The real problem with implementing Asimov's three laws is interpreting when your actions will break them.
The very top of the line research in AI might be able to recognize a human being under idealized circumstances.
So how are we supposed to tell our robots "don't run over a human's foot, since that's injuring a human, and that action violates the first law" when the robot can't distinguish between a human foot and a stain on the carpet.
I don't really use any removeable media anymore (with the exception of cd's, but only for installing software).
Everywhere I go has an internet connection, so I simply scp/ftp my files around whenever and wherever I need them.
This is really convenient, since I no longer lose important documents to bad floppies, or bad lab floppy drives (people are such slobs! Food + floppy drive == bad!).
The problem with that argument is that the actual company you have a business relationship could also use that language if they want you to switch "plans".
Couple that with the use of the term "upgrade" and it sounds very much like a sales pitch from your current company to get something with a few more perks on your next cycle.
I often wonder why format creators don't always do this (i.e. release specs for format into public domain, while maintaining control over servers/encoders).
If I create/sell tools for a format, and give the players away for free anyway, I want as many people to use the format as possible. If the format becomes standard, I'm in a great position since I control the content creation side (i.e. where the $$$ is).
So people creating open source players/viewers doesn't hurt me, it helps me enormously, since I don't have to expend resources maintaining all possible platforms.
This is nice in theory, but the problem is that most of the release-related oops's aren't found until 2.6 is released and 20x the number of people start using the newly labled "stable" kernel.
That's why Linus tried to release 2.4 when it wasn't quite ready... it wasn't improving fast enough to ever be ready...
I would call it a bug, but it's not solely Konqueror behavior. IE does this too (although you have to have clicked or tabbed to select the control).
I know several people who have gotten bitten by this behavior... clicking on a drop-down box to select something (say a date) then trying to scroll down to the bottom of the page to hit submit. Unknowingly they just changed the month of their flight from June to July!
These people never meant to use the scroll wheel to select the value of the control, so it doesn't occur to them to check that they didn't just change something.
I have a new Inspiron with the 15" screen too, and it is heavier than I'd like.
But I was on a budget, and my money could buy more computer if I let it be heavy... besides, I needed something with quite a bit of power, I'll be using it to prototype simulations and to do analysis of data.
Actually, if I remember correctly, the effects in this particular experiment were comperable... something on the order of 100's of nanoseconds for each effect (I'm more likely to be wrong about the actual measured effect than that they were of the same order).
What a lot of people are missing is the fact that the moon is in such an orbit that only one side faces us at any given time
Yes, this is true... it also has nothing to do with how the moon formed. Angular momentum transfer from tidal forces automatically forces an orbiting body into just such a configuration. It's called being tidally locked. This same process has caused the earth's rotation to slow, and to increase the average radius of the moon's orbit.
Interestingly I just went to a colloquia on this very topic today...
While the current theories do involve accretion onto a black hole, the accretion rates necessary to power a GRB are very high (0.1 solar masses per second!). Several possible ways to get these kind of rates are with mergers of a black hole and a neutron star or white dwarf, or by having a red giant engulf its binary white dwarf, short circuiting the supernova track.
Now to answer your question: these black holes are formed from stars. The average mass of these objects are on the order of a few solar masses, and are also very rare (something like 1 every 10 million years in our galaxy). In short, black holes formed in this way are not even close to being significant contributors to dark matter.
A very similar thing happened to me, except I actually recieved a bill for someone else's domain!
I notified (networksolutions at the time) them about their error and they actually wanted me to fax them a copy of my driver's license to verify my identity!
I finally emailed the admin contact listed for the domain and told them if they wanted their domain they needed to sort things out.
As it turned out, it was a stupid data entry error by some minimum wage slave... they mistyped one character and assigned me as the billing contact rather than the correct person...
For the life of me I can't understand how this company is still in business.... I have had nothing but problems whenever I delt with them, and their prices are inordiate...
So what do they consider a calculator? My computer is used primarily for scientific computation... I'm solving 300,000 coupled differential equations as we speak (N-body simulation).
