As for all the users in here asking "why the hell would I want Avalon?" - some application developer will choose to use Avalon, and if you want that application, you'll want Avalon.
For proof-of-concept, see the Microsoft.NET Framework.
(Sorry to post so late, caught this in meta-moderation...)
I think perhaps instead it might end metered Internet access. If all the clients are unmetered, and they're now the ones doing most of the communicating, a server doesn't need to be on a backbone: it can be another one of the clients.
I asked my cable company the other day if I had a download limit, and they said, "Yes, 3 MB/s or so." I said "No, I mean, a monthly limit?" She said no, download as much as you can.
I'm pretty happy with my cable company.;-) The only negative is the upload cap, so sometimes torrents are like wicked slow.
Shouldn't be hard to whip up a Perl script to convert from one style to another.
Then you could use CVS triggers, so that when you checked the code in it was converted to the Linux style, and when you checked code out, it came to you in the style you prefer.
For the overly paranoid, it would compile yours and the converted version (both checking out and in), making sure that the result was identical, to ensure that the conversion was effective. If not it would leave it as-is, and send an email letting the developers know what two files failed so they can fix the conversion algorithm.
Another of my favorites is "hippocritical", which I suppose means you go around telling large water-based mammals that they're a bit on the chunky side. Or need to brush more.
I seem to be the only Transhumanist who gets this.
You're not. I describe it to people as a pill containing nanomachines that you take, and they work their way across the blood-brain barrier and convert your brain, in place, into a much more efficient form. Drexler has said that with precise molecular structuring, we can create a computer 1,000,000 times more powerful than the human brain in something the size of a sugar cube.
Your skull can hold a lot of sugar cubes. But let's just assume you make one, then put a ton of extra shielding on it (and perhaps move it toward the center of the body where it can be better protected, or even better, make multiple copies and keep them every couple inches so you'd have to be completely taken apart to stop thinking).
So you'd take this pill, and then just sit quietly staring at the ceiling fan overhead, watching as it begins to slow down, until it comes to almost a complete stop. You're now living (thinking) 1,000,000 times faster.
Of course, movement would then become a problem: you can think (and, I assume communicate, given enough bandwidth) 1,000,000 times faster--but you wouldn't be able to move your muscles that fast without a ton of waste heat, so we would tend to be a more stationary species.
I love far thinking. And I won't be the guinea pig for this experiment, either--I'll wait until they perfect it. Or, if they develop backup capability before this (which I doubt, but just in case then I'll say) I would be willing to risk a backup or seven on it.
I tried to find info on Optimum Online re: their speeds, and they never discuss them. I didn't read the entire FAQ but it wasn't one of the questions I could see. How would you go about finding more about it, short of calling them? (A quick re-search showed them mention 10,000 Kbps and 3,000 Kbps in different sections, but no mention of pricing for these different plans.)
I love that the introduction to the protein said "The purpose of this page is to describe the protein Sonic Hedgehog (shh)."
It took me until the next protein and its abbreviation was introduced to realize that they weren't, like, telling me a secret. ("It's the Sonic protein! Shhhhhhh!")
My folks got into 24 recently. I downloaded the first and second seasons for them and feel not at all bad about it, because they should have been able to see them broadcast before seeing the second half of the third season, to get an idea of the angst that Jack Bauer experienced through the death of his wife and kidnapping of his daughter, prior to watching her work at the same agency as him.
Yeah, they're available for purchase, but they were broadcast for free previously. This is simply time-shifting.
I friended you a while ago for your sig. I just heard this song by Cub (relatively unknown group which has broken up; They Might Be Giants covered their song "New York City" on an album 2 or 3 albums ago), "Magic 8 Ball", which has the coolest lyrics.
My magic eight ball tells me just what i should do
i wanna ask it whether i should be in love with you
will it tell me yes or no
will it tell me stop or go
i close my eyes and hold my breath and it says...
decidedly so, decidedly so, decidedly so-ooo, decidedly so,
decidedly so, decidedly so-ooo!
They're one of my favorite bands these days. Even though they'll never tour again...
Anyway, were I in 4th grade, I'd submit "nibbler."
I'm surprised none of the many replies to the parent didn't mention the heavy cute little eating machine from Futurama, also named Nibbler.
And I think it's entirely appropriate: their products may look cute, but they're backed by several 600,000 pound gorillas who are busy gobbling up as much of the world as they can.
If I was him, I'd just keep trying. Let Falwell keep spending his money on attorneys (except, of course, if I had to keep paying Falwell's court/attorney costs, which is probably likely).
