You said it! Anyone who thinks "Don't pay for the supplies, then when the parents find out, they'll come to the rescue" will work is certifiably delusional. My wife just sent out invitations for an orientation meeting to the entire incoming (fall 2007) kindergarten class at her school, something like 90 kids, and she only got 17 RSVPs! Now you might think that these young parents would be excited to be involved in beginning of their kids school experience, but nowadays most of them can't be bothered. Too busy watching the big screen TV, or chasing the almighty dollar so they can get that big screen TV, and a SUV or 2, and a 4000 square foot home so that everyone can sit in their own rooms watching their own big screen TV, alone.
Man, "Idiocracy" ain't about the future, it's right now!
When the technology gets to that level, why would ANYTHING be "plugged in"? Don't you think wireless will be ubiquitous by then?
Minority Report made the same dumb mistake when they showed the guy pull the clear "floppy disk" out of one machine and plug it into the other machine to transfer some data. HELLO!?!? What, was their office not networked? Why would anybody need to PHYSICALLY transfer data like that in the future? DUH! Some art director just wanted the technology to LOOK cool. Gah!!
What settings have you found that you like? When I get the sizes to be right, then some dialog boxes tend to misalign text, running it past the edge of the window or behind other elements, which can make it difficult to read to say the least!
I tried ClearType, but to my eyes, while it does give an illusion of edges that are less jagged, it also seems to make the type look out of focus somehow. And because it uses colors other than gray, it makes the text look like it is written on a CRT with the guns out of alignment, or like a full color print with bad registration. Hurts my eyes more than it helps.
Nobody criticized Kurzweil's main point!?!?!
on
Downloading The Mind
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· Score: 1
Loads of people stated above something like "Well, I read Kurzweil's book, and I think it's bogus because blah, blah, blah." The thing is though, all their counterpoints illustrate that they weren't paying much attention if they indeed read the book at all!
Example 1: several people said, "I don't think the brain could work if completely dissociated from the body." Well DUH! Who said that was the plan? If you're going to simulate a brain "on a chip", why wouldn't you simulate all the inputs as well? Sounds to me like somebody already dissociated their brain...
Example 2: several people said, "Kurweil's timeline is too aggressive. It won't happen that fast. Etc." I have to ask, did you miss the number one take home message of his book? Practically every other page reiterates that the progress of technology is not linear, it is EXPONENTIAL. This is not based solely on Moore's law, but applies equally well when you look at other measurements such as the increase in energy consumption despite the increase in efficiency, the increasing number of scientific papers published, the increasing average total distance travelled in one's lifetime, etc. And most importantly, when you sample a short portion of the early stage of an exponential curve, IT APPEARS LINEAR! The fact that you don't see it happening is not evidence against Kurweil's predictions, but rather evidence that you are unable to see the big picture. By the way, Kurzweil also shows that Moore's law not only applies to semiconductors, but also to EVERY TYPE OF COMPUTATION INVENTED SO FAR. This fact means that all the naysayers who argue that Moore's law will soon come to an end are also unable to see the big picture. Moore's law won't end - we'll just see another paradigm shift like we've seen so many times before in computation (first by hand, then by tables, by slide rules, mechanical, electomechanical, vacuum tubes, transistors, semiconductors, next?)
Example 3: some people said we won't be able to upload or create AI because we won't be able to completely understand how the mind/brain works. Well, I don't need to know how a car works to drive! This is the whole point of reverse engineering - You don't NEED to know how it works. You just scan it with sufficient detail and COPY it! While you're at it, you learn everything you can of course, but you don't need to know everything.
But most importantly, ALL OF THESE COUNTERPOINTS ARE COVERED IN THE BOOK! You couldn't have read the book if you are still arguing the same points which were rebutted so thoroughly therein! I'm not saying you have to agree with him, but you can't use such weak arguments! He's got you beat if that's the best you've got.
Lastly, I'm appalled that of all the naysayers, nearly nobody criticized Kurweil's main theme: that exponential technological development will lead to an explosively rapid increase in knowledge and capabilities (the Singularity). It seems to me that if you don't argue against this idea it means one of three possibilities must be true: either 1) you agree with it and hence you must admit that our near future capabilities will certainly exceed what you can come up with in 5 minutes of amateur speculation (and hence uploading may be possible), or 2) you disagree despite the evidence, but incorrectly thought that one of the weaker arguments would be a more efective rebuttal, or 3) you didn't really read the book and you haven't put much effort/time into researching these ideas, and therefore YOU ARE TALKING OUT OF YOUR ASS!
