On arriving at a new school I was put into the 'medium' stream. They were doing algebra in math class, and without the groundwork I was totally lost. Homework was a nightmare, as the teacher taugh by rote how to 'solve' a certain kind of equation, but as soon as a slightly different form was presented I had no idea how to solve it.
The next year I had a new teacher called Chris Hayden. In the first math lesson he taught me more than a year in my previous class. The one big event in his class was when he said:
"The equals sign is like a see-saw - what you do to one side you must do to the other"
It was a great moment for me because I realized that all the complex and incomprehensible rules about what to do to what equations to get a result all boiled down to a single easy to understand concept. Maths suddenly became easy - and I could work out myself what steps were needed to solve things.
I will always be thankfull to him, because without his help I would not have been able to achieve what I have.
The primary problem here is that until this Patent was awarded the competing search engines weren't aware of any patent issues.
Imagine writing a application (search engine), and have it available for a year or more - after which a patent is accepted that means you owe money for a license on the previously released product?
That means anyone who writes software or a web site is up for unlimited damages. Looking up patents to ensure you don't infringe one is hard enough - but now we have to worry about patents which cause your work to infringe retrospectivly.
One must wonder how 'unique' a patent is if between submitting a patent application, and having the patent awarded the idea is discovered by several other people.
I actually did this - take a computer instead of actual money. My boss at the time was about $60,000 in debt.
Since he couldn't pay me, I told him I was taking the computer I worked on. Poor man didn't have a choice and began to cry. Being a callious bastard I didn't care at all.
My suggestion to people is that they get out before they are pushed out.
Signs of impending doom (in rough order of severity):
"We don't have enough money to pay you this week"
"Downsizing" of any kind.
Company isn't making money.
Company is aquired by another company.
You are bored or have no work to do.
Surprisingly it is companies with employees that are busy, positive and that are productive that are making lots of money which tend to be successfull. The ones which are loosing money hand over fist, with employees that are not usefully employed or with low morale seem to collapse. I know this is a rather radical theory - but its what seems to happen in my experience.
PS: Employee morale and productivity are determined by company culture - not the employees.
I didn't say that a take over of machines would be bad.
I am pretty sure that machines and humans will co-exist. Machines will not be competing for the same resources, they will have considerable dependency on us for some time yet.
1980 - People started playing games with Machines.
2020 - Machines started playing games with People.
Twenty years ago the first PCs were introduced to the Market. I remember in the 1980s feeling the potential of these new devices, while
most adults thought computers were toys.
That said, Happy New Year Everyone!!
In 1989 I programmed and operated a BBS from home. At 300 baud we already had power to communicate in a new way. My attempt to gain
commercial interest in the new medium failed
however. But computers were no longer toys.
The year 2001 is here, and finally reality has
caught up with my vision. Computers are no longer
toys. Modems and dedicated high bandwidth links virtually every business on the planet. If anything my vision of a connected network is pale in comparision.
My vision - of twenty years from now is that Machines - not only todays computers, but the neural nets and ALife systems - will only continue to evolve. Not only will they continue to evolve, but the rate of their evolution will continue to increase.
By 2020 Machines will have surpassed even the greatest human intellectuals ability. These machines will not be like humans. They will be aliens. Ultimatly they will be used in every Corporation to make decisions at every level.
Those companies who insist on using human intellect for decision making will be outperformed by the companies run by machines. Humans will remain to rubber stamp the directives of Machines - perhaps.
In every industry people will be replaced by machines. You won't know if the person you talk to over the phone at your bank or ISP help desk is a person or a machine. The goods you buy will be all machine made. The media and communication systems will be mediated and controlled by machines.
Perhaps Governments may resist for a time, but ultimatly the politicians using machines to make decisions will win elections against those that hold out. We will be pets - if we are lucky.
Perhaps I am wrong in that maybe it will take 50 years - or 100. But at whatever rate machines improve one thing is certain - they won't stop. They will evolve, by either our human lust for the new and better - or by more direct self engineering. They will surplant humans because they will be intellectually superior not by a small margin, but by orders of magnitude.
