Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic cat. Steve Austin will be that cat. Better than he was before. Better... stronger... faster.
Yeah, but will he still shed cat fur all over the house? And will he continue to insist on dropping his little "cat nuggets" ONCE FRIGGIN' INCH OUTSIDE OF THE DAMN LITTER BOX!?!
The article is light on details, but it's nice to see France taking a step to reduce spam.
Yeah, that's just what we need -- governments passing laws to outlaw things that the majority of the population doesn't like. I wonder other unpopular things they're looking at banning. At least Ashcroft hasn't labeled spammers as enemy combatants engaged in cyberterrorism and shipped them all off to Guantonomo Bay without a trial -- yet.
Surely there must be a way to reduce spam without getting governments involved.
I see from the Iter website that this reactor is essentially trying to get fusion to occur using the magnetic-confinement technique of the Tokamak reactor. The other approach to controlled fusion studyied over the last few decades is inertially-confined fusion. Can anyone tell us what the state of inertially-confined fusion is? Does the US's and China's joining of the Iter project signify that the mainstream thought is that inertially-confined fusion is dying? My understanding is that both were hot research topics in the 90s but I don't know what the current thinking is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Fusion has been the nuclear reaction in all the modern weapons. Typically, a fission reaction is used to initiate the much more powerful fusion reaction. The real trick is getting CONTROLLED, CONTAINED fusion to work. That problem is what fusion as a viable energy source is all about. Just getting atoms to fuse and produce tons of energy is no great feat.
I predict that we'll never have AI. That isn't a failure of the work - it's in the nature of our definition of Intelligence as "that thing that humans have that animals and machines don't have".
In general I agree with the points you make -- especially that the problem with developing A.I. is that it is a moving target. As you point out, lots of things that used to be holy grails of A.I. have been achieved and dismissed. Remember the article on slashdot awhile back about the walking robot that "figured out" how to escape from the lab? Is that A.I.? Probably not, but it does make you stop and go "Wow, that's kind of neat!"
What I don't agree with in your post is how to seem to reserve the word "intelligence" for human beings. I really don't think most people defines intelligence as "that thing that humans have but animals do not." I think we should consider the goal of A.I. as not trying to copy or better a human, but just successfully achieving some form of independent, creative thought probably on the level of a mammal. You use the example of chimps utilizing twigs to collect ants for eating. I think if a computer program could demonstrate tool-making and tool-using capabilities like that, it should qualify as A.I. Getting a computer to act indistguishably from a human is a pretty tough goal, but if it can demonstrate characteristics of animals with reasonable thought processes (as opposed to brute instinct), I think it would generally be hailed as a milestone in the quest for true A.I.
Guys, don't worry about the lax security at our nation's national labs. The Patriot II Act will protect us. Nothing to see here. Go back to your business.
That's great, but what does the ACLU have to say about this?
Any submissions that are this poorly proofread really should be rejected by the editors. It's not as though someone else isn't going to submit the same damn story -- with correct spelling -- later in the day.
Those narrow-minded souls who still believe that devout religious faith is incompatible with fervent scientific inquiry are probably unaware that Newton...
I'm pretty shocked that the editors let this tirade go through. Can't we have people simply submit storied without adding their two cents in anymore? Submitters, please save your editorial comments for the "Comments" section.
Regarding those narrow-minded simpletons such as myself, there are plenty of intellectuals throughout history who have held dubious beliefs that we have chosen to ignore. Plato was a big supporter of slavery. Tesla believed he had been contacted by aliens. Linus Pauling claimed Vitamin C possessed all kinds of miraculous abilities. So what? Is the submitter saying that if I admire these men for their scientific achievements, that I am somehow required to accept all their beliefs?
I may admire Plato's philosophical ability without accepting his love of slavery. Similarly, I can respect Newton's contributions to mathematics and physics without deciding that devout religous faith and skeptical scientific inquiry are natural compliments to one another.
If you receive a message in code how do you take the first step?
You do what everyone else here does when they come across a problem that may or may not full under the category "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters": you submit it to Ask Slashdot, of course! Don't worry: they'll print it. They'll print anything and it doesn't even have to be in the form of a question!
Half the replies on here are whining from folks about how "elitist" nerds are. NONE of you even think to ask how that attitude a) may have been adopted by nerds or b) if that's just yet-another social stigma populated by anti-nerds (ya know, like, way back in, like, high school?)
