I have an even better idea, that bypasses the entire problem: Get rid of any Microsoft 'operating system' (using the term loosely here, since it's getting to be more and more like a 'botnet system' or 'advertising delivery system' than anything else) and install some flavor of Linux (or literally anything else you can get your hands on) instead. Then there won't be ads, 'telemetry' (read as: 'spyware') or any of this other bullshit. Don't really care what your difficulties with the alternatives are, either. Deal with it.
As I recall, if the memory itself was packaged in ceramic rather than plastic, there was potentially a higher error rate from that particular source, because of the greater chance of radioactive material in the ceramic used.
..was built on perfboard, and had 256B (yes, not a typo: 256 bytes) of static RAM memory. The next incarnation of it had a whole 4096B (yes, again, not a typo: 4096 bytes) of static RAM. When you're writing everything in machine code, it's amazing how much you can get done. Even when I graduated up to a Z80-based computer running CP/M, and had a whole 56kB of program space to work with (on a 16-bit address bus; the other 8kB was the OS.. the entire OS, mind you!), you could accomplish an amazing amount of functionality, even when writing code in C (classical C; C++ hadn't been invented yet). Fun, fun, fun..
Actually I'm developing my opinon based on news stories, the number of which I've lost count of, about crappy 'products' that came out of China, that made people sick, killed people's pets, and I believe made people's kids sick.
I don't consider 'intelligent' and 'sentient' to be interchangeable terms, and since you bring it up I'm not so sure that the term 'artificial intelligence' is all that appropriate, either. 'Artificial Sentience', perhaps?
I don't expect to have a conversation with a dog. I expect the dog to listen, and me to have to make guesses based on the dog's behavior as to whether or not it's listening to me/comprehending me. But since you bring it up: We so far haven't even managed to produce a machine that can 100% emulate a dog's cognitive function, either. I think they barely have been able to emulate a housefly brain, haven't they? And that at great expense. Nope, sorry, I'm sticking to what I said before: I, personally, won't consider anything to be 'sentient' until it can have a casual conversation with me, and leave me wondering whether or not it was a person or a machine. It needs to have a sense of humor all it's own (not just regurgitating someone else's jokes). In fact I think the best test of whether a machine is truly sentient on a par with human beings, is if it can create art, and I don't mean random digital art, I mean formulate an intent to evoke an emotional response with it's artwork, then manage to pull it off with some degree of success. I think that more or less encapsulates what it means to be human, and when the day comes that we can create a machine that does that, then I'll admit we have Artificial Sentience. Until then it's just 'expert systems' and clever simulations.
Someone better thoroughly examine the source code for malware and spyware, then compile it and compare the binaries to ensure they're not slipping more 'telemetry' into people's computers.
I sort of see Japan as the place to look how to make something new , whereas I look at China as the place to look how to make something poorly and in high volume.
The Chinese government would just as soon annihilate the Japanese people down to the last man, woman, and child, then take the land to expand their empire; if Japan, as a nation, a culture, and a people, want to survive, they'll need some sort of military to defend them. Otherwise they're done for.
You're absolutely right. Maybe you should just find a quiet, painless way off this mortal coil now, and beat everyone to the punch.
..or, alternately, you could quit being a Negative Nelly and find some purpose in your life. Based on the first impression you give, I'd also recommend you go find a decent talk therapist, and enter into some conversation with them about why you're so (obviously) depressed.
For the rest of you: I don't forsee anytime in approximately the next 100 years, humans being completely outmatched by computers in all areas that define us as sentient beings, so don't quit your day jobs just yet.
We keep hearing about 'AI this' and 'AI that', but by my standards there is no such thing. I can't sit down with a computer, have a conversation, and for one second feel like I'm talking to the intellectual equivalent (or better) of a human being, therefore there's been no such thing an 'artificial intelligence' as of yet. All we've got are so-called 'expert systems', which at best mimick a human being's ability to think -- but only on specific subjects. Even so-called 'machine learning' is a far cry from actual sentience. Honestly, media people, can we get that straightened out?
Really, the guy is coming down on the side I think is right, for both 'security' and (of course) technological reasons, but I don't trust him, have this sneaking feeling that there is some hidden agenda, or that we're being misdirected somehow. Isn't that sad?
Am I the only one that feels this way about this? Somehow I think not.
See what you've done to us U.S. Law Enforcement and Government? You've fucked everything up so much that we can't trust anyone anymore, even when they agree with us.
This, so much this. Glad someone else said it. I'd have to say, given Microsofts' track record, especially lately, that they're more interested in 'infiltrating' the Open Source community as much as possible, so as to more easily destroy it and make All Things Microsoft a reality. Come on, FTC, when are you going to get around to levelling monopoly charges against Microsoft?
Pretty much any government, left unchecked for long enough, will treat it's citizens like farm animals, or like criminals in prison: Monitored 24/7/365, with no rights whatsoever, and treated like a numbered resource, not a living, sentient being.
