Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, payed me a visit.
As we were talking I mentioned having recently installed Windows 98 on my PC and that I am very happy with this
operating system. I also showed him the Windows 98 CD, to my surprise he threw it
into my micro-wave oven and turned on the oven. Instantly I got very upset,
because the CD had become precious to me, but he said: 'Do not worry, it is unharmed.'
After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said: 'Take a close
look at it.' To my surprise the CD was quite cold to hold and it seemed to be heavier
than before. At first I could not see anything, but then on the inner edge of the
central hole I saw an inscription; an inscription finer than anything I have ever seen
before. The inscription shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of
a great depth:
'I cannot understand the fiery letters,' I said.
'No,' he said 'but I can. The letters
are Hex, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Microsoft, which I shall not
utter here. But in common English this is what it says:
One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
Sci-fi has numerous examples of this phenomenon (remember "Collosus the Forbin Project"?). At least one UK roboticist takes it seriously. One fairly compelling example (in my mind) is the book Computer One by Warwick Collins. A global computer network is tasked with "seeking knowledge". The existence of humanity turns out to conflict with this goal so the network takes appropiate steps to eliminate the obstacle....This does not imply true consciousness on the part of the computer, or the need for any "robot army". As we become more dependant on technology, and build automation into essential services we lay ourselves open to conflicts with decision-making entities unless we program, monitor and limit them very carefully....
Well, we know gold is necessary for at least one process in the ocean. These bacteria "breathe" it don't they...? (gold metal is inert, but Au3+ in solution probably isn't)
This is basicly what the Spyblocker program does . It installed a 377kb hosts file of ad-crap in my windows directory. Gets rid of most annoying banners:). I also sometimes use pop-up stopper if I am visiting particularly intrusive sites.
Slashdot Mirror
heh, reminds me of this:
C 20 4F6E65204F5320746 F2066696E64207468656D2CDA4F6E65204F5320746F2062726 96E67207468656D20 616C6C20616E6420696E20746865206461726B6E6573732062 696E64207468656D
Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, payed me a visit.
As we were talking I mentioned having recently installed Windows 98 on my PC and that I am very happy with this
operating system. I also showed him the Windows 98 CD, to my surprise he threw it
into my micro-wave oven and turned on the oven. Instantly I got very upset,
because the CD had become precious to me, but he said: 'Do not worry, it is unharmed.'
After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said: 'Take a close
look at it.' To my surprise the CD was quite cold to hold and it seemed to be heavier
than before. At first I could not see anything, but then on the inner edge of the
central hole I saw an inscription; an inscription finer than anything I have ever seen
before. The inscription shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of
a great depth:
4F6E65204F5320746F2072756C65207468656D20616C6C2
'I cannot understand the fiery letters,' I said.
'No,' he said 'but I can. The letters
are Hex, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Microsoft, which I shall not
utter here. But in common English this is what it says:
One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
Sci-fi has numerous examples of this phenomenon (remember "Collosus the Forbin Project"?). At least one UK roboticist takes it seriously. One fairly compelling example (in my mind) is the book Computer One by Warwick Collins. A global computer network is tasked with "seeking knowledge". The existence of humanity turns out to conflict with this goal so the network takes appropiate steps to eliminate the obstacle....This does not imply true consciousness on the part of the computer, or the need for any "robot army".
As we become more dependant on technology, and build automation into essential services we lay ourselves open to conflicts with decision-making entities unless we program, monitor and limit them very carefully....
Well, we know gold is necessary for at least one process in the ocean. These bacteria "breathe" it don't they...? (gold metal is inert, but Au3+ in solution probably isn't)
This is basicly what the Spyblocker program does . It installed a 377kb hosts file of ad-crap in my windows directory. Gets rid of most annoying banners :). I also sometimes use pop-up stopper if I am visiting particularly intrusive sites.