Most people see a tablet and know what they want to do with it, or are surprised when it's better than expected. Only tech reviewers and vendor marketing departments were planning on tablets replacing all those things listed. I bought mine because I wanted a tablet, not a phone replacement or a laptop replacement or an interactive dinner plate/hack du jour. I assume most of it is due to a need to generate sales and page views and all that, but mostly I found it was all fairly silly. I like my tablet because it's a tablet, stop trying to tell me why I _should_ like it.
I think he picked the wrong example. And it may just be me getting into the semantics of it, but he talks about how everything looks, not how everything thinks. Our versions of AI are not all that great in mass produced form. Current games and those MMORPG simulations that get referred to have terrible AI. Maybe not 'terrible', but compared to a human or real thought they are terrible. Just this morning I watched a companion in a video game attempt to run through a wall to get me, then ran the wrong way around the building. It looks really good, so I agree that before long we will be able to have photo realistic games, but I doubt they will think much better. Now on the galactic scale, I might be splitting hairs, in that it won't be 1000 years but maybe 10 or 100 thousand years before we can get AI to that level. And if the naysayers have anything to add, they'll tell you we'll blow ourselves up or poison ourselves or INSERTCATASTROPHYHERE.
Really the place this will be useful is where we already have clear glass surfaces: windows, windshields, goggles, etc. But the main purpose there will be for AR or simple notifications. Standing at the window and having updates about what you are seeing or random data that somehow applies. Windshields and HUDs seems obvious. 'Smart' Goggles that give you useful info while working on whatever (chemicals, temperatures, electricity, etc). Or for that extra modern look, a TV that you hang on the wall and is clear while off or displays the art on the wall, but then turns on and 'replaces' the wall/art/etc with whatever you want to watch.
I love the random news sites/aggregators I visit, and I use ad blockers, but we are the problem. I don't pay for any of the sites I visit, I don't donate money to them, and I get annoyed with bad/aggressive ads, and worry about malware, so I use ad blockers. This means that sites I visit are not generating revenue. Most of us here probably do the same thing. So that means they have less money to do _any_ journalism let alone good journalism.
There are the hardcore people who feel everything should be free, but I doubt they go to work and do their job for free. Now, some random person blogging for fun, yes I get annoyed when they have ads all over the place, and the click-bait sites that put every sentence on a different page. Those are their own categories. But nothing is going to change until all we have is complete crap. Then someone will start charging and it will be seen as an innovation. People will say, "amazing! they charge us money and we get quality things!" but we aren't there yet. We have to hit bottom, or someone has to come up with an actual way to allow the give and take that is fair and non-obtrusive.
Not being familiar with the specifics of this area, is cold fusion by it's nature always pseudoscience, or is it just the fact that all the hucksters and "scientists" keep inventing/discovering it that it's tainted? I understand why perpetual motion machines, for example, would fall into pseudoscience unless prefaced by some amazing breakthrough, so is cold fusion the same?
Listen the last few SecurityNow podcasts. They've been debating tracking, advertising on sites, and content blocking off and on. They've had good talking points from both sides of the issue. Basically it comes down to the good sites who provide service needing ads to help pay the bills, and users not wanting to be tracked and preventing obnoxious, terrible, or even malicious content. It all makes sense, however right now the only way users can safely protect themselves ends up being content blocking.
They were spinning too slowly? Isn't this why the pilot has a throttle? And if they are supposed to 'correct' and 'adjust' the input from the pilot, as one article explains, then how did it ever take off in the first place? Shouldn't there be a basic check like 'if altitude != 0 { allow_engine_off("NO!") } I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons why it's better this way, but it seems like when the plane is able to just ignore the pilot, then you are simply waiting for a catastrophe to occur.
I forgot it was April Fools and this was the first story I read, and I was highly annoyed someone was writing about a game and not including at least some indication of _what_ game it was. Then I saw the next story.. and the next one.. and I forgot that on April 1st it was tough to come around here.
When we actually get to the point where we can define sentience and create it, then we have to worry about those things. And while the Three Laws are really just part of a story, they at least get the ethics discussion going, even if they would not work themselves. However, I know I've seen at least one Star Trek episode where both sides create robots/weapons, that then end up killing all the humanoids and just keep on ticking. I think it just all relates back to the complexity of creating 'life' and the fear of the uncertainty around it.
