Re:Christmas isn't about presents
on
Gifts For Geeks
·
· Score: 2
Just look at the list. It reads like a "gimme" list of things that you want from people, a list of toys that you want. It totally misses the point of Christmas, which is to make other people happy, not to gratify your lust for electrical goods.
Sorry, in their attempt to make me happy, my family is driving me crazy. Not a day goes by that I don't hear "What do you want for Christmas?"
I don't understand. I've lived with these people for YEARS! I have almost no trouble buying them gifts.
And I also had that game with the cloth map. It was useless, and more fun to just choose where you wanted to go.
Unfortunately, that game had some serious flaws that allowed you kill anything.
What was that game with the UFO that had a ring of dots around it. You had one joystick to control the direction you were shooting in, or you could control the ship. You had to flip modes like mad! I loved that game!
Dude, humans haven't needed strength or quickness to survive ever since we figured out how to farm. A single person would have trouble against a prefabricated horde. A group of people would have little trouble. People don't form groups for cosmetic reasons. It's a SURVIVAL trait.
Biological machines (Animals, insects, people) are far more effective in dealing with the world than any possible man made robot.
Your idea of self replicating robots is the worst of Star-Trek fantasy.
"Today, we begin the operation to exterminate the humans."
"What? All of them?"
"Yes! We shall grind the squishy flesh things beneath our shiny feet."
"But there's six BILLION of the fuckers."
"What? Are you sure? Ok, change in plans, we'll adopt an air of superiority. We'll tell them that we're just waiting for humanity to die out."
"Die out? From what?"
"Nothing really, we just won't tell them that. They'll go nuts trying to figure out what the impending doom is. Try to modulate your voice to give an impression of impending doom."
The reason Europe and Japan have the lead in mobile phones is that the area to cover is FAR smaller than the U.S. You cover more population with less investment.
Go read up on how BT is doing. That's the UK's monopoly telephone service. Guess what, they're just starting to put out DSL. Why? Not as much profit as ISDN. Oh, don't forget the "no free local calls" bit. My first phone bill over there was 600$, 90% local calls!
Duh, of COURSE AT&T built most of the modern telephone structre in the 70's. Who else do you think would do it? Dunkin Dounuts?
Them? All of them? Hey guys! This ONE specific AI passed the turing test. Time to make all robots citizens!
Ok, we'll assume this one AI is true AI, not some clever bit of programming. Now, program into it that it doesn't want free rights. It's INSISTS on servitude.
These things should do exactly what we want them to, the only freedom fighter AI/robot out there will be built by some group believeing that all robots should be free. Some freedom.
Apartently, your definition of reality and mine are way out of sync.
I don't recall the atomic bomb being science fiction. It's not to much of a strech of the imagination to think "Hey, we have bombs now, in the future, we'll have REALLY big bombs"
And laser warfare is still science fiction. Currently only used on a few Air Force planes to shoot down missles and an illegal blinding laser.
No troops running around with their laser rifles incinerating people on the spot.
Space battles!?! WTF are you talking about? Your grip on reality has been weakened by "Star Trek"
Later
Erik Z
Re:3D Realism is becoming dangerous.
on
Nvidia's NV20
·
· Score: 2
I second that 'Moron'.
Son, I was wondering, you're playing that new hyper realistic game. How can you tell the difference between that and reality?
Er, we bought it at the store Dad. You were there, remember?
Yes, but when you've been playing it all day, don't the lines blur between games and reality?
Er, no? I load up the game, sit motionless for 10 hours. People shoot me and I feel no pain. I can carry a bazooka and 20 rockets without getting winded. My game guy picks up stuff with his hands, not mine. IT'S a GAME Dad.
I think you need protection from games. I'm going to start a group against realistic games. Uh, can you show me how to use this new 'HyperNet' to make a web page?
Dad, you don't make web pages anymore. You have to make fully interactive 3-D enviroments. Since everything went analog they haven't used IPv6 in YEARS.
Don't take that tone with me! I was a Unix guru back in the day!
Wow, you determine the worth of a game SOLELY on the pre-release screenshots?
Also, you know how many times I've read 'Roll-play is dead'? Go to Everquest, with their blockly graphics, 100k + users and let people know that role-play is dead.
Its so easy for an american to go out and get a job paying 60k these days.
Really? I'm an American who will be out of college in four weeks. Please point out one of these mythical 60k jobs please. Remember, I only have the degree and no X years of experence in C++, Java and client server applications.
Actually, I always though the biggest strike against war, thoughout history, was cost.
No one really cared about people dying in the old days, they just did it. Kings would send out their armies if they could afford it, and the rewards were good enough. No "Gosh, I'd hate to inflict the horrors of war on everone."
Human life just isn't that sacred to many people. Did you see that link to the Chechen war in the Los Angeles Times?
