The APL programming language has no human language bias, as far as I can recall, but the TUI (Terminal User Interface, where "Terminal" refers to the Interface, rather than the User) does. It has commands like )LOAD, )SAVE, etc.
Replacing non-functional limbs with functional prosthetics has been going on for decades. Decades ago this was controversial, especially for children with birth defect limb deficiencies. My father-in-law, Dr. Leon M. Kruger, was the chief surgeon at a Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. He conducted and published a study following children as they grew up, comparing measures of success in life skills, schooling, careers, happiness, etc. for those who did or did not have amputations. The success of those with amputations and prosthetics far exceeded those who kept the nonfunctional hands, arms, feet or legs. As they grew up, many of these children sent Dr. Kruger movies of themselves engaged in sports, riding motorcycles, etc.
One favorite story was of a motorcyclist with a prosthetic who was in an accident. He was stuck in a position unable to remove his prosthetic which was pinned down under the motorcycle. He shouted to the first responders, "Take off my leg. Take off my leg."
They told him not to worry, they could get him out with amputation. He most emphatically told them he'd be able to get himself away if they would just disconnect his leg.
You might consider that a sick story. He thought it was funny, as did the teenager swimming in a lake in the summer of 1975 who grabbed onto the dock, stuck his stump in the air, and yelled, "Shark, Shark."
There is a concept of a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Unique_Identifier which, if it were assuredly globally unique, would eliminate the need for both a central dispenser and a registry of unique addresses.
Since there is a remote possibility of collisions, where two entities generate the same GUID, a registry is a good thing in cases where it really matters. A central dispenser is not really necessary.
This applies to addresses, not names.
A dispenser is needed for names as long as there are a priori rights to a name, due to trademark, corporate or personal identity.
I wonder if applying a 2D Fourier Transform or some other transform to the stone "documents" would have done the trick.
35+ Years ago, Professor Nabil Farhatpresented what might be called "Handwriting Attribution by 3 Year Olds." He showed an audience 3 different handwritten cursive script documents, let's call them A, B, and C. The texts of the three documents had nothing to do with each other. The authorship of documents A and C was uncontested. The authorship of B was highly contested. He then showed the 2D Fourier transforms of the documents. To any observer, even a three year old, two of the image transforms (A&B) were obviously similar, while one (C) was very different. A was written by Esterhazy, while C was written by Dreyfus. B was the controversial letter behind the Dreyfus Affair.
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The APL programming language has no human language bias, as far as I can recall, but the TUI (Terminal User Interface, where "Terminal" refers to the Interface, rather than the User) does. It has commands like )LOAD, )SAVE, etc.
Replacing non-functional limbs with functional prosthetics has been going on for decades. Decades ago this was controversial, especially for children with birth defect limb deficiencies. My father-in-law, Dr. Leon M. Kruger, was the chief surgeon at a Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. He conducted and published a study following children as they grew up, comparing measures of success in life skills, schooling, careers, happiness, etc. for those who did or did not have amputations. The success of those with amputations and prosthetics far exceeded those who kept the nonfunctional hands, arms, feet or legs. As they grew up, many of these children sent Dr. Kruger movies of themselves engaged in sports, riding motorcycles, etc. One favorite story was of a motorcyclist with a prosthetic who was in an accident. He was stuck in a position unable to remove his prosthetic which was pinned down under the motorcycle. He shouted to the first responders, "Take off my leg. Take off my leg." They told him not to worry, they could get him out with amputation. He most emphatically told them he'd be able to get himself away if they would just disconnect his leg. You might consider that a sick story. He thought it was funny, as did the teenager swimming in a lake in the summer of 1975 who grabbed onto the dock, stuck his stump in the air, and yelled, "Shark, Shark."
There is a concept of a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Unique_Identifier which, if it were assuredly globally unique, would eliminate the need for both a central dispenser and a registry of unique addresses. Since there is a remote possibility of collisions, where two entities generate the same GUID, a registry is a good thing in cases where it really matters. A central dispenser is not really necessary. This applies to addresses, not names. A dispenser is needed for names as long as there are a priori rights to a name, due to trademark, corporate or personal identity.
35+ Years ago, Professor Nabil Farhatpresented what might be called "Handwriting Attribution by 3 Year Olds." He showed an audience 3 different handwritten cursive script documents, let's call them A, B, and C. The texts of the three documents had nothing to do with each other. The authorship of documents A and C was uncontested. The authorship of B was highly contested. He then showed the 2D Fourier transforms of the documents. To any observer, even a three year old, two of the image transforms (A&B) were obviously similar, while one (C) was very different. A was written by Esterhazy, while C was written by Dreyfus. B was the controversial letter behind the Dreyfus Affair.
See also:
Writer identification based on handwriting