Steve Mann isn't a nutjob -- he's essentially been a Cyborg for a while, now. He's one of the pioneers in this area, and some of his work is truly pathbreaking (such as the Eyetap device).
His idea is that if others insist on recording all your actions, it's probably best that you record all your actions as well -- that's not so bad, when you consider the way folks can and do get framed in real life.
Someone has to watch the watchers, or at the very least make sure that the watchers aren't making things up. I see that as a laudable goal.
> Slashdot: News for Nerds, Physics for the Vague.
Tell me about it. For a website that fashions itself as one for nerds, the speed of bicycle thing sounded as bad as Opera talking physics.
Is it so hard to specify the specific value to which the beam of light was slowed down to? At the very least, they could have linked to a slightly more detailed article on freezing light.
Almost sounds like some arts major posted something in physics that went over their heads
I graduated with honors, and most of it was a waste of time.
It's unfortunate you see it that way.
And, your response was insultive, by the way.
The right word to use is 'insulting', not 'insultive'. And my apologies, that wasn't the intention - that was more of a rhetoric, not a question per se!
I don't necessarily mean *just* language certificates. There could be certificates on data structures, etc. Think of "micro-degrees", shrinking the granularity of degrees.
Yes, I got what you meant the first time - and I'm still telling you, most people would not bother learning the basics before jumping head on. If things like datastructures were made optional, every Tom, Dick & Harry would jump on the bandwagon without bothering to learn a thing.
And degrees do indeed do this in a way - by giving you the option of choosing the classes that you are interested in. The core requirements are the basic stuff that you'd need to know anyway.
Education does the job of dispensing a great deal of information and setting the standards - at least if you're doing any kind of science or engineering, you learn the basic essentials of your area in the formative years. The reason the current system doesn't work as well is because they try to scale it to the lowest common denominator - making the good students wait for others to play catch-up.
Your suggestion also has issues with the increasing granularity in specific areas of focus - fields of study are becoming increasingly specialized, and granularity begs the question of what would constitute the prerequisites for a particular area of focus. Take an area like Quantum Computing - your area of work is very finely defined based on your background and your capabilities; while a J Random person can perhaps offer an odd insight or two, you can be quite assured that it would take a qualified physicist or a computer scientist to make any kind of meaningful contributions.
That is all fine and dandy, but that is not where the jobs are for 99.9% of the people. Or, are you suggesting we jip the 99.9% to cater to the 0.1%?
For one, 99.9% of jobs in the IT industry, perhaps. But there are tonnes of jobs out there that require expertise in a niche area, with a broader knowledge domain - areas of engineering, sciences and biology, to state a few. Hell, even if you are going to be an archaeologist, you'd better have formal training in a ton of stuff. Or even obscure areas like Diary Technology require that you focus in things from food processing to engineering design to chemical process and a whole lot of other things. Or if you want to be a lawyer, are you going to just get a micro-degree in IP Law and argue in the court? There is a reason a broader and deeper scope is deemed necessary.
The point is, for one, it is higher than 0.1%, much higher. For another, by doing this, you will take away the initiative that those.1% of the people have to create and innovate.
That engineer dude with a 5 degrees in aeronautics? His ideas provide the job that thousands of folks from foremen to engineers use. And there is a difference between taking counsel and knowing it yourself - sure, you can have chemistry folks tell you about the material on the flight, but if you cannot understand the basics of its capabilities to an extent by yourself, it wouldn't matter. If he did not know the basics of EE or the basics of physics or the basics of chemistry, his design would be a piece of crap.
In fact, I'm largely in focus of expanding our educational focus - masters and doctorates have become common place lately, a reordering of the academic system to include even higher levels of education is in place (and am not talking about merely post docs here).
And I must say that your post comes off as very one sided towards just ONE area - computer science. Already, most programming and administrator jobs are nothing more than say, a technician's or an electri
As someone who's working on a couple of graduate degrees, I can tell you this - education is anything but overrated.
Sure, certificates maybe fine and dandy for desk jobs and tech support, but I'd not trust someone who has a certificate within a 100 feet pole to do ANY kind of serious work, unless they had really, really convincing credentials.
There is a reason people spend a lifetime studying physics or biology you know? Why don't you try reading up on a few papers in an obscure area, say, quantum computing or solid state physics and see how much you can understand with your "JIT certificates".
Or wait, better yet, the next time you see a doctor, try suggesting this to them.
Until quite recently (that is, a 100 or 150 years ago), India and China were historically trading partners.
