Until the first "observer" evolved, nothing observed the universe...
Just because it's in the distant past doesn't mean nobody is observing it. We are still the ones indirectly observing the effects of the events of the distant past.
It's just so darned expensive that probably only giant companies could even consider the whole field. Companies like... Oh, God. I just had a horrible thought:
Microsoft Space Station.
Just imagine it in that insidiously friendly font they always use... *Shudder*
There would be no visual evidence of the impact, not even microscopical - the particles would just rip through, and then the material they went through would collapse back onto itself.
My only objection to this would be that they obviously have enough of an effect to cause a measurable seismic disturbance. I believe they must have some effect at the surface, even if it's just microscopic.
Perhaps their only effect is totally transient; this would explain why we have to resort to real-time seismic measurements to detect them.
Anyone have any idea what kind of damage would be caused at the surface of the Earth by something like this? Seems to me that it would be significant, peculiar, and unique.
And in that case, shouldn't they visit the entry and exit points to see if such damage was caused? I don't see anything in the article that suggests this kind of investigation will, or should, be done.
the teachers do not care about abilities but Rote-memorization.. like "what menu is used to create a table in word" if you dont exactly follow what the teacher wants.. to get it wrong... doesn't matter if you were sucessful.
WHAT? You can't possibly be serious. I don't think that should influence your computing choices. I think that means you should complain to your board of education, or whoever it was that set such a ridiculous standard.
That's like teaching multiplication... as long as the numbers are five and two.
Of course, even if you complain, you're still stuck with that system in the meantime... But on the other hand, maybe they need a kick in the pants -- like a bunch of bright kids inexplicably failing their computer courses -- to make changes.
But I searched and couldn't find an answer to that seemingly obvious question.
I tried Google with "william shatner favourite star trek episode" and there was one article (something like the eighth hit) where Shatner answered "City on the Edge of Forever."
But I'm slightly suspicious of this answer (only slightly mind you) because that episode consistently comes near the top of all fan polls. So, he may be saying that just to please the crowd.
I am sure that was made practical by the fact that Canada is the first country in the world to have ambient temperature superconductivity materials in all of their communications and power distribution systems.
That's right, this is the superior technology we're going to use in our grand scheme of conquest! First, we take back Alaska. Then, the rest of the U.S. Then, the world!
I don't think it takes a supercomputer to predict the weather in Canada.
Yeah, yeah. This is only funny to those who don't live in Canada, of course.
If you live in Newfoundland, for instance, you'll know that no supercomputer in the world could ever have a hope of predicting the weather for the text fifteen minutes. I once visited for a week, and I saw sunny, cloudy, windy, calm, cold, warm, not to mention rain, snow, and even hail.
The "hundreds of thousands of dollars" versus "thirteen year old's allowance" comparison is bordering on an outright lie.
I'm no expert, but I'm sure the biggest piece of the radio station cost would be the "staff, management, DJs, and [...] sales personnel". You could theoretically try and run a radio station without all these people. But it would show in the quality of your product.
Similarly, if you ran an internet radio station all by yourself, the quality of your product would suffer in just the same way as for a conventional radio station. But the article implies that you could do it just as well.
Finally, unless he's suggesting that all internet radio stations should borrow equipment from their parents, the cost of a computer alone would probably take it outside the realm of a "thirteen year old's allowance."
I realize that "Japanese Emperor Era" must sound a little silly to North American ears, but it's Japan's traditional system for measuring years, and is still used, just as frequently as (if not more than) the Christian year-of-our-lord. Google found me this great little explanation that just taught me more than I ever knew about it, myself.
And since this involves the Japanese version of Outlook, this is actually quite a run-of-the-mill bug.
It's hard for me to say without having it my hand, but I gather this can be used like a desktop mouse as well as just in your hand.
Unfortunately, it looks very much like a desktop mouse, and I'm not entirely sure how it should be held if you're not using it on a surface. It looks like it's meant to be held with the fingers underneath and the thumb over the buttons, but this seems a bit cumbersome to me.
