The Rothschild family, in order to destablize the US economy consipired with the Free Masons and the Illuminati to draw out Apple into a court case with Pystar to get anti-trust measures against Apple. The Skull and Bones and Pathagarians partnered to get the 'proper' judge and law firms involved because Steve Jobs refused to cowtow to the Grand Viceroy of the Pathagarians at a secret meeting in Prague.
Once the Osirians and Golden Dawn are placatied by Jobs with the seasonal sacrific they may interviene on behalf of Jobs but that depends if the New Dawn are not stopped by the rebel Crowley and the Keepers of the Flame. Since the New Dawn and Golden Dawn have been fighting since the 1950s after Crowley defected from the Golden Dawn!
If only the Sons of Liberty would put an end to this maddness with the help of the Neo-Templars! In the mean time we'll have to rely on government alien-hybrid psychics to try and mentally manipulate the court...
It neve ceases to amaze me that that while science is fiercly opposed to God or Theology infiltrating science as a process, in AI development they almost "assume" that intelligence was crafted by a God.
COMPLEX BEHAVIOR IS EMERGENT, NOT DESIGNED.
In AI development they seem to assume that the proper development of AI to to be a God and design a system or method of AI that accomplished a specfic set of goals or objectives.
Day after day evolution is a truth in science, and thats fine; but when it comes to AI development I swear they have never heard of evolution.
Your behavior is a result from a wide and largely independent array of inputs.
Your eyes don't make any decisions and aren't designed for decision making, they're input. Your feet, lungs, and regions of your brain operate as a COMPLEX INTEGRATED SYSTEMS OF INDEPENDENT FACULTIES.
This is a much larger problem then the specifics of the task at hand. We are talking an organic development model for AI rather then a deterministic method. That is the largest flaw of Computer Science. Computers are largely deterministic devices, intelligence, isn't deterministic. A determinstic method of AI development is doomed.
You have to evolve the AI. The AI needs to know the limitations of it's organism for proper development.
Light, Dark Up, Down Here, There Friend, Foe Move from A to B... Find A Weapon Assess Threat Attack or Flee etc...
The very process of evolving the AI api in an organic model give the model itself the ability to ignore irrelevant data by feeding abstract and generalized data up the cognitive food chain with irrelevant data dying off early in the process. If the general data is insufficent then the AI simply asks it faculties for more specific input.
OUT - I WANT TO READ HAMLET IN - BOOK SHELF NEAR, OBJECTS FOUND ON BOOKSHELF, ASSUME RECTAGLE OBJECTS ARE BOOKS IN - BOOKS OVER THERE ON THE BOOK SHELF (RECTANGLE OBJECTS CONFIRMED AS BOOK) IN - BOOK ON TOP SHELF IS ABEL (Binary Search fo the book shelf) IN - BOOK ON BOTTOM SHELF IS ZEUS OUT - LOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOOK SHELF IN - FIRST BOOK IS HOUSE OF M OUT - GO BACK A FEW BOOKS TO THE LEFT IN - FOUND BOOK HAMLET OUT - GET BOOK IN - TOO FAR AWAY OUT - MOVE CLOSER IN - I AM NEAR THE BOOK OUT - GRAB BOOK IN - LEFT ARM WON'T MOVE OUT - USE RIGHT ARM IN - I HAVE THE BOOK IN HAND
Additionally AI evolves with the organism itself (physical charactersitics influence mental development).
The reality of an AI is they need to be compiled or GROWN to fit the organism (say a terrorist or counter-terrorist in Counter-Strike)
BASE FACULTIES + ORGANISM DEFINITION + CIRCUMSTANTIAL OVERIDES + GAME PLAY OVERIDES = Source Code for AI
AI Complier then builds out an organic, almost B-Tree like info passing\storing pipelines based on the limitations.
A creature with no eyes would never have to process visual data. In that case distant objects are irrelivant except for memory storage.
My Prediction: AI isn't something that is developed, it's something that is Grown.
I gave up that war, you can't argue with a mullet regardless of the discussion. Hockey, NASCAR, pro-wrestling, or which episode of the DoH was the best...
... brought to you by Amazon and Sun. Book reviews belong in grade school not news sites.
News for Nerds.. do you even remember that anymore?
Give us news for nerds. When was the last time CNN, NBC, CBS, BBC, or any other site for news had a book review? The last time I did a book review was in Jr. High for The Sword of Shannara. This is nonsense. Amazon has a nice review system, why clutter up a site meant for news with reviews? Go to the book online and see the comments left there. This is paid advertisement plain and simple masqurading as a piece of news.
.. because too many people can no longer even set foot on a tennis court without being out of breath we have substituted physical prowess in competition for mental reflex prowess. Pushing the human body to new heights is a sport, sitting on your ass in a chair isn't a sport. Counter Strike isn't a sport. Team Fortress 2 isn't a sport. It's a substitute activity for people either too fat or too lazy to go outside.
ANYONE HEALTHY PERSON CAUGHT PLAYING VIRTUAL TENNIS IN THE SUMMER SHOULD BE ARRESTED! ANYONE HEALTHY PERSON CAUGHT PLAYING VIRTUAL BOWLING ANY TIME OF THE YEAR SHOULD BE ARRESTED!
I would clarify then that opportunistic behavior is in fact desparation in-of-itself. The desparate act that the percived opportunity is the only opportunity and must be taken.
No argument in selfish motivations.
I also stated a lack of options, not an absence. There are always other options but there may not be time, resources, or acceptable outcomes to warrant a particular option.
I have never met any saine individual that desires war. Yes many will accept it, but desire it? Again never met anyone saine that desired it. War is too expensive and time consuming. Most wars are won and lost on logistics rather then body count or prowess.
Concerning trade, trade is a system that evaporates resources over time. Eventually any trade system breaks down and war promptly follows. (a.k.a The Toilet Paper scenario. In any economic system a certain percentage of the resources within that system are lost to overhead and is not recouped. Eventually the system goes bankrupt and a resulting resource grab ensues.) I great example to study when it comes to international trade is the sweat shop system of labor and the political unrest that that trade results in. Yes the majority of the world trades for goods and services rather then war, too bad it has resulted in more wars and deaths then any one God can claim. The communist revolutions, Stalin, and so many more rose to power due to unfair trade and economic circumstances. Trading for goods and services doesn't imply the trade is fair or equitable. It still boils down to access to resources and as two trading partners approach parity in standards of living they constraints on resources can quickly degenerate into war or isolationist behavior as a best-cast scenario.