When your SS# is used to identify you, it serves merely as the equivalent of your name. However, many institutions inappropriately use it as a password. This is the problem.
Governments do need to know who you are and occasionally where. And I don't care if they have a more unique way of identifying me than by my name (which is quite common). But nobody should accept my SS# in lieu of my permission.
For a good contrarian view of privacy issues like this one, check out David Brin's The Transparent Society.
The Sampo 631CF is easily made region-free and macrovision/GCMS-free. The problem you mention about navigating past or skipping the warnings etc. is generally called UOP for User OPerations. The Sampo can be easily patched to allow full user navigation control even when the dvd requests a UOP lock.
Plus, the Sampo has many other great features such as the ability to play PAL and NTSC discs to EITHER a PAL or NTSC TV. It can play CDs full of MP3 or jpegs. In fact you can even easily hook up a spare hard disk to store and play your entire CD collection (as MP3s or WAVs). Or just put your jpeg pr0n collection on it. And it even has a compact flash slot on the front so you can pop in your latest photos or MP3s without having to burn a CD. You can also easily replace the default background screens as well.
If you can burn a CDR, then you can hack the Sampo. The Sampo has a small but growing and enthusiastic user group. Everything you need can be found at, or linked from, area450.
If you want to facilitate and accelerate progress towards the kind of future I imagine you are all interested in, then I suggest you stop arguing and find a distributed project which has a greater potential than SETI or this cancer project/scam.
Your best bet is folding@home
Why?
When we solve this problem, we may quickly find a route to full-blown molecular nanotechnology.
So what?
This will:
1) Cure all diseases including aging (no need to waste time on the distributed cancer project/scam)
2) Launch real space exploration/space industry (then SETI can listen for ET on a receiver the size of the solar system while the rest of us just go find them)
3) Push computers and AI way past Moore's law (haven't you been infected with the Singularity meme yet?)
4) Provide us with (nearly) unlimited wealth of material and energy (then you can do nearly anything you imagine - hey you could even keep arguing and wasting time if you wanted!)
For more info just check out
Foresight and KurweilAI Net et. al.
Slashdot Mirror
You said it! Anyone who thinks "Don't pay for the supplies, then when the parents find out, they'll come to the rescue" will work is certifiably delusional. My wife just sent out invitations for an orientation meeting to the entire incoming (fall 2007) kindergarten class at her school, something like 90 kids, and she only got 17 RSVPs! Now you might think that these young parents would be excited to be involved in beginning of their kids school experience, but nowadays most of them can't be bothered. Too busy watching the big screen TV, or chasing the almighty dollar so they can get that big screen TV, and a SUV or 2, and a 4000 square foot home so that everyone can sit in their own rooms watching their own big screen TV, alone.
Man, "Idiocracy" ain't about the future, it's right now!
When the technology gets to that level, why would ANYTHING be "plugged in"? Don't you think wireless will be ubiquitous by then?
Minority Report made the same dumb mistake when they showed the guy pull the clear "floppy disk" out of one machine and plug it into the other machine to transfer some data. HELLO!?!? What, was their office not networked? Why would anybody need to PHYSICALLY transfer data like that in the future? DUH! Some art director just wanted the technology to LOOK cool. Gah!!
What settings have you found that you like? When I get the sizes to be right, then some dialog boxes tend to misalign text, running it past the edge of the window or behind other elements, which can make it difficult to read to say the least!
I tried ClearType, but to my eyes, while it does give an illusion of edges that are less jagged, it also seems to make the type look out of focus somehow. And because it uses colors other than gray, it makes the text look like it is written on a CRT with the guns out of alignment, or like a full color print with bad registration. Hurts my eyes more than it helps.
Loads of people stated above something like "Well, I read Kurzweil's book, and I think it's bogus because blah, blah, blah." The thing is though, all their counterpoints illustrate that they weren't paying much attention if they indeed read the book at all!
/.
Example 1: several people said, "I don't think the brain could work if completely dissociated from the body." Well DUH! Who said that was the plan? If you're going to simulate a brain "on a chip", why wouldn't you simulate all the inputs as well? Sounds to me like somebody already dissociated their brain...
