Read The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, which was mentioned here weeks ago. Great story, and shows how a machine can obtain and surpass human intelligence without the opportunity for us to "pull the plug."
That said, I believe "the singularity" is at least 5 years off, but no more than 20. If you take care of your body (perhaps even if not), it'll happen within your lifetime.
Maybe a plague that can reduce an overpopulation is nature's idea of a practical solution...
This is actually very true. I remember reading many years ago that deer which overpopulate an island will develop an immune-system disease which wipes out a large portion of their population, prior to running out of food.
(I just did a Google search for it and couldn't find anything so I'm not sure how valid this idea is, but I do remember reading about it.)
they're hoping to use 'free labor' to submit bug fixes:)
And combine that with their stated "We won't use your code for 6 months" and... If you find an exploit, and submit a bug fix for it, you can cheerfully go on abusing the exploit for another half a year!
This is OT; I couldn't find a way to post a private message (you have no journal entries for me to add to, and apparently I can't create a journal entry in your journal).
What did I do or say to cause you to make me a foe? And when did you do it?
"The author of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program, [...]"
I can understand the submitter not including this information, but a good editor should add stuff like this.
The author was Bob Frankston (which required a bit of digging -- exactly two mouse clicks -- click on the story, then click on "Bob's other writings." on the top left).
(Funny that his name appears nowhere on the linked story.)
Someone you trust is the best bet, in my opinion. Sure, you could trust the company, but an individual who you have a relationship with is probably more trustworthy.
Best bets, in decreasing order of trustworthiness: your mother, your attorney, your father, your siblings, your accountant, your friends, your pizza-delivery guy.
Creating a corporation is not an option, because there's still a paper trail (if you're an officer of the corporation).
Another poster mentioned using FreeNet, which is cheaper (no domain to register) but not nearly as easy for your users, both in terms of having to install the software, and having to wait 20 minutes for the page to load.
And the police befriend people and then prosecute them. So it terrorizes the populace into being afraid of their friends.
I don't know of many police officers who befriend people.
I was talking about in a sting, which the original poster meant. In order to do a sting, the police first have to gain the confidence of the dealer. Then their confidence is shattered when they're busted for providing a good or service to meet market demand.
As far as "if growing a plant is illegal, then you should be arrested" -- I was questioning the absurdity of the law, in which the punishment is way out of proportion to the crime. Providing nourishment and love to a growing organism can have your house, car, and bank account stolen from you. How is that just?
All of it? I think it's pretty terrorizing to the populace to think that, for growing a plant you can have your house and car taken from you.
And the police befriend people and then prosecute them. So it terrorizes the populace into being afraid of their friends.
We proved prohibition doesn't work back in the 1920's. Tactics are getting scarier, even raiding shops that sell certain pipes which can be used to smoke anything, including tobacco. As another poster said, Walmart sells tobacco pipes but you didn't see them raiding Walmart, did you?
That's selective enforcement; I believe that's another mark of a police state. I'll close with a quote from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged":
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
Hey, give me a billion and I'll make a couple for you and we can get off of this fusion chase, and start generating useful energy. From the sun. Like the rest of the Earth.
I don't have a billion, but I can give two pointers to neat ideas of how to harness the power of the sun most efficiently.
The first I read about many years ago: Dysonspheres.
The second I was pointed to by someone replying to a post of mine about Dyson spheres: Matrioshka Brains.
5) When is Bush planning to invade this "far-away galaxy" to see if they're hiding other stars capable of this mass destruction?
6) Are the aliens responsible for this? Good tactical plan: get all of Earth's telescopes to point in one direction, then come at us from the opposite.
He tried to insert some homosexual humor into the proceedings. This is rather distasteful:
KIRBY J: Mr Rout, the document you have tendered to be filed in the Court is called an electoral petition.
MR ROUT: Yes.
KIRBY J: It appears to challenge the election to the Australian Capital Territory seat of Fraser.
MR ROUT: Yes.
