As robots such as these become cheaper and more functional, hopefully people will begin to view them as valid alternatives to pets and children.
Pets tend to be waste-producing and ill-behaved, a little robot programmed to perform simple tricks seems vastly superior. Also, owners would never have trouble with their robots fighting each other - or if they did, they could turn them off.
While some people truly do see the need to bring a miniature version of them self into the world, I suspect that many child-bearers are simply bored with the house being so quiet. These people would be perfectly served by a rambunctious little robot programmed to perform simple acts of mischief. One wouldn't have to worry about all the property damage and liability inherent to real children, and these robots would never complain about going to bed.
Do you want to beat your robot? Go right ahead - nobody's business if you do. Also, robots, like children, can be turned off. However, the legal implications of turning a robot off are much smaller.
Finally, the largest edge that robots have over both pets and children is the lack of crap. Anyone who has had either will know that both pets and children produce far too much crap. Robots, though, could be programmed to produce none at all.
Microsoft's very own @Home service will no doubt be streaming video of their demise to thousands of households.
Except, nobody will watch. Why? Because nobody cares, and why should they? Most people are happy with Microsoft products, but a little disgruntled by their size and wealth. Net effect - a cancellation of interests.
It's unfortunate that Oracle and Sun were able to potentially destroy a company that in most respects is no worse than they, and whose product is much more appreciated by most consumers. The monopoly line has been bullshit from the start. There are plenty of competitors to Microsoft and always have been. However, none of these competitors have been as good at meeting customer's needs.
I'm not interested in court proceedings, and probably will not watch, but it would be interesting to see the courts used yet again as a tool to appease jealousy.
I've been overclocking PC's for seven years, and I've never needed a special case.
You're much better off just saving your money for more useful computing equipment - or, god forbid, something actually important - than buying a fancy case so you can feel leet.
That being said, I have a friend who bought one of these cases, and although he was happy with it at first, it developed stress fractures after a few months. Now, he's very hard on cases (moves his machine a lot and such) but that still seems like a very short lifespan.
For years, both scientists and fiction writers have assumed that contact with an intelligent species would come from the stars. Perhaps they've been wrong all along.
Test given to dolphins indicate a high degree of both spatial and linguistic intelligence - a combination that was once thought to be the exclusive domain of human beings. Further, dolphins demonstrate highly structured social orders, and variations in culture between dolphins from different geographical regions.
A common language has the potential to finally force mankind to stop treating the earth as its own, and realize that we share it with many other creatures - some perhaps as advanced as we are.
Seriously, though, this is what Napster needs to legitimize its service. For years, Napster has been the equivalent of a smuggler's hideout, filled with law-breaking malcontents. However, with the advent of content tracking and protection, Naspter can ally itself with the music industry instead of being perpetually at odds with it.
I want the convenience of downloadable music as much as anyone, but I am not willing to steal from artists just for my own convenience. I welcome any legitimacy and legality that Napster can bring to online music trading.
GStreamer and similar pieces of software have the potential to turn Linux into the ultimate intellectual property piracy platform - if not in reallity, at least in the eyes of the RIAA and MPAA.
I am not certain what to make of this, really. On the one hand, I appreciate the opportunity to have better multimedia on my Linux machines. However, I think that the community needs to be more cautious when producing programs that have the potential to be used for piracy.
Software authors are themselves producers of intellectual property, and they have the moral obligation to assure that their programs are not used to steal the property and livelyhood of others. I simply don't see that the authors of GStreamer have taken even the barest precautions to assure this.
X-Rays have been proven to cause cancer even when used by professional physicians. Putting them in the hands of every-day individuals is highly irresponsible.
Our urban environments are already wrought with dangers in the form of guns and drugs. Do we really need gangs roving the streets with high-powered x-ray devices? I think the answer is obviously no, we do not.
The privacy implications are also troubling. Now, with complete lack of regard to my safety or rights, people can install x-ray machines anywhere - in parks, streets, or their homes.
I hope the government moves quickly and bans these devices, before their proliferation leads to certain harm.
This may be wonderful for research, but it could be deadly for marine life.
