They have delusions of importance, just like every other religious nutcase who thinks the great sky-faerie is watching and weighing their every move. Normally, if you ignore them, they'll calm down. The WBC has found a way to be irresistibly un-ignorable, and every time someone reacts to them it solidifies their belief that they're participating in some kind of holy war.
I just tried Mint last night - ran into major problems with the nVidia proprietary drivers that I haven't seen on Ubuntu or Fedora. That was enough to kill the deal.
I'm switching back to linux on my laptop after a few years of having a social life. Ubuntu is OK but I'm looking for something cleaner and more up to date. I'm trying Fedora 15 now but, god, those repos are slooooow. Also, even with the yum frontend, I think the package management sucks.
Is Gentoo still alive? That was always my fav distro - clean, simple, up to date, and easy to configure. It seemed to be pretty good for dev work as well(building embedded systems, kernel work, etc...).
Bingo... just wait until this tech isn't restricted to just faces - why can't you use other body parts or background objects as well to refine the search? One day you might not even need a face to get an identity... I hope everyone is OK with their naked sexy pics coming back to haunt them in 20 years.
Sure, as some folks have said, we're not there yet. It's still cheaper to hire a human to do many tasks.
But how many of you think we won't have a robot that has the dexterity of a human, can learn by watching, and takes less energy than a human worker(factoring in food production costs, recreation costs, sick time, benefits, etc.) in the next 100 years? 200 years?
65? I'm around half that and I'm about ready for a hearing aid. A friend of mine who works on his house more than me needed one about the same age.
Kids, protect your hearing. It sucks to lose the ability to hear people in a crowded room. Especially you crazy maker-types running to the saw to make a few cuts. Get some foam earmuffs, the kind used for shooting, and put them next to the saw. Use em *every* time.
I was going to mod you up but I want to post to this story.
I'm not sure what the best approach is, but I'm pretty sure 'something must be done'(tm). I'm pretty libertarian, generally, but I think we need to treat lasers capable of causing blindness as firearms - subject to the same constitution-friendly background checks and penalties for misuse.
People are worried about blindness - yes, that's a big concern. However, living in a fire prone region, I'm also concerned about mass arson attacks. I think we've been lucky so far, but it probably won't be too long before some anti-social asshole gets a hold of one of these and causes trouble.
to read through, so maybe someone mentioned this already, but I think it would be fun to teach them to count to 1023 on ten fingers using binary numerals.
It's not directly related to computing, but it gets them thinking about symbols and numbers in a new way.
Next, make sure they've done the 'wire, battery and lightbulb' experiment they used to have us do in the 4th grade. Show them how they can combine the lights with the counting system they learned to signal information to friends.
Then maybe go into processing that information, or how arbitrary sequences of information can represent letters.
BSEET grad class of '97 here. I believe the only difference in course material between DeVry and, say, Cal-Poly's EE program was a chemistry class and an extra Calculus course dedicated to differential equations(which we covered in either Intro to transforms(forget the name, covered laplace transforms and analysis) or one of our two semesters of control systems theory.
Yes, there were dumbasses in our class. I did a few of their senior projects. There were also eccentric geniuses who ran circles around most other school's EE majors.
I worked at the local electronics store and got to deal first hand with Cal Poly EE's... I was never impressed.
So with my DeVry degree I managed to go straight into a pure engineering role at a major CES manufacturer where I was responsible for all of the embedded software on a TMS320 DSP and also assisted with hardware modifications and debugging. Since that point I've done nothing but embedded software, working side-by-side with holders of MS and PhD degrees, with the same responsibilities and the same pay scale.
Yeah, because no one grabbed an air sample while the smell was at its peak. It took them hours just to collect some air.
It's probably just a jet fuel spill, but it could have also come from one of the many biosciences companies along the coast. Some people swear it smelled exactly like jet fuel. Others claimed it was exactly like chemicals used in protein denaturing. Thousands of people smelled it, but no one really knows what it is.
The scary thing is that it took so long for them to analyze it, and they still don't know what it is. It's hard to believe there isn't a system in place for rapidly identifying airborne contaminants.
Any idea what the propellant was, and how much it was carrying? Probably not related, but for the last two days a mysterious jet-fuel like odor has been wafting around San Diego county.
