Well, in 20000 years, when our culture and knowledge is long forgotten, and genetics is just (re-)discovered, people will find strange genetic material, like some genes encoding the digits of pi. Then some people will take that as proof of the future version of Intelligent Design.
Well, when some ISP requires the use of special dial-in software, and that software runs only on Windows, that's effectively restricting what users can run on their computers. Not by order, but non-Windows users will just not be able to connect.
There's an easy solution to get the crime rate to zero: Just legalize all actions! Sure, it will not prevent those actions (quite the opposite), but since they are no crimes any more, no crimes will be committed.:-)
Yes we have that, but it's not good enough. The loops can't tell when a car is approching until it actually arrives in the intersection so the light still cycles reguarless of traffic patterns.
That entirely depends on where the loop sits. If the loop is directly at the intersection, it only will tell when it is at the intersection. If it is at a certain distance, it instead will tell when a car is at that distance.
I know I asked the question but I'd like to post my, umm, hopes for how this will turn out.
1. Standards of Law will have to change. As it is now, if people were recorded 24x7, and held accountable for everything done, everyone would be in jail and or have racked up millions of dollars in fines. So what would this do? It would have to make laws that are much more relaxed, lenient and reflect actual intent of evil or harm.
While detection rates may go up, actual enforcement still needs manpower, and therefore will not go up to the same level. Thus it would possibly just open the way to arbitrariness. There's not enough manpower to get everyone who does a crime, thus you go after the "worst offenders".
2. punishment would have to be adjusted to actually reflect the crime. Would this also be able to change things like drinking and driving laws? Right now they are so out of control, if you have been drinking and the cops go to pull you over you have about equal consequence if you are to pull over and cooperate as you do if you flee from the police, and are picked up much later after the alcohol has left your system, but if your recorded history shows that you don't drive any worse after having a beer at the pub, but after 3 your driving habits change would this make the legal limits individualized and appropriate rather than blacked and abusive as they are now?
Personalized limits? Sounds like a free pass to arbitrariness to me.
3. In a fully monitored society, what would be the justification for things like anti-gun laws? If Big Brother always knew what you were doing and could see that you grabbed your rifle and are now climbing the clock tower and stop you before you could do anything, how could they say that you can't own any gun you want? If I enjoy taking a fully automatic machine gun to the range and blasting off some rounds, big brother nows I like doing this and watches me ever time and tracks to see if I deviate in an attempt to go shoot up a school and stop me before that could happen. Fully monitored societies could actually be more free.
The justification of course is that if you are legally owning a gun, when it gets obvious that you're going to shoot someone it might already be too late to intervene. If you are not allowed to own a gun, then just seeing that you own one is enough to get you, so that you cannot shoot someone. Of course, the fact that they'll know if you shot someone should be enough to prevent you from doing so, unless you are very stupid (or very determined)... but then, can you proof that you are not that stupid (or that determined)? OTOH, allowing guns and scanning for signs of future criminal actions could allow for even more power: How can you proof that you really just wanted to buy some gas on that gas station you drove in while having your gun in your car (because you were on the way to the shooting place)? Maybe there were some suspect actions before as well, like you suspicially looked at that gas station a few days before (you just wanted to check the gas price? Proof that!)
Well, it didn't say "correctly interpret what they see." A camera which interprets every occurrence of red as blood, and that as indication of a crime, is still a camera which interprets what it sees, despite the fact that it will give alarm as soon as someone with a red bag comes into view.
How would a functional programming language catch a logic error at compile time?
If anything, a language with built-in (and well-debugged) time handling which includes the knowledge about time zones might have helped (assuming it was indeed a time handling problem). Or alternatively a language with intrinsic (and well-debugged) support for geographic locations (if it was actually the east/west crossing).
After all, both effects are due to the way we describe time resp. geographic location. That is, it's not an inherent logical property of time or location, but instead a property of our special description of it. While the geographic location is at least mathematically sound and predictable, the time system really isn't. It's full of ad-hoc rules to somewhat synchronize it with both the earth's rotation and revolution around the sun, including a complex dependence on geographic location which is there just to provide the rule that the time where the sun is in the zenith is somewhere around 12:00 all around the world, and in addition the day always changes at midnight. And of corse in part are also political (why do Spain and Portugal have different time zones?)
The type of software which can be done through web services is exactly that type of software which is the most easy to make platform-independent. Basically all the browser offers is a quite simple GUI, and there are lots of cross-platform libraries which offer exactly that. Browser-based app don't need special hardware support because browsers just don't support special hardware. Or how would you e.g. implement scanning on a browser-based app?
Since PostgreSQL is under the BSD license, the "extend" step can use proprietary code (probably distributed cost-free). If MS manages to get a majority of PostgreSQL users to depend on proprietary MS extensions to PostgreSQL, they have them in their grip.
Chances are that you wouldn't have been able to watch it on your TV anyway. As European disk, it was probably in PAL format, while your TV is probably NTSC.
Of course one would hope that the patent examiners at least have heared about radix sort, and therefore would reject that patent due to prior art... but then, maybe he can avoid that by adding "with a computer":-)
In the future, it is likely that the compiler will move from the viewer into the Second Life simulators, but where the code is compiled isn't very important.
