... and should we even regard such creations as living?
Why not just refer to them as "autonomous bio-chemical machines" and simply avoid the philosophical overhead that is sure to come from claiming you are frankensteining artificial creatures in some dark laboratory located in our back yard?
I'd question if "Life" is soon going to be someone's registered trademark, but apparently Mikey already squatted it a few decades ago...
Then what are they doing that specifically requires the internet? There's plenty of offline materials available for computers that don't require more than a couple brain cells to use.
And what exactly are they learning on the internet that can't be replicated on a private network? (Aside from the unnecessary and self-explanatory social engineering stuff that *already* causes students to hand in english assignments written entirely in instant messenging shorthand.)
Seriously, it may sound extreme, but what reason is there to have it when schools should have all the necessary information on whatever subjects are being taught within the boundaries of the school property? Training? It's not like the school can't just run an internal internet of their own where they control 100% of the content used on it! Current events and information retrieval? Just have the teachers pre-cache the appropriate content ahead of time for later offline viewing!
With so many possible ways to teach about the internet without actually having to use the real internet, there's no need to put yourself into positions like this.
Well, if they get really desperate for new content, they do have the entire 18+ years of Gameboy titles all the way up to the GBA they can tap into. (Mario Land 2 would probably do pretty well, as would the gameboy versions of Zelda.)
Even better, set up this extention so it can handle multiple calls. Then, just have the CD play until an additional telemarketer call is forwarded to it. Then, have the system auto-connect the calls to each other, so both ends think they're talking to representatives of your company and let them go rounds with each other for a while. (You could also have something like that kirk/spock fight-to-the-death music play in the background.
Never in the history of mankind have children been monitored so heavily from so many different points of observation. By participating in such actions, we've effectively criminalized our children and all people in the world around them. In some ways, it's almost a perfect representation of a post-9/11 United States... only to a far more extreme level.
If you think we've already lost much of our civil rights to our government under the guise of "protection", just wait until the next generation, who have never even had the chance to experience true freedom and also see constant monitoring/surveillance as normal, begin to take over. Our limit of "acceptable" loss of freedoms in exchange for security will likely end up being dwarfed by whatever legislation our children come up with. Be prepared for nothing short of curfews and martial law with severe penalties for violations.
Since we're probably going to allow this pointless lawsuit, perhaps Apple should consider citing the need for a "white" light source in their displays as being justification enough for their underhanded use of dithering. (At least until the electromagnetic spectrum spontaneously decides to start including a "white light" frequency in it's line-up...)
While the author of this thread was probably joking, I have posed the same question in a far more serious manner... how long until the US starts handing out capital punishment sentences for piracy?
If you think about it, we already have laws in place that can land a hacker into prison longer than most murder convicts face in cases where capital punishment isn't handed out.
Next, the "war on drugs" has now been spun into a part of the "war on terror" due to claims that drug money funds terrorist groups... which could, under some definitions, be deemed an act of treason against the US, and could be used to dish out death sentences just for selling a few bags of pot. Given the kind of power the RIAA/MPAA/etc... seem to have over our government (and even law enforcement), all that would be needed is a way to tie piracy to terrorism (like, say, a major piracy server hosted by suspected terrorists, in an effort to both fund their cause and to cause our tech and entertainment industries to collapse...) and you may soon find yourself convicted of treason while members of the RIAA/MPAA get to watch your sentence be carried out... only to later make an example of you. Perhaps an ad that depicts a skeleton strapped to an electric chair while holding a computer mouse with a tagline like "Piracy isn't just a crime, it's an act of treason."... followed by a view of dirt being shovelled on top of you from within a grave, maybe? How about "Piracy... no longer a victimless crime." with a corpse in a casket, covered in bootleg dvds/cds/etc.
We may not be at that point yet, but it probably isn't as far off as we'd like to believe.
Carmageddon used to be a great example of user-modification extending the life of a game. While SCi never initially intended for user modifications, the game itself was so ideal for it that users started creating new vehicles, environments and other game elements... all with their own unique properties. Several communities were founded entirely for modifying Carmageddon content, long before you had The Sims.
