Guys, this is really silly. As Godel has already demonstrated, it is impossible for a machine to meet the criteria of consciousness. "Artificial intelligence" is a chimerical idea and is not possible.
"Imitative intelligence" would be more accurate. A machine may be able to hold a facade of "intelligence," but any semblance of intelligence has been derived from its creators.
The claim that the machine "synthesized an argument" is misleading. Machines are not capable of a priori. The machine simply sorted information giving the appearance of a synthesized argument. The author projected this activity of synthesizing an argument onto the machine, but that is not what happened.
Then the author of the article made the incredible claim that the machine does not have bias, but just the same, they fed it a junk-food diet of newspaper articles & mental garbage.
This article is propaganda.
They're trying to persuade you to believe that machines can be intelligent, that machines will soon be just as or more capable than men at thinking, and that human mental faculties are mechanical. Perhaps the hope is that the general populace will eventually fall under of a large "appeal to authority, or argumentum ad verecundiam" umbrella and give up critical thinking altogether. This is already happening to people in STEM, who have largely ignored philosophy, and evidently cannot think rightly.
They've been passing laws in Canada using this technique for at least a decade. More recently there was the 'With us or with the child pornographers' comment by Vic Toews which pretty much ended his career. People are getting a bit more savvy to this type of bullshit.
I do most of what you've described. Bicycles and motor vehicles are not the same. Bicycles don't deal death to motorists but motorists can very easily deal death to cyclists. This means the safest route is to travel on the sidewalk when traffic is heavy and there are no pedestrians. If there are cars in the vicinity of the stop sign, I (and most cyclists I've seen) will stop. In most cases I can think of, right-of-way rules apply regardless of being car, bicycle, or pedestrian - so don't use that to justify being an asshole. Clearly, cyclists should not be blasting through stop lights & stop signs without looking or yielding.
Things are rarely black and white. I applaud the Ukrainians ridding themselves of what appeared/was a corrupt government. As I understand, the Russians reacted to what appeared to be (and probably was) Western meddling. To me, this whole situation has been a matter of action-reaction. And at the very least, the Russians seem to have a sense of humour! Now that the Russians have had their fun, making a mockery of Western "democratic" nations, I really hope Putin decides to stop at the Crimea or else shit could get really serious.
That said, I hope you honestly don't believe you live in a democracy. I think that's very naive. Whether the government is Russian, or American, its unlikely its any friend of ours.
When it comes to criticizing others on this issue, I don't think it has much to do with being fit or fat. It has to do with people that expect everything for free. The people who criticize others probably work very hard to stay "in shape." It didn't happen over night. It's the same deal for people who have become financially successful, have become capable at a musical instrument, or even honed their programming skills. It's the result of hard work.
I DO think there is a moral superiority for those who work hard to acheive goals vs. hedonists are only willing to accept life's pleasures.
Quit whining about being fat, get off your butt, and do something about it. It won't always be fun or easy, but as Pope Benedict XVI said, "we were not created for comfort, but for greatness..."
I'm at a loss for words. His misguided juvenile shenanigans could net him a longer sentence than rapists, murderers, pimps, drug dealers, etc. When I was a kid they would've hauled me into the office, given me a stern lecture, and encouraged me to use my skills in a productive & positive way.
This sort of outrageous over-reaction & immoral litigiousness only results in disdain for the legal system, law, and public institutions.
The CRTC's response will probably be similar to the one I received when I tried to file complaint against the grossly incompetent & abusive TELUS: "The CRTC does not regulate the business practices for Internet Service Providers." The CRTC is absolutely steadfast in their position.
The only body willing to oversee Internet issues is the CCTS or "Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services." This entity is completely funded by the telecom industry. If you need help, they're utterly useless and will basically tell you to take a hike.
I think in these cases they are able to prosecute the legal custodian of children under 18. Like I said, I'm not 100% positive about my stance. Still, I am pretty sure that if any one of these people did a few hours of research they could easily hold their own against the RIAA.
I've had bad experiences in the past being bullied around by huge companies. I was able to look up the associated laws myself and come up with some pretty intimidating letters. In all cases they settled out of court. It really isn't that difficult. If things don't get too hairy you don't need an overpriced lawyer.
IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that they have to PROVE it was you pirating the music. If there is more than one person in your household capable of using your computer, then how can they prove it was you? If they can't prove it was you, they probably can't prove it was the other person, or even both of you.
They have no case. This is 100% intimidation. These wimps in the article settled out of court. If you win your case, they will probably end up paying your legal fees. If I illegally traded music, I would gladly take these mofo's on in court.
Thanks for the tip! The acronym thing has had me stumped a few times. It would be cool if people submitting stories assumed we are all clueless and gave us some hints so we don't have to visit the links to find out we're not interested in the story.
I hate to sound like an advertisement but it seems that a lot of people don't know about iAudio. The JetAudio media player software introduced me to it as they both use the same MP3 decoder.
The JetAudio media player software has a shoddy interface but the best sounding MP3 decoder I have ever heard, hands down! You can select between 32-bit float and 64-bit float decoding, and it supports 24-bit and 32-bit output to your soundcard.
So I bought the iAudio CW300 which comes with 512 Mb flash memory, Sennheiser MX 400 Earphones, and a whole bunch of accessories. Supposedly one AA battery lasts 30 hours (I assume if you turn the backlit display off.) It also has a microphone for recording to MP3, FM tuner that you can encode from.
I admittedly haven't tried other MP3 players, but after using JetAudio, I couldn't see many players being able to coming close to the sound quality with a standard Fraunhofer decoder.
A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales.
For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.
"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."
The study, the most detailed economic modeling survey to use data obtained directly from file-sharing networks, is sure to rekindle debates over the effects of widely used software such as Kazaa or Morpheus on an ailing record business.
Big record labels have seen their sales slide precipitously in the past several years, and have blamed the falling revenue in large part on rampant free music downloads online. Others have pointed to additional factors, such as lower household spending during the recession, and increased competition from other entertainment forms such as DVDs and video games, each of which have grown over the same time period.
Executives at file-sharing companies welcomed the survey, saying it should help persuade reluctant record company executives to use peer-to-peer networks as distribution channels for music "We welcome sound research into the developing peer-to-peer industry, and this study appears to have covered some interesting ground," said Nikki Hemming, chief executive officer of Kazaa parent Sharman Networks. "Consider the possibilities if the record industry actually cooperated with companies like us instead of fighting."
The study, performed by Harvard Business School associate professor Felix Oberholzer and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill associate professor Koleman Strumpf, used logs from two OpenNap servers in late 2002 to observe about 1.75 million downloads over their 17 week sample period.
That sample revealed interesting behavioral, as well as economic, data. Researchers found that the average user logged in only twice during that period, downloading about 17 songs. Some people vastly overshot that average, however--one user apparently logged in 71 times, downloading more than 5,000 songs.
The two professors narrowed their sample base by choosing a random sample of 500 albums from the sales charts of various music genres, and then compared the sales of these albums to the number of associated downloads.
Even in the most pessimistic version of their model, they found that it would take about 5,000 downloads to displace sales of just one physical CD, the authors wrote. Despite the huge scale of downloading worldwide, that would be only a tiny contribution to the overall slide in album sales over the past several years, they said.
Moreover, their data seemed to show that downloads could even have a slight positive effect on the sales of the top albums, the researchers said.
The study is unlikely to be the last word on the issue. Previous studies have been released showing that file sharing had both positive and negative effects on music sales.
The Recording Industry Association of America was quick to dismiss the results as inconsistent with earlier findings.
"Countless well-respected groups and analysts, including Edison Research, Forrester, and the University of Texas, among others, have all determined that illegal file sharing has adversely impacted the sales of CDs," RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss said in a statement. "Our own surveys show that those who are downloading more are buying less."
Many laws have been passed since then that undermine the Charter Of Rights. Even if one was to agree with their intent, they are very broadly worded and could be used for other purposes.
See the Canadian Human Rights Act (articles 12 & 13). There was another one that supposedly dealt with child pornography. It was even worse, "child pornography" wasn't even mentioned in the bill. I'll see if I can find a link.
I don't see why Canada was ever considered "Land Of The Free" by any means. Free speech was never protected here. The only reason why the record industry hasn't acted more aggressively is because the market is comparatively small.