But I would contest you views not because I find them incorrect but rather to drive further conversation on the nature of war. Cheers!
The reason for this was part of an effort to develop a Point of Sale (POS) card swipe system for resturants. Many resturants have cash registers that have trouble splitting up a bill in a non-per-seat method.
Case in point:
5 people order a $10 meal each.
$50 dollars.
To split the bill the waitress at the register sets up 5 seats so each person pays their $10.
Tip comes alone and seat one tosses in $2 and seat 4 tosses in $3.
Now Seats 1,2,3 are a family and 4 and 5 are guests.
4 decides to pay for 1/2 seats 1,2,3 on 1 credit card and his own on a second credit card. Seat 5 pays his own on a debit card. The other half of 1,2,3 are begin paid by seat 1.
On many POS systems you cannot pay 1/2 of a group of seat's bill on a card then pay the other half with another card. In this case many times the resturant would have to process seats 1,2,3 each separately with the CC transaction. And at.5% per transaction lets say (some places pay as high as 1.5% I've heard) this is a horrible hit to profits. This is common also with gift cards. Older POS systems can't take a check for 1/2 and a credit card for the other. aka. The Split Payment Problem. If a computer system can be put in place to help break up the transactions automagically it might cut down on the number of transactions needed.
This patent as far as I can see appears to be targeted towards POS systems (cash registers, etc.) not people splitting a bill. I'm not a patent fan in full disclousure, but this isn't the maddness people would like it to be.
Relax people. Stupid Patent? Perhaps. End of the World? Nope.
On A Serious Note
on
Evolving Rocks
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I wonder, is evolution, really at a fundamental level, the inverse of entropy?
If entropy, as a concept, is the movement from an ordered state to a disordered state then evolution is the concept of moving from a lower ordered state to a higher or more advanced\structured state. (The whole entropy is a measurement issue)
If things can evolve from basic to complex then doesn't that impact the concepts of our universe decaying into a cool nothingness?
War is hell. War is ugly. War is dirty. War is painful for the victor. War is devestating for the loser. War is an act of hate. War is an act of desparation. War is that which results from a lack of options. War is fought for land, resources, women, gods, and pride. War is the last desparate act when all other options fail and there is no time to think of any new options. No one desires war, but many choose to profit from it. War is inevitable so long as we want for things. When you take away the horrors of war you no longer have war, you have a professional sport.
Now I ask you: If machines are sent to war again men or against other robots is it still a war?
"Inspired by Ender's Game"
Bookvertisements Now?
on
Anathem
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· Score: 0, Troll
Am I the only one that remembers when this use to be NEWS for Nerds, Stuff that Matters?
Book Reviews != News
News = Man Bites Dog !News = A Book review on the book "Man Bites Dog"
News = Guy gets shot in an alley !News = A book review about a guy that gets shot in an alley
News = Real Michael Jackson found living in Guam with Elvis !News = A book review on 1001 ways to prepare pork
"Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next."
That would hold up until the first time somone dials 911 in an emergency then that would end any and all jamming. The only way it will fly is if it only blocking INCOMING calls. Otherwise see 911 example.
Two prisons don't want them in there with cameras etc for two reasons: the reasons listed and the fact they don't want people to see what happens in a prison on a daily basis including but not limited to cell extractions and the mental state of many prisoners.
The problem if the prison guards statement is to be believed is the smuggling of cell phones, jamming cell phones would cripple guards in an emergency when outside contact is needed.
It's foolish, short sited, and knee-jerk reaction from guards frustrated by the inability to control cell phones being smuggled in.
Lets see if they get the same slap on the wrist that government employees got for accessing Joe the Plumber's tax records, DMV records, medical records, and other supposedly private information.
Perhaps then, in the case of a computer with many compontents that the soul is not atomic, e.g. stands alone on it's own, but is part of a complete soul. Like knots in wood. Your particular soul is part of the whole piece of wood but is just a most dense, self aware portion of the whole soul the universe composes. Ow! brain.... hurting.... ow ow ow..
Enough with the advertisments as news stories. It's B as in B, S as in S.
Social Clubs
on
American Nerd
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· Score: 2, Interesting
In it's most basic sense a nerd is anyone not in your particular social circle. Geek is often used in this sense. You have computer geeks, band geeks, football geeks (see 'jock'), and cheerleader geek. We then apply different words to the same label so we get Goth, Emo, Jock, Headbanger, Gearhead, etc.
It is human nature to break down and organize information into discrete catagories. Short, tall, fat, skinny, etc. It's how humans think. If suprises me that we are still writing books about obvious things.
Closed social circles gravitate to extremes. So while most 'jock' for instance are normal decent people the gravitation to extremes progresses if the social circle is closed. In huge schools it's rare to find groups of jocks operating as bullies. There is too much inflow of new people constantly to allow the social circle to become closed. In smaller communities, the agression within social circles rises quicker. Quick enough to hit flash points before people start graduating.
Regardless of the social group, if it is a closed system, it will gravitate to an extreme. The nerd in the 80's sense (i.e. Revenge of the Nerds) would then be a group of social outcasts in their own closed system. Same with their opponents (in a similar closed social system.) This leads to flashpoints of extreme behavior. The urge to conform within the closed social circle and advance within that circle provides the pressure that moves to the extreme. When a social circle hits a flashpoint that pressure is diffused within the social group. Hopefully that flashpoint is a constructive act rather then destructive. The saying, "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt" is the perfect example of that pressure release. A reality check comes in and diffuses the gravitation to an extreme. The cycle starts over. With enough "fresh blood" coming in with fresh ideas, etc... that slows that pressure from building (until the pressure is high enough to prevent new people coming into the circle turning the initally open system into a closed one.)
Nerds\Geeks\etc.. are a facinating group to study because they are nearly always in a state where their social network is OPEN. I look forward to picking this one up from the review but would love to see more books looking into other social groups as a whole more often.
