Maybe the MPAA will screw up like the RIAA did and sign a deal with some small distributor, allowing unlimited production of copies, in some country (like Russia), to promote sales of this new format, who will turn around and make them available online in any format you choose for the price of bandwidth + small admin fee... ala: www.allofmp3.com
As opposed to HTML? How about your desktop GUI? Is there any difference except in the maturity of the format? Nope.
This isn't 'Flash' based... it is SWF based which means it is a Flash player compatible version of SVG which is an XML language for vector graphics.... similar to PDF which is what OS X uses for displaying it's UI.
Not suitable for anything serious? Adobe's Flex 2 will prove you wrong. To date it is already being used in Government applications as a front end for DB manipulation and queries.
OpenLazlo is an Open Source alternative to Flex. Without it Adobe will once again dominate a very important niche market.
So you are wrong... this is very serious stuff, even if it's still quite immature.
Even better.... just boot up from an external drive... then you don't have to touch anything (maybe move a master/slave pin around a little... ironically as it were).
The appendix is part of the immune system... it has a similar function to Tonsils, Meyers Patches, etc. contains Lymphoid tissue and contributes to the lymphatic system. You can remove it without major immune system degradation because it's functionality is duplicated in multiple parts of the body, even near it's own location... so it may be an original organ from a time when we needed additional immune response, especially in our large intestine (it's a pouch of tissue adjacent to large intestine).... possibly when human ancestors were carrion eaters... dead rotting flesh can have some pretty nasty bacteria in it.
It wasn't an inappropriate term for his day.... Only modern speakers associate 'fittest" with something 'more'.... which is a direct result of our adoption of the term 'fitness' to describe health and robust physical condition.
In strict etmylogical terms 'fittest' would be that which fits it's environment the best, ie: most sustainable, as you have described.
A weaker/smaller variation of a species could easily be the most fit for an environment if by being so it was able to reproduce more often or more effectively. eg, there was a limited supply of food... which is best exemplified by pigmy species on isolated islands. These are obviously not the largest variations possible for the gene set, but are the fittest for the environment... genes are able to be passed on more effectively do to a larger gene pool which prevents inbreeding defects and disease susceptibility. Rephrased; a population of normal sized animals would not have the benefit of said larger gene pool since the environment could not support a large enough group.
Putting a price on having your email delivered is the only way to get rid of spam.... hell if regular snail mail was free, think of how much junk mail you'd get every day.
This doesn't mean that organizations who qualify won't be able to receive a "Postage Paid" certification or whatever... such as small org newsletters, etc. It simply means that non-certified mailers will no longer be able to send out gobs of spam for the price of startup expenses. They will have to go legit, meaning no more Zombie networks and higher operating expenses... which means even higher startup costs for newcomers and much much smaller profit margins, meaning a lot of them will decide to do something else.
Businesses will eat any expenses associated with direct emailings, just as they have done before and mostly do now... it's an operating expense.. part of the marketing budget.
Small businesses will need to account for this new expense and band together to form purchasing blocks to get better deals, or go through a media buyer who will parcel out chunks of a pre-purchased block... just as what happens with magazine ads, newspaper ads, cable tv, etc.
Small orgs and non-profits will want to lobby for a non-profit emailer certification status account.
Individuals will get unlimited emails via their ISP but will have a unique per email abuse link automatically attached to their email as a footer.... which will not trigger an automated blacklisting but will debit the individuals abuse quota monthly limit (say 30 per) by which their priviliges will be suspended after they have reached the threshold. Additionally the abuse link will forward to a web page where a form will require a valid email to finalize the notification which will need to be verified by confirmation via a return email to the person reporting the abuse. This will prevent casual 'revenge' reporting as much as is possible.
No no no no... you didn't read the summary, ie.. if you have such a patent, all you have to do is use it for it's intended purpose in a gainful manner, ie: just sue the law firms... your single patent is enough of a portfolio to qualify... it should work out beautifully.
Sun + Man's total energy expended creating Solar Panel -> Solar Panel -> Power
Yes plants often require man's intervention on some level for efficiency as well but it's a lot less than that required for a solar panel, which is why solar panels are much more expensive to produce than a plant.
