Why not? You could easily turn this idea in a different direction and have an easy way to share blacklists with lots of people. But then there's the matter of figuring out what is a spam address and what is the address of someone being spited and having all their contact to the outer world blocked...
Does anyone else see this as an obvious tie-in to the PSX? Given the hard drive recording and dvd playback features on the psx, as well as IIRC firewire and memory stick ports, Sony has a great chance to tie these two products together.
It would eliminate worries about piracy for Sony, because it would be a simple matter to tie one Sony PVP to a PSX, like Apple does with iPods and Macs, letting Sony control both sides of the transaction effectively. Since most people can't record directly to digital format yet, the PSX has a good chance at being a hit. Tied together with a really cool looking TV (if what Wired is saying is right), you might have people buying PSXs, like people were buying Macs to use iPods a few years ago.
I remember seeing something about this on a TV show I saw while I was in Japan. The phones they tested all had 1st-party batteries, but the chargers they used were non-standard, like the little cases you can hook up nine-volts with, or quick recharging ones.
I don't remember the details, but something about heat building up during the charging vaporized something inside, making the case rupture spraying acid all over the place. Apparently, the phone could still explode a few minutes after it had been disconnected.
I think the whole point of this article comes down to the fact that people should stop seeing a job as a means to profit, but to take joy in the job itself. An economist named EF Schumacher put down this basic idea a few decades ago. The problem with the way the economy is run today is that people are driven solely by profit, without really knowing what they want that profit for. Wealth is good and all, but does anyone really need a million dollars in the bank all the time?
This is obviously overly idealist, and probably simplistic, but its good as a starting point in a discussion to see whats really needed, and what is frivolous. Thinking like this probably isnt an option for most people at or below the middle class, but for the upper class who pull in 6 or 7 digits a year, it makes sense to think about what all that money ultimately is going to go toward. Five cars? A huge mansion you could get lost in? To make more money?
The pursuit of wealth for the purpose of being wealthy is pointless.
4 - Neo is able to tune it's powers in both worlds , but for that it needs to cover up it's eyes to concentrate (i know that this might sound a little stupid, but it's just a movie.. and makes neo more grandious). It's know confirmed that it can really destroy sentinels with it's own thought.
I think Neo's actually physically blind. We just did something related to this in a Greek history class I'm taking.
At the beginning of the story of Oedipus, a blind prophet tells Oedipus all the bad stuff that's going to happen. Oedipus doesn't believe him at all, but everything the blind man prophesized was true (sleeping with mother, killing father etc.)
The point of the story is that the guy that was blind to immediate reality was the only one who could actually see the things that mattered. The Wachoswfsdlkfjsdf Brothers seem to like these sort of myths, so I'm guessing thats the idea behind blinding Neo.
I won't completely translate the specs cause they mostly just say whats in the English article. Just a few additions.. The recorder has an Ethernet port and a browser built in, as well as a memory stick port to view stills or copy them to the hard drive. There is also a service to download program listings that is free for basic use and 300 yen (about $2.70) a month for extra features.
* The new "Omakase Maruen 2" feature will automatically record programs you might like, just by registering a keyword.
* The "Osusume Algorithm" will learn your preferences and automatically record programs.
* Two cable-tv compatible tuners, so you can record two programs at the same time.
* The "Baseball Overtime Function" will automatically keep recording for when baseball or soccer games go into overtime.
* Can automatically record SkyPerfectTV drama and anime series without recording the same episode twice with the "Series Reservation" function.
* Seamlessly view programs on the air, recorded programs, and stills with the "MyCast View"
* An included remote control designed for maximum usability and comfort.
* Programs can be recorded to DVDs by connecting a VAIO computer.
* A large hard drive, so you can record all the programs you like, and ones you are just curious about.
While various Theories of Everything are being proposed, a lot of them are not based on observation. They are just complex mathematical magic created to explain reality.
The observation is that there are two fields of physics that have been rigorously tested and widely accepted, but are only really valid in their own domains. The problem that faces modern physics is how to reconcile this disagreement.
The difference between string theory and turtle theory is that string theory is reduces down to quantum theory and relativity when suitable constraints are placed on it. Stop me if I'm wrong, but I don't think turtle theory can do that. The fact that current technology is unable to verify the theory through experiment is a temporary situation (and a unique one. Through most of history, experimental observations have triggered theoretical research.)
String theory might be pushing the limits of science, and it might be completely wrong, but it has a strong foundation, and it attempts to address a big question, and that should be reason enough for scientists to keep working on it.