I can't count the number of football players I played D&D with in highschool. It was weird, we'd chill killing zombies and in school then make fun of nerds. The next day I was DM'ing the nerds and they'ed make fun of the jocks. When college hit I got them around the table together. 20 years later, what a crew of friends to have.
male humans are very interested in reshaping their environment, tailoring it, and modifying it to suit their purpose.
female humans are very interested in working in the environment as-is without having to re-shape it.
Best analogy I can summarize: Females = Gather Berries and Fuit off trees, leave the environment as is. Males = Till the soil and farm the land, reshape the environment. Repurpose that deer into food and clothing.
Thus males I would suggest need to delve into the more discrete information to better reshape the environment, to improve it beyond it's natural state.
Females I would wager then needed less specific information as they dealt with the system as-is but better preception of subtle but broad changes.
Computer Science is a field that is largely structured around the specifics rather then the general. If the above assumptions are true this would explain the disparity in CS. What I find then, with those assumptions is a greater mystery: Why are there not a lot of women MBAs compared to men as running a business strikes me as ideal for women as a species with the ability to draw upon a large base of non-specifics. But I'd wager that discussion best be left to the experts. I can only provide my best guess. ANd we still have to filter out the overall higher education bias of the pre-21st century to see what the real trends are for MBAs.
People have been asking this since the first little girl asked her daddy if their Dog Spot has a soul. I offer you this reader:
A father and a mother each have a soul. They have a child. Start you debate here.
If the soul is bestowed upon the child by a divine being, then the divine being may just as likely bestow a garbage can or a tree a soul at it's (the divine being in charge) discretion. So there is no restriction on a robot having a soul. From a Christian perspective, if God knows when even a sparrow falls then I'd wager he'd be on top of giving any robot that askes for a soul one with due haste. If God is the father that makes HAL God's grandkid.
If the soul is emergent, inherit in the child and develops as does conciousness then it is just as likely a soul would eventually emerge for any complex system. The universe itself may have a soul due to its complexity.
Once you have a given rule on the source of the soul then you can spend another lifetime debating what a soul is. As far as the original discussion though we come to the same answer every time:
From a spiritual aspect, where God can do anything and the soul is crafted by God, it can be bestowed upon anything at God's discretion thus a robot with a soul is not only probable, but would more then likely be expected.
From a scientific standpoint, there is no restriction on conciousness and self awareness by a mechanical or electronic system. As our brain, as complex as it is, is an organic machine. So from a scientific standpoint there doesn't appear to be a restriction on a soul in an robot or computer. This does though imply that there is a good chance your hamburger had a soul depending on it's level of awareness. Which then leads into the discussion of what level of sentience\awareness endows a person with a soul which then leads into a whole mess of crap ranging from animal right, abortion, and in the event of intelligent non-human life, the discussion of Sentient Rights (as human rights would be racist at that point.)
In the United State outsourcing has diven many people out of the Computer Science area. The developing nations where many of those outsourced jobs have gone still have women in many ways as second class citizen.
Enrollment has tanked in the US for an industry that is consistently being driven over seas to nations where women have a considerably more up-hill battle for quality educational opportunities.
Thank God I was universally hated, loathed, ridiculed, and mocked in High School for my interest in history (WWII, Pacific Theater) and computer science. Anyone from classmates.com trying to reach me is either:
A: Trying to kill me because I stole their girlfriend after college because I actually had a decent paying job.
B: Trying to kill me because I ended up as their boss and fired them for showing up to work drunk after I stole their girlfriend.
C: An ex-girlfriend planning to sue me for emotional damages after they found out I in fact did a piss-poor job writing thier final paper.
D: A former classmate who is going through a mid-life crisis and is desparately trying to reach a former classmate in hopes thier life turned out worse then their own.
E: A former classmate named Robert who now is named Donna and want's to meet
F: A former classmate that needs help hiding a body in a New Mexico desert.
G: A former girlfriend who was in band class who's boyfriend turned out to be a sexual predator and needs someone to talk to...
Observation 1: It would appear that the Rep. Party never had a clear plan on winning. McCain at his age would have had a difficult time going for a second term. It would appear more that it was more about stopping Hillary then anything else. Once she lost the primary they took the opportunity to field test a female presidential canidate by putting Palin in as the VP. Not so much to test her as a presidential candidate but to see what issuea a conservative female canidate woul dhave to address (they have seen what a female liberal side via Clinton.)
Observation 2: Obama and McCain have brought the divisive nature of modern American politics to the flash point. I fear, regardless of who wins, we are one step closer to civil war and degenerating into a third world warzone. Iraqq may have a sectariant problem but the US sectarian problem is just about to hit flash point. With the level of violence and hate this election by both sides I fear it is only getting worse after the election. The militant nature of each of the extremes is growing and the moderate voices are drowned out by the ravings of lunatics that can accept nothing but their own exterme and warped view of how things should be.
Observation 3: The old saying, "the election is about the lesser of two evils" is reaching the point that which ever the "lesser" is, the suffering that will result (direct or indirect) is making it the choice of "a quick death or a slow death."
Observation 4: The behavior of both canidates and their supporters, the fact that neither canidate will take responsibility to control their more extremist supporters, the media is no longer bothering to even attempt to conceal their bias, the lack of true journalism, the double standards, and their tactics; has convinced me that both the Democrat and Republican parties are morally bankrupt and I can no longer, in good faith, offer any canidate endorsed by those parties my vote. In addition, the primary news media cannot and must not be trusted at this point. This election was the last draw. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, Times, Washington Post, etc... have failed their duty to provide Americans with the truth. Journalism has been replaced by editorial nonsense.
Mr. Johnson was recently arrested after finding Mr. Smith's front door unlocked.
Mr. Johnson snuck into Mr. Smith's home and watched Mr. Smith sleeping for several hours.
Afterwards Mr. Johnson provided a detailed account of how Mr. Smith had left his front door insecure and ways to better secure the front door.
Mr. Smith wasn't amused by the report and had Mr. Johnson arrested for tresspassing and breaking and entering.
Mr Johnson's defense is grounded in the fact he was helping Mr. Smith become a better home owner by sneaking into Mr. Smith's house.
