Human Intelligence isn't going to happen. Ever. You might be able to get a machine that can take as many input data points as the human brain, and get it to execute as many data output points as the brain, but that's not intelligence. That's I/O and there's a big fat difference.
I disagree on this point. However, I also don't think it will happen by 2015. I think that the first true self aware computer will be created by modeling neurons and then modeling the human brain in software. Before that can happen, scientists will have to know in great detail all of the mechanisms at work in the human brain. Not an unsolvable problem, but I think 2015 is too soon to expect it to be complete.
Come on everyone knows Mac users are liberal emo hippies
No, I don't think it has to do with the users, but the platform itself. Obviously Linux should be on the left because it is "free" and not controlled by anyone.
MacOS should be on the right - it reflects a singular vision (of Steve Jobs). Although many people at Apple work on MacOS X, I have it on good authority that Steve makes all the final calls himself on how it should look/work. (And frankly, I can't think of a better real world example of Plato's ideal of a benevolent philosopher/king.)
Windows... I guess it is somewhere in the middle. The usability isn't as good as Apple. It looks like it was designed by committee, but on the other hand isn't as anarchistic as Linux. For example, I don't have to restart Windows to change the display resolution on my WinXP box whereas I do have to do that (restart the X GUI) on Fedora.
With iTunes and iPod, you can get your music by ripping your CDs, Vinyl, whatever.
I can certainly understand and respect the position of someone who either doesn't want DRM, doesn't want to buy from iTMS because of the fact that you get a lower quality recording than a CD, or even because you only want to enjoy "free" music (creative commons, etc.)
However, I still think that the iPod is a nice MP3 player, even without iTMS, that is better than most of its competition. Also, it doens't not apply DRM to your non-DRM music like some other systems do.
What massively parallel tasks would possibly need 80 cores? I can see uses for two, maybe 4 cores but what are advantages of 80 core chip
Someone the other day told me that I don't do "serious work" because my application only has 10 or so threads - they claim to write server applications that run hundreds of threads. Such an application can easily make use of 80 cores. My app (running 10 threads) could benefit from 80 cores because it won't be the only app you are running.
I've never seen a bumper-car driver lose his connection to the grid.
Bumper cars do not operate on roads - only on a small special-purpose surface. They maintain connection because there is a special floor and a low ceiling. Plus, bumper cars require constant attention and troubleshooting from an operator.
It would be trivial to design a system for connecting a car to a power take-off in the road that could be operated by any reasonably competent driver
You think the bus drivers are incompetent? I assure you that they are as good as anyone else is going to be about attaching and detaching from the power line. Still, they have to stop the bus, get out, attach it, get back in, and drive off. Now, imaging every driver doing this. I'm imagining a giant traffic jam.
As for "populated areas", very little of the driving I do is in such areas. Take Seattle for example, there are a few streets downtown that use this type of system. 90% of the driving that occurs on the bus routes doesn't even have this.
If you have to rely on a solution such as this, you might as well forget it because it isn't going to fly.
I'm not sure about these long distance claims, you would probably need a huge capacitor, but it doesn't matter because really we don't need to go such long distances on a single charge. How about a system in which cars connect to electric lines along the highways, like they use for electric busses and trollies, and use ultra-capacitors to get from the highway to your home? The capacitors could charge while you are on the highway, and then you would only need enough charge to go 5-10 miles.
I would find a car that does not have a 300+ mile range to be totally unacceptable. Your idea of having the car be attached to a power line is not very practical because there are not many roads that have these kind of power lines. Also, if you have ever watched the bus driver connect and disconnect a bus from these lines, you would realize that this is not a solution that would work for private cars due to the larger number of cars on the road. It would block traffic in an unacceptable way. The reason why busses run on these kinds of lines is typically because of air pollution - often the buses have to go through tunnels where the exhaust would cause huge problems. Also, busses run in major cities which have a legal requirement to reduce pollution to meet EPA requirements.
Busses go on a few known routes over and over. Private cars have a different requirement - they must go on any road for 300+ miles at a time. They must not block traffic.
If someone has developed a storage system for electricity that allows $9 of electricity to be transferred into the storage unit in 5 minutes - that is a huge advancement over the current technology. It would do a lot to make electric cars practical.
