I am strongly against the americanization of the world; and I'm going to move to London as soon as I finish college (I live in the USA right now, in a suburb of DC).... but if this keeps happening in other parts of the world (McD's and Wendy's and Burger Kings popping up everywhere),
Burger King is a British-owned company. Where are you moving again?
There are kiddy cracking groups that could have written this thing over a weekend.
Well, then, why didn't they? Or anybody else? There sure is a lot of studly talk around these parts, but when someone actually gets down to it and does something, the armchair hackers can't seem to offer anything but vague criticism.
I'm not speaking of the viability of Linux as a desktop product in general, and I'm obviously not trying to set you straight about your PC. I'm referring to the "mainstream consumer product" part. I've seen too many people say things like "the secretaries can all learn LaTeX if they want to type things" and in some Linux advocates a general elitist attitude that if people can't learn to use Linux then they're fucking morons. When more developers overcome that attitude and more apps that are targetted for Grandma are released, then we can start talking "mainstream." Linux is not for everyone, at least not right now, but some people still can't get over that.
But not even the most ardent Linux lovers really believe their operating system will crush Microsoft--at least not for now, and certainly not as a mainstream consumer product. They don't confuse making a play for the big time with being ready for prime time [...]
Hm. I was under the impression that the author actually read/. -- if so, he would come upon all kinds of ardent Linux lovers who are quite deluded about the readiness of Linux as a "mainstream consumer product." But maybe he was just being charitable...
Herbie J.
Re:Well there's only one solution to that..
on
EU Web Tax Proposed
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· Score: 1
So if people in the EU wanted to buy their latest book from Amazon.com [...]
Then it makes more sense to buy from Amazon.co.uk, due to the radically decreased shipping costs. It's not like we all depend on getting our goods from American soil.
I hear Canada's nice -- if you don't mind the chill; and I *still* hear people talking about Singapore.
Singapore?? Are you messing with us? Singapore is the country that used to advertise for "official censor" jobs on their government web site (maybe they still do). Singapore is the country that forbids Internet discussion that disrupts "social harmony." In Singapore, anyone who puts a political or religious page on the Web must register with the government.
Yeah, people are still talking about Singapore, but not as a place where freedom-loving people want to live.
What? I never even heard of her and her cam until this article.
Jenni's been on Letterman. Since the media-savvy intelligentsia recongizes Letterman as the metric of who has made it or not, it is now officially you who is behind the times.[1]
And, I'm surprised that nobody has brought up the fact that JenniCam can be had as a Slashbox!!
Herbie J.
[1] Just kidding, of course, although she has been on Letterman. And I don't want to hear any guff about "what is Letterman???" If I can get it here in Finland...
To wit, he needs something that will allow his apps which need (specifcally) MS Access to function. These apps probably use ODBC or worse to communicate with Access so the needs are not for an open source database but something to replace Access not a work alike but an exact replacement as far as the database end goes (not front end)
Well, if he's using ODBC, whose sole purpose in life is to provide a database-independent abstraction layer, he can just swap out Access for something else. That's the whole point of ODBC. Unless his apps rely on some obscure functionality that only Access provides. You might be thinking of DAO, which, to my knowledge, is tied to Microsoft databases (SQL Server and Access).
That should be the end of the discussion, at least concerning the imposition of state sales taxes on out-of-state vendors. A State is free to tax or not tax sales of goods within their borders. They do not have the power to impose their taxes on the citizens of other states.
Of course, on a practical level, it's not the end of the discussion. The issue is mainly a state taxing its own residents (not "citizens"), not taxing those of another state. Some states have implemented de facto Internet taxes already. In the People's Republic of Illinois, recently the topic of another Slashdot article and where I used to live when I was living in the USA, you have to pay a "use tax" on things you buy from other states. Note that it's not a sales tax... if you use items bought from other states you are supposed to pay the difference between that state's sales tax and Illinois sales tax. However, this cannot be systematically enforced, so you're supposed to list all of your out-of-state purchases (used in Illinois) at the end of your Illinois income tax return. Really. Check it out. This rule actually pre-dates the widespread use of the Internet, so it wasn't designed as a net tax measure, but it happens to fall in that category. Of course, nobody I know ever reported "use tax" or had even heard of it.
gotta love phones that sell based on pretty colours and inline games.... talk about quality. plus there is the added bonus of 40 second long tunes for the phone rings... i hate hearing those god-damned rings
There's a reason why Nokia phones have so many ring tones. Here in Finland, home of Nokia's HQ and where there are more cell phones than land lines, each phone needs to be distinctive as possible so that when someone's phone rings on the subway, not everyone will reach for their phone all at once. The newer Nokia phones even allow you to build your own arbitrary ring tone, but I don't know if such phones are available yet in the US.