-----
You now realize how stupid you sound when you defend someone under these circumstances. This whole White Hat nonsense is about as intelligent a the statement, "Well your honor his front door was unlocked, and obviously I should be allowed to go in there as long as I don't break anything, afterall if he didn't want people in there he should have locked his door at the very least..."
Put him in jail and maybe these adult children will grow up.
I will develop games exclusively for Linux as soon as the linux platform can supply me with a complete programming solution that can complete and can provide me with a support contract that is at least as good as XNA support contracts.
If I am developing XYZ and I need a a patch to the DirectX dll to accomidate testing and I need that patch dll in the next 4 hours to make the regression build by 5pm. I simply do not have time to wait around and hope l33tMan4 has time to get that in before heading out to the next Make Faire. I help test ArcEmu for fun and my day job I work with 2000+ programmers across 4 continents.
Seriously, developers run on deadlines and OpenGL and Linux doesn't have anyone in position to provide actual support. Linux as a gaming platform is not capable of handling this idea call "deadlines." Look at what OpenGL gave us after a few years... minor tweaks. The Windows platform gets better with age.
better yet, lets do the TETRIS test:
Ok, you have 8 people, 4 to a team.
You need to code a PACMAN, SUPER MARIO BRO., and a TETRIS clone.
You have 48 hours to do all three.
Team 1 gets to use Windows and DirectX as a platform to work with.
Team 2 gets Linux.
Which team is going to get them done quicker and more importantly which team can actually TEST their programs effectively? On the Windows platform I have a slew of QA tools for testing and test automation.
Which team has better and faster development tools?
I've done this test to students back when I taught. Time and time again, the Windows team gets a better product quicker.
Photoshop and Illustrator was quicker then GIMP in getting the game art pipeline completed.
Windows as a platform had more reuseable libraries to get the game up and running quicker.
The Windows team had better tools for generating and creating sounds for each game.
and to really piss of the Linux folks, they finished early enough to add multi-player in the mario clone and tetris clone. The Linux team never even finished the Tetris clone (Hence why I call this the TETRIS test.) The reason they didn't to be fair was there were few automated test tools for Linux and thus they had to code in, under Linux some testing tools and do a lot of use cases by hand. The entire Windows PACMAN clone had full automated testing as each intersection was coded as a pathing point and they could do automated permutation testing while they coded the Mario clone.
Having a robust and complete programming solution is critical and Eclipse has come a long way (The Tibco process modelling tool is neat!) but now Linux needs common libraries and tools that CAN COMPETE with the offerings under Windows.
Yeah yeah Linux has port of X,Y, and Z gaming engines (Quake, Torque, etc.)
That's the problem, if Windows has it and Linux ports it, you have no argument to switch from Windows to Linux.
PEOPLE DO NOT LEAVE THE ESTABLISHED SOLUTION FOR AN EQUAL SOLUTION, THE MIGRATE TO A 'BETTER' SOLUTION.
Matching Windows blow for blow is useless, you have to BEAT them as the platform of choice.
You need a good project management solution You need a solid QA management solution You need a solid IDE You need pipeline management tools (art, sound, code, assets) And all of that needs to talk to one another so I can link code revision 0.0.3 to Defect # 1011242 and th QA tool needs to link Use Case 40442 as the test. And once Use Case 40442 is run on Rev 0.0.3 successfully then we can close defect 1011242 and commit that correlating change made in 0.0.3 to promote into the next release code base.
Linux is ahead in technology and GNU in general is DECADES behind in overall solution providing for the rapid pace that gaming evolves in tools (where unlike other industries that still code in COBOL).
Linux is like a stero-typical scientist, really smart and socially inept in communicating with others and dressed in an excentric fashion.
Linux = Bill Nye the Science Guy
Linux needs to become Robert Downey's Tony Stark now to get AHEAD!
Ahh, a definitive open source physics textbook so comic book writers can stop having Superman lift a mountain which under the small surface area he can cover, regardless of how strong, would simply crumble around him or the pressure at his hands would be so great the rock would go molten and he would effectively melt through the mountain he was trying to hold up.
Perhaps ships blowing up in space will finally be silent the WAY GOD INTENTED THEM TO BLOW UP!
Perhaps Cyclop's eye beams will finally push him back with equal force that they shoot with and maybe the death star's super cannon will no longer be a laser but some particle stream of sub-atomic explosives that penetrate the planet and rapidly conver the conventional matter it comes in contact with into some exotic and unstable form of matter that goes boom. BIG BADDA BOOM!
Perhaps with a good solid physics text book people will learn to wear their seat belts, realize that driving a motor cycle isn't as safe as driving a car, and learn that the LHC cannot destroy the universe...
This all, of course, is completely dependant that:
A: People are literate (yes there is a difference between knowing how to read and being literate) B: People writing the book can write C: People start actually taking physic courses D: Pay attention in said courses E: Have a teacher that actually teaches rather then babysit like 99% of teachers in North America (YEAH THAT MEANS YOU TOO CANADA AND MEXICO. GUATEMALA -> PANAMA IS OFF THE HOOK... FOR NOW...)
The road to a crappy game is paved in good intentions.
The road to DRM is paved in good intentions.
Good intentions do not equal a good game, let alone a great game. This is hardly a game in a classical sense and I must agree that it is more toy then game.
Spore is now the poster child in my opinion of how game play has been dumbed down into an over glorified "Simon" game.
A challenge implies failure and that is what many feel is the core of a game versus a toy. You cannot fail at toys. Games you can fail at because they have some measure of success.
A comic book isn't a game nor is a book. Proceeding from one page to another, or in short having an objective, doesn't imply there is a measure of challenge or risk of failure.
Few health people get excited when they check the mail, objective: yes, challenge or risk of failure: 0.
Now if you had to solve a puzzle to open your mailbox, you've just made checking our mail a game.
If Spore passes as a video game I'd wager that a superman comic is passing for conteporary literature at the local colleges.
Slashdot Mirror
The Rothschild family, in order to destablize the US economy consipired with the Free Masons and the Illuminati to draw out Apple into a court case with Pystar to get anti-trust measures against Apple. The Skull and Bones and Pathagarians partnered to get the 'proper' judge and law firms involved because Steve Jobs refused to cowtow to the Grand Viceroy of the Pathagarians at a secret meeting in Prague.
