"one nutjob billionaire" wouldn't explain this, since there are contribution limits. The actions of no one individual, no matter how rich, could explain this. There are interesting dynamics at work here, some people may find it enjoyable to discuss them. But simple answers aren't the solution.
As a Machine Learning Scientist, I see a distinct difference between the two fields, although they overlap significantly. They have similar roots, techniques and approaches.
I usually describe Machine Learning as a branch of computer science that is similar to AI, but less ambitious. True AI is concerned with getting computers to become sentient and self-aware. Machine Learning however, seeks to simply mimic human behavior, just to recognize patterns and make decisions, but not become sentient.
Additionally, Machine Learning often concentrates on one problem (OCR, internet search, etc.) rather than a truly self-aware entity that has to deal with a variety of tasks.
At least that's how I describe my field to people not familiar with it. They've usually heard of AI, so it's a good stepping stone to helping them understand what I do.
A lot of the tasks mentioned in the summary fall into the niche Machine Learning, and it's sibling Data Mining are currently addressing.
What I'm wondering about is that most good TV shows take a while from writing to shooting to production. The quickest I've heard of is Southpark, an animated show that if it absolutely needs to, can take a week from writing to airing. Live action shows usually take much longer.
Plus, TV doesn't air many weeks, there are repeats, etc.
So what if an event happened on the MMO game, and 3 months later it's corresponding episode airs? The MMO has either moved on much beyond that, or the MMO will be just like other MMOs, but every month or so a special event would occur which would air on TV.
More likely, in any series, there are 4-5 big mega episode events a season, and the rest are, I don't want to say filler, but character/environment development, etc. Every episode can't be about a big fight. There will probably be a few like that every season, but there will be an episode about the main hero's childhood friend in trouble, the hopes and dreams of a secondary character, etc. The show will be fleshed out with other happenings.
So that means, the game will be like a normal MMO, with 3-4 big events a year which will be reflected in the show. Kind of like a show just set in the same universe as the game. Similar to now, where you can play Star Trek games, etc. Now, there will be some reference to the game's events in the show, but not often.
I think it's a great idea, but some of these logistical details are thoughtprovoking.
Tony Stark makes you feel He's a cool exec with a heart of steel As Iron Man all jets ablaze He fights and smites with repulsor rays Amazing armor, that's Iron Man Ablazin' power, that's Iron Man
Where do you draw the line for survival though? Is it your species, your nation, your state, your county, town or neighborhood? I could understand these issues at the macro level, i.e. survival of the species. And it's absurd at the micro level, i.e. I will kill everyone in the next town over even though we live in the same county. Where is the line in the middle though? What if the US was in a war against China to the bitter end? The human species will survive, but is genocide still allowed to protect your nation/race? That's already happened in Africa, and we pretty much agree on a world-wide scale that was atrocious.
Good sci fi makes you think about the real world, and I'm not quite sure where that line falls.
This is pretty good, but it still doesn't solve the problem that the officer can't understand the other individual. This could lead to some problems. Now, an officer may wait for backup that speaks the language, or proceed forward knowing that he/she cannot understand the other person and vice-a-versa.
Now, due to this device, officers could think they are making themselves clear, and behave differently, (i.e. I said get down, and I said it in your language, now get down or I shoot), but the other side could be saying something important and can't be understood.
Mind if I ask what you do? I'm amazed that you were able to play so many games. With my busy life, it would be amazing if I was able to play a fourth or fifth of what you apparently did. And I don't even have a family (as in wife and/or kids) to take up my time.
With all of the new features in the latest expansion(s), and the fact that by nature Civ games take a while, Civ 4 is the game that I have spent >90% of my gaming time this year playing.
I'm sorry, I guess it's my lack of knowledge about financial matters, but I've read your comment multiple times and can't figure out what you're saying.
What is a "same day sale" and why would it not trigger the AMT rather than waiting? If you exercise a stock option, don't you have to pay taxes on the gain?
Gigameter, ghost trap, and a friendly overweight green ghost to help you out. I thought that was the standard package when investigating paranormal activities?
Although, Others would argue that all you need is an intelligent ape, a talking car, bubblegum gun and skeleton elevator inside which you change clothes.
That's already the case for graduate education at most universities, engineering credit hours cost more. Substantially more in many cases.
