This article is interesting, however, because it moves the agents into the physical world where it isn't possible to obtain the same kind of idealized environments that are possible in silico.
I think (CA)ML would also be a good answer to this question. It's a functional language, can be as strongly typed as you want it to be, and ends up being nearly as fast as C.
One thing puzzles me about the images that were shown from popular games (Flight Simulator, Quake III, etc.): Why did the graphics look so fuzzy at that ultra-high resolution? The site mentioned that texture-mapping on Quake III isn't optimized for that resolution, but my question is:
Is the point that it runs in real time at that resolution (even though it looks mediocre) or is the point that it supposedly looks great at that resolution? If it's about real-time high-res, then that makes sense to me, but practically speaking who cares what the resolution is if the image quality doesn't improve with higher resolution as seems to be the case with Quake III and Flight Simulator.
I certainly wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the government to crack down on home built PCs. They make up an extremely small sliver of the market, and Dell and particularly Microsoft very likely do not see them as a threat.
There will be creative geeks using high powered modeling tools. Look, acting is art, but so is CGI. It may take a while for CGI to evolve into something that rivals what actors can do, but that certainly doesn't mean it's impossible.
As the article noted, the idea behind the modern differential diagnosis is to look at the branches of the decision tree that are very highly probable or very serious and rule them out. What isn't ruled out is treated. This approach maximizes the effectiveness of the limited human memory in treating disease, and it has evolved over many years in the medical profession.
Your doctor's ability to get the diagnosis right on the first pass is dependent upon the following:
his/her knowledge of the latest research
his/her willingness to consult colleagues or books or articles when in doubt about something
that he/she didn't forget any piece of knowledge relevant to the situation
Dr. Weed's tool does several things:
it increases the probability that the diagnosis will be accurate on the first pass
it logs the specifics of the course of diagnosis and treatment taken, in order to allow the medical profession to learn from its mistakes much more quickly than before.
Imagine what mankind would learn if all of this information were documented. Everyone's medical records and the questions/answers/tests behind every diagnosis. This kind of technology has the potential to truly revolutionize modern medicine, both in terms of cost and effectiveness. Dr. Weed has created a tool that will feed this database and make its insights readily available to any physician. It is like a bionic arm or xray vision. This won't replace doctors, it will empower them like never before in the history of mankind.
Doctors: Don't worry about this replacing you, worry about how you can use it to change the world.
Of course ease of use is important. I do not dispute that. I don't think that there is a significant ease of use difference between MacOS X and Windows XP.
I don't think price is really the issue either. Besides, if the other statements you make in your comment were true, Apple would happily charge five times more for a Mac than Dell charges for a PC.
Computers make most people feel stupid. Most of the advertising that is created for Macintosh says that Macs are easier to use, more powerful, etc. Highly educated people have a particular aversion to feeling (or seeming) dumb. Therefore, when the highly educated person needs a computer, he/she minimizes his/her risk of feeling/seeming dumb by purchasing a mac for its supposed power and ease of use.
As a poster above noted, owning a mac has a certain prestige. It's the same kind of prestige that drives people to brag that they can't program their VCR. It embodies all that is hip and sexy about computers without the nerdy, confusing aspects that so many people (slashdot readers excluded) strive to avoid.
Actually, since there exists the thing called a Microsoft Tax, and since Microsoft makes software which is generally slightly easier to use, and since people are used to running Windows, and a few other reasons, people are still running Windows.
You hit the nail on the head. From an economic perspective, the improved ease-of-use of Microsoft software combined with the benefit derived from the fact that people are used to Windows have a 'value' greater than the licensing fees that Microsoft charges.
You have an excellent point. Mac OSX represnets what Linux needs to become in order to become a true competetor to Windows on the desktop, and for precisely the reasons that you mention. Mandrake comes a long way, but lacks some of the apps that add sizzle.
All of the cusomizability of Linux tends to diminish the ease of use for non-geek users.
We'll get there at some point, but we're still a long way off.
Open Source Software in my opinion is the only way the Little Guy to play with the Big Guns
Not the only way. A bunch of coders could put together a software company and develop great products and recruit top talent. The company would grow and might eventually displace Microsoft.
Microsoft was once a couple of college-age kids who stayed up all night writing code who happened to get the DOS contract.
Companies have an advantage over OSS developers in that when the company is poised for success, people want to invest money in the company in order to reap larger returns later. This gives the company the advantage of more money to recruit top full time talent, etc. Most people regrettably have bills to pay, and the poorly funded nature of most OSS projects will always limit the amount of some people's time that the projects can obtain.
