Oh, don't be so sure of that. He is working very hard at destroying Europe's unity right now. He is leading a protectionist front that threatens to divide Europe between East and West again. Give him some time, I'm sure he can get warmed up...
In France, it will probably be to the European Court of Human Rights (who does indeed have more urgent cases, but well...) They gave an unfavourable advice when asked about this law, the EU parliament didn't like it, most of the French parliament (including the majority) does not likes it. But then, FNAC's CEO (one of the biggest music stores in France) is a closed friend to our beloved president. And he is married to a (dumb) singer who thinks the RIAA (or SACEM as it is called here) is fighting her interests.
Well, personally I am fighting a law that could cut my internet access without judicial oversight. That is all. "Don't break the law, don't be in trouble" is fine by me. "Get trouble anyway" is not. This law project doesn't have any appeal mechanism.
This is the end of free wifi spots in France and of anonymous web access.
I used to be part of Planète Science, a non-profit that teaches basic science to children of a lot of ages. I had a small workshop (~30 mins) where I explained the basis of robotics and programming to everyone interested including children younger than 10 years. What we had was one of the most simple robots possible : two sensors and one servo. It was in the shape of a cartoon sunflower. Its (smiling) head had two photo-resistor in place of eyes and the head could turn thanks to the servo. The obvious goal was to make it follow the light. We had a specially designed GUI to program the microchip embedded in the flowerpot.
I'm an engineer so I have very few experience with teaching. Hopefully, someone helped me see some basic facts:
- A servo is fun. Through our GUI we could simply change manually the position of the servo. Let children just do that. Let them put 50 and then 51 to see if they notice the movement, let them put 0 and 256 to check the maximum speed, they can play quite a bit with this.
- Then we had the inputs of the photoresistors. Let them hide it or light it so that they see how it varies.
- Don't show them what you are doing, let them do. I had a program that was almost complete except for the central part. I had a "if" with an empty expression and block and an empty "else" block. I explained what a test was and let them try several things. I guided them until they understood that the condition lefteye>righteye was interesting and that motor++ and motor-- was what they were looking for.
- Gloat about what they just did ! It is a robot ! And yes, explain that with sensors, with an actuator and with an algorithm, what they did completely qualifies as a robot. Far more than the RC "robotic" spider they saw just before and that had zero sensors:-)
Also note how this formula took the reverse path usually taken by scientific formula : it begins with a somehow descriptive name : Gaussian copula function, but now that everybody needs a scapegoat, it is named after some guy...
And to suggest that it will take some hackers to fulfill the promises of genetically modified organisms (plants that produce medicines for instance) is just crazy talk.
What sounds a LOT more plausible is that this is all an attempt to further demonize P2P. And, I say this with my tinfoil hat still on the hat rack.
I second that. Reading this, it gives the impression that P2P software is a malware that creeps on secure machines, steal files and sends them to Pakistan and Iran.
When will people understand that handling sensitive data on a computer is not the same than sending pictures to grandma ? It requires training
"Arrogance" pretty much defines Sarkozy in one word. He keeps on doing similar stuff, and the problem is that he is really good at getting away with sweet-talks.
Note as well that this case is a bit special (and it will be used and twisted by Sarkozy in many ways, I am sure) because they did pay the SACEM (French RIAA) for the song, thinking that this allowed them to do whatever pleases them with the song. Actually, they had the authorization to play them in public. But the artists keep a moral right on their music's use. And using their tunes to make the "vitory march" of Sarkozy's entrance was not to their liking. I don't know the American law but in France, artists always keep a right to their musics' use, especially to prevent that someone use them to distort the authors' opinions. The authors did not want to give the feeling they condoned Sarkozy or that they wrote the song for him. Sarkozy is notorious for not understanding that people could disagree with him so he probably thought that it was a simple misunderstanding and offered a symbolic and moral compensation to their moral objections. He does not understand that he simply did not have the right to do so.
Also know that we have a completely fucked up judicial system when it comes to presidents. He can be condemned (it is long, hard, random, but it is possible) but if he doesn't follow the tribunal's orders, he won't be worried. He spent the last years strengthening his position. It really feels like we elected a small Bush. Many people are waiting for 2012, to vote him out (unfortunately, no Obama is in sight)
Spam providers exist and will organize your "ad campaign" for a small fee. They need a bot to send millions of mail.