KIRBY J: It makes statements concerning the former Chief Justice and said that he is off with the late Mr Skase in Majorca in Spain, which is simply not the case.
MR ROUT: Yes, a little humour added there.
KIRBY J: It just has nothing to do with the case. We are very busy people, I am afraid, and you seem to be wasting our time.
MR ROUT: No, because you are called upon to apply the law.
KIRBY J: Exactly.
I think he has "physical law" confused with "legislated law". He mentions "multiplying and dividing by zero" many, many times but it's not clear what his replacement for those operations is. Perhaps he has a bigger clue than the rest of us, but it's not clear from this transcript.
He comes off as someone rather vindictive who is abusing the court system. And the officers of the court appear to entertain his testimony without mocking him, but ultimately deny his motion.
On the back is a blurb saying the disc is designed to play on CD players, DVD players, PCs and Macs. What it doesn't say is that in order to play it on a computer you're supposed to use the software on the disc (hmm... totally future-proof). Furthermore, it autoruns an installer to install the software.
I wonder how long it'll be before the installer not only auto-runs, it also auto-installs (like the installation for BitTorrent which doesn't ask any questions).
I agree with you right up to the point of where you start intimidating, torturing, and mass murdering your own people. Then, exactly whom are you protecting?
Um, the rest of the people?
There's a biological analogy: in order to stop an attacker, I may punch him. This may cause cuts in my skin, through which hundreds of my blood cells escape and die.
Consider Saddam the brain and his people the cells of the "organism" of Iraq.
I'm not defending or encouraging the practice, simply explaining it. I'm sure he doesn't think in biological terms about it, either; he is ruthless and his people are disposable (just as a certain amount of my blood cells are).
The problem with this situation is that no one but the isp and the attorney general knows which sites are being blocked.
It shouldn't be too hard to determine which sites are being blocked.
There are 255 x 255 x 255 x 255 possible sites, giving a grand total of 4,228,250,625 possible sites. Testing all of them, at the rate of once a second, would take 48938 days or 134 years. (Also note that many are invalid, like 0.0.0.0, 127.0.0.1, 10.x.x.x, etc.)
Now, a machine should be able to test far more than one a second, and given a distributed testing platform (something like distributed.net or folding@home), many PA computers could be used to determine which IP addresses were unreachable.
The test would be easier if the ISP gave a page saying "This web site has been blocked" instead of just making it unreachable. (But if it was unreachable, we could have computers outside of PA which test the unreachable sites to see if there is actually content there.)
There must already be tools available to test whether a website exists and is working properly. Searching Freshmeat.net, I found the NIST Web Metrics Testbed tool suite which might be a starting point.
Given a couple weeks work, we could make the list public ourselves.
Here's a start: White Pages, with addresses and phone numbers.
There appear to be two addresses for Heather MacDonald in New York, NY (her bio says she lives and works there, so perhaps those are the two addresses).
Clicking on the "Find out more about Heather Macdonald" link, it says the resident at both addresses is 28 years old. From her picture in the bio link, it appears that this could be her (she looks to be in her 30s but perhaps all that negative thinking has taken a toll on her appearance).
I tried finding the address of the Manhattan Institute from their web site, but it appears not to be listed. Another Google search ("Manhattan Institute address") found the following page with their address on it, which differs from the two previous addresses, so apparently Ms. MacDonald owns two residences.
Note that this took all of a 5-minute search (it is taking longer to write this post than it took to do the digging).
Now, if I wanted to do more damage I could follow the "Search Public Records" link from the White Pages page. This allows you to download Online Detective 3.0, which allows you to search various databases (marriage/divorce, criminal records, DMV records, social security number traces, federal/state records, driver's license reports, asset search, and more). I downloaded this and installed in a roll-backable VM (trust noone) and nowhere on the site does it mention this but (as I assumed) you have to pay for the service. However, for just $9.95 I could have access to the service for 1 day. Imagine the kind of damage you could do in 24 hours, for under ten bucks.