I don't think Netflix is the only one with a vested interest in killing DVDs. I'd bet that the studios are anxious to move away from DVDs, with their effective lack of copy protection, and move towards streaming. With streaming solutions, the DRM can be modified with a software update, and non-compliant devices can be cut-off in the field without warning.
They also continue to ignore the fact that a liquid ban is ineffective when several travelers could combine their 3oz containers past the security checkpoint.
We reinforced the cabin doors, and that's all we ever needed to do to prevent another 9/11. The fact that we've allowed our government to waste billions while molesting innocent citizens is just sickening.
Is this even relevant, given that private companies would likely be more than willing to sell your location information to the police or anyone else?
Are the police barred, for instance, from purchasing your location information from companies that perform automated license plate tracking? What about 5 years from now when every department has an 'eye in the sky' providing the ability to track you visually from the air?
The craptastic interface on my home thermostat had me thinking of this a few months ago. There are all kinds of devices around us that are too cheap to embed a rich interface in, but with a simple microcontroller and a link to a device like an android phone, the device could present a rich interface with complex control possibilities.
Why not combine the inductive, short range communication system coming soon on many mobile products(for contactless payment systems) with a 'vnc' like protocol for presenting user interfaces(or even just exchanging contact info so the communication can take place over IP)? That could allow me to pass my phone over my thermostat and be presented with a rich interface for controlling the device. You could enable your oven, so now instead of having a static temperature, you could define a temperature envelope to slow cook a roast better. Irrigation controllers are another example where a rich user interface would simplify setting up and programming the device.
Just finished taking the train 14 hours each way for a business trip. I think I'll drive next time, mainly due to the difficulty in obtaining a rental car at the train depot(SJC). It wasn't a bad experience though. No internet, but you can drink on the train($5 bud lite? srsly?), there's 120v at most seats, and the trains around here run pretty empty so you can sit where you want.
You know, I've gotten over the naked scanners, but the threat of a pat down... I'd hate to go to jail for kneeing some tsa agent in the face.
The lack of a response by my fellow Americans is disturbing and disheartening. Maybe it's time to move out of the US - the inaction of the people is tantamount to demanding a police state.
Good point. I moderate frequently lately, and when I do, I always try to browse at -1 or 0 so I don't end up modding up the comments that were already modded up.
The problem with Slashdot, for me, is that I'm now getting mod points daily, and I feel compelled to use them - which means I rarely get to comment on a story unless I avoid moderating it.
It seems you really need a way to parse out the ideas people are trying to convey and treat those like threads. I'm thinking of my local news site's comment board where most of the posts say the same thing, and also where comments often contain bits of insight and idiocy. You need a way to take a comment and break it up, allowing each point to be debated until it is thoroughly discussed.
Not sure how you'd do that now, but I think in 25 years it's how it will be done.
For starters, how about allowing people to highlight sections of text and rate them up or down - possibly influencing the color or font size(might get unreadable?). That way I don't have to 'like' an entire post - just a few concepts or statements within it.
I'd stay away from reputation-based approaches. Sometimes the crazy trolls have ideas that should be heard.
Check out the solar lease deals. I just signed up with Sun Run to install solar on my house. They own the panels, and I don't pay them anything up-front. They get the rebates, and then sell me discounted electricity from my panels. They also maintain the system. If I move, the system gets transferred to the new owner(assuming they have good credit, which is a safe bet if they're buying my house).
Just the other day our local newspaper had a story of a kid who's facing felony charges for making foil/drain cleaner "bombs". Hopefully the future engineer gets off without a criminal record.
Remember kids - don't get caught! This isn't the same world your grandparent grew up in. We screwed it up, and now you get to grow up in a prison-state.
Would that be legal? Could I setup a company that collected DNA samples without their owners permission(say, by tying the hair clippings from a salon to the CC that paid for the cut)? Could I sell that info to the government?
If no one's done it, someone should, if for no other reason than to scare the shit out of people and hopefully wake them up.
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>> Non-computer people place very little value on having an open ecosystem.
Ok, so they don't realize what's better for them in the long run. Your point?
>> All four of the people I know to have Android phones have installed malware at some point.
Sounds like your friends are idiots. I have more than 4 friends(and I post on /.!) with Android phones and no one has ever complained of malware.