It's fun to see someone do somthing like this. However the fact that most people don't use Linux means that the value of using Linux is less than the cost of using linux. Therefore, since the source code is free there must be other costs that are preventing most people from using Linux.
Instead of wasting time figuring out ficticious pricing based on the way that corporate america prices software, why not figure out a way to remove the aforementioned hidden costs from Linux so that the masses can begin to see what many of us on/. have known for a while: That GNU Linux and Open Source Software represent a great choice.
Re:I think that M$ has Missed the Point
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 2
I interpreted your comment as though you were saying "I like my consoles just the way they are, damn it. In my day we had a separate console, a separate PVR, and we liked it.". I would have expected you to use the word "newfangled" as part of your expression of dismay about the state of the world. What has the world come to, anyway.
They're trying to combine a TiVO (an extremely popular device) with a game console (another extremely popular device). This isn't the Jetsons, this is common sense made possible by the commodity hardware used in the X-Box.
I don't mean to troll, there's nothing wrong with being a luddite. I think there are even Luddites-anonymous support groups out there.
By the way, no offense intended.
Re:I think that M$ has Missed the Point
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 2
a consumer-oriented society is a capitalist society, and vice-versa. Anything else is inefficient.
Re:quality of this discussion
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 2
You insinuate that Microsoft was that 'fascination'.
I didn't mean to make that insinuation at all. My first computer was a TI 99/4a, followed a few years later by an Apple//c. It was still a few years after that before I got my first PC clone (actually, it was an original IBM XT).
I don't understand why so many/. readers spend so much energy hating Microsoft. If they spent the equivalent energy writing great OSS code, Microsoft wouldn't stay in business long.
My point is that technology can be cool no matter who wrote it or who sells it (or gives it away). I think it will be exciting to have one more device in the TiVO space, and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft's device lets you skip commercials.
Re:I think that M$ has Missed the Point
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 2
That is your choice! It's nice to see someone thinking like a capitalist here...:)
Re:I think that M$ has Missed the Point
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 2
From Dictionary.com: A Luddite is one who opposes technical or technological change.
There have been times in the past when I have wondered if anyone at Microsoft (Gates perhaps) reads Slashdot. I can honestly say that this discussion is not of a high enough quality that anyone at Microsoft would gain anything from it. This might just be a trend at/. as of late, but the quality of discussion and level of critical thought sinks through the floor whenever a story about Microsoft is posted. Oddly, there are typically one or two Microsoft stories posted to/. every day. Why can't the/. community get the chip off its collective shoulder and remember the fascination that got us interested in computers/technology in the first place. What a bunch of cynical bozos.
Slashdot Mirror
Here is a link to the movie of Sims' evolution of swimming simulation.
This article is interesting, however, because it moves the agents into the physical world where it isn't possible to obtain the same kind of idealized environments that are possible in silico.
This story was posted here and here already.
I think (CA)ML would also be a good answer to this question. It's a functional language, can be as strongly typed as you want it to be, and ends up being nearly as fast as C.
Why do you shudder at MS SQL Server?
One thing puzzles me about the images that were shown from popular games (Flight Simulator, Quake III, etc.): Why did the graphics look so fuzzy at that ultra-high resolution? The site mentioned that texture-mapping on Quake III isn't optimized for that resolution, but my question is:
Is the point that it runs in real time at that resolution (even though it looks mediocre) or is the point that it supposedly looks great at that resolution? If it's about real-time high-res, then that makes sense to me, but practically speaking who cares what the resolution is if the image quality doesn't improve with higher resolution as seems to be the case with Quake III and Flight Simulator.
I certainly wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the government to crack down on home built PCs. They make up an extremely small sliver of the market, and Dell and particularly Microsoft very likely do not see them as a threat.
You may want to publish the code you wrote (under the GPL, of course). I'd like convert some family history books to electronic form!
There will be creative geeks using high powered modeling tools. Look, acting is art, but so is CGI. It may take a while for CGI to evolve into something that rivals what actors can do, but that certainly doesn't mean it's impossible.
As the article noted, the idea behind the modern differential diagnosis is to look at the branches of the decision tree that are very highly probable or very serious and rule them out. What isn't ruled out is treated. This approach maximizes the effectiveness of the limited human memory in treating disease, and it has evolved over many years in the medical profession.