At any rate, in the interest of trying, I will note that the 5-L version is still available:
When that blissful day comes that...everyone can copy anything, including the boxes that themselves make the copies..., we'll certainly have to completely revamp the notions of ownership and attribution.
But that day is here as far as digital goods goes. Why fight it? Our respective industries will still make money, and fighting it just draws attention to it and leaches funding that would have gone toward product development and advertising, to legal and protection costs. That hurts the budget while alerting others to the fact that they can get it for free, too.
I remember back in the mid-90s, Napster came on the scene but it wasn't until I heard Metallica speaking out against them that I decided, perhaps now's a good time to see what Napster is all about.
So I'm the perfect example of "don't let the cat out of the bag."
We're in for a major upheaval. Don't believe it won't be painless; those in power will not want to relinquish the control they have over others. Luckily, many of us will be able to just leave the planet and set up shop on an asteroid. Or Pluto or something, we will be able to get anywhere.
And they can't stop it. Anyone can build a STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope) for about $200, and once you have that you can move atoms around. Not as efficiently and effectively, but you can still build things once you know what you're building. And all it takes is building one arm to help you out; then it goes a little faster, because you can stop with the STM and let the arm take over. It builds an arm, then they build two more arms, then 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. Once you're up to millions, then they can start working on the matter duplicator box.
Once you have one box, it can make more. So you repeat the doubling experiment with the boxes, then start handing them out. After a few days/weeks/months every human on the planet will have one.
Zyvex was founded by Jim von Ehr with the express purpose of creating an assembler, which is a nanomachine that can make more nanomachines. Once we have one of those, the rest is history; it will only be a short time until the machines are smarter than us, and then they can solve problems faster and develop technology at an exponential pace--so that after a day, a hundred years of technological growth could occur. Imagine the difference between 1900 and 2000! That'll happen in a day. Or less, as time goes beyond that point.
I believe all this will happen in the next 20 years.
PS Sorry about the ilk, I was attacking the idea not the person and I apologize for letting that through my filter.
Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again: you and your ilk will not be able to stop the matter copiers, once nanotechnology matures.
Why would you want to? The only reason I can see is to perpetuate a class/caste system of haves and have-nots.
If everyone can copy anything, including the boxes that themselves make the copies, how is anyone the poorer?
Movable type put monks out of business. Horseless carriages put buggy-whip manufacturers out of business. Digital copiers (computers) are working towards putting record and movie comglomerates out of business--but not creative types who would create whether they were being paid or not, because they have a spark in them that will still be there once we're a cashless society.
However, with all my examples we still have a thriving industry of book publishing, transportation, and entertainment. Some bubbles burst; the entertainment one is about to go the way of the dot-com and tulip bubbles, which were generating far more money than they were actually worth.
My main point, though, is this: what is your plan to deal with matter copiers, if you're so vehemently against digital copiers?
Slashdot Mirror
There are 10 types of Colin Hunters in the world ... nah.
For proof-of-concept, see the Microsoft .NET Framework.
(Sorry to post so late, caught this in meta-moderation...)
I think perhaps instead it might end metered Internet access. If all the clients are unmetered, and they're now the ones doing most of the communicating, a server doesn't need to be on a backbone: it can be another one of the clients.
I'm pretty happy with my cable company. ;-) The only negative is the upload cap, so sometimes torrents are like wicked slow.
Then you could use CVS triggers, so that when you checked the code in it was converted to the Linux style, and when you checked code out, it came to you in the style you prefer.
For the overly paranoid, it would compile yours and the converted version (both checking out and in), making sure that the result was identical, to ensure that the conversion was effective. If not it would leave it as-is, and send an email letting the developers know what two files failed so they can fix the conversion algorithm.
Yeah, me I'm waiting for shepzilla, or curlyzilla...
Another of my favorites is "hippocritical", which I suppose means you go around telling large water-based mammals that they're a bit on the chunky side. Or need to brush more.
"You're all a bunch of doctors!"
Oh, perhaps you meant hypocritical? ;-)
A slashdotting of one?
You're not. I describe it to people as a pill containing nanomachines that you take, and they work their way across the blood-brain barrier and convert your brain, in place, into a much more efficient form. Drexler has said that with precise molecular structuring, we can create a computer 1,000,000 times more powerful than the human brain in something the size of a sugar cube.
Your skull can hold a lot of sugar cubes. But let's just assume you make one, then put a ton of extra shielding on it (and perhaps move it toward the center of the body where it can be better protected, or even better, make multiple copies and keep them every couple inches so you'd have to be completely taken apart to stop thinking).
So you'd take this pill, and then just sit quietly staring at the ceiling fan overhead, watching as it begins to slow down, until it comes to almost a complete stop. You're now living (thinking) 1,000,000 times faster.