Scamers and phishers need anonymate also, a botnet can provide this.
There is also the very possible old-fashion extortion, mafia style.
Ah. But once you know every latin letters you have to learn how words are spelled, the problem is the same. That, and there actually are patterns in Chinese signs. Most signs are the combination of a handful of keys (something like 100 basic characters)
Oh, English is the lingua franca then ?
The dominating language is the language of the wealthiest nation in the world. Saying that Chinese is only spoken in China is a bit exagerated : every capital has its own Chinatown harboring several thousands or even millions of Chinese-speaking persons. And yes, Mandarin comes first only if you consider the native language of persons.
Well, in France we wondered why Americans didn't take over all French websites by learning some basic French;-)
Seriously, what would be the point of this ? Do you think they don't have their own blogosphere, slashdot, webcomics, news sources ? All in the language that the biggest part of humanity uses ?
I don't understand the people mocking this. Sure this is probably a service a la geocities with a minority of webpages worth of any interest. But some are. Internet gains million of new users and publishers and people just dismiss this as non-significant while we should try to build bridges. As ugly a Myspace-QQ bridge may sound, it could be a worthwhile objective...
Having tried many HMD in my previous job, I was very surprised to try the latest one which are light and finally usable. My money is on this.
I feel it saddening, however, that no game technology focus on the gameplay. Devices, better resolution, better graphic quality, but the games are still the same as Quake I (and less fun than Duke Nukem 3D)
The Chinese government is a pretty big organization. Its left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing. If there was local corruption, it was probably not with the complicity of the central offices. As the government needs to get as clean an image it can get, it handles diligently these cases. There is a real fear of civil unrest in China with the economical crisis. The government must look like a competent one, they are very aware that it is their survival that is at risk. I expect to see during the next years a softening of the Chinese Communist Party, maybe some new freedom and a crackdown on internal corruption.
MARSIS for instance is "A radar altimeter used to assess composition of sub-surface aimed at search for frozen water". Mars Express alone embarked many instruments that were a tad bit more evolved than a CCD camera. It observes things that are vital to a manned mission but that rovers only have a small chance to observe : influence of solar storms and dust storms.
There is no problem with science being entertaining. There is a problem when science is just entertainment.
Show me a single result by the rovers that brings some data that couldn't be inferred from the Viking probes or the orbiters.
"Rover:Hey ! found water !"
"Orbiter:Yep, got a map of that by the way. Oh, and I am *sure* that it is water, contrary to your analysis of pictures"
"Rover:Still no life"
"Orbiter:Tell me something new"
"Rover:You are such a dick"
"Orbiter:And I go round and round..."
An immobile probe that would have dug 5 meters under the surface would have had a far better chance to find living organisms (it could have reached water layers) than something that stays on the surface and scratches the rocks.
* Characterize the Climate of Mars
"Dude it's cloudy today". On the other hand, there are orbital observations that give a far better and deeper understanding of Mars' climate and weather.
* Characterize the Geology of Mars
That's the "scratching a rock" phase. From orbit we got a geological map of Mars and even of its underground, to some extent. The knowledge we have from the area where the rovers landed is probably only marginally better than what we scanned from orbit.
* Prepare for Human Exploration
How so ? Localizing water, minerals and so on was not made very efficiently by this rover team. It didn't build anything of use for explorers and I fail to see what new information it brought that the Viking probes didn't give us already.
Mars Rovers were in fact a secret plane to create a massive FPS arena. The next batch will be able to fire rockets. The 40 mins lag is a bitch however.
Seriously, the rovers did no serious science (yes I saw the article about drops, they see a drop they are unsure of what it is. Genius) and were just PR toys. All real science was made from orbit where satellites did stuff like map the entire planet for underground stocks of water (and found plenty)
Slashdot Mirror
I think you misspelled FUCK
Oh, don't be so sure of that. He is working very hard at destroying Europe's unity right now. He is leading a protectionist front that threatens to divide Europe between East and West again. Give him some time, I'm sure he can get warmed up...
