Art imitates life, life imitates Art. Mwaaa-haaa-haaa! Somewhere deep underground a malevolent Mad Scientist is creating a real guinea pig virus of death!
Either that or an 3l33t h4x0r is building a virus to infect "The SIMS" plug-ins.
I'm glad someone explained this in small enough words for me to understand. I'm a Computer Scientist not a Physicist damnit.
So I take it this means that for any number of dimensions... our universe is "normal" in all those dimensions?... and... this implies that the universe is expanding asymptotically to some maximum radius... because matter bends space along all n-dimensions and we can see that the net effect of "all the bending" cancels itself out?
Is that generally the idea or am I on crack? (I really am trying to get this)
So in a matrix/vector mathematical sense, how is curved space represented? How can space be curved if all n-vectors representing all n-dimensions are all orthogonal? Is spatial curvature just some kind of universal force of acceleration then (ie: gravity) or is there more to it?
by 1967 - with unmanned Corona satellites effectively managing this task and military costs escalating in Vietnam - MOL [the Manned Orbital Laboratory] was cancelled.
Darn it. At the same time that the Cold War inspired these great innovations, the money spent on Cold War related efforts killed them! Danged if you do... danged if you don't.
Ofcourse today, there isn't much reason to go into space because we have the internet. Otherwise wouldn't VC's be spending some of that cash on space-tech? Or... maybe they are... and we don't know about it because we're computer geeks?
Okay, I've actually watched the film now... so I'm qualified to comment. I liked Brazil... but not in the way the/. review sold it.
Definately features a Hacker ala Cowboy persona in Tuttle's character... but... I think the movie is more focused on the angst of the unfulfilled dreamer. The message of the movie is about the sheer horror of the dreamer awaking in a world just slightly beyond his control, dangling his dreams before him... snatching them away... over and over again... until finally the dreamer is beaten down.
The dreamer escapes in his dreams when he can't find an avenue to make them reality. Maybe this is why so many geniuses who can never quite achieve their dreams end their lives in madness and tragedy. Reality bites.
I think this movie really explains why some of us stay up late at night... poking at our keyboards... pushing ourselves... while others lock themselves up in basements trying to become a level 17 paladin... forsaking reality. Each is a different response to the same pressure Lowry has. A world that makes no plain path for achieving happiness... will often drive a man to one form of madness or another.
[it is] believed that the latest generation of global communications satellites would be immune to similar home-built equipment, as they are "heroically resistant to jamming"
What does Heroically Resistant mean? I can see this satellite in orbit straining: must resist jamming! grr!... must get signal through!
It must be wonderful to be so naive that you trust technology to be heroic.
It might actually be prudent for slashdot to avoid stories on SW TPM DVD... delaying them by a few days to a week to see how the stories shake-out. This would mean that those of us who use Slashdot as a "geek-media" filter would get better news and less run-around.
I read slashdot for stuff just like this because I'm interested, but too busy to follow them with any zeal. I consider cmdrTaco and the slashdot crew my personal team of geek-news zealots hungrily scanning tonnes of canned internet spam and feeding me the meatier tid-bits.
I was talking to one of my prof's... I said I don't have time to actually read all the industry journals but keep a jist because of slashdot.
My prof. said... he's too busy reading all the industry journals to keep a jist on slashdot.
Merchandizing, Merchandizing, we buy the myth more than the movie.
I also figure SW TPM will be strengthened more by repeated viewing then weakened... this is due to the hypnotic messages embedded in the VHS. The DVD is delayed in release because they can't get the "Jar-Jar is actually cool" hypno-trance to work on digital formats.
If there is anything I've figured out, it's that a child's memory is better than any movie. I remember Star Wars: A New Hope, I remember it being awesome... then I watched an older copy without the digital enhancements and discovered it wasn't actually all that great.
I have felt the same way about most older movies... with a few exceptions.
VHS, DVD, and the ability to watch movies on demand, ruin certain movies since they lean heavily on mestique. Very rarely have I found a film which merits watching more than once. Having a copy of the movie tends more to destroy it than to endear it.
