Once again, Katz opens his Great Big Book of the Internet, scans through the glossary of terms and picks a random word to expound upon for 3000 words. Too bad his edition was printed in 1996.
Oh well, at least he didn't reach for his Great Big Book of Social Indignation.
If Ma Bell was listening to my phone calls to see if I was committing a crime, I would simply get 2 cans and an extremely long string. There is no way this can be defended ethically: Because they provide you with a service, as a corporation, they can legally observe and log every detail of enery task you use the service to complete? While a nation's highways may belong to the federal government, they still need probable cause to stop you and "observe" what you have under the seat of your car, or in the trunk. This complete circumvention of probably cause is ludicrous. As stated above: Imagine if the phone company did this!
Actually, there is a program out there that adds scratches and pops to mp3's and wav files to sound like vinyl - it's called Vinyl Cafe or something like that, look for it on download.com.....
Regardless of the superior sound quality of Windows Media, or Vorbis, it is important to remember that the primary target for compressed audio is males 16-35 who don't want to pay for music before they have heard it, or perhaps not at all. A big chunk of this group have already damaged their hearing beyond repair as a result of their love for loud music, and as such, cnanot tell the difference between a flat sound, a vibrant sound, or a few hertz missing here and there.
Additionally, the goal of compressed audio is not to replace cd's, but to aid in the dissemination of audio data, or music. Whichever technology has grassroots appeal and is more importantly free, will be embraced by the millions of people who use audio compression everyday, leaving higher-end solutions to professionals and audiophiles. This is illustrated well in the audio hardware industry: How many people have 20 000 dollar sound systems, or DVD audio collections? Not enough to be more than a niche market. This has been previously discussed on Slashdot....
Unreasonable behaviour is definitely a human characteristic, but that really has nothing to with artificial intelligence. What are you trying to do: Create an artificial human, or an artificial self-aware entity that can think on its own? I agree with your comment about spewing out facts, and that the AI would need the ability to explore, make mistakes, and learn from them, rather than having programmed prohibitions from engaging in activities it is not 100 percent certain about. However, I think it is dangerous to assume that humans and the human method of thought is somehow the holy grail of AI. When we encounter alien races, they are most likely not going to think as we do, and what is more alien than a pile of microprocessors? I think we should welcome the opportunity to create entities who possess thought processes entirely outside our experience. Unless of course, AI programmers are obssessed with some kind of "in his own image" god complex.
Re:Canadian Goverment Tech Union
on
Dial U for Union
·
· Score: 1
I realize that it was *union membership* that voted the union leaders down from their strike mandate. This suggests to me that the union leaders did not represent the true demands of their membership, and as such, are serving no true purpose. They are not objective, merely very focused on their one goal, which is to get X percentage from the Treasury Board.
I work for the Canadian government in the tech industry, and as such I am forced to join a union. As health care is free in Canada, paid for by taxes, and as my employer already has a decent dental and vision package, I am receiving no benefits from being part of this union, other than a 10 percent discount in car insurance that in no way makes up for my union dues. Additionally, to demonstrate how ineffective a tech union is at the government level, my union has spent the last 1.5 years "negotiating" with the Treasury Board of Canada for a 12 percent salary increase, and recently had their strike mandate repudiated when members chose to accept a 7 - 11 percent raise over 2 years. Meanwhile, several other groups of government workers had salary increases of 20 percent or more. It seems that even while representing highly skilled workers who can dem,and large salaries in the private sector, the union was laughably useless in advancing my salary and benefits with the feds, who can merely legislate me back into work if I should choose to strike anyway. Union meetings I have attended were devoid of any real discussion and instead replete with rhetoric and bitterness. I really wish I could opt out of my union.
So, instead of having a glob of capital do our thinking for us, we are going to have a web community do our thinking for us?
Why not just try doing a little research on your own? It's not like musical history is locked up in a musty grimoire - check out which bands influenced other bands, what performers were style contemporaries, and where new bands are coming from. Think for yourself, experiment, and find out what YOU like, instead of finding another proxy.
I must take exception to 2 of the rather broad strokes painted in the above article:
First of all, player pianos were not all crude instruments incapable of producing anything other than a mono-volume mechanical reproductions of sounds. I have in my cubicle a fine CD collection fo George Gershwin's piano rolls which were recorded for playback on the Duo-Art and Welte roll, otherwise known as reproducing rolls. These paper recordings and their associated pianos were fully capable of reproducing the tiniest dynamic whisper and the loudest clanging note, therefore recording the song EXACTLY as Gershwin played it. Essentially, he was playing into the piano, which served as a complete recording device.
Second, it is ridiculous to assume that the maudlin music that was the product of the early sheet music industry was as a result of the predominance of women pianists - the women played the music they could buy, and if all they could buy was sappy, emotional music, then that was what they played. It was also stated that devotional and religious sheet music was popular - are we to assume that every female pianist was also devoted to the church and spent most of her time pining away for Jesus? Get over it.
Incidentally, you can't improvise with you cd player like you can with your piano, and it takes specialised equipment to make a new sound out of a cd, whilst it takes only imagination to create something new out of the sheet music in front of you. I feel the Piano - CD - Sheet music distribution analogy to be spread a little thin here.