In France, it will probably be to the European Court of Human Rights (who does indeed have more urgent cases, but well...) They gave an unfavourable advice when asked about this law, the EU parliament didn't like it, most of the French parliament (including the majority) does not likes it. But then, FNAC's CEO (one of the biggest music stores in France) is a closed friend to our beloved president. And he is married to a (dumb) singer who thinks the RIAA (or SACEM as it is called here) is fighting her interests.
This is our turn to have a Bush in charge...
Well, personally I am fighting a law that could cut my internet access without judicial oversight. That is all. "Don't break the law, don't be in trouble" is fine by me. "Get trouble anyway" is not. This law project doesn't have any appeal mechanism.
This is the end of free wifi spots in France and of anonymous web access.
Yes, they'll learn (or find new ways). While we are doing what, exactly ?
I couldn't agree more with you. The original argument was about energy density of a human body, vs a battery pack.
At 80 mph ? While carrying another person ? (And I am being a bit unfair : the 80 mph is quite low)
Can you run 400 miles at 80 mph without a refill ? Or even 100 miles as electric cars do ? Our body is efficient but we did better.
I used to be part of Planète Science, a non-profit that teaches basic science to children of a lot of ages. I had a small workshop (~30 mins) where I explained the basis of robotics and programming to everyone interested including children younger than 10 years. What we had was one of the most simple robots possible : two sensors and one servo. It was in the shape of a cartoon sunflower. Its (smiling) head had two photo-resistor in place of eyes and the head could turn thanks to the servo. The obvious goal was to make it follow the light. We had a specially designed GUI to program the microchip embedded in the flowerpot.
:-)
I'm an engineer so I have very few experience with teaching. Hopefully, someone helped me see some basic facts:
- A servo is fun. Through our GUI we could simply change manually the position of the servo. Let children just do that. Let them put 50 and then 51 to see if they notice the movement, let them put 0 and 256 to check the maximum speed, they can play quite a bit with this.
- Then we had the inputs of the photoresistors. Let them hide it or light it so that they see how it varies.
- Don't show them what you are doing, let them do. I had a program that was almost complete except for the central part. I had a "if" with an empty expression and block and an empty "else" block. I explained what a test was and let them try several things. I guided them until they understood that the condition lefteye>righteye was interesting and that motor++ and motor-- was what they were looking for.
- Gloat about what they just did ! It is a robot ! And yes, explain that with sensors, with an actuator and with an algorithm, what they did completely qualifies as a robot. Far more than the RC "robotic" spider they saw just before and that had zero sensors
Also note how this formula took the reverse path usually taken by scientific formula : it begins with a somehow descriptive name : Gaussian copula function, but now that everybody needs a scapegoat, it is named after some guy...
And to suggest that it will take some hackers to fulfill the promises of genetically modified organisms (plants that produce medicines for instance) is just crazy talk.
What sounds a LOT more plausible is that this is all an attempt to further demonize P2P. And, I say this with my tinfoil hat still on the hat rack.
I second that. Reading this, it gives the impression that P2P software is a malware that creeps on secure machines, steal files and sends them to Pakistan and Iran.
When will people understand that handling sensitive data on a computer is not the same than sending pictures to grandma ? It requires training
"Arrogance" pretty much defines Sarkozy in one word. He keeps on doing similar stuff, and the problem is that he is really good at getting away with sweet-talks.
Note as well that this case is a bit special (and it will be used and twisted by Sarkozy in many ways, I am sure) because they did pay the SACEM (French RIAA) for the song, thinking that this allowed them to do whatever pleases them with the song. Actually, they had the authorization to play them in public. But the artists keep a moral right on their music's use. And using their tunes to make the "vitory march" of Sarkozy's entrance was not to their liking. I don't know the American law but in France, artists always keep a right to their musics' use, especially to prevent that someone use them to distort the authors' opinions. The authors did not want to give the feeling they condoned Sarkozy or that they wrote the song for him. Sarkozy is notorious for not understanding that people could disagree with him so he probably thought that it was a simple misunderstanding and offered a symbolic and moral compensation to their moral objections. He does not understand that he simply did not have the right to do so.