Already, many forms of animal life in the ocean suffer from contact with man-made non-biodegradable membranes (e.g. baloons). Can we in good conscience send even more of these deadly devices into the wild? I'm concerned that the sheer size of these balloons has the potential to negatively impact many many animals - especially if they are deployed in number.
I don't wish to give more importance to this issue than it warrants, but I a believe that consequences to marine life should've been more carefully considered.
Modems served their purpose, but the gaming industry needs to do its part to encourage even wider availibility of broadband.
As long as people don't feel that they need a broadband connection, there will be areas serviced only by dialup. There is no practical reason that the entire country can't have cheap broadband - the providers just need a little encouragement.
The most responsible thing for developers to do is to completely ignore modems. Once we all do that, they'll go away like a bad dream.
At Sourceforge I am beginning an open source pool simulation project, and this information is exactly what I was needing.
I had already spent a few days at a pool table making measurments with a ruler to figure out the physics of pool, but this will save me years of work. The project, by the way, is called X-Pool and I am very interested in recruiting developers.
Python has always been a superior language to Perl, and its availibility on Palm should encourage its adoption substantially.
I predict that soon businesses will begin running web sites based on Palm-hosted Python CGI scripts. Beyond even the business sector, the low price of Palm computing devices will open up CGI programming to many home users that have been intimidated by using Perl on Unix style OS's.
I'm not surprised by the RIAA's decision even if I don't necessarily agree with it. After all, the RIAA truly does believe that they would make more money methods did not exist of distributing their content for free. They may even be correct.
Further more, the RIAA isn't without legal grounds. The fact is, the OpenNap servers are indeed facilitating the transfer of illegally copied material. Even worse, that's almost all they're used for.
Think of a speakeasy during the prohibition. Their purpose was to serve alcohol, and serving a glass or two of orange juice now and then didn't absolve them of legal responsibility. These OpenNap servers are the same way. The operators know that illegal material is going to be transferred through them. In fact, they know that their primary use will be for piracy.
You may not like the RIAA, but going after these servers is perfectly reasonable from their point of view.
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As robots such as these become cheaper and more functional, hopefully people will begin to view them as valid alternatives to pets and children.
Pets tend to be waste-producing and ill-behaved, a little robot programmed to perform simple tricks seems vastly superior. Also, owners would never have trouble with their robots fighting each other - or if they did, they could turn them off.
While some people truly do see the need to bring a miniature version of them self into the world, I suspect that many child-bearers are simply bored with the house being so quiet. These people would be perfectly served by a rambunctious little robot programmed to perform simple acts of mischief. One wouldn't have to worry about all the property damage and liability inherent to real children, and these robots would never complain about going to bed.
Do you want to beat your robot? Go right ahead - nobody's business if you do. Also, robots, like children, can be turned off. However, the legal implications of turning a robot off are much smaller.
Finally, the largest edge that robots have over both pets and children is the lack of crap. Anyone who has had either will know that both pets and children produce far too much crap. Robots, though, could be programmed to produce none at all.
- qpt
Microsoft's very own @Home service will no doubt be streaming video of their demise to thousands of households.
Except, nobody will watch. Why? Because nobody cares, and why should they? Most people are happy with Microsoft products, but a little disgruntled by their size and wealth. Net effect - a cancellation of interests.
It's unfortunate that Oracle and Sun were able to potentially destroy a company that in most respects is no worse than they, and whose product is much more appreciated by most consumers. The monopoly line has been bullshit from the start. There are plenty of competitors to Microsoft and always have been. However, none of these competitors have been as good at meeting customer's needs.
I'm not interested in court proceedings, and probably will not watch, but it would be interesting to see the courts used yet again as a tool to appease jealousy.
- qpt
I've been overclocking PC's for seven years, and I've never needed a special case.
You're much better off just saving your money for more useful computing equipment - or, god forbid, something actually important - than buying a fancy case so you can feel leet.
That being said, I have a friend who bought one of these cases, and although he was happy with it at first, it developed stress fractures after a few months. Now, he's very hard on cases (moves his machine a lot and such) but that still seems like a very short lifespan.
- qpt
For years, both scientists and fiction writers have assumed that contact with an intelligent species would come from the stars. Perhaps they've been wrong all along.