Animals that eat plants do a fair job of converting them to useful energy, which is then available for us to convert to even more useful energy... heck even their waste is useful... in any case I wouldn't discount the concept of an organic energy process which can be self sustaining given the right environment... I mean most of earth's ecosystems have managed to work pretty well so far.
but if you've already got it worked out, please do inform the rest of us...
I've been too busy playing around with my bluetooth phone and Sailing Clicker and my MBP, finally found a solution for CPU whine and watching Blazing Saddles.
I didn't use any air density, temp or other vars in my quick calcs... so the number corresponds with sea level if sea level were 70,000 feet higher than it is;-p
Yep... at 25067.455 ( circumference of earth at 70,000 feet alt.) divided by 36 hours (if you fly at equator, giving 12 hours daylight) and start at 70,000 feet, ie: no time lost to ascension
696.318 mph which is actually mach 0.914755 (yes I'm bored)
Actually I think most of the people here and a large majority of the people around the world would appreciate it if Word had less features.
They'd probably really like it if it:
a) let them write a letter and format it intelligently without requiring a PhD in Word Markup Language
b) there is no b
Word has terrible header/footer implementation, terrible use of styles, terrible image embedding facilities, terrible table formatting tools, etc, etc, it does lists pretty well... I use it all the time to do outlines of documents that I intend to create in InDesign or as a Web page.
OTOH Blog publishing doesn't need much more formatting than an outline of a document since the blog style sheet should take care of the design formatting... so this could be a pretty good use for Word.
"Agency personnel reportedly analyze those records to identify suspicious calling patterns but do not listen in on or record individual telephone conversations."
First, is reportedly a word? Hold on.. (*google:// define:reportedly*)...okay it's a word.
So we're talking about analyzing logs. Anyone here know what constitutes a standard phone log? I couldn't find any examples with a quick online search. Definitely it has the initiator and receiver and the duration and start and end times. Would it also contain number tones during the call? Maybe they can track banking habits or phone based credit card transactions?
I don't have any problems personally because I don't place calls that could be construed as suspicious but then again I don't currently have any friends or family overseas, specifically in any monitored countries. I'm sure there are US citizens who do though and this type of Big Brother activity is unacceptable.
OTOH I don't recall phone logs being mentioned in the Constitution. The telephone system is a public utility managed by private companies, aka common carrier which means it falls under FCC regulation, etc. etc. ATT can't be held liable for contents of transmission so has no incentive to protect said contents and AFAIK there is no policy they've given that says absolutely that your calls are your private info... though courts have made rulings on this.
Most likely this will never be challenged in court since the Gov'mnt would be insane to use this info in a court case.
I'm not sure how I feel about it from a legal POV... but I'd rather discuss it's legal merits than simply post a knee-jerk "WTF-OMG PRIVACY VIOLATION" response.
If you know anything about Daemons you know you can't even begin to understand them until you know their TRUE name, much less invoke them. Even this is too much for most... never invoke a Daemon unless you know how to control it, lest it control you or worse... open Ports out of your Domain leaving it wide open to invading Worms from the Internet or L33T H4X0RS from the Netherlands who will promptly R00T you or PWN you.
Yes, it's even better than science / fantasy from the 70s... funny huh? How truth really is stranger than fiction.
TiVo needs to get a deal going with Apple's iTMS and start allowing purchasing of content through a version of the store... download Music, TV Shows, Movies to your TiVo drive... watch full screen just like any other content.
Then they should work together on a PVR software solution for a Mac Mini with an adaptor box that converts signal to the various ports to work with all TVs, basically a TiVo in a Mac, without the subscription required... you can subscribe to TiVo content if you want, or you can download individual shows through iTMS. I guess they could even release a Windows compatible version too... since there's already iTunes.
Oh they'll listen to the consultant of course... cause they paid him/her 40k to tell them what to do to fix their shit, 40k for 2 weeks work.
If you were the consultant they paid to tell them what to do they'd also listen... yes it's idiocy, the consultant knows less about the problems than you do, probably doesn't know more about the solution. But they paid for this advice... and they don't want to look like idiots by paying 40k and then doing nothing with the results.
Unfortunately as part of the bargain the consultant will most likely make all the technicians look like idiots and downplay the managers part in it cause he/she signs the check.
So if you're ever in this position, go ahead and write up your proposal for fixing all the problems.... submit it to your manager via email and printed, before the consultant does the eval... then wait to see the look on the bosses face when he compares the two proposals and realizes he could have saved 40k by simply trusting his staff and listening to their recommendations.