..that all my brilliant ideas have already been thought of by others.
I had this idea a few weeks ago after reading a biography of NEC founder of Koji Kobayashi, whose dying wish to NEC engineers was to have a machine that could instantly interpret English and Japanese speech by the date of his hundredth birthday in 2007. I wrote down my brilliant idea to use only statistical matching and a huge database of texts to make a translation on a napkin from the coffee shop I was in. I spent a few days thinking about it some more, but decided I would put it off until I had a better computer (better than my P266MMX) and could actually program. I guess I can forget about that now though... Sigh. And to think this guy had me beat before I'd even thought of it.
I'm guessing that the timescale for developments in technology is just about right. It doesnt seem unreasonable that in fifty years, there might be robots running around that can move and sense in the same ways that humans do. But how can he say that industry as we know it will stay the same?
If I had a robot that could do anything I wanted it to, if I just loaded up the program, I would load up the "Pick up all pop cans in the state" program and send it on its way for a couple of years. When it came back, I'd cash in at the bottle depot, and buy another. While I had the original out looking for cans again, I'd load up the "Buy beef" (or maybe even "Raise and slaughter cattle"), "Grow vegetables", "Bake bread", and "Make burger" programs, and run them. Now those millions of robots working at Mcdonalds are unemployed, and I'd have the perfect burger in front of me. My point is, who will use robotic restaurants, car repair shops, or even car factories if you could load up the "Make me an omelette", "Fix my yugo", or "Build me a yugo" programs and have your robot do it. The only large scale industries left would be to produce and distribute raw materials, and to program the robots. The actual manufacturing could be done wherever you wanted.
This just leaves the problem of figuring out what the robots would need the humans for...
This question was just on a Japanese television show. They calculated the absolute minimum of space necessary for the population of the world. First, they packed as many average sized people as they could into a Japanese telephone booth, and extrapolated from there. It came out at just about 650 square kilometers, or about the size of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan.
Other useless bits of trivia from the show:
- Lobsters walk in single file on the ocean floor.
- The top of the Tokyo Tower is made from tanks used during the Korean war.
With regards to internet access of any kind, I think Tokyo is a pretty good place to live. Right now, I can get up to a 100 Mbps Fiber connection for about $70 US straight to my apartment. FTTH is the next buzzword here, like ADSL was last year. The situation is the same with wireless internet: Softbank's wireless service is fairly widespread within big metropolitan areas, and is free for the moment. Hotspots for NTT's 802.11a/b network are even more common, and you can get unlimited access for about $45 US a month, or just buy day passes for $5. If you need a more mobile connection, the Air H" 128k service is usable almost anywhere and runs a flat rate, as well as NTT's 64k flat rate service.
In big cities like Tokyo, there are tons of choices, lots of competition between companies, and service is good.
Lots of people are complaining about the cliffhanger at the end of Reloaded, but I think the ending hurt the movie in a different way..
If you have a movie that ends abruptly, then the main thing that's going to stick in peoples' minds after they get out of the theatre is "Oh God.. I can't want to see the next one.." NOT "I can't wait to see that again." That's why Reloaded fell from first place so quickly. It's not that people didn't like it, but that, apart from the geeks who want to analyze every bit of the movie, nobody is going to go see a movie that leaves them high and dry again and again.
I predict Revolutions is going to dominate the box offices at the end of this year, with people going to see it over and over, because it (should) have a satisfying ending. And, if the studios are smart, they'll make sure to put the whole Matrix+Reloaded+Revolutions 6 hour epic out in limited release in theatres.
As far as I can remember, the IIgs came standard with 256k RAM. The Apple Memory Expansion board that most (I think) shipped with had another 256k onboard with places to put up to about 1 meg total, as far as I remember. I don't recall the exact amount.
The IIgs was the first computer I had, and sputtered along with 512k for the longest time. The third happiest day of my life was when the package containing a whole bunch of little RAM chips that I'd ordered from some company that was in inCider magazine finally arrived. It came in a shiny anti-static bag, and all the little chips were embedded in a piece of black foam. I proceeded to stick the chips, one by one, on to the memory board, and booted up to see the GS/OS desktop appear! Faster than before! I proceeded to mess around with RAM disks and got it booting up pretty fast.
