Resembling an animated corpse may be disturbing, but it shouldn't be forgotten that there's a really compelling reason to make humanoid robots:
Infrastructure.
It's a huge efficiency to make robots that are able to use all the stuff we've made specifically for humanoids (cars, stairs, doors, chairs, tables, vacuum cleaners, various handheld implements, segways =] ). If you make general purpose humanoid robot, you automatically get a chauffer, a maid, etc., that can use all the tools of the trade. Rather than needing special robot cars, special robot vacuums, etc.
Kinda OT, but the "anti-human-robot" sentiment set me off. Sorry.
You can actually do this in Windows XP Explorer, believe it or not. Select a bunch of files in a dir, then right click just the first one and rename it. All selected files will be renamed, with an auto-incremented number at the end. It's a little flaky, but useful for turning things like 'DSCnnnn' into 'wedding_nnnn'.
So are you saying that if you received a mail that stated "This is a virus. Click *here* to nuke your hard drive", in a context like that mentioned in the parent post, you would click? Because "no virus would disguise itself as such?".
I have never used Xandros, I'm sure it's fine. But the habit of the reviewer of saying things like "even a total newbie to Linux will have an easy time navigating" really bugged me. How does he know? Did he (a) have a total newbie (or, even better, several of them) try it? Or (b) did he just play with it and think to himself "hmm... this is _really_ easy for me, so it must be at least fairly easy for a newbie".
Since he didn't go to any lengths to claim it was (a), I'll assume (b). In which case saying something like "a total newbie will find this easy" is quite meaningless. Why? Because - as anyone who has experience with usability testing will attest - it's really hard to predict what a "total newbie" will and won't find confusing. _Especially_ when you're an advanced user (say, a reviewer on "extremetech.com".
I totally buy what you're saying. I used to play a lot of Quake 2 CTF (for hours after work, in intense team games). Often, when walking or riding home afterwards, I'd hear Quake sound effects and experience a minor flight/fight response (nothing spectacular... but my heart would certainly speed up a notch). I'd also be generally edgy and amped.
I know from personal experience that "VR" (well... Quake anyway) can carry over into real life!
Do you have a reference on the "ARTT" stats you quote? 30% -> 10% in RL? That interests me greatly, if it's true.
The type of equipment you need to plastic weld is generally an injection hot melt gun - they typically sell for about $5000 bux and are not too difficult to learn how to use
$5000? That's a typo, right?
If not, while I agree with the "just fix it!" spirit of your post, I really fail to see how advising someone to spend $5000 on equipment to fix a laptop that would probably cost way less than half that to replace is in any way sensible.
No serious gamer would be caught without a GameCube
So what? This isn't about "serious gamers", it's about mainsstream gamers, who are needed in very large numbers to make being in console hardware a viable business.
there are about 1.5 million more GameCubes out there than Xboxes
So what? There's about 40 million more PS2s out there than XBox and GC *combined*. My point being that Nintendo and Microsoft are duking it out for a distant second. This is not the interesting part. The interesting part is how the two second-place companies are positioned for the next generation of consoles. Let's think about that for a minute:
Nintendo - crappy sales of current generation. Mario, Zelda, and most other franchises (except maybe Pokemon) doing OK at best, with no new franchises on the horizon. Persistant "kiddy" image that they don't seem to know how to shake. No online strategy at all
.
Microsoft - crappy sales of current generation. Halo. Plus they own Rare (who seem to have very little in the pipeline? Who knows...). Image still being formed. Strong online strategy - probably stronger than Sony
.
Let's just say the next generation will be very interesting. My opinion is that there's not enough "serious gamers" in the world to save Nintendo, and that they will go the route of Sega (software only - except of course Nintendo have Gameboy).
I have a Targus laptop backpack that I think is much better than the shoulder sling type bags. I (used to) ride my bike a lot armed with my laptop, and the laptop backback spreads the load a lot more symetrically. I never had any concerns that a strap was going to break or anything (and my laptop is a heavy old Gateway 9300). I think it's better for your posture/back as well.
