This sounds like the CYC Project. For over a decade they have been trying to collect all human knowledge and explain it to a computer using a logical language they developed. They claim that it has applications in search, among many other things, and a natural language translator is part of the system they are developing. They have even released part of CYC as Open Source!
I haven't seen any "WOW!" things come out of the project yet, but you have to admire their "just do it" approach to AI.
Look elsewhere - this is being regarded as a victory for those that oppose software patents, moderators please mod down these ill-informed kneejerk negative reactions.
Look at other threads and the update to this article, while the dust hasn't quite settled yet it looks like this is a victory for those opposing software patents.
Lets conduct a little case-study on what is wrong with/. moderation:
Cryptographic programming is one of those disciplines that comingles heavy mathematics, electrical engineering, and programming in the same field.
How much electrical engineering was required to create GPG? Are my emails less secure because I haven't got my GPG PCI board plugged in? Still, he did use the word "cryptographic" so +1 Insightful.
One can browse a manual on the topic and write an implementation that technically works (when paired with a similarly shoddily-designed decoder), but be fully unaware that the pseudorandom generator is just that.
A pseudorandom generator is pseudo-random? Give that man a cigar. Still - he did say "pseudo" so another +1 Insightful.
Or that the ones-complement portion of the crypto engine fails when X=0, weakening the whole thing by sixteen bits while not producing garbage.
Ooh! X=0 - why thats an equasion! +1 Insightful!
Unlike a crappily-designed game, it's a lot harder to spot when crypto goes wrong.
Brings gaming into it - we all like games - and we like the word "crap" - +1 Insightful!
I'd still contend that commercial crypto has had more and bigger flaws overall, but he's right that the open source process alone isn't going to give you good crypto.
Wow - criticizes the established doctrine of Open Source, what a rebel! +1 Insightful!
This is the most significant problem with this email, they assume that the average MEP will know who Linus is or why he is important.
The second most significant problem is that they give them a hyperlink to indicate what they can do to address these issues. They need to SPELL OUT what an MEP can do to help the anti-swpat cause. This means saying "this URL contains a list of amendments which are essential if this proposal is to protect competition and innovation in the European software industry".
Every additional second it takes for an MEP to figure out a) Why they should agree with you? or b) Given that they agree with you, what do they do? costs us votes.
This guy has posted the same comment twice, and been moderated up (to +3 at the moment) for both of them. New karma whoring technique?
I posted the first comment then realized that it was a reply to a comment that probably wouldn't be moderated up - so I decided to restate my sentiments in a way that they wouldn't be at the mercy of the parent's moderation.
I don't know - how big a check are they including with their letter?
+5 Funny aside, that kind of cynicism really hurts us (not the fact that you expressed it, but the fact that some people use that attitude as an excuse to do nothing). We can and have made a difference in this debate because people but their cynicism aside and really tried to engage in the political process.
I have helped to persuade my MEP to not-only agree with me, but to actively support the anti-swpat movement - and this is someone that previously didn't deal with tech issues at all (MEP Avril Doyle if anyone cares).
As in most things - the only way to guarantee that you lose a political debate is not to participate in the first place.
As someone that has personally persuaded their MEP (who previously had nothing to do with tech issues) to actively support the anti-swpat cause, I can say that we can and have made a difference - but we haven't won the battle yet. If you live in the EU and care about these issues take the time to contact your MEP and see where they stand on this issue - but remember:
Emails are less than worthless, remember: meet > phone > write > email
Be polite, and STATE YOUR ARGUMENT CLEARLY. These people are generally well-meaning, but can often get confused if bombarded with 100 reasons why swpats are bad (even if all of them are valid). Most MEPs are keen to protect competition so start with "Software patents will hurt competition" and work from there.
Don't make it about Free Software, the software industry as a whole is in danger - not just free software.
This is one of the first real opportunities the geek community has to make a real difference in politics - but it takes work, are you going to put your time and efforts where your mouth is?
As someone that has personally persuaded their MEP (who previously had nothing to do with tech issues) to actively support the anti-swpat cause, I can say that, fortunately, you are dead wrong - and the apathy that your pessimism breeds is exactly what we don't need right now.
We can and have made a difference - but we haven't won the battle yet. If you live in the EU and care about these issues take the time to contact your MEP and see where they stand on this issue - but remember:
Emails are less than worthless, remember: meet > phone > write > email
Be polite, and STATE YOUR ARGUMENT CLEARLY. These people are generally well-meaning, but can often get confused if bombarded. Most MEPs are keen to protect competition so start with "Software patents will hurt competition" and work from there.
Don't make it about Free Software, the software industry as a whole is in danger - not just free software.
Um, wrong. Those who understand this process generally feel that it will pass - MEPs consider it a complete waste of resources to vote down a bill that has taken months to prepare, and greatly prefer that the bill be modified rather than disposed of completely.
So in this case, the only question is whether it can be amended to address our concerns - it will almost certainly pass one way or the other.
And if it does... so what? It is canceled in less then 5 years because of the trouble we will get here in europe with EXISTING foreign software patents.
