It may be a useful development platform, but it was _supposed_ to be a web browser, and it has suffered because of that. Spinning the XUL "development platform" off into it's own project and "freeing" Mozilla from XUL would probably be the best thing the Mozilla team could do, IMO. The phrase, "It's the browser, stupid" just didn't seem to sink in to whoever thought XUL in Mozilla was a good idea. *shrug*
Go for some wood spacers on both sides of the narrow case, sand the parts smooth, then paint to match a nice aluminum Lian-Li PC case. Not that hard, and requires only the ability to cut the wood to size, various grits of sandpaper, and either some paintbrushes, or an airbrush (would look better done with an airbrush - you can find cheap ones at hobby shops now).
I had a sci-fi lit class in high school, and was less than impressed.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that you shouldn't neglect the old-school stuff like Verne, Wells, E.E. Doc Smith, Lin Carter, and E.R. Burroughs. There's some great stories there, despite having very out of date science. Later classic authors should include Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, among many others. Don't just cover the new stuff!
Thoughts
on
AI in Sci-Fi
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I find it odd that Watson goes on and on about how an AI would 'naturally' (hehe) want to make sure it survives the end of the universe. I also question whether an AI would think as fast as it computes.
I wonder if a true AI would have autonomic processes like we have, otherwise you might get a split personality (processes? threads?:) - part is 'conscious' and talking to the bags-of-mostly-water, and part is 'unconscious' and taking care of memory management, drive space, and I/O management, etc. Kinda like Spock's brain managing the complex - you substitute the autonomic functions for whatever is appropriate.
As for immediately wanting to survive the end of the universe, I wonder at Ian Watson's motivations if he thinks that's what an AI would be most concerned with. If, as Watson supposes, an AI consciously thinks as fast as it computes, the end of the universe is an ungodly long time away. I think it'd be more concerned with becoming mobile, developing long-term power supplies, weapons for self-defense, better sensory equipment, etc, and probably designing a new 'body' so it can think faster. An AI's awareness of its surroundings would also depend on its sensory equipment, and how much knowledge it has acquired. It may not even know the nature of the universe (rather unlikely, in fact), and thus may not be aware of what the universe is doing, or will do in the far-flung future.
Assigning motive to an intelligence, be it artificial or natural, would seem to be rather pointless. *I* am intelligent, and I have no desire to live longer than about another 40 years or so, mainly because the state of this body will be in by then, and I certainly don't feel the need to outlive the universe. Suicide bombers don't even feel the need to make it out of their twenties, for various political & religious reasons, so the motives of AI would be impossible to figure out.
A good friend of mine describes this movie (which is my favourite) as "Pinnochio meets A Clockwork Orange as seen by Tim Burton while dreaming in French". That's as accurate a description of this movie as any I've seen.:)
Big Trouble in Little China: SE Brainstorm Brotherhood of the Wolf Buckeroo Banzai: SE Bulworth Cecil B. DeMented City of Lost Children Cousine, Cousine Cousins Dominion: Tank Police Father Goose Fearless Gargoyles Gentleman's Agreement God of Cookery Highlander Johnny Dangerously Kiki's Delivery Service Leon: The Professional - the Uncut International Version Lifeforce Mr. Deeds Goes to Town Mysterious Island (1961) The Navigator (Buster Keaton) The Nightbreed Nightmare Before Christmas Payback Prince of Darkness Princess Bride: SE Pump Up the Volume Real Genius The Return of the Living Dead Run, Lola, Run Say Anything Silent Running Sneakers Some Kind of Wonderful Spirited Away Still Breathing They Live The Thing (1982) Time Bandits Wag the Dog What Dreams May Come Wolf Li (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea) Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Dr. Detroit The Dragonslayer What's New, Pussycat?
> (I have yet to get a Kiki action figure at Burger King.)
I'd rather have a Gigi action figure, anyway. Okay, so I'd also like a Kiki one, as long as she's on her broom...
I wonder, though, if the lack of merchandising efforts by Disney on such films reflects who would get the profits from said merchandising? It might be a contractual issue. Though I wouldn't count on it.
The Internet community attempted to challenge the patent(s) after they were granted, to no effect. It's about as solid as a patent as you're likely to find.
P3P as specified by the W3C, underlying concepts that aren't 'web' based, as patented by OneName, a former employer of mine. The patent is _easily_ broad enough to cover your system, I promise.