By the time SCi began development on Carmageddon: The Death Race, those who had worked on mods to the earlier games were invited to create content for TDR. (I believe one of the alien models in the final version of the game was one I had created and submitted.)
While it is unlikely console games will ever be truly open to external modification, due to concerns over malicious code, it doesn't mean those looking to create content for that audience are out of luck. There are things like that new Xbox Live Arcade developers club available to anyone looking to design console games as an independent developer. If it's good enough, it may be taken in as an official title available to any end user.
Another option, is to get a copy of Flash and try creating something addictive. It's much easier than it sounds, once you understand the basics. If it's easy to use, entertaining and customizeable, you'll be well on your way to creating a hit.
... just don't say "are you sure?" after one of us does manage to explain it. It's annoying enough that you already interrupting our workflow, just to have us decipher your ignorance, so don't push your luck. (Especially if you are underpaying us, or treat us as expendable.)
Looking at the way things are going with the IP "theft" cases, how much longer until these once "civil" cases move beyond simple prison sentences and fines into handing out death sentences as a means of controlling such activity? It certainly wouldn't be impossible to draft such punishment as necessary under our already ill-defined policies for homeland security.
All they would need to do, is figure out a way to link it to terrorism (like we did for the war on drugs), and suddenly you're potentially facing charges of treason against the United States.
Just wait until we fry some poor sap who only made the mistake of selling too much pot. (Which I expect will happen in the next couple years...) Will large-scale pirates be voiding their bowels at the thought of their own execution being witnessed by members of the RIAA/MPAA? (Especially since they can already tamper with a crime scene unopposed during a raid and are also able to dance around the RICO Act while they hold your future hostage, without any solid evidence that you've committed a crime at all...)
People have been joking about leaving the country to escape the madness for some time. However, the novelty has faded over time.
Knowing the type person Miyamoto is, combined the harsh realities of failure within a company like Nintendo, where making a bad decision can land you into a "window seat" position, effectively locking you out of any future projects within the company (like what happened to the creator of the original Gameboy, following the massive failure of his VirtualBoy project), I believe the point intended was that he needs to be innovative for Nintendo to survive within the company. If Miyamoto ever gets to the point of only rehashing the same crap over and over, without including some highly innovative twist in each new version of (insert game title here), Nintendo wouldn't think twice about putting him out to pasture.
Nintendo is over a century old, and operates in an almost mafia-like context. If you can't serve the family well, you may as well just be dead to them. No American game developer could understand this concept, since our culture doesn't follow the idea that we should strive to bring honor to our employers (outside of honoring the almighty dollar).
I don't get it... why are they claiming the 360 is somehow imposing limitations on a game's design? Hasn't it always been developer policy to create software for the least common denominator (ie, a 360 sans hard drive) first and *then* add extra features for more powerful systems afterwards?
If I had to guess, it sounds like they are testing the waters, seeing if the 360's multiple configuration can be used as a viable scapegoat, should the developers miss the deadline they publicly set for themselves.
Sure, the PS3 fanboys are probably eating this up now, but will they be chomping at the bit later on, if it turns out the delays were actually caused by the nightmares involved in developing for the PS3?
Can you be charged with a felony for engaging in a Second Life simulated avatar on avatar sex act with a minor, even if the minor in question misrepresented themselves to you in the game? Kinda makes the whole simulated sex scene a bit unnerving... even with things like credit card verification in place.
Should website defacement be treated as "rape" too? Rape is rarely done for purely sexual reasons, but is instead done as a way of demonstrating one's own power over another to the point of violating that person's body directly. If it's possible to extend rape to an avatar used by a person, why not a website they use as well?
Having a site you've worked hard on get "h4x0r3d" or "pwn3d" by an unauthorizd person or group, just because "they could" is a pretty clear example of abuse through perversion of power.
If he had also implimented a Wii Remote hack to control the game with! Feels just like a real gun!
Sad times for this country though, considering my highschool used to allow LAN parties of Marathon before and after school across the school's network.
Ever since I first heard of the iPhone, I have been predicting we'll eventually see entire landfills full of the things, right next to the Lisa and all those Atari 2600 ET game cartridges.