By the event or the comments today. Some interesting news, but nothing too earth shattering.
And the comments seem to break down to one or the either:
1. Apple is dumb, watches are dumb, I have a phone.
2. High end watches (fashion or otherwise) cost money, so the Apple Watches are in the right ballpark.
I stopped wearing a watch a long while back, but have thought about getting a more fashionable watch, to act more like a piece of jewelry. I like Apple and my iPhone, but I don't really see myself choosing to buy this instead of a nice fashion watch instead.
I still don't understand why people flipped about this. You got a free album from a real band (your preference for/against U2 will vary). I do like U2, so I'm sure I'm biased towards them, but I can tell you I haven't listened to the album at all. It's nice I got it for free, but I can turn off the sync and no big deal. Not on my phone, not in my custom playlists. If you don't like it, who cares. Stop whining. I don't like Country, but if I got a free country album I'd say 'That's cool' and never listen to it. No one trampled on your rights or raped your ears.
Exactly my thought. Until they show it's a 'serious' drone, this is most likely some college prank or some idiot that thought it would be funny to see what happens. _Maybe_ it's someone trying to see if they can detect/find something like that, but most likely it's just someone who is going to find out it's very expensive to make the Secret Service run around early in the morning.
Technology can be hacked. Cars were 'hackable' when they were just mechanical: shims or tools to unlock doors, bypassing the ignition, random fun things I've seen on TopGear. There was one care where if you pulled out a fuse or something, put it in backwards, it started the car. Now there is more tech in cars, and tech is hackable, so cars are more hackable in 'elegant' ways as opposed to using a rock or screwdriver. Not really breaking news, but good to know and keep an eye on.
A firewall between you and the outside world, yes, absolutely. If you have to open ports to your network, that is expected, and you should make every effort to minimize those ports and encrypt when possible. If you can establish a DMZ even better.
Internally you should be maintaining a secure environment anyhow, so there is no need. Between users and vulnerabilities, I can understand why people would want to turn on internal server firewalls, but generally no I don't see that happen. And that's from small to very large corporate entities. Mostly what I see is people who don't know how to manage their networks, or don't understand security, saying 'well I'm going to turn on the firewalls and now everything is Secure'. Most applications on internal networks expect wide ranges of ports to be open, and yes that is normal. If you have the time to manage every server at the port level, go ahead and enable them, but most administrators do not have enough time to handle normal day to day activities, let alone micromanaging networks like that.
I have both Verizon FIOS and Netflix. Here is what I, as a user/subscriber, expect. I pay Netflix to stream movies. I pay Verizon to provide me bandwidth and internet/web access. I don't pay either of them to throttle my connection or do what they want to quality. I pay for X amount, and expect to get it. If Verizon cannot hold up their end of the deal to provide me a pipe, then they aren't doing their job.
The question I'd like to see answered with data to back it up is how many time are officers out handing out moving vehicle violations vs. how much money do they bring in? If they weren't out spending time/budget on writing tickets, would additional work get done, or would there be superfluous staff that could be cut? I think it's important to have a well staffed police department should trouble occur, but if they are using tickets to increase their budget I question if they are just trying to support too much overhead.
I suppose someone has to mention obvious things, so you have this article. I had an iPad 2 and it was great and lasted me several iterations. I only just got a new one for Christmas this year. So... yes. People who have one already aren't going to run out and just get a new one because it's new. And there are some decent Android ones out there for people who don't want an iPad.
Same with the iPod, everything can play music now. My iPad and phone included, so sure. The idea of an iPod that ONLY plays music is sort of a dated concept. My wife loves her nano and small iPods for the gym, which makes sense for working out and instances where you only need music. But in general, things like browsing the web or running apps is basically expected now, regardless of the ecosystem or OS. Now, I don't want to _have_ to buy a phone to play music, but when I can store it all on a device that I'm already carrying around, why would I bother with an extra device like an iPod (or any music player).
