There are a number of reasons we don't have super intelligent robots running around. But one of them is arguably a hardware problem. Most AI algorithms are at least NP hard and many are exponential or worse. Hardware that can solve such problems in linear or even constant time would be a big step forward. Practical quantum computers, anyone?
Also, Apple is the ultimate end-user oriented company. They sell, talk, and work directly to the end user desktop. IBM has proven over and over that they've great at mass manufacturing new technologies at great expense and even more great at inventing new ones. The stink, however, at direct customer interface. The smaller the point of contact the worse they are.
This brings to mind a much better approach: Apple buys IBM! IBM becomes Apple's manufacturing arm; Apple remains designing the actual products and doing user-centered design.
Still, until Steve Jobs starts knocking on doors looking to sell Apple, it's just silly to talk about stuff like this- it's just not going to happen unless it's Steve's idea...
Well, I'd say look at Peoplesoft. The shareholders WANT Oracle to buy them out. Management is entrenched and doesn't want to give up the ship. Long drawn out lawsuit and proxy battle expected. Hilarity ensues.
Even if you don't care about city planning or SimCity, you should still read this book.
Want to know why big box stores are bad? Want to know about how to win the war against cars? Want to know how to fix a slum?
Based on this review, it sounds like Jacobs has the same neoliberal claptrap most city designers read before they decide to interfere with other folks free use of their property. Let's guess: big block stores are bad because they bring goods and services at a lower price to the plebs? We win the "war on cars" by brainwashing everyone so they give up something that's fundamentally convenient and liberating and lets them buy stuff at home depot, and instead cram into some tax-subsidized transit? We fix a slum by continuing the Johnson-era policies that have never worked in the past?
Oy.
[hit submit instead of preview. D'oh!]There's also the open source CLISP which is available under Fink for OS X.
Personally, I've used Macintosh Common Lisp (now from Digitool) since it was available from Apple, but I've tried Lispworks (since that's what I use on a Linux box at work), and CLISP of course. Most of the other versions, including Franz's, I've used in the past on other platforms (Sun) since I lost my beloved Symbolics box. MCL was by far the best experience under OS9 and prior, though the user interface elements haven't completely tracked the change to OS X, though I usually use CLIM anyway for code portability so we're really just talking look and feel issues. The Xanalys product is very nice, the demo is pretty unrestricted (just the continuous time to use it, and inability to dump images so you need to load up your system after you start - pretty reasonable for what you get), and the full unrestricted version isn't too expensive.
If you're just starting out and want to poke around, I'd have to recommend Xanalys personal as the best bang for the buck, since you get a pretty nice IDE with it (though Digitool's might be easier to learn if you're used to OS 9). Once you get to the point of needing to dump applications, you can either spend the money to upgrade to professional, or use one of the free lisps to dump images. Your main limitation in these alternatives will be the user interface, as that is generally unique to the implementation unless you use CLIM (and CLIM is not free) or something like Garnet, neither of which will give you something very mac-like.
If you're just starting out and want to poke around, I'd have to recommend Xanalys personal as the best bang for the buck, since you get a pretty nice IDE with it (though Digitool's might be easier to learn if you're used to OS 9). Once you get to the point of needing to dump applications, you can either spend the money to upgrade to professional, or use one of the free lisps to dump images. Your main limitation in these alternatives will be the user interface, as that is generally unique to the implementation unless you use CLIM (and CLIM is not free) or something like Garnet, neither of which will give you something very mac-like.
Our servers automatically order replacement components if/when components fail. This includes CPUs, memory, fans, hard drives.. just about anything.
That explains all those empty boxes for processor upgrade cards and memory when I got home last Friday, the damn computer was upgrading itself again. I'm not looking forward to getting my Visa bill this month...
I bought the iPod, I bought the music, I should be able to do as I please.
