No kidding! The Jedi Council's stupidity over 'restoring the balance' made me want to scream. In the Republic there are thousands of Jedi Knights and an efficient training program. There are (we know of) a handful of dark Jedi (the Sith). Do the Jedi actually feel outnumbered and think balancing would be beneficial to them?? They are the ones horribly out of balance! How arrogant and stupid of them to see themselves as the underdogs.
Check out the Alphasmart website. They make modern word processors. Their products have full-size keyboards, extremely long battery life, and are very durable. The Dana, for example, is made of ABS plastic molded into a great form factor. It weighs 2 pounds and the rechargeable battery lasts 12-15 hours but can be replaced by regular AA's if you need to. It runs PalmOS.
the Alphasmart 3000 is the cheapest version. The battery will last pretty much forever. It is an absolutely basic writing tool (other than paper and pencil) and has a good reputation also.
I don't think we as taxpayers should be paying for someone to sit in prison for 3 years for distributing a movie. If the studios or MPAA wants to pay for the jail time, they are welcome to use a few cells in a prison, assuming the person was found guilty of copyright violation or whatever.
I sure as hell don't want to pay for prison time over a some company's copyright problem. That is fucked up.
This is more intelligent than most conversations I overhear. Clearly intelligent conversation is a prime indicator of an AI bot. Maybe if they dumb ALICE down a bit and tell it to reference more celebrities and movies if would be more believable.
Wow, thought you were talking about Futurama. Firefly and Futurama...how could Fox screw over such great shows?
Re:Summary of the abovementioned web site:
on
Mapping the Mind
·
· Score: 1
By 'grain' you mean a suitcase-size chunk, right? I completely agree with you. I didn't read that far down the page...only got a page in and gave up in disgust. But the author background really is great stuff!:-)
Yeah, people who survey the esoteric knowledge of scientists and present it in a summary form so that non-experts can learn something are monsters. They are ripping off the scientists who spend decades getting to the frontier of their field. The knowledge was hard for them to get - it should be hard for everyone else too!
Don't stand on the shoulders of giants! Pick your field of specialization and be completely ignorant about everything else! Knowledge is scare and should be hoarded! Fight the educators!! TAKE BACK THE KNOWLEDGE FROM THE LAYMEN!
Also grab Greg Egan's Diaspora and The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard for some more excellent reading. Diaspora is a beautiful, epic book, and Ballard's short stories are brilliant.
For an excellent non-SF novel read Shogun by James Clavell.
Is it just impossible to imagine this system would have some slight brains? Enough to tell if a gesture was meant or not? That it might even possibly be configurable? Mice and keyboards are adjustable in several ways to suit a person's specific wishes. Is it just impossible to imagine a configurable system for this?
I just thought of a way this might be made useful. It depends on sensing the location of the user's head. It would work so that a user could tilt his head like he's trying to see 'around' to the other side of the spherical interface and the window manager would rotate in the windows/information from that side. So if you are looking at a text editor and need to check out a document momentarily you could crane your neck (I'm talking a slight gesture, not really craning, but the same motion) and the web browser that is pushed off to the side would slide back in. You could read what you need to, then go back the other way to see the editor.
Perhaps a head position sensor would provide intelligent focusing for the extra dimensions? I can see something like this being useful in any window manager. You could do it with a camera and some custom recognition software perhaps, so no extra sensor would be required.
I personally would really like it if I could scroll a document or switch desktops (or the view of a very large desktop) with slight head gestures.
Kudos to the submitter and the editor for posting a useful and interesting story with a useful and concise summary. I wish we had more stories done exactly like this one.
I've read 4 Baxter novels and found them thoroughly uninteresting. The story concepts were excellent, which kept me going back to try another. The writing was bland and uninteresting and the story never seemed to get anywhere. All the actual story where the concept is explored was compressed into the final chapter or two of the book. Everything up to that was people travelling here and there, being involved with unimportant and uninteresting side plots. The actual story was compressed into the last 2 chapters during which events progressed in a whirlwind.
Anybody else feel the same about Baxter's books? It's been a few years since I read one, and maybe I would view them differently. Is it worth trying another?
