Maybe she would have written the first one or two, but seeing others getting fat on her work while she got nothing would have been a strong disincentive against finishing the series.
Contrast that to Robert Jordan's best-selling "Wheel of Time" series. He's earning quite a bit in royalties on that, which provides him a strong incentive to finish... uh... um... never mind.
Are you saying that just because humans create a life means that it doesn't have rights?
I'm saying that a machine is not alive. No matter how well it mimics the outward appearance of a sentient being, the hard fact remains that it is a machine, a construct, a simulacrum. And yes, that does mean it has no more rights than my toaster has.
You are aware of what that the A in AI stands for, right? So, what part of artificial is unclear? It's artificial, fake, not real, a sham. It's not a person.
I'd actually find peace of mind in RFID tracking, more so in GPS.
A minor correction - a GPS receiver doesn't track anything. Each GPS satellite broadcasts a signal that contains a time stamp. The clocks on the satellites are synchronized to the nth degree, but because of the distance, the time stamps vary by a tiny amount by the time they reach the receiver. By comparing the variances, the receiver calculates the distance from it to several satellites, and with that information it triangulates its position relative to the satellites.
Having said that, it's also quite common to have a transmitter sitting beside the GPS receiver, that sends out a tracking signal. That's how things like Lojack work - they use GPS to fix their position, and then send that position to Lojack. But the tracking signal is a separate thing, not part of GPS.
Remember, GPS was designed by the military, and it was an important part of the design that to make the receiver entirely passive, so things like submarines could get a fix on their position without broadcasting that position to the Bad Guys at the same time.
Mod me flamebait, but are we intentionally excluding Microsoft from the browser development community now?
LOL! Are you kidding? How can these companies be excluding MS from a market that MS utterly dominates? They're not excluding anyone, they're fighting for relevance - if all else fails, this will be their last great act of defiance.
I think what happens is that people retain a 'core' L1 language, and create a set of 'codes' that are used dependant of environment.
In those terms, the evolution I'm speaking of would be that of the higher-level "codes". The addition of new words and phrases, variations in spelling and grammar, that sort of thing.
In essence, you wouldn't use the same language with your buddies at the bar as you would when talking to the Pope.
Well no, of course not. My buddies don't speak Polish.;-)
Yes, exactly. As I understand it, the script was originally bought and developed as an original work, entirely unrelated to Asimov. Someone noticed some superficial similarities to The Caves of Steel. Upon investigation, it turned out that although the studio didn't have the rights to use that title, they did have the rights to I, Robot. So the marketing department decided to slap that name on it, despite the fact that it doesn't have the slightest resemblance to that book.
In short, they're using the title of an Asimov book to promote a movie that has no direct relationship at all to anything that was ever actually written by Asimov. (Obviously, there is an indirect relationship - pretty much any modern story with robots in it has been influenced to a lesser or greater extent by the work of Capek and Asimov.)
If the majority of the people make the same spelling mistake or grammar error on a more regular basis than the "correct" way, isn't that just language evolving?
Wouldn't that be a good reason to study it? We know language evolves - we can study and compare historical documents from different time periods to see that. But when have we ever been able to see the evolution happening right before our eyes, at such a rapid pace?
A thought just occurred to me - could this trend be compared to biological evolution? We can only observe that in action in insects and other organisms where the life span is so short, and reproductive cycle so fast, that we can easily observe the changes as they happen across dozens or hundreds of generations.
Could the internet be accelerating the pace of linguistic evolution similarly, to the point where we can now observe it happening in real-time? Is it really that the internet is informal, or reduces attention span, or is the language(s) evolving more quickly as a result of a more efficient and faster communications medium?
IS that post internet posts are written in a fast, one-pass style.
True, this is an informal medium. But look to the past, to other examples of informal writing. Abe Lincoln's personal letters, for instance, are just as carefully constructed and delivered as were his public speeches. And this was from a man with what would be considered a grade-school education by today's standards, in an era when a single blot of ink or misspelled word would have meant starting over with a blank sheet of paper.
Compare that to our current president. Not only does he have a staff of writers who compose his speeches for him, he's barely capable of delivering them coherently. (He does appear to have improved since being elected however - no doubt he's been coached.)
I don't see this as a huge problem
I don't necessarily view it as a problem either. But I do think something is happening. Perhaps the language, or perhaps our attitude about it, is evolving. Maybe it's something else. But I do think it's a trend worth studying, and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand simply because the internet is considered an informal medium.
Somehow "alot" is a crime against humanity when someone like myself commits it
There's no need to get defensive about it and stoop to name-calling. I specifically acknowledged that yours could just as easily have been a typo. Still, like I said in my followup, it belongs to a class of mistakes that occur far too commonly to easily dismiss them all as typos. One can only stretch cooincidence so far before it breaks.