Once the Osirians and Golden Dawn are placatied by Jobs with the seasonal sacrific they may interviene on behalf of Jobs but that depends if the New Dawn are not stopped by the rebel Crowley and the Keepers of the Flame. Since the New Dawn and Golden Dawn have been fighting since the 1950s after Crowley defected from the Golden Dawn!
If only the Sons of Liberty would put an end to this maddness with the help of the Neo-Templars! In the mean time we'll have to rely on government alien-hybrid psychics to try and mentally manipulate the court...
It neve ceases to amaze me that that while science is fiercly opposed to God or Theology infiltrating science as a process, in AI development they almost "assume" that intelligence was crafted by a God.
COMPLEX BEHAVIOR IS EMERGENT, NOT DESIGNED.
In AI development they seem to assume that the proper development of AI to to be a God and design a system or method of AI that accomplished a specfic set of goals or objectives.
Day after day evolution is a truth in science, and thats fine; but when it comes to AI development I swear they have never heard of evolution.
Your behavior is a result from a wide and largely independent array of inputs.
Your eyes don't make any decisions and aren't designed for decision making, they're input.
Your feet, lungs, and regions of your brain operate as a COMPLEX INTEGRATED SYSTEMS OF INDEPENDENT FACULTIES.
This is a much larger problem then the specifics of the task at hand. We are talking an organic development model for AI rather then a deterministic method. That is the largest flaw of Computer Science. Computers are largely deterministic devices, intelligence, isn't deterministic. A determinstic method of AI development is doomed.
You have to evolve the AI. The AI needs to know the limitations of it's organism for proper development.
Light, Dark ...
Up, Down
Here, There
Friend, Foe
Move from A to B
Find A Weapon
Assess Threat
Attack or Flee
etc...
The very process of evolving the AI api in an organic model give the model itself the ability to ignore irrelevant data by feeding abstract and generalized data up the cognitive food chain with irrelevant data dying off early in the process. If the general data is insufficent then the AI simply asks it faculties for more specific input.
OUT - I WANT TO READ HAMLET
IN - BOOK SHELF NEAR, OBJECTS FOUND ON BOOKSHELF, ASSUME RECTAGLE OBJECTS ARE BOOKS
IN - BOOKS OVER THERE ON THE BOOK SHELF (RECTANGLE OBJECTS CONFIRMED AS BOOK)
IN - BOOK ON TOP SHELF IS ABEL (Binary Search fo the book shelf)
IN - BOOK ON BOTTOM SHELF IS ZEUS
OUT - LOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOOK SHELF
IN - FIRST BOOK IS HOUSE OF M
OUT - GO BACK A FEW BOOKS TO THE LEFT
IN - FOUND BOOK HAMLET
OUT - GET BOOK
IN - TOO FAR AWAY
OUT - MOVE CLOSER
IN - I AM NEAR THE BOOK
OUT - GRAB BOOK
IN - LEFT ARM WON'T MOVE
OUT - USE RIGHT ARM
IN - I HAVE THE BOOK IN HAND
Additionally AI evolves with the organism itself (physical charactersitics influence mental development).
The reality of an AI is they need to be compiled or GROWN to fit the organism (say a terrorist or counter-terrorist in Counter-Strike)
BASE FACULTIES + ORGANISM DEFINITION + CIRCUMSTANTIAL OVERIDES + GAME PLAY OVERIDES = Source Code for AI
AI Complier then builds out an organic, almost B-Tree like info passing\storing pipelines based on the limitations.
A creature with no eyes would never have to process visual data. In that case distant objects are irrelivant except for memory storage.
My Prediction: AI isn't something that is developed, it's something that is Grown.
You define it then compile it.
I gave up that war, you can't argue with a mullet regardless of the discussion. Hockey, NASCAR, pro-wrestling, or which episode of the DoH was the best...
... brought to you by Amazon and Sun. Book reviews belong in grade school not news sites.
News for Nerds .. do you even remember that anymore?
Give us news for nerds. When was the last time CNN, NBC, CBS, BBC, or any other site for news had a book review? The last time I did a book review was in Jr. High for The Sword of Shannara. This is nonsense. Amazon has a nice review system, why clutter up a site meant for news with reviews? Go to the book online and see the comments left there. This is paid advertisement plain and simple masqurading as a piece of news.
Garbage...
.. because too many people can no longer even set foot on a tennis court without being out of breath we have substituted physical prowess in competition for mental reflex prowess. Pushing the human body to new heights is a sport, sitting on your ass in a chair isn't a sport. Counter Strike isn't a sport. Team Fortress 2 isn't a sport. It's a substitute activity for people either too fat or too lazy to go outside.
ANYONE HEALTHY PERSON CAUGHT PLAYING VIRTUAL TENNIS IN THE SUMMER SHOULD BE ARRESTED!
ANYONE HEALTHY PERSON CAUGHT PLAYING VIRTUAL BOWLING ANY TIME OF THE YEAR SHOULD BE ARRESTED!
Go outside people.
I would clarify then that opportunistic behavior is in fact desparation in-of-itself. The desparate act that the percived opportunity is the only opportunity and must be taken.
No argument in selfish motivations.
I also stated a lack of options, not an absence. There are always other options but there may not be time, resources, or acceptable outcomes to warrant a particular option.
I have never met any saine individual that desires war. Yes many will accept it, but desire it? Again never met anyone saine that desired it. War is too expensive and time consuming. Most wars are won and lost on logistics rather then body count or prowess.
Concerning trade, trade is a system that evaporates resources over time. Eventually any trade system breaks down and war promptly follows. (a.k.a The Toilet Paper scenario. In any economic system a certain percentage of the resources within that system are lost to overhead and is not recouped. Eventually the system goes bankrupt and a resulting resource grab ensues.) I great example to study when it comes to international trade is the sweat shop system of labor and the political unrest that that trade results in. Yes the majority of the world trades for goods and services rather then war, too bad it has resulted in more wars and deaths then any one God can claim. The communist revolutions, Stalin, and so many more rose to power due to unfair trade and economic circumstances. Trading for goods and services doesn't imply the trade is fair or equitable. It still boils down to access to resources and as two trading partners approach parity in standards of living they constraints on resources can quickly degenerate into war or isolationist behavior as a best-cast scenario.
