OK, here we go again : back to mid 70's when everyone was trying to create a program that actually understood what others were saying to it. Were they successful ? Yes and no. Yes because they actually convinced lots of people that they were actually speaking to a person, no because these things are now residing only in history. Why would then this proposed attempt have any better chances ? Well, I can't tell what it's chances are, but there is actually somethig good in it. Because it will attract very many talented people (some less capable too, of course) but in general it may be a gathering of most of the minds that are interested in solving these puzzles. To be honest I'm not very interested in this project "as is", but generally my interest in AI are very strong. This is why I think that a good idea would be to give others an opportunity to manifest in this project. For instance how about people that work in speech recognition ? They could fit very well in here. Again, a great deal of information comes from the facial expressions we learn to interprete when we are young. This may be an opportunity for people interested in graphics . Not to mention OCR, movement planning etc. In short : this may start as a project done for fun... What if we actually transform this "only for fun" idea in "let's do some more than this" ? I think we could create something really interesting and useful.
When I read the first three enthusiastic comments I wondered where common sense had gone. Lego tests, right ? Well how about a reading and writing test ? As far as I know we are supposed to learn this in school. I've never taken an SAT (at the age I was supposed to I had to struggle with admission exams - yes, you guessed I'm not american and I have known another type of school education). I mean, graduating from a school should never be only a certificate of intelligence. This is done by IQ tests. School is supposed to teach you things more useful than building castles of LEGOs. How about some geography, or some chemistry, or biology or anything ? Do we really need to graduate something in order to build things that a 5 year old kid can do ? Where is the evolution then ?
I tried to check on the dell website and right now they are offering only Windows OS on any of their laptops. Well, it was said that they will be offering Linux based laptops only starting with 4 Feb. However I would have expected to see at least a note or a preview or something... Furthermore, as far as I can see for the Inspiron 7500 model the modem is not an Winmodem. So I guess that since the hardware is the same for both Linux and Windows based systems the price should be smaller for the Linux Laptop. Do I smell some fear that Microsoft will have something to say if they sell cheaper the Linux laptop ? Or perhaps they're just trying to make some extra bucks out of this ?
Indeed reading this article brought a sigh out of my chest. Perhaps it is the same pain I felt when I heard that Mr. Seymour Cray passed away... But this is life : sooner or later, whether we like it or not, we have to say farewell to those we respect. And no, I am not going to say that there are no good SF writers any more. Of course, none will be like Mr. Van Vogt... At this moment I feel more like being grateful because many of his ideas influenced us, because in an indirect way he contributed at what we are today. And I think this is the reason why we simply should say : "Requiscat in pace", you will not be forgotten.
I think it would be great to port some of the rather recent huge successes. And by this I mean obviously Starcraft (Brood War included), Diablo, Half Life, and one of the Need For Speed. Of course, no matter how much I love Starcraft (and Warcraft - both of them, and MAX and...) they are still old. And this is bad. We'll be stuck behind Windows as long as the first release of a successful game does not support Linux. Porting some old, good games may be represent the filling of a gap that exists now. It could persuade the game companies that it is actually worth developing for Linux too. And this is what we want, right ? The moment where all the major game companies will support Linux and Windows at the same level then we would have won.
Here are some interesting facts about LinuxOne and their distribution. Read them and see what you can conclude : 1. I've been trying to download a copy of this distribution for a couple of days at extremely different moments of the day (actually I was hammering on their site every half an hour). I have a very reliable connection to the internet (500kB/s to VAResearch, 70kB/s to SuSE's ftp, another 300kB/s to cdrom.com). Each end every attempt failed with a "there are too many users" mesage. 2. the only way of usage they support (at least in the web page) is from Windows. IMHO - why would I have (or want) to buy Windows in order to run Linux ? 3. Excerpt from their FAQ (hilarious I would say): Q: Can I acces the Internet ?. A : Certainly. To access the Internet, return to Windows because the Lite version is built on top of Windows. As some would say : I rest my case.
Here are some interesting facts about LinuxOne and their distribution. Read them and see what you can conclude : 1. I've been trying to download a copy of this distribution for a couple of days at extremely different moments of the day (actually I was hammering on their site every half an hour). I have a very reliable connection to the internet (500kB/s to VAResearch, 70kB/s to SuSE's ftp, another 300kB/s to cdrom.com). Each end every attempt failed with a "there are too many users" mesage. 2. the only way of usage they support (at least in the web page) is from Windows. IMHO - why would I have (or want) to buy Windows in order to run Linux ? 3. Excerpt from their FAQ (hilarious I would say): Q: Can I acces the Internet ?Certainly. A : To access the Internet, return to Windows because the Lite version is built on top of Windows. As some would say : I rest my case.
It's no longer a huge surprise : lately everyone seems to jump (or step at least) in the Linux boat. The question is : will Microsoft release the code for, say, SQL Server ? This would be really cute. Watch out, Bill may pull such an ace from his sleeve (yeah, right !)
To be honest I already had the chance of reading 3 comments so I have the advantage of knowing what at least 3 other people think:) For me it seems only natural - a consequence of a trend that has grown stronger lately. No longer than a week ago Creative announced availability of jobs for open source drivers. Over the late year major companies (I guess all of you know them, so I won't bother mentioning names) have anounced their intent to enter the Linux market. Why ? Because it's good. Because it could mean the end of an era in the computers' industry. An era dominated by egos (and not in the nicest way I could say). I also means that we may have grown up (as an industry, as a field of research etc.). So i guess I can say that this is really good news.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, here we go again : back to mid 70's when everyone was trying to create a program that actually understood what others were saying to it. Were they successful ? Yes and no. Yes because they actually convinced lots of people that they were actually speaking to a person, no because these things are now residing only in history.