Well, if it is running on the simulators, the simulated humans might be given access to it, and thus being able to script their own lifes! Well, maybe I should try if those scripts already work on our world!:-)
For example, praying in the direction of Mekka can get quite complicated if you are going around the earth once in 90 minutes, and therefore during your prayer the direction to Mekka is constantly changing.
Of course the real trouble will start when they are on the moon, and Mekka is exactly above their heads...
No, no ISPs are considered common carriers. They are free from litigation because they're protected by the Good Samaritan provisions of the DCMA. The Defense Contract Management Agency protects ISPs?
4 - book contains incorrect information and/or is generally badly written
Hmmm... if that's already a 4, then what are 1 to 3? Maybe: 3 - book contains only incorrect information and is generally badly written 2 - the book is so badly written that it's impossible to determine if the information is correct 1 - trying to read the book will cause severe damage to your brain
Ok, let's recapitulate: 1. Great men think like each other. 2. Great men think differently than others. Conclusion: There can be at most one great man.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, in 20000 years, when our culture and knowledge is long forgotten, and genetics is just (re-)discovered, people will find strange genetic material, like some genes encoding the digits of pi. Then some people will take that as proof of the future version of Intelligent Design.
I'm not sure I want them to change anything else after being told my genuine pirate was copied.
Well, when some ISP requires the use of special dial-in software, and that software runs only on Windows, that's effectively restricting what users can run on their computers. Not by order, but non-Windows users will just not be able to connect.
There's an easy solution to get the crime rate to zero: Just legalize all actions! Sure, it will not prevent those actions (quite the opposite), but since they are no crimes any more, no crimes will be committed. :-)
OTOH, allowing guns and scanning for signs of future criminal actions could allow for even more power: How can you proof that you really just wanted to buy some gas on that gas station you drove in while having your gun in your car (because you were on the way to the shooting place)? Maybe there were some suspect actions before as well, like you suspicially looked at that gas station a few days before (you just wanted to check the gas price? Proof that!)
What about guns with sound suppressors?
Well, it didn't say "correctly interpret what they see." A camera which interprets every occurrence of red as blood, and that as indication of a crime, is still a camera which interprets what it sees, despite the fact that it will give alarm as soon as someone with a red bag comes into view.
How would a functional programming language catch a logic error at compile time?
If anything, a language with built-in (and well-debugged) time handling which includes the knowledge about time zones might have helped (assuming it was indeed a time handling problem). Or alternatively a language with intrinsic (and well-debugged) support for geographic locations (if it was actually the east/west crossing).
After all, both effects are due to the way we describe time resp. geographic location. That is, it's not an inherent logical property of time or location, but instead a property of our special description of it. While the geographic location is at least mathematically sound and predictable, the time system really isn't. It's full of ad-hoc rules to somewhat synchronize it with both the earth's rotation and revolution around the sun, including a complex dependence on geographic location which is there just to provide the rule that the time where the sun is in the zenith is somewhere around 12:00 all around the world, and in addition the day always changes at midnight. And of corse in part are also political (why do Spain and Portugal have different time zones?)
Or maybe Clippy turned up: "Hi, it seems that you are trying to cross the date line."
At which time the pilot shouted "Shut up."
Which again the computer speech recognition software understood as "Shut down", causing a shut down of the computers.
You forgot the poles, there you'll have arbitrary longitute changes at an arbitrary short timescale.
The type of software which can be done through web services is exactly that type of software which is the most easy to make platform-independent. Basically all the browser offers is a quite simple GUI, and there are lots of cross-platform libraries which offer exactly that. Browser-based app don't need special hardware support because browsers just don't support special hardware. Or how would you e.g. implement scanning on a browser-based app?
Since PostgreSQL is under the BSD license, the "extend" step can use proprietary code (probably distributed cost-free). If MS manages to get a majority of PostgreSQL users to depend on proprietary MS extensions to PostgreSQL, they have them in their grip.
Chances are that you wouldn't have been able to watch it on your TV anyway. As European disk, it was probably in PAL format, while your TV is probably NTSC.
Of course one would hope that the patent examiners at least have heared about radix sort, and therefore would reject that patent due to prior art ... but then, maybe he can avoid that by adding "with a computer" :-)
Well, if it is running on the simulators, the simulated humans might be given access to it, and thus being able to script their own lifes!
Well, maybe I should try if those scripts already work on our world!
That will get interesting.
For example, praying in the direction of Mekka can get quite complicated if you are going around the earth once in 90 minutes, and therefore during your prayer the direction to Mekka is constantly changing.
Of course the real trouble will start when they are on the moon, and Mekka is exactly above their heads
I'm not sure how common or non-common those are, but forged sender addresses are the key component of DRDoS attacks.
Hmmm
Maybe:
3 - book contains only incorrect information and is generally badly written
2 - the book is so badly written that it's impossible to determine if the information is correct
1 - trying to read the book will cause severe damage to your brain
Ok, let's recapitulate:
1. Great men think like each other.
2. Great men think differently than others.
Conclusion: There can be at most one great man.
Anyone using it, to start with. And of course anyone selling products using it.
Specifically: Did they implement the ISNOT operator?