I don't understand why it would be karma whoring to supply a relevant link. Others post blithering nonsense and outrageously stupid opinions and regularly get modded Insightful. Do you really feel so guilty about contributing useful information that you post it anonymously?
Next time just post the link, a short description of what it is about, and glory in being able to provide useful info.
Uh...yeah, that's why they put mass transit where the masses are - big cities and connections between big cities. Just because rural america doesn't want it or can't use it doesn't mean it is unworkable.
The exit polls are early results, and angry people (Kerry supporters) vote early. Content voters saunter into the polls whenever. So Kerry led for a long time in the exit polls, but fell behind at the end of the day. I know I was angry - I was there in line before the polls opened!
Not a notary - 2 signed witnesses who have read and understood all your writings and diagrams. Your witnesses need to be able to testify on the device itself and its features and construction, not just that you wrote some thing down on such and such date, which is what a notary is doing.
I recommend the book "Patent it Yourself". It's pretty cheap on Amazon.
Why not put a numeric keypad lock on the door? That's what we do in my company's labs. Keep the door open when someone is in - last person out shuts the door and you need to keycode to get in.
Like someone else mentioned, you don't want to make it difficult to leave the area in case of emergency.
I'm not at all surprised by this. I've been listening to the audiobook version of the book A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. At one point Stewart starts talking about the media and it suddenly becomes a very impassioned rant against them. He sounds as frustrated and pissed off as any of us when we watch the shit we get for political news/commentary these days.
I think Stewart is doing a great job at being a watchdog, but he's only one man and a show. We need more people demanding higher standards and loudly complaining about the status quo.
I am with you on this. I very much want to live forever. I want to see everything, try everything, learn everything. It was always a vague wish until I read Greg Egan's book Diaspora. He brings the idea to life in a beautiful and fascinating way. Read it!
Slashdot Mirror
Does the motivation matter? The problem is fixed, right? And they will take better care in the future...so what does their motivation matter?
No kidding! The Jedi Council's stupidity over 'restoring the balance' made me want to scream. In the Republic there are thousands of Jedi Knights and an efficient training program. There are (we know of) a handful of dark Jedi (the Sith). Do the Jedi actually feel outnumbered and think balancing would be beneficial to them?? They are the ones horribly out of balance! How arrogant and stupid of them to see themselves as the underdogs.
Yeah man. We wouldn't want to have a competition which tests skills useful in the real world, too.
Check out the Alphasmart website. They make modern word processors. Their products have full-size keyboards, extremely long battery life, and are very durable. The Dana, for example, is made of ABS plastic molded into a great form factor. It weighs 2 pounds and the rechargeable battery lasts 12-15 hours but can be replaced by regular AA's if you need to. It runs PalmOS.
the Alphasmart 3000 is the cheapest version. The battery will last pretty much forever. It is an absolutely basic writing tool (other than paper and pencil) and has a good reputation also.
I don't think we as taxpayers should be paying for someone to sit in prison for 3 years for distributing a movie. If the studios or MPAA wants to pay for the jail time, they are welcome to use a few cells in a prison, assuming the person was found guilty of copyright violation or whatever.
I sure as hell don't want to pay for prison time over a some company's copyright problem. That is fucked up.
This made me cry and laugh at the same time. I always appreciate good wit over the usual low-brow sarcasm most people use.
This is modded Insightful?? Funny would fit better, but apparently some people agree with the sentiment!
You'd have to be a hell of an idiot to avoid the gym because of the miniscule amount of people who happen to die in them each year.
I'd put money down that more people die sitting on the toilet than working out.
This is more intelligent than most conversations I overhear. Clearly intelligent conversation is a prime indicator of an AI bot. Maybe if they dumb ALICE down a bit and tell it to reference more celebrities and movies if would be more believable.
Wow, thought you were talking about Futurama. Firefly and Futurama...how could Fox screw over such great shows?
By 'grain' you mean a suitcase-size chunk, right? I completely agree with you. I didn't read that far down the page...only got a page in and gave up in disgust. But the author background really is great stuff! :-)
Yeah, people who survey the esoteric knowledge of scientists and present it in a summary form so that non-experts can learn something are monsters. They are ripping off the scientists who spend decades getting to the frontier of their field. The knowledge was hard for them to get - it should be hard for everyone else too!
