As a closing thought, I don't care how efficient the robot is, I will NOT go to a hospital that uses robots for bedside tasks.
Perhaps not, but I bet you will go to one that uses robots in surgery. Once the dexterity is there, the most skilled surgeons in the world couldn't compete. It's not just the menial tasks that are at risk.
Imagine a robotic lawyer (or at least an assistant) with terrabytes of precedents at its disposal sitting in court.
Or American missiles for that matter. So-called missile tests are shams, the missile is hauled out of its silo, taken to a clean room, dismantled, tested, reassembled and then fired. Hardly a realistic simulation of how they would be used.
Sorry, buddy. I participated in ICBM tests in the AF as a Nuke Maintenance Specialist. There are no clean rooms, there are maintenance bays no different that the ones used to work on your car. (Ok, they're a little different.) They are dismantled because shipping the whole thing to the test range is not feasible. They are inspected and tested before reassembly because assuming nothing happened during shipment is idiotic. As far as being unrealistic, wrong again. All ICBM's go though regular preventative maintenance every couple of years and go though complete disassembly, inspection, and testing. Not to mention the in-place system tests performed while the missile is installed. It's an extremely realistic test because the condition of the missile, every missile, is never assumed. The term "First time, every time" isn't just a cute phrase, it's how we do buisiness.
My feelings are the same. The mouse gestures are habit forming and I can no longer browse without them.
I also love the way Opera will open right where you left off. Close it with 10 pages open and it open those same 10 pages when you restart it. Brilliant!
I have no gripes about Mozilla, but after a day of trying it out, it just couldn't lure me away.
Re:I Cancelled My Earthlink Account
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 2
Wow. I never had it that bad. The most I got to was 3 three calls. They usually got it on the 2nd.
I hate AOL. With a vengeance. Easy dude. All that hate isn't good for your blood pressure. I limit my hate to bad mouthing them to everyone who will listen.:) I also have a rather extensive collection of Installation CDs. I figure if I keep them out of circulation, so much the better. Eventually I'll find a suitable method of disposal.
Did you ever get your demo?
Re:I Cancelled My Earthlink Account
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 2
When I was in the military I found it easy to sign up for AOL's free hours to stay online during a relocation. Then when I got where I was going and found a suitable dial-up, I would cancel the account before the free time was up. Abusing the system? Maybe but that's not the point here.:) The point is that every single time AOL happily accepted my cancellation request and then proceeded to charge me a monthly fee anyway. And every single time I had to call them back twice before the charges actually stopped. Most popular, hell! They just simply charge everyone and count them as happy customers.
Or a "display", "clock", "record speed", "slow", "x2 speed", "menu", etc. I could go on but I don't have my remotes in front of me. I have a VCR where the majority of the functionalty is on the remote. The VCR itself only has the basics. How does this thing let you do any of the nit-noid functions that let you actually use your equipment? Simplicity is fine but not at the expense of functionality.
My other bitch is I THOUGHT OF THIS FIRST!! Of course I'm too lazy to actually do anything about it, but my ideas were better from a geek POV.:)
They said, "Man! We were getting all excited over nothing! What a waste of time!", because it was. In the States, and I'm sure in a few other countries, we were going ape shit over a media hyped threat. Most of the world decided to wait and see and clean up the mess afterward. Nothing more than a few amusing antedotes happened anywhere.
But point taken. (Although it wasn't really an MS crack, I should have known better on/.) I should have said "more software companies" instead of "other software companies". There are plenty of games that include level editors and such. I just wish there were more of them and that they embraced it as much as we see here.
But to rebut your comment, Office and VB are designed (better?) to be data manipulation tools. Games aren't and it seems to me that companies would rather you didn't mess with their "private" files. That's just paranoid thinking IMHO.
You use humor/sarcasm to make the point I was going to make. Namely that what is presented here is a list of requirements for life in the galaxy *period*, not for life in the galaxy, present company excluded. These items are what is needed and we *know* they were met once. To argue that it will never happen again because "It's too hard!" is ludicrous.
I want to know why the guy didn't just use hose clamps to attach the plactic tubing? Gee, it works in your car for fuel, coolant, brake fluid, etc. Or was that too easy? Doesn't say much for the rest of his ideas.
It already has the vision acuity to recognize elevator buttons (I assume that includes identifying the correct floor level) so adding wall socket recognition couldn't be that difficult.
As for power requirements, that's an engineering problem.:)
The 400-pound robot is powered by a battery that is recharged by pharmacy workers every 12 hours.
Wouldn't it have been easier/simpler/cheaper to just have the thing find a wall socket and plug in when it was running down? Of course that would lead to some interesting conversations. "Tobor, I need you to deliver these medicines to the forth floor." "Sorry. I'm on a voltage break."