The iPhone is simply too limiting due to the ties to AT&T/Cingulair's crappy wireless networking service and the lack of support for third-party software outside of Apple's circle. The iPhone's "Mac OS X" is not really "Mac OS X" if it can't protect itself from malicious 3rd party code. However, I believe this is more about imposing limits on how the user can use the network connection, as third party apps may not "phone home" their network/bandwidth usage to Apple or use Apple-approved services that Apple can directly bill the user for.
In the meanwhile, iPod owners are going to start expecting these features on the G6 iPods, which Apple will be forced to avoid offering to prevent cutting into the iPhone's market. At its fullest potential, an iPhone-style iPod/PDA could potentially allow 3rd party development outside of Apple's circle, since there is no extra Apple services to support outside of 802.11 wifi connections to ITMS and itunes host systems on the local network.
The iPhone will only last as long as the initial "cool" factor is in effect. Once the reality of its limitations set in, very few people will buy one. Most services that support your average Palm Treo unit will offer better service plans and will support 3rd party software without extra charges for it. It seems unlikely the iPhone will ever follow suit.
It frustrates me to no end when I hear people taking rumors of XBox 360 owners who have gone through 3 or more replacements and automatically assuming it must be true and all cases were Microsoft's fault. Yes, the first launch systems had issues with a couple machines here and there, but the problem has been nowhere near the level some people would like to fantasize.
I still have my first generation 360 from the original launch supply and have had none of these issues. Perhaps that is unusual in some circles, but maybe it's because I take care of my system and keep its area open and free from dust. I have no fancy add-on fans or other external modifications on the unit... it's simply the same exact setup rhat came out of the box the day I got it.
It's kind of hard to accurately simulate something you don't fully understand. It's kind of like creating a simulated "god" that can create a universe and seeing whether or not the results match up to the real thing, as a method of validating intelligent design.
A better alternative would be to extract the entire nervous system and inputs (eyes, ears, etc...) from a mouse and suspend it in a test tube environment similar to what was seen in RoboCop 2, then create synthetic read-only linkages to every neuron in the brain and building up some sort of relational database of neuron-to-neuron activity, relative to various forms of sensory input and a baseline "idle" state, and extracting patterns from it.
Once you can isolate the predictable pattern sets, then you can attempt non-biological simulations. Then, it's just a matter of running the same sensory information through the simulation and the real thing to see if they react similarly.
As far as crazy ideas like "storing the human mind" on a computer... probably not likely to happen. The human mind rarely remembers any event exactly the same way each time and very likely uses a highly variable mix of compression and psychological interpretation to extract the data back into short term (conscious) memory.
Seriously, this has to be one of the greatest scams in human history next to religion.
Got a problem? Make up an unenforceable law to combat it! It makes you look like you're actually doing something worthwhile without exerting any real effort. And, if anyone calls you on it, all you have to do is claim they must just be "light on crime" as a convinient dodge.
Don't know about you guys, but I keep a Silicon Graphics Indigo2 R10K 195MHz/MaxImpact workstation under my bed for my own nostalgic purposes. Back in my college days, the machines were so obscenely expensive (around $40,000 per unit), you had to have special security clearance just to get near one, let alone the room with all eight units.
Of course, the system itself has lost much of the luster over the years, when you consider that current desktop computers (and even game consoles) are able to do in realtime what would have taken several days/weeks to achieve on the older hardware.
Yet, it's still satisfying to know I finally have one of the very machines I once envied others for having access to.
The Lego Mindstorms kits have been around for a while now, but they offer almost infinite possibilities to those willing to experiment with different approaches to accomplishing a particular goal. Devices as complicated as photocopiers have been built using these kits.
The VEX kits are fairly new compared to the Lego Mindstorms sets, but are a bit more advanced and could be dubbed as an "Erector Set", but with a brain. The VEX kits were developed in part by FIRST and were briefly distributed by Radio Shack in a move to get more people interested in robotics.
Slashdot Mirror
... and should we even regard such creations as living?
Why not just refer to them as "autonomous bio-chemical machines" and simply avoid the philosophical overhead that is sure to come from claiming you are frankensteining artificial creatures in some dark laboratory located in our back yard?
I'd question if "Life" is soon going to be someone's registered trademark, but apparently Mikey already squatted it a few decades ago...