I think we are just seeing the prolonged lifecycle of a MMORPG. Most either fizzle and die, or last long enough that they have to start going through these hoops. I think WoW is just one of the biggest/longest so we are seeing some of these ideas for a first time or at least publicized in a grand fashion. Every iteration has made the game easier and easier for players, pushed the upper levels, and introduced things that make players who played the first iteration sound like grandpa (we used to have to grind for days for a single level, up hill, both ways). This is just another step where content is being added, so how can you get the most out of it (business need)? You let players just jump right to it! It bugs me, but as someone working full time with a family, I can see how players may appreciate it.
All tools have pros and cons. In general, yes IDEs are good. Is it possible to rely too much on a tool, and not understand enough of the language? That's possible, sure. But that's not regarding IDEs specifically, that's just in general. I'm sure there are some old school CLI geeks out there that will thump their VI totems and say the only real devs use text editors, but that's just an extreme, of which there are many. Be a good dev, and use the tools that make you efficient. Don't use them as a crutch to shore up bad practices.
I think the problem is the same most IT professionals find about their own job. When you have a good manager, they are almost invisible and you don't realize what is going on behind the scenes. When they are a problem, then you notice and complain. It's how most of the other departments in a company see IT. Completely ignore them unless something is wrong, and then complain about them.
It's been exceedingly long lived. At one point I hoped it would die so I could buy something fancy, but it's been working for so long now I think I'll feel bad when it finally goes.
Since everyone is sharing anecdotal stories, I'll throw in my two bits. I have an HP ColorSmart C7280 and I love it. It's an inkjet, and we usually print fairly regularly, but it does still run through it's little maintenance run now and then. And photos look great usually. I use it for scanning fairly often as well, and it has a flatbed and a feeder. I wouldn't mind a laserjet, but I haven't sat down to figure out costs and determine if the quality would be as nice.
I'm surprised no mention of PowerShell was listed. It's obviously platform specific, but Microsoft has done a nice job of including it in all their major platforms and products in recent years. I've used it on site for several customers, and I've had customers who are more technical asking about help with it. I'd be interested to see what sort of growth it's seen, and how it is supplanting (one can hope) old vbscript files that still linger.
Slashdot Mirror
Most people see a tablet and know what they want to do with it, or are surprised when it's better than expected. Only tech reviewers and vendor marketing departments were planning on tablets replacing all those things listed. I bought mine because I wanted a tablet, not a phone replacement or a laptop replacement or an interactive dinner plate/hack du jour. I assume most of it is due to a need to generate sales and page views and all that, but mostly I found it was all fairly silly. I like my tablet because it's a tablet, stop trying to tell me why I _should_ like it.
I think he picked the wrong example. And it may just be me getting into the semantics of it, but he talks about how everything looks, not how everything thinks. Our versions of AI are not all that great in mass produced form. Current games and those MMORPG simulations that get referred to have terrible AI. Maybe not 'terrible', but compared to a human or real thought they are terrible. Just this morning I watched a companion in a video game attempt to run through a wall to get me, then ran the wrong way around the building. It looks really good, so I agree that before long we will be able to have photo realistic games, but I doubt they will think much better. Now on the galactic scale, I might be splitting hairs, in that it won't be 1000 years but maybe 10 or 100 thousand years before we can get AI to that level. And if the naysayers have anything to add, they'll tell you we'll blow ourselves up or poison ourselves or INSERTCATASTROPHYHERE.
Really the place this will be useful is where we already have clear glass surfaces: windows, windshields, goggles, etc. But the main purpose there will be for AR or simple notifications. Standing at the window and having updates about what you are seeing or random data that somehow applies. Windshields and HUDs seems obvious. 'Smart' Goggles that give you useful info while working on whatever (chemicals, temperatures, electricity, etc). Or for that extra modern look, a TV that you hang on the wall and is clear while off or displays the art on the wall, but then turns on and 'replaces' the wall/art/etc with whatever you want to watch.
I love the random news sites/aggregators I visit, and I use ad blockers, but we are the problem. I don't pay for any of the sites I visit, I don't donate money to them, and I get annoyed with bad/aggressive ads, and worry about malware, so I use ad blockers. This means that sites I visit are not generating revenue. Most of us here probably do the same thing. So that means they have less money to do _any_ journalism let alone good journalism.