The Silk Route and the like - lots of trade in almost everything. It's only after the British came to India and the whole new world order came about that there've been issues between the nations.
When money speaks, it speaks louder than any cultural difference.
For the same reason that the US is supporting Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - both of which are fundamentalist dictatorships, and the latter a military dictatorship.
Yeah, but it would have caused some mondo-huge confusion.
Oooh, lookie! What is that big red thingy?
I mean, if the captains are anything like I'm, the first thing I'd do is press anything that looks like a big red button.
Besides, it's WAYYY cool hearing the captain talk.
RIKER: "Sir! The Romulans are arming their phaser banks." PICARD: "Fire at will, Numbah Won" DATA: "Captain, should we engage the shields?" PICARD: "Make it sew, Commander Daytah"
Instead, imagine if Picard pressed two buttons and the battle was over. Would you even be interested?
Only evil villains (like me, or Dr. Evil) are supposed to have big red buttons. The rest of the mortals are supposed to talk to their inferior commanders in dumb accents to get their bidding done.
Ooooh! What is _this_ big button that says powe...&#^$&*#^$
Slashdot Mirror
Steve Mann isn't a nutjob -- he's essentially been a Cyborg for a while, now. He's one of the pioneers in this area, and some of his work is truly pathbreaking (such as the Eyetap device).
His idea is that if others insist on recording all your actions, it's probably best that you record all your actions as well -- that's not so bad, when you consider the way folks can and do get framed in real life.
Someone has to watch the watchers, or at the very least make sure that the watchers aren't making things up. I see that as a laudable goal.
> and you definitely can't distinguish between objects with the same properties.
Not without destroying them anyway.
And oh, I forgot - inside the ultracold BEC chamber, they slowed the speed of light down to 60 kilometers an hour.
> Slashdot: News for Nerds, Physics for the Vague.
Tell me about it. For a website that fashions itself as one for nerds, the speed of bicycle thing sounded as bad as Opera talking physics.
Is it so hard to specify the specific value to which the beam of light was slowed down to? At the very least, they could have linked to a slightly more detailed article on freezing light.
Almost sounds like some arts major posted something in physics that went over their heads
My -2, troll, flamebait was in reference to the original article, not my comment.
Just to clear things up.
What kinda trollish article is that?
Linux is a very broad platform - in fact, if you looked at Windows, what's common between Windows 3.1, 95/98, ME and XP?
Hell, most programs can't even inter-operate. How the hell is this different from the variety in Linux?
Linux is a VERY broad platform and that will be the reason why it WILL become THE platform, not just A platform.
-2, Troll, Flamebait.
No, I don't make an assertion in either direction.
I say there isn't any proof of a God-like entity existing, but you do. So, prove to me that Jesus H Fucking Christ existed.
Fucking religious nutheads.
> Haha, you're an idiot.
No, just a Christian =)
(laugh, it's a joke)
To quote Teal'C:
"Many, many years, O'Neill".
> Oh, and probably a Doublestorypostaholics Anonymous for certain editors...
Yeah, for very large values of certain.
I graduated with honors, and most of it was a waste of time.
.1% of the people have to create and innovate.
It's unfortunate you see it that way.
And, your response was insultive, by the way.
The right word to use is 'insulting', not 'insultive'. And my apologies, that wasn't the intention - that was more of a rhetoric, not a question per se!
I don't necessarily mean *just* language certificates. There could be certificates on data structures, etc. Think of "micro-degrees", shrinking the granularity of degrees.
Yes, I got what you meant the first time - and I'm still telling you, most people would not bother learning the basics before jumping head on. If things like datastructures were made optional, every Tom, Dick & Harry would jump on the bandwagon without bothering to learn a thing.
And degrees do indeed do this in a way - by giving you the option of choosing the classes that you are interested in. The core requirements are the basic stuff that you'd need to know anyway.
Education does the job of dispensing a great deal of information and setting the standards - at least if you're doing any kind of science or engineering, you learn the basic essentials of your area in the formative years. The reason the current system doesn't work as well is because they try to scale it to the lowest common denominator - making the good students wait for others to play catch-up.
Your suggestion also has issues with the increasing granularity in specific areas of focus - fields of study are becoming increasingly specialized, and granularity begs the question of what would constitute the prerequisites for a particular area of focus. Take an area like Quantum Computing - your area of work is very finely defined based on your background and your capabilities; while a J Random person can perhaps offer an odd insight or two, you can be quite assured that it would take a qualified physicist or a computer scientist to make any kind of meaningful contributions.
