Obama made a few rousing speeches after his election, which at the time was enough of a promise for this Prize to be awarded. He also got it for "not being Bush". If the Nobel committee knew then what they know now, I doubt they'd consider Obama for a Prize. That's the problem with giving accolades like these, even the political ones, on the strength of hope and promises rather than actual effort and results. Oh well, the latest Peace Prize was given to the "EU"... at a time when some of us Europeans feel that EU measures are actually a destabilizing factor.
In earlier announcements, Google mentioned that the active Glass component can be removed from the included frame and clipped to the frame of your prescription glasses.
100 quid? Sounds a bit on the low side: we're talking several camera's, lasers + sensors, a control unit, and actuators for pedals & steering. Even £1000 seems too low... compare this to what you can expect to pay for factory installed cruise control.
I would expect that even in the prototype, the iPad is just being used as an interface to the control system making the actual decisions. iPad crash = no problem: you can still get out of auto drive by applying the brakes. And for a prototype, a tablet makes a cost effective and feature rich user interface (in a production system you'd probably use a custom device integrated into the dashboard).
Trust in the democratic process is as important as the actual security of the process.
This is something all too often forgotten in discussions around electronic voting; proponents think that adding enough security is sufficient. Transparency of the process in critical, as it can deliver that trust; that's why I (as a gadget freak) am very much in favour of paper ballots. Incredibly hard to fix on a large scale without anyone noticing, and oversight can be carried out by any citizen, not just by security experts with PhDs.
It is... Think Wal-mart but a bit more upmarket, with food of French quality (things like a 20 meter isle of fresh fish on ice), along with such basic necessities as chain saws, boat anchors, and lathes. The only thing they lacked which I did see in Wal-mart is shotguns...
Scientific data of actual harm be damned, I am sure we can dig up some of that. Point is: the government has no business meddling in what goes on between two (or more) consenting adults, and that includes putting naughty bits on film. If some women are indeed coerced to do porn, then do something about the coercion. If women who do porn are shown to often greatly regret their choices later in life, then perhaps education and public service messages are in order.
Sure, I am also a pragmatist... if curtailing some freedom has little or no actual effect on our day to day lives but great, proven side benefits, then we could consider it. Mandatory seat belts are an example of that. But this porn issue doesn't even come close.
Sadly I've seen plenty of HR types who look at resumés through that lens. I've done some resumé selecting (and subsequent interviewing) as well; my last employer put great store in letting their consultants rather than HR do the better part of selecting potential hires. What I looked for: creativity (if applicable to the job, which it almost always was), relevant work experience (yes we actually call your references, and bring your diplomas too), outstanding achievements in and outside the job (be prepared to be thoroughly questioned on those), or obvious turn-offs (inappropriate comments, excessive spelling/grammatical errors). What I overlooked: the occasional spelling error, not conforming to the standard typography or format for resumés, not showing up in a suit (though one should look at least somewhat presentable), mentioning odd activities or hobbies. Wearing a suit, communicating in a professional manner, speaking the lingo... those are things we can teach you if you're an otherwise clever, competent and motivated person.
By the way, if I am ever asked to interview someone for an HR position, I'd give them a nice mix of resumes of people I've interviewed before, asking them to make a motivated selection. I seriously doubt miss Lee would pass muster...
This. Or alternatively, an API that will let any iPhone app expose a separate mini-GUI on a paired iWatch. Same damn thing they should have done for Siri. Both the watch and Siri are/will be great for short, uncomplicated actions, the kind you'd do with a remote control. Such an API implemented in the right kind of app could be a game changer in the way we control our stuff... if only Apple will let us.
Actually, I see this in many other IT jobs as well: many companies struggle to fill certain key senior IT positions, because there no longer is a career path that leads to those jobs due to outsourcing. Some companies actually come to realise that they can't outsource everything, then take a long hard look at their current IT career paths, and conclude that they need to start doing some stuff in-house again.
That's an important observation. It also explains that other CS joke: "If we built houses like we build software, the first woodpecker that comes along would destroy civilisation". There's some truth to that, but it is not just about how we built software, it is also about what we are building with. Imagine building a house on a foundation that changes significantly over time, using bricks with varying and hidden qualities (and flaws), materials that may fail in surprising ways when used in certain combinations, and a resulting structure that may collapse if you hang the front door crooked. That is what working in a modern software environment sometimes feels like.