First of all, what is with the ridiculous name? Second, is Linux really suited for multimedia development?
When it comes to the Unices, the operating systems are slow themselves. But the graphic user interfaces are especially bloated and slow. A high performance and responsive operating system is what's needed for these applications. Linux is neither of these.
I would like to see this Linux be competitive in this field. But I think Linux needs a lot of work under the hood before it could be successful here.
Because I don't listen to Top 40 music I thought I would be immune to these copy-protected CD's. But it seems smaller or specialized labels are adopting this technology as well - not just Sony, EMI, or whatever. I bought Absu "Tara" at HMV, which is on a "small" label from France, Osmose Productions.
I brought it home and put it in my CD-ROM and it started making a lot of weird sounds, like when you put in a damaged CD. The CD-ROM wouldn't read it but it worked fine in my Discman. I have my entire CD collection on my computer and use it as a giant jukebox. It's an awesome album but I don't want to screw around with CD's.
I did not expect this from a non-corporate label. If record labels put politics and money before music, then can take their CD's and shove them. There's plently of other wicked music out there.
It looks like AMD are extending the same architecture (IA16->IA32->Hammer) again. For developers it's tempting to stick with what's familiar. But there are still "only" 16 float and 16 general-purpose registers. There isn't a big change when compared to IA64. This looks like another processor based on the over-developed, simple, tried-and-true designs that hail from the 1970's.
I am not a big fan of Intel, but at least they are addressing the deficiencies of IA32 architecture. They are replacing it and not adding to it. The IA64 design isn't amazing by any means. But it's our best hope for a "next generation" processor.
Why don't AMD clone Itanium? Considering their current position, I think it would be the smartest move for now.
Slashdot Mirror
Or perhaps the author thinks that it's morally acceptable for illegals to send their children to public school?
Guys, this is really silly. As Godel has already demonstrated, it is impossible for a machine to meet the criteria of consciousness. "Artificial intelligence" is a chimerical idea and is not possible.
"Imitative intelligence" would be more accurate. A machine may be able to hold a facade of "intelligence," but any semblance of intelligence has been derived from its creators.
The claim that the machine "synthesized an argument" is misleading. Machines are not capable of a priori. The machine simply sorted information giving the appearance of a synthesized argument. The author projected this activity of synthesizing an argument onto the machine, but that is not what happened.
Then the author of the article made the incredible claim that the machine does not have bias, but just the same, they fed it a junk-food diet of newspaper articles & mental garbage.
This article is propaganda.
They're trying to persuade you to believe that machines can be intelligent, that machines will soon be just as or more capable than men at thinking, and that human mental faculties are mechanical. Perhaps the hope is that the general populace will eventually fall under of a large "appeal to authority, or argumentum ad verecundiam" umbrella and give up critical thinking altogether. This is already happening to people in STEM, who have largely ignored philosophy, and evidently cannot think rightly.
They've been passing laws in Canada using this technique for at least a decade. More recently there was the 'With us or with the child pornographers' comment by Vic Toews which pretty much ended his career. People are getting a bit more savvy to this type of bullshit.
My decades of experience say: this is a load of shit.
I do most of what you've described. Bicycles and motor vehicles are not the same. Bicycles don't deal death to motorists but motorists can very easily deal death to cyclists. This means the safest route is to travel on the sidewalk when traffic is heavy and there are no pedestrians. If there are cars in the vicinity of the stop sign, I (and most cyclists I've seen) will stop. In most cases I can think of, right-of-way rules apply regardless of being car, bicycle, or pedestrian - so don't use that to justify being an asshole. Clearly, cyclists should not be blasting through stop lights & stop signs without looking or yielding.
Things are rarely black and white. I applaud the Ukrainians ridding themselves of what appeared/was a corrupt government. As I understand, the Russians reacted to what appeared to be (and probably was) Western meddling. To me, this whole situation has been a matter of action-reaction. And at the very least, the Russians seem to have a sense of humour! Now that the Russians have had their fun, making a mockery of Western "democratic" nations, I really hope Putin decides to stop at the Crimea or else shit could get really serious.