However, that is a reflection of economic realities. School's have to be more competitive in hiring engineering faculty. Whereas for most humanities, most PhDs would like nothing more than an academic position at a university, that is simply not the case for Engineering faculty. School's not only have to compete with other education institutions, but industry as well, which can afford to pay PhDs a lot more. To a lesser extent, this also translates in the stipends a department pays engineering grad students, they get more.
Also, an engineering education costs more in terms of support. Engineering labs, equipment, etc. all add on to the cost of the education.
While I can appreciate the notion of "knowledge for knowledge's sake", which is infact how most universities started, that is not reality today. Not all disciplines are equal in economic terms. The barriers to entry into the arts and humanities are lower than the hard sciences/engineering. For proof of that, look in universities or the working world. How many people switch their majors from sciences/engineering to arts/humanities, and how many do vice-a-versa? Also, most of those who switch away from sci/eng do so because they are struggling in those fields.
Even beyond college, you often hear of a former individual with a background in sci/eng transitioning into more "soft" areas, such as policy research, K-12 teaching, art, etc. But you almost never hear of a political science graduate becoming the lead tech on an engineering project. The only place where that transition does take place is in Comp Sci, and that's because the barrier to entry there is lower than other Engr fields. And I'm not even going to count the transition to IT, because IT is different from Comp Sci, and is not a Sci/Engr domain.
Just wondering if you can even repeat courses. I remember when I was an undergrad, unless you had a D, you couldn't repeat a course. Wasn't it like that at other places too?
My upload with Cablevision's Optimum online is currently capped. I think it's due to my torrents, even though I had a global limit of 40 Kilobytes per sec. I download at 10 Mbits but upload is 140 Kbits.
I've had this happen with them before, and it seems like there is no way out except to call, and you only get 3 strikes before you're out I've heard.
It's very frustrating, I pay for a fast internet connection and should be allowed to use it within reason. I purposefully capped my torrent uploads at 40KBytes, that's not too much, I shouldn't be capped.
You know, just recently, within the last year, I finally watched Citizen Kane. When I saw it, I thought, meh, it's an ok movie, but I'm not sure why it's so highly regarded. Then I investigated and learned and how groundbreaking that movie was. In terms of camera angles, sets (first to show a room's ceiling for example) and plot. It didn't seem special because all the movies since have copied it.
It's the same with B5 and scifi on TV. Ignore firefly, stargate, lost, the new BSG, farscape, and any of the recent stuff. B5 was a defining sci fi TV series in soo many ways, technical, plot, scope, etc. It really set the stage. Besides that, it was just a damn good show.
Ok, I won't comment on how you use your browser. But here's a question, is there ANY browser that would be able to handle the stress tests you used?
If there is another browser that can handle "hundreds" of open sessions, and still work well for you, then perhaps that is a better fit for your purposes.
Otherwise you're pushing your browser to the extremes, then pointing out its faults, however nothing else can handle it either.
My Favorite Green Lantern Oath has to be by
Jack T. Chance, a n'er do well Green Lantern, but the only one capable of surviving on a criminal world:
"You who are wicked, evil, and mean--
I'm the nastiest creep you've *ever* seen!
Come one, come all; put up a fight;
I'll pound your butts with Green Lantern's light.
Yowza."
I don't know if I like the idea of a complete replacement of the behind the scenes Trek crew. Sure I'm glad that B&B are gone, but what about folks like Mike Okuda? The man behind the TNG techincal manual and the Star Trek Encyclopedia? Who is reported to have the entire continuity in his head?
I think that replacing the problem people is a good idea, but replacing some of the other key old hands who know Trek inside and out? This along with the report on NPR this morning that A TON of old Star Trek memrobelia, props, costumes, ship models, etc are being auctioned, has me worried.
Sure Trek was really going downhill fast since Voyager, but fix the problem, don't just toss it all away. We still want our Trek, not something new.
I can help you out there. I was in the same situation 2 months ago. I'd been working for two years, and had about $5-10k that I wanted to play around in the stock market with, but all of the big online firms, ETrade, Schwab, Fidelity, etc. had fee structures that were much more expensive than I was comfortable with/could afford.
I finally ended up going with Scottrade, at www.scottrade.com. They're a discount online broker who charge a flat $7 commission per each sell or buy, regardless of how big or small the order.
They're a discount broker, so they don't have all the whizbang services and features of the other guys, but I didn't need any of that. I was comfortable doing my own research and everything. All I need was a cheap way to buy and sell stocks in relatively small quantities online. And Scottrade fit that perfectly.
Check them out and see if it's appropriate for what you want to do.