Ever-1 has nothing to do with the bible... whoever supplied that explanation is an idiot...
Ever-1 == Everyone with a slight Korean accent, duh. Eve + the r in robot, please... that's the crudest attempt at decrypting a codename I've ever seen.
It also would symbolize that she is unique and always will be, as an early model unit she will never be reproduced, ie: ever alone/unique, Ever-1.
I agree and disagree.... We do value Science and Tech, it's just that it's not the only thing we have going. As you say we have a very lucrative Law industry.... and Business and Medicine and Media/Entertainment, etc.
There are a lot of good minds here in America who have simply decided they are more interested in things other than pure science/math or they have learned that they can make a hell of a lot more money applying their intellect to less rigorous fields of study. If you're smart enough to be a world-class coder AND you have social chutzpa... well in America this means you can do pretty much anything you want to do. In Eastern Europe your best bet is probably to join a Maffia OR sublimate your social skills and stick with coding but be world-class OR move to America and become a financial mogul... if you get the chance.
As a CA resident, this is good news. The state as a whole has been bitching about budget gaps and junk loans and a poor credit rating for the last 5 years, well since the end of the dot bomb days. This should either a) fix the problem in a big way or b) identify the real problem in an even bigger way.
'A' will happen if the legislature and Governor use the windfall responsibly and pay off huge amounts of existing loans (there's probably 20 billion or so still outstanding) cutting them by a 3rd or more and making them manageable debt instead of out-of-control debt.
'B' will happen if they simply add an additional 6 billion or more to the existing spending budget for next year, with the hopes that somehow this will happen again in the next year or two, essentially throwing away the opportunity to be responsible.
I'm hoping for A obviously and hoping that Arnold is the one to do it.. he preached fiscal responsibility all through his campaign, he better stand up and enforce it or get thrown out trying to, no matter what they say about him (Arnold won't give money to education, he wants to pay off those fat-cat loan companies instead, think about the children!).
The whole point of the idea is that this does imitate real muscles in at least one way.... which is the constant "high-potential equilibrium" as you put it.
Just think about what would happen if you cut one of your ligaments near the bone very quickly... the muscle will snap back violently, especially if it was in th process of contracting, though the affect would differ depending on which attachment point you cut.
Sorry, should have been more clear... this idea is still in pre-release alpha phase... even numbers represent public pre-releases, odd numbers are bug fix pre-releases;-p
For many years I've thought of a mechanism for artificial muscles which didn't perfectly mimic either natural muscles, arthropods (hydraulics) or typical electrical motor joints.
It's based on the idea of muscles, that they exist in perpetual tension, so that to create motion via contraction you don't create more tension on one side of the bone, instead you simply relax the tension on one side and allow the existing tension on the other side to fully exert itself.
One way of achieving this would be to use thousands of taut wires each attached at one end to the 'bone' via a ligament like structure that would reinforce them... basically you could just braid them all together near the attachment point, and also attached to a motor that would wind or unwind them along it's circumference... thereby tightening or loosening the 'muscle'. This first muscle would be counterbalanced on the opposite side of the bone by a muscle with attachment points inverted, so that for an arm there would be a motor at the elbow and one at shoulder, each controlling one muscle in the arrangement. By rotating each motor only slightly for the degree of motion desired, you could pivot the arm at the shoulder with the strength and force of the movement only limited by the tensile strength of the materials used. By keeping the muscles under tension 'while at rest' there would be a very fast reaction time, similar to any spring based mechanical movement... think hard drive coil... ie: very fast quick twitch response... and at the same time the tension would also provide stiffness and immediate torque for heavy lifting type movements.
I'm sure other more sophisticated arrangements could be conceived, some using hydraulics or next gen materials like this memory wire... but the point is to use constant tension to produce very controlled, precise, quick, strong movements or long elastic fluid movements as desired... rather than no tension single point of torque/force which leads to poor control, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe the MPAA will screw up like the RIAA did and sign a deal with some small distributor, allowing unlimited production of copies, in some country (like Russia), to promote sales of this new format, who will turn around and make them available online in any format you choose for the price of bandwidth + small admin fee... ala: www.allofmp3.com
As opposed to HTML? How about your desktop GUI? Is there any difference except in the maturity of the format? Nope.