I'm curious, if I was attacked with a DoS and somehow could find the offender and reciprocate a DoS or other attack to bring down the attacking system could I plead "Self-Defense"???
Similarly, If I got a telemarketing call... and reciprocated a telemarketing call or another attack to "bring down" the "attacking" telemarketer could I plead "Self-Defense"???
I love living in alaska, You go to your lunch hour during the winter at a nice resturant and watch the lovely sunrise and sunset then go back to work by 1pm.
I live only a few miles from the artic circle. Someone please give me a job so I can move!?!
BTW: my 3 year-old son loves TPM... especially Jar-Jar. Let's just face it. TPM was to catch a new batch of kids and snare them into Star Wars fandom to keep Star Wars alive. So, TPM was more for 3 year-olds than it was for 25 year-olds. So stop griping about how horrible it was... think "Dumbo", "Bambi", "Barney"... that's what TPM is.
So, the DVD thing is really just "sauce" to Lucas, what matters is he's assimilated the kiddies for another 10 to 20 years... DVD doesn't help or hurt that much and he probably could care less.
Genius, sheer genius... unlike the Star Trek franchise, he's managed to find a way to exploit his Star Wars fan base without overloading them so horribly that only the ultimately loyal fans will cling-on. He's also created a new generation of loyal followers to cling-on to the legacy of Star Wars since the happy-memories of a child glow in their minds beyond all reality, millions of kids will grow up with this epic story-line embedded in their brains that is far more amazing in their memories than on the screen.
This just goes to prove that Lucas is a genius! When I heard there was no DVD, I bought the tape. If I could have I would have avoided the tape and bought the DVD instead. Now there is a DVD and me... the poor dupe that I am... will JUST HAVE to go out and buy the DVD too. Lucas got two sales out of me even though I didn't go to the theater! I've been media-RAPED!
Well, it's not like I didn't really expect it from George Lucas anyway.
Computers can be used properly for instruction... and I think what is seriously advocated here is the use of a specially limited form of portable computer in the hands of students. The educational material is still central to the educational process and cannot be displaced by technology. No matter how much we may want it to be true, you can't code an algorithm unless you can think it.
Slide-rules weren't banned in schools and no one is prominently recorded as saying, "We are not going with a student owned slide-rule plan because students should be learning the material and not playing with a slide-rule!" So I think what you are reporting from NC State University about the avoidence of the use of computers in lecture halls is not as visionary as it is reactionary. Computers do have a place in non-computer related fields of education!
If you have lazy teachers, you get poor education reguardless of the equipment. So, placing a computer in the hand of every kid and a computer in the classroom won't save your child from the irresponsible teacher. It can enable the proactive and engaged professional teacher.
I am an instructor at my university, I just recently graduated and during my whole college career the most technologically innundated course I took from someone else was an english course on world literature. This english instructor used his class website and Classroom PC (with projector) far more than I have ever used it in my "Introduction to Programming" course. Although I can't imagine teaching programming without using a computer, I am told I'm the first Computer Science instructor to regularly get computer time reserved for teaching purposes.
My point is, the english instructor used his computer access very effectively to produce and excellant class... I'd like to think that I produce an excellant class using mainly chalk and a chalk board on the subject of computer programming.
So, free computers for kids are good because it allows poor families to get their children exposure to technology they couldn't otherwise have. The reason for giving every kid a laptop is the assumption that computers just might be important in the future... you know... they just might get used for both work and play when todays kids are adults. It could be possible that everyday office jobs will use computers and that even delivery drivers will have to carry computerized pads around with them. I know it's a crazy idea but I could see how a shipping company might use computers to track parcels, or a fast food resturant might replace cash registers with computer terminals with icons...
So computers shouldn't be used in every class everyday, maybe not... but I raise an objection to the idea that computers are only useful for teaching technological subjects. What about a professor instead of preparing slides or overheads, preparing webnotes and showing them in class? How about the professor with an english web-forum to discuss this weeks readings outside of class? How about the Law course using the web for searching statutes? What about the mundane posting of homework assignments to the web?