Ideally, you would still want to click with the same fingers as a desktop mouse, but it seems to me that doing this comfortably with a handheld device requires a completely different form. I think it would make sense to have some kind of add-on that changes the shape of the mouse depending on whether it's in the air or on a surface.
But again, I don't have the thing in my hands. I rather wish I did.:-)
I hope this doesn't go over the length limit, because the truly interesting bits are at the end.:-)
I'd like to clarify the question a bit. Who
would we be protecting the data from? Presumably,
it would be governments, criminal organizations,
large corporations. Groups that have tremendous
means at their disposal. In other words, you
would need to be protecting your own person just
as much as (if not more than) your
secret.
If you have the means to protect yourself for
the requisite amount of time (let's call it the
"quiet period"), then you'd be able to use those
same means to protect your secret.
So, let's assume that you're not entirely
convinced of your ability to protect your own
person, but you're willing to endure any amount of
torture, or even death, to protect your data
before the quiet period is up. Let's also assume
that, nevertheless, you're filthy rich and can do
anything that is possible with currently available
technology.
The question is one of balancing between
guaranteeing the protection of the secret during
the quiet period, and guaranteeing the disclosure
of the secret afterwards. This is made difficult
because of your intention, at the beginning of the
quiet period, to announce to the world that you
have this secret. Whatever security you might
have had from obscurity would be utterly lost.
So...
Standard encryption is not much of a solution,
because once you've announced the existence of
your secret, you'd have to protect your encryption
key just the same way you'd need to protect the
secret itself. You're not gaining anything in
terms of the guarantee of protection. On the
other hand, if you keep the key in your head, it
would die with you when you're tortured to death,
and you'd lose your guarantee of disclosure.
Bouncing your secret in a data signal off a
distant celestial body is not bad, but I suspect
that there would be too much of a possibility of
signal loss, compromising the guarantee of
disclosure. You could back it up by bouncing
multiple signals off several celestial bodies, and
this might be as good a solution as I can think
of.
My best proposal however, would be a variation
on the celestial body proposal: pack the
information into a capsule, and launch it into a
trajectory that will bring it back to the earth
after the quiet period is over. A back-up capsule
with a different trajectory could better guarantee
disclosure. I have no idea how much these
projects would cost, but I suspect the capsule
plan would cost less than the celestial body plan.
Really, the best form of protection is probably
one in which it's not in people's interests to try
to breach it in the first place. Some contraption
in which any tampering guarantees destruction of
the data will probably work best. Possibly
something combining quantum encryption with
radioactive decay as a timer...? I'm not
well-versed enough to go beyond idle speculation
here.
In this case, you'd have to play your political
cards right, because somebody might decide that if
they can't get their hands on it, then nobody
should be allowed to.
In the end, however, your biggest challenge
might be to get everyone to take you seriously
when you announce that you have the plans for a
breakthrough technology that will change the world
in five years.
A tactile interface is not graphical (you could have both, but in principle, they're different). It's not a GUI, and therefore, I don't think it will replace the GUI, it will supplement it. I don't see why there shouldn't be room enough in this town for both of them.
Dunno if someone else has already said this, but I need to say it. Too many people are mentioning Eliza.
Eliza (at least, the version of it that I know) randomly chose responses out of a list of stock sentences, inserting words and phrases from the user's input to make it look like there's some understanding going on.
Barely is Eliza even sophisticated C.S., let alone A.I.
This should be well known, especially among the Slashdot crowd. Eliza demonstrated more about human psychology and how easy it is to fool people, than anything related to machine intelligence.
Let's try and avoid even mentioning Eliza to Dr. Wallace. I wouldn't be surprised if it drives him up the wall to hear such comparisons.
The practical answer is to let nature take its course and work toward prevention.
My fear, based on the human record of resource usage in the past, is that few preventative measures will be enforced enough to reduce space debris. I suspect that there will be enough countries and organizations flaunting such rules that debris will continue to increase until it becomes a real problem.
And once it becomes a serious enough problem, it becomes self-maintaining: collisions with debris creates even more debris.
At this point, no amount of preventative measures help. You have to start actively cleaning things up. I suspect this won't happen until the lost revenue in damaged satellites starts to match the cleanup costs.