She's gotta be out of her freakin' mind when she says we don't need to worry about privacy. I suppose she has a point -- why worry about what the government can do, when for under ten bucks any Tom, Dick or Harry can do it themselves?
Slashdot Mirror
Same here, except it's more pronounced: 3.3 kbps vs. 200 kbps.
I'll have it in another 2 minutes -- instead of 2 hours (and it's already 80% done).
And yes, I will leave my window open for another couple hours.
There, it's done, and I'm still uploading at 31 kpbs. Enjoy!
Read The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect , which was mentioned here weeks ago. Great story, and shows how a machine can obtain and surpass human intelligence without the opportunity for us to "pull the plug."
That said, I believe "the singularity" is at least 5 years off, but no more than 20. If you take care of your body (perhaps even if not), it'll happen within your lifetime.
This is actually very true. I remember reading many years ago that deer which overpopulate an island will develop an immune-system disease which wipes out a large portion of their population, prior to running out of food.
(I just did a Google search for it and couldn't find anything so I'm not sure how valid this idea is, but I do remember reading about it.)
Soylent oil.
And combine that with their stated "We won't use your code for 6 months" and ... If you find an exploit, and submit a bug fix for it, you can cheerfully go on abusing the exploit for another half a year!
What did I do or say to cause you to make me a foe? And when did you do it?
I really want to know. Thanks.
I can understand the submitter not including this information, but a good editor should add stuff like this.
The author was Bob Frankston (which required a bit of digging -- exactly two mouse clicks -- click on the story, then click on "Bob's other writings." on the top left).
(Funny that his name appears nowhere on the linked story.)
Best bets, in decreasing order of trustworthiness: your mother, your attorney, your father, your siblings, your accountant, your friends, your pizza-delivery guy.
Creating a corporation is not an option, because there's still a paper trail (if you're an officer of the corporation).
Another poster mentioned using FreeNet, which is cheaper (no domain to register) but not nearly as easy for your users, both in terms of having to install the software, and having to wait 20 minutes for the page to load.
I was talking about in a sting, which the original poster meant. In order to do a sting, the police first have to gain the confidence of the dealer. Then their confidence is shattered when they're busted for providing a good or service to meet market demand.
As far as "if growing a plant is illegal, then you should be arrested" -- I was questioning the absurdity of the law, in which the punishment is way out of proportion to the crime. Providing nourishment and love to a growing organism can have your house, car, and bank account stolen from you. How is that just?
I really like Komodo.
I really liked his "top 10 movies" list at the end. It gave me titles to feed into Kazaa. ;-)
Seriously, man, do you realize how much is on that network? I've already started downloading 5 of his top 10 (the others I've already seen).
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who know binary and those who don't.
There are three types of people in the world: those who know how to count, and those who don't.
(I know there are more just can't think of them. A little help? ;-)
All of it? I think it's pretty terrorizing to the populace to think that, for growing a plant you can have your house and car taken from you.
And the police befriend people and then prosecute them. So it terrorizes the populace into being afraid of their friends.
We proved prohibition doesn't work back in the 1920's. Tactics are getting scarier, even raiding shops that sell certain pipes which can be used to smoke anything, including tobacco. As another poster said, Walmart sells tobacco pipes but you didn't see them raiding Walmart, did you?
That's selective enforcement; I believe that's another mark of a police state. I'll close with a quote from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged":
I don't have a billion, but I can give two pointers to neat ideas of how to harness the power of the sun most efficiently.
The first I read about many years ago: Dyson spheres.
The second I was pointed to by someone replying to a post of mine about Dyson spheres: Matrioshka Brains.
Enjoy!
I may not know much but I remember from my college days, the correct code word is "tomato plants."
6) Are the aliens responsible for this? Good tactical plan: get all of Earth's telescopes to point in one direction, then come at us from the opposite.
It amazes me that elevator engineers haven't gotten enough complaints about this behavior to make a very simple design change.
Make the button a toggle, rather than an "on" switch.
So if the punk turned them all on, you could turn them all off and get to your floor.