The next day, I switched on the computer, eager to do a little more tinkering, when it REFUSED TO BOOT. I was terrified, and not knowing what else to do, I opened the computer and started poking at stuff. Turns out I had installed one of the chips in upside down. Once I'd fixed that, everthing worked. Still bothers me to this day, why it booted up the first time with no problems..
Indy's only hopes for exoneration lies in a ragtag legal team consisting of a whiny showgirl, an ex-Russian general turned Hindu monk, and a sassy orangutan lawyer.
It sort of surprises me that cell phone games are becoming popular in North America, but I suppose it all just comes down to how advanced cell phones are becoming.
Here in Japan, games on cell phones have been around since before the first Java enabled phones came out two years ago, but they've really exploded since then. It used to be that before, when you saw a high school kid on the train mashing the buttons on their phone, they were entering a mail with their super fast thumb-typing . Now, it's more likely that their playing a game of Tetris. It never occurred to me that it would catch on in North America though, cos the average Tokyoite spends 2 hours a day on the train, sleeping or staring off into space, but Americans mostly commute by car, which requires both eyes and at least one hand to do safely. I think it'd be interesting to see how usage patterns differ between North Americans, Japanese, and Europeans.
After watching Reloaded, it seems to me that the power generation thing is probably just a deception. One of the sub-themes of Reloaded was symbiosis between humans and the machines. In the whole talk that Neo and Governor WhatsHisFace have in the industrial part of Zion, its obvious how, even outside the Matrix, humans depend on machines to survive.
I think in the next movie, we'll find out why the machines need humans to survive, and its going to be something innate to humans but impossible for machines to create themselves. It's hard to believe that the Wachasdfjdswhatever brothers paid so much attention to detail (like that Trinity hacking scene) in so many places, but made the huge mistake in basic science that generating power from humans implies. There's got to be more to it. The way the Architect puts it though, its going to be a Simpson's ending.
"Brace yourselves gentlemen. According to the gas chromatograph, the secret ingredient is... Love!? Who's been screwing with this thing?"
I think the RIAA and MPAA have nothing to worry about. In the Japanese article, they make clear that DRM is a main part of the design of this machine.
Quick translation from the Watch Impress article: "Although the types of inputs and outputs on the PSX have not been made clear, they explained that copyright protection would be a main concern. They stated that such protection is very important, but they are aware that users want to use the machine freely, and the newest DRM technologies would be incorporated. 'We are considering including a signal in the analog output that would prevent copying.' They went on to explain that, since a consensus had yet to be reached regarding digital transmissions, that they would make it compatible with a tentative standard."
I'm not that familiar with the new technology that DoCoMo is testing, but the impression I've gotten from the press lately is that most wireless companies are working Wi-Fi coupled with Voice over IP into their current and future plans.
I've even seen some documents out of DoCoMo themselves that suggest they're thinking of moving toward a system that allows smooth roaming between high-bandwidth (1 Gbps) hotspots and a wide-area cellular system for a future 4G network.
Can anyone familiar with this standard enlighten me as to how Wi-Fi and related technologies figure in it?
The monthly train pass portion of a suica card still charges by 1, 3, or 6 month chunks, but the advantage is that you can have the pass re-issued if you lose it.
There is a seperate cash balance that is deducted from anytime you leave the area your monthly pass covers.
I laughed my head off when I first saw the Strong Bad stuff. I thought I was one of the few who actually remembered the awful, ugly, hilarious game for the NES.
I remember a few wasted hours with my friends watching the Ricky Fighters wrestle the Strong Bads.
The move names were the best part: "N. Hang!" "Sasori!"
I think a lot of people are missing the reason why i-mode is so popular in Japan.
Probably 90% of the sites that people access with their phones are sites tailored to be viewed on those phones. News, weather and stock prices are obvious ones. Less obvious, and maybe unique to Japan, are train maps and schedules (enter your current station, destination and time you want to get there, and itll spit it all out), and small games and things to read during the long commute.
People who want to access the rest of the internet use PCs, just like anyone else. Serious mobile users don't connect with i-mode, they use PHS or 3G networks which offer significantly higher speeds. i-mode and other similar services here serve a market created by them, not one that existed before.
Slashdot Mirror
Why not? You could easily turn this idea in a different direction and have an easy way to share blacklists with lots of people. But then there's the matter of figuring out what is a spam address and what is the address of someone being spited and having all their contact to the outer world blocked...