Then what are they doing that specifically requires the internet? There's plenty of offline materials available for computers that don't require more than a couple brain cells to use.
And what exactly are they learning on the internet that can't be replicated on a private network? (Aside from the unnecessary and self-explanatory social engineering stuff that *already* causes students to hand in english assignments written entirely in instant messenging shorthand.)
Don't use the internet in schools!
Seriously, it may sound extreme, but what reason is there to have it when schools should have all the necessary information on whatever subjects are being taught within the boundaries of the school property? Training? It's not like the school can't just run an internal internet of their own where they control 100% of the content used on it! Current events and information retrieval? Just have the teachers pre-cache the appropriate content ahead of time for later offline viewing!
With so many possible ways to teach about the internet without actually having to use the real internet, there's no need to put yourself into positions like this.
Well, if they get really desperate for new content, they do have the entire 18+ years of Gameboy titles all the way up to the GBA they can tap into. (Mario Land 2 would probably do pretty well, as would the gameboy versions of Zelda.)
Even better, set up this extention so it can handle multiple calls. Then, just have the CD play until an additional telemarketer call is forwarded to it. Then, have the system auto-connect the calls to each other, so both ends think they're talking to representatives of your company and let them go rounds with each other for a while. (You could also have something like that kirk/spock fight-to-the-death music play in the background.
Never in the history of mankind have children been monitored so heavily from so many different points of observation. By participating in such actions, we've effectively criminalized our children and all people in the world around them. In some ways, it's almost a perfect representation of a post-9/11 United States... only to a far more extreme level.
If you think we've already lost much of our civil rights to our government under the guise of "protection", just wait until the next generation, who have never even had the chance to experience true freedom and also see constant monitoring/surveillance as normal, begin to take over. Our limit of "acceptable" loss of freedoms in exchange for security will likely end up being dwarfed by whatever legislation our children come up with. Be prepared for nothing short of curfews and martial law with severe penalties for violations.
We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg here...
Since we're probably going to allow this pointless lawsuit, perhaps Apple should consider citing the need for a "white" light source in their displays as being justification enough for their underhanded use of dithering. (At least until the electromagnetic spectrum spontaneously decides to start including a "white light" frequency in it's line-up...)
Gah, someone actually beat me to it!
"Silicon Spin" was probably the last good thing Dvorak did before he went all psycho on the tech industry.
(Of course, considering the TV abomination that is now "G4", I'd probably go a little psycho too...)
While the author of this thread was probably joking, I have posed the same question in a far more serious manner... how long until the US starts handing out capital punishment sentences for piracy?
If you think about it, we already have laws in place that can land a hacker into prison longer than most murder convicts face in cases where capital punishment isn't handed out.
Next, the "war on drugs" has now been spun into a part of the "war on terror" due to claims that drug money funds terrorist groups... which could, under some definitions, be deemed an act of treason against the US, and could be used to dish out death sentences just for selling a few bags of pot. Given the kind of power the RIAA/MPAA/etc... seem to have over our government (and even law enforcement), all that would be needed is a way to tie piracy to terrorism (like, say, a major piracy server hosted by suspected terrorists, in an effort to both fund their cause and to cause our tech and entertainment industries to collapse...) and you may soon find yourself convicted of treason while members of the RIAA/MPAA get to watch your sentence be carried out... only to later make an example of you. Perhaps an ad that depicts a skeleton strapped to an electric chair while holding a computer mouse with a tagline like "Piracy isn't just a crime, it's an act of treason."... followed by a view of dirt being shovelled on top of you from within a grave, maybe? How about "Piracy... no longer a victimless crime." with a corpse in a casket, covered in bootleg dvds/cds/etc.
We may not be at that point yet, but it probably isn't as far off as we'd like to believe.
After all, death is the ultimate publicity stunt.
Carmageddon used to be a great example of user-modification extending the life of a game. While SCi never initially intended for user modifications, the game itself was so ideal for it that users started creating new vehicles, environments and other game elements... all with their own unique properties. Several communities were founded entirely for modifying Carmageddon content, long before you had The Sims.