IBM has a project with the goal of making a battery that enables a more or less regular car to go 500 miles on a single charge. And apparently they are getting close to that mark. Call it 250 miles in cold weather, traffic jams, and detours; even that will cover 99% of our driving needs. But such a car is still going to suck if you can't recharge it in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Because there will always be that 1%
That 1% is the reason my friend called me silly for buying a convertible. Sure, it's a fun ride for 99% of the time but won't be any good when we have to move a piece of furniture. Simple solution: get 2 cars. One for everyday use, one for the 1% trips. And in the future, perhaps even the near future, that second car won't be necessary anymore, because we will have convenient car rental: the kind where you book a car for the next day, and find it in your driveway the next morning. The thing will have driven itself from the rental lot to your home by itself, and will return itself the same way. That is what I think will be the first revolution of self driving cars: car rentals. And that will in turn revolutionize electric cars by taking care of that 1% of our trips that cannot be served by an electric vehicle.
This. Also, larger firms have started further specialisation and outsources specific IT project tasks to service providers. My client hires test teams, infrastructure teams, architecture teams (partly employees as well), security expert teams, networking experts, migration teams, project management teams (no kidding).... so any IT project, even rather small ones, now have to involve 5 or more teams from various vendors. The communication and process overhead is staggering. On traditional small projects your overhead might be 20%, now it easily is upward of 500% (yes, 5x the actual productive effort).
Well, it's been said before that managers prefer predictability over quality and even over cost (predictable mediocrity), but from what I can see this approach to projects offers no advantage... except perhaps accountability, as everything down to the last nut and bolt is discussed, agreed, planned, and documented. Sounds good? To some it does... but it's those same ones who keep wondering why we fail to be innovative or get even the simplest little upgrades done in a reasonable timeframe.
Not sure about English composition, but there are other subjects that can benefit from technology: visualisation, learning with feedback outside the classroom, gamification... and other than just improving learning effectiveness, could you think of a way where technology could help a teacher effectively teach a class of 1000 rather than 30 or so? Or reduce the cost of learning so you can justify the expense for a far larger group? I can... and I am not the only one. We're not there yet, though.
And sometimes it's about more than just learning. There's a series of courses taught at a company I work with, which comes with a meter-high stack of binders containing the course materials. That stack got replaced with an iPad for every student. Some managers screamed about education funds being spent on stupid, shiny toys. They didn't buy into the fact that these professionals got more effective since they now always have this refererence material with them on the job (often in remote locations). Or that this reference material is being kept up-to-date over the air. Or that errors in the material were pointed out far faster and more frequently through the iPad's software. But what they did understand, in the end, is that handing out iPads actually turns out to be way cheaper than handing out the stack of binders.
I never got the "lottery is a tax on the stupid" thing. Nothing wrong or even stupid about making a wager as long as you can afford the stakes. And it's not about the mathematical expectation value / average winnings, but about the (small) chance of gaining wealth one would have pretty much zero hope of acquiring otherwise.
By the way, the same rule applies to insurances, which are nothing more than a reverse lottery (and nobody calls them stupid). Again, don't gamble with money you cannot afford, except in this case you're gambling against a loss, so insure those mishaps which you cannot cover yourself (health, homeowners'), and self-insure the rest (cell phone insurance), except where you have a positive expectation value (travel cancellation insurance for the sickly amongst us).
Driving with these glasses showing you where to go should be safer than having to glance to the side at a satnav screen from time to time. And a pedestrian or cyclist reading an incoming message on a HUD is actually less likely to crash into a pole than the person who takes his cellphone out of his pocket and looks down at it while continuing to walk/pedal.
It's not really the consumer protection side (or lack thereof) that I find scary, it's vague laws that state "If you do something bad, you will receive an appropriate punishment ranging from a slap on the wrist to 5 years in jail". If you make the unlocking of phones illegal (which I don't agree with btw.), there should be a clear distinction between one guy unlocking his own phone after his agreed contract expires, and a guy running a shop unlocking hundreds of phones a week for a fee. In the first case a small fine would be appropriate; the second case would warrant much stiffer fines or even criminal charges (depending on your laws). Ideally the law itself makes that distinction to some degree; the problem is that apparently you could get the $500k fine / jail time even for unlocking a single phone, if the prosecutor decides to make an example out of you. We've all seen how that works recently...