This is true. It is also why I do not shop at Wal-Mart and why this year I decided to buy a Snapper lawn mower from an actual Snapper dealer. (I bought a new house, so I needed a lawn mower.)
And it has been a pretty good lawn mower, too. After I bought it, I found out that my grandfather also owned a Snapper lawn mower.
No, the APA does not think every human behavior is a disorder. If you think that, you obviously have a disorder and should seek professional attention from one of our many members.
I can think of two easy ways off the top of my head to cause MacOS X to get into an unusable state from user space: 1. Draw to the same OpenGL context from two different threads at the same time (i.e. not using or incorrect use of synchronization objects). This will cause a kernel panic from your application. There is a simple reason for this (opengl allows direct access to the hardware), but it certainly allows you to kernel panic the machine without having to be a driver or a kernel extension. 2. Leak a whole bunch of memory - such as from a loop that is always running. Leak enough memory this way and you will have a hard time using the GUI at all from any application. It won't crash the computer - and it is possible to recover (ssh in from another machine and kill the process). But you can easily slow down the GUI enough that most users would call it a "freeze".
I used to work for a software company that would buy dinner for people who were working late through kozmo.com. Their reps came to our office and gave us a whole bunch of swag when we started ordering from them. And then we would order like "a salad" or "a sandwich" and they would bring it. I remember that they did not treat their delivery employees very well, though.
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Why is it so hard to believe that he read the assembly and figured out how to crack the DRM from that?
Human Intelligence isn't going to happen. Ever. You might be able to get a machine that can take as many input data points as the human brain, and get it to execute as many data output points as the brain, but that's not intelligence. That's I/O and there's a big fat difference.
I disagree on this point. However, I also don't think it will happen by 2015. I think that the first true self aware computer will be created by modeling neurons and then modeling the human brain in software. Before that can happen, scientists will have to know in great detail all of the mechanisms at work in the human brain. Not an unsolvable problem, but I think 2015 is too soon to expect it to be complete.
McCoy give Kirk a pair of reading glasses in Star Trek IV, not forseeing that twenty years later the multifocus IOD would be developed
What is a multifocus IOD??
the 'computer' in my casio watch has been smarter than a bunch of people i've worked with for at least 3 years!
If it were, would it really be spending all its time strapped to your stinky wrist?
Come on everyone knows Mac users are liberal emo hippies
No, I don't think it has to do with the users, but the platform itself. Obviously Linux should be on the left because it is "free" and not controlled by anyone.
MacOS should be on the right - it reflects a singular vision (of Steve Jobs). Although many people at Apple work on MacOS X, I have it on good authority that Steve makes all the final calls himself on how it should look/work. (And frankly, I can't think of a better real world example of Plato's ideal of a benevolent philosopher/king.)
Windows... I guess it is somewhere in the middle. The usability isn't as good as Apple. It looks like it was designed by committee, but on the other hand isn't as anarchistic as Linux. For example, I don't have to restart Windows to change the display resolution on my WinXP box whereas I do have to do that (restart the X GUI) on Fedora.
Having an iPod != Buying from iTMS.
With iTunes and iPod, you can get your music by ripping your CDs, Vinyl, whatever.
I can certainly understand and respect the position of someone who either doesn't want DRM, doesn't want to buy from iTMS because of the fact that you get a lower quality recording than a CD, or even because you only want to enjoy "free" music (creative commons, etc.)
However, I still think that the iPod is a nice MP3 player, even without iTMS, that is better than most of its competition. Also, it doens't not apply DRM to your non-DRM music like some other systems do.
What massively parallel tasks would possibly need 80 cores? I can see uses for two, maybe 4 cores but what are advantages of 80 core chip
Someone the other day told me that I don't do "serious work" because my application only has 10 or so threads - they claim to write server applications that run hundreds of threads. Such an application can easily make use of 80 cores. My app (running 10 threads) could benefit from 80 cores because it won't be the only app you are running.
This will finally run Vista, right???
God, I hope not. I can guarentee that mine won't.
Why does this remind me of an announcement of the Osborne II while standing in front of a full warehouse of Osborne Is?
Only maniacs are going to wait five years to buy a new computer because of this announcement.
King Kong is a long movie. Its also shit (in my opinion, YMMV).
You think 100 minutes is a long movie? Seems like average to me.
I've never seen a bumper-car driver lose his connection to the grid.