By the time SCi began development on Carmageddon: The Death Race, those who had worked on mods to the earlier games were invited to create content for TDR. (I believe one of the alien models in the final version of the game was one I had created and submitted.)
While it is unlikely console games will ever be truly open to external modification, due to concerns over malicious code, it doesn't mean those looking to create content for that audience are out of luck. There are things like that new Xbox Live Arcade developers club available to anyone looking to design console games as an independent developer. If it's good enough, it may be taken in as an official title available to any end user.
Another option, is to get a copy of Flash and try creating something addictive. It's much easier than it sounds, once you understand the basics. If it's easy to use, entertaining and customizeable, you'll be well on your way to creating a hit.
... just don't say "are you sure?" after one of us does manage to explain it. It's annoying enough that you already interrupting our workflow, just to have us decipher your ignorance, so don't push your luck. (Especially if you are underpaying us, or treat us as expendable.)
You might want to start cutting back on the bran early...
It seems they are now trying to make it so that you don't even have to commit the crime to be charged for it.
Looking at the way things are going with the IP "theft" cases, how much longer until these once "civil" cases move beyond simple prison sentences and fines into handing out death sentences as a means of controlling such activity? It certainly wouldn't be impossible to draft such punishment as necessary under our already ill-defined policies for homeland security.
All they would need to do, is figure out a way to link it to terrorism (like we did for the war on drugs), and suddenly you're potentially facing charges of treason against the United States.
Just wait until we fry some poor sap who only made the mistake of selling too much pot. (Which I expect will happen in the next couple years...) Will large-scale pirates be voiding their bowels at the thought of their own execution being witnessed by members of the RIAA/MPAA? (Especially since they can already tamper with a crime scene unopposed during a raid and are also able to dance around the RICO Act while they hold your future hostage, without any solid evidence that you've committed a crime at all...)
People have been joking about leaving the country to escape the madness for some time. However, the novelty has faded over time.
Just remember to find a non-extraditing nation...
Knowing the type person Miyamoto is, combined the harsh realities of failure within a company like Nintendo, where making a bad decision can land you into a "window seat" position, effectively locking you out of any future projects within the company (like what happened to the creator of the original Gameboy, following the massive failure of his VirtualBoy project), I believe the point intended was that he needs to be innovative for Nintendo to survive within the company. If Miyamoto ever gets to the point of only rehashing the same crap over and over, without including some highly innovative twist in each new version of (insert game title here), Nintendo wouldn't think twice about putting him out to pasture.
Nintendo is over a century old, and operates in an almost mafia-like context. If you can't serve the family well, you may as well just be dead to them. No American game developer could understand this concept, since our culture doesn't follow the idea that we should strive to bring honor to our employers (outside of honoring the almighty dollar).
I don't get it... why are they claiming the 360 is somehow imposing limitations on a game's design? Hasn't it always been developer policy to create software for the least common denominator (ie, a 360 sans hard drive) first and *then* add extra features for more powerful systems afterwards?
If I had to guess, it sounds like they are testing the waters, seeing if the 360's multiple configuration can be used as a viable scapegoat, should the developers miss the deadline they publicly set for themselves.
Sure, the PS3 fanboys are probably eating this up now, but will they be chomping at the bit later on, if it turns out the delays were actually caused by the nightmares involved in developing for the PS3?
Can you be charged with a felony for engaging in a Second Life simulated avatar on avatar sex act with a minor, even if the minor in question misrepresented themselves to you in the game? Kinda makes the whole simulated sex scene a bit unnerving... even with things like credit card verification in place.
Should website defacement be treated as "rape" too? Rape is rarely done for purely sexual reasons, but is instead done as a way of demonstrating one's own power over another to the point of violating that person's body directly. If it's possible to extend rape to an avatar used by a person, why not a website they use as well?
Having a site you've worked hard on get "h4x0r3d" or "pwn3d" by an unauthorizd person or group, just because "they could" is a pretty clear example of abuse through perversion of power.
If he had also implimented a Wii Remote hack to control the game with! Feels just like a real gun!
Sad times for this country though, considering my highschool used to allow LAN parties of Marathon before and after school across the school's network.