Well, reductio ad absurdum: "I bought the gun, I bought the bullets, I should be able to do as I please." The point isn't that songs are like bullets, of course, though I think we'd all prefer guns that could only be used in self-defense; we simply lack the technology to do so. That we have the technology to make illegal actions with the iPod harder (not impossible) seems to be a reasonable compromise with those who hold the copyrights. Yes, it also means perfectly legal actions are harder too. Other compromises in the legal sphere (gun control to extend the analogy) also compromise some rights that the supporters beleive are less important than other rights.
Its a tradeoff that needs to be made in the public sphere. Fight the IP issues, not Apple.
If Joe Yuppie goes and buys a shiny new Mac, he has the reasonable expectation that the kids will be able to fire up Doom3 or Halo and get decent play out of it. That's what people do with home computers -- play games.
Actually, Joe Yuppie is sick and tired of his kids playing games on their computer instead of doing their homework or something more creative. If getting them an iMac keeps them on track to getting admitted to an ivy league and doing creative stuff with iLife, then Joe's all for it.
The nuvistor was developed by RCA and it was first introduced in 1959. Nuvistors were the latest tube development at just about the same time as the introduction of the first integrated semiconductor circuits. A nuvistor is a miniature vacuum tube in a thimble sized metal case.
If humans were given this pill, given they have a bit more foresight than monkeys, if they would all just buy a coffin and hop in? I mean, why wait for the inevitable?
Does updating my copy of Commander Keen when I was 4 count?
That depends. Did you do it online? Did you have a UI that allowed you to choose between mulitple updates even if offline?
Innovation is combining stuff that hasn't been combined before. Usually after you've seen it, you will slap your forehead and claim that it's obvious. The problem is, it wasn't obvious until someone actually did it first, and that's what the patent protects.
Actually, ever since other countries have allowed patents that more or less do exactly that (patent applications of non-existent technology, aka conceptual patents), the US, in defense, has allowed the same. Many companies now file reams of such patents defensively, on the basis of very early reports of technologies coming out of their own labs, to prevent unscrupulous competitors from essentially patenting every possible application and then forcing them into a cross-licensing agreement (you have the tech, but can't do anything with it, so you give it to the bogon with the raft of concept patents, and thus secure the rights to market while they secure the technology). The only advantage the technology developer has is in creating improvements to the original technology, so the trick is to patent something stupid, cross license, then quickly improve on the original innovation (but not cross license that). Alas, (they be Bogons, but not stupid Bogons) typically cross licensing agreements have come to anticipate such behavior, and all improvements or extensions are automatically cross-licensed as well.
My only thought is that maybe we could kill it with the obviousness clause.
That's not very easy, you'd have to show it'd be obvious to the average practitioner at the time the first disclosure was made. Generally, that only happens if there are lots of similar examples so the innovative leap is very very small.
Historically, this has not been true... VHS/Betamax is a classic example
Please, not that tired canard again. Next you'll be telling us the keyboard story.
VHS won because it had a longer recording length. Folks wanted that more than they wanted marginally better picture quality. Considering the average quality of TVs at the time, most probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference on their own TVs.
And for those who haven't seen the keyboard story beaten to death (why Dvorak rightfully died), check out this, or if you have a short attention span, this.
A white box would have been better, because it is associated with goodness and cleanness while black is all that dirty stuff.
Be careful; symbols have cultural bias, and Apple has an international clientele. White is associated with death in Korea, for instance, not "goodness and cleanness." You associate white with that, but that's hardly a universal.
Slashdot Mirror
There are a number of reasons we don't have super intelligent robots running around. But one of them is arguably a hardware problem. Most AI algorithms are at least NP hard and many are exponential or worse. Hardware that can solve such problems in linear or even constant time would be a big step forward. Practical quantum computers, anyone?
This hearkens back to the kind of masochism out of which a true hacker is born....