Computers are useful for teaching all subjects, and I think it is reasonable to subsidize the purchase of custom, bare-bones, inexpensive, standardized laptops for students.
I, however, concede that the technology to realistically put such a laptop in students hands is at least 3 years away, and at most 5 assuming there isn't a major economic catastrophe. Schools certainly won't beable to afford windows, MS Office, and MathCad licences for all their students... but perhaps a custom distribution can be developed opensource for the schools so they can have an evolving standard set of tools to teach with. After all, pencils are now standard #2 in school... who uses a #2 in bussiness?... so an OS distribution can be developed for students that is both standard and useful.
Billy could then use his laptop to e-mail his HighSchool senior english paper to his professor... and his english teacher can tell him: "Billy I believe the word you want is Condemn... the spell checker recognizes Condom as a word but saying that 'Ophelia condoms Hamlet' doesn't make sense grade: D-, you have to say what you mean... the computer can't think for you!"
unless we see amerikan schools take a proactive stand on getting computors into the handz of youngstorz amerikan society will be div (or mod) along the linez of techknowlogical havez and havez-nots. This is because, not every parent is riche enough to affraud a laptop for der kids who are studnets.
Not only that, but some of uz had to gow to public skool and didn't git a goot edukatshun. Many geeks are lost every year too poor pooblic skoolz what don't teach goot engrish or the maths skillz. I am a programming teachur and I see manie studnets who I thinking would be goot geek programmer types who aren't cuz them has poor maths. If only theyed got it in grade school and didnet have to wat for secondary school to get the maths.
we have a need for better educated and trained journalists in general. From what I've seen, mega-dummies work at newspapers.
*LOL*, all the smart people are working in the tech industry or posting on Slashdot! No one with any brains is left for journalism!:p
-// Zarf//
Re:Sacramento, CA -- nothing =/
on
G3 Solar Storm
·
· Score: 1
Polaris is not at the magnetic north... the northern lights center on the magnetic north pole which should be North East of your position... hmm... for me the Big Dipper is directly over head...
I just poked my head outside... I have a nice standing "curtain" structure aurora directly over my head. If you can see this it would be to your NorthWest (obviously)...
No, I'm not daft... aurora curtains start at 3 to 5 miles up and if I remember right they can go several miles into space. This is an exceptional curtain that just appeared... not motion whatsoever... holy cow I've never seen it that tall... it's covering half the sky.
It's so odd that it's not moving at all... just getting brighter.
I'm going to log out and stare at it from my window for a bit.
> Just three frickin latitiude degrees south of > DC.. that sucks... anyone see it?
*LOL* I'm too far North! (Fairbanks Alaska) sincerely, get in your car and drive... if you can see the Aurora during a good period of solar activity it is the most frightening and awesome sight you could see.
I've lived under the northern lights for 10 years now and I still get up to go watch them.
Some shows are better than others... I remember a solar storm in 1989 that was spectacular... the plasma curtains would move rapidly then pulse like rivulets of light consuming the whole sky in a spider's web.
I've seen the aurora flash like lightning for 10 or 15 minutes, disappear, then glow like a neon sign for hours. Spring is the best time for aurora watching... by May the sun only sets for a few hours and you don't see the aurora or stars again until September.
Well, I've spewed enough... go and get a live gander of it, one of the true natural wonders of the world... and it's high energy plasma too!
-// Zarf//
Northern Lights in Alaska
on
G3 Solar Storm
·
· Score: 1
I'm in alaska right now, just south of the artic circle... stuck my head outside and I can't see a thing. It's a nice starry night out and there is little light pollution to mess up the view.
Kind of ironic. I'm too far north to see the northern lights!
Oh, well it's not like I don't see them every other night anyway. On the plus side I've got a great view of the Alaska Range by star light tonight.
" I would say that a completely CGI character interacting with real actors was pretty groundbreaking "
Which is why "Stuart Little" had better CGI than TPM... The clothes on Stuart are amazing. There is some excellant CGI work there. I have to agree with the academy's decision tho' "The Matrix" deserves the Visual Effects Oscar... too bad they couldn't have given one to "Stuart Little" as well.