There are the hardcore people who feel everything should be free, but I doubt they go to work and do their job for free. Now, some random person blogging for fun, yes I get annoyed when they have ads all over the place, and the click-bait sites that put every sentence on a different page. Those are their own categories. But nothing is going to change until all we have is complete crap. Then someone will start charging and it will be seen as an innovation. People will say, "amazing! they charge us money and we get quality things!" but we aren't there yet. We have to hit bottom, or someone has to come up with an actual way to allow the give and take that is fair and non-obtrusive.
Not being familiar with the specifics of this area, is cold fusion by it's nature always pseudoscience, or is it just the fact that all the hucksters and "scientists" keep inventing/discovering it that it's tainted? I understand why perpetual motion machines, for example, would fall into pseudoscience unless prefaced by some amazing breakthrough, so is cold fusion the same?
Listen the last few SecurityNow podcasts. They've been debating tracking, advertising on sites, and content blocking off and on. They've had good talking points from both sides of the issue. Basically it comes down to the good sites who provide service needing ads to help pay the bills, and users not wanting to be tracked and preventing obnoxious, terrible, or even malicious content. It all makes sense, however right now the only way users can safely protect themselves ends up being content blocking.
They were spinning too slowly? Isn't this why the pilot has a throttle? And if they are supposed to 'correct' and 'adjust' the input from the pilot, as one article explains, then how did it ever take off in the first place? Shouldn't there be a basic check like 'if altitude != 0 { allow_engine_off("NO!") } I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons why it's better this way, but it seems like when the plane is able to just ignore the pilot, then you are simply waiting for a catastrophe to occur.
I forgot it was April Fools and this was the first story I read, and I was highly annoyed someone was writing about a game and not including at least some indication of _what_ game it was. Then I saw the next story.. and the next one.. and I forgot that on April 1st it was tough to come around here.
When we actually get to the point where we can define sentience and create it, then we have to worry about those things. And while the Three Laws are really just part of a story, they at least get the ethics discussion going, even if they would not work themselves. However, I know I've seen at least one Star Trek episode where both sides create robots/weapons, that then end up killing all the humanoids and just keep on ticking. I think it just all relates back to the complexity of creating 'life' and the fear of the uncertainty around it.
By the event or the comments today. Some interesting news, but nothing too earth shattering.
And the comments seem to break down to one or the either:
1. Apple is dumb, watches are dumb, I have a phone.
2. High end watches (fashion or otherwise) cost money, so the Apple Watches are in the right ballpark.
I stopped wearing a watch a long while back, but have thought about getting a more fashionable watch, to act more like a piece of jewelry. I like Apple and my iPhone, but I don't really see myself choosing to buy this instead of a nice fashion watch instead.
Doctor Who reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
I still don't understand why people flipped about this. You got a free album from a real band (your preference for/against U2 will vary). I do like U2, so I'm sure I'm biased towards them, but I can tell you I haven't listened to the album at all. It's nice I got it for free, but I can turn off the sync and no big deal. Not on my phone, not in my custom playlists. If you don't like it, who cares. Stop whining. I don't like Country, but if I got a free country album I'd say 'That's cool' and never listen to it. No one trampled on your rights or raped your ears.
Exactly my thought. Until they show it's a 'serious' drone, this is most likely some college prank or some idiot that thought it would be funny to see what happens. _Maybe_ it's someone trying to see if they can detect/find something like that, but most likely it's just someone who is going to find out it's very expensive to make the Secret Service run around early in the morning.
Technology can be hacked. Cars were 'hackable' when they were just mechanical: shims or tools to unlock doors, bypassing the ignition, random fun things I've seen on TopGear. There was one care where if you pulled out a fuse or something, put it in backwards, it started the car. Now there is more tech in cars, and tech is hackable, so cars are more hackable in 'elegant' ways as opposed to using a rock or screwdriver. Not really breaking news, but good to know and keep an eye on.
A firewall between you and the outside world, yes, absolutely. If you have to open ports to your network, that is expected, and you should make every effort to minimize those ports and encrypt when possible. If you can establish a DMZ even better.