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
So any tools not readily available which are required for compilation are required to be distributed with the source.
I'd say preferred form of the work for making modifications is pretty clear. If the company develops on the obfuscated code, then yes, it's source. If, instead, they edit normal source then use some obfuscation tool, then that tool is required by the GPL to be distributed, as is the original source itself!
I doubt any serious company would be willing to chance their entire business on a judge's interpretation of the (admittedly) vague words preferred and normally, particularly when the intention of the clause is very clear.
the Open Souce world has devised a system that MS can never destroy.
I only wish you were right here. Microsoft themselves can never destroy open source, this is true. Partnering with the hardware manufacturers, however, makes this all too easy:
Step 1: include digital rights management at the hardware level which only is supported by proprietary software (and to reverse engineer it is illegal by DMCA)
Step 2: stop producing hardware without these restraints (you'll have the content creator's lobbies on your side with this one). If you're really ambitious, make it illegal to own/produce etc. hardware or software which doesn't have this digital rights management system.
Step 3: Free software dies since no new hardware is produced which can be used with free software.
This is the key point... as long as hardware specs remain open, free software will flourish. If microsoft can ever extend it's monopoly to hardware (all it really needs is a gentlemen's agreement with the hardware manufacurers, not direct control) then it can kill free software.
Sure there will be people who still use free software on older hardware, but they'll be a dying minority, all but ignored by the rest of the computer industry.
Now I'm not saying this plan would be easy to implement by Microsoft, or that they will be able to do so, but it is certainly the direction they are pointing. They know that they can't compete with free software on an equal setting... certainly not dispose of it altogether. At best they can try to contain it through marketing, which is what they're currently doing.
My guess is that projects which are behind schedule will continue to work in order to blame any further delays on the coding halt.
Besides, it doesn't matter how long microsoft stops work to fix bugs... real security comes naturally out of proper design and coding. Microsoft should take this month to redesign it's coding proceedures to be security conscious from start to finish.
Also, isn't it funny that Microsoft chooses to use the shortest month of the year for this initiative?:)
Well considering it's a composite of images taken from the point where the arrow would be pointing (better known as "here") you'd just see a big red arrow pointing out of the picture;)
The latest version of matlab that I've seen (6) has a graphical interface, although I don't use it.
As other posters have mentioned, it really comes down to what you are doing. If I want to solve a single ODE, or integrate a single function numerically, matlab is the way I would go.
When I start solving very large systems of equations (N-body simulations) it is usually rewarding to develop software tuned to that task in a lower level language such as C or Fortran.
Java might not be bad either if you're just playing around, but I know that they place artificial limits on floating point operations in order to try to maintain absolute consistency (i.e. intel chips have somthing like 80 bit internal acuracy which jvm's are forced to artificially limit in order to match other systems).
Bribes in this case wouldn't be overt, like dumping a bunch of money in a bank account for him...
Instead bribes can take a more subtle note, like giving him a great parking spot right next to Bill's, taking him out to lunch everyday on the company's dollar, and flying him and his family places using the company jet.
These types of perks may not even be considered a bribe by the recipient, but it's hard to do anything to jeopardize these perks once you're used to them.
I assume there are some regulations which would go along with the position which forbid these types of gifts, but I'm no expert;)
I have the exact opposite problem... I try to middle-click on a link to open it in a new window and end up pasting whatever crap was in my clipboard...
I also have the strange habit of constantly selecting and deselecting paragraphs as I browse, so usually an entire paragraph of random text gets pasted as a url.
Slashdot Mirror
The real problem with implementing Asimov's three laws is interpreting when your actions will break them.
The very top of the line research in AI might be able to recognize a human being under idealized circumstances.
So how are we supposed to tell our robots "don't run over a human's foot, since that's injuring a human, and that action violates the first law" when the robot can't distinguish between a human foot and a stain on the carpet.
Doug
Ack! Tell me about it... my undergraduate astronomy program had the WORST wooden seats in its lecture halls (aka little tiny rooms)...
;)
So the prof put me to sleep, but I couldn't get comfortable because of the chairs!