If it were "Stuart Little" vs. TPM, I'd give the award to Stuart... The mouse character was much more visually realistic and complex then those stupid gungans, robots, and spaceships. Not only that, clothes and fur are really really hard to do right.
When asked what the programming language of the future will be, a wise programmer once said... I don't know what it will look like but I know it will be called FORTRAN.
The same holds for Unix. I don't know what the OS of the future will look like, but it will be called Unix.
Same for the internet.
well.. more realistically... **ix, as in Linux, Irix, myix, Jesix, or whatever...
( In the spirit of "Leningen and the Ants"... I hope I got the right title)
What Bill Joy seems to be most impacted by is the idea of "nanites" with some form of AI becoming "alive" and running amok. If one is not qualified to run moks there's no problem right? ofcourse right.
In the arena of anti-nanite technology we should look for success stories from an unglamorous but related feild... contraception.
If Bill Joy is afraid that humanity would loose a war against AI nanites he should think of this warfare in terms that the medical community does toward contraception or biological warfare.
The soldier is the egg, the nanites are the sperm... and contraceptive companies have developed many ways to keep them apart.
Firstly there is the barrier methods... erect a barrier that is impenetratable to the nanites. If latex won't work try titanium.
Secondly there are the chemical methods... perhaps there is an acidic compound that will disable nanites? How about EM-pulse? How about having the soldiers take a pill once a day that contains anti-nanites?
Thirdly there are the old-fashioned rythm methods... perhaps the nanites can only infect or attack a soldier during certain times of the month or under certain conditions... prevent contact with the nanites during those times.
As I hope I've pointed out... there really isn't anything new under the sun. As long as we keep development open, there are bound to be numerous measures and counter measures proposed to make genetic, nano, and AI technologies managable... Just like the horse-shit piling up in NY-city mentioned in another post to this article, if we make carefully planned steps toward the future we will be fine. Probably thanks to people like Bill Joy freaking out and going over the deep-end making us stop to think.
Good GA's aren't easy to come up with... what is the "fitness factor" for a "brain"? What keeps that from falling inside a local minimum? As anyone who's coded with GA's knows, sometimes you can't hit your mark by starting out with any-old set of assumptions. Neural Nets and Genetic Algorithms both require some intelligent design choices to ensure that they come close to the desired goal... and then the previous point still holds, you can't make something you don't sufficiently understand.
I personally think that top-down and bottom-up AI are both idealistic, a realistic designer has to compromise. The amount of compromise that is needed between the two approaches is totally beyond knowing... even after someone succeeds in building a human-level AI or AI-generator.
Then there is the other problem of what is "intelligent". A nanite that's as smart as an ant in a colony with sufficent number may have a collective intelligence... is that our dreaded human-race-ending AI?
Thank you for pounding out this tip. It's most likely a poly-alphabetic cipher where the encryption alphabet is the set of all characters and their inversions... (meaning treat inversions as say greek characters).
The problem with doing this in the computer is that most modern cryptanalyists (myself included) have been spoiled by the computer... we want to see everything in terms of ASCII, or some bit pattern.
We'll have to come up with an enumeration of the cipher text characters to map them into a universe we can deal with. Then we'll have to worry about artifacts in the mapping mathematics altering the cryptanalysis.
With a table and corresponding bit patterns (call it PETi for Poe Encryption Text index) we can now whip out our trusty computers!
So what about the "rotations"? now, now, aren't these simple matrix transformations? affine in nature?
Well, I have to finish my Cryptanalysis toolkit... I'll have to retool for an expanded alpha-set... hack at you later.
Slashdot Mirror
Art imitates life, life imitates Art. Mwaaa-haaa-haaa! Somewhere deep underground a malevolent Mad Scientist is creating a real guinea pig virus of death!
// Zarf //
Either that or an 3l33t h4x0r is building a virus to infect "The SIMS" plug-ins.