I'm glad that someone pointed this out. Most nerds in my school did not lord their supposedly superior intellect over everyone else. No, they actually took pains not to draw attention to themselves. Sure, eventually most nerds came to the conclusion that they were smarter than those who beat them up but that is definitely a defense mechanism. No one likes to think they are pathetic. It's a natural instinct to assume that something is wrong with your attackers.
The elitist mentality that one finds in nerds is usually (a) hidden from view and (b) a response to bullying rather than a cause.
By the way, are you the same GuyMannDude, the metal guitarist?
(yeah, I know my music)
Wow, you sure do know your music! I'm afraid that I'm not but I did swipe the name from that band. I thought their video for "Paint It Black" was hilarious (it featured the band "floating" down the street in a purposely cheesy amateur-filmmaker way). I've gone as "GuyMannDude" on the Internet for so long now that it's too late to change my name. Hopefully the real Guy Mann-Dude isn't getting pissed off about me using his name!
The Hollywood portrayal could be worse, you know. Just imagine if they portrayed debugging like a ST:TNG episode, complete with flashing red alert lights and lots of noises:
Picard: What's our status?
Data: The process is attempting to completely allocate all available memory and CPU cycles.
Worf: Available memory is down to 50%. 40%...
Picard: Suggestions?
Riker: Perform a break. Try to find out what happened.
Picard: Make it so.
Data: Ctrl-C was not successful. Process is still consuming resources.
Worf: 30%, 20%...
Wesley: Captain, this may be due to an incorrect check in the while loop...
Picard: Shut up, Wesley!
Geordi: Captain, we're losing segmentation containment. We've got to dump the core!
Worf:...10%...
Picard: All hands, this is the Captain! All hands, log out! Repeat, all hands log out!
Stampers are used to create replicas by moulding, but there is a lot more to making CDs and DVDs than just moulding.
Thanks for the reply, "very". I guess my original question wasn't very clear. People kept telling me about the large start-up costs. I already knew that a (relatively) expensive mold had to be created but I was assuming that the startup cost had already been paid in the first pressing. What I was envisioning was that the record company would store the mold indefinitely (since it cost so damn much to create in the first place) and could then press new CDs from the existing mold anytime they wanted to. So my question really should have been phrased "Once the mold has been created, is burning a CD-R really cheaper than pressing one more CD?". So you're step-by-step expanation really helped me understand that it's not as simple as dusting off the old master mold and pressing a new CD.
...and they can get incredible detail from a blurry photo simply by saying "Enhancing."
Actually, mathematicians get in on the act as well. Take the case of the UCLA team that used the level-set method to resolve a blurry image and get a convinction in the Reginald Denny beating during the LA riots. For those unfamiliar with the story, click here and search for "Denny".
It is more cost effective to burn those music on CD-R's than pressing them on regular CD's.
Can someone please explain this a little more? I'm fairly unfamiliar with how pressing operations work. Why exactly is pressing a CD more costly than burning one? And what is the cost difference?
These were my questions upon reading the article and I was frustrated that the article didn't even try to answer it.
I completely agree with what you said but I'd go a step further and state that I think the whole idea of awards for movies and other art seems bizarre and way too subjective. Supposedly, top talent have chosen to make movies because they love the artform. So why would an award be meaningful to them? Awards are useful in athletic competitions but are they truly appropriate for art? I would argue that they are not. The creative talent in Hollywood (please don't snicker) should find that the chance to make art they think is meaningful and appreciated by others is reward enough. A golden statue and lavous ceremony should not be necessary.
We are then stuck with the question: why do we have award ceremonies (and so damn many of them as well)? I submit to you that the reason is purely popularity, politics and marketing as dreamchaser said. I don't give a damn about the Oscars and, quite frankly, I don't understand why anyone else does either.
The fact that these guys accidently created a search engine that blows all the other ones away kinda says something about the laughable state of search engine technology before google, don't it?
Initially, the IEEE was pretty wishy-washy about the DMCA, but it seems that they've been listening to their members and have developed a pretty strong anti-DMCA, pro-innovation stance. Including an enlightened view on Fair Use rights!"
...which they quietly published in two position papers. Pardon me for being a wet blanket, but I'll wait until some organization makes the case by loudly publishing a position paper before I start cheering.
