Just show a regular photograph or section of text and ask questions about it. It was mentioned in an earlier/. article how hard it was for AIs to read and understand an arbitrary passage of text.
Eg: for photos: What colour is the carpet? How many men are in the picture? What colour is the lamp? What is the largest shape? How many sides does the smallest shape have?
Short story or article: (can select article/answers for language) Who is the name of the protagonist? What is his favorite rock? What street does Bob live on? Who lives next door? etc.
Here's a thought... Xanadu might be more than a curiosity, if something can be shown to have been used in Xanadu for a long time, it just might provide a case for prior art, in order to quash a few stupid HTML and GUI method patents.
and why I would never buy any piece of hardware that relies on a subscription. All the more if they offer a "lifetime" subscription where you pay up front. People have fallen into this trap with health clubs as well - what is the chance that the company behind the hardware will outlive me?
Is there any way to get something like this certified for a class action?
We need a website or gathering place for those who have gotten a bogus DMCA notice, and when you have collected a few hundred, it may time to find a good lawyer.
I wish it included a little rover like the ones on Mars, with an amphibious design (in case it landed in liquid something or other) and nuclear powered, since there isn't enough energy from the sun to operate at that distances. Oh well, hopefully I will live to see it.
I am anxiously awaiting the data like a kid on Xmas morning. Titan is one of the most facinating places in the solar system. I can never forget the first time I laid eyes on it in my little 8" telescope. (Actually, a good pair of binoculars should suffice if you are blessed with dark skies, look for a faint reddish "star" close to saturn.
"And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one rim to the other it was round all about, and...a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about....And it was an hand breadth thick...." -- First Kings, chapter 7, verses 23, 26
Here is biblical proof that pi is in fact exactly 3, which should be given equal time in high school math classes.
In the name of plano-terrestrialists everywhere, I demand that all globes, maps and atlases include a disclaimer stating that the idea of a round earth is only one of many possible theories.
Furthermore, we demand equal time in the classroom to discuss our alternative theories of geography.
Couldn't the spammers be sued for causing what amounts to a DOS attack on the recipient mailserver?
Also, if sexual predators and hackers can be barred from going online, and if corrupt executives can be barred from acting as corporate directors, why can't judges ban unrepentant spammers from going online, or carrying on an internet related business? (And extradited if they subsequently set up shop offshore)
Ralph Nader should have been sued for publishing information on verifiable safety problems and inaccurate odometers in automobiles. Ditto for the one who first broke the story about a certain brand of tire failing on a certain manufacturers SUVs, causing death and injury.
When China feels strong enough to tell the US where to go and how to get there. And from the rate things are going, that day is not far off, with the Chinese economy growing by leaps and bounds while the US is bled white in Iraq. Unfortunately, it will also be a sad day for Taiwan.
Nucleus of a good idea
on
Wish Cancelled
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
An open source MMORPG would be a very worthwhile project, however the cost of bandwidth would have to be dealt with. I wonder if it is possible that the "world" database could be stored in distributed fashion, like a freenet node, eliminating the need for a central server.
True, but kernel source code needs much more rigorous inspection and testing for functionality, side effects, and security issues. I don't know how long it takes to validate and accept even a trivial patch, but I suspect it can be masured in man-days. I can bear this out from my experience working on large software (phone system) projects with 99.999% uptime requirements. It wouldn't take me more than a couple of minutes to determine if a posted article is obvious flamebait or trash. If I wanted to be diligent and verify some of the facts presented, it would of course take a while longer.
I certainly agree that it would take tens of thousands of volunteers to do even a cursory inspection of that many submissions, but even a one minute scan (without attempting to verify every fact presented) would improve the S/N ratio. Even a crude system where one randomly chosen volunteer was required to accept each submitted article or change from a new submitter, before it became permanent would help. If frequent submitters had enough positive votes on their past 10-20 submissions, (similar to slashdot karma) they could be allowed to edit and post without moderation. The goal is improvement not perfection, and it would be a way for those who cannot contribute financially to contribute a few minutes of their time instead.