-
I'm glad someone explained this in small enough words for me to understand. I'm a Computer Scientist not a Physicist damnit.
... and ... this implies that the universe is expanding asymptotically to some maximum radius... because matter bends space along all n-dimensions and we can see that the net effect of "all the bending" cancels itself out?
// Zarf //
So I take it this means that for any number of dimensions... our universe is "normal" in all those dimensions?
Is that generally the idea or am I on crack? (I really am trying to get this)
So in a matrix/vector mathematical sense, how is curved space represented? How can space be curved if all n-vectors representing all n-dimensions are all orthogonal? Is spatial curvature just some kind of universal force of acceleration then (ie: gravity) or is there more to it?
-
by 1967 - with unmanned Corona satellites effectively managing this task and military costs escalating in Vietnam - MOL [the Manned Orbital Laboratory] was cancelled.
// Zarf //
Darn it. At the same time that the Cold War inspired these great innovations, the money spent on Cold War related efforts killed them! Danged if you do... danged if you don't.
Ofcourse today, there isn't much reason to go into space because we have the internet. Otherwise wouldn't VC's be spending some of that cash on space-tech? Or... maybe they are... and we don't know about it because we're computer geeks?
-
Okay, I've actually watched the film now... so I'm qualified to comment. I liked Brazil... but not in the way the /. review sold it.
// Zarf //
Definately features a Hacker ala Cowboy persona in Tuttle's character... but... I think the movie is more focused on the angst of the unfulfilled dreamer. The message of the movie is about the sheer horror of the dreamer awaking in a world just slightly beyond his control, dangling his dreams before him... snatching them away... over and over again... until finally the dreamer is beaten down.
The dreamer escapes in his dreams when he can't find an avenue to make them reality. Maybe this is why so many geniuses who can never quite achieve their dreams end their lives in madness and tragedy. Reality bites.
I think this movie really explains why some of us stay up late at night... poking at our keyboards... pushing ourselves... while others lock themselves up in basements trying to become a level 17 paladin... forsaking reality. Each is a different response to the same pressure Lowry has. A world that makes no plain path for achieving happiness... will often drive a man to one form of madness or another.
okay, I'm done... now flame me.
-
I suppose if Brittania gets a hold of this they'll have a specialized group of JEDI, all of whom have been knighted... :)
// Zarf //
-
[it is] believed that the latest generation of global communications satellites would be immune to similar home-built equipment, as they are "heroically resistant to jamming"
What does Heroically Resistant mean? I can see this satellite in orbit straining: must resist jamming! grr!It must be wonderful to be so naive that you trust technology to be heroic.
-
It might actually be prudent for slashdot to avoid stories on SW TPM DVD... delaying them by a few days to a week to see how the stories shake-out. This would mean that those of us who use Slashdot as a "geek-media" filter would get better news and less run-around.
// Zarf //
I read slashdot for stuff just like this because I'm interested, but too busy to follow them with any zeal. I consider cmdrTaco and the slashdot crew my personal team of geek-news zealots hungrily scanning tonnes of canned internet spam and feeding me the meatier tid-bits.
I was talking to one of my prof's... I said I don't have time to actually read all the industry journals but keep a jist because of slashdot.
My prof. said... he's too busy reading all the industry journals to keep a jist on slashdot.
I prefer slashdot thankyou.
-
Merchandizing, Merchandizing, we buy the myth more than the movie.
// Zarf //
I also figure SW TPM will be strengthened more by repeated viewing then weakened... this is due to the hypnotic messages embedded in the VHS. The DVD is delayed in release because they can't get the "Jar-Jar is actually cool" hypno-trance to work on digital formats.
-
I agree... Lucas is a marketing genius!
// Zarf //
If there is anything I've figured out, it's that a child's memory is better than any movie. I remember Star Wars: A New Hope, I remember it being awesome... then I watched an older copy without the digital enhancements and discovered it wasn't actually all that great.
I have felt the same way about most older movies... with a few exceptions.