Ten thosand years from now it will be the machines debating among theselves weather humans are/were 'intelligent'.
Okay, lets assume not allowing discrimination is a "Good Thing". That means not allowing discrimination against discrimination is also a "Good Thing".
My point is that if you restrict peoples right to express their opinions you are acting in the same manner as the people you criticize.
Sometimes I don't like how people act and talk in my country - but I wouldn't suggest for a minute that we censor them for being unpopular. Doing so would only drive the problem underground to fester and grow.
Just a brief note: I have been developing on Windows for years in Delphi. Java can't touch Delphi for speed on Windows.
However, Java is cross platform. I can create Java web applications on my W98 machine, and then copy them over onto my Production Linix boxes.
Where does.NET fit? Its a Windows only Java - so you get all the performance problems of Java with none of the cross platform benefits. I mean, you don't honestly believe MS will be in a hurry to support other OS's?
Whats the problem? Open Source is a decision of the developer. Until a developer decides to release code it belongs to them. The principle of privacy is that the individual has control over the use of their information. Take an issue with privacy - companies installing spy applications on your PC without your knowlege or permission. I don't agree with this because you havn't given your permission for them to access your computers information.
When you dstribute some Software as Open Source you are explicitly giving people permission to use and distribute it, so those people are complying with your privacy wishes.
I don't think its a corporate/individual thing - its a permission thing. If you give information away thats one thing, having information stolen from you is another.
I don't think the Internet is "simply a new tool". Not in the sence that it only allows you to do the things you used to do but faster.
Because of the Internet I am now able to communicate with a community of people with similar interests to myself. Prior to the Internet I didn't know anyone who liked my area of interest.
The Internet now allows people to contribute in ways which previously didn't exist. Say you wanted to put forward your ideas prior to the Internet - how would you do it without massive cost?
The Internet allows you to learn about what you want to, rather than having TV dictate what you learn. I think the term 'Virtual' sounds like 'unreal'. I think 'online community' is a better term.
Online communities center around people with similar ideas and similar beliefs, rather than similar geographic location. These communities are not replacements to offline communities, but are at least a welcome new addition.
First of all, Professional Delphi Developers plan developments just as much as any other professional developer. Code quality is much better in my opinion because you don't need to write screeds of code to achieve simple objectives.
Programming in Delphi is still an art, only you can concentrate on a higher level of abstration than with lower level languages.
Unlike VB and other earlier products I have never ever hit a brick wall with Delphi. If you really want you can include Assembler, so there is no real limit on being 'low level' if thats what you need.
If you are trying to write a device driver, or a operating system, or a flight simulator, perhaps Delphi is not the Language to pick, but for a vast number of apps Delphi really hits the spot.
Many applications I have developed were stand alone, and didn't need all the 'productivity apps' that go with MS. Apps like Point of Sale Systems, Factory Floor Systems, Stock Control etc, could all easily move to Linux. The Apps could be distributed with Linux tuned for the App, so no more configuring Windows for your App.
That said, I am also learning Java now. Why? Because Java is cross platform. Server apps I write in Java will be able to run on machines from Linux to huge Unix Servers. Thats not the Market I see Kylix in. I see Kylix making inroads into developing GUI's for Linux, not Middleware as much.
My current Open Source project is working on a few Interesting things. I intend to provide a EMail Client which handles business documents such as invoices, orders and so on.
It will handle normal email as well, but the primary importance of the client will be that it automatically handles key exchange through key servers. Just send a message to someone and the client will look up the key servers to check if they have a public key. This means a no mess way of secure comms.
The point is that I'm not going to push encryption for encryptions sake. The idea is to push a client that can send and receive standard business documents. The client will have the ability to plug in accounting system drivers to import and export to your favorite accounting system.
The idea is to get people using the software because of the ability to send and receive business documents, not because the client encrypts/decrypts.
From the article it appears that the lab will be providing OSS developers the chance to have their software tested on high end hardware.
I think that the corporations are starting to realise that OSS Software is good - but they need some way of testing it on enterprise size servers before they jump into putting this software on live systems.