This isn't 'Flash' based... it is SWF based which means it is a Flash player compatible version of SVG which is an XML language for vector graphics.... similar to PDF which is what OS X uses for displaying it's UI.
Not suitable for anything serious? Adobe's Flex 2 will prove you wrong. To date it is already being used in Government applications as a front end for DB manipulation and queries.
OpenLazlo is an Open Source alternative to Flex. Without it Adobe will once again dominate a very important niche market.
So you are wrong... this is very serious stuff, even if it's still quite immature.
Even better.... just boot up from an external drive... then you don't have to touch anything (maybe move a master/slave pin around a little... ironically as it were).
The appendix is part of the immune system... it has a similar function to Tonsils, Meyers Patches, etc. contains Lymphoid tissue and contributes to the lymphatic system. You can remove it without major immune system degradation because it's functionality is duplicated in multiple parts of the body, even near it's own location... so it may be an original organ from a time when we needed additional immune response, especially in our large intestine (it's a pouch of tissue adjacent to large intestine).... possibly when human ancestors were carrion eaters... dead rotting flesh can have some pretty nasty bacteria in it.
It wasn't an inappropriate term for his day.... Only modern speakers associate 'fittest" with something 'more'.... which is a direct result of our adoption of the term 'fitness' to describe health and robust physical condition.
In strict etmylogical terms 'fittest' would be that which fits it's environment the best, ie: most sustainable, as you have described.
A weaker/smaller variation of a species could easily be the most fit for an environment if by being so it was able to reproduce more often or more effectively. eg, there was a limited supply of food... which is best exemplified by pigmy species on isolated islands. These are obviously not the largest variations possible for the gene set, but are the fittest for the environment... genes are able to be passed on more effectively do to a larger gene pool which prevents inbreeding defects and disease susceptibility. Rephrased; a population of normal sized animals would not have the benefit of said larger gene pool since the environment could not support a large enough group.
Putting a price on having your email delivered is the only way to get rid of spam.... hell if regular snail mail was free, think of how much junk mail you'd get every day.
This doesn't mean that organizations who qualify won't be able to receive a "Postage Paid" certification or whatever... such as small org newsletters, etc. It simply means that non-certified mailers will no longer be able to send out gobs of spam for the price of startup expenses. They will have to go legit, meaning no more Zombie networks and higher operating expenses... which means even higher startup costs for newcomers and much much smaller profit margins, meaning a lot of them will decide to do something else.
Businesses will eat any expenses associated with direct emailings, just as they have done before and mostly do now... it's an operating expense.. part of the marketing budget.
Small businesses will need to account for this new expense and band together to form purchasing blocks to get better deals, or go through a media buyer who will parcel out chunks of a pre-purchased block... just as what happens with magazine ads, newspaper ads, cable tv, etc.
Small orgs and non-profits will want to lobby for a non-profit emailer certification status account.
Individuals will get unlimited emails via their ISP but will have a unique per email abuse link automatically attached to their email as a footer.... which will not trigger an automated blacklisting but will debit the individuals abuse quota monthly limit (say 30 per) by which their priviliges will be suspended after they have reached the threshold. Additionally the abuse link will forward to a web page where a form will require a valid email to finalize the notification which will need to be verified by confirmation via a return email to the person reporting the abuse. This will prevent casual 'revenge' reporting as much as is possible.
TBC
No no no no... you didn't read the summary, ie.. if you have such a patent, all you have to do is use it for it's intended purpose in a gainful manner, ie: just sue the law firms... your single patent is enough of a portfolio to qualify... it should work out beautifully.
You've skipped a few details there...
Sun -> solar panel -> power
is actually:
Sun + Man's total energy expended creating Solar Panel -> Solar Panel -> Power
Yes plants often require man's intervention on some level for efficiency as well but it's a lot less than that required for a solar panel, which is why solar panels are much more expensive to produce than a plant.
Animals that eat plants do a fair job of converting them to useful energy, which is then available for us to convert to even more useful energy... heck even their waste is useful... in any case I wouldn't discount the concept of an organic energy process which can be self sustaining given the right environment... I mean most of earth's ecosystems have managed to work pretty well so far.
Sorry man, I'm just not THAT bored ;-p
but if you've already got it worked out, please do inform the rest of us...
I've been too busy playing around with my bluetooth phone and Sailing Clicker and my MBP, finally found a solution for CPU whine and watching Blazing Saddles.