It would eliminate worries about piracy for Sony, because it would be a simple matter to tie one Sony PVP to a PSX, like Apple does with iPods and Macs, letting Sony control both sides of the transaction effectively. Since most people can't record directly to digital format yet, the PSX has a good chance at being a hit. Tied together with a really cool looking TV (if what Wired is saying is right), you might have people buying PSXs, like people were buying Macs to use iPods a few years ago.
I don't remember the details, but something about heat building up during the charging vaporized something inside, making the case rupture spraying acid all over the place. Apparently, the phone could still explode a few minutes after it had been disconnected.
This is obviously overly idealist, and probably simplistic, but its good as a starting point in a discussion to see whats really needed, and what is frivolous. Thinking like this probably isnt an option for most people at or below the middle class, but for the upper class who pull in 6 or 7 digits a year, it makes sense to think about what all that money ultimately is going to go toward. Five cars? A huge mansion you could get lost in? To make more money?
The pursuit of wealth for the purpose of being wealthy is pointless.
I think Neo's actually physically blind. We just did something related to this in a Greek history class I'm taking.
At the beginning of the story of Oedipus, a blind prophet tells Oedipus all the bad stuff that's going to happen. Oedipus doesn't believe him at all, but everything the blind man prophesized was true (sleeping with mother, killing father etc.)
The point of the story is that the guy that was blind to immediate reality was the only one who could actually see the things that mattered. The Wachoswfsdlkfjsdf Brothers seem to like these sort of myths, so I'm guessing thats the idea behind blinding Neo.
From the pictures page:
* The new "Omakase Maruen 2" feature will automatically record programs you might like, just by registering a keyword.
* The "Osusume Algorithm" will learn your preferences and automatically record programs.
* Two cable-tv compatible tuners, so you can record two programs at the same time.
* The "Baseball Overtime Function" will automatically keep recording for when baseball or soccer games go into overtime.
* Can automatically record SkyPerfectTV drama and anime series without recording the same episode twice with the "Series Reservation" function.
* Seamlessly view programs on the air, recorded programs, and stills with the "MyCast View"
* An included remote control designed for maximum usability and comfort.
* Programs can be recorded to DVDs by connecting a VAIO computer.
* A large hard drive, so you can record all the programs you like, and ones you are just curious about.
The observation is that there are two fields of physics that have been rigorously tested and widely accepted, but are only really valid in their own domains. The problem that faces modern physics is how to reconcile this disagreement. The difference between string theory and turtle theory is that string theory is reduces down to quantum theory and relativity when suitable constraints are placed on it. Stop me if I'm wrong, but I don't think turtle theory can do that. The fact that current technology is unable to verify the theory through experiment is a temporary situation (and a unique one. Through most of history, experimental observations have triggered theoretical research.)
String theory might be pushing the limits of science, and it might be completely wrong, but it has a strong foundation, and it attempts to address a big question, and that should be reason enough for scientists to keep working on it.
I had this idea a few weeks ago after reading a biography of NEC founder of Koji Kobayashi, whose dying wish to NEC engineers was to have a machine that could instantly interpret English and Japanese speech by the date of his hundredth birthday in 2007. I wrote down my brilliant idea to use only statistical matching and a huge database of texts to make a translation on a napkin from the coffee shop I was in. I spent a few days thinking about it some more, but decided I would put it off until I had a better computer (better than my P266MMX) and could actually program. I guess I can forget about that now though... Sigh. And to think this guy had me beat before I'd even thought of it.
If I had a robot that could do anything I wanted it to, if I just loaded up the program, I would load up the "Pick up all pop cans in the state" program and send it on its way for a couple of years. When it came back, I'd cash in at the bottle depot, and buy another. While I had the original out looking for cans again, I'd load up the "Buy beef" (or maybe even "Raise and slaughter cattle"), "Grow vegetables", "Bake bread", and "Make burger" programs, and run them. Now those millions of robots working at Mcdonalds are unemployed, and I'd have the perfect burger in front of me. My point is, who will use robotic restaurants, car repair shops, or even car factories if you could load up the "Make me an omelette", "Fix my yugo", or "Build me a yugo" programs and have your robot do it. The only large scale industries left would be to produce and distribute raw materials, and to program the robots. The actual manufacturing could be done wherever you wanted.
This just leaves the problem of figuring out what the robots would need the humans for...
Other useless bits of trivia from the show:
- Lobsters walk in single file on the ocean floor.
- The top of the Tokyo Tower is made from tanks used during the Korean war.
In big cities like Tokyo, there are tons of choices, lots of competition between companies, and service is good.