The Linux kernel is a good model of how Wikipedia should work. All source code contributions must be vetted by Linus or one of his designated underlings before being checked into the kernel. If anybody and everybody could check whatever code they want directly into the root branch, the kernel would quickly become an unusable mess. New Wikipedia submissions or changes should be held as pending until passing editorial review.
Another option is/. style moderation, where you can log in and vote on the accuracy of an article. Enough -ve mods and the entry would be deleted or rolled back to its previous iteration. Meta-moderation would ensure that the moderation system is not abused, and trolls are prevented from moderating.
But the idea behind Wikipedia is great, and shouldn't be allowed to die. Despite its warts, I do consider it a valuble reference, and keep a quick link to it on my Mozilla toolbar.
The two voyager missions took advantage of a rather unique alignment of the outer plants, that allowed for a grand tour. They also did a lot of the ground work in finding targets for future study with the subsequent Gallileo and Cassini missions.
IANAL, but I doubt it is legal to damage somebody's PC because they have unlicenced software or media on their PC. I remember way back in the early days of PCs, some clods had the idea of having sandpaper on the innermost track of their floppy, and if the correct activation code was not typed after 3 or more attempts, the floppy seek head would be moved across the sandpaper, destroying your drive. The idea was withdrawn after a few lawsuits. (What if you left your caps key on while typing the code) Besides, what customer would risk knowingly sticking something that nasty inside your floppy drive?
It will be intereresting to see what happens on the political front, if it is eventually determined that this thing will hit earth.
At 300m across, it is small enough to be nuked out of harm's way. And fortunately, we still have a lot of time on our side to plan and fly a mission to blast it to rubble, or at least into a different trajectory. But this would mean at least temporarily revoking some treaties regarding nuclear detonations in space. And how will the bill be divided up? What happens if is eventually determined that this thing will land in central Asia or Africa - will unaffected countries still be willing to pick up the tab?
Looks like we will need to develop some sort of (funded) international contingency plan to deal with dangers from space, even if it is eventually determined this particular rock will miss us.
If I go to purchase a PC with preloaded software, I haven't clicked on "I agree" anywhere. I only agreed to purchase a PC from the vendor. When was I given a chance to refuse or even view the licencing terms of whatever software was preloaded? This doesn't just apply to Windows, as there are usually a half dozen or more utilities preloaded along with it. (Usually crap, but that is another matter...) And does this mean PCs with preloaded software can only be sold to those legally of age who can enter into contracts?
While the exact numbers quoted may be subject to debate, they are qualatively right. One only needs to look at the extinction rate through history to see that most species do not hang around very long when you consider time frames in the millions of years. If the history of the universe was compressed into a 24 hour day, we have only been in existance for the last 1.5 seconds. And of course there is an ultimate doom facing life on earth when Sol leaves the main sequence and enters the red giant phase, boiling alway the oceans and ultimately swallowing the inner planets.
In order for humans to get off this rock in significant numbers, we need revolutionary advances in technology that reduce the cost of reaching orbit by several orders of magnitude. Research can and should be undertaken towards eventually seeding the atmospheres of Venus and Mars with engineered teraforming bacteria. Snagging one of Saturns icy moons and blasting it out of orbit towards the inner planets should provide enough water for the teraformed worlds. The space elevator seems our best hope for now, but research on nuclear propulsion should be stepped up, despite the public phobia around any and all things "nuclear". Yes, there will be accidents and mistakes, as with every new endeavour. The early polynesians who set themselves adrift on a raft and cast their fate to the whims of wind and waves in search of a new home sometimes met with disaster. It didn't stop others from trying.
Slashdot Mirror
Just show a regular photograph or section of text and ask questions about it. It was mentioned in an earlier /. article how hard it was for AIs to read and understand an arbitrary passage of text.
Eg: for photos:
What colour is the carpet?
How many men are in the picture?
What colour is the lamp?
What is the largest shape?
How many sides does the smallest shape have?
Short story or article: (can select article/answers for language)
Who is the name of the protagonist?