I don't think their intention here is to start defining any 'standard' for Linux applications in general. Even so, perhaps some guidelines might be a good idea - more so for client apps.
The one thing MS does well is have a relitivly consistant interface. While I don't care much about UI's for a Server, having some form of Client App UI guidelines might be useful. I mean guidelines not some kind of absolute restrictive standard.
Richard Feynman, a famous physicist - who happens to be my hero - had a solution to this problem. He was having difficulty coming up with important new ideas about physics, and had a mental block. His answer was to start playing again, thinking about things that he found interesting or enjoyable personally, but not at all 'important'. I suggest you do the same. Go play with something you enjoy in programming. Write a silly little game, do something you enjoy, and get your mind off the 'important' problems. Learn how to relax. By this I mean that getting sleep doesn't equate to relaxation. You need some time just for doing nothing. If you are too busy there is no time for creativity.
Good points. I do use encryption where possible. Problem is that unless the person you are communicating with is also using it, it won't work. I think the problem here is that the people of New Zealand will have to abide by a law, and the Police will be exempt. It may go beond simply reading your email to actually cracking your computer to obtain your email.
Since when has this been about terrorism, or catching criminals? Its about Power. Its about Control. For decades we have been slaves, our only information fed to us by newspapers and T.V by the puppetmasters. The Internet threatens the very foundation principles of modern Government. How long will it take for people to realise that TRUE democracy - that is direct participation in decision making by all - is actually possible. This is a great threat, as the puppetmasters behind the politicians will then have no power, no control. The puppetmasters are trying to foil free expression ASAP. Or i'm paranoid... take your pick.
In my opinion I don't think it is the New Zealand Police who are behind this move. Generally the Police can't even catch simple minded burglers much less highly skilled technical criminals. I think that this is only one data point in a contining international effort to control the Internet. The Internet caught the World Governments by surprise. The NSA and other intelligence agencies first attempted to limit the ability of people to encrypt communications. That didn't work - encryption is out of the bag - so they are getting laws passed in every country they can to ensure Goverenment have access. In other words its not about catching criminals - its about control. You know what they say - who controls the information controls the world.
Just because we know how the robot internalizes its 'learning' - ie by evolving its software - does not mean it isn't learning. The fact is that if some 'agent' can not walk, and through pure experience (rather than explicit programming) develops the ability to walk, we call it learning, just as surely as a child learns to walk.
I think that 'evolving' methodologies, and neural nets etc provide our best chance with this technology. It would be a good idea for the honda team to try a similar approach as Elvis on the control side. Perhaps add padding so it doesn't damage itself when learning to walk.
Re:I wrote that code - I'll tell you what it does
on
Mattel Spyware
·
· Score: 2
First of all, thanks for this reply. It was very interesting to see what the thing does from the horses mouth. The problem as I see it is that regardless of how 'harmless' DSSAgent was, the company responsible simply had no right at all to install it secretly. I know that it must have been installed secretly because I'm the only one to install apps on my machine, and I would never agree to having a app download stuff off the internet without me checking the content first.
After reading this I checked my machine - only to find DSSAgent running! I suggest that we sumbit this obvious trojan to McAfee and other virus detector companies. Obviously I will never purchase any more software from them.
I agree that BASIC is a bad place to start learning a modern language. I believe Assembly is a bad place to start for the same reasons. The problem with assembler is that its different for every machine, it has no structure or objects, and thus learning it first will give you bad habits. Assembler is also very unforgiving - definitly not a first language. Its also not very usefull for much of anything else these days, with even small imbedded processors having higher level languages.
I think Delphi is a good language to start in. I started like many others with Basic. Languages have got much better since Basic, and Delphi is the best example I know of. You can start learning Delphi without knowing too much about programming at all. Putting controls on forms etc is the first level. You then progress through adding 'real' code behind the controls, and finally to developing you own controls. The big thing with Delphi is that although it is similar to VB and other Graphical Interface Languages, it didn't have a brick wall anywhere. An example of a brock wall is a level at which you need to resort to a lower level language. Delphi is essentially written in Delphi. Its simple to learn, but very powerfull.