But I would contest you views not because I find them incorrect but rather to drive further conversation on the nature of war. Cheers!
The reason for this was part of an effort to develop a Point of Sale (POS) card swipe system for resturants. Many resturants have cash registers that have trouble splitting up a bill in a non-per-seat method.
Case in point:
5 people order a $10 meal each.
$50 dollars.
To split the bill the waitress at the register sets up 5 seats so each person pays their $10.
Tip comes alone and seat one tosses in $2 and seat 4 tosses in $3.
Now Seats 1,2,3 are a family and 4 and 5 are guests.
4 decides to pay for 1/2 seats 1,2,3 on 1 credit card and his own on a second credit card. Seat 5 pays his own on a debit card. The other half of 1,2,3 are begin paid by seat 1.
On many POS systems you cannot pay 1/2 of a group of seat's bill on a card then pay the other half with another card. In this case many times the resturant would have to process seats 1,2,3 each separately with the CC transaction. And at .5% per transaction lets say (some places pay as high as 1.5% I've heard) this is a horrible hit to profits. This is common also with gift cards. Older POS systems can't take a check for 1/2 and a credit card for the other. aka. The Split Payment Problem. If a computer system can be put in place to help break up the transactions automagically it might cut down on the number of transactions needed.
This patent as far as I can see appears to be targeted towards POS systems (cash registers, etc.) not people splitting a bill. I'm not a patent fan in full disclousure, but this isn't the maddness people would like it to be.
Relax people. Stupid Patent? Perhaps. End of the World? Nope.
I wonder, is evolution, really at a fundamental level, the inverse of entropy?
If entropy, as a concept, is the movement from an ordered state to a disordered state then evolution is the concept of moving from a lower ordered state to a higher or more advanced\structured state. (The whole entropy is a measurement issue)
If things can evolve from basic to complex then doesn't that impact the concepts of our universe decaying into a cool nothingness?
Just a passing thought is all...
War is hell.
War is ugly.
War is dirty.
War is painful for the victor.
War is devestating for the loser.
War is an act of hate.
War is an act of desparation.
War is that which results from a lack of options.
War is fought for land, resources, women, gods, and pride.
War is the last desparate act when all other options fail and there is no time to think of any new options.
No one desires war, but many choose to profit from it.
War is inevitable so long as we want for things.
When you take away the horrors of war you no longer have war, you have a professional sport.
Now I ask you: If machines are sent to war again men or against other robots is it still a war?
"Inspired by Ender's Game"
Am I the only one that remembers when this use to be NEWS for Nerds, Stuff that Matters?
Book Reviews != News
News = Man Bites Dog
!News = A Book review on the book "Man Bites Dog"
News = Guy gets shot in an alley
!News = A book review about a guy that gets shot in an alley
News = Real Michael Jackson found living in Guam with Elvis
!News = A book review on 1001 ways to prepare pork
When you screw up in the private sector you get fired.
If you are a state or fedral employee and dig though the private records of a plumber you get paid leave then go back to work after the election.
So far the 21 or so state and federal employees that dug into "Joe" got paid leave and still ahve jobs.
Private Sector = Accountability for Staff
Public Sector = Paid Leave, Paid HR Training, Promotions...
"Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next."
That would hold up until the first time somone dials 911 in an emergency then that would end any and all jamming. The only way it will fly is if it only blocking INCOMING calls. Otherwise see 911 example.
Two prisons don't want them in there with cameras etc for two reasons: the reasons listed and the fact they don't want people to see what happens in a prison on a daily basis including but not limited to cell extractions and the mental state of many prisoners.
The problem if the prison guards statement is to be believed is the smuggling of cell phones, jamming cell phones would cripple guards in an emergency when outside contact is needed.
It's foolish, short sited, and knee-jerk reaction from guards frustrated by the inability to control cell phones being smuggled in.
Lets see if they get the same slap on the wrist that government employees got for accessing Joe the Plumber's tax records, DMV records, medical records, and other supposedly private information.
Perhaps then, in the case of a computer with many compontents that the soul is not atomic, e.g. stands alone on it's own, but is part of a complete soul. Like knots in wood. Your particular soul is part of the whole piece of wood but is just a most dense, self aware portion of the whole soul the universe composes. Ow! brain.... hurting.... ow ow ow..
Slashdot
"Ad for Nerds, Shit that don't matter"
Enough with the advertisments as news stories. It's B as in B, S as in S.
In it's most basic sense a nerd is anyone not in your particular social circle. Geek is often used in this sense. You have computer geeks, band geeks, football geeks (see 'jock'), and cheerleader geek. We then apply different words to the same label so we get Goth, Emo, Jock, Headbanger, Gearhead, etc.
It is human nature to break down and organize information into discrete catagories. Short, tall, fat, skinny, etc. It's how humans think. If suprises me that we are still writing books about obvious things.
Closed social circles gravitate to extremes. So while most 'jock' for instance are normal decent people the gravitation to extremes progresses if the social circle is closed. In huge schools it's rare to find groups of jocks operating as bullies. There is too much inflow of new people constantly to allow the social circle to become closed. In smaller communities, the agression within social circles rises quicker. Quick enough to hit flash points before people start graduating.
Regardless of the social group, if it is a closed system, it will gravitate to an extreme. The nerd in the 80's sense (i.e. Revenge of the Nerds) would then be a group of social outcasts in their own closed system. Same with their opponents (in a similar closed social system.) This leads to flashpoints of extreme behavior. The urge to conform within the closed social circle and advance within that circle provides the pressure that moves to the extreme. When a social circle hits a flashpoint that pressure is diffused within the social group. Hopefully that flashpoint is a constructive act rather then destructive. The saying, "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt" is the perfect example of that pressure release. A reality check comes in and diffuses the gravitation to an extreme. The cycle starts over. With enough "fresh blood" coming in with fresh ideas, etc... that slows that pressure from building (until the pressure is high enough to prevent new people coming into the circle turning the initally open system into a closed one.)
Nerds\Geeks\etc.. are a facinating group to study because they are nearly always in a state where their social network is OPEN. I look forward to picking this one up from the review but would love to see more books looking into other social groups as a whole more often.