Also know that we have a completely fucked up judicial system when it comes to presidents. He can be condemned (it is long, hard, random, but it is possible) but if he doesn't follow the tribunal's orders, he won't be worried. He spent the last years strengthening his position. It really feels like we elected a small Bush. Many people are waiting for 2012, to vote him out (unfortunately, no Obama is in sight)
Spam providers exist and will organize your "ad campaign" for a small fee. They need a bot to send millions of mail.
Scamers and phishers need anonymate also, a botnet can provide this.
There is also the very possible old-fashion extortion, mafia style.
Ah. But once you know every latin letters you have to learn how words are spelled, the problem is the same. That, and there actually are patterns in Chinese signs. Most signs are the combination of a handful of keys (something like 100 basic characters)
Oh, English is the lingua franca then ?
The dominating language is the language of the wealthiest nation in the world. Saying that Chinese is only spoken in China is a bit exagerated : every capital has its own Chinatown harboring several thousands or even millions of Chinese-speaking persons. And yes, Mandarin comes first only if you consider the native language of persons.
Well, in France we wondered why Americans didn't take over all French websites by learning some basic French ;-)
Seriously, what would be the point of this ? Do you think they don't have their own blogosphere, slashdot, webcomics, news sources ? All in the language that the biggest part of humanity uses ?
I don't understand the people mocking this. Sure this is probably a service a la geocities with a minority of webpages worth of any interest. But some are. Internet gains million of new users and publishers and people just dismiss this as non-significant while we should try to build bridges. As ugly a Myspace-QQ bridge may sound, it could be a worthwhile objective...
Having tried many HMD in my previous job, I was very surprised to try the latest one which are light and finally usable. My money is on this.
I feel it saddening, however, that no game technology focus on the gameplay. Devices, better resolution, better graphic quality, but the games are still the same as Quake I (and less fun than Duke Nukem 3D)
The Chinese government is a pretty big organization. Its left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing. If there was local corruption, it was probably not with the complicity of the central offices. As the government needs to get as clean an image it can get, it handles diligently these cases. There is a real fear of civil unrest in China with the economical crisis. The government must look like a competent one, they are very aware that it is their survival that is at risk. I expect to see during the next years a softening of the Chinese Communist Party, maybe some new freedom and a crackdown on internal corruption.
MARSIS for instance is "A radar altimeter used to assess composition of sub-surface aimed at search for frozen water". Mars Express alone embarked many instruments that were a tad bit more evolved than a CCD camera. It observes things that are vital to a manned mission but that rovers only have a small chance to observe : influence of solar storms and dust storms.
There is no problem with science being entertaining. There is a problem when science is just entertainment.
Show me a single result by the rovers that brings some data that couldn't be inferred from the Viking probes or the orbiters.
"Rover:Hey ! found water !"
"Orbiter:Yep, got a map of that by the way. Oh, and I am *sure* that it is water, contrary to your analysis of pictures"
"Rover:Still no life"
"Orbiter:Tell me something new"
"Rover:You are such a dick"
"Orbiter:And I go round and round..."
Oh, science spending is fine. I still hold to the point that when I am going to a foreign country/planet, I need a map more than a postcard.
From your link, its missions were
* Determine whether Life ever arose on Mars
An immobile probe that would have dug 5 meters under the surface would have had a far better chance to find living organisms (it could have reached water layers) than something that stays on the surface and scratches the rocks.
* Characterize the Climate of Mars
"Dude it's cloudy today". On the other hand, there are orbital observations that give a far better and deeper understanding of Mars' climate and weather.
* Characterize the Geology of Mars
That's the "scratching a rock" phase. From orbit we got a geological map of Mars and even of its underground, to some extent. The knowledge we have from the area where the rovers landed is probably only marginally better than what we scanned from orbit.
* Prepare for Human Exploration
How so ? Localizing water, minerals and so on was not made very efficiently by this rover team. It didn't build anything of use for explorers and I fail to see what new information it brought that the Viking probes didn't give us already.
Mars Rovers were in fact a secret plane to create a massive FPS arena. The next batch will be able to fire rockets. The 40 mins lag is a bitch however.
Seriously, the rovers did no serious science (yes I saw the article about drops, they see a drop they are unsure of what it is. Genius) and were just PR toys. All real science was made from orbit where satellites did stuff like map the entire planet for underground stocks of water (and found plenty)