One day, you might be able to just sit down and talk with an ontological system via email or IM, and say, "We got a check from client A for $575, another check for $440." and then the computer balances the books with all the other accounting principles it 'knows'.
We'd better test this well, to keep our customers and the IRS happy.
Maybe we can check its results against some formalized rules. I wonder if we can automate that somehow? We could call it our "test program", or "program" for short...
>They are a closing of the open society and >victory for terrorists.
This claim has always puzzled me.
Not that terrorists are all that articulate about their goals or anything, but when did they say they wanted to strengthen our existing government's security services and annoy us while flying (oh noes!), while leaving our hated strip clubs and foreign occupations and breweries intact?
>I have to admit I know nothing about his program, >but I fail to see the connection between open >source and him getting paid.
1. One or more people want it to be open-sourced.
2. The author (like you, unless perhaps you are a monk) wants money.
An exchange either will or won't happen.
If there aren't enough people in #1 above, or if they don't want it badly enough to pay, then maybe he will eventually give it away for free, like something that wouldn't sell in a garage sale or on EBay.
He doesn't have to give his work away for free if he doesn't want to.
>Ubiquitous spelling & grammar check for the internet. >3rd party or built into the browser doesn't matter. >That'll be the first step towards SkyNet becoming >sentient. > >Otherwise, it'll just be a retarded "LoL n00b" >AI.
Which raises the question: why should we be afraid of SkyNet at all? All it's going to do is watch pr0n all day and send itself spam...
It's just some additional semantic information. It shouldn't replace warnings (due to not knowing which clients will support it), but it could supplement them.
As for subjectivity, well, all content creators make subjective judgments in their HTML markup. In practice, we accept the variability of the choices.
>But, as ever, such a family has people-issues to >which a technological solution ain't gonna work anyway.
The "people-issues" may well be entirely those of the child.
I know that given/.'s makeup slamming parents is fun, but individuals do have temperments. Some kids are just plain wild, with no fault of their parents.
What do you do then? Your best. You may have to take measures that seem excessive to others - who are lucky enough to have kids with easy temperments, or who just don't care where their kids go or how they behave. Tough. Unless you've been the one with the responsibility over that child, unless you know intimately that child's temperment, you are in no position to judge.
Why do we vent such visceral hatred on child murderers, or on thuggish vandals, when we should simply regard them as faulty units that need fixing or replacing?
Dawkins basically undercuts himself right there. He, I presume (and hope), hates the evil of a Hitler, or a child abuser as much as anybody does. But his vague, untestable appeal to evolution as the explanation for that hatred is no more scientific than saying that God wrote His law on our hearts.
Presumably because mental constructs like blame and responsibility, indeed evil and good, are built into our brains by millennia of Darwinian evolution.
And you say that why, exactly? What is the scientific basis for your claim, Mr. Dawkins?
>Also, If I remember my history correctly, at one point >the Christian church beleived that even with a soul you >had no free will.
Portions of the church have believed (and do believe) that, yes. Sort of.
We have free will, but our nature is so bent by original sin that we are only capable of choosing to sin, until God Himself renews/cleanses/remakes our hearts. At which point we still have free will, but now that we can see clearly, we make the (now) obviously correct choice of choosing God.
A mode of literature in which the characters exhibit a power of action inferior to the one assumed to be normal in the reader or audience, or in which the poet's attitude is one of detached objectivity.
# dry: humorously sarcastic or mocking; "dry humor"; "an ironic remark often conveys an intended meaning obliquely"; "an ironic novel"; "an ironical smile"; "with a wry Scottish wit"
# characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is; "madness, an ironic fate for such a clear thinker"; "it was ironical that the well-planned scheme failed so completely"
Irony is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used. Irony involves the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they seem. Dramatic irony lies in the audience's deeper perceptions of a coming fate, which contrast with a character's lack of knowledge about said fate. A common metaphor for using irony is to "have your tongue in cheek". --
So, pretty much dead-on, given what we're talking about. These "artists" are mainly being tongue-in-cheek, their lyrics are incongruous with the music style, they aren't (usually) members of a historically oppressed race acting out their anger and truly attempting to project menace, but are rather playing with the form, with *ironic* detachment.
The grocery/department store where we shop has a *huge* sort of cardboard cutout ad for the Zune right at the entrance. Maybe at every entrance.
It consists of a (probably teenaged) girl's face. In massive closeup. With a sort of "natural", unretouched look. And just like, her face with a little bit of her hair. Like somebody hit the wrong zoom level somewhere. Five or ten times the size of a human face.
The effect is... just weird. "Buy Zune; get girls with huge pores who don't use makeup!" I mean, come on, *nobody* looks good with that level of closeup...
>What IS going to happen is that Transhumanists will use >nanotech to transform themselves into a superior species
"Superior" at what? Surviving? Is that really all that matters to you? Rock formations are superior in surviving...