Don't stand on the shoulders of giants! Pick your field of specialization and be completely ignorant about everything else! Knowledge is scare and should be hoarded! Fight the educators!! TAKE BACK THE KNOWLEDGE FROM THE LAYMEN!
If you were American, you would also know that writing to your representative is a waste of time. Unless your letter is wrapped around a fat check. :(
Also grab Greg Egan's Diaspora and The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard for some more excellent reading. Diaspora is a beautiful, epic book, and Ballard's short stories are brilliant. For an excellent non-SF novel read Shogun by James Clavell.
Is it just impossible to imagine this system would have some slight brains? Enough to tell if a gesture was meant or not? That it might even possibly be configurable? Mice and keyboards are adjustable in several ways to suit a person's specific wishes. Is it just impossible to imagine a configurable system for this?
I just thought of a way this might be made useful. It depends on sensing the location of the user's head. It would work so that a user could tilt his head like he's trying to see 'around' to the other side of the spherical interface and the window manager would rotate in the windows/information from that side. So if you are looking at a text editor and need to check out a document momentarily you could crane your neck (I'm talking a slight gesture, not really craning, but the same motion) and the web browser that is pushed off to the side would slide back in. You could read what you need to, then go back the other way to see the editor.
Perhaps a head position sensor would provide intelligent focusing for the extra dimensions? I can see something like this being useful in any window manager. You could do it with a camera and some custom recognition software perhaps, so no extra sensor would be required.
I personally would really like it if I could scroll a document or switch desktops (or the view of a very large desktop) with slight head gestures.
Kudos to the submitter and the editor for posting a useful and interesting story with a useful and concise summary. I wish we had more stories done exactly like this one.
I've read 4 Baxter novels and found them thoroughly uninteresting. The story concepts were excellent, which kept me going back to try another. The writing was bland and uninteresting and the story never seemed to get anywhere. All the actual story where the concept is explored was compressed into the final chapter or two of the book. Everything up to that was people travelling here and there, being involved with unimportant and uninteresting side plots. The actual story was compressed into the last 2 chapters during which events progressed in a whirlwind.
Anybody else feel the same about Baxter's books? It's been a few years since I read one, and maybe I would view them differently. Is it worth trying another?
I don't understand why it would be karma whoring to supply a relevant link. Others post blithering nonsense and outrageously stupid opinions and regularly get modded Insightful. Do you really feel so guilty about contributing useful information that you post it anonymously?
Next time just post the link, a short description of what it is about, and glory in being able to provide useful info.
I've been wondering the same. Why hasn't anyone created a slashdot replacement? Surely somebody has the bandwidth available?
Uh...yeah, that's why they put mass transit where the masses are - big cities and connections between big cities. Just because rural america doesn't want it or can't use it doesn't mean it is unworkable.
The exit polls are early results, and angry people (Kerry supporters) vote early. Content voters saunter into the polls whenever. So Kerry led for a long time in the exit polls, but fell behind at the end of the day. I know I was angry - I was there in line before the polls opened!
Not a notary - 2 signed witnesses who have read and understood all your writings and diagrams. Your witnesses need to be able to testify on the device itself and its features and construction, not just that you wrote some thing down on such and such date, which is what a notary is doing.
I recommend the book "Patent it Yourself". It's pretty cheap on Amazon.
Why not put a numeric keypad lock on the door? That's what we do in my company's labs. Keep the door open when someone is in - last person out shuts the door and you need to keycode to get in.
Like someone else mentioned, you don't want to make it difficult to leave the area in case of emergency.
I'm not at all surprised by this. I've been listening to the audiobook version of the book A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. At one point Stewart starts talking about the media and it suddenly becomes a very impassioned rant against them. He sounds as frustrated and pissed off as any of us when we watch the shit we get for political news/commentary these days.
I think Stewart is doing a great job at being a watchdog, but he's only one man and a show. We need more people demanding higher standards and loudly complaining about the status quo.
I am with you on this. I very much want to live forever. I want to see everything, try everything, learn everything. It was always a vague wish until I read Greg Egan's book Diaspora. He brings the idea to life in a beautiful and fascinating way. Read it!