I can't count the number of football players I played D&D with in highschool. It was weird, we'd chill killing zombies and in school then make fun of nerds. The next day I was DM'ing the nerds and they'ed make fun of the jocks. When college hit I got them around the table together. 20 years later, what a crew of friends to have.
To address that I would wager that:
male humans are very interested in reshaping their environment, tailoring it, and modifying it to suit their purpose.
female humans are very interested in working in the environment as-is without having to re-shape it.
Best analogy I can summarize:
Females = Gather Berries and Fuit off trees, leave the environment as is.
Males = Till the soil and farm the land, reshape the environment. Repurpose that deer into food and clothing.
Thus males I would suggest need to delve into the more discrete information to better reshape the environment, to improve it beyond it's natural state.
Females I would wager then needed less specific information as they dealt with the system as-is but better preception of subtle but broad changes.
Computer Science is a field that is largely structured around the specifics rather then the general. If the above assumptions are true this would explain the disparity in CS. What I find then, with those assumptions is a greater mystery: Why are there not a lot of women MBAs compared to men as running a business strikes me as ideal for women as a species with the ability to draw upon a large base of non-specifics. But I'd wager that discussion best be left to the experts. I can only provide my best guess. ANd we still have to filter out the overall higher education bias of the pre-21st century to see what the real trends are for MBAs.
People have been asking this since the first little girl asked her daddy if their Dog Spot has a soul. I offer you this reader:
A father and a mother each have a soul. They have a child. Start you debate here.
If the soul is bestowed upon the child by a divine being, then the divine being may just as likely bestow a garbage can or a tree a soul at it's (the divine being in charge) discretion. So there is no restriction on a robot having a soul. From a Christian perspective, if God knows when even a sparrow falls then I'd wager he'd be on top of giving any robot that askes for a soul one with due haste. If God is the father that makes HAL God's grandkid.
If the soul is emergent, inherit in the child and develops as does conciousness then it is just as likely a soul would eventually emerge for any complex system. The universe itself may have a soul due to its complexity.
Once you have a given rule on the source of the soul then you can spend another lifetime debating what a soul is. As far as the original discussion though we come to the same answer every time:
From a spiritual aspect, where God can do anything and the soul is crafted by God, it can be bestowed upon anything at God's discretion thus a robot with a soul is not only probable, but would more then likely be expected.
From a scientific standpoint, there is no restriction on conciousness and self awareness by a mechanical or electronic system. As our brain, as complex as it is, is an organic machine. So from a scientific standpoint there doesn't appear to be a restriction on a soul in an robot or computer. This does though imply that there is a good chance your hamburger had a soul depending on it's level of awareness. Which then leads into the discussion of what level of sentience\awareness endows a person with a soul which then leads into a whole mess of crap ranging from animal right, abortion, and in the event of intelligent non-human life, the discussion of Sentient Rights (as human rights would be racist at that point.)
My head hurts, getting a blood mary, Cheers!
There is a very simple reason to this:
In the United State outsourcing has diven many people out of the Computer Science area. The developing nations where many of those outsourced jobs have gone still have women in many ways as second class citizen.
Enrollment has tanked in the US for an industry that is consistently being driven over seas to nations where women have a considerably more up-hill battle for quality educational opportunities.
It's that simple.
Thank God I was universally hated, loathed, ridiculed, and mocked in High School for my interest in history (WWII, Pacific Theater) and computer science. Anyone from classmates.com trying to reach me is either:
A: Trying to kill me because I stole their girlfriend after college because I actually had a decent paying job.
B: Trying to kill me because I ended up as their boss and fired them for showing up to work drunk after I stole their girlfriend.
C: An ex-girlfriend planning to sue me for emotional damages after they found out I in fact did a piss-poor job writing thier final paper.
D: A former classmate who is going through a mid-life crisis and is desparately trying to reach a former classmate in hopes thier life turned out worse then their own.
E: A former classmate named Robert who now is named Donna and want's to meet
F: A former classmate that needs help hiding a body in a New Mexico desert.
G: A former girlfriend who was in band class who's boyfriend turned out to be a sexual predator and needs someone to talk to...
H: A former classmate I owe money too!
Observation 1:
It would appear that the Rep. Party never had a clear plan on winning. McCain at his age would have had a difficult time going for a second term. It would appear more that it was more about stopping Hillary then anything else. Once she lost the primary they took the opportunity to field test a female presidential canidate by putting Palin in as the VP. Not so much to test her as a presidential candidate but to see what issuea a conservative female canidate woul dhave to address (they have seen what a female liberal side via Clinton.)
Observation 2:
Obama and McCain have brought the divisive nature of modern American politics to the flash point. I fear, regardless of who wins, we are one step closer to civil war and degenerating into a third world warzone. Iraqq may have a sectariant problem but the US sectarian problem is just about to hit flash point. With the level of violence and hate this election by both sides I fear it is only getting worse after the election. The militant nature of each of the extremes is growing and the moderate voices are drowned out by the ravings of lunatics that can accept nothing but their own exterme and warped view of how things should be.
Observation 3:
The old saying, "the election is about the lesser of two evils" is reaching the point that which ever the "lesser" is, the suffering that will result (direct or indirect) is making it the choice of "a quick death or a slow death."
Observation 4:
The behavior of both canidates and their supporters, the fact that neither canidate will take responsibility to control their more extremist supporters, the media is no longer bothering to even attempt to conceal their bias, the lack of true journalism, the double standards, and their tactics; has convinced me that both the Democrat and Republican parties are morally bankrupt and I can no longer, in good faith, offer any canidate endorsed by those parties my vote. In addition, the primary news media cannot and must not be trusted at this point. This election was the last draw. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, Times, Washington Post, etc... have failed their duty to provide Americans with the truth. Journalism has been replaced by editorial nonsense.
R.I.P Joe Friday.... "Only the fact..."
Mr. Johnson was recently arrested after finding Mr. Smith's front door unlocked.
Mr. Johnson snuck into Mr. Smith's home and watched Mr. Smith sleeping for several hours.
Afterwards Mr. Johnson provided a detailed account of how Mr. Smith had left his front door insecure and ways to better secure the front door.