Here (in Europe) we do have similar laws which have not been laughed out of the legislature. But those laws make the distinction between small time infractions and large scale commercial wrongdoings. And a prosecutor asking for the maximum sentence for a minor breach of the law would be laughed out of court. Being made an example of here doesn't involve ludicrous jail terms; if it happens at all, it means that when the judge has a choice between imposing community service or an equivalent jail term, he'll send you to jail.
As long as you realise that the defendant at this point is still merely a suspect. Suppose you're wrongly accused of something vague like wire fraud which is punished by anything ranging from a stern talking-to up to a 20 year jail term. What would you do, given the choice between 6 months for pleading "guilty", or the prosecutor demanding 20 years in a protracted court case which will likely bankrupt you? It's tempting to give in if you are actually guilty of a very minor case of wire fraud (you're still facing those 20 years after all), but even an innocent would be tempted to give in and do half a year rather than risk doing 20.
GP is right that threatening excessive sentences for minor offenses is undue duress. Where I come from, plea bargaining is extremely rare, and only used if a criminal can help bring other high profile criminals to justice by providing info or testifying. It's not used as a way to reduce the load on the court system or give prosecutors an easy win. Judges do take a suspect's cooperation in mind when they pass sentence, though.
If you work for a large or high-profile corporation (or you manage their cloud data), there are people who will pay you good money for a simple list of employees, email addresses, their position and perhaps their pay grade. Won't make you rich but it'll sure be a nice addition to your retirement fund. Enough to tempt some sysadmins with privileged access (as has happened in the past). And I am sure the contents of some mails from the CFO can be put to profitable use.
Nice.
1) Forge your child's birth certificate (maybe bribe a local official, not uncommon)
2) Send your kid to work at a supplier to Apple
3)... (Wait for the Apple labour inspectors)
4) Profit! (Tuition paid and a monthly stipend for the family)
Slashdot Mirror
Obama made a few rousing speeches after his election, which at the time was enough of a promise for this Prize to be awarded. He also got it for "not being Bush". If the Nobel committee knew then what they know now, I doubt they'd consider Obama for a Prize. That's the problem with giving accolades like these, even the political ones, on the strength of hope and promises rather than actual effort and results. Oh well, the latest Peace Prize was given to the "EU"... at a time when some of us Europeans feel that EU measures are actually a destabilizing factor.
In earlier announcements, Google mentioned that the active Glass component can be removed from the included frame and clipped to the frame of your prescription glasses.
100 quid? Sounds a bit on the low side: we're talking several camera's, lasers + sensors, a control unit, and actuators for pedals & steering. Even £1000 seems too low... compare this to what you can expect to pay for factory installed cruise control.
I would expect that even in the prototype, the iPad is just being used as an interface to the control system making the actual decisions. iPad crash = no problem: you can still get out of auto drive by applying the brakes. And for a prototype, a tablet makes a cost effective and feature rich user interface (in a production system you'd probably use a custom device integrated into the dashboard).
Good set of requirements, but where's the database?
Trust in the democratic process is as important as the actual security of the process.
This is something all too often forgotten in discussions around electronic voting; proponents think that adding enough security is sufficient. Transparency of the process in critical, as it can deliver that trust; that's why I (as a gadget freak) am very much in favour of paper ballots. Incredibly hard to fix on a large scale without anyone noticing, and oversight can be carried out by any citizen, not just by security experts with PhDs.
It is... Think Wal-mart but a bit more upmarket, with food of French quality (things like a 20 meter isle of fresh fish on ice), along with such basic necessities as chain saws, boat anchors, and lathes. The only thing they lacked which I did see in Wal-mart is shotguns...
Scientific data of actual harm be damned, I am sure we can dig up some of that. Point is: the government has no business meddling in what goes on between two (or more) consenting adults, and that includes putting naughty bits on film. If some women are indeed coerced to do porn, then do something about the coercion. If women who do porn are shown to often greatly regret their choices later in life, then perhaps education and public service messages are in order.
Sure, I am also a pragmatist... if curtailing some freedom has little or no actual effect on our day to day lives but great, proven side benefits, then we could consider it. Mandatory seat belts are an example of that. But this porn issue doesn't even come close.