GMD
"What's the Pythagorean Theorem?"
on
Stupid Security
·
· Score: 2, Funny
My friend (who is Australian but of Indian decent) recently re-entered the country from a vacation Down Under. At the airport, the guards put him through all sorts of questions. Among them was "How did you get your Green Card?". When my friend, a professor of Mathematics, replied that he got it through an Outstanding Researcher program, the guard asked him "So, are you an outstanding researcher in mathematics?". My buddy, groggy from a double-digit-hour flight, replied "Well, I guess I am." The guard then asked him "What's the Pythagorean Theorem?" to test him. My friend couldn't believe his ears. This question was supposed to determine whether my friend really was a mathematics professor? Every kid who went through high school math knows that one!
I feel safer already knowing we've got such intelligent guards monitoring our borders...
The reason it's illegal to give you credit (not that anyone would anyway) is that it's illegal for a minor to enter *any* kind of contract. You could maybe get one if your folks cosigned.
I've always been baffled by people saying "you can't get a credit card until you're 18" stuff. I had a credit card during my entire senior year in high school and I didn't turn 18 until the summer after. Maybe Mastercard made a mistake or something but it sure made buying crap a lot easier. It's possible that one of my parents co-signed -- I honestly don't remember. But I never had any problems with it. In fact, I'm now in my early 30s and I still have the same damn card! (of course, I have multiple cards nowdays).
I caveat my comment with the fact that it's been years and years since I've been in an arcade. That having been said, though, I do see these machine at non-arcade locations like pool halls and bowling alleys. I don't know if all games are ultra-violent these days but I think most of the eye-catching ones are. I was playing pool once and couldn't help but notice the arcade game next to me. It featured some incredibly sexy asian woman martial artist with 36DDs wearing next to nothing opening a can of whoop-ass on her opponent. Everytime she landed a kick or punch, she gave her battle cry and blood shot out of her opponent. I had to laugh because it was such a crazy sight but, hey, it did get my attention. You know, there might have actually been some non-violent arcade machines there but the only one that I remember was Little Miss Sexy Asian Kitten beating the holy crap out of some guy. It's possible that us "old timers" are just selectively remembering the really violent stuff since it contrast so starkly with what we used to play.
Slashdot Mirror
Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic cat. Steve Austin will be that cat. Better than he was before. Better ... stronger ... faster.
Yeah, but will he still shed cat fur all over the house? And will he continue to insist on dropping his little "cat nuggets" ONCE FRIGGIN' INCH OUTSIDE OF THE DAMN LITTER BOX!?!
GMD
The article is light on details, but it's nice to see France taking a step to reduce spam.
Yeah, that's just what we need -- governments passing laws to outlaw things that the majority of the population doesn't like. I wonder other unpopular things they're looking at banning. At least Ashcroft hasn't labeled spammers as enemy combatants engaged in cyberterrorism and shipped them all off to Guantonomo Bay without a trial -- yet.
Surely there must be a way to reduce spam without getting governments involved.
GMD
I see from the Iter website that this reactor is essentially trying to get fusion to occur using the magnetic-confinement technique of the Tokamak reactor. The other approach to controlled fusion studyied over the last few decades is inertially-confined fusion. Can anyone tell us what the state of inertially-confined fusion is? Does the US's and China's joining of the Iter project signify that the mainstream thought is that inertially-confined fusion is dying? My understanding is that both were hot research topics in the 90s but I don't know what the current thinking is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
GMD
So who gets to set off the first fusion bomb?
Fusion has been the nuclear reaction in all the modern weapons. Typically, a fission reaction is used to initiate the much more powerful fusion reaction. The real trick is getting CONTROLLED, CONTAINED fusion to work. That problem is what fusion as a viable energy source is all about. Just getting atoms to fuse and produce tons of energy is no great feat.
GMD
I predict that we'll never have AI. That isn't a failure of the work - it's in the nature of our definition of Intelligence as "that thing that humans have that animals and machines don't have".
In general I agree with the points you make -- especially that the problem with developing A.I. is that it is a moving target. As you point out, lots of things that used to be holy grails of A.I. have been achieved and dismissed. Remember the article on slashdot awhile back about the walking robot that "figured out" how to escape from the lab? Is that A.I.? Probably not, but it does make you stop and go "Wow, that's kind of neat!"
What I don't agree with in your post is how to seem to reserve the word "intelligence" for human beings. I really don't think most people defines intelligence as "that thing that humans have but animals do not." I think we should consider the goal of A.I. as not trying to copy or better a human, but just successfully achieving some form of independent, creative thought probably on the level of a mammal. You use the example of chimps utilizing twigs to collect ants for eating. I think if a computer program could demonstrate tool-making and tool-using capabilities like that, it should qualify as A.I. Getting a computer to act indistguishably from a human is a pretty tough goal, but if it can demonstrate characteristics of animals with reasonable thought processes (as opposed to brute instinct), I think it would generally be hailed as a milestone in the quest for true A.I.