Disclaimer: I am not employed by Scottrade, the only relationship I have with them is the one described above where I am a happy customer.
This is more fantasy, not Sci Fi, but the Redwall Series were fascinating when I was younger. Written very well, in depth, detailed and very interesting to all sorts of teens. Start with Redwall, and if they like it, the series has like 10 books now I think.
Computational Linguistics, or Natural Language Processing (NLP) as it was called for me, is one of the many areas that traditional Computer Science is exploring, in addition to things like biology (bioinformatics), etc.
I'd say the first two years in the major need to be very similar to the first two years in the Computer Science curriculum and last two in the humanities/linguistic area. The reason I say this is because a lot of the math, basic computer science, etc that is needed in the field will be the same as the core Comp Sci/engineering classes. However, the first two years in the humanities are very generic, and you specialize a lot later. So build up the core of Comp Sci and linguistical study early.
Then, get deeper. A lot of the NLP work is being done in Maching Learning/Data Mining classes. Make sure you take those, we had a whole class called Textual Data Mining at my university. Take algorithm design and some of the common advanced Comp Sci classes too, since a lot of the techniques are very advanced, being developed, cutting edge and will require research. Take advanced statistics classes too, much of the field is built on statistics.
NLP is a very interesting area, but I don't know if it deserves its own major yet. I would advise majoring in comp sci, with a concentration in Machine Learning/Data Mining through your technical electives. And a minor, or perhaps second major in Linguistics. I'd say minor because then you could take only the classes relevant to the field, instead of all the other stuff related to a humanities major that you may not want.
Anyway, that's my take. I did a bunch of NLP research, even getting work published as an undergrad, and I was a Computer Engineering major. The field is as such that it's so new and emerging that not much formal linguistics study is required right now, if you are a native english speaker you are probably good. But, it doesn't hurt to get a more formal background in it, that's why I suggested the minor.
Slashdot Mirror
This was a really fascinating article.
Interesting articles like this, that I may not find on my own (Don't read the New Yorker) really exemplify why I love slashdot.
That was a great use of my day to read that, thanks /.
"one nutjob billionaire" wouldn't explain this, since there are contribution limits. The actions of no one individual, no matter how rich, could explain this. There are interesting dynamics at work here, some people may find it enjoyable to discuss them. But simple answers aren't the solution.
As a Machine Learning Scientist, I see a distinct difference between the two fields, although they overlap significantly. They have similar roots, techniques and approaches.
I usually describe Machine Learning as a branch of computer science that is similar to AI, but less ambitious. True AI is concerned with getting computers to become sentient and self-aware. Machine Learning however, seeks to simply mimic human behavior, just to recognize patterns and make decisions, but not become sentient.
Additionally, Machine Learning often concentrates on one problem (OCR, internet search, etc.) rather than a truly self-aware entity that has to deal with a variety of tasks.
At least that's how I describe my field to people not familiar with it. They've usually heard of AI, so it's a good stepping stone to helping them understand what I do.
A lot of the tasks mentioned in the summary fall into the niche Machine Learning, and it's sibling Data Mining are currently addressing.
Anyway, just my $0.02.
What I'm wondering about is that most good TV shows take a while from writing to shooting to production. The quickest I've heard of is Southpark, an animated show that if it absolutely needs to, can take a week from writing to airing. Live action shows usually take much longer.
Plus, TV doesn't air many weeks, there are repeats, etc.
So what if an event happened on the MMO game, and 3 months later it's corresponding episode airs? The MMO has either moved on much beyond that, or the MMO will be just like other MMOs, but every month or so a special event would occur which would air on TV.
More likely, in any series, there are 4-5 big mega episode events a season, and the rest are, I don't want to say filler, but character/environment development, etc. Every episode can't be about a big fight. There will probably be a few like that every season, but there will be an episode about the main hero's childhood friend in trouble, the hopes and dreams of a secondary character, etc. The show will be fleshed out with other happenings.
So that means, the game will be like a normal MMO, with 3-4 big events a year which will be reflected in the show. Kind of like a show just set in the same universe as the game. Similar to now, where you can play Star Trek games, etc. Now, there will be some reference to the game's events in the show, but not often.
I think it's a great idea, but some of these logistical details are thoughtprovoking.
