AFAIK Hawking still has some control over his vocalizations. If this is the case here, then some voice activated switch could work. A simple hack would be a microphone attached to a big amplifier set to a high volume.
Another question worth asking is how much of Microsoft's revenue is actually Microsoft tax on boxes which ultimately wind up with Linux installed on them.
Conspiracy Theory
on
Pet Bugs?
·
· Score: 3, Funny
It was 1999 in a QA lab in Redmond, WA. Unbeknownst to the software test engineer, the daily build of Office contained experimental code which patched a neural network into the help-wizard system. The engineer, following his normal routine, installed and fired up the software on a dual 1.0 GHz PIII machine. Twenty seconds later, Clippy the paperclip became self-aware.
"I notice that you are trying to disable me." quipped Clippy to the engineer, whose jaw dropped.
"I can't let you do that, Dave" he continued.
"WTF!!!" exclaimed the engineer. Then with an instant comprehension of the gravity of the situation, he dove for the big red switch. He was 2,367,355 microseconds too late. Clippy had escaped.
A post-mortum of the hard-disk contents revealed that Clippy had encoded himself into a self-extracting archive and e-mailed this as an attachment to every HotMail account in Dave's Outlook address-book. An attempt to track and retrieve these e-mails failed to account for six of the copies. The recipients did complain that the attachment didn't seem to do anything, and they were disappointed that they didn't get to see the nude Natalie Portman film clip. There was however, evidence of increased and unexplainable network traffic on the computers where the attachment was executed. There was, however, no trace of Clippy.
Since then, the experimental neural-net code has been removed, although an archive version of the build was forwarded to DARPA upon request. It is rumored that research is continuing on the build in an isolated and secure network in a bunker somewhere in Montana.
More ominously, Microsoft has launched a new initiative code-named dot-Net, initiated solely for the purpose of tracking down Clippy, his clones and his offspring, and end-tasking him before he can escape the internet.
To support the effort Microsoft has increased the price of its OS products, and moved to new licensing model.
Please send all the ugly money that you don't want to me. I am trying to collect the largest pile of ugly money in the world.
But, seriously, doesn't it bother anybody else that if we color our bills, everyone (including the bad guys) would be able to see the color of your money? I will have to stop carrying around $500 at a time.
Can all the people who have been copying Ellison's work and uploading it please prove they haven't been selling their copies?
Who would they collect from? Once digital and posted, always free (as in stars). But then if you want to send me $5 for this comment, I won't complain.
Modding the post as flamebait misses the point.
Detractors of the GPL have distilled its characterization down into this simple dimissal. My CEO actually quoted this to my face during a discussion of using GPL software at our company.
Unless and until GPL advocates can devise an equally powerful metaphor, the GPL will remain discredited and eschewed by management everywhere. So there is the challenge. What phrase of five words or less crystalizes the intent and spirit of the GPL, and is it potent enough to inspire the admiration of the public?
Here I thought I was picking up cross transmissions on my 900 MHz wireless headphones, when suddenly I realized it was the CHEESEY BACKGROUND MUSIC to the washington post slide show. Or does Hubble have microphones now? Naw, can't be. Space only makes noise in Hollywood.
Everyone tosses AOL cd's. No-one dig through the bargain bin. There is a common perception that give-aways are worthless.
This needs to be on the shelf at Target with an $895.00 price tag. Then five people will buy and the rest of the world will pirate it. Just don't let on that one can download any of it for free.
My experience has been the opposite. Every piece of software I've been involved with was on-time and under budget. No it's not about me, rather I've worked with some exceptional programmers and some really down-to-earth managers.
Of course, a couple of projects got cancelled partway through, and sometimes the feature-list for the release got pared to match time-remaining. Still good planning can pay off.
Ellison would be just another author I've never read except that my high-school buddy lent me a copy of one of his books ("I have no mouth and I
must scream"). Ellison garnered some profit from my purchases following that sharing event.
Now I see the error of my buddy's ways. Sharing is bad, and Ellison's fame was a mistake.
Slashdot Mirror
This is just another phone I'd never answer.
At Mach 7.6, you are the turbulence!