What is his favorite rock?
What street does Bob live on?
Who lives next door?
etc.
> Could it lead to a fax machine for complete living organisms?
The next obvious step is to add a wireless link and voila! Star Trek transporter! (Except that you need a receiving apparatus at the other end)
Here's a thought...
Xanadu might be more than a curiosity, if something can be shown to have been used in Xanadu for a long time, it just might provide a case for prior art, in order to quash a few stupid HTML and GUI method patents.
and why I would never buy any piece of hardware that relies on a subscription. All the more if they offer a "lifetime" subscription where you pay up front. People have fallen into this trap with health clubs as well - what is the chance that the company behind the hardware will outlive me?
Is there any way to get something like this certified for a class action?
We need a website or gathering place for those who have gotten a bogus DMCA notice, and when you have collected a few hundred, it may time to find a good lawyer.
I wish it included a little rover like the ones on Mars, with an amphibious design (in case it landed in liquid something or other) and nuclear powered, since there isn't enough energy from the sun to operate at that distances. Oh well, hopefully I will live to see it.
I am anxiously awaiting the data like a kid on Xmas morning. Titan is one of the most facinating places in the solar system. I can never forget the first time I laid eyes on it in my little 8" telescope. (Actually, a good pair of binoculars should suffice if you are blessed with dark skies, look for a faint reddish "star" close to saturn.
Oh, forgot one:
"And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one rim to the other it was round all about, and...a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about....And it was an hand breadth thick...." -- First Kings, chapter 7, verses 23, 26
Here is biblical proof that pi is in fact exactly 3, which should be given equal time in high school math classes.
In the name of plano-terrestrialists everywhere, I demand that all globes, maps and atlases include a disclaimer stating that the idea of a round earth is only one of many possible theories.
Furthermore, we demand equal time in the classroom to discuss our alternative theories of geography.
Standard IANAL disclaimer, but:
Couldn't the spammers be sued for causing what amounts to a DOS attack on the recipient mailserver?
Also, if sexual predators and hackers can be barred from going online, and if corrupt executives can be barred from acting as corporate directors, why can't judges ban unrepentant spammers from going online, or carrying on an internet related business? (And extradited if they subsequently set up shop offshore)
Maybe this is a security feature - it can only run 3 spyware programs or worms at once.
IANAL, but I believe the answer is no, because of the legal doctrine of Equitable Estoppel. http://www.legal-definitions.com/equitable-estoppe l.htm
Ralph Nader should have been sued for publishing information on verifiable safety problems and inaccurate odometers in automobiles. Ditto for the one who first broke the story about a certain brand of tire failing on a certain manufacturers SUVs, causing death and injury.
Sounds like a promising XXX title. :)
When China feels strong enough to tell the US where to go and how to get there. And from the rate things are going, that day is not far off, with the Chinese economy growing by leaps and bounds while the US is bled white in Iraq. Unfortunately, it will also be a sad day for Taiwan.
An open source MMORPG would be a very worthwhile project, however the cost of bandwidth would have to be dealt with. I wonder if it is possible that the "world" database could be stored in distributed fashion, like a freenet node, eliminating the need for a central server.
True, but kernel source code needs much more rigorous inspection and testing for functionality, side effects, and security issues. I don't know how long it takes to validate and accept even a trivial patch, but I suspect it can be masured in man-days. I can bear this out from my experience working on large software (phone system) projects with 99.999% uptime requirements. It wouldn't take me more than a couple of minutes to determine if a posted article is obvious flamebait or trash. If I wanted to be diligent and verify some of the facts presented, it would of course take a while longer.
I certainly agree that it would take tens of thousands of volunteers to do even a cursory inspection of that many submissions, but even a one minute scan (without attempting to verify every fact presented) would improve the S/N ratio. Even a crude system where one randomly chosen volunteer was required to accept each submitted article or change from a new submitter, before it became permanent would help. If frequent submitters had enough positive votes on their past 10-20 submissions, (similar to slashdot karma) they could be allowed to edit and post without moderation. The goal is improvement not perfection, and it would be a way for those who cannot contribute financially to contribute a few minutes of their time instead.
