Actually "once the mechanisms of control are in place" we'll just work around them.
All the internet has done for piracy is to make "content" accessible to more people, more convenient to use and easier to detect and monitor. Imagine for a second a world where all content was tightly controlled and their was no internet piracy, what do you think would happen? Would piracy stop? Would illicit information/data cease to flow? Nope, sorry, it would just move to higher bandwidth channel such as post and courier ("never underestimate the bandwidth of an envelope of microSD cards") and still move around the "user communities" in the same way it did 10-20 years ago.
And even then, new technologies would spring up bringing us an "undernet", but one with lessons learned. Consider for a second just what the rather silent "wireless revolution" would mean if someone dropped something into the stack to attempt to route data via wireless networks only, and queue transmission in a similar manner to UUCP of years past...
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, perhaps the 21st centuries problem is going to be that we will *need* for so little but want so much...
Demon, once upon a time at least, was a VERY good ISP (ex-customer and I don't recall leaving them due to dis-satisfaction, I think it was the move to ADSL which prompted the switch).
Anyways, http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/ is a good place to get real user feedback on ISPs. Somewhat strangely there are 666 new posts for Demon (I kid you not). I personally am unable to recommend any ISP though. Clara.net shafted me for £100 years ago when their channel bonded ISDN service just wouldn't work for me so I'd recommend you avoid them like the plague; Nildram used to be GREAT but apparently have been taken over by talktalk and users don't look happy; and personally I'm currently stuck with Virgin who routinely cause my blood pressure to rise but because they offer the best speeds blah blah blah.
On the business side I'll say that NewNet and Spitfire have done what they say on the packet overall.......
Anyways, yes, if someone finds a decent ISP let us know please.
I'm going to agree and disagree. I did my BSc for the credentials, I'm doing my MSc for the education. While I could cover a large part of the curriculum via self learning, having the structure, feedback and the ability to learn outside the "self-taught vacuum" I consider to be very valuable products which I can only get in a bricks-and-mortar institution.
But yes, my end goal is to improve my job prospects since I'm heading into my 40s and given the common attitude to older people working at the code-face, I know that unless I specialise NOW, I'm going to be an antique by the time I'm 50. Plus I'm tired of having to learn the flavour-of-the-month language/methodology/library every time the wind changes...
I personally would use the soap and ammo boxes as long range weapons, the ballot box as my preferred melee weapon and the jury box I'd probably class as a weapon of mass destruction. Bloody heavy things though and not that easy to find and carry and to be honest I still prefer the old torch and Molotov for most of my "angry mob" duties, but I admire your attempt to innovate.
there's one big thing I noticed lacking - comment on internationalisation
You know what? That is a DAMN good point and one that I've actually never considered (but then I don't do usability as a career..yet). That's going to go on my list of things to look out for.
TBH both are irrelevant as per the points raised in the article (although certainly the impact of resolution is a valid usability concern). I believe the author is a web designer though so there is obviously no way a designer would have any bias for Apple over Microsoft is there?
Sarcasm aside, most of the points are well reasoned and seem valid so I don't really think bias is a concern. Lack of metrics, yes. Bias though no.
Indeed, unless you can see the inner workings that govern the intellegence then any "perfect simulation" would be impossible to identify as a simulation.
Back to the basics. Survival. TBH I do know what you mean and suspect that this is a problem best solved by genetic algorithms rather than klocs....but given that we started several billion years ago the program might take some time to run....lets just hope its less than 7 1/2 million years:)
If they're sentient, wouldn't they deserve rights? It doesn't matter if we create them or not. If we create them as self-aware beings that feel as real and individual as you and I, wouldn't it be the height of hypocrisy not to give them at least some rights?
I always find this to be the greatest argument against producing artificial rather than simulated intelligence. A true AI, as intelligent and aware as a human deserves these rights. A machine which merely provides a simulation of intelligence and awareness is a tool that we can treat as a slave and wont resent it.
The real question is if *we* will ever reach a point where we can tell the difference....
I was almost too apathetic to reply since I find it a rather pointless exercise but what the hell! An awful lot of the activities we carry out which are not directly related to survival revolve around reproduction (even if we don't directly realise it). The motivation to procreate and to find partners with which to produce successful offspring will probably work just as well for an AI as for a human...indeed maybe even better since the first iterations would probably target speeding up and evaluating the results the reproductive process.