Test given to dolphins indicate a high degree of both spatial and linguistic intelligence - a combination that was once thought to be the exclusive domain of human beings. Further, dolphins demonstrate highly structured social orders, and variations in culture between dolphins from different geographical regions.
A common language has the potential to finally force mankind to stop treating the earth as its own, and realize that we share it with many other creatures - some perhaps as advanced as we are.
- qpt
It sounds like a condom.
Seriously, though, this is what Napster needs to legitimize its service. For years, Napster has been the equivalent of a smuggler's hideout, filled with law-breaking malcontents. However, with the advent of content tracking and protection, Naspter can ally itself with the music industry instead of being perpetually at odds with it.
I want the convenience of downloadable music as much as anyone, but I am not willing to steal from artists just for my own convenience. I welcome any legitimacy and legality that Napster can bring to online music trading.
- qpt
GStreamer and similar pieces of software have the potential to turn Linux into the ultimate intellectual property piracy platform - if not in reallity, at least in the eyes of the RIAA and MPAA.
I am not certain what to make of this, really. On the one hand, I appreciate the opportunity to have better multimedia on my Linux machines. However, I think that the community needs to be more cautious when producing programs that have the potential to be used for piracy.
Software authors are themselves producers of intellectual property, and they have the moral obligation to assure that their programs are not used to steal the property and livelyhood of others. I simply don't see that the authors of GStreamer have taken even the barest precautions to assure this.
- qpt
X-Rays have been proven to cause cancer even when used by professional physicians. Putting them in the hands of every-day individuals is highly irresponsible.
Our urban environments are already wrought with dangers in the form of guns and drugs. Do we really need gangs roving the streets with high-powered x-ray devices? I think the answer is obviously no, we do not.
The privacy implications are also troubling. Now, with complete lack of regard to my safety or rights, people can install x-ray machines anywhere - in parks, streets, or their homes.
I hope the government moves quickly and bans these devices, before their proliferation leads to certain harm.
- qpt
This may be wonderful for research, but it could be deadly for marine life.
Already, many forms of animal life in the ocean suffer from contact with man-made non-biodegradable membranes (e.g. baloons). Can we in good conscience send even more of these deadly devices into the wild? I'm concerned that the sheer size of these balloons has the potential to negatively impact many many animals - especially if they are deployed in number.
I don't wish to give more importance to this issue than it warrants, but I a believe that consequences to marine life should've been more carefully considered.
- qpt
Modems served their purpose, but the gaming industry needs to do its part to encourage even wider availibility of broadband.
As long as people don't feel that they need a broadband connection, there will be areas serviced only by dialup. There is no practical reason that the entire country can't have cheap broadband - the providers just need a little encouragement.
The most responsible thing for developers to do is to completely ignore modems. Once we all do that, they'll go away like a bad dream.
- qpt
At Sourceforge I am beginning an open source pool simulation project, and this information is exactly what I was needing.
I had already spent a few days at a pool table making measurments with a ruler to figure out the physics of pool, but this will save me years of work. The project, by the way, is called X-Pool and I am very interested in recruiting developers.
- qpt
Python has always been a superior language to Perl, and its availibility on Palm should encourage its adoption substantially.
I predict that soon businesses will begin running web sites based on Palm-hosted Python CGI scripts. Beyond even the business sector, the low price of Palm computing devices will open up CGI programming to many home users that have been intimidated by using Perl on Unix style OS's.
- qpt
I'm not surprised by the RIAA's decision even if I don't necessarily agree with it. After all, the RIAA truly does believe that they would make more money methods did not exist of distributing their content for free. They may even be correct.
Further more, the RIAA isn't without legal grounds. The fact is, the OpenNap servers are indeed facilitating the transfer of illegally copied material. Even worse, that's almost all they're used for.
Think of a speakeasy during the prohibition. Their purpose was to serve alcohol, and serving a glass or two of orange juice now and then didn't absolve them of legal responsibility. These OpenNap servers are the same way. The operators know that illegal material is going to be transferred through them. In fact, they know that their primary use will be for piracy.
You may not like the RIAA, but going after these servers is perfectly reasonable from their point of view.
- qpt