Typos happen to me, you, and everyone else. But look around, at the posts here and many other places. Typos are random, but the same mistakes are being made, over and over again. That's not random - that indicates a trend.
s/mistakes/mistake/. Typos like mine do happen - I won't deny that. The fact remains though, that, the kinds of mistakes I describe are far too common to be easily dismissed as simple typos.
I read alot, particularly content on the web, so I'm not really concerned with our culture becoming "post-literate"
I am concerned, because I see mistakes like the one in your post being made with increasing frequency. "A lot" is two words - you wouldn't say "alittle", would you? Another all-too-common mistakes is misuse of the apostrophe; no one seems to know (or care) about the difference between a possesive and a contraction. Homonyms are another common error; writing "their" instead of "there" or "they're" for example.
I'm not picking on you personally, smilinggoat. For all I know, the mistake in your post could have been a simple typo. It's just that the typo was especially jarring, given your expressed lack of concern about this very issue. Perhaps you should be more concerned.
The modders are trained to mod down posts that vibrate. They ignore posts that tick; modern trolls vibrate. They're careful never to imply ownership; in the case of a troll they refer to it as "a troll", never "your troll".
But... but... but... who makes the coffee? You can't tell me they're doing this without coffee. Three flights in two weeks I can believe - but engineers without coffee is just crazy talk.
I've had good luck with putting keyboards in the top rack of the dishwasher. Just make sure to let them dry *completely* before you try to use them again.
Slashdot Mirror
I want my little Galactica starfighter back ...
Yeah, what he said. And not the "safe" version with the missiles glued into place, either! I want the original one!
Maybe she would have written the first one or two, but seeing others getting fat on her work while she got nothing would have been a strong disincentive against finishing the series.
Contrast that to Robert Jordan's best-selling "Wheel of Time" series. He's earning quite a bit in royalties on that, which provides him a strong incentive to finish... uh... um... never mind.
Welcome to Earth. Go rent this immediately. Failure to do so could result in your Geek License being revoked.
My only complaint was that they were a bit loud
;-)
If it's too loud, you're too old.
Are you saying that just because humans create a life means that it doesn't have rights?
I'm saying that a machine is not alive. No matter how well it mimics the outward appearance of a sentient being, the hard fact remains that it is a machine, a construct, a simulacrum. And yes, that does mean it has no more rights than my toaster has.
I was referring to "True AI"
You are aware of what that the A in AI stands for, right? So, what part of artificial is unclear? It's artificial, fake, not real, a sham. It's not a person.
If they had went with the Athlon 64, this wouldn't be an issue now.
Yeah, you're right. The issue would be the dismal performance of the PPC emulation that would be needed to run current Mac apps.
I'd actually find peace of mind in RFID tracking, more so in GPS.
A minor correction - a GPS receiver doesn't track anything. Each GPS satellite broadcasts a signal that contains a time stamp. The clocks on the satellites are synchronized to the nth degree, but because of the distance, the time stamps vary by a tiny amount by the time they reach the receiver. By comparing the variances, the receiver calculates the distance from it to several satellites, and with that information it triangulates its position relative to the satellites.
Having said that, it's also quite common to have a transmitter sitting beside the GPS receiver, that sends out a tracking signal. That's how things like Lojack work - they use GPS to fix their position, and then send that position to Lojack. But the tracking signal is a separate thing, not part of GPS.
Remember, GPS was designed by the military, and it was an important part of the design that to make the receiver entirely passive, so things like submarines could get a fix on their position without broadcasting that position to the Bad Guys at the same time.
Mod me flamebait, but are we intentionally excluding Microsoft from the browser development community now?
LOL! Are you kidding? How can these companies be excluding MS from a market that MS utterly dominates? They're not excluding anyone, they're fighting for relevance - if all else fails, this will be their last great act of defiance.
I think what happens is that people retain a 'core' L1 language, and create a set of 'codes' that are used dependant of environment.
;-)
In those terms, the evolution I'm speaking of would be that of the higher-level "codes". The addition of new words and phrases, variations in spelling and grammar, that sort of thing.
In essence, you wouldn't use the same language with your buddies at the bar as you would when talking to the Pope.
Well no, of course not. My buddies don't speak Polish.
You mean, like say, the title?
Yes, exactly. As I understand it, the script was originally bought and developed as an original work, entirely unrelated to Asimov. Someone noticed some superficial similarities to The Caves of Steel. Upon investigation, it turned out that although the studio didn't have the rights to use that title, they did have the rights to I, Robot. So the marketing department decided to slap that name on it, despite the fact that it doesn't have the slightest resemblance to that book.