GMD
Smithfield is going to turn the waste from 500,000 hogs/year into biodiesel.
Bah! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and thats the way I likes it!
Oh wait, wrong hog...
GMD
Guys, don't worry about the lax security at our nation's national labs. The Patriot II Act will protect us. Nothing to see here. Go back to your business.
GMD
This article is so full of technical inaccuracies that it isn't worth considering. Pure theater.
Would you care to point some of them out for us, please?
GMD
The ALCU has a press release...
That's great, but what does the ACLU have to say about this?
Any submissions that are this poorly proofread really should be rejected by the editors. It's not as though someone else isn't going to submit the same damn story -- with correct spelling -- later in the day.
GMD
Those narrow-minded souls who still believe that devout religious faith is incompatible with fervent scientific inquiry are probably unaware that Newton ...
I'm pretty shocked that the editors let this tirade go through. Can't we have people simply submit storied without adding their two cents in anymore? Submitters, please save your editorial comments for the "Comments" section.
Regarding those narrow-minded simpletons such as myself, there are plenty of intellectuals throughout history who have held dubious beliefs that we have chosen to ignore. Plato was a big supporter of slavery. Tesla believed he had been contacted by aliens. Linus Pauling claimed Vitamin C possessed all kinds of miraculous abilities. So what? Is the submitter saying that if I admire these men for their scientific achievements, that I am somehow required to accept all their beliefs?
I may admire Plato's philosophical ability without accepting his love of slavery. Similarly, I can respect Newton's contributions to mathematics and physics without deciding that devout religous faith and skeptical scientific inquiry are natural compliments to one another.
GMD
If you receive a message in code how do you take the first step?
You do what everyone else here does when they come across a problem that may or may not full under the category "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters": you submit it to Ask Slashdot, of course! Don't worry: they'll print it. They'll print anything and it doesn't even have to be in the form of a question!
GMD
The folks over at artima.com have finished posting a 6 part interview with Guido Van Rossum, Python's creator and Benevolent Dictator for Life.
I'm trying to remember the last time I saw the words "Guido" and "Benevolent" in the same sentence together...
GMD
Check this out from their website:
Aegis is mature software - it was first released in 1991.
GMD
Half the replies on here are whining from folks about how "elitist" nerds are. NONE of you even think to ask how that attitude a) may have been adopted by nerds or b) if that's just yet-another social stigma populated by anti-nerds (ya know, like, way back in, like, high school?)
I'm glad that someone pointed this out. Most nerds in my school did not lord their supposedly superior intellect over everyone else. No, they actually took pains not to draw attention to themselves. Sure, eventually most nerds came to the conclusion that they were smarter than those who beat them up but that is definitely a defense mechanism. No one likes to think they are pathetic. It's a natural instinct to assume that something is wrong with your attackers.
The elitist mentality that one finds in nerds is usually (a) hidden from view and (b) a response to bullying rather than a cause.
GMD
By the way, are you the same GuyMannDude, the metal guitarist? (yeah, I know my music)
Wow, you sure do know your music! I'm afraid that I'm not but I did swipe the name from that band. I thought their video for "Paint It Black" was hilarious (it featured the band "floating" down the street in a purposely cheesy amateur-filmmaker way). I've gone as "GuyMannDude" on the Internet for so long now that it's too late to change my name. Hopefully the real Guy Mann-Dude isn't getting pissed off about me using his name!
GMD
The Hollywood portrayal could be worse, you know. Just imagine if they portrayed debugging like a ST:TNG episode, complete with flashing red alert lights and lots of noises:
Picard: What's our status?
Data: The process is attempting to completely allocate all available memory and CPU cycles.
Worf: Available memory is down to 50%. 40%...
Picard: Suggestions?
Riker: Perform a break. Try to find out what happened.
Picard: Make it so.
Data: Ctrl-C was not successful. Process is still consuming resources.
Worf: 30%, 20%...
Wesley: Captain, this may be due to an incorrect check in the while loop...
Picard: Shut up, Wesley!
Geordi: Captain, we're losing segmentation containment. We've got to dump the core!
Worf: ...10%...
Picard: All hands, this is the Captain! All hands, log out! Repeat, all hands log out!
Kaboom! Blue screen of death.
GMD
Stampers are used to create replicas by moulding, but there is a lot more to making CDs and DVDs than just moulding.