VHS, DVD, and the ability to watch movies on demand, ruin certain movies since they lean heavily on mestique. Very rarely have I found a film which merits watching more than once. Having a copy of the movie tends more to destroy it than to endear it.
-
I'm curious, if I was attacked with a DoS and somehow could find the offender and reciprocate a DoS or other attack to bring down the attacking system could I plead "Self-Defense"???
// Zarf //
Similarly, If I got a telemarketing call... and reciprocated a telemarketing call or another attack to "bring down" the "attacking" telemarketer could I plead "Self-Defense"???
-
I love living in alaska, You go to your lunch hour during the winter at a nice resturant and watch the lovely sunrise and sunset then go back to work by 1pm.
// Zarf //
I live only a few miles from the artic circle. Someone please give me a job so I can move!?!
-
Now MS marketing will ask, "Is there any way we can make the cosmos proprietary so we can close source the night sky?"
// Zarf //
-
BTW: my 3 year-old son loves TPM... especially Jar-Jar. Let's just face it. TPM was to catch a new batch of kids and snare them into Star Wars fandom to keep Star Wars alive. So, TPM was more for 3 year-olds than it was for 25 year-olds. So stop griping about how horrible it was... think "Dumbo", "Bambi", "Barney"... that's what TPM is.
// Zarf //
So, the DVD thing is really just "sauce" to Lucas, what matters is he's assimilated the kiddies for another 10 to 20 years... DVD doesn't help or hurt that much and he probably could care less.
Genius, sheer genius... unlike the Star Trek franchise, he's managed to find a way to exploit his Star Wars fan base without overloading them so horribly that only the ultimately loyal fans will cling-on. He's also created a new generation of loyal followers to cling-on to the legacy of Star Wars since the happy-memories of a child glow in their minds beyond all reality, millions of kids will grow up with this epic story-line embedded in their brains that is far more amazing in their memories than on the screen.
-
This just goes to prove that Lucas is a genius! When I heard there was no DVD, I bought the tape. If I could have I would have avoided the tape and bought the DVD instead. Now there is a DVD and me... the poor dupe that I am... will JUST HAVE to go out and buy the DVD too. Lucas got two sales out of me even though I didn't go to the theater! I've been media-RAPED!
// Zarf //
Well, it's not like I didn't really expect it from George Lucas anyway.
-
Computers can be used properly for instruction... and I think what is seriously advocated here is the use of a specially limited form of portable computer in the hands of students. The educational material is still central to the educational process and cannot be displaced by technology. No matter how much we may want it to be true, you can't code an algorithm unless you can think it.
... so an OS distribution can be developed for students that is both standard and useful.
// Zarf //
Slide-rules weren't banned in schools and no one is prominently recorded as saying, "We are not going with a student owned slide-rule plan because students should be learning the material and not playing with a slide-rule!" So I think what you are reporting from NC State University about the avoidence of the use of computers in lecture halls is not as visionary as it is reactionary. Computers do have a place in non-computer related fields of education!
If you have lazy teachers, you get poor education reguardless of the equipment. So, placing a computer in the hand of every kid and a computer in the classroom won't save your child from the irresponsible teacher. It can enable the proactive and engaged professional teacher.
I am an instructor at my university, I just recently graduated and during my whole college career the most technologically innundated course I took from someone else was an english course on world literature. This english instructor used his class website and Classroom PC (with projector) far more than I have ever used it in my "Introduction to Programming" course. Although I can't imagine teaching programming without using a computer, I am told I'm the first Computer Science instructor to regularly get computer time reserved for teaching purposes.
My point is, the english instructor used his computer access very effectively to produce and excellant class... I'd like to think that I produce an excellant class using mainly chalk and a chalk board on the subject of computer programming.
So, free computers for kids are good because it allows poor families to get their children exposure to technology they couldn't otherwise have. The reason for giving every kid a laptop is the assumption that computers just might be important in the future... you know... they just might get used for both work and play when todays kids are adults. It could be possible that everyday office jobs will use computers and that even delivery drivers will have to carry computerized pads around with them. I know it's a crazy idea but I could see how a shipping company might use computers to track parcels, or a fast food resturant might replace cash registers with computer terminals with icons...