Sadly I've seen plenty of HR types who look at resumés through that lens. I've done some resumé selecting (and subsequent interviewing) as well; my last employer put great store in letting their consultants rather than HR do the better part of selecting potential hires. What I looked for: creativity (if applicable to the job, which it almost always was), relevant work experience (yes we actually call your references, and bring your diplomas too), outstanding achievements in and outside the job (be prepared to be thoroughly questioned on those), or obvious turn-offs (inappropriate comments, excessive spelling/grammatical errors). What I overlooked: the occasional spelling error, not conforming to the standard typography or format for resumés, not showing up in a suit (though one should look at least somewhat presentable), mentioning odd activities or hobbies. Wearing a suit, communicating in a professional manner, speaking the lingo... those are things we can teach you if you're an otherwise clever, competent and motivated person.
By the way, if I am ever asked to interview someone for an HR position, I'd give them a nice mix of resumes of people I've interviewed before, asking them to make a motivated selection. I seriously doubt miss Lee would pass muster...
This. Or alternatively, an API that will let any iPhone app expose a separate mini-GUI on a paired iWatch. Same damn thing they should have done for Siri. Both the watch and Siri are/will be great for short, uncomplicated actions, the kind you'd do with a remote control. Such an API implemented in the right kind of app could be a game changer in the way we control our stuff... if only Apple will let us.
Actually, I see this in many other IT jobs as well: many companies struggle to fill certain key senior IT positions, because there no longer is a career path that leads to those jobs due to outsourcing. Some companies actually come to realise that they can't outsource everything, then take a long hard look at their current IT career paths, and conclude that they need to start doing some stuff in-house again.
That's an important observation. It also explains that other CS joke: "If we built houses like we build software, the first woodpecker that comes along would destroy civilisation". There's some truth to that, but it is not just about how we built software, it is also about what we are building with. Imagine building a house on a foundation that changes significantly over time, using bricks with varying and hidden qualities (and flaws), materials that may fail in surprising ways when used in certain combinations, and a resulting structure that may collapse if you hang the front door crooked. That is what working in a modern software environment sometimes feels like.
I like the new windows 8
I think you lost most of your audience at this point...
What Top Gear does can hardly be considered serious reporting, or even serious car reviewing.
IBM has a project with the goal of making a battery that enables a more or less regular car to go 500 miles on a single charge. And apparently they are getting close to that mark. Call it 250 miles in cold weather, traffic jams, and detours; even that will cover 99% of our driving needs. But such a car is still going to suck if you can't recharge it in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Because there will always be that 1%
That 1% is the reason my friend called me silly for buying a convertible. Sure, it's a fun ride for 99% of the time but won't be any good when we have to move a piece of furniture. Simple solution: get 2 cars. One for everyday use, one for the 1% trips. And in the future, perhaps even the near future, that second car won't be necessary anymore, because we will have convenient car rental: the kind where you book a car for the next day, and find it in your driveway the next morning. The thing will have driven itself from the rental lot to your home by itself, and will return itself the same way. That is what I think will be the first revolution of self driving cars: car rentals. And that will in turn revolutionize electric cars by taking care of that 1% of our trips that cannot be served by an electric vehicle.
This. Also, larger firms have started further specialisation and outsources specific IT project tasks to service providers. My client hires test teams, infrastructure teams, architecture teams (partly employees as well), security expert teams, networking experts, migration teams, project management teams (no kidding).... so any IT project, even rather small ones, now have to involve 5 or more teams from various vendors. The communication and process overhead is staggering. On traditional small projects your overhead might be 20%, now it easily is upward of 500% (yes, 5x the actual productive effort).
Well, it's been said before that managers prefer predictability over quality and even over cost (predictable mediocrity), but from what I can see this approach to projects offers no advantage... except perhaps accountability, as everything down to the last nut and bolt is discussed, agreed, planned, and documented. Sounds good? To some it does... but it's those same ones who keep wondering why we fail to be innovative or get even the simplest little upgrades done in a reasonable timeframe.
Not sure about English composition, but there are other subjects that can benefit from technology: visualisation, learning with feedback outside the classroom, gamification... and other than just improving learning effectiveness, could you think of a way where technology could help a teacher effectively teach a class of 1000 rather than 30 or so? Or reduce the cost of learning so you can justify the expense for a far larger group? I can... and I am not the only one. We're not there yet, though.