Not bored anymore.
well still not 1.1 ;-p
;-p
I didn't use any air density, temp or other vars in my quick calcs... so the number corresponds with sea level if sea level were 70,000 feet higher than it is
Yep... at 25067.455 ( circumference of earth at 70,000 feet alt.) divided by 36 hours (if you fly at equator, giving 12 hours daylight) and start at 70,000 feet, ie: no time lost to ascension
696.318 mph which is actually mach 0.914755 (yes I'm bored)
Yes it's true, he should have used an ndash ( – ) instead of a minus sign ( - ).... so it wasn't bad math so much as bad syntax...
Actually I think most of the people here and a large majority of the people around the world would appreciate it if Word had less features.
They'd probably really like it if it:
a) let them write a letter and format it intelligently without requiring a PhD in Word Markup Language
b) there is no b
Word has terrible header/footer implementation, terrible use of styles, terrible image embedding facilities, terrible table formatting tools, etc, etc, it does lists pretty well... I use it all the time to do outlines of documents that I intend to create in InDesign or as a Web page.
OTOH Blog publishing doesn't need much more formatting than an outline of a document since the blog style sheet should take care of the design formatting... so this could be a pretty good use for Word.
Hmmm I like your vision of the future... so it will only take 2000 years for this to come about?
/. id )
In the Year 4006:
- Linux is the new Retro Fashion of the day
- Everyone uses Macs
- Windows is just another entry in the history books
My sig is truly a prophesy!!!!!! ( the guy who wrote it was a prophet, hmm wish I remembered his
"Agency personnel reportedly analyze those records to identify suspicious calling patterns but do not listen in on or record individual telephone conversations."
...okay it's a word.
First, is reportedly a word? Hold on.. (*google:// define:reportedly*)
So we're talking about analyzing logs. Anyone here know what constitutes a standard phone log? I couldn't find any examples with a quick online search. Definitely it has the initiator and receiver and the duration and start and end times. Would it also contain number tones during the call? Maybe they can track banking habits or phone based credit card transactions?
I don't have any problems personally because I don't place calls that could be construed as suspicious but then again I don't currently have any friends or family overseas, specifically in any monitored countries. I'm sure there are US citizens who do though and this type of Big Brother activity is unacceptable.
OTOH I don't recall phone logs being mentioned in the Constitution. The telephone system is a public utility managed by private companies, aka common carrier which means it falls under FCC regulation, etc. etc. ATT can't be held liable for contents of transmission so has no incentive to protect said contents and AFAIK there is no policy they've given that says absolutely that your calls are your private info... though courts have made rulings on this.
Most likely this will never be challenged in court since the Gov'mnt would be insane to use this info in a court case.
I'm not sure how I feel about it from a legal POV... but I'd rather discuss it's legal merits than simply post a knee-jerk "WTF-OMG PRIVACY VIOLATION" response.
If you know anything about Daemons you know you can't even begin to understand them until you know their TRUE name, much less invoke them. Even this is too much for most... never invoke a Daemon unless you know how to control it, lest it control you or worse... open Ports out of your Domain leaving it wide open to invading Worms from the Internet or L33T H4X0RS from the Netherlands who will promptly R00T you or PWN you.
Yes, it's even better than science / fantasy from the 70s... funny huh? How truth really is stranger than fiction.
TiVo needs to get a deal going with Apple's iTMS and start allowing purchasing of content through a version of the store... download Music, TV Shows, Movies to your TiVo drive... watch full screen just like any other content.
Then they should work together on a PVR software solution for a Mac Mini with an adaptor box that converts signal to the various ports to work with all TVs, basically a TiVo in a Mac, without the subscription required... you can subscribe to TiVo content if you want, or you can download individual shows through iTMS. I guess they could even release a Windows compatible version too... since there's already iTunes.
This would make 'a la carte' TV a reality.
Maybe they'd had Sushi for lunch????/
Oh they'll listen to the consultant of course... cause they paid him/her 40k to tell them what to do to fix their shit, 40k for 2 weeks work.
If you were the consultant they paid to tell them what to do they'd also listen... yes it's idiocy, the consultant knows less about the problems than you do, probably doesn't know more about the solution. But they paid for this advice... and they don't want to look like idiots by paying 40k and then doing nothing with the results.