As for changing the gravitational constant of the universe, I've never quite understood how Q could have suggested that. I mean, talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The mass destruction that would ensue is beyond all possible imagination.
I submitted one of those non-winning logos (#196, if you're curious). If I remember correctly, it was made quite clear (rather to my annoyance) that all submissions become property of the OSI whether they're selected or not.
Although, I can't find any verbiage to that effect on the site any more...
Personally, I thought my submission was the best.:-) I think I should have explicitly noted that there are arrows pointing in as well as out. Maybe it was too subtle.
As you can see, there were plenty of other submissions based on the same idea: arrows pointing outwards (distribution of source) and arrows pointing inwards (submission of changes). However, I'd felt that none of them really took the idea and ran with it. Hence my submission.
Actually, I'm just a little bit annoyed. I put a fair amount of work into my submission, but I understand (from the message board discussions) that the keyhole logo was the favourite, almost from the beginning. Did I ever have any chance at all? Did anyone after submission #7 have a chance?
As the University of Delaware investigates chicken-wing chips, a hobbyist in Alberta, Canada is converting old barbeque components into a computer. He is applying for a whimsical patent for his "barbeque chips."
Meanwhile, unsubstantiated rumours abound that in Britain, researchers are using scales from north atlantic cod in a new technology they are calling "fish'n chips."
Slashdot Mirror
Until the first "observer" evolved, nothing observed the universe...
Just because it's in the distant past doesn't mean nobody is observing it. We are still the ones indirectly observing the effects of the events of the distant past.
It's just so darned expensive that probably only giant companies could even consider the whole field. Companies like... Oh, God. I just had a horrible thought:
Microsoft Space Station.
Just imagine it in that insidiously friendly font they always use... *Shudder*
There would be no visual evidence of the impact, not even microscopical - the particles would just rip through, and then the material they went through would collapse back onto itself.
My only objection to this would be that they obviously have enough of an effect to cause a measurable seismic disturbance. I believe they must have some effect at the surface, even if it's just microscopic.
Perhaps their only effect is totally transient; this would explain why we have to resort to real-time seismic measurements to detect them.
Ah. I see now that some discussion has already taken place in an earlier posting to science.slashdot.
Anyone have any idea what kind of damage would be caused at the surface of the Earth by something like this? Seems to me that it would be significant, peculiar, and unique.
And in that case, shouldn't they visit the entry and exit points to see if such damage was caused? I don't see anything in the article that suggests this kind of investigation will, or should, be done.
I'm a bit puzzled.
the teachers do not care about abilities but Rote-memorization.. like "what menu is used to create a table in word" if you dont exactly follow what the teacher wants.. to get it wrong... doesn't matter if you were sucessful.
WHAT? You can't possibly be serious. I don't think that should influence your computing choices. I think that means you should complain to your board of education, or whoever it was that set such a ridiculous standard.
That's like teaching multiplication... as long as the numbers are five and two.
Of course, even if you complain, you're still stuck with that system in the meantime... But on the other hand, maybe they need a kick in the pants -- like a bunch of bright kids inexplicably failing their computer courses -- to make changes.
But I searched and couldn't find an answer to that seemingly obvious question.
I tried Google with "william shatner favourite star trek episode" and there was one article (something like the eighth hit) where Shatner answered "City on the Edge of Forever."
But I'm slightly suspicious of this answer (only slightly mind you) because that episode consistently comes near the top of all fan polls. So, he may be saying that just to please the crowd.
Who knows?
What was your personal favorite episode of the Original Star Trek series and why?
Oh, please. He's probably been asked this question a billion times. He'll probably give you some bullsh*t answer just because he's sick of it.
How about: What was your favourite T.J. Hooker episode, and why?
(Yes... this is a joke.)
I am sure that was made practical by the fact that Canada is the first country in the world to have ambient temperature superconductivity materials in all of their communications and power distribution systems.
That's right, this is the superior technology we're going to use in our grand scheme of conquest! First, we take back Alaska. Then, the rest of the U.S. Then, the world!
MUAAA HAA HAA HA HA HAHAHA!
Ha Ha Hahahaha!