I have a better reason why you shouldn't try to patent it - it's already patented, and it is called 'P3P'. Also note that there is at least one perl-based open source project that has been doing this that's older than your system. Also note that P3P patents have been placed in a public trust (xns.org), so you don't have to worry about anyone else patenting this.
But, hey, if it makes you feel better to think that you came up with something new, by all means, go ahead.
The biggest reason we've needed to use spacer gifs when using table-based layout is because browsers don't handle table layout correctly in the first place. Since all browser makers refused to fix such problems, new technologies like CSS were created by the W3C, a group of amazingly naive people who thought that the new technologies would be implemented better than the previous technologies. A simple look at CSS implementation in current should be enough to disabuse anyone of that notion. You'd think that correct HTML layout would've been easier to implement than CSS, though. *shrug*
What Intel is really saying here is that INTEL isn't ready for mainstream 64-bit computing.
Both AMD (Hammer) & IBM (PPC970) 64-bit processors will run 32-bit applications with no modification, and at more than full speed, unlike Intel's Itanium processors. By the time Intel gets around to a 'mainstream' 64-bit processor, both AMD & IBM will have years of experience with mainstream 64-bit CPUs, and in the CPU game, experience is invaluable. Then again, watching someone else make the mistakes often has an advantage, too, and I doubt Intel is going out of business anytime soon.
Also, if you get a good look at a panther in the light, you can still see the spots on them - they're not jet black or anything, though they're still friggin' cool.
I still prefer white tigers, though. For white tiger fans, go see the Audobon Zoo in new Orleans. They've got two boys (brothers) there that are a lot of fun to see. A great zoo, in fact. I went to the San Diego Zoo last year, and was disappointed - nowhere _near_ as good as it's reputation, and not even close to the Audubon Zoo, IMO.
Really? Wow - I'm surprised they added anything, but I'm glad they did - that was freaking hilarious. I wonder what else they added, and if any of that was from Phil himself?
Slashdot Mirror
It may be a useful development platform, but it was _supposed_ to be a web browser, and it has suffered because of that. Spinning the XUL "development platform" off into it's own project and "freeing" Mozilla from XUL would probably be the best thing the Mozilla team could do, IMO. The phrase, "It's the browser, stupid" just didn't seem to sink in to whoever thought XUL in Mozilla was a good idea. *shrug*
Unfortunately, K-Meleon is seeing almost no visible progress, and what little there is is veeeerrry slow in coming.
Go for some wood spacers on both sides of the narrow case, sand the parts smooth, then paint to match a nice aluminum Lian-Li PC case. Not that hard, and requires only the ability to cut the wood to size, various grits of sandpaper, and either some paintbrushes, or an airbrush (would look better done with an airbrush - you can find cheap ones at hobby shops now).
That is all...
All they need to do is get rid of that XUL crap, and we'll be all set!
I had a sci-fi lit class in high school, and was less than impressed.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that you shouldn't neglect the old-school stuff like Verne, Wells, E.E. Doc Smith, Lin Carter, and E.R. Burroughs. There's some great stories there, despite having very out of date science. Later classic authors should include Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, among many others. Don't just cover the new stuff!
I find it odd that Watson goes on and on about how an AI would 'naturally' (hehe) want to make sure it survives the end of the universe. I also question whether an AI would think as fast as it computes.
:) - part is 'conscious' and talking to the bags-of-mostly-water, and part is 'unconscious' and taking care of memory management, drive space, and I/O management, etc. Kinda like Spock's brain managing the complex - you substitute the autonomic functions for whatever is appropriate.
I wonder if a true AI would have autonomic processes like we have, otherwise you might get a split personality (processes? threads?
As for immediately wanting to survive the end of the universe, I wonder at Ian Watson's motivations if he thinks that's what an AI would be most concerned with. If, as Watson supposes, an AI consciously thinks as fast as it computes, the end of the universe is an ungodly long time away. I think it'd be more concerned with becoming mobile, developing long-term power supplies, weapons for self-defense, better sensory equipment, etc, and probably designing a new 'body' so it can think faster. An AI's awareness of its surroundings would also depend on its sensory equipment, and how much knowledge it has acquired. It may not even know the nature of the universe (rather unlikely, in fact), and thus may not be aware of what the universe is doing, or will do in the far-flung future.
Assigning motive to an intelligence, be it artificial or natural, would seem to be rather pointless. *I* am intelligent, and I have no desire to live longer than about another 40 years or so, mainly because the state of this body will be in by then, and I certainly don't feel the need to outlive the universe. Suicide bombers don't even feel the need to make it out of their twenties, for various political & religious reasons, so the motives of AI would be impossible to figure out.