Thankfully that's over
Doug
I don't really use any removeable media anymore (with the exception of cd's, but only for installing software).
Everywhere I go has an internet connection, so I simply scp/ftp my files around whenever and wherever I need them.
This is really convenient, since I no longer lose important documents to bad floppies, or bad lab floppy drives (people are such slobs! Food + floppy drive == bad!).
Doug
The problem with that argument is that the actual company you have a business relationship could also use that language if they want you to switch "plans".
Couple that with the use of the term "upgrade" and it sounds very much like a sales pitch from your current company to get something with a few more perks on your next cycle.
Doug
I often wonder why format creators don't always do this (i.e. release specs for format into public domain, while maintaining control over servers/encoders).
If I create/sell tools for a format, and give the players away for free anyway, I want as many people to use the format as possible. If the format becomes standard, I'm in a great position since I control the content creation side (i.e. where the $$$ is).
So people creating open source players/viewers doesn't hurt me, it helps me enormously, since I don't have to expend resources maintaining all possible platforms.
Doug
This is nice in theory, but the problem is that most of the release-related oops's aren't found until 2.6 is released and 20x the number of people start using the newly labled "stable" kernel.
That's why Linus tried to release 2.4 when it wasn't quite ready... it wasn't improving fast enough to ever be ready...
Doug
I would call it a bug, but it's not solely Konqueror behavior. IE does this too (although you have to have clicked or tabbed to select the control).
I know several people who have gotten bitten by this behavior... clicking on a drop-down box to select something (say a date) then trying to scroll down to the bottom of the page to hit submit. Unknowingly they just changed the month of their flight from June to July!
These people never meant to use the scroll wheel to select the value of the control, so it doesn't occur to them to check that they didn't just change something.
Doug
I have a new Inspiron with the 15" screen too, and it is heavier than I'd like.
But I was on a budget, and my money could buy more computer if I let it be heavy... besides, I needed something with quite a bit of power, I'll be using it to prototype simulations and to do analysis of data.
Doug
Actually, if I remember correctly, the effects in this particular experiment were comperable... something on the order of 100's of nanoseconds for each effect (I'm more likely to be wrong about the actual measured effect than that they were of the same order).
Doug
What a lot of people are missing is the fact that the moon is in such an orbit that only one side faces us at any given time
Yes, this is true... it also has nothing to do with how the moon formed. Angular momentum transfer from tidal forces automatically forces an orbiting body into just such a configuration. It's called being tidally locked. This same process has caused the earth's rotation to slow, and to increase the average radius of the moon's orbit.
Doug
So does a video game which allows you to dope-slap your congressman count as violent or as political activism?
Doug
Yeah, it shouldn't be hard to find four speeches devoid of substance, particularly after the last election ;)
Doug
Interestingly I just went to a colloquia on this very topic today...
While the current theories do involve accretion onto a black hole, the accretion rates necessary to power a GRB are very high (0.1 solar masses per second!). Several possible ways to get these kind of rates are with mergers of a black hole and a neutron star or white dwarf, or by having a red giant engulf its binary white dwarf, short circuiting the supernova track.
Now to answer your question: these black holes are formed from stars. The average mass of these objects are on the order of a few solar masses, and are also very rare (something like 1 every 10 million years in our galaxy). In short, black holes formed in this way are not even close to being significant contributors to dark matter.
Doug
A very similar thing happened to me, except I actually recieved a bill for someone else's domain!
I notified (networksolutions at the time) them about their error and they actually wanted me to fax them a copy of my driver's license to verify my identity!
I finally emailed the admin contact listed for the domain and told them if they wanted their domain they needed to sort things out.
As it turned out, it was a stupid data entry error by some minimum wage slave... they mistyped one character and assigned me as the billing contact rather than the correct person...
For the life of me I can't understand how this company is still in business.... I have had nothing but problems whenever I delt with them, and their prices are inordiate...
Doug
So what do they consider a calculator? My computer is used primarily for scientific computation... I'm solving 300,000 coupled differential equations as
we speak (N-body simulation).