Ho Ho Hohoho.
Heh. Heh.
Whoooooo.
I don't think it takes a supercomputer to predict the weather in Canada.
Yeah, yeah. This is only funny to those who don't live in Canada, of course.
If you live in Newfoundland, for instance, you'll know that no supercomputer in the world could ever have a hope of predicting the weather for the text fifteen minutes. I once visited for a week, and I saw sunny, cloudy, windy, calm, cold, warm, not to mention rain, snow, and even hail.
Now if you'd said Vancouver, on the other hand...
int main() { printf("rain\n"); }
:-)
If iHear another name with some iPrefix, iThink iMGonna puke.
The "hundreds of thousands of dollars" versus "thirteen year old's allowance" comparison is bordering on an outright lie.
I'm no expert, but I'm sure the biggest piece of the radio station cost would be the "staff, management, DJs, and [...] sales personnel". You could theoretically try and run a radio station without all these people. But it would show in the quality of your product.
Similarly, if you ran an internet radio station all by yourself, the quality of your product would suffer in just the same way as for a conventional radio station. But the article implies that you could do it just as well.
Finally, unless he's suggesting that all internet radio stations should borrow equipment from their parents, the cost of a computer alone would probably take it outside the realm of a "thirteen year old's allowance."
I realize that "Japanese Emperor Era" must sound a little silly to North American ears, but it's Japan's traditional system for measuring years, and is still used, just as frequently as (if not more than) the Christian year-of-our-lord. Google found me this great little explanation that just taught me more than I ever knew about it, myself.
And since this involves the Japanese version of Outlook, this is actually quite a run-of-the-mill bug.
You mean you're not getting the new 3D rendered 1024 polygon phong shaded playing cards with full radiosity?
You poor deprived soul...
I was interviewed at Adobe Systems a long time ago, and one of the people asked me if I liked my mother.
Did it go like this?
It's hard for me to say without having it my hand, but I gather this can be used like a desktop mouse as well as just in your hand.
Unfortunately, it looks very much like a desktop mouse, and I'm not entirely sure how it should be held if you're not using it on a surface. It looks like it's meant to be held with the fingers underneath and the thumb over the buttons, but this seems a bit cumbersome to me.
Ideally, you would still want to click with the same fingers as a desktop mouse, but it seems to me that doing this comfortably with a handheld device requires a completely different form. I think it would make sense to have some kind of add-on that changes the shape of the mouse depending on whether it's in the air or on a surface.
But again, I don't have the thing in my hands. I rather wish I did. :-)
I hope this doesn't go over the length limit, because the truly interesting bits are at the end. :-)
I'd like to clarify the question a bit. Who would we be protecting the data from? Presumably, it would be governments, criminal organizations, large corporations. Groups that have tremendous means at their disposal. In other words, you would need to be protecting your own person just as much as (if not more than) your secret.
If you have the means to protect yourself for the requisite amount of time (let's call it the "quiet period"), then you'd be able to use those same means to protect your secret.
So, let's assume that you're not entirely convinced of your ability to protect your own person, but you're willing to endure any amount of torture, or even death, to protect your data before the quiet period is up. Let's also assume that, nevertheless, you're filthy rich and can do anything that is possible with currently available technology.
The question is one of balancing between guaranteeing the protection of the secret during the quiet period, and guaranteeing the disclosure of the secret afterwards. This is made difficult because of your intention, at the beginning of the quiet period, to announce to the world that you have this secret. Whatever security you might have had from obscurity would be utterly lost. So...
Standard encryption is not much of a solution, because once you've announced the existence of your secret, you'd have to protect your encryption key just the same way you'd need to protect the secret itself. You're not gaining anything in terms of the guarantee of protection. On the other hand, if you keep the key in your head, it would die with you when you're tortured to death, and you'd lose your guarantee of disclosure.
Bouncing your secret in a data signal off a distant celestial body is not bad, but I suspect that there would be too much of a possibility of signal loss, compromising the guarantee of disclosure. You could back it up by bouncing multiple signals off several celestial bodies, and this might be as good a solution as I can think of.