Slashdot Mirror
On arriving at a new school I was put into the 'medium' stream. They were doing algebra in math class, and without the groundwork I was totally lost. Homework was a nightmare, as the teacher taugh by rote how to 'solve' a certain kind of equation, but as soon as a slightly different form was presented I had no idea how to solve it.
The next year I had a new teacher called Chris Hayden. In the first math lesson he taught me more than a year in my previous class. The one big event in his class was when he said :
"The equals sign is like a see-saw - what you do to one side you must do to the other"
It was a great moment for me because I realized that all the complex and incomprehensible rules about what to do to what equations to get a result all boiled down to a single easy to understand concept. Maths suddenly became easy - and I could work out myself what steps were needed to solve things.
I will always be thankfull to him, because without his help I would not have been able to achieve what I have.
The primary problem here is that until this Patent was awarded the competing search engines weren't aware of any patent issues.
Imagine writing a application (search engine), and have it available for a year or more - after which a patent is accepted that means you owe money for a license on the previously released product?
That means anyone who writes software or a web site is up for unlimited damages. Looking up patents to ensure you don't infringe one is hard enough - but now we have to worry about patents which cause your work to infringe retrospectivly.
One must wonder how 'unique' a patent is if between submitting a patent application, and having the patent awarded the idea is discovered by several other people.
I'm almost afraid to touch the keyboard :-)
I actually did this - take a computer instead of actual money. My boss at the time was about $60,000 in debt.
Since he couldn't pay me, I told him I was taking the computer I worked on. Poor man didn't have a choice and began to cry. Being a callious bastard I didn't care at all.
My suggestion to people is that they get out before they are pushed out.
Signs of impending doom (in rough order of severity):
"We don't have enough money to pay you this week"
"Downsizing" of any kind.
Company isn't making money.
Company is aquired by another company.
You are bored or have no work to do.
Surprisingly it is companies with employees that are busy, positive and that are productive that are making lots of money which tend to be successfull. The ones which are loosing money hand over fist, with employees that are not usefully employed or with low morale seem to collapse. I know this is a rather radical theory - but its what seems to happen in my experience.
PS: Employee morale and productivity are determined by company culture - not the employees.
I didn't say that a take over of machines would be bad.
I am pretty sure that machines and humans will co-exist. Machines will not be competing for the same resources, they will have considerable dependency on us for some time yet.
1980 - People started playing games with Machines.
2020 - Machines started playing games with People.
Twenty years ago the first PCs were introduced to the Market. I remember in the 1980s feeling the potential of these new devices, while most adults thought computers were toys.
That said, Happy New Year Everyone!!
In 1989 I programmed and operated a BBS from home. At 300 baud we already had power to communicate in a new way. My attempt to gain commercial interest in the new medium failed however. But computers were no longer toys.
The year 2001 is here, and finally reality has caught up with my vision. Computers are no longer toys. Modems and dedicated high bandwidth links virtually every business on the planet. If anything my vision of a connected network is pale in comparision.
My vision - of twenty years from now is that Machines - not only todays computers, but the neural nets and ALife systems - will only continue to evolve. Not only will they continue to evolve, but the rate of their evolution will continue to increase.
By 2020 Machines will have surpassed even the greatest human intellectuals ability. These machines will not be like humans. They will be aliens. Ultimatly they will be used in every Corporation to make decisions at every level.
Those companies who insist on using human intellect for decision making will be outperformed by the companies run by machines. Humans will remain to rubber stamp the directives of Machines - perhaps.
In every industry people will be replaced by machines. You won't know if the person you talk to over the phone at your bank or ISP help desk is a person or a machine. The goods you buy will be all machine made. The media and communication systems will be mediated and controlled by machines.
Perhaps Governments may resist for a time, but ultimatly the politicians using machines to make decisions will win elections against those that hold out. We will be pets - if we are lucky.