Dream on! Your brand of apathy is exactly what we don't need right now. If the large software vendors can change the law to what suits them, then they can certainly stop us from changing it back in 5 years. This is our best, and possibly our last real chance to stop the damage being done to immigration by the unholy alliance of intellectual property lawyers, keen to milk the industry for legal fees, and the monopolists of the software industry, keen to let IP lawyers milk their smaller competitors dry.
All software innovation is threatened by software patents, not just free software, and not just open standards.
By making it about free software you weaken the argument, it isn't just about Linux, FreeBSD, or Apache - it is about all software developers that can't afford a large patent portfolio, and it is about all software consumers.
It might actually be nice, to force Web AdminDUHstrators to not rely upon plugins for everything
There is nothing nice about patenting an obvious idea and using it to limit innovation and progress for personal financial gain - regardless of how hated the first choice of targets is.
If the EU needed a better example of what is wrong with software patents, this is it - even if it is a rare instance of a large company being on the wrong side of it. Just wait until US lawmakers and EU MEPs start asking why their screens are suddenly filled with pop-up dialog boxes every time they visit a flash site.
Re:Lies, statistics, and analysts
on
Java vs .NET
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· Score: 1
I would think Java needs to dazzle developers more. Somehow, it has become... umm.. stagnant. It introduces new stuff every release but nothing that makes you say, ah ha.. that will make my life easier going forward.
That was probably true about the 1.2 and 1.3 releases, but java.nio in 1.4 made a big difference to us, and stuff like Generics in 1.5 will be huge.
Re:Lies, statistics, and analysts
on
Java vs .NET
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· Score: 1
I am aware of SWT, but to be useful it must be part of the standard Java API.
Lies, statistics, and analysts
on
Java vs .NET
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· Score: 5, Insightful
This John Rymer guy, around whom this entire article is based, is talking out of his arse. When will journalists learn that if you want to know something about software engineering, ask a software engineer? Only PHBs, clueless journalists, and other analysts listen to analysts.
Java and.NET take vastly different approaches to development, said John Rymer, a vice president with Forrester Research. Java's philosophy of development is to expose low-level system interfaces to give developers greater control. Microsoft simplifies the development process; the developer has less control -- but the tools are easier to use.
If anything, the opposite is true - the Java API is certainly higher-level when it comes to GUI stuff, and everything else is pretty analogous between the Java and.NET APIs.
"Before, Microsoft was basically shut out of these projects," Rymer said..NETs ease of use and lower licensing costs also will be a draw.
Lower licensing costs than free? I would love to see that.
Having worked with both Java and.NET, I would say that things like C#'s foreach statement make for easier and cleaner code, but Java 1.5 will leapfrog C# when it introduces generics along with its own version of foreach, and other timesaving features. Java's big failing, IMHO, is Swing. It is too big and too clunky, Java is crying out for a stripped down GUI library that is part of the API spec that will be as easy to work wit
...but I think the real comparison is between iTunes and something which, unfortunately, doesn't exist yet - a way people can get music which actively bypasses the middlemen and sells itself on this feature. People are yearning for a way they can buy music that is fair to artists - all this site is trying to explain is that iTunes isn't it, and people should know that.
Anyone brave enough to question the distilled coolade that is Apple and anything they touch since coming out with OSX ("ooh, ooh, pretty and Unix, ooh, OOH, AAaahhhh..") might find this spoof of iTunes to be an amuzing antidote.
The Chinese never have, nor have they ever shown much aspiration towards being a democracy.
Ah, I suppose the Tiananmen Square massacre was actually all about free beer then? It sounds like you arguing that there is something genetic about the Chinese that makes them less "democratic"? Don't be such a bigot.
I wish they had spent as much time documenting what this actually did as they spent making the website pretty, the one remotely technical diagram on the website has no explanation whatsoever as to what it is about.
IMHO this is yet another example of how academic projects are judged by the amount of attention they attract, rather than on whether they advance the state of the art. This is the reason why people like Kevin Warrick can stick a dog tag in their arm and go around claiming they are the world's first cyborg - all while being lavished with attention by the mainstream media.
All of this leads to an academic system that increasingly rewards self pubicity at the expense of real reasearch.
Oh, BTW - I listened to the radio station, it sounds like a garbled mess - I certainly couldn't determine the point of this from listening to it, but then I could say the same thing about rap.
You talk as if the Chinese sheep need to be educated about the value of democracy by those wonderous purveyors of freedom - the Americans! How stunningly arrogant, particularly these days. The Chinese, given the right tools, will be the ones to bring democracy to China, they don't need Americans to teach them why it is good to be free.
...or does it just shift the problem somewhere else? All the Iranian government has to do is sign up to whatever mailing lists are distributing the proxy addresses - and block them automatically, this could probably be done within minutes, making it even easier for them to block this service than it is to block the censored websites themselves.
You only need to sign up to Freenet once, thereafter it handles the task of finding new Freenet nodes to talk to automatically
Freenet is self-propogating, you can send a URL to your friend by email pointing to your computer, and they can download Freenet from you - no reliance on a centralized site
Unlike this service, Freenet allows people within Iran to publish freely and anonymously without relying on an external website.