My best proposal however, would be a variation on the celestial body proposal: pack the information into a capsule, and launch it into a trajectory that will bring it back to the earth after the quiet period is over. A back-up capsule with a different trajectory could better guarantee disclosure. I have no idea how much these projects would cost, but I suspect the capsule plan would cost less than the celestial body plan.
Really, the best form of protection is probably one in which it's not in people's interests to try to breach it in the first place. Some contraption in which any tampering guarantees destruction of the data will probably work best. Possibly something combining quantum encryption with radioactive decay as a timer...? I'm not well-versed enough to go beyond idle speculation here.
In this case, you'd have to play your political cards right, because somebody might decide that if they can't get their hands on it, then nobody should be allowed to.
In the end, however, your biggest challenge might be to get everyone to take you seriously when you announce that you have the plans for a breakthrough technology that will change the world in five years.
A tactile interface is not graphical (you could have both, but in principle, they're different). It's not a GUI, and therefore, I don't think it will replace the GUI, it will supplement it. I don't see why there shouldn't be room enough in this town for both of them.
Let's try and avoid even mentioning Eliza to Dr. Wallace. I wouldn't be surprised if it drives him up the wall to hear such comparisons.
Okay, having done some more reading about the history of ALICE, I think I should perhaps retract that last part of my previous post.
However, having learned a bit more about ALICE, I'm not sure if I would classify it as A.I. I would have to read more.
And having little more to say (and no question to contribute), I'll just shut up now.
Okay, after reading your Bio, I'm afraid I must ask: Is your son named after Linus Torvalds??
Dunno if someone else has already said this, but I need to say it. Too many people are mentioning Eliza.
Eliza (at least, the version of it that I know) randomly chose responses out of a list of stock sentences, inserting words and phrases from the user's input to make it look like there's some understanding going on.
Barely is Eliza even sophisticated C.S., let alone A.I.
This should be well known, especially among the Slashdot crowd. Eliza demonstrated more about human psychology and how easy it is to fool people, than anything related to machine intelligence.
Let's try and avoid even mentioning Eliza to Dr. Wallace. I wouldn't be surprised if it drives him up the wall to hear such comparisons.
The practical answer is to let nature take its course and work toward prevention.
My fear, based on the human record of resource usage in the past, is that few preventative measures will be enforced enough to reduce space debris. I suspect that there will be enough countries and organizations flaunting such rules that debris will continue to increase until it becomes a real problem.
And once it becomes a serious enough problem, it becomes self-maintaining: collisions with debris creates even more debris.
At this point, no amount of preventative measures help. You have to start actively cleaning things up. I suspect this won't happen until the lost revenue in damaged satellites starts to match the cleanup costs.
As for changing the gravitational constant of the universe, I've never quite understood how Q could have suggested that. I mean, talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The mass destruction that would ensue is beyond all possible imagination.
I wonder who owns those non-winning submissions?
I submitted one of those non-winning logos (#196, if you're curious). If I remember correctly, it was made quite clear (rather to my annoyance) that all submissions become property of the OSI whether they're selected or not.
Although, I can't find any verbiage to that effect on the site any more...
Heh, I'd totally forgotten about that contest.
Personally, I thought my submission was the best. :-) I think I should have explicitly noted that there are arrows pointing in as well as out. Maybe it was too subtle.
As you can see, there were plenty of other submissions based on the same idea: arrows pointing outwards (distribution of source) and arrows pointing inwards (submission of changes). However, I'd felt that none of them really took the idea and ran with it. Hence my submission.
Actually, I'm just a little bit annoyed. I put a fair amount of work into my submission, but I understand (from the message board discussions) that the keyhole logo was the favourite, almost from the beginning. Did I ever have any chance at all? Did anyone after submission #7 have a chance?
Oh, well.
As the University of Delaware investigates chicken-wing chips, a hobbyist in Alberta, Canada is converting old barbeque components into a computer. He is applying for a whimsical patent for his "barbeque chips."
Meanwhile, unsubstantiated rumours abound that in Britain, researchers are using scales from north atlantic cod in a new technology they are calling "fish'n chips."
Okay, no more silly jokes.