I have no idea if this is showing on any channels right now, but I liked it.
Was probably because I started watching it after playing some of the Wing Commander games; there's a lot of similarities, but anyway it's a nice bit of fun sci-fi in its own right.
And seeing as they are mechnical, any replication errors would be faults in their design.
Yes, but that's the point.
Darwinian evolution is based on survival of the fittest, driven by a variation in population characteristics generated by mutation. Replication errors are for the most part fatal to an organism, but there's a chance that an error accidentally makes something useful, which gives that organism an advantage, and so it begins to propagate across the population.
The two big advantages that a nanotech devices would have to gain by mutation are:
The ability to use anything in the surrounding environment for construction rather than specific materials
Removal of any in-built 'off switch' mechanism.
Both radically increase the fitness of the organism and so are likely to be propagated rapidly.
Given that nanotech devices would have to be deployed in large populations to be useful, such effects have to be very carefully considered; the principles of evolution apply to even very simple mathematical representations of living populations.
The obvious quick fix (although still not guaranteed) is not to make the nanotech devices SELF-replicating; only have a 'constructor' build the nanotech devices, without them having autonomous replication. This reduces their effectiveness somewhat, but makes them a little more safe. (Although random faults can still give rise to a self-replicating device, and it only takes a few of them to start an exponential growth).
Couple that with a clause in the ISPs contract that allows them to assess significant fines against spammers
The ISP I use for my website has such a clause:
19. You will not use the Service to send unsolicited commercial messages, Unsolicited Junk Messages, SPAM or any other bulk message to a recipient who has not expressly requested to receive that message. This shall apply to messages sent via electronic mail, USENET news postings or any other medium which may be intrusive. If you breach this Condition of Use you agree that you will pay us compensation of no less than one thousand pounds sterling plus interest at 8% above the base lending rate of the Bank of England at the date you breach this condition from that date. You agree that you will pay this compensation in respect of each recipient address of each message sent in breach of this Condition. You agree that you will not run an "open mail relay" on any computer system connected to the serice. You will not seek to use the facilities offered as part of you account to run an email service using our equipment.
You need a Passport to use
Windows XP Internet communications features (such as instant messaging, voice chat
and video), and to access Net-enabled features. Click here to set up your Passport.""
Am I reading this correctly as MS not allowing an internet connection at all without a Passport?
No.
You've just connected to the Internet.
So you're already online.
I'd say you just need a passport for, oh, instant messaging, voice chat and video (i.e. MSN Messenger).
'Net-enabled features' is vague, but it doesn't say 'everything to do with the Internet'.
There's nothing stopping you from playing it in analog mode on your cd drive and recording this either - except the fact that it is no longer a digital copy.
Yes, but surely if you've got digital out on your CDROM drive, and digital in on your sound card, you can get a digital copy.
The protection's based on it only sounding good if it's been error corrected; if you do raw reads of the audio data and use that directly (as CD ripping programs do), it's got hisses and pops.
But if you're using the drive in audio playback mode (i.e. mode 1 cooked reads, not raw reads), aren't you getting error corrected digital data out?
So you get a 1x speed copy of the audio as it's supposed to sound through a plain audio player, as it's playing in the same way as a plain audio player. (I won't say a perfect copy, as it's not; it's an error corrected copy of a deliberately damaged stream of audio data).
So surely it's just an inconvenience factor, not a total block? Then again, that's all it needs to be.
Of course, if I had to choose who would be captain of the enterprise, I would choose the guy in the funny suits with the TI-85 calculator who would read the statistics off. What was his name? Dean Something?
In the UK, I believe they already have CCTV cameras on major motorways to read people's license plates, track their average speed and issue electronic tickets automatically.
Yes, this has been in operation in Nottingham along the ring road (just a dual carriageway, not a major motorway) for quite a few months, at least on a trial basis if not now fully operational.
Amusing possibilities for abuse involve getting a couple of mates to draw the registration number of someone you don't like on pieces of paper, and arrange to flash them at the cameras at either end of the monitored stretch within seconds of each other.
Cue automated speeding ticket for travelling in excess of Mach 4:-) Would obviously be repealed, but I don't know if anyone's actually tried to get a ticket issued like that to see if the system is so obviously fallable.
It can be really difficult to explain to a newbie what is needed to hookup a few PC's via ethernet - this would make it much easier - "just plug this USB device into a wall outlet".
Hypotheses such as this provide even more reason for us as Humans to spread forth an information-gathering web composed of probes and satellites everywhere. The more data we collect, the better picture of what is really out there we'll have.
And you're a lot better off with a squillion tiny probes than One Big Manned Mission.
