obvious solution is to keep it out of direct control of anything important. If, for whatever reason, it's absolutely vital to have an AI in a position to control anything important, it's not like we don't have direct access to their minds; such an AI would have no privacy so long as people could read it.
(Actually, with the last part in mind, I wouldn't mind having AIs replace people in some governmental positions. Provided the logs were publicly accessible.)
Not that it matters too much. Most (if not all) distros allow you to download via FTP or HTTP.
Shh. He's innovating!
Are you saying that every purchase someone else makes 'because' of an ad drains from the GP's wallet? Keep in mind that the GP said "my wallet". Are you're saying the mere presence of a non-intrusive text ad makes people buy something they weren't already considering?
And if non-free is suddenly bad, let's look at Wikipedia with the millions of dollars it receives in donations. It isn't about free and non-free, it's about for-profit and non-profit and what the editors get in return for contributing.
A docking station would be rather irritating to carry around. Why not just handle charging externally? Another option would be to go back to a larger form factor like the stuff from the last decade in order to accommodate large fan. (The power drain caused by the fan shouldn't be much of a problem if it only runs when charging the battery and maybe a few minutes after.)
I wouldn't call the dev team playing Duke Nukem Forever for six years 'rushing it out to market'.
But how would one determine the velocity of someone traveling faster than C? (Assuming it were possible to do so in the first place, I mean.) It seems rather nonsensical to use clocks when the one moving is going back in time.
Yes, they're called counter-notices and (as far as I understand) the only recourse after receiving one is to take legal action. Though the 'under penalty of perjury' claus probably discourages people from using these handy tools.
A nice template for such a notice can be found at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Terrorism/form-letter.html.
Slimming down Windows? What about all that cheap hardware? If we don't have a big, bloated beast out there, how fast will hardware prices go down?
All Chicken Little-esque speculation aside, people really seem to be underestimating what 512MB of RAM and a 1.6GHz P4 can do when talking about old hardware. All MS needs to do in order to compete in the low-end market is to keep XP around.
So they're patent trolls, at least they provide something useful on the side. I, for one, would rather have a cheap, high-bandwidth connection than cheap VoIP. (Don't we have Skype for that anyway?) 15Mbps upstream is just too good to pass up, compared to the 512Kbps-1Mbps the cable companies provide.
You might as well say homes and clothing are worthless on the same grounds. After all, what does nature care about any of that?
That would only be a valid argument if gold were only used for jewelry. Gold is reasonably rare and quite useful; it's a good conductor and corrosion resistant. It's also used (with declining frequency) in dentistry, due to its malleability and corrosion resistance. On the other hand, I can't see any real uses for strips of paper that have been plastered with green ink.
Nothing but lies!
I'm not saying they're not being sold at a loss (before their cut from AT&T), but it's certainly not as much as you make it sound like.While the iPhone indeed has a few awesome features, it probably has more to do with the iPhone being marketed to the general public (as a phone, rather than a tiny computer).
What, hard drives are indestructible? Goodbye, bricks!
That still doesn't address the privacy concerns, and there's also a plethora of applications that are as/more power hungry than gaming. That aside, why on earth would I want to spend $200-600 at once to play every game for a specific system instead of spending $50-100 only when I find a game I like that I can't play?
And I'm sure the companies providing access to these servers would find as many ways to nickel and dime the users as possible.
And what's a sloshing sound going to tell the 'average' user that a battery-shaped bar or a percentage can't? Neither method gives the user a good idea how much time is left, the motor and speaker would do a lot to drain the battery, and it's more practical to look at the screen than to shake the phone. Not to mention that the 'toy' value of it is just too tempting; people would start shaking it around to kill time (and the battery).
I can't see that being much of a problem unless the subject subscribes to dualism. Well, except in the 'resurrection' example, in which case it would be confusing as hell for the copy.
But maybe I'm missing something; I've always thought people became entertainers for recognition, rather than riches.
Seems a bit of a stretch. Phone conversations could be rather confusing with four or five people, not to mention that file transfers are out the window. Regardless, the point I was trying to make is that people don't have to put personal information out there just to socialize with others. It's not that hard to give out your contact details in person, is it?
Isn't that what IRC is for? There's no need to plaster a page with your name, address, phone numbers, and everything up to and including your shoe size, if you just want to speak with friends.