Well, I guess it depends what you mean by "rote learning", but the process I'm talking about - learning by repetition - is really important. If you drive, or touch-type, or can read or write music, you probably went through a painful (early) copying phase. You taught yourself by repeating correct examples until you could do it automatically.
Yes, I know this is a simplified idea of the learning process, but I think it's sufficient to advance my original point, which was that "taking a photo of lecture notes is not as good as copying them out manually" (because you bypass some really important phases of the learning process by merely recording, and not mentally processing, the information).
Maybe I can use an analogy. Let's say you and I are sitting in a room with a guitar in it. I say to you "I learned all the Nirvana songs!". You might reply "Great! Nirvana songs are my favourite. Let's hear you play one of those songs on the guitar that is unaccountably, though conveniently, at hand".
If I said "Well, I can't do that because I learned the Nirvana songs by recording them with my dictaphone", you would likely say "in fact you haven't learned the Nirvana songs at all, have you? You've simply recorded them." And - assuming I'm not an asshole - I'd probably admit that you were right.
To which you'd presumably reply "Good! Because rote learning sucks!"
Right, and if you just put a digital voice recorder in your seat, you don't even have to be there! Great!
My point being that taking notes is crucial to the learning process. Taking a photo of a diagram or formula is not the same as copying it manually. The two are similar in that at the end of both processes you have a copy of the diagram, but if you just took a photo you didn't force your brain to process the information, you didn't train yourself to draw the symbols, and so on.
I think it's really cool to see the technical achievements (I won't say innovations - Segway is more an elegant piece of engineering than an innovation) of the Segway put to good use. The eponymous product is clearly useless, and is rightfully derided. But the underlying tech is neat, and it will be something of a happy ending if the technology is repurposed and serves - quite literally - as a platform for other developments.
From the he existence of this development platform it seems that this outcome is being actively encouraged. Kudos.
Apart from the pervasive spelling and grammatical errors, the review was extremely subjective and not very detailed.
Probably the single most important thing for an audio device is latency, yet it wasn't measured - and was only mentioned as an afterthought to keep things "honest and unbiased" (thanks for that).
They also seem to think that it's the lack of USB 2.0 causing the latency, when it's almost certain to be the hardware/setup of the host computer that's the major contributing factor (decoding and mixing two MP3 streams simultaneously is not a trivial amount of processing).
Even a low speed USB 1.0 connection has a data transfer rate of 1.5MB/s, which is *ten times* the data rate of CD audio (150k/s). Even given that it's streaming 2x 24 bit streams (CD audio is 16 bit) and that there's control messages from the box to the PC to handle you're still nowhere near a *low speed* USB 1.0 connection, let alone a standard connection (12MB/s).
Anyway, my point is that carping about the lack of USB 2.0 is misguided, and an indicator that the rest of the review can't really be taken seriously.
Insightful? More like "Didn't read the article-ful". I quote:
"TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY IS NOT ANTI-WORK. Useful and creative work is essential to happiness. But American life has gotten way out of balance..."
No-one's equating employment with slavery (except you). Then you trot out the "oh but this is slashdot" line.
Weak.
As for your "point" - "but techies enjoy their work" I say: sure, some do. So (a) this day is not for them, and (b) if it was, they could go and work on their own technical projects at home instead of "spending time with family" or whatever.
Huh? Terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are *extremely* rare, not withstanding a recent high-profile one about, ooh, two years ago. Not to minimize those tragedies, but that's hardly "terrorism-prone".
It might *feel* like it is, but that's simply the Bush administration deliberately evoking an atmosphere of fear via a compliant media.
Hmm, actually re-reading your comment maybe you mean "terrorism-prone" in the sense that the Bush administration's foriegn policy seems almost calculated to invite further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, in which case I agree with you. But historically the U.S. is not "prone" to terrorist attacks.