That's not right, this is what it really is:
Tony Stark makes you feel
He's a cool exec with a heart of steel
As Iron Man all jets ablaze
He fights and smites with repulsor rays
Amazing armor, that's Iron Man
Ablazin' power, that's Iron Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wn4iYoMcAA
Where do you draw the line for survival though? Is it your species, your nation, your state, your county, town or neighborhood? I could understand these issues at the macro level, i.e. survival of the species. And it's absurd at the micro level, i.e. I will kill everyone in the next town over even though we live in the same county. Where is the line in the middle though? What if the US was in a war against China to the bitter end? The human species will survive, but is genocide still allowed to protect your nation/race? That's already happened in Africa, and we pretty much agree on a world-wide scale that was atrocious.
Good sci fi makes you think about the real world, and I'm not quite sure where that line falls.
This is pretty good, but it still doesn't solve the problem that the officer can't understand the other individual. This could lead to some problems. Now, an officer may wait for backup that speaks the language, or proceed forward knowing that he/she cannot understand the other person and vice-a-versa.
Now, due to this device, officers could think they are making themselves clear, and behave differently, (i.e. I said get down, and I said it in your language, now get down or I shoot), but the other side could be saying something important and can't be understood.
Mind if I ask what you do? I'm amazed that you were able to play so many games. With my busy life, it would be amazing if I was able to play a fourth or fifth of what you apparently did. And I don't even have a family (as in wife and/or kids) to take up my time.
With all of the new features in the latest expansion(s), and the fact that by nature Civ games take a while, Civ 4 is the game that I have spent >90% of my gaming time this year playing.
I doubt you will see this now, since this story is old. But I just saw your replies to my questions. Thanks, that clarified things, I appreciate it.
I'm sorry,
I guess it's my lack of knowledge about financial matters, but I've read your comment multiple times and can't figure out what you're saying.
What is a "same day sale" and why would it not trigger the AMT rather than waiting? If you exercise a stock option, don't you have to pay taxes on the gain?
can't say it any better than others already have, so... I agree!
Gigameter, ghost trap, and a friendly overweight green ghost to help you out. I thought that was the standard package when investigating paranormal activities?
Although,
Others would argue that all you need is an intelligent ape, a talking car, bubblegum gun and skeleton elevator inside which you change clothes.
That's already the case for graduate education at most universities, engineering credit hours cost more. Substantially more in many cases.
However, that is a reflection of economic realities. School's have to be more competitive in hiring engineering faculty. Whereas for most humanities, most PhDs would like nothing more than an academic position at a university, that is simply not the case for Engineering faculty. School's not only have to compete with other education institutions, but industry as well, which can afford to pay PhDs a lot more. To a lesser extent, this also translates in the stipends a department pays engineering grad students, they get more.
Also, an engineering education costs more in terms of support. Engineering labs, equipment, etc. all add on to the cost of the education.
While I can appreciate the notion of "knowledge for knowledge's sake", which is infact how most universities started, that is not reality today. Not all disciplines are equal in economic terms. The barriers to entry into the arts and humanities are lower than the hard sciences/engineering. For proof of that, look in universities or the working world. How many people switch their majors from sciences/engineering to arts/humanities, and how many do vice-a-versa? Also, most of those who switch away from sci/eng do so because they are struggling in those fields.
Even beyond college, you often hear of a former individual with a background in sci/eng transitioning into more "soft" areas, such as policy research, K-12 teaching, art, etc. But you almost never hear of a political science graduate becoming the lead tech on an engineering project. The only place where that transition does take place is in Comp Sci, and that's because the barrier to entry there is lower than other Engr fields. And I'm not even going to count the transition to IT, because IT is different from Comp Sci, and is not a Sci/Engr domain.
Just wondering if you can even repeat courses. I remember when I was an undergrad, unless you had a D, you couldn't repeat a course. Wasn't it like that at other places too?
So, How do you explain this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5175Y06_Lk
My upload with Cablevision's Optimum online is currently capped. I think it's due to my torrents, even though I had a global limit of 40 Kilobytes per sec. I download at 10 Mbits but upload is 140 Kbits.
I've had this happen with them before, and it seems like there is no way out except to call, and you only get 3 strikes before you're out I've heard.
It's very frustrating, I pay for a fast internet connection and should be allowed to use it within reason. I purposefully capped my torrent uploads at 40KBytes, that's not too much, I shouldn't be capped.
Why is that?
I really loved KOTOR 1, and liked NWN1, and it's disappointing to hear to that the sequels just aren't up to par.