Of course citizenry, left unchecked for too long, will turn 'personal freedom' into utter chaos, with no laws to speak of, and everything falling apart around them. Ironically enough both sides have to battle with each other constantly in order for there to be any sort of healthy balance. Over long periods of time it all averages out, but in the short term the needle swings back and forth, which we see a prime example of here.
I think the only way to avoid this phenomenon is to ensure that there are never more than three people in the same place at any given time.
On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represents 'I never used it at all', and 5 represents 'I used it all the time': How often did you use the 'Tab Groups' feature in Firefox?
Me? '1'; I knew what it was, but didn't see the point to it and therefore never used it.
I don't have to read any 'retracted news' to know that this is likely complete and utter bullshit made up out of wholecloth in a desperate attempt to spread FUD and panic the public into shifting their sentiments away from Apple.
The politicians from governing parties, on the other hand, ran amok after the terrorists attacks.
Fair enough. Since you mention it, yeah, I seem to recall now a few news snippets about how the French populace responded; they're scared, but not cowering, the attacks actually unified and strengthened them. Politicians in any country on the other hand..
I'm under the impression that much (if not all) of the so-called 'junk DNA' that seemingly does nothing, is more like 'error handling' or 'conditional' code that rarely, if ever, gets activated -- but that might save our lives. For instance, a recent Slashdot story: Viral 'Fossils' In Our DNA May Help Us Fight Infection
While I at least can begin to understand on an emotional level how the French people must feel, having been targeted by violent assholes more than once, I have to judge this as a knee-jerk reaction and not terribly rational at all. This is about how it would go for them:
France: "You will decrypt this data for us". Company: "OK. We'll call you in a few decades with the results; it'll take that long at least to go through all the possible decyption keys" France: "Give us what we want now you go to jail!" Company: "Sorry, it's not possible"
If they pass that legislation, the actual end result will be companies not ever doing business in or selling their products in France, so they don't risk going to prison for things they can't do.
Wow, who could have possibly predicted that an app for your phone, using no extra sensory hardware whatsoever, could possibly be wildly inaccurate! After all it must have been written with the Best Intentions of the programmer, who fills his life with unicorns and puppies and fluffy kittens, sugar, spice, and everything nice, what could have possibly have gone wrong??? Obviously the silly testers and end-users must not be using it correctly. Seriously, those people who had heart attacks and strokes and died? Must be their fault!
Slashdot Mirror
Somehow that got posted to the wrong story.. not sure how that happened!
I have an even better idea, that bypasses the entire problem: Get rid of any Microsoft 'operating system' (using the term loosely here, since it's getting to be more and more like a 'botnet system' or 'advertising delivery system' than anything else) and install some flavor of Linux (or literally anything else you can get your hands on) instead. Then there won't be ads, 'telemetry' (read as: 'spyware') or any of this other bullshit. Don't really care what your difficulties with the alternatives are, either. Deal with it.
As I recall, if the memory itself was packaged in ceramic rather than plastic, there was potentially a higher error rate from that particular source, because of the greater chance of radioactive material in the ceramic used.
..was built on perfboard, and had 256B (yes, not a typo: 256 bytes) of static RAM memory. The next incarnation of it had a whole 4096B (yes, again, not a typo: 4096 bytes) of static RAM. When you're writing everything in machine code, it's amazing how much you can get done. Even when I graduated up to a Z80-based computer running CP/M, and had a whole 56kB of program space to work with (on a 16-bit address bus; the other 8kB was the OS.. the entire OS, mind you!), you could accomplish an amazing amount of functionality, even when writing code in C (classical C; C++ hadn't been invented yet). Fun, fun, fun..
Actually I'm developing my opinon based on news stories, the number of which I've lost count of, about crappy 'products' that came out of China, that made people sick, killed people's pets, and I believe made people's kids sick.
I don't consider 'intelligent' and 'sentient' to be interchangeable terms, and since you bring it up I'm not so sure that the term 'artificial intelligence' is all that appropriate, either. 'Artificial Sentience', perhaps?
I don't expect to have a conversation with a dog. I expect the dog to listen, and me to have to make guesses based on the dog's behavior as to whether or not it's listening to me/comprehending me. But since you bring it up: We so far haven't even managed to produce a machine that can 100% emulate a dog's cognitive function, either. I think they barely have been able to emulate a housefly brain, haven't they? And that at great expense. Nope, sorry, I'm sticking to what I said before: I, personally, won't consider anything to be 'sentient' until it can have a casual conversation with me, and leave me wondering whether or not it was a person or a machine. It needs to have a sense of humor all it's own (not just regurgitating someone else's jokes). In fact I think the best test of whether a machine is truly sentient on a par with human beings, is if it can create art, and I don't mean random digital art, I mean formulate an intent to evoke an emotional response with it's artwork, then manage to pull it off with some degree of success. I think that more or less encapsulates what it means to be human, and when the day comes that we can create a machine that does that, then I'll admit we have Artificial Sentience. Until then it's just 'expert systems' and clever simulations.
Someone better thoroughly examine the source code for malware and spyware, then compile it and compare the binaries to ensure they're not slipping more 'telemetry' into people's computers.