Given that mutation is such a essential part of successful long term reproduction and some of the best psychological models in humans for large scale rapid reproduction would be that of the psychopath, it really doesn't bode well for *our* chances. Meaning that I don't see any model to produce "good AI" without having a high probability of "evil AI" also resulting as part of the process and by the time we are producing super-intellegent evil AI its probably game over for us.
Seriously though, 3D gives me a headache too and I'm betting theres a significant percentage of people who cant view 3D for any great length of time. Apart from the lack of material I think thats going to be the main reason for this technology being a flop.
Depending on vendor it is now possible to get a 275 less than a 4890 and a 260 for only slightly more than a 4870; at lower prices its very competitive too. My point is that both NV and ATI are on pretty level ground again and the ONLY reason I now choose NV over ATI is because of the superior NV drivers (both Linux and Windows side)...oh and the fact that ATI pulled a fast one on me with their AVIVO performance claims. Shame on you ATI!
I have HUGE problems listening to one of the g*** responsible for the huge ass-f****** that was experienced by players of the DT class in Age of Conan. I'd turn to this f****** for insights about class balance in the same way I'd turn to Howard Stern for insights on womens rights. F******.
"perfect" is far too generous. It was VERY good in parts; it was also absolutely dire on occasion and the ending was a complete betrayal of the sci-fi fanbase (IMO of course). For me, it would have been perfect if they had decided the show was sci-fi at heart; instead they decided to write a space opera.
I had a friend try to build a MythTV box. Hours went by as this man tried to get MythTV to show up at a decent resolution on his HDTV (this was a few years ago, via DVI).
Things have improved considerably with regards to Linux support of TV out. My latest build involved little more than a change using the Nvidia control centre to get s-video out working. Video out over HDMI was even easier.....plug and play quite literally. Audio over HDMI would have been similar if I had managed to wire up the motherboard to the card correctly:/
In fact, TBH I don't recall getting TV out working to have been that difficult for many years but it all does depend on the particular hardware and distribution...e.g. I'm in the market for a new video card but am having to discount ATI due to known problems with their Linux drivers.
As crappy and low-end as the interfaces are on mini video boxes are, they happen to work remarkably well for the simple process of "Plug into TV, watch stuff", whether "stuff" is on a usb stick or the network. Give me a call when the HTPC manages to get there on a remote-friendly interface.
Most media-center front ends have been there for a while; certainly Freevo and I suspect Moovida have this level of ease of use...and I would be surprised if XBMC wasnt right up there.
I spent the last 3 months choosing a new TV (final decision : Panasonic 50G10). I had a good hard look at the internet and media capabilities of the sets on offer and decided that they were far too tied in to vendor support for codecs and then I was NEVER going to get the flexibility and capabilities that a dedicated HTPC would offer. Case in point : The Pani 50V10 with all the bells and whistles has problems with some common audio codecs and 6 months after release this has yet to be rectified.
This will probably be fine for the home version but I suspect, knowing MS as we all do, that if you pull that stunt in a professional environment that your license will be worth squat. Always read the small print (or better still pay someone who understands it to do so) which will know doubt have "VALID IN USA AND NORTH AMERICA ONLY" somewhere in there.
T1 gets my vote as one of the best games of all time. PERFECT game-play for the most part. If they had just updated the graphics engine and maps but touched no other code for a T2 and T3 version I would have been happy; while T2 was good it was lacking a certain....something.
I just built our first mini-itx system in order to stream HD video from a camcorder to a base PC (we're trying to put together a multi-camera HD recording system at a price point of about 1/8-1/4 of that it would cost for HD-SDI). Works quite nicely but more or less begged for wireless-n. If these cards streamed the file as created though...and were in the 32GB size range...and used wireless-n....and were *supported* under Linux...damn those would be huge. A tech to watch I guess..
Slashdot Mirror
Actually "once the mechanisms of control are in place" we'll just work around them.
All the internet has done for piracy is to make "content" accessible to more people, more convenient to use and easier to detect and monitor. Imagine for a second a world where all content was tightly controlled and their was no internet piracy, what do you think would happen? Would piracy stop? Would illicit information/data cease to flow? Nope, sorry, it would just move to higher bandwidth channel such as post and courier ("never underestimate the bandwidth of an envelope of microSD cards") and still move around the "user communities" in the same way it did 10-20 years ago.