Ever since I first heard of the iPhone, I have been predicting we'll eventually see entire landfills full of the things, right next to the Lisa and all those Atari 2600 ET game cartridges.
The iPhone is simply too limiting due to the ties to AT&T/Cingulair's crappy wireless networking service and the lack of support for third-party software outside of Apple's circle. The iPhone's "Mac OS X" is not really "Mac OS X" if it can't protect itself from malicious 3rd party code. However, I believe this is more about imposing limits on how the user can use the network connection, as third party apps may not "phone home" their network/bandwidth usage to Apple or use Apple-approved services that Apple can directly bill the user for.
In the meanwhile, iPod owners are going to start expecting these features on the G6 iPods, which Apple will be forced to avoid offering to prevent cutting into the iPhone's market. At its fullest potential, an iPhone-style iPod/PDA could potentially allow 3rd party development outside of Apple's circle, since there is no extra Apple services to support outside of 802.11 wifi connections to ITMS and itunes host systems on the local network.
The iPhone will only last as long as the initial "cool" factor is in effect. Once the reality of its limitations set in, very few people will buy one. Most services that support your average Palm Treo unit will offer better service plans and will support 3rd party software without extra charges for it. It seems unlikely the iPhone will ever follow suit.
It frustrates me to no end when I hear people taking rumors of XBox 360 owners who have gone through 3 or more replacements and automatically assuming it must be true and all cases were Microsoft's fault. Yes, the first launch systems had issues with a couple machines here and there, but the problem has been nowhere near the level some people would like to fantasize.
I still have my first generation 360 from the original launch supply and have had none of these issues. Perhaps that is unusual in some circles, but maybe it's because I take care of my system and keep its area open and free from dust. I have no fancy add-on fans or other external modifications on the unit... it's simply the same exact setup rhat came out of the box the day I got it.
It's kind of hard to accurately simulate something you don't fully understand. It's kind of like creating a simulated "god" that can create a universe and seeing whether or not the results match up to the real thing, as a method of validating intelligent design.
A better alternative would be to extract the entire nervous system and inputs (eyes, ears, etc...) from a mouse and suspend it in a test tube environment similar to what was seen in RoboCop 2, then create synthetic read-only linkages to every neuron in the brain and building up some sort of relational database of neuron-to-neuron activity, relative to various forms of sensory input and a baseline "idle" state, and extracting patterns from it.
Once you can isolate the predictable pattern sets, then you can attempt non-biological simulations. Then, it's just a matter of running the same sensory information through the simulation and the real thing to see if they react similarly.
As far as crazy ideas like "storing the human mind" on a computer... probably not likely to happen. The human mind rarely remembers any event exactly the same way each time and very likely uses a highly variable mix of compression and psychological interpretation to extract the data back into short term (conscious) memory.
Seriously, this has to be one of the greatest scams in human history next to religion.
Got a problem? Make up an unenforceable law to combat it! It makes you look like you're actually doing something worthwhile without exerting any real effort. And, if anyone calls you on it, all you have to do is claim they must just be "light on crime" as a convinient dodge.
Don't know about you guys, but I keep a Silicon Graphics Indigo2 R10K 195MHz/MaxImpact workstation under my bed for my own nostalgic purposes. Back in my college days, the machines were so obscenely expensive (around $40,000 per unit), you had to have special security clearance just to get near one, let alone the room with all eight units.
Of course, the system itself has lost much of the luster over the years, when you consider that current desktop computers (and even game consoles) are able to do in realtime what would have taken several days/weeks to achieve on the older hardware.
Yet, it's still satisfying to know I finally have one of the very machines I once envied others for having access to.
Just for the heck of it, here's a couple robot kits worth a look:
- Lego Mindstorms NXT (note: flash-based site with music)
The Lego Mindstorms kits have been around for a while now, but they offer almost infinite possibilities to those willing to experiment with different approaches to accomplishing a particular goal. Devices as complicated as photocopiers have been built using these kits.
- VEX Robotics Kits
The VEX kits are fairly new compared to the Lego Mindstorms sets, but are a bit more advanced and could be dubbed as an "Erector Set", but with a brain. The VEX kits were developed in part by FIRST and were briefly distributed by Radio Shack in a move to get more people interested in robotics.