That said, I hope you honestly don't believe you live in a democracy. I think that's very naive. Whether the government is Russian, or American, its unlikely its any friend of ours.
Everybody wants something for free.
When it comes to criticizing others on this issue, I don't think it has much to do with being fit or fat. It has to do with people that expect everything for free. The people who criticize others probably work very hard to stay "in shape." It didn't happen over night. It's the same deal for people who have become financially successful, have become capable at a musical instrument, or even honed their programming skills. It's the result of hard work.
I DO think there is a moral superiority for those who work hard to acheive goals vs. hedonists are only willing to accept life's pleasures.
Quit whining about being fat, get off your butt, and do something about it. It won't always be fun or easy, but as Pope Benedict XVI said, "we were not created for comfort, but for greatness..."
The pill sounds good, though. :-)
I'm at a loss for words. His misguided juvenile shenanigans could net him a longer sentence than rapists, murderers, pimps, drug dealers, etc. When I was a kid they would've hauled me into the office, given me a stern lecture, and encouraged me to use my skills in a productive & positive way.
This sort of outrageous over-reaction & immoral litigiousness only results in disdain for the legal system, law, and public institutions.
The CRTC's response will probably be similar to the one I received when I tried to file complaint against the grossly incompetent & abusive TELUS: "The CRTC does not regulate the business practices for Internet Service Providers." The CRTC is absolutely steadfast in their position.
The only body willing to oversee Internet issues is the CCTS or "Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services." This entity is completely funded by the telecom industry. If you need help, they're utterly useless and will basically tell you to take a hike.
I think in these cases they are able to prosecute the legal custodian of children under 18. Like I said, I'm not 100% positive about my stance. Still, I am pretty sure that if any one of these people did a few hours of research they could easily hold their own against the RIAA.
I've had bad experiences in the past being bullied around by huge companies. I was able to look up the associated laws myself and come up with some pretty intimidating letters. In all cases they settled out of court. It really isn't that difficult. If things don't get too hairy you don't need an overpriced lawyer.
IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that they have to PROVE it was you pirating the music. If there is more than one person in your household capable of using your computer, then how can they prove it was you? If they can't prove it was you, they probably can't prove it was the other person, or even both of you.
They have no case. This is 100% intimidation. These wimps in the article settled out of court. If you win your case, they will probably end up paying your legal fees. If I illegally traded music, I would gladly take these mofo's on in court.
Wow, you sure gave up fast!
Theater - Theatre, Center - Centre and so on
Initialize - Initialise and so on
Color - Colour, Neighbor - Neighbour and so on
Check - Cheque
Thanks for the tip! The acronym thing has had me stumped a few times. It would be cool if people submitting stories assumed we are all clueless and gave us some hints so we don't have to visit the links to find out we're not interested in the story.
The JetAudio media player software has a shoddy interface but the best sounding MP3 decoder I have ever heard, hands down! You can select between 32-bit float and 64-bit float decoding, and it supports 24-bit and 32-bit output to your soundcard.
So I bought the iAudio CW300 which comes with 512 Mb flash memory, Sennheiser MX 400 Earphones, and a whole bunch of accessories. Supposedly one AA battery lasts 30 hours (I assume if you turn the backlit display off.) It also has a microphone for recording to MP3, FM tuner that you can encode from.
I admittedly haven't tried other MP3 players, but after using JetAudio, I couldn't see many players being able to coming close to the sound quality with a standard Fraunhofer decoder.
A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales.
r t= rss&tag=feed&subj=news
For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.
"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."
The study, the most detailed economic modeling survey to use data obtained directly from file-sharing networks, is sure to rekindle debates over the effects of widely used software such as Kazaa or Morpheus on an ailing record business.
Big record labels have seen their sales slide precipitously in the past several years, and have blamed the falling revenue in large part on rampant free music downloads online. Others have pointed to additional factors, such as lower household spending during the recession, and increased competition from other entertainment forms such as DVDs and video games, each of which have grown over the same time period.
Executives at file-sharing companies welcomed the survey, saying it should help persuade reluctant record company executives to use peer-to-peer networks as distribution channels for music "We welcome sound research into the developing peer-to-peer industry, and this study appears to have covered some interesting ground," said Nikki Hemming, chief executive officer of Kazaa parent Sharman Networks. "Consider the possibilities if the record industry actually cooperated with companies like us instead of fighting."