Plus, the games are great for running down the battery when you need to give the battery its occasional "deep recharge" or whatever it's called.
Like seriously, who is going to want to say, "rmdir dowhat?" Linux is way to difficult to use with something like a voice input and output, and who is going to want to hear it say "bash: minicom: command not found?" I think this would be much more frustrating, even for people who have no other choice
Since you made the assertion that it's difficult to use, I assume you've tried it...?
In the past, I've created books-on-tape for a blind acquaintance. This person has a tape playback mechanism which speeds the playback up to something like 8x the original speed, and they can still understand what's being said. Once someone is used to something like that, they can easily comprehend a long error message in no time. If non-blind people can read it with no problem, then, in my experience, blind people can hear it with no problem.
There's even a significant precendent for blind developers. Even Microsoft Visual Studio has an "Optimize menus for screen readers" option (or something like that).
A) As AI improves, it reaches the point of self-obsolescence. A truly perfect AI is only a mirror of human thought and behavior, and we have that anyway. Why bother.
I'm not sure where you are getting your definitions. AI is "artificial intelligence," not a "mirror of human thought and behavior." However, AI involves a lot of study of human behavior, since human thought outperforms computational techniques in many areas and is thus seen as a foundation to work upon. Russel & Norvig [1] claim that AI "attempts to study intelligent entities."
But let's use your definitions for now. One reason to "bother" with AI is to replace humans in demanding or dangerous tasks. I used to work in a university AI lab (an experience which frames this response) wherein an expert system was developed that could replace a human doing a certain type of military crisis management task. We found that our expert system, powered by novel mathematical techniques and modest computing strength, could do the task faster and with less errors than humans who have been trained in the task. For that domain, our expert system mimicked the behavior of a human nearly completely, but the system might not be appropriate for other domains. But what if our system, or future systems, was extended to handle more general cases (I'm not claiming that this can ever be done any time soon)? Whole classes of dangerous or tedious tasks which are currently handled by humans could be automated. That's one reason to bother.
B) Any truly perfect AI should then in turn be able to produce AI of its own, as we have. So what good is it? It's just a dog chasing its own extremely, extremely long tail. Why bother.
Because the goal of AI research is not to create a "truly perfect" AI.
Herbie J.
[1] Russel&Norvig 1995 Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach
It amuses me to read all the comments about the world not "needing" the Amiga anymore. In some sense, the world does not need the Amiga. However, the world does also not "need" Linux, BSD, open source, etc.
The people who are making this attempt to rejuvenate the Amiga are in it because they love the platform, they find it worth their time and energy, and they want to see the Amiga continue. Open source/Linux, etc. fans should start to see the parallels here... right? Now that I think about it, I'm uncertain whether to be more amused or sad at the attitudes taken by the supposedly open-minded and enlightened people here.
Slashdot Mirror
Burger King is a British-owned company. Where are you moving again?
Herbie J.
Well, then, why didn't they? Or anybody else? There sure is a lot of studly talk around these parts, but when someone actually gets down to it and does something, the armchair hackers can't seem to offer anything but vague criticism.
Herbie J.
Herbie J.
Hm. I was under the impression that the author actually read /. -- if so, he would come upon all kinds of ardent Linux lovers who are quite deluded about the readiness of Linux as a "mainstream consumer product." But maybe he was just being charitable...
Herbie J.
Then it makes more sense to buy from Amazon.co.uk, due to the radically decreased shipping costs. It's not like we all depend on getting our goods from American soil.
Herbie J.
Beware the Euble
Singapore?? Are you messing with us? Singapore is the country that used to advertise for "official censor" jobs on their government web site (maybe they still do). Singapore is the country that forbids Internet discussion that disrupts "social harmony." In Singapore, anyone who puts a political or religious page on the Web must register with the government.
Yeah, people are still talking about Singapore, but not as a place where freedom-loving people want to live.
Herbie J.