Why would then this proposed attempt have any better chances ?
Well, I can't tell what it's chances are, but there is actually somethig good in it. Because it will attract very many talented people (some less capable too, of course) but in general it may be a gathering of most of the minds that are interested in solving these puzzles.
To be honest I'm not very interested in this project "as is", but generally my interest in AI are very strong. This is why I think that a good idea would be to give others an opportunity to manifest in this project. For instance how about people that work in speech recognition ? They could fit very well in here. Again, a great deal of information comes from the facial expressions we learn to interprete when we are young. This may be an opportunity for people interested in graphics . Not to mention OCR, movement planning etc.
In short : this may start as a project done for fun... What if we actually transform this "only for fun" idea in "let's do some more than this" ? I think we could create something really interesting and useful.
When I read the first three enthusiastic comments I wondered where common sense had gone.
Lego tests, right ? Well how about a reading and writing test ? As far as I know we are supposed to learn this in school. I've never taken an SAT (at the age I was supposed to I had to struggle with admission exams - yes, you guessed I'm not american and I have known another type of school education).
I mean, graduating from a school should never be only a certificate of intelligence. This is done by IQ tests. School is supposed to teach you things more useful than building castles of LEGOs.
How about some geography, or some chemistry, or biology or anything ? Do we really need to graduate something in order to build things that a 5 year old kid can do ?
Where is the evolution then ?
I tried to check on the dell website and right now they are offering only Windows OS on any of their laptops.
Well, it was said that they will be offering Linux based laptops only starting with 4 Feb. However I would have expected to see at least a note or a preview or something...
Furthermore, as far as I can see for the Inspiron 7500 model the modem is not an Winmodem. So I guess that since the hardware is the same for both Linux and Windows based systems the price should be smaller for the Linux Laptop. Do I smell some fear that Microsoft will have something to say if they sell cheaper the Linux laptop ? Or perhaps they're just trying to make some extra bucks out of this ?
Indeed reading this article brought a sigh out of my chest. Perhaps it is the same pain I felt when I heard that Mr. Seymour Cray passed away ...
But this is life : sooner or later, whether we like it or not, we have to say farewell to those we respect.
And no, I am not going to say that there are no good SF writers any more. Of course, none will be like Mr. Van Vogt... At this moment I feel more like being grateful because many of his ideas influenced us, because in an indirect way he contributed at what we are today. And I think this is the reason why we simply should say : "Requiscat in pace", you will not be forgotten.
I think it would be great to port some of the rather recent huge successes. And by this I mean obviously Starcraft (Brood War included), Diablo, Half Life, and one of the Need For Speed. Of course, no matter how much I love Starcraft (and Warcraft - both of them, and MAX and ...) they are still old. And this is bad. We'll be stuck behind Windows as long as the first release of a successful game does not support Linux. Porting some old, good games may be represent the filling of a gap that exists now. It could persuade the game companies that it is actually worth developing for Linux too. And this is what we want, right ? The moment where all the major game companies will support Linux and Windows at the same level then we would have won.
Here are some interesting facts about LinuxOne and their distribution. Read them and see what you can conclude : 1. I've been trying to download a copy of this distribution for a couple of days at extremely different moments of the day (actually I was hammering on their site every half an hour). I have a very reliable connection to the internet (500kB/s to VAResearch, 70kB/s to SuSE's ftp, another 300kB/s to cdrom.com). Each end every attempt failed with a "there are too many users" mesage. 2. the only way of usage they support (at least in the web page) is from Windows. IMHO - why would I have (or want) to buy Windows in order to run Linux ? 3. Excerpt from their FAQ (hilarious I would say): Q: Can I acces the Internet ?. A : Certainly. To access the Internet, return to Windows because the Lite version is built on top of Windows. As some would say : I rest my case.
Here are some interesting facts about LinuxOne and their distribution. Read them and see what you can conclude : 1. I've been trying to download a copy of this distribution for a couple of days at extremely different moments of the day (actually I was hammering on their site every half an hour). I have a very reliable connection to the internet (500kB/s to VAResearch, 70kB/s to SuSE's ftp, another 300kB/s to cdrom.com). Each end every attempt failed with a "there are too many users" mesage. 2. the only way of usage they support (at least in the web page) is from Windows. IMHO - why would I have (or want) to buy Windows in order to run Linux ? 3. Excerpt from their FAQ (hilarious I would say): Q: Can I acces the Internet ?Certainly. A : To access the Internet, return to Windows because the Lite version is built on top of Windows. As some would say : I rest my case.
Come on guys, let's get serious ... Have you ever seen any noticeable chinese program ?
It's no longer a huge surprise : lately everyone seems to jump (or step at least) in the Linux boat. The question is : will Microsoft release the code for, say, SQL Server ? This would be really cute. Watch out, Bill may pull such an ace from his sleeve (yeah, right !)
To be honest I already had the chance of reading 3 comments so I have the advantage of knowing what at least 3 other people think :) For me it seems only natural - a consequence of a trend that has grown stronger lately. No longer than a week ago Creative announced availability of jobs for open source drivers. Over the late year major companies (I guess all of you know them, so I won't bother mentioning names) have anounced their intent to enter the Linux market. Why ? Because it's good. Because it could mean the end of an era in the computers' industry. An era dominated by egos (and not in the nicest way I could say). I also means that we may have grown up (as an industry, as a field of research etc.). So i guess I can say that this is really good news.