Perhaps I am wrong in that maybe it will take 50 years - or 100. But at whatever rate machines improve one thing is certain - they won't stop. They will evolve, by either our human lust for the new and better - or by more direct self engineering. They will surplant humans because they will be intellectually superior not by a small margin, but by orders of magnitude.
Ten thosand years from now it will be the machines debating among theselves weather humans are/were 'intelligent'.
Okay, lets assume not allowing discrimination is a "Good Thing". That means not allowing discrimination against discrimination is also a "Good Thing".
My point is that if you restrict peoples right to express their opinions you are acting in the same manner as the people you criticize.
Sometimes I don't like how people act and talk in my country - but I wouldn't suggest for a minute that we censor them for being unpopular. Doing so would only drive the problem underground to fester and grow.
Just a brief note: I have been developing on Windows for years in Delphi. Java can't touch Delphi for speed on Windows.
However, Java is cross platform. I can create Java web applications on my W98 machine, and then copy them over onto my Production Linix boxes.
Where does .NET fit? Its a Windows only Java - so you get all the performance problems of Java with none of the cross platform benefits. I mean, you don't honestly believe MS will be in a hurry to support other OS's?
Whats the problem? Open Source is a decision of the developer. Until a developer decides to release code it belongs to them. The principle of privacy is that the individual has control over the use of their information. Take an issue with privacy - companies installing spy applications on your PC without your knowlege or permission. I don't agree with this because you havn't given your permission for them to access your computers information.
When you dstribute some Software as Open Source you are explicitly giving people permission to use and distribute it, so those people are complying with your privacy wishes.
I don't think its a corporate/individual thing - its a permission thing. If you give information away thats one thing, having information stolen from you is another.
I don't think the Internet is "simply a new tool". Not in the sence that it only allows you to do the things you used to do but faster.
Because of the Internet I am now able to communicate with a community of people with similar interests to myself. Prior to the Internet I didn't know anyone who liked my area of interest.
The Internet now allows people to contribute in ways which previously didn't exist. Say you wanted to put forward your ideas prior to the Internet - how would you do it without massive cost?
The Internet allows you to learn about what you want to, rather than having TV dictate what you learn. I think the term 'Virtual' sounds like 'unreal'. I think 'online community' is a better term.
Online communities center around people with similar ideas and similar beliefs, rather than similar geographic location. These communities are not replacements to offline communities, but are at least a welcome new addition.
First of all, Professional Delphi Developers plan developments just as much as any other professional developer. Code quality is much better in my opinion because you don't need to write screeds of code to achieve simple objectives.
Programming in Delphi is still an art, only you can concentrate on a higher level of abstration than with lower level languages.
Unlike VB and other earlier products I have never ever hit a brick wall with Delphi. If you really want you can include Assembler, so there is no real limit on being 'low level' if thats what you need.
If you are trying to write a device driver, or a operating system, or a flight simulator, perhaps Delphi is not the Language to pick, but for a vast number of apps Delphi really hits the spot.
Many applications I have developed were stand alone, and didn't need all the 'productivity apps' that go with MS. Apps like Point of Sale Systems, Factory Floor Systems, Stock Control etc, could all easily move to Linux. The Apps could be distributed with Linux tuned for the App, so no more configuring Windows for your App.
That said, I am also learning Java now. Why? Because Java is cross platform. Server apps I write in Java will be able to run on machines from Linux to huge Unix Servers. Thats not the Market I see Kylix in. I see Kylix making inroads into developing GUI's for Linux, not Middleware as much.
My current Open Source project is working on a few Interesting things. I intend to provide a EMail Client which handles business documents such as invoices, orders and so on.
DevCentre.Org
It will handle normal email as well, but the primary importance of the client will be that it automatically handles key exchange through key servers. Just send a message to someone and the client will look up the key servers to check if they have a public key. This means a no mess way of secure comms.
The point is that I'm not going to push encryption for encryptions sake. The idea is to push a client that can send and receive standard business documents. The client will have the ability to plug in accounting system drivers to import and export to your favorite accounting system.