The Linux kernel is a good model of how Wikipedia should work. All source code contributions must be vetted by Linus or one of his designated underlings before being checked into the kernel. If anybody and everybody could check whatever code they want directly into the root branch, the kernel would quickly become an unusable mess. New Wikipedia submissions or changes should be held as pending until passing editorial review.
/. style moderation, where you can log in and vote on the accuracy of an article. Enough -ve mods and the entry would be deleted or rolled back to its previous iteration. Meta-moderation would ensure that the moderation system is not abused, and trolls are prevented from moderating.
Another option is
But the idea behind Wikipedia is great, and shouldn't be allowed to die. Despite its warts, I do consider it a valuble reference, and keep a quick link to it on my Mozilla toolbar.
The two voyager missions took advantage of a rather unique alignment of the outer plants, that allowed for a grand tour. They also did a lot of the ground work in finding targets for future study with the subsequent Gallileo and Cassini missions.
IANAL, but I doubt it is legal to damage somebody's PC because they have unlicenced software or media on their PC. I remember way back in the early days of PCs, some clods had the idea of having sandpaper on the innermost track of their floppy, and if the correct activation code was not typed after 3 or more attempts, the floppy seek head would be moved across the sandpaper, destroying your drive. The idea was withdrawn after a few lawsuits. (What if you left your caps key on while typing the code) Besides, what customer would risk knowingly sticking something that nasty inside your floppy drive?
for laughs in colleges on friday nights alongside "reefer madness" and the more ludicrous "reds under your bed" government propoganda films.
So what does ultra violet clothing look like anyway?
It will be intereresting to see what happens on the political front, if it is eventually determined that this thing will hit earth.
At 300m across, it is small enough to be nuked out of harm's way. And fortunately, we still have a lot of time on our side to plan and fly a mission to blast it to rubble, or at least into a different trajectory. But this would mean at least temporarily revoking some treaties regarding nuclear detonations in space. And how will the bill be divided up? What happens if is eventually determined that this thing will land in central Asia or Africa - will unaffected countries still be willing to pick up the tab?
Looks like we will need to develop some sort of (funded) international contingency plan to deal with dangers from space, even if it is eventually determined this particular rock will miss us.
Well, it certainly would be considered a critical hit!
(Especially if it lands in a densely populated area)
More fun for the lawyers:
If I go to purchase a PC with preloaded software, I haven't clicked on "I agree" anywhere. I only agreed to purchase a PC from the vendor. When was I given a chance to refuse or even view the licencing terms of whatever software was preloaded? This doesn't just apply to Windows, as there are usually a half dozen or more utilities preloaded along with it. (Usually crap, but that is another matter...) And does this mean PCs with preloaded software can only be sold to those legally of age who can enter into contracts?
While the exact numbers quoted may be subject to debate, they are qualatively right. One only needs to look at the extinction rate through history to see that most species do not hang around very long when you consider time frames in the millions of years. If the history of the universe was compressed into a 24 hour day, we have only been in existance for the last 1.5 seconds. And of course there is an ultimate doom facing life on earth when Sol leaves the main sequence and enters the red giant phase, boiling alway the oceans and ultimately swallowing the inner planets.
In order for humans to get off this rock in significant numbers, we need revolutionary advances in technology that reduce the cost of reaching orbit by several orders of magnitude. Research can and should be undertaken towards eventually seeding the atmospheres of Venus and Mars with engineered teraforming bacteria. Snagging one of Saturns icy moons and blasting it out of orbit towards the inner planets should provide enough water for the teraformed worlds. The space elevator seems our best hope for now, but research on nuclear propulsion should be stepped up, despite the public phobia around any and all things "nuclear". Yes, there will be accidents and mistakes, as with every new endeavour. The early polynesians who set themselves adrift on a raft and cast their fate to the whims of wind and waves in search of a new home sometimes met with disaster. It didn't stop others from trying.