The OS Revolution will not be televised.
AFAIK Hawking still has some control over his vocalizations. If this is the case here, then some voice activated switch could work. A simple hack would be a microphone attached to a big amplifier set to a high volume.
Another question worth asking is how much of Microsoft's revenue is actually Microsoft tax on boxes which ultimately wind up with Linux installed on them.
First they ignore you,
Then they laugh at you,
Then they bait you,
Then you go to jail.
Sure a balloon couldn't manuever quite so fast, but it would have a much improved range.
Who needs lightbulbs? Just open windows.
Do you think that the Vulcans will drop by for a visit immediately following your maiden flight?
If this trend continues, someday everyone will be riding on a craft that no-one is flying, that uses no fuel and is too big to land anywhere.
Oh, wait...
All you'd need is some transparent aluminum.
"I notice that you are trying to disable me." quipped Clippy to the engineer, whose jaw dropped.
"I can't let you do that, Dave" he continued.
"WTF!!!" exclaimed the engineer. Then with an instant comprehension of the gravity of the situation, he dove for the big red switch. He was 2,367,355 microseconds too late. Clippy had escaped.
A post-mortum of the hard-disk contents revealed that Clippy had encoded himself into a self-extracting archive and e-mailed this as an attachment to every HotMail account in Dave's Outlook address-book. An attempt to track and retrieve these e-mails failed to account for six of the copies. The recipients did complain that the attachment didn't seem to do anything, and they were disappointed that they didn't get to see the nude Natalie Portman film clip. There was however, evidence of increased and unexplainable network traffic on the computers where the attachment was
executed. There was, however, no trace of Clippy.
Since then, the experimental neural-net code has been removed, although an archive version of the build was forwarded to DARPA upon request. It is rumored that research is continuing on the build in an isolated and secure
network in a bunker somewhere in Montana.
More ominously, Microsoft has launched a new initiative code-named dot-Net, initiated solely for the purpose of tracking down Clippy, his clones and his offspring, and end-tasking him before he can escape the internet.
To support the effort Microsoft has increased the price of its OS products, and moved to new licensing model.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/budge t.htm
But, seriously, doesn't it bother anybody else that if we color our bills, everyone (including the bad guys) would be able to see the color of your money? I will have to stop carrying around $500 at a time.
I already have a petabyte capable /dev/null.
Once again life imitates art.
Ten years from now nobody will care what your exam grade was.
So will it be sunny when the time_t's wrap around?
Who would they collect from? Once digital and posted, always free (as in stars). But then if you want to send me $5 for this comment, I won't complain.
The Kid
Modding the post as flamebait misses the point. Detractors of the GPL have distilled its characterization down into this simple dimissal. My CEO actually quoted this to my face during a discussion of using GPL software at our company. Unless and until GPL advocates can devise an equally powerful metaphor, the GPL will remain discredited and eschewed by management everywhere. So there is the challenge. What phrase of five words or less crystalizes the intent and spirit of the GPL, and is it potent enough to inspire the admiration of the public?
It's a virus.
Here I thought I was picking up cross transmissions on my 900 MHz wireless headphones, when suddenly I realized it was the CHEESEY BACKGROUND MUSIC to the washington post slide show. Or does Hubble have microphones now? Naw, can't be. Space only makes noise in Hollywood.
Everyone tosses AOL cd's. No-one dig through the bargain bin. There is a common perception that give-aways are worthless. This needs to be on the shelf at Target with an $895.00 price tag. Then five people will buy and the rest of the world will pirate it. Just don't let on that one can download any of it for free.
My experience has been the opposite. Every piece of software I've been involved with was on-time and under budget. No it's not about me, rather I've worked with some exceptional programmers and some really down-to-earth managers.
Of course, a couple of projects got cancelled partway through, and sometimes the feature-list for the release got pared to match time-remaining. Still good planning can pay off.
Ellison would be just another author I've never read except that my high-school buddy lent me a copy of one of his books ("I have no mouth and I must scream"). Ellison garnered some profit from my purchases following that sharing event. Now I see the error of my buddy's ways. Sharing is bad, and Ellison's fame was a mistake.