The idea is to get people using the software because of the ability to send and receive business documents, not because the client encrypts/decrypts.
From the article it appears that the lab will be providing OSS developers the chance to have their software tested on high end hardware.
I think that the corporations are starting to realise that OSS Software is good - but they need some way of testing it on enterprise size servers before they jump into putting this software on live systems.
I don't think their intention here is to start defining any 'standard' for Linux applications in general. Even so, perhaps some guidelines might be a good idea - more so for client apps.
The one thing MS does well is have a relitivly consistant interface. While I don't care much about UI's for a Server, having some form of Client App UI guidelines might be useful. I mean guidelines not some kind of absolute restrictive standard.
Richard Feynman, a famous physicist - who happens to be my hero - had a solution to this problem. He was having difficulty coming up with important new ideas about physics, and had a mental block.
His answer was to start playing again, thinking about things that he found interesting or enjoyable personally, but not at all 'important'.
I suggest you do the same. Go play with something you enjoy in programming. Write a silly little game, do something you enjoy, and get your mind off the 'important' problems.
Learn how to relax. By this I mean that getting sleep doesn't equate to relaxation. You need some time just for doing nothing. If you are too busy there is no time for creativity.
Good points. I do use encryption where possible. Problem is that unless the person you are communicating with is also using it, it won't work. I think the problem here is that the people of New Zealand will have to abide by a law, and the Police will be exempt. It may go beond simply reading your email to actually cracking your computer to obtain your email.
Since when has this been about terrorism, or catching criminals? Its about Power. Its about Control. For decades we have been slaves, our only information fed to us by newspapers and T.V by the puppetmasters. The Internet threatens the very foundation principles of modern Government. How long will it take for people to realise that TRUE democracy - that is direct participation in decision making by all - is actually possible. This is a great threat, as the puppetmasters behind the politicians will then have no power, no control. The puppetmasters are trying to foil free expression ASAP. Or i'm paranoid... take your pick.
In my opinion I don't think it is the New Zealand Police who are behind this move. Generally the Police can't even catch simple minded burglers much less highly skilled technical criminals. I think that this is only one data point in a contining international effort to control the Internet. The Internet caught the World Governments by surprise. The NSA and other intelligence agencies first attempted to limit the ability of people to encrypt communications. That didn't work - encryption is out of the bag - so they are getting laws passed in every country they can to ensure Goverenment have access. In other words its not about catching criminals - its about control. You know what they say - who controls the information controls the world.
I think that 'evolving' methodologies, and neural nets etc provide our best chance with this technology. It would be a good idea for the honda team to try a similar approach as Elvis on the control side. Perhaps add padding so it doesn't damage itself when learning to walk.
First of all, thanks for this reply. It was very interesting to see what the thing does from the horses mouth. The problem as I see it is that regardless of how 'harmless' DSSAgent was, the company responsible simply had no right at all to install it secretly. I know that it must have been installed secretly because I'm the only one to install apps on my machine, and I would never agree to having a app download stuff off the internet without me checking the content first.
After reading this I checked my machine - only to find DSSAgent running! I suggest that we sumbit this obvious trojan to McAfee and other virus detector companies. Obviously I will never purchase any more software from them.
I agree that BASIC is a bad place to start learning a modern language. I believe Assembly is a bad place to start for the same reasons. The problem with assembler is that its different for every machine, it has no structure or objects, and thus learning it first will give you bad habits. Assembler is also very unforgiving - definitly not a first language. Its also not very usefull for much of anything else these days, with even small imbedded processors having higher level languages.
I think Delphi is a good language to start in. I started like many others with Basic. Languages have got much better since Basic, and Delphi is the best example I know of. You can start learning Delphi without knowing too much about programming at all. Putting controls on forms etc is the first level. You then progress through adding 'real' code behind the controls, and finally to developing you own controls. The big thing with Delphi is that although it is similar to VB and other Graphical Interface Languages, it didn't have a brick wall anywhere. An example of a brock wall is a level at which you need to resort to a lower level language. Delphi is essentially written in Delphi. Its simple to learn, but very powerfull.