Example 2: several people said, "Kurweil's timeline is too aggressive. It won't happen that fast. Etc." I have to ask, did you miss the number one take home message of his book? Practically every other page reiterates that the progress of technology is not linear, it is EXPONENTIAL. This is not based solely on Moore's law, but applies equally well when you look at other measurements such as the increase in energy consumption despite the increase in efficiency, the increasing number of scientific papers published, the increasing average total distance travelled in one's lifetime, etc. And most importantly, when you sample a short portion of the early stage of an exponential curve, IT APPEARS LINEAR! The fact that you don't see it happening is not evidence against Kurweil's predictions, but rather evidence that you are unable to see the big picture. By the way, Kurzweil also shows that Moore's law not only applies to semiconductors, but also to EVERY TYPE OF COMPUTATION INVENTED SO FAR. This fact means that all the naysayers who argue that Moore's law will soon come to an end are also unable to see the big picture. Moore's law won't end - we'll just see another paradigm shift like we've seen so many times before in computation (first by hand, then by tables, by slide rules, mechanical, electomechanical, vacuum tubes, transistors, semiconductors, next?)
Example 3: some people said we won't be able to upload or create AI because we won't be able to completely understand how the mind/brain works. Well, I don't need to know how a car works to drive! This is the whole point of reverse engineering - You don't NEED to know how it works. You just scan it with sufficient detail and COPY it! While you're at it, you learn everything you can of course, but you don't need to know everything.
But most importantly, ALL OF THESE COUNTERPOINTS ARE COVERED IN THE BOOK! You couldn't have read the book if you are still arguing the same points which were rebutted so thoroughly therein! I'm not saying you have to agree with him, but you can't use such weak arguments! He's got you beat if that's the best you've got.
Lastly, I'm appalled that of all the naysayers, nearly nobody criticized Kurweil's main theme: that exponential technological development will lead to an explosively rapid increase in knowledge and capabilities (the Singularity). It seems to me that if you don't argue against this idea it means one of three possibilities must be true: either 1) you agree with it and hence you must admit that our near future capabilities will certainly exceed what you can come up with in 5 minutes of amateur speculation (and hence uploading may be possible), or 2) you disagree despite the evidence, but incorrectly thought that one of the weaker arguments would be a more efective rebuttal, or 3) you didn't really read the book and you haven't put much effort/time into researching these ideas, and therefore YOU ARE TALKING OUT OF YOUR ASS!
Well, what do I expect? After all, this is
That VBR info is not true. All my MP3s are VBR and I've had no problemo!
When your SS# is used to identify you, it serves merely as the equivalent of your name. However, many institutions inappropriately use it as a password. This is the problem.
Governments do need to know who you are and occasionally where. And I don't care if they have a more unique way of identifying me than by my name (which is quite common). But nobody should accept my SS# in lieu of my permission.
For a good contrarian view of privacy issues like this one, check out David Brin's The Transparent Society.
The Sampo 631CF is easily made region-free and macrovision/GCMS-free. The problem you mention about navigating past or skipping the warnings etc. is generally called UOP for User OPerations. The Sampo can be easily patched to allow full user navigation control even when the dvd requests a UOP lock.
Plus, the Sampo has many other great features such as the ability to play PAL and NTSC discs to EITHER a PAL or NTSC TV. It can play CDs full of MP3 or jpegs. In fact you can even easily hook up a spare hard disk to store and play your entire CD collection (as MP3s or WAVs). Or just put your jpeg pr0n collection on it. And it even has a compact flash slot on the front so you can pop in your latest photos or MP3s without having to burn a CD. You can also easily replace the default background screens as well.
If you can burn a CDR, then you can hack the Sampo. The Sampo has a small but growing and enthusiastic user group. Everything you need can be found at, or linked from, area450.
What is the mass of blue? What is the mass of anger? What is the mass of North? All of these massless things exist, do they not? Duhhhhhh
Gravity doesn't *effect* it - gravity *affects* it!
If you want to facilitate and accelerate progress towards the kind of future I imagine you are all interested in, then I suggest you stop arguing and find a distributed project which has a greater potential than SETI or this cancer project/scam. Your best bet is folding@home Why? When we solve this problem, we may quickly find a route to full-blown molecular nanotechnology. So what? This will: 1) Cure all diseases including aging (no need to waste time on the distributed cancer project/scam) 2) Launch real space exploration/space industry (then SETI can listen for ET on a receiver the size of the solar system while the rest of us just go find them) 3) Push computers and AI way past Moore's law (haven't you been infected with the Singularity meme yet?) 4) Provide us with (nearly) unlimited wealth of material and energy (then you can do nearly anything you imagine - hey you could even keep arguing and wasting time if you wanted!) For more info just check out Foresight and KurweilAI Net et. al.