I sort of see Japan as the place to look how to make something new , whereas I look at China as the place to look how to make something poorly and in high volume.
Fixed that for you.
The Chinese government would just as soon annihilate the Japanese people down to the last man, woman, and child, then take the land to expand their empire; if Japan, as a nation, a culture, and a people, want to survive, they'll need some sort of military to defend them. Otherwise they're done for.
You're absolutely right. Maybe you should just find a quiet, painless way off this mortal coil now, and beat everyone to the punch.
..or, alternately, you could quit being a Negative Nelly and find some purpose in your life. Based on the first impression you give, I'd also recommend you go find a decent talk therapist, and enter into some conversation with them about why you're so (obviously) depressed.
For the rest of you: I don't forsee anytime in approximately the next 100 years, humans being completely outmatched by computers in all areas that define us as sentient beings, so don't quit your day jobs just yet.
We keep hearing about 'AI this' and 'AI that', but by my standards there is no such thing. I can't sit down with a computer, have a conversation, and for one second feel like I'm talking to the intellectual equivalent (or better) of a human being, therefore there's been no such thing an 'artificial intelligence' as of yet. All we've got are so-called 'expert systems', which at best mimick a human being's ability to think -- but only on specific subjects. Even so-called 'machine learning' is a far cry from actual sentience. Honestly, media people, can we get that straightened out?
Really, the guy is coming down on the side I think is right, for both 'security' and (of course) technological reasons, but I don't trust him, have this sneaking feeling that there is some hidden agenda, or that we're being misdirected somehow. Isn't that sad?
Am I the only one that feels this way about this? Somehow I think not.
See what you've done to us U.S. Law Enforcement and Government? You've fucked everything up so much that we can't trust anyone anymore, even when they agree with us.
If Microsoft is actually dying, then so much the better, I'll throw a goddamned party when then go under.
This, so much this. Glad someone else said it. I'd have to say, given Microsofts' track record, especially lately, that they're more interested in 'infiltrating' the Open Source community as much as possible, so as to more easily destroy it and make All Things Microsoft a reality. Come on, FTC, when are you going to get around to levelling monopoly charges against Microsoft?
Pretty much any government, left unchecked for long enough, will treat it's citizens like farm animals, or like criminals in prison: Monitored 24/7/365, with no rights whatsoever, and treated like a numbered resource, not a living, sentient being.
Of course citizenry, left unchecked for too long, will turn 'personal freedom' into utter chaos, with no laws to speak of, and everything falling apart around them. Ironically enough both sides have to battle with each other constantly in order for there to be any sort of healthy balance. Over long periods of time it all averages out, but in the short term the needle swings back and forth, which we see a prime example of here.
I think the only way to avoid this phenomenon is to ensure that there are never more than three people in the same place at any given time.
On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represents 'I never used it at all', and 5 represents 'I used it all the time': How often did you use the 'Tab Groups' feature in Firefox?
Me? '1'; I knew what it was, but didn't see the point to it and therefore never used it.
The man did so much to change the world.
Now, will someone please tell us when the guy that invented SPAM dies, so we can celebrate there being one less evil bastard in the world?
I don't have to read any 'retracted news' to know that this is likely complete and utter bullshit made up out of wholecloth in a desperate attempt to spread FUD and panic the public into shifting their sentiments away from Apple.
Interesting. Thanks for the insight. Are you a French citizen or resident of France, by the way?
The politicians from governing parties, on the other hand, ran amok after the terrorists attacks.
Fair enough. Since you mention it, yeah, I seem to recall now a few news snippets about how the French populace responded; they're scared, but not cowering, the attacks actually unified and strengthened them. Politicians in any country on the other hand..
I'm under the impression that much (if not all) of the so-called 'junk DNA' that seemingly does nothing, is more like 'error handling' or 'conditional' code that rarely, if ever, gets activated -- but that might save our lives. For instance, a recent Slashdot story: Viral 'Fossils' In Our DNA May Help Us Fight Infection
While I at least can begin to understand on an emotional level how the French people must feel, having been targeted by violent assholes more than once, I have to judge this as a knee-jerk reaction and not terribly rational at all. This is about how it would go for them: France: "You will decrypt this data for us".
Company: "OK. We'll call you in a few decades with the results; it'll take that long at least to go through all the possible decyption keys"
France: "Give us what we want now you go to jail!"
Company: "Sorry, it's not possible"
If they pass that legislation, the actual end result will be companies not ever doing business in or selling their products in France, so they don't risk going to prison for things they can't do.
Only for you, apparently; I suggest you stop doing it immediately.
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week! Be sure to tip the bartender well and often!
Wow, who could have possibly predicted that an app for your phone, using no extra sensory hardware whatsoever, could possibly be wildly inaccurate! After all it must have been written with the Best Intentions of the programmer, who fills his life with unicorns and puppies and fluffy kittens, sugar, spice, and everything nice, what could have possibly have gone wrong??? Obviously the silly testers and end-users must not be using it correctly. Seriously, those people who had heart attacks and strokes and died? Must be their fault!