You know, just recently, within the last year, I finally watched Citizen Kane. When I saw it, I thought, meh, it's an ok movie, but I'm not sure why it's so highly regarded. Then I investigated and learned and how groundbreaking that movie was. In terms of camera angles, sets (first to show a room's ceiling for example) and plot. It didn't seem special because all the movies since have copied it.
It's the same with B5 and scifi on TV. Ignore firefly, stargate, lost, the new BSG, farscape, and any of the recent stuff. B5 was a defining sci fi TV series in soo many ways, technical, plot, scope, etc. It really set the stage. Besides that, it was just a damn good show.
Ok,
I won't comment on how you use your browser. But here's a question, is there ANY browser that would be able to handle the stress tests you used?
If there is another browser that can handle "hundreds" of open sessions, and still work well for you, then perhaps that is a better fit for your purposes.
Otherwise you're pushing your browser to the extremes, then pointing out its faults, however nothing else can handle it either.
My Favorite Green Lantern Oath has to be by Jack T. Chance, a n'er do well Green Lantern, but the only one capable of surviving on a criminal world:
"You who are wicked, evil, and mean--
I'm the nastiest creep you've *ever* seen!
Come one, come all; put up a fight;
I'll pound your butts with Green Lantern's light.
Yowza."
Other oaths: http://www.glcorps.org/oa-oath.html
I don't know if I like the idea of a complete replacement of the behind the scenes Trek crew. Sure I'm glad that B&B are gone, but what about folks like Mike Okuda? The man behind the TNG techincal manual and the Star Trek Encyclopedia? Who is reported to have the entire continuity in his head?
I think that replacing the problem people is a good idea, but replacing some of the other key old hands who know Trek inside and out? This along with the report on NPR this morning that A TON of old Star Trek memrobelia, props, costumes, ship models, etc are being auctioned, has me worried.
Sure Trek was really going downhill fast since Voyager, but fix the problem, don't just toss it all away. We still want our Trek, not something new.
I can help you out there. I was in the same situation 2 months ago. I'd been working for two years, and had about $5-10k that I wanted to play around in the stock market with, but all of the big online firms, ETrade, Schwab, Fidelity, etc. had fee structures that were much more expensive than I was comfortable with/could afford.
I finally ended up going with Scottrade, at www.scottrade.com. They're a discount online broker who charge a flat $7 commission per each sell or buy, regardless of how big or small the order.
They're a discount broker, so they don't have all the whizbang services and features of the other guys, but I didn't need any of that. I was comfortable doing my own research and everything. All I need was a cheap way to buy and sell stocks in relatively small quantities online. And Scottrade fit that perfectly.
Check them out and see if it's appropriate for what you want to do.
Disclaimer: I am not employed by Scottrade, the only relationship I have with them is the one described above where I am a happy customer.
This is more fantasy, not Sci Fi, but the Redwall Series were fascinating when I was younger. Written very well, in depth, detailed and very interesting to all sorts of teens. Start with Redwall, and if they like it, the series has like 10 books now I think.
Computational Linguistics, or Natural Language Processing (NLP) as it was called for me, is one of the many areas that traditional Computer Science is exploring, in addition to things like biology (bioinformatics), etc.
I'd say the first two years in the major need to be very similar to the first two years in the Computer Science curriculum and last two in the humanities/linguistic area. The reason I say this is because a lot of the math, basic computer science, etc that is needed in the field will be the same as the core Comp Sci/engineering classes. However, the first two years in the humanities are very generic, and you specialize a lot later. So build up the core of Comp Sci and linguistical study early.
Then, get deeper. A lot of the NLP work is being done in Maching Learning/Data Mining classes. Make sure you take those, we had a whole class called Textual Data Mining at my university. Take algorithm design and some of the common advanced Comp Sci classes too, since a lot of the techniques are very advanced, being developed, cutting edge and will require research. Take advanced statistics classes too, much of the field is built on statistics.
NLP is a very interesting area, but I don't know if it deserves its own major yet. I would advise majoring in comp sci, with a concentration in Machine Learning/Data Mining through your technical electives. And a minor, or perhaps second major in Linguistics. I'd say minor because then you could take only the classes relevant to the field, instead of all the other stuff related to a humanities major that you may not want.
Anyway, that's my take. I did a bunch of NLP research, even getting work published as an undergrad, and I was a Computer Engineering major. The field is as such that it's so new and emerging that not much formal linguistics study is required right now, if you are a native english speaker you are probably good. But, it doesn't hurt to get a more formal background in it, that's why I suggested the minor.