Unfortunately as part of the bargain the consultant will most likely make all the technicians look like idiots and downplay the managers part in it cause he/she signs the check.
So if you're ever in this position, go ahead and write up your proposal for fixing all the problems.... submit it to your manager via email and printed, before the consultant does the eval... then wait to see the look on the bosses face when he compares the two proposals and realizes he could have saved 40k by simply trusting his staff and listening to their recommendations.
Ever-1 has nothing to do with the bible... whoever supplied that explanation is an idiot...
Ever-1 == Everyone with a slight Korean accent, duh. Eve + the r in robot, please... that's the crudest attempt at decrypting a codename I've ever seen.
It also would symbolize that she is unique and always will be, as an early model unit she will never be reproduced, ie: ever alone/unique, Ever-1.
I agree and disagree.... We do value Science and Tech, it's just that it's not the only thing we have going. As you say we have a very lucrative Law industry.... and Business and Medicine and Media/Entertainment, etc.
There are a lot of good minds here in America who have simply decided they are more interested in things other than pure science/math or they have learned that they can make a hell of a lot more money applying their intellect to less rigorous fields of study. If you're smart enough to be a world-class coder AND you have social chutzpa... well in America this means you can do pretty much anything you want to do. In Eastern Europe your best bet is probably to join a Maffia OR sublimate your social skills and stick with coding but be world-class OR move to America and become a financial mogul... if you get the chance.
As a CA resident, this is good news. The state as a whole has been bitching about budget gaps and junk loans and a poor credit rating for the last 5 years, well since the end of the dot bomb days. This should either a) fix the problem in a big way or b) identify the real problem in an even bigger way.
'A' will happen if the legislature and Governor use the windfall responsibly and pay off huge amounts of existing loans (there's probably 20 billion or so still outstanding) cutting them by a 3rd or more and making them manageable debt instead of out-of-control debt.
'B' will happen if they simply add an additional 6 billion or more to the existing spending budget for next year, with the hopes that somehow this will happen again in the next year or two, essentially throwing away the opportunity to be responsible.
I'm hoping for A obviously and hoping that Arnold is the one to do it.. he preached fiscal responsibility all through his campaign, he better stand up and enforce it or get thrown out trying to, no matter what they say about him (Arnold won't give money to education, he wants to pay off those fat-cat loan companies instead, think about the children!).
The whole point of the idea is that this does imitate real muscles in at least one way.... which is the constant "high-potential equilibrium" as you put it.
Just think about what would happen if you cut one of your ligaments near the bone very quickly... the muscle will snap back violently, especially if it was in th process of contracting, though the affect would differ depending on which attachment point you cut.
Sorry, should have been more clear... this idea is still in pre-release alpha phase... even numbers represent public pre-releases, odd numbers are bug fix pre-releases ;-p
For many years I've thought of a mechanism for artificial muscles which didn't perfectly mimic either natural muscles, arthropods (hydraulics) or typical electrical motor joints.
It's based on the idea of muscles, that they exist in perpetual tension, so that to create motion via contraction you don't create more tension on one side of the bone, instead you simply relax the tension on one side and allow the existing tension on the other side to fully exert itself.
One way of achieving this would be to use thousands of taut wires each attached at one end to the 'bone' via a ligament like structure that would reinforce them... basically you could just braid them all together near the attachment point, and also attached to a motor that would wind or unwind them along it's circumference... thereby tightening or loosening the 'muscle'. This first muscle would be counterbalanced on the opposite side of the bone by a muscle with attachment points inverted, so that for an arm there would be a motor at the elbow and one at shoulder, each controlling one muscle in the arrangement. By rotating each motor only slightly for the degree of motion desired, you could pivot the arm at the shoulder with the strength and force of the movement only limited by the tensile strength of the materials used. By keeping the muscles under tension 'while at rest' there would be a very fast reaction time, similar to any spring based mechanical movement... think hard drive coil... ie: very fast quick twitch response... and at the same time the tension would also provide stiffness and immediate torque for heavy lifting type movements.
I'm sure other more sophisticated arrangements could be conceived, some using hydraulics or next gen materials like this memory wire... but the point is to use constant tension to produce very controlled, precise, quick, strong movements or long elastic fluid movements as desired... rather than no tension single point of torque/force which leads to poor control, etc.
my 0.2 on artificial muscles