Doug
From section 3 of the GPL:
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
special exception, the source code distributed need not include
anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
itself accompanies the executable.
So any tools not readily available which are required for compilation are required to be distributed with the source.
I'd say preferred form of the work for making modifications is pretty clear. If the company develops on the obfuscated code, then yes, it's source. If, instead, they edit normal source then use some obfuscation tool, then that tool is required by the GPL to be distributed, as is the original source itself!
I doubt any serious company would be willing to chance their entire business on a judge's interpretation of the (admittedly) vague words preferred and normally, particularly when the intention of the clause is very clear.
Doug
So because people die, we shouldn't try to find cures for diseases?
Just because all jobs suck to some degree doesn't mean you don't try to find ways of lessening the pain, and making the work you do more meaningful.
Doug
the Open Souce world has devised a system that MS can never destroy.
I only wish you were right here. Microsoft themselves can never destroy open source, this is true. Partnering with the hardware manufacturers, however, makes this all too easy:
Step 1: include digital rights management at the hardware level which only is supported by proprietary software (and to reverse engineer it is illegal by DMCA)
Step 2: stop producing hardware without these restraints (you'll have the content creator's lobbies on your side with this one). If you're really ambitious, make it illegal to own/produce etc. hardware or software which doesn't have this digital rights management system.
Step 3: Free software dies since no new hardware is produced which can be used with free software.
This is the key point... as long as hardware specs remain open, free software will flourish. If microsoft can ever extend it's monopoly to hardware (all it really needs is a gentlemen's agreement with the hardware manufacurers, not direct control) then it can kill free software.
Sure there will be people who still use free software on older hardware, but they'll be a dying minority, all but ignored by the rest of the computer industry.
Now I'm not saying this plan would be easy to implement by Microsoft, or that they will be able to do so, but it is certainly the direction they are pointing. They know that they can't compete with free software on an equal setting... certainly not dispose of it altogether. At best they can try to contain it through marketing, which is what they're currently doing.
Doug
My guess is that projects which are behind schedule will continue to work in order to blame any further delays on the coding halt.
:)
Besides, it doesn't matter how long microsoft stops work to fix bugs... real security comes naturally out of proper design and coding. Microsoft should take this month to redesign it's coding proceedures to be security conscious from start to finish.
Also, isn't it funny that Microsoft chooses to use the shortest month of the year for this initiative?
Doug
Well considering it's a composite of images taken from the point where the arrow would be pointing (better known as "here") you'd just see a big red arrow pointing out of the picture ;)
Doug
The latest version of matlab that I've seen (6) has a graphical interface, although I don't use it.
As other posters have mentioned, it really comes down to what you are doing. If I want to solve a single ODE, or integrate a single function numerically, matlab is the way I would go.
When I start solving very large systems of equations (N-body simulations) it is usually rewarding to develop software tuned to that task in a lower level language such as C or Fortran.
Java might not be bad either if you're just playing around, but I know that they place artificial limits on floating point operations in order to try to maintain absolute consistency (i.e. intel chips have somthing like 80 bit internal acuracy which jvm's are forced to artificially limit in order to match other systems).
Doug
Bribes in this case wouldn't be overt, like dumping a bunch of money in a bank account for him...
;)
Instead bribes can take a more subtle note, like giving him a great parking spot right next to Bill's, taking him out to lunch everyday on the company's dollar, and flying him and his family places using the company jet.
These types of perks may not even be considered a bribe by the recipient, but it's hard to do anything to jeopardize these perks once you're used to them.
I assume there are some regulations which would go along with the position which forbid these types of gifts, but I'm no expert
Doug
Doug
I have the exact opposite problem... I try to middle-click on a link to open it in a new window and end up pasting whatever crap was in my clipboard...
I also have the strange habit of constantly selecting and deselecting paragraphs as I browse, so usually an entire paragraph of random text gets pasted as a url.
Doug
Yeah, it's hard to make less money than as an astrophysicist... especially one in training ;)
Doug
If a single innocent Afganistan citizen is killed by our military actions, then we are no better than terrorists ourselves.
Doug