That is all fine and dandy, but that is not where the jobs are for 99.9% of the people. Or, are you suggesting we jip the 99.9% to cater to the 0.1%?
For one, 99.9% of jobs in the IT industry, perhaps. But there are tonnes of jobs out there that require expertise in a niche area, with a broader knowledge domain - areas of engineering, sciences and biology, to state a few. Hell, even if you are going to be an archaeologist, you'd better have formal training in a ton of stuff. Or even obscure areas like Diary Technology require that you focus in things from food processing to engineering design to chemical process and a whole lot of other things. Or if you want to be a lawyer, are you going to just get a micro-degree in IP Law and argue in the court? There is a reason a broader and deeper scope is deemed necessary.
The point is, for one, it is higher than 0.1%, much higher. For another, by doing this, you will take away the initiative that those
That engineer dude with a 5 degrees in aeronautics? His ideas provide the job that thousands of folks from foremen to engineers use. And there is a difference between taking counsel and knowing it yourself - sure, you can have chemistry folks tell you about the material on the flight, but if you cannot understand the basics of its capabilities to an extent by yourself, it wouldn't matter. If he did not know the basics of EE or the basics of physics or the basics of chemistry, his design would be a piece of crap.
In fact, I'm largely in focus of expanding our educational focus - masters and doctorates have become common place lately, a reordering of the academic system to include even higher levels of education is in place (and am not talking about merely post docs here).
And I must say that your post comes off as very one sided towards just ONE area - computer science. Already, most programming and administrator jobs are nothing more than say, a technician's or an electri
Let me guess, you flunked out of school.
As someone who's working on a couple of graduate degrees, I can tell you this - education is anything but overrated.
Sure, certificates maybe fine and dandy for desk jobs and tech support, but I'd not trust someone who has a certificate within a 100 feet pole to do ANY kind of serious work, unless they had really, really convincing credentials.
There is a reason people spend a lifetime studying physics or biology you know? Why don't you try reading up on a few papers in an obscure area, say, quantum computing or solid state physics and see how much you can understand with your "JIT certificates".
Or wait, better yet, the next time you see a doctor, try suggesting this to them.
You're kidding, right?
Until quite recently (that is, a 100 or 150 years ago), India and China were historically trading partners.
The Silk Route and the like - lots of trade in almost everything. It's only after the British came to India and the whole new world order came about that there've been issues between the nations.
When money speaks, it speaks louder than any cultural difference.
For the same reason that the US is supporting Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - both of which are fundamentalist dictatorships, and the latter a military dictatorship.
Kinda ironic, don't you think?
Ultimately, what goes around comes around.
Dell might do AMD?
Ouch!
Whoever thought of that title definitely woke up the morning after.
> I even like the female Starbuck.
Dude, I'd like a female anything.
Okay, that sounded desperate. Almost anything - there, better!
Are you *kidding* me?
That was cool, catchy, geeky, original and quite imaginative, all at the same time.
I for one think it was really, really well done.
Get perpendicular...tra la la!
No, those are two moons.
(sorry, couldn't resist)
> stuff that's stale.
Nah, he merely meant to say that's ale - just a good ole' Slashdot typo.
The problem is that a majority of IP today is still viewed from a protectionist perspective.
The term intellectual property in and of itself says a lot - folks think of it as "property". And by folks, I refer to our eminent lawmakers.
The worst part is that most lawyers know very little about IP, and the judges even less - and this is a statement made by my professor of IP Law.
Oh come on, I'm sure our President won't appreciate being hidden in the tank of a space shuttle.
You are aware that you can sue the pope for bastardy, right?
Even though it may not mean much today, it is quite possible - and would have been something had someone done so in the 70s or something.
Oh come on! There is a difference between ALL the time and MOST of the time.
A difference of about 5 minutes of run time =)
Yeah, but it would have caused some mondo-huge confusion.
Oooh, lookie! What is that big red thingy?
I mean, if the captains are anything like I'm, the first thing I'd do is press anything that looks like a big red button.
Besides, it's WAYYY cool hearing the captain talk.
RIKER: "Sir! The Romulans are arming their phaser banks."
PICARD: "Fire at will, Numbah Won"
DATA: "Captain, should we engage the shields?"
PICARD: "Make it sew, Commander Daytah"
Instead, imagine if Picard pressed two buttons and the battle was over. Would you even be interested?
Only evil villains (like me, or Dr. Evil) are supposed to have big red buttons. The rest of the mortals are supposed to talk to their inferior commanders in dumb accents to get their bidding done.
Ooooh! What is _this_ big button that says powe...&#^$&*#^$