Other replies dealt quite neatly with the waste issue.
As for height being genetically correlated with leadership: that's just plain wrong.
On the short side, are we?
Relax, I'm just kidding...
But seriously, roasting someone for "spewing unsubstantiated bullshit", then making three separate unsubstantiated claims yourself in your next three sentences is pretty rich.
The Pons and Fleischmann "cold fusion" experiment was thoroughly discredited shortly after the press conference (in which they grossly overstated their results). Apparently they were spooked by another researcher working in a similar area. They had signed an agreement with him not to release any results, but got paranoid that he was going to "claim the credit", and went ahead and announced - kind of an "announce and hope the results back you up" gamble. Well, the results *didn't* back them up, although it is interesting that many reputable teams who sought to replicate the results initially did so, but one by one retracted their findings when they discovered various flaws in their methodologies.
I think the basic problem with the original Pons and Fleischmann experiment was that their calorimeter (which they used to get their "excess heat" measurements) was either faulty, or inappropriate for the experiement they were performing, and they didn't control for it.
stateless - just pick up where I left off any time, instantly
totally responsive. I *never* wait while computer crunches, trying to draw windows, etc. And I mean *never*. Things that take time just take time without affecting anything else.
bug free - things work they way they should, always, no exceptions. A computer should compute as reliably as a housebrick is a housebrick.
intuitive - I'm gonna have a hard time explaining this one, but basically I end up in a lot of situations where I feel like the computer should have common sense. Like if I just saved 5.mp3s in a row to the same place, it should "just know" where to save the sixth. That's not a good explanation... what I mean is the computer should know what I want to do and help me do it. Believe me, I know what you're thinking - all those "smart" wizards and "helpful" guesses that some apps make ("It looks like you're trying to write a letter...") are horrible. True. So I guess I mean take the intention behind those features, and now implement it properly so it's transparent, predictable, and more of a help than a hinderance.
Slashdot Mirror
Resembling an animated corpse may be disturbing, but it shouldn't be forgotten that there's a really compelling reason to make humanoid robots:
Infrastructure.
It's a huge efficiency to make robots that are able to use all the stuff we've made specifically for humanoids (cars, stairs, doors, chairs, tables, vacuum cleaners, various handheld implements, segways =] ). If you make general purpose humanoid robot, you automatically get a chauffer, a maid, etc., that can use all the tools of the trade. Rather than needing special robot cars, special robot vacuums, etc.
Kinda OT, but the "anti-human-robot" sentiment set me off. Sorry.
grib.
You can actually do this in Windows XP Explorer, believe it or not. Select a bunch of files in a dir, then right click just the first one and rename it. All selected files will be renamed, with an auto-incremented number at the end. It's a little flaky, but useful for turning things like 'DSCnnnn' into 'wedding_nnnn'.
Doesn't work in 2000.
grib.
So are you saying that if you received a mail that stated "This is a virus. Click *here* to nuke your hard drive", in a context like that mentioned in the parent post, you would click? Because "no virus would disguise itself as such?".
Because I certainly wouldn't.
grib.
I have never used Xandros, I'm sure it's fine. But the habit of the reviewer of saying things like "even a total newbie to Linux will have an easy time navigating" really bugged me. How does he know? Did he (a) have a total newbie (or, even better, several of them) try it? Or (b) did he just play with it and think to himself "hmm... this is _really_ easy for me, so it must be at least fairly easy for a newbie".
Since he didn't go to any lengths to claim it was (a), I'll assume (b). In which case saying something like "a total newbie will find this easy" is quite meaningless. Why? Because - as anyone who has experience with usability testing will attest - it's really hard to predict what a "total newbie" will and won't find confusing. _Especially_ when you're an advanced user (say, a reviewer on "extremetech.com".
That's all.
grib.