Re:Tobor is Robot spelled backwards...
on
Hospital Robots
·
· Score: 2
You'd think they could be a *little* more original. This is the best a name contest could come up with? Let me guess, the judges were Ed Wood and Roger Corman. How lame.
It's not just a Windoze friendly game. Version 1.5 was especially unstable, but 1.2 played reasonably well. The only way to run 1.5 correctly is on a DOS box. Ah, the hours we wasted at work blowing each other up.:)
And you do know the comments can be edited, right? Some quotes are just mandatory. "Push the button, Frank." "I'm only mostly dead." "I'll bite your kneecaps off!"
Re:Hurray!
on
Nethack 3.4.0
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I think the point is that people would rather hear a symphony where the musicians were ugly and dressed in rags than go see a group of beautiful people bang pots and pans together. If you get both the good view and the good content, that's great. But when you have to choose, more people would rather have the good content.
If my choices were playing chess with scraps of cardboard against a knowledgable player, and playing tic-tac-toe with a 3 year old using diamonds and rubies, I'm taking the chess.
Re:The big deal about Nethack?
on
Nethack 3.4.0
·
· Score: 1
Isn't Omega that programmable tank game? I tried that once but the interface was too klunky.
Could you provide more info on Moria? Anything with that name has to be cool.
Damn! I was going to suggest the same thing! Funny as it is, it makes some sense as well. How much of this stuff is needed to grow a meal sized fishstick? Common sense says you need more of the media than what you will get out of it. So do you want to bring 100 liters of media to grow 10 fish, or just bring 10 freeze dried fish? What's the point here?
Tis true. But the sad fact is that the AF has a terrible time holding onto the technically savvy people needed to make this happen. Once trained, they get out to make 2 or 3 times the money in the civilian world. I know I was one of them.
Speaking from experience, the typical geek simply isn't cut out for the military life. And to make matters worse, advancing in the military means spending more time being a pointy-haired boss and less time being a geek. That's the way it is.
I'd love to see linux adopted by the AF, but 1) I've had the suggestion shot down too many times myself to expect it to actually happen and 2) they will have a tough time gathering the experience to do it.
Slashdot Mirror
As a closing thought, I don't care how efficient the robot is, I will NOT go to a hospital that uses robots for bedside tasks.
Perhaps not, but I bet you will go to one that uses robots in surgery. Once the dexterity is there, the most skilled surgeons in the world couldn't compete. It's not just the menial tasks that are at risk.
Imagine a robotic lawyer (or at least an assistant) with terrabytes of precedents at its disposal sitting in court.
Or American missiles for that matter. So-called missile tests are shams, the missile is hauled out of its silo, taken to a clean room, dismantled, tested, reassembled and then fired. Hardly a realistic simulation of how they would be used.
Sorry, buddy. I participated in ICBM tests in the AF as a Nuke Maintenance Specialist. There are no clean rooms, there are maintenance bays no different that the ones used to work on your car. (Ok, they're a little different.) They are dismantled because shipping the whole thing to the test range is not feasible. They are inspected and tested before reassembly because assuming nothing happened during shipment is idiotic. As far as being unrealistic, wrong again. All ICBM's go though regular preventative maintenance every couple of years and go though complete disassembly, inspection, and testing. Not to mention the in-place system tests performed while the missile is installed. It's an extremely realistic test because the condition of the missile, every missile, is never assumed.
The term "First time, every time" isn't just a cute phrase, it's how we do buisiness.
My feelings are the same. The mouse gestures are habit forming and I can no longer browse without them.
I also love the way Opera will open right where you left off. Close it with 10 pages open and it open those same 10 pages when you restart it. Brilliant!
I have no gripes about Mozilla, but after a day of trying it out, it just couldn't lure me away.
That's because they're engineers, not artists.
Where's my flying egg?
Wow. I never had it that bad. The most I got to was 3 three calls. They usually got it on the 2nd.
:) I also have a rather extensive collection of Installation CDs. I figure if I keep them out of circulation, so much the better. Eventually I'll find a suitable method of disposal.
I hate AOL. With a vengeance.
Easy dude. All that hate isn't good for your blood pressure. I limit my hate to bad mouthing them to everyone who will listen.
Did you ever get your demo?
When I was in the military I found it easy to sign up for AOL's free hours to stay online during a relocation. Then when I got where I was going and found a suitable dial-up, I would cancel the account before the free time was up. Abusing the system? Maybe but that's not the point here. :) The point is that every single time AOL happily accepted my cancellation request and then proceeded to charge me a monthly fee anyway. And every single time I had to call them back twice before the charges actually stopped. Most popular, hell! They just simply charge everyone and count them as happy customers.