So computers shouldn't be used in every class everyday, maybe not... but I raise an objection to the idea that computers are only useful for teaching technological subjects. What about a professor instead of preparing slides or overheads, preparing webnotes and showing them in class? How about the professor with an english web-forum to discuss this weeks readings outside of class? How about the Law course using the web for searching statutes? What about the mundane posting of homework assignments to the web?
Computers are useful for teaching all subjects, and I think it is reasonable to subsidize the purchase of custom, bare-bones, inexpensive, standardized laptops for students.
I, however, concede that the technology to realistically put such a laptop in students hands is at least 3 years away, and at most 5 assuming there isn't a major economic catastrophe. Schools certainly won't beable to afford windows, MS Office, and MathCad licences for all their students... but perhaps a custom distribution can be developed opensource for the schools so they can have an evolving standard set of tools to teach with. After all, pencils are now standard #2 in school... who uses a #2 in bussiness?
Billy could then use his laptop to e-mail his HighSchool senior english paper to his professor... and his english teacher can tell him: "Billy I believe the word you want is Condemn... the spell checker recognizes Condom as a word but saying that 'Ophelia condoms Hamlet' doesn't make sense grade: D-, you have to say what you mean... the computer can't think for you!"
-
unless we see amerikan schools take a proactive stand on getting computors into the handz of youngstorz amerikan society will be div (or mod) along the linez of techknowlogical havez and havez-nots. This is because, not every parent is riche enough to affraud a laptop for der kids who are studnets.
// Zarf //
Not only that, but some of uz had to gow to public skool and didn't git a goot edukatshun. Many geeks are lost every year too poor pooblic skoolz what don't teach goot engrish or the maths skillz. I am a programming teachur and I see manie studnets who I thinking would be goot geek programmer types who aren't cuz them has poor maths. If only theyed got it in grade school and didnet have to wat for secondary school to get the maths.
-
we have a need for better educated and trained journalists in general. From what I've seen, mega-dummies work at newspapers.
:p
// Zarf //
*LOL*, all the smart people are working in the tech industry or posting on Slashdot! No one with any brains is left for journalism!
-
Polaris is not at the magnetic north... the northern lights center on the magnetic north pole which should be North East of your position... hmm... for me the Big Dipper is directly over head...
// Zarf //
I just poked my head outside... I have a nice standing "curtain" structure aurora directly over my head. If you can see this it would be to your NorthWest (obviously)...
No, I'm not daft... aurora curtains start at 3 to 5 miles up and if I remember right they can go several miles into space. This is an exceptional curtain that just appeared... not motion whatsoever... holy cow I've never seen it that tall... it's covering half the sky.
It's so odd that it's not moving at all... just getting brighter.
I'm going to log out and stare at it from my window for a bit.
-
> Just three frickin latitiude degrees south of
// Zarf //
> DC.. that sucks... anyone see it?
*LOL*
I'm too far North! (Fairbanks Alaska)
sincerely, get in your car and drive... if you can see the Aurora during a good period of solar activity it is the most frightening and awesome sight you could see.
I've lived under the northern lights for 10 years now and I still get up to go watch them.
Some shows are better than others... I remember a solar storm in 1989 that was spectacular... the plasma curtains would move rapidly then pulse like rivulets of light consuming the whole sky in a spider's web.
I've seen the aurora flash like lightning for 10 or 15 minutes, disappear, then glow like a neon sign for hours. Spring is the best time for aurora watching... by May the sun only sets for a few hours and you don't see the aurora or stars again until September.
Well, I've spewed enough... go and get a live gander of it, one of the true natural wonders of the world... and it's high energy plasma too!
-
I'm in alaska right now, just south of the artic circle... stuck my head outside and I can't see a thing. It's a nice starry night out and there is little light pollution to mess up the view.
// Zarf //
Kind of ironic. I'm too far north to see the northern lights!
Oh, well it's not like I don't see them every other night anyway. On the plus side I've got a great view of the Alaska Range by star light tonight.