Onwership/trademark of common word in an online context is ridiculous. Not being able to name a directory/referee on a website is ridiculous. I am going to register as many ereferee and referee domans as possible, and rename all of my directories referee1, referee2, etc. I encourage you to do the same.
Slashdot Mirror
Once again, Katz opens his Great Big Book of the Internet, scans through the glossary of terms and picks a random word to expound upon for 3000 words. Too bad his edition was printed in 1996.
Oh well, at least he didn't reach for his Great Big Book of Social Indignation.
Now that's my idea of an office with a view.
Actually, I am not American, nor do I live in the U.S....but I get your point.
Every
Probable
;)
If Ma Bell was listening to my phone calls to see if I was committing a crime, I would simply get 2 cans and an extremely long string. There is no way this can be defended ethically: Because they provide you with a service, as a corporation, they can legally observe and log every detail of enery task you use the service to complete? While a nation's highways may belong to the federal government, they still need probable cause to stop you and "observe" what you have under the seat of your car, or in the trunk. This complete circumvention of probably cause is ludicrous. As stated above: Imagine if the phone company did this!
AmEx has no credit limit......
Actually, there is a program out there that adds scratches and pops to mp3's and wav files to sound like vinyl - it's called Vinyl Cafe or something like that, look for it on download.com.....
Additionally, the goal of compressed audio is not to replace cd's, but to aid in the dissemination of audio data, or music. Whichever technology has grassroots appeal and is more importantly free, will be embraced by the millions of people who use audio compression everyday, leaving higher-end solutions to professionals and audiophiles. This is illustrated well in the audio hardware industry: How many people have 20 000 dollar sound systems, or DVD audio collections? Not enough to be more than a niche market. This has been previously discussed on Slashdot....
Unreasonable behaviour is definitely a human characteristic, but that really has nothing to with artificial intelligence. What are you trying to do: Create an artificial human, or an artificial self-aware entity that can think on its own? I agree with your comment about spewing out facts, and that the AI would need the ability to explore, make mistakes, and learn from them, rather than having programmed prohibitions from engaging in activities it is not 100 percent certain about. However, I think it is dangerous to assume that humans and the human method of thought is somehow the holy grail of AI. When we encounter alien races, they are most likely not going to think as we do, and what is more alien than a pile of microprocessors? I think we should welcome the opportunity to create entities who possess thought processes entirely outside our experience. Unless of course, AI programmers are obssessed with some kind of "in his own image" god complex.
I realize that it was *union membership* that voted the union leaders down from their strike mandate. This suggests to me that the union leaders did not represent the true demands of their membership, and as such, are serving no true purpose. They are not objective, merely very focused on their one goal, which is to get X percentage from the Treasury Board.
I work for the Canadian government in the tech industry, and as such I am forced to join a union. As health care is free in Canada, paid for by taxes, and as my employer already has a decent dental and vision package, I am receiving no benefits from being part of this union, other than a 10 percent discount in car insurance that in no way makes up for my union dues. Additionally, to demonstrate how ineffective a tech union is at the government level, my union has spent the last 1.5 years "negotiating" with the Treasury Board of Canada for a 12 percent salary increase, and recently had their strike mandate repudiated when members chose to accept a 7 - 11 percent raise over 2 years. Meanwhile, several other groups of government workers had salary increases of 20 percent or more. It seems that even while representing highly skilled workers who can dem,and large salaries in the private sector, the union was laughably useless in advancing my salary and benefits with the feds, who can merely legislate me back into work if I should choose to strike anyway. Union meetings I have attended were devoid of any real discussion and instead replete with rhetoric and bitterness. I really wish I could opt out of my union.
So, instead of having a glob of capital do our thinking for us, we are going to have a web community do our thinking for us? Why not just try doing a little research on your own? It's not like musical history is locked up in a musty grimoire - check out which bands influenced other bands, what performers were style contemporaries, and where new bands are coming from. Think for yourself, experiment, and find out what YOU like, instead of finding another proxy.
I must take exception to 2 of the rather broad strokes painted in the above article: First of all, player pianos were not all crude instruments incapable of producing anything other than a mono-volume mechanical reproductions of sounds. I have in my cubicle a fine CD collection fo George Gershwin's piano rolls which were recorded for playback on the Duo-Art and Welte roll, otherwise known as reproducing rolls. These paper recordings and their associated pianos were fully capable of reproducing the tiniest dynamic whisper and the loudest clanging note, therefore recording the song EXACTLY as Gershwin played it. Essentially, he was playing into the piano, which served as a complete recording device. Second, it is ridiculous to assume that the maudlin music that was the product of the early sheet music industry was as a result of the predominance of women pianists - the women played the music they could buy, and if all they could buy was sappy, emotional music, then that was what they played. It was also stated that devotional and religious sheet music was popular - are we to assume that every female pianist was also devoted to the church and spent most of her time pining away for Jesus? Get over it. Incidentally, you can't improvise with you cd player like you can with your piano, and it takes specialised equipment to make a new sound out of a cd, whilst it takes only imagination to create something new out of the sheet music in front of you. I feel the Piano - CD - Sheet music distribution analogy to be spread a little thin here.
Onwership/trademark of common word in an online context is ridiculous. Not being able to name a directory /referee on a website is ridiculous. I am going to register as many ereferee and referee domans as possible, and rename all of my directories referee1, referee2, etc. I encourage you to do the same.