>And that's where the threat is going to come from as monkey-ass humans >follow their usual primate instincts to try to suppress the Transhumans >- and unlike the Star Trek shows and Terminator movies, the humans will >get their asses kicked trying - at least until the Transhumans have >improved enough that they can just ignore the chimps and go about their >business anyway.
Sounds like you think you're going to be on the "trans" side...
Have fun. Since I'd rather be dead than living in the hell you describe, I'm not that worried about it.
>Also, have the older "rap is crap" crowd taken >the day off because usually these stories have >whole threads about how music died in the 60's?
Maybe this stuff is so lame that it doesn't even deserve comment:) Rap, after all, has enough substance to be a worthy opponent...
After all, this stuff is *designed* to be crap (but *ironic* crap: "no, really, I'm not trying lamely to act hip and cool by rapping, it's ironic! It's beyond criticism!"):p
Weird Al, BTW, is exempt from the above... he's old enough for us old timers;)
>So yet again it's a case of embedded code within a data >file wreaking havoc. >... >What the hell did they need that for?
I don't know about the new XML-ish version, but the old DOC "format" was basically a Word memory dump. Not quite as surprising when you think of it that way...
It wouldn't be a huge surprise, with a recent Stanford study showing that 14% of people state it would be 'hard to stay away from the Net for even a few days in a row."
I find it hard to stay away from my car for even a few days in a row. Am I addicted?
Slashdot Mirror
I suggest for the next few thing on this topic:
;)
MOSES
BALAAM
One day, you might be able to just sit down and talk with an ontological system via email or IM, and say, "We got a check from client A for $575, another check for $440." and then the computer balances the books with all the other accounting principles it 'knows'.
We'd better test this well, to keep our customers and the IRS happy.
Maybe we can check its results against some formalized rules. I wonder if we can automate that somehow? We could call it our "test program", or "program" for short ...
>They want you out of the Middle East and to stop
>supporting regimes like the Saudis, or in the past
>Saddam and the Shah of Iran.
And, slowing down airline lines has accomplished this?
"The terrorists have won?"
>They are a closing of the open society and
>victory for terrorists.
This claim has always puzzled me.
Not that terrorists are all that articulate about
their goals or anything, but when did they say they
wanted to strengthen our existing government's security
services and annoy us while flying (oh noes!), while
leaving our hated strip clubs and foreign occupations
and breweries intact?
>I have to admit I know nothing about his program,
>but I fail to see the connection between open
>source and him getting paid.
1. One or more people want it to be open-sourced.
2. The author (like you, unless perhaps you are
a monk) wants money.
An exchange either will or won't happen.
If there aren't enough people in #1 above, or if they
don't want it badly enough to pay, then maybe he will
eventually give it away for free, like something that
wouldn't sell in a garage sale or on EBay.
He doesn't have to give his work away for free if
he doesn't want to.
>Rush Limbaugh told me that the only reason that it's not
>snowing in winter anymore in the northern sections of the
>U.S. [...]
Since you believe that "it's not snowing in winter anymore",
can I have your snowblower? You're not going to need it
anymore, right?
... of how gas-powered wood chipper companies and giant "Yurt" manufacturers secretly fund Sierra Club's magazine!
... in their commercials can't be all bad ;)
>Ubiquitous spelling & grammar check for the internet.
...
>3rd party or built into the browser doesn't matter.
>That'll be the first step towards SkyNet becoming
>sentient.
>
>Otherwise, it'll just be a retarded "LoL n00b"
>AI.
Which raises the question: why should we be afraid
of SkyNet at all? All it's going to do is watch
pr0n all day and send itself spam
It's just some additional semantic information. It shouldn't replace warnings (due to not knowing which clients will support it), but it could supplement them.
As for subjectivity, well, all content creators make subjective judgments in their HTML markup. In practice, we accept the variability of the choices.
>But, as ever, such a family has people-issues to
/.'s makeup slamming parents is fun,
>which a technological solution ain't gonna work anyway.
The "people-issues" may well be entirely those of
the child.
I know that given
but individuals do have temperments. Some kids are
just plain wild, with no fault of their parents.
What do you do then? Your best. You may have to take
measures that seem excessive to others - who are
lucky enough to have kids with easy temperments, or
who just don't care where their kids go or how they
behave. Tough. Unless you've been the one with
the responsibility over that child, unless you know
intimately that child's temperment, you are in no
position to judge.
>Are any of us surprised by this? He went to a Christian
>university - obviously he learned a great deal.
Surprised by which?
That Christians are saved sinners who still sometimes sin,
or that some people who go to Christian universities
aren't really Christians?
Dawkins basically undercuts himself right there. He, I presume (and hope), hates the evil of a Hitler, or a child abuser as much as anybody does. But his vague, untestable appeal to evolution as the explanation for that hatred is no more scientific than saying that God wrote His law on our hearts.