Mr. Smith wasn't amused by the report and had Mr. Johnson arrested for tresspassing and breaking and entering.
Mr Johnson's defense is grounded in the fact he was helping Mr. Smith become a better home owner by sneaking into Mr. Smith's house.
-----
You now realize how stupid you sound when you defend someone under these circumstances. This whole White Hat nonsense is about as intelligent a the statement, "Well your honor his front door was unlocked, and obviously I should be allowed to go in there as long as I don't break anything, afterall if he didn't want people in there he should have locked his door at the very least..."
Put him in jail and maybe these adult children will grow up.
I will develop games exclusively for Linux as soon as the linux platform can supply me with a complete programming solution that can complete and can provide me with a support contract that is at least as good as XNA support contracts.
If I am developing XYZ and I need a a patch to the DirectX dll to accomidate testing and I need that patch dll in the next 4 hours to make the regression build by 5pm. I simply do not have time to wait around and hope l33tMan4 has time to get that in before heading out to the next Make Faire. I help test ArcEmu for fun and my day job I work with 2000+ programmers across 4 continents.
Seriously, developers run on deadlines and OpenGL and Linux doesn't have anyone in position to provide actual support. Linux as a gaming platform is not capable of handling this idea call "deadlines." Look at what OpenGL gave us after a few years... minor tweaks. The Windows platform gets better with age.
better yet, lets do the TETRIS test:
Ok, you have 8 people, 4 to a team.
You need to code a PACMAN, SUPER MARIO BRO., and a TETRIS clone.
You have 48 hours to do all three.
Team 1 gets to use Windows and DirectX as a platform to work with.
Team 2 gets Linux.
Which team is going to get them done quicker and more importantly which team can actually TEST their programs effectively? On the Windows platform I have a slew of QA tools for testing and test automation.
Which team has better and faster development tools?
I've done this test to students back when I taught. Time and time again, the Windows team gets a better product quicker.
Photoshop and Illustrator was quicker then GIMP in getting the game art pipeline completed.
Windows as a platform had more reuseable libraries to get the game up and running quicker.
The Windows team had better tools for generating and creating sounds for each game.
and to really piss of the Linux folks, they finished early enough to add multi-player in the mario clone and tetris clone. The Linux team never even finished the Tetris clone (Hence why I call this the TETRIS test.) The reason they didn't to be fair was there were few automated test tools for Linux and thus they had to code in, under Linux some testing tools and do a lot of use cases by hand. The entire Windows PACMAN clone had full automated testing as each intersection was coded as a pathing point and they could do automated permutation testing while they coded the Mario clone.
Having a robust and complete programming solution is critical and Eclipse has come a long way (The Tibco process modelling tool is neat!) but now Linux needs common libraries and tools that CAN COMPETE with the offerings under Windows.
Yeah yeah Linux has port of X,Y, and Z gaming engines (Quake, Torque, etc.)
That's the problem, if Windows has it and Linux ports it, you have no argument to switch from Windows to Linux.
PEOPLE DO NOT LEAVE THE ESTABLISHED SOLUTION FOR AN EQUAL SOLUTION, THE MIGRATE TO A 'BETTER' SOLUTION.
Matching Windows blow for blow is useless, you have to BEAT them as the platform of choice.
You need a good project management solution
You need a solid QA management solution
You need a solid IDE
You need pipeline management tools (art, sound, code, assets)
And all of that needs to talk to one another so I can link code revision 0.0.3 to Defect # 1011242 and th QA tool needs to link Use Case 40442 as the test. And once Use Case 40442 is run on Rev 0.0.3 successfully then we can close defect 1011242 and commit that correlating change made in 0.0.3 to promote into the next release code base.
Linux is ahead in technology and GNU in general is DECADES behind in overall solution providing for the rapid pace that gaming evolves in tools (where unlike other industries that still code in COBOL).
Linux is like a stero-typical scientist, really smart and socially inept in communicating with others and dressed in an excentric fashion.
Linux = Bill Nye the Science Guy
Linux needs to become Robert Downey's Tony Stark now to get AHEAD!
Ahh, a definitive open source physics textbook so comic book writers can stop having Superman lift a mountain which under the small surface area he can cover, regardless of how strong, would simply crumble around him or the pressure at his hands would be so great the rock would go molten and he would effectively melt through the mountain he was trying to hold up.
Perhaps ships blowing up in space will finally be silent the WAY GOD INTENTED THEM TO BLOW UP!
Perhaps Cyclop's eye beams will finally push him back with equal force that they shoot with and maybe the death star's super cannon will no longer be a laser but some particle stream of sub-atomic explosives that penetrate the planet and rapidly conver the conventional matter it comes in contact with into some exotic and unstable form of matter that goes boom. BIG BADDA BOOM!
Perhaps with a good solid physics text book people will learn to wear their seat belts, realize that driving a motor cycle isn't as safe as driving a car, and learn that the LHC cannot destroy the universe...
This all, of course, is completely dependant that:
A: People are literate (yes there is a difference between knowing how to read and being literate)
B: People writing the book can write
C: People start actually taking physic courses
D: Pay attention in said courses
E: Have a teacher that actually teaches rather then babysit like 99% of teachers in North America (YEAH THAT MEANS YOU TOO CANADA AND MEXICO. GUATEMALA -> PANAMA IS OFF THE HOOK... FOR NOW...)
The road to hell is paved in good intentions.
The road to a crappy game is paved in good intentions.
The road to DRM is paved in good intentions.
Good intentions do not equal a good game, let alone a great game. This is hardly a game in a classical sense and I must agree that it is more toy then game.
Spore is now the poster child in my opinion of how game play has been dumbed down into an over glorified "Simon" game.
A challenge implies failure and that is what many feel is the core of a game versus a toy. You cannot fail at toys. Games you can fail at because they have some measure of success.
A comic book isn't a game nor is a book. Proceeding from one page to another, or in short having an objective, doesn't imply there is a measure of challenge or risk of failure.
Few health people get excited when they check the mail, objective: yes, challenge or risk of failure: 0.
Now if you had to solve a puzzle to open your mailbox, you've just made checking our mail a game.
If Spore passes as a video game I'd wager that a superman comic is passing for conteporary literature at the local colleges.
Like Ewoks, no good can come of this...