Veni Vidi Hax0red!
A good friend of mine describes this movie (which is my favourite) as "Pinnochio meets A Clockwork Orange as seen by Tim Burton while dreaming in French". That's as accurate a description of this movie as any I've seen. :)
Okay, this requires a LIST(tm):
Big Trouble in Little China: SE
Brainstorm
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Buckeroo Banzai: SE
Bulworth
Cecil B. DeMented
City of Lost Children
Cousine, Cousine
Cousins
Dominion: Tank Police
Father Goose
Fearless
Gargoyles
Gentleman's Agreement
God of Cookery
Highlander
Johnny Dangerously
Kiki's Delivery Service
Leon: The Professional - the Uncut International Version
Lifeforce
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Mysterious Island (1961)
The Navigator (Buster Keaton)
The Nightbreed
Nightmare Before Christmas
Payback
Prince of Darkness
Princess Bride: SE
Pump Up the Volume
Real Genius
The Return of the Living Dead
Run, Lola, Run
Say Anything
Silent Running
Sneakers
Some Kind of Wonderful
Spirited Away
Still Breathing
They Live
The Thing (1982)
Time Bandits
Wag the Dog
What Dreams May Come
Wolf
Li (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea)
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Dr. Detroit
The Dragonslayer
What's New, Pussycat?
Certain doom is no excuse for bad grammar or spelling.
I smell profit!
What he said. :)
Good question.
The plural is virus is viruses, not virii.
Your friend's weird.
Not that that's a bad thing.
> (I have yet to get a Kiki action figure at Burger King.)
I'd rather have a Gigi action figure, anyway. Okay, so I'd also like a Kiki one, as long as she's on her broom...
I wonder, though, if the lack of merchandising efforts by Disney on such films reflects who would get the profits from said merchandising? It might be a contractual issue. Though I wouldn't count on it.
Of course they do - you never worked in a movie theatre, obviously. Lick the floor sometime for proof.
The best part of the moviegoing experience is how they mop down the floor between showings with soda & butter 'flavouring'.
I love that.
A better one would've been 16384. :)
The Internet community attempted to challenge the patent(s) after they were granted, to no effect. It's about as solid as a patent as you're likely to find.
P3P as specified by the W3C, underlying concepts that aren't 'web' based, as patented by OneName, a former employer of mine. The patent is _easily_ broad enough to cover your system, I promise.
I have a better reason why you shouldn't try to patent it - it's already patented, and it is called 'P3P'. Also note that there is at least one perl-based open source project that has been doing this that's older than your system. Also note that P3P patents have been placed in a public trust (xns.org), so you don't have to worry about anyone else patenting this.
But, hey, if it makes you feel better to think that you came up with something new, by all means, go ahead.
The biggest reason we've needed to use spacer gifs when using table-based layout is because browsers don't handle table layout correctly in the first place. Since all browser makers refused to fix such problems, new technologies like CSS were created by the W3C, a group of amazingly naive people who thought that the new technologies would be implemented better than the previous technologies. A simple look at CSS implementation in current should be enough to disabuse anyone of that notion. You'd think that correct HTML layout would've been easier to implement than CSS, though. *shrug*
What Intel is really saying here is that INTEL isn't ready for mainstream 64-bit computing.
Both AMD (Hammer) & IBM (PPC970) 64-bit processors will run 32-bit applications with no modification, and at more than full speed, unlike Intel's Itanium processors. By the time Intel gets around to a 'mainstream' 64-bit processor, both AMD & IBM will have years of experience with mainstream 64-bit CPUs, and in the CPU game, experience is invaluable. Then again, watching someone else make the mistakes often has an advantage, too, and I doubt Intel is going out of business anytime soon.
Also, if you get a good look at a panther in the light, you can still see the spots on them - they're not jet black or anything, though they're still friggin' cool.
I still prefer white tigers, though. For white tiger fans, go see the Audobon Zoo in new Orleans. They've got two boys (brothers) there that are a lot of fun to see. A great zoo, in fact. I went to the San Diego Zoo last year, and was disappointed - nowhere _near_ as good as it's reputation, and not even close to the Audubon Zoo, IMO.
*meow*
Really? Wow - I'm surprised they added anything, but I'm glad they did - that was freaking hilarious. I wonder what else they added, and if any of that was from Phil himself?