The study, performed by Harvard Business School associate professor Felix Oberholzer and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill associate professor Koleman Strumpf, used logs from two OpenNap servers in late 2002 to observe about 1.75 million downloads over their 17 week sample period.
That sample revealed interesting behavioral, as well as economic, data. Researchers found that the average user logged in only twice during that period, downloading about 17 songs. Some people vastly overshot that average, however--one user apparently logged in 71 times, downloading more than 5,000 songs.
The two professors narrowed their sample base by choosing a random sample of 500 albums from the sales charts of various music genres, and then compared the sales of these albums to the number of associated downloads.
Even in the most pessimistic version of their model, they found that it would take about 5,000 downloads to displace sales of just one physical CD, the authors wrote. Despite the huge scale of downloading worldwide, that would be only a tiny contribution to the overall slide in album sales over the past several years, they said.
Moreover, their data seemed to show that downloads could even have a slight positive effect on the sales of the top albums, the researchers said.
The study is unlikely to be the last word on the issue. Previous studies have been released showing that file sharing had both positive and negative effects on music sales.
The Recording Industry Association of America was quick to dismiss the results as inconsistent with earlier findings.
"Countless well-respected groups and analysts, including Edison Research, Forrester, and the University of Texas, among others, have all determined that illegal file sharing has adversely impacted the sales of CDs," RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss said in a statement. "Our own surveys show that those who are downloading more are buying less."
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5181562.html?pa
Many laws have been passed since then that undermine the Charter Of Rights. Even if one was to agree with their intent, they are very broadly worded and could be used for other purposes.
See the Canadian Human Rights Act (articles 12 & 13). There was another one that supposedly dealt with child pornography. It was even worse, "child pornography" wasn't even mentioned in the bill. I'll see if I can find a link.
I don't see why Canada was ever considered "Land Of The Free" by any means. Free speech was never protected here. The only reason why the record industry hasn't acted more aggressively is because the market is comparatively small.
"Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters..."
None of their titles became nearly as popular as their counterparts such as Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter II.
I think Crystalis was one of my favourite Nintendo games. It also never seemed to be very popular either. Maybe the company is cursed?
Okay, I don't agree with you. But why does everyone seem to think that China will eventually become an economic power house?
First of all, what is with the ridiculous name? Second, is Linux really suited for multimedia development?
When it comes to the Unices, the operating systems are slow themselves. But the graphic user interfaces are especially bloated and slow. A high performance and responsive operating system is what's needed for these applications. Linux is neither of these.
I would like to see this Linux be competitive in this field. But I think Linux needs a lot of work under the hood before it could be successful here.
Because I don't listen to Top 40 music I thought I would be immune to these copy-protected CD's. But it seems smaller or specialized labels are adopting this technology as well - not just Sony, EMI, or whatever. I bought Absu "Tara" at HMV, which is on a "small" label from France, Osmose Productions.
I brought it home and put it in my CD-ROM and it started making a lot of weird sounds, like when you put in a damaged CD. The CD-ROM wouldn't read it but it worked fine in my Discman. I have my entire CD collection on my computer and use it as a giant jukebox. It's an awesome album but I don't want to screw around with CD's.
I did not expect this from a non-corporate label. If record labels put politics and money before music, then can take their CD's and shove them. There's plently of other wicked music out there.
I just looked at XOSL. It seems cool but it clutters your hard drive with unnecessary files. Couldn't they just fit it in the boot record?
It looks like AMD are extending the same architecture (IA16->IA32->Hammer) again. For developers it's tempting to stick with what's familiar. But there are still "only" 16 float and 16 general-purpose registers. There isn't a big change when compared to IA64. This looks like another processor based on the over-developed, simple, tried-and-true designs that hail from the 1970's.
I am not a big fan of Intel, but at least they are addressing the deficiencies of IA32 architecture. They are replacing it and not adding to it. The IA64 design isn't amazing by any means. But it's our best hope for a "next generation" processor.
Why don't AMD clone Itanium? Considering their current position, I think it would be the smartest move for now.