In short, they're using the title of an Asimov book to promote a movie that has no direct relationship at all to anything that was ever actually written by Asimov. (Obviously, there is an indirect relationship - pretty much any modern story with robots in it has been influenced to a lesser or greater extent by the work of Capek and Asimov.)
Or you can buy a book on meditation and get enlightened. ;) I don't know any movies out there for this purpose.
Disney's Fantasia is pretty good for that, assuming the use of proper herbal enhancements, of course.
Buy them from the assholes - they'll sell 'em cheap, probably having never opened them, once they're no longer trendy.
I keep telling her that Will Smith makes for one very butch-looking Susan Calvin...
;-)
The movie is more closely based on The Caves of Steel than I, Robot. Smith's character is based on Elijah Bailey, not Susan Calvin.
But don't let that stop you - lie through your teeth, if that's what it takes to keep your wife from dragging you to see that travesty.
If the majority of the people make the same spelling mistake or grammar error on a more regular basis than the "correct" way, isn't that just language evolving?
Wouldn't that be a good reason to study it? We know language evolves - we can study and compare historical documents from different time periods to see that. But when have we ever been able to see the evolution happening right before our eyes, at such a rapid pace?
A thought just occurred to me - could this trend be compared to biological evolution? We can only observe that in action in insects and other organisms where the life span is so short, and reproductive cycle so fast, that we can easily observe the changes as they happen across dozens or hundreds of generations.
Could the internet be accelerating the pace of linguistic evolution similarly, to the point where we can now observe it happening in real-time? Is it really that the internet is informal, or reduces attention span, or is the language(s) evolving more quickly as a result of a more efficient and faster communications medium?
IS that post internet posts are written in a fast, one-pass style.
True, this is an informal medium. But look to the past, to other examples of informal writing. Abe Lincoln's personal letters, for instance, are just as carefully constructed and delivered as were his public speeches. And this was from a man with what would be considered a grade-school education by today's standards, in an era when a single blot of ink or misspelled word would have meant starting over with a blank sheet of paper.
Compare that to our current president. Not only does he have a staff of writers who compose his speeches for him, he's barely capable of delivering them coherently. (He does appear to have improved since being elected however - no doubt he's been coached.)
I don't see this as a huge problem
I don't necessarily view it as a problem either. But I do think something is happening. Perhaps the language, or perhaps our attitude about it, is evolving. Maybe it's something else. But I do think it's a trend worth studying, and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand simply because the internet is considered an informal medium.
Somehow "alot" is a crime against humanity when someone like myself commits it
There's no need to get defensive about it and stoop to name-calling. I specifically acknowledged that yours could just as easily have been a typo. Still, like I said in my followup, it belongs to a class of mistakes that occur far too commonly to easily dismiss them all as typos. One can only stretch cooincidence so far before it breaks.
Typos happen to me, you, and everyone else. But look around, at the posts here and many other places. Typos are random, but the same mistakes are being made, over and over again. That's not random - that indicates a trend.
Another all-too-common mistakes
s/mistakes/mistake/. Typos like mine do happen - I won't deny that. The fact remains though, that, the kinds of mistakes I describe are far too common to be easily dismissed as simple typos.
I read alot, particularly content on the web, so I'm not really concerned with our culture becoming "post-literate"
I am concerned, because I see mistakes like the one in your post being made with increasing frequency. "A lot" is two words - you wouldn't say "alittle", would you? Another all-too-common mistakes is misuse of the apostrophe; no one seems to know (or care) about the difference between a possesive and a contraction. Homonyms are another common error; writing "their" instead of "there" or "they're" for example.
I'm not picking on you personally, smilinggoat. For all I know, the mistake in your post could have been a simple typo. It's just that the typo was especially jarring, given your expressed lack of concern about this very issue. Perhaps you should be more concerned.
They outsourced their coffee supply... to india.
Isn't that called "tea"?
I'd like my mail program to run spell check and grammar check on incoming mail.
Alternatively: Grammer check? What's that, filtering out all the gratuitous Frasier references?
Why would you pay premium for a closed source operating system and handicapped hardware (one button mouse)?
It's cheaper than XP, it's mostly open (it's not Free, but that doesn't bother me), and my three-button+wheel mouse works just fine, thanks.
Oh, and by the way - 1994 just called. They want their FUD back.
The modders are trained to mod down posts that vibrate. They ignore posts that tick; modern trolls vibrate. They're careful never to imply ownership; in the case of a troll they refer to it as "a troll", never "your troll".
But... but... but... who makes the coffee? You can't tell me they're doing this without coffee. Three flights in two weeks I can believe - but engineers without coffee is just crazy talk.
I've had good luck with putting keyboards in the top rack of the dishwasher. Just make sure to let them dry *completely* before you try to use them again.