Your doctor's ability to get the diagnosis right on the first pass is dependent upon the following:
his/her knowledge of the latest research
his/her willingness to consult colleagues or books or articles when in doubt about something
that he/she didn't forget any piece of knowledge relevant to the situation
Dr. Weed's tool does several things:
it increases the probability that the diagnosis will be accurate on the first pass
it logs the specifics of the course of diagnosis and treatment taken, in order to allow the medical profession to learn from its mistakes much more quickly than before.
Imagine what mankind would learn if all of this information were documented. Everyone's medical records and the questions/answers/tests behind every diagnosis. This kind of technology has the potential to truly revolutionize modern medicine, both in terms of cost and effectiveness. Dr. Weed has created a tool that will feed this database and make its insights readily available to any physician. It is like a bionic arm or xray vision. This won't replace doctors, it will empower them like never before in the history of mankind.
Doctors: Don't worry about this replacing you, worry about how you can use it to change the world.
I'm sure many comments will start this way...
I don't think price is really the issue either. Besides, if the other statements you make in your comment were true, Apple would happily charge five times more for a Mac than Dell charges for a PC.
Computers make most people feel stupid. Most of the advertising that is created for Macintosh says that Macs are easier to use, more powerful, etc. Highly educated people have a particular aversion to feeling (or seeming) dumb. Therefore, when the highly educated person needs a computer, he/she minimizes his/her risk of feeling/seeming dumb by purchasing a mac for its supposed power and ease of use.
As a poster above noted, owning a mac has a certain prestige. It's the same kind of prestige that drives people to brag that they can't program their VCR. It embodies all that is hip and sexy about computers without the nerdy, confusing aspects that so many people (slashdot readers excluded) strive to avoid.
I think this is an excellent idea!
You hit the nail on the head. From an economic perspective, the improved ease-of-use of Microsoft software combined with the benefit derived from the fact that people are used to Windows have a 'value' greater than the licensing fees that Microsoft charges.
All of the cusomizability of Linux tends to diminish the ease of use for non-geek users.
We'll get there at some point, but we're still a long way off.
Not the only way. A bunch of coders could put together a software company and develop great products and recruit top talent. The company would grow and might eventually displace Microsoft.
Microsoft was once a couple of college-age kids who stayed up all night writing code who happened to get the DOS contract.
Companies have an advantage over OSS developers in that when the company is poised for success, people want to invest money in the company in order to reap larger returns later. This gives the company the advantage of more money to recruit top full time talent, etc. Most people regrettably have bills to pay, and the poorly funded nature of most OSS projects will always limit the amount of some people's time that the projects can obtain.
Instead of wasting time figuring out ficticious pricing based on the way that corporate america prices software, why not figure out a way to remove the aforementioned hidden costs from Linux so that the masses can begin to see what many of us on /. have known for a while: That GNU Linux and Open Source Software represent a great choice.
They're trying to combine a TiVO (an extremely popular device) with a game console (another extremely popular device). This isn't the Jetsons, this is common sense made possible by the commodity hardware used in the X-Box.
I don't mean to troll, there's nothing wrong with being a luddite. I think there are even Luddites-anonymous support groups out there.
By the way, no offense intended.
a consumer-oriented society is a capitalist society, and vice-versa. Anything else is inefficient.
I didn't mean to make that insinuation at all. My first computer was a TI 99/4a, followed a few years later by an Apple //c. It was still a few years after that before I got my first PC clone (actually, it was an original IBM XT).
I don't understand why so many /. readers spend so much energy hating Microsoft. If they spent the equivalent energy writing great OSS code, Microsoft wouldn't stay in business long.
My point is that technology can be cool no matter who wrote it or who sells it (or gives it away). I think it will be exciting to have one more device in the TiVO space, and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft's device lets you skip commercials.
That is your choice! It's nice to see someone thinking like a capitalist here... :)
I stand by what I wrote.
There have been times in the past when I have wondered if anyone at Microsoft (Gates perhaps) reads Slashdot. I can honestly say that this discussion is not of a high enough quality that anyone at Microsoft would gain anything from it. This might just be a trend at /. as of late, but the quality of discussion and level of critical thought sinks through the floor whenever a story about Microsoft is posted. Oddly, there are typically one or two Microsoft stories posted to /. every day. Why can't the /. community get the chip off its collective shoulder and remember the fascination that got us interested in computers/technology in the first place. What a bunch of cynical bozos.