Sending people is great for propaganda (c.f. the entire Moon race business) but not the best way to get information.
Sending stacks of expendable, cheap probes gives you loads more information per unit currency, and multiple redundancy for when things go wrong.
The planned manned mission to Mars is a bit bonkers. Several months travel time each way, in the most inhospitable medium imaginable, i.e. space. Cooped up in a tiny spacecraft? No space chicks?;-p
Place your bets:
1. Crew returns back from Mars, having found sod all, to resoundingly unenthusiastic 'woo' sounds from the world at large.
2. Technical failure kills everyone (en-route or marooned on Mars)
3. Crew member flips, disaster follows.
NASA had some funky ideas for self-replicating machines back in the 70s, which would build mines/refineries/factories on the Moon, producing more machines to build more mines/factories etc., and having enough left over to send back to Earth/build bases for humans to take over afterwards. An application of artificial life, but you have to worry slightly that it doesn't go all Darwinian on you (a mistake in replication leading to removal of the 'override off switch' facility makes a 'fitter' organism in the sense that it has one less way to be killed off).
It's like all those people thinking that it would be a great idea to put wind turbines on the car. The faster you drive, they think, the more wind you produce, the faster the turbines turn, and the faster you can drive.
And after a while you'll go faster than the speed of light, go back in time and be able to recharge your car in the past with all the energy you got from going so fast.
And it's not such a bad thing - the face="" paramater to the font tag is invalid HTML. I guess the web in general should be red in the face?
No, it's just deprecated in Strict in favour of stylesheets.
Since most pages are using Transitional, it's not an issue.
Re:Star Trek similarities unsurprising.
on
Andromeda
·
· Score: 2
The name of the main character was Dylan Hunt, who originally was a NASA scientist experimenting with suspended animation in 1979. Something went wrong, and he awoke in a post-holocaust, societally-fragmented year 2133
Hm... sounds oddly familiar:-)
"The year is 1987 and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap Ranger 3 and its pilot Captain William 'Buck' Rogers are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support systems and returns Buck Rogers to Earth 500 years later."
This won't make a heck of a lot of difference. All it'll be is integration with whatever subscription Napster-esque service that they may or may not offer in the future, and possibly some blocks on burning audio files from Easy CD Creator.
Easy way around that; use another CD writing program.
Subject: [7-17] What's the difference between "data" and "music" blanks?
(2001/03/12)
"Consumer" stand-alone audio CD recorders require special blanks. See section (5-12) for details. There is no difference in quality or composition between "data" blanks and "music" blanks, except for a flag that indicates which one it is. It's likely that "music" blanks are optimized for recording at 1x, since anything you record "live" is by definition recorded at 1x. You don't have to use "music" blanks to record music on a computer or "professional" stand-alone audio CD recorder, but nothing will prevent you from doing so.
The "music" blanks are more expensive than the "data" blanks because a portion of the price goes to the music industry. The specifics vary from country to country.
Some manufacturers have on occasion marked low-quality data discs as being "for music", on the assumption that small errors will go unnoticed. Make sure that, if you need the special blanks, you're getting the right thing.
So potentially expect to see Easy CD whinge if you try and burn audio onto an ordinary data CD. I doubt they'd be silly enough to block it, but pop up a warning and your average user gets worried enough to think maybe they ought to buy those 'Music CD-Rs' after all.
Re:The only problem is...
on
The Social Web
·
· Score: 2
Graphviz makes reasonably well sorted directed graphs.
Actually, they are used for presentations frequently (so you don't have to stay at the podium).
Oh, the embarrassing possibilities...
A couple of people in the audience with a cordless keyboard and/or mouse on the same channel... a couple of clicks... a few choice webpages projected on the screen...
I don't think you'd be staying at the podium for long.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I have no idea if this is showing on any channels right now, but I liked it.
Was probably because I started watching it after playing some of the Wing Commander games; there's a lot of similarities, but anyway it's a nice bit of fun sci-fi in its own right.
They're already planning the NRIAEL (No Really, It's Absolutely Enormously Large) telescope.
Darwinian evolution is based on survival of the fittest, driven by a variation in population characteristics generated by mutation. Replication errors are for the most part fatal to an organism, but there's a chance that an error accidentally makes something useful, which gives that organism an advantage, and so it begins to propagate across the population.
The two big advantages that a nanotech devices would have to gain by mutation are:
- The ability to use anything in the surrounding environment for construction rather than specific materials
- Removal of any in-built 'off switch' mechanism.
Both radically increase the fitness of the organism and so are likely to be propagated rapidly.Given that nanotech devices would have to be deployed in large populations to be useful, such effects have to be very carefully considered; the principles of evolution apply to even very simple mathematical representations of living populations.