(Yes, this has drawbacks too, people fighting over floors but that would be far less likely than your punk.)
I think he has "physical law" confused with "legislated law". He mentions "multiplying and dividing by zero" many, many times but it's not clear what his replacement for those operations is. Perhaps he has a bigger clue than the rest of us, but it's not clear from this transcript.
He comes off as someone rather vindictive who is abusing the court system. And the officers of the court appear to entertain his testimony without mocking him, but ultimately deny his motion.
I wonder how long it'll be before the installer not only auto-runs, it also auto-installs (like the installation for BitTorrent which doesn't ask any questions).
Best bet is to disable the autorun feature.
Google also found a neat page with other security information (the autorun info is toward the bottom).
Um, the rest of the people?
There's a biological analogy: in order to stop an attacker, I may punch him. This may cause cuts in my skin, through which hundreds of my blood cells escape and die.
Consider Saddam the brain and his people the cells of the "organism" of Iraq.
I'm not defending or encouraging the practice, simply explaining it. I'm sure he doesn't think in biological terms about it, either; he is ruthless and his people are disposable (just as a certain amount of my blood cells are).
It shouldn't be too hard to determine which sites are being blocked.
There are 255 x 255 x 255 x 255 possible sites, giving a grand total of 4,228,250,625 possible sites. Testing all of them, at the rate of once a second, would take 48938 days or 134 years. (Also note that many are invalid, like 0.0.0.0, 127.0.0.1, 10.x.x.x, etc.)
Now, a machine should be able to test far more than one a second, and given a distributed testing platform (something like distributed.net or folding@home), many PA computers could be used to determine which IP addresses were unreachable.
The test would be easier if the ISP gave a page saying "This web site has been blocked" instead of just making it unreachable. (But if it was unreachable, we could have computers outside of PA which test the unreachable sites to see if there is actually content there.)
There must already be tools available to test whether a website exists and is working properly. Searching Freshmeat.net, I found the NIST Web Metrics Testbed tool suite which might be a starting point.
Given a couple weeks work, we could make the list public ourselves.
to:
You're new here, right?
Try reading at -1 and you'll see a lot of spam. Not necessarily selling you stuff, but a ton of noise. Moderation improves the signal-to-noise ratio.
Perhaps there's some sort of moderation we could do to our incoming email? (Hint: try SpamNet if you're running Outlook.)
If I'm not mistaken, the CIA put both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein in power.
It is completely a "foreign policy" issue. We need to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries. We are not "the world's policemen."
It won't stop though. Next on our agenda is North Korea, and I have no doubt that we'll invade.
There appear to be two addresses for Heather MacDonald in New York, NY (her bio says she lives and works there, so perhaps those are the two addresses).
Clicking on the "Find out more about Heather Macdonald" link, it says the resident at both addresses is 28 years old. From her picture in the bio link, it appears that this could be her (she looks to be in her 30s but perhaps all that negative thinking has taken a toll on her appearance).
I tried finding the address of the Manhattan Institute from their web site, but it appears not to be listed. Another Google search ("Manhattan Institute address") found the following page with their address on it, which differs from the two previous addresses, so apparently Ms. MacDonald owns two residences.
Here are maps for both locations .
Note that this took all of a 5-minute search (it is taking longer to write this post than it took to do the digging).
Now, if I wanted to do more damage I could follow the "Search Public Records" link from the White Pages page. This allows you to download Online Detective 3.0, which allows you to search various databases (marriage/divorce, criminal records, DMV records, social security number traces, federal/state records, driver's license reports, asset search, and more). I downloaded this and installed in a roll-backable VM (trust noone) and nowhere on the site does it mention this but (as I assumed) you have to pay for the service. However, for just $9.95 I could have access to the service for 1 day. Imagine the kind of damage you could do in 24 hours, for under ten bucks.
She's gotta be out of her freakin' mind when she says we don't need to worry about privacy. I suppose she has a point -- why worry about what the government can do, when for under ten bucks any Tom, Dick or Harry can do it themselves?