They have delusions of importance, just like every other religious nutcase who thinks the great sky-faerie is watching and weighing their every move. Normally, if you ignore them, they'll calm down. The WBC has found a way to be irresistibly un-ignorable, and every time someone reacts to them it solidifies their belief that they're participating in some kind of holy war.
I just tried Mint last night - ran into major problems with the nVidia proprietary drivers that I haven't seen on Ubuntu or Fedora. That was enough to kill the deal.
I'm switching back to linux on my laptop after a few years of having a social life. Ubuntu is OK but I'm looking for something cleaner and more up to date. I'm trying Fedora 15 now but, god, those repos are slooooow. Also, even with the yum frontend, I think the package management sucks.
Is Gentoo still alive? That was always my fav distro - clean, simple, up to date, and easy to configure. It seemed to be pretty good for dev work as well(building embedded systems, kernel work, etc...).
Bingo... just wait until this tech isn't restricted to just faces - why can't you use other body parts or background objects as well to refine the search? One day you might not even need a face to get an identity... I hope everyone is OK with their naked sexy pics coming back to haunt them in 20 years.
While it's true that eating lots of pussy could make you king of the girls, I doubt it'll help your Quake 3 skills.
Sure, as some folks have said, we're not there yet. It's still cheaper to hire a human to do many tasks.
But how many of you think we won't have a robot that has the dexterity of a human, can learn by watching, and takes less energy than a human worker(factoring in food production costs, recreation costs, sick time, benefits, etc.) in the next 100 years? 200 years?
65? I'm around half that and I'm about ready for a hearing aid. A friend of mine who works on his house more than me needed one about the same age.
Kids, protect your hearing. It sucks to lose the ability to hear people in a crowded room. Especially you crazy maker-types running to the saw to make a few cuts. Get some foam earmuffs, the kind used for shooting, and put them next to the saw. Use em *every* time.
I was going to mod you up but I want to post to this story.
I'm not sure what the best approach is, but I'm pretty sure 'something must be done'(tm). I'm pretty libertarian, generally, but I think we need to treat lasers capable of causing blindness as firearms - subject to the same constitution-friendly background checks and penalties for misuse.
People are worried about blindness - yes, that's a big concern. However, living in a fire prone region, I'm also concerned about mass arson attacks. I think we've been lucky so far, but it probably won't be too long before some anti-social asshole gets a hold of one of these and causes trouble.
to read through, so maybe someone mentioned this already, but I think it would be fun to teach them to count to 1023 on ten fingers using binary numerals.
It's not directly related to computing, but it gets them thinking about symbols and numbers in a new way.
Next, make sure they've done the 'wire, battery and lightbulb' experiment they used to have us do in the 4th grade. Show them how they can combine the lights with the counting system they learned to signal information to friends.
Then maybe go into processing that information, or how arbitrary sequences of information can represent letters.
BSEET grad class of '97 here. I believe the only difference in course material between DeVry and, say, Cal-Poly's EE program was a chemistry class and an extra Calculus course dedicated to differential equations(which we covered in either Intro to transforms(forget the name, covered laplace transforms and analysis) or one of our two semesters of control systems theory.
Yes, there were dumbasses in our class. I did a few of their senior projects. There were also eccentric geniuses who ran circles around most other school's EE majors.
I worked at the local electronics store and got to deal first hand with Cal Poly EE's... I was never impressed.
So with my DeVry degree I managed to go straight into a pure engineering role at a major CES manufacturer where I was responsible for all of the embedded software on a TMS320 DSP and also assisted with hardware modifications and debugging. Since that point I've done nothing but embedded software, working side-by-side with holders of MS and PhD degrees, with the same responsibilities and the same pay scale.
Yeah, because no one grabbed an air sample while the smell was at its peak. It took them hours just to collect some air.
It's probably just a jet fuel spill, but it could have also come from one of the many biosciences companies along the coast. Some people swear it smelled exactly like jet fuel. Others claimed it was exactly like chemicals used in protein denaturing. Thousands of people smelled it, but no one really knows what it is.
What about the mysterious hydrocarbon odor wafting through San Diego lately?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/19/tests-odiferous-air-come-negative/
The scary thing is that it took so long for them to analyze it, and they still don't know what it is. It's hard to believe there isn't a system in place for rapidly identifying airborne contaminants.
Any idea what the propellant was, and how much it was carrying? Probably not related, but for the last two days a mysterious jet-fuel like odor has been wafting around San Diego county.