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" I would say that a completely CGI character interacting with real actors was pretty groundbreaking "
Which is why "Stuart Little" had better CGI than TPM... The clothes on Stuart are amazing. There is some excellant CGI work there. I have to agree with the academy's decision tho' "The Matrix" deserves the Visual Effects Oscar... too bad they couldn't have given one to "Stuart Little" as well.
If it were "Stuart Little" vs. TPM, I'd give the award to Stuart... The mouse character was much more visually realistic and complex then those stupid gungans, robots, and spaceships. Not only that, clothes and fur are really really hard to do right.-
When asked what the programming language of the future will be, a wise programmer once said... I don't know what it will look like but I know it will be called FORTRAN.
// Zarf //
The same holds for Unix. I don't know what the OS of the future will look like, but it will be called Unix.
Same for the internet.
well.. more realistically... **ix, as in Linux, Irix, myix, Jesix, or whatever...
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( In the spirit of "Leningen and the Ants" ... I hope I got the right title)
// Zarf //
What Bill Joy seems to be most impacted by is the idea of "nanites" with some form of AI becoming "alive" and running amok. If one is not qualified to run moks there's no problem right? ofcourse right.
In the arena of anti-nanite technology we should look for success stories from an unglamorous but related feild... contraception.
If Bill Joy is afraid that humanity would loose a war against AI nanites he should think of this warfare in terms that the medical community does toward contraception or biological warfare.
The soldier is the egg, the nanites are the sperm... and contraceptive companies have developed many ways to keep them apart.
Firstly there is the barrier methods... erect a barrier that is impenetratable to the nanites. If latex won't work try titanium.
Secondly there are the chemical methods... perhaps there is an acidic compound that will disable nanites? How about EM-pulse? How about having the soldiers take a pill once a day that contains anti-nanites?
Thirdly there are the old-fashioned rythm methods... perhaps the nanites can only infect or attack a soldier during certain times of the month or under certain conditions... prevent contact with the nanites during those times.
As I hope I've pointed out... there really isn't anything new under the sun. As long as we keep development open, there are bound to be numerous measures and counter measures proposed to make genetic, nano, and AI technologies managable... Just like the horse-shit piling up in NY-city mentioned in another post to this article, if we make carefully planned steps toward the future we will be fine. Probably thanks to people like Bill Joy freaking out and going over the deep-end making us stop to think.
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Good GA's aren't easy to come up with... what is the "fitness factor" for a "brain"? What keeps that from falling inside a local minimum? As anyone who's coded with GA's knows, sometimes you can't hit your mark by starting out with any-old set of assumptions. Neural Nets and Genetic Algorithms both require some intelligent design choices to ensure that they come close to the desired goal... and then the previous point still holds, you can't make something you don't sufficiently understand.
// Zarf //
I personally think that top-down and bottom-up AI are both idealistic, a realistic designer has to compromise. The amount of compromise that is needed between the two approaches is totally beyond knowing... even after someone succeeds in building a human-level AI or AI-generator.
Then there is the other problem of what is "intelligent". A nanite that's as smart as an ant in a colony with sufficent number may have a collective intelligence... is that our dreaded human-race-ending AI?
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Thank you for pounding out this tip. It's most likely a poly-alphabetic cipher where the encryption alphabet is the set of all characters and their inversions... (meaning treat inversions as say greek characters).
// Zarf //
The problem with doing this in the computer is that most modern cryptanalyists (myself included) have been spoiled by the computer... we want to see everything in terms of ASCII, or some bit pattern.
We'll have to come up with an enumeration of the cipher text characters to map them into a universe we can deal with. Then we'll have to worry about artifacts in the mapping mathematics altering the cryptanalysis.
With a table and corresponding bit patterns (call it PETi for Poe Encryption Text index) we can now whip out our trusty computers!
So what about the "rotations"? now, now, aren't these simple matrix transformations? affine in nature?
Well, I have to finish my Cryptanalysis toolkit... I'll have to retool for an expanded alpha-set... hack at you later.
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