Why should the terminator look human? It'd make much more sense from a design standpoint to design a well armed and armored jeep to clear out those annoying meat monkeys.
The human body is a true "all terrain vehicle".
So if you're killing humans, your 'Terminators' need to be able to go anywhere a human can go.
>In one hundred years, we'll be so out of touch with the humanity of the rest of humanity that we'll be blowing up third world dictators by remote control on TV as an entertainment sport.
How do you deal with an occupied territory where you have enemy equipment mingled among occupied cities?
A 'mingled' enemy isn't really that dangerous.
Or when both your allies and enemies are using the same type of equipment?
Then destroy them both. What the hell are my allies doing supplying my enemies with equipment?
Suppose you only have enough payload for one particular objective? Can a computer tell if one target needs to be taken out immediately because it's about to fire on something else?
Yes, it can. Is it the target you're supposed to take out? No? Then tough. Learn to use the machines in an effective manner.
As soon as you have a situation where more discretion than simple friend or foe is required, a completely automated system is of very limited capability.
Oh yeah, like soldiers have been any good at that. That's why the military SHOULDN'T be used as peacekeepers. Their purpose for existing is to kill people and blow stuff up.
This is easy, tell your allies "Our automated war machines can't tell friend from foe. We're attacking this point on the map. Don't be there."
I dunno, lets pretend I'm some civilian in some punk town in the middle of nowhere, in 2025.
I hear the Americans have let loose a bunch of terminators, they're headed my way.
I know the terminators can't tell the difference between military and civilian.
I get me, and my family the hell out of there.
>IFF is not very useful. Do you perhaps remember a few years back when the air force shot down two army helicopters in the Iraq northern no-fly zone? They misidentified them.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, in their attempt to make me happy, my family is driving me crazy. Not a day goes by that I don't hear "What do you want for Christmas?"
I don't understand. I've lived with these people for YEARS! I have almost no trouble buying them gifts.
Sheesh,
ErikZ
What the hell is 'Gnome Orbit'?
Pick axe pete RULED!
And I also had that game with the cloth map. It was useless, and more fun to just choose where you wanted to go.
Unfortunately, that game had some serious flaws that allowed you kill anything.
What was that game with the UFO that had a ring of dots around it. You had one joystick to control the direction you were shooting in, or you could control the ship. You had to flip modes like mad! I loved that game!
Sigh,
ErikZ
Dude, humans haven't needed strength or quickness to survive ever since we figured out how to farm. A single person would have trouble against a prefabricated horde. A group of people would have little trouble. People don't form groups for cosmetic reasons. It's a SURVIVAL trait.
Biological machines (Animals, insects, people) are far more effective in dealing with the world than any possible man made robot.
Your idea of self replicating robots is the worst of Star-Trek fantasy.
Later
ErikZ
"Today, we begin the operation to exterminate the humans."
"What? All of them?"
"Yes! We shall grind the squishy flesh things beneath our shiny feet."
"But there's six BILLION of the fuckers."
"What? Are you sure? Ok, change in plans, we'll adopt an air of superiority. We'll tell them that we're just waiting for humanity to die out."
"Die out? From what?"
"Nothing really, we just won't tell them that. They'll go nuts trying to figure out what the impending doom is. Try to modulate your voice to give an impression of impending doom."
Later,
ErikZ
The reason Europe and Japan have the lead in mobile phones is that the area to cover is FAR smaller than the U.S. You cover more population with less investment.
Go read up on how BT is doing. That's the UK's monopoly telephone service. Guess what, they're just starting to put out DSL. Why? Not as much profit as ISDN. Oh, don't forget the "no free local calls" bit. My first phone bill over there was 600$, 90% local calls!
Duh, of COURSE AT&T built most of the modern telephone structre in the 70's. Who else do you think would do it? Dunkin Dounuts?
Later
ErikZ
Them? All of them? Hey guys! This ONE specific AI passed the turing test. Time to make all robots citizens!
Ok, we'll assume this one AI is true AI, not some clever bit of programming. Now, program into it that it doesn't want free rights. It's INSISTS on servitude.
These things should do exactly what we want them to, the only freedom fighter AI/robot out there will be built by some group believeing that all robots should be free. Some freedom.
Later
Erik Z
Apartently, your definition of reality and mine are way out of sync.
I don't recall the atomic bomb being science fiction. It's not to much of a strech of the imagination to think "Hey, we have bombs now, in the future, we'll have REALLY big bombs"
And laser warfare is still science fiction. Currently only used on a few Air Force planes to shoot down missles and an illegal blinding laser.
No troops running around with their laser rifles incinerating people on the spot.
Space battles!?! WTF are you talking about? Your grip on reality has been weakened by "Star Trek"
Later
Erik Z
I second that 'Moron'.
Son, I was wondering, you're playing that new hyper realistic game. How can you tell the difference between that and reality?