Internally you should be maintaining a secure environment anyhow, so there is no need. Between users and vulnerabilities, I can understand why people would want to turn on internal server firewalls, but generally no I don't see that happen. And that's from small to very large corporate entities. Mostly what I see is people who don't know how to manage their networks, or don't understand security, saying 'well I'm going to turn on the firewalls and now everything is Secure'. Most applications on internal networks expect wide ranges of ports to be open, and yes that is normal. If you have the time to manage every server at the port level, go ahead and enable them, but most administrators do not have enough time to handle normal day to day activities, let alone micromanaging networks like that.
I have both Verizon FIOS and Netflix. Here is what I, as a user/subscriber, expect. I pay Netflix to stream movies. I pay Verizon to provide me bandwidth and internet/web access. I don't pay either of them to throttle my connection or do what they want to quality. I pay for X amount, and expect to get it. If Verizon cannot hold up their end of the deal to provide me a pipe, then they aren't doing their job.
It's funny you think people patch their systems _now_
The question I'd like to see answered with data to back it up is how many time are officers out handing out moving vehicle violations vs. how much money do they bring in? If they weren't out spending time/budget on writing tickets, would additional work get done, or would there be superfluous staff that could be cut? I think it's important to have a well staffed police department should trouble occur, but if they are using tickets to increase their budget I question if they are just trying to support too much overhead.
I suppose someone has to mention obvious things, so you have this article. I had an iPad 2 and it was great and lasted me several iterations. I only just got a new one for Christmas this year. So... yes. People who have one already aren't going to run out and just get a new one because it's new. And there are some decent Android ones out there for people who don't want an iPad.
Same with the iPod, everything can play music now. My iPad and phone included, so sure. The idea of an iPod that ONLY plays music is sort of a dated concept. My wife loves her nano and small iPods for the gym, which makes sense for working out and instances where you only need music. But in general, things like browsing the web or running apps is basically expected now, regardless of the ecosystem or OS. Now, I don't want to _have_ to buy a phone to play music, but when I can store it all on a device that I'm already carrying around, why would I bother with an extra device like an iPod (or any music player).
I think we are just seeing the prolonged lifecycle of a MMORPG. Most either fizzle and die, or last long enough that they have to start going through these hoops. I think WoW is just one of the biggest/longest so we are seeing some of these ideas for a first time or at least publicized in a grand fashion. Every iteration has made the game easier and easier for players, pushed the upper levels, and introduced things that make players who played the first iteration sound like grandpa (we used to have to grind for days for a single level, up hill, both ways). This is just another step where content is being added, so how can you get the most out of it (business need)? You let players just jump right to it! It bugs me, but as someone working full time with a family, I can see how players may appreciate it.
All tools have pros and cons. In general, yes IDEs are good. Is it possible to rely too much on a tool, and not understand enough of the language? That's possible, sure. But that's not regarding IDEs specifically, that's just in general. I'm sure there are some old school CLI geeks out there that will thump their VI totems and say the only real devs use text editors, but that's just an extreme, of which there are many. Be a good dev, and use the tools that make you efficient. Don't use them as a crutch to shore up bad practices.
I think the problem is the same most IT professionals find about their own job. When you have a good manager, they are almost invisible and you don't realize what is going on behind the scenes. When they are a problem, then you notice and complain. It's how most of the other departments in a company see IT. Completely ignore them unless something is wrong, and then complain about them.
It's been exceedingly long lived. At one point I hoped it would die so I could buy something fancy, but it's been working for so long now I think I'll feel bad when it finally goes.
Since everyone is sharing anecdotal stories, I'll throw in my two bits. I have an HP ColorSmart C7280 and I love it. It's an inkjet, and we usually print fairly regularly, but it does still run through it's little maintenance run now and then. And photos look great usually. I use it for scanning fairly often as well, and it has a flatbed and a feeder. I wouldn't mind a laserjet, but I haven't sat down to figure out costs and determine if the quality would be as nice.
I'm surprised no mention of PowerShell was listed. It's obviously platform specific, but Microsoft has done a nice job of including it in all their major platforms and products in recent years. I've used it on site for several customers, and I've had customers who are more technical asking about help with it. I'd be interested to see what sort of growth it's seen, and how it is supplanting (one can hope) old vbscript files that still linger.