And you say that why, exactly? What is the scientific basis for your claim, Mr. Dawkins?
>Also, If I remember my history correctly, at one point
>the Christian church beleived that even with a soul you
>had no free will.
Portions of the church have believed (and do believe)
that, yes. Sort of.
We have free will, but our nature is so bent by original
sin that we are only capable of choosing to sin, until
God Himself renews/cleanses/remakes our hearts. At which
point we still have free will, but now that we can see
clearly, we make the (now) obviously correct choice of
choosing God.
If all you care about is survival and competition, what do you have against cockroaches? It sounds like you are bent upon becoming one.
>And Americans fondly imagine they live in a free country.
...
Well, "America" is pretty big. Out here in Jesusland we hang clotheslines wherever we want to
>I know that Americans are fed this story about how
>wonderful The United States is from an early age
>but you could do with a little more skepticism.
Well, you don't know much, then. The educator
class likes to play at being bohemian rebels,
so most are "taught" the opposite.
>A free society? Millions of you are prisoners of
>an economy, nothing more.
Bizarre. I'll just remind you we're talking about
the freakin Soviet Union and leave it at that.
(Of course, this is Slashdot, so you probably weren't
born when it existed.)
Sounds more inviting all the time, with attitudes like that ... I'm sure you're baffled why more people don't find it appealing.
>[Insert comment about misuse of "irony" here]
...
A ironic&btnG=Search
Delete the insertion, then
--
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=define%3
A mode of literature in which the characters exhibit a power of action inferior to the one assumed to be normal in the reader or audience, or in which the poet's attitude is one of detached objectivity.
# dry: humorously sarcastic or mocking; "dry humor"; "an ironic remark often conveys an intended meaning obliquely"; "an ironic novel"; "an ironical smile"; "with a wry Scottish wit"
# characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is; "madness, an ironic fate for such a clear thinker"; "it was ironical that the well-planned scheme failed so completely"
Irony is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used. Irony involves the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they seem. Dramatic irony lies in the audience's deeper perceptions of a coming fate, which contrast with a character's lack of knowledge about said fate. A common metaphor for using irony is to "have your tongue in cheek".
--
So, pretty much dead-on, given what we're talking about. These "artists" are mainly being tongue-in-cheek, their lyrics are incongruous with the music style, they aren't (usually) members of a historically oppressed race acting out their anger and truly attempting to project menace, but are rather playing with the form, with *ironic* detachment.
The grocery/department store where we shop has a *huge* sort of cardboard cutout ad for the Zune right at the entrance. Maybe at every entrance.
... just weird. "Buy Zune; get girls with huge pores who don't use makeup!" I mean, come on, *nobody* looks good with that level of closeup ...
It consists of a (probably teenaged) girl's face. In massive closeup. With a sort of "natural", unretouched look. And just like, her face with a little bit of her hair. Like somebody hit the wrong zoom level somewhere. Five or ten times the size of a human face.
The effect is
>What IS going to happen is that Transhumanists will use
...
...
>nanotech to transform themselves into a superior species
"Superior" at what? Surviving? Is that really all that
matters to you? Rock formations are superior in surviving
>And that's where the threat is going to come from as monkey-ass humans
>follow their usual primate instincts to try to suppress the Transhumans
>- and unlike the Star Trek shows and Terminator movies, the humans will
>get their asses kicked trying - at least until the Transhumans have
>improved enough that they can just ignore the chimps and go about their
>business anyway.
Sounds like you think you're going to be on the "trans" side
Have fun. Since I'd rather be dead than living in the hell you describe,
I'm not that worried about it.
>Also, have the older "rap is crap" crowd taken
:) Rap, after all, has enough ...
:p
... he's ;)
>the day off because usually these stories have
>whole threads about how music died in the 60's?
Maybe this stuff is so lame that it doesn't even
deserve comment
substance to be a worthy opponent
After all, this stuff is *designed* to be crap
(but *ironic* crap: "no, really, I'm not trying
lamely to act hip and cool by rapping, it's
ironic! It's beyond criticism!")
Weird Al, BTW, is exempt from the above
old enough for us old timers
>So yet again it's a case of embedded code within a data
...
>file wreaking havoc.
>...
>What the hell did they need that for?
I don't know about the new XML-ish version, but the old DOC
"format" was basically a Word memory dump. Not
quite as surprising when you think of it that way
>Your new word for the day. It is used correctly.
...
Maybe it's more common on that side of the pond? The OP's thought was my first thought too. In speech or writing in the U.S. I always see "proponent".
Now somebody's going to post a bunch of statistics on how it's used all the time here
It wouldn't be a huge surprise, with a recent Stanford study showing that 14% of people state it would be 'hard to stay away from the Net for even a few days in a row."
I find it hard to stay away from my car for even a few days in a row. Am I addicted?
I guess the Greens would say yes ...