Of course, Freenet is still under development, but it is progressing rapidly - and is already being used by groups within China to get their message out.
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't seen any "WOW!" things come out of the project yet, but you have to admire their "just do it" approach to AI.
Look elsewhere - this is being regarded as a victory for those that oppose software patents, moderators please mod down these ill-informed kneejerk negative reactions.
Look at other threads and the update to this article, while the dust hasn't quite settled yet it looks like this is a victory for those opposing software patents.
The second most significant problem is that they give them a hyperlink to indicate what they can do to address these issues. They need to SPELL OUT what an MEP can do to help the anti-swpat cause. This means saying "this URL contains a list of amendments which are essential if this proposal is to protect competition and innovation in the European software industry".
Every additional second it takes for an MEP to figure out a) Why they should agree with you? or b) Given that they agree with you, what do they do? costs us votes.
Do you have a better suggestion?
I have helped to persuade my MEP to not-only agree with me, but to actively support the anti-swpat movement - and this is someone that previously didn't deal with tech issues at all (MEP Avril Doyle if anyone cares).
As in most things - the only way to guarantee that you lose a political debate is not to participate in the first place.
doh
s/immigration/innovation
- Emails are less than worthless, remember: meet > phone > write > email
- Be polite, and STATE YOUR ARGUMENT CLEARLY. These people are generally well-meaning, but can often get confused if bombarded with 100 reasons why swpats are bad (even if all of them are valid). Most MEPs are keen to protect competition so start with "Software patents will hurt competition" and work from there.
- Don't make it about Free Software, the software industry as a whole is in danger - not just free software.
This is one of the first real opportunities the geek community has to make a real difference in politics - but it takes work, are you going to put your time and efforts where your mouth is?We can and have made a difference - but we haven't won the battle yet. If you live in the EU and care about these issues take the time to contact your MEP and see where they stand on this issue - but remember:
So in this case, the only question is whether it can be amended to address our concerns - it will almost certainly pass one way or the other.
Dream on! Your brand of apathy is exactly what we don't need right now. If the large software vendors can change the law to what suits them, then they can certainly stop us from changing it back in 5 years. This is our best, and possibly our last real chance to stop the damage being done to immigration by the unholy alliance of intellectual property lawyers, keen to milk the industry for legal fees, and the monopolists of the software industry, keen to let IP lawyers milk their smaller competitors dry.By making it about free software you weaken the argument, it isn't just about Linux, FreeBSD, or Apache - it is about all software developers that can't afford a large patent portfolio, and it is about all software consumers.
If the EU needed a better example of what is wrong with software patents, this is it - even if it is a rare instance of a large company being on the wrong side of it. Just wait until US lawmakers and EU MEPs start asking why their screens are suddenly filled with pop-up dialog boxes every time they visit a flash site.
I am aware of SWT, but to be useful it must be part of the standard Java API.
...easy to work with as Microsoft's GUI stuff.
Having worked with both Java and .NET, I would say that things like C#'s foreach statement make for easier and cleaner code, but Java 1.5 will leapfrog C# when it introduces generics along with its own version of foreach, and other timesaving features. Java's big failing, IMHO, is Swing. It is too big and too clunky, Java is crying out for a stripped down GUI library that is part of the API spec that will be as easy to work wit
...but I think the real comparison is between iTunes and something which, unfortunately, doesn't exist yet - a way people can get music which actively bypasses the middlemen and sells itself on this feature. People are yearning for a way they can buy music that is fair to artists - all this site is trying to explain is that iTunes isn't it, and people should know that.
Anyone brave enough to question the distilled coolade that is Apple and anything they touch since coming out with OSX ("ooh, ooh, pretty and Unix, ooh, OOH, AAaahhhh..") might find this spoof of iTunes to be an amuzing antidote.
Oh shit...
IMHO this is yet another example of how academic projects are judged by the amount of attention they attract, rather than on whether they advance the state of the art. This is the reason why people like Kevin Warrick can stick a dog tag in their arm and go around claiming they are the world's first cyborg - all while being lavished with attention by the mainstream media.
All of this leads to an academic system that increasingly rewards self pubicity at the expense of real reasearch.
Oh, BTW - I listened to the radio station, it sounds like a garbled mess - I certainly couldn't determine the point of this from listening to it, but then I could say the same thing about rap.
You talk as if the Chinese sheep need to be educated about the value of democracy by those wonderous purveyors of freedom - the Americans! How stunningly arrogant, particularly these days. The Chinese, given the right tools, will be the ones to bring democracy to China, they don't need Americans to teach them why it is good to be free.
Freenet addresses this problem in several ways:
- You only need to sign up to Freenet once, thereafter it handles the task of finding new Freenet nodes to talk to automatically
- Freenet is self-propogating, you can send a URL to your friend by email pointing to your computer, and they can download Freenet from you - no reliance on a centralized site
- Unlike this service, Freenet allows people within Iran to publish freely and anonymously without relying on an external website.
Of course, Freenet is still under development, but it is progressing rapidly - and is already being used by groups within China to get their message out.