Bumper cars do not operate on roads - only on a small special-purpose surface. They maintain connection because there is a special floor and a low ceiling. Plus, bumper cars require constant attention and troubleshooting from an operator.
I think we can recoup these costs by strapping a couple of bombs onto the plane and flying it over enemy territory
We get paid for bombing people? That would explain a lot about US foreign policy.
It would be trivial to design a system for connecting a car to a power take-off in the road that could be operated by any reasonably competent driver
You think the bus drivers are incompetent? I assure you that they are as good as anyone else is going to be about attaching and detaching from the power line. Still, they have to stop the bus, get out, attach it, get back in, and drive off. Now, imaging every driver doing this. I'm imagining a giant traffic jam.
As for "populated areas", very little of the driving I do is in such areas. Take Seattle for example, there are a few streets downtown that use this type of system. 90% of the driving that occurs on the bus routes doesn't even have this.
If you have to rely on a solution such as this, you might as well forget it because it isn't going to fly.
Uhm, you mean like Irix running on a Sun?
Yes, I find Irix running on a Sun to be completely unrealistic.
I'm not sure about these long distance claims, you would probably need a huge capacitor, but it doesn't matter because really we don't need to go such long distances on a single charge.
How about a system in which cars connect to electric lines along the highways, like they use for electric busses and trollies, and use ultra-capacitors to get from the highway to your home? The capacitors could charge while you are on the highway, and then you would only need enough charge to go 5-10 miles.
I would find a car that does not have a 300+ mile range to be totally unacceptable. Your idea of having the car be attached to a power line is not very practical because there are not many roads that have these kind of power lines. Also, if you have ever watched the bus driver connect and disconnect a bus from these lines, you would realize that this is not a solution that would work for private cars due to the larger number of cars on the road. It would block traffic in an unacceptable way. The reason why busses run on these kinds of lines is typically because of air pollution - often the buses have to go through tunnels where the exhaust would cause huge problems. Also, busses run in major cities which have a legal requirement to reduce pollution to meet EPA requirements.
Busses go on a few known routes over and over. Private cars have a different requirement - they must go on any road for 300+ miles at a time. They must not block traffic.
If someone has developed a storage system for electricity that allows $9 of electricity to be transferred into the storage unit in 5 minutes - that is a huge advancement over the current technology. It would do a lot to make electric cars practical.
I couldn't care less about Clear Channel, but if I don't get my NPR fix, I'll be totally pissed.
As soon as this is integrated into a real doll, I'll never need a woman again!
You do realize the article is about an avatar that is a bald man?
Why the hell would someone take a second job in order to buy a video game console?
In a world where they're cloning dinosaurs, I think it's perfectly acceptible for them to also have unrealistic technology.
Especially their version of Unix.
Nobody forces people to shop at Wal-Mart.
This is true. It is also why I do not shop at Wal-Mart and why this year I decided to buy a Snapper lawn mower from an actual Snapper dealer. (I bought a new house, so I needed a lawn mower.)
And it has been a pretty good lawn mower, too. After I bought it, I found out that my grandfather also owned a Snapper lawn mower.
No, the APA does not think every human behavior is a disorder. If you think that, you obviously have a disorder and should seek professional attention from one of our many members.
- President of the APA.
"OK, it's Friday night. I have no date, a two leader bottle of Shasta, and my all Rush mix tape."
- Philip J. Fry
I can think of two easy ways off the top of my head to cause MacOS X to get into an unusable state from user space:
1. Draw to the same OpenGL context from two different threads at the same time (i.e. not using or incorrect use of synchronization objects). This will cause a kernel panic from your application. There is a simple reason for this (opengl allows direct access to the hardware), but it certainly allows you to kernel panic the machine without having to be a driver or a kernel extension.
2. Leak a whole bunch of memory - such as from a loop that is always running. Leak enough memory this way and you will have a hard time using the GUI at all from any application. It won't crash the computer - and it is possible to recover (ssh in from another machine and kill the process). But you can easily slow down the GUI enough that most users would call it a "freeze".
I used to work for a software company that would buy dinner for people who were working late through kozmo.com. Their reps came to our office and gave us a whole bunch of swag when we started ordering from them. And then we would order like "a salad" or "a sandwich" and they would bring it. I remember that they did not treat their delivery employees very well, though.
But I meant that as an explanation - not another wacky joke!