The obvious quick fix (although still not guaranteed) is not to make the nanotech devices SELF-replicating; only have a 'constructor' build the nanotech devices, without them having autonomous replication. This reduces their effectiveness somewhat, but makes them a little more safe. (Although random faults can still give rise to a self-replicating device, and it only takes a few of them to start an exponential growth).
A grand per message. Nice.
Welcome to the BrewMatic 4000
Running Linux 2.4.14
Login:root
Password:******
Brewing as root? With all the coffee buffer overflow exploits around?
Damn censors!!!
So you're already online.
I'd say you just need a passport for, oh, instant messaging, voice chat and video (i.e. MSN Messenger).
'Net-enabled features' is vague, but it doesn't say 'everything to do with the Internet'.
Yes, but surely if you've got digital out on your CDROM drive, and digital in on your sound card, you can get a digital copy.
The protection's based on it only sounding good if it's been error corrected; if you do raw reads of the audio data and use that directly (as CD ripping programs do), it's got hisses and pops.
But if you're using the drive in audio playback mode (i.e. mode 1 cooked reads, not raw reads), aren't you getting error corrected digital data out?
So you get a 1x speed copy of the audio as it's supposed to sound through a plain audio player, as it's playing in the same way as a plain audio player. (I won't say a perfect copy, as it's not; it's an error corrected copy of a deliberately damaged stream of audio data).
So surely it's just an inconvenience factor, not a total block? Then again, that's all it needs to be.
Kirk: Scotty, get those webservers back up!
Scotty: Och, captain, if I give 'er any more bandwidth she'll blow!
Amusing possibilities for abuse involve getting a couple of mates to draw the registration number of someone you don't like on pieces of paper, and arrange to flash them at the cameras at either end of the monitored stretch within seconds of each other.
Cue automated speeding ticket for travelling in excess of Mach 4
*bzzzzzzzzt* *AAAARGHHH!*
Sending people is great for propaganda (c.f. the entire Moon race business) but not the best way to get information.
Sending stacks of expendable, cheap probes gives you loads more information per unit currency, and multiple redundancy for when things go wrong.
The planned manned mission to Mars is a bit bonkers. Several months travel time each way, in the most inhospitable medium imaginable, i.e. space. Cooped up in a tiny spacecraft? No space chicks?
Place your bets:
1. Crew returns back from Mars, having found sod all, to resoundingly unenthusiastic 'woo' sounds from the world at large.
2. Technical failure kills everyone (en-route or marooned on Mars)
3. Crew member flips, disaster follows.
NASA had some funky ideas for self-replicating machines back in the 70s, which would build mines/refineries/factories on the Moon, producing more machines to build more mines/factories etc., and having enough left over to send back to Earth/build bases for humans to take over afterwards. An application of artificial life, but you have to worry slightly that it doesn't go all Darwinian on you (a mistake in replication leading to removal of the 'override off switch' facility makes a 'fitter' organism in the sense that it has one less way to be killed off).
</random_ramblings>
Hm, yeah.
... something that actually likes AOL CDs.
munch munch
Since most pages are using Transitional, it's not an issue.
"The year is 1987 and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap Ranger 3 and its pilot Captain William 'Buck' Rogers are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support systems and returns Buck Rogers to Earth 500 years later."
cue cheesey theme music
See this entry in the CDR FAQ.
Easy way around that; use another CD writing program.
With the problems that Easy CD has been having, that's probably a good idea anyway.
The reference to the 'Music CD-Rs' is another of the music industry's daft ideas. From the CD-R FAQ: http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-17
So potentially expect to see Easy CD whinge if you try and burn audio onto an ordinary data CD. I doubt they'd be silly enough to block it, but pop up a warning and your average user gets worried enough to think maybe they ought to buy those 'Music CD-Rs' after all.
Graphviz makes reasonably well sorted directed graphs.
http://www.graphviz.org for dev versions.
http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/ for release versions.
Optimal layouts with mimimum crossing edges for arbitrary directed graphs is a Very Hard Problem Indeed, so don't expect miracles.
A couple of people in the audience with a cordless keyboard and/or mouse on the same channel... a couple of clicks... a few choice webpages projected on the screen...
I don't think you'd be staying at the podium for long.
Basically it's about your phone/PDA being able to find, for example, the nearest restaurant to you and book a table for you.
What it's likely to end up as is the shops nearest you spamming your phone.
A link to a ZDnet article about it. Just do a search on GPS and p-commerce to find lots more.
That is, if the mobile companies ever get it working and don't go bust in the process.