Or a "display", "clock", "record speed", "slow", "x2 speed", "menu", etc. I could go on but I don't have my remotes in front of me. I have a VCR where the majority of the functionalty is on the remote. The VCR itself only has the basics. How does this thing let you do any of the nit-noid functions that let you actually use your equipment? Simplicity is fine but not at the expense of functionality.
:)
My other bitch is I THOUGHT OF THIS FIRST!! Of course I'm too lazy to actually do anything about it, but my ideas were better from a geek POV.
Hell, no, it's not legal. It's pretty damn arrogant, though!
They said, "Man! We were getting all excited over nothing! What a waste of time!", because it was. In the States, and I'm sure in a few other countries, we were going ape shit over a media hyped threat. Most of the world decided to wait and see and clean up the mess afterward. Nothing more than a few amusing antedotes happened anywhere.
Hype is not good. Facts are good.
And this subject is what Lost in Translation comes up with.
I do understand html. I'm just lazy.
/.) I should have said "more software companies" instead of "other software companies". There are plenty of games that include level editors and such. I just wish there were more of them and that they embraced it as much as we see here.
But point taken. (Although it wasn't really an MS crack, I should have known better on
But to rebut your comment, Office and VB are designed (better?) to be data manipulation tools. Games aren't and it seems to me that companies would rather you didn't mess with their "private" files. That's just paranoid thinking IMHO.
Let people play *with* the game as well as *in* the game. And you still make money. If only other software companies would learn this lesson.
You use humor/sarcasm to make the point I was going to make. Namely that what is presented here is a list of requirements for life in the galaxy *period*, not for life in the galaxy, present company excluded. These items are what is needed and we *know* they were met once. To argue that it will never happen again because "It's too hard!" is ludicrous.
Look under your hood. Check out your fuel filter. My bet is it has a hose clamp on either side of it.
I want to know why the guy didn't just use hose clamps to attach the plactic tubing? Gee, it works in your car for fuel, coolant, brake fluid, etc. Or was that too easy? Doesn't say much for the rest of his ideas.
So it does. I missed that. Well, fine. Just blow away the last shreds of my argument with the facts. I'll just take my ball and go home.
It already has the vision acuity to recognize elevator buttons (I assume that includes identifying the correct floor level) so adding wall socket recognition couldn't be that difficult.
:)
As for power requirements, that's an engineering problem.
The 400-pound robot is powered by a battery that is recharged by pharmacy workers every 12 hours.
Wouldn't it have been easier/simpler/cheaper to just have the thing find a wall socket and plug in when it was running down? Of course that would lead to some interesting conversations.
"Tobor, I need you to deliver these medicines to the forth floor."
"Sorry. I'm on a voltage break."
You'd think they could be a *little* more original. This is the best a name contest could come up with? Let me guess, the judges were Ed Wood and Roger Corman. How lame.
It's not just a Windoze friendly game. Version 1.5 was especially unstable, but 1.2 played reasonably well. The only way to run 1.5 correctly is on a DOS box. Ah, the hours we wasted at work blowing each other up. :)
And you do know the comments can be edited, right? Some quotes are just mandatory.
"Push the button, Frank."
"I'm only mostly dead."
"I'll bite your kneecaps off!"
I think the point is that people would rather hear a symphony where the musicians were ugly and dressed in rags than go see a group of beautiful people bang pots and pans together. If you get both the good view and the good content, that's great. But when you have to choose, more people would rather have the good content.
If my choices were playing chess with scraps of cardboard against a knowledgable player, and playing tic-tac-toe with a 3 year old using diamonds and rubies, I'm taking the chess.
Isn't Omega that programmable tank game? I tried that once but the interface was too klunky.
Could you provide more info on Moria? Anything with that name has to be cool.
Damn! I was going to suggest the same thing!
Funny as it is, it makes some sense as well. How much of this stuff is needed to grow a meal sized fishstick? Common sense says you need more of the media than what you will get out of it. So do you want to bring 100 liters of media to grow 10 fish, or just bring 10 freeze dried fish? What's the point here?
Tis true. But the sad fact is that the AF has a terrible time holding onto the technically savvy people needed to make this happen. Once trained, they get out to make 2 or 3 times the money in the civilian world. I know I was one of them.
Speaking from experience, the typical geek simply isn't cut out for the military life. And to make matters worse, advancing in the military means spending more time being a pointy-haired boss and less time being a geek. That's the way it is.
I'd love to see linux adopted by the AF, but 1) I've had the suggestion shot down too many times myself to expect it to actually happen and 2) they will have a tough time gathering the experience to do it.