Robin Hanson, professor of Economics at George Mason, who has also done some work with physics, has a page that might be of interest to anyone who likes this sort of thing, called "Fourteen Wild Idea." See http://hanson.gmu.edu/wildideas.html
I look forward to the day when contacts act as a heads-up display. They just keep on getting more and more high-tech, so that seems like the most obvious end result. Just today, I found out that Cibavision is marketing contact lenses to improve tennis performance.
Well, I agree with the basic idea of your argument, but, otoh, if a new technology really did doom humanity to extiction or worse, who would be around to know about it?
Maybe with Genetic Engineering we'll be able to eliminate the stupid gene. (That statement may set off a firestorm.)
It already did -- James Watson, one of the orgininal discoverers of DNA, said what basically boils down to exactly that earlier this year, and it was quite controversial. See http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns999 93451
This could really give MS quite a bit of leverage if it ever needed it - "Upgrade now, get 50 free songs for Windows Media Player" or some such thing. I could possibly even be tied in to some future service like X-Box live.
Since the article says "Many amateur drag racers stop at simply removing the passenger's seat and spare tire, but we remove everything: headliner, sunroof, carpet, dashboard, six-disc in-dash CD changer." Would I be correct in assuming this sort of thing is actually relatively common?
As long as we're on the topic, I suppose I should mention that Print On Demand megacenter CafePress has gotten in on the music publishing game. They also do data CDs. Sort of like MP3.com does, only without any self-promotion that I've noticed, since they're not actually a music site. That should help at least a few artists that want to "self"-publish.
They also do data CDs, and they're planning on doing POD publications (books) in the future. Cool. They're the ones that used to make Megatokyo T-shirts before Thinkgeek took over.
Say what? This would only be true if you had to purchase stock as a cost-of-living. It's not, it's an investment. While there might be a relationship between a rising cost-of-living and a bull market, it's not a direct one -- people (normally) don't go out and buy stock just for the heck of it.
So, did he win tons of money for our favorite organization? How did he do?:) The EFF apparently got $10,000 just because he showed up. I tried searching the comments for "win" but didn't find anything.
I think your history is a bit messed up, unless there have been developments I haven't heard of. The last time I checked (which was actually a year or two ago) Steve Grand was working at Cyberlife Research (http://www.cyberlife-research.com/). He had left Creature Labs, formerly known as Cyberlife, to pursue more academic and serious ventures. There were also rumors of internal politics and so on in CL, but nothing solid of which I am aware.
Seriously, I used to hang out on alt.games.creatures -- they must be going ape over there now, although oddly I see no mention of this in that group on google. JRChat too. (Creatures Labs is the maker of the "Creatures" series of video games.)
OT: I think that newsgroup has the longest single consecutive running internet discussion ever: "[JNCOBOY] EVERYONE READ!!!! " Google lists almost 5000 posts archived, and it's been going since sometime in the mid-90's, IIRC. I guess that's the stability of USENET for you.
Conspiracy buffs have been claiming that the NSA, or scary government organization of your choice, has had technology of this exact sort for several years. I remember reading a "report" on it back in '98 or so. See http://www.angelfire.com/nj/kristinashomepage/soun d.html for a more recent bit on the subject. It has a more insidious use for this technology not mentioned here:
A person could be tricked into thinking
that God is speaking to them, for example. Depending on the targeted person's state of mind, he or she could be manipulated into doing something that he or she would not normally do.
But public domain software might not actually meet the OSI definition. A public domain binary would not meet condition #2 "The program must include source code". That, and public domain is greatly misunderstood AND not really a license. Even the FSF isn't too fond of public domain software, albeit for the same reason they aren't too fond of BSD-style liscences.
Slashdot Mirror
Robin Hanson, professor of Economics at George Mason, who has also done some work with physics, has a page that might be of interest to anyone who likes this sort of thing, called "Fourteen Wild Idea." See http://hanson.gmu.edu/wildideas.html
I look forward to the day when contacts act as a heads-up display. They just keep on getting more and more high-tech, so that seems like the most obvious end result. Just today, I found out that Cibavision is marketing contact lenses to improve tennis performance.
"Harvester Approaching"? Sounds more like Homeworld than Star Trek to me.
A small nitpick, but names are trademarked, and creative works are copyrighted.
Well, I agree with the basic idea of your argument, but, otoh, if a new technology really did doom humanity to extiction or worse, who would be around to know about it?
Maybe with Genetic Engineering we'll be able to eliminate the stupid gene. (That statement may set off a firestorm.)
9 93451
It already did -- James Watson, one of the orgininal discoverers of DNA, said what basically boils down to exactly that earlier this year, and it was quite controversial. See http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99
Don't care as much? Maybe. Don't care? Hardly. How many X-boxes are businesses going to buy? How many are going to use MSN for internet access?
It seems like everyone wants to buy Universal.
This could really give MS quite a bit of leverage if it ever needed it - "Upgrade now, get 50 free songs for Windows Media Player" or some such thing. I could possibly even be tied in to some future service like X-Box live.
It's obvious and clever at the same time.
Since the article says "Many amateur drag racers stop at simply removing the passenger's seat and spare tire, but we remove everything: headliner, sunroof, carpet, dashboard, six-disc in-dash CD changer." Would I be correct in assuming this sort of thing is actually relatively common?
:)
Or is that part of the humor?
They also do data CDs, and they're planning on doing POD publications (books) in the future. Cool. They're the ones that used to make Megatokyo T-shirts before Thinkgeek took over.
That makes a fine joke: What do you get when you combine a church, a brewery, and a laundromat?
Inflammable means flammable? What a country...
I'm sure they'll make an exception for someone like that, provided his ID can be verified.
Say what? This would only be true if you had to purchase stock as a cost-of-living. It's not, it's an investment. While there might be a relationship between a rising cost-of-living and a bull market, it's not a direct one -- people (normally) don't go out and buy stock just for the heck of it.
No faster. Being a window manager, it should run on top of X, much like Sawfish.
There's even a link to http://www.xfree86.org on the site.
So, did he win tons of money for our favorite organization? How did he do? :) The EFF apparently got $10,000 just because he showed up. I tried searching the comments for "win" but didn't find anything.
Huh? That seems like something completely different to me.
I think your history is a bit messed up, unless there have been developments I haven't heard of. The last time I checked (which was actually a year or two ago) Steve Grand was working at Cyberlife Research (http://www.cyberlife-research.com/). He had left Creature Labs, formerly known as Cyberlife, to pursue more academic and serious ventures. There were also rumors of internal politics and so on in CL, but nothing solid of which I am aware.
You just need a really small refrig!
Seriously, you walked right into that one. :)
Omni Consumer Products is proud to introduce its latest Terms of Service enforcement technology -- The Modbot 9000!
That reminds me of the Dave Barry line about France declaring war on itself at the beginning of WWI.
Seriously, I used to hang out on alt.games.creatures -- they must be going ape over there now, although oddly I see no mention of this in that group on google. JRChat too.
(Creatures Labs is the maker of the "Creatures" series of video games.)
OT: I think that newsgroup has the longest single consecutive running internet discussion ever: "[JNCOBOY] EVERYONE READ!!!! " Google lists almost 5000 posts archived, and it's been going since sometime in the mid-90's, IIRC. I guess that's the stability of USENET for you.
But public domain software might not actually meet the OSI definition. A public domain binary would not meet condition #2 "The program must include source code". That, and public domain is greatly misunderstood AND not really a license. Even the FSF isn't too fond of public domain software, albeit for the same reason they aren't too fond of BSD-style liscences.