I totally buy what you're saying. I used to play a lot of Quake 2 CTF (for hours after work, in intense team games). Often, when walking or riding home afterwards, I'd hear Quake sound effects and experience a minor flight/fight response (nothing spectacular... but my heart would certainly speed up a notch). I'd also be generally edgy and amped.
I know from personal experience that "VR" (well... Quake anyway) can carry over into real life!
Do you have a reference on the "ARTT" stats you quote? 30% -> 10% in RL? That interests me greatly, if it's true.
grib.
The type of equipment you need to plastic weld is generally an injection hot melt gun - they typically sell for about $5000 bux and are not too difficult to learn how to use
$5000? That's a typo, right?
If not, while I agree with the "just fix it!" spirit of your post, I really fail to see how advising someone to spend $5000 on equipment to fix a laptop that would probably cost way less than half that to replace is in any way sensible.
grib.
That line was not spoken by Frankenfurter. It was Dr. Everett Von Scott - with his pulldown chart! Most of the song was sung by "Riff Raff".
I can't believe that (a) I know that, and (b) I just posted it.
=] grib.
No serious gamer would be caught without a GameCube
So what? This isn't about "serious gamers", it's about mainsstream gamers, who are needed in very large numbers to make being in console hardware a viable business.
there are about 1.5 million more GameCubes out there than Xboxes
So what? There's about 40 million more PS2s out there than XBox and GC *combined*. My point being that Nintendo and Microsoft are duking it out for a distant second. This is not the interesting part. The interesting part is how the two second-place companies are positioned for the next generation of consoles. Let's think about that for a minute:
Let's just say the next generation will be very interesting. My opinion is that there's not enough "serious gamers" in the world to save Nintendo, and that they will go the route of Sega (software only - except of course Nintendo have Gameboy).
Nintendo better hope the PSP tanks...
grib.
Should have put this in the original post:
Something like this (only older)
grib.
I have a Targus laptop backpack that I think is much better than the shoulder sling type bags. I (used to) ride my bike a lot armed with my laptop, and the laptop backback spreads the load a lot more symetrically. I never had any concerns that a strap was going to break or anything (and my laptop is a heavy old Gateway 9300). I think it's better for your posture/back as well.
grib.
Rational people don't start wars they can't win for stupid reasons.
So the Bush administration is irrational? Or do you think Iraq is winnable/justified?
Not a troll - genuine question for parent!
grib.
What?
Well, I guess it depends what you mean by "rote learning", but the process I'm talking about - learning by repetition - is really important. If you drive, or touch-type, or can read or write music, you probably went through a painful (early) copying phase. You taught yourself by repeating correct examples until you could do it automatically.
Yes, I know this is a simplified idea of the learning process, but I think it's sufficient to advance my original point, which was that "taking a photo of lecture notes is not as good as copying them out manually" (because you bypass some really important phases of the learning process by merely recording, and not mentally processing, the information).
Maybe I can use an analogy. Let's say you and I are sitting in a room with a guitar in it. I say to you "I learned all the Nirvana songs!". You might reply "Great! Nirvana songs are my favourite. Let's hear you play one of those songs on the guitar that is unaccountably, though conveniently, at hand".
If I said "Well, I can't do that because I learned the Nirvana songs by recording them with my dictaphone", you would likely say "in fact you haven't learned the Nirvana songs at all, have you? You've simply recorded them." And - assuming I'm not an asshole - I'd probably admit that you were right.
To which you'd presumably reply "Good! Because rote learning sucks!"
=]
grib.
Right, and if you just put a digital voice recorder in your seat, you don't even have to be there! Great!
My point being that taking notes is crucial to the learning process. Taking a photo of a diagram or formula is not the same as copying it manually. The two are similar in that at the end of both processes you have a copy of the diagram, but if you just took a photo you didn't force your brain to process the information, you didn't train yourself to draw the symbols, and so on.
grib.
How can you create something that you cannot adequately define?