I don't think Netflix is the only one with a vested interest in killing DVDs. I'd bet that the studios are anxious to move away from DVDs, with their effective lack of copy protection, and move towards streaming. With streaming solutions, the DRM can be modified with a software update, and non-compliant devices can be cut-off in the field without warning.
And at the time, TSA procedures wouldn't have caught either one of them.
They've been ignoring the threat of butt-bombs for years now, even though a terrorist actually used that technique in 2009: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6862247.ece
They also continue to ignore the fact that a liquid ban is ineffective when several travelers could combine their 3oz containers past the security checkpoint.
We reinforced the cabin doors, and that's all we ever needed to do to prevent another 9/11. The fact that we've allowed our government to waste billions while molesting innocent citizens is just sickening.
Is this even relevant, given that private companies would likely be more than willing to sell your location information to the police or anyone else?
Are the police barred, for instance, from purchasing your location information from companies that perform automated license plate tracking? What about 5 years from now when every department has an 'eye in the sky' providing the ability to track you visually from the air?
The craptastic interface on my home thermostat had me thinking of this a few months ago. There are all kinds of devices around us that are too cheap to embed a rich interface in, but with a simple microcontroller and a link to a device like an android phone, the device could present a rich interface with complex control possibilities.
Why not combine the inductive, short range communication system coming soon on many mobile products(for contactless payment systems) with a 'vnc' like protocol for presenting user interfaces(or even just exchanging contact info so the communication can take place over IP)? That could allow me to pass my phone over my thermostat and be presented with a rich interface for controlling the device. You could enable your oven, so now instead of having a static temperature, you could define a temperature envelope to slow cook a roast better. Irrigation controllers are another example where a rich user interface would simplify setting up and programming the device.
Just finished taking the train 14 hours each way for a business trip. I think I'll drive next time, mainly due to the difficulty in obtaining a rental car at the train depot(SJC). It wasn't a bad experience though. No internet, but you can drink on the train($5 bud lite? srsly?), there's 120v at most seats, and the trains around here run pretty empty so you can sit where you want.
You know, I've gotten over the naked scanners, but the threat of a pat down... I'd hate to go to jail for kneeing some tsa agent in the face.
The lack of a response by my fellow Americans is disturbing and disheartening. Maybe it's time to move out of the US - the inaction of the people is tantamount to demanding a police state.
Good point. I moderate frequently lately, and when I do, I always try to browse at -1 or 0 so I don't end up modding up the comments that were already modded up.
The problem with Slashdot, for me, is that I'm now getting mod points daily, and I feel compelled to use them - which means I rarely get to comment on a story unless I avoid moderating it.
It seems you really need a way to parse out the ideas people are trying to convey and treat those like threads. I'm thinking of my local news site's comment board where most of the posts say the same thing, and also where comments often contain bits of insight and idiocy. You need a way to take a comment and break it up, allowing each point to be debated until it is thoroughly discussed.
Not sure how you'd do that now, but I think in 25 years it's how it will be done.
For starters, how about allowing people to highlight sections of text and rate them up or down - possibly influencing the color or font size(might get unreadable?). That way I don't have to 'like' an entire post - just a few concepts or statements within it.
I'd stay away from reputation-based approaches. Sometimes the crazy trolls have ideas that should be heard.
Check out the solar lease deals. I just signed up with Sun Run to install solar on my house. They own the panels, and I don't pay them anything up-front. They get the rebates, and then sell me discounted electricity from my panels. They also maintain the system. If I move, the system gets transferred to the new owner(assuming they have good credit, which is a safe bet if they're buying my house).
Just the other day our local newspaper had a story of a kid who's facing felony charges for making foil/drain cleaner "bombs". Hopefully the future engineer gets off without a criminal record.
Remember kids - don't get caught! This isn't the same world your grandparent grew up in. We screwed it up, and now you get to grow up in a prison-state.
Would that be legal? Could I setup a company that collected DNA samples without their owners permission(say, by tying the hair clippings from a salon to the CC that paid for the cut)? Could I sell that info to the government?
If no one's done it, someone should, if for no other reason than to scare the shit out of people and hopefully wake them up.
In my experience, paranoia and good engineering skills go hand in hand. Paranoid people expect the worst, and design accordingly.