If you have a movie that ends abruptly, then the main thing that's going to stick in peoples' minds after they get out of the theatre is "Oh God.. I can't want to see the next one.." NOT "I can't wait to see that again." That's why Reloaded fell from first place so quickly. It's not that people didn't like it, but that, apart from the geeks who want to analyze every bit of the movie, nobody is going to go see a movie that leaves them high and dry again and again.
I predict Revolutions is going to dominate the box offices at the end of this year, with people going to see it over and over, because it (should) have a satisfying ending. And, if the studios are smart, they'll make sure to put the whole Matrix+Reloaded+Revolutions 6 hour epic out in limited release in theatres.
Feature request for Universe 2.0.
The IIgs was the first computer I had, and sputtered along with 512k for the longest time. The third happiest day of my life was when the package containing a whole bunch of little RAM chips that I'd ordered from some company that was in inCider magazine finally arrived. It came in a shiny anti-static bag, and all the little chips were embedded in a piece of black foam. I proceeded to stick the chips, one by one, on to the memory board, and booted up to see the GS/OS desktop appear! Faster than before! I proceeded to mess around with RAM disks and got it booting up pretty fast.
The next day, I switched on the computer, eager to do a little more tinkering, when it REFUSED TO BOOT. I was terrified, and not knowing what else to do, I opened the computer and started poking at stuff. Turns out I had installed one of the chips in upside down. Once I'd fixed that, everthing worked. Still bothers me to this day, why it booted up the first time with no problems..
Those were the days..
Don't forget, he'll have Ally Mcbeal there too.
Here in Japan, games on cell phones have been around since before the first Java enabled phones came out two years ago, but they've really exploded since then. It used to be that before, when you saw a high school kid on the train mashing the buttons on their phone, they were entering a mail with their super fast thumb-typing . Now, it's more likely that their playing a game of Tetris. It never occurred to me that it would catch on in North America though, cos the average Tokyoite spends 2 hours a day on the train, sleeping or staring off into space, but Americans mostly commute by car, which requires both eyes and at least one hand to do safely. I think it'd be interesting to see how usage patterns differ between North Americans, Japanese, and Europeans.
I think in the next movie, we'll find out why the machines need humans to survive, and its going to be something innate to humans but impossible for machines to create themselves. It's hard to believe that the Wachasdfjdswhatever brothers paid so much attention to detail (like that Trinity hacking scene) in so many places, but made the huge mistake in basic science that generating power from humans implies. There's got to be more to it. The way the Architect puts it though, its going to be a Simpson's ending.
"Brace yourselves gentlemen. According to the gas chromatograph, the secret ingredient is... Love!? Who's been screwing with this thing?"
Quick translation from the Watch Impress article:
"Although the types of inputs and outputs on the PSX have not been made clear, they explained that copyright protection would be a main concern. They stated that such protection is very important, but they are aware that users want to use the machine freely, and the newest DRM technologies would be incorporated. 'We are considering including a signal in the analog output that would prevent copying.' They went on to explain that, since a consensus had yet to be reached regarding digital transmissions, that they would make it compatible with a tentative standard."
I've even seen some documents out of DoCoMo themselves that suggest they're thinking of moving toward a system that allows smooth roaming between high-bandwidth (1 Gbps) hotspots and a wide-area cellular system for a future 4G network.
Can anyone familiar with this standard enlighten me as to how Wi-Fi and related technologies figure in it?
Regardless of what the article says, you can. At least the monthly passes. The normal use cards can't be reissiued.
The monthly train pass portion of a suica card still charges by 1, 3, or 6 month chunks, but the advantage is that you can have the pass re-issued if you lose it.
There is a seperate cash balance that is deducted from anytime you leave the area your monthly pass covers.
Oops. Got the title wrong the first time.
I remember a few wasted hours with my friends watching the Ricky Fighters wrestle the Strong Bads.
The move names were the best part:
"N. Hang!"
"Sasori!"
Probably 90% of the sites that people access with their phones are sites tailored to be viewed on those phones. News, weather and stock prices are obvious ones. Less obvious, and maybe unique to Japan, are train maps and schedules (enter your current station, destination and time you want to get there, and itll spit it all out), and small games and things to read during the long commute.
People who want to access the rest of the internet use PCs, just like anyone else. Serious mobile users don't connect with i-mode, they use PHS or 3G networks which offer significantly higher speeds. i-mode and other similar services here serve a market created by them, not one that existed before.