Of course, movement would then become a problem: you can think (and, I assume communicate, given enough bandwidth) 1,000,000 times faster--but you wouldn't be able to move your muscles that fast without a ton of waste heat, so we would tend to be a more stationary species.
I love far thinking. And I won't be the guinea pig for this experiment, either--I'll wait until they perfect it. Or, if they develop backup capability before this (which I doubt, but just in case then I'll say) I would be willing to risk a backup or seven on it.
I tried to find info on Optimum Online re: their speeds, and they never discuss them. I didn't read the entire FAQ but it wasn't one of the questions I could see. How would you go about finding more about it, short of calling them? (A quick re-search showed them mention 10,000 Kbps and 3,000 Kbps in different sections, but no mention of pricing for these different plans.)
It took me until the next protein and its abbreviation was introduced to realize that they weren't, like, telling me a secret. ("It's the Sonic protein! Shhhhhhh!")
Okay, perhaps I've been doing too much C after leakage-free languages like Python and Perl, but I read that as "There is a small malloc here."
That's sooooo 1995...
Yeah, they're available for purchase, but they were broadcast for free previously. This is simply time-shifting.
My magic eight ball tells me just what i should do
i wanna ask it whether i should be in love with you
will it tell me yes or no
will it tell me stop or go
i close my eyes and hold my breath and it says...
decidedly so, decidedly so, decidedly so-ooo, decidedly so,
decidedly so, decidedly so-ooo!
They're one of my favorite bands these days. Even though they'll never tour again...
Heh, posting to a topic that's long buried. You must really have it out for Drexler and Feynman...
I'm surprised none of the many replies to the parent didn't mention the heavy cute little eating machine from Futurama, also named Nibbler.
And I think it's entirely appropriate: their products may look cute, but they're backed by several 600,000 pound gorillas who are busy gobbling up as much of the world as they can.
At any rate, in the interest of trying, I will note that the 5-L version is still available:
Falllwell.com/net/org/etc.
"I'm not not licking toads..."
But that day is here as far as digital goods goes. Why fight it? Our respective industries will still make money, and fighting it just draws attention to it and leaches funding that would have gone toward product development and advertising, to legal and protection costs. That hurts the budget while alerting others to the fact that they can get it for free, too.
I remember back in the mid-90s, Napster came on the scene but it wasn't until I heard Metallica speaking out against them that I decided, perhaps now's a good time to see what Napster is all about.
So I'm the perfect example of "don't let the cat out of the bag."
We're in for a major upheaval. Don't believe it won't be painless; those in power will not want to relinquish the control they have over others. Luckily, many of us will be able to just leave the planet and set up shop on an asteroid. Or Pluto or something, we will be able to get anywhere.
And they can't stop it. Anyone can build a STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope) for about $200, and once you have that you can move atoms around. Not as efficiently and effectively, but you can still build things once you know what you're building. And all it takes is building one arm to help you out; then it goes a little faster, because you can stop with the STM and let the arm take over. It builds an arm, then they build two more arms, then 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. Once you're up to millions, then they can start working on the matter duplicator box.
Once you have one box, it can make more. So you repeat the doubling experiment with the boxes, then start handing them out. After a few days/weeks/months every human on the planet will have one.
Zyvex was founded by Jim von Ehr with the express purpose of creating an assembler, which is a nanomachine that can make more nanomachines. Once we have one of those, the rest is history; it will only be a short time until the machines are smarter than us, and then they can solve problems faster and develop technology at an exponential pace--so that after a day, a hundred years of technological growth could occur. Imagine the difference between 1900 and 2000! That'll happen in a day. Or less, as time goes beyond that point.
I believe all this will happen in the next 20 years.
PS Sorry about the ilk, I was attacking the idea not the person and I apologize for letting that through my filter.
Why would you want to? The only reason I can see is to perpetuate a class/caste system of haves and have-nots.
If everyone can copy anything, including the boxes that themselves make the copies, how is anyone the poorer?
Movable type put monks out of business. Horseless carriages put buggy-whip manufacturers out of business. Digital copiers (computers) are working towards putting record and movie comglomerates out of business--but not creative types who would create whether they were being paid or not, because they have a spark in them that will still be there once we're a cashless society.
However, with all my examples we still have a thriving industry of book publishing, transportation, and entertainment. Some bubbles burst; the entertainment one is about to go the way of the dot-com and tulip bubbles, which were generating far more money than they were actually worth.
My main point, though, is this: what is your plan to deal with matter copiers, if you're so vehemently against digital copiers?
Sounds like what you do to be less anal retentive. Which, in a thread on nitpicking, is somehow fitting.
From watching "Contact"...