Thanks for the reply, "very". I guess my original question wasn't very clear. People kept telling me about the large start-up costs. I already knew that a (relatively) expensive mold had to be created but I was assuming that the startup cost had already been paid in the first pressing. What I was envisioning was that the record company would store the mold indefinitely (since it cost so damn much to create in the first place) and could then press new CDs from the existing mold anytime they wanted to. So my question really should have been phrased "Once the mold has been created, is burning a CD-R really cheaper than pressing one more CD?". So you're step-by-step expanation really helped me understand that it's not as simple as dusting off the old master mold and pressing a new CD.
GMD
Actually, mathematicians get in on the act as well. Take the case of the UCLA team that used the level-set method to resolve a blurry image and get a convinction in the Reginald Denny beating during the LA riots. For those unfamiliar with the story, click here and search for "Denny".
GMD
It is more cost effective to burn those music on CD-R's than pressing them on regular CD's.
Can someone please explain this a little more? I'm fairly unfamiliar with how pressing operations work. Why exactly is pressing a CD more costly than burning one? And what is the cost difference?
These were my questions upon reading the article and I was frustrated that the article didn't even try to answer it.
Thanks for any help,
GMD
I completely agree with what you said but I'd go a step further and state that I think the whole idea of awards for movies and other art seems bizarre and way too subjective. Supposedly, top talent have chosen to make movies because they love the artform. So why would an award be meaningful to them? Awards are useful in athletic competitions but are they truly appropriate for art? I would argue that they are not. The creative talent in Hollywood (please don't snicker) should find that the chance to make art they think is meaningful and appreciated by others is reward enough. A golden statue and lavous ceremony should not be necessary.
We are then stuck with the question: why do we have award ceremonies (and so damn many of them as well)? I submit to you that the reason is purely popularity, politics and marketing as dreamchaser said. I don't give a damn about the Oscars and, quite frankly, I don't understand why anyone else does either.
GMD
The fact that these guys accidently created a search engine that blows all the other ones away kinda says something about the laughable state of search engine technology before google, don't it?
GMD
Initially, the IEEE was pretty wishy-washy about the DMCA, but it seems that they've been listening to their members and have developed a pretty strong anti-DMCA, pro-innovation stance. Including an enlightened view on Fair Use rights!"
...which they quietly published in two position papers. Pardon me for being a wet blanket, but I'll wait until some organization makes the case by loudly publishing a position paper before I start cheering.
GMD
My friend (who is Australian but of Indian decent) recently re-entered the country from a vacation Down Under. At the airport, the guards put him through all sorts of questions. Among them was "How did you get your Green Card?". When my friend, a professor of Mathematics, replied that he got it through an Outstanding Researcher program, the guard asked him "So, are you an outstanding researcher in mathematics?". My buddy, groggy from a double-digit-hour flight, replied "Well, I guess I am." The guard then asked him "What's the Pythagorean Theorem?" to test him. My friend couldn't believe his ears. This question was supposed to determine whether my friend really was a mathematics professor? Every kid who went through high school math knows that one!
I feel safer already knowing we've got such intelligent guards monitoring our borders...
GMD
The reason it's illegal to give you credit (not that anyone would anyway) is that it's illegal for a minor to enter *any* kind of contract. You could maybe get one if your folks cosigned.
I've always been baffled by people saying "you can't get a credit card until you're 18" stuff. I had a credit card during my entire senior year in high school and I didn't turn 18 until the summer after. Maybe Mastercard made a mistake or something but it sure made buying crap a lot easier. It's possible that one of my parents co-signed -- I honestly don't remember. But I never had any problems with it. In fact, I'm now in my early 30s and I still have the same damn card! (of course, I have multiple cards nowdays).
GMD
I caveat my comment with the fact that it's been years and years since I've been in an arcade. That having been said, though, I do see these machine at non-arcade locations like pool halls and bowling alleys. I don't know if all games are ultra-violent these days but I think most of the eye-catching ones are. I was playing pool once and couldn't help but notice the arcade game next to me. It featured some incredibly sexy asian woman martial artist with 36DDs wearing next to nothing opening a can of whoop-ass on her opponent. Everytime she landed a kick or punch, she gave her battle cry and blood shot out of her opponent. I had to laugh because it was such a crazy sight but, hey, it did get my attention. You know, there might have actually been some non-violent arcade machines there but the only one that I remember was Little Miss Sexy Asian Kitten beating the holy crap out of some guy. It's possible that us "old timers" are just selectively remembering the really violent stuff since it contrast so starkly with what we used to play.
GMD