And even then, new technologies would spring up bringing us an "undernet", but one with lessons learned. Consider for a second just what the rather silent "wireless revolution" would mean if someone dropped something into the stack to attempt to route data via wireless networks only, and queue transmission in a similar manner to UUCP of years past...
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, perhaps the 21st centuries problem is going to be that we will *need* for so little but want so much...
Demon, once upon a time at least, was a VERY good ISP (ex-customer and I don't recall leaving them due to dis-satisfaction, I think it was the move to ADSL which prompted the switch).
Anyways, http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/ is a good place to get real user feedback on ISPs. Somewhat strangely there are 666 new posts for Demon (I kid you not). I personally am unable to recommend any ISP though. Clara.net shafted me for £100 years ago when their channel bonded ISDN service just wouldn't work for me so I'd recommend you avoid them like the plague; Nildram used to be GREAT but apparently have been taken over by talktalk and users don't look happy; and personally I'm currently stuck with Virgin who routinely cause my blood pressure to rise but because they offer the best speeds blah blah blah.
On the business side I'll say that NewNet and Spitfire have done what they say on the packet overall.......
Anyways, yes, if someone finds a decent ISP let us know please.
Youll be even more amazed when you find you can run there!
I'm going to agree and disagree. I did my BSc for the credentials, I'm doing my MSc for the education. While I could cover a large part of the curriculum via self learning, having the structure, feedback and the ability to learn outside the "self-taught vacuum" I consider to be very valuable products which I can only get in a bricks-and-mortar institution.
But yes, my end goal is to improve my job prospects since I'm heading into my 40s and given the common attitude to older people working at the code-face, I know that unless I specialise NOW, I'm going to be an antique by the time I'm 50. Plus I'm tired of having to learn the flavour-of-the-month language/methodology/library every time the wind changes...
I personally would use the soap and ammo boxes as long range weapons, the ballot box as my preferred melee weapon and the jury box I'd probably class as a weapon of mass destruction. Bloody heavy things though and not that easy to find and carry and to be honest I still prefer the old torch and Molotov for most of my "angry mob" duties, but I admire your attempt to innovate.
there's one big thing I noticed lacking - comment on internationalisation
You know what? That is a DAMN good point and one that I've actually never considered (but then I don't do usability as a career..yet). That's going to go on my list of things to look out for.
Its an opinion piece. A well written one and I've no problem with the content but lets call a spade a spade please.
TBH both are irrelevant as per the points raised in the article (although certainly the impact of resolution is a valid usability concern). I believe the author is a web designer though so there is obviously no way a designer would have any bias for Apple over Microsoft is there?
Sarcasm aside, most of the points are well reasoned and seem valid so I don't really think bias is a concern. Lack of metrics, yes. Bias though no.
Indeed, unless you can see the inner workings that govern the intellegence then any "perfect simulation" would be impossible to identify as a simulation.
Can you demonstrate to me that you are not simply simulating intelligence?
To be honest, most of the time I have trouble demonstrating anything even remotely resembling intelligence...
Back to the basics. Survival. TBH I do know what you mean and suspect that this is a problem best solved by genetic algorithms rather than klocs....but given that we started several billion years ago the program might take some time to run....lets just hope its less than 7 1/2 million years :)
If they're sentient, wouldn't they deserve rights? It doesn't matter if we create them or not. If we create them as self-aware beings that feel as real and individual as you and I, wouldn't it be the height of hypocrisy not to give them at least some rights?
I always find this to be the greatest argument against producing artificial rather than simulated intelligence. A true AI, as intelligent and aware as a human deserves these rights. A machine which merely provides a simulation of intelligence and awareness is a tool that we can treat as a slave and wont resent it.
The real question is if *we* will ever reach a point where we can tell the difference....
Impressing people and having sex happen after you've had something to drink
Indeed, I suspect many slashdot posters only impress people and have a chance of sex after having had something to drink....
Well it works for humans...