Evolve it.
grib
I think it's really cool to see the technical achievements (I won't say innovations - Segway is more an elegant piece of engineering than an innovation) of the Segway put to good use. The eponymous product is clearly useless, and is rightfully derided. But the underlying tech is neat, and it will be something of a happy ending if the technology is repurposed and serves - quite literally - as a platform for other developments.
From the he existence of this development platform it seems that this outcome is being actively encouraged. Kudos.
grib.
Apart from the pervasive spelling and grammatical errors, the review was extremely subjective and not very detailed.
Probably the single most important thing for an audio device is latency, yet it wasn't measured - and was only mentioned as an afterthought to keep things "honest and unbiased" (thanks for that).
They also seem to think that it's the lack of USB 2.0 causing the latency, when it's almost certain to be the hardware/setup of the host computer that's the major contributing factor (decoding and mixing two MP3 streams simultaneously is not a trivial amount of processing).
Even a low speed USB 1.0 connection has a data transfer rate of 1.5MB/s, which is *ten times* the data rate of CD audio (150k/s). Even given that it's streaming 2x 24 bit streams (CD audio is 16 bit) and that there's control messages from the box to the PC to handle you're still nowhere near a *low speed* USB 1.0 connection, let alone a standard connection (12MB/s).
Anyway, my point is that carping about the lack of USB 2.0 is misguided, and an indicator that the rest of the review can't really be taken seriously.
The actual device looks pretty cool, though.
grib.
Won't they just be some weird superposition of terrible and superlative at the same time?
=]
grib.
I think it's cool!
grib.
Ugh, that's really ugly and generic. Sorry, just being honest. I like the original proposal much better.
grib.
Insightful? More like "Didn't read the article-ful". I quote:
"TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY IS NOT ANTI-WORK. Useful and creative work is essential to happiness. But American life has gotten way out of balance..."
No-one's equating employment with slavery (except you). Then you trot out the "oh but this is slashdot" line.
Weak.
As for your "point" - "but techies enjoy their work" I say: sure, some do. So (a) this day is not for them, and (b) if it was, they could go and work on their own technical projects at home instead of "spending time with family" or whatever.
grib.
"the current terrorism-prone climate in the U.S"
Huh? Terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are *extremely* rare, not withstanding a recent high-profile one about, ooh, two years ago. Not to minimize those tragedies, but that's hardly "terrorism-prone".
It might *feel* like it is, but that's simply the Bush administration deliberately evoking an atmosphere of fear via a compliant media.
Hmm, actually re-reading your comment maybe you mean "terrorism-prone" in the sense that the Bush administration's foriegn policy seems almost calculated to invite further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, in which case I agree with you. But historically the U.S. is not "prone" to terrorist attacks.
Other replies dealt quite neatly with the waste issue.
grib.
As for height being genetically correlated with leadership: that's just plain wrong.
On the short side, are we?
Relax, I'm just kidding...
But seriously, roasting someone for "spewing unsubstantiated bullshit", then making three separate unsubstantiated claims yourself in your next three sentences is pretty rich.
grib.
[disclaimer: from memory]
The Pons and Fleischmann "cold fusion" experiment was thoroughly discredited shortly after the press conference (in which they grossly overstated their results). Apparently they were spooked by another researcher working in a similar area. They had signed an agreement with him not to release any results, but got paranoid that he was going to "claim the credit", and went ahead and announced - kind of an "announce and hope the results back you up" gamble. Well, the results *didn't* back them up, although it is interesting that many reputable teams who sought to replicate the results initially did so, but one by one retracted their findings when they discovered various flaws in their methodologies.
I think the basic problem with the original Pons and Fleischmann experiment was that their calorimeter (which they used to get their "excess heat" measurements) was either faulty, or inappropriate for the experiement they were performing, and they didn't control for it.
grib.
Privilegde is a spelling error!
grib.
grib.