Personally, I've used Macintosh Common Lisp (now from Digitool) since it was available from Apple, but I've tried Lispworks (since that's what I use on a Linux box at work), and CLISP of course. Most of the other versions, including Franz's, I've used in the past on other platforms (Sun) since I lost my beloved Symbolics box. MCL was by far the best experience under OS9 and prior, though the user interface elements haven't completely tracked the change to OS X, though I usually use CLIM anyway for code portability so we're really just talking look and feel issues. The Xanalys product is very nice, the demo is pretty unrestricted (just the continuous time to use it, and inability to dump images so you need to load up your system after you start - pretty reasonable for what you get), and the full unrestricted version isn't too expensive.
If you're just starting out and want to poke around, I'd have to recommend Xanalys personal as the best bang for the buck, since you get a pretty nice IDE with it (though Digitool's might be easier to learn if you're used to OS 9). Once you get to the point of needing to dump applications, you can either spend the money to upgrade to professional, or use one of the free lisps to dump images. Your main limitation in these alternatives will be the user interface, as that is generally unique to the implementation unless you use CLIM (and CLIM is not free) or something like Garnet, neither of which will give you something very mac-like.
Personally, I've used (now from Digitool) since it was available from Apple, but I've tried Lispworks (since that's what I use on a Linux box at work), and CLISP of course. Most of the other versions, including Franz's, I've used in the past on other platforms (Sun) since I lost my beloved box. MCL was by far the best experience under OS9 and prior, though the user interface elements haven't completely tracked the change to OS X, though I usually use CLIM anyway for code portability so we're really just talking look and feel issues. The Xanalys product is very nice, the demo is pretty unrestricted (just the continuous time to use it, and inability to dump images so you need to load up your system after you start - pretty reasonable for what you get), and the full unrestricted version isn't too expensive.
If you're just starting out and want to poke around, I'd have to recommend Xanalys personal as the best bang for the buck, since you get a pretty nice IDE with it (though Digitool's might be easier to learn if you're used to OS 9). Once you get to the point of needing to dump applications, you can either spend the money to upgrade to professional, or use one of the free lisps to dump images. Your main limitation in these alternatives will be the user interface, as that is generally unique to the implementation unless you use CLIM (and CLIM is not free) or something like Garnet, neither of which will give you something very mac-like.
it handles pdfs! Yippee!
Back to PBS...
Oh yeah, you can download the Unix-Haters handbook here.
Genera (Symbolics LispM OS) is far less toy-like than UNIX. Go read "The Unix-Haters Handbook" and see why.
If humans were given this pill, given they have a bit more foresight than monkeys, if they would all just buy a coffin and hop in? I mean, why wait for the inevitable?
Because anywhere else, it won't work on house pets.
Innovation is combining stuff that hasn't been combined before. Usually after you've seen it, you will slap your forehead and claim that it's obvious. The problem is, it wasn't obvious until someone actually did it first, and that's what the patent protects.
Actually, ever since other countries have allowed patents that more or less do exactly that (patent applications of non-existent technology, aka conceptual patents), the US, in defense, has allowed the same. Many companies now file reams of such patents defensively, on the basis of very early reports of technologies coming out of their own labs, to prevent unscrupulous competitors from essentially patenting every possible application and then forcing them into a cross-licensing agreement (you have the tech, but can't do anything with it, so you give it to the bogon with the raft of concept patents, and thus secure the rights to market while they secure the technology). The only advantage the technology developer has is in creating improvements to the original technology, so the trick is to patent something stupid, cross license, then quickly improve on the original innovation (but not cross license that). Alas, (they be Bogons, but not stupid Bogons) typically cross licensing agreements have come to anticipate such behavior, and all improvements or extensions are automatically cross-licensed as well.
If I trade in my iPod for the DJ, I'm out $99.
If I put it up on eBay, I have to pay another $49 to have someone haul the DJ away.
Wouldn't I be better off just buying a new iPod?
VHS won because it had a longer recording length. Folks wanted that more than they wanted marginally better picture quality. Considering the average quality of TVs at the time, most probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference on their own TVs.
And for those who haven't seen the keyboard story beaten to death (why Dvorak rightfully died), check out this, or if you have a short attention span, this.