I was almost too apathetic to reply since I find it a rather pointless exercise but what the hell! An awful lot of the activities we carry out which are not directly related to survival revolve around reproduction (even if we don't directly realise it). The motivation to procreate and to find partners with which to produce successful offspring will probably work just as well for an AI as for a human...indeed maybe even better since the first iterations would probably target speeding up and evaluating the results the reproductive process.
Given that mutation is such a essential part of successful long term reproduction and some of the best psychological models in humans for large scale rapid reproduction would be that of the psychopath, it really doesn't bode well for *our* chances. Meaning that I don't see any model to produce "good AI" without having a high probability of "evil AI" also resulting as part of the process and by the time we are producing super-intellegent evil AI its probably game over for us.
and gives her a headache
She used THAT old line and you bought it?
Seriously though, 3D gives me a headache too and I'm betting theres a significant percentage of people who cant view 3D for any great length of time. Apart from the lack of material I think thats going to be the main reason for this technology being a flop.
Damn you, stirring long dormant vague memories for me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirates_of_Dark_Water, DAMN!
Depending on vendor it is now possible to get a 275 less than a 4890 and a 260 for only slightly more than a 4870; at lower prices its very competitive too. My point is that both NV and ATI are on pretty level ground again and the ONLY reason I now choose NV over ATI is because of the superior NV drivers (both Linux and Windows side)...oh and the fact that ATI pulled a fast one on me with their AVIVO performance claims. Shame on you ATI!
I have HUGE problems listening to one of the g*** responsible for the huge ass-f****** that was experienced by players of the DT class in Age of Conan. I'd turn to this f****** for insights about class balance in the same way I'd turn to Howard Stern for insights on womens rights. F******.
And yes I AM still angry.
F*******.
"perfect" is far too generous. It was VERY good in parts; it was also absolutely dire on occasion and the ending was a complete betrayal of the sci-fi fanbase (IMO of course). For me, it would have been perfect if they had decided the show was sci-fi at heart; instead they decided to write a space opera.
I had a friend try to build a MythTV box. Hours went by as this man tried to get MythTV to show up at a decent resolution on his HDTV (this was a few years ago, via DVI).
Things have improved considerably with regards to Linux support of TV out. My latest build involved little more than a change using the Nvidia control centre to get s-video out working. Video out over HDMI was even easier.....plug and play quite literally. Audio over HDMI would have been similar if I had managed to wire up the motherboard to the card correctly :/
In fact, TBH I don't recall getting TV out working to have been that difficult for many years but it all does depend on the particular hardware and distribution...e.g. I'm in the market for a new video card but am having to discount ATI due to known problems with their Linux drivers.
As crappy and low-end as the interfaces are on mini video boxes are, they happen to work remarkably well for the simple process of "Plug into TV, watch stuff", whether "stuff" is on a usb stick or the network. Give me a call when the HTPC manages to get there on a remote-friendly interface.
Most media-center front ends have been there for a while; certainly Freevo and I suspect Moovida have this level of ease of use...and I would be surprised if XBMC wasnt right up there.
I spent the last 3 months choosing a new TV (final decision : Panasonic 50G10). I had a good hard look at the internet and media capabilities of the sets on offer and decided that they were far too tied in to vendor support for codecs and then I was NEVER going to get the flexibility and capabilities that a dedicated HTPC would offer. Case in point : The Pani 50V10 with all the bells and whistles has problems with some common audio codecs and 6 months after release this has yet to be rectified.
This will probably be fine for the home version but I suspect, knowing MS as we all do, that if you pull that stunt in a professional environment that your license will be worth squat. Always read the small print (or better still pay someone who understands it to do so) which will know doubt have "VALID IN USA AND NORTH AMERICA ONLY" somewhere in there.
So if I sit on my computer to watch my TV would they be happy?
T1 gets my vote as one of the best games of all time. PERFECT game-play for the most part. If they had just updated the graphics engine and maps but touched no other code for a T2 and T3 version I would have been happy; while T2 was good it was lacking a certain....something.
I just built our first mini-itx system in order to stream HD video from a camcorder to a base PC (we're trying to put together a multi-camera HD recording system at a price point of about 1/8-1/4 of that it would cost for HD-SDI). Works quite nicely but more or less begged for wireless-n. If these cards streamed the file as created though...and were in the 32GB size range...and used wireless-n....and were *supported* under Linux...damn those would be huge. A tech to watch I guess..