In the words of Dave Barry, "My ass, Bob." Web staples like The Amazing Fish Cam were around before Jenni showed up.
Herbie J.
Jenni's been on Letterman. Since the media-savvy intelligentsia recongizes Letterman as the metric of who has made it or not, it is now officially you who is behind the times.[1]
And, I'm surprised that nobody has brought up the fact that JenniCam can be had as a Slashbox!!
Herbie J.
[1] Just kidding, of course, although she has been on Letterman. And I don't want to hear any guff about "what is Letterman???" If I can get it here in Finland...
Well, if he's using ODBC, whose sole purpose in life is to provide a database-independent abstraction layer, he can just swap out Access for something else. That's the whole point of ODBC. Unless his apps rely on some obscure functionality that only Access provides. You might be thinking of DAO, which, to my knowledge, is tied to Microsoft databases (SQL Server and Access).
Herbie J.
Of course, on a practical level, it's not the end of the discussion. The issue is mainly a state taxing its own residents (not "citizens"), not taxing those of another state. Some states have implemented de facto Internet taxes already. In the People's Republic of Illinois, recently the topic of another Slashdot article and where I used to live when I was living in the USA, you have to pay a "use tax" on things you buy from other states. Note that it's not a sales tax... if you use items bought from other states you are supposed to pay the difference between that state's sales tax and Illinois sales tax. However, this cannot be systematically enforced, so you're supposed to list all of your out-of-state purchases (used in Illinois) at the end of your Illinois income tax return. Really. Check it out. This rule actually pre-dates the widespread use of the Internet, so it wasn't designed as a net tax measure, but it happens to fall in that category. Of course, nobody I know ever reported "use tax" or had even heard of it.
Herbie J.
There's a reason why Nokia phones have so many ring tones. Here in Finland, home of Nokia's HQ and where there are more cell phones than land lines, each phone needs to be distinctive as possible so that when someone's phone rings on the subway, not everyone will reach for their phone all at once. The newer Nokia phones even allow you to build your own arbitrary ring tone, but I don't know if such phones are available yet in the US.
Plus, the games are great for running down the battery when you need to give the battery its occasional "deep recharge" or whatever it's called.
Herbie J.
Since you made the assertion that it's difficult to use, I assume you've tried it...?
In the past, I've created books-on-tape for a blind acquaintance. This person has a tape playback mechanism which speeds the playback up to something like 8x the original speed, and they can still understand what's being said. Once someone is used to something like that, they can easily comprehend a long error message in no time. If non-blind people can read it with no problem, then, in my experience, blind people can hear it with no problem.
There's even a significant precendent for blind developers. Even Microsoft Visual Studio has an "Optimize menus for screen readers" option (or something like that).
Herbie J.
I'm not sure where you are getting your definitions. AI is "artificial intelligence," not a "mirror of human thought and behavior." However, AI involves a lot of study of human behavior, since human thought outperforms computational techniques in many areas and is thus seen as a foundation to work upon. Russel & Norvig [1] claim that AI "attempts to study intelligent entities."
But let's use your definitions for now. One reason to "bother" with AI is to replace humans in demanding or dangerous tasks. I used to work in a university AI lab (an experience which frames this response) wherein an expert system was developed that could replace a human doing a certain type of military crisis management task. We found that our expert system, powered by novel mathematical techniques and modest computing strength, could do the task faster and with less errors than humans who have been trained in the task. For that domain, our expert system mimicked the behavior of a human nearly completely, but the system might not be appropriate for other domains. But what if our system, or future systems, was extended to handle more general cases (I'm not claiming that this can ever be done any time soon)? Whole classes of dangerous or tedious tasks which are currently handled by humans could be automated. That's one reason to bother.
B) Any truly perfect AI should then in turn be able to produce AI of its own, as we have. So what good is it? It's just a dog chasing its own extremely, extremely long tail. Why bother.
Because the goal of AI research is not to create a "truly perfect" AI.
Herbie J.
[1] Russel&Norvig 1995 Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach
The people who are making this attempt to rejuvenate the Amiga are in it because they love the platform, they find it worth their time and energy, and they want to see the Amiga continue. Open source/Linux, etc. fans should start to see the parallels here... right? Now that I think about it, I'm uncertain whether to be more amused or sad at the attitudes taken by the supposedly open-minded and enlightened people here.
Herbie J.