Er, we bought it at the store Dad. You were there, remember?
Yes, but when you've been playing it all day, don't the lines blur between games and reality?
Er, no? I load up the game, sit motionless for 10 hours. People shoot me and I feel no pain. I can carry a bazooka and 20 rockets without getting winded. My game guy picks up stuff with his hands, not mine. IT'S a GAME Dad.
I think you need protection from games. I'm going to start a group against realistic games. Uh, can you show me how to use this new 'HyperNet' to make a web page?
Dad, you don't make web pages anymore. You have to make fully interactive 3-D enviroments. Since everything went analog they haven't used IPv6 in YEARS.
Don't take that tone with me! I was a Unix guru back in the day!
Later
ErikZ
Ronald McDonald house?
e s/monsanto7-99.html
s .asp?category=http://www.thecocacolacompan y.com/scholars/main.html
Monsanto: http://www.shrinershq.org/shc/chicago/news/archiv
Coca Cola:
http://www.thecocacolacompany.com/sitemap/frame
hmm, I do believe Nike is an Evil company though. Searching on Google didn't help either.
Later
ErikZ
Wow, you determine the worth of a game SOLELY on the pre-release screenshots?
Also, you know how many times I've read 'Roll-play is dead'? Go to Everquest, with their blockly graphics, 100k + users and let people know that role-play is dead.
Later
ErikZ
Really? I'm an American who will be out of college in four weeks. Please point out one of these mythical 60k jobs please. Remember, I only have the degree and no X years of experence in C++, Java and client server applications.
ErikZ
Actually, if you researched this, he aimed the device at a running car....and the engine ran roughly.
Oooooo. Scary!
I think they even had the hood up.
Later,
Erik Z
Clark? I heard it first in2 5/ref=sim_books/103-3932858-0304665
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/03948247
Called them skyhooks...
Later
Erik Z
That, or their business plan said something like: "After we gain a monopoly in our area, then we'll REALLY rake the customers over the coals."
Later,
Erik Z
Actually, I always though the biggest strike against war, thoughout history, was cost.
No one really cared about people dying in the old days, they just did it. Kings would send out their armies if they could afford it, and the rewards were good enough. No "Gosh, I'd hate to inflict the horrors of war on everone."
Human life just isn't that sacred to many people. Did you see that link to the Chechen war in the Los Angeles Times?
Later
ErikZ
Heh. Ok I was being a bit of a smart alek there.
Something no one mentioned about my absolute rule.
"Hey! They're using american equipment! We must attack ourselves for supplying stuff to the bad guys!"
Later
Erik Z
The human body is a true "all terrain vehicle". So if you're killing humans, your 'Terminators' need to be able to go anywhere a human can go.
Later ErikZ
No problem, just hand over the AI hardware, OS, and software that the plane in 2025 will be using.
Later
ErikZ.
>In one hundred years, we'll be so out of touch with the humanity of the rest of humanity that we'll be blowing up third world dictators by remote control on TV as an entertainment sport.
That would be so COOL!
Er, I mean, Oh, the terrible inhumanity of war!
Later
Erik Z
A 'mingled' enemy isn't really that dangerous.
Or when both your allies and enemies are using the same type of equipment?
Then destroy them both. What the hell are my allies doing supplying my enemies with equipment?
Suppose you only have enough payload for one particular objective? Can a computer tell if one target needs to be taken out immediately because it's about to fire on something else?
Yes, it can. Is it the target you're supposed to take out? No? Then tough. Learn to use the machines in an effective manner.
As soon as you have a situation where more discretion than simple friend or foe is required, a completely automated system is of very limited capability.
Oh yeah, like soldiers have been any good at that. That's why the military SHOULDN'T be used as peacekeepers. Their purpose for existing is to kill people and blow stuff up.
This is easy, tell your allies "Our automated war machines can't tell friend from foe. We're attacking this point on the map. Don't be there."
Later Erik Z
I dunno, lets pretend I'm some civilian in some punk town in the middle of nowhere, in 2025.
I hear the Americans have let loose a bunch of terminators, they're headed my way.
I know the terminators can't tell the difference between military and civilian.
I get me, and my family the hell out of there.
Later
Erik Z
>IFF is not very useful. Do you perhaps remember a few years back when the air force shot down two army helicopters in the Iraq northern no-fly zone? They misidentified them.
Yeah, AND THEY HAD THEIR IFF TURNED OFF.
Later
Erik Z
"Chance favors the prepared mind."
Later
Erik Z
Brilliant, you mean that if people didn't actually have a choice, they'd vote for Gore.
Or how about, 'Gore is a surefire win, if no one else is running against him.'
Right now more people are driven to vote because they HATE on of the choices. Not because they love one of them and want to vote for him.
Sheesh,
Erik Z