And sometimes it's about more than just learning. There's a series of courses taught at a company I work with, which comes with a meter-high stack of binders containing the course materials. That stack got replaced with an iPad for every student. Some managers screamed about education funds being spent on stupid, shiny toys. They didn't buy into the fact that these professionals got more effective since they now always have this refererence material with them on the job (often in remote locations). Or that this reference material is being kept up-to-date over the air. Or that errors in the material were pointed out far faster and more frequently through the iPad's software. But what they did understand, in the end, is that handing out iPads actually turns out to be way cheaper than handing out the stack of binders.
I never got the "lottery is a tax on the stupid" thing. Nothing wrong or even stupid about making a wager as long as you can afford the stakes. And it's not about the mathematical expectation value / average winnings, but about the (small) chance of gaining wealth one would have pretty much zero hope of acquiring otherwise.
By the way, the same rule applies to insurances, which are nothing more than a reverse lottery (and nobody calls them stupid). Again, don't gamble with money you cannot afford, except in this case you're gambling against a loss, so insure those mishaps which you cannot cover yourself (health, homeowners'), and self-insure the rest (cell phone insurance), except where you have a positive expectation value (travel cancellation insurance for the sickly amongst us).
Driving with these glasses showing you where to go should be safer than having to glance to the side at a satnav screen from time to time. And a pedestrian or cyclist reading an incoming message on a HUD is actually less likely to crash into a pole than the person who takes his cellphone out of his pocket and looks down at it while continuing to walk/pedal.
Nobody doesn't like molten Boron!
About 1/250000th of a football field.
It's not really the consumer protection side (or lack thereof) that I find scary, it's vague laws that state "If you do something bad, you will receive an appropriate punishment ranging from a slap on the wrist to 5 years in jail". If you make the unlocking of phones illegal (which I don't agree with btw.), there should be a clear distinction between one guy unlocking his own phone after his agreed contract expires, and a guy running a shop unlocking hundreds of phones a week for a fee. In the first case a small fine would be appropriate; the second case would warrant much stiffer fines or even criminal charges (depending on your laws). Ideally the law itself makes that distinction to some degree; the problem is that apparently you could get the $500k fine / jail time even for unlocking a single phone, if the prosecutor decides to make an example out of you. We've all seen how that works recently...
Here (in Europe) we do have similar laws which have not been laughed out of the legislature. But those laws make the distinction between small time infractions and large scale commercial wrongdoings. And a prosecutor asking for the maximum sentence for a minor breach of the law would be laughed out of court. Being made an example of here doesn't involve ludicrous jail terms; if it happens at all, it means that when the judge has a choice between imposing community service or an equivalent jail term, he'll send you to jail.
As long as you realise that the defendant at this point is still merely a suspect. Suppose you're wrongly accused of something vague like wire fraud which is punished by anything ranging from a stern talking-to up to a 20 year jail term. What would you do, given the choice between 6 months for pleading "guilty", or the prosecutor demanding 20 years in a protracted court case which will likely bankrupt you? It's tempting to give in if you are actually guilty of a very minor case of wire fraud (you're still facing those 20 years after all), but even an innocent would be tempted to give in and do half a year rather than risk doing 20.
GP is right that threatening excessive sentences for minor offenses is undue duress. Where I come from, plea bargaining is extremely rare, and only used if a criminal can help bring other high profile criminals to justice by providing info or testifying. It's not used as a way to reduce the load on the court system or give prosecutors an easy win. Judges do take a suspect's cooperation in mind when they pass sentence, though.
If you work for a large or high-profile corporation (or you manage their cloud data), there are people who will pay you good money for a simple list of employees, email addresses, their position and perhaps their pay grade. Won't make you rich but it'll sure be a nice addition to your retirement fund. Enough to tempt some sysadmins with privileged access (as has happened in the past). And I am sure the contents of some mails from the CFO can be put to profitable use.
Nice. ... (Wait for the Apple labour inspectors)
1) Forge your child's birth certificate (maybe bribe a local official, not uncommon)
2) Send your kid to work at a supplier to Apple
3)
4) Profit! (Tuition paid and a monthly stipend for the family)